#like dude players used to be able to impact the narrative way more

[atthebell]

the fed workers killings also ruled from like a meta perspective bc we finally got to see a player have some agency again (before being ripped away immediately but still)

[datamodel-of-disaster]

Some thoughts about TTRPGs, and the ubiquity of DnD.

As someone who does not *love* DnD… it is still the only game I’ve tried with that particular vibe. And I don’t mean “medieval fantasy”.

I mean, an achievement fantasy underscored by mechanics built around an individual success-and-improvement narrative, with a large social component. (You win as a team, but you improve and grow as individual characters.)

This is mechanical, independent of what your DM may or may not put in the game.

Let me list it out.

DnD has no standard mechanics for detriments.

As much as there are possibilities for certain monsters and afflictions to permanently harm or alter a character against the player’s will, a DM has to actively choose to put those in their game, and even then there are typically ways to heal or fix them. In a typical game, there are no permanent, mechanically enforced negatives for your dude; no lingering injuries, no madness, no disabilities, etc.

Recovery mechanics are also simple and accessible (looking at you, Long Rest) and resources are not really set up to be scarce and/or a slog to track and ration.

(Mind you: I’m talking about mechanics that impose a permanent debuff or handicap on your character against your will as a feature of the game, not about playing a disabled character as your own choice.)

Simple, straightforward ability growth as a central mechanic.

DnD is almost entirely designed around characters becoming cooler and stronger over time. This ability growth is straightforward: no complicated skill tree system where you can get screwed over by your own suboptimal choices.

There is also no standard mechanic to lose abilities you’ve gained, nor is your degree of improvement every level left to chance. (The closest DnD comes to a chance mechanic in this area is rolling for HP, and even that’ll let you take average if you roll below). The game is set up to reward your character with ability growth just for continuing to play it.

Success narrative dominates.

The primary completion path in all DnD modules is “the characters win the day”. That’s what the game is about. And as much as some modules may try to subvert that with little bits of flavour text here and there, they’re doing so for show. The very manner a DM has to set up sessions is all about making the challenges appropriately levelled for the players to overcome. If you’re playing, you’re *supposed* to overcome the challenge. A game where everyone dies is not considered expected or desirable. And while a creative DM may occasionally set up an encounter the characters are expected to flee from… if it’s not telegraphed properly, the odds are they WILL die. Because the game is not set up for players to expect unbeatable challenges.

Significant character agency where it matters.

Agency is about more than just being able to make choices in-game. In DnD, you have the ability to make choices that feel situationally impactful. You’ll rarely have a situation where you consistently do everything “right”, roll well, and yet the enemy is entirely unaffected. Your abilities aren’t vague in power level or usefulness -even if you aren’t a particularly creative player, the stuff that’s on your character sheet that you can do is going to be at least moderately useful in most situations a typical game throws at you, even if applied with little finesse.

…

Like I said, I don’t *love* DnD. I’m not super sold on medieval fantasy to begin with, I’m pretty bad at basic number math (I have dyscalculia so this shit is hard for me), and I like supporting indie and less popular titles on principle.

But holy shit.

Can somebody tell TTRPG designers to please make a game that just lets me be cool and win at something?

I want to play a badass vampire! But in Vampire: The Masquerade, that’s kinda… Not Great. I want to be a faux-Victorian era paranormal investigator! But, ehm, Call of Cthulhu? Having my character die or go insane kinda sucks. I like scifi! But everything from Cyberpunk RED to the various iterations of Warhammer 40k RPG is bleak as fuck.

Mörk Borg? Dark and bleak. Candela Obscura? Dark and bleak. The Laundry? Dark and bleak.

(I’m not counting Pathfinder, as it’s basically just DnD with more math and a less straightforward character builder.)

I know I’m only scratching the very top surface of less ubiquitous TTRPGs here, but still. All these relatively well known and oft recommended titles completely fail to capture what makes DnD appealing to me -and I suspect, to many others.

In TTRPG spaces I often see people ask “Why modify and reskin DnD to be (insert aesthetic) if you can play (game designed in that aesthetic)?” And my answer is always the same. Because I want to have the DnD-style success experience, only with (cool aesthetic thing).

I want to play other games! I’m not hung up on medieval fantasy or the d20 system or spell slots or anything! I just… don’t want to play some bottom-feeding cannon fodder character in a Misery Simulator, engage with complex ethics as a game mechanic, run a one-person accountancy department to keep track of tons of scarce resources, have the other players as my de-facto opponents, be faced with challenges my character can’t do anything to overcome, invest hours into building a dude who gets offed in the first encounter, put my time in a game that progressively stacks detriments onto my character to shrink their success chances while the stakes keeps growing, etcetera etcetera.

Just, none of that edgy shit. Life’s plenty edgy already, I just want some easy escapism.

Anyway.

If anyone has recommendations for a TTRPG that sort of matches my list of requirements… I’m all ears. I like most stuff aesthetically tho I’m not super into either pirates or contemporary military as a theme. I also prefer games that don’t employ a gimmick (like jenga blocks, an hourglass, burning candles, etc).

[trentxaa]

trent suffers so much for being english, like the narrative around him in england is so different than what i see elsewhere (portugal/spain/latin america specifically cause that's what i'm able to understand and it's most around me lol)

even the people that talk about any defensive liabilities they're very quick to dismiss it as something managers have to deal with same way you have to deal with a player like mbappe not tracking back

but in england it's the best defender has to play!!! if you have to bench one of the best creators of the game then so be it!!! which like i'm glad they're like that cause it's sabotaging them to hell and back but trent suffers so much from it lol

to make the obvious comparison with cancelo, who's a different player, but imo much worse defensively, and the worst dude to work with according to literally everyone, the narrative is still just very much we need to play palhinha to be stronger defensively and accommodate cancelo (and nuno mendes)

and I guess that's why england have way more issue scoring with a way better front three 🤷🏻‍♀️

but I guess international football is still all defense for some people

when talking about liverpool, however, staying with that narrative is insane, any manager that doesn't know how to use him is a manager who's not good enough at the end of the day, same way as many a manager who has failed to make the most of similarly impactful players

[sugarandspice-games]

Spicy take time (costarring Sugar): The Bros rated by how well I think their arcs/character development/relationship with MC was written and how much it makes sense. (Disclaimer: Our affection for these characters and how interesting, compelling, and lovable we find them has ZERO bearing on this list. ALSO, beware, here there be salt, IE, this is critical of the writing. It’s also long as fuck, so if you just wanna skim and read the bold parts, that’s okay too. You are also free to disagree with us as this is just an opinion, and keep in mind that we have only read to chapter 24 so if there are elements of the story we are unaware of... please be understanding of that and don’t spoil it.) Let’s get started, shall we?

1) Starting at the top is BEST BOI IMO: Beelzebub. So, yeah, in terms of character development and growth, he really doesn’t change all that much, aside from starting off not trusting MC to slowly opening up to them about his trauma. But putting that to the side, his relationship with them makes the most sense. After sharing a bedroom and helping him open up, as well as having the mutual goal of protecting Luke, and then even later going on to save his beloved little brother, it follows that he absolutely adores you afterward. Also, he doesn’t start off disliking you like some of the others. So, all around, he makes the most sense. He’s also one of the deeper characters with his backstory, even if I wish they’d give him other flaws than just being hongry (and playing his unhealthy eating habits/coping mechanism as a joke. Disordered eating should be taken more seriously, especially binge eating but that’s a can of worms for another day)

2) Second best is probably going to shock you, but Satan takes this spot. Why? Well, strictly in terms of arc progression, his relationship with MC starting out as one of manipulation and growing into something more genuine when they go on a heartwarming and wacky adventure together with his hated older brother which causes him to open up makes a lot of sense, at least more so than some of the others. While I wish they gave him more meat characterization wise, I think his arc was pretty well done in terms of story structure.

Okay, so, Sugar here. While I agree with Spice that Satan could use some more meat (and that we should be able to have some more information on Baby Satan because we all need that in our lives), I think that the progression of him and LUCI’S bond (not MC’s) could have done with more subtlety. While I appreciate him softening up, and see that progress, we don’t really get to see the tension of the newfound change and how he settles into letting things go/mellow out and I get it-- it’s a dating sim and the secondary relationships are well, secondary, but it would be interesting to see him and MC bond more through time.

3) Third place probably won’t be all that shocking, because this is where I’m placing Lucifer. He’s arguably one of the characters in the series who’s gotten the most love from the writers, having the most screentime, the most affectionate scenes with MC, and the most fleshed out backstory and characterization as well as fleshed out relationships with each of the characters. His relationship progression with MC also takes a nice, even pace, with him slowly learning to trust them and respect them, culminating in an almost-confession (I THINK. Unless I’m reading that part wrong) and then being shattered at MC’s betrayal, and then earned back in true Pixar-movie fashion by them teaming up for a common goal. HOWEVER. And this is a big however. I would love to see his unhealthy tendencies addressed and NOT fetishized. (Don’t come at me with that “BUT THEY’RE DEMONS THEY’RE SUPPOSED TO BE EVILLLLL” dude. If a demon being in a healthy relationship is where you draw the line in terms of believability, then why are you playing a fantasy demon dating sim anyway?) I love him, I stan him, I simp for him, but I wish he had at least apologized for his not-subtle threats of physical violence toward MC rather than jumping straight into the ALSO kinda violent “You’re mine and nobody else’s” gimmick.

Unlike some men (SPICE), I am actually not a Luci stan and while I do have a soft spot, and understanding of his place as an eldest sibling... I would also like to see the writer’s unravel the unhealthiness/coping Lucifer has in place and why/how it came to be. I feel like we get a sense that Luci has thawed since coming to the Devildom but we don’t really see how Lucifer in the Celestial Realm (and how his friendship with Simeon) has progressed. Luci has a lot of love from the writers but from a story stand-point, he is never really allowed to be weak and own up to his own flaws and how that has impacted/hurt MC.

4) Sharing fourth place is Leviathan and Mammon! I’m putting them in the same spot because the issues I have with them are the same, though I plan on addressing their good points individually. But since my beef is simpler, I’m going to start off with the bad. IMO, a good rivals to friends to lovers romance happens in STEPS. You start off from not getting along, to then finding some things in common, and gradually coming to respect each other, and then like each other, and finally love each other. This... doesn’t really happen with these two, and while we see the change from both tsundere boys starting off disliking you and eventually coming to love you, we don’t really get that inbetween that makes the payoff so much worth it. And if those inbetweens are there, the story doesn’t really tell us that, and it doesn’t show us their thought processes. Like, how much would it suck if in pokemon, your charmander evolved immediately into Charizard upon beating your first few gyms? It’s like that.

But as for the good, Levi’s arc makes sense because you’re the first person to really let him be himself and not shame him for the things he loves. You let him ramble about his interests and show interest in them yourself (AT LEAST IF YOU’RE NOT A FUCKING MONSTER. I’ll let Sugar talk more on him, that’s their boy.)

Whoo, boy. Here we go! For whatever reason, the otaku became my favorite and I love him, but as far as arcs go... He could have gotten a bit more screentime and progress. It makes sense that he would become attached to MC as his brothers are very, very... critical and patronizing about his interests. He is also by far the most skittish and introverted of the bunch, coupled with his sin and seeing all the ways he falls short (in his eyes) is a recipe for loneliness and desire for companionship/friendship. While I am not happy with the progression, for me, it makes sense and I would also have loved to see some breaking/softening of how much his Sin influences him when it comes to MC. I’m not saying erase it because demons are meant to give in to temptation but some reassurance and acceptance of that would be good.

(I also know that there is some disk horse about him guilt-tripping you about spending time with his brothers and while I agree it can be hard... It definitely isn’t on a painful level. Like, say... Ray’s in Jihyun’s route in Mystic Messenger. This also is a difference for players who are interested in one love route versus the many route and different strokes, but I digress.)

As far as Mammon goes, well, you’re his first. And he’s not only glad that there’s someone who’s kind to him instead of making fun of him, but also takes pride in having someone to protect. His puppy crush going to full blown love is adorable.

This blog is all about spicy takes, yeah? Well, here’s mine (Sugar): Mammon is lovable but not as lovable as he could be and before all the Mammon stans, come for me- let it be known I like Mammon but his introduction and how he comes to be soft is NOT an easy, or believable transition. There are ways to write a good tsundere and the writers just missed the mark by having Mammon be too callous and then slipping to lovable without that sweet slide into the other end. I will not deny he is very cute, and a good character, and a good brother (and also the most human, according to Satan’s home screen interaction) but... The progression and endearment factor is lacking because of the structure of the narrative.

5) Is another unsurprising one, but this spot is Belphegor’s. Solmare. My dude. Why did you do this. We could have had it ALL. It could have been great. But you screwed the pooch. You took anything good about this relationship out behind the shed and shot it like a lame horse. Let it be known that I LIKED Belphie and MC’s alliance to get him out of gay baby jail, and I adored that love he still holds for Beel... I thought he was going to be a fav of mine, in fact. But how they handled the... uhm... murder ruined it for me. I’m sorry, I just cannot believe that I’m supposed to suddenly be besties with the man who manipulated me and crushed me to death like, a week after it happened. What if I have PTSD from that??? Also... he claims that he loves MC for who they are and not because of Lilith, but that’s not believable when his whole turning point is finding out that they’re Lilith’s descendant. The change needed to be more gradual, and having a subtle, gradual forgiveness arc would have been AWESOME but we were robbed. ROBBED I TELL YOU!!!!!

Annnd... Belphie is actually one of my favorites FOR SOME REASON. I DON’T KNOW MAN. I agree that we could have had it and I’m like (Insert Hades red flaming hair gif here). The decision to not have a redemption arc ruined it for me and while I love Belphie and his softness/brattiness mixture with handling MC... It is underscored by a lack of believable affection and the payoff of struggle on both Belphie’s part and MC’s. Also, there is a lot of ‘You are not who I want you to be, but it’s good enough’ with MC regarding their lineage and connections to the brothers and how that plays out/color the relationships with maybe the exception of Satan and surprisingly, Mammon that irks me but again, another thought for another time.

6) Aaaaand last and also the least... Asmodeus. “YOU GET NOTHING!!! YOU LOSE! GOOD DAY SIR.” --Solmare to Asmo. The writers neglected him SO much, I like him but what the hell are they doing? There’s so much that could be explored here, and with anything involving Asmo they’re like “I do not see it”. His love for MC also isn’t really that believable when his turning point is realizing that they’re powerful. It doesn’t even fit with any of his potential conflicts. The Diavolo’s castle arc set us up to think that Asmo would have some deep seated insecurities with not being able to be loved or desired by everyone, or maybe some insecurities about not being an angel anymore, or some vulnerability issues or something, and they were just like NOPE. It doesn’t make any gotdamn sense! I just... Grrr. Asmo, I’m so sorry, sweetie. You deserve better.

Asmodeus definitely deserves better and I will stand by that until the day I stop playing this damn game. While I, personally, think that his intrigue with MC makes sense (because he is lusty-- probably not just for sex but in general), it makes sense he would want someone with power but while the set up is there, his character falls flat because there is no bonding moment, or turning point for him at all. His affection for MC is still that playful, carefree, flirty persona he carries and I would love to see it dropped and how his fall from the Celestial Realm really weighs on him and an arc where he and MC talk about vulnerability and the power behind being seen as someone attractive and the way it dehumanizes you at the same time. It could be good-- hell, it could be great-- but it was killed before it started and I will never not think that Asmo could have had some KILLER growth. As it stands, he has more connection/romantic potential with Solomon than MC.

Anyway, that’s all for now folks! Feel free to yell at us in the replies, you know you want to. If this post blows up enough, maybe we can rate the undatables (though they don’t have any story arcs so... that would be a challenge.)

[eggoreviews]

My Top 25 Games Advent Day 9 - The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds (#17)

“My Lorule may remind you of your own home. But, in fact, our kingdoms are as different as night and day. Worlds apart, as they say.”

At long last, I get to cover one of my all-time favourite franchises on this list. The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds is my absolute favourite (2D) Zelda game and is, in my opinion, a masterclass in dungeon and world design. Taking everything that made A Link to the Past so great and changing it completely whilst also changing barely anything, A Link Between Worlds stands out from other Zelda games as something truly memorable, as well as being one of the best experiences you can have on a handheld console.

A Link Between Worlds, being a not quite sequel of ALTTP, took all its cues from its predecessor as the groundwork of an excellent game; an interesting enough narrative that kicks off straight away, two different but almost identical worlds to explore, an array of great dungeons and items to tackle them and a whole bunch of optional collectibles. Both Hyrule and Lorule are a joy to explore and just see what you can find, whether that be just some rupees, a minigame or even an item that later becomes important. It’s easy to get lost in just wandering around, as both worlds feel diverse and interesting enough to keep that from getting old too quickly. But my personal favourite aspect of this game, as well as its main reason for placing here, is the dungeons. Every single dungeon you come across in the game is intuitive, challenging, expansive and unique, and with each dungeon able to be tackled in any order, it truly customises the experience to the individual player. While admittedly a fair few of the dungeons are reskins of old favourites from ALTTP, they’ve been tweaked enough to feel fresh and brand new, at least enough so that this game doesn’t feel like a thinly veiled remaster. Where A Link Between Worlds really stands tall is in its final dungeon, Lorule Castle, which still is pretty much my favourite dungeon, purely for its atmosphere, its motif and its perfectly balanced and challenging puzzles. The dungeons in this game are absolutely phenomenal.

In another move to separate this game from its predecessor, you no longer find important items in convenient dungeon chests; you now have to buy or rent them from your new roommate Ravio. Renting is of course cheaper, but it does come with the drawback of having that item taken away if you happen to die while out in the field, which gives a genuine weight to the deaths you experience and gives you much more of a drive to avoid unnecessary deaths, which never feels unfair. It’s a system that really benefits the gameplay, as for the most part, the general experience of this game is just an upscaled ALTTP, so this type of item usage gives the game something entirely different.

Another substantial difference between ALTTP and A Link Between Worlds that makes it way better is its central focus on a running narrative and much stronger characters. While the overarching plot of the game is essentially the same as before, except this time it’s seven sage descendents with actual character that you’re rescuing rather than seven identical, nameless maidens. Most notably though, each character you come across on your journey really makes the world feel vibrant and alive. Hilda, as Lorule’s counterpart of Zelda, acts as a helpful character for the majority of the game, before revealing her intentions of stealing Hyrule’s triforce to fix her kingdom is a very interesting subplot, as it gives more depth to her character and there’s definitely an element of moral grayness to it that’s really rare for a Zelda title. You know Hilda is justified in wanting to save her kingdom from ruin, but it’s at the cost of Hyrule, which then makes the ending of Link and Zelda using their triforce to save Lorule despite Hilda’s actions even more emotional and impactful. And then there’s our main villain, Yuga, a sorcerer hell bent on perfecting the art he makes out of other people and strives for perfection by, you guessed it, resurrecting Ganon. But here’s the thing: Yuga is a much, much more compelling and memorable villain than ALTTP’s Agahnim, who time has been very kind to despite the fact he appears like twice and all he basically ever says to Link is “fuck you, dude”. Yuga is a slimy, pretentious artist who is very, very easy to hate just on his personality and his treatment of Link alone and that makes me love him as a villain even more. Plus, his design is awesome and I’m always down for a unique Zelda villain, as the likes of Zant and Ghirahim also ended up being some of the best parts of their respective games.

Now we come to one of my most important things to focus on in a game, in particular a Zelda game, the music. Of course, they nailed it. The new mixes of the Hyrule and Lorule themes based around the Overworld and Dark World themes from ALTTP are catchy and memorable, the dungeon themes are atmospheric and luckily not quite as repetitive as other previous games. In particular, I’m giving a special shoutout to the Yuga boss theme from Hyrule Castle, which blends brass instruments and deep, chanting vocals help to give this boss fight and Yuga himself a unique feel that separates him from just another one of Ganon’s goons. And last but not least, one of my all time favourite Zelda tracks, the Lorule Castle theme. The slow build, the layering, the swelling orchestra as it becomes more and more epic the higher you ascend into the castle, it’s genuinely incredible and stil constitutes as one of my favourite game finales of all time.

I know I spent a hell of a long time comparing this game to A Link to the Past in this review, but I felt it was important to drive home just how much the series has grown over the past decades, even if it does keep a lot of those old Zelda tropes we’re all too used to. A Link Between Worlds is an excellent example of modern dungeon design and, despite the fact this spot nearly went to Link’s Awakening, comes out on top as my favourite 2D Zelda.

Standout Moment Award: Lorule!! Castle!! Hnnnghg Yuga Ganon fight.

Standout Character Award: Yuga. As arguably the slimiest, most pretentious Zelda villain in the series (which is saying something, especially since Ghirahim exists) Yuga left an immediate impression on me and is still one of the series’ most enduring one-time villains.

Tomorrow: No. 16; a modern tale of prejudice and Mr. Krabs.

[morshtalon]

Shin Megami Tensei

(Definitely part 3 of a series of posts on the entire franchise)

For the end of MegaTen II, Atlus pulled out all the stops in terms of who you'd meet and what their importance to the lore was. While the ending arguably did leave some room for further escalation, by choosing to continue the story as it was, they'd be agreeing to keep being derivative works in relation to the books that originated their backstory. Sure, it was hardly the case anymore, what with the extreme departures MegaTen II took from the novels, but still. I guess the relative corner the writers got themselves backed into, combined with the clamor to have a more independent franchise on their hands, prompted them to scrap their established continuity and kick off a new one of their own. Whatever the real case was, it was definitely a smart choice, and thus was born Shin Megami Tensei, a way for them to keep their profitable series going. Also probably a much better game than a MegaTen III would have been.

Anyway, with a new continuity, possibilities were endless. They could better retread grounds they had already covered in the previous two games (well, really just MTII, since the first one barely even had anything going on), and expand upon ongoing themes while not having to worry about the usual expectation for a sequel in terms of magnitude and impact. Given that, it's unsurprising that, in comparison to MTII, this game dials things down a notch, relegating most of the more classical power fantasy stuff to the third act and preferring to engage in more character-driven events while leading up to it. None of the final enemies in SMT are as powerful as the ones in MTI and II (in story terms, actual battle stats notwithstanding) and the influence of cosmic forces that would have been enemies fought directly in the titles so far takes on a distant, more psychological approach (for the most part), unable to be challenged by the player. This helps build them as respectable overarching threats, and keeps the setting more subdued and the stakes higher, since it feels like characters are acting under the banner of things so powerful the player shouldn't even think themselves able to scratch them. It's good not to stat things sometimes, and it's quite impressive that they exercised this restraint way back in 1992.

For the demons that ARE fought, though, the artists really put their all into it this time. Even compared to games in the series's near future, I think this is the best looking they would be for a while. I mean, sure, Majin Tensei later on would have more detailed graphics, but I feel the art itself was worse there, with some weird proportions and a lot of palette swaps, while this game keeps things more consistently good overall.

Naturally, one longstanding tradition of the franchise introduced in SMT was the philosophical axis of Law vs. Chaos and the branching story that allowed the player to sit in any one point of the spectrum, with a modified final act depending on your decisions up to a certain point and where in the axis they would leave you once this point is reached. This system was partly a logical progression of the two endings from MTII and partly a way to integrate gameplay significance into what was already the grand point of SMT's storyline. While a good idea on paper and certainly innovative for its time and context, the warring faction-based story meant that as far as the plot is concerned, Law vs. Chaos pertains more to which of the factions you're appeasing with your decisions rather than any particularly lawful or chaotic behavior. There are some things that shift your alignment that have to do with being lawful or chaotic, but those lie mostly outside of the plot, in small actions that only serve to bring things one way or the other on infinitesimal increments and are meant more as an extra level of thought put into the system to label certain actions that were always there. The parallelisms between one faction and the other (i.e. temples that are identical in functionality; quests that consist of killing the other faction's quest-giver or vice-versa), together with certain easily exploitable ways to shift the alignment variable any way you want (so that you can play the game being entirely chaotic up to the crucial point where your alignment is locked, then right before that, exploit the mechanics to bring yourself to Law without having done anything lawful throughout the rest of the game), make the whole alignment system feel arbitrary, or at least the actual coded-in gameplay layer of it. I feel like maybe having only the unrepeatable story decisions actually affect alignment could help mitigate this somewhat. Then again, as I said, the story stuff doesn't feel much like the player being lawful or chaotic, so... I don't know.

Regardless of which path you take, you are going to get into a lot of fights. The game plays basically exactly like MTII, with an overhead top-down overworld and first-person dungeon crawling once you enter an area. This time around, very few areas are safe from enemy encounters, which makes sense since you're mostly just walking around Tokyo and a lot of first-person areas are just sections of the city that are populated (and besides, all of Tokyo is under threat from the demons). It made me realize that it's actually the typical RPG that opts to be nonsensical about the no-monsters-in-towns rule, but I'd be damned if that's not a smart choice on the part of the typical RPG. There are so many random encounters in this game, it's a common occurence for you to get several 1-step fights in a row. When I play an RPG, there's usually a point where I get really bored of always fighting enemies, then I finally escape the dungeon I'm in or go into a town and it's a big relief, like I can finally walk around and talk to people without having to stop dead in my tracks to fight the same enemy I already proved I can beat five hundred times before. Not so much in this game, and you'll definitely be crying out for an Estoma or a Fuma Bell most of the time. If you even know these two things act like repels in Pokémon and realize how useful they are.

If you don't know, however, you're going to need a lot of patience, because once again the game is very easy. Aside from, once again, a difficult earlygame, especially if you didn't put the right stat points into your protagonist (read: vitality and speed), the same basic problems from the previous two games' core concept of walking around and fighting dudes can be found here, but this time guns have ammo. Ammo doesn't actually count how many bullets you have left, it's just an extra thing you can equip that gives your gun attack an extra property such as more damage or a status effect. Thing is, status effects have an absurdly high hit rate in this game, work on most bosses, and there's a type of ammo that causes the "enthralled" status effect, which makes the target attack their own allies. Once you've got your hands on it, the game has been effectively turned into an interactive movie, even easier than the NES ones. Even without it, magic always seems to go before physical attacks, and both lightning and ice spells can stop an enemy for the current turn, so you'll likely always find a way to trivialize encounters within your disposal if you're just playing the game normally, even if you didn't realize it. With good speed, lightning or ice spells at your disposal and some status effect ammo, nothing will ever be able to stop you, no matter how hard they try. Once again, it's a preparations game, and that auto-battle button will get an intense workout this time around. I actually cleared the entire final dungeon under the effect of consecutive Fuma Bells, because of the combined effect a high encounter rate and the knowledge that the bosses could not stop me had on my brain. It's all about knowing which things are actually useful and which aren't, so it's actually just about struggling until the point you figure it out, then blazing through the game's fights half-asleep.

Still, battles notwithstanding, I think the exploration is more masterful than ever this time around. There isn't any significant portion of the game where you're clearly going after McGuffins, the whole story is pretty tightly paced and the balance between open-endedness and plot progression is well kept. There is a clearly evolving status quo for the entire setting of the game, and each time a major change happens new areas are made available while others are locked away. You can feel the effect the events of the narrative are having on the whole scenario, and the progression creates a bit of a disorienting effect as you attempt to find your way to the next significant location (which can and very well may cause you to get hopelessly lost on occasion, but that's part of the experience, I think). It's a pretty admirable blend of elements working together to create a continuous experience. This bleeds over into the characters themselves, who have evolving arcs and, for the most part, continue to be relevant and to have all sorts of crazy things happen to them through the course of the game. Consider it a much more mature attempt to do the sort of character-based revolving scheme that Final Fantasy IV also tried to do.

Overall, this is a game that further plays around with story concept brought over from MTII, experiments somewhat with new ways to go through some of its story beats, and creates a character-based narrative that goes through admirable amounts of change, to the point you can feel the whole cast working through their arcs as things escalate and reach a fever pitch. The gameplay is significantly less refined, though, and, admittedly, even the respectable things in SMT have struggled to stand the test of time, especially when you consider what later SMTs and SMT spinoffs would go on to do. I think this earns the original a 6.5 out of 10, my first non-integer score. It's damn respectable and admirable for 1992, but it has so many outdated things in it that it's hard to actually get oneself into the proper mentality to admire it unless you actually make the conscious decision to play the series in chronological release order. But who would be masochistic enough to do that, right?

[readingwebcomics]

Analyzing Questionable Content: Pages 51-100

No Faye, it only looks that way because he’s playing Final Fantasy X-2. Good God, I just realized that Final Fantasy X-2 is someone’s first experience with Final Fantasy. That’s a depressing thought. Although someone starting out the series with Final Fantasy XIII is probably way worse, now that I think about it. At least X-2 had fun.

…huh? Oh right, the comic. You sure you’d rather not listen to me write an essay on Final Fantasy, instead? I have this great point about how Final Fantasy IX has the most emotionally impactful narrative but as a game it only really clicks with long-time players of… no? Okay fine, let’s get back into QC.

The very next comic has Marten getting a tax return check for $1,100, and being the wise adult that he is, decides to spend that money on a new guitar. Tagging along, Faye brings up something that gives us new insight on her character:

And clearly didn’t bore her, considering how much of that information she retained. Here we have yet another example of a shared interest between these two, Marten clearly being into Guitars if he’s invested enough to blow a fat wad of money on it and Faye carrying around quite a bit of information on the instrument herself. I’ve made the point in the last post, but to reiterate – at this point in the comic, it’s clear these two are clicking as far as interests go. They can keep up with each other, can and have provided support for one another, and challenge one another… okay granted that last one isn’t entirely true, it’s clear Faye challenges Marten more than vice-versa, but still. There is a clear, acting relationship dynamic between these two, whether platonic or romantic. The reason why early QC works as well as it does is because these two have clear characters to them and their relationship FEELS real – they feel like people you’d know who’d really be friends – or maybe more than friends. This is Jeph’s character writing at… well I hesitate to call it at its best because to imply he peaked as early as the 53rd comic would be an insult to him as a writer, and I’m not looking to do that here.

I’m looking to do that a little bit later on in this part when we discuss Faye’s “character quirk.”

Before that however, we’re going to get a little bit on insight on Marten:

The story is elaborated on in a future comic, but here we get Marten’s backstory – traveling across the country for a girl, the relationship falling apart and leaving him stuck in this part of the country. This will go on to explain several of his character choices, including Pintsize (although that’s something we’re not going to approach until MUCH later on). It also further elaborates on Marten’s character as a whole: He doesn’t make many active actions as a whole, but when he does, it tends to shift the entire dynamic of how he lives. He decided he wanted to follow this woman across the country, and that action ended up completely upending his life. Could this be part of the reason why Marten is so passive? Does he skew towards this lifestyle because he’s been “trained” to take any kind of affirmative action as an intense, life-changing event?

While I’m not certain myself, and I have a damn good feeling Jeph wasn’t thinking that far ahead when writing Marten’s character, it’s an angle I’m willing to continue exploring as we further our journey down this comic’s history.

This comic was written in 2003. I’m half-tempted to believe Meme culture can be tracked by indie bands now. Wonder if there was any zeitgeist with neo-nazi indie bands ten or fifteen years ago then, if that theory holds true?

…I just made myself really, really sad.

Later on, Pintsize proceeds to eat a cake when he really shouldn’t – again – and we are gifted with… this lovely image.

Okay. I understand Pintsize is an AI, so it makes total sense for him to be able to be uploaded to a PC like this (ignoring for the moment modern commercial hardware can’t possibly support the resources necessary to maintain human-level sapience and ESPECIALLY not in 2003), but this is one of the freakiest fucking things I’ve seen from this comic. Mostly because at the time of writing we’re on comic 4000 and AI as a whole take an entirely different turn in the world of QC around that time, so… this is just kinda surreal to look at.

…We’ll get to AI in regards to QC’s universe later on when it becomes more relevant. Needless to say, it becomes one of the core “themes” of the comic as a whole.

The narrative reason for this turn of events is simple:

Pintsize is now in a new visually appealing model, capable of moving his joints around so he can do more than just stand around and talk!

…also one that has a horrifying government-level laser built into it! Believe it or not, this DOES become a relevant plot-point later and it’s not just for the sake of a gag. This is a great example of Jeph taking a tiny detail he may have originally written in as a joke and building off it to create conflict… although I’ll be getting more into that later on when it actually DOES become relevant.

Pintsize agrees to turn the laser off, and a few comics later Marten and Steve go to the bar to discuss their lives – specifically Marten’s love life.

Further showcasing of Marten’s passive nature and his straight-up lack of confidence.

Say goodbye to Sara everyone – for real this time, I’m fairly certain this is the very last time we ever see her. I could be mistaken, but I highly doubt it. Plus, while we don’t see it in detail we get enough information to gleam Steve as Marten’s exact opposite – charming without being overwhelming, confident without being cocky. Steve is just straight-up a cool dude, and it’s easy to see how he can easily get into relationships while Marten stays there floating along, too scared and/or passive to make the move that comes to Steve naturally.

Wait. Shit, I may have the hots for Steve. Abort, aboRT, ABOR-

I’m showing this in part to showcase the next point of conflict and also to draw attention to the new style Jeph is trying. He’ll do this throughout the run of QC, trying out brand-new styles to see what fits and what doesn’t. I’ll be including this in my comparison pictures at the very end of this post to give a clearer image of what changes and how he improves… although you can see even in this comic he’s struggling against old habits as Marten’s face in the final panel looks drastically different than in the rest, looking more akin to how he looked in older comics. That’s okay! Habits die hard, it’s worth applauding the fact that Jeph is trying. God knows I can’t draw to save my fucking life, so I’ll always support artists trying new things.

I’m mostly including this panel for two reasons: The fact that Faye’s stuck in the closet right now – if you don’t get why that’s funny, you will in about 3700 comics from now – and the way she’s talking. Do you notice something different about the “feel” of Faye’s dialogue? Keep an eye on it, I’ll try to include more panels of her talking from this point onward.

Anyway, Marten dismantles the previously established conflict by revealing he managed to get Faye’s prescription for her and got her a new pair of glasses.

Mark this as the second time Faye has actually displayed real physical aggression against Marten.

Again, depending on how much you know about AI in QC’s world from future comics this could either be a lot funnier or a hell of a lot less funny. Although… the subject of AI mortality would make for an EXTREMELY interesting plot point in more recent comics. Remind me to touch on that when we get further along.

Again: Pay attention to Faye’s dialogue in this comic, especially in that last panel. You’re noticing it, aren’t you? The fact that she sounds a little… different? Give me a little more time, I promise I’ll touch on it a little later.

Hey, guess what? It’s later!

Faye does not punch Marten whenever she says something nice about him. In fact, she has ever only assaulted Marten twice – both times for completely arbitrary reasons not related to her saying anything to or about Marten. Nor has Faye ever spoken completely without contractions, as you see she’s doing now. Later comics will go on to point out how odd it is that Faye only speaks with contractions when she’s drunk and dips into her southern accent… when we’ve seen in previous comics that she is capable of speaking with contractions and talking like a normal human being. This change has shifted the entire “feel” of every line of Faye’s dialogue, as she no longer “sounds” like the Faye we started the comic with.

These are both examples of a writing mistake that a lot of long-form regular updating writers make, be it fanfiction or daily comics – retcons. If you’re reading this, you most likely know what a retcon is. For the few of you that don’t, a retcon – short for retroactive continuity – is the practice of in later works of an ongoing series introducing a fact that changes what was previously established in previous works. This is most commonly seen in Superhero comics from Marvel and DC, but the kind of retcon I’m talking about is more common on smaller scale works, like fanfiction or unedited novels or ongoing RPs.

See, when the writer realizes they wanted to change up something, introduce a plot element that would require them to go back and change something previously to make it make sense and find that for whatever reason they can’t, they may go ahead and introduce the plot element anyway while assuring the reader that no, of course this element was always included. That’s what’s happening here – Jeph had an idea for a plot element he wants to include, realized he can’t exactly go back to older comics and change them considering it’s a regularly updated webcomic, and so decided to retcon these facts by introducing them like they’ve always been a part of things and assert their truth while continuing on.

Not that I can necessarily blame the man – in a situation like this, realizing there’s an important plot element that you want to work with but can’t due to you leaving it no room in what you’ve previously published, there’s not much else you can do besides either retconning things or accepting you can’t introduce that plot element and just move on. However, there are other ways you can work with this that abide by previously established continuity and lets you introduce a plot element you want to introduce. For example, Faye punching Marten: You could introduce it as something she feels more comfortable doing the longer she’s around him. Have more frequent comics of her following saying something nice up with a punch, let us see her actually assault him more, and draw a correlation between her getting more comfortable around him and her getting more physically aggressive – something Jeph does touch on later, so it is entirely possible to introduce this new dynamic without asserting things have happened that we clearly see haven’t happened.

…as for Faye not speaking in contractions however, that’s just stupid. It’s a gimmick for her character, plain and simple, without adding anything to her as a character. If you want something big to showcase she’s keeping herself restrained, just continue as you were, having her speak in a southern accent when she’s drunk. That works as a fun gag to attach to her character without seeming like a dumb gimmick. And I’m sorry to say… this whole “Faye doesn’t speak in contractions” thing? It’s a dumb gimmick.

Okay, now that I’ve gotten that all off my chest, let’s introduce ourselves to the new main character of QC…

This is Dora, the owner of the Coffee Shop that Faye works at. She’s a cool cat and (seemingly) supremely chill. She’s introduced as another secondary character like Steve, but will swiftly become a mainstay character and join what will become a growing ensemble cast.

Also, potential conflict is seeded when it’s revealed she’s totally crushing on Marten.

And if you doubt Faye’s assessment, let’s hear it from the woman in question herself.

Also say hello to Dora’s cat. The cat has a name, I just can’t remember it for the life of me considering the little fella joins Sara on that island eventually. But yeah, Dora DEFINITELY has the hots for Marten, sewing another potential seed for conflict later on – Marten and Faye are certainly in the “will they or won’t they?” phase, and here sits Faye’s own boss with a clear, vested interest in Marten. Will she make a move and push Faye to take action? Time will tell.

Jeph enjoys trolling his audience, and Marten is suffering because of it.

Dora goes on to establish herself in the reader’s minds by having a clear, distinct personality that bounces off Faye’s beautifully. They banter so comfortably with one another it makes it so much fun to read, which goes on to make Dora a more appealing character to the reader. The more she talks, the more you want to see her because she’s such a genuinely charismatic individual… which can further serve to establish her as a very real conflict in the potential Marten and Faye relationship. After all, what’s a greater spanner in the works of this “will they or won’t they?” relationship than a character who will gladly say “Yeah, I will” that the audience likes enough that they are completely on-board with seeing go through?

The most dangerous thing to a romcom relationship is a third wheel that a good portion of the audience prefers over the teased relationship, and that creates good drama.

(Also Sara’s name is spelled wrong but eh it’s not like she’s around to complain anyway)

…that said, Dora goes on to assure Faye that she has no intention of swiping Marten off his feet away from her when it’s clear Faye’s interested in him. Then again… the more Faye insists she’s not interested in him, the more likely it may be that Dora believes her.

True story, I found this concept so funny that in a campaign I ran a few years ago, I actually had one of the players – who was supposed to be stuck as a worker in a dreary 9-to-5 job that he’d desperately want to escape to go onto adventure – be labeled as the Office Bitch. My only regret is that I didn’t print out a real business card for his player. That either would have gotten a laugh from the table or gotten me punched.

This here is Scott, Marten’s boss. He’s a cool dude, but for reasons that will become evident later on we don’t see very much of him. At first, I thought he was going to end up being the future husband of Marten’s father – and if you haven’t read through QC yourself that sentence will probably completely catch you flat-footed – but looking it up later I found that Marten marries a man named Maurice, not Scott. I only thought they were the same person because they’re both blonde and the art style changes so much later on anyone could look like anyone else.

Actually, fun fact: I started reading QC when 2512 was the most recent comic, so before she was introduced I thought Faye and Marigold were the same person because of how drastically the art style changed and I only recognized “curvy white girl with glasses and brown hair”.

Anyway, Scott’s pretty chill and… yeah. Yeah, that’s pretty much it. He’s a chill dude to work for, and that’s probably the only reason Marten hasn’t outright quit his job yet. The worst job in the world can be made tolerable with a good boss, and the best job in the world can be made unbearable with an awful boss.

Further evidence of the lack of contractions hurting the way Faye’s voice comes across than anything else. Seriously, is it just me or does this not sound like Faye? Like, at ALL? I’m open to being told I’m wrong, just… seriously.

Aaaand here we have Steve officially having broken up with Sara. Also, it’s a small thing but like I’ve said, I’ll give Jeph credit where it’s due – that visible wince on Marten’s face is the most expressive any of his characters have been thus far. Good work man, I’m happy to see you improving with your art!

After drinking together, Marten and Faye decide to go to an all-night diner for some drunken late-night pancakes when we get this bit of information from Faye:

That is Faye, if you can figure out which of the two Martens your fist will connect with. But yeah, the fact that Faye speaks in a southern drawl while intoxicated went from a joke to actual character – she’s legitimately from Georgia and that’s her natural way of speaking. Which may raise the question to the reader, why does she repress that voice so much? Don’t worry – they touch on it in later comics. For now though, another round of applause to Jeph for slowly and organically creating new information about his characters.

Faye is clearly not telling the whole story – the lack of eye contact being a key indicator of just that. Still, we’re getting a little bit more information on her, and the fact that she kept her wording vague leaves a lot to still explore in her future. Needless to say… it was a LOT more than just her mother being over-protective that led her to moving up north.

Marten’s just kind of accepted his lot in life by this point. Although when I was first reading through these I honestly thought this was going to be the headbutt-into-crotch moment.

Once again, if you haven’t read through QC yourself that sentence made zero sense to you. I’m kind of giggling at the thought of someone reading that and doing a double-take, actually.

Finally, we have the last comic of this batch, setting up a bit of conflict for our next batch…

Wuh-oh! Marten walked in on Faye changing! One really nice detail is that you can see the scar on Faye’s chest right there in the first panel, which means Jeph had a LOT of Faye’s backstory already planned out while he was drawing this stuff. Which just leaves me to wonder… how far back did he have this planned? When Faye first showed up in the third comic? When he had her start speaking in a southern accent while drunk? When he decided to have her stop speaking in contractions? I’d love to ask him, but I know for a fact he wouldn’t give me the time of day. Oh well, either way: He’s got shit planned out, shit that we won’t see until Comic 500 or so, and that’s always good for a long-form comic like this.

Like last time, let’s do some quick comparisons between the first comic of the batch, the comic where Jeph made a clear and active effort to change the art style, and the last comic of the batch:

It looks like Jeph found a happy medium between the style he was originally going for and the newer style he tried to incorporate, keeping the relative size and position of the characters’ facial features while rounding out everyone’s faces, making things much less angular than previously. The bodies are also beginning to get some real texture to them, looking closer to real human bodies than stick figures with a shirt.

Overall, what did I think about this batch of comics? Well aside from my complaints about Faye’s lack of using contractions and the sloppy way Jeph tried to incorporate that into the narrative, I thought it was better than the first batch! Marten and Faye are getting into a comfortable rhythm with each other, and we’re falling in-line with that rhythm ourselves. We just met a new character who’s going to be a mainstay of the series and in the few comics she’s shown up in, she’s made her presence stick with the reader. Even if I didn’t know how important Dora would become, I’d be saying I’m looking forward to seeing more of her.

You know what time it is now? That’s riiiiiight! Data compilation time!

Between comics 51-100, the following characters’ proportional “screen time” as it were are as follows:

Marten: 46/50 – 92%

Faye: 45/50 – 90%

Pintsize: 12/50 – 24%

Dora: 8/50 – 16%

Steve: 6/50 – 12%

Sara: 2/50 – 4%

Scott: 2/50 – 4%

Dora’s Cat: 1/50 – 2%

And the grand total of each character’s screentime, not including non-canon or guest comics, from most to least time shown:

Marten: 91/100 – 91%

Faye: 83/100 – 83%

Pintsize: 27/100 – 27%

Steve: 14/100 – 14%

Dora: 8/100 – 8%

Sara: 7/100 – 7%

Jim: 2/100 – 2%

Scott: 2/100 – 2%

Raven: 1/100 – 1%

Dora’s Cat: 1/100 – 1%

Yes, I’m counting Dora’s cat among the statistics. I’ll change the name when I learn what the critter’s name actually is. Also, I was reminded that when the Secret Bakery becomes a thing later on in the comic there will be another character named Jim, with this particular construction worker being called Jimbo instead. I’ll change the name properly when he’s called “Jimbo” proper in the comic, don’t worry. I’ll be doing my best to keep this list from getting confusing… it’s in as much my best interest as yours seeing as I want to keep track of everyone properly.

Tune in next week when we see the exciting conclusion of this spicy “Marten happening to walk in on Faye undressing” drama! And Dora flashing someone. See you then.

[jeremy-ken-anderson]

Second Galaxy

There’s something brazen about the level of theft Second Galaxy performs vis a vis EVE Online that - much like a cocky dude with an incredibly terrible pickup line - will immediately turn some folks off entirely but lead others to go, “Okay, haha, wow” and give it a shot.

Like, they copied the geometric shorthand. I get copying “circles are planets, squares are humanmade structures” but “flat isosceles triangles are frigates” is kind of beyond the pale.

Similarly they copied a ton of the futurism. This leads to not only a similar set of mechanics but also a similar set of themes, as Space Mercantilism is not something merely emerging from EVE’s mechanics but also its story, its concept of what this future looks like, and the technology the player has access to.

Parts of my brain go for both of the responses to this terrible pick-up line.

As a person who designs games and has said that one of the biggest defenses designers have against random people stealing your ideas and making another game is the potential that they’ll be labeled an idea thief...well, I kind of want my labeling of Second Galaxy as an idea thief to mean something. To me.

But Also...I don’t think I’d be giving Second Galaxy a try if EVE itself hadn’t horribly disappointed me. Like, I tried EVE first, and I tried it multiple times, and I made an effort to like it. And there were just too many things that were not worth engaging with. Unavoidable PVP, with people who’ve been playing for months or years longer than you have. Long periods of doing nothing while mining but a strong chance that if you walk away you’ll be murdered. Difficulty restoring your character to a state playable at the level you’re interested in, on those occasions when you die.

So I was open to the possibility that Second Galaxy is a game born of frustration. I have designed games out of frustration with other games, and the DNA of the disappointing game I “stole from” is still visible in the product, though I do feel like I changed somewhat more than SG’s creators.

And...I feel like some of the things that frustrated me about EVE are absent in SG. For one thing I didn’t get murdered by another player in the whole time I was playing. That’s a plus. Also when I did die I was able to rebuild my ship using raw funds, without an involved process of ordering specialty parts and sending carriers all over the galaxy to gather them up just to reconstitute my “character” (that is, my ship).

There’s a snappiness to SG’s combat that seems like a plus at first but - and maybe this is personal preference - feels like more of a drawback the longer I play. The combats being quick and brutal is a nice match for the thrill of interstellar dogfights, but also I’ve died three times in the game and not once have I felt like I knew what happened or how I could have done something differently to make it not happen. Two of the three times I just went back in with the same ship and everything went fine the second try, and the third I deemed beyond my ship level and just left it alone.

I mean, I guess “the mission level was too high” is a form of “knowing what happened,” but also the missions have levels on them and it claimed to be at my level, so the “I don’t know what to do to avoid it next time” stands, because it’s not like I now have a way of avoiding walking into a similarly overpowered encounter without realizing.

This kind of problem - player comprehension of what’s leading to win/lose states - is one that gets brought up a lot in design videos, especially ones about strategy games. There are multiple parts to the whole “how often can the players make meaningful decisions” idea: The players understanding what’s going on, the players being able to impact what’s going on, and that impact leading to results that are different in a way the players care about.

(I include this third one to account for “false choices” in narrative games, where it turns out that refusing to shoot Pete “Dead Meat” Thompson yourself just means he’ll be eaten by zombies twenty seconds later. You’ve made a choice, but players who go through both of those options will only be satisfied with them as “different decisions” if they care more about the protagonist’s moral character than about Pete’s actual survival.)

Anyway.

The point I distracted myself from just now is that Second Galaxy doesn’t feel like it includes meaningful choices, because I tend to feel like either I can do everything (early on at least, you can buy every upgrade that your level allows, because the base currency is way too easy to get. I had six million by the time I could launch my first ship; The first round of upgrades cost 10k) so there’s no actual decision to make; or I feel like upgrades are so direct and obvious that no decisions are being made (do you want to equip Laser, or Good Laser? Deep decision-making!); or I feel like I don’t know what the hell happened so there probably is something that could be done differently but I don’t have a means of changing my behavior to match.

EVE Online’s slower combats - at least against similarly-leveled enemies; Enemy humans understand the tactical value of blitzing you so that you die before you can meaningfully respond - give you a sense of what’s going wrong with your existing build. Maybe you have no means of tackling, so the enemy ship can outpace you and pepper you with shots from inside their ideal attack range and outside yours. Maybe your build costs a lot of energy to run well, so your ship is really strong for about a minute but then basically gets winded. EVE has modules to swap in to deal with problems like this. It even has options for if you feel like you’ve got module slots to spare; You can add a scavenging node to make it so you can scrap your enemy ships more thoroughly once you’ve blown them up, and get extra goods.

I’m not 100% sure SG doesn’t get there, but it worked so hard to smooth the rough edges off of EVE that I’ve gotten kind of bored in the time I’ve spent on it, and I’m just not willing to put in the time to see whether it fixes those issues later. Even less so when a) they stole so much of their style from another game, and b) I keep seeing reviews of them saying that the deeper you get into the game the more things you find that are broken. I’ve already found some kind of issue where it constantly tells me there’s an upgrade to be had on my ship licensing and then I go there and there’s nothing. But that kind of flaw would apparently become even more commonplace if I gave SG more time.

I really want a game where I can go futzing about in deep space and have space adventures. I like a lot of EVE’s systems and I like the way a lot of its futurism informs mechanics (even if I think the futurism itself is really dystopian and nihilistic). So just as I wanted to like EVE itself, I wanted to like Second Galaxy. But this still isn’t quite the space game to scratch that space game itch. We’ll get there someday. You’ll see.

[racingtoaredlight]

RTARL’s 2020 NFL Season Week 1 Extravapalooza

Two months ago, I really didn’t think the NFL would be kicking off this weekend as scheduled. You know, because of the ongoing viral pandemic that America has not at all managed to tamp down in any meaningful way. In hindsight, it was extremely naive of me to underestimate the coercive power of extremely lucrative television deals and non-guaranteed player contracts. 

 I don’t want to be a total downer and make it seem as though I’m not excited to watch the games, because I totally am. Football is and always will be a fucking blast to watch. It’s just that enjoying the NFL already requires a fair degree of mental bargaining and downright self-deception, and the possibility of COVID-19 tearing through an offensive line group comprised of men suffering from one of the worst comorbidities you can have with this disease (obesity) makes that calculus even more difficult. 

These guys are all adults who have chosen to play, and they’re being well-compensated for their efforts. I get it. But, I still worry for them. Does the worry stem from genuine concern, or is it just that I don’t want to deal with feeling guilty down the line if somebody really does have their career cut short (or worse) due to playing a game for my entertainment during a society-wide health crisis? It’s a tough question to answer, honestly. 

Anyway, let’s all form the online equivalent of a season-long prayer circle and hope that each and every one of these beefy boys makes it through without having their careers (or the lives of their loved ones and elderly coaches) drastically impacted by the effects of COVID-19. If a bunch of postponed games are the worst things that happen this season (Bill O’Brien’s playcalling notwithstanding), I’ll be a happy camper. 

Now onto my dogshit picks! The picks are in BOLD, and the lines come to us courtesy of our friends at Vegas Insider. I use the “VI Consensus” line, which is the line that occurs most frequently across Vegas Insider’s list of sportsbooks. Your sportsbook of choice may offer a different number, and if you’d like my opinion on said number A) you are insane, and B) leave a comment below and I’ll try to answer at some point before kickoff today.

Early Games

Miami Dolphins at New England Patriots (-7)

The Dolphins were exceptionally feisty toward the latter part of last season, and I see no reason why that won’t continue. Between the Patriots’ loss of defensive personnel due to Free Agency or COVID-19 opt-outs and Cam Newton’s adjustment period absent a preseason, I think this game’s gonna be a grind.

Cleveland Browns at Baltimore Ravens (-7.5)

As of this writing, it looks like the Browns are going to be down 3 DBs, a linebacker, and 3 offensive lineman. That’s not great, imo. I do expect them to be pretty good this year, though.

New York Jets at Buffalo Bills (-6.5)

My God, the Jets. If the players truly cared about winning they’d purposely get blown out in as many consecutive games as it takes to get Adam Gase fired. Josh Allen remains the league’s preeminent “Fuck it, I’m Chuckin’ it” player, and I love him for it.

Las Vegas Raiders (-3) at Carolina Panthers

Both quarterbacks in this game are risk-averse to a borderline detrimental degree. If you enjoy checkdowns and dumpoffs, this is the game for you.

Seattle Seahawks (-2) at Atlanta Falcons

I think barring an uncharacteristically shitty season, Russell Wilson is going to be this year’s MVP winner. The reason I think this is because there’s already a narrative building about the fact that it’s crazy that he’s never received an MVP vote despite being excellent for his entire career. The Falcons, with their impossibly shitty defense and loaded passing game, are going to be a solid place to spend your entertainment dollars this season.

Philadelphia Eagles (-5.5) at Washington Football Team

I’m picking Washington explicitly because Mina Kimes tweeted that this game would be close and who am I to question her? I was surprised to learn that Boston Scott was Philly’s starting RB and not Mark Wahlberg’s character in Ocean’s 14.

Chicago Bears at Detroit Lions (-2.5)

Matthew Stafford is one of my favorite players, and I do think the Lions will be in the playoff hunt this season. But for today, they’re down Kenny Golladay and Stafford hasn’t had a chance to knock the rust off in live action yet. The Bears D should be able to hold things down enough for the win here.

Indianapolis Colts (-8) at Jacksonville Jaguars

The Colts giving 8 seems insane to me. Sure, Jacksonville’s front office appears to be blatantly trying to field a losing team, but c’mon. They’ve still got the Minshew-Chark love connection, and the Colts are trying to break in a new QB in Phil Rivers.

Green Bay Packers at Minnesota Vikings (-2.5)

I really hope we get Rejuvenated Awesome Aaron Rodgers this season instead of Passive-Aggressive Counting Down the Days Until He’s Out of Town Aaron Rodgers. Kurt Cousins continues to entertain me one way or another, he’s the best. 

Late Games

Los Angeles Chargers (-3) at Cincinnati Bengals

Joe Burrow is such a cool dude. I’m rooting for him to be great, but the Bengals organization is going to make that as difficult as possible. I’m picking them to spring the mild upset on the Chargers, mostly because I’m a sucker.

Arizona Cardinals at San Francisco 49ers (-7)

This game, if it ends up taking place today, is going to be played in the middle of a goddamned inferno, Kane vs Undertaker style. On the plus side, the smoke coating the players’ lungs and airways should shield them from any coronavirus particles. 

Tampa Bay Buccaneers at New Orleans Saints (-3.5)

Huh, Tampa has a new QB. It’ll probably be tough for them to gel offensively until later in the season, especially with Mike Evans already dealing with a balky hammy. The admirably loyal Drew Brees will lead his men to a big win today, much to the delight of his fanbase that he loves and would never hurt in any way.

SNF Game: Dallas Cowboys (-2.5) at Los Angeles Rams

Dak Prescott is such a weakling he was actually sad when his brother killed himself, meanwhile Jared Goff ate his twin brother in-utero. Advantage: Rams. Seriously though, fuck Skip Bayless. 

MNF Game #1: Pittsburgh Steelers (-6) at New York Giants

Why do I think that Daniel Jones is going to be really good this year? I’m genuinely asking, I don’t know the answer. Someone please help me. Ben Roethlisberger looks alarmingly like a bloated corpse these days, so don’t be surprised if you see a certain Super Bowl winning QB-turned-analyst lurking on the Pittsburgh sideline.

MNF Game #2: Tennessee Titans (-3) at Denver Broncos

It really sucks that Von Miller suffered a season-ending injury during practice this week. I realize he’s probably on the downside of his career at this point, but whenever I see his name I immediately flash back to watching him absolutely destroy multiple O-lines and QBs in several different playoff games. Von Miller could suit up at age 50 against my team and I’d still be terrified of him. What an awesome player. 

Last Season’s Record: 113-115-6

[ooc-but-stylish]

iprinny

 “There’s a lot that gets me about the love story in FFXV and how it…”

Im super curious to know what your thoughts are on that absurdity with prompto’s “dramatic reveal” in chapter 13

Hoo boy. My opinion about the “dramatic reveal” is pretty much my opinion on the whole game, which is 

“Good plot, terrible execution”

Prompto was an MT? Neat. However,

it should have happened earlier

it should’ve been resolved earlier

it should have had a bit more foreshadowing if it was going to be dragged out to Chapter 13 of all things. 

With regards to the actual scene, my first impressions were “Damn, Prompto looks good for a guy that fell off a moving train and got tortured!” then “Oh, oh shit, this is the twist– Prompto’s gonna strangle the shit out of Noct, isn’t he? He’s right there–” and finally “…. Oh.”

The game has Prompto like “Oh, I’ve been tortured for a while in this dungeon, also I wanna tell you guys I’m a Nif/MT”(1) and the bros are like “Ok so? That doesn’t change anything. We still care about you.” which matches more the reaction parents should have when their kid comes out of the closet than anything else. One of their own revealed themselves to be part of the same army that, like, has been attacking them relentlessly on the World Map every 15 minutes ( and interrupting the important dialogue we’ll never hear again ). You know the reaction Wakka had about Rikku being Al Bhed? Yeah. I was expecting that, most likely from Gladio. But they’ve known each other since they were kids, more or less, and those of us who have played the game, regardless of whether we did or didn’t see Brotherhood or the extra media, have likely already seen proof of their unwavering friendship toward each other even in portions of the game where it wouldn’t even make much sense for them all to still be cool.(2) So this… is a waste. It reinforced what we already knew. It served no purpose except to reveal a plot-convenient serial code on his wrist to help them escape, and it raised more questions. 

MTs are made from daemons made from Starscourged humans, and Niflheim would need a lot of humans, so they started making clones and infecting them. Prompto is supposedly one of them, but escaped when he was super young and adopted into the Argentum family. Okay, so who got him out of that lab? Why did he still have “no parents” in Brotherhood? Who were his parents? Were they natives to Insomnia? How did he get a nice place to live in and not end up in the outskirts/slum parts of Lucis on account of his being a foreigner? If he got a serial code imprinted when he was a baby, wouldn’t it have deformed as he grew up? How did it maintain its shape? Was the barcode the same size throughout his life? Why isn’t he wearing light-resistant armor, like the other MTs? This is stuff we’d have to read the Wiki or the strategy guide about, except I’m still asking these questions, so the answers exist nowhere. Even to this day. And people still have theories on whether the Naga in the beginning of the game ( the one that kidnapped Prompto and cried about her baby ) was actually Prompto’s mother. That’s fucked up storytelling, not because they did it on purpose, but because they didn’t.

The reveal happens and is resolved so quickly, no one has the time to process anything. A lot of this game is pretty much “Here’s this earth-shattering detail! Let us never speak of it again”. 

Like, yeah, Noct is broken up he attacked Prompto and knocked him off the train, but did he process the part where he said everything was Prom’s fault and demanding that Prom stop following him around? Right to his face?

Did no one stop to think that Ardyn being able to make himself look like another person means that there’s 0 chance any of them would know for certain that their allies were their allies? Wouldn’t they be in an intensely paranoid state, questioning each other on stuff the “real” them would know about? How do any of them know Ardyn isn’t still right there, hiding in plain sight?

Details that would have worked as foreshadowing for Prompto’s reveal, instead of Ardyn dropping eleventh hour infodumps on Niflheim’s army allowing for post-hoc bullshit:

The constant Magitek encounters come specifically from the Nifs geotracking Prompto’s barcode. The party actually brings up the frequency of these attacks, but Prompto is hesitant to say anything.

None of the Magiteks attack Prompto, focusing on the other three in the party instead of “one of their own”. Possibly dumb luck, and saves every gamer the trouble of Prompto always dying first somehow.

Increased frequency of goofy Ardyn selfies and creepy Prompto pictures on any day Ardyn is with the party.

Instead of Ardyn’s “stitch in time” thing that is never explained again, and Ardyn’s immortality just being the Astrals going “Ew, cooties” and banning him from the Beyond to inflict him on the living, have this: the way 'Ardyn’ appears and disappears is by body-hopping from one Starscourge-afflicted/daemonified person to another. Some individuals are more receptive to him than others based on how far along they are in their daemonification or MT experiments. So why was he on that train, in the place of Prompto? Because something inside Prompto allowed him to be there ( enough to alter his looks but not his speech patterns ). He could drop that particular bomb in Ch 12 before telling Noctis that Prompto is in Gralea.

Ardyn’s immortality comes from the fact that when he ‘dies’, he just manifests in the next likely person to host him or maybe someone of his choosing if he wants. That adds the drama of Ardyn not really ever being dead for good, and the possibility that he could take over Prompto in his next life if he felt like it. That’s a better justification for “You have to kill this dude, then kill yourself, then kill him again” than “Because the gods said so”.

TLDR the Prompto reveal sucked ass.

(1) Let me get this out: Fuck This Game. The localization sucks in its consistency by language. Bahamut is either the Draconian or the Aetherian. Ardyn could have either vaguely “known” Gentiana died, or personally had a hand in killing her. Izunia is either a relative of Ardyn, and Noctis’s ancestor, or is a completely random name Ardyn made up that he forgot the origins of. The Japanese version of the game, rather than hinting that Prompto is an MT, has sections where Ardyn instead taunts Noctis about “Did you know he’s originally from this city?”, and when Prompto reveals it to the group he says “I’m a person of Niflheim”. Even the JP VA confirmed it. So whether or not Prompto is even a Magitek is dependent on language of the game. I can understand that they were trying to go for, but they should have been consistent. Must have been something to do with the constant rewrites of the plot.

(2) Fuck This Game Part Duh: No, seriously. It tried to eat its cake and still have it, and I’ll tell you why. The game doesn’t actually give a shit about your choices. It wants its narrative both ways, telling us that Noctis in particular has certain “fixed” character traits but giving us a choice to make him another way in his dialogue options typical of Western RPGs which have “blank slate” characters. Using both methods and no lasting plot divergences to support those choices beyond the immediate cutscene makes it so that the dialogue options have no impact on the story or make sense, suggesting you play it “Square’s way” or else the game ignores your choices, which is fundamentally not how open world western RPGs work.

A playthrough in which Noctis acts like a total jerk to Prompto and dismissing him every chance he gets will still result in Prom wanting to hear from Noct that he cared about his well being, as well as Prom expressing sadness that Noct will die. 

A playthrough where Noctis puts only platonic or indifferent notes into the book he sends to Luna will still result in the scenes in Chapter 9 where he sheds a tear at her speech, laments that he wanted to save her, and then is quiet rather than impassioned and vengeful, even though he summoned Ramuh and busted a base to rescue the Regalia and to get revenge for Jared of all people.

A playthrough where the Altissian woman interrogates Noctis and Noctis answers by straight-up fucking metagaming and showing more understanding of the lore of the story than he’s ever been told and treating her with respect should count as “gaining her implicit trust”, but we still see a scene where Luna is sitting in the chair across from the Altissian woman and Imperial forces come in and surround Luna anyway, meaning the Altissian lady sold them out.

A playthrough where Noctis only ever responds maturely to Gladio, and his conversations with others have the options for him to act like a leader and the King he’s meant to be, will still result in Gladio chewing him out unnecessarily while the game clunkily tells us Noctis “is a spoiled brat/selfish”, “is being immature” and was “moping for weeks” about Luna even though we just saw her death five minutes ago and Noctis is shown to be quiet but otherwise not stalling the quest in any way. We didn’t even see a funeral, or excessive crying or outbursts, or Noctis demanding that everyone focus on his pain and staying in Altissia locked in a hotel room. He’s just quiet on a train. 

Chapter 13 of the game is especially awful, when both it and Ardyn insist that Noct is supposed to be some scared, frightened puppy without his weapons when he’s wielding the most canonically powerful item in the game, casually ripping gashes in reality and insta-killing a fortress full of daemons with an anti-daemon ring, and the player is able to ignore most (if not all) stealth mechanics and blitz through that chapter with no penalty.

For those that did the side quests throughout the game, the only trait from gameplay that sticks in the narrative is that Noctis is a passive entity. He’s told to do something, he just does it. Otherwise, no matter what, even if you played the game and had Noctis act like a rude shit and played as if none of the Bros were his Bros, they’re still going to be Bros. They’re still going to care about him, including Prompto. Especially Prompto.

[johnmkenney]

Game of the Year 2016

With 2016 in the books, it's time to look back at some of the strongest games of the past twelve months.  Developers continued upon the success of 2015, as 2016 once again had tons of high quality releases to be considered.  Usually each year has three or four games that are held in higher regard than the rest, but this year this could be said about so many more games than that.  So, let's jump in!

As with always, the rules are as follows:

The game must have its final retail release in 2016.  Thus, anything in an alpha/beta state or Steam Early Access does not qualify.

In the case of episodic games, they must have their final episode delivered in 2016 to make the list.

While this list is comprehensive, I haven’t played everything.  The Last Guardian and Owlboy came out too late in the year while I was already catching up on other games.  Hyper Light Drifter and Darkest Dungeon are two others that unfortunately are still in the backlog.

Most importantly: the game has to be really good.  No-brainer there.

Honorable Mentions: Ultimate Chicken Horse - Unique local multiplayer will cause you to create traps and challenges as you do your best to conquer levels while at the same time making sure your friends cannot. Asemblance - The twists and turns that build in this 90 minute psychological thriller do a fantastic job keeping the player on edge. Doom - An in-your-face thrilling campaign and great resurgence for a franchise that definitely needed the kick.

10. Final Fantasy XV (Square Enix - PS4, XBO)

After a decade of development, the seemingly mythological RPG finally released in 2016. The most recent Final Fantasy is a potpourri of ideas and genres where the stitching can clearly be seen, but the sum of its parts help to create an enjoyable experience.  Square Enix's ambition with this game is something to be appreciated, as they certainly spent a lot of time trying to create something unique.  The battle system is engaging and fun, and this succeeds most during some of the towering beast battles that take place in the game's tucked away dungeons.  There's a lot to see in this world, and the team did will to allow the player to always return to explore this sandbox even during pivotal story sequences later in the game.  The game's core cast is also quite strong, as the group of four may not each appeal to you at first, but each have their time to shine during the story.  

9. Firewatch (Campo Santo - PC, PS4, XBO)

The thing to take away the most from Campo Santo's debut is that this is an honest tale of how humans react to situations.  The game starts with an effective "choose your own adventure" type opening that shows people go through adversity no matter what you try to do. The world that artist Olly Moss helped bring to life is vibrant, and Chris Remo's soundtrack sets the tone perfectly as you wander the forest.  Most importantly, the game builds a solid relationship between two characters that haven't even met face-to-face yet as they both oversee their respective areas.  Some games spend dozens of hours trying to build this type of character and emotion, but Firewatch is able to do it with success in the four hours you'll spend in the wilds.

8. Virginia (Variable State - PC, PS4, XBO)

A title that flew under the radar for most, this mystery tells a fascinating story without even saying a word in the journey.  The story follows a character that has just been accepted into the FBI to help investigate a missing person, but the way the story is told makes the ride a great one.  Dream sequences and time jumps create a mystique to the narrative that would be hard to appreciate as just a linear timeline of events.  It's one of the few story based games that makes you want to hop immediately back in upon finishing to see what you missed as everything unfolds.  There isn't quite much like it, and that helped it truly stand out.

7. Inside (Playdead - PC, PS4, XBO)

Playdead's second game may look similar to their breakout hit Limbo, but it's very much a tale of its own.  While you are dropped in a mysterious world as a child with no explanation or tutorial, the game does a fantastic job of showing you the ropes through trial and error from the beginning.  The graphic ways your character can die help build tension while you sneak around guards, dogs, and other hazards to try to piece together what's going on.  As with Virginia, there isn't a word spoken throughout the entire experience, but the world here builds itself with the environment.  Things can be pieced together in your surrounds, both relating to the story and how to solve the next puzzle.  The amount of detail that Playdead put in to what seems like such a tiny package is mind-boggling, as the setting is fleshed out in an eerie and amazing way.  The end may leave you with a few questions, but sometimes that's the way it should be.

6. Titanfall 2 (Respawn - PC, PS4, XBO)

The original Titanfall was an entertaining multiplayer game, but it didn't seem to catch on with enough people and left others wanting single-player content.  Respawn made good on this in the sequel, by creating one of the most surprisingly evocative campaigns to come out of a first person shooter in recent memory.  In all media, creators often struggle to make robots and mechs seem like real characters, but Titanfall 2 succeeds in creating a strong personality with your titan, BT.  Small quips back and forth between the character and BT are engaging, and you even get the opportunity to slightly guide the conversation with dialogue trees that don't impact the story but lead to personalized conversations.  That isn't the sole success of this game though, as the combat is a blast.  Movement is quick, and the ability to run and jump on walls leads to intense combat in both single and multiplayer.  While Titanfall 2 wasn't the standout FPS on the sales chart, it was certainly the most enjoyable of the big three this year.

5. Superhot (Superhot Team - PC, XBO)

This unique project has been intriguing people for years ever since it was initially available as a web demo three years ago.  It's an FPS with a mechanic you haven't seen before the genre: time only moves when you move.  When you enter a room, you'll see all the enemies and can plan your attacks.  However, the second you move your body (or even your head), the other characters and objects will move.  If an enemy has a gun, you're able to stop the second he pulls the trigger and quickly figure out where to move to ensure you don't get shot.  It's a mechanic that brings depth to every situation you encounter and you plot out where to move and when to attack.  The game's presentation also helps set it apart, as the menus will create fake IRC chat rooms and even other games (what's up Tree Dude, the true GOTY) to help build its world.  There truly isn't anything like Superhot, and this is definitely a team to watch going forward.    

4. Uncharted 4: A Thief's End (Naughty Dog - PS4)

It's a testament to the quality of games this year to say that one of the best games in the highly respected Uncharted series didn't make the top 3, but that doesn't make it any less of a game.  Nathan Drake's swan song is one to remember, as Naughty Dog yet again created a wonderful story with both familiar and new faces.  While the treasure is always the story, A Thief's End does a great job of giving Sully, Elena, and Sam each their time to shine throughout the story to further build their relationship with Nate.  It's likely the best that the Nate and Elena story has been, especially after some of the questionable twists in that arc previous games have taken.  Needless to say, the game is beautiful and yet again is the hallmark of power for a Playstation platform.  The key set piece moments are there, and this is showcased with the brutally impressive truck chase sequence where you will constantly be left saying "Did I just pull that off?"  While it's a shame to walk away from Nate now, he's certainly had his time to shine, and it was one hell of a ride.

3. Overwatch (Blizzard - PC, PS4, XBO)

Stop me if you've heard this one before: Blizzard took a genre that typically is difficult for new players to penetrate and made a game that was easy for anyone to hop into.  Well, it happened again with their hero team-based FPS: Overwatch.  Using some ideas from the scrapped Project Titan, Blizzard created 21 (later 23) hero characters that each has their own unique abilities and play style to help conquer objectives.  Teams of six work against each other under various conditions to help achieve a single objective.  Certain heroes work well with each other, while some can be used to counter opposing heroes.  Plus, to keep it simple and allow games to swing, you can change your hero anytime after a death, so strategies can adapt on the fly.  Above all else though, Overwatch does a wonderful job in easing players in by simplifying their stats and not necessarily making it about your kill/death ratio.  Don't be confused, if you aren't helping your team, you aren't going to win, but not constantly knowing that you've died three more times than you taken down opponents helps a player's morale.  The game has a style all its own, and with the continuing free updates Blizzard has been making through the year, it's going to be great to see where this game goes down the road.

2. Hitman (IO Interactive - PC, PS4, XBO)

There is no game more surprising in 2016 than Hitman.  It was one of those games with a lot stacked up against it: the most recent Hitman was mostly disappointing, the business model changed to episodic at the last second, and everything just seemed like a mess.  However, once players got their first full episode in Paris, it was clear that something special was being made. Each episode of season one featured a new locale with two story targets to take out, but that was only just scratching the service.  As with most Hitman games, there are multiple ways to go about achieving your goal, and this is done wonderfully here as you explore and find breadcrumbs of meetings and interviews that can help disguise you to take down your enemy.  Optional targets and user-created missions helped give every map life, but the true shining gem is the elusive target feature.  Every other week, IO adds a character to a map and you need to find a way to take them down, but you only get one chance.  Think of it as Spelunky's daily challenge, where everyone has the same mountain to climb but only one crack at it.  Even your most thought out plans will lead to failure, but a lot of the fun in the experience is quickly adapting when everything is hitting the fan.  Hitman was a question coming into the year, but the only thing people are asking themselves going into 2017 is how soon season two will be here.

1. The Witness (Thekla, Inc. - iOS, PC, PS4, XBO)

In the Witness, you are presented with hundreds of puzzles that just require you to draw a line from the beginning of the panel to the end.  That sounds pretty simple, right?  Well, it's far from that.  Jonathan Blow created a masterpiece with intricate puzzles that will test the limits of your brain to get through all of them.  When you begin the game, the first puzzle just has you draw a straight line, which is a surprisingly simple yet great way to introduce you to each set of puzzles.  The game allows you to free roam, but every time you encounter a new set of puzzles, the first panel will show you an incredibly bare bones puzzle to teach you the logic of that area.  Using that knowledge, you'll need to apply it as the puzzle in that section get larger and larger.  As you move through the world, some puzzles will even take ideas from other puzzle and mix them together, which leads to some heavy thinking to push forward.  The exploration is also a wonder, and this isn't just because of the mysterious and beautiful world that Blow's team created in the game.  Sometimes you will come across puzzles with symbols that seem foreign and unsolvable.  However, after tackling an area and learning a new mechanic, there isn't a better feeling that realizing you can find that one-off puzzle and solve it.

The Witness goes much deeper, but spoiling the surprise and twists in game play would simply just take away from it.  The Witness is not easy, but it is so rewarding to figure out the solutions and intricacies of the world on your own.  There is one specific moment at the end of the game that will make you feel like an actual genius if you are able to complete it, and there was not greater moment in games this year than that.  Sometimes, the simplest of ideas can lay the groundwork for something much deeper, and that's exactly what the Witness does.  The journey wasn't always easy, but looking back, it's easy to wish you could forget all of the mechanics so that you could learn it fresh again.  The Witness is one of the strongest games of recent memories, and you owe it to yourself to try to conquer the puzzles found within.

[entergamingxp]

Troy’s battles feel a tad dry, but its mythology is fascinating • Eurogamer.net

The Bronze Age, it turns out, is not an easy period to turn into a historically accurate, highly detailed video game like Total War. But it does sound fascinating. There are huge gaps in important places, unusual changes to how armies are proportioned, and the small matter of Homer’s Iliad sprinkling myth and magic over everything.

Playing it, I think there’s room for a little more of the mythical stuff – but talking to Total War Saga: Troy’s game director Maya Georgieva and senior game designer Milcho Vasilev, I’m also confident there’s a good deal more to come.

“We wanted to take a direction that has not been taken by any Total War before,” Georgieva told me, “this period of history, which is ancient history, the Bronze Age… I mean no Total War has gone there before us, and there’s a good reason for that! It’s not been missed by accident, it’s really tough for a Total War game to go into this era because the sources that we need to make an on-par experience with the titles that you love are missing, or are scarce in that period.

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“So for example, we don’t have a lot of historical records. We have a lot of archaeological evidence, but we don’t have, for example, the names of rulers of countries – the specifics that breathe soul into the historical narrative.” This is where the Iliad comes in: providing detail and inspiration for nation-states, rulers, “the leaders or the heroes or the personas and characters of the military,” as Georgieva puts it. “This basically makes the whole project possible”.

“The way we are presenting them is basically threading this very narrow path between reality and the narrative. Because, well, what we found out is that the narrative of the Iliad is very powerful. It has its own gravity, it draws us always towards it. So, from the beginning, we decided that one of the key points of the project will be: we are going to make a sandbox Total War game, but the events of the Iliad will be a plausible playthrough in that sandbox.” (Worth noting here is that there’s definitely no two-campaign option like the Romance and Records versions of Total War: Three Kingdoms, although it’s not something Georgieva ruled out for something post-launch. “That would have been a very nice option, but the scope of the Saga really doesn’t allow us to do that. I mean, we don’t have the luxury of making two games in one. But still, there are possibilities, probably after release. We’ll see.”)

Hero units, like Achilles and Hector here, can face off in duels very similar to those introduced in Total War: Three Kingdoms.

As for how those gaps are filled by the more fantastical parts of sources like the Iliad, Creative Assembly has opted for a “truth behind the myth” approach, effectively looking to make as factually accurate a Total War as possible and using the most probable explanations for the myths and legends to complete the history – a fascinating approach, philosophically, but one that can make you feel slightly underwhelmed when, say, the Minotour turns out to just be a big, tanky bandit dude in silly armour.

“We knew that we were going to have a difficulty with the unit variety in the game because of the Bronze Age and the way that warfare was conducted at the time,” Vasilev explained, and this is where mythological units, or mythologically inspired units, come in. The Cyclops, for instance, is a giant that sounds like more or less a properly mythical being in the game, and works to supplement the units of the era. “The Cyclops can be really good at sieges, because he is a unit that is able to destroy even huge gates, he’s able to throw a boulder over the siege walls to damage units behind it, and so on.” Others like the Centaurs, meanwhile, are more easily explained by the available facts, and so in-game they’re effectively just cavalry. As Vasilev put it, “we believe that the myth that has inspired the half-human half-horse centaurs is rooted in that period where people were not using horses much, but they would see some other tribe, not being very adept at that horse riding [themselves], or even fighting for horseback, and they would probably say that they are ‘one with their horse’.” They won’t be readily available though. To get these kinds of units players need to go “a bit out of their way” to recruit them on the campaign map first, and they sound either very limited or completely unique in their supply.

You might have clocked those ships in the background, but note there are no sea battles in Troy – if two ships end up fighting, then a land battle plays out with the armies disembarked on a nearby island.

When it comes to the battles themselves, this truth-seeking approach can make things feel a little flat. I played a single, fairly standard land battle in control of the Greeks, and their hero Achilles, against the Trojan army and hero Hector, with a decent amount of units on either side, including Centaurs for me and the “Minotaur” for Hector. In other words, I have lots of infantry and archers and one cavalry unit (plus a unit of slow chariots), and the enemy has an entire infantry force with one big man.

That slightly underwhelming impression aside, the immediate thing you’ll notice as a returning Total War player is that lack of cavalry. Total War’s real-time battles are, more often than not, about using speed, positioning, and flanking, and taking almost all cavalry out of the game completely disrupts the balance of that, and so Creative Assembly has had to quite noticeably shuffle some other things around. A big change is light infantry are faster, heavy infantry are slower, and there are more infantry types that have special bonuses like increased flanking strength, increased resistance to flanking, or outright immunity to it.

There’s also a big change to the landscape of the battle maps themselves: light cover, in the form of long grass, has been introduced, as have sand and mud. Light infantry can move into long grass to be hidden, like units traditionally would be in forests. Heavy infantry are severely slowed in mud, while light infantry are unaffected and medium only slightly slowed – similarly with sand. Basically, flanking-specialised light infantry units become your traditional light cavalry, and micro-managing unit positioning around different types of battlefield terrain becomes more important than ever.

There are several biomes for battles depending on where you are on the campaign map, and day-night cycles too. There was also mention of a Divine Will religion resource and five-resource economy in the campaign, but expect more elaboration on that down the line.

In practice, it can be a little finickity. If you’re a frequent pauser, expect to pause even more frequently. If you’re not, expect even more emphasis on your actions-per-minute and attention to detail (which is especially important, given the dusty biome of this battle meant it was often a little hard to tell between long grass and just slightly-longer-than-usual grass that doesn’t have the same effect). There’s also not a huge amount of visual distinction between units, especially the more elite ones, like Achilles’ Myrmidons say, that in other Total Wars you’d expect to be more instantly identifiable in the fray.

That said, it’s still interesting to have to rethink your tried-and-tested strategies – in fact, Warhammer games aside, this is probably the most impactful change to Total War’s battles I can remember. It’s something plenty of history nerds will find stimulating, as much as others might find it slightly dry. That’s the nature of the Bronze Age, really, but thankfully for the less fustily-inclined like me we have the other half of the narrative to do some making up. The big thing that’s got me excited is the siege of Troy.

“The siege of Troy needs to be a spectacular event, or at least a special event in a Bronze Age game. Because of the power of the narrative,” Georgieva said. That means – rejoice! – there is a Trojan Horse in the game, despite some suggestions that it would just be implemented as an earthquake for the sake of historical accuracy. “I think that’s a little bit of a misconception,” Georgieva explained. “There are actually three horses, three Trojan horses in Total War Saga: Troy… the way we’ve implemented the horse is we took the three most plausible, most possible options and implemented them.

The Centaurs in action.

“The far fetched one is the allegory of the earthquake. Earthquakes are quite common in the area even today, and we have archeological evidence that Troy’s walls were destroyed by an earthquake at the appropriate period of history in that time. So that was one of the interpretations, which is modelled into the game as a window of opportunity where you can attack Troy well after an earthquake because the walls are down, the garrison is weakened and you can just approach the city in a much more favourable way.

“The other ways to approach Troy with a Trojan horse are with a siege tower that is shaped like a horse. We know that a couple of centuries later the Assyrians fielded such siege machinery, which is sometimes referred to by the animal names. So we see that probably in the Trojan War, this is like a prototype, a ‘beast of war’, we call it in the game. It’s unlockable through a technology. And the other, the third one, is probably the closest to the narrative, because it involves the same tactic: a wooden structure filled with treasure, and also hidden units.

“This though, again has a historical tint to it because we realised that in that period of time Phoenician ships were horse-headed vessels, and also all ships would have been used for devoting things to the divine, to the gods. So we are basically replaying this sort of scenario where a ship with a horse’s head is filled with goods, and also hidden soldiers. And when you get to do that strategy, you play on a specific map that doesn’t exist outside of the strategic map. It’s during the night, the gates of Troy are open, and you start with several units inside the city. So it’s a completely new scenario. And those three ways exist in the game and give you the opportunity to choose your own Trojan horse.”

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Vasilev also explained that there are at least three separate versions of the battle map for the siege of Troy itself, including the standard 360-view one you’ll know from usual Total War sieges. “It’s not just an earthquake that we’ve implemented as a Trojan horse.” Finally, although Creative Assembly was at pains to make clear there’d be little talk of the campaign just yet, there’s an intriguing tease of a proper rework for agents, the units like spies and heroes that roam around providing support and intel on the campaign map.

Here’s what Georgieva told me about those: “after Thrones of Britannia, the previous saga, we were looking a lot at the feedback that we received and several systems that didn’t make the cut for Thrones. So for example, agents… they have a good and a bad side, let’s say. So we were trying everything to alleviate, for example, agent spamming on the map, but [in doing so] we were also having a lot of new interesting takes on the agent archetypes. We’re also implementing Epic Agents, which are mythologically inspired. And they are quite unique. I mean, we haven’t had anything like this in a previous title before.”

That little tease, plus the promise of a little more invention and bombast with the big siege of Troy, the suggestion that the campaign will offer some interesting scripted moments that line up with Homer’s epic, and the opportunity to relearn some habits in the battles themselves is enough to keep me excited. Translating this era into something like Total War sounds extremely challenging – the slight flatness of that battle I tried a few times being evidence of the fact – but the novelty of it, the magic of the period, and just the magnetic quirkiness of the actual required historical process itself, is still undeniable.

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/troys-battles-feel-a-tad-dry-but-its-mythology-is-fascinating-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=troys-battles-feel-a-tad-dry-but-its-mythology-is-fascinating-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[thrashermaxey]

Capped: Cap Situations for all 31 NHL Teams

  Hopefully everyone had a fun Halloween. It was a little disappointing only having one NHL game on the slate though, so let’s make up for it with a record long Capped article. Over 3500 words coming right at you! 

  A month into the season, we have enough of a sample size to start drawing conclusions about what kind of scenarios may play out this season. The cap makes things tougher on teams, but it also lends itself to a lot of patterns and predictability if you’re looking in the right places. Here’s a starting point for each NHL team.

  Anaheim Ducks

The biggest storyline in the cap world of the Anaheim Ducks is how they build/rebuild around John Gibson. Gibson is the early Vezina leader, but the rest of the team has struggled to produce much at all. With youngsters Troy Terry, Sam Steel and Maxime Comtois stepping up, the window is anything but shut, however, there are a few bigger contracts to be sorted out. One of Ryan Kesler or Corey Perry will have to be moved out if the younger players are to grow. With Carlyle and some older contracts around, the growth will continue to be stifled.

  Next year’s roster has a Cap hit of $75 million, with only 15 player contracts accounted for. Something’s going to give, and a change of scenery may help Perry.

  Arizona Coyotes

Arizona has managed their cap fairly well, but be ready for another sell off come trade deadline time. Richard Panik and Jordan Oesterle could be useful depth pieces for contenders, but a trade would likely mean pushing them even farther down the lineup (bad for their fantasy value).

  The Coyotes are also at the max 50 contracts on the books, so a couple minor league trades may occur before that point to give them a little more flexibility come deadline day.

  Boston Bruins

Off the top of your head, who is the Bruins’ highest-paid forward? It’s not Patrice Bergeron, Brad Marchand or David Pastrnak; David Krejci holds the honour, and is signed for another three seasons. The Bruins need that depth scoring to pick up, otherwise they aren’t going to keep up in a surprisingly upstart Atlantic division. Your best fantasy bets are Jake DeBrusk and Ryan Donato, both on very friendly contracts, and good positive regression candidates.

  Buffalo Sabres

With approximately $10 million coming off the books between Matt Moulson and Jason Pominville this offseason, Buffalo could take a run at one of the 2019 free-agent defencemen. As we know, that worked so well for them last time, using an amnesty buyout on Christian Erhoff.

  Whatever the direction may be, they are also going to have to keep in mind that they want to show Jeff Skinner why he should be sticking around. Otherwise he may turn into one of the biggest prizes of the 2019 UFA class. He will continue to be given the best linemates.

  Calgary Flames

Matthew Tkachuk is an RFA, and he is going to take a decent payday to get re-signed, but it will get done.

  The big storyline for the rest of the year is what happens in net moving forward. Mike Smith has the contract, but is playing poorly. David Rittich is the backup for now, but is playing better than Smith. Jon Gillies is the goalie of the future, and has a one-way contract starting next season making him the odds on favourite to be the starter at that point. Smith likely gets let go at the end of the year, and if he is going to be gone anyways, we could see the starts favour Rittich after the All-Star break.

  Carolina Hurricanes

Carolina has the lowest cap hit in the league this season, and may actually be a buyer at the trade deadline for the first time in a while. They have the space to make a push for a Mark Stone or an Artemi Panarin, so keep an eye on those forward line combos, as things may shake up as the season moves on. This means we may see some of their rookies get pushed down the lineup.

  Bold move: The Hurricanes have the capital and the cap space to acquire both Sergei Bobrovsky and Panarin, and they swing for the fences trying to bring the Stanley Cup to Carolina for the first time since 2006.

  Chicago Blackhawks

Predictably with Chicago, the narrative covers the core five. They have rebounded nicely with a winning record thus far. However, Chicago has not been able to keep higher salaried players around because of these contracts before. This year will be no different, especially with Brandon Saad’s contract looking immoveable too. Look for a new wave of rookies to come up next year, and maybe see if you can get in ahead, before guys like Victor Ejdsell, Dylan Sikura, and Matthew Highmore are on the common sleepers lists next summer.

  Colorado Avalanche

Does it matter what is happening with the salary cap when the top line trio is as hot as they are? Well, yes it does, especially since Mikko Rantanen needs a new contract. My contract model has him right now with an eight digit AAV, which goes to show how great he has been playing. That being said, he won’t get that much. There’s no benefit from a bridge deal either, so something similar to what David Pastrnak got from Boston may be a good comparison (adjusted for inflation of course). Nathan MacKinnon took a little less money, and Colorado isn’t going to let Rantanen greatly usurp his contract number.

  Columbus Blue Jackets

As covered a little in the Carolina section, Columbus is either going to have to seriously contend this year, or take a hard look in the mirror and move out Panarin and Bobrovsky. They need to learn from the Islanders. My bet is that at least Panarin gets moved, which is unfortunate for his linemates, but will also open up a hole for Boone Jenner to step up to the top line.

  Dallas Stars

With Jason Spezza and Mark Methot coming off the books, and no large extensions upcoming (Tyler Seguin already re-signed), this team may be able to build up their forward depth, and contend a little more seriously next season. Bishop would be a good goalie target for those looking ahead and not wanting to pay for a top of the line starter.

  Detroit Red Wings

The team with the highest cap hit is also sitting at the bottom of the standings. Dylan Larkin and all of their impressive rookie defencemen will still not be enough to save them. Gustav Nyqvist, Jimmy Howard, and Niklas Kronwall should all be gone by next summer, and that will kick start the rebuild. In the meantime, just stay away from anyone not named Larkin or Dennis Cholowski (dude is a stud).

  Edmonton Oilers

Edmonton is going to turn themselves into the 2015 Chicago Blackhawks before they even have a chance to win a cup, let alone the three the Blackhawks had by that point in the cap era. What did we learn from Chicago? Well that Alex DeBrincat is the most valuable piece coming through among a sea of overpaid players. What does that mean for Edmonton? Well it means that one of Jesse Puljujarvi or Kailer Yamamoto should get the opportunity to turn into a big scorer. Now is the buy low moment for Yamamoto.

  Florida Panthers

An older tweet from James Mirtle shows a relevant topic four years later. The 39-year-old Roberto Luongo has four years left on his contract, and when he retires has a large impact on both the Florida Panthers and the Vancouver Canucks. Both teams will have to make sure they have the cap space to manage the possible penalties. The Panthers have done a good job of managing their cap situation, and with no one of importance up for free-agency, it looks to be status quo with them.

    That is until management has had enough of losing, and decides to really shake things up with a blockbuster trade.

  Los Angeles Kings

This team needs a rebuild (that was evident even before news broke that Jonathan Quick would be out for 3-6 weeks). That’s an unfortunate thing to need with $138 million due to Anze Kopitar and Drew Doughty over a combined 13 years, starting next year. I’m not sure who is in worse shape, LA or Anaheim. The Kings have 18 players signed for next season, and are already at $77.5 million. Tanner Pearson may become the casualty to a lucky team that puts him in a position to succeed.

  Minnesota Wild

Think Minnesota wants a do-over on the Zach Parise/Ryan Suter contracts? I sure would. After this season, there is still six years and over $45 million left on both contracts. Plus, Minnesota has their best cap bargain (Eric Staal at $3.5 million) expiring as a UFA. Let’s hope new GM Paul Fenton can make some maneuvers out from under the collapsing situation Chuck Fletcher left him. Otherwise the Wild will see themselves quickly surpassed in the Central division.

  Montreal Canadiens

Carey Price’s new $10.5 million AAV contract has kicked in, and it doesn’t look like a disaster. If Shea Weber can come back healthy for the second half, this may actually be a bubble playoff team. Artturi Lehkonen will need a new contract (likely a bridge signing), and the Karl Alzner deal needs to disappear, but there are some solid fantasy contracts to be found here. Especially one of my personal favourites, Brendan Gallagher.

  Nashville Predators

Still the model of contract gold, there is a new set of key RFAs looking for a fresh contract this summer. Colton Sissons and Ryan Hartman have arbitration rights, while Kevin Fiala doesn’t. Don’t expect either of Hartman or Sissons to actually hit arbitration. David Poile will get them locked up like he did with Calle Jarnkrok, Filip Forsberg and Viktor Arvidsson. Meanwhile Kevin Fiala will get a one or two-year bridge deal to bring him to arbitration. This will be less than most people are expecting him to receive, before he breaks out and gets paid on his future deal.

  New Jersey Devils

Keith Kinkaid can be a starter in this league, and will likely move on in search of a starting job elsewhere. The native of Long Island may look to the Islanders first, but between Robin Lehner playing well, and Tomas Greiss succeeding on top of having one more year on his contract, the timing may not be right. Instead, Kinkaid may look a touch West of his current home, filling a spot we will discuss a little later.

  Back to the Devils, the other big name due an extension is Will Butcher. He may not get quite the same amount of coin, but he reminds me a little of Tyson Barrie with the Avalanche, who got a bigger contract than expected despite being mainly an offensive catalyst. Don’t be caught unaware expecting a bridge deal.

  New York Islanders

After losing John Tavares, Lou Lamoriello tried to replace quality with quantity. Unsurprisingly it’s not having quite the desired effect. The Isles’ brass will have to work hard to make sure it doesn’t repeat mistakes of last year, this time with Anders Lee. Currently on a bargain contract, the team captain Lee deserves a big raise, and is going to get it. The Isles are primed to overpay Lee just to get him to stay, and they have the cap space to do it too. Winger Jordan Eberle may be allowed to walk, as he is probably going to be looking to win something other than the 2009 World Juniors (that is never going to get old).

  New York Rangers

The Rangers are “rebuilding” in their own special way, but that doesn’t mask the fact that Mika Zibanejad is one of the best cap bargains that no one talks about. Already at nine points through 11 games, Zibs could keep up a 70-point pace through the season with the top minutes he’s getting for the Rangers. What they decide to with him and his contract though is another story. If the Rangers truly want to bottom out, they would have plenty of suitors lining up hefty packages in return for the 25-year-old. In the meantime, names such as Kevin Hayes, Ryan Spooner, and Mats Zuccarello will remain on the trade block. All three could benefit from a change in scenery.

  Ottawa Senators

With two key free-agents this summer, things could (and will) look a lot different in Ottawa next year. However, until ownership changes, they will be bogged down by the same problems, and things won’t really change. Maybe they can exceed Eugene Melnyk’s expectations next year and ice a full 23-man roster of rookies, minus Craig Anderson. Lots of good opportunities to get in here with some cheap ELC production.

  Philadelphia Flyers

With both goalies having contracts that expire in July, plus the brass wanting to bring along Carter Hart extra slowly, the door opens for Keith Kinkaid. Between him and Hart, the goalie carousel may finally be coming to an end in the short term. Expect Wayne Simmonds to walk straight into free-agency with Brian Elliott and Michael Neuvirth.

  On top of that, Ivan Provorov needs a new contract, and he may top what Matt Dumba got from Minnesota. Aaron Ekblad’s $7.5 million AAV could be closer to what he’s asking for right away. He deserves it too.

  Pittsburgh Penguins

Someday Daniel Sprong will arrive. In the meantime, Sidney Crosby will continue to buoy players like Brian Rust into earning their livelihood on one contract. As another option, with Derrick Brassard, Carl Hagelin, and other contracts coming off the books, the Penguins could dip into a winger-rich free agent pool next summer, coming out with a player such as Stone, Panarin, or Skinner. The goalies and defence are pretty much set, so why not beef up the forward group even further.

  San Jose Sharks

With only 10 skaters signed past this year, and many needing raises (including Erik Karlsson and Joe Pavelski), this team is going to look very different next season. As a result, their window is as open right now as it is likely to be in the next number of years, but they are also right up against the salary cap. They may make a few smaller moves for this year, but the real fun will start once they are eliminated from the playoffs (or win it all). Joe Thornton can’t keep coming back forever, can he?

  Seattle

Didn’t see this one coming did you? Well Seattle remains on track to join the league for the start of the 2020-2021 season, and if we’re looking ahead, you can’t discount the impact another expansion franchise will have. The team will bring more skaters, more points, more revenue, more games, and more decisions for general managers. With having had Vegas join the league back in 2017, we can be better prepared this time around. In the cap era, a team can do a lot of damage if they bring together solid parts without being weighed down by anchor contracts. If Seattle is to succeed, that will be the key. Don’t expect them to make the finals in their first year, but there will be some fantasy gems to be mined.

  St. Louis Blues

Jake Allen has gone from what was supposed to be one of the best goalie contracts in the league, to one of the poorest performers this season. The Blues have the depth at forward and on defence to be real contenders, but if their goalie keeps letting them down, they are in danger of narrowly missing the playoffs again this year. Unfortunately for them, they don’t have the cap space to bring in someone to help. Either their AHL starter Ville Husso is going to grab the reigns and channel his inner Matt Murray to a deep playoff run, or we are going to see the tailspin continue until Mike Yeo is let go. A coaching change is probably the only thing that saves Allen’s value at this point.

  Tampa Bay Lightning

The Lightning only have three defensemen signed past this season, but good thing for them it’s their top three. What this means is that we could see a prospect or two jump to the third pairing next season. Former first rounder Cal Foote has a good chance, as do Erik Cernak and Dominik Masin. These prospects, have an even better shot if the Tampa brass can’t get rid of Ryan Callahan, and still wants to re-sign recent breakout forwards Yanni Gourde and Brayden Point. Gourde has been one of the best fantasy bargains not on an entry level deal, while Point has been producing well before most expected him to. Both will be due a significant raise similar to Ondrej Palat and Tyler Johnson re-upping in 2017. With cap inflation, expect the two new deals to be closer to $6 million than $5 million.

  Toronto Maple Leafs

William Nylander still needs a contract, plus Auston Matthews and Mitch Marner will need new deals soon too. This will possibly define Kyle Dubas’ career.

  My thoughts on Nylander are here, and you can find my thoughts on Matthews and Marner here. All points regarding those three still stand.

  Vancouver Canucks

See the Florida Pathers write up, plus they signed a bunch of bad free-agent contracts, and are even farther away from the playoffs.

  If they can us their abundant cap space to get Brock Boeser signed long term, then between the trio of Boeser, Bo Horvat and Elias Pettersson, there is a core to build around. A few years avoiding free-agent frenzy, and not having $25 million on the IR will go a long way to moving the Canucks slowly up the standings. In the meantime, there won’t be much fantasy growth outside of the aforementioned top trio.

  Vegas Golden Knights

After showing the hockey world how great you can be without an anchor contract or two, Vegas is slowly joining the pack. The seven-year, $4.75 million AAV contract to Alex Tuch could very well turn out to be a good one, but the six-year, $5.95 million AAV deal to Nate Schmidt is very much above market value, and doesn’t leave as much room to either re-sign Pacioretty or look for some other depth scoring. Vegas has $72.2 million locked up in 14 players going into next season, so they may not be able to bring in another piece to bump them back into that top tier in the Western conference.

  Washington Capitals

Contracts due to RFAs Andre Burakovsky, Chandler Stephenson, Jakub Vrana, and others, will be very telling towards who has a shot at taking the top line gig during Tom Wilson’s next suspension of a full season. All of the core players are signed for at least another year, and most for longer. This team is going to consistently be a fantasy haven, where you get what you pay for, plus a high powerplay point bonus.

  Winnipeg Jets

Last but not least, there are a couple Jets that need gassing up before taking off next season. Patrick Laine and Kyle Connor are going to get similar money to that discussed for Matthews and Marner (the Jets’ duo is also featured in the same article as the Leafs’ pair – again, linked here).

  The real fun storyline in the middle of nowhere, will be between the Jets and Jacob Trouba. Trouba is going to take a look at the recent contracts to Matt Dumba, Ryan Ellis, and Cam Fowler, saying he deserves at least that. He may have a point, but that doesn’t mean Winnipeg can oblige. The Jets have a whole set of other key players on larger contracts, and plenty of young defensive talent in the pipeline. A trade would make the most sense, likely for a similar skater who will take on a smaller cap hit to play with a contending team in Winnipeg. As a top pairing defenceman elsewhere, Trouba’s value would take a big jump – not up to the top tier, but possibly inside the top 10-15.

  ****

If you read the whole article, cheers! If you just skimmed some and skipped to your favourite team, that’s fine too. Let me know in the comments if you agree with what was said about them, or if you think there was something missed.

  ****

  Previous Capped articles:

Early Point-Per-Dollar Disappointments

Early Point-Per-Dollar Leaders

  ****

Last plug in the articles, get the enormous fantasy resource that is the DobberHockey 2018-2019 Fantasy guide. Keep your eyes open for the mid-season guide too. We won’t let you miss it.

  ****

All cap related info is courtesy of Capfriendly. All player data was pulled from FrozenTools.

  That caps off this week’s record article, thanks for reading. As always, you can find me on twitter @alexdmaclean.

from All About Sports https://dobberhockey.com/hockey-home/capped/capped-cap-situations-for-all-31-nhl-teams/

[flauntpage]

Your Friday Morning Roundup

Last night was a reminder of where the Sixers stand in terms of their growth and development.

They’re beyond the point of losing nearly every game. Even though they went on a five-game winning streak, there’s still flaws that opponents are able to pick out. And the Sacramento Kings did just that with a 109-108 win in the final seconds.

The Kings scored seven unanswered points in the game’s final 1:38, which reminded me a little bit of the loss to the Rockets at home two weeks ago.

Robert Covington, who’s had a huge impact on the team’s success, had a game-high 24 points, while Joel Embiid (22 points, 15 rebounds) and Dario Saric (13 points, 10 rebounds) each had double-doubles.

But the Kings’ bench played a significant role, outscoring the Sixers’ reserves 56-17. The Sixers also had eight more turnovers than Sacramento.

The team has a big game ahead Saturday night in the Bay Area against the Golden State Warriors. Also, be sure to read Kevin Kinkead’s post on how the Sixers are numbers wise, along with balanced contributions from the team.

The Roundup:

There was some good news involving Philly teams. The Flyers showed up after a five-day break, defeating the Chicago Blackhawks at home 3-1. The entire first line of Claude Giroux, Jake Voracek, and Sean Couturier scored all three goals and contributed to seven of the team’s eight total points. Goalie Brian Elliott made 38 saves on 39 shots to get the win.

Shayne Gostisbehere made history, becoming the fastest defenseman in franchise history to score 100 points with his assist on the second goal:

Ghost gets point #100 on the assist to Jake Voracek. Great job by Giroux gloving the puck to keep the play alive. http://pic.twitter.com/lGUNZVkhbK

— Chris Jastrzembski (@CFJastrzembski) November 10, 2017

Radko Gudas made his return to the ice as well.

Up next are the Minnesota Wild Saturday night back in Philadelphia.

Meanwhile, Nolan Patrick still hasn’t practiced with the team after suffering a concussion seven games ago. Ron Hextall thinks he’s close to practicing again:

“It’s a matter of kind of ramping him up every day and hopefully things continue on the path they’re going on right now,” Hextall said.

Hextall said Patrick’s recovery has “taken longer than we thought and certainly hoped, but he skated [Thursday] and everything went good. He worked out. You just can’t go from zero to 60; it’s got to be zero to 20 and then up, so he’ll go a little harder”  Friday.

The general manager said he did not anticipate sending Patrick  to the AHL’s Phantoms for a rehab stint. He also ruled out sending him back to his junior team in Brandon.

—

Nobody will have a better bye week than Timmy Jernigan. The defensive tackle signed a four-year extension reportedly worth $48 million. $26 million is guaranteed. Huge move by Howie Roseman.

LeGarrette Blount wanted Corey Clement to get his third touchdown of the game against the Broncos. I think the running backs are happy here.

Carson Wentz and his AO1 Foundation will hold his first ever charity softball game at Citizens Bank Park on June 1. It’ll pit the Eagles offensive stars against the team’s defensive players:

Announcement!!

Mark your calendars for June 1, 2018 @ Citizens Bank Park! @AO1Foundation http://pic.twitter.com/xjh0eymXs7

— Carson Wentz (@cj_wentz) November 9, 2017

—

The family of Roy Halladay issued a statement two days after the former pitcher’s death, including info about a public service down in Clearwater on Tuesday:

Statement from the Halladay family: http://pic.twitter.com/KeNiSmULZH

— Phillies (@Phillies) November 9, 2017

The radio host that was dumb to say that Halladay deserved to die is a hypocrite. And to nobody’s surprise, he went on the air yesterday to apologize for his comments. He’s still a scum.

There was another scum that tried to take a jersey away from the Halladay memorial at Citizens Bank Park:

The man, who’s accused of placing the jersey under his jacket, was chased down by officers.

Police say the man was cited for disorderly conduct and released.

Authorities add that since no one claimed ownership of the jersey, no charges will be filed.

Finally, a great personal story from Jim McCormick on how Halladay helped him battle through a personal battle:

The smell of cotton candy being whipped was actually in the air. Cases of water sat wrapped on pallets. It was an immersive baseball climate. From the corner of my eye, I see someone in the third-base stands running the steps. It looks oddly mechanical, like a precision you couldn’t match if you tried.

It’s Halladay. I have no interest in false mythologies. I don’t often believe the “first to the stadium, last to leave” narrative given just how human most humans are. This was different. He was honestly running the damn steps. I stopped at the railing, just behind the plate at the park, and just watched. It just didn’t stop. It was a Powerade commercial. It was a person reflecting on results and working on that goal.

It was love of craft.

There is an “inside baseball” anecdote about how Halladay and Chris Carpenter were in a hotel room together during Spring Training 1998, amid a time when both were struggling for the Blue Jays and famous pitching guru Mel Queen gave them a rousing speech of how they’d reconnect with the game and both would thrive as professional pitchers at the highest level. Queen was all about mental reflection in pitching.

In non-Halladay news, Gabe Kapler is…my god, that dude’s jacked up.

—

Tonight’s a night for college sports. Temple football travels to Cincinnati to take on the Bearcats at 7 pm on ESPN2. The Owls look to win their second straight game and keep their bowl hopes alive.

The Owls hoops team defeated the Jefferson Rams (the artist formerly known as Philadelphia University) in an exhibition last night.

But there will be two regular season college hoops games tonight in and around the city. Drexel opens their regular season at the DAC against Bowling Green at 7 pm, while sixth ranked Villanova hosts Columbia at 8:30 on FS2. Villanova is playing most of their home games at the Wells Fargo Center while the Pavilion undergoes a major renovation.

—

In other sports news, once again, the Ezekiel Elliott suspension is back on. And it starts on Sunday:

Argument in Ezekiel Elliott's expedited appeal in 2nd Circuit scheduled for Dec. 1. #Cowboys have four games before then.

— Tom Pelissero (@TomPelissero) November 9, 2017

Elliott can appeal to the full 2nd Circuit or even the Supreme Court, but they appear to be extreme long shots. Elliott will be suspended for at least four games before the December 1 hearing, including the Sunday Night Football game next week against the Eagles.

In the Seahawks’ 22-16 victory over the Cardinals, Richard Sherman ruptured his Achilles and is done for the year. He knew it when it happened:

Does look like Richard Sherman said “tore my Achilles” here. Would not be good. http://pic.twitter.com/J7kSmX35zZ

— Will Brinson (@WillBrinson) November 10, 2017

Sherman was one of many Seahawks that got banged up during the game. Duane Brown, Frank Clark, Sheldon Richardson, and Kam Chancellor also got hurt to go along with Earl Thomas, who didn’t play.

A day after being released by the Packers, tight end Martellus Bennett is back with the New England Patriots.

Jerry Jones’ attorney says NFL owners are being misled over Roger Goodell’s contract negotiations. So he’s probably pissed about something and he wants his way.

The Colts released former Pro Bowl cornerback Vontae Davis before he could have season-ending surgery on his groin. The team has zero defensive starters from last year’s season opener.

Devils forward Brian Boyle shed tears after scoring his first goal since he was diagnosed with leukemia:

What a feeling for @BriBrows22.#BoyleStrong #HockeyFightsCancer http://pic.twitter.com/0fk6Aa7Npw

— NHL (@NHL) November 10, 2017

Nike is trying to stop their new NBA jerseys from ripping.

This is crazy: For eight years, a teenage girl from Missouri disguised herself online as baseball writer Ryan Schultz, who wrote for three sites, including Beyond the Box Score for SB Nation:

Schultz’s fraud was as true to the catfish genre as can be. She told the people who discovered she was not who she said she was that she assumed the identity because she felt as if she couldn’t write about baseball professionally as a woman, especially at the age of 13. As the deception went on, she couldn’t figure out how to get out of the middle of her web of lies.

Over time, Ryan formed serial relationships with women who use Twitter to talk about baseball and hockey. Some women told me that he would get drunk and berate them; others told me they felt emotionally abused and manipulated because he would imply that he’d hurt himself if they didn’t continue to talk to him. Ryan received nudes from at least two women I spoke with, one of whom said she did it because she was afraid he would hurt himself if she didn’t.

Schultz’s story is interesting for reasons far beyond its sheer shock value. It’s entirely reasonable that at the time she created the Ryan persona, she might not have thought she could easily have a career writing about baseball as a woman. She’s also drawn a big red arrow sign pointing toward the exploitative ecosystem of online sportswriting, which created the conditions for her to get her enviable opportunities without much interrogation from editors who have a lot to do and few resources with which to do it.

Most of all, though, there are real women who have been genuinely hurt by their interactions with a woman who, as she tells the story, caught herself up in a lie she didn’t know how to untell, not least because it was bringing her what she wanted.

The Yankees are looking at Aaron Boone as a possible candidate to become their new manager.

—

In the news, a stroller-pushing robber was caught on camera at a CVS in Springfield, Delaware County.

There’s skeletal remains found near a corporate center in West Conshohocken.

The New York Times reports five women have accused comedian Louis C.K. of sexual misconduct.

A new Star Wars trilogy from director Rian Johnson is coming.

Magnum, P.I. actor John Hillerman died yesterday at the age of 84.

Your Friday Morning Roundup published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv

[amtushinfosolutionspage]

Dwight Howard is (Quietly) Dominating Again

Dwight Howard’s shoulders don’t know how to retreat. Perhaps they are unaware of the fact that they’re battling on behalf of his third team in three years, or are partly responsible for a fruitless post game, but these shoulders still sit atop a pair of impossibly muscular arms as one of the most effective physical characteristics basketball has ever known.

As I stand beside/below them on Madison Square Garden’s sideline during a recent morning practice, it dawns on me that these shoulders should have come to mind when Howard’s awkward tenure with the Atlanta Hawks came to a merciful conclusion. Or when he looked closer to China than All-Star Weekend during a dreadful six-turnover preseason opener against the Boston Celtics.

It’s impossible to stand so close and believe other players have any chance in hell to corral missed shots while those shoulders occupy the same space. They were molded to plant flags in the paint. (Howard is the career leader among all active players in defensive and total rebound rate, and is currently pulling down 13.2 per game.) Today, they stand tall in the face of revolutionary, three-point-line-backed winds that threaten to wipe them out.

Even though the narrative surrounding Howard’s decline—further accelerated by the decrepit trade package Charlotte used to acquire him—has somewhat less to do with his production and more to do with the friction he’s stumbled upon with teammates and coaches in recent years, that wide frame, and all the good it can still do on a basketball court, isn’t going anywhere. Howard doesn’t need to dramatically evolve—what he can do is timeless.

“When we were in Orlando he was just, athletically…I mean really outside of Shaq, I don’t think there’s been another guy with that type of strength, quickness, explosiveness like he had,” Charlotte Hornets head coach Steve Clifford, says. Clifford, who worked with Howard when both were employed by the Magic, continues, “He’s still, to me, very strong, very athletic—not like he was—but he’s also much more seasoned. And I think the thing he’s never gotten credit for is his intelligence on the floor.”

Photo by Jeff Hanisch – USA TODAY Sports

I crouch next to Howard as he slides his feet from American Flag decorated Peak sneakers into a pair of Ugg house slippers that resemble two sheepskin-lined canoes. The cameras that once invaded his personal space in environments just like this one are gone. All he has to deal with is my lone digital recorder. He fiddles with his phone and slides a black Hornets knit hat (with a pom on top) over his head. I ask if and how his role right now is different than it was in the previous two stops.

“No doubt. I’m more involved in the offense,” he says. “I have more opportunities to put in some good input within our defensive schemes…It’s a totally different system, a totally different atmosphere, and I’m excited about our future here.

“Coach understands that I enjoy playing defense, and he’s just allowed me to be who I am on defense within the defensive scheme that we have set as a team. So that’s a little bit different than in the past.”

Howard is 11 games into his 13th season. It’s too early to say if his fit with the Hornets will be successful, but at 32 years old he’s got the highest usage percentage he’s had since he left Orlando. In some areas that’s not so great, like, for example, on the block, where only three players in the entire league have posted up more, according to Synergy sports.

Howard’s turnover rate on these possessions makes feeding him down low one of the riskier gambles in the league. Right now he’s coughing it up 34.4 percent of the time, an outrageously high number that’s 12.2 percent higher than Blake Griffin, who ranks second on that list among all players who’ve logged at least 50 post ups.

He’s been a particularly demoralizing black hole. The second Howard puts the ball on the floor there’s a good chance it’ll fly out of bounds, get poked away by his own man, or ripped from his grasp by a help defender who knows Howard won’t see him coming. The saving grace here is that much like a hot three-point shooter, being this careless with the ball is unsustainable throughout an 82-game season. And when Howard shoots without dribbling, his field goal percentage is an impressive 65.7 percent.

All in all, the increase of opportunity has made him happy. And a happy Howard is an engaged center who can still sway the tide on both ends of the court. His net rating has hovered around +10 for most of the season, and the Hornets look like a 62-win team when he’s on the floor. (So far, they’re a total trainwreck when he sits—but that also has to do with the fact that Howard usually shares the court with Kemba Walker, and they don’t have a backup point guard or NIcolas Batum on their bench.)

Even though he isn’t the cape-wearing superhero he once was, Howard still does little things that have value. He draws a ton of fouls, is one of the NBA’s better rebounders, and peels defenders off teammates with terrific screens.

“Once these guys get an opportunity to get separation from their man, and get a chance to really look at the basket, it’s lights out,” Howard told VICE Sports. “I take pride in hitting those guys and making the defense have to work. Jeremy Lamb, Kemba, Malik, when Nic gets back, all these guys can come off pick-and-rolls and get easy shots. So I’m just trying to make sure that I hit their man, roll to the basket, put pressure on the rim, and now our shooters get opportunities to get their shots off.”

A perfect example of that came on Tuesday night, when Knicks point guard Jarrett Jack was forced to chuck Howard’s roll, freeing Malik Monk up in the weakside corner for an open three.

“I think it’s one of the things he doesn’t get enough credit for. He’s always been a terrific screener,” Clifford says. “He had a very good chemistry, both with Jameer Nelson in Orlando and also with Hedo Turkoglu, and I think that he’s done the same thing here. He’s on his way with both Kemba and Jeremy Lamb, and when Nic comes back it’ll be a big part of his game too.”

“He’s such a great screener and he’s such a forceful roller,” Hornets forward Marvin Williams says. “You’re gonna have to have one or two guys down there stopping him from getting a dunk, and that’s where we come in.”

Photo by Jeremy Brevard – USA TODAY Sports

Defensively, Howard has been the drop-coverage brick wall who forces long twos, deters shots at the rim, and makes life easier for his teammates as they swarm along the perimeter. According to Cleaning the Glass, Charlotte’s opponent shot frequency at the rim is 8.9 percent lower when Howard is on the court, and their accuracy drops 11.0 percent. That is completely ridiculous.

“He’s as good with coverages as almost any guy I’ve been around. He always was,” Clifford says. “And that’s why I think that we can be an elite team defensively once we get all our guys back and a little more coordinated.”

Here he is letting Walker know Karl-Anthony Towns is about to set a screen. Charlotte’s cagey point guard isn’t caught off guard, and is able to duck under and recover for a decent contest, executing what Clifford wants him to do.

And in a slightly more complicated situation, watch in the opening second as Howard points to a spot on the floor, letting Dwayne Bacon know that Taj Gibson may set a drag screen for Jimmy Butler. The rookie leaps up to ice it and force Butler towards the sideline, away from the middle. Howard is then in good position to poke the ball away.

“He communicates,” Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb tells VICE Sports. “He’s a great rim protector, whether he blocks it or alters it. He makes them shoot tough shots and that’s great to have. If my man gets by me I try not to swipe down, I try to keep my hands up because they have to shoot a tough shot over him.”

There are moments where Howard is forgetful on the perimeter, almost daring bigs like Marc Gasol or Kristaps Porzingis to fire up an open three; an irrational disbelief of their ability to make him pay. Clifford also benched Howard at the end of Charlotte’s loss in New York because the Knicks went small lineups and were giving his Hall of Fame center some trouble. But all in all his impact on that end has been positive.

And for what it’s worth, Howard’s teammates have yet to sour on his relentless jest.

“It’s been all fun all the time,” Hornets forward Marvin Williams says right before he tilts his head back to laugh. The two have known each other since they were 14. “Since he’s been with us, I mean, anything that you know you’ve heard or read I’ve yet to see, me personally. And I bet everybody else in the locker room will say the same thing. He’s literally all jokes all the time. He loves to joke with other people. He loves when the jokes on him. He’s always laughing. He’s legit like a fun dude to be around, man.”

The sentiment is echoed by Lamb, who met Howard a while ago. Both are from Atlanta. “I knew he wasn’t a horrible person like people try to portray…All the things that people say is totally false to me. He’s a great teammate on and off the court. When he first got here he was helping the young guys, talking to them about positioning, just talking to them about different things to help them. I’m really happy to have him.”

Success is a magic elixir for even the most grating locker room behavior. And even though the Hornets are 5-6 with a 19th-ranked point differential, they’ve competed in every game without Nicolas Batum (their second-most irreplaceable piece), while another starter, Michael Kidd-Gilchrist, has missed six games. Michael Carter-Williams is finally back in the lineup and guys like Bacon, Monk, and Treveon Graham have been forced to fill holes they aren’t ready for.

In other words, Charlotte’s best days are likely ahead. In the meantime, Howard has already proven to be an immensely helpful contributor.

“We have an opportunity to be a top three team in the East,” Howard says. “With the way we work, and the potential that we have, and the talent that we have, there’s no doubt in my mind that we’ll be a top three or four team in the East.”

Dwight Howard is (Quietly) Dominating Again syndicated from http://ift.tt/2ug2Ns6

[geoduinn-blog]

On why I adore Prompto, the transient heart of FFXV, and the power of bromance

So I wrote this pile of meta immediately after finishing FFXV and shortly before some similar analyses wound up on YouTube. While I agree with a lot of them, I don’t feel like they go far enough in exploring the gravity of the train scene and its impact on the story, so I decided to upload this almost a year after the discussion was relevant. Please excuse the outdated references to an ‘upcoming’ DLC for Prompto.

FFXV is a flawed game. It is plotted sparsely and structured contestably. It doesn’t make a lot of sense, and its light-and-darkness lore feels okay at best, contrived the rest of the time. I don’t even want to mention its treatment of gender, or I’ll never write about anything else (and maybe this game deserves that). But the reverence and joy I often felt while playing FFXV must not be understated. As annoyed and even angry as I am at SquareEnix in the aftermath of one of its best games in a long time, the fact remains – this IS one of its best games in a long time. This is certainly not because of the flawless execution of each of its individual parts, and definitely not because of any attempts to respect its non-male fans, but because of what generally makes a FF game a FF game – the unforgettable atmosphere, the commitment to the characters, and the miraculous success of key dramatic scenes in the face of insurmountable narrative ridiculousness.

This hybrid between a tumblr meta and an HSC essay will explore that success through the framework of some of my favourite elements of the game: a scene wherein the villain Ardyn tricks the young protagonist Noctis into harming his best friend; the relationship between Noctis and Prompto, the bestie; and the expression of the core themes of the story through the world and atmosphere that these elements create together. Themes of friendship, transience, and sacrifice will be explored, but all in all, this is just an unstructured meditation on some things I love about this game – an ode to the flawed FFXV, crafted in its image.

Ok so the scene I described above really cements Ardyn as one of the most detestable FF villains for me, while also making me love Prompto all the more. In a nutshell, Ardyn swaps bodies with Prompto, and Noctis, following the logic of the story, attacks this supposed Ardyn. While the scene relies on a really stupid narrative device, its positive effect on the relevant character arcs is proportionately strong. My suspension of disbelief has just been brutally injured by a magical technique that I didn’t know the villain possessed until two seconds ago, but the scene still somehow works. It’s such a typically FFXV thing – logically pathetic, but narratively powerful enough that I yelled at my TV.

Okay. So I assumed straight up when Ardyn appears on the train and starts referring to Noctis as his ‘bro’, his ‘dude’, his ‘man’, that he’s just being a douchebag. I was ever so slightly suspicious that the game gave me only the option to attack Ardyn at this point, but I wasn’t exactly calm enough to question it when faced with the asshole who shivved my fiancé. I just wanted to shiv him back.

When he continues the gross façade with what seems to be mock surprise at the fact that Noctis is trying to kill him, it only serves to rile greater anger. Of course, he wants to kill you, you basket case. You’re just provoking him, now. Why are you acting like you’re one of us?

And then Noctis drops a few choice lines that will haunt me/him until the end of the game – things like “why have you been following us around all this time anyway; all this bad shit has been happening ever since you started tagging along behind us…” in other words, a violently sincere checklist of all of Prompto’s greatest fears. And this Ardyn, this Ardyn-who-isn’t-really-Ardyn, doesn’t fight back. He asks, disbelievingly, “Is that true?”

The horrible genius behind Ardyn’s plan is that it kills two birds with one stone – two beautiful, innocent, emotionally brutalised birds – by having them kill each other. What could be a worse fate for Prompto than finding out that his best friend doesn’t really love him; that, in fact, Noctis has been harbouring annoyance for him all along, and that this has festered into resentment the longer they stay together, and has finally become hatred now that the truth is coming out? What could be worse for Prompto than dying at Noctis’s hand?

At this point, let’s consider Prompto’s character. Prompto is a bit of a dork. He’s the same age as Noctis but has never considered himself as being in the same league as his friend, physically, intellectually, or socially. He has the lowest base stats of any of the four main characters. His defence sucks, his attack sucks, his magic sucks, and his HP is even worse than Ignis’s. His photographic hobby serves no practical purpose, unlike Noctis’s angling, or Gladio’s wilderness survival, or Ignis’s campside culinary creativity, which all mesh together ridiculously well. He’s the shortest in the group and the most feminine in appearance, and compensates the most (and apparently in the only way he knows how) with over-the-top body language and a tongue piercing and a wardrobe straight out of Hot Topic. Noctis even (affectionately) calls him a nerd on several occasions.

Prompto is painfully aware of his role in the group dynamic. He’s the annoying friend. The plebe in a party of royals. The self-conscious try-hard with no redeeming qualities, as far as Prompto himself is concerned. He is less aware of the strengths of his role, because they are not traditional male strengths, and because he is the only person in the group to successfully wield them.

Prompto is crucial to the main group because he is the best at maintaining relationships. He is the only one who is able to consistently offer the emotional support Noctis doesn’t let on that he needs; the only one with the courage to try to defuse the arguments between Gladio and the Prince, even at risk of harm; the one who puts aside his own anger to hold up Ignis when Ignis is stumbling blind through a swamp, fighting to stay himself while Noctis and Gladio just fight each other. When King Regis dies, not even Ignis maintains the level of composure and sensitivity that Prompto has. While the others crumble under an awkward and heartbreaking silence, Prompto softly attempts to comfort Noctis, while also instantly recognising that they need to flee, lest they face the same fate as Noctis’s father. While Ignis and Gladio sit in the dining car of the Tenebraean train in silence, Prompto attempts some semblance of normal conversation out of a desire to show Noctis that he is emotionally available.

His loud public persona and awkward tendencies mean that he comes across as slightly autistic or socially maladjusted. But he is far from stupid, and his reluctance towards anger and direct confrontation should not be mistaken for dullness. His instinct to support others just outweighs his instinct to respond to his own feelings.

But if he views these abilities as expendable, then why shouldn’t Noctis? By Prompto’s logic, the idea that Noctis might actually hate him and his loud, oblivious, materialistic personality is perfectly reasonable. That dramatic irony is the tragedy of Prompto’s character. It’s a tragedy that many players can recognise in some way, be it through themselves or who they once were, or through a friend or family member who underestimates their own importance.

Of course, Noctis does not hate Prompto. Far from it.

After chasing ‘Ardyn’ through the train car, suspended in a dreamlike state and mysteriously separated from his best friend, Noctis awakens to Prompto, lifting him to his feet. They scour the train together, stop the magitek troopers together, bring down a fleet together. So when Noctis sees Ardyn and Prompto standing atop the train, with Ardyn apparently having disarmed Prompto and now wielding Prompto’s gun against him, his reaction is instant. He bolts to save Prompto by throwing Ardyn from the train. It is at this exact, context-free, confusing, and somehow still earth-shattering moment that we realise Noctis has just flung his best friend off a moving train and is now stuck on top of it with Ardyn. Who proceeds to knock him out.

Now, let’s consider the relationship between the player and Noctis. Right from the start of the game, we occupy a space in the back of Noctis’s mind. We are the third-person in his RPG world, and while we have enough distance both visually and narratively to view him as his own distinct character, we are beckoned forward to identify closely with him, all the time. One of FFXV’s great strengths is its immersive power. Whether we are young and on our own clumsy journey into the responsibilities of adulthood, like Noctis, or whether the game serves as a portal into our past, it attempts to appeal to a universal sense of familiarity. It achieves this certainly not through the genders of the main dudes or the roles the game therefore assumes they should mould themselves to, but because the undercurrent of love is instantly recognisable to anyone lucky enough to have faced a challenge beside their friends. FFXV is about growing up by supporting the people you love and accepting their support in return, and as Noctis’s shadow, we get a first-row view of his appreciation of this. We feel his appreciation through the links we make to our own memories.

So, with this clarity of vision, in this spiral of dramatic irony with Prompto at the ugly centre, we know intrinsically that Noctis cares about him. This is not even something to be questioned. We see it in his affectionate exasperation and in the way his voice softens whenever he laughs at Prompto’s awful jokes. It’s in the sincerity of the scene at the motel, when Prompto admits his fears of inadequacy to Noctis, and Noctis tells him how much he values their friendship. We know how honest Noctis is in this friendship because his whole experience is one of helplessness in the face of destruction and thankfulness for what he has left – a lurching return to innocence, heralded by tragedy and softened by beauty.

But it isn’t only in these confessions that Noctis’s feelings are confirmed – it’s in the feeling that every moment the four friends spend together is precious and fleeting. The game is saturated with gentle scores and spontaneous bursts of music that ache to reflect the joy in the characters’ journey together. The lingering sadness in some of these pieces only reinforces the inkling that none of this can last – that they cannot be friends forever, because life has a way of ending things that should go on, and love hints always at sacrifice. Even game mechanics like the day-night cycle reinforce this feeling, as each sunset bathes the world in silence just a little too soon, and we think, ‘just one more fish, just one more hunt, just one more line of ridiculous, endearing dialogue’, but to push these boundaries would be to endanger our friends, and we are forced to retire for another night. The game sears moments of perfection into our mind, and in doing so, reminds us that each of these moments can only happen once. Every dungeon is new until you know what’s inside; every fish is a question mark until you catch it. (THIS IS A SERIOUS ESSAY I SWEAR.)

Prompto’s photos are perhaps the strongest mechanic of all when it comes to creating this sense of joyous ephemerality. What appears to be a game mechanic of little worth – indeed, what many hardcore reviewers criticise as a gimmicky addition to a weird bachelor party road trip of a game – holds arresting thematic relevance. Photography has been used in many games to express the irretrievability of a single moment, or to capture a second of the impossible (think of everything from Fatal Frame to Firewatch to Life is Strange – where photography exists in a game, it always provokes meaning, even if only sometimes offering a useful mechanic). Prompto is an indispensable member of the group – yes, because he’s funny, he’s kind, he’s supportive, and he puts himself in as much danger as anyone else to stop the Empire’s mad plans – but also because he is the group’s record keeper, the one producing proof that all of this happened. Prompto is the guy with the camera, and that means more than he can know. Noctis’s final request, after all, is to carry one of Prompto’s photos with him into death.

Let’s return to Noctis as a character, and try to understand the growth he experiences, leaving him at a point where he finally feels he can face that horrendous death in the absence of his friends. By the end of the game, he reaches a place  where he appreciates that he can fulfill his duty with only his friends’, fiancé’s, and father’s love to support him, despite that he will never see any of them again. He has accepted that the halcyon days of his closest relationships are gone forever. This is in large part due to the fact that he has proof of their time together. It is vivid in his memory even when the present feels like a dream – the sidequests and aimless travel easily last three-quarters of the full game, after all, and the endgame is more of a haunted epilogue than a true catharsis. It is in his ability to even sit on the throne, as alone, he would never have survived the return to a daemon-ravaged Insomnia. And it is in the final photo that he takes with him. Noctis is heartbreakingly aware that his power is all thanks to his friends, and his sacrifice is an attempt to reciprocate this love by returning them to a time when they were free.

The scene on the train and its brutal aftermath (yes, this essay thingy is still about the scene on the train) is a crucial turning point in Noctis’s journey. After Prompto is thrown form the train by none other than his best friend, who believed he was in fact Ardyn, Prompto is captured. Sure, there’s some as-yet-unpublished DLC that happens in the middle, probably involving more horrible experiences for Prompto, but we basically know where he ends up. Captured, detained, and tortured, and Ardyn seems to enjoy every second of it. When Noctis rescues Prompto, Iggy and Gladio in tow, he releases Prompto from the Shinra-esque rack he’s suspended on and supports his exhausted collapse. Prompto says, almost infuriatingly, “Tell me Noct… were you worried?” The millisecond it takes the decent player to hit “of course I was” and yell “I fucking love you, you prick” at the TV, Noctis is gathering himself for a reply. One almost expects anger, but instead, he replies with warmth and appreciation – not even pity. This seems to be the best possible response, because Prompto confesses he knew this was true – that Noctis would come to rescue him, and that the trick had been Ardyn’s design, and not a product of Noctis’s hatred. Their reunion is essentially a happy one, despite the circumstances.

Because this is FFXV, the scene feels slightly emotionally constipated as no actual reflection is afforded the exchange. The boys accept and go about their usual business (with the exception that Prompto, bruised and bleeding like everywhere, leans unmoving against the wall with a look on his face that suggests he’s probably going to be traumatised for the rest of his life). Noctis’s apparent calmness could come off as a little uncaring from a shallow analysis (AHAHAHA BUT WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE). However this is the first time in the entire game he has had any chill about anything. In short, he is returning Prompto a favour.

In long, he has come to terms with grief and better appreciates his role as someone who can bring stability to a traumatic time, and Prompto is a person who, for all his wildness, values that affection and stability, evidenced by the fact that he is usually the one providing it. Consider Noctis before this development. While a wonderful character, he was pretty typically a FF protagonist in his fear of letting people down, not being able to save someone, etcetera etcetera. Lightning couldn’t save Serah, Cloud couldn’t save Aerith, Tidus couldn’t save Yuna probably, Ashe let her fiancé and father die before she could raise a rebellion. Like her, Noctis couldn’t save Luna or Regis. For the whole first half of the game, his objective was to find Luna, to reunite with her, to bring her into the fold and finally marry her. Twelve years of betrothal come to a clamorous end when Ardyn murders Luna, and it echoes straight back to the death of Regis at the hands of Ardyn’s imperial army, at the start of the game. Losing not only his father and his lover but also his best friend would ruin Noctis. Talcott’s grandpa’s murder, and then Gladio’s injuries, followed by Ignis going blind, are the start of Noctis’s realisation of the length his friends will go to, to protect him. His reaction, understandably, is guilt. He hasn’t accepted his own political weight or the personal sacrifices he must make at this point, which is frankly a perfectly healthy and decent reaction to finding out that people are willing to die for you because your powers can save the world or whatever. We see how distraught Noctis is when Prompto falls, and he has to recount the ordeal to Ignis over the phone. No question from our end – Noctis cares immensely about Prompto.

At this point, he is still not the force of stability that we see him as at the end. It is through the next few days of quiet travel, the realisation that night is coming and will never end, and the slow, sad appreciation for these final moments with Ignis and Gladio that Noctis realises what everyone has been fighting for. They’ve been fighting for each other and for him, sure, because they’re friends, but they’ve also been fighting for that joy that they once knew and want to restore to the world. Prompto, too, has sacrificed more than a simple plebe should ever have been expected to sacrifice in this savage political diatribe, because he wanted to support Noctis. Noctis seems to realise, in this twilit interval between the open world of the past and the claustrophobic corridors of the future, that the time for him to become a stable force for his friend is now.

When Noctis frees Prompto from one of the most disturbing locations in the game, more akin to something from Amnesia than FF, his character arc completes. His developmental climax has already happened, and the endgame follows in swift, ghostly steps. Were you worried about me? Of course I was. The moment Prompto is thrown off the train marks a climax in Noctis’s grief about what they have left behind and what has been ruined. His reunion with Prompto forms an assurance that, despite the finality of this sadness, their adventure has fostered some future cure. The small, fleeting beacons of joy, now gone, signed a pathway toward eventual hope. Prompto will never recover, and Noctis will never be able to go back and stop what happened to him. But he is alive, and Noctis can make sure there is a future in which he can rest, and continue recording the passage of those moments vital to life.

We are important to each other. Our short time together was precious and transformative. The things we did together we may never do again, but to believe you mean any less to me because you’ll be in my past soon (OR because you’re a magitek trooper – surprise) is so, so wrong. That wreck of a bachelor party is the reason we made it so far.

And so this mess of an analysis winds to a close.

I’ve covered a few important points in this ridiculous monologue. The success of FFXV as an examination of transience and the power of friendship, probably. Some stuff about Ardyn was in there as well I think.

I don’t know. This game didn’t have a great deal of closure and neither does this essay. But I feel like there was some good stuff in there. I wouldn’t have spent so much time on it, otherwise. I wouldn’t have loved so deeply if that moment of perfection had never happened.

But all good things come to pass. The game, Noctis, this essay. That’s it.