#like having a cool powerful item in a game and never using it because it might be more useful later.

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Rage Form

[seaofreverie]

So I actually finished listening to the whole Sparks studio album discography today, with Plagiarism, which I probably would have put off still for an indefinite amount of time, but since that was the last album on the list and the new Sparks era is now imminent... felt fitting to sort of finally listen to that. So I've been thinking of making a (short-ish? lol) post and talking a (little? lol) bit about all the albums I've left off from my Sparkstember writeups because I wasn't familiar enough with them yet at the time. So that the essay collection is completed at last yay. But well yeah, big day I guess, I'm officially all caught up, after... A year and 10 months?! I take my time with things... even if I'm super into them, or maybe especially??

[blasphemousclaw]

Are the omens and hornsent the same?

short answer: no

so to explain why the omen and the hornsent are different, we first have to understand what it means to be hornsent… the hornsent aren’t a species, they’re a civilization of humans defined by the horns that grow on their bodies:

“Hornsent view the Crucible as sacred for the refinement wrought through its evolutionary gifts. Most prominently, their tangled horns.”

“Horns are sublime artifacts to hornsent, and their presence confirms the belief that they are a chosen people. Only the repeated sprouting of fresh horns can create a tangled horn, which is viewed as an irrefutable symbol of primacy.”

“The Crucible has a particularly strong influence on the beasts of the realm of shadow, causing many to grow horns despite the characteristics of their species.”

the hornsent sprout horns because the Crucible has a strong presence in the land of shadow and causes horns to sprout on creatures who don’t normally have horns… the hornsent, who revere the Crucible and its “spiral current,” saw this as a blessing and as proof that they were “a chosen people,” so they cultivated this trait. in hornsent society, the larger and more tangled your horns are, the more awesome and cool and holy you are. this is why Jori, the leader of the theocratic hornsent inquisition, has the largest, most tangled horns of all:

however, hornsent can also be born with no horns at all. this means that they'd be seen as sad and cringe. you can find hornless hornsent bound in chains, which means they might have even been a sort of slave caste... which, given what their society is like, wouldn't surprise me if that were the case:

(source: Zullie the Witch)

the omen, on paper, are the same as the hornsent — humans who were influenced by the Crucible, which caused horns to grow on their bodies. but the reason why they aren’t actually the same is because simply having horns doesn't make you hornsent. again, the hornsent are not a species, and “hornsent” isn’t a generic term for people with horns… the hornsent are a culture, a culture which the omen were very much not born into! unlike the hornsent, the omen were born into a society that sees their horns as impurities:

"A vestige of the crucible of primordial life. Born partially of devolution, it was considered a signifier of the divine in ancient times, but is now increasingly disdained as an impurity as civilization has advanced."

traits associated with the Crucible, including horns, became less and less accepted under the Golden Order as time went on... basically, the omen were seen as impure and unclean, unfit for the Erdtree's grace and excluded from society.

but there's actually something else that makes the omen fundamentally different from the hornsent... they're referred to as having "accursed blood"?

"Warped blade of shifting hue used by Morgott, the Omen King. The accursed blood that Morgott recanted and sealed away reformed into this blade."

"The mother of truth craves wounds. When Mohg stood before her, deep underground, his accursed blood erupted with fire, and he was besotted with the defilement that he was born into."

"Trident of Mohg, Lord of Blood. A sacred spear that will come to symbolize his dynasty. As well as serving as a weapon, it is an instrument of communion with an outer god who bestows power upon accursed blood." 

it seems that there is something inherently different about omen blood that doesn't seem to be the case with the hornsent? omen can also innately produce a black-brown flame, which we never see any hornsent enemies do (pretty sure the inquisitors' fire is just normal fire from their candles). INTERESTINGLY, there's two items from the base game, the Omen Bairn and the Regal Omen Bairn, that produce these brown-flame wraiths... but a similar item from the DLC, the Horned Bairn, produces "vengeful spirits" that are pale and colorless!!

it's almost like the wraiths produced by the omen are "unclean" compared to the hornsent ones!

so I think this pretty definitively proves there's something more going on with the omen? but why is this the case?? Dung Eater's ending makes me think that the omen might be "cursed" simply because their existence is incompatible with the Order under the Erdtree...

"Curse grown on a corpse killed and defiled by the Dung Eater. A tender pox afflicted with omen horns. The Dung Eater cultivates the seedbed curse on corpses. By doing so he prevents dead souls returning to the Erdtree, leaving them forever cursed."

"Loathsome rune gestated by the Dung Eater. Used to restore the fractured Elden Ring when brandished by the Elden Lord. The reviled curse will last eternally, and the world's children, grandchildren, and every generation hence, will be its pustules. If Order is defiled entirely, defilement is defilement no more, and for every curse, a cursed blessing."

but there's also the theory that the omen curse was actually created by the dying hornsent as revenge upon their attackers... Hornsent Grandam says this when attacked:

"A curse upon thee, rotten miscreant. A curse upon the strumpet's progeny, upon Marika's children each and all. The curse of the omen shall strike thee down... In the form of the sacred beast's ire. May the curse strike thee… To the very last..."

she specifically calls it the "curse of the omen!" the one thing that makes me question this theory though is that she also says "in the form of the sacred beast's ire," and we know the divine beast's ire takes the form of storms... nothing like anything the omen do. an interesting theory nonetheless!

anyway TL;DR, the hornsent and the omen are different because 1. the hornsent are a culture (not a generic name for horned people), and the omen were specifically born under the Erdtree's Order, and 2. the omen are tangibly "cursed," but the hornsent are not

[deathworlders-of-e24]

Thomas, Engineer

Part 1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Watching Tranquility Base drift away as the Noah launched on its maiden voyage from Earth’s moon left Thomas Hibbs with an odd feeling of deja vu. He’d worked on dozens of ships, but always in the engineering decks where the only windows were peering into the mechanical arrays. Peering out into the void of space was…actually pretty damn cool in Thomas’s opinion.

I wonder if this thing has a VR Grid, he thought.

In the 50 years since humanity had joined the GAIL, it hadn’t been all space hoppers and life saving medical breakthroughs, the entertainment industry had made huge jumps in realism and simulated realities. One species in particular, the machine people known as the Padrino, had such a realistic virtual reality environment code that practically every other species in the assembly paid top dollar for a copy of it. Thought most used it for information storage and practical exploits, Humans were the first to turn it into a hyper advanced game simulation. The Padrino weren’t exactly pleased to learn the code they used to store their memories and experiences was being used to fight monsters with supernatural powers at weekend game tournaments on Earth, but they didn’t complain that much. Thomas had the idea to upload a compatible version of an old game called PAC-MAN where you’re your own avatar running the mazes into the ships computers. He couldn’t wait to get that high score again.

The engineering deck was right below the science labs, and Thomas saw one of the 3 other humans on board with him. He thought her name was Liz or something, but didn’t stop to say hi. She looked preoccupied with something, and talking to people was hard. Machines were good listeners. Thomas could talk for hours to machines while he worked, even if they weren’t the kind that could talk back, thought this ship did have those. Maybe here he could meet some people who get him.

The engineering deck was all catwalks and overhead piping, service lights and ventilation ducts. Computer terminals threw blue light against the opposite wall as Thomas made his way to the Engineer ‘locker’ room. Thomas figured that’s what it was, given the cubbies for the crew’s personal items and racks and shelves of tools and equipment for the ‘fixers’ to use.

There were about two dozen people moving around the room, none of them human, several of which were non biological as well. 2 Padrino were there, speaking their machine language while they sorted tools across a long workbench against the far wall. There were several other species as well that Thomas didn’t recognize, lots of different shapes and sizes. He felt a little insecure, being just the basic human he was.

Thomas found his name on the cubby wall and stuff his own tool bag in there, as well as a change of clothes and safety gear. Then he very carefully hid a hand held game pad under his spare jumpsuit, for emergencies. He’d been stuck in an air duct once before for hours twiddling his thumbs. Never again.

Just as he finished stuffing away his gear, something small bumped against his boot. He looked down, and saw a small robot waiting patiently for him to lift his foot. Apparently he’d been trailing confetti from the launch ceremony around the ship the whole time because these droids weren’t supposed to be down here in engineering. It had probably been following him since he’d walked in. The little guy had a cylinder torso, no real neck but his head looked like it turned in circles with two tiny exhaust pipes sticking out the top. Two ‘eyes’, or sensors with aesthetics, were all that made up the face. His little feet reminded Thomas of a chicken’s, and he had two little arms with tiny hands on each.

“Oh my god you’re so cute I love you,” Thomas half squealed as he picked the little robot up like a baby. “Have you been following me this whole time? Doing such a good job, keeping the ship clean. Did you get lost? Do you need help?”

The little machine just looked at him and wiggled its legs, probably the gyroscope trying to compensate for the sudden shift in balance.

One of the other engineers laughed.

“It’s just a service drone, it can’t actually understand you. It probably just followed your trail of waste and its sensors can’t get it back to the upper decks anymore.”

Thomas looked up from the tiny robot to see a fair number of his co workers looking at him, some trying to hide smiles, some not bothering being so polite. He felt his face begin to burn as a blush came to his cheeks and surged down his neck.

Oh my god I can’t believe I did that but it’s so freaking cute how can I not how can they not love it maybe there’s more on the ship this cute, his brain might implode at the rate it was going. The service drone continued to wiggle in his grip. To Thomas it was almost the size of a toy, maybe a solid 4 inches tall. It stopped squirming and looked up at his face, its tiny head whirring and clicking as gears shifted inside its chassis. It reached out one of its tiny hands and poked his thumb.

“Beep.”

“Beep.”

“Beep.”

Thomas’s mouth dropped. How could a machine with no higher functioning AI be this adorable?

“I’m gonna call you Roomba.”

“That’s just its service alarm. It’s processing an inability to perform its tasks so it thinks it’s stuck somewhere, ergo it’s alerting other drones to come assist it. It probably thinks you’re rectifying the obstacle.”

There were some snickers, a few openly laughed, but Thomas couldn’t care about them right now. The little droid was so adorable in Thomas’s eyes it was like looking at puppies.

He did, however, notice the 2 Padrino staring at him, motionless. For a moment he worried he’d maybe offended them by gushing over the little toy like robot. One of them approached. The Padrino had a clearly mechanical body with chrome plating encasing its joints and limbs. Its torso was thin but solid, whirring quietly as it walked over. Its head had a single antenna with a tinted face plate, which Thomas figured just was it’s ‘face’.

“It has been observed that Humans form an emotional bond to many different species and objects. Is this what is occurring, Human Thomas?”

Gauging the inflections of their voice was difficult, they didn’t have any kind of body language and the voice itself was entirely synthesized, adding layers of difficulty. Thomas thought for a moment, then just shrugged.

“I didn’t mean to cause a scene in here, I just got excited. It’s small and kinda cute so I just lost control for a moment.”

“Apologizing is unnecessary. We’d simply like to understand how Humans function to better improve the efficiency of this division.”

“Beep.”

The service drone wiggled in his hand again.

“It appears the small droid is out of range of its directive. It is asking for assistance with a new objective to replace its task queue.”

“Wait, you can understand it?”

“Yes, the alert sound is not a language. It’s sending out a very short range signal burst with information embedded in it, which I can receive with internal sensors. It’s AI is crude and simple, but it does have the basic functionality to form an artificial language. You’ve replaced its designation D7 with the name Roomba.”

Thomas looked from the Padrino to the little droid and back again.

“Does it like the name?”

“Beep.”

“It says it is a sufficient new designation and is awaiting a new task queue.”

“Oh good, I’m not good at naming stuff so I was worried-”

“Since the ship has launched, the service drones have gone inactive due to safety features. Since this one, new designation Roomba, was here on the engineering deck, it was outside the proximity of the ship’s AI core transmissions. It has exhausted its task queue and requests a new one.”

“Beep.”

“It is repeating the request.”

“Yeah, yes, got that, thank you. Okay, and I can just give it something to do?”

“That is correct.”

“Beep.”

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“Roomba, can you hand me another bolt please?”

“Beep.”

[Primary task in the queue has not been completed: obtain high score]

“I know buddy, but you can pause it with that little button on the side there. I need that bolt real quick.”

Roomba looked where Thomas was pointing on the game pad. The pad itself was bigger than the drone, by a good half inch, so it was like Roomba was standing on a flat screen built into the floor, or playing one of those retro dance machine games from way back.

“Beep.”

[Acknowledged]

The Padrino had been kind enough to give Thomas’s ear piece translator an quick upgrade, so now he was able to receive Roomba’s signal burst data and understand what he was ‘saying’. They’d even given Roomba’s AI a little tune up so he could understand more complex tasks and ideas. Roomba had disconnected from the ship’s core code when he’d gone to the engineering deck so Thomas figured it’d be fine, the little guy could hang out with him now.

It took Roomba’s whole hand to get the game pad to register the pressed button and pause PAC-MAN, which was cute. And what was even cuter was the bolt Thomas needed was half the little robots size so it struggled just a little to bring it over the few feet to him.

“Good job buddy, thank you,” Thomas said, grinning.

“Beep.”

[Acknowledged. Returning to primary task]

“You do that. Good luck Roomba.”

At the time, the only thing the Padrino had asked for in return for their help and upgrades was the chance to observe biological lifeforms and their tendencies to ‘bond’ with others. The Padrino were a sort of hive mind it seemed, each unit being just an interface with the main AI back on their home planet. When units were out of range of communication with the home office, the main AI base code was copied into the machines and split off to collect information. When they got home, they dumped the data into the main computers and integrated back into the main AI core.

Thomas thought they were the coolest people he’d ever met. He’d said ‘sure, observe all you want, I just wanna thank you guys for your help.’

The game pad trilled, a little tune to congratulate moving up a level.

“Beep.”

[Update: progress has been made. Continuing primary task: obtain high score]

“Good work Roomba. You keep at it buddy, you’ll get there.”

From down the hall the 2 Padrino watched the strange little robot ‘playing video games’ next to the human doing an actually productive task.

“More data must be collected. The human, a deathworlder, has bonded to the drone.”

“We will continue to observe.”

“Agreed.”

[starfreak]

Random Elden Ring Rant (Contains Spoilers, VERY LONG)

So, the Numen. We can choose it as a character preset, which tells us they come from another world, or another land. I say "or another land" because historically, America is referred to as the "New World," but it's not a separate planet. However, translations from the Japanese version of the game suggest that the world they come from is one of spirits, the dead, etc., so it could definitely be a Literal other world.

Marika is (rumored to be) a Numen, as are the Black Knife Assassins that participated in the Night of Black Knives.

If Marika is Numen, then it stands to reason so is Radagon, since they are the same person in the same body. This means their children together, Malenia and Miquella (and now presumably Messmer since he has red hair like Radagon, but Miyazaki said that he's the child of Marika, so unless there's another red-haired hottie running around the Lands Between, Radagon is the father), are also Numen. This also means that other children of Marika/Radagon are half-Numen.

It seems Numen are not a single ethnicity, but a whole race of people, with various different contradicting skin tones and hair colors. The template in the character creator has medium-dark skin and brown hair. Marika has pale skin and golden hair (possibly changed to be gold from the Greater Will's influence) and Radagon has the same skin with fiery red hair. We know from the Giant's Red Braid item description (below) that Radagon was either cursed by the Fire Giants or simply born with red hair. I mean...no item descriptions suggest he was born with it...but if I was born with hair I hated, I would blame it on a curse too. Though, to be fair, it IS the same color as the Fire Giants' hair.

Also the Black Knife Assassins have no physical form, so we can't discern their hair or skin colors.

So skin tone seems like a non-factor, but Hair is much harder to parse, due to half the Numen in the game having fiery hair and pronouns. The game says nothing about Marika's hair changing to gold, so it may have always been that color, leading me to believe that indeed, Numen are just...magic humans from a land far away...she's just blonde.

WELP.

That's all cool, but what is the culture of the Numen like? Well we can see that they have a very strong affinity for women and femininity. Not only is Marika, the most powerful Numen we know, a woman...all of the Black Knives are women. Additionally, if we choose to believe that Malenia and Miquella are Numen, this fact is further evidenced by Malenia's being a strong warrior woman (she is literally a Valkyrie) and Miquella's own complex gender identity. Miquella was (supposedly) born male, but presented as rather feminine/androgynous all his life. While Malenia is a masculine woman and reflects Radagon, Miquella is a feminine boy reflecting Marika. Not to mention that Miquella is ALMOST DEFINITELY Saint Trina, who is exclusively referred to as feminine.

In addition to the stong feminine aspects of Numen society apparent in the overabundance of strong fem-presenting characters, the description of Marika's Hammer suggests that women in Numen society (like Marika) have a role as destroyers and warriors, while men (Radagon) have a role of construction and repair.

"Queen Marika shattered the Elden Ring and Radagon attempted to repair it."

Again, this is just speculation, and the mythological actions of Radagon/Marika are likely motivated by a mutlitude of things (namely, the Greater Will constantly looming over them, the presence of the Elden Beast constantly lurking just under the surface), but I'm making do with what I have.

Also, back to genetics of the Numen again for a second, of all Radagon and Marika's children outside of the ones they had together (Messmer and the Twin Empyreans), most of them seem to inherit Radagon/Marika's hair.

Radagon and Rennala's kids, Radahn, Rykard, and Ranni, (presumably) have red hair. We never actually see Ranni's hair pre-doll form, so I'm assuming it's red lkke her brothers'.

Marika and Godfrey's kids, Godwyn, Mohg, and Morgott, all have either pale hair or no hair (Mohg has no hair visible on account of all the omen horns).

So it seems like the genes of Numen are incredibly dominant, even dominating the gene pool multiple generations after the first. Godwyn's kids, Godrick and Godefroy, have the same hair color as he does. Malenia's "daughters," although not genetically related to her, all seem to have gained her red hair through exposure to her Scarlet Aeonia. This may also be true of the Cleanrot Knights, but they could also have plucked the red hairs from Fire Giants or Leonine Misbegotten and used them as decor for their armor.

Even merely interacting with a Numen as powerful as Marika, or her direct children, can change one's appearance irreversably. Sure, this could all likely be from her status as a God, but who knows how powerful the average Numen could become if granted the strength? We become Elden Lord after all.

[ezlo-x]

“Wow I hope BotW gets a sequel someday…” - my TotK summary <3

It’s been a year, and honestly. I did not complete that game at all. I watched lets plays and cutscenes in youtube and a few playthroughs of my friends. And every time, my regret of buying this game grows ever so slightly. I know I sound mean and harsh but I prommy I got nothing against ppl who actually enjoyed TotK. This is more of my personal experience of how my excitement playing this game completely burned me out less than halfway through the game.

Gameplay

I’ll start with gameplay first, as I have issues with it. Let’s start with the physics of the game itself. Ngl, there was a small worry in the back of my mind when I realized there would be in-game physics and that you have to rely on those said physics. I personally don’t have a good experience with game physics and they usually tend to frustrate me. Which somewhat happened when playing the game. It didn’t happen too often, thankfully, maybe because the zonai parts didn’t tend to last long. Speaking of Zonai parts and builds

I wish building Zonai stuff was a bit more fun. Or at least give us more time to experience our builds. We already have a disadvantage by having a limited amount of batteries that you have to slowly upgrade throughout the game. So, seeing that one of your Zonai pieces starts to flash and disappear is annoying. I understand we can obtain more zonai parts throughout Hyrule, but I wish it lasted long enough. Also, the fact that you can’t really travel a lot in many of the builds, oh how disappointing it was to build a cool Zonai truck with big ass wheels but get frustrated that it couldn’t pass through a few bumps on the road. I feel like the Hoverbike is the best Zonai build of the game.

The Ultrahand is fun when trying to solve puzzles or merge random items. Fusing weapons, on the other hand, is my favorite thing in the game. There’s something really satisfying about fusing a really powerful weapon together. I really don’t mind that the weapons are breakable if that means I have a spot to make a strong weapon. Weapon durability never really bothered me. Both games push you to explore around to look for weapons. I think it would be boring if they weren’t breakable.

The shrines are a big improvement from BotW's shrines. I wished there were more challenging Shrines over the many King Rauru blessings. I can't really say much about the dungeons as I only completed two out of the five. But I think there was a bit to be desired; it's almost a Zelda dungeon.

Sage abilities. I want to speak to the game designer who thought it was a great idea to activate the sage abilities with the same button you click to pick up items on the floor. A total downgrade to the way you’d activate the Champion abilities in BotW.

Rupees. I would like to speak to the game designer who thought it was a great idea that you now have to manually press A to pick up rupees from the floor rather than casually walking in front of it to automatically pick it up. From my previous point, do you know how many times I’ve tried to pick up rupees only for Tulin’s ability to fly them away from me?

The sky islands, ohh boyyy, finding out that they had to reduce the amount of sky islands is disappointing, but I understand in a game design aspect. BUT it is disappointing that the game was advertising itself for the sky islands, only for there to be very few in the final. Like remember back in 2021 when they were advertising SkSw HD, and then i think a year later a totk teaser dropped and Link was falling from the skies? Good times ❤️

The Depths: I enjoyed the Depths a bit more than the Sky Islands. But it does get boring after a while if you’re not there to fight monsters or look for treasure, which is also disappointing. I love the OST descending down a chasm and entering the depths. Also, don’t get me started on how frustrating it is to use Zonai builds there compared to the surface or sky islands.

I think those are all my thoughts on the gameplay. I still have a few more issues with it but I feel like it mixes with the story so lets get that over with

Limitation vs Freedom

My biggest issue with this game is that it gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. However, there is still a story attached, and the story still wants to play out linearly. So, we have a game that grants you total freedom on how you want to play this game, but the story is still linear. But even if you decide to experience the story while doing dungeons and shrines. The game doesn't update with the piece of information that you discover.

The Dragon Tears are a really flawed way to experience the story. Zelda's memories are scattered across Hyrule; the number of times I've seen ppl say they accidentally got the tears out of order cause they thought it was similar to BotW's way of getting the memories. Basically, if you happen to be near one memory, you might as well get it cause it'll get annoying to go back and forth. Only to the person's shock, they got a cutscene meeting the Queen and King and then going up the Hebra region as that's the closest memory from the previous one. Just to see Queen Sonia dead on the floor.

What also bothers me is that the game doesn't update when you make a discovery in these memories. For example, I found out that Phantom Ganon can transform into Zelda in the memories and walk up to the NPCs in hopes of a change of dialogue. But getting nothing, walking up to Purah, Tulin, then Yunobo, and seeing no change of dialogue got really tiresome. It's as if the game doesn't believe you're smart enough to connect the dots.

Also, for people who decided to explore and get the Dragon Tear memories before entering any dungeon. There is very little change of dialogue, suddenly the game strangely punishes you by not letting the npcs acknowledge what you just discovered. While it's not an actual in-game punishment, you're stuck with characters asking a million questions that you already know of. Suddenly, the game's freedom to do whatever you want gets put to a halt because you decide to have the freedom to experience the story however you'd like.

NOW I get to move the part that I’ve been waiting (dreading) for!!

Lore

Sheikah Tech…I don’t care how simple the explanation is on why they are gone. It is probably the dumbest explanation I’ve seen. The fact that it wasn’t even questioned in-game and by the developers baffles my mind. How does it vanish in thin air? Their explanation is that the Calamity no longer exists doesn’t make sense to me either. The Sheikah tech has been there for more than 10k years but only in a dormant state. I don’t want to ask any more questions, or I’ll be here all day, but it drives me up a wall how the lore of the Sheikah got shafted to the side for the new stone technology aesthetic. Speaking of which-

Zonai in general. The fact that WE DONT EVEN GET LORE from the Zonais aside from being viewed as gods is sooooo ughhhhh I wish there was more. Why are there two remaining Zonais? (This probably got answered tbh but idc to look) Who’s the ancient hero and how come he looks like a Zonai or just in fact a different race we’ve never seen before?

Draconification…god. I have many thoughts and also many thoughts about the secret stones. It is an idea that I find interesting and could’ve worked for me. If it didn’t contradict itself in many aspects, as in how becoming a dragon, you will lose your sense of self. I think it would be a nice foreshadowing of the fate Zelda could’ve had. I think making the other dragons take a role in that and expand on it would’ve worked. Idk I think instead of implying it, it could’ve been expanded and shown a lot more severity of the situation.

Apparently I don’t got much on lore, but you know what I got much of????

STORY

This one is going to be a FAT one so bear with me. God where do I even begin here, I'm going completely omit the part where the game feels like it’s gaslighting you through the npcs cause I feel like everyone knows that.

My biggest frustration with this game is that it has such interesting story concepts and cinematic moments. But I can’t but feel like these moments were there first, and everything else was built around it. However, whatever suspicion I feel about how they created this story, only to my shock and horror that there isn’t a credited group of people in the credits, only an outside team (company?). Before I continue, I think it’s dumb when people say TLoZ didn’t have much of a story when previous Zelda games had a storyline to follow (OoT, MM, WW, TP, fucking…even Link’s Awakening, and more). So yes, TLoZ does have stories. It’s not just about the dungeons if I'm being honest.

What I find so odd is that Monolith Soft has games such as the Xenoblade games, where the latest game of that series does have a credited team of writers. Hell, BotW had two credited writers. But I won't go far speculating why they decided to hire a company outside the team to write TotK; it is only interesting to me why they did that. Since there really isn't a solid team of writers, I will focus my issues on Fujibayashi as a story writer; after all, he is the director of this game. And I've seen multiple interviews after the game's release where he explains a lot of the game's "lore" and story that should've been easily explained in the game in the first place. I think this will be me sharing my opinions rather than critiques... boy where do I even begin...

Sages—the ancient sages, not counting Mineru, are pointless. I felt no connection seeing the Ancient Sages meet their predecessors. Can't believe Age of Calamity made me feel more strongly about the Champions meeting their predecessors than the ancient sages did. - I also think they really don't share anything important. Maybe the first time, yes, but you could easily remove their cutscenes and just have Mineru explain how everything went down, and nothing will change. - Now, to the present Sages, I can't really say much, sadly. Tulin and Yunobo were the only characters for whom I completed their quests, and I enjoyed their character arcs, especially Yunobo's. If I could pick up TotK again, I would try to do Riju's arc, as it seemed really fun to play from the playthroughs I've seen my friends do. I don't really care for Sidon. Before I dropped the game, I was going through his quest and got really irritated fast for many reasons that I have mentioned here previously.

King Rauru and Queen Sonia – There has never been a character that I've enjoyed where I think they deserved much better than what they were there for. I get it; Sonia was only there as the character to be killed off to move the plot forward, but oh my god...I could've saved her. I wished we could've seen her more involved in the story than just standing by Raruru's side. - King Rauru, my brain turns foggy when I think of this man, and sometimes there are too many words to explain my issues. But to water it down, I feel we centered ourselves too much on these characters who don't even affect the main protagonist to some degree. Sure, King Rauru first appears at the beginning to show you his magic hand abilities. But I guess I was hoping something like how the previous TLoZ games had your companion help you throughout your journey and are the key fact of many things in the story (Midna and KotRL appear in my head when I mention this).

Zelda—sighhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. I think this game would've been 10x better if she had been the protagonist. I know it probably wouldn't make sense because she turns into a dragon by the end but Idc. What frustrates me about Zelda is that she's given very few options. It's a war or nothing. It's becoming a dragon or being stuck in the past forever. I guess that's the tragedy of her story, but instead of me feeling sad, it frustrates me.

Link—Oh god, here we go. Link has a very small role in this, and you can disagree with me. But how is it possible that this is one of the few Links that has little involvement in the story? Link just happened to stumble into a bigger mystery than it already was. Link didn't even prove himself to Ganondorf why he's a threat to him aside from the first cutscene and Rauru.

Ganondorf - .........I hope this is the last time we see Ganondorf in the series. I know that sounds shocking, but if Fujibayashi is going to take the lead in storytelling for future games, I don't want him to make another iteration of Ganondorf. To me, Fujibayashi works better by making completely new Zelda villains. Ghirahim and Kohga are perfect examples. Ganondorf in this game was so underwhelming and disappointing. He never directly confronted himself with either Link or Zelda. Gameplay wise, he's great, but the story? What is he doing here? Literally, it feels like they only brought Ganondorf back because people questioned about Ganondorf back in BotW.

Conclusion

There are many aspects of the game that I enjoy; however, in my case, the bad outweighs the good. That's why this game frustrates me: There was a lot of potential to be seen. There is probably more for me to say that I'm either intentionally leaving out or just forgetting cause there are many things. Happy one year TotK 🎉🎉🎉

[bikiniarmorbattledamage]

So recently Square Enix launched a new game where the premise is that the protagonist is the reluctant hero of a fantasy world they find themselves in, having been born and raised in New York. It recently got some loud pushback from people who were upset that protagonist... lemme check notes... sounds like a sassy New Yorker.

Fortunately, the actress has had the perfect attitude toward it:

Now, the game has not been getting spectacular reviews, and the reasons for that vary but I'm not here to talk about trend of critics (well meaning or not) raising standards for products say... starring a black woman and having a mostly female cast, or even about problem of Sacrificial Trash.

I want to talk about this as a good example when we talk about "protected by magic" outfits.

Frey is a New Yorker now blessed with magical power, she has never been trained in armor use, doesn't own armor and so... wears comfortable and practical clothes like you would expect. The whole look conveys an interesting look of a modern person with practical sensibilities in a fantasy world.

She has two main kinds of magic items - cloaks and necklaces. Both items that can be worn over clothes without sacrificing practicality.

She also has a unique, widely considered feminine option for store her magical powers - her nails.

As well as being one of the most innovative expansions into fantasy magic I've seen in mainstream for a while it really also goes a long way to showcase what, so often, is the actual crippling flaw with the "doesn't need it because magic/badass/etc" rhetoric.

Not because you can't have an interesting design that avoids armor etc, but because it's pretty much always the same nonsense with going overboard with designing pseudo-porn and then trying to justify it after the fact rather than exploring possibilities and playing with ideas about what x would mean for y.

Also can we please have more games with character designs like this in them, I'm still thinking about how cool this boss intro was:

-wincenworks

[foreststarflaime]

I did my part today in The Bad Class, it was me in the trenches with one other guy defending stories told in mediums other than books against the world (the entire rest of the class) 🫡 (things I used below the cut)

It saddens me that the academic community is so biased towards anything other than published books. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a writer myself and I adore books, but they’re missing out on so many good stories that hit so much harder in mediums other than words on a page!!! ✨Stories of all kinds are equally precious✨ pass it on

Defending movies: Inception!!! If you’ve not seen it, it deals a lot with dreams and layers of dreaming, and thinking about reality. In it, there’s a gimmick where you have a certain ‘totem’ (item) that you can use to determine if you’re in a dream or awake, and the main character’s is a top—if he’s in a dream, it will never stop spinning, but if it’s reality, the top will eventually be stopped by gravity. (Spoiler alert) At the end of the movie, the mc finally gets home to his kids like he’s been trying to the whole movie, and as he embraces them in the background a little out of focus, you see his top on the table, spinning—and right before you could expect it to start to wobble, the soundtrack peaks (thank you Hans Zimmer you master) and cuts off and the screen goes black, leaving you to your own conclusions. It’s such an effective moment and it really would not be the same in a book!

Defending video games: Crisis Core lmao. I love how it uses game mechanics to characterize Zack in such a unique and creative way!!! The DMW is the main thing that comes to mind here, in particular in the final battle, but over the whole game and how it gets you used to it as well. You get a new thing every time Zack gets a new friend, and that’s the source of your strongest attacks throughout the game, a thing you’re constantly thinking about and relying on—which is such a cool way to characterize Zack, because then you realize your thought process has basically been turned into his! He loves his friends, they’re everything to him, and they’re the source of his strength! Which makes the final battle so so devastating when they’re fading away and you get to see, nay experience, his last thoughts as they’re happening. It’s so devastating in a way I’ve rarely been devastated before, and it would not be the same in words. Also there’s the funny haha that this adhd puppy’s brain runs on gambling because he has to get extremely lucky to be able to focus on anything lmaooo

Defending comic books: Loki Agent of Asgard!!!! My beloved! So this is the comic book run where Loki becomes the god of stories, and everything about how it was done here is just. SO so genius. When I say these comic books were a formative experience for me I mean it. But I’ll focus on the things that were great specifically because of the medium here, otherwise I’d be gushing for hours. Yknow how comic books generally have little narrator text bubbles telling you what you need words to describe? And then maybe have a different one for the thoughts of the character? Well this had that, and the narrator bubbles were styled like little scrolls. When you get towards the end of the run, after Loki has realized his power as the god of stories, you get to a part where he’s facing the gods of the gods, telling them a story—and then the little narrator scrolls have the speech bubble thing drawn off from them, to Loki. It’s been him as the god of stories narrating his own story the entire time, writing his own destiny. Such a powerful moment, blew my mind—you could do something similar in a normal book I guess, but it was just so impactful here that I think it wouldn’t be exactly the same. And also, earlier (I think in the second volume), a different future version of Loki is time travelling using his story god powers to write the past to his own ends (you don’t know his connection to story yet, so this is an example of such good foreshadowing), and to do this he reaches out of the panel and jumps into the margins to travel around the story!!! Mind-blowing stunning 1000/10

The strength of books: I just realized why I like my specific imagery-laden style of writing so much in the middle of class while I was explaining this. So in On Fairy Stories (the book the discussion was about for the day), Tolkien talks about how the invention of the adjective was the most important thing for the invention of fantasy, because it helps you change things—for example you can say things like the red sky or the green sun, and people can imagine that. There’s a linguistic concept called mental models which explores how we think in metaphors to understand more abstract concepts—for example, a lot of people tend to view how electricity works in terms of the flow of water. In fantasy, we can take our words and especially our adjectives and metaphors, and we can craft new mental models that wouldn’t work in the real world, and create our own worlds doing that to great effect. I find myself doing this SO much now that I think about it! And that’s something you can do really really well with words that doesn’t lend itself as well to adaptations in other mediums.

And that’s the thing, really—you can do things to amazing effect if you write them using the strengths of the medium you choose! That’s why adaptations rarely work I think, people just don’t play to the strengths.

[tobiasdrake]

Do you feel like ranking DBZ movie villains by how interested you would be in a movie that reinvents them for the current canon/state of the franchise, like what Broly got?

Alternatively, by how interested you would be if you could write the movie, without having to worry about how you expect Toei would actually write the characters in question.

#1 - Lord Slug. He and his movie suffer tremendously from the whole "Just rehashing Piccolo-Daimao" thing but the stuff they do add to the character is really interesting and fun.

He's an alien vampire who blots out the sun as part of his sinister plan to convert the Earth into a sports car he can drive around and look cool in. He's defeated by Goku drawing the energy of the sun into a Genki-Dama to erase his vampiric ass, which is an established obscure ability of the technique that no one has ever done anything with.

Kaio literally said with words from his mouth that Goku can use the sun to make a Genki-Dama. Goku had to make a desperate Genki-Dama once on a planet with three suns. And this has never, ever come up. Except against Namekian Dracula and his army of vampires.

This is the top of my list of things to formally canonize a "The Good Version" of.

2 - Turles. Tree of Might is also a film that had a lot of interesting elements about it. Turles's plot is underdeveloped because of the film following manga rehash rails so closely but, like Slug, the original stuff they did with him is fascinating.

Turles is presented as a foil to Goku. Where Goku has studied and mastered the divine arts of the gods, Turles somehow broke into the heavens and stole away with an item of immense power. He's a bandit who pillaged the heavens for power and then wreaked havoc on the mortal universe. How did he do that? That's so cool.

And it sets up a unique rivalry between him and Goku, pitting Goku's divine techniques against the incredible powers that Turles possesses but doesn't fully understand.

Also, like the Solar Genki-Dama, the part where Goku destroys the Tree of Might not by hitting it with an attack but by using the technique's genki-harvesting feature to pull all the world's stolen genki back out of the tree? Genuinely brilliant application of an obscure feature of the technique we don't really think about.

And and I just desperately want it to be canon that low-class Saiyans only have a handful of mass-produced faces and body types between them. That's the film's explanation for why Turles looks like Goku. It's because Goku is an assembly line Barbie doll you can buy off the shelf at Walmart, as opposed to the $50,000 custom-made luxury item that is Vegeta.

3 - Cooler: Cooler, I'm less enthusiastic about but there are ways that he can be interesting. I've speculated about some ways that they could go about adapting Cooler to DBS canon because he's always seemed, after Broly, to be the most likely candidate.

But honestly, Cooler's never really been that interesting to me. He's a knock-off Frieza in the same way Slug's a knock-off Piccolo but there isn't really anything unique I can point to and go, "EXCEPT there's this really interesting stuff that they could really push and make an interesting villain out of." He's... just Frieza with the serial numbers filed off.

Even my pitches for Cooler basically just amount to, "Create a new character who is Frieza's brother and name him Cooler."

Alright. So, from here we get into characters I'm not disinterested in necessarily but I don't think could really work.

4 - Androids 13, 14, and 15. These three can only interestingly fit into a very specific span of time. Popping out during the week build-up to the Cell Games is basically the perfect placement for them, because the Cell arc is the only time when "Oh no, EVEN MORE evil Androids by Dr. Gero!" really works as a story.

I like them. They're fun, and they could be even moreso if given a chance. But their window of opportunity is slim. Canonizing them would make more sense as an interquel than a sequel. And we don't really need an interquel for them, because that movie already exists and is called "Extreme Battle!! The Three Great Super Saiyans".

5 - Dr. Wheelo. Similarly, Dr. Wheelo has already been pretty thoroughly cannibalized by Dr. Gero and Zamasu. "Super-old mad scientist Dr. Brain-in-a-Jar and his bio-android minions plot to steal Goku's body" is a story that would feel like it's rehashing material we already have, even though he fucking came first.

And here we go with the ones I'm just not interested in at all.

6 - Garlic Jr. Basically the only thing interesting about him is "How do we defeat a guy who's immortal?" But the answer to that question is always bullshit. "He opens the Negative Zone and defeats himself." "Goku has a pager in his pocket he can just use to call God and ask him to please delete this plot from the story." "Do the thing to make him not immortal anymore and then it's not a problem."

There's the Mafuba but at this point that just feels cheap. There's not really a way to have the characters walk up and hit the villain with a technique they've all known about for decades and could have done at any moment, but to keep it in reserve as an eleventh hour THERE IS NO OTHER OPTION desperation play even though they could have just done it at any point in the fight.

Characters keeping the winning play in their back pocket for no other reason than to make the fight more dramatic is exactly the kind of thing that I go off on modern Dragon Ball for.

So. Yeah. The answer to "How do we defeat the immortal villain?" is that there is no good answer and we shouldn't write characters into that situation. This character's one and only utility is to force the movie to end stupidly.

(Honestly, Gomah is probably the closest to a good version of Garlic Jr. you could ever get.)

7 - Janemba. Janemba isn't really a character. He's a vehicle to facilitate the idea of villains from Hell breaking out and starting a commotion. That's all he is. It's an idea that Toei liked so much they did it three separate times: Once for the Anoyoichi Budokai filler arc, once for Fusion Reborn, and once for the Super Android 17 arc of GT.

But my beef with it is twofold. First. Like. The mythology of Dragon Ball is set up specifically to disallow plots like this. Villains don't keep their bodies when they die. They become a powerless soul like all the other powerless souls. Keeping your body is a rare and special privilege, and is the only way to retain your power.

This cannot happen.

The other issue is that it's boring. The escalating powerscale of Dragon Ball means that yesterday's titanic threat isn't that big of a deal tomorrow. The way this always works out is like. "Oh no, Raditz and Nappa are back! But also Gohan's like 87 quintillion times more powerful than them so he just flicks them both in the head and they explode and die instantly."

Reclimbing old mountains isn't as fun in practice as it sounds on paper. Oh no, what if Goku had to fight Tambourine again? How could Super Saiyan Blue Goku ever manage to defeat Tambourine?

And without that element... there's just nothing else to Janemba as a threat. He is the least interesting thing that happens in his movie. A vehicle to facilitate a plot that's now been done to death and hasn't been good a single time, and a fusion that is no longer bold new territory to tread.

8 - Bojack. The only interesting thing that happens in Bojack's movie is a martial arts tournament that Bojack isn't even involved with. Like Janemba, there isn't really a lot to Bojack and his crew. They're just... some villains. In the wide world of Dragon Ball villains, here are some more of them.

And finally, closing out this list with an honorable mention.

N/A - Hirudegarn. I actually don't remember this movie so I can't say how interesting it would be to create a canon version of Tapion and Hirudegarn.

[multbasa]

The reason why I don't mind that Zelda doesn't wield a sword in Echoes of Wisdom is because I never cared for having a "female Link".

Some people in the past have told me "why play Princess Zelda when Nintendo could just make the main character customizable or have a female option", and honestly, I hate that idea. I think it devalues Link as a character to just make him like the Pokemon Trainer or Squid Kid, and I personally enjoy Link being a more androgynous character which Nintendo really leaned towards in BotW and TotK. If Link is divided into "boy Link" and "girl Link" then that androgyny gets discarded. Not to mention that BotW/TotK made him so bland in so many cutscenes where he barely emotes at all despite having a lot of personality in the rest of the game: making him a generic self insert will just make him more bland out of necessity so people can project onto him. I much prefer Link having his own personality like in Skyward Sword or Wind Waker etc.

I want to play Princess Zelda because she has her own cool powers throughout the series. I don't need to play a female character because it's a female character, I want to play Princess Zelda or other versions of her like Sheik or Tetra because they're unique.

Furthermore, I do enjoy having unique gameplay styles. I'm really interested in Echoes of Wisdom because it is different. The 2D Zelda games don't really have much going on in the sword fighting department compared to the 3D games: they're very straightforward. It would be interesting for them to expand 2D sword fighting in the future somehow but I don't really know what they would do besides "swing sword, block with shield, attack weak point". The ability to summon minions to fight for you and to spawn all sorts of things sounds very exciting to me personally because it's going to be a very different game than past 2D Zeldas.

I hope that in the future we see more and different Princess Zeldas to play, and personally I would love some co-op titles where I can play with someone else. (It was my hopes and dreams for both Link and Zelda to be playable in TotK when it was first teased. Running around Hyrule with someone else like my twin would have been an absolute joy especially if Zelda had her own unique moveset.)

I just prefer variety. I don't play each Zelda game because I can swing a sword, I play it for the Ocarina of Time or the Wind Waker or the Minish Cap or the masks in Majora's Mask or all the other unique aspects of each game. The sword—besides Skyward Sword—is a method to hit stuff with but it's not often the star of the show, and I am usually disappointed when other items are not useful outside of their respective dungeons. I like how Nintendo is trying to incorporate abilities into the broader gameplay rather than specific uses like in the past because it gives me more options that just "identify the specific item needed in this situation" or "hit the weak spots like this with that".

That isn't to say that there can't be criticisms. For instance I noticed that spawning something with the staff is done by pressing the Y button and there's the whole scroll through items thing. I worry that only having one button assigned to this ability means that there will be a lot of menuing. I am hopeful that Zelda will have more options for different items besides the staff because the other face buttons are free for other things. The D pad icon also leaves space for 3 different things on the left too, so I am interested to see what other abilities Zelda will have available to her. Nintendo is not a stranger to hiding things about upcoming games, so I think there is a good chance that there is some else besides the staff in this game.

Anyway, I just wanted to get this off my chest. I am a female tradesperson, so I don't appreciate anyone insinuating that liking the different playstyle is tied to sexism and the idea that Zelda can't wield a sword (she did in Twilight Princess). I just don't think that a sword and shield is something that every game needs especially in a 2D Zelda where the other abilities are generally more interesting to me.

[ridiasfangirlings]

So Yata and Fushimi are dating and Yata starts to befriend S4 very quickly, but he realizes there is still some tension between the two clans members. He is trying to find a way to resolve this when Munakata mentions the Clan Bonding Activities. Suddenly the two go from being “I tolerate you bc you are important to Fushimi “ to “OMG this is what we should do for the Clans. (I’m a firm believer that both men have autism and it’s only a matter of time before they become the best FIL/SIL duo)

Homes is not sure what to think of this “party” but S4? They are panicking! They love Captain and Yata but both can be a bit much so who knows what this party will entail. Andy probably makes a comment that Fushimi could “distract” Yata from planning properly (and quickly dodges several knives).

The party is nearing and everyone is desperately trying to sabotage their plans but nothing is working. A few days before it starts Yata is on the phone with Munakata and says he just has to order a few essential items and they are done. Fushimi, now desperate, decides it’s time to take matters into his own hands. So the second Misaki hangs up, he finds his mouth preoccupied and Saruhiko is on top of him and moving on him and oh god his boyfriend is beautiful and he can’t think of anything else right now.

The big day arrives and Fushimi is walking with a pep in his step and looking smug. Hope is filling up for the Alphabet Boys. They fully believe he has done the impossible . Alas, however, the Captain shows up saying the party is still on, because Yata managed to actually pull off everything despite Fushimi’s best efforts.

Sorry for the long ask, I’ve had it in my head for a few days and if anyone can do it justice, it’s you 😅😅😅

Fushimi would be so irritated that his boyfriend and his King get along, he liked them better when they weren’t talking and weren’t happily making plans behind his back. Like Yata is obviously initially on guard around Munakata because even though he’s accepted that the Blues are mostly okay kinda he can’t quite bring himself to extend the same feeling to the Blue King. He’s also aware that Fushimi’s King is Weird and what if he gets pulled into a Weird thing, but even so Yata feels like he should at least try to get along with Fushimi’s King. Maybe Munakata calls Yata in to his office because he wishes to discuss the remaining tensions between Homra and S4, something that he would normally reach out to Kusanagi for but he figures this will also be a good chance to speak with Fushimi-kun’s boyfriend. Yata agrees that it would be cool if they could all just hang out together and Munakata mentions bonding activities. Yata’s a little hesitant like ‘bonding what’ and Munakata considers, perhaps a large party. Yata takes that in and is like wait that sounds cool, Munakata is immediately cheered by having someone who understands him and suddenly all tension evaporates as they start party planning.

When Fushimi hears about this imagine him confronting Yata like I thought you didn’t want to get pulled into anything weird by the Captain, but what he’s overlooked is that Yata is in Homra and enjoyed bonding activities planned by Totsuka so as it happens his threshold for Weird is high. I mean sure he’s had to talk Fushimi’s King out of a couple things that were a little much — they probably don’t need to have a flash mob to invite everyone, regular invites are fine — but otherwise this is a perfectly regular kind of thing isn’t it. Homra are all for it too, they’re not thrilled about hanging out with S4 but maybe it’ll be fun, and Yata is probably trustworthy for party planning. S4 are just panicking though, like who knows what this party will entail, will we have to fight our way into the venue will there be games that involve us using high powered rifles you just never know. Doumyouji grabs Fushimi and is like save us Fushimi-san, Fushimi clicks his tongue all what do want me to do about it. The S4 guys are like well Yata-san’s your boyfriend, can’t you use some leverage to get him to stop this madness.

What they probably meant was like ‘please talk to your boyfriend and explain that Captain should not be encouraged’ but Fushimi takes this to mean the only way he can get out of attending is to ‘distract’ Yata. And Fushimi only knows two ways of doing that, one involves knives and blood and is probably not a good idea so he goes for the second one. Yata’s busy at their apartment because he just has to order a few essentials, Fushimi overhears him saying that yeah he just needs to get this order in within the next couple hours and decides this is his chance. He immediately sits in Yata’s lap, Yata’s like Saru I’m working here and Fushimi gives him this deep kiss all what was that. Yata’s face is all red and he tries a stammering protest but Fushimi’s already being all needy and touching him and Yata basically can’t resist when Fushimi’s like this so off to the bedroom they go.

The day of the party Fushimi is feeling pretty satisfied, he distracted Yata well enough. The squad are all hopeful that Fushimi talked Yata out of this, Fushimi’s like ‘talk?’ because what do you mean you expected me to have an honest conversation with someone I love. That’s when Yata stops at headquarters to talk to Munakata, Munakata is so pleased that everything is in place for the party. The squad all groan and Yata laughs sheepishly like yeah I got a little, uh, distracted but I got the order in just in time while Saruhiko was napping after….doing work and he suddenly feels this chill up his spine as he realizes he is getting a death glare from his boyfriend. Poor Yata has no idea what he did wrong or why Fushimi just grumbled that Yata had better have enjoyed the other day because it’s the last he’s getting for a while. (But then it turns out the party is pretty normal and actually enjoyable thanks to Yata reining Munakata in and Fushimi grudgingly decides that okay, maybe he won’t punish Yata too much after all.)

[deltablazin]

(GOD i wish i could draw-)

I thought of this Amazing Digital Circus OC, I call him Gallahad.

He's based off of traditional classic video games, like ocarina of time, final fantasy, stuff like that with quests, monsters, heroes and whatnot.

He regards himself as the self proclaimed "hero" of the circus, defender of the helpless, (because no one is crazy enough to take that gig.) and to be fair, he DOES have the power to back it up, using video game moves like sword fighting, items, magic, stuff like that, he bends to the laws of video games where he can keep insane stuff in a inventory space, never ACTUALLY die and just reload back to a save (he can get abstracted though..) and special moves to help him do stuff, he does have the cons though, like clipping into stuff, he can save whenever he wants, but it doesn't effect time, for instance, if he dies, and something happens, that will STILL happen while he isn't present, loading really just loads himself back to the last place he was, he has to deal with an annoying beeping sound when at low health, funny little stuff like that.

Pomni: ..I'm sorry, who are you again?

Gallahad: I..am GALLAHAD! At your service!

I am the UNDISPUTED hero of the digital circus!

Jax: Mostly because no one else is crazy enough to do it.

Gallahad: I-

Gah, JAX!! I'M DOING A THING HERE!!!

Pomni: (Oh, so he's one of those guys..)

(Then, soon enough she sees that he wasn't messing around when he steps in immediately and protects Ragatha from Kaufmo.)

Gallahad is male (he/him), sexuality: straight.

Gallahad is one for the dramatics, getting in the character of a great hero of a legend that he made up, sometimes it can be kinda annoying to the others though, but he is a nice guy, usually checking on the others, and willing to do "quests" as he calls it for them, which is usually just little errands.

Gallahad: Kinger, are you injured!?

Kinger: Uhhh..a bit broken, yeah...

Gallahad: waitasecond.. Here, it's an ultra elixr.

-Kinger drinks it and is fully healed!-

Kinger: Woo, thanks!

Pomni: You..just have those on you?

Gallahad: ..Uh, yeah. And?

Zooble: Why didn't you use one when your arm broke earlier?

Gallahad: BeCAUSE, they don't sell ultra elixrs at SHOPS, and I only have 99999 of them! THINK, man! Ugh...

His character design has some low poly to it like a PS1 character, with a similar style to this:

He has a vintage 1990's video game filter to his voice, which he can turn off at will.

Gallahad sometimes wears a dark purple hero tunic, something like Link's, often he wears a full suit of bulky knight armor in a very dark navy like blue

He has short blond hair and striking silver eyes (not blind, just cool), and he has a skin tone like Link's.

He likes wearing masks sometimes without armor, cuz he can get nervous and bashful or scared, and he doesn't like people seeing that (even if it is obvious through how he talks) but he can go around with his face usually

He can get upset when his adventures don't go as he invisioned, not upset in a "this dude has issues" way, but in a comical "haha he's upset" way

Even when some might be annoyed by his heroic role he gives himself, Ragatha finds it charming, plus it makes him happy.

Speaking of which, he showed up in the circus a while after Ragatha did and got the hang of her life there.

His hobbies include grinding for expirence points doing "quests", earning achivements, having epic duels, laughing triumpantly, solving traditional game puzzles, training Pomni... (when she's up for it, which is rare)

And just chilling in his room playing video games for hours.

He gets along relatively with everyone.

Jax and him butt heads on occasion, but neither of them hate one another, just a fun getting on each other's nerves thing.

Gangle is a friend of his, cuz she can kinda get his whole thing, he introduces her to games based off of her animes sometimes.

His relationship with Zooble is

Gallahad: -bursts into Zooble's room as his epic theme plays- ZOOBLE! JOIN ME FOR A GLORIOUS QUEST!!!

Zooble: Get out.

Gallahad: ok. -leaves-

They appreciate that he doesn't pry though

He tries to offer advice and encouragement to Pomni, even if he doesn't really get her situation sometimes, Gallahad sees more potential in Pomni than she does in herself!

He's genuinely impressed by Kinger and thinks he's cool for surviving for so long.

He's the closest to Ragatha, cuz she's fully accepting of his whole hero thing, and she seriously helped him through some rough problems he had in the past.

Gallahad genuinely found Kaufmo to be a funny and cool guy, so...you can imagine him getting abstracted being hard on him, even if he didn't show it.

Gallahad's fine with Caine, sometimes comes to him about funny little bugs he has with his skills for him to fix, usually the most excited to do a new thing, but he doesn't entirely agree with him

Like seeing Gummigoo just get poofed away would piss him off.

Gallahad is like your typical 100% game player, meaning he's VERY powerful, he's straight up like a character in a video game with every collectible and maxed out stats.

Though his OPness is more of a detriment to him sometimes, like wanting to enjoy a boss battle but beating the boss in one hit.

He doesn't get most moments to show off his power properly anyways, and he can't even DAMAGE abstracted people.

His backstory...

Gary was an average man. With an average, boring life, in his 20s.

He always regretted not doing more crazy shit in his life, but never had the opportunity.

One day, he found his chance, to escape his boring life, and well...

He awoke a new man in The Amazing Digital Circus.

It was a long while after Ragatha joined when he arrived there.

The moment he realized the world he was in, he ran through it like CRAZY, doing extraordinary things, completing quests, defeating foes, getting stronger and stronger, having fun...

...All alone.

He never bothered interracting with anyone that wasn't an NPC, he never felt a need to.

But...at the height of his lonely glory, he...felt deprived of something.

He could never figure out what it was...

...What could it be?

To any normal person, it would have been obvious.

But Gallahad..he had no idea.

Desperately, DESPERATELY he tried to figure it out, trying to figure out just what it was, what he lacked..

It gnawed at his soul..until it began to hurt.

His hand became black as soot, it felt numb weightless, shapeless, and this black numbness was slowly rising up his body.

He did not know at the time, but...

He was getting abstracted.

He frantically went out, searching for anyone, calling for help.

And, someone answered.

It was Ragatha.

He didn't show her what was happening, because he didn't want to scare anyone, it was in a moment of weakness that he called out, but..

They started talking, he found himself opening his heart to her, finally..interacting with someone that wasn't some npc he talked to for a reward.

And before he knew it, the darkness on his body was gone.

Since then he realized what it meant to be around people, so he often tried to make sure that everyone was okay.

He was always doing his knight thing but by then he started embodying the spirit of a hero, caring about his fellow members of the circus, wanting to help them and be their friend.

Gallahad long since decided that, were he to ever escape the circus, he would STILL be the way he is now, execpt not, you know, video game like, but he would be adventurous, caring, helpful, and MAKE the life he wants to live, even changing his name to Gallahad, within the circus, he found himself.

If anyone wants to draw him, i'd be honored, just give me proper credit, okay?

[thelostbaystudio]

The Lost Bay - First Look Release

Your one-way ticket for the 90s that never were.

Today is the day! after countless play tests and tweaks The Lost Bay - First Look has been released digitally. In it you play as a young person touched by the Weird, an ancient force that gives you supernatural powers. You roam the Bay with your gang, its malls, arcade games shops, skateparks and beaches, and fight the Horror that has awakened.

Key features of the game:

1. You play Vibes. Each vibe has a distinct flavor and set of powers. You can play as Splinter, Screamer, Scanner, Firestarter, and many more. Vibes are granted custom growth opportunities: every time they fail at using a power they get a Scar, and this can include getting new powers, or discovering something about the Bay.

2.The lore of The Lost Bay is spread throughout the ruleset, tables, and game procedures. You’ll discover it as you create your character and play, without having to read boring lore text blocks. The lore of the Bay is embedded in the items, powers, Scars and NPCs you’ll encounter.

3.Open and play. Three attributes, two resources to manage (Heart and Weird), one mechanic to rule it all: a D6 dice pool. If you have a basic knowledge of tabletop RPGs you’ll need fifteen minutes to familiarize yourself with the ruleset.

GET THE LOST BAY FIRST LOOK

4.Weird is cool. And there’s a lot of it in the Bay: cults, curses, relics, and Living Saints. The Lost Bay is both a familiar playground and an uncanny world that portrays an alternate version of the 90s. It’s wicked enough to give you the chills, and it’s open enough for you to expand it the way you like.

Why the 90s?

Because they’re a decade where the ancient analog world mixes with the modern digital one. This mix creates infinite clashes and conflicts, ideal to spark tabletop RPG adventures, and horror stories.

The Bay itself is the incarnation of this contrast. Ancient creatures and forces dwell right next to modern technology and buildings. Even the playable characters embody this duality: they are archetypes inspired by the late 80s/90s media and culture, but their powers derive from the ancient and mysterious forces.

What you’ll get in the First Look edition? 

Spooky Locations

Scary MOFOs

Supernatural Horror

Powerful Vibes

Loads of items

Relics

Living Saints and immortals

Story sparks

VHS, arcade games, skateboards, evil cults, demons, ghosts, blood and fear.

You can get the First look edition right now at an affordable price. The game PDF is updated on a weekly basis, and its price will increase as new sections are added. Meaning that the earliest you get it, the less you’ll pay for it. Pretty neat right? Funds collected will allow commissioning more art from Evangeline Gallagher and to pay for editing.

Have you ever wanted to play a zombie or a ghost? Now you can!

This week’s update features two new Vibes (playable character classes): the Half-Dead, and the Spirit. To unlock them you have to die first, and if you’re lucky enough you’ll become a Reborn. You might even get a Zombie cat pet.

MINIDUNGEON

If you have little time on your hands and are looking for a ready to play horror adventure compatible with The Lost Bay check UNIT DH-17. This suburban horror mini dungeon has been updated to fit The Lost Bay ruleset.

You can also get them both as a bundle with a 20% discount here https://itch.io/s/99423/the-lost-bay-rules-adventure

Weird is beautiful

Want to know where this game comes from, what it’s really about?

I grew up in an environment where toxic masculinity was the rule. Both at home, and outside of it. And by toxic, I mean horror-movie level toxic. Murders, blood and all. That was just the way things were, the world of the grown ups. Normalcy. I didn’t find that normal at all! I was pretty scared most of the time. But I was lucky enough to be part of a gang of kind souls. We loved each other and helped us survive the harsh world of the Bay. We were Geeks, Punks, Queers and Dreamers. The normies called us Weird. At first that felt hurtful, and it took me years to understand that being “Weird” is more than ok, that “Weird” is beautiful. Eventually, I made “Weird” my one-word motto, and used to wear a Why be normal? pin. I was proud of my Weirdness. Things felt better, the Bay was my playground, I loved its marshes, forests, beaches and skateparks. I was happy.

Then one day, something unexpected happened. I had to leave the Bay, without notice. Like in the movies. At dawn, hiding, in secret. I didn’t come back for more than 15 years. During that exile the Bay grew in my mind like a place of fantasy, and actual memories blended with fiction. The Lost Bay became a dream, partly familiar, partly alien, a place of wonder shrouded in a terrifying mystery.

TAKE ME TO THE LOST BAY

The Lost Bay - First Look is the travel guide to this wondrous and wicked place I’m offering to you. If you accept the invitation you’ll play beautiful and powerful characters, you’ll fight the horror in breathtaking combats, and rewrite the Lost Bay’s history.

[littleshysheep-at-da]

THERE'S A KUMODESU GAME???? WHERE WAS THIS ANNOUNCED????

Over on Twitter, I follow both the Official Anime’s Twitter and the LN Artist’s Twitter. And here’s the Twitter for the Game.

By the way we also had a Crossover with The Ants: Underground Kingdom and now I have some very funny Fanart ideas because of it lol. But that game is Paywalled as HELL so getting any of the good Event items wasn’t possible, but now I do casually Play it because someone turned their insect Hyper Fixations into a Game and that’s a flex. But also I have no idea what the Target Audience for that Game is cause none of the Crossovers really super appeal to the same Audience???

But like don’t get your hopes up please. It’s an App Game, it’ll probably never get an English Release, and I doubt it’ll run long. Anime Tie In App Games don’t usually last and usually aren’t super great Play wise. As ngl some of the Art looks… a bit off? Idk Kyouya look weird to me and idk WHY at all. It also once again seems to be using “Waifu Marketing” as its selling angle and ngl I hate that for it. The KumoDesu Anime did the same and I just felt it was the completely WRONG way to market the series. I know Waifus are a sure way to get at least some sales but the markets oversaturated with them and it really doesn’t capture KumoDesu’s charm! I would’ve gone with Cool Monsters, the Slightly Queer/Sapphic Undertones, and Found Family as Marketing because that’s so much more unique. Also KumoDesu is my Female Power Fantasy! That would be a cool angle to Market it! …Basically my Controversial Take it I don’t want a Second Season of the Anime Adaption cause I strongly dislike how it Changed Things (screaming for justice for my boy Shun) and messed with both the Character Interactions and Plot 🥲 like One Season was fun but I’m kinda good with KumoDesu being a Finished Series now, as a LN it’s been perfectly wrapped up and I enjoy that.

[laurarolla]

And now I've finished my first playthrough of Prey. Maybe I'll go back to it in the future, as there's a lot of options that exist outside the path I chose. Perhaps the most important thought I have to take away from this game is that the post credit scene is what the game is all about, and without it, you'd just have a pretty fun and creative immersive sim that gives me all the best vibes of System Shock 2 from my first time playing that many years ago. The finale, which I will not spoil here because the game will probably be on sale soon and I highly recommend checking it out for yourself, is what makes this game damn near a masterpiece.

So first, a few minor issues I do have with the game. Autosaving is a bit unreliable, and the biggest threat in battle on normal difficulty is not running out of resources over the course of exploration, but being one or two shot in a fight with little chance to respond. In an all Human power playthrough, you will find so dang many resources that creating what you want or need will be a piece of cake. Once you can manufacture Neuromods, Disruptor ammo, and Typhon Lures, you'll be able to pretty much kit yourself out however you want and be able to handle nearly any encounter with ease as long as you keep your cool. I don't know what Typhon powers change for the playthough except that you don't get much in the way of gun enhancements and you can't hack anything without human powers, along with turrets being hostile. I can't speak for how the unique powers change things, but I suspect they are pretty viable overall. A lot of creativity is encouraged in any playthrough, and the tools the game gives you are built for that. I also have to point out that on lower difficulties at least, the survival mechanics are pretty superfluous unless you struggle to find a schematic to make one of the injury healing items.

The thing that kinda bothered me the most in terms of a strange one-off decision was the Artemis Golden Pistol. It's the only unique weapon in the game, and it's a straight upgrade to the standard Pistol, which has some of the best DPS in the game if upgraded. Having some other unique weapons to find would have made hunting around the station and solving little environmental puzzles a more worthwhile endeavor, but by the mid to late game I kinda fell into looking around everywhere out of habit instead of need. Supplies were absurdly abundant and I was never in danger of running out as long as I varied my tactics a little bit.

As for what I liked, the exploration encouraged really looking everywhere and anywhere for items and bodies with possible audio logs. Additionally, giving the player the GLOO cannon as the first ranged weapon in the game was brilliant, as well as prodding you to use the wrench to break out of your room at the beginning. Each of these elements and areas showed you how you can interact with the environment in ways that would be useful for the entire game. Adding a tracking system to the security rooms helped with hunting for collectables on bodies, and space movement was very fun and exactly as disorienting as I felt it should be. Most of all, the story, worldbuilding, and themes are consistent and rather delightful. I won't go much further than that except to point out that your character's computer password is a reference to the Fermi Paradox, a scientific conundrum about why humankind has never met life or found evidence of life from another intelligent species in our galaxy. The Fermi Paradox has more or less lived rent-free in my head since I first learned about it many years ago.

Loved this game, might pick up Mooncrash during a sale, also Prey is part of a Humble Bundle right now for the next 17 days so maybe that would make this a good time to pick it up. X3

[falciesystemessays]

the sense i get from fire emblem fates conquest is that it wants very much to be an engaging tactical experience where you are at every point making interesting choices with consistent consequences. it wants the core appeal to be outsmarting the opponent. and it succeeds! but,

for me the appeal of a tactics game is more about a power fantasy, it's about freedom and control and the dopamine rush when i do something cool. a liberating teleport, a well-placed area-of-effect, pushing enemies into other enemies, this is the stuff of tactics games to me. and it feels like fates is almost afraid to give you that kind of power, out of fear of making the game "brainless."

there aren't that many weapons in fates that i'd say "feel good to use." they basically all come with some kind of weakness that stops them from feeling solid. bronze weapons can't crit or activate skills, throwing weapons are also like that and can't double and makes enemies more likely to double against you because fates hates fun, and silver weapons reduce your strength every time you use them (and this stacks!) character-specific skills are a cool idea, but most are too minor to really factor into your gameplan. the nerfs to the pair-up system (which are cool and warranted) means there's real reason for units to not be paired-up, but that makes both entering and leaving pair-up way more of a commitment.

the game never wants you to feel like the big dog, and while to some this is exactly what they want from a strategy game, to me it feels stifling. it's like if the next mario game made your jump height worse solely to force you to use advanced techniques like the long jump and triple jump. yes, you've made more involved gameplay, but you've also made the basic interactions of the game feel worse.

there are things i like about fates. despite my gripes with the weapons, they do have a kind of creativity that i really respect. the enemy ai is actually really stellar, they don't all just make a beeline for you or come at you the moment you step into their range, so you end up playing a more complicated game against them. i really like how each level has an optional objective, whether that's "get these items," "protect this unit," or "clear the level quickly," and leaves it up to you whether you want to just clear the level or go above and beyond. fe fates is a game that Goes For It at every turn, and i gotta respect any developer that does that.

but i find myself frustrated trying to actually play it, because despite being an immaculately-designed srpg that i as a designer will definitely learn from, it's also one whose values chafe against mine. but in a sense, i appreciate it for that. because now i know more of what my values are. i value power fantasies and clever plays, i value a contained system that doesn't break its own rules, and i value the innate joy of moving a piece across a board. maybe you don't, and that's okay. there is no one answer to game design. but i think it's worth interrogating this stuff, so we can grow as appreciators of games.