#literally love horror games that play on my childhood nostalgia

[strawberri-draws]

Yeah I was a Dora the Explorer Kid, why do you ask?

[midnightmorpher]

💻 DCA AU Idea: Digital Horror 💻

This is my first time posting a DCA AU so I’m sorry if my post sounds more like disconnected rambling ahaha 🥲 But here goes!

The DCA duo in a digital horror setting.

Think KinitoPet but instead of Kinito as the mascot of a long-lost pet game, it’s Sun and Moon as the face of an old creature collection/virtual pet game created by Fazbear Corp on their old 90s company, kid-friendly website.

Think like a mix between Pokémon and Neopets, speaking as someone who played too much Pokemon and played literally zero Neopets 👍🏻

One day many years after the website has been shut down, You hear rumors about a “haunted” pet game made by the Fazbear Corp and decide to check it out, because you didn’t watch enough horror movies to know this is a terrible idea :>

The game (archived and run on a server supported by Fazbear fans, I don’t know much about tech so I dunno if this is even possible but whatever) runs like it should when you first enter it. However, it starts acting up when you input your old username…

I might start writing this as a fic once I’m further along on my current fic, so for now I’ll just be dumping my AU ideas on this blog haha

Here’s a summary and a brief snippet I wrote because the idea wouldn’t leave me alone:

Virtual pet game websites are a dime in a dozen. You might’ve tried out one or two in your childhood, but memories of that are fuzzy at best. It’s only when your classmate brings up a particular website hosted by Fazbear Corporation that you begin to remember playing it briefly during its heydays, and you decide to visit it for nostalgia’s sake.

=0=

“Welcome to Sun and Moon’s Superstar Daycare!” the computerized voice of the sunny jester character trills. He lounges on top of the window asking you to create a new account, kicking his curly-tipped shoes merrily in the air as he eagerly awaits your input. His bouncy avatar, its details showing hours of love and dedication poured into each brush stroke, paints a hilarious contrast against the shoddy art that makes up the background of the game. You don’t really care, though. It’s not like anyone plays these types of games for its art.

Your hands hover over the keyboard. After a moment’s hesitation, you try to enter your old username.

“Starbite”

Most likely the “Sorry, this username has already been taken” prompt will pop up since you clearly remember using it as a kid, but there’s no harm in trying. You click on the “Confirm” option.

Nothing happens.

Weird. Is it hanging? You click it again, and again. Nothing happens. Even Sun has frozen still. Yep, it’s definitely hanging. Pity, but it’s not too unexpected considering the game’s age. You decide to fall back on the good ol’ cure: spamming the mouse button. clickclickclickclickclickcli

his eyes flick up to stare at you

The shock shoots through your whole being like a lightning bolt. You gasp sharply, eyes fluttering close for a brief moment before they’re cast on the computer screen again.

“Welcome back, Starbite!” Sun says. He takes center stage in a field of rudimentarily drawn grass, the baby blue sky matching the bright smile stretching from “ear” to “ear”, like nothing had happened. “Go forth and pick a Faz Pet to be your forever companion, and I hope you enjoy your stay at our esteemed daycare!”

The character delivers his scripted lines like he should.

The character has his arms up in celebration like he should.

The character smiles at you like he should.

So what is this cold dread trickling down your spine…?

[thepageofhopes]

Talking about my choices and template under the cut!

Favorite Game of All Time: Undertale

Probably will stay my GOAT forever unless Deltarune manages to stick it's landing with the many cool extensions to undertale's themes and lore it brings up. Part of my love for it is based on how little games cared to explore the themes it brought up before undertale came out.

Favorite Series: Super Monkey Ball series

No other games have really managed to capture what this series had, though Rolled Out might by the time it's finally released. Lots of nostalgia baked into this choice- I used to do stunts as a teenager back in the day and learn the tech from forums.

Best Soundtrack: Terraria's Calamity Mod

Yes, I'm counting a mod as both a separate game and enough of one to have the best soundtrack. I already loved DM DOKURO's undertale remixes, and they just knock it out of the park with the Calamity mod. I will never not scream THE ENEMY HAS ASCENDED BEYOND YOUR CONTROL but Devourer of Gods is also something truly special.

Favorite Protagonist: Zagreus from Hades

I'm not usually super into the protagonists of games as I usually am with the supporting cast, but Zagreus really makes the story of Hades and his commentary brings the game to life so, so much. Other contender of this spot was probably the Voice of the Hero from Slay the Princess, but hard to say if they are really the protagonist, and also, I like Voice of the Contrarian even more.

Favorite Villain: The Masked Man from Mother 3

-endless crying-

Best Story: Mother 3

Listen, Undertale may be my GOAT but Mother 3 is my number 2 because of how good the story is. Please go watch Super Eyepatch Wolf's video on it if you haven't. The incredible themes, the knife-twisting tragedies, the goofy humor covering up extremely dark subject matter, all of it is so, so, so, good.

Have not played but want to: Alan Wake 2

This game seems so much My Shit™ but sadly it is only on epic games store which I hate. I've heard so many wonderful things about the game and all the visuals in those reviews look amazing and seem like it really is the peak of modern survival horror. Can't wait for it to come to Steam/GoG.

Everyone hates but you love: Continue?9876543210

'Everyone' is quite an overstatement for such a weird, niche game but it is the only game I really like that also has a non positive rating on steam. I've always loved the weird themes and existentialism tinged with hope that this game offers, despite everything from its mechanics to the story being vague and near impossible to parse.

You hate but everyone loves: Into The Breach

Nuclear Throne/Enter the Gungeon could also go here. All are roguelikes which are incredibly loved in the community that I just can't stand. I don't even particularly know why I don't like them, just something about the feel of the mechanics don't agree with me.

Best Artstyle: Splatoon series, but specifically Octo Expansion (until Side Order inevitably beats this)

Splatoon has always been a series marked by it's incredible visual design. Everything screams 90s, the color choices are vivid and striking, the character models are super expressive, etc. Octo Expansion adds even more with the retropunk aesthetic and dark environments mixed with the neon greens and blues.

Favorite Ending: Phoenix Wright: Trials and Tribulations

The entire last case of this game is perfect. The ending montage where you get to see where all the characters are going is sweet and ties a great bow on the series, and the final picture with the vase gets me every time. This was another game that was a contender for best story.

Favorite Boss Fight: Undyne the Undying from Undertale

'Not Sans???' listen Sans is probably the better design but Undyne the Undying was my literal first true boss I ever fought in Undertale, and it will always stick with me. I love the rhythm game style of her mechanics and her intro into her music sets the tone perfectly for the genocide run.

Childhood Game: Ball Revamped 2: Metaphasik

Catz is also a contender here since that is even older and I also played that quite a lot as a kid, but Ball Revamped 2 and a lot of jmtb02's other flash games were really when I started to heavily get into video games. I still sometimes go back to this one, the design still holds up quite well, and the rest of the series ain't bad either.

Relaxing Game: Vampire Survivors

I don't generally play 'relaxing' games, I like my games hard and fast and brutal. But vampire survivors build crafting is incredibly relaxing and when you make a successful build being able to just sit back and let the game play itself to win is such a dopamine rush.

Stressful Game: Cook, Serve, Delicious 3

Honestly, most of the games I play could go here. CSD series however is a special type of stress that puts me on edge through the whole level, enough that I often can't do more than a 3 or so in a play session (lovingly). A rhythm game without music, there is no other game series that demands the level of intense focus and execution like this does.

Game you can always come back to: Fallout: New Vegas

I've come back to this game at least 10 separate times with new characters. A combination of incredibly relaxing due to the easy combat system and replayability given the role playing system mean it's an easy game to just jump back into even after a long time away.

Guilty Pleasure: Project Sekai: Colorful Stage

I play a lot of gacha games and most if not all could fit here given how terrible those games are with the players, but Project Sekai is one where I will actively gush about it as I think it's story and characters are legitimately great. Magia Record could also fit here if it the NA servers weren't shut down.

Tons of Hours Played: Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Not my most played game technically (Terraria and Tabletop Simulator beat it) but both of those don't count as many of Terraria's hours are idle due to holding a server up, and Tabletop Simulator due to waiting and also it's not exactly a game in it's own right. I've so far put 750 hours into Rebirth, and still only have 545 of the 637 achievements. No other game has ever captured BoI's way of insane item combinations that make each run a discovery fest.

And here's the template!

[dr-blu-skies]

THIS IS A FAN-THEME!! One of many!!!

Excuse me, I’m having a bad night and so I’m gonna fixate on this theme until I get all the sadness out and replace it with giddiness because I FUCKING LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS THEME!!!

Welcome Home is my favorite nostalgia horror type of thing I’ve ever seen. I’m a huge fan of nostalgia horror, I love Five Nights at Freddy’s, TattleTail, Poppy’s Playtime, and I even found a little bit of whimsical charm in Garten of BanBan if you can believe it. I love anything that takes something colorful and nostalgically comforting and twists it on its skull.

Coincidentally, I’m also a big fan of puppetry! I never had the money, resources or time, but if I did when I was younger I imagine I would’ve picked up puppetry myself. I used to own a semirealistic fox puppet that I got from a children’s museum, for example, and I played with her and played with her until I, being a silly little critter, “ruined” her by getting her wet. I looked at her wet face and my cold soggy hand and never played with her again after that.

Jim Henson is also a big inspiration to me. Something about someone who is unquestioningly loving of the people around them is so comforting for somebody like me, who’s been through a lot. People like Bob Ross, Jim Henson and Mr. Rogers all hit that special sweet spot of “childhood is meant to be safe” for me. Because it is, and even though my childhood was disrupted, I can find some of that old comfort in figures like those who aspire to be the people who teach or help other people in a kind and friendly manner.

Clown hit the sweet spot for me when they made Welcome Home. Like, it feels selfish to say “for me” but like, I LOVE everything about Welcome Home. Its aesthetics, its art, the story that’s being hinted at, and its unique approach to nostalgic horror that just has a titanic amount of love and care poured into it. It doesn’t hurt that the fanbase is so friendly and supportive, either!

So… you’re probably wondering why I mashed it with Danganronpa, huh?

Danganronpa’s been a fixation of mine for years now. And I mean literal years. More than 7 now, it has to be. Something about the poppy over-exaggerated world of Ultimates is appealing to me, everybody is characterized in such intense and fiery ways that I can’t misread anyone, and every single character is SO intriguing! I have a list of characters I relate to so long it’s silly! And probably a little dumb, but MOSTLY it’s silly.

I love the community sometimes! I like talking about characters I care about and getting back earnest discussion of them, I like discussing the themes of the game. I binged NezumiVA’s videos about Danganronpa, and plan to do so with my friends who are a bit less obsessed in the future. Can you tell I’m a bit everywhere? I can tell.

SO, let’s get to the really really REALLY fun section of this: the font(s)!

FontForge is a really useful program for me, someone well-known among her friends for being the font aficionado. I collect fonts like they’re Pokemon cards, and I hunt for fonts with lots of language compatibility because I really like being able to see what someone of another language is saying while still in the style of the font. It’s a pet peeve of mine for a language to break a theme’s cohesion just because the font’s creator didn’t feel like covering certain languages.

For this reason, Nishiki-teki (and the variants I made out of its additional characters) is this theme’s go-to. The only other font you’ll find in the ‘courtroom’ section of the theme is Shantell Sans, a recently released (and also free) cute font that I also quite enjoy!

Nishiki-teki’s draw was its language support, but I also like its style. Its lettering is thick and playful in a way I’ve rarely seen before. If I had to draw comparisons, think of Billy Hatcher’s logo or the Paper Mario logo. They have cute, fun blocky letters to show that it’s all for fun - all a game. To me it also brings a kind of “hand-made” quality that I really like! Hand-drawn fonts have always been my favorite, after all!

Here’s some trivia: I like the font so much I’m using it for my blog! In all likelihood, you can’t see it yet because I haven’t figured out how to make the html/css display it for everyone, whether they have the font installed or not. Here is a quick screenshot of what this blog looks like from my POV:

Now, to the aesthetic: Kidcore is my favorite aesthetic in the entire world. Welcome Home is a masterclass in making you feel safe and cozy, while also having a seedy underbelly. I know that last part isn’t necessarily part of the original aesthetic, but its crossover to horror is so fun! I love horror as a genre, and combining it with the comfort of kidcore is what makes Welcome Home so effective to me! Sure, that can be applied to most if not all nostalgia horror, especially the titles I mentioned before, but Welcome Home’s niche interest in puppetry sells it to me as the unique one of the bunch. Sorry to the others!!

I think that’s all I can do for now, it’s starting to storm and I wanna post this before the lights go out.

[mashedcontroller]

Early FNAF Retrospective

I was around in middle school when FNAF 1 was released, and, like a lot of people my age, it just ended up being a part of my childhood. Horror has never been a genre of game I’ve been capable of digesting. It’s like spicy food. I can respect that people enjoy it, but I’ve only ever been able to learn to put up with it in tiny doses. I have never played a FNAF game and, with the exception of FNAF World, I don’t think I ever will, yet I would say I have fond memories of the franchise. 

To be clear, I will mostly be referring to the games up until FNAF 4. I began losing interest in the series around FNAF 5 and while I have been caught to speed on the lore surrounding stuff like Afton and Henry, it’s just not what I grew up with or feel nostalgia for. And I’m more interested in talking about what made this series special to me despite me finding it’s entire premise being literally unpalpable. And I don’t think I’m alone in the camp of kids who grew up with FNAF but never played the games. So, yeah, I wanted to talk about why the series was suited to that.

So, I think I want to make a quick explanation for why I refuse to play the games. First of all, I cannot stand jumpscares. I startle quite easily and I genuinely hate the feeling of adrenaline. Secondly, I just have issues with being walked in on unexpectedly. Probably best to leave it at that. I also just don’t take tension and stress from games particularly well. Like, the mechanic where you have to retrieve your souls on death in Dark Souls 1 managed to stress me out so much that I literally wasn’t able to play the game for several years, and the thing that tipped me back into being able to play was me committing to completely ignoring the mechanic. But yeah, I can’t play FNAF because it would trigger the fuck out of me. And that’s not a slight on the series. Some genres of game are going to be fundamentally inaccessible to some people and FNAF just happens to be that way to me (a lot of the games I’ve played and love will be fundamentally inaccessible to other people for their own reasons). But I think it really illustrates the point that FNAF has an appeal that goes beyond its gameplay. 

It’s sort of the perfect baby’s first horror game. It either started or popularized the Mascot Horror genre, and the game just nailed it perfectly. The entire point of this genre is to be a PG take on the concept of horror. FNAF is just edgy enough to attract the attention of teens, but it isn’t so edgy as to be inappropriate (or unmarketable if you want to view it that way). It’s style of horror isn’t fundamentally terrifying either. The type of fear it invokes is a lot like the Wario minigame Gamer, or rather, the Smash Bros interpretation of it that I’m familiar with. Where the game’s tension and fear is of your parents walking in on you playing video games late at night when you’re not supposed to. While that fear just so happens to trigger the fuck out of me, I’d say for most people it’s a rather comfy and nostalgic sort of fear to invoke. The other thing about FNAF’s horror is how its jumpscares fit into the game design. Jumpscares are generally seen as a cheap source of horror; they exist to startle you, not scare you; they require very little set-up; and they’re extremely easy to get desensitized to, especially when they’re used as a failure state. In other words, they exist to get a reaction out of the player without really trying to frighten them. So, it definitely begs the question of whether FNAF gets away with heavy usage of them because of having a younger skewed playerbase than most horror games or if it does something special with its jumpscares to make them work. Admittedly, I can’t really answer that question due to my limited experience with the horror genre. But what I can say is that FNAF’s jumpscares fit into FNAF’s tone. Like I said, FNAF isn’t a terrifying flavor of horror, it’s a goofy and somewhat nostalgic flavor. So, the usage of jumpscares fits perfectly here. As the jumpscares are the payoff to around one to six minutes of build-up, they also lend themselves really well to Youtube compilations, which is where Markiplier fits in here. I, admittedly, have never seen his lets-play or much of the early FNAF playthroughs. A few weeks ago, I watched an animated clips version of his Joy of Creation playthrough and then proceeded to watch some of the first episode and I can absolutely see the appeal. FNAF’s jumpscares are cathartic, they’re a release of the tension that the game’s built up. I also think the FNAF 1 jumpscares are just, iconic. The scream sound-effect is so goddamn fun. FNAF’s jumpscares aren’t meant to be scary. Going over each one (from the first game), Foxy peeks in and says hi, Bonnie nods angrily at you, Freddy pops up an gives you a hug, Chica stands there and screams, and Golden Freddy is a zoomed in JPEG. Many of the “oh shit” moments in the game outside of those jumpscares is the player going “where’s Freddy” or “oh shit Foxy left the cove” or maybe “oh shit I almost didn’t see Bonnie and Chica standing there.” So, watching all of this play out in a Let’s Play, it’s just fun seeing the player overreact to a goofy little guy screaming its heart out. As a kid, especially, there’s a certain catharsis to Markiplier’s let’s play where you see an adult man shit himself over something that’s not scary. It’s empowering to a, like, 12 year old to see that because that’s around when you become really aware that adults aren’t all they’re cracked up to be. I can totally see why his FNAF content would’ve been so popular through that lens (not to mention that he performances are quite good from the bits that I’ve watched, even if I wouldn’t exactly call his style of content my thing). 

FNAF 1′s story itself is also one built on the types of ghost stories and rumors kids might spread to one-another. The animatronics think you’re an endoskeleton so they stuff you in a suit. That’s,, such a goofy and delightful way for a monster to brutally murder you. Like, it has the same energy as being told as a kid that someone went drowned in the ball pit. Then you dig a little deeper and you learn that there were five kids who were murdered and stuffed in the suits, which caused them to possess the animatronics. In FNAF 1, there’s no further elaboration on their motivations. Maybe they think you’re the killer. Maybe you are. Maybe the dead kids think this is all a game and don’t realize they’re killing you. We didn’t know, but it was fun to speculate. On the level of fucked up shit you can stick into a game, I’d say that five dead children shoved into suits is quite low on the hierarchy, but it’s just edgy and hidden enough to peak interest in kids who’ve scarcely interacted with the upper ends of fucked up. It also creates an interesting dynamic with the monsters. I already talked about how the fear being pulled on is the same fear of your parents walking in on you doing something you’re not supposed to, but now the monsters are more sympathetic than anything. This is compounded by how the original character designs are sitting on the edge between cute and creepy. Ghosts as a monster are quite interesting because no matter how creepy you try to make them, there will always be an edge of sympathy directed towards the character. But in a way, the premise of five children died and possessed these cool monsters is also quite fun. Like, it would sort of be fun to haunt a creepy fursuit and scare the shit out of some guy. Which I think is what helped inspire so many of the music videos around the series. I remember Groundbreaking’s Mangle song and TryHardNinja’s It’s Me song quite fondly. These songs weren’t trying to sell the horror of the characters. Rather, the songs have an air of playfulness and are like “fuck yeah”. They’re bops, in other words. This is definitely the side of the fandom I was more drawn towards. And that side could only happen because of the charismatic monsters.

The way that early FNAF went about its mysteries and hidden lore was to make the premise clear as day, the important plot beats slightly obscured, and then leave the details up to interpretation while probing the audience to speculate on it. One of the biggest mysteries in early FNAF was “who did the bite of 87″? In the larger picture, it doesn’t really matter. But it’s still a fun invitation to speculate who, how, and why. FNAF 2 did an excellent job at propelling the Bite of 87 mystery while also introducing a new mystery for us to chew on, purple guy. Who is this guy? Why did he kill five children? During FNAF 2, this guy could’ve been anyone from one of the protagonists to Phone Guy to some random nobody. Those possibilities made him iconic. But like with the Bite of 87, the mysteries around him are the details and flavor text. It’s the type of question that invites both theories and fanfictions, overlap between the two. I think that’s sort of magical because you know that there were people who were inspired to take up writing from writing FNAF fanfiction. Same way some people got into horror because of the games. The way the game’s mysteries are set-up and played out remind me of creepypastas. FNAF definitely isn’t the first or the last thing to invoke the idea of cute thing that’s secretly dark and disturbed, but it was a good execution on the concept, and it invited a lot of community engagement running over every little detail. 

I know it’s a criticism of the game that selling horror to kids is immoral, but I can’t say I agree with that. Kids are going to be interested in horror. Maybe because it’s a taboo, maybe because horror has an appeal to people and kids are people. There’s nothing particularly traumatizing about FNAF (there’s not even blood, which if I’m being honest, I don’t think should be as taboo as it is). It doesn’t carry heavy concepts on its back. If anything, it’s a safe space for kids to be edgy kids, which I can only see as a good thing. The early games, and especially FNAF 1, just carry themselves with a juvenile sense of fear that makes them incredibly charming. I think that’s why the games caught on as hard as they did. I can’t speak for future entries or other mascot horror ips, but I can say that FNAF 1 was a legitimately good game that deserved the popularity that it got.

[lil-melody-moon]

i noticed some gaming stuff in ur posts, as well as all the game songs in your response to my ask :D i apologize as i am not much of a gamer myself (roblox is pretty much the only game i play ever) but do you have any favorite games?

-pickle

I kind of went overboard with the music from games - I went past the limit on post, can you believe that? XD - but you asked about instrumentals and games have the best one in my opinion <3

Oh yes I do! I will give you my top 5 - it might change in the future, but ya know, let's stick to today:

Earthbound - first jrpg I have ever encountered. Tiny me had luck to come across a Polish youtuber who made a let's play from it and translated everything to Polish - the guy even made special cards for enemies, just so everyone could know what he's fighting with. But overall, it's a game with a very simple plot. A bunch of kids who are on an adventure to save the world. What makes the game so good is the mechanics, music and graphics, which still holds up to this day. SNES era, my beautiful pixels <3 Also, it was always a game that made my childhood dream come true. Just to have some friends and go on an adventure with them

Final Fantasy VII - first of the Final Fantasy series I've played and first game that made me come back to jrpgs for real. I'm a big fan of the original. The story, the characters, the freaking music in this one, everything is just so good. Bosses are challenging, especially if you play a jrpg with action time battle for the first time, but everything is constructed in a way that you are thrown in the fight and you can figure it out by yourself. No major tutorials, just figure it out by yourself. I've played the European version, heard it's easier than the US and Japanese version, but I might be insane enough to try the US version and see if it's really that much difficult or my friend just sucks at. Also, I love me some polygons <3 It's also the game that made me realize that the "you know you're fucked when latin choir joins the boss's music" is very true

Silent Hill 2 - while not a big fan of horror games, this one deserves a spot there. Not only music is great, but this is the only game that can scare the shit out of me. And no, not because of monsters - although there is one I just freaking HATE - but because of the atmosphere. The game can literally trick you into false sense of security, just to throw you out of the safe bubble, into a hole with no exit. Not only you're confused as to why James - the main protagonist - came back to the town, but also you wonder almost blindly through the town, can only relay on yourself and no one else. Locations change to worse - I'll not only mention the hospital, but also the labyrinth where you have no map and you are forced to navigate through it while the map is drawn - and the game literally scares you with sound and atmosphere only. You can literally jump at the mere sound if you're playing in the dark

Rayman 3: Hoodlum Havoc - that one deserves a spot there, because it was my first platformer game which I fell in love so much that when I got my hands on the copy of it in junior high I literally finished it 15-20 times in a row. I love the stupid plot, I love the Polish dub in this game, the graphics are still holding up and they are very good and the music is just as it should be: good, otherworldly, setting the atmosphere just right. There's also the first villain in video games that I liked and I still love this idiot!

Kirby's Return to Dream Land - oh God, do I love this game! It's below Rayman just because of nostalgia, but just like Earthbound, it's a must play each year, WHICH reminds me that I didn't play it this year and I gotta, I just gotta. Either way, the graphics are cute and colorful, the music is so great I can't get enough of it, even after so many years of hearing it, the plot is simple, but GOOD LORD THE VILLAIN! I might say that that one dark lum from Rayman 3 got me, but this one? Freaking Magolor? I might be insane about Keith Moon, but I am as much insane about this small orb - I still want a plushie of him

[djemsostylist]

Okay, so controversial opinion, but the Peter Jackson Lord of the Rings movies were absolutely terrible. Particularly as adaptations. Like, completely butchered characters and theme in every way that mattered. But they also played a huge role in my childhood/teens, and it makes me feel some type of way.

Like many, I was young when the LotR movies came out, and like many, they fill me with warm feelings of nostalgia. I still feel something when I hear the Breaking of the Fellowship, I still feel soft when I hear Concerning Hobbits. I still love Arwen's dresses, and the Ride of the Rohirrim still gives me a rush. That Jackson pulled off something previously thought undoable goes without saying. And many of the elements were fantastic. The costumes, most of the armor, many of the set pieces, the music. Watching Fellowship will always make me feel warm.

But that doesn't excuse the fact that, no matter how warm and safe those movies make you feel, they were terrible adaptations. The mere fact that they didn't include the Scouring of the Shire shows that they completely misinterpreted the entire theme and purpose of the story. Add to that making Aragorn and Gandalf the main characters (they gave Aragorn this entirely weird and unnecessary story arc because he didn't really have one in the books, which is like yeah, because he is not the main character and we are already at the end of his story), the fact that they spent the entirety of the Two Towers on Helm's Deep and the way they turned most of the "creeping horror" scenes into "let's drop 80 billion skulls from the ceiling bc it's spooky right" and I'd argue it's hard to disagree that the films pretty much butchered LotR.

Now, bear in mind that I'm not saying you shouldn't like them. I suspect that most people who love them do so for two reason (or both)--either they bring up warm memories of a younger you experiencing the joy of a beloved story come to life on screen and the viewing of them now evokes warm feelings, or it was baby's first fantasy (like the absolutely atrocious Game of Thrones for many a modern watcher) and it was just like wow. Whatever the reason, liking the movies isn't inherently a bad thing. As I've said many a time before--just because you like a bad thing doesn't make it a character flaw against you. But, and this is important, even Tolkien would agree that the Jackson movies were terrible adaptations--and we know this from letters written before his death, where he literally (and perhaps somewhat presciently) described scenes and adaptation choices he disagreed with (many of which mirror choices Jackson made verbatim--for example, he describes one script he read with the Weathertop scene (a near exact replica of Jackson's, only many, many years before) and how it completely butchers the tone and feeling he was trying to evoke. He also says that if pressed for time, removing Helm's Deep would be acceptable, bc it's sort of a skippable battle that could likely just be mentioned in passing to focus on the parts that matter.)

So whether or not you like the trilogy is sort of irrelevant. Your liking of it doesn't mean it was good. And to be clear, I still enjoy watching watching. I found most of his choices (casting, costuming, music) to be solid (though there are a few casting headscratchers) but his characterization is mostly awful, as are his changes. But I would never claim "this feels like Tolkien" because it fundamentally does not. Just read Book 1 of Lord of the Rings, and the difference is already astounding, tonally. And that is to say nothing of the way the themes of the story are sort of universally thrown aside.

But lately the primary comments I have seen from people who ~loved~ Rings of Power are three-fold: either people are haters bc they miss the PJ version of Middle-Earth, people are haters because they are racist incel men, or that haters don't matter bc the good Sir John Tolkien himself would have cried in rapturous glee to see his works so loving captured and beautifully rendered onscreen. And they are all wrong.

Look, are there racists who hate it? I mean yeah I have no doubt, but I'll also say that as someone who has been following this disaster from the get go, I find far more people talking about evil racists than...actual racist remarks. I'm not saying they don't exist (those sort of people certainly do) but I also think it was a way of shutting down haters "people only hate bc they are racist". Are there people who are disappointed that they didn't deep fake Young Huge Weaving a la Tony Stark and make him play younger Elrond whilst hiring a virtually unchanged Cate Blanchett to reprise her role while they flitted around in long wigs and velvet gowns? I'm almost certain.

But by and large, I think people who are "haters" are haters bc either it was crappily done, or are haters because, and this is important, it's not Tolkien. It's a fanfic of a fanfic, and a poorly done one at that. It's an AU if Middle Earth was a DnD land.

Rings of Power (love it or hate) is an abysmal adaptation of Tolkien. And it's not just because they don't have rights to 98% of what they need to make this story viable, it's because once again, they fundamentally do not understand the underlying theme and vibes of Tolkien. Galadriel not being a Commander is important. The Hobbits (I know they are Harfoots, fuck off, they should be Fallowhides anyway per the source material they actually do have the rights to) are not. Gandalf if not even a minor player, Celeborn is a major one. Sauron isn't a spooky serial killer haunting their dreams (although given they have no rights to Annatar I guess Steve the gym rat serial killer was the best choice). Elves keeping humans in permanent open air prison camps for generations never happened. Elrond would not have been dismissed from any council for not being a lord (given, you know, his parentage), Gil-Galad could never have even offered Galadriel a chance to the return to the homeland, and Findrod died in defense of Beren. Also, you know, the second age wasn't about funny sit-com dwarves (a truly bizarre interpretation that everyone loves but I can't figure out where it comes from since Tolkien dwarves are not even close to being comedic buffoons), bird's nest wearing hobbit types, and weirdly blond Elrond being an architect and gal pals with his future mother in law.

So you can like it, it can make you feel all warm and fuzzy and yadda yadda, but please, for the love of god, stop trying to claim it feels like Tolkien. "Oh they used flowerly language" okay, so did Spartacus but I'm not out here claiming that Claudius Glaber made me think about Fingolfin. This is not, and will never be Tolkien. This is an antithesis of quite literally everything he would have imagined for this. Stop trying to justify liking it with fabricated claims. If you like it, like it, but lying to yourself helps no one. I've said this before (and I realize the irony coming on the heels of a post entirely about justifying why I hate something but you know)--not everything has to be justified. Maybe you watched RoP and it made your heart tingle. Maybe you watched it and made you want to vomit. (The latter seems more likely). But Tolkien it aint, and I think that people have a right to feel justifiably upset at what they did to the material, to the fact that this show is clearly a part of a larger Hollywood thinktank designed to print money and generate talking points, and worry about the long term impact on public perception of Tolkien. Because, and again, perhaps this is a controversial opinion, but the vast majority of people are going to know Tolkien via the movies, not the books. I literally know someone who was doing a podcast about their favorite stories and did an entire episode about Lord of the Rings, but only the movies because they had never been able to get through the books. That is a problem because while the books will always be there, public perception and knowledge of them will always be superseded by the alternate public perception. The Jackson Trilogy is proof of that.

[stillhavetodothat]

Replaying Nancy Drew without cheating - Part Trois: Treasure in a Royal Tower

Mere words are not enough to convey how excited I was to replay this game again, this time without a single lifeline. I hold this game up on a pedastal, and I always wonder if, in hindsight, it really is that good, or if I am letting nostalgia guide my memories. But nope, this game is just as good the one billionth time around, especially given that it is only the 4th game in the entire series.

And how was the one billionth playthrough, you ask?

To start, this is a game I know SUPER well, probably better than almost any other game, so there were a few times where I would do something before I had seen something else or talked to someone, like I was supposed to, and it would mess my timeline up a little bit. I’d have to fast-forward 24 hours when, for example, I couldn’t find Jacques anywhere when I was forced to ask him without pay to defrost the drumsticks (cluck, cluck), or when I asked Professor Hotchkiss to translate Marie Antoinette’s journal without having been in her room first. There were a couple times in those types of scenarios where I panicked and ALMOST THOUGHT about looking it up online, because I have heard horror stories on the www of players doing one task out of order, or forgetting to do something at a certain point, where the entire game is RUINED due to an unresolved bug. As you can imagine, and have probably experienced yourself, nothing is more tedious than when you think you’re on a roll, but you then have to replay a large segment of game because you messed up irreparably or you didn’t save before exiting.

Anyway, the point is, my game was never ruined, and I was able to continue on, cheat-free, for the rest of the game.

Here are some of my thoughts as I played through this absolute beaut of a game:

1. My sister and I, when we used to play this game together at ages 7 and 11, respectively, loved Dexter Egan. We were able to see past that grumpy exterior into the soft and squishy heart within. In fact, we would literally say to each other (all the time): “Oh, Dexter! Keep me warm in the dead of night!” I do not know where that came from or why we would always say it, especially at ages 7 and 11 respectively, but I do know we thought it was hilarious and our mom was always confused.

2. Ezra Wickford making an entire scrapbook of the bad things Dexter did as a kid with a bunch of angry comments scribbled in the margins is one of the weirder things I’ve ever seen. This guy had to have been a horrible father. I know Dexter is sad and misses him and whatever, but he should probably be seeking help for childhood trauma.

3. A very gruff “a while” is one of my favorite quotes from this game, as well as “Oo la la! I do believe I’ll peep!” and “Your mind is like a ravenous monkey gobbling up every banana in its path!"

4. This game has a LOT of really cool elements. Getting stuck in the elevator and having to alley-oop yourself up a floor through the elevator shaft? Genius. Getting stuck out in the cold and having to think fast and start the ski lift? Exhilarating. Professor Hotchkiss, just in general? *Chef’s kiss* Professor Hotchkiss in the book is a mostly normal old man who never asks for couscous through the door, so thank god the game developers took some liberty with that character. Possibly the most icon Nancy Drew suspect of all time??

5. Speaking of couscous, I am so confused how Dexter doesn’t know what couscous is?? I used to think it was the most random, exotic, wacky food out there as a kid because of this game, but no, it’s really just a relatively commonly used grain? It’s not a meal, but then again, neither is 50 drumsticks.

6. I absolutely loathed this puzzle as a kid, but really came to love it in adulthood. Maybe I haven’t lost all my brain cells after all.

7. Another way I have noted that I’ve grown: when I was younger and Jacques would get angry at me for losing his medallion after getting literally ASSAULTED in the middle of the night in the locker room, and then proceed to give me the silent treatment for the rest of the game, I desperately wanted some kind of prompt to ask for his forgiveness and get him flirting with me again. Now I feel perfectly happy telling Jacques to go fuck himself. Little Miss Nightmare, my ass.

8. The culprit in this game is another bore (not quite Louis Chandler-level, but close). I feel like even 20 years ago I knew who done it from the beginning. Lisa lied continuously (”Too bad I’m so useless with foreign languages!” moments after I just read a letter sent to you entirely in Spanish), sent you out to die in the cold, has nothing better to do but read about Mattie Jensen...all signs point to her being the bad guy. Yawn. And I am offended at the end when Nancy says that she can’t believe she almost befriended Lisa...like were there any conversations between them that gave anyone the impression that they were just a couple chats away from being FRIENDS? 

9. I am bummed, however, that the scene in the end where we find out Lisa is the culprit is not true to the book. Here we just get sprayed with pepper spray and then spend the next 10 minutes asking questions that Lisa then patiently waits around to answer. In the book, Lisa and Nancy literally have an actual karate fight, right there in the Queen’s Tower. It is hilarious. I guess they gave us something like that in DAN, but something about the way it was written cracked me up.

10. Overall just an amazing game. The castle has always felt super cozy to me, and I always felt very at home wandering the corridors there. The atmosphere is awesome, you learn about some French history, you’re put in a few really scary situations that you have to figure your way out of. The game feels a lot longer than MHM, and there’s a lot more to do and to explore and to discover -- I think since I don’t love MHM, and I usually play this game right afterwards, this game always stands out to me as absolutely stellar, and was my top favorite for a really, really long time, and is definitely still in my top 5.

Next up...The Final Scene, a game that seems very popular with this community. This one was also always in my top 5, so I’m really excited to jump in and not cheat!

[7theavenbye]

*  𝙶𝙴𝚃𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶  𝚃𝙾  𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆  𝚃𝙷𝙴  𝙼𝚄𝙽  :

NAME :  victoria  NICKNAME : tori, vivi, vick . . . . FACECLAIM :   idk,  coconut  head ? PRONOUNS :  she / her or they / them HEIGHT :  5′4  (163 cm)  BIRTHDAY :  april 24th

AESTHETIC :    wait.  aesthetic in  a  sense  of  my  aesthetic , tifa  or  what  i  think  of aesthetics ?     (¤﹏¤)    is  the  3rd  option  safer   probably.  well  I  think  as  long  as  you’re having  fun,  as  long  as  you’re  comfy  exploring  your  character  aesthetic  you  can  do  anything  you  want,  if  it  is  100%  required  to  rp  with  me?  DEFINITELY NOT. 

LAST  SONG  YOU  LISTENED  TO :    rhinestone  eyes,  gorillaz

FAVOURITE  MUSE(S)  YOU’VE  WRITTEN :  zatanna zatara, lulu ( ffx ), yuna, marshall eriksen, eileen galvin  &  sam (totally spies)

*  𝙶𝙴𝚃𝚃𝙸𝙽𝙶  𝚃𝙾  𝙺𝙽𝙾𝚆  𝚃𝙷𝙴  𝙰𝙲𝙲𝙾𝚄𝙽𝚃 :

WHAT  INSPIRED  YOU  TO  TAKE  ON  THIS  MUSE :  nostalgia.  FFVII  is  definitely  a  game  that  symbolizes  of  my  childhood  and  how  much  I  had  any  to  worry  unless  escaping  MIDGAR  ZOLOM  TO  REACH  MYTHRIL  MINES  or  if  there  was  a  way  to  escape  Aerith’s  death  cause  i  was  naive  like  that  ( says  the  human  being   that  stalls  reaching  to the end of disc 1 so she doesn’t see her favorite flower girl dying and tifa reaching her hand  to  her  face and  later  running  cause  that’s  how  she  is  :  emotions ?  NOPE  *races*  )    but anyway, I  think  clinging  onto  Tifa’s  character  does  bring  me  a  comforting  energy  in  all senses.  I  indeed  used  to  comb  my  hair  and  tie  the  tips  to  look  like  her  and  Princess Garnet,  so  the  admiration  still  remains.  So  summarizing,  Tifa  does  have  a  big  role  in  my  life  and  she  inspires  me  to  be  a  better  person    . . .   I  hope  this  doesn’t  sound  silly  but  if  does  I’m  sorry  folks  but  I’m  that  cliché  cause  of  everything  she  has  been  through  that’s  just   admirable.

WHAT  ARE  YOUR  FAVOURITE  ASPECTS  OF  YOUR  CURRENT  MUSE:  I have a huge list of tifa’s favorite aspects,  what drove me to write tifa the most is even with a traumatic past she still remains kind and doesn’t close herself to people in terms of shutting off or having limited interactions, as much as she keeps to herself her emotions and feelings, she has a facade of keeping moving on and I think that’s so inspiring.  The way she represents to sector 7, like a true heroine to them,  a helper, even though she is always putting other needs before hers which is not healthy at all she still remains so STRONG. I think we would all be blessed if we had a friend like Tifa Lockhart, remember the mideel scene? WTF. That woman is literally an angel. But at the same time one of my favorite aspects of her is not just her strenghts but also her flaws cause they make her so human to me. I remember a scene in Golden Saucer where Red XIII is doubting of his abilties cause HOJO and Tifa tells him to be strong and when he questions her she is just STOP IT, RED XIII  ! BE STRONG ! in all caps lock cause she also has an edge y’know ? And don’t make me start on her fighting skills cause women with hand in hand abilities are my kryptonite.  So yes, I do love that Tifa can be soft but if you step on her toes . . .  damn you’re cursed.  

WHAT’S  YOUR  BIGGEST  INSPIRATION  WHEN  IT  COMES  TO  WRITING:   i like looking at tifa’s arts on twitter: spykee, s_maii_i, jenbartel, _shillo, xxx_7R  &  kikifjwr  ( these last two only illustrate CLOUD so far, but I’m innerly manifesting them to draw Tifa )  are definitely my favorite artists and also on pixiv.  Music, I love listening to Final Fantasy OSTS in general usually I opt for FFIX, FFVII & FFX songs cause they’re super chill for me (well a few let’s not forget ONE WINGED ANGEL) or Silent Hill OSTS are my favorite to focus cause for a horror game they’re so pleasing to my ears. I also sometimes goes to tifalockhartedit hashtag on instagram cause seeing my gurl in slowmo in Play Date’s song it does balance my chakras when I see Tifa content and reading fanfics in general inspires me to write cause I do get excited to see other tifa’s interpretations and ideas + people who love tifa like has a dear spot in my heart. Photoshop weirdly helps too cause editing Tifa ( firstlovetifa bro. . . )  or her aesthetic does bring ideas & last, replay the games or watching the movie or reading the novels. 

FAVOURITE  TYPES  OF  THREADS : I don’t really  have  a  favorite  ty . . .   ANGST.   *phew phew *    Tagged by: @aceparagon  (thank you  !  ) Tagging:   @gainsborro  .  @webslings  .  @asakishi  .   @hercbled​   &   you   !

[txtdiaries]

extra elongated tag game O.o

tagged by the main bitch @gohyuck​ thanku ray ily

tagging: @hi-mishamigos​ @sweetsoobinie​ and @bffsoobin​

O N E

tell me the first song that made you stan your current fave group and why did your faves attract you so much?

ummm I’ll go with three groups: txt, nct, and ateez. for txt the song was crown I think! nct (dream) was boom (even tho I stanned long before it was released, boom locked me in) and for ateez it was HALA HALA.

—

TWO

rule: answer the ten questions and write your own!

what’s your unrealistic goal for life?

to be a millionaire by like,,, 30.

if you had known that we would be in a global pandemic, what’s one thing that you would’ve done before things shut down (if they have for you)?

My heart says miss more days of school but my brain says hang out with friends more.

what’s an unconventional thing that you carry around with you when you go out?

I always carry headphones around even if I never use them when I go out, just incase.

favourite type of plushies and why?

the long, super plush kind that mold to your touch.

favourite song right now?

selfish by madison beer (not my FAV but I’ve been listening to it a lot lately).

something that you’ve always wanted to learn?

how to not be so irritated at everyone all the time lmao.

tell a funny story about yourself (or just something that you’ve witnessed)

IM A CLOWN idk if I have any funny stories per say??? my whole life is just kinda tragic. the first story that popped into my head: once in high school my best friend and I snuck out of an assembly and hid in the bathrooms because we hated our school and everyone else in it (+ couldn't leave campus cause we couldn’t drive yet), so we stayed there for the rest of the hour just playing music and hanging out in the handicap stall. not funny but shows the kinda person I was in hs lol.

headphones or speakers? why?

headphones most of the time but speakers when I’m in my room writing at like 2 a.m.

craving any food right now? what are you craving?

at all times I am craving chicken alfredo

which music streaming platform do you prefer? why?

I use Spotify!

ten questions (by raya, answered)

1. favorite item of clothing?

I really like a lot of my long trench coat jackets I have! I think they’re rly classy and pull an outfit together.

2. if you had to smell like one scent for the rest of your life what would it be?

Lavender OR the oatmeal and shea butter body wash I use bc it smells lovely.

3. favorite painter? why?

I don’t really have one.

4. what’s your favorite horror movie (and if you don’t like horror, why not?)?

Silent Hill just bc it was the first ever like, FUCKED horror movie I ever watched without my parents.

5. iphone or android?

Iphone.

6. favorite tiktok trend (and if you don’t like tiktok, you can talk about how much influencers suck)?

I don’t have tik tok nor do I like it but I REALLY like the one trend where people play i’m just a kid by simple plan in the background and recreate their kid pictures (only bc I’m a nostalgia enthusiast lmao).

7. if you could wake up with any new ability what would it be?

I’d want the ability to time travel / teleport.

8. favorite superhero/supervillain/antihero?

Peter Parker / Spiderman has been my favorite since I was a kid (Tom Holland is v cute and amazing, but my personal fav is Andrew Garfield just bc his Peter was so SOFT and patient and dorky).

9. if you could only dress in one color for the rest of your life which color would it be?

black.

10. who’s your ult and give me five reasons why.

my ult is na jaemin (he’s the literal sun, his smile is beautiful, he’s fkn weird, he’s patient, and he’s kind).

ten questions of my own:

what is your favorite movie of all time?

describe your childhood in three words?

favorite holiday?

favorite vacation spot?

what do you think of the education system? are u a fellow slave to the gpa?

what is your hair color?

what talent do you wish you had?

what is your major + why (if you’re in hs, what do you plan on majoring in)?

do you like kids or do you merely tolerate them?

any pets?

—

THREE

rule: bold the statements that apply to you, italicize your aspirations, then tag nine people.

AIR ༉⋆͙̈

i have small hands / i love the night sky / i watch animals and birds when i pass them by / i drink herbal tea / i wake to see the dawn / the smell of dust is comforting / i’m valued for being wise / i prefer books to music / i meditate / i find joy in learning new truths from the world around me

FIRE ༉⋆͙̈

i don’t have straight hair / i like to wear ripped jeans and overalls / i play an organized sport / i love dogs / i am not afraid of adventure / i love to talk to strangers / i always try new foods / i enjoy road trips / summer is my favorite season / my radio is always playing

WATER ༉⋆͙̈

i wear bracelets on my wrists / i love the bustle of the city / i have more than one set of piercings / i read poetry / i love the sound of a thunderstorm / i want to travel the world / i sleep past midday most days / i love simply lit dinners and fluorescent signs / i rewatch kids shows out of nostalgia / i see emotions in colors not words

EARTH ༉⋆͙̈

i wear glasses or contacts / i enjoy doing the laundry / i am a vegetarian or vegan / i have an excellent sense of time / my humor is very cheerful / i am a valued advisor to my friends / i believe in true love / i love this chill of mountain air / i’m always listening to music / i am highly trusted by the people in my life

AETHER ༉⋆͙̈

i go without makeup in my daily life / i make my own artwork / i keep on track of my tasks and time / i always know true north / i see beauty in everything / i can always smell flowers / i smile at everyone i pass by / i always fear history repeating itself / i have recovered from a mental disorder / i can love unconditionally

—

FOUR

the ultimate tag: answer whichever ones you want to because there are a lot and then tag a few blogs you’d like to get to know better!

PERSONAL

name: n/a (lol)

nickname: lana

birthday: April 19 2000

zodiac: aries bitches we ride at dawn

nationality: american (gag)

languages: English, Spanish, some Korean, some French

gender: female

sexuality: idk man. straight? I guess?? (im romantically attracted to males + females but not sexually attracted to females) god. who fkn knows.

height: 5'3 ish

BLOG STUFF

inspiration for muse: idk! music I guess. it gives me lots of inspo

meaning behind my url: I wanted to represent my blog with something really intimate and chronologically laid out, and also personal. txt for Tomorrow X Together and diaries bc diaries are where you tell your deepest secrets and for me personally the first time I ever wrote stories of my own was in my diary when I was young.

blog established: may / june ish of 2019

followers: 987

FAVORITES

favourite animals: dogs, elephants

favourite books: I have a LOT idk I love a lot of the classics

favourite colour: sea foam greenish blue / sea blue / dark coral

favourite fictional characters: theodore finch (atbp), olly bright (everything, everything), four (divergent)

favourite flower: lavender 

favourite scent: lavender, shea butter + oatmeal (I have a body wash that smells like that and oof), and uhhh the smell of fresh laundry???

favourite season: autumn, winter

RANDOM

average hours of sleep: 10 on a good day, 6 on a normal day.

cats or dogs: dogs

coffee, tea or hot chocolate: coffee

current time: 9:46

dream trip: London or SK

dream job: I’d love to work with idols / entertainers in the music industry. I’d also love to be a fashion editor / designer. 

hobbies: writing, reading

hogwarts house: slytherin

last movie watched: wicker park (funny story actually, the airport scene from wicker park influenced the final airport scene in six twenty-four, aha)

last song listened to: the scientist by coldplay

no. of blankets you sleep with: one duvet and one fluffy blanket over the top of that

random fact(s): uhhh I make up the 1% of the population that has all of: the INFJ-T personality type, red hair, and green / hazel eyes.

—

F I V E

5 things i can’t stop listening to (was 10 but I can’t think or find 10 isjfsfk)

selfish - madison beer

not mine - day6

thanxx - ateez

inception - ateez

21 - gracie abrams

[queenofbaws]

Top 5 videogames? =D

ohohoho!!! much like with movies, i’m positive my answer to this changes fairly often BUT...

5. hellblade: senua’s sacrifice - i don’t want to get too deep into explaining this game, because if you’ve never played it, you really just...need to experience it. a young warrior woman named senua goes on a journey to retrieve her lover’s soul from the norse gods that have stolen it away. the game was made specifically to replicate the feeling of experiencing psychosis, and there are really, REALLY intense themes of mental health mixed in. it hit SUPER close to home for me, and literally every time i replay it, i have to take about ten minutes just to cry and feel things. beautiful game. BEAUTIFUL. some horror elements, though, so be careful if that’s not your bag.

4. paper mario: the thousand year door - nostalgia at its finest!!! the graphics and the battle system are just...my fave. something about the whole paper mario series makes me smile and feel all warm inside, but ttyd is absolutely my #1 of the bunch. the characters/companions are just so FUN!!!

3. dragon age 2 - for some reason, this is one of those games that feels like going home for me. i know a lot of people rag on it as the worst of the dragon age franchise, but those people can fight me from a safe social distance outside their restaurant of choice. all of the characters feel like your friends, even (especially???) when they disagree with you, kirkwall feels like home, and i stg every muscle in my body relaxes when i start playing it. plus, varric. 10/10.

2. silent hill 2 - WEIRD AS IT SOUNDS, this is also a “going home” game for me. i’m sure that says something awful about my psyche, lol. the whole vibe of sh2 is just...chill and misty and too easy to get lost in. i love all the characters so, so much, and it’s so easy to understand why they’re in silent hill...but also why you really hope they get out. this is one of those games where i wish i could forget how it ended just so i could experience the ending for the first time again.

1. legend of zelda: ocarina of time - this game absolutely defined my childhood, it was the first game i was able to beat on my own, and just...lord. LORD. i don’t think there’s anything i can say about it that a million other people haven’t said more eloquently before me, so i’ll just leave it at this: i can’t imagine a game ever overtaking this as my #1 XD

ask me my top 5 anything!

[waithyuck]

extra elongated tag game

tagged by @gohyuck my love

tagging: @kwantified @honeyyu @jensungf @renjunwrites @neo-shitty @suingjaehyun

O N E

tell me the first song that made you stan your current fave group and why did your faves attract you so much?

okay so my ult group is nct and I can’t remember what song exactly but i remember not being a stan and LOVING back 2 u so much that I had to look into nct

for bts is was serendipity and blood sweat & tears

ateez was pirate king bc we stanned since debut 😔✊

T W O

rule: answer the ten questions and write your own!

favorite item of clothing?

I own a lot of hoodies but my fav is my dark gray we go up hoodie and it’s big n comfy....yeah

if you had to smell like one scent for the rest of your life what would it be?

I think I would want to smell like vanilla or lavender

favorite painter? why?

frida kahlo bc she embraced everything about herself and did wonderful self portraits

what’s your favorite horror movie (and if you don’t like horror, why not?)?

I don’t like jumpscares so most horror is not to my taste....however give a psychological horror and I’ll go off ab how much I love it (like idk if it’s considered horror but ‘a cure for wellness’ anyone???)

iphone or android?

iPhone dude

favorite tiktok trend (and if you don’t like tiktok, you can talk about how much influencers suck)?

i only go on tiktok for the kpop content I don’t know trends,,,,also can be talk about how most influencers on that app manipulate literal children into giving them money?? for doing absolutely nothing??

if you could wake up with any new ability what would it be?

the ability to read others emotions and make them happy no matter what (call me a corny ass bitch but it’s true)

favorite superhero/supervillain/antihero?

people consider her a ‘villain’ so I’m saying maleficent (from the movie maleficent) bc ??? she fell in love with a man and he fuckin just,,,,did her so dirty and left her broken-hearted and cut off her wings like ??? hell I’d be mad too I’d curse the little ass baby he had with another woman just as fast as she did. also how about that character development??? she cursed aurora but always looked out for her and eventually came to love her?? and that’s the kiss that broke the spell and woke aurora up?? call that motherly love we stan

if you could only dress in one color for the rest of your life which color would it be?

realistically black is prob the way I would go but gray is also a valid option

who’s your ult and give me five reasons why.

oof y’all already know it’s my boy lee donghyuck

1. his vocals??? the vocals alone are enough reason to stan

2. his dancing??? he is so incredibly talented and I love watching him move

3. his hardwork and dedication to his career, like he loves what he does so much and I love seeing him shine (but also like, pls let him sit the fuck down for a sec)

4. his aura and personality !!!!! is just so loveable !!! he brightens the room with his mood-making personality and I’m just in love with him god

5. okay okay now I’ll touch on the fact that he’s so fucking handsome??? a visual king ???? look at that face, look at those legs, JUST LOOK AT HIS BODY PROPORTIONS. PERFECT.

my questions:

what is your favorite memory from your childhood?

If you could travel anywhere in the world with just a snap of your fingers, where would you go and why?

describe your personality in three (3) words.

what is your favorite thing that you have ever read? (anything you’ve ever read counts! fanfiction, poems, novels etc.) why?

are you the studying type of person or the type to just ‘wing it’ when you have a big test coming up?

between bold colors and pastel colors, which do you prefer?

do you live life in the moment or do you plan every action you take?

what is your favorite holiday and why? (all holidays count! across all religions and cultures 😄)

would you rather stay up to stargaze in the middle of the night or wake up early to watch the sunrise?

what is your favorite eye color on another person?

T H R E E

rule: bold the statements that apply to you, italicize your aspirations, then tag nine people.

AIR ༉⋆͙̈

i have small hands / i love the night sky / i watch animals and birds when i pass them by / i drink herbal tea / i wake to see the dawn / the smell of dust is comforting / i’m valued for being wise / i prefer books to music / i meditate / i find joy in learning new truths from the world around me

FIRE ༉⋆

i don’t have straight hair / i like to wear ripped jeans and overalls / i play an organized sport / i love dogs / i am not afraid of adventure / i love to talk to strangers / i always try new foods / i enjoy road trips / summer is my favorite season / my radio is always playing

WATER ༉⋆͙̈

i wear bracelets on my wrists / i love the bustle of the city / i have more than one set of piercings / i read poetry / i love the sound of a thunderstorm / i want to travel the world / i sleep past midday most days / i love simply lit dinners and fluorescent signs / i rewatch kids shows out of nostalgia / i see emotions in colors not words

EARTH ༉⋆͙̈

i wear glasses or contacts / i enjoy doing the laundry / i am a vegetarian or vegan / i have an excellent sense of time / my humor is very cheerful / i am a valued advisor to my friends / i believe in true love / i love this chill of mountain air / i’m always listening to music / i am highly trusted by the people in my life

AETHER ༉⋆͙̈

i go without makeup in my daily life / i make my own artwork / i keep on track of my tasks and time / i always know true north / i see beauty in everything / i can always smell flowers / i smile at everyone i pass by / i always fear history repeating itself / i have recovered from a mental disorder / i can love unconditionally

F O U R

the ultimate tag: answer whichever ones you want to because there are a lot and then tag a few blogs you’d like to get to know better!

PERSONAL

name: samantha

nickname: sam

birthday: march 9

zodiac: pisces sun

nationality: american

languages: english, currently learning korean

gender: female

sexuality: pansexual :)

height: 5’2” (157 cm)

BLOG STUFF

inspiration for muse: music, tv, movies

meaning behind my url: hyuck is doin too much he’s gotta just give me a break and wAIT A SEC = waithyuck

blog established: 2020 but I’ve been on tumblr since 2015

followers: 791

FAVORITES

favorite animals: pigs, cats, dogs, snakes

favorite books: lord of the flies, the great gatsby, hamlet even tho it wasn’t technically a book

favorite color: yellow, orange, pink

favorite fictional characters: gilbert blythe, prince zuko from atla idk who else

favorite flower: sunflowers, carnations, roses

favorite scent: vanilla, citrus, lavender

favorite season: spring or fall

RANDOM

average hours of sleep: like 4-5

cats or dogs: both

coffee, tea or hot chocolate: hot chocolate

current time: 2:23 p.m.

dream trip: seoul, rome, greece in general, london, dublin

dream job: teaching english as a second language, linguist, translator

hobbies: writing, drawing, singing

hogwarts house: hufflepuff

last movie watched: burlesque lmao

last song listened to: kick it - nct 127

no. of blankets you sleep with: 1

random fact(s): my fingers are double jointed lmaO idk

F I V E

10 things i can’t stop listening to

slow down - chase atlantic

watermelon sugar - harry styles

to die for - sam smith

we go up - nct dream

blue side - j-hope

god’s menu - stray kids

inception - ateez

love me right - rendezvous at two

renegade - aaryan shah

HER - chase atlantic

[arcadialedger]

As promised-- 100 things about admin

1. I am really, really short. 4′10 short.

2. Books are my favorite thing in the world-- I am a die hard bookworm, collect them endlessly, read about 3 a week.

3. I had spinal surgery for scoliosis and have Turner’s Syndrome, a chromosomal disorder

4. ASPIRING AUTHOR!

5. I’ve got big blue eyes 

6. Harry Potter is one of the most important things in my life, and literally my childhood. It is my heart, and it is home.

7. I have lived in 10 different houses, because my family loves to move

8. I am a double major in English and Film Studies, hoping to be both an author and work as a creative executive for Walt Disney Animation Studios, or in publishing

9. Boston is my favorite city in America

10. I am very, very Italian- Sicilian. Ciao. 

11. Overprotective cat mom, and crazy cat lady

12. I absolutely adore BBC/ PBS television, and anything British: including Victoria, Downton Abbey, Poldark, and more.

13. Astrological sign is Cancer (July 20th)

14. Lifelong Sherlock Holmes nerd. I adored Arthur Conan Doyle’s stories as a child and the friendship between Holmes and Watson is incredibly important to me.

15. Scholar and lover of all fairytales, folklore, myths, and legends.

16. Yo hablo español. ¿Alguien mas?

17. Language and linguistic studies fascinate me. I love both learning languages and language family trees. The story of history is written within them.

18. History buff and nerd.

19. Proud brunette who wishes she was ginger.

20. Youngest sibling of three girls.

21. I just realized I never said my name so hi, my name is Katie.

22. I am a die hard Whovian. Like, huge Doctor Who nerd.

23. INFJ, 4w3 personality. 

24. Alongside Harry Potter I grew up with Percy Jackson, which I love wholeheartedly to this day. The nostalgia I feel with that series-- man.

25. My best friend is @shadowqueendiangelo and I love her. We’re platonically married.

26. I love film history and learning about film techniques. 

27. Connoisseur of all period fashion.

28. I’m kind of obsessed with red lipstick.

29. Active member of the YA book community.

30. I’m a barista!

31. I am a barista because I love coffee and drink too much of it.

32. Only 19 but my mind is older.

33. Speaking of which, I am a theatre kid, and live for the stage.

34. I love Broadway and musicals.

35. Besides musicals/ Broadway, I was born and raised on country. I also love 80′s rock, and am an absolute classical nerd.

36. Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are my two favorite artists.

37. Shakespeare aficionado and lover.

38. Big Stranger Things fan and 80′s nostalgia junkie.

39. Would live in Victorian England if I could.

40. Proud Christian, of Catholic and Jewish ancestry. 

41. Very, very pale.

42. I practically live in preppy dresses and skirts.

43. Self proclaimed hobbit, and LoTR fan/ Tolkien scholar.

44. I suffer from severe OCD.

45. I play the piano.

46. I used to do archery, and was very good. I hope to take it up again.

47. Lifelong New Englander.

48. My favorite color is blue.

49. Huge HTTYD fan-- like, ridiculously obsessed.

50. Jane Eyre is my favorite classic outside of Sherlock Holmes, as well as the works of Austen, The Odyssey/ The Illiad, Little Women Frankenstein, Anne of Greene Gables, Beowulf, The Great Gatsby, and Alice in Wonderland.

51. I LOVE GAME OF THRONES AND A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE.

52. ^Arya Stark is my GIRL^

53. Obsessed with Queen Victoria because she was a short, stout, brunette blue eyes woman like me.

54. I long to travel abroad, and have serious wanderlust

55. I am absolutely obsessed with not only history but culture. I considered going into cultural studies for a long time.

56. Secretly a wannabe historian.

57. I collect coffee mugs.

58. For a Christian I am oddly obsessed with everything pagan and absolutely love Halloween/ Salem culture (us New Englanders have the best Halloweens!)

59. I’m a sketcher and a cartographer!

60. Had a childhood obsession with Pixie Hollow Fairies. Still kind of do.

61. I AM A HUGE DISNERD! I want to work for Disney, and am super passionate about not only their animation, but the history of the company and the parks.

62. I am very passionate about animation as a whole. I adore foreign animation, and anything highly stylized which stretches the reaches of the art form.

63. Guillermo del Torro’s Pan’s Labyrinth is my favorite film, and GdT is one of the all time favorite creators.

64. Avid reader and lover of Agatha Christie.

65. Art museums are one of my favorite places on the planet. They’re cathartic to me, and help my anxiety.

65. I absolutely love the solar system, constellations, astronomy, and astrology.

66. I have a deep connection with the ocean. It is home to me. Not only do I just love everything nautical, I love old maps, seafaring tools, ship wheels and ropes. I’ve been on SO many ship tours it’s ridiculous. The sound of the ocean waves and an endless horizon before me is pure magic.

67. There are few things I adore more than a starry night sky.

68. Other favorite shows not yet mentioned include A Series of Unfortunate Events (first the books then the series), The Umbrella Academy, Merlin, Lost, Reign, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica, Broadchurch and Vikings.

69. Star Wars and MCU fan.

70. I am starting to run out of ideas for this.

71. Middle grade was my golden age of reading, and middle grade books will always have a very special place in my heart.

72. I can best be described as passionate, stubborn, sassy, caring, and complex.

73. I have an incredibly aggressive and confrontational personality. I have been frequently called a chihuahua. 

74. I am half blind. My eyesight is awful, I need to update my glasses prescription yearly.

75. Right handed. Boring, I know.

76. I grew up playing soccer/ in a hardcore soccer family, and am now super passionate about fitness and working out. I work out 6 days a week and love it.

77. I love to sleep. Like, a lot.

78. I have to take Vitamin D supplements during the winter or I will pass out often.

79. Favorite foods include: pizza/ any Italian food, any seafood, eggs/ egg sandwiches, burgers, ribs, mac and cheese, dumplings, and grilled chicken. I also love anything corn (including corn bread and muffins), potatoes, and LOVE all fruit besides pineapple. 

80. Speaking of which, if you put pineapple on pizza my Italian ass will COME FOR YOU.

81. Ungodly introverted, but also very outgoing and social.

82. I continue to go my therapist mostly because of her dog and she is well aware of this.

83. I just really love animals in general.

84. Koalas are my favorite animal.

85. I tend to stick to canon shipping, and I kind of hate fan fiction. Nothing against it, I just find it stupid. 

86. One of my goals in life is to not only visit multiple countries on each continent, but to be at least trilingual.

87. I have crazy long eyelashes, and love to emphasize this with mascara. It’s one of the few features about myself I like.

88. Hopeless romantic who has never had a boyfriend and dreams of falling in love/ having a fairytale romance.

89. I have a stuffed Toothless gifted to me by my best friend-- I feel this is oddly important.

90. My favorite art form (as in literal art, drawing/ painting) is charcoals. 

91. I have always felt I would be good at knife throwing and have wanted to learn. 

92. Hermione Grander, Belle, Jane Eyre, Hiccup Haddock, Jo March, and Elizabeth Bennett are my heroes.

93. Nicknamed Angsty Yoda. (I really am an angsty Yoda).

94. I’m a big fan of ballets, operas, and arias. 

95. I love school. A lot. It’s kind of my element. 

96. My dream career (a writer) has stayed the same since I was 3 years old.

97. My favorite Disney animated film, is The Hunchback of Notre Dame. I also love The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, The Little Mermaid, Tangled, Moana, Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella, Mulan and Hercules.

98. Favorite musicals include: The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Wicked, Les Mis, Into the Woods, Rent, Once on This Island, Phantom of the Opera, Hamilton, The Sound of Music, Anastasia, Hadestown, Bandstand, Cinderella,  Singin’ in the Rain, Newsies, Finding Neverland, The King and I, Fiddler on the Roof, Miss Saigon, The Music Man, Beauty and the Beast, Something Rotten, Once, Jesus Christ Superstar, and Sweeney Todd.

99. I live for the deliciously dark and macabre (yet I hate horror?) Guillermo del Toro and Tim Burton are my favorite creators.

100. Friendship is the greatest love in my life, and what I firmly believe to be the most beautiful, raw, powerful, unconditional love in this world.

[whatisthisnonsense]

Okay you know what I am gonna talk shit in a proper well-thought-out manner because I’m salty and stressed and I may as well channel it into something fun like yelling about anime in an over the top display of angery as befitting this cesspool of a social media platform. This being said I’m gonna do it under a read-more ‘cause most of ya’ll ain’t got time for no negative nonsense and some of you genuinely enjoy Tri, and you know what, I respect you, you’re valid.

Okay so to explain how much I want to throw Bandai into a dumpster, we first need to go back and explain Adventure and the fiasco that was 02.

Digimon Adventure came out in 1999 (March 6th in japan and August 14th in the states, which coincidentally means this show came out exactly on my sixth birthday!) and lasted for about a year, with 54 episodes. The plot was simple; seven punkass grade schoolers turned out to have been chosen by fate to defend the Digital World, an alternate plane of reality created by various forms of digital information (the wee baby internet of the era, for example), mostly to kind of justify Bandai’s V-Pet (Tamogatchis but they’re gross and can FIGHT) and sell toys. So like, Transformers but with more human characters and kickass monsters and sometimes a lesson about the Power Of Friendship. Later, they find out they were chosen because they saw their neighborhood get wrecked by two monsters and Inexplicably Forgot This, as well as the fact there’s actually a missing member of their group (which less than surprisingly turned out to be the leader character’s little sister, who had already been seen in a prior episode and had also been involved in that early monster attack). It was hokey, the english dub generally bordered on that of a proto-abridged series if not aggressively sanitizing things (turning sake into green chili sauce, for example) and it was just good dumb fun and in the end everyone was crying anyway because dammit, while it was dumb fun you still cared about these characters and loved how they grew up. And then came 02.

Hoo boy. Digimon 02 came out in 2000 (April 2nd in japan and August 19th in the states) and lasted for another year or so. While sometimes listed as a second season, in truth it was a sequel series and it had...some interesting ideas, lets say. And I mean that sincerely! They did have some good ideas! But it was pretty clear from the lack of direction and the constant roller coaster of serious and stupid that it was being a sequel for the sake of being a sequel. For example, a whole new super secret crest turned up out of nowhere, which brings up a lot of questions in the lore but is mostly used to prove Ken isn’t irredeemable because he’s a Chosen Child ,as well as the questions about how this Crest is still present and useable and then literally gets no use. No Ultimate Form Wormmon for you, folks, NORMAL digivolution is out! I think I and @yunisverse have made our opinion on how to use that crest better clear while we’re being salty over Wizardmon, ha People have said that it’s big draw was that it had a heavier focus on character development and...yes and no? On the one hand, Ken and Cody’s arcs were genuinely enjoyable, Kindness shenanigans aside, as was occasionally exploring TK and Kari’s trauma, something often brushed over in the original series. On the other hand, more or less the whole of Adventure centered AROUND character growth where in 02 it’s...sporadic. Sometimes even random. However the main two reasons everyone was mad at 02 were these;

The original digidestined that were not Kari or TK got shunted onto the backburner, usually using excuses as they had given up their crest powers sometime between Our War Game and the present (despite that A) this is otherwise disregarding the fact they were supposedly not able to enter the digital world again until 02 and B) the power is literally inside them as part of their core, not something the digiworld actually gave to them, and while it could be diminished it could never actually be removed) or that it was the New Kids turn, often with wildly out of character personality developments. (Looking at you, Sora’s new docileness and Mimi’s lack of involvement in most of the plot period.)

The epilogue, which not only gave everyone really weird future jobs (why is Matt an astronaut?!) but also seemed pretty much out to be as aggressively Happily Ever After without actually stopping to think about any implications or actual lead-ups.

02 usually gets a pass from riding on the Adventure coattails, but everyone still tended to be at least disappointed in what had occurred. Also, more serious takes on Digimon, such as Tamers and some of the games, had been growing in popularity.

Thus Bandai, in it’s infinite wisdom, decided to cash back in on Nostalgia by focusing on the Adventure kids, making them closer to 02 so they’re older and they can therefore do more serious mature takes like Tamers, while also trying to rectify how they would even begin to come around to their epilogue jobs. They do this by killing the 02 cast in the first two minutes.

Welcome to Tri folks! Okay, so the 02 cast isn’t actually dead, but we don’t know where they are for six movies. Six movies!! The most we know for a few years is Ken, for some reason, has reverted to evil! And he has Imperialdramon, which implies Davis is brainwashed too!

He is basically doing this most of the series (which was initially going to be a mini-series before becoming a series of movies which then proceed to often be cut up into episodes, which that alone should tell you the problems BEHIND the scenes much less on screen) and we find out what he is (not actually Ken but an evil Gennai clone which is also out of nowhere) and what he’s doing (apparently bringing Yggdrasil, long time lore big bad of various digimon continuities and also god, into the Adventure storyline) not by efforts of the kids. Oh no. They’re too busy playing with their new friend Mei!

God I wish I was joking. The original squad literally shows no concern for where the 02 gang is until halfway through, and it’s a handwave at best and quickly moved on from. Hell, they barely react to “Ken” and CHEER on defeating Imperialdramon! More gravitas was given to having to kill the plot coupon of the day, Meicoonmon, than someone they actually know and should be upset about. Also making Tai NOT want to rush into a fight (what?), Turns Out Homeostatis Is Also Evil Or At Least Amoral (why), a reveal one of the backstory five original digidestined went mad with grief (no), and also I guess for some reason the kids and digimon were separated again given their reactions despite 02′s ending? That’s. That’s not even keeping your own continuity. Why are you like this. Also connecting to the epilogue just seem to be on a whim (not metaphor, Matt decides to be an astronaut on a whim), the general lack of gravitas in most moments followed by moments of SEVERE gravitas (which is the 02 problem but Worse), and bad jokes. I don’t mean Good Bad Jokes like Adventure, just really not funny jokes. And the real bitch of the matter? It had a few things that should’ve made it AWESOME! Like listen, I miss these idiot kids a lot, and the concept of a virus forcing a reboot on the digiworld and thus having to explore, finally, the digimon as characters and what they would be like without the kids? That’s cool! The idea of undoing all the Perma Digideaths (like WIZARDMON goddammit, and in this own show friggin’ Leomon again) with said reboot and thus having a pretty legitimate reason to allow it? Also cool! Worldbuilding about the previous five digidestined? Neat! And lets be real, you all cried at the cast version of Butter-Fly. You know you did. But the thing is they didn’t DO anything with most of this, or did it in a sloppy way. Example; the virus was basically a means to an end for waking up Yggdrasil (I’m not calling him King Drasil, that’s stupid), right? Why? When the Adventure-verse, often to it’s own detriment, is actively tied to the Milleniumon mythos, you could just pull in that eldritch horror and finally have Ryo make sense everywhere not japan. Or heck, the Dark Ocean! Remember the Dark Ocean? Where literally cthulu is and also Daemon now? Apparently neither do the script writers since that would’ve been a golden opportunity.  Of course, this would be asking for continuity, which Tri has issues with within its own narrative. Remember when I said the reboot should’ve undone all permadeaths? Yeah, Wizardmon still shows up as a ghost later to lead Kari out of trouble. No lines or anything, just pops up facing away from the audience and leads her out, and then vanishes, despite the fact that according to the rules they made up for the reboot, he should be a cute little Mokumon in Primary Village at the moment who remembers nothing. Also it kind of low-key has the vibe that growing up is terrible and results in having to make awful decisions? Which I’m not sure is what they meant to do, but it does pretty much have that end result. And that sucks! Even Tamers didn’t do that! Growing up is HARD, sure, but there are GOOD things about it too, and being Adventure one would think that would be the main focus! Nope. I just. This should have been good and when it was announced I was super excited and now I’m pretty much exasperated by its mere existence. And now we’re getting a sequel after ANOTHER timeskip.

Bandai if this is how you give us a nostalgia feels trip, do us a favor and let Adventure die. You’re just making the sugary memories of childhood have a bitter aftertaste. Or, if you must, just do a proper reboot. Tie up things that actually WERE wrong with the original series and do some clean ups but otherwise leave it untouched. We all know you’re trying to capture the magic twice, guys, you’re not even trying to hide it now. TL;DR, The only parts I like about Tri are Butter-Fly (cast version) and the fact Tai and Matt are gayer than ever

[imsoglitter]

🎠- what is one thing from your childhood that you remember for no real reason? 💐- what is something you think of as a romantic gesture? 🕹️- what video game(s) hold the most nostalgia for you despite no one else feeling the same way?

🎠- My family rolls our easter eggs (read throw with great force down a gigantic hill) because we always make too many to reasonably eat. One time I hit my uncle in the head on accident, and then my other uncle gave me a dollar because he thought it was funny.

💐- So uh, my standards are low, but literally being listened to. I really feel like there’s no greater sign of love than listening to someone rant about what they are passionate about even though you have no clue what is going on.

🕹️- Here is where I must confess to being a Liar and a Fraud, as I wasn’t allowed to play a lot of video games as a child and haven’t really gotten into them personally now either. However, my family had this old atari machine that, in retrospect, had some of the worst games ever on it. The one that is the most distinct in my mind is this one called Circus where you had to move a see saw around and launch clowns off of it in order to pop balloons at the top of the screen. However if you misjudged where to put the seesaw, the clown would literally splatter against the ground. Since it was pixel art, my tiny child brain didn’t comprehend the abject horror of it, and thought it was the funniest shit ever. Here’s a screenshot:

[eggoreviews]

My Top 10 Games of All Time

Just so I’m not talking about Smash Bros for once, here’s my top 10 games of all time that I will always think are perfect and never accept that they have flaws! Enjoy and I hope one of your faves is in here!

Probably spoilers for the games I mention under the cut

10. Kingdom Hearts II (2005)

For those of you unfamiliar with the series, Kingdom Hearts is a big weird crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. I played this game as a kid and it was mostly exploring the Disney worlds and the really good combat system that kept me interested (I had literally no clue what was happening in the story and still kind of don’t) and I never really lost that sense of nostalgia that became attached to this game for me. And yeah I’m definitely getting Kingdom Hearts 3.

9. Life Is Strange (2015)

Life Is Strange is an emotional, cheesily written episodic series that I got into totally by accident about a teenage girl called Max who does some high school stuff and also has superpowers. What really made this game so memorable for me was the sheer emotion behind a lot of the plot and I will admit I cried several points during, which is what made the game stick with me. Plus this has one of the best soundtracks I’ve heard in a game so yeah. Go play it (and everything on this list).

8. Until Dawn (2015)

This game probably doesn’t belong here but I love it. Until Dawn follows 8 teenagers who go back to a snowy cabin where some shit went down the year before and u have to keep them all alive by making the right choices n stuff. The horror factor is good in this game, but it’s mostly the characters and how strangely attached I was to them by the end (I know they’re all tropes but I still love them). I’ve honestly lost count of the amount of times I’ve replayed this. Still probably gonna do it again.

7. Mass Effect 2 (2010)

The sequel to what is basically the space version of Dragon Age is shamefully my only exposure to the Mass Effect series, but the gameplay and characters left enough of a mark on me to give it a comfortable spot in this list. Mass Effect 2 follows Commander Shepard, overly macho space guy/gal who is a terrible flirt as he attempts to rid the universe of some massive insects. Along the way, you run into a huge cast of memorable, unique characters (and then Jacob as well) and explore a wealth of interesting and varying locations. But what really made the game stick out were the genuine lasting consequences of the frankly huge final mission; if you don’t make the right choices and buy the right upgrades, a lot of your faves are going to die.

6. Dishonored (2012)

This entry in my list is a bit cheaty, as it includes all dlc expansions from the first game as well as Dishonored 2, because all of these are just as good as each other. Dishonored puts you in the shoes of self-righteous arsehole Corvo Attano (I’m kidding btw, he’s only an arse if you make him kill everyone) as he gets framed for the murder of his lover who also happens to be the Empress, as well as the kidnap of his daughter who also happens to be the Empress’ daughter. So kind of a big deal. But all joking aside, Dishonored is one of the finest examples of the first person stealth genre, with arguably its only flaw being that it gives you a sprawling variety of fun and interesting ways to kill people and then makes you feel like a monster at the end of the game for doing it. I played this game and its sequels to death, and became especially invested in the character of Daud (who was totally butchered in Death of the Outsider. Yeah, I really wasn’t a fan of that game. Like, I love Billie Lurk and everything but what the hell were they thinking doing THAT to the Outsider?? Sorry I’m rambling)

5. Dragon Age: Origins (2009)

And now to one of the best RPGs I’ve ever played, Dragon Age is fucking amazing from start to finish. A gripping storyline, characters and companions that are impossible to forget and a combat system that’s fairly easy to get to grips with but becomes a bit of an arse later in the game. As much as I liked Inquisition (despite the fact it butchered Leliana. That’s just my hot take I don’t think anyone else thinks this, she just kind of lost that sense of fun and badassery that made her my fave in Origins. Rambling again), none of the other games in the series really matched up to the original for me.

4. Medievil Resurrection (2005)

I’ve been reliably informed that I am Bad And Naughty for loving this version of the game because it’s apparently rubbish compared to the PS1 version. But I loved this game so much as a kid that I played it to DEATH. Like more than Dishonored. The levels aren’t quite open world, but you get so immersed in them that you think they are. Honestly, I’ve never played a game with such a creative concept behind it, with humour that’s surprisingly meta for an RPG of the time, not to mention the fact that there’s a whole level devoted to carnival minigames. Are you not convinced yet? Well, you should be because Tom Baker is a voice in it and it’s coming out as a remaster for the PS4 at some point (I hope it’s soon. It’s gone eerily quiet)

3. Undertale (2015)

I know this is high for such a recent game, but it really has justified its place. I don’t care how much this game or its following has been ruined by the internet, I still hold it in the same regard I did when I first played it (and then bought all the subsequent ports because I’m a Capitalist Sheep). With an amazing narrative, some spicy retro-era graphics, memorable characters and possibly the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard in a game, there’s no way I’m ever getting sick of Undertale.

2. Dragon Quest IX: Sentinels of the Starry Skies (2009)

What sets this game apart from the other RPGs on this list was that not only did it have everything I look for in a game (amazing narrative, characters, soundtrack, game design, combat and open world) but it carried it all out with a sense of emotion I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Every single character, every single detail seemed to be something else you immediately became attached to and it all comes together to make a game so immersive I didn’t put it down for a solid 3 years, even after I’d completed it. Basically, if you own a DS, you NEED to play this. Like you will cry many times throughout this game. Sometimes happy crying (I think I just get a bit too invested in these things tbh)

Before I ramble on incessantly about my number 1 pick, here’s some of the best bois I’ve played that didn’t quite make the list:

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (2017) - I’m loving this game to bits so far. I’m only a recent Switch owner so I’m catching up on what I’ve missed and if this game carries on the way it is, it’s going to have to be in my top 10.

Rayman Legends (2013) - Fun, unique and memorable platformer that especially shines in couch co-op. I’ve played this one countless times and I won’t stop until Rayman gets in Smash.

The Walking Dead series (2012-2018) - One of the best sets of decision based games on the market and perfect if you’re looking for a game that tears your heart out and stomps on it!

Fallout 4 (2015) - Amazing open world, characters and combat. Well-designed, genuinely terrifying monsters. The ability to name your weapons ridiculous things. Heck yeah it’s going on this list.

Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo Tales (2006) - A cute lil card based RPG that was a Final Fantasy spin-off no one seemed to like. But hey, I loved it and I’ll never say it’s anything other than perfect because childhood.

1. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (2006)

Oh my god. Ohhh my god. Where do I even begin with this one? Yes, Skyrim was amazing, but Oblivion just beats it due to a combination of a storyline I prefer (oops sorry), nostalgic attachment and a lovely set of glitches and exploits that to me make the game all the more lovable. There’s nothing I’ve played since Oblivion that’s matched the experience of wandering through a forest or one of the cities with THAT MUSIC in the background. And don’t even get me started on the quests. And that Shivering Isles DLC? Big yes. I knew this segment wouldn’t make much sense but I love the game so much that I can’t even begin to tell you all the things that make it my favourite.

Thank you for reading if you made it this far! It was just me rambling about games really but I appreciate u a lot if you made it this far. Have a good day and if you get the time, pick up one or two of the titles on this list! You bigly won’t regret it.