#long form (no rpgs or etc) until I actually finish MY OWN game first - to keep me from wasting time. so on average

[icewindandboringhorror]

I've referenced before how I have a big google document to keep track of every media I've ever seen in my entire life (just for reference because I like to track everything possible lol… I am the Data Collector), but recently as I was updating it, I thought of actually evaluating them to find out random percentages (like for example, out of Total Shows Watched, what percentage did I finish vs. stop watching, what percentage did I like or dislike, etc.)...

Evaluating these things is made easier by the fact that I already place everything on each subsection of the list into 6 broad ranking categories, so I don't have to go back and guess to figure out how I feel about them or anything. The categories are: Ranking 5 - overall best* (despite some criticisms of course because I'm too much of an Analyzer to ever find anything Perfect lol) Ranking 4 - more positive than neutral, but not good enough to be 5 Ranking 3 - either the good + bad negate each other, OR it's just not memorable/interesting in any way enough to be ranked higher or lower (this is the Default category ALL things are placed in if no other rank applies) Ranking 2 - maybe a few redeemable elements but largely more negatives than positives Ranking 1 - So bad that it circles around to being fascinating to observe in some way (not necessarily Funny, or Good, but just interesting somehow) Ranking 0 - Bad in a genuinely frustrating or obnoxious manner

*("best" primarily defined here as most interesting, rather than most good in a technical sense, or some other measure. I tend to value more highly whether there's something novel or thoughtful about the worldbuilding, tone, writing, base premise, etc - than about whether it's actually executed perfectly.)

And here's the amount of shows that have so far been placed into each category -

TV shows ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 20 shows ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 28 shows ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 114 shows ~ Rank 2 (mid low) -33 shows ~ Rank 1 (low low but intriguingly so) - 14 shows ~ Rank 0 (iredeemably low) - 2 shows

This would make for a total of 211 TV shows overall. However, there are 57 shows within these list marked as "didn't finish" (typically meaning I quit on the very first or second episode - but log them still to keep a record that I at least had a brief view of them).

So my total of genuinely fully watched shows would be more 154. 211 Total, but a More Accurate Total of 154.

Counting them all and using the Total Number Of The List (211) -- that means roughly 9.5% of all total shows I have ever watched (or at least attempted to watch) have been Mostly Good, 13% have been Moderately Okay, 54% have been either entirely Forgettable or some mix of good + bad that lands them right in the Neutral Middle, 15.6% have been Mostly Bad, 6.6% have been Bad (but in an interesting way), and 0.9% have been Terribly Bad.

Additionally, I didn't even get past the first two episodes of about 27% of the total.

Sooo, discounting ones I didn't finish, my total TV shows ever watched in my life would be about 154 (maybe give or take a few, assuming I might have forgotten some from very long ago).

But instead of entire life, let's just say this is the total for 'About 20 Years' (so, not counting very early childhood when I likely wouldn't remember things I saw/have no detailed recollection of them (like for example, I'm sure at some point when I was like 4yrs old I must have seen an episode of Spongebob or something, but I have zero distinct memories of it, can't quote anything of it, and barely recall the premise - so I don't count it on the list, etc.)).

In that case, 154 divided by 20 would be roughly 7.7 shows a year.

Which is actually surprisingly low considering that I often have stuff on in the background for hours whilst I make sculptures and do costumes and stuff (maybe I should have also marked some distinction between 'things I fully paid attention to' and 'things I kind of half listened to whilst sculpting', but that would further split the categories too much probably lol), but I guess a lot of that is youtube videos or random documentaries, so .. eh.. maybe I get it being lower.

Now, doing the same thing for movies-

Movies ~ Rank 5 (highest) - 4 movies (3.4% of total) ~ Rank 4 (mid-high) - 12 movies (10.3% of total) ~ Rank 3 (neutral/default/meh) - 91 movies (78.4% of total) ~ Rank 2 (mid low) - 8 movies (6.8% of total) ~ Rank 1 (low but interesting) - 1 movie (0.8% of total) ~ Rank 0 (irredeemably low) - none in this category (0%)

That makes 116 for a Total (Actually Remembered) Movies Watched In Lifetime (Or At Least In 20 Years).

116 divided by 20 is roughly 5 or 6 movies a year (I feel this has probably been skewed though by adding everything since like elementary school onwards, as I remember a lot more movies from child/teen years.. Whereas, the past 3 years I feel like I've barely seen maybe even 5 movies?? lol). I also have "Didn't Finish" marked on 18 of them. Which means I quit halfway through about 15% of the total movies.

So, a for broader summary stuff..

I seem to be less forgiving to movies than tv shows, by far. Which makes sense to me, I guess, because I love elaboration and details, so "short form" things that only last an hour or two are often lost on me a bit. My biggest complaint with movies is indeed usually walking away just wishing there had been more exposition, more scenes where characters are doing nothing, more "mindless bantering" conversations, more Quiet Downtime and Lore Elaboration and so on lol, so... of course most 1-2hr films end up feeling a bit Not Enough To Draw My Interest/Nothingy to me.

If you count 5 and 4 as "like" and rankings 2 to 0 as "dislike", then for TV shows I at least somewhat liked 48 of them, and at least somewhat disliked 47 of them.. So it's almost exactly the same lol. I'm just about equally as likely to find something bad as I am to find something redeeming about it. But overall, the largest chance is that I just won't really care much for it at all and it will be tossed into the 'neutral' pile, forgotten forever. Movies have a bit better of a balance, "liking" 16 of them, and "disliking" only 9 of them. So I'm slightly more likely to enjoy a movie than to find it annoying - though still VASTLY more likely to just not find it anything in particular, possibly not even finishing it.

ANYWAY.. this is vague and literally pointless, but like I said, I just really find information fun. Like my document where I've rated every apple flavor I've ever tried (like 40 of them now?), or reviewed every oreo flavor (32?), or ranking data from my entire 10 years of Trying To Make Friends process (out of 100 people, roughly 8% chance of a moderate compatibility, 3% chance of high), or etc. etc.. I love to have random pointless things to analyze I suppose lol.

I doubt anyone tracks things in their life in this same exact way, but I'd be interested in hearing any at least somewhat similar data !!! (like, how many TV shows you watch a year on average, and what percentage of those you like vs. dislike (if you keep track of that sort of thing), etc.)). I guess it might be easier with movies, since I think some people use those websites where you curate a list of movies you've seen and you can rate them or something, so maybe the numbers are already available on those places. :0

[wirewitchviolet]

How not to Write a Campaign

I have been playing RPGs for a very long time. Back in the day, I avoided any and all pre-written adventures of any sort because my limited experience with them was... just frankly terrible. Weird inconsistencies in tone, unfair encounter setups, too many assumptions about PCs’ motives and actions, etc. Then much later I discovered a group of writers who actually got it, wrote things perfectly in line with how my friends like a game to go, and we’ve been all in on those for a decade and change. But I just finished running a ROUGH one, and I want something good to come of it.

I don’t want to make this a specific review, because... I’m in the industry, I know the people who wrote this campaign, I can guess at some of the problems involved, and I don’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings or reputation, so let me just refer to the offending prewritten campaign here as the Amnesia Campaign. It’s for a big fantasy RPG, it riffs of a particular author’s work, you can probably guess what it is from that, but, I’m trying.

The first problem I need to bring up with the Amnesia Campaign is that it just commits the cardinal sin of long term RPG campaign writing- The mustache-twirling villain who always manages to escape from the PCs at the last minute. I cannot convey just how important it is that you never, ever do this. The worst sort of example is when you plan around the PCs actually confronting your villain multiple times, and failing to kill them, which is a terrible idea because there really is no way to ever stack the deck and account for every contingency to make an unwinnable fight, or even one where escape is always possible, and especially if you’re publishing adventures, some number of groups will kill the villain too early, either shorting things out or forcing a handwave to keep an ineffectual villain in play and pretend they’re still a threat.

The Amnesia Campaign doesn’t quite go there. Having an actual chance to go toe to toe with the villain is reserved for the very end, but it does use another variant, where no matter what happens, the PCs arrive just after the villain they’re chasing has left. Now... there’s a way you can make that work. If you have a villain who cannot be reached in practical fashion, and can launch attacks anywhere within a huge region, you can build a whole campaign out of characters reacting to the aftermath of evil actions they could not be expected to even learn about until the villain has left the scene. Here, meanwhile, we have a villain with a big elaborate plot that requires traveling all over the world gathering things, based on research he does at the very start which the PCs can, and indeed are expected to do, quickly pick up on these research notes, and basically know everything the villain plans to do from nearly the start of a very long campaign. And... frankly, the villain has no real edge to keep him believably one step ahead. He is a mildly wealthy man hiring goons, mundane forms of transportation, and having to negotiate and fight his way through to various sub-objectives needed for his plan, and it is at least strongly implied that he doesn’t have a lot of lead time. When presented with a scenario about someone needing to be chased down and stopped, PCs can pretty reliably be counted on to constantly be rushing forward, coming up with clever ways to accomplish what they need to in less time, and cut down if not completely nullify their travel time. But, like with battles the villain somehow keeps escaping from, I am forced to continuously state to my players in running this that no, somehow even after avoiding this whole side quest by reading the mind of the person with important information, and directly teleporting to where the villain left for by riverboat, he somehow beat them there, and once again, just left. It’s frustrating, and implausible. We end up with a villain who seems overwhelmingly outmatched, but keeps succeeding because... well, he has plot armor so we’re railroading this.

Admittedly, having a good villain when writing a full campaign in advance can be tricky. The safe and tested formula is generally to start off with minions of your main villain, starting with some who don’t even know who they’re ultimately working for, gradually build up to who’s calling the shots and to what end, have a big side trip to prepare for the final confrontation not directly involving the villains, than cap it with a big showdown. If the PCs know who the main villain is from the very start and where to find them, it becomes hard to rationalize anything between. Sometimes you can pull it off if they’re leading an army or ruling a country, but even then, you want to work up a food chain to them.

A similar problem, which crops up a bit towards the end of the Amnesia Campaign, is making too many assumptions about how the PCs react, and who they befriend. In RPG writing, you need to make as few assumptions as possible about the specifics of what the PCs will do in any situation. You can count on the real broad strokes. The party will investigate the situation described in the adventure, they’ll explore the area, find the villains, fight them, win, learn something to keep the larger plot growing, but that’s it. You can’t assume they’re going to team up with this NPC, enter this room from that direction, or otherwise reenact what you’d imagine you’d do in their place, or what happened in your test play of your adventure. This is particularly important when you include a little sidequest unconnected to their primary goal, or you’re presenting an open-ended investigation.

Ideally, you just have a sensible location, have some villains in it with clear goals and personalities laid out, and you scatter around some things to enable various clever tricks if players think to try them, without mandating any of them. Mention where windows are, and chandeliers, and holes just too small for the average human to fit through, but don’t, as part of the Amnesia Campaign does, invest heavily in the assumption that the PCs will start investigating a sewer system when investigating how a cult gets around a city and go sparse on other possible clues. Also don’t waste adventure background note space on thousands of years of history at the expense of what the actual current problem in the area is and who or what is behind it.

The next problem is one that, were I the average consumer just buying this book would bother me a hell of a lot more than it does as someone who knows how the sausage gets made. Put mildly... you do not want to play a rogue in the Amnesia Campaign. Nor do you want to play a swashbuckler, a critical-hit focused character of any stripe, really any class out of the... roughly 25% of all classes who rely on knowledge of where to make a hit count the most to do the full amount of damage with their attacks, because practically everything is immune.

Now, again. I partly understand how this happens. We have several different authors writing different chapters of the campaign, simultaneously, in pretty unforgiving crunchy conditions, with just a rough outline to go off. Nobody really has a chance to confirm notes and say “hey, did your chapter totally invalidate one of the foundational character archetypes, because I was thinking of doing that and having two of those back to back would be a bit much.” And while the publisher of the Amnesia Campaign does throw out little booklets of tips for players on what sort of character concepts will/won’t work, they’re not written last, so this sort of tip is missing there too. On the other hand, it’s a huge problem within nearly any given chapter just on its own. If you’re making the call on what all monsters to include in a multi-level stretch of a campaign, you should generally avoid choosing nothing but monsters immune to one of the most common bread and butter class features. And honestly, given how the subject matter naturally lends to the deployment of a particular monster type, erring on the side of assuming everyone else is heavily deploying them wouldn’t be a bad assumption for any author to make.

This though, unlike the rest of my gripes, is ultimately a high level problem that needs a high level solution. When you’re publishing a whole campaign, and you’re doing it in a game where several foundational character concepts kinda live or die based on things like whether things are properly harmed by particular flavors of damage, or whether a decent percentage of enemies fall under a certain classification, that really shouldn’t be a double-blind. Coordinating to get all authors to use a decent spread, or include outline notes like “it’d make sense for about half the enemies in this chapter to be fire elemental themed in various ways, but keep a good variety otherwise,” and/or trying to get a rough handle on emergent themes to adjust for/warn about in player-facing pitch material. Even the best-written campaigns are prone to rude awakenings or hilarious reductions in challenge as turns out, say, going all in on cold damage does indeed pay off for the one with Fire in the title.

Meanwhile, on the other side of that coin, more or less, huge swaths of the Amnesia Campaign really just completely break down by failing to account for some basic standard issue capabilities of a typical party. Particularly the fact that past a certain point, you need to account for the fact that the PCs are almost certainly capable of flight. It’s a thing that happens. If you are really keen on writing adventures where local warlords are chilling out on the open-air rooftop patios of their otherwise heavily fortified fortresses, or melee-oriented monsters plan an ambush in a canyon in a vast wasteland, or a dangerous leapfrog between a series of elevated platforms over something dangerous, you want to make those low-level adventures, or else a typical party, possibly even accidentally, will just completely circumvent the whole thing. There is a whole lot of that in the back of the Amnesia Campaign. My group... literally skipped giant swaths. Heck, there was a whole side quest in the last book where the PCs are rewarded with the location of a giant obelisk which I had to cut because... it was in the middle of a big open outdoor space, and they flew over the city on the way in. They definitely had a view over those hedges.

This sort of dovetails into the next issue, consistently escalating threats. The whole fantasy RPG gimmick is that at level 1, you’re a helpless peasant barely capable of doing anything remarkable, and by level 20 you’re literally punching gods in the face and have more money in your pocket than everyone else in your home country combined (with the obvious exception of the other people in your party). Now, mechanically, balancing around that is a very easy math problem. Characters of level X are meant to deal with threats of level Y, either pull a Y level monster out of the book, or slap levels on something lower to bring it to that point, or spread that out over more enemies, then they drop Z amount of fancy loot. Easiest thing in the world. But you also need things to fit together thematically. You can absolutely throw fighter levels onto the local chicken-stealing goblins to make them mechanically as threatening as a demigod bursting through from another plane of reality, but when a group of characters is at a level where they can be expected to handle the former, it’s just plain weird for them to end up dealing with the latter. Like, yes, these particular goblins have 200 HP instead of the usual 4, so the local town guard can’t handle them, but that should never be true of chicken-stealing goblins. You don’t get that tough stealing chickens, and once you’ve gotten that tough, you should have your sights set a good deal higher than that. At least be stealing rocs or something.

The 4th chapter of the Amnesia Campaign is a particularly blatant example of not getting this, featuring a large number of “please be aware the party can fly at this level” moments mentioned above, and also just demanding the PCs deal with problems that really are beneath them at that point. Seeking out local guides, impressing petty local warlords, getting challenged by giants they must impress to rest safely when crossing a huge desert. These are... not appropriate speed bumps at a point in the narrative where the party is traveling to a location where they are going to literally fight a god, weakened or otherwise. The whole setup would be wonderful as the first chapter of a campaign, but that far in, it just doesn’t work. Particularly when the actual opening of the Amnesia Campaign sets the tension very high right off the bat, with extradimensional threats, shapeshifters, an evil cult, things that typically come later as things start to escalate.

This isn’t to say you can’t mix things up a little. Dealing with threats well below a party’s capabilities can be really nice as a chance to just sort of flex, and get some perspective on how much more capable they’ve grown over time, but you have to do it in a low-tension point of the narrative, and a little self-awareness about it doesn’t hurt.

Finally, while I really kinda hate modern wealth-by-level assumptions, they are baked into the design of the game, so if you’re running with it, you really need to make sure you’re really giving the players something they can use. The Amnesia Campaign really leans heavy on treasure being weird oddities that may be of value to a collector... while also being set, generally, in places so totally removed from civilization that shopping trips aren’t really practical. Much less those needing the party to really find the right sort of buyer.

Really, you want to give out entirely practical loot (really hard to do without knowing the party makeup, but variety can work), big piles of cash/sellables along with sufficiently large cities along the way for viable shopping, or raw materials suitable for crafting plus ample time to really do something with them.

Anyway, hopefully this has come across more as practical constructive advice for anyone writing a campaign, either as a printed product or just for your home game, not just me tearing into the Amnesia Campaign at length.

[retphienix]

Ah. What a game this has been so far.

Now I had a million thoughts I wanted to share as this played out, lord knows I’ll forget a good portion of them but that’s the nature of my own ineptitude- plenty of things I’ll remember MILES after this post or only if prompted in a specific way and that’s just how it is.

To start- this isn’t the end of DQ11 for the blog just yet. I usually don’t dive into post game unless it feels right or people ask and I’m convinced- and more or less both happened this time. It does feel right- I have definite goals I want to tackle before saying I’m happy with what I did here- and more than one person has mentioned that the post game is worth touching so I’ll be doing that.

Also, for those unfamiliar with my long winded utter mess of a finale post style I go for- this is a lot of rambling as I try my best to touch on my thoughts on the game overall because I like to share. Feel free to just press “J” on your keyboard and skip right passed this- I know **I** struggle to focus my eyes to read long winded posts so I won’t blame you.

Also also, in order to try and spark some of those thoughts I had during this recording the first bit is gonna be me re-watching it as I wait on the video to finish processing and saying what comes up.

To start- really wish there was a save point there lol. I get that it’s a painfully easy backtrack to the save point at the start of the castle- but still, I like convenience.

The Dark Lord’s first form is a huge step up from his form before absorbing Yggdrasil and this first form fight was fun and had me itching to say some good things about it but honestly? I want to save praise for the fight that deserves it- phase 2.

PHASE TWO THOUGH!? GOD TIER RPG FIGHT.

I’ve seen better, sure, but come on, we’ve ALL seen better at all times on all things especially considering preferences coming into it- this was a 10/10 boss fight, top to bottom.

Design? Beautiful. Even continued the DQ obsession with puns with his tail being Mordragon, that is so PERFECT so ‘chef kiss’ flawless and it’s just a name. I LOVE how he looks. I LOVE how he moves around the arena changing which head you’re facing.

I love how each had different strengths to contend with (which I abruptly fucked up, don’t call me out, I’ll prove I know what was going on right here and right now-). The dragon had strong melee and breath attacks while the dark lord himself had magic aplenty.

I even utilized swapping out for the first time ever not because I hadn’t seen the value beforehand (I’ve spoken on how interesting a strategic option it was seeing as every unit has unique moves to bring to the table and it costs nothing but ATB for that unit to do).

Now, I fucked that up, but I did it purely because this is the first fight up to this point that felt right to do so. It’s the first time the tactical value of switching out to buff defenses with Hendrik outvalued ignoring that option and maintaining my ATB on whomever I would switch out. THAT FELT SO GOOD! And then I let my braindead fingers buff defense on a magic phase and you see the point. It was brilliant but I was not!

I did end up ignoring the option after a few turns not because the value wasn’t there, but because he ALSO spams stat neutralizing moves which made me reconsider focusing so heavily on buffs and instead focusing on maintaining steady heals (mostly with Hustle dance).

This fight? Beautiful. I loved every second of it. I loved adjusting my playstyle on the fly, I loved finding my footing. I just loved it.

Beyond that- the ending. I got a chuckle out of how abrupt the credits come in. It seems to wind up for an end sequence only for Erik to say “Well, let’s go home” and it cuts to the credits- but THEN the credits ARE the end sequence so it wasn’t ACTUALLY as abrupt as it seemed, but it got a laugh out of me.

Now those credit scenes? I’m a sucker for games that make you fall in love with the characters and this was an ending catering to those characters. Not too much to say outside of “I was smiling the entire time” which is true.

There were a couple moments in that sequence that I said aloud “JUST HUG HIM YOU COWARD” to various characters, like Hero and Rab, or the two dorks (hero and Gemma), etc.

And they played on the mystique of the post game’s content well enough to pull people in I’d say- certainly more than what I recall DQ8 doing with the dragon trials.

I am probably wrong, but I recall the game drawing next to no attention to that post game content aside from a few moments in the game dragging you to the location only to not let you access it (hinting at more being there).

Anyway.

Honestly, after rambling about the video itself I feel a lot of what I wanted to say about DQ11 was said during the playthrough just fine. I rarely feel that way.

DQ11 was fun.

As a DQ fan, you can best believe I had fun.

As a stick in the mud who is disillusioned toward the game industry and doesn’t like a lot of the filth that accumulates within it- I obviously have a few negative thoughts on the game, but there really aren’t perfect games so much as perfect experiences based on how it affected you.

And I’ve voiced those annoyances plenty I think. For completion sake there are cut corners on animations that seem off when other places have a ton of attention to detail, that’s like bottom rung “I don’t actually give a shit” stuff though.

The bigger problems were Sugiyama is a horrible piece of human garbage and the game is lesser because of his influence on it. There are plenty of reasons behind that both big and small. Big- it feels gross having a human shitsack touching this game after having been so vocal for years- there are replacements at the ready and we still have his LGBT hating, war crime denying fingers handling the music? Shameful.

Small (but man did it fucking suck) being that every five minutes I was annoyed at the music in this game. It sounds Bad. And I mean both orchestral and midi, it’s not great compared to anything he made before for DQ, but the fact that it’s midi in this is EAR BLISTERING.

I’m not one to listen close to most music while playing for whatever reason- and I admit that knowing who’s responsible is half of why my ears tuned it in instead of tuning it out, but man I couldn’t help it and it sucks.

The same 3 second ear rattling loops are ALL OVER THE PLACE. Grandiose moments are cut short by bland midi tunes. MAIN STORY MOMENTS ARE LACKING MUSIC ALTOGETHER FOR SOME REASON? When the hero gets the flute and plays it for the first time it just DIDN’T MAKE A NOISE? Subsequent uses of the flute made a noise, but not the main first cutscene?

It’s a whole thing.

And don’t make me get that dirty capitalist pain in my chest over the fact the S version was released 2 months after this and includes so much content that SCREAMS “This already existed and we diced and quartered it specifically to create the illusion of ‘value’ for this release”. Disgusting, man. :/

Gameplay wise, the biggest complaint I have is so loaded and half hearted but I have to say it anyway.

DQ is good because it’s simple.

DQ can also be a little lacking because it’s simple.

This was the second most fun I’ve had playing a main series DQ game (DQIII just hits right), and it definitely has better gameplay (so my opinion is subjective) than the one I prefer to this. But it was also a bit too simple... But you can’t change that and be DQ, it’s complicated.

To just say it- other than the final boss every encounter was a bit too easy. And I know I overlevel, I know that’s the point, I know there’s a hard mode modifier- I KNOW, but the final boss was REALLY GOOD AND still not too hard, so the fact that most every other encounter did the minimum or the minimum +1 is a little tiny (just a bit) disappointing because the gameplay could have been that much better.

But. That could just be my head spinning tales and being a biased asshole especially since I’m not offering any solution here and I’m admitting it’s both “better than my favorite gameplay in the main series” and “probably can’t be made more involved without losing DQ simplicity”.

But I’d kill for some different or new systems on top of this- dual and triple techs from Chrono instead of RNG pep, bosses with more varied strategies instead of “stun 2-3 and do raid wide attack”.

A reason to care about elemental damage (both incoming and outgoing), plenty of little things that would just make the already solid as hell combat more interesting to participate in.

Story was honestly fantastic. I didn’t know how I was going to end that until I just let it come. It was. This is the best DQ story thus far, and not to limit it to that scope- this was a GOOD DAMNED STORY overall and I’ve played a fuckload of games with good stories.

Before this I was a sucker for the original trilogy’s overarching story, which is unfair because that’s 3 games and that’s an old story and it’s only “good” because it’s unprecedented. But this is just plain great.

It writes such beautiful characters- it tackles a variety of conflicts both big and small- you have Sylv and his dad, you have a possessed king declaring his daughter Jade dead and Jade knowingly betraying him without knowing he’s possessed, you have Erik giving up on life and only putting himself so deeply into this adventure as a means of escape, you have Hendrik’s loyalty being- I can’t pretend Hendrik fits in he’s fucking stupid and needs to ask questions because loyalty for the sake of loyalty isn’t interesting at all lol.

You have Rab believing the world is doomed and doing all he can with Jade up until they find you are alive. You have the INCREDIBLE story of Veronica and Serena- you have all these intensely lovable and understandable characters (and Hendrik) and the story is so much more about them than just about the dark lord and the hero.

It’s so much more about each of their conflicts and growth because all of that is HOW the hero will defeat the dark lord.

It’s just so much more... investing than any of the stories I’ve had in DQ before and strong as hell amongst stories beyond just DQ.

I loved this. It was emotional at times, it was downright depressing at times which I wouldn’t expect DQ to successfully hit, it was downright rewarding getting to know these characters and I feel fantastic having beaten this.

This game is fucking good. I finally understand why some people have told me this is their favorite DQ now. It... yeah I think it might be mine too.

I’d be much more likely to revisit DQ3 than this because it’s shorter and has a specific kind of RPG (class based with freely recruited partners instead of named party members) I find more fun to revisit, but yeah, I think I agree.

I think for main-series DQs this is it, this is my favorite. It has to be, right? It’s got so many INCREDIBLE story moments and it’s pretty and it plays great- yeah. Hell, Sylvando as a character and Serena and Veronica’s arc BY THEMSELVES convince me of that.

Still got nothing on DWM and DWM 2 on the GBC, WOOOOT! Didn’t expect this post to divert from a serious closing thoughts (despite there being a few more posts to come) topic to posting this did you?

Behold the true faces of DQ perfection.

[hi-i-love-u-bitch]

Excuse me! But where is my Sanders Sides Gamer AU???

Voices in my head: Gee Bunny, it seems you have no problem writing a lot of other fics and stuff yet you still haven’t even finished the next chapter of your Spiderverse fic???

Me: SHUT THE FUCK UP DISEMBODIED VOICES IN MY HEAD!!! IF YOU WANT THAT FIC DONE SO BADLY TELL MY LOGIC AND CREATIVITY TO GET THEIR ASSES IN GEAR AND GIVE ME SOME GOD DAMN INSPIRATION!!!!

Voices in my head:.....

Me: Yeah, that’s what I thought! Anyways, idk if I just missed a memo or something but I haven’t seen any Gamer AU of my boys and that is a crime in and of itself! Like, how dare! But fret not, I am here to provide content (Read: headcannons) that you did not ask for! Let us begin! Or should I say start!

(please note that I am not a gaming expert so feel free to add or correct stuff)

NOW WITH A PART 2!!!!

MAIN SQUAD

Roman Rosewood

Obviously loves RPGs! Anything with a good story line really! Or has medieval fantasy aesthetic!

Skyrim, Diablo, Undertale, Final Fantasy, Kingdom Hearts, Fallout, Red Dead Redemption, Undertales, Dragon Age, God of War Dark Souls, Assassins Creed, Earthbound, etc.

Played West of Loathing just so he could rip on it but actually ended up loving it and spending way to many hours playing. Then he found out there was a game called Kingdom of Loathing by the same creators and went down that rabbit hole as well.

He was iffy about getting into JRPGs but then Virgil convinced him to play Persona 5 and he absolutely fell in love with the music!

All the music in his phone is either from musicals or Video games!

Also really likes choose your own adventure games like Detroit: Become Human, Life is Strange, and Telltale Games

So much video game merch! Usually figurines because he likes to make little shelves and display cases for them.

He also really likes multiplayer games because he’s a social butterfly and likes to play with his squad.

Sucks at first person shooter games but still willingly plays Fortnight or Call of Duty or Left for Dead with his friends because he doesn’t want to be a drag and complain. But also they sometimes die in game in the most hilarious ways and it just leaves everybody wheezing.

Virgil Dante

Horror games, obvs!

All about that dark aesthetic!

Devil May Cry, Silent Hill, Fran Bow, Sally Face, Resident Evil, The Witch’s House, Amnesia, Little Nightmares, Bendy and The Ink Machine, Alice: Madness Returns, SCP-Containment, Pony Island, etc.

Yes, he’s played all the Five Nights At Freddy’s games. It’s a good series and it isn’t his fault the fandom is bat shit crazy and full of ten year olds! Fuck you Roman!

Every time the Walking Dead comes out he knows he’ll end up crying by the end of it. He and the squad make and event out of it.

Japanese horror games are usually his favorite because they deal more with the psychological aspects of horror instead of the jump scares

So, yes, he’s also a fan of Corps Party and Fatal Frame

Also really good at first person shooters because he has a really steady hand (you usually have to when playing horror games least you want to restart the level) and it pisses Roman off to no end every time Virgil randomly headshots him.

Usually likes to by merch in the form of posters, t-shirts, or beanies. He only buys figurines if it’s a game he really, really likes.

At first didn’t know why people kept bugging him to play Doki Doki Literature Club but then he finally caved and...oh...that’s why.

Logan Mill

My boy loves puzzle and strategy games yo!

Legend of Zelda, Portal, Tetris, Unravel, World of Goo, Inside, Limbo, Pokemon, Shadow of the Colossus, StarCraft, Command and Conquer, Age of Empire, Heart of Iron, World of Warcraft, etc.

He likes Overwatch but doesn’t like playing with people online so he usual solos or asks the others to play. But that too usually ends in chaos.

Hates rage games because he gets frustrated easily and has broken at least four keyboards and two controllers

He still plays them anyways because he can beat it damn it! Just give him a minute!

Enjoys the God of War series despite all the mythological inaccuracies

He plays a lot of Minecraft to relax or destress and has build beautiful works of architecture and sometimes entire cities.

He thought it was stupid and childish and was embarrassed about it for a long time until the squad came over to his house one day uninvited and caught him playing. He was getting ready for them to make fun of him but they instead gushed about how AMAZING everything looked and how TALENTED he was for building all himself.

Logan ends up showing them how to play afterwards and they work together to make weird sculptures and complex tunnels underground.

He likes practical merch like backpacks, coffee mugs, pencil holders, notebooks, ect. as well as a few t-shirts and novelty ties.

Yes, he does collect Pokemon cards!

Patton Adley

Silly dating sims, farming games, and any cute game really! Plus a few side scroller games!

Stardew Valley, Harvest Moon, Slime Rancher, The Sims, Dream Daddy, Animal Crossing, Kirby, Monster Prom, Hatoful Boyfriend, Scribblenauts, Night In The Woods, Ni Nu Kuni, etc.

Big Nintendo fan!

He made the mistake of playing Doki Doki Literature Club without reading the warning tags and regrets it immensely...still a good game though.

He did the same thing with Huni Pop but that one made him laugh more then anything and he kind of got addicted to it. Then he found out there was a sequel called HuniCam so he went down that rabbit hole too.

He likes a lot of phone app games too like Cut the Rope, Neko Atsume, and Candy Crush.

Loves trashy dating app games, he thinks they’re so funny and cheesy

He was addicted to Mystic Messenger for a long while

Just because he has his preference doesn’t mean he won’t try other games too, Logan got him hooked on World of Warcraft (though really he did that to everyone), Virgil showed him Hollow Knight, and Roman suggested he play Undertales.

Prefers merch in the form of plushies and key chains!

He likes to bake and decorate cookies, cakes and pastries in the form of his favorite video game characters.

RED SQUAD

Duncan [Deceit] Adley (Patton’s twin)

A lot of first person shooter and combat games!

Doom Series, Super Smash Bros, Mortal Combat, Halo, Fortnight, Grand Theft Auto, Street Fighter, Tekken, Soul Calibur, Half-Life, Team Fortress, Destiny, Wolfenstein, Bio Shock, Splatoon, PUBg etc.

Patton was the one that introduced him to Splatoon and he won’t admit that it’s actually super fun.

Doesn’t mind story driven games and RPGs but he really just wants something he can zone out to and relax

He likes to troll people online, mainly assholes picking on little kids who just want to play.

He once teamed up with a group of kids on Call of Duty solely for the purpose of collectively kicking the asses of this groups of so called “real gamers” that were being jerks.

Has memorized all the combos! He doesn’t have time to sit and look up a cool finishing move, he needs it now!

Always mains the weakest/most useless character in fighting games and still manages to kick everyone’s ass.

Doesn’t have a preference in merch and usually grabs whatever he likes be it figurines, t-shirts, posters, plushies, or whatever, so long as he likes the game it comes from.

Has several tattoos from his favorite games

Emile Picani

Classic retro games, cartoonish games, and Nintendo are his jam broham!

Mario, Classic Sonic, Paper Boy, Transylvania, Spyro, Pac Man, All the Saga Disney games, Duck Hunt, Mario Kart, Galaga, Mega Man, Donkey Kong, Secret of Mana, Banjo-Kazooie, Conker’s Bad Fur Day, etc.

Absolutely fell in love with Shovel Knight when it came out!

Remy got him into all the indie pixel games: Towerfall, Terraria, Owlboy, Hotline Miami, Papers Please, Celeste, One Shot, etc.

Duncan was the one that introduced him to Cuphead and the usually play it together and see how far each of them can go without dying.

The game is difficult but the art is still so breathtaking!

Likes the occasional psychological thriller game

Bet Virgil showed him Alice: Madness Returns and Doki Doki Literature Club (after he’s played it of course)

Likes plushies and figurine merch with the occasional poster and coffee mug.

Likes to doodle a lot of his fav video game characters and cartoons and is actually really good at it. He helped design most of Duncan’s tattoos.

Remy Knightly

Likes a lot of indie games and old online flash games!

The Stanley Parables, Oxenfree, Inside, Firewatch, Super MeatBoy, The Binding of Issac, Donut County, Henry Stickman series, Impossible Quiz, Crush the Castle series, Hyper Light Drifter, etc.

He always gets everybody hooked on one game or another

He convinced everyone to play Undertales so for like a month they all went through a HUGE Undertales faze.

Was the actual, ACTUAL one that showed Duncan Cuphead because he knew the dork would be reminded of Emile because of the animation and would want to show it to him and play multiplayer (*cough* subtle matchmaker *cough*)

(Do not be fooled, he is a pinning boy himself)

Is up to date in all the gossip of the latest games and consuls, indie or mainstream! He’s in the know, know and if you need to know something chances are Remy probably knows it.

Weeds out through all the indie horror games for Virgil and recommends what he thinks are the best ones.

Same thing with Logan and his puzzle games, he’s usually is able to find very strange ones and Logan seems to likes those best.

Obviously has a lot of merch in coffee mug and thermal form as well as a few key chains.

Occasionally streams on Twitch with Duncan and Emile (sometimes inviting the main squad too), they’re commentary is usual hilarious.

[jorrmungandr]

2019 was a good year for games.

Lots of interesting new ideas in the space, and some refinements of old ones. Here’s a list of my personal favorite games of this year, in no particular order. Making an ordered list can be fun, but it’s ultimately pretty pointless.

Video games are such a diverse medium at this point that it’s really like comparing apples and oranges. How does Baba Is You stack up against Dragon Quest XI S? They have almost nothing in common, and their aims are so different that it makes no sense to compare them directly.

Speaking of….

Baba Is You

There are a lot of indie puzzle games out there. Making a little mind-bending puzzle is something that’s easy to do on a relatively small budget. There are also a lot of games that mimic old pixel art aesthetics of earlier game systems, to greater and lesser success. Making a truly great puzzle game, though, is a true accomplishment. Something that combines a wildly different array of elements in interesting ways, but maintains a simple readability that allows you to return to puzzles after months away and instantly recognize what’s going on.

Baba Is You is a game that accomplishes this and more. It operates on very simple, basic rules, but the way they escalate over time and require you to think outside more and more boxes with every single puzzle is simple astounding. A lot of puzzle games escalate their difficulty so quickly that it’s easy to get discouraged, put off by the impossible tasks you’re being asked to perform. Where Baba shines is that it gives you a perfect runway, teaching you things slowly but surely through a series of challenges.

This is a game where you will instantly go from feeling like the world’s greatest super-genius to a complete and utter fool in a matter of moments, from finishing one stage to starting the next. Over and over again, for dozens and dozens of levels. No game has ever better demonstrated the value of brain rest, stepping away from a problem and letting your subconscious work on it for a while. Every time I came back to a puzzle after a couple hours, I would suddenly see some option I never saw before.

One final note, the graphics are actually a perfect fit for this game. A lot of times, pixel art feels like a gimmick, something to do when you don’t have a good idea, or just mindless nostalgia-baiting. But here, it serves a gameplay purpose, giving you an absolutely clean view of the elements in play at a glance, and also serves as an homage to the simple-yet-challenging puzzle games of those older eras.

Code Vein

And now, for something completely different: An extremely anime-styled souls-like. I remember hearing about this game years and years ago, and thinking that it looked kinda… bad. But, in the meantime they really brought it all together into something fun, if not very innovative.

Code Vein is exactly the sort of thing I look for in a souls-like: it takes the basic formula and adds some new mechanics to it, and has an identity of its own. Instead of a medieval fantasy world, it’s a post-apocalyptic modern city crawling with vampires and zombies. It takes inspiration from stylish, gothic anime of the past couple decades: Code Geass, Blood+, Tokyo Ghoul, etc. The character creator is extremely detailed, but mostly when it comes to clothes and accessories.

The gameplay is… fine. It’s balanced around always having an AI companion, so they can throw bigger groups of enemies at you. It doesn’t require the same sort of intense caution of the Souls series, but that makes it more of a fun, casual experience. At least until you’re fighting a boss, then it suddenly requires you to really be on your game with dodging. If I have one complaint, it’s that the difficulty is incredibly bumpy, some areas are a cake walk and others have you struggling through every encounter.

Oh, also the area aping Anor Londo from Dark Souls. Not because it’s derivative, that’s totally fine, but because it’s a maze where everything looks the same and it’s a real pain to get through. Souls games are at their best when areas have good landmarks and make a kind of logical sense. Earlier in the game you pass through a big parking garage, and it’s perfect, just the sort of thing that translates well to this kind of game. But this cathedral-ish area… it just sucks.

It really is quite shameless.

Overally, it’s just a solid souls-like. I enjoyed the crunchy RPG elements, switching classes and balancing your weapons and armor to get good mobility and damage. The ability to just equip cool-looking attack moves as skills you can use, like spells in Souls games, is something I’d really like to see in more games in this sub-genre.

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

I was kind of skeptical about this game before it came out. Mostly because it was bringing back weapon durability, a mechanic I’ve always hated in these games, but that ended up being a non-issue. Also the school setting made me a bit wary, thinking it was just gonna end up being some Persona-esque thing where you spend tons of time on mundane nonsense while an actual war is going on.

That was all baseless, it turns out. They balance the idea of a military academy with a traditional Fire Emblem structure remarkably well, giving you a lot of freedom around what you want to do when you play the game. You can run around the monastery talking to students, managing your relationships, or you can just do a ton of tactical battles if you want.

The storytelling was remarkably good, though I feel like it was harmed a bit by the weird way it handled multiple routes with different big mysteries. Some routes ended up completely ignoring or just not getting around to some pretty major mysteries. I’m a person who likes long games, but expecting someone to go through all four routes to figure out what’s going on is a bit much.

But more than that, the way it holds back certain reveals hurts the writing in other ways. The actual revelations can’t really have any effect on the characters and their relationships because it all happens at the very end of the game. It keeps the world feeling a bit flat, without any reactions. The mysteries feel extraneous to the plot, in a weird way, when they are so important to certain characters’ identities and the core conflicts that drive the second half of the game.

The gameplay is okay, though a few of the maps are way too big. The portable Fire Emblem games reigned in the map sizes from the old NES and SNES ones, which was a great thing. But now we’re back to moving a whole army one unit at a time for multiple turns just to get to the next group of enemies. The class system was fun to engage with, balancing learning different skills to open up new opportunities, but the gender-limited classes were a real disappointment. Why can’t men ride pegasi? Why can’t women punch good? It’s bizarre, and honestly felt like it had some stuff left over from early drafts, like the pointless dark mage classes.

This has been a lot of complaining about a game I played for close to a hundred hours. Why is this game even on my list? Because the characters are fucking fantastic, and on a basic level the tactical battles are a lot of fun. It offers a paternalistic form of power fantasy, fostering and guiding your children-warriors and then seeing them destroy your enemies. It is just incredibly satisfying to play. And for all that the mysteries end up a bit frustrating, they are intriguing, and do a good job of motivating you to get through a very lengthy game.

Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night

Ah, love a good IGAvania.

This was a year where I really reached for comfort food games a lot, and this is maybe the king of that category. It’s just an old style of game that doesn’t get made anymore, done extremely well by the guy who used to make ’em all the time. Nothing super different or innovative, just the same old thing with a couple new tweaks.

It’s an easy game, but that’s entirely by design. It’s about running around this castle killin’ monsters, collecting new abilities, just exploring and poking around the corners. It’s a game that is, ultimately, designed to be comfortable. And in a time of such strife in the world around us, what could be better?

Disco Elysium

There’s already been a lot written about this game, tons of praise heaped on its writing and its interesting, hauntological world that is so similar to our own, and yet so different. Frankly, I’m really glad I got turned into this before it even came out, if I heard all that overblown praise I’d never have ended up actually sitting down and playing it.

Here’s what I’ll say: This game is a look at an ugly world, and it gives you a lot to think about, but it actually doesn’t take itself too seriously. There are a ton of extremely funny moments, a lot of straight-up goofy-ass jokes. This is not medicine that you have to suffer through, just take it as it comes and it’s a good time. This is what allows its writing to really land, it’s not lecturing you from on high, it’s engaging on a lower, more personable level.

It’s also not some super serious text that you have to pore over and consider extremely closely at every moment. It’s a game, you can save scum and try to exploit mechanics and look up answers to mysteries. Much like Souls games, people come up with all sorts of weird rules about the “proper” way to play games like this, but in the end your experience is up to you.

One final note: the game does start off with a kind of off-putting ironic tone. Some people try to downplay this, but it’s there. I can only say this: if you give this game a chance, you’ll be rewarded. It is worth getting through a few sarcastic jabs to get to the good stuff later on. It’s not some perfect audio-visual experience that will entrance you from the opening moments to the credits, it’s just a video game.

Dragon Quest XI S

I first played Dragon Quest XI last year on PC, and I enjoyed it a lot! But I didn’t actually finish that version, not really. I put a lot of time into, but ultimately burned out on the grind towards the very end.

The form that games come in is very important to how they are experienced. Dragon Quest games work best as portable games, I truly believe. It also helps that this version on the switch added the ability to speed up regular battles, so you don’t have to sit through some long attack animations over and over. The more important aspect, though, is simply the ability to pick it up and put it down more easily.

Sitting down at my PC, plugging in my controller, and pulling up a game is a subtly labor-intensive thing. It means I’m devoting a lot of attention to a game, and it has to do something to earn that on a moment-to-moment basis. The ability to just push a single button on the switch and get back into means that I’m willing to forgive a lot more down time.

Anyway, the game itself: this is not just a very good Dragon Quest game, it is the ultimate Dragon Quest game. It truly shows the value in iteration over pure innovation, taking all sorts of different mechanics and ideas from past games in the series and bringing them all together in one big package. But it doesn’t feel overstuffed, it’s just doing the same thing these games have always done, just really, really well.

Dragon Quest XI successfully pays tribute to the older games in the series while also telling a new story with entertaining twists and turns, and fun and interesting characters. It’s beautiful, everything runs smoothly, the writing is charming and light. It’s not on the same level as Disco Elysium, but it’s not aiming for that sort of thing. It’s a fairy tale, a fable, a reflection of the world in a different sense.

A lot of game critics missed this game because it’s long. And that is absolutely fair, it’s hard to fit a 100-hour game into a review schedule in this day and age. But it’s an absolute gem, a truly wonderful experience from beginning to end. I’d recommend it to anyone who just wants a game to relax with at the end of the day.

Monolith: Relics of the Past

Like some sort of Christmas miracle, there was an expansion pack released for one of my favorite roguelikes on Christmas day, just last week.

Monolith is the best twin-stick shooter roguelike, I will make no bones about it. Forget your Gungeons and your Bindings of Isaac, this is a classic NES-styled game with an absolutely pitch-perfect aesthetic and sense of humor. It serves both the twin-stick shooting and the roguelike parts of its genre perfectly, giving you a strong basic weapon to rely on, and also a guarantee of something more interesting but random in every run.

Man, there are games that I enjoy more, but I really, truly feel that this is one of the best-crafted games of the past few years. And this expansion only made it better: fixing up the UI and tooltips to make things more clear, rebalancing the weapons so that they are all useful, adding more variety to runs.

I’m not the best at Monolith, it took me quite a while to get a full win, but that doesn’t make it any less fun to play. In my youth, I was really quite good at bullet-hell games, but nowadays those reflexes aren’t there. It’s a game designed for people who can dodge endless bullet curtains, and also, now more than ever, for those who struggle with it.

It’s truly inspiring to see something that takes from the past and the present and fuses it together into something so wonderful. There are other games that really capture the NES aesthetic and sensibility, like Odallus or The Messenger, but this one really gets the spirit of that whole era of games. It is at once light and airy, and also punishingly difficult. It offers tricks and outs, but also remains utterly mysterious and intimidating.

And that’s it. There are more games I enjoyed this year, like the remake of Link’s Awakening, but these are the big ones that stick out in my mind.

There are a lot of big narrative-heavy games I never got around to finishing, or even starting. It just doesn’t really fit with how I play games these days, listening to podcasts and aiming to relax, not engage with something on a deep level.

That’s okay, though. I’ll get around to ’em in the fullness of time.

Games of the Year 2019 2019 was a good year for games. Lots of interesting new ideas in the space, and some refinements of old ones.

[defiancerpg-blog]

Congratulations VAL, you have been accepted as VULPECULA with the faceclaim of NAOMI SCOTT and the DOPPELGANGER MORPHING ability!

Notes from the Admins: Ellie and Tasha:

We had some really hard decisions for multiple skeletons during this acceptance, but this one was certainly the hardest. Both were very much in line with how we envisioned Riaan. But ultimately it was yours that we felt fit the most. I (Ellie) just fell in love with the little details of who Riaan was to you. Your headcanons really stuck with me, the emphasis on her pronouns and the little line of freckles and then I really love their answer to the power question (the shapeshifting one especially), but it their answer to the final question that sold me on your app. I (Tasha) have to agree with Ellie, the little details are what really pulled me in. As much as I wanted to hear your version of how the family was, I really loved that i didn’t get to. To me, I felt like that pulled me in and I am a fan of your writing.

You have 48 hours to send in your blog. If you haven’t already joined the group discord then you may do so now (if that’s your wish) [x]. Once you have turned in your blog, you will be given a role that will allow you access to the private channels regarding plots/characters. Please remember to do everything on the checklist, and also we just want to thank you for joining this roleplay. We hope your time with us will be a fun and memorable one!

OOC INFORMATION

ALIAS & PRONOUNS: Val, She/her

AGE: 25

TIMEZONE, ACTIVITY LEVEL, & RP EXPERIENCE: TZ: EST Activity: I have a full time job on first shift, but since i’m not involved in other rps atm I have plenty of time to be active, and should easily be able to meet and excede activity requirements. I typically do my writing early in the morning before work, or after dinner. My one concern is the opening date, because I’m going on a pre-planned vacation from April 5th to April 9th (WALKERSTALKER CON CHICAGO!). I’ll have limited access to a computer, but I will have my phone so I’ll at least be available for plotting and getting to know people via the discord server during that period. If you’d rather wait to review my application until the 9th or 10th I understand that as well. RP experience:  I’ve been roleplaying since 2012 in several fandoms: HP, the 100, TW, TWD, etc. I delved into indie for awhile, but definitely prefer rpgs. A couple of my past blogs are: http://nickbeckett.tumblr.com/,  https://seakept.tumblr.com/,  http://auroragood.tumblr.com/, https://kylexbennett.tumblr.com/

BASIC IC INFORMATION

SKELETON: Riann Foster (Vulpecula- The Little Fox)

FACECLAIM: Naomi Scott, Liza Koshy (Though she’s known for youtube, she does have an acting career including series regular for two seasons of the hulu series Freakish), Alia Bhatt

AGE: 24

ORIENTATION: Demisexual.

ORIGIN: New York, New York (Queens)

NOVA TYPE: Corpus

ABILITY: Intangibility- The ability to pass through physical matter, though difficulty increases as the density of an object increases. If the whole body or part of a body becomes tangible within another object, the object would have to expand outwards at a detriment to its own form (explode, etc) but could potentially cause extreme physical harm to the user, depending on the property of the material. Shapeshifting (Doppleganger Morphing)-  The ability to change one’s personal appearance to identically mimic that of another human being that they have seen before. This user cannot create a completely new form, nor mimic any superpowers should they morph into a nova. The longer they stay in the altered form, the harder it is to return to one’s true self. (I don’t actually have a preference for either, I love both abilities as possible for them)

THE INTERVIEW:

So, tell me a little bit about growing up. What was your childhood like?

“I moved around a lot, I guess…” Riann’s arms crossed lightly over their chest, anchoring their hands in place rather than allowing them to fidget nervously. Memories, both fond and disheartening, flashed through their mind, but they couldn’t help but wonder how much their verbal answers even mattered.  Could this AI detect a lie? Could it determine the truth by analyzing their brains waves, their temperature, or other physiological responses? Did it matter? “I don’t know, I, uh… I was never bored, that’s for sure. Had plenty of extracurricular activities. Learned a lot. Didn’t starve or anything. That’s all you can ask for, right?” It’d be remiss to say they weren’t hesitant to give this AI personal information, particularly to ensure the safety of their makeshift family. A career criminal couldn’t afford to admit all faults. Despite them living in a world of uncertainty- where they’d sleep the next night, what they’d eat, when they’d eat, if they’d all make it home safely- Riann had grown numb to the anxiety stemming from the unknown. What they remembered most about their childhood was the laughter, the hugs, and the beautiful night skylines. Their teen years were a bit more rambunctious, especially as the NPA loomed closer and closer, but the way they saw it, their life was their life and they’d learned not to live with regrets and what-ifs. “I mean, like anyone, I had a bit of a rebellious streak but… It all worked out.”

What about your relationship with your family?

A small smile spread across their lips as Riann let out a warm chuckle, leaning back more casually against the wall as they relaxed. “I have three older siblings and they, uh, well they made sure I knew I was the youngest. Didn’t get much alone time, but I didn’t want it either.” How many times had they been delegated ‘look out’ or done surveillance checks on a mark for their siblings before anything actually went down? They were a cute child, slight in stature and innocent looking, and lying had become second nature to them, ingrained in them from their earliest memories. Fictional stories became so real to them that it occasionally took an extra moment for them to slip out of a character, but that’s what made them good at it, and kept them from having to actively participate in thefts they found morally wrong. Plus, it allowed them a bit of alone time to explore their own Robin Hood type interests. “But I mean, we got along fine, I guess.” They loved them. Their siblings and “adoptive” mother were their home, at least, they had been. The seeds of resentment and abandonment from being left by their biological mother so young were mostly trodden underfoot by the loyalty and love they learned from their family, but sometimes they couldn’t help but wonder, couldn’t help but indulge in anger when they thought about the sperm and egg donors that actually created them. Maybe their family wasn’t perfect, maybe they didn’t function the way others thought was healthy or stable, but for a long time it was consistent, and without that, who knew where Riann would be. “They… still think I ran away with some boyfriend, headed for Miami. And that’s for the best.”

Are you the only Nova in your family? Or were your parents Novas too? What about any siblings?

“They’re human.”  And as far as Riann was concerned, that was the end of the question. As far as they knew, they were all as human possible, and they’d continue to believe that so long as it kept them safer. But were their biological parents novas? Did they have any biological siblings? They couldn’t know. Didn’t want to. They shrugded their shoulders, mounting  nonchalance on their features. “”It’s just me.”

What’s your ability like? Is it easy to control or harder? Do you even like it?

A heavy silence fell, weighing down Riann’s pause as they tried to sort out what exactly they wanted to say. “It’s, uhm… It’s sort of… instinctual? Like once I make the decision, it just happens and  I can’t- I can’t stop it halfway or control it. But… it’s not hard.” Every morph was like a milestone as they wore others’ bodies. In a way, it solidified their comfort in their own skin, as this body felt like home. Like them. Their appearance could change on a whim to that of an existing person, and they were the wolf in sheep’s clothing. They didn’t belong there. The freckles on their arm were the only thing that stayed in tact in their new form, and they often used them as a focal point for changing back to who they were. What was worse- the longer they stayed in a different form, the harder it was to get back. The freckles disappeared one by one as time went on, and Riann had only ever stayed in one body for up for 16 hours before getting so scared of losing themself they had to change back for a few hours for fear of being lost totally to this stranger forever. It was a dark time, a long con at the beginning of their journey to the Sanctuary, and they could distinctly remember the loss of foreignness in the new skin, the comfort and familiarity settling in, hoping to cement them there forever. Riann shook their head to clear the intruding thoughts before finishing their sentence. “It’s, uhm… it’s a cool party trick, that’s for sure. Always win charades.” And that was true; amongst the novas it was easy to get sucked into the game and posture about their ability, flirting with the danger just ever so slightly, but Riann preferred to err on the side of caution. The ability was extremely useful for concealing their identity, or protecting themself, and it made them quite good at the former job, but they’d never admit how each passing hour felt as though they were inching closer and closer to their own identity’s death.

How would you describe your personality?

"I look out for myself,” they concluded. “I have to. I think I’m….” A light chuckle escaped their lips, grin growing across their face, “Wow, I almost said nice. I’m not nice. It’s such a stupid word. But… I care, and I think that kinda comes through. Maybe I’m… I don’t know, a bit too blunt, but I think you have to figure out what’s going to push people away, and what they’re willing to deal with, you know? Does that make sense? I don’t like wasting time or energy, and you gotta go with your gut about what or who is worth it.”

What do you think your greatest strengths and weaknesses are?

“Wow, I guess both my greatest strength AND my greatest weakness is my selfishness. I look out for me, and the people I care about, and I dunno… my own moral compass? But I’m not trying to be a hero.” They paused for a moment, realizing the error they’d made: admitting to caring about others, like they could be used against them, and pointing out their usually self-servitude. This new “home” was still unexplored, and they couldn’t be certain how long they’d be staying. “Also I can’t take a joke.” It was a half-truth. People within their circle had miles of slack, but anyone they didn’t trust couldn’t expect the same wiggle room. There was a certain amount of satisfaction associated with pointing out flaws in logic, even when it meant not accepting a “joke” as something funny.

Where and what were you doing the day the Nova Protection Act was enacted?

“God, I don’t know…” They shifted nervously then, rearranging their arms in front of them. Honestly, they couldn’t quite remember- bigotry and disdain from others had always been a part of their life, whether it be because they were poor and on the streets, or a person of color, or just plain female-passing, they were more than used to the ugliness of society to take note of the “important” day the world gained yet another reason to turn against them. “I was… probably eating ice cream in Staten Island or something. Wasn’t a big deal.”

Did you immediately run? Or did you try to obey the law and report to the Anti-Nova Force?

At the question, the couldn’t help but actually laugh. It was a dry, cynical laugh, one that rang hollowly in their chest, but a laugh all the same. “Yeah, like I’d turn myself in to the same people who’d “randomly” search me at an airport. I didn’t have to do anything. Nothing changed.” Other than the fact their existence officially put their family at risk for more than just being black market thieves. It was one thing to face prison time, and quite another to put their family in danger of detainment just or being associated with them. Looking back, that was exactly the day the left, but they made sure not to leave any indication it was because of the NPA.  Instead, that fateful day, they’d announced to their family they and their boyfriend were headed for the warm weather of Miami.

How have you survived this last year and a half or so? Did you have any help or were you all alone? How did you find Yalena’s Sanctuary?

"When you have the skills I have, it’s not too hard.” They pushed off from the wall then, choosing instead to pace a bit. This interview was getting tedious, and they were beginning to feel closed in. Uncomfortable. The nervous energy was coursing through their veins and they needed some way to work it out.  “I knew people who knew people, and when I wanted in, I found a way. That’s how transactions work.”  They weren’t about to disclose the favors they exchanged for information, or the people involved. The truth was that though their family had a reputation amongst the black market, they had one with its own standing as well. A few skeptical questions, and a bit of calculated risk in admitting to some stranger what they were had gotten them the key to sanctuary, and that’s what mattered.

It’d taken a long time getting from New York to the Sanctuary. Hitchhiking, mostly, plus a few long bus rides, and a train or two, but the passing days just brought them closer and closer to “safety.” Eventually they found a scout (or was found, it was hard to tell), and the rest, was, as they say, history.

What were you doing when the raid happened? How did you respond to the flood of Wardens? How quickly did you go through Yalena’s portal?

"I was… uhm…” Riann paused a moment, concentrating. What had the been doing? Something inconsequential. Something benign. Something completely disrupted by the ruin of the safety they’d imagined they had. Was it playing cards? Riann enjoyed counting cards, and loved to use the skill when given the chance. That was probably it. Something lazy. They couldn’t remember exactly, because the trauma of it all being ripped out from under them was something they didn’t want to acknowledge.  “I know I was with other people- I don’t do that a lot, just hanging out, so I remember that. And then this guy, he… slumped over. I saw the dart. Or maybe… it wasn’t a dart. Maybe it was a bullet wound.” They couldn’t remember clearly; perhaps in the nights spent afterwards they’d justified a bullet wound as being a dart to ease their conscience. They couldn’t be certain whether the figure had slumped over in sleep or in something far more permanent. Despite being focused on themself, a great deal of guilt followed them for not doing more that day. “And then there were wardens everywhere. I ran. I heard… screaming.” Panic. Pure panic. “I saw Marisol go through the portal, and I heard someone yell for help. I… watched them fall to the ground. And then, I ran. I…” They knew they could’ve brought more people through. Could’ve at least tried. “I did what I had to do.”

What has living in The Imperium been like for you? Do you feel safer than before? Is it better or worse than on the run, or Yalena’s Sanctuary?

There was an audible pause, silence reverberating with the thoughts collecting in Riann’s mind. Their weight echoed with such strength it was a wonder the AI hadn’t already read each passing thought as it grew.  Finally, they let out a defeated sigh and rolled their eyes, settling on indifference and sarcasm for their response. It was too poignant, to real, to say what they really felt. “There’s no wardens yet, so obviously it’s a 10 out of 10…” False flattery was a go-to of theirs when they didn’t want to be honest. In the back of their mind, they wondered whether or not their satisfaction (or dissatisfaction) with their new home could get them booted and back on the streets. Alone. Truthfully? They felt caged. Locked in. Imprisoned with a group of people they mostly didn’t trust, and half they didn’t like. Perhaps it’d be easier to be back on the streets, but at least here their wrist wasn’t going to get scanned at any given moment. They couldn’t tell which they missed more- the safety of being surrounded by similar individuals in the sanctuary, where at least they could be themselves, or the rose-tinted memories of being at home with people that, whether they truly knew Riann or not, they knew they were loved.

“So long as you don’t turn into the terminator, I guess I’m good here.”

The last question. If war broke out between Novas and the humans, which side will you be on?

"I’d be on the side that keeps me safe.” Their answer was pointed and clear, but it didn’t quite explain. Riann’s ties to the human world were something they wouldn’t want to ever speak of, but they’d also made at least one friend within the group of novas, and maybe that was enough. Maybe the idea of coexistence was so long gone that they’d have to side with the novas, knowing that they could never truly belong in the human world. When push came to shove, Riann would choose their kind, but they didn’t want to admit that, even to themself. The idea of belonging to something bigger than them was both incredibly enticing and terrifying.

CONNECTIONS:

Tell us your feelings on their provided connections/relationships and also any other connections you’d be interested in exploring outside of those already provided.

The Hare- I LOVE their friendship. The idea that someone somehow, pushed past the walls Riann has built up and has become important to them is so special.  I don’t think Riann would be capable of functioning if they were truly alone for a long time, so this connection is in a way vital to their survival. It’s important enough that I don’t think even Riann understands the gravity of what their feelings for the Hare means, or what they’d do to protect that connection. Since I interpret Riann as demisexual, this is the type of relationship I’d see a possible romantic future in (be it unrequited or not), so I’m definitely excited to see where it leads, but it could also definitely be entirely platonic, familial even, depending on the chemistry and what going on with Marisol, so I’ll just say I’m excited either way.

The Raven- With the personality traits prescribed to Riann, and their history, I can see this being a super interesting connection. Depending on the plot development, I could see the raven bringing out Riann’s more cut-throat nature, but the way I see it, the Raven is one of Riann’s enemies. They trust their gut too much, and will never really be able to trust the Raven. That being said I wanna throw them together as much as possible because who doesn’t love bringing out the worst in their character?

Other connections- I would like to see someone become almost mentor-like to Riann, or vice-versa. They really do havea great capacity to love, it just takes a lot of time to get there, and I want Riann to CARE about others. Preferably several others. In a variety of capacities. I also want someone to just dislike them- with Riann’s personality, it’s completely plausible. They’d definitely question and distrust anyone with authority over them (they even did with Yalena, to an extent, but there was a level of respect with her not afforded to many).

HEADCANONS:

Riann has a series of 6 freckles down their inner forearm that form a nearly perfect line, and traces them subconsciously if they’re really overwhelmed as a sort of grounding mechanism.

Most of the time, they use they pronouns, but occasionally will identify as especially female. As such, I’d write them mostly as they/them, with the occasional she/her thread, but maintain whichever pronouns I start with through the duration of that thread.

They LOVE spice. Curry especially, but they’ve been known to chow down on hot asian and latin foods as well. Not only do they have a taste for it and enjoy the adrenaline rush that comes with the scovilles, but growing up, the spicier their food was, the smaller the chance anyone else would try to eat it. Their affinity was born of necessity, but they’ve grown to truly enjoy a good hot sauce.

CHANGES:

n/a

DETAILED IC INFORMATION

(OPTIONAL STUFF; THIS IS ALL MERELY SUGGESTIONS, NONE OF IT IS REQUIRED)

Character tropes and archetypes related to this character: Bunker Woman, Affectionate Pick Pocket, The Artful Dodger,  Friend in the Black Market, Karmic Thief, Little Miss Con Artist Other: Defrosting the Ice Queen/The Power of Friendship,  Hidden Heart of Gold, Anti-Villain,

Goals: I’d love to see Riann swing towards an extreme- their self-interest keeps them rather neutral politically and such, but the right plotting could make them go Good™ or Bad™ and I’m so ready for EITHER. I want them to make someone mad and get their ass kicked, to show them they’re not quite as independent and strong as they think they are. I want their morality to be put to the test, and have to choose between saving a life and killing, or the consequences of doing nothing in a situation where they can do something. I want them to deal with authority figures and get to a point where they accept that authority figure. I don’t see Riann as a leader, per say, but they’d make a great sidekick eventually, and then, depending on the long run, it’d be interesting to make them step up as leader as well, but that’s not what I see in the immediate future.

I made a mockblog for them (sideblog to this one to reblog inspo and such): https://vulpeculamockblog.tumblr.com/

ANYTHING ELSE?

I also answered the ability question for the doppleganger morphing because I also think it’s really cool, and would love to play with either!

[scottymcgeesterwrites]

Persona 5: Review

Persona 5: A Most Aesthetically Pleasing Video Game

I very rarely write a review for a hot, fresh new video game. This became an exception because I finished it relatively quickly compared to most new video games I buy, and because how immersive the experience was.By now many of you have seen or heard one of the biggest crazes in video games – Persona 5. The last main installment of the Persona series was Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4, released way back in 2008 for the PlayStation 2. As such, fans of the series have waited a long time (nearly 10 years) for another Persona game. Atlus officially announced Persona 5 way back in 2013 and was set to be released in 2014. Due to the usual setbacks with grandiose projects, it wasn’t released until September 2016 in Japan and April 2017 in the rest of the world. People waited and waited and oh boy – did Atlus deliver or what?This review will go over so many things, but more importantly, I will write it as though you know nothing about the series like I did when I started Persona 5. I first heard about it last year when I went on vacation to California, and my friend Carlos told me allllll about it. No major spoilers are written here. The only minute spoilers are just talking about some character arcs.

Personal Background:

I grew up in high school reading and watching plenty of gentleman-thief fiction. It started with the anime Lupin the Third and I worked my way through books like The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Orczy, then The Mark of Zorro by Johnston McCully, and novels starring The Saint, created by Leslie Charteris. Lupin the Third particularly remains a fond teenage memory growing up.

It was the first anime that I really got into. It was a mix between James Bond and Bugs Bunny. I then learned that Lupin the Third and some of its characters were drawn from earlier characters. Lupin is called “the Third’ because he claims to be the grandson of Arséne Lupin, a character written by French author Maurice Leblanc.

Maurice meant to write Arséne Lupin as crime’s answer to Sherlock Holmes. Arséne wasn’t villainous though. He stole for the sake of the thrill and never from the innocent. But he didn’t quite give to the poor like a Robin Hood – he stole from the rich who didn’t take good care of their precious collections, believing only he truly knew how to take care of them. Other times he did steal to teach some creep or idiot a lesson.Persona 5 ties into Leblanc’s long-forgotten creation. The character manages to survive today only through the form of the anime Lupin the Third. The entire cast of Persona 5 is a group of persecuted and unfairly treated teenage outcasts fighting back the system and stealing people’s “hearts”. They do so with jazzy, funky riffs in the background and wearing masks like in a masquerade ball. You have no idea how much I enjoyed the aesthetic of this game, and when they make the Leblanc references early on, I practically fangirled.

What is Persona about?

Long story short – Carl Jung.

That handsome nerd right there.

The series takes Carl Jung’s work (collective unconsciousness, archetypes, shadows, etc.) and puts them into a weird blend of speculative/science fiction. Like Final Fantasy, each Persona game is set in its own world with its own story and rules. Some common elements include the teenage protagonists, balancing high school life, the metaphysical creatures known as “personas”, and amazing music that you keep replaying on YouTube and hope to find a copy of somewhere online to torrent or rip.Persona the series is itself a spin-off of a larger video game series called Shin Megami Tensei. The latter is more focused on the concept of computer programs created to summon demons. That same technology is more or less referenced in Persona but the focus is more on the personas. So with all that background stuff out of the way, let’s get on with the video game review.

Story:

Whoa boy. Lots of good stuff . . . aaaaand also some stuff I’m critical about.

First, the good stuff.The Protagonist (you can name him whatever) starts off by getting sent to a legal guardian because he’s on probation for assault. Early on we see a confrontation that happened months ago in the middle of the night between The Protagonist and a man who tried to sexually assault a woman. The Protagonist punches the man, but when the cops arrive the man is implied to have connections and condemns The Protagonists’ future, getting off scot-free.

The Protagonist transfers to a new school in Shibuya, and already news of his probation and physical assault record gets spread around, so people are wary of him. The first character he meets is Ryuji, a former track runner who injured his leg after the gym teacher Kamoshida abused him and the team. The two of them obviously bond from their experiences with shitty adults and from then on a mysterious app automatically downloads to The Protagonist’s cellphone, leading them to discover the Metaverse – a realm which holds the metaphysical manifestations of the collective unconsciousness. They find a castle where their school should be and ultimately discover that Kamoshida views the school as his castle, sexually harassing students and physically abusing the volleyball and track teams. There, The Protagonist learns that in the Metaverse, you can unlock your persona - your true self. They use this power to fight back the “shadow” versions of the bad guys, like Kamoshida, in the Metaverse. They end up devoting their power to reforming society and calling themselves The Phantom Thieves.

Right away we’re met with a sensitive, relevant issue – harassment. It’s really eerie how this game became released the same year as – well – you know – every other fucking thing that has been going on concerning harassment. It’s a strong opening – you’ve got a clear sense of unfairness going on in the world deep down you really want to see these bastards get what’s coming to them. Gets you pumped and riled up! Yeah! Fuck those guys!Unlike other video game RPGs, the Persona 5 heroes don’t change the world by blowing shit up or ramming a sword through the villain and calling it a day. The Protagonist and Ryuji discover a mysterious cat in the Metaverse called Morgana. He knows all about how the Metaverse works (mostly).

Morgana is the cutest motherfucker around. Look at this cute fuck.

Morgana explains that distorted desires manifest in the Metaverse. Palaces exist when a person’s distortions grow too big. Here’s where it becomes a bit like the movie Inception: The heroes have to steal the “treasure” of their target’s Palace within the Metaverse. The “treasure” is a representation of how their distorted desires began. Once you steal that, the target becomes wrought with guilt in the real world and confesses to their crimes. Every Palace works the same way – infiltrate it to find the treasure room, then send out a calling card (a true staple of the gentleman thief by the way) so that the target is aware and their metaphysical treasure becomes visible inside their Palace. If they kill the Shadow of their target, they suffer a mental breakdown and die. You quickly get used to the formula and at the same time I loved that they switched it up halfway through. So here we get into a classic debate of “What does rehabilitation mean?” and “Do the ends justify the means?”. The public becomes aware of the heroes since they send out calling cards, and people argue over the ethical nature of The Phantom Thieves. I thought that they could have gone deeper into some of the conversations, more philosophical or psychological rather than always “You are bad. Suck it, loser!” But what do you expect playing a game about teenagers?

There’s an immediate failure in the story’s part though, and to me it’s the most disappointing aspect of the game.

The opening of the game starts out with the theme of sexual harassment, right? Kamoshida is a teacher at school sexually harassing students. It’s even heavily implied he assaulted one of them. It’s a very mature theme to start out with and I love that they tackle it right away. One of the playable characters you meet in the Kamoshida storyline is Ann Takamaki. Ann is one of the students who was sexually harassed by Kamoshida. He constantly tries to force himself on her and threatens to kick out her best friend Shiho from the volleyball team if she tells anyone about his actions.

Oof. Heavy stuff. How many times have we heard that story or variations thereof?

Okay, with that in mind, let’s talk about their next target: Madarame – an old art teacher plagiarizing the works of his students. When the heroes ponder over how to meet Madarame, they find out that his student Yusuke is interested in having Ann pose nude. Ryuji immediately gets lecherous about this. No matter how you respond really, the plot has to move forward and Ann approaches Yusuke about posing nude. The nude scene never actually happens though, as Ann stalls time while the heroes sneak further into Madarame’s house. That entire situation is a serious blowback to the maturity of the first act. Here we had Ann, a student who was constantly sexually harassed, and now we joke about her posing nude when she clearly doesn’t want to. At the very least, they should have made The Protagonist say, “Yo, Ryuji, not funny. Dontcha remember what Ann just went through?”. There was no lesson learned here. All your responses lead to Ann having to pose nude for Yusuke against her will, with Ryuji getting all excited. And other gamers say no - Anne was not treated badly because she ended up owning her sexuality and getting to tell Kamoshida off. Which is true. But the point is that we’re falling into hokey perverted humor with a character who had just suffered a traumatizing experience. The writers could have easily made them approach Yusuke and by extension Madarame another way.

There’s more, although this stuff just makes my eyes roll:

So in the game, you can develop friendships in the real world with both the playable characters and secondary non-playable characters. You can foster a romantic relationship with any woman or girl in the game. You can even cheat (resulting in bad consequences, obviously). But I quickly found that every friendship with a female character is taken as a sexual innuendo. Seriously. Each one. The friendships you make begin as deals – you scratch my back, I scratch yours.

Takemi is a doctor who’s got a clear kinky vibe going on. You start a friendship with her by agreeing to be a volunteer for her clinical trials while she gives you prescription drugs as items to use in battle. Takemi then starts calling you her “little guinea pig” and asks if you need an “examination.”

Makoto’s arc is about you pretending to be her boyfriend in order to go on a double-date with her friend. Makoto thinks her friend is involved with a bad guy, but her friend won’t listen to her unless she has a boyfriend.

Hifumi is a shogi player whom you can only talk to if you have a high enough level of charisma. Once you do, she clearly is stricken by your looks and whenever she wants to play shogi with you she phrases it as “I want to test a new move on you.” Really? REALLY? Is that how she words it in bed? Like, hey honey, come to bed, I want to test a new move. You know?

Futaba is a recluse who finds you to be the one person she’s able to be comfortable around, calling you a “key item” like in a video game. You help her get over her social anxiety and she runs to you all the time for help. Then there’s your teacher – who you find out is moonlighting as a “cleaning maid” (massive air quotes) so she can pay the bills. She dresses as a maid and even calls you “master”.  Like really? REALLY? I can’t--I--come on.

Maybe they were trying to be a bit like When Harry Met Sally, trying to say that every friendship with the opposite sex is secretly sexual. Or maybe it’s just that Atlus doing their usual shit playing on sexual tropes. They did create the very sexually mature game Catherine – which is about a man in a long-term relationship suddenly wanting to cheat after meeting a buxom young woman.

Without spoiling anything – the ending dragged on. There are like four “final” boss fights. The home stretch of the game started out okay. I was like “Oh. Okay. This is cool.” Then it just kept going and going and one part I even got confused and made the wrong choice and got a bad ending – but my brain was fried at that point and I just was like “END. FOR THE LOVE OF GOD. THIS GAME DOESN’T WANT TO ROLL THE CREDITS YET. WHY. END.” The story takes place in the course of a school year and the last part gets choppy.

My final criticism is a small bit that happens when The Protagonist goes on vacation. Two gay men approach you because they think you’re cute. They’re the only gay characters you ever see in the game and they are depicted as lecherous creeps. Because gay people, right?

Road bumps aside, the rest of the story is something we need nowadays and is relevant to our times – the hypocrisy and corruption of adults in power. Despite my annoyance with the sexual innuendos in the female storylines, they’re all fleshed out with relevant stories. A mother who lives vicariously through her daughter’s fame. A teacher who’s constantly tired trying to make do. Pharmaceutical cover-ups. Bullshit self-help teachers. Bullies at school. It’s all there and the theme still holds as you try to justify your actions in reforming society. Because what does it mean to reform society?

Gameplay:  

Persona 5 uses your typical turn-based battle system and manages to spice it up. The enemies consist of “shadows” you encounter in the Metaverse – and you can collect them if you hold them up with your guns. You have to talk to them and negotiate with them first in order to gain their trust. Then they turn into personas that you can call upon in battle. The battle system also heavily relies on exploiting an enemy’s weakness – similar to Pokémon.

Fire and water, lightning and wind - all that good shit. Once a weakness is exploited, they’re dazed, and if you daze every enemy in a battle that’s when you can hold them up with your guns and negotiate. But you have those affinities and weaknesses too – and let me tell you, it’s been a bitch at times when you get your ass handed to you. Also after exploiting a weakness, you get another turn in battle – so the enemies too can take extra turns if they fuck you up. There are boss battles and mini-boss battles where you have multiple enemies with multiple affinities and weaknesses and you’re going to find yourself cursing “GODDAMMIT” – but it’s nothing horrible. You just gotta keep track. As the player, you can even “pass the baton” to another character after dazing an enemy and have them take the shot. Some abilities are strengthened after passing the baton. 

In the real world, you are The Protagonist going to school and having a normal social life. The real world activities can directly influence your abilities when going into Mementos and Palaces. Mementos and Palaces are located in the Metaverse. Whenever you want to go there, you call up your buddies and head out. Get in loser, we’re going to Mementos. As a high school student, you can upgrade your social stats, which include Knowledge, Guts, Kindness, Proficiency, and Charm. Leveling up these social stats can unlock interactions with new people or creation or access to weapons and abilities in battle. Real world activities are also about strengthening bonds with people you meet. There’s a huge list of both main and secondary characters that you interact with. Leveling up your relationship with them can unlock more abilities both during the real world and the Metaverse. As the game progresses, you really feel the pressure of figuring out what to cram in during a single day. Shit, do you go out with Makoto or Yusuke? Bro night or date night? Should you try raising your kindness by watching a nice movie, or go fishing? You have tests to take, people who want to hang out with you, money to make in order to buy items for battle. You must take into consideration what to do and when because you always have deadlines for the next target – because something always gets complicated that calls for a deadline to change the victim’s heart.

Oh.

Oh baby. . .

So – sidenote – I’m not a real city person. I love going to the city for like a day-trip or two. A weekend maybe. Vacation. But never to live there permanently. After playing this game I realized, “Man, it’s actually fun living in the city.” How influential is that? It makes me actually love the thought of living in the city. Heck, it makes me fucking miss school so bad – not just college – just school in general. Oh man, remember when you could just see your friends every day? This game pulls you in with lovable characters and a high school simulation that makes you actually miss going to fucking school.

It’s like the game purposely tugged at my nostalgia strings. Like “Hey, Eddie. Remember those days when you had like, lots of friends, and like you could just hang out with them any time of the day and everybody was full of excitement and vigor?” And I laughed and then started crying. Hahaha I need help.

The open world feels a bit choppy though. It’s not exactly free-flowing. You look at your phone and choose a place to go and the subway transition plays. You can actually walk to the subway for some places but you fall into just using using the map on your phone to transition from here to there since it’s faster. There are many interesting nooks and crannies that are just for show. If you wander too far off, Morgana says, “Hey wait, go back. There’s nothing there.” I hate stuff like that. I’d rather it just automatically loop – like the character keeps walking and then ends up back at the entrance or something. Or maybe something funny like a brief animation where The Protagonist tries crossing a busy street and almost gets run over and he’s like “Whoops, not THAT way!” Something quick and easy like that rather than having some cat keep telling me, “No. Don’t go there.” When video games do that they break the illusion of a free-roaming environment.

Graphics:

Short and simple – they’re awesome. Everything about this game is aesthetically pleasing. The menu screens, the battle screen, the little animations, the art style.

There are tiny things you end up loving about a video game. In here, there are so many that I love. I love it when you’re running through the Metaverse and The Protagonist adjusts his gloves once and a while. I love it when you land a critical hit and the character’s face cuts through the screen like in a comic book.

I love the subtleties like when you see minor characters in public doing weird shit or you just notice them often and then you later realize what they were doing as the story or sidequest opens up. It’s easy to miss things because just like in real life there are crowds and people walking everywhere, and in that way it gets really immersive, like “Oh, what does this person have to say?”. 

Music:

Probably the only video game where I seriously enjoy listening to every track. Sometimes I like a video game soundtrack but maybe I skip the menu screen music or some other bit. Everything you listen to is sublime. Everything’s got a beat. Jazz and funk and synth. Then you got the really awesome metal riffs. The funny thing is that the songs are so catchy but at the same time – and I hope it’s not just me – the Japanese singer Lyn kind of pronounces the English differently? As such, I’m often times trying to sing along only to realize that I have no idea what the fuck she’s saying but oh! – there’s the refrain, I know that part! So I’m constantly looking up the lyrics to remember and actually hear.

Conclusion:

I’ve discovered that Persona 5 seems to attract people who were never into traditional RPGs. You are never bored for any second of the game. I clocked at about 80 something hours by the end of the game, which is about a medium length for a JRPG, but it went by fast. There’s still so much to do on your second playthrough. It’s impossible to explore everything in one playthrough.

If you’re already an RPG fan – fuck – what are you waiting for?

Last but not least, my preference of the relationships:

Everybody bickers about them. “Makoto is best girl.” Kawakami forever. No, Takemi! Here’s my list of relationship preferences from best to worst.

1. Makoto (MAKOTO IS BEST GIRL, FUCKERS)

2. Hifumi

3. Takemi

4. Kawakami

5. Chihaya

6. Futaba

7. Haru

8. Ann

9. Ohya

[badwitchgame]

Busy with Blender

Thanks to Grant Abbitt’s tutorials on YT (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZFUrFoqvqlN8seaAeEwjlw) tutorials, I’ve picked up a few quick skills. Until he makes the part 4 of the tutorial with the texture painting, I decided to hit WoW and made a few screenshot about objects and houses and tried to make them in Blender.

First attempt: Barrel and cart:

I really liked this one, despite the fact that it’s super low poly, it is quite obvious what it is and even with basic shading, it looks very good.

2nd Attempt: House in Evelynn forest:

and the reference screenshots:

It had some very strange angles The house normally would just straight up but as they made this “cartoonish” in WoW they distorted the house from the sides:

Also it was not super obvious how the walls go. I think they are double sided planes, not actual geometry, at least around the windows for sure. I don’t know how to do that yet. Also as I was studying the structure from all sides, I noticed a few optimizations as well. The geometry was not really obvious, since the texture painting created a lot of “illusion” geometry, it was hard to tell what is shape, and what is texture painting sometimes.

In any case, it was a good exercise and it kept me pumped so I ended u modelling a few more things in Blender:

A signpost:

and a bed scene:

Without texture painting these all look a bit plain, but I think I make good progress in understanding and creating simple models.

I also bought Portia on PS since it was reduced price. I thought it’ll be different but after playing it for a day, I can’t say I’ve seen a more snowflake friendly game in my life. There’s absolutely no conflict in it in a meaningful way. Everyone is nice, the weather is pretty, whatever you are tasked to do is super easy, the whole game feels like a safe place simulator..

Regardless, I bought it because of the art style. It was quite OK, although the lack of texture painting results in a very low quality models some places. I’m positive I could make 60-70% of the models I’ve seen so far. I don’t know about the programming aspect or game systems just talking about models of houses, walls generic objects around the world etc. Some are surprisingly badly made for a fully released product, but it was quite consistent in execution. If nothing else, the game gave some hope that I can make a game one day, since if they could release and sell this quality of assets, it is absolutely doable to make something with similar quality (or better) solo.

The more I dig into game making, the bigger the task seems to be, but so far I’ve not seen anything I couldn’t solve (maybe bunny fur on the “official” blender Udemy tutorial, but that’s useless anyways.). Models can be made with blender. repetition and level design can be learned from WoW, and how they re-use parts of their models and textures to build variety in the scenes without actually making new models. Sound design and music theory can be learned from Udemy tutorials and programs like FL studio or that strange midi generator can make music. Concept art and drawing can be learned, I bought a complete drawing tutorial on Udemy as well. Eventually I will be able to make models, concept art and music. Animation I have a book on that I can read. UE4 I have a complete course as well as an UE RPG course as well. All I need is just the game idea and execution. After seeing some ideas I still have more idea on what I don’t want to do than what I do want to make. I liked the wider game design of Portia, but that conflict-less blank characters are just creeping me out. I liked the huge sunsets and the ancient ruins on the horizon, I like how bright the game is, although it does terribly miss dark areas and creepy, evil places etc. As I played Portia, all I thought was maan, this is TOO cheerful, this is TOO happy. This game is like Stardew Valley on drugs for overly sensitive people. For those who cannot deal with conflicts so they need their game too to be without real confrontation. Portia surely doesn’t follow the typical “Hero’s journey” since there’s nothing heroic in it. nothing to overcome or learn from, nothing to challenge. FFS the first dungeon doesn’t even have enemies and the game is proudly presenting it as a safe place to explore. I expected some reaction from the bus driver when I started axing the rainbow lamas everyone was just watching cheerfully as those nightmare monsters went off with a puff and dropping a nicely folded leather.

I definitely don’t want to do that. I want extraordinary creatures like in FF and PoGo, I’ll probably want companions like pets etc.

About what the game would be.. Probably a journey with many easter eggs and side quests. Something where decisions shape a world state, Regions are similar size as WoW areas with similarly packed with small towns, areas of interest etc. Something that can be explored, and quests would lead to the next areas. Player can choose where to go from similarly hard areas.

I do want some form of building in the game and regarding that I had the idea of a player building their house, either as freeform building like in Conan exiles or upgrade it and have fixed attachments added to it like Skyrim or WoW garrisons. I can restrict the building area in each region and the player can cast a spell to “pick up” their house and move it to the next area or build more and travel between them. Like in NMS. NMS building system is good, just the building pieces are not good enough.. All the buildings look like cubes.

Both building systems (upgrade with fix pieces or free building from parts) have its charms. Pre-made parts probably easier to make. I potentially would like to end up with a “howl’s moving castle like monstrosity where towers and planks are sticking out. The pre-made and upgrade system can also be combined with shelves and furniture so people can customize it. I do enjoy free building better though, free building is one of the cornerstones of Conan exiles, without it I’d probably not played it for this long. The idea that you can just set up shop anywhere on the gigantic map and build a massive base, castle, whatever you want is pure imagination. You see a place or a cliff side and you have an idea what could look good there. Or you just settle on a random place and follow along what the world gives you, build inside a cliff side, or set walls along the vulnerable openings. You can climb a mountain to get a good vista or a cool sunset and start building there. Originally I wanted something like that, but I admit I have no idea how to make it work well. It works for Conan because it barely has a story. remove the bracelet, fill the shopping list and no ending.

The problem with Conan’s ending is that it’s non-existent and I realize now that it was a conscious choice. During my first play-though I thought it makes no sense to remove the bracelet. By the time you can do it you are king of the world, you have a palace, you have an army of thralls, you have many beasts following you, you own an oasis, you conquered all bosses and enemies in the game. And you cannot die. Why would you want to remove the bracelet and become mortal again and walk into the desert? So it makes sense that the developers don’t want you to finish the game. 80% of Conan exiles is building. it’s not about finishing the story. This is a strange relationship between what the game tells you and what it is actively trying to force you to do. By story they want you to remove the bracelet, but every game elements wants you to stay and keep building on new locations. Conan exiles still pulls me back occasionally just purely to build and make a new base. There’s nothing in terms of story in the game for me, I’ve seen every corner of it, yet when new building pieces came out, I feel encouraged to go back and build a new base because  of the free form building.

Things that can make a game infinite:

- Random levels to play on (Diablo’s Rifts)

- Free building where you can build any house you want (Conan exiles)

- Character customization (Maple story 2)

- Free form crafting (Paper life)

The problem with these is the more random a game gets, the harder it is to write a consistent and freely explorable story to it. The more random the game is, the more possibilities are for the player to miss / skip story either by accident or by simply going towards something that is more interesting on the map. You can either write a main story arc or small hubs with mini stories perhaps? Maybe you can have mandatory quests and optional quests as in other games.

What I aimed for at the very beginning was 2 states for each areas. For example you have a woodland forest, and depending on your actions it will be a trade hub because you made it safe or a bandit hub if you selected certain choices. This can result a “World state” that can be used for New Game +. You go through the game, make your choices, and that results a world that has less or more problems. When you finish, you have the choice to restart, but the world is in the state you left it. If you left the woodland that became a trade hub, in NG+ you find a rich area that have a set of problems coming from being rich (eg attacked by bandits). If you left the area in the main play through as a bandit hub, you have quests to liberate it or profit off it etc. Liberating the bandit hub results a trade hub, neglecting or exploiting a trade hub results a bandit hub. If all areas have 2 states, you can play through the game at least 2 times.