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less-than-three-3 · 2 years ago

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octopath traveler 2 - a masterclass in developing a sequel and an instant classic

I think that in games, when developing a sequel, it’s not uncommon to see a team take feedback and make changes that try to make it more widely received. Often, I feel that in that endeavor it’s easy to lose sight of what made the original game uniquely tick or feel like it did. Don’t just take my word for it (though what games I feel fall into this category can be controversial), it’s something that Sakurai has often mentioned before, for example.

Octopath Traveler II is a master class in how not to fall into that pitfall, and not just one of the best sequels (most improved award), but I think one of the best turn based RPG’s to date, at least by modern standards. I think it’s probably not a game that’s for everyone’s taste, but if you go in without expectations, I think it’s hard to ever really be let down. Likely spoilers below (especially end-game spoilers), but I’ll try to leave them to the end.

Before digging into the sequel though, I just want to briefly touch on octopath 1 in 2023. Something that I think about a lot is Scott’s retrospective on 3D World (I ain’t timestamping this one sorry), specifically, that 3D World was given a good bit of flack on release because it felt like it was “taking 3D mario into a bad direction” when, in a post-Odyssey world, we can really look back and really appreciate 3D World for what it is, and not judge it for what it isn’t (watch the whole video, it’s a great retrospective).

All this to basically say, I think a lot of the flack that octopath 1 got was kind of in the same vein. People really wanted it to be what it wasn’t. It’s not a Final Fantasy or Dragon Quest, where you get a ragtag team of misfits banded together on a big journey, maybe with small individual branches along the way. It’s 8 very differently motivated individuals who just kind of pick each other up and just happen to help each other do their thing. The exp sharing and party system I can get being annoying, but I don’t think it’s really more than just a minor annoyance at worst, and I can get behind it being good to push the player to experiment with team composition (your leader gets somewhat overleveled but I really never found it that much more broken than synergies you get by mid-game). In another game that I love, Ruined King, they do have full party exp share, and while I loved experimenting and moving parts around to make different comps, I definitely felt that is very self-motivated, and the game doesn’t have too much in place to force you to move people around besides required character segments. Random encounters... I get complaining about it, but again it feels like idiot-proofing the level curve, because so often I see people in games with “walking encounters” just never ever fight them and then complain about being underleveled and having to “grind”.

This might feel like an odd rant to go on, and yeah it is partially just me getting on my damn soapbox and saying “octopath 1 was good actually”, but it’s important as context for why I find octopath 2 to be such a brilliant game (and because octopath 2 gives a new appreciation for these elements). I love the RPGSite review because it sums up this angle really well:

“As I mentioned previously, Octopath Traveler is meant to be a structurally open game that values player freedom. The overall arrangement of eight individual characters with eight distinct storylines may not fit the more traditional and expected structure of a unified JRPG party and a unified goal, thus some concessions are made in order to fit that vision in terms of character dynamics. Maybe it took falling in love with the SaGa games - which share some common components - for me to begin to understand what Octopath was trying to do all along, but I think this was the right direction to take the sequel in. I'd rather not see Octopath change dramatically and risk its identity in order to conform to expectations it doesn’t try to meet. If you’re looking for linear, story-driven, party-centric RPGs, there are an abundance of them.”

Don’t get me wrong - I’m not saying the original is perfect. I found some of the stories not that interesting (or maybe I just never gave them a chance!), and certainly the character interactions were a little sparse and unimpactful. But that’s where octopath 2 really shines beyond its origins, because I think the entire cast is absolutely wonderful, and their interactions, both in their paired quests and side-banted, ooze character. There is certainly a disparity between characters because they are all such different people, but as you get through chapters you can definitely feel them warm up to each other and get to understand each other’s perspectives. It’s such a breath of fresh air because in the original I felt like a lot of them were kind of just, one character asking the other for advice, and then they give it? And the structure of the chapters is so varied in the sequel, including how and when to use path actions (the night/day system helps a lot), when in the original it definitely felt a bit cut and paste.

I don’t even know where to start with the characters and their stories. I guess, like with Live-a-Live, I’ll just list them from my least favorite to favorite, but just know that I loved all of them.

8. Agnea - her motivations really kind of felt the most octopath 1 out of everyone, and not necessarily in the best way? I mean, she’s pretty much like Tressa, who I love don’t get me wrong, but it is just strange to me that, throughout every single chapter, it never really, like, felt like there should really be conflict? It’s a weird way to put it, but she is pretty much just going to become a star, and that sure is the journey she goes on. I don’t even really think she has many foreshadowing moments, but I might have just missed those? She’s super adorable and lovable and brings everyone cheer, and her story is very much the lighthearted one, so I suppose it fits. I don’t know, it just didn’t fully click for me. Great member of the party, I just wasn’t the most invested. Part of it may also just be that it feels like so different from Prim, who was easily one of the best characters from 1.

I think that is literally the only vaguely negative one I have, and I didn’t even really dislike her story, I just was least invested in it lmao

7. Throne (I will be leaving out the accent sorry I’m lazy) - I think the premise and split path and internal and external qualms are interesting, but I just kinda felt like it was Therion-lite. The final twist... sure is a twist of all time. I’m not in love with her story in retrospect, but it was like good enough moment to moment. Kinda like Lycoris Recoil, thinking about it.

6. I guess Osvald is 6th? These rankings past 8 are definitely pretty wishy washy. His character and story and motivation is just. anguish. Everything sucks (for Osvald). Harvey sucks. At every step you think you cannot get more upset at the situation and it just keeps on getting worse. How. Incredible.

5. Ok I fucking love Partitio but I would be remiss to rank his story too highly, because he is just god’s gift to mercantilism. He can do no wrong. There is no growth. But he’s really fucking charismatic and funny so it totally makes sense. It’s also really funny that he is the most socialist merchant ever, and he takes down the chains of capitalism and their absurd contracts and loopholes and then that final boss fight is just so awesome. I love Partitio.

4. Hikari also goes in the middle for just being A Political War Drama (I love those). He’s pretty much simba. But like, a dark, fucked up version of simba. I don’t know if I have that much else to say about it, that pretty much is everything.

3. Castti is really really interesting. Piecing together lost memories felt a little cliche to start, but the story being put together and the final few turns of the story were absolutely gut wrenching and my god what an incredible story. She is the mom of the group, and I don’t know if she was really that much more.

2. Temenos is a really interesting cleric character, and a huge departure from Ophilia (for the better). He is pretty much just Sherlock, from Sherlock. He can really be an asshole, and it’s really interesting to see this kind of angle, and not in a “church bad” trope, but in a “church good? but we need to fix the church?”. I would probably be mobbed for not mentioning Crick. So I have. I cannot talk about Crick without massive spoilers. If you finished his story you know why. Great character, great story.

1. Ochette may not belong up here but she is by far my favorite character what a fucking idiot I love her dearly. Just too stupid to live. There are like, a maximum of two things on her mind, ever. Her arc is great. She is voiced by Yuffie Kisaragi, the best character in FF7R. I am biased. This is my write-up. What are you gonna do about it.

Speaking of Live-A-Live, I can’t help but think Team Asano working on that remake helped reinvigorate some notable improvements in this sequel. Obviously the Octopath games have a lot of flesh and blood from Live-A-Live to begin with. But the final chapter of the game felt very reminiscent of that of LAL, both in terms of literal story structure, but especially with the worldbuilding and foreshadowing dropped throughout the game. I will spare many of the details, but I really liked the way that the foreshadowing is much more apparently integrated into events, major and minor, in each character’s story.

The combat system being pretty much the same, but with an extra new gauge, is great, because the original combat system was already really great. I truly think that if you have complaints about the break/boost system, the game probably just is not for you. I vibe with it, I get it, I love it. Latent powers just add a new extra layer to how to approach turn planning and break timing. Such a small change that adds so much.

Class rebalancing/skill changes were also very noticeable for the better. I feel like a good amount of people must have complained about access to aoe because good aoe is pretty much a premium now, unless your name is ochette (and even then you really have to look for it) or osvald (scholar privilege, ig). Support skills shifting around makes for different dynamics in approaching battles, and I especially love the new hidden classes, specifically Inventor, though Arcanist and Conjurer are neat too (though Arcanist gets really broken... but it’s ok because merchant is a pretty weak class otherwise?). My only real complaint is that I wish you could refund/re-allocate JP in some way, and that’s just because I love experimenting with class combinations.

The day/night system giving pretty much 2 of every “ability” per time of day makes pretty much any comp good for just roaming around town stealing getting to know the townspeople. Having time-specific passive abilities is a neat function, but I think there is definitely a good amount of room to build upon this. A very great seed planted for a future game. There will be a future game, right?

Being up to level curve was only really a struggle for one level jump, I think it was right before chapter 3, but I think they make patching up those last couple levels really easy with all of the exp boosting tools they give you, and really early (I had not equipped them because I thought it was only for the equipping character - no, they’re bonuses for the whole active party - and that’s probably why I got a little behind). Otherwise just going through chapters, traveling from one place to another, exploring the side dungeons, the natural leveling pace felt, well mostly unnoticeable, which I think is the best place for a leveling curve to be?

Dungeon design strictly in terms of explorability is nothing mindblowing, but it more than makes it up with the visual and sound design. Even now 2DHD still looks fucking wonderful and I wish so badly for the DQ3 remake to come out and other 2DHD games to come out. And yes, the music is incredible. I feel like often people just mention the battle themes, and yes, they go hard, but with both Octopath 1 and 2 every single environment has such unique sonic character. I don’t necessarily know if the best town themes come close to my favorites from the original (Orewell my beloved), but just the sheer variety in character, instrumentation, and composition is very much still ever-present, and I wish Yasunori Nishiki many many more opportunities in the future because he is genuinely one of the greats. Even better, though, like in any good musical design, is when the sound just cuts out. There is nothing more unsettling, especially in a game with such a lush soundtrack, than silence. Every such moment is incredible. I could literally make an entire separate essay on the sound design of these games (I have), but I won’t gush on and on here.

Octopath Traveler II is a game that really really plays into its strengths, and even while it successfully patches up most of of its original’s actual weaknesses, it is very much its strengths that continue to really shine. It is an RPG experience unlike any other out there, and if it’s one you are keen to experience, you will have a wonderful time. This is one of my favorite turn-based RPG’s, followed closely by Team Asano’s own Triangle Strategy, and I think it still has incredibly high potential to continue to iterate on its niche. I absolutely think this will be one of the more influential games of the genre for the future - a modern classic, while still feeling solidly rooted in its inspirations from the SNES golden era.

#octopath ii #octopath traveler #jrpg #jrpg review #octopath spoilers

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primojade · 2 years ago

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𝐅𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐂𝐈𝐄𝐒 𝐎𝐅 𝐋𝐎𝐕𝐄.

𝐀𝐂𝐓 𝐈 : 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐀 𝐈𝐀𝐂𝐓𝐀 𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐀. ( the die is cast )

𝐒𝐂𝐄𝐍𝐄 𝐈 : 𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐔𝐌𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐔𝐌 𝐀𝐃 𝐇𝐎𝐌𝐈𝐍𝐄𝐌. ( argument against the man )

" the only impossible journey is the one you never begin. " - tony robins.

𝐒𝐄𝐑𝐈𝐄𝐒' 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 | As a veteran AR60 player of Genshin Impact, you pride yourself as someone who knows the ins and outs of Teyvat, even studiously completing Spiral Abyss every reset, and having 100% exploration to some, if not all, of the released regions so far. Everything is fun and enjoyable, especially since Sumeru just recently debuted so you still have a lot to do!

All that ends though, when a mysterious passerby pushes you off the building of your university while playing Genshin. But instead of meeting your inevitable end, you find yourself waking up in the very world you were addicted to!

It's supposed to be a fun dream, right? Something you could laugh at when you wake up? Right?! So, why is that you were back in AR1 with nothing but a dull blade in your inventory?!

…well, at least you still have those 700+ sunsettias and mints, Timmie's fowls…and surprisingly similar game mechanics you used to merely see on the screen before. But what should you do now? Flirt with the Genshin men??? Good lords...

"Welcome to Genshin Impact, Dreamer. Here, we can show you a happier ever after you've never had before…so, ready?"

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐒𝐔𝐌𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐘 | In which your utter disappointment with your game progress (or regression) cause you to trigger a new quest? Is this a chance you should take? And Tighnari told you that humans are often more predictable, however, you're an odd one out.

𝐂𝐖 / 𝐓𝐖 | Cursing, hasty confession (but not really?), tighnari is getting suspicious of you, rightfully so lol. Let me know if I missed anything <3

𝐖𝐑𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐎𝐓𝐄𝐒 | I don't know if I should post the route 1 and 2 at the same time but...eh...let me know what u think! Reblogs and comments are appreciated!

masterlist | prologue: that love is a fallacy | (alternate route) route ii: argumentum ad ignorantiam

For your own sake, you logically decided to remain still inside Tighnari's house. Your body was still aching all over, even though the Therianthrope had meticulously treated your wounds well—which you guessed was from your fall with him—it also doesn't leave the fact that you felt even more tired than when you were reviewing for your exams every night.

Well, that would be the first reason. The other is that you were still in shock—and denial—at what the hell is happening right now. Tighnari was real, you could see and touch him in the flesh, and you can't be mistaken that that person isn't him because you know it's him by the amount of shameless staring and gushing you did with his soft-looking ears and tail during his first banner and in his idles.

So, yes…if you were indeed get isekai'd in Genshin Impact, one question still begs to be answered. A lot, to be honest, but for now, you were still not accepting this reality wholeheartedly.

"M…Maybe I just misclicked it or something. That's right, I probably just misread it." You tried reasoning to yourself, a little desperate, before closing the hologram screen. After you take a lungful of breaths, you shakily pat your chest once, and the screen appears before you again.

[Username]

(No Signature)

Adventure Rank: 1

Adventure EXP: 0

World Level: 0

"NOOOOO!!!" You wailed loudly, almost thrashing your feet in the bed as you animatedly heard the cracking ice and booming volcanoes in your head, goading and laughing at your misery. "...my AR60 account, my characters…I grind so hard for them…for two years…"

Almost in tears, you gulped shakily as your eyes travelled down to the Inventory tab, tapping it only to groan in utter disappointment when ALL of your precious weapons were gone! Every. Single. One. Of them! Not even a trusty Prototype Rancour or a Harbinger of Dawn! All of them are gone except for that damn LVL1 Dull Blade!

"I can't believe this…all of my hard work…" You sniffed and stiffly tapped the icon of the Dull Blade, and to your surprise, the weapon suddenly appeared in front of you. "Woahhh—!" Its sharp blade almost grazes your skin. you manage to grab its hilt in time but you almost dropped it when its unexpected weight almost crushed you. "This is so heavy!"

Before you hurt yourself further with the Dull Blade, you immediately unequipped the sword and switched the tab to the Artifacts, and just as you dreadily expect, it was also empty. All your precious five stars artifacts are gone so suddenly. The CD Items, Quest Items, Gadgets, Furnishings and Precious Items tab are as empty as your soul when you were done checking.

With a shake of your head, you console yourself with the fact that at least some of the Materials (like the local specialties) and Food (sunsettias, starshrooms and apples) were still as high as you remember.

After some time glaring at your nearly emptied inventory, you closed the tab completely, glossing over the Map in disappointment (which was, by the way, the Teleport Waypoints or Statue of the Seven were still locked, even the ones in Mondstadt and Liyue), and the Quest Menu is still empty.

As for the other ones, if you remember correctly, the Wish and Shop were unlocked when you reached AR5. While the Character Archive would be available only when you get Amber to be playable—which you think is impossible for now considering you were in Sumeru and Mondstadt is like…a nation away.

This is all so depressing. Add to the fact that you don't know how to return to your world, almost all of your trusted resources, a chance of survival, is gone.

A few moments later, Tighnari arrived with your medicine and he raised his brow when he saw you sulking in the farthest corner of the bed. "What happened to you? Do you feel any pain somewhere?"

You gaze soullessly at him. "My hard work vanished along with my determination to live."

He rolled his eyes. "Okay, drink this medicine and let's get you back to bed." You lamely took the green pill the Therianthrope gave you, toss it on your mouth and immediately gulped the glass of water he offered.

"Blegh!" You almost choked at the bitter taste and Tighnari offered you another glass of water, which you gladly took.

"I apologise if my concotion is too bitter for your taste. On the bright side, its effectiveness could be trusted." He said in a matter-of-fact tone, though the light twiched of his ears and the swish of his tail tells you that he found your reactions amusing.

"I know, I believe you—uh, what?."

Tighnari was staring at you like you grown two heads. "Hmm. Well, curious how you just swallow that thing without asking me what it was or checking to see if its something dangerous. Even though you appear to know me, you should've been more careful."

It looks like he was about to lecture you about safety and stuff so you immediately replied. "...Dunno, maybe because I don't think you have any reason to poison me after helping and patching me up? Plus, I know your reputation, your talents and your dedication to help. Poisoning me is something against your principles."

"That's true," the Therianthrope looked thoughtful, his green-olive eyes staring down at you intently. "However, humans tend to be a little more cautious about this, you know, which makes them quite predictable. And speaking of which, you appear to know me, but I never have the chance to ask yours. I believe introductions are overdue?"

"Oh, uh…I'm [Name]. Hehehe. Sorry again for all the trouble, Tighnari." You said gratefully. For a moment, you wonder if he would recognised your name. Well, you don't even know if this Tighnari is the same as the Tighnari you were playing before. And even if he was, he probably wouldn't recognised your real name since you were using a Username instead.

Speaking of which…

WHERE IS YOUR PHONE?! AND YOUR BACKPACK?

Before you could ask what befall your other stuff, Tighnari cut you off. He was looking at you curioisly, never hostile but you could see his guard was up, his tail tensing a little. "...I believe myself to have a decent memory, and I'm confident I never seen you before. How did you know my name?"

How could you tell him he was a video game character you were playing before you die?!

Yeah, no. As if he would believed you. He might've thought you were losing your last braincells and even send you to Bimarstan for real this time.

Quick, [Name], just throw any excuse you could find! Your hippocamus was internally panicking along with you.

"...I KNOW BECAUSE I LOVE YOU—" you blurted out in a frenzy before you realised what you said. Your eyes widened, as shock as him. "I mean, I love your ears and tail! I don't love you as in you, since you're not rea—wait…that will sounds wrong. But not that way—ugh!"

Before you could dug a hole to hide your embarassment, Tighnari's ears perked up as he glance outside the door. At the same time, the hologram of the Paimon Menu suddenly appeared in front of you. A blue exclamation mark marking the Quest tab made you do a double take.

Did you just triggered a World Quest with whatever nonesense you just said?

The Fox and the Jackal

70m

Go with Tighnari to see Cyno.

Quest Chain Rewards: 250 Adventure EXP, 150 Character EXP, 20 Primogems, 5 Adventurer's Experience.

HOLY SHIZNITS—Wait, WHAT? Isn't this going a bit too fast? Why is Cyno suddenly coming here?! Why do you have to go see him, too?

And damn, whoever is the mastermind of all this is tempting you with those delicious rewards—

Route 1.1: Beg Tighnari to let you come to him and see Cyno. After all, you desperately need those primogems rewards to level up your AR. Plus, you were curious what he looks like, too.

Can you even refuse if those primogems are waving hello at you?

TAGLIST (open! Send a dm or ask to be added :3) | @xinii , @maehemthemisfit , @abvolat , @crazypriestess , @ghostsaysno , @kittence , @unabashedlyminiaturetyrant , @xiyanin , @toasterinabathtub , @sketcheeee , @a-single-pizza , @fuoon , @luvwukong , @salty-salty , @rosebatsc , @inky8 , @thegeekact , @almighty-raiden-shogunate , @isuckat-avery-thing , @perhapsabitgirlypop (if ur username is orange, it means i cant tagged u :(( maybe its in ur settings?)

Route 1.2: Abandon the quest! You have more pressing matters to attend to. After all, who knows if that Quest were as long as that Aranyaka that would make your hair white till you finish it. Plus, you're not a huge Cyno simp and he could tell when you lie, man! A danger! You also need to find your phone and your bag!

#genshin impact #genshin sagau #sagau #tighnari x reader #cyno x reader #gender neutral reader #genshin impact x reader #jaded moments—!

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callmearcturus · 2 years ago

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Tips for Playing Persona 3 Portable

because i am (i think) a little over halfway thru and it's amazing, I am having a tremendously good time. here's all the stuff that made me go "well I wish i knew that from the beginning!"

this is geared towards people who haven't played a MegaTen. other folks, you know what you're doing, don't @ me.

TO PLAY:

You wanna grab the PPSSPP emulator, which is available for mobile and for PC. I need buttons to play, so I play on my Odin, but if you're the kind of person who plays Genshin on your phone, you'd probably be fine just playing it on your phone.

I'm able to upscale this to x4 resolution so it looks very nice. If you're on a super fancy phone or your PC, I bet you can push it higher if you want but I think it looks great at x4.

I'm not gonna pussyfoot around. You can find the game on a very helpful site. Rot13: ivzz.arg Great place to know.

I would have three save files. Slot One: the place you save daily or every other day, because you should do that. Slot Two: save here when the game warns you it's almost a full moon. If you make it to the boss and get utterly owned, roll back to here and grind more. (I haven't had to do this yet personally but the game is slowly getting harder, so maybe it'll happen.) Slot Three: Before events you might want to see multiple paths of.

PPSSPP supports save states. I mapped the "save state" button to my L3 click and I hit it every time I reach a new floor of Tartarus in case something goes catastrophically wrong. But I'm not the type of person who enjoys total party wipes and losing progress. I'm baby.

Oh and you need to trust me here: PLAY THE GIRL. DO NOT PLAY THE BOY, THE GAME IS APPRECIABLY WORSE. When you start the game it'll warn you to play Boy first. FUCKING IGNORE THAT SHIT AND PLAY THE GIRL. Also FemPC is the only one with a gay option to my knowledge.

TIPS FOR THE COMBAT PORTION OF THE GAME:

If you are not into MegaTen/Persona, just play on Easy. It's okay and no one is gonna judge you. And anyone who does it outing themselves as an asshole.

Your goal for the first tens of hours of combat is to knock all enemies down in a single turn. When all enemies are knocked down, your party does an All Out Attack and usually finishes off the fight. Hitting enemies with their weakness or getting a critical will knock them down and let you take another attack in the same turn. Keep chaining until everyone is knocked down!

You can find most enemies weaknesses by scanning them with Mitsuru/Fuuka. Do this for every enemy, it'll help later when you have seen 40 enemies and cannot remember who's weak to what.

Each party member has an elemental specialty but you the player can swap your pokemon persona once per turn. Lemme repeat: YOU CAN SWAP YOUR PERSONA IN BATTLE ONCE PER TURN. You don't have to wait to be out of battle to swap!

This is a game where its very worthwhile to, once you reach a new combat area, to upgrade all of your weapons and armor. The stat jumps are pretty significant. You'll get some equipment from Elizabeth's quests and in exploration but not a lot. So figure out who you're gonna use mainly and kit them out when new gear appears.

You unlock Akihiko in the second or third month of play (first 5 hours, maybe sooner depending on your playstyle). He was a small lesson for me as a player bc he spends HP to hit hard. Kind of scary at first but he'll be fine, let him be a blood knight. Yukari will heal him when he's in the danger zone. Also, if you are keeping everyone up to date on their equipment there are many times Akihiko does more damage with his normal attack than his Persona skill. He's like. Maddeningly useful. And he's the best boy. And I love him. ANYWAY.

Don't be precious about your personas. Fuse frequently. Also if you have one you REALLY like the skillset of, tell Elizabeth you want to register them in the compendium and you can summon them again for money. (You get the compendium early game, just chill until it unlocks.)

Oh yeah so when you start fighting, your party members will be on Full AI Mode. When you start to understand what you're doing, you can go into Tactics and switch them to being under your control. Or switch them back! Up to you!

FINALLY, THIS IS THE ONE I WISH I UNDERSTOOD EARLY. Once you start really breezing through combat, when you are in Tartarus and out of combat: JUST TELL EVERYONE TO GO EXPLORE. They will split up from you and run around finding items and will locate the exits. This makes getting through Tartarus floors easy. AND IF ONE OF THEM GETS INTO COMBAT? Stand nearby and if they start to lose too my HP, HEAL THEM FROM YOUR MENU. It's fucking great. I love this mechanic so much and I was too scared to use it for so long. USE IT!!!!

i think once you get Fuuka you can change the BGM while you are exploring. I like Track 4, it's very fun.

OKAY THAT'S THE COMBAT HALF OF THE GAME, LET'S TALK ABOUT THE REST OF IT:

This game is driven by your Social Links with people, series of little scenes in visual novel style. Having strong social links means your personas for that Arcana will be stronger. You can pick choices in many of these social link scenes that will make the person happy or sad.

There's a few social links where if you want to max them out you gotta suck it up and say the 'right' thing for that person. Rio does not want a lot of pushback or challenge to her ideas. Akihiko will clam up if you make fun of his interests and frequently misses sarcasm and jokes with his literalism. Saori wants gentle pushback against her isolation but not super aggressively. If you fuck up and feel bad, reload a save! It's okay.

Junpei is not a romance option. Knowing this made me like him a LOT more and he became my best fucking bro and my ride-or-die. Junpei is great. He'd be awful if he was a romance option.

A few characters are gated based on your stat triangle of Academics, Courage, and Charm. If you have a character you REALLY want to hang with, it's worth seeing what the requirements are. FOR INSTANCE: Akihiko doesn't unlock for hang outs until he recovers from his injury, which takes a while. BUT to even hang out with him, you need to reach Charm level 4. So my ass was grinding Charm until he opened up as an option. Later, I had to grind Courage to meet the Tower, who is awesome.

BEST WAY TO LEVEL ANY OF YOUR STATS: Charm (needed for Akihiko): work at Chagall Cafe Mon/Tues/Wed nights when you can. Also once you have enough money, the Print Club arcade game will give a huge boost when its available. Also giving Junpei the right answer in class will boost Charm. Academics (needed for Mitsuru): i'm still grinding this rn lmao but the Quiz Game at the arcade and the documentary movies at the cinema will give you a big boost. Also when the game offers to let you sleep in class, always stay awake for a small boost. Courage (needed for The Tower): Horror House at the arcade, but also doing karaoke at the mall. Also, when you are tired after fighting in Tartarus, go talk to the school nurse (this doesn't consume an action) for a Courage boost.

When I was initially looking up guides for this game, they were unified in one message. Just play the game naturally and you'll probably get close to who you like! Except Akihiko. Look up a guide for him. I didn't find him that difficult because I cottoned on fast that he's an shy autistic Team Mom who takes things literally a lot, and once I figured that out it was easy. But if you have your heart set on someone, look them up! It's a long game.

listen. some social links are great (Junpei, Fuuka, Akihiko, The Devil, The Tower) and some are not (Bebe, the Student Council). I think it's fine to just... not do some of them if you don't like them lmao.

Finally, when its your day off, sometimes people will call you and ask you out. I ALWAYS make a save state here, turn everyone down to see who I have as an option, and then load my state to pick who I want. I recommend doing that, especially for the Summer Festival because you will get multiple offers, but Junpei will probably be first. Sorry, Junpei, I wanna hang out with Akihiko. (Also: wear the yukata if you're going with Akihiko.)

Fairly far into the game you'll start getting gifts to give people. I'd save state-cheat these too in case you give someone the wrong thing.

I THINK THAT'S IT

please play persona 3 portable its good

#persona 3 #arc plays games #long post

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poisonheart · 3 years ago

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This is why I said it.

Don't defend Blizzard's writing just because your favorite isn't getting fucked at the moment.

They have bad writers who ruin big portions of the story, period. It is a fact. Some good characters, a few memorable quests—none of this changes the shitty writing of the rest. Their dev team is in shambles. Making a few good changes doesn't mean you can't be critical of the things that are still bad. Let me say it again, you can say: "I love this new feature you're adding" while also saying the story is fucking bad.

This was always the problem with the fandom. When one side of it rose up to speak up against whatever—in game misogyny, racism, grinding, nerfs (literally whatever it could have been)—there were always those "Blizzard apologists" running to their defense as if the dev team had to be shielded from all critical feedback. Stop.

They need feedback to make the game better. Yes, go shield them from the toxic posts like "you guys need to die" if you want, but you don't need to fucking baby them about the rest.

It's part of their job to listen to the player base, understand what's a problem, and try to find solutions that are feasible within their means. Doing some good things doesn't mean people have to shut up about the things that are still awful—the things they're still ignoring. People like you are the reason they double down because they know there will always be those defending their awful bullshit. Just stop.

Everyone who loves Tyrande is (and has been) experiencing the grief of having this character they loved absolutely massacred by the plot. This is what they do to everyone—at one point or another.

And it's the fucking Pain Olympics with the fandom every time this happens—which victim or character is more worthy of sympathy or a better story or a happy ending. Every. Single. Time.

Also, can we please stop fucking being mad at the characters for the actions they take (or don't)? Like, do people not understand? Who the fuck do you think makes the characters do what they do and endure what they do? The damned writers. The devs. The people in charge.

I see these posts screaming about characters (as if they were real people making sentient choices) when the characters are the way they are and enduring what they do because of the fucking writers.

[And it's more complicated than that—it's not just “the writers." There are plenty of others responsible for the direction of a narrative in a game.]

It's dumbest shit I've seen in the fandom.

Stop blaming fictional characters for shit they're written to do by people with the awareness of a fucking corpse.

#world of warcraft #tyrande whisperwind #it's only a matter of time before they get to your fave #be loud and angry #demand the changes you want to see in the narrative

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pthalomars · 4 years ago

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Synopsis of Jay's Empire AU⚡⚡

[[Made by me and @culturalmochi ]]

The way it starts out is that Jay goes on a solo mission, finds the hard drive for Prime Empire, and gets trapped in the game.

Nobody knows where he went, so the ninja are desperately trying to find him.

Time in game moves a lot faster than in real life, so a few weeks for the ninja is a few months (close to a year) inside of the game.

Jay met Scott and he showed him the ropes of the game, but tried to subtly warn him about Unagami. Jay spent a lot of time leveling up and grinding so he could get high stats, but later found out that he wasn't able to leave or communicate with the outside world. Enter Unagami.

Unagami tells Jay that he sees potential in him, and that he's impressed with his progress through the game. They begin to have a sort of mentor/mentee kind of relationship.

Once again, time moves much faster in game. So jay starts to miss the real world and tells Unagami that he misses his friends. Unagami tells Jay, "if they were really your friends, they would have come back for you by now, wouldn't they?"

Later on, Jay is approached by none other than the ninja! His dearest friends finally coming back to rescue him and bring him home!

But as he spends more time with them, something feels... wrong. It turns out they're NPC's, and in his mission objective list, it says he has to "discard" them. So he does, and they crumble into little pixelated cubes. He levels up.

This repeats several times, each time the ninja dupes become more rude, indifferent, hateful. At some point they become so far removed from their true counterparts that the only thing in common they share is their appearances.

Then comes the time where Unagami is ready to open the game to the rest of the world. He brings Jay to help him spread the word by broadcasting an advertisement for Prime Empire.

That's when the ninja find out where Jay has been this whole time.

So the real gang enters Prime Empire and find Jay, who looks displeased to see them even if he tries to hide it.

Everyone is so happy to see him and to bring him out of the game, surrounding him with hugs and tears of joy.

But then Jay checks his objectives. "Discard the ninja". It's the same as it's always been, so he goes along with it.

But as Jay journeys with his friends through the game, he slowly comes to the realization that they aren't NPC's.. they're his real friends.

Scott, when he was first sucked in by the game, leveled up really fast and eventually gained the attention of Unagami. Unagami said he saw "great potential" in him and gave him access to the coding of the game. For Scott, this means he can essentially influence and change parts of the game, but not always by his own free will. With him being connected to the coding, that includes his thoughts, emotions, memories, trauma, etc. this connection also gave Unagami a way to keep track of where Scott was and what he was doing at all times.

so eventually, Unagami wants to bring empire to the physical world, but he needs help getting the world out. he tells Scott his plan and Scott is like "actually, fuck this :)" and escapes from Unagami. in order to keep him from tracking his every move, Scott cuts off his own connection to the game's code. He hunkers down in his hideout and tries to plot a way to a)escape and b)prevent Unagami from taking over the real world.

so finally, Jay enters the game! Scott finds him running away from red visors and picks him up and takes him to his hideout. Scott explains the general rules of the game, gives him tips on how to survive, glitches, cheats, all of it. but he tries to warn him about Unagami and Jay is too enraptured with the thrall of the game to pay any mind to Scott's warnings. Jay starts leveling up and progressing, very similar to how Scott did, and gained the same kind of attention from Unagami. he saw great potential in him. at that point, Scott says that Jay can't come to the hideout anymore, and Jay asks why. Scott says "i already told you, but you didn't listen to me." and so Jay goes to Unagami. Unagami promises him steep advantages in the game, protection, etc and Jay is going along with it because, to him, its still just a game. the gravity of the situation hasn't quite hit him yet. he doesn't know that he's trapped.

so now, Jay and Unagami have a sort of mentor/mentee kind of relationship, and Jay very much fits into the role of the teachers pet. the red visors are **VERY** protective of him and will often accompany him wherever he goes unless he tells them to leave (sometimes they listen, sometimes they dont). There is one red visor who is particularly close to Jay. she goes with him everywhere and is the most protective of him compared to the other RV's. Jay tries to talk with her sometimes, and one day he asks her what her name is. her voice glitches out a lot, like something is corrupted in her code. she repeats "four o-oh four-r-r AA e-rror-r four o-o-oh four-r AA" and Jay is like "hmm.. rora? can i call you rora?" and she just nods at him. (Rora becomes important later!!)

so anyways, going back to how Unagami has adopted Jay as his mentee, Jay has the same kind of access to the game's coding that Scott does. including the influence of his memories and past traumas. this manifests in several ways, but one of which is how the NPC clones of the ninja interact with him. Jay has a lot of issues with self esteem and often fears that nobody really cares about him, finds him annoying, etc. so with each iteration of the ninja dupes, they become meaner and meaner until the only resemblance they share to their irl counterparts is their physical appearance.

Jay (not realizing that Unagami is the one creating the dupes) goes to Unagami to vent about how he misses his friends and wishes they could join him in the game. Unagami tells Jay "if they were really your friends, they would have come for you by now. They probably forgot about you. but it's not you ever needed them anyways. here, you are powerful, loved by everybody, adored by the masses. in here, you are important." gotta love that gaslight gatekeep gameboss moment. eventually, Unagami is ready to bring prime empire to the physical world once he's seen Jay get to the same point that Scott was at. Unagami says that he needs Jays help to deliver the message, and that crossing the line between digital and physical means that Jay can go back to the real world while still maintaining the same power and reputation he has in the game. Jay agrees and works with Unagami to make an advertisement.

this is the advertisement script:

[Do you want to join Prime Empire?

“What is Prime Empire?” it’s a fully immersive, futuristic video game experience! Using the latest virtual emulation technology, players are quite literally part of the game. Customize your avatar, meet other players, level up, and compete in tournaments!

“But how do I join?” The answer is simple, silly! Prime Empire can be found in your arcades, in your consoles, even on your phones! You would have to live under a rock to not find your way in.

“How do I win?” Your quest is to seek out the legendary Keytanas. But be warned, there are challenges that you will face. Deadly forests, dangerous races, and more! Will you rise above the rest and claim your rightful victory?

Join today, but don’t delay! Only the first 100 players will get a chance to meet yours truly (winks). In the Super Star Rocking Jay event, I will teach you the ropes of the game, along with exclusive tips that will give you an advantage over other players!

Do you have what it takes? Prove your worth and become part of Prime Empire!]

however, Scott has caught wind of the ad, and so he hacks into the broadcast and tries to warn everybody to "STAY OUT OF PRIME EMPIRE!!" but once again, his warnings fall on deaf ears.

however, now the ninja know where Jay has been all this time! they manage to be part of the 1st 100 players in the game and go to the super star rocking Jay event. Kai, Nya, Lloyd, Cole, pixal and zane all get in the game. but due to their own coding, pixal and zane despawn and get plopped back in the real world within the first 10mins of the game. They spend a lot of time outside of prime empire trying to find ways to re-enter the game.

so now we finally get to when the (remaining) ninja meet up with Jay, and he is disappointed at best when he sees them. but when they surround him with love and hugs and tears of joy, it throws him off guard. all of the NPC's were never this kind to him. He checks his objective menu and a new notification shows up. "discard the ninja". same as it's always been. part of the objective has always been to "not let the ninja know that you know they are fakes." but after all of this time, Jay has grown tired and so he doesn't really bother trying to keep up appearances. he won't flat out say that he thinks they're fakes, but his demeanor is completely off.

the ninja make it to okino and they start going through the forest, the cliffs, and finally the maze of the red dragon. throughout this time, there are several little moments that lead Jay to believe that these might be his real friends. he tries to write them off, but it keeps nagging at him. in the canon scene where Unagami pauses the game and talks to okino, its the same except its Jay that Unagami talks to. "just wanted to check in with you, everything is still going according to plan, correct?" Jay responds with "yes, but these ones are different. none of the other clones have acted so.. so close to my real friends." Unagami scoffs "these ones are just as fake as the others. make sure you complete your objective. we are very close to bridging the gap, and I wouldn't want anybody to hold you back from being at my side when we cross over." Jay agrees and the game resumes.

Jay has the perfect opportunity to let his friends perish at the hands of the dragon, but something in him screams at him to help them win. he points out the scale on the back of the dragon, they defeat it, and Jay gets the dragon summon. instead of keeping it, he gives it to Cole. "i figure you guys will probably need it more than me. I've got higher stats, i can take care of myself." (that dragon summon becomes important later) so ANYWAY now its time for the speedway 5billion. but they don't have enough credits so they have to get some extra money. the gang goes to the dance battle, but! theres also a karaoke battle they have to participate in. Jay and Cole sing Everybody Wants To Rule The World by Tears for Fears (this song is also important later!) and they win the contest and get enough credits to enter the race. however...

by this point in time, Jay is pretty sure that this group is his **real** friends, and he doesn't feel like he can go through with his objective anymore. besides, would clones really dance with him? sing his favorite songs with him? watch out for him when danger approaches? smile at him with such kindness and sincerity? clones wouldnt, but his real friends would. once again, his connection to the code means that Unagami is able to track him, and also take peeks into his mind. Unagami senses this realization and pauses the game again to confront him. "Jay, you must not let these clones cloud your judgement. you still have a mission to complete." Jay says "Unagami, these aren't dupes! they're really my friends, and they came back for me! i can't just "discard" them like you want me to. I won't!" "you WILL if you ever want to leave this digital space. if you will not join me in bridging the gap, then you will be left in here for all of eternity. the choice is yours, Jay walker." and with that, the game resumes.

the ninja are all talking and they realize that Jay has gone silent. "Jay? you good?" Kai asks. Jay snaps out of it and reassures them that he's fine. but thats when he sees *him*. in the crowd of NPC's bustling about the city, he sees nadakhan. staring at him with that evil, calculated grin and begins approaching them. Jay's eyes go wide and his stomach drops. "are you sure you're okay?" Lloyd asks. "we.. we need to get out of here. we need to leave *now*" Jay says with a quiet, wavering voice. Just as he moves to flee, Nya gasps.

It was the scene of Nya dying. She was cradled in Jay's arms, muttering her last words before going completely limp. The master of lightning shook with broken sobs, clinging to his friend as if holding her tight enough could bring her back. That was the day that Jay Walker had lost everything.

And now, that moment was set on an infinite loop, broadcasted on every screen in the capital city of Prime Empire.

Jay was frozen, unable to do anything but succumb to his rising panic.

Nya was in a similar state, feeling the sharp pains of her chest that came from her old wound. She remembered dying, the pain and vulnerability. Now her final moments were in full display.

The rest of them gazed in horror and confusion, unable to comprehend what was going on. Jay thinks he heard Kai yelling, maybe he was asking why his sister was dying over and over again. Cole sounded like he was trying to warn everyone about the approaching assailants. Those of which looked like clones of the Misfortune's crew, including their tyrannical captain.

It was all too much. Jay felt his digital blood freeze in his veins, his air cutting off entirely, and his vision slowly turning to static.

Nadakhan. Nya. Tiger widow venom. Kai. Nadhakan. Nya. Zane. Cole. Nya. Lloyd. Nadakhan. Nya. Nya. Nya. N-

Jay's friends tried to reach for him, to help him, but then it happened.

An explosion of lightning burst from Jay's body, flooding through the city with blue and white pixelated sparks. And once the wave had passed, the city went dark. The screens that were looping that wretched day were now idle. The Misfortune's crew were nowhere to be seen. Jay had fallen unconscious.

"What are you guys doing here?" Scott asked, his face contorted in concern.

"Scott, it- its Jay. He had this weird power surge and he-" Lloyd stuttered before him and his friends were roughly yanked inside of Scott's hideout.

Cole was carrying Jay's limp body, and followed Scott's instructions to lay him on the workbench. But not before he had thrown all of his tools and blueprints on the ground in a rush.

"What did you say? About a power surge?"

"It was-" Lloyd started again

"It was like he exploded," Kai cut in, "we've never seen his element act like that."

"The city, it went dark." Nya added.

"And there was something going on with the city screens, they were showing-" said Cole.

"My sister dying! Over and over again! That's not part of the game, right?!"

"Guys guys! Chill the fuck out, one at a time." Scott demanded. They all went quiet before Nya spoke up.

"The screens showed one of Jay's memories. One of his most traumatic ones. NPC's started changing into people that.. are related to that memory. They started attacking us from all sides. Jay had gone into a panic attack before he surged. That wave of power blew out the whole city's power and everything went dark. After that he passed out."

Scott looked at her with a look of dread.

"This is worse than I thought.."

"What do you mean worse? Scott, what's wrong with Jay?" Cole asked. Scott sighed.

"He's.. he's become part of the game."

"Like an NPC?" Lloyd said.

"No, not an NPC. His memories, his soul, his life force- it's bleeding into the coding of the game. His emotions and memories are able to affect the behavior of the game. Environments, NPCs, everything."

"How do you know all of that, Scott?" Nya interjected.

"Because he's just like me."

"What??" The ninja said in unison.

"When I first came into the game, Unagami wanted me to bring Prime Empire to the real world. To break out of this digital prison and conquer the rest of the physical world. I agreed to help him because I didn't see any other way out of this hellscape. He granted me access to the code. So I'm just as connected to Prime Empire as Jay is. My memories are there too.

But the thing is, is that I've cut myself off of the code. It's the only way I could hide from Unagami, since I had abandoned ship and didn't want to help him anymore. I'm a threat because I can affect the code.

But if I don't connect to it, I stay hidden.

But Jay, his connection is so strong by this point. Everything he does changes the game.

He's gonna be okay, for now, but I can't guarantee the same for all of you." Scott finished, his eyes sunken and tired.

"Wh- what are we supposed to do then? How can we get Jay out of here?" Kai asked.

"Beat the game. As far as I know, there's no other way out of here."

They all looked at each other, faces grim but determined.

"Well we can't leave here without Jay, can we stay here until he wakes up?" Said Nya.

"Absolutely not." Scott replied.

"What? Why??" Cole butted in.

"The longer you guys stay here, with h i m, the more danger all of us are in. Jay is part of the coding, Unagami can find him. And that means he can find u s."

"Well how do we wake him up? There's gotta be some way!" Lloyd pleaded.

Scott looked at Jay's unconscious form.

"Fuck, okay, let me try something."

so Scott does the only thing he can think of that might work. he reconnects himself to the game's code in order to "plug in" to Jay and wake him up. when he plugs in, Scott sees Jay in a dark, endless room. he's crouched on the ground, sobbing and shaking

But thrashing from his body is manifestations of his trauma, like a horrible amalgamation that is distorting his physical form and its. Horrifying.

Scott looks at him and tries to approach him without getting hurt

He gets to him and he makes contact with his shoulder and then the surge of energy happens and he gets unplugged and shot across the room, and Jay wakes up with a start, chest heaving and his eyes still wet with tears. Cole is there right next to Jay, and Jay clings onto him like a lifeline. Kai wraps his arms around Jay too and they hold him and comfort him as best they can. Lloyd and Nya go over to Scott to see if he's okay. he groans and sits up, Lloyd and Nya help him stand. "what happened? what was that??" Nya asks. "I woke him up. but its not safe anymore. you guys have to get him out of here, or else Unagami is gonna show up and if he does.. well its safe to assume it'll be game over for all of us."

"we still have to win the highway 5billion and get the second keytana." Cole says, "and we need cars." Scott sighs at this, "i've got cars you can use, i won't be using them very much anymore anyways." "what does that mean?" Kai asks. "did you not hear me? its game over. you guys have to get Jay out of here." Scott says. "Scott, you know the game better than anyone, we need your help. will you race with us?" Nya pleads. Scott is about to reject when he looks at Jay. Jay is looking at him with a look that breaks his heart. "fine. I'll race with you guys."

so they fix up the cars and enter the SW5B and Scott is like "i guess if we're going in, i might as well get a new look." so he customizes his avatar (if u check my post with his redesign, thats the avatar he has, the glowing parts of his outfit change colors!) and they start the race! Scott doesn't have his own car, instead he's jumping from vehicle to vehicle and taking out the other drivers so that the ninja can win. he uses his baseball bat as a melee weapon but it can also shoot lasers! Kai still gets that loot box upgrade and has the running mech, and just like in canon, Cole and Kai get cubed. so does Scott, he gets run over lol. now its just Jay, Nya, and Lloyd and they make their way to the temple of madness.

then we have the fight. in canon its Lloyd and harumi, but in this au, Jay enters the arena instead. he gets in and the game picks his fighter. expecting it to be someone he's fought before, he prepares himself. but nothing could have prepared him for who he saw standing in front of him. it was echo zane.

Nya stares in horror and Lloyd is confused. "who is that? that can't be zane, right? why would he be part of the game?" Lloyd asks. Nya can't say anything, and neither can Jay. Jay wants to give up, he cant fight echo. someone who helped him in the most dire of times, only to be left alone on that island for the rest of eternity. Jay had never gone back for him, and that guilt he felt had just kicked into high gear having to look echo in the eyes. but then echo starts attacking him, and Jay has to defend himself. Jay wins, and sees echo disappear after the final blow. the walls of the arena disappear and Jay falls to his knees. Lloyd and Nya move in immediately to help him up. "seriously, what the hell is going on?? why aren't you guys saying anything??" Lloyd demands. "we can't talk about it right now, Lloyd. we'll have to tell you later." Nya says quietly. her voice is tight and dies in her throat. Lloyd gets the hint and doesn't push it any further.

so the three of them make it through the sushi restaurant and make it to the gate with the 3 keytanas. Jay, Lloyd, and Nya go to put in the blades and they open the gate. standing in front of them is none other than Unagami. "Jay, you have disappointed me. you were so important, so valued, and you have thrown that away for the sake of your so-called 'friends'. thankfully, there is still a place for you." Unagami says. "i don't WANT a place with you! you've hurt me, you've hurt my friends, you've hurt so many innocent people. all of those cubes? those are REAL PEOPLE! i can't let you do this Unagami. I won't let you get away with this." Jay says defiantly. Unagami sighs, "i was hoping it would not come to this. but if you chose to act this way, you will face the consequences. you will help me bridge this gap, whether you like it or not." and Unagami holds out his hands. an intense blue beam of light bursts from his palms and hits Jay square in the chest. the light is absorbed by his body and his form begins to glitch and spasm violently. mochi and i have called this the Blue Screen of Death. (tw for mild(?) body horror) Jay is overcome by the blue and his body begins to grow and distort, all the while he's screaming and his cries are glitched out and staticky. Lloyd and Nya watch, frozen in fear as their friend begins to grow to massive size, writhing in agony. Jay thrashes and knocks into both of them, sending them off the side of the platform and cubing them. the last two energy cubes join the gate and Jay crawls through.

(with this scene, in the background, the lorde version of everybody wants to rule the world would be playing, just as a nice parallel to the song from earlier at the karaoke battle)

MEANWHILE, as pixal and zane attempted to find ways to get back into the game, find milton dyer, etc, zane gets captured by the mechanic. everything goes the same as it does in canon where the mechanic hooks zane up to the gate.

and now, we get a look at where everybody who got cubed resides. Scott, when he was cubed, was greeted by Unagami personally. he criticized him for his actions and expressed his disappointment before ultimately locking him inside of a digital cell. Scott figured that this was how the rest of his life would be, trapped in a cage with no way out and no way to die. but then! Rora shows up. that corruption in her system from the beginning? that was her beginning to break away from her coding and becoming more of a person. she saw what happened to Jay, and she wants to help him. she breaks Scott out and they agree to work together to save Jay. but they're gonna need all the help they can get. together, Scott and rora free the ninja and all of the other cubed players and they make it through the portal.

and thats where they see Jay, now as tall as the skyscrapers in ninjago city and wreaking havoc on the entire area.

everyone looks up at him in utter horror and see just how corrupted he's become. he's wailing in pain as he drives his guitar down on building after building. thrashing and flailing, causing the structures around him to crumble and collapse. "how the fuck are we gonna fix this?!" Nya cries. "i can help." Unagami approaches them. everyone gets into fighting stances, ready to beat Unagami into the pavement. "i did not realize that corrupting him would turn out like this. i know how to fix him, but i need your help." "why should we help YOU?" Kai growls. "if you want to save your city and your friend from complete destruction, you *will* help me." and so Unagami explains that if they can lure Jay back through the portal, Unagami can undo his corruption and fix Jays "coding"

so now the ninja are trying to figure out how to get Jay's attention and bring him back through the portal. it seems like nothing is working, and then Cole gets an idea. he starts singing the lyrics to everybody wants to rule the world. it seems to get Jay's attention, so he keeps singing.

the others hear him and they join in. now they have Jay's attention, and he's closing in on them. that dragon summon from earlier? now thats when that comes in handy. Cole calls the digidragon and rides it so that Jay cant crush him while he lures him back to the portal. low and behold, they manage to get Jay through the portal, Unagami purifies his "coding" and they return to the physical world once again. Unagami gets to have his talk with milton and all of the npcs+pcs that want to come out do, and the others stay in the game. the city is in shambles, the portal closes, and zane+pixal+wu reunite with the others.

the car ride home is very quiet. everyone is exhausted, Jay is asleep and leaning on Cole's shoulder. they have a lot to talk about, but for now, they just want to sleep through the night. they make it home, go to their separate rooms, and go to bed.

aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaand thats pretty much all of it!! theres a little epilogue that has snippets of what Scott, racer 7, okino, and rora do now that they're outside of the game, but thats just kinda there lol.

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thetoxicgamer · 2 years ago

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Wow Dragonflight’s Best Feature is the Fact You Don’t Need to Log In

Players no longer need to check into the MMORPG as frequently as they formerly did thanks to WoW Dragonflight's removal of the annoying systems that were present in games like Shadowlands and Battle for Azeroth. While it could seem like a bad thing when players don't log in, the reverse is actually true. One of the main advantages of WoW Dragonflight is Blizzard’s decision to peel back on expansion-specific systems that, for many, became more of a chore than something to look forward to. There’s no infinite resources to collect, no mysterious new currency to grind for; Dragonflight is very much a love letter to the early days of WoW. “This expansion makes me want to login less,” writes one fan on the WoW subreddit. “And it feels oh so amazing!” “I’m not logging in to grind my artifact power (Legion, BFA),” they continue. “I’m not logging in to do gruelling runs of Torghast. (Shadowlands). I’m not logging in to see what World Quest has spawned every day. “I’m logging in, completing some quest, racing my dragon, running a dungeon here or there, doing some PvP, then logging out to play other games because there’s no pressure to grind countless amounts of stupid artefact power to feel ‘caught up’ for dungeons and raids.” This player isn’t the only one; dozens of other fans have been quick to add their voices to the chorus (how Christmassy of me). “I’m amazed at how Blizzard managed to make this expansion full of stuff to do, but no real pressure to get it done,” comments one fan, while another writes “this is how games should be.” One comment counters the thread: “That’s funny. Because I’m the opposite. I want to log in. I even found myself enjoying fishing, even though I’ve never maxed out fishing in any expansion. “Whether I do quests for extra rep, dragon races, exploring places that the campaign didn’t take you to, professions, gearing, and so on. I just like logging in and finding something fun that I want to do, not feeling obligated to catch up.” This is something I really, really empathise with. One of the reasons I enjoyed Guild Wars 2: End of Dragons was the fact I felt like I could take my time; I could slow down, enjoy the environments, follow the story path. With Shadowlands specifically, I felt like you had to rush through content to get to the endgame and start levelling, otherwise you’d fall so far behind that you couldn’t keep up anymore. It’s one of the many reasons my guild and I abandoned The Maw (and in the case of some, WoW entirely). Dragonflight certainly feels less pressurized, which for me is exactly what I wanted. If you’re interested in reading my take on the new World of Warcraft expansion, be sure to check out our WoW Dragonflight review in progress. If this has you convinced, be sure to peruse our list of the best WoW addons, as well as our rundown of the World of Warcraft Dragonflight talents system to kick off your adventure with a bang. Read the full article

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kuroken-lovechild · 4 years ago

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How haikyuu characters would play genshin impact:

//featuring me nerding out about mbti types 😔

Karasuno

Hinata

As an ESFP he would probably choose his main based on who feels good to use

Quick movements, lots of jumping, strong = XIAO MAIN (probably finds the flashiness and edginess cool and enjoys the button mashing too)

would aggressively compete with kageyama on who can beat spiral abyss the fastest and with the shortest time

unfortunately they’re both not very good (initially because kenma helps him out after)

Would try to follows the plot but dialogue goes over his head

Does not understand stats other than attack at first

Wish impulse is real and never has any primos

would attempt to talk to every npc

Kageyama

META SLAVE

Has no idea what wishing/gacha is at first and builds his starters really well

Then he found out and currently mains Ganyu, Zhongli, Hutao for the big numbers

gloats about his first 5 star to hinata

Does not talk to NPCs at all and barely digs into the story

only there for spiral abyss and to make his characters stronger

Tsukishima

Didn’t wanna play until yamaguchi dragged him in to have someone to co op with

Appreciates the story and lore more than the gameplay aspect

Eula, razor (cv uchiyama kouki) main—easy to build, easy to use

Doesn’t care about wishing either

Got Eula by accident and now holds it over kageyama’s head

Has really good artifact RNG that it infuriates kagehina (gloats about it to fan the flame 😚)

Yamaguchi

he’s infp he chooses based on characters he likes 🥺

Diluc, albedo, ayaka main

(i can’t explain why I think he’d like those three, it just Makes Sense)

Co ops with tsukki and yachi, plays both dps and support

Spiral abyss makes him anxious but he pushes through anyway!!

Daichi

Starter team king 😩

Feels bad about switching his regular team out FJDFJDJJDDJ DAICHI

Probably a casual player though

Plays to coop with suga and tanaka but they carry him through domains

he’s trying his best

Suga

Mains based on whoever’s fun to play too!!

but enjoys more of a challenge

Childe main

Waiting for Scaramouche to drop hAha 🥲 and harbingers in general

Appreciates the plot and is very interested in lore!!

Diligently does spiral abyss

Doesn’t quite wish on impulse, but if theres a character he likes he’ll spend everything on their banner

Asahi

Does not play, got too scared (see: haikyuu ova)

Nishinoya

Rolls VERY much on impulse

Similar to hinata in that he also likes playing playstyles that feel good

Xiao and/or yoimiya main

(xiao because he’s short jk)

Probably raised Rosaria and planned to use her

Plot who???? we only care about world exploration and fighting in this house

Tanaka

wished for all the women, raised all the women, uses all the women

valid

Primarily mains Rosaria, ningguang and Lisa though

sorry beidou you remind him of his sister too much

waiting for signora like many of us are

Coops with noya and has INSANELY bad rng luck

Yachi

Also chooses based on characters’ personalities

gay, mains sucrose and jean

isfj child and probably feels bad about the underrated characters :(

uses amber, xinyan and qiqi too!

Raises all characters but hasn’t raised anyone to 90

Coops with yamaguchi and uses jean (as healer, support, damage dealer)

Talks to NPCs and sympathizes with their sad backstories

Gets too anxious to do spiral floors 9-12 too (mood)

Seijoh

Oikawa

Oh boy

this ENFJ 3w2 guy? you KNOW he’s gonna be the best

As long as it doesn’t clash with volleyball of course

Very VERY competitive in abyss

Has one character hed get attached to but doesn’t limit himself to using them only

Incredibly focused on team synergy, carefully crafts teams to bring out the best in each character

Tests best damage output too

But also he’d probably use meta characters and secretly raise the ones he actually likes?

Current fave: Yoimiya

Uses strong characters for coop but uses his faves for single player domains (or coop with iwaizumi)

Likes characters but surprisingly wouldnt be too invested in the plot

does not whale out of pride

Iwaizumi

Geo user

Uses characters he finds respectable in the storyline + hard hitters

Razor, klee, jean main but unaware of the family relationship

Sometimes uses beidou although her burst takes too long sometimes

Pretty casual player, only started because of Oikawa

Hanamaki

obviously he and matsukawa would make zhongli pillar dick jokes

Kaeya and beidou main (he thinks they’re cool)

Not that impatient to wait for bursts to charge or has a lot of energy recharge

whale

Matsukawa

……. Hutao main

funeral home

Would use qiqi and hutao together for the meme then grows to genuinely like qiqi

Saves up for a really long time then spends it all at once

Kindaichi

Doesn’t play much tbh

Offline for a week, comes back to do commissions for one day, leaves

Kunimi

Hed be pretty good

but lazy and forget to do dailies

then buy welkin moon instead

Focuses more on the story too rather than gameplay and points out loopholes

Mains whoever he has in his team with good synergy (like chongyun xingqiu xiangling)

Kyoutani

Rage quits 5 minutes in after hearing paimon’s voice 😔

Throws his phone at the wall

Yahaba

Simps for jean

Mains jean

Dedicated to dailies and spiral abyss

But doesn’t wish that much

Was the one who tried getting kyoutani into it and suffered the consequences

Nekoma

Kuroo

ENTP king raises a whole arsenal of characters for spiral abyss

I cant see him really getting attached to one in particular ?

makes zhongli pillar dick jokes every chance he can get

but also uses him for utility

Wants to try using a whole bunch of characters and wishes on every banner

But uses the meta ones with good team comps

sparks twitter debates with ….. interesting takes

“_____ is completely shit”

Kenma

OH BOY HES A GAMER GAMER

Whale whale whale whale

He’s tony to

Best synergy teams, understands the value of elemental mastery, REALLY values good supports, calculates possible damage numbers

Kazuha, zhongli, bennett, venti are a staple in his teams

Helps hinata and kuroo until kuroo teases too much by deliberately playing horribly

mildom and youtube streamer like murase ayumu

Appreciates story and lore very much too

Yaku

he’d LOVE the children

Probably would use characters that remind him of family members and friends

Klee, diona, qiqi, chongyun, xingqiu, razor, bennett

does spiral abyss but not obsessively

Lev

KENMA-SAN!!! LETS PLAY TOGETHER!!!

I’m sorry he would not know how the game works

Doesn’t do the ascension quests and gets stuck at AR 26 with 500k extra points

Thinks he’s amazing but it’s because he’s stuck at world level 1

I’m sorry lev ily but ……. its the truth

Tries pulling for everyone too and mains the first 5 star he got

(childe because he’s russian AKSHDKDHSKSHS /j)

Wants diluc and xiao because they look cool but gets Mona instead (doesnt understand how to use her)

Yamamoto

Also raises the women like tanaka but + kaeya

Lev complained to him about getting Mona while he’s wanted Mona for months

Not really a dedicated intense gamer EXCEPT for during those battle events

Fukurodani

Bokuto

WANTS THE STRONG AND COOL LOOKING 5 STARS

Eula, zhongli, diluc, xiao

but doesn’t know how to build either

doesn’t understand stats

would feel really bad for qiqi

Wouldn’t like signora for hurting venti :(

Wouldn’t like childe too :( until he plays the story quest and sees the ruin guard cutscene

then starts sobbing because of what a good brother he is

“AKAAAASSHI I wanna do that too!!!” then he dies

Tries to use childe but doesn’t understand the cool down management

Mispronounces and misspells tartaglia (タルタリア)

for more info on how bokuto plays genshin see Kimura ryohei’s YouTube channel ✨

Akaashi

the true childe main (just like me)

Uses characters based on utility

but mains whoever reminds him of bokuto FJDHFJFJDKSJ

Very good supports but unlike Kenma, he chooses and builds supports around his main

also uses very good supports so people won’t realize he’s using childe for the cv kimura ryohei (everyone knows anyway)

Literature nerd appreciates the plot, writing and deep lore too

Konoha

Tries pulling for everyone but has REALLY bad luck

Has really good characters but never the one he wants

loses all 50/50s and has a c4 qiqi

Ends up maining qiqi as dps

sorry konoha i didn’t mean to slander you

Shiratorizawa

Ushijima

does not know how to play or build

Uses whoever he has (aka starters)

Only plays because tendou downloaded and made an account for him

Doesn’t know how to ascend characters or farm

Forgets about talents (me)

Weirdly good RNG and doesn’t realize it 😩

“Let me look at your account wakatoshi-kun”

“Sure”

“You didn’t tell me you had 6 of jean’s Stella fortuna???”

“What’s that?”

Tendou

this man pulls for the seiyuus

Mains childe, hutao, mona for 5 stars

childe and hutao’s instinct based quickswap playstyle works so well for him!

jokes about cosplaying mona then actually does

Knows how to build, grinds, and manages ushijima’s account for him

Probably whales too

Shirabu

Meta meta meta meta

But f2p meta

Loves setting up reactions

More into the lore too and researches theories

Remembers actual names of boss drops

Semi: so how many of those buttplugs do you have again

Shirabu: 💢stop calling them buttplugs, they have actual names 💢

VERY diligent with battle pass, dailies, achievements and spiral abyss full stars

Until he //SPOILERS gets into med school and has no time for shit

Inarizaki

Atsumu

Would have a crush on a character I just know it

Invests heavily on his faves and is great at utilizing each of them

fussy . complains about a certain unit and how they can improve

or complains about how the game can improve to osamu

Osamu: yer just saying that cuz you couldn’t get a high score

Archons main (already saving for the tsaritsa)

Wouldn’t have a main dps but several hard hitting supports

Whale and falls victim to the weapon banner

Osamu

More casual player than Atsumu but still tries to get higher than him in events and spiral abyss

If atsumu’s a whale, osamu’s a dolphin

Great at dodging

Catalyst user!!

Mains ningguang, klee, yanfei + other catalyst supports

Also uses keqing

Kita

the man appreciates routine aka VERY diligent with dailies, battle pass, farming

“if you do things properly results will follow” or whatever quote he said ✨

Starter team but raises other characters for abyss

Reads dialogue and appreciates the plot

Barely gachas

Aran

will defend TO THE DEATH the underappreciated characters

Has empathy for noelle 🥺🥺

Noelle, Barbara, xinyan, bennett, children user 🥺

Talks to every NPC and loves the backstories and lore

also would feel really bad for qiqi

Suna

Uses the tall men and women and builds them all as dps (childe zhongli diluc kaeya beidou ningguang jean lisa rosaria eula)

He’d probably make a support character a dps tbh

Disregards team synergy for the shits but somehow manages to do domains and abyss

Itachiyama

Sakusa

c6 everyone

leaves

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lionews · 4 years ago

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Guide to GB

hi ;0 sorry it’s me again. I noticed that maybe yesterday or the day before, there was a discussion on how people made GB without buying any, and a lot of people mentioned event stuff. That usually requires a bit of research (if you’re just getting started on lioden) and can be overwhelming. So this post is for anyone who needs it—anyone who is new to event grinding and trying to step up from being a casual player, or just trying to make a few more bucks.

In almost every month, new apps will be released, and typically those will sell well out of season… but there are a few hot items that will always be almost always be on SOMEONE’S radar, and I’ll tell you about them now!

—–

Mod note: You should probably post this on a public blog so it can go into the Lioden tag. We don’t post in there incase people don’t want to see our blog. Or even in the forums.

January - January’s event is mostly filled with decor, but save up your SB a month or so in advance, because when the 3rd tier is unlocked, you can buy some pretty neat stuff that sells well later on! Lion meat can be purchased at T3 in the event shop for 2000SB! If you hold onto it for later, you can make 8-10GB per meat! Prices tend to shoot up during February, so if you wait to get full worth, you could be earning 13-15GB from a 2000GB (about 2GB) investment. As always, branch prices ALWAYS fluctuate, so forgive me if my ranges are a little off. But typically, that’s the general profit you can make from lion meat.

Then, MOD Overgrown Fur can be purchased for 4000SB when Tier 4 is unlocked! Popularity varies among players, but it’s definitely something you can sell… personally, I would invest more in lion meat, but it’s up to you!

In January, there is also the Boneyard! Save up your LB because digging about in the yard or donating skulls can get you a selection of three items, which can be quite useful if you know what you’re looking for.

Vulture eggs, broken drones, giant tortoises, leopard orchids, MOD: Primal, and lion meat may appear! You can then purchase them with event currency!

Vulture eggs and broken drones sell well in bulk. Giant tortoises on average sell really well for about 1-2gb MOD: Primal varies, again, around 10-15gb is what I’ve seen post-January. And lion meat was mentioned above!

Oh! And you’d be surprised… don’t skip out on those leopard orchids! They might seem a little lame, but you can sell them for 1gb! And holy COW they sell fast! Why? Because the normal auto-claim on a lioness in explore is 2gb, so players will jump on those leopard orchids for 1gb each! I’ve sold mine recently in under 5 minutes, it was surprising!

February - February is a special chaos. I’m not kidding, every bit of your event currency will be desired sitewide.

Tier 2 in the flirt shop allows access to honeycombs—which can be sold fast for 1gb… though they have an expiration date, so maybe not the best investment since prices drop in February. You can also find Grains of Paradise (GOP) which guarantee at least 2 cubs in a litter! These will sell out of season for up to 21GB from what I’ve seen, but prices will fluctuate and crawl up and down. Regardless, you’re looking at about a 8-15gb profit on average depending on what the branch prices look like.

Tier 3 in the flirt shop and slap shop, my friends, is where it gets wild. Buffalo balls, which guarantee at least 3 cubs in a litter, will be available along with an item called Yohimbe bark, which chops 1 day off of a lioness’ breeding cooldown! Out of season, yohimbe barks sell for around 12-15gb each! And Buffalo balls, which are always in high demand, can climb from a price of 6gb during February to 16 to 20gb! Later on by summer, buffy balls can reach as much as 25–and I’ve seen as much as 45gb… a big leap! So hold onto them. And again, prices will always fluctuate, so don’t hold me firm on these prices if you don’t see them please ;;;

Apps, again, vary depending on the community opinion on them… once more, all newer apps will sell well. Personally, I find the February apps gorgeous, but if you want to make quick sales after February and make the most of your event grinding, I would invest in breeding items.

In the slap shop, there are lion scrotums when T3 is unlocked! They guarantee a 25% chance of passing a mutation on… though this does not account for hybrids. Dwarves require these in order to pass on their mutation, and double uteruses do as well. DU and dwarf breeders will always be on the lookout for these! But prices on these make me narrow my eyes. Buffy balls can be used for all lions, but lion scrotums are only useful if you’re breeding dwarves or DUs. Thus, buffy balls will almost always sell faster than lion balls from my personal experience—but that doesn’t mean lion scrotums aren’t worth buying! Due to their slightly higher price compared to buffy balls in the event shop, they tend to sell for just a bit more than buffies do! But bewarned that come the May event, I believe, they will become available once more in an event shop.

March - March brings in more decor than it does breeding items, but there are still ways to profit! While you might be tempted to snag the newest apps, hold off and try to gauge the public opinion… for example, recently Hirola was released… and it seems sort of meh, so you won’t see a big demand for it. It’s the base apps that are involved involved in combo-base breeding that are the key!!! The ivory base can be used in two combo bases as a factor: Soul and Madagascar! So pick up that One With Giants app! It can be resold for a fair amount!

April - April is another event heavy on decor, but there are at least a few nice things! Egg yolks in the event shop will be heavily desired by stat breeders, so you can pick up those to sell—beware they also have expiration dates. Personally, I think the real good stuff is in Wenet’s shop! Doing her quests grants you hare points to spend. Stocking up on roasted lambs is a very good idea—these double your energy gained for 8 hours!!! They’ll be floating around during April for 1-3GB on average. And if you hold onto them until February, they shoot up in demand and can go for about 12-16gb each! It’s not difficult to pump out at least 8-9 roasted lambs during April, so that’s a few extra $$ in your pocket if you’re patient enough!

May - In May you can purchase red bulls, which are similar energy boosters like roasted lambs! These sell well, and as mentioned previously, lion scrotums make their return! Also, there is a chance to obtain male groupies, which are heritageless lions like NCLs that can be used to replace your king and essentially make it a G1! These sell for fairly good prices throughout the year due to people changing/replacing kings! Make sure to patrol them or freeze them on your side account (so they don’t age too much), and you can fetch quite the pretty penny depending on the market. I once, out of season, bought a heritageless groupie, one of the only few remaining on TC, for 75GB. Do I regret not waiting? Yes. Is it too late to cry? Totally.

June - June. Lovely June. Side with one of the deities or gods or whatever during the event, and once you finish their story line, you’ll get a base applicator that typically is worth a decent amount of GB out of season depending on which one you’re selling. Let it be noted that anubis, bast, seth, and sha are ALL factors of a combo-base, which is why combo-breeders will be willing to pay a good sum of money for those apps. Check the lowest branch price if you’re looking to sell!

July - Pack your bags and get ready to grind hardcore again, July brings a new base that usually has breeders scrambling to obtain, and there are also GORGEOUS backgrounds and decor to buy. Not only that, but for shards in the event shop, you can buy applicators that ALL sell fairly well. Well… mane apps might be iffy. But let me point out a few things worth snagging: Sunrise markings! Sunset markings! These two are almost ALWAYS going for a jaw dropping sum, I’ve seen 40-70 each, but DONT hold me on that please.

Curse of divine is a combo base factor for Elysian, a fairly popular base. Snag it! Touch of demiurge is a gorgeous base, and it sells pretty well! Grab that if you want!

And of course, whatever new comes out, make sure to gauge the audience… though in July, most everything new is going to be a good investment.

August - August is a pain in my opinion. Grinding DB to buy buffy balls is rough. But let me mention the stuff to invest in! The peddler allows you to buy vulture eggs, broken drones, and lucky feet—all of which sell nicely in big quantities.

I failed to mention this in April, but lucky feet will be in an abundance. SAVE THEM. Lucky feet are used to automatically win battles, and they come in handy for October, which is heavily combat based!

Buffalo scrotums and Grains of Paradise also make their comeback at the peddler, though I can’t give you a good price range on those. I will say that by August, the market for breeding items gets a bit dry, and so prices will be higher—much higher than they were in February.

September - September is good for one thing, and only one thing… actually scratch that—two things, and only two things primarily. GMO cows and ochre gnawrocks. Anyone playing lioden long enough knows that GMO cows are a big item used in mutation breeding, it ups the chance GREATLY of getting a mutated litter—even moreso than lion meats do. These things are WHACK. They sell for 45-60GB out of season, and in February, MANY people will be trying to buy them. Ochre gnawrocks guarantee the passing of a specific marking. Rosettes are very hard-to-breed markings due to their low pass rates, and mottled rosette is a hybrid originating marking. Thus, ochre gnawrocks will go for big bucks out of season, especially during February. 45-60GB is the common price that I’ve seen, although one year it was wild enough to reach 80GB. It all depends, but regardless, both items are good to grind for.

Oh! And in the Harbringer’s shop, there are black stallions, which sell well for 1-4GB all year long. They essentially guarantee that a lioness gets pregnant once for a breeding. This is very helpful to people breeding low fert lionesses like hybrids. Although, angelic blessings do a longer lasting job and sell for more… more on that later, you can’t get those during this month.

October - Then comes October, the battle-oriented event that I mentioned previously is what you should be saving your lucky feet for.

Let me try to get this all down. There is a general shop in which you can buy applicators and decor, and quite a few of the base apps in the shop are factors for combo bases. For example, Unholy is involved in 3 combo bases! And blazing is in another. Fiery is also in one, and I really can’t go into specifics because I’m not a big combo-breeder, but a quick google can give you the idea.

Then, you can side with heaven or hell, in which you’ll collect the respective currencies for whichever one you might go with. In heaven, you can get Angelic blessings, which as mentioned previously, are like black stallions. However, when you equip them to a lioness, they’ll get pregnant no matter what their fertility in one go for as long as they live/are using the blessing. Be warned that removing the blessing, which “acts” like a decor, will cause it to be used up. You won’t get it back, it’s a 1-use item. These sell well for 10-15gb out of season.

Shadows of death are what you can purchase in Hell’s shop. This will shorten your lioness’ life by 1 day—which in turn also removes a breeding cooldown day. These sell fairly well for about 10-14gb out of season! Surprisingly enough, I would say they get used fairly frequently—although the idea of killing your lioness might make it hard to believe.

Then there’s the manticore shop, where you can buy things like fermented marula fruit, medlar fruit (good for cub training to 100% immediately), dove feasts, RMAs, and crunchy worms. Dove feasts can be crafted in February, RMAs can be purchased at any time in the Oasis all year long, and medlar fruit on the market is a bit shakey considering that it’s not hard to train a cub to 100% without items. The real market investment here are the crunchy worms, which give a 25% of producing a clone cub of the mother in a litter. Again, these will sell VERY well out of season, especially during February. I don’t feel confident on giving a good price estimate, but as I’m writing this, the average price appears to be about 30GB, and it is early April.

November - Deep breaths, we’re almost done! November is where you’ll mostly be saving your event currency to buy the newest released base app or decor. I recommend saving your herbs, because I believe November is heavily herb-based. Giant tortoises are also available in the shop!

December Here we go, most all December event apps are HOT HOT HOT! And the jolly pose in the event shop is also fairly desirable! Save for those Jolly poses, and save for that newly released base, marking, whatever. Many of the bases in the event shop here are used in combo-base breeding.

I should note that spicy ice tends to have year-round popularity! It’s a factor for a whopping 4 combo bases! That’s a lot!

Along with that, frostbitten markings seem to have a decent amount of popularity, though things always always fluctuate. Check lowest branch prices, and with newer apps, always scan the community for the general feedback before investing.

And that’s it for event stuff!

Here’s the biggest advice of all…

If you want GB fast, sell the items listed above DURING the events.

If you want to make a profit/get rich, sell the items listed above MONTHS AFTER the events!

#submission

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voidsentprinces · 3 years ago

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I am seeing some weird defensiveness in the community lately so, I thought I’d write a little something up on my thoughts regarding it. Because though I love Final Fantasy XIV, my experience getting into it seems to begun to echo through the influx of WoW Refugees coming. So before I go forward let me say, I enjoy FFXIV. I think Shadowbringers is the best MMORPG story, I’ve ever been through. That being said, Heavensward was over hyped for me and Stormblood might be slightly worse than ARR for dividing its focusing among two separate revolutions. One which takes up a sizeable chunk of the game and doesn’t impact it until precisely the penultimate quest before the end of the main Stormblood MSQ. That being said, I have like 50 Million Alts and am planning an OC AU Comic to be posted eventually. With that out of the way let me say my peace:

I am glad, there is a surge of new players in FFXIV but like...ARR is still a hurdle. The story time meanders, it rarely finds focus and it feels very monster of the week up until the very end and not every player is going to wait or want to wait for that whole “It gets better later” spiel. If a game doesn’t grab a player within its first few hours, its its own fault. Another wave of new MMOs doing something different is on its way. Between New World and Ashes of Creation, the MMO Market is about to be bombarded with potential once more. After Endwalker, ARR is gonna have to be polished and shifted even more to compensate because the stagnation of the last twenty odd years ain’t cutting it no more. MMORPGs gonna have to sink or swim. No matter how much I like this game, I am not going to be writing home about how surprising the twist behind the ambush before Ifrit was. Or that same story beat is used in quick succession for Laurentius and again for Tiduslayer also being an imposter or for Thancred being possessed by Lahabrea or how it turns out the Inquisitor is also an imposter spy.

Like ARR has one twist beat and it is always that someone is a spy or isn’t who they say they are and it never refreshens it. By the end of Post-ARR its the same story beat they used for Ungust and that’s like Hours of Content that amounts to, “Yeah so, here’s another person who isn’t who they say they are.” Final Fantasy XIV is a fantastic game and all, but the incoming population shouldn’t be expected to stick around especially if we as community keep hyping up, “Oh it gets better in Heavensward” or “Oh Shadowbringers is where its at”. You set the expectations too high and they’re going to expect the second coming of Christ and as we saw with Cyberpunk 2077 or No Mans Sky or hell who remembers Spore? You put too much stock in something it is never, ever going to deliver on that promise.

I came to FFXIV during WoW Legion which is turning out to be the last good thing that MMO has done. And the grind, the overused story beats, and the world did not warm itself to me. It wasn’t until BFA that I actually broke into FFXIV and the only reason I broke through ARR is because I had already done the same thing with Dark Souls. A game about banging your head against a wall until it submits itself in defeat out of pity. Pretty sure general population didn’t get into Dark Souls either.

Point is, I am starting see a lot of defensiveness when a WoW Refugee comes over and isn’t instantly enamored with FFXIV and goes to try something else. If someone is turned off by something and goes to do something else they aren’t worst for it and they didn’t personally break into your house and steal your pets. They’re giving valid criticisms as to why it just didn’t connect with them. No one should have to get use to a look or a story. The story and look should be there to draw them in. Serve as a way to hook them and if it doesn’t there is little you can do about it.

And actually now that I think of it, I feel the need to quote a game critic talking about Dark Souls that I feel holds true for FFXIV experience and how the community seems to have to hint at it getting better at certain story beats later on:

“Now, I never reviewed Dark Souls because other titles were out and my playtime was limited, and every time I sat down to it, it was like walking into a dark shed full of rakes, immediately treading on one and getting blatted in the face. Other people with more time on their hands started telling me it was the greatest thing since tummy-rubs, so I'd go back in the shed thinking, "Well, maybe there was just the one rake," before BLAT in the face again!

So I left it for a while, but this week with plenty of free time in my schedule, I thought to myself, "Last chance! I'll just keep tanking the rakes and maybe I'll somehow become really psychotically into being rake-faced just in time to be prepared for the sequel." And I'll be blatted in the face with a rake if that isn't kind of what happened. I've been raking myself all week right up to bedtime, I'm at risk of going blind!

You see, I resisted Dark Souls partly because people kept telling me, "It's good once you're used to it" and I've always held that the same thing can be said about being boiled alive, so I'd ask them to explain why it's good and they'd reply, "Ooh, we can't tell you. You'll just have to find out for yourself." And then I'd say, "Shut up or fuck off, ideally both, in either order!" But then after watching a decent Lets Play of the game, gone over the wiki a few times and a six week preparation with a team of advisors and physical trainers, I was able to break through the wall. And I suppose that's the first failing of Dark Souls; that you need the fucking Cliff's Notes to get into it.”

Final Fantasy XIV A Realm Reborn treads the same road and is unfortunately the entry point in the series and not everyone is built to do the grind all over again after coming from another MMO. Heavensward is an okay story, the aether currents if you’re not an altoholic like me are irritating to track down especially if, like me, you pick up flying to finish exploring a zone. Stormblood leaves much to be desired from the way it sort of forces Lyse down your throat to the way Hien just sort of goes about thing a little too pragmatically to be called a hero and doesn’t enamor any more confidence during Yotsuyu’s amnesia arc. Shadowbringers is the moment the story becomes about you. Which is kind of strange in the context that an MMO should make you feel like you are the central character and WoW’s greatest failing is in that the world changes about you and you have little say in how things actually unfold. It is a difficult balance to find but one Shadowbringers has done beautifully.

But again, to have to drag yourself through a two expansions to get to the actual goods while having the ever present need of FOMO to be with your friends. ARR certainly isn’t doing the influx any favors.

I am happy our community is welcoming and that there is a sizeable group of people sticking with it til the good stuff. To expect everyone to immediately become entranced by this new world we’re being thrown into is a little silly.

I am sure no one I follow or who can see this is causing an uproar but hey it never hurts to just get it out my system. Oh hey and there’s only 3 months until Endwalker. Here’s hoping for another solid expansion folks. Be excellent to one another even those who only stick around for five minutes and then leave the game for something else.

#{ words from beyond }#{ long post }

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razorblade180 · 4 years ago

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So I finished Age of Calamity

[spoilers]

Thanks to the beauty of holiday time off I have logged in 40 plus hours into this game and just beaten it, so naturally I’m gonna talk about it a bit. I’ll save the spoiler stuff for a little later though.

The game

This game might be my favorite game of 2020, or at least top three. Not just because of the world, but because everything is over the top! So far I’ve done 131 missions and 90% has the consistent energy of “we are fucking under attack” and it’s almost overwhelming in the best way possible. It really felt like you were on a battlefield field. Your map is just a sea of red and it’s your job to clean it up. What kept me engaged in the fights was all of the character’s different uses runes. I found myself constantly ordering my teammates to face certain enemy types that match best with how they fight.

Originally, I really wanted to be fair and rotate between characters. That didn’t last long. Mipha and Link in my opinion don’t have a single bad move. The bias only got worse whenever the master sword is obtained. Before that, my Link had a spear most of the time but that sword is just handy. Especially with item drop rate and attack range on it. In the end, my strongest characters were Link 74, Mipha 70, Impa 60, and Zelda 60. It’s been awhile since I played the first hyrule warriors so I can’t remember if they had the level up system were you can pay for experience but or definitely came in handy. Combine that with how many guardians were in this game and I quickly found out I needed Link with a shield on a regular bases. I also learned I didn’t forget how to time a vase amount of blocks and dodges.

The amount of characters you get to play quickly became too massive for me to juggle, but they all had their own merits for the most part, though I did find a few of the gimmick characters a bit of a hassle. My opinion on who was viable was constantly changing as I unlocked more combos. Originally, wasn’t the biggest fan of Urbosa. That second and fifth combo modifier changed everything.

The real portion of the game that really kept me wanting to play more was not only the ability to order other people, but seeing them fight along side you. I’m a softie for things like this, but genuinely felt relieved or hyped whenever I was fighting something crazy and I can see Impa rushing over towards me while text from soldiers scream “Just keep pushing!!!!” The AI wasn’t dumb either! There’s plenty of moments that controllable and NPC characters will just go where they’re supposed to, or kill targeted enemies. I remember not wanting to switch over to Link because he had low health, so as I’m running over to him as Mipha to heal him, the madman kills the Lynel. Ran all the way over there to watch him flex. That combined with elemental reactions you can cause in a fight, and the entire spectacle just felt elevated. The feeling of fighting three Lynel’s at once becomes a little less scary when you have a lightning rod and puddles everywhere.

The only negative I found in a gameplay perspective is some of the resource gathering. Gaining the trophy notes for killing a type of enemy isn’t too much of a hassle, but I found getting the materials they drop to be a bit harder, even with increased drop rate statuses. Most of this I find irritating for two reasons. One, specialized enemies show up in relatively small groups in a majority of missions, so getting things from them could be a flop altogether. Number two, a fair amount of these missions take a decent chunk of time if you’re being thorough and killing as much as possible. So grinding is a pain. Fortunately most missions a majority of what you need . If the game wanted chu chu jelly, I knew one of the missions coming up had chu chu as an enemy. You could also keep track of what you needed with material sensor that told you when you had enough.

The story

I’ll be honest, I was upset with this game for a hot second. It was advertised as a prequel to BoTW and while sad, I was truly invested to playing the events that lead to the fall of the champions. What this game didn’t tell you is it’s like most LoZ games, on its own separate part of the timeline. This isn’t the story of they lost. It’s the story of how they win, thanks to the little adorable robot mascot that has the ability to not only show the future, but bring people from the future; the champion’s descendants. At first I was upset with this. Mainly because I’m a little tired of time travel plots and it felt really out of place here. However, time travel gave way more to this game than what I expected this game to have in the first place. It allowed at least six more playable characters that wouldn’t have been possible in the other timeline, and a wellspring of interactions through missions. Every time Mipha was with Sidon, I smiled. Having Urbosa being this super encouraging role model to Riju was so nice since BoTW had expressed just how much those two admired and missed those people. Revali was nice to Teba! They were vibing. Even the soldier commentary on the new champions were a treat. So I got over the time travel issue pretty quick. It made things sad as well when the new generation leaves because they’re going back to a time where they lost it all. There was no great union that took place across hyrule to fight Ganon and their beloved champions failed. I do appreciate that the diverge in the timeline really takes place on the day they’re supposed to die, moments before the final blow. It still lets the player see the definitive moment where good was supposed to lose.

The “new” villain is meh. I wouldn’t really say he stands out. His entire thing is thinking he’s gonna win because he doesn’t realize that he isn’t seeing hyrule’s future. He’s seeing another hyrule’s future. What comes out of his character is cool though because it gives a different, yet same finale boss. I wasn’t expecting to basically fight a giant Ganondorf. Honestly, you can kinda say you fought Demise. At least aesthetically speaking. Or Yuga. This game has also made me care about robot. Something I haven’t done in awhile. A few scenes near the end felt hammy, but also amazingly realistic to how a lot of people would feel when someone breaks your favorite thing. The war was already personal, but now it’s really personal. Quests open up after the game that plays on those emotions too. It’s very clever.

Overall, Age of Calamities story felt like a love letter to everyone who loves this rendition of hyrule and the characters in it. They even another one named Sooga, who just might be my favorite. That man has no choice but to be the brain and muscle of the Yiga. It kinda makes me sad he’s introduced here because you can assume he didn’t make it in the other timeline, so he has no descendents. The amount of serotonin I felt just seeing all of these characters fighting together as the absolutely conquer the battlefield was more than satisfying. Definitely worth the money. I don’t know if they can, but Nintendo might wanna consider some sort of audio patch. The mixing is bad in certain parts. Voice lines get really quiet. Other than that, this game is real solid. I’d give it an 8.5/10

Side note

The music is really good. Especially the Zoe’s demain track. Also, I never noticed frame rate dropping or lag, except on two occasions. Both of these happened to be me pushing the game to its limits. The first is being surrounded by enemies in a small space as Mipha. Creating the water vortex and raining down bombs makes the game wanna cry a little. The second one is a similar case. Sidon’s fifth or sixth combo made the made the game drop frames because it’s incredibly fast, involves timing, makes a vortex, and i was in a small space with tons of enemies. Other than that, not even Urbosa’s or Riju’s lightning made the game freak out from what I noticed. That may have something to do with me never using them in a place where there’s constant rain. That might actually be the cause of the drop in combination of everything else.

#hyrule warriors age of calamity #age of calamity #legend of zelda breath of the wild #botw #nintendo #legend of zelda

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nowis-scales · 4 years ago

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Pre-Verdant Wind Endgame Update

An Update on the ol’ Three Houses Verdant Wind playthrough, since I’ve been neglecting documenting my journey properly for a bit:

• My current placement is Ch.20, so I’m only a few chapters away from the last one. It’s kind of a weird thought because I feel like I just hit the timeskip, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this will feel well-paced out. In terms of writing, I’m known for being a bit of a stickler for good flow. It’s why all of my fanfics take so long to update! I have to make sure my flow is perfect.

• The fact that they have been giving background information on characters has been so amazing. Learning that Raphael’s sister’s name was Maya and getting to hear about her has made me irrationally happy.

• Also, just generally, holy shit people sleep on Raphael and Leonie. Raphael often gets shoved to the side, and Leonie is treated like her only trait is liking Jeralt, and for me it all just culminates in the question of “so did you like... not do their support conversations, or...?” Seriously. I think Leonie might be one of my favourites in the game so far, and I adore Raph. He’s so sweet!

• The Flame Emperor reveal for some reason gave me “and I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for you meddling kids” vibes. I liked the venom Cherami Leigh had there as Rhea, too. I think I read from someone that in Japanese, Rhea’s actually super calm in that scene. I don’t think I have a preference towards the anger or the calmness, honestly. I think I just liked how smoothly the emotion came across. Plus, I’m a little biased, I’m fond of Cherami as an actress. I haven’t found a performance from her I haven’t enjoyed yet.

• I was really confused as to why Seteth showed up in my house after Chapter 12ish I think? I wasn’t expecting him to just be there after the paralogue, but I definitely wasn’t unhappy. I do like him! I just never use him, because I recruited Bernadetta and Sylvain, so I kinda have a full roster going...

• I was also confused in the Gronder Field fight because I couldn’t see what people meant about Bernie getting set on fire. Then I remembered Bernie wasn’t on the hill because she was with me. I recruited her. Whatever this proves about me, I don’t know.

• I did end up beating Marianne’s paralogue! It actually wasn’t as hard once I levelled her up a bit and classed her to a Holy Knight. The big thing with her in that paralogue seems to be that she needs a decent amount of power and movement to really get by, so that’s what I’d recommend for anyone else playing it. Using rescue will also probably help you out, but I tried to avoid using Flayn there because it’s kinda easy to kill her.

• Admittedly, I’m not 100% sure how I feel about the support system. In some ways, I think it’s better that not everybody has that forced S-Support. Oftentimes we were either squeezing a love confession out of two characters who were unlikely to have one, or characters with decent potential might get snubbed because their connection was less apparent to the writers (and unfortunately that still does happen in the case of same sex S-supports in 3H). Having the conversations only go to a certain point is helpful, but at the same time, the inherent romantic undertones of several of the A-supports do make things feel strange. If it weren’t for the fact that I know characters can have only one partner as their paired ending, I would think lots of them were in a polycule. Nothing wrong with that as long as everyone’s comfortable, but because I know they can only have one person in their ending, I find it pretty jarring.

• I think it was interesting that they went to do the fights for breaking into Enbarr and then taking down Edelgard back-to-back. I’m glad they did, honestly, because while I don’t usually like to do two fights next to each other unless I’m grinding, it doesn’t mess with the suspension of disbelief. It would be stupid to break into Enbarr and then just run right back to the Monastery.

• I have still not completed the randomized quest from just after the timeskip. You know, the one I was yelling about with the weeds? Still haven’t gotten any weeds. I think I might just have to give up on it. It’s hilarious that my luck is so good that it’s actually bad.

• The fact that Byleth is praised for having more of a personality than Corrin is the biggest slice of bullshit I have heard from this fanbase in a long time. Byleth is literally designed to be a silent protagonist with nothing going on with them – they even came up with a story reason for why Byleth is such a blank sack of meat! In the kindest way possible, I don’t think most people realize that they are implementing whatever personality they want onto Byleth. Personally, I don’t find anything relatable about being stoic, calm, and not inclined to anyone (until plot happens, of course). I’ve always been the overly enthusiastic and caring type, with a tendency towards nervousness. Trying to relate to Byleth was like trying to relate to the experiences of a cactus. While I definitely don’t think Corrin is the strongest of the modern FE avatars – that award goes to Robin – they still had some things I could understand and relate to. If you’re not the type of person who loves the cool, “I fight for my friends” types like Ike, though, you’re likely to have a hard time relating to Byleth. If you can manage that type of character, then you’re more likely to have present them with a personality of their own.

• Actually, while we’re on the topic of Byleth getting praised for things Corrin got dragged for, the fact that Corrin is still cited as the character who receives the most “player pandering” is ridiculous too. Do a lot of characters like Corrin? Yeah! But most of them who do are deeply traumatized in a way that inclines them specifically towards Corrin. The Nohr siblings cling to each other due to their abusive childhood, the Hoshido siblings all in some capacity seem to suffer from abandonment issues (oldest) and/or attachment issues (youngest), and the official foursome of retainers have also had some sort of abandonment struggle in their past (forced separation from parents, murdered loved ones). While the cast of Three Houses needs therapy and is traumatized too, there is no reason why the inclination moves towards Byleth. Bernadetta feels safe around them just because. Edelgard is obsessed with them just because. Marianne learns to feel better about herself just because. Why are there so many exceptions for Byleth, and so many just without explanation? I don’t hate Byleth by any means, but these two things make my opinion of them lower than it would be otherwise. It kinda sucks that my image of Byleth is tainted by the fanbase’s hypocrisy, but I know I can’t have everything.

• The gameplay overall for 3H has been pretty fun! I love the addition of the Demonic Beasts, as annoying as they are to fight. There’s a charm to having some of your stronger units working to take on the soldiers blocking the path, meanwhile your army’s more intermediate strikeforce works to keep them safe by bringing down the beast. Once you get the hang of it, gameplay with the new additions is fun. The only thing I don’t use is Divine Pulse, but that’s because I’m on Casual and usually when I want to rewind, I want to just plain start over. So I use the old “turn off and start again” trick.

• Edelgard’s death scene was actually pretty good. I must confess that I went out of my way to avoid Edelgard in the academy phase, as I knew how hard the game was going to hit me with the “she’s obessed with you” thing and I wanted to see how wonky it would feel if I didn’t speak to her much. I was right that it’s incredibly awkward in terms of writing when you haven’t spent the time with her, but surprisingly, her death scene still holds up. Good voice acting, animation, and music. My only beef with it is something they have done in FE before, and it’s something I wish they’d stop. If a character is dying, you either let them have a few last breaths after their last lines or you kill them mid-sentence. It’s probably just a personal nitpick, but hearing them get their last word out without struggle and then immediately die just makes me aware of how badly the directors wanted the whole line to be in there. I can totally understand it but I find it so troublesome in the grand scheme of things that I just can’t.

• I also like that in the fight against Edelgard, they tried to make it ambiguous who had the key. Immediately as it told me that, I decided it was Petra and ended up being right. I was kind of sad to kill her though, to be honest. I don’t know her well, but she’s probably one of the Eagles I like more.

• The fight against the Death Knight at Fort Merceus ended up being surprisingly pretty easy. In fact, while I paved the way for most of my army, Nader ended up making it to the Death Knight just as Claude did. He did most of the damage – I’m not kidding, the Death Knight was down to 1 HP – and then Claude took care of the rest. It was a weird fight. They said impregnable a lot leading up to it.

• I understand why they kill Dimitri off-screen at the Gronder Field fight, but I was admittedly a bit disappointed. Again, Salli Saffoti does a good job doing Hilda’s voice for it, but I would have liked to see it animated. It was also nice to have that little rapport with Dedue! If only we could have allied with the Lions a bit more. Everyone always says Claude and Edelgard have similar goals; however, it’s their methods that differ. Claude seems to align himself a bit closer to Dimitri, so I’m usually a bit confused by the idea that Edelgard and Claude would work together. I was spoiled on enough to know her background and story, and even so, I think that her methodology is just a bit too violent for his tastes. But that’s just my two cents.

Alright. I think that’s about all I can drain out of my brain from the top of my head. With that, I am off to kill the slithers! We’ll see how this goes. Wish me luck!

#koto plays 3h #spoilers fire emblem three houses #spoilers FE3H

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thefools-journey · 5 years ago

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The Tarot in Love

AKA QUICK TAROT META

So. Apparently a lot of Arcana fans don’t understand or know the connection between the LIs and their tarot cards. This will be a quick primer on said tarot cards and how they influence the LI routes. It’s important to note that most cards have multiple domains and influences. The type of reading, the question posed, and the other cards within the reading will determine which domain or influence is being accessed.

Before we start, note that every single LI begins their route on the Reversed Path. A Reversed Card in this game means that the card’s energy is stuck and something is preventing its full expression.

ASRA THE MAGICIAN

The Magician’s main domains circle Action. The Magician knows what he wants and goes after it, damn the consequences. If he is committed and willing, he makes miracles happen. He is the kinetic energy to the High Priestess’ potential energy. As the MC says in the prologue when they pull this card (for Nadia), this card signals that the time to act is now.

Asra begins his route full of inaction. Sure, he seems like he is on the go and doing things but in reality, he is paralyzed. He has allowed his ties to Muriel and Nadia decay in favor of the MC. He hasn’t acted on vital information only he knows. He has lost his purpose, his drive, for knowledge, for love, etc. Some of this is down to his caregiver role with the MC - Asra cannot act or do much of anything in that quarter without risking the MC's health. Most of it is down to the year from hell ™ where Asra learned just how far he will go and just how powerful and ruthless he can be for those he loves. The year from hell ™ demonstrates exactly what the Magician is made to do. Asra scared himself really badly here. So he starts the route in a sort of limbo. Key to his Upright ending is widening his world, making the Magician understand that what he fights for is not just himself, his narrow goals, and loves but something much bigger.

NADIA THE HIGH PRIESTESS

The High Priestess deals in a few interlocking domains. She guards the boundaries between the mundane and the mysterious. She is the great potential waiting to be unlocked. Arguably, she is magic itself. She is the inner voice, that gut feeling, that intuition you cannot explain but know is right. She asks you to trust that part of yourself.

Nadia's route is arguably the best balanced in terms of the magical and mundane storylines. This is no accident. This balance is fundamental to the High Priestess' domain. When her route begins, Nadia trusts no one, not even herself. Thanks to missing nine years’ worth of memories, she understandably feels adrift. She has no idea what is going on and who to trust. Nadia’s only real tethers, and they are tenuous ones, are to Portia and the MC, the latter of whom she hopes can somehow help her. The year from hell ™ even if she no longer remembers it, also played a large role in starting her down the Reversed path. More than once, Nadia admits to withdrawing, emotionally, physically, and mentally, from the outside world as a way to cope. This was not a strategic or necessary withdrawal as her Birthday memory makes clear: together with Asra and Julian, the three of them could have held together and figured out a path forward. It wouldn’t have been easy, of course. But the very real danger in Nadia’s route is her belief that she and she alone must make things right, which goes against the High Priestess’ ways. The High Priestess sees potential in all around her. If Nadia turns away from that part of her which begs her listen and reach out, she is truly lost. Nadia’s Upright Ending requires her to find balance between what she can know and what she must simply have faith in, to be the boundary between the known and unknown. It requires her to learn how to trust not only others but herself again.

MURIEL THE HERMIT

The Hermit is searching for something. Not something from the outer world but something from within. Some mystery needs solving, some understanding needs creating, a higher call needs answering. He turns inward for answers, though he will seek or receive guidance from trusted sources. Through his search, he will create a still center, a solid, unbreakable foundation to call upon in times of high action and stress. Through this struggle, the Hermit can become that guide for others, focusing and directing their own journeys.

Muriel's route is the most fascinating and difficult of the routes because the Hermit's journey is by definition an internal one. Want to know why his route is so wrapped up in taking him out of his every day world and forcing him to discover his past? That’s why; it is a way of externalizing the very internal struggle for validation and focus the Hermit embodies. When his route begins, Muriel very literally has withdrawn from the world. And not just any world, but a world craving his experience and expertise. Of all the characters, Muriel has the most information on what is happening and why, above and beyond even Asra. Muriel holds the keys to so many happy endings and yet, he has chosen to be forgotten and isolated. As with Nadia, this retreat was not a strategic one but one borne of fear. Muriel has the knowledge and allies to handle the challenges which he faces. What he lacks and what he is building in his route is the internal fortitude, the stable foundation necessary to not only survive the challenges which come for him but to thrive and defeat them. The genius of this route’s Upright Ending is that the MC is building this fortitude right alongside Muriel, guiding him and being guided in turn. The MC protects Muriel, guiding him back into the larger world with a caring hand and back to rely on. In turn, Muriel answers the higher calling within himself to face the Devil. He solidifies his foundational revelations and becomes a guide in turn towards the Devil’s defeat. Make no mistake, when the foundation is as rock hard as that pair will be, the fiercest storm is no match.

JULIAN THE HANGED MAN

The Hanged Man is a card of waiting, potentiality, and knowing surrender. Some say it is a card of martyrdom but really it’s a card about sacrificing and letting go, winning through stepping back and allowing things to happen to you. The Hanged Man suspends action, waiting for some unknown or a revelation. Through the paradox of stepping back or surrendering, the Hanged Man finds what he needs to achieve victory. When you see the Hanged Man in a general reading, it’s asking you whether the actions you’re taking are having the opposite effect that you intended. It asks you to let go and step back.

Julian begins his route like he begins most things: with a dramatic flair just before he faceplants. Julian is flailing every which way with no rhyme or reason. Because he has lost so much control over his life, he tightens his grip on what little he can control. He leads the MC on, then unceremoniously drops them before they can drop him or be hurt. He has taken the entire world and all its consequences on his shoulders. Julian feels out of control and unable to slow down, process, and wait. Most of his restless catastrophizing stems from the year from hell ™- he watched countless thousands die, failed to stop it, and woke up with no memory and a murderer’s brand on his hand. It’s only when he begins to let go, to allow people to make their own decisions and minds towards him that things start to turn around for him. His Upright Ending rewards players who reinforce the Hanged Man’ lessons: you cannot control everything, nor should you try, and sometimes it’s doing what feels wrong (in his case, letting others help him shoulder his burdens, just try to count how many times he says something along the line of ‘it’s wrong for others to want to help me’) that leads to victory.

LUCIO THE DEVIL

The Devil is a card about power and control, who and what has it in your life. This can manifest in a myriad of ways, from feeling out of control to obsessing over things and people to actively controlling others. The Devil is usually a warning card, a sign that something or someone has an unhealthy hold over you (or that you have an unhealthy hold over someone). The Devil also deals in materialism and the obsession with status. Again, this goes back to the power and control domains. Some interpretations also add ignorance to the Devil’s domain, which can also be traced back to his control domain. If you are unaware of something, you cannot take control of it. The Devil asks you to reevaluate and reassess what and who you allow to have power in your life. It asks you to retake responsibility for your own destiny.

Lucio begins his route as a literal shade of a man, a shell of his former self, unable to interact with the world he so slavishly desires. This is the debt he has accumulated through a lifetime of irresponsibility, an obsession with instant gratification, and a desperate need to be seen by others as powerful, desirable, and control. In his quest to become the most powerful man on the planet, he has instead wound up with nothing, completely ignorant as to the cause of his circumstances. This is why he is stuck as the Devil's least favorite whipping boy. If Lucio had taken responsibility and come clean, even back when he was dying, he could have avoided the worst of his problems. As it stands, he is still dodging responsibility, allowing his obsessions to dominate his life, and ensuring his mistakes continue to compound against him. That is why getting him to own up and regain control of himself is key to his Upright Ending. It sounds cruel but that hard, grinding self reflection is the only way he stands a chance of fully, utterly breaking his chains.

PORTIA THE STAR

The Star is a card of peace, hope, clarity, and truth. It is that small light in the dark, asking you to endure the night. It tells you that you have the tools to do so. Keep your hope, find your peace, and hold to your truth. The end of your journey is in sight. It is a card of seeing and knowing, not action.

I already wrote a huge meta on Portia's route and how her status as the Star impacts it. Portia begins her route hurting from and hoarding secrets. She wants to find the truth but has given up almost all hope of uncovering it. Despite knowing the costs of keeping people in the dark, Portia continues doing so, a silent observer too paralyzed and overwhelmed to act on the truths she knows. The most obvious demonstration of this is her dealings with Nadia. Portia has worked with her for months but hasn't told her about Julian, her literacy, and her invitation. Telling Nadia these truths would solve several of Portia's problems but she can't bring herself to do it due to fear. Her route is all about truths, exposing them or hiding them. Key to her Upright ending is getting her to act on her truths and bring them to light. Knowing the truth isn’t enough if you aren’t willing to act on it.

-Telos

#the arcana #the arcana game #the arcana meta #asra #nadia #muriel #julian #lucio #portia #the wheel turns #the arcana reversed #the year from hell tm

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