#love that she has her own unique playstyle too

[leaf-miner]

So freaking excited for playable main character Zelda after all this time.

[multbasa]

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[routeunlocked]

Mobile Otome Recommendations

Hi, everyone! I've gotten into otome in the recent years. I got my start with mobile games, so I thought it'd be fun to talk about some of my favorites as my first recommendations post on this blog. If you have questions or other recommendations, let me know.

MYSTIC MESSENGER

Mystic Messenger has a chatroom setting with many beloved characters of the RFA (Rika's Fundraising Association). MC finds a phone with the RFA app installed, ultimately leading to MC's position as party coordinator. There's more than meets the eye with the organization and the founder's history, however.

Unsurprisingly, this is the game that sparked my interest in otome. I felt the chatroom playstyle was very unique and a relatable way of getting to know the characters. It's fun to get calls from them occasionally too. The characterization and plot are so enjoyable, it's almost heartbreaking each route ends after 11 days. I could easily spend months on each of these character's routes.

As much as I love that it works in real time, it can be difficult to play with a busy schedule. It's also heavy with the triggering/dark content the more you play, so make sure that's something you're comfortable with before picking it up.

Features: Chatroom, routes, calls, real time, dark content.

WANNABE CHALLENGE

MC is a model who has always faced misfortune in her life. She never expects anything good to happen. Some of her memories are also missing, including her history with the goblins, but they're there to protect her. Will her luck turn around as she suddenly finds herself living with four men and competing in the Wannabe Challenge?

I started playing this one more recently and I am in love with it. My only regret is not starting sooner. The blend of historical, modern, and fantasy is well done. The characters are so lovable, I'm not sure I can pick a favorite. The MC is pretty sassy too, which I'm fond of. The Wannabe Challenge itself is based on Instagram, so it's cool to see what characters post while having the opportunity to respond and make your own posts. There's also a dress up and gacha aspect to the game, if you're a fan of that.

The only downside I think is the difficulty of the photoshoot challenges, requiring you to have specific stats. You'll want to upgrade your cameras and cards wisely. On the bright side, the game is generous with free gems and occasionally allowing you to use a random SSR to help succeed.

Features: Instagram, text messaging, gacha, optional ads for free resources, dress up, challenges, affection levels, unlockable stories.

ARCANA TWILIGHT

The Summoner enters an unfamiliar world, filled with sorcery. Their presence seems to bring more chaos and mystery than ever expected. Why do they have a special ability? What is it they see in their mind's eye? What about them attracts danger?

I feel like Arcana Twilight is a very underrated game. I've thoroughly enjoyed the story and getting to know the cast of characters. Their dynamics never fail to entertain. I also appreciate that the cast is 19+ despite this being a magic school setting. Constellations, magic, and monsters are all my taste.

The challenges can be difficult in this game as well. You have to battle between chapters which gets increasingly challenging as you go. Pay attention to elements and leveling your cards.

Features: Gacha, challenges, affection levels, ads for resources, text messaging, unlockable stories.

LOVEBRUSH CHRONICLES

The MC is an artist during her first year at a university. She has special skills, resulting in her finding herself in different worlds. There are some familiar faces there too...

I was very excited to hear about an English release for this game. I thought the art was gorgeous when I first stumbled across it, and I still feel that way. They have an amazing voice cast too. I like the idea of being able to explore different worlds/universes and seeing the roles each of the love interests play. I'm looking forward to diving deeper and seeing what other worlds get released.

Much like the others listed above, there is a combat feature in the game requiring you to focus on your cards/leveling. Thankfully, you can bring support from other players into battle which may be the difference between success and failure.

Features: Routes, social media posts, affection points, gacha, combat, alternate universes, friend support.

THE SSUM

MC uses a dating app to find their "special someone." Based on initial answers, MC is paired with one of the love interests on the app. A relationship is built up over a long period of time. But is there more to the app than meets the eye?

I feel like it comes full circle to have a Cheritz game on my phone again. I'm a sucker for their games (Dandelion and Nameless included), so I had to check this one out too. I've only done June's route at the moment, but I adored every moment of it. I like that I can set it up based on my real life schedule and there aren't consequences for missing chats. I also like the ties to Mystic Messenger. If you're missing the charm of Mystic Messenger, you may want to check this one out to satisfy the nostalgia.

There are some other features on the app, but I'm mostly focused on the story. It is still fun to check out planets and posts by other players though. This game will require a lot of patience as the other routes span 200+ days. Parts of spoken conversations and some photos will also be hidden unless you pay a monthly fee, but it will not prevent you from enjoying the story if you choose to play for free.

Features: Chatroom, dating app profiles, planet exploration, community posts, optional monthly fees, real time, calls, routes (that can all be played at the same time).

[yuma-tsukumo]

Total Drama World Tour Splatoon 3 Comps

Foreword: I Am Very Neurodivergent!

Who asked for this? No one, this is for ME lmfao

NOW ONTO THE ACTUAL GOOD STUFF: Talking about the TDIWT comps (main weapon + main gear abilities) and why I think they'd have the type of loadout pictured!

Characters below marked with a ❥ symbol next to their name are ones I refuse to change since I think they're perfect, but others are up for discussion & feedback! I purposefully prevented duplicate weapon selections since I wanted to challenge myself a lil bit and give everyone their own unique comp!

BLAINELY ‒ Splattershot Pro / Opening Gambit / Special Power Up / Ink Saver (Main) Fav Mode: Tower Control Why this comp? I'm not too familiar with her personality since I FORGOR but she seems like the type to be kinda cutthroat on the field. Angle shooter to throw the enemy off & popping her Crab Tank when she wants to be very aggressive! Opening Gambit bc she wants to go headfirst and send a message, Special Power Up to Crab Tank more, and Ink Saver to shoot more! Loves TC so she can ride the tower and feel unstoppable!

LINDSAY ‒ Splash-o-matic / Ink Recovery Up / Ink Saver (Main) / Run Speed Up Fav Mode: Turf War Why this comp? She heard that the Splash was REALLY good and thought that just having it would make her a better player. She copied her main abilities from Beth and she's lucky they work out for her, but they aren't top tier for her weapon or playstyle. Throws a lot of burst bombs, rarely uses the Crab Tank wisely. Loves Turf War because it's got the easiest objective!

❥IZZY ‒ Custom Splattershot Jr. / Swim Speed Up x3 Fav Mode: Clam Blitz Why this comp? She wants to make everyone regret playing the game, constantly throwing torpedoes and using her wave breaker to slow down the enemy team. All her gear ability slots are dedicated to swim speed so she can escape sticky situations as fast as possible. She's got a goofy comp but she's a terrifying player. Loves CB because she has an excuse to make the MOST advantage of her speed ability & annoy the opposing team!

❥DJ ‒ Nautilus 47 / Ink Resistance Up x2 / Ink Recovery Up Fav Mode: Turf War Why this comp? He doesn't wanna hurt anyone and he's scared of getting splatted so he chooses the long-ranged Nautilus 47! Point Sensor helps his teammates do all the work of getting splats & Ink Storm allows him to weaken the enemy from a distance without splatting them (unless they're dumb enough to stand in the storm). He has x2 Ink Resistance because he doesn't wanna get splatted and Ink Recovery to recover ink faster. Loves Turf War because he doesn't have to fight if he doesn't want to, he can just ink up the floor instead!

LESHAWNA ‒ Tri-Slosher / Special Power Up x2 / Ink Saver (Main) Fav Mode: Rainmaker Why this comp? Leshawna seems like the type that'd love to get up close and personal enough to annoy people with the power of her tri-slosher! Toxic Mist slows down her enemies and she takes immense advantage of the Inkjet to snipe them or fly away from danger. She uses two Special Power Up abilities so she can use her Inkjet for longer and has Ink Saver so she can keep on sloshin'! Loves RM because she loves making people drop the rainmaker & popping the bubble before anyone else does!

BRIDGETTE ‒ Dapple Dualies Nouveau / Run Speed Up / Swim Speed Up / Ink Saver (Main) Fav Mode: Splat Zones Why this comp? She wants to move smoothly and quickly to evade enemy fire! Overall just a typical player, chill and wants to complete the objective without focusing too much on getting splats. Her main abilities reflect this: Simple but effective. Loves using her torpedo for distant shots and the Reefslider for fun (doesn't always end well for her lmfao). Loves SZ because she doesn't have to focus on the entire map, just that one small zone! It's the best spot for her to use her Reefslider!

❥COURTNEY ‒ Splat Dualies / Opening Gambit / Haunt / Ink Resistance Up Fav Mode: Tower Control Why this comp? Similarly to Bridgette, she uses the dualies class to evade enemy fire and move around quickly. She loves using her suction bombs to surprise splat any enemies that jump near her location. She knows that the Crab Tank is the best special in the game and she uses it to her advantage. She uses Opening Gambit to fly headfirst into the field and fight her enemies. She uses Haunt as a way to find whoever splatted her and get revenge on them. Ink Resistance helps her roll through enemy ink and be a more sturdy opponent. She's very goal-oriented and leads her team to complete the objective above all else, but be warned: if she starts getting splatted too much, she becomes a force to be reckoned with. Loves TC because she gets to spam suction bombs onto the tower and make it virtually unable to be climbed by the enemy team.

❥EVA ‒ Luna Blaster Neo / Last-Ditch Effort / Haunt / Run Speed Up Fav Mode: Rainmaker Why this comp? Luna Blasters are a little slow but they do high damage which she loves. She tosses Fizzy Bombs to get closer to the enemy and stamps the shit out of people (or throws it at anyone she sees in a high, unreachable place). She has Last-Ditch Effort so she can make a comeback at the last minute and make any necessary push against the enemy. Loves RM because the Rainmaker is like a funky blaster, she absolutely murders with it and is decent at paving a way for herself with it despite being vulnerable!

❥DUNCAN ‒ Grizzco Blaster / Opening Gambit / Ninja Squid / Drop Roller Fav Mode: Clam Blitz Why this comp? He doesn't play by the rules, he probably smuggles (or hacks in) a Grizzco brand weapon, specifically the blaster since it's the class he prefers. He loves the rapid fire rate of the weapon and just how deadly it is to other people who don't see it coming. The kit would come with the Range Blaster's kit: Suction Bombs & the Wave Breaker. He absolutely abuses these in all game modes and is a massive nuisance, though he usually focuses more on kills rather than the game's objective. He uses Opening Gambit to help him rush in and get splats from the get-go. He loves Ninja Squid because it allows him to sneak around and get the drop on people who aren't paying attention to him, it's a pretty good scare tactic. He has the Drop Roller because he's not afraid of being seen whenever he jumps into the fray of battle, he'd rather face the danger head-on and his illegal weapon can help him survive the worst situation. Loves CB because he can wipe out the enemy team with his vicious comp and have enough time to throw as many clams into the basket as possible!

JUSTIN ‒ Jet Squelcher / Run Speed Up / Swim Speed Up / Quick Super Jump Fav Mode: None Why this comp? The Jet Squelcher allows him to fight from a distance, he can't afford to get himself inked up, let alone splatted! He uses the angle shooter to hit enemies from afar and the Ink Vac sucks up any enemy ink that's coming his way. He has Run & Swim Speed Up so he can run away from enemies as fast as possible. Quick Super Jump allows him to jump to the nearest teammate or back to spawn so he can avoid being inked. He's not the best team player since he's constantly focused on himself, though he does try to achieve the game mode's objective.

❥KATIE ‒ Ink Brush Nouveau / Run Speed Up x2 / Swim Speed Up Fav Mode: Turf War Why this comp? She loves painting the floor with her BFF and running around as fast as possible! The Ink Brush Nouveau allows her to plant Ink Mines to prevent enemies from hurting her or her BFF and the Ultra Stamp is fun to play with! Double the Run Speed Up for extra painting speed and Swim Speed Up for...extra swim speed! Loves Turf War because she can run around with her paintbrush and get absolutely nothing done!

❥SADIE ‒ Ink Brush / Run Speed Up x2 / Swim Speed Up Fav Mode: Turf War Why this comp? She just HAD to twin with her BFF! She uses the ink brush instead so she can cover any ground her BFF might be unable to! The Splat Bomb can deter enemies and the Killer Wail 5.1 can push her enemies away! Loves Turf War because she can run around with her paintbrush and have fun with her BFF!

❥SIERRA ‒ Aerospray MG / Special Charge Up / Thermal Ink / Special Saver Fav Mode: Turf War Why this comp? She saw Cody using the Aerospray RG and she wanted to use something similar to what he thought was good but with a twist! She loves tossing Fizzy Bombs to get close to anyone she wants to, same with the Reefslider! She usually wastes her specials and uses them to get closer to Cody. She has Special Charge Up and Special Saver because Cody has them. She additionally has the Haunt ability so she can keep track of anyone that hurts Cody! Loves Turf War because Cody loves it!

❥TYLER ‒ N-ZAP '85 / Comeback / Special Saver / Stealth Jump Fav Mode: Clam Blitz Why this comp? The N-ZAP '85 seems like a very good shooter he can use to impress Lindsay, the Suction Bomb is one of the most powerful bombs in the game and the Tacticooler benefits everyone in the team! Though, e's really bad at playing the game...That's why he has Comeback and Special Saver! They give him slight boosts because he gets splatted so often that they actually work out for him. He has Stealth Jump because he loves thinking that he can jump headfirst into the heat of battle but doesn't want to get instantly splatted (he usually does anyways). Loves CB because it's the closest thing to a real world sport in the game and his Tacticooler is very useful in this mode!

OWEN ‒ Squeezer / Comeback / Intensify Action / Ink Resistance Up Fav Mode: Rainmaker Why this comp? The Squeezer's made from a champagne bottle, he can drink the contents inside! He likes being able to hide behind the Ink Wall (or protecting his teammates with one) and finds it fun trying to use his Trizooka! He has Comeback as insurance for whenever he's splatted, as per Noah's suggestion. Ink Resistance Up was also one of his buddy's suggestions. He uses Intensify Action because he thinks he needs it (spoiler alert: he does NOT need Intensify Action). He's not the best at getting splats but he tries his very best to focus on the objective and win for his team! Loves RM because he thinks its fun to run around with the Rainmaker and it looks so tasty (please don't let him eat the rainmaker)!

❥NOAH ‒ E-Liter 4K / Ink Saver (Main) / Respawn Punisher / Sub Resistance Up Fav Mode: Splat Zones Why this comp? He doesn't need to move from his perch AND he gets to play games with anyone beneath him! He prefers the non-scoped E-Liter 4K because it gives him a wider field of view which prevents him from being surprised by anyone trying to sneak up on him. Besides, his teammates can protect him while he splats the enemy, why should he worry? He plants Ink Mines near himself for further protection in case anyone gets too close and the Wave Breaker helps him keep track of his enemies! He's got all his bases covered. He uses Ink Saver to make sure he has enough ink left for another charge to snipe enemies with. He has Respawn Punisher since he rarely gets splatted and is very good at splatting enemies, therefore he can risk having a slower respawn time if it means making other people get slowed down before he does. He has Sub Resistance Up as well since he knows most people are gonna try reaching him by throwing a variety of bombs, might as well be prepared! He's a scheming sharpshooter and is very good at giving his teammates a plan that'll help them secure a win. Loves SZ because there's only one small area to focus on so he can afford to camp on the highest point of the map and hide behind walls if necessary; also allows him to snipe people more effectively if they stay within the zone!

❥HAROLD ‒ Splatana Stamper / Swim Speed Up / Ninja Squid / Stealth Jump Fav Mode: Tower Control Why this comp? NINJA MODE ACTIVATED! While everyone else did whatever it was they were doing, Harold studied the blade, his beloved Splatana Stamper. He can throw a barrage of Burst Bombs to weaken his enemies. He uses his Zipcaster to truly become a ninja and surprise his enemies by coming close to them. It's a coin toss as to whether or not he actually uses his special effectively and gets anything done with it. He has Swim Speed Up to make up for the slowness that comes with the stealth of Ninja Squid! He also has Stealth Jump to really drive home the ninja thing. He's so stealthy, don't mind the amount of times he's been splatted though! Loves TC because he can hide around the area and try splatting his enemies from the shadows when they're too focused on the Tower.

TRENT ‒ Tri-Stringer / Ink Saver (Main) / Thermal Ink / Object Shredder Fav Mode: Rainmaker Why this comp? He thinks the Tri-Stringer can impress Gwen so he's really into using it. He can help her by using Toxic Mist to slow down the enemies and his Killer Wail 5.1 can distract them! He's a relatively casual player just like Bridgette but he's far more goal-oriented and tries to focus on the objective as much as possible. Ink Saver helps him shoot more and his Thermal Ink can help him track his enemies. He's the only person with Object Shredder since he can destroy the objects from a relatively safe distance. Loves RM because he can take down the enemies from afar, he can slow them down and distract them whenever necessary!

GEOFF ‒ .52 Gal / Comeback / Run Speed Up / Ink Resistance Up Fav Mode: Splat Zones Why this comp? He heard the .52 Gal is pretty good and he himself is pretty good with it too, plus it goes well with his shirt! He loves being able to protect himself with the Ink Wall and throw off the enemy with the Killer Wail 5.1! He tries his best to meaningfully contribute to his team but he's pretty susceptible to getting splatted which is why he runs Comeback to make up for it! He has Run Speed Up which helps him run away from sticky situations and Ink Resistance Up is there for the exact same reason. Loves SZ because he can take the enemy team by surprise and flank them just when they think they've captured the zone!

❥GWEN ‒ Bloblobber / Comeback / Thermal Ink / Ink Recovery Up Fav Mode: Splat Zones Why this comp? The Bloblobber is the perfect weapon to use for someone who doesn't wanna get TOO up close and personal to the enemy! Similar to a backline weapon, she anchors herself on a high place and lobs blobs at everyone below! She can easily hide away from people who try shooting or throwing bombs at her which makes it the perfect weapon for her! She tosses Sprinklers around important areas just to throw the enemy off, or she throws them near spawn so she can passively fill her special tank. The Ink Storm is perfect for punishing enemies and weakening them enough to splat with just a few blobs! She's very focused on the objective and doesn't worry about splats as much. Due to this, she runs Comeback as insurance for whenever she's splatted. Thermal Ink helps her keep track of her enemies and Ink Recovery Up replenishes her ink tank faster so she can lob more blobs. Loves SZ because she can take control of it with her ink storm and constantly barrage the small area with blobs!

EZEKIEL ‒ Tentabrella / Ink Saver (Main) x3 Fav Mode: Tower Control Why this comp? He's very scared of getting splatted so he prefers the biggest shield of the Brella class, the Tentabrella! He's at least smart enough to place Squid Beakons around certain parts of the map for his teammates to super jump to. The Ink Vac helps him protect himself and avoid getting splatted, unless someone's smart enough to splat him from behind before he can fire the bomb. He runs three Ink Saver abilities since the Tentabrella churns through ink and he's paranoid that he'll be unable to protect himself if he loses it too fast. While he's not the best, he still tries to help his team win. Loves TC because it's the best place for him to use his Ink Vac and throw it back into the enemy's face!

❥HEATHER ‒ Dark Tetra Dualies / Last-Ditch Effort / Ninja Squid / Ink Resistance Up Fav Mode: Tower Control Why this comp? Back to dualies! Heather loves them because she gets to do four dodge rolls as opposed to the usual 2! The Autobomb helps her find enemies or take them by surprise if they aren't paying attention to their surroundings. The Reefslider is an avenue for her to get close to the enemy very quickly and possibly splat them when the Reefslider explodes. Unlike those with Opening Gambit, she understands that the last minute of the battle is the most important one which is why she has Last-Ditch Effort to help boost her abilities where it counts. Ninja Squid allows her to slip past her opponents and sneak up on them and she can dodge-roll if she puts herself in a vulnerable position. Ink Resistance Up helps her move through enemy territory effectively, making her an unstoppable force. She's inclined to focus on the objective, though she favors getting splats just a little bit more. Anything to sabotage the enemy team and prevent them from completing the objective. Loves TC because she can ride the tower and take control of it while her teammates do the rest of the hard work (i.e. preventing the enemies from accessing the tower)!

❥CODY ‒ Aerospray RG / Quick Respawn / Special Charge Up / Special Saver Fav Mode: Turf War Why this comp? What better way is there to impress a lady than to show her that you're nothing more than a special farming Booyeah Bomb spammer? There is none! That's why Cody loves his Aerospray RG! His Sprinkler contributes to passively filling his special gauge and the Booyeah Bomb is the star of the show! He has absolutely zero faith in his own ability to survive so he runs Quick Respawn to make up for it. Special Charge Up and Special saver heavily contribute to his ability to spam Booyeah Bombs as efficiently as possible. He sucks at getting splats and rarely contributes to the objective because he's way too busy trying to spam bombs. Loves Turf War because it gives him the biggest excuse to paint turf and fill up his special gauge!

BETH ‒ Splat Roller / Ink Recovery Up / Ink Saver (Main) / Run Speed Up Fav Mode: Tower Control Why this comp? Beth would love the ability to roll and possibly crush her enemies whenever she does it! She remembers to flick her roller horizontally and vertically but probably not as much as she should. She uses Curling Bombs to throw off her enemies or use it to get even closer to them! When she's in danger she uses her Big Bubbler and tries getting back at them from the inside! She uses Ink Recovery Up to ensure that she can recharge her ink faster and uses Ink Saver to prevent herself from having to recharge the ink as often. Run Speed Up helps her roll around even faster! It goes without saying that she's very dedicated to helping her team win the game! Loves TC because her Big Bubbler is most useful when used on the tower!

❥ALEJANDRO ‒ Tentatek Splattershot / Last-Ditch Effort / Haunt / Ink Recovery Up Fav Mode: Tower Control Why this comp? As a sly and calculating player, Alejandro uses the Tentatek Splattershot to combat the strongest special in the game: The Crab Tank. His loadout is the answer to the meta and he's the only person that has the Triple Inkstrike special. He's a very accurate shooter and surprises his enemies with his Splat Bombs whenever they're hiding behind walls or are about to jump onto the map. He also has amazing accuracy when he gets to use his Triple Inkstrike, carefully aiming them and changing the game each time. Outwardly he's very focused on achieving the objective and winning the game, though his true love lies in splatting his enemies and getting the highest splat count of the game. He's very good at deceiving others and making them question his next move. Loves Tower Control because he can completely dominate the tower and keep people away from it!

As a treat, here's how I'd divide them into teams! TEAM 1: Noah, Owen, Alejandro, Izzy TEAM 2: Lindsay, Tyler, Beth, Justin TEAM 3: Harold, DJ, Leshawna, Eva TEAM 4: Blainely, Duncan, Gwen, Trent TEAM 5: Heather, Bridgette, Geoff, Courtney TEAM 6: Katie, Sadie, Sierra, Cody

Uhh Ezekiel just fills in for whoever's missing LMFAO

[itsdaarcy]

darcy's short ramblings about side order

spoilers ahead ofc, im not holding back from anything so be warned

so i beat side order to 100%. every palette is done and i got every colored chip so that the collection is done. i guess what im missing is just the collectibles and a "hackless" run, which i will do in the next days (i need a break for today.. ive been playing side order for 10h today and yesterday it was over 15h).

here a lil list of things i enjoyed:

agent 8 content and lore !!! shes my fav agent (excluding agent 3 as shes now the captain) and i loved seeing her in almost all cutscenes !! i was super happy to see that she was part of marinas dev diaries and that she had her own weapon palette (that has its own unique design to it when u go to the menu !). thanking the devs for finally showing more of the relationship 8 has with oth

pearlina canon (u cannot deny it)

acht/dedf1sh lore ! loved loved loved finally getting some more info regarding acht , even if some info is wrong (im guessing its a translation error)

the environment. god the environment.. i love the aesthetic that side order has, from the square outside to the lil training room u have before entering the elevator. the stages are cool designed, especially the background stuff and overall just love the scenery of the dlc

the music. THE MUSIC. ear blessing, so so good

gameplay. huge fan that the devs took a leap and made a campaign with a totally new perspective of gameplay. i had so much fun playing thru the tower with different palettes, thinking which ones would fit best for my weapon and playstyle

but even with all these positive things i do have some stuff i dislike (? dislike is a pretty strong word for this):

not enough lore. i know we got SO MUCH lore bits, but i wished we got more. be it from more dev diaries, flashback cutscenes or sth

length of the dlc. this is sth that has so many ppl disappointed and i kinda get it ? the dlc is to be played several times (since its a rogue-like), but i wish the thing would be just a tiny bit longer. i finished my first full run in 2 1/2h (and that with the fact i had to re-do the tower all over again bc i died at floor 27), and from then on i just replayed it all with the other palettes i got over time. oe was longer in a sense, and i wished side order was like that too

story. now dont get me wrong, i LOVE the story of side order with everythign i have. but if i compare it with how i felt with octo expansion, it just didnt quiet hit the same. oe was a pretty emotional dlc to me (i cried at the end credits), while side order just.. didnt give that. i shed a tear at the end credits of side order, but not fully cried like i did for oe. i wished it had just more, power more emotion yk? but like i said, i still love love love the story !!

tone change from the first concept trailer we got. the first ever trailer we got made side order look so, odd and creepy in a way ? and i wished they stayed more with that. i love the aesthetic it has rn ! but i also wish we got more of that cryptic vibe

that one stupid fucking fish that spawns those exploding lil fishies.. when i catch u ricky.. ricky when i catch u ricky.

i love side order with everything i have inside of me. ive been waiting for it since it was announced back in february 2023. and im happy we got it. im thanking the devs for creating such a wonderful dlc.

it will always have a special place in my heart, just like octo expansion does.

[notajinn]

Top Games Played in 2023 - Number 6: Sonic Superstars

6. Sonic Superstars (PS5)

The first new 2D Sonic game since Sonic Mania had a lot to live up to.

Note that this writeup will have SPOILERS because there's some things I need to talk about that require them.

What I Like

First and most importantly, Sonic Superstars is not trying to be like Mania or even the classic Genesis games. It is clearly its own game, and I appreciate that. The physics are nearly matching those games, but the level designs give it a more unique feeling closer to the Sonic Advance series.

In general I think they did a great job with the level designs. They feel fun, unique, and mostly don't overstay their welcome. They also have a bit more emphasis on exploration, but not to the extreme level of Sonic CD.

The final zone in particular is hands down my favourite final zone in a 2D Sonic stage. Act 1 is already pretty cool, but Act 2 involves going through Act 1 backwards! I know that's been done in other games, but this is the best it's been executed in a Sonic game.

I love that there are character-specific stages. This is especially helpful for Tails who never got stages designed for him in the old games, and Amy Rose who just wasn't playable. As a big Tails fan, I really enjoyed the Tails-specific stage because it gave a challenge for a character that is otherwise considered the "easy mode" in previous games. Precise flying and backtracking were the right way to go about it.

Amy's playstyle is quite fun where she is somewhere between Sonic and Hammer Kirby. She's not quite as combat-focused as Sonic Advance, but in exchange she does platforming much better here.

The other new playable character Trip is also a lot of fun. Her spin dash lets her travel along walls similar to one of the Wisps in Sonic Colours. She has gets a very unique and weird Super form.

Speaking of super forms, this game has what I consider the easiest special stages in 2D Sonic. Not only are they about as easy as Sonic 3 & Knuckles Blue Sphere stages, but they are also extremely easy to replay if you fail since you can replay levels from the hub world. This makes them less stressful. This is also important because you actually get tangible differences from each Chaos Emerald thanks to the Emerald powers. Since I played as Tails outside of character-specific stages these weren't as important to me, but they have some useful functions like a screen clearing attack, an additional jump for a limited time, or a climbable tall vine. I found these powers most useful during boss fights.

I love that Fang the Sniper returned after so long. He's one of my favourite Sonic characters, so seeing him with a proper 3D model in game and in the animated cutscenes is just really cool. I also appreciate that he's still somewhere between genuinely dangerous and a goofball. They did a good job capturing his vibe in the aerial boss fight against him.

Adding a simple hub-world gives the game a nice level of polish. It also makes it easier to retry stages, or play the optional stages like character-specific acts or unlockable fruit acts.

The game is surprisingly long with 11 Zones, and you unlock a second Trip-specific campaign after finishing the game. I haven't tried the second campaign yet, likely leads to the true final boss

As a Tails player, I found it much easier to defeat enemies by flying in this game versus any other 2D Sonic. One other small thing is you get a special cutscene for Tails completing the game (you probably get one for each character).

What I Didn't Like

By far the biggest weakness of this game is the bosses. After the first few which are pretty standard, the bosses end up becoming FAR too long. In retrospect I realized much later that they probably intended for you to use Emerald powers, and I did for the last few bosses with great success. But they are still so long, even that aerial Fang boss that I otherwise enjoyed.

The final boss in particular is so long that it's almost as bad as the Death Egg Robot in Sonic 2. But it's still not quite THAT bad.

The other huge problem of the game is the unremarkable music. What kind of Sonic game doesn't have amazing music?! Even the ones I don't like much like Sonic Heroes had an amazing soundtrack.

I'm not a big fan of the Knuckles exclusive stage; he climbs very slow.

I was also bummed that Super Tails does not get any Flickies. He just gets the general speed/jump boost and invincibility.

Another small annoyance is when you exit the shop, you always end up at Zone 1 in the hub world regardless of where you entered. And then it can take up to a full minute to navigate back to where you were.

Final Thoughts

Sonic Superstars went for something different instead of emulating that classics. This worked great for levels, but not for bosses. If they can keep this quality of level design but make bosses quicker like the classics, a sequel has the potential to be one of my favourite Sonic games.

[unholyplumpprincess]

hi !! im not sure you ship lobahound but the lack of interactions has me dying on my deathbed after fusehound / valklobalore took the spotlight , would you potentially do some lobahound hcs for how they met? is there any tension between them ? was there a random meeting within the games during a match on opposite teams? or their on the same team and try to learn each others playstyles during their first game together ? i hope this is ok for ur prompts ~ ! :]

Absolutely!!! I agree with you too, I really hope they get some interactions back! Esp bc of how the book worded their friendship too like. Why they just Stopped interacting in game is so confusing!!!

I actually LOVE prompts that are just questions for a certain ship! Makes it super fun :D

Also, for your future eyes too, here's a full fic I have for them to keep you going: Link here!

Warnings: Sfw, mentions of both their trauma, Hound flirts by murder in the arena iuwerfhiweruh

---

• How did they meet? The technical answer would be in a match, just like all legends meet the new legends. Of course, it's when she fucks up Skull Town and makes her grand entrance. But even then, that's only seeing each other.

Bloodhound seeks her out first, always curious of new legends. Loba is polite, if a bit flirtatious. She introduces herself with a shake of their hand and says it's a pleasure to meet them, another wolf among the field it seemed. Or rather, a pup. She'd said it with a smile on her painted lips, reaching up to tap her sharp nail on the tip of their respirator like a pup's nose.

Hound cannot find it within them to correct her. She isn't the first to call them that nickname, but she is the first they allow to get away with it.

• Is there any tension between them? Not particularly! They get along rather well right away in the beginning. Both are, however, guarded people. Loba comes across honest and earnest, but a bit hidden. While Hound avoids discussions of their past, preferring to stay behind their walls.

As their relationship grows, they would become closer in talking of their pasts. Where Loba talks of losing her parents, Hound talks of their own loss of their own. They bond at first that way, over their childhoods being stolen from them. It's the first talk steering them into opening up to each other more.

• Was there a random meeting within the games during a match on opposite squads? Of course! It's bound to happen. Squads vs Squads after all. But, Hound has a unique way of flirting. Ie being taking down the object of their affections in the ring. Loba happens to be their friend (and stirring feelings in them) and well. She's sometimes a bit too cocky. She probably made a joke about how they couldn't catch her in the past, and they make do on that.

The first time it happens, after they've gotten closer but not quite into dating territory, Hound had chased her down. In King's Canyon down into a treasure bunker where her bracelet could not serve her well. They'd managed to pin her to the floor, hatchet to her throat, leaning down and close and crooning, "It seems I am the better wolf today, lítill úlfur."

• When they're on the same squad, how do they try to learn each other during their first match together? Hound analyzes all legends- this includes Loba. So even before their partnership in the arena, Hound has a good idea of her fighting style. She likes things to be up close and personal, preferring the enemy to know who took them down. While Hound prefers stealth, preferring a good sniper unless someone gave chase.

They do not expect Loba to have any thoughts on them. But it is Loba who actually strategizes with them on their first squad fight. She'd get close, give them something to look at, coax them out into the open. And then Hound with their talented fingers- her words, not theirs- would pop their pretty little heads.

They become a force to be reckoned with.

[thebudgetgarden]

The Budget Garden 3: Seven Seas (V-Premium)

Hello Cardfighters. So this post might be quite unique in the aspect that I don’t really have anything to really “teach” or that much to discuss either to be honest. The Seven Seas archetype has been a mainstay of the Granblue Clan, as a powerful sub-clan that initially dominated the G-era meta during late 2016 up until early-to-mid 2017, where it was hit and left to die as G was entering a new format.  People are only familiarized with them due to their very boysterous and loud presence in the G-meta game, but when the time came for them to be rebooted in the new V-series format, which, at the time, didn’t really have any truly cheap budget decks, their aggro playstyle was pushed to the limit in order to create a cheap deck that could steal games from the otherwise very slow and methodical meta of Nightrose and Scharhrot Vampir.  The formatting for this instalment is going to be quite unique as we are required, maybe, in a way, even FORCED to run every single card that includes “Seven Seas” in the card name. Therefore, there won’t be much in terms of options for tech choices, as about 90% of the deck is already decided for us. 

Let’s begin with our grade 3 line-up… which also just so happens to be the ONLY grade 3 unit that we are going to be playing in our deck, Lord of the Seven Seas, Nightmist.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack hits, choose one of your (VC) or (RC) without any

Treasures

markers, and put a Treasures marker.

[CONT](VC):You get all of the effects below according to the number of your Treasures markers.

• 1 or more - All of your rear-guards with "

Seven Seas

" in their card names can attack and intercept from the back row.

• 3 or more - During your turn, all of your units with "Seven Seas" in their card names get [Power]+5000.

• 6 or more - This unit gets "[AUTO](VC):At the end of the battle it attacked, [Stand] all of your rear-guards with "Seven Seas" in their card names.".

To the majority of people that are having a full on Aneurysm reading this skill, I don’t blame you. The Treasure Markers are just that, markers that are placed on your circles, and that give off specific skills and unique abilities depending on the unit that is in top of them. Think of them as an indicator to know when your cards have their unique abilities and skills, instead of having to keep track of them yourself. Spoiler alert for every single card incoming, every single memeber of the Seven Seas archetype have the skill that allows you to obtain a treasure marker on one of your circles when they perform a successful attack.

Nightmist, apart from having really great artwork, is the main unit of our strategy, and the only real “payoff” for us actually obtaining these force markers. Do not be fooled by the shiny “protect” sumbol on the upper-leftmost corner, this is an insanely fast and loose Aggro deck, aiming to obtain 6 Treasure markers in order to perform 11 attacks in a single turn. This is perfectly reflected in Nightmist’s skill. The first skill allows for your backrow to attack your opponent’s units, just like a test-run version of Magnolia, as well as allowing them to intercept from the backrow, which seems very random but it will become obvious in a second. 

The second skill gives your entire board a very nice boost. With 6 Seven Seas units on your circles, it gives your board an overall surplus of 30k power, while also allowing your grade 1 units to hit force numbers, effectively allowing you to rush against all 3 gifts. 

The third skill is awesome, but really hard to pull off. If you have laid 6 successful attacks on your opponent and their units, Nightmist gets an effect that allows your ENTIRE board to restand, effectively giving you 5 bonus attacks.

Sound awesome, right? In the 25-30 games I have played to playtest for this very blog, I have managed to resolve this final skill on about 5 or 6 of them, either because at that point of the match I had either won the game or lost the game. It pops up SO LATE into the game that you might as well have already won, but when you do get to pull it off, it feels amazing … just don’t expect it to come up that often.

Nightmist is a hilariously bloated card, clearly being designed to fix holes that existed with this strategy before he even got printed. Nightmist is also the most expensive part of the deck, as a playset will set you back about 5-10 euros. 

Moving forward to the grade 2 line-up, the units in this segment arent nearly as complicated or long-winded as Nightmist, as the grade 2 line up does an excellent job of adding some much needed consistency and raw power. 

Our Grade 2 line-up consists of three units, Nightspinel, Negrolazy and Slash Shade. 

[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack hits, choose one of your (VC) or (RC) without any Treasures markers, and put a Treasures marker. [AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, COST [Counter Blast (1) & put two cards from the top of your deck into the drop zone], and call up to one card with "Seven Seas" in its card name not named "Seven Seas Pillager, Nightspinel" from your drop zone to (RC).

[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack hits, choose one of your (VC) or (RC) without any Treasures markers, and put a Treasures marker. [CONT](RC):During your turn, if there is a marker on this unit's circle, this unit gets [Power]+15000.

[AUTO](VC/RC):When placed, you may call a grade 0 from your drop zone to (RC).

  There really isn’t a lot to say, Cardfighters, these are the two types of skills that were really needed for some added consistency and power. Nightspinel not only fulfills the role of the “waifu" card in this archetype, she’s also a very nice way of setting your drop zone up for certain ressurection effects, but she is a single card that can provide more board advantage in a deck that calls a lot of its hand onto the board. Also, she’s very cute, which is also a plus. And in the category of “not so cute, but much more playable” comes Slash Shade, a card with a very simple, yet powerful effect. He can make himself a 24k attacker by just existing on a circle with a marker on it, key word being ANY marker. A protect II gift, which manifests itself as a marker on a circle also works with this skill, so a protect II market makes Slash Shade, even while unboosted, a 29k attacker. Couple that with Nightmist’s second skill, 3-4 of your circles are most likely going to be attacking from the backrow for 29k-34k.  Slash Shade is, in a complete turn of events, the true boss monster for the Seven Seas, as he is by himself an attacker that requires a 20k or more shield from your opponent per attack, making him the unofficial win condition for this deck.  Negrolazy seems like an odd addition, as getting a trigger back onto your board seems rather useless. It is. However, Negrolazy has great synergy with a grade 0 unit that we will be discussing in a little bit.  While the grade 2 line-up is quite great for what it does, the most important aspect to any Blitz/Aggro strategy lies within the Grade 1 line-up, as it needs to provide some sort of value/recursion to offset the early hand loss. The grade 1 units that we will be using are the following: Witch Doctor of the Seven Seas, Raistutor Seven Seas Helmsman, Nightcrow Skeleton Sea Navigator Witch Doctor of Powdered Bone, Negrobone

[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack hits, choose one of your (VC) or (RC) without any Treasures markers, and put a Treasures marker. [CONT](RC):If there is a marker on this unit's circle, this unit gets "Intercept".

[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack hits, choose one of your (VC) or (RC) without any Treasures markers, and put a Treasures marker. [ACT](Drop zone):If you have a vanguard with "Seven Seas" in its card name, COST [Soul Blast (1) & retire a rear-guard not named "Seven Seas Helmsman, Nightcrow"], and call this card to (RC).

[ACT](RC):COST [[Rest] two rear-guards], and put five cards from the top of your deck into your drop zone.

[ACT](Drop zone):COST [Discard a card from your hand & put this card on the bottom of your deck], and call a grade 1 from your drop zone to (RC). If your drop zone has ten or more cards, you may call any grade instead. As you can see, all of the cards in our grade 1 line-up offer some form of utility, and it is as basic as it is good. Raistutor gives herself the ability to intercept, which works really well in conjunction with the Nightmist’s skill, as well as letting herself become a 20k backrow interceptor if there is a protect II marker on her circle. Nightcrow works really well while he is in the drop zone, as he can turn any unit on our board into a copy of himself for a soulblast. Also blasting the cards from our soul means more options in our drop zone, so he’s a fun addition that works well with the rest of the archetype. Skeleton Sea Navigator is our mill engine. Granblue decks love to put cards from the top of their deck in the drop zone to fulfill certain conditions or allow for more options. Since we cannot afford to put many cards that mill our own deck, as space is very tight, the Navigator allows up to mill ourselves for no cost at all. Negrobone is a powerful payoff for milling ourselves. Reviving a grade 1 unit isn’t awful since they provide us with value or more Seven Seas units for attacks, but his ability to be able to revive a unit regardless of grade means that we have another way to get our Slash Shades back onto the board. So these are our options for the grade 1 units, but don’t touch that dial, we have a consistency boosting grade 0 unit that helps us find the right Seven Seas units at the right time. (I’m too lazy to make a grade 0 introductory section for a single card)

[AUTO](VC/RC):When its attack hits, choose one of your (VC) or (RC) without any Treasures markers, and put a Treasures marker. [ACT](RC):COST [Bind this unit & put two cards from the top of your deck into the drop zone], and return a card with "Seven Seas" in its card name not named "Seven Seas Apprentice, Nightrunner" from your drop zone to your hand. He mills our deck, he reccurs cards, he gets revived from Negrolazy, he mops the floor, Nightrunner does it all. He is an excellent addition for our deck as he does pretty much everything that our deck wants to do, with an added layer of consistency. 

Decklist and Final Thoughts.

GRADE 3  x4 Nightmist Grade 2 x4 Nightspinelx4 Slash Shadex3 Negrolazy Grade 1 x4 Nightcrow x4 Raistutor x3 Skeleton Sea Navigator x3 Negrobone Grade 0 x4 Nightrunner 8 critical triggers (2 sentinels) 4 draw triggers (2 perfect guards) 4 heals1 Starting Vanguard This deck is one of my favorites. It’s a deck that provides a very unique and interesting take on what a “protect” deck should be, and it allows for some of the most hectic and fun board states compared to the majority of decks in general, not just budget decks. However, time has not been kind to this beauty, as it has been powercrept quite a bit compared to the other budget decks descussed previously. However, if you want a deck that, from the moment that you flip your vanguard over, is chaotic and hectic fun, as well as a very unique take on an aggro deck, look no further than Nightmist and his treasure-loving posse. Thank you all for reading ! If you have any questions or any suggestions as to what I should cover next, please don’t hesitate to contact me on Discord, I would be happy to hear any suggestions or ideas that you might have ! (Bloom#8890) That’s all for now, Cardfighters ! See ya next time. Bloom, aka thebudgetgarden.

[kaedehara--kazuha]

One Year Playing Genshin

>What got you to play Genshin Impact?

The meteors event!! I heard they were giving away a free Fischl and I liked her design too much to pass up even though I was apprehensive about gacha games. I was blown away by how good the game was and Fischl has been a mainstay on my A-team ever since.

>Which twin did you pick, and why?

Lumine, half because I knew my husband would pick Aether and half because I thought less people would pick her. Ha, how wrong I was about that!

>What patch did you start playing during?

1.1, I’ve been here for quite a while!

>What was your favorite event?

Unreconciled Stars, mostly for nostalgia (and Scaramouche), but Windtrace and Golden Apple Archipelago were definitely up there. I loved the mystery surrounding the meteors and all the characters involved - I love events that encourage you to go out and explore Teyvat, especially when you get to interact with playable characters along the way. Shadows Amid Snowstorms is definitely delivering in this regard - though I do wish it wasn’t localized to just Dragonspine.

>Who was your first 5 star character?

Albedo! I got him by complete accident after just two pulls on his banner while I was pulling for Fischl constellations. I ignored him for a while but when it turned out he was amazing I started building him and was really glad I got him!

>Favorite female character? 

Hu Tao. She was the first character I ever pre-farmed for and the whole fiasco with her not coming out during the Lunar New Year got a good laugh out of me. She makes me laugh in general! Her design is super slick and her playstyle is really unique; she’s the main DPS on my secondary team. Mona and Fischl are definitely honorary mentions though.

>Favorite male character?

If it wasn’t obvious, Kazuha. Do I even have to explain how obsessed with him I am? He is beautiful, has such a unique playstyle that adapts to any team, and has such a gentle yet sassy personality. His survivor's guilt contrasting with his lust for life is beautifully poetic and real, he's definitely one of the more human-feeling characters. Tohma and Scaramouche are honorable mentions.

>What's your favorite co-op memory?

For me it was the time during Windtrace I was playing on the rebel team as Hu Tao - the hunter was a Yanfei who threatened to give me a parking ticket to which I said she'd have to catch me first. I was the only survivor on my team. Jumping from tree to tree on the Wuwang Hill map as Hu Tao is kinda broken!

>Favorite Harbinger?

Scaramouche. I can - and do - go on and on about how much I love him. I cannot get enough of him. He’s so unrepentantly evil and having so much FUN being bad. It’s refreshing to see a villain like that in an age where everyone is trying and failing to be the next Zuko. Also he’s just gorgeous.

>Favorite thing that’s been added to the game since you started playing?

Fishing! I love fishing in video games, I could get lost in it for hours.

>Are you a content creator for Genshin? If so, what do you do?

Yes! I’m a cosplayer and fic writer! I’ve cosplayed Klee before and am currently working on a Kazuha cosplay. Might do Hu Tao or Fischl afterwawrds, but we’ll see!

>Have you purchased any Genshin merch, official or unofficial? If so, do you have a favorite thing?

I sure have! I’ve got a bunch of unofficial Genshin stickers on my laptop (mostly Kazuha and Chongyun but there’s a Hu Tao, Mona, Fischl, and Scaramouche too) and I also preordered the 1/7 scale Mona figure. My favorite thing I own though is probably a Scaramouche cushion that was very helpful to cuddle with while recovering from a pretty major operation. I’d really like to get one of those big Anemo Slime plushies too, eventually.

>What are you most looking forward to in the coming year for Genshin?

Yunjin release and hopefully Ganyu rerun! I skipped Ganyu to get Hu Tao but that sure won’t be the case this time around! I didn’t expect to like Yunjin nearly as much as I do though and I’m so glad she’s a four star, that way she’ll be easier to get - and if leaks are anything to go by she compliments my playstyle perfectly.

>Any other thoughts?

I did not expect this game to end up meaning as much to me as it does. To all my friends in the community and to everyone who has supported my cosplays and fic, thank you, you’re all amazing. I hope we can continue to enjoy Genshin together for a long, long time to come.

[kirisaki-daichi-scenarios]

I want some cute headcanons on Hana and Haizaki!! I find it interesting that the 2 "worst" characters come from a single mother household. But what are some cute things the boys would do for them, do mom+son ever just hang out/talk, and more importantly how were they during their childhood or any cute moments you can think of? Danke!!

hanamiya makoto:

a surprisingly good kid around the house: washes dishes without being asked, helps (moderately; he’s not great at it) at keeping things tidy, joins his mother in the quest to spring clean once a year 

whines about his mother sometimes (in a kinda grumpy albeit affectionate way), but very close with her and very much cares for her - anyone that even agrees with his grumbles gets punched

the two of them spend a lot of time ‘casually together’; they don’t often go out to places (both have pretty busy schedules), but hanamiya likes to sit in the kitchen and read as his mother makes dinner, they play darts together (there’s a dartboard hanging on hanamiya’s bedroom door which has been there since he was in elementary school), and they’ll often discuss the books they’re reading (they’ve got a similar taste in fiction) as they warm up under the kotatsu etc

also hanamiya’s pretty open with his mother - he updates her most of what’s happening in his life and tells her about the humorous situations he finds himself in with his teammates (who all are big fans of her and her cooking)

that said, he’s never discussed his playstyle with her, and plans to keep it secret, knowing that she wouldn’t approve

(hara once almost let slip and got an elbow to the stomach)

also i like to think that, around once a month, hanamiya and his mother have a movie night: at the beginning of the film, they’re sitting at opposite ends of the sofa, but, by the end, hanamiya’s curled up next to his mother, like a kid, leaning his head against her

more cute things to think about though:

how hanamiya’s mother’s bedroom, and the living room, and the kitchen, are covered in pictures of hanamiya (mostly from when he was younger, though there’s a couple of an older him - often with a grudging grin on his face) to awards (both academic and from basketball) which he’s won

little hanamiya not wanting to go socialise with other kids, spending his time at the playground reading, huddled against his mother for warmth

another little hanamiya working very hard to draw his mother a birthday card, except his art style is a little …unique, and the card ends up including a drawing of a body whose chest has been scribbled over in red. this was supposed to look like all the love pouring out. it most definitely doesn’t look like someone who was stabbed to death.

(his mother loves the card - and all the little gifts hanamiya’s given her over the years - and keeps it pinned against her mirror) 

more hanamiya and his mother hcs: here, also there should be some if you look at the ‘hanamiya’s mother’ hashtag

haizaki shougo:

haizaki’s relationship with his mother is a whole lot worse than hanamiya’s, largely due to the fact that he’s also got a brother, whereas hanamiya’s family is just a family of two

he’s always just followed his older brother around, and seen his older brother as a role model, and, as such, is less reliant on his mother

i do also think that - in contrast to hanamiya, who grew up with just his mother - haizaki did know his father, when he was very young (almost too young to remember the man), and that also affected him. (it’s possible that he used his brother as a substitute for a father).

in general, his relationship with his mother is a vicious cycle: haizaki’s in a bad mood —> unpleasant to his mother —> adds to all her other stress —> she snaps at him —> haizaki’s mood gets worse etc

hence, he spends a lot of time away from home - just chilling on the streets, most of the time by himself (but not because he’s an introvert, just because he doesn’t really have friends) and, when he is home, he’s usually just in his room play video games

that said, although he acts like he hates his mother, he’s viciously protective of her; she’s had to hold him back, more than once, after he lunged at someone for commenting on how ‘single mothers are pathetic’

and they did have lots of good memories as a family (except his father, who rarely spent time with them, when he was still around) when haizaki was young. e.g.

haizaki and his brother almost smothering his mother at night in the winter; in the morning, they had always moved, whilst asleep, onto their mother’s futon and had latched on it instead of staying in their own beds

that time they went to the beach, when the boys buried themselves in the sand, with the only movement they could manage opening and closing their mouths. which they did, a lot, as their mother fed them snacks absent-mindedly, whilst sunbathing

that time haizaki got himself stuck in a tree, and started crying (blame that on his older brother’s teasing that “if you jump down, you’ll break all your limbs, and no one will ever find you”), but his crying brought his mother rushing over, and she promised that she’d catch him if he jumped, and she did (but haizaki’s never climbed a tree since)

attempts at movie nights which usually ended up in haizaki and his brother wrestling on the floor as their mother fell asleep on the couch (but she couldn’t sleep long, after they tried to drag her into the fight as well)

in short, haizaki’s relationship with his mother very much started going downhill from when he was a preteen

but that’s not to say he doesn’t love her! and part of him does want to be a little boy again, getting hugs from his mother, having a good relationship with her again, but his pride won’t let him make the steps towards that

more hcs on haizaki’s family relations here

[athela-3]

Rank each Go Home Club Overdose ability?

Ooooh, that's a fun question aight! I assume you mean their weapons as well as their ultimate catharsis overdose things? Lessee… Better put this under the cut, this is gonna get long~

Eiji: Has the same whip-cane thing as Stork, so that’s questionable enough as is. His ult is neither impressive nor bad, though his moveset is pretty useful if you can stomach having him around. Gets style points for the Glasgow grin, but deducted again for the Venom tongue. 5/10.

Naruko: Tbh, not sure what’s going on here. Sure, the Ostinato guys got speaker turrets too, but Naruko randomly has those and I feel like they missed an opportunity to give her something cooler. That said, I like watching her blank 🙂 face when she begins her ult, and also the tummy-tackle move. 6/10.

Kotaro: Ah, good ol' fisticuffs. Ngl, at first I thought he had like machine gun arms, but nope, they're gauntlets. I like pairing him with Kotono and watch 'em juggle enemies. His ult… I don't even remember what it's like. Uh-oh. Not a good sign. He's aesthetically just eh, but at least he's unique. 6.5/10.

Ayana: Taser shield’s a creative choice, I’ll give her that. Girl really said “what if Captain America, but make it electro?”. Granted the animation’s a bit funny for when she just shoves it in your face, but her ult is a ground pound and that’s neat. Overall not bad, I just think it coulda been even better somehow. 7/10.

Kotono: Graceful lady archer with healing? Gotta admit, that didn't appeal to me at first, it felt kinda clichéd and boring. But once you discover her full damage potential, hoo boy~ Fitting for her character arc, I suppose, heh. Also, her ult is awesome, with the crucified hero villain shot and all. 7.5/10.

Kensuke: His Musician form had a weird claymore, but it looks cleaner, if a bit plainer, once he's recruited. I love when he goes aerial beyblade on enemies, and when he hums his theme song during his ult? Perfection. Also has an interesting playstyle since he’s so reliant on counter-attacks. 8/10.

Suzuna: Not really sure why she has a polearm, but maybe it’s the closest they could get to a broom regarding her witchy theme? Anyway it’s fun watching her jab someone repeatedly in her first move, just poke poke poke poke away~ Her ult is where it gets really interesting, maybe a little edgy but c'mon, that's so cool! 8/10.

Mifue: Hehe croquet mallet go bonk~ The sheer cartoonishness of it goes beyond silly and right back to hilariously amazing, especially when she fires up her ult. Super fun, plus she’s also a great enabler to set up for maximum damage. 9/10.

Protagonist: Ah, yeah, the dual-wield pistols. Such a classic choice. Versatile skillset, if slightly "jack of all trades, master of none", but that's exactly what makes 'em useful. Ult animation is pretty cool, and I still catch myself saying "kore wa... OWARI DA!!" sometimes when playing other games. 9/10.

Izuru: How did he manage to be that edgy without being cheesy? Look at his sword, his half-mask, all his acrobatic flips and extra gestures! But he owns it, somehow; his ult is about the only place where it gets a bit narmy with the whooshing stabby bit but it's oddly charming. Also, extremely useful to bring around. 10/10.

Shogo: Look. Look, Imma hand it to you straight, I'm biased here. Shogo is my absolute fave of the entire cast. That said, what's not to love about his revolver? That sweet, sweet damage output? The ultra cool ult animation?? When the game said he synergises well with the MC, they ain't lyin', mate, there’s a solid lead and co-lead vibe going on, during combat and outside. 11/10.

...so yeah, I did say it’s gonna get long. Thanks for asking! And congratulations for surviving the text wall~

My standard team, for the record, is MC (mine’s named Chiaki), Shogo, Izuru, and one of Mifue/Kensuke/Kotono depending on situation; NG+, I like to take Shadow Knife around as the fourth squadmate. Most days, Chiaki’s a support/enabler, Shogo picks up his combos as burst DPS, and Izuru is my main carry DPS.

[pangtasias-atelier]

Random questions but who's a character that you liked design wise but once their personality or their stats/usability in-game were revealed, you just hated them? Also, who's a character you hated design wise but ended up loving their personality or stats/ usability? (Characters can be from any game, not just FE)

THIS POST DOES INCLUDE CHARACTER HATE (AND LOTS OF IT LMAO)

Ooh, I love questions like these!!! This also turned out pretty long lmao

Characters I liked design wise but personality made me hate them:

Xander. (Fates) I can't stand him outside of a kink context. When the very first Fates trailer was shown (before we even knew it was the shitshow of different routes) he looked cute. But he's just so frustrating. I get that he's supposed to be the Camus archetype but he just falls so flat and doesn't work well. And that's cause there's absolutely no world building or any development at all to help give reasoning! It's just "I'm crown prince, and that's my father you're trying to kill," which like okay that's a fair reason. But the game doesn't do much more to justify it and Garon is so stupidly obviously evil that like, it makes Xander look so stupid. Plus the games keep trying to make him this badass warrior but Fates LOVES to tell not show so it's just informed attributes. Even in Conquest, he's not much better than he is in Birthright imo. If anything, Xander is worse in Conquest cause Conquest has the worst writing in the series by far. At the very least, he along with Camilla help make Lunatic conquest bearable. (Still haven't beaten it lol, but CQ Lunatic is just so unfair, and BS. Plus the last 2 chapters being back to back with no saves is the worst idea ever)

Sylvain. (Three Houses) His design was alright and I even manages to accidentally recruit him on my first playthrough while going for Ashe and Mercedes. But GOD his personality is just bleh. Womanizer types aren't inherently bad but the crests system being pushed as this unique thing makes Sylvain much more annoying since crest's aren't even unique or well done. Like, sure, people want him for his crest, but that's literally nobility in fucking general and also, Mercedes is right there with it being worse and she's so fucking sweet! Also, FE characters are lot deep, let's face it. Their interesting moments basically come from snippets of info about their past and intys makes it sad cause they know that catches people's attention. But most FE characters are pretty static. And that's fine! I love Grima and Corrin and they're pretty fucking godamn bland! But I'm not gonna act like they're these riveting 3 dimensional characters. Which people love to do for Sylvain and it just makes me hate him even more.

Felix. (Three Houses) I really enjoyed the Navarre archetypes. But Felix exaggerates it so much. And yeah, his scathing remarks and refusal to be anyway (I can't think of the word, FUCK) like willing to talk or come to an agreement is so just awful. Like, it makes sense since he's more like that with people he knows, but he's just such a fucking jackass. And the fandom praises it when he's really just a dick imo. Glad Seteth calls him out on it lmao. Also, sylvix is such a fucking straight ship, I cannot with it.

Characters I liked design wise but play style made me dislike them:

Regal Bryant. (Tales of Symphonia) Now, he's not a bad character or anyone I really hate at all! He's just so awful to actually play as in ToS. His attacks feel like they struggle to connect oftentimes and he has a much higher skill floor than other characters such as Lloyd, Kratos/Zelos, Sheena, and Presea. Genis and Raine should just never be used in the players hands cause magic casting times and the AI targeting the player lmao. Colette isn't too bad but like, honestly, just spam her paraball. Regal also gets shafted storywise but they at least fix it in the sequel. Also, he's a SPLENDID character. Regal being this buff man, yet he's just so calm and reserved while also having a playstyle usually reserved for women makes me love him even more. I just hate playing as him lol.

Assasin of Shinjuku/Yan Qing. (Fate/Grand Order) His part in Shinjuku was great, except for that wierd ending upon him fading away and all of sudden remembering, like it felt it was gonna make fun about the whole last limited rushed sympathy yet they play it so straight lmao. He's incredibly hot and he was so great in the Halloween Event. (The Mecha Eli and Osakabehime one. I forget the name) Yan Qing just literally offers no real meaningful team support and he also doesn't have any actual buffs to help boost his own damage. He has a use, it's just so pointless diverting crit stars when you can use a better servant with star generation to just make a bunch consistently. So, Yan Qing hits like a noodle and also dies to vasically any NP since he has no defensive skills. Even with his upgrade coming next year? he still just is so bad. I love him and he's lvl 90 but he's awful gameplay wise.

Byakuren Hijiri. (Touhou) I love Byakuren so much but she's just so unwieldy in the fighting games. I still tried to use her, but like, o was just so much better with Miko that I basically stayed Miko the entire time. Miko/Byakuren's story in Antinomy of Common Flowers.

Marisa Kirisame (Touhou) Marisa always gets the straightforward shot that does great damage. The problem with that is, she really really really REALLY struggles with stages and even some boss attacks. Plus Reimu has homing while unfocused and straightforward shot while focused PLUS smaller hitbox so Marisa is always at a disadvantage. Marisa being being the best shottype (to some, I prefer Youmu but Reimu is infact the worst shottype imo) in Wily Beast and Weakest Creature doesn't make up for Marisa being worse than Reimu in all other games besides maybe Embodiment of Scarlet Devil.

In general there's not many characters that I hate due to design so these were harder

Character I hated design wise but loved due to gameplay.

Zhuge Liang (Fate/Grand Order) Granted, I basically know nothing about the Fate Series outside of FGO so I don't really know about Waver. But I just wasn't crazy about his design. And how he gets younger as you ascend him. But MY FUCKING GOODNESS! 50%NP charge is just way too good to pass up and he fits on literally any team whatsoever. Team Attack up, team efense up, targetable crit damage up, and NP drain+ stun chance on his NP makes him so versatile. And he's charging up people's NPs!! I use him for everything at this point lmao.

Character I hated due to design but liked due to character:

Scáthach=Skaði (Fate/Grand Order) The fact that Skaði looks like Scáthach really has no purpose in any meaningful way imo. Like, it's not Scáthach at all. And while I honestly would've preferred a brand new design, Skaði was just so wonderful in LB2. Especially since Ivan was kinda meh in LB1, so it really makes me look forward to the other Lostbelt Kings (Qin Shi Huang and Arjuna Alter. Both who I already love lmao) But yeah! Skaði being this kinda benevolent ruler who's doing everything she can to suppress Surtr's flames while trying to keep humans and giants from growing extinct due to her mother/goddess complex makes her so compelling to me. Also, LB2 focusing on women and the general theme of love was so touching. I didn't even care for her amazing gameplay, I was still gonna try for Skaði cause she was so great in Gotterdamerung.

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

Would you rather see GB buff Zane's other trees, buff everybody else to be on par with Seein dead Zane, or nerf Seein dead?

Why only stick with one? Let's go for D, A mix of everything, plus other class mod buffs (for all!). I can't imagine Seein Dead Zane is the strongest VH atm (as far as I know, I haven't been keeping up with meta because this game beyond my own little bubble is kinda making me sad-o lately. I thought that award went to IB Moze nowadays), but regardless of my knowledge yes I'd genuinely love to see everyone at the same power level. Buffs ahoy! Or nerfs. Whichever works, so long as the game is actually fun and satisfying to play.

I'd personally like them to swap the Seein Red capstone with Seein Dead, but without the +25% kill skill buff. (aka: Seein Dead (mod): activate kill skills on action skill start. Get +25% kill skill efficiency. Seein Red (capstone): Zane has a chance to activate Kill Skills when shooting/damaging an enemy). Seein Dead would still be his top mod probably, but at least it would open him up for other playstyles (somewhat- we still actually need damage in his other trees). He's almost unplayable end game without that mod, because of his reliance on the skills it buffs, and I'd love to try a late-game build on him that isn't centered around kill skills for once. I tried to make a Conductor build and gave up after it took 4x as long to do anything. His new mod (won't go into more specifics bc spoilers) is looking a tiny bit promising for an Under Cover build, but we'll have to see how well that actually plays out when I get down into it. I get the feeling the damage output is going to be 'not good'. But I will be very happy if I'm wrong!!

That said, I really want to be able to use any other class mod at M10. Op8/10, my main VH Zer0 had the sniper OR melee build and even for the melee build (I am a dirty melee zer0 main) I could swap between two legendary mods. In Bl3 that difference is felt even harder because class mods are supposed to give us unique skills. But it's a pretty goddamn easy choice between "get a random dot when freezing an enemy" or "activate all your kill skills and also they get a 25% damage buff". They could've buffed Death Follows Close and Seein' Red, you know to match pre-release values (and maybe also swapped their positions back to how they were iunno just a thought), but instead dropped that class mod on us (BEHIND A PAY WALL NO LESS) and said 'whelp. We did it, boys. Zane complainers are no more'. If anybody wants to play Zane late game, they've gotta drop money on the Handsome Jackpot dlc to get their hands on the mod. That's so... Messed up? Like it feels like they locked his fix behind a pay wall and a gear slot. Like, Zane mains don't get to experiment with the new class mods that drop because we know it's never gonna top Seein Dead. Even if it's kind of 'okay' in comparison. So maybe buff his other mods? Fix Zane's skill trees? Both?? Like why. Okay. Hear me out. Seein Red: activate kill skills on AS start. Wonderful! CCnC: (potentially) infinite AS uptime. Cool! But trying to mix those two together? There's no synergy. Why does Good Misfortune buff Zane's AS uptime when the literal next skill in the tree rewards short uptime and fast cooldown? Same with Borrowed Time. There's so much... Non-synergy in his trees it's almost comical. Fixing Seein' Red would open up a ton of possibilities. Running a CCnC/Seein' Red build could actually be possible if they made it so Seein Red activated Kill Skills on damage. Or! Fix CCnC so each proc of it counts as both action skill end AND action skill start. Do *something* to make his skills synergize instead of being polar opposites.

And it's not just Zane, but he's the biggest example in my books since I know him the best. I hear Amara only has 1 (2?) good mods, too. She definitely only seems to have 1 good action skill and it's unfortunately the Phaselock redux. They could buff her other two skills, make phaseslam or phasecast actually hit hard at later levels, but they don't. It's the whole Deathtrap thing again, except now they proved its possible for AS to deal damage in m10 with iron bear and Blane (Zane's clone) so what's the deal? Also, I'd love to see Amara actually deal decent damage with DoTs at higher levels given how many of her skills are dedicated to them. It would make that one class mod that applies your AS element dot to all enemies hit by your AS really cool for mobbing.

So, okay, clearly I'd love to see everyone balanced at one level, but honestly I think they need to get to max level before they do that. I don't think we're going to have a 'Salvador' situation in 3 unless they fork up the new skill trees Big Time, so I'd love to see all the VHs at one power level (whatever they decide is best). The constant tweaking to max levels and adding new skills/gear/Mayhem levels is doing not great things to the balance (or fun-ness, imo). I get the game is still in development, and I get that they wanna buff longetivity with grinding with each level cap, but my biggest wish is that before they add new content, that they'll fix the stuff we have now so there's a base to go off of. VH skills, class mods, guns, grenades, Mayhem levels, all of it. I especially want them to test stuff at M10, given what happened with the Guardian Takedown on launch.

I know the borderlands games aren't... The best... At scaling/balancing issues late-game. But I really hope they will try to fix that this time. It is extremely disheartening to see every patch/hotfix that Zane is still... Basically borked at the base level. He's had a handful of really good fixes (stacking kill skills, the buff to quick breather) but a lot of his trees/skills are still pretty messed up, especially when you think about synergy. Also, you know, just saying, the Under Cover tree is just... So bad after tier 3. I used to vouch for CCnC, but why use CCnC when we have good misfortune which is 3x better with none of the restrictions? And why use his ice-based life steal skill, when you can get life steal at tier 2 on *any* enemy, frozen or not? Someone just needs to scrap the whole tree and remake it from the ground up. That capstone is... Blegh. So bad. I have not seen a single viable, m10 build with that capstone. You can make Seein Red work. You can make Double Barrel work. Fuckin distributed denial? N O P E. I tried. So got-damg hard. But it's a headache when it doesn't work with at LEAST half the shield effects in the game and you don't know which ones it won't work with without testing and also it's mainly for multi-player and none of my friends wanna play because the balance is so forked and...

Aw geez. This just turned into a rant about things I want fixed haha. Sorry about that, it's late and I get cranky and rambly at night.

So uh. To answer the question: yes. Just. YES.

Tl;dr: Someone please fix Zane I want him to be playable late-game without players needing to drop money on DLCs. plz thx.

[tomiyeee]

finished the story quests for bl3 (but barely any of the side missions yet) and i got...Opinions(tm)

(sorry if this doesn’t cut on mobile! also if you want to hide spoilers i’m tagging all my bl3 posts as “bl3 spoilers” so ny’all can blacklist it)

in no particular order:

i honestly wanted to give gearbox some slack and try my best to like this game bc i know people had probably unfairly high expectations for this game given all the build up, but they really just kept letting me down in everything but the graphics

said this before but overall, the characters are all Quite lackluster

^^ tyreen and troy included. adding the word "bitch" to every sentence does not automatically make it funnier

that being said, i super love their backstory + relationship with typhon/nekofeyo-whatever

the character designs are equally boring. moxxi was the only one who got a real improvement imo. lilith and maya are okay. rhys...i dont think i have to explain. lia...i dislike her hair; the black felt like it balanced out her design better and the white streak was interesting and cool but full white just looks bad tbh. zer0 feels less sleek and more bulky which doesnt fit him much. tina lost her pretty color palette and cute outfit. where are all the bright pretty color palettes in general???? there are other colors besides brown and black???? use them?????

ending of pre-sequel: “you will need all the vault hunters you can get” me: “ooh does that mean all the vh’s from previous games are back? i can’t wait to see everyone meet each other! :D” bl3: only nine of them come back, 3 of them die, the rest are involved in maybe one mission at most

boss fights. super. boring. and tedious. i mean this could be partly because i was playing on ps4 which made it extra not fun but if the only reason the fight is difficult is because they have a lot of health...it's not fun or challenging. i want fights like handsome jack with interesting mechanics. i want fights like angel with emotional impact. i want fights like the pre-sequel final boss that i forgot the name of with variation that isnt just "now they have an attack that shines bright lights in ur eyes, covers the whole arena, and can knock you down in one hit im looking at you traunt and killavolt". tyreens fight was the only one that i somewhat enjoyed because of this. all the others were just like "ughhhh again?"

im really enjoying melee amara playstyle. taking out badass enemies in four hits is my jam. this is just my fallout 4 playthrough all over again babey heck yea

typhon just wanted to be a good dad!!! he called tyreen starlight which is adorable!!! he did the best he could and tyreen hated him for it!!! i don’t blame either of them for that tbh, it makes sense from both their perspectives. tyreen definitely should have been more understanding, but she’s a dick so :/ (not saying this is a writing flaw, just a character flaw)

hammerlock needs higher standards in men but i really appreciate the undeniably in-your-face "fuck you" to all gamer dudes

i really. hate. how little the player character seems to matter in the story. in pre-sequel the vh's all had unique dialogue AND npcs would respond, sometimes even with character-specific lines. even when it was the same across vh's, it still felt like the npcs were interacting and speaking directly to them. the player character felt like a character of their own, rather than just a vessel for the player to do quests and kill enemies with or an errand runner for the important characters. i thought that was the direction they were going in with bl3 too but this just feels like bl2 only worse. there’s a separation again between you and the story and it feels like you’re just watching things happen. now ur not just a silent protagonist, but instead your a speaking protagonist who gets completely ignored. whats the point of including unique dialogue if it's not even acknowledged beyond an "uh-huh, moving on"?

sometimes the logic just feels kinda dumb. the twins killed/disabled maya and lilith in a heartbeat, they can literally disintegrate the most powerful beings in the universe, but the vault hunters? absolutely not. they must fight them for 40 minutes and then die.

after the fight with troy, no one even touched tyreen. there's no way they could have thought "yup she's definitely dead, no need to shoot her in the head or anything just to make sure. we didn't do anything to even hurt her, we just assumed." turns out she's 100% alive and gets up to start the apocalypse. who'da thunk! i know they wanted the end to seem more dramatic but it just seems stupid that they could have stopped tyreen like 5 missions earlier had they even the slightest bit of common sense.

lilith was one of the biggest threats to tyreen and troy's whole plan. of course they should leave her alive and simply steal her powers. let's kill the monk siren instead.

i know they didn't include this to give all players a fair experience instead of favoring sirens, but it kinda sucks playing a siren character and it's just completely ignored outside of ur action skill. tyreen and troy are sapping siren powers left and right, but they choose to leave you with yours. when you enter the eridian place with typhon tannis starts glowing because it has "something to do with sirens". what about the one standing right next to her? this applies to bl2 as well...jack i would willingly charge ur vault key for u pls why do u take lilith instead :'(

oh yeah speaking of tannis! i LOVE that she got angels powers. for some reason it just makes me really happy. maybe it's bc i think it's sweet that part of angel survived. maybe it's because it makes for cool fanart. maybe it's just cool. idk. also like that we got a solid explanation of what angel's powers were (influence over technology). i always thought her having control over it in bl2 might've been cuz it was hyperion tech and she had access to it same as she had access to the satellite from bl1. it wasn't super clear since it seemed like she could also materialize things like the ammo during her fight.

that also reminds me: all the dramatic reveals in this game felt kinda badly done.

the very first one with zer0/katagawa. like the whole time i was walking around looking for him i was trying to think why he might've turned/something must have happened to him or rhys. everyone was saying it was undeniably zer0. i finally meet him and take one look at his bright ass maliwan armor and its like. really. you couldnt have made it anymore obvious that thats not zer0. and then his helmet gets knocked off and surprise! it's not him. i totally didnt already figure that out with one glance 10 seconds ago. (maybe even earlier when you got glimpses of him around the building but i always missed it cuz i was looking at the fish tanks n shit)

also the tannis reveal. she was speaking to me in the same way that only known siren characters could. weird unexplained things were happening and seemed to be related to tannis. i wonder if she's a siren? surprise! she's a siren.

tyreen and troy knew about the great vault through some unknown means. typhon was talking about having a son and a daughter who he told stories about the great vault. typhon calls tyreen his daughter a while later and lilith acts surprised like honey ur a little slow, i figured that out several lines ago.

basically i'm not saying they were so obvious that i knew from the beginning of the game; i only figured them out a little before they were outright stated. but it was enough that it kinda ruined the effect and the characters acting surprised only when it was blatantly spelled out for them just made it annoying.

i feel like most of this is pretty negative, but i don’t mean that i hate the game and was miserable playing it. it was honestly okay...like i said i wanted to like it, but gearbox hates me specifically and killed/ruined all my faves just to spite me sooo...*waves hand back and forth in a sort of “ehhh” gesture*. i think my opinion on bl games from most to least fav would be: tftbl, bltps, bl2, bl3, and bl1. so it’s not the worst, but deeefinitely not one of my faves. i mean jack’s not in it (or if he is he doesn’t have a big role) so it’s already at a huge disadvantage. the ending was ok, it was all dramatic n stuff and it kinda makes sense i guess, but it was just about as okay as the rest of the game really. i don’t hate it but it’s not great either yknow?

[kisaell]

In the Scions we Trust

So, I’ve been plucking my way through grinding the scions to 80 for that cute little title; and in hopes that there is some bigger reward waiting down the line…

Anyway, I just wanted to note down some interesting quirks of each of the Scions since … It’s a lot of runs to just get them out of each dungeon. It’s a long post, and has some spoilers in it~

Let’s start with the Disaster Twins (who I love with my whole heart);

Alisaie plays like a Red Mage, naturally. However, she drops the OGDC aether blades in favour of more powerful Vercures; should the healer fall, or the WoL get too low she will not hesitate to yell out, “I’ll handle the healing!” and use Vercure 3 to keep people alive. It’s a decent heal too. We all know how extra she can be, so on the first and second boss of a dungeon, should you have Limit Break ready, she will use it on pull. However, should the Limit Break not be ready, and it dings in the middle of the boss; she tends to wait until after her enhanced melee + Verholy/Verflare combo before popping it, so any melee WoL taking her along can use that time to pop it for yourself.

I personally didn’t encounter her dying to mechanics. She is a little ballsy with her placement, opting to get in a little extra damage if she can, but she performed very well whenever I took her with.

Alphinaud plays like a Scholar, no matter what his job title says. He uses his Moonstone Carbuncle rather than a fairy, which makes sense given he isn’t a Nymian-trained Scholar like the WoL can be. Moonstone Carbuncle provides some DPS as it attacks enemies on its own; it also provides a nice Damage up buff every 2 mins (it lined up with my Dancer burst perfectly, everytime).

As for Alphinaud himself, he offers the standard Scholar kit with Adlo shields and Lustrates when people fall low; he also uses Broil 2 for DPS between heals. He is also a little more cautious than his sister, often making sure to step out of AoEs unless he is caught mid-cast; he is unafraid to shield himself and take an AoE should he need to. 

Now we have the Father-Daughter combo;

Thancred plays like a Gunbreaker, because he is one. When I ran dungeons with him, I had not yet touched Gunbreaker, so I didn’t notice anything too off with his playstyle. He is quick enough to establish enmity and will face groups away from people if he can. One unique skill I’ve found is his Quick Slash, which is an AoE attack that also blinds any enemy it hits; it’s not often he uses it, seems to be a mob count thing given I saw it most often in Dohn Mheg with the Wasps.

Personally, he provided the quintessential tank role to the Scions. He held the enemies still, he bosses to either the middle or towards the exit and held them there. My only issue was found in, again, the 73 dungeon… Where he often tanked the final boss in such a way that poor Alphinaud got frogged more than once.

Baby Ryne plays like a Rogue with extra bits, why did Dadcred let a 12 year old have knives? Aside from Y’sthola, Ryne is perhaps the most unique in her kit; not only does she have a 20 second vulnerability up debuff with her Trick Attack (that she can use on every pull) but her unique version of Dream within a Dream - Called Artful Edge - puts a damage done down debuff on the enemy too. And if that wasn’t enough, she has a ranged attack in the form of the spell Banish 3; she only tends to use this after a close-ranged AoE forces her to step away from enemies and bosses. Something that is also neat, is that her Hide isn’t broken by her auto-attacking.

Ryne is again, second only to Y’sthola in terms of how cautious she is. I have yet to see her get hit needlessly when she can avoid it; double AoEs like the Forgiven Apathy’s Earthshakers confound her (like most Trusts) but she will try to only get hit by one rather than both.

Dungeons with Ryne feel a lot faster given how often she can pop that Trick Attack; she’s even uses the Limit Break once or twice which also speeds things up. Another interesting note is that she carries Phoenix Downs to resurrect fallen party members, should there be no one else that can. She is cute baby with a lot of support 10/10 would take her in more dungeons.

Now for Smart Squad;

Boss Ass Bitch Y’shtola plays like a Black Mage, but she has White Mage elements spells to remind you that she’s better than you in every way.

As mentioned, Y’sthola has one of the most unique kits of the Scions as of this moment; all of her spells are followed by the suffix “-of the seventh dawn” and enjoy such elements as, “Tornado”, “Foul”, “Fire 4” and “Water 4”; which as someone who also plays White Mage from time to time, makes me cry. I’ve not noticed her ever use leylines, but she does seem to have a very short recast Triple Cast - which she also pop swiftcast with and just churns out damage when she wants.

In my runs, I noticed that Y’shtola did very well to avoid unnecessary damage; and as we were told, she does pop Triple Cast to make up for lost damage when she’s dancing around AoEs. However, unlike what we were told; I’ve seen Y’sthola pop the Limit Break about as often as Alisaie does, although she will wait until a lot longer in the fight before she uses it. I think she’s mad at me because I looked at her ass in that one quest; hero, and thus LB, privileges revoked. ;~;

Urianger, he doth provide the support of one well versed in the Sharlayan art of Astromancy. Which ultimately means he plays favorites with the cards and waxes poetically about killing shit. Urianger uses Diurnal Sect, which means regens! However, he never uses Aspected Helios; just the regular one. The loss of sheilds can be felt in dungeons; when tanking for Urianger, the tank busters hit a lot harder than when Alphi had my back; but that’s to be expected. What Urianger brings, however, is two unique spells. Gravity of the Seventh Dawn is an AoE attack that puts slow and heavy on everything hit; very very useful when you have a lot of enemies plucking away at your HP; and… Death of the Seventh Dawn, where he literally just straight up kills something, and to be fair, he mostly uses it at 10% on trash but still that’s really wild that he has that.

As for his performance… Oh boy; if you thought Alisaie got hit by avoidable shit, you’ve never taken Uri into Holminster. Our Man of the Verbose likes to get hit by everything, which is fine because he can just Essential Dignity himself back to full but still! At least we know where Alisaie gets it from, haha…. 

And for the final wrap up;

If anyone is interested in doing the hell grind of getting all the Trusts to 80; I’d HIGHLY recommend you break them into two groups and level on set with a DPS and the other with a Tank. That will get you all of them 80 in only two sweeps of the gauntlet. 

Your rewards for doing so are;

Each Trust at 80 unlocks their old (SB) outfit; with Ryne getting her blonde look back.

And once they’re all 80, you get the Achievement “Bound by Faith” and the title “Trusted Friend”

[crystalelemental]

Atelier Lulua Opinions

This feels a little early, since I haven’t really done the Machina Domain DLC, and that might change some stuff, but I’ve read a bit and it’s just a handful of lore tidbits about Mana and Ficus, so I’m calling it good.  Overall it’s pretty fun!  It’s nice to return to the Arland games after a while, and Lulua definitely delivers on both the nostalgia factor, and having some pretty unique stuff going on all its own.

CHARACTERS The cast wound up being surprisingly strong, all things considered.  Lulua herself is a fun protagonist, being, perhaps expectedly, quite a goober but trying her best.  Her best friend, Eva, is also hilarious at most points in the game, and actually has some incredible moments regarding her birth parents and her response to them reaching out after years of leaving her with an orphanage.  Aurel is...okay, one of the weaker characters.  He’s very serious warrior man, which is odd considering he’s related to Gio.  You’d expect a bit more aloofness to have rubbed off, but no, he takes his role seriously.  There’s Niko, who’s a doofus who’s a pirate but the nice kind because of course you are.

Then there’s Ficus.  I expected to hate Ficus, and initially, very much did.  But wow, what a turnaround.  It took a bit for me to figure out what was going on with him, but you’ve actually met him before.  You wouldn’t know it immediately, but...damn.  Damn what a tie-in that didn’t need tying in, but sure as hell got wrapped up anyway.  Seriously, it takes the story from the ending of Totori and completely turns it on its head.  There are a lot of questions I have about the whole situation, but overall he’s got a strong history.

Then there’s the returning cast.  Rorona and Sterk are as great as ever.  Sterk is having another, different midlife crisis this time, because this poor man has had one every game he’s been in.  Just let the man rest.  There’s Totori and Meruru, who are both wonderful.  Totori honestly feels a lot more sassy this game, and I absolutely love it.  Meruru is just as boisterous as always, and has even taken over learning the sword, and taking the mask, from Gio.  She’s Masked M.  It’s exactly as great as it sounds.  And your final recruitable member...is Piana.  Yeah, I love this recent trend with Atelier games, where the alchemy teacher is not the protagonist from the last game in line.  I expected Meruru to be the teacher, in that same successionary line, but instead it’s Piana, the girl Totori rescued from the Eastern Continent.  Piana’s fun.  She adopted a lot of teaching style from Totori, and is a bit of a mess as a person, but really talented with alchemy.

There are, of course, a ton of returning characters that are not playable as well.  Mimi and Keina are the big ones, and...god I love both of them.  Mimi’s just the right of “developing to be open with her feelings while still not being proficient with them” to make a wonderful character.  Keina has apparently taken over a lot of governance from Rufus, and is just really well liked.  Oh, and Cole’s here, grown up now, and the apprentice of Hagel.  While I’m all for Hagel getting an apprentice, his absence in this game is felt tremendously.  We also have some returning faces, in the form of Wild, Iksel’s protege.

Basically, it’s a solid cast, that...unfortunately misses a few marks for me.  Largely because of who isn’t here.  I get it, we can’t have every single character from all three Arland games show up.  That’d be too much.  But Mimi not being playable is ridiculous, and the fact that Cordelia of all people never shows up is just infuriating.  Why can’t Lulua see her other mom?  Work?  Cordelia’s always been busy with work, but has always made time for her friends.  Don’t give me that shit.

STORY Lulua’s probably the first real story we’ve gotten in the Arland games.  Rorona was just saving her Atelier, Totori was just looking for her mom and tripped into the plot, Meruru was just developing her kingdom.  Lulua actually hints at a lot, and develops things pretty substantially.  At its core, Lulua retains the simplicity of the other Arland games, being primarily about Lulua’s journey to become a great alchemist like her mother.  Beneath the surface, however, we have the mystery of Fellsgalaxen, and how it ties in with the other area we know of: Orthogalaxen.  Turns out, both are related, and there was even a third that fell into disrepair and became the Modis Ruins.  The galaxen arks were basically command centers, where ancient civilizations overlooked machinery they built in order to control the world around them.  For instance, Night’s Domain?  It was apparently an area where a machine was built to control night and day.  When the command center broke down, the machine lost control, and now just perpetually converts the surrounding area to a deeper and deeper night.  There’s also the Fire Domain, which control weather, but went haywire and now just spews fire.  Rule of threes, there’s one more Domain area we actually know of.  Machina Domain.  Now, I didn’t get the DLC for it yet, I’m sure there will be more to talk about from it, but presumably that was something to allow for passage through space, given it’s constantly referred to as a “distortion in space.”

The story develops into Lulua meeting the operator of Fellsgalaxen, a girl named Stia, who is desperately trying to get to the core and fix the problems at hand.  It’s not working, and you need to help her get there before Fellsgalaxen is destroyed, and takes your hometown out with it.

Despite how solid the story is, I feel like there are too many gaps.  We don’t know a ton about the galaxen arks or the different domains or their purposes.  We don’t know...well, much of anything.  Maybe a lot of that is left to the DLC, but even if it is, I do take some issue with needing an additional purchase to make sense of some of your lore.  Still, I absolutely love this, for possibly stupid reasons.  Those reasons largely being around enjoying stories of man vs. nature where man lost, and the new trial being current man vs. past man’s mistakes echoing through eternity.

SETTING Okay, yes, I love the establishment of what the domains and the galaxens are.  I love the added depth they gave to certain areas or bosses, to a degree it almost feels like this game was planned since Rorona (though I’m sure it wasn’t).  It just feels like such a good development of the setting we’ve known and loved all these years.

I will say that I wish Lulua had more unique areas to work with, instead of being just a highlight reel of areas from previous games.  The general scale also looks weird, and kinda packed together compared to previous games, but it doesn’t really detract from anything.

ALCHEMY SYSTEM Not gonna lie, the alchemy system is kind of over-complicated this time around.  There’s 999 quality, again, as well as elemental values for each items.  Different ingredients give different values, leading to different potential effects on the new items.  But wait!  Now there’s also Awakening effects!  Depending on the item used, in certain slots, you can get additional effects!  Sometimes they’re good, sometimes they suck.

The problem is, you’re trying to balance all of these things at once.  the most quality you get out of gathered items is like 230, so 999 quality on items is one hell of a leap.  You basically have to rely on synthesized items, but the items natural to a category don’t always work for the effects you’re after.  So you have to Awaken other items to be part of that category, so you can have better effects, all while monitoring the absurd quality level and traits you’re passing on.  Oh, and speaking of traits?  All the best ones are locked behind specific traits being combined, and not in the way you think.  See, to get the maximum of, say, Stat boosting traits, you don’t just mix together two of the low level ones, like Stat Boost and Stats Mega Charge.  No, you have to combine Stats Mega Charge with a rare trait you only get from bosses or rewards from S-rank battle quests, like Awakening Agent, Deadly Art, or Resonant Agent, to combine with the highest tier you can make naturally, and upgrade into the next form.  It can be a little bit frustrating, and frankly?  I had to shift difficulty down to Easy just to get started.  Without having a good spread, you can’t take the S-rank bosses easily, and then you can’t really get the effects.  And you do need the effects.  The final bosses are pretty tough without them.

TP (formerly Cost) for an item isn’t great.  It caps naturally at 60, increasing by 5 for each 5 levels you grow in alchemy, but the TP increasing skills actually stack this time, so it’s not too hard to get what you need, as long as you’re passing the highest tier of this skill on to everything you make.

BATTLE SYSTEM Battle system can also be frustrating.  Basically, there are two issues I take with this game: Stun, and Support Attacks.

Stun is obvious.  Pretty sure I’ve complained of it before, and will do so until the end of time.  Stun sucks.  It’s either a problem where you’re getting stunned every two hits, or you’ve managed to perfectly stunlock an enemy who is no longer allowed to move.  It takes twice as many hits to Stun an enemy once they recover, but you only really need it to land once.  Stun is only gained from skill attacks, which means it’s really easy for the enemy to just spam those and stun you.  God forbid they have something that both has high stun value and knockback.  You may as well turn the game off if the enemy gets to act at all.

And that’s where Support Attacks are annoying.  You can control them, but only in the sense that you can determine who to put on the back line to allow the follow-up.  Not all follow-up attacks activate off of the same frontline skills, so it’s more about matching to your specific playstyle than anything.  The problem is, you have no control over when they go off, or if they go off.  They’re not all guaranteed.  So, let’s say an enemy isn’t stunned, but needs two hits to be stunned, after your skill was used.  Piana may follow up with her two support attacks.  May.  If she hits with one, the enemy gets their turn, and you might be fucked.  If she gets both, great!  But this also works in reverse.  Let’s say you know full well that an enemy needs only one hit to be stunned.  Tough shit, Piana is guaranteed to follow up with one of her skills, and that’s going to remove stun so the enemy gets to act anyway.  Stun is just annoying.  It’s hard to control for, and you don’t really get a chance to act on it most of the time.  Without these two parts, I think the game could be fine with a bit of rebalancing.  As it stands, bosses all felt either way overpowered because taking a hit meant being stun locked forever, or were a cakewalk because equipment was all at its optimal and nothing could stand against you.  You could argue that’s just the Atelier Experience, but I have a hard time saying that this was all that much fun, considering I never once touched my items.  I got through everything on stats alone, and that...doesn’t feel like the best thing.

OTHER MECHANICS Exploration items exist in this game, and it’s...kinda weird?  You need specific bombs for mining now, and they come at different destruction levels, such that some bombs won’t even dent certain rocks, and it’s not clear which are which.  Pickaxe has the same issue, mostly being unable to break things without its max destruction value, which is pretty low.  A lot of exploration items feel redundant or kinda useless, like the Wind God’s Bag or Traveling Shoes (there’s no time limit, why do I need these?), but some are hyper-vital, like the key.  It’s really just about picking the best options for you.  So in my case, it was mostly mining bombs.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS I’m gonna echo what I said about Lydie and Suelle: one of the things I never took into account before was graphics.  I think people who bitch about graphics needing to be top-tier are ridiculous.  This game has all sorts of visual issues, but it does nothing to detract from the charm of the game.  Rather, what they choose to use graphics for has a lot of impact.  Instead of the relatively flat affect of some previous games, characters have gotten really dynamic in their expressions, poses, and general actions, and it’s frankly fantastic.  It adds a layer of comedy to the games that really complements the series’ general tone.

Also, please, please watch the Lulua and Sterk armwrestling bit.  I promise it will be the best thing you’ve watched all day.

FINAL THOUGHTS Atelier Lulua is a fantastic game that, I think, really succeeds at what it attempts to do.  It’s a fun nostalgia trip through Arland, with a lot of great returning cast members, and new developments for characters and setting that are really fun to experience.  If you’ve played the Arland games and are a fan, absolutely check Lulua out.  If you haven’t...consider trying out Rorona.  You really do need to have background knowledge of the Arland games to appreciate Lulua to the fullest.  But once you have that knowledge, it’s definitely worth playing.

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If you enjoyed this (for some reason), consider checking out the write-ups for the other games in the series as well!

Atelier Rorona Plus Atelier Totori Plus Atelier Meruru Plus Atelier Ayesha Plus Atelier Escha and Logy Plus Atelier Shallie Plus Atelier Sophie Atelier Firis Atelier Lydie and Suelle