#my bad for the spoilers if you havent finished the dlc

[romancantthinkofausername]

fp having fun in the snow :D (hes dead)

[mohgreal]

I looked into a few spoilers and watched a fight with Radahn/Miquella and I gotta say that Mohg didn't deserved to be used as a husk for any of this

Like all of this doesn't make sense to me lore wise, story wise and the final fight itself looks like a reused asset...

I may be wrong of course, because there is not enough information about Miquella's plan fully, but for now I'm just extremely confused

Gonna go cope now by drawing Mohg's and Malenia's fanarts where everything is well and fine😔

Anyway sorry about the rambling, just wanted to talk about the dlc thing with someone and since we are mutuals I thought you wouldn't mind

U can ignore and delete this ask if you want, sorry for bothering, hope you have a good day!!

First of all, never apologise for yapping to me thats the entire point of my account sdiwbfjx

And yeah, the so called so called "plot twist" being a popular theory sucks. Like what did Mohg do ?? Have a cool outfit?? Honestly I would rather suffer through the "mohglester" and slander then this. It does make him more sympathetic, but also kinda boring.

The fight really does feel like it was made a day before, someone on reddit thats a game dev made a whole long ass reply of how theyre certain thats what happened.

Anyway I dont really have the *full* scoop of lore info since I havent played the DLC yet because my laptop broke, I do still think it's a shitty way to end both Miquella's arc, Mohg's arc, Radahn's arc that was supposed to be finished, and as well as a shitty way to end the dlc. I know fromsoftware simps will just tell me to cope but like, its so bad. Im not sorry because it makes zero sense, looks bad, and the fight feels reused and boring.

I do think we should all collectively cope, (mostly me and the pre dlc miquella enjoyers) which i plan to do by writing whatever. I want to play something else to get my mind off all the sote issues but im too hyperfixated and once again I don't have the laptop to play anything on whoops

conclusion always ramble to mohgreal

[bunny-heels]

finished the Night Springs DLC. im so fuckin happy. thoughts under cut. spoilers of course

ROSE'S EPISODE WAS SO FUN I WILL NOT HEAR ANY SLANDER FOR IT. her dialogue was so silly and all the lil fanfic cliches were so fun and cute i was losing it SO Bad. the whole rose-tint effect over everything and her romanticizing Alan just uses her. Rose sweetie you poor girl. but god i love her enthusiasm so much. she's a misguided sweetheart. i need more of her forever. also her being the one to swoon Alan lowering him while covered in blood. Queen behavior.

Jesse's episode is what made me realize these probably take place WAY before the main game. at least Jesse's episode does. i loved her interactions with Tim and all the lil creepy moments with the brainwashing and bring just, in a weird dark place version of Coffee World. the math problem was a lil hard for me only cause i got so confuses cause i havent done math in so long. i also dont know what was up with the messages in the stash boxes??? i hope they mean something, i mean they definitely do but i just have no idea what. her ending was so weird tho. Alan being her brother instead of Dylan was huge whiplaah and i fully didnt expect it. but i did love it.

but Tim's episode. holy fuck. what the fuck was that. first of all Sam is adorable and i love that he's able to perfectly replicate the level of autism he has for his real games onto his character self's fake games. secondly, the different mediums, oh my god. the comic killed me with the panels of multiple Sam's, Shawn's and Illka's. i was out of my mind. AND THE QUANTUM BREAK REFERENCE WITH DOOR FINDING THAT SHIT IN THE CAVE? SAM THERE ARE MICEOSOFT SNIPERS OUTSIDE YOUR HOUSE THEY'LL KILL YOU!!!!!! the fucking tango song im so happy it made a comeback. THE FINNISH POSTER FOR DEATH RALLY BTW???? WHERE ZANE IS ACTING AA THE MAIN CHARACTER???? IM CRYING FOREVER???? and that text adventure ending. oh god that ending made me insane. the wording of the situation was beautiful. and i loved ASCII art Alan. so cute.

THE LIL MEMORIAL THING FOR JAMES ALSO. ugh idk how i didnt cry. that was so sweet. i miss that man so fucking much. i really hope if they ever bring Casey back that the next guy who voices him does it justice.

god i loved this whole DLC. it was so fun and i had such a good time. i cant wait for Lake House to come out, i'll lose it so hard

[truthdawn]

thoughts/ideas that ive had with the rise turtles under the cut (btw its kinda long and its just me rambling. youve been warned)

ive had 2 ideas for aus. One of them is like a splatoon au and the other one ive just titled “bad ending”. I’ll elaborate a bit more on that lower but first the splatoon stuff:

ok so the turtles might be octolings just because I want to stay more lore accurate so ig living in a sewer would be the splatoon equivalent of being an octoling before splatoon 2 (and octo dlc) events (but I really wanna just make designs for both species for all brothers anywayssss)

also new idea I literally had while typing this but what if eye masks were color of masks. so like raph having a red eye mask, mikey have a orange one, etc

ANYWAYS ive already decided (for now) what weapons each brother uses:

-raph uses a splatling, probably a hydra. or maybe tenta brella

-donnie uses a charger or a blaster (but most likely the charger.

-leo uses any splatana. I dont think he’d care which one in particular

-mikey will either use a slosher deco (since it has zipcaster) or an inkbrush. uhhhh yea their ink would probably be different colors. maybe the ends of the hair would be tinted green though. or maybe during specials itd be the same colors for all of them. btw specials would be the same as using their ninpo

splinter would be like cuttlefish to the agents in regards to the turtles. so he’s not their biological father nor the same species but hes still a father figure. april would be an inkling

OH OH NEW THOUGHT. since in the show mikey would hide in his shell sometimes I think the splatoon equivalent of that would be going squid form (or in their case octopus form)

uhhh I havent watched the movie yet but I know a lot about it SO I guess that the equivalent of the krang in this universe would be like. mr grizz. I dont think itd be like a tartar type of infection because you can physically remove the krang from your body and once youre sanitized you cant remove it (unless its like an agent 3 thing) but personally I think an infection more like the fuzzy ooze would fit better because unlike getting sanitized it makes the victim feral WHICH has more similair behaviors to the krang than getting sanitized

OK NEXT IS THE “bad ending” au idea

again, havent watched the movie yet (trying to finish the tv show first, im on episode 14) but basically its an au where everything is bad and nothing is happy (<- could not for the LIFE of me figure out how to phrase it and ended up with this. sorry lol)

but uh ig to make it a bit more clear (man my grammar sure is something rn huh?) I wanted to make an au where the ending was already “set” but I could add things like backstories and lore sooo imma have fun with that once it happens >:D

ill have to watch the movie to flesh out the events a bit more but what I have right now is that casey was never able to find/warn the turtles in time of krang invasion and that ended up with each of the turtle brothers getting corrupted. AGAIN. I WILL WATCH THE MOVIE. AND READ LORE. sorry if this seems inaccurate to movie stuff (even though this au really only needs the lore from the very beginning of the movie)

a little spoiler for the au (because I kinda wanna make little comics or stories for them..) but raph got corrupted first, then mikey (but hes not technically “fully” corrupted), then donnie, and then leo. april and casey are both still alive but splinter is missing. not dead or anything but just missing

ANYWAYS. *claps hands together* HEADCANON TIME (also ideas that ive had to draw. you can use them too if you want just credit me mk)

once raph got flipped over on his shell and instead of helping leo used him like a beyblade. he was NOT happy

mikey has (on several occasions) drawn on his brothers shells when theyre asleep or not paying attention (for donnie he draws on the battle shell lol)

if mikey really wants their attention he'll scream really loudly

sometimes leo will put stuff in donnies coffee to make him sleep especially if donnie hasn't sleep in a while (cause donnies a stubborn bitch who thinks sleep isnt real)

raph once got so mad he broke an entire arcade game and then had to go get a new one (haha L)

all of them dont think they need therapy (they do)

sometimes when donnie talks for too long leo will just go "BREATHE."

final headcanons below because I wanted to separate them from the rest (what happens in arguments depending on the brothers arguing)

mikey barely argues with anyone but when he does argue (and is serious about it) he does NOT hold back

raph and donnie arguments are usually what its like to have arguments online (donnie tries to explain why hes right and raph just goes "nuh uh ur wrong and im right")

raph and leo arguments are much more common and heated than stated above. raph will usually raise his voice towards leo and then leo will just not care and try to make a joke out of it (that always turns out badly). sometimes they even cry lol

donnie and leo arguments are VERY physical. leo would say something and then when donnie says something back hed push or shove him and then that turns into a full blown fight

they always make up though :3

heres the end. you made it through this. congrats and thank u for reading my rambles about stuff. this will not be the last time btw. feel free to ask questions about any of this or use my headcanons for stuff (credit me though if ya do). thats it buh bye (this is all queued ill still probably be asleep by the time this posts lol)

[godza]

small list of fave itch.io games (mostly dating sims bc those are silly) ALL FREE!

1. heart á la mode. you play as an office worker who is obsessed with a certain mascot character. only one route is available, but its so good. will make you squeal into a pillow. its very funny, thats one of the best parts. just play it and lament the lack of other routes.

2. who is the red queen? an alice in wonderland based yuri dating sim. very dark, you play as alice, who has been tasked with finding the missing body parts of the red queen strewn across wonderland. major tws for blood, suicide, gore, animal cruelty, etc. accessibility options too, you can turn on image descriptions and more. the mad hatter ending genuinely made me cry. just play this game. three endings, two love interests. and plenty of bad ends.

3. our life: beginnings and always. ok so i havent finished the game bc my computer hates me but its sooo cute. you grow up from childhood to adulthood with the boy next door. customizable character, you can pick pronouns, name, the whole shebang. you can customize the boy a bit too! the whole story molds around your choices. its a very pretty game, from the ui to the characters to the music, its a wonderful experience. i miss this game so bad. bunch of dlc if youre into that.

4. witches x warlocks. a fun halloween themed game where your raise your own stats and can find romance in the process! customizable protag with choosable pronouns! 4 love interests, 2 male (one dlc), 1 female, and 1 nonbinary (theyre my fave). quick (abt 1 hour) and cute! a little frustrating at times with resource management and the final obstacle, but all in all a cute game.

5. kim dokja’s budget adventure. one of these games is not like the others. not a dating sim, you just play as kim dokja and manage kimcom’s budget by making choices. silly and fun with no spoilers. playable in-browser!

[lesbianmarth]

it’s been a while since i posted about aa but i just finished soj in its entirety tonight. here’s my new list so far

i still have to give thoughts on cases 4 5 and dlc so that’ll be under a cut. spoilers!

6-4: this was such a filler case, almost shamefully so. i don’t know why they thought they could manage to do this in the 4th case when every game with 5 cases has been pretty consistent about making the 4th case plot relevant, sometimes literally just a preamble to case 5. so yeah i think this one was kinda ass

the two things it had going for it: one, athena. in 6-2 i actually got confused about why i ever liked her, because in that case she felt like she was just acting the part of the Peppy Teen Girl With a Rowdy Streak that makes up almost every assistant character. But then as SOON as she started bantering with Simon in 6-4 i was like “oh, THAT’S why i liked her!” was nice to take control of her again.

two, uendo toneido. while i don’t think you can say the DID was portrayed with quite the necessary respect or kindness, it was handled better than i’ve seen other media handle it-- at least it’s not completely demonized. other people have written more on that in better detail so i’m not really the judge, but the basic point is that this witness was mad fun to read, and even the dumb jokes like the changing number of floor cushions were entertaining. thus why this case is in the “hard carried by one side character” tier.

especially since there was like nothing else going on. no connection to the main plot, only two other characters besides uendo, and for some reason the clown tits girl was here instead of the magic show case (and to be honest, she wasn’t enjoyable for me even BEFORE she did the standard aa female villain thing and changed her speech pattern as soon as she fell under suspicion). just a weird, nothing case stuck right around the point aa games usually enter endgame. And especially weird because...

6-5 part 1: inexplicably there are two separate cases in the final chapter and each gets one day of investigation and trial. such a weird setup, and it really shouldn’t work... but i think it kinda barely does. barely. it would still have been better to split it into case 4 and case 5 though.

i have a hard time articulating much on the first case bc it sort of blends together for me. the main thing is that the concept of it being a civil case where apollo and phoenix face off is really good. it was a good change of pace, even though you knew it was gonna be a murder somehow anyway. sarge was reasonably nice, i guess, paul atishon had some good animations and quirks (my favorite being when he tries to just walk away from the stand to avoid answering a question), and the logic of the actual murder was good enough.

but i especially got those strong “oh this is a FINAL case!” vibes during the segment in the cave, and that added so much to it even if not much of it was relevant in the first half of the case. the adventure feel reminded me of some of the (out of context bc i still havent played it) scenes i know from 3-5, which is a good association to invoke imo. and it did a lot to give apollo and dhurke time to bond.

speaking of which, dhurke, holy shit. what a KING. i don’t think i’ve ever liked a dad character in ace attorney this much. he’s so genuine and like down to earth that it’s impossible not to start liking him and believe how much he cares for his sons. the bit where he rescued apollo from the cave flood... i felt it in my heart

6-5 part 2: let me just get this out of the way: ga’ran sucks. her design after she goes full evil is so bad, she’s so malicious that it’s immediately obvious she’s going to be the culprit, her breakdown is ridiculous and just embarrassing to watch, and inga had already established way more charisma as a villain when he did the “those were orders of execution actually” bit in 6-3. with that said,

i actually liked it for the most part. the spirit channeling stuff was excellent imo-- they probably use it to similar or greater effect in 3-5 but as someone who again has not played that, i was surprised and almost impressed by how well it was applied. maya was relevant for something! it feels like it’s been ages!

rayfa was a little underutilized, i think-- her moment of determination where she stops letting ga’ran have control over her was alright but it fell flat bc it didn’t have any weight during the moment. i kept hoping she would like, wordlessly take of her shawl and do the little verbal preamble to the divination seance while ga’ran kept yelling at her to stop, but no, the script can’t be good like that, i guess. and since she didn’t get to be the investigation assistant for long, none of her charm in that role carried through.

but DHURKE!! oh my god! in a game almost devoid of emotional impact, his involvement in this case really hit. the way they painstakingly animated his death, the scene where he makes a promise with maya, and then the weight of knowing in hindsight that everything he did in the first part of the case was after he’d already died and just wanted to see his son again before passing on for real....... it hurt. i felt something during that section. this case would also be hard carried by him if not for the fact that i really liked the murder bits.

amara was good too--liked how they made her suspiciously serene and accentuated it with the lightning strikes to make her look like a hidden murderer character about to reveal herself, only to walk it back and confirm she was being forced to act that way. i thought it worked. nahyuta was boring though, i’m sorry-- i get the motivation with having to be a bastard bc his sister and mom were basically held hostage, but the only time i found him compelling in that mess was the bit where he removed his one fingerless glove and revealed he still has the dragon tattoo. that was it. athena was also completely unused the whole case (not even a single mood matrix? really?) and trucy one again went without any role of importance.

the ending also... yknow, a friend said they had to end it this way bc they never figured out what they were going to do with apollo (since following up on what they started in aa4 clearly wasn’t an option???) and just threw him on a bus to get rid of him. i agree with that-- he really feels thrown to the side, and with that i think trucy’s officially stranded with no hope of any character advancement. and the way they ended the game with phoenix and lamiroir deciding “yeah, maybe NOW we should finally tell those two they’re related” honestly felt insulting lol

but maybe the dlc case will let things go out on a high note...?!

6-6: it was okay.

it would’ve worked pretty well as a filler case in an older aa-- honestly i think it’d be one of the better filler cases, certainly worth replacing the shitty ones like 2-3 or 3-3 or, hey, 6-4. but whether i’d say it was worth paying for... eh.

the time travel conceit was done well enough, i think. the way they tied it back to sorin and pierce’s backstories was nice, and the twist about having two receptions was good, although they needed to treat that as a real twist with much more gravity. when the truth comes out it just feels like “oh of course that’s what happened” rather than a big surprise worthy of the Confessing the Truth theme. it’s sort of important because the case becomes a lot less interesting when you take out the time travel element.

far as characters are concerned, i think they needed more side characters to sell the whole thing-- another sprocket family member or another servant of the household. it felt a little limited-- sorin and pierce are pretty good witnesses and i like their quirks and their secrets, but the only alive woman (ellen) has very few traits and no connection to the deeper story of the case, so she falls really flat. the old aa characters didn’t add much- maya and edgeworth were just there for fanservice, ema didn’t get to do much other than acknowledge for the first time in years that she’s a big edgeworth fan, and larry is annoying as hell like he always is.

and oh my god i actually forgot while i was writing that, how they put in athena and trucy but only used them for brief slapstick where trucy would try to set athena on fire and shit. again-- no mood matrix? couldn’t even try once to fit those two characters into something?

i did like pierce’s transformation into his surgeon form though-- that was really cool. loved him doing surgery on a robot, taking xrays of the lawyers, and his breakdown was fantastic-- he would make a really good culprit if they didn’t whiff the last bit of pathos at the end. i don’t think he should’ve been aiming for revenge on sorin; it would have hurt much more if he was still loyal to the guy and never intended for him to be in danger, but the final “why’d you do it?” talk in the trial just felt flat and one-note, much like the one in 6-4.

... so that’s spirit of justice! not a super positive experience but i’m happy to say it’s done. as much as i want to go and replay dgs, i think when i do go back to ace attorney i’ll be replaying the trilogy for the first time since high school

[theliterarywolf]

I was planning on keeping on with pokemon (havent played since the OG black ver) with either ultra sun or ultra moon since i tought these two would be a superior version of the original two like the 3rd game of every pokemon (Platinum, Crystal, Emerald and Black/White 2). So i want to know before considering buying either: why do you think they are bad?

Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are basically the same situation as what happened with Super Mario Galaxy 2: there were one or two left over ideas when the main game was complete, the manpower, online service, and development software wasn’t in-house to support launching said ideas as a DLC expansion pack for 20-30 dollars so they took the base game they already had, made those one or two ideas the forefront, said ‘FUCK YOU, EAT MY ASS AND WRITE A DISSERTATION ON HOW IT TASTES’ to any semblance of a good story, and launched it for the same price as the original Sun and Moon. 

You know what Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon add to the core game? 

Two clumsy mini-games, a secondary campaign that really does nothing?? Because, at the end of the day, Ultra Necrozma is the definition of a ‘Gimmick Pokemon’, a third campaign that only serves to make the villain team leaders from past games look like idiots, and a complete bullshit retcon of the actually engaging story that vanilla!Sun and Moon produced. Some spoilers I suppose, even though the heyday of these games has long since gone.

And, yes, you should read this in the same tone as one of VivaReveries’ “X But Really Fast” videos.

Vanilla!Sun and Moon: “I’m a grieving woman who, in trying to avoid the grief of losing my husband to the void, I flung myself into researching the strange creatures of a new realm, not knowing that my constant exposure to them is degrading my mental state to the point that I start abusing my son and daughter, and torturing this innocent minor-deity we found in the name of science so I can open up a portal to be with the strange creatures I developed a pseudo-sexual fascination for

But then my daughter steals the minor deity away, goes into hiding, has a game-long coming-of-age development cycle and soon learns to not only develop into her own person but realizes that caring for mentally-unstable relatives may be a thankless feat at times, but the most important thing for you is keeping your own health and mental state in mind, that sometimes means cutting yourself off from their toxicity – oh, by the way, I psychologically manipulated the leader of the local hooligan gang who is going through his own reaction to his troubled relationship with his father and not being allowed to compete in this game’s TOURNAMENT ARC and has imprinted on me in order to cope – 

Okay, back to business proper. After climbing a big ass mountain, bumping into the hippie fairy lady (which NEITHER VERSION OF THE GAME DID ANYTHING USEFUL WITH), and summoning either the deity of the Sun or the Moon (though, weirdly enough, the sentimental relationship between said daughter and the cover legendary seems more genuine in Moon than it does in Sun), and after confronting said hooligan gang-leader who finally realizes that I’ve gone CUCKOO FOR KOMALA PUFFS, my daughter and MC confront me in Ultra Space where I’m too busy gushing and fawning over my PRECIOUS, MIND-MELTING, LOVECRAFTIAN JELLYFISH BABIES THAT I’M SO OBSESSED WITH, BY THE WAY, THAT I FORCED SAID DAUGHTER TO WEAR CLOTHES THAT LOOK LIKE THEM, 

They challenge me to a battle and I have a FUCKING BADASS HYBRIDIZATION TRANSFORMATION which is admittedly wasted since they just end up fighting my Pokemon. I’m finally defeated by a finishing blow by the cover legendary, I’m near death, but my daughter comes to try and talk to me before I go and my last words of the game, after having this unhealthy fixation with beauty and MIND-MELTING, LOVECRAFTIAN JELLYFISH BABIES and mentally abusing my daughter… 

“Lillie… Since when did you become so… beautiful?”

Signifying that this lilly has managed to blossom without the sickening, overbearing greenhouse of her mother’s unstable affections.

Also, there’s a conversation with Hau that you can have that seems to be a Mandela Effect situation because some people swear they got it, others say no, but it let’s you know that Hau is from a broken family as well since his piece of shit dad left home because he was sick of always being in his grandfather’s shadow – Giving the game the overall theme of the Trials and Tribulations of Family.

… 

Ultra Sun and Moon: “Hey, guess what? I abused my son and daughter and placed this island nation in mortal danger, not because I was mentally unhinged due to grief and MIND-MELTING, LOVECRAFTIAN JELLYFISH BABIES… But because there’s a giant ‘ORIGINAL OP CHARACTER, DONUT STEEL’ gold dragon in between universes and rather than discuss said threat with the leaders of this island nation, I’m going to jeopardize everything, torture a minor deity, and in the end make everything WORSE because it is my job to save the POOR, STUPID BROWN PEOPLE BECAUSE THEY OBVIOUSLY CAN’T FEND FOR THEMSELVES!!

*deep breath* 

Oh, also, I end up getting kidnapped by Giovanni and serving as nothing more than the catalyst to justify the Rainbow Rocket campaign. Lol”

The only thing that USUM have on Vanilla!Sun and Moon is a few extra pseudo-legendaries, the Ultra Wormhole mechanic that allows you to find Pokemon and Ultra Beasts you can’t get in the main campaign, and the UltraSpace characters they introduced for the Ultra Necrozma conflict. 

That’s… It. 

Jesus Christ, I don’t like Gen 5 but at least Black 2 and White 2 enhanced the gameplay of their core games and gave an interesting story-campaign and antagonist. 

Oh, I’m sorry, the other thing you get in USUM is a brief cutscene with your Starter Pokemon before you enter the Championship League. Whoo.

If you want to experience Gen 7 in a good way, gameplay and story-wise, just play the original games. There’s literally no reason to play USUM unless you REALLY want to see Pennywise’s and the Great Wall of China’s Pokesonas.

[skrunglebeasts]

okay, so final fantasy 15 is still sticking with me, so im going to type up some words about it theres probably gonna be spoilers

keep in mind i went into this game with really low expectations. i fully expected to dislike it completely and i was pleasantly surprised to find i actually enjoyed the game enough to finish it all the way through. whats good in it is really, really good and that makes the bad bits that much more irritating to deal with

the world itself is probably one of the most engrossing things about it! its so rare for games to actually meld fantasy into a modern equivalent setting that manages to balance the two aspects in such a fun and interesting way i loved the open world parts and, honestly, if they ever just pulled a skyrim and made an open world game where you play a custom hunter, i would be all over that! i havent enjoyed a game world quite as much as i loved this one in a long time, even if the lens its viewed through is kind of not that great i still think the reasoning behind not including a female character in the party was skeevy (and is also directly contradicted twice in the game itself, so good job on that), the party honestly manages to be fun in most of their banter and its likely just having them around and seeing all the ways they interact with each other that makes the banter work so well. it really feels like youre in the country of lucis and like youre on something that is equal parts epic quest and roadtrip. there are also chocobos, which doesnt really have to do with anything, save for the fact that theyre loveable

and thats where all the strongest parts of final fatnasty 15 are! theyre all in lucis and the countryside you get to explore and dealing with their banter, but it all falls apart when the other parts of the game come into play. primarily the story

the story itself isnt bad as a concept, but the presentation needs so much work. plotholes sprout up almost as fast as side quests and the open world nature of the game doesnt lend well to any sort of urgency in the story telling. and i think the creators of the game realized that because once you set sail to altissia, shit goes south REALLY fast

now, this wouldnt be such a big deal and that sort of tonal dissonance isnt uncommon in video games. but theres usually events leading up to it! hints of something bigger or something terrible happening that will eventually be a problem you have to face directly. but when the death of a major side characters has nearly no emotional impact compared to a main character merely being injured (albeit permanently injured) something went wrong. lunafreya’s death is supposed to be this big deal that really hurts noctis, but none of that in-game hurt carries over at all. this is a video game. im supposed to feel something. but they completely and unironically fridge luna as development for noctis and all it left me with was a feeling that i wanted to skip the cutscenes where noctis bemoans his loss for a character who felt flat. and this happens TWICE. noctis dad dies on screen, but he does it to silenced footage from an apparent tie-in movie called kingsglaive or whatever. taking credit from a movie and putting it into the game is just sloppy.

in comparison, when ignis goes blind, that SUCKED. i knew, from having ignis around, that he relied on his eyesight for clarity in the world, that he felt it was his duty to provide perspective and guidance for noct. its a symbolic and physical loss and it has real impact. but it also happens off-screen and that takes away some of that blow. its the same with gladiolus and his scars. we know he has them and they arent stopping him. why do we have to wait for DLC for that? these are things that could have happened and SHOULD have happened during story missions and taken a while to have lasting impact. instread, all the big injuries and revelations are rushed as quickly as possible into the second half of the game, which i spent barely any time in, compared to the multiple hours i spent running around in lucis

and you can get back to running around in lucis in the form of a time traveling dog. or maybe its just reliving memories? its hard to say, but the game specifically puts in a mechanic that allows you to go back and play what is definitely the best part of the game because, not only do the rest of the story chapters not allow enough for you to do to properly level up for the end game, it also just isnt as interesting. the slough thats chapter 13 has gotten a lot of criticism, and rightly so, because its just so time consuming, mind numbing, and boring compared to being able to just hop into my flying car (which i unlocked) and take off for a ride when the party heads for altissia, i was expecting another territory like lucis! a huge, sprawling area, maybe about the size of one of the states/provinces/area in lucis that i could explore via car. i was expecting more roadtrip, more varied architecture and environments, but instead i got this small area that i was done with inside an hour before moving on to the next story mission and then it gets exploded

and that was just incredibly disappointing. it also set the bar from there. everything save for one or two set pieces (the fight with hydraean, the fight with ardyn at the end) and story moments (gentiana freezing ardyn was....pretty cool B) that and the reveal of the world of ruin really did leave me in awe) from the fall of altissia onward are neat in concept, but also disappointing in the sense that it feels like there should have been more, both while experiencing it and leading up to it. and for a ten year development time, there really should have. maybe they should have taken that budget they wasted on a movie and an anime and actually made the story feel complete

and the thing is, it didnt have to end up like this. the story progression could have felt natural if it ended up leading back to cape caem being where you wake up in the world of ruin and youre forced to make a trek back to the capital. gather your allies that youve made along the way, actually be a king, and lead everyone on a final assault on the capital to take down ardyn. or, at the very least, let us see iris, who is apparently now known as “The Daemon Slayer” what sort of badassness did this girl get up to that got her a nickname like that??

oh well. hopefully the fanbase does its thing and makes some fanfics where the story actually flows well. hell, maybe i should do that! be ready for my 15 chapter fanfic about umbra the dog saving the world