#no idea what happened during the ending cutscene but i think it was Killing

[transgenderfivepebbles]

I FINISHED ARTIFICER WOOOOOOOOOOOO

(what the Hell happened)

[mylonelydreaming]

I take issue with this idea of Link just "fucking off" and leaving Zelda completely alone before totk. Not even in just a shipping sort of way either, as close friends and him choosing to remain her knight, that makes zero logical sense? It is completely out of character for him?

Link doesn't ever leave Zelda's side. This is canon. "Fucking off" is just not something he does during peace time when he isn't on a heroic quest and being controlled by the player's whims

That's five times it's stated officially somewhere that he is by her side, and that's only the ones I can immediately recall. Botw's full ending and totk's opening together also show us that. We see them together when the story ends and we see them together when it picks back up in the sequel. At no point is it implied they ever parted.

And can we just remember for a second what happens when he's not there, for even a short amount of time, if she is unable to call upon her abilities and therefore defend herself?:

"Fucking off" is a fantastic way to get her killed. The Yiga worship Ganon, there is nobody they want dead more (besides Link), than the last living member of the royal family. They are also not opposed at all to going into villages. They snuck into Kakariko to assassinate Dorian's wife. We just don't see that reflected in gameplay.

Some people will say "it's just his job" to deny they even have a friendship or growth as characters, but want him to... not do the main part of that? "It's just his job" and "he fucked off to the wilderness" are simply not compatible ideas. Either you think Link is just a completely duty-bound mindless command robot or you think he completely doesn't care anymore about that to the point of endangering the person he's supposed to protect. It can't be both at the same time.

Thankfully, it's implied by the wording of master works, the cutscenes and the jpn version that he wants to protect and support her. That this is what he desires, even when the king is dead and he is immediately given the option to not do so anymore. That he is motivated by wanting to see her happy and safe. I'm pretty sure the only way to get him to stop trying to protect her or following her is death, and he has already proven that twice over.

[sticks-stones-sonic-insanity]

I JUST FINISHED SONK ADVENTURE 2 IM NOT OKAY OMG

The scene with Shadow falling to earth was funny at first and it all happened so fast i was still trying to wrap my head around it. Ppl talk about that scene a lot which theyre so right for, but i need to talk about the scenes after because oh my god they broke me!?!??!

Sonic, coming back onto the ark, completely silent. Everyone asking if Shadow made it back and he just slowly shakes his head without a word.

The scene where Sonic gives Rouge Shadow's inhibitior ring hold so much more weight to me after actually playing the game: In the short time they knew each other, Shadow saved Rouge's life. Twice. This is the only possession she has to remember him by. Knuckles asks her what shes going to do now and she actually stops to reflect and remarks how shes thinking of changing jobs, something else on her mind now(What exactly shes referring to in this moment isnt stated but theres a fair few connections to draw there). After almost getting killed during a heist and never getting a chance to thank the guy who saved her from it, that's a pretty good and strangely mature call to make from a writing standpoint. This whole scene has a similar feeling like that, like the jokes and the extravagance thats typical of the cutscenes have really been toned down with intention.

This one genuinely shocked me, and im really surprised i havent come across anything about it yet because the scene between Eggman and Tails was actually super deep?? There are a lot of different Sonic medias as far as I im aware that have touched on the paralells between Eggman and Tails: their small similarities and how well they work together when they have to, but the scene here really stuck out to me. Eggman is talking about how much he admired his grandfather as a child, how much his work inspired him to learn and create and strive to be great like him, drifting off to question whether or not he really wanted to see them all fall. Tail's response is very chipper and optimistic, but i really like the idea of Eggman having almost this turning point here, having to face something so saddening as watching someone you love curse the world and everyone on it(including you). After arguably some of the most dangerous and threatening feats have been accomplished by Eggman in this game as the story's primary antagonist, is this moment a nod to him maybe stopping to think about what he's done? Im amazed by how much meaning can be taken from these few seconds of dialogue!!

Finally, the last two moments. Amy, despite having had her own short heart to heart with Shadow before the final battle and ultimately being the one to spurr Shadow on to fight alongside Sonic and the others, doesn't seem as upset by Shadows death as Sonic is. This is genuinely, in my limited knowledge of Sonic media, one of the only instances i have seen Sonic be thoroughly shaken up by something and brushed it off when someone asks him whats wrong. In most cases, he's just relatively unfazed from an emotional standpoint like that, so theres nothing to brush off in the first place. But here, the ever-yapping blue blur remains silent for a while, just staring at Earth in a similar paralell to how Shadow used to. It isn't until Amy comes by that he looks away. Its the really subtle details here that get me: Sonic doesn't look or respond to her right away. There's a prominent pause of silence before he turns to her and says its nothing, switching the topic immediately to rush her along. Sonic, typically impatient and eager to move to the next adventure, slows down and is the last to leave the deck, delivers the farewell line to end the game. Again, the contrast in how slowly and soft he speaks here in comparison to literally anything else he says in the game is insane. The pause between "Shadow" and "the Hedgehog" is still very funny to me and im not lost on how the delivery does end up being chopped up quite goofy like that, but if that isnt an absolutely insane way to end off the game with such a somber, emotional moment...

Sonadow or no sonadow, take it as you will, its undeniable how impactful this adventure in particular is to Sonic. How much Shadow meant to him by the end of the game. How much his sacrifice meant. I really see his discussion with Rouge as both a way to comfort her, and to comfort himself. To say out loud how heroic and brave he'd seen Shadow to be, regardless of the intention that came from his creation. Sonic is big on freedom and giving people the opportunity to live how they want to, and Shadow's sacrifice in that regard means even more to him. He had just come to understand what he had truly promised Maria he'd do, joined Sonic whole-heartedly to help save the planet, and never got to experience anything beyond that. Given Eggmans continuous antangonistic streak at that point (I'm not fully aware of the other villain's Sonic had faced up until that point), it's rare that Sonic actually gets to see someone who opposed him change for the better!! And not only was Shadow one of the first to do so, but he was a speedy teen hedgehog!!! Just like Sonic himself!!! Its like Shadow said, there was so much more to them that they never got to find out about each other!! The fact that Shadow gave up all of that possibility, all of his own personal freedom to help Sonic save the planet and the freedom of all the people on it? That hits. HARD.

Im not familiar with the full canon of how Sonic actually managed to get one of Shadow's inhibitior rings to give to Rouge, as he's actually not shown in any scene taking them off during the final battle(i actually dont even think their mechanics are properly explained which is more confusing but yk), but getting into more headcanony, sonadow adjacent space for a second? I like to think Shadow actually took two of his rings off/had two break off before he fell. Sonic gave one to Rouge, and secretly kept the other for himself. He obviously didn't want his friends to ask him more questions about how he was feeling, so he hid it in his quills before he greeted them back on the ark. Shadow ended up meaning a lot to Sonic, and it's really interesting to think about what was running through Sonic's mind when all was said and done.

Uhhh anyways good game very very infuriating at times but very good game i have a true taste for the appeal of Sonic games now and i want to play them all. If you actually made it this far, thank you for reading my silly sonk rant! If you have any information you know of to patch the spaces where I'm lacking or just want to discuss your own thoughts on the ending feel free!! Have a good day or night wherever you are :]

[altocat]

I think I've figured out the rest of First Soldier's plot (or at least how I'd write the rest of it while we wait)

Had some conclusive shower thoughts. Lots of this might not even happen. But the way that last chapter concluded definitely gave me an idea of the current trajectory (Read my recap if you haven't).

Sephiroth hasn't deserted Shinra so much as defied it, believing that there won't be any consequences like a typical teen getting his first taste of freedom.

Chapter Seven will be reuniting with Rosen and Refu, possibly saving them from the Mana overflow. We will get the cutscene with Sephiroth talking to Rosen. And Rosen will tell Sephiroth he needs to choose whose lives to save. This is important!!!

Shinra will arrive, Hojo in tow. Based on how Seph currently talks about Hojo, it's likely he doesn't think ill of the scientist yet, even if it's clear from the Halloween event that Hojo had abused him.

Sephiroth will be presented with a bargaining chip in exchange for his friends' lives. Kill Rosen, the last Rhadoran. That's what he came here to do, right?

The necklace might be brought up again. Hojo will tell Sephiroth that he'll get more answers about his mother if Sephiroth complies. In fact, he'll tell Sephiroth EXACTLY where she is.

Sephiroth hesitates. Glenn tells him not to do it, that he gets to decide, that he's not a cyborg, etc.

Rosen ends up dead regardless. Either Sephiroth succumbs to his fear of Hojo and kills him or Rosen fights back and Sephiroth's survivalist drive kicks in and he kills him.

Either way, Rosen is dead. Glenn is angry.

Matt and Lucia are killed. Hojo breaks his promise and guns them down but Glenn survives and lives to blame Sephiroth for everything.

For added measure, Hojo twists the knife deeper and tells Sephiroth his mother is dead.

Sephiroth hates Hojo for the rest of his life.

Glenn escapes to Wutai and takes the dog with him.

Flashforward to the future. Sephiroth and Glenn fight. Glenn survives and shows up in Rebirth as the hooded guy.

Sephiroth's guilt over Lucia and Matt is what influences him to be more covert in protecting Angeal and Genesis in Crisis Core. And since the opening cutscene takes place right during Gen's desertion, this theme of futility comes into play. Sephiroth will lose everything all over again.

That's it in a nutshell. At least that's what I currently THINK is going to happen. If I'm wrong, cool. I'm really interested to see where this goes.

[fightabear]

Hi. I know ur very into Dirge (ff7) and wanted to know ur thoughts on the ending as i was confused. How did Wiess die, how long was he dead for and what was his and Nero’s plan? Ur a art account so don’t answer this if you don’t want to post not art content

HAHA oh anon, oh anon.

i'm always happy to blather about dirge but this... this goes into the deep lore. the forgotten lore. the lore of ancient bygone times.

by which i mean playonline.

playonline was a short lived multiplayer mode set in deepground where the player character is a tsviet. it lasted for about eight months and then went offline, and with it - went basically all of the lore surrounding deepground.

we're still missing a lot of information. but, we have a vague understanding of what's going on thanks to the cutscenes (which we also never got stateside) translated by grimoire valentine. you can watch that here and it explains a little bit.

the tl;dr is that Weiss had a virus in him and if he killed the Restrictors (DeepGround's jailers, there's a whole mess of lore there) then the time-release virus would be let loose and Weiss would be damning himself to die.

Now, this is sort of where things get shaky as we don't know how long it took the virus to kill Weiss, nor are we entirely certain when PlayOnline took place in the grand scheme of things. Rosso said that they killed their jailers three years ago, and at some point Weiss died and Nero started pretending to be Weiss to keep DeepGround in line, and then Hojo made contact with Nero and proposed the whole Omega deal.

But we don't know when any of these beats take place. Weiss could have been dead the full three years and Nero was just hanging out by his corpse in full delululand until Hojo found a perfectly good body just waiting to be inhabited. I think it's a safe bet to say that even if Weiss had died, Nero would have found a way to perserve the body in hopes of finding some kind of cure.

( There's also the possibility that Weiss' death was more a brain death and his body kept breathing / he was experiencing some kind of 'locked in' syndrome - again, we don't know!)

He also could have just been battling the illness and may have only died recently.

I believe it was said somewhere that he died while using his SND abilities to hunt for a cure, which probably only could have happened once the networks came back online. I was under the impression for years that Hojo possessed Weiss and told the plan to Nero, but after reading the Japanese script it seems that Nero knew it was Hojo the whole time and just went with it.

Again, shit is shaky. Hojo Jojo apparently needed the networks to come online in order to make contact with DeepGround again. We know that's fairly recent, as if I am remembering correctly, that's what the festival in Kalm is celebrating.

We also aren't sure if Weiss was involved in the plan, or if Nero had just lost his fucking mind at this point and was agreeing to do what Hojo proposed without considering that it was - y'know, Hojo. We do have Weiss' speech so it's entirely possible Weiss was still alive during this hunk of it and then died as things went on.

As for the plan - I gotta be honest, I don't think either of them were spearheading this thing. I'm pretty sure this whole hysterical idea came about because Hojo took advantage of Nero's intense grief and Nero was just doing shit without thinking too hard about it. He probably thought he was doing what Lucrecia did for Vincent, because I sure as shit don't think Nero would think destroying the entire planet to get his brother back would solve his problem of 'well fuck, we're separated by death'. So I'm not sure Nero even fully understood what would happen when Omega ascended until Hojo monologued about it and pissed him off enough to come back from the dead.

Nero and Weiss only really got a plan when Nero ( who, I'm still shaky on what's happening with Nero in those final moments. My best guess is his physical body finally gave out and due to Circumstances /gestures vaguely at chapter 9 of rebirth/ his soul can't go into the lifestream for Reasons) wrested control back from Hojo and fused with Weiss. They did intend to just give the middle finger to the planet and soar the stars, because at that point - what else can they do? But Omega was corrupted because Nero is as impure as things in the lifestream can get, and so they manifested a fucked up version of it.

My personal take is the brother's didn't fully fuse and that the "omega" weiss rides around in the Omega Weiss fight is what's left of Nero / is basically what Chaos would look like if Chaos wasn't using Vincent as a host? And the reason why Chaos "goes back to the planet" is because Chaos fucks off into Nero's body and Omega is still sort of chilling out in Weiss.

[sheikahwarriork]

I am sorry you had a bad day my dude, would some Byleth cheer you up?

I think, we all as society should recognize Byleth!~

Byleth does not fight fair. In a support conversation with Felix, Felix mentions that Byleth will randomly throw out punches and kicks along with sword attacks. Byleth's probably a biter. She is going to Mike Tyson her way through entire military campaigns, and I have no idea what happens when you punch a giant lizard creature, but the campaigns give Byleth the opportunity to find out before the time skip ever happens.

I mean one of the main skills of Enlightened One is brawling.

So yeah. She's a bruiser who punches her way through problems and eats more than anyone else.

And people still say she has no personality...

TY ANON YES!!! YOU SPOKE THE TRUTH

i mean, in a crit's animation byleth throws a punch before slashing the sword:

and as you said, she got brawling as a skill of her unique class.

i think being raised as a mercenary by mercenaries taught byleth to survive by all means. when she fights, there's no such a thing as a "fair fight", there is just "win = survive".

on a side note, i like to think that when she first teached the blue lions, with all the faerghus "knight honour" mentality etc, she was taken aback. when ingrid did her first lance tournament, byleth was screaming "PUNCH HIM IN THE GUTS, INGRID!!" and dimitri politely said "professor, i'm sorry but this is a lance tournament, not a brawling one. she's not allowed to use her bare hands". byleth looked at him with a "error 404 not found" face and then goes, "do you really think an enemy on the battlefield will care if she's using a lance or her hands? they'll try to kill her anyway, so she- no, you all must learn to fight and survive". and this is why byleth doesnt let her students focus on only one weapon and by the end of the war even the mages have proficiency in brawling. byleth is not going to let her babies die! (okay i love this headcanon i HAVE TO write something about this)

omg i love byleth so much im crying ok. i HATE when people say byleth doesnt have a personality!! just a few days ago i was thinking about the animated cutscene at the beginning of the game, the one when you see all the students. that cutscene begins with byleth reading a book, then the clock bells ring, yk? well, i LOVE that little detail of byleth reading. bc think about it: a 20-something yo mercenary is hired as a professor at the great official academy of garreg mach. byleth knows well she is not competent. but its a job, its her job now, so she must do her best. and so she starts reading all kind of books about magic and history and weapons and tactics. she knows shes not a good professor (yet), but she wants to be one!! so she does everything in her power to be one!!!!

or the fact that the first time we can see byleth smiling is when they give food to a cat/dog? its waaaay before the flayn's rescue, which is the canon "first time" the house leaders see byleth smile.

people often complain about byleth being a silent protagonist. in my opinion, OF COURSE BYLETH is not very talkative. they grow up in a mercenary company, they probably never interacted with someone with their age before the academy! (remember byleth doesnt meet leonie when jeralt goes to her village.) they never had a friend. and now byleth is supposed to be a perfect professor?

but byleth tries. byleth gets better with people. in fact, i think byleth actually gets more lines in the second part of the game (i should check but im pretty sure).

byleth also is more expressive post-timeskip. i'll never forget the "... :( " face byleth does when dimitri says its better to go rescue lady rhea before taking fhirdiad (his feral phase, i dont remember the exact moment but its during a war council in the first part of the post-timeskip). or the fact byleth has an angry face when talking to feral-dimitri during the exploration days (i mean the sundays).

also, apparently byleth has a very bad sense of humor. after the fhirdiad map in azure moon, when byleth and dimitri talks, he says "you taught me something very important" and byleth can say "humor?" and dimitri responds something like "you never let up, do you?", which means its not the first time byleth says a silly (but loved!!) comment.

do i think byleth should have got dubbed lines in three houses? of course i do. but even with the little lines they have we can see their personality.

IN THIS HOUSE WE LOVE AND RESPECT BYLETH!!!!!!!

thank u anon i love talking about my beloved!!

[aotopmha]

And I'm done with the lvl 87 Endwalker quests, ending on the Venat cutscene.

The very first thought that jumps out to me is actually an annoyance: I really don't care for when the story uses jumpscares.

The only time during the game I have thought it was effective happened to be with Edda and it's because the mood was built for it in different ways.

It didn't work with Titania's introduction and it effectively annoyed me with Meteion.

Her transitioning to a grown woman's voice and listing off the dead worlds in a robotic tone was effective enough.

But they just keep doing the jumpscares with her and the more they do the less effective it is for me.

But to transition to some more character thoughts, I love how Hermes's words towards Meteion are also relevant towards Hermes himself.

"Though I gave you these wings to soar the heavens, I did not teach you how to walk the earth."

In the end, as Emet said, Hermes could not see anything good right in front of him on Etheirys. He simply could not find happiness or purpose in his own world, so he hoped to find it in others.

And so it lead to his flawed question and the painful result of it for the rest of the world and Meteion.

He hoped he would find the answer for his quest for meaning in other worlds. Perhaps use those discoveries to pave the way for a more empathic world that did not deny negative feelings. Perhaps to convince the ancients all lives had value. Perhaps to find companionship in his sadness and loneliness.

It was a two-sided issue, as the ancients also worked to not look at negativity, which probably would have had some bad consequences on a bigger scale eventually, no matter how you look at it.

Again, we go back to the idea of mental illness creating tunnel vision. All Hermes could see was the flaws of the society, but the society itself also did not address the issues within. (Or did they, looking at some of the side quests in Elpis?)

Across all of Endwalker, the idea of emotional resillience has popped up over and over again.

And when I first reached some of the parts about emotional resillience while watching someone else's playthrough, I really wasn't sure about the story leaning into the idea of "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".

Thavnair especially felt this way.

And that perspective is incredibly hostile towards the individualised nature of emotional struggles. What doesn't kill you does not, in fact, always make you stronger.

But Elpis and everything afterwards put in a lot of effort to make it much more nuanced than that.

"As fragmented, imperfect beings, yours is a never-ending quest. A quest to find your purpose, knowing your end is assured. To find the strength to continue, when all strength has left you. To find joy, even as darkness descends. And admist deepest despair, light everlasting."

Might just be the most important quote of Endwalker.

In reality what the game says (at least what I think the writers aim to say and I read the story as) is that we should try to appreciate the good when we have it because it isn't eternal.

And yet we should not look away from the bad and instead digest it in a healthy way.

As I touched on a few lines above, I think the point of the characterisation of the ancients is that negative feelings hurt, but burying and invalidating them will end up hurting more and more and eventually lead to some sort of issues.

Therapy good.

And as the Ascians show us, their tactics just lead to more and more sacrifices, to the point where it started feeling worse and worse and the rift between the two sides of the ancients happens.

The world of the ancients treats mental illness just like our world does and this story is simply commenting on the current mental health crisis, which was even worse during Covid times.

I'll touch on it more in my upcoming posts because I know that Alisae has a few really important lines regarding this idea, but I know I had this criticism for a while and I was really happy the story addressed it.

Another criticism I see Endwalker given is related to precisely the idea that by creating this causal loop the game implies all of this suffering HAD to happen (and that is why it is okay), everyone had to be sundered to survive and thus it fully also excuses Venat's actions.

But to me the nuance here is that while the game agrees with Venat, it never says what she did was "right".

"I create a world of suffering to mire and plague."

She created so much suffering by sundering the world.

And to me that's what makes it interesting. The Goddess of Light, image of "all good" was driven by her own very human beliefs to save humanity, which also lead to much suffering.

Neither side is completely right or wrong and to me that's the most interesting part of this.

Even if affinity to Dynamis was necessary for humanity to survive.

Even if the 13th is an useless void so the full Rejoining was never possible to begin with.

Even if the Ancients just kept sacrificing themselves and were on a path of unsustainable self-destruction, Venat still caused untold suffering with her choice.

And she takes full responsibility for it.

And to me that's a super cool element to the struggle between the two sides of the ancients.

Because on the other side, the Ascians absolutely were driven by love for their people. This was true all the way through.

Duty, love, desire to get back their paradise. There WAS so much beauty and actual kindness in the ancient world, it just had its own struggles, just like the present world gas its own.

Both sides were literally fighting for the same thing.

One looking to the past. One looking to the future.

And I just do not get why people have the need to appoint the right and wrong in this conflict when I think both having their own flaws is the entire point (and far more interesting to me).

I think Venat's manouvering after Hermes uses Kairos goes under this, too.

Her decisions are all driven by her personal perspective as a character (what she believes in, what she gleaned from Meteion's words etc). I've seen her judgements and the memory erasure be criticised as too wishy-washy on a writing level, but I like it because it is so tied to the characters of those affected.

To me her caution and hesitation makes sense considering what is at stake, especially.

I think Emet is the shaky one because I feel he would look into this as deeply as he could. He accepts his memory being gone a little too easily, I think, but I take it considering the biggest tangible loss we see is two familiars (Meteion and WoL).

Finally, I'll comment on the dungeon.

I think Ktisis Hyperboreia is probably my least favourite of the Endwalker dungeons up to this point.

But that also doesn't mean I hate it. I just think we've had so much cooler set pieces and also much cooler bosses with cooler mechanics in other dungeons.

This IS a dungeon in the ancient world with you exploring an ancient facility and you get the ancients as Trusts, which is super cool, but outside of the final third almost being space, it didn't feel particularly unique or interesting to me as a set piece.

I did notice a bunch of bird cages in a room and the notes, but setting aside, the first two bosses in particular were nothing special to me mechnically, either.

The Hermes boss fight did cause some wipes, though. The beams had a very particular pacing a positioning, which caught me off guard and others in the team also had forgotten the fight so we had 4-5 wipes at the Hermes fight, I think.

Overall, though, once again, a very solid bit of story in my eyes.

[sleepyjuniper]

There's quite a few theories floating around that, that wasn't Gregory towards the end of the elevator speech. One is there's an audio noise that's the noise the mimic makes when it talks previously and it happens right after Gregory apologizes but before he goes into that almost emotionless tone saying they can't risk being followed. There's also a few who have pointed out that Gregory shouldn't or couldn't have access to dropping the elevator as he's not even in the plex. There's also the fact that during that same section of speech Gregory's speech box pops up twice as if there's two people speaking, not one.

Admittedly it could be coincidences. The speech box could be a glitch, I noticed watching playthroughs some of the speech boxes have a delay. The audio que could be nothing more then just a recycled noise for talking through a speaker.

But while Gregory was certainly destructive in the first game, it was primarily in self defense. Yes he didn't have much remorse then but most people wouldn't if they were chased half the damn night and nearly killed several times. So I think calling him heartless is a bit of a stretch.

So it's vague and I certainly think there's enough doubt there to say that no, Gregory didn't kill or attempt to kill Cassie and that the mimic interrupted and dropped the elevator. Having read the wiki on the mimic the books say it affects power of lights and things it's near. So the idea that IT caused power to the elevator to fail and for it to drop isn't so far fetched in my mind either.

Oh yeah, it's not far-fetched at all. Since we know the mimic was using Gregory's voice for the entire game, it's easily possible that it was mimicking his voice at the end of that cutscene, too. That's my acknowledgement of that possiblity.

HOWEVER. The mimic was also specifically telling Cassie that it was trapped, while imitating Gregory. Part of that worked as a motivator for Cassie to keep searching, but it also felt like the Mimic wanted to be freed and knew it needed her help to do so.

So, assuming it did want to get out of its underground prison, why, after chasing Cassie to the elevator, would it break the elevator? Why lure one child to yourself, just to destroy your only chance of escape? If the elevator's broken, it can't get out, and no one else can get in.

I really believe the developers wanted to show that Gregory is betraying Cassie because that's how much of a monumental threat the mimic is. He's finally gotten his safe, happy ending outside of the Pizzaplex, and he apologizes to Cassie because it's still a hard choice to make. It's a dramatic twist that made me feel something, and that feeling is diminished when you try to logic it out and say it wasn't really Gregory.

And for the logic of how Gregory would have access to the elevator controls if he wasn't there? Well, how would he have access to the intercoms in that case? It's a matter of suspension of disbelief. If the mimic broke the elevator, the mimic was also ALL of the Gregory dialogue.

Just because I think it's likely that that ending really was Gregory betraying Cassie, doesn't mean I think he's a villain now. I don't think I see that ending as canon. I just liked the twist. One final betrayal to kick you in the gut, after learning that you'd been tricked by the mimic the entire time. You finally think you're talking to a helpful friend, and they betray you.

That's just my piece on it. I'm still piecing together what I think it all means, but for now, that's where I stand. Shock value twist for the bad ending. It wouldn't be the first time a game has done that.

[springvaletales]

⋆ NAME?: Soli

⋆ PRONOUNS?: She/They (anything goes, really, so long as it's not meant insultingly).

⋆ MOST ACTIVE MUSE(S)?: Michael, though I've been making an effort to put his four friends in the spotlight more, as they were originally meant to be. XD It's tough tho, because I also never turn down an opportunity to use some of my worldbuilding characters for some memes.

⋆ RP PET PEEVES?: Responses that disregard details or actions my muses have openly made/have/done. It makes me feel like my response wasn't actually read, but more skimmed just enough for the other person to continue writing the idea they already had down. If there's going to be an established plot or action sequence, I'd at least like a heads up so it doesn't feel like my muses are suddenly being benched for a Main Character cutscene.

Alternatively, responses that know things about my muse(s) that wouldn't be common knowledge (like who Michael's real patron is, knowing about Haaruma's scars, knowing how Bashur broke his horns, etc.). I'm cool with plotting for muses to know that kind of thing going in, but when it happens without any communication between writers it feels like metagaming, and makes the thread less of a collaboration.

⋆ EXPERIENCE / HOW MANY YEARS?: I've been writing/RPing in some form for about 15 years now. I started off trading giant empty notebooks with friends between classes to write painfully 2000's self-insert fics, and moved to Tumblr in 2009 when I realized there were social spaces beyond Facebook.

I've been here ever since. >:3c

⋆ FLUFF, ANGST, OR SMUT?: Of the three I most prefer fluff. I am ace, so writing smut, for me, is an exercise in frustration (I don't want to bang, but my muses do, and what my fictional children want they get even if it kills me) and takes a looooong time, so it's not usually something I share with others.

I do like angst, but only if it's wrapped up with some comfort at the end. I went through a period of my life a few years ago where all I wanted to read was angst, and it burnt me out like a dry piece of hay. I had to step away from angst fics for a few years, and while I'm better at handling that kind of content now, I still prefer it to have some kind of happy or hopeful ending.

⋆ PLOTS OR MEMES?: Both!! I love plotting out longer threads with people (whether serious, silly, or other), but I think memes are a great way to just throw characters together and see how they click!

I also like using meme interactions in the backgrounds of longer threads, to either quietly establish how muses met or just as extra information we can pepper in to past interactions.

⋆ LONG OR SHORT REPLIES?: As long as the response can move the thread forward and I have something to react to, I don't care how long it is. I tend to make mine a couple paragraphs, if ever possible, just because I like to give my writing partner's as much as I can to work with, but I never want to pressure anyone to match lengths.

I've lived that pressure, hated it, and don't wish it on anyone.

⋆ TIME TO WRITE?: Usually the evenings, 5pm-midnight. Sometimes inspiration strikes during the day, but I usually don't have time on a workday to fully write out responses, so I just have to sit on them until I get home.

⋆ ARE YOU LIKE YOUR MUSE(S)?: Now that I've gotten into therapy, yes. There are many ways in which I am like my muses. A lot of those ways are kind of personal, and I'm still fully detangling them all in my head, but I have definitely been using these poor NPCs to work through some things through D&D.

Tagged by: @deaddoveadventures

Tagging: @cupcakesmuses, @wanderingarcherviola

[themoomoorn]

Scarlet Blaze Salt Mine Highlights, Part 2 (Because I hit the image limit last time)

It's kind of a sad day when you're transitioning hyperfixations (Chainsaw Man and Tactics Ogre, in this case), because I'm tired of this game and I haven't even begun to cleanse by entire body with Azure Gleam. But I must!

Also I just wanted to finish this slog of a route so badly that I forgot to give away Shez's Merc Whistle. Oops.

Previous post is here.

He isn't wrong. If anything, between this and Egg reassuring Shez that no, betrayal totes wasn't gonna happen, this just reinforces the fact that Egg doesn't respect Claude at all.

Still, big oomph on Claude because his dreams don't even exist/make sense in this game.

Here lies the Tabletop Demon.

Kind of poetic/ironic that he's the only one who can truly die, while poor Dimitri, who gets dragged around like a wet cat in Houses, will always survive in this game. Egg mostly does, if you count her getting subjugated to the director's fantasies lobotomized in Azure Gleam as "surviving."

"Now what that ambition is, I simply do not know, but I will boldly assume it had to do with using bibles as toilet paper."

No Lies Detected(tm)

Sothis attempts to salvage this trainwreck with a quick and miserable death, but by plot dictation, she sadly fails.

Byleth's death here is on par with Dimitri's on Verdant Wind in how unceremonious and cruel it is. Devs, are you sure you're not actually mad at how popular Byleth is? Especially the one with the 200% Bustline Modifier?

We Stan a megalomaniac /s

The Agarthans never got to the Holy Tomb or the Holy Mausoleum in this game, and here we get the idea of the kind of crap Houses!Edelgard condoned.

Really, the one thing Rhea did wrong was not using the Aurora Breath on Edelgard during her coronation.

Like

Even now, Rhea knows Agartha is the true enemy here?????? Like back in Chapter...4?????

But no, per the Edelgard/Balthus Support, Edelgard started the war anyway, she knows that she's benefitting from the same megalomaniacs that have their hands in the Empire's politics, and she had farfetched history spoon-fed to her. She doesn't care. She still wants total power.

Bruh

Monica is talking about killing Thales, btw. Peak wlw representation, everyone /s

Linhardt is abhorrent.

Shez DGAF about anything, least of all on this route. But I suppose it's fine because they're not a weird nepotism teacher, or whatever.

So here's something I've noticed: Scarlet Blaze and Golden Wildfire share several near-identical scenarios (the most obvious being the Chapter where Ordelia needs to be pacified), CGs (the still of Egg and Clyde shaking hands), and even video cutscenes (Rhea transforming into the Immaculate one; only the background is changed). GW!Claude knocks of a number of Edelgard's rhetoric and dialogue ("My hands are covered in blood and will never be clean again, feel bad for me uwu") and now we have a hollow knockoff of something poignant Claude says to Byleth on Verdant Wind.

There's also the general fact that because the Houses version of Claude ultimately became more heroic than intended, and because they had already delayed the game three times, they had Verdant Wind knock off most of Silver Snow...which is the default route for the Black Eagles.

There is a quasi-tumbleweedy-incestual bond between these two characters/routes. They fold into one another like brain proteins tangling on each other. This is not the case for Azure Moon (bar maps being shared, and even then the context differs drastically) and even more so for Azure Gleam.

Point is, I'm a Claude stan, but at this point, I feel like the Blue Lions route should be the canon one.

Local vampire simp and local masochistic noble boldly state their totally normal relationship with one another. I think I liked the Houses/Ending Card version more, because their bond made Edelgard jealous.

I did this strategy over the other two and it did absolutely nothing, by the way.

"ShE dOeSnT cArE aBoUt HiM" blah blah blah, we get it, you refuse to read the text and can't get over that Cyril and Claude are mostly incompatible when it comes to bonding.

I found a Khaloonie discover the flavor text for Seiros Tea (it's tea from southern Almyra and it got slapped with an in-universe localized name) and flipping out over it recently, funnily enough. Houses has been out for three years (as of this post) now, and you've only read that text recently???

"My daddy had stake over ruling the whole continent single-handedly first, you cut the line!"

Sothis please take the wheel -

Can confirm, they literally do almost nothing while Thales and Rhea tumble over that bridge. Very "Wormy Episode of Spongebob" energy right here.

"BUT SHE ENDED THE WAR FASTER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" /s

Good job Shez, you broke it.

The ending animation of the Crests rotating like planets changes depending on which route you picked, as that land's "native" Crests are what's displayed. Since the Empire's "native" Crests are that of the Four Saints (plus the Apostles Noa and Timotheos if you want to get technical), you get to bask in a kiddie pool of irony.

In the end, the standom's support of the Empire is akin to how many fans, from its inception in 1979, support the Empire of Zeon and factions similar to it across the Gundam franchise, I feel. Shame that Adrestia isn't as well-crafted as Zeon.

Speaking of worldbuilding, I suspect that there's a weird sort of hatred at how Faerghus is the most well-built (in a worldbuilding sense) of the three lands. This is pretty much proven by its first four chapters alone (having played the demo), and I can already tell I'm gonna be in for at least a decent time once I get to Gleam.

To cap off this shit-cake, here's what I find to be a pretty apt representation of how Edelgard is viewed/turned into during Azure Gleam's ending:

[boopernatural]

Thoughts on the last of us part 2?

Omg… you have no idea what you’re walking into anon…

It is far and wide the most impactful game I’ve ever played.

There is a lot of criteria in which I could judge it and you asked and I have the day off so…

Firstly, the gameplay!

In my opinion, the gameplay in this is some of the smoothest, most fun of any game. Just like the first game, the transition from cutscene to gameplay is so fucking seamless I was sometimes taking a minute to realize I was in control again. The vast map and wide variety of controls you have over the character to me is incredible! Playing as Ellie is my favorite, she moves so fluidly and the jumping, climbing, ducking, crawling all of it feels so natural and immerses you so much. The highest difficulty I’ve beaten it on is hard so I can’t speak to the grounded or survivor challenge, but for me hard was perfect balance of challenge while still being fun and not too frustrating. The fight near the end with Ellie as the boss was the hardest one for me. And the rat king was a good chase scene/fight too.

Secondly, the visuals.

Naughty Dog never disappoints me with how fucking stunning their games look. The map of Seattle is seriously an amazing feat. Even during gameplay I’m struck by the beauty of the surrounding world, just like tlou1(esp after the remaster). I play on PS5, and so the graphics are just fucking phenomenal imo. My normal gaming experience is decent quality visuals in a cutscene and then clear jumps to gameplay more focused on function. TLOU2 (and 1) doesn’t make you choose. I seriously want to shake the creatives at Naughty Dog and just thank them for all the late nights and missed family dinners they must’ve had to create such intricate and well made visuals.

Some examples of shots I just think are neat:

Thirdly, the story/character arc.

I’ll admit it. The first time I played through this game I was miserable. Joel’s death was a nightmare come true, for Ellie and me. The scene was so well crafted, the dread building up to it, everything. Joel finally settling in and opening himself up to kindness and even heroism (in saving Abby) was his fucking demise. I don’t know what that says but… well, that’s what happened.

I was able to shelve my grief and enjoy the Seattle bits with Ellie and Dina because like her, I wanted those fuckers dead. The drama between Ellie, Dina and Jesse somewhat mirroring Mel Owen and Abby was interesting, but I felt our Jackson trio was much kinder to each other and healthier and would have worked it out a lot better. Jesse dying was so unfair.

The flashback scenes with Joel broke me. The entire museum arc… god. I’ve never played a video game that devotes an entire chapter to gameplay of something mundane and fun, no threats, no fights, the only interaction is climbing a big t-Rex or spinning a planet diagram. The dialogue is amazing, shows how comfortable they are with one another and that they’re really operating like a father and daughter. Things weren’t all doom and gloom. Joel getting her the tape, encouraging her to wear the helmet and close her eyes and Ellie being fully immersed into this fantasy (similar to what Riley does for her in the DLC with the arcade game!) I just love that the people who love Ellie foster and groom her creativity and imagination.

Ellie was trying so hard to ignore the lie between them, to pretend things were okay, and sometimes she could. Sometimes she forgot that this horrible thing existed underneath the surface.

But of course, it festers and rots when it’s untouched. The finding strings portion was amazing. Joel was OP as hell and I like that the game really shows how nothing will stop him from keeping his girl safe. He fucking kills a bloater with a machete and doesn’t get hit once. Unheard of?! The ending sequence where she confronts him was hard to watch. You feel what both of them are feeling and are somehow rooting for both of them to not have to address this pain.

Ellie returning to the firefly hospital… Joel racing after her, pulling her in for this hug like they’ve done it plenty before, you talk to me…

The devastation in both of their faces when the truth does come out. They both want so badly for this thing not to be here. For everything to be okay.

Then, you get to the theater. Abby is there. I’m thinking: I’ve reached the end! Let’s fucking kill her.

And then….3 years earlier.

I was angry, actually. I did not want to redo these three days as this character I despise! Even though Abby had great gameplay and some awesome fights that were really fun, I found myself just waiting for it to end. I was like game, this bitch killed Joel, sorry but I don’t care about her or her people.

The Tommy sniper bits were amazing and made that all feel worthwhile. Seeing him on the warpath to avenge his brother, and seeing his real darkness through all the evidence he left behind was amazing.

I liked the storyline with Lev and Yara, didn’t like the Owen/Abby abrupt back shots scene. Felt like a very NSFW siblings or dating moment. Not an Owen fan one bit! Felt bad for Mel, even though I didn’t like her as a person. Felt worse for Ellie when she realized what she’d done to her.

Then, finally got back to Ellie at the farm. I was pleading right alongside Dina for her not to go. Joel would have wanted this for her, this safe quiet life with her family. Everything would still be worth it to him if she stayed. He would have fulfilled his purpose. To give Ellie a life.

And then she fucking leaves…even though I knew she would, I was devastated for my Ellie. All I’ve ever wanted since I saw that lil switchblade-wielding lunatic is for her to be safe and happy. But it is in character for her to get in her own way.

Santa Barbara was fun, the Rattlers made me full of rage bc they were so difficult lol but a super unique concept and I enjoyed the play through of those parts a lot.

Ellie being the one to save Abby’s life. I love this. I am biting this I am chewing it I am swallowing it whole. I have so many thoughts on this one choice that I could write another way too long post about it.

Ellie and Abby finally have a fair fight. Even ground, both wounded and weak, both tired of all of this.

I wanted her to kill Abby. Still do, actually. I personally think… you’ve already killed hundreds of people who weren’t even the ones who directly killed Joel lol… but ok. I get what the game was trying to do. I just didn’t roll with it. That’s really my only story critique. And it’s barely a critique cause I like the ending as it is too.

Especially because, after my 2nd, 3rd, 4th etc play through, I grew to like Abby. I enjoyed her scenes and gameplay much more the second go through when I knew what to expect and where it was all going. I always thought her revenge on Joel was fair bc an eye for an eye, he’d do the same thing and Ellie did worse. But looking at her differently helped me enjoy the story more.

It would have hurt a lot more I think, to watch Ellie murder this girl I liked, and in doing so doom the little boy she’d sought to protect. Abby and Lev at the end as a mirror for Joel and Ellie in tlou1 was just… how can I make out with a concept? So. Good.

Ellie’s ending is so gut-wretching and sad I can barely even talk about it. 

She lost everything. Her biggest fear was ending up alone. Joel died before she could make things right with him, she lost Dina and Jesse and JJ and Tommy.

The flashback with Joel to the night before he died did provide me a little solace. Merely in the fact that Ellie was able to come out to him, something she was scared to do, and knew that he loved and accepted her as she was. (Honestly how could she ever doubt that?) and that he died knowing she still cared for him and wanted him in her life. I just know he must’ve spent that whole night feeling hopeful and anticipatory for the future. Fucking crushing.

When she picks up that guitar, a gift from Joel, the first bridge he rebuilt after their tenuous return to Jackson, the connection he forged between them when something unspoken was trying to pull them apart, the only way he could truly express to her how much she meant to him, and obviously a way Ellie reciprocated that…

Gone. She can no longer do the one good thing that threaded between them even after his death. And she abandons it.

She leaves the guitar there. The guitar she loved so fucking much she got the moth from it tattooed on herself forever.

I don’t know where she’s going. I’ve seen some say maybe she’s going back to Jackson to try and make things right. Unfortunately… that isn’t the interpretation I had.

I do know that this game made me feel things a video game never has. Living with these characters for so long. I felt Joel’s pain when Sarah died in the first one, and that was a sorrow that carried over into every scene of every game. I felt -viscerally- the horror and agony and pure unbridled rage at Joel’s death. I felt each misstep, each loss, each success and each surprise. These characters are not avatars to be played, they are people, and it’s fucking incredible. This story is complex and huge and sometimes really frustrating and unpleasant, and sometimes you hate it and sometimes you love it.

Neil Druckman said that whether people like his stories or hate them, as long as they’re not ambivalent, he’s done his job.

To me, Neil has done his job tenfold.

[malewifehenrycooldown]

I have… some thoughts about NMH3 after becoming ranked 7th… sooo NMH3 spoilers undercut + impressions/musings/questions that will probably be never answered.

Impressions:

Vanishing Point is really cute and I’m mad that they wasted a perfectly good character design. I really was looking forward to fighting him :(

I knew Kimmy Love was making an appearance but I didn’t actually think that you’d have a boss fight with her, that she’d be an optional boss fight after you beat Vanishing Point - but no that’s not the case.

I want to know who Damon is talking with in the visual novel styled cutscenes. There are so many options as to who it is, but it might be awhile until we get actual answers :(

Was looking forward to unlocking a new area of the map (Call of Battle) and I kinda laughed at how it’s obviously a parody of Call of Duty series but then I wasn’t laughing when I actually entered the overworld. The environment is desolate, lots of building rubble, it’s like a damn war zone - (I assume FU’s work)

A small criticism of Call of Battle is that I don’t really like the filter, it makes navigating really confusing/nauseating. I kinda fell asleep while initially talking a look around on this area, so uh.. yeah :/ (also highly recommend using your marker on your map to help find landmarks of interest)

Questions/Musings:

Why was Vanishing Point at Kimmy Love/Howell’s concert?? Because it’s obvious he’s not a pop music fan and was there to actually kill Kimmy but Kimmy got to him first.

Also if Vanishing Point is significant enough to steal people’s memories, does that also include the people who are at the concert??

Kimmy Howell/Kimmy Love dying at her own concert performance is really sad. It’s obvious she still hasn’t let go of her infatuation with Travis and that she’s still that 17 year old high school student who’s desperate to prove herself to everyone around her - which hurts even more when now as an adult she’s a popstar with the same star power and loyal fanbase like Tay///lor Swi///ft does (they even name drop her). Killing her in the end felt really unsatisfying in a narrative sense in that we have no idea what happened to Kimmy during the big timeskip.

Also wouldn’t there be backlash from Travis killings Kimmy LIVE during her own concert performance?? (Note: she invited him as a VIP guest and actively asked him to a ranking fight on stage)

The actual fight with Kimmy isn’t that bad but the her stranglehold quick time event got me 99.5% of the time and I’m not good with reaction timing in my games.

What happened at Call of Battle? Because there’s a lot of rubble, and last standing structures of buildings, anti tank barriers, trenches and other military equipment etc. is this like, important to the narrative or is this just a thing where players need to piece the story together themselves?

How many other bosses are going to be ‘fake out’ bosses for a completely different character?? I have a feeling that Velvet Chair Girl and maybe the second boss might be ‘fake out’ bosses.

It would be nice to have optional dlc of being able to challenge the fake out bosses that were killed by real bosses.. it definitely won’t happen but it’s a nice thought :)

I know I should always expect the unexpected but I was really really looking forward to Vanishing Point and watching him die in a cutscene kinda just.. left me really flabbergasted and just kind of annoyed.

Obvs I don’t hate the game, I just think there are better ways to use these characters for the narrative.

[blueskyheadleft010]

I finished the New War questline

Now onto the next one :D

[Spoilers below]

Ok, so I picked the questline back up today and completed it.

I have to say the non-Drifter segments are considerably easier to play, especially when you have your warframe back.

Some funny things happened though:

My Drifter shrank in the wash after the scene where I picked the Drifter over the Operator to continue the quest.

Heheh, they look so angry.

This only lasted like this until I started the next segment.

--------------------

Since Wisp is my main, I naturally picked her to finish the questline, and seriously... Wisp is still OP. 

Still breaking the game/making life easier since 2019.

[Health pool regen, speed boost, and elemental damage. Plus passive ability turns them invisible which still works on all enemies in the game so far. (Even the Archons.) I literally spammed 3 on the last Archon and killed him so quickly.]

Loadout consisted of a Cedo, a kitgun (which I didn’t use, but has an op blast range), and the Sentient sword required for the mission. Didn’t even bother trying to use the sword, Cedo is OP as fuck and dealt so much elemental damage that it just mowed them all down. This weapon will save your gameplay, I highly recommend taking it with you.

-------------------

I kinda cheated on the gameplay and during my downtime at work, watched a few playthroughs to make sure I wasn’t royally screwing anything up. Very grateful I did, because it helped me decide the order I needed to kill the Archons in so I didn’t struggle so much on the last map.

[Nira was first. I figured out you can just hide behind the pillars and take potshots at her. The fight went by quicker after that. Also, I got 1 free revive from Shadow Stalker when I died, so that was really nice.]

[I picked Boreal next, and they were a royal pain in the ass to kill, as their electricity and speed tried to overload my graphics card + took major chunks out of my health bar. His large health bar was what made him take longer to kill. He’s also the ugliest looking Archon in my opinion.]

[Amar’s fight played out how I thought it would. He was really weak, and without the maneuverability the others have, he had a hard time moving on the last map. It didn’t really matter if I got hit by him (since I used Wisp’s 1 ability to heal myself from the miniscule damage he did anyways), and he was down the fastest of the 3. It’s a shame cuz he seemed like his power was the weakest of the 3, but he’s also got the cool wolf aesthetic going on :)]

---------------------

The necramech segment was short and lame. Erra is a weak weakling crybaby who goes down with one swing from an alien baseball bat. Literally was rolling my eyes at him. Erra is like a young rebellious teen who found out he was in way too deep way too late. Kinda pity him, but only because he was incredibly gullible.

Anyways, I don’t think DE realized that the easiest way to defeat someone who is trying to eat the sun, is to destroy them with the sun itself.

You fools have no idea what power you’ve unleashed.

Jk, it was a scripted fight after all, but Wisp’s 1 ability stayed on the last map despite the cutscenes and gameplay style changes. Like, holy shit there was no possible way I could die in that scene. I had 3 health reservoirs placed down on the map, and I just kept walking over them either as my warframe or the Drifter/Operator and it just kept healing me. Talk about a major win-win. ;)

ALSO THE WISP RESERVIORS HOVERED OVER ME AND THE LOTUS THROUGH ALL THE CUTSCENES LMAO.

I guess that’s why Ballas couldn’t kill the Lotus in the end. Wisp saved her from the power of the sun! Haha!!

[hodgepodgequack]

Emio Demo Observations and thoughts….this is going to be a long post.

By the way, I WILL be spoiling something that happens during “The Missing Heir” And Danganronpa 1 case 2.

18 years ago, 3 teenage girls (with no known ties to each other) are strangled to death by hand and are found with paper bags on their heads. The paper bags have a picture of a smiling face on them.

The paper bags intel was never released to the public, therefore the only people who knew were the cops, family members, people who found said bodies and the culprit.

Now theres a similar case with a teenage boy (Sasaki who I will be calling S from here on out).

There’s 3 options regarding what happened to the kid

Option 1: It’s the OG killer who’s never been caught. As for why he’s starting again, there’s two possibilities

S was either looking into the Emio rumor or he saw something he shouldn’t have and the killer wanted to nip that quickly.

S is a closeted trans person and the OG killer knows that somehow. The director of the game has stated that the ending of the game might be “controversial” Keep in mind this game takes place sometime in 1997-2000s, it’s 2024 and being Trans is still controversial. In game it would most likely be an ever bigger stir. Who’s to say that this is the controversy the director was referring to?

As for why the method of death has slightly altered, I only have one theory: fingerprints

The original case took place sometime between 1979 and 1982. I know nothing about the history of fingerprints in Japan so this is a massive shot in the dark with what I’m about to say:

Fingerprint dusting may have not been a routine procedure (or it was but there was no way to preserve said information ) and the killer knew that. But a lot changes in 18 years and it’s possible that it is now routine and said info can be preserved. Hence the strangulation method has changed and the item to use cause death it not anywhere to be found.

Option 2: It’s a copycat killer

Why someone would do this, I have no idea, but it would explain a few discrepancies.

D1: the way the person is killed

D2: victim is male (they got the teen part right)

D3: The way the paper bag looks

If you look at the paper bag the Emio of the Urban legend uses. It has holes cut out where the eyes should be (and additionally it appears he removed any eye wear before putting the bag on, just a weird detail I’ve noted)

Current bag has no hole cut out. It’s a purple circular spot in the middle of some black round scribbling.

And I know what you’re going to say, cutscenes aren’t important, but in the famicom detective club universe they are.

There’s a prime example of using a cutscene in “The missing heir” where Jiro is smoking with Kaneda, pay attention to the way he holds his cigarette. It’s a small detail, but developers who do mystery games don’t put them in for shits and giggles.

Option 3: S’s death has NOTHING to do with the original case.

The only reason why the police think that it’s connected to the previous case is because of the paper bag. If the bag wasn’t there, they wouldn’t be thinking that.

It’s entirely possible that someone else offed S and fled the scene. Someone else finds the body and instead of reporting it to the cops, pulls a Togami and alters the crime scene to include a paper bag on the kids head. Why they do that, I don’t know. They could have been inspired by the Emio rumor (which is a weird thing in itself that I’ll discuss in a bit.)

Some other observations that don’t really fit anywhere else:

The way the bag is placed on the head. The corpse looks like it it’s looking in an upward direction while the bag makes the face on it point to the side. I don’t know if it’s an important detail or if it was done to be creepy. Because the only believable way for that to happen is if S was strangled in an upward position, the bag is placed on his head and before he hits the ground the bag shifts to a different position and it’s not corrected.

Kuze knows Utsugi

The current theory is that she’s related to one of the original victims in some way and because the case was never resolved she because a detective to find the truth. Ut might have worked on the case and that’s why he knows her. Ku might not be saying anything out of fear that she might get removed from investigating at all (it’s a one liner, but someone mentions that she follows police protocol to a T so it would be interesting to see if she acts like a hypocrite because she’s personally connected to the case). It’s also a possibility that he resents Ut for not catching the guy. It would be crazy twist if the OG killer and the current killer (assuming they are not the same person) are both cops hence why they didn’t get caught. As for a guess right now (and based on the premise stated beforehand) the OG killer might be Kanada and the current one might be Kami.

3. Kami is a very sus

First of all the game does not give you his age, which is a massive red flag. Secondly he shows up late to the crime scene (yes it’s implied that he is a bit of a careless character, but that could be a facade) he might have been busy trying to cover his tracks. Thirdly he mentions that he used to go “missing” when the schools were actively trying to prevent kids from straying to far. Maybe one time he did it and saw something he shouldn’t have.

4. In the prologue there is a part where the protagonist and Ut speak at the same time and they sound like the Smiling Man.

5. In the game “The Girl who stands behind” there’s a box near the boxing gloves that you could inspect. According to the game at the time, it has something to do with UTs family (I’m pretty sure it’s a crest). In this game you can’t even examine it and that is sus in of itself.

6. The Emio legend is odd for multiple reasons. The fact that it mentions girls(who look to be teens based on the cutscenes) die with paper bags on their heads is reminiscent of an actual case implies something important. The info regarding the paper bags got leaked (and maybe some things on the girls mental health at the time pre death hence the crying imagery) and that spiraled and created the Emio urban legend. Furthermore, Ayumi immediately mentions the urban legend when we talk about the case. That implies that either this rumor has started recently enough for her to notice it, or it’s one that has persisted through time (and that begs the question why has it lasted so long and who started the rumor?

And now for some questions regarding the demo

How did S get into the area? It’s a pump station whose gates are normally not open (note that the all the trash is on the outside of the area, not on both sides. S’s bike was also left outside meaning the gate was closed. Did he pick the lock? Was the gate open and the killer put the back bike? I don’t know!!

2. How did the Jogger see the body?

Anyway. Can’t wait for the second part of the demo to drop tomorrow and I’ll see how much is right.

[altocat]

Okay. I feel like I have to say this because I saw this argument earlier. Zack and Sephiroth WERE friends. They were friends caught up in a strained, stressful situation beyond their control. With this said, there's some understandable tension between them during the game. But Zack is NOT cruel to Sephiroth during CC, nor is he at any point responsible for Sephiroth's trauma or actions. When Zack gets annoyed at Sephiroth during the story, there are VALID reasons for him feeling this way. And, moreover, Sephiroth is not the ONLY victim of CC compared to the OCEAN OF TRAUMA Zack experiences.

For starters, Sephiroth is technically dumping all his responsibilities onto Zack, causing him to bear the emotional burden. Sephiroth is also aloof and not always communicative. Zack was mad at him in Junon because Sephiroth was not returning his calls. Zack being pissed at Sephiroth because of Nibelheim? He just murdered a ton of civilians there's realistically no way you can be nice and gentle with someone after that. Zack not checking in on Sephiroth? Well he actually MIGHT have been. How else does he know what Sephiroth is doing in there? How does Cloud have memories of Sephiroth telling him to go away? Zack likely DID express concern for Sephiroth's wellbeing and WAS rebuffed. Zack even expresses concern at the Nibelheim reactor by trying to physically comfort Sephiroth, only for SEPHIROTH to push him away. Zack was also the one telling Genesis to shut the hell up because he could see that Sephiroth was getting upset. Zack DOES care and DOES emphasize with Sephiroth. The game just isn't dwelling on it.

Sephiroth is not the only person in pain during CC. I think Zack had to deal with the MOST shit since he's the one who had to kill Angeal. He got to watch Genesis seemingly die in front of him. I think Zack has MORE THAN A FEW valid reasons for being occasionally upset and angry at Sephiroth. But even AFTER what Sephiroth did in Nibelheim, Zack still chooses to honor him at the end. Sephiroth is shown in Zack's memories of people he loves during his last stand. AND Zack stands in Sephiroth's place when he fulfills Genesis' wish to share the apples. In Opera Omnia, Zack is very clearly upset with what happened with Sephiroth, and doesn't seem to be able to truly hate him. And Sephiroth killed innocent people and tried to destroy the world. I think if Zack can still pity Sephiroth afterwards, it wasn't just an unempathetic relationship.

Also, and this is something that the game tries to convey but doesn't do a good enough job, Sephiroth and Zack spend pretty much 2 years in each other's company. The DMW cutscenes explore this idea as it shows them training together. What you are seeing are only a handful of moments in what is otherwise a period of them actually befriending each other and forming enough of a bond for Sephiroth to have grown some level of fondness for him. Nomura himself has said that Sephiroth really trusts Zack, and appreciates that Zack treats him like a human being and not a hero. He LIKES that Zack calls him out, likes that Zack challenges him. He is THANKFUL for that.

Crisis Core is a flawed game. But Sephiroth is not the only victim or the only one suffering throughout. Genesis and Angeal suffered. And god, Zack MORE than suffered. And no one was nice to HIM throughout. No one cares about HIS mental health. No one gives HIM special treatment. He has to kill his friends and deal with it. And then he dies. I love Sephiroth, you all know that. But part of loving the character is accepting the very real truth that he is STILL a villain and that he is NOT the center of suffering. His pain does NOT invalidate the pain of others.

Anyway, Zack and Sephiroth were still friends despite all this. They weren't as close as they could have been, but they were. It was a relationship with occasional bitterness, drama, and heartache, but they were still good enough friends for it to count. But we need to take into account that Zack is NOT to blame for anything related to Sephiroth's pain and actions. If anything, he is completely blameless.

[i-have-a-lot-of-ocs]

Hello Tumblr, I have an idea of a game heavily inspired by Wonderful☆Opportunity's "Death should not have taken thee!" !!

So the idea is: A seemingly average "Defeat the Demon Lord" JRPG where you (Moka) play as the king(queen, Atria)'s personal castle guard (and childhood best friend) turned hero, but the game is engineered for you to not be able to defeat the Demon Lord as Hero Moka. Even if you clear averything and max out all your stats. Whenever you die during the demon lord part of the game, it resets back to the starting point at the castle. The king(She's a girl, but she's the main "governor" so she's called a king) has a time loop established with her magic scepter where only she and Moka (because they're the only two with the knowledge it resets time prior to the actual reset) remember what happens after she resets the timeline back to its set starting point.

But, whenever you reset, you have a dialogue option saying "This is literally impossible." to Atria. She flips out a bit if you choose it, saying "Come on, you've only resetted X times! There's this guy who reset like, 1863 times!! Maybe you haven't leveled up enough!" "If that is so, go try it yourself, my lord." "Hmph, fine!" and you now play as Atria. It's a one-time only immediate battle against the Demon Lord. And yes, it's still impossible. She summons the entire army to fight, but she ends up getting killed.

Moka is like: "Sigh... this idiot." And revives her with the spell and scepter. They decide to just wait till the hero appears. The Hero, a magic prodigy from the Magic Tower called Athan, appears after a few resets (ones you don't play through), and a demon attack happens at the castle when she was still talking to Atria. She's like: "Your Majesty, give your magic scepter to Moka!" Atria's like: "Wtf. Fine. If we reset we're blaming this on you!!" and a combat starts where Moka is revealed to be batshit crazy good at magic. He just has a small mana reserve and subconciously consumes his health to solve that, which is why he was considered bad at it.

And also, Atria has a magic allergy of sorts to the palace scepter. Nothing lethal, but it suppresses her powers. It turns out a different magic type (that lets her self-heal and make shields basically) suits her best, and she's a really good tank with said magic type and is better with meelee weapons her aim is horrible, even with magic. Athan, a prodigy of the magic tower with absurdly high mana reserves but lower output, decides to aid the two's journey this time around, and she's basically a mana battery for Moka. They also meet Hastion, another noble magic prodigy (who will act as a second magic support), and the four befriend each other and go out to defeat the demon lord.

It's pretty similar to the first timeline with Hero Moka, but much easier. In the end, they achieve the goal pretty quickly, and Moka is like: "To think we could've solved this much earlier if we had just switched weapons!!" and there's a final cutscene of Moka (unseriously) raging at Atria while she's like: "I'm sorry!! How was I supposed to know?!?! ㅠㅠ" while Athan and Hastion smile while snacking in the background.

The End.

(Smaller details, you revive at the nearest inn during any non-demon battle defeat. You only reset if you die to demons in the Demon King's lair.)

Also Atria, Moka, Athan, and Hastion are my OCs. They have their own world setting and backstory but I tweaked with it to adjust them in this world. They (Atria and Moka) were a surprisingly good fit for Rin and Len tho. Ofc this is all still tweaked in bits but hey. Atleast I have introduced a fraction of the amount of OCs I have. I can't draw well so I probably won't draw them, but I do have ideas on how they look like.