#npc speaks | judy

[wildcatofgreen]

She looked up at the sky.

Moonlight.

It was Stones day already, wasn't it? Or, probably close to it.

Shit she'd been out here for hours, just meditating, focusing on that stupid gemerald of her's.

And the worst part is... she felt like it barely helped anything. Eugh. It felt more... agonizing, than anything. She could barely actually focus on the gem, barely actually focus on anything except on how fucking cold it was. Her hoodie was just not enough for this kind of weather.

But she's supposed to overcome these kinds of setbacks, right? No matter how agonizing this shit was. Because she had to win against Spade. Had to get that second gemerald. Had to keep her security.

And, well, it's not like she didn't stand a chance against him now. She had those soul gems from Bakunawa. She had these weird special goggles from Evie. He wouldn't know what the hell hit him when he tried his stupid bullshit on her. A face full of dragon boost would be enough to shut him up.

Actually wait how the hell would Lyli react to her just using her thing like that.

...Eh, lets uh. Lets not think about that.

In fact not thinking about her was part of the reason she came up here, wasn't it?

She stood and pat the bits of snow off of her, taking out her jump disc and throwing it against the snow. And out appeared her bike, engine already running.

She crouched down and picked up her stupid gemerald, then looked out across all of the snowy plains.

...hell.

She. Probably should have left earlier than this.

Fucking hell she wishes she was at Dail's stupid palace right now. It was too cold for any of this right now. Why couldn't she just blip there? Like she's blipped to other places before--sure, she's needed their charms or whatever, but like. She can do it!!!

Spade can do it!!! He can do it super easily!!! That stupid fucking fuck!!!!!!

Why could he do it easily, but she couldn't??? Why'd he have such an easy time with it??? Why'd those stupid teleporting target things still trip her up??? Why can't she just skip to the end already??? Be done with all of this stupid bullshit and spend time with her stupid friends and do stupid things????? She's

so

sick of fucking everything.

Why can't things slow down? Why can't she catch a break? Why can't she just go back? Stones damn it WHY!!!

She collapses in front of her bike, her gem starting to glow bright. The only light besides the moon tonight.

So many fucking things. Not enough answers. Not enough answers. Never enough answers, never enough anything. Except for cash, apparently. She's loaded with that. Enough cash to lose a whole chest of it and still be fine. Enough connections that she can do stupid stunts like this in the first place. Hell, she can do things she never ever imagined she'd ever be able to do.

And she hated it?!?!

Spirits, people must think she's so fucking ungrateful for having so much and not liking any of it. That other people would kill to be in her position right now. Nice husband, nice bike, nice friends, nice job, nice everything. She had it SO GOOD.

So fucking good.

So how come it didn't feel like it?

. . .

"I'm so sick of this, man.

"What the hell am I doing right now. Training? For what? Just to lose again? Fighting for everything to crumble down on top of me again?

"Damn it.

"Damn it!"

Her gem's light almost entirely engulfed her as she punched it into the snow floor before her.

"Iun't even wanna think about this hotel sierra right now, dude.

"Just..."

She leans on her bike, eyes shut tight.

"Lemme sleep in a nice warm bed. Lemme have that? Before I gotta face all this shit again in the mornin'."

Blip.

She was gone.

As if she was never there to begin with.

---

Face down in the ground, her bike on top of her, the first thing she really noticed was the overwhelming feeling of heat.

She called her bike back to her jump disc--sure, she could lift the thing, but being under a ton of metal still wasn't pleasant--and stood... slowly. Her body was still pretty rigid from being in the cold all day. But she felt warmth all around her.

Blinked, once, twice.

A bed next to her, a simple dresser next to the bed, a window just above the dresser--

SLAM!!!

The door opened, and in it's frame was a dog guard from Shuigang, seemingly panicked, but with her staff at the ready.

"SHUIGANGESE GUARD, RAISE YOUR HANDS AND oh it's just you, Carol."

What was this girl's name again? Julie? Joline? No, no, those were different people.

She squinted at the guard, head tilted to a side.

The guard, now relaxed, put a hand at her hip with a brow raised.

"Hey, how'd you get in here, anyway? What, you climbed through the window?

"...And uh. This isn't your room." She scratched the back of her ear, "I mean you can stay in here if you want but we were supposed to give you a room closer to the exit. Easier to get to the mountains that way."

Carol... didn't have words for her right now, not really. She just sort of blinked and rubbed her arm.

The guard shrugged.

"Eh. You're the hero, not me. I guess you can do whatever you want as long as it's not breaking any laws. Just... try to make your entrance a little less bumpy next time, alright? You're lucky it was me and not Han! That boy would of arrested you on the spot!" She snickered, "Talk about a Neera Junior, am I right?" And shot finger guns at the wildcat.

She just blinked again.

"Haha," awkward laughter, followed by clearing of her throat, "Well! If you need anything, just fetch one of us, or knock really, really hard. We'll be around.

"Oh, and someone left you a present near the King's throne? Looked like a bike of some kind. It was weird--none of us wanted to touch it in case it was a bomb.

"Can you like... go and get that before King Dail wakes up? You know, just in case it is a bomb." She turned to leave, before stopping herself and shooting another finger gun or two at the cat, "Oh yeah! Happy Stones day!"

And with that, she shut the door and left the wildcat to her own devices.

. . .

What the fuck, man.

[trevorite]

Gotta ask Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable with the mods that change like, for example here, Panam and Judy's bodies to give them bigger chest and/or ass? Like.. whenever I see those mods I just feel icky I don't feel that way towards those types of mods for V, because that's just people wanting to do stuff with their own characters, I may not like it but oh well, but when it comes down to the games NPCS? yeah no I don't understand why people would wanna change already existing characters body type anyways. SPEAKING OF stuff like this Those two gender bend mods for River and Kerry. HOLY SHIT THOSE ARE BAD I don't even understand why someone decided to made them

But uh in short: Body/appearance altering mods for NPCS in game gives me the Ick for some reason

[shinxeysartgallery]

Hypothetical question time! If you were hired to work on the IDW Sonic comics as an artist, would you ever try to include any of your ocs in the comic?

Maybe! Depends on if I got clearance from SEGA or the other people in charge first.

If I did though, I'd absolutely limit it to a background appearance and nothing more. With that, too, I'd also try to not use characters that would stand out a lot compared to the canon characters and other NPCs because I feel like it would be too distracting. For example, a character such as Cynthia or Judy would obviously stand out a TON compared to the other characters because of what they are. If I were to use one of them, I'd think people would be too focused on "OOOOH FUNNY PINK HORSE LADY" and it would no longer be about what Sonic or whoever is doing. So in that case, I would likely use characters that I designed with the purpose of BEING NPCs. Characters like Butterscotch or Julian I think would fit in pretty nicely and not stand out too much. And, since they don't do much in AU canon, there won't be as big of a push to make them do something. Probably wouldn't even give them any speaking lines. At best, their involvement would be a very minor addition the plot. For example, say Amy is chasing after someone in the story and loses sight of them so she asks the NPCs if they saw where they went and they point out a direction for her. That'd be it.

The only time I could see it going beyond that is if someone from SEGA or a writer (who got permission) was like "Yooo I like your OC concept and wanna write a story about them!" and them becoming an "IDW original", but at the same time I HIGHLY doubt that would happen because legal bullshit and I'd also have to likely change a lot of what makes them them in order to fit in with what would be wanted/acceptable, so nah. (I'm like 99.99% sure they never would because they probably learned their lesson from what Penders got away with in the Archie days and wouldn't want a repeat of that. SEGA doesn't need another lawsuit over OCs in a comic book.)

In the end, this is a comic about Sonic and his friends, so don't really want a ton of focus on background characters. In my AU or fanart or whatever, I can focus completely on my OCs and do whatever I want, but can't do that with official works.

[pumpmans]

Lately I’ve been imagining Rock, Roll, Cutman and Iceman (basically the kid coded light bots) as having an ongoing game where they put all of their toys together and make storylines with them. Rock would have some action figures, Roll would have a couple dolls, Cut would have a rotating cast of paper dolls he makes, and Ice would have some of those green army men. It’d start out with all the toys having a pretty basic game of house together, but everyone keeps introducing weird drama so at this point it’s a jumbled mess that only they understand. Like they jump between being tried for murder to fighting T. rexs to getting into petty household disagreements. One of Roll’s dolls seem to have every job/ superpower possible while the other is used as an actual goddess that the bots use for a literal deus ex machina when things get too convoluted. They got a whole town put together that Cutman makes npcs and houses for (and generally speaking there’s a bunch of arts and crafts involved for him). Rock has pretty straightforward superhero plot lines but Ice gets REALLY invested in giving his army men some serious messed up drama that’s practically a soap opera. I was also thinking that sometimes when they’re mad at each other, they’ll spoil plot lines for each other since everyone is so invested. Like “Judy won’t survive the car crash!! And Patricia won’t get there in time to turn her into a vampire!” “NOOO!”. Idk I just thought that would be a funny thing they’d do.

ohhh thats a cute and silly moment for sure... im a big fan of rock and roll getting to be normal for once.. they never get that opportunity !!

[plush-rabbit]

Leviathan and Animal Crossing

Request: So like?? What do you think Levi’s animal crossing island looks like? And his dreamy villagers? 🤔🤔🥰 I think he’d like Judy cause she’s starry eyed and colorful like his Ruri-chan 😛

A/N: Im gonna answer this quick cause I love animal crossing

Leviathan is the type to have played all animal crossing games. And the newest one is no different. He loves the customization of his island- it’ll never compare to the old hacking he did for his 3DS but that’s because it holds a place in his heart. He has at least over 600 hours clocked into his switch because of customization and villager hunting along with all the other fun activities.

Was mostly likely one of the older gen players who complained how late scuba diving came into the game. He just wanted to swim and look for scallops for Pascal. He will admit, he loves the inclusion of all new sea life and was terribly disappointed when you couldn’t make displays out of them. He caught the giant clams for that sole reason. Speaking of swimming, he also sort of misses the jellyfish that would sting you if you sat alone for too long.

Along with Pascal, came pearls which are used for DIYS and the reclusive otaku could not have loved DIYS more. He thinks it’s a really neat concept that encourages longer use of the game and it even adds to the whole vibe of the island. He’ll constantly shift between his theme and having a variety of craftable items makes it possible for the place to stay fresh. However, he wishes that he didn’t have to get the same DIY in a bottle and that the drop rate would be fixed in some way to increase newer DIYs.

The characters feel a bit more empty. They don’t visit his home suddenly, they don’t invite him over and they often all share the same phrases and Diavolo forbid that you have the same type of villager there in your island because then they just all say the same thing. He wishes that dialogue were different and that they were friendly and maybe you could also hug them or do something. He’d also like for different personality types just to spice things up a bit and even different species. He’d like to see moths or sharks, even bats with one themed as fruit.

With the talk of characters, he does have his favorites. He loves Judy and will also have some sort of pink villager in order to counter the fact of Ruri-chan’s pink outfit. He’d like to gain all the dreamies and definitely has a different switch where he has the dreamies all located. In his main game, he likes just having some of his personal favorites there and his flag is either the icon of Ruri-chan or his own demonic symbol with his color added as the background.

He enjoys the events and loves the different things they have to offer but he has to admit that he misses some of the previous game “prizes”. Such as, the squid chair from the fish tourney, or the cauldron from Halloween. Unrelated to the events, he misses the different series that the game had. He’s sure that a lot of them would have added so much more depth to the game.

He absolutely loves the outfits. There is no further discussion to that. They’re cute, practical, he’s able to design all sorts of outfits? He has absolutely no complaints and might even like the game a bit better for the outfits solely. He understands why Mammon and Asmodeus loves fashion.

Overall, Leviathan loves the game. He loves the use of DIYS and getting to craft along with feeling a little sense of satisfaction when gaining a new DIY. The designs for the game are amazing- cute clothing, cute animals, the gendered bubbles taken away and replaced with their main color, and fun, new styles. However, he does miss a few of the NPCS, such as Harriette and having her do this hair, Katrina and her fortunes, Kicks having permanent residence, the island with the Kappas, and others but he still enjoys the game. It’s a nice, relaxing game where he can run around his island and push all sorts of furniture around and make new areas as well as make his own designs for certain sections of his island.

[trashcatsnark]

WHY THE FUCK WERE UP SO LATE??? FUCKING UR SO LUCKY I CANT BEAT UR ASS OTHERWISE ITD BE KNUCKLE CITY

anyway, speaking about johnny boy i was thinking about him + nibbles and our like collective desicion that he is essiently a cat and it is really weirdly fitting that it just makes me like ???? so like cats themselves are a reoccuring motif within the game from the start, when u go to viks, when ur chatting up takemura and at the end with the rooftop that also doubles as like the millionith matrix reference. they follow v and they take up the role of the bakeneko, which i think in the game is defined by them appearing near death ? or just disaster. the obvious thing is that it is to do with v's inpending death and their whole sitation but like the general point is like the cat symbolises the death that follows v as the cat follows them. this puts johnny in an interesting sitation from his catlike nature to how he seems to like and get along with nibbles, he is linked with cats. he is also the parasite that is killing v. he is V's bakeneko. their signal of death. the events start because of his relic, jackie dies for him, and soon does most of the cast from act 1, and a large part of the death from then on is a direct result of them trying to solve the relic and johnny's whole presence is a signal for hey v ur fucking dying. he is death for them. the bakeneko.

makes me wonder if his catlike attributes were intentionally done cause that boy aint right or we just accidently walked on a really thematic fitting landmind

Spoilers within, again, also leave my sleeping schedule alone, I do not function. Additionally, I have a lot to say about Nibbles, omens, cats, and pets then how they all relate back to Johnny so congrats on opening a flood gate my friend!

 think the thematic thing with Johnny and cats and the bakeneko has to 1000000 percent be intentional, because he even sees a cat when Alt is kidnapped. And that goes back to Cyberpunk Red. Like that was used and utilized and then became such a large part of the story. 

Johnny is clearly meant to be a bakeneko; he’s actively next to the cat in that conversation, leaves when it does, see the same cat before Alt’s death, and is again the visual representation of what is happening to V. He is the symbol of their death, whether he wants to be or not. 

I think it’s also interesting to note, the Bakeneko, which is described as an omen of death and misfortune isn’t the only way we see cats used thematically within the game. Albeit, this way is more subtle and perhaps intentionally so. We also see the maneki-neko; the lucky cat statues are everywhere in game. In V’s apartment, Misty’s shop, Vik’s clinic. Everyyyyyywhereeeeee. 

So, we see two mythological cats from Japanese culture. One brings misfortune and one brings good luck. And Johnny exemplifies both. 

Johnny is a visual representation of all that is destroying V. His mere existence and presence a constant reminder that their death is around the corner. An ever present omen that V’s clock is ticking. He also often pops up to have a comment just before massive relic malfunctions and disasters. The end of every main game quest is punctuated with a relic malfunction and a lecture from Johnny. 

But without the chip and by extension Johnny, V would already be dead. If the chip hadn’t been the exact right place to be damaged and activated by the gunshot; it would have killed V right then and there. And while this wasn’t an active choice on Johnny’s part, he is the visual representation of the chip. Even then, he later does make an active choice to save V’s life. When V is hit with the worst malfunction yet; Johnny grabs them, “you aren’t dying yet, I got you” and he takes them to safety. He refuses to watch V seize and die in a puddle of their own sick in the middle of nowhere (for me it’s always at the sunset hotel, idk if this changes based on the order you do the events tho) So, he takes control, he eases their pain and takes them somewhere safe, somewhere that means something to him, and swears to die for them. 

Luck both good and bad. Fortune and misfortune. A sign of better days and an omen of death. A maneki-neko and a bakeneko. The time bomb in V’s head and the guy who saved their life. He is both. 

Now, stepping away from the mythological aspects. Lets talk about Nibbles the cat, Johnny, and pets within Cyberpunk 2077. Animals and by extension pets are considered a luxury in Night City. They’re taxed to fuck and back, generally only the wealthy can have them. Its also often brought up that real friends and family who stick by you are very difficult to come by. V becomes through Nibbles one of the rare people to have a pet. One of the other people who had a pet is, Barry their neighbor. 

Barry and his mission is one of the first you can unlock and see in the game. He’s V’s downstairs neighbor and his story is played out so fucking similarly to V’s. Barry lost his best friend, he’s quit his job because he can’t handle the weight of the NCPD’s corruption, and he’s thinking of taking his own life.  V has lost Jackie, its stated in game they get less work than usual because of Konpeki (cant be put on a crew), and very early on can say to Misty “be better off putting in my head”. 

But for Barry that friend ends up being a pet tortoise. And its clear what that tortoise represents; a constant companion, a safe place, and a comfort. Something Barry couldn’t find among his peers until later on when they learn just how much he’s been hurting. And this is treated as such a tragedy, that he only has a pet to turn to. 

And so V gets a cat, because they too are fucking hurting and having a little meowing bundle of skin running around their apartment helps. Something to come home to, something to make that apartment a little less empty, a little more alive. 

So, how does this particular aspect of Nibbles/cats/pets relate to Johnny, I hear you wondering (as well as wondering when Im going to shut up). Well, we know Johnny is linked symbolically with cats and thats the choice of pet for V. And we knows pets have been likened to support without judgement; a companion who you can tell everything too and they won’t abandon you. 

And while Johnny has heaps of judgment and is a dick. He is V’s only constant companion. I know a good junk of people don’t like him or his commentary; but imagine V’s life without Johnny in it through the game events. Imagine how lonely they’d be. 

Johnny is the only one who knows everything and is there with V from the start to the final moments in Mikoshi. 

Vik and Misty know, but they’re no edgerunners, they have no idea everything V is doing out there. Part of why as much as I do love Vik, his frustration with V hurts so much in the end because he talks like V hasn’t done anything to save themselves. Because, Vik doesn’t know what V’s been doing this whole time. 

Each part of the main quests in Act 2 are linked to an NPC; Judy, Panam, and Takemura. And not one of them know or are there throughout the entirety of V’s journey. Judy doesn’t get told the full details of what’s happening until later in and stops helping V one Evelyn is saved. Panam doesn’t learn the full details or anything really about the chip until much later. And her quests become her own personal journey once V finds Hellman. And then depending on V’s choices, Panam can come in to help at the end. Takemura knows V is dying and is there to help with the parade and then he’s gone; either dead or in hiding. He refers to anything that doesn’t involve him as V’s shady dealings and leaves it at that. He’s there to interrogate Hellman but he doesn’t know all V did to find him. None of them know everything, none of them have been there the whole time. And that’s not a condemnation of them, I do not expect them to drop everything to be glued to V’s side 24/7 but, I can’t fucking imagine how alone V feels. 

River has no involvement in any main quests and only finds out anything if V chooses to romance him. Kerry knows what Johnny told him and depending on the ending may even leave V. Again, wanna be clear, that isn’t a condemnation on his character. I understand why he does this and i understand his hurt and how it led him to that. 

But this is about how truly fucking alone V is in all of this. Not a single person there start to finish, not a single person knowing all that they have suffered, all that they have been through and are going through. 

Except Johnny. He tells V in the oil fields, closest to him by far, there 24/7, yet they don’t seem to hate him. And he’s that for V too; there the entire way, their demon never leaving.  Johnny knows everything happening; because he’s part of what’s happening. He’s been there through every struggle, every step, every slap in the face as V’s tried to save themselves. Has felt their pain as they lose themselves, has known the people who’ve had to die for them to get this far, as felt their heart break when all they found was betrayal by the Voodoo Boys, Ai Alt asking how V’s life is her problem, getting recommended a hospice by Hellman. 

And as dickish as he is, his comments help. V always has someone there, as much as he sucks. He always has something stupid or naggy to say to help keep some of that weight off their shoulders. Imagine if they didn’t even have that. If Johnny never talked to them, never showed his face. 

A constant companion, like a supportive pet cat except he can talk and did a lot of meth. 

And this is a sidenote that has nothing to do with cats specifically, but that through Samurai music this isn’t the first time Johnny could be compared to an omen. Its no secret that the music was largely created around the game and as such, many of his songs have direct parallels and messages related to the game. Never Fade Away while in universe written in regards to Alt’s death also has so much in common with his journey with V. This brings me to the song Black Dog.

“Black Dog inside my head, guiding me until the end.”

Black Dogs are figures in Irish Mythology  who much like bakeneko’s are talked about in game; are omens of death and misfortune. I just find it interesting I suppose, like Johnny is either a dirty alley cat or a big mangy dog, but either way he’s here cause someones about to die.

Okay this is well over a thousand words, Imma shut up now. This is probably a mess, but anyone here for coherency is in the wrong place. 

[malefiquinn]

My Cyberpunk 2077 review

I finished the game last night and I have Feelings™ about it, so here goes my review. While the heavy spoilers (ending related) will be hidden under Keep Reading, I might mention some minor ones here and there, so read at your own risk.

Let’s get the Big Thing out of the way first: yes, the game is buggy af. The good news is most of them are visual bugs, so while annoying, they don’t really matter gameplay wise. But I did have to reload an earlier save file two times to get rid of gamebreaking bugs, both messing with main story quests. It was frustrating. And nevermind the times my car got destroyed because the game suddenly realized there were two cars occupying the same space. However I did manage to finish the game and make the choices I wanted, so it wasn’t that bad either.

My biggest complain is the blantant transphobia shown in the character creator. I know Claire exists and she’s awesome and I love her, but the cc options are just not inclusive enough. What’s the point of having them if you can’t use them anyway? Linking V’s pronouns to voice types makes absolutely no sense. And not being able to remove breasts from the female body type (or put them in the male body type) rubs me the wrong way as well, though I understand that it would involve a lot more animation work. Lastly, having body type-dependant hair styles is just plain inexcusable when the devs took the time to design genitals that are just not shown past the character creator (unless V walks around naked, I suppose). So, why bother having all these ✨choices✨ when the player can’t get a good, accurate customization anyway?

And it gets worse if we talk about romances. Real people have specific tastes and that’s completely understandable, but real life has a lot more than 4 choices in total. More importantly, bisexual people are a thing? There should have been at least one female and one male bisexual romance options in game. So to make it al worse, the constraint in gay romance options is... awful. Why have 3 types of gender-related customization if you can’t use them if you want to romance someone? I’m a cishet female who plays as a cishet female first if given the option, but I’m still bothered for the queer community (which I’m still part of btw, since I’m in the ace spectrum). It feels like being trans is more of a fetish in Night City than a real trait.

Speaking of romances, I played River’s and I found it... bit of a lackluster. I don’t find him physically attractive (shaved head and no beard are not my thing) but his voice was pretty nice and I liked his personality despite being a cop. But the main downside was the way the game treats his romance. I knew I wasn’t going to get a BioWare-style romance, but V’s relationship with River was like a sidenote and once he’s romanced, there’s just no way to interact with him again. That perhaps is the same for the other romances but there’s no replayability, in a sense that there’s no way to talk to/kiss him again or replay the sex scene, for instance. It bothered me that the game forces V to say that “she’s too busy” and apologize to her boyfriend all the time, because *I* would’ve made time to visit if there was ingame acknowledgement of it. The worst bit is that I feel like River’s romance is the least polished of them all, because Panam and Judy play important roles in main quests and Kerry is pivotal to Johnny’s sidequests, while River is... just there (also more further on, regarding the ending). So the fact that he’s like the forgotten child in the romance section while being the only cishet female option is heartbreaking.

The silverlining is that, at least, the mistreated community was het females instead of gay females. Although, this is just another example of game devs thinking about male players first.

Now the good part: what I liked

The cars. I’m not a car enthusiast, I don’t enjoy driving in real life and I’m a terrible driver in games, but I fucking loved the cars in CP2077. The Caliburn was like my game baby, I had so much fun driving around and hearing the different engines for each car, and the differences in driving... it was awesome. I got and bought *all* the available cars for the sake of it, just because I liked them so much.

The story. I love games that get me invested and this one was definitely one of those. Falling for Jackie when I knew he was not gonna be around for long was an expected, but still perfectly excecuted punch to the gut. And Johnny’s guidance and company was something I was hyped about, but still played out even better than I though it would. So to my next point, Keanu Reeves. I was thrilled to play a game with Keanu in it and it blew my mind. Those reviews that pinpoint Keanu’s acting as the weak link in the game are fucking wrong, how else you expect to see (and hear) an angry, resentful man permanently stuck in time? Even worse, when he knows the people he hated the most managed to kill him? I wasn’t happy when I learned Johnny was not a romance option but after meeting him, I’m glad that’s the case. He’s the perfect antihero-turned-best-friend for V, if you can stand him.

Stealth and hacking. Most of the time I choose the option to play stealthy and this time it wasn’t just that, it was the option to use futuristic technology at the same time. I LOVED it. Quickhacking enemies instead of shooting them is so much fun. Enemy detection is a bit wonky at times but still, I enjoyed it much better than if it had been a plain shooter. And those guns with homing shots are so cool that I wanted to play them over sniper rifles, my usual go tos.

The characters. I got invested in V’s relationships, even if the romantic aspect wasn’t as great as it could’ve been. Friendship with Kerry and Panam, clousure for Judy and Rogue, mourning Jackie, being part of River’s family, so many the fixers in existance... and Johnny, my bff Johnny. Even Alt, with her somewhat little role, was great. I was promised a compelling story and deep characters, and I did get both.

The soundtrack. Overall it’s pretty great, but my favorite songs are those related to Samurai. And it’s not even because of my love for Johnny, I really do enjoy them for their musical content. Unironically my all time favorite is Johnny’s as well, Never Fade Away. I won’t exit a car or open the menu when that song is playing.

The easter eggs. From GlaDOS and Silence of the Lambs in the Delamain quests to the Matix-esque pills of the main storyline, to Hideo Kojima and the BB in a lab, “Harvest like a Reaper” and the many “You’re breathtaking!” references (Kerry’s take was my favorite), the game presents A LOT of pop culture nods and I’m here for it. Having real life content creators around for several levels of cameos was a nice touch as well.

So without mentioning the heavy spoilers (aka ending), in my opinion, Cyberpunk 2077 deserves a 9/10. Bugs are fixable and the story and characters carry the game on it’s own because they’re just too good. The main story is kinda short and I believe Johnny’s sidequests should be part of the main story, but I get why they are not mandatory if you want to roleplay a full on dislike towards the rockerboy. But still, there are some things related to gender and romance that are complete misfires. I hope that some of those will be fixed via patches (the character creator bits), but the lack of more romance options or at least bisexual NPCs obviously won’t be fixed and that’s what keeps CP2077 away from a perfect score in my book.

Now, regarding the endings:

The one thing that truly bothered me was that the Rogue one had no real goodbyes for V. She goes into a suicide mission in space and everyone’s post-credit messages complain she just disappeared without a trace? I get she’s dying and all, but, for fuck’s sake leave a message explaining it if you cared so much about them. The game *makes* you care about the characters but doesn’t give you an option to honor that love at the end.

Also, again, romances. I played both Rogue and Panam’s endings so I know there’s no way to have a happy ending with River, which is bittersweet and probably for the best that it happens with him since his romance seems to be the least engaging, but again that makes me feel cheated. Not that they parted ways in the Nomad ending (that was sad, but sad endings are not bad), but that there is no happy-ish ending romance wise for a cishet female. People who romanced Panam obviously stay together with her and those who romanced Judy do too from what I’ve read (and no idea about Kerry’s romance), but not getting that option if you choose to be female and go for a het romance takes away from the game. Sadly. Also my last interaction with River in Rogue’s ending was fucking terrible, I liked how poetic that ending was for Rogue and Johnny until I got to the rest of my V’s life.

(But I still headcanon that River eventually joined V with the Aldecaldos in my canon ending, aka the Nomads’, despite what he said. Since his post-credit message implies he might visit her and stuff.)

As for the rest of the ending... CP2077 clearly states that life isn’t happy and that there’re no happy endings for people who live in NC, so I like that no ending is completely happy since you are bound to die anyway, but. But. It’s somewhat disheartening that the overall arc can be resumed to “all that you did served for nothing, you’re still dying so your efforts were absolutely useless.” I really don’t see how to improve it without defaulting to a happy, sunshine-esque ending that fixes everything, so I don’t know. It still wasn’t exactly what I wanted to hear at the end, so... I liked it but didn’t, at the same time. Ha.

And lastly, I hoped for endgame playability and there is none, you have to revert to an earlier save to keep playing. I get why it wasn’t done, to give a definitive end to V’s story in NC, but anyway. What I really liked about this choice was that no matter the ending, V becomes no one again. They will be forgotten by most people after a while either because they leave with the nomads or because they ‘disappear’, aka die in a blaze of glory in that casino in space. Or well, sell their soul to Arasaka or commit suicide on the rooftop.

So overall, I loved this game and critics are somewhat too harsh. But I agree there are some terrible design choices and a long way of bugfixing to get to the specific masterpiece that we were hoping for.

[macgyvertape]

25 hours into Cyberpunk 2077

Most of this going under read more for spoilers:

This game really has dragon age inquisition face, you spend a lot of time in the character creator and then you look nothing like that in game I'm playing it on a laptop with a i7 980 graphics card, and usually it's 30-40fps. I'm impressed by how detailed the characters and the textures are, but looking at other people's screenshots i can see a big difference in the lighting. still much nicer than the potato settings i thought it would be rip [character] but then i think it's funny the difference between people who didn't know the e3 content vs those who did.  Watching a friend stream the game and not knowing how the flathead quest played out was funny

unlike deus ex where there are bonuses for stealth and not killing, there seems to be no bonus for that here unless it's specifically a mission objective. So it's been a lot of stealth sniping with a gun that shoots through walls.

update 15 hours in: i've spent so much fucking time reloading from failing to sneak, I've now just stopped caring unless a mission objective

Body was my dump stat followed by reflexes, so I spent a few hours grinding out the random event combat missions with a iron sights sniper rifle. I tried 1 fist fight, but it was really rough with those dump stats so i will do them eventually when I overlevel

I really liked Jackie’s memorial, with seeing how everyone came and spoke. it was really good writing and felt genuine.

BUT, where is the memorial or grieving for T-Bug? I really liked her, and aside from one or two lines theres no memorial for her. didn't realize it was adam smasher not ATOM smasher, anyway he's terrifying Wow but the first person view in the plot car chases are so good. Like it felt so visceral, when being chased by mantis blade assassins. Or when another car does a hit and run yelling “beep beep motherfucker everytime you get slapped around with your character it feels really impactful, I'm liking this first person perspective I really like Takemura, his whole intro was neat, and he's kinda a silver fox.  I liked his quest step where he talks to Oda and you can interject with limited time dialogue, or not. And sometimes when you speak up they flat out ignore you. It's great, it feels like the conversations are a lot more dynamic, getting the choice to speak up also I love Misty and Vic, especially vic he's so nice its really cool to explore the city. especially just going to the columbarium (graveyard) as part of a quest and listening to npcs talk. Makes the world feel real, listening to a father try to explain to his daughter that their mother is dead, and they can't see her again unlike her classmate who has money for an ai scan of a dead parent.

With Clouds, I was really worried that the game would force you to have sex, like some of the witcher games madeit happen, even if you could skip the actual smut animations. But it was all talking and existentialism, and i really enjoyed it as a player and what it said about V. Paid the women so they would find a better ripperdoc than fingers, then punched him out after Judy slapped him. Would have punched him before if i thought it would give good info.

Judy’s great, she might be my choice for romance

For the nomad quest, I let Lana have my old car. I honestly didn’t even realize it was my nomad car from the beginning of the game, I haven’t seen it in like 20 hours. Feels like a gameplay/story segregation: every time i go into a new zone I get offers on like 3 different cars, I could have enough cars to open my own taxi service. So the old car would just sit unused, why not let the person who put work into it (even if shoddy work) use it to escape Night City.

[talessaga]

Zootopia Fighting Game AU Part 3: NPCs

Hey, long time has passed since i posted about this right? Well i thought it was time to talk a bit more about the story.

You might want to check the previous parts you can do it following these links:

Part 1: Characters Background ideas

Part 2: Character Intro and Victory Quotes

Also you might want to check @baronpuddinsplace whose fanart was the original inspiration for the story, you can see it in the following link

Baron’s fanart

While last time i did have some fun, this time i’ll show some of the NPCs planned for the story. By this i mean characters that currently doesn’t have a storyline of their own and only shows up in other’s storylines. Also i have to point out these are early drafts that could change later when the story is better structed. 

Well it’s time to showed up some of the NPCs:

Note: If after the character’s name there is another character’s name in a parathensis it means the character is currently planned to show up only on certain storylines

Emitt Otterton(Judy/Nick)

A otter in his mid’s 30 who has been missing for almost 1 year. His wife has going to the ZPD almost daily looking to see if there has been any update on the case of his husband’s disspereance.

One day Judy Hopps, asks to be assigned to the missing case but founds a lack of information, with the best she found was that Otterton’s last known location was an arena where a fighting tournament hosted by the LH Corp happened. Apparently Otterton participated and had a private match with the host Lionheart and then left the place and he has never seen ever again.

Judy decides she needs to talk to Lionheart to heard what happened but seems that the only way to do it is by participating and winning the tournament that will take place in the following days so she decides to participate to found out what happened

What happened to Otterton and where he is currently located? His dissappereance was random or just the beginning of something else?

Renato Manchas(Judy/Nick)

Mr Big is a powerful mouse who used to be a chairman in the LH Corp but one day he was suddenly fired of his position without any explanation. Ever since he is feeling something wrong is going to happen in the martial arts tournament hosted by the Corp so he decides to send his most trusted employer, a security officer known as Mr Manchas to check the tournament.

Manchas is an skilled fighter that knows a fighting style known as Systema, where he uses his natural reflex and movement to use the opponent’s momentum against themselves throught strikes and grapples in the opponent’s pressure points.

Manchas will be able to found if something bad is happening?

Leodore Lionheart

Lionheart is the current CEO of the LH Corp, a company that had entrepreneur into several bussiness like medicine, household appliances and recently sports and training equipment. After he took the position he proposed a martial arts tournament, claiming that is to promote their sports equipment but some suspect he wants to fight sense he also said he would fight whoever wins the tournament.

Even since he was young Lionheart has practiced various styles of martial arts but from all the ones he has learned his favorite and the one he uses the most is is Wrestling, since with his strength he can deal a lot of damage with his throws, grabs and holds.

Regardless of some rumors surrounding the tournament, Lionheart is excited for wanting to see who will face this year as he starts training, leaving the semantics of the tournament to his assistant Bellwether just as usual.

Mysterious Bull (Clawhauser)

A bull who wears a mask and uses an alias is entering the tournament, no one knows for certain why he is partcipating since he doesn’t speak with anyone, well anyone who is not a certain Cheetah.

The bull seems to use Krav Maga, a military based fighting style he uses to try finish combat as quickly as possible employing strikes to hit opponents in weak spots.

Whatever his reasons are to participate, everyone should be careful of this powerful bull.

Bobby Callmut (Gideon)

A 28 years old cougar who know both of Judy Hopps and Gideon Grey back when they were kids in the Bunnyburroughs. As a cub he always loved music so much he decided he will become a professional musician. Now trying to accomplish his goal he will try to participate in the upcoming martial arts tournament to get the money he needs.

Bobby fights using Capoeira, a fighting style he initially learned thinking it was a sort of dance, which thanks to his own sense of rhythm he can use his legs to confuse his opponent and hit his opponents 

What will happen when he encounters with one of his old bullies of his childhood iin the ring?

Skye (Jack Savage)

Skye is a female fox who is Jack Savage’s partner who has worked alongside the bunny for quite so time ago. In contrast to Jack’s seriousness, Skye is outgoing and cheerful, which Jack initially found annoying but overtime he found her quite endearing.

One day after returning from a solo mission, Jack returns to discover that Skye has gone MIA during an inflitration mission, where she tries to cover some info on the LH Corp, located in the city of Zootopia, related to the apparent dissapereance of various martial artists after a tournament the corporation does in the city.

Jack decided to participate in the tournament itself as a way to found the missing animals and if is possible Skye too.

Well i hope you have enjoyed what i written so far, i want to say thanks to @baronpuddinsplace who created the original art and also have help giving me some ideas. Also want to say thanks to @viperwolf1992 who has help me a lot with the setting.

[entergamingxp]

Five of the Best: Friends • Eurogamer.net

Five of the Best is a weekly series about the bits of games we overlook. I’m talking about potions, hubs, bags, mountains, anything really – but things we ignore at the time. Then, years later, we find they’re cemented in our memory, inseparable from our experience of the game. Turns out they were important after all. So now we’re celebrating them.

Five of the Best works like this. Various Eurogamer writers will share their memories in the article and then you – probably outraged we didn’t include the thing you’re thinking of – can share the thing you’re thinking of in the comments below. We’ve had some great discussions in our other Five of the Best pieces. Some of you have memories like elephants!

Today’s Five of the Best…

Friends: it’s at times like these we need them, phoning up, checking in, sending us silly pictures to make us smile. Friends are a very good thing. And the characters we play in games have friends too, unless they’re monsters – do monsters have friends? – always there to help them out and encourage them along. In our adventures, as in our lives, it’s friends who make the journey worthwhile, so let’s give them the cheer they deserve.

Midna

Midna makes it very clear when you first meet her she doesn’t want to be Link’s friend. Unlike Navi who just wanted you to listen, Midna belittles Link, takes on the form of his kidnapped friends to mock him, and is open with the fact she’s only helping him because she gets something out of it.

Yet as much as the narrative in Twilight Princess follows the typical Zelda structure of good overthrowing evil, it’s also about the developing friendship between two very different people from very different worlds. Experiencing this relationship through Link’s eyes, you witness the subtle beginning, where Midna’s true feelings manage to slip through her persona, to the defining moments like when you save her life. Gradually the image of Midna as a potentially backstabbing imp erodes away and you see her for who she truly is: an overthrown leader desperately trying to find a way to save her people.

By the end of the game, you know that Midna is your friend, which is why her final decision to permanently break the connection between the worlds of Light and Twilight is so heartbreaking.

-Lottie Lynn

Garrus

People spend a lot of time thinking about who they want to bone in Mass Effect, but not a lot of time thinking about Garrus. Which is a real shame, I think, because he clearly spends a lot of time thinking about you.

I could write a whole character study on why Garrus is clearly your best buddy throughout the trilogy. He idolises Shepard, wants to be them someday himself. He even tries, off-screen, during his moody Archangel phase. And he fails – gets his whole squad killed in the process. And it hurts him. But that’s fine. Because he’s still your number one. He is the Riker to Shepard’s Picard. The Judy to your Richard.

From his beginnings in Mass Effect 1 as a moody cast-out cop, his race only recently done being at war with humanity after we barged onto the galactic stage, to the fan-favourite scene in Mass Effect 3 where you go shooting bottles together on the roof of the Citadel, Garrus’ arc is defined by his relationship with Shepard. When things get really dark in Mass Effect 3, it is Garrus – and only Garrus – that Shepard will tell if he is forced to kill Mordin. And when it comes to the trilogy’s set of final goodbyes, amidst the rubble of London, Garrus is one of the last you can counsel. He knows you probably won’t make it out of this alive. And he’s right. But he’s already planning to meet you, should there be some kind of afterlife, for a drink at the bar.

-Tom Phillips

The Dog

Man’s best friend. It could be Colin the Call of Duty dog or whatever you want to call the Fallout dog, but the one which really sticks in my mind is Fido the Fable dog. This was Peter Molyneux’s big play in Fable 2, his foolproof way of getting you to care about something he could leverage later on – I can’t bring myself to spoil the surprise even all these years later.

His thinking was clear: no one can resist a dog. You may be able to deny the charms of a humanoid companion, find them a bit annoying, but you can never turn down a four-legged friend. And I think it worked.

It reminds me of the wonderful Mabari Warhound from Dragon Age: Origins. What a beast! Even when ordered to kill my companions, it didn’t turn me down. Now there’s a real friend for you.

-Bertie

Your Pokmon

I know I’ve made a lot of friends in video games, but for a while I couldn’t actually think of any. I’ve always struggled to really bond with NPCs in the way I know a lot of people have – and I’ve always slightly envied those people for it – but I find most NPCs and companions to be something different to friends. Something more like exposition delivery mannikins or walking storage bags. And yet, I have made friends in games.

It probably shouldn’t have taken me so long to think of because, duh, it’s Pokmon, a series about friendship and growing bonds, about foregoing strength and stats for a trusted companion that can muddle through. Of course it’s that. I want to say there’s one Pokmon that always stood out above the rest, maybe your chosen starter, but I don’t think there is. Game Freak’s success comes from an enduring ability to give incredible, disarming humanity to its little creatures. There are no exceptions. Whichever ones you choose or bump into, or get stuck with and grow to sort of begrudgingly love, are the ones that matter. A lesson that friendship isn’t always what we think it is, if that isn’t a little trite. It’s about the bond itself, regardless of the person – or Pokmon.

-Chris Tapsell

This is… bizarre.

Roach

So I have a propensity towards liking animals which don’t talk back – sue me! But how can you deny the stalwart charm of Roach in The Witcher 3? She is Geralt’s forever companion, lugging him around the countryside into beasts’ lairs without so much as a whinny.

“C’mon Roach”: the most iconic saying in the game. It’s what I say whenever I’m pretending to be Geralt, which I do quite a lot and I bet you do too. “C’mon Roach.” Speak it and there she’ll be (in the game, that is, she’s never shown up in real life). Maybe inexplicably up on a roof somewhere, or caught on a fence or a bush, but there she’ll be, forever, dependably, by your side.

-Bertie

Well, I didn’t know this!

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/03/five-of-the-best-friends-%e2%80%a2-eurogamer-net/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=five-of-the-best-friends-%25e2%2580%25a2-eurogamer-net

[proofthatihaveaheart]

b99 and taz for the fandom ask ??

b99

my favorite female character: AMY, OF COURSE

my favorite male character: holt, with jake as a very close second. i love how he’s strong and determined and like wow he’s worked so hard to get where he is but then he also has this streak of humor (he’s the funny one in his group of friends!!! but his humor’s weird and none of the squad get it!!!) and he’s petty af and sometimes dramatic and overly competitive and it’s just amazing. also he’s taking on the nypd now and it’s a+ 

my favorite book/season/etc: season 5 for sure! i love rosa coming out and i love all the jake/amy stuff and i love how many episodes we got with amy&rosa (including an a-plot!) and kevin with jake and doug judy and wow i just loved season 5 a lot

my favorite episode (if its a tv show): dasdsadsadj why would you make me choose? coral palms pt 3 or yippie kayak or halloveen, it’s probably one of those but i’ll remember something else tomorrow and wonder why i didn’t put it here

my favorite cast member: …..i can’t choose…… how could i choose?

my favorite ship: jake/amy. i love how they bounce off each other, how there’s such a strong backbone of friendship in their relationship, how they support and love and trust each other, how they can be absolute nerds with each other and there’s no embarrassment, how he’s the only one she wanted to talk to and how she’s the best person he’s ever met, how they both look at the other like they’ve hung the stars and moon. they’re in love and now they’re married and i love them. 10/10, one of my favorite ships of all time

a character I’d die defending: i mean amy but i don’t think she needs my defense? maybe charles, he probably needs it more

a character I just can’t sympathize with: gina. most of the time i like her but i don’t sympathize with her. which is fine, i don’t think she’d want that anyway lol

a character I grew to love: hmm i’m sure it took me a couple episodes to warm to charles especially since he had that crush on rosa season 1 but then i realized how sweet and kind and loyal he is and i truly do love him (and speaking of charles and rosa, i love where their friendship’s gone and that he’s the first one she comes out too!)

my anti otp: i don’t have huge anti feelings about ships though i have a lot i don’t ship. i don’t get the appeal of jake/rosa or charles/rosa, i didn’t like pimento/rosa, and i would never ship holt with anyone other than kevin

taz

my favorite female character: LUP, i love lucretia too but lup is just

my favorite male character: magnus, i love his bravery, i love how he protects and cares for his friends, i love that he loves animals, i love that he understands that strength comes not just from muscles but also from other people, i just really love magnus

my favorite book/season/etc: balance is always going to have a special place in my heart

my favorite episode (if its a tv show): i couldn’t possibly choose just one single episode, but the eleventh hour is my favorite arc. i don’t usually like that type of time mechanic but the plot was so masterful and i loved all the npcs and the setting + music were perfect. and then story and song, which is a whole different masterpiece (maybe the finale for a single episode then?)

my favorite cast member: all of them, how could i possibly choose between them

my favorite ship: carey/killian is the light and sun, and i’ll never be over the happy ending centering around their wedding. thank you griffin for that moment, it felt so validating

a character I’d die defending: lucretia

a character I just can’t sympathize with: hmm… i’m sure there’s someone but my mind is blank right now

a character I grew to love: i think i loved everyone??? but uh, maybe barry? not because i didn’t like him but because i kinda just found him boring initially, i didn’t understand why people wanted him back so fervently, and then he grew on me

my anti otp: i don’t have any particularly negative feelings about ships outside of just not understanding why people ship certain things

[trashcatsnark]

Potential Cyberpunk 2077 Spoilers: basically thoughts on act 1 and like the montage

So, I’m giffing some stuff of my V in that first city montage and it got me thinking, I’ve seen a lot of people say that an issue they have with the beginning montage which is meant to make us feel closer to Jackie (and for me it worked, cause im a sap) but the issue is it doesn’t make an impact because we aren’t an active participant in it. And people are saying they should have made it playable. 

tHIS GOT SO FUCKING LONG IM SORRY

First of all, I really do like the montage, I think its the most and lively and just full of charm thing in the game so far as I’ve played it. It just sucked me in not gonna lie. But I hundred percent agree, that it does not leave the impact it should. But I also don’t think making the entire montage like a playable game section would have been a way to alleviate this. And my stance is A) the full six months being playable would be a not so great idea, B) more missions and npc interactions would be nice, and C) there could be better ways to show and give impact to the montage without it being playable.

This is gonna sound ironic, given how much I’ve restarted, but to me Cyberpunk 2077 has a glaring issue with replayability. Some aspects of the game, lots of choice, different life paths, lots of side jobs, lots of little things that can influence dialogue; actively encourage repeat plays. But act one is not all that fun to replay through, look how many “mods” on nexus are just save files that are past act 1. For people who wanna start a new game but do not want to slog through Act 1. And I cannot speak for everyone, but I know for me, it’s the fucking BD Editor Tutorial. It fucking grinds everything to a halt if you already know what to do and it is completely unskippable, you can’t even skip the lines. Literally, if you already know how the BD editor works, it adds nothing. There are no choices, the BD for the tutorial has no impact on the plot, there’s no character building because all it is is Judy giving instructions. I can play through the Sandra Dorsett mission over and over again, I can do the heist over and over again (though i do not like how we’re made to be weirdly a dick to jackie) and have a damn good time. But that editor tutorial makes it a pain. 

So, given that, i think there would be added issues if we were made to play six months of V’s life. It would be way too much and between that and the BD tutorial, (pls cdpr if i can ask anything of you outside of a johnny romance, make that fucking tutorial skippable)  I think it would make replaying act one a fucking feat of determination. However, I would have liked more missions with Jackie, not the full six months, just a few more to flesh out V’s and Jackie’s dynamic. I think having some more interactions with Misty, Mama Welles, and Vik with choices Just as simple as a mission with Jackie, then you eat dinner at his Mom’s house, Misty and Vik are invited (you get a glimpse at the conflict between misty and mama welles), get choices of what to say. See more of Vik and how he interacts with jackie, his mom, and misty beyond work. Just a bit more development in that regard. 

The other thing that I really think would have helped with making the montage mean more; IS MAKE IT MEAN SOMETHING IN THE GAME. Like, the game plays out after act 1, like none of the montage happened. When Padre calls you when you first enter Heywood, he acts like he’s never met you before, wHEN HES IN THE MONTAGE. And idk if that’s different for streetkid route, but it should be since he’s also in the intro for streetkid. But he calls me like we’ve never met. Dino acts like he doesn’t know you either, aND IN THE MONTAGE YOU POINT A GUN AT HIS HEAD (im pretty sure its him). Jackie acts like you’ve never been to The Afterlife before and im not positive but im fairly sure the dancing sequence when you then get beatup, was in The Afterlife. That you two snuck in and then Emmerick and other guards kicked your asses and threw you out. The woman at Lizzie’s bar acts like you’ve never been there before, has to give you ground rules, IN THE MONTAGE YOU ROB A GUY GETTING A BD IN ONE OF THEIR BOOTHS. 

Like it would mean so much more if the montage actually impacted something; if padre talked to you like he’s worked with you before, if dino was like *hey remember when you pointed a gun at me, lowkey sucked, but ayyyy thats night city aint it* if the woman at lizzies was like *hey aren’t you the asshole who robbed a guy here?* or Jackie worried that emmerick is gonna throw your asses out again. 

V is suppose to be an up and coming solo, who’s started to make a name for themselves, which is why they get picked for the heist, because them and jackie may not be the most experienced/talented but they’re getting their name out there and they’ve done good work. Yet, everyone acts like V’s a fresh face wittle baby who don’t know anybody. 

This is so long and rambly; i overally do like act 1 but its got some glaring issues in my opinion is the gist of it.