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kuroo-hitsuji · 7 months ago

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This is a prompt to talk about Lucifer and Satan purring (!!!!!) and body types??

Woo thank you !!

Starting with body types bc i think it will be shorter than the purring (i have. Many thoughts about the purring lmao). They're admittedly not drastically different from the models, I'm constantly at war with my brain between Canon Compliance and creative liberties ahzhsjxh but its a lot of smaller details, i hope its not disappointing at all orz

Lucifer - ironically his body type is the most difficult one for me to describe shdhhd he's just kind of a Fit Guy tm. Like he's got decently defined muscles and the slight dorito shape from his shoudlers/chest to his waist that you expect from anime men lmao. But he's not shredded, no washboard abs or anything (but relatively toned still, could be a six-pack if he's deliberately flexing lmao), the most defined muscles are in his arms and chest, primarily. Also he's got long-ass legs, idk why he is just ⅔ leg and i cannot unsee it

Satan - lean muscle and pretty boxy, the shoulder to waist to hip ratio isn't all that drastic, not a lot of chest muscle and again lean but not shredded ab region (using the flexing concept again I'd put him at a 4 pack lol) but also more visibly defined than Lucifer's at rest as well due to a slightly lower fat percentage. Also he has like no ass and I'll die on this hill (the first obey me post i ever saw was someone calling him out for having a flat ass in a chat picture and it has stuck with me the entire 4 years 💀 not slander btw we support all booties here). He's just very square/rectangle coded in my mind for inexplicable reasons

Demons purring is a headcanon I'm constantly dying to talk about Thank You 🙏 i hope these are actually like afjsjg decently coherent, they got long (as expected but still)

Lucifer - witnessing him purr at all is Exceptional rare (hearing it is even less common) for a combination of reasons that mostly boil down to his general commitment to his reputation and him being reluctant to show vulnerability at most times (and in this specific case its exacerbated by the fact that he was not Always a demon and the ability to purr in the first place is relatively foreign to him). He's put in the work to keep a handle on it as much as he can, and to keep it silent when he can't (control, control, control), and outside of him practicing that alone the most common instances of it happening have been when he's with MC, or when he's Very drunk and in good/safe company (diavolo, primarily. Lucifer is still hesitant to fully drop his facade with him, but it's been slowly melting away over the centuries. Diavolo does his absolute best not to call attention to the purring in the very rare instance that he even notices it occurring, but it is an absolutely herculean feat for him lmao). Generally the only time it's at all audible is with MC, in those rare perfect moments that let him feel safe and cozy enough to fully relax, often with the help of cuddling and petting his hair, wings, or the base of his horns. Even then it's quiet, a low, deep rumble somewhere between what you'd expect from a panther or other big cat (if they were actually able to purr) and the kind of sound a small tremor of an earthquake makes, where you might not realize you're even hearing anything at first but you can Feel your eardrums vibrating anyways.

Satan - also purrs very infrequently, for a few similar reasons but also wildly different ones. He's more accustomed to it as a general ability, having never had a body that was unable to purr in the first place, but he's still not incredibly familiar with it for a while. He did it instinctively as a self-soothing method at first, back when he was still out of control and would get locked in his room for the safety of himself and others, doing it less the more he gets a hold on his wrath, associating it with the consequences of a loss of control rather than positive emotions. It's not until he becomes attached to and knowledgeable about cats that he starts seeing it in a different light, eventually allowing himself to give into the urge to purr occasionally without feeling bad about it, but with this a different problem arises: having something so in common with cats has him almost too giddy, to the extent that when he starts purring he struggles to stop, so he still represses it most of the time. He purrs most often completely alone in his room where there will be minimal consequences to him getting stuck in a happy-stim feedback loop for an hour or two if it does happen, and he's still a bit embarrassed about the idea of this happening in front of MC for a good while, but not totally against it.

His purr tends to be a bit stilted and not particularly deep in pitch, waves of it more clearly following his breathing. It's not loud but its not really quiet either, and he's never really been successful at trying to control anything about it other than completely suppressing it, adding to the list of reasons he can't do it stealthily in day to day life as some other demons might be able to (purring loudly in public is seen as vaguely inappropriate, not really in a big way but kind of the same vibes as crying in public in most human settings. You won't get in trouble or anything but its one of those things most people feel more comfortable with keeping private).

I think I covered everything but if not I'll probably end up adding anything I couldve missed whenever i actually remember it lol

Thanks again for the chance to infodump :)

#obey me #obey me headcanons #obey me lucifer #obey me satan #lucifer #satan #personal headcanon #asks

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maximusthewolfe · 5 years ago

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Letters I Never Sent

We all want to know what’s in that envelope, right?

Here are a bunch of things Eliot Waugh wrote and didn’t send. And one that maybe, just maybe, he will.

Also on AO3

Eliot pilfered a stack of parchment paper from the drawer of an old desk in a room where he used to sleep as High King. He grabbed it and ran. Down a hall, around a corner, his feet skittering over one another as they tapped down a spiral staircase and skidded into a hallway. Moments. He only had moments. If he was gone too long, Margo would ask questions he wasn't willing to answer. If he stayed in one place for too long, he risked getting caught. He unfolded the paper, pulled a pen from the breast pocket of his suit jacket and....tried.

Don’t do it. Please don’t do it.

Love,

Eliot.

It wasn't enough. Of course it wasn't enough. He crumpled up the pathetic attempt and started on a new sheet, his hand shaking slightly as he set it on the smooth, cream-colored surface.

Quentin,

We both know I’m not going to send this. So why the fuck am I writing it? Words are - fucking stupid, right? It’s all fucking stupid. I have to do the right thing. I can’t be selfish here, and I know that because of you.

I hate you for that.

I love you for everything.

Fuck.

With a short, soft grunt he pulled this one up, too, balled it, and threw it across the hall where it settled a few feet from the discarded first attempt. How, how was he supposed to do this? How could he convince Quentin Makepeace Coldwater to not save the world. The one thing he'd wanted to do from the moment he found out magic really existed. The one thing he believed would give his life meaning. Was it even possible? What could he possibly say that would change that stubborn man's mind?

Peaches and Plums. We get proof of concept like that. We can have it again. Fuck the seam. We’ll figure it out. We always do.

Love,

Eliot

He felt raw, ripped open for the world to see, as he read the words back. Like two fucking fruits could somehow encapsulate an entire lifetime spent together, or like they could explain why he'd said no when they returned. As if anything could manage that Herculean feat. He heard rustling somewhere in the distance. He folded the remaining parchment and tore a stamp off the sheet, sticking it to the outside of an envelope and stowing it alongside the parchment inside his jacket. He ripped the letter attempt in half and returned to the dungeons, his heart aching and his head swimming.

Quentin,

I wrote....a lot of versions of this. I told Margo I already sent it. She thought I told Josh to drink himself to death. In her defense, I'm not sure that was an entirely unfair accusation. I let it go. I just wanted to save a stamp.

She wrote one for the last stamp. She told Josh goodbye.

It’s not the same.

But I get it.

I don’t want you to do what you’re about to do, Q. I don’t want you to throw away the chance I have to be braver. I don’t want you to throw away the chance WE have at proving that concept once and for all.

But I get it.

Save the world and all that, right?

But. Q.

I love you.

I really fucking love you.

If you're gonna die, at least die knowing that.

Love,

Eliot

He should have been making quick work of his time by this god forsaken time-jumping mailbox, sending the letter he was writing to a dead man about, but instead it was tucked into his back pocket. And here he was, kneeling beside a boulder on the outskirts of town, rushing to summarize the whole contents of his heart in a way that might - not even guaranteed, just a might - get Quentin back. He had time, but it wasn't his. It was borrowed from Margo, borrowed from Whitespire guards, borrowed from any absently wandering questing beasts or gods who might come across his path at any moment. Borrowed time. The only kind of time he knew, it seemed, when it came to Quentin. Borrowed time, but he was determined to make something of it for once.

I know you have to.

Please know I love you.

We had one lifetime together, I’m sure we’ll find another.

Peaches and plums, motherfucker. I’ll see you in the next one. I promise not to fuck that one up.

Eternally yours,

Eliot

That felt - closer, somehow. Maybe it was the copious swearing. But it didn't seem right. What if there wasn't a next one? And besides, he didn't want a fucking timeline 41. He wanted this timeline. This life. He didn't want the slate to have to be wiped clean in order for him to get it right for once. And suddenly, just like that, he was mad again. More than mad. Furious. A strangled something-like-a-yell fought its way out of his throat and he ripped the parchment from the stack and tossed it across the expanse of the forest, as far as he could. "Fuck you, Quentin," he shouted, and the echo of his voice against the trees betrayed him. It mirrored his own brokenness back at him, and he hated it. Hated everything. He scribbled down one letter, and then another in quick succession.

Quentin,

For fuck’s sake, don’t be the volunteer tomato. You’re smarter than that. You don’t have to be the chosen one.

-Eliot

*****

Quentin,

You know I don't give a shit, right? I don't give a flying fuck if you love Alice. If you love me. If you love both of us if you love neither of us if you if you if you.

I don't fucking care.

I just want you here to love at all. I want you here to be floppy-haired and doe-eyed and full of belief and faith and YOU underneath all that pain.

I want you here so I can look at you and you can look at me and we can know we're not alone.

I want you here so you can love Alice, if you want to.

Or you can love me, if you want to.

Or you can love someone else altogether. Or no one. Whatthefuckever, you know?

Just. Be here. Come back. Don't do this to us all.

-Eliot

Neither of those were right. Jesus. He made small paper projectiles out of them both and threw them, twisting his fingers as the flew through the air so that they caught fire and turned to ash before they ever reached the ground. The magic felt good - terrible, but good. Controlled chaos, he'd heard Fogg say once. The problem was, Brakebills expected chaotic creatures to understand control. Eliot had increasingly prevalent doubts about whether or not that was possible. Whether or not human nature and magician nature diverged in this very specific way. Wherever magic went, tragedy seemed to follow. Whether it was the chicken or the egg, he didn't really care. All he knew was the pain of the heartbreak and the way it made his chest feel hollow at the same time it made his head feel like it was about to explode. He inhaled, closing his eyes as the breath moved out of his lungs. He bent down to grab the pen where he'd dropped it in favor of the spell and knelt down to try again.

Some of us need you more than we know how to say.

Some of us fuck up because we’re scared of being happy.

Some of us can’t imagine having something so beautiful in our grasp and not breaking it.

Some of us need you to prove us wrong.

Prove me wrong,

Eliot

Prove me wrong. As soon as he wrote it, he knew. Maybe he'd known the whole time. He was, so very fucking often, a mystery even to himself. But Quentin wasn't a mystery to him. That's how he knew. Quentin would have loved to prove Eliot wrong. It was, in fact, one of his favorite pastimes. On Earth, in Fillory. Quentin lived to tear down Eliot's carefully constructed charisma. He relished any opportunity to break past Eliot's masterfully-placed cynicism. If he sent that letter, it might just work. But what did "work" look like anyway? If Quentin didn't go to the Seam, what would happen? What did Jane Chatwin mean when she said they won? Hadn't they won before? Couldn't they win again? What was so different about this time? Eliot didn't know. But he couldn't know, either. He folded this one and stored it in the free pocket of his pants. Maybe he didn't need Quentin to prove him wrong. Maybe, for once, he needed to prove himself wrong.

It went against everything in him. It laughed in the face of his pain and it ripped and pulled and cut at the already very ragged, very wrecked shreds of his heart. It was exactly the opposite of everything he wanted to do, in this moment. Which was exactly why he wrote:

Quentin,

Jane Chatwin told me something I don’t know how to live with. Something I don’t know how I ever lived without.

We. We are the reason you ever went to Fillory in the first place. In the first timeline, you ran away to escape the grief of losing me.

In the first timeline.

Maybe it’s always been us. Maybe we’re the Romeo and Juliet. Maybe we have the great love. But the great love always gets the tragic ending, right?

I asked her to save you again. She said no. I thought I could find a way to do it anyway. I'm wondering now if she was right.

If I saved you, could I live with myself? Knowing the win that we'd be giving up? Honestly? Probably. Because I'm selfish like that, you know?

And that's the difference, I think. Between the two of us. The difference that counts. If I could save you, you wouldn't let me.

I know what you’re about to do. I know I can’t stop you.

I also know we found each other. In the first timeline. In this timeline. In the timeline we created for ourselves.

I didn't mean it when you said we should try and I told you neither of us would choose each other. I was scared. You scare me. You make me feel alive, and that - scares me shitless. But I suspect you maybe knew that. I'm sorry I didn't make it easier for you to call me on it.

We’ll find each other again. Do what you have to do.

We are the proof, Quentin.

Yours,

Eliot.

P.S. Maybe I wasn’t your first choice in every timeline. Maybe you weren’t mine, either. But Quentin Coldwater, you are the love of my lives. And I’ll be damned if you go to the grave not knowing that.

Before he had a chance to think himself out of the moment. Before he could let his wants catch up with the tiny seed of rightness he felt in his gut, he hastily folded the paper and placed it in the pre-stamped envelope. And then, with slow, deliberate strokes, he addressed it. He wrote Quentin's name with reverence, feeling every line like the cipher to a code that his heart understood when his head would not. When he was finished he stood, brushed the dirt off his pants, and delivered Margo's final letter to Josh.

His borrowed time was up, for now. So he stowed the letter in his pocket and returned to his last real lifeline. The one that still existed, in this plane. He'd have his chance soon enough. And maybe by then the seed of rightness would have grown into something courageous enough to do something with that chance.

To: Quentin Coldwater

Before He Went to the Seam

God, he hoped that seed would grow.

#the magicians #s5 #eliot waugh #quentin coldwater #queliot #queliot ff #eliot ff #the magicians ff #queliot fanfiction #the magicians fanfiction

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callmcgills · 6 years ago

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werner ziegler 😭

! major BCS spoilers from this point on !

Werner (send me a character and I’ll list…)

thank you for giving me an excuse to dump my emotions! THAT SAID:

*sits on the sidewalk* *screams into my hands*

favorite thing about them

a huge part of me liking him is his duality between professionalism and goofiness. (“for my father, it was his achievement. a creation that will endure,” and “very good! now you use your thinking head, not your drinking head!” are lines from the same episode) i also liked how he was an architectural genius, but was downright incapable of thinking ahead when his smarts were applied to any other situation. but most importantly, i like him because he had so much heart that he was KILLED OVER IT!!! the crimes he was killed over were being friendly/proud of his work, escaping the warehouse because he’s tired and wants to be with someone he loved, and trusting someone to be honest!!!!!!! Rainer Bock also gave a great portrayal which definitely helped too

also, relevant: i went from liking Werner to being absolutely invested after he had a panic attack in Wiedersehen, and then it hard cut to him walking back into the room with a smile.

least favorite thing about them

to this day i still have to watch the pool-side scene in Winner while peaking through my fingers. partly because Werner WHY did you have to BLAB AGAIN! but mostly because, well… i’m glad Werner didn’t have to die in those clothes. i also can’t let it go unstated that Werner most likely did know he was working on something w/ criminal ties. but w/ the way Werner acted, he CLEARLY must have thought that Gus and Mike were just storing illegal fireworks or something

favorite line

“Ah, not true. He also left you, Michael. You are his legacy.” Werner doesn’t think Mike needs a grand accomplishment to be worthy of being called a legacy. he could have just said “oh, that’s a shame” about Mike’s previous line, but instead he tells Mike that he’s good enough just for existing. and that’s incredibly meaningful and sweet. (but Mike laughs, because he’s a murderer. his son’s death is on his hands. some legacy he is! and if Werner knew, he wouldn’t be saying that. then, har har har, Werner is killed by him.)

close runner up: “Now say Mittagsschläfchen,” and literally every other line in that scene. for example: “How do you say bullshit?” “Hmm, bullshit.” his dialogue with Mike was gold.

brOTP

Werner and the construction crew. They Are His Sons. the reason Werner said ‘once, maybe’ about if he wanted to have kids was because living w/ someone like Kai for 9 months was enough

if that’s too obvious an answer… Gale and Werner. “wow. i mean, it’s incredible. […] an architectural feat. herculean.” RETCON WERNER’S DEATH SO THEY CAN DRINK COFFEE TOGETHER!!!

OTP

throwback to when i said ‘wehrmantraut endgame’ to myself during Coushatta. those were simpler times.

nOTP

Werner/Kai. a very hard nOTP at that. i haven’t seen anyone ship it, but the Mere Concept is enough to squick me out. and if i’m being frank, Werner/any of the six people in his team. i can’t see Werner’s relationship w/ them as anything other than familial.

random headcanon

i’ve put a lot of thought into this, because i’m working on (more like… planning but avoiding actually writing) a construction crew-centric fic. and since i only have 1 piece of backstory info and a piece of lint to go off of for Werner, i realized i had to fill in some of the blanks! here’s a piece of what i came up with!

i think his father’s work would’ve left a negative impact on Werner. if Werner’s in his 50s, then when he was a kid his father was working on what would be The Most Important Project Of His Life, and he wasn’t able to interact w/ his family often. this would put Werner in an uncomfortable position – being upset about his father being so busy would mean he was being “ungrateful.” his father was sacrificing so much and working so hard, after all!! his attire and work methods might reflect that he’s almost replicating his father in a way. he’s almost deliberately old fashioned, even for someone his age. contrast w/ the French engineer, or even Mike, who is more adaptable to the point he notices dead pixels and what was used to create them

it can’t be good for anyone to have a parent who is constantly busy w/ their “achievement” during some of the most important years of your development. and imagine at least one of your parents being more of a legend than a family member! you’d internalize unrealistic expectations of yourself and flat out wrong ideas of what’s good enough, and you’d look at every moment in your life using that parent’s experiences as a frame of reference. you’re constantly comparing your experiences. not in a “am i as good as them?” kind of way, but in a “in terms of work, i don’t have it NEARLY as hard as they did, so i must be grateful for [X]” way. you also can’t complain about anything that’s given to you, because at least you didn’t have to aid in revolutionizing architecture and construct a new type of concrete arch

while Werner clearly said “you are his legacy” as a way to make Mike look at things more optimistically (and because he really meant it) you have to wonder what him choosing that word says about how he thinks of himself. if you are your parent’s legacy – working in their occupation, even – does that mean just the fact that you exist is good enough, or does that mean you can’t let your existence as a legacy go to waste? of course, when he said it to Mike he meant the former, but that’s not necessarily how the child of someone like his father applies that message to himself.

unpopular opinion

i’ve noticed a lot of people saying that Werner was “stupid for not realizing the severity of his situation” and thinking he’d be able to go back to work after escaping. in my opinion, Mike screwed up by not clearly defining the rules to him. his death was unfair, but even more so because he was punished for breaking the rules to a game he didn’t know he was playing. Gus is playing 4D Chess, and Werner was playing Jenga at a completely different table.

as far as Werner knew, all that mattered was that the work got done and that it got done in secrecy. after all, i don’t imagine any of his other employers would have killed him for what was just a day off. it doesn’t matter how much Werner knew about his job, your instinct isn’t to believe you are going to be murdered for leaving your workplace. not when every single job you’ve had hasn’t worked that way. and that’s where the communication problems spring from, almost every other job Mike has had did work that way, so to Mike the implications were clear and he didn’t need to clarify what “think about who you’re working for” meant.

Werner lacked the context: that Gus was playing a long con that ran deeper than just what they’re building. while Werner believed what they were building was the most important part – and thus no harm no foul in leaving for a few days because the work was going to get done – it was really the revenge and end game that mattered, which meant everyone was replaceable and expendable. especially when they blab to a Salamanca. so it’s about more than whether he knew the people he worked for were dangerous, it’s about the fact he was wrong about what the priorities were.

song i associate with them

Miles, by Mother Mother. a post-Wiedersehen song

“Miles / and miles / and miles / Before we reach the sand / Cacti / and cacti / for miles / miles of dry land, dry land / We gonna make it / Oooh we gonna make it / We gonna take it / Oooh we gonna take it / Easy / Once we feel the sea breezeMy my my my my my my lover / My maker / My breaker / Take me by the hand / We could go walking for miles / Once we reach the sand / the sand”

favorite picture of them

A Very Tender Photo Taken One Episode Before Disaster

bonus: an excerpt from an IM w/ kiraalexander, after they filled me in on what Werner did during the finale

#thank you so much anon!!!!!#i put a read more because im incapable of being concise #m posts #better call saul spoilers #bcs spoilers #SORRY MOBILE USERS #i need a tag for these hmmmm #pseudo meta #character meme

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jmsebastian · 8 years ago

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Rewards: How Breath of the Wild Fails at Incentives

I will admit up front that some of the things I don’t like about The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild aren’t issues with the game itself. There is something inherently unrewarding to me about open world games that, naturally, this title shares with other games of its style. That isn’t completely the fault of the game’s design, nor the implementation of the tropes that go along with open world games. Open world games just aren’t really very interesting. For all there is to see and do, the understanding that nearly all of it is inconsequential makes the incentive to go uncover it disappear. While Breath of the Wild offers a lot more in the moment to moment action than other similar titles, it still suffers from this basic flaw. Because it’s a Zelda title, that flaw is both more pronounced and more problematic.

Just to get this out of the way, the game is too big. The common concept of value with regard to video games is amount of content, which can roughly translate into how much total time a player might spend playing. Open world games take this simplistic formula to the extreme, cramming in more side quests, collectibles, and places to visit than are required to reach the end game in an effort to make players feel that the money they spent was worth it. In a game with no story or particular goal in mind, say, Minecraft, for example, more often does translate into more. The larger your world, the more players can uncover as they go about experiencing the world. When you have a game like Breath of the Wild, which has a fairly concise and urgent story it wants to tell, there’s no way to make such a huge world fit into that story. There is also the issue of diminishing returns. With so many things to explore and find, the value of each find begins to drop. Finding a piece of opal can only be exciting so many times before the player either doesn’t need anything from them or no longer remembers what they can be used for. There’s an underlying lack of payoff in a world overflowing with stuff.

There are three major types of rewards the player receives for exploring the overworld: towers, shrines and collectibles. In terms of incentives, towers provide a reasonable reward to encourage players to find and activate them. They allow Link to obtain more detailed information on the map about the region the tower resides in, for one. They also give the player a good view of the surrounding area and provide platforms from which one can parasail Link down into otherwise difficult to reach areas. As an added benefit, they allow for fast travel between areas. Most of the towers are easy to get to and scale, but a few have environmental challenges that must be overcome in order to activate them. Even without the map information being filled in, the ability to fast travel or glide to nearby areas makes towers valuable. There is one major problem with fast travel being tied to towers, however, which is that it isn’t exclusive to them, sadly cutting off their usefulness by as much as a third for many of them.

(If you want to fill all that in, you’re going to be climbing a lot of towers.)

The second reward for exploration are the shrines. The shrines are self contained puzzle palaces that test the player’s skill with particular items, concepts, or combat. Shrines unlock fast travel similar to towers, but the main draw of the shrines is that they contain unique items that can be retrieved as well as Spirit Orbs. Spirit Orbs allow Link to gain heart containers or increase his stamina meter by trading in four orbs for each heart or stamina increase. The shrines are where the reward system, so ingrained, in Breath of the Wild really breaks down. Shrines always have a Spirit Orb as their main collectible. Unfortunately, since you need four orbs at a time to upgrade Link, there have to be a lot of shrines to guarantee enough orbs to satisfactorily increase Link’s abilities. This results in the player spending the majority of their time in the game’s overworld looking for shrines.

(Get ready to collect tons of these.)

Knowing what the reward to each shrine is going to be before entering really mutes the excitement of discovering a new one. Nintendo tried to mitigate this somewhat by including treasure chests in the shrines that have unique items, but rarely is the item good enough to justify spending the time figuring out how to access them. The puzzles that would normally make up a dungeon in a Zelda game are instead isolated and sterile. Many are enjoyable, but none last longer than a few minutes. In a weird twist, many of the shrines don’t even feature puzzles, but rather force the player to square off against a robot opponent. These tests of strength are all the same, just scaled up or down in difficulty. It feels as though they were added just in case players never engaged enemies in the overworld (which is something you can pretty much get away with if you want to).

What’s most frustrating about the way the shrines are implemented is that there is an obvious solution to making them more meaningful, one that was pioneered in the very first Zelda game. When you discover a hidden cave in The Legend of Zelda, you don’t know what you’re going to find, but no matter what it is, it’s useful. Some caves contain rupees, useful for buying items while doubling as bow ammunition. Other caves contain NPCs who convey important clues to progression. Some hold heart containers. The dungeons you traverse all have a special item that can be used to make progress somewhere else in the game, like the ladder or flute. Heck, the first cave in the game holds your main weapon, which is possible to miss or ignore. Breath of the Wild could have followed a similar design philosophy, where one shrine might offer you a very good and unique weapon, whereas another might offer a heart container or stamina increase. Not knowing exactly what was hidden inside, yet knowing it would be worth the effort, would have given shrines real purpose and remained somewhat mysterious. Since there is a hard limit on how many heart containers and how much stamina Link can have, it would have meant greatly reducing the number of shrines, certainly, but more care could have been placed on the shrines themselves. They could have been made bigger, more elaborate and interesting. Combined uses of the runes could have been explored more fully. They could have implemented the strengths of more traditional dungeons without forcing players into the hard progression sequences that made A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time so limiting.

The third reward that weaves its way into practically every aspect of the game is consumable items. Nearly everything in Breath of the Wild acts as a consumable. Fruit, arrows, monster parts, rupees, the Spirit Orbs, even weapons. Consumables are a tricky thing to get right in games. Drop too many of them and a game can become a cake walk. Drop too few and players will get frustrated that they can’t simply get something they need in order to allow them to make progress. Breath of the Wild actually manages to find a middle ground with this, but in a way that takes away the point of looking for items in the first place. The issue at hand is that all items must be replaceable. There are a few exceptions to this, such as the Master Sword (which is the only weapon that can’t break), but everything else either goes away when you use it or breaks down with use.

Since so much of the game has a shelf life, it can’t very well give out items that players would find too valuable to use. During my playthrough, I found myself hanging onto weapons that were a bit better than the usual stock I could get by defeating local enemies. That, of course, put a crunch on my inventory space, which forced me into decisions on which weapons to keep and which to use more often or discard. This was an interesting proposal at first, until I realized that none of the weapons were really worth worrying about as the amount of damage I could do didn’t increase or decrease dramatically enough to make much difference. So long as I wasn’t running around using a tree branch as my main weapon, I’d be able to take care of the overworld enemies just fine. This realization really sucked out the desire for me to fight enemies for more weapons, or scour the shrines for chests that might contain better weapons. Once I received the Master Sword, I forgot about other weapons almost entirely.

(Whatever it is, I don’t need it.)

The Master Sword, itself, is an interesting case, as it stands in such stark contrast to the way the rest of the weapons in the game work. Obviously, Nintendo couldn’t let the Master Sword be destroyed. All it would take is an absent minded player whacking away at some rocks and watching the most iconic piece of the Zelda mythos splinter into pieces before they got angry calls. Instead, they placed an arbitrary use limit on it so that it would power down for a while, similar to the way the special abilities earned from the beating the Divine Beasts work. This was a very poor compromise to make. While getting the Master Sword isn’t a herculean feat by any stretch, there should be some real reward for going through the effort of getting it. Sure, having a strong, unbreakable weapon might have made the game a bit too easy, but the amount of time spent in the game needed to get the Master Sword would have made this a trivial concern. Players who found the weapon too powerful could always opt not to sue it. The result is the inclusion of a weapon that has no practical purpose, which feels underwhelming at best, and a bit of a broken promise at worst.

The consumable nature of the game also means that Breath of the Wild has to assume that players might not have any items that weren’t forced upon them. To Nintendo’s credit, they did manage to get a lot of positives out of this dilemma. While the puzzles that litter the game aren’t very deep or involved, there are often a few ways to solve them. This was a necessity, of course, since players could very easily have gotten stuck at various points without having the right equipment and not knowing what to look for to solve the problem they were facing. Part of the joy of this game was in examining the tools at your disposal, then figuring out how you might combine them to achieve your goal. This is great for a little while, but soon gets repetitive, as it almost always boils down to using one of your four major runes: the Remote Bomb, Cryonis, Magnesis, or Stasis. Since the game couldn’t count on players having particular equipment at any given time, puzzles revolve either around things placed in the environment itself, or utilizing one of the four abilities granted to them by the Runes that the story guides you toward finding. Any less obvious methods for solving puzzles are done either because a player feels particularly playful or the puzzles are so straightforward that they become boring to solve using the intended method.

So what we’re left with in Breath of the Wild is a huge world filled to the brim with content that simply doesn’t matter. Very little in the game matters, ultimately. So little, in fact, that nearly everything past the introduction sequence can be skipped entirely. While there are a minimum number of bosses that need to be fought to beat the game, you can do so simply by storming Hyrule Castle and boss rushing them all at once. Sure, it’s a real challenge to do that without considerable familiarity with some of the more intricate combat mechanics, but once competence has been achieved, it’s hard to justify spending any time doing anything but going straight to the end game once players know it can be done.

(To be fair, the flurry rush is a pretty satisfying move.)

The upside to the majority of Breath of the Wild being made up of filler is that it has spawned a pretty fervent speedrunning community. Zelda games are no strangers to speedrunning, but the enthusiasm with which Breath of the Wild has been met by speedrunners makes me think some of that has to do with the fact that the game, on its own, doesn’t have much to offer. Instead, many players have taken to exploring the game on their own terms, trying to shortcut their way to the end as fast as possible in the hopes that such an experience would provide the reward the game, itself, could not provide.

I had hope that the story of the game would be enough to tie it all together, or at least give me a reason to care about why I was playing. Sadly, the implementation of the story is, perhaps, its greatest downfall. There isn’t much story to speak of, but in contrast with every other title in the series, Nintendo felt compelled to give this story voice. It would be easy to criticize the English language actors for the game’s cringe-worthy bad voice work, but the material is just as dreadful. Every spoken line is a cliche, and when it’s combined with the obvious fake voices being put on to match the characters, the whole thing feels disingenuous. Perhaps it’s a bit of an unfair criticism, but since there were no other language options to choose from, I had no choice but to skip over the cutscenes in order to spare myself hearing the labored work of the actors.

Along the same letdown, I was surprised by the lack of memorable music in the game. For a series with so many iconic themes at its disposal, Breath of the Wild contains none of them. That alone wouldn’t matter, as one can hear the Ocarina of Time score only so many times before it loses its magic. Upon finishing the game, only one tune remains in my mind: the horse stable melody. Part of the problem is that the score is adaptive. There’s a piece that plays when Link comes in close proximity to an enemy, there is a different song that plays in towns or when rock monsters form from the earth. None of them feel like themes, though, nor do they behave much like themes since they fit so many different places and situations. The music feels consumable much in the way weapons do. As such, the score is utterly forgettable and would have played just as well entirely without one.

While my overall impression of the game is unfavorable, it would be dishonest not to mention that while I was playing the game, I had fun. Moment to moment, there was quite a bit to keep me occupied. It was nice to see the return of Lynels to the franchise, for instance. The environments, devoid of meaningful content as they might be, were enjoyable to look at, walk around in, be in. There was a distinctive and enjoyable art style that worked in many ways the way the Wind Waker’s aesthetics did. Being a cross platform game between the Nintendo Switch and Wii U meant sacrifices had to be made, but those limitations only made the overall look of the world better. Sure, the Wii U version frequently had frame drops in the single digits, but those still shots looked great. There’s something incredibly charming about Breath of the Wild that makes me recognize that in spite of its deeply rooted flaws, it’s a pretty good game. Like Super Mario 64 before it, Nintendo proved that personality can be 9/10ths of a game. While I do think Breath of the Wild will see a similar retroactive re-evaluation along the lines of Skyward Sword, I certainly can’t begrudge anyone who loves the game now and forever. I sure enjoyed it while I was playing.

#legend of zelda #breath of the wild #nintendo #zelda #video games

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trendingnewsb · 7 years ago

Text

"You Must Stay Offline To Read This" Offers You A Peaceful Place to Stay Focus and Read

Keeping up with a constant onslaught of notifications and texts is exhausting. We live in an age in which our phones have the same functionality as our computers. People can reach out to us 24/7.

The constant disruptions are overwhelming. Even when I am able to put aside email and turn off my notifications, I still get distracted. Looking up a piece of information can result in a 45-minute trip down the internet rabbit hole. Sitting still and staying focused for even ten minutes can seem like a Herculean feat. It can be hard to concentrate and consume meaningful content when we have so much content at our fingertips.

Not only does this constant wave of distraction feel terrible–it’s bad for us. When our attention becomes divided by the busy online world, we have trouble forming memories and thinking deeply.[1] We’re actually reprogramming our brains to perform on a shallow level by jumping from notification to notification.

It’s time to unplug

Even though we live in a world in which you’re more likely to see people staring at their cellphones than interacting with one another, it’s possible to read offline. There’s no law that says that you must frantically scroll through social media when you’re waiting for your friends, standing in line at the grocery store, or hanging out at the bus stop.

Before smartphones became popular, we used to live offline most of the time. It’s still possible to do this–even with technology in our pockets. Many apps that you love already include offline functions so that you don’t have to use data or be connected to Wifi.

If you need further proof that reading from sites offline is the way to go, check out Chris Bolin’s Offline Only page. A friend sent the link to me, and I was immediately intrigued. When you go to the site, you’ll see the screen below.

It’s worth taking a look at what Mr. Bolin has to say about reading offline. The post will take you about two minutes to read, but it can transform your relationship with the internet. You can use this site to make unplugging a habit instead of just a novelty.

Going offline promotes inner peace

I didn’t realize how frazzled I felt all the time until Offline Only forced me to disconnect. For two solid minutes, I was focused on the words in front of me. I didn’t nervously click to other tabs or jump to notifications. I simply took in the words and felt my mind relax.

Being forced to unplug helped me connect to the present moment. This brief window of mindfulness helped me recognize that I needed to change the way I interacted with the internet.

It was so satisfying to be able to step away from all the static of modern life and allow myself commit my attention fully to one thing. We are all capable of doing this. Even those of us who stay online for work can benefit from stepping away from the internet once in a while.

Use the concept of going offline in other aspects of your life

Unplugging from technology can radically change the way that you experience life. When you make the conscious choice to silence your phone and stop answering emails after hours, you give yourself the gift of the present.

I’ll admit that I get frustrated when I see a group of friends or a family at lunch together spending more time looking at their phones than talking to each other. Whenever you allow a notification to disrupt an in-person conversation, you send the other person the message that the notification is more important than they are. You miss out on the possibilities that come with being in the moment.

Our personal relationships and our work benefit from taking time away from the internet. The more often you use sites like Offline Only to practice focus, the more you strengthen neural pathways in your brain related to concentration. You can undo the damage of years of mindless internet-surfing by adjusting to a lifestyle which revolves more around the quality of your attention than the quantity of items you view online in a day.

Every distraction costs you time that you can’t get back

A recent study found that the average worker gets interrupted once every three minutes and five seconds. A person can lose an astonishing 6.2 hours of productivity to the process of being interrupted, working to refocus, correcting errors from disruptions, and battling exhaustion from being so distracted.[2] Many of these disruptions are likely the result of unnecessary notifications that you can easily switch off.

Don’t squander the here and now through mindless scrolling. Practice focusing every day. Build the habit of being mindful and unplugging with Offline Only, and you’ll be amazed at how much your work and relationships will improve.

Reference

[1]^The Telegraph: How the Internet is Making us Stupid[2]^The Washington Post: Work interruptions can cost you 6 hours a day. An efficiency expert explains how to avoid them

The post “You Must Stay Offline To Read This” Offers You A Peaceful Place to Stay Focus and Read appeared first on Lifehack.

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2kdMJr6 via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ

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trendingnewsb · 7 years ago

Text

"You Must Stay Offline To Read This" Offers You A Peaceful Place to Stay Focus and Read

Keeping up with a constant onslaught of notifications and texts is exhausting. We live in an age in which our phones have the same functionality as our computers. People can reach out to us 24/7.

It’s time to unplug

Going offline promotes inner peace

Being forced to unplug helped me connect to the present moment. This brief window of mindfulness helped me recognize that I needed to change the way I interacted with the internet.

Use the concept of going offline in other aspects of your life

Every distraction costs you time that you can’t get back

Reference

[1]^The Telegraph: How the Internet is Making us Stupid[2]^The Washington Post: Work interruptions can cost you 6 hours a day. An efficiency expert explains how to avoid them

The post “You Must Stay Offline To Read This” Offers You A Peaceful Place to Stay Focus and Read appeared first on Lifehack.

from Viral News HQ http://ift.tt/2kdMJr6 via Viral News HQ

#IFTTT #Viral News HQ

0 notes