#or at least really powerful for my own gameplay style

[oflgtfol]

danielle rainbowdust age 8-18

art is from 2020 so like. Forgive that but i dont have the time to redraw any of these so. Lol. im also straight up reposting the one on the right but i never did post the younger version. since its technically unfinished. but its only in the details so whatever

anyway i have Lore reasons as to why she looks. Drastically different over the course of 10 years. she also started out as a life wizard but turned to a death wizard so i mean. you can probably extrapolate from there as to why she looks so different

alrhouugh i think part of the reason why as to why i never posted the younger version was bc i couldnt decide whether i wanted to make the white her natural hair color or uhm. Magically induced later on let me just say. but uhm whatever at this point

[nitrowyverine]

I thought playing Obscura would help me get rid of my brain worms. no, it just gave me new ones. For Obscura, specifically.

I'll be adjusting the format from my TOUCHSTARVED expanded thoughts post. Brain dump after the cut!

[Demo/CH 1 spoilers are included]

(Header Image from Itch.io page! All images in this post are either from there or the Rotten Raccoons tumblr page)

Design/gameplay thoughts:

In full honesty without fluff: this game fucks immensely.

The setting for Obscura might be my new all-time favorite, like, ever. Mystery underground scandalous marketplace??? Under a mountain???? it's a diverse and vast city that's still elegantly contained and claustrophobic, but in a spicy way. The worldbuilding and flavor is excellent. I really want to run a TTRPG in a similar setting now, since its an area with so many possibilities.

CH. 1/the "demo" has a LOT of meat on it. It's got different endings, variations, a whole soundtrack. Speaking of sountrack-

Obscura is also one of the few games I've put on the soundtrack to just to vibe to. The soundtrack is SO good, and sets such a strong mood/tone. I think it complements the game perfectly.

Allot of people have mentioned it, but I am also a fan of the Safeword pause menu. It's a nice and comforting touch, especially when the game can get so intense. It lets players take a breather if they need it, but also doesn't interrupt the intensity/mood of the game for someone who doesn't want a break from the narrative.

Now, onto character specific thoughts!

Cirrus:

IN MY HOUSE WE DON'T BELIEVE IN NOT STARTING OUT STRONG

Shout outs for having your asexual option in the dating sim be. The kinkiest guy there

Cirrus is a bit too intense for me, however, that is NOT a bad thing in the slightest. I think his route is well done for those who are up for his brand of intensity.

I might still play his route because. damn this boy's issues got me curious about his backstory. ($10 on mommy issues)

I had the hardest time getting to Cirrus's good end during my playthrough because having pretty much any self-preservation instinct around Cirrus gives you a bad/neutral ending. He's the only one I had to pull the guide out to get the best ending. (I think I'm just too sassy)

I get medusa vibes from Cirrus. The snake imagery is more likely tied to the lunar church, but his staunch reluctance to take his own mask off makes me wonder (this is mainly referenced in asks answered by the Rotten Raccoon studios). Refusal to let people see his eyes + snakes + power + slightly unnatural abilities to influence is, something.

I am shaking this man like a snowglobe WHAT IS YOUR DEAL I MUST KNOW MORE

(I am. metaphorically shaking him like a snowglobe. I would never shake this man im terrified)

CONCLUSION: Most likely to shame you for your anime choices. Least likely to be normal about it when you ask for help peeling an orange.

Keir:

HERE COMES BIG MAN

yeah he's tied for favorite right now. the slow burn in his plot is just too good? big man....freckles...secret soft side...im weak

he's so nice I keep forgetting. He kind of kidnaps you? not even kind of he just drags you off the street and goes "you live in my house now". Even Griff calls MC a stray early on. My man really said "Here's a convenient lost human I'm dragging them home now"

oh my GOD they were ROOMATES

I definitely was too nice to him in my first playthrough until I realized he does need (and want) to be sassed to death.

this man is like 6'6 and the canon-ish Vesper height from the CG is 5'4. THE HEIGHT DIFFERENCE. This kills the man (me)

The sprite of Keir's ears blushing SENDS ME INTO A FRENZY

I quite liked the gameplay style of Keir's route. I was so focused and invested as soon as I realized I needed to remember specific directions to save the heist group during timed decisions

Something I haven't seen discussed yet: I'm mega curious about the dagger Keir has on his outfit. It's specifically pointed out in text that it's high-quality, and I vaguely remember an ask that Rotten Raccoons answered that said it's a status symbol. (The dagger also just looks SO cool. and....it looks like Francesco's...?)

(My bet is that he either 1. stole it. or 2. got it from Oleander during their tryst (WHICH WE ALSO NEED TO TALK ABOUT-))

CONCLUSION: Most likely to be gifted a "WORLD'S BEST DAD" mug from his similarly-aged peers. Least likely to live down that one time he ate soap because he thought it was edible.

Francesco:

someone keep the "silver dust" away from this lad im scared

Originally, I was least looking forward to playing Francesco's route since I just wasn't interested in his initial concept. After playing his route though? It was excellently done, and I genuinely had fun. It was refreshing to have a character more naive than Vesper, so more cultural aspects were explained and we got a good alternate perspective on the marketplace. Also, it got REAL spicy in new and exciting ways the other chapters didn't. I'm really looking forward to the next chapters with his route!

I totally love the contrasts in his design and his character. He's got both bright red and blue highlights in his design, his outfit is very pointy and angular while his hair/smile is soft and flow-y.

And in his personality, he's both sweet and open, but extremely cagey about some information, and quite pragmatic when he wants to be. I think he's way smarter than he lets on.

that doesn't mean I don't want to bridal carry him and tuck him into bed at night after a all-nighter party

I do think Fran's slightly looser demeanor could lead to him being even more brutal than the other LI's. Remember that one anime clip (Found it, it's this one from Danshi Koukousei) where a group of friends wants to fight for fun, but one of the friends asks why they need rules in a fight? And said friend is shown like secretly holding a rock and was ready to use it? that's Fran. He would not have chill and does not heed the rules.

"Protect the boy", but mostly to prevent him from tasting blood. Because if that happens we're all fucked

CONCLUSION: Most likely to eat that M&M off the ground because you dared him. Least likely to beat the puppy allegations.

Oleander:

Oleander is tied for favorite with Keir. Oleander is just *chefs kiss* LOOK AT HIM. inscrutable......

Somewhere in an ask answered by Rotten Raccoons studio, they mentioned that for Oleander's route, they were going for a "Sexy boss situation that doesn't feel like a work safety violation". They hit that right on the nose; there's intrigue and a power imbalance, but in a non-restrictive or terrifying way.

I love being involved in the business part of his route. I keep making decisions like "Hmm yes my primary goal is to romance Oleander. But what would be the smartest business move here? How do we advance our agenda?"

Also, I do love playing a sexy evil secretary in a vn. love having a job and being evil at it AND being paid money. 10/10

That dance scene is everything I could have ever wanted no notes

I am fascinated to find out more about what he's been up to since his last trek into the marketplace. Seems like people are trying to kill him all the time anyway, so what would be enough to cause him to leave?

he's like an angler fish, but the lure is his booba

I relate to Oleander in that. I have too many online usernames because I can't stick with one. People get my 800 online names mixed up often. He has the same problem, we're basically twinsies

This man is pretending to be a himbo like his life depends on it (It probably does). He's too smart though, I know for a fact he has at least three different schemes going at any given time.

CONCLUSION: Most likely to be able to help you properly lace a corset (this man knows the boot-to-the-back necessity of the process). Least likely to be allowed to be banker during monopoly night.

Vesper:

black mask enjoyer 4 life

(all three are good I just wanted to say which one I picked. And to add my conclusion section)

CONCLUSION: Most likely to get their shit rocked by a falling piano. Least likely to survive an argument about pineapple on pizza.

Concerns:

With how separate the four routes are, the game could potentially feel like four separate visual novels all in one universe. Maybe I haven't played enough VN's, but there is a feeling of separation between the routes.

In the very beginning of the game, when you're picking your route, I wish there was a bit more heads up/information between who you're picking. For example, I had a rough idea that going into the church is where you'd find Cirrus, but only from information outside the game. I didn't know sticking around for the brawl would push you into Kier's route. It's overall pretty vague to which route you're going based on only in-game information.

Misc thoughts:

Vesper: "How are you going to keep me?? ;)" Keir and Oleander: "crimes" Vesper: "Wh-" Keir and Oleander: "you're an accomplice now congrats we're in this together. wanna get drinks"

catch my socially anxious ass wanting to be under the mountain and wear masks so I don't have to make eye contact with strangers all the time. at least its a fun thought to have when I mask for covid

OKAY FRANCESCO AND KEIR'S DAGGER MATCH? AND ARE RED/BLUE LIKE FRANCESCOS OUTFIT? DOES IT MEAN ANYTHING??? probably not but I do like the pretty knives....

For real, I got the brain worms for this game, I'm on the edge of making a big ol playlist. the headcannons? They go on my friend. they go on. I'm laying awake at night thinking about what each character would order at a coffee shop

by the time I publish this post. I did start working on the playlist

yes, I've also designed my own vesper, its such a prime opportunity for character design.

Obscura also may or may not have inspired me to get involved with an otome jam game team, more on that in the future possibly.....

OVERALL: I got the first chapter/demo of Obscura for free from Itchio/steam. High marks for writing, sound, art, game design, all of it! I am on the edge of my seat waiting for CH2.

TL;DR: If you haven't played it, and love spicy and dark stories, go play it! Part one is free! and fantastic.

Itch.io

Steam

[stevewarlock]

My 10 most wanted characters for Marvel Rivals

Putting under a read more because it ended up being pretty lengthy.

Doctor Doom: Borderline non-negotiable. With his magic and technology allowing him to function as either a vanguard or strategist, Doom would be incredibly easy to fit into this game's style, both in terms of gameplay and design. There's no excuse not to have Marvel's best villain in Rivals.

Mystique: Every hero shooter needs its spy, and while Loki's illusions can trick the enemy, Mystique can pose as one of their own. With all these powerful heroes and villains running around, having a character built for subterfuge would add some diversity to team strategies.

Nova: Richard Rider deserves the world. The least they could do is give him a spot on this roster! The human rocket would be a fantastic addition! I'd see him as a similar vanguard to Peni Parker, moving fast to deny space and blast the enemy, all while tanking everything his opponents can hit him with.

Cyclops: X-Men '97 has really given Scott a big boost in popularity, and his optic blasts make him a great fit for a hero shooter. Letting him use them for propulsion could give him some really cool movement options too. He'd be a nice duelist, though his ability to inspire others and lead them to victory could make him a good strategist as well.

Thor: Worth it for the Storm combo attack alone. The prince of Asgard would be a great vanguard, especially if they tap into the Odinforce or Rune magic as inspiration for his abilities. It's hard to think of a better heavy-hitter than the Odinson himself.

Falcon: While there are already flying characters in the game, Sam's sheer speed and pal Redwing could easily make him stand out as the team's eye in the sky. He could function as a duelist or even a strategist depending on how they interpret and add onto his skillset.

Nightcrawler: Another X-Men icon, Kurt's teleportation, wall-crawling and acrobatic expertise would make him one of the most mobile heroes in the roster. Add some swashbuckling and you'd have one of the coolest as well! He'd definitely be one of Rivals' top duelists.

Moondragon: She can summon a dragon made of telekinetic energy. How has Heather not been in a good video game yet? She'd make a great vanguard, her dragon construct absorbing damage for her team while dishing it back out with great force!

Gambit: Remy's power set makes him perfect for the demoman archetype, especially in a game where several characters can build walls to deny areas to the enemy. Everyone's favorite gambler can easily fit the role as a duelist.

Gamora: Magik can't be the only swordswoman duelist in the game forever! Hacking and slashing as the deadliest woman in the galaxy would be an awesome experience, and frankly one I'd be disappointed not to get.

[demonfox38]

Completed - Costume Quest

…Dad?

I was worried that my generation would ruin Halloween like my grandparents ruined Christmas. You know what I mean? In the love of the holiday, Christmas became an overblown mess, with family mandates and stress over gift-giving sapping the quiet affection one could experience on a dark winter’s night with their family. I thought Millennials would go too far with Halloween, put up one too many giant skeletons, spend hundreds of dollars on candy and booze and get blasted into oblivion all in the name of having a good time.

I can’t say that I saw a worldwide pandemic burying it. Could have seen Stranger Danger doing it in, though. Maybe it would help if my neighbors ever participated in handing candy out. Or, if a bag of good candy cost less than $20.00 a pop. Or, if it was ever over the freezing threshold here on Halloween.

The point is, Halloween in Iowa has become a raw deal. You should probably pray for all of the Iowa City college girls with their butts hanging out the bottom of their costumes. At least, if you are the praying type.

Is it too early to think about Halloween? Wal-Mart doesn’t think so. Neither does “Costume Quest.” As I was cycling through my Steam library, trying to pick what to work on next, it managed to boot itself up and go, “LMAO, loading drivers, idiot.” Which, fine, whatever. I’m behind on my quota of games to beat in a year. Might as well knock an eager one out.

“Costume Quest” is a turn-based, button-prompt style RPG set on a nostalgic Halloween night. Ya know, the kind of magical night where simple pieces of junk turn a child into a gigantic missile-launching robot or a vampire or a unicorn or whatever this sentient fry monster thing is.

Using the power of imagination and their smart mouths, protagonists Wren and/or Reynold (whichever you pick) sets off on a mini-journey around their suburban hellscape while their sibling (dressed as a candy corn, of all the indignities) is kidnapped by goblin-esque creatures. They pick up two additional teammates who also manage to get into trouble by their own personalities (being too brave and being a little science nerd, respectively.) Along their way, they discover how and why these monsters invaded their little town, as well as the motivation for all of their candy thievery. You know. When the adults aren't just freely handing it out, mindless of who is at the door.

In addition to the main game, a DLC bonus story called "Grubbins on Ice" is included with the game. This takes place a few months after the original adventure, following up on the twitterpation of Wren/Reynold's party members and the homeland/culture of aforementioned monsters. It mostly serves as a teaser for "Costume Quest 2" (and an ad for "Stacking", if you find it), but it does tack on a couple more hours of gameplay, for what that is worth.

Am I glossing over a bit with the writing? Probably. "Costume Quest" isn't on par with something like "Psychonauts", in terms of depth or ingenuity. It's not to say the game is entirely without charm or a few chuckles. It's just exactly what you'd predict for a story like this. Some Halloween nostalgia, lots of modern era cracks at mid-century suburban living, adults being unobservant dingdongs. That kind of stuff.

The gameplay systems are relatively standard as well. Most of your exploration boils down to knocking on doors, seeing if you are going to get treated (receive candy) or tricked (get into a monster fight.) Equipped costumes affect what attack styles and special abilities a character has in combat, to mostly predictable consequences. Except for the fry monster. That's definitely unique! Additionally, some costumes allow you to take special actions while exploring, like using a plastic lightsaber to light up dark areas, skating over ramps with roller blades, or luring people to new destinations using the scent of…french fries.

Look, the fry thing was really creative, okay? Maybe it's not the most impressive costume, but it is super unique. I'm trying to give credit where it's due. That, and using the power of liberty to restore health.

The nearest thing I can ballpark that to is "Parasite Eve"'s Liberation mode, and even that is in name only. (Although, someone should really have a deeper talk with these kids about the underlying and disturbing implications of "Manifest Destiny"…)

In terms of input style and numbers, this is very much a "Paper Mario" / "Mario & Luigi" style of RPG. Your health and levels will seem low-capped, although that is not without some humor as well. (Your max level is 10 in the main game and 14 in the DLC, which corresponds well to ages that kids often stop going out for Halloween. At least, that seems like the joke to me, at the risk of ruining it via dissection.) You will also have to time button presses, tap madly, or wiggle sticks to maximize both your offense and defense.

One to three hits are enough to take out members on either side of the field. So, don't be too surprised if your kids drop like flies early on. You can always bolt on a battle (even final ones), if you don't feel prepared to tackle it. Any time you exit a battle, you will fully restore everyone's health. So, get aggressive. Get cowardly. Do whatever works with your flow!

“Costume Quest” isn't the most complex of games. Like, I completed the game and its DLC within 8 hours, and that was including leaving the game idle while taking dogs out. The reason for this may be… not shocking at all, if you hang around the same circles of gaming journalism that I do. To make a short story shorter: AAA publishers suck; Double Fine needed some fallback game ideas for when their more lucrative deal fell through; an idea jam session resulted in the creation of a couple of games (including "Costume Quest.") So, this game didn’t have the kind of budget more renowned Double Fine games might have had. It was more born out of a need to do something small to keep the lights on. Which, hey. Understandable. Respectable, even.

Having said that, a little polish on the game’s levels could have been helpful. I’m not running the most cutting-edge gaming machine known to man, but it’s more than strong enough to handle games from over a decade ago. There feels like several spots where the game is lagging due to what I’m assuming is bad level occlusion or excessive detail rendering (I’m thinking tree leaves.) Additionally, some of the side quests are redundant, particularly the apple/eyeball bobbing mini game. I can’t say I was enraptured by the music at any point either, but that’s a matter of taste. The battle victory/defeat music could have wrapped up a little faster though. Like, chop chop. We’re out of that mode. Let’s go.

As of writing this evaluation, the Steam price for this game is hanging around $9.99 USD, which…Sure? Am I gonna be that picky on the price? If you catch it under $7.99, that’s probably a little fairer to you, but I’m not the person to tell you how to spend your allowance. I guess it’s at least cheaper than actual Halloween candy. And it’s coconut free! That’s a point in its favor!

Sometimes, friendship and/or civilization is all about finding the people that like coconut and hate almonds so that you can trade with them and make both of your lives better.

[ro-botany]

ACTUALLY. ACTUALLY. What are your extended thoughts on Henry's Harvest Scramble with Freddie? Mainly that Freddie has story potential to be a dark mage despite his shit Mag growths? What do you think this says about Freddie and dark magic?

(Link to said conversations, for convenience)

GOOD QUESTION THANK YOU

This conversation is interesting to me because it suggests several story things about dark magic, and about stat growths.

If you have DLC in Awakening, Frederick can reclass into precisely one tome-wielding class: Dread Fighter. (I know all male characters in Awakening can reclass to that, hush)

Of course, his magic growths are dogshit - as a dread fighter he jumps from 10% to 20% magic growth but like still - and he's got a -2 magic cap modifier. Getting his magic stat up so he can deal good damage with tomes is fighting a steep uphill battle, hours of work for something that a lot of more magically inclined characters are going to give you much better returns on.

But see. He's not incapable of magic. And it's not impossible to get him to a pretty decent magic stat; it'll be the last of his stats to reach cap, but if you put the work in, you theoretically could get that stat up there.

So we know for a gameplay-supported fact that Henry isn't lying when he says Frederick could make a decent mage. Given enough time and enough reclassing, he could. And what that suggests to me is that while stats are in part a reflection of one's natural and capabilities (cap modifiers), they're at least in part a function of a character's personality, interests, and what they're naturally talented at (growth rates).

If Frederick has low magic growths, story-wise that must at least in part be because magic is not something he's particularly interested in pursuing. He's a knight. A knight is all he really wants to be. So he pours his effort into acquiring the strength and melee combat skills that a knight needs to succeed.

Given sufficient motivation to pursue magic, it's possible he gets quite good at it, though. When you reclass him to Dread Fighter his magic growth doubles! If we gave him story reasons to take all that overachiever energy of his and direct it right at magic then I'm willing to bet that magic growth rate skyrockets.

Henry makes an interesting point about dark magic specifically; he suggests that to be truly good at dark magic, you need to be drawing on some kind of inner darkness when casting. Henry, presumably, fully indulges in his love of bloodshed when he's slinging spells... And he suggests that for Frederick, a desire to help others that spills over into self-destructiveness is a strongly dark trait, strong enough to fuel dark magic, if you can finely control how hard you lean into it.

I don't know if it would necessarily be healthy to encourage Fred to be even more of a self destructive workaholic... But the dark arts expert says Fred's got untapped talent for the dark arts, and leaning on how much he wants to protect people is a great way to motivate him into learning anything, magic included, so everything seems in order to me!

---

Now here's the part where I dive into the headcanon deep end. >:D

I don't know if Frederick would actually want to take Henry up on his offer, because dark magic doesn't seem particularly his style... Nonetheless, it's really fun to consider the precise form that Frederick's usage of the dark arts might end up being if he were to pursue it. How he might incorporate it into his fighting style... You can do some really fun shit with a man who's got a lot of melee combat experience, and who fuels his dark arts fuelled with a self-destructive desire to protect.

This is a weird example but the direction my mind instantly goes is to Kingdom Hearts 3's Rage Form mechanics. Sora is already a guy who sacrifices his well-being for the benefit of others, and Rage Form is one of the more direct ways that manifests; it lets him sacrifice his own HP to raise his attack power.

So. Steeples hands. Frederick but we make him a blood mage. He's sapping chunks of his own HP to enchant his melee weapons to do absolutely monstrous amounts of damage to whatever he hits for a few turns. Or hell, make it a fucked up healing spell. Saps his own health to heal others. Or maybe he learns to do both!

It's edgy as hell. It's reasonably in character. It's COOL. It's perfect. But also get him therapy and a stack of vulneraries while you're at it cause this is by definition terrible for his health.

[saturnalorbit]

how vivid/stasis, a free rhythm game on steam, is fucking with my brain chemistry and making me desperate to get better at a genre i usually wouldn't care about that much (spoiler alert: it's girls): spoilers up to the end of chapter 1 below the cut as this will be a story summary as well as my personal experience with it

for context, vivid/stasis is a free lane-based rhythm game (if you don't know what i mean it's a similar gameplay style to guitar hero) that i found on steam (suspiciously close to the launch of fortnite festival, also a lane-based rhythm game) with a mystery-genre story. (if you're interested at all already stop reading and play it before i spoil the whole story up to the point im at.)

you progress through the story by unlocking nodes in the node flowchart using battery power, which you gain from playing songs that you unlock from either the flowchart or shop. pretty simple. ordinarily you can't fail out of a song, but if you're good enough at the game, you can use a different "decryption style" which gives you a life bar but also offers much larger rewards in either shop coins, battery power, or both. now i'm sure this isn't too bad for someone who has rhythm game experience, but i'm pretty new to the genre and can only do level 2 songs with the life bar, maybe some level 3 at a stretch, but mostly i just stick to the basic decryption style without a life bar.

moving onto the story, you play as saturday (pictured at the top), who has perhaps the best name in all of fiction, so much so that i almost considered stealing her name for a minute or so. her sister tsuki has gone missing from her workplace, and while the incident is under investigation by the police, saturday can't sit still and decides to launch her own investigation along with her friends kotomi and allison. simple enough so far.

so we end up investigating tsuki's workplace, a geology lab. we meet the detective there whom saturday is pretty pissed off with for seeming so complacent in the investigation, but she calms down once she learns that the detective, eri, is allison's sister. saturday is pretty hostile with her up to this point, but it's fairly realistic considering the state of mind she's in, and establishing a more personal connection with eri helps bring her down to earth a bit.

the group search her workplace and find a site in her browser history, shrinereport.xyz. as you can probably guess this is a site both on the real web and in the game, and it links to a video with cryptic clues. you can try to solve it yourself, but you don't really need to because in the next scene the characters analyse the video and extract the clues: one of the spoken sequences of numbers spells out UNIX and the other is a unix timestamp. the two sequences of dots when converted to numbers become coordinates.

quick clarification, the rhythm game and the story at least up to this point are disconnected. it's not like the game is supposed to be saturday putting the pieces of the case together, the game is just how you unlock more of the story.

so the gang puts the pieces together and figures out that whatever the deal was, tsuki must have gone to the shrine that is at those co-ordinates at the time indicated by the unix timestamp. her route would take a few hours of ferries, so they next go to the ferry terminal to see if there's a record of her taking a ferry around the time they expect. sure enough, tsuki left on a ferry pretty much right when they expected. saturday briefly tries to book a ferry to go and find her, until...

this is the point where i'm gonna say if you're interested so far, and you like rhythm games or would be okay picking them up, stop reading and play it. we're getting into the insane shit now so if this interests you at all, give it a shot yourself.

the girls are interrupted by a booming sound, and to their horror they find that the geology lab has gone up in flames. they rush there to find out what happened, only to learn that eri is still in the building. kotomi rushes in to try to save her sister, followed shortly by saturday.

they don't have much luck. surrounded by flames, saturday calls out for kotomi, only to hear her anguished yell coming from somewhere. she looks in room after room, but she can't find kotomi. she calls her name again, but there's no response this time.

saturday falls to the floor, the flames engulfing her. her adrenaline failing her, she finally sees what her reality has become. she failed to save both tsuki and kotomi, and with the fire closing in around her, now she's going to die before she can do anything to help them. she weakly calls for someone to help her, and admits that she's scared. she shouldn't have gotten tied up in all of this, but now she's going to pay the price. everything that "saturday" is fades away.

god fucking damn. if you care enough to have gotten this far, go and watch the cutscene on youtube or play the game. i had to write all this to provide context but i didn't really do it justice here, saturday is just written in such a realistic and compelling way here.

actually, i'm going to take this chance to talk about saturday, and myself. when i hyperfixate on a character, oftentimes it can be really hard for me to even get them off my mind. i don't really tend to anymore but i absolutely used to kin characters i was obsessed with, and while i don't do that anymore, hyperfixating on characters still does things to my brain.

i really like saturday. (and need to be her. big surprise.)

honestly i'm not great at putting together my reasons why what i will say is her design is amazing and the way she's written is very relatable to me personally in a really interesting way. her thoughts contain a lot of subtle observations about the people and environment around her, almost seeming like a little too much, in a way that felt sort of unnatural to read at first but really ended up gelling with me personally. like, i don't know. i just feel like if i were to write a character, this is how i might end up writing their thoughts.

there are also the 'funny' relatable moments, which are also adorable in their own rights but for the most part i just find her really intriguing. i love how she can be kind of an asshole sometimes because yes, she is in a vulnerable position and is lashing out at people sometimes when she doesn't mean to. that's just a fairly understandable way to act in her situation. there's also some stuff about her later on that i spoiled myself on that i won't spoil here because i'm sticking to just chapter 1 for the moment, but just to say it only made me like her even more as a character.

so, what happens next? the story isn't over, obviously, you're told as much. you're separated from saturday and brought to a screen with three locks, which each turn out to be some kind of cryptic puzzle, with the middle one requiring both of the side puzzles to be finished before you can find the correct string.

now, i kind of suck at cryptic puzzles. i'll usually look at them for a few minutes, not figure anything out and then maybe ask for help or look up a guide.

so why did i put in all this fucking effort this time?

okay, i know they're not the hardest puzzles in the world and i did get a little bit of assistance near the end but this is really unusual for me to put this much time into trying. now i'm really getting to the crux of what i'm trying to say, why vivid/stasis is making me put so much effort into these things that i never really bothered with before.

pretty much, it's saturday.

i considered trying to figure out the arg-style hints earlier, but i elected to go forward with the story anyhow, and the girls ended up solving it. now, i'm being presented with a puzzle i have to do myself. and my first thought is, "if saturday was able to figure out her puzzle, and i want to be her, i have to do my best on this too." and i did, and i actually figured out a large amount of it myself. i didn't fully figure it out, but i got close enough to where i felt like being nudged in the right direction was okay. i mean, saturday got help from her friends too. i understand this is a really weird and roundabout way to get motivation to do something, but vivid/stasis made it work for me.

so after solving the puzzles, getting a web link out of it and then getting a code from the web page to enter back into the game, what happens? a cutscene plays, introducing me to...

PYROMANIA...

a level 8 opening with a forced life bar.

so we're coming full circle now. remember what i said at the start? that i struggle with even level 3 openings with a life bar? and now i have to do a level 8 to progress. look, i know a level 8 isn't that bad for experienced players. i'm not an experienced player. i'm new and i suck.

and now i can't find out what happens to saturday until i get much better at the game.

saturday who extremely quickly, over maybe 30 minutes or so of cutscenes, managed to become one of my favourite characters. they fucking set her on fire and told me to get good before i can find out what happens next for her. i have been losing my mind over this. i'm desperate to know what happens next but i can't for a decent while until i improve. i cannot stop thinking about saturday's unknowable fate.

now, this would be the part in another game where i'd just give up and watch the rest of it on youtube, or turn on autoplay to just play PYROMANIA for me. the problem is they fucking got me. hook line and sinker. because this is the first time a song has been directly connected to the narrative. PYROMANIA in this context i believe symbolizes the fear and adrenaline in saturday as she realises she's going to die in this fire. what this means for me is that just skipping the song isn't a satisfying conclusion here. it seems insurmountable for me at the moment, but saturday is facing something insurmountable too. i have to push through it for her. god fucking damnit.

anyways that's as far as i've gotten for the moment i'm honestly just rambling about how weird my brain is and how it's motivated i'll keep trying and i'll poast an update when i improve enough to beat pyromania sorry this was so long winded happy saturday wednesday bye.

[lemonynesser]

this is a recount of my reactions throughout the following video:

“Oh! A negative Undertale review? And it was made around the time people were getting tired of it? I know a lot of popular things go through that stage where everyone hates on it for some reason, but I’m sure it has to contain a few valid points, at least.”

“Oh, the… comments are disabled. Ok, maybe he had em off by default, or he was just swarmed by rabid fans! I know the fans were a bit crazy in the early days. I’ll just look in the description, there’s usually an explanation there.”

Comments disabled because I'm very, very tired of the same old crap being said over and over, plus it's apparently against the law for a creator to comment on their own video after a certain amount of time.

“Ok, guess that settles it. [scrolls down a bit more, for curiosity’s sake]”

UPDATE: I can't say I've missed the comment section for this video one bit. Having zero interaction with Undertale fanatics, their zoomer style morals and their speaking habits has been utterly wonderful.

“…well, I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t a bit of a red flag, but I still believe you can make a good video!”

“Ok, the intro was good, and I’m glad he said he didn’t have anything against fans!”

“Good basic plot synopsis… Ah, he doesn’t like Earthbound, that explains some things.”

“Wait, he didn’t like Earthbound for its boring combat? That’s one of the things that Undertale improved on though!”

“That’s fair, gameplay is incredibly important to a game. (it’s called gameplay for a reason lol)”

“What do you mean there isn’t any depth to Undertale compared to “the average JRPG”? Aren’t most of the more traditional jrpgs just your move, enemy move, your move, enemy move ad nauseam? Honestly, I think Undertale has more depth involved, because even with your normal attack, there’s a little minigame you have to do for more damage, which changes with each weapon you equip!”

“Ok, fine, that’s one point I don’t think was that good. But hey, maybe he just plays a ton of mechanically in-depth jrpgs, and i’m uneducated, I’m willing to admit I’ve not played many jrpgs myself. Plus, I’m only a couple of minutes in, the points can only get better from here, surely!”

“Ok, that is fair, the game is pretty easy (at least on the non-geno routes), and both sparing and killing normal enemies is pretty easy too.”

“While the bosses have some of the most interesting patterns in the game, I’d say that another interesting thing in this game is when more than one enemy is in the same encounter together, so their patterns are added together. Makes for a more engaging fight, imo.”

“Firstly, Toriel is literally the first boss in the game, of course she’d be less deadly than the rest. Second, the only real mechanical differences between Papyrus capturing you, and actually killing you is you respawn somewhere else, your items don’t come back, and he remembers you lost to him. Otherwise, it’s functionally the exact same as dying. Lastly, being unable to die in the Adriel fight is meant to be an engaging ad powerful moment, but once again, it doesn’t really matter, as the fight uses a somewhat sparse checkpoint system, restarting you at the last checkpoint you hit. Which functions, once again, pretty similarly to actually dying. Only difference being you restart from in the battle itself, rather than at your save point.”

“I assume he’s talking about the sans boss fight being the only fight being somewhat challenging. But he did say it was “on the route to” the worst ending, and not at the end of it, so maybe he just misgendered Undyne? Regardless, I’d still say there are 2-3 actually challenging bosses in the game (sans, Undying, and Asgore) (also to some extent Omega Flowey but the game rigs the fight so much in your favor it’s almost funny).”

“Simple puzzles? tell that to the core spaceship puzzles lol”

“Something tougher or more inventive? Doesn’t the game come up with me puzzles and overworld things every section?”

“Glad to hear he isn’t against story. Also yeah the AA games are great.”

“That’s an interesting way of judging a game, asking yourself ‘Would I like this game if it was a person?’”

“aaand he’s just bashing on tumblr users and “sjw”s now. i will give him one thing though, he’s right, if Undertale was a person, it would use tumblr.”

“I feel like saying the games’ characters are just caricatures is a bit “missing the forest for the trees” so to speak.”

“Except some of Papyrus’s traps do work? And him being a lovable dim-witted goofball makes him a really likable character imo.”

“Surprisingly, I didn’t get a vibe of “internet savvy” from a lot of the game, except for like, Alphys and her anime stuff.”

“Oh, right, the Temmies do talk like that, which is sorta indicative of the internet I guess.”

“w

what

are you telling me,

that you don’t like sans

because he says the word

“welp”??

not only that, but you imply that the word welp is some “new fangled slang” instead of a word that’s been in use for as long as i can remember??? i feel like i just got slapped into an alternant timeline by a whole roll of salami. did i miss when “welp” was young person/internet slang or is this guy just unhinged?”

“bro… why are u comparing alphys with francis from super paper mario bro, the game is 10 ears older than ut bro. bro why are you making it about gender when they’re just different characters bro. also alphys was originally a guy iirc bro. stop making this weird bro”

“yea ur right, a lot of ppl don’t like alphys because she’s annoying (fair but still)”

“that’s the thing. if you don’t find the characters interesting or engaging on even a surface level, you are not the target audience. period.”

“actually there’s technically a few neutral endings where it’s heavily implied she kills herself, so yeah you can (technically) kill alphys …why am j even talking about this”

“the only time the game really hammers home how much of a piece of shit you are for killing monsters, is in the genò route and i’m sorry, you can call that route many things, but “self defense” is not one of them. all sans does in the neutral route is tell you the true meaning of EXP and LOVE, and asks you to reflect, before dipping and saying he’s rooting for you, (unless you killed his brother but, you litterally can’t kill papyrus before he spares you, so that kill wasn’t in self-defense either). also, you can spare enemies when you attack them enough, so attacking “in self-defense” is actually rewarded with a spare! and if the enemy is straight up allowing you to spare them, basically telling you they don’t wanna fight no more, killing them then is not in self-defense anymore. this is such a shallow point, it feels more like a gut reaction than an actual criticism”

“you make fun of people saying welp, then out of nowhere drop the word “mawkish”, that’s kinda funny. but seriously, of course the endings not gonna effect you, you fuckin moron! you aren’t attached to any of the characters! which is litterally what the story rides on!”

“the fuck do you mean ‘tries too hard’”

“boiling undertales story down to “friendship is magic” is almost as bad a take as boiling it down to “killing is bad”. plus, what? do you want games about bringing our fellow man down instead of lifting them up?”

“damn, i guess i was almost right on the money huh?”

“once again. the lesson of undertale is not just “killing is bad”, nor is it just “rpg leveling systems are bad”, good god what are you smoking, and can you tell me what it is so i can stay as far away from it as possible? thanks! the game never said you shouldn’t enjoy this type of gameplay, nor is it saying you should feel bad if you do. all it’s trying to do is answer the questions “what if i could solve these battles peacefully” and “how would rpg characters, and their world, react to you grinding them?” nothing less,”

“no. not every part of every video game is designed to be fun. sometimes it’s designed to make a point (a la ut geno route), sometimes it’s to make the player deliberately feel uncomfortable and question their actions (a la spec ops the line), sometimes it’s to exploit players into spending money on microtransactions (a la almost every mobile game ever). in short, it’s not always about the fun, whoisthisgit… it’s about the mETS BABY LOBE THE METS ALRIGHT BABY GET A HOME RU”

“wow, it’s over…”

“…”

“…damn i really hate that guy.”

i hope you enjoyed this decent into madness, i sure didn’t

if you’re ok with giving this guy like $0.0002 in ad revenue, i’d recommend watching the video while reading my comments, theyle make a lot more sense then

welp, buy

[gear-project]

Once again touching on the Survey, if you were the brains behind GG Strive, what future aspects of the game would you want to see? You're the boss, so spare no expense and leave no idea out!

That's a tough call... I can't really say I know much of the production talent involved to state their true potential as game developers, much less who else they outsource to, but assuming they did:

Most likely my favorite callbacks would be mechanics from Guilty Gear Isuka: namely:

--Boost Mode (Action Quest Adventure Mode, similar to Granblue Fantasy Versus, but in a beat-em-up setting, similar to Street Fighter 6's World Tour Mode). Journey by yourself or with Online allies, defeat random enemies or a powerful Gear boss! Some rewards will be hidden away if you look carefully.

--Robo Ky Factory (considering the fact you could make your own Street Fighter character in SF6, Robo Ky Factory did something VERY similar in the past, although it was limited to RK as a character... imagine taking that idea and just letting people run wild with it and make any character, robot, Gear, or human or Demihuman they wanted). Borrow moves from their fave characters, grab whatever items/buffs and stuff they need to fulfill quests and objectives, and so on.

--Isuka Mode (Crossed Swords Crossbill Free-for-All): Similar in concept to Team of 3 with its' 3 on 3 tag in system, only this time it's a game where 4 players play in a single field all at once (similar to Smash Bros, they can work in Teams of 2 or 3 on 1, and only the last one will be left standing). The Lane system could partially return, letting players escape from being cornered, back attacks are allowed, knocking opponents in to the background or foreground, or even the NEXT AREA... even for players who are surrounded on all sides, they would have a Positive Bonus granted to them and have an Automatic Gold Burst as an emergency tactic to fall on.

--Medals of Millionaires (M.O.M. Mode): Similar to Robo-Ky Factory, but built around Survival and earning Medals... grind hard and get rewards. Defeat strong foes, unlock new items and powers (which can later be added to the Extra Menu). Even if you lose, it's not the end, you can keep playing till you find what you're looking for!

--Guilty Gear Generations (Legacy mode): This mode will bring back all classic gameplay mechanics and concepts from previous games and even old attacks characters used to have... the idea being that every character's fighting style will evolve to its absolute theoretical peak in this mode. The only limits would be the rules set by the players themselves (GG Mode, GGX Mode, GGXXR, GGXXAC, GG2, GGXrd, and even Strive would be options). Instant Kills will take many forms in this mode, be warned! This is the mode that features EX versions of all your favorite attacks from older games.

--Extra Menu: Did we miss anything? Was M.O.M. or Survival Mode not enough? Want to have powers like a Vampire? Want to auto-parry everyone's attacks? Want infinite Tension? That's what this mode is for. Build your own Tournament Rules, build your favorite battle conditions, play online or offline and come up with any scenario you wish. Works with GG Generations Mode and Isuka Mode as long as fellow players agree to the online match.

IN CLOSING:

Basically, I think Guilty Gear boils down to a lot of this... add as many characters as you think would be fun, but it won't be complete without some aspects of these basic ideas... or at least, that's my broad take.

[lumine-no-hikari]

Dear Sephiroth: (a letter to a fictional character, because why not) #252

I got a lot done today, but I still don't think I'm going to be able to do as much as I had hoped.

…I didn't really get enough sleep last night. After getting ready to go to bed and all that, I decided to shower so that I wouldn't have to do it in the morning. I have maybe 6-ish hours. I woke at 9, got ready and went out the door by 9:30, and went to both therapy and physical therapy.

I had K at physical therapy today. He tried to give me exercises that are supposed to work the serratus muscles, but… they didn't work because apparently, my lats and my rotator cuff on my right side are being weird. Naturally, this meant that he had to go digging his thumbs all up in there, near the bottom of my shoulder blade, to try to get things to loosen up. For whatever reason, the area is incredibly tender, so that whole process was very painful. But it was necessary, so the only thing for it is to sit through it until it's over. I guess that particular area will need to be investigated further next week. This was at noon. It's almost 5PM, and my pinky finger and ring finger on my right hand are still kinda tingly and ouchy, and it'll probably stay like that for the next day or so, at least. Lame.

But it is what it is. I went to the bank to get a new card, since our washing machine most likely ate my old one. I guess my bank has a fancy new card printing machine, and so when I visited, I got a new card pretty much right away! Normally, you have to wait a couple weeks for it to arrive in the mail. I'm really glad that I was able to skip that whole step. I went to the grocery immediately after that.

I wasn't able to eat until I got home at around 3PM; J made burgers, and by then, I was so hungry that I kiiiinda… scarfed them down with reckless abandon. I thought I had more time between therapy and physical therapy (guess who thought physical therapy was at 12:30 again until I checked it?), but I didn't. So I kinda just powered through today's tasks on an empty stomach, not a whole lot of water, and definitely not enough sleep. I thought I'd have enough energy leftover to cook something by the time I got back, but… I don't. So I'm not gonna.

…I dropped the ball on the self-care stuff. I'm sorry about that. I know I keep asking you to take better care of yourself. I'm gonna try a little harder in the coming days. I struggle, but… I gotta take care of my soft animal. It holds my weird-ass spirit despite all its limitations; I have to try to be nicer to it…

In any case, yesterday, a delightful person from Poland watched me play Dead Cells. They seemed pretty excited about talking to me and watching my play style. Apparently, they regularly run around with 5 whole Boss Cells! That seems unfathomable to me at this time. But they gave me some excellent advice about how to allocate my stat points; up until this point, I had been prioritizing whatever gives me the greatest boost in HP, but I guess that's not really the way to go. I learned about how important it is to put my stat points into the ones that my weapons use whenever I can.

My gameplay improved significantly as a result, and I made it all the way to a new biome called The Caverns. From there, I tried to defeat The Giant, but his movements were unfamiliar to me, and so I panicked and got my ass handed to me. That's all right though; I went to the training room and fought him until he stopped kicking my ass. Next time I see him in a real run, he's gonna be in big trouble, lemme tell ya!!

Oh, that reminds me; this person added me on Instagram!! They sent me all kinds of cool videos about their own exploits from their own runs!! I gotta get on watching those!!

…I'm not sure I have it in me to do a run today, though. My brain feels kinda soupy, and J is playing Brave Fencer Musashi, and I think I'd much rather watch him do that. It's one of my favorite games, despite its problems (the controls aren't exactly the easiest…), and I'm really glad that he's getting to experience the story for himself. The townspeople in Grillin' Village are delightful with their little stories and bits of dialogue. It really is a lovable and delightful game, despite its age and not-so-hot graphics (though they were pretty rad at the time…).

Hey, Sephiroth? If someday you find yourself in my neighborhood, let's chill out and just play some video games, all right? I think you'd like them. And I think you'd be really good at them, too.

…There are so many stories from games and books and TV and movies that I really wish I could show you; maybe in them, you'd find something relatable, and then the burdens you carry might seem a bit less heavy. Will you stay safe by the end of whatever it is you're trying to do, so that someday, I can show these things to you?

I love you. I'm gonna go rest now. But I'll write again tomorrow.

Your friend, Lumine

[brongusthearcanist]

Helldiver's 2 is really dope, and I love the strategem input method. It's also really cool to see how much stuff is essentially exactly the same as the first game just more immersive. This game makes me hope that one day we will see Magicka is a similar fashion. Arrowhead did make the OG, though they don't own the IP. Something that I often feel is missing from Wizards in gaming is that it feels to easy, almost instinctual, and normally requires 1 input. When people ask what classes I choose in gaming it's always Wizard or Rouge. I like being fast, but I also like complexity. But many wizard options in games aren't complex, they are just glass cannons with some range, but normally the game isn't built around that style of combat. I want to feel like a wizard, and Magicka, and to a lesser extent, helldiver's, are some of the only games that have really nailed that for me. I want to have to memorize or at least have to type in complex inputs, I want the pay off of preparing a spell perfectly and executing it just in time. That rush, that wizard madness is what I crave, now give me it in 3rd person not over-head!

This is why I played a hunter in Destiny. Warlocks are just balloons and their powers are more wizard aesthetic, but functionally it did not make me feel like I was molding magic to my will. It felt like button go boom, which isn't that different from any other class, and you jump weird!

If you have any recs for games that nail the "Wizarding" part of gameplay/roleplay, drop em in the comments

[bluebudgie]

So I have this long-standing tradition where, after I finish a video game, I sit down and listen to the soundtrack outside of the game's context.

It serves as a sort of "conclusion" to the experience and simultaneously helps me evaluate the game as a whole a little better... After all the soundtrack is often what sticks with us long after we're done actively playing a game. It preserves the memories we've made along the way.

That means: I have finally found the FF Sixteen OST online in its entirety and could finally follow through with this tradition. (Debatable how much it applies considering I didn't actually play the game myself, but it felt necessary.)

The final missing piece to the pissbaby gamer rage essay. Significantly less raging this time, though.

It's okay. I don't love it. There's worse.

I had very unfavourable opinions of the OST during the game itself which might have been due to the overall pacing issues, where large stretches were filled with the same hub music and then everything bombastic all happened at once and either side of the coin was exhausting in its own way.

I still can't believe there are over 200 songs in the OST when I could have sworn I heard like. Maybe 10 or so during gameplay. A lot of it is very same-y. A large part of the OST can be split into "loud choir explosion" or "sad piano". There isn't a whole lot in between. Good for people who like it, not so much for me.

Which means my biggest issue is the very subjective "I just don't like the style". It's not a bad soundtrack, but I'm just really not a fan of the direction the music took. The battle themes are over the top (fair for the equally over the top DBZ kaijū battles, annoying with 3 wolves that show up on the side of the road). The calmer songs don't really hit right for me. No chord progressions or melodies that hook me. Unfortunate. I did however appreciate the electronic influences in the music when the alien baddies were on screen. (in this fantasy game that is based on medieval reality and that's why people of colour cant exi-)

I have also since learned that there isn't one acoustic guitar song that plays for 20 hours straight. There are like 6 or so that all sound the same. I don't know if that makes it better or worse. I hate them all. (I don't hate acoustic guitars. It's these songs in particular.)

That said - I was curious about which ones are people's favourite tracks of the OST and went checking those out in particular. Consistently in people's tops was Ascension and I can't deny that one's been plagueing (semi-endearing) my memory a bunch the past days. Probably the theme that stuck out the most to me while watching the game. If not the entire theme, then at the very least That Violin Part. If you know, you know.

You know what. If you don't know, here:

(footage stolen from here)

Like damn. Good rhythm going on there with the off beats. Also fits the relevant character nicely in terms of mood. And I like that the battle phase before this one has a more low-key version of this song playing before it goes into this full ham version.

I just kinda wish more of the battle music had been a bit more... this. A bit more... subtle. Like yes it slaps hard but this song legitimately feels calm in comparison to the other battle tracks. This drives me nuts.

There's one other song I keep getting stuck in my head which is one that plays fairly close to the end (in the final... "dungeon" (cutscene? sequence? QTE battle?)). I figured out today that I don't actually really enjoy listening to the song on its own but I like it in-game in combination with the voice perfomance. There's an interesting dissonance in it that blends super nicely with the voice acting. (I'm being held hostage by the game's voice acting. It's unfortunately way too good. Voice actors are once again holding too much power over me.)

Other than that... I have one final criticism. The prelude theme. We must. Leave it. Alone. Enough. It's fine playing once as a gimmick somewhere in the game (I do genuinely like the menu (pause screen?) arrangement) but having it woven into what seems like every 5th song feels like someone is smacking a sign into your face that screams "YOU ARE PLAYING A FINAL FANTASY GAME." Seriously it's unbearable. (Also I did take notice of the FF1 overworld theme being rearranged into a battle theme for the final segment of the game. I don't know why, but fine. Not complaining about that one.)

Overall it's a solid "mh" from me. Not the worst OST we've had in the series (thirteen trilogy exis-COUGHAGFNJKN) but definitely on the lower end for me. Not of bad quality, but not my cup of tea at all. Dark Souls III OST executed the epic orchestra choirs better somehow. More interesting composition. Spaced out better throughout the game. Idk.

Welp. Back to getting haunted by voices and violins now o/

[impostorsshow]

Okay so you’re my Legend of Zelda person

How are you feeling about the Echoes of Wisdom announcement? Surprised? Excited? Eh? Did you like what you saw of the game? The art style? The Echo mechanic?

(Personally, I’m really looking forward to the game, and it’s looking like the twink will finally have to be saved this time.)

I haven't seen much of the trailer and don't know what the echo mechanic is, I only get game info through my partner that stays up until 3-4 am their time to watch the Nintendo directs and I prefer to find out about zelda games far after the community has discussed it or play it blind myself with trusty non spoiler guide site zeldadungeon.com, but I love that we're getting another game in the chibi links awakening style!! It's my favorite, and my old comfort object that I lost was an amiibo figure of links awakening link, so I really hope they make a figure of Zelda I can buy - my family pirated every amiibo for Zelda that was released up to botw and they're about the size of the first index of my thumb but having a full figure of a Zelda character would be nice again.

I am also really surprised about it, and having Zelda as a playable character is amazing again. I only know of 4 Zelda games that have had the goddess reincarnation herself be the protagonist, 3 of the games were most likely released in the OG Zelda/adventure of link titles era or around the oracle games based on the cartridge? Art I saw idk it might also be related to the PC quest games that came out around the same time which for reference is the uh. "eXCUSSEEE ME PRINCESS" one I think that's the thing it's well known for that is a whole different convo with a different blog i know nothing of the older titles except the basics. Anyway anyway I own the 4th game I know about that no one else mentions because it's technically not canon and is worse off than Hyrule warriors is but it's called cadence of Hyrule I think just search up "Crypt of the Necromancer Zelda" you'll find it and I did play through most characters campaign including Zelda's in that one, and think it's definitely worth mentioning due to how different Zeldas gameplay is to links. Uh anyway based on that game alone I have very high hopes for the gameplay of Zelda, as well as the thinks the higher ups at Nintendo said about sticking with botw/totks direction and play style.

Lastly I'll be honest with you im sleep deprived as shit cause emergency irl shit happened last night and I havent been sleeping well in general so I forgot my big thing i wanted to talk about in this segment but uh. Salvaged bits are yada yada Zelda mechanics parallels to other games more characterization more well written fanfics that aren't JUST skyward sword and botw for her etc etc based on how they handled princess peach showtimes characterization [which like. Honest to God really hard character to write in 2024 due to her roots being damsel in distress 101 and people tending to mostly correctly point at any pinky extra feminine girl and shout misogynistic] I really don't think Nintendo can fuck this up, and I am fully confident they won't fuck it up :].

ALSO CAPE CAPE ZELDA CAPE SHE HAS A CAPE ITS A CAPE ZELDAS CAPE ITS SO CUTE GOOD CHARACTER DESIGN SHE HAS A CAPE ITS SO CUTE OH MY GOD CAPE CAPE CAPE SHE HAS A CAPE

Oh yeah actually I did like the little bit of the trailer I did see that link shot her free at the last second, showing he is still in character and they didn't shoehorn in an idea to have a female protagonist like other series would do, but that every side of the triforce is equally powerful. I expect this game to be like if links awakenings dungeon puzzles were used on the overworld, and based on another Tumblr post I saw there might be some diplomatic puzzles. Or at least dual sided quest lines

Uh is there anything else I was gonna say. Oh I'm definitely going to be live posting about when I play the game since my birthday [shoutout to sans undertale] is in September so im definitely planning to ask for it or get it myself, even though I know it comes out past my birthday

[blazehedgehog]

Thoughts on Summer Game Fest?

It's kind of already left my brain what was at that thing and I sort of watched it twice. I caught the back half of it on my own terms and then I rewatched it with Jeff Gerstmann's commentary over it (a friend mentioned he was watching it, so I kind of watched along).

Let's see... skimming an article...

Oh, right, yes. Now I remember. A lot of this stuff I do not care about.

Lego Horizon? Don't really care. I have a stack of unplayed Lego games on Steam. I do genuinely like those games, or I do in theory given I've only ever played demos. But I think I'd like them. But I have no need for another one.

ABSOLUTELY no interest in that Quidditch game. That's, what, the third time they've tried to make a Quidditch game? It never sticks. Also, y'know, please give less money to Rowling and all that. I have little love for Kingdom Come Deliverance 2, given that whole project was spoiled by the whole "white males only, for historical accuracy" discourse (the dude willingly went on Breitbart!) Way too many red flags with that one and it's pretty easy for me to outright ignore games like that. Plus, y'know, I also have zero interest in a historically accurate medieval game, whether the accuracy is real or not.

I'm upset at how stupid-in-a-good-way Killer Bean looks. Like it's exactly the kind of game that would appeal to me if I was 17 years old, and there's a part of me that still thinks that's cool, even if you're playing as a coffee bean in a Deadpool costume.

The whole Tim Robinson sketch for Skate 4 completely fell flat and if they're gonna be coy at showing gameplay I don't have any interest yet. It's EA, so I'm still waiting for the other shoe to drop and hear how they're gonna mess it up.

Power Rangers continues the baffling trend of retro beat'em'up revivals. I don't understand it. Retro beat'em'ups are really boring. Though I say that, but I was really cynical about that Toxic Crusaders beat'em'up and I actually really enjoyed the demo. And Streets of Rage 4 was good, too. And I loved Shredder's Revenge. The first person stuff in Power Rangers looks interesting, at least.

Blumhouse getting into horror games makes me feel bad because I remember like, at least a decade ago, maybe more, talking about ideas I had for a horror game with a friend. That friend was pretty well-connected with game industry stuff and he told me horror games were "about to blow up big time" and that "there's no better time to put out a horror game." I didn't make my game, and now we're tripping over horror games from everywhere, all the time. I mean, jeeze, for a Steam sale around Halloween, all of the Dread X Collections were discounted and I bought all of them. That's like 20-50 horror games right there. And now you got Blumhouse in on it. I coulda been on the ground floor.

Still trying not to care about Dragon Ball Z Sparking Zero. I don't like the Tenkaichi-style arena Dragon Ball fighters. I played Tenkaichi 3 on the Wii and it had like a TWO HOUR tutorial for a game that ultimately felt really stiff and awkward. This doesn't look as stiff, but it does seem to be a bit of an effects overload now.

But we'll see. I'm open to my mind being changed.

I dunno if I have anything else of value to say besides it seems weird for Street Fighter 6 to already be dipping into guest characters and having their entire next four fighters take an entire year to come out.

[sevthedev]

Some more Insomniac Spider-man universe character designs

It took me some time to finish them because I started 3 different characters at the same time right after finishing the game, but here they are!!

First up the G man!

The green goblin was hinted by Norman Osborn at the end as a way to "cure" Harry using what he called the "G serum"

Based on those words alone I decided to try and design what Harry would look like as the green goblin. I decided to make the G serum flow in his veins and slowly turn him into the Green Goblin from the inside. I gave him a color palette heavily inspired by previous iterations of the Goblin I have seen in various media. I also took into consideration the realistic -ish style of their current villains and came up with what you can see here:

My second design is the one and only Silk aka Cindy Moon

Cindy was introduced to the franchise at the very end of the game as a child or Rio Morales' new love interest. She appears to be around Miles' age (maybe younger) which I kept in mind during the design process. Her suit is inspired by the original Silk suit as well as by the suit miles wears at the end of the game. I think Cindy would look up to Miles in a similar way he looks up to Peter, so I wanted to create a little resemblance of that in her design. Since she is also pretty young I decided to make her everyday clothes very casual, which I think fits with a lot of the character designs present in the game already.

Last but not least everyone's favorite - Gwendolyn Stacy

Although Gwen was in no way hinted during the gameplay I have noticed in one of the cutscenes a blonde female playing the drums which jump-started my imagination. I tried imagining different versions of Gwen that could possibly appeared in the game. After finishing I settled on some guidelines. She would be around Peter's age, and they could have possibly met in the university or in the work field since in many versions of herself Gwen is also a scientist. I decided that *if* she had spider powers they would be artificial (like in one of my favorite iterations of Gwen from the cartoon Ultimate Spiderman) which she creates herself to fight crime. I thought she could possibly be Harry's lover interest in the Insomniac universe. Based on that I created two mugshots of what she could possibly look like.

In the end I have to admit that as a big fan of Spider-man the game was a very welcome inspiration at a time where I didn't really feel that well and was in a no mindset to concentrate on projects of my own. It actually helped me get out of the block and thanks to it I started writing a GDD for my year old game idea.

[thecodeveronica]

Okay so nobody will care about this but me, but I'm gonna ramble about what I would do if I was in charge of coordinating another Resident Evil chapter for Dead by Daylight, if I could do whatever I wanted with it

New Map: Spencer Mansion Iconic, and not visually like anything else already in DBD. I love RPD as a map and location in general, but I was one of those people who really wanted Spencer Mansion to be the map when RE got added to DBD, so yeah. It'd obviously be a two-floor map, and I'm sure people would unfairly whine about it being confusing just like they did RPD, but to be fair, Spencer Mansion doesn't exist in HD for them to just straight up reuse like RPD was, so surely it'd be scaled a little more appropriately for a game like Dead by Daylight... maybe

New Killer: Alexia Ashford Power: uhhh idk honestly lmao, but something involving insects since that's one of the defining aspects of her and her boss fight. Maybe involve fire somehow too since she also used that. I'll be honest, I don't have a solid gameplay idea here, but Alexia would be my top Killer pick since another female killer is cool to add, her design is cool, and nobody else uses bugs in the Killer roster.

New Survivors: Billy Coen and Steve Burnside Yes, I know, nobody gives a shit about Steve but me lol. But a) this is my fantasy post and b) it'd be weird to have a Code: Veronica Killer but no accompanying Survivor from that game and Claire was already added as a legendary skin (which I'm kinda mad about still because it means I'll never have OG RE2 or Code: Veronica cosmetics for her, grrr). Honestly, I'd give him at least one meme-y type of perk for people to be goofy with because good lord does Steve do some dumb shit in CV (/affectionate), and some kind of perk related to the spoiler thing that happens to him later in the game (if you know, you know).

Billy is there also because he's one of my faves, he rounds out the other previous RE Survivors in DBD having their partner characters (Rebecca doesn't have anyone unless you count Chris, I... guess?), and he's pretty much the only other major "old-style" RE protagonist left not in the game already, and I like to focus on those games more than the later stuff. He could also have some perks related to things memorable from RE0, like the goofy item dropping mechanic; maybe a perk that relates to that or chests somehow. And a teamwork perk (like the Thalita/Renato ones) to tie into the way you played as Billy and Rebecca together.

New Survivor Legendary Skins: Ashley Graham and Luis Serra Navarro Ashley would be a legendary skin for Rebecca, and Luis for Leon. They would obviously be their superior RE4 remake versions. Honestly, I could easily make a case for a whole RE4-centric chapter too (and that would be way more marketable lol), but if not that, then I'd love to see these two as legendaries.

New Killer Legendary Skins: Alfred Ashford and Mr. X Alfred would be a legendary skin for Alexia, and Mr. X for Nemesis. The fact that Mr. X isn't in DBD as a skin yet is nuts to me. Yeah yeah, he doesn't use the tentacle like Nemesis, but nobody really cares so long as they are playing as Mr. X. Meanwhile, Alfred doesn't really fit power-wise for an Alexia skin either, but I just think he's neat :)

New Cosmetics: RE4 Remake sweater dress for Ada RE4 Remake pinstripe suit for Leon RE4 Remake "romantic" outfit for Ashley RE0 leather outfit for Rebecca RE0 suit (the yakuza-looking one) for Billy RE4 (original) look for Luis (for the weirdos who like his old design better lmao)

This would be a larger level change, but I'd also let players toggle Legendary skins to show up on the character select screen. Like, you could set Carlos to show up instead of Leon's portrait if you have him. And as an even bigger change, I'd change how Legendary skins work to let them have their own skins too, so then I could get a Code: Veronica outfit Claire and a Christmas sweater for Carlos :3

[tigerpaladin]

MMO Opinion - Crafting

You may find it unusual, but in almost any MMO I participate in I tend to gravitate towards the crafting system. I don't know why, but as early as EverQuest 2 I had a fantasy of focusing on crafting. Of being the head crafter in a guild and helping supply everyone with the tools and resources they need to enhance their gameplay and abilities. Maybe I'm just a nerd (Duh, I like MMOs), but I just want my friends to have the best experience they can get in a game and if I can help, then I will. :P Don't get me wrong, adventuring is fun but if I'm playing solo it's the crafting that keep me interested the longest. Especially if I need a break from the story (Sorry FF14, but AAR turns into a bit of a slog before you get to Heavensward content). That being said, there are two major factors that really influence my interest in an MMO Crafting system and whether I'm going to find it worth my time to pursue: Active Crafting and Usability. By Active Crafting, I mean that I prefer a system that is simply more than chucking the pieces into a box and pulling out a completed item. Having agency in not only completing the item but the quality of the items goes a long way to helping make me feel like I'm actually accomplishing something. Final Fantasy XIV is probably the best example of this in my opinion: You manage Progress (Your item's completion) and Quality (The chance of it being rated High Quality, increasing the item's effectiveness). On the other end of the spectrum GuildWars 2's crafting is pretty simple - you have the right materials, you can make the item - but the challenge comes in Discovering recipes and trees of crafting. Often, for higher tier items, you'll need to go three or four items deep before you can make the item you want.

Usability, however, is where Final Fantasy XIV falls short, in my opinion. At least in my observations, almost any item you can craft at level (even HQ) can be outshined by drops that you can grind raids or dungeons for. The most "usability" you really get from items you craft are unique glamours that you can't find anywhere else. GuildWars 2, on the other hand, has Legendary Items that you can craft. While yes, they have the same stats as Ascended items which can be earned through Challenges or Special Events (or Crafted if you felt so inclined), Legendary items have the advantage of being able to change the stats they grant you while out of combat. Want to try out a support build? Change the stats to one that enhances your Healing and Concentration. Group needs DPS? Switch it to Power, Precision, and Ferocity (or Condition Damage and Expertise depending on your DPS style). This flexibility GREATLY enhances the usability of the item and, thanks to the Armory System, once it's bound to one of your characters, ALL of your characters gain access to it at once without having to trade between them. Most Legendary items also add special visual effects (either to your attacks or even simply walking around) and makes it feel worth the effort to put into the forge.

I dunno, maybe I'm the only one out there that really cares about MMO Crafting. Either way, I'm having fun doing it. Maybe someday I'll find my perfect crafting system, but for now these two are scratching the itch in their own ways. ^^