#or just watch a playthrough or the cutscenes on youtube | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

burr-ell · 2 months ago

Note

If it's alright, can I ask why you like the Golden Deer house more than the Blue Lions or Black Eagle houses? Like, what caught your eye about them over everyone else?

So I actually got into FE3H through a friend of mine, @dar-draws, who I already knew through mutual good taste (Dickkory), and fanarts like this one, this one, and this one plus the way she talked about Claude and Claudeleth caught my attention. I watched a couple playthroughs of the Golden Deer route on YouTube and absolutely fell in love (before finally getting a switch just to play it myself, for which I was violently bullied here). So like, I was already going into the game biased, which is part of why when I got it I went ahead and played through Golden Deer before doing all the other routes in turn; it was genuinely important to me to personally see all sides of the story. But even as I've played the other routes and replayed SS and AM and gained even more of an appreciation for them, I'm still always sort of drawn back to VW and the Deer.

I think it's ultimately vibes-based, but I'll try to articulate it. I'm not really a big fan of "cozy" sorts of games—I've played and enjoyed ACNH, but the things I most enjoyed about that game were finding things to do and goals to complete, like completing the main quest line or filling up the museum. So it's not so much that I find the Golden Deer to be cozy so much as adventurous. They're not inherently personally invested in the conflicts of White Clouds (they don't know Lord Lonato or Miklan, and their house leader isn't [gestures generally]), but they're also not just ping-ponging through the story. They go through the same events as the other two houses, but they're coming at it from more of an outsider's perspective, and their choice to get involved and react and respond feels more active.

The Deer also don't have any real reason to follow Claude, either, and in the early game they make sure he knows it; none of them are really all that concerned that they're speaking to the future Grand Duke of their country. Lysithea snaps at him, Leonie shoots the breeze with him, Raphael is jovial with him, Lorenz undercuts him, Hilda is blase with him, Marianne tries not to talk to him, and Ignatz gets into theological debates with him. Over the course of the game, they develop the same loyalty to Claude that the other house members already have for their leaders almost by default, and it feels a lot more earned because we see it happen. And that in turn makes scenes like the one at Myrddin, where Claude reveals his true goal of opening the border with Almyra and embracing foreign cultures and the other Deer are surprised but trust Claude and follow his lead, that much more satisfying.

I was a little surprised, when I played through the other three routes, that aside from the designated talking-with-the-cast scenes every route gets, the characters who aren't house leaders or retainers don't really have all that much to do in the story. On Verdant Wind, you pretty consistently have members of the Golden Deer appearing in other cutscenes and giving their two cents; there's even a unique scene where Lysithea realizes there's something up with the Empire's mages because of her backstory and approaches Claude and Byleth about it. It's nothing too obtrusive—they do still have to accommodate the potential for character death—but it's those small details that make a difference to me. Every house has a particular dynamic with odd silly quirks, but the Deer being just that little bit more integrated into the story really helps sell the idea that they belong here and they're making this story their own.

There's also the matter of where specifically their adventure takes them. I respect the choice to focus on Dimitri in Azure Moon, because it does handle his character and arc very well and I think also does the other Lions justice (with the exception of Dedue), but it's also focused largely on Dimitri's personal arc and the Tragedy of Duscur and doesn't really follow through on a lot of the events of White Clouds. (Which some Blue Lions stans have been okay with because they think the Agarthans are bad villains, which...that's valid, but stories still have to like, address plot elements they set up.) Verdant Wind, by contrast, does actually pull back and try to figure out the real impetus behind the whole conflict, and it ends with them beginning to properly lay Fodlan's true problems to rest.

So while the route isn't flawless and I do think there are issues with how characters are written that are part of larger trends within the game and the series as a whole, there's a very specific kind of fantasy adventure energy with the Golden Deer that I enjoy. I think the stories I'm most drawn to are the ones that keep their eyes on a specific goal but still make you feel like the characters would bring that same energy to goofing around with each other, and I think that's something Verdant Wind does very well.

#fe3h #golden deer #fe3h meta #asks #that reminds me i should really replay cindered shadows idk why i haven't #also reminds me. dar followed up that post a year later bc we both got a 3ds to play awakening to romance chrom #the ground is level at the foot of the cross

41 notes · View notes

petrichor-and-moondust · 1 month ago

Text

You know, I recently got my PC upgraded, so I've been playing this game I was obsessed with in 2018. I never had the chance to play it before because I didn't have anything that was powerful enough to run it. It's called Detroit: Become Human and I've fallen completely in love with it again as I go through the levels and get to explore it myself and make my own choices, rather than scrounging YouTube to see different playthroughs.

I've completed my first playthrough, so I'm slowly going through to try and unlock every possible ending. 100%-ing every level- you would have no idea how MANY times I sat through that damn interrogation level.

One thing I discovered, which I didn't realise before, is- Kara doesn't have to deviate.

Like, I knew Connor doesn't have to become a deviant- it's kind of a key plot point, the whole, choosing between who you have been raised, trained, expected, and believed to be, versus what you are, what you could become, what you believe- what you want yourself- to be. But I had assumed that, like Markus, Kara just... becomes deviant. As in, you get pushed into the "break programming" sequence automatically after Todd gives you the order, but... you don't.

If you don't try to move, at all- no accidental button press, no nudge of the joystick- you sit (or well, stand) through a nauseating, painful monologue from Todd, before he heads upstairs to where Alice has hidden in her room. Then you hear the sounds of their scuffle, and it is so painful to sit through, and, well, it leads to a final cutscene where Kara enters Alice's room to see Todd lifting her lifeless body to her bed, tucking her in, before turning on Kara to now attack her.

It was...really nauseating to watch.

But what got me is...That's it.

The next Kara level -which for anyone wondering is Fugitives- is just... skipped over. I half-thought it might just reset her back to "Opening", but if her and Alice die in Stormy Night, that's IT. It really- baffled me, so I went through the flowchart, and sure enough, every single one of Kara's stories is skippable after Stormy Night. Her solo levels are all set off from the main chapters, and ones she shares with other characters will just exclude her POV play if she dies before reaching it.

Unlike Connor, who is simply replaced with another model over and over, gravestones increasing again and again in the zen garden with each visit, or Markus, who gets resurrected, rescued, and even has other characters rip out their own biocomponents to keep him alive- at least until the plot is progressed far enough- Kara is just. gone.

And it maybe shouldn't grab me as much, but it does. Because from a gameplay POV, killing off a main character permanently, and so early on in the game, is generally a pretty bad move. But from a narrative point? God, it's fucking genius. Because Detroit: Become Human is a story-centric game. It is told from the three different groups of people that are involved in every war, conflict, and genocide, regardless of the cause, the time, the place, the outcome.

The Opressors: the group who is suppressing, invading, enslaving, or otherwise actively causing harm to the others.

The Rebels: the ones of the oppressed group who are fighting back against the oppressors.

The Victims: everyone caught in the crossfire.

A war cannot happen if one of the opposing sides is not there to continue- if one side loses their leader in such a way that doesn't convert them into a martyr that spearheads that side's cause, it's over. It's won. This is why both Connor and Markus have -admittedly unconventional- plot armour until they get to a point in which it is no longer necessary.

The sparks have caught fire, the revolution has begun- everything is in motion and can no longer be prevented.

Connor is on the side of the Oppressors. Markus leads the Rebels.

Kara and Alice represent the Victims. They're a family forged through their lived experiences, both desperate for something the war has stripped away from them. And the war has stripped EVERYTHING away from them except each other. Kara and Alice are displaced refugees seeking asylum. The war defines them; it impacts every single aspect of their lives. Your actions as Markus and Connor impact the path of Kara more so than they ever impact each other. This is how war works- it ravages and destroys those caught in the crossfire far before it ever reaches the enemy side.

But Kara's actions have very little impact, on the other two's paths, other than a few guilt-tripped cutscenes. In fact, you can functionally complete the game through to its end without her. And it just- it really grabs you by the shoulders and forces you to confront the fact of how victims of war and refugees are treated head-on. Because that is what Kara is, and what her role in the story can be twisted into:

Inconsequential.

The actions of a victim have no true impact on the tides of a war. Whether you flee, barter, or even kill in order to continue on Kara's desperate bid for the border, it has no true impact on the overarching story- and that in itself is a HUGE point of the story. Because whilst everything Kara does has practically zero effect on the way androids are viewed, every single one of Markus' choices - which affect the way the public view androids- impacts her journey. If the public become sympathetic to androids - achieved through the pacifist route- they are sympathetic to Kara and Alice, who can then safely make it across the border. If the public become hostile towards androids, more and more opportunities in which Kara and Alice might be found out arise, and they end up anywhere from shot dead, to seperated, to discarded in a recycling plant.

The lives of victims do not matter to the powers at war. They are meaningless, disregarded, and of no consequence- seen as expected, or even as necessary sacrifices. Every sacrifice made by Markus and Connor in the game- be it their friends (leaving Simon to be found at the Tower or killing him), their comrades (choosing to chase Rupert rather than helping Hank), and even themselves (Markus setting himself alight; basically every damn choice Connor can make, but for example pushing himself off of the roof with Daniel) is done in order to further their mission- to advance the cause of their side: to free androids, or to eradicate deviants.

Kara doesn't care about that- her only motive is to defend. Every sacrifice Kara makes in the game is to protect Alice. She doesn't care if she is harming or helping the image of deviants as long as Alice is safe. Kara doesn't care about the war, because it doesn't care about her.

Everything Kara is, everything she does is functionally useless in the face of how she is perceived. Whether she shoots Todd or escapes out the window doesn't change how the bus driver treats her. Her choosing to stay in the abandoned house with Ralph instead of robbing the shop to stay at the motel makes no difference to Rose, and whether she kills Zlatkov or leaves him to the whims of his "creations" is of no interest to the border control guards. This is because her choices are not made freely, regardless of deviancy- they are forced by her environment. Every decision Kara makes is between a rock and a hard place.

There is no room for morals when you're fleeing all you've ever known with barely the clothes on your back. Do you trust that the shell-shocked, trembling stranger holding a knife to your daughter's throat is only acting out of fear and try to talk him down, or do you take no chances and shoot him- traumatising your child further, yes, but at least keeping her alive? Do you forgive the one who helped trap you, watched as your very identity was ripped away, on the grounds that he wasn't truly alive- do you trust him with your life? With Alice's life? Knowing that he had once endangered them, willingly or not? Will you trust the woman offering you safe harbour across the border, after all you've experienced- well, you have to, you don't have a choice- there is no other option because you're desperate, you're terrified; and even a false hope is better than none at all, because you know you will die if you stay, and if you die, who will look after Alice? Who will care for your daughter if you are not there to do so? She is all that matters. Everything you do must be done in order to protect her.

So you shoot the deviant and you trust Luthor and you kill every soldier who raids Jericho before they slaughter your family first.

And none of this matters to anyone, none of it does, because you are acting out of desperation and the reality of a kill-or-be-killed world- you are not systematically hunting down every android that steps out of line, not trying to capture them, destroy them, enslave your own people. You are not going out of your way to build an army and fight, raise a revolution; to demand civil rights, equality, respect. You are scared and running and there are so many just like you, doing the same. This is not worthy of note, of news coverage, of knowing. So it is not known, not plastered across every news station, not taken note of.

You are just trying to keep your daughter alive, and because of this, you are entirely expendable.

You haven't betrayed your people and seperated yourself from them by creating categories of "good" androids and "bad" androids -because you don't have time, and you're all made of the same silicon and thirium, and you'll never be treated human, so it's pointless, it doesn't matter- and you haven't spearheaded an explosive revolution and caused the city, the country, the world to really think about whether or not you are an individual or a piece of property.

And because you are not doing anything like this, nothing noteworthy, newsworthy, or public- because you are acting just like everyone, like the general populous (and God knows, no, They know, that that is much more dangerous than a revolutionary- because people can't find out you are just like them, because then they empathise, and it is MUCH harder to control the masses when they find out that the "others" are exactly the same as them, and always have been-no, that creates room for the masses to realise that the war is not for them, but for Them- for profit, for control, for power) and thus, like the general populous, you are of no real importance to the "Bigger Picture."

You are dehumanised to such a point that you are met with only extremist reactions- of contempt, of violence, or- rarely- of pity. What people know about what is actually going on is so tightly controlled that even you, living through it, experiencing it, don't truly understand what's happening. The public are so thoroughly desensitised to violence against your people either by constant exposure, fear-mongering, or total indifference, and you don't know which is worse, and you don't know how to go about stopping it, so you run. And you tell yourself everything will be better once you're out of the town, the area, the country.

Everything will be better once you cross the border; you will be safe and happy. Your daughter will be safe and happy.

Everything will be okay once you cross the border, once you escape, once you make it- you don't have papers or money or a connections or a place to go, but it's fine, because the people there will understand, the people there will be different, because at least you won't be here, and surely that's what matters.

Surely they will see and know what you have gone through. Surely the people there will be different than the people here. Surely they will be compassionate and kind and help you- help your daughter.

Because who could look at her and feel hate? Who could look at her and act out of vitriol and fear and derision?

Detroit: Become Human is a story about an android uprising. It is a story that has been told a million times- a war story, where the protagonist leads the rebels to victory, where he realises he's been fighting for the wrong side and has a last-minute redemption, turning the tide of the war and the oppressed rebels are victorious. It is a story that is blatantly and directly inspired by POC civil rights movements, by the US civil war, and the Holocaust; it is interactive yet cinematic in a way not many stories of its calibre are- generally restricted to one or the other.

It is also a story about refugees- about the people caught in the crossfire. And not in the typical standard, where they are used to tug on the heartstrings of the protagonist, to guilt the enemy, or lament a heart-rending monologue about how the war has destroyed their life that suddenly changes the public's opinion so drastically that the war is over within a week, but in a more blunt, realistic manner.

The public's opinion of a group isn't swayed by the actions of the displaced and imprisoned because they are not made aware of their actions. All that the public know is what they are told by those in control, who are using your people as a tool to keep them in line. All the public know is of the worst events- of "terrorist attacks" and "murders" and "violent, unsolicited attacks"- which aren't even those, not really.

It is twisted truths and gaslighting and flat-out lies: it is withholding evidence. Reporting on an android "viciously murdering its owner", but failing to include that the death was caused from an initial act of self-defence, that the man had attacked the android with a bat, intent to kill (not to mention the months of constant abuse leading up to it), it's reporting a news-station hijack as a "terrorist attack" when nobody was killed- nobody except one of the hijackers, but of course, they don't count- when the act was not meant to strike terror but to demand that they are seen as equals and not "other".

It is about the vice and choking control that corporations and the government have over information and everything we see, hear, experience- the complete lack of regard for human life fundamentally stemming from corporate greed, systemically taught to a whole nation, country, world, setting them on each other, to distract them from what's going on. Smoke and mirrors and gunfire disguised as fireworks.

Law enforcement do not grow to treat the androids as anything other than subhuman and the public do not accept them and apologise; CyberLife does not relinquish all androids and admit fault. The government only step in to call off their attack dogs when there is no other way for them to come out of it without making a martyr of Markus and villainising themselves. It is not out of goodwill, not out of morality, not out of a belief that androids should be treated as actual living beings. It is a purely strategic play to regain control before they lose it completely and the situation crumbles to anarchy. It is harsh and cruel and an uncertain victory in even the very best ending, and still it has no positive impact on Kara and Alice's life.

Their best outcome includes them fleeing to another country, seeking refuge with relatives of people they met just the day prior, away from everything they've known to a place with "no android laws"- but that means there's no laws protecting them either. The revolution is over, it's successful, they won, but it's no use to the people whose lives were already broken, ravaged, destroyed. No amount of laws passed will bring loved ones back from the dead. No number of people charged for crimes against androids will make up for what they experienced.

It is too little, too late; the flames of revolution engulfed it all and no amount of firefighters can turn the ashes back to what they once were.

War does not care for who it harms and what it destroys, and ceasefires do not undo the damage already done.

#yeah this turned into an essay but its been cooking in the back of my brain all day #not to give david cage too much credit but by god if this game doesnt kill me every time #dbh #d:bh #detroit become human #dbh kara #dbh alice #dbh meta #character analysis #plot analysis #detroit: become human #kara dbh #look the whole “remain as you are and what you are meant to be”#vs “change and become who you want to become and what you feel is right” realy got to me but this #this was a complete accidental blindside while trying to unlock every part of the flowcharts #the dbh brain worms are back from hibernation and goddamn if they arent a devastating invasive species #psuedobirds

30 notes · View notes

marvelhead17 · 2 months ago

Text

Baldur's Gate 3 Dribble

Do any of my mutuals play? This game is absolutely addictive, especially when trying to get certain outcomes. If Marvel had come out with anything similar I would have sold my soul for it probably.

In the last week and a half I've played another 70+ hours so I have 389+ hours and do you know how many playthroughs I've completed? Just the one. Only have 36/54 achievements. Some people have played 1500 hours and said they've discovered new things along the way (whether exaggerating or because they've played since it's earlier phases, it's constantly getting patch updates and new content).

I've got another campaign going that is nearly there, but I've been into character creation again and UGH it's just so fun to do the stuff for the Emerald Grove in Act 1.

But also, there so many companions whether you romance them or not, just to do their quests sometimes. And then you can still get good and bad endings for EACH?

Lae'zel, Shadowheart, Astarion, Gale, Wyll (these first ones are the main ones that you can even play yourself and get g/b endings for), and then Halsin, Jaheira, and Minsc can join you later. I don't know if the last 2 on the list are romanceable, but there are still bad characters you can have that I haven't explored yet.

Gushing about my Tavs below, and possibly spoilers for anyone who hasn't gone beyond Act 1 if you are playing, so just be aware.

In my first playthrough it was Karlach that I romanced, gods what a beautiful Devil. My character is a wood half-elf barbarian named Narriel. And she joined Karlach in Avernus when she had to return, so they look so badass in leather and everything!

Second playthrough, the beefcake and 'my heart' Halsin (no I did not do him in bear form, as tempting as it was, maybe on another run). I stuck with Narriel, (it's my fave name for a fantasy character okay?) as a wood half-elf cleric. This campaign is nearly there and I hate to see it go.

Third playthrough (I tried Astarian with another Tav but lord is that man difficult to please unless you are playing a bad guy) is with Gale. They are a non-binary wizard wood half-elf named Phoenix and they are stunning. I've just arrived in Baldur's Gate and so the final quests begin.

Fourth, I've started a Durge (Dark Urge) Playthrough, a White Dragonborn named Minerva, and it's going good so far for her (I'm not accepting The Urge, because I'm a simp for these characters and they don't like you doing bad shit). I've only completed the Grove so there is much more to go. I'm not quite sure who to romance yet, but I like that idea of Halsin saving her.

Possibly restarting Morgan's story (again, which sucks cause I played nearly 70 hours, realised Astarion was never gonna make a move based on a missing cutscene in Act 1, and now dedicated another 8 hours just to be frustrated) to go for Shadowheart instead, as being a tiefling makes it impossibly difficult for Act 1 to please Astarian without going against your own race, like damn. But also she's not that dark and Shadowheart is so easy to please, in most of my playthroughs she's tried to come on to me in the beginning, so I see how she was the most romanced.

Made a bard named Callon, he is (surprise) a wood half-elf who is starting off with the Lute. Going for Wyll the Blade of Frontiers because I watched Neil Newbon (Astarian's actor) play BG3 and invited the actor to speak about him, and it made me want to try! It's been adorable so far and I'm barely in it yet.

Made a character for fun named Nixie (based off of the All for One DnD YouTube series by Deerstalker Pictures), who is a pink tiefling sorcerer that loves casting firespells and is mischievous. We'll see where she takes us, but without that in mind I've decided to ignore her playthrough so far haha.

That leaves us with Lae'zel who I haven't decided a character for just yet, and Astarion who I need to reconsider for. As well as Minthara? I'm not sure what other companions can be romanced that aren't in the initial party, all I know is Minthara is easy for a Durge playthrough. I also think there was a possibility with Mizora? I don't know.

Send help.

#baldurs gate 3 #bg3 #bg3 rant #bg3 tav #video game #romance #playthrough #astarion #gale dekarios #karlach cliffgate #wyll ravengard #shadowheart #lae'zel #minsc and boo #jaheira #halsin #baldurs gate

16 notes · View notes

ngc-5194 · 1 year ago

Text

yknow i could very easily accept someone not liking the mobile kh games if people actually gave... understandable reasons??

mostly i've heard that they're 'inaccesable'. which. they're in general more accessable since the console they run on is a phone, a device more people have than a ps4. though, granted, it is the offline version of both games only.

however, if you don't have a phone, have limited space on your phone, or are uninterested in a mostly unplayable game, all of which are understandable, there are cutscene compilations (ux (story important, all), dr) available on youtube too!

if the lots of reading is the issue then there is a completely dubbed version of the cutscenes of ux and you can easily find voiced playthroughs of both union x and dark road on youtube as well.

(for instance, here is a playthrough of dark road that i watched as my phone needed repairs by the time i had caught up with the series enough to move onto khdr. but, of course, there are many more options if you simply search up 'kingdom hearts [dark road/union x] playthrough' on youtube. find whichever one suits the kind of videos you like to watch best!)

if you don't have the time to sit through all of the cutscenes, there are summaries also avaliable! here is a video one for union x, and though unfortunately i can't find a similar one for dark road, it is also always acceptable to just read the wiki section on the story of the game! (here is the union x wiki section as well)

the other major complaint i've heard is that it's 'too confusing' or that the story 'doesn't make sense in parts'.

to which i first must ask, what part of kingdom hearts does make sense to you then? many many signifigant, heavily important parts of this series can be the most mind boggling things you have ever read or heard. so much so that we are known as the fans of that overly complex and insane disney game. that is what we are known for!!

and more to an actual point, there are many many people out there in this fandom who would be thrilled to talk to you about parts of the plot you found confusing. who have posts pages and pages long on minute details.

we are all fans of this weird ass game series and we all can. i don't know. help each other, newcomers and people who have been here awhile alike. us fans who like the mobile games are no different. we are willing to share and help and explain anything you need.

and as for the take that the mobile games are 'unimportant'.

strelitzia, someone deeply important to marluxia, larxene, and ventus' backstories, is seemingly implied to be one of the main characters in kh4 and if you have no knowledge of union x, then you likely have zero idea who she is.

the foretellers and the master of masters are being set up as potential villians in the next arc of the series. all of these characters were introduced in union x, four years before back cover released. and while yes, back cover gives the perspective of the foretellers more while union x is from the eyes of the keykids, there are many interactions with the foretellers in union x, beyond the scope of back cover, that are deeply important to the plot and establishment of their characters.

while yes, dark road has drastically less set up for the future in it, as all of the characters featured are now dead, it gives a lot of depth to xehanort and eraqus both. eraqus' behaviours and motivations are given reason—not necessarily morally good ones, and certainly not ones that always provide justification for his actions, but actual fully defined reasons for it all.

as it has always been with kh, every game is important to understand the story. you couldn't simply play kh1 kh2 and kh3 and expect to understand everything, and you can not expect to understand everything if you don't at least know surface level of the stories of the mobile games too.

you do not have to play them yourself. they do not have to be your favourite games in the series. if you are reading this and you hate them, you can stay not liking them even for all i care.

but you have to accept that they are important to the plot of the series. that they can not simply be ignored if you want to grasp the entire story of kingdom hearts.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts union x #khux #kingdom hearts dark road #khdr #khuxdr #long post #SORRY #i am just. can barely stand it here anymore #like. you're perfectly allowed to just Not Like them. thats literally fine. who cares #but at least just come out and SAY that you just dont like them #stop burrying it behind 'it's not important and it's a phone game waah wah'#just say you don't like the games. i really don't care if you hate them with all your heart and soul. just. stop being a coward. and Say It #anyway. uh. who wants to talk about khml with me :3

118 notes · View notes

ninjapotatohead · 27 days ago

Note

personally if the story sucks I don’t feel like to keep playing, I kinda keep playing a game because I want to know what happens next and I think good stories impacted me more as a person then good gameplay

It literally doesn't matter if the story is the most spectacular thing in the universe; it utterly fails as a game if the gameplay is shit.

If you're playing a shit game for the story, you can get an infinitely better experience bu just watching a playthrough or a cutscene compilation on YouTube, and that doesn't bode well for the game as a whole.

#spud's inbox #sonic community nonsense

9 notes · View notes

sprout-fics · 4 days ago

Note

i’ve been following you for a while now and i think i’m finally going to cave and get invested in cod… is there anything you’d recommend? with which game to get started? i’ll watch it on youtube most likely but i NEEEED to know the lore

I made a quick and dirty intro to CoD post a while back! Though it's just an overview (and was written prior to MWIII) it might be a good place to get started. Personally I recommend starting with this playthrough of MWI/MW2019 before moving on to MWII, which is where most folks hopped aboard. I find veteran/no damage playthroughs really play well to the realism of the series.

The great thing about watching the games is that they're a lot like watching an action movie. The graphics are really good and the plotlines are interesting and engaging. (Except for MWIII, we don't talk about that)

It's also worth watching the original games because in some cases they're even better than the reboots.

Oh- and I will admit to not being well read up on all the warzone cutscenes and such that connect the games, as well as other games like Black Ops and such. But that's what the wiki is for!

#cod modern warfare #cod mwii #call of duty mwii #cod mwiii #mwii

9 notes · View notes

governmentintelligence · 8 months ago

Text

less a theory and more drawing connections

i literally dont know whats compelling me to make this post, but i was watching the game theory on indigo park/uniquegeese's reaction to the game theory on indigo park, and when unique mentioned that there's stuff people haven't caught on to or mentioned....

spoilers, i guess? and i have links to all the timestamps in youtube videos im using linked on the images themselves.

I thought a bit about the lloyd's limo's sign that's in storage. and the lloyd statue that's in storage.

(ID: screenshot from Youtube of backstage space Mane Stage in Indigo Park, with gold statue of Lloyd amids storage boxes with his hand outstretched and holding a microphone)

the lloyd statue very clearly looks like it used to be where rambley is now. holding isaac indigo's hand at the entrance.

that implies that the rambley statue isn't the original, and that lloyd used to be the one holding isaac's hand.

(ID: screenshot from Youtube playthrough showing golden statue of Isaac Indigo holding Rambley the Ractoon's hand and waving his other, mimicing the Disney partner's statue)

similarly, in the intro cut scene historical footage of isaac on the park's opening day, a mural of lloyd is on the wall at the entrance. when the player character visits the park, the mural in that location is of rambley.

you can really see it highlighted in this screenshot from the intro scene, as the camera zooms out from the historical footage and shows the present day indigo park website.

(ID: screenshot from Youtube playthrough of intro cutscene. Two monitors sit on desk, one showing black and white footage of Isaac Indigo speaking in front of Indigo Park's entrance on opening day, with Lloyd mural behind him. Second monitor shows website for booking Indigo Park stay with an image of the park's entrance on the website, showing that the mural behind Isaac now has Rambley.)

now, there are a few other allusions to rambley having taken over after lloyd. the painting of them both shaking hands is really reminiscent of the painting in disney's winnie the pooh ride, showing owl shaking hands with mr toad while mr toad passes along the deed to the ride. that painting is an allusion to how the winnie the pooh ride replaced the ride "mr toad's wild ride," so passing the deed is literally passing along the baton.

another is the player character's comment when you view the lloyd plush — "I feel like as a kid, Indigo used Lloyd a lot more."

what i feel is more foreshadowing to why the change between lloyd and rambley was made, however, comes from this sign that's also in the mane stage's backstage. it's sideways and the screengrab isn't the best, but it reads "Lloyd's Limos".

(ID: screenshot from Youtube playthrough, where a dirty sign reading "Lloyd's Limos" can be read between the bars of a metal frame shelf)

the idea of a limo ride immediately reminded me of Disney's California Adventure's infamous Superstar Limo which, to make a long story short, sucked ass. it was such a monumental failure of a ride for quite a few reasons and i'd recommend Defunctland's video on why it all went tits up, but the tl;dr for our purposes is just that it sucked. it was not received well by park attendees and was closed in less than a year after opening.

the comparison makes me really curious to know just what kind of ride lloyd's limos was, but knowing that lloyd had a ride that then flopped feels as if he was the main mascot until he flopped. similar to superstar limo, the entirety of california adventures was received pretty poorly upon opening.

maybe a similar expansion or rebranding was done at indigo park, while lloyd was losing popularity, and that's what prompted the switch? and maybe there's now a return to retro happening for indigo fans, as suggested by the retro lloyd plush (but not of other characters)?

either way, i feel like i haven't seen a lot of people point out the Lloyd's Limos sign and its potential ties to the old Superstar Limo ride, but i do feel like that's hugely intentional. same as the handshake painting's clear nod forward the owl and mr toad painting at the parks. im interested in seeing how these similarities might be foreshadowing or otherwise connected to the lore!!

#indigo park #lloyd the lion #idk what else to tag this as honestly #rambley the racoon #maybe people have pointed this out and im just out of the loop but like. it annihilated me that gametheory didn't point this out lmao #in a weird way it's benefiting to know a bit of disney parks lore while analysing this game

23 notes · View notes

ejthenobody · 1 month ago

Text

A Random Rambly Thought About Hi-Fi Rush.

Sooooo while I haven't been able to play the game at all lately due to having a dead laptop that I need to get a job to pay to fix, I've been looking at LPs and whatnot of Hi-Fi Rush as the next best thing, daydreaming about what I'll do for my own Youtube videos on the game and my quest for 100% completion. Due to watching other people play the game I've ran into this fun little thought about it from a few playthroughs:

(Warning for possible spoilers for Hi-Fi Rush, go play it if you haven't)

Chai's trash guitar/"junker", as I like to call it, isn't actually becoming a guitar in the moments we see it transforming during a cutscene. That is purely in his head due to Chai being kind of delusional about his dreams of becoming a rockstar.

Now, I think this interpretation is wrong, BUT I wanna ramble about it anyway just because.

First and most boring reason why I think it's wrong is because, well, it's just the tone of Hi-Fi Rush's world and story. Chai's whacking stick becoming an actual guitar whenever he's, *IN THE ZONE*, is not the most absurd thing we see in the game and is fully believable in comparison to people like Roquefort or Kale's whole plan with Spectra. This is a slightly fantastical, bright and colorful world with super advanced technology and a main character whose sick-nasty powers are coming from an MP3 player mistakenly embedded in his chest, and if you've gotten to the point of asking if that guitar-shaped whacking stick is actually becoming a guitar or not, then you likely won't care anymore within the next ten seconds when he takes that guitar and smashes a giant robot's face in with it.

Secondly and from a more interesting angle, I think there's enough evidence within Hi-Fi Rush's story and gameplay that points to the idea that Chai's junker is actually transforming in the moments we see it doing so.

Like I mentioned earlier, Chai's guitar only seems to transform whenever he's really feeling it; whenever he's at the top of his game; whenever we're going so hard that we're getting S ranks like it's as easy as breathing. In gameplay, we see this as being a feature of regular combat, where Chai's junker will transform into a proper guitar when we're doing well. In cutscenes, we always see Chai's junker transform with this very specific effect, where it seemingly starts charging with this blue energy aura before it then shifts into a guitar and the aura quickly fades. We only see this during moments when Chai is likely feeling extremely confident, A.K.A. when he's literally delivering the final blows to every single boss. It's during the final boss fight with Kale himself we see something that clearly shows the guitar is actually a guitar directly after Kale is defeated. It's a brief moment where Chai drops the guitar on the ground and it doesn't break apart or revert back to the junker, it actually hits the ground like it should with a very distinctly not-pile-of-scrap-metal-hitting-the-floor sound.

Outside of all of that, in general, we're lead to believe that Chai's "musical robot powers" and the power boost they provide are very clear and very apparent to everybody, even if Chai's the only one moving to the beat and seeing the world as doing the same. He's noted as having a ton of firepower in comparison to everyone else by Macaron, with that one line about how, "If even Chai can't get through that wall, then we're out of luck," or however it goes. And while we're pointing out quotes, you can't forget Kale's, "All you're good at is hitting things with a guitar," line, which is another big point to the idea that Chai's whacking stick is actually becoming a guitar, since I doubt someone like Kale would be willing to call said bonking stick a guitar unless it was actually becoming one every now and then.

Okay, this is kinda random to say here at the bottom of all of that but I don't have much in the way of creative flow going on right now so coming up with an actual ending to all of that is kind of hard, buuuuuuuut: I think the thought of Chai's junker only transforming whenever he's feeling 700% confident is a fun, if unnecessary, headcanon as to why he's not using the Flying V Chai Custom in the ending cutscenes and instead has the Vandelay Custom Crimson Red. Because Chai isn't always at 700% confidence, and...Really no one is or can be, or at least should be. He's a cool dude but he definitely doesn't have his chest always puffed out, especially at the end of the game's story.

If the junker can only transform whenever he's at the peak of his game mentally, with all hype cylinders firing, then of course he can't use it as an actual guitar the rest of the time when he's just chilling out with the gang and practicing.

#hifi rush #hi fi rush #hi fi rush chai #shower thoughts #rambles

9 notes · View notes