#played this dlc a whole year later for like 3 seconds

[just-a-carrot]

I'm not really in the mood to make a festive Happy New Year's post. So instead I'll just say... we made it. I made it. You made it. The year is over and we're still here. And that is enough.

It's no real secret by this point but 2024 has been one of the worst years of my life. From constant anxiety and panic attacks over job stability in the spring, to losing two family members, to the depressive spiral I entered after finishing OW, to the second spiral in the fall just when I thought maybe I was finally doing a bit better and everything came crashing back down, my mental health has been worse than it's ever been. And I've spent a lot more nights than I'd like to admit wishing I wouldn't wake up in the morning. (And downed a lot more sleeping pills than I'd like to admit because it's the only OTC thing I can get to mildly decrease my anxiety and help numb me a bit LOL)

I just want... this year to be over. Even though I have no hope for 2025 either and mostly just feel anxious and hopeless about it. But I will continue trying. Continuing grappling for the bits of joy that can keep me going. And maybe I finally will get a little bit of calm and peace. Who can say. I guess we'll see what 2025 decides to bring. I just really want to feel a bit better finally. And I hope that 2025 might take pity on me and allow me some mental respite.

2024 did have its moments of joy. Despite it sending me into the spiral, I am ofc glad that I finished OW finally this year. I consider it one of my greatest accomplishments. And I still can't believe that I put 3 whole years of work into this thing and just how much of my soul went into it. Even if my depression keeps trying to convince me that it (and me) are worthless.

I feel like I grew a lot in my art over the year. Trying new and more complex things. Getting better at composition and poses. Which led into my starting Broomtail, which gave me really the first renewed spark of creative joy since releasing the finale and actually made me excited to work on something again.

Speaking of joy amidst melancholy, DD2 was released this year, and it became the one thing that could keep me going at times. It brought me so much joy and inspiration when nothing else would. And it still holds my heart captive in its grip. From all the DD2 art I did, to the O2A2 game, to my silly tragic music video, to a very self-indulgent fanfic, it gave me so much creative energy, and I want to do more art for it in 2025 too! (And I'm still waiting for that DLC, Capcom...) I can't think of another game ever that's had this much of a hold on me before. Though I do attribute much of that to the fact that in my head it's mostly an OW AU since I could make Iggy and Genzou and play out their tragic love story and it was so beautiful and Genzou was so so sweet and cute GUH. Yeah... that helped a lot.

I think my main goal for 2025 is just to keep trying. To keep surviving. To keep trying to find hope and joy where I can. To believe that I can feel better and things can be better. Even when it's hard. And that hopefully... hopefully I will be able to find some peace in there finally.

I do have various projects I'd like to work on too. Like finishing the remaster, continuing Broomtail, maybe working on another game later on. But I'd rather just think of those as things I'd like to do for myself and because they bring me joy, rather than as any kind of goal or pressure. Especially since I never want to make any promises given the instability of my mental health.

I'm just so tired always. And I hate feeling scared and worthless all the time. I hate feeling trapped. Even if I know it's my own life choices and debilitating fear of change that has led to a lot of this. So it's my own fault in the end. But I hope I can find some solace. And I hope you can, too. I hope 2025 will be a kind year to everyone. And even if it's not, that we can find some joy and hope to help us through it.

Sorry this felt a bit morose LOL I guess I wanted to just take this opportunity to reflect back on the year a bit for some catharsis. I shall now sleep for 24 hours to recover from my flight hahaha.

if you saw this post a day ago for a few seconds i'm sorry -- i was working on it in my drafts and must have accidentally clicked post instead of save(??) somehow(???) idk but it posted and i panicked and deleted it and then had to rewrite it from scratch LOL

[buckcluckhater]

New video game hot take: Halo, the whole series.

It's weird, but I'm one of a number of fans who seem to just be unable to put down this series despite constantly criticizing the games and frequently feeling either disappointment or nuisance at its mechanics, and the community is generally quite awful, always has been tbh.

That said, I cannot stand how much hate Infinite gets from casual audiences. The Halo Cycle is real, and you see it firsthand when people start going back to what was previously considered the black sheep, 5, and start dropping compliments. I have seen people claim it has better weapons, a better art direction, better multiplayer release, even better campaign experience. When you apply this even further back, it starts to make sense why there're so many zealots of the original trilogy who will desperately try to convince you that those games are near flawless and surpass anything released today. One need only play 30 minutes of multiplayer or the first two missions on Legendary for any of these games to see that just isn't true. It is 100% nostalgia, and I bought into the hype around Halo 3 for a while myself, despite not growing up with it (I actually played it third to last).

Back to Infinite, this game did not launch well, there were a lot of bugs in multiplayer, playlists were scarce, major expected features were missing for a year or longer, the campaign was bundled as a $60 dlc, and there still has not been, and appears to be no continuation planned, despite the game's ending. The disappointment was so extreme that many were calling for a complete company makeover and/or complete series reboot. While the first slowly but surely did happen, it mercifully looks like the second won't, which is good because randomly rebooting to boost sales is a terrible idea (New 52 lol), and it stems almost entirely from dead franchises like God of War suddenly coming back to the mainstream.

I played this game a lot on my own time, especially because the social features being so barren made it hard to get anyone else to play it with me, so my experience has been solo campaign and Randoms or bots in multiplayer. In the game's current state, it's a lot of fun. I play as my disabled spartan and sometimes take Sativa before running Legendary Firefight or running a couple missions.

I do wish it released at a later date with less news before it dropped so that there would be less hype, fewer demands, and less comparison. But if I had to guess it was a moment of poorly calculated "brand synergy" to tie in with the release of the Halo TV show, whose reputation can only be described as apocalyptic.

I genuinely wish they keep this game updated, because the mechanics and presentation are just that good in my opinion. Also, Halo 4 isn't as bad as I thought.

[tidalskii]

It was announced yesterday that LittleBigPlanet 3’s game servers would be closing indefinitely, putting an end to the remaining online support the original LBP trilogy still had. I’ve managed to collect my thoughts and pay my tributes to the series before I part ways with it.

This game series means the world to me, and I am extremely proud and honored to have been apart of it’s community. I started playing the games in 2010 with the demo for LittleBigPlanet on PS3 and… I wasn’t impressed. I got stuck before I even played the game! I had a second controller turned on somewhere so 6 y/o me was presented with the “Select Profile” screen.

Having no clue why none of the buttons on my controller were working, I think I just turned it off and didn’t play it for months. Idk what got me to play it again, but I’m glad I did because I fell in LOVE with the game. Everything about how it controlled just… clicked with me. I thought it was genius, the sheer amount of expressiveness you could display; tilting the controller to move your head or your hips, using the D-Pad to change your facial expression, moving each individual arm with both sticks and the limb buttons on the back, it was all so intuitive and fun to do. Although, once me and my cousin learned how to slap each other in-game, it was over for my parents’ ears lol, we’d be screaming and yelling at each other. Sure enough that Christmas, I got the full game, specifically the special kind with some of the DLC pre-installed. That’s where the REAL fun began. Nearly every night after school I’d bring a couple of friends over and we’d try to play through as many levels as we could in one-sitting. The Metal Gear Solid DLC levels I often died immediately in and I would wait for an older kid I knew to get to a checkpoint and revive me. Regardless of how bad I was at the game, it was so much fun, especially now that we were able to experience the create mode. My mom actually started playing it, too. I don’t have any pictures of it sadly but she made a really expansive house with separate rooms and secret passages everywhere, it was really cool. I’d say I spent a good year or so playing the first game, then Christmas 2011 arrived. That’s when I got LittleBigPlanet 2.

LBP2 is my favorite video game of all time, it does what every good sequel should do: expand on what made the first game so amazing without straying too far away from its core appeal. For starters, if you already owned LBP the game will ask you right off the bat if you wish to import all of your collected items, costumes, and levels into LBP2. This absolutely BLEW MY MIND and in a weird way it kind of made playing the first game obsolete. You mean to tell me EVERYTHING I’ve ever made is already here, I can just… continue working on it?! I can still rock the same costumes I had, I can play music from the FIRST game in the SECOND game?!?! That alone made LBP2 so much of a gem in my eyes, it was LITERALLY the first game and MORE. But the fun didn’t end there! It was around this time I got a PSN account, so I was able to experience everyone else’s creations online and… wow. A whole new world just opened up, a whole community to engage and interact with. I met so many amazing people, some of whom are my closest friends to this day, over a decade later. It was through a group of some older kids that I often tagged along with that started getting into anime and comics more. 2011-2014 was a magical time to be on LBP, those years really felt like “The Golden Years” of the online community. Oh yeah and LBP Karting and the portable games existed too, I guess. I played LBPK, I thought it was fun… I still own it, but I’ve barely touched it after all these years. From what I’ve heard PSP and Vita seemed like a lot of fun, I’ve just never played them. Around early-mid 2014, it was announced that there would be a third LBP game for both the PS3 and the newly-released PS4. New characters, 16-LAYERS in create-mode (!!!), and a weird purple lightbulb as the new main-antagonist of the story mode… “Newton”. I remember being so excited for it to release. We were FINALLY getting a THIRD LittleBigPlanet, for a new console, too! We sure did, alright.

To this day, I’m still not sure how to feel about LittleBigPlanet 3, and it feels like the greater community more or less can’t ether. This game… SHOULD be better than the 2nd game, and you know what? Catch me on a good day and I might say that I prefer LBP3 to LBP2. Everything’s there, a new story, cross-compatibility with LBP and LBP2, a fleshed-out create mode, all of it’s there and what we have in the game is phenomenal, however there’s one big, glaring issue that distracts it from being superior to its predecessors… this game is BROKEN. I know people like to throw out that term a lot with somewhat buggy games but oh my god, LBP3 is DANGEROUSLY glitchy and exploitative. By this point, Media Molecule had moved on from the LBP series to continue developing new games, leaving Sumo Digital to oversee LBP3’s development. I feel so bad for Sumo Digital because it’s painfully obvious Sony rushed their time to complete the game for a holiday 2014 release date… and the quality of the final game reflects the time-crunch they must’ve gone through. Joining friends can take you up to a half-hour if you’re unlucky, it’s a gamble if the game will even function properly. Often you’ll be sent back to your pod after the game rapid-fires it’s loading screen (btw serious warning for anyone with epilepsy: DON’T play LittleBigPlanet 3, it does stuff like this all the time), but when the screen fades in, Sackboy doesn’t respawn, soft-locking the game. Fun! I’m not sure if anyone else suffered from this one specific, GAME-BREAKING bug as I’ve never seen anyone else talk about it, but around 2015 or so my game’s gravity just… freaked out, regardless if you were in hover-mode or not, Sackboy would float off to the left of the screen and phase through all of the walls. I tried restarting the game, cleaning off the physical disc the sink, but nothing would fix it, I literally had to reset my game progress. Very fun! Another weird thing I ran into is the inability to place down stickers with the PS Eye Camera Tool. It just stopped working entirely at one point, even in previous games like LBP2. No idea how THAT happened, very strange bug. Despite all this… I powered through, because truthfully I do think the content in LBP3 is superior to the previous games. The music is great, I found myself genuinely invested in the story and it’s characters, the DLC packs introduced in LBP3 were all very fun, and the create mode is a GODSEND compared to the first 2 games. Honestly, that’s one of the 2 reasons why I chose to stick around with LBP3, there is SO MUCH you can do with the tools it provides you. For those of you who don’t know, for the last couple years or so I’ve been building full working models of the Thomas the Tank Engine characters in LBP3, and that’s led to me gaining a humble but amazingly awesome following in the game. I love Thomas, I love LBP, I just wanted to put those two interests together and I’m very happy people seemed to have liked what I made, which is very wholesome and sweet.

I am devastated that the game’s online services are now gone for good, but it was kind of inevitable. LBP3’s lack of quality opened the door for a lot of nasty exploitation and modifications people made to their games. The servers were hacked in 2021, and that led to the termination of the PS3’s servers. It wasn’t hard to deduce that PS4’s servers were running on borrowed-time. Regardless of how unfortunate it’s closure was, this franchise was supported for 16 years. That’s not a bad run at all. I would say I’m surprised it wasn’t closed sooner, but then again… I’m not surprised. The LittleBigPlanet community is so amazing and passionate over these games. When the 2021 server attacks happened we all rallied together online to keep it alive, if just for a little bit longer. Even at its very end, a lot of us had so much more creativity to share with the world. To all those out there listening, I hope you’re able to channel that creativity outlet even further beyond in the future, whenever and wherever that may be. As for me, I’m going to attempt to learn “Dreams”, Media Molecule’s spiritual successor to the LBP games, released on PS4/PS5. From what I’ve seen and played of that game, it scratches that itch LBP left on me. It’s so good.

Rest easy, Sackboy. Thank you for some of the best experiences I could have asked for in a video game. Here’s hoping for a LBP4 one day, old friend. 🌎

[angel-adventgarde]

oversimplified lore rundown of my interests

Episode 1: POSTAL

Tw: Suicide, Politics, and mass shootings.

(feel free to correct me !!)

So POSTAL (there's so much to talk about) Is a game based off the postal office shootings, They're would be very many shootings at postal offices and police told the detectives they went postal. The first game (POSTAL and later POSTAL REDUX) is about an guy who went postal from him getting evicted from his apartment, He believes that the world was overridden by an hate plague that the air force was emitting and dropping, And believes he's the only one who isn't infected. So he goes around killing people. Until he's killed everyone in the little city named Paradise in Arizona. He kills himself with the last words "I regret Nothing!"

The second game (POSTAL 2) Follows another dude who has to do errands for his bitch wife. And the whole game is just him dropping off shit and being a loyal person of Jesus (not really the last part) he is still a murderer in this part but unlike the former game there is a option for you to be a pacifist.At the end of the game. The dude kills himself with the last words "I regret nothing"

The DLC for postal 2 (Postal: Apocalypse Weekend) This dude actually survives his gun to the head. Waking up in the hospital with a very severe headache, Postal Dude, Goes on and does more chores for his wife.

(It's important to mention that Postal Levels are named after weekdays, And in Apocalypse Weekend, He Woke up on a Sunday)

The other expansion pack for POSTAL 2 (Paradise Lost) is about 11 years after the events of Apocalypse Weekend. The Postal Dude has found out that his home city has become a nuclear war after waking up from a nuclear coma

The third game. (POSTAL 3 which the company actually disowned, Is considered a non canonical spinoff) Follows right after the events of the former game. In which the postal dude leaves Paradise. And wakes up in a new town called Catharsis after running out of gas and he must find a way to escape this hellish town like before.

The ACTUAL third game (Lore wise) (POSTAL: No regerts) is actually quite similar to Postal 3 except the extra aspect that the postal dude is homeless. And instead of donning his usual trenchcoat, He wears a purple bathrobe (He's like... Cannoncally 50 in this game)

The Movie (POSTAL) is a movie directed by Uwe Boll and the postal Dude is played by Zach Ward. The plot is very similar to POSTAL 2's but the main antagonist is...Get ready for this Osama Bin Laden this movie is very very gruesome

Honourable mentions

Shptor- Russian expansion of POSTAL 2 called Corkscrew Rules postal Doe- Female counterpart of the dude introduced in POOSTALLL ROYALE

Java dude- Came in the very old mobile game of postal. The only dude who doesn't don sunglasses

[ponds-of-ink]

Final Steel Wool PAX Predictions: “Of Helpy, Scraptrap, and Carrot Cake”

Okay, this is my last Steel Wool at PAX West/Freddy’s Birthday Bash prediction ramble before the actual event arrives. Mainly because I’m not entirely sure if I’ll have anything to add before then.

The rambling gets a smidge long, so I’m putting this below the cut. Happy reading..

—

I’m pretty sure about one thing, and that’s we’ll see the conclusion of Where’s Helpy? game. The last post was a cliffhanger with extra tags spelling out “SEATTLE”, and PAX West (iirc) is in Seattle. I’m going to be disappointed if it’s not.

Speaking of disappointment, I’m going to keep my hopes low and assume Helpy didn’t drag Dr. Scraptrap along for the ride. ..That is to say, we’re probably not going to get Help Wanted 2 DLC news at the event.

I know, I just made a post about the possibility of it showing up. I know I also saw on Steel Wool’s Twitter that there’s a “Dress as Your Favorite FNAF Rabbit” on September 2nd (iirc). I am fully aware that I just wrapped up a mini-saga of improvised art challenge sketches where Scraptrap gets emotionally wrecked by Helpi, and for all I know it could be another accidental prediction.

But if there is one thing I’ve also learned when predicting for FNAF stuff, it’s this: I need to assume the worst, and be very unsurprised when it happens. If I get overly hyped up for a second, then it’s not happening.

So I’m playing it safe and saying “Do not expect Dr. Scraptrap at this event”. Not even a cosplay.

Moving on…

Cassie and the whole Carrot Cake thing.

Unless I missed something, we didn’t get carrot cake on Steel Wool’s Twitter for the whole “Eight Days Of Freddy” thing. Not even a picture of an actual carrot cake from one of the developers.

So I’m still going with that part of my theory, but I’m switching up DLCs.

We might just get another chapter in Ruin, or something related to it in a book. Maybe that Escape From The Pizzaplex thing will get properly announced idk.

The point is: If there’s any rabbits that might return to relevancy, it’s Cassie’s take on Vanny. We could even get a new teaser for a new full-suit design.

…Or, y’know, the devs did celebrate with literal carrit cake and I just didn’t look at the right Twitter profiles. That’s entirely possible. If they did, please let me know so I can cross this off my list. Thank you in advance.

The last things I can think of are exclusive YouTooz drops, but what those could be idk. Maybe it’ll just be another poster or something.

TL;DR— My predictions are:

(1) Where’s Helpy will be concluded.

(2) No, “Patrick”, Help Wanted 2 DLC will not be announced. Scraptrap will not return either.

(3) Something about Cassie and/or literal carrot cake. Alternatively, we get Ruin-related news.

All in all, a pretty fun event but definitely lower key than last year. If any of these are wrong later, feel free to come back to this and type “that aged like Fizzy-Faz lol”.

[scramble-crossing]

Hi friend! I am a resident kh fan who's been into the games for over 10 years. I actually started the bc my friend forced me to play twewy, I loved it, and she was like ~ooooo~ these characters are in KH you should play it~~

Little did I know that at the time, it was literally the last game in the series that they were in lol.

But! Here's a handy dandy guide if you would like to get into them!

There's a lot of different numbers for the games but repeat numbers and extensions, are just different versions of the games. So don't worry about "2.5" or "0.2" necessarily.

Ok!

So the game order to play:

Kingdom Hearts

Chain of Memories

Kingdom Hearts 2

358/2 Days

Birth by Sleep

Re:coded

Dream Drop Distance

KH UX

0.2 Fragmentary Passage

Kingdom Hearts 3

Melody of Memory

I know it's a lot but luckily, they made it really easy by bundling remakes together. There's a game called 1.5+2.5 and that's just the first 6 titles. 2 games (days and re:coded) were just made into cutscene movies so you don't have to play them. I highly recommend just watching the scenes for Chain of Memories bc it's a very different type of gameplay and a lot of people don't like that one as much, but it's important to the story. One little thing I don't like about the bundle is it switches the order for kh2 and days. Try to keep that in mind. Then after that you need 2.8. It will have a remake of DDD, a cutscene movie of the original plot of khux (mobile game), and 0.2. It's a new extra chapter to birth by sleep. It's pretty short but still important. You can find these all put together for PS4 (and PC I think?) called Kingdom hearts the story so far

Then KH3!! The game many were waiting for so so long. (Make sure to include the dlc scenes)

After that is Melody of Memory. It's a rhythm game that only has about half an hour of actual important plot.

Then the mobile game. Which unfortunately had been shut down but you can find videos of the entire plot in chronological order. Oh and an extra little story called dark road. That is what has baldur.

So to summarize:

1.5+2.5 remix

2.8

Kh3

Melody of Memory

Mobile game

(and you can condense it more by getting 1.5+2.5 and 2.8 in one bundle and watching MoM and KHUX on YouTube)

The only purchases would be story so far bundle, and kh3.

Sorry this is a long ask but I felt like it's important to explain all the different titles. Feel free to message me if you have any questions!

Oh geez tysm!!

Its very kind of you to type out a guide for a series with like...man 11 whole games??? There's a RHYTHM GAME??? With PLOT IMPORTANCE??? I mean I guess I'm not too surprised. I don't think there's much this franchise can do to surprise me anymore - knock on wood (<- just learned about Baldr mass murder like three hours ago)

Anyways, it's good to know that there's a bundle game out there to make things easier for newcomers! Yknow a few months ago I stumbled across one of them - I think it was 358/2 Days - at a second-hand game store. I didn't grab it right away and kind of regretted it (I mean I tried to play neo twewy first, might as well have a simialrly awkward introduction to kh), so I drove right back a few days later and the thing was ALREADY gone! Would've been cool to own, but my main concern with getting into this franchise was that I'd miss games due to them running on out-of-date consoles or else being rare or pricey, so I'm glad there's still an easy way to play it via bundle!

I mean with a name like that who can resist

I'm gonna have to look into this later...winter break plans perhaps? 👀 The twewy-kh pipeline feels inevitable so I might as well embrace it.

And if I procrastinate well hey, there's always a chance there'll be twewy crossover pt. 2 in the upcoming game, and if Sho's there I swear I WILL drop everything to play game # fourtwelve in a franchise I've never touched before. That is a promise.

[ddruxyart]

((totally okay you respond out in the open))

BUT YOU ARE SO RIGHT THAT THE QUOTE APPLIES TO HAMUKO SO WELL like already the plot is so unfair that she has to protect the whole world but then you think about how atlus treats her and completely forgot about her for the remake and ahhhhhhhhh i get so sad i miss our girl so much she deserves everything ;o;

ourhghghghg FR and dont get me started on the fucking remake. Sorry I'm gonna enter my hater mode for a second here.

It genuinely makes me so fucking mad. the whole argument for a P3 remake should not be a visual update. < Which thats what it feels likem to me. We have three versions of Persona 3, each with its own Pros and Cons but more importantly each version of the game has content that the others are missing. People constantly argue about which version to play and instead of finally creating a definitive version, with the answer, with femc, with all of the bells and whistles that both protagonists deserve Atlus decided to essentially do a vanilla P3² again. For fucking WHAT?? just so that Atlus can do another re-release in a year called P3 Reload in Moonlight or w/e?? It makes me SOOO mad. Bc I obviously want a version where Hamuko has her own cutscenes 3D Models & 2D Animated and if they do add her in later or as a dlc then I would reward/endorse Atlus BS tactics. < Bc I would be tempted, I would be lying to myself If I said I wouldn't.

[callmemaybegyu]

New book preview

Words: 1358

Ch 1

"How many times do I have to tell you, Giselle? NO!" Karina exclaimed, her fingers pressing against her nose bridge. Winter, NingNing and Giselle looked at each other uneasily. "We know games with stories and side quests are not your type of games, but you have to check this one out! They say it's the best game of the year!" NingNing said, frowning frustratedly.

"It's January, Ning." Winter whispered, earning a hiss and a nudge in her side from NingNing.

Karina sighed. "That's not the problem, guys! It's the fact that we literally have to pay a million dollars to buy it and the whole story's not even in the game! We will have to buy the DLC which is again sold for a million dollars!"

Giselle huffed and folded her arms over her chest, staring pointedly at her. "What, you're telling me you're broke?"

Karina ignored her and groaned. "How many times do I have to say this? No! We are not buying that obviously scam of a game!"

"Exactly 500 times." Everybody stared at Giselle. "What?" She looked at everyone one by one: NingNing was surprised, Winter frustrated and Karina confused.

"You weren't supposed to say that!" Winter hissed.

"What do you mean she wasn't supposed to say that?" Karina asked, staring at them suspiciously.

"Oh, it's nothing." Giselle waved as if to disregard what she had said. "It's just a little thing we agreed on." Winter and NingNing forced a smile, "Yeah, nothing to worry about."

"Wait, do I have to say no 500 times for you to stop?" Karina asked with widened eyes.

NingNing and Winter both glared at Giselle, who was checking out her nails. "Perhaps," She replied to Karina with a smirk.

"You-" Winter started, disbelief all over her face, but was cut short by Karina.

"Alright, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no-"

"Sorry, but that is gonna be counted as one." Giselle smiled slyly.

Karina frowned, "How are you counting?"

"Me?" Giselle asked, taken aback. "Well, I count like everybody else. Like, 1, 2, 3, 5 -"

"No, no, that's not what I meant!" Karina frowned. "I meant how will you know I've said no 500 times?"

"Oh, we use this!" NingNing showed her a banana.

"Okay, I'll try again."

"No," she said, waited a second, and continued, "No,"

She kept doing this for a few minutes. "No...No... Am I there yet?" She asked, slumped on her chair in front of her computer. NingNing checked her phone, "Nope! Only 269 times more now!" She said cheerfully.

At this, winter perked up. "Just give up now!" She exclaimed with a smirk.

Karina rolled her eyes. "No," she started again. "No-" she was cut off by a sound. "SAY WHAT YOU WANT, NAL BARABWA-"

Giselle groaned, and smacked the alarm clock that was floating over her head. Then, another song started playing. "FEEL LIKE I'M YOUR CAT, I'M YOUR DOG-" Karina screamed and Winter threw another alarm clock that appeared against the wall.

It went silent after that. "Are you okay?" Winter asked, concerned.

"Yeah-" NingNing started but just then, another song started playing. "WHY DO I KEEP GETTING ATTRACTED-"

NingNing flinches and kicks another alarm clock across the room.

Suddenly, a dozen or so Alarm clocks appear and start blasting the same words. "MODEUN GEON SAMKYEOBEORIL BLACK MAMBA!" Everybody jumped in shock and fear as all the clocks dropped at once on their heads.

Finally, Giselle managed to get up. She looked around and saw that she's in her own bedroom instead of Karina's. "Huh, what a weird dream."

She chuckled and goes to her bathroom to do her morning routine.

Later that day, she was in a café with her friends.

"...And that was my dream." Giselle nodded her head as she took another sip of her iced americano.

The girls stared at her weirdly. "And you told us that because?" NingNing asked with raised eyebrows as she too took a sip of her drink.

Giselle shrugged. "It was related to what I have to say," she answered, looking at them seriously.

"What in the world could be related to a dream like that?" Winter asked, irritated.

"Well there's this new game-"

"No." Karina cut in. "You said you were going to be busy these few months because of a few partnerships. I don't think you will have time to play a game."

Giselle scoffed, "Those partnerships don't start until next week. I can atleast play a few games by then!"

Karina sighed. "I don't think there's anything I can do to stop you, is it?"

Giselle smirked and shook her head before taking another sip of her drink. "And you will have to play with me. You have no other choice," she said gleefully.

NingNing laughed and nodded. "I wouldn't say no to a game recommended by Giselle. After all, she has introduced a few hidden gems to us before!"

Winter nodded at NingNing with a small smile and then looked at Karina, hoping to figure out what she was thinking.

Karina hesitated, then said, "I... I guess. Alright, but we should be done with the game as soon as possible, cause I'm going to be busy this week."

Giselle narrowed her eyes and grinned, cat-like, at NingNing and said, "I knew I could count on you, Ning!" They both bumped their fists.

A few minutes later, Winter broke the silence by asking, "Hey Giselle? What was the last song in your dream?"

NingNing groaned. "C'mon! Why would you ask her that? She might start again."

Giselle glared at her. "To think I trusted you... Anyway," She looked back at Winter and answered, " The last one wasn't a song, I think. It was something like 'Medusa shingeki no kyojin black mamba....?' Yeah, something like that."

"What language is that?" NingNing asked, laughing with Karina.

Winter frowned. "No, it was something else."

Giselle scoffed. "What? You think you know my dream better than me?"

"Actually, I think I do."

All three of them stared at her weirdly.

"I mean, I've had a similar dream a few days ago. I was sitting in a café enjoying my iced jalapeño coffee, when a dog appeared out of nowhere and started singing happy birthday to me. Then, everybody present in the café, about a dozen or two people, joined it and started singing. Suddenly, all there smiles vanished! They all started chanting the same thing: 'Neol yuhokhae samkin geon, black mamba'." She said all this while leaning in, like telling a horror story.

"I forgot about that until you mentioned your dream, and I clearly remember you said 'Modeun geon samkyeobeoril black mamba'. I still have no idea what it means though." She slurped her drink loudly, startling the other girls.

Frowning, Karina leaned back in her chair. She kept muttering the words over and over again, as if trying to decode a foreign language. Suddenly, she widened her eyes. "I know what it means!" She exclaimed, slamming her hand on the table, earning a few curious glances from other people in the café. Muttering a few soft apologies to them, she turned to the girls in front of her who were eyeing her surprisedly.

"You know the phase when I wanted to be a k-pop idol back in middle school?" When the girls nodded, she continued, "You know how I learned Korean for 2 years because of that?" The girls nodded, frowning, not grasping where this was going at all.

"Well, the words in your dream were in Korean, and I know exactly what they mean!" She said excitedly.

Upon hearing this, the girls perked up, feeling excited too. "Well? What does it mean?" Giselle urged with sparkling eyes.

"Winter's dream means 'the temptation that swallows you, black mamba' and Giselle's dream means 'it will swallow everything, black mamba'. I think they're connected." Karina said, her hands clasped as she stared at them seriously.

Giselle grinned up at winter, "Way to go soulmate!" She held out her fist, which Winter bumped with her own gladly.

NingNing said, "Well, we can worry about that later. For now let's enjoy the few free days we have together." She smiled up at them.

Karina and winter nodded. "I agree."

[influenzalake]

Batfam and Superfam playing The Sims p1and2

prompts:

-what installment would they play / why

-how would they play?

-how long would they play?

-DLCs? challenges? cheats? mods?

-extras 

Bruce: 

-I see Bruce as someone who can appreciate the complexity and commotion of the first and second Sims. He plays the sims 2 more than the sims 1. 

-Bruce would play the premade sims and play one from birth to death.

-He would play for a solid year before drifting off.

-Bruce might get a DLC or two. He would not do challenges, cheats, or mods as the installments he plays don't have a lot to choose from.

-He would find the sanity and genetics system very cool. He would experiment with his sims, but treat them all nicely. 

-Bruce's favorite features of the Sims 2 are the random / realistic ambience noises and memories system. 

Clark: 

-Clark would try out Sims 2 at Bruce's place, but would ultimately  play the Sims 3.

-He would make his family. Himself, Lois, and a baby Jon. His favorite thing to do is take his Sim Lois on dates to the beach and sit with her staring at the stars. He then gets soft and shuts off the game to spend time with his real Lois. 

-Perry likes to joke that Clark just sits around and plays "that simsim game" on company time. It's funny because Clark is a very casual player, he doesn't even have 100 hours yet.

-Clark would not have any DLC or mods. He wouldn't use cheats. He tried a sim challenge once, but didn't even finish it. They're just not for him. 

-Clark's sim's career is the same. 

-He likes the rabbit hole mechanic of the sims, he likes to watch baby Jon go to school when he's grown up.

Dick:

-Dick would have some memory of the Sims craze from back when he was in college. He played the Sims 1 for a little bit at a friend's dorm once. His first experience playing the sims would be Sims 1, but he would try each game at least once.

-Dick would do it all. Premade sims, a sim of his own, he would create different sims, and all the great shenanigans. 

-Dick would get tired of each game quickly. There are only so many times you can drown your sim before it gets boring.

-Dick would have at least one DLC, whether he got it legally or illegally who cares, and he would use cheats. He would try mods, but then he would uninstall them later. Dick would find the "challenges" really lackluster.

-He has broken his game a few times, making for some really funny moments.

-He has probably seen every glitch each game has to offer.

Jason:

-Jason would be a Sims 3 dude all the way. He has seen gameplay of the other installments, but 3 was his match.

-Jason would play a single sim and do everything there is to do with that sim. He has aging turned off for his gameplay. He has maxed every skill on this sim, owned multiple houses, and tried various careers.

-Jason would play until there was little left to do for his sim. He wants his sim to be fulfilled.

-He wouldn't have DLC, mods, or cheats. He would see them as complicating what HE wants to do his his game. Jason just finds them distracting and uninteresting. 

-Contrary to his real life experiences, Jason's favorite NPC sim is the Grim Reaper. 

-Jason likes the Cooking skill, just to see his sim flip around the food and dance with the pan.

Tim: 

-Tim has every single Sims game and every DLC. He pirated all of it. He was there since the very beginning.

-Even though he has the entire Sims library, he rarely plays any of them. 

-The one he played the most was the Sims 3, that was when he was younger and had the time. He tries to play the Sims 4, but only in quick intervals because he gets frustrated with it. He goes back to 3 sometimes.

-Tim has every non-broken DLC he found interesting. He did not acquire any of them legally.  He found the whole thing a scam and pirated them instead. Tim finds the "every time there is an update, the game breaks" incredibly stupid. He has a lot of "game fixing" mods for his game and if he can't find it he makes his own. He doesn't share them though. He has a strong gaming computer to handle all the game files.  

-Most of the time his "gameplays" involve him getting to the title screen and then shutting it off. He still calls himself a sims player lol. 

Damian:

-Damian thought the idea of a "life simulation" game was dumb. He still downloaded 4 though. He said he got it because Jon begged him to, but he wanted to see what the hype was. 

-He would open the game and feel nothing but disappointment. The most bare bones title screen and everything locked behind a paywall, Damian would feel he, once again, has to fix something. 

-He would play until he is satisfied. He would have an idea of what he wants, try to create it, hit a wall because the sims is broken like that, feel like his wishes are not being recognized, then find or steal his solution. He has swiped Tim's mods before. 

-Damian would also pirate every DLC he had interest in. He deserves the most out of his gameplay, does he not? He would use mods and some cheats. He doesn't waste his time with challenges. 

-Damian hates the emotion system of the Sims 4. He finds it incredibly unrealistic how everyone is so constantly happy and never has lingering feelings beyond temporary memories and a weak relationship system. His game doesn't even look like the sims anymore. There are real conflicts, real consequences, and real emotion.

Jon:

-Jon would play the sims 4 because he saw it go free on his console store. 

-He would want to play an occult sim, but would find it stuck in a DLC. 

-Jon would play for a few hours and then get bored of the vanilla game. He would fall into the trap of buying a DLC for basic experiences and game functions. He would buy Get To Work for the alien occult. He would be tempted to buy the Werewolves and Vampires packs but his parents say no. He would play it in his free time for like a month and then hit another boredom wall. Jon played Get To Work to the fullest and he feels like he can't get anything else out of it. He played his alien sim he played a plant sim and went to space. There isn't anything else he wants to do in the game, though he tries to make the most of it. He might try it again every other week following but eventually he would just stop and never pick it up again. He would uninstall it from his console. 

-Jon would think about the game again for his pc after a few years. On pc he could have mods and he hopes to have more fun. He gives it a try and figures out it's just as boring. He does a few challenges, does a few cheats, but even with his mods the game is bunk. He doesn't want to get another DLC because they're so expensive and only for a limited amount of gameplay. 

-I see Jon as a Xbox dude. He might have had a ps3 or Nintendo handheld when he was younger, but this page from DCeased looks like an Xbox One.

Conner:

-Con would not have a set game. He has tried every game at least once, played some more than others, but he does not have one sims game he sits down with and plays. He has 3 and 4 on his pc.

-Conner would spend most of his time in the character creation. He likes designing them. 

-Since Conner bounces around between games a lot, he doesn't play any of them very long. Maybe a couple of hours every other month.

-Conner definitely has mods and DLC. He bought some himself before Tim hooked him up. He uses cheats for creation houses and unlocking outfits. Con doesn't do the challenges.

-Jon and him share creation tips or cheat codes together.

-They liked to showcase their sims, homes, and achievements. 

-Conner thinks the Sims default dances are a work of art.

[sluntch]

I have a weird take that I need to get out in the world somewhere and this appears to be the best place to do so

Everyone should have their first playthrough of a Souls game be either alone or, failing that, with someone to whom that game is the best in the series.

Let me explain.

--- Disclaimer: This is all just, like, my opinion, man ---

To start this post off, there are a few things I need to get out of the way. Chief among these is that my first Souls game was Dark Souls 2, so I'm a sicko who has absolutely NO nostalgia or overfondness for Dark Souls 1. As such, people who slob all over DS1's knob are total fucking weirdos to me, because I think the game, gameplay-wise, is the absolute worst of the entire series and the lore is, like, mid at best. To a less-important extent, I have neither fought nor beaten Artorias or played the DLC for DS1. To be quite honest, I don't think that matters very much but I know some mfers will be like "BUT HE'S THE BEST THING ABOUT THE WHOLE SERIES" to which I would rebut - then that sucks. One guy in one, fairly small (considering later releases), DLC being the best thing about a series is kinda bleak isn't it? Personally, I think that DS1 is held in such a high regard because it was the higher-profile Second of its Kind, a refined version of what was started in Demons' Souls. People nut over the interconnected world thing too, which is cool but has pretty poor implementation that makes getting anywhere and doing all the backtracking you have to do REALLY tedious. Least important is that I have not, and probably am not going to, ever played Demons' Souls. I just don't have interest in it and the gameplay is probably jankier that DS1 and I already barely have patience for that.

As a side note, Dark Souls 3, despite having what I believe to be some of the better gameplay and some of my favorite weapons, areas, music, and bosses in the series, is just the worst in that it's a fanservice game for DS1 fans and almost exclusively nothing else. Yes, they tacked some DS2 stuff in there as a pity drop for DS2 truthers but it seems to just kinda pretend that DS2 doesn't exist and is just so masturbatory that I almost can't stand it.

Glad to have these off my chest. If you're ready to discount everything I have to say from here on out based on that first paragraph, then godspeed. Continuing.

In looking to take my mind off of my current situation (see older posts for context regarding my cool disease), I decided to turn to comfort vidya games, namely playing through Elden Ring again, something I haven't done in quite a while. I'm remembering how much I love it and my playthrough, which is still going strong as of this writing, is super fun. I'm taking the game much slower than any previous playthrough I've done besides the first (this one is number 5) and am just enjoying being in the Lands Between, readily awaiting the DLC for the game that will likely come out in 2024. One of the things I've always done when I'm playing a game, specifically a game that I don't really need to pay attention to story-wise or sound-wise, I have videos or music or something on in the background. I'm sure many of you do this as well.

[QUICK SIDE NOTE: One of my more nostalgic sensory memories is when I used to do this in my room, during my high school years, playing Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 while watching episodes of Archer in the background. I can see the evening sun coming through my windows and it was such a warm and comfortable environment that I constantly yearn for it again, even though I know I'll probably never have another moment quite like that, carefree and cozy, just doing my thing. Eh. A guy can dream though, right? END QUICK SIDE NOTE]

What I've been having on in the background as of late are the Super Best Friends Play [insert Souls game here] compilations. These playthroughs, with the exception of Bloodborne (Pat and Woolie switching off controls on death, arguably the worst way to play a Souls game) and DS3 (Pat on the sticks and overleveling to the point of ruining the playthrough lol), are in the same format - Woolie, is on the sticks and Pat backseats, providing some context and guidance throughout. initially, for the DS2 playthrough, I was very excited because Woolie's first Souls game was the same as mine! Hey! This dude is playing it in the same order that I did! However, when I watched through it the first time, ALL Pat could do was shit on DS2 and say how much better DS1 was. In subsequent videos and playthroughs, it comes through VERY clearly and notably that this tainted Woolie's view of the entire series and greatly affected the way he interacted with it. On this watch, I formulated the above opinion.

The Souls games are so fucking good that they do NOT deserve to be ruined by someone shouting in your ear about how a different one did things better. Yes, I think DS1 is the worst of the series but even at that point, it's the worst of one of the best series of games of all time, which is still incredibly good. Obviously, the ideal way to play a Souls game is to go in completely blind and do it by yourself. But if you're playing with friends or in your Discord or something or someone is coming over to watch you play (if people still do that. GOD I hope they do), someone in the room should have that Souls game be their favorite. The game gets proper hype and no sole voice in the backseat gets to say some shit about how the fight with Artorias was better or "there's too many dudes in armor" or something about how it's "SO INNOVATIVE" that Gwyn's theme is sad piano plunks instead of epic boss music (which, to be fair, it is but shut up about it already. We get it). It's crazy to me how just one person's attitude like that can poison a perception of a game. For someone playing through them for the first time (people of whom I am EXTREMELY jealous), the initial impression is everything and every person should get to have the joy of playing through them unmarred by negativity about the game they are currently playing.

I don't know if this is anything and I don't think this argument is fully fleshed-out in this post or even really coherent. Just some dumb weird thoughts I wanted to put out there on my favorite game series.

[pegasusknightsonly]

now that im at endgame i want to quickly run through my team and what i learned about awakening luna playing it again after seven or so years

what i learned:

i used WAY too many units. nice as it was to have a full second gen trip the late game it was not really feasible without a lot of grinding

its generally better to play aggressive than defensive on maps, even if it means you're not using pair up so you have better action economy. chapter 4 and chapter 9 were really tough until i went all out with the aggression.

myrmidon might actually be good in Luna bc avo+10 becomes really really good when it's cancelling out a whole bunch of hit+10s. this does not fix lon'qu's bulk issues.

map skirmishes blocking useful shops are the fucking devil and not something you can do anything about other than wait until you hit endgame. really annoying feature

DLC doesn't scale to game difficulty!! that's fun

weapon forging is my new best friend

van/ven is still ABSOLUTELY broken and Owain hard carried my team through several maps

and my thoughts on my team!!

Robin - i actually think i fucked up by second sealing at twenty instead of promoting? armsthrift is nice and i wanted it for Morgan's inheritance but robin fell off really really hard by the midgame and i never got him back so it would have been nice to have rally spectrum available when that happened. ultimately that was ok for me bc unlike the luna guides will tell you i was not solely relying on robin for the front lines but oof he fell off harder than Fred

Chrom - Chrom is Chrom. not much to say there. he didn't get to see a lot of combat early which kind of worked out in my favour bc it meant he was still in lord in chapter 12 and gave Sumia some HUGE effective dual strikes with his rapier. it might actually be worth delaying his first class change to get that?? as usual i went archer -> bow knight and he was great in both. rally skill is actually really good to have on a non-combat unit in later maps where everything has so much speed and avo, it definitely made the difference for Nah a couple of times

Sumia - MVP. oh my god she was so good. i had to grind Olivia anyway so i ran her through great knight and although i don't want her to see any enemy phase combat at this point it has been really helpful to have her fly in, kill something annoying with a luna proc and fly out again to physic or rescue. rally speed has been really helpful as well! i had to do a little hand holding with her in chapter two but early investment pays off so well and i can't think of another unit who can transition from frontliner to support as well as she can. love her.

Fred - when people say awakening luna is unplayable without using Fred are they like. are they just bad at the game? don't get me wrong he was fine but imo the Fred carry/Robin carry meta really only is true until chapter 3 which is... not long, and definitely not long enough for Fred to have the kind of reverence he has in Luna meta. idk. he was fine! i had to finagle a bit to get him and Olivia married which was a pain but then it was nice being able to give Olivia extra move via pairup in the late game.

Olivia - i normally bench her after getting the kids when i play hard bc galeforce is just better than dancing and she becomes a liability with the ambush reinforcements so it was kind of novel to still be deploying her in the valm arc, even though that was mostly just to dance Sumia so i had two actions worth of healing. i had to do a LOT of grinding with DLC to get her galeforce for inheritance which was pretty painful and her stats were never that good. dance utility for my healer has been pretty nice!

Sully - i probably shouldn't have used her and shouldn't have given her the resources that normally go to wyvern Panne but i LIKE her and she did really really well in chapter 12 after she promoted and got lance access back. Gaius s support is solid but those first few levels before reclassing were really difficult because her bases are just so low. if awakening luna slightly bumped up everyone's bases it would be a joy to play.

Panne - it says a lot about how good wyvern Panne is that i brought her back in to the team way too late and she not only kept up but then outperformed Sully who'd had so much more investment. brokenly good unit and by the time i got Yarne she had late game worthy stats. the lack of galeforce kind of hurts as does her weapon ranks - she was stuck using bronze axes for so, so long - but yeah. good unit. believe the hype.

Nowi - i have really mixed feelings about Nowi's performance because it was just. so painful. her bases do not get bumped enough and at the start everything was doubling her and her awful 18HP. speed issues continued for a long long time but she eventually kind of pulled it together. a bit. not sure I'll do this again

Vaike and Lon'qu - mostly they were used to produce Nah and Yarne respectively but they were ok!! really solid backpacks. Vaike's stats were toilet tier for a long long time but he got there eventually. lon'qu loved dual striking for panne so much it got her in trouble a couple of times. it's good that they can support each other as well!

Gregor and Miriel - i put so much into Miriel lmao i love her. woteva. she was fine, bulk and survivability issues but that's pretty standard for Miriel. i also had trouble with her critting things i did not want critted. Gregor got so little investment i actually felt kind of bad for him. i promoted him after like... one or two levels worth of dual striking experience but i probably should've done it sooner

Lissa and Libra - early promotion to get Lissa tomefaire (mostly from rescue staff abuse) was worth it! really solid performance from both of them and Lissa had decent offenses on her galeforce grind. i wish I'd used Libra as a frontliner more but ultimately Lissa needed more exp than him and that's how it worked out, but it felt like a missed opportunity bc Libra in luna is really, really good.

Sumia!Lucina - i was worried about her stats on recruitment but she's been really really good and had some fantastic survivability thanks to her aether procs. great unit, does everything she needs to. i ran her through great lord for rfk + rapier access and that worked pretty well! her final class was between bow knight and paladin but surprisingly paladin has better overall stats and she didn't desperately want anything from bow knight. i don't think i would want to do anything dramatically different with her

Chrom!Cynthia - BEAST. BEAST. BEAST. ALL OVER THE SHOP

Libra!Owain - my only van/ven build and boy did he do good work with it. kind of ruined a couple of maps when the computer abandoned all reason and prioritised attacking him bc he was a staff unit which was a pain but ultimately pretty recoverable. van/ven is good! van/ven owain is good!!

Gaius!Kjelle - sadly she became mostly just a pair up bot for Owain. i never quite got her offences up to scratch to get her galeforce which was a real shame. Owain appreciated the stats and a partner with flight though

Frederick!Inigo - ugh. my only real disappointment in this run. speed!! speed!!! where is his fucking speed!!!! giving him galeforce was nice and all but he can't use it very well if he can't fucking double!!!! Inigo!!!! what's going on there!!!!!! i think Fred passed down dual guard+ which is fine but ultimately inigo would've been better with either luna (the lack of offensive procs really started to hurt him) or deliverer for extra movement for Cynthia. kind of pain to level and promote. he relied on his s support with Cynthia a LOT.

Vaike!Nah - might have been a little too ambitious to want to run her through merc and hero before bringing her back to manakete but those Vaike offenses ended up really paying off. very very slow to start cooking but so good once she got going. sightly too tanky? enemies tended to avoid her on EP which wasn't helpful. her sol proc rates also need some work but overall a really solid unit and one i might bring back to hard mode or use in luna again.

Lon'qu!Yarne - I'm glad i made the decision to bring Panne back to avoid Lon'qu/Lissa. listen. i have not asked Yarne to do too much but he has done it so well and has probably contributed the most in battles for the least exp. bless him! bless his name!!! i wish Panne gave him a better class set. he could have been everything.... that said, even if my original plan of barbarian -> beserker -> griffon didn't work out due to lack of EXP he still did really well and sat in an unpromoted class until chapter 25 when i took pity on him and went to a DLC map. really solid guy.

Gregor!Laurent - i had such plans for a strong and bulky nostank with armsthrift and then it just... never happened. im sorry Laurent. i don't think i ever gave Gregor enough levels to make that work. he did ok promoting to dark knight instead of sorc to be Morgan's pair up bot but i kind of wish I'd managed to get him going. i have two forged Nosferatu in my convoy that i now can't use. whoops

Lucina! Morgan - less than 25 str or mag as a level 10 dark flier was not it. great crits, great aether procs but what the hell happened to her offensive stats. bizarre. probably not unfixable but she's going to close out the game as a rally spectrum bot. rip

Cynthia got the most MVP awards but Owain was just so, so good and Lucina did everything i needed her to. Sumia!!! she's so good!!!!! anyway i had a lot of fun with this run once i found my feet with it and i... honestly will probably finish it and immediately start another one lmao. it was fun!!!!

[boobachu]

I dunno, if you have longer stages you get Sonic Frontiers... except that game doesn't have clothes as rewards and the story's just as whatever except you can't beat it in four hours, you need 20 hours... and maybe twelve more for the DLC the first time.

Which... I dunno Heroes isn't a grind at all unless you want all the multiplayer stages... well the first time anyway. Afterwards I beat two stories and that's enough for me for a few months.

Shadow I never beat cuz the game was so broken I couldn't beat the find the computer room level, I never beat a final boss, I returned the damn thing to wal⋆mart and only years later I saw let's plays of it I saw how horribly written the story was and the actual gameplay sure didn't sell me on giving it a second try.

Sonic Forces is only a grind after you beat the game, I tried LPing it a couple times and doing all the red rings in one run to be as pimped out as possible (I was roleplaying a character that grew throughout the story)

Honestly if I'd compare Forces to anything it's Pokemon and Animal Crossing, games that have no real story but everyone is like "way to go dude!" and it's kind of up to the player to use their imagination to fill the blanks like it's 1981 or something.

That said if Sonic Heroes got a remake I think the last story should unlock with the chaos emeralds or the actual stages should be different for all four teams... also easy/normal/hard/super hard should be for all four teams. Let me do super hard Rose.

Shadow the Hedgehog to be a good game for me, it'd have to be a whole nother game cuz there's nothing about it I like, so I have no real opinion on it.

Sonic Forces woulda been a great game if it was Sonic Lost World 2 instead of Sonic Generations 3

with games like heroes and shadow 05, that inherently ask the player to do some amount of grinding just to finish the whole game, it's fine and acceptable. they were designed in such way. heroes by its very nature is all about playing the same game 4 times with slightly different story elements and tweaks in level design. shadow 05 is about exploring shadow's character, and only if you're dedicated enough to see the full picture will you be granted the true ending. the grind is part of the design and intended experience, and it definitely helps that these games are remarkably sincere in every part of their approach and thus have something they want to share with you. it's compelling, as much of a tedium as they can be in many ways

forces adds the grind as an afterthought. it is not a game designed to be replayed; beyond the story having nothing worth revisiting in it, the stages are remarkably short and lack in any meaningful variety. at most you're given two paths to choose from, neither of which alters the experience in a way that matters. the red rings are the sole motivation for replaying anything at all, after which you're granted funny number rings and moon tokens, neither of which really rewards you with anything. and with the straight-forward, boring, or even unfair level design i don't see why anyone would go out of their way to collect those. the grind is there to artificially lengthen a game that has nothing in it to begin with, a game that is so afraid of being sincere they put a sanic shirt in it because they must assure you they're in on the joke that the furry game is embarrassing and they don't want you playing it either after purchasing it

i don't know when im knocking out the last SOS missions i need to finish my character creator but i can't say im looking forward to that

[paartymonkey]

yurikins

[chellyfishing]

okay let’s do the videos game i played this year

uhh obviously as per i played a stupid amount of ffxiv. like i don’t think i have a record of hours played this year nor am i interested in knowing. i did my first current tier savages this year though??? (right? that was this year? or late last? i think it was this year.) also farming exes while they’re still new and not crying the whole time?? who is SHE??? i was going to say this is the year i became a whm main but i think that personal tragedy happened last year actually.

i finished until dawn in april. i actually did... pretty well without a walkthrough, i did restart after i got the dog killed bc i felt so so bad about it (this is the kind of thing i think is understandable and acceptable) and then i had some ehhhh struggles with those final hold still QTEs to get everybody out before things exploded but otherwise i mostly made... okay choices?? FOR THE MOST PART??? i discovered later that there aren’t as many places you can get people killed as i thought tho so tbh i don’t think my performance was that impressive. anyway i enjoyed this game, the further along i got in it the more i had to play it in short bursts cause it’s uhh kinda stressful? and listen i don’t mind explaining to you that for me the fear is not in the monsters or the jump scares the fear is in messing up, the stress of getting someone killed because of my mistakes and my wrong choices and my inability to play the game right. horror means different things to different people and for me the real horror was in the imperfections we revealed in ourselves along the way.

okay i nearly forgot that i did play my switch for more than piddling around in zelda and mario and i did actually play another new release besides stray (see below) this year which was the stanley parable ultra deluxe back in april (or may?). i never played the original so i was happy to grab this and just spend a few days exploring it. i watched the ox kids play it and was amazed that with how thorough i thought i was i STILL missed a bunch of stuff! but they also missed stuff that i did. incredible. so fun and funny and when i had the bucket for less than ten seconds i already knew i would both kill and die for it. i think this is the only switch game i finished this year which, come on, self.

(i did play a lot of botw and mario odyssey this year i!!!! just haven’t finished them!!! DON’T LOOK AT ME!!!!!)

replays of resi 2 and 3 remakes as well as 7 and 8 in june because they all got ps5 upgrades and i got a ps5! i am like one or two trophies away from plat on all of them and i hate it!!! for 3 and 7 they’re the hardest mode (inferno and madhouse respectively i think) trophies bc there’s this stretch before you can get your good items from the item box that are just So Hard and you have to actually be good to get through them and i am not!!! for 2 it’s the stupid 4th survivor mode, again you have to actually be good. and for village it’s a couple of mercenaries mode trophies that i could probably get if i would just sit down and play mercenaries mode for a bit, i said i would do it when the dlc dropped and it has and yet here we are.

in july i played titanfall 2! wow this game was a lot of fun and a lot more emotional than i expected!!! if you followed me on twitter at the time you got to witness my emotional breakdown. i might revisit this someday to get more trophies but for me the fun i had in this was just kind of jumping into a short campaign and blitzing through it in a weekend without trying to be good or complete. i didn’t even really mess around with the collectables and i kind of don’t know who i’ve become as a person.

control also got a ps5 upgrade so i replayed that also in july to get the plat again. while i was at it i 100%’d both dlcs as well. i love this game!!! i love the setting, i love the story, i love jesse, i love the sense of humor, i love the other characters, i love how weird things are sometimes, one day i think i’m actually going to sit down and read all the documents because i HAVE THEM ALL (except like... one that you could only get with a ps4 preorder or something?? idk i forget, it’s not important) and i love the writing! this year we also got confirmation on the sequel and man. MAN. GIVE IT TO ME I’M SO READY.

i played journey to the savage planet... also in july! i had a lot of opinions about this game and i remember going over them a lot on twitter. i loved so much about it but there were just some things i kinda haaaaated. like there are some things about the way the game is mechanically that are so SO frustrating (there’s no MAP in the EXPLORATION GAME??) and i really just wanted to explore this weird planet and eat goo and look at new critters with one brain cell. i dunno! also no plat bc there are like 3 or 4 co-op only trophies. i think i got almost all the others, i’m missing like one in the main game, one in the dlc, and i think you’ll catch me dead before i try old game minus if i was already frustrated enough with the normal version of the game.

i played town of light in (checks notes) july and uhhhhh. this game is a lot! there’s not a lot to it mechanically, it is more or less a walking sim, and there are some aspects of the gameplay that don’t feel great, i remember being unclear on where to go at times and the game is not always great at letting you know. but the story. i was an absolute sobbing wreck at the end. like, so many trigger warnings, you guys, and i don’t think this is right for everyone, but if you think you can play it you should, or maybe watch someone else play it. it is... gripping, heartbreaking, very hard to get through in places, especially for people with certain lived experiences.

i played wytchwood in uhh mumblemumblejuly which is easily a new favorite game. it’s like a fairy tale where you play as a witch going through different areas and the main gameplay loop is finding items and recipes, crafting them to get more items to craft more to get more to solve story and environmental puzzles to progress the plot. the story is so fun and well-written, the graphic design and animation are beautiful, it is really the kind of game i picked up and INSTANTLY went “i love this already so much.” just so good and cozy and wholesome, i would recommend to everyone honestly. whitethorn is a new favorite developer. oh also if you like trophies this is an easy plat as you get all of them just playing the story.

i played tacoma and it was still the month of july. this is from the same people who made gone home, so if you liked that you may also like this. it is another walking sim, all though you’re in space so sometimes it is a floating sim. i loved the characters and the story, plus there is a cat that you can find for a trophy. it’s really good! however, fuuuuuck steve gaynor, and to my knowledge he still works at fullbright, so up to you if you want to give them your money.

obviously, i played stray when it came out in (checks) are you kidding me?! july?! this is the other new release besides stanley parable (and resi8 dlc if you count that) that i played this year since i usually wait for stuff to drop in price but this wasn’t that expensive since it’s an indie game and uhhh i wanted to play it!!! also it is goty! you play as a cat! you have a robot buddy!! i loved the world and the characters, and i cried so much at the end!! if you haven’t played it yet why!! what are you waiting for!!!

in some month that’s not even important at this point i played teacup which is another whitethorn game. it is a very very short cute little narrative game about a frog who wants to have a tea party with her friends. like this is just a game you sit down with when you want something so cute and cozy and you’ve already played wytchwood so many times. the kind of thing you could play with a little kid if you have one of them lying around. very pleasant and cleansing. also another slam dunk plat.

in OCTOBER the resi 8 dlc dropped and i played that, like stayed up all night when it released kind of played through it. i’m surpised that i haven’t already replayed it twenty times because i did like it a lot! i like rose and you know what some of the stuff in this is... genuinely kind of scary!! i can’t even look at the face-sucking animation it is so unpleasant. a lot of things in this game were doing a number on my trypophobia tbh. maybe that’s why i haven’t gone straight back to it. also the mannequins are scarier than the fetus monster, i said it and i meant it.

and last but not least this month (tbh started nov 30) i played tales of arise. my longer post on this game is still in the drafts haha. i guess i can talk about it a bit here tho. i... loved this game. i think my expectations were... neutral at best, ofc i didn’t love zestiria and while i liked berseria at the time i’ve never felt any particular desire to revisit it (this actually may be due to other factors that i’ll not get into atm), and i normally log literally hundreds of hours into tales games, so i guess i just wasn’t feeling optimistic about being impressed by it. and i was wrong!!! i really think this has some of the most mature character writing of any game in the series. normally the characters are like one half assorted disparate lol xd random quirks and one half trauma without the two sides melding very well but i felt that much much less in this game. there were things in the story writing i thought were pretty typical for the series and things that i really liked and appreciated! i ended up loving the characters, loving the way they grew as individuals, in relation to each other, and as a group, and i actually remember what happens in the plot which is uhhhhh a bit more than i can say for the last two games. also? voice cast was flawless, no notes, yeah even papenbrook, yeah i’m as surprised as you.

aside from that, i actually played my first real matches of both among us and overwatch this year and had a lot of fun. LOST BIG HARD in overwatch every single time sorry team i was drunk and wouldn’t have known what i was doing sober. oh but i did get most damage blocked as reinhardt (had to look his name up) in one match!!! also winning a mungus match with @foxxxy--mulder as my co-imposter against a team of hardened vets who ate each other alive for us is one of my most cherished gaming memories of the year. i hold it close to my heart and think of it often.

stuff i’m looking forward to next year: 

resi4 remake obviously!!! i pre-ordered it immediately i’m SORRY i know pre-ordering is BAD i never do it but resi is an exception!!! and it comes out on my BIRTHDAY!!!!

oxenfree: lost signals! i know it was supposed to be released this year and has been delayed a couple times which is... not a great sign. like i am PRO-DELAY don’t get me wrong!! i’m glad to hear it for a lot of reasons!! it’s just usually when you hear stuff get pushed back... more than once it’s a little worrisome. however i’m still excited for it and hope for the best!

horizon forbidden west--yes obviously this doesn’t come out next year, but i will almost definitely be playing it in 2023. in fact it’s on sale right now for a price i don’t hate and i’m contemplating picking it up after i get paid, since ofc i’ve been aching to play this for months and months now.

hmm it seems there is a grimgrimoire remaster coming out next year. i will consider that seeing as i am a simp for vanillaware. (13 sentinels is another game i actually might get my hands on next year finally.)

OBVIOUSLY LOZ? when am i not looking forward to loz?? i am never not looking forward to loz.

MAYBE ffxvi. i’ve still not played a non-xiv ff game (YES I WILL PLAY IX AND WHATEVER THE OTHER ONE I HAVE IS EVENTUALLY SCOUT’S HONOR) but. they kinda got me with the primals in the teasers. i don’t know though. and actually even if i do decide to play it i won’t be surprised if this is a thing like forbidden west that takes me a year to get to because new AAA games are just so goddamn much money and i need to really really want something to pay that much for it.

while it has no release date and may not be coming out until at least 2024 rest assured i will be spending 2023 looking forward to hadesgame 2.

oh and pretty unlikely to be released in 2023 but that new IP from the bioshock devs?? i’m already in line for it.

with a special shoutout toooo all the games i have that i haven’t played yet. when i’m feeling less anhedonic (dare to dream) i will once again try to get back to my goal of doing short games on weekends, at least.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: July 10th

I really let asks get away from me lately. I was super focused on working on that Patreon Moment. With that done I can finally think about doing other things, so here’s a new collection of answers!

Thank you for sending in questions everyone ^^.

For the new Patreon moment, will you be able to reference it in step 4? Or just like a tiny nod to it if you pick certain choices?

There won’t be. I’m sorry if you were hoping for that! The Patreon moment is meant to be entirely optional, it’s not something that gets you extra content in the main game.

Is the new CG artist the main one now? :0 I’ve noticed theres been a difference in the art style recently. Is the old CG artist still going to make art for the game? :0

The original artist still makes CGs for the game sometimes, but he mainly focuses on character sprites.

Are you going to put the NSFW our life moment on a website other than patreon? I would love to get it but I can't use patreon atm.

I don’t know. I'm afraid we can't release the Patreon Moment on a normal game storefront because we can't mix 18+ content with our family friendly game. If there's some other place similar to Patreon where it's not the normal type of full-scale public content releases we'd consider using that, but I’m not sure if there is another site that’s better than Patreon in that regard. I'm sorry.

Out of curiosity, in all of your games so far, which characters in each were the most fun to write? They obviously don't have to be your favorite characters!

Buffalo Seer in AFA, really everyone in XOD/XOBD is pretty equally entertaining to write, The Guide in LoV, and Cove in OL!

idk if you accept "personal" questions, but is there anything you've been watching/ listening to lately

Mostly, I’ve been watching/listening to Authortube videos as of late! It’s people who talk generally about the process of how books become traditionally published and/or share their own experience as they attempt to be published. I don’t have an interest in writing normal text based books, but it’s really interesting to hear about that world. I’m listening to a video about royalties right now as I answer these asks.

Will one of the desserts we get to pick be fudge? That'd be such a cute reference! 

Haha, yeah, it should. Unless I completely blank on it and forget when trying to include the various referential food options.

I don't know if this has been asked previously but what would be the approximate heights for the presets MC can choose from Step 2 ~ 4? Are there any measurement you had in mind? Sorry if I didn't make myself clear kk I've been struggling with my English lately 💀 

I don’t know, ahah. I didn’t have any numbers in mind for that. So it’s whatever you imagine it is!

I noticed a bug with the Patreon moment when it comes to what your character wears. When Jamie and Cove are kissing while my character only had dresses selected, I had both the option to remove the dress or to remove the shirt... Picking one of the options to interact with Cove, after he removed his shirt, it had Jamie remove their shirt followed by ther pants despite only having dresses picked. 

Thank you for reporting ^^

I keep refreshing steam to see when the new doc for xobd will be released. I noticed you haven't posted anything about it in quite some time. Would it be possible to ask about a timeline/potential date? (If it's even this year—) I know you and your team are probably working super hard, I'm just super curious! ~Thank you!~ 

There are more stories done, I just haven’t gotten around to publicly releasing them. Hopefully I will have a chance to spend the time on that sooner rather than later!

hello!! i’m not sure if it’s an update but i’ve just replayed our life and at the end i can’t propose to cove anymore? :(( i’ve actually tried playing twice but the options are not there anymore, did you guys remove the options? i’m sorry if you’ve answered this before!! thank you and have a good one :) 

I’m afraid things haven’t been changed or removed, so I think you might’ve accidentally picked the wrong things somewhere along the way and locked yourself out of being able to propose by mistake. Sometimes you meant to say you want to get married but instead you mis-click and have it so the MC isn’t thinking about marriage or something. All I can suggest is starting from the beginning of Step 3 and making sure to follow the steps listed in the FAQ. I’m sorry for that.

Did yall remove some of the options for when youre making out with Cove in the charity moment? I could've sworn you could grab his bonkadonk and its not there anymore 

This is the same situation as the above. We didn’t remove things and you’re not wrong that there are sometimes those options. But there are various choices you have to make to get those options and it sounds like you accidentally missed something. If your relationship isn’t long-term, you can’t do it for example.

HI IM SO EXCITED I CAN FINALLY GET THE STEP 3 DLC 

Thank you for getting it!

Is Shiloh super totally straight bc I’m very gay and a huge Shiloh fan, would my man make an exception?😩

Sadly, he is one of our super straight characters. I’m sorry.

Hi, I have a very dumb question. In Step 2 does Cove not wanna share his drink with us at the mall (or rather why he stops drinking it) because it's an indirect kiss? Or is it like ...weird to him to share? Because if I remember right he eats off our spoon in the birthday scene right? 

Yeah, he’s awkward about it because he likes the MC and it feels very personal to share a straw with his crush.

Hi! If you don't mind me asking, who is the artist for OL2? Their style is so pretty! 

Thank you for saying so! This is her Twitter- https://twitter.com/redridingheart

Do Beginnings & Always and Now & Forever exist in the same universe? 

Yep! XOXO Droplets also exists in the same universe. It’s one big GB Patch world, haha.

Do Pran's parents regret the way they raised him? Do they feel ashamed of it?

No. They’re the type of people best cut out because they’re not gonna change. Which is why Pran does go very limited contact when he’s an adult.

Hi! I just wrapped up my second playthrough of Our Life, and I absolutely adore it, but I had a question. I went to the gallery and found I was missing 2 CGS (specifically Step 1-3 and 2-3) and I had no clue where they would've shown up. Which moments are those found in? 

You get it by telling Cove about his dad offering you money to be his friend in Step 1 and Step 2. You can’t get both in one playthrough, since you can only tell Cove the truth once. I’m really glad you liked it!

Hi hi! Please, how tall is Baxter and Derek? Love the game so much and I can't wait to see more! 

I don’t know, aha. I think Baxter was around 5′10 and Derek was like 5′8/5′9, maybe. I really am not one who has specific heights for things in mind.

is adult cove a bottom, top, or switch? 

A switch, though would choose the top if he had to pick.

I was wondering if there is a way to transfer save data? Even if through the game files. I wanted to be able to transfer my save data from my desktop over to my laptop so that I could continue playing right where I left off from but I'm not entirely sure how to go about that. 

If you save the save folder/persistent data of the game from your desktop and put it into the game folder on your other device, that could work.

Hi! Is it possible for us to know the date when our life: now and forever comes out on steam? Sorry if you've mentioned it before but I haven't seen it and I'm looking foward to that happening and just wanted to know :) 

It’s gonna be a long time, I’m afraid. There’s no estimate right now.

I started playing Our Life with my sister a while ago, and I think you guys should know that we discovered your secret. >:)

L from death note and Cove are clearly the same person, and this whole game is just an origin story!!

I’ve never seen that show so I’m sorry to say I don’t understand the connection/reference you’re trying to make. I’m pretty out of the loop when it comes to media. I don’t watch movies or TV.

Will OL2 have options for disabled MCs?

I understand if it's too complicated, just curious

Unfortunately, it’s not really something we have a plan for. We couldn’t finish the game if we tried to include every disability and have it be meaningful. It’d just be too much content to create. But if we decide to only include a few, how would we choose which disabilities get to be represented and which are left out? I don’t know. It’ll probably have to be something we don’t include as an option again, sadly. I’m sorry.

playing our life > anything else 

Haha, I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

Honestly, I would like to thank Our Life for helping me come to terms with my sexuality. Before, I never would've actually thought that it was possible to like boys romantically and still be asexual. Almost all of the BL visual novels I've read had unskippable sexual content in them and it honestly just didn't click with what I feel. I'm glad I found Our Life. I love the game, the developers, and this fandom so much. Now, I can safely come out as homoromantic AND asexual (at least anonymously here anyway; my parents are still huge homophobes 😂). 

Aw, it’s great to hear you felt comfortable being yourself in the game! That’s wonderful. I’m really sorry about your parents, though.

Will the demo for OL2 be on android? Really not sure if I could wait any longer than I have to aha 

Yeah, it’ll be available for Android once we eventually release a demo!

Do all these reveals perhaps mean development is progressing ahead of schedule? Please let that be the case I'm already obsessed with Qiu 

No, sorry, aha. Art comes along much faster than script/programming-work for us. It’s gonna be a long time before the game is a finished thing you can actually play. But at least we can look at the beautiful images.

Hey! First of all I wanna say I reallllllyyyyy loooovvveeee Our Life and XOXO Droplets! I have over 300 hours of playtime on Our Life… Anyways, I was just wondering, are the Derek and Baxter DLCs going to come out at the same time? If not, which one do you plan to release first? :3 

They will come out separately and Derek will be first! Glad you like the game.

I keep replaying Our Life to get every possible iteration and I am loving it <3 I was wondering if Cove gets locked out of his confession because MC was talking to Lee, would it be possible to confess to him in step 4? 

Yeah, you can avoid the confession in Step 3 and then get it in Step 4.

Hi, my Cove wears bracelets through step 2 and 3 but I still don't get an option to give him a bracelet? I didn't even know that was possible until I seen someone else ask about it lol 

Hm, did you use the Cove creator? Maybe there’s a bug where using the creator to add bracelets doesn’t fulfill the requirement to give Cove a bracelet in Step 3.

Wait, I'm dense, when does Baxter appear in step 2? Is it from big park firework? I feel so bad since i really love Baxter and waiting to buy his dlc. 

It’s in the Soiree Moment. You have to be just friends with Cove, indifferent, or crushing but not ask Cove to the dance at all. Then while there you can find someone new to dance with. But if you bring Cove to the dance while crushing, the MC won’t wanna dance with anyone else so you can’t get the scene.

In step 2 when we go to the soiree I made my mc go alone and baxter chooses the mc to dance, i'm curious, why did he pick the mc? sorry if this has been asked before! 

Because the MC looked to be around his age, seemed to also be searching for a partner, and had nice legs. A perfect option for him.

I read some of the FAQs, and I saw that we could tell Baxter about the condo that he rented there was previously the mean old grandparents. how do we get the mc to tell him that? 

It happens in the DLC Moment “Late Shift”. If you don’t have a job you instead get a longer scene with Baxter.

I don’t know if you’ve addressed this or not, but are you planning on paying voice actors for our life: now and forever? 

Yeah, we pay our VAs in all our projects.

hey can i ask how you did the moments thing in ol? im trying to get into making visual novels and while im VERY sure its out of my comfort zone and all that atm i kinda wanna know just for the future, bc im p sure it would work well for something i wanna do :O but its also fine if you cant say for other reasons :> 

I’m afraid I’m not sure what you mean. Are you asking how we programmed the screen or something script related? Adding Moments like that is pretty straightforward, though. You just have buttons that open to different labels and then the scripts are essentially individual short stories/vignettes. Good luck with your VN!

Since Autumn becomes gender fluid later in the game, will there be a character who remains as he/him to romance in game? 

OL1 has the he/him LIs, OL2 is all about other genders.

I don't want to impose on your creative plans, but a parrot could possibly make a good pet in an OL-type game? They're pretty long-lived and likely to still be thriving by the end even if the MC got them back in step 1. 

I do appreciate the suggestion, but I’m afraid it’s not likely going to happen. I understand there are technically some animals that could theoretically live long enough to last the whole game that or we could have the MC only get a pet after some years have already passed. But the many things that would have to be considered/accommodated for makes it just something we probably can’t manage adding. I’m sorry.

As time passes will we be able to see Qiu and Tamarack's other stage arts as well?

They are both so cute i can't wait to be friends with them!

Yeah, we’ll show content from other Steps in the future. It’ll be a little while from now, though.

Can you date Cove and still have your family comfort you in the car?

You can’t get Cove’s Step 3 confession scene if you have the family comfort you in the car. But that’s not the only way to date him. You can get together with him earlier in the game or later on in Step 4.

Is Mc always going to be the one walking down the aisle or could Cove do it? Also could you choose to have one of your moms walk you? 

No. Cove wouldn’t want to walk down the aisle like that and the MC automatically respects that. And the MC also gets to have their preferences respected, so it’s up to you whether they want to do an aisle walk or not. You also can pick who, if anyone, walks with you.

Once step 4 is out, will you be able to go the whole game on crush/love without either of you confessing? 

Yes, as long as you tell the game you don’t want to progress the relationship. Even in Step 4 it won’t force you to officially get together.

Howdy, so in Step 4, there will be any Romance with Derek that is not part of any dlc? 

He’s only a friend unless you get his romance story.

Will the step 4 in OL2 be one big step or are you considering moments? 

Step 4 is just an epilogue in both games.

hi kind of a weird question but!! we know tht cliff doesn't start dating again but. wht abt flings? like does he ever do 1 night stands or anything? thank u!!!!!!!!!!!! 

Nope. Cliff has a very small interest in sex. If he’s not in a real relationship with a partner he’s crazy about it simply isn’t something he feels a need for, so one night stands wouldn’t even cross his mind.

sorry if you've already answered this, but i was wondering if there were plans for there to be bonus love interests in OL2 like how we have derek and baxter in OL1.

Maybe! There are side characters who could be given romance stories, but whether or not it will happen depends on funding and how long everything else takes to finish.

I don't know if i'm allowed to ask about ol2 here yet, if not u can ignore this or answer it later. My question is can you date one of them and be good friends with the other? I don't want to be strangers with the other bcs i love them both a lot :<

Yes you can!

what patreon level do i have to be to unlock the nsfw moment? im on the $5 one right now, will that give me access to the moment, or just access to the moment progress? 

That’ll give you access! Tier 2 and anything higher allows the player to download it.

[zaptap]

ive made a few of these bingo sheets and theyre fun so i decided to make one not just for e3 but also JUST for splatoon 3 (not just for e3 but for like the whole lifetime of the game). also heres my updated list of characters id like to see in smash, ordered generally by which id like more and/or think are the most realistic

since min min got in i took out helix, and since i couldnt decide whether to add in waluigi or madeline i added another row (realistically i dont think any indies are getting in but i threw some in anyway). also i was like “oh yeah maybe theyd put in a gen viii pokemon” so i threw in hatterene since thats one of my favorites.

also as for waluigi (and shovel knight for that matter) i think it would be nice to see an assist trophy get in just to break that rule. also i remember being super surprised he wasnt in brawl (back then i thought he and wario were equally important) and even though that was based on a wrong impression ive still felt like he should be in there ever since

notes about the bingos under the cut

really is about time for those n64 games, especially now that mario is dead so theyre free to release sm64 on it. game boy games would be nice sometime too

would also make sense to include banjo-kazooie in that, nintendos had a good relationship with microsoft lately and the total absence of anything banjo-kazooie on the switch is odd since it’s a dlc character (every other one has a game on switch they can use for cross-marketing, even if joker’s took a while) and i think the best explanation for that would be that theyre holding off for the nso n64 app (this is easiest from a technical standpoint because all they have to do is make a deal to use the roms)

when are they putting octolings in mk8d

xenoblade chronicles x is one of the only wii u games left that they could port (aside from ones that wouldnt make much sense like splatoon and ssb4) so i guess that might as well happen sometime. also monolith soft might be doing something else besides helping with splatoon 3

im not ready for metroid prime 4 (im over halfway through mp2 and therefore the trilogy as a whole) but it’s been a while, they might show it and it could even come out this year

hal apparently recently hinted at a new kirby game or something

the upgraded switch is obviously going to be called the Nintendo Switch ͥ  since they already did the ds lite so theyre clearly naming everything in the family after the ds family, theres absolutely no flaw in this logic. idk if theyre showing it, but unlike 2019 they didnt say they werent showing new hardware (just that they were showing software, which could be taken as denying rumors, but they sometimes specify when certain things arent being shown)

metroid prime trilogy also might come this year. would make sense to release it before mp4 since not everyone is going to buy a wii u to get it (and at this point that doesnt get nintendo any money since they stopped making them)

where is detective pikachu 2. i hope it has the blue pikachu from that first tease they gave us in like 2014 (2013? that was a loooong time ago idk)

they said this was MOSTLY 2021 so i am absolutely getting my hopes up for splatoon 2

the two sinnoh games could likely be there

would be super cool if oddity came to switch. and almost as ironic as megalovania getting into smash

we havent seen the botw sequel for a couple years so we’re kind of due for an update on that

it’s ace attorney’s 20th anniversary this year so maybe theyre doing something. theyre already porting those games though so idk. maybe he’s getting in smash

whats with that watermelon mario render

i held off on watching a playthrough for ndrv3 on the off chance it came to switch and i could play a dangan ronpa game for real for once but it’s now been 4 years and we just passed the 10th anniversary of the series (albeit during a pandemic when i wouldnt expect them to have done anything) so it would be cool to see the series come to switch. i think if it still doesnt after this though i’ll just watch the playthrough, 4 years is long enough. amazed ive avoided spoilers this long, i still know next to nothing about the game

im about done with acnh but im still waiting on those splatoon items. and i ran out of storage in february so i need more of that too

nintendo did stuff for zelda’s 30th anniversary so i doubt theyre forgetting the 35th. maybe wwhd/tphd ports, idk

been a couple years since fire emblem, intelligent systems is probably up to something besides planning yet another paper mario spinoff

miyamoto forgot pikmin 4 in the oven 6 years ago and it got burnt to a crisp and thats why it hasnt come out yet because he had to start over

and splatoon

the inklings scared daft punk into quitting so now that theres no competition in the robot musician scene they should have a daft punk style group

i waited and waited and neither of my top two splatoon stages (flounder and d’alfonsino) came back in splatoon 2 so i hope just because splatoon 3 isnt in inkopolis doesnt mean they still wont return

would be sick as hell if there was a real hide and seek mode instead of just sticking to your own rules in private battles. havent played that since 2015 but it was super fun

show us the effects of the chaos world

i wanted mc craig to have a song in octo expansion and they didnt deliver. heres another chance

splatnet 3 baby

cant wait for nogami to do a funny 3 pose

abxy came back for splatoon 2.... am i gonna be that lucky again...?

salmon run doesnt make sense if youre friends with a smallfry but they could either change the story context (you just fight “evil” salmonids?) or replace it with an equally fun co-op mode

amiibo!!! i think i said this before but they should label them by weapons if these cephalopods dont have genders, would make more sense (the gendered ones had different weapons anyway)

returning characters!!!! would like to see everyone have a role of some kind

maybe #GearForAll wasnt successful in getting the emperor/spy/mecha gear, but perhaps theyll at least consider not making that stuff exclusive this time around

squid girl gear should be back. and they should call it a dress instead of a tunic because its a dress. and theres no gender now anyway

as ive said before... TRIPLIES!! you hold one in each hand and another in your mouth. and you can spin around like the tasmanian devil

remove splatfest tee annoyances: you should have a prompt at the end of a splatfest to pay to scrub your tee (to make sure you get the chunks) also it should be on a neutral brand so you dont end up with an overabundance of ink resistance up (or whatever else)

better online and cloud saves would certainly justify having a second splatoon game on the same console, as much as im loving that it exists

hopefully theres a global testfire again

sooner or later the workers will rise up and kill mr grizz

remember in splatoon 1 where if you had squid beatz (via the amiibo) you could “play” it in the lobby and change the music? then you were stuck listening to only bubble bath in splatoon 2? why did they take that option away they should bring it back

looking at those apartment buildings in the trailer i think it would be cool if you had your own room and could decorate it

an octavio redemption arc would be fun to see. in the manga he stole the zapfish because the octarians had an energy crisis, and in the end they worked out a deal to share the electricity