#player speculation turning into a whole new story would be neat

[deerspherestudios]

will we ever get to find out where mychael came from? i have this idea but if it turns out my idea isnt close to canon i kinda wanna....use it for my own story LOL

Of course! Based off the amount of asks I get asking what Mychael is it's definitely one of the bigger questions people wanna know. Feel free to drop your theory if you'd like! (I'll neither confirm or deny <3)

[mdhwrites]

Thoughts On Honkai Star Rail's First Three Arcs

This isn't going to be comprehensive and I won't talk about it from a gameplay perspective. Gameplay wise, I actually REALLY like Star Rail and wish it wasn't a free to play Gacha game as those elements are mostly what I feel hold it back. However, unlike most free to play games, let alone Gacha games, I find the writing of Star Rail actually pretty decent and even good much of the time. It's why I came back to it after taking like half a year plus off so I could see what new story they had for me. But like I said, this post at least won't be extensive. You can send me asks if you want my further thoughts on other parts. Also, just as a heads up, a lot of this is going off of kind of old memories of content I could literally only go through once. Oh, and final disclaimer: This isn't taking into account side content. Not only have I not done the Xianzhou's side quests yet, I only just got told I need to wait for more story, but reviewing that is a lot harder given the time lapse unfortunately. I could review specific companions but not overall side quest quality probably other than it being alright and the Xianshou have my favorite puzzles so far probably.

With that said:

1: Herta's Space Station and the Antimatter Legion

As a story, it's fine. As a tutorial it's... Bumpy to put it mildly. The biggest issue is a problem that will come back: Proper Noun Soup. You get a lot of information thrown at you and a lot of terms having to be clarified very quickly, made worse if you try to read the DOZENS of documents scattered around even the literal tutorial part of it. It makes sense for that information to be here, this is a research station and archive. There's a lot of info here. It does mean a lot is being thrown at once at the player though.

But as a tutorial, the most important element isn't actually so much if the story is innovative, it's not as it's just saving a station under attack, as much as it is about whether or not it hooks the player. And for that...

7/10 overall for the story here.

It's quick, the action is good, the stakes are high and aren't really undervalued or undersold and the boss battle is an incredibly satisfying conclusion. The enemy may be faceless but the face we get is both literally attractive and narratively tantalizing, giving a lot of interesting questions both about our character and our rival organization just by the act of us coming to consciousness. It's only real issue is trying to retain everything thrown at you and the time that has to be spent mostly explaining stuff to you in kind of awkward ways. It's far from bad though, especially since I use the whole scale so a five is a passing grade for me.

Jarilo-VI and the Eternal Freeze

9/10 overall for me. The biggest issues come down to two things. The first is the general pitch for the world: Final Fantasy 14 Heavensward but without the dragons and gods. That's both actually not a bad thing but also slightly bad for it. Removing dragons from anything is always going to be a bummer and you would think removing gods and cults would be a bad thing but it's not.

I'm actually being reductive even calling it a ripoff. The sort of classist story that it's telling is actually pretty normal fair for speculative fiction. By removing the extreme fantasy elements though, it focuses a lot more on the actual human stakes and the suffering that's being caused by the class divide. It's honestly a very human story with a well rounded cast of all sorts to give perspective and neat twists and turns. Nothing mind blowing but pivots that add charm to the archtype. Buuuuut it's still doing the archtype and so as a fan of fantasy, there's little new about it and what is new makes me chuckle like everyone having came from the same fucking orphanage. XD

And it playing it so by the numbers feeds into its second issue: It's. Fucking. LONG. It moves at a crawl due to its factions and the like, or that's how it feels to me. It had little to escalate to by being so human so it's kind of just buzzing along for at least half of it, which is the majority of the time you're in the slums. You're not making progress outside of turning some hearts and so you're just kind of twiddling your thumbs happily as you wait for when you finally get an option to jump back into the real action.

The climax is genuinely fantastic though and pays off that slow build with a grand crescendo as allies either come in now or have been helping you the entire way. Afterwards, you feel like you genuinely accomplished something and that things will be better. Honestly, I wonder what the production process for the worlds are because this COULD have been split in half probably and been more satisfying to do it.

Speaking of:

The Xianzhou Loufu and the Stellaron Crises

5/10

Like I said, I use the whole scale and I'll admit that this might be skewed due to me having spent so long away from the story right in the middle of it. Or, more like 3/4s which you would not be expecting when you got to the moment where the main story content used to cut off at.

Pacing is the big murderer here. Despite the fact that there is a ticking time bomb somewhere on this planet ship, you don't really feel like you're doing a lot. You're stuck in bureaucracy more than anything and it takes multiple dungeon areas for you to finally talk to any of the actual villains in the ship. Otherwise, it's almost literally twiddling your thumbs and waiting. Once things happen, they happen all at once. Not even with great payoffs but almost like they were just stomping out plot points that were in the way of the final boss and they didn't have the resources to finish the story properly so it could pay off wider elements.

Now, there was this element back on Jarilo but the situation was neither so immediate and the elements being introduced came back around. Much of what makes the Loufu's sky Venice have ANY flavor doesn't really lead to anything. It gestures towards it with the cult that eventually shows up but it's actually only briefly in the story and undercuts any interesting arguments it has by going "WE'RE PURE EVIL RACISTS WHO WANT IMMORTALITY BECAUSE IT MAKES US STRONG!" and suddenly they're not interesting in anyway... Only to then be replaced by a threat that is somehow even MORE one dimensional than 'evil cult'.

There's a real lack of personal stakes in it either. It has an interesting hook by going back to that pretty face who put a bomb in our chest back on Herta but they're more a cameo. Literally for her friend, Blade who gets one moment and then just pisses off because... *shrug* The statement he made about prices needing to be paid never amounts to much of anything besides that being the first cutscene of the entire arc. It doesn't make me excited for the end cutscene of this arc because we'll see where it goes.

BUUUUUT even if the main plot of the Loufu is a lot of wasted potential and kind of meh in general, it is dragged back to treading water by the B plot. This is the first one with a B plot away from your main group and the mystery it presents is actually neat. It shows a lot of good nobility for a pretty stoic character and a pretty interesting backstory that also doesn't have to weight the character down going forward. It's the one element I would say that really pays off with the Loufu.

That doesn't save it and it has a pretty laughable epilogue where a character who died with very little personality besides being good at their job is suddenly made out to be this charismatic saint who was friends with everyone and enriched the Loufu so much and I'm just sitting here going "SURE WOULD HAVE LIKED TO HAVE SEEN THAT EARLIER!"

Plus side, the gameplay lets me reanimate her corpse since she is a playable party member in the gacha which does make having her death be a big deal less of one.

Overall Thoughts on Star Rail's Writing:

If I am judging its writing quality just by whether or not the writing is good, without context, it actually ranks pretty darn high. Probably a 7/10 which is better than most MMOs, let alone free to play gacha games. That is the draw of Hoyo admittedly. A gacha game that's closer to at least AA quality, if not AAA.

But it being a Hoyoverse property also hurts it. A LOT. I played the first arc of Genshin Impact after all and while I think the plot is better here, there's very little distinguishing the two. That shouldn't happen though because one is fantasy... Star Rail is Scifi. If you look up pictures of the Loufu though and its characters, you would almost never guess that it's scifi. They have divination, they have alchemy, there's a sidequest where you bring someone's soul out of the soul containment part of the ship to put into a robot that's effectively a golem so you can communicate with the dead. The entire final part of the story is all about gods, reincarnation and magic and NOTHING else. Its boats are grown out seeds.

And that IS frustrating. Jarilo VI is also bad about this but they're at least a civilization who's development was pushed back. Them having a contemporary/fantasy style works better there, even if not perfectly. And I am a bigger fantasy fan than scifi but I came to this expecting a scifi game. If I'm lucky, I get a scifi aesthetic, MAYBE a little flavor... But often not even that.

It's why I pause on hard recommending Star Rail for its writing. It took the traveling wanderers excuse and so far hasn't done anything with it that having isolated islands wouldn't do just as well.

And while I may be Nameless, I would like the story to start forming its own identity.

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For anyone curious btw: I have bought the first season pass when I completed it but have spent no money on the game otherwise. I don't have the money to spend on free to play games and in general I just don't. If I play consistently enough to clear a season pass though, I usually feel like the devs have earned a bit of money out of me in return.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

[missnight0wl]

Unpopular opinion: I wish dating was never introduced to HPHM.

I was always rather open about the fact that I don’t have much interest in dating content in HPHM, so you might say it’s very subjective rambling. But I think I also have some more objective arguments for that statement, so… hear me out (or don’t; I can’t tell you what to do).

Some spoilers for the Festival Fun TLSQ, the Celestial Ball TLSQ, the First Date TLSQ, the Valentine’s Day TLSQ, the All-Wizards Tournament TLSQ, and “Cooking Up Trouble” SQ.

First of all, I want to address the most obvious counterargument for my wish: “but people want dating!”. Yeah, I know. But here’s a thing. A long time ago, almost at the very beginning of the game’s existence, when we were only speculating about any love interests, people were referencing one article. The article where the creators claimed that romance is planned for the future (among other things). And if you ask me, it was their mistake. It was a mistake because it created expectations which they had to react to. The problem is that they were never ready to introduce such type of content. I mean, just look at the past events. Andre mentioned dating when he was first introduced back in Y3 (!), and he said then that most people don’t date until they’re in the fourth year. And yes, the Celestial Ball was eventually placed as Y4 Achievement, but the main story was well into Y5 already! What I take from this is that at best, they had only a rough idea for the ball when they wrote Andre’s comment in Y3 (if it took them so long to actually create the quest). And so, I have to wonder – why they even talked about dating in Y3 if they were not ready? Now, I’m not saying that nobody would ask for dating if Jam City didn’t mention it in that article, or Andre omitted that topic in Y3. There’d definitely be people still wishing for some romance. But there’d be no actual reasons to expect that. Because HPHM was created as a mystery story (even if people don’t remember about it anymore), and a mystery story doesn’t really need romance.

The second thing I’d like to point out for the sake of this discussion is that the dating quests require quite a lot of work from the devs team. Admittedly, the quality of those efforts is sometimes questionable, but still. I’m also no tech or game design expert, but here are some things which I believe make dating quests more time-consuming than most of the others:

Designing outfits. Each of the datable characters is given a new outfit (+ new outfits for MC). I also want to notice that most of those outfits are one-time-use. Well, except maybe for the bundles available to buy for real money…

Creating new locations/characters. To be fair, some of “regular” quests require those too, although the majority uses things already existing and being used in the main story.

Creating new animations: dancing, holding hands, pecks on the cheek, more (new) dancing.

Creating multiple routes for different date options – and even if it’s mostly copy-paste, it takes time nonetheless.

To be clear, creating new things for the game is not bad. My point is that basically every dating adventure required ALL of that invested in one single quest – and pretty much none of that can be reused outside of dating. In fact, they’re not even reusing those animations completely for each new date. The kiss from the Valentine’s Day was different from the recent one, the Festival had new dances added to make it more diverse in comparison to the Celestial Ball etc. And what those unique quests have to offer? One cute moment with your date, which is… kind of meaningless. I’m sorry, but dating stories are basically irrelevant in the bigger picture. I mean, yeah, they’re adorable, but that’s it. And it’s just NOT proportional to all the work put into them. Because look…

The dating quests add very little to nothing to flesh out the characters – and if they do, it has nothing to do with dating.

The Celestial Ball did a pretty great job at adding to Rowan and Ben. People often criticise MC for “forcing” them to come to the party, but the problem was clearly about them feeling not good enough to go (not necessarily about them not wanting to go), and so I really loved working on their self-confidence. Bill also grew a lot in that quest, overcoming his rejection from Emily Tyler. Andre discovered his styling talent, so he was no longer “just” a brilliant Quidditch player. Even Penny had some insecurities to face as she wanted to prove that she’s not only popular but she can also create fantastic decorations. So… couldn’t it just be a quest about FRIENDSHIP and our friends growing? The whole dating subplot felt kind of forced to me, or maybe rather detached. Not to mention that THAT was kind of a dick move to leave Rowan and Ben after using the argument:

The next quests were more oriented on dating itself, but at the same time, they’re focused less on the characters’ individual personalities. Sure, there are some differences between dates, but it’s more about distinction than adding anything new. For instance, in the Festival Fun TLSQ, every character yells out loud that you’re on a date (unless you chose to keep it a secret), MC just points out that it’s unlike them in the case of Talbott, Jae, and Chiara. Next example: I thought it’s pretty amusing that Jae writes dreadful poems with cheap rhymes, but it turns out that the note with Butterbeer could also be left by Barnaby. I know that in MY playthrough, Barnaby didn’t leave it, but I can’t see it as Jae’s characteristic, simply because it wasn’t written for his character – it was written to fit Jae and Barnaby, so it’s kinda meaningless in my eyes.

Another thing is that even if those dates added something individual, it’d be relevant only for a limited audience. Like, I’m really happy for people who wanted to date Badeea, but for me, she barely existed in this quest. It added NOTHING to her character. During the First Date quest, Tulip revealed that girls in her family are being named after flowers (her cousin is called Marigold), which is a pretty neat fact, but I wouldn’t know it if I didn’t put extra effort to see different options. And believe me, there’s a big part of the payers who don’t do it. I’m still seeing on social media people being surprised that Rowan’s gender and House are connected to MC’s.

And speaking of that already: this is why the dating options are being cut off. And honestly, it sucks, but I get it, I really do. The devs have to spend the same amount of time on a character dated by 6% of the players as on a character dated by 36% of the players. Let’s add real money to that, and let’s say that 10% of all players buy gems/energy on TLSQs. Jam City will make more money out of that 36% than out of 6% - it’s as simple as that. At the end of the day, they are a business. Would it be nice to make all players happy? Of course, but it’s easier to keep the majority happy.

The dating quests don’t really matter for the main story – and they won’t matter more in the future.

Why? Because it’d be too complicated at this point. All we’re getting (and what we’ll ever get) are subtle differences in dialogues. And you know what? Even that doesn’t matter much. For example, in Y6, there’s a scene where Talbott calls MC to the Owlery and offers his help in searching through the letters. He talks then about their friendship, and if you took him on a date, he mentions it as well. The thing is that Talbott is pretty heart-warming here in general, how he opens on us being friends:

Sure, that one additional line is pretty cute, but again, is it really a satisfying pay-off from the dating quest, considering how much was put into it? And I don’t think they even can do more because they always have to keep in mind the players who didn’t manage to finish TLSQs in time or just didn’t want to do it.

I don’t want to be only negative about dating because that’s not really my point, so here are some ideas on how to invest all of that time better (and no, it’s not just the lore and in-depth history of the Cursed Vaults because I know I’m in the minority who cares about it):

More outfits for NPCs which could be used for variety. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of seeing characters like Penny, Merula, Ben, or Talbott in their full school robes ALL THE FREAKING TIME. Ideally, I wish every character to have three outfits: full school robes, some variety of a uniform (so something like Tulip and Barnaby) used in the school but outside of classes, and something totally casual used outside of the castle.

More animations between characters like hugs, patting on the arm etc. Anything which could be used almost on a daily basis, and which would make our interactions looks more natural and less stiff. Seriously, I’ll take a supportive hug instead of a peck on the cheek ANY DAY.

More character-centric quests. So many of our friends need their own SQ: Tulip, Badeea, Liz, Diego. The rest could probably also use them to expand their characters – because those SQs do a great job at this. Like, I took Jae to the festival, and it was alright, but to be completely honest, his “Cooking Up Troubles” SQ was SO MUCH BETTER for his character. We learnt new things about Jae, we had some really cute friendship moments (like this and this)… And it was a super simple quest with only seven parts in total! It just needed to be written: no new locations, animations etc. Yet, the pay-off was just… better, more meaningful.

Another thing that could be done in those character-centric quests is more focus on the relationships between our friends because, in my opinion, this is needed as well. I want to talk here a little about the “All-Wizards Tournament” TLSQ, which I think is really underrated. This is probably because of people claiming that Jam City is reaching too much to reference the books events AND because of Rowan’s absence. And don’t get me wrong, those are valid objections. But when it comes to the characters… this TLSQ was pretty great. We saw a lot of our friends' insecurities (Barnaby, Jae, Liz), we saw their more competitive side (Andre, Badeea)… Badeea was especially interesting to me as she showed that she can be quite cunning when she somehow learnt about the first task. She also didn’t reveal that information to Merula and Ismelda because they were occupying the training dummies, but she did share with MC (meaning that you really want to have her on your side…).

It somehow made me think about the situation from Y5 when she admitted that she tricked Jae into thinking that she knows Apparition by using an Invisibility Cloak. It’s nice to know there’s more to her than meets the eye, which was also cohesive with the main story (even if we don’t see it much). The TLSQ also showed some dynamics between our friends, like Jae and Andre (which I mentioned here). And of course, I really enjoyed the ending conclusion: that some tasks can be dealt with only when you work together. Again, I’d love to see this theme being explored more because it creates such a compelling contrast between Jacob and MC. Jacob didn’t have many friends at school. We only know about Duncan and Olivia, and it’s still unclear if Olivia was an actual friend or a colleague they worked with. Not to mention that it was implied that for some time, Jacob was working all alone. Meanwhile, MC has basically the whole army at this point. It’d be interesting to see that this is one of the things which makes MC stronger than their brother.

Now, the reason why the “All-Wizards Tournament” TLSQ could focus on all of that is because we didn’t waste the time on all of “secret admires mystery”, “oh, who should I choose” etc. So, just as a thought experiment, let’s think about how the Festival Fun could improve if we’d eliminate the dating aspect. First of all, more characters could get more screen time, like Badeea, maybe Tulip… Liz? Diego (our dancer!)? Ismelda? Even Talbott didn’t have a big role unless you chose him as a date. The plot could also be more dynamic instead of a whole bunch of stalling. I’d leave the investigation with Andre because I think it’s a great addition to his character, but it’s also fucking sad that any development he’s getting is around dating. Like, the boy deserves so much better. So, let’s change that! Let’s say he asks MC for help because he’s styling some summer outfits for the upcoming festival, but one of his fabrics is missing. Perhaps it’s a bit more expensive material, so they suspect that Jae might’ve “borrowed” it to make some money. Jae, of course, is deeply insulted because he’s a smuggler and an occasional cheater, but not a thief! They argue with Andre, but eventually, they come to understanding. Then, MC remembers that Badeea wanted to experiment with painting methods, so perhaps she decided to incorporate some fabric into that. We find Badeea and Barnaby, they don’t have what we’re looking for, but there’s some action going on there, maybe including Talbott… Long story short, it turns out that Tulip needed it in preparation for Cruppies race or something. I don’t know, I’m coming up with it pretty much as I write. The point is that the time spent on talking about dating could’ve been used on something more specific, individual, which could be more meaningful in the light of the main story. And since there’d be no routes, all of that would be relevant for everyone after completing the quest. Want it to be even better? Make it a regular side quest, not time-limited.

All right, but couldn’t we just have both: characters development and dating? Of course, that’d be ideal. But as I said before, Jam City is a business and rarely any business is ideal. They’ll always prioritise a limited number of things, and since people whine about dating, we’re getting dating. And again, I’m not saying that dating is totally worthless, and I get that people find it cute and whatnot. I just believe that what dating ultimately adds to the game is not proportionate to the time and effort those quests require to be created. That it could’ve been invested better. Dating is basically stopping us from getting better content (at least in some areas). And we’re kind of asking for that…

[player-1]

Union X update 9/3 (Spoilers)

Oh boy, time to let some steam out... And major spoilers and speculations are below, so tread carefully.

STOP SAYING VEN IS THE MURDERER! HE IS NOT GUILTY BY ASSOCIATION! HE IS THE VICTIM! THE BLOOD IS NOT ON HIS HANDS BY DEFAULT, DARKNESS WAS THE ONE WHO TOOK STRELITZIA’S LIFE! HE JUST HAD THE UNFORTUNATE CHANCE OF BEING IN THE WRONG PLACE AND AT THE WRONG TIME!!

Alright, rant’s somewhat over, let me explain a few things...

Given Darkness’ information with the Book of Prophecies, and with the famous phrase “And the Darkness will triumph and Light will expire”, it used Ven as the Trojan Horse in order to ensure their survival in the Worlds beyond (more so like a double standard, but I’ll explain that later). But of course, there’s a few key factors to consider...

1. Why would Darkness kill a Union Leader? Wouldn’t Ven being a Dandelion have the same effect as ensuring its survival? Because being a Union Leader assures the person the privilege of keeping their original memories of the past. If Ven was a Dandelion on its own, he would have his memories erased regarding the War, and under the Leader’s watch, they may destroy Darkness in its path before it made it out of the data world. And on that note, Ven might even reject Darkness as a regular Dandelion regardless. 

2. If Ven had Darkness with him, wouldn’t Ava be suspicious?  Of course, since Darkness works as a completely separate entity and uses Ven as an unassuming vessel of sorts. And with a Keyblade like Missing Ache, a powerful three-tier in fact, it would be odd for an eleven-year-old like him to possess at the cusp of the War. But on that note, we now know that Darkness took the form of Ava to trick Ven into going to the abandoned warehouse, where both the Player and Strelitzia went into. And given their striking similarities (more so the default Player), it would be easy to assume some kind of mix up...

3. So what does that have to do with anything? If Ven wasn’t supposed to be a Union Leader, or even a Dandelion himself, why did Darkness pick him?  Because he was alone. Because he didn’t have anyone to call a true friend. Because he doubts his strength as a Keyblade wielder and a Union Leader. He was shut off from the world, possibly by force, and raised oblivious of the Keyblade War itself and the burden he inadvertently carries.  All of that was possible because Darkness saw a lonely little kid and twisted his mind to believe that he may never get the love and support he wanted, that he can only trust his own shadow and his own heart.

-“The one who answered was a boy with short, wavy golden hair and a tendency to look at the ground. He was so quiet that it was hard to imagine him fighting with a Keyblade.“ -“You two know each other, huh? Must be nice; I’ve always been on my own.” -Ephemer had never seen this boy Ven. Many Keyblade wielders he would at least recognize by face, and would usually hear stories of the truly exceptional ones, but Ven fit in neither category. (Unchained X light novel, pg. 125) Ventus: "Wait. Keyblade wielders fighting each other!?" Ephemer: "Didn't you read the book, Ven?" Ventus: "I did, but...I guess I didn't realize what it meant." ~~ Ventus: "I disagree." Brain: "Whoa, Ven. When did you grow a spine?" Ventus: "This is serious. I don't like the thought of wielders turning their weapons against each other." (Union X Mission 846: Pride Shift) The Union Leaders and Dandelions knew about the rising tension leading up to the War, or in this case, everyone in Daybreak Town knew about the War coming.  All except for Ven. He never considered it a possibility that wielders would turn their weapons against each other, fighting for Lux and not against the Heartless itself. For all he knew, everyone was just going about their missions like nothing even happened...After all, that’s what the Keyblade was for, right? Fighting against the Darkness?

But without Darkness (the entity), he never would’ve gained the Keyblade in the first place.  

Notice how Missing Ache is mostly connected to Dark Medals? If the Keyblade is a physical manifestation of the heart, than that defines their relationship: Darkness coming into contact with a pure Light like Ven’s, and taking care of the rest of his potential. It’s that kind of control that will eventually make Ven doubt himself, doubting his strength and his potential to make any kind of friendship apart from the Union Leaders. 

And even if he lost his memories in the Birth by Sleep timeline, it still had a lasting effect on Ven. -Xehanort tearing his heart apart because of Ven’s incapability of using the forces of Darkness...Because Darkness is an entirely separate entity. The same reason applies on why Darkness/Vanitas was able to survive on his own while Ven was forced to heal with the help of another heart (Sora). There was never “two halves” of Light and Darkness, there was only 1/4 of Light and 3/4 of Darkness. -He reacts negatively to any sort of criticism, and even goes into shock at the motion of a Keyblade raised at him (see BBS novel ch. 11 for more info (it also mentions his love of sweets, btw)), but he also hates the idea of Terra and Aqua holding back their strength, automatically assuming that he’s weaker than both of them.   -And even with the four years living in the Land of Departure with Terra, Aqua, and Master Eraqus, he never closed the gap between friend/student to brother/son-figure. Even with his amnesia, he remained distant of their compassion, never opening up to them in an honest, loving manner...

Darkness thrives on the idea of controlling someone weaker than itself. Daybreak Town, no matter its grandeur and charm, is a dog-eat-dog world, and it made sure Ven know that truth from the beginning.  Friends and partners will abandon you when you fulfill your purpose. The weak will die alone and the strong will crush the weak like bugs. Opening up your emotions and true feelings will make you weak, and people will take advantage of you because of it. The only thing you can trust is your own shadow and the weapon you carry in your heart.  Darkness and Light are one and the same, one cannot live without the other. They are brothers until the end of time, experiencing and feeling the same things and the same emotions. Where you go, I follow, so even if you think that you are alone, I will always be by your side forevermore. And because of me, you would’ve never made new friends (that will eventually leave you), you never would’ve been in the seat of power (that will eventually crumble around you), and you never would’ve seen the Worlds come into fruition (Light will eventually fade, and the Darkness will consume). You are my Light, I am your Darkness, and without me, you would’ve been dead long ago. Darkness as Vanitas wanted to keep that control, even after they were separated by Xehanort. He also didn’t fight back against Xehanort because, as the abuser became the victim, he had no idea to react. Xehanort made Vanitas weak because of his own power and his own skills of manipulation.  Even if he didn’t remember entirely, his dark heart grew colder at the thought that, even without his darker half, Ven can still live a proper happy life. He’s furious of the idea that Ven can live without him, that they can’t share that same happiness, but also avoiding the cycle of doubt and eventual betrayal caused by his hand. But Darkness isn’t inherently evil, it’s just stuck on the logic of “There is no true happiness, where there is love is betrayal, where there is friendship is abandonment, nothing is truly happily ever after...“. And because of that fact, he let Ven watch Darkness take Strelitzia’s life, hoping to find the Player and save them from the War, because life doesn’t give you second chances that easily.

In a way, that would make Ventus believe that her death was entirely his fault (since he accepted Darkness as a part of himself, ie. guilty by association), that all he will do is hurt people, and possibly his new friends. And he may believe that, as long as he’s all alone with his shadow, no one will get hurt, no one will betray him, and the cycle will just repeat on and on and on.

On a sidenote, KH3 Vanitas pretty much describes their relationship to the core: -I’m the piece of Ventus that was taken away, and you’re the piece Ventus needed to be whole again [Sora]. So why shouldn’t you and I look exactly the same? (Taking the appearance of someone Ven can trust, ie. Master Ava and Sora) -You define me, Sora, the same way that Ventus does. We are brothers who, together, make a greater whole. (Light/Darkness duality) -But I am darkness. And I do stand by your side, I’m the shadow that you cast. How much closer could I be? -Ventus: But I didn’t ask for this. To be sifted apart, nice and neat. We should be free to choose. Not just light, not just darkness. We decide what we are. Vanitas:  But...Ventus, I did decide who I am. You see? Ventus: And what you are is darkness? Vanitas: What I am is darkness. Ventus: ...Okay.

All in all, Darkness/Vanitas decided that he should exist by his own nature, meant to be the opposing force against Light. But at the same time, Ven decided that he should be defined as a person, not a puppet stuck with the strings of fate. And in the light of the new Worlds, he could abandon the weak and innocent child he was in the past. But as Vanitas’ final words tell him, what I am is Darkness, you can’t change Darkness in its truest form.

(Also don’t ask me on where Ven’s Chirithy fits into this, I honestly have no idea. For all I know, they may or may not be aware of Darkness’ control on Ven, so we’ll just have to wait and see in the next KH arc.)

TL;DR: 

[aotopmha]

Attack On Titan Chapter 106, 107 and 108 Thoughts

Turns out I only missed three chapter posts during my inactivity.

Which is neat. But now I'm back and as rockin' as ever.

I think the simplest way to start is to address the biggest elephant in the room: the reveal at the end of chapter 107.

Historia is pregnant.

I'd make a soap opera joke, but that's too easy.

The first can of worms this opens is that she is a girl who likes girls and it is really common to not only kill one of the sides in a lesbian relationship, but also "turn them straight". The good part here is that the story does everything to disconnect it from that element. Chapter 107 shows the pregnancy is a necessity forced onto Historia because Eldia needs to survive until they develop good enough technology to defend themselves.

It goes back to one of the story's biggest thematic threads about survival and combines it with Armin's statement "If you can't sacrifice anything, you can't achieve anything."

I think it's equally possible that the pregnancy is as fake as it is real. So I'm going to look at both possibilities and what I think they have as a basis.

I think the tidbits that support the pregnancy being real are Hange's talk with Eren in the beginning of chapter 107, which shows him being angry at Historia being sacrificed and the concern the man at the end of the same chapter shows for Historia. The second one is a pretty easy one: it's just an act. The first one is trickier.

For Eren it would obviously be that he doesn't know because he's not in on the plan or he's talking about Historia being turned into a Titan.

Chapter 108 says that Eren and Zeke have talked. We don't know when, but if a fake pregnancy is planned, Zeke either didn't tell Eren, doesn't know himself, which would be odd considering it's stated to be there to extend his lifespan and Yelena is said to have come up with that plan, which I think is a reliable piece of information for now; that or Yelena is just acting independently to save Zeke because they can't interact due to being restricted by the Garrisson. The rest of the SL also seem to just take it as it is. If it's not real, not many people show hints of knowing it's not real.

It might just be a plan devised by only Yelena and Historia that nobody else knows about because Historia would not put anyone through the same fate of being forced into a situation of not their choosing. Not the child or the father. Only when she's probably forced to, which was implied in chapter 107, but 108 does give her ability to choose, which is another element that makes me suspect it's not real.

In addition to that, Historia only agreed to inherit the Titan. That was her chosen sacrifice. The pregnancy actually takes away most of her remaining freedom, something the characters have been fighting for to get back. Historia's choice in the cave meant taking back her freedom and choosing for herself. So it seems at odds with the themes so far. Giving your life, sure, but your personal freedom, too? Nah.

If the pregnancy is real, I think it's at least not chosen by people pleaser Historia. Her statement to take the power on seems to be genuine and out of the desire to genuinely help her friends and her people to survive, so I think the pregnancy would be a similar choice for her. We only have a few panels, but I think her character hasn't regressed.

(Chapter 107)

The story and where it could be going is an absolute headache to speculate about to me because there are so many pieces and variables to consider.

How much interaction did Eren have with Historia or anyone about the plans after Kiyomi's suggestion to have her have babies to keep the royal bloodline alive? There is a whole lot of questioning to find a better solution, as well. The past few chapters have each at least had one scene of someone looking for a better way.

Hizuru itself is suspect because they are greedy for Paradis' resources, too. Hange questions whether all really will be over in 50 years. The pregnancy is stated to be dangerous by itself, so the risk is still there. For Zeke's remaining year, it would make no difference whether the pragnancy is real or fake.

(Chapter 107)

Zeke's reason for giving away his parents is curious, too. Wouldn't *he* want to stay alive to make things right in his own way considering he thought he could do the job better than his parents? Talk about restoring the Eldian Empire is bad, but he at least seems to want to get this done by his own hand and in a much more smarter way. Regardless of his personal intentions, he would be a very useful weapon in the upcoming battle compared to Historia who would have no experience whatsoever.

My picture for now is that Historia's pregnancy is fake and they are betting on the upcoming battle to collapse Marley, which could happen with or without the rest of the world's support in that battle. If that happens, they could potentially get some sort of peace going. It's a massive gamble, which is something the SL is really familiar with at this point, but if they get Marley off their back, that's a step to potentially keep other nations away, especially if they try their best to show what's actually up to the world and stop the propaganda Marley is spreading.

In addition to that, while it would still aid the cycle, what has stopped Zeke from having a child himself with a woman that wants to? The hole of whether Marley knew he is royal blood was addressed by confirming Zeke has managed to hide it. Nobody on the wall with Dina survived so it didn't get out that way, either. That's another variable to add to the mix.

As with this whole story, it's meant to be a mystery, so I can wait for answers, but it's still at least a little frustrating. It's also exciting because this is the most unsure of any of my guesses about the story's direction I've been as long as I've followed it.

Speaking of uncertainty, trust and who to trust seems to be this arc's theme. It's not just the plot beats that are a mystery, but also the main players' intentions.

I consider Eren, Zeke and Historia the main players. We have not seen any details in their character perspective at all.

This aids everyone questioning them. One thing I appreciate in these chapters is that the characters have good reason to distrust Eren and Zeke. Eren went ahead and abused the SL's trust. Zeke turned an entire village to Titans and is responsible for many deaths on the Paradis side. It's not just drama for the sake of drama, it's testing the characters' bonds, something new the characters haven't been put through. This was the center of chapter 106 through Armin and was built to this moment:

(Chapter 108)

I already went into what Historia and Zeke might be thinking, but I have the most confident guess for Eren.

Of course he still cares. I think his concern for Historia is solid proof. The flashbacks are some time back so they are questionable, but that's in the present. His laugh at Sasha is something he does when in a high tension situation like that. He was tearing up in addition to that. The reason he went ahead so recklessly is to end this whole thing quickly and remove the need to pass the power because he doesn't want to pass it to anyone. In addition to that, he's the one who controls the power, so he's at least have some agreement and unity with Zeke. I feel like he would not agree with very crazy requirements.

But I think being suspicious is completely understandable and again, we don't really know for sure.

Finally, there are a few more minor developments I think that are noteworthy.

-Mikasa is a member of Hizuru's royal family. I like her being more plot important. Once again, Hizuru is suspicious, though. I think Historia might be in danger equally to Mikasa because of the importance they have as royal descendants, so that's something to note. I also really liked Mikasa sitting by Sasha's grave in chapter 107. Mikasa has had some quality scenes separate from Eren and together with Eren here. It's the most focus she's gotten in a while, which I think she really needs.

-I really look forward to the potential character arc with Gabi. It's been obvious since her introduction because of her similarity to Eren and his character arc, but the encounter with the girl Sasha saved seems to be a good way to kickstart it. It's potentially a very rewarding arc, as we saw it with Eren, I just wondered how it could have any sort of believable setup to it and here we go.

-I also like Marley's competency in chapter 108. They are not a forced threat which sometimes also happens, all conclusions they make seem pretty logical. Only Reiner's decision could screw them over, which he wants to probably make because those kids that went to Paradis kinda fuel his will to live. It's believable character behaviour all around.

These were excellent chapters in terms of setup, something I think AoT usually struggles with, but this managed to make me curious about pretty much all elements. I have my hesitations in terms of some of the elements (Historia's pregnancy in particular), but I really want to know more - I almost feel like I didn’t even go over half the possibilities where the story could go in this post.

Good stuff.

[jjnonken]

Updated 14 Mar 2020: The above link is broken. PC Gamer has gone on to the next thing; as of this update, clicking that will get you to an article about golden keys for the game. At least some other companies haven’t conveniently forgotten.

https://screenrant.com/gearbox-randy-pitchford-controversy-weirder/ http://socialbarrel.com/randy-pitchford-video-game-industrys-most-controversial-figure/121218/ https://www.playstationlifestyle.net/2019/06/19/randy-pitchford-legal-drama-shows-gearbox-president-diverted-funds/

And then there’s the stuff about Supmatto getting shut down. https://gamerant.com/borderlands-3-boycott-explain/ https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2019-08-08-take-two-investigating-streamer-over-borderlands-3-leaks https://www.newsweek.com/boycottborderlands3-trends-twitter-controversy-youtuber-supmatto-1453013 https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2019-08-16-borderlands-3-youtubers-channel-disappears-amidst-take-two-investigation-over-leaks

Some of those are redundant, but hopefully it will preserve the information if other sites throw away history like PC Gamer did.

My original posting follows.

---------------------------------------------

Here’s why I’m not buying Borderlands 3. Not yet; possibly never.

TL;DR: Randy and his goons are hurting people and I’m not OK with that.

My stats: across all my accounts, according to Steam, I’ve got 323 hours playing the original Borderlands (including both the GOTY and the new Enhanced edition); 687 hours playing the Pre-Sequel; and a whopping 3413 hours on Borderlands 2. Total: 4413 hours playing the Borderlands franchise, not including a partial run-through of Tales of the Borderlands. (Nothing wrong with it per se; it’s just not the type of game I usually like to play, and I lost interest before I finished.)

(Why BL2 more than BL? Probably because I started with BL2, so that’s the one I love. I could go on about the details, but I think it boils down to familiarity. I think that typically happens to people who started on the first game: they prefer it because it’s where they started, and what they know. I can’t say that’s the only reason, or that it’s everybody’s reason, nor that all people who started with one cannot prefer the other. It’s just what I think happens typically. And it’s speculation, at that. So please don’t read more into it than is there.)

Needless to say I’m a little burned out Borderlands; but I’ll still be happy to play any of the (non-Tales -- which is single-player anyway) games with a friend, and I expect that I’ll probably be working on finishing my first BLE playthrough soon-ish, though I’ve been distracted by another game (7 Days to Die, in case you’ve not been following my blog. Which you probably haven’t; I don’t think anybody is).

So when they announced BL3 and said you’d be able to pre-purchase the super extra plus edition online and get some nifty exclusive skins, I already had my credit card out and drool all over the carpet before the echos died. 

The first news came through: it wouldn’t be on Steam. It would be an exclusive on Epic for six months; after that, presumably it would show on Steam.

What the fuck?

I put my credit card down and mopped up the drool and considered their stated reasons and the ins and outs of this development, and decided I could live with it. They had their reasons, and the main one was money (of course; it always comes down to money). As long as it worked, and as long as it came back to Steam eventually, I would be OK. In fact I’d probably survive even if it was always on Epic. It’s not like I’m married to Steam or anything. And I’m on other platforms (at very least, Blizzard and Xbox). So after some soul searching I picked up my credit card and...

...now these aren’t necessarily in the correct order... ([edit] yeah, in fact, apparently Baker came first, then Eddings, and that’s just these two, though it’s possible I’d simply heard them out of order...)

...heard that David Eddings wasn’t doing Claptrap’s voice. According to him, he’d offered and been rebuffed. According to Randy Pitchford, they’d offered and he’d turned them down. 

OK, well, he-said-she-said. Hard to know from the peanut gallery whose story was accurate, if either, or if it was something between or some third option. Still, it left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth. David Eddings not doing Claptrap? That’s like, like, like Ted Cassidy not playing Lurch. 

At least the Addams Family movies have an excuse, seeing as how Cassidy died in 1979. Anyway, I’m being silly. While I was hesitating some more, I heard that Troy Baker wouldn’t be playing Rhys -- and his story sounded a lot like Eddings’. 

Two actors with essentially the same story? Once is happenstance; twice is enemy action? It’s certainly starting to look like a pattern. Either could be he-said-she-said, but each of the two lent credence to the other.

Still something I could live with. And then I started hearing controversies about Randy Pitchford.

Former Gearbox Lawyer Accuses CEO Randy Pitchford Of Taking Secret $12 Million Bonus

Claptrap voice actor accuses Randy Pitchford of assault

Then there’s the alleged USB stick of allegedly underage porn. Just type “Randy Pitchford controversy” into a search engine and stand well back.

Last month we started getting word about superfan Youtuber Supmatto having his channel shut down and having thugs appear on his doorstep and question him. After restoring his channel... they shut him down for good. Think what you will, but from what I can tell, he’d merely reported information given to him, and Take Two and 2K abused Youtube’s copyright system to deprive one of their biggest fans of a living. Even if they were in the right -- and that’s not clear -- there are a lot of ways they could have handled it better. Instead they went for the full nuclear option and did it the easy way (easy for them, that is -- didn’t take him to court, simply threw paperwork at Youtube) and threw physical intimidation on top of that.

So 2K and Take Two and Randy Pitchford are pissing me off, and from what I can see, pissing off a whole metric fuck-ton of other now-former fans of the franchise. I’m in good company, at least.

But even that isn’t all. There are two other personal reasons that I’ve been kind of ambivalent about BL3. One is that in a lot of ways, the content seems like... more of the same. I guess there’s always going to be a certain amount of that; it’s a continuation of a story that’s been running across ten years and four games which, yes, includes Tales. It’s set in the same universe and is based on the same characters. But each part of the franchise has been pretty decent at presenting fresh content. Yes, even the Pre-Sequel had a lot going for it, despite innumerable flaws. I have a lot of complaints about it, but I also think they came up with some cool stuff. And it advances the story.

Of course, I’ve not seen much, so maybe I’m just viewing this through a lens of disappointment. Don’t take that point too seriously. 

The second and more important one is that, all I feel when I look at the new Vault Hunters is... detachment. Again, maybe I’ll feel more immersion and engagement when (and if) I start playing the game. But none of those Vault Hunters particularly appeals to me. I look at the four of them and feel no pull, no preference, no reason to pick any of them. No “Oh, that’s neat! I want to do that!” They almost seem like cardboard cutouts to me.

And now some more weirdness is happening. Borderlands 3 pre-order pulled from Epic Games store, and there are reports of the strange way 2k is handling the prerelease testing. Apparently they’ve discounted the crap out of the game... why? Are they hoping to bribe back all the former fans they’ve pissed off? Frankly, it looks like a desperation move, and attempts to manipulate me that way are much more likely to piss me off more than lure me back. 

What’s this? One of the actors has apparently been abusing his girlfriend and... Pitchford just blows it off. *sigh* It just doesn’t end.

I won’t even address the microtransactions stuff and Pitchford’s gaff other than to say: as long as there’s no pay-to-win aspect (or even pay-to-shortcut), I don’t mind them. I’ve happily bought many skins in Payday 2 and Killing Floor, and weapons and skins in Team Fortress 2, and I own all the DLC for all the Borderlands games (multiple copies of most of it!). A lot of that is skin and head packs. And then there’s Overwatch. Some is direct (”Here’s some cash for that skin”) and some is indirect (”Here’s some cash for loot boxes, because dammit, I want those skins, and I have more money than brains”), but yeah... paid a lot of money over the years.

I’ve been saying that I would probably buy BL3 when it goes on sale on Steam. But now the question is... will I ever? BL3 may be the Alien³ of the Borderlands franchise for me; as far as I’m concerned, the Aliens franchise stopped after the second movie. I refuse to even watch the third or fourth. (Yes, I’ve watched Prometheus. More than once.) I may do the same here, refusing to acknowledge any legitimacy of Borderlands 3 and boycotting it completely.

We’ll see. 

So, thank you, Randy Pitchford, for making the announcement of a new installment in what is arguably my favorite game ever into bitter, angry, ugly disappointment. 

I’m on the horns of a dilemma, because I love the franchise, and some of my best and oldest gaming friends will be playing it while I sit on the sidelines. But what I’m seeing from the companies just makes me want to walk away.

I guess I didn’t want those exclusive skins that badly after all.

[sortyourlifeoutmate]

Anthem wank

In which a man talks at length about stuff he doesn’t know a whole lot about.

The lore of Anthem is good, but is under-utilised and not especially well developed, I feel. Though do bear in mind I’m an idiot.

Also bear in mind that I’m largely basing my information on a combination of the in-game codex thingy, the wiki and just basic common sense (which is to say, my baseless opinion being used to fill in the blanks).

The wiki and the codex also not always lining up, either. For example, where on the wiki it states that the Javelin that the Sentinels routinely use - a Ranger MK1, apparently - cannot fly. This is baffling because it would seem to suggest that the Sentinels you encounter in the overworld walked there? Or took a Strider, I guess.

But at anyrate the Goddamn codex in-game states that waterfalls are useful for Freelancers and Sentinels alike for cooling off their Javelins - and why would that be useful for Sentinels if they weren’t flying? I REST MY CASE.

For real though Sentinels can fly around seriously what would be the fucking point otherwise.

Anyway, let’s baseless speculate and pontificate on stuff I liked. Ahem.

The relationship between Freelancers, the Sentinels and the Dominion

It’s not really touched on to any great length in the game proper, but the idea that the these three factions all split off from the Legion of Dawn is actually pretty interesting.

Of course, it’s pretty ham-fisted that they explicitly list three virtues of the Legion and then they break neatly along these three lines into these three guys, but whatever, let’s gloss over that.

Again, I’m mostly filling in for myself here but I do rather like how they’ve all taken the same basic concept of “Keep the people safe” and run it in three direction:

Sentinels: Keep people safe by maintaining order Dominion: Keep people safe by imposing order Freelancers: Keep people safe by doing what you think is good. And killing monsters.

You can kind of see why Freelancers might be looked down on a little by the others in this context.

Also, I still think ���Freelancers’ is a dumb name. But whatever, it works. They called a faction ‘The Cabal’ in Destiny and that’s dumb too but it works so whatever.

Point is, this contrast and common origin is interesting fodder to chew through. Everyone wants to do the right thing, after all, they just can’t agree on what the right thing is.

The Anthem itself, Shapers, etcetera

Predictably there’s basically nothing on this, because it’s mysterious. Likely more will be revealed later when (if) further content is added to expand on it.

But I got my own ideas.

First, I like to think that the Anthem is a universal thing. Like, it’s not confined to this planet that the game is set on. It’s everywhere. It is a universal background thing. Like the energy grid in the culture. It’s some kind of background energy source...thing...that the Shapers made stuff run off.

The Shapers themselves I just like to imagine as some sufficiently advanced species. They were shaping up (heh) to sculpt this planet, got a little way done then got HELLA DISTRACTED and had to leave in a hurry. All their shit got left behind, obviously, and all in various states of operation and disrepair.

My idea, in my head, is that all their stuff they left is all still there to make the planet the way it was originally intended to be. But it’s not all working together anymore, which is bad, and most of it isn’t working at all.

You following this?

So, like, you’re a Shaper. You’re some ludicrously advanced alien that cruises around the cosmos. You’ve discovered this unlimited, borderline-magical force and learnt how to harness it with technology. You pick out some planet to turn into another lush paradise because, hey, that’s what you do.

You land all your fancy-pants Anthem-manipulation technology, set it up, start it running and everything is ticking over nicely. You’ve got this - you’ve done it a thousand times already!

Then suddenly - oh shit! - space ants! Space ghosts! Or civil war! Or whatever. Point is you got to go. Right now! No time to safely shut down. Just shut down whatever you can, if you can, and scarper! Some of your shit is left running, some isn’t, some of it is just broken but who cares, you had to go.

Thousands of years later humans show up for some reason.

That’s my idea anyway. I believe the kids call it a ‘headcanon’.

The effects of the Anthem

Kind of a shame that in game how the Anthem actually manifests is kind of...muddled and...underwhelming.

Cyphers talk about hearing it, which is a reasonable concept.

A lot of the time is just makes...lightning...and monsters...which isn’t that exciting.

Did split a guy into three different people that one time though. See? That was interesting. Confusing, but interesting.

The idea that the Shaper relics exist to imprint a very specific model of reality using the Anthem is basically what I had in mind, and everything else that follows that you see in the game is a result of misusing these relics.

Like, the Shapers had a design and their machines are meant to forward this, but most of that shit is broken now, and humans also got their hands on them and turned them around.

Seals, right? Kind of mentioned. The idea of just tapping into this eternal, omnipresent force and using it to make lightning where there was no lightning before - by forcing reality to MAKE LIGHTNING - is a good idea.

Having a dude turn huge and attack you in stages relating to elemental damage? Not a good idea. Kind of a bummer.

Man, can you imagine if, like, the final fight against the Monitor had had a phase where he’s remade reality so that the Dominion is totally in charge? Like, troops come flooding in, Faye and Haluk are just GONE? Then you shoot him a bunch and he loses control, and it snaps back?

That’d be awesome. Ah well.

The Urgoth

I keep getting these guys confused with the Orgoth, another evil species that enslaved humanity in the past and was only driven out by the aid of something badass and mechanical that got invented later.

Point is, it’s still a fantastic idea. I love that. And the idea they might come back? Oh! Scintilating! I’m a huge fan of anything involving an enemy thought defeated so long ago that everyone basically thinks they’re a myth, if anyone even knows about them at all.

That they’re supposedly pressing in on Dominion borders, thus forcing the Dominion’s hand and inadvertantly kicking off the events of that led to the Heart of Rage? Also great.

We call this going full circle.

Scars

Initially I didn’t think much of Scars but on reflection I’m actually rather fond of them. I just think they need to have their nature really emphasised.

Like, they’re humanoid now, but that’s just because they’re emulating humanity. And they’re actually just stacks of bugs taking a man-shape. Which is hilarious.

They’re basically an insect-driven cargo cult. That’s a cool fucking idea! Like them making towns and buildings and shit for no reason other than they see us doing it so they copy us.

Just need to kind of nail down how the Escari work. Like, do the Scars have a hive mind? If so, is an Escari like a budding off? Does it still obey the hive mind? Does it think for itself? Is it a new hive mind that can force its will on the other Scar?

Maybe this stuff will all be explained later.

Also the implication that they’re from off-planet is neat.

Skorpions and Outlaws

Skorpions you can’t do a whole lot with. Monsters, yo. Shoot ‘em.

Outlaws probably need some development. Kind of feels weird gunning down wave on wave of human being. Also feels a bit unfair if I’m in a Javelin and some poor sod with a shotgun is running at me achieving precisely dick before I break him in half.

I mean, how many fucking criminals are we throwing out into the jungle?! And how did they go so many Storms?!

Other humans

I’m not sure how to remedy this, but we know we’re just on a small part of a bigger world but one still just feels so...isolated...

Like, there’s royalty and a capital and a sea and we feel so hemmed in.

I think that Fort Tarsis is the only proper place we can walk around (it being, well, the only place around you can really walk around in...) doesn’t help. Like there’s this huge disconnet. This Is People Place In First Person. Then you go outside and 99% of the game is being in armour.

And, like, what’s with Haluk’s tattoos? Is that just a him thing?

You just get the impression all humanity is one bloc. And that’s weird. The world is a fractured place, you’d think you’d get people from all over and they’d be quite different. Like, what’s a stereotypical Freemark citizen like? What jokes were made about those guys?

Gameplay

Let’s not get into this too much.

Would this game have been better as a proper, single-player BioWare RPG with proper dialogue and a proper story and not this horrible MMO shooter setup? Obviously. Everyone knows that.

But no use crying over spilt milk.

Conclusion

BioWare. Call me.