#please dont just be an mmo

[iliterallydecepticanteven]

New Transformers game was just announced!!

[lilakennedy]

Palia enjoyers, hear me out for a second...

Wouldn't it be cute if we also could send letters to the villagers?

Like, think about it! Being able to go to our mailbox, selecting a villager, selecting a type of letter and then receiving some type of reply the next day!

Choosing between different types of letters; "Send thoughtful Letter to...", "Send Love Letter to...", "Send Encouraging Letter to..." etc etc!

The options & replies you receive possibly changing across different friendship & romance levels...I just think it would be cute.

Thoughts?

[stalwart-spirit]

Final Fantasy XIV & Guild Wars 2

Normally I don't post stuff like this, however I thought it would be interesting to discuss in what I conder to be differences between both games which makes me enjoy them both so much.

FFXIV:

"Puzzle solving" combat (mechanics you have to come up with solutions for and react to).

Far more readable AoEs and mechanics (GW2 literally just has hollow circle outlines so it gets confusing when dozens of them are on the floor overlapping).

Better glamouring system (glamour prisms easier to obtain, GW2 transmutation charges can end up costing irl money if the free season pass runs out of them).

Better customization (more options even with a limited chargen. Hairstyle changes cost in game currency. ANY character changes cost irl money in GW2).

Photo mode (everyone in every game just wants to easily take screenshots of their char let's be real and GW2 does not have that).

Better raiding scene (easier to get into high end content such as raiding, GW2 it can be like pulling teeth at times to find groups. "You need experience for this job, but in order to do that you need a job to gain experience" sort of deal).

Less alt friendly but at the benefit of ALL CLASSES being playable on ONE character.

Constant updates to the graphics and textures, so the game does not look as old as it is (GW2 launched around the same time and REALLY looks its age, however pre-rendered cutscenes are looking great now).

Your character feels like your character in MSQ (GW2 your character speaks, replies mostly independently of your choices, thus at times it feels like you're playing someone else and not who you have developed yourself).

Better crafting (GW2 makes me wanna rip my eyes out and lots of people in the community agree that it can be costly and convoluted).

GW2:

Dynamic combat (things are happening on the screen all the time and is very fast paced with barely any breathing space which makes for some insane battle moments).

Active community in older content (part from base game dungeons, but Anet basically dropped those so fast themselves).

Better dye system for armors (multiple slots up to 4 on each gear piece, and a total of 642 dyes currently in game).

Account wide glamour and dye unlocks (unlock on one character, usable for all of that armor weight/collected dye).

Account wide item banking and currency wallet.

Satisfying achievement system (Rewards from achievements as well as scaling reward track for gaining purely just achievement points).

Buy once, play forever, no subscription (each expansion being the only purchase for each release, as well as the older Living World "post-patch" content) so more obtainable for general pop. who don't want to sign up for another subscription service.

New characters can hop into ANY expansion or just ignore them completely and dive into whichever content needed without having to clear an MSQ beforehand.

Generally more alt friendly (at the cost of irl money for extra character slots, as there is a max of 5 on paid accounts)

Better Player vs Player scene as well as the edition of World vs World (giant map skirmish with 3 "servers" constantly battling for domination in each season, literally running in huge groups to take over enemy castles or defending your own)

NOTE: Any instance of having to use irl money to get things in GW2, you can also convert your in game gold into their gem currency to purchase items in their store, but the exchange rate can be kinda wack.

Neither pros or cons for either:

GW2 has horizontal gearing & leveling, with 80 forever being the max level, thus gear never becomes outdated, thus making it easier for people to hop into many forms of end game content as it is released.

FFXIV has vertical gearing and leveling, which gives a goal in mind each time the new level cap is set and new gear levels are added in order to run content, so an insentive to keep active and have a goal to work towards.

GW2 has build options for each class, allowing different styles of play without the restriction of traditional roles (Tank, Healer, DPS), however there will typically always be an accepted meta build for each depending on type of content, and can cause issues of unbalanced parties when lacking specific roles.

FFXIV does not have builds, and each class plays in a specific way allowing for less flex in how each are played, but allows for FAR more security when running content, as well as allowing more focus to be placed on interesting fights with fun mechanics in my opinion.

[ahokassan]

forgot to stop lurking like i promised.🫤 Anyway here's some piled up doodles of my actual main ffxiv wol

[littlegalerion]

Me awake at 3 AM, thinking on who Heyleth will romance in BG3, because the obvious choice isn't an option.

Despite the fact that it's canon to me that Heyleth and Minsc are married, just in another universe, I guess.

[themindelectricdemo4]

Call me paranoid or whatever but I feel like an unusual amount of people have been leaving after I join groups in tt.cc?? I'm just gonna be properly upset if I'm being talked about in private areas to be avoided in a game where I just spend time battlign with someone & probably don't see them again ..... I mean I have no proof so I can't assume maybe today's just a weird day & people are busy

[sovaharbor]

friendship system is dangerous bc now i ship evie and kael . just a pic w the boyfriend yk how it is :''')

[kitkinnie]

games w. species euphoria

please don't spoil any of the games with stories in the replies or reblogs!

Ori and the Blind Forest - felinekin, maybe some kind of fae or angel kin too ori is very good little creature design and it moves around so fluidly but there's zero customization, if you vibe with ori it's great and if you don't, might not be for you. it's a puzzle platformer similar gameplay-wise to hollow knight (but not as difficult)

Hollow Knight - bugkin, ghostkin, voidkin difficult but very pretty and atmospheric. i've played some of it before getting stuck/being unable to progress because i'm not good at video game. hard platformer with boss fights.

Stray - robotkin, catkin this is one i've been meaning to play for ages (and haven't gotten around to pirating yet, cough) Stray is a 3d game set in a cyberpunk/sci fi world. You play as a tabby cat trying to find its way back to its home and it looks stunning. I assume the story is great, too.

Roblox Creatures of Sonaria - there are so many creature designs there you're bound to find something that's youcore their colors can be customized. It's a multiplayer survival game so it's more stressful than the other games on this list, you gotta be trying not to die the whole time

Animal Jam Classic / Animal Jam Play Wild - lots of real world animals you can dress up and change the colors and patterns of your animals. ajc is in 2d and ajpw is in 3d and has more animal options, but i find ajpw really confusing personally.

William and Sly/William and Sly 2 - foxkin old flash games available as a set on steam, a quest platformer where you run around a pretty forest environment as a red fox and find various things. the music is lovely, both games have a great atmosphere, played it a ton as kid on armor games. i dont think i ever even finished either game i just loved running around as sly (in the second game there are also little kitten-fairies that you can collect and that follow you around)

Postmouse - mousekin free on steam, 3d puzzle platformer where you're a mouse that delivers letters. it can get a little obtuse and confusing at times which is why i never finished it, but it's very charming and free to play! you run around all these huge and pretty environments as a fancy-dressed little mouse .

Lost Dream 1 and 2 - foxkin abstract/stylized/polygonal walking simulator where you play as a red fox. doesn't seem to be much story and the reviews are mixed because walking sims like this need to be like, your cup of tea.

Spyro Reignited - dragonkin of course had to mention such an OG dragon game. never played it but like, it's spyro. cartoony 3d platformer in a fantasy environment.

Oneshot - catkin pixel rpg where you play as a cat child and the gimmick is that you only have one life. the steam page tags it as story rich and having multiple endings/story choices you can make, and the graphics are beautiful, the whole game seems to be made of dark colors and poppy accents

Honorable Mentions:

Way to the Woods - an in-development 3d game where you play as a deer and fawn exploring different enviroments.

The Isle - an early access survival MMO where you play as a dinosaur and try to stay alive.

feel free to add more in reblogs, i know i'm missing a lot of classics but i'm getting tired

[meatball-headache]

I dont have a non-spoilery screenshot for The Sacrifice, so, please enjoy this survey!

Chiclet's not allowed to read this yet, so shhhh

Howling... full moon... heh. He's a Wereframe.

So, once again I'm captivated by Warframe's approach to storytelling. It's unique, in my experience—and I'll be glad to admit my experience is pretty limited. MMOs tend to dominate all your time, y'know?

I've heard how with The Second Dream they started to take the story in a different direction, that is, they introduced a lot more cinematic scenes—and, man, they pack a punch. Honestly, I think introducing this style later in the game, years down the road for some players and still many months for myself—it's very effective. I keep using analogies like playing Tetris to level 100 and then suddenly you get a scene that introduces the pieces' names. If Warframe had been this from the beginning, it still would have been good, but the impact of the surprise wouldn't have been there, and that moment still shines so brightly for me. The game would just be a fun grind to kill some time without it, but with that "This is what you are" scene, the whole game just took on a profound, sacred aspect that can't be topped.

...and yet...

No, no, The Sacrifice isn't better than The Second Dream, but, I am surprised. See, I've long known two things: one, you can look at the Codex and see all the quests in the game. Angels of the Zariman is there right from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War." Whispers in the Walls is there right from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War." Jade Shadows is there from the beginning, except it says "Prerequisite: The New War."

The New War does not appear in my Codex.

The second thing I've long known? The New War is going to be a big deal.

There's something else that's been stuck in my craw for a long time. What's the Ropalolyst? There's a mission on Jupiter that can't be done because it requires the quest The Chimera: Prologue. That quest... also doesn't appear in my Codex? So, there are some quests that aren't in the Codex...

Compared to FFXIV, there's no comparison. A classic MMORPG is quest-dense with wall-to-wall dialogue and almost nonstop cutscenes. On the other end of the coin, the other type of game I'm most familiar with is Soulsbornes, where there's almost no story in-game; it's more similar to the NES classics where you turn on the game, press Start, and fight stuff until you see credits. Warframe, of course, doesn't need to be FFXIV, but what's exciting is the hint that there's something behind it all, and there's still some secrets I don't know about.

I did Apostasy: Prologue and was really surprised to find out that it's a one-mission quest that sets up the next story quest. I wonder if it released at the same time as The Sacrifice? I was thinking I'd do Apostasy tonight, The Sacrifice tomorrow... well, since Apostasy was basically just one cutscene, I had to do The Sacrifice. I'll get into the details later, but...

What the...

Well. We found the Chimera Prologue. Hell, we found the Chimera, didn't we?

This is what I mean. Once again, I'm astounded by the game's turns. So, Prelude to War has... chapters?! That's never been a thing before. That explains why Chimera Prologue wasn't in my Codex. Maybe The New War is one of these chapters? No, no, for what a big deal The New War is, it must be its whole own system. It must be something as big as Duviri. It's got to be something.

None of the quests in this game have been big enough to warrant chapters. I'm guessing it's not that each "chapter" is just its own mission, no. Each chapter must be the size of a normal quest, right? Around 3-5 missions, cutscenes between a couple...

Just want to throw this in, I really like how Warframe just doesn't give a shit about throwing something weird at you without explanation. You get an objective "Search the lab." Search for what? Is it glowing? Am I supposed to use my scanner on it? Turn into the kid and blast it with my void beam? Walk up to it and press the button? Am I looking for a console to use, an item to pick up, damage to get curious about? I appreciate that Warframe seems to trust the player to figure it out. They trust the player to figure out that there's something to figure out. ...which might be a little optimistic on their part, because I did have to look up what to do on those Kuva siphon missions...

FFXIV's narrative is massive and non-stop. I have to wait four months for the next patch, but every patch always ends with a big fight, and then Y'shtola puzzling over some magical mystery, saying, "I'll let you know when I've figured something out." When the patch comes out, you talk to her in the same place, "Perfect timing! I just wanted to let you know I've figured something out." A new player would get uninterrupted flow and never know when one patch ends and another begins, unless they clue in on the little narrative trick. But, like I said, me, I've always played patches day one, and then I have months between patches.

If I played Warframe the same way... well, the way I'm playing Warframe now, is that I'm going at an absolute snail's pace, tiptoeing my way through the quests and spending a lot of time leveling things and grinding all the time.

I'm not explaining myself properly. Let me try again.

Warframe's quests released months or more apart, as did FFXIV's. But FFXIV's are meant to be continuous. Warframe's feel like they need to have space between them, because it's not a continuous narrative from one to the next. I'm not saying the story is disjointed or makes no sense; but imagine if it were FFXIV, and you do the quest where you fight Ifrit and all that, and then the next quest is to do the banquet and fight Titan, and then the next quest is to fight Garuda. Played back to back, it'd feel like there's vast gaps between them, both narratively and level-wise.

Maybe I just have a shit memory for lore? Warframe's quests always feel like they're talking about characters I should be extremely familiar with. Or, maybe I'm just used to less-well-written games that explicitly hand you reminders of these characters that haven't been mentioned in several minutes.

So, The Sacrifice is all about Ballas. I don't really know who Ballas is, but this quest has the feeling of "Finally, we're going to take on Ballas." But, I have heard about him. In The Second Dream, we see that Margulis was talking to Ballas. He might've been mentioned in Chains of Harrow? Or, no... I think it was The Silver Grove, where we had dialogue from I don't remember who, someone who was building Warframes for Ballas, I think, and regretted it because they were doing horrible things, so her last Warframe was Titania, to protect the forest. But where I know Ballas from the most is the song, "For Narmer." I don't know the context in-game, but you can't listen to "We All Lift Together" on Youtube without getting recommended the rest. There's a lyric that says "Praise the wise and mighty Ballas" in it. I thought they were saying "balance" at first, but then I thought, are they saying someone's name?

Ballas is a little like Ludwig from Bloodborne. If you've been paying attention, you have hints and snippets of this guy's role in the story. If you're like me, you take one little hint, dwell on it, obsess over it, and when the grand reveal finally comes, oh how grand it is! Ludwig, Ballas, Ketenramm... okay, maybe not Ketenramm.

Warframe has this unshakable feeling that there was some plot between quest beats that I missed. Same thing with just... the game. Ghoul Purge! Thermia Fractures! ...do I know what that's about? Was there some quest to introduce those, and now they're just in the game? It's like fighting Yojimbo or Typhon at the Gold Saucer when you've been playing FFXIV for three weeks and you're level 37. Am I supposed to know who this is? Oh well, gotta do my dailies! Or the... Rathuum? Where you fight... I had to look up her name... Kela De Thaym, on Sedna. The thing has this feeling like we're old rivals, her dialogue suggests she's finally going to get us for all the times we've foiled her before! But, lady, we just met you. Actually, we haven't even met you! We just showed up at this new node and you're going, "Finally we settle things!"

Don't misunderstand, I'm not complaining, it's just a very unique feeling about the game's whole quest style.

There's something else, too. There always is, you know me.

You ever get into a new series, books, movies, games, whatever? There's already three seasons but you're just finding out about it now, so you eat it all up and you're excited to learn there's going to be a new season next year. It comes and you watch it and... it just feels different? They got new writers, or the pacing is weird, something's just not clicking. And then next year another new season and, yeah it's just not as good. Or, music, people do this with music all the time, right?

When I first got into Warframe, Angels of the Zariman was the new patch. I didn't play it, obviously, don't know anything about it, but, I wonder if, when I get to that point, then everything from then on is going to feel like "new" Warframe, and just not have the same impact as the "original" stuff? I know me; I'm certain I'm going to be overly aware of the dividing line, and look for changes.

Also? In The Sacrifice, we learn that Margulis was sentenced to the Jade light. There's a new Warframe named Jade, and in fact a whole new quest called Jade Shadows. Clearly, this "Jade" thing has been long foreshadowed (lol) and must tie into the story deeply. I just thought it was a cool new Warframe they made because they didn't have one starting with J already. My playing these old quests with hints of knowledge of the future is an interseting perspective; anyone playing these things back when they were new wouldn't have this "Ah, so this is where Jade comes from!" moment... but at the same time, they get what I won't, they get a "Holy shit they're finally making a Jade Warframe?!" (Now that I think about it, that does kind of explain why this warranted a whole new Eximus type...)

Now, the actual quest.

What the FUCK just happened?

After dealing with Rell's psyche and releasing or destroying Harrow in the Void, or whatever we did, there's something odd in our personal quarters. When we go in, we suddenly find ourselves on Lua, where we find... the pod containing the actual Lotus? And then Ballas just... shows up, and takes her away? But, Ballas is one of the Orokin, the people that were annihilated by the Warframes in the Old War (I think) ... how long ago? A couple years? A couple thousand years? I think there were some lore snippets along the lines of, after the Orokin fell, the Grineer and Corpus took over the system. The Grineer used to be strong and competent, but cloning errors began to creep in generation after generation, so some time must have transpore since the Old War. We have extremely overgrown Orokin ruins on Deimos. And, Ballas's dialogue suggests he's been around for a bazillion years.

What happened? Why did Ballas wait for us to arrive to take the Lotus away? Did we have to lead him to her? We found magic voices from the Lotus asking to be freed... is this what she's always wanted? Or was that a memory from when she was like, imprisoned before her execution? The other lines do seem to be the latter, so. Who was it that Ballas turned into Umbra? Does it matter? Is it supposed to be someone we know? Why does Ballas have a long Bloodborne arm? Why is Ballas a blue Orokin and Isaah is just like a dude?

All rhetorical questions, as always, but this is what I'm asking for real. Am I forgetting something? Or am I meant to wonder what's going on, try to figure out the missing pieces? These cutscenes are as cinematic as anything in Final Fantasy, but the story is as Swiss-cheesed as any Soulsborne. Pieces are missing and I don't know what's going on, but it's being presented as if I already have the setup, as if I already know the context.

And, again. I love this style. It's completely fascinating and captivating. I'm not being critical, I know it sounds like I'm just complaining about being confused, but, that's not the case. I like being confused, because it's just the right level. There's plenty of story and characters, and enough lore and just... this vibe to suggest there's more. Ordis chirps every now and then, "Do you remember the Old War? Ordis seems to have... misplaced those memories." That's enough to make you go, whoa whoa whoa, what? ...and now whenever you play, you're looking for any tangential reference to this mysterious "Old War." Nora on the radio talks about Alad V's experiments, and now you know this mad scientist is out there something, up to something strange... It's not always a throughline narrative like FF, but you get these pieces to sort of color a vibe, so to speak. The world gradually fills in, and every now and then the dam breaks and it all spills forth, and you get all the water you could ever want, but... gosh, it's pretty messy sometimes.

Somehow, I've lucked into the ideal way to play this game, I think. At least, I'm having a lot of fun. I look up builds on websites, and they'll have powerful mods like Umbral Intensify. Umbral! I know about Primed, but Umbral!? Where do I get that! ...and then, suddenly, I have it, and it's like the stars have aligned and I've achieved enlightenment. At long last, this mythical relic has entered my hand! And, not gonna lie, it's kind of a profound moment. Now I know. Now I know where this important and mysterious item comes from!

There's so much to this game. Eidolon hunts, Kuva liches, sorties—these I've just recently unlocked, in terms of progression, and I could spend ages grinding them for the latest paths to strength. And there's more out there that I know very little or nothing about. I have "Arbitration" on my menu, but I can't select it until I clear the star chart, which includes a few things I can't do, like the Ropalolyst, and things I'm not up to yet, like Zariman, and things I can't even fathom a guess at, like the half-dozen remaining nodes on Deimos. I've vaguely heard about Icarnons? Something about a special mode for weapons? And recently I was watching a video explaining damage types, and he mentioned Archon shards? I have no idea what that is! But this man is shooting a bow that explodes ten times for 1,000,000 damage each hit... I can sometimes do a million damage with Baruuk's exalted weapon's charged heavy attack... And, there's probably more cool mods out there that are just super rare from an extremely specific source... I've heard of Adaptation and Growing Power, a couple other types of "Power," I think, so those must be from... who knows? C rotation in a rescue mission on Sedna? I know Vor shows up after round 1 survival on Mot in the Void, and he drops some unique mods, so maybe other places have some weird gimmick like that? I just don't know, and I probably won't without looking it up.

There is SO. MUCH. To this game. It's absurd. I've never played anything that comes close, even FFXIV, with as huge a game as it is, its content is much more samey—consistent tomestone systems, raid loot designs, dungeon length, whatnot. Nothing compares to Warframe, it's absolutely ridiculous.

And?

All this is free. Completely free. The only things you can only get with real cash money are cosmetic skins and syandanas and color palettes, I think. You can play the entire story and campaign for free, you can get every Warframe for free—getting enough storage to keep them all is a different story, though... Nora has some slots you can grind for sometimes but mostly you gotta pay—you can get all the Prime Warframes and weapons for free, there's no paid version of the season pass, no subscribers-only zones or Warframes or quests...

If I had found Warframe before FFXIV... I probably wouldn't have liked it. Original Warframe seemed... really different. I mean, current Warframe didn't even grab me until the third or fourth time around. But, I mean, what'm I playing now? I played Dawntrail, I logged in as soon as the servers went live and I sank deep into the story for a couple months. I took my time, exploring, grinding all my jobs first, and then as soon as the story was done—I went and did the post-game dungeons and raids :p But as soon as that was done, I just kinda... stopped playing. I haven't capped tomes once in Dawntrail; I used to do it religiously. I haven't even been getting all my Arcadion NM loot. I love FFXIV, it's my absolute baby, thinking about it, reminiscing about it, listening to it—my god, Soken's a genius—pondering the story, looking at fanart... but when it comes to pure gameplay? It's... dry. Combat is great—for an MMO. I find action RPGs like Warframe, Bloodborne, these kind of things a lot more fun, in terms of pure gameplay. And, look, every dungeon is formulaic, so many of the jobs play so similarly to others... Then you go to Warframe where, yes, missions are extremely formulaic, but you also have randomized maps, Stalker attacks, Eximus waves; and every Warframe plays so different from every other. Every weapon is different! Most games seem to just be a sliding scale of "This shoots fast but does less damage," "This shoots slow and does lots of damage," "This does lots of damage but is not accurate." Warframe has "This is an assault rifle," "This is an assault rifle. If you empty the magazine then it drains life from enemies nearby." "This is an assault rifle. It shoots missiles that explode," "This shoots grenades. You have to press this button to detonate them manually."

All right, folks. I'm tired of writing. To summarize: I love Warframe, this quest was great. Thanks for reading. Good night.

[brave-mushroomz]

clover dating hcs!!

not proofread, possibly ooc, headcanons, cringe

let's start off by me just stating that you, the reader, are not taking the place of gabriel. gabe still exists, the events of the game still happen, its just that ur a completely different person. just like any other self insert fic.

• you two probably met at the school library. either because you wanted to just hang out there, you wanting to just use the computer lab, or to just study. whatever the reason, you met clover on her library gaming setup.

• obviously, you're intrigued. you find this and consequently, her, very interesting. i mean, i dont think a regular pc setup at a school, either public or private, would have a mic, two monitors, and several games plus emulators installed.

• you strike up a conversation with her, becoming friends over your shared interests. things eventually pick up which ends up with her becoming ur gf. (i was too lazy to write a confession scenario or something. maybe in a future oneshot)

• expect to be teased a lot! its basically torture if you get flustered/embarrassed easily. it's like her interactions with eva, but the severity is slightly more intense.

• since clover is just naturally smart, you two could definitely have study dates. which are more so just you studying with her guidance once in a while if youre struggling .

• when you two play smash bros or any fighting game in general, im fairly certain that she'd be able to dominate you. in fact she's better than you at most games if you're just a casual player.

• you two probably play on a minecraft world, share a house in game, have several tamed wolves plus cats, and put your beds right next to each other. there's nothing more romantic than that.

• if you're into MMOs please play with her on Final Fourteenth Knights Online with her. She'd probably give you her old gear to boost you.

• also expect to stay up late with her watching anime, watching her play games, or just playing some games with her. she stays up later than you though unless you’re a night owl. maybe it’s why she seems so tired in the mornings. either that or she’s just not a morning person. so at least tell pookie that she needs to have a good night’s sleep.

art by Jaleupen on twitter. (Ripped straight off of the game trailer)

[understandableparadox]

bottom of the barrel isekai review #3

Todays review: Choose your heros carefully

two BLs in a row... i would make a gay joke at my own expense but i'll be real, gay trash is soooo much more palatable as a whole then straight trash and i'm confident enough in whatever nebulous concept i've adopted as my sexuality to say that with something resembling pride.

so what's on the chopping block? utterly psychotic middle aged men reincarnated in a world ripe for their exploitation? perhaps a swarm of hyper busty vixens parading about on the strings of someone who has no idea how to utilize them? a magic system based on some mmo where its way to clear the author was bullied in or vaguely believed a certain class should be the strongest?

SUPRISIE! WE ARENT EVEN LOOKING AT TRASH TODAY YOU UTTER HEATHENS, WE ARE LOOKING AT SOMETHING VAGUELY COOL, I FUCKING TRICKED YOU, WE AREN'T AT THE DUMPSTERS WE ARE AT THE FARMERS MARKET AND WERE HITTING THE ANTIQUE STORE, GENDER AMBIGUOUS PARENTAL FIGURE WANTS TO PICK UP SOME VINTAGE COOKWARE TO SPICE UP THE GODDAMN KITCHEN

Ramblings aside, my established format usually stats that we have a short opening related to the title then a not so brief summation of the story, but this time the summation of the story will in fact be nothing more than a summation, as I genuinely think you should go ahead and read through this title.

our titular hero shane has been bullied by his friend to play test his beta for a gacha game

a game in which you use magical stones to revive ancient heroes and command them to destroy a collection of horrors from some demonic realm.

shane awakens after a long day of Gameing and finds that he is now stuck within this world, a magical divine sheep provides him after some prodding some game functions, along with a single stone to summon his first hero. from there, the trio set off to solve the darkness of the world and find a way to return back to whence they came. solveing the other mysteries and oddities the world holds for them.

and that's it, you ain't gonna learn a single thing more about this story from me, get the fuck out of my house...

well i'm not done yet and a little bit of this will be spoilers.

ok so why do I like this? the action is bad, the art isn't anything to write home about, the armor and weapon design makes me want to curl up in a small hole, bury me gentle please...

Well as i think i've said prior, A lot of things can be hidden if you have enough meat on the bones of it, to the point where i can ignore the guts of it being playdough and the skin being saran wrap you splashed paint over.

the story itself is overwhelmingly interested in how a world that functions through mmo and gacha logic would work. what happens when you can summon someone who is truly the pinnacle of humanity through shear luck? what about the common rabble that are only lucky enough to be able to afford one pull and end up getting some D grade shitterton, Bob the Spackle artist, special skill Crack Spackle.

what about the fact that you can just tell them to attack things and you can take a nap in the middle of a low grade dungeon? the concept of auto play but introduced to the idea of the world at large.

now lets pull out form smaller game concepts, the heroes are the only ones that can defeat the shadows, and only the summoner can control the heros. meaning that the heroes can only be as heroic as the summoner. a brave man shackled by those who even the gods have abandoned.

what about the towns in games that dont have the right vendors? the ones that cannot give the player things they want, the areas without bazaars or weapon shops or summoning areas or shop functions, what happens to them if they have no draw to keep players in them?

these are the questions that the manhwa loves to explore and I love exploring them with it. now, on to our normal questions.

"Is the underlying story, barring any other concept, good?"

Yes, its both a compelling romance with both the main character and the main love interest being good fits for each other with interesting flaws and qualities. they are not perfect and that makes them fun to follow. even without the romance the story has enough aspects for you to follow if you want to ignore the twinks prancing around.

 "on a sliding scale of min to max, how much is the author using this to explore fetish" 

0, big goose egg. unless the author has a fetish for being held in their sleep then yeah i guess thats a thing.

"How many story crutches does the author use to explore the story" 

I cant exactly see any noteworthy crutches, even the normal "game aspects" thing is something they have to specifically work towards within the story.

 "Is the author attempting to use the story as a way to explain why he is not weird."

they are trying to say that gachas are bad and I for one believe they should say it fucking louder for the rest of the world to hear.

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

I am now going to be taking isekai requests to review on top of the ones I have set aside for myself to review. to submit an isekai, please send it to me as an ask with the site where I can read through it.

[zwei-rhunen]

hi game, what the heck? seriously, what the heck

venting because i'd like to roughly shake the shoulders of whichever game designer is responsible for this >:( i also know with the time i spent venting, i could have already gritted my teeth and just gotten to where-ever it is i'm trying to get to but it's 1. a vent and 2. not the first time this has happened and doing this again has really annoyed me now lol

so like, i need to get from Ala Ghiri to Coldhearth.

"look," you say. "there is a convenient passage right there!"

no, there's not. :)

no, there is not. :))

i google to see if I am just blind, because all i see around me are hills that are too steep for me to climb (I can't fly yet, and this quest is to unlock one of the aether currents.)

the wiki says:

"According to legend, this wind-carved corridor was used by the Destroyer as a sheath for one of his blades. For the local folk, the passage serves as a convenient shortcut when traveling from Coldhearth to Ala Ghiri."

FROM Coldhearth TO Ala Ghiri.

So this is one-way only - which makes sense, looking at the map.

but like.

why though.

Cus right now, it seems like the only way for me as a player to get there is AAAALL THE WAY AROUND? run a SUPER out-of-the-way path that's literally half the map, to get to a point that's within spitting distance?

"it's so you can explore map on foot and take in the sights-"

i've already done that. I did that during the MSQ. there is no need to do it again. I saw all the hills and rocks and Garlean wrecks. They were cool. Please let me continue with the storytelling.

2. "it's for world building purposes-"

Poor excuse- you can have world building without being a detriment to the gameplay to the IRL player.

You dont even have to change anything!! just add a little sparkly spot next to a rock face (JUST like Matoya's Cave) that the player can interact with (after they reach a point in the MSQ, just like earlier in StB when you first arrive at Rhalgr's Reach) that says something like, "you find an illusory entrance that leads into a tunnel/find a secret ladder leading onto the hills, it appears to have been made by the Resistance for ease of travel into the other towns. Cross over?"

3. "chocobo porter?"

none exists in that town :( would be a GREAT idea to implement though!!!!!!!!

(yeah like HEY! porters DO exist, there should be more of them! call them resistance fighter porters or something, if having a permanent one is lore-breaking!! (before freeing it from Garleans - "this seems to be a chocobo porter but the trainer and his bird appear to be away." and then after getting past that point in the MSQ - "hi we're back etc etc port you to places you've been before etc etc")

(Edit: actually this holds great potential for an extra flavor in worldbuilding too. It could be a Garlean-operated porter, and if you try to use it before an MSQ point, it could be used as another narratory glimpse into how the typical footsoldier treats the common civilian. "...why would YOU need to travel? Do you have a permit of leave? Then get back to work, before I report you to your superior."

Or "Authorized Military personnel only, sorry."

Or "stay back! don't even THINK about stealing a bird, savage."

Or "hm? Commoners arent allowed to use the porters... ...it's even worse out there, you know."

OR EVEN for inserting some fun and mild tongue-in-cheek subterfuge: "psst, hey, you're with the Resistance, arent you? Me as well. activity around here has really ramped up, so no one will even notice you on one of our birds ... Our chocobos can etc etc Port you where you've been etc etc"

4. "friend/ask for help/it's an mmo?"

no one is around (else i probably would've /emoted at someone and asked them to do me a quick favor and toss me up there if they had the means), friends are offline b/c i'm a night owl, i could (and have) ask for help in novice network but if it's midnight, i'll be honest - not looking to socialize at that time of the night, esp to ping anyone for something so inconsequential. like sometimes i just want to get my quests done and it's annoying to have to ask someone to drop what they're doing so they can travel all the way to me just to... pick me up and plop me down on a rock-face 5 inches away lol.

5. "just click on the green arrow on the right hand side on the map, that leads to the adjoining area, and if there's an aetheryte nearby you can just teleport to that location and run back into this map, which is still you travelling on foot but it dramatically shortens your travel."

I usually did this for places in Heavensward and I'm sad to say that this doesn't work here, bc that's a location (Porta Praetoria) I haven't unlocked yet. :') WHICH SUCKS BC THE AETHERYTE IS RIGHT THEREEEEE

I COULD JUST-

AND THEN JUST-

but noooo. i gotta run all the way around LIKE-

?????????????????

i really enjoy this game. and i want to love this game, but pleaseeee

its so tiring and irritating watching my poor little meow-meow taking the most dumbass ways around to get to places that shouldn't be an issue this late into an expansion LMFAO - like, i am 6 quests away from end of Stormblood MSQ.

I promise squenix, adding some conveniences won't break the lore/world-building/diminish the value of character exploration.

pleaseeeee.

[syrips]

tw: sa

huge trigger warning about irl stuff

so i dont want to write this at all but ive noticed mabinogi has been streaming recently by some loved streamers (which is legit/great, because mabi can be a wholesome experience); but with the potential influx of new players and people new to the community, i just want to throw a warning about a player you may see or hear about if you learn more about this community

tw: sa, disgusting behavior

mabinogi has a very huge predatory-player problem. most mmos have their ugly sides but i just want to point out that with discord, a lot of dangerous people have taken advantage of mabinogi's loose reporting rules with abusive/predatory players. as in, nexon staff going 'it happened on discord so we cant do much about it' and discord staff going 'well, we cant help you recover/use deleted messages'. i can only speak of my own experiences, but one of these players became a discord community admin (Mabinogi Alliance) who abused his power with his position in the server

i cant speak much for other dangerous players but PLEASE AVOID this person that goes by multiple names (usually to 'start over' or avoid accountability):

IXReaper

Beorc

Vandst

Satan

Joshua

if he changes his name, let me know. i dont know where he is or what he does anymore, but he preys on anyone who is 'kind enough to give him a chance, to show he is 'just misunderstood''. he knows what he is doing, and he uses every abusive method in the book until he finds those that you react to. positive, mixed, and negative reactions. he is dangerous to YOU, to others, and himself

please stay safe, and make sure if things feel off or too sudden, TAKE SNAPSHOTS, SCREENCAPS, and DOCUMENT things. move yourself away from the environment/situation if you can, pretend to disconnect/afk just to avoid him. make excuses. become 'boring' and less responsive to him. he relies on: gaslighting, lovebombing, grooming, desensitization, coercion, extortion, guilt tripping, victim blaming.

he is NOT nice. he is NOT misunderstood. he KNOWS what he is doing. he spent an entire year abusing me. i confronted him 2 years later, and he admitted he was possessive with me. it is not him 'into BDSM.' he is NOT a 'dom'. he is not 'unfamiliar' with it. he does not care what AGE, minor or adult, you are. he does not care how strong or smart you are. he will go after you all because of your kindness, vulnerability, and accessibility. and he will blame you. he will say you abused him. he will shame you for things he should be ashamed of. he will repeat the cycle with you if you forgive him; or, he will find someone else to repeat the cycle with, once he finds he can no longer exploit you. he will change his name, try to wipe his crimes clean, and start anew, as 'just a lonely, outcast, misunderstood man.'

please stay safe. there are safer communities and people out there, but this person (as well as anyone else who behaves this way) is not one of them.

[tobyfoxmademeascaly]

Who is their favorite Alliance leader? Who do they get along with the best out of them?

Are there any raid storylines (Ivalice, Coil of Bahamut, Werlyt, etc.) you consider to be canon for your WoL? Which ones don't you consider canon?

1. At the beginning of the game? Merlwyb, in a Luigi Wins By Doing Nothing way since Limsa is the only one of the 3 major city states that hasn’t kicked its Ala Mhigan population to the curb or kicked them out entirely.

… And even that might just be because there aren’t that many of them, since Limsa is on an island on the other side of the region.

Later on however, that title would likely go to Raubahn. What with the whole “being Ala Mhigans outside their homelands that rose to unlikely fame by a combination of skill and happenstance, became close friends with a short politician, and got betrayed by Ilberd” thing.

2. I consider all of them canon except the Mhach raids (this one’s negotiable but it just doesnt feel all that relevant), the ivalice raids (i dont know anything about ff tactics) and the nier raids (im not ready to open the can of worms that is drakenier lore). Oh, and the great hunt, since thats another crossover event.

Everything else remains firmly canon with only maybe minor tweaks, since The Critically Acclaimed MMO Final Fantasy XIV is overall a very narratively cohesive game.

(Sometimes to a bit of a detriment… please square make the binding coils easier to do at the point where they’re actually unlocked ITS SO ESSENTIAL TO THE TWINS’ CHARACTER ARCS AND THE RESOLUTION OF 1.0’S STORY.)

[hipster--kitten]

Got tagged by @davetheovercastmoose for this and I'm definitely happy to answer :D

Last song I listened to: MUST DIE! - LOL OK (Habstrakt remix), it was the last song I played while listening to music during and after my shower :3 I recently got a new speaker with excellent bass so I've been listening to lots of really bassy tunes when I've been showering lately (moreso than before, i mean)

Currently watching: Honestly nothing right now? At least in terms of TV shows, I have been watching YouTube still of my usual channels though (most notably Tom Scott, Extra Credits/History, and Half as Interesting). The last show I've watched (that I'm actually not entirely finished yet) is Hamtaro, my gf showed it to me and we've so far gone through most of the episodes, its become a bit of a comfort show for me now c:

Currently reading: uhhh nothing honestly, I have a fairly short webnovel I've been needing to finish but haven't read in like a year >.> and I wanna get around to reading the Guild Wars novels since I got them for my gf and she quite enjoyed them, and I'm also already very interested in the stories/lore for reasons mentioned below xD

Current obsession: Guild Wars Guild Wars Guild Wars Guild Wars!!!! It has absolutely been my obsession for over a year now, I genuinely can't get enough of it and I could talk about it all day xD Guild Wars 2 is seriously an amazing game and an amazing MMO with a really interesting and well written world/universe and story, it also has tons of well done cannonical queer character including at least 3 main characters (along with a fairly prominent agender character in the newest expansion). Just, the game has brought me so much joy, I've loved making OCs out of my game characters, playing through the story with my gf, absorbing every last bit of lore I can, and going through the awesome achievements and side-stories. The last things I'll say about it are: the community is extremely kind and helpful, the game even incentivizes helping one another, and the base game is free so I strongly recommend all my followers check it out, even if you don't generally like MMOs because it's doesn't have a lot of the typical MMO trappings and can be played entirely solo (it also doesn't have any subscriptions and is instead buy-to-play, unlike most MMOs). If any of my mutuals do get into the game please let me know as I'd love to add you as a friend in game!

Thanks for tagging me in this Dave, I dont know if I've ever actually done one of these on tumblr before so it was a lot of fun to do and get tagged in :D I'll tag @sdrowie, @spacetai, @electricplants, @colorful-starry-sky, and anyone else who may see this and feel up for it, no pressure at all if you don't want to though :)

[transmandrake]

Aaaurrghh its already so annoying people calling fantasy life like animal crossing its noooot

Im already nervous about how little of, yknow, The Lifes the trailer emphasised over... town making? I heard someone say that was a part of the shitty mobile game which. I don't know what to think about that.

Like oh man if you buy this thinking its animal crossing and its a like, singleplayer mini mmo with quests and combat and classes like an mmo... If anything its animal crossing whose more like fantasy life with the crafting from resources around the place...

But also mmmm. If people want more animal crossing and buy it thinking its that and it maybe isnt ridiculously niche anymore and they actually like it so they Make More... mmmm...

But also I'm so afraid of them toning back aspects to make it more animal crossingy... like they didnt show off The Lifes really!! Its called Fantasy Life because its about the Lifes!!!

Anyway if you've never seen it the first game has sickass animated cutscenes that imo really give you a good idea of what the like, actual point of it is about, how all the different Lifes affect each other like well how the carpenter uses the woodcutters wood like yea thats literally how it is its all interconnected!!!

I really hope its just Fantasy Life 2... please please please dont try to radically change it to appeal to a larger audience instead of the originals then it sells like shit cuz both sides are alienated pleaasse...

As much as I loathe the mere existence of the mobile game at least if they've already added this as a core concept (Like it sounds fun, you could already decorate your houses in the first so its not like its New) then like cool, Fantasy Life has townbuilding. That feels organic enough as an addition if its done in its own way. I hope theres still other towns cuz i loooved the different towns. It looked like there is? So i hope its like, you have your own hub island you can do what you want with and then you travel to other prebuilt towns. That would be my ideal.

Also I hope the plot is just as dumb and wholesome as the first. But maybe a bit better integrated into the gameplay and maybe not so dense.

Also maybe make the crafting lives a bit more different but man. Oh man. I don't care if it's the same game again with no improvements or additions. Its just fundamentally directly connected to my brain cells of Things I Enjoy.