#plus once we add in the gameplay that takes a While for it to get relatively okay to play

[asterroses]

its kinda funny seeing ppl say inquisition had better writing . i fear we did not play the same inquisition

[pipsqueakparker]

Blitz's Horse Ranch - Sims 4

I did it, I made a lovely little ranch for Blitz, Stolas, Via, & Loona. Here's some pics. (Horse count is around 30 last I checked, btw)

Exterior Shots: Front, Front Porch, Back - I'm not a great builder, it looks big but all of the rooms are somehow so small? IDK, but we ran with what we built. (also most intricate roofing job of my life i swear) Landscaping was done with Stolas in mind, I think he'd keep it all looking very pretty... I'll do the back at some point, plus probably put a little garden out there. We also have a telescope on the second story deck and a nectar making station for Blitz on the back porch lmao

Interior:

Foyer/Kitchen/Dining Room - I tried to pull in little pieces where I could, apart from all the horses, but also the polaroids & photos on the wall. (I intend to play with them, so all the blank frames are there to fill during gameplay.)

Informal Family Room - I spent like twenty minutes choosing a couch... this is about where I lost my commitment to using as much of the Horse Ranch pack as I could... I still think I used a whole lot, though.

Formal Living Room/Bar Room - IDK what this is, but I know Stolas got to design it (there's also a lovely bar back that for some reason just wasn't showing up while I was taking these screenshots?? It's not just that little bar on that side of the room I swear)

Guest Room (For when Millie & Moxxie come over) - Very simple, because for the most part this is just an extra room where I'll probably keep skill items.

Primary Bedroom & En Suite - Blitz & Stolas - I tried to really lean into a story here, I love coming up with a story as I'm building, and this story... well, I think it's clear to see that there were many battles when they were moving in together. Stolas won when it came to picking out furniture, but he obviously caved for some of Blitz's design choices... namely the monstrosity of a rug. He hates it because its' ugly, but he loves it because Blitz loved it enough to offer sexual favors for a month if they could buy it. (An empty bribe, it's not like that wasn't going to happen anyway.)

Loona's Room & En Suite - You can probably tell that I started getting bored once I got upstairs... I've been doing this for about eight hours, I'll definitely go back in and add more to the upstairs, but this is what we have for now for Loona. (Claw marks are there bc of nightmares, just so you have that angsty backstory I came up with.)

Via's Room - I feel bad because its so small, I'm already planning to renovate it, but this is what I got for now.

Stolas's Reading Room - This was the first room I decorated and it probably shows, but honestly I loved making him a little library/reading nook here. He also has a cow plant, and once it's seasonally appropriate in-game, he'll get a little garden out back.

I also made them and started playing (Blitz rescued his first horse, Sunbeam). This is the only screen shot I remembered to take, and Loona started walking away as I took it - rude - but they were all just sat together in the family room watching a movie it was so sweet!

I did make Stolas & Via spellcasters, and Loona a werewolf. (I'll have to throw my Angel & Molly into this save as their neighbors.)

[paleopinesofficial]

Paleo Pines Gameplay FAQs

WARNING: Spoilers under the cut

Will (X) dino/animal be added to Paleo Pines? We would LOVE to add more dinosaurs into Paleo Pines- in May 2024, we added Sarcosuchus! We just want to be able to do them justice, we'd love the opportunity!

How do I get more Poppin flavours? If you've only unlocked Crunchy, you can unlock the next one by either feeding a Styracosaurus a Crunchy or you can talk to Mari after completing the taming tutorial and entering/exiting the Plaza. After that, the next one comes after you enter Dapplewood for the first time and then Pippin will have a quest every day/few days or so.

Are there any future content plans for the game? There are no current plans for more content. At the moment, we're bug fixing but we will add some commonly requested features too! If the game does well, we'd LOVE to make more!

Making money is hard, what are some good ways to do so? Doing quests from the town board is a good way to make money if you don't need the rewards!

Later on, growing higher star crops can sell for a lot and can become consistent - especially berry bushes/trees as they don't require watering/constant care!

How do I get turnips? Sometimes they can be rewards from quests, but Granny will sell the seeds if your friendship is high enough.

How do I get strawberries? Corlan can sell them and Granny will sell the seeds if your friendship is high enough.

How do I get forest wood? In Dapplewood; - Regular wood logs: - Path near stegos - Woods near treeceratops - Area around Agami's

Forest wood logs: - Theri area - Anky area - Troodon pond when drained - Log at the megalo area

Single forest wood: - Centro area - Stego area - Back of Deinocheirus area - Near treeceratops - Megalo area - Troodon pond (drained)

Can I cancel quests/requests? For now, no.

Can I cut down trees on my ranch? Marlo is the only person who can cut down mature trees (since they're important to the people of Paleo Pines) but we never quite managed to get that into the game. It's on our big list of would-be-nice-to-add features.

How do I blur distant objects/make text larger/add high contrasting text/adjust field of view? These are all available in the settings menu!

How do I split stacks? Look in the help menu- there are a lot of tips on sprinting/stack splitting and other control-specific instructions! (For example, on Xbox hold RT and press Aand the stack will split, hold RT and the 'up' on the dpad will bring across one thing at a time)

What do small dinos do? Our small dinos are tenders and discoverers!

For their discovery abilities, simply use your flute to ask them to follow you and go out in the wild- they will find wild collectables and signal to you that they've found something! (Plus all dinos love going for walks)

Tender abilities are unlockable by talking to a special NPC (Avery) in Pebble Plaza in Jurassos! Once you do quests for him, he'll give you some tools to help your smaller friends farm!

How do you get a sleeping patch to make a dreamstone? It's the other way around - sleeping patches are made by upgrading dreamstones, which you find hidden around the wilds. Marlo has an option to downgrade a sleeping patch back into a dreamstone in case you change your mind about which type you wanted, but most players won't need to use that.

How do I get a dino to trust me enough to be a helper? There are multiple ways to raise the happiness of a dino enough so they'll be a helper. It will take a few days before it is enough.

Make sure to feed the dino a treat they like Feed the dino their favourite poppin Take the dino on a walk to the zone they came from Pet their nose, Play their friend song, Keep their pen clean, Make sure their pen is the biome it likes, Try to match their social type- Make sure the dino has enough penmates (different kinds of dinos can share a pen as long as they like the same food!) Make sure they have enough food!

Remember: Some Dinos can take a while to become your helper- as long as you're consistent and checking on them, you'll be on the right track! But not all dinos will become helpers in 2-3 days! How do I change the biome of a pen? Either by changing 2 dreamstones to a biome or by placing at least 3 of a decor type inside the pen!

How do I know what kind of Biome my dino wants? If you use your journal on them, usually it will say what kind they want!

How do I take my dino for a walk? Yoohoo the dino with your flute, then ask it to follow you and then walk to wherever you want to go! You can have three dinosaurs follow you at any one time (or 4 if you count one as your steed).

What does social type mean? It's the amount of Dinos in one pen. Loner type dinos only want to be by themselves. Pack dinos like to be in a pen with 2 to 3 other dinos. Herd dinos want lots of friends, preferably 3+!

I have lots of herd dinos in a pen but it says the pen is too small! You can check the journal for a dinos minimum preferred space, each dino wants that amount of space so if you have 3 dinos who want 20 minimum space, then your pen should be 60 minimum. You can open your journal by the gate to see how big your pen is!

What kind of Poppin/Treat does X dino like? Check out paleo.gg! It looks great and has a lot of information on each dino, including their favourite flavours of treat/Poppin!

How many dreamstones are there? There are enough dreamstones for one of each of every dino plus a handful more- in exact, there will be 47 Dreamstones. You can swap large dreamstones for small dreamstones (and vice versa) from Archeo Pelago in Ariacotta Canyon

Where are the tablet fragments?

A map of all the fragments can be found on our discord.

What's the last Veridian Dino?

It is a Parasaurolophus

'I can't find Owynn's missing pages'

There is one in the bushes near the rope bridge

There is one on the hill where Owynn and Mari’s fight happened

For the third, you have to befriend a coelophysis and bring your new friend to Mari!

Paleo.GG- Paleo Pines Guide

Sisquinanamook/Skudde's Pen Planner

Sisquinanamook's Database: covers multiple sets of information + happiness calculator

Sisquinanamook's Tips & Tricks game guide doc: the how-tos and little details!

Skudde: dino colors and patterns

Skudde/Jynn's infographic - dino and dreamstone location map

Skuddle: Crop Chart Guide

Jynn’s video- Paleo Pines - Beginner's Tips, Tricks, and Guide TIMESTAMPS: Changed spawns, going over befriending 2:35, Gaining Trust 4:18 (there is an echo here for about a minute but the audio is clear enough), Quests 7:40, 8:30 Crops + Crop Rotation, Journal 10:00, Moving Dinos to the Wild 10:30

MelissaVerse’s video BEGINNING TOP TIPS FOR PALEO PINES TIMESTAMPS: Dino Skills 2:00, Farming 2:28, 3:45 Journal incl. All their stuff about dino and pen types and crops etc, Inventory 7:00, Exploring and collecting 8:00, Flute & befriending 10:49, Still says the dino needs a pen 13:29, Decorating 13:47

[blazehedgehog]

Recently I’ve been playing, and loving, Penny’s Big Breakaway and it’s made me realize how stiff official Sonic games have felt since Sonic Heroes. It feels fantastic to chain moves together as Penny. While I don’t want a Sonic game to play exactly like Penny’s Big Breakaway I do want to enter a similar flow state while playing. Sonic Team seems allergic to making any gameplay/movement options that allows for flow… do you have any idea why?

That's the 65-million-dollar question, isn't it.

Several times over the years I've pushed back on the idea when people say Sonic "can't work in 3D." Of course Sonic could work in 3D, it just takes the right team to build it. The concepts and principals of a Sonic game are not exclusive to 2D. You can build a game on those ideals in 3D and it will work just fine.

If you go back and watch my "How Do We Fix Sonic?" video, I also put forth the idea that a lot of 3D Sonic games are the way they are because Sonic Team does not trust the player. To some degree, rightfully so: there's a growing pile of one-level fangame demos where some college kid tries to do 3D Sonic "right" and while a lot of them are okay, I think it makes for an easy case to see why official Sonic games have so much scripting in them.

When you're going that fast, and you're that acrobatic, it becomes very easy to make some incredibly dumb mistakes. It's not that nobody can play that game, it's that a game like that might struggle to achieve mass market appeal. Sonic is, first and foremost, a pick-up-and-play game. I've been thinking of that term a lot lately since the release of Ring Racers, and it basically means a game you don't have to learn. A game where you turn it on and know everything about it instinctively.

The entire pitch for Sonic was a game you could play with just one button. Easy to start playing, difficult to master over the long term. It's a tough balancing act. Especially when you're aiming for a game that a 10 year old can play.

When I was 10 years old, I couldn't even stay on the road in Super Mario Kart. That's what we're working with here.

So they make Sonic into this guided experience with heavy scripting where they can insulate the player from making dangerous mistakes. Lots of spectacle and minimal friction.

Now you add in the pressure of deadlines and budgets. A fangame like Sonic GT can spend five years as an alpha still figuring out its level design, tweaking its mechanics, before finally releasing a four or five level "game." Whereas an official Sonic game probably has to make a pitch, get to alpha, nail all of its controls and mechanics down relatively early. Probably within the first year of development at least, if not within a period of months.

Then they have to build a game for those mechanics. And, with being so scripted and directed, they can't deviate much. Once they're locked in, they don't have a lot of wiggle room to redefine what the game plays like.

That even goes for researching better ways to do things. I don't think these guys were given much of a chance to stop and think. Sonic Adventure 1 came out in October 1998 in Japan, that team moved to America to work on the September 1999 United States release, Sonic Adventure 2 was announced probably not even six months later, it came out within 18 months of its announcement just in time for that team to crank on the super rushed Gamecube port, which segued into an equally rushed port of the original Sonic Adventure, then their first multiplatform release on a third-party engine just a year or two later, followed by a sequel less than two years later, and another sequel less than two years after that...

Running and running and running and never stopping... and, well, I guess this is just what Sonic in 3D plays like now, right? That's the precedent. Sales are relying on not alienating people who are used to the way these games play.

Plus, it also depends on who within Sega is involved. I tend to agree that we shouldn't pin decisions all on one guy anymore for how many developers are actually involved in a game (200+ for Sonic Frontiers), but it's hard to deny that in the Morio Kishimoto era of 3D Sonic games, they've made a dedicated to effort to lock Sonic down and script his movements more than ever. Starting in Sonic Colors all the way up to the most recent Sega of Japan games, player movement is more restricted and automatically controlled than any other Sonic games to come before it.

Even Sonic Frontiers, for all of its open zone gameplay, once you touch a rail or one of those floating platforms, it tries to restrict and control you as much as humanly possible. Helicopter parent game design. "Do it my way exactly, or stop playing the game."

And I think all of this just collides with itself and makes a big ugly mess. I think it's telling Sonic Unleashed is such a cult favorite given its the closest thing we've had to a decent reboot of mechanics, even though it's still trapped in a lot of that scripted spectacle design.

[androappsgame]

Buy Rummy Game Source Code

Rummy is one of those fast-moving and widely known card games across the world that has drawn gamers' attention with its interactive gameplay and competitive nature. This trend is expected to keep growing in the near future. Buying a ready-made Rummy game source code will no doubt be one of the wisest decisions for those game developers who want to create their Rummy game. In this process, you save up on time and energy and invest more effort in modifying the game whenever needed. In this article, we have discussed for the developers why purchasing Rummy game source code is one of the best investments and observed several details that you should pay attention to while selecting the appropriate source code.

Why Buy Rummy Game Source Code? It takes a great deal of time and resources since exhaustive programming knowledge is required in developing the game. Especially for most developers who work within tight deadlines or on a small budget, developing the game yourself is a big burden. This is where buying the source code saves the day. You would already have a working foundation to which you can then customize and adjust once you have bought the well-developed source code of the Rummy game.

AndroApps Technology Unity game source code for sale includes but is not limited to complete Rummy game templates. Our Rummy source code is built upon the most powerful game engine, Unity, to assure smooth gaming across various platforms.

The Basics of Rummy Game Before digging deeper into buying a source code, it is important to understand the basics of Rummy. Rummy games are a family of matching-card games whose aims all revolve around being the first one to "meld." A meld can be defined as a combination of sets or runs. Sets are three or four cards of similar rank, while runs are three or more cards in sequential order in the same suit. The winner is the player who attains making the melds first.

The simplicity of Rummy added to strategic-based gameplays has attracted a wide variety of audiences. This game, however, is considered a multiplayer game—it adds just one more plus to all the excitement—players get to play in real time.

Key Features of Our Rummy Game Source Code When you invest in AndroApps Technology Rummy Game Source Code, you get much more than a skeleton. Our Unity game development company makes sure that each source code we sell is strong and feature-rich, representative of a whole with the most minimal tweaking to launch. The features you can expect here include:

Multiplayer Capability: The foremost feature of the Rummy game is that this card game is to be played with more than one player, and our source code will support real-time multiplayer. This means one can fire up a game that will have its players compete with other players online.

Cross-platform compatibility: Because it is designed and developed using Unity, source code will easily be ported out and executed on many other platforms, such as iOS, Android, and Web. This will become vital for developers that want to target various types of devices without having to build separate versions of the game.

UI/UX customization: We will be providing the source code wherein you will get the basic structure in the gameplay. Now it's your time to change the color, design, and animation according to your vision regarding your Rummy game.

Secured Payment Gateway: The source code opens up monetization opportunities with an integrated secured payment gateway for the developers. You can sell in-app purchases to easily introduce premium features or add-ons that enhance gameplay.

In-game Chat: Multiplayer gaming is all about being social. For this very reason, we allow our source code to enable in-game chats whereby players can communicate with one another during an ongoing match.

Advanced AI opponents: Most of them do not like to play against real players, so we have integrated AI-run players within the gameplay. Advanced bots have been a great challenge for all those who either like to play solo or want to practice ahead of time before joining the multiplayer mode of any game.

Case Study: Successfully Launched Rummy Game by Using Our Source Code Now, let me take up the case study as an example. Purchasing our source code for the Rummy game was equal to launching a game successfully. One of our clients—a mid-sized game development studio with years of experience in their credence—approached us to build on their custom Rummy game targeting the Indian market, where it has its greatest appeal, but due to time and budget limitations.

Instead of developing the game from scratch, they had purchased our Unity game source code for Rummy. Thus, with the help of our ready solution, they managed to reduce their development time by half. Given the source code, it was well-structured, and resources could be put into adding features like the option for a local language, branded UI, and specific multiplayer features for Indian players.

After a few months of customization, they released the game on both Android and iOS platforms. The game achieved more than 100,000 downloads in six months with a good user engagement ratio. They monetized by in-app purchases and premium memberships, to which they were successful in pulling in a continuous revenue stream. This success story shows how buying game source code can drastically lower both time to market and development costs without sacrificing quality.

What to Check When Purchasing Rummy Game Source Code While looking around for the right source code of a Rummy game to purchase, here are some key things to check:

Code Quality: The code that you buy must be clean, well-documented, and written according to leading practices. Badly written code could raise many problems during the customization process and most likely cause bugs or problems when it comes to performance in the future.

Feature Set: Find the source code with the set of features you want. Some of the more rudimentary templates are cheaper but will have to be massaged a lot more by you in order to get to the point where your game is launch-ready. It is always good to buy source code from reputable companies like AndroApps Technology, as after-sales support is assured. In such a case, you are guaranteed that at whatever instance, while you are undertaking the customization or deployment, and you come across issues, you seek expert support to handle such problems.

Scalability: Your game may need to scale up according to the addition of new features or performance improvement in increasing player count. For that, source code has to be scalable for accommodating those updates.

Why AndroApps Technology for Rummy Game Source Code? We have been developing games at AndroApps Technology for more than a decade. So, we know what problems a game developer faces and tried to address those concerns while developing the source code for Rummy. We have made the scalability of the game at the time of code development so that you can start small and expand with the growth of players.

We also support developers who purchase our source code with the required support to successfully launch your game. With a background in Unity game development and experience in developing quality games, be assured that your Rummy game source code is one base that will help bring your vision to life.

Contact Us :

🌐: Buy Apps & Games Source Code

📞: 8591925638 / 9969627262

✉️: Info@androappstech.com

Office📍: ASAG Androapps Technology Pvt. Ltd. 502, Kukreja Concord, Near Meghraj Restaurant, Sector-11, CBD Belapur, Navi Mumbai - 400614

[gamestop-compendium]

Cat Frenzy (FUN UNIT, 2012)

:3

ah, cat frenzy. takes me back, this one does. originally sold on the dsi shop for 200 Nintendo Points (roughly 2 USD), Cat Frenzy is a match puzzle game where you slide rows or columns of cats to match 3 of them and clear them from the board. easy! you can only slide them left, right, or down, and you can push the cats out of the playboard. the stock button adds more cats to the board to work with, and once you run out of cats the game ends. there are also bonus cats! cats in cans that add 10 to the stock, cats with 2x multipliers that double the points you get from that match/chain, and cats with fish that clear every cat of that type on the board. nice way to make the game more interesting ...or at least, that's how it is in quick play. in mission mode you have to clear all the cats it tells you to, increasing in difficulty over time. most of the missions consist of "get a chain of [x] with [y] amount of moves" with different twists, such as rocks on the board or certain patterns of cats you have to work with

i played SO MUCH cat frenzy when i was a tadpole. like SOOOOO MUCH. it still holds up fairly well, but i will admit that it gets kinda boring after a while. its largely just the same type of thing over and over again. quick play is a fun diversion especially for car rides with nothing else to do, but not really for big road trips of the same nature. good tool for getting a baby frog addicted to puzzle games though! plus it has a save/load feature in quick play, which i think is pretty cool

the mission mode is pretty solid. i feel like id be better at the missions if it wasnt currently 2:25 AM as im writing this line. the first 8 serve as a tutorial for the game as a whole, and the other 40 are actual missions. unfortunately it is 2 in the morning. i cant get past mission 13 as of writing this, but honestly i sorta stopped trying. still a good mode! my brain is just drifting in and out of focus. whoops

the music is an odd beast. cat frenzy has a total of 2 songs -- one for the title screen and one for the gameplay -- and while theyre good, they can very easily get a little grating. theyre real catchy though! ive had the title screen song especially inscribed into my neurons for about a decade ...this is normally where id link to the ost or something, but from what ive seen nobodys ripped the music for this game yet. go figure. ill see what i can do about grabbing the 2 songs from this thing, but i havent done it before, so it might take a little while. stay tuned! (or dont, we advocate for free will and autonomy on this page)

the overall sound design, however, is somewhat lacking and bizarre. there are sounds for things -- moving cats, hitting buttons, etc. -- but i cant say that they make much sense. each type of cat meows differently when you tap it to move it! theres a drum hit when you match cats!! you get cute fanfare when you hit a new level in quick play/clear a mission!!! those are fun!!!!! but the buttons make weird and baffling sounds, most notably:

the stock button is a spring sound

the hint and retry buttons are squeaky toy sounds (same for the menu button in mission mode)

hitting the "to the main menu" button in mission select just makes a cartoon bonk-honk sound (zonk? whonk? idk what it would count as. very likely youve heard it before at some point in your life though)

the menu button in quick play makes a sound thats a mix between paper shuffling and cicada wings (paper cicada?)

the main menu buttons make a weird kinda cork squeak-esque sound i cant describe and, most importantly,

hitting all the other buttons makes a sound i can only possibly transcribe as a swift and soft (squeedle-eek!) noise its confusing. some of these are only tangentially cat related, but most are just completely unrelated to anything in the game. whats the deal here????? did they just buy a buncha stock sounds for this game? so strange to me. regardless, the sound design just isnt all that good. these sounds are funny at first but eventually even the meows become incessant and droning. the best way to get the idea of the kind of experience it is would be to play it yourself. there's very little gameplay of this game online, and what we do have is either mostly silenced in lieu of an admittedly pretty cool song that nonetheless appears nowhere in the game or has about the same video quality as a stick of celery

i will note -- i dont fucking know WHAT that image from the dsi shop page is. i completely wiped it from my memory over the years, but looking back that pink cat is probably why i even bought it. the official page and trailer also claimed these cats are "stuck in a well" and need rescuing, but the board is very clearly a house and these cats are clearly not in any sort of distress. what gives? the cats in-game are more than cute enough to be marketable to 2012 audiences! tell me why you did this, fun unit! i need to know!

overall rating: 5.3 - It's Alright. cat frenzy is a cute little diversion. not the best, mind you, but it's good. it's serviceable. with some kinda-repetitive music and gameplay that starts getting stale in the same timeframe as an apple oxidizing once its cut, youre still better off playing it for the more boring stretches of time you encounter in your life. unless you have a kid who likes cats! it's damn good fun for anyone under 12, but slowly loses its luster every year afterwards. Do Play.

[senstless]

Splinterlands BATTLE MAGE SECRETS Featuring Holy Protection in Silver League

Featuring Bronze League Summoner and Monsters in Action!

I am back at it to share another battle mage secret post, highlighting bronze seminar and monsters battling and out for victory in the silver realm. This week's challenge I thought was fairly interesting and both teams had very similar lineups with only a few minor differences. Let's take a look to see how things went

CHALLENGE RULES

RULESET: Holy Protection

Description: All units gain the Divine Shield ability which reduces the damage of the first attack received to 0. Divine Shield will be re-applied when a unit is Resurrected. Blast damage will remove Divine Shield.

Reasons Why I like it Holy protection is very interesting because it smells the first attack that hits every monster. This can be a very quick small attack, or it can be a massive blow delivered by a powerful monster on a roll. This could be enough to turn a tide and of your team the chance to pull ahead, for your opponent to do the same. The way I look at these matches is that you want the maximum number of strikes per round you can have. This to me means I'm going to have to have as many double strike and black monsters as possible.

The Matchup - Where Rules Sets, Splinters and Mana Collide

The Rule Sets

Watch the Match Here

MANA: 46

Ruleset: Holy Protection: All monsters gain the divine shield ability which reduces the damage of the first attack received to 0.

SPLINTERS: Fire, Life, Dragon

Initial Rule Set and Mana Gameplay Thoughts

Rulesets Only the one rule set. I think that only having holy protection will mean it will be a match leverage more on double strike, blast, and magic cards possible since they're always a guaranteed hit except for a few months or something.

Mana 46 mana is fairly substantial and not likely to cause any issues while setting your dream lineup. Was that much money you can pick pretty much any card you want and multiple big man of cards while filling out the rest of your team to bounce it out and provide those additional benefits like healing, repair or triage

Splinters

Only three splinters. I think that traditionally water or Earth would have been excellent choices but leaving it down to fire, life, and dragon I think it will probably be a life or dragon focused battle. Dragon has some excellent cards that would be available to combine with life and you could have a big team of double strike cards to release

Summoner GRANDMASTER RATHE Play life and I wanted Grand Master Rather the addition of void armor. I felt that it was really important to keep my health as high as possible and have some extra protection against magic attacks if at all possible

First Position URIEL THE PURIFIER

Big hitter, flying, six armor and 10 health are both massive any monster, when you add in void armor to the mix it has a substantial amount of protection before we knocked out while giving you some decent speed and flying to create a mess. Only downside is that it only attacks every other round but this is mostly tank that you're going to try to use to soak up damage

Second Position TIME MAGE I always hate playing against time mates when I don't. It's high speed plus slowing of all enemy monsters makes it a force to be reckoned with and can make one entire team attack before your team gets chance.

Third Position ADELADE BRIGHTWING I really wanted a monster with repair. Having a monster in first position that has 6 Plus armor means that the repair should be very useful. Not to mention that the summer is providing each monster some armor so repair should be used fairly frequently and every monster should have some additional protection

Fourth Position VENARI CRYSTALSMITH If I'm going to heal the armor, I might as well heal the health behind it. I have seen it more than once where you're able to heal the health and the armor and start back at whole health and push out another round

Fifth Position PELACOR ARBALEST This is where the primary attack is coming from. It's only doing to do two attacks since it's not getting boosted but it's a double strike attack which will help back out the holy protection and hopefully armor quickly.

Sixth Position PRISMOLOGIST As mentioned before I felt that blast would play a huge role since it can take away that first holy protection. It's doing decent damage and itself is moderately protected in the rear. I'm hoping it sticks around a few rounds and takes off a lot of blast damage on my opponents

Opponent Lineup & Match Play

Summoner GRANDMASTER RATHE

URIEL THE PURFIER Great minds think alike and it appears we're both playing the same game. It'll be interesting to see what there's a lineup looks like

DJINN RENOVA so choice, it's going to add one health to everyone on your team giving them a slight boost while providing some strong magic attack

SPIRIT HOARDER Providing that valuable triage to the back line, this will take away a lot of my benefit for blast damage as it'll be negated out at each turn Spirit order takes

ADELADE BRIGHTWING Just like me they're playing for the armor repair, and it's a very solid choice

PRISMOLOGIST Again, great minds think alike and this is a soft choice. Delivering blast damage, taking away health on my second card, and providing some rear support

DOCTOR BLIGHT The card I usually hate seeing the most as I feel like it is a 100% chance to apply affliction. There's no 50/50 here every time I face doctor plate my monsters get a function on the first turn.

Round 1

Both these teams are fairly close before the rounds start and I'm not sure which direction things are going to go. Clearly in my opinion Time mage has huge impact as my entire team basically attacks before they get a chance to. I'm able to get through their armor and take away some health before the tides turn and they attack me. The biggest output of round one was that their prismologist missed its tech.

Round 2

Is around two starts teams are fairly even still with not a lot of extra damage, but things quickly take a turn. It works out perfectly that I eliminate all of their armor right before my Uriel the Purifier delivers its attack and knocks it out with a nine melee attack damage. This highlights importance of Time mage as we found it it could have been 50/50 and who attacked first. As the round continues I'm able to do significant damage to Djinn Renova, before the scriptures flipped and they start attacking me. Once again I get armor repair and their prizmologist misses again. I feel like I've been getting pretty lucky

Round 3

I start around 3:00 and things look pretty heavily favored in my direction. Before long I secure another knockout quickly followed by a second leaving them only three monsters before they start their attack round. Around ends with the third Miss for my enemy's prismologists giving me a substantial edge in his category

Round 4

Ground Force starts but this is clearly one-sided at this point and the writings on the wall. Is the round gets going I secure another knockout as well as all of my attacks are hitting. While you still have two more monsters to deal with around 5:00 the match is over

Round 5

It's quick work in round 5:00 to secure a victory. The combination of a double strike plus blast and a speed differential has been crushing to my enemy.

Thoughts - and Chances to Win Again

It looks like the calculators say I have an 80% chance to repeat victory if we run it again. I think that's a fairly good number and I will be happy to have an 80% advantage on every match I played. Well it's true I may occasionally lose due to unfortunate RNG I think that overall my strategy was very well-rounded and proved out to be very successful

~~@senstless

[vivifrage]

Mm actually thinking of Herrah being badass enough to stare down Destiny's paracausal forces like, I think that also goes into the themes of each story, from what I have seen?

Like, Destiny, it's in the name. There is something you are there to do. You are the Traveler's chosen, Eramis calls you a pawn, etc.

Hollow Knight, in contrast, is about denying destiny/stagnancy.

Both involve like, Light/Dark and stasis/change, in different ways, including their format. Yes they're both video games but they're such different genres, plus Destiny is much longer-running with two games plus it being live service. You could probably make a goof about Hollow Knight being relatively stagnant right now with all its DLC done and Silksong still being worked on, while Destiny is live service and all.

Okay themes though and I'm putting it under a cut just in case.

Okay so like, Destiny. Traveler's chosen, pawn, the Gardener and Winnower's game, etc etc etc. Hell, even in the gameplay, from what I have seen you are largely doing as someone else asks. You do your missions to someone else's instructions. Forsaken is a bit of a break and that was "the Guardian is causing problems with their vengeance quest."

Hollow Knight, yes, the Knight is called back to Hallownest to end things, but if you want to do it right, you have to be what people do not expect. Heck, to do it wrong you still have to change things up.

A huge part of Hollow Knight is the necessity for change. Vespa's ghost mentions it. The Dreamers, at least partially, admit that for things to get better, they have to be taken out because otherwise things will remain as is and "as is" is Bad. Both the Pale King and the Radiance's antagonism comes from wanting things to stay the same - but the difference is they think their idea of the same is better, thus the other/the unbelievers must be destroyed.

Even in going and fighting and freeing the various ghosts, you have to enact change to improve things. The ghosts are stuck as is, unable to move on - many to the point they don't realize they're dead. Often, ending the fight includes them changing their minds/behaviors, or at least explaining it.

The "better" endings are ones where something changes. It's not just the vessels changing, it's the Radiance being ended once and for all, in a way the Knight was not expected to when the Pale King made the Vessels. They're an active player in their choice to kill the Radiance, not a passive, well, vessel for her to be poured into.

It is still a video game, so in a way it is doing as others tell because you have to find things out somehow. But there is so much less direction in Hollow Knight. You get some instructions but by and large you have to wander around and figure things out yourself. There's not really much in the way of explicit progress markers except in the Hunter's Journal and maybe Seer tracking your Essence counts. Destiny, meanwhile, gives you instructions for strikes, bounties, patrols, the quests, pretty much everything, both in terms of outright progress markers like the bounty counts and NPCs giving orders. You're doing your job.

Interestingly, Hollow Knight also splits stasis/action pretty evenly between Light and Dark. Both the Radiance and the Pale King had their kingdoms flourish, but both tried to make their rule eternal when that is just not how nature works. The Void is thought to be pure emptiness/nothingness/stillness, but it acts on its own, thrashing all about, the Knight has to take an active role in the plot as mentioned above, and it seems like it also had a kingdom. Meanwhile, in Destiny, Light seems more attuned to growth while Dark is more attuned to stillness, with less in between. The game seems to be heading more towards a need for balance between them, but they're still at odds. In Hollow Knight, the strongest spells incorporate both Light and Dark, but in Destiny, while we may use both, it's not melded together in the same way.

Grimm also adds an interesting new dimension with his comment on shadow and fire dancing together so prettily. In Hollow Knight, Light and Dark are not the only choices. There's other aspects out there. However, I don't think Destiny has introduced anything beyond them, at least not as major players.

Hollow Knight's story is, presuming Silksong doesn't get as much into Light and Dark, pretty complete. Which, reflecting on it and looking forwards in Destiny, makes me curious how the latter will go. I think we're starting to see that balance, but in what form will it take? Will we be freed from the orders and games and turn the game's very name on its head?

[guynamedultimax]

What if Kirby had a traditional fighting game?

Listen, I know I should’ve done more “FNF fighting game characters” but i doubt anyone cared for that, and even then I lost a bit of interest, so if you actually cared sorry about that, you can still come up with whatever you want for the characters I didn’t talk about!

That being said, I think all Kirby fans here know Kirby Fighters 2. Personally speaking most of it was just the same as Kirby Fighters Deluxe BUT there were five playable Dream Friends. FIVE. Priority to the Copy Abilities a bit too high, isn’t it HAL? Sometimes it feels a bit barebones if you ask me. So I’m here to discuss what would a non-platform Kirby fighting game be.

THE GAMEPLAY

It’s the same as any basic fighting game, there isn’t really that much that the Kirby franchise can offer to make the genre a bit more varied, and that’s mostly due to the fact that Kirby makes friends wherever he goes and combat is pretty much straightforward in these platforming games, the crazy stuff comes from learning specific moves with each copy ability/character in the games and that’s also true for this game.

THE PLOT

I have quite a few ideas for how this can go:

-It’s a “what if” re-telling of Kirby Star Allies where Hyness’ ritual (somehow) also causes space-time rifts across the entire universe to be generated, pulling in Kirby villains from previous games but also allies, which would ALSO explain Dream Friends in the game’s canon a bit more properly.

-It happens in an AU. Plot would basically be Kirby Battle Royale’s but instead of shooting a loadshit of Kirbies onto Kirby, Dedede would just call upon all of their friends to fight for that cake before things escalate and Dedede loses control of the tournament to greater evils, forcing him to work with Kirby to stop the threat, be it old or new.

-Another AU idea but this time it’s original/based on Milky Way Wishes. Galactic NOVA appears every thousand years above Pop Star’s skies, and everyone tries to fight for the right to get the wish. Villain wouldn’t necessarily be ONLY Marx though, most of the Kirby villains could easily win against him if they get to NOVA and get their wish granted. Which means yes, all plots happen at once and Kirby has to deal with everyone at once.

-The least interesting idea: it’s Kirby Fighters 2′s plot but without tag team duos and with all Kirbies replaced with the roster.

THE ROSTER

Now we’re about to have some fun.

RETURNING CHARACTERS: The Dream Friends (and Kirby, of course)

-First up, all Dream Friends are coming back. You don’t even need to change their movesets that much, just add/tweak things, but just for funsies (and for a specific reason too) we’ll also give them specific copy abilities or more than one to categorize them.

-Kirby is the specific reason. He has the same moveset as his Smash Bros incarnation, although he incorporates more copy abilities (and also super powerful stuff like the Star Rod that he usually uses in endgame fights) in it now due to being a traditional fighting game. And yes, he still has his inhale. Using it will have the inhale be replaced by another move in-game, the closest one to a “neutral special” in the opponent’s arsenal. His copy ability is therefore, Smash Bros. And since the game has multiple super moves, we can make his gimmicks from the Kumazaki games the super moves: his level 1 would be a random Super Copy Ability from Return to Dreamland (cutscene is random everytime but damage is always the same), his level 2 would be using the Robobot Armor to stomp foes around, ending with a giant ground pound/fist to the ground and his level 3 is Hypernova Kirby due to the inhale being one of his most unique properties.

-Meta Knight and Dedede will also have heavy Smash influences but they’ll also use techniques from most of their boss fights, such as Meta Knight splitting himself in four clones temporarily for an attack or Dedede actually pulling out an axe instead of his hammer for some attacks based on his Triple Deluxe incarnation. Their copy abilities would formally be Sword and Hammer but with heavy Smash Bros inspiration. Meta can also call in for the Meta Knights to help him in one of his unique super moves. They’d all be there except for Sailor Dee and Captain Vul (one’s an alternate costume and the other is never seen outside of dialogue text).

-Bandana Waddle Dee’s moveset incorporates both Spear and Parasol, but due to the Spear being his most used tool he’ll be categorized with that.

-Marx is the first character with Unique as its own copy ability due to his arsenal being entirely based on his boss fight. Inhaling Unique characters doesn’t always allow Kirby to get copy abilities but when it happens he usually has their most basic move replacing the inhale. Gooey is in the same situation, but i have no idea what would Kirby get from him as an ability since he’s technically player 2 in the Dark Matter trilogy’s first 2 games. Rick, Kine and Coo would technically be categorized as Unique only because they have Fire, Water and Wind in their moveset. You could say they’d be stance characters while Marx is a zoner and Gooey a rushdown character.

-Dark Meta Knight is categorized as Mirror, and Adeleine (with Ribbon as an assist of course) is Artist. Daroach would be Animal, which is missing since its debut in Squeak Squad, as far as I can remember, but he naturally still retains his moveset of calling the Squeaks to help him.

-It’s pretty easy to categorize Magolor as ESP, and Taranza as Spider, while I have no idea what would Susie’s ability be even. Spark? She is mostly around in the Robobot Armor to be fair. The Three Mage-Sisters would be treated equally to the Animal Friends

THE NEWCOMERS

-NAGO, CHUCHU & PITCH: The other set of Animal Friends. I theorize a moveset revolving around the Cleaning ability like in Star Allies would be easy to make, although it can also incorporate moves from other abilities that have been in Dream Land 3.

-CHEF KAWASAKI: I think it’s safe to say this one is pretty easy to do just like the returning Dream Friends. He has a unique moveset in comparison to Chef Kirby that also has him use Kirby’s Final Smash from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.

-LOLOLO & LALALA: Aside from pushing boxes and Gordos they can be the Ice Climbers of the game, and most importantly one of their super moves could have them fuse into their original form in the anime to reference that further.

-SHADOW KIRBY: A clone (in terms of moveset) for Kirby that lacks the inhale ability and has more attacks based on his appearances in Amazing Mirror (and also on Kirby’s unique ability to split in four in these games) and the Kirby Fighters spinoffs. Simple as it is.

-THE MIDBOSSES: They all play the same as their fights too, so doing a paragraph for each of them would be a bit redundant. I chose to add minibosses in because most of them are pretty iconic among Kirby enemies and some of them are also technically friends of Kirby’s. I picked Bonkers (whose coconut throwing and some special moves could make him different enough from Dedede if you ask me), Mr. Frosty (also because we don’t have an Ice-based character in the game), Buggzy (which I can see being the ultimate grappler), King Doo (because we don’t actually have a Waddle Doo in the roster and he’s technically not only their king but also the most unique of them) and Grand Wheelie (look, I like Wheel as an ability ok? it’s like playing as Sonic in a Kirby game)

-KNUCKLE JOE: Taking stuff from both his Star Allies moveset and his Assist Trophy from Ultimate PLUS a few references to the anime and you have the ultimate Shoto character in the Kirby franchise. Ryu mains, this is the character for you.

-GIM: Look, my three favorite abilities are Yo-Yo, Wheel and ESP, in no particular order, so I HAD to include him and the Grand Wheelie. Magolor covers for ESP enough. This lil fella looks more unique than most of the generic Kirby enemies and even among the copy ability ones he’s always been a bit of an oddball due to being a robot. The trickshots you can do with this copy ability make Gim perfect to camp, so he’d be a pretty good zoner as well.

-TAC: He’s been a Helper in Super Star where he also has an unique moveset. Expanding on it and on Tac being generally a copy ability thief could mean more copy abilities can be implemented in a moveset, probably even more than what Kirby can do. Also his design just screams potential to me.

DLC FIGHTERS

WAVE 1: Spinoff Dream Friends

Cuz these guys have been done dirty by Star Allies’ devs. Elline would be the other Artist character in the game and call for Claycia’s assistance in specific attacks. Prince Fluff would play mostly just like Kirby himself did in Kirby’s Epic Yarn and implement specific transformations in some attacks, ending with the tank one from the end of that game. Then we have Gryll. If you know how to make a Tetris/Puyo Puyo based character in a fighting game then good for you, I absolutely don’t know how. What I KNOW however is that she has a float like Peach’s in Smash Bros and I-No’s in Guilty Gear.

WAVE 2: Dream Villains

These guys would all play exactly like their boss fights. Hyness and Sectonia would remain mostly unchanged while Haltmann in terms of moveset is the same as Susie, just without every non-Robobot move that she has.

WAVE 3: Clash of Blades

THAT’S RIGHT, IT’S ALL ANIME SWORDFIGHTERS. They all pull from their boss fights, but Morpho Knight is gonna be a bit more unique compared to Galacta, Dark Meta and Meta Knight, having in the swordfighter equivalent of Akuma’s Raging Demon. Meanwhile, Dark Matter Swordsman and Galacta Knight are completely faithful to the source material, but they’d probably be a bit nerfed due to Galacta’s universe-breaking powers. (you can bet that if we get the remaining legendary heroes who sealed Void Termina in future games they’d be their own separate Wave 5 DLC pack)

WAVE 4: Revival of Old Faces

Nightmare and Drawcia are back and they’re here to stay! Their movesets don’t really need that much changes. Void however is an entirely different beast. He’d be a mix of Kirby, both Zero incarnations and Dark Matter. His design wouldn’t just be giant orb that switches between Kirby and Dark Matter faces, he’d be Kirby-sized and with legs and stubby lil arms like the pink puffball. And you can bet your ass he’d be broken as fuck.

SKINS

If a character’s appearance changed across the series’ history (like Marx Soul, Girl Blob Gooey, Shoppe Magolor, Mecha Knight, Dark Taranza/Taranza in the Super Kirby Clash games, Masked/Shadow Dedede, Anime!Knuckle Joe, Parallel/Pres. Parallel Susie, EX versions and so on) they’d just be an alternate skin/palette swap for the specific character. Multiple characters of the same species with little changes (like a normal Waddle Dee or Sailor Dee, or literally all Kirby colors including Keeby) are the same. I’m also debating on how Dark Mind would be a skin for Nightmare or if there’d be a skin inspired by him for the Dark Matter Swordsman. Zero and Zero Two would probably be turned into palette swaps/outfits for Void (imagine a white Kirby cosplaying as Zero Two that’d be so cute lol).

ATTACKING ASSIST CHARACTERS

Characters who appear in other characters’ attacks. Like the aforementioned Squeaks, Meta Knights and Claycia. Normal Dark Matter would appear in DM Swordsman’s attacks in some capacity outside of the eye laser and the Gordo Throw would return from Dedede’s previous Smash incarnations alongside the Waddle Dee Throw from Brawl. And naturally Magolor can call in the Lor Starcutter for one of his super moves. I am actually considering giving Tac the ability to throw random items/enemies at opponents, with the Bomber being one of these. It’d be a very RNG attack with the Bomber being the best outcome, blowing on the opponent’s face.

HELPERS

All characters in the game can be called on for an Helper attack, that can help you in some form against the opponent by either damaging or tampering with the opponent or by having you get healed or with some buff. Outside from the playable roster enemies that give you copy abilities would also be Helpers, but the specific ones I’m not so sure on.

BOSSES

Characters you can fight in Arcade mode, in Story mode or in a specific Boss mode. There’d also be a Ganon’s Fury (Hyrule Warriors) inspired mode where you’d play as the bosses pitting them against each other. I specifically picked Dyna Blade, Whispy Woods, Landia, Star Dream, Kracko, Great Edge, Pyribbit, Ice Dragon, Fire Lion, Masher, Grand Mam, Metal General, Kibble Blade and Pon & Con.

STAGES

There’d be quite a lot of stages, but I haven’t thought out specific ones except for Green Greens, Butter Building, a Ripple Star stage, one for Dedede’s castle with stage cameos by Tiff, Tuff and Escargoon from the anime and every final boss’s fighting arena.

THE MUSIC

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is gonna be nothing compared to this one. We’re getting all the important music from all pre-Kumazaki games, all music from Kumazaki games and spinoffs, and online arrangements with focus on orchestral (Desolo Zantas), metal (GaMetal, of course) and EDM (Acid Notation, Qumu and various others), including stuff like Itoki Hana’s vocal arrangements. We’re going all out on this one.

Aaaaand that’s it. Thanks for coming to my TED talk. Stay hydrated.

[tarantulas4davey]

Youtuber!Ralbert Au - Part Two

once again inspired by the wonderful and fabulous @we-are-inevitable and you can find her original concept here

part one to this series can be found here

and my valentine’s concept can be found here

i finally did it guys are you proud ✨

LETS DO THIS THING

now that we’re here, i realized i forgot some vital information last time (aka i hadn’t come up with it yet but ranting to jorja helped me solidify the world thank you mother goose)

so race’s online handle is radioactive racer, and albert’s is, as we know, chaotic red

both of these come from when they were in middle school and had just made vine accounts

albert’s entire account was just videos of race doing dumb shit while he cackled in the background

race’s was just memes

but because this was middle school, race looks WILDLY DIFFERENT compared to now

he was in his full dyed hair and guyliner phase, and before he grew 8 inches the summer before freshman year, so he’s fairly unrecognizable in the vines of him (plus,,,, they were dumb 13 year olds, only their friends saw their vines)

but there’s just,,,, an account full of very cringe videos of 7th grade racetrack higgins on the internet that nobody’s connected to them yet, so we’ll do something with that eventually

now back to your regularly scheduled programming ✨

so race and ‘red’ announced they were dating about a month ago, and it’s getting increasingly difficult to make sure al’s face isn’t visible in any clips

also both of their channels are gaining more traction, and race is getting recognized more in public (which he adores, i might add)

but it means that eventually someone’s going to make the connection between the redhead race is walking around with and chaotic red

so despite how anxious it makes him

how genuinely terrified he is that he won’t live up to expectations and everyone will be disappointed

he decides to post a Q&A video to his channel and reveal his identity

it starts with him adjusting the focus onto the couch in their living room, before his stocky frame, black sabbath shirt, jewelry and freckles walk on screen, and he sits down

if anybody had any idea what to expect, the crooked grin, lip ring and custom snapback probably weren’t terribly high on their list

he lets out a breath and his grin gets a bit wider, before he waves into the camera “hey guys! so,,,, this is probably a bit out of left field, but i wanted to properly introduce myself. i’m albert, nice to meet you, but please, call me red.”

his eyes flicker to behind the camera and he rolls his eyes slightly at race’s chuckling that barely audible to the audience

“don’t you dare laugh at me, i’ve never done this before!”

“you’re doing great babe, you’re just a massive dork.”

“stuff it, blondie.”

al can’t really hold back his laughter, not completely, so he huffs a bit before turning back to the camera and properly answer questions to “let the people get to know me”

the dynamic from race’s original video revealing their roommates is flipped

the audience finally getting to see that albert’s grin pulls up slightly farther on the left side than the right

or that he fidgets with his lip ring when he’s thinking through an answer

or the utterly s o f t look he has in his eyes when he looks at racer, one that seriously doesn’t match his mischievous expression or abrasive voice

he answers questions with more ease than he expected, excited to finally be sharing, but once it comes time to hit upload he freezes

“race i don’t think i can do this”

“of course you can sweetheart, everyone already loves you”

“but what if they’re disappointed? what if i’m not cool or interesting or attractive enough? what if-“

“al i k n o w you did not just look at me with t h a t face and claim to not be ‘attractive enough’. attractive enough for who, red? people that are gonna say mean shit anyway?”

al ends up hitting the upload button and promptly hitting his forehead on his desk in anguish cause holy shit what’d i just do

all his worrying ends up being for nothing because everyone absolutely adores him and won’t stop saying how p r o u d they are and how pretty he is

“i told you, dumbass. you’re the prettiest person i know.”

“stop it, you sap.”

he starts using face cams for his (and race’s, when he’s on the chaotic red channel) gameplays and his focused face is s o c u t e

race finally doesn’t have to be sneaky or beg him to take pictures anymore

race is also incredibly excited to not have to aggressively edit all his videos to make sure you can’t see al’s face/hear his name in any of them

race “accidentally” leaves the clip of them slow dancing in the kitchen to ed sheeran in the vlog right after the face reveal

when al next films a sit down video, race is behind the camera, and they’re going through old pictures of albert from childhood (most of them have race in them too, he might as well be there)

this is when the fans discover albert blushes when he’s embarrassed

this video is also how everyone connects the old chaotic red vine account to them and race is m o r t i f i e d

they make it to a picture of them just after they got together, race leaning into albert’s side loosing his shit at something jack is doing off camera, but in-the-picture albert is too busy looking completely head over heels for race to notice whatever they’re doing over there

al just grins and looks up at race with the same stupid mushy expression

“that’s when i knew i was really in love with you”

you can basically hear race m e l t behind the camera and he just tackles al into a hug on the couch and it’s SUCH a cute couple-y moment

“yeah, and you were calling m e the sap earlier. s u r e, whatever helps you sleep at night, albie.”

“it ain’t sappy if it’s true, tonio.”

and editing-al cuts it off, but race had untucked his face from al’s neck and dragged him into a kiss

when he finally got back to filming, al may or may not have had to use cover up on his neck to make it less conspicuous, but that’s neither here nor there to be honest

also this isn’t a necessary addition but every once in awhile race or al will forget to cover up marks on their necks before filming and get absolutely ROASTED on twitter

i have a thousand more ideas for this au so i promise i will be making more at some point but here’s ✨this✨ for now

lmk if you want me to add you to a tag list or whatever cause i’m down with that

ok fín

[grailfinders]

Fate and Phantasms #114: Minamoto-no-Raikou

Today on Fate and Phantasms, we're making the leading mystic slayer of Japan, the leader of Lava Swimmers Anonymous, and Arjuna's half-sister, Minamoto-no-Raikou! Mama Raikou certainly has a unique personality, but thankfully we don't have to build that! We're here to make her fighting style more than anything, and that means we need to be able to mix around any weapon in the game, maybe slap some lightning into it, and then hand it off to one of our retainers and let them have fun.

Check out Mama Raikou's build breakdown below the cut, or her character sheet over here!

Next episode: Our heroes face their greatest challenge yet: making a motorcycle in D&D! Will they ride eternal, shiny and gold? Or will they spin out? Also, will Onigashima ever get added to the rerun shop?? Find out next time on Fate and Phantasms!

Race and Background

Remember how I said we were keeping things simple with Xuanzang and her being human? Yeah, that's not going to work here. Raikou's part got and part demon, so there's a lot of ways you can go about this one. If any sort of lightning smite existed I might have gone with Zariel Tiefling, but the Fallen Aasimar fits her best flavor-wise, if not in gameplay. Thanks to Tasha's, we can customize your bonuses to better fit your classes, giving you +1 Wisdom and +2 Strength, as well as some Darkvision, Celestial Resistance against necrotic and radiant damage, Healing Hands to pass out a delicious, nutricious snack once per long rest, and the Light cantrip from your Light Bearer feature. Your sword isn't electric yet, but at least you can make it look the part.

Mystic slaying is certainly the most interesting part of your resume, but you had to pad out the day-by-day stuff by being a Soldier (well, Samurai, but tomato tamamo), giving you Athletics and Intimidation proficiencies. You ever see Raikou mad? Exactly.

Ability Scores

Standard warning: we generally use the standard array for character creation; roll if you want, but keep multiclassing in mind. Make Strength your highest score-you're a berserker, this shouldn't be new to you by now. Your Dexterity should be next, you're as good with a bow as you are with a sword, and calling your outfit light armor is generous. Third is Constitution because making a berserker with mental abilities higher than physical ones just feels wrong. Unfortunately we have to make your Wisdom a little higher than I'd like for multiclassing, but you are good at stalking people, so I guess that works out. Your Charisma is pretty low, you have a forceful personality but not a lot of self-awareness, but we're dumping Intelligence. I'm not calling Mama Raikou dumb, but I doubt her kids are coming to her with their maths homework.

Class Levels

1. Ranger 1: I was tempted to go paladin to get electric weapons, but since none of the smites deal lightning damage we might as well focus on the nitty gritty of demon hunting. As a ranger, you get proficiency with Strength and Dexterity saves, as well as three ranger skills-grab Animal Handling for a riding skill, and Perception and Stealth to help stalk Gudao.

You also gain a Favored Enemy in Fiends, giving you advantage on Survival and Intelligence checks involving demonic hordes. I know missing out on that Favored Foe is rough, but we'll have more flavorful ways to use your concentration later.

As a Deft Explorer, you're Canny when it comes to Intimidation, letting you use someone's middle name to double up your proficiency bonus.

2. Ranger 2: Your Archery skills give you +2 to ranged weapon attack rolls. You can also start casting Spells this level using your Wisdom. While we're waiting on your lightning weapons you can use Hunter's Mark to deal more damage and stalk people more easily. You can also use Zephyr Strike for another way to deal damage and gain a bit more speed.

3. Fighter 1: You don't just have some skill with weapons though, you have a lot of skill. That's why you have a second fighting style. Great Weapon Fighting will make your attacks with your longsword a bit more consistent, especially useful when you're sticking a bunch of extra damage on your attacks.

You also get a Second Wind, so you can pack yourself a bento as well, and you can channel every mother ever to unleash your Necrotic Shroud once per long rest. After you transform, creatures have to make a Charisma save (DC 8 plus your proficiency plus your charisma modifier) or be frightened of you until the end of your next turn. Also, once per turn while your transformation is up you can deal extra necrotic damage to a creature you hit with an attack. Again, not lightning, but still scary.

4. Ranger 3: Third level rangers join a conclave, and the Monster Slayer conclave will.. help you slay monsters. It's right on the tin, come on. Your Hunter's Sense will let you know the immunities, resistances, and vulnerabilities of a creature you target as an action. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your wisdom modifier, so... once. You can also use your bonus action to activate your Slayer’s Prey, adding another bit of damage to a targeted creature the first time you hit it each turn. It doesn’t use your concentration, and lasts until your next rest or until you target someone else.

Your Primeval Awareness will help you sense demonic presences within a mile of you for each minute per spell level you burn. Also aberrations, celestials, dragons, elementals, fey, and undead presences, but you’re a demon hunter.

You can use your sword as a lightning rod to Absorb Elements, reducing your own damage to add even more damage to your next strike. This will also make swimming through lava slightly less of a bad idea, if you’re interested. As part of your conclave you can also cast Protection from Evil and Good to make your fight against Shuten even more one sided.

5. Ranger 4: Use your first Ability Score Increase to round up your Strength and Constitution to hit people even harder and take more hits.

6. Ranger 5: Fifth level rangers get an Extra Attack each action, and you can cast second level spells too. You’re not Kiyohime, but feel free to help her out with your Zone of Truth, courtesy of your conclave. You can also Locate Object this level. That hair clip you gave Gudako? Not just a thoughtful gift.

7. Ranger 6: Speaking of stalking the Gudas, your Favored Enemy improvement helps you stalk Humans and Tieflings. You also become a Roving ranger, giving you an extra bit of speed, including a climbing and swimming speed.

8. Ranger 7: Your Supernatural Defense gives you an extra boost to your saves and grapple escapes against creatures you’re targeting with slayer’s prey. You can also cast Protection from Poison this level. You don’t have this explicitly in canon, but you hang out with Serenity a lot and you’re not dead yet, so you’ve got something going for you.

9. Ranger 8: Grab the Warcaster feat with this ASI to empower your concentration spells and let you cast them even with both hands full. You’re also Fleet of Foot to help you move through difficult terrain unharmed.

10. Ranger 9: Ninth level rangers get third level spell slots. You get Magic Circle as a freebie from your conclave, but you also get Elemental Weapon to finally add some lightning to your weapon attacks. Now that we have a lore-correct thing to spend most of your concentration on, we’ll also drop hunter’s mark for a Lightning Arrow. This is also the only spell you have that cares about your wisdom score, though you can still do plenty of damage with the normal attack.

11. Fighter 2: Now that your signature weapons are ready, it’s time we worked on your Noble Phantasm. Before that, though, you get an Action Surge- a free extra action you can tack on your turn once per short rest.

12. Fighter 3: You’ve got to be able to summon your retainers to beat down demons, and that means we’re heading back to the Echo Knight subclass for Manifest Echo. As a bonus action you can make a copy of yourself that’s a bit more fragile than most berserkers (It’s a copy of you, but I’m not sure if it gets a copy of your shocking weaponry. Slayer’s Prey will definitely work). While active, you can attack and make attacks of opportunity from its position, and you can swap places with the echo by using 15 feet of movement.

You can also Unleash Incarnation while your echo’s out on the field, giving them an extra attack as part of your attack action. You can use this a number of times per long rest equal to your constitution modifier.

13. Fighter 4: Your swordplay is fine, but you could stand to brush up on your archery. Use this ASI to grab more Dexterity.

14. Fighter 5: You get extra attack again, but it doesn’t stack with your ranger skill, so... enjoy the extra HP, I guess.

15. Fighter 6: Speaking of HP, use this ASI to bump up your Constitution for 15 more HP and another use of Unleash Incarnation.

16. Fighter 7: You can now use your Echo as an Echo Avatar, letting you scout out the area through its eyes up to 1000′ feet away from your regular body for up to 10 minutes. Despite the distance between you two, it still costs only 15′ to teleport! Now that’s convenience!

17. Fighter 8: For your final ASI, bring your Dexterity up so it can match your strength.

18. Fighter 9: You become Indomitable, letting you re-roll a failed save once per long rest. You might not be that reasonable, but that doesn’t mean you’re easy to charm.

19. Fighter 10: Our final echo goody lets you turn your echos into Shadow Martyrs, spending your reaction to throw an echo in front of an ally that’s being attacked, switching the target of the attack. You can do this once per short rest. Protect your darling Kintoki by... throwing a spiritual copy of him to its death... that looked better in your head, you swear.

20. Fighter 11: Your capstone level gives you yet another Extra Attack that actually does stack this time. That means you get three attacks per action, or four with Unleash Incarnation.

Pros:

Thanks to your Great Weapon Fighting powering up all your damage dice, your critical hits with your longsword can be pretty scary. Add in all your attacks, and you’ve got a good chance of dealing a lot of damage at once.

As expected of the premiere mystic slayer of the Heian period, you have plenty of demonic defenses to make fighting and tracking fiends a cakewalk.

With you and your echo out at the same time, you can lock down a larger area to abuse your once-per-turn Slayer’s Prey a bit more.

Cons:

You don’t have many spell slots, so you’ll have to be careful about using them, especially your third level slots. Burning through that slot on a single attack would be bad enough, but Lightning Arrow also uses your concentration, which leads directly to con #2.

Like most rangers, you have problems when it comes to concentration. It’s not that your save is bad, but you still have to balance out your various spells and play smart.

Also like most rangers, your bonus action is crowded, which can make things complicated as well. Echo Knight does not help here either.

[thedinanshiral]

My personal DA4 wishlist + thoughts

I’ve been teasing this post for a couple of weeks over at Twitter, i’m the worst! But anyway, since game journalism has decided to confirm, once again, that the next Dragon Age game will be set in Tevinter like that’s breaking news, now’s as good a time as ever to write all this down.

Locations: Tevinter, clearly. It’s been pretty much a given since the end of Trespasser in 2015, with that scene where the Inquisitor stabs a map on a table directly on Tevinter as they promise to go after Solas to stop him. But also concept art and several stories from Tevinter Nights heavily imply Antiva, Nevarra, the Anderfells, and maybe Rivain. For those of you who don’t know your Thedosian Geography 101, that’s basically Northern Thedas. And it makes sense, since so far for three games straight we’ve been first stuck in Ferelden, then the coast of the Free Marches, and later the rest of Southern Thedas. We’ve never been North, only heard of it. So in DA4 i’m sure we will finally be able to visit.

Characters: If we’re going to Tevinter, we must meet Dorian again, maybe meet Maevaris Tilani as well (previously only seen in comics), judging from the latest comics series, i’m hoping for Fenris too. And going by the latest teaser trailer, we might see Varric again. As for characters that so far we have no news of, i’d like to see Cole, the Iron Bull, and if by any chance BioWare feels like blessing us with a Hawke/Fenris reunion i might just die happy.  I’d also very much like to see the Inquisitor, but more on that later.

Companions: considering concept art and the latest teaser trailer, plus Tevinter Nights stories and new characters, we have an interesting repertoire of new potential companions. A Tevinter mage, an ancient elf (like a temple guardian) or a dalish elf (like Strife), a Nevarran mortalitasi or spirit, Antivan Crows, Lords of Fortune (new faction, kind of like treasure hunters), Qunari lady, maybe an alchemist or shapeshifter, Grey Wardens (possibly a dwarf), a liberated or escaped slave, a Siccari (Tevinter spies/assassins)..even past agents of the Inquisition could return. 

Plot: We know Solas wants to take down the Veil. We know there’s two archdemons left, and Grey Wardens are regaining some spotlight in concept art lately. We might have to fight on multiple fronts simultaneously and be strategic about it. Solas might even unleash a double Blight just to keep us distracted while he focus on his own goal, who knows. But many other things are happenig in the margins and all over the place. The Qunari Antaam is having a crisis with some of its members supposedly going rogue, the order they’re so proud of is breaking up, and the whole of Northern Thedas is facing an imminent threat of invasion. Tevinter is still dealing with remnants of the Venatori and might soon be dealing with a slaves rebellion and/or a political and social reform (Magisters Dorian and Maeveris have been working wirh the Lucerni, a group aiming to restore and redeem Tevinter). The Antivan Crows -the de facto rulers of Antiva - may be dealing with a succession crisis, as their First Talon, a powerful feared and respected but old lady, might not be around for much longer and seems her chosen heir has died before his time. Meanwhile in the Anderfells nobody’s heard anything from the Grey Wardens’ HQ at Weisshaupt since the end of Inquisition, and as told in the novel Last Flight, the sudden reappearance of griffons may have had something to do with that radio silence. So you see, get ready for another +100 hours long game because BW has plenty of stuff to keep us busy with. But in short, DA4 seems will be about primarily searching, finding, and dealing with Solas. Regardless of what you decided at the Exalted Council in Trespasser, the Inquisition or what’s left of it is most likely the group orchestrating that mission. As it was so clearly stated then, they need new people Solas doesn’t know so he can’t foresee their actions, so it’s possible the DA4 protagonist is a new agent or a third party hired to do what the Inner circle can’t due to their familiarity with Solas in the past. But at the same time -and this is assuming we get to find Solas in this game - i definitely think the Inquisitor could easily show up again. No, losing an arm doens’t mean they’ve retired forever, prosthetics do exist in Thedas, a world where you can combine dwarven craftmanship with enchantments, seriously, i don’t ever want to hear “but they lost an arm” ever again as an excuse to write them out. And no, marrying Cullen or joining the Red Jennys is no impediment to join the “Stop Solas” Squad; the end of Trespasser means something, mainly that this is personal. Be it they loved them as lovers, as friends or ended up hating his guts for using and betraying them, the Inquisitor’s relationship with Solas makes this very personal, and so having any other character do that face off would cheapen all of it, all that bittersweet angsty development and expectations of either revenge or closure. That moment should happen between those two. It adds a ton of motivation due to their past historyas well, something a new protagonist would lack entirely.  My personal best hope is for a sort of dual protagonist thing, say we play new protagonist for most of the game but a selected missions or scenes where we play as the Inquisitor once again and take over for key and heart-wrenching dialogue options. My second best hope is for the Inquisitor to show up as playable for the moment we catch up with Solas. My third and final best hope is for the inquisitor to be a sort of advisor but more like new protagonist’s boss/employer to whom they report back to and get new missions from. The Inquisitor can be stuck in meetings for the most part of it, i just want to know they’re there, behind a door, super busy but there. A cameo like Hawke’s in Inquisition is the bare miminum i can take, anyhting less than that like a mention in a sidequest description or a footnote in a codex entry would be a total  injustice. 

Romances: I’m open for pretty much anything, as any good BW fan would be. But i’d like romances to feel more alive in the sense that they don’t abruptly get stuck once you exhaust all related quests and dialogue options. As much as my Adaar liked that spank from the Iron Bull, that it was the only thing they could share after their romance was locked was a bit..meh. I liked Dorian’s tho, because his gave one the option to talk a bit, go for a walk, gossip, and sure, it all happened off-screen, and there were limited possibilities, but it was nice and made their relationship feel a bit more real, like they had more to it than kissing and stuff. It happens in most games, once you secure a romanceable companion suddenly you run out of things to do and share with them, and you get stuck with the same 3 lines of dialogue over and over again. There should be a way of solving that.

Side quests: i’m ok with fetch quests initially as it is a good way of forcing the player to go out and explore huge maps, but i’d also like the fetching to have some meaning other than checking things off a list. I want to explore many ruins, and -can’t believe i’m actually saying this- i want a Fade quest. Wait! I know what you’re thinking but don’t kill me just yet, here’s my idea: what if we could visit the Fade at certain locations to witness memories or meet with spirits and recollect information on Solas, his past, his present? Both to understand him better (keep in mind we’ll most likely get a new protagonist who isn’t familiar with him like we are as players) and try to locate him or predict his next move. It would be i think i great way of having visions of Arlathan in its golden age, maybe seeing some of the other Evanuris, how they interacted with each other and with the elves in their service, what really happened ...i just want that sweet, sweet lore, i need it.

Technical stuff: ok, graphics will be amazing for sure, but i also would really really like: better, more varied and longer hairstyles, PLEASE. Body sliders, it’s damn time we get them. Mounts that actually make a difference! Let staves blades make damage in combat, I’M BEGGING HERE. Combined classes, MAGICAL ROGUES! A homebase we can fix up/build on/redecorate as fully as possible (Skyhold was great and i love it to pieces but why were those walls NEVER repaired????) . More casual outfit options, idk i love to dress up my characters, maybe some transmog? A day/night cycle and please i would love to see Thedas’ second moon, also weather variations depending on the region. Yes, i’m ambitious.

Gameplay: i’d like more AI options for companions, but not quite like in DAO, that was too much and i rarely used it. I’m curious how they’ll do combat this time but i know for sure i don’t want the kind of combat that has me going almost frame by frame pausing at every second, it’s annoying for me. I want large areas like in DAI but with a bit more stuff to see and do although one of my favourite maps is the Hissing Wastes so i won’t complain if we get a literal desert but i’d also like it to have secrets hidden around, make me work to find and solve them, i love exploring, i jump and click on EVERYTHING like i’m still a kid playing Monkey Island. A companion in concept art seems to be holding what looks like some form of rifle, so i’m curious how they’d incorporate that in the game. I know Tevinter has the magics and dwarves have the skill, a firearm is totally within the possibilities in-game without breaking any lore; also super curious what sort of skill trees Crows or Lords of Fortune could have, are they rogues, or warriors, or both??

So far, that’s what i got in my head.Well, most of it anyways, i may have missed something but this post has to end somewhere lol

What’s in your head? Feel free to share! Have you been thinking on how you’ll create your next protagonist? All i can think of is magical rogues and that  glowing bow was all the hype i needed.

[tamapalace]

Tamagotchi Pix First Impressions

Bandai America sent us the Tamagotchi Pix on launch day to review and we want to share our first impressions of this highly anticipated next generation flagship color screen Tamagotchi with you! Now we know you mad had some reservations about the Tamagotchi Pix when it was first announced, but we must say this is one of our favorite versions because it returns to the basics while bringing robust features that enhance the gameplay like nothing you’ve seen before.

Packaging - Just like the Tamagotchi On, the packaging is large, we get it. There’s plenty of reasons behind it though, and Bandai has informed us that the extra packaging real estate allows to better showcase the features in a marketing that is still adopting the Tamagotchi brand. With that said it is definitely a bit smaller than the Tamagotchi On packaging, and the top is rounded with a transparent arch shape that allows for a nice view of the Pix. The Tamagotchi sits front and center in the top of the package with the same sparkly silver background featured on the Tamagotchi On. The packaging itself is high quality and the paper itself has a nice shimmer to it. The graphics on the packaging showcase the key features, and some of the characters on the back. We really appreciate that Bandai does include images of both genders on the packaging. Inside, the the large space on the bottom is completely empty where you’ll find the instruction manual. We cannot comment about the other packaging that appeared in France, as our model originated from North America.

Build Quality - The Tamagotchi Pix is SOLID, and we mean it. Yes, it's a big thicker than the Tamagotchi On but that shouldn’t be a big deal. It is noticeably wider than the Tamagotchi On, which is probably related to the new camera needing some space where the batteries once laid, they lay horizontally in the Pix. In terms of size it’s more comparable to the Tamagotchi Plus Color released back in 2008. It feels solid for sure, after using the Tamagotchi Pix for a few weeks, when we grab our Tamagotchi On we are almost worried to drop it. The Pix is completely solid, the plastic feels high quality, and small things like the front translucent cover is much thicker than the On. Bandai must know that these gestures need thicker plastic so we don’t wear them down. Even the back door of the Tamagotchi Pix is much more solid than the Tamagotchi On. Not that we encourage it, but if you were to drop the Tamagotchi Pix, we wouldn’t think twice about it holding up, and that’s a welcomed change. It is also important to note that there is not one scratch on the unit we received, this includes the screen itself which was something we’ve heard from others.

Screen - Same screen as most modern Tamagotchi’s including the Tamagotchi On, but it almost seems like the screen has been upgrade in terms of color. The colors seem a bit more vibrant to our eyes, and the viewing angle has possibly been enhanced. The colors don’t appear as washed out as the On, probably to help make the pictures look better. Can we also just acknowledge this is the second modern color screen Tamagotchi to be released outside Japan? YAY!

Game Play - LOVE IT! The Tamagotchi Pix is a unique Tamagotchi, unlike any other we’ve seen more and for that it gets praise! It starts off with the initial boot, which is where you’ll enter in some information about yourself through the attribute quiz. Information includes time, name, birthday, and then some information about your favorite items. Bandai says your responses to these questions helps the Tamagotchi analyze them and select and egg that matches you! How neat? There are three Tamagotchi total, and one will be chosen for you to raise. The initial animations are adorable as it shows the selected egg being delivered by a spaceship from the Tama Planet to  your new Tamagotchi Pix!

The fun doesn’t stop there, the Tamagotchi Pix immediately shows off the silky smooth graphics, which are a welcomed addition and really modernize this version. The living space is no longer just a wallpaper where your Tamagotchi is when you wake up your device, Bandai has made it the center of the device. There are so many wallpapers to decorate with, furniture to add in, and the door is no longer just for decoration! That’s right, you will get visitors on the Tamagotchi Pix. Whether it’s friends stopping by randomly, Nazotchi delivering food or items you’ve purchased on your smartphone, or the sitter ready to watch your Tamagotchi!

What about the buttons? Well the buttons do take some time to get used to, we won’t deny that. Once you start using the device for a few days it becomes easier and easier. In fact the touch buttons are a welcomed edition best the touch gestures itself really help make the Pix awesome. If you’re in your living space you can swipe from left to right to access the clock, your job, and even the outdoor space. The touch gestures are even used in more advanced features such as the cooking feature, item customization feature, and petting your Tamagotchi character up close. You use the touch gestures to clean up poop, vacuum, play the daily draw in the Tama Store, and much more. We love how integrated the touch gestures are in this device, and it feels so natural to use!

The entire lifecycle of the Tamagotchi character gives us the feels of the basics. The device itself does not overcomplicate anything. The main focus here is that you take care of your Tamagotchi, and raise it into a pure breed character, and we love that. Once your character reaches adulthood, you can start petting them up close by selecting the “B” button in your living space, and swiping your fingers from “A” to “C” buttons and vice versa. This petting feature along is easily one of our favorites. It really helps enhance the gameplay by bridging the gap between you and the character in your Pix. Jobs are back! Once your Tamagotchi reaches the teenage stage you will see a room roped off when swiping to the left from your living space, and your character will be walking around the ropes waiting for adulthood. This is where your adult character will begin training. In our experience you will be given training for a select job, and it could very much change. You won’t know the job  your Tamagotchi settles on until it returns back to the Tama Planet.

Tama Codes & the built-in camera are also huge on this version, and if you thought it was gimmicky, think again. We must say it is incredibly addicting to scan Tama Codes off of social media to connect with others for a playdate, exchange items, and more. The built-in camera is probably VGA quality, so don’t expect anything high resolution, this is not a camera you will be taking pictures for Instagram with. In fact you cannot share images outside of the device, but you can send them to the Tama Social which will allow other characters to like your photos, and it’s pretty neat. The explore feature uses the camera to help your Tamagotchi wonder outside and find other friends, there are up to one hundred to meet, and the gamification of that has kept us busy for hours on end. Although this feature does not pertain to the built-in camera, you can on select screens take a screenshot on the Tamagotchi Pix when you see the camera button in the lower left-hand corner of the device.

The cooking feature allows you to snap two pictures and the Pix will analyze the colors of each and allow you to swipe your finger fast enough to formula a new creation. In our experience you’ll need good lighting, and it doesn’t always get the colors right. The creation is edible, and by no means has any method behind what is being created, but it's really fun to make some free food, who could complain? Item customization is one of our favorites, the living space itself was never something Bandai allowed us to change outside of the wallpapers for purchase, and that was a bit boring. The Pix takes it to the next level with a good deal of items and furniture available for customization using the built-in camera to snap a picture of the color you want to paint these items. Swipe your finger from left to right and that new item will look all painted and ready to be shown off in your living space!

These feature will definitely take a toll on your battery life. If you don't already own two rechargeable AAA batteries, you’ll want them ASAP. When we first got our Pix we used the device so much it lasted roughly four days or so, but in our second generation we’re already past that. We think Bandai America’s claim of seven days probably seems more accurate with the average use. Keep in mind that those silky smooth graphics, touch buttons, and built-in camera are using your precious battery life. Oh, and did you connect with others all over the globe with Tama Codes in previous versions? There’s a lot going on here, and yes there is a part of us that wishes Bandai would switch to a built-in lithium polymer battery like most modern devices, but some fans don’t wan to see that. Built-in batteries usually mean that the device is only useable for a certain amount of years as those batteries are typically not user removable, or not sold by the manufacturer long after the successor is released.

Lastly, your Tamagotchi will only stick around until it reaches the ripe age of seven. From there it will then ask for a photo album to be created with the memories aka screenshots and pictures you’ve collected during its life. Once created your Tamagotchi will return back to the Tama Planet and send you another egg, and then the journey starts again!

Can you tell we’ve been real busy with our Tamagotchi Pix? This device is a blast, and has been keeping us busy and not to mention the character lineup is nothing short of phenomenal. If you had your doubts, we highly advise you get your hands on the Tamagotchi Pix. Between the solid hardware, robust software, and key features this device is nothing short of a home run. We’ve found ourself connecting to this device much more than previous versions. Both the floral pink and sky purple Tamagotchi Pix’s are available for purchase, the ocean blue and nature green shells have yet to receive an official release date from Bandai at this time. Don’t sleep on the Tamagotchi Pix!

[sage-nebula]

Game Review — New Pokémon Snap

In 1999, a photography game centered on the world of Pokémon was released. Ever since then, I have hungered for a sequel. And now, 22 years later, my wish was finally granted.

Overall Score: 9/10

While I am still puzzled that they didn’t create and release this game for either 3DS or Wii U, since both had built-in cameras, overall I couldn’t be happier with this and I definitely feel that it was worth the 22-year-long wait. Head under the cut (and onto my blog) for more detailed thoughts on what has honestly been an excellent game.

The Pros:

Everything is GORGEOUS. The environments, the pokémon, literally everything. Even setting aside the glowing effects of the Illumina phenomenon (particularly at night when it really stands out), everything about this game is visually stunning. The colors are bright, but not blinding, and you can see that everything was crafted with care. There aren’t any areas that feel unfinished or unpolished. It is beautiful to look at, which is rather important when you’re making a photography-based game.

Each area changes as you increase your research level, so that even though you will have some run-throughs of the courses that are the same as you experienced before, you’ll also find new paths and see different pokémon as you go through the courses more and more times as well. For instance, when you first play through the Florio Nature Park, the Bidoof are in the process of building their dam. But later, their dam is completed. And this is just one example of how things change; believe me, there are lots of changes as time passes and you go through the courses again and again, making them feel far less repetitive than they did in the original game. (Not to bash the original game, which was on the N64 and thus had a lot less space to hold data, of course. I’m just saying.)

The pokémon behaviors are also so great. You have the Bidoof building their dam, for example, but you also have Alolan Raichu surfing the sand dunes, or Espurr levitating rocks for the fun of it, or Pikipek bringing fruits back to nests on Toucannon’s orders. On less happy notes you also have things like a group of Mareanie chasing down a Corsola, but I mean, it’s a well-established fact that Mareanie eat Corsola, so that’s just nature. The point is that this isn’t a game where the pokémon are just standing around waiting to have their pictures taken. The pokémon feel alive and it’s clear that so much thought went into their behaviors to make it feel as if life is teeming around you as you go through the courses, because it is! It’s excellent.

Although this is a sequel game (and it makes it clear that it’s a sequel game, which I’ll talk about more in a second), it’s also incredibly accessible to those who have never played the original. Even if you never heard of the original before, you can jump right into this one with mostly new characters and a brand new story. And I think that’s great, considering the original game came out 22 years ago and is probably somewhat hard to find now, especially if you don’t have a system with access to a Virtual Console to play it on. (Which wouldn’t be a problem if we had the Virtual Console on the Switch, Nintendo, but that’s a separate discussion.)

That said, it is a sequel game and all of the nods and references to the original game are things that I love. I mean, first off, Todd Snap is back and he had a major glow-up. But even setting that aside, it’s mentioned how the NEO-ONE was based on the old vehicle that Todd used (the ZERO-ONE), how Todd used to take photos for a different professor (Professor Oak), the final Illumina Pokémon’s level is a huge callback to the Mew level in the original Snap, et cetera. Although this game was called New Pokémon Snap likely so that people wouldn’t think they had to play the first game first, it’s pretty clearly Pokémon Snap 2 and I love that.

Along with the courses themselves changing as you progress through the game, there are also day and night versions of almost every course so you get something different on them even before making more progress. Additionally, each course has multiple different routes that you can take if you find them / want to, and Elsewhere Forest in particular has zones that change depending on the season, which offers even more variety and things to discover. Again, it doesn’t feel boring to keep going through the courses because there’s always something new to find.

Everything is streamlined and plays excellently. The menus are cleaned, I haven’t noticed any lag in gameplay no matter how much is going on on-screen . . . everything is smooth, clean, and fresh, and again, adds to how much of a joy to look at this game is, on top of making it a joy to play as well.

The online features are implemented really well. I absolutely love that you can post photos to share with people around the world, but also that the feature isn’t obtrusive and in your face, so if you want to ignore it, you can. But the process itself is seamless, and the fact that you can add filters and stickers to make memes out of the photos is hilarious and a well thought-out feature, particularly since this is the age of social media, so having a Pokéstagram just makes sense.

I enjoy that there are little missions that you can complete that are posited as being posed naturally by the other characters. You’re given clues of what to do, but often you’re not told outright, which can make some of them fun to figure out (and others the shot itself is challenging enough so you don’t need a riddle, haha). While fulfilling the requests can be a bit irritating (more on that in a bit) I like that there’s additional material to do in addition to the main story that unfolds as you go through and gives you plenty of stuff to do even after you’ve completed the main story.

The characters are all pretty great. There’s one character I don’t enjoy very much, but otherwise the characters are good and add charm to the story.

These characters still don’t know anything about photography (the rule of thirds is so basic and no one here knows it), at least they’re not as obvious about it as Professor Oak was, always scolding me for not getting pokémon in the center of the frame. So toning down the obnoxiousness on that was nice, I will give them that.

The environments are so varied and so cool. Like sure, you have your basic jungle, your basic grasslands, your basic volcano . . . but also your underwater, your magic forest, your ancient technicolor ruins. And I mean, I don’t even want to diss the other areas because the volcano area was incredibly vivid, the snowy mountain was beautiful, and so on. Again, I don’t want to gush too much about how beautiful this game is, but it is and the wide variety of places to take pictures makes it all the more incredible.

As I mentioned in the missions bullet, there is plenty of content to do even after the main story is completed, which is a definite plus. Filling your Photodex aside, there are also Course Scores that are enabled once you complete the main story and an additional time of day for an already unlocked area that is unlocked as well. This means that even after you clear the game, you can still have fun trying to get different shots and discovering new things, which is always a bonus in my book.

Motion controls are included, but they are entirely optional. So if you want to undock your Switch (or if you are playing with a Switch Lite) and you want to move your Switch around like an actual camera, you can! But if you have any physical limitations that would make doing that hard for you (or if you just don’t feel like it), you don’t have to and the motion controls are actually turned off by default. I haven’t used them myself because I’m not a fan of motion controls so I can’t tell you how good they are, but I can say it’s a plus that the motion controls are 100% optional, rather than forcibly included like they have been in other Nintendo games.

The Neutrals:

All of the different tools you get are basically the same as the original game, with a few slight (and sometimes silly) changes. For instance, they’re now calling apples “flufffruit” because “fluffruit are actually a lot softer and don’t hurt the pokémon” even though . . . they’re very obviously apples. Like very obviously apples. I get that they don’t want to encourage throwing apples at animals for the sake of picture taking / they don’t want to make a kid feel bad if they accidentally (“accidentally”) knock a pokémon in the head with one, but . . . come on. They’re apples. They’ve also decided to take away the Pokéflute and make it a random music player instead, and Illumina Orbs replaced Pester Balls for both story reasons and for the same reason why we can’t call apples apples anymore. Honestly, all of this is fine, just something to mention, though I will say it took way too damn long to unlock the turbo feature, damn. Pokémon are fast, guys! Give me my turbo sooner!!

Sometimes the “tips” that Professor Mirror gives during the photo evaluations . . . don’t actually fit the situation at all. Like I can’t tell you the number of times he’s told me about getting the whole pokémon in the frame when the pokémon is in the frame, or like “throw a fluffruit to get the pokémon to look right at you!” even though the pokémon is staring into the camera like they’re on The Office. It’s not a huge deal but it makes me think that Professor Mirror might need his vision prescription updated.

I understand that this is also the age of the smartphone, but I do find it disappointing that we’re essentially given a smartphone camera (or at most a point-and-shoot) versus the SLR camera that Todd very obviously had in the original Snap (and even has here). Granted, we didn’t have to adjust for aperture or shutter speed in the original game and I wouldn’t want to do that here either, but it’s about the aesthetic and the fact that having professional nature photographers have actually good cameras is more fitting than handing them a smartphone and saying, “have fun!” Again, I get why it’s a smartphone now, but it still is a little disappointing, even if not an actual detraction from the game.

It is confusing that we have wild Alolan form pokémon when this is not Alola, especially since they didn’t make it equal by adding in Galar form pokémon too. (And on that note, there seems to be a lack of Galar pokémon at that.) I think it would have been cool if they’d designed some Lental form pokémon for this game specifically, although I get that this isn’t a game developed by Game Freak so I understand why that wasn’t done. All the same though, the presence of Alolan form pokémon when this isn’t Alola was still a bit weird.

It’s rather easy to breeze through the main story if you don’t want to take your time revisiting areas to get better pictures / boost the research level. While the main story is longer than the original game / there are more areas than the original game, it’s still pretty short. Ordinarily this would be a con, but since there are so many things to do even after you beat the main story, I’m putting it in the neutrals section instead. 

The Cons:

While the missions are fun, it is frustrating that you have to do them again if you capture a photo of the mission before the mission is formally handed to you. This is especially true if it was a hard to get shot that’s difficult to replicate. I understand they want to put challenge in the game, but it’s a bit frustrating you can’t point to your photodex and have the mission be cleared if you’ve already done it. You also can’t get the pokémon doing the requested thing in a different part of the course (or a different version of the same course, or even just a different course altogether if a pokémon appears in multiple areas), which is fine, except that you can only turn in one photo per pokémon. This can make it particularly frustrating when you technically get a photo of what was asked for (e.g. Wingull doing a loop-de-loop) but it’s not the specific Wingull you were supposed to take a picture of, so it doesn’t count.

I have noticed a few bugs or typos here or there. Like one time the text box said “Rita” even when it was clearly Mirror talking, and there have been other times when the game is like “you can’t submit photos if the pokémon is not in the Illumina State” even though Wishwashi was GLOWING BRIGHT PINK because I had just thrown an Illumina Orb at it. Little things like that are things I think could have been better smoothed out in QA, but ultimately aren’t too much to deal with and don’t happen very often.

The alternate paths are a bit too finicky sometimes. Like I managed to get on the swamp path once and haven’t been able to manage it since. I was on research level 3 in Elsewhere Forest for a good long while before Espeon decided to show up, which blocked me off the second exit and guaranteed winter route, too. Again, I love that there are secrets in this game, but I tried to replicate getting into the swamp area twenty times in a row after I had just done it with no success, so it can be a bit frustrating at times.

There isn’t really a true conclusion to the main story. I won’t give spoilers, but essentially the story revolves around uncovering the secrets of a myth that happened in the Lental region thousands of years ago. You get close . . . but the story ends before you get any real answers. You’re just left to speculate. In a way this makes sense, since it’s not like you’re time traveling, you’re just taking pictures. But it is still a little annoying for anyone who is interested in things like the lore of the Pokéworld and who might like actual answers to the questions set up (such as myself).

Anyway, overall, this game is amazing whether or not you played the original, and I highly recommend it to everyone who likes Pokémon even a little. Here’s hoping we don’t have to wait another 22 years for the next one. (But if we do, it will probably be worth the wait.)

[soranort-headcanons]

About the new Dark Road characters

Before we get into each individual character, here is some random thoughts

Disappointed that Yen Sid didn’t make it, but part of me admits that that had a low chance of happening due to him being a Disney character and all.

Part of me is also sad that they added more characters into the mix, because we lose the whole Eraqus and Xehanort growing as the only apprentices (with maybe Yen Sid added in) dynamic. At the same time, the idea that these two spent so much time with each other that no one wanted to be in their general vicinity while they were in a chess match and generally only cared about each other to the point that Xehanort only talks about Eraqus in his reports, is a hilarious idea that really adds fuel to the shipping fire for fans. Fun. 

There is six apprentices in total, just like in UX (Unions plus Luxu). If we add whatever master they have in, its seven. Just like the guardians. Since Eraqus (And maybe the new characters) are part of the “blueblood” line of Keyblade Wielders, this makes a lot of sense, since Keyblade Wielders are defenders of the light and all.

This also adds credibility of why Xehanort was allowed to go on a world tour but Eraqus wasn’t- It’s hard to keep track of so many children, plus while Eraqus wasn’t allowed to go at the moment, their master could simply tell Eraqus to go with someone else in a later date

I swear, if MoM is their master (extremely doubtful, please don’t do this)

Or maybe even Luxu, since we saw No Name hanging in the wall in kh3

I severely expect everyone to give up their keyblade and go into hiding or die. 

If everyone else minus Xehanort is part of a Keyblade lineage minus him, it would add a lot of depth to how he acted the way he did. Just like I brought up in some previous posts, it makes sense that an outsider would break so many rules or use questionable methods/use said methods to try to stand out. If he is the only one out, this makes it worse than if it was just Eraqus, Yen Sid and him. 

To add to my previous bullet point, he is standing on a throne, just like Sora in promotional material. He is the only one sitting and the center of the shot. Just like Sora, Xehanort obtained his Keyblade (If my memory is correct, its been a year since I touched kh after all) due to outside influence, just like Sora did. This would be an excellent time for Sora parallels, Nomura

Ok, now I’ll get to the actual new characters

My first reaction (Posted in my discord) was “Urd reminds me of Aqua. Please do not make her a love interest”

She looks like she is making an OwO face

She does remind of Aqua, but a little bit more mischievous.

I’ve seen people say Bragi could be Luxu but honestly I also have suspicions Urd is up to something. Merely because she has silver hair and yellow eyes.

I always think silver haired people are more important that they turn out to be due to Riku having silver hair. We also don’t know Riku’s parents, unlike Sora and Kairi. We know Sora has a mom and a dad with a boat, and we know who adopted Kairi. But Riku? nothing. I’m curious exactly who introduced the silver hair gene in destiny islands. Is it a common trait? Xehanort has it. Riku has it. I need to see the family trees, please Nomura. How tf do they get their hair color im dying please-

She stands between Eraqus and Xehanort but behind them. Im sure this will be important later on. Until then though, i cannot say much.

She does have the Recusant’s sigil though, which once again reminds me of the fact that Keyblade Wielders have inbuilt trackers in their clothes. Im sure thats very useful for when they get lost in a random world.

My first reaction to Vor: She looks innocent but she would totally stab me in the back in an alleyway if given the opportunity.

Look at her. She looks like a tiny evil gremlin.

As a short people I can attest that short people will not hesitate to set your house on fire in Minecraft if given the chance. The world is too tall for us so we shall burn it until it is at eye level

Look im approximately 5ft tall, im short

I like her color scheme, very eye pleasing

People have pointed out her name is one letter away from Vore. Thanks guys, I so did not need that

People theorize this is Kairi’s grandma. I can see why, but I shall remain neutral on the subject

Probably the youngest

kinda reminds me of Ava

She is in the front, along with our main duo, maybe this will mean something

Will probably be a mix between Aqua and Ventus in term of gameplay. Speedy or magic main.

My first reaction to Bragi was: he looks so smug. He gives me a bastard vibe but that has to be seen. Or he is a troll.

People theorize he is Luxu because his name can be rearranged to Braig. Considering Nomura’s love for anagrams, it makes sense. 

I wanna punch him in the face, he looks like he knows more than me

Reminds me of Axel. Hahahaha the idea of Axel and him having a connexion of some kind would be. Hilarious. Honestly the idea of anyone in this group having a relation to anyone in the present era would be hilarious because Xehanort grew up with these people so it would be like “Oh shit my coworkers had kids?!?!”

Could they be old enough to have kids? I mean, bbs Xehanort was like, 80 years old so it could be a possibility. 

Fire user. I take no criticism.

Or he is a status user. He would spam like, 50 status spells and just kick your ass without having to move. Look, someone in these series has to see the potential of status spells, I can’t be the only one

Imagine that instead of him being luxu, its the master. I would laugh so much at y’all’s reactions.

My first reaction to Hermod: he looks like the oldest and older brother vibes but that might be because he’s tall.

He gives me vibes of trying to be responsible like Aqua but rolls his eyes fondly at everyone else’s shenanigans.

Has a sense of humor

In terms of placement, he stands more or less on the center, which might reflect on his personality. Peacekeeper? Probably tries to be neutral.

Tries to keep Bragi in line.

Tries not to pick favorites.

The idea of him trying to talk to Vor is hilarious. What is he gonna do, stand in his knees? He is just too tall.

Maybe Xehanort is taller than him, and thats the only thing I shall accept

Senior apprentice

In terms of gameplay, he might be like Terra, a heavy hitter.

Gives good hugs

TLDR; at some point I went from analysis to simply listing off random thought, just as all my posts turn out at some point. We do not know enough about them. The fact that the last kh themed new character we had was Strelizia is insane. New blood! I’m excited for yet another mobile game I can lord over my siblings because I know the timeline and they don’t. Posible candidate for the Disney Plus series? doubtful but still a strong possibility. It is 9:08 PM and I have not beta read this. 

[demifiendrsa]

Ghost of Tsushima – Version 1.1 Update Trailer

Ghost of Tsushima version 1.1 update will launch on October 16 and add the Ghost of Tsushima: Legends cooperative multiplayer mode, New Game+.

Overview via PlayStation Blog:

■ Ghost of Tsushima: Legends

As we announced in August, Ghost of Tsushima: Legends is a brand new, online cooperative multiplayer experience that will be a free update for all Ghost of Tsushima owners. A classic element of some of our favorite samurai films is warriors standing together, ready to fight as a team. In Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, you can fight side-by-side with your friends, which is such an important part of fulfilling that samurai fantasy in a whole new way. We’re so excited to hear from everyone who teams up with their friends and jumps in.

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends features two-player story missions and four-player survival missions, as well as a Raid that we’ll release in the weeks following launch. After you’ve downloaded version 1.1 of Ghost of Tsushima, you can visit the PlayStation Store from your PlayStation 4 to download a free unlock for Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, which will allow you to play. Keep in mind that an internet connection and an active PlayStation Plus subscription will be required to play with other players.

Once you have version 1.1, you’ll notice a new character at various towns and locations in Tsushima… Gyozen the Storyteller! He’s heard the rumors about the Ghost of Tsushima, but he has a different perspective about what’s actually happening in his homeland. Gyozen is the author and gatekeeper of the stories you’ll find in Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, and when you talk to him, he’ll be happy to share one of his transportative stories about the “Ghosts.”

Speaking to Gyozen will give you access to the Ghost of Tsushima: Legends lobby, but you can also get there directly from the title menu or the pause menu… or by accepting a PlayStation Network invitation from a friend!

Classes

In Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, you’ll be able to pick between one of four classes. Each one has their own unique advantages. When you start Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, after a short tutorial, you’ll choose which class you want to unlock first. As you rank up, you’ll unlock each of the remaining classes.

In addition to each starting with their own unique ability, each class can unlock an alternate ability as you progress, as well as earning class-specific Charms and ranged weapons.

While playing with friends, you can mix and match classes however you’d like, whether that’s a party of four all playing the same class, everyone playing as a different class, or any combination in between.

—Samurai

Samurai players can run straight toward combat and stay there, sustaining their health while chopping enemies down left and right. When you’re overwhelmed, use the Hachiman’s Fury ultimate attack to slash through enemies in a flurry of strikes.

—Hunter

As a Hunter, you can stand on the edge of combat and snipe enemies before they even see you. You can also use explosive arrows to slow down groups, and when the combat gets really fierce, the Eye of Uchitsune ultimate attack will unleash multiple arrows straight at your enemies’ heads.

—Ronin

Ronin players can revive their entire team with the Breath of Izanami ultimate ability. You might play Ronin because you want to help your human friends… or you might do it because the Ronin class is also able to summon a Spirit Dog. (And yes, you can ABSOLUTELY pet your Spirit Dog!)

—Assassin

If you prefer doing massive damage with a single attack, you’ll love the Assassin. The Shadow Strike ultimate attack will allow you to teleport across the battlefield and directly strike your enemies. If that’s not intimidating enough, wait until you see the terrifying masks the Assassin gets to wear!

Story Missions

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends Story Missions are designed for two players, and take you through Gyozen’s stories about what’s really happening in Tsushima. When you unlock higher difficulties, you’ll face new encounters, tougher enemies, bonus objectives, and greater rewards.

Survival Missions

In Survival, you can team up with three other players to fight off waves of enemies while defending different locations in Tsushima. You and your team can activate blessings to help yourselves, like “ignite enemies” or “summon a Spirit Bear.” The longer you survive and the more bonus objectives you complete, the more rewards you’ll earn!

Raid

You’ll need all your skill, top-tier gear, and a great four-player team to be able to survive in Iyo’s realm! The Raid is an epic three-part adventure that will require excellent teamwork and communication to overcome. It will be released in the weeks following the launch of Ghost of Tsushima: Legends.

Other Features

Ghost of Tsushima: Legends also has a few features you’d expect from Ghost of Tsushima. Our robust Photo Mode is still present here (as long as your teammates opt in) and you’ll be able to show off all the new masks, armor, and emotes you’ve earned.

Legends is packed with new cosmetics, and they’re all unlocked through gameplay without any microtransactions. Looking cool is important, but Ghost of Tsushima: Legends gameplay progression really centers around the gear you’ve equipped and the techniques you’ve unlocked. You’ll be rewarded with increasingly rare and powerful gear as you take on greater challenges, and you’ll unlock new techniques as you gain experience with each class.

We’ve also added some new Trophies for Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, which will appear in a separate section of your Trophy list and do not count toward Ghost of Tsushima’s Platinum Trophy.

■ Ghost of Tsushima Single-Player Campaign Updates

In addition to Ghost of Tsushima: Legends, version 1.1 will include new updates for Ghost of Tsushima’s single-player campaign based on your feedback.

New Game+

If you’ve already beaten Ghost of Tsushima, you’ll find the option to re-embark on Jin’s Journey in New Game+. You’ll start New Game+ from the release to the open world, shortly after Jin’s initial confrontation with the Khan. You’ll keep all of the Techniques, Gear, and Vanity items obtained in a previous playthrough, and difficulty will be increased to provide a new challenge (but you can still adjust it down in the menu).

You’ll also find yourself with a brand new New Game+ horse, which features a vibrant red mane and unique saddle. There are also new, extremely powerful Charms available that can help Jin unleash devastating attacks and may change the way you play. You’ll also be able to unlock an additional upgrade for your sword, bow, and armor.

We’ve also added some new Trophies for playing Ghost of Tsushima on New Game+, which will appear in a separate section of your Trophy list and do not count toward Ghost of Tsushima’s Platinum Trophy.

—Ghost Flower Merchant

Exclusively in New Game+, you’ll be able to earn a new type of flower: the Ghost Flower. This new type of flower can only be earned in New Game+, and is accepted by a mysterious new merchant that you’ll find in Ariake. If you complete a Tale or activity and already have the reward, you’ll earn Ghost Flowers in its place, so even if you’ve completed Jin’s journey before, it’s still exciting to explore Tsushima once again to collect as many Ghost Flowers as you can.

You can exchange these flowers for new armor dyes and other vanity gear only found in New Game+, featuring much more elaborate designs than those found in your first playthrough.

The merchant will also offer an array of powerful new Charms intended to create new combat experiences, empower existing playstyles, and allow you to customize your experience for even greater challenges!

Other Features

Once you’ve installed version 1.1, you’ll now find the option to enable Armor Loadouts, which allow you to assign all Charms and vanity items to each armor set to quickly swap between loadouts to match your playstyle and roleplaying preferences.

You’ll also find that your total play time is now displayed when you select a saved game file to load, and new options have been added to Photo Mode.

These features will apply to your existing game, or to a New Game + playthrough.