#saga series

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 2

Book summaries and submitted endorsements below:

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan (illustrated by Fiona Staples)

The sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in a sexy, subversive drama for adults.

Graphic novel, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, series, adult

The Last Binding trilogy (A Marvellous Light, A Restless Truth, A Power Unbound) by Freya Marske

Endorsement from submitter #1: "A trilogy of books set in a magical Edwardian England, the Last Binding series focuses on three queer couples who come together in order to solve a conspiracy threatening all magic. It’s a masterful blending of fantasy, historical fiction, and romance, with a splash of mystery and Wodehousian romp. Expect magical manor house parties with beautiful wallpaper, as well as explorations of power, trust, and what we owe the land. The prose is absolutely gorgeous and evocative. The characters and their emotional arcs form the beating heart of the story, intertwined with beautifully crafted romance. The worldbuilding feels organic and deeply rooted within this hidden magical society. These books are thoughtful, tender, scorching, and fun all at once."

Endorsement from submitter #2: "Utterly fantastic historical fantasy. Each book focuses on a subset of a larger character set. There is an overarching high stake magical plot, as well as different queer romances explored in each individual book."

Robin Blyth has more than enough bother in his life. He’s struggling to be a good older brother, a responsible employer, and the harried baronet of a seat gutted by his late parents’ excesses. When an administrative mistake sees him named the civil service liaison to a hidden magical society, he discovers what’s been operating beneath the unextraordinary reality he’s always known.

Now Robin must contend with the beauty and danger of magic, an excruciating deadly curse, and the alarming visions of the future that come with it—not to mention Edwin Courcey, his cold and prickly counterpart in the magical bureaucracy, who clearly wishes Robin were anyone and anywhere else.

Robin’s predecessor has disappeared, and the mystery of what happened to him reveals unsettling truths about the very oldest stories they’ve been told about the land they live on and what binds it. Thrown together and facing unexpected dangers, Robin and Edwin discover a plot that threatens every magician in the British Isles—and a secret that more than one person has already died to keep.

Fantasy, historical fiction, romance, magic, Edwardian, series, adult

[magicalinternetgurl]

MY TIER LIST

[satoshi-mochida]

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven releases today for the PS4/5, Switch and Steam.

[the-unlucky-trevor]

So I'm in a pretty bad headspace right now, so I'm thinking about creating a saga. It has no title, but I have given it the placeholder,

Project Wild

Project Wild is about a secret society of humans that have completely rejected modern society entirely and returned to wild. So much so that they wear masks of the animal they feel associated with or bound to, as well as fake tails, and they brought back a dead language. So basically a paradise for therians, otherkins, and pet regressors.

They've also created their own culture and village. They have farms, medicine huts, houses, and everyone's treated equally, and it's pretty queer and trans-positive, the exact opposite of modern society.

I have no idea what to write for this, but I plan on combining this with some of my other storylines into one.

I will take advice from any of you to help me make it better, because I genuinely have hope for it if I don't lose interest entirely.

[wristgun]

[superfamiblog]

Romancing Saga 3 (Square, 1995). English translation patch by Mana Sword.

[shinmothra13returns]

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven – Announcement Trailer

My body is absolutely ready.

[b1uemagnolia]

SaGa Scarlet Grace characters have so cool and colorful clothing, I love Tomomi Kobayashi’s art so muchhhh

[nmarfo]

Nintendo Direct was great!

Back with another one of these! I know I said I was gonna write about Bandai, but recent events have made me more confident with their output, one of them being the announcement of a New SpyXFamily game! Not much is known about it besides it revolves around Anya making a photobook, but honestly, that sounds fun, and I'll try and pick it up!

The next thing I was super interested in was Another Code: Recollections. Honestly, I'm curious to get this just for how unique it looks and I want to try it out.

I was introduced to the game Super Princess Peach by a streamer, so to see Peach get her own adventure in Princess Peach: Showtime was very cool! The game seems very magical girl-inspired, which I can't wait for!

The new Saga jumped out at me with the character designs, but that's all I can personally say about it. I might pick this up, but it honestly looks cool as shit!

Vaniileware is back with Unicorn Overlord! It looks amazing, but for the love of god, put you're games on PC PLEASEEEEEEEEEEEE-

The last thing I felt I was pretty invested in was Eiyuden Chronicle: Hundred Heroes. I've been following the game for a while and I'm honestly super curious to see how this is gonna turn out. I've never played Suikoden, but I'm VERY tempted to now.

But yea, that's pretty much everything I wanted to cover from the Nintendo Direct, though if you haven't seen it, I recommend it, it was a fun show, and there was nice stuff in between the big announcements, like Tomb Raider's original games getting remasters.

And yeah, I'm not talking about Thousand Year Door, I haven't played that game, so I don't feel I have the right to talk about it honestly.

I'll talk about State of Play and how that made me feel tomorrow. See you then!

[veebs-hates-video-games]

Ok I guess a few more random things just to help me keep track of myself.

I finally got around to trying Rabi-Ribi, and I was kind of expecting more from something that's 96% positive on Steam. Maybe it gets better later, but the first however much I played felt more like the kind of thing that gets a pretty solid 76%. Some of it is just personal preference, like I don't love how movement and stuff feels, but some of it is stuff like the pacing of cutscenes/dialogue being pretty atrocious. It's probably a thoroughly ok game, but I didn't really click with it enough to find out how it holds up later on.

So then I finally got back to Atelier Ryza after not touching it for like a year. It sure is a lot better after the also atrociously paced first few hours. It's not amazing, but it's pretty alright. It's cute and the crafting system is more enjoyable than in most games (which you'd kind of hope in a series built around it), and after the unbearably long intro where they introduce new stuff way too slowly it has enough different stuff for you to do that it gets into a pretty decent loop. I think I'm near the end but probably need another break from it, because I need another gear upgrade and to finish unlocking a few more recipes, and I just don't have it in me to farm more materials again right now. I'll get around to it eventually though. Probably.

The SaGa Emerald Beyond demo took me a little while before I had any idea what to make of it. I'm pretty sure it's the first SaGa game I've played since SaGa Frontier 2, and it was not reassuring that all the dialogue/cutscenes are static images and character cutouts (which is fine) that feel like they were made in Poser for an obscure webcomic like 20 years ago (this is not fine, or at least a lot less fine). They started to win me over pretty quickly with the FORBIDDEN MUSIC though, and even if the writing and story aren't amazing so far it's wacky enough to be entertaining. The combat system feels like it has a lot of potential though, and I'm sure I haven't even seen like 80% of the kinds of shenanigans it lets you pull. I'll probably try the full thing on sale eventually, but it's not a super high priority.

And also I finally played more of The Witcher 3 for the first time since at least 2022, although I don't think I had played more than a few hours or to use as a benchmark to test stuff since 2021, and I originally started it in 2020 when I finally upgraded my 2012 computer because I had to spend my disability backpay on something so I wasn't over the asset limit when I got approved. Anyway it's still great and one of my favorite games ever in a series composed entirely of games I've really liked since the first one was the only one, and that's despite thinking the combat isn't particularly good or fun and the inventory menus and stuff downright suck and other mild to moderate annoyances like that. All the stuff it does well is just so good that it overcomes all that for me. The writing and characters and world are all fantastic, and it's nice for a change to have mostly excellent voice acting instead of just good to very good like a lot of stuff I've been playing. It'll probably take a while and some more breaks to finish though, even if I've already put in like a hundred hours over the past four years, because with how much of the map is still full of question marks I could easily have another couple hundred to go.

[ya-kiri]

Just beat Saga Frontier for the first time, it's a pretty fun and underrated gem. I played the Remastered version.

[queereads-bracket]

Queer Adult SFF Books Bracket: Round 1

Book summaries below:

Saga by Brian K. Vaughan (illustrated by Fiona Staples)

The sweeping tale of one young family fighting to find their place in the worlds. When two soldiers from opposite sides of a never-ending galactic war fall in love, they risk everything to bring a fragile new life into a dangerous old universe. Fantasy and science fiction are wed like never before in a sexy, subversive drama for adults.

Graphic novel, science fiction, fantasy, adventure, series, adult

The Stars Too Fondly by Emily Hamilton

In her breathtaking debut—part space odyssey, part sapphic rom-com—Emily Hamilton tells a tale of galaxy-spanning friendship, improbable love, and found family.

So, here’s the thing: Cleo and her friends really, truly didn’t mean to steal this spaceship. They just wanted to know why, twenty years ago, the entire Providence crew vanished without a trace, but then the stupid dark-matter engine started on its own. Now these four twenty-somethings are en route to Proxima Centauri and unable to turn around while being harangued by a hologram that has the face and snide attitude of the ship’s missing captain, Billie.

Cleo has dreamt of being an astronaut all her life, and Earth is a lost cause at this point, so this should be one of those blessings in disguise that people talk about. But as the ship travels deeper into space, the laws of physics start twisting; old mysteries come crawling back to life; and Cleo’s initially combative relationship with Billie turns into something deeper and more desperate than either woman was prepared for.

Science fiction, romance, science fantasy, comedy, cozy scifi, adult

[littlestarxmilkyway]

Oh, horny mode fucking activated.

This route is about to have me utterly enthralled.

[satoshi-mochida]

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven demo now available - Gematsu

A demo for Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is now available for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam, Square Enix announced. Save data can be carried over to the full game when it launches.

Here is an overview of the demo and game, via its store pages:

About the Demo

In the demo, players can enjoy the opening part of the story, where Emperor Leon and his retinue take on Kzinssie of the Seven Heroes. Progress from the demo can be carried over to the full game.

About the Game

The fifth entry in the SaGa franchise returns as Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven a full 3D remake of the original 1993 RPG. Embark on an exciting adventure fit for both new players and long-time fans, highlighting classic and new SaGa franchise features, full Japanese and English voiceovers, rearranged compositions, and much more!

Story

In an age past, warriors known as the Seven Heroes fought to save humankind. Praise slowly turned to curses as their fellow Ancients came to fear their power and banished them to another dimension. Their good deeds lived on as legends passed down through the ages, foretelling that the Heroes would return when the world needed them most… True to the legend, the Heroes have reappeared…but their long exile has corrupted their forms and they now seek vengeance on all who wronged them. Take on the role of the Emperor of Avalon as legions of fiends spread across territories under the Heroes’ command. Defend your Empire across successive generations, expand your realm, and defeat the vengeful Seven Heroes one by one to save the world!

Key Features

Characters and Imperial Succession – Join forces with characters from over 30 different classes featuring a wide variety of professions and races, each with their own favored weapons, unique abilities, and effective tactics. Choose the next Emperor from this wide pool of candidates, each eligible to inherit the throne and become the next protagonist. The knowledge and abilities of previous rulers are passed down to the next through the mystical art of inheritance magic, forging a lasting bond between you and your chosen characters.

Free-Form Scenario – The game presents a unique story structure that offers a vast array of narrative experiences in response to your choices and which objectives you tackle first—from how you expand the Empire to what order you challenge the Seven Heroes. Your actions and decisions will dramatically alter the course of the Emperor’s journey.

Combat – The strategic turn-based battle system of the original has been further enhanced to a timeline system. Enjoy all the classic SaGa mechanics like “Glimmers,” where you learn new abilities whilst in the heat of battle, and “Formations,” which provide unique benefits to the retinue based on composition. Furthermore, the remake welcomes the new “United Attack” feature to perform combination attacks with your retinue members to turn the tide of battle!

Graphics – The original 2D pixel sprites are now modeled in full 3D while retaining their charming, familiar appearances based on the beautiful concept illustrations by Tomomi Kobayashi. All towns and dungeons are now also fully rendered with reworked terrains and layouts.

Difficulty Settings – Select from one of three difficulty levels to match your preferred playstyle, from Casual, Normal, to Hard (Classic). Casual offers a story-focused experience with less emphasis on battle, while Normal is recommended for veteran RPG players looking for a balanced game. Hard (Classic) is perfect for players looking for the brutal but satisfying challenge of the original 1993 version.

Music and Voices – Kenji Ito returns to present a beautiful soundtrack full of new arrangements! The music can be toggled between the original and new versions from the Options screen. Furthermore, all event scenes now feature full Japanese and English voice acting.

Romancing SaGa 2: Revenge of the Seven is due out for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Switch, and PC via Steam on October 24. Read more about the game here, here, and here.

Watch a new trailer below.

Tokyo Game Show 2024 Trailer

English

Japanese

[the-unlucky-trevor]

Project Wild update

//CW: PERIODS, BOOZE, PREGNANCY LOSS, VAMPIRISM//

I personified menstruation.

I actually did.

She's a demon who saps blood out of AFAB individuals every month to drink it like wine. It sounds.. absolutely disgusting now that I post it, but hey, it happened for me and it already sucks,

I don’t know about any religious practices, but I've come up with a legend where the Maskfolk (the therian individuals) got sick of the Blood Demon killing and drinking their livestock and getting drunk on it, so they banished her to Hell, so she got pissed and decided to curse THEIR people by making their females bleed every month.

The Maskfolk also say miscarriages are caused by the Blood Demon getting drunk

[kittenscookie]

Percy: Hey dad?

Poseidon: Yes Percy?

Percy: I was just wondering, you used to be pretty ruthless—what changed? What made you wanna turn over a new leaf?

Poseidon: *Gets violent phantom pains in the scars he received after pushing a man with really sexy thighs way too far*

Percy: Dad?

Poseidon: *Swallows* Well son, you get older, you mature, you realize some actions were definitely out of proportion, and some lessons don't need to be relearned...