#save me rpg elevator save me

[struexo]

I SAW THESE ON TWITTER BUT AUGRHHGHHSHHHSHHHBBSJNFJFJJFBFHDHBFF

I totally didn’t forget to post these. Haha. No siree.

[flovverworks]

thought about these again

[meglosthegreat]

Cities in RPGs Poll

I'm sure many of you, like me, have encountered the following problem when playing an RPG: You get to a city, and all of a sudden, the pacing seems to slow to a crawl. You are bombarded with quests, NPCs, and places to visit, and are hit with an overwhelming sense of paralysis as you try and parse together what to do first, or at all.

So, I'm curious as to how the placement of such cities in the overall progression of the game affects this feeling. I would like to know which of the following options, in your opinion, is the most effective place to introduce a city in a game.

[Examples of each and propaganda below]

No Large Cities: This tends to spread the burden of quest hubs out to several smaller towns or locations. Pros - you avoid the above problem entirely (a.k.a. the coward's way out). Cons - big cities are cool, and this way you don't get to see any.

Early-Game City: Generally this approach dumps the player immediately into the largest city in the game after a short intro/tutorial section. Pros - reduces the above pacing drag by putting it right at the beginning. Cons - hard to make a city an exciting setpiece when it contains largely early-game content, plus you risk overwhelming the player very early.

Mid-Game City: This usually places the main city at around the 1/3rd mark of the game, after you've first been through a smaller quest hub, and when the story is starting to ramp up. Pros - balances the potential pacing drag with not overwhelming the player immediately. Cons - easy for players to get 'stuck' there and not know when it is time to move on to other areas.

Late-Game City: Here, the main city serves as more or less the final act of the game, and is generally where the main plot will be resolved. Pros - save the coolest location for last, cities make for good stakes to a conflict with so many potential innocent lives on the line. Cons - greatest chance of falling into the pacing trap, hard to either make players care about the side content with the stakes so elevated, or make them care about the main content with so much new side content to enjoy.

Game is Mostly City: Taking the opposite approach of the first option to achieve the same result, these games tend to pace their cities out in stages or change them over time rather than have every area accessible from the start. Pros - usually you get more depth out of the city this way, while bypassing the pacing problem. Cons - you don't get to see much *but* the city, and this can make the game feel smaller.

If you have another method not covered here, or further thoughts on the types above, be sure to rb/share in the tags as I would love to hear them!

[demon-prosecuted]

RP GET TO KNOW YOU QUESTIONNAIRE.

NAME?: Rhys / Palette

PRONOUNS?: He/Him

MOST ACTIVE MUSES?: Right now? Edgeworth. But I'll probably be more active on Samuel Hayden and Zer0 once their respective new games come out next year.

RPG CLASS I'D BE: I tend to favor rogues. I like long-range combat and have an almost nonexistent social battery. As for Edgeworth.. I want to say he'd be a paladin.

FAVORITE COLOR: Purple! Which is amusing, since the muses I wright usually favor reds or blues.

FAVORITE TYPE OF THREAD: As expected for someone writing Edgeworth, I do love angst threads and exploring my muses' trauma and how it affects them. Though, I also love writing the slow burn and yearning that leads into a romantic relationship! It's fun to write the demiromantic feeling of "Oh, so that's what love feels like. I see." response that I had when I finally realized my feelings for my partner!

FAVORITE THING ABOUT MY MUSE: I love how realistically Edgeworth's trauma is handled. How he's never "fixed" or "saved", and the power of friendship doesn't cure him. Even after Phoenix defends him in 1-4, Edgeworth never gets over his earthquake and elevator phobia. He still mourns his father and is still recovering from everything he's gone through. He has a support system now, but his trauma never goes away - he simply learns to accept it as a part of himself.

HOW YOU LIKE TO RP: I prefer the formatting options and notifications that Tumblr provides, and it's a lot slower-paced than Discord RP servers. (Sometimes I need to deliberate for a while on what my muse will say, so those "real time texting" type servers stress me out.) I'm also pretty neutral on plotting vs winging it. I do enjoy talking ooc and discussing rough ideas on where our muses could go, but a vast majority of my threads are a "hey this might be cool" concept that isn't properly plotted out.

FAVORITE PLOTS: As of right now, I've been a huge fan of plots where Edgeworth might get hurt. I love plotlines that will affect my muse beyond that thread. It doesn't need to be a full event, but I try to make all of Edgeworth's interactions stick with him. He'll recall them in future interactions, and potentially reference them when talking to other people. So having something major and/or physical, like an injury, would be a really fun thing to explore!

WHERE YOU GET YOUR INSPIRATION FROM: I get a lot from the AA games themselves, particularly the first game and Investigations duology. But I feel like I also grab aspects from the Life is Strange and Nier/Drakengard franchises. And a lot of music. All of my tags on my blogs are song titles for a reason, eheh..

FACT ABOUT YOU: My ooc icons might be of Rotom, but I actually think Reuniclus or Hydreigon are my favorite Pokemon. Though, Rotom is still up there. I just prefer Rotom's expressions, and I feel their size and overall energy is more reflective of myself. (And I like the tech theme they have going on.) If I were to choose, Rotom Fan (or maybe Wash) would be my favorite form.

[un-favoredprotag]

>"....N-n-no I don't-- I-"

>[You begin to rub your face with your arms and turn away, feeling the awkardness of the conversation.]

>"Sir, w-why do people say your hot??...."

> "People say I'm hot? Well, I'm flattered!"

> "I guess I am, but I wouldn't really know. Do you think so?"

[catastrophic-crisis]

The Steam Next Fest for June 2023 is live, so here's some potential game demos to check out this weekend!

Sea of Stars | Press Kit

Turn-based RPG Sea of Stars offers a pretty polished looking package, using dynamic lighting to shade and light detailed pixel landscapes that offer a surprising amount of verticality and traversal options, inhabited by denizens animated with a delightful amount of character. In combat too, the game adds a surprising bit of interactivity to the turn-based combat with the option to react in real time to boost damage output or minimize incoming damage on top of the strategic "locks" and "combo" systems. What we've seen so far reflects the game studio's mission of "retro aesthetics, modern game design", with Sea of Stars building upon the traditional turn-based RPG formula to give it that little something extra.

And of course, it has fishing. The game is set to release August 29th, 2023.

Sea of Stars is a turn-based RPG inspired by the classics. It tells the story of two Children of the Solstice who will combine the powers of the sun and moon to perform Eclipse Magic, the only force capable of fending off the monstrous creations of the evil alchemist known as The Fleshmancer.

In Stars and Time | Website/Press Kit

RPGmaker-style time loop adventure In Stars and Time combines rock-paper-scissors-inspired turn based combat with plentiful party banter, creating a fun fantasy world to save from freezing time and capturing the feeling of having a bunch of friends all repeating the same phrase on Discord. This lightheartedness may be needed, if the crushing time loop shenanigans ahead are what they sound like.

But what seems like a handy trick to ensure victory quickly begins to weigh on Siffrin as he experiences the loop over and over with no end in sight. Unwilling to open up to their friends and companions, and with the literal weight of the world on their shoulders, can Siffrin find a way to break the loop before it breaks him?

El Paso, Elsewhere | El Paso, Elsewhere Is A Supernatural Take On Max Payne Shooting To Its Own Rhythm by Kurt Indovina for Gamespot

There's no dancing around it: El Paso, Elsewhere, the new action game from Strange Scaffold, is an unabashed homage to the 2001 seminal pulp-noir action classic Max Payne. It's an obvious influence that writer, director, and voice actor Xalavier Nelson Jr. isn't shying away from, but is hoping to elevate for a modern audience. During my hands-on preview of the game, he told me, "I'm not interested in recreating Max Payne; I'm interested in seeing what Max Payne could be next." And for eclectic developer Strange Scaffold, that means a supernatural neo-noir blood-stained journey through a dimension-shifting motel to stop the world from being overrun by vampires.... It's a sentiment that can be heard in the dialogue of El Paso, Elsewhere. A mantra that rings true to the studio's preceding outings in the medium: "So let's take it from the top, like a jazz standard, played in our own time, as loud as we dare," all of which is intersected with the sounds of guns being loaded, and hammers being cocked. It feels like Strange Scaffold is playing to the beat of its own gunfire with El Paso, Elsewhere. We'll have to wait and see how it all jams out when it releases in Fall 2023 for PC and Xbox Series X|S.

Loddlenaut | Press Kit

A relaxing yet satisfying game about cleaning a polluted ocean planet and taking care of the axolotl-like alien Loddles, Loddlenaut is a thesis-project-turned-commercial-release estimated to drop on Steam in 2023. Loddlenaut has you experiencing the satisfaction of blasting away grime and picking up garbage like gameplay out of something like PowerWash Simulator, but with a more relaxed style that streamlines cleaning and resource management in little ways. And the occasional cute swimming potato!

Loddlenaut takes inspiration from early-2000s pet-sims like Tamagotchi and the Chao Garden as well as more recent aquatic games like Subnautica and ABZÛ.

TOBOR no.2b | Website/Press Kit

You are a successor to a previous spy robot, tasked with surveilling and gathering intelligence on an abandoned underground kingdom.

Your dreams are filled with colorful nightmares, and your predecessor was terminated via what one might call "head explosion". Make sure to watch, record, and deduce in order to not meet the same fate.

Active Agent: TOBOR no.2b Mission start date: Immediately Assignment: Gather intelligence of Undercroft using our top of the line surveillance system. You are now an active agent of RA. You're a very important asset to the company. Rule one, DO NOT EMPATHIZE with any subject or event inside the surveillance camera. Rule two, DO NOT INTERFERE with any subject or event inside the surveillance camera. Rule three, DO NOT BETRAY RA CORPORATION. EVER. The outcome of a betrayal has always been consistent. TERMINATION.... Remember: Spying is the future, the future starts with you.

[weirding-way]

Okay we're talking about Baldur's Gate 3

So, I'm eyeball deep in the brain rot and I want to talk about the shit I've done so far across like three and a half playthroughs. Spoilers ahead, ye be warned, blah blah.

Favourite Quest: I really fucking loved the House of Hope. I've played enough RPGs to know that making a deal with a demon is a bad time so I turned Raphael down flat. His boss fight when I raided his place for the Orphic Hammer was EXCELLENT and I could vibe to his villain theme song for ages. It's a sign of good writing when I enjoy smacking the crap out of an antagonist.

Stupidest Thing I've Done: So there's an elevator platform in the Temple of Shar in Act II. And sometimes your party is Not Good at all being on the platform when you pull the lever. So Astarion, bless his pointy ears, got left behind down the bottom of the shaft. Fine, I sent the lift back down to pick him up. Only... he didn't move out of the way. This is how I learned that yes, lift platforms can insta-squash your companions. There was some mashing of F8 involved.

Least Favourite Quest: The Iron Throne fucked me up, man. I'm one of those must save everyone types and it gives me so much anxiety trying to save everyone down there. Even with about 20 scrolls of Dimension Door I am not looking forward to my next run through that thing.

ETA: okay the Iron Throne was fine with a metric fuckton of Potions of Speed. but godDAMN saving all the gondians at the iron foundry was FUCKING AWFUL, they have NO SELF PRESERVATION fucksake

Big Brain Moment: First playthrough, during the Cazador fight, I wondered what would happen if I had Shadowheart whip out her Daylight spell. Carnage. Carnage happened. Cazador never stood a chance. I thoroughly enjoyed stomping him into jam.

Core Party: My main run was with a Storm Sorcerer, and I mostly worked around that. Astarion basically never left the party because my Tav cannot pick locks for shit. Since my Tav is a glass cannon I needed Shadowheart a LOT to stop the whole dying thing. Last slot was usually Karlach because a) tank, and b) Karlach can GET IT.

Romance: Look, this game might as well be subtitled Bi Panic, because I was all set to romance Astarion when Karlach happened. I did go for Astarion, but my next playthrough with my bard is all Karlach all the time.

[annalyticall]

Thoughts on Mass Effect 1

Similar to what I did for Dragon Age, I wanted to summarize my thoughts on another Bioware Trilogy as I completed each game. I just finished the original Mass Effect as part of the legendary edition, so here we are.

The Shepard that I'm dedicating to for this trilogy is Shiv Shepard, a colonist Sole Survivor. She's a sentinel and, over the course of the game (playing as a commander with survivor's guilt and a vow to save as many lives as possible under her command), maxed out the Paragon meter.

(As you can see I had a little fun with Photo Mode lol)

Major decisions include: sparing the Rachni Queen, sparing the colonists on Feros, sacrificing Ashley, romancing Kaidan, saving the Council, and promoting Captain Anderson as the human councilman. Besides Ashley, all squadmates were recruited and lived.

Full thoughts in a list of pros and cons under the cut:

The Good:

Graphics: Perhaps because this is legendary edition, the graphics were much better than I was expecting, and I could tell it was made on an upgraded engine than Dragon Age Origins. The characters emoted well, or at least the human and asari ones did.

Ammo: One thing I dislike about shooters is ammo management. Having unlimited ammo was nice for a change, and let me free up my attention to learning the abilities instead.

Voice Acting: Jennifer Hale absolutely carries Female Shepard, she makes the character for me. Other voice actors did great as well.

Interplanetary Politics: It did take me some time to get acquainted with the political structure of the game, but once I did I was intrigued by the unique role humans played in it all as relative newbies to the game, and how differently the drive to prove their species worthy to the alien council manifests in different human characters.

Environments: Besides the side mission planets (I'll get into that), the main story locations like the Citadel were beautifully designed, if a little difficult to navigate at first.

The Bad:

Repetitive Side Missions: MY GOD. I wish I could say these didn't ruin the game for me but they kind of ruined the game for me. I didn't mind the side missions on locations like the Citadel or the main story planets, but every other side quest was basically: land on a remote planet that's a copy of every other planet but with different textures. Get your car stuck in some rocks. Find a base. Clear out enemies in the main room. Find an important file/hostage in the back room. Rinse and repeat. After like 30 of those I wanted to pull my hair out. I get that maybe I didn't have to do all of them, but I also didn't want to be wrong and find out later that sidequests would have saved lives or something.

No Party Banter: Hello? Even Dragon Age Origins had this, and honestly, party banter was at least half the reason why I fell in love with those characters. These characters don't talk to each other except when in an elevator, and that makes them all feel rather hollow. None of them seemed to have a relationship/opinion with other characters, or if they did, it was lukewarm at best. I was disappointed.

Romance: The options are limited, for one. I think I would have chosen Kaidan anyway, but I wish Garrus and/or Tali were available. I didn't choose Liara because I wasn't vibing with it, what with feeling like a research subject more than a love interest to her. I figured Kaidan had some great potential in the beginning, but that was squandered when I continued 90% through the game without so much as a flirtatious line. Come on man. I understand this is a military setting and there are regulations but I need that YEARNING you know. That pining and devotion. I need Roy/Riza 2.0 is what I'm saying. I didn't get even a fraction of that and I'm sad about it.

Talk No Jutsuu: Sorry but even with the maxed-out Charm skill and Paragon dialogue options I don't think Shepard would have so easily talked down some of these people. I get that RPGs take liberties with this, hell Dragon Age does it too, but it seems much more glaring an issue in this game. I'll be talking to a homicidal cult leader and because I say "don't do this, this isn't in your heart uwu" he's like oh shit you're right I'll turn myself in. I don't buy it and it takes me out of it.

Glitches: More than even Dragon Age, I ran into a lot of glitches that would make sections nearly unplayable and I would have to restart from a long-past save, which was incredibly frustrating.

The Squad:

Kaidan: I've read that people think Kaidan is boring but I don't think he is. I actually really like that he's a good-natured well-adjusted guy that doesn't have any drama surrounding him, despite the trauma he suffered in his past. He's got layers, and it makes him feel more real to talk to than some of the other teammates, which is why I guess I gravitated to him as a romantic interest. Still would have liked some more romantic lines though.

Ashley: I was not a fan of hers, in the beginning, what with her automatic distrust of all the alien crew. After talking to her some more about her family and motivations, she did start to grow on me, but it wasn't enough to keep me from sacrificing her on Virmire.

Garrus: I can see why he's so popular, he's fun and a good-hearted renegade. With Kaidan, he became my most used teammate simply because I liked his commentary on things. We'll see if I ever decide to romance him though since he felt less like a love interest to me and more like a wily little brother I had to reel in sometimes lol

Tali: Tali my beloved. I love her, she's so sweet and I loved her excitement around technology. I would have romanced her if I could. I don't have much more to say besides I'm excited to see her in future games.

Liara: I am completely neutral on Liara. I liked her well enough but she referred to everything with such a sterile scientific lens that it was hard for me to care about her deeper than that. I'm curious where her character will go though, I know she's important to the franchise overall.

Wrex: I was also rather neutral about Wrex, though I liked his determination to overcome the Krogan disease affecting his people. I just never felt like I had a great reason to bring him along.

Overall I thought Mass Effect was just okay. The villain was serviceable, the plot was followable, and the missions were engaging enough to keep me playing. I'd say the only reason why I stuck it out though was to get to Mass Effect 2, which I hear is much better, and I really hope that's true.

Overall Score: 6/10

[omniversalobservations]

Epic Rap Battles Of History (2021)

Prologue:

All right, I guess I'll be the one to draw First Blood.

Or maybe you could draw an audience to see any of your new movies.

Come out to the coast; we'll have a few laughs. Sounds sweet!

But no, I'm stuck here with these two jerkweeds,

About to kick their ass with bare feet! Argyle, drop the beat! John McClane:

I'll set it off like the top of Nakatomi!

Need a fire hose to swing on you; you're both so below me!

I haven't stopped killing it since Karl's brother, Tony,

And I got your detonators right here, blow me! (Oops!)

Ship your booby traps home, Rambo,

'Cause you'll never take the W without the P and O!

Does your lip hang low? Does it wobble to and fro?

Can you string that shit up on your compound bow?

And lighten up, Wick, with your brooding saga.

How about a little hakuna matata, Baba Yaga?

You got the trousers tapered and the watch, Bucherer,

But your acting falls flatter than the Hans Gruber!

Leave the underground coin game to Mario Brothers.

And John, Bubbe, what the fuck's with the chest butter?

That bandolier looks heavy as shit!

I'm like this prick's ring finger: only need one clip!

C'mon! I been sharp as shattered glass since the late '80s,

And like your late pup, I'll leave you pushing up daisies!

Less is more, boys; that's my advice!

You, less survival knife; you, more survival wife! John Wick:

…Ooh.

I'm gonna need a dinner reservation for two.

John Wick, I'm efficient and lean.

A proficient, professional killing machine!

Underworld overachiever looking dapper as I'm bucking.

Only one of us to go three chapters without sucking.

Between your elevator and the mine where you were trapped,

You're such weiners, I should call you both John Shaft.

I craft rhymes with pencils, then jam 'em in necks,

So I'm not vexed by vets flexing 'roid-injected pecs!

Being excommunicado wasn't more than I could handle,

So I think I can withstand an excremental ex-commando!

And this sad, broken dad-joking popo is no foe

For the hurt-you-oh-so-bad virtuoso!

Ho ho ho to quivers and bows. I'm delivering blows,

And when they land, it won't help to make fists with your toes!

Bitcoin? No. Hitcoin? Certainly.

I'll put you two in tombs, call it cryptocurrency.

Obey your superior like good cops and soldiers.

Raven, Roy, you're done. Over. John Rambo:

Nothing is over! Nothing! You just don't turn it off!

Unless... it's one of your movies. In which case… I just turn it off! Huh!

When I rip off my shirt and start swinging my stick swords,

I'm hotter than the suicide girls on your switchboards!

My headband's red, but I've got no love for commies!

And no juice was used to produce these armies!

Your High Table rules don't apply to this conflict!

I'll finish you right in the lobby! Mission accomplished!

McClane! South is where your marriage went!

The last tight thing you slid in was an air vent!

They used to say you were a handsome crusader.

Too bad your hairline couldn't be saved by Steve Urkel's neighbor. Oh!

I slip into the jungle, disappear like a ghost,

Then ding! I pop up hot behind ya like toast!

I seek peace, but I'm packing Parabellum.

I was trained to be the very best soldier boy! Tell 'em!

I'll blast an RPG through NYPD's guts!

Simon Says you can PTSDeez nuts! John McClane:

Jesus Christ, asshole! Whattaya doing?

This is not some Saturday morning cartoon for you to ruin! John Rambo:

The only thing getting ruined is McClane family Christmas!

All your kids still have "decent dad" on their wishlist! John McClane:

Whoa! Rambo's droppin' bombs in his flows!

Did your pals in the Taliban help you write those? John Wick:

Those were mujahideen; there's a difference.

The Taliban formed in the '90s, when you fell off with a vengeance. John McClane:

Hey! Who the fuck asked you, dog pound?

Why don't you go lock your mouth in a hole in the ground? John Rambo:

Hole! Lock!! Arghhhhgh!!! John Wick:

You're both a funeral suit away from presentable.

I'm thinking I'm back, and I'm thinking you're expendable! John McClane:

You wanna Die Hard? Well, today's a good day!

Let's go, motherfuckers! Yippee-ki-yay!

Scrapped lyrics John Rambo:

You think stepping on glass hurts, McClane?

Do a few tours in 'nam, then you can't complain!

Go home, little piggy, or get butchered by my knife!

I've already dealt with enough asshole cops in my life!

None of you could fit my shoes that is the power of Rambo!

Even Arnold failed to rip my shtick when he went Commando!

I'm Rocky and roll, best soldier you've ever seen!

My rhymes destroy you faster than an M16!

Source: Epic Rap Battles of History Wiki

(images via YouTube)

[talenlee]

Game Pile: I Was A Teenage Exocolonist

Watch this video on YouTube

Script and Thumbnail below the fold!

I was a Teenage Exocolonist is a game from Northway Games that came out in 2022, a year when I am more and more feeling like media production did something weird to affect me, personally, deliberately. It launched on Basically Everything, including macOS and Linux, which speaks to a desire to include people in this big sprawling game that Wikipedia calls an RPG, that the Steam copy calls a Narrative RPG and which I keep thinking of as a dating sim.

[pops, neutral expression]

In this game, you’re going to play a character that starts out as a ten year old on a colony ship, which then lands and explores the story of a human colony on an alien world, for the first time in history. You follow the character across a sequence of years, confronting challenges, learning about who you are and who you want to be, developing experiences with other people, which you will save and slot into a deck of cards you then use to overcome challenges later. This is a game I find incredibly exciting and I like playing and I like enjoying is experiences it offers me and that’s great. Especially if you know me and my personal challenges grappling with playing and enjoying visual novels.

[scrolls]

When I say it’s a ‘visual novel’ or ‘dating sim’ I want to do that in a way that properly puts respect on the term. Because I think it’s very reasonable to describe I Was A Teenage Exocolonist as being in the same genre as Roommates, in the same way that Wolfenstein 3D and Battlefield 1941 are games in the same genre. There’s a lot of fundamental ideas that are lined up, but one of them has access to a lot more different ways to express their ideas.

There’s a pre-emptive sneer in the critical space around visual novels and dating sims. When Dokidoki Literature Club was The Topic, there were a lot of people like me, who don’t play many games in the genre, talking about one game that was doing something remarkable that they hadn’t seen before, and used that to suggest this game elevated the form. I found this discourse tiresome, because the game didn’t really do anything that surprised me, which was I think a byproduct of my being aware that it wasn’t doing anything new in the genre. That whole period made me cautious about talking too decisively, too seriously, about what the game genre does or has in it, because what I’m mostly aware of is the things I don’t know about. Ahah, people muse, what about these interesting ideas of a game that tells you it doesn’t want to play with you? Isn’t that interesting? Isn’t that something new? All while ignoring that the game is very much not doing that, and also, that this is something games have been doing for decades in that genre.

I’m not saying I’m a better critic than people who were impressed by Dokidoki Literature Club mind you.

(Maybe a little)

Point is, that it’s very possible to describe IWATE as a visual novel and dating sim and have that feel like I’m presenting it in the wrong way. I could just as much try and call it a deck builder, or a life simulator, or yes, a roleplaying game and those wouldn’t be wrong ways to describe it otherwise. Thing is, why NOT describe it as a dating sim? It’s a game where the mechanics of romances and relationships are front-and-centre, with room for players to explore them, and it seems to me that they’re as important as any amount of shooting Geth is to Mass Effect. If you want to define ‘dating sim’ and ‘visual novel’ down to the point where this game can’t be included you’re kind of paring down what those genres can even be in a way that’s deliberately designed to exclude almost every form of those games that doesn’t fit a very narrow band. Basically, it’s saying ‘these things are boring because anything that isn’t boring isn’t one of them, definitionally.’

And if you know me, you know how much I don’t tend to buy definitional arguments when it comes to game experiences.

So.

IWATE is a dating sim.

It’s a really, really good one.

It’s a visual novel.

It’s a really, really long one.

I am not a big reader, as may surprise those of you who see the amount of words I put out or the books I have to engage with for my study. I do not, typically speaking, like reading a lot, and it’s partly because I need to do A LOT of reading. My reading is compulsory and it’s slow and it’s difficult. When I don’t have to read – not BOOKS at least – I do kinda try and do that instead for my leisure time.

There’s a lot of reading in IWATE. It is honestly so vast a reading task that I do not feel confident – a mere twenty four hours of playing through the game – being confident about what is or is not in the text. I can’t say that there’s not some plot spur or some specific idea that I personally wouldn’t like, because there’s just so much of it. And what’s more, as a game, any given play through is going to show you just one particular version of it.

A text where there are multiple versions that you’re expected to experience in multiple different iterations is a hypertext. Some pre-digital hypertexts include things like ambigrams, sentences that change meaning when read backwards, or mystery novels. It’s not a new thing, it’s just a thing we needed terms for when we started talking about videogames, and then realised that, once again, videogames were connecting to a longer, greater culture of engagement with art.

Point is, that IWATE is an extremely hypertextual game; it’s full of different choices and ways to engage with its problems, and I think it shaped my experience of the game trying to imagine what it might be doing or might be about to do. I thought it was really interesting, and I didn’t want to just list to you, hey, here’s stuff I cared about in this game, in a way that meant when you played the game (because I think odds are good you will like this game). Part of what I liked about IWATE’s experience was the way that the game I engaged with in the beginning wound up presenting totally reasonable changes to my expectations. Basically, stuff I thought I’d care about in ten years when I was ten, I did not care about the same way – my relationships were shaped by randomness and circumstances and I wound up feeling entangled in a story in a way I wouldn’t have chosen to be.

This enmeshing is really interesting and I know when I loop back through this story, I’m going to do it without these changes being unexpected. It’s going to change how I relate to things in this game, and for that reason… I kind of don’t want to show you too much about what’s in the game. Hence this video being full of slow pans across promotional art and uh, me.

But I don’t want this to just come across as a sort of token effort of a video, I don’t want you to look at this and come away with ‘wow, IWATE is a big game and Talen hasn’t played all of it yet, because that would take ages.’ What I want to talk about instead, and what I keep thinking about as I play IWATE is the work of one Roger Caillois.

<intro to Caillois>

Roger Caillois or ROGER KY-LOIS for those of you who’ve only ever read his name rather than heard it said aloud, was a French intellectual whose career started out before World War 2 and kept on publishing until he died in 1978 and then, because he was influential and wrote a lot of stuff that’s still being translated and published, kept publishing until 2006, which is pretty good running for a dead guy. If you want to frame him as positively as possible, Caillois was part of an academic tradition that sought to involve as many people as possible from as many different places, and founded the academic journal Southern Cross, which helped introduce authors like Jorge Luis Borges and Victoria Ocampo to French-speaking audiences. If you want to be a little less charitable, he was an advocate for western oppressive and exploitative colonialism as a necessary good to correct the failings of all other cultures that existed at a level of civilisational quality below the level of white western Europeans.

What can one say, of course, but yikes.

I could spend a lot of time talking about different criticisms of Caillois from the funny (he hated clowns) to the vague (he was very good at intellectualising what was ultimately only his personal experience and generalising that out) to the deeply damaging (he didn’t respect women or nonwhite people at all). But instead I want to talk about one of his most well-known contributions to academic culture, with the proper framing up front so you know full well that these ideas did come from someone who needs to be considered with a degree of scrutiny. He’s responsible for the book Man Play and Games, which is probably? his most influential book.

In Man Play and Games, Caillois describes a lot of ideas. He talks about the idea of cultures’ destiny, reflected in their games, and about the distinction between types of play as expressive or rules structured – a paradigm of ludic play, versus paidic play. Then he describes a model of game classification, for considering different games not based on the components that are in them, or their length or size or form or outcomes, but instead about what experience motivates people to play them. And I want to talk about this model, because I think it can be a great way to look at IWATE, a game that can offer you everything.

First up, the summary: Caillois considers games to be broken into four basic motivating factors, reasons people play them, things they play them for. They are agon, alea, ilinx and mimicry.

Agon refers to competitive overcoming of obstacles. Agonic games are games where difficulty are important, games where you’re meant to be able to test your skill. You might recognise good examples of agonic games such as the Indian game chaturanga or the Japanese game go, games with a lot of open information and correct forms of play building around strategic windows. You might recognise it, but Caillois didn’t – he didn’t think Asian games produced meaningful examples of Agonic play.

Alea refers to games of chance, where your best choices are going to be consigned to the whims of fate. Caillois liked to connect this to his existing ideas of the sacred and divine, like there’s some part of people that just wants to give up offerings, but we don’t need that here, not really. I just think Aleatic games are games where players need a random, chance-based element, because they are looking for that feeling of getting lucky.

Ilinx refers to games of vertigo, of the voluptuous panic of a loss of control of the senses. This is your games where you’re losing the ability to perceive and experience things correctly. If you’re having a hard time thinking of games of ilinx, then think about things you see little kids doing: Spinning on the spot, rolling down hills, swinging on ropes. Or maybe that’s monkeys. Caillois argued that adult games of ilinx didn’t exist until the invention of the roller coaster. I argue that this means nobody invited Caillois to any really good parties. Drinking games, playing videogames while stoned, these are ilinx experiences, and you play in part to enjoy that experience of not being in control of your experiences and perception.

Then there’s Mimicry, which refers to games about being or pretending to be another person. These are games of simulation, of recreated experiences, which you may recognise from almost every videogame you’ve ever played in the past twenty years, since these days it’s very common for videogames to include some kind of character for you to inhabit as an agent. But most keenly you’ll see this stuff in play experiences like roleplaying games or life simulators.

And then there’s a secret, fifth thing.

Now, Caillois believed that games were fundamentally games of these traits. Chess is an agonic game, because it’s played for a winner and a loser with open information and people are trying to get better at it. If you’re not doing that you’re not playing chess. Which betrays one of the ways Caillois’ thinking was kinda bent at odd angles to mine. I don’t think games are agonic, I think you play games in agonic ways. There are absolutely people who play Chess in ways that aren’t agonic, they’re thinking about some other way to play, they’re looking at rules systems and aiming for a particular vibe, a joke to pull, or whatever. Chess is not agonic, it’s just we culturally, assert that chess should be treated as if it is only agonic.

And it’s that distinction – that you can use these tools to experience games in different ways – that brings me to IWATE.

IWATE is a game of Agon. There’s a lot of reading to do but at its beating heart is a resolution system that operates as a good-faith puzzle game where you spend time getting yourself the best puzzle pieces that are meant to function together in as optimal a way as you can. Your cards are known to you – you can refine them with currency and you can amplify them with stats you build up through carefully chosen processes. The game pieces are not random and do not ask of you to guess what they do in any given interaction. If you want to, you can math out layers upon layers of game strategy, and optimal play involves correct routing and correct execution. It can even be unlocked into a harder mode so that you need to do this to push through the game’s challenges. While losing isn’t the end of the story, you can always, always approach problems with a mindset that this is somehow winnable. It competes with you, it defies you, and it keeps escalating and demands you escalate with it. And then when you feel like you’ve failed, you can loop back through and do it all again, harder, and armed with more knowledge.

IWATE is an game of Alea. There is a constant presence of gambling in the game, where sometimes all you can do is consign your fate to the cards presented to you. You are going to accumulate cards (if you don’t try and stop it) and that means you’re going to wind up over the course of the story naturally building up a collection of memories that are at the very least, unreliable or weird or don’t fit together well, and the ways to approach and experience as much of the game as is possible mean you’re going to wind up believing in the heart of the cards and stacking a lot of Ls when they don’t come through for you. This is setting aside the social elements of the game too – there are a lot of things that have a chance to just go wrong because the game is unpredictable in a lot of deliberate ways. Keeps you on your toes. You need to capitalise on random respawns and lucky encounters because you won’t always get the best versions of things you want. You need to be at least a little bit lucky.

IWATE is a game of ilinx. Oh sure the game doesn’t reach in through your USB port and get you high, and there’s no playing with proprioception that you might get from a VR game or, try to scramble your brains through nonsexual sissy hypno like 1995’s Zoop — [annoyed]what do you mean I’m the only person who remembers Zoop? — but the character you play is constantly being thrown through a series of experiences that are about a sudden and panicking loss of control. The helplessness of being a child in a truly alien space aside, there are numerous encounters in the story that are about an immediate and wholehearted loss of control over your own body regardless of what the rules say. And your character does kinda get high a few times, as their consciousness is expanded by other’s actions. This is a really interesting thing to consider, because the game’s only recourse to make you experience this ilinx is not to deprive you of agency or information, but to instead instil in you what it feels like to feel this way, with metaphor and simile.

IWATE is a game of mimicry. It’s a life simulator game, where you get to settle into the identity of this kiddo in space who is going to go through the weirdest thing in their life (so far). You’re going to choose what they prioritise, who they prioritise, what they do with their limited time as a child and what those priorities mean for you. Are you a planner? Do you have set goals? Or do you just handle what comes your way? How well do you stick to the plan if you have one? Do you think you can stick to it even when confronted with an ugly, unpleasant choice? What, and who, and how do you care about things? Not just the character but you, as that character?

…

What’s that?

Why, that’s Astrid Ensslin’s music!

Yeah, so the history of games studies is a lot of white dudes in privileged positions deciding hey, you know, games are pretty much like this and not connected to anything else, and then women, queers, and people of colour (and queer women of colour) showing up afterwards to say hey, no, actually, people’s material conditions do matter here. In Caillois’ model, he conceived of those four reasons people might engage with a game, but that is missing a category that Ensslin describes in Literary Gaming: Rhythmos.

Rhythmos is engaging with a game because of the pure intersection of its rules as systems. It’s the kind of people who find the way that game behaviour all slots together neatly satisfying, the people who like finishing their turns with no leftover points, or pare a speedrun down to its minimum frames. Rhythmos is the play experience of liking the interaction of rules in interlocking systems for their own beneficial form. Rhythmos is using all eight letters on your first turn in Scrabble and it is ghost-running a Dishonored level without using any stun darts. Rhythmos cares about the things that can be done in the rules and the ways those executions can be done perfectly…

And IWATE is a game of Rhythmos, because of just how everything in its vast sprawling spread of interactions beckons to you with the idea of a perfect run. You can tell there are choices to be made, you can see there are places you waste investment and overflow and if you can just talk to everyone in the right order, if you can approach this system in the right way, map out the right direction next time, you should be able to unlock all these things and hit this goal and successfully make the whole thing fit together like a puzzle box of numbers.

Thing is, IWATE has a lot of different reasons to want to engage with it. You can approach it in a lot of different ways. Some of those ways are going to be incredibly engaging. I know I found it got its hooks in me hard and I had to literally assign myself homework with a post-it note on my desk to make sure I didn’t just open it up and vaporise a second day on it.

And there’s something else that’s covertly missing from IWATE.

See, growing up, you are going to have decisions about yourself, about your priorities, that you’re going to make and things that are going to change. You might find, like I did, at some point, that one of the people you assume is just as good as everyone else needs to get hit with a brick. Something that IWATE has space for and doesn’t do is a grapple with your own sexuality or gender, too. At any point in IWATE you can decide you want to try out some new pronouns, a new appearance, just pivot your slider over to the side and things are different now.

It’s interesting because it’s a reminder that for all there are things about your character that are a little bit defined, bumpers you bounce against on the way to your end of the story, they are also details that the game leaves entirely up to you to express. You get to choose if that’s a thing you want your exocolonist to do during the story. There is a room for where you play, where there are rules, but also there is a space for individual expression

It’s this space that Caillois – who died shortly after the first videogames were being made – describes:

This latitutde of the player, this margin accorded to his action is essential to the game and partly explains the pleasure which it excites. It is equally accountable for the remarkable and meaningful uses of the word ‘play,’ such as are reflected in such expressions as the playing of a performer or the play of a gear, to designate in one case the personal style of an interpreter, in the other the range of movement of the parts of a machine.

Roger Caillois, Man Play and Games, page 8

IWATE is an amazing game.

And it wants you to play with it.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

#GamePile #Games

[lazodiac]

Once more into the breach! Join me and @qwertystop as we continue our text comparision of Ar Tonelico 2's original translation and the fan translation, now along-side the original Japanese script courtesy of her own bit of song magic, OVERLANG.

Video Length: 3:34:44

Shockingly not a lot to talk about, despite advancing the plot. We head to the slums to locate the elevator to the Gyro Stabilizer, are blocked by the Divine Army robos… and saved by the Cloche Fan Club, Reine and a new character, which Qwerty absolutely called hell yeah. With those dealt with, we then descend into the deepest part of the tower we can access, within the Sea of Death, a dangerous area sure to test our might…

… which the game promptly forgets is the set up because not only is there no sign of the Sea of Death anywhere within the facility, not only are we fighting enemies that barely register on the scale, there isn't even a dungeon to really go through! It's just a straight shot up to the end, then a straight shot down, then back up. Unless you're Qwerty and playing the fan translation, which pulls perhaps the funniest prank of all time; dummying back in the actual dungeon mechanics!

Though to call them mechanics is… rather generous. The final room, where the Veela crystal we're after, is located has two barriers on either side of it. One must go to the very top of each pathway to click an non-descript button to deactivate both, so that we can even get to it. This is an advanced form of the dungeoneering we've done in the rest of the game purely in the sense that it is now TWO buttons instead of just one that must be found, but is otherwise, I feel, kind of a mistake?

The dummied out text we've seen so far has mostly just been additionally asides in the cutscenes that don't REALLY add much, but putting them back in seems fine to me, but I have a feeling the developers dummied these barriers out for a reason- in this case, because the entire conceit of the dungeon is to get to the top, encounter the Divine Beam, learn you need to go back down to find its control crystal, then climb back up to face it. On either of these loops back, you can go the path you didn't on your way up and thus do a complete sweep of the area, and it is likely by the end of the dungeon you'll have drained all the encounters (Qwerty drains them all a little sooner due to having to find the damn buttons, but if I hadn't been running from fights I would have ran out of them just about before the boss itself). So perhaps the devs decided this kind of busy-work puzzle wasn't necessary for the mechanical pacing of the game, and so removed it- but due to time constraints couldn't fully remove it, so just left it unactivated. One could argue that turning it back on makes the dungeon more… of anything, given the fact that this area is supposed to BE something important and threatening world wise, and it really just isn't at all, but I think 100 hours into an RPG there needs to be some give and take between "interesting dungeon" and "you're searching for two buttons".

Anyway, lets talk about the Divine Beam as well, since it is like, legitimately a thing. While it doesn't do much damage, and its minions (while threatening early game) are basically nothing, it has a funny prank to pull as well… a prank that I fell into and Qwerty avoided, because symmetry is fun. As it turns out, despite this being a manufacturer for the Divine Army, when you destroy its minions it doesn't make more… it enters ARMAGEDDON MODE and proceeds to try its absolutely damndest to turbo murder you in defense of itself. It will occasionally use its weaker "clean shot" attack, but more of its moves are gonna be things like Heat Ray that roasts a vanguard and their reyveteil, or DEATH WAIL that seemingly just instant kills people??? And Judgement Blade, a move that feels like a charged special that hits the whole party and is quite dangerous, is just a basic move too! Wow! Game has teeth when it wants to I guess!

But with the Beam defeated, and power successfully cut to the shield around the Veela crystal, we pick it up and prepare for the next leg of our journey- installing it to Luca and singing the song that'll reveal the Tower to the world. I'm excited for it, but we'll take a look at it next time!

… huh. I had more to talk about than I expected.

[pokemoneverlastingorchard]

Download 4/5/2024

Link to the blog page that has the download

I'm so FUCKING PISSED right now! All I fucking try to do is make sure you could fly to some place, and that somehow corrupted my entire fucking save. So I have to have a new save and do EVERYTHING all fucking over again. (If I try to give myself a head start with say, Pierce, a lot more problems will happen.)

Also at least one town can't be flown to. I'm not going to fucking try that ever again.

I'm not going to bother testing anything for a while probably, which is too bad because I was pretty much ready to test the marriage and children.

I fucking hate this. Out of every fucking RPG Maker in the world they had to choose one that's 20 years old!

---

-You can buy the bed and cribs now.

-Went down to floor 150 of Augusta Cave. I tried to fight the battle but couldn't because the rule "cannot run from battle" wasn't working. I looked up why not and apparently I can't use that rule with the wild Pokemon that's there? Then why would you program it, huh?!

So now you can run from boss battles in the cave.

-I expanded the bedroom.

-Oversimplified the elevator in the cave, because I don't care enough to fix it in the way I had it working before.

-I've deleted Floors 34-Whatever number I was on of the original Augusta Cave, so leave the cave if you're still in the cave when the Pokemon are completely random and not out in the overworld. (At least go up to 33. You SHOULD just leave altogether though.)

-When looking through the images to see if I needed to make any backgrounds transparent I noticed that there was a "safety copy" of the "flying" icon with a blank image replacing it. I don't know what the script expects me to do with that, so I just replaced the map icon with the most gender neutral thing I could think of.

-I forgot to put the clock on your bedroom wall. So basically up until now you had an invisible clock.

-Tested flying to the new winter maps. (All two of them.)

+Did a bunch of small things that I forgot to do before because they were small.

+Tested and adjusted the remaining gyms as needed

+Replace the list of things I need to code with a list of things I need to test here. (Some things might have been repeated.)

+Was able to test an event that happens during a thunderstorm. (It stormed by chance!)

+Tested almost all flying locations. One wasn't working so I tried to make it work. Game got fucking corrupted. Have to play for fucking hours to test the remaining town. Fuck you, you're walking to that one town every time.

[tracinginwardinvestigation]

Play #2: Tokyo Xanadu: the power of the mundane

Every now and then, I still remember fondly about my playthrough of Tokyo Xanadu, a game that should have been the most generic action anime game ever, yet it is not. Released in 2015, Tokyo Xanadu is a Falcom ARPG that takes inspiration from both Ys and The Legends of Heroes (Trails for short), Falcom’s two flagship series. In many ways, the gameplay feels uninspired: it has a simplified version of Ys’ combat with Trails of Cold Steel’s orbment customization. The plot itself too is nothing exceptional. The premise of Tokyo Xanadu is basically your run-of-the-mill action anime: after getting caught up in a supernatural incident, the protagonist Kou gains a superpower that lets him fight evil monsters in a mysterious realm called the Eclipse; together with his friends, who follow typical high school shounen archetypes, he seeks to protect his city from this supernatural disaster. Yes, it is that cliché.

And yet, despite all of these unoriginal features, the game still manages to make me fall in love with its charm, all thanks to Falcom’s mundane writing style.

As an avid JRPG fan, I’m used to the fact that most generic NPCs in these games tend to only serve as a gameplay mouthpiece to feed players information or tips. However, that usage is rarely the case in Falcom games, where nearly all NPCs have their own small plotlines that can extend across several games. This NPC writing style is often best associated with the Trails series, but this style feels the most impactful in Tokyo Xanadu because of how it elevates the game’s basic premise into something memorable. As mentioned above, its story follows almost every beat of a run-of-the-mill action anime, yet what’s unique to Tokyo Xanadu is that unlike anime medium, the player can actually wander around the city in this game and talk to NPCs, and boy, do they have a lot to say after every event! I love talking to Kou’s friend trio who have no clue about his secret life, checking to see how his grandfather is doing after school, or just taking my time learning about the relationship of various NPCs with each other—all of these things are something that I do because I want to; if a player only wants to focus on the action segment, they can simply skip all of these chats and still are able to reach the true ending.

Without saying, the efforts I put into learning about these characters in turn endears me to Morimiya City a lot. Tokyo Xanadu’s setting might be a mixture of anime tropes, and many of them remain that way, yet what the writing manages to do is fleshing out the peaceful state of the setting through all of its NPCs, both the main cast and the non-plot important citizens of the setting. There is something serene about getting to learn about everyone’s mundane life in time of peace, which in turn makes the setting feel alive beyond just a backdrop for gameplay. This serenity, in particular, feels especially rewarding when the city is in danger: I do not just want to save Morimiya City because it is the game’s main objective; I also want to save it because it is a wonderful setting, a place that I know so well after spending so much time seeing its mundane state. This personal investment in the world itself is something that I rarely feel while playing many other saving-the-world RPGs.

Sometimes I feel guilty when I say that Tokyo Xanadu is by far one of my most favorite games ever due to how generic the game feels at times. But despite all that supposedly unoriginality, I could feel a lot of love Falcom poured into this game as it is very polished from its gameplay system to its presentation. Not to mention, its lengthy soundtrack is amazing! Most of all, the game features a fleshed-out, mundane setting, one that I truly want to protect out of affection. It is so rare to see a RPG enhances the immersion of its setting through fleshing out the daily life of its citizens; I can really feel that Morimya City is a place that people can live in, and this liveliness makes protecting the city all the more worthwhile. More importantly, this mundane aspect is not something that the game directly feeds the players—players have to go out their way to follow these NPC storylines. This sort of optional storytelling is something that can hardly be achieved in other linear storytelling media, and it is also what makes the narrative of Tokyo Xanadu, whose linear plotline would have made for a generic action anime, into a fascinating video game narrative.

Hmmm, I should look further into the idea of mundane writing (worldbuilding?). It would be fun to write a long essay on this idea. I wonder what are non-Falcom games that also feature mundane writing?

[kaymarie-bell]

Ignihyde Chapter Spoilers: a brief summary of how the students are doing

[pomefiore side translation]

Pometrio + MC:

we've been trying to get down to Tartarus but the elevador is out of service until Ortho decides to make his move

his move: declare this situation as a Quest, RPG-style

the students have to play Star Rogue to please Ortho so he can let them use the elevator

once we're alone again Vil decides to speak about Rook, Epel, and MC coming to the Island of Woe on their own

he scolds Rook for being a terrible vice-leader by abandoning the dorm when it needed him the most. Rook says he'll accept being dismissed from his position as soon as they get back

Epel tries to protest but Vil turns his anger at him and MC. He says that we have no business playing hero when we don't have enough ability to follow through

Everyone is kind of sad but then Vil says that's all he had to say as "Pomefiore's Dorm Leader," and he will now speak as "just Vil"

He smiles and says he was very happy when Idia told them about us breaking in, and he has been holding back since he saw our faces

he gives everyone a hug and a kiss as a thank you for chasing after him

he promises he will get everyone back to school safety, and Rook says he stole his line

Epel promises he won't lose this time, especially because he has awoken his unique magic

Vil is surprised. Rook praises Epel and says he wishes he could record with his eyes so Vil could've seen it too. Vil gets serious and says that he probably will get to see it soon. Rook understands what he means and turns serious as well.

Epel is confused, but then Vil announces that something is coming at us from below.

first attack from the phantoms. Vil warns us to not touch the leftover blot since it could cause an OB

they keep following the map. MC says they're worried about more enemies bit Epel is confident about his UM. Vil is proud of him

We go into the [Asylum] and have to fight the phantoms trapped in the boxes(?) in order to clear the "2nd stage"

we fight a bunch of phantoms (including the OB'ed Pain and Panic from Hercules)

They realize that the reason the Shrouds are making them do this as if they're playing a game is that they want to buy time for the phantoms to unfreeze

I will Not perceive the Shrouds' angst atm

Vil thinks Ortho would be a great actor, he says Ortho should become a child actor focused on playing villain roles since he's very convincing. Rook wants him to join the film club when they get back (😭)

Rook tells MC they should trim Grim's nails since big cats like him need it. Vil starts talking about manicures.

Rook had cracked nails and calloused fingers due to his archery, but didn't care about it because he wears gloves. He started taking better care of himself after meeting Vil.

We almost get a RookVil backstory but we get interrupted because we find the door. Epel and MC are disappointed (me too)

I only have some highlights for the other teams because I was focused on Pometrio, I'll try to make individual posts for them later

Leona + Jamil:

Leona asks Jamil for one of his hair ornaments, then he proceeds to yeet it down the tower to see how deep it is

Jamil: dude wtf why did it have to be something of mine

They get to play the Hydra's Counterattack game

Leona is either taking everything as a game or being annoyed over Jamil's warnings of "stay behind me" or "don't go too far away from me"

Jamil is kinda worried about NRC since Kalim and Malleus are the only dorm leaders left (😭) but Leona insists he's not worried about Savanaclaw

Leona is annoyed over Jamil acting like his mom, Jamil is annoyed by Leona telling him he's like Azul 😭😭😭

Riddle + Azul

they have to play the Ferry game. Riddle is about to either knock the door down on his own or have an aneurysm

if saving the world depended on these two alone everyone would be dead tbh

they're five seconds away from throwing hands

girl help the nerds are fighting

this exactly why NRC always loses against RSA smh

that's all for now because I gotta level my cards up to defeat the Titan rip

some spoilers I saw on twt:

apparently Leona has a mega chad moment where he is the only one capable of using the weapon to defeat the Titans on his own. Vil and Riddle have to ask the others for help.

Azul and Riddle finally remember their house training after defeating their titan. They even high five each other.

now we just have to wait a bit more until we can finally see the Shrouds again

[joonie-beanie]

The Demon Brothers + College AU + (Cliche?) First Meetings

So an anon sent me the above ask, and it may have gotten a little out of hand ;;;

I also kind of switched it up and made it college instead. Hopefully the meetings I came up with are still somewhat cliche! Or, at the very least, cute lol

Lucifer:

You’re running late for class on the first day of the semester and he holds the elevator door open for you when he sees the desperate look on your face, and how you’re making a dash for the closing doors.

“Thank you,” you breathe out as you try to get ahold of yourself, hoping that the tall, handsome male beside you doesn’t see or hear the way you’re struggling for air. (It’s 8am, okay? Your body isn’t ready to be running so early.)

“Which floor do you need?” he asks, smiling politely. You respond “four”, and he hums to himself while hitting the button.

When he doesn’t press a different button, you assume he’s heading to the same floor.

“Thanks, by the way,” you say, flashing him a small smile. “You really saved my ass.”

“No thanks needed,” he responds, gaze shifting to look at the small screen above the door. The second floor moves past with a quiet beep. Silence falls for a couple of seconds.

“May I ask what class you’re heading to?”

“Ah, it’s a psychology lab,” you respond, laughing to yourself after a beat. You pull your phone from your pocket, trying to find the screenshot you’d taken of your schedule. “I signed up for this one because Rate My Professor said the TA is hot.”

“Oh? Is that so?” You’re not paying attention, so you don’t see the smirk that tugs at his lips.

The next moment, the elevator stops and the two of you step out together. You exit first, flashing the male one last smile before you turn your attention to your phone, double checking the room number. Lucifer brushes past you without saying a word, and you don’t realize that you’re headed in the same direction until you glance up, and find him holding the classroom door open for you.

“After you,” he says, and while you’re confused, you dip your head in thanks and make your way in. Since you’re one of the last ones in the classroom, you get stuck sitting in the front row.

As you unpack your things, Lucifer steps to the head of the room and sets his computer bag down onto the desk.

“Good morning, class,” he says, his gaze shifting to you when you look up and see that it’s him who is speaking--a vibrant blush rising to your face as you recall what you’d told him in the elevator.

“My name is Lucifer, and I will be the TA for this lab.”

Mammon:

You’re in the large, open eating area at the campus student union when he bumps into you.

Instantly, the greasy, cheesy pizza on your tray jumps up and lands on the front of your shirt. You freeze in shock, wide eyes glancing down as the personal pizza slides down your chest before flopping back onto the tray.

“Oi, watch where you’re going,” a voice says behind you, and you slowly turn around to face the apparently dumbass man who doesn’t even have the sensibility to apologize to you.

Despite that fact that he sounds pompous, you can’t deny that his styled white hair, and pierced ears are kind of charming.

“You backed into me,” you tell him, attempting to keep your calm. You almost lose it when you see his eyes rake down to your chest, staring at the likely un-washable stain on the fabric. He stares much too long, and you’re just about to curse at him when he speaks up again.

“Uhhh...,” he raises a hand to sheepishly rub at his neck, and when you look closely, you see that a blush has spread across his face. “Y-ya know what, maybe it is my fault...can I, um, buy ya another pizza?”

You blink, surprised at the sudden turn around in his attitude.

“That would be nice,” you say honestly, and suddenly he’s smiling, hopping back into the pizza line, which is right beside where the two of you had collided.

“I-If ya want, I’ll lend you my jacket because of, ya know, your shirt,” he says, motioning to your obviously ruined top. You cock an eyebrow at him. 

“You’d give a stranger your jacket?”

 “Well...I’m kind of hoping that you’ll have lunch with me, and we won’t be strangers for long,” he mumbles, gaze shying away. “Or, ya know, that I can get your number at least.”

“You’re really pushing it,” you tell him with a laugh, and you can see his feathers ruffle. He’s obviously embarrassed at you calling out his flirting. “But...maybe we can eat lunch together. Since you’re paying.”

He blinks, shocked at your words, but soon breaks into a smile. Self-satisfied, he continues grinning stupidly even as the cashier calls him up. However, when he pulls out his wallet, swipes his card, and it comes back denied...

“Uhh...can you pay this time? I PROMISE I’ll pay you back.”

You sigh, and debate throttling him.

Levi:

You sit next to him in a lecture hall, and can’t help but notice that the background on his laptop is Sailor Moon. 

When you reach down to dig a notebook out of your bag, you also see the number of anime and video game pins decorating the front of his backpack.

While you don’t tend to talk to strangers, you can’t help but say something.

“Hey, um,” you start, catching his attention. He freezes, amber eyes shifting to look at you--wide with surprise. You smile, doing your best to come off as casual, and friendly. “I noticed all the pins on your backpack. Do you like anime? I started watching Demon Slayer the other week, and I’m in love with it.”

“I...you...,” his surprise shifts to wonder as he regards you. The slightest blush rises on his cheeks. “You watch anime???”

“Yeah,” you laugh. “Is that so weird?”

“N-no, I guess not,” he mumbles, his hands fiddling with the cuffs of his hoodie. You wonder if you’ve made a mistake by talking to him, since he seems so shy--

“Do you play video games too??” he breaks you out of your thoughts as he scoots forward, eyes sparkling. He’s whispering hurriedly, eyes briefly straying to glance at the time on his laptop. “I recently started playing Doki Doki Literature club, and it’s crazy. I love RPG games, and Indie games too--like IB, and Mad Father. Witches House is also good. Of course, I’ll give pretty much any video game a chance, but--”

At that moment, the professor steps up and addresses the class. Levi’s words cut off, and his blush deepens as he suddenly realizes that he’d gone on a mini fanboy rant. However, you just smile at him, hoping that you come off reassuring, and turn to your notebook.

During the lecture, you’re too busy taking notes to notice the way he sneaks glances your way. And when the class finally ends, and you move to repack your belongings, you look up to find him staring at you.

“Is something on your mind?” you ask him. 

“I...um...I-I was wondering if I could get your contact info. You know...f-for class stuff, and maybe, if..if you wanted to, we could also talk more about anime…?”

“Sure!” you say, and he blinks, apparently shocked by your willingness. The two of you proceed to exchange emails and phone numbers, and by the time you arrive at your next class 15 minutes later, 6 new text messages (about anime, video games, and the like) from Levi are lighting up your phone screen.

Satan:

He’s volunteering at the library when you approach him, desperate for help finding a textbook you need to scan for a class. You’ve looked everywhere, but still can’t find it.

“You do realize that this code is indicating that this textbook is online, right? Not physically in the library?” he asks you, a bit of amusement swimming in his eyes when he hands your phone back to you--the screen open to an email your professor had sent a few days before.

You feel heat rise on your cheeks. “Ah, nope. Did not realize...”

“It happens often, actually. I’m sorry for teasing, I shouldn’t have” he says, smiling at you. “If you want, you can come around the desk, and I’ll show you how to access the textbook online. That way, you won’t be confused next time.”

“Thank you,” you sigh, scooting your way around the desk. Satan pulls up a spare chair beside him, and your knee accidentally knocks against his as you take a seat. 

“Here, you just have to search for it in the library portal,” he says, and you attentively watch as he guides you through the online website. However, when he starts going off into a spiel on all of the other cool resources and books available to students online, your attention strays.

You notice the copy of Jane Eyre open on the desk beside the computer. 

“Are you reading a book that’s assigned in high school AP Lit?”

He blinks in confusion, but immediately goes on the defense when he notices where you’re looking.

“Hey, Jane Eyre is a classic. And the help desk is far too slow some days. I need something to keep me busy.”

“Hmm, I guess that’s fair,” you respond, smiling. You move to grab your bag--pressing to your feet. “I can’t blame you either, considering I actually enjoyed reading it once upon a time. The Great Gatsby was probably my next favorite.”

“Personally, out of all the high school literature, I enjoyed Fahrenheit 451,” he responds, grinning when he sees the disgruntled look on your face at hearing the name of the book.

“Really?? I still have no idea what it was about.”

He’s quiet for a moment. You turn to look at him, and find him regarding you with interest. 

Satan smiles.

“Can I buy you a coffee?”

Asmo:

Asmo is working a booth about safe sex in the student union when you approach, hoping to get free condoms (or maybe even donate to support the organization, considering it’s a good cause).

“Well, hello there, gorgeous,” he says, smiling at you as you survey the goodies and pamphlets laid out on the table. He comes off as a little flirty, but mostly friendly, and well intentioned. “Are you here to buy one of our prettily shaped chocolates?”

He motions to the cup full of vagina-shaped chocolates on a stick. Your eyebrows raise. Huh.

“Well, that’s not why I stopped, but I may need to buy one now,” you laugh, making him smile. Asmo leans forward onto his elbows, his eyes twinkling up at you.

“Are you here for the condoms then? If so, feel free to take a handful. We have a ton prepared. People on this campus fuck like bunnies, honestly.”

You laugh. “Oh? Well, good on you guys for protecting all of the precious, needy students.”

He nods sagely, moving to gather you a few of the wrapped condoms, along with some educational reading material. “Can’t have a bunch of students getting diseases, or pregnant. Sex should be fun and safe. Always! And if it’s not both, then find someone else to fuck.” 

“Thanks, I’ll keep that in mind,” you say, smiling as he hands you your free goodies. Your eyes stray back to the vagina chocolates. “How much for one of those?”

“5 dollars,” he says, reaching over to grab one. “Pricey, I know, but the money goes to a good cause.”

“I don’t doubt it,” you laugh, pulling a 5 from your wallet. The two of you exchange items, and you pocket the chocolate. You flash him one last smile, intending to walk away, but he pipes up before you get too far.

“By the way, we’re having a class on BDSM safety tonight~” You pause at his words, turning to face him, and he grins at the look of interest plain on your face. “In case you’re interested.”

“Are you...implying something?” you ask, posing a hand on your hip as you turn to face him. He cocks his head to the side innocently.

“I would never~ But you’ve left a good impression in the two minutes we’ve known each other, and I’m the one teaching the class, so~ I’d be thrilled to see you there.”

You raise an eyebrow, surprised, but amused as well. “Maybe I’ll see you tonight.”

With that, you turn on your heel and head to class. But you definitely end up attending the class that night.

Beel:

You meet during a 1-credit, weekend Yoga class. He puts his mat down next to yours, and you can’t help but stare at his biceps, and triceps, and...wow he’s really built.

Aside from that, though, he looks pretty concerned.

“Have you never done yoga before?” you ask him, smiling politely. Having caught his attention, he turns to look at you--the same adorable frown pulling at his lips.

“No...I like to work out, but I’ve never done yoga...I’m not very flexible.” You watch him as he demonstrations by sticking his legs out and trying to touch his toes. His fingertips only reach halfway down his calves.

“It’s okay!” you tell him. “I’m pretty new to yoga too! And this is just an intro course, so I wouldn’t worry. Most of the grade comes from knowing technical terms, and I’ve heard this instructor is really nice.”

At that, he finally smiles--relieved to hear you say so.

“I’m Beel, by the way,” he says.

“Y/N,” you respond, but before the two of you get the chance to talk more, the instructor arrives. You then spend the next few hours smiling to yourself as you watch Beel struggle to get into poses. Luckily, he doesn’t seem to mind that you’re getting humor out of his situation.

“Did you not eat today?” you ask him when lunch finally rolls around, flopping back against your mat. He shakes his head, rummaging around in his bag. You can hear his stomach growling.

“I had an extra large breakfast since I knew I would be burning calories, but I’m starving now…” He pulls an entire sub from his bag, and when you catch a peek at the inside, you realize that the entire backpack is stuffed with only food. Holy shit.

But...you suppose he does need to eat a lot, if he works out a lot.

“I’m gonna grab a soda, and I’ll be back,” you say quietly, assuming that you’ll be eating lunch together, since he’s already turning to face your mat. 

“Okay,” he says with a smile, and you smile back at him, excited to get to know him more. However, before you can even get a step away,  you’re tripping over your backpack

The world spins, and you hold your arms in front of you--expecting to eat shit--but you don’t meet the floor. Two arms curl beneath you and your body rolls--your ass landing between folded legs.

You blink in surprise, blushing when you glance up and find that it’s none other than Beel who is holding you. Concern is written on his face. He doesn’t seem the least bit concerned that you’re currently occupying his lap.

“Are you okay?” he asks, not moving to release you, and oh boy you think your heart may beat straight out of your chest.

Belphie:

You meet him in the library computer lab at 11:48pm, on the last day of finals.

You trudge into the computer lab, bordering on going blind. You’ve spent the last 6 hours writing out your term paper, and had felt pretty fucking proud when you’d finished with a whole 30 minutes to spare, but just as you’d gone to submit the paper online, your apartment wi-fi had cut out

Of course.

So, you pop a squat at one of the many computers--not even realizing that someone else is in the lab until you hear a quiet snore.

Immediately, you’re pausing, standing to glance around the room. A few computers down, sitting parallel to you, is a dark haired male, with his head down on the keyboard.

Honestly, you debate not waking him. He probably needs the rest, but as a fellow student, and considering it’s the last day of finals? You can’t just leave him be in good conscience.

“Hey, uh, dude?” you call out, glancing at him from over the row of computers. He doesn’t stir. “Heyyyy~ It’s almost midnight,” you say a bit louder. “I don’t know if you’re writing something, but you better submit it.”

Finally, he stirs.

“Aw, fuck,” you hear him grumble, and he lifts his head up--his tired gaze turning to look at you. He sighs. “Thanks. You probably just saved my ass.”

“No worries,” you respond, laughing a little. You sit back down in your seat, and put in your credentials....only for the computer to indicate that you’ve put in the wrong password.

“You’ve gotta be fucking kidding me,” you say, deadpanning, and try another password. Then another, and another. None of them work, and you don’t have enough time left to change it.

“I’m gonna fucking jump off the roof,” you deadpan, holding your face in your hands. Belphie chuckles.

“Something wrong?”

“I guess I don’t know my computer password, so I can’t log in and submit my paper.” You say, glancing up. This time, it’s Belphie who is glancing over the row of monitors at you, eyebrow raised.

“You can come use mine. I just submitted my paper. Just log into the school site with your ID.”

“You’re a lifesaver,” you sigh, and Belphie scoots his chair over as you walk around the aisle to meet him. Again, he laughs.

“Eye for an eye.”

“That’s...you use that phrase with enemies,” you tell him, unable to help the smile that spreads across your face. He blinks, and then groans.

“Fuck, you’re right. I’m still asleep. Just...forget I said that.”

“Actually, I think I’ll remember it forever,” you respond, and he grins, his eyes shifting to look at the keyboard as you type out your password.

“Okay, OppaiLover69 exclamation point.”

You feel your cheeks heat up, and when you see the shit-eating look at his face, you debate throwing hands. He’s lucky he’s cute.

[pixelsandpins]

One of the Best Romances Ever Written is From an Action RPG

Because of my job(s) and the genre of game I write in, I consume an absolute unnecessary amount of romance. Sometimes willingly, sometimes as an adjunct to a larger story. And I often find that the placement of the romance in the latter condition creates a genuinely more effective emotional investment than one in which the romance is the central theme. Oh, Ashe, so you’ve got something poignant and insightful to say about the human condition and how the footprint of an inter-social narrative conveys the ways in which we, as people, desire to connect and experience the world?

No, I simply finished Mass Effect: Legendary Edition (the first time playing the trilogy stem to stern since Mass Effect 3 came out), and it left me with too many emotions to process on my own. So YOU get to do it with me.

I’m not sorry.

…

Okay a little sorry.

Because this is about Garrus Vakarian and Commander Shepard.

A Strong Core of Platonic Affection

The key to the ShepKarian romance is a deep and unwavering friendship built on mutual respect. Shepard doesn’t even move with romantic intention until halfway through the second game. At this point, as a pair, they’ve survived waves upon waves of AI soldiers, a galaxy altering event, a particle beam right through their ship, Shepard’s literal death and resurrection, a reunification in a mercenary combat hot zone, and about a hundred existential quandaries. Just prior to flirting with him properly the first time, Shepard prevents him from killing a man in revenge by refusing to leave the scope of his sniper rifle. These two are equals. She’s technically his commanding officer, but they are on the same footing in every way that matters. More importantly, they’re friends. They’re comrades. And those are the building blocks of a good romantic relationship.

And when it is time to start moving into romance? There’s no frustrating will-they-won’t-they (that we all know becomes a “they will” at the press of a button). No tiptoeing around with awkwardly built up sexual tension.

“Hey, Garrus, we should bang.”

“Okay. Sounds good, Shep. Let me go Google how we do that.”

“That’s not romantic!” you scream.

I don’t know? Maybe it’s not? But you know what it is? Perfectly sensible for these absolute idiots. They live bullet to bullet, catastrophe to catastrophe. There’s no time for “tee hee I like you, let’s smooch, maybe.”

No.

These are adults who have had adult relationships in the past and are facing down the possibility of their own death at every corner. They’re literally preparing for a suicide mission where one of them could actually die, in-game, if you don’t set things up the right way. They know what the hell is up, and they act on it without reservation or hesitation. They know what they want, and they’re going for it. Done. Deal.

Ludonarrative Harmony

You also can’t ignore the integral part the interactivity of video games play in the narrative development of their relationship. Shepard and Garrus don’t exist as passive characters that interact with each other in a set way. You, as the player, are Shepard, and from a meta-game perspective, you have to build a balanced team. Garrus, it so happens, is a mechanically well-rounded character, so there’s a high likelihood you’ll be bringing him on to your team for a large number of missions. He also appears early in the story in all three games (a slight advantage over Tali’Zorah, who despite appearing in all three games, as well, tends to be recruitable later). These things combined mean there’s a lot of time available for you, as a player and, therefore, Shepard as a character, to spend with the turian C-Sec agent/mercenary/military adviser.

Garrus becomes an active participant in the ever forward development of Shepard’s own personal arc. It’s not just scene to scene, passive elements in a romance on rails. They’re dodging gunfire together. Riding elevators together. Providing pithy, sarcastic commentary together. Their romance isn’t just about being together. It’s about saving the galaxy together.

The Pallor of Doom

And, okay, yeah, if you know what happens at the end, it’s like…okay then if it’s doomed from the start, what’s the point? And even if you don’t know what happens at the end, all three games go out of their way to make sure you’re aware how fragile the bonds holding up that sword of Damocles are at all times. But that looming specter of death is diegetic. It’s not just the audience lamenting with pre-broken heart that this romance has a dramatic expiry date. Garrus and Shepard know. They can wish for it. Hope for a future that expands out into the unknown infinity. But they know the odds, the real chances, that one of them won’t be coming out the other side. From the first proper I love you at the top of the Citadel to the last one at the base of the Reaper teleport beam, they always knew that they were living, and loving, on borrowed time.

But it didn’t matter.

Because a finite number of days being in that love was worth it when the alternative was never having it at all.

I think I need to go lie down, again.