#so far I've only played quest's route

[senmiyaazx]

sooo i started playing blooming panic :x

[feychannel]

So you want to play an indie otome or dating sim but don't know where to start...

Like the title says, I wanted to make a rec list for those who are more interested in indie otomes but don’t necessarily know where to start! So for those who saw the latest Nintendo Direct or maybe those who’ve just always wanted to try something new, this list is for y’all. I’ve immensely enjoyed every single title (and hope y’all do too). Without further ado... here's the short list!

Changeling by @steamberrystudio (and their sci-fi spiritual successor, Gilded Shadows): Liked "Buffy," but thought it needed more Faes? Changeling is exactly the type of contemporary otome you want and needed in your life yesterday. With several wonderful young men to romance, and an intriguing plotline that references fae mythology, you'll be set!

The Rose of Segunda: Liked Bridgerton? Thought it needed an even longer gala than canon? Then RoS (and its amazing sequel, "Thorns of War") by @blackcross-taylor is the game to play! I've been impressed with how this studio weaves political intrigue into the very plot, and how it commits to the stories it creates.

Band Camp Boyfriend: Somehow, this game is both a 00's sitcom and a thriller all in one (with all the drama of a gripping telenovela in some routes). If you missed summer camp, marching band, and/or just want to know what that's like, check out this delightful title by @lovebirdgames

3 Seasons: We love a woman with melanin!! But in all seriousness, the concept of a young woman applying for a job, only to find out she's the next Spring Spirit is delightful. Note: this is a free title (but the developer @hamiltonhour accepts payment on their itch).

Magical Warrior Diamond Heart: Precure meets Sailor Moon meets the sweetest otome!! In this house we love Valerie and her zany crew. @magicalwarriordiamondheart has truly outdone themselves with each update; the common route is free, but the developer has a Patreon you can support!

Herotome: I would be amiss if I didn't mention my current favorite superhero-themed otome, where your lovely protagonist will face pivotal choices in their quest to become a hero! While only the demo is out so far (just so y'all aren't expecting the full product), developer @herotome is a delight to follow with all their updates!!

Honorable mentions: Twisted Carnival, Titan Arum (warning: both titles contain more horror than the average otome), and Arcardia Fallen

[trashcanwithsprinkles]

You ever wonder why only sheznaya seems to have any kind of diplomatic core? Like we rarely see or hear of any of the other governments interacting in any official capacity. At least that I've heard of.

that is a good question actually

from a lore presepective? i think this stems mostly from the fact all nations have wildly different types of governance. snezhnaya seems to run under the different fatui harbingers, who all answer to the tsaritsa. they have bankers and mayors in their group, and they live in a difficult environment (plus they have traditional non-morally-white organization Goals, and so need to have Reach on all nations), so it would make sense for them to reach out and seek cooperation. assuming you want to buy the idea that they have intentions beyond Fatui Plans for having diplomats, of course. it's also perfectly likely for it all to be a poorly-disguised cover for the gnosis hunt lore-wise as well.

liyue is the closest to them i think, in that it runs under the qixing which used to run under (or parallel to?) rex lapis. now that it's just the qixing, and they're the trade center for teyvat, it makes sense why you'd see relatively prosperous diplomatic relationships with snezhnaya there - but also since they're a bountiful land, they've no need to send out diplomats. besides, there's the fact that the only seemingly functional land trading road in the game is between liyue and mondstadt, who,

are currently without their de jure leader, and jean is mostly just holding the fort till vakra returns. the knights can barely keep monstadt in check so it wouldn't make sense for them to need foreign relations when all they probably need can be obtained from World Trade Hub next door (liyue). this might change with dornman port tho

fontaine also seems to funcition like a more recognizable government, but they also seem so self-suficient (and self-absorbed) to have any need for diplomats. again, they also have a very clear trade route with sumeru in place (speaking of, who the fuck runs sumeru? the akademiya?) sumeru also has clearly established trade routes, and if they are run by the akademiya, are probably too absorbed with research to bother with foreign relationships. everyone comes to study there anyway, diplomats or no, and they send their researchers out to all nations.

inazuma was literally closed until less than a year ago. allegedly. inazuma is, also, the only other one you'll see trying for foreign relationships and diplomatic plays. that's the whole reason why ayaka and ayato were there on the fontinalia festival. so i guess, at the end of the day, the only reason why inazuma doesn't have a diplomatic core the same way snezhnaya does is bc they were literally closed until very recently.

and natlan seems to be closed as well, so we'll have to see.

also, were there any fatui diplomats in fontaine and sumeru? as in, under that pretense? bc we know the ones in mondstadt were there to sus out barbatos, the ones in liyue were there to sus out morax, and the ones in inazuma (which i wouldn't even know if they counted as diplomats) were there to give watatsumi delusions (and yoink the gnosis. i can't remember how signora came into all of this tbh). as far as i recall, there were no 'diplomats' in sumeru, i don't think dottore arrived under that pretense. if he did, we know it was to get scara. and in fontaine- all fatui in fontaine were just house of the hearth members, whom i don't think qualify as diplomats. there might've been 'diplomats' in other world quests, but i can't remember right now. i also can't remember why tf childe was in fontaine to begin with ngl

TL;DR: from a lore perspective, i don't have an answer and it's an interesting question and whatever ideas i have are long as fuck. from a non-lore perspective, this is probably just bc the fatui are the scheeming antagonists out on a hunt for one specific gizmo present in each nation, and so they need spies and information networks and subterfuge n shit. like i'm fairly certain that's the only reason why they seem to be the only ones with a diplomatic core.

[crossdressingdeath]

DAI does that with a lot of things. Morrigan gets to claim to be a Elven expert, even though you know that is far from the truth if you've played Origins where she didn't know shit. Cullen gets final say in his dialogue options despite you knowing that he's lying. Grey Wardens gets shit on and the Inquisitor can wildly overstep.

DAI has this weird mix of a) expecting you to have read all the books/comics so that they don't have to explain anything and b) assuming that you haven't played the previous games so they can try to rewrite what happened.

Yeah, the required reading for DAI was ridiculous. WEaWH is always the big one because most of the others you can get by without it (even Cole's backstory isn't necessary to appreciate and understand the character, and enough of it comes up in-game to get by), but knowing what Celene and Gaspard did is kind of fucking important, Bioware. And then even when Celene purging the alienage comes up it's used as a mark against Briala for being in a relationship with her at the time even though if I'm understanding the excerpts I've seen of TME Briala breaks it off as a direct result of the purge and (as Dorian rightly points out) that'd be more Celene's scandal than Briala's anyway. Like, they try to make Celene purging the alienage into Briala's crime because she was sleeping with the empress at the time and that's just... ugh. But it's like, I would argue that it would be fair and honestly best practice to assume that people playing the third game in a series have played the first two games? DA has an overarching narrative even if the connections aren't particularly close, if someone wants to start partway through they can but the writing should expect people to be familiar with the games' stories. Maybe have some codex entries summarizing the previous games or a little intro cutscene, but... I don't know, I'm worried about the fact that apparently DAV doesn't need you to have played the first three games when literally all the setup for it is in DAI. Expecting people to have played all the games in a narrative-driven RPG series and not to have jumped in partway through is fair! Expecting people to have read five supplementary novels and two coffee table lore books to understand the plot is ridiculous. At least Tevinter Nights and The Missing so far seem to only be relevant to DAV in that they show some glimpses of what's been going on between games and give us a point of reference for some of the new characters...

The thing that gets me with DAI is that the game really wants you to side with the Templars whether it makes sense or not. Like... let's take the choice between mages and Templars as an example. The game wants you to side with the Templars. It really does, it tries its best to dissuade the player from siding with the mages if you go that route (Cullen's little "Oh... it's so dangerous... we shouldn't do it..." routine is notable when compared to Leliana and Josie, both of whom favour the mages, being very professional about you picking the Templars), it does its utmost to claim that the rebellion was unwarranted when it absolutely was not, the rebels are constantly framed as weak or mean or evil or stupid while the Templars were just misled (by... a guy who told them he'd let them murder all the mages and left out the "in service to Corypheus" bit, they still joined his little walkout to murder people, but the game doesn't get into that), it even lets you switch quests well past what should've been the point of no return if you're on the mage route (WHY CAN YOU SWITCH AFTER LEARNING THERE'S A FUCKING MAGISTER IN FERELDEN TRYING TO ENSLAVE A BUNCH OF MAGES, BIOWARE, WHY THE FUCK IS THAT AN OPTION) whereas with the Templars you can't even learn what your advisors' plan for getting you in alive is until you're locked in. And I'm not going to lie, CotJ is legitimately the better quest. I did it once to see and god damn it is quality, I don't dislike IHW but... yeah CotJ is definitely stronger.

But then you actually look at the story and... why the fuck would you side with the Templars? They left the Chantry because the Divine told them not to murder people. That's explicit, people tell you that repeatedly. They're making excuses for it, but there's always an acknowledgement that... yep, that's why the Templars left, they wanted to kill people and were mad about being told no. Leliana (the most familiar face among the advisors and given Cassandra's previous appearance was threatening Varric and Cullen's was playing yes man to Meredith for nine years and only changing sides once she became a threat to him/because not doing so would mean fighting Hawke Leliana's the one people are most likely to want to side with) is pro-mage and dismisses Cullen's claims that the Templars could help close the Breach as speculation. Which... it is. This situation is completely unprecedented, no one knows what's going to happen. But given mages are incredibly powerful and Templars are repeatedly portrayed as mostly useless in any sort of real danger that doesn't involve children or indoctrinated Circle mages (it is not a coincidence that the only people locked in the tower in Broken Circle who survive with their minds and bodies intact without the demons actively choosing to let them live for funsies are mages; the only Templar who's alive and unpossessed is Cullen, and the demons very obviously could've killed him at any time and just chose not to because they were having fun toying with him) I'm gonna say the mages are a safer bet. Also because... they invited Quiz. That could be a trap, but you know what's definitely a trap? Walking into a fortress full of heavily-armed mage killers who openly want you dead. Meeting with the Templars is really, really stupid (especially if you're a mage) and you don't even learn the plan for getting you inside unharmed until you actually select the quest. Also that plan is basically just "if there are witnesses with societal power the Templars can't murder you unprovoked" because reminder: the Templars are the absolute worst. Why would you ever want these people around. And then if you meet with the mages first like "Well I'll figure it out once I've heard what they have to say, I don't have to commit if I do things this way so I might as well" you learn that there's a Tevinter magister serving an evil Tevinter cult just chilling in Redcliffe and why the fuck would you go to the Templars at that point this needs to be dealt with. The game wants you to side with the Templars but it gives you no reason to do so, I really wonder sometimes if the writers weren't talking to each other at all.

[wretchedelights]

A Spoiler-Free Guide to Dodging Marazhai's Romance Bugs

This info is based on the state of the game as of Hotfix 1.0.89. A lot of this will hopefully become irrelevant as Owlcat puts out more patches.

EDIT 10/01/2024 // 8PM ET - clarify companion quest info, correct info about post-recruitment scene, and add missing known bug info about doin the dirty for the first time

EDIT 11/01/2024 // 2PM ET - further changes to info about post-recruitment scene

I've seen a lot of people struggling to successfully romance Marazhai in Owlcat's Rogue Trader CRPG, due to Owlcat continuing their time-honored tradition of launching their games with an obscene amount of bugs.

After a lot of troubleshooting, I was able to successfully finish a sub!Marazhai romance with the "good" romance ending, and I ended up having a pretty good grasp on how the whole thing works. So I thought I'd share what I've learned to save others the trouble. This info should be good for both sub!Marazhai and dom!Marazhai.

Toybox

If you don't have it already, Toybox is highly recommended. You can get it on Nexus Mods. It will help you make sure things are progressing as expected, and fix some things if they get messed up. However, it's not necessary at this point if you're careful, the only thing you need it for is to fix some flags to get some really minor extra dialog.

If you choose to use toybox, you can see the tree + flags for the dialog you're currently in by clicking the "Dialog & NPCs" tab. You can also make flags show up directly in the dialog boxes in game with the "Preview" settings in the main tab. "Dialog Results" will show changes to flags + etudes that will happen if you choose a given dialog option. "Dialog Conditions" will show the conditions required for a dialog options to show. I kept both checked for my whole playthrough for peace of mind.

Flags/Etudes

There are some toybox flags + etudes that are important to Marazhai's romance. (flags are just values like true/false/a number, etudes are... properties set based on flags I guess? idk exactly). You can browse etudes in a tree structure in the "etudes" tab. If you need to change the value of a flag, do that in the "Search 'n Pick" tab.

Etude - Romances >> Marazhai should be flagged as "Active". If it says "Completed", something has gone wrong.

Etude - Romances >> Marazhai >> Counters >> Domination and Romances >> Marazhai >> Counters >> Submission. These determine Marazhai's attitude. If "Domination" is "Active", you get dom!Marazhai, if "Submission" is "Active", you get sub!Marazhai. You have to stick to one or the other, or Marz will be unhappy with you.

Flag - Ascention. This flag needs to be, I believe, minimum 4 by the time you get his final romance scene in Act 5 to get the "good" romance ending. It's pretty easy to get Ascention points as long as you play along with Marazhai, respect his uh... culture, and stick to your dom/sub role.

Etudes - Companions >> Marazhai >> Marazhai_States >> Domination and Companions >> Marazhai >> Marazhai_States >> Submission. You can safely ignore these, they don't actually affect the romance as far as I can tell :)

Regarding Marazhai's Companion Quest

Doing the sub!Marazhai route will lock you out of a certain outcome for Marazhai's companion quest. I don't think this is a bug, because narratively, it makes a lot of sense that this happens. However, the outcome you get locked out of could be considered the "ideal" outcome (though I also think this is debatable, and I was happy with my outcome/ending for my sub! Marazhai). You can get a good romance ending regardless of the outcome of this quest.

The flag related to Marazhai's personal quest is called TempestCounter, and you need it at 5+ for the "ideal" outcome. All TempestCounter points are based on whether Marazhai's dom or sub etude is active, outside of the points you get from the errand mentioned below. dom!Marazhai adds points, sub!Marazhai removes points. Which is why sub!Marazhai locks you out of an outcome.

Act 3 - Post Recruitment Scene

There are two versions of Marzipan's post-recruitment scene. The "Normal" version currently has a bug with dom/sub points, but you can work around it.

Normal - this is what most people see. There is an opportunity to get a dom or sub point in this dialog, but it's bugged so they're flipped. If you want your RT to be dom, pick the sub-y dialog option, and if you want your RT to be sub, pick the dom-y option.

Dogmatic party members starting drama - There's some confusion about what exactly triggers this. My recommendation to get this version of the scene: make sure you recruit Ulfar before you recruit Marazhai, and if you have Argenta and/or Heinrix with you for the Act 3 location, make sure you put them back in your party ASAP (they will get temporarily removed from it), so that they're with you for the event where you recruit Marazhai. To be safe, bring one of Argenta and/or Heinrix with you for Act 3. This dialog also has an opportunity for a dom or sub point, and is not currently bugged. ALSO it unlocks an errand that will lead to a little bit of extra dialog, and potential TempestCounter points.

Act 3 - Marazhai's Possessions

You'll get an act 3 companion quest for Marazhai where he asks you to help find some stuff he has stashed away. Eventually, you find a specific item he's very excited about. Make sure you let him keep this item. There's also an opportunity to get a dom or sub point here, but the flags are flipped again. So like last time, if you want your RT to be dom, pick the sub-y dialog, and if you want to be sub, pick the dom-y dialog.

Congratulations, this is the last flipped dom/sub flag situation you need to worry about! (at least, I'm not aware of any others)

***Also MILD SPOILER WARNING due to flag name***

I guess this is really only a spoiler if you're familiar with 40k lore but... anyways... This scene should probably start etude MarTookAgonizer, and should also probably start either PlayerTriedAgonizer or PlayerTriedAgonizerOnMar (depending on what you did). Start the appriate etudes manually for some fun little bits of bonus dialog later :)

***END SPOILER***

Act 4 - First Void Jump With Marz

In act 4, during you first void jump with Marazhai, he'll cause... problems. You'll ultimately have 3 ways to deal with this:

Let him do whatever tf he wants. Sets Companions >> Marazhai >> Marazhai_States >> Domination to active. Currently bugged, prevents completing the quest associated with this event and prevents romance progression.

Compromise? Sets Companions >> Marazhai >> Marazhai_States >> Sybarite to active. Confirmed to work for both dom!Marazhai and sub!Marazhai romance paths

Lock him up. Sets Companions >> Marazhai >> Marazhai_States >> submission to active. Immediately breaks the romance. Used to work with romance, but according to patch notes was causing Big Bugs so it just ends the romance now. It should get restored in a future patch, but for now, DO NOT PICK THIS.

Act 4 - Sleeping with Marz the First Time

There is a known bug where after you sleep with Marazhai for the first time after going for a "walk", you get dom!Marazhai flavoured dialog no matter what. The sub!Marazhai flavoured dialog for this doesn't even seem to be in the game. So... nothing you can do about it, but it won't break your romance. It will just seem a bit off if you've been doing the sub!Marazhai route.

Side Content - Equipping Super Cursed Item

This doesn't affect the actual romance in any way, but it's a bug you can experience if you have an active romance with Marazhai. There's a side planet where you can loot a SUPER cursed item, that warns you that you won't be able to take if off if you equip it. If you try to equip it anyway with romanced Marazhai in the party, you'll get a special interaction with him over it. Unfortunately, it's bugged, and as a result the item will be stuck on your character but with providing any benefits, so it effectively just removes one of your equipment slots, which is super annoying. Do recommend saving and then trying to equip the item just to see the scene though :)

Companion Quest Journal Bugs

You may notice Marazhai's optional Act 3 errand and his Act 4 companion quest not getting removed from the quest log. Don't stress it - if you've done what's required by them, you're good. The quest/errand is done, the journal entry is just stuck because it's bugged.

End

Aaaand that's pretty much it! There used to be a few other bugs affecting Marazhai's romance but they've since been patched. Now it's mostly a few issues early on, and then smooth sailing once you get past those.

General, non-bug-related tips for succesfful romance:

Don't be a coward, Marazhai respects wholeheartedly embracing Drukhari culture and will break things off if you don't

Stick to your established dom or sub role

Play along with Marazhai's shenanigans

Keep in mind that you really can't be a good person while completing this romance path

If you have any questions or need clarification on anything don't be afraid to ask! I'll do my best to help.

[star-bear-art]

[That love is like a star

It's gone, we just see it shining

It's travelled very far]

I have sat in rendering hell on this piece for like. A MONTH!! So worth it. Consider this a manifestation for my love of Wyll Ravenguard (and I haven't even completed a romance route with him yet!)

(Below is going to be me ranting about the state of his route/content in the game. If you don't want to read that, feel free to just stare at the pretty colours and move on :])

But WOOF. So many frustrations with how his route plays (as of patch 4, the last run I completed!) I've seen people comparing the lack of his development Act 3 with Karlach, and I honestly don't think they're comparable at all. Yes, it's obvious there was more planned (I can't even remember how much extra infernal iron we have at the end of act 3), but she at least has a cohesive narrative emotionally. She resonates! Wyll (by no fault of Theo, whose voice acting is stellar).. did not, for us. At the end of everyone else's personal quest, we were practically crying, but by his? We were mostly confused - due almost entirely to the very convoluted and buggy implementation of his story beats. Let alone that the whole wyrmway sequence becomes way more about the Emporer than him, or that his final speech triggered three seperate times for us consecutively, or the mess with Mizora, the Grand Duke, and Florrick after we defied her to save his father. He's given no agency as a character over his own choices compared to the other companions (at some of his most pivotal moments, as tav you choose his future for him without even a roll!) It was so, so disappointing. I love Wyll, especially Act 1 - but you can seriously feel the lack of polish or finish for his character in the game right now. And regardless of the team's intentions, he's the only Black origin character. That shit has an impact (doubly so when you consider how bg3 imports dnd/forgotten realm's well-discussed racism pretty much wholesale). He deserves as much agency and autonomy over his own story as every other origin character, and I seriously hope he gets it, soon. 'Til then, that's the majesty of fandom, right?

[mllemaenad]

...I am going to regret asking this, I know, but what was the thing with Preston, and how far should I steer clear of that particular mod, as a Preston fan?

Oh. I ... would very much not recommend you playing this. This is very much the story of how I made a mistake.

So ... I can occasionally be a bit rash about installing mods, particularly if they offer new quests. It's a weakness of mine. It has meant that I have found the occasional overlooked gem, but it has also meant that sometimes I'm left flailing and wishing I could unsee what I just saw.

And my theory of mods is very much inline with my theory of fanfic: there is going to be so much stuff out there that is not to my taste, and if I don't like it I should back the hell out of it and never tell the author what I thought. It's just ... slightly more complicated to back out of a mod install than it is a fanfic.

Now I've looked it, there's a suite of three mods here: Depravity, Outcasts and Remnants and Project Valkyrie. They seem to enjoy considerable popularity, and they offer alternative routes through the main quest line, with a bunch of additional side quests to go along with them. In a fit of boredom I thought ... why not?

They're also big, foundational mods. If you go into a modding forum you'll find a lot of finger wagging about how you should never uninstall any mod mid game; you should always start a new save. But ... if I find at hour 60 that an armour mod is crashing my game, I'm uninstalling that thing and rolling the dice on going forward. These ones, though ... once they're in, you'll never get an ongoing save to load properly without them. Too big. Too many changes. You need a new game to uninstall.

So I did, to my later chagrin, put up with some indicators that these mods were not for me when I should have bitten the bullet and started over. The early stuff involved collaborating with a slaver and ... well, no thank you, really, but it did say it offered some "evil" options for progressing quests in places where there were only good ones. So, okay, more role playing options are broadly a good thing even if I don't want to engage with them very much; it also suggested that it had alternate "good" routes in other places, so I assume it wasn't just trying to be edgy. And there was a bunch of nonsense with raider women running around in absurd outfits, and female characters with ... let's say improbable proportions.

It can be interwoven with normal questing, though, so it was a thing I'd run into occasionally when going into the mod's storyline. Otherwise, I could just keep collecting companions and play on.

But what stopped me dead was the Preston thing. A core part of the mod's story centres around a group of Lyons loyalists who had become "outcasts" themselves as part of the regime change and fled to the Commonwealth well before the arrival of the Prydwen (an interesting concept, even if this take on it did not work for me).

They are, from their impossibly gigantic and well equipped base, investigating who is funding the Gunners. Well, spoilers, the answer to that question turns out to be the Enclave. You attack their base and fight your way to the bottom. And you find a terminal. The terminal reveals that Preston Garvey has been lying to you. He is, in fact, an Enclave officer who infiltrated the Minutemen specifically to collaborate with the Gunners on orchestrating the fall of Quincy. His superiors are currently annoyed with him because he's having too much fun stringing you along to come back to base and take on his next job.

The mod then invites you to confront and kill Preston for his crimes.

Does this make any sense to me, or in any way conform with the way Preston behaves in a normal, unmodded game? Nope. And yet. I'm sure there's more to it, but at that point I swore, accepted the fact that I had wasted an unreasonable number of hours trying to give this a fair chance (it's so popular), and set about scouring it from my game and starting over.

Terrible mistake.

I will note that, obviously, on a technical level this thing is very impressive. Voiced dialogue, scripted scenes, new dungeons, multiple quest lines – the lot. I can ... add keywords to an item in xEdit, in a pinch.

But the storyline was very much not for me. It seems to be accepted, at least by some corners of the fandom, that Preston is incurably annoying. I do not share this sentiment, but I can't tell people who to like. But this ... thing where they have to rewrite a good man as a villain so they can justify killing him is just ... baffling.

So my general advice would be: benefit from my error and keep your distance from these ones.

[glittergear]

Un-horny BG2 mods

Ok, so I often hear that BG2 mods are very horny--not denying that, but here are some horny-free BG2 mods that I enjoy. I'm only including Quest and NPC mods here. I'm also only including mods that I have entirely played through myself.

The White Queen, by Lava: a quest mod that allows player to visit brand new place - Silent Swamps - where something happened some time ago. Curious? Let yourself discover what lies under the layers of the mud, meet the White Queen and her servants. Also, the music is bangin'

I Shall Never Forget, by Lava: This Baldur's Gate 2 mod allows you to work with Orion - a mage who has lost the sense of his life. Either help him regain what he lost or let him die without the faintest ray of hope.

Southern Edge, by Lava: Southern Edge is a new district for Athkatla available from the very start, once you talk to Gaelan and hear his offer. You can get a Book of Intelligence as a reward for one of the quests, and there's a scribe who will buy your unneeded quest documents (like The Tome of Amaunator, the Noontime Ritual, the Book of Kaza, etc. It's a nice lore-friendly way to get rid of some items)

Ooze's Lounge, by Lava: The mod introduces a brand new part of Athkatlan sewers. You may now use the originally inactive grate in Slums to enter a locked part of the sewers and discover its dark corners. The mod offers three new areas as well as a couple of mini-quests, new items and graphics.

Yoshimo Romance, by Lava: Mod includes 16 timered talks with Yoshimo (pre-Brynnlaw) plus those fired by circumstances - including talk in Brynnlaw and at entrance of Spellhold. Those who love reading may also install additional portion of text - dialogues for both male and female players fired by in-game events. There's no horniness here; the most you can do is kiss his cheek once, IIRC

Everything else, by Lava: seriously, all of his mods are great, and none of the ones on his site are horny

Trials of the Luremaster, by Argent77: This mod makes the Icewind Dale expansion "Trials of the Luremaster" available to BG2:EE (v2.0 or later), Siege of Dragonspear and EET (Enhanced Edition Trilogy).

✨Adrian✨, by Rhealla: Adrian has lived an interesting life, for lack of a better term, though he's hoping to finally put his past behind him. Aside from his magic, he has a background in espionage and a decadent -- some might say romantic -- streak that has gotten him into trouble in the past. He once pursued (and ultimately wrecked) a political career with one of the most notorious organizations in the Realms, and may very much enjoy the opportunities for intrigue the Shadow Thieves have to offer... if you can drag him away from fighting with the Harper and the Red Wizard long enough to notice, that is. Don't let his alignment scare you off. He's the least evil Evil character in the game, and his alignment can seamlessly shift to LN. He does fine in my good-aligned playthroughs. His romance isn't particularly horny--he offers once, but you can turn him down just fine (and there are multiple ways to tell him no). He's by far my favorite romance and favorite NPC in the game; I am not normal about him at all; and I could probably write an entire essay about his character arc. Please do try him out

Sir Ajantis by jastey: With this modification Ajantis can be acquired as a member of the PC's group after the fight in the Windspear Hills (which was not changed by the mod principally). The player must first solve a quest to free Ajantis from Firkraag's ransom. You have the option to continue his romance from BG1 or start a new romance with him--I've done the new romance route, and I didn't notice any horniness.

[nodutra19]

Snowgrave Inspirations?

So we all know the Snowgrave route was inspired, or at least has the texture of being as such, by creepypastas in the sense a game is being broken and has an almost gestalt intelligence in its reaction to being so. Beyond specific references and such, what do y'all think specifically inspired it? I imagine shit like Ben Drowned and Godzilla NES factor in, but I want to provide a unique addition:

Persona 1, or more specifically, Revelations: Persona.

Some set dressing for the uninitiated: Persona 1 has two routes:

The main story is the SEBEC Route, which centers around the demon invasion and transformation of Mikage-cho as a result of the machinations and experiments of the shady SEBEC ("Saeki Electronics & Biological & Energy Corporation") and how one Maki Sonomura stands at the center of all this.

That's the story most experience, but there's a harder alternate route called the Snow Queen Quest, or SQQ for short. This route centers around the titular play which was performed at St. Hermelin High, the school of the game, and how the Snow Queen Mask came to be possessed with a vengeful spirit. But in order to activate this quest, you have to take a number of steps after leaving the school to visit Maki but before activating the SEBEC route, which most people do because of the natural flow of the story; while not the most cryptic or elaborate thing I've experienced, you definitely have to go out of your way in order to experience this part of the game.

While the SQQ is similarly hiemal as Snowgrave since the Queen freezes the school over and attempts to sacrifice a pivotal teacher to bring back the "Eternal Night," the main thing I want to talk about is:

The fact that in the original American release of the game, retitled Revelations: Persona, cut this alternate route out. Now, there's a lot to be said about this release of the game and P1 as a whole. For that, I highly recommend Snickety Slice's videos on it from his Compendium series of essays.

As Snickety Slice says in the SQQ portion of video 3A, which focuses on the American localization of the time, no one really knows why it was cut, by which is meant there is no definitive answer. The most popular theory, as he posits, is that this was done to meet the Christmas deadline, which is a tad ironic considering the atmosphere and setting of SQQ. However, you can actually access a tiny bit of it: if you return to the school, you'll see it's disappeared and when you enter it, an FMV of the school surrounded by three towers and a peak plays. Snickety remarks how confusing this must have been for American players at the time since the actual steps to activate the quest were cut out.

With cheats you can access it, but it's a glitchy, nonsensical mess. I mention all this because of the glitchy theme in Deltarune so far, especially as a result of Noelle's seeming magnetism for the unnerving and dark as revealed in the Spamton sweepstakes and Noelle's posts. I think the details of SQQ and Snowgrave are too disprate to draw real parallels so far, but I get the feeling Toby is drawing from its atmosphere, especially the disconcerting aura of the original American release and the stray FMV. As for the glitchiness, I get the feeling it was all concentrated into Spamton, especially given Spamton's role in the game so far.

I haven't gone through P1 in a very long time, so this is where my rambling ends, but perhaps someone else can draw deeper parallels.

The only real problem is I have no idea how much of Megami Tensei Toby Fox has played. He's a weeb of high caliber, so I imagine he's gone through most of it by now, maybe even early Persona, given how UT's and DT's Talk systems were inspired by MegaTen's demon negotiation, which was present in P1 and the P2 duology, which certainly lines up with his age and background. After all, he gave the Earthbound: Halloween Hack that "Shin Megami Tensei Bullshit."

Also everyone here should check out the PSX OST. It has the best leitmotif.

[jessicas-pi]

This time on: Another Star Wars Rebels AU Idea With Jessie...

So I've seen a fic or two set between s2 & s3 about Ezra getting his green lightsaber, but yknow what I just thought of?

Sabine's armor.

She's had the same stuff since she was, what, 14? 15? 16? Before she joined the Spectres. She's 18-19 between S3 and S4. She's probably started to outgrow it, right? And as far as I know she never got it reforged in canon? (If I'm wrong, oh well. The canon never bothered me anyway.)

So, consider. A fic where Sabine plans an Unauthorized Quest to find a Mandalorian forge & armorer who can resize her armor for her, and Ezra plans an Unauthorized Quest to get a new lightsaber crystal, and it turns out that they both happen to plan to swipe the Phantom at the exact same time. This could go the angsty route with Ezra's dark side phase and all but honestly I'm leaning towards something more cracky. Like, they end up sidequesting with each other and just being weirded out and confused by the different Mandalorian/Jedi cultures.

Sabine gets bored waiting outside a Kyber cave for Ezra to come back so she wanders inside. It turns out that not only is this the same cave where Tarre Vizsla got his crystal from, his Force-ghost has been hangin' there for the last 1000 years, avoiding Mandalore and its political chaos. Sabine assumes it's either a trippy force vision or just a random ancient Jedi and plays along with this weird see-through middle-aged dude vibing in a Force cave, with no idea that she's chatting with the original holder of the Darksaber. Tarre hasn't had this much fun trolling someone in a looong time. She wanders back outside like 30 seconds before Ezra comes out—how much of an emotional wreck he is then depends on how much you want to torture him with his Kyber-cave-force-visions—but he's like "nothing happened while I was gone?" and she's like "....nope."

Ezra has to dress up in armor so he and Sabine can bluff their way into a Children Of The Watch forge (it's their best bet to get armor redone without anyone recognizing her) and she tells him to "lay low and don't attract attention". They get into the covert and he wanders off, leaving Sabine to wait in the forge and pretend like she's not panicking that he'll mess it all up and start a fight. Little does she know that he's currently being flirted at by at least eleven Mandalorians. Poor guy is flustered/confused into silence because Since When Do People Flirt At Me and that just makes it worse because now all the teen Mandos are getting ~silent and broody~ vibes from him. Sabine collects him on the way out, asks "So, you didn't attract any attention, right?" and he just pauses and it's his turn to be like "....nope."

Anyway. Unsupervised Teenage Space Road Trip Culture Clash Shenanigans.

[thievinghippo]

Day One Veilguard Impressions

I've played probably 6-7 hours by now. (I'm level 10). Still missing three companions, including the one companion I want to recruit the most

I've seen two of Solas's memories, and now I'm thinking there's something wrong with him (like the blight or he's been cursed) and that we're going to see somehow

I'm a little overwhelmed with the number of quests I have right now. I'm going to assume that none are timed. At least I really hope none of them are timed. I'd like to think that BioWare would give us a hint that times matter before the game was released

Edda so far is mostly using the thumbs up choice, which I like for her. (Daahir is my next playthrough and he'll go the sarcasm route).

Speaking of dialogue choices, the beginning is a little too much exposition and getting new and old players caught up on what happened ten years ago. I'm tolerating it now. But if it's still like this in act 3, I will be disappointed

But overall, I'm having fun! I'm enjoying playing a warrior much more than I thought I would!

Now if I could only decide what quest to do next...

[chelzone]

My WIP Games Ahead: An Assortment

feeling like rambling a bit to get myself motivated to work on stuff right now, as well give a fresh update on what projects ive been tending to this year. just gonna focus on three that have had a lotta work put into em already

not gonna tag this one since its a mixture of SFW and NSFW and hidden under a read more. dont open if u dont wanna read about the latter (more specifically expansion kink stuff)

Hallowed Discharge

this one i've been putting my heart and soul into for a long while now, as it's a mountain of coding and writing despite only being maybe 25-30% finished argubly. made within the Quest text adventure engine, much like my released SFW game Kindred Spirit. Hallowed Discharge revolves around a pooltoy priest named Reverend Artemis, and his task in trying to nonlethally expel a hell of a lot of spirits from an abandoned mall named Delícias do Vale. features a hell of a lot of NPCs to chat with, tons of tasks to do for the most important of spirits, a mixture of percentage-based stats to be mindful of (weight, faith, and energy), and a fuckton of early game overs if u aint careful along the way. so far currently i'd say half of the first floor's tended to, same for the basement, and nothing for the second floor or general outside yet.

last time i tinkered with this, i was tending to a mission where the player has to attempt to fix fuses around the mall to restore partial power to the basement generators (mechanically it works code-wise, still need to move them to proper areas before the task can be completed properly). as for the justification of kinky stuff, our beloved goddess of expansion herself Her Divine is puppeting the show from above

Enchanted Bliss

another game with a lotta heart put into it, this one's a SFW visual novel made within Ren'Py (my first proper one at that in said engine!). Enchanted Bliss revolves around a newbie and mid-to-late 20 something wizard Dylan Rhodes, being strung along on a mission with a bunch of professional wizards / coworkers (a field exercise for Rhodes, a bigger deal of trouble for the rest). within the ruined city of Filia Lunae, Dylan will have to tag up with one of their coworkers to investigate a part of said city and hopefully score a friendship / a romantic relationship along the way (or even beef it completely).

last time i worked on this, ive been in the process of redoing the art style completely to be a more neon and line-focused one (as seen in the image above). fuck ton of emotion sprites are done for the protagonist Dylan, supporting character / mission boss Carmichael, and one of said coworkers - Brava Denvers. still have to draw the rest of the emotions for the other 5 coworkers. past that ive made 16 short music loops (1 min or so each) that might wind up in the game or its soundtrack slated for post-game release in the years ahead. still a lot of drawing, writing, and music-making ahead along with sourcing any royalty free / public domain sounds with credits of course. current playable section is just the tutorial / introduction camp before starting any of the six routes

The Ballad of Hush and Clover

another kinky game, though this one made in the flicksy 2 engine much like me released SFW game For Your Eyes. this one revolves around wizard couple and toony folks Evelyn Hush an Patsy Clover, heading off to the Nilbrook Mountain Chain to investigate a strange cave stumbled upon by a coworker. from there, they stumble upon a small fragment of what used to be temple to the (shocker) goddess Her Divine. there, a mystical figure emerges as a proxy of said goddess an offers a challenge for one (whichever the player chooses) of the toony spouses / wizards present.

with enough vague story rambling outta the way, it's basically gonna be a point and click sort of storybook thang. you'll either be playing as Evelyn OR Patsy - not both. each spouse has their own setting and associated adventure in a simulated dimension tied to their challenge (the other stays behind in the real world with the mentioned figure / proxy). so far a fuckton of scenes are drawn for it already, fulfilling the entirety of gameplay in the introduction and tutorial. gameplay elements besides traveling From Here to There will also be opportunities to use your powers, think about the situation ahead, chat with the folks within the challenge, and utilize a map to figure out where the hell ur at.

last time i worked on it i started making the early parts of both playable stories for each respective protagonist. Evelyn gets to deal with potential inflation mischief on an airship resort of sorts, while Patsy deals with potential fattening mischief on a cross-country luxury train of sorts. this one has been fun as fuck to draw and write for, and is chock full of visuals oh my lord

anyway if uve read this or even a chunk of this write-up, thanks! feel its important to remind folks that im still working on things and offer any progress updates when i can lol. at the moment of writing (08-29-2024) im prob gonna try hopping back into game dev for one or all of these come early September this year. id say realistically it'll be a hot minute until i release any of these three (most work needed for Hallowed Discarge, least needed for The Ballad of Hush and Clover, yadda yadda)

[fuckentoastybitch]

My VN List!

I'm listing them according to ones I've played and ones I plan to play (as well as brief notes about either my opinion on the game or why I'm interested in them, formatted like this.)

This is for my own personal collection tbh, I just need to put them all in one place.

A. Have played:

The Arcana. Played since I was 16, all time favourite and Julian is my husband. This game shaped my interest for fantasy settings and magic. BUT! As a long time fan I must warn new players that trying to get the full experience for this game is difficult because of its coin system. The only reason I manage to keep playing for years is because I literally take a year's worth of breaks in between routes and logged in every. Single. Day. to collect coins and keys. It's literally been 6 years and I still haven't 100% the game yet cause I simply didn't have that kind of energy and time to do that anymore, but I still love the characters very deeply till now.

Blooming Panic. Second all time fave. Fell for Quest first, fell for Toasty hardest, for some reason is obsessed with xyx. I've revolved my entire personality around BP since 2023.

ERROR 143. Fun! Micah is technically not my type but I really like the general aesthetic and humor of the game. Iirc there are still more content to come to the game so I am very excitedly and patiently waiting.

3 Seasons. This was short and sweet. I think what I liked the most about this was the unique character designs, especially Rye and Briar's. I heard the dev's are working on more content on the current LI's + Briar's route, I'm really excited for those.

Our Life: Beginning & Always. Our life was INCREDIBLE, to put it simply. The entire game and story was very well thought out that it even made me reflect on my own life at each phase along the game. It gave me a really strong sense of nostalgia and reminded me of my own feelings during every change I had experienced. I actually wanted to make a whole post about OLBA but I got busy and already forgot everything I wanted to say, ehe. I still have to play the DLC and get the remaining locked CGs though.

Assignment Due: Project Blue. THIS GAME IS ADORABLE. I already made a blog post about what I like about it and I will again emphasis on how this game felt like it was made specifically for me. I love Asher so much aaaaa. I heard rei, the dev is working on another game for Eden, I'm looking forward for that, too.

Coffee Talk. Coffee talk was so so good! I need to play more non-romance VNs too cause this was so enjoyable in terms of its storytelling, setting, gameplay and design. Every character had such a nice story that tied up nicely, even the MC who's supposed to be just an observer throughout the entire thing. Also the cozy vibes and music is a 10/10 would recommend.

A Date with Death. This one's so cute too! I played only one route last year and just picked it up again recently. I have only one route left to finish and the new DLC!. Anyways yes the Grim Reaper is very babygirl I can attest to it.

seekL. THIS IS SO GOOD. SO SO GOOD. If you didn't see the one week phase where I basically went insanely obsessed with seekL, you missed out. Hacker man save me.. save me.. hackerman..

B. Want to play:

Lost in Limbo. Really pretty art and interesting concept. The theme seems very fantasy/magic centric which really pulls me in. But this game is still a WIP iirc

When The Night Comes. Technically I'm currently playing this one, but only the intro and hadn't touched the game in months cause I've been busy. Again, the fantasy setting caught my interest aaand I just met Ezra but I already love him. Will continue this as soon as I can!

Infinite Blue. I've played the demo! Very mysmes reminiscent lol. The game looked very cute so far and Brooklyn reminded me that I'll never run away from my old man liker allegations. It's already out so I def gotta play it soon.

Coffee Talk Episode 2. Don't really need an explanation for this one except that the new characters I've seen so far looks really cool.

Tavern Talk. D&D inspired Coffee Talk! If it's not obvious already, I LOVE fantasy settings so even though I've never played D&D, it is right up my alley and I wish I could play it someday. I've been eyeing the production of this game for a while so I'm really excited that it's finally out!

Obscura. This one looks really REALLY cool but I haven't actually read into what it's actually about. The art alone looks good enough to get my attention. Really curious about it, I hope I'll play it soon.

Intertwine. Just from looking at the 2023 Otome Jam entries overall I thought this one looked most visually appealing to me. I love the color scheme, and the aesthetic reminds of the string of fate myth (that probably is the theme)

DATA BR<3ACH. I'm usually not a fan of cyberpunk setting but this one seemed pretty intriguing to me visually!

Innerlog. By Jenny V Pham! I enjoyed Error 143 so I have no doubt I'll enjoy this one too.

Andromeda Six. My impression of this one is "space D&D" lol. I can't believe I haven't played this one yet.

TOUCHSTARVED. I can NOT believe only the demo is out cause the quality looks like it should've been a long existing popular franchise. One thing I'm a little hesitant about playing this game is because it's goth themed and in case you haven't noticed, a lot of the media I like have a softer, more pastel aesthetic. lol. But that's a personal preference and yet I definitely need to play it sometime soon.

Cupid's Chatroom. There's really not much to say. Pink aesthetic? Mysterious chatsim that appeared out of nowhere? My cup of tea 100%

Na Daoine Maithe. I've played the demo of this one and it is sooo interesting. I like myths but I've never really read into Gaelic ones. The art is so pretty and the story so far is very intriguing. I can't wait for the full game.

Swiped!: Double Shots of Love. FINALLY AN INDIE VN WITH OLDER MALE LOVE INTERESTS DFKJFDSJKD I played the demo, it was really really cute! The professor LI was made to call me out lol

Wake Me Up If You Need Me. A game made by rice! Someone who I've seen around in the fandom and who's really talented at making songs and audios. I had no idea they made a game but I just found it recently and I have to play it.

Keyframes. It looks really good but I'm interested mostly cause I found out Charlatean (Toasty's VA) is in this kjsdhfgkjd

Rekindle. I follow the lovely artist that's creating it and the DEMO IS OUT!. I saw one (1) art of Jules and he is EXACTLY my type so I'm already looking forward to this game.

Our Life: Now & Forever. Baxter's OL game! I already loved Cove's so I'm really really interested in this version of the game. Plus, I actually really like the autumn aesthetic compared to Cove's beachy style.

Hummingbird's Crown. Has a very interesting premise: a time loop mystery. I'm definitely interested in this one for its story potential rather than the romance, I love me a good mystery.

Aaand that's it. Thankfully "( – ⌓ – )

There's actually a few more that I added in my twitter bookmarks but those are relatively new and I haven't decided if I really want to play them yet. I'm following the devs though so that interest might grow over time. These lists are long enough as they are already, haha.

[pastafossa]

Stumbling and crashing and tripping with various crashes and a Wilhelm scream into your askbox to ask, YOU PLAY BG3????? ISN'T IT GREAT?!?!?!! I LOVE IT SO MUCH AKSHQKXBQ it's been my Focus since December!!! Who's your favorite so far?? How far are you in?? What kind of route are you doing?? Have you discovered any funny loopholes yet?? What race do you favor playing?? I LOVE to hear about other peoples playthroughs,

IT'S GODDAMN AMAZING AND I ALREADY HAVE MULTIPLE PLAYTHROUGHS PLANNED BECAUSE ONCE IS NOOOOT ENOUGH! I AM IN LOVE. Like I know these types of games (I've been a Bioware slut since KOTOR 2, so I looove this genre), and so I feel very confident saying holy shit, BG3 is one of the best! ALSO IT'S HUGE??? INSANELY HUGE??? AND FULL??? I LOVE IT SM.

Oh god favorites are hard, I'm gd attached to all of these little ducklings following my Tav. So far at least, storywise it's SCRATCH HE IS THE BESTEST BOY maaaybe Astarion. I LOVE his arc, his voicework is stunning, (I accidentally killed him with the big monastery laser and his reaction was hysterical) and his quest has been very moving. A close second is KARLACH, MY GIRL, MY FIREY BFF, like damn I HAD my little battle group (Gale + Astarion + Wyll) when I found her but I adore her so much I'm rotating Gale and Wyll to keep her permanently, SHE JUST WANTED A HUG. ��

I'm in act 3, I just hit the city! I have no idea how but I am also STILL on my first PT after over a month of play. I love to sniff around under every nook and cranny granted, AND YET I STILL MISSED THINGS, IT'S SO BIG???

So far my route has been a chaotic good route! Outside, uh, occasional murdery hiccups goodbye creche but ya'll were assholes I've mostly managed to follow that alignment, and somehow still made friends with Lae? That was unexpected. I thought she hated my Tav's guts before she hit on her. 😂

Hilarious moments: setting off the giant laser at the monastery cause why wouldn't I grab the shiny weapon (sorry Astarion); being instakilled by Vlaakith at said monastery after basically mocking her with 'if you were really a god you'd be able to just kill someone yourself ha ha-splat'; friends telling me to talk to animals so I got excited when I saw a squirrel and ran to talk to it - it proceeded to bite me, then I failed a persuasion roll about being friends and it told me to fuck off; trying to get to that dwarf lady's husband in the Underdark and shooting an arrow at one of the mushrooms in the field he was in, thinking I could clear them one by one to get to him, only to set off a chain reaction that incinerated him and left the entire field a smoking crater (me as the explosions begin: oh, OH, oh no - wait, sir! Sir! Oh you're fine, you're - oh fuck, RUN SIR RU-shit he's dead); placing my druid in rothe/battle cow shape at the top of a ladder and charging whatever bad guy comes up so they fall back down (catchphrase: MOO, BITCH); and finally, I was having trouble with that one boss guy in the goblin camp, the one that sits on the throne. So when I saw I could get to the rafters, I painstakingly dragged every last explosive barrel and grenade I could find into the room and innocently placed them around the throne, then went up to the rafters and had Astarion shoot a fire arrow. I figured I'd at least bring the guy's health down but instead I set off the fourth of july, blasted that guy so hard he bounced around the room like a pinball before his body wound up glitch-stuck halfway through a wall, but hey, dead as a doornail sooo... it worked? Chaotic good alignment: MASTERED. 🤪

I'm playing a half-elf druid CAUSE I CAN BE AN OWLBEAR OR DINOSAUR TO FIGHT. I now have a chance to run around as a dinosaur druid with my 200 yo elf boyfriend, my BFFs, and find random bowls of poutine, this is the BEST GAME EVER. Also hilariously, I didn't check the stats closely and her intelligence wound up quite low, so she is very wise but also dumb as a bag of hammers, I love her, my first Tav is a good-hearted, unintentional bundle of chaos.

[shmowder]

Guess who finished the Haruspex route yesterday!! It was fun and I'm excited to jump into the Bachelor route next.

Where the game really shined was in Artemy's interactions with Daniil. I get it now! He had some nice interactions with Aglaya and Capella as well. I actually had enough panaceas and shmowders to unlock both secrets and omg I LOVED being able to tell the other healers and Aglaya that we're dolls. That was pretty interesting. And telling Aglaya you're the player and her wanting nothing to do with you!!

With the caveat that I've only played 1/3 of the whole game - I agree with you when you said P1 is more of a gamey game. There's a greater focus on you as the player. Thankfully once I got used to the gameplay and to savescumming I found it quite enjoyable. And you're right, it felt easier than P2 even on the easiest settings. Even though it wasn't necessary by the end, I loved breaking into houses and stealing the food, and trying to beat the plague clouds while looting infected houses. I didn't even mind powerwalking from one side of the map and back (except when I had to go to Oyun).

I really liked being able to talk to people after I've exhausted their dialogue just to hear more of their spoken lines :)

I know I shouldn't, but it's so hard not to compare P1 with P2. Most of what I feel are the game's shortcomings can be attributed to the fact that I played P2 first and imprinted on it.

I missed the fleshed-out world the most - the wider variety of townspeople with unique dialogue and the expanded trading system, the Apple Basket Gang, the hospital theater and the daily tasks to take care of patients and take care of the others' Bound, side quests that felt like they made more of a difference. Even the variety of items in P2 and their descriptions contributed to the worldbuilding.

I was left feeling like I wouldn't really care about these people if I didn't already know and love them from P2. Of course that may change when I play as the Bachelor and Changeling! But even the interactions with the Haruspex's own Bound felt lacking. Murky and Sticky :'( And maybe I missed something but I met Khan ONCE in the entire game and it was him asking if Capella would submit to him when they were married :|

I hope this doesn't sound dumb or overly negative. As far as playing the game goes, I had a good time and I'm really glad you convinced me to buy it! It was worth it <3

🐿️ anon

congrats on finishing it!

Yeah, I do get your frustration, but the devs explained it in ingame. They did the best they could with the limited time and funds they had + the limited technology at the time.

There is still a fleshed out world if you pay attention. It's only done differently. Some Npcs do give you different dialogues if you speak to them at the right time and place, but you didn't notice because they all looked the same and dissmised them as background decorations. They really tried to make up for the lack of variation by leaving hidden secrets and easter eggs to those who search around.

I disagree on the "I was feeling like I wouldn't care for those people if I didn't know them from P2" I didn't feel that at all, if anything the writing and dialogue in P1 were so much more detailed and expanded on that it made me like characters even more. I would've loved them even more if P1 was my introduction, I didn't care about most of them in P2 tbh.

P1 exposes a lot of new sides to them, Capella cares about her father deeply and worries about him constantly, Aglaya being more vulnerable and genuinely afraid of death, The Kains several attempts at gaining your good graces to use you.

Especially characters who didn't get stage time in P2. It's unfair to compare P1 to your expectations based on P2 rather than just judge it alone as a game by itself. The devs weren't trying to make a P2, they do that later in the future, and they were only executing their vision at the time.

Don't let nostalgia cloud your views, is what I'm saying. Otherwise, you won't be able to see the beautiful story and unique dynamics between characters in P1 because you're too focused on comparing it to P2 and mourning things and characters which weren't even invented yet.

Don't condem the past for not being like the future. Learn to appreciate the beauty of the first stones set in a paved road, how without them, we wouldn't have had P2 at all. Older games will never meet our modern standards; we shouldn't expect them to.

[actualaster]

I really want to get into tales of symphonia because you have increased my background exposure to it enough but is the anime a decent place to start??? Or should I go find ye olde emulator?

I haven't actually checked the anime out myself, so somebody who's actually seen it should be better able to tell you but from what I gather it's better to give the game a play if you can.

The original game is available on GameCube, PS2 (Japanese-only), PS3, PS4/5, PC, Xbox One, and Switch--though from what I've heard and seen the Switch version is a mess of a port with genuine major performance issues. So you've got options for which version you're interested in (regardless of if you emulate or not). Just, like I said, maybe steer clear of the Switch version lol.

The sequel didn't ever get an anime adaptation as far as I'm aware, and the game is sadly only available via Wii and PS3 (and considering the quality of the TOS Switch port, I'm thinking it doged a bullet there lol). The PS3 version is good, no major technical issues in it or anything.

The sequel game did also get a manga that was part prequel, part interqeuel which ran in the Tales Of magazine (then got published in 2 volumes), of which there is a scanlation though I would suggest avoiding that unless you play the game first due to massive spoilers. But if you do check the sequel game out, it fleshes out a character significantly vs their in-game appearance (which makes sense for plot reasons I won't spoil for you here!)

The sequel is personally my favorite game, I liked the cast more than those in the original though many people like the original more (and an annoyingly large number of them are very rude about making sure people know it). But I would definitely suggest, if possible, checking out the original game first because it will give a lot more depth to things. Though you definitely can jump into the sequel if desired and not be totally lost. But it will dramatically change your perspective on various early-game events depending on what you know of thr first game and it's cast.

That said, expect it to be a fair time sink (especially if you want to try for the multiple ending variants--they aren't for the most part wildly different but there is one specific route that will change if a character kives or dies) and also as it's 20 years old now, it'll have some various technical limitations on the gameplay that aren’t present in more current entries in the series.

The sequel isn't as much of a time sink--however, while the restructuring of how Bamco classifies the games now puts it on more equal footing with the original, it was developed as more of a side sequel and not given the full resources of mainline game and it shows at various points. It does, however, have 2 different endings (and a "bad" game over end unique to one specific part of the endgame sequence) which are determined starting earlier in the game. So, if you want to go for both that's still more of a time sink than just one.

You could, though, if you opt to play one or both just do one playthrough on each or either and then look up alternate scenes via YouTube or something.

(Also, however, keep in mind when deciding if you want to play them or not that both games do have missable side quests that will flesh out characters and such so having a guide handy may help--or, again, you could probably find YT vids of them)