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hiverforesteevee · 7 years ago

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Undertale Fridge Highlights

My favorite entries from Undertale’s Fridge page on TV Tropes

Some of these entries may be edited/abridged/modified, but for the most part, these are copy/pasted directly from the page. I didn’t write any of these, I just compiled them here for my own amusement. Go to the site for even more intelligence and insight on this precious game!

SPOILERS

· When you first meet Toriel, she introduces herself by saying "greetings". Who else introduces themself like that? Chara!

· All of the human SOULs have a certain color associated with them, and the player character's SOUL is colored red. The PC is also the only human to survive their journey through the underground. When dealing with the light spectrum, red is the color with the longest wavelength—that is, to say, out of all the colors, red is the one that travels the farthest.

· At first, Flowey's tendency to say things like "Howdy!" and "golly" seem to be there only to enforce his Faux Affably Evil act until you meet Asgore, who speaks in a similar manner, and learn that he's Asriel/Flowey's father.

· Flowey the Flower is kind of an uninspired name. Looks like Asriel inherited his father's Giver of Lame Names trait.

· If you kill Flowey during a Neutral run, on subsequent runs through the game, he doesn't appear throughout the game until the end. This could be interpreted as a permadeath of sorts, except that he shows up anyway to destroy Asgore's SOUL after the latter sacrifices himself. So what's going on? One of the possible endgame conversations with Flowey (in a run where you have not previously killed him) gives a possible answer: Flowey mentions that Sans caused him his "fair share of resets", but if you talk to Sans, he's never seen Flowey, and thinks his brother's conversations with a flower involved an Echo Flower. So Flowey's deliberately been avoiding Sans because Sans is a danger to him...and after you killed him in the previous ending, he's now started avoiding YOU for the same reason.

· Asriel's final form looks a bit abstract and attacks with rainbows, stars, a huge laser, and they all have attack names. Considering his age when he died, it starts to make sense that his ultimate form is closer to what an 8-year-old would see in a Saturday morning cartoon villain and makes it all the more tragic.

· During the battle with Flowey's final form, Flowey regains the power to save and load, meaning he's the only boss in the game that could actually kill you for good if he felt like it... but he doesn't. He keeps bringing you back with that power so he can keep killing you. Why? He's been unbelievably bored with the Underground for goodness knows how long...and finding out how many different ways he can kill you is the first exciting thing to happen to him in ages. The fact his true form is a child makes this make even more sense: Flowey is a child who'd gotten bored with his entire toy box and is now obsessed with his brand new toy: you.

· Asriel's name is a combination of his parents' names, Asgore and Toriel... because Asgore is terrible at naming things. It was probably the only thing he could come up with. (Another rationalization would be that Asgore just followed the Germanic naming convention of combining the parents' names to name the child.)

· "Three out of four grey rocks recommend that you push them." Literally. You have to ask the fourth one to move.

· Toriel, a very motherly character, has the track "Fallen Down" for her non-battle theme. Guess what game the instruments in that song come from? EarthBound, aka MOTHER 2.

· If you interpret Frisk as having parents before falling down, then Toriel is Mother (number) 2.

· Why are the Ruins' puzzles activated in the beginning? Because the field of flowers the player character landed on is the Fallen Child's grave, and Toriel doesn't want people messing with it.

· Toriel seems weaker than Asgore, with simpler attack patterns and no flashy weapons, but she knocks him away easily in the True Pacifist ending. Why is that? Because she was treating you with kid gloves to scare you back into staying with her. She even weakens her attacks and deliberately misses you when your HP gets too low. She actually has the same stats as Asgore: 80 ATK, 80 DEF. Another sign that Toriel is holding back in her fight is in her attack that opens with her hand going across the soul box with fire trailing it. If the hand hits the child's soul (implying that Toriel physically hit the child) the attack immediately stops.

· Why are Toriel's socks considered scandalous? Because she's a Barefoot Cartoon Animal. Socks in general seem to be an 'inappropriate' article of clothing in this universe. If you hum with Shyren, monsters show up to make it a concert and toss their socks at you.

· Toriel is overprotective of Frisk because she lost two children in one night.

· Toriel says she wants you to prove you're strong enough to survive before engaging the battle, yet even if you've been treating the game like a typical RPG and killing every encounter thus far (but not going full Genocide in the sense that you're deliberately seeking out everything), bringing yourself to hurt her isn't easy. She's not just testing if you're strong enough physically, but mentally as well — all the fighting power and ability in the world won't help you if you're not willing to make use of it, so she wants to know if you'd be willing to fight someone who's been nothing but kind to you if your life depended on it. If you can kill someone under those circumstances, then you can take on anyone, so she knows she won't have to worry about you. It seems to be a major reason she lets you go even if you simply stand your ground and don't fight back. By refusing to back down, you've shown a different kind of strength—the resolve to stand up and face danger head-on.

· Sans and Papyrus are named after typefaces that get a lot of hate in the design world for being overused. Similarly, the characters get little respect when they show up (they're upset at their limited appearance in the demo, and the narrator shuts them down in the Steam Greenlight trailer). Their personalities are also based on the common perceptions of those typefaces. Comic Sans is used when businesses try to appear friendly (but end up looking lazy) and Papyrus is used to make something seem more meaningful and important than it really is. Their personalities also extend to the typography of their speech — the excessively enthusiastic Papyrus is all capital letters and exclamation marks. Even if he means well, he is trying a little too hard. Sans, on the other hand, is too lazy to even capitalize properly (except in certain... instances). Even their physical appearance resembles their namesakes: a short, stocky, casual-looking buddy, and a tall fellow trying to look important.

· Not to mention Sans... is a comic. And in a No Mercy run, he loses all his comedic intent and his font changes to 8bitoperator. On top of that, it's a sans serif font, which is also a semi-homophone for 'seraph,' an angelic rank. What are angels often depicted doing? Opposing the demonic forces of evil.

· Undyne mentions that Papyrus has everything it takes to be a member of the Royal Guard, but refuses him on account on him being 'too nice'. It shows in his stats, too — Papyrus has 8 ATK and 2 DEF; the only boss monsters he's weaker than on a Pacifist run are Toriel (who has 80 ATK and DEF, but is holding back) and Asgore (who also has 80 ATK and DEF, but is also holding back (albeit not as much as Toriel) and can be talked down into holding back further). Undyne herself has 7 ATK and a DEF score of zero, and Mettaton EX has 8 ATK and 1 DEF.

· On the No Mercy path, when Papyrus dies, he asks the player to keep moving forward out of the hope that they'll change their ways. Meanwhile, Sans makes an effort to stop the player in their tracks. They're orange and blue respectively. What do orange and blue attacks do?

· While Papyrus' CHECK text in the No Mercy route describes him as "forgettable", out of any other monster you can kill, Papyrus gets mentioned the most. Undyne drops all of her energetic theatrics and coldly promises to kill you. Sans, meanwhile, drops out of the game entirely should you kill Papyrus until the very end of the game, where he delivers a much more scathing judgement than he would even if you'd killed every monster except Papyrus. (He'll also refuse to make fun of your level if you keep reloading before the judgement, and won't congratulate you for any self-imposed challenges in the end-of-game phone call.)

· If you call Papyrus outside of Alphys' lab, he, being Papyrus, winds up pronouncing it "Labrador-y" and wonders if that means there are dogs inside of it. Sans chimes in with a wink that he wouldn't rule it out. The True Lab has Endogeny, meaning Sans knows, at the very least, the dog sentries' parents never left Alphys' lab, though he doesn't drop any hints that he knows their fate.

· During the Papyrus date, if you look in the sink drawer, you find the Annoying Dog stealing a bone, and after Papyrus fails to catch him, Sans comes out of his room and plays a Trombone. Yes, a TromBONE.

· Papyrus' comment about needing 12 more followers to get a 2-digit number makes sense when you remember that hexidecimal notation is common in computers, suggesting he has 4 friends online.

· Sans killing you after you spare him seems trollish of him, but it's pretty much sweet karma. You killed his brother when he was sparing you, so he was just showing you the utter betrayal he felt.

· Sans' speech during the You Are Not Alone segment before the True Pacifist final boss seems to pretty much be Sans being Sans, but look a bit deeper at his wording, "What, you still haven't beaten this guy yet?" Since he can observe timelines, he's probably aware that the one he's in is one that keeps going after Frisk leaves the Underground, so while the others are egging you on in their belief in you, Sans is doing it because he knows as an absolute certainty that you'll win.

· Examining the dog couple's hut in Snowdin, you'll find coloured definitions of the threat levels — White, Blue, and Red; however, the word Red is actually coloured green. Dogs are red-green colourblind.

· When you talk to Papyrus during his date or hangout, he talks about how Sans tried making a "quiche" with a sugary substance instead of egg. In other words, pie. An early indicator that he knows Toriel.

· Sans being the first character you encounter in Snowdin may seem a bit odd at first, until you remember that Toriel asked him to protect any humans who came through his area. He even comes up to you from behind — meaning he was walking away from the Ruins! He didn't just passively accept Toriel's request; he was waiting for you from the start!

· Papyrus' plan of calling every cell phone to find Frisk's number seems ludicrous at first glance. On the overworld where there are millions of cell phones, it would certainly be this way. In the underworld, however, there are far fewer active lines: if you consider that Mettaton, the underworld's greatest superstar, only has three dozen fans, it seems likely that there are no more than 20 or 30 cell phones active overall. It would then be easy for him to request the underworld's client list using Undyne's authority "in an effort to find the human" and call every single number. Papyrus would need 30 minutes at most to find the right one.

· The fact that Papyrus never lets the player drop below 1 HP, even by accident. Remember who has 1 HP in total? It makes sense that Papyrus, more than any other monster, is used to being very careful not to hurt someone else.

· You can buy the Tough Glove from the shopkeep in Snowdin, even though you get it for free inside the first dimensional box you find. If each weapon belonged to a previous human, why is this the only one you can acquire two of? Because it's actually a pair of gloves, left and right.

· Undyne has more DEF without her armor than with because the only time you fight her without her armor, you've already gone to immense lengths to spare and befriend her (which, by the way, is only possible if you've been a pacifist to everyone else, too). The protagonist can't muster the ill will to do her any real harm.

· The music that plays during Undyne's death on the Neutral run is a mix of her regular theme and "Battle Against A True Hero." She's trying to muster the determination to take on her Undying form like on Genocide, but because of that lingering doubt that you might still be a good person on the inside, she can't do it. You might have brought Undyne's HP to zero, but it was her own internal conflict that killed her.

· Napstablook's name makes little sense when you first meet them, but when you get to their house, you discover they're a music aficionado. They're a Napster bloke. You also first encounter them when they're pretending to sleep and blocking your way, preventing you from progressing. Naps-ta-block.

· Undyne's death animations in any run always involve her beginning to melt. It's apparent that Undyne truly is badass enough to delay her own death, making her the only monster in the whole underground capable of generating her own Determination. Unfortunately, she's still a monster, so while it lets her revive multiple times for a short while, it ultimately causes her body to melt just like the Amalgamates after she uses it for too long.

· In a more literal case of Fridge Brilliance than most: Undyne's "hot fridge" might seem like a bad idea... unless you've spoken to the toothy monster at Grillby's and remember that monster food doesn't spoil. For monsters, whether a fridge is cold or hot really is just a matter of preference.

· Why does Mettaton NEO go down so easily in a Genocide Run? When you think about it, it's very likely he was a rushed production on Alphys' part. To elaborate, Mettaton has an infatuation for the human world, so there's no way he would ask Alphys to intentionally turn him into a human-killing machine from the get-go unless absolutely necessary, and when Frisk started to gain an advantage over Undyne the Undying, that was probably the point when she deemed things went to shit, forcing her to make some last-minute adjustments to Mettaton whilst also evacuating the monster population.

· Killing Mettaton NEO nets you a metric ton of EXP, enough to raise your LOVE to 19. Until now, you've been slaughtering dogs, bugs, slime, seahorses, airplanes, and sentient fire, with the most humanized monster being a goat woman and a fish woman. Aside from his arm cannon, Mettaton NEO looks extremely closely like a human, and your willingness to cut him down shows how willing you are to kill an actual human.

· The quiz question about smooching a ghost seems odd until you realize Mettaton is a former ghost himself, so this might be flirting.

· It makes sense that Alphys, based on a lizard, has a lab/home in Hotland, the warmest part of the underground. Lizards are, like all reptiles, cold-blooded and need to spend time in the warmth to not freeze to death.

· Why did Asgore destroy the "Mercy" button? ... Because after all he's done, he feels that he doesn't deserve mercy.

· Alternatively, in destroying the option for mercy, he's desperately trying to force you into attacking him, in the hopes that it'll give him some measure of a reason to hate you, so that he can (attempt to) bear the burden of killing you, a child. Same reason he doesn't meet your gaze in battle. He doesn't want to see you as a living being with feelings and compassion like him because it would make it all the more difficult for him to bring himself to kill you.

· Eating Toriel's pie lowers Asgore's ATK and DEF stats. On an obvious level, this is due to being reminded of her... but it could also be partly because, if you have the pie, it means that Toriel cared about you. Asgore may have realized that, in attempting to avenge the children he'd shared with Toriel, he may essentially have to kill one of her own children.

· Trying to talk to Asgore on a non-pacifist, non-Genocide run results in the game commenting "But there was nothing to say". You can't bring yourself to try and convince Asgore to spare you, because you too were responsible for another's death in order to escape the underground.

· You go through Autumn (the Ruins), Winter (Snowdin), Spring (Waterfall), and Summer (Hotland) in perfect order. Waterfall is filled with water, and is smack-dab in the middle of Snowdin and Hotland. The heat radiating from Hotland most likely allowed for any ice or snow in Waterfall to melt.

· Meta Fridge with the Toriel Plush—the official plush contains a small plush "Soul" inside of it, but the only way you'd see it is to cut open the plush. From a business standpoint, adding such a thing would seem like a waste of time and resources for something most consumers wouldn't get to see, since few would be willing to damage something so cute that they paid for. Why is it there then? It ties in perfectly with the theme of the game—how far are you willing to go to see every last secret for yourself?

· Why does Flowey take multiple hits to kill, despite Chara being at the height of their killing intent? People may assume it's because he's an actual flower instead of being made of magic, but look at him just before the act. His face takes on the appearance of Asriel, the only person Chara may still have affection for at this point. It's possible their killing intent is weaker for him than any other monster.

· Why is Mettaton NEO so easy to kill? Because he was meant to be a HUMAN eradication robot. By the time you reach him, you're not really human. Speaking of which, that's why Sans gets the first turn in his boss fight, that's why he is able to dodge attacks when nobody else could, that's why he is able to grant fake mercy, and that's why he is able to pause the fight just so you can't kill him. Think about it — you always get the first turn, you're able to dodge attacks (heck, it's even possible to beat Sans without getting hit ONCE), you're able to make monsters sparable and THEN kill them, and you're able to pause the fight so the enemy cannot attack you for a short span of time until you do something. Yup. At that point, Sans is more of a human player character than you are. You aren't fighting Sans. Sans is fighting you.

· The Song That Might Play When You Fight Sans doesn't play in the battle because it's Sans' battle theme, a supercharged remix of his Leitmotif, including elements of Papyrus' battle theme and Gaster's theme. Instead, the admittedly awesome track Megalovania plays. Megalovania isn't his theme, it's YOURS. YOU are the Final Boss and he's trying to stop you from triggering The End of the World as We Know It.

· Why does the True Pacifist run require, well, being a True Pacifist? Because it involves succeeding in destroying the barrier, which requires the power of 7 human SOULS. Since they only have 6, the only conventional way to get the 7th would be if Frisk died, which just isn't going to happen. It's mentioned that human SOULS are so powerful that it would take the SOULS of every monster in the underground to match one. That's literal — Flowey's backup plan when 6 SOULs aren't enough to defeat you is to gain an artificial 7th by absorbing every single monster and getting the power of a God without yours. If you kill even a single monster, he can't complete that plan because he wouldn't have enough power to create a false 7th SOUL.

· If the player doesn't complete the True Lab portion of the game, the player is shunted into a Neutral Path. The Amalgamates must be freed for Flowey/Asriel to make the 7th soul. Without them, he simply doesn't have enough monster SOU Ls to create the 7th soul from scratch. The True Pacifist route requires befriending ALL monsters and freeing ALL monster souls in the Underground, not just those who are easily accessed during normal gameplay. On a similar note, you're only told to go to the True Lab on a True Pacifist run; not on a Neutral — one death, even accidental, bars you from it. If the Amalgamates really are necessary to create that false 7th soul, then Flowey only feels safe having you go there if you go out of your way to avoid killing anyone no matter what. Anyone less than a Friend to All Living Things would likely take one look at those monstrosities and think something along the lines of "Kill It with Fire", which would ruin Flowey's plan. He needs to make absolutely sure there's no risk of you killing them before he can tell Papyrus to send you there.

· To beat you during a No Mercy run, Sans has to go out of his way to use an Interface Screw — when his regular attacks fail, that is. You turn the tables and do the exact same thing to him, attacking twice in one turn after physically moving the box confining your heart over your FIGHT button.

· Another reason might be that in the fight interface, every entity (human or monster) can use one attack per turn. It is not you who deliver the final blow: it's the Fallen Child, who never used their turn. This is confirmed by the fact that the killing blow isn't delivered via the player's actions — it just happens.

· This, along with how he hobbles offscreen after defeat, is his way of making sure Frisk/Chara (who are, at this point in the game, a sociopathic mass-murderer) doesn't get the satisfaction of watching him suffer in his final moments. This fits, since the entire point of a No Mercy route is that it's unsatisfying and dull, with your only victories being hollow at best. Sans is by far the longest and most unfairly hard battle in the entire game, and when you finally get a hit in, he doesn't cry, lament his defeat, or drop his permanent grin. He just says "don't say I didn't warn you", climbs to his feet, and calmly staggers away, acting like you didn't just hand his ass to him.

· During a No Mercy run, Asgore asks "What kind of monster are you...?" The obvious implication is that he's briefly mistaken you for one of his own kind, since it's commented several times throughout the game that you've ceased to appear human. The less obvious one is that this statement is not addressed to the character.

· The message shown when you die to Asriel but automatically revive right away works as a Stealth Pun: it can mean either that Frisk's SOUL refused to give in, or that their SOUL re-fused back together from two halves.

· Determination is the power of unflinching resolve that persists against all odds. The word can also be read as "de-termination", which means negation of death. It is the in-game power letting a SOUL do just that. This double meaning aptly describes those who refuse to die, such as Frisk and the player themselves.

· One of the biggest complaints about the No Mercy path is that it can be very grindy at times. That's part of the point. Some people aren't morally opposed to murder or killing under various circumstances. And many moral codes, including Christianity, posit that any deed, no matter how wicked, vile, or destructive it may be, cannot be considered a sin unless it was committed with full knowledge of the immorality of the act and the damage it could cause — accidental evil isn't true evil. Undertale's No Mercy route works on similar premises. The encounters slow down the more you kill to illustrate that you, the player, are hunting them down and murdering them in cold blood. If you simply kill everything you encounter without going out of your way to Leave No Survivors, you get a neutral ending — there's still some room for the benefit of the doubt, that you could have been doing it in ignorance or self-defense. This makes it so that there is absolutely no way to get the No Mercy ending by mistake, or even by intention unless you're going about it knowingly (since even if you start on it, you can back out more or less at any time).

· If you get a True Pacifist ending but ended up fleeing from some monsters instead of sparing them, their outcomes listed in the credits are different (on top of them being in white rather than yellow, letting you know who you missed). Since you act as the main link between Monsters and Humans, you probably help everyone find their place in the human world, but if you didn't befriend them in order to spare them, you don't know them as well as you could and thus can't find them their perfect calling with what little you do know about them.

· At the tail end of the "date" with Alphys, you're put into the same moral dilemma that you just had to help Alphys conquer — when Undyne asks if Alphys was joking about anime not being real (as in non-fiction) and asks you for confirmation, do you lie to keep her happy or be honest but break her heart? The choice might seem inconsequential in the short-term, and it's largely Played for Laughs, but considering that if you're on this date, you're likely on your way to getting the monsters to the surface, she's going to find out and have to deal with that paradigm shift eventually. Yet despite just teaching Alphys it's better to be honest up front, a lot of players are inclined to tell Undyne anime is real the first time through and not think twice (or justify it by telling themselves it's real in the sense that it exists, even though that's not what Undyne's asking). It's a lot easier to tell someone to be honest than to be honest yourself, isn't it? Another interpretation could be that, at least in the Undertale universe, anime is real. Think about it for a moment: the player character is a determinator capable of shrugging off death simply by refusing to die and finds themselves in a world where both magic and monsters exist. The backstory speaks of an ancient war between the humans and monsters which eventually led to the latter being sealed underground for what was probably centuries at least. The final battle of the Neutral and Pacifist Routes involves the tragically villainous antagonist gaining the power of an eldritch abomination/outright godhood only to be bested by the seemingly inferior protagonist. A well-meaning, but misguided scientist ends up creating horrific (though largely harmless) chimeric beings due to her research into ways to overcome death going horribly right, and also ends up creating the Big Bad the same way. And then, of course, there's Undyne herself. While she may have been largely inspired by the anime Alphys showed her, she definitely fits the bill for a Stock Shonen Hero. Oh, and there's time travel with all the complex goodness that entails. At this point, you aren't really lying when you tell her anime is real. After all, you're living in one.

· The idea that Frisk is a pacifist makes more sense considering their starting equipment, the Stick and the Bandage. Neither have bonuses to the traditional stats, but have alternate uses. The Stick is used in many fights to facilitate sparing the opponent, usually dog monsters, but can be used to spare Madjick, a late-game enemy, and Mettaton to gain a significant boost in ratings. The bandage can be used as a healing item, healing only 10 HP, which would be only useful in a Pacifist or otherwise low LV run. Also, if you keep it equipped, it lets you run away from fights on the first turn, something useful if you can't figure out how to spare a certain enemy, but don't want to kill them either.

· When you face Asgore at the end of a Genocide run, despite Undyne claiming that Alphys saw her defeat and would subsequently warn Asgore about you, Asgore is completely unprepared. Seems like a case of Idiot Ball, but consider that Alphys probably specifically said that a dangerous human was approaching. When you meet him, Asgore asks what kind of monster you are — he doesn't recognize you as a human and therefore doesn't realize that you're the one Alphys warned him about.

· What animal are Toriel and Asgore based on? Goats. What (or who) plays an important role in their stories? Their kids.

· In order to complete a True Pacifist run, you don't just need Determination, you need every mentioned trait. Patience—Not letting yourself get frustrated or aggravated with how other monsters treat you. Bravery—Taking the time to spare every monster can sometimes require you to face them longer than you would if you just attacked, so by putting the extra time and effort to spare them, you're not taking the cowardly way out. Perseverance—Enduring every harsh attack and word throughout your trek through the underground. Integrity—Never violating Thou Shalt Not Kill no matter how justified you'd be in fighting back in self-defense. Kindness—What you show to every monster. Justice—The run ends with you giving the monsters the fate they truly deserve.

· It should be noted that Undyne, the underground's greatest active warrior, has a will to kill that makes her fairly unique among monsters, even more powerful ones like Sans and Asgore. She also seems to be the only monster to possess Determination. Despite her Fantastic Racism, she became monsterkind's hero by expressing human qualities.

· The developers suggest that the desire to kill everything might be dormant in every single one of us. We all could end up in a mentality of "kill or be killed" and unless we make a conscious effort to be kind to others, we might become something that will even frighten a monster.

· "Let us erase this pointless world, and move on to the next." The Fallen Child’s not just remarking that the world doesn't have meaning anymore- it's literally pointless. There are no more points left to earn in the game, because you've already killed every monster in the Underground.

· Why does Sans use so many blue and gravity-based attacks in his fight? Well, think back — who's the first boss to use gravity, or "blue " attacks? Papyrus. Of course Sans is going to use them a lot — either he originally developed the move and acted as a Stealth Mentor to his brother, or his brother actually did develop the technique first, and Sans thought the technique was the coolest thing in the world. Knowing how much Sans loves his brother, it's not too far of a stretch for Sans to have taken Blue SOUL techniques to the absolute limit as a way of remembering him. Also, as Laser-Guided Karma for killing the person he cared for most in the world.

· Why does Toriel show up during the True Pacifist Ending, when visiting the True Lab doesn't actually change anything relevant to her? Actually, it does. If you visit the True Lab before fighting Asgore, it gives her much more time to rethink her decision and set out after you. This was even foreshadowed at the very beginning of the game. During the combat tutorial, Toriel told you to stall for time, and she will come to resolve the conflict. By visiting the True Lab, you're stalling for time so Toriel can rethink everything and go after you to New Home, and it pays off when you encounter Asgore. Toriel does come to resolve the conflict by blasting Asgore away.

· During the date/hangout with Undyne, there's a scene where she tells you to project your worst enemy onto some vegetables and then punch them. You then have the option to pound "strong" or "wimpy". Selecting "wimpy" makes you pet the vegetable — something you truly would do to your worst enemy on a pacifist run, given the chance. Alternatively, selecting "Strong" merely results in you pushing the vegetable over. As a pacifist, you're unable to muster any strength to fight.

· Why is New Home so grey and lifeless-looking? Imagine yourself as a father of two, with a loving wife and hope for the future. Now imagine you lose both children in one night, make a rash promise in great anger, and accidentally drive away your wife, who leaves in disgust. You're now alone with the responsibility to continue forth with your anger-made promise, alone, against your very nature, all to try and give hope to the grieving masses. A long, slow plan that, while it does move closer to fruition, every death from it is entirely YOUR FAULT. At least in your own mind. It's any wonder Asgore can even do his daily activities... but then again, that might be how he stays sane. The color left New Home the second Asgore's loved ones did.

· The opening with a child (we never see their face) climbing Mt. Ebott takes place in "201X". Toriel has an "old" calendar that's labelled "201x." That's not Frisk we see falling in the opening, that's the Fallen Child. Confirmed in the No Mercy route by the Fallen Child as "The day I came here." Additionally, If you look at the shirt of the person in the opening, their clothes don't match up with Frisk's; there's only one stripe on the shirt. They do match up with the shirt that the Fallen Child wears in flashbacks and the Genocide ending.

· Mettaton gives you extra points for complimenting his legs in the essay, and uses some leg-based attacks. As either a ghost or a box-on-wheel robot, he has never had legs before, so of course he is excited about them!

· Asgore seems like a walking Satanic Archetype, between the weapon he uses, mythology surrounding him, and goat-like appearance, but it becomes clear within ten seconds of meeting him that none of them are applicable to him as a person. That in mind, recall that Monsters existing with humans was fact that turned into myth with the passage of time, it's incredibly likely that over the years, humanity took a measure of Written by the Winners and, requiring a designated villain, that any religions that formed probably used him as their devil figure as an attempt to demonize the monsters further and justify the fact they were the ones that started the war. In other words, he doesn't fit into a Satan-like role, but the Satan-like role was created around him.

· Bratty and Catty are found in an alley. Bratty is an Alley-gator, and Catty is an Alley-cat, while both act like V-alley girls.

· Why exactly did Toriel block Undyne and Alphys' first kiss despite everything you have experienced in the Underground? Note how she says "the human" instead of "the child". Perhaps it's because you are a human, a race of beings who have systematically hurt and killed people who have relationships of two men or women, even some of the nicest people have in history. She wasn't preventing loss of innocence, she was protecting them from being hurt by you overreacting out of disgust or offense. Sure, humanity is a lot more tolerant now, but with how little of human culture monsters know outside of what flows into a trash heap, they wouldn't have any way of knowing they've moved past homophobia being an acceptable standard.

· Why does Chara have to describe everything? Frisk's eyes are closed or squinted for whatever reason. Frisk has poor eyesight, apparently.

· The most overlooked bit is that most people usually get the meaning for Toriel's name but wonder why the player/Frisk can't call Toriel anytime after they leave the Ruins. Well, who goes BACK to the tutorial after they finish it?

· The battle against Undyne looks a lot like a Dance Dance Revolution stage. By the time you fight her, the best equipments you can have are the Ballet Shoes and the Old Tutu.

· Why is the best armor obtained by paying for shopkeep Temmie's college? Because Temmie's the Author Avatar of one of the game's main creators. You're bribing one of the creators of the game to make it easier for you!

· The dusty toys at Home. It's easy to get chills because, especially after a No Mercy run, you know quite well that dust equals death, but all the dust you encounter is the immediate result of monster-slaying (for instance, the Old Tutu is remarkably dusty and suggests that the human who wore it originally killed at least one monster). But then recall how monster funerals work: they scatter the ashes of dead loved ones over their favorite things. Those are Asriel's ashes. His parents gathered up the ashes from the golden flowers and scattered them on his toys, not realizing that his consciousness had already gone into the flower bed. Even worse: no one has touched them since it happened, Asgore still has his children's room enshrined, showing that he's still deeply grieving them.

· With 1 of each stat, Sans is listed as likely the weakest enemy in the game, but considering how powerful he is against the player in-game, this would sound like Blatant Lies, right? However, the things that make Sans so powerful against the player probably wouldn't work as well against other monsters. His Gaster Blasters not only do draining damage, but are also implied to only do damage based on negative karma. Even the worst monsters are more along the lines of just aggressive or jerkish, and none of them can really be called evil. Not only that, but most have more than enough HP to survive against hits from the blasters even if they could be damaged. Sans is also able to dodge all of your attacks, but why wouldn't he be able to when the main attack used by a player by that point is a straightforward slash? Many monsters have much more complex attacks that Sans would never have as easy of a time dodging, and with 1 HP it would only take a tap from even a weak attack to do him in. Sans really is the weakest monster, if he's only being compared to other monsters.

· The final boss of the Pacifist path never requires you to use the FIGHT button. The final boss of the Genocide path never requires you to use the ACT command. And the final boss of the neutral path requires both of them to defeat.

· Why can't you get the Temmie Armour in a Genocide run? Well, the population of Snowdin would at that point be either dead or evacuated, leaving the “Librarby” completely empty, which is the only place even remotely resembling the "colleg" that an aspiring and prospective Temmie could go to. Two other possibilities: Either even Temmies can recognize at this point that helping you is a bad idea(note that in the colleg's place is some premium Temmie Flakes that cost the same. An attempt to scam you, perhaps?), or anyone who's sticking with the Genocide route at this point wouldn't be that generous anyway—even if the option is still there in-universe, the PC isn't seeing or registering the option because they can't comprehend the idea of helping a monster.

· Asriel's 'rainbow trail' in the fights against him is very prominent and most of his attacks feature rainbow colors. It's not really a rainbow though. It cycles through every color except red, because Asriel doesn't have Frisk's red SOUL.

#undertale #tv tropes #fridge highlights

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sleepymarmot · 8 years ago

Text

MEA liveblog #7

Spoilers!

Multiplayer

This interface is a mess. I move my mouse onto "exit lobby" and it turns into "kick player". Buttons just jump around and transform all the time.

And the APEX mission shit needs to be fixed. When you select a mission to play, don't direct me to lobbies who play the same enemy/map/difficulty but not as the mission! Join lobby, see "custom", exit lobby, select "custom game", re-select mission, join, end up in the same lobby, rinse, repeat...

At least I can end up second when I join on wave 5 as a human vanguard lol

F Human Vanguard card!

Tempest

Non-custom weapons of different rank shouldn't exist as separate items in the inventory! Unlocking a higher rank should upgrade the old item like in ME3! This stupid inventory system exists solely because of crafting! If you need inventory limits so much, let them apply only to the crafted items! I've already complained about rewards being lost with no warning if the inventory is full and it's still bullshit!

I crafted the N7 chestpiece! 25% shield on kill (of course), 5% damage resistance, 2% shield restoration, 2% health&shield regen speed, 2% max shield. I called it "N7 Slayer X". And turns out, it was dad's armor...

Oh right, it needs a new color scheme!

Havarl

I like this ex-STG, he's talking properly.

I don't like the sound effect from Annihilation -- it's like water in my ears!

Hey Peebs, how do you immediately know where the next piece is as soon as we pick the current one?

Kadara

Here's the bar fight. Animation is not bad but has no energy.

Told the asari dancer that I'm done here and she needs to talk to the dude herself, but the quest still sends me back to him -_-

Tempest

So, Kesh was adopted?

Okay, Kalinda is 100% Marjolaine. Peebee's personal storyline is even more copy-pasted from Leliana than Drack's is copypasted from Wrex.

Aya

So many sidequests again!

The Moshae's words about the definition of victory! That's the smartest thing I've heard in this game in hours.

It's really weird to hear her talk so sweetly to me... When we first met she didn’t seem to like me.

When Vetra said people were staring at her, I couldn't resist suggesting they're just all in love...

I suggested taking people who sold their Aya slots onto the Nexus. That's not even charity -- the same ambassador gave me a task to convince angara to come there anyway! So this would kill two birds with one stone.

For the visitor who wanted contact with his family, I had to reload. The options didn't even seem too different... Got it right for the other two: gave an honest professional answer about health issues, and a confident casual answer about finding work.

Great, now I have to head back into the city to buy stuff... This is literally a fetch quest lol

Eos

Omg, the Architect is in orbit now!

The Roekaar fight in an old settlement was very chaotic and fun with Flamethrower/ED/Lance, though it'd probably be easier to just charge

Tempest

Aaaand Jaal gives me his loyalty mission. It's funny that I'm going to do my own love interest's mission last...

Jaal's LM

I continue to be unimpressed with the Roekaar being pure antagonists. :/

Didn't shoot the guy, told Jaal he was badass.

Why are loyalty missions so short?

BTW Ryder just looks wrong in N7 armor... She's not Shepard, that's not her allegiance or her story.

Tempest

Jaal, just as we're leaving Havarl you decided to invite me for a visit down there?

Turian ark

Avitus has very stylish armor

For fuck's sake, Bioware, why do you hate gay men so much?

I convinced Avitus to take the mantle. It was a very sentimental decision for Ryder -- because her situation is very similar. Her SAM and the connection he had with her father are unique, but she didn't think of that in that moment.

Nexus

"Better to find your wings as you fly" Easy for you to say, Sarissa, your predecessor wasn't a loved one

Tempest

I'd agree with Peebee about relationship and baggage, but of course I felt obligated to take the romantic option

(I don’t think there’s an option to agree with her, though, so it’s only for the best)

Voeld

Liam, Vetra, don't fight!

Whoops, sorry for leaving you to die in the purification field, Vetra

...I liked the old color scheme better. Green light looks more alien, but less pretty.

Nexus

Final memory -- here we go!

My theory was that the Archon was somehow Ellen, but that made so little sense I didn't even write it down :D This is simpler.

BTW there's finally Shepard's gender we had to select in the beginning -- in translated subtitles :D Didn't hear it even once in the audio -- could it be Bioware actually took their foreign audience into consideration? :O

Honestly, it's weird that the Reapers info is so secret... From the OT I got the impression that Shepard was yelling about it to everyone at every opportunity...

Fine, fine, you made me emotional with Liara's message.

Shit, I was expecting this decision...

I feel pretty sad now. That's all?

Peebee's LM

Oh, so that's why she lives in an escape pod :D I thought this was only a characterization thing, not a Chekhov's gun!

I said I wasn't mad, though I was a bit. But I mean Ryder *is* mad but also having the time of her life so...

Shit I just shot Kalinda instinctively lmao

Ok I replayed the entire sequence and Idk. This is really the hardest choice in the game...

I'm tempted to say "Yes, literally" :D

Since it's so hard to reaload, it's fair game to watch videos before deciding for myself. Okay, "Yes, literally" is way too harsh.

Alright, this Ryder is not going to make Peebee sad, but I've already planned a Renegade-ish playthrough with a Ryder who values knowledge over everything, so... :D

(Btw, I love that MEA's brand of a more ruthless protagonist is not "uncontrollable brute" but "intellectual snob". As tedious as this game is, I'm already super eager to play character who has those values & takes urgency of tasks seriously.)

This mission is enjoyable and the choice feels maybe the most meaningful... But it has all the classic Mass Effect problems. Kalinda sends a shitload of people to murder us, we murder them, but when she's helpless and we have a finger on the trigger all of that suddenly doesn't matter. Sidonis all over again. Sure, murdering people begging for help is bad in a lot of ways, but she did just try to kill us, a lot of times... Plus, why the fuck can't Ryder jump over and catch the Remnant thing?! That needed to be a second, Paragon interrupt after the Renegade "shoot her." And Ryder is a goddamn biotic, as is Peebee, as is Kalinda! Peebee, Pull is your first goddamn skill! It'd actually be completely plausible if the artifact had shields and/or armor and therefore immune to Pull or Singularity -- but not giving the characters even an idea to try is just stupid!

Tempest

Inviting Peebee to live with together made me revisit my room and inspired me to make some changes. You know what, I'm going to play music in my quarters and change into the short-sleeved pajamas. It's my own ship, why do I walk around it in street clothes? The jacket is stylish but too much to wear at home. I wish we had a "formal" outift for Nexus/Aya/other hubs in addition to the "casual" clothes we wear on the ship.

Shit I went to read someone's post about Peebee's LM and caught a spoilers about the romance post-LM

Addison is right, getting pregnant in that situation was irresponsible

Ah the continuity in this game. "Found more outposts"? I have every possible outpost and all planets at 100%!

"On hold: Place an outpost" bitch where

Voeld

What, there's still a cold hazard?! What was the point of the vault, then?!

Whoa, so the angara believe exaltation not just kills their people but destroys their immortal souls? Wow! That should have been said by a major character during the main story, not by an easily missed NPC!

Oh great, I died and the game refuses to load the last autosave

Dear game. Why did you create four autosaves for the same second. All glitched. Half hour of gameplay lost... God please let the last manual save work. I was sure I saved in between, but just now my PC decided that we still have daylight savings clock change when we do not, and the timestamps on all recent saves are messed up. This especially sucks because I'm trying to rush Peebee's romance because I don't know when the sex scene comes up but I want to make sure it's not when my mom is home while I play it on her PC lol

Tempest

Fuck, that was cute! And Peebee did tackle Ryder, as promised! :D I wonder what she says through Zap in the platonic version...

Addison please don't say the baby screams "like a banshee". I fucking jumped.

"Before you say anything: no PDAs" :D

Level 50! Time to craft myself a powerful new Dhan. I've been running with rank three all this time...

I love that whenever you ask about Kalinda and then return to the general dialogue tree you say "Let's talk about something else" and Peebee responds "YES. Please."

Voeld

Alright, so: the kett leaders are dissatisfied with the Archon because he hasn't reported to them recently, the communication with the kett homeworld(?) might be disrupted in general and the Scourge might be to blame.

Tempest

Damn, SAM has a pretty insightful speech about death! The only thing that can't be rationalized after experiencing it, which is why it fascinates. I actually haven't heard it explained this way before.

My movie night quest hasn't progressed since I brought Jaal his device...

Eos

Ryder watching and playing football with two giant guns floating near her hips... omg

Elaaden/Kadara

What? I'm completely confused by all these identical salarians.

I don't understand this choice. He promises to give us the intel if we let him go... what proof do we have besides his word? And how would arresting him stop us from getting intel from his computer etc?

Reloaded to see both options, chose to arrest him

Havarl

I'm not hugging Jaal's mother wtf

Ryder has surprisingly good facial animation when Jaal shows his mementos

In theory Ryder should like Jaal for being such a nerd but the only thing he makes me feel is mild irritation. His interest in "taking things apart" is an informed quality just like his supposed emotional openness. It's not reflected in his dialogue or storyline at all.

And now I'm finished with all quests in the ally category. I wanted to finish the game asap, but now that we know the patch is coming on Thursday, I'll wait for it.

Multiplayer

Extracted from Silver for the first time as Human Vanguard (level 8, rank IV)! It was against Remnant, so Observers and Destroyers were the only problem. Nullifiers are ridiculously easy for a melee character -- like Ravagers, but without acid.

Got Krogan Vanguard from a pack. Will I have to tolerate the Rage overlay?

The first game with Kroguard was going well, he's got a stong melee even though he's slow... and then wave 6/upload/Kett killed us all :(

Completely unrelated to anything, but I just realized that if you pick the romantic option in the escape pod with Peebee, they don't actually have sex. Call me stupid because that's what Peebee's initial condition is, but I thought Ryder's response changed her mind! When Ryder said "Let's not rush things" I interpreted and meant it in the emotional sense, as "It'd be dishonest to hide that I have a crush on you, but you don't owe me anything, and if you don't ready for a Serious Relationship and Grand Romance yet that's fine because I'm not either, so let's just hook up and leave reflection for later" -- which I thought was pretty sweet and interesting? Because this whole relationship to me was built on the fascinating contrast between Peebee's emotional reservations and casual/flirty attitude, and conversely, on Ryder very consciously respecting Peebee's emotional space. Maybe I just fundamentally don't understand sex and romance lmao. But if character A propositions character B, character B says they have feelings for character A, and the scene promptly fades to black, I assume they do the do because that's how these things are filmed? Only in comparison with the other option, which is actually pretty explicit, it became obvious to me that's not what the director meant. I'm pretty disappointed because I thought it was a good subversion of Jack's "either sex or romance" thing in ME2. And it messes with my headcanon/characterization... I guess I'll have to retcon it into one of the two options. I'll probably go with casual, not romantic in that case. But I just read that Peebee will tell you she's glad you said no, so... :/

Multiplayer

Failed a Silver APEX mission agains the Remnant as a human vanguard :(

Got an asari sentinel!

The patch is here, but I can't launch the game now :( This needs some work.

Ugh, I stop playing for two days and have no motivation to pick the game up again...

#mass effect #mea spoilers #blah blah blah

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rebel666 · 8 years ago

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Mass Effect Andromeda 10 Hour Review (Spoiler Free[mostly])

Firstly, I’m basing this off of playing via PC. I have a mega processor that can handle it but my graphics card is at the minimum requirements and was comfortable with medium but I was able to play on high (didn’t try ultra but will once it comes out and I have more time to tweak my settings). I cannot speak for those playing on consoles or those playing with other settings on their PCs. I also don’t have a fancy or expensive keyboard or mouse. My keyboard is an old beat up Logitech basic keyboard (with most of the keys worn away) and mouse is an Azza weight controlled gaming mouse.

As for my knowledge on Mass Effect games, I have been playing Mass Effect (pretty much nonstop) since it first came out in 2007 so I have spent almost 10 years being in the fandom. The only other fandom that has kept me around this long is Pokemon. I played them all on the 360 and PC. I didn’t move to playing them on PC until after ME2 was released. Mass Effect 1 will always have my heart (because of the Mako) but Mass Effect 2 gave me the one character I wanted to romance (Garrus) and Mass Effect 3 finally allowed me to kiss said romance. I will admit that I played ME2 the most based solely on the story and character interactions. I will also mention that I played over 400 documented hours of ME3 MP and was on the team who was the second worldwide to defeat Platinum. In case any of you wanted to test my validity.

10 Hour Rough Allocations:

Character Creation: 0:25 (I designed my Ryder and kept my sibling default) First Zone: 1:45 Nexus: 1:30 Space Exploration: 0:30 Second Zone: 4:45 Multiplayer: 1:00

Pros:

Holy moly the planets! They are so vast and beautifully wonderful! I spent hours wandering around (even to places I shouldn’t have been yet and nearly dying every time from hazards) and upon reaching the top most location I just had to take a moment to look around. The details to the landscapes definitely precede all previous games. Not to mention how many systems we will be able to explore. You get just a glimpse at the galaxy map and it is massive! It’s huge! Like Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy definition of space HUGE. You see all the speckled dots of systems and planets waiting to be revealed. It’s such a tease! There’s definitely going to be so much to explore. Probably more than all of the previous games combined!

Space travel is VERY different than before. It cannot be compared to the previous games. It is very immersive, brings you right into feeling like you are there on the bridge traveling between planets. It’s really unique. It’s a little more time consuming but you get used to it. When it comes to scanning, it’s not like ME1 or ME3 where you just tap the planet for items and not like ME2 where you’re probing every little thing you can. Instead of constantly probing like in ME2, your science officer will tell you if there is or isn’t anything to scan for (which helps so much) or if you should just skip to the next. You can even scan the entire system you traveled to for anomalies!

I really enjoyed the layout of the Tempest. It’s easy to get around and I really love the view from the bridge. From what I’ve seen, certain characters have their spots they tend to be in but they do move around and all the areas are easy to access with ladders that connect the levels. There are no elevators that you have to select levels on and wait to load anymore. It definitely feels like home. And to be honest, there are areas that remind me a bit of the layout of Serenity from Firefly.

For me, the story drew me in pretty quickly. So many things happen. The game throws you right in and I had to slowly gather my bearings much like the Pathfinder did in the game. It doesn’t start all sugar and rainbows and you being the badass like Shepard. However, it gives you a sense of progression the more you proceed and that gave me a sense of accomplishment. As well as a sense as to how dire your role is in this new galaxy.

The lead enemy guy is a very curious character. I’ll leave it at that. His body language reveal so much in the brief moment he was on screen. I would share in full detail but that would be too many spoilers. (You can contact me if you want to know my thoughts on him.)

This “animation failure” everyone had I only experienced once on one character – Addison. There was also one instance where the lips didn’t match up but that could have been caused by multiple things. Everyone else didn’t have issues at all or was so minimal that it hardly bothered me. In fact, there was an extreme attention to detail on the motions/animations of your direct crew (which I’m going to be spending the most time with anyway). I could watch Vetra move around for hours. She’s so fluid. I can definitely see more attention being given to the aliens than the humans in game but it really doesn’t ruin my gameplay.

The whole crew is very loveable. I seriously cannot hate any of them. They are all unique and bring their personalities to the table. You get to talk to everyone on your small crew and they all have their reasons for being in Andromeda. Feeling so different than any of the Normandy crew but still making you feel right at home in the Mass Effect universe. Even the starting human squadmates are enjoyable. Picking one of them to romance is honestly going to be one of the hardest decisions of all the BioWare games ever. I mean it. I don’t know who to pick! (And I usually know ahead of time after reading lots of spoilers and teasers.)

One thing that already makes this different is the amount of female characters. Female aliens especially. Previously it felt like every character was male but now it feels more balanced!

There is a lot of dialogue and even BioWare themselves confirmed that this has the most dialogue than any of the previous game by a mile. Which I really prefer. This is a RPG and I want to talk to everyone. There’s so many conservations happening and the banter on the operations deck is one of the best (the only thing I’ll say here is Girl Scout cookies).

The combat is well polished. Like nearly flawless. The fighting felt fluid and definitely had its challenging moments. I went for a more tech based route to start (since I usually play as Engineer/Soldier). There are a lot of new skills to try and the skill tree is very reminiscent of ME1 (which was my favorite of the three) mixed with ME3. There are a lot of weapons you’ll remember from before and some new ones. One thing I will suggest is combining jet pack and melee. That is a ton of fun. Try it once… you’ll see.

The Nomad. Now I’m a hardcore Mako lover. Anyone who knows me knows I’m obsessed with that vehicle. However, I do really enjoy the Nomad. It took a few minutes to get my bearings with it but once I did I was able to climb over virtually anything! It even got me to the top of the map where I thought it would have issues. With it being able to hop from terrain mode to speed mode, it made traveling a lot more user friendly. I will admit though… I do miss shooting things.

The music is fantastic and I could listen to for hours (and I most likely will).

Within the 10 hours I played, there were already two characters from the previous games being mentioned. I won’t name who or go into much detail but it’s nice to hear some familiar voices and meet some of the family.

Overall it all feels like you’re coming back home to Mass Effect… just in a different galaxy.

Cons/Bugs:

Multiplayer has the most issues… which is shitty for me because I love ME MP. On PC, everyone’s mic is automatically on (unless you mute it) and it took multiple tries to silence people. I don’t think people even realize it but it’s annoying when their game is blaring into your ears while you’re trying to play. And then the lag… it was really difficult to play with so many lag issues. I would jump and return right to the original area, a bunch of running in place instances, and such. It was tough to bear through but I managed 3 matches (only 1 with extraction). But to be honest I had multiple issues with ME3 MP when it first came out. Hell, I was one of the few with the rare Black Hole glitch. (Trust me that sucked.) Andromeda MP has a lot of potential and is definitely challenging. Just needs a bit of fixing. (This could also explain why the beta for MP was never released.) Once it is fixed, it’ll be fun.

As for single player, there are little things that were buggy. Like I could not change the color of my Pathfinder’s armor. No matter what I did and how many times I tried, it reverted back to the black/red combo. (I was trying for a white/orange/black aka Cerberus colors). It was extremely annoying. I tried it multiple times and even reloaded the game but still had this issue. It allowed me to change my casual outfit with no issues though!

The only other major problem I had was when my game got stuck on the map screen and wouldn’t let me escape no matter what. I had to shut it down and restart. I had another instance where I was stuck on the menu screen and it blacked out and crashed.

I had a few other bugs but reloading it fixed them. These bugs included minor things like the omni-scanner having issues staying on.

The interface on the PC is a little weird. There are two. One that holds the main journal/skills/saves/etc and one that opens up for loading saved games. It's a little weird and I wished they kept it as the original style.

Now as for that “walking” bug people experienced, as another friend put it, “I actually had to go out of my way to get the weird walking animations, I ended up sprinting at a staircase and erratically moving the joystick back and forth to get that odd walking animation for like ten seconds. But I had to purposefully do it to get that animation weirdness." Two others and I also had to purposefully do it to get that odd walk. So don’t believe everything you see/hear.

Final notes:

There are a lot of reviews out there that range from blindingly negative to absolutely positive. Some say the animations are game breaking while others haven’t seen it in their playthrough. Some even complained there is too much dialogue… in an RPG… yeah, I’ve seen those complaints. I suggest you take all of the reviews with a grain of salt, including mine. Why? Everyone will have different playthroughs. Some will experience zero issues while others will have loads of issues. Many have praising results while others have critical opinions. One thing is certain though, 10 hours is hardly scratching the surface of this game. I would suggest you try it for yourself (rent it if you have to) before you succumb to others opinions. If you like it, if you don’t like it, at least you experienced it for yourself. And also don’t attack others for having a different opinion.

As for me, I feel right at home. I feel like if you loved the exploration, the story, and the romances in the original trilogy then you’ll really love Andromeda. I am really looking forward to how vast this game is going to be and know I’m going to be putting in easily over 100 hours in the single player (and another 400 hours into multiplayer once it’s fixed). One thing I am going to do differently this time around is take my time. I will admit that I rushed through ME3 (mostly to get to the Garrus romance scenes asap) and felt like I missed so much that I had no choice but to play a second time to really absorb it. But this… this I really want to enjoy. I want to take it all in. The one thing it does do is make you feel like you are right back in the Mass Effect world. I’m ready to return. I’m ready to continue my adventures as the Pathfinder. I’m ready for Andromeda. (And I’m going to secretly hope for that one Volus to roll out of cyro.)

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ciathyzareposts · 5 years ago

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The Black Gate: My Way

Regrets: I’ve had a few. But then again, I’m riding a goddamned magic carpet.

There he was in front of me: Batlin of Britain. The anti-Avatar. The con man with a shuck-and-jive so powerful that he even seduced the in-game narration. “At once humble yet dignified, his gentle eyes exude caring for his fellow person,” the game fawns.

He knows who I am immediately. I pretend to be ignorant about him. He tells me he’s the Fellowship founder and leader. “It is rapidly growing throughout Britannia,” he brags, “and keeps me very busy as thou canst well imagine. Ha! Ha! Ha!” He doesn’t laugh; he actually says, “Ha! Ha! Ha!” God, I hate everything about him.

I ask him about this “voice” that people talk about; he says I have to take a test to learn more. I ask him about the so-called “Meditation Retreat”; he says that it’s east of Serpent’s Hold but only active Fellowship members can visit. Finally, he gives me the Test.

Oh, it’s a clever device. He poses questions just like the gypsy of yore who first started me on this path. But he twists every answer I give into his own foul interpretation, becoming less charitable and more irritable as the questions go forward.

“Thou art feeling depressed right now. It is more likely because A) thou hast disappointed a friend or B) a friend has disappointed thee?” Answer A) and you take your responsibilities seriously and put too much pressure on yourself. B) means you trust people too much even when they’re not worthy. He smiles and nods after this interpretation.

I don’t even understand this question.

“Thou art at a feast hosted by a very high-ranking official. Thou dost believe the food he has ordered to be served is little more than swill, and thou dost notice that the other guests certainly think so. When thine host asks if thou dost like the food, dost thou: A) Tell the truth, or B) lie to him.” A) means you’re bluntly honest but your intentions are noble overall; B) means you’re concerned about others’ feelings. Batlin follows either with a sweeping hand gesture.

“Thou hast taken the last room available at an inn. Upon entering it thou dost find that it is filthy. t is the middle of the night; there is no one to clean it and there is nowhere else to stay. Dost thou: A) clean up the room thyself, or B) just go to sleep.” A) means you think you’re responsible for everything. B) means you refuse to accept your fate and expect life to offer protection. Either way, Batlin sighs.

“At a festive gathering thou dost tell a humorous anecdote, and thou dost tell it very well, creating much amusement Didst thou tell this story because: A) thou didst enjoy the response that thou didst receive from thine audience, or B) because thou didst want to please thy friends. A), you’re using your friends for self-gratification. B), you feel unworthy of having friends and have to buy their attention. Either way, now Batlin now frowns.

“If thou wert to become a person of leisure, one who had amassed a fantastic fortune of wealth, would it most likely be because: A) thou hadst discovered an infallible method of stealing the money of others, or B) thou hadst discovered an infallible method of illicitly duplicating the coin of the realm?” Either way, you feel that you’re incapable of achieving success legitimately (not that that’s one of the options!) and either have to exploit others or present the illusion of success. Now Batlin is sadly shaking his head at my answers. It was all I could do not to cut it off.

“While travelling thou dost find a man in terrible pain. His arm has been grievously injured. A healer tending to him tells thee that the man’s arm will have to be removed and that he will require thine assistance to do it. The man says he will recover from his injury and asks thee not to let the healer amputate his arm. Dost thou: A) heed the words of the healer, or B) respect the wishes of the injured man?” This is an odd one, colored by Batlin’s hatred of healers. But either way, Batlin reverses himself and interprets your answer positively. You either believe in mercy or value human life.

“Thou hast just killed a small dog by throwing a rock at it. Is it more likely that thou hast done this because: A) the dog was going to attack thee, or B) the dog was going to attack someone else.” You’re either overly-defensive or overly-aggressive. Batlin is now stroking his chin.

“Thou art in a boat with thy betrothed and thy mother. The boat capsizes. In the choppy waters thou canst only save thyself and one other person. Who dost thou save from drowning?” Whichever you choose, Batlin reacts with horror that you didn’t choose the other.

This reminds me of a joke: A woman buys her husband two ties for this birthday. To please her, the next day he wears one. She looks at him and says, “What’s the matter? Don’t you like the other one!?”

Finally, he concludes that you’re a person of strong character, but “troubled by deep personal problems that prevent thee from achieving thy true potential for greatness”–in other words, perfect for the Fellowship. He welcomes me to the fold.

“No,” I say.

“I’m sorry?” he replies, concern on his face.

“No. I won’t be joining your corrupt little organization. You think I don’t see through you, Batlin? You think I can’t read between the lines of your vile little book? You think I don’t know what a ‘loaded question’ and a ‘spurious interpretation’ are? Sod off. I don’t know what you have to do with these serial murders and this ‘Guardian’ fiend, but I know you’re involved. I’m going to figure it out, come back, and nail you to the wall. And if I can’t find proof, I’ll just kill you anyway because this world is my sandbox and I can do what I want.”

He was non-plussed. “Until we meet again, Avatar,” he said dismissively, betraying nothing.

Smug bastard.

Okay, obviously the game doesn’t give that dialogue option. You can’t even refuse to join the Fellowship after answering the questions. You can only refuse to do the little errand that Batlin wants to send you on, involving the delivery of a sealed document to Minoc. I reloaded to before taking the test and refused to join.

Time for a little reconnaissance. Batlin clearly sleeps here, so we can’t wait until the place is empty. We wait until he wanders outside instead. There’s nothing in the collection box, and only clothing in his dresser. There’s a yellow healing potion on his shelf. On the shelf underneath is a key, which opens a magically-locked chest in the next room. It has 48 gold pieces (which I don’t steal) plus a note that says, “once the construction is complete, store the blackrock in the hold of the Crown Jewel.” That ought to be enough right there. Batlin has a clear association with the ship that carried the murderers from Trinsic, and he’s building something that involves the substance that’s driving all the mages insane. But the note opens up no new dialogue options.

It’s 19:00, so we wait for a couple of hours for the Fellowship meeting. As the members file in, we observe from the back. Batlin gives a sermon and the various members offer platitudes about how the Fellowship has helped their lives. At least my party members aren’t fooled.

You said it, Shamino.

As we prepare for bed, we look over our notes and try to figure out the best next move. I’ve got:

Britain: Buy swamp boots

Castle: Buy spells and reagents from Nystul (this and the above await my accumulating the funds)

Cove: Deliver bill, check on Rudyom

Great Forest: Check on Nikademus

Jhelom: Pick up Dupre

Minoc: Consult gypsy fortune-teller

Terfin: Report to Lord Draxinusom the death of Inamo

Vesper: Pick up ship and check out the Isle of Fire

In a broader sense, I can look for the Crown Jewel by visiting ports across the map. After studying the map, I decide to go east to Cove first, then pick up the ship in Vesper, and then probably visit Moonglow to see if Mariah has uncovered anything (or is at least okay).

Before leaving town, I stop by the Royal Orchards to talk to Figg, who I saw at the Fellowship meeting. He’s the caretaker whose testimony got Weston thrown in jail. He’s unrepentant, still selling apples for an absurd 5 gold pieces, and denies giving them for free to the Fellowship. There isn’t much else I can do with him.

On the way out of town to the east, I meet a farmer who I missed before. His name is Brownie. He ran against Patterson in the last mayoral election, but Patterson had the support of the Fellowship. Brownie could have won–he knew about Patterson’s affair–but he refused to stoop to that level. We also run across another farm run by a guy named Mack. There’s an alien spaceship inexplicably in his field. He claims that a “mean, ugly, liontiger” came out of the ship and attacked him, but Mack was holding his magic hoe and managed to kill the creature. (The ship and creature are references to ORIGIN’s Wing Commander. There’s a fan theory that Wing Commander‘s villains, the feline Kilrathi, allied with Mondain in Ultima; hence, the space fighting sequence.) The hoe, it transpires, was accidentally enchanted by a mage to be the Hoe of Destruction. Mack keeps it locked in his shed, but he lost the key on the shores of Lock Lake. I stop by the shores of the lake in the way to Cove–they are indeed polluted–but exploring the circumference is going to require swamp boots.

On the other hand, it doesn’t look like the ship could fit many of them.

On the way into Cove, the first thing I see is the Shrine of Compassion, which has a ring on the altar. A sad young woman is moping nearby. She introduces herself as Nastassia. She turns out to be the great-granddaughter of Ariana, the little toothless girl from Britain who gave me the Rune of Compassion in Ultima VI. Arianna apparently later took on the responsibility for caring for the Shrine of Compassion, a tradition that carries to this day. Nastassia is cagey about her personal reasons for upholding the tradition, but she warns me that not all the shrines of virtue are in the same good condition.

In town, we find Jaana running a clinic. She was elderly and white-haired the last time I saw her in Ultima VI, but now she looks like a young Olivia Arquette. She immediately wants to abandon her post, join the party, go find Dupre, and have a drink. I reluctantly take her, but something’s gotta give soon. Jaana oddly comes with a hawk in her bag and can equip it as a weapon. She otherwise has no armor, so I gave her the Avatar costume to wear.

Does it bother you that you’re saying that in front of two wounded men who you’re about to abandon to the care of no other employees?

More Cove notes:

Pamela runs the Out-‘n-Inn, a deliberate double-entendre since Cove is the “city of love and passion.”

Lord Heather is the mayor. He says the Britannian Mining Company out of Minoc is to blame for the pollution of Lock Lake, so he happily signs the bill and takes it out of my hands. He also calls his city the “city of passion” and says that everyone in town loves someone else (he himself is in love with Jaana), save Nastassia who has a sad story.

Jaana says goodbye to her lover, who’s like 150 years younger than her.

I don’t know about the mayor’s explanation for the pollution. Visiting the shores of Lock Lake, we find discarded garbage, broken cutlery, fishbones, furniture, and other things that look like they probably came from Cove itself. There’s a dead cat north of one of Cove’s houses, and “opening” it finds a dead rat, and opening the dead rat finds a piece of cheese and a Ring of Regeneration.

I’m keeping this cheese for the next person who complains he’s hungry.

Zinaida runs the Emerald Tavern at which her boyfriend, the bard De Maria, performs. De Maria tells me the tale of Nastassia, the only unhappy person in town. Her mother, Nadia, was impregnated by a cad who abandoned his young family and got himself killed by some monster near Yew. After Nadia gave birth–prematurely–she committed suicide on the Shrine of Compassion, and Nastassia was raised as an orphan. Yikes. I guess I can see why Nastassia didn’t want to talk about it.

I returned to see Nastassia after hearing her story. She mentioned that Ariana had met the Avatar, which gave me the opportunity to tell her that I am the Avatar. She begged me to try to find out what actually happened to her father, Julius, in Yew, and I agreed. Then she suddenly kissed me.

This is a little uncomfortable given the age difference and the fact that you’ve clearly got some issues.

Rudyom is indeed a little odd, but this is the mage who kept a drake in his foyer in the last game, so the bar was pretty low already. He says he went mad when he was doing experiments with blackrock but he can’t remember any of them; his nearby notebook reveals that blackrock can only be shaped with magic and may have something to do with teleportation (say, a Black Gate)? He offers me his wand, a “blackrock transmuter,” which actually causes blackrock to explode violently. He also says the magic carpet isn’t working quite right, either, and that some adventurers borrowed it recently and “lost it near Serpent’s Spine, somewhere in the vicinity of the Lost River.”

Call our travel agent, Jaana, ’cause our itinerary has just changed.

Rudyom’s revelation about the magic carpet changed everything. There’s no point heading to vesper and a clunky boat when a method of conveyance exists that will get me across both land and sea. Serpent’s Spine surrounds Lord British’s Castle to the east, north, and west, and the Lost River enters the mountains to the west, ending in a pool. I figured I could circle around the western part of the mountains and the river and see what I could find. I stopped by the castle for food on the way, and to return the signed bill to Miranda.

Not with any kind of coin, I notice.

I left the castle, cut across the orchard to the east of the mountains, and started following them around to the north. We looped around the north, then south along the west side to the Lost River, where a thin sliver of land allowed us to walk along the banks between the mountains and the river. And suddenly, right outside a dungeon entrance, there it was: the magic carpet. With seats for eight passengers and everything.

Before we rode off singing “A Whole New World,” we figured we should search around the dungeon for the adventurers who had come here on the carpet. After all, if they were to emerge, broken and bleeding, to find their ride had been jacked, I’d feel pretty bad about that. As we entered, someone announced we were entering the Dungeon Despise. I thought Despise was more to the north and Shame was here, but whatever. I have Spark light up a torch and we enter.

Moments later, the party’s first combat ends in disaster as we encounter a ghost and mongbats in the dungeon corridors. After reloading, I try exploring in a different direction and encounter an obelisk spewing fireballs from all sides. The party is soon destroyed again.

Maybe we need to peek around bends in corridors from now on.

When you die in Ultima VII, you’re not resurrected in Lord British’s throne room. Instead, you wake up in the Fellowship homeless shelter in Paws. The proprietor explains that two Fellowship members, Elizabeth and Abraham, found you and brought you there. Screw that. I don’t know what those monsters did to me while I was unconscious. I reload instead.

So I guess we’ll assume that if we can’t survive Shame right now, some amateur party of adventurers couldn’t, either. It’s an interesting contraption. When you double-click on it, everyone takes their seats and it rises a few dozen feet into the air. To land it, you have to find an area with a carpet’s amount of space clear, and you have to position yourself to land above and to the left of the actual landing zone, as from the game’s axonometric perspective, the carpet descends down and to the right. It takes some practice. Otherwise, it’s pretty cool, and not for the first time, I wonder why the game bothered with horses and carts and ships and then put such an easy method of conveyance in the player’s hands so early in the game. Of course, such a statement reminds me that I have the Orb of Moons, too, and should probably investigate its various destinations when I get a chance.

Miscellaneous notes:

As with Ultima VI (but not Ultima V), the game does not require NPCs to travel between appointed places. They won’t disappear while you’re watching them, but otherwise they can simply teleport where they need to be.

The “Books of Britannia” page has been updated with practically double the number it had before. Cove had a lot of books.

Looking in a crystal ball in Rudyom’s place causes the Guardian’s face to appear and say “go away!”

I wasn’t even looking for you.

In a reversal of what we saw in Lord British’s castle, Cove��s city hall has enough chairs for more people than exist in the city.

Why doesn’t the Great Council just meet here?

I know this is probably the most frequent complaint about Ultima VII, but it bears repeating: God, is the party members’ constantly mewling for food annoying.

Now that I can go anywhere, the choices are a bit paralyzing. From a role-playing perspective, perhaps I should keep searching for the Crown Jewel. On the other hand, I already know (not from previous plays, just from logic) that the Fellowship is behind the murders because of some dispute they had with Christopher. Maybe I should head directly for their so-called “Meditation Retreat” and see what I can find.

On the other hand, my experience in Shame showed me I can’t just blunder into dangerous situations. I need more money, better equipment, and some character advancement. I also have space for two more party members (even if I keep all the people I already have), and it feels wrong to keep going for much longer without Dupre. Then again, I’ve been gone for 200 years, and I have no idea where the best place would be to grind for riches and experience. It’s a tough call. Next time, we’ll see what I decided.

Time so far: 12 hours

*****

Karkoth’s Keep (1983) was supposed to be next, but I can’t get it to run. If I say I don’t have an existing character at character creation, it doesn’t run the generator. If I try to run the generator myself, it quits after a few questions for which it doesn’t seem to accept my answers. These things happen with the versions I can download and with the online version hosted by Archive.org. There are screenshots from beyond this point online, so I know it’s possible. Fiddling with DOSBox cycles doesn’t seem to solve anything. I thus rolled again for a random game and came up with Morabis 1: The Dungeons of Morabis.

source http://reposts.ciathyza.com/the-black-gate-my-way/

#retro games #dos games #retro #crpg #adventure #amiga #oldcomputers #8bit #16bit #blog #repost

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