#so many okami tags......

[risto-licious]

late night colored pencil time with two ōkami ACEOs! featuring an unhelmed crimson helm and beloved amaterasu! (and some wips featuring my uncrumbled scanner and rough sketchbook drafts) I had so much fun with these!

[kumakuma-circus]

i think my favorite part of my p4 playthrough is that i somehow never got pixie and had to go back to get her when trying to fuse black frost for the shadow mitsuo fight. i still don't know how that happened i was in the castle for so fucking long sfldkjskfjfdksfdkjfd-

[ferahntics]

Guys I might just start spamming this place with Okami alongside Kirby content, brace yourselves.

I WILL get people to love this game, that is a threat. 😤

[midimidna]

Hi! Holding a Black Friday & Cyber Monday sale over on Etsy! Everything is 20% off until Monday!!!! ❤️

[gffa]

Over the last week, I decided to go ahead with bookmarking all the fics I've recommended over the years on AO3 since I abide by tumblr poll results always (and man pour one out for all the fic that never made it to AO3 or has since been deleted, sooooo many gems lost to time!) and it was a bit more than the ~3,000 I was expecting:

Hopefully, this will be easier than browsing the hundreds of recs posts I've made, since you can filter for any of the author's tags now! These are mostly focused on Star Wars and DC fandom, but I did my time in the anime mines and occasional tours through some TV fandoms or movies. You can dig into everything unfiltered and start your own filtering, or the bigger fandoms you'll find:

MAJOR FANDOMS: Each of these should have 100+ at minimum and, in the case of Star Wars, literally almost half of them are in that fandom. Look, Star Wars fandom might be a trash fire in a lot of ways, but it is ON FIRE with some good fic. (Older bookmarks not guaranteed to match my current sentiments, especially re: the Jedi, but they did catch my fancy at that point in time!)

STAR WARS: - All Star Wars -OR- All Star Wars minus the Obi-Wan/Anakin ship - OR- Nothing BUT Obi-Wan/Anakin

BATMAN/DC: - DC can sometimes be tricky, but you can do a Batman* search and get most of them (though, sometimes Nightwing* or Young Justice* or Superman* will catch some of the others). Honestly, though, you might want to just do a search for what character or dynamic you like and have fun from there, because otherwise you're getting a face full of my Dick Grayson Is The Center Of The Universe And I'm Making That Everyone Else's Problem agenda. ;)

MARVEL/MCU: - Marvel* will probably get most of the various properties, though you may want to filter for Defenders* or Guardians of the Galaxy* if you're interested -OR- Marvel* without the Thor/Loki - These focus a lot on the Thor* fandom if you want to witness the results of like 8 years of constant voracious reading in that fandom (Minus the ship), because, seriously, I read a LOT of Odinson family fic. - Bonus, just do a search for Maximoff* to find some really good X-Men: First Class-verse because, listen, I have been ALL ABOUT the Maximoff twins since long before the movies or MCU brought them over and I will DIE ON THE HILL of "Marvel, make Magneto their bio-dad again or I'm never reading another comic of yours ever".

TOLKIEN/LORD OF THE RINGS/SILMARILLION/HOBBIT: - Tolkien* -OR- Hobbit* -OR- Lord of the Rings* searches will turn up most of my Elf-hunting, I primarily focus on the Sindar Elves, but look I can't resist my problematic Feanorian faves or that I will die on the hill that Fingolfin is the best ever. (You have NO IDEA how sad I am that so much fic on Stories of Arda or FFNET is not easily bookmarked on AO3, sob. I externally bookmarked a few of the bigger ones, but sooo many shorter faves are missing from my recs tag.)

CLAMP: - X/Tokyo Babylon legitimately bums me out because it's not a huge fandom and yet so much of what was written was pre-AO3 and lost when CLAMPesque went down or was never brought over from Livejournal, yet this fandom (well, the Seishirou/Subaru pairing) still burns brightly in my heart.

MINOR FANDOMS: Ones that probably only have under 100 bookmarks (often around the 20-30 bookmarks range), but will at least give you a place to start! ANIME/MANGA: Bleach | Cardcaptor Sakura | Dragonball | Finder no Hyouteki/Viewfinder | Katekyou Hitman Reborn! | Kuroko no Basuke | One Piece | Sailor Moon | Madoka Magica | Naruto | Princess Tutu | Trigun | Weiss Kreuz | Yuri!!! on Ice

BOOKS: Chrestomanci | Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint

DRAMAS: Nirvana in Fire | The Untamed -OR- Modao Zu Shi

TV SHOWS/MOVIES: Community | Game of Thrones -OR- ASOIAF | Good Omens | Hannibal | Highlander | The Old Guard | Our Flag Means Death | Stranger Things

VIDEO GAMES: Dragon Age: Inquisition | Final Fantasy 8 | Genshin Impact | Okami

BANDS: Arashi

All right, whew, that was actually a fun project, despite how much work it was to hunt down a lot of older faves to see if they were on AO3, hopefully you'll find this useful!

[videogamedogbracket]

Hello, and welcome to the Video Game Dog Bracket!

Do you like dogs? Do you like video games? Do you like dogs from video games? If yes, then this is the tournament for you! 

I’ve been wanting to host my own bracket for a while now - ever since I submitted a character to one of them a few months back, swore to myself I wouldn’t get invested in the results, but then ended up doing just that. Thanks a ton to @artificialkids-2k23-official, without whom this bracket wouldn’t exist!

The rules for submission are fairly straightforward, but I’ll list them here anyway. (Updated 6/3/23)

An obvious one, but all characters submitted must be dogs, wolves, or mythical creatures that are canine in nature (i.e. Cerberus or a dog-like Pokémon). Foxes are on thin ice. 

Anthropomorphic dogs are okay. However, please don't send in anime boys with dog ears or whatever. I think that's pushing the definition of "dog" a little too much.

Characters must have originated from a video game or visual novel. If they appear in a game, but it’s an adaptation of a movie, for example, they won’t be counted.  No, Homestuck doesn't count as a video game.

Named characters are preferred and will be given priority. I’m not saying that you can’t submit Granbull or every Nintendog, but in the case that there are more submissions than bracket spaces, they probably won’t make it in.

Please only submit one character at a time. The form is open to multiple responses per person, so you can submit as many characters as you like. (Just be reasonable with it and don’t send the same one over and over again?)

Also, while sending several characters from the same source material is appreciated, they aren't all going to make it into the bracket. I'm looking for a varied and diverse lineup, and want to limit it to about three characters per source. This isn't a hard and fast rule, but just...don't get upset if all twenty characters from the same thing don't get accepted, okay?

Currently, the plan is for submissions to close on June 9th, but this may be subject to change based on the amount of traction this bracket gets. As of right now, submissions are planned to close on June 5th instead!

Finally, here’s a quick list of characters that are automatically going to be entered into the bracket as per the “poll runner’s bias” clause. Please don't submit any of them, they're already participating!

Amaterasu (Okami)

Toby (The Great Ace Attorney)

Fondue (Rhythm Thief)

Gab (Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma)

Pepita (Trauma Center: New Blood)

Rex (Fossil Fighters)

Koromaru (Persona 3)

Missile (Ghost Trick)

That’s it for now. Thanks for submitting!

Obligatory inspiration tags for visibility: @funny-polls @mostredactedbracket @autisticgirliesbracket @fuckingstupidbracket @adhdxautismshiptournament @mfshipbracket @emoboybattle @goldenretrieverguybracket @purplegreenbracket @beefy-babe-showdown @unluckiest-character-ever @ot3showdown @justsomeguypoll @vs-coughing-baby @tokenhumantournament​ @jamesbracket​ @least-sexy-man-competition​ @baby-brawl-bracket​ @thing-fight​ 

[kankuroplease]

I almost wish you had an prganozed master post with links to all your different things. You have SO MANY DIFFERENT oc's and ships and I feel like every time I get on Tumblr I find something new. You're so talented! ❤️🔥

Thank you! I could try, I do have a lot going on though 😆 the best organization ones would be the founders AU and TSAU, which both have masterpost

BEWARE: lots of links, lots will need to be updated, and lots of ships because I let my followers play match maker dhvosbusb

My General OCs + their ships I chose (🌕) and their ships my followers picked (🌑) for them

Aori - 🌕 Yamato and 🌑 Tobirama

Yamato/Aori - Aio and Haruki (next gen)

Team Aori - Momotarō, Aoka-Chan, Benkei

Katsura - 🌕 Shino and 🌑 Madara 🌑 Shikamaru

Shino/Katsura - Shigeki, Yasuo, Niwa Aburame (next gen)

Okami - 🌕 Kiba and 🌑 Kawarama

Kiba/Okami - Ashi and Kumo Inuzuka (next gen)

Yuuta - 🌕 Daisuke 🌕 Tenten 🌑 Hanabi

Yuuta/Hanabi - Mihana Hyuga (next gen)

**he also hits on a LOT of canon characters

Haiiro - 🌕 Shizune

Haiiro/Shizune - Dan Hyuga

Gou - 🌕 Kankuro 🌑 Itama

Kankuro/Gou - son

OC Parents

Isamu/Mari - Aori and Katsura

Asa/Pia - Gou

Okami’s parents - Okami

Jon/Umi/Zenbe - Yuuta

Umi explains

Aoka’s father/Isamu’s cousin/Katsura’s sensei

FOUNDERS ERA (oc x canon and OC x OC)

Butsuma/Asako 🌕

You know the Senju bros lol

Butsuma had a mistress named Kane

Tajima/Sumi 🌕

You know 2 (Madara, Izuna), Inari, Kota, Tenko, and Ringo

Tsuna(Butsuma’s brother)/Ebba/Sara 🌕

Tsuna/Ebba - Wolfgang Inuzuka

Sara (Tsuna’s legal/platonic wife)/Kane

Kane had a child with Butsuma - Meiko

Founders Era Inuzuka Clan

Madara/Katsura 🌑

Riki, Kazuha, and Noaki Uchiha

Izuna/Mate 🌑

Son and a Daughter

Wakaba/Tenko/Runa 🌑/🌕

5 kids total

Inari/Yaya 🌑

Nene + two boys

Kota/Gin 🌑

2 boys

Okami/Kawarama 🌑

Miu, Sora, Kōmori, Akiko, Suzaku, and Tora Senju

Gou/Itama 🌑

Goemon and Kaga Senju

Tobirama/Aori 🌑

Nagisa and Tomoe Senju

Nagisa/Naori 🌑

Senju

Kakuzu/Riki 🌑

Sycee

Kagami/Miu 🌑

Arata Uchiha

Arata x Sawa - Shisui Uchiha

Sora/Rei 🌕

Botan and Akihito Hoshigaki

About (no tag)

Sakumo/Kōmori 🌑

Kakashi Hatake

Erika/Suzaku/Aja 🌕

Michiko, Michiyo, Manami, and Megumi

Michiko/friend’s OC 🌕/🌑

Michiyo/Ken 🌕- the two Akimichi’s

Manami/Kisame 🌑

Megumi/Suigetsu 🌑

Orochimaru/Tora 🌑

Nisshoku (Sho) Senju

Manda/Nisshoku - Misaki (next gen) 🌕

Wolfgang/Ringo 🌕

Asahi, Kuri, Frederick, Leonie, Mika, Sena, Elke, and Arashi Inuzuka

Asahi/the Uzumaki that moved in/never left 🌕

Leonie/Arlo - Jugo 🌕

Sena/Tsume - Hana and Kiba 🌕

Elke/her partners 🌕

Arashi/Agapito 🌕

Tomoe/Husband/wife

** working this out, but he’s getting one of each because he wants to and wouldn’t settle for less✨

Tsau (canon x canon + oc children + Canon x OC)

All links in the masterpost for the TSAU

KakaObiRin 🌕

Ryujin, Copy and Paste (not their real names but yeah)

HashiMadaMito 🌕

Michi

Neji/Tenten/Michi/Lee 🌕

Mugen and the twins (Neji’s future kids)

MinaKushina

Naruto and Chiha

Naruto x practically everyone tbh.

Naruto x Shikamaru endgame

GaaSaku (early but still)

KankuKiba

Shisui/Kaguya

Kira (future kid)

Hinata/Toneri

Future Daughter

TemaTatsu

ItaHana

Saiino

**swingers. Do not attend one of their parties if not one like Yamato accidentally did and to be rescued

Genma/Yamato

If you’ve made it to the end of this post, apologies and thanks for reading all this 🖤😄

[recurringwriter]

tagged by @omgkalyppso to: Make a poll of your favourite female characters (no limits - as many or as little as you want) and see which your followers like the most!

was going to be like 'there's enough variety that i think you can't draw conclusions about me' but there's so many royal women here that maybe you Can. so i like a queen or two. whatever.

if you can't choose one or don't know them feel free to either drop an ask about any of them AND/OR to tell me about your ocs so they can become my faves

[sentienttoastah]

Things to know about me. I uhm. Errmm. Kiwi.

Okay I’ve been informed that making an actual introduction post thing is recommended so yeah why not.

Ahoy, call me Fish/Toastah (or the kiwisang guy apparently) Things to list about me and this blog:

Aroace, Agender

Pronouns are any

Current relevant fixations/interests: Project Moon (YI SANGG!!!), Art, Classic literature, Fear and Hunger(1&2), Okami, Eve Harapeco, Project Milgram, and Kiwi birds of course :D

Mostly SFW in the erotic department as I’m personally sex-repulsed. But there is gore and swearing still (does anyone actually consider swearing not safe though? Like really?) and shipping. If any of that makes you uncomfortable then yeah.

I don’t have many other relevant socials but if you know me from anywhere else hello fish government (you know who you are) Oh and moots can ask for discord too now if they want. I made an account recently.

I am open for interactions or new media and would enjoy making friends on here too so feel free to talk to me about shared interests or other things in general 🐟

or send me kiwi images…

Some tags on this blog:

#🐟 - Any of my original posts that aren’t reblogs (art, thoughts, etc. and the tags below also apply with this)

#toast tangents - Ramblings of a sentient fish toaster creature thing

#daily dick!! - Whale and Moby Dick postings (not very “daily” anymore)

#kwi sang/#kiwi company - That thing where I turn Project Moon characters into kiwis because of course I did. Mainly Yi Sang

#pokemon mirror dungeon - another excuse of mine to draw pmoon characters as anything except human, this time as pokemon

#benjamin 🫶 - benjamin.

(kiwi of judgement because why did you read all of that /pos)

[kittynomsdeplume]

OC Name Meanings

Thanks for the tag @alyssalenko

Rules: Google and post the meaning of your OC’s name (if you made their name up or they go by a nickname, post an explanation of how it came to you)! bonus if you can find something for their last name too

I had a chuckle about this task at first, because so many of my OC's just use the default name assigned to them in game 😅 With a little think about it however, I realised that I have a few original names after all - mostly all the elves.

Tagging: @knuttydraws ; @inky-does-art ; @blackwallmancer ; @shanaraharlyah ; @thedastrash ; @dreadfutures ; @rosella-writes ; @spicywarl0ck ; @okami-zero ; @amarmeme ; @khajiithasnowares

Sulahnean Lavellan - just a mash of elven, sulahn - song, and ean - bird. Songbird essentially. Inquisition friends have shortened her name to 'Lani', but Dorian's nickname for her is 'Birdie', which is a nod to him understanding some elven.

Brianna Cousland - apparently Brianna means 'strong'. The reason I chose the name however, was to honour her father, Bryce, as she would have been the apple of his eye from the moment she was born.

Eludysia Lavellan - lifted directly from FenxShiral's Book of Names. In elven it means 'she who is lucky with a secret'. Her friends mostly call her Dysi however. When I first developed Dysi, she was the protagonist for a planned Steampunk AU, in which, in her role as the Inquisitor, she was responsible for tracking down illegal magical artefacts for the Chantry. When she receives the Anchor in an accident, she becomes the very thing she has always hunted. At first it seems she's quite unlucky with her secret, but it ultimately leads her to Solas and long-forgotten truths about the elves.

The Champions

My ancient elvhen OC's predominantly possess the names of their original spirit aspect. They belonged to a minor pantheon, known as the Myth’tunamis - The Champion's of Mythal, or more literally, 'Mythal's blades of justice'. They were essentially her muscle during the height of the Elvhen empire. More colloquially they were called the 'Wolf Pack', seeing as Fen'Harel was their undisputed leader, and amongst the nobility they were generally held to be arrogant and wild, heeding only the commands of Mythal. Though they are no longer spirits, they remain very much the personification of the values they once embodied.

Eolas - Knowledge. Eolas was the first to follow Solas from the Fade and is loyal and steadfast. He is the one the others come to if they need to know details about anything, and he generally handles all the logistics.

Sileahilan, 'Lea' - Ingenuity. Solas' right hand and the most feared warrior of the Champion's. She was a darling of Elgar'nan's court, being beautiful, bold and possessing a sharp wit.

Darasil, 'Dara' - Cunning. Lea's soul twin, her dark shadow. Arguably equal to Lea in terms of skill, but he was more dour and private, and had nothing but disdain for his contemporaries. Where she was bright and charming, he was always content to lurk unseen.

Enastarin, 'Rin' - Vanity. Naturally, the most beautiful of the Champion's and an uncannily gifted shapeshifter, being able to perceive and reflect the true nature of any living creature. He is deeply envious of Solas, and has always resented the fact that Mythal favoured Solas over all others.

Avanathe, 'Ava' - Curiosity. The youngest of the Fade-born Champion's, she was often reckless in the pursuit of their goals. She was captured and slain by Anaris toward the end of the war between the Evanuris and the Forgotten Ones. Her spirit returned to the Fade where it eventually reformed as dual spirits - Studious Curiosity and Childlike Curiosity.

Vanarodha, 'Vana' - Audacity. Unlike the other Champion's, Vana was not a spirit that once resided in the Fade. She was born of the people, belonging to a clan pledged in fealty to Falon'Din. When she learned that she had been chosen for the dubious honour of serving Falon'Din directly, the spirits of the forest she had befriended, urged her to seek the aid of Fen'Harel - whom they held in high regard. Impressed by her boldness and her unusual affinity for spirits, Fen'Harel snatched her from Falon'Din's domain and brought her under the protection of Mythal, where she was renamed Vanarodha.

[aura-acolyte]

Hello, hello. The name's Mare Birch (call me Marie at your own peril) and I'm 18. You may know me as the Hero of Hoenn who saved the world from Groudon and Kyogre and Deoxys' Meteor. Or maybe you don't know me at all because nobody ever seems to recognize me even though I've saved the entire world at least twice maybe more.

Anyways, I'm the Chosen of Rayquaza which basically meant Rayquaza looked at me and said "yeah, I wanna give her superpowers. That seems like a good idea." And it was cause now I can save so many people!

I'm an Aura User. Aura Wielder? Aura Guardian? I can manipulate Aura. It lets me do things like throw Aura Spheres and sense people's emotions and be cool.

If you're ever in trouble or need the world to be saved, just call my name and I'll be there! Uh, actually, that doesn't really work cause super hearing is one of the few powers I don't have so instead, like, send me an ask or something. My askbox is always open which is probably a mistake but hey, what're you gonna do.

List of Pokemon because they won't all fit on my trainer card:

Kaen the Blaziken: My starter and one of my most powerful Pokemon, he is a master of speed and is capable of Mega Evolving into an even faster Mega Blaziken.

Kyoshi the Lucario: My mentor and other strongest Pokemon, she taught me everything I know about Aura. He uses any pronouns.

Okami the Mightyena: The only Pokemon I've ever caught in a traditional manner. She once attacked my Uncle but now she's my loyal friend.

Kusanagi no Tsuru the Doublade: Kusanagi for short, Kusanagi is a powerful Doublade who taught me swordplay. I often weild her like a pair of swords. She uses any pronouns.

Henka the Sylveon: A Sylveon who hatched from an Egg I was given. She evolved during a battle with Drake.

Shiruto the Swampert: My other starter. Yeah, that's right I got two. Nobody else was taking him.

Ataque the Tinkaton: A Tinkaton I picked up on my trip to Paldea. I'm pretty sure she's secretly evil. Warning: She will Bonk.

Other facts about me:

I'm a Champion Class trainer meaning I've beaten the Hoenn E4 and Champ but I am not the Champ because I don't wanna be.

Latias is my bestest friend ever.

I have a girlfriend named Zinnia. Go bother her at @last-lorekeeper.

I'm 4 foot 6. It's the worst.

OOC: Hey, hey! It's me, BackSet. It's been a while so I thought I'd revamp my pinned. Now it explains Mare a lot better and is a lot more characer for her. Anyways, there's not much I need to explain here but some general disclaimers: Mare kinda sort of breaks the Power Ceiling for Pokemon. Most of the time I make sure to only put her up against threats on the same power level because of that. Legendaries, freak science experiments, natural disasters, etc.

Mare's blog also regularly deals with themes of death, the sanctity of life, what it means to be a good person, injuries both major and minor, and mental illness (particularly a savior complex). So if any of that gets to you, you probably wanna block. I'll try to tag where appropriate.

(Also, here's art from @awn-moo)

And some art from my friend Jupiter (she's tagged in the post and I don't want to bother her by tagging her a second time so just go to the post to find her blog)

[aether-link]

Tagged by the cool @akamikazae ✨(yipppeeee).

List 5 things you can talk about for hours without preparing any material:

Animation/Drawing. (Love to point out and talk about tiny details that make drawings/animation pop!).

Animals. (Had many studies when young and animals bring peace for me in general).

Archeology. (Love dinosaurs and skeletons/bones and past dead things. Even human documentaries that have murder mystery or history!).

Video games. (Specially my favourites. Jak and Daxter, Okami, Pokemon and Warframe!).

Cultures/Food. (I like seeing how ppl come together over food. How everyone is different, how the treat it, how it brings peace and bonding.)

Extra; I to can talk about Sasuke as well! He’s such a little man hehe (and my other favourite characters to). And ATLA, getting back into that is so GOOD! Absolutely love and adore Zuko.

Sadly I don’t have anyone to tag 😭 I would tag ya again, your my only mutual who is really cool to me.

[fearowkenya]

i saw the oarfish video and thought to myself oh yeah thats the fish that the sword guy catches in okami (2006) expecting an actual sword. and then when he catches it hes like 'wtf this isnt a sword' and whenever i play thru that part and look at the stylized fish flopping around on the ground i too think to myself 'no thats not a sword is it' but i also think 'buddy it was always going to be a fish though. surely you were not expecting to see a literal sword right. right. sir you knew you were going to get a fish out of this arrangement right'

then upon seeing that video of this oarfish and how it moves underwater n how the light looks on its body, and i wrote up a whole bunch of tags about how yeah that is a sword actually.

except it turns out i was wrong, the fish he caught wasnt the oarfish it was the cutlassfish and i was like Oh goddammit none of those tags where im like 'oarfish look like swords after all mr benkei okami' actually apply because i got the dang fish wrong. so i was going to be like 'well maybe he should've caught an oarfish then'

but THEN out of curiosity i looked up pictures of cutlassfish in real life and what they look like underwater and mr benkei okami my guy . cutlassfish is also a sword actually. what the fuck

they look like knives hanging out in the water sir put the fishing rod down and stick your head in the ocean you will see

in conclusion many fishes is sworsd. thank you

[level1cleric]

What book have you read or game have you played that stayed with you longer than you thought it would?

alright so there's like two kinds of answers to this

there's the really good stuff that sticks with you, like okami. i did not think i would still love okami like i do after almost two decades! i played that shit on ps2 back in '06! dog game good. dog game weirdly long but dog game good

but then there's the real shit, the shit you keep thinking about years later when no one else is. many people love okami. who loves battleborn?

fuckin... Battleborn. A first-person shooter MOBA experience that was unfortunately followed 3 weeks later by one of the biggest games of the year, and direct competitor, Overwatch. Between the similar hero-oriented gameplay and the $40 price tag, Battleborn could not favorably compare in the eyes of the masses. Within a year, the player base had gone from 12,000 to 1,000, to only a few hundred. Not even a move to free-to-play did much to help it. After a move from Gearbox to put it in 'maintenance mode' 16 months after release, Battleborn would see its last online play in January 31, 2021 as the servers were shut down.

But. The legacy of Battleborn can be felt elsewhere, in what was Gearbox's long-awaited and somewhat disappointing release, Borderlands 3. Game development cycles are tricky things, so its not the easiest thing to pinpoint when Battleborn was being developed, but with Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel being released in October 2014, one could estimate that more hands were being put on Battleborn after that was finished. So, with (an estimated) two years of dedicated development, we see our final product get demolished the same year it comes out. Disheartening. Well, Gearbox has other things it can work on, right? You've got a big IP in your back pocket, it just needs a good 3rd mainline installment!

Borderlands 3 would be released 7 years after its mainline predecessor BL2, which for reference was 3 years after BL1 (so thats BL1 - 2009, BL2 - 2012, BL:TPS - 2014, and BL3 - 2019). This game has had a doozy of a cook time, so surely our final dish is superb, right? Well... its a bit mixed, yeah? The writing of the game doesn't really hit the same highs as BL2, gameplay has new mechanics sliding and more action skills, but less overall polish on the details. It's not bad, it just doesn't live up to the 7 year wait. Maybe it never could.

Wait, what does this have to do with Battleborn? Well, what if, and hear me out, what if BL3 came out 2 years earlier? If Battleborn was not given out theoretical 2 years of dedicated dev time, it could have meant that BL3 would have had an earlier release, in which its writing was a little more topical, for an audience that would be possibly more receptive to how the story was told (ehh, maybe not). But more importantly, a 2 year earlier release would have meant it would release within one week of Destiny 2, a game in the looter-shooter genre that was inspired by BL2. From there, its a huge toss up for how the two would have interacted with their player bases and retained regular players, but damn do i think about it

[a-shakespearean-in-paris]

To 10 Games

Thanks so much for the tag @thevikingwoman! In no particular order and no particular criteria. Just games that have meant a lot to me for one reason or the other over the years.

tagging @wintersongstress @muses-circle @elveny @alyssalenko and anyone else. I have no clue who is here anymore, lol.

1. Resident Evil 4

Though I love the remake and plan on replaying it soon, the original has to be on this list for not only being nostalgic, but just for being a big staple of my time in high school. I played this game way after it released, but it was such a fun escape when I needed it. Ada and Leon were the first couple I really shipped and their dynamics still appear in my writing today, even subtly. honestly I think it's also fair to say Ada also taught me how to flirt. lol.

2. Kingdom Hearts.

This was the first game I played where the story impacted me enough for me to cry at the end. Yes it’s not exactly great and it’s very cheesy and weird, but I feel the need to include it because this was the game that made me realize how impactful the medium of games could be in terms of storytelling.

3. Dragon Age

I’m sure you knew this would be on here! I’ve spoken so much about it, but let it suffice to say it got me back into writing and now I’m a much better writer because of the things I’ve learned and developed along the way! Will give the edge to Inquisition over Origins on this one, but I feel like a lot of people don't know how much I replayed origins, and in fact played it all the way back when it first came out.

4. Tomb Raider Anniversary

Been thinking about these games a lot recently. I do love the remakes but I have to say I’m partial to this Lara, of Legend and Anniversary variety. She likes adventures and history and she explores and goes to cool locations, and at a time in my life where I was just starting to realize how much travel means to me, I got to vicariously travel. I also think these games are a good blend of puzzle, exploration, and action.

5. Red Dead Redemption 2

This was the game that solidified my feelings that story telling in games not only rivals that of other mediums, but sometimes can even overtake it. Playing RDR2 feels like reading a long epic novel where the characters become your best friends by the end.

6. Last of Us

It would feel weird not to have this game on here because I truly think it is one of the best games that has ever been made. I just like to pretend the sequel doesn’t exist. Cough.

7. Assassins Creed 2

I love so many of these games—odyssey is definitely up there as well but I have to give this one to 2. I played it when I was 16 after coming home from Europe for the first time and enjoyed the hell out of running around Florence after I had been there. I did also have fun playing odyssey again after being in Greece. Couldn’t find the place I jumped from in Paros I was so sad.

8. Okami

This game is very much pure nostalgia. beautiful cell shaded animation and compelling use of Japanese mythology.

9. Mass Effect 2

I don't quite love ME as much as Dragon age due to my own preference for fantasy/medieval, but I love 2 for where it took the story/characters. Overall, ME is one of the few, if only, pieces of SciFi media I like.

10. Witcher 3

If you put a gun to my head and told me to name what I thought the best video game ever released was, I'd say Witcher 3. I have fond memories of playing this game while eating pizza in college. I also just love the animations for this game. In a time of "realism is the way" in video games, to me it's the more animated style that is much more timeless. (this is another reason I like Baldur's Gate right now)

[canadianmaple416]

Alright, so I was tagged by @broken-obsidian to write three fun facts about myself. Damn. I feel like I've mentioned a lot of stuff here, so I'll do my best!

Fun Fact 1: I have been playing guitar for over 20 years! 21 years, to be exact. I absolutely love bands like Periphery, Intervals, Polyphia, Arch Echo, Monuments and Animals as Leaders. But I mainly play older metal, progressive rock and skate punk such as Sum 41, Megadeth, and SOME Dream Theater as that is what my hands are physically capable to play. Also adore video game music. I love playing my guitar over video game soundtracks.

Fun Fact 2: I cannot turn my left eye left! Due to a birth defect, the nerve that allows my left eye to turn left was not connected. I could have surgery to change that but I don't want to risk going blind.

Fun Fact 3: I am a massive fan of JRPGs, Action-Adventure, Beat 'Em Ups and Turn-Based RPGs. Games like Yakuza, Persona, Final Fantasy, Pokemon, The Legend of Zelda, Okami, Megaman Battle Network, No More Heroes and Devil May Cry. But I also like games like Jet Set Radio, Bayonetta, Banjo-Kazooie, Animal Crossing, Hollow Knight, Metal Gear Solid, Phoenix Wright and Danganronpa.

I don't follow very many people, so I'll just tag my lovely partner @odethepuppy!