#so much wasted lore!!!!!!!!!!!!

[bumblingbabooshka]

I wish Voyager had explored why Tuvok chose to go into Security upon re-entering Starfleet. He was a science ensign in 'Flashback' so it seems he made a conscious decision to be in security and it's such a potentially interesting field for a Vulcan since (to my knowledge) every other main Starfleet Vulcan introduced is a scientist first and foremost.

[dragonpropaganda]

The Architecture of Rain World: Layers of History

A major theme in Rain World's world design that often goes overlooked is the theme of, as James Primate, the level designer, composer and writer calls it, "Layers of History." This is about how the places in the game feel lived-in, and as though they have been built over each other. Here's what he said on the matter as far back as 2014!

The best example of this is Subterranean, the final area of the base game and a climax of the theme. Subterranean is pretty cleanly slpit vertically, there's the modern subway built over the ancient ruins, which are themselves built over the primordial ruins of the depths. Piercing through these layers is Filtration System, a high tech intrusion that cuts through the ground and visibly drills through the ceiling of the depths.

Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets, the friendly local ghost, tells the player of the "bones of forgotten civilisations, heaped like so many sticks," highlighting this theme of layering as one of the first impressions the player gets of Subterranean. Barely minutes later, the player enters the room SB_H02, where the modern train lines crumble away into a cavern filled with older ruins, which themselves are invaded by the head machines seen prior in outskirts and farm arrays, some of which appear to have been installed destructively into the ruins, some breaking through floors.

These layers flow into each other, highlighting each other's decrepit state.

The filtration system, most likely the latest "layer," is always set apart from the spaces around it. At its top, the train tunnels give way to a vast chasm, where filtration system stands as a tower over the trains, while at the bottom in depths, it penetrates the ceiling of the temple, a destructive presence. (it's also a parallel to the way the leg does something similar in memory crypts, subterranean is full of callbacks like that!)

Filtration system is an interesting kind of transition, in that it is much later and more advanced than both of the areas it cuts between. This is a really interesting choice from James! It would be more "natural" to transition smoothly from the caves of upper subterranean to the depths, but by putting filtration system in between, the two are clearly demarcated as separate. The difference in era becomes palpable, the player has truly found something different and strange.

Depths itself is, obviously, the oldest layer not only of subterranean but of the game itself. The architecture of Depths has little to do with the rest of the game around it, it's a clear sign of the forgotten civilisations that our friend Two Sprouts, Twelve Brackets showed us, there's not actually that much to say about it itself, it's mostly about how it interacts with the other layers of subterranean.

That said, Subterranean is far from the only case of the theme of layers of history. It's present as soon as the player starts the game!

The very first room of the game, SU_C04, is seemingly a cave. It is below the surface, the shapes of it are distinctly amorphous rather than geometric. (well. kind of, it doesn't do a very good job of hiding the tile grid with its 45 degree angles.)

But let's take a closer look, shall we?

See that ground? it's made of bricks. The entire cave area of outskirts is characterised by this, the "chaotic stone" masonry asset is mixed with brickwork, unlike the surface ruins which are mostly stone. This, seemingly, is an inversion of common sense! The caves are bricks and the buildings are stone. This is not, however, a strange and unique aspect but a recurring motif.

This occurs enough in the game for it to be clearly intentional, but why would materials such as bricks be used in otherwise natural looking terrain?

The answer lies in the "Layers of History" theme. This is in fact, something that happens in real life, and it's called a tell

To be specific, a tell is a kind of mound formed by settlements building over the ruins of previous iterations of themselves. Centuries of rubble and detritus form until a hill grows from the city. Cities such as Troy and Jericho are famous examples. The connections to the layers of history theme are pretty clear here, I think. Cities growing, then dying, then becoming the bedrock of the next city. The ground, then, is made of bricks, because the ground is the rubble of past buildings. The bones of forgotten civilisations, heaped like so many sticks!

[maingh0st]

idk if holly has ever addressed the folk's origins but i have spent an unnecessary amount of time thinking about it and have decided they're immigrants

[ubejamjar]

Just a quick gpose of Sol and Ajisai :D Her name is Solrun Steelweaver and her personality is 'Best Blacksmith'. If memory serves, she's a level 40-something black mage on the cusp of meeting Haurchefant for the first time. I shipped her with Merlwyb and my partner's Roe-- Meri.

[averageartistamber]

My Thoughts on the possibilities for Splatoon 4

Alright, with the Grand Festival currently going on, I thought I'd chip in with my thoughts on what the next entry in the franchise. So prepare for a decently long yap session.

So, first of all, we have that point made in the Nintendo Direct about 3 being "the finale of this Splat-tastic Saga". What I believe is meant by this is that 3 is the last game with the Squids Vs Octopus conflict as the throughline for the story. Splatoon 4 is going to shift it's focus on a different part of the lore/world and have a very different main conflict in its story mode.

A lot of people were saying its the end of Splatoon as a whole, but I find that unlikely given how successful the franchise is. I also see folks saying that the next game won't have any of the old characters, which I also think is unlikely. I feel like we'll definitely still see the Idols again, they will just be more in the background (ie. You won't have Callie and Marie as your Mission Control in Hero mode...But you might get the new idols doing that.). They could drop the New Squidbeak Splatoon (ie. the Agents), but I think they'll be refenced somewhere.

They're not gonna get rid of all the old characters. We'll probably still have Sheldon running the next hub area's Ammo Knights, for example.

I do hope they do more with Deep Cut at some point, and it would be nice to see Agent 4 again, since all of these characters were underutilised in 3 in my (and many others) opinion.

Second point, the Splatfest itself: Past v Present V Future. Since Splatoon's "present day" occurs in real time, I don't think we're gonna have a huge time skip backwards or forwards in Splatoon 4. I think like with 3, the winning team is going to determine the setting and "vibes" of the next game.

If past wins, the hub area will be a historic, traditional town, maybe it'll be set in Calamari County, from the Squid Sister's backstory? We could them see what Craig Cuttlefish gets up to in his retirement (and if he's still stuck in Squid Mode).

If present wins, I think Splatoon 4 might be set in Inkopolis or Splatsville again, but maybe for the latter things have improved a bit thanks to Deep Cut's adventures? (the story mode could play into this and give them some much needed focus).

Another possibly for present could see one of the Octarian domes as the setting if present wins, and the story is about helping the people out and making the place liveable again. This could form a very nice conclusion to DJ Octavio's character, if they want to fully commit to him being redeemed and improving things for his people.

If future wins, we might arrive in a high tech, maybe very wealthy city. This location would very likely be completely new, maybe even in a completely different part of the world. So who knows what'll happen here.

Third point: Plot foreshadowing that is in the games.

Okay, so we know that Lil Judd is likely going to be a Big Bad at some point, highly likely the next game. It's heavily implied that he's the new owner of GrizzCo Industries, taking over in Mr.Grizz's absence. I wonder how he could use the company...They did say they'd "find good use" for the 1.5 Billion Golden Eggs we stole collected during the Grand Festival Big Run.

Which you'd think is disconnected from his plans to overthrow Judd, but I'm sure Nintendo can cook up something. Even if it makes no friggin' sense for the character (side eyeing RoTM), it's at least be cool.

The Octarians seem to have made peace, Kamabo Co. dissolved with Tartar's destruction, and Mr.Grizz the Capitalist Space Bear is...Probably chilling on the moon now (although there is potential for GrizzCo to get involved, see above.). Overlorder and the Jelletons are contained to a VR game, and the former seems to be slowly rehabbed by Agent 8 kicking their ass over and over again.

The Salmonids on the other hand...

We also know that the Salmonids have been given much more importance in Splatoon 3, with Big Run and all that jazz. Our beloved Gremlin Fish are also the only big "villain" faction that still exists as of Splatoon 3. (Well, until Nintendo makes another new one.) They have, like, organisation, and ramping up their war efforts and have Full On Goddang Kaiju in their ranks. Plus the numbers done on them in the Big Runs.

Just saying, I'd be pissed too if my population was decimated because some Boneless Teenagers care more about seeing some celebrities sing songs in a desert than respecting another race of people that are different from them.

Something very Fishy will likely be going down in Splatoon 4.

Of course, at this point I also think there's a very good chance that the next Splatoon game will be a spin-off. Pretty much anything goes. A lot of people want a game about the Great Turf War. Maybe Squid Beats will become its own dedicated game (very likely a phone game.). Pretty much anything could go here.

Anyways, I might not play the game that much (and even then exclusively Salmon Run), but I'm invested enough in the world and characters to be excited about what happens next.

What do you guys think?

[ganondoodle]

I was at first in love with totk, and I still think mechanical wise, its quite impressive

And when I collected all the tears and saw the "story" I genuinely got upset in a good way (at first), because man! Did they really got the balls to go that far? Is there nothing I can do for her? Now I MUST do all the temples, see how it plays out and --oh, I've got this cutscene already. Why are all the people so dumb about Zelda, I KNOW where she is, Link say something-- Link??

After finishing all the temples and almost falling asleep, I stopped playing the game, looked up the last boss and remaining cutscenes and went "Thats it?"

Watching other people (including you) being critically about so many things, both character and mechanical wise, I've almost startled myself with a realization what the gnawing feeling I constantly had, actually was.

Totk feels like a fanfic.

And don't get me wrong, I love fanfiction, I think its great and important, I adore fanfic writers, I love finding gems, I love reading self indulgent stories, see new spins and interpretation of characters. I love the casual, the passion, the creativity!

But totk gives me the same feeling everytime I am reminded that Fifty Shades is a Twillight fanfic.

The world is there. The faces I know and grew to love are there. But everything is ever so slightly different, uncannily so. Just how some characters talk, how they act, how they were placed in the story. The Zonai appearing out of nowhere, but no, they always had been there you see, they were these super magical advanced people but they all died, the king is so tragic. And you see, the king is super cool and powerful and-- oh I dont get to interact with him outside of the tutorial. Did they try to do another King Rhoam-- but wait, that only worked because we didn't knew he was a ghost-- totk wait stop why do you take him out of the story, why couldn't he be a companion, he IS ABLE TO TALK THROUGH THE ARM LET THE OLD GOAT COMMENT ON STUFF?? If you bring up all this ancient stuff and you still got a ghost lingering, let him talk?? (I never ended up getting Mineru but I smell wasted potential as well)

Im not even mad, I am disappointed. It feels like the devs saw what all the lore hunters got attached to and talked about and then just... took the "cool". All the Zonai stuff could've easily been Sheikah tech, but got just reskinned to look more exciting instead of being its own thing.

Like... at this point I prefer what fans are doing over what Totk gave us. The characterization of Rauru (and everything Zonai), projects like you do of what totk couldve been, the little nuggets of actual highlights and details of love fans find in the game. I found much more enjoyment in these concepts than I got from a 70bucks game. And thats depressing.

I love fanfiction. I dont love it when my corporate 70 dollar, six year development, console exclusive game feels like a story that passionate fan couldve written miles better in a week (and I've already seen much cooler and interesting rewrites and ideas).

Zelda has been a huge part of my childhood and its depressing seeing it treated like that. It always was about the story, the epic, its The Legend of Zelda for crying out loud. To be courageous to enter a dungeon, to be wise and solve all the riddles. To become powerful over the journey you embarked on. Zelda to me is the campfire story you tell to others and go into the woods or the beach and imagine what monsters you would slay. Zelda is not the sandcastle you build in the sandbox and then add dinosaurs and star wars ships because you didn't had any other toys, and just stumble into and over some story to entertain yourself until lunch is ready.

I'd have an oracle of seasons over another totk any day at this point. They should've just make the mechanics of totk its own thing, but I guess they were scared it wouldn't sell if it doesn't have a Mario or Zelda skin straped over it.

Anyways, sorry for the mini rant - love your art, love your thoughts and insights, and I am looking forward to see more of it - Zelda related or not (your original characters look amazing, I adore your style sm)

Hope you have a great rest of the day!

*nods along through this entire rant*

idk how many of my rants you have read but yeah ... yeah ... and the further you think about it the further it all falls apart, the wasted potential of it all and the goddamn audacity of them to do those interviews in which they make it EVEN WORSE is just

i know the expectation for a direct sequel to botw was huge and understandbly so but i really REALLY think it would not have been that hard to make it a good follow up even taking into account that totk was originally a DLC, pretty much all of botws aspects could have been developed further, i dont know what could have happened to make totk have turned out like this .. literally it feels like something had to have gone wrong, its like someone who doesnt know zelda nor botw at all was given a few prompts and then just made some generic fantasy story while the rest worked on ultrahand for 5 years

the technical impressive things ARE technical impressive, but i dont think it was necessary nor served the game well in any way (and i LOVE building games- however totk is neither a building game nor a story game nor a zelda game nor an exploration game nor a sequel imo) but zelda, this zelda, is not made for that and i cant help but think it was mainly to encourage people to make some ridiculous mechs so it can go viral on tiktok (not trying to discredit them, it IS cool what they are doing but i .... have my doubts if zelda is the right place for that)

ill stop there bc i have ranted so much about everything i dont wanna repeat it here again; it just doesnt feel like a real game (derogatory), it feels extra bad bc i was not really into zelda when botw came out and while i did get it as soon as i could (months after release since i just started a minijob and didnt have the money) i only over time grew to love zelda this much again, devouring any theories and anything about it bc i loved it so much- i was never into it like this when a new title was announced and dont own any special editions so i bought the totk collectors bc i was just so damn excited for it after the 2019 trailer dropped (god i want that time back ... it looked so much more like it was going to be an actual sequel) even if i was already worried it wouldnt be good at that point given how much i started to sense stuff i dont like about the newer trailers

i recently sold it at our local gameshop bc it was like a thorn in my side given how expensive it was and how dissapointed i was in the game, i genuinely think that, technical impressiveness aside, totk is the onyl zelda i truly cannot stand (for alot of reasons) and im genuinely worried for the future of the franchise

i bought an Oki (Okami) figurine for what i got back and i feel much happier with that :3

(also on a note, i did finish the game two weeks after release but stopped playing it right then and hadnt touched it since, i also streamed all of what i played and its still up if you want to see my slow descend into madness fjkdhkdhjk though its been a long while since then and i by far did not talk about everything back then, just what my most immediate frustrations were while still playing)

(also the gameplay isnt as good as people make it out to be, so much is so frustrating and punishing to use i am kinda baffled it got through like that and most people call that its best aspect ..... though i guess if the rest is so much worse even mid gameplay can seem good ooooooooh how dare i)

also thank you for liking what i do!!! <3 it means alot to know it is appreciated by someone :D

[nyarumitsu]

I FEEL SO ABSOLUTELY CHEATED I WISH WE GOT TO EITHER BREAK KRISTOPH'S LOCKS OR MOOD MATRIX HIM!

[kareenvorbarra]

we just finished watching Dune (1984) and I feel insane

[day-mark]

fine i'll say it, manhunt wouldve been a perfect plot for the minecraft movie

[determinedowl23]

So obsessed with when a Nintendo game releases and the fans just go “nah…… I could do it better” and make some of the greatest aus known to mankind

[mezmer]

Okay I'm gonna be a big meanie but I'm not stooping down to hater levels yet. Anyway fuck this irl girl I have known for years who just had a birthday, posts pics, and she has what looks like a $200 or more cake, huge tiered brilliantly decorated cake. She is wearing a crown and this crazy formal dress...I don't mind that she has like 20 friends who are all just pretty girls, whatever, thats your circle okay. It definitely doesn't help every other aspect. I wonder if anyone else thinks she looks like a self-serving fucking asshole. Maybe I'm projecting because my birthday has been a complete oversight to everyone for at least a decade.

[sysig]

Spoiled rotten (Patreon)

[petorahs]

me being so set on hating every fontaine character because their designs looked too much and only pulling for the sibs + arlecchino but then navia turned out lovable in the quest. they advertised wrio as a dogboy. neuvy is a dragon AND has elf ears.

ITS JOEVER

[mabaris]

honestly tho i think the fallow mire is the best map in inquisition. the rest of them try to be TOO big because they’re chasing the open world feel and. plenty of other people have spoken, better than i could, about how it makes them feel empty and like they’re just fluff for fetch quests to pad out playtime hours

but the fallow mire is still PLENTY big and feels much more dense because there’s less empty space and overall just. less Going On. i know it’s the dragon age protagonist’s job to get involved in every problem, but i do like how most of the quests seem tighter, related to each other and the overall plot. and it feels more true to the scale of like, kirkwall and og redcliffe and haven

[ganondoodle]

been able to keep both my fear and hype about totk in check by watching nothing but elden ring videos for weeks but now i read something on accident and my anxiety is going through the roof again

[polteageistplush]

i miss when splatoon was fun. it feels like the whole game is just for super competitive battles all the time. which i mean, sure, i can deal with them pretty well. but it felt like splat1 and early days of 2 were more laid back, yknow? i didnt have to fight in such a hardcore way Every Single Battle. i could just have more relaxing matches and have some fun.

every time i play it anymore, i just get frustrated. it really sucks considering (consquidering) the joy it had brought to me previously.

also sometimes i dont want to have to git gud. sometimes i want to not do well and not feel frustrated abt it bc theres still fun to be had even if you arent the best. but it doesnt feel that way in this game.