#still need to finish pillars of eternity I & II

[roarrrgame]

Was watching the Skill Up review on Avowed and saw a comment about “woke shite” and Googled… Lmao looks like I'm not the only one confused. Turns out one of the designers is apprearly an “anti-white racist” or something… No wonder they needed a woke game spreadsheet, who can keep track of this

[doomboogie]

Uh 2021 Games List A Whole Year+ Late

Whoops, forgot about this since time hasn't been real for the last couple of years. I rank based on enjoyment of a game, not if the story or gameplay are particularly great, and to me a 3=pretty good. But it's a vague and nebulous system, it's all fake anyway. In order from March to December 2021:

Pillars of Eternity II: Deadfire - ?/5

Obsidian Entertainment, 2018

A more quippy and light-hearted tone than its predecessor, it feels like a tabletop game with every character trying to outwit each other and make the snarkiest comment. Some people like that, I don't so much. The true interesting story of colonialism is kneecapped by the generic main plot involving gods that already had their time to shine in the first game. Combat is more polished and fun and the AI improved and the environments are gorgeous. Companions are interesting but have underdeveloped sidequests and awkwardly implemented romances, and some companions just drive me so crazy I couldn't stand to even hear them. The PC's background and opinions never felt relevant, even in places that they really should have been. I never finished this game, as the main plot simply could not grab me enough once it was all that was left. I loved PoE 1, but despite my disappointment with Deadfire I admit it's not a bad game, just not my jam. I didn't rank it because I want to revisit later, I think I can enjoy this game just not right now.

Persona 5 Royal - 1.5/5

Atlus, 2020

Much needed gameplay improvements and social additions are undermined by a thematically inconsistent final act and questionable character writing. The new characters are clunkily forced in resulting in a love 'em or hate 'em feeling, and a lingering thought that perhaps they should've been saved for a spin-off rather than tacked onto an already complete game.

Persona 5 Strikers - 3/5

Atlus, 2020

The Persona series' strongest sequel (Eternal Punishment doesn't count) focusing on the friendship between characters and slight rehashing of original game themes with a twist. The new characters introduced far exceed Royal's new additions, and meld into the exhisting cast with more ease. Overdone tropes and a particularly bad moral lesson regarding child abuse give a mixed-postive takeaway.

Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective - 5/5

Capcom, 2010

Oh, to live in a world where Ghost Trick got a million sequels instead of Ace Attorney. A fun puzzler with a cute gimmick and fascinating characters with stellar music and the best animation on the DS. A few eyeroll moments in the last hour may harsh my vibe a bit, but not much. Like most wacky detective games, it's more fun playing with other people instead of alone.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines - 4.5/5

Troika Games, 2004

Considered a classic for a reason, with a myriad of roleplay opportunity, tons of interesting characters, and some of the best voice acting I've ever heard in a game. The latter half of the game is much less polished and a combat slog, but the first half more than makes up for it. I didn't appreciate the very aged early 00's humor, complete with some edginess and off-colour "jokes" - Chinatown is a bit of a Yikes. Still great fun, jank and all, and deserves a modern installment. Pour one out for the almost surely dead sequel; this franchise is truly cursed. On my biannual replay list.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution - 4/5

Eidos-Montréal, 2011

Adam Jensen is by far the most interesting protagonist in the Deus Ex series, and you can feel that this game's world is on the precipice of massive upheaval and change. It's the calm before the storm, and then when the storm hits it hits so hard. I love how there's no good ending in this game, I love how much it leans into media personalities influencing the minds of a populace, and I love the gold filter! Maybe I like this one more than the original Deus Ex because it takes place during the growing period between a modern world and the cyberpunk dystopia it's destined to become.

Deus Ex: Mankind Divided - 3/5

Eidos-Montréal, 2016

Opposite of the original Deus Ex, I expected this game to be bad due to its reputation. Perhaps that lowered expectation allowed me to be pleasantly surprised by it instead. The story isn't the best, and it desperately needs another game due to the abrupt ending, but the gameplay is a blast. Felt nice unleashing on the police once night fell. Prague is so so so fun to explore, probably one of my favorite game hubs I've ever played in. Still hoping for that third game to close out Adam's story.

Deus Ex - 2/5

Ion Storm, 2000

Maybe I'm just too much of an radical but nothing this game said felt very mindblowing or earth shattering. The gameplay was passable, stealth was fun, but I think I was just too late to the party on this one. The fandom needs to chill out on reccommending this to everyone as "the best game ever made", because it just creates expecations that won't be met. I obviously chose the "Dark Age" ending; I was surpsied, it assumes the worst of humanity and thinks we'll go back to the dark ages from losing technology that didn't exist prior to the 1910s. But again, maybe I'm just too much of an radical and can tell when the leftist ending is written to appear worse than it really would be. Honestly this feels like a game that a lot of libertarians built their entire personalities off of.

Crusader Kings II - 3.5/5

Paradox Entertainment, 2012-2018

A fun rpg hidden in a grand strategy game, and this wonderful combination has spoiled me for every other grand strategy. Base game is servicable but restrictive; DLC and mods are what make the game shine. Massive timesink game, never truly ends. The total for the many packs of DLC is quite expensive; I'm not a fan of Paradox's business model. Score lowered due to the DLC prices as well as bizarre mechanics with some inter-religious stuff. Does anybody actually take part in the Crusades in this game? I sure don't. Too busy plotting against my liege.

Bloodborne - 5/5

FromSoftware, 2015

I loved this game so much that I started a second character while still in the middle of my first playthrough. This game was the gateway to FromSoft titles for me, after years of being on the outside looking in. It's no longer my favorite Fromsoft title, but it will always have a place in my heart. Fighting the Bloody Crow is in my top 10 game moments, easily the most fun duel I've ever had. Also, the singing eyeball creatures are singing the Hunter's Dream melody! Marvelous.

A Plague Tale: Innocence - 1.5/5

Asobo Studio, 2019

If this were a tech demo that ended at the battlefield level I would have been far more entranced and liked it more. This game goes off the rails so hard in a way I can only roll my eyes at, and that's not accounting for the poor pacing and bizarre story choices. What could have been a simple story of survival and family turned into a circus of rats and murder. I don't understand how this is a darling for so many people.

Life Is Strange: True Colors - 1/5

Deck Nine, 2021

Goddammit. I wanted to like this game so much. Alex's powers are the most interesting of the LiS bunch, even if they're not explained all too well and often change the rules. Alex herself is fine enough - she's a bit of a dick, and has a personality that I enjoy seeing. But the game falls apart when it comes to story - the most interesting parts (Alex's past, her relationship with her brother and parents, the core mystery) are pushed aside in favor of larp sessions, aimless wandering, and a forced musical interlude at a festival. When the plot finally wakes back up it dives into a non-twist that was so predictable I was hoping it was a fakeout and then goes straight for completely ridiculous acts of human survivability. Alex should have died multiple times over in the last few hours of the game but miraculously walks off fatal injuries with nothing more than some aspirin and self-righteous spirit. This would be fine on its own, but the series has established what is and isn't survivable - characters in the first two games died from something that Alex shrugs off. The individual characters are some of the most interesting in the LiS series, but the story is easily the worst. I keep thinking of how good this could've been. Maybe next time Deck Nine will get it, but I'll miss Dontnod being at the helm. Also maybe I'm petty but I fucking *wish* there were small towns in the Colorado that were this diverse and inclusive where someone could get by on a meager wage. Ugh.

The Sims 4 - 2?/5

EA Games, 2015

Really only playable with mods and all the DLC. Can't believe it's still on live service in 2023.

Darkest Dungeon - 3.5/5

Red Hook Studios, 2015

Darkest Dungeon is probably my most "pick up, get bored, put down" game I've ever played. I like the conceit, I like the setting, I like the classes. I hate the grind. Even on Radiant Mode it becomes a slog after a while, but I was determined to see it through to the end. Which, as it turns out, wasn't to far off from my last "put down" spot years ago. I still think the grind is to the game's detriment, and overall I'm not a fan of vaguely Lovecraftian horror - Bloodborne is toeing that line for me - and the final four part dungeon has a brutally harsh gimmick that can blindside a player. However the final boss of this game was delightful. I kept Reynauld and Dismas in my rotation the whole game, and sent them both to the final boss. Only one returned. It was a heartbreaking moment, but a fitting one. I think the series should have ended here, to be honest.

Outer Wilds: Echoes of the Eye (DLC) - 3/5

Mobius Digital, 2021

As I write this I'm replaying the DLC, in hopes to enjoy it more than in 2021. Unfortunately I don't. The delightful puzzles and poignant moments are undercut by the unforgiving traversal of the new major area, a long return time, and a tedious stealth mechanic. The DLC itself is the length of a full game, and I commend Mobius for their creativity in an entirely new area in an already jam packed game. All that said, less fun Outer Wilds is still Outer Wilds, and that comes with a good time regardless. I just hope next time they leave the inky black stealth sections on the cutting room floor. Bummer we can't really tell any other hearthians about our discoveries :( I know Riebeck would like to learn about it.

Baldur's Gate Enhanced Edition - 3/5

Bioware (1998), Beamdog (2012)

Baldur's Gate is an odd game to me. I played through once, and found it aged and not that great; I used to have this rated as 2 stars. But I couldn't stop thinking about the game and ended up replaying a few months later and enjoying it a lot. So, I guess I like it? I don't know, maybe it's kind of like a sugary candy where you don't like it much but you keep eating because the sugar is addicting. Perhaps I merely craved a late 90s rpg. I'm fond of all the companions I took in those two save files, and that's one of the problems: too many companions, likely because the devs didn't expect players would care for them. But I do! I would die for Ajantis, nobody knows me like Khalid and Jaheira know me, and sure I guess Imoen can come along too. So long as she understands I like Xan and Coran more than her. Probably the second biggest untwist, after True Colors. Not a big fan of the chosen one narrative in any game, but it was the late 90s so I can forgive it.

Return of the Obra Dinn - 5/5

3909 LLC, 2018

This was the last game I played in 2021, on New Year's Eve. A single shot, 11 hours straight. I loved this game so much. I honestly don't have words other than I love it. I love the gimmick, I love the music, I love the various color palettes you can choose from, I love the investigation and detective work required from the player, I love learning the story in nonchronological pieces, I love how it's a tragedy and I love how there is truly nothing else like it on the market. I hope beyond hope that something will come close to the gameplay again, but I'm more than content with just this. Very thankful to have such a stellar game to end an otherwise bad year on.

[17wishbones]

“Mugen Train” was such a treat that I HAD to write some short stories with the infamous, focused, and amazing Flame Pillar, Rengoku Kyōjurō. Easily one of my favorite characters. His handsome, flamboyant self needed juuust a smidge of more screen time and it would have been perfect.

S/N: Majority of my fanfics will be written towards women of color. Big FYI. Otherwise, enjoy.

- - - - - - - -  ______________________________________

                                         Kimetsu no Yaiba: Flame Eternal

                               Chapter I: OVERWHELMING CONFESSION

“Good morning, Sunflower!”

“Kyōjurō, please!” You whispered through clenched teeth, “You can’t be scaring me this early in the morning.” The Fire Hashira, Rengoku Kyōjurō, surprised you with a greeting by hanging his head down from the rooftop of the Butterfly Estate.

“My apologies! I wanted to see you as soon as I could.” He jumped down with one hand behind his back. “Congratulations on becoming a Hashira! You have worked hard to get where you are, and that you should be proud of yourself!”

The fire in his eyes burned bright as always. He didn’t know it yet, but he was a driving force in you making it to the ranks, and it wasn’t easy. At all. You were a rare sight in Japan. Everyone still thought of you as a foreigner. No matter how good your Japanese was, not many could understand the concept that people of different colors could be a native to this country.

You have fought for acceptance for a long time, and with the rise of demons, that put unneeded targets on your back. Just like the others, you lost your family to them, and it was but the anger in your heart that brought you here - to avenge those who were killed by demons. You didn’t know if you really had what it took.

Kind and supportive words from Rengoku Kyōjurō had changed a couple of the most important minds, but others were not so keen on the idea. You pushed yourself every day, working and training day in and day out until your body shook with aches. You honestly wanted to give up many times, and tried, but there was someone always pulling you back and helping you to your feet.

“That’s because of you, Kyōjurō.”

He shook his head. “It’s because of you, Sunflower! With perseverance and vigor, you made it through Final Selection and achieved your goals in order to be a Hashira! Therefore, I wanted to be one of the first to congratulate you!”

The confidence and support of his words always made you get “butterflies” in your stomach and your cheeks warm beneath your brown skin. “Stop! You’re making me blush but,” you bowed, “Thank you, Kyōjurō, for everything.”

You had locked your hair months before you trained for the Final Selection. Your hair had been on as much of a journey as you had. It reached down to the shoulder blades. And with these locs, you were in need of a floral decoration to commemorate this special day as you donned your uniform. 

“Now, to get a sunflower-”

“Right!” He handed a small bouquet of sunflowers, your favorite flower that he nicknamed you back during those harsh training days. “For you, _____!”

“Ah!” You received his early morning gift with glee. “Kyōjurō, you shouldn’t have!” One smell and you were hooked. “Thank you so much!” You set them down in the room Shinobu offered you to stay in. You clipped one off and wrapped it up on the left side of your head. “How do I look?”

He looked at you, surprised at first, and then with an ear-to-ear smile. “As beautiful as always, _____!” 

You felt your heart thumping throughout your chest. His words of sincerity always made you feel like you belonged. Not to mention, his fiery gaze upon you held true when he spoke to and of you. “You’re much too kind, Kyōjurō.” Before you attended to your face, Kyōjurō was already before you, wiping away your falling tears.

“You’re crying. What’s wrong?”

Whenever your world began crumbling, he was there and ready to help you get through any self-doubt. He ended up being a shoulder to cry on when you least expected it. He rose to Hashira-dom before you, and yet didn’t leave you behind. You owed him something in return. “N-nothing! I’m happy.” You took hold of his wrists, lowering his hands. “Though I wonder how I’ll ever be able to show you my gratitude.”

“Hmph!” He clasped your hands in one swift motion and stared longingly into your coffee-colored eyes. “Marry me, _____!”

You deadpanned.

Nature filled in the silence.

“I said, “Marry me, _____!”

Your mouth dropped wide open, “MARRY YOU!?” 

“Yes! Do you accept?”

“Wait, wait, wait!” You drew back your hands and stepped back. You rubbed your temples, momentarily confused. Stumped. Dumbfounded. “This is a test of some sort, right? A little bit of an early morning joke to keep me on my toes?”

He laughed heartily. “Not at all!” He locked his gaze on you as he crossed his arms over his chest. “I know that you will make a great wife!”

“Kyōjurō, I’m not like you or the others, as clear as they have made it in the past. I wouldn’t want to hinder you or mess up your reputation.”

“Our Master has allowed you to apply to become a Hashira; you worked hard to become a Hashira; and you have become more than a great friend to me. No matter what anyone else says, I have accepted you.” He closed in and held your hands once more. “I knew since training, to which you promised me your hand in marriage.”

“Eh!? You remembered that!?” You questioned. 

“When I saw you at training for the first time. I knew that I had to make you mine! I have waited for this day for a long time. So, I will ask you again. _____.”

You gulped. “Yes, Kyōjurō?”

“Will you do me the honor of marrying me?”

“I-I,” your hands were clammy and your world started to spin. ‘What are you going to say? He asked you to marry him! Look, look! So what if you fed him a sweet potato every Friday and fell into his arms a few times? You need to let him down softly. Yeah! That’s it! Just refuse his proposal! He’ll understand-” Your mouth opened before you could finish. “Yes…?” You paused. ‘Bitch, did you just--?’

His aura suddenly grew hot around you both. “Then I promise to make you happy, to protect you, to guide you, and to love you until death!” With overwhelming confessions like this, how could you refuse?

“That’s great! But shouldn’t we--” You made a fatal mistake. “Kyōjurō?” You blinked. “Oh no!” He was gone in a flash! “Kyōjurō, wait!” You shouted as you dashed out of the Butterfly Estate. You only got a quick glimpse of his flaming haori, but he was still so fast! You thought you possibly had him when you ran into the other Hashira, assembled for the Pillar Meeting.

“Ah, _____! I was just about to come and get you for the meeting.” Shinobu came before you with her usually endearing smile. “Congratulations on becoming a Hashira. It’s been a long time since we’ve had anyone enter into the ranks, and for it to be someone as unique as you says something.”

“As if! You were only able to join because of Rengoku, and nothing else.” Obanai hissed from atop a tree branch. You really hated his guts.

“But you can’t deny her strength. She did kill fifty demons in a year and a half. That’s at least impressive, right?” Tengen remarked. He was a nice guy, in a way, so you liked him.

Shinazugawa pointed his sword at you. “As long as she doesn’t get in the way of me killing demons, I could care less.” 

‘And I could care less myself.’ You thought with a frown on your lips.

Mitsuri was at least nice enough to give you a smile and a wave. “You look so pretty in your uniform, _____!” You liked her the most, along with Shinobu.

Giyuu and Muichiro didn’t speak on the matter.

“Thank you to those most kind, and to the others, you’ll just have to get used to seeing me like I have to get used to seeing you. Anyways, I came here looking for Rengoku. Did he pass by yet?”

“By pass by, do you mean standing at the top of the roof behind you?” Tengen pointed out.

You looked confused as you turned around and felt your face just fall into shock as you saw him proudly standing on the rooftop - again - with a wide smile on his lips. “Kyōjurō!”

He gently took hold of you at the waist when you landed in front of him. “I’ve got you, Sunflower!” His eyes burned brighter than they ever had before, and the aura he exuded could be felt from miles away. “Everyone!” He turned to the Hashira below. “Let us welcome _____, our new Hashira, and my soon-to-be wife, to the team!” Everyone’s face cracked. “Treat her like she’s one of our own!”

Really, what would you do without this flamboyant Hashira?

- - - - - - - -

Chapter: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII (Part 1) / (Part 2) / (Part 3)

[silvanils]

Knight Plays: Pillars of Eternity

Part I || Part II || Part III || Part IV

It’s time to have fun storming this castle!

Or not, these enemies are pretty strong and Bryn keeps getting knocked out. It would help if he was better at flanking, but NO, he’s got to keep drawing fire. (I’ll have to see if there’s a way to tweak this mechanic but if not, OH WELL, he’s becoming another disaster rogue.)

Ah, the statue talks. I feel like this isn’t actually “normal” even in this setting, but normal has been thrown out the window, hasn’t it? 

OOF. Something Very Bad happened here. I’m getting major cursed vibes from this whole castle and I wonder if we’re going to have to find a way to lift that / purify this place.

It seems like this is a very “grey” situation where people kept making things worse with how they retaliated... 

Ah, the Old Watcher... I don’t think he’s going to be much help to Bryn in his state. If anything, he’s making Bryn more worried about what HIS fate will be in the end. Yikes.

(Actually, his whole backstory is a BIG “yikes.” I feel bad for him, and hope that sort of thing isn’t what Bryn has to look forward to.)

After killing him, the game gave a choice about what to do with his soul and while the GAMER part of me wanted to absorb the knowledge, Bryn just wanted to cut the soul loose and let it go. It’s what he’d want if he was in that man’s place, so. That’s that.

Oddly enough, though, Bryn feels ok about “inheriting” the castle. I feel like he doesn’t have much in the way of roots anywhere and being told “this place wants you” is a mutual feeling - he wants to make this place his own, too.

But that’ll have to wait until I have more money, whoops. And everyone needs rest so I need to find an inn soon (I’m very low on camp supplies and want to save them...)

Aloth’s commentary during and after this quest has me thinking he might be a Watcher, too. Come to think of it, he had a rather interesting reaction to finding out Bryn was one. HM. The Old Watcher switched how he talked, too, so... I wonder.

I wouldn’t blame him for keeping it secret, though. People here don’t seem to like “abnormal” folks.

Heading south toward the Big City, the party meets another friend! Who has an EXTRA friend?! (I like this lady already, she seems cool.)

Poor lady got swindled by a fake Watcher? Bryn’s first response is “well, maybe I can help you! I’m a REAL one!” and she called him out on that being a bad thing to tell someone who just told that kind of story, haha.

Edér jumping in to say “you’d believe him if you saw how he stares at dead things” made me laugh. Thanks for having my back, buddy.

And the city is just a hop and a skip away now -

Wait, Act I is finished?! Uh... whoops? I meant to go clean up quests in Gilded Vale before moving ahead in the story too much, so if the Act change makes me miss stuff I’ll... just have to reload to my hard save before talking to Sagani.

And a quick rest and fast travel later, it seems like I can still do all the things in Gilded Vale. GOOD. Especially since I just figured out the hold-tab to see stuff you can interact with trick (I keep forgetting that exists in these sorts of games, OOPS.)

Wrapped up a bunch of the mini-quests here, got some neat equipment (omg Larder Door?! PLEASE) and noticed people with weird names can have their souls stared into. What.

(Also... STROM BRIGHTBLADE? That name gave me flashbacks to my Dragonlance reading days...)

With a full party, this temple is... really pretty easy, welp. Not that I mind. Their commentary is neat. Sagani finally believing Bryn is a Watcher is made more funny by every single other companion piping up with their two cents about how “you’ll get used to this eventually.” Really? Even Aloth has only known me for what, three or four days?

(In all seriousness, though, it’s sweet how quickly they have come to like and trust Bryn despite his... oddity. Or perhaps BECAUSE of it?) 

Oh. Yikes. The descriptions of what happened in this back room are... mm. Surprisingly dark and graphic. And Bryn’s not too pleased that he was lied to, either. :T

I didn’t think I COULD like Edér more than I already did, but I DO. I’m actually tearing up a little, hearing his story about his rite. “It’s good to see the candles are still burning.” Yeah, it would be.

Bryn’s been hearing both sides to a lot of these conflicts and they’re all so messy. Ugh. He’s not pleased with this man, but he seems genuine in his desire to make amends so... Bryn told him to go do that.

He’s earning a good reputation and has some earned some disposition points in Benevolence, Honesty, Diplomacy, and... Passion. Ha, nice.

And now I have another castle to storm. I don’t like the sound of this Lord Raedric guy.

To be continued... later...

[joecial-distancing]

2019 in review in review:

A few years ago I started tracking yearly goals, books read, movies watched etc in a year, along with overview blurbs, in private posts. End of 2019/beginning of 2020 I was really frazzled/burned out about a lot of stuff and just never finished up making the thing. 8 months later, got the urge to read back what I’d got done, then figured I’d maybe go ahead and see about finishing. 

Media tracking below the break. thoughts/blurbs written in 2020 italicized, 2019 not.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~_____________________________~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Didn’t do so hot on explicit personal goals, but had a lot of stuff go ok around them this year.

School’s been fine/better than fine.

Job’s probably the biggest failing. Still with same job, haven’t made the firm moves to jump off, dragging my feet too much on exploring stuff w/ Columbia/NASA GISS.

Did not get better with covid, lol

Dating life still non-existent, but I’ve registered on apps, gotten more comfortable with selfies, improved general social life dramatically, been flirted with, updated my wardrobe, and generally started to get comfortable accepting that I’m a hot person.

Somehow got extremely better during covid.

Books

Grant (finished)

We stan a taurus legend

Guy was good at exactly one job, and was fortunate enough to have been in the right place/right time to get to do it.

Mort (discworld)

Definitely best discworld I’ve gotten to so far.

Don Quixote p. II

Really entertaining in a way that part 1 wasn’t; I was shocked how much the meta element landed for me.

Consider the Lobster (DFW collection)

had zero context on who DFW is/was when I read, and still don’t exactly tbh. Wanted to wait for a pause in The Discourse before diving into more of him, but dunno if I’m ever going to get that.

Crime and Punishment (revisited)

Weirdly didn’t get much more out of this than I did the first time I’d read it

Better Than Sex (HST Gonzo papers)

Xerox/widespread fax accessibility opening citizen access to mass media in a manner really reminiscent of what social media would go on to do at a much larger scale. Has a much more deliberate narrative arc than the other gonzo papers collections, also has that excellent HST richard nixon eulogy

The Brothers Karamazov

SPQR

Slouching Towards Bethlehem (Didion collection)

Pet Sematary

Not my favorite King, but not bad

Sourcery (discworld)

still funny/charming, but Mort really made clear/reminded me how much the hapless sadsack Rincewind mold of protagonist wears on me after a while.

The Devil's Teeth

My Year of Rest and Relaxation

Liked it a lot more once I realized it was doing a Fear and Loathing thing.

Homage to Catalonia

This should be the Orwell that gets taught in schools. Make it a followup to All Quiet on the Western Front or something, jeez.

Lyndon Johnson I

Having now finished all of them, this one’s probably the least-interesting but sets up a bunch of important context that the others still then feel the need to retread.

The Razor's Edge

Recommended to me as a “white guy discovers eastern mysticism” book, but also is more interesting in its treatment of that than I’d expected (helps it was written in the 40s). 

Cat's Cradle

There’s a part in this where Vonnegut’s making fun of people who try to bond with strangers over being Hoosiers, and my dumbass immediate thought was “ooh, Vonnegut’s a hoosier? Me too!”

Lyndon Johnson II

Robert Caro felt compelled to apologize for spending so much words lionizing Coke Stevens, segregationist opponent to Johnson’s senate run. His goal was pretty clearly to show lbj’s lack of campaign charisma by contrast, definitely definitely overcommitted in his own narrativising.

Libra

I want to go back to this after reading some more De Lillo.

Gravity's Rainbow

This book absolutely kicked my ass

Overstuffed and referential in a specific way that really keeps me hooked in instead of put off. When I learn about some piece of cultural context that I retroactively recognize as being referenced in this, I want to go back and reread the entire thing.

From Caligari to Hitler

Kind of fails both as film criticism and cultural analysis, but absolutely made me want to run for the hills when considering current relationship between mainstream movies and demands of pop culture.

I took a class on Weimar cinema in undergrad that I now realize was probably biting pretty heavily from this and never once referenced it.

Movies

Venom

Movie itself is not as fun as the Tom Hardy hype coverage. PG13 was the absolute worst space to aim for, PG- or R- versions of this could have been a blast.

Harryhauser Argonauts

Was tripping when I put this on, and it was all kinds of fun.

2001: a Space Oddyssey

First time seeing this, all-time classic for a reason!

A Good American (the NSA doc)

Dr. Strangelove

Mel Brooks History of the World p. I

Not my favorite Brooks, best joke was at the beginning.

In Bruges

Had been a while since I saw a proper dark comedy.

Spiderverse

Fukkin awesome!

Visually great, and extremely better than usual superhero stuff for being aimed at PG instead of PG-13.

You Only Live Twice

Highlander (Revisited)

I watched The Old Guard on netflix recently and it mostly just made me wish I was watching Highlander instead, because at least Highlander knows exactly how goofy it is

Moonraker

The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

Much like The Shining, I though this would have been 100% spoiled for me by cultural osmosis, but turns out it wasn’t, and even the scenes I had seen *totally landed* in-context still.

Kung Fu Hustle

Ichi the Killer

Really gross, really fun

Matrix Reloaded (watched thru highway scene) (Revisited)

The highway scene was not nearly as cool as I remembered it being.

John Wick 3*

Probably dumbest plot of all of them, best choreography. I like how every single fight had its own distinct flavor. “Knife museum fight” “horse fight” “halle berry dogs fight” 

Akira

A classic

Pet Sematary * (ugh, bad)

Why can’t john lithgow be in good movies anymore

The Revenant

MCU Spiderman

Fuck this was awful.

MCU Spiderman 2*

Really weird, complete Rorschach Test of a movie: it’d be totally valid to read into this that global warming is Fake News, for instance.

Lmao this was completely awful

Rites

Dredd (non-stallone)

oh hey Lena Headey’s in this

For All Mankind!

Watched in honor of moon landing anniversary

Lion King *

Watched it way too stoned, was like dark side of the moon + wizard of oz except instead it’s a lion king script reading + nature footage edited for lip syncing.

Once Upon a Time in Hollywood *

Many scenes of very long setups for really stupid shaggy dog jokes, which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. I do kinda want to rewatch now knowing more about manson, which I knew pretty much nothing about beforehand

Blowout

A good john lithgow movie

also I think I like travolta in things.

Lord of War

A Good cage movie

I like when Eamon Walker shows up in stuff.

Taxi Driver

A classic

Snowpiercer

Watched in a bar with only one speaker working, which is the correct way to watch. Weirder and funnier than I thought it was going to be, which still doesn’t make it good, but,

dbz big green dub

Exorcist III

Brad Dourif just tearing it apart

Deep Red (argento)

Suspiria (1977)

Watched the remake in 2020, which was ok, but nothing tops the Goblin score.

Elf Bowling

Thanks, Gnome

Parasite *

Interesting to me that this one seems poised to hang around people’s good esteem for a while

TV

FMA: B

Rick & Morty

Saw some episodes, generally pretty funny, some misanthropy that’s probably appealing to a certain type of teen al a something like House, but ultimately I don’t totally Get the intensity of discourse about it.

Leterkenny

Mob Psycho 100

One Punch Man

Deadwood

Watchmen

Only watched like half of it. Was playing around with a lot of hefty imagery/thematics, but didn’t really seem ready to rise above playing (tho also I feel like it’s weird on some level to *expect* them to rise above that in the first place)

Music

New Avantasia

HEALTH/ show

lol remember concerts

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard/ show

Just learned about King Gizz in 2019 and got completely obsessed with them. I don’t tend to expand my music selection very readily, and a lot of what I currently *do* know is old/inactive stuff, so it was/is incredibly exciting to have an active group with good momentum just immediately win me over like that.

Mistimed the edibles and ended up with a really good finale and a really long subway ride home.

New Yeasayer

Sad they split up

Steve Wilson Tull remixes

Aqualung’s a good album and the sound mixing’s kinda bad, so I liked this project.

Stonefield

Opened for Gizzard. Really good as studying music

Video Games

Civ VI: Gathering Storm

Hades

Turns out Supergiant’s design proclivities all work *extremely well* on a roguelike

Baba is You

Untitled Goose Game

Cute, if maybe a bit overhyped

finally fucking finished Pillars of Eternity

Had fun with it, but too long, and really dour for how long it is.

Pillars II

Kinda drifted off it eventually, but I do genuinely like that the flavor of the fantasy is colonial era rather than medieval.

There’s a Balancing Bastard Factions element where it’s like the writers are just being smartasses after a while. Having to go extremely out of their way to make siding with colonizers seem like a competitive option.

Pokemon shield

Cuphead

pisses me off, which was a nice outlet when I was stranded by flight cancellations during thanksgiving

Celeste

Also very difficult, but really easy to stay patient with, which is nice.

Disco Elysium

None of the discourse made me want to play this, but people talking about the mechanical stuff it did got me extremely interested. Mostly Delivered IMO.

Breath of the Wild

You can approach the nodes of the main quest in the order you choose, and the second one I chose made ninjas start fucking spawning everywhere when I’m just trying to explore, and there’s no way to make it stop. May go back to it one day.

Podcasts

Relentless Picnic Patreon feed

The treats really helped me start distinguishing individual personalities, compared to the regular eps.

Picnic Discord!

<3

FatT Counterweight

Fun, but also I think Mechs are not my shit.

FatT Spring in Hieron/ end of that particular world

8 months since I’ve last tuned into FatT. ah well.

Law School

He’s in everythiiiing!

You Must Remember This: Manson family

*There’s* the context

Misc.

Kindle train guy

Times Square sleeping guy + kids taking selfies w/ him

toddler singing along after Psycho killer (a, ya, ya ya, ya)

drunk and dragged to a drag show

Central park football family

Soft Steel Drum Subway Busker

Weird old lady going to grand central for oysters

2018 in review (cards):

MySelf (CC)

Self: Tower

Blocked: 10 Cups

Ethereal/subconscious: 8 Swords

Material: 3 Swords

Past: Justice

Future: Page Wands

Attitude: Sun

External: King Swords

Hopes/Fears: 5 Coins

Trajectory: High Priestess

Also Self:

Hierophant

7 Cups

7 Coins

Blind Spot:

(self & others): 5 cups    ||    (others not self): High Priestess

(self not others): Moon   ||    (nobody): 3 Cups

[nipuni]

Hi! I was wondering what your favorite non-dragon age games are, if you play any others? I miss that feeling of a game being new, and not knowing what’s next, and I need something else to hold me until DA4 :)

Hello! I’m also on the lookout for new obsessions to keep me afloat until the next game comes out! I’ve found some games that I really enjoyed and I think are great, but none of them seem to catch my interest artistically sadly if that makes sense , but I still hope 😅 

Some games I’ve played recently that were recommended to me by friends are Witcher 3 (I was so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this game, the previous ones left such a bad impression on me that I didn’t have much hope but here we are! I do play everything in super easy mode just for the stories but I  still loved it, it is such a solid game, I still have some dlcs to play) Pillars of eternity II (I haven’t finished this one yet, but I enjoyed the first one and this second one has been great so far) Divinity Original Sin II (It’s been a while since I’ve played this one but I loved it!! the story and world building reminds me a lot of DA) AC: Odyssey (really fun!! very beautiful and interesting, haven’t finished this one yet either, it is such a huge game!!) My time at Portia (very cute very addictive) DMC5 (to be completely honest I played this one for V, I’m not sure I would recommend it, It’s very cool and stylish and exactly the same as every other DMC haha) and hmm Moster Hunter World I play from time to time, some Overwatch, every six months I open the Sims to download a million mods and play for a couple of days, hmmm those are all that come to mind right now! I don’t have much time to play games so I’m no expert and don’t have many recs to share ;; but if anyone reading this has any please share!!

[zitis-sims-adventures]

Week 1 Part II: One Woman’s Meat

It was late and they had long finished watching the movie. School would start in a few hours and Arishat knew she’d regret not getting enough sleep. Yet she couldn’t bring herself to call it a night - not when Lydia was sitting right next to her, close enough that her arms occasionally brushed hers.

“So, what do you think? I totally have to grow some snapdragons and dragonfruits. But there’s so much space down there - I could plant an entire forest!” She was talking about the underground garden. It had always been Lydia’s favourite place and Arishat recalled countless happy childhood memories of the two of them playing in the cave underneath the mansion, between colorful wild plants that miraculously needed as little sunlight as the owners of that mansion. In his youth, Lydia’s dad had grown plants there, but it had not been used for many years now. It was Lydia’s passion for gardening that had revived its original function. It was that passion, the glimmer in her eyes when she talked about the things she cared about, that had made Arishat first fall in love with her.

“You can never go wrong with garlic and plasmafruit here,” Arishat said with a smirk. As a kid, she had made a game out of playing all kinds of garlic-related pranks - much to the annoyance of the vampires around her. Then one day, Valentine had repayed her by secretly putting plasmafruit in her soup. She’d learned her lesson from that.

Lydia laughed. “Always so practical. I guess you won’t be impressed by some useless daisies.”

“Nah, I think anything you’ll grow will be impressive.” Arishat blushed as she said that and she was certain that Lydia’s cheeks darkened as well.

“Well,” Lydia said quietly and moved closer, “I’ll try not to disappoint you then.”

“You’d never disappoint me”, Arishat replied without hesitation. She put a hand on Lydia’s back and for a short moment they were so close that their faces almost touched. For a moment she even thought they would, but a sudden surge of insecurity made her move away again. “It’s late. We should call it a night.”

Lydia nodded, but there was a flash of disappointment across her face. “Of course.” With a little smile she stood up and walked towards the door.

“Wait.” Arishat caught her arm and Lydia halted in front of the fireplace. “I want to ask you something.”

Lydia gave her a surprised look. “Yes?”

“Well, you know... I was just thinking, we’ve been spending so much time together lately and...” While she spoke, she slowly moved closer towards Lydia and Lydia closer to her, as if a magnetic force was pulling them. “Maybe... maybe we should go out sometime?”

Lydia’s eyes went wide and round and her cheeks flushed again. “You mean... like a date?”

All of a sudden, Arishat felt very hot. She averted her eyes and stammered “Something like that... but only if you want to. Otherwise we could just do friend stuff-”

“Of course I want to,” Lydia exclaimed.

Now it was Arishat’s turn to pause for a moment, because in her head she had already played through all the possible ways of being rejected. Lydia actually wanting to go on a date with her was not what she was prepared for. She looked up and there was nothing in Lydia’s face that said “just kidding”. Instead, there was a smile on her lips and that glimmer in her eyes that Arishat loved so much. She didn’t know what to say, so she did what seemed most logical to her in this situation: She stepped forward, closed her eyes and - more clumsily than she had pictured in her head - kissed Lydia.

Most guests had already left the lounge bar, to hide from the moon like others hid from the sun. But for Lady Edeltraut von Wolfenberg the night had only just begun. It happened to be a date night. She tilted her head and smiled at her lover. “You’re quiet tonight, Aramis. Is something amiss?”

Aramis sipped on his drink - a Plasma Jane, even though he wasn’t a vampire - and shook his head.

Then he frowned, looked behind him and sighed. “I don’t know. I feel like someone’s watching me. It’s strange.”

“Do not worry, my love”, Edeltraut said with a fond smile. “If some fiend were to approach you, I would not hesitate to rip his head off and feed you his blood.”

“I don’t doubt that, darling, but I’d much rather have a quiet night just with you.”

Oh, how sweet and devoted Aramis was! Even the sweet taste of blood shed by his enemies didn’t tempt him away from Edeltraut. No one had ever shown her that kind of affection. Certainly not her husband, not even in his youth, when he had possessed enough charm to seduce her into the very marriage she regretted now. No, Aramis was not like Fravitta, he was unlike any man she’d ever known. He, and he alone was her soulmate, and nobody would come between them!

Neither Aramis, nor Edeltraut knew was that not far from them a very special kind of fiend was sitting on a bench, reading a book and plotting to come between them. Walburga had followed her mother in her bat shape, tiny and undetected. She hated seeing Edeltraut with Aramis, but she knew that it was important to keep her enemies closer than her friends and that in order to defeat someone, she first had to know him. So she resisted the temptations of the library back home, of Xuvia’s bed, of the million mortals in this city, filled with deliciously hot blood. Instead, Walburga hid, hid behind plants, behind pillars, or right in the couple’s shadow, overhearing their sickening sweet words and wondering if there was a way of murdering Aramis without her mother noticing.

“We should do this more often,” Aramis said after a couple of hours and drinks. He seemed much more relaxed and happy now. Apparently, Edeltraut’s declaration of protection had dispelled his worries about being stalked, and of course his soulmate’s presence had lightened up his mood.

“We should, my love, and we could,” Edeltraut said, not paying attention the the person who had just taken place on the seat behind her. “If I were to give you my hand in marriage and my plasma to drink, we could live together for the rest of our eternal unlives and to everything that pleases us.”

Aramis seemed a bit uncomfortable with these words. Edeltraut supposed that this was only natural: He had not been born into a family of vampires, he had been raised to believe his life had to end one day, he had never tasted the sweet flavor of plasma. “But darling,” Aramis said, “you are already married.”

“I am, but I do not have to be. When I said my vows, I was young, I was ignorant, I did not know what the words meant, nor did I know true love. Now I do.”

Aramis gave her a weak smile and took her hand. “I know. And I want to be with you just as much.” He kissed her knuckles and stood up. “But please, let’s continue this another time. I’m tired and should go.”

They shared a last, passionate kiss, before Aramis left. Edeltraut stayed, a fond smile on her face.

“So you want to destroy your family just like this? How can you do this to me, mother?!”

Edeltraut sighed. She should have known that Walburga had followed her when Aramis had mentioned his suspicion. “Dear girl, I don’t remember teaching you to put your nose into things that are none of your concern.”

“How is it not my concern when your selfishness threatens my inheritance?”

“Careful, Walburga,” Edeltraud hissed, growing impatient with the girl. “If I really wanted to, I would have ways to make certain you will never inherit my place, let alone carry the family name. But I don’t want to, because you are my daughter, and because you are no threat to my plans.” She smiled, and as Walburga walked away, she couldn’t help but call after her: “Remember your place, sweet girl, and there will be no reason for us to be an unhappy family.”

“So, you and my little sister?” Valentine asked with a smirk. He’d been waiting for this to happen for a long time.

“Yeah,” Arishat replied, obviously not too happy talking about it with him.

He decided to continue anyway. What was the point of being a big brother, when he couldn’t even play the role of an overprotective idiot? “Well, I’m happy for the two of you. But just so you know”- he raised his arms in a dramatic gesture -“if you hurt her, I’ll have to make sure you suffer a slow, agonizing death.”

“Uh-huh. Sure.” Arishat didn’t seem impressed at all. “Romantic advice from someone who’s with a different woman each time he gets home.”

“Or man,” Valentine added with a grin. She wasn’t wrong though, he’d broken his share of hearts in his lifetime. Not deliberately, of course, it’s just what happens when you’re a painfully handsome guy who wants to enjoy life.

And that had gotten a lot easier since he’d met Elliot. That little group of his was certainly entertaining.

Just the evening before he’d made the acquaintance of another member, the lovely Harpina von Steinsaltz.

And he was sure it hadn’t been the last time they met.

Walburga had never been one to admit defeat easily. For hours she had glared at her mother enjoying herself, having another couple of drinks and swimming in the pool. But now, as Edeltraut von Wolfenberg was about to leave the lounge bar, she approached her again. “You’re making a mistake, mother!”

“And what mistake would that be?” Her mother was still smiling. And probably rightfully so, because Walburga still hadn’t figured out how to talk sense into her mother. Why didn’t she understand that her poor daughter didn’t deserve the fate of being cast down, robbed of her birthright?

So she was admittedly clutching at straws when she said, “He’s just a mortal, and not a young one - he’ll die and leave you alone.”

“Don’t be silly, Walburga,” Edeltraut sighed. “I shall turn him into a vampire as soon as we exchange rings.”

“But then he will be even more frail for a while,” Walburga reminded her. “What if he forgets that he can’t go into sunlight anymore?”

“Are you THREATENING me, Walburga?” For the first time, something other than smugness showed on Edeltraut’s face. Walburga was pleased about that, even though the accusation appalled her.

“Of course I’m not threatening YOU! If anything, I’m just threatening your boyfriend!”

“You wouldn’t dare to-”

“I’d do anything to prevent your selfish, evil deeds from destroying my life!”, Walburga growled and walked away from her mother for the second time today.

This time, she seemed to have made an impression, though, because Edeltraut remained silent.

[liderfin]

Gaming: About Me

Tagged by @thevikingwoman yay, sounds fun :) thank you :)

favorite game from the last 5 years?  The Witcher 3 (including both DLCs), Shadowrun Dragonfall, Prey, Dishonored 2 and maybe Divinity: Original Sin II, in that order. Was I supposed to mention only one? :P 

most nostalgic game?  Planescape: Torment and Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, both are still very special to me... my two favourite games of all time

game that deserves a sequel?  Dragon Age: Inquisition because we all want to see Solas story continued, right? And Alpha Protocol!!!!! PLEASE I want Alpha Protocol 2, such an underrated spy RPG...that game was brilliant in so many ways!!!

game that deserves a remaster?  Planescape Torment - I’d love to be able to relive it. I was so obsessed with it back then as a kid. I would play it for a whole night without sleeping and then go to school next  morning :) The setting, the writing, some actual philosophical questions, the amazing characters unlike anyone you meet in other games, the wonderful music, the choices and the mystery. Finally, the protagonist that is NOT there to save the world but to actually save himself.

favorite game series?  Deus Ex

favorite genre?  it’s RPG. I started by playing some space combat but mainly FPS games - like old DOOM, Heretics or Duke Nukem when I was a kid hehe before I could understand enough English to play a story driven game :) and then I played Betrayal at Krondor - my first RPG and everything changed. I still treasure that game, the world and the story were so captivating!  Actually I kept naming my pets after the characters from that game - that’s how much I loved it :)

least favorite genre?  I cannot play horror games :D I just can’t.  

favorite song from a game? The Witcher 3 - Lullaby of Woe 

Dishonored: Honor for all 

and most recent favourite : Prey -  Semi Sacred Geometry  it got stuck in my head :P

oh and Fallout New Vegas Soundtrack - Jingle Jangle Jingle   - but that’s an olllddd song :)

favorite character from a game?  Gann of Dreams from Mask of the Betrayer, The Outsider from Dishonored,  Olgierd von Everec from The Witcher 3: Hearts of Stone, Fall-from-Grace from Planescape: Torment, Beckett from Vampire the Masqerade: Bloodlines, right...

favorite ship from a game?  Well, Solavellan that is. I also loved the relationship between the main character and Fane - the undead Eternal in Divinity: Original Sin II  :)

favorite voice actor from a game? Jennifer Hale as in Mass Effect / female Shepard, Michael Gough for a role of Beckett in Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines.

favorite cutscene?  Maybe Geralt and Ciri father-daughter moments? like Snowball fight:

or Piggyback Ride

favorite boss?  I remember that boss at the end of Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura, how you could talk him out of it all or better yet - he could convince you to his cause and there was no fight at all (BTW. this game is a true masterpiece). Generally I'm not such a fan of boss fights, they can be annoying, like in Thief 4 grrr...

first console?  I don’t have one. In fact I never did.

current console or consoles? none

console you want?  I have no clue :P

place from a game that you’d like to visit? Rapture from Bioshock, but maybe before it went wild :) .

place from a game that you’d like to live in?  I love the design of towns in Dishonored games, so I could definitely live there, maybe Karnaca - minus the flies and the witches of course :) 

ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun? that’s hard, imagine Solas waking from Uthenera into a futuristic world of Mass Effect or better Deus Ex, and still trying to find his people, magic vs technology fun, that’s something for me :) 

book that would make a good game?  hmm Gateway by Frederik Pohl would make a great sci-fi exploration-mystery game, or Nova by Samuel R. Delany, that would be a crazy-good space-opera RPG :)  Oh and Chronicles of Amber by Zelazny - that one PLEASE! Actually it seems there already is a game from ‘85, but come on, that’s old. I’d do a lot to make it happen.

show/movie that would make a good game? Darkcity (movie) or Firefly (show).

games you want to play?  I need to finish Torment: Tides of Numenera first (that one is so good). Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice, Seven: The Days Long Gone, Pillars of Eternity II: DeadFire (I was not that amazed by the first PoE even though I supported it on Kickstarter, is DeadFire better or worse than the first, anyone?), oh and Horizon Dawn Zero but I’d need a console,which I don;t have right now.

have you gotten 100% completion in a game?  Never. I mostly finish a given game once only, so usually it’s impossible to get 100% in one PT, but I guess I’m not even trying that hard. Then again I can be a silly completionist in a game like Inquisition - I would always finish ALL of the small boring quest first before I could move on :P It’s not always that bad - there are games like The Witcher 3 where a smallest silly quest can be a real gem and a pleasure in itself :)

have you cried over a game? I think so? at the end of Planescape: Torment for sure :) There are also lot’s of super sad quests in The Witcher 3, maybe I didn’t cry, but I was moved.

I took me so long again to do it, but the last few days were hard, a lot has happened in my life :( but anyways, that was fun!!!!

[touching-eternity]

PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER – A PROPHETIC REPORT (Part 5)

This is part 5 of a series.

Read Part 1 - Years of Shaking: 2008-2028. http://touching-eternity.tumblr.com/post/164436543788/putting-the-pieces-together-a-prophetic-report

Read Part 2 - The Woman Clothed with the Sun. http://touching-eternity.tumblr.com/post/165575961888/putting-the-pieces-together-a-prophetic-report

Read Part 3 - A War in Israel. http://touching-eternity.tumblr.com/post/168502831493/putting-the-pieces-together-a-prophetic-report

Read Part 4 - Flash-Forward: Apocalypse Soon. http://touching-eternity.tumblr.com/post/174734884148/putting-the-pieces-together-a-prophetic-report

FLASH-FORWARD II: A GLIMPSE INTO OUR COSMIC FUTURE

In his book, Surprised by Joy, C. S. Lewis tells of an extraordinary childhood experience. He writes:

“As I stood beside a flowering currant bush on a summer day there suddenly arose in me without warning, and as if from a depth not of years but of centuries, the memory of that earlier morning at the Old House when my brother had brought his toy garden into the nursery. It is difficult to find words strong enough for the sensation which came over me; Milton’s ‘enormous bliss’ of Eden (giving the full, ancient meaning to ‘enormous’) comes somewhere near it. It was a sensation, of course, of desire; but desire for what? not, certainly, for a biscuit-tin filled with moss, nor even (though that came into it) for my own past. And before I knew what I desired, the desire itself was gone, the whole glimpse withdrawn, the world turned commonplace again, or only stirred by a longing for the longing that had just ceased. It had taken only a moment of time; and in a certain sense everything else that had ever happened to me was insignificant in comparison.”

Why does it seem like we all have this longing for something indefinable that often feels like pleasure, and sometimes more like pain, or even grief? It is a fleeting feeling that rises to the surface when we see cute dogs, or babies, or young lovers, or a field of flowers — or when we are in love, or even heart-broken.

The truth is that we are not wired for just a physical existence, but there is something more out there, and that something more is responsible for these longings hidden deep within our hearts.

The book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible says that God has put eternity in our hearts. Love, joy, bliss, and paradise dwell in eternity, and eternity exists in God. We are meant to live there, too — in eternity, in God. But we strayed. So instead we, the human race, have had 6,000 years of mostly suffering and pain living on a lonely planet called Earth.

But, no more. Soon, when the last bullet is fired and the last earthquake is stilled, then, at last, the path back — to paradise, to eternity, to God — will get unveiled, and lost humanity will find it.

Well, in fact, humanity need not wait for Armageddon. The path back has already been cleared; we can, here and now, take the first step of the return journey. Paradise, eternity, God — they come in a package called the Kingdom of God, in a box we know as the Gospel, wrapped in the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus the Christ. All that was what Jesus meant when He said, “I am the Way.”

So the first step in our return journey to that which satisfies our deepest longings is to allow the Kingdom of God into our hearts — literally, to get the Kingdom inside us, to make it a part of our system. The reality is the Kingdom of God is first experienced in its invisible, spiritual form before it gets manifested in the physical realm. To quote the apostle Paul, “The things that are seen are temporal, the things that are unseen are eternal.” And, the book The Little Prince, “what is essential is invisible to the eye”.

The second step back is a period known as the Millennium Reign of Christ on Earth. This is a time when the Kingdom of God begins to be seen in the natural or physical realm.

And then, when the Millennium is over, we graduate into eternity, into a Kingdom with no end, where God wipes away our every tear and there is no more death, pain, and suffering.

Through dreams and visions, God has given Australian prophet Neville Johnson a peek into the Millennium, which he shared in a talk held in Sheffield, England on November 3, 2012. The rest of this article is a transcription of that talk; the ideas have been a bit reorganized, but the entirety is by and large a verbatim quote without quotation marks. And, to complete the picture, bits and pieces from his other online stuff have been plugged in as well.

Between a Dying Age and a Brand New World

In chapter 10 of the Bible’s book of Revelation, there is a big angel who has one foot on the sea and one foot on the land. He declares, “Time is no more!” In a very real sense, we are standing on the edge of time. The whole earth is in labor pains, giving birth to a new age. Every time there is a contraction, a volcano erupts somewhere, or an earthquake goes off elsewhere. We are living between a dying age and a brand new world, between sunset and sunrise. We are about to break out of a six-thousand-year battle into a dazzling new age.

The Biblical prophet Isaiah writes that at a time of great darkness on the earth, God’s people will begin to stand up at last. He says, “Arise, shine, for your light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you.” We are in that time now.

Our generation is the most privileged people that have ever been born on the face of the earth. We were sent to this planet for such a time as this to finish the fight. And it will be a fight right to the end. But it is a cause worth fighting for. We have been given the privilege to stand with God, rescue this planet from His enemy the devil, and usher in a new world.

The Wrath of God

The wrath of God is something that many have a hard time wrapping their minds around. A vengeful, angry God simply does not tally with the good, loving God most people think Him to be.

In the Bible, the Greek word translated as “wrath” is also translated as “passion”. So actually God’s passion, His zeal, against injustice and wrongdoing is completely compatible with His loving nature. He avenges the poor and the oppressed and executes judgment on their oppressors.

God’s holiness demands His wrath against evil. His goodness includes His passionate anger against wickedness. Why? Because wickedness and evil not only destroy God’s creation, but also relegate humans to an existence wretchedly below the potential for authority and glory that God has originally seeded into them. God has entrusted the administration of the earth to men, but they lost it to Lucifer by default. And things on the planet have since been on a path to progressive death, decay, and disintegration.

God is reaching a point where He has to put His foot down already. But before the outpouring of His wrath, His judgments will first be falling on the earth. His judgments are meant to help people learn righteousness; perhaps some could still be saved from His wrath. In some of the visions and dreams Neville had, he saw places where great earthquakes were erupting, along with volcanoes. He saw viruses and diseases being unleashed on populations. He says that this is coming in our generation. The world is heading towards this now because the cup of sins on the planet is almost full and God is coming to the part when He says, “Enough!”

But God is merciful and gracious. The books of Ezekiel and Revelation tell us that God will first mark people who sigh at evil and who have a heart towards goodness, towards Him, because He Himself is goodness. He will mark them because He wants to spare them. He will protect those who love Him with all their heart, those who are obedient and surrendered to His holy will, those who are living in “the secret place of the Most High” (described in Psalms 91). In his dreams and visions of incredible earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, Neville saw whole families, Christian families, who are supernaturally transported to another location.

It is later than we think. Everything is now in a state of acceleration. We must not take things lightly, but we must heed the warnings. Noah had only seven days to get into the ark. Lot did not even have time to look back at Sodom and Gomorrah. But his wife turned back. She was lagging behind a long way. Her heart was still in there. That was where her home was. That was where everything was. She got caught in the fallout of the descending volcanic ash and was turned into a pillar of salt. These Biblical warnings are pictures of our time, the end-time — when the old world dies and the new age is born.

The Bible says that God’s people are not appointed to wrath. It is true that they will experience much tribulation, they will see terrible things happen, and they will be around during the rise of the Antichrist. But they will not be there when the wrath of God is poured down on the earth. They will be caught up out of earth to heaven for the spiritual marriage of Christ to His Bride.

When at last the wrath of God is poured out, it says in Revelation that malignant sores will afflict those who received the mark of the Antichrist. Fifty-kilogram hailstones will rain down on the earth. Volcanoes will erupt like we have never seen volcanoes erupt before. There is going to be an earthquake that will hit the entire world and drop all the major cities of the world; these cities (including Manila, says Neville) are not going to exist anymore.

The Bible talks about every island disappearing. Neville has had many dreams and some visions about this. He saw the coast of California, particularly Hollywood, totally disappear under the sea. In some areas, sea came, forty or fifty or a hundred miles inland. Tsunamis so big you would not believe — two, three hundred feet high — were coming in over major cities. He says that there will be vast tracts of land which will just disappear under the waters. But vast new tracts of land will also come up out of the sea. Mountain ranges will rise up out of the ocean, some of them higher than Everest.

The planet is going to end up as one incredible mess. But why would God mess up the planet with all this devastation? It is because everything decadent in this world cannot come over into the Millennium Reign of Christ. Some of the major cities in the world today are totally decadent. They have a history of incredible evil. And God says that they will not come over into His new world. God knows what He is doing and He has a plan — something we need to trust and appreciate.

God is going to get it over all in one hit over a few weeks probably, says Neville. And when it is over, the earth will come into rest. God is going to take the tension out of this earth. And so there will be no more earthquakes, no more volcanoes erupting, none of this thing in the Millennium Reign of Christ.

Besides the unbelievable pestilences and natural calamities, God’s wrath will involve wars that will ravage the earth. Nations will rise against nations. The book of Revelation says God is going to draw the nations (those that have, through the ages, unrelentingly killed and persecuted Jews and Christians) down into Armageddon against Israel. He will destroy those nations and finish everything.

When this is over, Jesus will come as King of kings and Lord of lords. He will come back with many of His saints, riding on horses. It is written in the book of Jude in the Bible that the prophet Enoch saw this way back in the early days. Imagine, the sky opens up after all the devastation, and there are horses coming down to earth. There will still be people alive in the earth. After all the wars and devastation, the population of the earth will be reduced dramatically, but there are some who will remain alive.

The Aftermath

So Jesus and His heavenly armies descend to defeat the enemies of the Kingdom in the war of Armageddon. In Revelation chapter 19, the Antichrist and the False Prophet were thrown alive into the Lake of Fire. In chapter 20, it says that God laid hands on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the devil, and bound him for a thousand years, cast him into a bottomless pit, shut him up, and put a seal upon it, so he could not deceive the nations anymore. It is hard to believe what the world will be like with no demons and no demonic temptation. It is hard to believe just what kind of a world that would be. But that is God’s plan.

Those nations and people that survived the outpouring of the wrath of God will give an account to Him. God will set up His throne in the earth and call the nations before Him. The nations will be divided into the goat nations and the sheep nations. (Right now, the goat nations and the sheep nations are already being lined up.) The goat nations will be those that were arrayed against Israel, and the sheep nations will be the nations who supported Israel. In The Bible, in Matthew chapter 25, Jesus says that those who have done good deeds “to the least of My brethren” are sheep nations. Remember that Jesus was Jewish. “My brethren” — that was the dividing line all the way through.

Now there will be two classes of people in the Millennium. There will be the nations who survived, still unsaved but survived. And there will be people with resurrection bodies — those saints who came from heaven riding on horses with Jesus. These will be the two classes of people. The people with resurrection bodies will have the opportunity to rule and rebuild this whole world. The nations who survived will be set to work building a new world.

When a person dies now, if he is a Christian, his spirit leaves his body and goes to heaven. But it is just his spirit, a spirit body, that goes to heaven. In heaven, they do not have resurrection bodies yet. At the return of Jesus, at the resurrection and the rapture, the spirit body is going to be clothed with a resurrection body. That is the fulness of the new creation. It is a completely new species in the universe. Nothing like it has been seen before. This is a whole new creation, a super race of people.

What will it be like in the new Millennium world for the redeemed? Well, the capital of the world will be Jerusalem, for starters. But, in this Kingdom of God, there is neither Jew nor Gentile anymore. It is just one incredible new creation, a species never been seen in all of the universe. People with resurrection bodies will be roughly at the age of thirty years old and they will stay at that age. That is because thirty is the age of maturity in God. Neville joked that when he met his mother in heaven in one of his visions, she looked drop-dead gorgeous. He explained that it was hard to recognize her because she looked so young.

People with resurrection bodies in the Millennium will never get sick again. There will be no pain; they can not be injured. They can travel at the speed of thought anywhere on the planet. They have access to heaven whenever they want. They can go back and forth between earth and heaven.

Heaven will not be emptied out though. God is not going to empty the whole of heaven and put everyone on earth. If we want to be among the saints brought back to earth to rule with Christ in the Millennium, we have to qualify. The Bible says, “He that overcomes will sit with Me on My throne.” But this generation has the opportunity more than any other generation to qualify — to overcome such great tribulations that no previous generation has had to go through.

Rebuilding the World

And so the big clean-up begins. A new world has to be built. We Christians actually have this strange concept — we are coming back and there is a brand new world and we live happily ever after during the Millennium. But the earth is a mess. It has been torn apart by war and devastation from every angle. The map has just changed. The destruction is unbelievable. And there has to be obviously a big clean-up.

The Bible’s book of Ezekiel, chapter 39, details the clean-up that will need to be done. It will take seven years to get rid of the military hardware, the weapons. (At the moment, many weapons are stockpiled on the earth.) Then there are so many dead bodies on the planet, it is a problem. So many of these bodies are contaminated with radioactive problems, you can not touch them for seven months. People will be employed to pass through the land; when they see a man’s bone, they will set up a marker on it. It is not to be touched for another seven months. Then the buriers will come with the right equipment to bury it; they will have to be very careful. And so they will cleanse the land. It will not be a pretty picture, but the Bible is very clear about it.

The Millennium is not a rescue for worn-out Christians. God is not going to wave His hand and it is all done. We are going to have to work to rebuild a new world. And that is the Kingdom — the earth with all evil removed. It will take a while to reconstruct a new world, but it will be wonderful. The maps will have to be redrawn on this entire planet. Paradise will be restored. It will be a totally different world.

Rebuilding in the Millennium will be done by supernatural acts and human endeavor. Many people, Christians, have been prepared in this life for the Millennium. We are going to need architects, and there are going to be landscapers. Some of the cities that will be built are unbelievably hard to describe. The architecture that Neville saw was unbelievable. The buildings blended so perfectly and everything just blended with creation. It was really difficult to describe. It was a perfect world.

There will be a hierarchy of sorts; there will be rulers over nations and there will be positions of authority. Jesus said He would give one person authority over five cities, some over one city, some over ten cities in the earth. These are places and positions that Christians who have overcome will have in the Millennium. Neville said he was intrigued that there was a minister of music that was in charge of music — and all kinds of things, just like there is in the planet today. In the Millennium, earth will be governed in righteousness, truth, and justice.

Now earth has a problem because there are unsaved people. The nations that survived, the sheep nations are in there. But they are not Christians yet, they are still in their old fallen nature. And these people are still going to have kids. Children are going to be born, and the lifespan will go for a hundred years, so the population will increase. But God has said He will rule with a rod of iron. He is not going to let sin arise at all.

Life, Music, Art, and Science in the Millennium

In the Millennium God will restore the animal creation. The Biblical prophet Isaiah said, “The wolf will dwell with the lamb, and the leopard will lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little boy will lead them. Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.”

God will also restore the communication between the animal kingdom and the humans like in the beginning. In the garden of Eden, when the serpent spoke to Eve, she was not freaked out. That was just normal. She did not say, “Uhhh, Adam, the serpent spoke to me!” Eve was used to having conversations with the creation.

After the fall, slowly over a long time, discord between man and the rest of creation grew. But Noah had maintained enough level of harmony with God and creation that he had no problems getting the animals in the ark and organizing that whole thing. The creatures worshiped Noah, too.

Every morning, Neville and his wife sit on their verandah to spend some time praying and worshiping God. Without fail, everyday, the birds come in and sit on the verandah near them until they have finished. This was the condition in the garden of Eden before the fall. In the Millennium the humans and the animal kingdom will become friends again. And so it goes on.

Human relationships will also be taken to a new amazing level. Neville saw a married couple who were saintly Christians that lived before the Millennium came. They were brought back to earth to live in the Millennium world. Sometimes, when they were tasked to perform a certain ministry, they merged and became one person in the most beautiful way. Other times they worked separately. Neville says it was one of the most beautiful things he had seen in his dreams and visions of the Millennium.

In the Millennium the mental capacity of people will grow many times than we have now. It is said that even geniuses only use ten percent of the brain, and most of us are not geniuses. Everything will be restored. Not everything will be spiritual — there will be people who have resurrection bodies, but there will also be people who do not have resurrection bodies, those who survived the wrath of God.

In one of Neville’s spiritual experiences, he was in the Millennium and he was brought to this university in Jerusalem where the Lord taught (see Micah 4:1). He looked in some of the curriculum, and it is not like we think — one of the subjects was astrophysics. Seriously, he thought, wow, why would we need astrophysics? But there really were books in that library on astrophysics and much other stuff. But the angel who was with him would not let him see them. He said that he tried every trick in the book, and the angel just would not let him see them. (In another experience though, he was able to look inside the books in an incredible library in heaven. There was all kinds of books in this library and the things in them leaped out of the page like a hologram and told their story.)

Besides the university in Jerusalem, Neville saw that there were amphitheaters for musical concerts in many places all over the earth. They were incredible, huge, beautiful amphitheaters. The music and the arts in the Millennium were simply unbelievable. But what got him was the architecture. The cities looked surreal; they were absolutely beautiful.

Neville saw technology that no one would believe — technology went far beyond what we understand today. Energy was taken off the sun. There were what looked like cars, but they were a lot more streamlined than our cars today. There was something embedded in the roads that was taking energy from the sun and which powered the vehicles that were riding above it. The vehicles were not touching the ground. Neville saw all that and he exclaimed, “Wow, that is neat!”

The Bible says that, in the Millennium, the nations will have to go up at least once a year to Jerusalem. Not all have resurrection bodies, so how are these people going to get to Jerusalem? The logistics of the feasts of the Lord that we will celebrate in the city of Jerusalem just boggles the mind. But Neville saw aircraft that were up to a mile long, totally silent, whipping through the atmosphere, taking people to Jerusalem. The aircraft did not need a runway; it just lifted off the ground and then lowered itself when it was time to land.

We Christians tend to think that everything is spiritual in the Millennium. We have this funny idea that we will all sit around on earth playing harps. Neville thinks that that is actually boring. He says we will build a brand new world. It will take a while to reconstruct a new world, but it will be truly wonderful when it is done.

Climate Change

When Adam fell and Lucifer took over earth, there was a shift in the earth’s axis, a 23.5-degree tilt. Scientists believe that this greatly affected the weather patterns. Also, in the garden of Eden, it never rained, not even once. A mist came up and watered the garden.

But when the flood came in Noah’s time, the Bible says that the heavens broke and the water came both ways — it came from above and it came from beneath. That was the only way you could flood the whole earth. Something in the heavens broke. A covering of water that served as a filter over the earth in the days before the flood eventually broke. And it is interesting that, when it broke, the life span of man dropped dramatically.

In the Millennium the curse will be removed from the earth and the climate will change wonderfully. The tilt of the planet will be brought back into the right position. There will be a perfect climate. There will be no hurricanes and no destructive winds. The plants will grow faster and their fruit will develop more quickly. Neville saw something in the Millennium that he did not understand though — it seemed like people did not need the same amount of food as we do now.

Millennium’s End

Neville says that, in his dreams and visions, he saw only a tiny glimpse of about the first five hundred years of the Millennium, somewhere around that point. And already, the earth was absolutely the most beautiful place you could ever imagine. It was paradise. After all, God has said He will restore what Adam and Eve had and more.

Now, after a thousand years, there is a whole generation of people born in there, thousands and thousands of people. Satan has been bound, so these are people who have had no demonic temptation. They have lived in a perfect environment, but ruled with a rod of iron. They have not gone through any hard situation. Now Satan is released. For crying out loud, not again. What is this about?

Satan is let loose, indeed, but only for a brief time. That means he has no hope of lasting long. The only purpose for that is so those people in the Millennium can be tempted and choose. They will have to choose who they will serve, just like you and I had. Actually, it tells us in the Bible that Satan does raise an army, a human army, to come against the city of Jerusalem again. We would think that he had learned his lesson. But, Neville says, that is the nature of deception — Satan always thinks he could win.

So what next? A thousand years is up. What happens next? Neville says that, at the end of the Millennium, the earth will again undergo a metamorphosis. It will become part spiritual and part physical. The Bible tells us, “And I saw the new heaven and the new earth; for the first earth and the first heaven were now passed away, and there was no more sea.” It is a different world, there was no more sea.

And then, Revelation chapter 21 describes the New Jerusalem descending out of heaven onto this earth. It says, “And I John saw the holy city, the New Jerusalem, coming down out of God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” This is really hard to kind of comprehend.

We have this city, the New Jerusalem, coming down from heaven, from on high. The New Jerusalem is a structure, a city, and a people. The city reflects all the attributes of the Bride of Christ (that remnant company of Christians who heeded the call to spiritual closeness with Him). Now we have this multi-storied city, fifteen hundred miles long this way, fifteen hundred miles that way, and fifteen hundred miles up. Can anyone imagine the city?

In one of his spiritual experiences, Neville saw the New Jerusalem. And he said to Jesus, “Lord, please let me see inside the city, please!” He prayed for three years, “Lord, let me see inside the city, let me see inside the city.” One day, He let him get a little glimpse. That city was layered. It was in the shape of a pyramid, but it was layered. On each layer, there were dwelling places and there were parks. It was beautiful at the lowest level, but the the next layer up was more beautiful, and the next layer up was even more beautiful. The city was so big it is difficult to imagine the number of people it could hold.

The New Jerusalem, this city on this again renovated earth, became the capital city of the universe. The planet became the capital of the universe. As Neville looked into the New Jerusalem, he realized that the bottom layers of the city were like an outer court. And right at the top was the throne of God. On all levels there were trees and rivers, but in ascending glory. This is what the Bible’s book of Ephesians is talking about — that Christ has seated us with Him in the heavenly places so that, in the ages to come, He might show the surpassing riches of His grace in His kindness toward us.

So it is not the end. The prophet Isaiah said that, the increase of God’s government and peace will have no end. That word there “increase” in Hebrew contains the thought of continuing enlargement of His kingdom. Luke, in the New Testament, said that Jesus’ kingdom shall have no end. Indeed, why do we have a universe? God does not do anything without purpose. And so, the earth becomes the capital of the universe where God will establish His kingdom on out through millions of galaxies.

We have had this wishy-washy gospel message which does not wash anymore — go to heaven and you will be saved and you will be happy. We were not made just for that, to sit around and play harps. This is our message now, the Gospel of the Kingdom, the coming kingdom that has no end; and we are His ambassadors. During the Millennium, other worlds will start to be opened up and terraforming will begin on many places and planets. It is not boring anymore, it is an adventure!

A Six-Thousand-Year Glitch

So Neville says that he has given us some of the things he knows, just a little overview. Some of these things are not written in the Bible. They are extra-Biblical, but they are not un-Biblical. There is a difference, he says. Not everything is written in the Bible, anyway, but just enough of what we need for this present time. The angel said to Daniel in the Bible, “Close up the books until the end times, and we will open them again, and there will be more understanding.”

But this is the big picture. Jesus said to pray this way, “Thy kingdom come on earth as it is in heaven.” God gave Adam responsibility for this planet and said, “Bring heaven to earth. Extend My kingdom into this planet earth.” Now we have had a 6,000-year glitch on that, but we are coming back. The Millennium world is where Adam should have gone, but it did not happen. God is going to establish that again. And the plan and purposes of God will continue on.

This whole idea of getting to heaven, living happily ever after in nice houses, that is part of it. But that would be boring as anything. We got to have purpose. The human race is born to have purpose, direction, adventure. That is who we are.

Apostle Paul writes that eye has not seen nor ear heard what God has prepared for us. But God is revealing it now by His Spirit. And it is worth this last-day fight. It is worth the battle to bring this in.

In the book of Daniel, it says that the saints, the holy people of God, finally possess the Kingdom. Sure the Antichrist will come to power and try and take over this planet completely and establish his court and his kingdom here. He will try to do that, but he is not going to make it, because “the saints possess the kingdom.” We really have a great heritage ahead of us.

Hopelessness prevails like nothing before on this planet. This generation of young people is living in a world of hopelessness. The loss of hope in Europe is unbelievable. And when a nation loses hope, it is in a bad situation. Europe is in a mess, America is in a mess, the United Kingdom is in a mess, the world is in a mess. Even the political systems are in a mess, the economic systems are in a mess, and weather is in a mess. The Bible says it will get worse. But it also says to arise and shine.

Charles Dickens wrote in A Tale of Two Cities, “It was the best of times and it was the worst of times.” But ours now is a tale of two kingdoms. And we have got to focus. There will be times later when we can relax and have good times. But this time, we must fight. We must never retreat again. Christians must never, ever retreat again. If we retreat, we will lose. But if we do not retreat, we cannot lose. It is as simple as that — we cannot lose.

We got to get this planet back from the enemy’s hand. We have to take it back and bring in a new reign and rule. And this generation has been assigned that task. The whole of heaven is looking on. It says the prophets dreamed about this day; they wanted to see this day. And we are it — a great, big, motley crew.

We are going to take back the planet and at the forefront is going to be young people — the Shadrachs, the Meshachs, the Abed-negos (in the book of Daniel). The great thing about this generation of young people (there are some bad things, of course), the great thing is they are unchurched so they have nothing to unlearn. They will believe. We have got a clean canvas and they will be keen to go.

Christians, we stay, we fight. We learn how to be righteous. We learn to have a character that equals all of the fruit of the Spirit of God. We learn how to handle the weapons of warfare, the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God in our mouth. We learn how to run with the horses. We learn, we stand, we do not retreat. We change the laws in the land, we bring in righteous government. Revival is one thing, reformation changes the whole structure of a community. Are we ready for this?

We have got to make our calling and election sure. We need to get trained to rule — training for reigning. Neville read a story about the British royal family (Prince Charles, Prince Edward, and so on) and the training they have. They would have to sit on a stool for over an hour without moving, and look interested, disciplined. They had to stay attentive for hours while they were deprived of sleep. They were not allowed to sleep. And they had to sit and pay attention there for hours without falling asleep. They had to practice because they were going to have to sit through boring speeches in some foreign country and not fall asleep. They trained to ride horses. They were taught how to groom themselves. And they went to military college. Some of them messed up, but… Training, training, training.

The Christian church has missed out on a lot in the past, but this is our time. Those who have gone ahead of us, mentioned in the book of Hebrews as the cloud of witnesses — they are looking on, saying, “Yea, we died for this, come on, you guys!” We have come into the Kingdom for such a time as this. This is our time.

Indeed, this is our time! -#

18 July 2018

WATCH OUT FOR PART 6.

Photo credit: Photo discovered by Gloria Peters and pinned on Pinterest

Photo link: https://i.pinimg.com/originals/46/6f/d3/466fd3065a6b8cc676a9d591dc735e05.jpg

[matayu-sometimes-writes-stuff]

On Final Fantasy XIII-2

           I had only intended to play Final Fantasy XIII, on account of we don’t own a copy of Lighting Returns. What I didn’t count on was two things: falling in love with the characters and the setting, and Final Fantasy XIII-2’s plot revolving around time travel.

           You have to understand something about me. I’m a huge slut for time travel stories.

           Final Fantasy XIII-2 uses the same combat system as XIII, which as I stated while talking about that game, is hard to master but I love it. XIII-2 makes the assumption that you played XIII already, but there’s a handy refresher about XIII’s plot on the title screen, and there is an option tutorialize the first handful of combat instances. It’s a much shorter tutorial than XIII’s. Nineteen and a half hours shorter. Combat also moves a lot quicker; they shortened the default time the ATB gauge needs to charge by about half a second. It’s a very little change, but it feels much better. Also nice is that if the current party leader dies, control swaps over to the other character, instead of giving you a game over.

           The camera is about the same as the previous game, but as I went on to XIII-2 directly after XIII, I didn’t notice it as much as I was used to it. The one other major change to gameplay is that instead of a party of three characters, your party is made up of two characters and a set of three monsters, Pokémon-style. I don’t much care for monster-collecting in games that aren’t specifically Pokémon, but it was less of a hassle than I was expecting it to be. It helped that this is a five-year-old game, so there were plenty of guides online for how to best set up a party.

           Yes, unlike XIII I did have to resort to internet walkthroughs to find my way around. Not so much for maps of the areas, but to find the “artifacts”, or keys, needed to open every time gateway. There are ten almost completely optional areas, but I voluntarily hunted down the artifacts needed to access all of them, because I enjoyed playing this game almost as much as I enjoyed XIII. “Almost”, for reasons entirely related to the ending, which I’ll come to in due time.

           Basically I liked this game for the same reasons I liked FFXIII. Every positive that I talked about in conjunction with that game (save the linearity) also applied here. I’m pretty sure I spent most of the game overlevelled, but that’s how I like to play RPGs. If I’m not a holy terror to the basic enemies, something is wrong. The leveling system changed from the first game, but was similar enough that I didn’t mind the changes. It would have made raising the best monsters tough (as it would require farming for materials), except that I didn’t give enough of a shit to put the time in for that. Nor, fortunately, did I need to.

           The one huge complaint I had heard about this game is that it retcons the ending to FFXIII. Which indicates to me that the people making that complaint haven’t actually bothered to play the game, as the premise is that “something retconned the ending of FFXIII, FIX IT”. The game acknowledges that the ending to XIII has been changed for the worse, and the plot of the game (initially, at least) is to set it back the way it was. If you don’t like that the “retcon” happened, good, because neither do any of the characters.

          The characters are still fantastic. The plot of the game is that something went wrong during the ending of Final Fantasy XIII, and Lightning has been missing for three years. A boy from the future named Noel Kriess appears to Serah Farron and tells her he has a message from Lighting: She’s in service to Etro, the Goddess of Death, and needs Serah’s help to fix everything that has gone wrong with the timeline. Noel, meanwhile, has his own quest: to change the future so that the girl he loves, one Paddra Nsu Yeul, won’t have to die.

          Let’s face it. Serah didn’t have much of a character in XIII. Her role in the plot was as an object for Lightning and Snow to rescue, so it’s nice to see her as the protagonist for once. She’s a lot like her sister, to the extent of being willing to go to the literal ends of the earth to save her. However, she’s also definitely distinct from Lightning. She’s willing to be emotionally open where her sibling isn’t, and will willingly put her quest on hold to help others where Lightning would (in her initial characterization, at least) have pushed on, ignoring them. They share the same resolve, though, shown in Serah’s acceptance that doing what’s right will likely lead to her own death, yet still doing what she felt was right anyway. She definitely grew into her own character, and we were given much more of a feel for how strongly the two sisters care for each other.

          Noel Kreiss shares a name with my cat. This amused me. I was expecting there to be something unlikeable about him due to that same air of “these are bad games” feeling surrounding the FFXIII trilogy. There’s nothing wrong with him. His relationships with Yeul and with the game’s villain, Caius Ballard, drive the main part of the plot. Yeul is blessed/cursed with the ability to see the future; the ability kills her when she reaches the age of 15. Wherupon she reincarnates, knowing she’ll only live to see 15. Caius, on the other hand, is functionally immortal and had been Yeul’s bodyguard for millennia until he became sick of watching the girl he loved die again and again and again. Noel was only present for the latest incarnation of Yeul’s cycle, 700 years after Serah’s time. The world is dying, and after Yeul passes and Caius vanishes, he’s the only living human. He is just as determined to succeed as Serah is, because he knows what will happen should he fail.

          The entire main cast from XIII gets a look in, although some are only in small roles. Fang and Vanille only have a short cameo, as for most of the game they’re still in crystal stasis, only appearing to Serah through psychic contact to break her out of a lotus eater-type dream world. Sazh and Dajh also don’t appear until the very end, though reference is made to Sazh by several characters in different time periods, implying he’s on his own journey (he is, in a DLC scenario that I could not play as we only had the base game). Snow is also on a journey to find Lightning, and he temporarily fights alongside the party in a certain time period. He and Serah are still just as devoted to each other, which pleased me. I can’t believe I was actually happy to see him show up.

          Lightning and Hope get somewhat larger roles. Lightning spends most of the story fighting her own battle against Caius in a place out of time to defend Etro; her story is also told in a DLC scenario (that I do not have). Hope, meanwhile, has aged by 13 years since we saw him last, and is now the head of a scientific institute that will endure for 500 years. He even puts himself in a sort of stasis to oversee a project that takes that long to complete. I like adult Hope. It was nice to see him come into his own. Plus, he’s cute.

          I should make an aside regarding Caius, because his story is quite tragic all on its own. Remember that I’ve only played the first four Final Fantasy games aside from this, where the villains are a brick joke (I), an emperor that’s evil because it’s fun (II), a demigod pissed because his immortality was revoked and nobody else thought that was a bad thing (III) and a moon person sealed in a can (IV, which I still haven’t finished). So Caius is perhaps the most human villain I’ve seen in a Final Fantasy game, and everything he did could have been avoided if he’d just listened to the person he loved. Yeul was fine with dying and reincarnating, because it meant she’d never truly have to leave him. Caius’s plan was to stop time so that Yeul would never have to age and die; unfortunately, he chose to stop time at a point where the Yeul in that time period was already dead. So instead of saving his beloved, he cursed himself to an eternity without her. Whoops.

          And since I’ve mentioned it now, let’s talk about the end of the game, why I “almost” like XIII-2 as much as XIII. The heroes lose.

          Caius either tricks Noel into killing him, which Noel had been trying to avoid for literal years, or impales himself on Noel’s sword (the player is given the option of performing the killing blow or not, but it amounts to the same thing), which also kills the Goddess Etro. With the Goddess of Death dead, time stops flowing, and no one can age or be born. Serah, who was given the same life-shortening “gift” that Yeul received, gets one final vision of the future implying that there’s still hope, which kills her. Noel, Hope, and Sazh are left with her body, Vanille and Fang have been extricated from the pillar but are still in stasis, Snow is off god knows where, and Lightning has voluntarily frozen herself in stasis to ride out the end of the world. It’s a shitty situation for everyone involved, including Caius, who now has to face eternity without Yeul, knowing that it’s all his fault.

          There are alternate endings to FFXIII-2, but I didn’t have the energy to go through and achieve them after seeing the true ending, which I did first. The biggest saving grace of this was that it ended with a “to be continued”, implying there would be a Final Fantasy XIII-3.

          There are arguments to be made in film and other mediums whether a bad ending spoils the whole product. In this case, I don’t think it does. The game is a solid sequel, I just wish the ending could have been a happy one for these characters I care so much about. On the plus side, though, this game featured a return of the combat system I loved, coupled with a fun time travel mechanic. I got exactly what I wanted from this game in terms of a sequel to XIII, and I got to see (most of) the characters I had grown to love again. Ultimately, it’s the downer ending that makes FFXIII-2 a bit lower on the list than FFXIII for me. XIII could be its own contained story, meaning that the sequels are optional, and just fun additions. The story of XIII-2 doesn’t conclude in XIII-2, which is always going to be frustrating. I’m still glad I spent the time to play it.

[pointofthought-blog]

The Baldur’s Gate series. This series, it’s something special. I first had my taste of it with Baldur’s Gate II in the very early 2000s, when I was very young. My memory is kind of fuzzy, but I remember buying the action console spin-off game ‘Dark Alliance’ because it looked like Diablo to me, then buying this as I thought it was another version of Dark Alliance. I’m glad I was wrong. This game introduced me to what CRPGs can be: engaging, thought-provoking gameplay; the freedom of choice; and the amazing combinations of characters you could make alongside actually developing your character in interesting way. Also, at the time it had one of the most unique settings I’d ever seen. As a kid, I wasn’t the brightest though. I didn’t understand the game had a underlining system and used dice rolls for everything; AD&D2. I could never understand the numbers on screen (1d8? What does that mean?!) and never though about trying to work out what they are. I just played by brute-forcing different combinations of parties, spells, and tactics. It never got me very far, but the game was large enough that I could make copious amounts of new characters and always see something different. A few years ago I finally decided to play through the game properly, it hadn’t been YEARS since I’d played it. I bought the complete box set the includes 1, 2 and all the expansions. Downloaded a mod that combined them all into one play through (I forget which mod it was now, but I know it would’ve been one that affected gameplay the least. I like things to be as close to the developers intentions as possible) and played the game as much as I could until I finished it. It was a huge dose of nostaliga and I found it quite engaging to actually read up on the AD&D rules, understand the mechanics, and make an interesting character. I also gained a new appreciation for the narrative itself (as a child I only really found the atmosphere engaging.) It had many interesting characters and I absolutely adored the love interest with the character Aerie.

As an introduction to D&D, all the characters were great actually. They showed you the diverse world of D&D whilst also being diverse themselves and having their own interesting motivations and backstories; which made for some good side quests! The most memorable side-quest for me would’ve been when *SPOILERS* Edwin finally finds an ancient tome (or something similar) he joined your party to search for, thinking it would give him great powers. But, instead, it turns him into a woman, Edwina. So through a potion of the game he was a she. This generated some hilarious banter between the party. I think I enjoyed this so much as it was a light-hearted, unexpected way to change the game, without actually getting in the way of any gameplay.

There wasn’t too many differences between BG1 and 2 on the surface. Each using the same D&D ruleset, BG2 just expanding on it as you continue on with the same character thus getting to higher levels. The characters on narrative weren’t as strong in Baldur’s Gate 1, but it gave you much more room to explore and discover the world, creating a more immersive experience. Both have small open world areas that you go between on an overworld map. Baldur’s Gate 1′s are just felt more interconnect and natural, appearing closer together on the overworld map too. The areas were more open too, allowing for more exploration and getting killed when going off the beaten path. Baldur’s Gate II on the other-hand... the narrative design was much better, many small locations to openly explore, and a choice of which location you visit via an overworld like BG1. Unlike BG1, which starts you in a small town to teach you mechanics and you only need to spend a short period in, BG2 starts you in a longer linear dungeon to teach you mechanics. This also serves as a way to introduce some important characters and start the story. Though the means of how you got to be in that dungeon are never explained, they purposely left the events between BG1 and 2 unexplained, probably allowing the player to use their imagination. This is rectified with a later HD expansion though. After the dungeon the game gives you a goal of collecting 20,000 gold via any means possible, making exploration much more open and giving your plenty of areas to explore. If you exhaust all the sidequests and then continue on with the main story line though, you find the game never really opens up to more exploration and you’ll just be railroaded through the mains story line. I found BG1 had a much more natural blur between the main story line and simple world exploration. Thus making BG2 and much more linear experience, but giving it a much more interesting story line. I wouldn’t call either an objectively better method of portraying a game narrative; though I’d probably say I’d prefer the method of BG1 as I like games taking advantage of the medium and allowing a more sandbox feel. But I am also a sucker for a good story and atmosphere like Baldur’s Gate 2 has. I had actually gained the impetus to write this as I’d just finished the HD games, including the newly released expansion Siege of Dragonspear. I’ll write about the HD collection more further down but for now talk about game balance. I think one of the things that makes these games great is that they are horribly unbalanced. Some builds just work out much better then others; some classes are objectively better than others; some items are just ridiculously powerful; some monsters are just ridiculously hard out of no where. I like this. I think this is what can make a game fun and memorable, allowing the player to find out what is ridiculously strong in the game; remembering the ridiculous fight with a Beholder that was difficult in a sea of easy monsters. When games are overbalanced it just becomes a monotonous trip with no ups and downs, nothing memorable. I think it’s one of the reasons why I have trouble remembering the Baldur’s Gate spiritual succesor, Pillars of Eternity. Josh Sawyer, lead designer of PoE, has a love of balancing games now. I think he may have overbalanced Pillars of Eternity. Also, the reason I brought up the HD edition now is because it adds new classes and adds features from 2 into 1. I can see this throwing any sense of balance out of the window and makes me kind of sad. I like to play games as they were originally intended to be mechanically played by the developers, and the HD version has no way of distinguishing newly added classes from the old classes. This brings me to talk about the HD edition. I love the ease of use improvements:

-They made it easier to run on modern hardware. -Added health bars. -Added coloured outlines to different characters. -Added a scaling HUD. -Added zoom. -Have options to turn off any of these features if you don’t like them. Unfortunately, I dislike all the new content they added. It just feels really out of place as the characters and stories were obviously created by different authors using newer technologies. I wouldn’t mind them adding new content if they gave an option for players to play game in its original state with its ease of use improvements still. Unfortunately no such option exists, though. Siege of Dragonspear, the new expansion they created for BG1, that fits between 1 and 2 and explains the events that happen to the character in-between that were previously unexplained is a fun addition. I just wish they didn’t set it inbetween the other two games and make it canon. I preferred the mystery and when different authors come in and try to explain things it can come off as lame fan fiction. The gameplay itself wasn’t as good as the other games, it was quite railroaded and had few memorable characters. It was actually reminiscent of the BG2 expansion, so if that’s what they were aiming for they did okay. Even with my complaints it was a decent game and I was glad to have an extra addition to Baldur’s Gate after so long. The story, while not amazing, was fun and explored some cool areas.

This game easily makes my top games list just as it’s so nostalgic to me. The openness of it with such a unique setting, the music is still cemented in my brain. I hope a game can come along one day again and recreate that magic. Alas, I think part of the magic was finding it as a child.

[silvanils]

Knight Plays: Pillars of Eternity

Part I || Part II || Part III || Part IV

Got up to  Raedric‘s castle last time, so - ONWARD!

After talking to the guards I decided to sneak in by climbing the vines on the wall... only to find more guards on the ramparts. OH WELL. Guess we’re fighting our way in -

Except there’s no alarms, ok. Guess we’re still being sneaky.

Found robes in a box and I had a bit of a moment trying to figure out how much of our gear I should take off to be able to masquarade as a priest. No combo seemed to make the guards less hostile SO I decided “screw it” and just stormed the castle in our normal gear anyway.

Found the dungeons and OOF there’s a trap, I forgot to be sneaking...

(Bryn’s an ok rogue but the fact that I keep forgetting to sneak and search for traps makes me think “he’s a little dumb sometimes, but that’s ok.”)

There’s one trap he can’t disarm, hm. I’ll have to throw more points in mechanics in the near future...

Oh no, zombies. I DON’T LIKE ZOMBIES.

The lady that was making zombies creeped me out so we killed her - I also haven’t mentioned it but I’ve been upgrading everyone’s gear as I find neat stuff.

I found the exit to the sewer, which is really only notable because due to someone getting stuck on a wall when I clicked the exit I got the “you must gather your party before venturing forth” quip and I actually love that even though I haven’t played a LOT of Baldur’s Gate.

Rescued the dude in the dungeons and headed up to the main castle again, and...

Yikes. Ok Lord Raedric, after finding your wife like that, Bryn’s willingness to hear your side of things disappeared completely.

Had to reload the fight a couple times, his wizard is TOUGH and Bryn still doesn’t tend to get behind people for his flanking bonus without me directing it manually. SIGH.

Edér got the last attack in, which seems fair.

I think this wraps up the Gilded Vale stuff completely, which is good. I’m ready to go back to the Big City.

I want to stop by my keep on the way, though, to check on how things are going - wait, I have a messenger? Interesting. I feel like this is going to be about some kind of paperwork needing to be filled out to make Bryn’s ownership official.

While I’m here, though, I want to check out the Endless Paths again and get a bit further in them (mostly because I don’t fancy the idea of Bryn going crazy because of this “Master” person... oof.)

I’ll sum up my excitement about getting a lil baby dragon with this screencap of the save I made IMMIDIATELY afterwards:

After finishing up with the creepy Lizard people, I... admit I gave into gamer curiosity and did a hard save, then leapt into the sacrificial pit. It was funny (and I’m surprised it didn’t kill the party!) but it didn’t seem like a thing Bryn would do so I reloaded...

After that, went back to the Big City to take care of the property dispute and... Yeah, Bryn doesn’t like this guy. He’s already attached to Caed Nua and he’s not letting some jerkface take it.

But he’s also going to be sarcastically polite. “Please, extend an invitation for him to come visit ANYTIME.” Bryn HOPES this is read as a “let me rub it in your face” sort of thing. LOL.

Also got roped into helping some lady with her abusive addict husband, only to find out... he’s being impersonated by a wizard. Ok then. This fight is a bit difficult, I might need to get more levels first -

Oh, people CAN level up. Whoops. Taking care of THAT made this fight much easier. (As did actually giving Aloth the weapon I got from the property dispute resolution...)

Bryn’s still all about “giving people a second chance” so... he resolved the marriage issue by telling the lady “he just needs help.” (The fact that he wasn’t the one harming her is where Bryn draws the line, it seems. That’s one thing he’s not keen on forgiving.)

Anyways, that’s all for now! I’ll continue this another time~ :D