#the combat is really neat. like it's a good system

[autumnoakes]

i wish re4 wasn't so stressful. i'd have beaten it 10 times by now if my sessions playing that game weren't a half an hour at a time screaming and missing so many shots even with aim assist on

[bmpmp3]

everyone on earth probably has a hypothetical farming sim in their mind's eye that they daydream about on occasion because of the unfortunate situation that despite there being like a thousand farming games released every minute only like 4 of them are any good. and i think this is fun, i think its good to keep the imagination alive. if i made a farming sim i would bring back rival marriages from the old friends of mineral town. i want to steal someones wife.

[dreamsy990]

so, re:chain of memories, huh?

warning! its been a little while since i played through recom, so the game isnt as fresh in my mind as some others. sorry for any innacuracies!

spoiler alert, this is my second favorite kingdom hearts game. at least of the ones i've played so far. i get that this isn't like. a POPULAR opinion but fuck you i have almost nothing but positives to say about it.

let's start with the easy stuff first. recom introduced a new card-based combat system. i cant compare it to the gba version, since i didn't play that, but i can say that for what its worth i DID enjoy the combat. recom is by far the hardest game so far (at least for me) and almost every boss took multiple days for me to beat, even with my hp maxed out. it took me a while to get the combat system, but id honestly love to replay the game now that i have a better understanding of how it works. the card system requires a lot of quick thinking and i get that it isnt everyones taste but its CERTAINLY mine. every fight is difficult and feels genuinely rewarding when you win. the movement, like kh1, can use a lot of work, but i wouldnt call it terrible. just kinda sluggish. i think my favorite boss fight was larxene. shes a pain in the ass but i love her.

i think riku's side dropping the deck building mechanic isnt terrible, but i wish i could reorder his deck at the very least. and the lack of healing cards is. not fun. basically any damage you take is permanent unless you HAPPEN to get mickey and its simply Not a fun time. im not very good at games okay.

i have a lot less to say about the worlds than the combat. they're definitely the worst aspect of the game, though. the idea of making worlds with cards is fine! it just leads to kind of repetitive world design. the stories are forgettable, so forgettable that i literally forgot them. and i could make a point about how thats the idea its a game all about forgetting things!! but honestly that just making excuses for it. the worlds couldve kept the idea of forgetting things without literally making them forgettable. i say this about every world, except for one. because DESTINY ISLANDS

destiny islands is just. so fucking good in recom. its the climax of both sora and rikus stories and i think theyre both amazing. id have to say i prefer rikus, soley because of the visual storytelling you get from his side of it, and thats not to say soras is bad at all. but something about zexion telling riku that its his fault his home was destroyed, as riku sees a version of himself turning into a literal monster? thats just good okay. its really good.

i ADORE the characters in this game too. everything we get from them is sooo good. it's the introduction to the organization and all of them (except lexaeus who did literally nothing) are a treat. axels my favorite ofc, but larxene is such a fun villain, you love to hate her. shes really the star of the org cast in this game. sure, axels may have said its his show now, but larxene stole the spotlight.

its namines introduction, too, and i love her. on one hand, shes just really kind. she wants a friend, she wants someone to talk to, she wants to meet sora. on the other, shes just a little bit fucked up actually. sure, shes honest with sora, but shes the tiniest little bit guilt trippy and i LOVE THAT. her response to sora saying he wants to get back his own memories and forget her is "oh okay. you want to remember your REAL friends, huh? theyre the ones who REALLY matter to you? yeah anyone would want that. no friends for namine i guess." like shes just a bit salty and we love that for her. i want slightly guilt tripping and salty namine back nomura.

but ofc one of my favorite new characters in this game HAS to be repliku. god i ADORE repliku. his hatred for riku is sooo fun and the way he fights with sora is great too. like in soras side i thought he was a neat villain but rikus side? hes amazing omfg. one of the only villains i liked in rikus story (sorry lexaeus, you werent good until days)

over all, this game certainly isnt everyones cup of tea, but its DEFINITELY mine. it's the game im most excited to replay at some point, mostly because of the amazing boss fights. 9/10. its got issues, but the story and characters are so good that i genuinely could not care less about like. most of them.

[tarbuchyloewenthal]

i loved and hated dragon age: the veilguard???

apologies for the extended rant i'm about to go on.

i loved being back in thedas after 10 years, and i loved that final scene with solas. the emotional beats hit just right in that moment.

i loved to absolutely annihilate groups of enemies with arcane bomb popping off every five seconds.

i loved almost all of my companions' arcs. they had so many moments of genuine pathos.

yet all these barely made up for my growing frustration throughout the game at the dialogue and dialogue system, the repetitive quest design, and narrative focus.

this game shares pretty much all the features that i hated when i first played mass effect 3 all those years ago. from the opening of the game skipping everything except the most minimal story set up in favor of bombastic cinematics to the extensive use of auto dialogue taking away the feeling that i had control of my player character.

bioware has apparently gotten into the bad habit of thinking the set up at the beginning of a story is unimportant. i hated starting off with a bang in mass effect 3. i hated it in inquisition. and i hate it now in veilguard. to me it feels like narrative malpractice to forgo the most vital part of the story. only getting a slickly animated cutscene to set the scene in the story instead of any actual attempt to know rook and their relationships with varric, harding, and the world at large really put me off.

the large amounts of auto dialogue only exacerbated my frustration. mass effect 1 (and 2 to a slightly lesser extent) made the dialogue wheel and voiced protagonist feel like an actual evolution of their previous dialogue systems in kotor and jade empire (and origins even though that came out after). i felt like i had actual input. conversations flowed like rpg conversations had always flowed. but in veilguard conversations feel way too passive, only needing my input when the game wanted me to add a small dash of emotional flavor to the conversation or the ever present binary choice for major story moments.

that's not to say bioware didn't write in a lot of reactivity. there's an absurd amount of unique dialogue depending on lineage and faction choices, but i, as the player character, never felt like i was in the drivers seat for any of it.

it made my rook feel completely disconnected from the story they were ostensibly the protagonist of, like they manifested into existence mere seconds before showing up to the bar in minrathous.

and the quests, individually well paced, all mainly followed the same formula of walk down a path, grab loot from side paths, fight some enemies, and listen to your companions talk all the while. part of why i like rpgs is the feeling that i'm inhabiting a world that revolves around more than combat and puzzles for loot. even if that's mostly what video game rpgs boil down to at the end of the day, it's the illusion of that which sells me on the game world. when all your quests involve that same formula, it flattens the game world to nothing but a combat arena. which, to be fair, i felt was a problem all the way back in mass effect 2, as well.

i also didn't like how all the lore reveals flatten nearly all the setting's mysteries down to solas and the evanuris. they were really neat in isolation, but taken together they kind of hollowed out the world.

ok, so i'm tiring even myself out by now, so i'll just mention in passing the relentless and unnecessary expository dialogue, as if the writing team didn't trust the cinematics team to get across literally any information (i'm looking at you bellara on the approach to d'meta's crossing).

this rant gives off the impression that i didn't really enjoy veilguard, but i did. it's just that the things it does well are what you expect from bioware, and the things i find issue with have become a bit of an unfortunate pattern from the studio. the game was so good, but it could have been so much better.

[reliquiaen]

Thoughts about the Veilguard gameplay:

Would have liked to see some companion combat. It mentioned that the command system was locked at that point in the story, but I would’ve appreciated seeing how it works. Can you give orders like ‘go there’ and ‘focus that guy’? Can you set them up with tactics like in Origins? (I miss the tactics menu.)

I noticed Neve got in close a couple of times to do some melee shenanigans, is that a Neve-specific quirk or are we getting some more in depth sexy close quarters mage stuff?

Rook had a limited arrow pool which is fine, I have no issue with that. What I’m wondering is if rogues as a class will have less reliance on the bow? Or will it be possible to spec further into that? How does it work for Varric and Harding who are archer based? Will there be a dedicated archer class? Can I play bow and arrow main weapon is my question.

I would’ve liked to see more of the magic system. What kinda spells and spell classes will we have this time around? Neve seems very ice-centric, which is neat, but can I cast fireball? Chain lightning? Can I spec someone into the dedicated spirit healer? Is shapeshifting coming back? What about blood magic? We’re in Tevinter please give me blood magic.

What ARE the classes going to be and how will the system work? Is it locked in from the start? Do we have a bit more flexibility with it? Can I respec skill points? Are there class masteries?

How does equipping weapons work? Can you have a main loadout and swap to a secondary loadout like in Origins? Do weapons come in sets, or can I mix and match this sword with this offhand weapon? Am I locked to certain weapons? Are there any cross class things going on? That rogue Rook we saw, is that bow an ability or a weapon he can swap out? How does it work?

How does companion levelling work? Can I spec Harding into daggers? Like how in Origins you could take a perfectly good dagger-wielding rogue in Zevran and say ‘here’s a bow, shoot stuff’ can I do that again? Or are classes more locked down?

Will I be able to see companion health bars (and other statuses) when they’re in my party?

Intrigued by the ‘which companion you take will have consequences’ bit too. ‘Harding will go with you into greater danger’, does that mean… what? Permanent injuries? Relationship status changes? Unique dialogue? If you take a companion into a situation they don’t want will they leave the group? Do companions have the chance for perma death???

Is that dialogue system similar to DA2 and will it have some of the same effect on ambient dialogue?

I don’t think we’ve ever had a romanceable dwarf? Do we get two this time? Harding and Varric? Please??

Is Rook locked to human? I don’t want that. After we finally got to be Qunari in Inquisition, please don’t give us less options now.

The two shapes that rise up behind Solas at the end have some vague resemblance to the Architect and Corypheus, any chance they are some more of the Magisters? Could we get some more lore about the Black City? Especially considering all the differing opinions about whether the Maker lived there or the Old Elven Gods or whatever. Would be nice if it really does have something to do with the taint because I am STILL WAITING to find out if my Warden and the Architect figured something out, and we left someone in the Fade in Inquisition… now is the time okay. Bring it all home.

I know there’s that thing going on about how they want only names and faces Solas doesn’t know, but like… if the Fade is being torn asunder… will Hawke/Alistair/Other Guy make a return? Have the Veiljumpers found them? If there is something about the calling (which I’m hoping given we have a new Warden), will our DAO Warden be making a reappearance? Is this gonna be like… all the old PCs joining the new one to Ultrazord punch Solas in the face?

Elluvian appearance: I know Tevinter is Just Like That but please??? News about Merrill???

Just in general, how many of my faves will be brought back and done dirty this time? I need to know so I can brace myself.

[yuri-is-online]

So I’ve got to ask, would you recommend Tokyo Revengers from your experience so far? Does the story and characters outweigh the (alleged) obnoxious currency system and money grabs?

So my gut reaction is to say no, I do not because I just cannot feel comfortable recommending this game in the state it's in, but I am going to make a pros and cons list to help maybe give you (and anyone else curious) a basic idea of where my head is at right now and help you make your own decision.

Cons

THERE ARE NO CAMPAIGN REWARDS. I cannot stress that enough there is nothing being given out to day one players to help you get started, and honestly it's super hard. Saving up for pulls feels like a foreign concept, there are so few opportunities to earn gems I have no real idea how I would even start building a stash let alone a team with the few characters I currently have. They don't give you a free SSR like twst does to help out, just the free SR from choosing your guy at the beginning though they do have a paid free SSR function. Now Twisted Wonderland does too, but like I said they give you a free one with unlimited re-rolls at the start.

Someone actually did the math about pulls and I agree with their assessment here: the cost isn't the worst I have seen in a gacha, but when you couple that with no free SSR for f2p, lack of reliable way to earn gems and I can feel it being a nightmare if the game progresses any further without a re vamp of some sort.

There really is no point to the combat or team building in this game beyond being a road block between you and the story. It's full auto which could be neat if there were nice animations but there aren't. It really might as well not be there, and that's before you get to the SSR rates...

Neither Pro nor Con

You might have noticed the above reddit user talking about the distinction between joseimuke vs otome and the reason for that is way back when this game was first announced it was supposed to be an otome game, which implies a level of explicit romance and relationship between the MC and the characters that is not typically present in joseimuke games. The current version of the game has a cast that seems to have completely changed, both character and voice actor wise. The stated reason for this and the delay was "changes in the market." It was originally supposed to be based off of Tokyo Ghoul? And was supposed to release in 2019, but was delayed until 2020, then put on indefinite hiatus until it's release now.

On an unrelated note, OG Obey Me! was released on December 11, 2019, Twisted Wonderland was released in Japan on March 18 2020, and Genshin Impact's world wide release was on September 28 of the same year. Make of that what you will.

"Yuri why did you bring up Obey Me?" Well Solomon's ring is introduced as a plot device... which could be interesting if they are going the direction I think they are with it but I don't know if I have enough faith in them for that.

The Pros

The characters in this game are honestly really fun. I really do mean that, I am not sold on their dorms/houses but the dynamics between the characters themselves are good for what they are. But the tone is very goofy compared to Twisted Wonderland (despite featuring more explicit topics) and I don't think these characters are as well developed as twst's are, but I think that can be chalked up to one of these games having been written by a manga author and the other having not.

I am a little bitch who hates horror stuff and is easily spooked but I really love how they are using modern internet horror monsters in this game. The first book features a creepy pasta monster that I was legitimately afraid of as a kid and I love their take on him. This second book features a ghost from a popular Japanese creepypasta. I'm a sucker for people being creative and using things that have become a part of popular culture without making it cringe, and I think this game succeeds at that.

Wrap Up

This entire situation has made me think about two animes I really like that I think sort of fall into the same dynamic as Twisted Wonderland and Tokyo Debunker. The first I am sure you have heard of, it's called Komi Can't Communicate and follows a girl with trouble communicating who really wants to make friends, and ends up accidentally befriending a guy who wants to help her out. The manga started being released in 2016 and is still going. It's quite good and I like it a lot.

The second is a little show called Aharen-san wa Hakarenai. It's manga started in 2017 and it received an anime adaptation around the same time as Komi san was being adapted. It follows a girl who has trouble communicating who really wants to make friends who accidentally befriends a guy who wants to help her out. I have no idea if Komi-san inspired Aharen-san nor do I really care because once you get past the generic set up, the routes the story takes are completely different as are the personalities of the characters. Komi is a slice of life and coming of age story in addition to a romcom, whereas Aharen is just a straight up romcom with a really cute main couple. There is room for both to exist because both stories do their own thing, just with a similar premise. There really is no reason Tokyo Debunker and Twisted Wonderland can't do the same, provided TD gives itself room to breathe and fixes it's damn grind.

Well assuming it picks up in Japan, it doesn't seem super popular over here right now.

[three--rings]

Starfield Tips/Things I Wish I Knew Earlier

Starfield is honestly amazing if you like this kind of game, but it does seem to be pretty invested in letting you figure out how it works on your own by experimentation. And it's very easy to overlook features of the game.

So...

The traits that give you parents, a fan, and a house are really neat. You get some cool stuff from them. I only did the parents but damn I'm glad I did. So consider these.

You can make your spacesuit and helmet automatically disappear if you're in breathable atmosphere/in a settlement. This way you don't have to worry about taking them off and on and potentially leaving your ship without them. And you don't look like a dork in town. The option is in the inventory page for each of them.

You can boost/sprint when floating. This is important in the Certain Plot Relevant Places.

There is a part of New Atlantis called The Well with a bunch of people and shops and you get to it from an unmarked elevator behind Jemison Merchantile in the Spaceport (or the unmarked elevator in the MAST transit station.) I played 30 hours before I found this out.

Read the skills closely, including the locked ones. Multiple times I put points in the wrong thing, thinking it would let me do things, when that was actually a different skill elsewhere.

Don't avoid the UC Vanguard questline. A lot of people I think are avoiding it because it's joining the military on a side that is a little sketchy/sus, but there's a lot of reasons to do this EARLY.

There's a museum you go through that gives you the entire lore background and recent history of the world

There's a flight simulator "test" you can take as much as you want to practice the space combat.

The storyline is REALLY REALLY good. (um, warning for horror elements) There are two different quest lines it opens and one also opens access to joining the Crimson Fleet faction.

7. When you upgrade your pilot skill it unlocks using thrusters in space flight. These let you maneuver without moving forward, so you are way more agile in combat. Use RB with a controller, IDK what the keyboard thingy is. But they're actually great. You hold down the button and then move sideways or up and down. Makes moving to new targets much better.

8. Weapons have different levels. Base which just has the name and then Calibrated, Refined, and Advanced. So pay attention and pick up the higher level ones. If you get a good advanced gun early you can use it and upgrade it for EVER. There's also rarity levels, which is the colored things. But that's about bonus effects. So you might get a really shitty gun with a Legendary bonus effect and it's still trash. If you get a high level weapon with a good bonus effect TREASURE IT.

9. Certain quests give you really good items, including SHIPS. IMO the best ship to get is the one from the Freestar Rangers.

10. Once you get a house you can build in it just like in an outpost. Also you can drop things from your inventory into an outpost or a house and then in build mode move that item around onto shelves, etc.

11. There is Universal time and Planet time. So if you wait or sleep, depending on where you are that may count as more time passing than what you chose. All shops refresh their money and inventory in 48 hours UT, but on Jemison, for example, that's only 24 hours of planet time.

12. Ship building can be intense and intimidating but it's really really worth it. You can always cancel out and undo what you did, so experiment. And when in doubt, add more engines, lol. (But really you want to add cargo space ASAP and then you need more engines, and then you end up wanting whole new ships.) Different ports have different makers of parts, and the best items are in the home port for each brand.

13. Unlocking the Ship Targeting skill is a game changer for space combat. It lets you lock on and then slows down time while you pummel the enemy's ship systems. If you take our their engines, and they are alone you can then dock with them and fight them and take their ship. Space piracy FTW.

14. If you get contraband avoid cities. Go to the Wolf System to The Den to sell it. This is very lucrative. At the slight price of your personal integrity.

15. As a general rule if something is sucking, you need to find the skill for it and invest points in it. This is true for piloting, scanning, boost packs, etc. They really made the skill trees count and be necessary in this game. Also surveying planets is really good XP actually. To help you get those points.

16. Speaking of surveying, if you are trying to complete a planet you need to visit all the biomes. If you click on the planet it will tell you the percent complete of that biome before landing. If you have one lone fauna left that fucker is probably in the ocean so look for COAST.

17. When placing outposts make sure there's not a lot of annoying mountains in it, and also you really want to prioritize sites with He-3 because you need it to really do anything. (Helium, iron, aluminum are the most important to build with.) And you have a limited number of outposts without taking a high level skill to get more.

That's all I can think of for now.

[gremoria411]

A question I've been half-pondering since you posted some of your thoughts of G-Witch -- are there any series that you think do particularly neat things with design lineages (either aesthetically or otherwise)?

Obviously in G-Witch, you've got this lovely variety in mobile suit design, with each corporation having a different, easily-identifiable style. But there's also things like how both styles of 'suit in Gundam Wing (Gundams and Leos et al) trace back to Tallgeese, so you have a 'progenitor' mecha running around.

Oooh, that is a fun one. Off the top of my head I can think of around two series that do really interesting things with Mobile Suit Design Lineages, Mobile Suit Gundam Iron Blooded Orphans and Mobile Suit Gundam 00, but Gundam Wing, Witch From Mercury, SEED and the Universal Century in General all have examples worth discussing.

Note: I hit the character limit here, so this post’ll just be part one, and contains my thoughts on 3/4 of the main units in 00. I’ll talk about the fourth and other series in a subsequent post.

Admittedly, most of these are the titular Gundam’s design lineage, but there’s enough grunts that are worth discussing too.

First of all, Gundam 00

I’ll fully admit the above graphic is overkill for what I’m going to actually be discussing, but I think the design lineages of the four main Gundam’s is very very good, because each unit is clearly delineated into a speciality. (I’m gonna define them by their Third Generation Entry, since that’s the ones in the first season of the show).

Exia - Blue, with a focus on close quarters combat (I.E. Swords, to the point its original developmental code was “Seven Swords”).

Dynames - Green, with a focus on long range and sniping.

Kyrios - Orange, a transforming mobile suit that has high mobility.

Virtue - Black and White (sometimes with purple), Initially seems to be the Heavy Weapon Gundam, then later you realise it’s just full of absolute bullshit. It’s great I love it.

The second season, movie and side manga all add to this development line, so you can see how each concept develops over time. It also provides alternate equipment options for the main units, variants on a theme if you will. (I’m going to ramble a lot here, so I’ll identify which unit I’m talking about in bold).

Exia, for example, is the melee Gundam, one of two Gundam’s designed to primarily deal with any traitors to Celestial Being (I should do an analysis post on 00 sometime……, anyway). It accomplishes this by incorporating weaponry specifically designed to get around GN defences which, at the time of its inception, is unique to celestial being (this is why it’s got solid swords in addition to beam weapons). Its immediate predecessor, the Astraea, is probably the most stable of the original second-generation gundams - it’s designed for melee combat and doesn’t incorporate much experimental systems into the mobile suit itself. Because of this stability, it’s typically used for testing weaponry slated for other Gundam’s, such as the proto GN Launcher. This is further evidenced when it’s modified into the Astraea F by the Celestial Being support organisation Fereshte, since it’s the mobile suit of choice for that organisation when circumstances don’t demand a different unit, again because of that versatility. The Exia’s successor is the 00 Gundam (which I habitually just roll into the 00 Raiser, since it’s only around for about three episodes). The 00 Gundam is fitted with two GN Drives instead of the standard one, which should give in a far greater output. In practice, it needs to be fitted with the 0 Raiser, a little stabilisation plane thing, in order to run stably. This becomes the standard loadout for the Gundam, and it becomes the 00 Raiser. The 00 Raiser has slightly less swords than its predecessor the Exia, but makes up for this by incorporating the Raiser Sword, which essentially turns the entire Gundam into a sword hilt. The 00 Gundam’s Variants, the 00 Seven Swords and XN Raiser are essentially the 00 Gundam with even more swords and bladed weapons bolted to the frame (I’d like to specifically call out the Seven Swords for having GN Katars, which is just neat, honestly). As Setsuna’s penultimate suit, we have the 00 Quanta, which dares to ask the question “laser-shooting psychic swords?”, and can also freely teleport, just in case you thought distance was going to make this easier. The 00 Quanta Full Saber is probably what you’d expect by this point - the 00 Quanta with a bunch of extra swords strapped to it. (The ELS Quanta’s not, strictly speaking, a combat Gundam, so I tend to look at it as its own thing). The Exia line starts off basic, but eventually takes the concept of “sword” to greater and more ridiculous levels.

Dynames, is a sniper, but it develops very differently to the other Gundams. The original Dynames and its successor Cherudim were developed for Neil Dylandy, an excellent sniper. However, the Cherudim and its successors were piloted by Neil’s brother Lyle instead. Lyle was not as good a sniper as his brother, and so his Gundam’s were subsequently reconfigured in order to be more effective in large-scale combat - rapid fire rifles and submachine guns as opposed to “true sniping”. So, though the line shares several visual elements and retains a focus on ranged combat, it changes with its pilot.The Dynames was armed rather simply - a sniper rifle and two pistols, with supplemental armour being added. This is likely a direct response to its predecessor, the Sadalsuud. The Sadalsuud is notable for two reasons - it was configured more as an information-gathering unit than a combat machine, and it was notably lacking in armour. The Sadalsuud F incorporated a pinpoint GN Field in order to get around this issue, but the Dynames simply incorporated more armour as a result (likely due to practicality). The Gundam Cherudim, Dynames successor, incorporated missile pods and GN shield bits in addition to its pistols and sniper rifle, with its GWHW/R pack adding GN Rifle bits to the mix, giving the Cherudim far more guns to use. Another equipment pack, the Cherudim SAGA, even went so far as to be a “Seven Guns” counterpart to the Exia’s “Seven Swords” philosophy. Lastly, there is the Gundam Zabanya, which incorporated GN Rifle Bits and GN Holster bits, casting off its original sniping specialisation for a mass battle focus. “You don’t need to be a better shot, you need to shoot more bullets”, indeed. The Dynames line shows the progression from scout, to sniper, to more sniper, to Gundam with a billion guns. This is directly due to the influence of its pilot and the difference between the brothers - Neil’s a Sniper, Lyle’s a Gunslinger and so the line is adjusted accordingly.

The Kyrios is probably the simplest to talk about, since it was piloted by Allelujah/Hallelujah Haptism and was designed to maximise its aerial profile. The Kyrios itself was armed with beam sabers, a beam submachine gun and claw shield, with various optional missile packs, typically used in quick strikes. Its immediate predecessor, the Aubulhool, was barely a mobile suit at all, being essentially a proof-of-concept for the transformation mechanism. Nonetheless, it would also be used as a quick strike craft by celestial being when required. The Arios is essentially the Kyrios but more so - it has a new rifle, and the original beam submachine guns and claw shield have now been integrated into the mobile suit itself. The GWHW/M pack gives it a missile pod and swaps the rifle out for a GN Cannon. The Arios is also unique in that it incorporates a support mech - the GN Archer, which is essentially a smaller, simpler Arios for all intents and purposes (it’s not on the chart, but it was adapted from the Gundam Artemie, the bee-looking Gundam at the top-right). The Arios Ascalon is essentially the Arios fitted with various pieces of equipment originally slated for other units - a GN sword from the Exia, missiles from the Dynames and a GN Launcher from the Virtue. This makes it far more versatile, while still retaining its excellent mobility. It’s another one I’m quite fond of, simply because I find the versatility appealing. That and I think the Arios looks good in red. The last unit in the line is the Gundam Harute - designed from the ground-up as a two-man space superiority fighter. It’s also designed to leverage the abilities of its two/three super-soldier pilots, incorporating the Marute Mode which allows its pilots to fight in-sync (it’s…. Not quite clear how it does this, but 00 runs with the “quantum innovators understanding” stuff quite a bit, so I’m not too concerned). The Harute also incorporates GN Sword Rifles, which are scissor gun-swords (fun), as well as GN Scissor bits and a nice lovely missile container on the rear. Kyrios and its derivatives are largely concerned with doing the same thing - a fast attack plane that’s also a Gundam. It’s a very good, very achievable concept, so it’s neat seeing how the line develops over time. I’d like to note that the Harute is basically a culmination of everything that came before it, but considering I’m quite fond of it, perhaps I’m a little biased there.

I’ll talk about Virtue and other series in a follow up to this post, since I managed to hit the character limit for the first time.

But in essence, I think 00 does interesting things with its Gundam Design Lineages because each unit has a specific role, so it’s interesting seeing how they develop within that role, and seeing how their pilots influence them. The vast amount of other units added in supplemental material further sheds light on the in-universe development patterns and general “goals” of each unit. Exia retains the sword focus, but takes it in more esoteric directions as Setsuna himself moves toward his awakening as an innovator, Dynames undergoes a shift from sniping to gunslinging when its original pilot dies and celestial being replaced him with his brother (which is a very weird process, now that I think about it). Kyrios basically hits the nail on the head first time with its mobility and fast attack focus, with Arios basically just adding armaments, however his eventual understanding with Marie enables the addition of the GN Archer and eventual development of the Zabanya, which raises its mobility to even greater heights. On the other side of the coin, the units seen during 00P and 00F provide context for their successors - what worked and what didn’t, and how they developed.

[talesfromthebacklog]

Tales From The Backlog: FaeFarm

6/10

I’ve heard this game being quoted by a few folks as the cozy game of the season. While it is good; the game holds itself back from being truly great.

FaeFarm doesn’t have a ton of substance. It has an awesome aesthetic and solid gameplay, but it made a lot of choices that weakened it in comparison to its competitors. And while it has a strong aesthetic, I would dare say FaeFarm doesn’t have a strong identity.

The best way I’d pitch FaeFarm to other people is that FaeFarm is a strong introductory game that will easily get anyone acclimated to farming/life sims. It is not first on my recommendation list in general for most gamers though.

Let’s dig into why that is.

I want to first talk about what I think FaeFarm gets absolutely right. Tools and your weapon don’t take inventory slots. They get to exist in a separate pocket and switch out for you automatically. Brilliant. Loved this. I never knew how much I wanted a system like this. This should just be the standard from here on out. Period. Inventory management is a key part of the gameplay in these games but at the same time I feel like most people want stuff like their pickaxe always on hand.

Especially in a magic world. This isn’t Resident Evil, let me carry around essential tools.

This along with the infinite shed inventory that can be accessed by all of your work stations are so good. But It still draws the line where it can’t be accessed just anywhere and I like that.

The dungeon “elevator” chart that shows you what item that is on each floor you completed is also a great quality of life improvement. The rates they appear also appear on that chart which is another neat touch. It adds to the sense that you’ve completed an area.

Flower breeding is here too. It’s a simple mechanic, but I enjoy making fields of rainbow flowers. I always enjoy this mechanic when it’s present.

Then there’s the actual farming. Which you could theoretically skip altogether. The game offers several vegetables but things are in categories. So whether you have a potato or an onion the game simply classifies it as a root vegetable. Which ruins the point of the variety. And while FaeFarm has seasonal vegetables, most of the plants you have you can plant during any season. I can grow corn year round if I want to. (That is a complaint)

Don’t get it twisted, the farming is fun. It’s a lot less time/stamina consuming which makes it so you can run around doing your other activities. I like that the super moves cost mana rather than stamina so you can save it for other things. But the variety feels… shallow when they all end up being processed into the exact same things. You get the feeling that it didn’t matter what you picked or what season you picked it.

This isn’t just the farming, by the way. Fishing, catching critters, foraging. The only things that truly get differentiated is metals and gems. Which some people may like, but I don’t.

I feel like that’s the common theme with FaeFarm. It’s a shallow experience. Which isn’t meant to be a knock against it. But the game definitely comes across like it’s… structured for young children. And I acknowledge it is. That’s not a bad thing and not all games need to be deep, but this shallowness affects the core gameplay. It’s going to be the difference between the game being remembered or forgotten for its competitors. I’m cool with being wrong but I think FaeFarm is gonna disappear from gamer’s memories very quickly.

The shortcuts in FaeFarm (especially after you get your faerie wings) are a lot more satisfying than other games. Especially with the winged double jump. You can swim too! Moving feels good. I love that there are unlockable fast travel points.

Combat is fine. Animal care is standard fare. The dungeon crawling is solid. The enemies are standard fare. I really have nothing special to mention about these aspects. The story is standard fare. It’s cute. I like it. The drawn cutscenes are cute:

Coming back to those aesthetics, let’s talk about THAT: I’ve always had a soft spot for fem fantasy. Unicorns, mermaids, faeries, I unapologetically think it’s cool. That’s what attracted me to FaeFarm as a gamer.

But there’s a lot of small choices that make this aspect less fun. I thought there would be a large number of looks. There’s really not. Which is a shame because I think this aspect is actually really important to aesthetic games like this.

There is a surprising lack of options. From clothing, to dye, to the wings themselves. And these options expand over time but I can’t help but feel that some of these aspects, like dye, shouldn’t have been locked in the first place.

I get unlocking recipes and stuff. But it annoys me 100% of the time when a high aesthetic game makes dyes an absolute chore to get. Like let me live my life? And then the game doesn’t even let you pick the color of your starting outfit, so god forbid you want a hair color that doesn’t match.

It’s a nitpick but I stand by that nitpick. Games like Animal Crossing handle the dye situation a lot better. If you’re going to emphasize customization there should be some aspects that inherently make it more enjoyable. And they do emphasize it! You get rewarded for decorating by raising your stats. They leave little secret furniture recipes everywhere. They want that to be rewarding. But it’s not necessarily fun, it’s a means to an end. Let me have fun, because decorating currently is something only to boost my stats. And with a small furniture catalogue that would’ve gone a long way to making me want to actually decorate my house.

And then there’s the same face syndrome. Which is a shame because the body types and designs are largely really good. It feels wasted… and lazy.

Side note: I was thinking about what the models looked like. And the models from FaeFarm kinda look like the nicer Roblox characters folks like to make. Not saying that’s positive or negative. No complaint here.

The chibi sizes are a nice proportion. I don’t like the games (Harvest Moon does this frequently) where the game equates chibi characters to look like babies. I hate that. Especially with romancable characters. FaeFarm actually strikes this balance well.

Too bad the dialogue is… juvenile (It’s also super bland, but again you don’t play FaeFarm for the dialogue so I think that’s ignorable). FaeFarm isn’t meant to be deep. But it is hard to want to woo certain villagers when they act like actual children. And again… I acknowledge what FaeFarm’s target demographic is, but with romance NPCs it totally can turn me off to those sections of the game. It is what it is. I don’t care if it’s meant for children, I can still critique it.

Rune Factory does that shit too. Sometimes they even put in actual children which is a big ick. It genuinely can ruin the experience for me. Argyle suffers from that problem the most.

I dated this guy. Nhamashal. He was fine. I was either going to pick him or Pyria. I picked him because he matched my house better. Lol.

As far as I’m aware there is practically zero benefit to befriend or romance anyone. There is no functional benefit and the NPCs have near nothing interesting to say so there isn’t an emotional benefit either. (This is partially untrue. Friends will give you the same empty radiant quests over and over. But you would have made more money going and doing other things. So I consider them a waste of my time.)

FaeFarm’s residents don’t have enough identity or dialogue to care about whether you exist or not. I don’t even think my husband sleeps in the house. He just kinda mills around the farm now.

FaeFarm is a good game. But it isn’t first on the list of games I would be apt to recommend to other people. I’d suggest Rune Factory and Stardew Valley over Faefarm. But if you were looking for something new and you’ve already played those games, FaeFarm is perfect.

And… again Faefarm is a strong introductory game. It has a good, decently quick but in-depth, tutorial on how the world works. But that’s all I consider FaeFarm. It’s an introductory piece. I disagree with this being the cozy game of the season. I would say that’s too generous of a compliment. But it does get a lot right.

I would recommend FaeFarm over Story of Seasons and Harvest Moon. I get that some people like the slower pace but I just think games like FaeFarm, Rune Factory, and Stardew offer more complete experiences. “Harvest Moon” especially has really fallen off. I don’t touch those games anymore. I moved over with the real Harvest Moon to Story of Seasons.

[year2000electronics]

what were your thoughts on isat, if you’d like to talk about it? it’s one of my favorite timeloop games so i love hearing others talk about it :)

AH YES lemme copy and paste some of my thoughts from discord

that was quite good i liked it! definitely up there with undertale and oneshot as a Real Good Meta Game. i think i *just* miss the target audience who really REALLY enjoyed it (i have a couple friends who loved it too) where the types of characters siffrin and the gang are just remind me of ocs that maybe some friends of mine would have but not me. but i say that very fondly.

likes:

- combat system! both simple and engaging

- art/character design! like i said, they feel more like ocs of a friend than true blorbos but i loved the aesthetics of the sadnesses. my favourite character design is odile!

- looping game mechanics! everything that was purposely designed to be tedious felt tedious in the exact “oh god i’m stuck in a time loop” way. i enjoyed how all the things you needed to get were scattered through different bits of time so eventually, every last bit of new stuff was squeezed away from me. it was neat. i remember doing odile’s companion quest too early and my heart sank as i realized i would have to do it *again* at some point. the act 5 stuff especially was neat because i saw my own mid-grinding thoughts being reflected in siffrin’s own dialogue and monologue towards our “friends” (who were exp-losing obstacles at that point!)

dislikes/neutral:

- this is my only real actual *game design* gripe, but i felt like some of the puzzles in act 3-early act 4 were a bit obtuse. a lot of them required talking to loop at a specific moment, or warping back and forth between the king. but the issue is that loop’s required text is often still greyed out! and also, they give you a “call loop for convenience” button but you can’t use it for the IMPORTANT conversations? idk. it was a little frustrating.

- some of the games dialogue/moments didn’t land for me quite as impactfully as i know it would for some others (namely just some stuff about the group dynamic, the way they interact, how they deal with the de-escalation at the end) but again like i said i think that’s just another side effect of the game catering to a niche of people that i’m very close with, sometimes even belonging to, but i’m also a “little to the left” of. i thought siffrin’s family was sweet, even if i’m not exactly like “i would die for them” so i think it does its job well despite siffrin the character clearly caring for these people way more than i do

- i was originally a bit confused and miffed that there were SO many unanswered questions about siffrin and the king’s country, about colours, about LOOP, and when act 6 ended i was like “wait hold on. WAIT COME BACK I HAVE QUESTIONS.” evidently, some of my friends let me know you do get answers WRT loop if you do secret stuff, so i know about Them now, and as i sit with the game more i do understand that it’s very much a “does it really matter what happened?” thing. but i want to know :( (also i thought the twist was gonna be that the king was another version of siffrin. uh oops that one was my bad.)

overall though it was very fun. i liked the story!

[oltammefru]

After having done IS4 D15 ending 3 here's my first impressions on the gamemode. Do note that I've only played this gamemode on D15 since a friend farmed difficulties/progression tree for me:

The squads are all relatively balanced, there's a lot of interesting options between them. I favored Support Squad in my first clears for early snowballing reasons but I think I'll likely play something like Scientism more once I learn the stages better. All the class squads seem relatively balanced with each too.

Lin is really goated she is so very useful.

The early game is incredibly fucking snowbally. If you do well early game and transition into midgame with a decent team, it is so easy to get to the point where the game is just over. In the run where I did 3rd ending, I had like 8 E2 6stars, 28 collectibles, and about 30 life + shields at the end of floor 3.

Objective shields, in particular, early game ones, are way more impactful. Often times they're the difference between an entire collapse level worth of collapse.

Collapse effects are far far more negatively impactful than rejections. I know a lot of people had a lot of issue with IS3 rejections but honestly I think they just rarely ever affected the game.

One thing I liked about the design of IS3 stages / the light system is that basically every stage is made much much easier if you choose to leak a few elites, and leaking on one or two stages is rarely enough to fuck up your run on your own. In contrast, in IS4, every leak you make is incredibly impactful and has long-lasting impacts. Life itself as a number only matters in the sense that once you leak once, there's not much of a downside to leaking more so you can use that to take hard stages you'd otherwise leak like 10 on. (I have a post planned analyzing leaking in IS3 vs IS4 and how it contributes to the various themes of the gamemodes.)

6 stars are even more dominant. Part of this is because of the fact that the +1 hope cost to 4 stars and above (proportionally) affects 6 stars the least, but also because hope is way more plentiful and you only have limited squad / deployment units, so you might as well spend your hope on the more slot-efficient units.

Collectible quality is much much higher. Basically everything is at least somewhat good, every variant collectible is just incredibly efficient for its effects.

Golden chalice is honestly kind of mid? Unlike other collectibles, which have instant effects, chalice takes a while to scale up, while not being great early game (which is the main point in time where you really want good collectibles, because of how snowbally IS4 is). It's also far from the most efficient thing you can do with your money, if you get a -50% shop even with chalice it's generally better to spend at least some of it?

Robbing shop on F3 is way way better as an option now (although I've done it quite a few times in IS3 too, I think it is an underrated option in IS3). The F1-3 rob combat is much much harder though.

There's a lot of combats with <25 enemies there seems to be an emphasis on combats with lowish enemy counts. Like I said before, in IS4 it is much more important to play stages perfectly than in IS3 but I do think this creates an interesting gameplay dynamic where like if you've accepted you're going to leak on like Musical Disaster (very easy to leak on that one!) it doesn't even feel that bad to leak a few more.

Emergencies give way more exp than normal commands (and the gap seems far bigger than previous ISes).

Foldartals are neat. I like them a lot. Some of them feel pretty imbalanced though, in particular the one that has an accord that turns selected nodes into Bosky Passages and maxes out your index is so stupidly good compared to most of the other high rarity bottom ones.

[risingoflights]

started playing xvi and i don’t feel any which way about the plot or characters yet BUT i AM rather enamoured with the combat system because like,

usually action game difficulty scales are just - enemies have more hp, you have less hp, bosses have super moves etc, which doesn’t quite address the real issues most people who are bad at those games (eg, me) have. but with xvi it’s like

you hate dodging? - item that does all the dodging for you

you suck at dodging but want to try anyway? - item that tells you when to dodge and gives you a bigger window to do so

you’re too distracted to command your sidekick? - item that ensures your dog knows what to do better than you do

you just want to advance the plot and don’t care at all for fighting? - item that does almost ALL the work, just push one button!

pro at action games or want to do all the work - just unequip all the above

and that’s really cool and good and not something i’ve seen in other games of this type before (not that i’ve played many games), and it feels like the devs really understand where most of the frustrations of gameplay lies, which is neat

(my only minor complaint with the above system is, the lore behind the items are pretty silly so i wish they were all just toggle options instead, but whatever, it’s still good)

[meggannn]

Do you happen to know any other games like transistor or Hades? sorry if it's so random but I got into them thru seeing them on your blog and have been looking for something along similar gameplay

if you haven't already, check out the rest of the Supergiant catalogue? they're also isometric action games, and although I haven't played them myself I hear good things:

Bastion—truthfully I tried this one and just couldn't get into it but it does look pretty and has good voice acting like all SG games

Pyre—honestly I've been meaning to play this for a while but I just haven't gotten around to it. it has middle child syndrome in that it gets looked over for its move hyped siblings but everything I've heard about it has been positive

I don't know if I can recommend anything with similar gameplay to Hades and Transistor, because I don't play a lot of roguelites and Transistor was so unique I'm struggling to think of a comparison. Supergiant has been really singular for me in combining storytelling with gameplay, the marriage of the two in Hades in particular I think was a masterclass akin to Portal (which I'd also recommend if you haven't played it). so a lot of these recommendations are just going to address parts of what I liked about Hades and Transistor, but not the whole package, really.

story-heavy RPG-light games with beautiful graphics with no combat:

Oxenfree—supernatural/coming-of-age story about a group of kids trapped on an island when a portal opens to another world

Night in the Woods—the story of Mae, a college dropout struggling with mental health, who moves back home to deal with friend and family problems... and something else that's in the woods

Afterparty—two friends die and get sent to hell. they hear the only way to escape is to challenge the devil to a drinking contest, so they travel the afterlife to do just that

Signs of the Sojourner—this is an interesting one where you travel to acquire goods to sell at your shop, but negotiating is difficult, and the cards in your deck will help you succeed in forging bonds in conversations. the more diverse cards you have, the more people you can interact with successfully, but you also risk losing the cards you started with, which will make your conversations back home difficult when you return to stock up.

action-heavy indie games, usually made me go "just one more map":

Apotheon—story set in a 2D Greek mythology world about a man challenged to take down the pantheon one god at a time

Into the Breach—the only other roguelite I've played, it's a turn-based strategy where you fight aliens on a grid system with robots, very Pacific Rim-esque

Cult of the Lamb—a roguelite about running your own cult full of animals. apparently it's big on the horror elements without being off-putting or too gory due to the cute graphics. I haven't played this but other people have recommended it!

Jade Order—a very short puzzle game with a neat map design

[lothricknightgirl]

Yo, Lancerblr

Figured I'd toss a few of these your way, grab some feedback. Haven't actually had a chance to play and stress test 'em yet, so I've got no clue how they'd fare in a combat situation, or if any of them are any good, really. Just threw together what I felt'd be neat in concept.

Even if this only gets one or two notes, I'm fine with that. Just felt like sharin'.

Personally, my favorite's split between Carrion Courier and Fog.

Beware, there are a LOT of words beneath the thing. Like, a-lot-a-lot-a-lot.

Here's Jane Doe, callsign Misnomer, with her mech Fog. She's a favorite, if you couldn't tell. Wanted for knowing a helluva lot more than she should and stealing a truly remarkable amount of prototype tech.

Mech Note:

"It's in the clouds! It's in the goddamn clouds!"

"Bank right, bank right, fuckfuckfuck FUCK-"

"I can't see, it's screaming, why is it so loud-"

"Sensors dead, I'm falling, shit, can't pull up!"

"Come into my parlor, said the crow to the spider to the fly."

» Jane Doe // MISNOMER « Spec Ops, LL9 [ SKILL TRIGGERS ] Act Unseen or Unheard (+6), Charm (+4), Get a Hold of Something (+2), Pull Rank (+2), Show Off (+2), Stay Cool (+6), Survive (+4) [ GEAR ] Light Hardsuit, Light Signature, Light A/C, Corrective, SSC Sylph Undersuit, Subjectivity-Enhancement Suite [ BOND ] THE BROKER Powers: SPIDER, CONTINGENCY PLANS, THE LEDGER

[ TALENTS ] Technophile 3, Hacker 2, Infiltrator 2, Ace 2, Skirmisher 2, Empath 1 [ LICENSES ] HORUS Goblin 2, HORUS Lich 1, IPS-N Caliban 3, SSC Dusk Wing 1, SSC Atlas 2 [ CORE BONUSES ] Kai Bioplating, Improved Armament, Mount Retrofitting [ MECH ] « FOG » IPS-N Caliban H:2 A:5 S:4 E:0 SIZE:0.5 STRUCTURE:4/4 HP:15/15 ARMOR:2 STRESS:4/4 HEAT:0/5 REPAIR:6/6 ATK BONUS:5 TECH ATK:2 LTD BONUS:0 SPD:5 EVA:13 EDEF:12 SENS:3 SAVE:16 [ WEAPONS ] INTEGRATED MOUNT: HHS-075 “Flayer” Shotgun FLEX MOUNT: Autopod / Thermal Pistol // Mount Retrofitting HEAVY MOUNT: HHS-155 CANNIBAL [ SYSTEMS ] Wandering Nightmare, Rapid Maneuver Jets, Neurospike, H0R_OS System Upgrade II, H0R_OS System Upgrade I

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And here we have Jane's former co-worker/war-buddy/mortal-enemy, John Blackacre, piloting the Carrion Courier. Spider-cowboy-mech. All the auxiliaries, all the close range brawl.

Mech Note:

"Okay, he's reloading, we can-"

SPANG-

"Okay, now he's reloading, get-"

SPANGSPANG-

"... Wait for it."

KERTHUNK, SCHERKERTHOOM-

"And he's reloaded. Fuck."

"How many of those things does he have?"

"... One, two, three-"

"Oh, christ."

» John Blackacre // SPUR « Spec Ops, LL9 [ SKILL TRIGGERS ] Act Unseen or Unheard (+4), Blow Something Up (+2), Charm (+2), Get Somewhere Quickly (+6), Read a Situation (+4), Stay Cool (+6), Word on the Street (+2) [ GEAR ] Assault Hardsuit, Archaic Melee, Light Signature, Smart Scope, Frag Grenades, Thermite Charge [ BOND ] THE WOLF Powers: GO FOR A WALK, BLOOD SCENT, POUNCE

[ TALENTS ] Gunslinger 3, Combined Arms 3, Exemplar 2, Tactician 2, Bonded 1, Grease Monkey 1 [ LICENSES ] IPS-N Raleigh 3, IPS-N Blackbeard 3, HA Iskander 1, HA Barbarossa 1, HA Genghis 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Gyges Frame, Integrated Weapon, Mount Retrofitting [ MECH ] « CARRION COURIER » IPS-N Raleigh H:2 A:3 S:0 E:6 SIZE:1 STRUCTURE:4 HP:21 ARMOR:1 STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:6 ATK BONUS:5 TECH ATK:-1 LTD BONUS:3 SPD:5 EVA:11 EDEF:7 SENS:10 SAVE:15 [ WEAPONS ] INTEGRATED MOUNT: M35 Mjolnir INTEGRATED WEAPON: Chain Axe / Hand Cannon // Mount Retrofitting AUX/AUX MOUNT: Hand Cannon / Stub Cannon FLEX MOUNT: Hand Cannon / Hand Cannon HEAVY MOUNT: Kinetic Hammer [ SYSTEMS ] “Roland” Chamber, Grounding Charges, “Roller” Directed Payload Charges, Reinforced Cabling, Personalizations

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And here we have Anne Queen, codename Wreken, former pirate warlord and currently freelance mercenary. Finds both Jane and John creepy as all get-out-of-fuck and yet enjoys scaring the shit out of grunts. Absolutely charming.

Mech Note:

Exerpt from training exercise no.55638, JUN-30, 0537, begin play::>>

"... Hey, where'd squad five go?"

The sergeant answers with another question. "Y'see that big red circle that just popped up on your map reticle, private?"

"...Yessir."

The old Tortuga's head nods and extends a hand, holding up five fingers, slowly putting them down one after the other.

On the final finger, thunder splits the skies in the distance, once, twice, thrice, and then with a final sundering THOOM, the circle disappears, along with the markers within it denoting the remains of squad 8.

"Oh."

The older mech crosses its arms. "Yes, private. Oh."

Out of the corner of his eye, his face lights up red, and he feels the color drain from it.

"We're in the circle, sergeant."

The sergeant nods, again. "Correct, private. Now, what we do in this situation?"

He doesn't even wait for the order. The circle was very, very, very big, and his Saladin's legs weren't the fastest.

» Anne Queen // WREKEN « Outlaw, LL9 [ SKILL TRIGGERS ] Act Unseen or Unheard (+2), Assault (+6), Blow Something Up (+6), Pull Rank (+2), Stay Cool (+4), Survive (+6) [ GEAR ] Light Hardsuit, Heavy Signature, Heavy A/C, Frag Grenades, Stims, Thermite Charge [ BOND ] THE TITAN Powers: TRUE GRIT, NOTHING TO FUCK WITH, ABSOLUTE MEAT

[ TALENTS ] House Guard 3, Siege Specialist 3, Heavy Gunner 3, Walking Armory 3 [ LICENSES ] HA Barbarossa 3, IPS-N Caliban 1, IPS-N Raleigh 2, IPS-N Drake 3 [ CORE BONUSES ] Integrated Ammo Feeds, Briareos Frame, Reinforced Frame [ MECH ] « WARSPITE » HA Barbarossa H:5 A:1 S:0 E:5 SIZE:3 STRUCTURE:4 HP:30 ARMOR:2 STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:6 ATK BONUS:5 TECH ATK:-2 LTD BONUS:4 SPD:2 EVA:7 EDEF:6 SENS:10 SAVE:15 [ WEAPONS ] INTEGRATED MOUNT: Apocalypse Rail MAIN MOUNT: Mortar MAIN MOUNT: Mortar HEAVY MOUNT: Howitzer [ SYSTEMS ] Ammo Case III, External Ammo Feed, Autoloader Drone, “Roland” Chamber, Siege Stabilizers, Armament Redundancy

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This is Cal Dera, callsign Crepescule. Nothing about her is reminiscent of faint rays of sunlight, more akin to its boiling surface. She specializes in punching straight through the frontline and making herself a very large fucking problem for everybody involved behind it. Walk into her zone? Melt. Attempt to go around or leave it? Get shotgunned to death.

Mech Note:

The 'tech stares. "What the fuck."

His co-shift nods. "Yeah, that tends to be what people say when they see her for the first time."

"I can feel the fucking heat from here, and we're behind triple reinforced walls in a vacuum. It's not even on yet?"

The co-shift shakes his head. "Nope. Reactor's not even burning yet."

"How the hell does this thing work near civilian centers?"

The co-shift paused in his preparations before eventually offering two words. "It doesn't."

He felt his mouth dry. "Ah."

» Cal Dera // CREPESCULE « Freelancer, LL9 [ SKILL TRIGGERS ] Assault (+6), Blow Something Up (+2), Spot (+4), Take Control (+6), Threaten (+6), Word on the Street (+2) [ GEAR ] Assault Hardsuit, Medium Signature, Heavy A/C, Thermite Charge, Personal Drone, Stims [ BOND ] THE PATHFINDER Powers: FREESOUL, LIGHTSPEED, MOMENTUM

[ TALENTS ] Ace 3, Vanguard 3, Nuclear Cavalier 2, Spaceborn 2, Pankrati 2 [ LICENSES ] HA Genghis 3, IPS-N Blackbeard 3, IPS-N Nelson 2, IPS-N Tortuga 1 [ CORE BONUSES ] Superior by Design, Reinforced Frame, Sloped Plating [ MECH ] « BEHEMOTH » HA “Worldkiller” Genghis Mk I H:3 A:0 S:2 E:6 SIZE:2 STRUCTURE:4 HP:22 ARMOR:4 STRESS:4 HEAT:0 REPAIR:5 ATK BONUS:5 TECH ATK:0 LTD BONUS:3 SPD:3 EVA:6 EDEF:10 SENS:5 SAVE:15 [ WEAPONS ] MAIN MOUNT: SUPERHEAVY WEAPON BRACING MAIN MOUNT: Deck-Sweeper Automatic Shotgun HEAVY MOUNT: Plasma Thrower [ SYSTEMS ] Spaceborn EVA, Explosive Vents, Auto-Cooler, AGNI-Class NHP, Reinforced Cabling, Siege Ram

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And since this is already quite fucking long, I think I'm going to stop here and leave whoever's willing to read through this word-vomit-spaghetti to chew through it.

Ciao, all. Let me know if any of these sound feasible, if you want.

[ravenwolfie97]

okay so initial thoughts on honkai star rail after i played like half of the tutorial bit this morning before work

first off, for the record, i have not played or heard much of anything about honkai impact 3rd and i have only played genshin impact pretty much since launch so my expectations were "genshin but sci-fi fantasy" but i can say that's not quite what i got (here’s a read more if you don’t care lol)

- immediately i notice that the graphics fidelity is gorgeous, very sleek and clean - it startled me a bit but also made me happy that the lip flaps are synced to the english dub! it seemed to flow really well even with the expression changes. the dialogue system doesn't seem all too different from genshin or. any other system like that. but it's got a pretty nice polish on the transitions between different states - the animation in the cutscenes and battles are really good, clearly they had a real talented team working on them. the characters feel so bouncy and expressive and it is pretty darn satisfying - the UI and interactive language is pretty much exactly the same as genshin with a sci-fi coat of paint. that's not a bad thing necessarily but like. it's pretty obvious - so the way combat and elemental powers work is very different from genshin, which frankly i should have expected, given this is a turn-based rpg. and i shouldn't have too much trouble with it, since turn-based rpgs are kind of a staple in my game roster, but for some reason i had trouble connecting with it. obviously finishing the tutorial would help, but it didn't feel as intuitive as i expected elements are presented in more of a traditional jrpg type of way where there are clear weaknesses you can exploit on enemies if you attack with a certain element. idk if i fully mean this but i think it kind of ruins part of the fun of discovering an enemy's weakness when the game itself just. tells you what it is off the bat also the types are weird in that they have pretty static effects in terms of what they do, the variability in moves is probably also explained further in character profiles but i haven't found how to look at that yet bkjljl - i'm fascinated by the ideas of Quantum and Imaginary types. what does that even mean. how do those manifest - i think it was a bit of a bold move to start the game off with two random characters talking about the world as if things are normal and known, and then having them influence your player character into. being in the plot not that i didn't like kafka and silver wolf. in fact i love both of them a lot. but i also had no context and had no goddamn idea what was going on so i was thrown pretty off-guard first thing which isn't exactly the greatest first impression lol - why is she named March 7th. does anyone know. is there a joke lost in translation or is it because she's like a pseudo-mascot character or. what - speaking of march actually i really want to like her but so far her character reeks of "hi i'm a girl". her skill is called "The Power of Cuteness" and one of her abilities is called "Girl Power" and so far her personality is cute, kind, and kinda stupid. it's a bit much. but she's neat - i have no big opinions on dan heng except he's neat and people keep saying he's the kazuha of star rail bc windy maple leaf boys but they're wrong bc dan heng has a stabby not a slicey and he can only hit one person at a time while kazoo thrives on the multi-hit AoE damage - i do love that the MC's weapon is just. a future baseball bat. that they get to smack people really hard with. no element, just big smack - oh yeah hyv loves to queerbait i guess cuz that wasn't CPR honey the twitter crowd wasn't kidding - i can’t think of anything else rn cuz it’s past midnight but star rail is neat and i like the little train rabbit dog mascot it’s cute and i wanna get past the tutorial hkjbjk

[grifff17]

Audiodrama Sunday 04/21/24

I started writing this before Sunday evening at 11:30 this week. Look at me! Caught up on a bunch of older stuff this week, along with the Midnight Burger season pilot and Stories from Ylelmore season finale. Lets get in to it.

To start off, I finished season 1 of @longcatmedia's Mockery Manor. I really like this show, they managed to put a major reveal into every episode without spoiling the mystery. I was totally suprised when the killer was revealed, I didn't see it coming it all. Excited to start the next season, which looks like a timeskip and a new mystery, possibly at a new park, judging by the description of the first episode.

Season 4 pilot of @midnightburgr! The highlight of the episode was absolutely Grand Theft Mucklewain, but there was a lot going on. Caspar's son! The diner not working! Ava has a job! My theory is that the reason the diner isn't working is that Effie and Zeb were gone, which fits with what happened in the s1 finale. In that case it's going to start working again soon, but I wonder if it's going to stay broken for a few more episodes. We haven't seen Ava trying to get herself fired yet!

I caught up on 30+ episodes of @breakerwhiskey this week. It looks like my theories on the end of the world were correct, although I didn't realize that it was specifically tied to Whiskey. It's kinda tragic that Whiskey finally meets another person, and he immediately tries to kill her. Though with the most recent episode she might be about to meet someone else.

@storiesfromylelmore released its season 1 finale this week! This was a neat take on a bodyswap episode, Keryth with werewolf powers was so much fun. We also got a ton of worldbuilding, this show has such a cool magic system. I want rules for a Ylelmore TTRPG now! Overall this was a great first season, I can't wait for the next one.

This week's @midstpodcast was really interesting. We've learned so much about the culture of the Trust, and now we're seeing what Trust counterculture looks like. In a place where it's always light, it's rebellious to be in the dark. Also Backpack??? So many people are in on it. In theory this should be less of a surprise that Mr. Loxlee, who is in a much higher status position, but it feels more jarring somehow.

I listened to season 14 of @lostterminal this week. Only 1 more season until I'm caught up! I thought the AI cult was really interesting. It makes sense that in a post-apocalyptic setting with lots of AIs, cults worshipping them would pop up, but it's so funny from the perspective of the audience who know Seth so well. I love that he dealt with the cult by being so frustrating that it eventually convinced them that he was not a god. Also, the description of Nia's house/radio hut in the first episode was so cool! I want to live there.

I'm continuing to listen to Skyjacks: Couriers Call. The theme song and outro song for this show are so good, they perfectly fit the tone of the show. Couriers Call fits perfectly in to the small range of actual plays that I like: audio only, little combat, and a heavy focus on characters.

That's it for this week. I really enjoy doing these writeups, I'm definitely going to keep up with this.