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weltato · 8 months ago

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The Ramble About Klavier (AA4 spoilers)

Going off this post I made a while ago, here's a ramble about everyone's favourite rockstar prosecutor :)

This is gonna be a long post, so I'mma put it under a cut, but the TL;DR is that Klavier's damage sprite hurts me physically and I absolutely think that Kristoph is the cause of it :)) Also, using Franziska as a bit of a comparison at points because I could go on about her as well honestly, but that's for a different post.

(obligatory headcanon disclaimer here)

*Warning for mentions of verbal abuse, if that's uncomfortable then please scroll on and stay safe!*

UPDATE: I wrote a fic! Read it here!

You still here? Grand.

This sprite hurts man.

(I couldn't find a gif file for young Klav, had to use the icky webp file from the wiki- I fucking hate webp it's such a stupid file type)

You see how it's the same? You see how both sprites are the same? They move exactly the same! Now, you could say that it's something related to the chord that plays every time we see the sprite crop up, but he's gonna be smart enough to know about ear protection when doing rockstar stuff. Could be a sensitive ears thing, or a cringe thing at the sound of the chord (bc it does sound bad, I'll grant that), but it's never said if Klavier has sensitive hearing or smth (afaik, bc I haven't seen SoJ yet). We know Athena does, but nothing about Klav.

So! Remember Kristoph? Remember how shitty of a person he is? Welp, in the same vein as Franziska's damage sprite making everyone go "ooh, MvK did bad things" I put forward that Kristoph also did bad things.

But not physically. Kristoph is a man who uses his words as his weapons until he just casually has to poison people and then stalk everyone for seven years bc a fangirl screwed up his plan.

The sprite when Klav's 17 is labelled as "Disbelief (Unused).

Sure, it's unused in-game, but they still made it and they made it exactly the same as present Klav!

But when he's older, it's simply listed as "Damage".

Damage is a word used for quite a few sprites tbh, since it's when they...well, take damage, from their opponent, either through scripted event or from player decision.

However! Going back to a point I made in the original post: Franziska has a different distinction. Her older sprite is listed as "Shocked" but her younger sprite is given the "Damage" title.

Look! Her sprites are different! It doesn't give any good vibes tbh, she's sort of holding herself higher up and more with both arms than with the one arm her younger self uses, but that's for a different ramble about Franzy. This is about Klavier.

Franzy goes from "Damage" to "Shocked", potentially meaning that whatever is being thrown at her doesn't hurt anymore, merely catches her off guard and this is a reflexive response.

Klav goes from "Disbelief" to "Damage", which tells me that his younger self refused to hear and his older self is now realising that things are SO much worse than he feared and that HURTS.

With Franziska, it's pretty obvious that MvK was a pretty distant parent in parenting terms. I mean, he was always there, sure, but he didn't really show much love and affection. Franzy realises this and carries on because that's how she was brought up. She can handle that. (Don't get me started on the cry sprite omg-)

Kristoph was the same.

All my homies hate MvK and those same homies should also hate Kristoph. His nickname was literally "The Coolest Defense in the West" - this man was known for being level-headed! He was known for being a cool, calm and collected person! You never know what's going on under that.

Klavier was absolutely verbally and emotionally abused. I don't think it was physical abuse in any way, and if anything happened then at most it might've been a slap in the face, but Kristoph doesn't strike me as someone who gets off on holding power over his brother by beating him. After all, Klav is in the public eye 90% of the time as a rockstar, he doesn't want to risk make-up being applied wrong and the paparazzi picking things up. Kristoph strives for perfection in everything (again, the wiki literally says this, although I'm aware that the wiki can be edited by anyone) and he sees it in his brother too: he wants Klavier to be perfect.

But then he went to be a prosecutor and a rockstar and that's...well that's not good, it might ruin the name he's made for himself if his little brother goes off gallivanting with people like that (poor Daryan). Kristoph sets impossibly high standards that Klavier just can't match because he's not the same as his brother, he's not like that, he cares about people and his decision to go study in Europe is met with more disapproval from Kristoph, but Klavier takes it all as brotherly encouragement because the boy is SEVENTEEN and there's an eight year age gap, surely Kristoph knows best...

Then we get to the final section of Turnabout Succession.

When presenting the nail polish, Klavier recognises it immediately because that's the brand his brother uses. When Apollo asks about his hesitation, he says it's nothing.

They never checked Vera's nails either and Klavier is unable to say anything because Apollo is on a roll and Klavier really hopes he's wrong, so he asks if the bottle belongs to Vera and Apollo asks back if he knows someone else with one of those...

"No." he says, "Just checking."

YES. HE. DOES! He knows immediately as soon as that nail polish is brought up, everything clicks and he's so distressed by it that he refuses to believe Kristoph could've done this. He's in prison right now, how could he poison someone??

And when the Judge isn't convinced by this, Apollo deals him the final blow.

"Prosecutor Gavin doesn't seem to think this is inconceivable."

No response. His face is unreadable, or maybe it's anguished, and when it's suggested to bring Kristoph up as a special witness, Klav says this: "I've known for some time that an impenetrable darkness lurked at the bottom of this. ...A darkness that has swallowed even myself."

He knows and it's time to face The Devil that orchestrated all of this.

Maybe he's known for a long time and only just removed the rose-tinted glasses he was seeing Kristoph through - and he's crushed by it.

When Kristoph is in the room, Klavier's words are especially defeated here. Kristoph even asks Klavier to explain what's going on.

"You're being accused again. By him. Again."

And when Kristoph asks if Klav agrees with this, he says nothing. What can he say? That yes, his brother is a dark man? That yes, he's manipulative enough to do this kind of thing? That, if given the chance, he do it again to get rid of everyone who's in his way?

Trucy even says in one of the pressed statements that Klavier "must be nervous with big brother watching!"

Kristoph even takes over from Klavier's Objection when Kristoph's pressed by Apollo about the likelihood of Vera wanting to poison herself. That bitch! He's so obsessed with control that he takes control over his own trial from his own brother who's trying to 'defend' him. When Trucy says the two together is a force to be reckoned with, Apollo notes that they could do with more teamwork.

In that pivotal last statement, Klavier acts more like his brother than he ever has in the whole game and Apollo picks up on that. Kristoph is the reason Klavier is acting different, the reason he's trying so hard to get Apollo to notice the difference - Kristoph is clearly the threat in the room.

Kristoph is cruel in public too, but only now that Apollo is cornering him. See, the abuse towards Klavier was only ever subtle in public and far more pronounced in the home, but in this trial there's nowhere for him to go and Apollo would pick up every detail. So, when Apollo brings up the stamp and Klav's taken aback by this, Kristoph takes that moment to pounce: "You've upset my poor brother to the point of uselessness. Allow me to clarify this matter[...]"

We all hate him, right? He's such a dick.

Klavier is quiet, just watching everything unfold since he has no way to confront Apollo when he himself believes that Kristoph is guilty, and when Kristoph worms his way out of things he belittles Klav: "Really, Klavier. You should be seeing through these weak-spined bluffs by now."

What can he say? It's the same kind of thing he was always told - that he should be better, always pushed further than he could go.

But then he doubles down. He's sick of this, sick of Kristoph always being the perfect brother. So he fights back and calls Kristoph the bluffer. Kristoph is shocked; never once has Klavier outright pushed back on him. So when Klavier starts to side with Apollo, Kristoph plays the game.

Now, I'm not going through the whole case beat for beat, but there's another point later on when Apollo goes "oh btw Phoenix didn't do this and lol here's evidence" and Kristoph tries to deny this by saying "oh but defense attorneys are only assigned the day before anyway" but Klavier objects and turns to Apollo, pleading with him because he needs to know the whole truth on this.

Even Kristoph is caught off guard because he thought he'd kept Klavier on his side but NO! NO HE DIDN'T! HAVE YOU SEEN HIS DAMAGE SPRITE HE'S HURTINNGGGG T^T

ahem-

Anyway, Kristoph tried to dismiss this and Klavier objects in his face and keeps his focus solely on Apollo - he even calls him by his actual name instead of Herr Forehead (which I think is kinda sweet actually but anyway-) and fuck man, this hurts me.

And as it closes in towards the end, when Phoenix's recording is mentioned and Kristoph says that his "brother is incapable of making rational judgments at the moment" (angy Wel grumbling) we soon get this:

I LOVE KLAV HAVE I SAID THIS YET!?

AND HERE'S THE KICKER:

KRISTOPH IS WORRIEDDDDD

AND KLAV DOESN'T GIVE A SHIT ANYMORE YES!

CAN YOU IMAGINE HOW GOOD THAT FEELS? HOW CATHARTIC THAT IS? THIS MAN WHO'S DONE NOTHING BUT CONTROL HIM AND USE HIM FOR HIS OWN BENEFIT AND BELITTLE HIM WHENEVER HE DOES ANYTHING EVEN OUT OF LINE IS FINALLY GETTING HIS COMEUPPANCE AT KLAVIER'S HANDS!!

OH it's great to watch, we love to see it.

Better still is the very end, after the breakdown, after Kristoph loses his cool:

The sass is strong in this line. To me, it's a final 'fuck you and everything you ever did to me' from Klavier.

We end on this line after the Judge says that nurturing is the task for all human beings: "Except for you, Kristoph. You aren't changing. You've stopped. You're not needed anymore."

And it's true. Klavier doesn't need Kristoph anymore. He's 24, he can live his own life and he doesn't need a cynical and condescending brother like Kristoph breathing down his neck every two seconds. He's broken free from Kristoph's control completely and he's relishing that.

So this is why his damage sprite hurts me to see. It's a point of pain and discontent, it's Kristoph lingering in Klav's head, it's the want to have a normal brother that loves him as he is and sees him as an equal. He got his first trial against him taken away, and we never know if there was another opportunity for the two Gavins to go up against each other again, but by the sounds of it there probably wasn't - and that's a good thing! If Kristoph had faced off against Klavier, it would have probably broken Klav's spirit to be a good prosecutor like we see in AA4 and to some extent in AA5 when he crops up in the Themis case.

On the whole, the damage sprite is a look into how Klavier hid from his brother's verbal abuse - by covering his ears and not listening to it. He didn't want it to be true, but it came at him anyway and he hated that. But it's also a parallel to how he feels about Kristoph: that is his brother and he can't bear the thought of Kristoph being not just a murderer, but also a scheming manipulator that's been skirting around the law he so desperately hides behind for seven years. Once again, he didn't want it to be true but it came at him anyway and he hated that he couldn't get away from it.

It's a good sprite, I won't lie. Great storytelling at the conflict between the two and that Klavier loves Kristoph probably more than Kristoph love him, but it still hurts me to see it because all I can think about is what kind of manipulation has Kristoph done to keep his power over Klavier. Kristoph is manipulative even to his own brother and there is nothing Klavier could have done about it. Throughout their interactions in the case there's this underlying current of "if I get out of this you're so dead" and that feels like it's been a thing forever between them.

I hope this makes sense because I should be writing my assignment rn and I just couldn't bc this has been taking up all the space in my head lol. I'm tirrrrrred, uni wears me out man >.>

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bluelocksource · 2 years ago

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Itoshi Sae’s trivia (source: twt & Egoist Bible 1 & 2).

"I'll see with my own eyes what kind of FW (idiot) will be born in Japan." (EB1)

"I'll show the next view only to the fools who can keep up." (EB2)

☆ Weapons: Kick accuracy, skills, tactical awareness, and physical ability—all at world-class level. (EB2)

☆ Character's colour: Adzuki bean color (reddish-brown).

☆ Nickname: ‘Japan’s Treasure’.

☆ Birthday: 10th October.

☆ Current age: 18 (3rd year of high school)

☆ Zodiac: Libra.

☆ Birthplace: Kamakura City, Kanagawa Prefecture.

☆ Family: Mother. Father. Himself. Younger brother.

☆ Current height: 180 cm.

☆ Foot size: 26.5 cm

☆ Dominant foot: Left foot.

☆ Blood type: A.

☆ Starts playing football: At age 1. “Before I knew it, I was playing soccer.”

☆ Team before returning to Japan: RE・ALE (レ・アール) Youth FC.

☆ Favorite food/drink: Salted kelp tea (shio-kombucha). “Because I can go back to 0.” (meaning he feels refreshed after drinking it)

☆ Disliked food: French fries. “It’s deadly delicious but it’s deadly to my health.”

☆ Favorite animal: Seagulls. “I like migratory birds that doesn’t stay in one place.”

☆ Favorite season: At the end of summer. "It seems that the world is starting to get lonesome."

☆ Favorite football player: Álvaro Recoba. “The left footer that casts a rainbow (perfect curve) on the pitch.” (Sae was referring to Alvaro quotes: “If today's game is on a rainy pitch, I'll draw a rainbow with my left foot.”. Álvaro is known for his curling-free-kick.)

☆ Favorite music: ‘Mercury’ by tofubeats ft. Seira Kariya. “I listen to this to cool down.”

☆ Favorite manga: Gegege no Kitaro.

☆ Favorite movie: Taxi Driver. “This De Niro is the coolest.”

☆ Favorite TV show: Chibi Maruko-chan. “It reminds me of home.”

☆ Favorite brand: “All of my sponsors. They know they're not crazy for betting on me, they have good eyes.”

☆ Hobby: Analysing data of football players and teams. “It’s easier to see the numbers in visualized data.”

☆ Mushroom shoots vs Bamboo shoots: “Depends on the mood.”

☆ What goes best with rice : Salted kelp (shio-kombu). “They don’t have it in Brazil, so I asked my parents back home to send some here.”

☆ What makes him happy: “A play beyond my imagination.”

☆ What makes him upset: Being forced to carry Japanese soccer on his back. “I’m talking about you guys.”

☆ What he thinks his strength is: He has flat ways looking at things. (meaning he look at things objectively) "People often calls me dry**, but who cares?"

☆ What he thinks his weakness is: The fact that he doesn’t know anything else other than soccer. “You guys shouldn’t live this way.”

☆ Favorite/Best subject: “I don’t know since I’ve only focus on soccer and didn’t pay attention in classes.”

☆ What made him cry recently: “Like I'd tell you, idiot.”

☆ Usual sleeping time: 8 hours (7 hours sleeping + 1 hour nap)

☆ Place he washes first when taking a bath: His bangs’ hairline.

☆ Fixation: Buttocks. “You’ll know an athlete's ability by the shape of their buttocks.”

☆ Number of chocolates received from previous Valentine: Around 2000. “That’s what my manager told me.”

☆ The first time he got confessed to: “I don’t remember which one was the first, octopus.” (here, octopus is just an insult like 'idiot' or 'fool', etc.)

☆ What will he do if received 100 million yen: “I’m not interested in such small amount of money.” “I don't care. It's just pocket change.”

☆ At what age he stops receiving presents from Santa: At age 10.

☆ What was his last wish from Santa: “My own talent that I have yet to discover.”

☆ How he spent his holiday: Gazing at the sea.

☆ What will he do during his last day on Earth: Give the world's best striker the world's best pass.

☆ Favorite historical figure: "Nicolaus Copernicus. A person who overturned the world's common sense."

☆ If he hadn't encountered soccer, what will he be doing: "Probably living a normal, happy life. My personality might not have been like this."

☆ If he could only take one thing to a deserted island, what would it be:�� "Nothing. I’ll live freely without rules."

☆ If he had a time machine, would he go to the past or the future: "I’m not interested in either. I won’t have any unnecessary expectations or disappointments about my past or future. Live in the now. You guys are annoying."

Last updated: 31/10/2024

*Not sure about the exact pronounciation but the most of the translation says 'Les Halles'. Updated! (25/7/2024)

Spelling of Sae's team, レ・アール : Left image: RE・ALE. This was from months ago (twt).

Right image: RE・EARL. The left image is from the recent twt :

** In Japan, there are terms called ‘dry person’ & ‘wet person’. ‘Dry person’ is someone who can think rationally without being overwhelmed by emotions and because of their calm demeanor, they are thought to be cold and unapproachable. ‘Wet person’ is the opposite of ‘dry person’.

note: i want to apologize in advance for any mistake made in the translation!

#blue lock #itoshi sae #trivia: itoshi sae #trivia: profile #bluelocksource #trivia #to those who reblog before changes made i'm really sorry #there was no info on his 'visual acuity'#he doesn't have bad eyeseight #really sorry about that #admin han #our translation #last update on 14/11/2024

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styrmwb · 3 days ago

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I Beat The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

You're beaten!

This was definitely a game I kept looking at in my backlog like "I should play you", and finally, I marked it off the list. I really love Elder Scrolls; Oblivion is one of my top 3 favorite games of all time (Skyrim is good but I find myself liking it less as time goes on), so to really feel real I had to get more experience under my belt. Also helps that I wanted to finally completely and fully understand what the fuck those insane people on TrueSTL were talking about (I still don't think i do)

Regardless, this game is incredible.

Gameplay

For the most part, the core of charactering and RPGing is the same as Oblivion. The skills are the same (with some extras!), the stats are the same, the leveling skills for more stats on level up is the same, class building, etc, etc. So I have that background knowledge that eases the possibly jarring feeling of "older RPG that is very grindy" (Did you know FFXI also came out in the same year as Morrowind? I like these games). The differences between Morrowind and Oblivion though (other than those extra skills), are mainly in the combat. This game is completely dice roll. It's ALL math. Yeah, there's some "action" or "skill" in that you don't have to deal with a dice roll if you're not in the place to get hit, but when you hit it's still math. This is... frustrating. In the early game. I'm STABBING you why aren't you dying? But as you get stronger, it exponentially speeds up your ability to grow and feel powerful, and it honestly feels really good to Get Stronger.

Going from there, some of the most fun I had was number go up, trying to level my skills in an optimal way to get the most stat increases on level up, it's such a big dopamine source, though I do feel like I got lost in the math sauce a little bit and did that rather than actually playing the game by doing quests or going to fight and stuff. This wore off obviously once I got to higher levels and didn't have Number to Go Up, and towards the end I was purely focusing on quests.

Beyond leveling and combat, another core part of the game I really really liked was NPCs and dialogue. Oblivion and Skyrim are fully voice acted, and have pretty limited responses in how you can interact with them. Morrowind is all text (other than when you're walking around or occasionally when they speak. So maybe not all text. Mostly text.), which leads to some really cool interactivity. You can click on certain words and phrases in dialogue to unlock more dialogue; it kinda reminds me of FFII's keyword system. I love this. It encourages you to read so much and click everything and because it's all text there's so much range and freedom for the devs to put down whatever. It even extends to making random NPCs feel a little more placed in the world. You can talk to nearly anyone and get a bunch of info and it's awesome. Though after a while when you've read everything people start to get more predictable and less fun.

I think one of the coolest parts of how the game plays is how... sandbox it is. There's a few things that factor into this; spellmaking, enchanting, alchemy, and how the math stacks up. You can loop alchemy into itself by making stronger and stronger potions. You can make stupid strong spells and effects. If you want, of course. You can jump halfway across the map, literally fly around, do stupid fireballs or whatever. It's awesome; with the game's base and... glitches? exploits? you can pretty much do whatever you want. Or you can not, too. I think having those options are really needed. The way I played it was I used alchemy for "temporary cheat potions"; things like "I don't want to walk here's a 40 pt levitate" or "this fight's too hard here's a really good restore hp potion". I also had a 100 pt jump spell that was REALLY handy when I had high enough Acrobatics. The world becomes your oyster.

I guess the last bit I wanna talk about is back on the combat. Less on the dice roll, and more on the actually what you do. Something I thought was really cool was how weapons have different moves you can do based on how you move. Like I used spears mainly so I wanted to go back and forth to use the Thrust for max damage. Or when I used an axe I'd strafe side to side for the swing. It was awesome and really cool. Though right at the end of the game, some enemies became so damage sponge and my gear/potions were enough to keep me alive so it was just forward back forward back stab stab stab for 3000 years and that's not very fun.

Setting/Vibes

Before I get into any story or anything, I HAVE to talk about the world. Morrowind/Vvardenfell is one of the coolest, most unique settings I've EVER seen in any game ever. A volcanic island with mushroom trees everywhere, weird lizard creatures roaming around, cities that look like pyramids made of sewers, buildings that feel right out of Star Wars, nomad tribes that wander the ash wastes; it's so fucking cool dude. I was talking with a friend and we mentioned how it's no wonder some people only play this game, cause there's not another game that feels anything like it.

The visuals are incredible too. From moment on on the title screen, the logo has this strange drawn, sketched look to it. So do the loading screens, showing off enemies that look like they're concept art coming to life. Then you actually get into the world, and you see these paintings that give off the same vibe in that dirty, brown world. The game is very messy, very gritty, and I love it. It adds to that sense of strangeness and the alien nature. The world is so weird, dude; and I wouldn't have it any other way.

I guess if I had to compare it to real life... it felt... Middle Eastern? A little bit? I think it's the text font, with the "desert" location (if the desert was made of volcanic ash), and the buildings in Balmora. But that's even not quite right, cause like, where do you put the mushroom trees, the swamps, the whole city of Vivec? The Ashlanders felt very Mongolian/Hunnic, but not too much that they felt like a direct rip. Just enough for inspiration, but still feeling unique.

Speaking of cities, I love them all. Balmora was definitely my main hub home for convenience, but I just loved the small city vibe it had near the river. Vivec is stupid huge but an amazing concept with the cantons, as well as that meteor hanging over. Ald'ruhn having a giant, live in crab with HUGE manors inside is the sickest shit ever. I also really like Gnisis, the temple in the center and all the shacks around it makes it feel like a religious city. Then there's Sadrith Mora and all the other Telvanni towers; giant mushroom and vine towers made for mages that swirl and curl around. It's so unique and cool.

Story/Lore

Kind of a continuation of the last section. When I say visually the game is very grimy, the lore feels just as much as well.

Morrowind is a newly integrated province of the Empire. You walk into a culture full of Dark Elves/Dunmer upset about their culture being overwritten by the Empire (and others not so but that's what makes a realistic world). The Dunmer culture is full of Saint/Daedra worship, Slavery is commonplace, the Great Houses rule over the land with shrewd business sense, traditional warrior culture, or "fuck off let me be an asshole" wizards in their towers. The people of Vvardenfell hate "outlanders" and will let you know constantly (this game calls you slurs before online CoD lobbies ever did!). Society has officially sanctioned murders that people are used to. Most important of all is the worship of the Tribunal, 3 living gods; mortals with godlike power that lead their people. It's not at all what you would see in Cyrodiil/Oblivion. Beyond main civilization are the Ashlanders; nomadic tribes that pray for the return of the Nerevarine to cast down the Tribunal as false gods, drive the outlanders out, and to unite the Dunmer once more. You're thrown into this land that fucking hates you. Yet you're sent to investigate and save it regardless.

It's such a raw world to explore. I don't think I've ever played a game that feels so... oppressive? Sure, you make friends. You eventually become beloved. But there's just something about how everything is presented that never makes you feel welcome, and I think that's awesome.

The story of your journey itself is really cool. The Emperor himself sends you, a nameless prisoner, to this island, cause he believes you match the Nerevarine Prophecies; someone that is the reincarnation of Lord Indoril Nerevar, the greatest hero the Dunmer ever known, and close friend of the gods of the Tribunal themselves. During the main story, you learn of the coming threat of Dagoth Ur and the Sixth House, another former friend of Nerevar, outcast, rejected, and betrayed by his comrades, now returning in a twisted way to corrupt and take over Morrowind.

I feel like I can't really do a plot summary justice without making it the size of the whole blog post. But the journey is incredible. So much of it is learning about the past, and about the culture of the land. It feels like a big part of the story is learning about the mystery of what happened to Nerevar, what happened to the Dwarves/Dwemer that disappeared during the Battle of Red Mountain, how the Tribunal got their powers, and why Dagoth Ur ended up the way he did. You find out how all of these bits are connected, and even though you literally talk to primary sources, even they are biased to where you're never QUITE sure about what really happened that day. One of my favorite quests is when you're first learning about the Nerevarine Prophecy in detail, learning from an Ashlander Wise Woman. It's just a shit ton of reading and text and seeing what your character matches, what you can still do to meet those prophecies. It was amazing. The final boss scene against Dagoth Ur might be my favorite compared to Oblivion's siege of Imperial City and Skyrim's Alduin in Sovngarde. You have a full conversation with this man, as he asks you questions of who might be his once beloved friend ("friend"), and you ask what this madman is planning; before you fight near the giant corpse-looking artifical god robot Dagoth is building out of the heart that the Dwemer used to ALSO try to make an artificial god robot that eventually disappeared them from the whole world. It's one of the most unique things I've ever seen. Sure, the gameplay itself might not be super exciting (though hitting the Heart of Lorkhan with Sunder and Keening was really cool, and how Dagoth can fall off the bridge afterwards is neat), but conceptually, with a bit of imagination, it's amazing.

Also, not a built in narrative, but my character was an Argonian (I always play Argonians they're #1). The concept, or the narrative, or whatever, of the reincarnation of this great war hero, this man that's supposed to drive the outlanders out, instead being this woman from low class, a member of the race they use for slavery, someone that HATES how this culture treats others, being their final salvation? I dunno man, it's something special. Argonian Nerevarine is canon, I don't care what people say it works the best

Again. I can't do a summary justice. It's something you really have to play to fully understand and appreciate. But it's something magical for sure. There's nothing like it.

Side Quests/Guilds

It's an Elder Scrolls game. The main story is like, 2% of the game. I did as many of the factions as I possibly could. But something neat about this game is you CAN'T join everything, some of them are mutually exclusive. I guess I'll just go one by one.

Mages Guild - The first one I started with, since my character was primarily magic at the start. This one was probably my favorite? The questgivers you deal with all have their own flavor of tasks; Ranis in Balmora is very brutal, Edwinna in Ald'ruhn is focused on learning no matter the cost, Skink in Sadrith Mora feels like a more moral mix of both. Then you deal with Trebonius, the incompetent Arch Mage who just casually asks you to figure out where the Dwemer went cause he's an idiot. The Mages Guild is full of memorable characters.

Fighters Guild - I mean, it's the Fighters Guild. The quests aren't very memorable (except for the pillow lady that was hilarious). What is cool though is the war with the Thieves Guild that's involved. Those two are mutually exclusive, and you find out that the Fighters Guild is in the pocket of the Camonna Tong, the local crime guild of Morrowind; and you can choose to go along with it, or take the corruption out by force (which is what I did). Super cool, lot of choice involved.

Imperial Cult - Probably the worst faction in the game. Full of not very fun quests such as Literally begging for money, and not really any cool story. I did like Kaye's Shrine Sergeant quests though.

Imperial Legion - MUCH more interesting. There's not much of an overarching story here, but there are interesting individual quests that lead to some cool worldbuilding, and they're more varied than the Fighters Guild. I really liked Darius's quests in Gnisis.

Tribunal Temple - A really cool worldbuilding questline that gives you more information on Dunmer culture, and has a wider variety of quest types. I also like how it melds with the Main Story, as the Nerevarine is shunned by the Temple, so of course if you progress in a certain order they'll hate you.

Morag Tong - Your basic "dark brotherhood go kill people" type questline. Not interesting in that sense, but it's cool lorewise how this is an officially sanctioned murder group, and the secret base in Vivec is really cool. I love the reactions that NPCs near the murder have. There's one where everyone was expecting you to come, and the vibe is very somber.

Great House Hlaalu - One of the 3 Great Houses, next to Redoran and Telvanni. I joined this one cause I was roleplaying my character as an abolitionist type who did not care for Morrowind's native culture of slavery and hating outlanders, so she joined up with the furthest from that (fuck the Telvanni lol). This one is another one filled with memorable characters, from the writer of the Lusty Argonian Maid, Crassius Curio himself, to the whole Dren family and the conflicts between them. A lot of reading based quests, which I really appreciated.

Twin Lamps - Not a real questline, nor a joinable faction, but something I have to mention. Having an actual group of people, and a sort of reward for freeing slaves across the island is SO cool, and I'm really glad it exists. Perfect for giving the world more depth, and it lets me help my lizard brothers and sisters.

Overall, I do think I like Oblivion's guild quests more, but Morrowind's were really cool, and for the most part they all offered something different and unique (Imperial Cult is the exception that one stunk)

Tribunal

I also did the DLCs before I considered the game "complete". They're... fine. Not the best. Tribunal, the first one (which I thought was the second one but I guess not?) is like, the Rise of the Zilart. It's an expansion that's like a direct main story continuation. It takes place in Mournhold, a city on Morrowind's mainland, away from Vvardenfell, and you deal with Almalexia, one of the Tribunal. Mournhold is... very small. Claustrophobic, even. And half of the DLC takes place in underground sewers and caves which just felt like one big dungeon I kept having to go into and it was exhausting and I didn't like it. It did have good side quests though, I think; and the final set piece of fighting Almalexia near the rotting corpse of Sotha Sil in his clockwork city was really cool. Probably my least favorite part of the game. I do think it was really cool to meet Barenziah though, a lore figure I've read about in books for years now.

Bloodmoon

Bloodmoon on the other hand, is not connected to the main story, is not claustrophobic, and I liked it a little more. It takes place on Solstheim, the same place as Skyrim's Dragonborn DLC, and you deal with the Empire landing on this island, as well as its Nord native inhabitants and their Bloodmoon Prophecy, all leading up to a confrontation with the Daedric Prince Hircine. Having the freedom of an open island I could jump around was really refreshing. While I didn't care for the main quest, maybe cause I was starting to get burnt out, but I don't feel like it transitioned into Hircine well enough. I did really like the East Empire/Raven Rock storyline though. Another questline where choices actually matter, I went for the one that lets it succeed. It was cool to see it slowly built. Similar to Tribunal, seeing the origins of stuff we see later, and the origins of how this island came to be in the modern times was awesome.

This is the end of you, S'wit!

The thing about big games is they have big posts. Morrowind is a very big game. There were still something I didn't do, but that's ok; I was ready to move on when I was at the DLCs.

Doesn't change the fact that this game is incredible. It's old, it's janky, there's Cliff Racers everywhere, but it's magical. It's game that is truly fully unique, a world you can get completely lost in.

Final note on something that I didn't mention before but I wanted to talk about (and couldn't figure out where to put it): Bethesda games are notorious for being crashy glitchfests. I played this game with no unofficial patch, and honestly? It was pretty stable. It did crash a couple times, but the absolute worst bug I ran into was whenever you enter a cell, NPCs shift slightly more and more until they're way out of place, and I had to use a command to reset them. But that's honestly nothing.

I think I still like Oblivion more, but I would attribute a good chunk of that to nostalgia. This is absolutely a world you should try to immerse yourself in though, and if you're not a fan of story and reading? Well, then there's still joy in making stupidly broken potions and blasting all of Vvardenfell's denizens with lasers and fireballs and shit as you LITERALLY fly around.

9.5/10. One of, if not the most, unique world I've ever played through in my life, with a really fun sandbox to play with on top of it. It's old and a little janky, but that doesn't cancel its wonder.

#elder scrolls #morrowind #tumblrshape #games i beat in 2025 #jared's game ramblings

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grahamkennedy · 3 months ago

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5 & 9 for special interest !!!

I'm so sorry I took so long to answer this ask, but I've been thinking about it for ages and I decided I should actually get around to answering it dlkjljgljldjglkj

5. Share something cool about your special interest with us?

The thing about special interests is it all seems cool to me, and so it's hard to pick something off the top of my head. To me Graham Kennedy is the coolest, most interesting guy to ever walk the Earth, so this is suuuuuch a difficult question.

BUT something that people find really interesting whenever I talk about Graham is that most people don't realise just how famous he was in midcentury Australia, especially Melbourne. Some anecdotes regarding the early days of his TV fame are insane. Like, a teenage girl once trespassed into the studio when he was filming In Melbourne Tonight and declared her love for him. He had his own little horde of teenage fangirls in the late 1950s and early 1960s and when you see photos and footage of him when he was just starting out on TV you can understand why teenage girls would go insane about this little twink man.

The level of "Grahamania", as I've termed it, was such that people would tear pieces off his suit if he ventured into the audience during shows. He said in a 1964 interview with Australasian Post (which I'm planning to scan and upload to my archive blog after the long weekend, it's very interesting) that he couldn't even go into his backyard because people would peer over his fence and yell for him to come out and give an autograph. There's a used cigarette butt of his currently in the National Film and Sound Archives of Australia because a 14 year old girl picked it up off the ground and then kept it for 50 WHOLE YEARS.

People are really baffled by just how fucking famous this guy used to be, because so many people, especially younger people, have no clue who he was.

9. Are there any parts of your special interest that you dont like?

Listen, he was a white Australian man working from the 1950s to 1980s, some of his comedy is really, really dated. Like, mindbogglingly racist and sexist. Also, especially in his later years, he was huuuuge dick and a pretty hardcore workplace bully. I used to feel really, really guilty about Graham being my special interest, and so I used to have a love hate relationship with him on here. But I've mellowed out a lot, and I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing to be fascinated with a complicated person. I no longer feel the need to provide the caveat "well he wasn't always a great person" every time I talk about him.

There's conversations to be had about how bigoted his work could be, and how he treated the people he worked with (and maybe his lovers, but I'm really not sure if Rob Astbury actually was his lover. I don't imagine him being a great romantic partner, but we know very little about his love life that is actually verifiable).

But these are conversations that need to be approached in good faith. Not by people who want to stick their head in the sand and go "young people nowadays are sooooo sensitive and can't take a joke", of course. But in the black and white world of Tumblr, where nuance is fake, it feels like pushing a rock up a hill trying to make people understand that none of what he said and did justifies the way he was abused and exploited by the Australian television industry (often specifically because he was gay) and that also, there was stuff he made that was outstanding and stands the test of time.

His comedy still feels, to me, like it understands gay/queer Australian masculinity better than anything else. Blankety Blanks will always be closer to my own performance of masculinity as a gay Australian man than Priscilla Queen of the Desert ever will be.

So yeah, there's a lot of his work I really don't like. He could be very bigoted in his artistry, and very cruel as a person. But I'm glad I've moved beyond "he was a shitass comedian and I'm just studying him like a bug" because I was worried about being deemed Problematique.

Special interest ask game!

#crow calling #this answer was really fucking long lmao #special interest #special interest ask game

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chirpchirplol · 7 months ago

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snake secondary and video games

I play a lot of video games and I haaaaaate when a game wants me to draw out maps or write down stuff on paper. like, I'm playing a game, the reason I am playing a game is that I don't want to write down notes, if I wanted to take notes I'd go back to school. I also don't like missable content or games that want you to find one optimized solution with strict timing. I don't have the patience for that so I usually just go on gamefaqs and follow the guide, which takes some of the fun away. weirdly I do like speedruns, but mostly watching people exploit glitches and break shit. one speedrunner got a regular-ass copy of super mario world to turn into flappy bird which is the coolest shit ever.

my favorite genres are roguelikes and puzzle games, and one of my favorite puzzle games is Baba Is You. if you're not familiar with it, the gimmick is that the rules of the game are physical objects that you can push around or change. you're penned in by walls because there's a rule that WALL IS STOP. but push that STOP out of the way and you can now walk through those walls.

one of the reasons I like Baba Is You is that you can approach it in multiple ways. it's very much a Systems Game and it appeals to people who like to figure out the underlying system behind the rules. every level is specifically designed to teach you something about an interaction with the rules, which often behave in ways that aren't your first intuition. they're really tightly constructed, the developer has talked about how he didn't want levels to feel chaotic or aimless

but there is A LOT of flexibility in how you do that. you can sit down and think about all the implications of the rules and assumptions you might have that are wrong, which absolutely gives you a good foundation for future puzzles. or you can just try various things, see what happens, see how those things could be useful to you. which absolutely solves levels, and the game has infinite undo so it isn't even annoying.

or maybe you don't want to focus on the rules first. you can look at the level itself and ask yourself "how am I going to win? where do I need to be, what do I need to be, what does the board have to look like, why are these specific things here?" and work out a whole plan of attack, start to finish, and then when you actually do the solution it's just pressing keys. or you can just plunge in and figure that out in stages as you go, "ok what am I doing now, what moves are available to me." both of these work. usually you'll do both to some extent

or you can also find a way to totally bust the level until it's your playground. the designer really went to lengths to make it hard for people to find solutions other than the intended one, and he's patched a lot of cases where players did. but he didn't get them all, and the feeling of finding a new one is so cool.

the moral of the story is idk why I even doubted my secondary, I legitimately think you could just put a baba is you level in front of someone and you'd find out their secondary within 15 minutes

#sortinghatchats

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stoopidnightcrawler · 6 months ago

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Well hello there. Thus time i got only quick weekends. Now I'm gonna talk about Bloodborne. In general it's gonna be about the Blood Gems. As you can see, I giving you a box with a young jeweler set. That is mean you can do with that gems sorts of things. Didn't understand? Well I'll explain now.

One of the main problems with weapons in Bloodborne is the lack of adequate gems.

I mean, yeah. You can play the game without any gems at all, but the game isn't designed for that kind of play. The game wants you to put strong gems on yourself and fight your way through enemies with a decent fight. The only issue with the game is that the game doesn't really like to give you gems.

I understand you can farm them from winter lanterns, from dungeons, but often you will have gems in the category "+19% arcane damage, -8hp per second", when you want a gem for "+24% lightning damage, +15 lightning damage, +3% stamina cost".

What's most offensive is that you CAN get gems in the main game from winter lanterns, but they are designed only for physical damage (blood damage included), and it seems like they didn't even think about our brothers through arcane.

But... what if you could craft gems. So, you have 2 gems that have "+19% damage, -50 weapon durability/+2.6% stamina cost", you fuse them together, and the new gem has "+23% damage, +3% stamina cost". Plus, this process leaves you with nugget shards that you can assemble into a new gem if you have enough. And best of all, you can fuse those shards into an elemental gem.

Well, agree. THIS IS AWESOME! In addition to the fact that you can mine and make a set of strong gems, in exchange you get a non-standard gem that you can use for experiments. And this is just one of the options.

How about mixing non-standard properties, like "23% damage, +9% piercing damage"?

Or crush excellent bloodtinge gems (+32% blood damage) and use their fragments to assemble shotgun gems (+20 bloodtinge scale, +15 blood damage)?

//That numbers i taking from skies.

The concept itself, that you can remake gems for yourself, probably recommends itself well. Especially for those players who can't get the necessary gems in the main game. But let's say this was sewn into the game. How would it be balanced so that players don't farm 150 small runes and make an ultra-bending stick?

Well.. I have some thoughts on this matter. Let's start with the fact that these tools will be 3-tiered. Let's say they will differ in the set and quality of the tools. And at first, it will be possible to solder only pure gems, without curses. And the heredity of their properties will be absolutely random, both in effects and in form.

The next level of the set will be in Yaar'gul. What? Yes, I'm from Yaar'gul, what can you do to me? But! The fact is, these tools CAN already work with cursed gems. But nevertheless, the heredity will also be completely random, but then. Now these tools can collect fragments, from which you can make effects that are not typical for parent gems. And so, you can get physical and elemental fragments from the gem, from which you can already collect the full-fledged gems you need. At the same time, both in working with full-fledged ones and with those created from scratch, you can already choose the shape of the gem (even a drop-tier shape).

Well, the last one, the coolest one, let's say.. Yes. You will have to go down into the bowls. Right in front of Queen Yharnam, lies the wayward Ho-hunter, who died and left the coolest set of tools on himself. With them, you can not only work with cursed gems, but also choose what shape the gem will be.. BUT. Also choose which of the parent effects the new gem will receive.

For example, you can cross a gem to increase strength and dexterity scaling gems. But, you do know that there are NO gems for agility that can reach the same level as strength?

//Well, technically the sequence of power growth may be the same as other gems, we just don’t have access to the effect and we just haven’t discovered it, but that’s not the point.

But now, by crossing the gem of strength and dexterity, you can make a gem of dexterity yourself, which is as powerful as the gem of strength (+65 dex scaling).

Well, you must admit, it would be much cooler than... being an Arcane enthusiast, being forced to switch to physical damage, without adequate scales, simply because the gems from the winter lanterns overpowered your scales without the proper Arcane gems.

Besides, the stuffy farming of one gem will bore any Bloodborne enthusiast. Therefore, in the long run, such mechanics will be the opposite of a winning one. Instead of long and monotonous farming of the Brain Sucker, Bloodgulper Beast, three fatties, etc. it would be better to cross-breed gems and increase their natural power. I think many long-time Bloodborne players will agree with this position. If not, then please. The comments are open and you can always share your thoughts. In the meantime, bye-bye!

#Spotify #artists on tumblr #fromsoftware #fromsoft games #bloodborne #art #sony #my art #my oc art

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marina-the-witch · 1 year ago

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My Souls Hot Takes

Decided to write up a couple of my less popular opinions for souls games. Please don't get upset over any of these, if you disagree that's totally valid

Dark Souls 1:

Bell Gargoyles is my favorite base game boss

I don't like Ornstein and Smough that much

Gwyn's theme is nowhere near as sad or dramatic as its made out to be in my opinion

Painted World isnt fun to me at all

Tomb of the Giants isnt that bad

I miss the whimiscal 80s fantasy aesthetic the series lost in the following entries even if i understand it narratively

Dark Souls 2:

I'm not just a hater or fail to appreciate an underrated gem, I simply dont enjoy this game

I think Darklurker is mid and the runback gimmick is stupid

The world and lore arent that much better to me than any other souls games and dont save the game

Life Gems are actually pretty okay

Old Dragonslayer is really not that big of a deal

Royal Rat Vanguard is the single worst boss in souls to me

Fume Knight is just kinda alright to me, I enjoy Sir Alonne much more

The health cap loss fucking sucks i hate it

Its perfectly fine to both love and hate this game please calm tf down

Dark Souls 3:

Soul of Cinder isnt that exciting, I might just be biased though bc i started the DS games with 3

Jailers arent that bad, Thralls are way worse

Ancient Wyvern kinda funny tbh

I really really dislike Sister Friede

The random wolf guy in ariandel is the wost boss in 3

Corvian Knights are the coolest enemy in the trilogy

The game isnt actually as ugly and monotone as people say

Pontiff Sulyvahn is sooooo mid to me I could not care less for his parry bait jojo stand ass goofy fight

Yhorm is such a nothing boss without the siegward narrative to me

Demon Prince solos literally any other duo boss and its not even close

R1 and O spam is a dark souls staple to me, not DS3 exclusive at all

Dragonslayer Armor and Oceiros are insanely underrated

Sekiro:

Demon of Hatred actually slaps

Corrupted Monk actually slaps

Great Shinobi Owl is really mid to me, too gimmicky

Guardian Ape has the same issues as DoH just to a lesser extend

The 2 giant beast (serpent and carp) area hazards are so good

Souls should give underwater another shot imo

Most of the minibosses are kinda bad to me

Bloodborne:

Laurence is actually peak

Not really a fan of Maria's fight, gonna replay the game soon to see if it'll finally click

Winter Lanters are pretty cool

Micolash fans are weird why are there so many

Yharnam Sunrise is the most boring ending of any souls game

As much as i would love it, I cant feasibly see a logical contuination of the Bloodborne universe

Saw Spear mid idc

Chalice Dungeons are both infinitely better and worse than people say I really dont know how to feel about them

Simon's Bowblade is one of the coolest weapons in fiction

Elden Ring:

Morgott is underrated

Dragons are underrated

Placidusax's theme is kinda eh to me

Radahn and Malenia are equal, both fandoms can stfu, it said fought to a standstill for a reason

Rykard is genuinely a good fight even with the gimmick in mind

I don't care for vyke, frenzy, shabriri or any other madness hoobla

I hate using great spears so much

Summons are VALID. If they were cheating they wouldnt be in the game. Get over yourself

Idc how much you can counter it I dont like malenia's waterfowl dance and health regain

Godskin Duo isn't that bad, the REAL enemy is valiant gargoyles

Royal Revenants, Birds and Runebears at least have the decency to be rare... Imps and Lobsters though

Volcano Manor is underrated as fuck, such a unique level for a souls game with so much cool lore and visual flare

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bettsfic · 1 year ago

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bg3 build: beast priest (shadowheart respec)

i'm playing around with some new builds! after scrounging the internet for good build guides, i didn't find any that i thought were interesting. in my current playthrough, i'm trying to respec all the companions to be the classes they would have chosen without their various traumas.

the beast priest is my respec for shadowheart. if you haven't noticed, shadowheart's basic build isn't great. when you find her, she's already level 1, which means the game chooses her subclass for you: trickery domain. and that doesn't make sense at all, narratively or for the stats she's been assigned. so to make her a good trickery domain cleric, you would want to respec her anyway just to fix level 1.

but i don't want her to be a trickery domain cleric. i don't even want her to be a healer. i want her to be an emo bird girl. the Ebony Dark'ness Dementia Raven Way of bg3, emphasis on raven. by endgame, we learn that shadowheart loves animals and nature, and she's a bit of a rebel (my graffiti queen). without having been kidnapped by the mother superior, i can see her either noping off into the woods or staying in the city to be the type of person who accidentally acquires really a lot of cats. so my goal is for her to have lots of animals, do a fuckton of damage, and fight off the darkness with lots and lots of light.

you can find the full build on eip. more detail and a level by level breakdown under the cut.

the beast priest build involves taking 6-7 levels of beast master ranger and 5-6 levels of war priest cleric. you start off as a ranger, because rangers have great early game damage and are also imo the easiest class for beginners. you stand in one spot and you shoot stuff. you can also get Harold (crossbow) pretty early on and it can be your main weapon through most of the game. it does insane damage and casts Bane.

i'm not familiar enough with armor and weapons to include recommendations in this guide (beyond Harold. get Harold). that is too much for me to keep track of, and i swap things out a lot. use whatever you find most helpful and/or looks the coolest. you probably can't use this build for lone wolf tactician or anything, but i do think it's very fun for an explorer or balanced playthrough, and it fixes a lot of the problems in shadowheart's base build.

this build does a few things:

uses war priest weapon buffs to increase ranged damage

minimizes concentration spells to prioritize ensnared strike and hunter's mark

backup heals (unfortunately this means either respeccing another companion to take on main healing duties or building a main heals tav. i'm working on a bardadin build for this very purpose. there is also always halsin, but he takes a while to acquire)

it's very beneficial to astarion that the bird can blind enemies near him so he can gain advantage to sneak attack (i'll share my build for him too eventually; he is also part ranger)

toolkit against undead (guardian spirits is a must)

important team utilities like guidance

what this build can't do:

be the "face" of your team, by which i mean initiate dialogue. we have no charisma or proficiency in anything related to talking to people. we are a gloomy emo girl sequestered to the back of the group and we shoot stuff and hang out with our bird

steal shit, disarm traps, lockpick. i mean, you can, but you'll probably have another character better equipped for it. we'll be wearing medium armor or heavy armor (optional), so we'll have a disadvantage on stealth anyway

here's how i've broken down each level:

initial build

if you're respeccing shadowheart, you won't be able to change her race or background, which means she'll remain an acolyte and have proficiency in insight and religion.

if you're making your tav a beast priest, you should choose whatever background and race makes sense for your character's narrative. the caveat being, as stated above, stealth and sleight of hand are kind of useless here, as well as dialogue proficiencies like persuasion, intimidation, deception, performance, etc.

what *is* helpful is having proficiency in the things you walk up to and go "oh shit, what's that?" so survival and perception are pretty important. folk hero and outlander are therefore both good background choices, but again, what's important to me in a build is that the story makes sense.

note you will not need investigation because we'll be taking bounty hunter as a favored enemy.

level 1: ranger (1)

proficiencies: survival, nature, animal handling (see above for more explanation; really just take whatever you think will be useful)

favored enemy: bounty hunter

bounty hunter gives disadvantage to enemies hit by ensnaring strike. very helpful for astarion and your companion. however, it's sometimes difficult to choose when to use hunter's mark versus ensnaring strike.

natural explorer: beast tamer

all of these are kind of useless, tbh. but i chose this one because early game, your companion dies very easily and this way you'll be able to bring it back without using a spell slot.

from my understanding, in EA you could either have your summon pet OR your companion out, not both, but in full release you can now have both summons out at once.

level 2: ranger (2)

fighting style: archery

we are going to be very far away from our enemies and Harold is going to be very dear to us.

spells: hunter's mark, ensnaring strike (ranged)

both spells require concentration so you can only pick one. ensnaring strike gives disadvantage to an enemy but hunter's mark does more damage, and your companion does more advantage to it as well. for cc situations, i'd choose ensnaring strike; for taking down one big dude at a time, hunter's mark. hunter's mark can be recast as long as you maintain concentration.

level 3: cleric (1)

deity: any (if you're respeccing shadowheart, your deity will remain shar)

domain: war domain

cantrips: guidance, sacred flame, light

the only one that's important here is guidance. the other two can be whatever your party needs most. the reason we're taking one level of cleric early and the others later is because guidance is a must. if someone else on your team has it, or if you have a bard, you can stay as a ranger until 5.

level 4: ranger (3)

subclass: beast master

spell: cure wounds OR speak with animals

for shadowheart's respec, i would say cure wounds so that she can start subhealing. however, if you don't have anyone in your party who can speak to animals yet, that's pretty important. the strange ox you meet in the grove provides a lot of endgame help, and it's fun talking to the owlbear and scratch.

level 5: ranger (4)

feat: resilient (wisdom)

taking resilience in wisdom gives us a proficiency in wisdom saving throws, which we'll need for both cleric and ranger spells.

level 6: ranger (5)

spells: anything that would be most helpful to your team.

you probably already have somebody who can cast longstrider as a ritual spell. enhance leap is helpful although this is pretty late in the game to be getting that. i try to avoid concentration spells because of hunter's mark and aoe spells because astarion and karlach are always in the thick of it and i don't want to hurt them.

what's important this level is that your companion's AC and damage increases, and it gets an extra attack.

level 7: cleric (2)

you get turn undead and guided strike this level. both are very useful, particularly guided strike. nothing to choose though.

level 8: cleric (3)

new spells! these can be prepared based on what you think you'll need for a given scenario. lesser restoration is a must if you're letting astarion bite you every night. but if that's the case you probably already have it.

level 9: cleric (4)

cantrip: whatever's most helpful at this point

feat: ability improvement (1 in wisdom, 1 in dexterity)

if you have auntie ethel's hair, then you might want 2 in one or the other.

level 10: cleric (5)

here's where you get guardian spirits, which is the single most important mid-game spell you can have (although in this build you get it pretty late). make sure when you cast it, you have as many movement speed spells and potions you can get. you're going to cast it and run around like mad killing everything.

level 11 & 12: ranger OR cleric (6 & 7)

here's where you have a difficult choice to make. your last two levels can be ranger 6 and 7, which will give your companion a huge buff. or you can choose cleric 6 and 7, which will give you war god's blessing, which gives you a +10 attack roll to give to someone else on your team.

you an also do cleric 6 and ranger 6, which will grant you war god's blessing AND allow you to take ranger knight as a favored enemy, which gives you the ability to wear heavy armor (if you want that). you can also gain resistance to cold, fire, or poison, but since you encounter all of those things in pretty equal measure, i never know which to choose.

i think it'll depend on what sounds more fun to you. personally, i think seeing my animal companion destroy everything is very fun. but if you enjoy reactions and buffing your teammates, i can also see wanting to stick with cleric through the end.

unlock to level 20

you might be thinking it's not worth it to only take two half classes instead of one whole one and lose out on late game spells and abilities. and i agree with you completely. my favorite part of beast master is when your companion gets two special abilities at 11. if you're playing completely vanilla, this is the major sacrifice of multiclassing. you're prioritizing creativity and cool combos over fancy spells and abilities.

but if you install a mod that lets you level to 20 (no class can go beyond 12, but you can multiclass to 20), you can take 11 levels of ranger and 9 levels of cleric. level 11 of ranger maxes out your animal; level 8 of cleric gives you divine strike, and level 9 gives you flame strike.

i didn't find anything from 10-12 in cleric very helpful. there's divine intervention which you can only use once in the game, ever, and i used it at a very integral time and it didn't do enough. heroes' feast is helpful but halsin has that too. heal, which should be the best healing spell in the game, is currently bugged and i don't know when they'll fix it.

you could also do level 12 of ranger for the extra feat if you don't have both wisdom and dexterity to 20, and stay at 8 for cleric.

if you do unlock to level 20, i would download the double xp mod (although i haven't gotten mine to work yet) so you can get to 20 at about the same pace you get to 12 in vanilla. this obvs is extremely unbalanced and makes you very very OP but that makes the game more fun for me. and anyway, if it gets too easy you can always play tactician or honor mode.

i hope you found this helpful! i'll probably be tweaking and updating it as i go. i'm working on respecs for astarion, karlach, halsin, jaheira, and wyll right now. gale, lae'zel, and minsc i'll be able to look at once i play around with them more. i haven't used them much yet in my teams.

if you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to send me an ask!

#bg3 #bg3 build #shadowheart #shadowheart respec #cleric #ranger #multiclass #multiclass build

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dollarbin · 11 days ago

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Free Bin #3:

All One Song, Steve Gunn Week

I just scanned the national headlines and was dismayed to see that the debut episode of my famous brother's Shakey podcast, All One Song, has not shoved Marco Rubio's latest, I-trust-you-were-born-yesterday-otherwise-none-of-my-hateful-nonesense-will-be-heeded, assertions regarding our government's bumblings and war crimes entirely out of Page 1, Column Right, prominence.

For that matter, I don't see any coverage whatsoever regarding the podcast. Instead we’ve got headlines regarding how members of the US men’s soccer team, who currently deserve no any real consideration in comparison with their female counterpart, are riling all Italians by criticizing the food they’ve received, for free, while in the country, and consternation regarding whether or not Anna Wintour is still the chief devil at Vogue. For Pete’s sake, who cares? Trump must be right after all: the media is clearly conspiring against us.

Well, rest assured, friends: The Dollar Bin contains nothing but alternative facts, and so I shall stand up against the media’s injustice and report weekly, via the Free Bin, all you need to know about my brother's unfolding genius.

To begin: the whole concept here is brilliant. A new musician joins Tyler every week, bringing with them a chosen Shakey number to discuss. Tyler spends most of the hour nodding sagely off mic while whoever it is pontificates about why their chosen song is vital. You couldn't pay my beleaguered wife, or yours, to listen to it. And you couldn't pay me, or you, not to listen to it.

Steve Gunn, whose music I know enough to enjoy when it pops up on my weathered IPod, but whose pre-Covid concert I left before it even started because it a) was a school night, b) I had a fever, c) I had come entirely for the opener, Joan Shelley, and d) because I'm a loser, is a nice opening episode guest. He's humble and thoughtful, and he makes the obvious and correct choice by dedicating his visit to Will To Love, the single song which best sums up - inexplicably - what makes Neil Young NEIL YOUNG.

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I could go on with my praises: the theme music is killer; the opening's focus on the guest's own biographical introduction to the Shakeyverse is graceful and my brother, despite his nonstop use of the word "yeah" and the phrase "I don't know", makes Ira Glass sound like a chump.

But praise is boring.

So let me make some complaints.

If you are going to teach a class you've gotta know your subject. Gandalf never needed to consult Merry; Yoda never placed a subject before its verb; what's his face, the whirling sword master in Game of Thrones who fought off a whole herd of muscled attackers with a stick while Arya slipped out the back, didn't stab himself in the process.

And so, famous musicians, take note: if you are gonna talk to my Mensa level brother on All One Song research the freakin' running order for the album which contains the song you chose to discuss.

Midway through today’s episode Gunn expresses surprise when my brother points out that Will To Love transitions directly into Like a Hurricane on American Stars and Bars.

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Come on Gunner: do your homework. After all, that specific transition is the coolest, boldest and most Shakey transition in Young's entire career. Forget the cosmic-fireside-fish-who-is-just-beyond-the-reach-of-a-transcendental-bear vibe, Neil thunders, for now I shall melt your face and shred my strings.

Complaint number two centers around the tone. Let me preface my angst my acknowledging that I don’t listen to podcasts. I have records and people to listen to. I do all that I can to ignore the cat and I dial up NPR in the car if I want to get upset and indignant. So I’m sure my famous brother and his producers know far better than me how to establish an appropriate podcast vibe.

But when it comes to media discussions, I prefer the voices involved to sound possibly drunk.

You know what I mean: the best example is the classic Car Talk tone wherein assessments are occasionally made and questions eventually answered but most of the airtime is dedicated to surging, joyful confusion.

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Simply put Tyler and Steve sound sober during their hour together. That state of mind and being would makes sense if they were auditioning for Marketplace or Masterpiece Theater. But the subject here is Neil Young. He was high as a kite when he made this music they are honoring; both of them should therefore honor him further with a drink, or three.

And laughter too! Yes, Young surely bares his soul in Will To Love, begging himself not to lose the skill. But it’s also hilarious! Just like me he rambles on and on, repeating himself until all his friends are gone and the next thing you know he’s lost in the snow. What?!?

Plus, the original, zero-overdubs take, which Steve and Tyler discuss and which I have on the old IPod but which seemingly cannot be found on YouTube to paste here opens with Neil declaring "Howdy Folks!" He does it in a near whisper, then explains that the kids are asleep. He doesn't sound like he's having an existential crisis. Rather, he's up late and inviting us, forever, in while he mumbles and grins.

And, on the record, after laying out the high art of Will to Love and framing it so perfectly with Star of Bethlehem and Like a Hurricane, Neil goes ahead and sums up his soul with Homegrown, a 2 minute ditty with just one verse but 15 or so choruses about the joys of DIY reefer.

My point, ultimately, is the same one that episode one of All One Song makes: Will To Love is brilliantly ineffable. It cannot be described or summed up, not by two far more talented people than me in an hour, nor by any one label. Like Neil himself, it contains every conceivable mood, from boredom to terror to hilarity and back again, all while the fire crackles and the salmon seeks its mate.

Therefore, All One Song deserves a drink.

#neil young and crazy horse #all one song #shakey sundays #my famous brother

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asherlockstudy · 2 years ago

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um im just scrolling through the streamys tag and i saw your posts and i thought "oh they seem cool i wonder what the blog is like"... then i went scrolling and you mentioned link coming out??? huh??? (i haven't watched gmm in like years year years) you seem like a level headed person to ask.... link is... gay? did this happen recently??? i am so confused but i know that if i google im gonna get garbage results. so yeah

Hello! Sorry for the late reply, hope you get to see this.

The answer is... yes and no. While there isn't anything explicit / certain / definite over all this time, it seems there is some restlessness on their side, with several projects such as their recent scripted videos, but also as far back as Hazel, the GMEs and Ear Biscuits that point towards the possibility of them taking a very slow, long way towards this direction, especially Link. In fact it seems like Link can't stand being in the closet anymore but Rhett dreads leaving it. That's my general impression.

While I might be considered the most stark supporter of this theory around here (or at least the one who verbalizes it the most), a few days ago more people started considering it thanks to a moment during GME where Link did something very close to a coming-out.

In case you haven't watched any of the GMEs, GME (Good Mythical Evening) is a paid live show they do once a year, which is like the strictly adult version of GMM. There, strong references to sex are allowed and they also drink enough to get inebriated and foul language is also allowed to some degree.

All that on its own would be already a lot to consider, but GME has also strong homoerotic traits since Rhett and Link play a lot with their ship there. Last year, they re-enacted rhink fics where they were having sex (basically handjobs?), I don't remember exactly. And they acted LIKE they were doing it. This year, they took it up a notch and Rhett actually sucked Link's nipple, among other things. And I mean, he really did it. For a few seconds. But he did it...properly. Don't ask me why they do this stuff. I don't know. I think nobody knows. I am just presenting you the facts so I can give you an idea about what is going on.

So, during a game in this latest GME, this dialogue took place regarding what the act of "docking" is:

Rhett: I was right! It is a gay thing! Stevie: Whaaat? I mean, well, Link also agreed with your answer so... Rhett: We both get points! Hold on, though... one guy needs to be circumcised. Link: Yeah you only need one circumcision for docking. Stevie: Oh you're asking ME? Rhett: I think..... I don't know a lot about this but I think only one guy needs to be uncircumcised. Link: Do you think docking actually happens? Because I don't think docking increases pleasure. Rhett: I don't know, man. I can't do it, man. My parents didn't give me a choice. They just circumcised me, man. Link: I know, but even after you're circumcised, you can try. Rhett: With someone who's not circumcised...... And also, I am not gay. Link: Hey, that's okay. It's okay. Rhett: Yeah, I mean, it's cool to not be gay! Link: No, it's not "cool"- Rhett: No, it's "okay" to not be gay! By "cool" I meant it is "okay" to not be gay! Link: But just go ahead and explain yourself completely. Rhett: But I might do it for scientific purposes! Link: This is what I wish you would do when I say something stupid. Rhett: If they needed to figure it out, if two scientists wanted to figure out whether two guys need to be uncircumcised, I'd be like "okay", I mean, I'd check with my wife first. Link: Yeah, but just say it is equally cool to be gay. Rhett: It is cool to be whatever you wanna be. Link: Yeah. Exactly. It's cool to be whatever you need, you want to be, you are. It's cool to be who you are. That's what I am deriving. Rhett: Yeah, that's the coolest you can be, to just be who you are. Right, Stevie? Link: I, you know what, I feel like, Stevie, I feel like I have been on a journey. Stevie: Okay. Rhett: Yeah. Link: To know- to figure out who I am. Rhett (mutters): Yeah, yeah, right. Link: And it's extremely rewarding, challenging and- Rhett: But we won't be docking later... Link: And..... rewarding. And we wanna- Yeah... can you... I was saying something important. Rhett: Because we're both circumcised. Link: Yes, but we are not gonna be docking later. Rhett: Right, because we're both circumcised. Link: But you can be circumcised and still have enough of a skin left after the circumcision to dock... In Good Mythical More we are gonna answer questions from the crew and we 're gonna have conversations about - (meanwhile Rhett talks simultaneously and almost over him about unimportant docking musings) Link: ...Right, so if you are not gonna come to Good Mythical More, please you can still get a ticket, join us for Good Mythical More, but for now we're gonna move on. Rhett (sarcastically): Don't you want more of this? Link: In the More. Stevie moves on with the game.

So, what happens next, Link also had two-three more moments when he seemed to consider talking about something and Rhett explicitly told him "Whatever it is you want to say, just keep it to yourself" and also in another moment "You can tell your Uber driver on your way home but not here".

During the More, at which Link hinted, there was a red box with nosy questions asked from the crew. Rhett was the one taking the questions and reading them. He chose to not read loudly and thus answer at least two questions, even though he pulled them out of the box.

Link eventually did not make any more similar statements.

You should also know that a couple of weeks ago, during the GME promo, Link had said that one reason we should watch the GME show was that he might even make an emotional speech before its end.

Another thing, the last months Link has also expressed in interviews and even in a college graduation that it is important to find who you are and explore your identity, addressing this especially to young adults. He always seems emotionally charged when he does it.

That's it. To me it just seems like there's one explanation only, but I will leave you to your own conclusions.

And one last detail. Rhett did everything in his power to not let Link finish what he started - almost bullied him out of it. Despite all that, notice what he said. While Link was trying to say whatever he was trying to say, Rhett said:

But we're not gonna be docking later.................. because we're both circumcised.

And he repeated the explanation once more.

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#rhink #rhett and link #randl #gme3 #gme 3 #gme 2023 #mythical #good mythical evening #thanks for thinking i am level headed #yet apparently a few people here think i am wild #i am not complaining at all i never had many problems #i have got a bunch of very good tumblr peeps around me here #however i don't deny i am amused at the idea of some people #taking this dialogue and sticking it to their ass #sorry i couldn't help it #don't bother with my mini rant anon #you rock #anon #mail

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amiya-shirou · 1 month ago

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Top 5 video game characters?

(also, my bad, I accidentally unfollowed you because I hit the wrong button! Sorry about that, but everything’s fixed now though!)

(dw, happened to me a few times with other people too, tumblr makes it way too easy unfollow by mistake)

I'm gonna restrict to one character per fandom (merging all Souls games too) & also exclude visual novels and games whose story parts are too much like I'm reading a book (so no Arknights or most Fate games) as well as those too dependent on other media (Melty Blood characters - I know most of the story through the manga)

Queen Marika (Elden Ring) - her backstory in Shadow of the Erdtree hit me like a truck, and in general the game does an insanely good job at depicting the image of a complex antagonist making you feel the humanity at the core of what's a very ethereal figure (since we never actually meet her); FromSoftware must have hired a sniper to aim directly at many of my weak points when creating her

Dr. Maruki (Persona 5) - I don't think there's much I can say without a huge spoiler sign but he's also a very complex and heartfelt character, easily the highlight of the game imho

A2 (NieR:Automata) - Apart from the fact that she's incredibly cool and entertaining to watch, I just really enjoy her personality, she fits the role of the old warrior who's seen too much and defected from the protagonist's organization, her personality being hardened as a result while still deeply hoping to change things, which is an archetype I enjoy a lot. She's like Auron from Final Fantasy X as a robot girl

Auron (Final Fantasy X) - As above. Bonus nostalgia points because when I played the game as a kid he was like the coolest thing in the world for me

Miyamoto Iori (Fate/Samurai Remnant) - a great attempt at replicating the spirit of the classic Nasu protagonists who seem basic at the start but as you continue you find out they have something incredibly wrong going on with them, and what's wrong with him is very compelling to me

Honorable Mentions:

Raiden (Metal Gear Rising) - I haven't finished Rising yet & also seriously need to revisit the other Metal Gear games as this point so it's kinda hard to rank anything from the series until I go back to it, but he's very very good and definitely deserving of a place here

Hollow Knight in general - I know I've put Marika first in this top but I still have some problems ranking them due to the way the story's narration is presented, like I know the Pure Vessel's story hit me deeply and I really enjoy thinking about the Pale King but I'm not very consistent about where exactly they stand in the rankings at these high levels

#yelling at clouds

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relleytrots · 6 months ago

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11, 19, 21, 24

11. How many characters do you have?

Errrrrrrrrr...

Not counting pure SPCs for chronicles I've run, just "OCs" in the general sense... about fifteen? Riccardo, Luciana, Santino, Alistair, Sorcha (Hecata squad); Lamorne (forbidden blorbo); Penny, Riley (PCs in other people's chronicles); Yaritsa and Myriam (Tzimisce PC and her sire whomst I have queued up); Zhao Wen-Jun and all her associated names (VTMB); and Laetitia, Dorian, Sylvester and Dominique, the core cast of Bloodspell, a game I made and a novella I have as of yet no idea how to plot.

19. Which character is least spoken about? Speak about them now!

I want to talk about my Tzimisce! I've not really had an angle on playing one before, but Blood Sigils dropped and gave me the Koldunic Sorcery angle around the time I actually started paying attention to Animalism and watched The Suicide Squad, wanting to adopt Ratcatcher II.

Put all that together and Yaritsa fell out of the air, fully formed; horrid, sassy little street witch who's bonded with the water and knows exactly what's going on thanks to her army of rats. She doesn't like shoes and she comes with an entourage (armed ghoul squad and her ailing, befuddled mortal dad).

Her sire, Myriam, is a concept I've had kicking around for ages but not found the oomph to use, probably because I was being smooth brained and thinking she had to be a Harbinger. The concept, in two words: Saint Death. Ancilla koldun occupies local Santa Muerte cult: they're her Herd, but they're her Herd and she looks out for them, and she's functionally adopted Yaritsa along with Embracing her. Sometimes a character isn't complete by themselves; they need to be part of someone else's deal.

21. Tremere or Salubri?

God, what a choice. I can only hope this question explodes and kills me.

This is tricky because I don't like either of them strictly according to their presentation. I've used both as SPCs and they've been fairly impactful, but... eh.

I've discoursed at great length about the Tremere thing in the past, bottom line is I like them as medieval alchemists who backdoored their way into vampirism and decided to take over, but I can take or leave their Ars Magicka baggage and Thaumaturgy and all the high level "lore" cruft.

Salubri are similarly eaten by their role in the metaplot and so overdesigned that I have trouble with them existing in any other capacity for several thousand years before the Tremere came along. The original "there are only seven and they all diablerise their sire on Embrace and they're all eighth generation" was the start of all that "vampions" bullshit that I don't really vibe with. The super sekrit Sabbat Salubri popping up in Hong Kong all way of the warrior stylee is more of that Nineties wuxiaboo crap that brought us Kindred of the East. I also don't give a fuck about the Baali and the "revelation" that those are Saulot's fault has no impact for me - OK, whatever, I didn't buy the idea of the vampire messiah anyway, who cares about Antediluvians, we have real problems!

You know what, I've decided. It's Tremere. They're on thin ice - every time a Tremere player whines about losing Thaumaturgy in V5 I reach for my revolver, you still have Rituals, you have to play by the same Discipline rules as everyone else, die mad about it - but I can make them into something I vibe with a lot easier than I can the snowflake sparkledog special clan.

24. Caine or Lilith?

Ahi hai, ahi hai, ahi hai Lilitu...

No contest. The recurring subtext of all my games since 2005 has been "the Bahari are right about everything, and they 'won' Gehenna while the rest of you weren't even sure what's going on." The Mother of Monsters is absolutely the most important figure in the World of Darkness (if she literally exists) and she has the coolest cult by a country mile (even if she doesn't). Lilith, and the Bahari, fuck, and they fuck nasty, up against a tree, rubbed red and raw and bleeding. Don't you wish your spiritual icon was hot like mine?

... that went to a place, didn't it?

#vtm #vampire the masquerade #meta #thanks for asking #all about Von #being weird about Lilith on main again are we?

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trashcatsnark · 1 year ago

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*Makes tea* Omg, can we please get your thoughts on the dlc and THAT ending?

ABSOLUTELY

Suffice to say, spoilers and a very long post, I am a verbose whore Ngl this is coming fresh off finishing it all last night, so my opinions may still be settling in a little bit and I also had to play it in more spread out sessions than I usually do with games.

Firstly, on a just a technical level, for me personally as someone who started playing at launch, finished all the endings, and had like 700+ hours in the game before Phantom Liberty was even announced- to me it felt a little out of place, granted might be because I jumped into on the tail end of an almost finished save. So, maybe for folks who started new runs it flows a bit better.

Like getting a dedicated credits listing as if the game is over after the decision at the orbital station just to cut back to Johnny going Wait, V, you're still dying!

It's a little strange, I understand you wanna give full credit to the Phantom Liberty specific team but also, was that really the only way to transition V out of the space station?

Songbird, I'm mixed on, I don't hate her but I don't love her like I think the game wanted me too. She feels a little... pushed on V for my liking. Like early on, it really felt like CDPR rattling a barbie doll at me and screaming at me to think she's the coolest thing in the universe and she's alright. I get why she does the things she does, I get that she is a narrative reflection of V, that her and Solomon honestly are meant to mirror the V and Johnny relationship.

The ideas of betrayal, the idea that the person who's trying to save you, and wants to save you the most is the very one who's gonna be your end.

I like that component for sure, like honestly, to the surprise of no one- the biggest things I got out of it was related to SilverV I also really do love Songbird's connection to the Blackwall and the way it's eating at her, I love those touches and when at the Orbital station you link with her to like- release Blackwall pulses. Very cool, still feel like there's more there to sink our teeth into, but very much liked the Blackwall in particular coming back.

My first impulse and choice was to side with Songbird, because even if I didn't love her like CDPR wanted me to, I did feel some connection to her through her being in similar situation to V and just being desperate to survive and live.

That said, it is disappointing that Songbird is... another person who was just lying to V in hopes of getting what she wanted. I get the desperation for survival, but it did feel like Hey, what if we did it again?

Like- that's what the game is, just over and over. I love it, but the game is V gets a lead, goes full steam ahead in trying to save themselves, and oop- someone was lying and V gets kicked right in the fucking teeth. Again. Again. Again. Again.

And I understood we weren't gonna get a magical fix it ending, but it is frustrating to be like- hey, wasn't it fun when the VDB betrayed V? Or when you found out Evelyn lied? Or when you finally found Hellman and all he gave was a hospice recommendation? Or when Hanako finally hears you out but only if you kill her brother and even then lol not really you're still gonna die? Or when Alt says oh btw you're still gonna die?

What if- we did it again?!

And in a similar vein, I really loved a lot of aspects of the Tower Ending (I believe it is?) where you side with the FIA.

The conversation with Johnny in the AV is fucking beautiful. That alone was worth all my money. Him saying that he feels more at peace than he ever has before, I still fuck- I love the way they play up that even in endings where Johnny doesn't necessarily agree with V's actions, he's just happy they're gonna survive. He's at peace with dying again, he's at peace knowing this time it means something to him. He died before his ideals, so convinced when he stormed Arasaka Tower that when he died in the flames it'd mean something, it'd fix something. Only to come back and find that despite everything having changed, nothing really did. He died and the world just moved on. But this time, him going means V gets to live, he gets to go out knowing (at least believing, hoping) that by doing so they'll get to live on, they'll get to fight another day, and can go away content knowing that he'll be leaving the world just little bit better of a place- because V will still be in it.

Got emotional there, my bad.

That said, beyond that component.... more of the same?

Like, it's the Devil Ending. Reskinned, revamped- but it's Devil Ending. V sided with the shadowy secretive shady corporation/agency, underwent extensive medical treatment, and oop- turns out none of your friends were worth a fuck, now deal with the consequences!

And like, I don't know, I do find the idea interesting of V no longer being able to have like combat implants and physically just not being the same, the idea of them being forced into trying to carve out a normal life after everything is actually pretty neat.

But it still feels like a reskin to me.

I also really just don't like the way CDPR tries to illustrate bad ends by making V's friends/love interests worse people? Like don't get me wrong, I can completely vibe with the idea that A) they'd have some grievances with V siding with FIA or Arasaka and B) that after two years of not knowing what happened to V, they would've moved on in some capacity.

But do they have to be like, mean?

Like Panam going full scale, don't answer the call, have Mitch tell you to fuck off. I was in a coma???? Like, I know she doesn't know that, but also maybe listen??? Like that feels like yeah, her character hasn't developed at all, she's still incredibly stubborn and won't even hear you out.

And River selling police secrets for Randy's rehab, so he's in a guilt spiral, so he just... can't meet up??? Like legit, CDPR, honey- what the fuck is your fascination with ruining this man's life? Literally, one of if not the only LI who can canonically die??? Or go to jail???? Like, what did River do to you????

Judy moving across the country and being married, I don't have inherent beef with, I think that does make sense for her character- that said, convo still feels weird, like the whole "please don't ruin this for me" like I'm sorry??? V literally nearly died for you several times and murdered for you several times and has been so nice to you- but you just assume they're gonna show up at your door and try to ruin your life? Wow, great to know what you think of me....

And of course Kerry is just busy with his career, that said I did find it kind of funny/in character that V calls and the first thing Kerry wants to do is talk about himself. Like, yeah, that's Kerry. But also, like again, the dialogue heavily implies that when he makes the bare minimum offer of hey... maybe we can hang out in four months, that no- you probably won't, it's bullshit.

Like, it just sucks because I really love all of these characters and feel like they do genuinely have love and affection for V, but this constant- oh nope they're all abandoning you, oof, pull on any ending that isn't Star or Sun is just.... frustrating and really undermines it and honestly reinforces that V's best friend and the one person who cares for them most is fucking Johnny.

Vik selling out to Zetatech also sucked ass, don't do that to my ripper- but hey, at least he made five fucking minutes for V. Even if he spent trying to convince them he's happy and eventually they will be too.

Misty I loved seeing again in the ending- though I don't know why, maybe it's just me- is her VA suddenly doing a harley quinn impression??? Like that kind of Boston(?) accent she suddenly has in the DLC for .... no fucking reason? That said, even if I'm sad to see her go, I am happy she's finding her peace, though kind of wish there was a "can I go with you?" option, because- V literally doesn't have a home anymore??? Maybe someone should help them.... not be homeless, that'd be cool. Maybe my V wants to go to the old forest in Poland too???

Also, also- Delamain, more of a true friend than any of the love interests in that ending. Picked V up, got them booze for them and Vik, helped them catch up on news, said they missed them, and were happy to see them again. Fuck yeah, Delamain.

But uhhh, overall, I think my opinions are there are some interesting and fun things within the DLC, some fun concepts that I definitely wanna play with in my fanfic. Some solid fucking SIlverV content. But like narratively and story wise- it's just alright. It's nothing ground breaking, I don't feel like the game needed it, I don't feel like it "fixed" the game. I think people who got into Cyberpunk 2077 through Phantom Liberty and praise it as what "saved" the game- just like Cyberpunk 2077. Like, cause the DLC is more of the same, like it's fun, it's a good time but it's the same narrative structure we've had times 3 within the main game. It's like if I eat a sandwich, and CDPR said "Hey, I know what will go well with that-" and handed me a third of the same exact kind of sandwich. I don't dislike it, I liked the sandwich, a lot- but also it doesn't complement or add to it like a side dish or a dessert might to a meal. It's a just a bit of the same- maybe it has a slightly new condiment on it, but its overall the same.

Like I said, this might change if/when I do a full replay of the game and can handle doing it as like a full run rather than kind of tacking it onto the end of another save. I think that might help with making it feel a bit more a part of the story.

But I think I'd still land in the same overall space of, it's was alright- some parts I loved more than others, and if this had been in the base game, I'd probably feel very different because Reed and Songbird probably wouldn't feel as sprung on V to me.

All that said, I also do feel a bit more confident and secure in how I'm gonna implement it into my fic- which is gonna mean heavy rewrites which should be fun. So, I definitely got a little something to sink my teeth into.

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #phantom liberty #cyberpunk 2077 phantom liberty #cp2077 spoilers #johnny silverhand #honestly though i really left with the feeling of I probably wouldve loved this if it was just a part of the game at launch #but getting it this long after makes it all feel a bit more jarring narratively and more disjointed #not bad just like its like walking into your favorite restaurant thats had the same menu for 3 years #but suddenly they have a new burger thats like your favorite burger but has a slightly different cheese and they're really trying to sell i #does that make sense?#do I make sense?#like feeling like you're being resold the same thing but its pushed after so long of having the old thing that it feels weird and off kilte

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styrmwb · 3 months ago

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I Beat Yakuza 4 Remastered

I gotta say. It's fantastic. Say that again?

With a MUCH MUCH smaller gap than the last two, I have added another Yakuza game to the pile of completion. Rather than the 3ish years between Kiwami 2 and 3, it's only been around half a year; so the memories are a lot fresher this time around, which leads to more accurate comparison and growth. In the case of 4 here, I think that it's both a blessing and a curse that 3 is still in my mind. Yakuza 4 (at least the remastered versions) feels like 3 Deluxe, in a way. It's a VERY similar game, which leads to some burnout, but also seeing the bits where they improved on some of 3's flaws was nice. Lemme dive deeper into everything, as I do.

Part 1: White Tiger's Gameplay 第1部：白虎のゲームプレイ

To start, the best thing about this game is the 4. I'm 5 games in now, but timeline wise you got 3 straight Kiryu only games, all featuring Kamurocho. 4 doing the twist of have 3 additional characters gives this game the twist it needed to feel interesting, to avoid maximum burnout; cause Yakuza is a very samey game as you play it. It's both the strength and the weakness. All 4 characters have their own movesets, their own stories, and even their own side distractions. This basically gives you 4 mini Yakuza games to play, which I loved.

Akiyama's my guy. His moveset is fast, spammable kicks; but his side content is some of my least favorite. Talk to people to make them your ally which gives a buff if you're nearby, and that damned Hostess Maker minigame makes a return from 3 (it's still not interesting or fun).

Saejima is a powerhouse; he feels stilted at first, but once you get him leveled up, nothing can stop you from sending out a huge charged punch or throwing guys. He had some of my favorite heat actions in the game. I didn't really put much time into his Fighter Maker for reasons I'll go into later, so his side stuff just didn't really do it for me. I do like how the presence of cops makes him navigate the map differently though. Not super fun, but very creative.

Tanimura was a slow burn. Very strange moveset at first, but as time went on, I REALLY liked played as him. The heat actions baked into the combos, the really fun grapples; he's a weird character, but a joy. His side stuff being random police encounters felt non intrusive, but just enough for you to plan your travels differently.

Kiryu is a classic. The dude felt like a reward after 3 new guys; you get the long-running lead, with a lot more power baked into his learnset from the get go. He felt like his city was the most wide open, but not much in the line of unique side stuff. It's just differently flavored encounters.

I mention side stuff; and I think that's the weakest point of the game. Purely because, a lot of it is repeats from 3. Minigames are just full of the same things, and there didn't feel like a twist. The real kicker here is there WAS Pachinko but it got taken away in this release so I don't even get that. I mean, the minigames aren't bad. But when you have a game like Yakuza, you get a little burnt out of playing a bunch of pool when you basically did the exact same thing last game. The Hostess stuff just. Isn't my favorite. It's a lot of button mashing, money wasting, and time consuming. The coolest thing they did with it though is have the ones you train as Akiyama be available for Tanimura and Kiryu. I did think that was neat. If it wasn't for the split between characters, I don't think I would have been nearly as motivated to play as I was. That really was the sauce the game needed.

Shoutouts to 4 being my first real dive into Mahjong, as well. I was lucky enough to catch CyricZ, the guy who writes all the GameFaqs guides, do a panel at this year's MAGFest about teaching how to play Riichi Mahjong (more for the usage of LaD and FFXIV), so I finally used that knowledge. Mahjong is an abusive relationship that hates you and makes you lose for no reason, but there is something really satisfying about it. I'm not opposed to playing it more. I'm somewhat opposed.

In regards to carry over from 3; the enemy AI felt a lot better this time. I felt like I could actually play the game properly, do heat actions, do grabs, and use the options given to me (and those options are FUN). Semi-connected to that, the Coliseum being completely unlocked from the get go (at least for Kiryu, I didn't mess with it much with Saejima) just kinda feels like "yeah we know you did this already. Do it again but we'll make it easier on you."

Finally, I liked the leveling here def more than 3. The selection of upgrades with soul orbs felt like I was getting moves more often than not, like I felt with 3.

Part 2: Vermilion Bird's Story 第2部：朱雀の物語

Something about Yakuza writing just feels like it started improving way more after 1 and 2 (counting 0 where it belongs I.E. after 5). While I don't think the story this time tops 3 for me, it's still really good. Again, the biggest strength of the game is the characters. The main 4 (the Yakuza 4) are all just really enjoyable, and they make the story worth going through, even if the actual plot lines might fall flat. There's a lot to go through here. AHEM:

Akiyama was the perfect character to start off with. Nice and charismatic, interesting concept of a stupid rich moneylender that just aims to help; I felt like I was just kinda waiting for the shoe to drop on him, but other than him debatably being a little bit of a scumbag (who isn't in Kamurocho), he's just a really nice guy who I wanna see succeed.

Saejima was one of the best depictions of trauma I've seen in this series so far. That scene of him recounting his pain in the Coliseum was incredibly powerful; only to be followed by him reuniting with his old boss. Emotionally amazing. I wish he was present a little longer, but I'm really excited to see where his story goes in the future.

Like his gameplay, Tanimura was a slow burn. Something about the dude I just liked more and more as time went on. A cop who doesn't give a shit about the rules, is kinda an asshole, but still has that heart of gold. I liked his bit of being in the foreign community, that was neat. I'm glad he got the final fight. It makes me sad knowing that he still hasn't come back in the modern day. I miss him already.

Kiryu is Kiryu. We love Kiryu. I wish he would stop falling into this damned city's nonsense. Something I really liked about his part of the story is how it felt very celebrational for the series. All of his substories referenced the past in some way, which was really cool.

Yasuko was great, especially once her connection to Saejima was revealed. I'm a sucker for sibling relationships in media, as I think I've said before. Her death felt a little goofy, but in the same way I felt really invested in it, and it was like "I've been living my life dead already. Might as well keep going a little bit for my brother."

Hana!!!!!! The team of Akiyama and Hana was amazing, especially for opening the game up with. I do think there was just a TAD too much focus on her eating, but still, beyond that. Having a plus-sized character, ESPECIALLY a woman, be more than just a walking joke, is amazing. She still felt like a person. I can't wait to hopefully see more of her. I hope.

Hamazaki???? He's. I don't know how I feel about him. On one hand, I'm glad his last minute resurrection was used well. A really good turn of character from a villain to a man who's learned to trust and love. I do really like him in that end. On the other end; why doesn't he die. Like, he died. He dies. A lot. He died in 3. He died in the start of the game. He died in Kiryu's chapter. This is like FFIV with the amount of fake death.

Majima didn't get as much appearance as I would have liked, especially for the game that shows his sworn brother, but he's always a joy for a reason. I liked how he felt more down to earth, more sorrowful here. Little more like how he was in 0; I'm starting to really see the full connection of the dude here.

Kido felt like he was gonna be Rikiya 2, in a way, but I'm glad he wasn't a 1-to-1. I didn't really understand his heel turn for the most part, but I think I picked it up at the end. He was going balls out. He was gonna take the opportunity to go big. Cool guy, not S tier.

I do like Daigo, generally. Here, I understood his motivations, but I feel like he was shoehorned in to give Kiryu a final battle. I dunno. Poor guy is just getting the shaft compared to other mainstay characters.

Katsuragi was a neat villain. He doesn't have anything that stands out to me, but he served his purpose very well, I think.

Sugiuchi on the other hand, I liked AND he had a little sauce to him. Initially I thought he was gonna be the rough man yet still an ally, but they instead went the villain route. The reveal of being yakuza undercover as a cop, yet still finding some kind of meaning IN fighting crime; it was neat.

To continue in the police, I'll always find catharsis with taking down a corrupt official, which is what I got with Munakata. I think he was introduced at a good point to not feel like a last minute "man behind the man" big bad, and he felt satisfying to take down.

Finally; Arai. I. I don't think I like Arai. I didn't understand him, his motives, what his role was. Out of everyone who ended up being a final force, he was my least favorite, and I wouldn't be upset not seeing him ever again. He wishes he was Mine good.

The villains of this game were weak, in my opinion. Probably the weakest of the series so far. But the allied cast in this game was strong enough to balance them out. There were a couple people I didn't mention but to quickly put them down: Fuck Saito. Hate him. Haruka is daughter. Love her. I got to see the kids again. Yay. Date got more appearance and a little bit more story which I loved. Shibata is there.

To move away from my usual character break down, I do like how this game still feels more put together than the first two in the series. I saw a lot of complaints about rubber bullets online, ridiculing them, but like; while ridiculous, that plot point didn't bother me that much? Something about Yakuza reminds me of Professor Layton. You get a lot of mysteries that all (ideally) get tied together at the end, and it's really satisfying. The mystery of what happened 25 years ago, everyone's personal arcs, the Ueno Seiwa, the Tojo, the Police all intersecting for power, and the people heading this; it's fun.

Also, the substories in this game???? Dude. I loved them. Where 3 was filled with a lot of heart, 4 gives a lot of important feeling character expanding on our main cast. Sure, there's a couple silly ones; but when you get 3 new guys, you gotta get them up to par with Kiryu, and they succeeded with that. Akiyama gets a lot of viewing into his business, Saejima visits his past through the lens of protecting a kid, and Tanimura learns about his father and solves a big crime ring. I loved that they had these big stories that you could follow over several substories. Probably my favorite part of the game, there.

Part 3: Black Tortoise's Music 第3部：黒亀の音楽

I gotta say. Yakuza music is good, but doesn't always stick with me, beyond like, karaoke. I'm a big nerd who downloads video game music to listen to in the car, and before this, I really only had Outlaw's Lullaby from Kiwami 2 on the listen list (again, excluding karaoke). Yakuza has a lot of good intense techno, but 4 here. Dude. Music DRASTIC go up. A lot of big band, unique instruments, cool melodies; it caught my ears far more than in the past. Loved the wind sounds of Akiyama's battle theme, the intense and creepy moments like Whiskey & Rhapsody, the substory battles sometimes being met with the spicy brass squad song called Spicy Brass Squad, the absolute banger that is Tanimura's battle theme, as well as the Sugiuchi battle??? Similar to the story, only the final battles really unimpressed me with how GOOD the rest of the game is full of. Probably my favorite soundtrack in the series so far, I HAD to make this one of my sections that I limited to 4 just for the bit (I'm admitting it here)

Editor's note AKA Styrm going back through his thoughts to make sure they're coherent: HOW DID I NOT MENTION MAJIMA'S BATTLE THEME??? RECIEVE AND BITE YOU GOES INSANE WITH THAT OPENING

Part 4: Azure Dragon's Finale 第4部：紺碧の竜のフィナーレ

Yakuza 4 is a good game. I don't think I'd like it nearly as much without its main gimmick of 4 main characters. Luckily, it has that gimmick, and it does it well. You can only have so much solo Kiryu in the series before you hit burnout. I'm still craving a little more innovation, mainly in the side content, but I think this direction is exactly what the series needed. Luckily, I do have the benefit of "being in the future" and knowing where the series is going, so I'm looking forward to Most of it (I'm iffy on what I know about 6).

If I had a game with the story quality of 3 and the good feeling gameplay + multiple characters of 4, it'd be amazing (wait isn't this what I remember 0 being (it's been like 5 years I might have rose-colored glasses I need to replay it)). Still; like I said. Yakuza 4 is the right direction for the series. Just needs a little more to not feel like the same stuff that I just did last game.

7/10. Wonderful concept of a multi main character cast, but maybe just a little too similar to the game before it to excite me. Half the character writing is amazing, and the other half is the villains.

#yakuza #like a dragon #tumblrshape #games i beat in 2025 #jared's game ramblings

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