#the devs seem to have done the same to their other game anyway so its fine

[featherdusterbelphie]

Can't believe I found a game that's even more anti-f2p than WHB rn....

But hey, I finally got this guy after 1 ten pull and 6 single pulls

He is currently useless to me rn since I'm stuck at a case with FIRE anomalies so :/

This is the 5th (I was wrong eheu) time I get into a non f2p-friendly game...but I guess WHB is at least becoming a bit better...

[ganondoodle]

(while i am crumbling into pieces from cramp pain)

back when they announced the totk masterworks book i said i wasnt happy about it bc it would either

prove they thought all this was good from the start and everything went as planned

show us that they had unbelievable better ideas and plans but for some unknow reason scrapped it all

as it stands now with the concepts i have seen ... they somehow did both, some things seemed to have been planned fro mthe start (the whole focus on sonau/zonai stuff for example, which i personally just dont like bc i liked them better as an unkown mystery you never get to meet) and other stuff (like ganondorfs concepts, or the infinitely cooler castle in the sky esque concepts for the sky islands, instead of some nonsensical, meaningless little stone crumbs) was much, much more interesting initially (together with the interviews that said they initially planned to have the battery be a magic meter and make the sonau more magic than tech- but then decided to build their stuff around modern electrical devices just so players would immediately know what it was an what it would do -why????? thats so boring?? and unecessary ?? and they still give you tutorials for it anyway, multiple times??!!- for some ungodly reason)

it makes me more and more sure that this game, that took 6 years to make with most assets already being there (the same time that botw took to make?????????), went through a similar development hell as that one final fantasy game did where the director decided to make it an entirely different game every few weeks bc he saw something cool in another game-

its the only thing that makes sense to me, why else would it be so weirdly ... unfinished, its full of grand ideas badly executed, or like i said in a previous post, like an alpha build (weird! did someone in charge also see cool stuff every few months and decide they wanted it in there too no matter what so everyone had to scramble to try and put it in making the whole jenga tower fall over and over??), just to test how far you can push things, with placeholders everywhere, the same cutscene pasted in where another should be and a placeholder reason to get players to go soemwhere (fake zelda) and rough ideas for puzzles etc, that was never finished, jsut highly polished (in looks, sounds and presentation) in hopes of it being 'good enough' or players not noticing (like, take the underground for example, the idea itself is fantastic and cool as fuck, but its feels like an idea that was never finished and just barely fileld with some things to try and cover up the fact that it was never done, like a statue that wasnt done being carved but ran out of time so they painted it anyway- take the base map and invert it, put some easily accessible points of jumping down into it in random spots to test if the game can handle it- no time left to actually get that idea anywhere more specific and well thought out/put together, so its left like that, put the same texture everywhere, barely modified copies of the same enemies, and some little reward spots that make no sense, modelling three types of trees and an enemy camp is way quicker to do than actually making an entire new map (they didnt have to make it the same size btw, just make it big but unique caves, put the gravity effect down there in enclosed spaces! makes it less weird to have randomly happen in the sky! etc) but its there!! its in the game and if they are lucky most players wont go down there enough to notice how meaningless and unfinished it all is)

knowing they would most likely never admit to it though, probably bc of their reputation, is just addign to the frustrations i have with it :I

(i just hate to not know the reason for things, if the devs, who are usually the ones being worked to the bone for things they know arent good, where put through that bc some executive big shot threw their tables around every so often or neglected their project bc they wanted to focus on something else first ... id like to know, i dont enjoy making up these conspiracy (?) theories .......... but i cant shake this feeling, its jsut makes no sense)

[iraprince]

I adore all your art with cookie and was interested in Sapphicworld- but I’m curious (so plz don’t take this as a negative-) what exactly in your opinion sets it apart from other Queer PBTA hacks like Thirsty Sword Lesbians?

I’d just really like to hear your thoughts about it as a system and world especially given you are a indie developer yourself?

hi!! thank you!!

so, a few caveats before i start off — one, i actually haven't played many other pbta games (like for example i know Of thirsty sword lesbians + own a copy that i've poked around in but im not very familiar w it), so i honestly can't provide much in the way of comparing/contrasting it w other pbta stuff in the same vein, and my impressions of sapphicworld are pretty much just contained to the game as its own thing, not so much sapphicworld as a Type Of Game

and two, while i am a dev myself, i'm a huge novice! like, i'm proud of the stuff i put out and i love doing it, but i personally feel like my lack of experience is such that like, i don't think my opinions in this case are particularly informed by my own work as a dev or anything. all this to say im happy to answer this question, i think i just gotta tackle it from a different frame than what ur specifically asking!

BUT ANYWAY. i can still talk abt why im so excited abt sapphicworld in a way that has kind of outstripped other stuff in general, and for me it's about the world 100%. like i honestly spend close to no time thinking abt the fact that sw is even pbta to be honest. not that the mechanics + gameplay aren't important, bc they are thoughtfully crafted and well done and fun, and i'm saying that from the perspective of someone who playtested earlier versions that have now been reworked! it's just like, not what comes to mind first for me — what's exciting and fresh and irreplaceable abt the game in my mind is like. it is fully committed to immersing you in an extremely lush, strange, richly fleshed out world, one with a long history and folklore/mythology and a TON of really fun npcs who all have different subcultures and its own calendar with seasonal holidays and regional terrain with specific fleshed out dungeons/towns/etc to discover and even like, specific FOODS typical to each different region and and and and —

and maybe at first that seems kind of overwhelming, and tbh it is. when i first got into it and i was going thru the playtest document (which if im remembering right was like. ~300 pages shorter at the time than the current playtest doc) i DO remember anxiously thinking to myself "god this is a LOT and idk if i'll be able to retain enough of this to rp convincingly" etc etc. but like... it's just really compelling, and it does an incredible job of mixing humor and gravity and horniness in a perfect ratio that always comes across as intensely earnest and makes it equally easy to have a fun goofy time or a really emotional time, which i think is REALLY hard to do.

and while normally it's hard for me to get thru something that dense and long all i can really say is that i just straight up like it enough and was charmed by it enough to pick away at it until i grasped it and felt like i understood a bunch about the world, which also has a curve to it bc in structure and tone its very different from any of your... idk more Standard fantasy or sci fi worldbuilding, so it's not like u can immediately slot in ur expectations from other settings and just learn some new vocab words, it's a world that from my perspective also Functions differently than a lot of other fictional settings in a way that's a little hard to describe succinctly. (none of this is succinct to begin with but ykwim). it makes me want to gm my own campaign, really really bad, when usually i have always been absolutely Terrified of the idea of gming! idk man. it has a Flavor. it's full of Vapors. u get transported somewhere else reading it and playing it in a way i haven't experienced in a while and a lot of times after a playtest session i felt like my brain stayed behind in sapphicworld for a pretty long time.

i feel like i am sounding a little melodramatic and incoherent but like. genuinely sapphicworld is just a fictional world that i am really bone-deep charmed by and interested in and when i WAS reading thru the rulebook for those first days it did not take me long at all to find myself constantly thinking "i want to play in this world, i want to play in this world, i can't wait to play in this world," and i just think that's really special. and like — just as your curiosity abt comparing sw to tsl was not intended as a diss or a negative, what im abt to say is similarly neutral — im a person who sometimes finds it a little difficult to click with or feel excited abt a lot of the Queer Indie Stuff that i see get popular with other people, bc it just doesn't connect w my specific lesbian + trans experience; not that it feels inauthentic but that im like, oh, idk, i think these guys are just. not My Zone, ykwim. on the flip side so much of the humor and heart and transness and sex in sapphicworld is something that really resonates w me and just Clicks in a way that i have also found really special.

rounding myself off before i ramble for like five more paragraphs but just as one more morsel of something i like abt sapphicworld that is a little more concrete than me spinning around the room yelling "I JUST LIKE IT OKAY": one of the most fun parts of character creation is getting to mix and match your kind (sort of like ancestry/species, the form ur physical body takes) with a subculture. so u get things like a werewolf babe (cookie! babe being a subculture that focuses on being Like, Totally Hot), or a centaur knight, or a minotaur debaucher, or a vampire cowboy, or an organist (cthulu-y tentacle guy) scenester, or a skeleton wizard, etc etc etc etc — there are SO MANY to pick from that when i was trying to bait my friends into playing w me i couldn't find a convenient way to list them all so ppl could start thinking abt their characters. and every possible combination basically is interesting and amusing and fun and practically THROWS a great oc into your lap and i literally think i could amuse myself endlessly just Making Characters in sapphicworld and never actually playing w them.

[panting, disheveled] so tldr. i like it. uh. what sets sapphicworld apart from other ttrpgs to me is that i have fallen balls to the wall in love with the very soul of it to the point where i don't even really think about it in comparison to other games at all and it has just become an Experience to me and i suppose i cannot guarantee anyone else will fall into insane homosexual hysteria in the same way but here we are. HOPE THAT HELPS

(ALSO PSSST. idk if this is just perfect timing or if ur curiosity was specifically prompted by this but the @sapphicworldttrpg patreon DID just launch and if any of this has been intriguing u should check it out. okay mwah bye)

[omamervt]

This is gonna come off as a weird rant probably but that's fine. I'm not looking for advice, really, I just feel the need to say it.

I've been given praise in the past for managing 3 different socials for LiteralCatPod, but the truth is, it really is the biggest strain of producing the show. I've talked in the past about how thinly spread LiteralCatPod is on socials, and how I feel like I'm not doing enough for any of them. And this has prompted people to tell me about stuff like Postybirb, which I'm sure is all done out of a genuine place of wanting to help, but mass-posting tools are really only helpful when your posts are all formatted the same, and LiteralCatPod's can't be.

Outside Tumblr, linking to other sites will get your post de-prioritized in the algorithm, so to show devs that someone's thinking about their game, and to help our audience find its source without having our posts buried, we tag creators as much as possible. We also obviously tag collaborators. This is important to us because if you ignore the big corporate/licensed games, TTRPGs are a niche scene, with one specific game sucking up most of the oxygen in it. Even if we're making light of the process, I think people would like to know that someone is showing some love to at least one aspect of their game.

Tagging gets tricky when people have different usernames on different sites, sites format their usernames in different ways, and not everyone has a presence on every site we post to. So I can't pre-format a bunch of posts, and while it might be possible to schedule posts on Tumblr, the fact that I can't schedule a thread on Twitter or Bluesky means that I have to post those all manually. And while I wouldn't call myself lucky to be under-employed, I am lucky to be free the mornings my show releases so that I can manually make those posts.

and like, I'm genuinely not sure what I can do about it. Manually posting to 3 sites can easily take an hour every other wednesday morning, and I've never once successfully dragged myself out of bed in time to start posting when the episode actually airs, it's always a couple hours later. And maybe that doesn't actually make a difference, I don't know. But it often doesn't feel like the posts are making a difference anymore either. Twitter gives increasingly diminishing returns but it's still used by more RPG publishers than Bluesky or Tumblr. Some of them are on Threads but that's a bigger privacy nightmare than the YouTube app and, being a Facebook product, it's almost entirely pay-to-win, and there's no way in hell I jump into that. I feel like the show's reach on Tumblr is entirely at the whim of a handful of popular TTRPG gimmick blogs, which nevertheless rarely translates to new listeners. And Bluesky... I've never figured out Bluesky. It looks like Twitter, the users act like it's Twitter, down to the toxic, controlling, manipulative behavior surrounding who you follow and what posts you like, but the site is functionally not Twitter, at least not yet. Never tried Mastodon, I know a lot of people like it but the decentralized structure just seems like too much of a mess to wade into, and everyone who's tried to reassure me about my concerns just make it sound worse.

I created the public Discord because... well we were thinking about it anyway and ultimately it serves a practical purpose but I really put in the work on it because Tumblr's CEO was putting people through it over here for a bit and that seems to have died down (or at least, people talking about it has, that doesn't necessarily mean much.) But anyway at the time I was just frustrated because I had already watched my potential audience fragment from one site to three, and facing the possibility of it fragmenting to 4-6 just felt like too much.

TL;DR, I chose the three social sites that I did because I know that when Twitter's audience fragmented, most of the ones who left flocked here or to Bluesky. And it feels like abandoning any of them would mean abandoning a big chunk of potential audience. But idk. Right now it seems like a lot for little return to continue trying to reach them all. If I got to have a cool conversation about an RPG once every couple weeks out of it it'd all be worth it. But so far I'm not so lucky.

[goombasa]

Star Fox and the Wish for Potential

I really wish that we got more Star Fox games.

Don't get me wrong, Nintendo's done some of their other franchises much dirtier than Star Fox, with the absolute astounding gaps between entries in franchises like Metroid or F-Zero have proven, and yet Star Fox is probably the series that bothers me the most, because most of the time, it doesn't feel like Nintendo particularly cares about the potential of its world or its characters or the stories that could be told with a group of mercenaries that wander the solar system… most of the time, Star Fox as a series for them is a tech demo series for them.

Don't get me wrong, there's something to be said for that. The original Star Fox was essentially the perfect example of how far you could push the Super Nintendo and still have a viable, playable game with its use of polygons, Star Fox 64 pushed the series further with its branching path system and showed off just how much rumble could enhance the experience of a game, Star Fox Command is basically one of the examples I think of when I think of a game that uses a system's central gimmick to its absolute extreme since basically the ENTIRE game is stylus driven, and of course, poor Star Fox Zero was the last bastion of trying, desperately, to show folks that the Wii U was cool.

There is something to be said for having a particular series that you like to use to show off the potential of your hardware or control schemes (which makes it all the stranger that Star Fox missed out on the Wii, when its control scheme would probably have worked really well with a rail shooter), but it's often to the detriment of everything else. If there isn't a gimmick or new hardware or new tech to pair it with, it often feels like the series just doesn't matter to Nintendo that much, and the narrative and characters feel like they suffer for it. I'm not saying that Star Fox's story is some sort of underrated masterpiece, but I'm the sort of person who just gets real annoyed when potential goes unexplored.

There is so much that could be done with the world of Star Fox with the premise that it has, and yet most of the time, it feels like Nintendo's only ever interested in telling the same story. Both Star Fox 64 and Zero are retellings of the original game's story, and while the other games do follow an actual flowing story, that was sort of thrown out the door with Command and it's multiple endings, all of which are pretty unsatisfying, and pretty much all of them were confirmed noncanon anyway, which led to Nintendo just rebooting the whole thing.

Well, I say Nintendo, but all things considered, Nintendo's never really developed any of the Star Fox games in-house. They have a lot of say in what does and doesn't get into the game, obviously, but the main developers for the games are almost always third party developers, though usually ones that are pretty close to Nintendo. We've had Argonaut Software, Rare, Namco, Q-Games, and Platinum Games. The only one that had no other studios involved, or at least none that are listed, is 64, which was only done by Nintendo EAD. This is one of those series that Nintendo seems to hand out to other developers rather than work on in house because I don't think a lot of their top devs have a lot of interest in the series. And it's just frustrating, as the game jumping about from developer to developer doesn't help its consistency much, which leads to a lot of divisive opinions on each game. Most of them (Rare exclused, as they basically slapped Starfox on top of an original IP they were working on at the time) really only know Star Fox as a rail shooter series and Nintendo probably doesn't give them a wide breath to experiment beyond that.

But imagine if we had a game that took more advantage of the fact that our main characters were mercenaries. There doesn't have to be a huge, grand-scale problem for them to solve. We've seen that so much already in the series, most of it related to Venom and the sort of monsters that spawn from there. A game where you fly around, explore the lylat system, still have shooting sections, but are attempting to take on jobs for various groups, assisting folks who are still recovering from all the combat that was happening before, there's a lot of potential there, and you wouldn't even have to abandon the rail-shooting or dog-fighting gameplay that has been the pillar of the series.

At the same time, I'm one of those freaks who thinks it's good to see a series step away from its comfort zone now and then. I actually enjoyed the ideas behind the on-foot missions in Star Fox Assault, and actually really liked the idea of a Star Fox Musou game that was rumored to be a pitch after Hyrule Warriors blew up. What I want is to see something that pushes the boundaries of the series and tries something familiar yet unique, like how Nintendo reinvents Mario just a little bit with each Entry, or how Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom have given Zelda a bit of a fresh identity, or how Dread has completely revitalized Metroid as a series (though again, the primary developer on that game was MercurySteam, with assistance from Nintendo EPD). I would love to see that level of passion devoted to a Star Fox game in the future, one that doesn't have to be reliant on a gimmick or new tech in order to justify is existence. I just want a Star Fox game that helps define what Star Fox is, or what it can be, so many years after the original. I want a game that doesn't retread well trodden ground with its story and breaks away from series tradition, just a little bit, maybe let the characters breathe just a bit more, or at least give a bit more justification to your wingmen.

This post has been a lot more rambly than I meant it to be, but I generally have a hard time organizing my thoughts when I start getting onto a topic like this. A lot of what I write is stream of consciousness and I just hope that something legible pops out, so I apologize if I've failed here, it just bums me out that the latest Star Fox game was Zero, which would have been a pretty mediocre game even without the tacked on gyro controls, which came out ten years after the last fully original Star Fox game, Command, which in and of itself had tons of issues, not least of which being its branching storyline gimmick, and now it just feels like we're not going to see another new one any time soon, and that makes me quite sad.

Then again, I could be surprised when whatever Nintendo's new system is going to be. I mean, we got a brand new F-Zero game late last year in F-Zero 99 after almost twenty years of nothing for that series, so anything is possible. I just worry that it will continue to repeat the pattern and try once against o start fresh with the same story we've had three times now, when what the series needs it some sort of push in a fresher direction. Trying to play it safe with a basic rail shooter wouldn't be the best idea with this series at this point.

My fingers are crossed, and I'm absolutely hoping for something unexpected for the series in the future. Preferably sooner than later, but hey, I'm decently patient. Until then, there's always musing with other fans on what could be.

[dykeza]

Edit: this post is too long it’s going under read more so I don’t feel as evil tagging it okay thanks. Hi guys it’s me the asshole again can I say smth possibly controversial and tone deaf? Okay thanks .

I think a terrible amount of backlash towards SSO is done under the assumption that SSO is a small team that became a large Horse Game Corporation with a monopoly on Horse Games in the last 13 years . This is not true. SSO is still a small game worked on by a small team (there’s frequent posts on their instagram featuring basically the whole team— including like the Singular Lady that models all the horses. Like that’s One Person, Maybe More but Not A Lot More). Just bc it has more polish does not mean it’s suddenly not made by a small team in a likely rented office space who strive to pay their workers fairly. Lots of ppl on Reddit saying shit like “I wonder if the higher-ups at the sso company make it so the designers can’t do whatever they want :(“ There aren’t any higher-ups. It’s important to me that you know that. SSO hiking prices and lowering rewards and releasing smaller and smaller updates CAN be a bit shitty, I’m not saying it’s not. I’m saying there’s nuance that’s lost when a bunch of primarily older teenaged and adult women and queer ppl— (I am aware how insane that sounds but I don’t think many straight cis dudes are rockin with the horse game, and if they are they’re not the majority) —are yelling in Instagram comment sections about how shitty the SSO dev team is because they (checks notes) have to raise the prices of their horse game because they have to maintain a livable wage for themselves, pay rent and utility bills on their machines and spaces that they need to even make the game, and pay for marketing and other expenses, in a global post-Covid hyper-inflated economy. So woe is you that star coins cost more. A 10k star coin gift card used to be 108 dollars around my neck of the woods (America) and now it’s 79.99. That’s less money btw in case you can’t do math because you’re too blinded by your rage over game designers, artists, developers, and coders being paid more than peanuts to update the same fucking game for 13 years WEEKLY. Okay man. Whatever. Old man yelling at cloud over here. A lot of this has been building for months-years now but the Medieval Arena update really like, made it apparent to me for some reason. Maybe it’s cuz I like the update I think it’s cute I think it’s nice and small and quaint. But like— it’s So Obvious that the Medieval Arena and all its little additions and the future ones were made by a small team of people who just, wanted to have a fun Renaissance Fair in their game that they make. Bc yknow, again, they’re updating and making a game that they are paid to update and make because they want to update and make it. Sorry you don’t like shitty jousting mechanics and a cute lil fairground . Do you also hate the sun for shining? Oh you miss the old events? Oh you hate that sso is all corporate and lifeless now? Should we tell everyone? Should we invite Bella Hadid? Have you even once considered that maybe the people who make the game are People making a Game, and they can do whatever they want with their game? You, yes you, can also do whatever you want. You have the hands that create. You don’t get mad at an artist with a canvas and paints for doing art the wrong way, right? So why is it okay to get mad at an artist with a computer and a coding software for doing art the wrong way? Every horse, building, character, clothing, tack, tree, bush, boat, car, and all the hundreds of other things in this game are made by hand by dedicated people but yeah, you’re mad that they Chose To Do Something THEY Wanted To Do over doing the thirteenth birthday event in a row to appease a bunch of people who never seem to be happy with their art anyway. Fuck off. Sorry for yelling. I’m not sorry but sorry for yelling. Please die.

[awiola]

[A joke of a] normal update, spring XXIV

Tl;dr - no progress, regress only and not even the system kind.

A bit early this time but these two weeks or so won't really make much of a difference so yeah.

Checking stuff I wrote about before... I failed the 100 days of art challenge. But I did draw the Father daki, even if at the last moment. Still no comms open but it's barely july so. Maye. We'll see.

Current game stuff

Eeeh... Idk where to start so... Impostor Syndrome hasn't really seen much progress. I wasn't joking in that tl;dr. Reason being about the same as usual + the fact I was actually busy and properly afk irl. Shocking.

I mean, pretty sure I did basically no dev for around three months already if you don't count that one day I did some programming on Enmity but it's going extremely slowly cause it's basically all committing to a very bad decision. If someone ever tells you that having a window of space that's not even rectangular in your textbox is a good idea, don't believe them and kick them away while you're at it. I knew it was a mistake from the very beginning and I'm sticking to it. At least adding transitions, drawing all the missing art etc later would be pretty fast compared. I do have lotsa materials to compile and documents to make irl but I think I'll be done by the end of july or so so the game would most likely be finished before Spooktober. I think. Maybe.

Soon after the winter update, I was told two of the games I was working on were suspended indefinitely/cancelled and thanks to the whole team for your hard work. I talked about one of them here [with Doibats] and the other one I'm pretty sure I never mentioned. I wanted to join another team, then, but life was like 'NO >:C' so I had to leave soon after orz Good thing I wasn't anyone important.

I think for now I'll just focus on finishing my other games or correcting stuff from the "24 >:C" list since a lot of that is minor enough I could do it in a day or two and just couldn't've bothered before. If I work on anything, you'd probably just see it suddenly appear on my ich profile with more info during the next update.

.

.

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Oh, right. If anyone was curious about that otome I did basically no work on and wasn't even a part of the team but hey, promo is promo, right, it's Chromatic Agape. They made some cool design decisions so wait a bit till the end of otojam [based on what I saw about their progress, it seems highly likely they'll finish on time] and bask in its full glory. By playing. Or check out the demo now.

Pariiish noootiiiceees

So, Insect [adjacent] jam is still happening this year, just later. I don't know when, I'll make a separate post. Tentacle jam, though? Probably not. I mean, arthropods can have tentacles [I think??? Idk], too, so you can add them anyway but yeah. I want to be able to join my own jam. And there's also the fact I totally failed with making mushroom game and it's just waiting there and staring at me menacingly cause it's hidden from the public eye... So wait for the jam annoucement post. This year.

---

All that html hates me, I tell you.

Over.

[twinhood-2dot0]

A Shallow Dive Into: Video Game Mechanics

We’re doing this again :P. I got a fun topic but realised it would take too much research, so you get this but, uh, y’know, delayed gratification and all. 

So, you know that I wanna be a game developer. I have decided to make a video game, starting next year, provided things go well. As in any art form, to make one, I’m going to need inspiration and an understanding of how it works and stuff, so, this post is mainly just for me like every other post I’ve written, but, I hope you find it interesting as well.

Undertale

Damn, this is like the third time I’m talking about Undertale. I HOLD THIS GAME VERY CLOSE TO MY HEART, OKAY? 

Undertale has a unique battle system. From the Steam page: “Killing is unnecessary: negotiate out of danger using the unique battle system.” Undertale is an RPG (Role-playing game) at its core. The battle system, however, is more of a bullet hell. Bullet hell is characterized by a barrage of projectiles that crowd the screen. What makes this game different from every other game I’ve played is the variety. Granted, the game is tiny, so it’s easier to have variety, but I’ll take the game I’m playing right now as an example, Alan Wake, god, does this game have a terrible combat system. 

At least the story makes up for it. Anyways, in Alan Wake, you are attacked by people taken by a darkness. You defeat them by shining a light on them and breaking the uh darkness shield with a flashlight or a flare or external light sources, or you can insta kill with flashbangs or flare guns (or maybe it deals a lot of damage to bulkier enemies, I don’t know, I’m so worried about running out of ammo or flashbangs that I end up never using them lmao). Anyways, I’m about 70% done and the combat system has remained exactly the same, save for additions of a hunting rifle and 2 kinds of shotguns and I never use them, see flashbangs and flare guns, granted, that’s not the devs’ fault, but how much more variety would that create? I guess easier battles and maybe ammo management but I’m already irrationally worrying about that, so… There’s also only like 4 enemy varieties, and that makes every battle almost exactly the same, save for one, which I don’t wanna spoil too much. 

Anyways, my point is, in Undertale, every single battle has its own personality. There are 8 enemies in the tutoriel area of the game, Ruins. That’s not much, but the Ruins is a relatively small area, being the tutorial area, and enemies can appear in pairs and have unique interactions with the other. For instance, there’s this enemy called Migosp, who I think has social anxiety, mood, who changes its whole personality in the company of other monsters and becomes laidback when alone. Every enemy has a personality and a unique attack, so this is pretty much the pinnacle of enemy variety.

Batman: Arkham

A lot of that was combat challenges with every single character in the game, so I think I’m pretty qualified to refute that.

So, I used to just button spam on my first playthrough, it was when trying to do the combat challenges that I realised that was not the best strategy. If you just button spam, you’re going to get hit very easily and get a lower score. There are also critical hits which do more damage and give double the points if you time your punches, and a huge amount of score if you kill knock out the enemies without getting hit or not breaking your combo. There are also insta-takedown, weapon disarm, ground takedown, which is risky as you’re vulnerable to hits, but award a lot of points and instantly take them out. So, in short, yes, you can button spam, but you’ll be missing out on a lot of fun mechanics, and the satisfaction of a perfect FreeFlow.

The other system is the Predator sections. It’s exactly what it sounds like, it’s silently (or loudly, idk, you choose, I like going loud when playing with Red Hood, that seems in character) taking out the goons in the room. This is truly how this game makes you feel like Batman. There’s a weird sadistic satisfaction in hearing the goons freaking out as their friends disappear one by one. Also, traversal is very fun, you can grapple, glide, even almost fly if you get good at gliding, dive bomb, (yes I use the Oxford comma, fight me) and there’s also the Batmobile in the last game. Also one of my favourite tiny detail in the games, the goon conversations. They’re hilarious and breathe a lot of life into the bleak empty map. Just look at this clip (dw they’re short) why you let thugs finish their conversations.

And this

Arkham Knight - Funny Militia Guard

My favourite thing is when developers go the extra mile and put in tiny details that not everyone might find, but those who do, would definitely love it. I strive to do that one day.

Pokémon

This gets pretty technical and boring, so you may skip this one if you want.

At first glance, Pokémon may seem like a children’s game with simple mechanics, but that is far from the truth. In a typical Pokémon battle, each participant sends out 1 or 2 or 3 Pokémon depending on the format, and each of them use moves to try and lower the HP (health point, numerical representation of health) of the opposing Pokémon to 0. It has a lot of different mechanics, strategies, variety and even has a competitive scene with a world championship. Pokemon releases a mainline game every few years, bringing along with it new species, abilities, moves, items, etc. I’m gonna make a glossary.

Ability - Each Pokémon has an ability that affects the battle in some way (in most cases). For instance, the ability Intimidate lowers the attack stat of the opposing Pokémon.

Types - There are 18 types in Pokémon. In short, each Pokémon has one or two types, and each type has a set of weaknesses, strengths, resistances and immunities. For instance, let’s take the classic three types of Grass, Water and Fire of the starter Pokémon you’re given at the beginning of the game. Grass type moves do double damage against Water types, Water does double to Fire, and Fire does double to Grass, so basically like Rock/Stone, Paper, Scissors (and Lizard, Spock and 13 more stuff if you use all 18 types), and these types do half damage to the types they’re weak to (Only for these types, not for every single type). Like this, every type has an interaction with every other type.

Moves - Moves are the main way to deal damage, but there are others. Moves are split into 3 categories, Physical attacks, damaging moves that use the Attack Stat, (see: Stats), Special moves that use the Special Attack stat, and status moves that don’t do direct damage, but have a passive effect. Damaging moves generally have a set base power ranging from 10 - 250, and moves of the same type as the user deal 1.5x more damage. There are more factors but I’ll ignore them for this post.

Stats - Each Pokemon has base stats, which determine how much damage is dealt or taken, or the order of moves. The stats are HP, Attack, Defense, Special Attack, Special Defense, and Speed. HP determines how many health points the Pokemon has, for Attack and Special Attack see Moves, Defense and Special Defense determines how much damage it takes, and Speed determines who goes first.

Status condition - Huh, just realised that’s kinda redundant wording. Anyways, there are 5.5 non-volatile status conditions in mainline games. Freeze renders the target incapable to move until the RNG works in your favour, Burn deals 1/16th of its health each turn currently, and halves the base power of all physical moves, Paralysis makes it unable to move 25% of the time, and halves Speed, Poison does 1/8th of the health each turn, and badly poisoned means the damage increases by 1/16 each turn (this is the .5) and Sleep makes the Pokemon unable to move for 1-3 turns. There are a lot of volatile conditions that fade away upon switching out, unlike non-volatile ones.

A Pokemon needs a combination of all these traits to be good. Landorus was once the most hated Pokemon in VGC because of great stats, great ability in Intimidate, lowering both foes’ Attack stat, and great moves.

If you got till here, thanking you for sticking around, I know it wasn’t easy, and ryl!

[faroreswinds]

My source of information is biased but from what I can tell jp fans are saying that AG is the only route that can still be somewhat taken seriously despite having its own problems too. Nobody says anything good about GW while for SB it's more like "yeah I knew it would be this awful, not like I expected anything from it anyway since I've seen CF".

People in general are annoyed how this game tries to whitewash Edel, glorifying invasion (except for when the kingdom goes into the empire) and shifting blames to TWSITD/old values/whatever. They hate how BE & GD students are written to have no self-awareness, and how AG part 2 Edel is written to be this uwu little girl to persuade you "Poor Edel-chan did nothing wrong desu". Most problems with the story are boiled down to the devs refusing to criticize Edel. There's a post making fun of the title screen placing Labranda in front of everything else being a representation of their blantant favouritism.

There's also a consensus that AG is likely written by a different person from the one who wrote SB/GW, as SB/GW have a lot of problems in common (other-blaming, people around the main character become yesman, dumps "chivalry/church bad" with no supporting evidence, etc.), while AG characters are overall acting more intelligent (mainly Claude) and have significantly richer vocabulary (and more usage of complex kanji lol). They also compared how Sreng/Duscur is written to Almyra/Brigid and think that AG writer is more capable of world building too.

Thanks for sharing! I love hearing about this stuff, since I frequent different places than others do.

You have me wondering how universal this is, or how much of it is your circles, like you said. Which isn't a bad thing! I just like hearing different perspectives and getting the full picture.

but from what I can tell jp fans are saying that AG is the only route that can still be somewhat taken seriously despite having its own problems too. Nobody says anything good about GW while for SB it's more like "yeah I knew it would be this awful, not like I expected anything from it anyway since I've seen CF".

Looool. I do think it's better than CF by a long shot, but I get what they are saying. It still suffers under a lot of the same problems.

People in general are annoyed how this game tries to whitewash Edel, glorifying invasion (except for when the kingdom goes into the empire) and shifting blames to TWSITD/old values/whatever.

I'm actually writing up a full-ish review of SB (obviously it's not done since I haven't finished SB quite yet) but this is something I have noticed as well. The game tries so hard to justify the invasion, that It Is Good, actually, by hiding behind vague rhetoric about "ideals" and allow very little room for criticisms but all the room for praise. It's either the Slithers fault, or Dimitri's fault for existing, or the Church and Rhea.

They hate how BE & GD students are written to have no self-awareness, and how AG part 2 Edel is written to be this uwu little girl to persuade you "Poor Edel-chan did nothing wrong desu". Most problems with the story are boiled down to the devs refusing to criticize Edel.

Yup, like I said, the game only seems to praise her, with little room for criticism. Even her enemies have something nice to say. And making Edelgard like a little girl is a BIG oof. Not to mention how little the students have awareness of their part in the war.

That said, it's not every character. Linhardt has a few things to say, and Dorothea says ONE good line. But the rest? Nah.

There's a post making fun of the title screen placing Labranda in front of everything else being a representation of their blantant favouritism.

Oooohhhh, I want to see this post!

There's also a consensus that AG is likely written by a different person from the one who wrote SB/GW, as SB/GW have a lot of problems in common (other-blaming, people around the main character become yesman, dumps "chivalry/church bad" with no supporting evidence, etc.), while AG characters are overall acting more intelligent (mainly Claude) and have significantly richer vocabulary (and more usage of complex kanji lol). They also compared how Sreng/Duscur is written to Almyra/Brigid and think that AG writer is more capable of world building too.

Now that's fascinating, and totally possible. There is a team of writers, not just one, so it's very likely a single person spearheaded a route each, and AG just got the one with the best skillz, or at least the most colorful language. It's a shame this will be lost on non-Japanese speakers, but that's just the cruel reality we live in.

Ah, I love learning about stuff like this! :)

[missnight0wl]

Is Jacob dead?

Before we dive into this question, I just want to say that the whole idea is based on three other assumptions:

Jacob we found in the Portrait Vault is not real Jacob. I talked about this idea quite a lot on my blog, so if you’re interested in details, you can check this masterpost.

We’re not done with the final Cursed Vault. This is another idea that appears in my posts pretty often. I guess the best summary of it would be this post.

Rowan is alive. The shortest explanation of this idea is probably this post.

I’ll mention one scene from Y6Ch42, but its context is not really relevant here, so the spoilers will be mostly for Y4 and Y5.

Now, with that in mind, we can move to the main issue.

The idea of Jacob being actually dead was present in the story pretty much from the very beginning. Admittedly, it was usually Merula joking about him being dead, though you can’t really tell me it wasn’t something that MC feared as well. It seems to me that they were kind of suppressing it, though. And I think that a very good example of it is the “Wizarding World Famous” SQ from Y3 – which is currently unavailable in the game, sadly, but I don’t think it means we should ignore it. After all, those quests are being added again (see: The Weird Sisters! TLSQ, for example).

Anyway, by the end of this quest we had this scene:

(screenshots from I-GGames YouTube channel)

And when you think about it, it’s really quite unsettling. First of all, Rita basically suggested that the Mysterious Voice MC’s hearing might not be Jacob’s. And secondly, why would she imply that he might be dead?

Moving on, we kind of abandoned the topic of Jacob’s possible death. I mean, Merula continued her comments even in Y4, but MC themselves never really addressed it on-screen. And truth be told, I sort of stopped thinking about it seriously, too. Until there was a moment in Y6 where MC sings a song, and you choose “Odo the Hero”. See, Jam City decided to play “Brother Theme” in the background for this particular song. Interestingly, these are the lyrics:

And Odo the hero, they bore him back home / To the place that he'd known as a lad, / They laid him to rest with his hat inside out / And his wand snapped in two, which was sad.

Now, I know that “Brother Theme” kind of lost its meaning with the new devs. I mean, they randomly put it in the “Lone Wolf” TLSQ after our duel with Chiara, for example. Still, it got me thinking… It kind of sounds familiar, considering that MC always wanted to “bring [Jacob] back home”. And Madam Rosmerta even used exactly those words in the past while talking about our brother. Plus, a part about “his wand snapped in two”? Just like Jacob’s wand left in the Vault of Ice? Like, it seriously does sound like it could’ve been about Jacob, don’t you think?

And you know what? While I do think that “Odo the Hero” is probably just a coincidence, I also have to say… Jacob being dead actually makes sense.

I suppose the most important thing here is the change in R’s messages between Y4 and Y5.

Y4Ch3:

Y5Ch1:

In Y4, R wanted to stop MC. But in Y5, they suddenly needed them. We learnt later that it was about the Legilimency door (and possibly the final Vault). I discussed it in the past already, and I think we should keep in mind here another thing that Rita told us about Jacob in her first SQ:

I bring it up often when I talk about vault!Jacob being fake because “being trapped in the portrait” is not the same as “being held captive”. So, I believe that Jacob was indeed imprisoned somewhere by R (and it wasn’t the Portrait Vault). However, something major changed between Y4 and Y5. In my personal story, R “lost interest” in Jacob because he got so ill that they weren’t sure if he’d survive long enough. Yet, if Jacob actually died… Yeah, it works even better. In Y4, R wanted to stop MC because they still had imprisoned Jacob. In Y5, Jacob was already dead, so R needed MC to open the Legilimency door.

Now, there’s one more very interesting scene in Y4Ch7. If you choose Rakepick to talk about the arrowhead, and you tell her that you know about it from your brother, this is how it goes:

And honestly, her reaction is just… so odd. Sure, you might say that she was scared that Jacob told us that she’d betrayed him and left him in the Portrait Vault. But even if it’s true – it doesn’t really make sense that Rakepick would be worried about that. I mean, she told us that Dumbledore told her about our visions in the past. Even if she lied, she should expect on her own that Jacob might’ve revealed her secret somehow already. Either way, it’s too late to be worried about that – if Jacob wanted to warn MC about Rakepick, he’d do it by now.

HOWEVER, if Rakepick was suspecting that Jacob might be dead, the fact that MC heard his voice could mean that he’s still alive – even though she also implied that the voice we hear might not be Jacob’s at all. So, would she be afraid that Jacob is alive, and that’s how the secret of her betrayal might be revealed in the future? Well, I doubt it. And that’s because I don’t think it’s supposed to be a “scared” animation.

If I recall correctly, there was only one other situation when Jam City used that animation for Rakepick – and it was after Pettigrew Obliviated us:

And in my opinion, she wasn’t scared there at all. If anything, she was excited. Excited that they finally had a lead for the vault portrait, that they’re getting closer to the Portrait Vault. So… would she also be excited about Jacob being possibly still alive? Well, I believe that yes. 

I’m not gonna insist that Jacob and Rakepick were as close as they’re in my version, but I suppose that they had some kind of partnership. In my post: “How the Cursed Vaults work?”, I explained how they might’ve placed the clues in the columns together. So yeah, I believe that Rakepick wanted him to be alive. Unfortunately, the end of Y4 came, and her concerns came true – Jacob died.

Moreover, Jacob being dead would explain why R needed to place the imposter Jacob in the Portrait Vault. As I mentioned above, I assume that MC is also needed for the final Vault, and not only the Legilimency door. However, if MC would learn that Jacob died, they might’ve abandoned their search for the Cursed Vaults. Let’s keep in mind that for MC, it was always about finding Jacob. So, R allowed us to find “our brother” to give us hope. But at the same time, they made sure that we still have to chase after him because he’s chasing after Rakepick, so that’s our new motivation.

So, everything checks, right? Well, except for one thing… It would suck. From the narrative point of view, Jacob being dead would be pretty lame. It’d be a similar kind of a cheap plot twist as the stories where at the end, it turns out that everything was just a dream. It’d be pretty disappointing if MC went through all of that to find and save their brother, only to discover that he died years ago. Unless… Jacob can still be saved.

In the past, I made a couple of posts on what might be the real treasure of the final Vault. In one of them, I proposed that it’s “the twin” creation of the Veil in the Ministry of Magic – and by that, I mean something that allows people to come from the afterlife. See, there’s a fan theory that the Ministry was actually built around the Veil, and that’s how it became a part of the Department of Mysteries. So, what if something similar happened with this “other Veil”? After all, in the “Nearly Headless Nick” SQ, we had this scene:

It would make sense for such “other Veil” to be extra protected with the whole system of the Cursed Vaults because bringing people from the afterlife can be definitely more dangerous than the Veil at the Ministry. On top of that, we know that R is interested in immortality:

And being able to come back from the dead is kind of immortality, isn’t it?

If the ancient construction like that is really the true treasure of the final Cursed Vault, it could help us bring Jacob back. And I made it clear at the beginning that I believe that Rowan is actually alive because I don’t think it should be about choosing between Rowan and Jacob. But if Rowan is alive, it doesn’t really matter – it’d be obvious that we should use it for our brother.

Finally, I think that this whole plotline would add a quite interesting layer to Rakepick’s character. Imagine that at first, her motives were pretty selfish. I still kind of doubt that she’d be particularly interested in the treasure itself, but I can totally accept that it wasn’t simply about helping Jacob. But then, maybe she got a bit attached to him or something, and once she learnt that he’s dead, she realised that she failed him in a way. Maybe she even felt somewhat guilty. Therefore, she was like: “All right, I messed up with Jacob. He was an innocent victim of this war with R. But now, I can at least help MC get to the final Vault, so they could bring their brother back”.

That’s why she joined R by the end of Y5 – to know what exactly they’re planning once Jacob was dead. That’s why she faked Rowan’s death – so R wouldn’t kill anyone for real, yet MC could reach the final Vault (assuming that experiencing the death of a loved one is a requirement to enter it). And that’s why she’s probably laying a trail of breadcrumbs for us even in Y7.

Personally, I don’t love this idea. But at the same time, I have to say... it does add up.

[lightrises]

"Only in allowing her to pass..." — Hornet, The Radiance, and the means by which Hallownest turned its victims against each other

A quick note: I read Hollow Knight as an anti-colonialist text. As such I'll be touching on topics related to colonialism as it's depicted in the world of the game, and said analysis will reflect both a sympathetic take on The Radiance and a critique of The Pale King that won't pull its punches. If this sounds up your alley, hello and thank you for the read! Let us be sad about these bugs together.

———

So!! A while back I realized something about pre-canon that felt rather... "curious" is one way to put it, I think. To wit: for all the effort and scheming and determination The Pale King poured into trying to get rid of The Radiance, neither of his plans involved directly killing her.

Was that his long game? Well, sure, that seems clear enough. His tack changed from luring the moths away from their god and creator to a more literal form of incarceration once the infection became a factor, but at its core the end goal never really changed—The Pale King very sincerely wished to destroy Radiance via obsolescence. The Seer lends us foreshadowing to confirm as much:

[Image descriptions: Two screenshots from Hollow Knight, showing the Seer and Ghost in the Seer's alcove at the Resting Grounds. Across both screenshots, the Seer tells Ghost the following: "None of us can live forever, and so we ask those who survive to remember us. Hold something in your mind and it lives on with you, but forget it and you seal it away forever. That is the only death that matters." End description.]

(Which, by the way and given the context, talk about an extremely unsubtle allusion to cultural genocide huh!!! Whew.)

In any case, we're left with a whole bunch of machinations which build up to... well, two very roundabout attempts at committing deicide. That's kind of weird, all things considered! Why not just do the deed in one fell swoop and get it over with?

This could be for any number of reasons. Maybe the king was devoid of the means to instantly kill another higher being. Maybe his personal sense of scruples stopped him short of signing off on MURDER murder (although, y'know, the aforementioned genocide + eternal imprisonment = still cool and copasectic apparently!). Maybe the long drawn-out cruelty was the point. Maybe the idea of playing fuckign 4D chess with the circumstances was too delicious for him to pass up—that man did love to tinker and stick his claws where they sure as hell didn't belong—or maybe it was a little bit of All The Things. Who knows!!

But interrogating The Pale King's methodology on this count isn't what I'm here for, at least not really. The main reason I raise this question at all is that in her own way, Hornet did too.

"I'd urge you to take that harder path... "

See, going by The Pale King's actions and what The White Lady explicitly says, they both foresaw two outcomes wrt the infection: it can be allowed to spread, or it can be contained. At Teacher's Archives, Quirrel acknowledges the fact that Ghost is expected to do... something about this, but he doesn't elaborate on what HE thinks that's supposed to be apart from the obvious "Gotta bust into Black Egg Temple first". Hornet is the one person who presents to us—to Ghost—what's framed as a third option: confront and destroy the infection at its source.

And she doesn't bring it up like it's just another tactic for Ghost to consider, prim and indifferent to what they would do. She nudges them towards it, actively, up to the point where she throws herself into the fray against Hollow at a juncture that's uniquely dangerous to her and her alone just to make that option feasible.

Even when she's couching it in disclaimers that this is still Ghost's decision to make (and let's be fair, she's extremely not wrong about that lol), no one can pretend Hornet is unbiased. It's obvious in that buttoned-down Hornet kind of way that she is way the hell done with the increasingly tenuous stalemate that's kept Hallownest's desiccated corpse from collapsing in on itself. Personally it's hard for me not to read some Toriel Undertale-esque "My father was too entrenched in his own foolishness to pursue any course of action that would have DEFINITIVELY ended this" shade into her stance here, regardless of whether that's strictly true in canon.

And that bit—Hornet's hopes for an end to Hallownest's stasis, moreover her grim calculation of what needs to be done to get there—that's the bit I find super interesting but likewise tragic and depressing as shit, on multiple levels. In no small part because a) canon itself gestures towards Hornet feeling conflicted about the very plan she's pushing, and moreover b) she has at least two (2) damn good reasons to feel that way.

So, what do I mean by that? Let's look here first:

[Image description: A screenshot from Hollow Knight, of Hornet and Ghost inside the Temple of the Black Egg, standing in front of the unsealed egg itself. Hornet has been struck by the Dream Nail and her dialogue is displayed as follows: "... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?" End description.]

As the curtain is about to drop on things one way or another, Hornet thinks,

... Could it achieve that impossible thing? Should it?

Now, looking at that last bit it's easy to go "Oh no, Hornet's worried that Ghost won't survive killing The Radiance!" And I do think that's part of it: Hornet is, categorically, not her father. By endgame it's clear she's not content to view her Void-borne siblings as tools to be used then disposed of. She's also well aware that as a healthy autonomous Vessel amongst the countless dead, Ghost is the only person left alive who has a fighting chance against The Radiance. Knowing someone is the only qualified candidate for the job doesn't make encouraging them to embrace a probable death sentence any less of a bitter pill to swallow, though. And odds are on that this sentiment extends to Hollow too, who IS going to die no matter what happens here. To put it bluntly, it's more than reasonable to conclude that Hornet hates the absolute fuck out of this.

But I don't think that's all there is to it either. Remember what I said earlier about The Pale King's bids for genocide? Well, it's not like the man deigned to limit his efforts to just the moth tribe.

"We do not choose our mothers... "

On top of everything else—an infected Hallownest being all she's ever known, the fact that she only exists because of the infection, the list goes on—Hornet has spent her life wedged into a position that's been uncomfortable and terminally unglamorous at best: she is both a daughter of her father's kingdom and of Deepnest.

Deepnest, which like the moths and many others was here long before the wyrm and his lady wife swanned onto the scene and the God Become Bug laid claim to everything the Light touched plus a considerable amount of change. THAT Deepnest, which has fought claw and thread to retain its sovereignty against same-said settler king, and for which Herrah not only surrendered her life but also agreed to bed her worst enemy, all in hopes of securing a viable future for her people (put a pin in that last part by the way, I'll come back to it soon).

Two Worlds, One Family (Ft. An Indigenous Woman Trying Her Damndest To Work With What She's Got Versus An Imperialist Who Only Signed Up For This Because He Needed The Political Favor THAT Badly, So It's The Height Of Dysfunctional Actually). Fun times!!!!

The baggage this entails for Hornet is gnarly enough without implications made by The White Lady and the pre-canon timeline of events and even Team Cherry's dev notes that the king may well have looked at baby Hornet, gone "YOINK", then ensured she spent the lion's share of her childhood reared within the pearly auspices of his Pale Court*. That would be rather advantageous for Him Specifically after all, the potential to mold a born foe into a future ally and even have her trained in combat under the same tutelage as her doomed sibling. And far be it from him to stop a grown Hornet—his own flesh and blood too!—from making Deepnest her forever home if she so pleased. He totally wouldn't be reneging on his "fair bargain made" by doing this one simple thing until Hornet came of age, not t e c h nic c a l l y.

If that is indeed the case, there's a non-zero chance Hornet's formative years were a hot mess of cultural alienation and being a good deal more privy than most to just how much of a bastard her father could be. There's an equally non-zero chance that at some point she stood or sat within earshot as The Pale King finally, finally dropped all pretense and euphemism to name the Light for precisely what (for who) it was.

See, in conjunction with the question that started this whole dang train of thought I've been asking this one too: Does Hornet know? When she speaks of confronting "the heart of [the] infection" does she know she's talking about not just a literal person but someone very specific? The Radiance, who god though she may be shares skin in the game alongside Hornet as a native woman screwed over by the same settler king, likewise deprived of her kin and saddled with a life gone horrendously pear-shaped?

I'll assume for the sake of exploring the possibility and because I think it's a likely one anyway that yes, Hornet does know. She knows, and despite everything can't help empathizing. She might even look at Radiance and see bits and pieces both reflected and slightly inversed in her own mother: Radiance was forced to the sidelines while her people—her children, the brood she was meant to lead and care for—died out under The Pale King's rule, and it's no stretch to assume she's at least as upset about that as she has been about everything else; Herrah too took drastic measures for her people's sake, trying to head off annihilation by relegating herself to the sidelines in an act that was as much calculated risk as an attempt to find wiggle room and leverage in the face of a nasty proposition.

A calculated risk that, if things continue as they are, might well amount to nothing as the rest of Deepnest gets eaten alive by the infection. It survived The Pale King's advances for so so long, only to fall here. Herrah's sacrifice would be for naught; the other tribes—themselves the king's victims—would keep succumbing to the infection too.

And this is where things fall apart.

"... or the circumstance into which we are born."

Let's be clear: I think Hornet is wise enough to know what's what here, that all the carnage and suffering falls on her father's head for starting this slow-motion trainwreck in the first place. Hallownest wasn't always Hallownest. This domain was Radiance's home first, along with many others. It was the worm-turned-king who rolled up on the scene unsolicited and decided this was a ""'problem""" that had to be """solved""".

But the fact of the matter is that he's gone and The Radiance is here, raging, seemingly inconsolable. Above and beyond being Deepnest's rightful heir, Hornet isn't in a position to countenance more splash damage even if the grief and fury fueling it makes perfect sense. She can understand without ever bringing herself to love Radiance, and she can bend her knee to practicality even if she hates the everloving shit out of it because the fact that it "has" to end this way isn't fair.

This lends itself to one last awful conclusion: that Hornet has probably considered and (rightly or wrongly) discarded the possibility that Radiance can be saved, at least not without dragging more collateral along for the ride. If even her mother and every other enemy to the king seemed to dismiss talking Radiance down as an option way back when... well. Why should Hornet hope for any better after things have escalated so far?

Again, it's practical. A practical net good is what Hornet strives for. And again, it fucking sucks.

For extra tragedy points, this makes Hornet's extended crypticness around Ghost followed by her last minute casting about for a reason to tell them "Wait, don't; not just yet" that she never voices even more of a gut punch. She can't bring herself to burden Ghost with the context that haunts her so, least of all when it might weaken their resolve to go through with what (she thinks) needs doing.

It's the "same song, different verse" which led to the mantis tribe and Deepnest being pitted against each other: Hallownest rigged the game so that two women who could have been powerful allies—who have a mutual vested interest in driving out settler rule—wound up poised as enemies instead. And how awful is that? The king for all his being extremely fucking dead still gets the last laugh, because outside of a miracle the game never manifests Hornet can salvage what her mother started and look forward to a future where Deepnest pulls itself back from the brink if and only if The Radiance dies.

Resolution comes at the price of a completed genocide. Add two more dead siblings to the unconscionable pile thereof, while we're at it. That's what it boils down to whether or not Hornet can bear to articulate it as such, and there's no grace or even a properly bittersweet ending to wring from this clusterfuck. And that is rough.

———

* This has been better explained elsewhere, but a quick rundown: The White Lady tells Ghost that Hornet and Herrah "were permitted little time together." On its surface this can be taken to mean that Hornet was still very young when Herrah was shipped off to Eternal Dreamland—except this doesn't jive with the fact that we meet Hornet as an adult. If the stasis kicked in once the Dreamers went to their rest, which in turn halted the aging process for every living bug in Hallownest, AND before all this Hornet experienced little by the way of quality time with her birth mother... I think you can see where I'm going with this.

To top it off we've got Team Cherry weighing in ominously from their dev notes on Herrah: "As part of the agreement for her alliance and her role as a dreamer, King gave her a child (Hornet). Was she allowed to keep this child or was she taken away?" This isn't confirmation by itself of course, but given additional canon details (see above): Can I get a "yikes" in the chat fellas.

[rsmrymnt-tea]

"Feels like there's substance but not really" is such a good way to describe this lesson! I was honestly quite disappointed in this one compared to the others that have come out. It does feel like they're setting things up at least, but the lesson doesn't really feel like all that much on its own??

The consequences for the premilinary trial are so steep! It makes sense because failing does leave a mark on Diavolo's reputation but damn!! It is only the illusion of consequence though - how are they going to send MC home when all of the cast is in the Devildom?

(when Dia said that failing means being kicked out of the exchange program I really was like... Is this supposed to motivate me? The 'privilege' to attend demon school? Uhh..)

(if MC did fail how is Dia going to stop them from teleporting back to the Devildom? They have the magic, and all the people they care about are in the Devildom so..?)

I am nervous because they've really set up these trials to be tough: a verbal warning, Mammon being nervous about them trying, essentially having to find a needle in a haystack for the prelims - plus us having to buy that these are trials to become a member of the Devildom's government. And the trials are under scrutiny too! If they fall short it's really gonna suck!!

With the character stuff. Mammon falling back into old habits does seem to be setting up a character arc for him? Even if it is annoying. (I do love him but isn't it another characters turn? Every other not-Lucifer character could use some development please?) But that said, there's no excuse for Satan to be like that!! And the way they sidelined him by sticking catMammon on him??? Why do the devs hate him 😭😭

Satan easily could've replaced Belphie for the TSL game thing. Satan hangs out in the library, he could've been there when we arrived! And he absolutely would be capable of winning Pasto. If Satan doesn't get to help with one of the trials and get to show off his smarts I'm going to be so disappointed.

- 🐝

I guess that comes with it being a kind of filler-y set-up Lesson? It’s main purpose really is to just introduce a few details about what you’ll need to do but at the same time… I’m wondering why they have to do it like this? At the very least it didn’t end up becoming a ‘mostly just Mammon’ date Lesson again (because if there’s going to be a Mammon-centric Lesson it better be one where it wakes his brothers up to actually rewarding him when he does good) but I’m still left feeling like… Hm. Truthfully parts of Lesson 62 bothered me as well since we got unnaturally stupid brothers and MC for the sake of plot, but I’m glad that that nail polish arc didn’t last an entire fucking chapter like some of the filler in S2 did.

(Also my goodness I kinda go off the rails with this one, under the cut? Oh my god)

And big yes on the illusion of consequence—as far as I can tell, really does just mean that MC can no longer attend RAD as a student, which honestly… Good? Lmao????? Aren’t we all sick of being forced back into school anyway? 😩 And it’s not like RAD’s the only place where MC can further their magical studies since Solomon and Satan exist. Plus with MC now knowing how to teleport, they don’t need any special invite from Diavolo to be able to enter the Devildom + once they know how to use summoning magic then they can have any of the boys up there with them in the human world too should Diavolo actually bar MC from teleporting into the Devildom somehow. And realistically I don’t think Diavolo can do anything about the summoning part since MC is out of Diavolo’s jurisdiction once they’re in the human world.

I guess the only real thing at stake is that they’d no longer be a candidate for joining the government? And honestly that should be enough, but I don’t think the writers have done a good enough job of making us truly invested in making sure MC gets to be part of the student council. With the Sorcerer Trials it makes sense to care since—

- MC needs to be a sorcerer in order to practice magic freely. They can’t do more than the few spells Solomon’s allowed them to use without a proper license.

- Being a sorcerer also means that MC would be able to use more powerful magic—like summoning the brothers and teleporting to the Devildom

- You get Clout™️ from the human world as well! At least, from other magic users.

With the student council… Idk like personally the idea excites me because it’s an interesting proposal for my MC but idk about everyone else when it looks like being a member of the government is a huge drag. How many fics have we seen where the brothers are drowning in work because of their governmental responsibilities? In canon, barely any of them even like going to the meetings :/ And quite frankly I think MC’s real place is by Solomon’s side as his equal and fellow protector of humanity. I guess your only real main stake here is that MC joining the government brings them once step closer to being able to marry the brothers and be part of the family but… It’s probably my bias speaking, but personally don’t think marriage is needed at all for MC to be counted as a ‘real member of the family,’ even more so since I personally do not think humans should be living in the Devildom for extended periods of time? Also, what would MC being part of Diavolo’s council even entail? Would they have to spend more time in the Devildom? How much time will they have for their studies under Solomon? They’re already apprenticing under Solomon with the promise that they’ll be his right hand in protecting humanity.

Like really, I think this has just been spurred on because Diavolo wants a show of good faith that humans and demons can coexist and that demons shouldn’t look down on humans. But that’s a Diavolo problem more than it’s an MC problem imo, and I think MC can function as Diavolo’s representative for humanity just fine without the official government position. I suppose MC can function as the ‘soft’ function of protecting humankind by working with Diavolo to make sure that demons end up no longer a threat to humans but man. Maybe it’s the RPG player in me but that’s so lame?? If you know about GW2 that’s as if you’re the Marshall of the Pact and Trahearne’s out there adventuring in your place, mingling with new people, taking part of the action while you’re in Fort Trinity, managing paperwork and waiting for updates.

I… Guess it would be nice if you’re going for Diavolo or Barbatos? But really, you being a representative of humanity with close ties to the Devildom should entail some regular meetings with Diavolo as you and Solomon (+maybe some other humans since unlike the other two realms we’re very varied and diverse and a lot less tolerating of just a handful of people calling the shots), him, and Michael (I guess) figure out of to unite your realms??? Like?? Isn’t that an interesting thought?

But I recognize that I’ve very heavily influenced by my own views of how this should go lmao It’s just, now that I think about it, why the fuck is MC having to prove themselves like this again?

Re: the trials, it’s definitely going to suck if MC fails, but I’m personally kinda thrilled at the prospect of real trials with real danger and real stakes! Hopefully they make some fucking sense this time!!! This is what the seven fucking trials for the sorcerer’s stars should’ve been. Of course, I could be speaking too soon since we don’t actually know what the actual three trials are, but I feel like they’d pertain to aspects of an individual that demons like in a leader. Like power, intellect, and character? The demons have to know you aren’t too weak in the physical/magical sense to lead them—that’s like the bare minimum basis for respect imo. They have to know that you’re not dumb as shit and can make smart choices for the betterment of their society (whatever that means for demons since I feel like it’s different for them vs us) and that most of all, you’re someone worthy of respect even when both those aspects of you are taken away? Does that make sense? Like when you’re reduced to nothing, are you still someone they’d root for?

And the character stuff!! Ugh!! Even if they are setting Mammon up for character development, that part of him should’ve been addressed long ago by the two of them growing closer through the years! I don’t recall him getting all like that in S3?? He’s actually more open about his feelings and so sweet and forward in S3 (sadly it’s just being directed at someone who’s not interested dsfdjkg) and I think he barely brought up the ‘first man’ and ‘master/servant’ thing during his stay in the human world??? I feel like he should’ve been able to admit that he just wants some attention from MC when he was ranting about them being so busy and that ‘I’m the master’ comment is so :/ Like I mentioned earlier, I’d love for his character development to be focused on something else because that part of him has been addressed and developed as far back as S2, honestly.

Imo with how much he’s actually grown, he could do with stepping out of the spotlight and having Asmo, Belphie, Levi, or Beel have some more screen time and development. Of you know, Barbatos? Simeon? Solomon? Give Satan a personality again? Mammon and Lucifer could stand to not be the focal point of a Lesson for the sake of development because I think they’ve already grown so much from having the focus on them so often. Heck, Lucifer’s so central to everyone that he gets to grow even when he’s not around, I’m sure :/

And man, idk what the fuck the dev’s deal with Satan is. It doesn’t help that they’re definitely very aware of what they’re doing and acknowledge it in game!! Multiple times!! The number of times where the characters (or even MC themself honestly) are like ‘oh, cats again??? :/’ ‘I guess he really loves cats??’ or ‘Satan, this isn’t the time for cats!!’ feels almost like they’re mocking me and everyone else for wanting him to be more. Is there a fucking reason or something that he’s suddenly Like This? Are we supposed to think about it, and so that’s why it keeps being pointed out by the game itself that he’s like this now???

You’re right in that he’d be perfect for the library and TSL thing in the Lesson. He’s read TSL, would know about Pasto and could beat Levi at it. And y’know what? I bet he could’ve helped MC shorten their search somehow. He knows a lot of magic, he knows a lot of spells, he’s at least got a couple thousand years of knowing Diavolo to go off to deduce what his strategy might be in hiding it. Just… Idk. Seeing Satan get treated like this sucks. Like really, what’s their deal with Satan? Stop nerfing him so much for plot convenience, devs.

[iaintyourbro]

Imo Tifa is Cloud’s real catalyst. Some people say it’s Aerith... yeah sure... she is in some way, but only on soldier Cloud in OG. Like, in the first place he wanted to be someone strong hence why he became soldier, cuz of Tifa. She saved & brought real Cloud back in the lifestream. She vented and knocked some sense into him to bring him out of his misery. Why does everybody sleeps on Tifa’s efforts like 🤷🏻‍♀️

Hey anon.

I honestly have a very difficult time comprehending it myself. Generally when I play these games the first time, I take them at face value. I think most people do that. From a logical standpoint, the first time a person plays OG, they probably do think that Aerith is meant to be the love interest because she’s pink and cute and a white mage type of character. 

This is the fun thing with stereotypes... Whether or not there’s any romantic interaction between Cloud and Aerith, people automatically assumed the moment he wakes up in that church that she’s the love interest. I think this was also done on purpose to further the whole illusion thing. It used people’s preconceived ideas about romance against them.

In Remake, they make it much more obvious that Cloud has an issue with his memories and personality, and that his subconscious is heavily attached to Tifa. He stares at her constantly.  

Aerith then dies. In real life we do not continue to pursue dead people that we knew for a very short amount of time. That seems... ridiculous. They also don’t really dwell on it in game. After her death, she’s not mentioned again until they’re trying to figure out what to do with meteor. This is well past her death. 

You first go snowboarding and through all of the Icicle Area, then up to the Northern Crater where you’re slammed with the line from Cloud that Tifa’s opinion is the only one that matters to him, then Cloud falls into the Lifestream. Then we get Tifa who is very upset about everything, almost gets executed, has to slap a bitch a few times, gets back on the Highwind, and her number one priority is to save Cloud. You get him back and go on some more Huge Materia missions, can do side quests, and then when you actually start to go down the what to do with Meteor path, is when she’s brought up because of Holy. 

But for the whole Lifestream thing...

Tifa is mostly selfless throughout the game. She puts others before herself constantly. I honestly thought her turning to what she felt and what she wanted was a good character building moment. I think her one desire to find Cloud was the most selfish thing she did during the entire game, and it was about her feelings. And about Cloud. She knew nobody else was going to look for Cloud - she didn’t want him alone. 

When they do find him, she’s done. She’s staying there no matter what. At this point I think she’s already lost everything else, and finding Cloud somewhat alive, the last thing she really has from her past, she’s not letting it go. She sticks by him. She helps him find himself. She continues to stick by him. 

She almost dies sticking by him. She saves him from himself by helping him rebuild who he truly is. All is revealed, it’s obvious he has feelings for her that go way back, and that’s that. At this point, I think most people who played the game with no preconceived ideas realize what’s mostly going on. I do think FFVII requires multiple playthroughs to get everything, but the jist of things is there. 

So most people don’t question this - Cloud loves Tifa, okay - let’s mosey. 

The ending I think is where people start to argue, even though it’s not supposed to be romantic, I don’t think. He says the line “I think I can meet her there” which people take as he’s going to meet Aerith there. Tifa doesn’t react badly to this. This is after the Lifestrem, after the Highwind, and then suddenly he’s just gonna drop her? No. This is about them realizing they’re probably going to die. 

Some people couldn’t accept she died, they can’t accept what happens after that, so they shit on Tifa. They know she’s the catalyst for him, she’s the reason he wanted to join SOLDIER (he tells us this himself), she’s the reason he finally snapped at Sephiroth in Nibelheim (after everything else), she’s the reason he comes out of his first bout of severe mako poisoning, and ultimately she’s the reason he survives the second bout. 

After all the shit that happened, after almost killing their friend twice, ultimately causing Meteor to get summoned, after it all, she still stuck by him.

Then we get AC. Now AC is interesting because people think Cloud acted like he did in AC the entire two years after FFVII ends. He doesn’t. He’s happy - the devs came out and made sure people knew that he was very happy with Tifa and the children. He runs from Tifa for a week or two. People think he took off for months. He runs off due to getting Geostigma, and can’t bear to have Tifa and the children watch him die. He knows what happens to Tifa when people close to her die - she starts doing really stupid, drastic things. So you have Denzel dying already and now Cloud has the same problem. He ran, but it wasn’t to go find Aerith or get away from Tifa because he didn’t love her - he ran because he did love her, and in his mind.. well... he couldn’t deal with the fact that he was going to ultimately hurt her. Badly. 

Cloud realizing Tifa is injured and knocked out in the church shows how much he cares about her. The second Tifa that he yells is fully of emotion. Geostigma also acts up when he has high anxiety or an emotional event. Right after this, he has a major Geostigma episode and passes out. You can’t say he doesn’t care - deeply - about Tifa. He’s scared out of his mind here. He thinks she’s going to die. And he blames himself because she came to the church looking for him.

Cloud sees Tifa is alive in the simulation here.

After he thinks she dies.

A lot of people think that Tifa is attached to Cloud and useless without him, but I think it’s the other way around. Tifa could live a normal life without Cloud. Cloud wouldn’t be able to live a normal life without Tifa with the story of the game. You can’t say what if he didn’t get experimented on, because he does get experimented on, he’s injected with Jenova cells, and has severe mako poisoning. Which she can at least get him out of to function. Tifa was literally created for Cloud so he actually has a shot at life and doesn’t die in the gutter of the Sector 7 train station.

FFVII had a main theme of life and death and learning to live after death.

And that learning to live wasn’t just about Cloud.

It was about Barret who lost his wife, hometown, and ultimately ends up losing his best friend when he thinks he found him. He deals with his loses by channeling his passion for revenge. He vows to care for Dyne’s daughter. He does blame himself partially for the entire thing even happening, since he agreed with Shinra, but ultimately doesn’t let it consume him. He goes back during AC to help rebuilt Corel to make amends.

Tifa also learns to live after heavy loss. Tifa loses her mother as a young child. Her entire hometown is burned down, her father killed, she’s almost killed. In both cases of her parent’s death, she makes very irrational decisions to cope with it. She thinks going up Mt Nibel will allow her to see her mother. She thinks she can take on Sephiroth after he kills her father. She also does this after she thinks Cloud dies. She decides she can go to a brothel and question a crime lord to give her info... Not a good choice. I’m sure at this point, most of the folks reading this have had to deal with somebody they loved dying. The first few days really is bizarre. You’re in a daze. Your decision making skills are shit. You’re tired. Tifa ignores the fact that she’s in a daze and makes decisions anyway to cope with it. But she lives. She rebuilds her life in Midgar, she has a job, has a place to live, and then decides to go the Barret route and get revenge.

Vincent is the most similar to Cloud in how he deals with loss and guilt. He sleeps. For 20 years. Vincent goes from Turk Viincent to Eternal Sin Vincent. He blames himself for all that happened to Lucretcia. He’s alone. Sleeping. For 20 years. This probably would be a good example of what would have happened to Cloud if Tifa wasn’t there. He would have spiraled in to guilt and - ultimately - would have died. Vincent couldn’t die, so sleep it was.

As for Tifa and Cloud, specifically. Cloud probably wouldn’t have joined the military if Tifa never fell down Mt. Nibel. He probably would have stayed in Nibelheim (or followed her wherever she went, he did have it pretty bad for her) and then they all would have perished. It’s to be assumed that Sephiroth would have still come to Nibelheim and burned it down. Cloud and Tifa had nothing to do with him doing that. All of the catalysts for that were from before those two were even born, so nothing was going to stop that. 

Without Tifa, Cloud probably would have died at the Sector 7 train station. I think the flashback with Zack in the OG (even though its optional) is to show how bad of shape he was in. The guards say to leave him because he’s pretty much done for. Somehow he does make it to Midgar, but I don’t think he would have lasted much longer. Zack got him 90% of the way back. Tifa did the rest and ultimately brought him back to “human status” even though it wasn’t really him at this point. 

People start to shit on Tifa because she doesn’t come out and tell Cloud right away that somethings wrong with him. She doesn’t correct him about the flashback in Kalm. She keeps it going. The thing is, she admits this was wrong. That it’s a character flaw. Literally right after Cloud falls in to the Lifestream after giving Sephiroth the Black Materia, she tells the story of finding Cloud at the Sector 7 train station, and how she’s always been this way... She’s non-confrontational. She didn’t want to upset him. I think she thought that something bad really would have happened to him. 

And ultimately, she saves him again. 

Nobody else could have helped Cloud rebuild himself. Nobody.

Tifa is the only person in the world at this point that knew Cloud prior to the events of the Nibelheim Incident. She is the only one that could guide him. She’s one of the only survivors from the Nibelheim incident. Nobody else could have done it. Cloud’s subconscious is almost entirely made up of things about Tifa. The Promise, Tifa’s mother’s death and the Mt. Nibel incident, the reactor and how he hid from her because he was ashamed he didn’t make First Class SOLDIER. Every piece of his subconscious has to do with Tifa somehow. 

[indecisive-v]

NINJAMUFFIN TWITTER AMA AUGUST 7 2021, EXCEPT HE'S ONLY ANSWERING QUESTIONS THAT HAVE PROPER GRAMMAR AND PUNCTUATION

ama just ended!! funkin related shit has been recorded under the cut as per usual. this time og copied text is uncolored, and purple text is paraphrased by me

Q: Do you have a favorite Friday Night Funkin’ mod at the current moment?

A: MordeTwi Magic

Q: Do you have a format in mind for the built-in mod support, or are you saving that for later?

A: depends what you mean by 'format'. stuff like charting will probably always be constantly changing until we have most levels of the game done, since we'd essentially want modding tools to be basically DEVELOPMENT tools as much as possible, and dev tools change as project goes on

Q: Favorite FNF character?

A: Girlfriend

Q: Have you tried (or are going to try) getting Friday Night Funkin' on other consoles?

A: It's totally possible, we just gotta get in contact, figure out what we're feeling it with, and get folks to make the backend for it

Q: Are you worried about the game itself being overshadowed by fan content (and by extension modding), or is it a non-issue for you?

A: we can see the grand picture of what we want out of FNF, and thats what separates us from any of the fan mod stuff

Q: What do you think of the reliance of Game Banana in the current modding scene?

A: it makes me very happy to see sans undertale over fnf boyfriend mod sit side by side on the same website as counter strike surf maps

Q: Hey, Mr. Muffin, what’s the release schedule for “new” Friday Night content looking like?

A: make stuf til its ready for an update

Q: Will there be something like an "extras" gallery where we can look at concept art and stuff?

A: if there is, it would be super cool. we dont just want some concept art image viewer in-game and call it a day.

Q: Will characters from stuff that ISN'T Newgrounds-related show up in FNF?

A: probably happening sooner than later, so yea

Q: Have you guys thought of hiring famous modders? (KadeDev, SugarRatio, etc)

A: no, we wont hire based off of fame

Q: Are you for or against Friday Night Funkin' mods and/or fangames being sold or otherwise distributed commercially (as long as they're open source obviously)?

A: Not against it, but why would anyone put up paywalls this early anyway?? Even the vanilla game is free rn so it seems kinda weird. But it's cool for em to take donations

Q: Are you okay with people going to the game’s source code, compiling it and getting the whole full game for free?

A: That's the point, my guy.

Q: Did you play test any of FNF yourself, and if so did you ever have trouble beating specific weeks or songs?

A: I've only beat Guns once or twice, but I've had others play test and do better than me

Q: If FNF hadn't gotten so popular, what would you be doing right now?

A: Still workin' on it. That was the plan, getting popular was just a surprise bonus. We'd be less focused on it though since we wouldn't have like 2 million Kickstarter bucks

Q: Got plans for FNF's anniversary? Anything cool?

A: Thinkin about it, but... monkey ball...

Q: Do you think the direction of 'let's make the hardest mod ever' will have some impact on the difficulty of the final version of the game?

A: I don't think we're influenced much by mods. We're NOT in the modding community at all

Q: Is there an fnf modder that is your friend or whose relationship with you is closer than other modders?

A: prob siivagunner crew technically

Q: Do you worry about how mods might execute ideas that you were eventually gonna do?

A: yeah, cuz usually when they do it, they dont do it as cool as we had in mind, and we'd have to show them how its done, lol!!!!

Q: How do you feel about the majority of fans that are basically children? Will the game have more mature content in the future to keep them away?

A: i think people see it as something we need to "actively combat" but genuinely i dont think any of us care. we just are going to make the game how we want to make it, and forcing these edgy things or whatev to "scare of the dumb kids XDDD" will just come across as cringe i think!!

[zaph1337]

Monster Hunter Rating 30: Fatalis, the Dark Demise

The world of Monster Hunter is a dangerous one. Monsters with powers unlike any animal we know run rampant, and some of them are so powerful as to be compared to natural disasters, or maybe even gods. These “Elder Dragons” are viewed as forces of nature given body and mind, and wherever they are, they’re almost always at the top of the food chain. But it begs the question: what is the strongest Elder Dragon of them all?

Some would say that Lao-Shan Lung, the Old Mountain Dragon, holds that honor. After all, it will destroy entire mountains if they stand in its path, and every hunt with one is a race against time to prevent the monster from reaching and destroying the fortresses that separate it from the settlements it would crush beneath its feet as it wanders. But why does Lao-Shan Lung wander? Why does it never go around the obstacles in its way? Why will it never fight back against the hunters that pose a serious threat of killing it? The answer is one that no one wants to accept: Lao-Shan Lung, what may be the living incarnation of an avalanche or some other seismic force, is not wandering. It’s running for its life. Elder Dragons may be the embodiments of natural phenomena, and though we may not like it, death is just as natural as landslides and lightning. We’ve come a long way, but it’s finally time to talk about the final boss of the first Monster Hunter game: the Black Dragon, Fatalis!

(How it appears in Monster Hunter 1)

(How it appears in Monster Hunter World: Iceborne)

Appearance: If the wiki had a third render of Fatalis that I liked, I would’ve put it up there. Anyways, Fatalis looks just like an archetypal European dragon; four legs, two wings, horned head, and a long tail. It looks pretty generic, but there are a few things that help it stand out. First off, it’s huge, being 4110.6 cm (134.9 ft) long in every main series game it appears in except for MHW:I, where it’s 4137.17 cm (135.7 ft) long. That’s 30+ ft more than Diablos or Gravios, and if you wanna see how big Fatalis is compared to a person, well...here’s an image from MHW:I:

Yyyeeah, it’s big. Something else that’s interesting is the fact that Fatalis has eyes which are literally made of crystal, which is why they look shiny in the above image. They still look a lot like traditional dragon eyes, though. In fact, basically all of its design elements are things that you’d expect to find on European dragons, which makes Fatalis look rather generic. You’d think that even in the first game, the devs would be more creative with their final boss considering the other dragons in the game, but that’s just it: Fatalis stands out when compared to a lot of the other dragons in Monster Hunter because it looks just like a European dragon and not much more. This makes it feel like it’s not just a dragon, it’s the dragon. When you hear stories of dragons wreaking mass destruction, you’ll likely imagine something that looks just like Fatalis, and I believe that that’s exactly what the developers of MH intended when they made it. It’s kinda genius, in that way, and combined with the overwhelming presence Fatalis has thanks to its size, I feel like I have to give it an 8/10.

Behavior/Lore: Since I like to cover the lore of a monster in this category anyways, I thought I might as well change its name to reflect that. Anyways, people don’t know a lot about Fatalis, such as how many there are, where there ideal habitat is, their mating rituals, stuff like that. The reason why we don’t know a lot about Fatalis is that it kills literally everything it sees, which tells us a lot on its own. Fatalis doesn’t always eat what it kills; it just kills for the sake of it, and since literally everything that breathes seems to be on its sh*t list, this has led to the conclusion that Fatalis hates all livings things on the grounds that they exist.

As I alluded to in the introduction, the natural phenomenon that Fatalis likely embodies is death itself. All other monsters are terrified of it, and, as seen with Lao-Shan Lung, will go to great lengths to stay as far from it as possible. How strong do you have to be to make a monster that bulldozes mountains run for mommy? Well, let me put it this way: Fatalis obliterated Schrade Kingdom in a single night, and now uses the ruins of the castle as its den; the very sky above the kingdom’s remains is a perpetual bloody red, with a miasma of purple clouds that hover over the fallen settlement. And that’s just what we know is true; according to legend, Fatalis could scorch all the world’s lands in a matter of days, causing the end of life itself. Obviously, this can’t be proven, nor do I know if they’re talking about one Fatalis or all of them (however many there are), but when legends like that are circulating, it’s a wonder that people aren’t living in constant fear that this thing will decide to visit their settlement one day and kill everyone. Well, not so much a wonder as it is a conspiracy; the Hunter’s Guild, fearing that the fear of Fatalis’ capabilities could lead to an outbreak of panic and anarchy, has done its best to relegate Fatalis and all stories related to it to the realm of fantasy. Only hunters who the Guild believes are skilled enough to possibly repel or kill Fatalis are allowed to know that it exists, and even then, when the Guild sends them on secret missions to fight it, they almost never come back.

Though Fatalis leaves few witnesses to its attacks, there are some who provide valuable information about the dragon’s habits. After Fatalis kills a hunter, it melts said hunter and their equipment down, then applies the remains to its body to armor its hide, making it even harder to kill. Now, some say that this is an instinctual behavior, like how the monster Nerscylla wears the hides of its prey for the same purpose, but Fatalis is only known to do this to humans, which wouldn’t make sense because killing monsters would give it more material to cover itself in. This has led some to believe that Fatalis knows that hunters make armor from the remains of the monsters they kill, so it makes armor out of them to mock them in death. If this is true, then not only is Fatalis smart enough to have a concept of irony, it harbors a special kind of hatred for humans in particular, and it presumably enjoys killing them. These things make Fatalis even more terrifying and dangerous than previously thought, and put its attack on Schrade Kingdom and its occupancy of Schrade Castle in a new light.

Speaking of equipment, the few times anyone has actually killed a Fatalis and made weapons and armor from its parts, they’ve almost always regretted it. Those that wear Fatalis armor have been victims of disturbing phenomena; horrible nightmares and periods of unnatural, unwanted strength are a common occurrence, and some have reported feeling as though something is possessing them and forcing their legs to move against their will. In extreme cases, hunters who have been knocked unconscious while wearing the armor report feeling that something was controlling their bodies before they awoke. But those people are the lucky ones; hunters who wear Fatalis armor for extensive periods of time often disappear without a trace, or even die for no apparent reason.

Not even the weapons are safe. Some cause the wielders to hear phantom screams, others induce feelings of gnawing despair or paranoia, and some are even said to corrupt the wielder’s soul, turning them into a force of bloodshed and chaos as Fatalis was...or is. In Monster Hunter Generations, a cave in Pokke Village contains a giant version of a Black Blade, a Great Sword made of Fatalis parts, which can be mined for Fatalis materials. It’s been noted that the damage done to the blade by mining it will regenerate in a matter of days; when you combine that with the symptoms of using Fatalis equipment, it gives credence to the possibility that Fatalis lives on through said equipment, controlling the bodies and minds of those that slew its corporeal form. Whether this is true or not is irrelevant; the fact remains that Fatalis equipment has a deleterious effect on those that use it, and as such, it’s recommended that none should attempt to utilize anything made from Fatalis’ remains at all.

If you thought that Fatalis as a life-form was fundamentally wrong before, then I have one last bit of absurdity for you: the one time anyone ever found a Fatalis egg, the newborn that hatched from it grew to its adult form in literal hours, and presumably hated everything that breathes from birth. Other than that, we don’t know anything about its life cycle or parental habits, and the wiki doesn’t say what happened after the baby reached maturity, but we can reasonably assume that it was a bloody event.

I’ve never been more enthralled by a monster’s lore than I have been reading about Fatalis. The developers really went out of their way to impress upon players just how unnatural and evil Fatalis is, and the result is the monster to end all monsters. I think my favorite parts are the fact that the Guild covers up Fatalis’ existence to prevent society from collapsing and how even its equipment is too dangerous to be around. And even with this, there’s still so much we don’t know about Fatalis, which makes it even more intriguing. With how much I’ve been thinking about all this the past few days, I feel like I have to give this category a 10/10.

Abilities: Obviously, Fatalis is one of the strongest monsters in the series. Its body is very durable due to its habit of melting down hunters to use as armor, and even the membranes of its wings are has hard as metal. It can both fly and charge at high speeds, with the latter doing massive damage thanks to Fatalis’ raw strength. However, its most famous ability--and its deadliest--is its fire breath, which is equal in power to some other Elder Dragons. The streams of fire that escape from Fatalis’ maw are even bigger than the dragon itself, and can be so powerful that they one-shot hunters caught in them. Fatalis can also spread a cloud of reactive powder around it; igniting this powder causes a devastating explosion.

Now, conceptually, these attributes and attacks aren’t too crazy, but there’s one more thing I want to mention: In Monster Hunter 1, you fight Fatalis in 4 quests (assuming that the wiki’s quest list for the game has all of them), and in all of those quests, the goal is “damage Fatalis as much as you can to drive him away,” not “slay Fatalis.” This means that Fatalis is so much more powerful than anything else in the game, the Guild does not believe you are capable of killing it. Despite all of your accomplishments up to that point, the Guild still doesn’t think you have what it takes to kill the darn thing. Now, considering the goal doesn’t say “slay or repel” or anything like that, I was under the impression that you couldn’t kill Fatalis in the first Monster Hunter, but a video on the wiki shows that you can, so I guess the devs phrased it that way to make you feel even cooler for achieving what even the game thought was impossible. It’s a nice touch. Anyways, Fatalis’ abilities may not sound like anything special for a dragon, but the sheer power behind its attacks, as well as how much work you have to put in to damage it in any meaningful way, gets it an 8/10.

Equipment: Since most, if not all of Fatalis’ equipment is inherently evil, I’ll mention if the descriptions say exactly what they do to the user. Let’s start ourselves off with a Hunting Horn called the Black Lute:

According to its description in MHFU, “[a]nyone who hears this Horn feels faint.” Kinda counterproductive, considering the Hunting Horn’s whole gimmick is that it buffs you and your allies with magical songs. Its upgraded form, the Fatalis Menace, isn’t much better, as “its song causes listeners to turn into disheartened beasts.” So already we see the dangers involved in using this weapon, but the description is lore that doesn’t impact gameplay, so strum to your heart’s content! As for how the Lute looks, I like the use of Fatalis horns as the majority of the main body, and the little red gem is a nice touch. Next up, something a little less evil, actually! The Dual Blades called Double Dragon require both Fatalis and Lao-Shan Lung parts, which I guess makes them okay to use?

I say that these aren’t evil because their description just says “[t]he Dragon element infused in these Dual Blades hits enemies from both sides.” Though, you do have to make them by upgrading the Fatalis Sword and Shield called the Black Sword, and according to its description, “[t]he void it creates envelopes all in its path[,]” which makes me think that these are probably still unsafe to use. Though I do like how the blades are different shapes and sizes to match up with the dragons they came from. But you know me, if a monster has a weird or goofy weapon, I gotta show it off, and Fatalis isn’t exempt from this. So here’s the Light Bowgun called the Black Parasol:

I was gonna make a JFK joke, ‘cause one of the theories surrounding his assassination was that someone used a gun disguised as an umbrella to shoot him from the side, but I don’t think I can make a joke like that without being tasteless, especially since this weapon apparently has “an assassin's thirst for death.” But here’s some tasty lore for you: the Black Parasol’s upgrade in the Japan-only MH4U, the Dark Parasol, was “designed behind the scenes by the Guild for assassination purposes.” This may be a translation of the Japanese description, so “assassination” might just mean “kill,” but it makes you think about how weird it is to call hunting a monster an assassination; there’s a chance that the Black Parasol was made by the Guild specifically to kill people, and that just raises more questions. As for the Parasol’s design, it’s so out of left field that I can’t help but find it amusing. The doily-like trim combined with the swirly handle makes it impossible to take seriously, which was probably the point.

Now, here’s where things get a bit messy; the wiki doesn’t have very many pictures of Fatalis armor. The ones it does have are small, not the standard Fatalis armor, or don’t have an image of the male armor to go with them. So, I have to resort to using the small images of the “S” armor from MHFU. I’ve made them bigger to avoid straining anyone’s eyes, but they’re all blurry now, so I apologize if I miss any details you think are important. Here’s the Blademaster armor:

Oh, my God, they gave the women’s set a helmet! Aaaannd it’s for the armor set with low-quali renders online. Yaaaay. Okay, that aside, this does look awesome. It definitely looks like armor that would make you evil if you wore it, and the curved horns on the helmet really add to that theme, as do the spikes on the arms and legs. As for the Gunner armor:

It looks really cool, too! Seems that the wings are attached to the arms in lieu of arm guards, like the ones you see on other Gunner sets. The horns on this set are pointed up this time, presumably for reasons related to peripheral vision or something like that, which is helpful for someone using a gun. The boots on the armor look like dragon feet, and combined with the wings and other design aspects, makes this armor feel like the one that’s most likely going to let Fatalis’ soul overtake you.

Overall, the equipment does what it was made to do: look powerful, yet evil at the same time. It seems like something that fanfic authors would make use of for their worldbuilding--something like how the greatest hunter in the land went missing after killing Fatalis and making equipment from it, only for horror stories of a black knight wielding cursed armaments wiping small settlements off the map and slaughtering travelers. This is the first time that equipment lore factors into the scoring for this category, and I might have to look at the descriptions of the equipment I choose in future reviews to see if that affects my opinion on it any. For now, Fatalis’ equipment gets an 8/10.

Final Thoughts and Tally: The creators of Monster Hunter wanted to make an unforgettable final boss, and they succeeded. The concept of a truly evil, apocalyptic monster in a world where most monsters are basically animals adds to its intimidation factor, and I can only imagine how kids felt when they saw Schrade Castle and the skies above it for the first time. It honestly makes me sad that I never had the original Monster Hunter as a kid, ‘cause the impression Fatalis and the fight with it would have had on me would likely have stuck with me to this day. One thing’s for sure, though: if I ever get a Monster Hunter game besides Rise, it’ll probably be Monster Hunter World and its Iceborne expansion, ‘cause aside from the Coral Islands, fighting Fatalis in a modern game would be exhilarating. 8/10.

[capricornus-rex]

Hi hi, I have an idea for a request idk if you'd be up for it, but Cal being drawn to the reader when they first meet because she's strong with the force but it turns out she's related to a sith and has been hiding from Palpatine because she doesn't want to give in to the dark side and hurt innocent people, mayhaps? But if you're not feeling it then no worries love!❤❤

Hi Anon! Sorry if it took me a while to answer, I had to finish the other requests, but I was already making the draft when I got this request so obviously I was up for it~! ^w^ So sorry again that you had to wait, but I hope you’d enjoy this fic, Anon! ❤❤

“Stronger Than Blood” | Chapter 1: Another Happy Landing | Cal Kestis x Reader

Summary: Meeting another Force-sensitive was one thing, but having them related to one of the most formidable known duelers was a whole other story to tell. While being stranded in another planet after barely escaping the Haxion Brood, Cal crosses paths with someone who’s at a crossroads with their own identity and lineage.

A/N: This was fun for me to write on, because obviously this prompt is new to me. Rarely do I make the Reader a Dark Side character—one way or another. Also, I wonder if the devs are ever gonna put a currency system in the future SWJFO games—you know, like actual money to buy stuff? That’d be so great. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy the fic!

Also posted in AO3

Tags: Force-User! Reader, Force-Sensitive! Reader, Sith-Related! Reader

Next: Part 2 | Masterlist

1 of ?

Four consecutive blasts from an unseen enemy quakes the Mantis. The screens in the cockpit—both big and small—flash red as an alarm blares from an unknown source. All three crew members were on high alert.

“Captain, what’s going on with the ship?!”

“We’re being pursued by a freighter ship!” the young Jedi reported with a frantic voice, he had to hold his monitor with both hands to keep it from shaking.

“Haxion!” the captain hissed. He then threw his arms all over his dashboard while keeping himself glued to his seat.

Apparently, the flailing of four arms altogether was a bit distracting in Cal’s peripheral vision. When Greez met the boy’s expression that obviously screamed “What are you doing now?” the captain got cocky and began to prep the ship for hyperspace in the middle of a burnout.

“GREEZ, THAT’S TOO DANGEROUS!!” Cere objected.

“I DON’T PLAN ON FLOATING IN THE DEEP VACUUM OF SPACE IN FRONT OF THE BROOD!”

The two adults bickered, having Cal stuck in the middle of it all—with nothing else to do but to watch the monitors, turn some knobs to stabilize the overheating and keep it that way.

“Guys, if you’re done arguing!!” Cal finally snapped. “The ship can make a jump to the next planet that’s seven parsecs away.”

“Well then, let’s get to that seven-parsecs-away planet!!”

The Lateron continued his handiwork with all of the controls in front of him, the finishing touch being the pull of the lever to activate the jump to lightspeed. He cranked the silver handle hard—so hard to the point that the sound of the shaft was a loud clank of gears and cogs—and the next thing they know, they were looming through that bright blue tunnel of light into the next side of the galaxy.

The crew finally got a breather after evading cannon fire from the Haxion Brood’s ships, but the Mantis is barely holding herself together. The screens continue to flash red at the crew, Cal caught a glimpse of their destination in one of his dashboard’s monitors.

“Nalima,” he reads out loud to everyone.

“I’ve heard of this planet—the capital city isn’t too far in our trajectory,” Cere spoke while keeping her eyes glued to her communications monitor.

“Yeah, I’m picking up a lot of signatures in my screens here,”

“Well, I hope we find a nice spot just right in front of the Imps’ noses, eh?”

Greez’s sarcastic remark was received with an unimpressed glare from Cere, adding up Cal’s awkward side-eyed glance just to see both persons’ reactions.

Things returned to their regular flow seconds later—save for the constant red alert that the Mantis keeps reminding the crew—and they’re about to exit hyperspace in less than a parsec. Greez expressed perhaps the greatest concern he’s ever openly said to his crew—and it was something not to be taken lightly of, the other two knew caught wind of it and actually had similar thoughts.

Cal, who always seem to be optimistic about things even in the most dire of predicaments, suggested landing someplace where there’s a docking bay and a workshop where they can have the Mantis checked.

“Let’s hope it’s not gonna cost me as much as a new ship!” Greez jabbed.

The Mantis throttles its way through the atmosphere, the turbulence was much stronger considering that the suspension is nearly asunder—along with the other parts of the ship that the Brood has taken a hit on. The captain warns everyone to buckle up and hold on tight, as he himself does the same while keeping a grip on the steering wheel with all four arms.

Greez struggled to keep the Mantis from swerving, there wasn’t much he could do with the exhaust that caught fire when they tore through the thin sheet of the atmosphere. Cal managed to find a spot where they can safely land, away from the eyes of prospective enemies—since they’re not even sure if the Empire has planted its feet on the planet’s soil, but it’s not much of a stretch for that to be a fact.

The captain landed the Mantis in what ought to be an abandoned shipyard. Perfect. Literally away from all the eyes who would take interest of ransacking the thing—except, of course, thieves.

“Well now…” Cal ran his fingers through his hair, combing back the locks that drooped over his forehead. “Another happy landing.”

Promptly, the entire crew checked on the vital areas of the Mantis. Cal sped back the engine room—which was also his bedroom—and hot air fumed within the narrow space, beads of sweat instantaneously dotted his neck and temples the moment he stepped inside.

“Okay, I think we got a cooked hyperdrive compressor here!” he coughed, fanning the pungent smoke that wafted around his bedroom.

When he was received with no reaction, he assumed the other two had gone out of the ship to check the exterior damage. He repeated what he found inside while Greez gawks at the horridly bent hydraulic tendon of the landing gear.

“Well, that’s just great! Where are we gonna get spare parts!? It’s gonna take forever for us to patch her up again!”

“Look on the bright side, at least we’re in civilization—there’s bound to be one,”

“Kid, I wish I could see that bright side in this dark place I’m in,” Greez whined.

Cere consoled the Lateron captain, assuring him that things will come through. In the meantime, Cal volunteered to go around the city, hopefully to find a kind soul who could hook them up with some spare parts for cheap and an extra set of hands—if they’re extra lucky.

“We’ll stay in the ship, see if the Imperial presence is dense here. We’ll lay low while you go around,” Cere’s tone immediately changed from cool to stern, that meant that she’s about to repeat herself in warning Cal to be careful.

“I know, I know. I mean, hey, what could go wrong past this?”

“I wouldn’t count on it, Cal!” Greez added, anxious of whatever outcome will walk into the picture in the next moment.

Cal mumbled “Come on” to BD-1 perched onto his shoulder before heading into the city proper. The little droid replied with a tiny beep in agreement. The Lateron’s overly-anxious grumbling over the Mantis is gradually drowned out by the busy noises of the city as Cal approaches.