#the downside of having so many characters: no way to properly flesh them all out

[mania-sama]

rule #3 - paperwork

Rule #3 - Paperwork - Fish in a Birdcage

➼ information ❧ Bungou Stray Dogs ❧ Pairing: Dazai Osamu & Yosano Akiko ❧ Tags: cpr, gunshot wounds, bamf! yosano, angst, blood and gore, temporary character death, angst with a happy ending ❧ Summary: On an Agency-led drug raid, Dazai is shot point-blank through his spleen. It's up to Yosano to save his life. ❧ Word Count: 1,347 ❧ Cross-posted from Archive of Our Own ❧ Original post date: 7 October 2023

➼ whumptober 2023 ❧ Day 7: CPR ❧ Previous Day ❧ Next Day ❧ Masterlist

No Longer Human is an invaluable asset to the Armed Detective Agency. Stopping an ability and preventing the user from causing further damage or destruction is half of their job, and one person with the ability to do it in the blink of an eye tends to save them a lot of pain and strife. Dazai’s unwillingness to do paperwork is made up for by his diligent performance on the field; this is undoubtedly why he is never truly reprimanded for his negligence.

The nullifying ability does have its downsides, however. If they were fighting in close quarters, Dazai could involuntarily prevent one of the Agency members from using their ability to gain the upper hand or properly apprehend their opponents. The President's ability doesn’t work at all on him. Most importantly, Thou Shalt Not Die cannot heal his fatal wounds. Suicide attempts aside, he has to exercise more caution than the other members do on missions with Yosano. If he gets hurt, there is a lot more work she has to do than just opening him up with a chainsaw.

On any other day, she would reprimand him for letting himself get wounded so easily. She would hit him for bleeding all over her white shirt and black skirt and order him to get it washed for him. But he isn’t merely hurt. He lies flat on his back in a growing pool of garnet-red, his eyes half-lidded and mouth dripping with blood to add to the pond below under him. He’s vertically through the doorway of the bathroom, his long body being used as a wedge to prop open the door.

Yosano spots the dead man in the other corner, a knife driven through his skull and a smoking gun falling out of his limp hand. Amongst the sounds of violence coming through the house, the gunshot here had just been one of many. Every person split up to make the most efficient work of their drug raid, and Yosano was meant to follow behind and heal any stray bullets that cut through a tendon or heart. So far, it had been normal. No fatalities, no significant injuries.

Then there is Dazai, dying on the floor with a bullet wound straight through his spleen. From the amount of tattered clothes, flesh, and blood coating his body and the walls, it had been at point-blank or damn near it. That only means there is absolutely no time to lose.

“Man down!” She screams through the hallway, knowing someone will hear her. “We need the Agency ambulance!”

Putting one knee on the blood-soaked floor and the other on top of the wound, she sets her first-aid bag on the ground and pulls out a chest seal, trauma sheers, and gauze. Dazai gasps in pain underneath her, his eyes blowing wide for a moment and coughing out only saliva. That was a good sign; there likely weren’t any other injuries aside from the major one. Mouth bleeding isn’t entirely common with spleen injuries. It’s more likely that the blunt force of the bullet’s impact stirred all kinds of liquid in his body, most of which would have been expelled one way or another.

The triumph is short-lived. Only a second passes before he falls back under, his chest barely rising or falling. She takes the time to lift him — an easier feat than it should’ve been for someone his height — to examine the exit wound before she places him back down on the ground. It’s severe, but no worse than the entrance wound. Yosano cuts away the fabric hanging onto the exposed flesh and organ and flicks them unceremoniously to the ground.

She sterilizes the wound to the best of her ability before wrapping the gauze around and around again his torso. He breathes, although it’s shallow and mere flutters of a butterfly compared to the hurricane he should be producing. Finally, she applies the chest seal with the most care she can provide, and her hands are steady as she flips Dazai over to stick it to the exit wound as well.

He doesn’t breathe.

Leaning in to check his heart and placing both her hands over the neck and wrist pulse points, Yosano finds not a single hint of life. Dazai, for all intents and purposes, is dead.

It hasn’t been long, Yosano notes. She’s regularly checked his nostrils, mouth, and sternum to feel the carbon dioxide leaving his body. He can be resuscitated, and he will. The wound has been sealed, and all that remains is for her to decompress each side with a needle. After that will be a waiting game for the ambulance so she can hook him up to the nebulizer and heart monitor.

Clasping her fingers together and repositioning herself to apply maximum strength, she presses hard against his sternum. Once every two seconds she compresses his chest, and when she reaches thirty she holds his nose, steadies his chin, and breathes life back into his lungs. Twice.

It doesn’t work the first time around. She anticipates it; it’s never that easy. On the forty-fifth compression, one of Dazai’s ribs cracks from the constant pressure. It doesn’t matter. A cracked rib is better than a dead man.

On the two hundredth compression, and after ten more breathing rescues, Yosano feels her arms start to give out. Another one of his ribs fell to her attempt at resuscitation. She can’t keep this up for much longer; Dazai needs to wake up now or he will be dead forever.

Another minute, even with the defibrillator on its way, will mean permanent death. Her ability does not work on him, and she is loathe to find out if No Longer Human still activates after the user has ceased brain activity. She can save that for when she is old and frail, and her friend walks with a cane and has wrinkles from the long life he has lived. It’s a pipe dream, something unrealistic and unattainable, but it keeps her going until the next pair of breath saves.

When her lips touch him, she feels a beat under her fingertips.

It's a faint little thing, but it is the spark that ignites the flame. If it is treated with the utmost care, with proper airflow and timber, the tiny flicker can become a roaring fire. She forces oxygen and carbon dioxide down his throat twice and returns to his chest. She wants to cry from the ache in her arms. It isn’t long before her body will give out on her.

Dazai has to fight for his life just as much as she is. Knowing his reputation, it almost feels like an impossible feat. Except, as if by some miracle, Dazai breathes on his own. The ambulance wails in the distance, growing louder the closer it gets to the house. Thundering footsteps reveal Atsushi and Kunikida, both covered in various amounts of grime and blood, arriving on the scene.

“How nice of you to join me after I resuscitated him.” She does not spare them another glance. There is still work to do. “Unload the stretcher and bring out the defibrillator. If we lose him again, we may lose him for good.”

Stabbing the needle into his spleen, she decompresses it. His chest rises and falls painstakingly slowly, and his brown eyes are entirely uncomprehending of the pain and events that just transpired. It doesn’t matter to her. Whatever his brain does to keep him sane and alive is fine by her; she will not complain about the life that has been revived.

Now, she thinks the stretcher is wheeled in and Dazai is lifted carefully onto his back to avoid damaging the spleen more than it already has been, you have to live through the trip and surgery.

Dazai stares unblinkingly back at her, and she sees a hint of comprehension in those gleaming, watery eyes. She smiles and pats his hair in the way she knows he likes but will never admit to. “Good job, Dazai. Make us proud and stay alive.”

[fullscoreshenanigans]

#idk i think about it a lot like. on one hand you have characters like don who is just. an absolutely wonderful character #never portrayed as overly aggressive and just a really emotional and sensitive person without being infantilized for those traits #the one time he DOES lash out in anger (a very reasonable reaction to the circumstances that caused it) he's not demonized for it #my favorite character in the whole series after ray if you dont love him youre wrong #meanwhile krone is an incredibly interesting and well-written character she suffers immensely from being drawn like a fucking caricature #like none of the other characters have this problem and demizu did realize that was shitty and draws her normally now but #it doesn't change the fact that those caricatures are still present in the escape arc and s1 (though the anime is better abt this) #and an especially bad impression considering she's the first significant black character to appear in the series #krone being drawn Like That is definitely the biggest flaw this series has #aside from that lke. phil is really good even if we dont see him much between the first and last arcs #i LOVED ayshe even if she deserved more development (and i wish she didn't have blond hair and blue eyes lol) #zack is a really great character and pepe is the only afro latino character ive ever seen in manga and i love him. also his design fucks

All of this sounds super promising (could not agree more about Don; he’s such a good kid 💗💗), but I’m especially interested in your thoughts on Krone given what you’ve already mentioned about her being the first significant Black character we’re introduced to and the issues with her design.

I’m not sure what you’ve already seen regarding the subject (apologies if this is all repetitive), but there’s this video by Zeria:

And this blogpost by Jackson P. Brown: https://www.jacksonpbrown.com/anime-and-manga/2018/8/2/thoughts-on-the-promised-neverland-and-black-women-in-manga

The anime is somewhat better about how she’s drawn, yes, but then we have the tradeoff of her being given a doll to voice her internal manga monologues to that she ends up pummeling repeatedly, playing into other stereotypes about aggressive Black women and how they’re more likely to be perceived as violently threatening than white women.

I’ve seen multiple people rightfully criticize her depiction during the escape arc, but I’ve never seen anyone reference her appearance in the beach side story bonus comics, specifically the ones featured after chapter 82 and 85 in the VIZ English release:

I love seeing women with visible muscles being allowed to exist, but when taking into account her portrayal in the escape arc, how she’s the only character handled in this manner, how this is done for the sake of laughs, how she’s one of the few prominent characters of color in the entire series, and how Black women are often portrayed as more masculine than their white counterparts in order to prop up the latter and Eurocentric beauty standards

https://twitter.com/brownandbella/status/731211750666846208

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/hannaheko/aint-i-a-woman

https://www.racism.org/articles/intersectionality/gender/1664-blackgirlsvictimization?start=5

it leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth.

And all of this is a shame because she’s arguably the most-explored character of color despite only being around for eighteen chapters/seven episodes. Her story was so compelling she was ranked as the tenth most popular character by Shounen Jump readers. She beat out Don and Gilda despite them being much bigger players in the long run,

and that’s after she was dead for roughly eighty chapters and before the second light novel and the bonus chapter based on it were published. She was popular enough to be featured in bonus tankobon side stories and have a hidden comic on the official website featuring a glimpse into her childhood that showed what prompted Smee to eventually give her one of the promised pens when they crossed paths at headquarters.

But one would be remiss to ignore the harmful effects of her depiction when no media is created in a vacuum.

at some point when i can gather my thoughts i would like to make an in-depth post (would probably end up being more of an essay honestly) about how tpn treats its characters of color because like. there’s definitely a colorism problem with anime/manga in general and i think tpn has some really solid black and brown characters for a medium that is severely lacking in that department but there’s also some things it handles poorly and it would be good to explore that i think

[paused-waterfall]

Care to tell more about what you think of the plot and characters to the dsmp? Which ideas you enjoy and don't? It's super interesting since I was there during the hype and it sucks that the whole thing seemed to crash in and burn (at least in my eyes). At least a few CCS got to end their characters how they wanted too

Ah man, the plot and characters. First, a caveat: My thorough watch-through hasn't yet reached the conclusion of many of the characters, so I can't properly speak to that. I've encountered plenty of warning signs of controversial and stunted conclusions, so that has been my expectation from the start. With that hanging ominously over our heads, here are some of my thoughts on the rest:

Despite its overt absurdity, the plot of the dsmp feels more like a history book than a novel. In your prototypical novel, one author is really just trying to tell one story. They will cut scenes that don't add to that core story, and simplify their work if they're afraid their audience might get lost in the weeds. Background characters, in particular, get cut down to only existing as the minimally adorned cogs needed to complete the mechanisms of the plot.

In the dsmp, damn near every character is fleshed out by a whole human who is specifically invested in that character. A creator might only play a small part in a given storyline, and any individual viewer might have a complete blindspot for a given character. But there's still a whole person sitting behind every username, monitoring (and sometimes, experiencing) their motivations in real time.

And this lets them do weird shit with their characters. Authors need to keep their whole cast in their head and keep them on the rails well enough that there aren't any unexpected crashes. The creators on the server generally don't bother with this. I haven't gone out of my way to peel back the curtains of the server's writing process -- curtains can hide horrors, I don't touch curtains until I'm ready to flee -- but I have the impression that pivotal characters in pivotal scenes have beats to hit and maybe some scripted lines. Meanwhile, the rest of the players seem to be set loose to do whatever fits their concept of their character, with only minimal guardrails in place to prevent an accidental derailment of the core plot of the day. Nobody looks like a cardboard cutout who is just there to play Shocked Man #3. Even players who are not deeply invested in the roleplay have comprehensible motives, because they seem to mostly be there to just play some goddamn Minecraft. Hey, that's a game I've played! They want to build a nice house and maybe find some netherite -- I know what that feels like!

No viewer can follow all of the uncurated knot of plotlines that make up the dsmp. But I find it so satisfying that any thread I choose to pull on is likely to reveal an earnest line of character motivation. When I complete a novel and want to know more about a character, the best I can hope for is that the author happened to have the same thought and is willing to act on it. When I finished watching the Blueberry TV cut of Doomsday and wondered what the fuck Ranboo's deal was, I was able to dig up VODs and see it all first hand. Plenty of plotlines are cut short and plenty of perspectives have been deleted, but on some level these flaws in basic storytelling are a rarely explored reflection of the real world. Because history is not a streamlined novel. No history book can fully encapsulate the events it portrays, but we know that every character contained within it has their own perspective, and that every thread in the knot can be pulled on further if we're just lucky enough to have not lost the information to time.

There are, of course, a ridiculous number of downsides to this approach to storytelling. But, since this is my first time encountering this specific type of narrative, to me they are new and interesting downsides. Flaws that haven't yet dug grooves into my patience. I'm quite eager to see artists build on this example, wrestle with those flaws, and either find solutions or find some other approach that's even better.

I've somehow rambled for 6 paragraphs and barely touched on any specific character and story beats, but I better cut myself off here for now. If you want more of a rundown of notable design choices, I could certainly be baited into more of that lol.

[takaraphoenix]

Now that DuckTales came back from its corona-enforced hiatus and now that I am currently enjoying Phineas and Ferb for the first time, I noticed a crucial reason that goes into why DuckTales 2017 is, unquestionably, my absolute favorite cartoon from the 2010s, no competition. And I felt like making a post about that crucial reason - now, brace yourself, I’m not actually going to talk a whole lot about DuckTales itself, I want to talk about its cartoon format and why this (old) format works infinitely better for me than the (new) streaming format.

Let me also preface this by saying that I’m a 90s kid. I grew up setting my alarm at 6 o’clock on a Saturday/Sunday so I wouldn’t miss the newest episodes of my favorite cartoons. And I’m fully aware that the way I grew up shaped the way I approach these cartoons.

Before I can break down why this old cartoon format, that is still being used by DuckTales now, works better for me than modern cartoons, I have to explain what exactly I mean by “format” here, so here are the criterias I’m looking at:

length (episode-count)

structure

release

The format I am more partial to that was used during my childhood and that DuckTales, and some others, still use is simple:

A lot of episodes (DuckTales is currently on 63 episodes in 3 seasons over 3 years, with an seasonal episode average of 24), as well as a weekly release of one episode.

For a contrast, have three (finished) cartoons with the more streamlined, modern format:

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power has a total of 52 episodes, 13 episodes per season, and released a whole season on a day.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts has a total of 30 episodes, 10 episodes per season, and was also released a whole season on a day.

Carmen Sandiego is on 25 episodes (counting the special as an episode), with about 10 episodes per season, likewise releasing a whole season on a day.

Now let’s break that down one by one!

The weekly release builds up anticipation. I know, I know, the argument binge vs weekly release is one to be had with any show nowadays - and I do think that there is a downside to the binge-watch. I consume the whole thing in a day (which is more than easy with a cartoon that only drops 10 episodes each 20 minutes long), I will be excited about it for roughly two more days, if it was really good another week, and then I’ll have moved on to the next thing I mass-consume. The weekly release has the benefit of keeping you on your toes - the resolution of the story is something you have to wait for. And it builds up excitement. It also... makes me grow more attached, because I am given more time with these characters. While, run-time wise, whether I consume the entire season in a day or it is spread out over episode-count numbers of weeks, it comes down to the same time spent with those characters, I will spend more time thinking on them. In the week that passes between two episodes, thinking about what may happen next, what x character is currently going through, how it will affect them. In a binge, I have the answer like an hour later and will no longer be thinking about this, speculating or anticipating.

The length of a season - and, ultimately, the total end-count - is the most crucial factor, because it also affects the structure of the show.

More episodes loosen the plot. A 24 episode season has more room than a 10 episode season, obviously. And instead of having to trim off all the fat and streamline it to only focus on the seasonal plot, it offers filler episodes that allow focus on side characters and development of character dynamics more thoroughly.

That kind of storytelling structure, where the seasonal main plot steps more into the shadow, also allows the “casual watch” (meaning, you don’t necessarily have to watch it in order. In theory, you could just jump in into a random episode and will be mostly caught up).

My biggest complaint about most of the modern cartoons I watch that are released in binge form - and thus, only with about 10 to 13 episodes a season - is that they don’t really get me attached to the more side or minor characters, because there is simply no time to focus on them properly, we have to spend what little time we have on the actual main plot.

24 episodes allow shenanigans, adventures that deepen bonds and explore secondary and minor characters, explore facettes of the main characters.

10 to 13 episodes have the benefit, and reason, that this allows you to actually sit down and binge-watch the whole season in one day. That’s its intend.

And I absolutely think that stories suffer from that.

Final season aside, I thoroughly enjoyed She-Ra, but the side-princesses were entirely sidelined. We never explored their realms, their family or situation, Scorpia’s mothers were teased in one picture, but with a larger episode order, we could have actually gone to her kingdom or explored this in flashbacks.

Kipo and the Age of Wonderbeasts was an amazing show and I loved it, but Benson and Troy’s relationship was incredibly sidelined, the other two girls that had joined the team with Troy (and Troy himself) were never really fleshed out with their own personalities and past - because there are only 10 episodes a season and you just had to focus on the main plot. In a larger format, we could have had whole episodes focusing on those three bonding with the main team in casual shenanigans, the mutes could have been explored more thoroughly.

DuckTales gives me that. It explores the triplets as individually drawn personalities, with their own motivations and their own adventures at times. We get whole episodes focused on Webbie’s friends, exploring them and their motivations. I have a far better grip on those characters, because the show has the time to focus on them, explore them.

Binge-watching can be fun, I do it a lot, but the shortened episode count of seasons is a real loss for many TV shows. And while, yes, many of the old shows with weekly releases and 24 episodes had a lot of fat that could have actually been trimmed and there are the occasional actual filler episodes that are skip-worthy, I do think that there should be a middle-ground. Give a show the amount of episodes it needs to tell its story, which includes character-focus and exploring character-dynamics. Too many TV shows nowadays, not just cartoons, paint only the most basic picture of who the characters are and how they stand to each other, but due to the show’s length, doesn’t really give focus to explore them in more detail. Don’t trim too much.

[tigerlover16-uk]

Reimagining DBGT Baby saga

As we all know, Dragon Ball GT was a complete hot mess…at least in execution.  On paper and taken on their own merits, many of the concepts and storylines of GT are actually pretty good, even brilliant in some cases (*coughcough* Shadow Dragons).  The problem, however was the execution.  Because they were rushed to get the show out, the writers clearly went the route of making stuff up on the fly rather than actually planning out the story.  As a result, many of these ideas, things that could have been amazing stories, ended up as wasted potential because Toei was focused on Rule of Cool/Funny instead of worldbuilding, character development, and story logistics.

Pan and Uub are the poster children for these missed opportunities.  Pan was notoriously badly written, with the writers themselves admitting that they included her mainly as a damsel in distress to make Goku look better, while Uub was basically forgotten, undoing everything that the end of Z was setting up with him.  Here, I will take you through my thought process and show what I would have done with the characters had I been one of the showrunners for GT.

*Just to get some things out of the way, a) This will only go into sharp detail for the Baby arc since that is the only one I am intimately familiar with plot wise, and b)GOKU IS STILL AN ADULT!  This was pointless, silly, and only served for cheap jokes that at worst hurt Goku’s character.  NEXT!

-Getting into the real meat of the issue, the Black Star Dragon Ball saga would mostly remain the same (BSDBs are used, Earth’ll blow up in a year, Giru eats the Dragon Radar, Luud conflict, etc.).  However, Uub would replace Trunks as the third party member, citing that his training can still continue and he wants some real-world experience.

-The character dynamic between Uub and Pan would play out as a mostly-friendly rivalry, both wanting to impress Goku.  Uub has come to admire Goku and wants to live up to him, but Pan has much more personal baggage.

*I can imagine Pan as being somewhat resentful of Goku for running off to train Uub, leaving his family behind to live in some random village and train this kid.  This would serve to address a common criticism of Goku’s character (focus on his own wants ahead of others), while also making clear that this hurt is unintentional.  Goku obviously would never intentionally hurt his loved ones, but sometimes the choices we make have an impact on the people around us.  Pan still loves her grandfather, so rather than bring this to the forefront, she decides to bottle these feelings up, not wanting to say something that may hurt him in turn.

*Additionally, Pan may also suffer from an inferiority complex as a result of having so many powerful warriors in her family.  She becomes fixated on becoming a Super Saiyan so she can truly live up to that legacy (put a pin in that it’ll be important later)

-Another character point to come up is Uub learning the truth, that he is the reincarnation of Majin Buu.  At some point prior to arriving at Planet M2, Uub is pushed to his breaking point during a battle, causing him to lash out with an aggression similar to Kid Buu (I credit KCruzer of DeviantArt for the impetus behind this idea https://www.deviantart.com/kcruzer/art/DBTNG-Satsui-No-Majin-782861139).  When Goku tells him the truth, Uub starts suffering an identity crisis compounded by his fear of losing control of the rage.

-The mini arc on M2 is mostly the same, only Pan’s feelings of betrayal by Giru have a more pronounced impact by triggering a transformation similar to the False Super Saiyan from Lord Slug.  While that film is obviously non-canon, the idea of a pseudo-Super Saiyan form is one I quite enjoy, and the power boost allows Pan to rescue Goku and Uub and defeat the Sigma Force on her own (the only downside is that this power is hard to maintain).  Goku’s battle with Rilldo is much the same, as is their discovery of Baby.

-Flash forward to the return to Earth, only now Baby’s takeover is different.  Since Goku is unencumbered by his body, he is able to fight Baby on a much more level footing, and actually starts to win.  However, baby uses his control over the infected human population to order some of them to kill themselves, and to commit mass suicide in the case of his own death.  Rather than risk it, Goku surrenders.  Pan tries to attack Baby herself, but is overwhelmed and apparently killed.  As you can probably guess, this puts Pan into the position Goku was in the original show, and she trains to go fight Baby.

*Meanwhile, Baby hooks Goku up to a machine designed to siphon his Ki into himself, completing Baby’s growth to the point where he no longer needs Vegeta’s body to maintain his power.  After all, what kind of Tuffle savior would Baby be if he had to remain a parasite of a Saiyan?  This would also give a chance to flesh out Baby’s character more, as he is a very real testament to the horrifying legacy of the Saiyans, their tragic genocide by Frieza notwithstanding.

*Uub would take up Pan’s original role, trying to heal the possessed humans alongside Fat Buu and Mr. Satan while also fighting the infected Gohan, Goten and Trunks.  Here, the evil Buusona would again resurface, but Uub once again starts to lose control.  Buu approaches Uub with the chance to fuse as they did in canon, thus allowing him to properly harness the power.  However, while this would give him the strength to defeat Baby, Uub refuses to risk losing his singular will.  Thus, unable to call upon the Majin’s strength, Uub is bested by Baby, who eventually becomes strong enough to leave Vegeta’s weakened body

*In Other World, Pan undergoes similar measures and training to restore her tail, in this AU a way for her to better control her False Super Saiyan power.  Old Kai considers subjecting Pan to the same empowerment ritual he used on Gohan, but Pan is too impatient and pressed for time to sit for that.  Once her tail is regrown, Pan rushes to fight Baby while sending Uub and the others to free Goku, but she too is defeated.  This is followed by the Golden Oozaru transformation that Goku originally underwent, only this time it is a healed Videl who manages to calm the berserk Pan down.  Thus, Pan is the one to unlock Super Saiyan 4 instead of Goku.

*The power of the transformation allows Pan to make quick work of Baby, but the aggression indicative of Super Saiyan forms kicks in when she starts to pointlessly drag the fight out.  In fact, due to having no experience with the other transformations, the Hulk-out is even more extreme that usual.  By now, Goku has been freed and tries to get Pan to back off.  However, this only causes Pan to snap again, letting all her hurt and anger with her grandfather out at once.  Goku is shaken by Pan’s words, but he is reluctantly forced to fight when Pan attacks him, asserting that she is finally a true Saiyan warrior and demanding that he go all out.

*Baby manages to recover and ty to escape but is stopped by Vegeta, who is prepared to kill him on the spot before Uub steps in, citing that the Tuffles had suffered enough.  Remembering how Mr. Satan beges him to spare Buu, Vegeta offers Baby mercy, only for the Tuffle to commit suicide, feeling that his people have no more legacy to hope for.

*Goku and Pan’s battle starts getting more intense as Pan continues to vent, letting out all the hurt she had been feeling while Goku tries to apologize.  It eventually gets to the point where Goku refuses to fight her and powers down, letting her lay into him.  However, by this point all of Pan’s rage has been spent, and all that’s left is a scared girl wants her grandfather back.  The two finally reconcile and return to the others

*The saga ends much as it did previously, the only real difference being that Piccolo does not sacrifice himself and the balls are destroyed another way.

-Subsequent sagas may vary (cut Super 17 and seriously rework the Shadow Dragons), but the following points would also be present

*Pan works with Gohan and Goku to achieve and master the real Super Saiyan state so that Pan will avoid the uncontrollable rage that comes from going all the way to Super Saiyan 4 (i.e. SS1 is drinking a single cup of caffeinated coffee, SS4 is drinking six at once)

*Uub comes to terms with his origins as Buu, and learns to call upon and control the Majin power without going nuts

*Vegeta discovers a colony of Tuffle survivors and tries to find a way to make amends for the Saiyan’s crimes

The final result is this; a set of long, heavily involved character arcs spanning a whole saga, connecting directly to our main protagonist, and centered around the theme of legacy.  Baby came from a slaughtered people and wants to restore their honor.  Uub was born from the most terrifying evil in the universe, yet wants to show he is his own person.  Pan is the granddaughter of the world’s greatest hero who mistakenly feels that she must live up to him to earn his love.  And finally, Goku is the legendary warrior who is now caught between a legacy of violence from his enemy, a legacy of past mistakes in his family, and a legacy of evil he worked to remake.

Some may find this too deep, but that’s just me.

…

I’m gonna be honest. This sounds a million times more interesting than how the actual Baby Saga played out.

[cooper-blogs]

someone: fallout 4 sucks

what i say: haha yea

what i mean:

while fallout 4 in comparison to previous fallout games was okay at best, in my opinion i believe it was only fundamentally lacking. the story wasn’t engaging, and the characters were very one-dimensional, including the player character which created a very big disconnect between the player character and the player. while the voiced protagonist helped bring a little bit more life into your character it was ultimately a failed experiment as it narrowed their personality down one direction of either a mother or a father seeking their lost child, disallowing for any other type of personality and motives besides that that the player could mold their character into. and while the pre-war scene was most likely meant to create some form of connection with the player so that they’d care about them, it wasn’t fleshed out enough and seemed to be rushing to get to the real game, which ultimately led to another big disconnect with the player and the supporting characters that they’re supposed to care about, and is very wasted potential altogether. a majority of the quests being centered around clearing out a location or fetch-quests is actually a fault of lack of communication between the quest development teams, in which they did not properly discuss with each other what types of quests they were making and ultimately resulted in little to no diversity in quests. settlements also seemed to take priority in both quests and in DLC, and while the system is deep, it was advertised to be “optional” when it was used for a good chunk of quests in the game. with all these downsides it’s not hard to see why some people think that fallout 4 is a disappointment but there’s plenty to like and keep playing for in my opinion. the combat system in fallout 4 is the best it’s ever been in a fallout game: shooting feels great, movement feels smooth and fluid, and weapon-feedback makes shooting one of if not the most enjoyable part of the game. compared to fallout 3 and new vegas where the shooting was very stiff: enemies could run and stop on a dime, it was sometimes very unclear if you were hitting an enemy, guns have a strange finesse to them where you have to click in a rhythm to keep a steady flow of shots. it feels very slow and there’s absolutely no weapon feedback to make shooting with most guns feel good, nor any sort of indication beyond health bar ticks and small blood splatters to show that you’re hitting an enemy successfully. the armor system in fallout 4 is also a huge improvement compared to the other two 3d fallout games before it--allowing the player to equip separate armor pieces for every limb which not only allows for more control over your loadout and how you build your character but also how you can better manage the look of your character cosmetically, which helps to bring more of a personal touch to the player’s character. that’s not to mention power armor, which goes far beyond the “open your inventory and equip like any other armor” as in previous fallout games. power armor actually feels completely different to be in--the player can absorb a lot more damage than regular armor, they can move easier with heavy weapons, and how the player enters and exits the suit really goes a long way to drive home the feeling that you’re climbing in to the strongest armor in the game. and as a smart and immersive move for balance, the player needs to acquire fusion cores to power the suit, otherwise they can not use it to its full potential. to reiterate, in fallout 3 and new vegas, power armor was simply another clothing item that the player only had to learn “power armor training” in order to equip, but after that, you could just put it on like any other armor. in fallout 4 it goes much, much deeper, where the player has to not only seek out a power armor frame, but also the 6 different pieces of the armor in order to make a full suit to gain full protection, and you need a power supply to use the armor properly. in addition, the player can also modify the pieces of the power armor to give it better stats and special stats that make it even more powerful. also new in fallout 4 is something very similar for weapons, allowing the player to modify their weapons with materials or “junk” they find all around the world which has specific and varied properties depending on the item, when in previous fallout games this junk served little to no purpose. the player can modify their weapons to be pistols, rifles, semi-automatic, automatic, have larger magazines, have scopes, have better aim with scopes, do more damage, and much more. like many others, my favorite 3d fallout game was fallout: new vegas as it was written by former interplay members--interplay being the creators of the original fallout 1 and 2, which many still enjoy to this day. i firmly believe that fallout 4 is a good game that’s at the very least fun to play at its core, it’s just, by standards, a poor fallout game with the lack of deep(er) RPG elements and poor writing. my hopes, like many others, is that how many things that were improved in fallout 4 that needed improvement could carry over to a new fallout game created by the people behind Fallout New Vegas, which in my opinion, had superior writing compared to both fallout 3 and 4. it’s as if what was good and bad between fallout 3 + new vegas and fallout 4 was swapped. fallout 3 and new vegas had poor combat and a very shallow crafting system at best, but had superior writing and characters that engaged the player to offset the poor combat. fallout 4 had very poor writing and boring characters, but an extremely deep crafting system, armor system, and vast improvements to the combat to make it feel much less stiff and unsatisfying compared to fallout 3 and new vegas. though it’s much harder to keep the player engaged with gameplay than it is with story, as a good story and interesting characters gives the player at least one motive to also engage in the gameplay and stay engaged in order to further the story. to that end, fallout 4 would have been perfect had it had the writing strength of fallout: new vegas as the gameplay aspects i talked about earlier that were vastly improved from previous fallout games would have been amazing in unison with the hypothetical improvement in writing. we can only hope that obsidian (company behind New Vegas) can make a sequel to what was in my opinion one of the best written and most engaging fallout games with the new tools and potential fallout 4 has provided. but once again, this does not mean that fallout 4 was a bad game, it was simply a bad fallout game.

[ultrabosh64-blog]

A Comprehensive Review of... The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

A Game Beyond Your WILDest Imagination

     After watching the initial trailers back when Breath of the Wild was announced, I remember feeling much hope for something to rival my love for the classic Super Nintendo A Link to the Past, and the pair of Oracle games for Gameboy Color.  A Zelda title with charm, freedom to explore, a plethora of activities, increased focus on story, and a shopping cart full of puzzles to solve.  Folks, I think I have found that Zelda title within Breath of the Wild.

     Now we all know the basic premise of almost every Zelda game: Save Zelda!  Breath of the Wild does its best to break the mold with a story that is a bit more complex than just the typical damsel in distress stereotype.  Link is awoken inside a location known as the “Shrine of Resurrection” after a destructive incident that occurred 100 years prior which he has no recollection of whatsoever.  Once back on his feet, our hero is greeted with a luscious landscape of a world you are going to spend immense amounts of time exploring.  From these first two details we can already see a mixture of both dreadful and delightful ideologies for a bizarre yet sensible opening sequence.  This balance of light and dark tones continues to hold throughout the course of the game via memory flashback sequences obtained both through the main story quest-line and optional memory quest-line.

     Discussing these events would be spoiler territory, so I’ll simply state that they do flesh out the backstory very well in accordance to character relationships and the reason the world is in the state it is. You’ll have to experience the details for yourself.  As an overall package however, the story is strong throughout the majority of the game, only faltering through a select few flashback sequences and [in my personal opinion] a small portion of the game’s ending [which will hopefully be addressed with upcoming DLC].

The Silent Boy’s Living World

     Once Link has awoken, and has completed his initial trials to obtain passage to the open world, the world becomes a sandbox for you to explore.  Unarguably the strongest point of Breath of the Wild is the exploration.  In-fact, Breath of the Wild’s open-world will likely set the bar for future open-world titles much higher than anyone could have ever anticipated with its execution of a living, breathing, truly free-roam open-world.  Everything from the subtle wind blowing blades of grass, to the sounds of crickets chirping in the fields during dusk, and even wild deer actively looking for grass to graze make everything about the open world so absolutely satisfying to be a part of.

     All of the typical biomes for open world games are present here: desert, snow, forest, jungle, beach, swamp, and volcano.  Each type of area has it’s own isolated slice of the world map pie, but also shares pieces of other areas (for example Mount Lanayru is a snowy mountain amidst an otherwise forest-y area).  This, alongside various levels of elevation, keeps even the most typical style of area fresh with varying features injected strategically within each piece of the map.  Transitions between biomes feel very natural, and non-abrupt, reinforcing the immersion the game does an excellent job of maintaining. The immersion is handled so well in fact, that often times I found myself taking screenshots of foliage, lakes, and wildlife just because I felt it would be a shame to not capture every gorgeous moment the game had to offer (I’m going to need a much larger micro-SD card now).  The only downside to such an elegant world is the occasional frame-rate drop that comes along with it. Particularly noticeable while playing in the docked mode during the first few hours of the game, there are noticeable drops in the frame-rate when there are lots of foliage, coupled with enemies and other environmental factors.  These moments can potentially take away from the immersion, but are also easily overlooked.  Once you leave the Great Plateau these problems seem to become much less frequent while playing docked, and even less frequent while playing portable.    

     Traversing these wondrous areas isn’t going to be a cakewalk, but luckily you will have several options on how to tackle the Hyrule homeland.  The addition of the stamina meter has given inspiration to these options.  The stamina meter is used for basically every physical action with the exception of walking and quick-attack.  A frequent contender for my stamina usage was the paraglider.  This item resembles its real-life counterpart, providing the same functionality.  The act of paragliding from a mountain seemed like a desert after devouring a nice dinner of climbing said mountain.  It allowed ease of access to far away areas, especially islands, as well as an upper-hand in combat encounters where enemies were at a lower elevation than you.  Another of the most important uses of this wheel is the ability to climb.  Link can climb anything in the world, even being completely upside-down sometimes (which I’ve coined in my playthrough as “Spidermanning”). See something just above but no road to get there?  Climb your to the top, friend!  Got a set of enemies in your way that you just can’t seem to defeat?  Try climbing around them!   Slowly you begin climbing up everything just because it becomes fun and rewarding to see what is atop the cliff you are exploring.  Rain will however impede your climbing fun, as it will make any effected surface slippery, causing you to slide downward every so often.   Your encounters with the natural force of rain are often going to be your hardest fights.  I could not begin to even count the amount of times I had been halfway up a huge mountain hunting for collectibles, only to be interrupted by a monsoon which lead to me slipping down the mountain to my inevitable demise [or at least a decent amount of damage and time-loss].  Thankfully, there is a forecast chart incorporated into the UI for the game which shows you if a stormy front is on its way to ruin your exploratory plans.  So unless you’ve consulted Mother Nature’s handbook of forecasting, it’s a super short climb, or you have tons of stamina from upgrades it is best to avoid these situations all-together.   

      Occasionally, to make matters worse, as if the rain wasn’t enough of a pain, lightning will also show up to the party to ruin your day.  The moment your body and/or equipment begins sparking, you’d better open your menu to unequip your hazardous equipment, or be prepared to become a human lightning rod.  Albeit an interesting feature, and certainly a very realistic one at that, lightning began to become more of an annoyance than a threat.  It is plausible to get caught up in a lightning storm while fighting a Guardian, which may leave the equipment you are carrying useless, ultimately leaving you with a survivability rating of about 1% no matter if you choose to fight, take flight, or initiate a handshake with lightning.   This is however a worst case scenario, and will not happen to everyone.  The rest of the weather conditions seem to be not as dynamic however in comparison to the to aforementioned.  Snow and extreme humidity both are mostly exclusive to specific slices of the map, making their role a bit more static.  There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this however, as it allows players to really prepare themselves before entering these areas which can slowly drain you of your hearts if you are not properly equipped.  Proper equipment for these areas come in limited forms.  

     There is basically one set of armor for extreme cold weather, one for extreme humidity, one for avoiding being burnt to a crisp, and everything else can be worn at any time.  Most of the game does occur in areas which temperature is neutral mind you, but it would’ve been nice to have just a few more stylized options for extreme conditions.   Also the option to quick change armor/clothing similar to the weapon quick select or even armor/clothing presets would’ve been intuitive.  So when visiting these areas you will have to open and close your menu more often than you would want to.

Combat, Cooking, & Collectibles

     When visiting each area within Breath of the Wild’s landmass, you’ll encounter a wide variety of enemies to cross spears, swords, and tree branches with.  Every single encounter is a new experience.  This is thanks to the inclusion of relic powers, a plethora of weapons, and tons of enemy types feature in-game.  Breath of the Wild offers roughly 200 unique weapons, and nearly 100 varied enemy types.  Combining the previous numbers with Link’s four newly introduced relic powers, will give thousands of combat situations.  The enemy AI is some of the best in any video game to date.  Each type of enemy has their own type of behaviors whether they are fighting alone, with a mob, and even idle!  This is one of the precedences that makes the game truly feel alive.  Whether you are watching Bokoblins from afar standing around a campfire gazing at a scrumptious roasting meat skewer, squaring off against a Lizalfos’ fast solo movements, or watching a Moblin pick up and throw his cohort Bokoblin at you, there are so many different types of behaviors, that you are likely to walk into each encounter and witness your foe doing something you’ve never seen them do before.  This plays hand-in-hand with the difficulty aspect of the game, as there are not any AI which one could call “stupid”. Each enemy is completely capable of killing Link.  You will often find that enemies will even use the surrounding environment to their advantage.  Environmental variables such as loose boulders can quickly become Link’s worst enemy.

     During these skirmishes, you will witness the heartbreak of a precious weapon/shield/bow breaking right before your very eyes.  Fear not, and wipe away your tears!  You will find another similar weapon, or one even better soon enough.  Often spoken of as a negative in most games, the weapon degradation in Breath of the Wild makes perfect sense.  Very early on in your journey you will likely be relying on very fragile weapons [ex. tree branches, rusty weapons] which you will end up breaking faster than most teenagers today break the screens on their cell-phones.  After several hours you finally begin finding much better weapons, which shows that the designers honestly took their time planning out what type of weapons you would find within each area.  The natural progression of obtaining these weapons/armors feels just right for a typical player’s main story route progression. 

     Now you do have the choice to break this natural progression by skipping early areas and testing your might against much more difficult enemies in areas farther from where you probably should be in accordance to the main quest-line.  Noting this, it is very easy to get distracted and end up in the “wrong neighborhood” so to speak.  For casual players, if you suddenly find yourself within the first few hours of gameplay surrounded by several silver colored enemies, you may want to tuck tail and run before all of your precious hearts are drained from you with one foul swoop of a club.  For some of the more hardcore players [like myself] the thrill of the game comes from fighting enemies that they know they shouldn’t stand a chance against with current stats.  In many players’ instances, the Lynel enemy atop a mountain in the Zora’s Domain will likely be their first “Nope, coming back to do that later” moment of the game.  Some players however will see this as a rigorous challenge that puts every ounce of their skill to the test, with the possibility of unlocking some incredibly high stat items early on in the story. Breath of the Wild does a fantastic job of mixing the moments in both regular exploration and main story quest-line to keep both casual and hardcore audiences entertained.  

         When combat has proven that it can be difficult, there is one way to counteract the pain.  Supplement this difficulty with the addition of cooking!  This is the feature of the game that I did not expect to enjoy as much as I did.  Cooking will mostly occur in areas that contain a campfire with a cooking pot above it (although you can cook single items in a campfire without the pot and even cook items contained within crates if you set the crates on fire).  There are incredible amounts of entertainment to be had combining different materials in the cooking pot, as discovering what kind of meal each combination will grant you takes a lot of trial-and-error (or a guide, because people do still buy those believe it or not).  Sometimes food is required to traverse landscapes with extreme temperatures, other times offers a quick way to a full recovery [with the possibility of extra temporary hearts also], and sometimes even allows a way to increase the speed at which you climb.  The amount of possibilities for different recipes, meals, elixirs, and strengths of those products is staggering.  The only gripe with this feature of the game is that there is no way to record in game what you have cooked to produce a specific meal.  This results in either a mass amount of memorization to ensure you are getting quality foods best suited for your situation, or a lot of blind hope which will often lead into grueling Dubious Foods.

     Returning to maintaining your dubious weapons, managing your inventory said weapons does become a task rather quickly.  Early on this will likely be a big problem for most players, as they will want to horde every little weapon they can get their hands on.  This can be easily remedied via the Korok seed collectible items, which will be addressed shortly.  The ability to switch which weapon you are using at any given time is slick as time pauses as long as your menu is up, allowing you to scout out the best weapon for every situation.  The only downside to this however is when you are out of inventory space, there is not a quick way to drop weapons.  Each time you wish to toss a weapon to the wayside you must open the main menu, select your item, and drop from there.  A minor gripe, but for as many times as you will end up doing this, you will realize quickly an increasing amount of time spent doing this process even late into the game when you [hopefully] have acquired more inventory space.

     I hear you asking yourself, “Where can I obtain these seeds?  I want to be the weapon pack mule!”.  Well let me preface this by saying that there seems to be a resurgence lately for collect-a-thon games.  Breath of the Wild is no exception to this.  The Korok seed hunt is possibly one of the largest, and most time-consuming collectible hunts ever placed inside a video game.  Without prior knowledge, how many of the little leaf children would you imagine would be hidden inside this massive open world?  200?  400?  Those my friend are rookie numbers.  For this collect-a-thon you will have to search every corner, rock, flower, pond, and coast for 900 of these twiggy friendlies.  Yes, this is not a typo, 900 Koroks are scattered across the world, with only you serving as their savior. This is one of the only tasks I personally did not finish within my playthrough of the game.  At my journey’s end I amassed a pitiful 242 Korok seeds.  Only the most dedicated gamers will ever see the near four digit number grace their screen during the game’s loading screen.  Previously discussing the purpose of these seeds though, you will burn with passion to collect at least several hundred of these seeds.  The seeds are given to a specific NPC in exchange for the additional inventory slots you desire, chosen between weapons, bows, and shields.  Get your Korok wallet ready though, because each time you make an inventory slot purchase, the next time you select that type of inventory slot you will see an additional surcharge on what you will owe for the next slot.  It gets really expensive, really quickly.  [A quick aside regarding the seeds; Hetsu is the most adorable NPC of all time.  I will say no more.  You must experience this for yourselves.  If a smile is not immediately filling your face when you meet Hetsu, then nothing can possibly make you happy.]

     Another of these collectibles you will likely be working toward completing is the Hyrule Compendium, which tasks you with taking photographs of every enemy, boss, material, style of treasure chest, animal, and weapon in the game.  This alone is a daunting task, as many times you’ll find yourself forgetting to pull out the Sheikah Slate to snap a quick picture of a wandering butterfly, new fruit, or boss encounter.  The saving grace of this particular collect-a-thon is that you can purchase pictures for the compendium via an NPC for a seemingly reasonable amount of your hard earned rupees. Therefore nothing is missable in your journey to be the best photogrpaher in Hyrule.  Now if only you could add some of those wonderful filters commonly used in today’s social media apps to make that picture of a Smoldering Butterfly like it came from an old Polaroid.  DLC perhaps?  I certainly hope so!

     Spirit Orbs are the third [and final] type of collectible in Breath of the Wild.  Spirit Orbs, which are obtained via completing Shrines, allow the player a choice of an extra Heart Container or an extra 1/5 of a Stamina Wheel upgrade.  These are technically a collectible only because the player can choose not to complete any Shrines after the first four shrines of the game (which are required).  Each of the games’ 120 shrines offers a distinct challenge either inside of the shrine itself or on the overworld to unlock the shrine.  Shrine challenges generally fall under two categories: combat tests and puzzles.  With this being a new addition to the Zelda franchise the initial reaction from fans and critics alike were mixed when these shrines were announced.  A Zelda game dropping main dungeons [sort of] in favor of smaller split-up dungeons that are easier for pick-up and play situations?  For a completely new idea in the Zelda series, these shrines convey exactly how they should into Breath of the Wild’s open world.  These shrines add an additional purpose to exploring the entire map, as they could be nearly anywhere.  Some of the shrines are in plain sight, while others require quests to be completed before you can gain access to them. These quests could range from finding fragments of ancient relics in order to reveal the answer the a puzzle which will reveal a shrine, to riddles given by NPC Kass which require the player to do some problem solving strictly from two or four lines of poetic verse.  Overall the puzzle  shrines themselves feel very unique, with none of them replicating each other in a way that makes you think that you’ve already completed a puzzle that was very similar ten minutes prior.  Combat oriented shrines are strikingly similar for obvious reasons.  These have very little variation from each other, simply pitting you against a guardian enemy of predetermined combat capability depending on the name of the shrine test (minor, modest, or major test of strength).  These shrines typically take no more than fifteen minutes to complete, which seems appropriate for the games’ overall pacing.  The only problem that can be seen with these shrines are that some of them are incredibly easy.  There will be times where you will find the solution to the puzzle within mere moments of examining the shrine puzzle.  For the average problem solver most of these shrines will seem more like tech demos for Link’s relic powers than puzzles themselves.  Take for example Mirro Shaz, the shrine which seems to be coined by everyone as the “golfing” test.  The entire purpose is to take an iron hammer which is provided by the merciful shrine gods, stasis lock a shrine ball, and proceed to hit it into a hole several hundred meters away which is not accessible by foot.  While not particularly challenging on the problem solving front except for making sure you are lined up properly and are hitting the ball with an appropriate level of force, the execution of the “puzzle” seems to be nothing more than a showcase for whether you can comprehend the basic use of the relic powers.  This is not to say that these type of puzzles are not enjoyable, because they absolutely are!  There just seems to be something missing from several of the shrines in the game as they seem too short sometimes, leaving the player asking why the puzzle does not have more depth.  Thankfully though this does remove a problem that most games with puzzles have: padding.  The shrines in Breath of the Wild contain absolutely zero padding.  Yes, some of the shrines may feel entirely too short, but it is honestly better to have shorter puzzles than to have puzzles that overstay their welcome.  As an overall package, shrines seem to be well integrated into the world of Breath of the Wild, minor complaints/suggestions aside. 

The Difficulty Curve: Main & Side Events

     The difficulty of Breath of the Wild is varied depending on the kind of route you take in the game.  If you follow the main story quest-line, you’ll find the difficulty of the game rather tame and controlled. Enemies will never truly seem unfair, and your weapons/armor will scale fairly well with the area you are in.  If you choose to have a more open approach to Breath of the Wild’s world, wandering off wherever your eyes see fit, then you may run into some issues with difficulty.  It is very easy even from the very beginning of the game to choose a path which will likely lead you to your demise.  From a personal account, I decided to [attempt to] explore Hyrule Bridge directly after finishing the Great Plateau tutorial area.  Well, let’s just say I quickly learned how absolutely brutal Breath of the Wild could be.  With one swipe of a Lizalfos’ spear I was faced with a disheartening “Game Over” screen. Being the stubborn gamer I am, I attempted this personal route several more times, only to face the same bitter end each time.  This is not to say that the game limits you to where you can/can’t go.  It is very possible with lots of time, skill, and patience to cross Hyrule Bridge straight out of the gate.  Most players however will not accomplish such a feat until later in the game when their armor/weapons/hearts reflect a more reasonable chance of survival.      The simple fact that you are able to choose how difficult you wish to make the game is something that not many games do, let alone the ones that do and actually get it right.  Breath of the Wild allows you to take complete control of how difficult you want your experience with it to be.  Want to charge headlong into Hyrule Castle once you leave the Plateau?  You may do so. Would you like to explore the snowy areas of the game without any armor to resist cold weather?  That is absolutely allowed.  Care for a more casual approach in which you simply follow the main story-line?  Go for it!  There are hundreds of possibilities for how to begin the game, as even more possibilities for how to continue the game at any given point.  This is one of the best points to talk about regarding the game; The ability to craft your own adventure, with your own path, goals, feats, and level of desired completion.

     On the lighter side of the difficulty topic, the main quest-line route seems to have been made easier than previous Zelda titles, likely to attract a wider audience for the game.  The Divine Beast dungeons themselves are the mainline dungeons for this Zelda title.  Each of the four total dungeons resembles an animal, which servers as the dungeon itself.  Once you make your way inside one of these dungeons you will be faced with a set of tasks: obtain the map of the beast, activate a few terminals, activate the main control unit, and fight a boss.  This formula does not vary between the Divine Beast dungeons.  To keep things interesting however, each beast does contain a gimmick which allows the map function the alter the layout of the dungeon.  This feature makes puzzles in these dungeons much more fun than your standard Zelda dungeon.  You no longer have to worry about obtaining a new item within a dungeon to clear it, as you already have everything you need to conquer every dungeon.  You can complete these dungeons in any order you so desire.  You can also skip these dungeons completely if you desire.  There is an incentive for completing them however which appears late in the game. Revealing that would however be a rather large spoiler, so you will have to find out for yourselves.

     One of the most important factors for these dungeons for most players is the boss fight at the end of each one.  Zelda games have never really been known for the difficulty of their boss battles (look how many times the Dodongo fight has been re-skinned); If you were expecting this Zelda title to change this stereotype, then you will be sorely disappointed.  At the end of each of the four main story “dungeons” you’ll be faced with an intimidating-looking [and well designed] boss creature.  Unfortunately each one of them falls to nearly the same basic tactic: arrows to the face.  Each boss does have their own “gimmick” which will cause some slight variation between each boss fight, but ultimately it boils down to your ability to be accurate with a bow and the ability to block/dodge.  Each fight seems to be over before it really even starts.  Touching briefly [without spoilers] on the final boss fight, the same mechanics from the other four previous boss fights do not apply [as much].  There is still a brief period where arrows are very reliable, yet the rest of the fight does require a bit more skill.  Again, boss design here is astounding, and probably the best boss design across any Zelda game to date.  The only flaw here is that just like the other four main boss battles, it seems much too short.  Once you’ve taken the time to learn the patterns, you will be sailing through this fight in no time.  Oh, and yes there is a cinematic fight bit in the final fight as well, but let’s just leave it at that; It’s nothing particularly special, and will only leave you wishing for more. 

     Amidst the obvious issues I personally had with the easier difficulty for the boss fights I simply cannot make this point as a strike against the creators.  I completely understand why they made these fights the way they did.  The main reason [in my opinion] for this choice of lack of difficulty is to make the main questline accessible to all types of players.  Casual players who are mainly playing the game for the main storyline and/or are having a difficult time out in the games world with regular enemy types, will be able to still finish the game with minimal item grinding.  Then you have the more hardcore crowd, which will find more enjoyment fighting the tougher enemies out in the wild [pun intended].  Either way all audiences should find some sort of challenge within the game at some point.

          Extra Flavor: Lasts 100% Longer

     These next few sections are strictly for the extra tidbits of the game that I personally did not use much or could not find a proper spot in the structure of the review’s main course.  These topics could be more important to other players’ however, so I thought a few words on them could be beneficial.  Keep in mind for these however that your mileage may vary for usefulness/enjoyment of these features.

     Something nearly every Zelda fan has had the desire for since Ocarina of Time is to once again have their own horse to ride around the world set before them.  Breath of the Wild makes that a reality with its abundance of horses that you can capture, tame, and name for your own personal use.  The process is simple: Find a horse you wish to tame, sneak up behind it, mount the horse, if necessary soothe it before you get bucked off.  Obtaining your horse is only half the battle however, as you may find that the horse you selected does not obey your every command.  This is because every horse has a temperament, which effects its behavior as well as its initial bonding stat.  If the bonding stat is low, then likely the horse will occasionally wander off in whichever direction it desires to go.  You can counteract this by riding the horse for an extended period of time, soothing it while riding the horse, and feeding the horse food.  The higher the bond stat is, the less likely your horse is to disobey you.  Each horse also has a speed, stamina, and strength stat.  Speed is self-explanatory, stamina dictates how many speed boost spurs (reminiscent of the ones in Ocarina of Time) the horse has, and strength judges how strong of a hit your horse has if you where to attempt to trample an enemy.  It should be noted that there are no perfect stat horses in the game (not even Epona).  Each horse will ultimately have a stat that is lacking in comparison to other horses. You have to decide which stats are most important to you, and choose your horse based on that.  In order to keep a specific horse, you must register it with a stable, which will allow the use of said horse via pulling it from the stable, or whistling near a stable for your horse. These horses do have limitations however.  You can only store five horses at a time.  There is also the possibility of a horse dying any time you are in combat, or if you accidentally run your horse off a ledge.  Should this happen no need to cry, there is a way to get your trusty steed back.  That however is something you should find on your own.  Overall effectiveness of the horses is lukewarm despite all of the desire for the feature.  Most of the game will likely be spent on foot traversing areas methodically, or climbing mountains, both of which are not suitable situations for horses.  Unless you really have the itch to ride a horse, or want to try horse combat, then horses likely will not be a routine part of your playthrough.

     Despite having over 100 tracks, music does not play incredibly often in Breath of the Wild.  This is absolutely done on purpose.  There are so many sounds incorporated into the overworld, that an extra layer of music masking this would have ruined the atmosphere.  Often-times you will be wandering about the world, and will catch an ocassional bird chirping, whistle of the wind as it blows the grass surrounding your feet, and the beautiful sound of water constantly pouring down a waterfall.  These sounds and many many more make up a much more perfect soundtrack than some orchestrated nonsense constantly blaring over-top of every action that is taking place in a living breathing world.  On the other hand, I do really enjoy the actual soundtrack itself.  Every piece of music seems to fit the situation it is mapped to just perfectly.  Combat and village music especially are extremely methodical when capturing the mood of the situation is truly important.  I will patiently await the day a full physical soundtrack is available for sale, because the music is just that good [and the selection CD that came with the Master Edition does not cover everything I want to hear].

     NPC’s all have varied personalities, which is quite unusual for games of comparable size.  Each slice of dialogue feels as if it were written by a completely different person, as no two NPCs speak in similar manners.  This gives Breath of the Wild’s world a breath [haha] of liveliness that is unrivaled by other open world titles.  While each character may not be completely memorable, there are more memorable ones than not, even if their roles were not important.  The NPC which allows you to dye your clothing I will never forget.  That fellow is what nightmares are truly made of. 

Judgment

     As an overall package, this is my favorite Zelda title now.  While there are some flaws with the game, I can honestly say that Breath of the Wild is one of the only games to ever come closer to perfect in my eyes.  The issues I had with the game can easily be overlooked, and ultimately don’t truly effect the score I desire to give the game from a non-subjective perspective.  The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is an ambitious and completely creative game that is going to capture [and already has captured] many gamers’ hearts.  This game is an absolute masterpiece!  The following screenshot describes exactly what I felt like after every session of Breath of the Wild.

10/10

Essential Masterwork

[murasaki-murasame]

Thoughts on Owarimonogatari Season 2 [Mayoi Hell]

I was hoping at first that I’d get done with my rewatch of the whole series up to this point before this came out, but I guess that sure didn’t happen, lol. I’ll get back to it eventually, once I have the free time for it. But for now I’m just gonna watch this now that it’s out. I’m already kinda late for this as it is.

I’m going to try and do this in a semi-liveblog-y way where I’ll binge-watch each part while giving my thoughts after each individual episode and then post this once I’m done, but if that ends up being annoying I might switch to only writing up my thoughts after I’ve completed each arc. Which also applies to the main rewatch. Doing it like an actual liveblog where I keep pausing it to write about it got really annoying really fast, so yeah.

It’s good to be back with this series after waiting nearly a year and a half, after Koyomimonogatari came out. I feel like I’m not really as into it as I used to be, which is why the idea of doing an entire rewatch is sorta daunting and might potentially fall apart if I lose interest, but it’s still nice to finally get to see the conclusion of the main story.

Anyway, spoiler-y thoughts under the cut. [And for the record, I’ll try and make posts for Hitagi Rendezvous and Ougi Dark over the next two days or so]

PART ONE:

I’m glad I have a good memory for stuff I’m into, since even with the fairly intense recapping going on it’s still kinda vague and there’s still so much going on in the series as a whole that this is building upon. There’s probably stuff I’m forgetting, but I think I’m good. I’m at least aware that the whole premise here is that Araragi got murdered by Gaen in an attempt to restore the spiritual balance of the town, and now he’s stuck in Hell and has to get back out.

Seeing Hachikuji again is as wonderful as I expected, even if it immediately reminded me that the fanservice with her character is one of the many things I kinda have to glaze over and look past in order to enjoy this show. There’s no point denying that. This is definitely a guilty pleasure sort of show that I’d be hard-pressed to recommend to most people. But even so, Hachikuji is great. I’m clearly less enthusiastic about her character than other people are, but I still like her as a character.

It makes sense, but I wasn’t expecting to get a literal walk down memory lane. Huh. It’s a nice way to make the story feel all full circle in time for the final arc, I guess. It at least helps remind us all that Araragi is the sort of person who would have kept doing the things he chose to do even if he could go back and re-do them. For better or worse. I’m glad that Araragi acknowledged that he fucked up pretty bad with Nadeko in general. He really, really did.

I’ve been kinda thinking about this for a while, but this whole arc is making me remember that I’ve always kinda struggled to get an exact grasp on Araragi as a person. I’m not sure why. Maybe rewatching the series would help, but something about his personality and world-view, or at least how he articulates it, feels weirdly difficult to get. But there’s still parts to his character that are pretty incredibly obvious, like his incredibly low self-esteem and his self-destructive heroism. I feel like I probably understand him more than I don’t, there’s just this weird feeling of distance involved, especially when he monologues about justice and stuff.

Of all characters, I wasn’t really expecting Tadatsuru to come up again, given how short-lived his screen-time was. Huh. I’m intrigued by the idea that it’s part of Gaen’s whole plan to have Araragi return from Hell, and that him dying somehow erased his vampirism. Is that, like . . . a legit, permanent thing now? Is he just not a vampire anymore? I feel like he still was when we saw him again in Hana, but I forget.

I guess we’ll get to her properly later, but I’m glad that we’re finally going to address the topic of Ougi. She’s been such a huge part of the story for a while now, so finally getting an explanation of what she is will be nice. I think I’ve already been spoiled on it a bit, so I won’t get into it until the show does.

The art in this arc already is kinda off the charts. This definitely seems like one of the more exceptionally dialogue-heavy arcs, so I guess they had room to just go completely nuts and do what they want, especially since it’s literally set in Hell so they have an excuse to use some surreal visuals. I’m glad we got a whole section with Hajime Ueda’s character design style. It always looks really good. I also just love how incredibly different pretty much every scene looks. Though in an almost opposite direction, I really like how the scene with Kiss-Shot was done to intentionally look like the beginning of Bake when we get the flashback to Kizu. That was kinda trippy, in a cool way.

It’s at least immediately confirming what I’ve been thinking, that Zaregoto just feels way more lifeless than the Monogatari series in terms of artistic direction, but that’s a rant for another day.

Before I move onto the second half of the arc, I should also say that it’s nice to get another Mayoi OP, even though hers have always been low on the list of favourite Monogatari OPs. The visuals were really nice, though. I hope we get an OP for Hitagi Rendezvous, but I heard that we won’t, so that sucks. Unless we get one in the BD release. Thankfully we’ll at least get an Ougi OP for the last arc of this. I’m still hoping that we get an actual Araragi OP when Shaft eventually adapts Zoku.

Oh yeah, on that note, the fact that this is seven episodes long in all REALLY makes me sad that they couldn’t have just added a Zoku adaptation onto the end and aired this as a regular one-cour anime. That would have been so much more convenient in every way. OH WELL. Hopefully it won’t take them too long to adapt Zoku, even if it probably won’t happen until next year. And then we’ll have Off Season and Monster Season to worry about. I wonder how long they’ll keep the series going before they cut their losses.

PART TWO:

I was, uh, not expecting basically everything in this part. Wow. So we finally got proper backstory for Tadatsuru, and learned what the heck was going on in Tsuki. I didn’t think Nisioisin would bother ‘explaining’ Tsuki, I figured it’d just be left as a kinda weird and out of the blue part of the story. But now it makes sense. So the whole time Tadatsuru was operating under orders from Ougi to kill Araragi, while also operating under orders from Oshino and Gaen to get killed so he can go down to Hell in order to help revive Araragi once he gets murdered later on. Huh. I also wasn’t expecting the entire deal with Tadatsuru being some kinda puppet master who had already died and was living through his dolls. All the focus on doll imagery in that part was kinda disturbing.

I wonder if we’ll ever see Oshino in the flesh again, in the present day. It’d be great to see him again. I’ve kinda missed him.

Also in terms of mysteries I didn’t think would get solved, I didn’t expect that the park name would be resolved and turn out to be so important. Wow. I feel like they’re setting up a plot point there, or at least furthering an existing plot point, but it’s hard to tell. It’s probably just a cultural difference, but it’s kinda difficult sometimes to understand the importance and relevance of shrines in this series, and what happens when they get relocated/destroyed/renamed/etc.

For some reason I kinda didn’t remember that Tadatsuru always saw Araragi as an enemy because he works with an apparition, so I guess it was a good thing we got reminded of that. We spend so much time with apparitions that I kinda forget that the specialists are literally trained to kill them, pretty much.

It was nice to see Hachikuji try and give Araragi a motivational speech about how he deserves to be resurrected. Her line about how he ‘loved being alive’ kinda got to me for some reason. But then of course that scene also got unexpectedly weird and funny.

And of course the major twist was that Hachikuji got taken out of Hell as well, which I did not see coming at all. Huh. I’m also kinda surprised that nothing bad seems to have happened, and that it actually benefits Gaen’s entire plan of action. I kinda expected it to be something that’d have an obvious downside, but maybe that’ll come up later.

I’m not entirely sure what the deal is with Kiss-Shot being there at the end in some weird hologram-y way, but I guess it had to do with the Yume-Watari sword. Although there’s also the fact that it really does seem like Araragi’s vampire aspect literally got erased, so maybe that changed things with Shinobu. I forget exactly how their link works, though, so I’m not entirely sure if him losing his vampire nature would help or hurt her. I guess we’ll see how it goes.

I wasn’t exactly expecting this entire arc to end on the note it did, but I guess it makes sense. I kinda feel bad for Araragi, though, getting killed, literally sent to Hell, and revived along with a friend he thought was dead, all in like an hour or so. And now he has to immediately take entrance exams and worry about how he’s going to have to help Gaen in her whole war with Ougi that’s being set up. He deserves a break.

Which is probably why Hitagi Rendezvous is, apparently, about him and Senjougahara going on a date. That’ll be cute. People have been complaining that they haven’t gotten enough screen-time as a couple yet, and I kinda feel that way too, so this will be nice.

Also on the note of Senjougahara, it sounds like whatever subs I was using decided to adopt the Vertical translation and call her ‘Senjyogahara’ which still just looks so fucking weird to me. I really dislike that was of romanizing her name. It’s not a big deal or anything, but still.

[universeinform-blog]

Vehicular Virtues - Comparing the Benefits of Various Automobiles

New Post has been published on https://universeinform.com/2017/03/28/vehicular-virtues-comparing-the-benefits-of-various-automobiles/

Vehicular Virtues - Comparing the Benefits of Various Automobiles

Cars

Proudly owning them, riding the, treating them properly, treating them poorly and everything in among is one of the many joys of existence, and there is a huge international financial system centered around Automobiles and their renovation. With the various, many exceptional manufacturers of the vehicle and their massive and sundry applications in

Existence, there seems to be an automobile for absolutely everyone that works exactly with them, but how do you select the car that’s proper for you?

Aside from traveling Automobiles & Co, how can you locate the automobile so one can fit you without breaking the bank? To answer this query, we’ve daily a listing every day evaluate the benefits of numerous motors.edmonds cars value

Energy

The Energy of an automobile refers daily it’s Strength-day-to-day-weight ratio, that is how sturdy it’s engine is weighed against how heavy the auto is. Bigger vans have greater Energy in the engine, but they are able to weigh loads of every dance, so the Power is much less relevant while it comes to speed. A small automobile with a mean engine may want to have a decent everyday pace, while a large vehicle with a smaller engine is probably slower typical.

Choosing a great Electricity-daily-weight ratio is prime when deciding how a whole lot Power you want, and that is daily ascertained with an extensive-ranging check pressure. Take a take a look at automobile every day an expressway, around some site vis day every day, and every day some fast-takeoffs where possible, every day really apprehend the automobile before committing to buying it.

Fee

The Price of a car may be very, very essential to the decision-making process. If it weren’t, we’d all buy Avery days Martins and drive them at the pinnacleeveryday speed anywhere. Shopping for a car that works with your price range is incredibly clean. You may actually go to a bank and speak car finance alternatives with them day-to-day exercise session what works for you, or You may shop up and purchase a vehicle outright.

Francis of Assisi – The Seven Peace and Goodwill Virtues

Francis of Assisi lived from 1181-1226. The legacy of his forty-five years is one in all super non-secular presence. Here is an Admonition of Francis, and below it, an observation:

Hail, queen understanding! Can also the Lord save you with your holy sister, natural simplicity!

O Girl, holy poverty, May also the Lord save you together with your sister, holy humility!

O Woman, holy charity, May additionally the Lord prevent along with, your sister, holy obedience!

O all of you maximum holy virtues, May additionally the Lord, from whom you continue and are available, save you!examples of virtues

There’s actually no character inside the whole international who can own one in every of you unless they die first. She who possesses one and does no longer offend the others, possesses all; and he who offends one possesses none and offends all; and each one confounds vices and sins.

Holy expertise confounds Satan and all his wickedness.

They come in all shapes, sizes, situations, costs and destinations. In truth, Australia is included from pinnacle to tail by means of buses offerings. You may discover coaches easy going, value-powerful and a top notch manner to discover Australia.

The complete USA is crisscrossed by using interlinking services and lots of providing hop-on-hop-off opportunities or unlimited travel for a hard and fast time.

Firefly (1300-730-740 for example) have very cheap each day offerings from Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. Greyhound Australia is going to a wide array of locations at desirable costs.

There is additionally a big range of desire with regards to the smaller operators who normally provide excursions and trips off the crushed music. There also are backpacker-unique coaches that tour among the primary Australian towns and towns. Those offerings are often tailor-made to the desires of backpackers, younger travelers and are assured to be a ton of fun.

Tours

excursions can be the maximum fee effective manner of seeing what is virtually well worth seeing in Australia. With a tour manual, lodging supplied and all the satisfactory locations to go to proper there to your itinerary you are bound to get the pleasant bang-for-your-buck in case you pick this direction.

Many tours are interesting particular inclusive of ‘learn to surf’, ‘wildflowers’, ‘swim with sharks’, and so on. Outback, wine and 4 wheel drive tours also are very famous in Australia and could be really worth finding out. Those excursions regularly offer you a variety of flexibility via permitting you to combine and suit the excursions you mainly want right into a customized trip that is just proper for you. if you can’t discover what you’re looking for along with your first tour operator locate some other so as to offer you what you want – You may find one that could offer you what you are searching out.

Australian tours can be a fantastic manner to journey with lodging in inns, motels, cabins or even tents. Camp out in the bush and pay attention to the dingo’s and cockatoos, devour indigenous ‘bush tucker’ and have an a cup of Billy tea – you may think you have got gone to heaven and again.

Shopping for or Hiring a Camper Van

By using ways the exceptional way to see Australia is to your own wheels and the high-quality of those are the ones connected to a camper van of a few type. The benefit of the camper is that you do not have to fork out all of the time for lodging and the cash you save is nicely well worth it. additionally, you have got an opportunity to get to places that the regular transport would not get to.

You have two choices if you use a motor vehicle to the excursion in – purchase or lease. Each has their advantages and downsides.

Holy poverty confounds cupidity and avarice and the cares of this world.

Holy humility confounds pleasure and all the guys of this global and all matters which can be within the global.

Holy charity confounds all diabolical and fleshly temptations and all fleshly fears.

Holy obedience confounds all physical and fleshly goals and continues the frame mortified to the obedience of the Spirit and to the obedience of one’s brother and makes a man woman challenge to all of the ladies and men of this global – and now not to ladies and men on my own, however also to beasts and wild animals, in order that they will do with him by any means they may, insofar as it can be granted to them from above by using the Lord.

MY commentary:

Holy expertise is the main virtue past summary description. One May also have a look at her for their whole lives and never understand her greater aside from to grow into her. God knows it’s far a supreme gift that turns into us, that’s past mere understanding, that beholding a thriller is the essence of holy information. In sum, with holy understanding, Devil is defeated. The ones in whom Jesus inhabits, by using the Holy Spirit, are married incontrovertibly with all-conquering holy awareness.

The purveyor of natural, holy simplicity knows without understanding, that There is nothing of the understanding of this global or the know-how of the flesh that ought to be loved for the acquisition. Holy simplicity has an aversion to each, ultimate natural, acting naïve – which, on this way, is God’s hiddenness – to the arena.

When holy poverty absorbs us into herself,

The folly of cupidity and avarice and the cares of this global is implicit. not most effective are there no want of them, once more, There’s spiritual aversion.

That one with holy humility resists delight and all the men of this world and all matters which are in the international with the opposite virtues: simplicity, poverty, information… And the others. Those are part of collectively, making humility a superb virtue.

Having the other virtues, a holy charity has the foretaste and is the foreclosure of goodness, that is the imaginative and prescient of all evil in all diabolical and fleshly temptations and all fleshly fears.

Holy obedience upholds the sanctity in and of all relationships, growing in us the transcendent and the paradoxical; the strength of subjugation, where no individual may be as Jesus become, and the Martyrs have been, and the Persecuted Church are, in any other case.

Stop Comparing Yourself To The Other Woman After An Affair

One of the maximum common things that maximum girls locate themselves doing after an affair is comparing themselves to the alternative woman. You could find terrible and disempowering mind going for walks through your head all day lengthy. “I ponder if she is higher searching than me.” “I’m certain that she is younger and in higher shape than me.” “I’ve emerged as uninteresting no marvel he strayed.” Do any of those thoughts sound familiar?comparing fractions games

Imagine what you are doing the super load you’re wearing proper now. Not most effective are you dealing with the fallout from an affair discovers yourself overrun with those bad thoughts. The cruelest component about it is these negative mind approximately you’re without a doubt coming from you and you probably did without a doubt nothing incorrect.

Repairing Your Broken vanity after an Affair

Whilst your outer world is in turmoil having these range of bad emotions just provides to the questions which you have already got approximately your husband, your marriage, or even yourself as a person. Self-doubt is an ordinary emotion to undergo once you discover your husband had an affair, however, While the ones little voices of self-doubt emerge as screaming voices of self-doubt you’re starting to go down the damaging avenue of killing your

A number of things Broken after an affair can frequently instances are too many to depend on but of the most unfavorable are the loss of considering to your marriage and the direct blow for your

No longer best do you have to cope with the truth that your husband determined to go outside of your marriage you furthermore might start to query your very own self-image.

Australian Travel Diary – Automobiles (Cars in Australia)

 They come in all shapes, sizes, situations, costs and destinations. In truth, Australia is included from pinnacle to tail by means of buses offerings. You may discover coaches easy going, value-powerful and a top notch manner to discover Australia.

The complete USA is crisscrossed by using interlinking services and lots of providing hop-on-hop-off opportunities or unlimited travel for a hard and fast time.

Firefly (1300-730-740 for example) have very cheap each day offerings from Adelaide, Melbourne, and Sydney. Greyhound Australia is going to a wide array of locations at desirable costs.

There is additionally a big range of desire with regards to the smaller operators who normally provide excursions and trips off the crushed music. There also are backpacker-unique coaches that tour among the primary Australian towns and towns. Those offerings are often tailor-made to the desires of backpackers, younger travelers and are assured to be a ton of fun.

Rogers

excursions can be the maximum fee effective manner of seeing what is virtually well worth seeing in Australia. With a tour manual, lodging supplied and all the satisfactory locations to go to proper there to your itinerary you are bound to get the pleasant bang-for-your-buck in case you pick this direction.

Many tours are interesting particular inclusive of ‘learn to surf’, ‘wildflowers’, ‘swim with sharks’, and so on. Outback, wine and 4 wheel drive tours also are very famous in Australia and could be really worth finding out. Those excursions regularly offer you a variety of flexibility via permitting you to combine and suit the excursions you mainly want right into a customized trip that is just proper for you. if you can’t discover what you’re looking for along with your first tour operator locate some other so as to offer you what you want – You may find one that could offer you what you are searching out.

  \