#the main sticking point is the npcs tho

[w1tchcr4ftt]

I need a explanation on what the fuck is regretevator please

Okie dokie!!!!

Okay so regretevator is basically an elevator game that has multiple stops the player can usually go on and interact with like minigames or fun little areas or shops! Most of the floors come with NPC's which can stop on the elevator and stay in there with the players! The elevator holds like 4 of them (5 with a specific 2 named prototype and scag) Unlike the game the normal elevator, the npcs can't interact with the player unless you aggravate them (spray bottle, snowball, tomato) but they can interact with other npcs! Theres little story lines here and there about lore with certain characters like gnarpy and spud! or mark the mannequin and wallter which makes it fun!

All in all silly elevator game with silly npcs with fun lore and the characters are great!!!

[ilikedyourablogithere]

My Dislyte 2023 Awards

Same as last year

Time to rant about the things I liked this year

if you had things you liked this year go ahead and make your own post

anyways

The Element of The Year

Flow

From Intisar to Liam, 4 or 5 Star, every Flow Unit this year has been a banger and very useful

Pantheon of the Year

Greek

while not my personal go to, it is very obvious this was the Greeks year. Having the spotlight on them through out the various stories and bounties

My Favorite Character of The Year

Falken

you don't get any points for guessing Falken is my favorite esper of the year again. And if you're disappointed he's my pick for another year... tell the dev team to make a character I will like more than Falken ?

But it's not that hard to see why. He got his Universal +20% Speed lead, great in boss fights, the new equipment gave him even even more viable builds you can make with him and of course his divinate allows him to do what he does even better

There was more fun to be had with this guy than last year and for that... he's the best

Best Boy of the Year

Javid

Was once told good cops don't end up staying "good" cops. They usually either end up quitting or worse happens to them

and Javid is no exception to that

As chief marshal he ended up forcing a whole marshal department to defend the citizens against a monster swarm, sending them all but him to their death. Meant to die along side them he somehow survived and now riddle with guilt of surviving he's been imprisoned where he also keeps the citizens safe and the miracle a bay

It takes alot to stand by your values especially during the bad times. And that's the thing I like about Javid, he stands by what he mean. He believes in fairness even when if means he ends up on losing side of being fair. He could have left and abandon everyone and everything and saved his own skin but that wouldn't have been fair to all those who died now would it?

He's not winning any popularity awards tho, he's still a hard ass stick in the mud at the end of the day. And his fairness can border on cruelty but that's part of what make him interesting

Best Girl of the Year

Ain

Tragically there no deep reason for choosing her, she's simply a kind person. She has a bit of a temper and apparently a bit of a prankster in her but she's part of her community and is making it a better place for herself and those around her.

From helping those down on their luck, sharing her knowledge and passing down what she knows, being a cat lover or simply being a quirky event in another's life. She's very much a part of her community

It's something the majority of us can do and even strive to make a part of our own lives

She's very inspirational and for that she's 2023s best girl

Husbando of 2023

N/A

yee same as last year, no one has resonated with me like yet. But I'm always open to being surprised

Waifu of 2023

Aquafresh

my dearly beloved who is named after a toothpaste brand for some reason I will never understand

She's so mysterious ... by which I mean I do not understand this npc

Best Billboard Event of 2023

Sea and Song

I mean it made me feel

Norah is an excellent main character with a relatable story of an artist who lost her art mojo

The npcs were very likeable and just make you want to help them and save the day

and while my like of Anna has greatly soured since her released Norah sure make her seem like a cool person and while their ending is sad, I'm glad they got to see each other again

Pretty satisfying end to the Cube Miracle arc

Best Track of 2023

Without You - Northside Nate

it's song that fills in a spot in the musical taste buds that rarely gets satisfied

Best Boss of the Year

Barros

an interesting esper, on one hand he's doing his best with what he can get his hands on the help his lil' nephew. But on the other hand "doing his best with what he can" is him gambling the rest city's citizens to accomplish this and seeing how he's the mayor...it's probably for the best to stop him

Also he's a pretty cool 2 part boss fight

I'm surprised they haven't put him in towers or cube miracle or something

But ya that's my best of 2023 awards for dislyte for anyone who was curious

[ironeaterfinya]

Final Fantasy XIV: Penniless Peril

or: Can you beat FFXIV without spending any Currency? Part 3 - Putting my Name in the Goblet of Fire

Happy new year everyone and sorry for the delay. I am running this challenge as a side thing whenever I have time or I am not distracted by my main or other games. Nontheless here is our New Year Fortune for Ninisa this year:

“Small Fortune” I count that as a good Omen

However we have a lot to do and a lot of it is honestly just straight up wwalking back and fourth a lot.

Leaving the Inn after a few weeks led me to this image

I accidentally stumbled upon an RP event. From what I could gather it was an Auction for... something. I didn’t stick around. Mostly because I couldn’t spend any money anyway but it’s fun to see that there are RP Events on Zodiark to begin with. Even if it is a rare thing.

After doing the quest the Shining Gentlemen to my left was asking me to do, we beat up some merchant trying to pin a crime on a refugee. We beat up his people and Thancred comes around, officially inviting us to be part of his gang.

You see the Tickets? Those are Vesper Bay Teleport Tickets and I will be using them quite often. Mostly to shorten Travel time because god forbid I run back and forth that much. It’s honestly kind of weird seeing the peeps like this, whith half of the later core group still missing.

Also this bloke was making himself even taller, trying to intimidate the only to Lalas in here.

Nontheless I am making my way to Vesper Bay, on foot, for the first and propably last time. When I arrive there I am greeted by the best Scion:

Is this an Intervention?

Everyone introduces themself and I am taken aback by the fact that Urianger had a different VA at the time. (I am playing with German voices and the VA here are a bit more consistent)

We also get to see all the other Scions chilling out in the meeting hall.

Here is a funfact: Most named NPCs here that are not part of the Core Group (excluding Brendt) all appeared in 1.X of FFXIV. 

Also our quest is sending us to Camp Drybone where we are supposed to investigate missing people and also corpses. We also meet a familiar face:

Sure thing “Marquez”, we help you bury a body.

After that, the quests are literally just “Investigate this person by talking to them and go back to Vesper Bay.”

I also got to dress up as a homeless person.

After you arrived there, there is usually some more talk and you get send of again to Camp Drybone or you put Materia into Minphilias Dagger. However that step is actually free as well so thankfully I don’t have to do that myself.

If you only knew how useless you are to me.

Mind you a trip to Camp Drybone takes about 7 minutes on foot. I can’t teleport afterall, nor can I use Chocobo Porters.

Here is a video where I walk all the way over. https://youtu.be/GEr9vILtquY After we get our butt kicked by the Ifrit Gang, we get thrown into a small sub area which is honestly kind of funny. With the help of my boyfriends alt we can show that this area is located in Southern Thanalan, it just happens to be underground.

Wild.

Ifrit was also pretty wild.

It’s cool that I get to run it with trusts.

After heading back to Vesper Bay we are promptly assaulted by the Grand Companies because I should join them. After going to all their speeches of course. The speeches are nothing really to impressive in my opinion. Drawn out a lot and Alphinaud is here who at this point in time is still green behind the ears and also a massive prick with a superiority complex.

Alisaie is also here and she is not saying a word because the both of them have some beef with each other.

After coming back I decided to join the Immortal Flames. Mostly because Raubahns speech is great and also my Job Questline is here. You know. Convenience. Before I can join tho disaster strikes and I gotta get Biggs and Wench out of trouble which is done fairly quickly.

The Gang is here.

After going back to the Flames to officially become a member I got a message I dis not wish to see:

This quest has to be finished in order to complete the Main Scenario Quest “A Realm Reborn”

The quest in question is the Chocobo Quest. In case you don’t know, in order to get a chocobo you need to buy a chocobo voucher. The voucher itself costs Company Seals and Company Seals are a currency. This does not bode well.

I will try to postpone this quest as much as possible. We will see if it holds true.

In the meanwhile our next quest leads us to the Shroud. Because I have reached level 30 tho, I decided to become a Blackmage first and a Blackmage I became. (Even tho I had to again walk to East Thanalan... twice!)

After all of this tho I do have to take a break. It doesn’t look like much but these few things do take up a few hours of real estate.

See you around next time!

[Start] [Back] [Index] [Next]

[zeico]

Nine Mutuals I'd Like to Know Better

Tagged by @un-local

3 Ships

OCXCanon - Like everything I do is this. Idk this is what fuels me. Tbh let me gush about 3 of those here.

Wol/Estinien - My Warrior of Light Ahya is a monk first. She learns the healing arts of the stars later. I want to rewrite first steps of faith where she like grabs on one of the dragon killers and launches herself onto the dragon's back. This actually doesn't work and Ahya injures herself p badly. Like NEEDS time to rest and recover before like... doing her monk shit again. Estinien actually finishes the job of killing the dragon here and is like 'ur reckless wtf was that you're not a dragoon' (would make a good dragoon later. yes he will train her in that way later). But during recovery she studies astromancy to help her own healing. Anyway these 2 are like

Remilia(my sorcerer)/Ennui(dnd npc)/Mordecai(dnd npc) - (yes at this point its ocxocxoc but I love them). 3 nerds together. Remilia learned the divination magic she so craved from Mordecai. She learned a lot of basic survival and like magical creatures from Ennui. And like theres a level of vulnerability Remilia feels she can have with them instead of like current party bc of how she was kjinda dragged in. I've (in character) have been writing letters to them for the whole mission (just over a month in game time)(we aren't even done)(have just 'been gathering allies to stop the cult')(still have to like.... actually do that whole siege sequence)(I BELIEVE IT WILL COME BACK I AM MANIFESTING THIS). Even tho this campaign has been on hiatus for like years I do not care I still think about them. I am a fandom of 1 so I'll keep ship sailing myself if I gotta.

Castlevania OT3 (Alucard/Sypha/Trevor) - I REMEMBERED A CANON CHARACTERS ONE HOLY SHIT. Idk their dynamic was real good in the show that i still gotta finish maybe someday.

Also remembered like D/Rogier, Rogier/Tarnished (there is not enough english fics for my favorite mageboi),

First ship

Dude I have no clue. Prolly like Ed/Winry or like... Hien/Kurama from Yu Yu Hakusho. I've been smooshing characters together like dolls for years.

Last Song

So this is Remilia (Vampire Bloodline Sorcerer) asking Bael'eari (High Elven Light Domain Cleric) to come back to Dawnhurst (city where she lives) Notably he worships the sun goddess Zephella. ("Its called DAWNhurst Bael!")

This has been in my mind rent free for past few days and I just am in mad dokis for this elf.

Currently Reading

The last thing I read was Dungeon Meshi. Which is a perfect fusion of my interests in food and fantasy.

Last Film

I...cannot remember tbh.

So last game I played is En-Garde! because its basically a lighthearted videogame version of my rogue in Curse of Strahd. Yes I bought it because her and the main character have basically the same model (my girl only just doesn't wear a hat at this point in time to which the DM showed me the haberdashery's shop inventory)

Currently Craving

Meat. I desire meat cooked over fire preferably on a stick. I want to taste the char. I want to taste the smoke.

I'm too tired to tag people rn if thou wishest to participate please feel free to do so. I doth not have the mind to think of people's names at this time.

[ohmyitsfaith]

Part 9: The love in their eyes

Before your next stream, your computer decided to give you a hard time, resulting in you needing to give it a break. You hoped it'll fix itself and you won't have to stay without your computer for the rest of the lockdown.

Thankfully tho, you had your laptop with you and you managed to save your co-op backup. So you could still play with PJ.

"Hi everyone! Bit of a different setup, but we really wanted to play more" PJ greeted the chat.

"Hi guys!" you smiled at everyone. "I hope you're ready for this, because with us in the same room, it's gonna be even more chaotic."

"Am I ready for this?" he asked himself and you punched his arm.

"Hey!" you said and then the realization made you smile. "Oh, now I can punch you when you do dumb things. Oh my goodness, this is the best thing!"

"No, fuck you. If you're gonna do that, I'll throw you out!" they pointed at you.

"Oh, you know you love me" you smiled innocently.

"Yeah, yeah" he rolled his eyes and you quickly pressed a kiss to his cheek.

"So, let's get into this. What should we do today?" you asked. "What is our plan?"

"I really want to finish some quests. Maybe even a big quest from the board" they said.

"Good idea. I could do some work on the farm. Make some things look better. Buy lots of blueberries for money and some others, whatever may be the quest you want completed" you explained.

"That's a great idea. We can do that."

So in the next couple of days you tried to do that. You took care of the farm and PJ tried his best in completing the board quest. You had to help him out in some places, but he was doing great.

On Thursday, it was a best luck day, so you both went to the skull mines. You needed more iridium for lot of things and so that was your main goal.

"Oh!" you gasped.

"What? What is it?" PJ looked over at you.

"I got a prismatic shard!" you smiled at them.

"Good job. How much have you found now? Three? Four?"

"This is my fourth" you said.

"That's either gonna be good money, or just good anything" they hummed.

"Yep" you agreed.

On Friday, after the farm work was done, you headed down to the traveling merchant. You wanted to see if there was anything to finish the community center. You were only missing two things and both were from fall, so you hoped that you could find it before that.

But the traveling merchant only sold one thing that was interesting and you gasped quietly. A thought instantly popped into your head, but you shook it out before it could stick around. You still bought the recipe tho.

"What did you buy?" PJ asked, noticing the money reduction immediately.

"Oh, just a recipe we'll need for perfection. Never saw it before and I was afraid that I wouldn't see it again. Plus we had the money, so why not?" you explained, but your face was still red from the thought.

"Alright. Is it bad?"

"I mean it wouldn't be the easiest thing for people who're starting out. But luckily, we have everything we need."

"Random question, how do you get married in the game?" he asked.

"Why? Thinking about getting married to Emily?" you teased, looking up at them.

"No, just wondering" he shrugged.

"You need ten hearts to get married. And after you get it, on a rainy day there's an old mariner on the shore. You know, the part where we had to fix the bridge. And the old mariner sells you a mermaid pendant and with that you can propose to your chosen npc" you explained in a soft voice.

A soft voice that went straight to PJ's heart. It sped it up and made a soft smile appear on their face. He looked at you next to him and saw a light blush on your face.

You were currently in the shed and were crafting. For a few moments you were quiet and you went looking for PJ's little character.

"But there's another way" you started as you ran out of your farm. "You can buy a recipe from the traveling merchant. A recipe for a wedding ring" your heart was racing along with your thoughts. You weren't sure if you could do this. "It's not easy to craft in early game, but in the later game, after you unlock the skull mine, it's not that hard" you finally arrived on the beach, where their character stood. "The difference is, that with this ring, you can't propose to npcs."

"Then who?" they turned to you, seeing that your face was red. They didn't understand it, but their heart sped up, leaving them red faced as well.

"Well you see, this recipe is only available in multiplayer games" you looked up at him, into his eyes. It was a bit overwhelming, but you stood your ground and finished your speech. "It's a way to marry another player" you clicked a button and a question box appeared on PJ's screen.

It read: 'Y/n would like to propose to you' and the two options yes or no. You watched with a breath held back as their face changed. From confusion to shock. They looked back at you and you gave them a nervous smile. You didn't dare read the chat, but you knew that it was going fifty miles an hour.

They looked up into the camera and clicked the yes option. You let out the breath and a relieved smile overtook your face. He looked at you with a smile on their face.

"So, um…" you looked back at your screen and cleared your throat. "We really need more money because the barn needs to be upgraded as well as the house. That means 75k gold."

Both of your faces were red from what just happened, but you tried to ignore it.

"So, fishing?" they asked.

"Yep" you nodded. "I feel like if we just fish all day today and tomorrow, we could really get it."

"I think so. Isn't summer fishing one of the most profitable fishing?"

"I don't remember exactly how much, but yeah. Especially since we both have high fishing levels and we know where to fish."

"Okay."

So you spent the next few days fishing and just getting money. Up until the day where you woke up and you were both in the town center.

"Oh, I kinda forgot that was happening" you blinked.

"How could you forgot?" PJ asked, playing offended.

"A lot of things happened, okay?" you whined.

"When Y/n first arrived in Pelican Town, no one knew if she'd fit in with our community…" PJ read in his Lewis voice and you could only watch them. "But from this day forward, Y/n is going to be as much a part of this town as any of us! It is my great honor on this day 8 of summer, to unite Y/n and PJ in the bonds of marriage. Well, let's get right to it!"

"Wow" you blinked.

"Y/n… PJ…" PJ said. "As the mayor of Pelican Town and regional bearer of the matrimonial seal, I now pronounce you husband and wife!" he smiled. "Now you may kiss" they said it slowly.

"Well that sounded more of a threat than anything else the way you said it" you chuckled.

"He wants us dead" he joked. "We didn't marry one of the townies, so now he wants us dead."

"Oh my gosh" you laughed and watched with a smile on your face as your characters kissed. "Aw, this is so cute. Marriage in Stardew is one of the cutest things."

PJ smiled at you and nodded. You looked at each other for a few seconds, promising something to the other silently.

"So, shall we play until Luau?" PJ asked, turning back to his screen.

"Yep" you nodded.

So you did just that. You mined and fished until the eleventh, you got enough money and you got two fish for the pot luck. On the tenth, just before going to sleep, you gave Maru her birthday gift.

"Are you cheating on me?" PJ asked in a fake offended voice.

"No, this isn't what it looks like! I swear!" you played along with his bit.

"Oh is that so? Well, you're sleeping on the couch tonight!"

"No, please" you begged. "I swear, there's nothing between me and Maru."

The message appeared on your screen that PJ went to sleep. You quickly entered the house and slipped into bed next to him after petting Fuji. You giggled as the screen went to the shipping screen and slapped PJ's thigh.

"Hey! Is that the way you treat your husband?" PJ asked jokingly.

"Well, if that husband is you, then yep" you laughed.

"Ouch" they put their hands on their chest. "Guys, I'm a victim of domestic abuse!"

"Oh, shut up."

The next day you took care of the animals and then it was time for the pot luck.

"So, do you have your fish?" you asked PJ.

"Yep" they nodded. "So, let's get this on the go."

You entered the Luau and the first thing you did was put the fishes in the pot. After that you made sure to talk to all the villagers. To be fair, the Luau was really boring to you after playing the game so many times, but for PJ, it was still kind of fun. They only experienced it once before, so they still liked it. You only went for the leaf decorations.

"Did you spend all our money on decorations?" PJ asked.

"No…" you answered. "Just half of it. But! Our house is very boring without decor, so you know."

"Do I?" they turned to you and you stuck your tounge out at them.

After the Luau was over, you quickly decorated part of the house and then went to bed. You sighed and leaned back as the day ended.

"Well, that was a fun stream" you said as you put your arms behind your head, trying to stretch a bit.

"I agree. Chat, thank you so much for coming to this stream, thank you for hanging out with us. We're sorry that Y/n couldn't stream, but sometimes computers are like that" PJ smiled. "But we do hope you enjoyed it."

"I know I did. It was fun to play like this. And, a lot of things happened today."

"Yeah, I enjoyed it too. It was a really good stream" he looked at you and then back to chat. "But we have to go now. We have some more work to do, so we're gonna raid someone and leave you guys to be."

"Hmm, how about him?" you pointed at the screen where one of PJ's friends streamed.

"Yep, okay. So guys, join the raid and again, thank you for coming to the stream" he looked at the camera.

A thought popped into your head and when PJ looked at you, you knew that he thought of the same thing.

"Thank you guys, have a great night or day. We'll see you soon!" you smiled.

"Bye!" PJ waved and then turned to you.

They leaned closer and you softly pressed your lips to theirs. On the contact, PJ almost forgot to press the button to change their screen to the end card, but in the end, managed to press it. And then, they leaned into the kiss more and you grabbed their face. Your hearts synced up with each other as you finally expressed all your feelings for the other. You loved him more than you had loved anyone and he reciprocated it. And as your hand grabbed onto his hair, he knew that too. After ending the stream, their hands held onto your waist and you felt your heart soar.

As the stream of the raid's destination started playing, you pulled away for a breath. You leaned your foreheads together and just enjoyed the closeness.

"WHAT?" the loud shout came from the stream and you both whipped your heads toward it. The stream's chat was filled with the message: 'we came from the new couple'.

As you read it you looked at each other and bursted out laughing. Through your laughing you could hear the streamer asking questions and soon PJ's phone rang. You tried to stifle your laughing, but it didn't go well.

"Dude, WHAT??!!" you heard from the phone and it sent a new wave of laughter through you. "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME THAT YOU FINALLY LANDED A SIGNIFICANT OTHER!! When did that happen??"

"I got married" PJ said, still on the verge of laughing.

"YOU DID WHAT???" he yelled into the phone and neither PJ, nor you could hold it back. "Are you lying?"

You swallowed and took the phone from PJ.

"Technically speaking, they did get married. In Stardew Valley, but that's a different point" you said, still giggling.

"Y/n, did you do this?" he asked.

"If you're asking if I was the one he married in the game, then yes."

PJ sighed, wiped their tears that fell from laughing and took the phone back.

"But wait, did you guys get married in the game, because you're together, or…?"

"We are" PJ smiled.

"OH MY GOD!" he yelled again and you both let out a chuckle. "Well, you heard it here first, folks. Our baby PJ is all grown up."

"Alright dude, we're gonna go. Have a fun stream" PJ said goodbye.

"Thank you. Congratulations!" he said quickly.

"Thank you. I'll talk to you soon."

"Yeah, bye!"

"Bye bye" PJ hung up.

They turned to you and you smiled at them. He quickly closed all the windows and programs on his computer while his free hand held onto yours. You leaned your head on their shoulder and sighed.

"Come on, I feel like we need to talk" he gently put a hand on your head and you nodded.

You really did need to talk.

<Previous | Masterlist | Next>

[trashcatsnark]

WHY THE FUCK WERE UP SO LATE??? FUCKING UR SO LUCKY I CANT BEAT UR ASS OTHERWISE ITD BE KNUCKLE CITY

anyway, speaking about johnny boy i was thinking about him + nibbles and our like collective desicion that he is essiently a cat and it is really weirdly fitting that it just makes me like ???? so like cats themselves are a reoccuring motif within the game from the start, when u go to viks, when ur chatting up takemura and at the end with the rooftop that also doubles as like the millionith matrix reference. they follow v and they take up the role of the bakeneko, which i think in the game is defined by them appearing near death ? or just disaster. the obvious thing is that it is to do with v's inpending death and their whole sitation but like the general point is like the cat symbolises the death that follows v as the cat follows them. this puts johnny in an interesting sitation from his catlike nature to how he seems to like and get along with nibbles, he is linked with cats. he is also the parasite that is killing v. he is V's bakeneko. their signal of death. the events start because of his relic, jackie dies for him, and soon does most of the cast from act 1, and a large part of the death from then on is a direct result of them trying to solve the relic and johnny's whole presence is a signal for hey v ur fucking dying. he is death for them. the bakeneko.

makes me wonder if his catlike attributes were intentionally done cause that boy aint right or we just accidently walked on a really thematic fitting landmind

Spoilers within, again, also leave my sleeping schedule alone, I do not function. Additionally, I have a lot to say about Nibbles, omens, cats, and pets then how they all relate back to Johnny so congrats on opening a flood gate my friend!

 think the thematic thing with Johnny and cats and the bakeneko has to 1000000 percent be intentional, because he even sees a cat when Alt is kidnapped. And that goes back to Cyberpunk Red. Like that was used and utilized and then became such a large part of the story. 

Johnny is clearly meant to be a bakeneko; he’s actively next to the cat in that conversation, leaves when it does, see the same cat before Alt’s death, and is again the visual representation of what is happening to V. He is the symbol of their death, whether he wants to be or not. 

I think it’s also interesting to note, the Bakeneko, which is described as an omen of death and misfortune isn’t the only way we see cats used thematically within the game. Albeit, this way is more subtle and perhaps intentionally so. We also see the maneki-neko; the lucky cat statues are everywhere in game. In V’s apartment, Misty’s shop, Vik’s clinic. Everyyyyyywhereeeeee. 

So, we see two mythological cats from Japanese culture. One brings misfortune and one brings good luck. And Johnny exemplifies both. 

Johnny is a visual representation of all that is destroying V. His mere existence and presence a constant reminder that their death is around the corner. An ever present omen that V’s clock is ticking. He also often pops up to have a comment just before massive relic malfunctions and disasters. The end of every main game quest is punctuated with a relic malfunction and a lecture from Johnny. 

But without the chip and by extension Johnny, V would already be dead. If the chip hadn’t been the exact right place to be damaged and activated by the gunshot; it would have killed V right then and there. And while this wasn’t an active choice on Johnny’s part, he is the visual representation of the chip. Even then, he later does make an active choice to save V’s life. When V is hit with the worst malfunction yet; Johnny grabs them, “you aren’t dying yet, I got you” and he takes them to safety. He refuses to watch V seize and die in a puddle of their own sick in the middle of nowhere (for me it’s always at the sunset hotel, idk if this changes based on the order you do the events tho) So, he takes control, he eases their pain and takes them somewhere safe, somewhere that means something to him, and swears to die for them. 

Luck both good and bad. Fortune and misfortune. A sign of better days and an omen of death. A maneki-neko and a bakeneko. The time bomb in V’s head and the guy who saved their life. He is both. 

Now, stepping away from the mythological aspects. Lets talk about Nibbles the cat, Johnny, and pets within Cyberpunk 2077. Animals and by extension pets are considered a luxury in Night City. They’re taxed to fuck and back, generally only the wealthy can have them. Its also often brought up that real friends and family who stick by you are very difficult to come by. V becomes through Nibbles one of the rare people to have a pet. One of the other people who had a pet is, Barry their neighbor. 

Barry and his mission is one of the first you can unlock and see in the game. He’s V’s downstairs neighbor and his story is played out so fucking similarly to V’s. Barry lost his best friend, he’s quit his job because he can’t handle the weight of the NCPD’s corruption, and he’s thinking of taking his own life.  V has lost Jackie, its stated in game they get less work than usual because of Konpeki (cant be put on a crew), and very early on can say to Misty “be better off putting in my head”. 

But for Barry that friend ends up being a pet tortoise. And its clear what that tortoise represents; a constant companion, a safe place, and a comfort. Something Barry couldn’t find among his peers until later on when they learn just how much he’s been hurting. And this is treated as such a tragedy, that he only has a pet to turn to. 

And so V gets a cat, because they too are fucking hurting and having a little meowing bundle of skin running around their apartment helps. Something to come home to, something to make that apartment a little less empty, a little more alive. 

So, how does this particular aspect of Nibbles/cats/pets relate to Johnny, I hear you wondering (as well as wondering when Im going to shut up). Well, we know Johnny is linked symbolically with cats and thats the choice of pet for V. And we knows pets have been likened to support without judgement; a companion who you can tell everything too and they won’t abandon you. 

And while Johnny has heaps of judgment and is a dick. He is V’s only constant companion. I know a good junk of people don’t like him or his commentary; but imagine V’s life without Johnny in it through the game events. Imagine how lonely they’d be. 

Johnny is the only one who knows everything and is there with V from the start to the final moments in Mikoshi. 

Vik and Misty know, but they’re no edgerunners, they have no idea everything V is doing out there. Part of why as much as I do love Vik, his frustration with V hurts so much in the end because he talks like V hasn’t done anything to save themselves. Because, Vik doesn’t know what V’s been doing this whole time. 

Each part of the main quests in Act 2 are linked to an NPC; Judy, Panam, and Takemura. And not one of them know or are there throughout the entirety of V’s journey. Judy doesn’t get told the full details of what’s happening until later in and stops helping V one Evelyn is saved. Panam doesn’t learn the full details or anything really about the chip until much later. And her quests become her own personal journey once V finds Hellman. And then depending on V’s choices, Panam can come in to help at the end. Takemura knows V is dying and is there to help with the parade and then he’s gone; either dead or in hiding. He refers to anything that doesn’t involve him as V’s shady dealings and leaves it at that. He’s there to interrogate Hellman but he doesn’t know all V did to find him. None of them know everything, none of them have been there the whole time. And that’s not a condemnation of them, I do not expect them to drop everything to be glued to V’s side 24/7 but, I can’t fucking imagine how alone V feels. 

River has no involvement in any main quests and only finds out anything if V chooses to romance him. Kerry knows what Johnny told him and depending on the ending may even leave V. Again, wanna be clear, that isn’t a condemnation on his character. I understand why he does this and i understand his hurt and how it led him to that. 

But this is about how truly fucking alone V is in all of this. Not a single person there start to finish, not a single person knowing all that they have suffered, all that they have been through and are going through. 

Except Johnny. He tells V in the oil fields, closest to him by far, there 24/7, yet they don’t seem to hate him. And he’s that for V too; there the entire way, their demon never leaving.  Johnny knows everything happening; because he’s part of what’s happening. He’s been there through every struggle, every step, every slap in the face as V’s tried to save themselves. Has felt their pain as they lose themselves, has known the people who’ve had to die for them to get this far, as felt their heart break when all they found was betrayal by the Voodoo Boys, Ai Alt asking how V’s life is her problem, getting recommended a hospice by Hellman. 

And as dickish as he is, his comments help. V always has someone there, as much as he sucks. He always has something stupid or naggy to say to help keep some of that weight off their shoulders. Imagine if they didn’t even have that. If Johnny never talked to them, never showed his face. 

A constant companion, like a supportive pet cat except he can talk and did a lot of meth. 

And this is a sidenote that has nothing to do with cats specifically, but that through Samurai music this isn’t the first time Johnny could be compared to an omen. Its no secret that the music was largely created around the game and as such, many of his songs have direct parallels and messages related to the game. Never Fade Away while in universe written in regards to Alt’s death also has so much in common with his journey with V. This brings me to the song Black Dog.

“Black Dog inside my head, guiding me until the end.”

Black Dogs are figures in Irish Mythology  who much like bakeneko’s are talked about in game; are omens of death and misfortune. I just find it interesting I suppose, like Johnny is either a dirty alley cat or a big mangy dog, but either way he’s here cause someones about to die.

Okay this is well over a thousand words, Imma shut up now. This is probably a mess, but anyone here for coherency is in the wrong place. 

[ageofdragon]

The Next Dragon Age, Analysis #3

Analysis #1 Skeletor  |  Analysis #2 Location, Location, Location

*Due to length, a Read More has been added. TDLR under cut, at the end.

It is finally time to talk about That image. There is so much going on in that image.  It’s brightly colored, full of motion and detail. We see familiar faces and new ones. It’s another eye-catching and gorgeous concept art. I am of course talking about this one.

Now rather than touch the obvious first. Because oh the Obvious it is so great and exciting, that we’ll leave it for last.

Rather I want to start with the overall concept. We see a group of characters diving underwater into a coral reef area. They are doing so, presumably to escape the archers above; as we see a rain of arrows into the water.

So there are two ways this could happen. This could be a scripted event within the game, in which this scene needs to take place or is an option that can take place. This could also be showing off the PCs and NPC companions abilities to FINALLY after three games be getting a swim mechanic. As we’ve spent two games confined to land and a third insta-drowning on the Storm Coast. It would certainly open up new options for moving across maps and exploring beneath them, with new treasures and areas to unlock. The last game gave us jump puzzles, we could be looking at swim puzzles in the near future. It also makes sense for this to be the game for underwater travel and just water travel in general. As the entirety of Northern Thedas has some access and dependency on coasts, bays, and oceans surrounding it.

Now let’s return to the image. If we look closely, we can see some fish among a coral reef and far in the distance is the shadows of sharks. Which could be enemies similar to those found in the Assassin’s Creed franchise or just environmental/aesthetic additions.

I also want to point out that we can see where this group is coming from. At the top of the image is the shadows of boats, which again hint towards at least having ship exploration in cutscene or mechanic. These people aren’t jumping from a dock or shore, but from ships.

The last thing I want to touch on briefly, before moving onto the characters populating this image is the treasure. At the very bottom of this picture there is a skeleton, it has pieces of coral growing out of it. Obviously it rather gruesome in a way, but has a level of nature overcoming beauty to it (for some). So I’m not going to post a close up of it, but just wanted to point that out. The skeleton also has a treasure chest in it’s arms and the lock glints, to draw attention to it. Similar to the mechanics used in many games to distinguish loot chests, again hinting towards possible underwater exploration.

Now then...the characters, I’m still going to hold off on the obvious cause I’m cruel and I Mean ;) why not. So I’m going to start in the very back first.

In the back we see the skull-headed individual from before. Though this one doesn’t have any glow to the skull. I’ve seen a lot of other theories being brought up about this character too, so I still can’t definitively say much about them. 

I am still kind of under the impression they are a Mortalitasi or tied to them. Many others have pointed out it could be a Higher Undead (mentioned in Tevinter Nights, as I stated in Analysis #1), a self-aware spirit in the body of someone who once lived and I believe similar to what Justice and Kristoff became. I’ve also heard some people wonder if it isn’t Audric, a specific higher undead that was a main character of the aforementioned Tevinter Nights story; he is known  as a guardsman who was killed before filled by another character with a spirit, and later became an archivist for the Mourn Watch. Which would tie him to the Mortalitasi, but if it is him and he is shown in all concept arts; it makes me wonder why he would be performing a dissection of a Dragon.

Next we have this woman. 

I have a friend who on first glance thought it to be Scout Lace Harding, which could be possible given the company. She also has similar armor, a possibility of freckles, and similar physical features. However, it is strange that they would choose to loosen her hair, unless it is specifically to give more convincing towards the underwater scene. And the foreshortening of the drawing, makes it hard to gauge the woman’s height as dwarva or not. It’s a bit of an unknown. That said, if it isn’t Scout Harding, I have a strong feeling it could be a default PC stand-in. There is no extremely distinct feature about her and her face is rather basic to be an instantly recognizable companion. Which says to me she’s a NPC, like Scout Harding or a PC stand-in. Unless of course Scout Harding is a companion, which I certainly won’t say no to.

And Finally, I suppose we can talk about our last two characters in this concept art.

Still working from the back, we have this handsome and fine piece of art who I really wish I could 100% confirm is our favorite Tevinter piece of ass art. However...I cannot. On first glance, it absolutely looks like Magister Dorian Pavus.

The hair, skin color, and even aesthetic all seem to match. However, there are subtle changes to the hair and facial hair (against his long-haired epilogue look) that could be enough to claim it’s another person.

He is also wearing something similar to a crow uniform and wielding a rapier. In fact, in another concept art, what I originally thought could have been Zevran; actually seems to be this guy. Though I can’t confirm that either and Maker do I hope the other guy is Zevran. If this guy is Dorian tho, then Dorian could be undercover or has a few new tricks (maybe dual-classing or going back to dao unrestricted-class weapon loadouts?) It could even just be a style choice, though it still begs the question why.

So the possibilities are that he is Magister Dorian Pavus of Ventus or some unknown Crow. Either of which aren’t bad options, but one is definitely more exciting to me than the other.

Lastly, my favorite character to ever grace the Dragon Age fandom. The Queen of the Seas herself, and beloved Rivaini.

Captain Isabela of the Felicia Armada (allegedly).

She is honestly the only one in this entire picture, I can say with almost no doubt, who she is. There is such a slim margin for this not to be her. She has her gold decorations (including the overly large, penis necklace), her captain’s pants as seen in the comics, and her top and sash as seen in the Dragon Age Inquisition multiplayer. Her appearance is one of the most unique in the series, so for her to be unrecognizable would be a hard sell. She even has her one shouldered armor piece and her earrings.

Which Isabela has been in every game to date and I do mean EVERY game, even the spin-offs for PC and mobile, why wouldn’t she be in the one game that goes north near her hometown and the seas she roams? She could be working for herself, the Inquisition, or even Hawke. But it seems no doubt we’ll be running into her and she’ll be running into a good bit of booty. After all is it even a Dragon Age game anymore if the Queen of the Seas isn’t there (and like fewer dragons than the number of times she shows up?).

tldr; underwater or at least the sea seems to be a part of the Next Dragon Age game. And Captain Isabela seems to be too, in passing or sticking around a while we don’t know. We can also count of some new companions and maybe more familiar faces, but wherever it takes us we’ll be in good company.

[fistsoflightning]

stories you want to write...

...but for some reason haven’t yet.

tagged by: @to-the-voiceless​!!! thank you cyan for giving me the opportunity to dump out my slightly dusty idea doc onto everyone’s dash sdgsndfnsdfn

tagging: hmmm... @windupnamazu​ (double tag yes yes) @whitherliliesbloom​ @windup-dragoon​ @heirsofdiscord​ @ancientechos​ and you! as you can see, i like fic concepts >:3c

1) okay, so. there’s a section of my idea doc that’s labeled ‘azim steppe shenanigans’ because i Can and Will rewrite as much of the azim steppe MSQ as i please including characterization (yes i’m looking at magnai) ANYWAYS. top idea of the list, which is also the one i want to write The Most, is the naadam duty rewrite! catch me on the ‘why is the wol the khagan of a land they probably don’t even belong to’ train, more news on how zaya and oktai beat up hien at 11. or whenever i get around to writing it since it has Combat and i’m. not the best at it. honorable mentions to the pre-canon sadu, magnai, and zaya tearing through bardam’s mettle fic and the solar eclipse remix that i don’t currently have the energy for ;W; sorry oktai and magnai you’ll have to reside in “are we actually. dating.” hell for a bit longer

2) second on this list is the ‘ysayle lives’ fic!!! honestly there is a whole ass series sitting in my idea doc that also includes moenbryda, papalymo, and maaaybe bad-end flavored minfilia lives? but the ysayle one is like. 60% done but i need to trash and restart since i don’t. like it that much. highlights include: ysayle but a little more dragon flavored, separation of iceheart vs. ysayle, and gratuitous earth imagery versus the ice of coerthas

oh god okay im sticking the rest under a cut this got. Long

3) there is also a section of my doc labeled ‘angst elie isn’t allowed to have as a treat’ because at this point all of mom squad deserves to swing a bat straight for my head, buuut the idea i’m looking at is lightwarden au related! funtimes. ehsk al, anyone? (yes that means either promised love or love’s promise in dragonspeak. yes there’s a reason for this.) the line keeping this idea’s spot is: “ thancred climbs up mt. gulg one final time to meet the mourning dragon.” :)))

4) i want to go more into the various different cultures of my wols!!! i detest the lack of ala mhigan lore (monk lore too. i’m Salty about SB) which is why i haven’t gone into dewah’s family that much but i have an idea and some minor worldbuilding in the making? there’s also lumelle, whose emotions on ishgard are (as all emotions are) complicated, and zaya, who hasn’t been home in a literal decade give or take. i have to think real hard for it tho sdgnsdfsd that’s why they’ve been collecting dust for months.

4.1) the amount of hrothgar and viera lore is also criminal. don’t make me homebrew more lore squeenix give us Actual Lore. duscha and valdis deserve More.

5) okay i. i am very embarrassed by this but i have a longfic draft for a fic that at this point legally has to be tagged “slow burn, if by slow burn you mean 18 years” whenever i finish enough to be able to start posting it and YES ITS ZAYA AND THANCRED. 

yeah. i know. this has been haunting me since ffxivwrite last year-ish. it is also very D U S T Y but it has about 15 different ideas i’ve just mass dumped into it and i despise it and myself. additionally some ardbert feelings slipped into the SHB bits and i’m. maybe unrequited ardbert/zaya.... mayhaps

6) i love carbuncles and i love dt’s writing about the carbuncles which may have led to the thought bunny “what if: black opal carbuncle for zaya’s nameday” and it has haunted me but since zaya’s nameday in real time was a day off from the 5.3 drop it promptly got buried under all the ideas i got from 5.3

7) SPEAKING OF 5.3 CONTENT: carmela predicted correctly that i would like the ‘you’re a long way from home, moogle’ interaction you get if you choose the option that has kupo when talking with thancred and i’m possessed. i want to write something surrounding zaya’s honorary postmoogle title and thancred finding out they spent three weeks delivering eorzea’s mail.... there’s a bunch of canon rewrites but for multiple WOLs i’d like to do but i’m Tired

8) rhmrhrr.... AU time! main street au is still haunting my bones and i want to write more because mom squad spent like. an hour talking about how it’s just like dime store romance fiction amassed into an entire au and there’s a certain flowershop romance i need to write >:3 there’s also the ol’ CHB AU hanging around Somewhere and a very small part of me that craves to keep writing hanahaki au which is just slowburn 2.0

9) OH WAIT. i have Exactly One idea that’s mostly npc-based which is just me having feelings about the going-ons of norvrandt before the WOL is summoned, mostly revolving around ryne/baby-filia which i think? will have four parts? it’s really just me worldbuilding with norvrandt and having a great time. i scribbled down a beginning to try and shake off some rust (it did not really work) but:

10) honorable mention goes to the ‘zaya, thancred, and co. give ryne a nameday celebration despite her not really having a nameday’ idea and to this, which never fails to give me a chuckle when i read it in my idea doc:

[puppypaw-wc]

i just wanted to ramble ‘bout undertale... hhhhhhhh.

aka me just describing the whole plot of the game... this one’s just the ruins tho cuz i don’t think tumblr would let me type out the whole game’s plot in detail.

i understand if y’all don’t wanna see this so it’s under the cut.

soooo uh. the opening “cutscene”/whatever you call it is just a few images with text explaining the events prior to the game.

“long ago, two races ruled over earth: humans and monsters. one day, war broke out between the two races. in the end, the humans were victorious. they sealed the monsters underground with a magic spell. many years later . . . mt. ebbot. 201X. legends say those who climb the mountain never return...”

the last frames show a human who you’d at first assume to be the player character climbing the mountain and falling in; however, it is not the player character (frisk), as the human in the intro only has one stripe on their shirt, while frisk’s shirt has two.

anyways after that you get presented with the start menu (it’s track is creatively entitled, you guessed it, start menu!) with instructions on how to play the game. once you start, you get to name the fallen human.

now, this is honestly kinda ingenious. it doesn’t say “name your character”, it doesn’t say “what is your name?”; no, it says “name the fallen human”.

there’s also responses to some specific names.

like if you name yourself “fight” (or something like that) or “mercy”, the response is “that’s a little on the nose, isn’t it?”, though the name’s still allowed to be used.

naming yourself one of the main characters’ names (or however much can fit) also elicits special responses, and most of them aren’t allowed to be used, but there’s a couple instances of them being usable. like papyrus’ name is too long so if you enter “papyru” as your name the response is “I’LL ALLOW IT” and the name’s allowed to be used. the names “blooky” or “napsta” (as in napstablook) are also allowed, with the response being “... (they are powerless to stop you)”. my favorite is either naming yourself “flowey” or “temmie” tho.

the name “flowey” gets the response “i already CHOSE that name” (flowey had the ability to reset/save/etc. before frisk) with it not being allowed, while naming yourself “temmie” gets the response “hOi!!!” as a reference to the species of temmie (temmie is best undertale character /hj) and is allowed. it used to make tem flakes heal more but that was removed for some reason.

ANYWAYS the game starts after you name yourself (the “true name” is chara, which elicits the response “the true name”, so i’ll be referring to “the fallen human” as such). you start out with your armor as the bandage and your weapon as the stick... both of which have 0 of their corresponding stat.

in the next room, you meet a talking flower, who introduces himself.

“howdy! i’m flowey! flowey the flower! hmm, you’re new to the underground, aren’t’cha? golly, you must be so confused! someone oughta teach ya how things work around here. (oop i’m listening to the undertale ost and finale started playing-fitting-) guess lil’ old me will have to do? ready? let’s go!”

you then find yourself in a battle. on the bottom of the screen, there’s two things: your LV, which is 1 at the time, and your hp, which is 20/20. in the middle of the screen is the bullet board, with a red heart inside. flowey’s above the bullet board. oh, and in battles, everything’s black and white other then the heart and some attacks.

“see that heart? that’s your SOUL. the very culmination of your being! your SOUL starts off weak, but grows stronger with LV. what’s LV stand for? why, LOVE, of course! you want some LOVE, don’t you? *he winks* down here, love is spread through little, white... “friendliness pellets”. go on! collect as many as you can!”

now, here, there’s two options: run into the “friendliness pellets” (which makes this part go by faster) or dodge them, which elicits some funny responses from flowey.

“hey buddy. you missed them. let’s try this again, shall we?”

“is this a joke? are you brain dead? RUN. INTO. THE. BULLETS friendliness pellets.”

“you know what’s going on here, don’t’cha? you just wanted to see me SUFFER. who would pass up an opportunity like this? DIE.”

running into them elicits basically the same thing as the last response, though he states that “in this world, it’s kill or be killed” first. i also don’t remember what he says if you run into them cuz i always dodge them... cuz it’s funny...

you find your SOUL surrounded with the “friendliness pellets”, and it seems that you’re doomed to death... but when they hit you, instead of harming you, they heal you.

flowey gets a confused look on his face before he’s hit with a fireball and goat mom toriel appears!

“what a terrible creature, torturing such a poor, innocent youth. do not be afraid, my child. i am toriel, caretaker of the ruins. i pass through here everyday to see if a human has fallen. you are the first to have come here in a very long time.”

she also says some other stuff but i don’t remember it so. :shruggie:

anyways, you follow her into the next room, where you find a four-pointed star; a save point.

“the shadow of the ruins looms above, filling you with determination. (HP fully restored).”

this is your first opportunity to save, which is interestingly enough not just a game mechanic; it’s an in-universe feature as well.

(okay wtf undertale ost on shuffle, it played temmie village and then tem shop immediately after, wtf???)

anyways, toriel guides you through (read: does for you) a few puzzles, before you find yourself in a long hallway, where she says she wants to test your independence by making you walk to the end of the hallway by yourself. 

she’s just hiding behind a pillar at the other end of the hallway.

toriel says that she has a few errands to run, and gives you a cellphone before leaving. you can get some funny calls if you do wait, and at the end of it all her phone gets stolen by a dog. despite this, she still calls you when you leave the room. she does actually have special dialogue, though: “My apologies. A strange dog kidnapped my phone.”

anyways, you travel through the ruins, getting encounters with the enemies (froggit, whimsun, loox, vegetoid, moldsmal, migosp), who you can all spare.

i forgot the dummy battle tutorial, basically toriel has a training dummy as a battle tutorial.

things you can do:

talk to it: this makes the battle end, and makes toriel seem happy with you. it’s technically the right thing to do but the others are funnier.

fight it: this kills the dummy, though it doesn’t give you exp, and thus you can still get a true pacifist route.

flee: you run away from the battle and toriel says that it’s a good strategy... but it’s just a dummy, it can’t hurt you and doesn’t seek revenge.

do nothing: if you do nothing for eight turns (including missing attacks), dummy “tires of your aimless shenanigans” and leaves. toriel is confused by this, but continues on as if nothing happened.

whatever you do elicits a different response in a future mini-boss’ pre-battle dialogue, so. yeah.

ANYWAYS!

the ruins’ mini-boss is napstablook, a ghost who, according to themself, “usually comes to the RUINS because there's nobody around”.

to spare them, you need to cheer three times; this makes them show you their “dapper blook” trick, which is a top hat made of tears. they stop attacking to await your response, and if you flirt or cheer, the encounter ends.

also random fun fact: just like with the dummy, killing napstablook doesn’t give you exp, and thus a true pacifist route doesn’t end.

“FIGHTing Napstablook causes them to remind the protagonist that they are a ghost and therefore unable to be killed; they were only lowering their HP to be nice. They then vanish, and the protagonist suffers a loss of one "experience point" (not the same as EXP). This action does not abort the True Pacifist Route since it does not accrue any EXP.”

(x)

oh yeah, did i mention that EXP and LV don’t mean experience points and level?

flowey was actually correct about LV being LOVE. however, it’s an acronym, namely for level of violence. EXP, on the other hand, is an acronym for execution points.

continuing through the ruins and doing some puzzles (one of which includes several holes you must fall through to find a switch, one of which has the faded ribbon, a piece of armor, in it), you can get the toy knife, a weapon, before heading to toriel’s house, where she’s made you a butterscotch-cinnamon pie.

you see, earlier on in the ruins, she asks if you prefer butterscotch or cinnamon (if you’ve reset/loaded a save from after this point, she actually remembers your answer), before asking if you’d turn up your nose at the sight of the other/if you have allergies. there wasn’t enough of both at the store or something along those lines if i remember right.

anyways, you go to sleep in your room (yes, you have your own bedroom and yes, that is pure, and yes, toriel is the best), and she puts a slice of the pie on the floor for you to collect. it’s a healing item that restores all your hp, but i’d recommend saving it honestly.

toriel’s reading in the living room, where you can talk to her and either ask how to leave, or just talk to her. you do have to leave for the game to progress, though.

after asking her how to leave like three or four times, she goes downstairs and talks to you before fighting you, asking you to prove that you’ll be able to survive.

you see...

“Every human that falls down here meets the same fate. I have seen it again and again. They come. They leave. They die. You naive child... If you leave the RUINS... They... ASGORE... Will kill you. I am only protecting you, do you understand? ... go to your room.”

the fight with toriel is one that people often mess up on, though the strategy for her fight is actually foreshadowed by an npc froggit earlier on in the ruins.

many people think that you have to weaken her, or just end up killing her because they don’t see how else to do it.

so, what does happen if you kill her? well, it depends.

if you attack her once she stops attacking:

“You... ... at my most vulnerable moment... To think I was worried you wouldn't fit out in there... Eheheheh!!! You really are no different than them! Ha... Ha...”

on a neutral route:

“Urgh... You are stronger than I thought... Listen to me, small one... If you go beyond this door, Keep walking as far as you can. Eventually, you will reach an exit. ... .... ASGORE... Do not let ASGORE take your soul. His plan cannot be allowed to succeed. ....... Be good, won't you? My child.“

on a genocide route:

“Y... you... really hate me that much? Now I see who I was protecting by keeping you there. Not you... But them! Ha... ha...”

fun fact: until today my dumbass though that “them” was referring to chara and only just realized that it’s referring to the monsters further in the underground.

and now, it’s time for flowey (slash indicates a break in the text).

on a pacifist route (where you don’t kill anyone):

“Clever. Verrrryyy clever. / You think you're really smart, don't you? / In this world, it's kill or be killed. / So you were able to play by your own rules. / You spared the life of a single person. / Hee hee hee... / I bet you feel really great. / You didn't kill anybody this time. / But what will you do if you meet a relentless killer? / You'll die and you'll die and you'll die.Until you tire of trying. / What will you do then? / Will you kill out of frustration? / Or will you give up entirely on this world...... / and let ME inherit the power to control it? / I am the prince of this world's future. / Don't worry, my little monarch, my plan isn't regicide. / This is SO much more interesting.”

on a genocide route (where you kill everyone, exhausting the kill counter until the “but nobody came” message appears):

“Hahaha... / You're not really human, are you? / No. You're empty inside. Just like me. In fact... / You're Chara, right? / We're still inseperable, after all these years... / Listen. I have a plan to become all powerful. / Even more powerful than you and your stolen soul. / Let's destroy everything in this wretched world. / Everyone, everything in these worthless memories... / Let's turn 'em all to dust.”

(note that by “chara” i mean “whatever you named the fallen human”)

and that’s it for the ruins.

uh. yeah.

sorry for rambling about undertale so much on main, i love it too much.

[cloudstriffes]

Final Fantasy VII Remake Review

I’ve officially finished the game and I have soooo many thoughts and theories and emotions, so imma jump right in about what I loved, what I wanted more of, what I disliked and what I want to see for part 2. This is gonna be long, but Spoilers below the cut! (also I am not including anything about ships in this)

What I enjoyed/loved:

Characters:

Like with FFXV, I think this games biggest strengths lie with it’s characters (unlike FFXV, I think the story has the potential to be strong too, but I’ll get to that later).

It goes without saying that for me this is the best characterization of Cloud Strife since the original game. I really love the character development we see with him just within part one (we see him go from lovable jerk to really caring about his companions and making the effort to listen to them and comfort them, even if it’s not easy for him and he struggles a lot). I really have a soft spot for characters like that and I think it’s done really well here.

Tifa Lockhart is BEST GIRL! I have so much love for this girl and she’s hands down my favorite to play as (I even made her the leader in the fights because I can don’t @ me). Tifa shows that you can have your cake and eat it too, in that she can be gentle, considerate, kind, and even shy at times, but she still takes names and kicks butt; she doesn’t have to sacrifice who she really is to be considered a bad*ss female character. I think her character is greatly expanded on here than in the original and we get to see just how everything affects her and not just Cloud (which is important since they have been through a lot of the same traumatizing events).

I always thought Barret Wallace was an interesting character, especially seeing his backstory in the original game (something I can’t wait for in the next installment). Here, it’s down 10x better and I love every second he’s on screen. I’m very excited to see how that Black and White morality view he has on the world will be broken down and really put a strain on how he view himself and the things he’s done. I also adore to the heavens his relationship with little Marlene. Also the way he starts to Dad towards Cloud 😭😭😭

Now on the the best character of the entire game. Mere words cannot express how much I adore Aerith Gainsborough. Her characterization is a god-send that I definitely wouldn’t have appreciated had I not looked into other FFVII properties and saw the disservice they do to her. Fortunately for us, in Remake, Aeirth is everything we originally loved about her and more. She’s got a mischievous and sassy side that I adore and just love how she plays off of Cloud. Their interactions were so sweet and genuine and got quite a few laughs out of me.

Other characters:

Um where to start. First of all, Avalanche. I can relate to Jessie on spiritual level because I too thirst for Cloud Strife. All said and done though, he characterization is great and she’s a lot of fun. Her backstory is good too and her relationship with the rest of Avalanche is very genuine. And I love Biggs and Wedge with all my heart. I overall think the expanded character development for these 3 is spot on and really makes their “deaths” hit hard.

Marlene Wallace is a precious baby and I can cry all day about how precious her scenes with Barret are😭😭😭😭

Red XIII is the best boy and he’s hilarious. I can’t wait to delve more into his backstory when we get to Cosmo Canyon.

The Side characters in Wall Market are some of the best in the game. They're all interesting and I really hope we see more of them. 

I hate everyone at Shinra HQ but also Reeve is a good boy, but also screw Hojo x10, but also Scarlet can step on me, but also THE TURKS (where tf is Elena😭), but also SCREW HOJO, bust also that Kunsel/Crisis Core reference tho, but also Rufus Shinra CAN GET IT.

I said it before, but Sephiroth is actually very intimidating (not that he wasn’t in his other appearances, especially Advent Children) but hoo boy, the way we actually see how it terrifies Cloud really makes it stick for me. Sephiroth can get it too don’t @ me.

Story/Other:

I know a lot of long-time and even recent fans won’t agree, but I thought the story was very, very good. Don’t get me wrong, it’s flawed, but would I have honestly been happy with a shot-for-shot high definition update with some expansion here and there? Yeah probably, but I know how that story goes. 

I think doing a complete 180 to the story we know is a huge risk that I have hopes will pay off. I really love the idea that by changing fates of certain characters for the better (ie. Zack, Biggs, maybe Jessie and Wedge), Cloud and the others may have doomed themselves to an even worse fate with Sephiroth and I absolutely love that I don’t know where it’s going to go from here. I mean, I sure we’ll still get our fan favorites like Costa del Sol, the Gold Saucer, Yuffie, Vincent, Cid and ELENA, but we’re in for so many twist and turns and whatever the heck Zack being alive will do to the universe (or alternate universe? Idk I have theories).

My favorite areas in the game were the Sector 7 Slums, Aerith’s House, Wall Market, the Collapsed Expressway and Shinra HQ.

I think the voice acting is good, and for some character’s it’s great. The main cast (Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barret, Red XII and Avalanche) is VERY GOOD and the major side characters are good too. I already know there is discourse about Sephiroth and Zack’s English VA’s so I’m not sharing my opinion right now on that. 

Also the soundtrack is god-tier. I cannot stop listening to “Hollow” and hearing updated renditions of tracks from the original soundtrack somehow made me nostalgic for a game I only started playing last year. It’s top-notch imo.

What I didn’t like:

There’s nothing in the game I genuinely hated to the point where it ruined things for me.

I did enjoyed the second half of the sidequest for Sector 5 Slums (when you have Tifa and Barret back in your party), but the other sidequest were either annoying or hit and miss.

There’s also the issue with padding and certain areas seeming to go on forever. I really liked the Train Graveyard, for the first 20 minutes and after that it kinda dragged on too long for me (we had like two major boss fights in that one area😩) especially when the next major story part was the drop of the Sector 7 plate. I did love the little scene with Aerith waiting to be found; that was really good.

I also am confused about the back and forth about how much Aerith may know about her and the others’ fates. At times, it seems like she knows much more than she’s letting on and other times, she either really doesn’t know or she subconsciously is aware of something, but I guess it’s to be revealed.

Enough people have commented about the graphics and npcs in certain scenes (you know what I mean) so imma just say that at best it’s hilarious and at worse it’s very distracting.

What I want to see next and my overall rating for part 1:

As expressed before, I’m excited to see how much the story diverges and if the Arbiters of fate are really gone. I just feel like there’s more than Sephiroth pulling the strings here, but who knows. I also can’t wait for more references to Crisis Core (if ya’ll show me Kunsel I’ll cry) and I definitely hope we get more scenes of Zack and Cloud in the, I guess, alternate reality? Also playable Red XIII and If ya’ll think i’m thirsty for the characters in this game, just want until Vincent freakin’ Valentine shows up. 

All and all, I think I can confidently rate part one with a solid 9/10. It’s flawed, but it’s going in such an unexpected direction I didn’t anticipate that I’m left hungry for more. The characters are stellar and the expansion of certain parts of the game is amazing. I cannot wait for part two guys. I hope you all found something to enjoy too. Now I’m in the process of replaying it along with some other games I need to finish. I’ll still be tagging spoilers for now (ffvii remake spoilers)

[mashedcontroller]

My first playthrough of Dark Souls 1 felt like cruel and unusual punishment. I feel like listing what happened here as a “challenge run” lol. This run took me, like, 3 years to complete. Given, 2 of those years were spent on Capra Demon, aka, not playing the game, but y’know, I got stuck in the library for about a month while still playing the game. Rather than getting good or being intelligent, I simply beat everything and everyone to death with a really big stick.

Build:

- Your starting class is thief

- You will build a strength build

- You are not allowed to level vitality at any point during the run

- You may not level endurance or use a shield until you have enough strength to one-hand the main weapon of the run and have defeated Artorias.

- The main weapon of the run is Smough’s Hammer

- You may also use the Crystal Demon Great Machete +5 (for clarity, this weapon has, like, 48 durability and cannot be repaired, I made 2 over the course of my playthrough).

- Your NG+ build will be a magic build

- In NG+, your main weapon will be the Manus Staff

- In NG+, you may level Attunement exactly enough times to have 3 attunement slots.

- The only type of magic you are allowed to use at any point during this run is dark magic.

- After defeating Pinwheel, every boss (except Gwydolin) must be defeated using Red Tearstone Ring + Power Within

Additional Rules:

- This run lasts until you defeat Manus Twice

- You are blindfolded until you leave the Undead Asylum

- After defeating the Tauros Demon, you must die to the dragon and then immediately roll off the bridge next to the bonfire (my greatest weakness, walking in a straight line. Still salty about that even tho it’s been, like, 4 years).

- You may not parry at any point during this run (I never figured out the timing).

- You must complete Solaire’s and Onion Man’s sidequests. They both die :(

- You may only use your humanities for the purpose of levelling bonfires. You cannot use summons or PvE at any point during the game (I was in offline mode the entire time).

- You may not cure yourself of Curse until after joining the Dragon Covenant. You may not join the dragon Covenant until after the jailbreak section in Seeth’s Library.

- You must let the Golden Man kill the Firekeeper (a friend was like “kill this man on sight” while another friend was like “nuu that’s my favorite NPC.” I chose the wrong friend). You may not kill his ghost until after defeating Nito.

- After defeating Manus, your armor must consist of the Mimic Headset, no shirt, and Smough’s leggings. You may change your armpiece as you deem fit. (This is an exaggeration of my playthrough after that point, but I did develop a look tm)

Boss Order:

Feel free to run around and do whatever between boss fights, that’s basically what I did. Bosses may have additional conditions for defeat and I may list additional prerequisites.

1. Asylum Demon

Honestly don’t remember much of this guy. He does have a nice ass tho.

You are blindfolded :)

2. Tauros Demon

Admittedly this fight wasn’t that bad, I just had a really rough time with the boss run and my reaction speed is quite shit. I do not dodge the rolls. I instead run around and scream.

You can only use plunging attacks against this boss

3. Bell Gargoyles

They’re baby. >:3 

4. Capra Demon

I hate this man’s house and his dogs. Nice man tho. When I first fought him, I thought he had 4 arms instead of 2. Tbf, the fight lasted 2 seconds and I didn’t get a very good look. 

Hand the controller to a friend and make them do the boss fight

5. Moonlight Butterfly

Pretty :D 

Also that is a fucking moth. 

You are not allowed to use ranged attacks

You must kill the Titanite Demon guarding the area before you may proceed (I had the misconception that these would be common enemies in the next area, so I didn’t want to proceed until after I could kill that man).

6. Sif

Dogge. This fight took me, like, a week. Once I started the fight, I refused to do anything else. Fun boss. <3

You must take the hydra route to access this fight

You cannot join the cat covenant.

7. Gaping Dragon

My most anticipated boss. I knew about this man and I was like “I can’t wait to fight the vagina dragon.” Most memorable part of the fight was the vomit attack. Good spectacle.

8. Quelaag

I was overlevelled so this fight was quite easy. Every basic bitch wants to fuck the lady, but what about the spider?

You may not access the Blight Town Firekeeper Soul at any point during the run.

Use the alternate route to go through Blight Town (the Gaping Dragon fight was just for fun). You cannot access the main route through Blight Town until after defeating Pinwheel, where you need to pick up Power Within.

9. Ceaseless Discharge

Bitch.

You may not use the cheese strat.

You may not use ranged attacks.

After defeating this boss, you must kill every non-respawning Tauros Demon in the basement. But you cannot progress to the area beyond there until after Seeth 1.

10. Iron Golem

Somehow didn’t have an issue with the cliff here. It’s quite mysterious. Perhaps it’s character development from the events proceeding Tauros Demon? 

You may not knock him off the cliff.

You cannot access the rooftop bonfire until after defeating this boss. (You can still unlock the shortcut).

11. Ornstein & Smough

“I understand worshipping Smough; he’s hot. But Ornstein? Fuck that guy. And not in the fucking sort of way.”

12. Seeth 1

“It’s Seeth the Librarian, not Seeth the Scaleless. How would you feel if your entire identity was boiled down to your skin disease?”

I was ecstatic about having skip travel and literally the first place I went with it was here. Brilliant. 

Also, I initially assumed that you have to beat Seeth 2 to get uncursed. So, bonus challenge, don’t cure yourself of curse until beating Seeth 2. Become me, but what would happen if my friend didn’t save my ass.

“Lick Squidward’s toes” (Squidward is Frampt btw)

You must let him curse you.

Squidward divorced me :(

13. Demon Firesage

I rage-quit fighting the Stray Demon, so I decided to explore the cheese pizza factory, where I fought this man instead. Much better.

Squidward left me and took the kids :(

14. Centipede Demon

I kind of liked the cheese pizza factory. It had dinosaurs. It had cheese pizza. It had “game design.” It had the funny meme boss. Not this one, but the Bed of Smacc.

15. Stray Demon

Finally that flap ass dies. I couldn’t beat him. *cris with drama*

16. Bed Left Arm

Expect a lot of running back and forth from here.

17. Pinwheel

I was legit surprised to find that I didn’t *literally* one-shot this boss. Instead I two-shot this boss. I was very disappointed.

18. Crossbreed Priscilla

All of my weapons broke while I was stuck in here and I never bothered to buy repair powder or a toolkit. 

You must complete this dungeon with a random +0 weapon in your inventory. (Bonus Challenge: this rule also applies to Priscilla, but I was too much of a coward for that).

19. Sanctuary Guardian

This boss got 3 shot lol. Still took me, like, 10 tries. Which is significantly better than the rest of the DLC fights.

20. Bed Right Arm

This boss really wasn’t that bad compared to the rest of the game since I already one-shot everything in exchange for being one-shot by everything. And at least this guy lets you fuck off between phases.

21. Artorias

A sexyman if I’ve ever seen one. The only boss to make me regret my build choice. Not because he was especially difficult, but because I kinda wanted to fight this boss legit instead of four-shotting him after dying 50+ times.

22. Seeth 2

I was, like, begging for my friend to prove to me that I didn’t soft-lock the library on accident. Turns out, I simply got stuck on a basic Zelda puzzle for over a month. For a boss that I had a month-long grudge against, the fight was very anti-climactic tho.

23. Kalameet

He died in 4 hits. It took me over one hundred attempts. :)

24. Bed Core

Considering that my build basically turned every boss in the game into Bed of Chaos, this really wasn’t as upsetting as I’d anticipated.

25. Manus

I tied against this boss. The game counted that as a win.

You cannot use the Silver Pendant during this boss fight

26. Nito

Honestly barely remember this guy. I remember the army of Baby Sans outside of his room. He is mommy.

You may not use a holy weapon against this boss (kinda self-evident since at this point your only legal weapons are Smough’s Hammer and Crystal Demon Machete +5)

27. Gwyndolin

I couldn’t beat this guy until I found an 80% magic protection shield and ran straight at him.

You must kill the Anus London firekeeper before completing the boss fight.

You may not dodge-roll his Volley of Darts attack (I couldn’t see them well enough to react in time for that).

28. 2 Kings

There were only 2.

29. Gwyn

I chose to pick the “destroy the world ending” because fuck this place. Also that ending gave me a Squidward Harem.

NG+

30. Asylum Demon

What an underutilized boss. I sure hope he shows up in future games. :)

31. Bell Gargoyles

I realized I could skip the first two levels and never looked back.

You can use the Crest of Artorias and join the cat covenant.

32. Quelaag

Quelaag barfs cheese pizza. I wonder if it’s tasty.

33. Ceaseless Discharge

Revenge.

34. Iron Golem

Dark Souls is basically the Dark Souls of Minecraft.

35. Ornstein & Smough

Do you ever think about how impractical the Anus London railings are? Like, if I want to go down exactly one story, I have to vault over the railings. Imagine actually living there. Ew.

36. Sanctuary Guardian

It’s puppy :)

37. Artorias

I’m actually currently stuck here bc I couldn’t get Manus Staff to hit reliably and then got distracted because I decided I wanted to level Faith now.

You must kill him using the Artorias Greatsword (I decided I wanted to use that because funny even tho I didn’t have nearly enough Faith or Dex for it).

38. Manus

You may only use one item in your inventory. (I can’t switch between items for shit, so I’m going to have to pick between Estus Flasks and Silver Pendant, so you should too).

[dungeons-and-danis]

Session 5 Wrap Up!

So we recently finished up our fifth session and wrapped up the first arc, lost mine of phandelver, which ended much, MUCH differently than most of you are probably expecting cos i totally made it more abt my overall campaign than the ending of how LMoP is supposed to go bUT here goes:

Party starts off exploring cragmaw castle, which took us like 4 hours lmao

everyone continually keeps missing one goblin by like 1 or 2 points

rogue tried to be intimidating and step on the goblin as hes prone and hit him; she misses

somehow they miss the owlbear

they convince some hobgoblins to revolt against grol

they skip straight to Grol and Vyerith talking about the black spider

they send the hobgoblins in to distract them, but vyerith fucking decks them and shows up behind the party, slamming into our sorcerer

they easily kill grol and his wolf... cos theyre weak

um. vyerith kills our rogue’s raven

TURNS OUT our rogue is multiclassing into wizard so her raven is a fey familiar and will come back again, isnt killed.

eventually, they try to tie vyerith up and question her but she lights like 8 sticks of dynamite and fucking DESTROYS the party

two ppl are alive tho so they drag everyone out of the burning, crumbling castle and heal everyone all fine and dandy now

ALSO THEY SAVE GUNDREN AND THE MAP AT THE LAST SECOND COS I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT HIM DJHGFJKDHGK

fuckin gundren man.

anyways, everyone camps out for the night

aurra has weird dream again

wakes up the next morning, our NPC, ash, leaves them to escort gundren back to phandalin while they continue on to wave echo cave.

wave echo cave is.... a thing.

i made a big ass fucking map from scratch grid paper

we had to sit on the fucking floor for it to fit it was big

everyones getting tired but they make it to the end of the map and fight nezznar, almost killing him until he surrenders

they hold off on that, find nundro, and the key to the bible they were given to earlier on.

find out they cant fucking read the bible cos its in an enchanted language that is averse to “comprehend languages”

i know, i know. dumb cop-out, but i wasnt ready to write a whole fucking bible okay

their goal is to now find someone who can comprehend the language, as it isnt in any known written ones that exist in dnd universe

they go to question nezznar, then SWISH his head gets cut off by a HOT TIEFLING ANTAGONIST that our barbarian faced off against in her past

they fight this tiefling, almost get him before he’s suddenly like “lol i was buying time BYYYYYYYE” and leaves, chucking dynamite at them as he escapes

when they reach the entrance of the cave, he flying off toward a burning phandalin

they follow suit to phandalin and discover the main villain of the campaign, NIRNASHA!!!!!

I’ve been waiting so long to reveal her

When I had her introduce herself, I turned off all the lights and used a strobe light

and talked really deep it was cool

Everyone fucking got downed and aurra DIED

except aurra made a deal with the devil we’ll get back to that

SUDDENLY, as everyone is thinking its over and nirnasha is about to kill syndra, in swoops our new, SURPRISE player who everyone thought was only coming by to watch our session!!!!

She (Odeza) kicks nirnasha’s ass and make her run away

Odeza takes everyone to her lil hut outside of town and heals them, trying to bury Aurra

THEN AURRA WAKES UP FROM THE DEAD

SHES ALIVE!!!!!

Everyone reconvenes and really discusses just how dangerous nirnasha is

then end session

it’s been a fuckin doozy honestly.

[wobblegong]

I was going to squee about my space-cat but I just got shotgunned through the Chains of Harrow quest & subsequent orbiter thing so instead I’m going to spew my thoughts everywhere. I have too many emotions about this ok. WARNING: Massive story spoilers (for many quest lines), massive gameplay spoilers, massive worldbuilding spoilers, BASICALLY NOTHING BUT SPOILERS UP IN HERE. You probably don’t want to read this unless 1. you’re caught up on everything including 2. you dgaf and find me nattering about a game you don’t play interesting. (~2200 words.)

I. Gameplay/Mechanics

Chains of Harrow is VERY WELL DONE, jfc. I continue to be impressed by Warframe’s execution. Some previous quests weren’t quite ideal but this one... this one was on point.

(Shout-out to my game dev friend who does totally unrelated stuff and their ANGUISHED GROAN when I asked how they’d do the one bit with moving the audio around in their not-Warframe engine; they stared into Hell as they contemplated it. “But Unreal engine apparently lets you do it just fine.” It’s so fun to be reminded that one engine’s effortless task is another engine’s “the only thing that eclipses the suffering this would require is your hubris”.)

There were spoopy screen effects, not that I’m surprised– already seen plenty of demonstrations of what they can do when I get flashbanged or fade in/out of a menu. One section has you chasing directional audio aka heading towards wherever the sound is coming from. (This was the worst section for me, I had to pause three times to get my panic wrangled.) The talking-heads approach to story, combined with the setting, combined with a few lite-cutscenes & one interactive segment... was actually fucking perfect. I usually feel like the exposition-dumps are somewhat contrived and aggravating, but here I was SOLD.

If I had any criticism, it’d be that the spoopy starts wearing off like 1/3 of the way in and just keeps eroding until the end isn’t spoopy at all. It didn’t feel like a deliberate tone-shift, just that they ran out of jumpscare (which is what the spoopy is 100% made of) and didn’t really replace it with anything. I don’t consider it a drawback though... if it had actually been scary the whole way through I’d be a gibbering jelly. Also everything else going on is so fantastic that I prefer the lack of distraction.

I did laugh when the main combat section goes Ghostbusters: you have to trap a spoopy in a box you toss on the floor, complete with a glowy beam trapping said spoopy. Mild grumble because I wasted a dozen traps before I googled wtf to do in that section (hint: APPLY BULLETS TO BAD THING) but fine, if I hadn’t been accidentally lied to I would probably have tried that first instead of faffing around.

Final “boss” fight was indeed kind of a bear but I was warned beforehand that I was gonna get punched out like forty times so when I only got punched out thrice it was like all my namedays had come at once! HOLY FUCK DON’T DO IT BEFORE YOU’VE DONE THE GARA QUEST THO & GOTTEN AN OPERATOR AMP ON CETUS. This quest predates all that BUT THE AMP IS GOOD. EVEN A BAD AMP IS BETTER THAN NO AMP. So... hot tip, get your little shit a little piece of shit and be thrilled when you can actually kill the boss fight adds in under 12 hours.

Ok no I have one true criticism: BLOOD ISN’T RED WAX, WHY WERE THE BLOODY MESSAGES ON THE WALL THAT COLOR. Actually they were... really 3D... ... ...maybe it WAS wax? Where the fuck did the spooperson get so much red wax for writing creepy messages?

II. Story

So the story is that you get a haunted I mean hecked up transmission, it’s spooky; you go to a fucked-up empty ship and find one Red Veil chick just hanging out with her cat. She says a lot of baffling things and then forty ex-Red-Veil zombies/ghosts/possessed assholes try to murder you, ineptly. Ok maybe they’re less inept if they’re not going in ultra-slow-motion. (My god, I will never stop being happy that Frost Prime was my first frame. So good and useful when I’m going into shit blind.)

You haul RVC (Red Veil Chick) out of there and plunk her ass down in the Steel Meridian camp because I guess the factions like each other enough for casual favors like that. She says some more barely-less-confusing shit and very earnestly (there’d be dewey eyes and heaving bosoms if she wasn’t wearing a full-body-inculding-head suit) begs you to go find some relic. Off you go to another fucked-up empty ship! UNNECESSARILY CREEPY WHISPERS lead you to said relic, which was the thing Rell focused on for soothing because most sensory stimulation was too much for him. Wait, what? And then ASSHOLE MCINVINCIBLE tries to stick his hand up your ass like a puppet and if you’re me you sprint in circles for 30 seconds crying while the NPC frantically tries to get you out.

You go back to RVC and she does a seance. It works. To summarize/paraphrase including story bits revealed further into the quest line, Rell was one of the Tenno who got shunned out of the gaggle even before they all got Tenno’d. Apparently this put him in a position to discover what the fuck is in the Void, at which point he had his meatsack body killed so his mind(/soul/whatever) could be chained to his specific ‘frame, leaving him awake/conscious to keep doorstoppering the badbadnotgood, even while the other Tenno were off snoozing per the Lotus’ plans. A line of RVCs (Red Veil Chicks) were in on this and dedicated themselves to... looking after him, inasmuch as you can look after someone who shoveled themself into a robot that’s been chained up somewhere it’ll never see the light of day. They could talk to him anyways– I guess they were mostly there to keep him from going bonkers and maybe intervene if anything ever went wrong.

Anyways, that’s all fine right up until it isn’t; RVC & the Lotus determine that his transference fucked up and fragmented so you need to go Ghostbusters the creepy phantoms of this guy’s psyche. Collect them all while dodging ASSHOLE MCINVINCIBLE (and a smattering of forgettable mooks– fuck off Infested, I don’t care if it’s your ship) and RVC thanks you/tearfully asks you to take them back to where his ‘frame rests so he can die because THAT’S ENOUGH SUFFERING FOR ONE PERSON THANKS.

Nothing gets to be easy, not even that, so when you find the ‘frame and start snapping its chains it wakes up. RVC has about five seconds to go “thaT’S NOT RELL” while your little shit self scurries behind a pillar before boss fight! Red Veil operatives (except dead or mind controlled or who knows what) try to punch you out while some kind of awful red glowing tear pops in and out to fireball you. But eventually you snap all the chains and yaaaay Rell gets his eternal rest. (I’m not crying, you’re crying.)

III. Meta Story/Worldbuilding

It’s SUCH A THING to me that RVC casually knows what the Tenno are. I mean, ok, makes sense because the RVCs were so involved with Rell, buT LIKE. MAN. NOBODY ELSE KNOWS. THE “KIND OF HAVE A CLUE” PEOPLE STILL DON’T KNOW MORE THAN “IF YOU DISSECT A WARFRAME YOU WILL NOT FIND ANYTHING THAT EXPLAINS WHAT THE TENNO ARE”. Fuck, I think the RVC even dresses down the Lotus over it a la “fuck u, u say they’re ur kids but u suck and u never knew about Rell”.

They completely skate right past RVC setting up shop in the hyper-secret Steel Meridian HQ. “Yeah, no big, me and my ouija board are gonna hang out at the secret base of a completely different faction, which happens to be located like three centimeters from the balls of the genocidal maniacs they defected from. Sorry you keep seeing my kavat in the background of my transmissions.” W h a t . ?

...ok, side thoughts out of the way: OH FUCK OH FUCKOHFUCKOHFUCK THE MAN IN THE WALL

As of this point in Warframe’s existence (out of game I mean) they have done... not the WORST job defining the Void, but of course a lot of it hasn’t been written out. (Both because good storytelling and also because the writers probably haven’t gotten that far. :p) Things we do know:

The ship of people who got stuck in there was (afaik) 100% casualties among all the adults. Fuckers all went feral apparently? But the kids lived. Although they came out weird and dangerous (understatement). People do still go into the Void atm, generally via opening a portal on another planet. People... don’t always come OUT of the Void, although presumably they come back out often enough for the major powers to feel like it’s not a waste of time to ransack that shit. I don’t know where they stuck this lore but iirc there’s some kind of horrible THING in there that basically shoves some kind of hijacking device into you, if it catches you, and then it controls you forever. (IDK if dying gets you out of it or if it can just be like HA HA NICE TRY MEATPUPPET and get you back up. With how this setting is, could go either way.) This is why all the Void tilesets have a variety of mob types: the THING has been hijacking the assortment of factions that wander in. Like I said, people don’t always come back out during those expeditions.

So the first badbadnotgood hint I personally played through was at the end of The War Within (Space Lil’ Shit 2 Electric Boogaloo, Now With More Tremors). It’s blink-and-you’ll-miss-it brief, but while Space Dad is congratulating you, your Operator suddenly stares into the camera, eyes turning into voids, and a creepy voice taunts you, something about “don’t forget what you owe me kid” or the like. It’s a single line, but the way the camera snaps around (complete with some fucking over-the-top visual effects) & Space Dad catches your arm while you shake it off... thaaaaaat’s not a trivial hallucination.

Anyway. Among other things, during the Chains of Harrow the RVC is very fucking explicit about how Rell was grappling with/cockblocking a specific “vast and indifferent” entity that lives in the Void. Offhandedly, The Lotus dismisses this while mentioning that basically all Tenno have mentioned or claimed similar things. (RVC keeps on insisting.) Right before Rell finally dies, he asks who’s gonna take over his job if he stops, and the RVC coos that all the other Tenno will have to help now.

I have been told by one friend– without checking around, so could be wrong, but– that once you’ve finished the Chains of Harrow you’ll periodically get jumpscared on your ship by a creepy asshole who looks identical to your Operator, but has a different (asshole) voice. Said friend randomly turned around once and what looked like their Operator was sitting on their nav console. And taunted them. Said friend sprinted down to the transference pod to make sure their Operator was in the right place– they were– but was pretty freaked out by it.

Obviously, we don’t have much more detail at this point, but uH. This is not painting a rosy picture of the shit lurking out there in the Void. To me this is pointing towards some kind of extradimensional horror that you really don’t want to draw the attention of... and we’ve gone and done that. Possibly even that the Tenno were lucky to scamper away the first time after it got to play with an entire ship of people (some guessing there, but given its asshole moves so far...) and going anywhere near the Void after that was about as wise as standing on a hilltop in a thunderstorm while double-dog-daring Zeus.

I’m so excited to find out how fucked we are.

Given what the orbiter shit involved, the answer is probably very, and also creatively. BALLAS? WHAT?? WHAT?????

IV. Further Thoughts

I really would love to hear the perspectives of autistic folk. That said, I... more or less liked how the Chains of Harrow handled Rell? The quest established that he was very different; the other kids-eventually-Tenno ignored him, while his mother loved him (I’m open to other interpretations but everything I heard pointed to sincerity). He had the intelligence and agency to deal with badbadnotgood, and while the RVC had a certain maternal vibe she was pretty damn reverent when discussing what he’d done/was doing. Also (maybe most importantly in my reckoning) he didn’t get a happy ending, but he succeeded at what he was doing. By this setting’s standards that’s a rosier conclusion than almost anyone else gets.

Now that I’m thinking of it, I’m racking my brains for any parties that have known the truth of the Tenno and been kindly disposed towards them without getting all maternal/paternal. I’m coming up blank. (The fuck is with this setting and everyone treating them like kids btw? All indications are that they stopped aging so they look like young teens, sure, but all indications are ALSO that they’ve lived awhile time, even excluding their cryosleep! I’m willing to believe a certain amount of “their brain maturity stalled along with the rest of their aging so they have the hardware of a 13yo” but that wouldn’t undo living long enough to form a small civilization. SOME parts of teenagers not being like adults are hardware, but a lot of it is pure lack of life experience, which the Tenno have in spades by now. Also, you know, THEY PSYCHICALLY POWER SPACE NINJA ROBOTS, SHOW SOME RESPECT.)

...

And now I’m going to pass out to sweet dreams of tomorrow’s fully-grown space-kitty.

[meggannn]

I need to talk about N7s

because my brain has been whirring since I read this reddit post, and I have some thoughts I need to blab about

((spoilers for the MEA prologue))

OP on Reddit essentially says that watching Alec Ryder in action puts Shepard’s capabilities as a soldier into greater context within the ME universe, and I’m kind of buzzing at this realization. I’m paraphrasing here, but when you play as Scott or Sara in the prologue, you’re running around trying to find your team, trying not to get killed by a new mysterious alien race, trying not to fall off cliffs or get struck by lightening, trying to figure out this weird technology, doing your best to stay alive while figuring out what’s going on. you’re young, you’re doing your best, you were trained for exploration and less so high-risk missions, but you’re doing your best with the skills you have.

then you meet up with Cora, and follow Alec’s NavPoint -- noticing the trail of dead kett bodies along the way, your dad’s been busy -- and meet up with him, only to find that not only has he found the kett’s stronghold, but he has an idea how to get them all out of here.

“the weather is the problem, so we’re fixing the weather,” says Alec Ryder.

“...what the fuck?” says everyone else.

but Ryder Sr. doesn’t answer; he goes blazing down the path up into the base, vaulting over barriers, yelling at you to keep up while you struggle to pick off the kett that’ve turned their attention toward you.

OP says basically, this must be what Shepard’s companions felt... probably at like any given time. especially all those times when Shepard comes up with some wild idea to fix an impossible problem. (”let’s summon the mother of all thresher maws to take down that Reaper!” “I’ll run around on foot with a targeting laser to distract the reaper while your men take it out!” “guys, keep an eye on me while I hook my brain up to the geth server!” “Liara, take out the yahg while I punch it in the face!”) playing as Shepard in the OT, these ideas make sense to us. we never question it because we’re in Shepard’s shoes and Shepard’s convinced it’s the only way to solve the problem.

the MEA prologue shows us what happens when the plan has consequences: Alec’s helmet survives intact -- N7 gear, I imagine -- but Ryder’s standard-issue initiative helmet doesn’t. Alec sacrifices himself to save his kid because their gear is broken. Shepard travels the length of the Normandy Sr-1 and dies saving the ship’s pilot because he can’t walk to the exit himself in time.

so it feels bittersweet to be playing Ryder Jr., not just because you just watched your dad die when he could have lived -- it’s like playing Joker immediately after the SR-1’s destruction. we literally play the character who’s been passed the torch from an N7, on a narrative scale (Alec) and a metaphorical scale (Shepard). Shepard and Alec Ryder were by far the more valued soldiers than Joker or Scott or Sara -- they do impossible things, they’re the Alliance/the Council’s last lines of defense, but in the heat of the moment, they will always be the last one on the evac shuttle after making sure everyone is safe, and they save a crewmember’s life at the cost of their own.

and it’s not just them; Anderson fights tooth and nail to get him and Shepard through the Reapers to the Normandy in the ME3 prologue, and then you find out he did it just for Shepard, because Shepard’s been locked up for six months and might be out of practice in a fight, and he’s not coming with. he’s going to stay and fight the Reapers on Earth where he know he’ll most likely die.

of the main N7 graduates we know (Shepard, Alec Ryder, David Anderson, Kai Leng), three are protagonists and Leng is the only villain, dishonorably discharged for murdering a krogan without cause while on leave (interestingly, the same year he graduated the ICT, in 2176). Alec Ryder was also dishonorably discharged for his experimentation on AIs, yet he still continues to wear the N7 and Leng doesn’t. I have two theories: either the N7 is a rank you earned and get to wear no matter your status in the Alliance (meaning Ryder is still allowed to wear it post-discharge and Leng just chooses not to, or Leng’s offense was bad enough to strip him of the rank and Alec’s wasn’t), or, once you’re expelled from the Alliance, you lose the ability to wear your former rank along with your title, and Ryder wears it in MEA because he’s still proud of being an N7 and there is no Alliance in Andromeda to get in trouble with. either way, there’s something powerful about the N7 symbol that compels Alec to carry it across with him all the way to another galaxy. as far as we know, he’s the only N7 who came to Andromeda, and apparently he’s going to be the last.

I’ve always found it interesting that Anderson, also an ICT graduate, doesn’t wear the rank even as an Admiral in the field in ME3. and Shepard wears it everywhere. I take this to mean you’re allowed to wear it, but you don’t have to; I also take it to mean being an N7 is not just important to Shepard, it’s how they want others to see them when they walk into a room. personally I’d wager it means more to Shepard than being a Spectre. after all, Shepard’s experiences with Spectres have been largely corrupt: within two years, they took down two compromised Spectres (Saren and Tela Vasir, tho Saren was indoctrinated so it wasn’t exactly his fault), more than most agents in a lifetime. I like to hope post-war, Shepard establishes a better relationship with other Spectres like Jondum Bau, though, because clearly they can’t all be corrupt -- but my point is that I think Shepard sees Spectrehood as a representation of one’s ability to get a job done, any job, and N7 as a representation of capability and adaptability, and of moral integrity. whatever they teach you at the Villa, it teaches you to value life other than your own; it sticks with you for the rest of your career. if you’re a corrupt N7, the Alliance will boot you, and you may have won the badge, but you don’t get to call yourself an Alliance soldier anymore. if you’re a corrupt Spectre, the Council will make turn a blind eye and whisper to another Spectre to clean up the mess.

we don’t actually know the specifics of what ICT training consists of -- I’ve read the wiki and tons of theories just out of curiosity to get a better context for Shepard’s background, but I have a feeling the Alliance keeps it under wraps specifically so initiates can’t prepare for it. still, it makes me wonder now after meeting Alec and analyzing this through the lens of Shepard’s history. we’ll never know what happens at the Villa, but those levels of training must be one hell of a thing. I once read on a tumblr post someone said “Shepard may not have a formal education, but they went to school.”

so knowing all this, maybe it’s no wonder former Alliance NPCs will get mad if Ryder Jr. wears N7 armor around Andromeda. Ryder didn’t earn it.

[dmcracy]

My first group - part 5. The fall

When the group arrived to Slanterk with the caravan they were praised for saving the goods and money by the Arkenbrands. Mína tried to restore the local flora in the park and her young apprentice Kost was helping her (Kost was an orphan boy from the Sawmill who was poaching in the forest where Mína lived) . I guess in this time she was given a gift from her patron Silvanus (because they complained about how long it takes to travel from one place to another). Her god bestowed upon her a gift of feather token which allowed her to summon a gigantic bird Roc and they traveled on his back from place to place. At that time it was a great idea, in my opinion. And thanks to that, I learned that players do not deserve anything for free. Mína also asked the Arkenbrands for help with housing of Bostock and his family. It was a nice moment and I was really glad she said it, even tho I half railroaded her to that decision (that is probably also the reason why Silvanus gave her the gift because I cannot recall anything druidic she ever did). Then they returned to Mirin Kartak because it was a large city with lots of options and Llthrae bought there few items last time they were visiting. A bag of holding and a ring of mind shielding were the main additions. A ring of mind shielding for 500 gold. An uncommon item. And that was the painful way I discovered the crazy prices of items, their rarity and stuff like that. But it was all my fault because I was still pretty new and did not think about the rings properties. Anyway, the party returned and they wanted to report that the horse died. The owner was furious because it was his most favorite horse and one of the best in the land. So, naturally, they were punished. The owner, who was also a guild master of Halls of fortune, made them sign the contract for four adventures, for which they won't be paid and they must do the job no matter the danger. They signed without hesitation and a first job was given to them immediately. A group of young adventurers inspired by their deeds got a job probably too difficult for them and they did not show up in a few days. So Llhtrae, Mína and Rollus were given a task to look for them (one of them was a son of local dwarven lore master).

Next day, they ventured to the mountains, fought some wolves and found the first clue that those whom they seek might not be alive anymore. Eventually, they found a tower peeking from the snow on the plateau and entered. That was when they discovered Enlil. Enlil was a white dragonborn warlock of Dendar and they found him close to the entrance where he was hiding from Ettin. They did not meet the Ettin so they did not care. Enlil was my first NPC I really played as a character. He was my precious. And he was evil. But they never questioned his involvement in the death of his companions and never thought anything bad about him (not even when Rollus used his paladin feature to find evil in the room and it pointed right to Enlil). So they traveled through my first mega dungeon, clearing room after room. I made my first really detailed map from the free pieces I found on the internet. It took a lot of time but I was really glad I could present them with something like that (I still have one half of it - the caves under the city). But this map showed me another complication and I never made another ever since. They took every small detail and little thing on the tiles as it was in the dungeon and did not pay attention to me describing rooms and so on. It also led to a great deal of metagaming (which Llthrae always did but never admitted). The side quest of this task was to learn and gather any information about this new location (new because it was discovered recently after a great avalanche which revealed the ancient fortress). So they found some diaries, mostly in languages they did not speak, and lots of ancient dwarven items. After clearing the whole city they fought the “boss” guarding treasure horde. Enlil died decapitated by the guardian and Llthrae laughed at him how stupid he was. I used Enlil to show them the boss is resistant to magic and boss crited me. Rollus buried Enlil close to the treasure horde while Mína took an ancient helmet and filled the bag of holding with gold. It took her an hour and I finally understood the last trait of her personality - greed (she also tried to snatch a great sapphire on the pedestal but got hurt by the trap and Llthrae got the gem instead). They took around 25k gold. Paid no mind to the possibly magical items on the ground. And they ventured below. Here they found a peaceful tribe of Myconids. They tried to communicate and Mína with Rollus eventually spent the night in a spore trance connected with each other as a single being. Llthrae resisted the spores because he was a drow. His reward was Myconid alchemical knowledge, which granted him an advantage for harvesting components underground. In the morning they explored rest of the cave and found the Ettin Enlil was talking about. She was sitting in the large grotto near the fire. A massive two-headed creature from the nightmares filling the air with a foul smell and her growls echoing from the walls. So they prepared a plan and  they butchered her in one round. By butchered I mean she did not even have the chance to stand up. After the triumphant screams of the adventurers a new sound struck their ears. The crying of the baby. That was the moment when they realized that she was a mother and her child was a few feet from her corpse. The philosophical question arose: was the baby evil as well? After a moment they decided to bring the baby to the Myconids, so they could take care of him. The Myconids agreed and with no troubles on their mind, they escaped the caves.

I think here the session ended but I am not sure. We had a week before us and I contacted Mína on many occasions because we needed to talk about one thing. Exploring dungeon she found an ancient scimitar and wanted to keep it. I also told her that she does not act as chaotic neutral and advised to change her alignment to neutral good if she wanted. Because that scimitar was a powerful sentient weapon, who hated Ankhegs (and other cool stuff which I do not recall anymore). But it needed to be wielded only by neutral good characters with at least one level in a druid class. I tried to contact her four times. She never had time. So I asked her for the last time, very briefly, at the beginning of the next session. Do you want to change your alignment to neutral good for the sword? And she frustratingly replied yes. And then she tried to summon Päivässä, her Roc. But nothing happened. She tried again and again and at the third try Roc came down from the sky. That was the moment when she realized that Silvanus abandoned her and Roc would not ever come to her aid. And I was there to blame. Looking at it now I know I made a mistake to grant them such powerful item so early without any effort and taking it from them with the expectations of understanding. In their, eyes it was not because she betrayed one of the most ancient gods (she literally stopped caring about the nature, neutrality and things Silvanus reveres) and was greedy as hell. NO. It was because I wanted to hurt them. To put more oil into the fire, Llthrae and Mína started to like each other in the real life. So many times I was just interrupting their fun by DMing the game when they were stoned making jokes about the name of the Roc or other silly things like that. This was really hard for me to accept As I wished to stick to the real role-playing and to keep the world as believable as possible and this was disturbed by their reckless behavior. My heart was breaking thanks to that but I tried to focus on the campaign and find some hope. And than Rollus called me and said that he quits.

[galladeblades]

BotW Log #9-1 Gem Farming and NO FEAR.

Splitting in two ‘cause story progression = very lengthy log. No spoilers contained in this part. It’s all just exploration.

hey

guess what

today’s the day we arrive at the base of Death Mountain

its finally here :’)

Whenever I enter a new region, the first thing I go do is locate the Tower. I h a t e wandering around without a map. Which is the main reason why I chose to go everywhere besides Kakariko in the beginning of the game. Having that many empty spaces was quite bothersome. 

Despite having a simple goal of activating the Sheikah Tower, it still took at least an hour to accomplish. Kept getting distracted by enemy camps and somehow ended up back near the bottom of the Akkala tower where the Hinox was. whoops

Tower’s finally activated, high vantage point to look around from, where do we go from here? oh nice a stable. If there’s a stable, there’s a shrine near by AND most stable workers can give directions to nearby locations. Which is exactly what I needed because I have no idea where to go or how to get to Goron City. Which is presumably the site of starting the Divine Beast quest.

Inside the stables, there’s a lady who sells flame resistant elixirs and she had said it takes about 3 to get up to Goron City. Which was a bit worrying as I only had 1 that only lasted for 11 minutes. So I bought them all thinking that was a good deal.

It was not a good deal. 

I ended up getting to the Southern Mine off of one potion, the very same one I personally crafted, and an NPC gave up a piece of Flame Resistant gear in exchange for some flameproof lizards.

After leaving the stables, I had ignored the blatant pathway and climbed up all the mountains. Then kept getting distracted by ore deposits. 

So. Many. Ore deposits... I did get quite a few number of gems, but mostly got rock salt and flint. Plenty of Luminous Stone as well, so those can be turned into Diamonds back as Zora’s Domain. Lotta lotta rupees~ I believe I’m up to 20k now. Always try to keep my Rupee count at 10k or higher, but there’s really no need to. There’s nothing super expensive to buy. There was the house and fully upgrading it, a few Gear pieces are a bit costly, but nothing really demands Rupees. Maybe that’ll change later on.

Anyway, I was gliding from ore deposit to ore deposit and saw a few glittering up by a lava waterfall, so I climbed up in there and mined the whole tunnel and ended up at the Southern Mine. Which led to the free Gear piece and eventually found my way to the city. Pretty straightforward.

The first Goron right outside the entrance was pretty funny. He asks why you’re here and you can choose between three options; Pleasure, Business, or the Divine Beast. If you select one, go through that dialogue option, talk to him again  and select a different answer, he actually acknowledges what you’re doing and get a bit confused as to why you changed you answer. In his head of course. It would be rude to say that out loud. He’ll still go through with the different dialogue, but you get an extra line of text.

Anyway, moving past him. Immediately went into the Gear shop and picked up the matching helm and bottom piece to match the body armor given at the Southern Mine. Mostly just sticking to the pants, ‘cause I don’t really like the look of full suit. The pants look great with the climbing gear set tho.

Explored the rest of the town. Recognized an older Goron at the back of the town and assumed that to be the important NPC to progress/start the Divine Beast quest, so I ignored him and continued on exploring.

Lots of mountains, lots of birds, lots of ore, TOO MANY WEAPONS. 

I have not read any reviews or done extensive research on other people’s opinions on this game, but I have heard others complaining about weapon durability and how weapons break too easily. To that I must say;

What hell have you been doing?

If you just go do objective stuff and don’t do any exploring whatsoever, then yes, you probably are going to run short on weapons. Especially if you just rely on stuff you find on the ground or taking weapons from basic enemies. For the most part, those kinds of weapons have low durability. They are common and basic and not meant to be overly spectacular.

When you explore and find hidden areas/treasure chests, you can find some stronger, more durable weapons. In a way, the common weapons sort of train you up and help you develop combat skills. So by the time you get the better weapons, you should know how efficiently use it, and not waste it on chopping trees or missing a jump attack and slamming the weapon to the floor.

However, I will concede that the champion weapons definitely need to be more durable. Sure, you can remake them at anytime in exchange for materials, but that involves going all the way back to their respective hometowns. These are special weapons and should at least be able to last through a few battles. 

Speaking of fights....

So in the death mountain region, there are these birds called Eldin Ostriches and they drop Raw Bird Thighs [occasionally Raw Whole Bird too]. Chicken thighs are my absolute favorite and if you’re in a hot enough area, they’ll just roast right as they hit the ground. So free roasted thighs. So I’ve been obsessively hunting them down. Immediately whipping out the bow every time one comes into my line of sight.

During that second of readying an arrow, the Guardian battle music plays and there’s that bright red laser aiming in on my back. The birds run off, I swiftly turned around and immediately let an arrow fly, 

It was a perfect shot at the Guardian’s eye, who I hadn’t had the chance of fully seeing yet. It got stunned and instead of taking it down with Shield Parries, I dashed right up to. This was my first Guardian encounter after learning its legs can get chopped off, so I want to try beating that way.

Chopped off its legs, got extra material from those, and kept slicing at its underside. Not exactly time or weapon efficient, but it was soooo satisfying.

Even took a commemorative selfie for this flawless victory. It wasn’t dead yet in this photo, so it still had a chance to get one last attack off. No fear!

Ahaha~ I really wish I had a capture card to record that amazing shot. After that moment, my bow skill confidence greatly rose. Almost to borderline arrogance. Which would have been bad. Luckily, this simple line of thought shut that bad attitude right down. There is still much to learn/improve on and there’s no need to claim to be ‘one of the best’.

Anyway, continued wandering around the area. Found like 3 Stone Talus, or Igneo Talus as they’re called in this region. One of those fights was complete bullshit. I’m sorry, but it was. 

One is located on a small piece of land that is right above a lava waterfall/lake. And there’s a lava stream on both sides of the land too, so if you get hit once, you get flung off the land and into the lava. Then when you respawn, by the time Link gets up, the stupid rock will have punched you and you go flying off AGAIN, Because this was a stupid fighting ground, I defeated the darn thing in a bullshit way. Equip Mighty Lynel Bow, hit the weak spot with Ice Arrows. GG EZ. For some reason I had 189 Ice Arrows, so they finally came in handy.

The last area I had explored before starting the Divine Beast quest was the Northern Mine. The place that’s abandoned, over run with monsters and had cannons. Yeah, I had completely cleared that area out and gotten all the valuables. Fun operating the cannons and destroying the enemy platforms/camps, but...

Well, more on that later. Cutting this recap in two ‘cause this is getting a bit too long.