#the technology that runs the game like few npc walking around

[pandoratelenor]

Honestly so much of da:v keeps reminding me of assassin's creed (in game mechanics, and how characters talk and behave)

Ubisoft do have a canadian office. Have they hired lots of former ubisoft employees at bioware, or?

[sleights-of-hand]

1- Hey! first of all I wanted to tell you that I love Sleights of Hand and with every update my day gets better! How do the guys keep themselves stocked with their medications? I ask because I'm also publishing a fancomic abt Fallout and I'm always struggling to find a balance between the realism of living in a world that has lost a lot of its previous technology and medicine, and still being able to set certain narratives in it.

First of all, congratulations on starting a comic! I wish you a very good time, I hope you’re having a lot of fun working on it! Second off, thank you so much for your kind words! I really appreciate it, and I'm glad you're enjoying my story. <3

To answer your question about how my characters maintain HRT: first, a caveat. I chose a while back not to get bogged down in specifics because I realized early on in writing that the aspects of being trans that are enjoyable for me to write are not the medical ones. I could write about blood tests, prescriptions, doctors, and access to all the aforementioned, but it became clear to me that this was not fun or healing for me. I may explore it in another project one day, but I probably won’t get deep into it with Sleight. That said, I do have some rough idea of how HRT looks for my protagonists!

Lucky is implied to be receiving some regular self-administered dose although I don’t think I canonized whether it’s injectable, topical, or something else. I usually think of him as doing intramuscular injections, though. The only part of this I feel is in any way unrealistic for Fallout's universe is the line where Doc Mitchell mentions giving him a spare dose because injectable T is temperature sensitive-- I will go into this more deeply below the cut. If I had to write my way around this, I would either invent some cooling tool he could use, or I would take the line out and make it a plot point that Lucky must return periodically to some clinic or provider to receive another dose. Since he's a Great Khan, and I headcanon Khans as suppliers of chems for medical use as well as recreational use, I figure this is where he got his T in the past and this who he’d go to first if he needed more.  Nick has different health needs than Lucky which make topical and injectable less viable for him, and different privileges because he was a Ranger, and is an NCR citizen with privileged family willing to advocate for him. He has implanted testosterone pellets to keep his T levels stable, which means he needs to seek out specific medical care from a specific clinic a few times a year to replace them.

Now. A lot of text on storage options below.

I want to begin this section by pointing out that if you’re open to such a solution for your OC, subdermal implantation of T pellets was one of the earliest methods of administering TRT and would basically make storage a nonissue. However if you’d prefer your character use injectable T (or some other form of T) in your story I think you have some options.

When it comes to storage specifically the biggest obstacle I see is temperature. Most medication works best when stored within a certain range of temperature. That said, the game already allows us to run around with injectable chems that never seem to go off. For example it's my understanding that Med-X is injectable morphine, which also has very specific temperature requirements in real life. Yet merchants still carry and sell Med-X, and you + npcs can still walk around with it in your pockets no problem, so I think you could justify the existence of personally-sized temperature controlled storage if you wanted to.

Something that might work for a single person would be a tool like a cooling wallet or tote-sized cooler (sort of like an insulated lunchbox). Tools such as these exist for transporting temperature-sensitive medication such as insulin and EpiPens while traveling. There’s usually a time limit to how long they keep a sufficiently cool temperature, so your character may need to periodically find a working refrigerator or ice or water or whatever method of activation their tool requires to keep everything working. 

As for how your character would get something like this, if they’re a Courier then... maybe they got it from work? After all, wouldn’t it be important for the Mojave Express to have some insulated containers that could be used to safely transport temperature sensitive goods (including medication)? Alternatively, I can see the NCR producing insulated packaging and containers (especially for military use, but maybe some merchants or doctors can source them from California for medical or culinary use too) and that might be how your oc gets ahold of such a thing. 

Another option is to forgo your character having their own stockpile altogether and have them go to a clinic to get their next dose.

TRT has been around in some form for almost ninety years, and there are a variety of medical uses for testosterone, so I think clinics 100% could source and apply T even if it were synthesized elsewhere. Options that come to mind are the NCR, the Followers or Dr. Usanagi's clinic (where she can surgical implant prosthetic aids into people that heighten agility, improve eyesight, and make people more muscular for less money than some guns cost in game... for anyone doubting the feasibility of transitioning in the Mojave...).

Basically I think you have as many or as few options as you want. Fallout has a lot of sci fi tech. What your character has access to could vary spectacularly depending on what you *want* them to have access to for your story.

If I were in your shoes I would probably pick which themes or struggles I want to explore specifically and work those into my plot intentionally; there are just so many solutions a person could come up with based on canon! 

Best of luck with your project!

[jellyluchi]

La Squadra x Gamer!Reader + spice

A/N: I’m not much of a gamer but I have been playing a few video games lately that gave me this idea. Edit: this was drafted mooonths ago when I was still playing Hades which I haven’t touched in a hot minute...

— Genre: nsfw, minors DNI

— Warnings: suggestive content, mentions of oral, fingering

Risotto

Tries to understand and play some of your video games if you decide to teach him, depending on the type of game he’s either really good or he sucks

Prefers to watch you play in either complete silence or let you talk and explain what the game is about

might ask you questions here and there because he’s a good boyfriend who takes interest in his partner’s fav hobbies!

enjoys relaxing decorative games or puzzle games the most. Also horror for aesthetics and good stories.

depending on whether he can tell if you’re in the mood (and yes he can tell) might tease you as you play

it starts with very light touches while you’re concentrating on the game and before you can even tell somehow you’re squirming!

very good at being stealthy when it comes to teasing his partners physically

might even use metallica to heighten your experience! your game is soon forgotten and you can’t remember if you beat the level or not

Prosciutto

Most likely to have you already on his lap when you’re playing if it’s his day off and he’s relaxing

a grandpa who won’t even try your video games unless you can somehow convince him with like.... a 45 slide power point on why he’d enjoy it, otherwise it’s just not to his taste

however, in the occasion that you do convince him, it’s truly a sight to see! This man is as intensely competitive as he is shit at games LOL (running in an fps looking at the ground with no camera control rip)

prone to giving up very fast unless you really walk him through it! Even then might not enjoy it unless it’s an interesting story or concept

will be more partial to games that tackle ethics and morals or are darker themed

But his favorite game is teasing you, you’re already on his lap and he loves giving you cuddles and if your having fun with your game why can’t he have fun with his?

It will be such a sensual and soothing experiencing you won’t realize when it even began before you’re panting a bit.

The best outcome is when you willingly leave your video games to go play with him instead

Pesci

Not big on gaming on his own but enjoys them very much when he plays, loves it if you invite him to play something!

Enjoys building and open world exploring type games the most (especially if the latter has some sort of fishing mini-game)

He likes to be creative with his building or wants to get immersed in some fantastical story

Is also chill with listening to you explain your games to him if he’s unfamiliar and loves watching you play

Now if you want some ‘video games and chill’ type situation you might have to be the one to initiate.

Whether it’s hinting at it verbally or physically he would need that confirmation

But once he knows what you want he’s not afraid to support you under the desk if you know what I mean.

Likes to hear your moans overpowering the video game music because it lets him know he’s doing a good job 

Formaggio

He’s already your video game buddy most likely, and he gets playfully competitive to boot

Likes FPS the most, especially if it’s multiplayer because that means he can go against you and keep score who got most kills

But if it’s a story based game he’ll goof off and sabotage missions on purpose to see how he can mess with the game (gfx, mechanics etc.)

Also just generally a fan of shooting things in game because it’s satisfying plus he has really good aim wit all his practice

when he’s not in the mood to play he’ll comment on your gaming and get close to rub your thighs slowly

if you don’t get the hint he’ll get bolder with his touches until they’re on your ass and interrupting your concentration

likes when you get frustrated from his touches and considers it a victory if you drop your game to make out with him

Likes to make bets like ‘if you score ___ I’ll dive between your legs’

Melone

Not partial to gaming but definitely has gaming experience, mostly with rhythm games rather than traditional console or PC ones

He really likes to know the details of games from you and can listen to you for hours explaining your favorite parts 

Gets into Sci-fi games the most, he loves the world building and the creative fictional technology that they come up with esp for space travel

His skills with the computer didn’t give him much gaming skills but it did allow him to get used to the controls quickly and he gets better with time

Touching you is something he’d rather do, even if its got an interesting concept because nothing is better than seeing you try to fight your moans

If you’re concentrated in gaming or explaining something he won’t interrupt you, but will invade your personal space till you get the hint

If you don’t, he will only inch closer till he’s touching you, first in innocent spots but eventually between your legs or your chest

Loves giving oral during gaming sessions, if you need support under the table he’s your man

Illuso

Never been much of a gamer but he loves to watch you play, especially when you get riled up. He’ll make lots of teasing comments about your gameplay to make you angry or irritated on purpose 

He pretends to look down on your gaming skills only because he knows the anger fuels your hormones

He gets bored quick when asked to play, is more into the avatar making section of the game than the actual game 

The type to run around in game going through the surrounding talking to random NPCs than actually playing 

His boredom from the games usually leads to other ideas, abandoning his console he, very sneakily, gets behind you. Like a snake he’s quickly wrapped around your body before you realize

You would only notice when he’s making quick work of your clothes, he’ll stop if you ask but if not, and usually you don’t, he’ll tease your inner thighs 

Doesn’t really putting his fingers between your legs unless you give him your undivided attention. If you whine, he just asks you what you want (may or may not give it to you depending on his mood) 

His goal is to make you sexually frustrated enough to abandon the game and let him finger you instead

Ghiaccio

A competitive gamer himself, you may find yourself actually challenged when playing with him. More likely to play FPS than the rest. 

He’s definitely vocal and focused when playing, comments on your every little move like you’re making the worst decision of your life 

Thinks bets are stupid (because he’s gonna win, obviously right?) and accept whatever challenge you throw at him 

Is super smug if he wins, but if he loses and you make him do something he hates he’ll be a sore loser and curse up a storm saying he’ll get you back for it 

Ghiaccio takes things at face value, he’s not going to think you’re here to fuck unless you actually say so (in which case he goes very red not realizing your intentions) 

If he’s particularly pent up though, he will wonder about the possibility of but won’t initiate it, you really have to be the one to rile him up well 

if you play your cards right, that is, letting him win, handling his attitude about it, getting him flustered enough, he will be open to letting you sucking him off, courtesy of winning the game 

the other much more fun route would be to win against him, tease him to hell and back and just saying “shut up and fuck me” in which case he will be more than happy to oblige after the stunt you pulled when playing 

Sorbet & Gelato

These two are actually pretty accustomed to old consoles such as the n64, having had grown up during it’s time however you will still have to help them navigate any gaming interface properly 

Most likely not used to PC gaming just yet but it’s terribly fun to have them watch especially if you’re playing horror and Gelato delights in the jumpscares while Sorbet really has no reaction 

Very much likes the morbid games psychological horrors with gore, their favorite characters are always the unhinged ones 

They’re both prone to comment if they’re playing themselves and it’s fun to watch as they’re barely phased by the atmosphere or general horrors of the game

Neither of them have much fun just observing you play your game, it’s more likely Gelato will get bored and whisper something lewd into Sorbet’s ear who smirks and they move into action

The plan is simple, they just want to see you squirm, won’t it be so much more fun to play if you’re taking Gelato from behind while Sorbet goes down your throat? 

Sure, in that case you’d be in no position to play by yourself but in perfect position for them to play with their little plaything

they’re really not much for subtlety and two of them and one of you, it doesn’t take much convincing nor man power to get you on your knees. 

[papermariosuggestion]

What are you hoping for from a new Paper Mario? What's your "golden ideal", I guess?

I could spend, like, years thinking of things I’d like to see in a Paper Mario game, but I’ll try to narrow it down. Here are some of the main things I’d really like to see:

☆ New partners (plural)

• Based on previously established Mario species, preferably “enemy” species, as “The circumstances of one’s birth are irrelevant; it is what you do with the gift of life that determines who you are.”

• Unusual, but believable, and perhaps even poignant, backstories and fully realized character arcs. I want to care about these characters because I’m invested in this world, its inhabitants, and those inhabitants’ personal successes and failures, not just because their design is so kawaii and/or their dialogue is so funny, though those things are a plus.

• Distinct personalities and opportunities to show those personalities off (through design, body language, dialogue, etc).

☆ RPG mechanics

• Built on the solid foundation established in Paper Mario (N64)

• Turn-based combat

• A leveling system where you get to choose which stat to increase

• Badges (Including superficial badges like the L Emblem and Attack FX badges)

• Something new, like being able to use two partners to perform a Bros.-Attack-like move, or maybe even stats specifically pertaining to your partners.

☆ New locations

• It’s a delicate balance. Locations should both feel like they could realistically exist in Mario’s world and feel like something we’ve never seen before. TTYD has some great examples of this (Rogueport, Boggly Woods, Twilight Town, etc). Super Paper Mario has some creative locations as well, but because it takes place in another dimension, not in the typical world that Mario inhabits, none of them really feel particularly “Mario-esque” in nature. They’re all a bit off-brand, so to speak.

• On a technical level, graphics are improving all of the time, but that doesn’t automatically lead to more intriguing and/or more visually satisfying designs. At it’s core, Mario is a fantasy franchise, an escape from reality, and the Paper Mario series is one of the few series in the franchise that really builds out- or at least used to really build out- its world, and that world was interesting because it was new and mysterious, it practically begged to be explored. Paper Mario games should show me something I can’t see in reality; I know what paper and cardboard and lemons and steaks look like, show me underground cities and palaces, show me sprawling gardens with talking flowers, show me a floating tourist trap in the sky. The biggest limit is your imagination, so let it run wild, and show me that, show me that Alice in Wonderland-like controlled chaos.

☆ An interconnected world and motivated backtracking

• No stage-selection maps. Even if the game is fairly linear, I don’t need to have that shoved in my face. I don’t want to feel like I’m working my way down a to-do list, glued to a track, I want to journey through the world and explore somewhat freely.

• No fast travel by default (maybe you unlock fast travel after beating an optional challenge like the Pit of 100 Trials)

• No pipes that take you right from the hub world to the chapter area; I wanna walk…

…and I want it to be through a believable, expansive, intricate world that changes as I progress through the game, a world I could see hundreds of times and never get sick of because its details are constantly in flux, and because those details are the kind that make it feel realistic and lived-in. I don’t want to be teleported from A to B, or confined on a path from A to B to C, I want to explore, I want to discover, I want to experience this world and to form an attachment to it. This alone would make backtracking more worthwhile, but…

• …another way to make backtracking even more enjoyable would be to add events that make walking into a game in and of itself, like having to follow a creature up in the trees, or having to get through a cursed area in Mirror Mode, or having to dodge and weave through falling rocks because there’s a huge earthquake destroying- and altering the actual geometry of- the area. Walking doesn’t have to be a chore for you to complete in order to get on with the game, and it shouldn’t be, it should be part of the game, just as engaging as anything else you’re involved in.

☆ Non-linear elements

• The game should still be fairly linear overall, because Paper Mario games are chapter-based stories with beginnings, middles, and ends, but having some say  in which chapter comes next, or which partner you meet, or even just which puzzle you solve next would give the player a stronger sense of agency. Story-driven games are at high-risk of making the player feel like they’re just along for the ride, and this would help to counteract that.

☆ Spin dashing

• Gotta go fast! Getting rid of spin dashing always felt like an odd choice to me. Characters like the Yoshi kid, Carrie, and Dashell kind of replaced it, in the sense that they allow you to move quickly, but being able to speed up without switching partners, as well as being able to spin attack and just to witness the utter chaos of Mario flinging himself across the screen again, would make backtracking and walking around in general less of a slog. It would also give you more agency in the overworld and serve as a nice callback to the original game.

☆ Free-moving NPCs & situational dialogue

• In past games, NPCs have been confined to certain paths and locations. They might move from chapter to chapter, but they would always stay in the same general area until you triggered an event that placed them somewhere new. I’d like to see characters wandering around, going in and out of buildings, visiting other locations, having private conversations with one another, getting into fights, buying and selling items at the shop, putting on different clothes, and doing just about anything else they would typically do in-universe. Obviously this would be huge challenge to program, but we’re talking about an ideal here, and anything in this general direction would be an improvement in my eyes. We already see a bit of this in the series, but I’d like to see even more.

• When NPCs say things like “Where are your manners, Mario? You shouldn’t climb on the table” and “Don’t be so careless. There are too many enjoyable things in the world to gamble with your life!” it makes it feel like they actually see what you’re doing and care about what you’re doing. Having NPCs respond to you differently because of where you’re standing, or what partner you have out, or what badges you’re wearing, and so on, makes them into more than just set decoration or a sign to read, it makes them people, or at least more person-like. Nintendo’s been pretty good about this in recent years, probably because technical improvements have made it easier than ever before, and I think it would be fitting for a series known for its world-building.

☆ Dynamic lighting design & a day/night system

• This is all about aesthetics because, as it turns out, visuals are pretty important in a video game. Paper Mario (N64) had some really interesting lighting design, notably in darker areas like the secret passage in Peach’s castle, and we haven’t really seen a lot of that since, despite having more advanced technology that would allow for advanced lighting.

• I’d like to see things like swinging chandeliers that cast beams of light, and cracks in the ceiling that light pours through, and mirrors/reflections that Mario uses to solve puzzles, and shadows that hint at secrets. Lighting is a huge part of shaping a world, and using it in a variety of different and meaningful ways just makes your world seem that much more complex and grounded.

• As for the day/night system, I am picturing a game that visually changes based on the actual time of day, kind of like Animal Crossing games do, but not a game that requires it to be a certain time of day for any gameplay purposes, not for the main quest, not for side-quests, and not even for easter eggs. All I want is for it to be bright when I play in the morning, orange when I play at sunset, and starry when I play at night. This also would add to the game’s replayability, as different chapters would look and feel different depending on what time of day it was when you played through them.

☆ Easter eggs that reference other games in the franchise

• I want it to be clear, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that the Mario we see in Paper Mario games is the same Mario we see in other Mario games, not another person, and talking about the time he visited Isle Delfino or when Bowser fused with a sentient tennis racket would really drive that home.

• Make me really look for some, though. It’s cool to spot easter eggs in plain sight, but what’s really rewarding is having to dig for them. I don’t just wanna see Luigi standing in the background, I want to spot little inconsistencies and cracks in the walls and cryptograms spread throughout the world. Sure, the five-year-olds playing might not find them on their first playthrough, but when they’re fifteen and they remember that awesome Paper Mario game they played a decade ago, they won’t just be revisiting a world they’ve fully explored, they’ll be playing on a whole new level, figuratively speaking.

☆ amiibo Compatibility/functionality

• I’m not a big fan of DLC in general, as it’s often overpriced, but I do think amiibos are neat; using a real object to unlock something in a virtual world makes the virtual world feel just that much more alive to me, that much more like it’s a little world I can actually affect.

• The Paper Mario series never really got official merch, and while you do see a bit of your partners’ lives in the epilogue, it’s only a glimpse into their future, so getting little figurines of past partners that make them appear in the game, tell you about a recent adventure they had, and give you a unique badge based on their abilities/personalities/experiences, would be like a dream come true.

☆ Just be creative (I know it’s not that simple, but like, figure it out)

• Surprise me; throw in something inventive and revolutionary, like Wall Merging from A Link Between Worlds or The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device from Portal.  There’s a whole universe of possibilities out there; please dream a little bigger than items disguised as a gameplay element and a hammer that fills in glaringly obvious gaps in paint. Nintendo’s always pushing the video game industry forward with their creative consoles. Use that, take whatever whacky control method they come up with next and integrate it like Super Paper Mario did- but hopefully even better than Super Paper Mario did- with the Wii remote.

• I see fans writing stories, and drawing characters, and making sprites, and working with all kinds of mediums to make art that knocks everything from recent “Paper Mario” games out of the park. Obviously Intelligent Systems can’t just steal those ideas, but I’d love to see them get on that wavelength and match that passion.

• Make a game that you’d never want to put down because you just can’t get enough of it, and don’t even bother with that “You’ve been playing for a while. You wanna take a break, grab a snack, chill out for a sec?” message; if I die playing your game because it’s truly that good, I see that as an absolute win. That’s legendary game design, my friend; aim to make a Paper Mario game so good it’s worth dying for, and if you fall short of that, hopefully you’ll still land on something pretty awesome.

[warsofasoiaf]

I'd love to hear your thoughts about Cyberpunk 2077 when you are ready/have finished the game. Maybe besides the game itself you have an opinion about the crunch, bugs and general feeling of disappointment in a good portion of the fans

Sure thing. It’s going to be a long write-up and there are going to be spoilers, so you better believe that this is going to have a cut. Reader beware. For context, I have beat the game, and I played it on PC and only on PC.

I’ve been a fan of the cyberpunk genre for a long time. Transhuman and techno-utopian sci-fi always struck me the wrong way; that it was too optimistic and ignored a less savory element of human nature that simply would not go away with the advent of new technologies. While I only briefly dipped my toes in the water of the Cyberpunk tabletop game (I was always a bigger fan of Shadowrun), I did enjoy the genre and was eager to see a AAA cyberpunk game. I also really liked CD Projekt Red with what they did with RPG’s like the Witcher 3. Particularly when it came to the smaller sidequests, they really found a way to bring a lot of noir elements and hard-hitting character moments to the game, and I believed that it could translate very well into a cyberpunk game. After all, noir was a similar response to detective fiction to what the cyberpunk genre was to earlier elements of sci-fi. So I was quite optimistic when it came out. What we got was...well, it didn’t quite meet up with expectations.

There are some good things about the game. Assuming you have a beefy rig, PC cyberpunk looks pretty good. Not only does it look good, but it looks like the dismal 1980′s inspired future that had defined the genre, with its neon lights, omnipresent advertising to the point of satire (amphetamines are available from vending machines in a variety of flavors and commercials are completely ridiculous). The fixers are great examples of different cyberpunk archetypes like Regina Jones being a media or the Padre being an underclass civic leader looking to protect his community with a bit of a violent streak. Plenty of the characters had great personality, the nomads and Panam were enjoyable, Judy had a great questline that detailed optimism and bitter disappointment (and the character looks cool and is a bit of a cinnamon roll), River’s quest was a perfectly serviceable cop questline with enough horror elements, they were all fine. Keanu wasn’t a great voice actor, but he did serviceably and was apparently just wonderful with the staff, so I’m willing to cut him a pass. The level design can encourage a variety of different play styles, with attribute points opening up certain pathways. Given that it’s an open-world sandbox game, the goal should be to immerse yourself in the world, and touch on elements of cyberpunk as you go through the various quests, and you do see some of that. You see the gross exploitations of dolls in the sex trade when you go to Clouds, the bizarre elements of self-expression that new technologies can offer such as the twins in Kabuki, Pacifica is an abandoned recreation ground for the rich with the nice image of rotting Ferris wheels and abandoned malls, and you can see the divide between the have’s and have-not’s on full display both in the opening (compare and contrast the Street Kid with the Corpo beginnings) or take a look at the Peralez’s penthouse apartment versus Judy’s cramped digs. Honestly, one of my favorite things in the game were just the consumables to highlight the different food and drink available to the people of Night City. The heavy population means that foods like fried ants or locust pepperoni are common, amphetamines are available in a variety of flavors, and there are no less than 20 burrito vending machines on every street (the future is not all bad it seems). I like little worldbuilding moments like this in video games because it does give a sense of completion and immersion within the world. I honestly felt bad for Johnny Silverhand, because by the end of the game I had to be a bloated man-ball of Holobites Peach Pie and Cirrus Cola. 

The game even took a few things that had aged poorly in the cyberpunk genre and improved them. The Mox is a gang specifically meant to stop the Disposable Sex Worker trope, it’s small and part of the reason it survives is that it’s small, but it offers a chance of improvement over the exploitation that the Tyger Claws offer. The cyberpyscho quest is probably the best one of this. Earlier Cyberpunk had cyberpsychosis as a serious concern directly correlated with how many implants you got. The Solo archetype even spoke about how you risk losing your humanity with your implants as you became stronger, better, faster. Even later iterations had depersonalization/derealization disorders as people who could see in the dark lost connection to those who couldn’t. A quick thought in our present though, changes this. My eyesight and hearing is just fine, but I don’t lose connection or common empathy with individuals who are blind or deaf. I have two arms and two legs and I have not lost empathy for amputees. Why then, would I lose empathy and connection with someone with average human eyesight after I get my eyes replaced and now I have the ability to see in the dark or have telescopic sight? The cyberpsycho quest actually took this concept to task; cyberpsychos around the city are seen as horrifying threats that need the high-threat response of MaxTac to deal with, but Regina is looking to see if she can cure cyberpsychosis. Mechanically, the cyberpsychos are boss-fights with elements of puzzle gameplay (how to handle the different skillsets that they have) and a bonus reward for non-lethal damage which rewards certain playstyle archetypes or prepwork for those who ensure that they have a non-lethal option. The information you find around each cyberpyscho showcase different problems in the target’s life, no real common thread or inciting incident that you can trace the onset of cyberpsychosis toward and identify a culprit. After you complete the quest, you learn the twist: there is no such thing as cyberpsychosis. Each of the targets were actually just experiencing different stressors within their lives, such as PTSD, losing their job, drug abuse, etc. and the breakdown is made much worse because these individuals have the ability to toss dumpsters like they were baseballs or pick the wings off a fly with a cybernetically enhanced brain with a .50 cal. Some of these individuals had terrible implant surgery done by bargain-basement ripperdocs and temporarily lost the ability to discern reality from fantasy, something that could easily be seen as a science fiction adaptation of temporary insanity brought on by a poor reaction to medicine. It’s backed up by the game too. V can fill every slot in their cyberware deck but never once experiences cyberpsychosis. Oda has ultra-legs and flaming-hot mantis blades and is in perfect control at every point in the game, even when he’s trying to jab those mantis blade through your sternum. Cyberpyschosis isn’t real, the irresponsible media just ran with it because fear sells. For all the flaws of the game, I respect the game for taking cyberpsychosis in that direction.

But for all those good things, the game couldn’t help but feel shallower than the Witcher 3. The side-gigs were formulaic to the point where they even led with a category. There were few twists and very little that was surprising. Exposition for these quests was limited to a short text dump and a minute voice-over. Night City was big but it was relatively sparse. NCPD never seemed to intervene in any crimes (giving the character the chance to do so) but every so often they were around a taped-off crime scene, giving a sense of inconsistency that hampered the world. While it was a bustling city, it felt empty, most of the people I saw on the street were meaningless, just NPC’s walking around to give a sense of activity. There was little in the way of things to see and experience that was unique or different about these NPC’s. They weren’t crowds I could hide in like Hitman, they didn’t have ambient dialogue that showcased something like the Witcher 3. Much like other open-world games, this sense of shallowness pervaded much of the empty space of the world; it was incredibly *big* but there was little in it. Much of the time I was driving or running through empty space that was completely worthless to me. Normal for city living, but all of that is wasted time going from point A to point B, and unlike the Witcher 3, there were no small in-game beats to help flesh it out or build it. I never had Millie from “Where the Wolf and Cat Play” give me a little picture, I never had people from a liberated village say “hey, look, it’s that guy Geralt, thanks for killing those harpies.” These were things that made the Witcher 3′s world really come alive. I didn’t have that, and I was left

Of course, we also have to handle the elephant in the room, and that was CDPR’s conduct both during production and after release. Crunch has become an increasingly common part of video game development and it’s not healthy to developers. CDPR had been called out on it once before, but it seemed there was little change in how that happens. I’m not quite sure if there’s anything we can do, and I’m sympathetic to the need to hit target deadlines to actually deliver a finished product, but there’s got to be a better way, whether that’s a change to the incentive structure, or something, because it’s hurting folks. I like games like Witcher 3 and Red Dead Redemption 2, but I understand that there was a real human cost to these masterpieces, and I wonder if there’s something we can do about that. 

Similarly, what happened after launch was beyond terrible. The last-gen console version were simply not ready for release and shouldn’t have been released to the public. CDPR openly covered up this, by only previewing the PC version, they hid the fact that the game wasn’t ready, and they avoided delaying the last-gen console version because they were looking to capitalize on holiday sales. I’m sympathetic for the need to generate sales, but the flip of this is that you have to deliver the product you advertise, and for last-gen consoles, they didn’t do so. Bugs are one thing, these games are massive undertakings of interacting systems and bugs are inevitable; some of my favorite games were buggy at release, notably Fallout: New Vegas, Witcher 3, and so on. But this went past bugs and into malpractice and deception, and that’s something that’s less forgivable. I personally had few bugs that were out-and-out game breaking but things not loading, quests bugging out, floating bags and other physics wonkiness, all of that hurt the immersion. I’d be more willing to forgive the game without the deception; I can laugh at bugs but not at ignoring quality control to get holiday sales instead of delivering a quality product. Consumers are angry at CDPR and have every reason to be, and I’m one of them. I can express my disappointment and I will do so, we need developers to stop these practices and the only way we can do that is through our wallets and words. I’m not going to tell anyone not to buy CDPR games, that’s entirely your decision because I’m a radical individualist. But I am going to say that they’ve burned a lot of their good karma with me; credibility is a hard beast to gain back. Much like other big name developers, CDPR has hurt their standing in my eyes. Whether that means I need to resort to going to indie games for a little bit or something else, I don’t know, but it’s rough. I liked CDPR and wanted to believe it’d be different, but it seems to not be the case.

Overall, I think it’s another AAA open-world game only made better by my love of the genre, and that stings. I enjoyed some aspects of it, and I hope that through Free DLC, patching, and other good deeds, the game can redeem itself and stimulate new love of the genre. But CDPR needs to do a lot more than that to win back my affection. If anyone has anything specifically that they want to know about the game, such as talk about the main story, individual characters, or so on, just ask.

Thanks for the question, Khef.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[myupostsheadcanons]

Books “Read” in 2020

Previous entries: 2019, 2018, 2017

I don’t rank these based on actual literary quality, but by how much i enjoyed reading/listening to them. Hopefully with Audible’s new “Premium Included” feature it would cut down on so many Average/Below Average books next year, it’ll give me more of a choice on what kind of books/podcasts i want to listen to rather than given a handful to pick from a month.

The “Top 10″

Forging Hephaestus / Bones of the Past: Villains' Code Series - Drew Hayes has became one of my fav authors over the past couple years, from his Vampire Accountant series, 5-min Sherlock, and his Spells, Swords, and Stealth books. FH is one of the few times he wrote Adult Fiction. This is the second time Drew created a world of super heroes (the YA Superpowereds), thus previous experience in dealing with the nuisances and meta of super meta dynamics. I love the main character, Tori, and especially love many of the side characters (like Ivan) and the comedy is the right tone of dark and not-in-your-face (not quite as well -written as something like The Venture Bros or The Tick, but being adult fiction you can get away with having characters named Johnny Three-Dicks and Captain Bullshit)

Dreadnought / Sovereign - the second super hero series I’ve placed on my top list this year, this one is Young Adult. This one is far more serious and deals heavily in issues like trans and women’s rights, mental abuse, and social acceptance. The main character is full of angst, but that should be a given for a 15 yo with lots of mental baggage and new social pressures. The main character is the main draw, most of the side characters are a bit more one-dimensional.

The Trouble with Peace: Age of Madness, Book 2. It isn’t a “First Law” book if you don’t want to strangle half of the main characters. Many are stepping outside of the shadow of the previous generation and finding themselves falling flat on their faces. If they aren’t at each other’s throats, they would soon have to deal with rebellion in the streets and the constant looming presence of Bayaz, who waits to sweep the board clear and rearrange the pieces the way he sees fit.

Michael J. Sullivan’s: The Riyria and Legend of the First Empire Books.

Riyria Revelations: Theft of Swords / Rise of Empire / Heir of Novron

Riyria Chronicles: The Crown Tower / The Rose and Thorn / The Death of Dulgath

Age of Death / Age of Empyre, Pile of Bones

After finishing the Legend of the First Empire books that came out earlier this year, I went ahead and read the prior series that takes place in the same world. I would suggest reading the entire series by Publish order, but they can be read Chronologically. I read the Legends books first, and it helped me see where Sullivan was heading and when he started to plan out the Legends books in more detail. (The early cameo of the Main characters from Legends in a mural in Heir of Novron, and knowing who is behind the events in Dulgath)

The Dresden Files: Peace Talks / Battle Grounds - They really should be read as one book, because that was how they were written. It is a Feast of Crows / Dances with Dragons situation, where the book got too long and got split up. The fans are pretty divided by the book(s) ending and how some of the main characters are handled, but these are Jim Butcher’s characters not theirs and he can drop bridges on whom ever he wants.

What Lies Beyond: Cycle of Galand, Book 6 - This is a “mythology” book (like Sullivan’s Age of Death was) where it introduces most of the Pantheon of their religion and corrects much of the mythology that had been lost over the decades. They seek a weapon to vanquish the Litch and save their world and the afterlife from oblivion, but not all of their Gods are happy about it.

Will Destroy the Galaxy for Cash - Yahtzee (Zero Punctuation!) has to be one of my favorite internet personalities for the past 10+ years, and I eat up every book he puts out and because he wrote the books, and is an actor himself, he could deliver the lines as they are intended to be. The sequel to Will Save the Galaxy for Food does not disappoint and even ups the stakes from the previous book.

The Girl Who Drank the Moon - This has to be one of the most charming books I’ve read. It is magic and wonder at it’s finest, no need for long explanations on how the world works. If you like Ghibli movies, you’ll be interested in this book. It has its dark moments but isn’t outside of what you’ll find in something like Spirited Away, Princess Mononoke, and Nausicca.

The Goblin Emperor - the youngest son of the Elf King finds himself emperor after the death of his father and brothers in an assassination. The only problem is, that he is only half-elf... his late mother was a Goblin, and he had been in exile as an embarrassment to the family for most of his life. He knows nothing of how the courts work and what’s left of his own family work against him just for being who he is.

Lost Gods: Brom - I liked this book more than I did American Gods (which I read a few years ago). It is darker and bleaker by the bucket loads. One of the few books with a downer ending that I actually liked. I would compare this book to books like All the Pretty Horses and No Country for Old Men-- but it is a Fantasy!

Above Average.

Siege Tactics (Spells, Swords, & Stealth. Book 4)  - What happens to adventurers after they retire? A fun concept that is explored with our party of NPCs running across a town full of epic-level characters that no longer have a player.

The Arthurian Saga - The Crystal Cave / The Hollow Hills  / The Last Enchantment / The Wicked Day - A more realistic version of the Arthurian tales, taking the POV of Merlin, bastard son of a princess, as he earns notoriety as a scholar and wizard.  The Wicked Day takes the POV of Mordred, making him far more sympathetic than other iterations of his character.

Arc of a Scythe - Scythe / Thunderhead / The Toll - Science and Technology eliminates death and in order to prevent over population and complacency an order of grim reapers are chosen to randomly deal out quotas of permanent deaths. An example of what happens when every need and want is satisfied by a higher force and the apathy that causes rot in human society and the superiority complex of those in charge of life and death.

The Diviners / Lair of Dreams / Before the Devil Breaks You / The King of Crows - Horror during the Roaring 20′s. Tackles issues as Racism, Poverty, Government Secrecy, Christian-Evangelical Cults, Nationalism Cult Mentality, Communism, Labor Unions, Eugenics, Post-WW1 trauma... It could almost pass as an adult fiction book. I wouldn’t recommend giving it to someone under High school age.

Ancillary Justice / Ancillary Sword / Ancillary Mercy - Artificial Intelligence takes over human bodies as a form of capital punishment, controlling ships and space stations. The dominate human empire outgrew the need to label any gender, using “she” to refer to everyone rather than the vaguer “them/they” pronouns, and only outlying colonies stick to the binary ideals. Think of “The Left Hand of Darkness” but on a more broader scale and as the default majority/ruling empire. Toss in a solid military action novel on top and it isn’t nearly as boring as Left Hand.

Children of Time / Children of Ruin - War destroys the human population of Earth and those that remain are the ones that headed out to the stars on tera-forming missions. A virus created to advance life forms to prepare a world for human habitation runs amuck with out its overseers, creating intelligent arachnids, crustaceans, and squid.

The Licanius Trilogy - The Shadow of What Was Lost / An Echo of Things to Come / The Light of all that Falls -  It is very heavy on info overload, there is a lot to keep track of, so much so there is a summary of book one and two at the start of the third. I like the twist at the end of the first book and that the villain is actually trying to help save the world, and you spend most of the second stuck between who thinks they are doing the right thing and who is actually doing the right thing - a lot to talk about doing the lesser of two evils.

Mythos - Steven Fry - A humorous retelling of Greek mythology. I read Mythology - by Edith Hamilton prior to this book, which is a more scholarly take on the myths, and helps if you are unfamiliar with classical mythology prior to reading Fry’s take on it.

Iron, Fire and Ice: The Real History That Inspired Game of Thrones - a nice history book about Iron Age royalty. It is actually refreshing to read after going through so much faux fiction that is in Philippa Gregory’s books.

Will My Cat Eat My Eyeballs? - Children ask questions to a Mortician about death and what happens to bodies after people die. I listened to her autobiography last year/year before and it is worth picking up this one along with it.

Average, but still good.

Jack Campbell’s Lost Fleet Universe: Triumphant (Genesis Fleet, Book 3) / Tarnished Knight: Lost Stars, book 1 - The realistic space battles just drag me back in each and every time.

The Case of the Damaged Detective: 5-Minute Sherlock - Drew Hayes can’t write a boring book. It isn’t quite on point as his other series, but still fun to read. Hayes is really good at making YA books with Adult Protagonists. It is a road-trip book, the main character is a washed-out operative that is getting his second chance playing bodyguard and future assistant to the 5-minute Sherlock.

Locked In / Head On - Do you remember “Surrogates”? that Bruce Willis movie where people walk around in robotic avatars, well... it’s almost the same thing. A virus kills millions, save for a select few that experience “lock in” syndrome and are able to connect to robots via their brains and the internet.  The main character is gender neutral and you get a choice to listen to the book with a male or female reader.

Murder by Other Means: The Dispatcher Book 2 - more John Scalzi! The first book was in my top list a few years ago, and i enjoyed the sequel just as much. Between Scalzi’s The Dispatcher and Locked In series, i like the Dispatcher more.

The Shattered Sea Trilogy: Half a King / Half the World / Half a War - Joe Abercrombie’s attempt to make Young Adult books. It keeps all the grim dark, but lacks all the swearing and humor that made The First Law books more enjoyable. Many of Joe’s favorite character tropes are still present and is one of the better “Fall to Darkness” stories I’ve read. It also has different POV characters each book and is one of those “faux fantasy” settings.

Mage Errant: Books 1, 2 & A Traitor in Skyhold: Book 3 - If you are wanting to get away from Harry Potter, pick up this book series. It takes place in magic school, but it is its own world and setting and not just a hidden world within our own. The main group of kids are misfits among the school, unable to master their powers, that get taken up by the badass librarian to be trained in more unconventional ways.

Dawn of Wonder: The Wakening Book 1 - the main character has ptsd from growing up in an abusive household, and i thought it was handled rather well. He would be rather competent and cleaver most of the time until he gets triggered into an episode, he fights really hard to overcome this short-falling of his. Standard classic affair else wise, family leaves home because the local authority figure doesn’t want them around anymore, goes to big city, kid wants to do good and avenge the deaths he was accused of, joins the badass school of hard knocks...  big powerful evil thing trying to consume the world.

The Rage of Dragons - It shares a lot of tropes and story points with Red Rising... just in a fantasy setting, not in space. If you are wanting fantasy with POC main characters and a non-European-centric culture, that doesn’t pull any punches, give it a shot.

Earthsea - Tehanu and Tales from Earthsea - I had read the first three books several years back, and i did re-read them in order to refresh myself prior to reading the final two.

The Secret Garden - I absolutely loved the movie from the 90′s as a kid, and finally got around to listening to the book.

Six of Crows - A heist book in fantasy world with the magic users being heavily “Jewish / Slavic” coded by how they are treated and persecuted. I might have thought more favorably about the book if i hadn’t read other books with “street rat slum” main characters. (Seriously, after spending six books with Royce in Riyria someone like Kas is just second bananas)

Unconventional Heroes / Two Necromancers - Comedic Fantasy, the humor’s not on par with say MogWorld, and has more jokes than Fred The Vampire Accountant. It is still a parody of villains and heroes in fantasy worlds. I would find it safe for a 12/13yo to read, cursing and all, though they might not be aware of many of the tropes that are being deconstructed. The reader of the book did better in this one then he did with Six of Crows and Beezer, still the audio needed some editing because it repeats itself a few times.

Once More Upon A Time (Free Audio Book)  - I don’t always care to read romance stories. I like the idea behind it however, to trade their love for each other in order to save their partner’s life, then learn to re-love one another again.

Monster Hunter International - If you think Dresden is too liberal, this takes a hard turn to the right.. replace the magic with GUNS, lots and lots of GUNS. An organization that hates the government but hunts monsters for government bounties. The main cast is multi-ethnic and they do make fun of that at one point. There isn’t a lot of thought into the plot, because action is #1, but it is fun enough to ignore the politicking.

The Chronicles of Narnia: The Collection - i bitched about there not being an omnibus last year, and then Audible uploaded one. The ending is still one big clusterfuck.

Stephen King’s Insomnia - this book is the bridge between Steven King’s two universes. It is a sequel to IT and brings up the Darktower often. IT dealt mainly with childhood fears, Insomnia deals with Elderly and feminine fears.

D’Arc / Culdesac: War with No Name - I liked D’Arc more than i did Mort-e, and Culdesac is more on track with Mort-e. The virus that mutated the ants and animals reminded me of the virus from Children of Time/Ruin, even though i read Mort-e first, reading D’Arc after CoT let me notice it.

Michael McDowell’s:  The Amulet / The Elementals / Gilded Needles / Blackwater - From the guy that wrote the screenplay of Beetlejuice, and the pioneer of the Southern Gothic Horror. Gilded Needles is a bit out of place, taking place in 1890′s, and is more of a social horror rather than a super natural horror the other books are.

Gardens of the Moon: The Malazan Book of the Fallen, Book 1 - high fantasy dark fiction. if you really want some CHONKY door stoppers, there’s over 10 of them in this series. Could’ve done less with the manipulative bastard mage that speaks in 3rd person. I had read The Willful Child, an attempted comedy science fiction novel by the same author, and it showed that the author was unfamiliar with that kind of genera and should stick to grim fantasy.

The Knife’s Edge / Citadel of Fire: The Ronin Saga - This is one of those series that I’m always going “oh, that reminds me of [insert another better series]”  At times it reminded me of The Licanius Trilogy, Shades of Magic, Arc of Scythe, Riyria, Korra... It is just shy of being as good as them, and is rather firmly in that Sci-Fi Fantasy Ghetto and has a bit of “anime” feel to it with their magic users having ‘power levels’ and the power creep. 

In Calabria - My only problem with the book is the massive age-gap between the Main character and his love interest. Outside of that, the whole Unicorns in the modern world concept is done very well.

Pout Neuf (Audible Free Book)  - Journalism and romance during WW2. A quick read and the book really shows that research had been done about the setting and time period.

Nut Jobs: Cracking California's Strangest $10 Million Dollar Heist: An Audible Original - Not only does it talk about the heist, it actually touches on the subject of migrant farmers and slave labor, as well as the desertification of the California Valley.

The Science of Sci-Fi: From Warp Speed to Interstellar Travel (Free Audio Book) - a neat little informative podcast if you are looking for an introduction to some of the harder science fiction.

Mythology - by Edith Hamilton - Text book about Greek Mythology. Like “used in schools” text book. It is a good read if you don’t want to go through Ovid, Virgil, Homer, and all the other classical writers on your own.

The Space Race: An Audible Original - America didn’t win the Space Race. Russia did just about everything first. The only thing we did first was put people on the moon. It also goes into detail about how the inventor of the Nazi’s V2 rockets became employed with the US Space program. As well as the government’s announcement to let space travel become privatized.

Pale Blue Dot / Cosmos: A Personal Voyage - It’s Carl Sagan. Come on! Everyone should be reading them. Pale Blue Dot was being turned into an Audiobook in the 90′s but with Sagan’s death, only the first few chapters were read by him and his partner reads the rest of it (she does a decent job, and i understand why they wanted her to read it, it should’ve been done similarly to Cosmos, with guest readers doing each chapter)

Thicker Than Water (Free Audio Book)  - start up pharmaceutical company scams people out of millions with promises of a miracle machine that was ahead of its time. Story told from the whistleblower himself as he recounts what his job was within the company and how he knew the owner/founder of the company and how coming out about what was going on ruined his relationship with his family and friends.

Don't Panic: Douglas Adams and the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy - biography on Douglas Adams and the history behind the creative process behind the Hitchhiker’s Guide series.

The Genius of Birds - It reminded me a lot of “The Soul of an Octopus” in quality. It is rather informative about birds, how they behave, and how we judge intelligence in non-human animals.

It’s “ok.”

Les Miserabes - I can see why people favor movies and theater versions because of how dense the book is, getting the cliff notes version of the book instead of reading several chapters about the Battle of Waterloo. 

Viva Durant and the Secret of the Silver Buttons (Audible Free Book) - It’s cute, and I spent the next several weeks humming that freaking song.

Challenger Deep - A book about mental illness by the same person that brought us The Arc of a Scythe series. It isn’t a bad read, but if you are prone to get panic attacks and have mental illness yourself, you might get too into it and make you uneasy. It can help with neurotypical people with understanding how some illnesses work.

Into the Wilds (Warriors, Book 1)  - Ah, the cat book. It is prob because there are soooo many books in this series that it over-saturates the kids impressionable minds.

House of Teeth (Audible Free Book)  - I read this book prior to Monster Hunter International, and thinking back on this one, i am reminded about the other. Save for this one is PG. So... the kid friendly version.

The Martian Chronicles - Space Horror, on Mars. If you like old science fiction, like Classic Trek, Wells, or Forbidden Planet stuff. There is a lot of zerust.

Andrea Vernon and the Corporation for UltraHuman Protection - The third superhero series I’ve read this past year. It is not as ground breaking nor subversive as Villain’s Code or Dreadnought. The humor is a bit too forced and parts of it falls into “we can be more offensive because it is an adult book” category.

Interview with the Robot - Don’t really care for books or programs that are set up in the “interview” format where it is two people talking to one another. (I have no fucking idea how this book got top Kids book of the year on Audible, it is more of a YA book... it must been because it was Free and lots of people picked it because the rest of the choices that month were complete garbage)

Micromegas - perhaps one of the oldest examples of Speculative Science Fiction. Written by Voltaire, it is about a giant from another solar system that is so big that humans and life on Earth are microscopic. “what value are the lives of ants to a man?”

The Three Musketeers - i had forgotten how much espionage there was in this book. I would say this is a good companion book to Don Quixote, as it takes its fair share of inspiration from and even name-drops the character a couple times. 

Charles Dickens: Oliver Twist / David Copperfield / A Tale of Two Cities - DC is the standout IMO among the three, it is Dickens’ Magnum Opus. Les Mis did a far better job with the Revolution than Tale did as well. I felt rather obligated to reading these books because of the subplot in the Age of Madness books being about Poverty during the Industrial Revolution and Workers Revolts against the Ruling Class.

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea - the version i listened too made most of the Americans sound like GWB... which is funny because one of them is Canadian, and the Comic Relief character about how boorish Americans are.

Stuck (Free Audio Book) -  it is a neat idea, getting jarred free of time but everybody else isn’t and doesn’t remember. It gets a little heavy for a kids book near the end, edging into YA territory as the character gets older mentally and the people around him age physically.

Phreaks (Free Audio Book) - i knew a lot about Captain Crunch and other phone hackers of the 60′s. There is a subplot of the big radioactive corporation covering up causing cancer to their workers, and the father (voiced by Christian Slater) being in the closet but still homophobic about it.

Silverswift (Free Audio Book) - If you like fairy tales set in modern times, it is worth a look. It is similar to In Calabira in that way. The mom being the nonbeliever and thinking grandma is off her rocker, but the granddaughter knows it in her bones that grandma is telling the truth.

Sleeping Giants - alien mechs from the distant past, once mistaken as the titans and gods form mythology, now being studied and experimented on by the government. This is another “interview style” story telling.

Celtic Mythology: Tales of Gods, Goddesses, and Heroes - there is a lot of names and stories, it is worth prob getting a physical copy of the book to keep things straight and to use as a reference.

How to Defeat a Demon King in Ten Easy Steps - A love letter to The Legend of Zelda’s Ocarina of Time and other RPG games.

Casino Royal: James Bond - the movie was rather faithful, including the part of being tied to a chair. I do wish they kept more of the book’s ending where Bond was ready to retire prior to his secret-spy love interest gets killed.

Aliens: Bug Hunt - a compilation of Alien stores about people landing on various planets and encountering aliens, not always the Xenomorphs we know, but the term “Bug” came synonymous to any dangerous alien lifeforms encountered.

Macbeth: A Novel - retelling the story of Macbeth but in a novel form. If you can’t get past the language of the original play, this would help. It sets it more firmly in historical fiction.

Hannibal: A Novel -  I went ahead and re watched the tv show after finishing the book. I’ve seen the movie a dozen times, and i understand why they changed the ending to the movie. The book is the main one that characterizes Hannibal and the show uses a lot of the plot. Hannibal Rising wasn’t really needed because Hannibal (in this book) does think/talk about what happened to his sister and home, and i can see why Harris didn’t want to write that book either. The audiobook is rather poor quality, they talked too fast in places and i don’t really care for their acting...

The Power of Six - I read I am Number 4 several years back and this one popped up on sale so i nabbed it. I like Neil Kaplan, and i think this one is better than the first one and actually gets into the meat of the story.

Cut and Run: A Light-Hearted Dark Comedy - body parts harvesting.... mmmm.

Calypso - non-Fiction, biography of the author. Talks about his family, his life with his partner, and what he does. Much of it is charming and it is read by the author. this was prior to him loosing his marbles about retail workers and becoming a karen.

Our Harlem: Seven Days of Cooking, Music and Soul at the Red Rooster - the history of Harlem and the Harlem Renaissance. I didn’t mind this podcast so much because i was reading The Diviners during the same time.

Malcolm and Me - another biographical book. one of the free books i got during Feb’ Black History Month.

History of Bourbon (Free Audio Book) - Informative about the liqueur industry in America.

Junkyard Cats: Shining Smith Book 1 - post apocalyptic action science fiction novel. the moment that guy showed up i was “that’s your bf.” and it was so... the plot wasn’t hard to figure out, it’s all about the action and setting.

The Moon is a Harsh Mistress - One of the better Heinlein books. The man can’t write romance and he is rather big on casual polygamy and open marriages. An anarchist-revolution book written by someone that is more on the Libertarian side of the aisle. Mycroft (the computer) comes off as rather antiquated, an AI that runs on a closed server, communicating through the telephone lines and printed paper, makes me wonder what Heinlein would’ve done if he was told about the internet and Deep Fake tech. (the book takes place in like 2075, but written in 1966)

Caffeine: How Caffeine Created the Modern World - the production of coffee and it’s prevalence around the world.

The Life and Times of Prince Albert - Exactly what it says on the can. *rimshot*

The Real Sherlock: An Audible Original - a biography of Sir. Arthur Conan Doyle.

The Design of Everyday Things - using psychology to improve the design of systems, products, and the modern business model.  It gives proper terminology for several common design features and how to improve on existing structures.

Bottom of the Barrel.

The Pagan World: Ancient Religions before Christianity. I was hoping there would have been something in there about European Religions, there isn’t, and the book was mostly Greek and Roman life styles and how gods are worshiped. It let me know where the word “auger” came from and why it was used in the Licanius Trilogy.

Life Ever After - disjointed at best. a couple that aren’t good for each other spend the next several hundred years in a crappy relationship.

Beyond Strange Lands: An Audible Original - The audio was complete crap on half of the voices. Which is bad because this could’ve been better. It is a Pod Cast Show and the director couldn’t make sure everybody had decent recording equipment and the sound effects often drown out the actors.

Henrietta & Eleanor: A Retelling of Jekyll and Hyde: An Audible Original Drama - They were going for a modern telling, but the language used is archaic. They speak like Dickens characters even though they talk about cellphones and computers.

A Crazy Inheritance: The Ghostsitter book 1 - The concept is there, but it is too nerfed. It was made for the 8-12yo crowd in mind by people that don’t know how to write for children.

Tell Me Lies (Free Audio Book) - It really wants to be smart. Who’s playing who and who is the actual villain of this story? If you want a quick “who done it?” maybe look into it.

Evil Eye (Free on Audible Plus) - told through phone calls between a mother and daughter. The whole genera of evil boyfriends/husbands isn’t really my cup of tea, and the boyfriend’s actor was too fake and the set up to the meat of the story was annoying.

The Half-life of Marie Curie - I didn’t mind learning stuff about Marie Curie... falls squarely in “made for TV lifetime movie” quality though. You should not carry around a vile of uranium where ever you go.

Alone with the Stars - A girl in Florida hears the call for help from Amelia Earhart, but nobody listens to her. Part fiction, part biographical. It would’ve been better as a biography and talking about various conspiracy theories about what happened to her and finding the pieces of the airplane.

Beezer - The son of the Devil learning to become a good person with a found family... however, most of the characters are annoying.

The Year of Magical Thinking (Free Audio Book) - very heavy on the subjects about loss and death.

Complete Garbage.

The Getaway (Free Audio Book) - A man being a POS by stalking and abducting women. It broadcasts just about everything that is going to happen.

Agent 355 (Free Audio Book)  - Do you like “American Mythology?” Like the whole “the founders are the greatest people in the world” kind of vibe? I don’t. I also hate the main character for being one of those “i’m smart, because i read books that women aren’t supposed to” girls when she doesn’t really think for herself at all.

[unpopularly-opinionated]

Alright, now that I’ve had sex I will give my two cents on Cyberpunk 2077. I’ll try to remain as spoiler-free as possible, but to be courteous I will still hide it. I won’t discuss story details, just gameplay and my overall thoughts.

First off, the game is fun as fuck. In my honest opinion, it definitely meets the hype it garnered throughout development. It really meets my expectation of an open-world Deus Ex-type experience.

Personally, I haven’t encountered too many bugs, and the ones I have haven’t been remotely frustrating. I am aware that is purely anecdotal however, as it seems a lot of other folks are getting bugs galore. Sometimes an item won’t load in, whether it’s in-world or sometimes it’s the clothing I equip (one time I equipped a pair of pants and it weirdly hid my dick but nothing else so I looked like a fucking Ken doll from the waist down, it was funny, a quick unequip and reequip fixed it). One time an NPC walked through a wall. And occasionally, when standing on an edge (like a curb or a barrier or something) if I move I’ll accelerate to a really quick speed. Again, nothing has impacted me negatively, it’s all just been sort of odd duck bugs.

The game sounds incredible. Honestly one of things I was most excited for was how good the game would sound, and yeah it sounds excellent. Completely fits the theme it’s going for. Sometimes the music is obnoxiously loud which I know could be a turn off for many people, but I actually think it fits the world to have EDM blaring through your speakers while you’re skulking about or in a big shootout.

I can’t really attest to the graphics since my card isn’t that great (GTX 970 for those who are curious if it’ll run on that) so I’m playing on Medium graphics. It doesn’t look too bad at Medium, but it’s definitely a noticeable downgrade from the marketing. Cars tend to pull up as weird metal blobs before their rigid bodies pop into existence. Food looks under-detailed. People and the overall world still look fantastic.

Combat is very similar to the Deus Ex games. You usually have an option of stealth or open combat. Sometimes a gig will request that you don’t raise an alarm or don’t drop any bodies, though so far those have all been optional. I will say that sometimes it feels like stealth isn’t really an option even though technically it is. I ran into a few areas where there’s a guard posted at every entrance, and often multiple making it difficult to sneak behind one to knock them out. Also, and this might classify as a bug I honestly don’t know if it’s just user error or what, but sometimes the game will tell me guards have spotted a body I K/O’d even when I have every guard highlighted and can see that they’re nowhere near where I hid the bodies. I don’t know if it’s like a camera I’m missing or what though.

If I had to point at some aspects I didn’t like, in the interest of fairness, I would say the driving is horrendous. I find it almost completely unplayable to be honest. You constantly have to tap the brakes, never hold the gas for longer than a nanosecond, and turning is an absolute nightmare. I could very well just suck at it, but for me at least, I stick to walking.

There is a crafting system which...if I had to be honest, I would say it’s sort of unnecessary and possibly there just to pad the skill trees. I haven’t used it at all in my 12-14 hours of play, maybe it will become more useful as time goes on, but genuinely I don’t imagine so except perhaps for upgrading your gear since some gear is unique and you’re meant to upgrade it to get better versions of that one piece.

Character progression works very similar to how it works in Skyrim. You have five skills: Body (Strength, HP, Stamina), Reflexes (Speed, Evasion, Weapons Handling), Technical Ability (Tech Weapons, Technology), Intelligence (Hacking), and Cool (Stealth, Persuasiveness(?)). From there, each skill has sub-skills which are too many to list. Every time you use a sub-skill (for example, killing an enemy from stealth or hacking a person) you will gain EXP for that sub-skill and eventually level it up which will unlock perks and perk points to unlock those perks. I put a (?) around Persuasiveness because to be honest, I’m not sure that that’s a good word for what Cool seems to impact. Occasionally during dialog you will see the Cool symbol next to an option, similar to a skill check in like Fallout New Vegas, and so far none have been me “persuading” anyone, but they provide an alternative dialog option which could potentially lead to more information.

As soon as I was able to, I went and paid for sex. Gotta say, 2/10 experience IMO. Like it’s hilarious to talk about this because it’s kinda cringe but like we’re all thinking about it so fuck it, why not. There are legit dick jiggle physics in the game, I.E. your dick literally jiggles as you move, but you never see it, even during sex. I was actually a little surprised (and mildly disappointed because like come on). Obviously I’m not playing this game just for the in-game sex, but I have to say I was expecting more. Also there appears to be only two options for people to fuck, a girl and a guy. So yeah, 2/10 experience. Not worth the 100 Eurodollars.

[party-of-rpg-muses]

A Look At Stuff You Probably Never Heard Of: Digimon World 3

All this time and it took me until just now, despite my love of Digimon. I’d also like to mention that this is actually the only Digimon game I own and I’ve had it for years. Today, we’re taking a look at... Digimon World 3!

Digimon World 3 is an E-rated role-playing game developed by Boom Corp and BED and published by Bandai. It was released for the PlayStation One on June 5th in North America, July 4th of the same year in Japan, and November 29th in PAL regions, all within 2002 (It was known as Digimon World 2003 in PAL regions, since they never got Digimon World 2). And despite being the third entry in the Digimon World series, it has absolutely no connection to the previous two entries or future World entries outside of their title, as they take place in completely different settings with new characters and oftentimes even having different gameplay styles.

The game centers a young boy named Junior, waiting for his two friends, Ivy and Teddy to finish getting the Login Pass to play the new online Digimon game, Digimon World. In the meantime, he watches a news segment talking about a terrorist group known as A.o.A, infamous for performing illegal actions with Digimon. When his friends finally finish, they head to the MAGAMI Online Center.

Once there, they are given the choice of their Digimon starter pack, each containing 3 Digimon; The Balanced Pack has Kotemon, Renamon, and Patamon. The Powerful Pack has Monmon, Agumon, and Renamon.  And the Maniac Pack has Kumamon, Guilmon, and Patamon. After selecting the pack and Junior choosing his online name (the name the player decides), he his thrust into the Digital World to play the popular MMORPG, Digimon World, through use of VR-like technology that transmits thoughts and ideas into the game world, much like the anime and manga series, Sword Art Online or the web series, T.O.M.E. He’s quickly followed by his friends, Ivy goes by Kail while Teddy doesn’t change his name. The main objective of the game is to go around and battle various City Leaders (think Gym Leaders from Pokemon).

The gameplay is fairly standard for most other RPG games. You walk around in an overworld and every now and again, a random encounter pops up, starting a battle. In battle, there are a number of options. Fight is simply a normal attack, Tech (Techniques) are special attacks, typically stronger, but use MP. DV (Digivolve) allows the active Digimon to Digivolve, granting additional abilities and a slight increase in stats. Tag allows for swapping the active Digimon out with another party member. Under certain circumstances, one can use a DNA Digivolution, the two Digimon in question combining into a single being and unleashing a powerful attack before swapping Digimon. Item, of course, allows use of an item and Run gives the player a chance to run away from a battle. However, you are unable to run from NPC or scripted battles.

Of course, in the overworld, you explore and go from one point to another, getting items and equipment to strengthen your Digimon. There are also various Gyms in various areas, where the player can spend TP (Training Points), which are gained when a Digimon levels up, to possibly increase one of their stats. Depending on how well they do, their stat in question will either increase greatly, only a little, or not at all. An example can be seen here. And once a Digimon’s level and stat are high enough, they gain access to a new Digivolution.

And now it is time for my Final Recommendation: Never Let Go Of It||Get It||Hold Onto It||Try It||Consider It||Stay Away From It

I won’t lie, this is a lovely game and a pretty good RPG game. However, there are a few flaws. Main point being that where you’re supposed to go being left highly vague and practically non-existent. It’s also very easy to wander somewhere you weren’t supposed to and wind up fighting wild Digimon that are far stronger than your team. There’s also the fact that some of the animations can be rather samey and it won’t be long before you see most, if not all, animations for a Digimon. Another problem is that at times, the random encounters can be a serious issue, sometimes being unable to take even five steps between battles.

However, there are good points. Digivolution is certainly the best and how its handled. Perhaps the best is “Blast Digivolution”. As Digimon take damage across various battles, a bar just under the HP (very slowly) builds up. And once it’s full, the active Digimon is healed to full and they instantly Digivolve and gain access to powerful Techs, all at no MP cost.

I also want to mention that despite being relegated to only a select few Digimon at the start of the game, after a certain point, you can pick up any Digimon you want from any Pack, as well as Veemon if you so choose.

I would recommend the game for people who love Digimon, but it can be rather hard to find. As far as I know, you can’t buy it on the PlayStation Store, meaning you have to get a physical copy or get an emulator. Getting a physical copy online, however, can be rather expensive unless you know where to look.

Well, that’s everything. I hope to see you next time where we take a look at a European movie that was re-dubbed in America with the script almost completely changed. And the Weinstein Company is involved.

[ghostmartyr]

Pokémon FireRed Nuzlocke [Part 9]

Through the power of no grinding, we’ve earned all eight badges. All that’s left is Victory Road and the Elite Four.

Er.

Sort of.

My team might need some moveset adjustment.

I need my money for Full Restores.

So.

Let me just say, before all the fun is sucked out of me with this, that I love that Erika’s city has a gambling hall, a massive mall, and a Gym made of rainbows. Erika as a stoner lesbian with no fucks to give is the funniest headcanon I’ve had while playing these games, and I feel like there’s more evidence for than against.

-cue all the hidden Pokemon lore that says I am wrong-

-that I assume exists but refuse to look up-

I have fifty coins from talking to people and looking on the floor.

Five minutes later, I have fifty-two.

I miss Voltorb Flip.

...I’m switching machines. That always works, right?

Yaaaay.

4000 coins buys Thunderbolt. Shadow Ball is 4500. I had wanted that for Po. Seemed like a useful thing.

Sigh. Okay, let’s see the damage.

That’s.

Shit.

DON’T GAMBLE, KIDS.

Now we go back to Viridian and make our way to the Pokemon League.

With the unstoppable power of an Electrode who knows Thunderbolt.

Do you see this going well? Because I don’t.

Hey, the gate area is a new route. And it has grass.

But Serebii says I’ve caught everything I can here. Saddening.

Okay then. Now we get to the fun part. I think Sprinkle goes in front. Actually, no. Allenby goes in front. Sprinkle’s slow enough that running from wild pokemon will probably be an issue.

First Victory Road encounter! Something I can catch! It’s a Machop! Her name can be Mura.

Help, though. I don’t remember what this thing is or if it matters.

Oh! I think I know. It’s time for rock puzzles.

I Max Repelled a level 46 Onix into existence. This feels like a really helpful trick for this run. Noted for the future.

First fight of Victory Road! Cooltrainer Naomi! She opens with a level 42 Persian. Ponyta next. Sprinkle food. Rapidash. Similar. Vulpix. This is a good Sprinkle trainer. Ninetales. Fight won, exp for Sprinkle gained.

Oh, first/third gen.

Cooltrainer Rolando is up next. He has a level 42 Raticate. Oooh, a Charizard. Zaft or Sprinkle, Zaft or Sprinkle... Zaft. Sprinkle’s going to have a lot of things to eat. Zaft is more specialized. Sprinkle can have the Charmeleon, though. Ivysaur goes to Heero. Wartortle brings us back to Zaft. Win get.

Up a ladder, Black Belt Daisuke is waiting. He has a level 43 Machoke. Machop. Another Machoke, which Heero has to take for safety reasons. Won, and on we go.

Juggler Gregory only has one pokemon. It is a level 48 Mr. Mime. Po, could you just. Yeah, that.

I’m running around picking up all the items I can. I’m picking up TMs that I’ll probably never use, and TMs like Dragon Claw. That one, I can’t see not teaching something.

But something that keeps--I won’t say it’s distracting me, because I’ve spent this whole run very distracted by multitasking this with other stuff--occupying my thoughts is how much more of a climb this Victory Road feels.

Maybe it’s because this is the Victory Road of my childhood, and some impressions are glued in, but it’s all way more intimidating. It feels like an unknown, even though if you’ve played any of these games all the way through you know what’s coming.

I think even if part of it is just me being overly nostalgic, the way the technology’s evolved has something to do with it. This is a 2D experience, and with the sizing, everything feels way more open. One screencap shows you a lot more of the area than one would from later gens.

Only because it does that, the mazes and caves and such are designed with way more open space. When things are bigger, the paths can be more direct while taking the same amount of time to figure out. You see so much more in the early games, so it has to be less helpful. The result is that the world feels much larger and more uncertain. The world is a big place. It doesn’t feel designed for a person. It feels like you’ve been dropped into it.

It’s a nice feeling, and as much as I adore later gens, I don’t think any of them click with that on the same level.

Level 44 Persian opening things up. Allenby up front has been a good decision. Golduck next, so Zaft gets something to do. And that’s that.

Juggler Nelson. What’ve you got. A level 41 Drowzee. Po. Hypno. Kadabra, and I think I’ll send in Sprinkle for that. Same with the second one. Game over, Nelson.

Something I think would be cool is if trainers disappeared after you beat them. It would be a pain for people who use things like Vs. Seeker, but it would be a neat effect. We get magic teleportation powers when we lose, let the NPCs have a shot.

Cooltrainer George is guarding an item. He opens with an Exeggutor, so Heero swoops in to save Allenby. ... Heero suffers paralysis and a critical hit for her trouble, and frankly, ow. Electrode is next, so Po’s in. Sandslash means Sprinkle. Cloyster goes to Zaft. Arcanine, and we’re back to Sprinkle.

George was guarding a Max Revive. Ha.

This place is too big. If I have to bring the only boulder I’ve seen on this floor all the way over here, I riot.

Pokemaniac Dawson is our next opponent. He has a level 40 Charmeleon. As a side, Rock Slide hits enough when Allenby uses it to make me very wary of the future. My accuracy with that usually sucks. Lapras is next, so let’s give Zaft a crack. Zaft doesn’t quite one-shot it, but it uses Rain Dance, so all is forgiven. Lickitung brings Allenby back out. And we win. Yay.

Cooltrainer Alexa is up. I will try not to make jokes about your name. First out, a level 42 Clefairy. Tear it up, Allenby. Dewgong goes to Zaft. Jigglypuff brings Allenby back out. Persian. Chansey.

Sheesh. I think after this I need to go back to the Pokemon Center (walking, nothing in my party knows Fly) just so I get everything’s PP up. You do not waste PP items pre-Elite Four.

The boulder I said I’d riot over is a thing. I choose to peacefully restrain myself.

Ugh. And I can’t quite make myself go back to the Pokemon Center. Allenby might have to stop being in front, but that’s not too big a deal, and she doesn’t have to switch off yet.

Rude.

Cool Trainer Caroline. She starts with a level 42 Bellsprout, which makes me think Heero’s going to get a status debuff when she swaps in. But plot twist, Stun Spore misses. Good. Weepinbell. Victreebell. Parasect. Gotta say, the theme is really helping me here. Paras.

Good, you weren’t nice to me.

Cooltrainer Colby has slightly better manners. As well as a Kingler. Uh. Allenby deals with it because the things I can swap in make me anxious against a Kingler. For reasons of who knows why. Poliwhirl brings out Zaft. Zaft finally gets rid of Sonicboom because Swift can’t miss. Never mind that both things are useless for an Electrode.

Tentacruel comes out next, and you know what, that’s great for an Electrode. So is a Seadra. Blastoise.

Zaft is so overspecialized in Speed it makes me sad. I’m sorry, Zaft. I thought you learned Electro Ball. I thought it existed in this generation.

Back to boulder puzzles. Dropping rocks down holes.

It isn’t really a puzzle. It’s busywork. But it’s trying its best or something.

Oh. This might be not fun.

Allenby and Heero, you’re my dream team. Cool Couple Ray & Tyra with their level 45 Nidoqueen and Nidoking can’t possibly--okay you know what, Po and Sprinkle are coming out for this, sorry guys. The Leftovers duo has this.

...Don’t let Sprinkle’s paralysis confuse the issue.

...The important thing is that they won, let’s not talk about it further.

...Or how I wasted recovery items thinking the guy in front of the exit was another trainer.

WE MADE IT.

I have 41904 money stuff. Let’s see how many Full Restores that buys.

Thirteen.

But what if... I sold all my Revives and Rare Candy and Nuggets.

...Oh. I already sold the Nuggets.

Hey! Seven more Full Restores! I win!

And.

I guess that’s it, isn’t it? We’re out of things to do. Uh. But TMs. Po learns Earthquake at the expense of Snore. Heero trades Wing Attack for Aerial Ace because I’m shy of Fly and Aerial Ace doesn’t miss.

There are some other things I want to play with (Toxic, Dragon Claw, maybe Return), but those are for if we live through the first few fights. For now, we’re done. We’ve spent all the money we can.

Our team.

(Tarle, please do no ask why you’re there, you do not want to know, and more importantly, I do not want to tell you.)

Held items aren’t as common in this gen, so Po and Sprinkle have Leftovers, Zaft has a Sitrus Berry, and Heero and Allenby are given Orans. That division is because I think Heero and Allenby are more likely to meet up things that are close to being survivable with a nudge. Zaft is.

Zaft, try to live. I’ll understand if you can’t, but try.

-deep breath-

LET’S DO THIS.

The terror mounts.

As the music does.

(Lorelei, no spellchecker thinks your name is spelled weird, but I kind of do.)

A level 52 Dewgong is out first. In the interest of gulping and accepting the OHKO future I foresaw is probably not happening, Zaft is going to use Light Screen as a first move. The Dewgong uses Ice Beam, but Zaft is in the green. Zaft’s Thunderbolt does a perfect orange that should keep the Dewgong from being healed. It uses Safeguard. Zaft throws out another Thunderbolt, and...?

Lorelei’s out one Dewgong. Cloyster’s next, and Zaft stays in. Cloyster is level 51. Zaft downs it in one hit!

A level 52 Slowbro is next. It uses Amnesia after Zaft’s Thunderbolt takes out about 3/4 of health. And Light Screen wears off. Zaft uses Thunderbolt again because a super tanky Slowbro is not the ideal I want in my life, and Zaft manages the kill.

Lapras is up next. It’s level 54. Zaft needs to use Light Screen again in case Zaft is not enough for this, so we don’t have to immediately see evidence of the Lapras’ unbreachable bulk. It uses Surf.

Oh.

My heart places.

Allenby goes out. Uses Brick Break. It takes out half the Lapras’ health, and Lapras uses Confuse Ray. Allenby uses Cross Chop (through the confusion, good girl) because Lapras had a Sitrus Berry.

The Lapras falls, and a Jynx is next.

Heero.

Heero uses Flamethrower, Jynx is in the red and her Lovely Kiss misses. Lorelei heals it up, Heero uses Flamethrower again, Light screen wears off, and next turn. Heero uses Flamethrower again.

Hm.

Hm.

Sorry, Zaft.

Zaft’s Sitrus Berry goes to Allenby. And uh. Uh. We continue on.

Allenby, let’s make some noise.

Bruno sends out a level 51 Onix. Brick Break takes it to orange, and it uses Rock Tomb. It takes 10hp off Allenby, and her Speed falls. Another Brick Break, and Onix is down. The next Onix is level 54. For the heck of it, I see what Seismic Toss does.

Ah. But this Onix is faster, and uses Earthquake. Allenby at 81hp, still green. Onix uses Earthquake again, Allenby’s at 27hp, Allenby tries for Cross Chop and it misses, and she eats her Sitrus Berry.

Playing the odds, I set Allenby for another Cross Chop. The next Earthquake takes her down to 8hp, but this Cross Chop hits.

Hitmonchan is next, and Heero has to fight it.

This is where Fly would come in handy. I forgot the level differential. Oh well.

Heero uses Aerial Ace. Heero gets a critical hit, and Heero, I swear I could kiss you, you beautiful Charizard.

Machamp is next. All of my stress. I’m pretty damn sure it knows a Rock move, but the only thing in my party who wouldn’t have a problem with that is Allenby. With 8hp. We are not yet at the stage of using Tarle, so Heero stays in.

Level 56 Machamp. Level 49 Charizard.

Heero’s still faster, so Aerial Ace goes first.

Oh dear.

OH DEAR.

Po. Po. Po. I don’t think it can kill you in one hit.

Its Rock Tomb misses, so it probably has Vital Spirit, so I don’t want to waste a Yawn. Po, we’re using you to heal folks up. Hyper Potion used on Allenby. Machamp uses Cross Chop, but misses. Hyper Potion used on Heero. Next Cross Chop hits.

Okay, so I no longer have Po. New (probably bad) plan.

Sprinkle comes out.

Machamp uses Bulk Up, which feels unnecessary. Sprinkle uses Perish Song.

I’m about to lose, aren’t I?

Allenby goes out. Uses Seismic Toss.

Look, I genuinely wish I could feel bad about this, but it’s hard to when I think about what’s waiting for me after this comes to a close.

Heero’s last.

...Not actually, but basically.

Machamp is swapped out for Hitmonlee because Perish Song. Heero’s Aerial Ace takes it to orange. Then the Machamp is back. Aerial Ace puts it in red, and then Rock Tomb puts Heero dead.

Somehow, this feels more cruel than what Tarle was initially here for.

lol at Bruno using a Full Restore.

WHEN THINGS ARE EXCESSIVE.

Yeah.

Just say they’re dead.

Because they’re dead.

As dead as this run.

So, what did we learn?

Did we learn that Fly is a good thing to have? Did we learn that being overly paranoid about accuracy stats to the point that you limit your pokemon’s choices is a bad trait? Did we? Did we????/???

Did we learn anything?

Yes, actually.

We learned that me obsessively marking down every single fight in this game had good consequences for future me after all.

We also learned that Electro Ball does not exist in this gen.

We also learned that I have sincere difficulty getting choked up over things dying when it’s very obvious how it’s all about to go down.

We also learned that when using a Gundam theme for nicknames, it’s really frustrating to have a primarily female team.

So, uh.

MY TEAM AS WE GET READY FOR ROUND TWO.

Okay, no, no, that’s not how we’re doing this. It’s actually much, much worse. So much worse.

Before we get to that, a few words to commemorate the fallen.

.

.

.

You were all amazing, and in any regular run, I’d be proud to have any of you as an ace of the team. You brought us all the way to the Elite Four, and you shone while doing it. I am so proud. Zaft, you nearly took out an entire Elite Four member all by yourself. You did so good, even though I horrifically hampered your stats by focusing all your EVs on Speed for a move you could never have.

Po. Sprinkle. You’re the wonder children. I didn’t think I’d ever have the chance to have you.

Tarle.

I’m sorry for bringing you into the Elite Four with the intent of killing you off so that something else could get healing maybe. I feel slightly bad about it. Thank you for teaching me the wonderful HMs Krabby can learn.

Allenby. Heero.

You were the best.

And now...

Goodbye.

ROUND TWO, FUCKERS. LET’S GO.

This text is so slow, take me back.

In honor of the teammate who was left behind.

I get so tired of using “rival” instead of a name just so I’m sure it’s obvious who I’m talking about. I’m cutting that part out this time. Gary is Gary is Gary.

This time, my ID number says..... .

-war flashbacks-

Bulbapedia says 4-6 is Fire. Yoooo.

O-okay.

WOULD YOU THINK ABOUT HOW HARD ON QUATRE THIS IS FOR FIVE SECONDS.

Domon.

Welcome.

You beat up Gary’s Squirtle, so you get to stay.

Hardy is a good thing to be.

Yosh. Time to speed through the fetch quest, get poke balls, and find out if Domon is going to take on Brock all on his lonesome. Gooooood times.

I need to come up with a new naming theme for this run, possibly. That’s one of the problems with doing this. I will eventually run out of nicknames. Nicknames are not anything near a specialty of mine.

Poke Ball get. What could our first second pokemon be this time????

I can’t remember if this happened last time. I’m too lazy to search my blog and check. This one’s name is Neal.

Route 1: Neal (Rattata)

(The above is to try to make remembering what I caught where easier. Will it work? Unlikely)

Oh, before anything else, I’m going to buy Antidotes. I’ve learned from my first time trying this.

Now we face one of our worst challenges. Will Domon be making his way to Brock alone, or will he have help?

Level 2.

Hm.

Route 22: Trowa (Mankey)

Hm.

I vote I find out how bad this can be with just Domon at the helm. Do you know why?

Because I am stubborn and refuse to use the same team each time. There will be some similarities I’m sure, but Trowa’s level 2. no. give me something I can work with, then we’ll talk.

Route 2 doesn’t want me to be happy.

Route 2: Cashew (Caterpie)

Viridian Forest: Lima (Weedle)

Lima got a critical hit and poisoned Domon. Like a jerk. So off we walk to the Pokemon Center, after using an Antidote so we don’t die on the way. Classic pre-Brock.

Domon doesn’t even have Ember yet. This is going to be maybe not much fun. But I think finding out just where Charmander ends up with this kind of start with these rules could help in the future. Or lead to restarting sooner.

Oh good, Ember at 7. Yay.

I’m not going to be going nearly as indepth with what I’m doing this time around. If you’ve made it this far, you’ve read it before. I’ll note when something interesting happens, but we’re trying to make this fast. Elite Four is where the run falls apart. Everything else was pretty okay. The quicker we get back to the tension, the better.

The end of Viridian Forest reached, all trainers down. Domon is level 12.

Now we walk all the way back through the forest to go beat up (?) our rival.

So much walking. I long for my Running Shoes.

This. Might be over faster than I want.

Domon eats the Pidgey and hits level 13. And learns Metal Claw! There’s hope, folks! !!! The Squirtle isn’t using a Water move! More hope!!!!!!!!!

Victory!

Domon versus Brock, who will be the champion?!?!?!

Only I have to beat the light-year kid first.

Domon does! Good boy!

...This makes me miss Heero.

Domon is also now level 14 heading into Brock.

Let’s do this.

Level 12 Geodude? Deceased.

Level 14 Onix? Um.

-whispers-  my son

I’m gonna go ahead and be a terrible person here. Trowa, buddy. Go in while we heal Domon.

Trowa dies. Oh well.

Cashew!

Cashew dies.

But Domon got healing.

So now we wait and hope that Ember burns, right? Right.

It does not.

Welp, Domon’s dead.

Neal follows his lead.

...

There’s no way, right?

.

.

Yep, Lima’s dead, too.

Quatre, stop defending corpses.

Okay, what did we learn this round?

We learned that unless I get lucky on the burn, I probably do not want my Charmander to be all alone against Brock.

Learning is magic.

But I feel like we’ve done enough learning for now, so we’re going to stop here, and the next part will, once again, begin with a new team! Are we excited????

No.

No, we are not. This was a terrible idea.

In conclusion, ban Rock Tomb.

[recentanimenews]

Infinite Dendrogram: The Hope They Left Behind

By Sakon Kaidou and Taiki. Released in Japan by Hobby Japan. Released in North America by J-Novel Club. Translated by Andrew Hodgson.

Way back in the first volume, when I had no idea what sort of series this was going to be, Ray was introduced to Altimia, a Tian and the first princess of the kingdom, and I assumed that she would be the first in a long line of girls in Ray’s orbit who would fall for him. Well, she’s barely appeared since, and while there HAVE been a bunch of girls in Ray’s orbit, with the exception of Nemesis they have shown very little interest in him romantically. This just isn’t a harem series. That said, the princess is back big time in this… or rather her “secret” alter ego, Azurite, a disguise that fools absolutely no one except Ray. It also allows her to function more as a love interest, though since they last met Ray has gone from promising newbie to extremely scary newbie (complete with a new set of armor to make him look even more villainous, the best running gag in this series.) But is Ray interested?

“Not really” seems to be the answer to that. As I said above, this isn’t a harem series, or even a romance, and Nemesis’ occasional feelings of jealousy is as close as we ever get. There’s even a “walk in on the girls naked in the bath” scene here, which the author says has apparently been in the plans since the beginning of the series, but Ray, while acknowledging that Nemesis and Azurite are beautiful, does not seem particularly sexually aroused at all. The series has different things on its mind. Things like building up the world of Dendrogram itself, and its past history, which, as Ray observes, is so blisteringly realistic that it doesn’t feel like “backstory” added by game developers, but something that really happened. This is not a “trapped in a game” series, and players can and do log out (B3 is not around in this book as she has to do a tea ceremony in real life, a detail I liked), but clearly there’s more to this game than just realistic writing and NPCs.

The premise of this book involves the kingdom of Alter discovering a new ruin at the edge of their territory, which could mean fantastic new technology to help them… or could also mean horrible monsters and weapons waiting to kill them. In fact it’s both, and Ray and Azurite, who meet by chance on the way there, have to team up and try to do something about it. We see a few master developed, such as Tom, who wears a cat on their head all the time (the picture here was great), and the guy with the evil traveling band who fought Marie a while back, who still has the band but is not on the clock so is less evil. Always trust a guy who has to blow off a dungeon crawl to play music for an adorable bedridden orphan. The “villain” of this arc, if he can be called that, is a man named “Dr. Mario”, who speaks in a fake Italian accent to match his name but clearly has hidden depths, and his identity rapidly becomes obvious to the reader (but not Ray, whose denseness is pointed out multiple times, usually by the princess in disguise he doesn’t recognize).

The volume ends with a cliffhanger, and we’re caught up with Japan. That said, I think the next book comes out there in February, so it shouldn’t be too long a wait. Till then, let’s prepare for the battle and wonder what piece of horribly villainous clothing Ray will get as a reward next time.

By: Sean Gaffney

[creatalksgames]

DAY THREE: The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion

I actually have played Oblivion before. It's one of the ones that's on here not because I've never played it, but because I played all of an hour the first time before I left, and I think half of that was trying to create a character that wasn't entirely hideous.

I guess I must've given up on that eventually.

I have almost 300 hours in Skyrim. I'm a big fan of games where you can just kind of sod off to one side of the map and do literally anything but your task. I love chasing a deer and then suddenly you're very, very lost. One of the main ways I stayed sane early 2020 was by exploring Skyrim.

This game is baffling to me.

Look, it's from 2006. I understand. It shows. I'm not giving up on the game yet, especially because I know it's popular, but there's a few things that are getting to me with this one.

First thing: the brutally bad graphics. Okay, I'll admit - the enviorment is nice. The resolution isn't even THAT bad once I turned it up to max. But the people. The PEOPLE. Why do they look like that? Who hurt them? Why does every NPC look at you with their eyes flicking to the side like someone off-screen has a gun to their head?

The controls on PC are...unintuitive. I swear I accidentally open the options menu every 30 seconds. The key bindings section does not work. I have no idea if there's a map, a journal, anything. It's not told me, and I can't exactly view the keybinds because the issue with it is that I literally cannot scroll. Maybe I should try plugging in my controller next time, there's a wild concept.

The graphics for the enviorment actually kind of remind me of early Star Stable Online, which I played when I was a lot younger. That's not necessarily a bad thing, I saw some really pretty flowers as I walked around (before I got tired of walking and stole a horse)

Oh also my game crashed. That's a thing that happened. I'm running this with no mods on a laptop that can handle pretty much everything I throw at it, and it pretty much just keeled over and died on me. Yaaay, technology!

GRAPHICS: The characters are attrocious. They're just...I'm sorry, I really do care about character creation. It's just a little bit immersion breaking if my player character looks like something went very, truly wrong at the point of their birth. The enviorment is nice though. The horse I stole was pretty.

CHARACTERS: I've met like 3 dudes and two of them are dead. I can't really speak for characters, except that they are not good graphically.

WILL I PLAY MORE?: ...Yeah, probably.

RATING THUS FAR: Maybe like a 3/5, provided I can stop opening the wrong menu every 3 seconds.

[miloscat]

[Review] Steep (PS4)

I don’t have strong feelings about this game, but it was a chill time. Pretty cool. Ice. Temperatures below 273.15 K.

I have enjoyed snowboard games like Snowboard Kids DS, and Zelda: Twilight Princess, and extreme sports can make for good games. I remember Steep being heralded as a showcase of next-gen technology, albeit two years into the PS4′s life. It’s very impressive to have such a massive open world that you can zoom around so quickly, and the game looks quite nice.

Being in a perpetually snowbound landscape could get visually monotonous, but they do things like altering the lighting and time of day, and it does help checkpoint markers to stand out. The setting is the Alps, centred around Mont Blanc, and although I’m not sure how accurate it is to the real thing, it’s a stunning landscape densely packed with opportunities to do sick runs and tricks on your choice of conveyance.

Snowboarding is the main event, with skiing as an alternative. You can also do exciting glides on a wingsuit, or gain height with the fiddly paraglider or intense rocket wings. Walking is very slow but I guess that’s the point, and it’s easy to warp to events or points of interest. The DLC adds sleds and possibly more, as well as a ton of extra events; I didn’t invest in any of the large assortment on offer, as I’d had my fill from the base game.

I found it nice to get into the zone of boarding around. The events are varied, with races, trick score chases, daredevil stunts, etc. and even repeating tricky challenges was fun (to a point; I left maybe 10% of the hardest ones as they got too demanding for me). As you go you’re always discovering new hotspots and locations, and certain events are a bit more open-ended, about exploring or following another rider around. These were my favourite, and often were about emphasising the natural beauty of the place or the pure pursuit of personal thrills.

There’s another side to the game that I found obnoxious though. Steep leans  into real-world extreme sports culture, with heavy product placement of Red Bull between sponsored events, cosmetics, and even your character drinking it before certain runs. NPC characters who speak to you in VO are often laddish bros or yuppie types. The clothing menus are full of sleek, name-brand outfits and gear. The game also annoyingly pushes its DLC really hard on the player, which only pushed me away.

There’s a choice of a few characters to play as (there’s fewer women than men, I noticed...), mostly differentiated by their voice lines as you’re usually buried under cold-weather layers. I chose RInko Kitano as her scruffy, grungy default outfit seemed to cut against the clean, corporate apparel that dominates the selection. Winning events drip feeds you new cosmetics but very few fit her aesthetic, sadly.

Even after clearing the base game to my satisfaction, the somewhat finicky controls remained a slight sticking point. Ground-based turning and mid-air spinning being bound to the same motion often tripped me up—literally—causing bailouts, and I never did get the hang of operating the map without resetting my position, which caused problems with orienteering events.

The other odd thing about playing Steep at this point in time is that it was at one stage a “living game” with timed events and rewards and such. The tabs remain in the menu but the service is no longer updating, which is a little sad. And the very first thing the game tells you on launch is that there’s a new Ubisoft extreme sports game you should check out instead. Good grief! Talk about a noxious first impression. Anyway, as a big winter sports playground, Steep is a nice time; there’s just some rocky patches along the way.

[thewrittenpost]

First Impressions of Neo: The World Ends With You

So, first and foremost, I will be doing my very best to avoid spoilers. I’m not far into the story (at all), so I don’t have much to spoil, but I’ll still do everything possible to avoid plot-related things! Also, I’ll put the rest of this under a Read More to keep things small!

Okay, so my first real impression was “Oh my gosh, I’m IN the scramble, this looks so good, oh my gosh there’s Hachiko, and 104, and there’s stores this way, and the burger place and...”

You get the point, hopefully. The first game was fun but seeing it in this format and being able to run around and SEE it in a new way was amazing. Seeing the things blocking me from moving certain ways... it looks so cool! I spent the first few minutes (in the demo) just running around in excitement, mostly because I was in awe. Sure, it may not be the most graphically beautiful game I’ve ever played, but damn, did this bring the feels and the nostalgia back. Also, there’s stairs I can climb. Without a loading screen. It’s just part of the world, and I can run up and down stairs. I don’t know why that is fun to me, but I love it.

Now, back to nostalgia... I adored the first game’s music. It had such a specific feel to it, and it fit the game like a glove. So, I was slightly disappointed when this music was not that music. Until I recognized a sequence of notes mixed in, and just... nostalgia mixed with the new, and I love the connection to the beginning. Of course, this is from someone who absolutely loves the first game, so those things may not click as much to someone just jumping into it.

But there’s plenty to recommend a new player! Honestly, from what little I’ve played past the demo, there... isn’t much plot-wise that demands you know the first game well. (There’s also the anime, which they say this is the sequel to, if you want to watch. I haven’t, so I can’t say how good it is, but still). There is one character I’ve seen that is a pretty major part of the first game, but so far, that hasn’t mattered because everyone else so far is new. You get to make your own opinion of them, and if that backstory comes up, then it’ll be as much a surprise to you as it is the others, which I think is very cool for all the people who don’t know it!

Also the Game (in the game; confusing, I know) seems to function under different rules, so there’s no secrets the first gamers have as a true advantage. It’s... very different. I haven’t quite figured it all out yet, but I’m curious! Added to this, everything is much more modern, as far as I can tell. The phones and apps they use are more recognizable, which is neat, since it has been like... 15 years? since the first game was released. It adds just a tiny bit more relatability in the game overall, and makes certain things run a little smoother than if the players will still all functioning with flip phones. Not that I hate on flip phones; I miss mine a little bit, that durable little machine. But this fits the feel of the game a lot more than older phones and technology would.

The battle system is... odd. I feel this is going to be a hit-or-miss aspect of the game. Battle in TWEWY has always been that way, in my eyes at least. Whether that was the dual screens on the DS, or the touchscreen on switch, or even the button only option I’m pretty sure was available, it has always been a little unique with the pin feature and partners. That much at least hasn’t changed, but the battle system is different than players from the first would be used to, which still throws me off a little bit. For those of you curious, each pin is assigned a button; so far, I’ve seen L, R, X, and Y as the buttons. Changing your pin could potentially change which button you push, so if you’re used to one way, be careful for a sudden switch. Thankfully, they do still show the buttons assigned during battle (if you forget like I do) but it still takes some getting used to. It’s not quite as complicated as I thought it was at first, and the more I fight, the easier it is, but it’s still a thing to look out for.

When it comes to characters, I thought there was no way I’d be attached very easily. After all, I have to remain loyal to Neku, Shiki, and the others. Yeah, no, that didn’t last long. You’ve got the returning character (who I’m not naming, because some people may want to see that themselves), but Rindo and Fret? I will protect Rindo with my life. Not only because he is like... the main character, but also, he is my small game child, and I would have much the same reactions he does. Fret, less so, but since Rindo would protect Fret, I just need to take care of the one.

But Nagi. I love her. I am her. She is me. I can relate to this fangirl on many levels, and I’ve only just met her really, and I love her. I want to bring her to life and be her best friend, and go to cons with her, and just be relative fangirls together. Unfortunately, I’m not the biggest fan of her outfit, so I likely won’t cosplay her, but maybe. Depends on how much I continue to love her throughout the game.

The Reapers are not as intriguing or amusing (minus one) to me as they were in the first game, but maybe I’ll be more interested as the Game continues.

For fans of the first game: there are a few little things I’ve caught on to relating to it. There is, of course, the one Reaper wearing an outfit suspiciously like Mr. Mew. But I’ve also heard mentions of a certain ramen shop in people’s minds, and the Prince still exists on the streets of Shibuya. I’m sure I missed things, but those stick out, because I was so ridiculously excited to see these little things make an appearance.

NPCs not really having faces threw me off a bit, but no more than having shadow people walking around during the first season of RWBY; it gets normal after a bit. Plus, the important NPCs do have faces, so it works out.

Overall, it’s an enjoyable game! I do think it is a great entry for both old and new fans, and even if you never played the first game, it’s completely understandable and playable. It looks nice, the characters are enjoyable, and the music is good! I’m not far in, but I’m having a blast, which I feel is really important in a game. If you’re interested, I highly recommend you check it out! There is the demo if you want to get a taste for the battle and some main characters (Nagi is not included in the demo, unfortunately, but if you ever want to hear me rant about my girl, I’m more than happy) then it’s great! I played the demo with my nephew, and then he ran around the house saying he was going to destroy the Noise, so I guess I’ll have to see about getting him a pin of some sort.

So yeah. Good game, highly recommend checking it out, and if you want to talk about either of the TWEWY games, I am always happy to do so!

[postgamecontent]

Shining in the Darkness: SEGA Genesis RPG Spotlight #1

Original Release Date: March 29, 1991

Original Hardware: SEGA Mega Drive

Developer/Publisher: Climax Entertainment, Sonic! Software Planning/SEGA

SEGA's prolific and long-running Shining series is best-known for its entries in the tactical RPG genre, but that's not how it got started. The first game in the series is a first-person dungeon crawler, a format the brand would only return to once more in the late 1990s. Shining in the Darkness was the first development project for both Sonic! Software Planning and Climax Entertainment, but neither team was new to RPG development. In fact, the head of Sonic, Hiroyuki Takahashi, and the head of Climax, Kan Naito, had previously worked together on the Dragon Quest series for Enix. Although most Japanese RPGs released after Dragon Quest take after that important series in some ways, it's even easier to spot the links in Shining in the Darkness.

That link is also how the two teams came to work together on this and its follow-up, Shining Force. Having served in production roles on various Enix titles in the late 1980s, Takahashi was ready to move on, and in 1990 he did just that. He found a welcome partner in SEGA, who had just launched their new 16-bit hardware platform the year before and were looking for any talent they could pry away from Nintendo's powerful grip on third parties. Given Takahashi's resume, it's not surprising that his first project would be an RPG. SEGA invested in a new division called SEGA CD4, which was soon renamed Sonic! Software Planning in honor of the company's popular new mascot.

Naito had decided to depart from Dragon Quest developer Chunsoft around the same time. He formed Climax Entertainment and almost immediately started working with SEGA. Climax's first job was to help out Sonic! with their first game. The new team had just four members including Takahashi and needed some programming and art support. As Takahashi and Naito were friendly from their days working on the Dragon Quest games, the latter happily obliged with the request. Not long into the game's development, there was a shift in management at SEGA. Unfortunately, Takahashi didn't receive nearly as much support from the new management, planting the seeds for an eventual explosive exodus.

Given that Shining in the Darkness was the first project of two unproven teams, it's not that shocking that SEGA offered the absolute minimum budget they could for the game's development. Still, the developers made the most of it, re-using art as much as possible without compromising Takahashi's vision for as immersive an experience as was possible with the technology. The unfortunate outcome is that the game is rather more repetitive than it perhaps could have been. Visual and audio assets are stretched as far as possible, and the game has very few cut-scenes and themes relative to other contemporary RPGs. The game was completed and released in March of 1991 in Japan, with a speedy localization seeing it arrive in North America and Europe in August and September of 1991 respectively.

Expectations for the game weren't terribly high given the low budget and lack of experience of both teams. Somehow, Shining in the Darkness became a fairly big hit both in terms of critical reception and sales. Oh, it wasn't a huge seller in absolute terms, but for a SEGA home console release, it did very well. For his part, Takahashi didn't think the game was as strong as it could have been. He wanted to create better, more innovative battle systems than the average RPG had been including. For whatever merits Shining in the Darkness has, its battle system certainly can't claim to be innovative. Takahashi's inspirations and ideas would lead him down the road that resulted in Shining Force, one of the more successful international releases of a Japanese TRPG in its era.

It's worth noting that in the grand battle between loving RPGs for their mechanics and loving them for their stories, Takahashi was firmly in the mechanics camp. He didn't have a lot of use for stories, and that comes through pretty clearly in most of the Shining games from the pre-Saturn era. Indeed, the plot in Shining in the Darkness couldn't be more generic if it tried. You play as a young knight who is tasked by the king of the realm to recover his missing daughter. Your father, the greatest swordsman in the land, was already sent on a similar quest, but no one has heard from him since. You must enter the nearby labyrinth where they allegedly disappeared and find out what happened to both of them.

The game's world consists of just a single castle, a lone town, and the labyrinth. You can probably guess where you'll be spending most of your time. The castle mainly exists to move the plot forward from time to time. The town is your source of new gear, helpful items, a bed to rest on, a little helpful gossip, and the obligatory church that heals your ailments and saves your game. As for the labyrinth, it ultimately consists of five levels and four side caves, none of which are optional. The size is pretty substantial for the time, and the game doesn't have any sort of useful mapping feature, so you will definitely want to break out the graph paper in order to avoid getting lost. The best the game offers is a spell you learn later on that shows your immediate surroundings. It's not that helpful most of the time.

With its first-person dungeons, turn-based combat, and little more than a menu town to break things up, the obvious source of inspiration here is Wizardry. But Shining in the Darkness also takes a lot of lessons from Dragon Quest, resulting in a kinder, gentler experience. For example, a full party wipe only costs you half of your gold on hand, allowing you to keep any gained experience, items, and progress. Grinding is alleviated somewhat by having random hard-to-kill enemies appear that grant you buckets full of experience should you slay them. You have access to an item that instantly warps you back to town at a relatively low cost right from the start of the game. A big part of your quest involves gathering some legendary equipment, and you even save your game at churches complete with a jingle played on a virtual pipe organ.

While the game on the whole is quite easy for those willing to put in the time to grind, that doesn't mean it's totally bereft of Wizardry's tricks. Later areas of the game make use of trap-door pits, and you'll run into spinner tiles relatively early on. The encounter rate in the game is extremely high, and enemies love to call their friends into battle when they're losing. Even with all of that, however, the hardest part of the game is the beginning, when your hero is all on his own. He has a limited inventory, little money, and no magic. Wandering too far from the front door of the labyrinth is not advised. This portion of the game lasts until you run into the first mini-boss, a crab who scuttles out from behind a wall if you try to enter a certain section of the maze. Take him down and your days of solo battles will be behind you.

None too soon, either. Shining in the Darkness's combat never gets terribly complex, but when you've only got the hero in your party, your options are largely limited to a basic attack, using a healing item, or running away. You're either strong and lucky enough to outlast your opponent, or you're not. Gaining your additional permanent party members at least adds some strategy into the works, as you slowly learn an array of magic spells to use. There's nothing too fancy here, but you will have access to some buffs and debuffs, so that's at least something. You'll also occasionally be joined by a temporary party member who contributes an action every so often. You can't control them, but it's a nice bonus anyway.

There are no bones about it, though: Shining in the Darkness is one of those games where you will spend a disproportionate amount of time grinding. You need to grind up experience to get your stats high enough for bosses and the difficulty spikes that come with them. You need to scour for coins to make sure your gear is as up to date as possible. Some of the grind comes from having to retrace your steps to get back to where you were in the labyrinth. The back half of the game opens up a warp system, but until then you'll have to trudge all the way back through the dungeon every time you go back to town, smashing the weak and worthless enemies that crop up every few steps along the way. Much of this grind is mitigated if you're actually having to explore and map the dungeon, as that involves a fair bit of extra walking and fighting. If you know where to go or are using someone else's maps, you'll have to resign yourself to the idea of plopping down in each new section for a while and smacking around the newest beasts until you catch up.

True to Takahashi's preferences, Shining in the Darkness has a pretty threadbare story. There are a couple of twists that you'll see coming from a mile away if you're well-versed in the genre, but this is mostly a game about pure good versus pure evil. That said, the game has quite a bit of personality to it. The visuals are bright, the characters are well-designed, and what few bits of story that are present go a long way. Little touches like the music from the tavern getting quieter as you move your view to shops farther away in the town help make the world feel more alive. Having NPCs run into you in the dungeons and briefly join your side makes the labyrinth feel like an actual place where characters other than your party venture into. The music is excellent on its own, though it has to carry the heavy burden of being too few pieces stretched across far too much playtime.

With dungeon crawlers making a strong comeback in the last ten years, we've seen many new ideas and systems introduced to make the genre more palatable to the average player. Shining in the Darkness was a relatively player-friendly example of the genre in 1991, but it's a little harder to put up with in the here and now. Even its once-lauded icon-based interface feels cumbersome at times. Still, I think it can be put up with, which is more than you can say for many of its contemporaries. I suppose the real question is whether it's worth putting up with, and that's a more difficult one to answer. If you're the sort for whom the simple joy of mapping is sufficient entertainment, you'll likely enjoy at least one playthrough of the game. There's nothing particularly objectionable about it, after all.

On the other hand, the game's minimal story, grind-heavy progression, and generic approach to just about every aspect of its mechanics don't make for a compelling case for anyone else. Shining in the Darkness is the kind of game that is great when you have too much time and not enough to do, making it perfect for those long summer days in 1991 when the selection of console RPGs was rather thin. Today, its primary merits are that it served as the launching point for much better games to follow, and that it's not especially painful to play. Perhaps that's enough for a game of this vintage. I'm not sure I'd care to revisit it again outside of that context, mind you.

Next: Beyond Oasis

If you enjoyed reading this article and can’t wait to get more, consider subscribing to the Post Game Content Patreon. Just $1/month gets you early access to articles like this one, exclusive extra posts, and my undying thanks.

[gamerszone2019-blog]

No Man's Sky Beyond Review

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No Man's Sky Beyond Review

In 2019, No Man’s Sky

is the water fight of games. When your water balloons are stacked high and your water gun is full it’s an absolute blast. But inevitably, you run out of liquid ammunition and have to pause for several minutes, soaking wet and shivering, while you operate a hose and refill your stores for the next round of fun. While the recent Beyond represents another significant step in the right direction for No Man’s Sky that improves itself in almost every area, the uninteresting harvesting and survival mechanics that underlie it all remain incredibly grindy and frequently mind-numbingly tedious. It often feels like it’s been made by two teams with opposing views on game design, who are each tugging at either side of it until eventually agreeing to meet in the middle or tear it in half.At its best, No Man’s Sky plays like an increasingly elaborate interstellar Animal Crossing. You travel the stars and visit strange, procedurally generated planets in a never-ending quest for loot and money to spend on upgrades for your survival suit and weapon, ships to pilot, rovers to drive, and bases to build. Every time you think you’ll log off for the night, another notification pops up that reminds you about that one last thing you really wanted to do, and before you can say “I need an intervention,” it’s 5 AM and you’re redecorating your fifth base on some remote world or taming a bizarre creature that looks like the lovechild of Big Bird and an octopus.

Here’s how you tame and ride creatures in No Man’s Sky Beyond

It’s easy to appreciate the improvements and additions included in the Beyond update because they’re apparent as soon as you boot it up. Improved graphics highlight things like detail on your ships and a revamped tutorial and mission guidance system makes it much more clear what you should be working toward at any given time. Unlocking new technologies has been reimagined as skill trees that are easy to understand. And these are just a few of the highlights on the massive laundry list of things in the Beyond update that make No Man’s Sky vastly more interesting than it’s ever been.

With Beyond, No Man’s Sky is vastly more interesting than it’s ever been.

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But the same things that make playing No Man’s Sky a wonderful, habit-forming odyssey that would make Tom Nook proud often work against you — like when you find yourself repeatedly grinding the same materials and crafting the same parts over and over again in an ongoing effort to fuel the numerous engines of interstellar life. You’ll spend tedious hours mining rocks to craft metal plates that you need to make starship engine fuel just so you can take off in your ship and see the still-impressive, completely seamless transition from ground to outer space and back again. And even though No Man’s Sky’s carrying limitations have been even further loosened with the Beyond update your inventory still fills up almost constantly, ensuring that the grind will never be defeated. With few ways to automate resource gathering, exploring the cosmos often takes a back seat to waiting for your mining laser to melt a tree into resources for minutes at a time.

And, considering how central exploration is to No Man’s Sky’s appeal, it’s staggering just how many mechanics still seem dead set on preventing you from doing just that. Why are your sprint and jetpack capabilities meters so limited, and why does using them draw from your life support meter? Why does every language have to be learned one word at a time, meaning that even after dozens of hours of playing you still can’t really understand any of the alien races you encounter? Why, for the love of God, does every planet in the universe have violent weather events every couple of minutes that require you to shut yourself indoors or hide in a cave and wait out to survive? Time and time again, No Man Sky begs you to explore it but then (quite literally) forces you walk, not run.

Hello Games’ Sean Murray walks us through Beyond’s many improvements in the video below.

It’s odd that No Man’s Sky still has so many irritating elements, because it’s also very clearly aware that they exist and tries to smooth over the issues rather than simply fixing them. For example, combat remains as dull and repetitive as ever, so the appearance of hostile lifeforms and robotic sentinel space police has been reduced instead of trying to make fighting them more entertaining. Space dogfights also remain monotonous and overly simplistic in Beyond, and while controls seem to have improved and encounters don’t drag on as long, fighting off pirates is never more than an annoying interruption to your travels.

Beyond brings NMS dangerously close to what we all thought it was when it was first revealed.

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And yet, there’s something truly special about No Man’s Sky after the Beyond update that brings it dangerously close to being what we all thought it was when it was first revealed years ago. Getting lost among the stars, seeing strange and unique creatures, and claiming a piece of the nigh-limitless galaxy for yourself by building a home are all rewarding and all but completely unique to No Man’s Sky. It’s hard not to fall in love with it in the brief pockets of time where it isn’t forcing you to beat your head against a wall for an hour while you search for a deposit of copper but the stupid Dr. Seuss planet you’re on has is uranium.

In the course of my travels, I found myself stranded on a massive water planet filled with aggressive jellyfish, stared in awe at some bizarre life forms that were made up of levitating crystals, and explored the murky caves on an atmosphere-free moon. Of course, regardless of how they look every planet still has an identical loop of gathering materials, hiding from inevitable and frustrating storms of heat or ice or toxins, and maybe building a base or riding an animal or two along the way. But still there’s an undeniable rush of excitement in discovering and exploring a planet for the first time that doesn’t go away even after hours of play.

Beyond also alters and consolidates No Man’s Sky’s three main storylines into a more cohesive set of quests that intertwine, and they are much more accessible for it. One of the best-kept secrets of No Man’s Sky is that the story is actually fairly complex, with twists and turns that even go so far as to explain the reason behind the universe’s existence. But frankly, the vehicle by which the story is told – an endless chain of fetch quests and vague conversations with generic NPCs – makes the whole thing not at all worth the effort. Your time is better spent doing the things that are entertaining to you, finding your way to the end of the main quest lines only if you manage to find joy in doing so. (Or, y’know, YouTube exists.)

No Man’s Sky Beyond Screenshots

Multiplayer features have been drastically improved with Beyond, though it still falls far short of today’s standards in many ways – especially where organization is concerned. The Anomaly space station is now a social hub that allows you to encounter other players organically rather than by invite or chance (though doing so is still quite rare), and together you can undertake short group missions via The Nexus or even visit one another’s bases by stepping through a massive teleporter. The number of players in a single instance has been bumped up from four to eight on consoles and up to 32 on PC, but actually organizing activities together can be a bit of a nightmare. For starters, you’re given very few tools to find one another in the expansive galaxy, and unless everyone is communicating and staying together it’s easy to get lost or left behind with no easy way to rejoin your friends. If you find yourself without the required materials to launch or pilot your ship when everybody else takes off, for example, you’ll either get left behind by your friends or will hold up the group while you go shoot a laser at some plants for a few minutes. Sharing resources with one another is still, sadly and inexplicably, not an option.

Sharing resources with one another is still, sadly and inexplicably, not an option.

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Most of the major and strange multiplayer glitches from last year’s NEXT update (in hindsight, a very funny name now that it’s the previous one) have been ironed out, though you’ll probably still encounter the odd bug now and again. I had incidents where my partner couldn’t see the enemies attacking me, or animation issues making it unclear when one of us was firing our mining laser. Playing with others makes the grind of No Man’s Sky much more bearable, but oftentimes because having someone to share in your pain can be really cathartic.

VR makes its debut in No Man’s Sky with the Beyond update (on PlayStation VR and PC, at least), and wandering around an undiscovered planet and hearing unknown critters walk up behind you is an exciting and sometimes unnerving experience. Using hand tracking with Move wands or Oculus/Vive/Index/etc controllers to aim your weapons and tools feels natural, even if you’re still just engaging in the usual monotony of harvesting. Using VR in space flight, on the other hand, is an overwhelmingly positive experience which benefits from your character being stationary and blurriness not mattering quite as much in the darkness of the void. And while it doesn’t fix the monotony of dogfighting, it absolutely makes it more immersive because you can look up through your ship’s canopy.

Watch 10 minutes of No Man’s Sky in VR below.

Movement options offer a static mode with teleportation and click-turning that can be a bit hard to learn but is easy on those of us with weaker stomachs, or a smooth-movement mode that acts the same way the non-VR mode does. However, on the PlayStation VR it was so low-res and blurry that it might make you lose your lunch like it did mine… twice. Still, seeing the galaxy of No Man’s Sky from a true first-person perspective can be a breathtaking experience, even if technical limitations mean there’s still a long way to go before it makes us feel like we’re really there.

Source : IGN

[tumblunni]

I had some sudden more ideas for npcs in the monster petshop game, and a bit of worldbuilding and stuff!

I was just consideringwhether maybe this should be a fantasy setting with different non-human races, or one that’s just all humans. I dunno, games with catchable monsters seem to ALWAYS be just humans, that’s weird now I think about it! I guess its so the line between sentient magical beings and the pet ones isn’t blurred, but in my petshop idea the monster pets can all talk anyway so that’s not an issue. Tho I dunno if it’ll be to the same degree as in the Monster Rancher anime where monsters are all so similar to humans that they can live their own entirely separate lives without a human partner, and like.. start shops and hold property and stuff. Seriously that worldbuilding is so surreal and cool, you get to see stuff like a giant golem running a little metalwork jewelry store in the background of a crowd scene. I wanna see the story of that guy! Tho it gets a bit confusing cos some monsters can’t talk, and some monsters seem to have more petlike intelligence, and those two things don’t often coincide. I still cry forever about that episode with the guy who abused his giant worm monster, and how with its design and how it doesnt talk you’d probably assume its a mindless evil monster but its actually just a quiet sad good guy and like.. how its full sentience level is revealed by it choosing to refuse an offer from the bad guys to join them, and dying trying to save the life of its abusive trainer. And how it actually does succeed in making him realise how wrong he was to treat it like an animal, and to treat animals like mindless toys! And how he breaks down crying and then how he cradles the lil baby worm and promises to do better this time, and then how his original worm comes back to life way WAY at the end of the series and I CRY FOREVERRRR ... Anyway, sorry, where was I before I got distracted?

OH YEAH! Fantasy races! Which really should be called species, but I guess it stuck cos they’re often used as metaphors/replacements for actual racial diversity, especially in traditional fantasy. IM GETTING DISTRACTED AGAIN!!! So yeah that thought led me to an idea for a particular fantasy “race” I could add. But then it somehow developed into... I dislike designing overly humanlike fantasy races, like seriously what is the point of even bothering if they look identical to humans except short or with weird ears? So I thought.. what if this “race” is actually a disease instead?

MORE LONG THOUGHTS BELOW THE CUT!

So, I was thinking they could look like just normal humans but with a greyish skin colour, odd coloured eyes, and some sort of flower growing on their head. They’d be like ‘flower spirits’ but in kind of a negative way? They look like humans because this is a sort of magical genetic condition that turns humans into this. Though they still get predjudice because people are afraid of ‘catching’ a disease that isn’t actually contagious through touch or anything, but people are happy being ignorant fucks and excluding them from society ‘just in case’ their paranoia comes true.

But anyway! The details! At any moment an inherited carrier could manifest symptoms, and rather literally manifest a glowing flower from their forehead. It grants you enhanced magical powers, but at the cost of your life being tied to that magic. The flower is like if your soul has been forcibly pulled outside your body in a very fragile form! You have to tend to it like a normal flower, and you also have to sorta feed it by doing enough magic or absorbing the energy from magical objects. (So these guys’s magical power is to negate other magics.) If left untreated it will eventually be fatal, and if the flower wilts it’ll also kill you even faster. If you fail to take care of it, it drains energy from your soul instead, which leads to the grey skintone and general weak health. But even if you keep the flower alive it’ll eventually grow too big and you’ll be unable to drain enough magic to keep up with its energy consumption. By the time the story begins, medical technology has actually advanced enough to find life extending treatments for this, even if we don’t have a complete cure. You can’t get rid of the flower but you can take medicines to slow it’s growth. I mean, really the problem is just that this thing outpaces its host, its a really impractical parasite! It ends up killing itself by getting too greedy! (Which makes me think probably the predjudiced slurs around these people would be like... ‘you got that disease cos of your greed/sin/etc’. Even though its just genetic.) And then I think the final breakthrough to save people from this disease wouldnt really be a perfect cure, just to regress it to a budlike inactive state. You’ll always be physically marked as a victim of this disease, and you’ll always have the ‘demonic’ magic-draining powers. And it’ll probably be a long time before people stop treating the sufferers like shit, even after this...

So umm.. yeah. Its kinda gonna be like an analogy for the horrible HORRIBLE way the AIDS outbreak was handled by the government, and how it happened because the victims were ‘undesireables’. And how in this post-outbreak world the whole thing’s practically been covered up, lessened, forgotten. And people still deny it, and still treat gay people like shit, and its taken so damn long to make all this progress and just... gahhhh... How pretty much every LGBTQ person who’s that old lost a dozen friends, how people got so desperate they used to hold ‘die-ins’- protesting by literally saying ‘leave me here on the doorstep’ when they were about to die. Make the politicians see exactly what they’ve done! And similarly the massive MASSIVE quilt full of patches commemorating everyone who died. God... And seriously just HOW LITTLE EDUCATION there is on this subject! Even amoungst modern LGBTQ communities! How eager we are to sweep things under the rug, even if its LITERALLY a rug made of dead queer folk! *sigh* umm.. sorry for the heavy subject matter there.

So yeah, this would be a ‘race’ in this setting, or rather a minority group, but in fantasy terms its a ‘race’ but.. whatever. Dumb language rules! Very small community of flower disease folks, treated like demi-humans. And this leads to a bunch of new ideas for npcs that could deliver this plotline! Of course, the main one would be an actual member of the flower disease folks.

I’m imagining her as just an absolute sweetheart shy gentle giant sort of lady. She’s introduced being this terrifying presence walking into the town, your protagonist being the only one who doesnt understand why everyone else is being all hushed whispers and closing all their shops. Since you come from a sheltered rich kid background, you’re very out of touch with common issues and had no clue this disease even exists. (Even though rich folks are the ones who had the power to help them, are the ones who refused, are the ones who spread the propeganda and then tried to cover up all their own failures...) So you’re the only one who treats this seemingly terrifying vagrant as a normal person, even though it’s (initially) just because you didn’t know the situation. Because of this, she ends up seeing you as a friend and coming back again. And then its up to the player whether you fall for all the predjudice and decide to cut all ties with her from here on, or whether you continue to stand up for her rights and try and change the way society treats her.

ANYWAY, her personality once she opens up to you would be the total opposite of her imposing appearance. She’s a chronic sufferer of self-hate issues, who’s been living completely alone in the forest for a long time, after being kicked out by her family and having no-one to turn to. I’m thinking she constantly speaks like... shy equivelant of Fuujin from FF8? One word sentences, but whispered instead of yelled. And like.. “.......ah..............s-....sorry........?” *questioning inflection of silence* “......uhhm........?” *unfurls hand hesitantly from under cloak and points at loaf of bread* *counts out coins meticulously, making sure to spread her hands and show she’s wearing gloves, she’s keeping them in a pouch, she hasn’t touched them* *places them on the very edge of the counter and backs away slowly, assuming you’re thinking the worst of her* *won’t take the bread directly from your hands, just in case* *struggling to speak again* “... th-.... ah-...... t-thank....... you.....” *mumbles her way out of the store quickly and awkwardly* This is kinda how she’s had to deal with buying supplies from EVERYONE EVERYWHERE. This tends to happen with like the one store in town that’ll take pity and throw her some food, at a greatly inflated price. She’s just had to like.. keep trying. Wear them down. If she keeps coming to a town repeatedly they’ll eventually get frustrated enough to give her what she wants.... or they’ll call the sheriff to chase her off. Either way she finally gets a yes or no answer on that place, and can tick it off on her cross country map of spots to find actual supplies. So she like.. CAN NOT function in a regular shop environment anymore. Probably the first hint that she isn’t really scary is how she’d totally freak out at you treating her normally! She’d be TERRIFIED!! There’s no way she’d actually agree to talking normally, she’d adamantly refuse to taking anything for free, seriously WHAT IS YOUR DEAL, ARE YOU A DEMON??? *sobs into the complimentary bread* It’d be a few visits before she actually opens up to you, and even then she’s very monosyllabic. She literally hasnt talked to anyone for years, she’s become so hardened to loneliness and cruel treatment that she can’t remember how to react to kind people anymore. And her voice is so hoarse both from this and from.. well.. the disease. She hasn’t even had the minimal treatment that’s available nowadays... for the rich, at least. So along with her sidequest being to help everyone understand her, you’re also searching for a doctor who’d treat her, and trying to save up the ridiculous amounts of money it would take. Its far easier if you succeed at destroying enough of the town’s ignorance, and make at least a few friendship links between her and your other sidequest pals. You can start having a town-wide fundraiser to get her the lifesaving medicine! Tho probably that leads to its own sidequest of having to track her down after she runs away, worried that she doesn’t deserve it and she’s just gonna cause more problems for her new friends. NOOOOOOOOOOO!

Anyway, the general structure of her as a customer is that she kinda accepts ANYTHING, and doesn’t have much money to do it with. She’s very lonely, and only built up the courage to come to this town on that first day because she heard about your petshop that sells to lower class citizens, and the idea of getting her own monster friend was like a ray of hope in her life! If you decide not to chase her away from the town, she settles in the nearby forest where all the stray monsters live, and becomes like the scary local cryptid. “I totally saw an eight foot tall woman feeding the crows!!! What the fuck!!!” She has a problem with sacrificing herself to protect all these wild animals, they’re just SO BEAUTIFUL and MAKE LIFE WORTH LIVING!! She’s always going hungry cos she gives all her food to them, and then they start to love her in return and she gets a veritable army of feral pals that’ll defend her from anyone who tries to burn her tent down again. So she starts off desperately trying to buy a monster from you, any monster, and then after she gets her first one she starts befriending the forest monsters with its help, and becomes your biggest customer of monster supplies instead. She wants to give all these wild babies the closest life to a normal pet as possible! But she also still will buy literally any monster from you, ever, anytime. Doesn’t matter that she already has fifty, she can always take care of more! Though you do get better results if you give her ones high in defense stats and etc, cos its tough to live out there in the forest, even if your trainer is going hungry to ensure you get the best snacks. Oh, and she’d probably be ABSOLUTELY OVER THE MOON if you could sell her a monster that also has flowers or flower patterns. (Tho i think protagonist would be worried it would be insensitive, but she actually does like them cos they make her feel less lonely) She’s also an incentive to help out with your cookery crafting skills! Cos initially she’s having trouble being able to access any of the other shops in the town, she’ll just buy whatever spare food you have lying around. Even your absolute worst failed dishes are like heaven to her! So you can get more exp from cooking and also make a profit from it, thus helping you get better at crafting fancy dishes for your sweet monster pals. (And your strange tall pal!) Oh, and it’d probably also be an element that people in the town try and ‘politely’ advise you that you shouldn’t sell to her ‘for your own safety’. Because of the flower people’s magic draining powers, there’s the very real worry that one of them could be buying monsters from your store just to drain them dry and slow down their own death. But it sucks to assume the worst of her before you even know her, and honestly even if someone was doing that it’s dishonest to frame them as evil and predatory when seriously they are only committing a crime TO SLOW DOWN THEIR OWN DEATH! I bet that would be the most terrifying depressing situation for them, having to kill a small animal cos you’re having an attack of your symptoms and you just desperately don’t want to die...

And now on to the other supporting npcs I thought could be useful to this plot!

I thought of maybe there being bakers cos... well, the first scene I thought of while planning her personality was her trying to buy a loaf of bread. SIMPLE BRAIN PATHS! WOO! But somehow these bakers ended up gaining a way bigger plot role than I intended O_O I’m imagining them as some sort of Super Duo, just cos this plot idea requires one who starts off sympathetic to flower lady and a boss that provides an obstacle in this. I’m thinking maybe the good guy baker sneaks bread out to flower lady, and their greedy boss is all like ‘no! There are laws in place! Food waste must be destroyed! No giving to the homeless!’ (THIS IS AN ACTUAL THING THAT EXISTS. Almost every major fast food company does it! You can get arrested for stealing food from the bins, or for being an employee who tries to give the food to someone, even if it’s excess food that would just be binned anyway.) But then I ended up humanizing the grumpy boss instead of having them JUST be an enemy. I started imagining this as a family business, and the grumpy boss is their grandma? And then i thought maybe that would be a good vehicle to deliver the backstory worldbuilding about this disease, and now I am REALLY SAD about this grumpy grandma! I was thinking maybe she’s actually someone who lost a lot of friends in the initial outbreak of flower syndrome, and used to protest against it, and became all bitter and depressed after what happened, which is why she’s such a cynical mess nowadays. I think maybe the plot would work better if its like.. the grandkid baker just THINKS that grandma would object to serving a flower disease customer, and then when grandma actually sees who’s been ‘stealing’ her profits, she breaks down crying. Nobody in her family even knew she was so close to the tragedy, she’s been keeping it secret cos even though she isn’t infected she could still be ostracized for being part of that community and all. I’m thinking its gonna just be a very direct analogue, I’m gonna say that LGBTQ people were demonized as the ‘cause’ of this disease back when it was poorly understood. ‘Its caused by greed and sin’ = people pick whichever subjective ‘sin’ they wanna blame... So grandma shows you all her quilt that she’s been keeping secret, full of patches commemorating everyone she knew who died, and tells you about how the tragedy went down and how she got her start as such a cold and untrusting person out of the fear of ever loving anyone again in case she lost them. And everyone gets to have ALL OF THE HUGS, even though hugs can’t erase what happened :( But finding a family that can support her can help flower lady right now, grandma is determined to find a way to save this one person and make up for everyone she couldn’t save! They help you on your quest to track down a doctor, and they give flower lady a place to stay as part of their family, no matter what anyone thinks! And then i think maybe after flower lady manages to get her medicine, grandma actually leaves on a journey with the doctor, to learn how to become a doctor too. She was in medical training when she was younger, before she had to drop out of education due to all that happened. And she just ended up inheriting the family bakery, even though she personally sucks at baking and hates it. (Which is why employee/grandson does all the work and stuff) So now she sees this as a chance to redeem herself, you help convince her that its not too late! She’s gonna use however many years she has left to help people! if she has to be cursed with outliving everyone, she’ll use this long life to make a difference! So its sad cos grandma has to leave on her journey, but grandson takes over the shop and flower lady is employed as an assistant. And they keep in touch with grandma in the mail. (You can sell them a good carrier pigeon monster to help!)

Another npc there could be is... another greedy guy!! I started thinking him up cos i was just wondering about who could be a friend to the grandma. I mean, the npcs have to have relationships and rivalries between each other, its not like the protagonist is the only one who matters, lol This idea i have is (for some reason) someone who looks like a younger AZ from pokemon, wearing a cowboy hat. Kinda? He’s a travelling merchant and ssssssort of the same greedy archetype as grumpy grandpa, but sort of not? He’s an even more huge penny pincher than her, but he doesn’t seem to have his heart in it. He’s constantly desperately wringing any potential money out of anything, overcharging as much as he possibly can, getting himself hurt doing silly get rich schemes. But then he’s not really a jerk about it. He’s very friendly and cares about his customers, unable to actually scam them even as he announces his intentions to do it. He’s constantly betrayed by his own kindness, and ends up giving away free stuff to anyone who has a sob story! He also never seems to actually really spend his money on himself, its not like he actually has any of the luxury he’s always rambling about. I mean, he does indeed seem to have a genuine greed and a few lofty dreams, but then he just puts all his profits in his savings no matter how much it hurts him to do it. *crying over a fancy hat as he dumps his purse in the Swear Jar*

So anyway, his connection to this plot about the flower disease is that his Secret Reason For The Greedy is only revealed if you befriend both him and the flower lady. After you progress the story enough to get her first Happy Ending of getting adopted by the baker family, her second Happy Ending of finally getting the medicine, and her third Happy Ending of becoming the new assistant baker after grandma moves away, the plot still stubbornly continues because really no ending is an ending, yknow? I’m thinking this sort of formula could work really well with a game that has no real overall plot, and is more of just a slice of life theoretically endless thing. When you’re playing Monster Rancher there’s never really any huge changes in the town you still always have the same shopkeepers and nobody even ages. And even though Animal Crossing has villagers moving in and out, its also kinda the same, there’s never any real character development or shifting of the status quo. So I’m thinking having changing generations of the town and continuity between them could be a good way to keep stuff engaging even as you keep playing the same sort of gameplay forever. Maybe some people move away, maybe some people move in, maybe some people get married or have kids, who knows!

So yeah, after the status quo change of the baker grandma moving away and flower lady leaving her homelessness tent to become a full time resident, thats’s when this new sidequest starts. Stuff still isnt instantly perfect for her, she’s still facing predjudice from some people, especially now she’s in a rather public position as an employee. All the controversy over having her work with food, even though SERIOUSLY, DUDE, you can’t catch it from just touching someone who has it! I think she’d feel absolutely terrible, she’d be worried that she’s causing her benefactors to lose business because she’s here. And she’d also have just normal social anxiety adjusting to doing her first job ever, and having to do so much talking. She was homeless since she was very young, she even has trouble with complex mathematics cos she never finished school. Another reason merchant guy could be a good friend of the family, he could help tutor her on this stuff! And general shopkeeping techniques, cos both her and grandson are both super good guy pushovers and all. (”Don’t worry, I’m a wimp too, and even I can manage to be greedy with these five simple steps! ....that’ll be 50 dollars.”) But the main plot for him and flower lady is how he finally reveals his secret reason for being so greedy. One day he just comes along leading a little girl by his hand, and lifts her up so she can see the lady at the bakery counter. “Daddy, she’s got flowers like me!!” He’s been sending all of his profits home to pay for his kid’s medical bills, and he finally decided to let you know once he met someone else with the same condition. He’s been keeping it a secret because people hate flower sufferers so much, and he desperately needs to keep up the trade route with this town otherwise he can’t afford to look after her. he’s so damn relieved to be able to stop lying to you, and to finally introduce his lil bundle of joy! And to let her see someone else with the same condition, for the first time in her life! And then the lil girl could become friends with tall flower lady, and be all like ‘you look so pretty!’ which is something nobody’s ever said to her since she got sick, and just... HEARTWARMING TIME And it could help flower lady keep hope even though predjudice hasnt completely stopped in the world. At least now she’s found some good people, and she can see that her bravery in working at this job is inspiring young sufferers to feel that their life isnt completely over. So they all send off another letter to grandma together, and have a nice family dinner with this other family, and with yours too. :3 (...also, merchant guy apologizes for lying to his close friend grandma for so long, and they laugh at how they both had so much in common and never found out until now! And she is HELLA EXCITED to meet his daughter when she comes back ^_^)