#they're sadly in different dlc

[firedragon1321]

The fact I was drawn to these two specifically reveals my favorite character types are basically opposites.

Emo boy and shonen boy!

[fillipquesender]

Hi i'm going on a huge rant I know I should do it on the tsams confession thing but I'd rather do it on my own blog

Absolutely no hate to the creators by the way, this is just stuff that ticks me off :3

Completely fine if you like the stuff I stated!

VA's if you somehow see this uhhhh please ignore this entire post

I want to rewrite ruin's character as a whole so hes just canonical eclipse

Sadly no jigsaw but at least it isn't whats happening on tsams

God i want to go on a huge rant about how much i despise whats happening with the lore to get it off my chest but i just know that some people will take ir the wrong way and assume I want it to change and I hate tsams as a whole

I don't hate it as a whole but i dp kind of wish to say this

It kind of feels like that after the ruin dlc released that what the creators had planned was changed from it- for one their reaction to canonical eclipse, which was them saying 'no' over him being nice- and the fact that ruin i think was originally supposed to be canon eclipse with how he acted after being 'cured'

Does it feel like they hate canon eclipse or at least dislike him? Yes, yes it does

Does it feel like the lore is rushed a bit now? Honetsly kinda

Is the excessive amount of angst overwhelming? For me at least, it is (hence why i've stopped watching and moved to laes)

Also it would be so refreshing if it didn't seem like this was the whoke "all eclipses are bad but solar" because i know thats not true

A character does not need to have a bad backstory to be rude or nice or whateverz but it feels like that way in tsams which ticks me off so much FOR INSTANCE, BASICALLY THE ENTIRE FAMILY

They could've turned out rude but didn't because THEY CHOSE NOT TO

I think i rememver ruin saying that solar was a rare eclipse but idk if thats bc hes nice or bc of the change but if its bc hes nice im gonna scream

Uhm uhm what else uuhhhhdhdhdhhe

Oh yeah the fact that ruin straight up doesn't give a shit about his actions it pisses me off

He watched his friends suffer for ages, and you'd think hed have some remorse because he wouldm't want that to happen to anyone else, but nope! Bro he seemingly didn't evej care when all the family was greiving

YOU'D THINK AFTER THE TIME HE'D SPEND WITH THEM HE'D CARE ECEN THE SLIGJTEST

SURE THEY'RE FROM DIFFERENT AUS BUT HE WAS AROUND THEM LONG ENOUGH TO AT LEAST CARE ABOUT WHAT HIS ACTIONS WOULD CAUSE

Dude i really do hope the VA's don't find this i feel bad enough making this post but i gotta let off some steam 😭 if they see it i'll just feel worse than before

[phoenixcatch7]

Thinking about possible totk dlc again... Listen, we all know we want it XD.

Thing is, I've read the interviews, and I think Nintendo is right. There's just no more mechanics they can add to the game without completely breaking it. Totk is maxxed out on mechanics and options and playability. There really is nothing more they can add ability wise without bogging the whole thing down and causing a million problems, both for themselves and players.

But that's not all there is in a game, is there?

There's master mode, for one. Gold enemies are missing from totk entirely, never mind all the craziness of regenerating enemies, new mob camps just floating around, the gleeok they'd probably put on the great sky island. People loved master mode in botw, there's no reason not to at least drop that button back in.

But... People do have a few complaints. There's stuff they're missing, stuff that leaves loose ends, stuff that wasn't explained well enough. It all mostly boils down to one thing.

Story.

We could have an answer to where the divine beasts and all the sheikah tech went. We could find a giant scrapyard at the bottom of a new/old chasm because hyrule tossed everything in that could be pried up. There could be like five remaining active guardians, just so we can mess them up like we did in botw. There's voids where water is on the surface, there's plenty of space! It'd solve both the 'where tf did they go' and the 'man I wish we still had guardians' issue in one fell swoop.

We could get casual dialogue that all the divine beasts were driven out to sea and sunk! I don't know! Some sort of closure! We could talk about generational trauma responses! The instinctive fear of sheikah tech if there is one! Link is certainly canonically traumatised, did you see him with the first sky tower??

We could get wolfie back! Update his teleportation code so he can keep up with our stupid endeavours and not get caught in crossfire! Make him immune to zonai tech, idk.

We could get a resolution to kass and Penn! That whole storyline ended so sadly, and the lack of kass is straight up disturbing. We could rescue him from the depths where he fell in or smth idk!! Just because you're a bird does NOT mean you can fly a kilometer + straight up in pitch black through a narrow cylinder with lethally toxic sides. Now he's got enough material for life! (and probably trauma. The only food down there is stuff the yiga brought, which - well, it's not like they'd worry about thieves down there.

That stupid chef from lookout landing who ran off to the castle. That's TOTALLY a quest come on :(. Let him come home.

More lookout landing expansion, if you're desperate for stuff that isn't 90% dialogue! Please let me install bigger towers and a bathing area and more shops or SOMETHING. Little outlet stalls from every capital! Let me rebuild the first home in castle town! I! D! K!

More newspaper news! We could randomise it like the spider man ps4 news feed, that was hilarious. Absolute hogwash rumours and stupid feuds between neighbours and the results of pumpkin growing competitions! Mix it up, traysi had bonkers stuff, it was so good. What does life look like from inside the world?

Hylia gossip? We know she doesn't keep strictly to her 'find shrine rewards for increased gains, link' thing. Let her ask link for random stuff for 'power buffs' and give him, like, a random buff that lasts precisely 24 minutes.

Maybe even a 'now we opened the plateau again, people want to investigate' side plot. No one wanted to see :(. I didn't like that the only people up there were yiga :((. Send some new research team dude to wax lyrical and beg link for photos of different areas or symbols.

Gloom hands should be able to attack link in the depths. This would solve nothing and in fact make things much worse, but it happened to me twice and it was so much worse than on the surface lol.

Maybe some idiot managed to make it to a Sky island with balloons but now they can't get down, whoops lol. Some of them really aren't that high up and there's a lot of very determined people XD.

Someone's been captured by the yiga and link has to do a full infiltration and smuggle them the keys to their cell. Come on, the yiga base is underutilised!!

The gerudo stable was being shut down because of the sandstorm turning away travellers. After we solve that, maybe we could help reopen it? It made me so sad...

Link vs the flower lady. She wants a sample of every single flower in hyrule to get it all nice for her majesty! She remembers his crimes...

Link and the new sages could have a silly bonding quest each! Let him test his mettle against them in a spar! I don't know!

The ability to pet dogs and horses! An idle sitting animation that makes link sit down properly to enjoy the view!

Heck, a master cycle equivalent....

There's just a almost infinite amount of options available for real, actual content, it doesn't just have to be new mechanics and new dungeons. Yes, it gets the adrenaline going, but neither the fans nor Nintendo want nor need more of that.

We know the story is more lacking in botw/totk than previous zelda games, an understandable and acceptable sacrifice when you're working with such a huge and complex open world as this, but this is the perfect opportunity to fix that, Nintendo, don't you see? Give that incredibly elaborate coding a break and give the writers something else to chew on.

Tag what quest line or question you want answered in the comments or tags!

[dootmoon]

Some thoughts on Ex Astris

Okay so the TL;DR is: Go play it if you're someone who is mainly motivated by gameplay, it's one of the most enjoyable games i've played in like 10 years (im not kidding). the story is not bad, but it's very poorly told and leaves a lot to be desired. I should also warn that i'll probably spoil a couple of things, mainly on the gameplay side (because yes, I do believe some encounters are better if you dont know the gimmick).

Where do I even start, I only watched like 2 trailers before playting, i had 0 idea of what i was getting into, all i really knew about the game was that it was a full game release by the AK guys and that it was a turn based rpg. I legitimately bought it out of morbid curiosity, I was not expecting to find my favorite jrpg in a literal decade.

I'll go over what I liked the most and then explain the couple of issues I have with the game, it might sound like i loved it (which i did) but it's far from perfect and i think there's room for improvement. I think the combat is the real deal in this title, for those unfamiliar with it: it's a classic turn based jrpg but it has layers. The main 3 mechanics that make it stand out from other games is that each turn you have AP (action points) which limit what you can do each turn, however you can directly manipulate them with a combo system that gives you back AP. The second one is a parry system, during the enemy turn you can directly parry their attacks, you have 2 colors for parrying, both colors have different properties and there's certain attacks that can only be parried with the respective color. And lastly, theres a stagger bar, similar to FFXIII or posture bar in sekiro, although i think it's more akin to stagger in FFXIII. Once you break said bar you can enter hyper time for a few seconds where you have unlimited AP so you can combo them for massive damage. The combo system is very enjoyable, you will be blindly experimenting your combos for optimal damage each time you unlock new moves in the skill trees. Theres a very satisfying feeling to landing a big combo on an enemy that feels like it was entirely something you came up with. This sadly comes with a downside, once you figure out your big damage combos, there's not much of a reason to try anything different. It doesnt mean it stops being enjoyable but this is a wall most of games with combo systems have. Now the parry system, while it's fun, it sadly makes the game too easy. Sure theres enemies that will mix their timings to throw you off and a couple of unparriable attacks. But really, if you get good there's no reason to ever get hit. "But what about the unblockables?" yeah about that... Theres really just 3 enemies in the game that had them, and 2 of them were bosses, which you get a hard counter to the unblockable in the first boss that has it. I wish the game had more ways to work around you to make it more challenging. The only time the game REALLY tries to fuck you up is the final boss (this is a good thing) however it was still too easy. She really just makes the screen black and white and makes you parry based on the icon, then she makes you parry based on the color of the attack. This was sick and i wish there were more moments like this in the game. Now the dungeons were great, they feel like they belong in an older 3d zelda game. Sadly they dont get too crazy on the gimmicks, they were just box puzzles where you have to move them in the correct spots or point lasers to certain switches. Apparently this game has plans for DLCs so if theres something i wish upon to get explored more it would be this in particular. The rest of the game is the towns and the sidequests inside them, they're very usual stuff for a jrpg so you know what to expect, i cant elaborate much on it. Overall I think the game is meant to be replayed, by the end you're only able to fully build 3 characters out of 5 party members, sidequests expire and there's a bunch of stuff to mess around to make a playthrough different from the last one. The game changes a lot when you already know how it works or what really happens in the story.

Now the elephant in the room, the story: Yeah it's kinda just there, it's very poorly told. However it's HG and i can tell there was a lot of thought put into the wold building, it's very well made. It's just a shame that i could barely care about anything happening in it, even though I was kinda invested by the final hours i dont think that excuses the really bad storytelling. However starting my second playthrough is when I noticed it was indeed meant to be replayed. There's a bunch of stuff that feels so incredibly cryptic or really make no sense, once you go over it already having context it all makes sense and you just go like "oooh so that was they were talking about". I'm not excusing bad writing though, this is bad, but at least the story feels better on a second playthrough. Anyways, i'm kinda upset this was a mobile game, maybe if it wasnt, 10 people would've played it instead of just 5. I cant stress enough how this is a phone game that is way better than most of modern jrpgs in the market. it's like the devs went back and asked themselves what was the main appeal of the genre and what they thought made them fun to them and made an entire game around it. This is probably gonna be the biggest surprise of the entire year for me and i'm gonna have brainrot about this game for a while.

[sylenth-l]

How are you feeling about Lightfall? People seem to be very divided on opinions 🤔 I personally hoped for more answered questions 😔😔

Well… I like the most gameplay/ui changes Bungie made in LF, but I don't like the campaign and almost everything about the story. But the thing is, I knew I won't like it when the first details and the updated logo dropped, so it's nothing new. This whole ✨super secret super city with super people✨ just didn't sound exciting for me from the beginning. I thought it looked extremely off for the Destiny setting, not something I'd personally like to see.

(Super subjective opinion below, with spoilers)

Its core idea is what bothers me the most, I guess... Those people from Neomuna gave 0 shit about the whole Solar system outside of their safe bubble for ages. They were chilling in arcades while hundreds, if not thousands, of people on Earth died from starvation and thirst, not even to mention countless wars. Even the Darkness itself arriving wasn't a good enough reason for them to show up, yet when their own asses got in the slightest danger, they're suddenly our besties and expect us to help them asap. Umm… I think such theme deserves at least some controversy and conflict to happen between the two sides, but no, we became friends in a minute and that was it. 

The way we accrue Strand is a joke, it literally just…… lays there in the middle of a random street…... I highly suspect originally it was supposed to be a part of Witch Queen, it would've fit there insanely better. Here it feels just as flat and random as everything else in this dlc. For me LF felt like a half-baked chunk of a different game. Not necessarily a bad one, just… different. You can cut out everything between the first and the last cutscenes and literally nothing will change. It's the most telling sign of the story being not that good, imo.

Tbh I don't feel like going further into the details and turning this post into a huge rant… I can mention a few things I liked instead!

LF had a bunch of excellent cutscenes, those I really enjoyed. The first and the last one ofc, the one with the Witness and Calus, Osiris and Rohan having a good talk, and the moment Caiatl appeared to fight alongside us was really cool. Witness, Osiris and Caiatl in general were the best things in LF for me, I guess. The idea of people living in a virtual space is also VERY interesting and I think Bungie should've gone all the way with it and said Neomuni had a virtual only society this whole time. What if the whole planet itself was modified to be just a huge server, containing data of all people living there? A few "Cloud Striders" could've been the only physical shells they had available for ages, and people could've taken turns in being uploaded into those fully cybernetic bodies, or maybe even several at once (let's say an engineer + a scientist + a warrior), to do the maintence and make sure the servers run as intended. That would've explained their total ignore of everything outside their own planet - they've truly surpassed all other species in the system to the point of not being able to interact with them properly due to the almost total disconnect from the physical world.

Also I get what you say about many unanswered questions. I personally wouldn't have mind it, if the story itself was more exciting/interesting, but sadly for me it wasn't, so the new terms and concepts being thrown around all the time felt irritating and confusing more than intriguing. But since the story campaign has a huge TBC written all over it, we have to just wait and see how it ends.

It's the first dlc i didn't like that much, so yeah… weird feelings. I just hope the next one is better.

[cassioppenny]

are there any other nightmare insecurity entities haunting any of the characters besides missingno in milesverse..........ALSO. if theres anythnig different from canon abt any of the gym leaders id like to hear it :)

hm well dawn and serena are possessed by giratina and zygarde respectively but that probably doesn't count. i don't have any plans for anyone else being tormented by evil shadow selves rn. maybe i'll think up something as i continue my marathon but rn nightmare insecurity entities are red exclusive sorry

as for gym leaders

surge, koga, sabrina, and blaine are or have been affiliated with team rocket. koga and sabrina aren't really willingly working with them for koga his daughter is being threatened and for sabrina they promised if she works with them that the pokemon tower will not be torn down for a radio tower (her family runs the tower and even though she's scared of ghosts she doesn't want an important burial ground for hundreds of pokemon to get torn down for capitalism). blaine assisted in the creation of mewtwo along with fuji and some unimportant blond guy. and surge is just an asshole (he becomes less of an asshole after red beats him)

blue kept getting in trouble for not using a monotype team while he was a gym leader. he eventually got fired post gsc and green replaced him lmao.

falkner, bugsy, and whitney were brendan's childhood friends before he moved to hoenn

not exactly differing from canon but mv hoenn is basically an orasified emerald so wallace is champion and juan exists

again not really differing from canon but NORMAN ISNT A SHITTY DAD like yeah he sucks ass at communicating with his son but he's not abusive like pokespe norman

anyway brendan's parents didn't know brendan went off on a journey and they don't learn until brendan (and wally) show up at norman's gym since he ran away without telling them

i think it would be funny if fantina had a weird gay thing going on with johanna. send tweet.

i really like the unova gym leaders as is so idk what to change about them except for kurusu obviously. maybe hilbert will challenge all three butlers like ash did in the anime idk.

dude i have no fucking clue with the kalos guys they're really forgettable sadly

mina find the weird kanto simulation thing (let's go) along with the kanto trio so that's why she's in let's go

this is more of a team yell thing than a piers thing but even though team yell started out as a a bunch of spikemouth residents it quickly explodes in members as marnie becomes the most popular gym challenger to the point piers can't control the hype around his sister at all. this gets so bad that rose ends up pitching to marnie to rig all of her future matches to her favor so they could make a ridiculous amount of merch about her so her fans could be happy

i saw a comic about larry coming from the real world but then getting eebied into paldea and i thought it was funny so i might incorporate it into milesverse. though im not sure yet incase the dlc gives us actual larry lore or something who knows

[dollfacevn]

I think I'm gonna spill some things about Doll Face to get it some traction LOL! Mine will still be my main project but I also have like 50+ other stories and I like to work on multiple at a time. I don't want to get burnout or lose interest in Mine(Which is already kind of happening sadly, just burnout though! I'm still plenty interested in Mine and where I'm going with it and where I can go with it :3) So I'm gonna talk about the story without spoiling it. Kind of like how I did with Mine where I talked about gameplay, story, the mc, and ofc, the love interests! I think I'm also going to take inspo from some of Mine's asks and moves them here(Like give these characters the same prompts at least until I get some asks :3) I probably won't post as much here as I do on Mine in order to avoid that burnout, but I'm gonna be working on some other stories while I wait to get some motivation to write for Mine!

Format

So I'm gonna start with the format. Now unlike Mine how I was uncertain how I wanted to go about it, like whether it would be a game and a playthrough of a fake game, I know I want DF to be playable :) I know I also want people from all over to be able to enjoy my game so I want there to be many language translations! Once again I'd need help with translations since I don't speak any other languages, so it may take a while, but I will make sure that people can enjoy my stories!

MC

Moving on to the mc! I talked a little bit about them in Doll Face's introduction post! So in their world, everyone has magic, it's something you get when you turn 16. There are a few cases with early and late bloomers, but 16 is the average. The mc is AT LEAST 18, and they are going to college. Canonically, the mc is human, but I still find the idea of doll mc very interesting! It's something I didn't even think about when I posted the blank oc template, I was just expecting humans LOL! Although I did have ideas for a doll mc ending soooooo👀 Anyways the mc hasn't gotten their magic abilities yet which has caused them to be bullied for many years and now they are outcasted in college because they are known to not have magic. In their loneliness, the mc turned to crocheting dolls and has made them their friends. The mc has made each and every doll unique with different personalities, stories, and relations to to each other and has inserted themselves into their story(For example, Jondi and you being besties) The mc is a blank slate mc and I want the pronoun option to be inclusive. I think in the demo it may be more basic pronouns(She/he/they), but in the finished game I want you to be able to write want pronouns you want(That's also a thing I want in all of my games though!) Much like Mine's mc, Doll Face's mc is also miserable(Cause of the bullying and loneliness and stuff) They're nice though and they still do have their happy moments, like with their dolls! Also, you live with your mother, you dad isn't talked about, it won't be specified what happened to him that can be up to you! Your mother is kind and sweet and cares for you deeply <333

Endings

Much like with Mine and many of my other games, I want there to be a lot of different endings. Multiple bad and neutral endings maybe multiple good endings this time. I'm still debating if I want a true ending or not. I think I also want Doll Face to take place over the span of a week, it just seems like a good amount, however I might change that and make it a bit longer, at most a month. There can also be different routes you can go down, there may be some enemy routes(mainly Ehren LOL), friends, lovers, and each character will have a yandere route but they don't start off as yanderes and you can have endings where they aren't obsessed at all. Because this game might be longer then Mine, you will be able to date the LI's or you can choose not to and have it be a slow burn for epilogue dlcs! I don't think I'll have any side characters that will be romanceable as of now but that may change! There will be pretty much all the same epilogue routes as in Mine, I won't go into all of them for spoiler endings, I just think some endings would be cool to figure out on your own :) You can choose to cut them out of your life, for multiple reasons. Second you can choose to just be friends with them. Third you can choose to date them and you can choose whether you live with them and also if you have any pets! Fourth route is marriage, you can choose in you live with them, if you have any pets or babies, stuff like that. You'll be able to choose one of these for the characters, for example. Marry Jondi, (you won't be able to date multiple characters and you can't date anyone else if you're married.) Friends with Aiden, Eevi, Charon. Leave: Bao, Bix, Ehren, and Bartholomew. Theres more context with each ending but I'd rather you guys see how the game is gonna go when it comes out!

Character Explanations

Jondi: Jondi was the first doll you ever made. When you made her you made her to be your best friend, and that hasn't changed. You hold the most connection with her. She is your comfort, you can't help but smile every time you see her. She's been through you through some of your darkest times and you couldn't be more thankful. It's very rare to see her without a smile on her face, and with her around you'll rarely see others without a smile on their face. She loves making candies and sweets and is so happy to be able to give them to you, if you like sweets and are able to eat them ofc. Her and Aiden are pretty close, though she may overwhelm him with her bubbly and extroverted personality sometimes! She has a playful rivalry with Eevi, they both often compete on who can make others smile and laugh more.

Aiden: Aiden was the second doll you ever made, back before you made your own fantasy world and gave them complex backstories. You, Aiden and Jondi were created to be your best friends, your safe spaces. He's a lot more quiet and introverted then Jondi. When you wanted peace and tranquility Aiden was the doll you turned to. Your inspiration for Aiden was the crochet flowers you learned to make when you first got into crocheting. You thought it would be really cute to give these flowers an owner! Aiden was the doll that gave you the idea to actually make their world physical(As in you have this huge land made out of cardboard for worldbuilding) He's pretty timid around those he doesn't know well, Jondi often has to do the talking for him.

Bao: Bao is the fourth doll you made. Canonically, you relate to Bao the most! an introverted, insomniac who's gloomy. They are a doll of a few words, unless it's about space. They prefer to spend their time alone, daydreaming and studying stuff about space, however if anyone will take the time to get to know them and listen to them ramble about the things she's passionate about, you'll see a new side to her. She's very blunt and rude by accident, unsure of how to really talk to people, so she just prefers to not talk to them at all. They live AWAY from all of the other dolls.

Bartholomew: Bartholomew was the fifth doll you made. Despite making them, they still have things that seem unknown to you. You still aren't sure if it even likes the things you made it like. They remain a mystery to you and you're excited to solve this mystery, as Bartholomew has always been a fun character for you to think about. However, they were also the start of your more depressing character and stories. It's the prince of the Button Kingdom, although the residents are terrified of it.

Eevi: Eevi is the seventh doll you made. After adding more to the story and watching it get more and more depressing, it stated to affect you mentally, so you made Eevi in order to cheer you up a bit! She was a refreshing character to make, a break from the cruel world you made these dolls reside in and inserted yourself into. Eevi is far from oblivious to the world they resided in, aware that the king is cruel and that the other dolls aren't happy with their living situations, it's why Eevi got into the clown business, to cheer others up and bring light into the world!

Ehren: Ehren was the sixth doll you made, very shortly after Bartholomew. You already had an idea for Ehren when you were making Bartholomew. Ehren pushes away from the royal life as much as they can, they don't care about it, they don't like the attention. They prefer to live their life in the shadows, away from others. Doesn't like Bartholomew, but works for it since they can't escape the royal life completely. The two don't treat each other as siblings, rather as a boss and colleague. The only thing Ehren likes is their knife, Lucy. If they aren't out killing people, they're spacing out.

Bix: Bix was the third doll you made. He was the first doll you made that had a solid backstory and when you decided to add more to previous dolls. You made Bix after witnessing your "friend" get an s/o. You longed to be wanted as well so you made Bix. Although there's a lot more to Bix. Even though you made them to want you, you're insecurities have altered him to be a little different to how he was actually supposed to be. Still, despite being a little different to how he was supposed to be, he's fun to be around no less! Not really someone you can rely on much outside of the bartending business, feelings are not talked about, but distractions are guaranteed!

Charon: Charon was the last doll you made! After inserting yourself into their story, you decided to make a chivalrous knight of justice! Although Charon works for the prince, Charon does not hold the same ideals, Charon cares about the lives of the townsfolk, though he'd rather die then show it. Charon works behind the scenes in order to protect the townsfolk, ofc some(Ehren mostly) of the other knights and guards are still aware of Charon's distain for the prince's ways. Charon shows what gender they feel with his hair, if it's up then Charon prefers to be referred to with he/him pronouns and if Charon's hair is down then she uses she/her pronouns

[wavetapper]

Hi reyn, one quastion! If you don't mind sharing, what's your VSRG recommendation? I've mainly played osu!mania and while I love its accessibility and its community-created charts, I want to try something more curated. I don't mind either way if there are leaderboards/internet connectivity (it might be nice to not have to connect actually), and key count doesn't really matter to me—I've played 4k and 7k in osu. Are there any games on PC you think I should try? Thanks!

HI SORRY IT TOOK SO LONG TO ANSWR i lost the original essaypost so here is a slightly quicker and less thought out one

tl;dr djmax respect v and ez2on reboot r are good paid options, though they're sadly both always-online for some reason. musynx is a decent third, which iirc doesn't require an internet connection and is a fair bit cheaper even with the full dlc pack, but the timing window situation is ridiculous (normal greats being way too loose, and pgreats being genuinely inhumanly tight) so i hesitate to give it a full recommendation. more people should get into bms so check out bemuse.ninja for an in-browser bms player (free), or get beatoraja for an objectively better experience (also free)

more ramblings under the cut if you want to know my thots on each game individually (FLASHING LIGHT WARNING FOR ALL VIDEOS. They're youtube so they shouldnt autoplay but still)

DJMAX RESPECT V is probably the easiest rhythm game to recommend to anyone. it's got a good balance of difficulty (timing window is fairly wide, but not overly generous) and the soundtrack is really good. there are 4k, 5k, 6k, and an "8k" mode which is still 6 lanes but with two extra buttons (kinda like the fx notes in sdvx if you have any experience with that game), which all also involve this side-track mechanic (two extra buttons only used for holds at certain points in the song)

it also has a ladder match and competitive seasons, if youre into that sort of thing. ladder matches make me grind my teeth to dust they get so close sometimes but thats a skill issue on my part, they are fun. plus you can do open matches with your friends for something more casual and party game :) yay

downsides are it has to be online for it to run, theres a lot of songs locked behind paid dlc (although the dlc does go on sale fairly often, as does the base game), and there's a weird difficulty spike between regular charts (normal, hard, maximum) and sc charts (sc)- sc charts use a different scale nowadays but i guess just keep in mind that an sc1 is equivalent to like.... mx11ish, nothing lower. also theres NO EARLY/LATE DISPLAY!!!! i have no idea why they didnt include one!!!!

moderate/hard difficulty for reference

and a high-level sc chart if you wanna see how this game charts something difficult

EZ2ON REBOOT : R broke into my house and put my wrists in a saw trap and they never fully recovered from them. i will admit the main thing i have to say about this one is its like djmax but harder in just about every way. It also has 4k, 5k, and 6k modes, but their 8k mode actually has 8 lanes which makes it a lot more challenging. The timing window is also much tighter (a KOOL is about twice as tight as a MAX100%) and i might be making this up but i feel like the health drain is also a bit tougher. theres also a basic mode which widens the timing window if you want, but scores are saved separately.

there is no scaling difference between hard and super hard, which is a point in its favour, and the scale goes from 1-20 rather than 1-15 which means it can get a lot more granular. the charts can also get stupid hard, with a lot of stuff even in the 18~19 range making the highest-tier djmax sc charts look tame. its also charted in a different way which you can only really tell if youve played both games but like idk it feels a lot more arcadey.

theres online multiplayer in this one, but afaik they don't have the same competitive season thing as djmax does. you can do open lobbies though.

downsides are always online (again), song list is a bit more hit or miss imo but thats a personal taste thing, and its a lot harder to get into than something like djmax because the difficulty can get a bit silly sometimes

hard/moderate 8k chart

upper level 4k chart. one of very few 4k charts to be rated 20

MUSYNX can be a little bonus interlude here. The charting is mid and the timing window is stupid, but it's priced fairly and the soundtrack is fucking insane if you like bms. So many good licenses in there.

(spongebob pointing .png) look they have upshift i love upshift

as for BMS, i answered an ask about it here and I would HIGHLY HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU CHECK IT OUT...

tl;dr on bms, it's a community-led rhythm game with entirely original music created by and for the players. a lot of bms songs get licensed for other games (conflict is probably the most famous example), and they have yearly music contest events where a bunch of cool new music and videos and charts get released- its worth keeping up with those, even if you dont click with the game itself

you can try out some bms songs IN YOUR BROWSER RIGHT NOW on bemuse.ninja (although the player is a little janky imo), or check out the beatoraja english guide and set up beatoraja to play charts that way. beatoraja is what i use, and the player is super customisable with custom skins and stuff. i edited a little tbh creature as my lane cover :)

heres someone playing new york back raise which is a banger song with a banger music video and a banger lv11 chart which i cant clear yet

[benditozorrito]

LoZ BotW Wrap Up

Sadly this marks the last post of the original play-through, and I'm unlikely to pick it up from this point 4 years later [at least not until I'm actually able to let's play games like I'd prefer]. Which is kind of a shame tho bc like a fool, this means me saving the best for last never actually happened. Because the Gerudo man!!!

I remember I had a lot of thoughts on the Gerudo, because I always do LOL I am always intrigued by their role in the story just for the fact alone that Ganon is from this race and they often are in vastly different situations in each game because of it. Like in OoT they're at war with Hyrule bc of Ganon, but there are some who arent cool with that. In TP it's strongly implied Selma is descended from the Gerudo, but otherwise they seem to have been wiped out. Same for WW, where theres really no hint of them at all.

In BotW though they are flourishing really, and well aware of Ganons origins from them. Urbosa makes a point that he's their responsibility, and that she takes pleasure in helping to rid the world of him. So I have to think since they have good relations with others, that the Gerudo of this game hold no love for Ganon and had to work past that stigma. Its also interesting that [to my memory] they dont seem to have had a male Gerudo of significance since. Perhaps because of Ganon they haven't been observing the whole "that one male every 100 years gets to be king" thing? But the possibility of it certainly is still a thing, since you can buy male clothes for gerudo, albeit in secret

No I'm not going to talk about the gender and the cross dressing thing bc uuuuhhhh you know why =_=;;; I'm sure theres essays about it, I remember a lot of discussion about it at the time.

However I am interested in talking about those 8 matron deities the Gerudo here have??!!?! I love this! I am so fascinated by this and want to know more! It appears to be the only mention of any other religion outside Hylia to my memory. And one of them is even forsaken?? In the mountains??? What happened with that??!! I dearly hope that it might be something expanded on in TotK, but I may be asking for a lot lol

Side note also, I adore Riju, she's so cute and is carrying so much on those shoulders and the hat doesn't even fit on her head yet lmaooo

Extra side note, I actually really loved in the final memory viewing, that tiny hint that Fi is still there in the sword.

I did also get the Champion DLC, and while that first trial bit sucked ass, I did like the little memory additions we got for the Champions and the options to learn more about them in their diaries!

Except for Ravioli. That guy continues to suck

Also like.....Urbosa and Zelda's mom were so a thing. Like, the lesbian undertones are practically overtones LOL

I have no idea when I will play TotK, as atm the purchase of it isnt even on my mind right now [grad school be suckin my wallet dry atm] but one day I will get it and probably post about it, if not LP it by then lol

Overall I loved BotW though, it was a fun game to play and a very interesting take on Zelda. Its honestly the one that feels closest to the OG, which I think was the idea lol I'm interested to see how the series will move forward

DISCLAIMER: AGAIN, I HAVE NOT PLAYED LOZ TOTK YET, DO NOT SPOIL ME PLEASE. ALL QUESTIONS AND POSTULATIONS ARE HYPOTHETICAL AND DO NOT REQUIRE ANSWERS!!!

[rehncohro]

November 23rd, 2023 - Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Booster Course Pass

I wasn't really expecting a port of a Wii U game to get extra content years later, but it did. Not only did Mario Kart 8 get twice the amount of tracks, but it got a lot more playable characters too. At first, I thought it was cool that we were getting so many and in the end, I'm glad we did. Sadly not all the tracks are as high of quality as they could be, have worse textures, and don't really take advantage of Mario Kart 8's mechanics.

Majority of these new tracks were taken from Mario Kart Tour, including the tracks that were returning from other Mario Kart games and we ended up with retro tracks that we had already seen in previous Mario Karts in both standard Mario Kart 8 and in this DLC. We did get some new courses too which were mostly just okay. Nothing I'd really call that bad, but there were some odd inclusions and some retro tracks did not have the right map so they weren't the same track, so that was a little disappointing.

They did have some tracks which had you go different directions depending on the lap you were on, which was cool the first few times but it kinda old by the final wave of tracks. Still, I can't complain too much. Despite some issues, they still add a lot of value to the game. So many tracks to play and plenty of returning characters. Some tracks I really liked and some I wasn't crazy about. It definitely could have been better, but they're definitely worth racing on.

[the-inglorious-king-of-dunces]

Eleventh post

I have been thinking about something lately. about the response towards Marvel's Spiderman 2.

I believe the people who are acting so negatively towards the game for reasons like the graphics not being such a good upgrade or saying the game should have been a DLC instead or just flat out shit-talking the game and the Developers who are working hard to bring us this game are not good people.

I know that sounds weird, like just saying they aren't good people instead being hyperbolic and over the top like "Oh, they're fucking assholes, blah blah blah" but the long and the short of it is just that they are doing it disingenuously and in bad faith. It also got me thinking about just how spoiled spiderman and marvel fans have been the past couple years, we have had decently consistent good shit for the past while now, and I think we're acting entitled about it at this point.

How can you claim to be a fan of something and profusely shit all over that thing you say you're a fan of? Like, I understand being critical of the thing you're a fan of, I understand not liking a specific thing about what you're a fan of, I get that. But actively being antagonistic about it and shitting on it aren't helpful about it, it's actively making things worse. Examples, the people saying that the new spiderman game doesn't look any better than the first game visually, 1) you are wrong, it does look better, It's just not an immediately noticeable difference because graphics changes aren't really going to be noticeable anymore because of how far graphics have come, and 2) okay, and? are you only playing games based off of how much of a difference the graphics are from other games? No? then maybe don't complain about that? to those saying the game looks like it should just be DLC for the first game, no, it should not. It has all new mechanics, all new combat, all new traversal, all completely new story, two protagonists in both Miles and Peter (and maybe even a third in the form of a playable venom, which would be so fucking sick but probably won't happen, sadly), the UI is completely different, there will be so many new suits for both Peter and Miles and symbiote versions of every single one of Peter's suits, and so much more map space with the additions of Queens, Brooklyn, and Coney Island to explore, no, it should not just be DLC. And to the people saying "It would look better and would have more content and come out sooner if Insomniac were to just crunch and horrifically overwork their employees to get the game going", you are really crappy, honestly. Crunching would only hurt the game and the people working on it.

and I know that this is just a small and very vocal minority of the fans of spiderman and the games, but they are the most vocal, and make everyone else look bad. the most common joke about spiderman fans is that spiderman fans hate nothing more than spiderman, and people only say this because of the spiderman fans that are shitheads.

The fact that most fans are so far disconnected from the idea of spiderman, of someone who wants to do good for the world and make it better no matter what, just makes me sad, you know? We should listen to the tagline of the game, and Be Greater Together.

That's all for today, remember to drink plenty of water, get plenty of sun, and eat well, your body will thank you. Love and laughter always

edit, wanted to add a screenshot I took in the remaster because why not?

[saphushia]

would you be willing to share more about the character in the second pic? They seem interesting!

i assume you mean the most recent dump of dndverse stuff, tho i still don't know which you mean in that pic so i'm just gonna talk abt both of them lol

So that specific pic is a bi0shock infinite au of me and @fr1ndl3's D&D ocs, tobi (mine) and syl (fr1's)! they both have bios on my character page (desktop only, sadly), which has basic info abt them n info abt them in their normal dnd universe ((bi0shock infinite spoilers ahead i guess? gonna b talking abt the plot of the game in relation to the au. it is nearly a 10 year old game though, so idk why i'm giving a warning))

in the au, syl can open tears to parallel universes (like elizabeth), and they end up kinda stuck together trying to escape the flying city the game takes place in. tobi basically takes the place of booker, trying to get syl out and being the guy doing most of the fighting. me and fr1 both like inhuman character design aspects so that's why syl's glowing, and why tobi has horns n such- in the game vigors, which you drink to gain new powers, have slight physical manifestations, and that shit's hot. so i dialed it up for tobi.

the difference between the game plot and the au is that. the ending was kinda stupid and didn't have much emotional payoff for the characters, so we're basically ignoring the whole plot point that booker is elizabeth's father. because it's genuinely funnier if tobi is just Some Guy that's gotten stuck in all this shit. and since that means it doesn't work to have an alternate universe tobi be the bad guy (like how an alternate timeline booker turns out to be the villain in the game), we changed it so that it's an alternate reality syl (kaiser- a character that exists in dndverse canon and another of our favorite aus for the boys, and who we've really gotta work on detailing so i can put him on the character page) who's been pulling the strings the whole time- who lost his own reality tearing power and decided to use his past self to get it

we're also working on how to segue/alter the burial at sea dlc into linking into bi0shock 1- the general gist is that at the end of bi0shock infinite they do some universe hopping, and when they end up in rapture (the underwater city in the first game), tobi panics from seeing the water (boy's got a phobia), and becomes too unfocused on his reality for long enough that he blends into the reality of bi0shock 1, and syl (who doesn't have the same problems, because they're his powers) has to go looking for where the universe fit him in

and thats a basic summary! syl's got time-space powers and tobi's a dude who drank magic kool-aid and shoots guns! idk how clear any of that was, so feel free to ask more questions, i like thinking abt the boys :)

and again- || @fr1ndl3 | character page ||

[acealistair]

Hi! I have a quick question if that's okay. I'm a huge fan of the Dragon Age series and I'm finally going to be able to play Inquisition with mods, but I've read a lot of stuff that says that appearance mods cause an infinite loading screen or that they're incompatible with the DLC. Is there a way to work around this? I see tons of people with modded Inquisitors, but I'm pretty new to the modding scene, so I don't know how to go about fixing it if it is incompatible with the DLC. Thanks!

That’s a very understandable question and I’m flattered you’ve come to me for it! There are a few different ways to mod Inquisition, so I’m going to tell you how I do it and avoid the problems you mention, but I’ll publish this in case any of my other followers have input (such as @dorianpavus who I know does things differently than me).

First, I use the Frosty Mod Manager. A lot of newer mods require Frosty to work and it can run quite a few mods that use the .daimod format - specifically hairstyles, which I’m sure interests you! I also like Frosty because you can easily disable mods without uninstalling them completely (which is sometimes necessary for troubleshooting) and it tells you if any two mods alter the same file, which probably means they’re incompatible.

You can download Frosty here: https://frostytoolsuite.com/downloads.html

The second important thing is to install this mod here: https://www.nexusmods.com/dragonageinquisition/mods/2712 This will let you have your hair mods in all the DLC, solving your biggest concern! I can confirm this one works; I was able to play all the DLC completely through without any issues at all.

That’s the very short answer. I’ve put some additional details under the cut to keep this post from getting too long!

Now, the disappointing news: I have not been able to completely stop my game from throwing infinite loading screens or crashing on occasion. There are two very specific places this happens: 

1) The cutscene where you find Skyhold, immediately after talking to Solas about the orb by the cool veilfire torch post-The Dawn Will Come. The screen will go white for me and I can hear veilfire sound effects but nothing happens no matter how long I wait. I believe this is a very well-known issue.

2) At the end of Iron Bull’s cutscene when you first get to Skyhold where he has you pretend to be Grim and listen to the rando Inquisition soldiers. The cutscene itself will play fine with all my mods but the game immediately crashes when the conversation ends. No clue if very many other people experience this.

That being said, I do use additional mods other than hair/appearance mods, so I’m not certain if it’s those ones specifically that cause the issues. It will take some tweaking and experimenting on your end with your personal mod loadout to figure what does and doesn’t work. I know that for me I’ve sadly had to miss out on a good number of mods that I’d be delighted if they did work, but ultimately they’re not necessary for my enjoyment of the game.

But the good news is that it’s very easy to simply launch the game without mods (or disable certain mods from Frosty) and get past those cutscenes, then boot it up again with mods and continue like nothing happened. It’s tedious, yes, but overall not a big deal since it’s just those two points in the entire game that I need to do this.

[af1899]

FEH - My free summons on 9/17/2021 + data mine thoughts

Hey, what's good?

So, the banner based on the [Cindered Shadows] DLC from Fire Emblem: Three Houses (with Múspell on it) + its respective data update is finally out.

First, my free summons in the banner mostly weren't anything of special, prioritized blue as planned but nothing. In the round with the fourth free summon though, was forced to pick the fallback category (colorless) and...

Heh... nice, that's my second Leila, I won't complain at all, it's always nice to get a 5★ with valuable fodder or an unexpected merge on a project. I'll try to max her [HM] then fodder to Legendary Lilina for [Life and Death 4] as well as [Rally Atk/Spd+], fortunately these will be easy to get.

Nothing else but that's OK. I'll just move on and at least I know I'll eventually run on the other skill I want on Legendary Lilina, which is [A/R Far Trace 3], since it's going to be in the regular pool after this banner is over.

Now, onto data mine stuff, you can find the thread by redditor u/MrGengar123 right here, but feel free to read my thoughts onto what we've gotten (there'll be no talk about story spoilers and the like).

So... the thing that probably interests players the most when a data mine rolls out would be stats on the Heroes that come with the update.

Múspell doesn't really play so differently from what we've possibly experienced on [Ice & Flame 3] with him as an enemy, he's more of a dual-phase unit that focus his strength on a single blow, is durable both physically and magically (but slow as hecc) and prevents the foe from healing. Noteworthy is that he brings [Dragon Wall 3] to the regular pool, which you should definitely prioritize from his fodder if that's your plan and got him.

Also, more or less expected the statlines on the other three banner units, nothing too special to stand out in those but Yuri is probably going to give us new worries in nowadays metagame in PvP.

But Balthus has a similar statline to Mustafa (45/38/25+/36/28-) but Balthus's statline is superior, as you could have imagined, just being one point slower than Mustafa, but the rest, Balthus has the upper hand. About him there's also the skill choice, I didn't realize before that his weapon indeed looked like an {Instant} one, and it is, it's a good one and we're getting it for free, so, be sure you got your 5★ Balthus (check in-game inbox with Feh)! But I.S. just ruined it up with the passive skill choice, why do we have [Close Guard 3] still as a 5★ skill? It's just stupid specially since [Brazen Atk/Def 3] is already on Ares at 4★ and there's like nothing that should justify it staying locked to that rarity nowadays.

And Aelfric just got the worst treatment out of this batch, while his class seems to make sense due to how he's designed as a unit in his home game, his kit just feels completely lacking in creativity and also, he's just one of the several free red tome users we've been getting this year, his statline is basically a slightly beefed up Arete but without a horse, it's also our second month in a row with a red tome infantry user, their statlines are different (comparing to Pelleas) but this doesn't change he's the fourth unit in the year with that class, with not much to make him stand out compared to the other ones except for maybe the post-[CYL 2021] statline boost benefit, but chances are Pelleas will do better for you and his starting weapon is better too, {Rabbit} weapons in general are mostly terrible Imo, they're okay for short battles but generally, there are better options, including good ol' {Blade} tomes. At least his rarer skill is at 4★, it's [Threat. Def/Res 2], which you can use to get [Def/Res Menace] and another skill from Zeke's fodder ([Atk/Def Catch 3] if you plan to fodder a Legendary Sigurd with the Lv.4 version + [Fatal Smoke 3] or [Lull Atk/Def 3]).

Anyway, my plans on them would be:

Aelfric: fodder of [Threat. Def/Res 2] to users of physical weapons (thought of Legendary Lucina and Ephraim) after maxing out [HM], will keep one copy at 5★ for rerun quests.

Balthus: fodder of [Instant Axe+] and [Close Guard 3] for Groom Zealot, also after maxing out Balthus' [HM], working on that as of writing date of this post.

Now, next [Hall of Forms] lineup consists of these units from Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance:

Bridal Sanaki: green tome flier.

Ashnard: sword flier. ([GHB] unit)

Halloween Ilyana: blue tome armored. (!!!)

Soiree Nephenee: colorless bow infantry user with ability to refresh an ally. (And she's currently summonable and obtainable for a limited time as a [Combat Manual])

Now this is a really well balanced team, no healers but you get a refresher and one unit of each color, two that use physical weapons and two that use magical ones, which should make things more workable in the event as it goes on and you fill everyone with skills that suit them. It's a nice line-up indeed and Halloween Ilyana is great for [A/R Far Save 3], if you'll go for her, [Atk/Res Unity], [Pact Blooms+] (go for another seasonal weapon if you already have (or can get) Valentine's Veronica!) and an enemy-phase oriented {Fighter} B-skill such as [Slick Fighter 3] are also excellent to take along (if you take these, remember [Atk/Res Unity] and [Slick Fighter 3] are counterproductive, you'd like [Crafty Fighter 3] instead!).

Two of them happen to be my Tellius favs (Ilyana and Nephenee) but sadly can't purchase them and only got 1 [Celestial Stone] out of 3. Still, I'll build them as best as RNG allows it to, I specially adore Ilyana and I'll do what I can to make her great.

Bonuses in [Arena]... hmm... not much of interesting, at least I got Scion Julia but I'll use Scion Nanna so that I can balance the team color distribution in the team I'll use and have a healer (Idoun, Sonya and Ninian are the rest of the members).

In [Aether Raids] I got better luck with Mila and Naga, both of which are projects and characters I actually appreciate, so I'm set for two weeks there.

The End

That's all! I do apologize if the post was too long for you, I often need more words to express properly what I mean while also palcing some extra things for convenience.

If you've made it this far, I appreciate you took the time to read my thoughts, I hope you found something helpful in this post and good luck in your summons!

[fridge-reviews]

Darkest Dungeon

Developer: Red Hook Studios Publisher: Red Hook Studios Rrp: £18.99 (Gog.com, Humblebundle and Steam) Released: 19th January 2016 Available on: Gog.com, Humblebundle and Steam Played Using: Mouse and Keyboard Approximate game length: 50+ hours

What was I searching for when I plumbed those depths? Glory, riches... power? All of it was for nought in the face of the sheer horror and madness that has now been unleashed upon this land. Our families fortune is spent and the land withers and the only thing I can leave you is the duty of cleansing my mistakes from this world, and for that I am sorry.

Darkest Dungeon was a Kickstarter success that I sadly missed out on. It's a dungeon delving RPG, with roguelite elements and turn based combat. The basic premise of this game is that your families ancestral home has been invaded by dark and malevolent forces that exist beyond human understanding (essentially there is some Lovecraftian style horror occurring). Since you are far too important to actually go into the dungeons yourself you send in teams on missions. If any of those teams return then they get to rest up, recover stress and improve before you send them back out again.

You'll spend most of this game controlling your heroes as they delve into the various dungeons on quests. However before you do that you have to provide your heroes with what they need to survive, the basics being food and torches. You'll also be determining in what position your heroes should be deployed in as their positioning can and does make all the difference once in combat. As you travel through the dungeon the light of your torch diminishes. The darker things get the harder the game becomes but the rewards are greater. You can replenish the torch by utilising one from your inventory which consumes it, although many may have to be used bring your light levels to full.

The events of the dungeon can cause stress upon your heroes. This stress will eventually become an affliction which adds a behaviour characteristic to your hero. This can range from them bing a kleptomaniac (where they can randomly steal items) through to being fearful, that being said sometimes the high stress causes your hero to become even tougher though this isn't a common occurrence. There are ways of reducing your heroes stress while in a dungeon but most of those are specific to a heroes ability in while in combat (meaning you aren't attacking the enemy but instead are managing your own parties stress) or are camping skills, which only occur on longer dungeon delves and also have to be carefully managed. Once you are in town you can treat your heroes stress level, along with other maladies. Some heroes will require a specific type of treatment such as visiting a brothel rather than praying, at least they will until you fix that as well although that can be quite costly.

As you wander a dungeon you will inevitably face opponents that you'll have to defeat. Combat in this game is turn based with turn order being determined by the speed stat. Enemy attacks do two types of damage, physical and stress. Physical damage has subtypes such as blight and bleeding that do damage over time. Stress attacks can be absolutely devastating, because if a hero becomes too stressed they're resolve will become tested (as mentioned above) which can result in a good effect but will usually have a very negative one. These negative effects can and usually will, start to effect the rest of your party adding even more stress. If the stress bar becomes too full your hero will die of a heart attack. When an enemy dies they often leave a corpse behind that fills the position they were in. These can be destroyed to force your opponents to change position. If however you find that these corpses are frustrating you can disable the function in the options menu.

Hero positioning is very important, depending on what skills your heroes have they will only be able to hit specific targets. Both you and your enemies can have attacks that will displace someone from one spot to another, hopefully making them less effective in combat.

Heroes that survive quests will gain experience which in turn will give them 'resolve' levels. The higher this level is the more likely they'll pass tests of their resolve and not get negative effects.

This game uses two currencies, heirlooms and gold. Gold is used to upgrade your heroes equipment, buy trinkets, buy provisions, pay for de-stressing treatments and cure mental and physical afflictions. Hierlooms (of which there are four types) are used to upgrade the buildings within your hamlet this making more services available as well as improving on those that exist already.

I had a blast playing this game, but my god could it be frustrating at times. The art style and music are amazing and really add to the dark and dreary atmosphere. I found myself coming back to this game over and over. I'm even contemplating buying the DLCs.

If this appeals to you perhaps try;

Iratus Lord of the Dead Slay the Spire

[avatarchief]

Completing Mass Effect for the First Time.

Missed N7 day by a long shot, but I finally played through and beat the entire Mass Effect trilogy.

I've played ME1 maybe 20 or so times over the past few years. I've only played it in Xbox 360/One since I was a little kid, so I "don't like the game" because the framerate in combat ranges from 5 to 12 (a very annoying problem regardless of how old the game is. But the story/worldbuilding is more than likable enough to make up for the garbage FPS problems.

"You never forget your first". I've started, loved, and beaten ME2 at least 100 times since I first played it in 2011 (and that's the conservatively low estimate). Mass Effect 2 is the best game in the series, elevating and improving every aspect of ME1, without breaking any of what made the game so great. Including COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIALOGUE AND CHARACTER INTERACTIONS BASED ON YOUR ME1 DECISIONS WHICH BLEW MY MIND WHEN I FINALLY GOT AND IMPORTED MY FIRST ME1 CHARACTER LIKE OMEGISBDHJDJWVE!!! Best game ever. With or without DLC. An amazingly cinematic game in every scene, from start to finish. Amazing dialogue, delivery, animations, and a more realized & personal quest against the Collectors for the player/Commander Shepard. Making that final fight all the more spectacular and noteworthy when you get there.

Sadly, in every other one of my Mass Effect 3 playthroughs I could only make it to The Citadel after leaving the Mars Archives, but I finally pushed past the lingering negativity surrounding the game and let myself get invested in it. Crying like a little bitch at the end. I spent 16 or so hours in each game, getting invested in facing down the Reapers and destroying them once and for all. So my heart was pretty distraught when I reached "the end" of Shepard's story. (I'm an Indoctrination Theory believer)

My love for the Mass Effect universe and it's characters cannot be properly articulated. They might not be real, but I don't care. It all matters to me in a way I can't describe. I'm emotionally invested in a bunch of 1s & 0s because I can believe that the Turians or the Asari exist somewhere among the stars. Every race is unique and has a different culture, belief system, and history. I don't look at the Asari and think "oh it's a blue people cool". Or look at the Quarians and say "me in a permanent astronaut suit, k." I think "oh that's another race of intellectual beings from another planet. Holy awesome. I want to know everything about them now [INVESTIGATE INTENSIFIES]". There's obviously more I come ramble about but I think the core idea gets across. I love Mass Effect. And because ME2 is not only my first, but my favorite game, when I think of the series "main theme" I'll always be torn between the big movie level cinematic quality of the Suicide Mission theme, and everything associated with that, like the Human Reaper fight music. And the "there's a whole ass universe of things and people's to explore here" feeling of Vigil from ME1. That track is pure mind capturing explorative, relaxing beauty. 👌👌👌 But it holds another place in my heart for intimate moments as well. By far my favorite tracks in the series. They're very important to me, but since I don't know how to properly wrap this post up... I should just...

I should go.