#this game does such a good job at making you care about minor npcs

[bucca2]

margrat custom deliveries spoiler

ma, these eggheads are making me cry

[talenlee]

Lessons Lee Mulligan

I want to be better at running tabletop games.

I’m not bad at it, by the way. I haven’t had to contend with players giving me complaints any time in the past… maybe fifteen years. The games I run generally receive praise and players show up because they want to play them. I am currently on a break from running a game though you know watch this space, but I still think of myself as a storyteller, a game runner, and it is with that in mind I have been gritting my teeth in frustration at how good Brennan Lee Mulligan is at it.

I don’t have any malice for the guy. I admit, I had a wildly incorrect read on him as a person when I first started watching him. Somewhere along the way he mentioned that he’d never had alcohol or drugs, and I immediately started to edge him towards the ‘formon or exvangelical’ basket. Then in the Starstruck Oddysey campaign he mentions his mother’s name and his godfather’s name and I realise that actually he’s basically indie comics royalty, and that was quite a thing to realise.

Quite frankly, finding out how his mum feels about him and what she did for him as a child makes me feel very distressed because it seems so impossibly nice and good in ways that disorient me. It’s like watching Bluey, I can’t understand a world where a dad is that nice to his kids.

Still, Brennan Lee Mulligan is good at being a storyteller, dungeon master, game-master, whatever term you want to use, in a way that makes me want to take notes. Some of it is unuseful and unapplicable – I don’t have a custom mini maker on hand and can’t afford one and don’t even get to play on a physical tabletop any more. Some of it is the comical pointlessness of the system that he uses – watching D&D 5th edition involves needing to know almost nothing about the game, because all that really matters is if a number rolled is high or low, and he’s used it for murder mysteries and criminal heists just fine, because whatever else the system is doing, the focus on what the story demands is all it needs to make function.  Instead I want to focus on things Brennan does that I think I can use in my own games.

I suppose just in case, I’m going to talk about some minor details from a Dimension 20 campaign, Fantasy High that talk – obliquely – about spoilers for the first and last episodes. You might not want to read this if that’s a thing for you.

He’s Very Good At Actual Improv

Shock, horror, the guy who ran an improve school and has had years of playing around in improve performance with his friends he trusts is really good at it. The ability to build on what others are doing, enabling them in how they do it, and to trust them to not fuck up what you’re telling them, or the vibes you’re putting onto your

This isn’t a radical diagnosis of his storyteller abilities. Brennan’s job involves numerous other types of web show, including appearances on Game Changers and Make Some Noise which are both shows built out of improvisational comedy.

What can I extract from that though?

An immediate thought is that Brennan is careful with word choice and is extremely unselfconscious about others. Commonly in his dialogue you can hear the phrase you see that they say, which is obviously, when extracted, gibberish – at best it’s padding. It’s also, and this is important: fucking fine. People don’t make supercuts of him saying that, they make single big cuts of the thoughtfully constructed improvised monologues, which are delivered with the high dudgeon of a preacher. I think those are like lego constructions – he knows the pieces, he knows the structure to fill them out, and fills the spaces for them piece by piece.

General knowledge and presentation is useful for this skill. Be aware of a wide variety of ways people communicate, for example. It’s not like Brennan is a master of voices – you generally can tell you’re hearing Brennan say something when he voices an NPC – but the fact he has a swathe of different ways of talking, a bunch of Different Guys to dream up and get mad at – is a useful part of the skillset.

I don’t have players (at the moment) who are avidly into this kind of thing. But recognising the players as audience to experiences, and not players antsily waiting their own turn, is useful. I think Brennan treats solo interactions with players away from the group as if those interactions are interesting and fun for other players to watch, and part of that is, I think, built out of treating engagements as performances. They aren’t things to get out of the way, they’re the material players and people are there to watch.

He Does Put In The Work Ahead Of Time

I have a theory about the conclusion of the first Dimension 20 campaign. It’s not provable and I honestly don’t care to hear Brennan’s take on it, because it doesn’t matter if it’s true or not. What matters is what it tells me about what’s possible.

For those of you unfamiliar, Fantasy High’s first campaign was centered in a magical high school for adventurers. It introduced the players to the character of Arthur Aguefort, a delightfully reckless wizard with preposterous power in the field of Chronomancy that seemingly is always one step ahead of whatever his silly actions indicate. In this same story, there’s a prophecy, keeping a dreadful villain contained, and that villain’s containment is breached at the very end of the story, and then there needs to be stuff around that prophecy. It’s a pretty good story, especially in the way that Arthur’s plan is seemingly derailed by the player characters dying in episode 2, and then he sacrifices his life to bring them back. At the end of the story, Arthur comes back to life, in a big dramatic moment that gives everyone a chance to refresh mid-fight with a boss that’s otherwise a bit beyond their abilities. Cool story, cool bit, and it all dovetailed with the prophecy, because of the specific character who died getting a miraculous natural 20 at the last moment.

Except.

I think that with the way the prophecy was worded, and with the secondary details and characters connected around them, it would be entirely possible to conclude the prophecy and defeat the baddie if any of the other characters had been the person to do it. The character who triggered this refresh didn’t have to be who it was, anyone could have done it and the explanation of the prophecy would work just fine, thanks to some homonyms. If I’m right, not only is this a cool mentalism trick that makes Brennan look psychic, but it’s also an example of the powerful advantages of being prepared ahead of time for a spreading network of possibilities.  

I don’t do as much prep work as I want to do. Or rather, more correctly, I don’t do as much prep work for my games as I want to have done when the time comes to run the game. The difference is pretty subtle, but it’s present. Part of it is, I think that prep feels both easy and boring, the deadliest mix of things for my kind of player mindset. When introducing players to locations I so rarely have lists of things like NPC names and random traits on hand for them to grab a stranger off the street to talk to, and keeping those characters distinct from one another is easier when I have those tools on hand. Having short descriptors of places, lists of street names, just the detritus that makes up a place, that would make life easier for me when trying to organise details and let me use a lot of anchoring details.

Making those lists, however, is pretty tedious!

What makes this even funnier in the context of the now is that really, ‘make me a list of descriptions of NPCs for a steampunk street in Vienna,’ is exactly the kind of thing that a large language model software system would be really good at but doing that runs the risk of generating characters that sound boring, and I’m not wild about the idea of engaging with those systems where I don’t have to.

Conclusion

If you’re like me, an older millennial who’s never succeeded at much of meaning, and you see cool people doing things around you that you think ‘oh wow I’d love to be doing that,’ you don’t have to let it fester in you and make you sad. You can take their examples and use them as guideposts for how you can do the things you want to do. Engineering someone else’s success is impossible, but you can at the very least recognise what it is about how they work that excites you.

Check it out on PRESS.exe to see it with images and links!

[sinsbymanka]

Character: Bianca Davri

I’m sorry I took FOREVER to do these. <3 I hope it was worth the wait!

Break their Ass Down: Bianca Davri

How I feel about this character

I like and respect her. We don’t know a lot about her, but what we DO know is kind of badass. She’s probably about Varric’s age (40ish), and we can assume the bulk of her work has been completed in about 20 years (from her 20s through to the present day) and in that time she’s completed MULTIPLE life changing inventions that are honestly pulling Thedas into the industrial revolution if you look at OUR world history and compare what happened when similar inventions were created that revolutionized the backbreaking labor of agriculture and manufacturing. 

She is absolutely a genius, and she knows it. That confidence and her reputation/skill makes her sexy and powerful. But there’s hints that she didn’t have the power she has now in former years. I think if she had met Varric now, when she’s older and more established, their romance wouldn’t be such a tragedy. But there’s something undeniably compelling about a brilliant young woman who runs away from at least one wedding to take off with a dashing rogue before she realizes she has to do what everyone wants her to do. 

All the people I ship romantically with this character

Varric - up to a point and in canon-divergent AUs. I think their tragic romance is really beautiful when they’re young, but I think by the time it reaches DAI it’s clearly toxic for bother characters (is Bianca holding onto the one thing she ever really picked for herself to spite her family? is Varric so caught up in a story he can’t handle reality?) However - I think they’d work really well together in a universe where they don’t meet until they’re older and it doesn’t go sideways quite so badly. 

Bogdan - we know absolutely nothing about him except that he was stood up at the altar at least once and that he helps Bianca with selling her inventions. In my writing, I’ve never been able to nail down what exactly I want his character to be. I wrote him as kind of an idiot in my first Varric/Cadash fic, set him up to be a minor antagonist in GwtAT (in both fics he’s quite possibly emotionally abusive or at the very least neglectful), but I’ve always written him as forgiving and loving. I very much love the idea of a man who also wasn’t sold on marrying a woman clealy in love with someone else, but they work it out and form a strong, solid partnership. I would ship that version of Bogdan with Bianca in a heartbeat. 

Dagna - this is a crack pair I am super invested in emotionally and has been gifted to me by @jarakrisafis once. I love the rivals-to-lovers aspect of it. Two brilliant women in competition before the sexual tension escalates and then they form a brilliant partnership? sign me the fuck up. 

Nobody - I said it. In both my first Cadash/Varric fic and in GwtAT, Bianca ends up alone and free. I think that’s quite a happy ending for her - she doesn’t need a romantic interest, she lives a happy and fulfilled life making the world better free of the drama. 

My non-romantic OTP for this character

Varric - Post DAI I really like the idea of old lovers becoming friends and realizing they’re better that way. I don’t think anyone knows either of them as well as the other one does, and I find it hard to imagine that Varric ever quite leaves Bianca’s life even if it’s platonic. 

Dagna - they should be friends. that’s it that’s all. 

My unpopular opinion about this character

Bianca isn’t an asshole, fandom is just mean to complicated female characters. 

Bianca does some shady shit during DAI. That red lyrium thing was CLEARLY a mistake, and she knows it, but I don’t blame her for not admitting it right away. She’s a genius - so her mistakes are correspondingly huge as well - she doesn’t play for small stakes. She didn’t double cross Varric as much as go around him to try and help him - a thing Varric is VERY guilty of doing for his friends as well but nobody ever calls him out on it (paying off the gangs to leave Anders alone even though Anders says not to? Trying to get Fenris a job he doesn’t want? Annoying Merrill to go outside until she’s ABSOLUTELY aggravated with him?) 

Bianca’s mistake was made with good intentions, and while she may have helped Corypheus, I’m pretty sure he’d have found a way without her. In fact, it’s a little known fact Bianca actually shows up at that keep in Emprise du Lion to help clean up the red lyrium as an NPC. Check out this post by @pikapeppa to see the dialogue (thank you for compiling this by the way I’ve used it as a resource a hundred times)  

Yeah. She fucking stays with the Inquisition to clean up a mess she helped cause. The most brilliant woman in Thedas, literally two votes away from being a surfacer Paragon, stays in the worst fucking place in Thedas to help the Inquisitor.

Nobody ever takes that into consideration when bashing her. 

What I think people really don’t like is Bianca threatening to rip out your Inquisitor’s eyeballs if they get Varric hurt and using them to clean up her mistake. And you know what, fair, you don’t have to like your OC getting threatened or used. 

But Varric arguably uses the Inquisition to clean up Hawke’s mess, and if he would have threatened your OC for Hawke, I don’t think anyone would have cared. 

One thing I wish would happen / had happened with this character in canon.

A lot of the information about Varric and Bianca’s relationship seems almost...optional to find? And it’s so many throwaway lines. We see Varric and Bianca at one of the worst moments in their relationship, but we don’t see how they got there. And because the moment is caused by Bianca’s mistake, she comes out looking worse than Varric, but I don’t think that’s true either. 

I truly believe that Varric and Bianca’s relationship is/should be over by the time DAI ends, it’s run it’s course, but I don’t think either of them are the SOLE cause for it being over. They both contributed to an increasingly untenable relationship and Varric got off way too easy for his part of it in game, leaving Bianca to take the hit. It’s unfair. 

I’ll still take these break the characters down asks! I’m working my way through them, but here’s who I have on deck:

Maria Cadash

Varric Tethras

And who I’ve done: 

Velanna

Bianca Davri 

[tsuzuruchipalace]

rating mankai company based on character design

Note: I will take into account hair, color scheme, sprite poses, mostly outfits that are not from plays or scouts, and memorability. This is half an objective view and half my personal opinion.

Disclaimer: I curse a lot for comedic effort. I am mean because I am funny. No, you cannot disagree.

Spring 🌸

sakuya: you get what you see. a literal spring babey. his hair and color scheme’s a little generic, but he’s mankai’s poster boy, so that’s understandable. speaking of generic, his main pose is just this emoji 🧍‍♂️ his outfits tend to be kinda basic, but any outfit with a mostly pink top gets him bonus points. 6/10

masumi: okay his hair is elite. probably one of the most memorable character design aspects among the cast. his mole and eyes also make him very pretty. love my boy’s dark color scheme. unfortunately, points must be docked for baiting us with the emo fit, then as the story progresses, he starts dressing like the trust fund kid he is smh. 9/10

tsuzuru: i love you tsuzu but. my mans is so basic. if he didn’t have such a great personality, he’d be as bland as untoasted white bread. the saya of a3. his best design aspect is the fact that he doesn’t dye his roots. his outfits look comfy, but not necessarily eye-catching. 4/10

itaru: everyone who starts a3! with no knowledge of these characters has one (1) thought about itaru. sec sea man. so obviously there’s something appealing/good about his character design. i think part of the appeal is his fuck-all demeanor. obviously, his eyes and hairstyle are attractive, but the way the artists draw him gives him an air of not caring, which is also attractive in a way. his dyed tips are also nice. he looks kinda lame when he dresses professionally, but his casual outfits hit. especially the ones with light pink. 8/10

citron: although i’m not a big fan of the “character is foreign and therefore must talk and dress different and be funny” trope in these types of media, his fashion does make him stand out from the other characters who tend to have more basic clothes. citron’s summer, travel, and autumn outfits SLAP and anyone who says otherwise has bad taste. his hair and eyes are interesting, but his overall color scheme can be a bit repetitive. 7/10

chikage: i hate this guy’s fucking bowlcut. fucking salad bowl lookin ass. every outfit is the same turtleneck and sneakers in two alternate colors. his outfits are so plain. only thing i like is his casual outfit glasses. HOWEVER. that’s the point. he’s supposed to look boring and blend in because he’s a spy. it’s a smart design, i just don’t like it so im docking points. stay mad about it. 5/10

Summer ☀️

tenma: im yawning. you think tsuzu was boring? this guy has orange hair and i still find his design boring. that’s how you know he’s basic. he’s got generic messy shounen protag hair. he could be from any property. if i drew fanart of him, people would ask where he’s from. he either dresses like your slightly homophobic frat boy classmate or a grandfather who gets his shit stolen by the asshole kids next door. 2/10

yuki: he has the r a n g e. all of yuki’s casual outfits hit. they’re all different, but cute in their own way. to no one’s surprise, one of the best styled characters. though i like his general color scheme, i’m personally not the biggest fan of his hairstyle. it’s okay, but a little plain at times. but i think it suits him well. 7/10

muku: i love him. muku’s design is what i love about this game. you see him, and you immediately know what his character archtype is supposed to be. he’s the soft, cute boy. and if this was a mediocre series, that’d be all muku is. but since this is a3, he’s so much more than that. he’s smart, passionate, sensitive to others’ feelings, and protective. a3 does a great job designing characters that look exactly like their archtype, but having a much more developed personality than that. getting back to the actual subject at hand, i love his hairstyle and color, as well as his outfits. you can never go wrong with light pink hair. i may be biased but fuck you. 10/10

misumi: another great memorable design. his eye shape and hair style are really unique. his outfits also elevate his design. street fashion is always a plus for me. though sumi’s design is special in the world of a3! where most of the characters are just. guys. regular lookin dudes. i think that outside of the game, his design would not be as unique. 8/10

kazunari: personally, im a fan. maybe it’s cause i have an affinity for blonde anime boys. but his hairstyle is pretty unique and his trendy looks set him apart from most characters, even outside this game. and he has a pretty lovable expression in his sprites. his fatal flaw is that his fits are either a hit or miss. they’re either really cute or wtf. at least he’s memorable. 8/10

kumon: i love that he reminds me of an owl. his hair and eyes are very cute and his color scheme is great. and i think they did a great job making him look related to juza, but still very much his own character. but he dresses like your classmate from middle school that looks like a nike-sponsored highlighter. yeah, he’s the sporty one, and i like the windbreakers but... i cannot excuse his summer fit. also, i find his design a little tame compared to some of the other characters in the game. 6/10

Autumn 🍂

banri: i hate his hair. i hate it so much. i know in canon it’s nice and he takes good care of it, but it looks so fucking greasy. the style makes him look so greasy and it makes me mad. he looks like an asshole. i mean, he is, so it fits. if this dumb bitch changed his hair more often, i’d like his design so much more. you saw this coming; his love for cheetah print is fucking repulsive. BUT, maybe unpopular opinion, minus the animal print, his sense of fashion is not bad. why do yall clown on it. if the fit is fresh, the fit is fresh. anyway, he looks like an ass, but objectively his design is kinda eh. 5/10

juza: im sorry im DEADLY fucking biased when it comes to juza, but he’s so handsome. his hair is a such a rich, pretty shade of purple and his eyes are so mesmerizing. his hairstyle is so attractive. his face is so pretty. yeah his design isn’t crazy unique, but the simplicity just works. im so sorry im this man’s whore i didn’t choose this life... but i can stop being a simp for one second to say that he has a boring fashion sense. i mean it’s kinda hot how simple his outfits are but his travel fit is good-- wait a minute i just remembered the fucking sandals. docking one point. 9/10

taichi: okay shut the fuck up i LOVE taichi’s design. so eye-catching and fun. as i’ve said i love street fashion, and taichi’s lil e-boy fits are right up my alley. that shade of bright red goes so well with his fashion sense, making a really cohesive design. with his main outfit, you can tell he purposely dresses like that to be trendy and it’s so smart. 10/10

omi: im sorry omi stans but his design is kinda,, boring. i legit had such a hard time identifying him when i first got into this game. the scar saves it a bit. but... only a bit. he’s just got. hair. and a dad outfit. i mean his tits are huge, but i don’t think i can call that a character design aspect. kinda forgettable design. i don’t dislike it though, so he ranks higher than tenma did. 3/10

sakyo: im not sure why but i really like sakyo’s design?? the contrast of his light hair and his dark clothes is nice. also, megane rights. even when i thought he was an npc during my first playthrough, i really dug his design and thought he was memorable. i actually cannot pinpoint a reason why. i wish i had more constructive things to say... but upon thinking about it, he has a karen haircut, which kinda dampers my thoughts on his design. i like his moles, but i honestly did not notice them until the game pointed them out. 7/10

azami: azami has a damn good design. i don’t think anyone can deny that. the long hair, the contrast of black hair and bright blue eyes, his eye shape. all very eye-catching design aspects. and the street fashion style strikes again. the color scheme matches well with everything. this review is lame, but there’s really only good things i can say about his design so. 10/10

Winter ❄️

tsumugi: it’s so late and im so tired of looking at these sprites. anyway, tsumugi’s design is okay. i think his color scheme’s a bit limited and his outfits are a bit meh. he has a more respectable bowlcut than chikage, but it’s still a bowlcut and it’s still boring. i think the best part of his design is his eyes, they’re very soft and kind. but other than that, tsumugi looks pretty basic. 5/10

tasuku: tbh, i didn’t even realize that the godza member tasuku was the same character as the winter troupe guy in the game’s opening until the middle of episode 3... yeah. im slow. ooooooor... tasuku has the worst fucking design in the game. yeah i said it. come at me, but tasuku’s design fucking sucks. i literally thought he was a minor character until they forced me to realize he wasn’t. his fashion sense is... questionable at best. i look at that man’s hair and think he doesn’t shampoo. he looks so bland i could dry up from looking at him. im sorry but his tits do not make up for the sheer fucking snorefest of his character design. he’s so boring i won’t elaborate anymore. 1/10

hisoka: ya get what ya see part 2. i like that i can tell he’s the sleepy and mysterious character just by his design, but honestly, that’s a character trope im generally not a big fan of. so i wasn’t thrilled by hisoka’s design at first. but it’s effective. i like the hairstyle with the white hair, but i’m not too fond of his color scheme. his outfits look comfy and soft though. it makes sense, but it’s nothing too memorable if you compare him to characters outside the game. 5/10.

homare: ah, now this is a memorable character design. his hairstyle annoyed me in the beginning, but now i love it. it’s so unique and fun. and i like the purple. i also like his outfits. very classy. but honestly, most of his charisma lies in his face. i think that the pure eccentricity of the hairstyle is enough to put him in the top tier without considering any other element. you really could not find this design in any other media. fuck it. i don’t need to consider anything else. 9/10

azuma: i’ll be honest. im not a fan of long-haired anime men. especially the pretty, flirty types. i don’t know, i just don’t vibe with them. originally, i didn’t like azuma’s design, but now i do. i don’t know how, but i think it’s because azuma is just that powerful. his ponytail makes it more bearable for me and i like the way his bangs frame his face. he just has pretty eyes and face. unfortunately his color scheme is a little too repetitive for me and his casual outfits are a little boring. 6/10

guy: maybe it’s because he looks dead inside, but i love him. i don’t even know this character that well yet, but i think his deadass expression is great. the darker under-eyeline sets him apart from the other characters and i love how he dresses. i think his hair is kinda eh. i personally like it, but objectively, it’s meh. it’s a solid design, but ngl it’s nothing special when i really think about it. 6/10

[sokumotanaka]

Here we go again

Honestly I dont know why I’m making this, alot of people are probably gonna think I’m crazy for this idea...now I wanna preface this I’m not saying that the provided example does it better or it’s the best example just that in comparison to RWBY it does what RT set out with Racism better/ with actual accuracy too.

vv Read more below vv

I’m gonna need you to be open minded and hear me out while I explain myself; This whole hound business really rubs me the wrong way. Like from our standpoint an ancient rich karen literally took a minority heavily based off black people, literally turned them into an attack dog that was killed by our heroes….this is after that point in which miles states “racism is too ambitious for two young white people to write.” But you didn’t bother to hire any minority writers to iron out the kinks? Tone-deaf!

Yes alot of series companies produce tend to chicken out on the topic which is frankly disrespectful to minorities when you claim you want to write about or for them; It’s not a good look when you lie about having a black writer and the only writers revealed to this day are all white. (and probably know only one black guy -Woolie get outta there-) But I’m losing the forest for the trees and speaking of trees I wanted to point out a thing that does racism better but is still a bigger meme and joke than RWBY;  Now hear me out, there’s a method to my madness.

Skyrim.  Again hear me out, you see as RWBY continues to go on alot of racism, microaggressions, and inequality happens infront of us without our heroes batting an eye;  From Them watching a bully pull on a faunus’s ears while other bullies make bunny ears on their heads so it’s clearly targeted to one thing about her, Or the fact that our “defenders of peace” dont seem too bothered to stop it (Oh boy reminds me of something) Or the fact that Our naive optimist protag that was stated to “see the good in everything.”

     doesn’t have an opinion on racism or the white fang and just stands next to her sister who also doesn’t have an opinion. (then ruby sides with the racist and yang spaces out like a newborn) Not a good look for the world’s “defenders of peace.” You know alot of people say that RT is woke cause they point out that racism happens so that makes them big brained, it’s like taking credit for “water is wet.” But I like to think they’re “woke” cause the defenders of peace, will watch racism happen and do nothing or in weiss’s case pretend like racism did them a favor (or Vol 8 having a faunus dog that is constantly called stupid and two angery black women???  FFS!) Anyway I’m getting off topic.

Skyrim addresses that the stormcloaks are not good for the wellbeing of the nation, they stole the land from elves and many nords find that bit of lore really fucked up or collar pulling.

Fellow nords make fun of “skyrim belongs to the nords” by calling it bigotted bs.  The stormcloaks are only composed of close minded or naive nords.

The empire has dark elves, bretons, imperials, redguards and nords.” If the stormcloaks win the way alot of the non nord businesses plummet to the point they have to leave, a brown female blacksmith doesn’t get customers but her desk job husband does and he runs out the racist. One of my favorite scenes is a nord in windhelm griping about how the dark elves haven’t started fighting for the stormcloaks and should pick a side.  The dark elf states that it’s not their fight they have racial inequality to deal with; And every night these two racist nords walk around late at night, drunk and yell racist slurs at them.  

There’s an NPC who approaches you and ask if you have those racist ideals of skyrim is for the nords in your head and to stop and reflect on it if you do, he walks around the dark elves area trying to help them and becomes the jarl if you side with the empire and makes an effort to try and fix things.

An understanding and reaction of racism and how awful it actually is should be the cornerstone of your Media; a dark elf woman saying “we shouldn’t have to fight for zealots that dont care for us.” Is WAY more interesting and mature than a catgirl “what abouting.” her own racist history and making civilians risk their lives for racist humans; that’s not mature at all.

It’s embarrassing that the game meme’d on constantly, the todd coward experience of having skyrim on your fridge and in your housepet does and understands racism better than the “so called woke show.” where our heroes are so complicit in it they dont say anything; Hmmm kinda similar to the staff. [Whoops we did a racism and didn’t care] (And we know we wont see any change, cause they’ll keep saying sorry and brushing things under the rug...) Anyway; Dont support this shitty company, be good to yourself people and others regardless or race, it’s 2021 it’s time to leave that in the 80’s where it belongs; take care.

[lilyginnyblackv2]

I’ve mentioned this once before on my blog (recently) that the NyanCave are doing a play through of FFX-2, so I’ve had FFX and FFX-2 on my mind a bit more than usual these past few weeks. And I just get reminded of how extremely well written the female characters are in these two installments. I don’t really have the time right now to do deep dives into all of them. But gosh, they are all so varied in personalities, goals, and desires. But none of the female characters are really pitted against each other, or if they are (like in the case of Donna) then that eventually gets put aside...or it’s because they are a boss fight.

But yeah, all of the female characters have some bonds or connections to male characters in the series, but those male characters don’t make up the sole personalities or goals of the female characters. Both series also have the female characters talking to each other about things unrelated to men and romance.

We have both good and bad female characters. We have female characters that wear modest clothing, as well as revealing clothing, and neither are shamed. The revealing clothing is also handled in a very natural way. The series was based a lot off of Southeast Asian culture and so very tropical temperatures. More revealing clothes are just presented as a natural due to the environment, with many characters in the background - both male and female - wearing clothes that are more beneficial to the heat.

There were the occasional odd camera angles, but none of the oversexualization type of stuff that was very prevalent at the time (think of the Dead or Alive Volleyball game type stuff - with huge, bouncing boobs). The series never really does that. Thankfully.

And the good writing doesn’t just extend to the main female characters either, more minor and side characters (that are nearly NPC level) get proper characterization, growth, and development on some level. 

From Dona and Leblanc who have “mean girl” persona’s written all over them, but who pull are better than that. Dona ends up being pretty political in X-2 and Leblanc is shown to have taken in individuals who had been rejected by society in some way, and was shown to be a very kind and nice boss. Then you have Shelinda (her character is shown to still be finding herself properly - even in X-2, which is great), Elma and Lucil (who have always given off big lesbian vibes to me, and who are shown to be warriors and leaders at heart - but still caring), to Calli (a girl who had a very short moment in FFX and then was given a bit more focus in growth in X-2).

Like, don’t even get me started talking about Yuna, Rikku, Lulu, and Paine - I could write so much. But they all shine and they all have fascinating storylines and goals that reach beyond the usual stuff of just romance. It’s so refreshing every time I think about it. Even Lenne, one of the least developed female characters in the series outside of the literal “in the background and exists to fill in space and make the place feel livable and real type of NPCs”), was given aspects that extended beyond just her relationship with Shuyin (such as her singing and her duties and talents as a summoner). Though, they could have expanded on that stuff even more.

I could go on for a long time. But the way the FFX and FFX-2 battle systems worked, allowed for many of the female characters to be playable and have varied skills and attacks. And a number of NPC female characters were still shown being active in battles/fighting.

Both of these series certainly aren’t perfect, but they really did do a good job with writing and handling their female characters overall. Even like Tidus’ mom was shown to be a fairly interesting and complex character, despite only showing up a total of two or three times throughout the whole FFX game. It’s just really fascinating to me and something that still makes me quite happy to think about to this day.

[young-bev]

An essay abt Fabian Aramais Seacaster

This is the essay that i wrote for my greek myth class. The assignment was to find a contemporary example of Hubris and Nemesis.Understand that some story elements are simplified and glossed over bc this was only supposed to be three pages and i wrote five. Idk like one person on tumblr wanted to see it and a few ppl on twitter as well. So enjoy??

In recent years there has been a rise in popularity in TableTop Role Playing Games (RPG), this is due to shows like Critical Role, The Adventure Zone, Not Another DnD Podcast and Dimension 20. These shows have amassed large followings and have even gone and performed live around the world. Viewed as a collaborative storytelling medium, using dice to define the success of one's actions, it is only reasonable to wonder if the traditional storytelling devices seen in classic mythology translates into this medium. Examining the plot to Dimension 20 Fantasy High a clear example of hubris comes to mind. This hubris is shown by a Player Character (PC) named Fabian Aramais Seacaster in the second season of Fantasy High. To understand the significance of the hubris and Nemesis, one must understand Fabian’s personality in the context of this show and how that relates to the situation he was placed in. Understanding Fabian as a character will also allow the viewer to understand how cruel Nemesis was to him. Nemesis’ cruelty can also be examined as a part of games mechanics and reflected in the relations between Dungeon Master and Player.

 For ease of understanding, I will first explain the context in which Fantasy High takes place. In the introduction to the show, the Dungeon Master (DM) Brennan Lee Mulligan explains that: “Now we can answer the age-old question of; What if John Hughes ran a tabletop RPG game?” The show follows a group of heroes who call themselves the Bad Kids as they attend the Aguefort Adventuring Academy: the world’s premier training ground for would-be Heroes. It is the first episode of the show that Fabian is introduced. He is a half-elven fighter raised by infamous pirate Bill Seacaster and Hallariel Seacaster. Played by Lou Wilson, Fabian is: “Everything [Lou Wilson] wanted to be in high school; rich and hot.” as he stated in an episode of Fantasy High: Extra Credit. It is here in Fabian’s very first scene that the viewer is given a key insight into Fabian’s hubris. While talking to his father before the first day of school, Bill Seacaster says to Fabian; “You’re my son, you’re a direct reflection of me! You and your glory is the same as mine and my glory! That’s how we relate to each other!” (Mulligan, S1 E1).  This statement is important because it will directly play into many of the choices Fabian makes in the following episodes. In the very same interaction, Fabian is gifted by his father an Auguefort Owlbears letterman jacket, as Fabian hopes to make it onto the team with the tryouts happening later that day.  The jacket becomes a great symbol for both Fabian’s hubris and identity as he does not initially make the team but still decides to wear the jacket to school nearly every day. As hubris is defined as someone viewing themselves as either above or below their true social rank. hubris is also seen as acting out of an overblown sense of importance. In a society where a social ladder is clear, Jocks and cheerleaders ‘rule the school’ and the nerds find themselves at the bottom, wearing a letterman jacket for a team that you are not a part of is very much believing yourself above your true position on the social ladder.

While the jacket is a minor display of hubris in the first season as Fabian does eventually find his way onto the Owlbears, it is not until Fantasy High: Sophomore Year that Fabian’s hubris is met with Nemesis. In sophomore year, the Bad Kids find themselves on a quest to retrieve the crown of the Nightmare King. Their journey leads them to the pirate city of Leviathan. Here the city is made up of ships roped and assembled together, it floats in the Celestine Sea. On their first night in Leviathan, Fabian separates himself from the party and heads off, now pensive as this city reminds him of Bill Seacaster. On his own, he meets members of his father’s cult. Warlocks who have given patronage to Bill Seacaster as he is now causing chaos as a devil in the nine hells after dying at the end of freshman year. Initially, these pirates praise and celebrate Fabian as he is their patron’s son. They believe Fabian their saviour. Their reaction changes, however, when they ask Fabian to describe how he defeated Bill Seacaster in combat. These warlocks believe Fabian to have killed his father in a grand and epic battle. Although, in actuality, Fabian killed his father in an act of mercy after their home was attacked by mercenaries. Fabian tries to explain this to these pirates and they immediately become frantic and fearful of the lack of potency and power of their patron. They believed Fabian a powerful enough swordsman to defeat Bill Seacaster, thus powerful enough to defeat one of Bill’s long standing rivals, a man named James Wicklaw (Mulligan, S2 E5). With a hurt pride and desperate to prove himself, Fabian declares: “I am perfectly capable of leading an army, Alright? I am my father’s son through and through. And I am as good as he is...” (Mulligan, S2 E5). It is here with wounded pride that Fabian sets out to prove himself in the eyes of his father’s cult. He leads them in an attack against James Wicklaw. Fabian’s hubris here comes from overcompensating for his hurt pride. He goes above his social standing, believing himself powerful enough to defeat Wicklaw on his own. This is however not true, as Dungeons & Dragons is a game where antagonists have challenge ratings and players gain levels in certain abilities. It is up to the Dungeon Master to balance encounters and choose antagonists appropriately. James Wicklaw was a Mind Flayer, listed in the Monster Manual as a level 7 challenge rating. Fabian at the time was a level 8 Fighter (Perkins, p.222). While this seems balanced, Fabian was immediately grappled and stunned, leaving him unable to do anything but watch, while Wicklaw and his crew slaughtered the 20 followers he had brought into battle. Nemesis comes to Fabian by removing his sense of identity. As Chungledown Bim, one of the warlocks says to Fabian before dying; “Ye ain’t no pirate and Bill would spit in your eye…I’m gonna shit in your mouth” (Mulligan, S2 E5). Ultimately these words would affect Fabian so much that they will come to haunt him in later episodes. Punishment in Dungeons & Dragons does play out differently then it does in classic Mythology. Where the gods of the pantheon are near impossible to reason with and are cruel and unforgiving in their punishments, the ones in control of the world of D&D are you and your friends. A good DM is on the side of their players but it is their job to react as the world in which their players find themselves. In this situation, Lou Wilson made a series of dangerous and reckless decisions as Fabian but these decisions were exactly the decisions that Fabian would make. He is prideful, he is overconfident, he is selfish and ultimately insecure when his pride is threatened. By losing his sense of identity, Lou and Brennan made the decision away from the table to push Fabian’s punishment past simply a character choice and into the mechanics of the game. At the table, we see Fabian shed his father’s eyepatch and sword along with his letterman jacket. These items are obvious symbols of Fabian’s sense of self. It isn’t until a later episode that the viewer sees the true effect that losing his identity has on Fabian. He suffers from exhaustion and pneumonia in the following episode and seems to have fallen into a depressive state. In episode 8, the Bad Kids go to face Wicklaw again, this time together as a team. It is here that the viewers and the other players learn that Lou and Brennan decided to remove all classes and feats Fabian had taken throughout the campaign. This leaves him with a single attack. Talking about this decision in the Fireside Chat, Brennan and Lou said: “[Lou Wilson]: A lot of it is a relationship and trust between you and your DM; in that your DM sees you make that choice, the less strategic choice…and meets you in the middle...It was so much more fun because...Brennan rewarded my choices with the reality and groundedness they deserve...’[Brennan Lee Mulligan]: ‘I think there comes a moment when playing D&D, where you can say: ‘I can really blow it and tell a better story’...I need to honor the danger Lou has put himself in and I need to put consequences here and I just can’t be vindictive.” This quote highlights the main difference with how hubris is treated in this media. Nemesis and the other Greek gods do not care, as characters, if their punishments are juste. They are particularly vindictive and often do not care if you die because of your hubris. Athena did not care about the importance of storytelling when cursing Arachne for boasting of her weaving skills, she simply cared that Arachne be punished for her hubris (Buxton, p.80). In opposition to this, a Dungeon Master and their players are more similar to the poets composing the myths. They make choices while considering the narrative, they enforce nemesis in a way that adds to the narrative. Using Nemesis allows the DM to enforce consequences onto the players allowing their decisions to feel more significant and raise the stakes. However, because of teamwork between player and DM, Nemesis will be much more forgiving to a Player Character then a Non-Player Character (NPC) or those showing hubris in myths. In conclusion, hubris and Nemesis still find their place in the world of RPGS. Fabian Aramais Seacaster is a clear example of this. He boasts of his abilities, believes himself a captain, when in actuality he is at his best when working in a team. Nemesis removes his sense of identity and confidence, forcing him to face his enemies without the skills he had honed in the past few years. She forced Fabian to realize that his true strength comes from the bonds he has with his friends and not borrowed from another's reputation. Nemesis forced Fabian to face his insecurities for which he was overcompensating, playing a key part in the larger elements of Fabian’s journey to becoming his ‘own darling man-boy’.

[benisasoftboi]

Unorganised thoughts on Trails in the Sky: First Chapter:

Going to keep this as spoiler free as possible because I want you to play this game if you haven’t

I’m well aware that I’m very late to the party here, but... Trails in the Sky is very good, everyone

It had been on my Steam list for like six years. My friend reminded me about the summer sales, and a combination of the price having dropped and good reviews convinced me to finally pick it up. And I am so glad I did

Calling it ‘FC’ from here on out because the title is long, and I can’t exactly uses the acronym that Trails in the Sky shortens to, can I?

So I love JRPGs. I almost exclusively play JRPGs. And FC, to me, is kind of the JRPG. It does basically everything that is expected of the genre, but it doesn’t feel generic because it does all of those things very, very well

Gameplay! The gameplay is fun, a good mix of allowing for strategy and tactics without being massively difficult. I really appreciate that - I don’t play JRPGs because I’m good at video games, but I also don’t like just mindless hitting things all that much 

There are one or two slight annoyances with the combat system (if you’re fighting a lot of enemies you’ll be waiting forever for them all to take their turns, some of the animations are a little slow, when you’re in the field enemies touching anyone in your party can start a battle, which means you have to be extra careful where you step when you have a full party), but none of them are game ruining

And there are no random encounters! Yay! I hate random encounters!

Story! FC’s story isn’t the most unique JRPG story out there, but there’s lots of little touches I greatly appreciated

For one, (trying to work out how to say this without spoilers) - I really liked the main antagonist’s motivations. So very often it’s ‘destroy the world’ or ‘become God King of the universe’ or something. This person had a very understandable and honestly kind of reasonable motivation - like, you could really see how someone would think it was a good idea, the problem wasn’t that they were evil, it was that they either hadn’t considered or didn’t care about the negative consequences it could have on the average citizen. 

Also, the conflicts don’t just stem from like, tangible nefarious forces - you also see how it results from things like untreated PTSD, or industrialisation, or societal sexism. Which is more compelling than ‘everything bad in the world is the result of the evil dragon god, kill it’  

There’s also really good foreshadowing. During a certain scene at the end of the game, I actually gasped when I realised the connection it had with a certain character’s second S-Break. I will say no more, but people who’ve played this know what I’m talking about

Characters! FC has great characters

Estelle: I like Estelle. Firstly, it’s pretty rare for a JRPG to have a female protagonist (hell, it’s relatively rare to even be given the option to play as a girl!), so that was very cool. She has good character growth over the course of the game, and I really enjoy that - she starts out very hyper and optimistic, and she never loses that, but gets better about recognising the right times and places for it. It’s a pretty risky move to give the protagonist of a long game a personality (you have to spend a lot of time with them. Silent player avatars are easier and don’t run the risk of the player not liking them), but with Estelle, it pays off

Joshua: Joshua is very well designed. He’s the game’s real mystery - the whole time, we want to keep playing so we can find out what’s up with him. Appearance-wise he’s unique among the rest of the cast without coming across as ‘my first OC’, he has a great rapport with Estelle and I like him in his own right -  I want good things for Joshua. 

Joshua and Estelle are just a great duo in general. I found the romance subplot... weird, at first, but I came around. I want these kids to be happy, damn it!

Schera: Not my favourite, but good at what she needs to be. My least favourite to use in combat. I like her mentor relationship with Estelle and Joshua, and I also like her design

Olivier: MY BOY. I love him. He’s so great, I love ‘weirdo’ characters and he’s great example of one. I love his design, I love using him in combat, I love his interactions with other characters - Olivier is just the best and I want to be friends with him irl.

(It’s also pretty neat that he’s undeniably canonically biseuxal - that’s a rarity!)

Kloe: She’s fine. Not a huge fan (probably didn’t help her that she joins the party after MY BOY leaves), but I definitely don’t dislike her. She just feels a little generic, is all, and I predicted the ‘twist’ with her a mile off. I love using her in combat, though, and I really like her design

Tita: Tita is cute, and she’s a little girl with a big gun, which is always great, if silly. How old is she meant to be, though???

Agate: I 100% thought that I wasn’t going to like Agate. He comes in with that Arrogant Asshole Shounen Protagonist vibe and I hate that. But then you get to know him, and you realise that his earlier attitude was actually pretty understandable, and by the end he was actually one of my favourites

Zin: Eh. Like Kloe, I don’t hate him, but there’s just kind of nothing that draws me in with Zin. I think he joins too late, and doesn’t have enough time to really build up an interesting rapport with anyone. I liked his interactions with Olivier, though, and he’s pretty great to use - I have a massive bias for defensive characters 

Maybe I’ll feel differently about some or all of them when I’ve played the second game - we shall see...

There’s also a tonne of major NPCs, pretty much all of whom I liked (except maybe Dorothy - I don’t hate her, but she kind of got old after a while. I appreciate that Estelle found her equally annoying)

But the other thing that’s really worth mentioning is the minor, faceless NPCs. Because they all have names and little stories and lives - like, when you’re in the city of Ruan, there’s a maintenance worker named Clive who’s offered a prestigious factory job. He turns it down to look after his brother Todd, which upsets Todd because he doesn’t want to hold Clive back. Then when you move on to the city of Zeiss, you can visit the factory and learn that they’re now struggling to find someone else. Eventually they hire a woman names Louise, who ends up being an excellent choice - but if you visit her home, you find out she has a strained relationship with her own sibling

And none of this matters to the plot at all! You can miss this entirely, but the fact that it (and hundreds of little stories like it) are there makes the world feel so alive. It’s full of people living their own lives that don’t revolve around what your team is doing. It feels real.

We’re told that Estelle and Joshua have to travel the world by foot so that they really understand what it is they’re tasked with protecting. It took me way too long to realise that it’s also so that the player understands, too

So many JRPGs ask you to save the world. FC is special because it actually feels like there’s a world to save

Now I’m going to go play the second game and hope they keep that up!

[hardnoctlife]

My Thoughts on FFVIIR

It’s been a few days since I finished FFVIIR, and I wanted to put my thoughts on the game into words, but I gotta get a few housekeeping things out of the way.

1.       These are all MY opinions. I understand and respect that others may have different opinions from me, however, that does not make this an open invitation for argument in the comments, bashing, etc. I have no problem blocking anyone who wants to be an asshole. Just be nice, please.

2.       I grew up playing FFVII and all of its spin-offs. FFVII was my first RPG, and ultimately what got me into playing video games. Nostalgia is a -huge- part of why I enjoyed FFVIIR so much, and therefore I am openly biased towards the game. I’m interested to hear the thoughts of people not familiar with the original, because they’re seeing the story with a fresh set of eyes.

3.       With that being said, I’ve already noticed drama surrounding FFVIIR fans who -have- played the original vs. those who haven’t, or those who haven’t played Crisis Core, etc. I am firmly of the belief that this is a great game for new and old fans and won’t tolerate any condescending attitudes in either direction. Video games are supposed to be fun, so let’s just all agree to enjoy the thing TOGETHER, shall we?

Alright, now that those things are out of the way, onto my thoughts. **MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD**

I’m going to be breaking this up into sections, because there is just too much to dissect! Let’s start with the characters.

“The Good Guys”

Cloud: Still my favorite character of all time, even more so after playing the remake. And of course, he is gorgeous. I could stare into his eyes all day. I know there has been a lot of controversy over getting new voice actors for the remake, but I feel like his VA did a great job. They nailed his personality of “broody asshole with a heart of gold”, and I think the remake had reasonable and believable character development when it came to Cloud’s interactions with the other party members. His dynamic with Tifa, Aerith, and Barrett was also spot on. I think it was a good move on Squeenix’s part to keep him pretty much the same, because he’s such an iconic character for the entire Final Fantasy series, so no complaints on my part!

Jessie: Okay, so, I hated Jessie at first. She was too flirty and all over Cloud for my liking, and I felt this strange disconnect between the “I used to be an actress but now I’m fighting for the planet” part of her backstory. Yes, she was still spunky in the original, but they didn’t draw it out nearly as much (I assume because she was killed off early). I -do- appreciate that the developer’s felt the need to give her more depth and show more interactions between her and Cloud and everyone else, but I also thought it detracted from Cloud’s relationships with Tifa and Aerith to an extent, especially the whole scene where she was asking him to come back to her place with him (yikes). And, true to Squeenix form, they killed off her character, even while letting Biggs and Wedge live (they both died in the original). So, in that sense, I didn’t really care that much for her, although her final scene with Cloud was very moving and redeemed her in some ways for me. So, yay for more screen time, but c’mon Squeenix, why do you gotta use your female characters this way?!

Biggs & Wedge: I loved the updates to their character models, and like with Jessie, I appreciate they tried to give them more depth and dialogue to make their involvement more significant. It did throw me for a loop when they both ended up living instead of dying when the Sector 7 plate fell. I was delighted to discover they survived (until I found out Jessie died and they didn’t). At times, I felt like their exalted importance detracted from other characters, especially at the end in Shinra HQ where Wedge shows up to warn everyone and Avalanche comes in to try and rescue Cloud & the gang, only to imply that he dies -there- instead. To me, it felt like an unnecessary moment to add in, but hey, there are only so many characters in the remake that people get to see, so why not give the Avalanche crew a more important role? I’m interested to see if this means that they’ll be returning in the next installments as they may be ‘fated’ to survive.

Barrett: What a glow up! Barrett looked good, he sounded good, his character was solid and true to the original. I have to say my favorite thing to see was how the banter and dialogue shifted between him and Cloud as you progressed through the remake. They went from basically hating on each other to complimenting each other and being buddy-buddy, and it was truly heartwarming. I even enjoyed using Barrett in battle (more on the fighting system later), which was refreshing. It was a good move on Squeenix’s part to show his softer side by including more scenes with Marlene, and he’s an excellent foil to Cloud’s character, which I feel was consistent for both games.

Tifa: My lady, the love of my life, my HERO. Tifa was -amazing- for me. Also, her VA was probably my favorite of the bunch. The updates to her outfit were much needed, yet she still retained her sexy allure, even if it was a little awkward to hear all the male NPC’s talking about how hot she was all the time. Other than Cloud, she was my favorite party member to use in battle—what a total badass!—and the scenes with her and Cloud made me squeal with delight. I was grateful for the extra attention put into their relationship, and how it was made clear that she was just as important and strong as the male characters.

Aerith: First, the positives. They expanded Aerith’s fighting range, which was appreciated, because in the original I only used her as healer. Her personality shone through a bit more, as she was even ore outgoing than I remembered her being (and even cursed a few times!), and I loved all of her interactions with Tifa and Cloud (my favorite trio/love triangle). Her backstory was pretty well communicated regarding the Ancients and her relationship with Shinra. On the flip side of things, I found her party banter annoying as hell and her voice grating at times (it reminded me of a high school girl), and I’m not sure how I feel about her interactions with the Whispers and what that implies for future installments. There was some hinting at the end of the remake that Aerith may not die like she did in the original (at least that was my interpretation), and I’m not sure whether I like that possibility or not, mainly because Aerith’s death is one of the most memorable scenes of FFVII, and that would change the entire plot. For better or for worse, who’s to say?

Red XIII: I loved all of the scenes with Red! His voice fit him really well, and they showed a lot of character development with him and the group in a short amount of time. I was sad you couldn’t control him in your party, but I’m hoping that will change in the next installment. I’m excited to see his backstory in Cosmo Canyon when we finally get to that point in the remake.

Chadley: This kid was annoying and weird, and I wasn’t sure exactly what his deal was, but he was definitely shady AF. Not sure why he was entirely necessary if he was simply a way to upgrade your materia, but hey, I’ll take that assess materia from ya buddy if it means new stuff for me to use. 

Johnny: Johnny grew on me. Was he also annoying and weird too? Yes. But he reminded me of a Prompto-Gladio lovechild and turned out to be a sweetheart, so I say he can stay, Squeenix.

“The Bad Guys”

Shinra executives: Not much to say here for me other than great job in bringing this diabolic group to life. Yep, still hate every one of ‘em. They stayed pretty much true to their original selves, and all of them matched what I remembered of them, right down to the dialogue. I thought it was an interesting choice to see Sephiroth kill President Shinra (in the original you just find him dead at his desk, impaled on Sephiroth’s sword), but I’m not complaining. That guy was a grade A asshole.

The Turks: Love, love, love how they portrayed each of these guys, and showed how they are also unwilling participants in all of Shinra’s shit. They definitely made them more likeable from the get-go and I felt a lot of callbacks to Advent Children. Reno cursing and being sassy was probably one of my favorite things out of the entire game. He had -so- many great lines, even if they weren’t direct translations of the Japanese. I’m hoping they will include more of the Turks in future installments (like Cissnei in Crisis Core) and continue fleshing out their story arcs.

Rosche: Okay, unpopular opinion, but I did not like this guy at all. I’m not sure what the hype is about him all over my social media. Could be the mullet, which is an automatic ‘no’ for me (Gladio from FFXV being the only exception), but he seemed like an irritating and very pointless addition to the game. His sole purpose appeared to be to prepare you for escaping Shinra and fighting from Cloud’s motorcycle towards the end, but I felt like he could have been taken out of the story entirely without missing anything. I didn’t hate as many of the newer characters (like Leslie) as much as I did him, but I guess he and I just didn’t vibe. I’m assuming he’ll return later on, so maybe my opinion will change. (I sure hope so.)

Leslie: Okay, at first, I was like, “who is this knock-off Noctis wannabe?” but I really enjoyed the backstory and depth they gave this seemingly minor character. I see that Squeenix is trying to provide new things for older fans to take interest in, and in this case, I felt he was a nice touch. (Edit: I was told that Leslie, Kyrie, and some of the other new NPCs were featured in an audio book?! Which I had no idea even existed, so...the more you know!)

Don Corneo: Even slimier and creepier in HD! Honestly, hats off to Squeenix for translating what was possibly the most cringy and controversial part of the original in a ‘tasteful’ way in regard to all of Wall Market. This guy was definitely a worthy villain in the remake.

Rufus: Holy hell. I never ever in my life thought I’d be saying this, but wow, is Rufus hotter than I remember. Thank you, Squeenix for giving me another foxy bad boy to drool over. He was also, for me, the hardest and most frustrating boss battle (even more so than Sephiroth), but it was totally worth dying to watch all the cut scenes with him over again. Can’t wait to see more of him in the next installment.

Hojo: God, I hate this guy. I know you’re -supposed- to, but he is such a creep. Hearing his dialogue in the remake was even worse than reading it in the original. Gotta say, dealing with his four wards in Shinra HQ was my least favorite part of the game by far, but I know he will get his comeuppance later down the road. All the dialogue was just as shocking as I remember, so, yeah. Good job?!

Sephiroth: Alright, anyone else feel like they made Sephiroth EXTRA SEXUAL in this remake?! You too? Oh, good, good, same bro. Now, it could just be me projecting, but anytime he came on the screen…panties were dropping y’all. Of course, I’m not one to complain about Sephiroth content. On the contrary, I lap it up like I just walked through the desert and found an oasis, BUT, I will say this…you barely see Sephiroth at all at this point in the original. As a reminder, the remake only covered the first 4-6 hours of the original game, and I get you can’t really do a remake without at least SHOWING Sephiroth for the people who have been waiting to see him in HD, but with that being said, he was VERY involved. I love Sephiroth, he’s a great villain, but they are definitely changing things with him, so I guess we will have to wait and see what happens.

My one criticism? His voice was my least favorite out of the main characters. Not saying the VA didn’t do a great job, but it didn’t sound deep enough to be as intimidating. I prefer the VA who voiced him in Advent Children, but I’m sure it will grow on me in time.

Gameplay

Battle system: When the remake’s demo was released, I remember a lot of people were complaining about how ‘difficult’ the new battle system was, but I absolutely love it. It’s just the perfect balance of turn-based and real-time, with plenty of options for customization. If you want more real time, you can set your short cuts, and if you want more turn-based, you also have that option. My only real complaint was that item use is also tied to the ATB bar, but overtime I figured out when to heal myself in a timely fashion (after dying more than a handful of times). Button mashers won’t enjoy this battle system because it requires a little more strategy, but I think the point was to create an updated version of the original fighting style that would appeal to both old and new players, and it definitely delivered. Seeing the classic limit breaks used and being able to run around during battle was so much fun for me, and I about died when I saw Cloud strike his OG victory pose in Wall Market’s coliseum. Also, the transition between running through Midgar and entering battle was SO incredibly smooth and seamless that at times you didn’t notice the shift. Phenomenal.

o   Boss Battles: As much as I enjoyed the battle system of remake, some of the bosses felt unnecessarily hard and/or tedious (I’m looking at you, Hell House). Making use of the assess materia early on definitely helped me out, but I legit got bored at times, especially that damn giant robot you fight with only Barrett and Aerith when escaping Shinra HQ. This is really just a minor complaint, but there were a couple bosses where I died several times (*cough* Rufus *cough*) before I figured out the secret to defeating them, while others were super easy or just not that interesting. Meh. For context, I played on “normal” mode, but it truly felt hard in certain scenarios. (That could just have been me trying to get used to the new fighting style.)

o   Materia: speaking of materia, I did notice some new materia in the game, which was neat, and although I didn’t care for Chadley (dude, where are your parents?) it was nice to have a way to develop and earn new materia throughout. I found it somewhat strange that summon materia was just a thing you could get so early on instead of having to work for it, but I was excited to use it. Shiva and Ifrit were definitely my favorite summons (which hasn’t changed from the original for me). My one big question: where is the freaking ‘all’ materia?! I know they kinda split ‘all’ up into many different types of materia, and you do have ‘pray’ for healing your entire party, but man, that was so versatile in the original so that was a hard adjustment for me not to have use of it.

o   Weapons: I think it’s cool that they developed an upgrade system to make use of your weapons long term, giving them their own abilities, strengths, and weaknesses. Made me think of FFX where you used the spheres to upgrade your characters. Also? I loved being able to see materia in my weapons when I switched them out. That was a really neat touch. 

Music: And here I thought they couldn’t make the music of the original game any more epic, but they definitely outdid themselves in the remake. I enjoyed hearing all the remixes and ways they wove the classic themes into different parts of the games. I think my favorite was when you’re going through sector 5 with Aerith and have to control the giant robotic hands. The music in that section SLAPPED. The in-game jukebox was also a nice way to honor the old school classics. Hearing Aerith’s theme for the first time just about made me cry, and listening to One-Winged Angel fighting Sephiroth? Nothing could beat that moment musically for me.

Side quests: I’m not sure about anyone else, but I really didn’t care for the side quests. They weren’t very fun for the most part, and considering how linear the game is, they felt more like chores that needed to be completed because I had to, and not because I wanted to. The only exception was Wall Market, but all-in-all, most of them didn’t add much to the story, unlike in FFXV where I could go down a rabbit hole of sidequests for hours and hours.

Graphics: This is clearly stating the obvious, as anyone with eyes will tell you, the game is nothing short of gorgeous. I cannot tell you how many screencaps I took of just Cloud. It was definitely a world that I wanted to run around in for hours (and did) and will do so again and again just to look at all the little details. My favorite thing to do is watch comparison videos of the original and remake openings side-by-side. How crazy is it that technology has come this far!

Playtime: My biggest critique of this game is that it was too damn short. Stretching the first 4-6 hours of the original into 40 was definitely impressive, but considering I waited 20+ years for the remake, it was pretty disappointing to finish the game in less than a week. Like most people, I’m wondering just how long they plan on stretching this out, how many installments there will be, and when the second part will be released. Hopefully not another ten years, but it -is- Squeenix we’re talking about...

Storyline

Most people who played will tell you that most of the remake stayed very true to the original, even lifting some of the exact dialogue and scenes. The nostalgia hit me so hard in parts that I was literally in tears. The first time I watched the opening in the demo, I cried. That’s the power this game has over many people, including myself.

In other ways, the remake improved on parts of the story or re-imagined them. We always knew it wasn’t going to be a copy and paste of the original story, which I’m sincerely grateful for. I would seriously hope that after 20+ years they would have thought of ways to improve or polish FFVII and make it new and exciting for returning fans and people just picking it up.

My pros regarding the updates in the story:

- They fleshed out many background characters and added in new ones. Most of the core group spent more time interacting, and the party banter felt natural and progressed realistically as the game went on.

- New mini-games and side quests expanded on the slums and made the areas larger and more interactive, yet they still kept the nostalgia of iconic locales.

- Plenty of fuel to fan shipping fires with emotionally charged scenes and pretty boys abounding (Cloti and Clerith especially).

- All of Wall Market was brilliantly done. I was wondering how they’d update it for the new generation, and it was seriously the best part of the game for me (and had me laughing the entire time).

-  Hinting that Zack is alive and/or Aerith may live is something I’m listing as a pro, only because I would love to see these characters used to their full potential, however, this is also a con for me, and I’ll explain why.

My cons:

Whispers: If you played the original, you probably had the same reaction as I did when the ‘Whispers’ showed up. “Wtf are these dementor-looking things?” At first, I thought they might be something similar to what we saw in Advent Children, and that they were ‘remnants’ or parts of Sephiroth, or somehow his minions, or even souls from the Lifestream, etc. When I found out they were actually supposed to be ‘protectors of fate’ or whatever, I rolled my eyes, especially when Barret was ‘killed’ by Sephiroth and then miraculously brought back to life. It felt very ‘deus ex machina’ to me in the sense that ‘everything has to go a certain way because we said so.’ While it makes sense, I really wasn’t buying it, but I’m assuming that we will learn more about them in the second installment. 

The Ending: The whole final boss battle of the remake was surprising, because it felt almost exactly like the final boss bottle of the original game, right down to the cutscene where Cloud is thrown through space and faces off against Sephiroth one-on-one. Before you defeat the ‘harbinger of fate’ (anyone else get KH heartless vibes?) and fight Sephiroth as the final boss, Aerith goes on her long spiel about ‘fate’ and ‘destiny’ and ‘this will change us,’ and it’s laid on so thick that it’s almost like they were setting us up for an alternate timeline, which is entirely possible, but that’s all speculation at this point. Regardless, they made it clear that whatever is coming next is going to be -very- different from the original, or possibly is going to be another timeline of the story, especially since Zack was shown alive and well. One criticism I heard from someone who hadn’t played the original game was that they treated Sephiroth and Zack like people you were supposed to know, and I can agree with that. They didn’t spend -any- time explaining their significance, backstory, or why people were so afraid of Sephiroth other than showing you little flashbacks into Cloud’s deranged memories, so in that sense, the ending might have fallen flat for those who don’t know exactly what Sephiroth represents or who he is, or why he stole Jenova from Hojo’s lab, etc, etc. Plus, throwing in Zack at the end is something that anyone who played the original game or Crisis Core would get, but new fans would also not understand the significance of. Personally, I screamed when I saw Zack because I was so happy , but I can see why that ending would be very unsatisfying and/or confusing for some.

Overall: 9/10

No, it doesn’t get a 10/10 for me, even as someone who absolutely loves Final Fantasy VII, but hey, no game is perfect. It’s honestly hard to live up to the hype this game has created since it was officially announced, and all things considered, Squeenix -did- live up to it. I will still be eagerly awaiting part two, playing the shit out of this game and squeezing the most I can out of it until I get to experience more.

I’d love to hear what other people thought (so long as the discourse is respectful of course). If you read this far, thanks for listening to my ramblings!

[gayregis]

if you've read season of storms is it any good? i read a sample and was kind of bored but i don't want to spend money on it if it's going to be like,,,,,,,,,lady of the lake

reading this i was like “wait lady of the lake was good though,” then i paused to actually think about it as a cohesive narrative for a bit, and went “actually wait never mind :/...” it was good thematically, and there were a lot of great scenes, but like as a whole book... if you could only read that book on its own... it would be very long and confusing. i just think lotl’s good because i do the uncivilized thing of skipping around to the parts i like and then i don’t read the parts i dislike

but luckily i have already ranted about season of storms before, and i’ll post that rant here now. for context, i actually read season of storms from cover to cover... yeah.

overall, it's a disorganized and aimless plot. it's set inbetween tlw and sod, so there's no quest to find ciri, because geralt hasnt met ciri yet, he's still our free bachelor geralt. which means hes still quite directionless and when it comes to his personal life it's mostly preoccupied with romance. but more importantly it means the plot is incredibly aimless and NOT PERSONAL to geralt, like all the stories in TLW and SOD and all the saga books revolve around events and people super meaningful to him. what happens in the plot is a whole JUMBLE of things that feel like sidequests from the witcher games, not a story from the witcher books. nothing really means anything for geralt's character development, and it suffers from being so long because there's like a lot of different settings and characters and everything just seems completely thrown together, mashed up, and not coordinated. 

i will admit that baptism of fire & tower of the swallow followed a style of “random encounters” in which geralt and the company traverse on and just interact with whatever they happen to find, but it felt like they were accruing knowledge (and also. members of the company) as they travelled on. in season of storms, it feels like geralt starts over and the entire book resets itself every time there is a new scene. none of the plotlines fit together, so it is just a super confusing and exhausting reading experience, unlike in bof & tos, where you can follow the action quite easily and it’s very pleasant to read because it’s all one continuous storyline.

in addition, all of these mashed up stories are pointless, because they dont END with the reader learning anything about the universe the characters live in or their relationships with each other. we might learn that sorcerers are power-hungry, but we already knew that. we might learn that people are violent and corrupt, but we already knew that. we might learn that geralt loves yennefer, but we already knew that. in the short stories, you learn so much about the world and geralts relationships (for example: we learn so much about the situations surrounding the elves in edge of the world, so it’s worth reading because otherwise you will not understand anything when the scoia’tael show up in blood of elves and later in the saga). and in the saga, this continues and more worldbuilding/relationship building occurs (geralt and ciri’s relationship grows from a question of price and then becomes crazy right around baptism of fire when they’re super linked by destiny). it really doesnt in season of storms. you don’t learn anything meaningful about the world or the characters like in the other witcher books.

another large flaw is that in the stories and saga, sapkowski was really good at creating likeable, enigmatic characters no matter how few pages he had to create them. they were deep and almost lifelike and also usually told a larger message. the NPCs- sorry, "characters" in season of storms are SUPER flat and uninteresting.

coral is h*rny for geralt and jealous of yennefer, like every sorceress ever to exist, pratt is a dick and corrupt, degerlund is corrupt and evil, mosaik is timid, the werewolf guy is JUST THERE, the auguara isn’t super interesting despite being cool, nimue feels flatter as a character than usual, even dandelion- okay actually jk i liked dandelion he was the sunny part of this book AS ALWAYS ... ofc he felt one-dimensional but he usually does so you know, EVEN GERALT feels a little one-dimensional and not his typical introspective self

one of the worst things sapkowski did was [SPOILERS] make the major villain character of the book gay and feminine... like its mentioned SO many times that "ohhhh this is a man that looks like a woman WOW HOW EVIL!" and he literally does the worst things like rip ppl to shreds and want to kill geralt painfully by torture with syringes, also he uses his sexuality to ?? seduce an older sorcerer to be his favorite so he can keep his job as a sorcerer?? 

and OK vilgefortz and bonhart arent complex villains. but theyre despicable and it feels a little deeper bc vilgefortz has that backstory and hunger for power, and bonhart is just terrifying and the embodiment of wretched evil, this guy from season of storms is just annoying and anime villainy like “OOHOHOH watch how i kill you now >:)” also theres a lot of crass humor like fart jokes and villains that are described as really super ugly like omg wow never saw that one coming!!! it just feels super bland and basic and almost like the antithesis of The Witcher as short stories and a saga, super out of place with the rest of the series. [END SPOILERS]

in my opinion, the BIGGEST FLAW with season of storms is that since the plot is so all over the place, and since the characters are so flimsy, the entire book feels meaningless. it feels like it would appease games or netflix fans who just want to read about geralt going on some crazy adventures, and it does serve that purpose, but it is NOT a “book belonging to the witcher series.” it has no depth where there should be... i do not feel like sapkowski is trying to tell me something as a reader about human nature, or the nature of parent-child relationships, or society, or violence and war... 

it just feels like geralt is doing all of this shit just because sapkowski had some remaining ideas and wanted to get all of them out into the world all in the same book, like sewing a vest out of fabric scraps. it was not refined like the witcher saga, because none of them were really meant to fit together anyways, and because they weren’t meant to fit together, there is a distinct lack of message and substance to it.

TLDR: no cohesive narrative and a confusing plot, no deeper underlying message or arguments about humanity or society or nature being made by the author, cheap new side & background characters, no ciri and no yennefer so geralt is quite directionless and stupid

other remarks that are just my personal preferences and comments:

geralt & dandelion:

geralt mostly works alone in this book... which is... not my favorite. this is why i got bored with tw3 after i read the witcher books, because i can’t stand geralt being alone, the world feels so... lonely! although he meets up with dandelion and has an affair with coral in season of storms, most of the book is him waffling about with side and background characters that i couldn’t care less about because sapkowski put no effort into developing them to be enigmatic or at least lifelike and likable (unlike some really minor characters in the witcher saga that, although they were so minor, were incredibly likable: for example, applegatt and toruviel i quite like). 

of course, i also have a preference for when geralt hangs out with dandelion, because it usually creates more of a lighter tone for the scenes and a more humorous nature overall, plus geralt changes his personality to be not in such a bad mood and we get to see him being kind and friendly. so it annoys me that although dandelion has some scenes with geralt, they never really have deep conversations like they do in a little sacrifice, or witty remarks & banter like in the edge of the world... i feel like dandelion was quite in-character for the whole book, which is good, but also, he’s dandelion so he’s pretty easy to get in character. he’s just easy-going, arrogant, preoccupied with earthly delights, cowardly, and friendly to geralt. but it annoyed me that their scenes together were both not very deep, and that they didn’t get as much interaction as i think they deserved. usually in a witcher book or story in which geralt and dandelion have met, they stay by each other’s side for like, the whole book or story, lmao... 

that being said, they do have some fun moments in this book and dandelion has some funny lines which i quite enjoy. like. they are eating at an inn, and the innkeeper asks them “how are you finding the pork?” and dandelion replies, “we’re finding it among the kasha. from time to time. not as often as we’d like to.” and somehow i just find that line so fucking funny... i think it’s just because it’s really relatable

sorcery:

coral is SOOOOO one-dimensional, she really is just like the same character as fringilla vigo or some other sorceress that’s jealous of yennefer for getting to bang geralt, and this lack of characterization is super transparent. people laugh about how many affairs geralt has had, but they never discuss how all of them have been super uneasy and unfulfilling.

already said that i hate degerlund as a character and all of the sorcerers being morally wack is predictable if you’ve read like, anything from the saga about the sorcerer/esses. also geralt talking with sorcerers is like, interesting if the sorcerer in question is vilgefortz, but everyone else is just super boring

other:

i didn’t really like ferrant de lettenhove until the very end of the book (which i won’t spoil) but because of this end, i wished that he got more backstory/development

NIMUE I LOVE YOU and it was nice that nimue got some more backstory in this.

i do enjoy the end of the book. not to say “my favorite part is when it ended,” but it’s true, because the ending in kerack is interesting and full of drama, the moments in the inn are alright if a little void of substance, the ending with geralt and dandelion on horseback is beautiful, and the epilogue with nimue is wistful and beautiful as well.

sheer pettiness:

oh my GOD why are the CHAPTERS so SHORT? it’s like, 20 chapters plus a bunch of interludes and an epilogue, and the book is only 357 pages long. it feels like as soon as i was getting into a scene, it switched to another chapter. i mean, idk whether i prefer this, or the haphhazard long as fuck chapters from baptism of fire where i’m not quite sure when a chapter begins or ends because i memorized the scenes and not when a chapter occurs. 

i dislike how coral is on the cover of it, even though it’s fitting, because if there was a work about... oh idk... the hansa... then angouleme could have been on the cover... and then i could have had geralt + yennefer + ciri + dandelion + the hansa on the covers... like wow that would be cool...

this book would have functioned much better as a series of short stories... i think sapkowski has talent for the short story medium, but novel-length books are more desirable by publishers, but this is literally just a guess, i don’t have anything to back this up

my recommendation: don’t buy it if you are just looking to read the witcher books as in, get a feel for the book canon world and characters. it’s pretty unnecessary for that. do buy it if you are a completionist like me / the witcher is something you’ve been into for years and you’re about to buy all the books as a set and it would feel weird to not have all eight books on your shelf and it’s only like $5 more to buy the set of 8 as compared to the set of 7. don’t read it and expect perfection, it’s basically like “drabbles” but canon from the author. there are like 2 or 3 nice gerlion moments if you care about that.

[battleshell]

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. tagged by: @dansiere whom im care tagging: extremely informative meme for ppl who have lots of cross-over interactions, i encourage u to steal it from me anyway BUT @sternenteile​ @twelvians​ @stellamris​ @grandtales​

My muse is:   canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless / complicated

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. [ he is a very, very minor NPC that i’ve essentially wrested from the game with my grubby hands; Gerson is a merchant NPC found in Waterfall, the third area of the game focused with water themes. he has less than 100 lines of dialogue (but jam-packed full of info) and doesn’t even have an overworld sprite. although noted to have a history with multiple major characters, it’s not often i’ve seen him be the main focus of any fanfics or art pieces. ]

Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [ put that faaaaaaaar away from me please tyty ]

Is your character considered strong in the fandom?  YES / NO / IDK. [ i personally believe that Gerson is a strong and potentially powerful monster with fighting capability that could rival some of the stronger Monsters in the Underground due to his background as a fighter during the Human-Monster War, but since has waned in both reputation and fighting skill. we never fight him in game and as such, will never see how he compares numerically, but it’s clear from his dialogue that he knows how to fight professionally/cleverly and would have given a hard challenge. ]

Are they underrated?  YES / NO / IDK. [ i mentioned before that Gerson has ties with lots of major characters - I hardly see it being put into action or talked about! i also have a soft spot for elder/older characters in general since they seem to be overlooked in favor for younger characters that carry the action of plots - which I understand and totally get, but I still like to put these characters out there for the sake of it ]

Were they relevant for the main story?  YES / NO.

Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. [ he was a funny merchant dude that said “wahaha” a whole bunch of times and carried a magnifying glass; sure he and Frisk would have been good friends after the golden ending but most people have forgotten about their interaction with Gerson once out of Waterfall ]

Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. [ as one of the older if not oldest Monsters in the Underground, or from his reputation as the “Hammer of Justice” from wartime. he is also a historian and is noted to have written a few of the books in the Librarby. definitely known in the Underground, but probably only in that community ]

How’s their reputation?  GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. [ as mentioned before, a benefactor to the community and maybe even a sagely figure. a source of wisdom (even if cheeky) and a person of stability ]

How strictly do you follow canon?  — ehhhhhhhhhh both extremely canon compliant and then hands off the wheel, let jesus drive me away~ i only have so much canon material to work with so i have milked as much as offered to me, then went off to forge my own path in order to patch up the missing holes then add a few sprinkles. the base of the character is all there, but if you really want to get invested with him (or me) then we have a lot to walk through.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals.  —  old tortoise (NOT TURTLE) guy sells knick-knacks and cracks jokes, knows everyone’s dirty secrets but thinks they’re just funny to think about them than use them. an elder in the community who has stories to tell and lessons to teach, who has lived through half of recorded history and now spends his time just trying to make things around him interesting. a war veteran who protects his community and understands the horror of the world, but keeps eyes looking into the future even in the face of grimness itself. plays the accordion and harmonica, could probably square dance if he knew what that was. will call you kiddo.

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?).  —  little to no motivation to find a passion for himself that would benefit or service just himself; his entire sense of worth comes from servicing others in some way (being a soldier and protecting people; recording history in order to teach future generations; maintaining a shop in order to literally service others) and lack of action due to decrepitude in old age. close-minded compared to other Monsters, as he doesn’t actually take to think of humans or outsiders kindly; judgmental to the point of being racist. proud and dislikes being one-upped that it could lead to pettiness, and despite his positive outlooks, very pessimistic worldview.

What inspired you to rp your muse?  —  funfact: Gerson is my first tumblr RP muse ever, and since i was worried about duplicate anxiety when i first started i specifically wrote him since he was a smaller character with less attention - i’ve since learned i have no anxiety about it so it’s no longer a problem, but what keeps me going today is the challenge of writing someone so different from me. the elder aesthetic along with homely, almost cottagecore kind of vibe is also appealing, and the humor that comes with gerson is a joy to write out.

What keeps your inspiration going?  —  reading literature, music, artwork, pinterest, replaying the game, and doing little hobbies that would embody the character (collecting or sewing, for example) are things i can do by myself, but with other people i have the most drive when i can have friendly and nonpersonal arguments/debates about character motives or about source material like what made a character act like this or that, or about really anything as long as it makes me seriously think about characters critically and force me to recognize flaws.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice?  YES / NO / I SINCERELY HOPE I DO? [ unfortunately i’m not a tortoise monster who lived for probably centuries if not decades older than myself, but i enjoy writing older characters and hope that other ppl see the potential gerson has like i do ]

Do you frequently write headcanons?  YES / NO / SORT OF? [ you know when you have a concept and in your own mind you can see it clearly, without fuzziness or confusion, but you can’t seem to put it clearly into words without it turning into an essay because you need to connect all the other points that’s in the single concept you envisioned? yea. ]

Do you sometimes write drabbles?  YES / NO [ bro i should.. ]

Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO [ hmu if you got pinterest and i’ll give u tons and tons of boards ]

Are you confident in your portrayal?  YES / NO / SORT OF? [ this is unfair to answer as (AFAIK) i am the only person writing Gerson in... any capacity. despite that i like to think i bring out the humorous side of him, and show ppl that he and other NPCs are tons of potentials and shouldn’t be overlooked because they aren’t popular ]

Are you confident in your writing?  YES / NO. [ i always believed my style and my skill in not only PSDs or aesthetics, but analysis or understanding was always a bit plain, without much flourish or complexity. while that is appealing on its own and has its own merits, i can’t help but feel i can always push myself to do a little more, add a little flavor, or paint an image that could only be done in writing. although i am doing enough to get the job done, i’m searching for a certain voice of writing that i like and want to integrate into creative writing in order to make it more personalized and more engaging. ]

Are you a sensitive person?  YES / NO. / SORTA. [ i despise pussyfooting and will often tell ppl straight up if i have a problem with them or something about them; straightforwardness, honesty, and integrity are some of my core values and that includes being harsh if it comes to it in order to keep order ]

Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal?  —  assuming it’s rooted in goodwill or from a point of analysis, absolutely! it’s one of the direct sources for growth and getting better at any craft, but as Tumblr loves to be.... jumpy, i’m always cautious when its not from someone i know.

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character?  —  YEA BUDDYYYYY

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why?  —  absolutely, i thrive off friendly discourse as i mentioned.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it?  —  if we don’t discuss it as above, in lit any other case i’d say “well there are other blogs to follow” but since i’m like 99% sure i’m the only gerson blog that isn’t applicable lmao; the point still stands that everyone has the freedom to write a character as they wish. there are valid reasons to dislike a portayal but not a lot of valid reasons to attack someone for it - with the exception of ppl being gross. stop that, nasty.

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it?  —  strangely. it’s not my job to make people like a character, you either like them or not. if you dislike them for unreasonable points then, to leave in the previous response, “clowns will be clowns, no matter what you do. I just don’t get why you would follow someone if you hate their character to begin with.”

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors?  —  of course, as long as it’s polite and all that jazz!

Do you think you are easy going as a mun?   —  depends on the meaning - i like making new friends and i find it easy to talk to new people, be it about roleplay or other things like organizing video game play sessions. however, i also have on multiple occasions have approached ppl privately saying “this is annoying/this is problematic/this is inappropriate, stop” and been met with general disdain for voicing such so Who Knows..... (tm). at least on a private level. here, publicly, i’m pretty relaxed! memes and jokes are abound. as long as a person can be mature and responsible for their actions we can vibe, yo.

[poets-apotheosis]

meeting in the flesh: review

do you like DATING MONSTERS? do you like EATING SALT? do you like UNEXPECTEDLY PHILOSOPHICAL AND VULNERABLE MOMENTS OF CONNECTION? do you like BEES?

Play Meeting in the Flesh. (itch.io) [1~2 hours]

This game features text descriptions and non-explicit visual descriptions of:

Blood/gore

Torture

Vore/cannibalism

Sex

Hand-holding

look, i love monster prom as much as the next gaymer, but sometimes when you want to date monsters you want to date MONSTERS, you know what i mean? you want to date things with too many eyes and teeth and tongues. things you might feasibly meet in a guillermo del toro movie. meeting in the flesh not only scratches that itch but then gives you a back massage while murmuring horrible, beautiful secrets in your ear. 

it takes approximately 0,3 seconds after passing the content warning screen to be struck by one of the game’s greatest strengths: the world-building. oh my STARS, the WORLDBUILDING. alarm beetles? you eat salt?? giant caterpillars are a method of transportation??? instead of thickets of grass there’s thiCKETS OF HAIR?? THE CITY HAS A LITERAL WATCHTOWER OF MEAT AND EYES OPERATED BY SOME SORT OF SYMBIOTIC/TELEPATHIC CONNECTION?? CRIMINALS ARE BOILED IN VATS OF SALT AND THE BLOODY SALT PRODUCED FROM THIS IS A DELICACY?!?! this is, as brian david gilbert puts it, the WHYW (what? hell yeah! what?!) factor. and oh boy, were my hells yeahed and my whats what’d.

in a genre that can be... fairly straightforward with its settings and worlds, even if the games themselves aren’t (looking at you ddlc, monster prom, date or die), it was unexpressably refreshing to see a game that took place in a world totally different from ours, yet still felt believable and well fleshed out (haha). and the contrast of the very down-to-earth, likable characters with this world where they literally just eat blood and boil people alive in salt is- (chef’s kiss) oh, it’s good.

speaking of the characters- there are three romance options, which i’ll get to in a second, but i’d like to take a moment to appreciate the reoccuring cast of side characters. the nice old lady who greets you every morning? your canonically polyamorous boss who ACTUALLY CARES ABOUT YOUR HEALTH AND WELL-BEING? 

but these are like only delicious aperitifs designed to give you an idea of what the main course will be like (tasty as hell). i’ll be real with you: i saw these character designs and i was like “oh, fuck, i’m going to really enjoy this game aren’t i”. and i was right.

yiestol is a kind, gentle, diligent ... bug? bug-adjacent? person? he looks like one of those characters with a horribly meta secret but he’s actually fine (just really overworked). also his final form looks SO FUCKING COOL-

tbh i... thought i wouldn’t find his route’s ending palatable, but i was like, “well i’ve come this far, might as well, i’ll bite”. and it ended up being surprisingly easy to swallow with how it was written?

SURPRISINGLY PHILOSOPHICAL MOMENT: what are you willing to sacrifice to become a better person? (personally: what even defines “objectively better person”?) i actually had a very interesting discussion with my friend about boundaries and individuality and relationships off of this route, though it became more comfortable once i proposed the idea of it being more like how slowbro needs a shellder to become all-knowing and enlightened (i swear it makes sense in context). lots of food for thought here.

everyone, meet nyargh. he keeps bees and likes tea and gives me expensive confectionaries and i love him. does he play minecraft? i want him to play minecraft.

SURPRISINGLY PHILOSOPHICAL MOMENT: actually one i personally struggled with a lot when i was younger, so it kind of hit home for me (though maybe this wasnt an intentional metaphor by the authors but): are you really a good person if you do things that make other people happy, because their joy makes you happy? like is it selfish to cause joy for your own satisfaction? eventually i realized that your actions and words matter more than your nature and motives when it comes to being a good person, but i was still like :( 

i’m not a furry so i almost didn’t play this route, but i should’ve known better than to doubt MitF. i honestly... didn’t expect what happened here at all? in a very good way though? i’m just going to put some screencaps here without context just in case people don’t want spoilers:

(look at this good boy)

finally, because i couldn’t make a review without this- the art is gorgeous! i mean, sometimes it’s rather gruesome but DARN is it good (ESP WITH COLOURS WAH) and i really appreciated the option to hide text (particularly during the eclipse and, um, later sections of the game). and i think i mentioned this earlier but the character designs are also all On Point, even for the non-romanceable npcs!

okay. all that said. i did have Some minor “hmm-” points:

three days... was a very short timespan for these relationships to go to that level? at least, shown in a consecutive order- of course it’s stated that vil (the protagonist) has known these fellas for a while, and they do have good dynamics, it’s just... a little jarring to go from “friendly, possibly lightly flirtatious banter” to “do this thing that will literally change your entire life forever with me” in like, three days. it was still enjoyable and didn’t feel Incredibly forced, just... it would’ve been Nice if it’d had a little time to breathe, is all. have one or two more “dates” with the lads. you know?

on that note, it could’ve been cool to have just a liiittle more mystery and conflict? or even just a little exploring with some minor scrapes! again, i still consider it a complete experience without really having any real Conflict(tm) (that i experienced... though i also felt too bad to deny any of the suitors so that might be on me buT)- this is really just expanding on my previous point- perhaps being a scorpio moon means i just hunger for Drama, but...

to be able to sit with someone and watch the sky and be satisfied... that was more than enoguh.

CONCLUSION: more than worth your salt. play this game. to the creators, job VERY well done!

[myfriendpokey]

Morality Play

What does it mean to have a videogame tell you you're a good person? It doesn't know me, can't see me. I don't know if you can be *immoral* in a single player game outside of some very inventive custom controls. Why should I care what a game says? Any inner moral life that a videogame or a painting might possess would be more alien to me than that of a bug or a starfish. Of course videogames and paintings are made by humans, and shaped by the moral opinion of humans.. but we might make a distinction between what the human says and the object says, we might still feel the latter is more important, somehow. 

The moral authority of an artwork or object comes from the fact that it's not quite human, that it comes to us from outside humanity to an extent, is distinguished from the unreliable back and forth of human consciousness in motion. But this distance is exactly why you might expect those moral verdicts to be unintelligible to us, or at the very best, to be untrustworthy, an imitation. So what's the appeal – that of having a human voice which speaks with the gravitas of an immortal object? The pleasant conceit that the general shape of our minds is universal, like all those Star Trek aliens that are just regular guys with slightly weirder ears or foreheads? The void speaks, and turns out to sound like a computer engineer.

But maybe not necessarily, maybe in fact it's sometimes not universal authority and moral support that we seek from the object: maybe a certain jankiness of verdict around the way these things communicate in human terms is itself part of the appeal. I think of paper fortune tellers, magic eight-balls, "love tester" machines that return a romantic prognosis based on palm temperature. The entrancing bathos of the chance-driven or mechanistic judgement that still speaks with a human voice: I’m sorry, I cannot answer right now. Please shake me, so I may try again. How different is that to the widely beloved and magnificently broken romance system in Dragon's Dogma, where, spoilers: your "soulmate" is not a matter of direct moral choice, but of variables being tracked over the course of the game including who you talked to and what sidequests you completed - which means it could arbitrarily turn out to be the weapons merchant, or a grandpa npc you found a potion for. Which is goofy, but only in a slightly more blatant way than "accidentally unlocking the romantic option in a dialogue tree from just clicking around" or "having your morality score drop 5 points because you pressed the wrong button and accidentally hurled a rock at someone's head while trying to equip shoes". 

I think something I appreciate about videogames is the kind of insectlike moral life that they tend to portray, the sense of value systems which are in some way recognisable but which have mutated in conversion to something alien and horrifying. Lara Croft shooting a wild eagle is unfortunate, Lara Croft shooting a thousand wild eagles is bizarre – but really those thousand eagles are just the one eagle, the one self-contained pulp encounter fantasy, which has been extended, extrapolated, systemised as result of being placed in this machine. The latter may be more egregious but it’s still composed of repeated incidents of the original encounter - and part of the strangeness in these games is just the uncomprehending machine effort to systemise the half-formed gunk substance of our terrible fantasy lives, which only bear a vague and halfhearted relation to any notion of ethics in any case.. We can contemplate with envy and excitement the possibilities of running more realistic, recognisable emotional and moral situations through the meatgrinderof the format in this way. How about a solemn middlebrow videogame about divorcing 50 different wives, each one larger and more powerful than the last (excluding sprite recolours)? 

All this is not to say that the casual political and moral stupidity already in videogames should simply be excused or exist outside of critique. But in addition to the body of discourse  around "moral commodities" - commodities invested with moral  or political meaning independent of any brutal labour practices they might entail or monopolistic accumulation of private  wealth they might support – I think it's also worth considering the purpose of the "moral object" itself. The alienation intrinsic to the object form can be a way to think, and also a way to avoid thinking. To project moral beliefs away from the specific context of a creaturely human existence can be a way of expanding that existence, but also of denying it. The paltriness of the human can itself be problematic next to the splendour of the object, and the reflected moral superiority of those with the means of producing such objects.

*****

There's a famous line in the Spiderman comics that with great power comes great responsibility. But it's also kind of a weird line because, while obviously applicable to Spiderman, the person it's actually delivered to is Peter Parker - who is, for all his uncle knows, still a physically awkward and friendless nerd with no immediately visible "great power" to speak of. He does like nuclear physics, though - maybe the advice was intended as a friendly intervention to keep him from turning into the next Edward Teller? Or possibly it's just a kind of unconscious, pulp-writer-trance-appropriation of the muscular liberal rhetoric of the then-current Kennedy administration. Or maybe, and stretching a bit, it's a line that relates more to the conditions of pulp culture manufacturing itself, to the awareness that the stuff you make will be printed thousands of times and sold to kids around the country, poured raw into the national subconsicous. With great sales figures comes great responsiblity.

I mention it because I think it connects to an issue with the kind of cultural criticism that emerged, like it or not, from the specific context of an age of mass media. With great power comes great responsibility - but conversely, to execute your great responsibility you also need great power. And what are you meant to do if you don't have it? Does no power mean having no responsibility? It's possible, but i feel like most people would be dubious about this as a moral lesson - and the inescapability of heavily-financed blockbusters in the culture means that an assumption of already "having great power" sometimes becomes a critical starting point. If you don't have power you should get it, so that you can then have great responsibility and contribute to the discourse. The effect can sometimes be like climbing a mountain of corpses to get a better platform for your speech about world peace.

A good essay on jrpgsaredead.fyi points out the way that certain industry conversations on "accessibility" revolve specifically around access to whatever mainstream AAA action games are currently dominating the news cycle. And the related effect where both problems and proposed solutions are particular to these games, the audience they have, and the resources they can bring bear: More consultants! More characters! More romance options! Better character creators! If you're speaking to an (essentially captive, given the marketing monies involved) audience of five million people you'd better be sure your ideas are, at least, not actively harmful, and in fact should ideally be improving - - fine. How about an audience of 50 people? Or an audience of 0? Does that mean this work is less moral than what speaks to a larger crowd - in effect, that it's worse? And what about the relationship to audience that this kind of teaching implies? i can think of several occasions where people from different subcultures or minority groups were reprimanded because something in their own experience might read differently, or problematically, when presented to a presumably white/cis/affluent etc audience - which is of course the audience that matters, because what's the value of presenting work from an alternative perspective to an audience already familiar with that perspective, to whom it has no automatic moral significance (might, in fact, merely be 'aesthetic')? Compare the complexity of a specific local audience which can think for itself to the easy win of the alternative:  a phantasm audience of moral blanks to whom rote lessons in hypothetical empathy can be tastefully and profitably imparted over and over, forever.

****

If the ethical act is that which we'd be willing to posit as universal law, perhaps we could say: the ethical artwork is that which we'd be willing to mass produce. Small or hobbyist developers are encouraged to work from the perspective of a mass-productive capacity they do not in fact possess; their successes and inevitable failures are hoovered up alike by the industry proper for later deployment in the form of cute dating sim or inspirational narrative with similar but sanitized tone or aesthetic. In essence a kind of moral QA testing, with all the job security and recompense that this implies. 

The hobbyist is, by definition, not universal: they are enclosed within the local and the material. What time do you get off work? What materials do you have to hand? Are those materials always legal? The entire western RPG Maker community exists as result of widespread bootlegging; the entirety of videogame history and preservation essentially depends on stolen copies; we find out about it through ROMs, videos and screenshots which mostly depend for their continued existence on copyright holders either not finding out or choosing not to pursue these debateable violations.  It's a complicated discussion whether this stuff can be justified on a general, universal level - but also I'm not sure we can do without it. When Fortnite uses dances from TV and music videos of living memory they're considered to be in the public domain; but Fortnite itself is not in the public domain, even though it's so inescapable that even I have a pretty good idea of what it looks and plays like despite having made a pretty determined effort to not find out anything about it. It's "public culture" in that sense, and it includes public culture within it, but both game and imagery are privately owned and aggressively policed (suing teenage hackers, etc). What does it mean for art to emerge from an ever more privatized sense of public life?

In 2007 the RPG Maker game Super Columbine Massacre RPG was added to, then removed from, the Slamdance festival following complaints; it was a minor cause celebre at the time following concerns about censorship and the lack of protections for expression in the videogame format specifically following the Jack Thompson media crusade in the United States. In 2019 the same festival retrospectively changed their reasoning: now the game had no longer been removed on the basis of questionable taste, but on the basis of questionable compliance with copyright law, since it included music from the likes of Smashing Pumpkins without paying for licensing fees (and also because the author generally "hadn’t created several of its elements" - asset flips!!!). There's some humour in the fact that a benign-sounding concern with "artist's rights" could just be swapped in as a more respectable-sounding surrogate for general prudery with exactly the same result. But also, in this instance, what does it mean about the game? As facile as SCMR is, the bootleg use of graphics and music was its most interesting element: the game was a bricolage of American pop culture at a specific point in time, as were the killers, as are we. The nearness and recognisability of that culture, the sense of not being able to get enough distance from it to properly fictionalise or think about what happened, is what stands out. An "ethical" version of the same game which used original music - Nirvanalikes, some tastefully copyright-adjacent Marilyn Manson clones - would not just be diminished, it would be actively insulting in the false distance it implied.

I don't mean this at all as a request for more edgelord-ism. But it's worth remembering that videogames themselves are not ethical; are, in fact, colonized materials assembled with exploitative labour and dumped aimlessly into public life by electronics corporations looking to make a buck. The bizarre and haphazard ways this long dump of poor decisions has manifested, warped, been adjusted into culture is part of what's worth attending to about the format – I think it's worth looking closer into all these pools of murkiness, before ethical  landlords can come drape a tarp over them as part of the process of divvying up the property.

(image credits: youkai douchuuki, quiz nanairo dreams, trauma center: under the knife, espial)

[kynimdraws]

FINALLY....after months of art block I finished the post-game Team Nina gijinkas \o/

To the newer followers who may not understand the whole Team Nina thing, please check out the nuzlocke comic, which is named “Myths of Unova.” Here are some links

[ Deviantart | Smackjeeves | Nuzlocke Forums | Tumblr Blog ]

With that out of the way, here are some bios about the team in general under the cut btw if you are interested.

This team gijinka is set about....5 years after Nina beats Ghetsis. After a year or two of rehab, Nina does rebuild the team with the PC mons she has had + a Larvesta egg that Alder gives (ingame it was just that NPC egg I had hatched but did not find a good way to incorporate it into the main nuzlocke story)

FYI some of the info stuff are more gijinka-verse based

Zach: 

His general optimistic personality has not changed drastically despite the near-death experience with Ghetsis’s team. If anything he has definitely matured more.

He isn’t as fight-happy as he used to be, but is totally okay with sparring just to test his strength without too much risk. 

After years of the creator being too lazy to draw him proper Samurott facial hair, Zach also started to grow facial hair (his lack of it during Myths of Unova was an anomaly for his species), which made him happy. Laila fusses over it since the first time he let that grow out it was rather messy.

The eye injury required surgery for removal...Zach sported a nice eyepatch during the recovery period before discarding it when the area scarred over.

Laila: 

After facing Ghetsis, Laila has gotten less prickly around her closest friends and teammates, but you will have to earn that status first to see it yourself

She quickly became the new mom of the team, taking care of everyone. 

Laila and Zach finally got together and started to make a family by adopting some of the younger Pokemon that Nina would catch, adopt, or just find somehow.

Like her husband, she doesn’t fight much. She has found that she is a great dance instructor and teaches younger grass-types Petal Dance and some bug types Quiver Dance.

Her family, who was basically nobility, found Laila’s new job a bit too low for her position. But seeing her happy made them stop complaining about it (and Laila would tell them off too)

Momo:

The youngest of the new team, hatched from an egg that Alder gave to Nina after the Ghetsis incident. 

She was named Momo as a homage to Mimi and Jojo (the team agreed to this, and if she had been a boy the name would have been different but still a homage to their fallen teammates)

Zach and Laila’s first of many adopted Pokemon kids. Momo adored Laila, despite her tendency to scorch her mother’s possessions (Zach, who was better at tolerating burns, would always have to come to the rescue)

Laila eventually taught her to control her fire powers through dance lessons, which helped Momo immensely when she evolved into Volcarona. Fiery Dance and Quiver dance are second nature to her

She calls Izzy as “Aunty Iz” and Boo as “Uncle Boo.” She is particularly fond of Boo since he plays with her more than Izzy.

Boo

Boo was the first Pokemon that Nina sent to the PC and one of the first Pokemon that joined Team Nina when it was being rebuilt

While most fans were upset over the PC-benching, this break helped Boo come to terms with the fact that he had died and reincarnated as a Yamask (before Nina found him, he had just died as a Darumaka after being attacked by the Krokoroks/Sandiles in Desert Resort)

The reason why Boo is marked in asterisks is that that was the name that Nina gave to him. Due to the shock of his death, Boo’s real “living name” was never brought up until Boo eventually pointed it out (his real name is Alejo). But because Boo did not mind being called by either name, the teammates still mostly call him Boo. Momo in particular always calls him Boo because as a baby she could not pronounce Alejo.

He is still rather shy and reserved but not as completely withdrawn as he used to be when he was first found by Nina. 

Boo is most open around Momo, who really loves playing with him. Her favorite pasttime with Uncle Boo is to swing around on his scarf

The scarf that Boo gained upon evolution are just spirit-hands that he can control. This article of clothing is how he grounds himself whenever he gets overwhelmed with everything (Boo is in the autism spectrum)

Izzy

The last member that joined the new Team Nina. After hearing about the Ghetsis incident, Izzy was unsure on joining the team since a member of her kind had given Nina so much trauma and grief. 

Izzy became the therapist Pokemon that helped Nina work through the PTSD induced by Asha. While Nina insisted that Izzy did not need to help like this, Izzy kept on going. She even underwent training to become a regular service therapist Pokemon certified by the Pokemon Center

Due to this job Izzy undertook for Nina, she is rarely around the other members of Team Nina. While Momo finds that annoying (she did not fully understand the situation), the rest of the teammates understood the situation

Izzy only evolved to a Hydreigon after she was confident that Nina would be mentally stable upon seeing another Hydreigon after years of therapy. Nina did have a panic attack, but it was minor

While many Hydreigon gijinkas either grow literal extra heads or gain dragon familiars to represent their three-headedness, Izzy instead gained two dragon spirits that float around her and protect her. 

[kingofdinosaurs]

ranking of hollow knight areas now ive been to all of them

city of tears - obvious reasons. its just sexy... its big, its pretty, its got great music, makes fun of rich people, you fight a bug who looks like a frog that did innumerable war crimes... need i say more? also from a gameplay standpoint once i got there i felt the world open up so much... suddenly i really felt like i was in the massive world people kept talking about...

dirtmouth - fuck the gamers who said this area was boring because it doesn't have enemies in it, it was the only friendly place in hallownest and i would always go back there after hard boss fights to rest... elderbug is my best friend and i WILL give him that delicate flower i stg

crystal peak - i know im in the minority for liking this area but really whats not to like (aside from uhh. myla. you know.) its got pretty crystals, the most cheesable boss in the game, access straight from dirtmouth, and the crystal dash which singlehandedly saved my playthrough from grinding to a screeching halt at the city of tears entrance. thank you crystal peak

greenpath - i like it both for the aesthetics and for the lessons it taught me about combat in this game. i hated hornets boss fight with an undying passion but at least it made me learn some actual skills at the game instead of just randomly waving my nail around. also its just so pretty... all that lush greenery after the forgotten crossroads was lovely to see. also sheo lives there and i think hes my favourite npc

kingdoms edge - another unpopular opinion but kingdoms edge was mostly a cool area and the aspids actually in kingdoms edge aren't that bad once you know how to deal with them. they suck in the colosseum but everything sucks in the colosseum thats the whole point. also i like the baby hoppers even if the big ones are the worst, and oro is there and i like the nailmasters. it also connects to the hive. for the bees. yeah.

deepnest - its a bitch of an area to get through but it's supposed to be that way, and it does it very well. also hornet lore makes me LOSE my MIND... herrah the only good parent in hollow knight bitch i wish we got to talk to the dreamers. herrah is the only parent

royal waterways - loses points for stinky sewer level and creepy laughing rich lady but regains points for mr ogrim dungdefender (thats his full name) living there. i wuv u ogwim please tell me the forbidden great knights lore and also take care of yourself. also godhome is there? kind of ironic, that...

howling cliffs - theyre boring to look at but theres a lot of cool stuff there and its nice to be able to go to the place you're in during the opening cutscene. also GORB

resting grounds - its got a nice atmosphere but i got here, got the dream nail, fought xero, died to xero like the stupid bitch i am, and woke up on a bench in crystal peak because i forgot to find the one in the resting grounds in my haste to collect essence. so that coloured my perceptions of the area just a little bit. you know. also it contains a) the delicate flower quest b) the entombed husks.

forgotten crossroads - same as fog canyon i just don't really have much of an opinion on it... i didn't like what happened after i got the monarch wings (not spoiling that) but other than that it was a nice first area i guess? false knight was a fun boss

fog canyon - no particular hate or love for this area (i at least like most of hallownest), but i legitimately forgot it existed. like... what is there... the archives i guess but you go there once, do your job and then never think about it again. millibelle was there but i did the bank thing so now it doesn't even have that going for it

queens gardens - again, @ mantises please fuck off please fuck off please fuck off. also thorns are the worst... who invented those... i don't even like the white lady either like no matter how regretful she is for what she did, she never does anything to make up for it she just perpetuates the cycle. also im mad we didn't get to meet dryya she looked so cool...

ancient basin - got stuck on broken vessel for fucking ages (HARD come down after how fun dung defender was). like any normal person i don't like mawleks, and aside from that? it was just empty... sad... also it contains the white palace and the abyss which are like... story destinations but not fun to visit. the only thing the ancient basin has going for it is lore.

FUNGAL WASTES - FUCK THIS STUPID AREA FUCK THE PLATFORMING FUCK THE MANTIS ENEMIES FUCK THE STUPID EASY TO MISS BENCH NEAR LEG EATER THAT I DIDN'T SEE, MEANING I HAD TO GO ALL THE WAY BACK ROUND EVERY TIME I DIED. FUCK THE FUNGAL WASTES. THEY DIDN'T EVEN LOOK NICE YOU ARE ALL KIDDING YOURSELVES.

[reddeadredemption2games-blog]

Red Dead Redemption 2 Review

Aviation History, Part III

It is quite difficult to write about the novels written by Charles Dickens, as you have to be one among the thousands of people who have done the job earlier. The original Red Dead Redemption also featured an Honor system, but it was rather basic. Helping individuals in distress was looked upon favorably, but robbing or aiding thieves would drag you down, often Red Dead Redemption 2 Download putting you at odds with the story the game wanted to portray. Morgan is a full-fledged outlaw, so you don't have to worry about playing the game without ever committing a crime. Mayhem and murder are part of the experience. How you help people — whichever side of the law they may be on — is what matters in Red Dead Redemption 2.

Okay, so I understand that criticising this game is far from the most popular thing to do, especially after heaping a load of praise onto it, but I feel I have to make some comment about this. My one minor gripe with the game is how the controls feel. I can't really understand the logic behind having the same Red Dead Redemption 2 Download button for interaction with NPCs and for aiming your gun. Having to make sure your gun is holstered before interacting is not always something we have time to do, or at least, its not something I really want to have to think about every time beforehand.

Yet, it's not just the stunning presentation that makes this world feel so vivid — it's the tools you're given to interact with it. When it comes to making your mark on most game worlds — Rockstar's other works Red Dead Redemption 2 Download included — players are normally given two options: commit violence or do nothing.

Figuring out what matters can also be tricky in terms of training enough to have sufficient practice in appropriate skills for a task. Skills can be boosted permanently by spending time in practice, as in the original games, or sometimes by reading certain books. What makes this easier, though, is that there's an equipment system Red Dead Redemption 2 Download where skills can also be boosted temporarily by what Shawn has equipped. Which items do what requires a bit of trial and error, but some skills can be boosted so much by items that training them requires much less time commitment than you might initially think.

Among other actors who should be mentioned, the catwalk model Hong Ling who is Jack Moore's date is played by real life model, Tv presenter and actress Jessey Meng who hails from Taiwan. Byron Mann plays Lin Dan, a central figure in the business negotiations which Jack Moore is conducting, and James Hong plays his father Lin Shu, a minister in the Chinese Government. The presiding judge at Jack's trial is Chairman Xu, played by Tsain Chin. Xu has little time for Jack's protestations, but it seems Red Dead Redemption 2 Download that under the Chinese judicial system she is not in full control of her own courtroom, as she is answerable to Party officials. Robert Stanton is the American embassy official Ed Pratt who tries to help Jack. His role is not entirely sympathetic - he does his best for Jack Moore, but his hands are tied by diplomatic niceties and red tape. Bradley Whitford plays Jack's business associate Bob Ghery.

Watching Red Dead Redemption 2's 34-minute credits sequence was a saga all on its own. I've watched (and skipped) countless lengthy credits sequences in my years playing video games, but this time I decided to really pay attention, to try to get a real sense of the scope of this eight-year production. First came the names one tends to associate with a game and its overall quality the executive producers, the studio heads, the directors. Right at the top were the writers, Dan Houser, Michael Unsworth and Rupert Humphries, whose substantial efforts resulted in such a fine script filled with such wonderful characters.

Look, I was deeply engaged in this game from start to finish. It's clear the developers took that extra year to make sure they got every detail right. Every detail, that is, expect the unbearably cheesy and cloying horns and light funk rhythms. I spent over 50 hours on the main story, and the aggressively soothing soundtrack wore on me the whole time. Even as I was drawn further in by caring for my horse, oiling my guns, reading the in-game dry-goods catalog, learning Red Dead Redemption 2 Download campfire recipes, and the dozens of other absorbing little side tasks in this game, the laid-back easy-listening fusion did its best to dive me right back out. It's possible this was part of the developer's broader vision for the game, a comment on homogenizing modernity or something? I don't know. It just ends up just feeling like a glaring misstep in something that is in every other sense a masterpiece.

What does the Xbox 360 3 Red Lights error actually mean? The Xbox 360 is a hardworking gaming machine. The advanced graphics and networking capabilities are very Red Dead Redemption 2 Download demanding on its hardware. Due to these performance demands, the console tends to heat up.

Scavenging is best in first-person perspective, which is now a choice that you have in this prequel. In the house, you can find provisions such as canned food, oatcakes, and more Red Dead Redemption 2 Download. As we pointed out in our Red Dead Redemption 2 preview , you'll need to make sure that Arthur eats periodically throughout the game. This will help increase his stamina and health meters.

RDR2 is so detailed, even Morgan's hair and beard grow in real(ish) time. If you don't want Arthur ending up like some Wild West yeti, treat your cowpoke to regular trips to one of the game's barbers. In a cute nod to CJ from GTA: San Andreas, the outlaw also loses or gains weight if he eats too little or too much - don't worry, the results Red Dead Redemption 2 Download are less cartoonishly exaggerated than shoving Clucking Bell bucket meals down Carl's throat. Couple this with extensive wardrobe options, which let you tweak everything from your antihero's shirts and vests, to even the spurs on his boots, and few open-worlds give you this much agency over your character.