#this is from way early in the game like legit one of the first cutscenes its chirithy explaining the book and the foretellers

[serenedash]

You'd think because it's confirmed that those aren't even the foretellers real names that I would have headcanons for what their names actually are. but I don't. I never have and never will I genuinely suck ass at coming up with names for characters.

And because I know people are going to go "what" here you go:

[happyk44]

hi dude you're hermes/hades posts made me go insane and was wondering if you're aware of the portrayal charon/hermes (i think you'd dig it from the way you desribed the concept of hermes/hades) in the supergiant hades game (the sequel has even lore lore about them?? but i haven't caught up with it). anyway both of the ships are insane i love them

I have played Hades before! And I plan to buy and play the sequel when it gets its full release to the switch. Barring the few updates I've seen through people with early access discussing patch releases and gameplay, I don't know much about the sequel so I'm not sure what additional lore has been written for the two of them.

That being said one of my worst traits when it comes to video games is. Not. Paying attention to the story. 😂 I just like making progress. I get a general understanding for every plot-based game I've played, but I always rapid press through dialogue and cutscenes. For me, the plot is "get to the end of the game".

The first game I remember playing with a storyline was an old gameboy Mario game where he and Luigi are in space or something and I cannot recall the plot for the life of me. As a kid, I was obsessed with Super Paper Mario, which I only played at my granny's, and it wasn't until I replayed it in my early 20s that I even recognized the storyline existed. Did I care about it once I realized there was a deeper story? Not in the slightest. The goal was fight these guys and save the world and that's legit all I cared about 😂

So I don't have much on Hermes/Charon as it is shown in the game or popularized through fandom. I think they're cute though! But I also headcanon Charon to be aroace in my own Greek mythos universe so while it's a cute ship, I don't think much of it. Similarly with Zag, Thanatos and/or Megara. The ship is cute no matter how you splice it, but I pair Zag with Menoetes, and I am so much more invested in the part of the game where I spam the attack button that the pairing(s) provide little entertainment other than the achievement they provide.

Honestly if it weren't for the fact that I've seen it mentioned a few times, I probably wouldn't even notice that Melinoe doesn't like humans once I play the game myself 😂

[characteroulette]

A study on prosecutors -- (previous) (next)

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. Hoo boy.

You want a hard sell? THIS guy is a hard sell. A pretty boy who continuously forces his own views onto us for a pretty unfunny bit. Someone whom we don't even really see the true face of until the very end of the game. And yet I found myself liking him anyway.

Again, sorry if I get any of the events of Spirit of Justice wrong here. I played it through once and am waiting to do so again, so some of the details are less clear to me than the other games in this series.

That being said, I do remember we get a pretty standard buildup to Nahyuta's presence. Ema mentions him being actually reasonable, that she's gonna do her best to try and talk him out of the worst for Trucy. (Also Trucy is on trial here. This is definitely not gonna haunt Nahyuta later for spoiler reasons.) Apollo has an odd hitch, too, but he's back to refusing to say anything about himself so we're left to wonder until the end of that first investigation day.

...is what I WOULD say, if there wasn't a one-time opening cutscene introducing Nahyuta to us in a really confusing way. See, Spirit of Justice is unlike any other Ace Attorney game because it has a special cutscene it plays when you boot up the game for the first time. This cutscene is kept in the extras content, so you can view it later, but it literally only naturally plays when you boot the game for the first time. Wild decision. In this cutscene we get a nice little view on where Phoenix and his lawyer kids are now, including a mention of Maya being off in some other country. She calls Phoenix up and then the restaurant she's in gets attacked and who else saves her but one Nahyuta Sahdmadhi?

This cutscene is bonkers for several reasons. For one, I was thrown off completely when the first case begins proper and Phoenix is so chill. Like, didn't we just see you rush off because Maya was in danger? Is that no longer an issue?? For two, I legit thought there would be some building romance between Maya and Nahyuta because of that cutscene. He saves her and her expression is pretty anime language of being hit by the shoujo sparkles is all I'm saying. But nope! I was wrong on all accounts!! This is probably from some of the early promo material for the game, if I had to guess. I don't know why it's here or implemented into the game as it is, it's very confusing tonal whiplash for everything that follows.

But anyway. Back to the actual narrative of the game. The first proper look we get of Nahyuta is him sitting beneath a tree and surrounded by animals like a real Disney princess as Ema approaches to talk to him about the situation. He seems to recognise Apollo's name, just as Apollo recognises him. He also calls a butterfly a restless wandering spirit which is a good setup to his whole thing, at least, but it did make me think he had more to do with butterflies than he really did. Just like another well-known Ace Attorney villain. (I was wrong but uh maybe be careful there what sort of image you want to build with symbols all ready in play.) (Unrelated side note, shoutout to Apollo sticking his hand into a dude's back pocket in this case. Apollo the only attorney who gets to grab ass and he's arguably the least interested in it, I love it what an insane detail to just throw in there.)

Then the trial begins and what a disaster that is.

Nahyuta's running gag, as we learn, is assigning us increasingly ridiculous levels of hell. He also throws around his prayer beads to restrict our big gestures, but I take less umbridge with that one. His soft-spoken, calm and collected front is interesting, but he falls apart pretty quickly as the trial goes on. I'd say he falls apart as fast as Franziska does, and this owing to Spirit of Justice's strange structure of one day trials only. We have to get his intro in and his breakdown as we prove him wrong all in a single trial day. A tall feat, but not one wholly unfamiliar to this series.

I appreciate though that he does seem to genuinely hold a deep respect for Ema and what she does, going so far as to even request she accompany him back to his home. That's really sweet, a small insight into his less cold nature.

Unfortunately, I can't say much for any intrigue they wanted to build between Nahyuta and Apollo, as they have Apollo act in his pretty standard way during this trial. They could have built up more to the strange connection Apollo and Nahyuta share instead of just dropping it on us at the end of the trial! But I have issues with the implementation of every idea in this trial in general so I can't really hold that against Nahyuta in particular. He certainly does his job of making us want to defeat him right out the gate! They did that real well, so points there.

Ah, right. That ending of the trial scene. We win the case and Trucy's innocence, and then Nahyuta comes to spirit Ema away. Apollo's language towards him, specifically his "you've really changed", was a bad choice. I'll say it. It calls to mind the same way Phoenix and Edgeworth reacted to one another all the way back in the first Ace Attorney game, which is *most definitely* **NOT** the vibe they wanted to go for. Because it had me (and my sister) both asking ourselves, wait. Is this guy Apollo's ex-boyfriend or something?? Like, I get they wanted to show that he and Apollo have some kind of history together. And it's even a fun little nod towards what happened with Phoenix! But these are the absolutely wrong vibes to set up hi yes I hate this. To be fair, this could just be me reading too far into things. I am, after all, too invested in these silly little lawyer games. But I stand by my literary analysis brain getting thrown for a loop because hey why did you use the Narumitsu language for Apollo and Nahyuta brothers?? It's weird, please tell me it's very weird.

Either way, we head on into case 3 and start really rolling into Nahyuta's long week of no sleep.

First off, it's great to see Maya again, even if we have to defend her once more. Nahyuta being her prosecutor makes sense, since he's our main one of the game, and it only furthers our dislike of him for threatening to convict yet another of our best girls. First Trucy, now Maya?? They really did a good job on the front of making us want to defeat him right out the gate. And they have the gall to allow him to basically win on that first day, too! If not for Maya being accused of a second murder, she would have been sent to jail after that first trial day. We lost. Nahyuta beat us into a corner we couldn't fight our way out of. Strike three, you're out.

But we do manage to defeat him the second time around. We prove Maya's innocence on both accounts and it's not even satisfying to rub it into his face. Granted, the end of THIS trial is uh. Distracted, what with Dhurke showing up out of the blue, but you get what I mean. We don't really get a moment of relief, a moment to consider hey what the hell is up with this guy?

He doesn't really get a chance to relax, either, as he heads straight back across the sea in order to start case 4.

Now, however, we get to the good stuff. Nahyuta is dead tired by this point, he hasn't slept in like two days, and it's immediately apparent. He's so goofy in this trial! He's goofy and cranky and he pushes Athena into a near panic attack (boo on him, what a bastard move) and he's actually starting to be kinda a fun opponent. At least, I thought so. He's still his mostly calm and collected self, but his being so refreshingly goofy adds a great layer to his character, even if it's borne from how exhausted he has to be.

This case isn't really about him, though. It's about Athena and Blackquill being fun siblings. That they made him a mostly fun addition though is great, it went a long way towards endearing me to this otherwise infuriating priest.

When we roll into the final case, another shocker: Nahyuta isn't our opponent for the first trial. It's Phoenix. Nahyuta doesn't even appear until we have to book it back to Khura'in, and that's when his character really starts breaking through.

I will never forget this moment he and Apollo have against one another where Apollo accuses him of lying, knows he's hiding something, and Nahyuta throws all of his anxiety on at full force. This guy just weaponises his anxiety against us to shut down this line of questioning! Iconic, really. His avoidance of telling the truth is both really sad and really good.

He's not even our opponent in this last trial, either. It's Ga'ran. Nahyuta gets to act her supporter for a bit until she tells him to confess for all the crimes she's committed. The wide swing his role has taken works really well, I think, because even if I wasn't 100% sold on him yet, I didn't want him to continue suffering, either. His relationship with both Apollo and Dhurke ended up so complicated and got me invested, damn it! I couldn't just let Ga'ran get away with taking his chance to reconnect with his brother away from him!

(Spirit of Justice's finale is excellent, I cannot stress this enough. It has so much going for it and Apollo is squarely at its core and I really love it a lot.)

Once we convince Nahyuta to fight back, once we reveal the whole truth, seeing him stand up is excellent. The way he throws his glove off to reveal his dragon brand, his dragon heart, it's so good. I was finally sold on him right here as he made the same declaration as the rest of the dragons. His reveal as Rayfa's older brother certainly sweetened the deal, though the two have a long ways to go before they reach a comfortable understanding with one another.

Anyway Nahyuta took a while to get to me but gosh darn it he sure did. I hope you can understand my perspective on what made him such a hard sell at first.

[bahamutgames]

AFTERTHOUGHTS - ROUNDUP ROUND 6

August 2023

Happy September!! My birthday is so close I can almost taste it! I'm trying to get a lot of things off of my to-do list early into the month so I can have less to worry about as the month goes on. And one of those things is to talk about the games I played in August! There's a lot to go over so let's get to it!

F-ZERO GX (July 25, 2003) - Gamecube

I was in a HUGE F-ZERO mood last month! And when the F-ZERO mood overtakes you, you have no choice but to indulge it. So I did! And decided to play through all the tracks of a few F-ZERO games I've never beaten before. Starting with GX!

GX for anyone who doesn't know, is probably the best F-ZERO ever. For me it's between this and GP Legends on GBA but even though I might prefer GPL for sentimental reasons, GX is kinda no questions the best feeling to play. It feels amazing, lets you do some stupid stuff to get around the track, has TONS of content, really nice graphics, and a killer OST! Pretty much everything about it is some of the best the series has to offer. This time around I really found myself liking everyone's designs a lot more too, which before I wasn't super crazy about. Tracks are fun and chaotic, there's not much more to say. It's damn good F-ZERO.

I also beat Story Mode this time! Actually beat it! I played through all 9 chapters! And I beat them all legit except for 7 + 8 which I had to use cheats for infinite health and save scumming because... GOD DAMNED!! But all the others I did manage to do! Honestly while I'm SUPER glad this game has a story mode I'm not super crazy about it. The cutscenes are kinda not that amazing, the voice acting isn't amazing, and the plot is cool with the light and dark belts but it's so short it doesn't make a huge impact. And a lot of the missions are just total pains in the ass to finish. Except I did think the final boss being god, so you fight against the Staff Ghost. But other than that story mode really could use a new game to make it way better. For example I think GPL does it WAY better but it's using plots and concepts from the anime so of course that one's better.

Other than da bullshit (tm). F-ZERO GX still rules! Glad I finally went through and played everything in it. My dream is to one day get to play AX if I'm ever so blessed!

F-ZERO CLIMAX (October 21, 2004) - Gameboy Advance

Next up is F-ZERO CLIMAX! The 3rd GBA F-ZERO overall and as of right now the final game in the series! It's also pretty good! Not as good as GP Legend but it's alright for sure! I didn't like the gameplay as much (though I think this is actually due to emulator troubles) and the tracks as much. BUT, there's SO many characters in this game it's absolutely nuts!! I was actually blown away by how many racers they were able to fit onto the GBA lol. The other unlockables kinda suck though. You unlock racer profiles which are neat, and episode plots from the anime which is... Uh... I'd rather watch the anime lol.

And the main new thing in this is Battle Mode I think? It's basically a challenge more but it's also just kinda boring. Most of the missions are too easy, some have CPUS that are too brutal. But one that blew me out of the water was there's a mission where you HAVE to brake, but the default control scheme has NO BRAKE BUTTON!! So you have to quit the whole mode when you find out, change your controls, go back to the start of the mode, and THEN you can win. Really stupid.

While the game isn't the best by a long shot. It still looks good and has great music. Relistening to the OST I was really into the Port City song for this game was really good! I love the GBA and these are some of the only 3D GBA games I like the look of.

F-ZERO MAXIMUM VELOCITY (March 21, 2001) - Gameboy Advance

Next up, here's the first GBA F-ZERO game! And it's uh... It's a doozy. To put it nicely, this game sucks. It's got all new characters and is meant to be a "next generation" F-ZERO game. Which sounds neat, but very few of the characters are memorable and there's NO aliens!! That's been a staple since the first F-ZERO! How did they mess it up? Graphics are also kinda ugly, I don't remember the tracks being super exciting, and the gameplay just is NOT good. It plays like the SNES F-ZERO which sounds fine, especially because this one came out before GX. But it actually did launch AFTER X on N64. So think the game could've been a LITTLE bit better in the gameplay department.

I do think it has some interesting new planets though. Like the swamp is neat, there's a frozen ocean on Mars if I recall correctly? That's cool. Some neat planet ideas I wouldn't mind seeing a come back.

But overall, yeah I don't have much to say. Kind of a dull game and not an amazing F-ZERO by any means. Easily the worst of the ones I've played.

Street Fighter Alpha Trilogy (June 5, 1995/February 27, 1996/June 29, 1998) - Playstation 3

Recently I hooked up the PS3 for my sister and realized that my brother (big family lol) had all 3 Street Fighter Alpha games on it. And lately with Street Fighter Lore videos from ClementJ64 and Thorgi and with how good SF6 looks I've been finding myself getting more and more interested in the series. So I decided to give em a spin. I chose to play as Sagat cause his story of being so consumed by winning it made him evil, and then going through a small redemption arc sounded really cool to me and ultimately I think I really like him! My favorite SF characters are Juri and Laura but obviously she was made WAY later, and while Cammy and Mika (some of my other favorites) are in SFA3, by that point I was so used to Sagat so I just stuck with him.

Alpha 1 is cool, and 3 has a bunch of neat stuff. But 2 is absolutely the best imo. It felt the best to play and didn't feel a little muddied with all the different styles of combat (though I could NOT get custom combos to work in any of them. Oh well.) But overall this series looks SO good, has good music, and feels nice to play! I know people talk about how this is when SF went Anime and I LOVE IT, this is how SF should look the sprite work is AMAZING! And the menus in 3 are SO SO SOOOO cool! And the stages are AMAZING!! The windmill stage in 3 might be one of my favorite looking stages ever lol.

Overall, I'd say they're all good. But 3 was so needlessly brutal. Like, absolutely disgustingly brutal. I could NOT beat Bison at the end. And I tried a LOT, believe me. But I was getting so mad a muscle in my stomach was tensing up. So I had to quit. I wasn't crazy about 3 overall but that especially killed me. Ah well.

Outside of that though I really enjoyed these games (the PS1 ports of them at least I haven't tried the Arcade ones) and I really wanna try out SF4 again since that's the one that made me realize I like the series, with my newfound knowledge of the games!

An NPC's Odyssey (February 24, 2022) - Nintendo Switch

Next up is a teeny tiny RPG I bought on my switch on sale a LOOOOONG while back but didn't get around to until now. This game was only like, 2-3 hours long so I thought it'd be a perfect small game to play on the side when the TV was occupied! And I had a pretty good time with it! It's a short RPG Maker game where you play as an NPC in an RPG who has his money taken from him by the protagonist, and he sets out on an adventure to find them and get his money back! A cute idea for a meta game!

From there the gameplay is as simple as simple gets. Which isn't exciting, but there's also nothing wrong with it. You just fight monsters and make your way through maps while you progress the plot. The only really interesting thing about the gameplay is that they let you turn off random encounters by using your NPC card which I thought was funny.

Where the game really shines is with the actual teammates. You have the main normal guy, a little girl, a witch, and my personal favorite : a dude who is ALWAYS sleeping. He's so lazy that he won't even put any energy into being awake so he walks and fights while asleep. No spoilers but the plot does have a kind of interesting ending, though I feel like a lot of the story wasn't mind blowing or didn't feel super impactful because it's over so quick. But as a guy ALSO making an RPG Maker RPG I completely understand not wanting to do all that bullshit (tm). I do think the game could have benefitted from having you actually duke it out with the heroes at some point though. I'm also not a fan of how the child keeps calling herself a milf regardless of the plot, but it is funny how basically not a single character takes them seriously or even attempts to agree with her. They all shoot her down every time.

Graphics are nice, I don't remember any of the music, there's a dragon boss fight. Overall it was a pretty good game considering I think I got it for free and it's an incredibly short RPG! I had a good time with it overall!

Virtua Fighter 5 Online (July 12, 2006) - Xbox 360

Next is my very first ever Virtua Fighter game! I don't think I've ever come into contact with a game in this series before? Never seen a cabinet and never even seen another copy of it as far as I can recall. But one day one of my siblings just came home from goodwill with this in tow for me! How sweet! So I figured I had to give it a shot!

It's alright, for starters, I have to bring this up every time. I don't like 3D fighters. So like all other 3D fighters I had no idea what I was doing in this game. I pretty much immediately gravitated towards Vanessa though lol, she's hot so sue me. And I had a simple and easy time going through arcade mode. Nothing mind blowing but it's my first time ever trying the series. I liked that you could customize your character but you get money for it so slowly and you can't really mix and match a lot of the elements sadly. Unlike say, Tekken's costume customization which is so nuts you can even equip weapons with additional attacks.

Aside from that though the game does look GREAT! 360 has ages very well in the graphics department, I'm realizing more and more every day. And this is certainly one of them. I thought the stages looked very nice! And relistening to the OST right now, it kinda rules??? So that's good! I'll certainly try more VF in the future cause I know this series is incredibly important to fans of the genre.

Super Ghouls N' Ghosts (October 4, 1991) - SNES

Hey here's a game from a series I've never touched before. Well, I've been a big fan of the Firebrand games for a long time but I've never given the main series a shot before. But it was on SNES Online so I figured why not? And gave it a shot.

It's fine, I was SUPER into it, mostly just cause there's a lot of BS in it. But with rewinding and save scumming it's not so bad. Really the only truly horrible parts of the game were playing it twice, having you pray you find the goddess bracelet on your second go, don't lose it, and also I thought the final boss was kinda oddly difficult to hit. Game has nice sprites and great music though, as you'd expect for SNES Capcom. Neat game but I still absolutely prefer Demon's Crest haha

After playing this I did try Arthur in MvC3 and I actually loved him a lot in that, he's super fun and I think it's great that he has basically identical jumping mechanics to this game. Idk if I'll try other versions of this game but I am interested in the Maximo games, so who knows.

Lila's Tale and the Hidden Forest (November 10, 2022) - Nintendo Switch

Here's a game I had never heard of before, but I was able to get it for free so... even though I avoid getting indie games on Switch, I couldn't say no to that, and picked it up!

First and foremost, this game looks GREAT! It's got a lovely art style, the level aesthetics look great, the characters are ADORABLE, and also there are alt costumes which is always a 10/10 in my book. It also has a cute plot and a lot of cute ideas that I feel like could work super well for a franchise!

My only issues with the game is that a lot of the mechanics just kinda feel not super well done. Particularly wall jumping was really not working, or jumping on enemies would result on me getting hit. But generally I do think a lot of these issues came from playing on Switch with drift and whatnot. Still, I feel like there's a lot of potential for this if they could make a longer sequel that polished it up! Neat stuff.

Fighter's History (May 27, 1994) - SNES

And from here, we've got lots of NSO stuff to go through! Starting with Fighter's History! Which I had never heard of prior to this getting added to NSO. I played it at the time, but really didn't care for it. So I came back and went through the Arcade as Ray. And I gotta say it's perfectly fine. For a game that (seemingly) is like a Street Fighter 2 clone, it's pretty good! The characters aren't amazing but Ray screaming constantly was genuinely funny (it even has voice clips which I thought was cool!) And it has alright music and stages and graphics. And for an early fighting game (seeming) SF2 clone it really does get a lot right and doesn't make typical mistakes you'd expect to see in something like this. It's clearly of a high quality. Neat.

Magical Drop II (March 21, 1996) - SNES

Next up is Magical Drop! This is a series I actually have some history with! Particularly from playing it on a cabinet at Anime Weekend Atlanta with my sister! It's a game we both like a good bit! But I'd never beaten any of them prior to this. I did The World's arcade mode on Easy and had a great time!

My thoughts on Magical Drop are simple. Fantastic sprites, adorable character designs, cute music, and really fun and interesting spin on the typical connect-4 puzzle style! If you've never played one of these games I highly suggest it! It's a great game with some LOVELY character designs! My favorites are The Star and The World! Particularly The World though cause she's super hot.

SUPER EARTH DEFENSE FORCE (October 25, 1991) - SNES

A classic Shmup I'd never heard of before! Super Earth Defense Force is a super cool game with some really nice music, sprites, and gameplay! The standout thing about it is absolutely just how many weapons are available! At the start of each level you can pick between 8 weapons that all play different and, if I recall correctly, all have different upgrades and sub weapons? Though I may be mixing that up with the other Shmups I played. Regardless, 8 weapons is a lot! My favorite was the Photon if I recall correctly! I had a very good time with this one! Shmups feel like a genre I'll never run out of new things to discover with it!

Wild Guns (August 12, 1994) - SNES

NOW HERE'S A GAME! I've wanted to play this one for YEARS but remember having a really hard time figuring out the controls. I can't understand why cause it's very easy though lol. This is a great 3rd person shmup (I think that's an accurate way to describe it) set in a weird western world all about cowboys and high tech robots! Which is ALWAYS a cool look! The playable characters are both super cool, obviously I chose Annie cause she's a baddie. And I didn't even realize until the game was done but there's actually multiple colors for each character! Her Barbie color scheme rules but she had a Black Dress which looked killer I would have loved to use oh well.

It's got great music, feels wonderful to control, with lots of weapons and different ways to move around like jumping and dodging. With such a limited movement range you'd think this game wouldn't be so fun but it is! I liked this one so much it actually made me really sad it wasn't a Capcom game which means Annie won't be in an MvC game! Capcom vs Natsume when?

Also I totally forgot this got a remake that seems to add a new girl and a dog as playable characters! Lovely! Might have to pick that up when I get the chance. This series should've gotten more entries!

Altered Beast (June 14, 1988) - Sega Genesis

I wasn't sure what to expect from this one... It's a furry Sega game. Sounds neat. It's uh... a beat 'em up? But also a platformer? But not really fully committing to either? Honestly... I was not too into this game lmao! The graphics aren't amazing, it has okay music though and the concept is great! I loved when you turn into a green dragon with electric powers! Can you guess why?

Honestly, I think this game is PERFECTLY suited towards an edgy hack n' slash reboot. I mean, it's a werewolf game. That's so in right now. And it actually got one! I've heard it's garbage but honestly I just FEEL like I will like it better than this one honestly. So I'll have to give it a shot! I feel like there's a lot of potential there.

Cool it had a voice clip in it, I'm always impressed with stuff like that!

Zero Wing (July 1, 1989) - Sega Genesis

Last, but not least. Is the iconic, the unforgettable, ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US game. And, hey, this game rules!! Another fantastic Shmup that was hiding away from me until now! This is your typical bullet hell afair but there's some interesting mechanics! There's 3 different weapons, and collecting more of them makes them stronger and stronger which was super cool! I loved the green weapon a lot! BUT more importantly, is that you have a tractor beam! Which allows you to use enemies as meat shields! Sadly this concept isn't used nearly enough imo. I feel like there should have been bosses that REQUIRED you to grab things they throw at you and shoot them back.

The intro is funny but it is actually a intense war story lmao. And it has multiple endings which is neat, but I really was not about to replay the game 3 times to get all endings I'm sad to say. And the Japanese version has like, 27 endings! One for each time you beat it! That's nuts! Other than that though, it was a cool game!

[danaduchy]

NPCs about Seeds

Full script of Far Cry 5 (except cutscenes)

* What were those Seed brothers like? Can't imagine there's anything like a healthy sibling rivalry going on there. * John's the baby of the Seed family. His brothers turn a blind eye to his more sadistic indulgences. * Joseph and John show why it's hard to have a family business. Money and blood mix weird. Even when you're not tryin' to be a messiah.   * When you escaped the bunker... John didn't say it... but you could see it in his face. Failure. Things got worse from there... Like he was trying to make up for something. Prove to his brother he could... * Kim and I used to throw these weekend BBs. Open invite. All you had to do was bring something. If you can believe it, the whole Seed family came once. They brang watery mac and cheese. I shoulda knew they were monsters when they did that. * John's on edge 'cause his brother-Father is getting' cranky. What a fucked up sibling relationship those two got. * Maybe John will go crying to his "father". I wanna see Joseph give John a spanking. * Joseph's pissed the hell off. I hear John's sweating like a piggy. * Word's out - Joseph's had it with John. That little punk is backed into a corner now. * Good thing for us John and Jacob haven't sorted out their brotherly nonsense. I mean if we're lucky, they'll just take each other down. If not, well, I'm going to keep some grenades around with John's name on 'em, eh? It's comin' to a head man.     * Says somethin' that Joseph didn't save his brother. Family really doesn't mean shit to these people. * Wonder what Daddy Seed is feelin' right now. Oh. Shit. What if he WANTED John dead? Fuck man, I can't think about the big game. We did it here. We kicked ass. That's gotta matter. Okay that’s what I'm telling myself.  Yeah, that’s it. * I'm just sayin': If I was Joseph and I had the ability to see into future occurrences, I woulda warned my boy John that he was gon' get murdered... and made some good bets. * I'm sure it's only a matter of time before Joseph tries to spin John's death to his own advantage. * John Seed never had the Father's full confidence, what I heard. But the Joseph loves little sister Faith, and gave her everything her twisted heart desired. * Jacob always tried to look out for his little brother. Imagine what he's gonna do when he finds out you killed him.

* John was always the runt of the Seed family. I'm not surprised that you were able to get him. But I gotta warn you, Jacob's a whole lot meaner than his little brother. * Joseph adopted Faith into their family. She's going to be madder'n a wet hen that you killed her brother John. * John liked to throw his weight around, tryin' to prove how strong he was. Jacob knows he's strong. His actions are more controlled, and he's a lot scarier for it. John was always super emotional, but Jacob's buttons won't be so easy to push. * All this could have been avoided if only a mid-level cable channel gave the Seed family the reality show they deserved. * You know, if any of these Seeds ran for office, they'd win in a landslide. Mind control charisma just oozes off of them. * Come to think of it, the Seeds work just like a political office. You got Joseph, the mayor, and John, Jacob and Faith as his city councilors. It's no wonder they forced me and my people out of office - they already knew how to play the game! * Each of the Seeds has their own bunker. They call them “Gates”. * Know how I sniffed out Eden's Gate's bullshit early on?  Only the Seeds were allowed to be angry, everybody else had to be calm--even though we all had our asses in that church because we were mad at the same shit too. But now everybody gets to be angry, 'cause it's a weapon pointin' where the Seeds want it. Protect the project. Transparent motherfuckers.

John

Resistance

* John's always been obsessed with the people in Fall's End. And with Mary May in particular. * Deep down, I think John wants to die. That man has scars that run deep. * John's got a particular ritual he sticks to. You get marked with a video, then you get dunked in the water. When John wants you found, he doesn't stop. Ever. * Nowadays, if you're caught huntin’, John Seed'll have ya' killed. * John's got people getting baptized all across the valley. In rivers, creeks, hell, even in puddles. * John scrawls a fucking tattoo on your chest, then flays you the fuck alive. He nails it to a wall. * If the peggies wanted a heap of food, why didn't they drive a ways to the wholesale club and take that over? Everythin' would be canned and ready for them instead of still in the ground. You can tell John Seed never had to raise a kid.   * The cult takes people and then sorts out where they go. Whoever John doesn't keep, he sends to Jacob. Or Faith. * John really puts the dick in dictator. The fucker just loves calling and leaving answering machine messages, too. * John's always wearing a key around his neck. He calls it the key to paradise. I don't wanna know what it unlocks. * I'm pretty sure the family that used to own this farm is long gone. John Seed made an offer. They refused. That's that. * This fertilizer company was bought by John Seed a long time ago. They ran it as a legit business. * This one guy, Les Doverspike. House is northwest. He thought he could prepare for everything... Din't count on... JOHN SEED'S LAWYERING SUPER POWERS! In the blink of an eye, Eden's Gate owned Les' land, bunker, arm, leg, dingleberries, ....EVERYTHING! * I've heard some pretty brutal stories about what happens when John wants you to confess. * The peggies had to have planned all this way ahead of time - they're harvestin' at record speed. I guess they had little meetings... John probably hunkered over his map gettin' a hard-on for the sound of his own voice. Hm... now there's a thought... * The thing that always bugs me about John Seed is, who goes to a lawyer that’s tatted up more than a gangbanger? * You're attractin' a lot of attention, especially from John Seed. John's paying special attention to you. * John wants you real bad. Have you considered maybe he's in some kinda love with you? He oughta killed you like two or three times already but he's playin' cat and mouse. Just sayin', if you find yourself alone with him maybe a good long somethin-or-other could save our necks. * Man, that John, he sure does have a hard on for you. So I'm thinking, you guys should probably just fuck and uh get it over with. * I bet you John gives the best spankin's. Sorry I know that's messed up. What can I say, he brings it outta me. I'm just sayin' maybe we don't kill John is all. Seems a waste of a perfectly good set of buns. * Before you, John never lost his cool. You're driving John literally crazy. * I drank with Joey Hudson back in the day. She doesn't take shit from anyone. John's gonna eat her alive. * I know how these things go, man. Deputy, you better keep skeleton keys and wire cutters and a swiss army knife and anythin' that'll get you outta a hogtie on you at all times, because John is gonna truss you up like a dinner turkey real soon. * Always thought there was somethin' kinda twisted about John. * John the Baptist is an amoral predator, end of story. * John Seed's not gettin' what he wants, so he's pitchin' a fit. * Keep an ear out for John's fucken' plane. He loves buzzin' around in that hunk of shit. * I've known men like John Seed before. Real charismatic. They'll sell ya poison and convince ya it's a health tonic. He'd fit in real nice in Washington... * I had one conversation with John Seed and I knew! I knew... He masks his words as guidance, but deep down there is a selfishness that could only come from pure evil. * John Seed's a piece of shit. When news spread that I was expecting, that scumbag spread rumors that HE was the biological father of my baby. I don't know if he was trying to create a wedge between me and Nick or if he was just doing it to laugh at us. * I hear John Seed was a lawyer or something. Used the rules to buy up stuff in the Holland Valley. The cult must have been running damage control already, because think of what a story that'd make. Unless we're already all tapped out of giving a fuck about the shitty economy and its parasites. Huh. Yeah. He's same old, actually. Same fucking old. * I remember the first time John Seed set foot in this bar. I'm wiping down counters and Ma's countin' the till when I hear her bark, 'What the fuck do you want?' I look up and he's standin' in the doorway. Eyein' me like I'm a meal. Some people 'round here said give the Seed's a chance. I knew they were bad news from the start. * Eden's Gate took this town right from under us. They started buying up all the land, forcing business to shut down and foreclosing on homes.... My parents and me fought back, but John wanted this bar. Told 'em he'd have to pry it from our cold dead hands. So, the cult paid off the county and made it illegal to transport alcohol. We fought back with lawyers, but those leeches bled us dry, too. * Whenever there's a neighbor in need, everybody around here pitches in. A couple days after we told some people I was pregnant, we got all this secondhand baby shit from everybody. John Seed stole all of it the next day. * Heard Pastor Jerome had you saving people from being kidnapped. John Seed did that to me. The fucker made me think he was going to torture me, too. Had me wait in a room for half a day thinking he was going to do it. All that fucker did was give me one of those ink jobs. It was messed up. * John Seed is just a man. He seeks glory and riches. He immersed himself in a sea of self-aggrandizement. He pounds pulpits. He professes principals he neither believes nor practices. He stokes fear. But he is just a man. * Before you came along, John Seed kidnapped me. He has his way of getting a person to say things. It's not about my words. It's about what's in his head. When he was done, I was beaten, toed in the woods, and left to die. * A long time ago, in peaceful times, I asked John Seed what was driving him. He gave me so many answers. All of them lies. * John Seed is a cruel soul who can't be reasoned with. He enjoys making people suffer. * John and the Peggies are taking everything and everyone that ain't nailed down. Even then they just come with crowbars. * After you're marked for baptism and dunked in the fucking river, John drags you to his bunker. God save us from whatever he does in there. * There must be a reason John almost drowns people in the baptisms. It's a power play but there's more to it. * If John really wanted to, he could wipe Fall's End off the map. He's toying with the people there, like a sadistic cat. * John's got a singular mind. Dug up from a serial killer's grave, but still, singular. * There's something really wrong with John. I don't have a name for it but you can see it in that creepy smile of his. * When I first saw him on the cult's videos, John seemed pretty harmless. But when I met him in person, he made the hairs on my neck stand up. * John bought up all the businesses 'round here and promised us jobs but the only people who got work were cultists. * When John asks you for somethin', he's not really askin'. He'll get what he wants from you one way or another. * John wants us all to say yes, but I think he actually really likes it when they say no. Gives him an excuse to get mean. * Anyone who doesn't confess to John gets killed and put on display as a warning to others. It's inhuman. * John doesn't just mark people with a sin, but their houses too. You can see his calling cards all over the valley. * I got a package from John Seed the other day. // What was inside it? // A note that said I was favored and that if I admitted to my sin, I'd be cleansed. * What does John Seed do exactly...? // He messes with your head. Asks you questions. Makes you say shit you don't want to be saying. I... I really don't want to talk about it. * John was right, we all do have one sin that tends to run our life. In a weird way maybe he did give us a second chance. * My old house was a piece of shit. It would creak at night, so bad I thought for sure some boogie man was coming to get me every night growing up. // Heh, aw, that's cute. // Yeah. John gutted and burned it to a crisp last week. * Okay, I need to lighten the mood. This is unbearable. // Oh Lord. // John Seed is so uptight, he takes a ruler to bed to see how long he sleeps. // I'm not in the mood. // John Seed is so uptight, he fell down a coal shaft and found a diamond in his ass a week later. // Okay that's pretty good. * You seen that John guy? Most aggressive grin I ever seen on a human being. Like a chimpanzee before it bites ya. // God what a creep. // I hate to think what kinda life he's come from. // Who gives a shit? He's evil. // What makes a guy that evil though? // It doesn't matter. There are loads of people out there with troubled pasts but they manage not to run an apocalypse murder cult. * Not like John was the peak of sanity before, but he's going straight up coo-coo bananas with all you're doin'. * Sounds like Broseph's mad! Ouuuu, family probs! John's like that little brother who gets held down and farted on, and then curls into a ball and cries. * One thing about John -- the more you ruffle his feathers, the angrier he gets. He can't deal with embarrassment; being made to look bad. He'll start sending out search parties to grab people like us, so we gotta stay frosty. * John's lustin' for a dogfight with you, huh. I bet that kid jerked it to Top Gun or something and now it's the only way he can get a stiffie, is in a dogfight. If you have to kick the bucket I hope that's one of your last thoughts, its a good one. * John's playin' a strange game with you. Dunno what's worse, that sometimes he seems to want you dead, or sometimes he seems to want you alive. * John's no better than his brother's dog, and we all know what needs doin' to a mad dog. * John's huntin' you like an animal.  He catches you, you're probably gonna join his other trophies on his wall. * Hey dep, I just wanna say I'm sorry, I heard John's got a partner of yours It's gotta be scary, you know. Probably heard about how John cuts people up and knows all these pressure points and can make you feel pain beyond anything you ever imagined. Anyways don't think about that. I'm sure... I'm sure she's fine. She'll be alright. * Was John dead behind the eyes when you met him? It's not my imagination, there's no soul back there. * I heard there's no spare key for the bunker prison. Just one for John. Control freak. * John Seed, what a fuckin' self-absorbed dick, huh? You just KNOW he jerks off in the mirror, and marvels at his fuckin' facial expressions. * That's John Seed's Ranch. I heard he loved hiding in that castle of his. * John had this place built just for him. Even got a hangar for his fucken' planes. * Look at this place. John's got the worst case of younger sibling syndrome I ever seen. * John's such a neat freak, it's inhuman. * Ugh. John Seed's temple to himself. Fucker's got a tennis court. I ain't never seen anybody play. Just another way he's a hypocrite. * I know everyone's got a bunker out here, but John's is ridiculous. * John's taste in home decor is... awful. * John's been stealin' the planes from all over the Valley. He keeps the best ones at the airstrip next to his ranch. * Of all the Seeds, I think I understood John the least. Inferiority complex, maybe? But he was a lawyer, he could have gone out and, I don't know, been a Wall Street megalomaniac. I guess economic murder isn't as satisfying as direct murder. * John made tattoos look real bad man, I'm glad he's six feet under. You gotta respect the ink. He didn't even learn a proper letterin' or font techniques or nothing, man. No way I'd have even trusted him to touch up my tramp stamp. * With John gone, Jacob will have a harder time building up his army. But he's already got a strong force at the ready.

Peggies

* John Seed's a funny guy. But not 'ha-ha' funny. * Dang, John's bunker is so luxurious. There's parts of this bunker that only John can access. * Deputy Hudson is one of John's "special projects". Every time John leaves here, he's got a big smile on his face. * John's got the only key to the deeper parts of the bunker. We really oughtta make a copy of John's key. What if he loses it? * John knows the human heart. He's been through a lot. It's why I trust him. * I wonder if John's place will survive the Collapse? * I could get in trouble for saying this, but it smells funny in John's house. * Haven't seen John here in a long time. He's super busy. * I knew John loved planes, but I didn't know he also loved boats. I bet John's boat costs more than my old house. * I've never seen Brother John on a boat, but I know he likes to get wet. * You think John fishes? * We need to keep this place tidy. You know how John gets with his baptisms. * Bet we're guardin' John's unreleased films. * I hope Brother John takes me for a plane ride someday. * John keeps all of his favorite things stashed in the hangar. * John wants the word Yes plastered all over this place. Gotta attract new brothers and sisters. * Taking this scrap metal is good forward thinking. John's left nothing to chance. He's a smart man. * Bet John'll be a king after the collapse. * If you're marked, John believes you can be saved. I didn't want to admit my sin at first, but John showed me how to accept it gracefully. * Feels weird turning those people into Angels. I mean, they worked in the store here with us. They cooperated. // Sure, they cooperated. But they were still sinners. There's no going back at a certain point, you know? John said that this was the only way to save them. * I know it's John's will, but...I don't like killing dogs. * John's made catchin' that deputy our top priority. Wonder why John wants the deputy alive. * That deputy's fixin' to get taken into John's special room. * John's relentless, that deputy don't stand a chance. * John's gettin' awful mad. I pity anyone who has to deal with him face to face. * I don't know what's goin' on in John's head, but it's embarrassing. * I thought John had control of things, but lately it feels like he's got no idea what he's doin'. * John's got that look in his eye, I almost feel bad for the people of Fall's End. * John will make everyone atone, even if it kills him. * John was right, they never saw us comin'. * John's so smart. Burnin' what we can't take, so people know they need us, spirit and body. * Last I heard from John, he was real angry. Never knew he had that amount of righteous wrath in him. * Pray you never see John lose his cool. // He never does. // He has though. Some sinner a while back had words with 'im. I couldn't hear exactly, but I heard 'em say the Father's name - I never seen John go so red so fast. // What'd he do? // Well he gets in his plane and wipes the sinner's property off the goddamned map. He rains fire on'em. They're scurryin' everywhere, screamin'. Like a magnifying glass on an anthill. * The Seeds lost a good brother in John. * Maybe John wasn't part of the plan? Maybe this is still what the voice told Joseph? * John's faith wavered, but mine's never been stronger. * I'll miss John's pep talks. * John did so much for the project. He can never be replaced. * John proved his devotion in blood. How can we do any less? * John was always larger than life, it felt like he was immortal.

Joseph

Resistance

* Joseph doesn't like it when his family goes off-book. * I know this is an unpopular opinion, but what if Joseph's right about the end of the world? * That's the first place Joseph ever built. Back when they pretended to be good. Joseph used to preach here. We could have saved us some trouble if we had just set fire to it years ago. * Joseph Seed and his whole family are like the politicians who ran this country into the ground. They sell ya hope and change and all these people buy into it thinking it's gonna be different this time. It ain't. Might as well be buyin' magic beans. * These people in Eden's Gate have been led astray. Joseph Seed claims he loves everyone. Wants them to know the truth.  The truth is he preaches vengeance and sows lies. But the words of an evil man ring louder in the minds of the weak... * You know what really gets me? Cult leaders are usually always in it for the money. Just like a pyramid scheme. Joseph ain't like that. I keep tryin' to break this guy down into what he wants from people. If it ain't money, and it ain't sex, what the hell is it? * Joseph's a charismatic son of a bitch. I mean, you've heard him. The pitch. The tempo. The way the words roll off his gentle lips. His mannerisms. I mean he's been speech trained, probably more than any politician I've ever seen. That's how you know he's a government guy. * I know the people of this valley. They're good, hard workin' people. But in bad times, people get scared, start lookin' for someone to blame. Joseph Seed fed on that fear. Told folk the end of the world was coming. Lot of 'em believed him. Truth be told... way things are now? I sometimes wonder if he's right. Folks felt abandoned, grew weary, they needed our help. And we didn't listen, but Joseph Seed did. Joseph Seed wooed people. He told them EXACTLY what they wanted to hear. With those falsehoods, lies, his poison. It's driven a lot of good folks away from the righteous path. * I knew Joseph Seed was bad business when he wormed his way in here a few years back. I imagine the fucking mainstream media would paint us as two sides of the same coin, because they're either lazy or corrupt or both... But to me, it's simple: I'm willing to sacrifice everything for my family, while Joseph Seed wants to burn down the world for his. * Y'know, I had a dream last night that involved me, a bed, whips and chains, and Joseph Seed. Suffice to say there were a lot of conflicting emotions and sensations... * Did you have a vision? Faith dosed me with bliss, and I saw the Father come to me, personally, and tell me terrible things. * I have a lot of pity for Faith. Joseph is the true monster, manipulating that young woman into a weapon. * Who the heck is Faith, y'know? Joseph treats her both like his daughter and his sister. How much does she know? How influential is she? It's all twisted together. * I wonder how many other secret bunkers there are in the county? Joseph procured a whole missile silo and no one saw! * Faith came to Hope County to detox. Like tourism of hillbilly country for rehab. But Joseph took a shine to her and she was reborn. Hell, her real name ain't even Faith, but something rich, like Riley or Rachel. * Joseph believes in Faith. He's entrusted her with all manner of heinous activity out here. We need to take her out. * I can't see what kind of method to the madness Eden's Gate has goin' on. Three heralds of the Collapse? What are they even doin'? // They got a system. Faith sows, John reaps, Jacob... // Steps on your neck? // Deals in belief, I guess. // Nah, that's Joseph's job. He's the charismatic populist motherfucker. Jacob just wants to cull people. * Joseph's just a nobody from nowhere. How'd he get this many people behind him? * There was a time no western religious leader would be caught dead with a goddamned man-bun. Fuck I miss those days. Listen, I get that he's runnin' this big old cult and all but if you're gonna run a big old cult you gotta look the part! Long robe that's a weird color, like puce or something, stringy moustache, head shaved bald like a baby. Not like some kind of lovechild between a hipster and a country singer. * Joseph Seed's family is gone. He's gonna be vulnerable and running on emotion. He won't be thinkin' straight. If we're putting this to a vote, I'd say we close this chapter for good, as soon as possible.

Peggies

* The father's takin' a personal interest in those deputies now... Maybe his visions told him somethin'.   * Joseph said that deputy is special. I wonder what he meant by that. * Despite everything they've done to us, I know Joseph would still forgive them. * We have to love the sinners. It's what Joseph would want. * It's been too long since I've seen our Father's face. * Joseph is a gifted songwriter. You haven't lived until you've heard Joseph sing this live. * I heard that the Father got the idea for the Judges in a vision. * Jacob might teach us to shoot, but Joseph guides our aim. * President Seed has a nice ring to it. Wonder if Joseph has political aspirations? * I see why Joseph liked this county. Plenty of silos for what we need to store. * Everyone knows Joseph will not tolerate idle hands.   * The Father keeps all the best stuff for his Chosen. Leaves us the scraps. * After the collapse, we won't hear the Father on the radio anymore. * Joseph's disappointed in us, I can tell. We gotta do better. * I hope the Father doesn't take this out on us. * I can't imagine how Joseph feels now, with his brother gone.   * With Jacob gone the Father has to have a backup plan for us. He has to. * Our Father was supposed to save us. Joseph wouldn't ever abandon us, would he? * Joseph will know what to do. I just have to find out where he's hidin'.

Jacob

Resistance

* We're in Jacob's territory now. Know how I know? Wildlife is scarce. I'm not one for hunting but this area in particular used to be home to quite a few species. They've either been driven away or taken in for experiments. It's sad. * Jacob Seed's in charge out here. He's ex-military, he's a combat veteran, and he's a psycho. * Faith was Joseph's favorite, but Jacob is his toughest soldier, bar none. * Jacob's got this Chair. He straps people in and breaks them down until their souls are gone. Then he controls their mind. Don't end up in that chair. * I know Jacob's the bad guy and all, but every bad guy thinks they're this misunderstood hero, right? Has anyone ever tried to just, you know, take him for coffee and talk to him? * Strippin' people of their mind and freewill to build an army for The Father, that ain't right. I still can't believe Jacob and Joseph are brothers. * The mind is the most dangerous weapon and Jacob knows that all too well. No one was really prepared for this. * I've seen him up close once and I'll tell ya' Jacob Seed is one scary motherfucker. * Jacob had one thing right. Things are only goin' to get worse and you gotta be ready for it. * I had a dream once that Jacob took me on a hunt. We shot some deer and he asked me to skin them. As I was cutting them open they changed... it wasn't deer. I... I don't think it was a dream. * Whatever you do, don't listen to the music. That's how Jacob gets you. * One of the first places Jacob took over is the old Veteran's Hospital. No one thought much of it at the time. * Careful. Jacob likes to play mind games with ya. * This was an animal sanctuary until Jacob took it over. Looks like he's got some freaky deaky shit goin' on. Jake-n-Bake Seed really had his fingers up in everything up here. * Jacob's completely insane. He's not even trying to hide what he's doing anymore. * Heard that Jacob has been doin' some weird stuff with animals over here... and not just wolves this time. * Jacob's been putting people in cages. Keepin' them there with no food or water for weeks!  Almost better if they just killed you. * Eli worked on Jacob's special bunkers, did you know that? Turns out they didn't get along. Who would've thought? * No one is immune to Jacob's fucked up conversion. Once they hit you with that you ain't ever the same. * Jacob, he's knows everything that I'm thinking. He's got the key to my mind and he twists... and twists... and twists. * Jacob... his experiments... he takes us... owns us, speaks to us. He hears us. Jacob... he's in control. He controls everything. * Jacob knows how to get into your head. Twists things around so you don't know what's right anymore. * If Jacob can't find a use for you in his army, you become target practice for troops. * Be careful out there. Friends might not be friends anymore after Jacob's done with them. * I bet the Peggies got an armory here, too. I can't believe how Jacob got them so organized. * Jacob's using everything he learned in the military and twisting it to suit the needs of Eden's Gate. Son of a bitch is a poor excuse for a soldier if you ask me. As long as he's alive my Pops will be rolling in his grave, all bitter and mad. * Have to say, you've ticked Jacob off something fierce. * You wanna bet that Jacob had that three-wolf moon poster as a kid? I bet he was a cub scout, too. Now he's getting his badge for people-skinning and brainwashing. * I'm seeing a lot more choppers in the air. Looks like Jacob's using them to move troops and supplies. * You know, I was dumb enough to work for Jacob a few years back. Who you think built him all those Peggie bunkers? You think I saw any of this comin'? Hell no... * Jacob's new recruits gotta kill someone they care about, just to prove their loyalty. That's messed up on so many levels. * Jacob will be pied that you and the Cougars freed the Henbane River. He'll need a new source of soldiers. * Jacob sees himself as beyond the other so-called Heralds. He views his work as the most important, and that the others' purpose was to support him. * Jacob will break every bone in your body to convert you. He lives for pain. * Jacob would happily sacrifice everyone and everything in Hope County to feed Joseph's Collapse. He doesn't care about Faith. * Between John, Faith, and Jacob, I'd say our mind control freak is the worst. He makes people kill their own family. His own mind's twisted. He's a damn maniac. * I hear Jacob's looking everywhere for you. * You gotta save us from all this darkness. All this death. Jacob's losing it and he's out hunting down more people. He's gonna do anything for Joseph's plan to work. * Cult's got the wrong idea 'bout sacrifices. My neighbor killed his old man 'cause Jacob said so. For fuck's sake, you don't do that. * Jacob's gone nuts 'cause he lost a lot of his precious, mindless soldiers. I'd say it sucks even more to see our own teammates turned against us. * Jacob's pissed. That's new. He's always been the crazy type, but I'm afraid of what he'll come up with next. Stay sharp. * Using music to control people is so in bad taste, but Jacob's song pick, that's gotta say something about him. * How much do we know about this Jacob fella? He seems strong. Got a good setup going on... We ought to take some photographs of him or somethin'. Preferably shirtless... Y'know, for intelligence purposes. Know your enemy. * If Jacob he had an experienced woman in his life, this shit would not be happenin'. I'll take one for the team if it comes to that. Just don't tell Xander I said that. He'll get jealous. * I knew Jacob was trouble as soon as he showed up. I mean, did you see his face? It's all burned and twisted like his heart. * Jacob's got training grounds all over the place. I've seen them out there, shooting anything that moves. * I can almost understand why people follow Jacob. He's knows what he's doin', that's for sure. Mind you he's also a fucken' psychopath kind of a deal breaker for me. * Honestly, Jacob scares the shit outta me, even more than the Father. I've seen Jacob up close, I've looked him in the eyes they're empty, not a single shred of humanity anywhere. * Jacob's one sick fuck. Nailing up bodies? Burning people alive? That's just messed up. * You know what? I think Jacob's scared of Eli. That's why he's tried so hard to get him. * Jacob must be getting desperate and crazy. More troops out here than ever. * Jacob's plan worked. I tried to warn them. I told them not to go back. Jacob's going to win. He always wins. * Jacob was the big, mean, brute of the Seed clan. * Jacob was an example of how a vet can go bad without any help. Still glad he's dead of course.

Peggies

* Hope Jacob doesn't have another surprise inspection. Last one didn't go so hot. * Jacob asks for sacrifices from us all.  I gave up my son just so I could understand the Father's pain. * Jacob can turn these animals into weapons for the Father, I've seen him do it. * Jacob calls those wolves of his Judges, 'cause that's what they do. If you're not worthy, they tear you to shreds. * Jacob takes us, molds us and lifts us up to realize our potential. Just like this Judge. Once, it was just a simple wolf. Then it heard the voice of the Father. Now look at it. Stronger, faster... a killer. That's what Jacob does, he makes us better than we were, because only the very best of us will pass through Eden's Gate and on to salvation. * Jacob has asked us to find more recruits for the Project. We have to make them see the light... by force if necessary. * Jacob taught me how to bring a boar down will one killshot. Now I just apply the same logic to sinners. Easy. * Trust nobody, that's what Jacob told us. * Last time I was here Jacob himself complimented me on my shootin'. * Jacob will whip the strong ones into shape. The rest of 'em won't survive training. Jacob sure puts you through your paces here. It's how he makes us strong. * Jacob only wants the strongest of any creature. * Some of the converts have a hard time losing their old notions, but Jacob has a way of getting them to see the light. * If you've ever been in Jacob's presence you know just how powerful he really is. * There is no way anyone would dare stand up to Jacob. They'd be dead in a second. * Jacob's got this county locked down. There's no way they're gonna take him out. * Jacob knows what he's doin'. If he says he's got this bastard covered, I believe him. You know Jacob. He's not gonna give up. * I hear Jacob is furious. We have to try harder. We can't fail the Father. * Jacob's not dead. There's no way. He's too strong to die. * The sacrifice of Jacob must be part of the Father's great plan; we must trust in him. * The guy who killed Jacob. He fucken' cheated. You know Jacob. There's no way he would've lost in a straight up fight. Can't do anything for Jacob, but we can make sure Pratt pays for letting that bastard get away. * Do you think this the father knew about all this? // Of course. It's all part of his plan. // Even losing Jacob? // Do you doubt the Father's visions? // No! Of course not.... it's just... the guys... they have questions.... // Questions? Now's not the time for questions! It's time for action! Do you want to die a sinner? // No! Or course not! // Then get back to your post. The Father needs us now, more than ever! * So what the hell are we going to do now? // What do you mean? // What do I mean? Jacob's dead! That's a pretty big deal, if you ask me. // We still have the Father. It's his plan after all. // Sure, but he had Jacob and the others to help. He can't do it all himself. // That's why we're here. We have to step up, do whatever is asked of us. We can't give up, not now. // Yeah, you're right. Especially with what's coming. // Exactly. Get back to your post, this isn't over yet.

Pratt

* Jacob's caught himself a Deputy. I think it's Pratt. Poor bastard, he's not gonna last a day in there. * Deputy Pratt always came off as a bit of a douchebag, but that doesn't mean he deserves what Jacob's doin' to him. * I'd sure hate to be that Deputy Pratt right now. Jacob's gonna rip him to pieces. He tried to arrest his brother for God sake. * Pratt's days are numbered. One of these days Jacob's gonna have him nailed up on some billboard or something just like the others. * I keep thinking about Pratt, and what Jacob's doin' to him. That poor man's brain's gonna be totally fucked. * Can only imagine what it's like to be left in a cage with nothing to eat for days. God, do you think that's what they're doing to that Deputy of yours? Poor bastard. * I don't think that Deputy's gonna live much longer. I hear Jacob's furious and you can be sure who he's gonna take it out on. * Next time you meet your friend Pratt, be careful. Jacob does things... to your mind... he might not be the same person you remember. Don't say I didn't warn you. * Can you fuckin' believe that guy? // Who? // The Deputy. Pratt. He was wanderin' around behind the cages. // What the fuck was he doin' there? // Who the hell knows. Jacob's probably got him off doing some shit. // Yeah, he's lucky to be able to put two words together after what Jacob did to him! // Seriously. Sometimes I think it's a mistake to put too much trust in these converts. You should come willing to the light, or be struck down. * I.. I was told to feed the Judges but I didn't know where their food was. // Jesus, Pratt. Does nothing stick in that brain of yours? Over there, where it's always kept. // Right! Th..thanks Phil! It won't happen again! // It better not. * I just want go out and hunt down the bastard that killed Jacob and beat them to death.//Don't worry. They'll be here soon enough. We've got their buddy Pratt down here. Pretty sure we're next on the list.//Aren't you worried? They were strong enough to take on Jacob...// Fuck 'em. With the number of guards we got here? They'd be crazy to try to take us on. * Good thing Pratt's out man. He was lookin' like a hipster in a bullfight man. * There's not much of the old Deputy Pratt left, Jacob made sure of that. Almost would've been better that he'd died in there.       * Yeah, the Deputy might be free, but I won't say he's okay. No one is okay after they've been through the trials. No one. * Jacob sure did a number on Pratt. Not sure there's much of him left in there. * It's gonna take a while for Deputy Pratt to recover from this... if he ever does.

[zachsgamejournal]

COMPLETED: Resident Evil 7

This is the most I've enjoyed a Resident Evil since RE2 on PS1. May actually like it more than Code Veronica...

I kinda hated the freight ship section. By this point, I felt the game was done. But the designers were like: Nope, we're gonna have an environment as large as all previous sections combined, more enemies to face, start your gear at zero, and halfway through, make you replay areas via a flashback that's length to story ratio is 100:1.

The remote bombs were...a weird addition. I could place them on the floor, but not...you know...toss them. For like, when you're being assaulted by slimy monsters with shark teeth...And still, the game gives you a ton of them!

Turns out, I wasn't far from the end of the freight ship. So that was good. Then we end up at the salt mine. Turns out Lucas was just playing along...weird. So he got his arm cut off and everything on purpose? Like, he's a legit psycho?

I'm really confused about where the fetuses with curing abilities are coming from...ah well.

So we get some background info: Eveline was a fetus that was mutated to have super powers. She could infect folks, and cause hallucinations: presenting herself has a young girl. She, having never had a childhood, wants a family--so takes over a family and has them kidnap folks to add to their "family", but she's a psychotic child raised by other psychos, so everyone under her influence ends up violent and cruel.

And she vomits up monsters, or something...

Into the salt mine. I thought this was gonna be another section of exploring and puzzle solving, but it's actually quite linear. Seems they designed it to be the action section since they constantly send you up against molded, and drop healing items and ammo EVERYWHERE! I didn't need that because I had amassed so many healing items and weapons by playing frugally.

It's just like when I replayed Resident Evil 1--early on every zombie is life or death, and every bullet and herb is precious. But by the end, you become Terminator, can't die and tons of ammo.

There's a spiral climb at one point, and I just ran from everything. If you move quick enough, it's pretty clear of enemies. First molded was an easy side step. The second was a crawler and he trapped me on a catwalk. I was getting hit from behind, so had to kill that one. The third guy was just a walker, so I shot him once to get him to stumble, making the walk around easy.

And that was it. Salt Mine done. Which I was thankful, cause that damn tanker section!!

So we end up at the beginning, in the old house, reliving some Mia interactions via hallucinations. Not worried, cause I'm more well armed than an American Police force with more medicine than a...uh, pharmacy...I guess.

The phase one fight with Eveline was...unimpressive. But it was more about the story...I guess? I'm torn between being done with the game, and expecting a boss-fight on par with previous ones. But alas, we simply stab old-lady Eveline (nice twist) in the neck with a cure. She asks, "Why does everyone hate me" -- heart breaking, then talks about how it hurts. Almost as emotionally confusing as the end of Alien Resurrection.

But then...phase 2.

Instead of dying, Eveline turns into a giant tentacle monster. I guess it's inevitable that Resident Evil end on a ridiculous note. As grounded as much of the game is, they had to go big. But it's a pretty lame fight. You just shoot at mega-Eveline until a helicopter drops you special gun (Kind of like Brad dropping a rocket launcher at the end of Resident Evil 1 - wink, wink).

So she dies...for realz this time. And Chris Redfield appears in an Umbrella Helicopter. I'm glad he's not mega-Chris from Resident Evil 5, but he also doesn't look "his age". I don't know, seemed like unnecessary name dropping, but also no harm, no foul. Ethan hops in the chopper, finding Mia alive. Aw, so it is a love story!

But then the game gives this cheesy epilogue, blaming Eveline for being horrible--even calling her an "it". And then talks about how Mia just wants to put everything behind her. Everything being that Mia worked for a shady organization making horrible bio-weapons, and as part of her duties, helped hold a traumatized child captive and then attempted to kill her when the girl inevitably escaped??

Eveline was the real victim in this story. She did horrible things because she was child that wasn't properly loved and raised. No shit she wants to build a family. Her saying, "Why does everyone hate me", heartbreaking. I have kids. They're selfish, violent, impulsive bastards sometimes--but they're really sweet and just need people to love them.

Eveline wasn't given love. She was given orders, and restrictions. No surprise that she lashed out, and she did so in the ways she could: vomiting up molded zombies and possessing people.

So bosses...talk about unbalanced.

Boss 1: I had a single clip of ammo, maybe two healing items, and a pocket knife. All got used really quickly. I think you're not supposed to shoot him, just get the car keys. But it was confusing and intense, because I didn't know what to do. CHALLENGE: 3/5.

Boss 2: Jack again, but now it gets real. Moving around is awkward, and the second half involves a chainsaw duel. I used up at least 10 rounds of shotgun shells, all my healing items, and died at least 10 times trying to beat this boss. I almost switched to easy. CHALLENGE: 5/5.

Boss 3: Marguerite as a crazy bug lady. This was kind of the scariest battle, as she drops in out of nowhere and from behind. And if you don't constantly attack her, she sends bugs after you. This one drove me a bit nuts, but eventually I found the winning strategy. CHALLENGE: 4/5.

Boss 4: Super molded. I basically hid around the corner of the elevator and used all my shotgun shells on it. A few shots from the pistol and the thing was down. Not sure I even took damage. CHALLENGE: 1/5.

Boss 5: Mutant Jack. He was so big that he couldn't move around and hide like previous bosses. I maybe was hit once or twice, but it was nothing. The eyes were obvious weak points. CHALLENGE: 2/5.

Boss 6ish: Two Super-Moldeds. Kind of reminds of the big infected guys from The Last of Us. While they killed me the first time (very quickly), on my second attempt, I kept the elevator between us and used all my grenade launcher ammo against them (which I had been saving). They didn't touch me. CHALLENGE: 2/5.

Eveline Phase 1: Walk towards her, block when she shock waves. Timing was semi awkward. I died once. CHALLENGE: 1/5.

Eveline Phase 2: Shoot at a giant target that doesn't appear to do any actual damage. Could have been a cutscene. CHALLENGE: 1/5.

It's so weird that the hardest bosses were at the beginning. I guess this is where you have consider experience vs challenge. But for survival horror, challenge is part of the experience. You're supposed to be scared of bosses.

I think the final Eveline battle should have the player running through the swamp. Eveline's tentacles swimming after you, and in front of you, giving birth to molded with familiar faces (Like Mia) to freak you out. And that keeps happening until the player is out of ammo and healing supplies. Once you've used your last heal and bullet, Chris Redfield snipes the molded. You watch as the Eveline Mass rises to attack the helicopter. Chris takes aim with the Wesker gun, fires a shot at a tentacle arm--it calcifies and shatters! Eveline freaks out and smacks the chopper, sending the gun flying to the ground. You see it 10 yards away. You run to it, grab it, turn--Mia appears before you. "I'm one with her now. If you kill her, we'll never be together." If you hesitate too long, Mia kills you. If shoot, she shatters--Eveline attacks, final few shots: END.

Ah well. It was a good game and I'll probably play it again. I could see this being a semi-regular replay for me, right there with RE1 and RE2.

[inspector-montoya-fox]

#5 - The Cold Heart of Hate

Setting: well that was fast... we make it to Russia, where we’re greeted to the evilest of evil lairs. when not dodging robo-falcons and burning boulders, the first mission acts as a tour and establishes the fact that we’re legit in a volcano. i don’t want to say that this is anticlimactic because the missions in this episode are truly hard, but there’s no hub to explore. instead, it’s a chain of missions that lead to the Clockwerk battle, and i guess that makes sense since there’s no time to waste, the stakes are high, etc. if you weren’t able to piece the clues together about Clockwerk’s identity up to this point, the missions do not help. unlike some of the game’s other episodes where the baddies’ personalities are reflected by the settings, Clockwerk remains a shadow up until the very end (and that’s kinda ironic when you think about how he has a huge fucking tower with his face on it). considering the absence of a main hub, the missions do a pretty good job in establishing the mood. we see the outside and inside of the volcano while controlling the van, and then Bentley’s hacking and Sly’s journey into the lab exhibit the level’s technological/ science-y aesthetic. on that note, let’s talk a bit about that lab. i’ve mentioned this before on my account but Cold Heart of Hate is a slave to the early platformer tradition of having an evil lab as the final stage. i don’t blame the game for that - here’s what’s weird though: if Clockwerk is so much larger than Sly, he couldn’t possibly fit into that lab. so... who works there? the robo-falcons? or is Clockwerk actually a ship for someone else? i uh *removes tin foil hat* ...... the huge Clockwerk tower is great for exposition, given that Clockwerk, although a rotting owl corpse stuffed inside a machine, has a huge ego. Sinking Peril is my favorite mission in the episode because it sets up the perfect atmosphere for the final bossfight. fighting the bird over its sinking tower of a replica not only ups the ante but also makes it feel even more satisfying when we finally get to drop it into the lava. lastly, i said Sunset Snake Eyes represented red and i kinda regret it now because that should have been orange and Cold Heart of Hate should have been red. welp! Cold Heart of Hate can be black. seems fitting.

Characters: i lied - the setting does reflect Clockwerk’s character in a very specific way: we’re literally inside a cottdamn volcano. tensions are brewing, the veil is about to be removed. Clockwerk is great. no, he’s more than great. he’s a satisfying and deserving final boss. he’s a maniacal, narcissistic, eGoMaNiAc that really gets under your skin when he keeps on pulling off the reveals. not ONLY has he killed Sly’s entire lineage, the QUEEN had the AUDACITY to stay alive for centuries! Clock-werk it baby! we have no choice but to STAN. the bitch is evil and that’s made crystal clear. his source of youth? hatred. the bird literally killed to remain healthy. and i’m glad he knows no shame because the monologue at the beginning of the bossfight is everything i ever wanted. i guess, Clockwerk has the shortest appearance in the game but still manages to make it impactful. whoever played the game during their childhood knows what i’m talking about - the music, the dialogue, the purple shooting cues: they all remain fresh in the head. the bossfight is the stuff of nightmares. Carmelita makes her final comeback in the perfect recipe for a climactic clash. she starts off as the damsel in distress that can’t be trusted because of her profession, but ultimately helps Sly take down Clockwerk. and i love that this is the beginning of Carmelita putting an end to Sly’s nemeses. her role is great here. yes, she’s the love interest that gets shamelessly left behind at the very end, but she’s the one that helps Sly get back his cain. actually, here’s something i’ve never thought of before: we make such a huge deal out of Carmelita being a playable character in Sly 3, that we all forgot she was playable in Sly 1 as well. i’m lowkey shocked. i don’t know how i overlooked this BUT ALSO shocked to just realise that in both Sly 1 and 3, Sly loses his cain (SP stuck to the original formula for final level suspense, i guess). and let me use that revelation to segue to Sly. he’s made it y’all!!! he’s finally here, ready to extract vengeance. and it shows. we might take his valour and chivalry for granted because this is the Sly we all know and love, but if this was your first time playing the game and somehow escaped all possible clichés by living under a rock your entire life, you’ll appreciate the raccoon’s persistence to save Carmelita. he didn’t have to do it, but he did it. let me praise Kevin Miller here for a sec, because without his voice-acting this would mean nothing. but it’s because of him that it means so much. when you finally beat Clockwerk and the cutscene starts playing and Sly says how he’s made it, it really feels like home, y’know? damn. also: Bentley and Murray finally come into the spotlight. i don’t want to go into detail because i’d rather talk about friendship in the cottdamn Themes section, but Cold Heart of Hate is what makes them true characters.

Themes: off the top of my head? legacy, revenge, friendship, love trumps hate, climax, heat, honour, the past, and many more. i’ll go with my favs because this deserves a post on its own. friendship goes hand-to-hand with love trumps hate because it’s represented by everyone that came out to support Sly. Bentley, Murray and Carmelita come through. they put their fears and differences aside and prevail to help Sly get to the top. they all play their roles, their motivation being love for the raccoon, and that comes into stark contrast with Clockwerk’s preachings. the age-old “good vs evil”. Clockwerk stayed alive by feeding on hatred and got his ass kicked by a group of friends and the love interest (not yet a woman on her own). it’s traditional and it works. similarly to Tide of Terror, the theme of heat ensures that the player is kept engaged. there’s no time to roam around, find clue-bottles, etc. the need to finish this as quickly as possible is enhanced by the volcano landscape and the high temperature. this is especially seen in Sinking Peril because of the rising lava. if you waste time you will literally get gobbled up. the lava encapsulates Sly’s progress and his temper as well. he’s burning inside, itching to finally get revenge (you’ll notice that Sly 1 has no operations and that presents the gang’s early days, Sly’s rash attitude and his persistence to just go up to the main baddie and fight). and the heat’s significance is ultimately shown when Clockwerk sinks into the lava. he doesn’t only get blown up - he “dies”, sinking into the volcano, deteriorating in the heat, showing how time is inescapable. there’s some karmic energy going on here, as Clockwerk cheated the Coopers of a normal death and in turn got served, showing that even if you find a way to stay alive it ultimately won’t work. i also want to touch on motifs, and the motif of technology is a nice one. it doesn’t only showcase Clockwerk’s genius, but it also allows for Bentley to go head-to-head with the owl. there’s something truly cyber about Cold Heart of Hate, but not in the traditional sense. like, the collapsing computer screens during Burning Rubber feel absurdly surreal, pushing the cyber-ness to its limits. i don’t even know anymore, i’m tired.

What I Like: hmmm... i like traversing Clockwerk’s lab. i love Sinking Peril. i love that the end cutscene gifted humanity with those Japanese Barbie Girl rainbow videos. there’s no room for likes and dislikes here, but favourite detail would definitely have to be Clockwerk’s health-bar animations during the bossfight, slowly turning from owl to computer brain thing. very reminiscent of a purple yak toy in a Cartoon Network show which i’m dying trying to remember. if anyone knows what i’m going on about lmk please.

What I Don’t Like: the lack of a hub to explore kinda irks me but i won’t say i don’t like it because i understand why they didn’t include one. instead, this spot goes to Murray’s driving and Bentley’s hacking. thematics aside, i literally do not want to replay Cold Heart of Hate because of the Murray section with the slime monsters. the controls continue to be clunky, the slime monsters are annoying and look like they have raisins for eyes. Bentley’s hacking isn’t as annoying, but it’s definitely frustrating. it’s a far cry from Sly 2 and 3′s hacking parts... yea.........

Quote: Perfection has no age...

[viewfromthevault]

Lazarus Project/Akuze Headcanon

So I was thinking about the Lazarus project and Cerberus’ responsibility in the Akuze thresher maw massacre and I came up with a thing. I almost never share my head canons on tumblr, but I thought it better than stinking up the fallout discord with my space shit 🤣

Now a quick disclaimer: I’ve only played a Shepard with the sole survivor background and though I do try to research there’s a good chance that I’ll be wrong or have a skewed perspective. Also I’m still super new to Mass Effect and this could very well be old news, but it’s still a thought I wanted to share.

As we all know, Cerberus’ big goal is to advance humanity regardless of the cost. And what better way to propel into the lead than to cheat death? What I’m saying here is that the Lazarus project wasn’t their first attempt to “bring people back from the dead.” Cerberus is well known for their experimentation on humans and long before Shepard got spaced they have been working to bring people back from the brink of death. You gotta keep doing the thing until you get it right, no? You never know when you’ll need to rebuild an important figure and use that as leverage to get them to work for you, right? One such experiments took place on Akuze.

It is canon that Cerberus sicked a thresher maw on the Alliance marine unit and probably the Akuze colony itself as well so they could study the beast and see how the marines would react to it. I think this was a two birds one stone kind of scenario as the group not only oberves what happens and scours the dead in search for a subject who still has some life left in them. Enter Corporal Toombs.

From what I gather, whether or not Shepard has this background, it is said that only one soldier made it to the landong zone alive. If Shepard has the sole survivor background, then it’s them. This is where things get a little fuzzy to me as I don’t know if the survivor is ever named if it isn’t Shepard, so it could be Toombs, but idk. ANYWAY Toombs did survive the attack and Cerberus hauled him off to experiment on. The first experiment being the attempt to bring him back to tip top shape. He most likely wasn’t the only test subject as Akuze’s colony was being ravaged by maws and Cerberus had pick of the litter, but he was also the only one to survive these procedures.

When Cerberus was satisfied with their “resurrection,” they began the other experiences Toombs mentions in game such as injecting him with thresher maw acid. Also, based on the cutscene when Shepard wakes up too early at one point, there’s a chance that Toombs experienced the same thing more than once adding to his trauma but I’m no surgeon so I’ve no clue how legit that’d be;;.

So yeah, TL;DR: The thresher maw attack on Akuze is one of the early Lazarus projects.

[smokeybrandreviews]

Smokey brand Reviews: The Steel Sky

I’m incredibly late to the game with this one but, i mean, i had to do it. My copy of Final Fantasy VII Remake finally arrived about a month ago and I've been diligently working my way through toward the controversial conclusion. Admittedly, i got stuck on Rollerball for a lot longer than necessary, i f*cking hate that boss, but i finished. I finally finished. I have thoughts and feelings and i can finally express those with an certain level of understanding.

The Outstanding

This game is gorgeous. I mean, stunning. Seeing Midgar brought to life like this, knowing how far we’ve come from the original VII, is overwhelming. I cried. I legit cried tears of joy seeing this world for the first time. If you’re a fan of games, this sh*t is incredible If you’re a fan of Final Fantasy, it’s humbling. If you’re a fan of VII, specifically, it’s wish fulfillment.

The Great

The voice acting in this thing is exceptional. There are a lot of new actors taking over for long-time favorites, but they do a great job filling those shoes.

I enjoyed how deep customization turned out to be in this title. You can level up your Materia and each weapon you receive can be leveled up. Each one has it’s own, dedicated, Sphere Grid type system. There is enough variation between the six weapons you receive to create several, distinct, character builds.

I love the fact that Avalanche gets more development here. You actually learn to love Biggs and Wedge but, the on character who gets the most care is definitely Jessie. Oh my goodness, is Ms. Raspberry adorable! Seeing her interact with Cloud is more than enough to give this game a shot, especially if you’re a fan of the original.

Roche is kind of amazing. I though he’d be a pain in the ass but, as a character, he’s a decent addition. It’s always dope to see other SOLDIERs and i hope we get a few more going forward.

The chemistry between your squad is palpable. The little banter they have in the field, the interactions during cutscenes, those quiet moments between battles; They’re all so goddamn fun. I was surprised by how organic they all felt. It reminded me a lot of Mass Effect. I mean, the dialogue isn’t quite THAT good, but it’s still some of the best I've experience in a title like this.

This world is alive, man. I mentioned up top how gorgeous it is but this feels lived in. It feels real. You feel the pollution and infinite night of Midgar. You can sense the ostentatious wealth of Shinra Headquarters. You feel the crippling poverty of the Slums. You fell this world, not just sense it like in the original. People are living entire lives and you can objectively identify with that. You on;t need to infer sh*t any more.

Tifa, for me, is the best option for combat in this game. The sh*t they did with her abilities is kind of  a big deal. Once you get her, don’t hesitate to make her a front-line powerhouse because she can combo like no other. It takes time to learn the execution but, as long as you have ATB, you can f*ck a dude up consecutively and it’s amazing to see.

The level design is pretty decent. I never felt lost or frustrated by missions. There is a lot of backtracking though so that might annoy. I looked at it more as a means to explore the awesomeness that is Midgar but i can see it being a problem for those less than familiar with the JRPG system.

The Good

I hate Aerith. I think that chick is kind of useless but she is pretty much redeemed in this game. I was actually surprised by how much i cared about her by the end of this thing. Gonna make what happens later a real drag, man.

The Summon and Limit Break system is kind of dope. I like how they execute, i just don’t really care for the lack of control. In the original, you can just use a Summon like Magic and your Limit Breaks were tied to your health. In this thing, they just kind of appear randomly. It’s weird but the game makes up for it by giving you specific abilities to execute. These things were basically Limit Breaks in the old title so i guess that’s okay.

The new Limit Breaks are f*cking dope!

Remake can feel a bit grindy at times. Again, avid JRPG player so, for me, this was par for the course but i can see people getting frustrated with it I hear you can beat this game on level thirty or so, the cap is fifty, and you can actually get to thirty pretty early on but it entails a great deal of fighting. I, obviously, did that sh*t and capped out before i even got out of Wall Market good but cats aren’t built like me. That sh*t might weigh on another person’s nerves heavy.

The thing is, though, you NEED that grind because there are some legit difficulty spikes, man. It;s a cake walk and then you run into a wall of a boss. That hasn’t happened to me, i grind for days, but i can see how that sh*t is a trap for the unprepared.

The padding in this is very obvious to me. I’ve played every game in the VII Compilation, several times, so i know this story in and out. For me, certain “additions” stick out like sore thumbs. For the uninitiated, these extra portions kind of stall the narrative a bit. As much as i like Roche, his bits definitely kill momentum.

Barrett f*cking sucks.

The Meh

The camera can f*ck you a little bit. That motherf*cker loses it’s mind sometimes and, occasionally, those times are when you're fighting f*cking Sephiroth and this asshole Meteors you to death!

Materia doesn’t birth new ones once you mastered them. That’s whack but understandable. Gotta save memory for those gorgeous particle effects somewhere.

There is a lot of that JRPG sighing in this. It’s weird to see, especially when the dialogue feels so natural. If you’ve played these games as much as i have, you know what I’m talking about. The Japanese seem to do this a lot in their games. I’ve grown to kind of just ignore it but the sh*t is just so prominent in this title, it’s hard to miss.

I touched on this a little bit in my beef with Roche, but the pacing is mad wonky. It starts, builds a head of steam, but then stalls because there needs to be padding here. It can be kind of an irk-and-jerk narrative at times.

The Bad

F*ck Rollerball, man!

The Verdict

Remake is everything i wanted in this title. Look, it’s no secret i love Final Fantasy and i have been more than vocal about my worship of VII, specifically. Square would have had to lay a fat egg for me to hate this title and they did not do that. I loved this game. I loved the direction the next episodes are pointing. I love the open-ended nature of this conclusion. I heard Square plans to focus on a more faithful remake on the next few episodes but if they choose to go in another direction, I'd be curious to see where they take these characters. The worst thing i can say about this title is that the pacing tends to lag at points but, considering you stretched four hours of original narrative into a full blow, eighty hour, gaming experience, I'm surprised it didn’t drag more. Outside of that annoyance, everything else i listed were legit nitpicks. I got over all of that stuff in minutes and just let myself be enveloped by the intuitive game play, gorgeous graphics, amazing character development, brilliant voice acting, and gripping narrative. Final Fantasy VII Remake is an amazing gaming experience and i can’t sing it’s praises enough!

Rollerball is still a b*tch, though.

[radicaldreamer017]

Finished chapter 3 and in the middle of chapter 4 (and things are getting spoilery) :

- found a few more heart to heart. It was quite funny to have Tora laments on feeling useless in battle after I benched him. Guess the game does expect you to bench him for the new character.

- I noticed how these scenes are voiced and involve several characters. In XB1, the scenes are silent and involves only two characters bonding. The voice acting is cool but I think they should have kept the two character bonding thing (group stuff is nice too… but so far, Tora has been starring in all of them… i’m afraid the game may push some characters forward more than others in these heart to heart).

- so, met Zeke (it’s Zek in french apparently) and his blade twice. He’s so over the top lol… i saw people comparing him with Bart from Xenogears, but Bart was down to earth next to him (then again, the over the top shonen humor in XB2 is quite new to Xeno… except maybe when it comes to mascot characters). Bart also had a heavy backstory and duty. That said, eye patch thing, trying to snatch your « weapon » upon the first meeting… I can see why comparaisons are made. I’m waiting to see who Zeke is beyond “comic relief guy” though.

- I don’t know if it’s just me but enemies feel quite spongey compared to previous XB games. In the first game, it was quicker and easier to beat a group of enemies. Not so much here (in fact, I’m dying a lot... and chapter 4 is pissing me off a bit because of this... too many enemies ganging up on you, all spongey... the most annoying thing is getting teleported way back and all enemies getting revived). In the first XB game, I was already going against uniques in the first 10 hours. I never bothered to beat a single one in this one and i’m past 30 hours in. Then again, I was battling uniques in XB1 because it was part of the quests and I knew they were giving capacity points too.

- I really like Uraya overall. The town gives me Skyrim (Solitude) vibe coupled with Baten Kaitos maybe (with a touch of Zora village from Breath of the Wild) ?

- speaking of this town… i’m still clueless where their king or queen even is… where’s the palace ?

- i’m starting to understand maybe why people feel frustrated when exploring in this game. It took me way too much time to understand how to get to Uraya’s main town (and I just quit yesterday playing chapter 4 because a piece of bridge fell while i was walking on it and the only path towards the next main story point I can see is blocked by blade skills i don’t have... that said, maybe this bridge will be whole again when I’ll return to the game... otherwise, that would be bullshit). I also understand why it can feel frustrating to have exploration blocked by requirements that are entirely linked to the blades you managed to get based on pure luck. But I can only encourage Monolith to explore player/environment interactions further. Maybe Zelda’s success will make their next Xeno/jrpg game a lot better on this front (I have lots of gripes about the new Zelda sure… but the way we could interact with the environment, using elements and all, wasn’t one of them).

- so far, town music is definitively more memorable/better than in XB1 (Mitsuda composed them, didn’t he ?).

- while I like towns better in this than XB1, i think it really was a mistake to take the social network thing away. It just makes townies a lot less endearing. It takes away the sense of communities the first two Xenoblade games had. It was really one of Xenoblade’s biggest strength imo.

- returning to Argentum made me realize how nice this place is. A callback to the Thames from Xenogears but with warm Ghibli aesthetics too (love the interior in the upper floors).

- the more I play Tiger Tiger, the more I like it... Dunno if it’s because I was craving for some actual mini games in the modern Xeno games (sick of the hunt/fetch routine) or because the mini game is legit nice. But locking Poppi’s entire upgrade system behind a single mini game probably sucks for anyone who hates playing it.

- I can send blades to expeditions now… between this and the pull to get blades system, the game feels very mobile gacha inspired (by the way, got a rainbow in FFBE the same day I got KOS-MOS). Not that the expedition system was invented by mobile games. It was in FF Tactics on PS1 after all. But the way the characters are sent to missions just remind me of FFBE.

- Also, people sure don’t mind giving command of their military force to a kid they just met lol (old person speaking uhuh).

- this theater thing was nice (and very Baten Kaitos looking).

- the last bosses were brutal… even being higher leveled than them… until I just switched Vandham for Tora (well see, perverted furball… you’re more useful than the big guy with the giant bird after all… crazy).

- speaking of them… I find them quite obnoxious. Maybe it’s the Nomura aesthetics… or the fact they kept wrecking my party… I did feel a bit sorry for Akhos (?) in the end though.

- Malos, or the Sephiroth school of villainy… wearing Gaignun Kukai’s face.

- Giant robot flashback… and a bonus Zohar with a pissy Mithra in it. I love how i’m trying to enjoy this game without comparing it too much to its heavy successors story wise… but the game won’t let me. Oh well…

- hi Mythra… it amused me how she went « fuck off ! I didn’t want to wake up ! I’m out ! » just after being introduced. Also, one of her lines was straight out of Xenosaga 3. As a Xenogears fan, her behavior also reminded me of the « coward ».

- Vandham’s death. I did like the character... but not enough to feel much during this scene apparently (losing the wind bird though... rude... but you get it back quickly anyway). People are not going to feel much when a character they just met dies (unless they’re known to have a close bond with the main character from the get go maybe... which is why killing Alice in Xenogears or Fiora in Xenoblade 1 felt more brutal despite happening very early... because they were introduced as the “childhood friend character/love interest/sister”). Especially if the character is a big bulky guy and the death quite cliché for this kind of character.

- also... did... did they bury him in a freaking concrete/stone ground ?

- I only just remembered Poppi broke at the end of the chapter. But she wasn’t that broken, it seems. They really didn’t make a big fuss about it.

- first time in forever since a character shared a bed with his obvious love interest in a Xeno game. But let’s not expect anything mature here. Mythra was just sleepwalking and happened to end up in Rex’s bed. So, yeah... the whole scene was an entire “you stupid pervert” joke you often see in harem animes (with “omg boobs in front of my face” reaction from Rex). That said, this darn hat that Dromach wears is a thing of glory. Highlight of the scene lol... Ah, and they also acknowledge Mythra/Pyra’s clothing being ridiculous in this scene.

- the whole “thievery” plotline was kind of filler. But still, I guess I’m glad those kids have a place to belong now. Guess I can see the Oliver Twist inspiration here (Takahashi said it was one of the works that made him want to make XB2). And now, the bird is back and Rex can have another 5 stars blade (though, I also managed to get Perceval for him, with a common core crystal).

- Speaking of new rare blade, I also got Boreas for Nia. But controlling Nia with him as her main blade kinda sucks. Boreas is so big that he almost takes the whole screen. But he’s a healer. That’s cool. That’s Nia’s main job.

- Muimui... I’m so glad you’re not the playable mascot character (really, even considering Tora). Seriously, this little guy is like... a nopon version of Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter (maybe it’s appriopriate, he seems shaddy). But higher pitched. And his name sounds kinda dumb, spoken out loud.

- I like Mor Ardain’s city. Reminds me of Nortune from Xenogears (too bad Mor Ardain’s Titan is a brown wasteland though... but hey, it is dying, after all).

- I really liked the cutscene introducing Mor Ardain’s “emperor”. The music was perfect, Morag and Brighid were there, I generally like child emperor/empress (like say, Larsa from FF12)... and I guess Morag is of royal blood now ?

- Tora’s background story unvealed... and I’m sure it was dramatic... but holy shit, I just wanted to laugh when seeing this small nopon holding a huge gun. Tora is like... Maria Balthasar as a male perverted Chuchu. It’s weird. Now, off to retrieve his giant rob... I mean, gothic lolita robot.

- Hot spring naked time... with convenient censor fog. I knew something like this was in ever since the first trailer. Some people managed to spot a keyword for a bath scene or something. Sigh... What should I say ? I like Persona and they did much worse with this kind of stuff. But it’s still pandering. I don’t even remember what the heck the girls were talking about (expect Poppi maybe... something about being waterproof ?).

- Second battle transition against Zeke was kind of funny. Rex gets bitchslapped by Mythra and the screen breaks, FF10 style.

[smokeybrand]

Smokey brand Reviews: The Steel Sky

I’m incredibly late to the game with this one but, i mean, i had to do it. My copy of Final Fantasy VII Remake finally arrived about a month ago and I've been diligently working my way through toward the controversial conclusion. Admittedly, i got stuck on Rollerball for a lot longer than necessary, i f*cking hate that boss, but i finished. I finally finished. I have thoughts and feelings and i can finally express those with an certain level of understanding.

The Outstanding

This game is gorgeous. I mean, stunning. Seeing Midgar brought to life like this, knowing how far we’ve come from the original VII, is overwhelming. I cried. I legit cried tears of joy seeing this world for the first time. If you’re a fan of games, this sh*t is incredible If you’re a fan of Final Fantasy, it’s humbling. If you’re a fan of VII, specifically, it’s wish fulfillment.

The Great

The voice acting in this thing is exceptional. There are a lot of new actors taking over for long-time favorites, but they do a great job filling those shoes.

I enjoyed how deep customization turned out to be in this title. You can level up your Materia and each weapon you receive can be leveled up. Each one has it’s own, dedicated, Sphere Grid type system. There is enough variation between the six weapons you receive to create several, distinct, character builds.

I love the fact that Avalanche gets more development here. You actually learn to love Biggs and Wedge but, the on character who gets the most care is definitely Jessie. Oh my goodness, is Ms. Raspberry adorable! Seeing her interact with Cloud is more than enough to give this game a shot, especially if you’re a fan of the original.

Roche is kind of amazing. I though he’d be a pain in the ass but, as a character, he’s a decent addition. It’s always dope to see other SOLDIERs and i hope we get a few more going forward.

The chemistry between your squad is palpable. The little banter they have in the field, the interactions during cutscenes, those quiet moments between battles; They’re all so goddamn fun. I was surprised by how organic they all felt. It reminded me a lot of Mass Effect. I mean, the dialogue isn’t quite THAT good, but it’s still some of the best I've experience in a title like this.

This world is alive, man. I mentioned up top how gorgeous it is but this feels lived in. It feels real. You feel the pollution and infinite night of Midgar. You can sense the ostentatious wealth of Shinra Headquarters. You feel the crippling poverty of the Slums. You fell this world, not just sense it like in the original. People are living entire lives and you can objectively identify with that. You on;t need to infer sh*t any more.

Tifa, for me, is the best option for combat in this game. The sh*t they did with her abilities is kind of  a big deal. Once you get her, don’t hesitate to make her a front-line powerhouse because she can combo like no other. It takes time to learn the execution but, as long as you have ATB, you can f*ck a dude up consecutively and it’s amazing to see.

The level design is pretty decent. I never felt lost or frustrated by missions. There is a lot of backtracking though so that might annoy. I looked at it more as a means to explore the awesomeness that is Midgar but i can see it being a problem for those less than familiar with the JRPG system.

The Good

I hate Aerith. I think that chick is kind of useless but she is pretty much redeemed in this game. I was actually surprised by how much i cared about her by the end of this thing. Gonna make what happens later a real drag, man.

The Summon and Limit Break system is kind of dope. I like how they execute, i just don’t really care for the lack of control. In the original, you can just use a Summon like Magic and your Limit Breaks were tied to your health. In this thing, they just kind of appear randomly. It’s weird but the game makes up for it by giving you specific abilities to execute. These things were basically Limit Breaks in the old title so i guess that’s okay.

The new Limit Breaks are f*cking dope!

Remake can feel a bit grindy at times. Again, avid JRPG player so, for me, this was par for the course but i can see people getting frustrated with it I hear you can beat this game on level thirty or so, the cap is fifty, and you can actually get to thirty pretty early on but it entails a great deal of fighting. I, obviously, did that sh*t and capped out before i even got out of Wall Market good but cats aren’t built like me. That sh*t might weigh on another person’s nerves heavy.

The thing is, though, you NEED that grind because there are some legit difficulty spikes, man. It;s a cake walk and then you run into a wall of a boss. That hasn’t happened to me, i grind for days, but i can see how that sh*t is a trap for the unprepared.

The padding in this is very obvious to me. I’ve played every game in the VII Compilation, several times, so i know this story in and out. For me, certain “additions” stick out like sore thumbs. For the uninitiated, these extra portions kind of stall the narrative a bit. As much as i like Roche, his bits definitely kill momentum.

Barrett f*cking sucks.

The Meh

The camera can f*ck you a little bit. That motherf*cker loses it’s mind sometimes and, occasionally, those times are when you're fighting f*cking Sephiroth and this asshole Meteors you to death!

Materia doesn’t birth new ones once you mastered them. That’s whack but understandable. Gotta save memory for those gorgeous particle effects somewhere.

There is a lot of that JRPG sighing in this. It’s weird to see, especially when the dialogue feels so natural. If you’ve played these games as much as i have, you know what I’m talking about. The Japanese seem to do this a lot in their games. I’ve grown to kind of just ignore it but the sh*t is just so prominent in this title, it’s hard to miss.

I touched on this a little bit in my beef with Roche, but the pacing is mad wonky. It starts, builds a head of steam, but then stalls because there needs to be padding here. It can be kind of an irk-and-jerk narrative at times.

The Bad

F*ck Rollerball, man!

The Verdict

Remake is everything i wanted in this title. Look, it’s no secret i love Final Fantasy and i have been more than vocal about my worship of VII, specifically. Square would have had to lay a fat egg for me to hate this title and they did not do that. I loved this game. I loved the direction the next episodes are pointing. I love the open-ended nature of this conclusion. I heard Square plans to focus on a more faithful remake on the next few episodes but if they choose to go in another direction, I'd be curious to see where they take these characters. The worst thing i can say about this title is that the pacing tends to lag at points but, considering you stretched four hours of original narrative into a full blow, eighty hour, gaming experience, I'm surprised it didn’t drag more. Outside of that annoyance, everything else i listed were legit nitpicks. I got over all of that stuff in minutes and just let myself be enveloped by the intuitive game play, gorgeous graphics, amazing character development, brilliant voice acting, and gripping narrative. Final Fantasy VII Remake is an amazing gaming experience and i can’t sing it’s praises enough!

Rollerball is still a b*tch, though.

[tumblunni]

OKAY SO THIS IS GONNA BE A LONG

Man it REALLY sucks that the only place you can’t take screenshots is in the cutscenes. SO MUCH GODDAMN PLOT HAPPENED!! I’m gonna try and sum it up! basically ORESHIKA GOT REAL

* Okay so to recap what’s happened before: we’re a magic cursed clan of zombie doods who need to defeat Abe No Senmei to break the curse. We can each only live for two years, so the game is built on hundreds of generations of this family marching into death over and over again until eventually some great great grandkid might get a normal life back. But oddly enough it isn’t actually as super dark as expected, cos you dont really have any personality or bonding scenes with the family members. I kinda stopped getting very upset after the first three generations, now theyve just become a bunch of numbers that i have to selectively breed to make a better next generation. Seriously its been OVER 150 CHARACTERS SO FAR and I’’m only around 2/3rds through the game! And like the plot also seemed super simple and it didn’t feel like anything was gonna happen to anyone outside of the backstory?? I DIDNT EXPECT IT TO GET SO REAL

* Abe No Seimei is a cool smarmy ass jerk villain with a neat design and a weird ancient japanese hand puppet. like this really funky cool wooden mask thing with a giant wig that I legit thought was an actual demon attatched to his arm until it started having clickitty clack face animations. I got REALLY UNUSUALLY SAD ABOUT THAT! Cos seriously abe no seimei is just.. weirdly.. nice...? He keeps telling you how to defeat him, he waits to do all his evil plots when you’re there to watch him, he literally sends you letters to come to his grand feasts celebrating each evil plan. And its so fuckin mysterious and getting to know him is really the only thing driving the plot forwards, cos none of your characters have actual voices. And like.. he’s this immortal guy who seems like he wants to die, and he’s deliberately playing the villain so you guys will be motivated enough to find out a way to do it. And like HE HAS ONLY ONE FRIEND and its HIMSELF DOING A STUPID PUPPET PAL VOICE. i’m really abnormally upset that onigashira isn’t really alive! His cute comedy sidekick doesnt exist! MR SERIOUS VILLAINMAN IS DOING THAT VOICE ALL ALONE IN HIS STUPID SAD HOUSE why do i want to hug this horrible jerkface

* Okay but then the other mystery we have is the character Nueko, who’s a weird demigod of some sort who can reincarnate in human form. She’s the one who gave us our magic zombie powers in the first place, she’s got the power to DIE HORRIBLY REPEATEDLY AND FEED PEOPLE HER BLOOD in order to cure them of deadly diseases and bring them back to life and stuff. And this actually becomes a gameplay thing! You can repeatedly bring her back as a new human reincarnation, and then her special skills let her shield allies from damage at the cost of basically going poof back to the heavens again. Its a really useful relief from the punishing permadeath! While not being overpowered cos she can only save one person per dungeoncrawl, and you cant reincarnate her again for a while afterwards. Anyway she keeps popping up every now and again like ‘hey guys i slept off that last death’ and being a super helpful badass team mom and such. But then THE PLOT STARTS HAPPENING EVERYWHERE Cos it turns out she’s got ~magical anime amnesia~ and doesnt understand her demigodness any better than we do. But wtf why does this evil sorcerer man keep implying he knows some secret about her...?

* THE PLOT TWIST SHE’S HIS MOM HIS MOM and seriously I LOVE ONIGASHIRA SO MUCH its like Nueko: What did you say?! Onigashira: *literally looks out the fourth wall* Did you hear it, kids? He totally said “waaaah, mummy, I missed you so much”, right! Literal actual player prompt: Yes/No Bunni, of course: SLAM THAT YES And oh god its just so extra funny cos Seimei actually doesnt even deny it?? He cracks a semi genuine smile and just looks embarassed, its so weird cos its like the only time he hasnt been all smug grumpy asshole. And I mean if it is indeed true that Onigashira is just a puppet, then the whole thing was his genuine feelings from the start.. ... though also DOES THAT MEAN SEIMEI CAN SEE THROUGH THE FOURTH WALL its weird how thats MORE SCARY than the literal demon doing it! like i feel like the game wants me to be scared of onigashira but he’s just SO CUTE AND FUNNY and I really dont want him to be imaginary okay. can we adopt him after we defeat seimei :(

* BUT ANYWAY UMM Yeah, Nueko is actually his mum despite looking younger than him! He kinda inherited her reincarnation power in a broken way, cos he’s half human. Instead of experiencing multiple lives whenever he chooses it, and getting to nap in the clouds in between, instead he just CANNOT DIE NO MATTER HOW MUCH PUNISHMENT HE TAKES. Seriously he introduced himself by setting himself on fire, burning to a crisp and then growing back his skin right in front of us, just to prove it! I can honestly relate to this guy going mad if he’s had to put up with this super crappy immortality that he never even asked for. And also its gotta sting to see that his own mum gets to stay more youthful looking, lol. i mean he’s pretty bishie too right now, but I’m assuming he’d actually continue to age and thats gotta suck!

* Oh and there’s this really cool element that all the bosses that Seimei summons to figth you become new powerups for Nueko! Its an early clue about their connection- at first she’s like WTF WHY IS THIS HAPPENING, but then it turns out these bosses actually originally were her familiars and she left them to look after her son. So they’re still loyal to her original command until she defeats them in battle. Also the WAY these familiars get used is EXTRA SUPER COOL! They’re sealed in magic tattoos all over her body, so she gets more sweet ink every time you reach a storyline milestone. And then she doesn’t just summon them or just boost her stats, she friggin GROWS MASSIVE MONSTER ARMS ALL OVER THE SHOP! Like I was so worried when her design looked all fanservicey at first, but then she’s never degraded in any way and she gets this super disservice power lol. I can’t imagine any smut fanfiction with her! “Yes hunny i will take off my bra and then BRING OUT THE CRAB ARMS” She grows fuckin CRAB ARMS! And snake heads for legs! She can shoot different demons out of all of her limbs and grow giant horns and wing hair and breathe fire and holy fuckin shit yo. And she’s really fuckin terrifyingly stoic badass even before she unlocks her powers! She could probably crush your head in her palm and not even need the crab. basically I Love Strong Mom

* Oh and apparantly Nueko’s husband was another god who got erased from history? Literally nobody is able to say his name, it comes out as garbled scribbled out text. And at the moment its ambiguous what happened, but it might be possible that he was actually sniped out by his fellow gods for being TOO GOOD. Like, he wanted to make peace with demons and give a bigger share fo divine power to humans, and everyone else was all ‘BUT THE STATUS QUO’ and stabbed him in the back. possibly? Maybe? ITS ALL SO MYSTERY!!

* so ANYWAY ANYWAY a required other thing for explaining the EMOTIONALLY DESTRUCTIVE MOMENT is that there’s this duo of minor helpful npcs i never mentioned before, cos i honestly didnt think they were gonna be important there’s this justice-powered cute princess who’s determined to do political stuffs to clear your clan’s name and let you back into your former land, though all you really see of it is that she makes a few sentences of progress every time you get back from a story dungeon. And then there’s her grumpy ass bodyguard who’s kinda your rival? he’s always hating on you while she always supports you, and its like he’s jealous cos he has a crush on her and doesnt want commoners talking to his precious princes. And blablabla ‘i am the only one strong enough to protect her GRARR i need to get stronger how did you defeat me’ yadda yadda. Except you dont even get to fight him, again its just like one sentence every story dungeon where he says he was totally gonna rescue the magical artifact you beat him to. Even tho he doesnt do it no matter how many years pass, lol So yeah we like.. didnt really even know them very well, but also they felt like this comforting constant that would never leave? GuesS WHAT THE EMOTIONALLY DESTRUCTIVE BIT WAS

* Okay so HEY SEIMEI KIDNPPED PRINCESS LADY HAHA JUST AN ORDINARY DAMSEL IN DISTRESS PLOT we’re TOTALLY gonna successfully get her back, this is probably just filler... HA... HA... HA...

* The rollercoaster of emotions begins! Hey onigashira might actually really be alive! Apparantly this puppet mask is haunted, or something? like onigashira is the name of a whole set of masks that give you super power if you wear them, but turn you beserker loopy demon man. Though they dont seem to be sentient or anything and also like nobody else seems to be able to wear them without losing their humanity?? So like did seimei escape the curse by wearing it as a hand puppet instead? or is the puppet not connected to the masks at all? Or is it gonna be something lame like seimei was never in control of his actions and the puppet is sentient and is the real baddie? COS I LIKE HIM BEING THE CUTE COMIC RELIEF YO Oh, wait, like.. maybe its something like seimei is possessed by the mask but the mask isnt really alive and like.. doing ventriloquism is just his random symptom of this ambiguously defined madness? Like instead of going beserker it made him ‘give in to his instincts’ in a different way, so he stays mostly in control but involuntarily expresses his true hidden feelings through the puppet. Hence why it is the best and cutest goofball who encourages him to be honest and hug his mom. OR JUST I DUNNO I JUST KNOW I HAVE MY FAITH SLIGHTLY RESTORED THAT CUTE SIDEKICK MIGHT BE REAL AND I CAN ADOPT HIM

* but hey guess what happened right after that happy moment of wow cool yay in the middle of me being like ‘yay seimei is so cool yay onigashira is actually gonna play a bigger plot role than just a sidekick and may actually be his own separate character’ SUDDENLY THEY KILL THE SAMURAI And like OHHH NO they dont even JUST kill the samurai I was still thinking the moment was cool!! Seimei throws a second mask on him and curses him to fight the party and i was just like WOW YOU MAGNIFICENT BASTARD and WHAT A COOL BOSS FIGHT CONCEPT And like I was proud of myself for sweeping the fight super quickly?? I just thought he’d be fine once we got the mask off??? BUT NO HE’S FUCKIN DEAD WE COULDNT UNDO THE CURSE WE JUST HAD TO KILL HIM AND THEY SHOW HIS VERY GRAPHICALLY BLOODIED CORPSE and like his whole plotline got cut off with no resolution?? he only existed to die here?? THE WRITERS NEVER HAD ANY INTENTION OF LETTING HIM CONFESS HIS PRINCESS LOVE. AND HE ALSO NEVER MADE UP WITH US AND LEARNED FROM HIS RIVAL PLOTS he just died really sadly and then like FOR THE SECOND TIME ONLY IN THE ENTIRE GAME we had an actual dialogue choice to decide the personality of our hero first time: lol onigashira mommy jokes second time: pick one of three ways to try and soften the blow as you tell the rescued princess that her childhood friend and crush just died horribly :(

* :(

* the one I picked was telling her he died saving her, not that he was the one being mind controlled to threaten her. :(

* I DIDNT EVEN LIKE YOU GRUMPY DUDE BUT YOU DESERVED BETTER THAN THAAAAAT

* look can i just headcanon that he became a guardian spirit like my characters can do if they get that rare random event. or like.. geez.. why couldnt nueko use her ressurection powers on him if she could do it for us?? they should have at least had a line of dialogue saying something like ‘it cant be done cos his soul was corrupted by the demon power’ or something...

* MAY YOU RESOLVE YOUR DAMN PLOTLINE IN THE AFTERLIFE, GRUMP FRIEND

* also seimei I am fuckin pissed. you have been promoted from trash boss who i kinda wanna give a hug to the same thing but without the hug now. you dont even deserve your sweet sidekick! IM TAKING YOUR DAMN PUPPET PAL, SHITTY POOP MAN i fuckin SWEAR if this game doesnt end with me ripping that puppet out of his hands i am gonna throttle a bitch

* ALSO I FUCKIN SWEAR IF THEY PULL A ‘PUPPET PAL WAS THE REAL VILLAIN AND SEIMEI WAS BRAINWASHED’ I AM GONNA DOUBLE CHOKE YA inm gonna fuckin build my own puppet with animatronic stranglin’ hands

[jinzlers]

WELP I can’t review this game on Steam because I’m a damn dirty ~Family Sharer~ (truly the scum that is killing ethics in game journalism), so here’s a goddamn Hiveswap review I spent time typing I guess

seriously what the fuck steam between achievements arbitrarily spilling over (or not, even within the same game) (not this one, wife hasn’t played it yet) and my opinion not mattering even when playing a game with what I thought was your official sanction, I may as well not have even made my own damn account and kept just goddamn playing on my wife’s, because there are no fucking features or benefits to doing otherwise and playing a game bought by someone who lives under the same fucking roof and shares their income with you is just not legit enough no matter what these days I guess

anyway here’s wonderwall (shit that song’s from ‘95, never mind)

This game is set in the early 90s, and feels cozily like a point-n-click game from the early 90s. It’s hard to gauge the difficulty, so far: puzzles consist of hunting down fairly obvious components, but combat is where lateral thinking to get the most out of your inventory and swapping characters on the fly comes into play. Since it’s a bite-sized Chapter One, it feels like sort of a tutorial level, ramping up the complexity until… there’s no more combat to be had, and you’re back to the simple hunt-and-combine puzzles. There, the challenge is a password minigame with definite potential for ramping up the difficulty. I hope that the potential I’m seeing gels together in later chapters.

Also like a point-n-click game from the early 90s, it feels like there’s a manual I should have read at some point. It could be that the battle system just felt more complicated because I had to figure out what equipment had what effect, etc. It wasn’t difficult, but I still don’t know what the various combat cursors mean.

The art, design, and music are top notch. The writing is equally strong, with distinctive characters and intriguing worldbuilding. Didn’t encounter any bugs, didn’t notice any typoes outside the deliberate chatspeak. Layout suffers if you’re in the wrong resolution, though. One major complaint is that keystrokes advance the text, which feels extraneous in a point-and-click, makes it even more obnoxious that I can’t find any apparent way to skip cutscenes, and just downright cruel to frequent screenshotters. Another is that figuring out precisely where to click to swap screens (or not, if you were just trying to walk around) can be a little confusing at times, and the siblings’ home can be a bit confusing to navigate due to all the large rooms and hallways (the hives have more intuitive screen layouts).

Do wish it weren’t so short - makes the pacing feel kind of choppy when combat just goes away after the first half. People who aren’t into examining every last object (unlikely in this genre, I know) and achievement hunting might finish too quickly for their taste. Having all those guns taunting us with the gun-equipping characters we aren’t playing yet doesn’t help either ;) Still quite worth it for adventure game fans, and hopefully the final length of the game hits the fine balance between time and money spent.

In conclusion, I named the deercat Bubsy and I hope future installments make me regret it.

[rozina481fortnite-blog]

Fortnite what is turbo building

Why Fortnite Battle Royale Is The Gaming Phenomenon Of The Year

Above: Fortnite: Battle Royale vs. PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds vs. H1Z1: King of the Kill. According to the brand itself, several accounts have already been compromised with unique hacking tactics. The bug is usually in the user himself who does not use his or her prevalent sense. You ordinarily appear for tricks and suggestions that will allow you to advance more quickly than other players and this leads to pages of dubious excellent. Just add your access data to them and you're out of account. This is just 1 of several formulas you can use to rob us of a Fortnite account.

They are correct, of course. Fortnite is a game about PvE base-creating, and killing zombies, and watching cutscenes, and grinding for color-coded epics and legendaries in high-level zones. A fast anecdote: years ago I went to a Comic-Con panel exactly where Cliff Bleszinski, who was still with Epic at that time, unveiled Fortnite as a dream project—a sort-of proto-Destiny, with the whip-smart building mechanics of Minecraft plugged in. The organization did ultimately bring that dream to life—Fortnite ultimately hit Early Access final summer time, with its scope graciously intact.

1. The very first and the most apparent way is purchasing your V-bucks using true cash, your challenging-earned money. This is the easiest and the least time-consuming way, of course. The costs range from $10 for 1000 V-Bucks to $100 for 10000 V-Bucks. The initial way, that you ought to be already undertaking to earn V-Bucks, is by logging into Save the Planet mode every day.

Considering the fact that its debut in July, the increasingly preferred Fortnite Battle Royale” game has become a gaming marvel, pulling in over 125 million online players in its initially year alone. To understand player buy behaviors in Fortnite compared to its competitor PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG), Edison Trends analyzed the sales underpinning the two games.

I do not want to re-evaluation the game in a paragraph , but it really is a cooperative, PvE version of Fortnite that has a lot of unnecessary collecting and grinding systems that make it a bit also repetitive and fundamental to be enjoyable in the long term. But it's not horrible. It just feels muddled in common, and I'm not certain if there is a good way to save it in the extended term. Epic Games has no plans to bring this mode to the Switch, in case you happen to be curious.

Fortnite has been following the battle pass model for several seasons now, with each and every a single following a special theme alongside the game's altering planet. You can adhere to the free model or purchase V-Bucks to adopt the paid a single which comes with a bunch of exclusive goodies. Each day Quests supplies you around 50 V-Bucks each and every day. You will automatically obtain Each day Quest each and every day immediately after finishing the tutorial.

A single of the largest attributes of Fortnite in Nintendo Switch is that it lets you take the game anyplace, without the need of needing to use the mobile version's touch controls. But ideal now, Save the Globe isn't aspect of that deal. The only way to play the mode out of the house right now is to play it on a laptop, and not a lot of individuals have a laptop that can manage a game like Fortnite.

In-game items and V-Bucks will be held for two weeks ahead of they're merged to your major account. Immediately after the game is back on-line , players will be anxious to purchase the Season six Battle Pass, which costs 950 V-Bucks, or around £8 as effectively as any more skins. Players can unlock each tier by gaining expertise points or by making use of V-Bucks.

Any content you get with V-Bucks will be available on any linked Fortnite accounts no matter which platform you get the content on. If you never feel like paying for your V-Bucks you do have one more selection, but it is not free either. Rather, you'll have to spend for the full game, which involves both the Battle Royale and Save the World modes, and fees at least $40.

Design and style games with buddies, race about the island, and construct your dream Fortnite with your personal rules. The game, it is not all about co-op survival though, FN also functions a PvP mode that supports up to ten players at when as properly. To improve your adventure and compliment your gameplay, you can prime up FN v-bucks from our list of reliable sellers right here at in a safe safe atmosphere and at low cost prices.

Not got Save the World? Don't be concerned. Fortnite Battle Royale mode also delivers a way of earning free of charge V-Bucks: via battle http://elmm.info/ pass challenges. Austen, Golsin (March 27, 2018). "Fortnite Battle Royale Overview" IGN Archived from the original on August 18, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2018. Don't fall for any of the Free V-Bucks” scams that you could possibly come across that tries to offer you free of charge V-bucks. The solutions above (that is written) are all and the only legit solutions that truly function and there is no other process out there that works to earn free V-Bucks.

I play both Fortnite Save The Globe and Battle Royale. Nonetheless, I'm a massive fan of PvE and invest much more of my time there. You can watch us total the typical version of the challenge in the video above. You can also discover other ideas and guides for this season's trickier missions in our Fortnite Season X challenges roundup We'll continue to update that list as the season progresses, so be positive to verify back for our most current Fortnite coverage.

[stephicness]

Hello! I wanted to ask: of all the games you've played, which game had a heartbreaking moment? Like it brought you to tears?

OKAY WHY YOU GOTTA MAKE ME RELIVE THE TRAUMA IN MY LIFE?

Nah, man, I kid, I kid. I’ll admit though, I get pretty flubbin’ emotional whenever I play video games. I remember once I was playing a game next to my dad on a mini TV, and I made a choice in an RPG that just had me bawling. He had to comfort me and reassure me that my choice was okay for an hour before I stopped crying.

But that’s not even one of the worst moments I’ve had! :D Let me list some of them for you! (Spoilers ahead, even though some of these games are old as dirt!)

Dragon Age – Legit, I’m just going to lay the game’s entire goddamn series here for you, because I have cried so much throughout it.

I cried when the Human Noble’s family was betrayed and killed at the beginning of Dragon Age: Origins.

I cried when I sacrificed my Warden in Dragon Age: Origins.

I cried when Leandra died in Dragon Age II.

When Anders blew up the chantry and I killed him.

When I sacrificed Hawke to the fade first playthrough of Inquisition.

Pretty much that entire game destroyed me, inside and out. I got invested in the game series when it first came out when I was in middle school/early high school, and it’s just been a roller coaster ride. Can’t wait for what life-ruining thing the next Dragon Age will have!

Mass Effect 3 – Can we just agree that Bioware has the nasty habit of destroying people’s lives with feels? Because after being a long-term fan of Mass Effect, like I was with Dragon Age, Mass Effect 3 just put me to ruins. Everyone dies, nobody is happy, and your soul was destroyed. Does this unit have a soul? NOT AFTER MASS EFFECT 3. It got to the point where I had to walk away from the game for a few hours and cry in the shower because Mordin died. And when I got the alternate scene where it was Captain Kirahe that Kai Leng killed instead of Thane, I screamed, cried, and screamed again.Bioware, stop destroying my feelings. I have very few feelings left as it is.

Final Fantasy VII – I think we can all agree that this game has its moments that just invoke heartbreak and sadness. But my favorite moment is… Not Aerith’s death. It was Zack’s death. Particularly when Crisis Core was created and we got to see the scene in full CGI glory, Zack’s death got me sobbing. And sobbing hard. It didn’t help either that as a GMV editor, I would have to see this scene often. Or edit with it, cut it, manipulate it. Oh god, it was terrible. And I still get sad thinking about it because that bean deserved better.

Lightning Returns: Final Fantasy XIII – The Final Fantasy XIII franchise is one that gets bagged on by veteran FF fans because of how strangely developed it was, but I honestly found myself on a roller coaster particularly when the last game of the Lightning saga came out. The first game was kinda sad, but not as feelsy as Lightning Return was. Again, I get emotional when I play games, but I cried alot during Lightning Returns. I cried for Snow turning all Cieth on us, I cried for Caius and Yeul because the revelation of why the Chaos existed hit me HARD, I cried over Lightning and her despairing feeling of loneliness at the end of the game – I got really emotional, okay? Especially over Caius, because that asshole made me like him even more in Lightning Returns. I still get emotional thinking about it.

Final Fantasy X – OKAY LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THIS TEEDOUCHE BAG. Legit, the ending of Final Fantasy X destroyed me the first time I played it, destroyed me years after I played it, and destroys me even to this day. I remember one day during lunch in high school, I was talking about the game with my friends (whom most of which have beaten the game as well), and I just started sobbing. Not like single tear sobbing, but like full on wailing because SHE WHISTLED FOR THAT TEEDOUCHE AND HE NEVER CAME TO HER. God, after this tale of romance and devotion, they hit us with that, and I just got wrecked. I got wrecked so badly.

Final Fantasy XV – I feel like I don’t even need to explain that this game was heartbreaking all together. BUT I WILL ANYWAYS BECAUSE HOLY MOTHER OF DAMNATION. I mention this alot, but I followed this game from when it was first announced as part of the Fabula Nova Crysallis (whatever the hell they called it) project, so I was already pretty invested in XV when it was still called Versus XIII. I knew it was going to be a rough game with the trailers, and the emphasis on Noctis having to fight his way out of Insomnia during pre-development trailers. But when XV came out finally, and we played the road trip simulator for the first nine chapters, things went to hell so goddamn fast. I kid you not, by the time the game ended, I was so broken that I couldn’t even cry anymore. I was a soulless husk just with my hand over my mouth, wanting to sob, but I couldn’t because I had shed all of my tears when it revealed that Ravus was turned into a monster.My tears didn’t fall. They crashed around me. This game destroyed my goddamn life. I love it.

Final Fantasy Type-0 – Yet another Final Fantasy game, but this one is really underrated, I feel. The combat was hard to get used to, and some of the gameplay dynamics were strange compared to what we got used to with XIII and the games prior to it. But I kid you not, not even 15 minutes into the game – not even when you get to even so much look at the tutorial, I was sobbing my goddamn face off. Over a chocobo. A chocobo. And don’t get me started on that ending either. I had first seen the ending on its own as a cutscene when I was footage hunting, and I sobbed my face off because of how miserable that ending was. As to be expected from a Tabata game, but GOD. At least show a little bit of mercy, please!

Heavy Rain – Why yes, hello. Allow me to take a break from all of these Final Fantasy games to tell you about Heavy Rain. So this game is designed in a really cool way, kind of like an interactive visual novel, but alot more detail. You control your characters, and your choices influence the outcome of the story based on how much you explore the world and what dialogue you pick, etc. And this game was one that made me cry from not only sadness and heartbreak, but also from sheer anxiety playing it. It gets pretty graphic – one time to the point where one of the main characters, Ethan, has to server one of his fingers before the serial killer would allow him to progress to the next challenge to rescue his son again. I cried really hard because I felt so bad for my choice, and watching Ethan cut his finger off and then cauterize it closed was awful watching. And what was worse was than in my playthrough, I made so many bad choices that I found myself crying hard from how bad of an ending I got in the end. Rough stuff, man, but a great story if you haven’t played it yet!

[darkarm66]

Breath of the Wild review

On the Wii U, I had The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess in their HD remastered forms....and barely touched. This is reoccurring issue with me and remasters, even with games I love. No matter how much I loved them the first time, there are some games I won't touch again and it was mainly due to the beginning stages. I dreaded going though Ordon Village again and knowing I'd have to put up with those tutorials again to get to the parts of Twilight Princess i did enjoy. So once Link wakes up Breath of the Wild, gets his clothes and Sheikah Slate and I got to run around with my meager abilities and items, I knew that this game was gonna be a classic. Yes, that's all it took. Now, there have been many many reviews that extolled the excellence of Breath of the Wild, much better written reviews when it came out, possibly on the verge of hyperbolic. So allow me to add to it. And yes, not only is this the best game of 2017, It very well could be one of the greatest of all time. While those reviews have mentioned Witcher 3, Skyrim, Arkham Asylum and other open world games as direct influences (Nintendo said as much as well), this game inspired feelings in me I haven't felt since Xenoblade Chronicles. And like Xenoblade Chronicles, Breath of the Wild succeeded due to not just the high amount of gameplay but also by eliminating a lot of wonky, reductive elements. 

There's no invisible barriers that prevents the player from going where they want to go, once you get off the Great Plateau after getting the runes in the Shrines, the player has everything the need to explore this amazing version of Hyrule. And the exploration was felt lacking in previous Zeldas. You knew that special icon or crack in the ground required the player to retrieve the item from a dungeon. Now, you just have to go there and a lot of it just jumps out at the player. This time around, Hyrule itself is a dungeon with so many puzzles that tempt to player to stop moving and just fiddle around for a bit. The world is littered with seemingly out of place shapes and it draws the player in a way that doesn't feel contrived or blatant. And even if a trail isn't apparent or there's no natural way to enter a place, the climbing mechanic breaks all of it. Climbing itself becomes its own minigame because its governed by a stamina wheel and the weather system, which does allow the player to be challenged by where they can climb but it doesn't allow the player to break the game by going everywhere. And speaking of challenge, get ready to eat humble pie with the simplest combat system but toughest enemies ever. 

This Hyrule wasn't afraid to hand the player its ass over and over. And the lack of tutorials and locked rooms that teach you to fight means you're not stuck in this one place until you get it right. If you die, you come back and try again or move onto somewhere else to do something that won't kill you. When I tried to put off the story as much as I possibly can, I ended up discovering Shrines (in a minute, not yet), Koroks, rupees, side quests, food. Until I became bored and started the Zora quest line, which delighted because I got to climb up a waterfall with ice blocks and led to the real menace of Hyrule: Lynels. This is when previous Zelda game would put you in this room and turn this into a boss battle to see if the player has gotten any good. Not this time, it didn't care that I didn't have enough hearts, or my shields were too weak, or my weapons were brittle. So I just turn around from the high point and glided to somewhere else instead. While players will have to fight to actually survive, Breath of the Wild let the experience teach the players.

And mainly, those Shrines is how you get experience points. The Shrines are dotted the map, some not even trying to hide, some taking maddening puzzle solving, others rewarding the player for figuring out all the clues. Not only is this how the game facilitates fast travel, it also scratches that dungeon crawling itch for a bit, but only by being a puzzle shrine or a combat shrine. It lacks the incredible intertwining of previous Zelda dungeons but the light content and brain stretching use of items makes up for it. Especially since the player is always rewarded with a great item. Unless its a weapon...

Okay, in the early goings, weapon durability can be a bummer. Weapons break too common and by the time you get used to one, its gone. That's not the worst part of it. The problem comes when good weapons do start becoming more readily available but not you're out of slots because you don't wanna waste your Royal Broadswords on some basic ass Bokoblins because you know a Lynel needs that work more. However, you deal with it because all the puzzle solving and wander lusting led to Korok seeds to expand the inventory, so now by the time you wanna start wrecking things, you're actually equipped to do so this time around.

I also believe that the durability allows the player to actually replay certain areas. While other games use powerful enemies as gates to keep the player away for a few hours, that doesn't feel like it this time around. The map allows players to actually keep tabs on where they may want to go but don't feel like dying to do so. Place that stamp down, go somewhere else and come back to it when the player truly feels ready. I remember Miyamoto talking about how they wanted Zelda games to be able to replay certain areas for a reason. And now they didn't have to force the player to do a bunch of fetch quests or pixel hunts to come back to an area they already beaten. This makes Hyrule feel more livelier this time around because no matter how much time you spent in one area, you can come back to it and discover something hiding under your nose this whole time but you couldn't see it just yet. Or it has a dope sword you really needed but didn't have room for.

But one thing to make room for: food! There was something so hypnotic about resource gathering and cooking, in a way that surpasses Final Fantasy XV's photo-realistic dishes. The abundance of materials, which not only kills the tedium that might have killed lesser games, allows players to actual feel free to consume and experiment with everything they've gathered. In the beginning, basic meals are cooked to give your health a chance withstand raiding an enemy camp. By the time you're in the 100 hour mark, players are hunting to create complex dishes that give them dope buffs to make a play session a more pleasant.

One pleasant thing this go around is the story. For all the flack Nintendo gets for its approach to stories, it only gets it because they're not telling it through the usual cinema envy of other games. This is a deconstruction of Link and being the chosen one. Link isn't just gonna be handed all the tools needed to succeed just because he was chosen. Same goes for Zelda, who seems heartbroken that she has to be the reincarnation of a goddess. And thanks to the Memories questline, you get to see those cutscenes but they aren't automatically triggered because you did a thing. You earn those previous moments beforehand that showed Link and Zelda not truly feeling going along with what destiny wants to do because it worked 100 years ago...which was probably Nintendo's feelings developing this game.

For years, Eiji Aonuma talked about breaking the conventions and in the gameplay and story, that feeling comes across well with Divine Beast Champions, especially who they just fall doing what they were told to do. This is truly about how Zelda's dev team felt about coming together to give the same results, only for it to fail before it even began and the task fell to new people to do what's necessary to defeat Ganon through new means. It's deeply personal and the emotion maturely understated. Link and Zelda develop as legit characters through their struggles and heartbreak and it gives the story an emotional richness not seen since Ocarina/Majora. Link (and the player) truly earns the right to be called a hero, not because he was chosen but because he endured and grew.

I haven't even mentioned how beautiful this game is. Forget your need for 6 billion polygons per sec to animate a face. The details astounding from up close and far away. Climb to the top of the mountain and you see a sprawling, diverse horizon to take your breath away or look down to see a forest or lake or camp to possibly sail down. None of it ever stops looking gorgeous. My favorite place in the game revolved around a Shrine that needed an Orb to unlock but the area you were in was completely dark. Seeing Link as a shadow, lighting torches to move around this area was utterly beautiful and proves that developers don't need to high end CGI cutscenes to make a visual impression that last forever. Speaking of lasting impressions, this is one of the best UI I've seen in a game. It conveys information and stats without completely cluttering the screen and taking away from the game world. Even when playing in handheld mode, you can stil take in a lot of visual treats of Hyrule.

And despite the impression that I'm ready to marry this game, this game isn't flawless. Weapon switch is a legit pain. Holding down one button to switch to a particular weapon isn't as intuitive as the other controls in the game. You're better off just pausing and switching items, which sorta breaks the immersion for the player. Also, as great as the Koroks and Korok puzzles are, did their have to be 900 of them. I'm all for trolling the player and subverting expectations for attempting 100% completion, but 900?!? That quickly veers between padding and repetitive. And the dragons can suck it. Only one item drop per appearance and god help you if you don’t want a scale. Again. Which leads to the upgrade system being underwhelming, due to its limited focus on armor and not weapons.

What makes me ignore these flaws: the game never forces you to do any thing mentioned before this (except the first four shrines and runes). You never have to find a Korok seed (but why the fuck wouldn't you?!?), you never have to expand your health and stamina, you don't need to cook a meal, get the Master Sword, ride a horse, shield surf, regulate your temperature, complete a shrine. The game is indifferent to your progress. But you will do any and all those things because Breath of the Wild is excellent at triggering your curiosity and intellect  and rewarding it, not rewarding your patience. Best of all, nearly everything you do fits into a mechanic the benefits the player, the quest aren't just a collection of repetitive checklists of escalating numbers nor is its badly tuned mechanics just thrown for the sake of variety. (Take that, open world games!)

This is not to say the previous Zeldas were awful. They didn't get tens and awards for nothing. You may even miss the linearity. They were great for what they are. Breath of the Wild is just better. Instead of telescoping design and handing you the fun stuff when you did the one thing it told you to do, it trusted the players this time around to make their own fun and build their own legend. Players will end up completing the same things but everyone will make their own path to completion. Breath of the Wild is worthy of the praise it has received and then some. It break ground by avoiding all the pot holes and wasted soil of previous Zeldas and open world games and brought  freshnesss that hasn't been felt in years. Truly a game that lives up to the word 'Legend'