#this is going to be interesting..... the gameplay is fun enough that aside

[windupaidoneus]

i cant quite put my finger on why but the sound of the viper aoes really gets to me. like in a bad texture way

[nitrowyverine]

I think I write dating sim/VNs/etc reviews now? Anyway,

LOST IN LIMBO REVIEW/THOUGHTS

This VN piqued my interest, so I gave the demo a shot! This review will follow the same general format as my Obscura/Touchstarved review, except there's 7 (!!!) romance options.

Since I totally loved this game, I'm going to put the conclusion promo up here too: if Lost in Limbo interests you, consider playing it Here, Here on steam, and/or backing it Here!

ALSO! THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS FOR THE DEMO!

My (long winded) thoughts are below:

(Banner image courtesy of the Ravenstar Games tumblr account pinned post. Individual character pics courtesy of tumblr posts from the studio. Individual posts are linked in character titles.)

Gameplay design thoughts:

the plot immediately sucked me in, I'm pretty invested in whatever the hell is going on with the protag, the realms, the lords, etc. I think the setup/land are deep enough to draw me in, but not so intimidating in it's depth that I'm afraid to explore more.

I always enjoy a little bit of nightmare fuel in my games, so the voidbound are perfect. They're so gross and horrible, but not just a stock zombie/nightmare creature design. Whenever the voidbound pop up, it makes the back of my neck itch, which is perfect.

I have no idea whose route I'll pick first. Usually I have one candidate that I can pick out as number 1. This game however? I go back and forth all the time, since I love all of them. I do think I have bias for Ara/Gael/Amon/Envy, maybe?

I really want to design an MC to doodle for this, but I feel like I don't know enough about other people in the realm. (Mostly, I'm assuming that standard humans don't have pointy ears? how close to our reality is the regular world?) I might say "screw it" and design an MC anyway (with some speculative clothing for once they get cleaned up)

The backgrounds have been great set pieces so far. Sometimes I catch myself just kinda staring into space at them. They've got a fantastic flavor.

Misc. Thoughts written during a replay

Fun touch to have Evie's rock image from the beginning fortune shop scene line up with the 7 LI's color schemes.

Each of the VA's does a lovely job with their voices. I've been turned off of certain dating sims because of bad voice acting, but the acting in this game is superb so far. It really helps set the richness of the story.

I have a theory that the LI's (and possibly people in Limbo in general) experience pain differently. The characters seem largely uninterested in the MC's stabbed, weakened state, beyond a "Oh that sucks....we'll clean you up later" mentality. I wonder if they have different pain tolerances, or are just less attached to such things. (Then again, Amon and Raeya have full missing limbs/eyes, so they probably have a decent perspective on pain altogether)

What does wielder/non-wielder mean? Xal says the MC "Can't wield, can't see." What do the LI's see that we don't? Ara mentions that the MC seems "Completely normal". Many mysteries.

I need those monster forms like crazy oh my goodness. Please devs PLEASE SHOW THE MONSTER FORMS

Now, to the lovely love interests!

Amon

WHO LET THIS MAN BE OVER 7 FEET TALL? PRIDE YOU HAVE SOME EXPLAINING TO DO

I only just noticed he also has a few freckles, *chefs kiss* (Waaaiit do all of them have little freckle skin textures??? Oh this is a glorious day.)

It's hard not to love a big friendly guy. I was honestly relieved when he first showed up, because I did Envy's route first, and I was thrilled to see a friendly face in the big dark scary woods.

This does not mean, however, that I'm not excited to see what this guy turns into when he's mad.

I like that he has pity for MC when they first show up, but I do worry it makes his resolve weaker. I'm not as confident that he could handle society/reality breaking down as well as the others. Can he put aside his affable nature for when shit hits the fan?

Question: What level of fight had to happen for Amon to lose his eye? He's already huge, and has some sort of telekinetic powers. My theory is that he was taken by surprise, maybe by someone close to him.....(Envy I'm looking at you)

RIP Amon you would have loved Hawaiian shirts

Conclusion: Most likely to be the camp counselor who hurts his back from always giving piggy back rides. Least likely to keep his composure during a badly timed pun/dad joke.

Raeya

I'm fighting for my life whenever shes on screen good LORD

Similarly to Amon, I GOTTA know the story behind her prosthetic arm. Its so rad looking, but how did she lose a whole arm? (I am also considering that she was also not born with one)

Playing the demo again, she makes a specific comment about the monsters having not "infected a limb" of the MC. My bet is that's how she lost her arm.

I wish I could have spent 1:1 time with her, but it wasn't offered in the demo. I'd love to have like, a sit down discussion with her about history. (Well I'd be fine getting lectured about history and drinking tea and hanging out)

Out of everyone's motivations, I think I understood Raeya's the most. Even if she was against MC, I think her concerns are completely valid. If an alien fell out of the sky from a different reality to earth I'd ALSO be taking every precaution

She and Amon have matching ear chains, that's adorable....

I hope I can take her on a nice date and spoil her and let her relax in the full game, pretty please. Nothing bad will happen right???

Conclusion: Most likely to gently remind the waiter that you said NO pickles with your order, thank you very much. Least likely to admit to being the one who farted in a crowded room.

Envy

every other line from him is "UGGGHHH" and i love that for them.

After playing, I think I've finally realized that I've got a soft spot for grumps. just grumpy lil friends with their pouty faces

I want (vivi's) Envy's nails SO BAD. I need him to do my nails because theirs are perfect. Envy, envy PLEASE

They pretend not to care, but are already getting attached to the MC by the end of the demo. I can't wait to see what they're like when they actually DO get attached

Elephant in the room, what could he have possibly done to get himself demoted so severely? Everyone seems to be fine with him being demoted except Amon, who sheepishly vouches for him when he can.

I just wanna wrap him in a blanket burrito like you do with a spicy kitten. and then give him little smooches

Conclusion: Most likely to be they guy who gets one drink at a party and sits in the corner with the dog/cat all night. Least likely to allow their partner to willingly boop their nose with any regularity.

Pride

Old man yells at cloud? No....old man IS cloud.

The dev's tumblr has mentioned that he's a pathetic old man, but for now at least, I am afraid of his authority and power. since hes like. yaknow. the big god of this world

The VA did some fabulous work for his voice. I definitely got actual chills in certain parts. 10/10

Okay, so WHAT is this guy's deal with mirrors? He looks great, why is he worried about it. I sincerely doubt he's just 52 though, if he's a god. (as a note for all these interests, I have a feeling that the ages are their physical ages, and not their actual ages. Or at least, age relative to ours. I think they're much older in our years than in their years.)

We also didn't get any 1:1 time with Pride in the demo, so I'm fascinated to see what alone time with Pride would be like. Is he quiet? a chatterbox? Just a guy??? does he only play piano and not talk to you. (power move)

Conclusion: Most likely to show up WAY over-prepared for Parent-Teacher conferences. Least likely to understand and survive the cinnamon challenge.

Ara

Certified CUTIE PIE

We got a pretty clear demonstration of everyone's powers in the demo, except for Ara. Unless it was too subtle for me to realize, I'm not actually sure what her cool powers are yet.

If she DOESN'T have plant powers I'd be very surprised.

I keep wanting to think things like "I have to protect her" or "keep her safe at all costs". But then I remember she's likely absolutely terrifying, and I honestly should be actually afraid for anyone who gets in her way.

I would like to remind/inform everyone that so far, she is the only member of the cast who is visibly armed at all times. (Raeya doesn't count even if her arm claws look really really sharp.)

If I have to pick anyone to party with, it's probably Ara. I know she'd throw an absolute rager, but would also make sure you stay hydrated. I wanna hold her hand too. Please?

I'll go butch for her, i'll do it if thats what she wants. I'm weak

Conclusion: Most likely to be able convince you to give her your kidney. Least likely to let you skip a bloodthirsty game of monopoly because you "Have a headache"

Gael

where did he find pants long enough for him.

Okay. So its HIS fault that Amon has the deepest V-cut since time immemorial. Do you think Amon and Gael had an extensive argument about the minimum amount of clothes Amon has to wear at any given time? Because I do.

His powers certainly did not. Awaken anything in me. Nope.

he has the shortest and most perfect arc from stranger -> friendly -> ???? -> BETRAYAL

I am MASSIVELY curious about his dissociation/spacing out during the demo. He was 8 million miles away in the tower for some reason, and I HAVE to find out why. I just KNOW this man is doing some questionable shit with good intentions and I can't wait to find out what it is.

So, he has SOME issue with touch. No idea what it is, but I can't wait to find out what it is. Also noting he's the only one with full-coverage gloves in the cast. Interesting...

Conclusion: Most likely to cry after being sent those sad FB/insta animal stories. Least likely to let you open your own car/carriage/etc door under any circumstances.

Xal

He looks so soft. I have to bully him, in a good way. (Like grim from Date with Death)

I am fascinated as to why he would lie for MC. That's such a great hook to his character. What does a guy who so desperately wants to be left alone have to see to stick his neck out for a stranger?

SOMEONE get this man a NINTENDO DS POST HASTE

THIS GAME HAS TO GET FUNDED BECAUSE XAL SAYS HE HAS A CAT AND I WANT TO SEE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I will do it, I will be the one to tuck him in when he is too eepy. I will carry him to bed and kiss his little head good night

Wait, if he can "Figure something out" by touching it, he could be like, the worlds greatest doctor. Xal please get off the couch and help me diagnose mystery ailments in a medical sitcom

Conclusion: Most likely to injure himself rigging up a Rue Goldberg machine to scratch his back. Least likely take it easy on you once he learns how to play super smash bros. (He's a fox/falco main)

Concerns:

What the Ravenstar team has already been able to accomplish is incredible. I'm worried that with 7 whole love interests (with a possible two more on the way if the kickstarter goes well), i'm worried the devs are taking on a whole lot of work. I think they're fully capable of taking this on, but I hope they don't burn themselves out in the process.

I'm pretty happy to see the kickstarter is moving along, but there's always the chance that something happens, and/or the kickstarter goal isn't met. BY THE TIME I FINISHED WRITING THIS IT GOT FUNDED LETS GOO!!! I still hope this project makes it all the way to completion beyond the kickstarter. Things can always happen, so Ive got my fingers crossed for the Ravenstar team!

OVERALL CONCLUSION:

I loved the demo, and I have now backed the project! The team is trying to hit stretch goals now, so share Lost in Limbo with your buddies! I crave content for this game like nothing else.

[mrthenarrator]

Hello again everyone! I may have forgotten that this blog even existed. 😅

There are a plethora of reasons that have dragged my attention away from this account that happened over the past few weeks that made me forget to even open up this account, but alas, such is the way with real life I'm afraid. 😔

Luckily, Stanley reminded me of this accounts existence! So, you have him to thank for my return.

I shall do my best to get to the poor forgotten asks sent into my inbox that has been collecting dust, however! With Oswin now busy with his studies, I figure I should grace you all with my presence once more. 🥰

In the meantime however, let me show you something Oswin set up for me that I found interesting!

Oswin's been getting into this video game called "UltraKill" as of late. He showed me the first few levels of the game, and as thrilling and heart-racing as it was, I wasn't hooked yet in terms of gameplay.

That was, until he showed me the endless fighting mode.

He took the assets from the Parable into this game, and told me to just let my frustrations out.

Suffice to say, I love this this mode dearly. Oddly enough, I actually feel calmer after going through a few waves of enemies! Simply letting the music and violence sway me as I hop and run around and kill was quite fun! Though I may not know how to use the other weapons well as much as the first weapon given to the player, I still found it enjoyable. 😊

Aside from this however, I do have other things to share with you about! But I shall save them for later. I can't exactly share everything I have to offer all at once! There's got to be some suspense here and there!

[tonythr]

Sometimes you are so sad you turn into a game construct, and that's ok

Part of the reason I love Hollow Knight is that you never know when a certain phenomenon is a part of the game's actual lore or simply a gameplay convenience, but most of the time it's up to you to decide anyway. Like, yeah, I know that looking too much into what should be just a game mechanic and/or a simple animation effect makes you more of a clown than a lore master, but, honestly, at this point the entire fandom wears rainbow wigs and squeaky red noses in order to forget about the pain of no Silksong, so no one has the right to stop me from having fun with some observations I made and how they might be intentional lore pieces. So yeah, what I'm trying to say is that this theory might be a bit of a stretch, but I think it's neat, so I'm gonna post it anyway.

Now, here's the question: what do you think these two have in common?

Both are very sad because they lost someone who was close to them.

2. Both give the Knight a Mask Shard when they die.

My theory here is that these two things are connected.

Now, Mask Shards are weird, lore-wise. The locations where they are found don't always... make much sense. Like ok, aside from the two that I mentioned above, we have ones that are found on top of ancient black statues — this implies that those shards are connected to (and probably were made by) the Ancient Civilisation.

We also have some shards that we get from various NPCs (Sly, Bretta, Seer) — those also make sense, since there's nothing wrong with those weird bugs possessing some ancient artifacts. But then we have Mask Shards that just kinda... float there.

No ancient pedestals. No reason to suggest someone actually owned them. No reason for them to be there aside from the game wanting to reward the player for something.

This is also true for some of the Vessel Fragments.

Although the fountain one is exceptional. The fragment is actually a part of the Pale King's statue, but it detaches once the needed amount of geo is reached. It looks like this statue actually 'gives' it to the Knight once it puts enough geo in the fountain. It could be something that has to do with PK's magic, or with the whole 'sacrifice' theme that's going on with him. Anyway, it's not hard to come up with an explanation for how that one works. What is more interesting is how these shards and fragments are created.

Because apparently this mf can just materialize them out of thin air.

Now, I KNOW this is probably just a nice animation to emphasize how cool of an award a mask shard is, but it also wouldn't be much of a stretch to say that what happens here is Grubfather actually manipulating Soul to create this shard for the Knight. I mean, Grubs do possess some sort of 'holy strength' that was never properly explained to us (that's why I'm hoping to see some grubs in Silksong), and one of the two charms created from their power is something that straight-up gives the Knight extra Soul. If we don't count the Shaman charms, which were used only to extract and use Soul more efficiently, the only other charm that does that is Kingsoul, the embodiment of the union between two Pale Beings. So yeah, the Grubs are totally OP, and Grubfather probably does create a Mask Shard out of Soul here.

Which only proves the fact that both Mask Shards and Vessel Fragments are made out of Soul. I mean, come on, the Knight literally consumes them just like it consumes each of the spells and the Soul of its enemies, AND it takes Soul to restore broken masks. I think it's safe to assume that those ancient masks that the Knight is using to strengthen its shell are made out of Soul, or at least some material that is heavily tied to Soul in some way.

Another fact is that those masks and vessels have big connections to the Ancient Civilisation. Aside from the obvious things like the fragment/shard statues that I mentioned earlier having clear similarities to the Soul totems, there's this whole thing with the engravings on those masks and vessels having a bunch of connections with magical secrets of the Ancient Civilisation...

What I'm getting at here is that the bugs of the Ancient Civilisation probably knew the secrets of manipulating Soul and used those secrets to create masks (for protection) and Soul Vessels (for containing Soul), as well as Soul Totems. It means there is a way a Mask can be created out of Soul, aside from what we see the Knight do when it heals (which is an interesting process, btw - when a mask breaks, the Knight can restore it using Soul, but it can't create new masks to have infinite HP, so the masks it collects must have unique properties that prevent them from being completely destroyed and instead allow them to be recovered after breaking). And maybe that process was already shown to us.

Ok, now I'm actually talking about my theory again. See, the reason I think there's more to these two moments than just a simple reward being given to us by the game is because there's some overlapping philosophical (symbolical?) motifs that connect Brooding Mawlek and Grey Mourner AND possibly give us a glimpse into the secrets of Soul discovered by the Ancient Civilisation. I'm talking about what Soul itself might represent as a sorta metaphysical concept (I don't know how to say that properly... Just bear with me pls).

In the world of Hollow Knight, there are many philosophical concepts that give depth to the nature of various in-world phenomenons. For example, the Void is heavily tied to regrets, perhaps dark memories that keep us from moving forward. That's why it makes sense that, ultimately, Pale King faced his demise at the hands of the Void - he sacrificed thousands of his own children in order to save Hallownest and failed anyway, so there is no way he could avoid (pun intended) being overwhelmed by his regrets about this whole thing.

The Soul is the power that contrasts the Void.

It's implied by Jiji that, when the Knight leaves behind its Shade, it starts to drain *hope* from it.

This line was probably left there to explain this game mechanic:

When the Knight dies, it can no longer fill its Soul meter to the full, until it finds and defeats its Shade. This implies that Soul represents *hope* in contrast to the Void representing regrets.

If we accept this assumption, we can see that it makes sense how:

The White Palace is shown as a beautiful, calm, hopeful place despite it being filled with thorns and sawblades (that might or might not be a metaphor for the PK's pain of trying to hide his mistakes and regrets).

The shamans' dying thoughts are often their last hopes of being free, being heard etc.

The Soul is literally what gives the bugs' bodies the energy to move.

I feel soulless when I wake up at 7 a.m.

All things considered, it's easy to see how Soul is something that might represent such things as hope, motivation, faith - all those feelings that make a person feel whole.

And when the fate forces someone into situations where those things are lost, their inner self breaks. When something separates us from our loved ones for a whole eternity, leaving us as lonely, empty shells of our former selves, our soul hardens.

We already know that masks in this game directly correspond to the person's self, their ability to define themselves as who they are. A mask is literally the core of the person's mind.

And when a person breaks, when their hope becomes eternal sadness, when the essence that animates their body becomes a solid rock, their mind shatters, leaving only a single shard of what should have been a whole mask.

Perhaps, something like that also happened to the bugs of the Ancient Civilisation? Or maybe they found a way to control that sadness, just like they found a way to manipulate the power of regrets? They look like a bunch of cool goth bugs, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was their thing.

TL;DR: ancient masks that the Knight uses are made out of Soul, and Soul is a power that represents hope. When a person experiences a feeling of strong loneliness and hopelessness, their mind literally breaks, and their Soul literally hardens, resulting in the creation of Mask Shards. The bugs of the Ancient Civilisation might have known this.

Kinda edgy.

I like it.

[mastermatoyas]

Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem - A Long-Overdue Review

Way back in 2015, I was a fresh-faced 21 year old just getting into the world of visual novels - specifically otome games. At the time, there was a lot of buzz about this one upcoming game with a really promising demo - Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem, slated for a 2016 release.

Nine years later, it's finally out (in early access)! Let's see if it was worth the wait.

What kind of game is this, anyway?

Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem was, and is, unlike any other game I have ever seen before. Considering the absolute development hell it went through, I doubt we'll ever see a game quite like it again. The demo that I played back in the day included the first three weeks of the game, and it had me absolutely hooked.

Seven Kingdoms: The Princess Problem is a stat-raising visual novel. Basically, it's a game focused on storytelling through text and still images, with the core gameplay loop consisting of raising various skills in order to pass (or fail) challenges. The game is set on the mysterious Vail Isle, where seven nations have each sent seven young representatives to forge political alliances (through marriage or otherwise), advance their nation's interests, and - at least ostensibly - protect the fragile peace between them.

As the player, you create a character from one of six nations (the seventh nation, Skalt, is not an option), build their stats, and try to survive seven weeks on the island (and maybe find love along the way?). The game is notoriously difficult - if you go in blind, you'll almost certainly fuck up at least a few things massively. There are two difficulty settings, Challenge Mode and Story Mode. In Challenge Mode, you can fail badly enough to either get kicked off the island or die. Story Mode is a little kinder - certain skill checks have lower requirements (at least allegedly), and no matter what you do, you won't die or get sent home early. You can still fuck up in just about every other way possible in Story Mode, though.

The choices you make during character creation have a major impact on your success or failure. Aside from the stats you raise during character creation, and the background you choose, there are also a number of options you can choose to influence your character's personality. Although all stats have some relevance, some of them end up being a lot more important than others - which makes sense, since this is a social and political simulator. Being good at talking to people is going to get you a lot further than being good at self-defence.

The gameplay loop

This, to me, is what makes 7KPP unique. It's actually possible, in a single playthrough, to impress every character and get the best possible outcome for every nation. It's also incredibly difficult, and requires making the right choices at basically every turn. You have to say the right things to the right people while having the right stats, and be in the right place at the right time. You have to minmax your character from the moment you start creating them, and never stop min-maxing both your stats and your relationships.

And it is FUN AS HELL.

Obviously, you don't actually "have" to do any of this. You can play the game normally, and get some good outcomes and some bad outcomes. I'd recommend doing this on your first playthrough at least, to get a feel for the game before you get bogged down in spreadsheet guides.

The stat-raising gameplay is roughly similar to raising simulators like Princess Maker or Long Live the Queen, but it's also not quite the same. It's not like stat-raising visual novels are a new concept, but I've never found anything that does quite what this game does the way it does it.

Characters

This game contains... hang on, let me count. I think eleven romance routes plus one friendship route, three characters that you can befriend (but not romance) outside of their full route, three more love interests that haven't been implemented yet, a rival character, and a few other important characters.

The cast is massive, is my point. But pretty much every character has at least some level of depth. They all have their own goals and motivations, and you can either help or hinder them. There are actually more routes than there are love/friendship interests, because political marriages are an option in the game separate from romances. Depending on your choices, certain other characters may enter into political marriages.

There's a wide range of characters, and I'm not going to describe them all here. I am, however, going to give a special shout out to the female love interests in the game. There are three at the moment (with two more coming), which is a pretty good ratio for a game about political marriages set in a fantasy world where only one kingdom allows same-sex marriage to begin with. It also avoids one of the common pitfalls I've found in games with both male and female love interests, in that the female love interests are actually interesting. Your options are:

Meek shy maid. She's very sweet and I like her a lot, but I'll admit to not finding that character type super interesting as a love interest. Nevertheless, this type of love interest seems really common in Western indie visual novels with both male and female love intersts. I think it's because they're broadly non-threatening?

Cool, tough warrior lady with the heart of a golden retriever. This is Tumblr, the muscle woman website, so I probably don't need to sell you on this one.

Evil princess. This is great for me, because I love complicated relationships in fiction, and because I had become resigned to the Bioware style habit game devs have of making the mean women straight. That is not the case here! They actually let you have the toxic yuri of your dreams! You can kinda fix her, or you can make her worse. I think she can also make you worse. Not sure. Either way, I haven't played her route yet, but I am so looking forward to it.

For the first half of the game, you'll probably spend a lot of time getting to know the various characters. The plot picks up in the later half of the game, which means that you have a lot less time to spend with the various characters, especially romanceable characters other than the love interest you chose. To be honest, that made me a bit sad - I put a lot of effort into trying to befriend all of the love interests, and it would have been nice to spend more time with them. Although considering that it's really hard to befriend them without them also developing romantic feelings for you, it does make a lot of sense - they distance themselves from you after being rejected.

They do show up throughout the story as well, in the later weeks, but if I had a criticism of the character writing, it's that I would have liked the love interests you don't choose to have a bit more relevance. However, given the massive amount of branching in the game and the fact that they are still actually there and involved in a lot of major story moments, it's not a major criticism. Realistically, I don't think they could have done more with those characters than they actually did - I just grew fond of them, and wanted to see more of them.

Luckily, this game has a ridiculous amount of replay value, so I'm sure I'll see more of them on their own routes.

Story and writing

Honestly, I think this is the part of the game that's going to be the most hit or miss. I personally really enjoyed the story, but the premise involves a basic assumption about human nature that I think is going to chafe for a lot of people: namely, the assumption that diplomacy can work.

The world of 7KPP is on the brink of war. It is possible, although extremely difficult, to turn that situation around through sheer skill and diplomacy, and instead bring all of the nations into a golden age of peace and cooperation. I think it's very easy to say that this is unrealistic - that people never change just because someone said the right things at the right time. And to a certain extent, that might be true.

But also, it's a video game. If you do all the right things and you're really good at the game, you get rewarded with outcomes that are maybe a bit unrealistic. That's true for all kinds of games, not just this one. If you play normally, you'll probably get some realistically ordinary or even depressing outcomes. You have to earn your happy ending. Right now, at this point in history, it's very easy to see the worst of humanity. It's very easy to believe that things keep getting worse, that selfishness and greed will always win out. And it's true, they often do.

But I think it's important to remember that it doesn't have to be that way. Sometimes, miracles really do occur. Sometimes, people and society really do change. For all of the misery of the past few decades, we've also seen a lot of amazing people doing amazing things, individually and collectively. I think most people, fundamentally, want to live in a world that does not suck, and 7KPP is a game about reminding people of that fact.

Basically, I agree with the fundamental philosophy of the game, and I think the fact that you can fix everyone's problems if you play the game right is a feature and not a bug. But I can see how that philosophy is going to be a much tougher sell in 2024 than it was in 2015.

I will say that the writing can be a bit clumsy at times. There are a lot of typos in the later sections of the game (although those will probably be fixed), and the prose and dialogue can sometimes be a bit... unpolished, I suppose. I think that's mostly just a matter of experience, to be honest. This was the dev's first project, so I suspect that her future work will benefit greatly from the ten years she spent writing 7KPP. I'll hasten to add that the writing isn't, by any means, bad. If you're not especially picky about prose, you'll probably think I'm being overly harsh. Most indie visual novels don't meet the standard I'm imposing on 7KPP here, but I'm still going to impose that standard because I don't want anyone to buy the game as a result of my review and then end up being disappointed by this aspect of it.

Other

The game was made in Ren'py by a solo dev who isn't a programmer, so the code is apparently duct taped together under the hood. I didn't encounter any bugs, so that hasn't been a problem for me.

The game balance is kind of amazing - it's really impressive just how tight the skill checks are if you're going for the best possible result, without any New Game Plus bonuses. It's doable, but only just, and I can't imagine how much of a headache it must have been to make that happen.

I find the UI kind of ugly, if I'm being honest. It's not super navigable, and it's somewhat unfinished, with the calendar only going up to Week 3 (unless that's a bug). Apparently the UI is on the list of things that they're going to attempt to fix throughout early access, with the dev planning to hire on someone with more programming experience.

I like the art style. It's quite unique, which is going to put off a certain sub-section of the visual novel community, but oh well. There aren't a huge number of CGs, or flashy effects or anything like that, but I don't think this game really needs that to begin with.

Most (possibly all?) of the music is creative commons, so it's nothing special. I did feel like some of the music wasn't a great choice for the mood, although I generally liked the character leitmotifs. They very clearly did not have the budget for original music, and it's also pretty far down the list of priorities, so that's not a real complaint. If they'd had infinite resources, it would have been cool to see some original music. They did not have infinite resources, and it would be unrealistic to expect anything other than what we got.

Conclusion

Here's the link to the game on itch.

I would heartily recommend buying the game if you enjoy any of the following:

Visual novels in general

Political intrigue

Complex stat raisers

Interesting and likeable ensemble casts; or

Innovative video games, just in general. Seriously, I meant it when I said that there is nothing quite like this game out there. You really do need to experience it in order to understand that.

Despite the relatively minor criticisms I've had, I really believe in this game. I believe it's something special, and after the amount of time it spent in development hell, I really, really want it to succeed. I will wear my bias on my sleeve here - I want to see more devs take these kinds of risks. I want this dev's ten years of work to pay off.

It's not a perfect ten, but it's a ten to me, damn it.

Side notes

This game used to have a thriving fandom on Tumblr, but that well and truly died. There are some active threads on the itch.io community page for the game, but I want to know where to go to post memes. If anyone knows, please tell me.

I hope it isn't Twitter, though. Fuck that.

I somehow got into this game right after the Kickstarter ended, which I've been salty about for nine years. I literally just missed it. Absolute tragedy.

I'm aware that the creator is active on Tumblr, and since I'm tagging this post with the game's tag, there's a non-zero likelihood that she'll read it. So, Aly, if you've read this far: hi! I really liked your game! Hope you're doing well. It's honestly a bit awkward to review a game knowing that the dev might see it, since it's always going to include some element of unsolicited criticism, but there's no real way around that. This review was aimed at potential players, which meant that I had to be comprehensive and honest. I hope that makes sense.

[gamesplication]

So I beat Echoes of Wisdom the other day. (Not having a job makes beating the latest Zelda game very quick)

Some thoughts (spoilers ahead!):

I really enjoyed messing around in the overworld, traversing, and exploring the mechanics. The echos system is really great and makes for some very expressive gameplay. There's a lot of really interesting ways to use bind as well, and I know for sure that I underutilized it in my playthrough.

The story is a small step above for the typical top-down Zelda game. The NPC dialogues are usually a bit more expressive than the past few games, and some of the side quests go beyond, emotionally, the usual depth for Zelda. This is partly because Zelda as a character has a defined family and connections that are deeper than those of Link, whose usual interactions and relationships are fleeting and brief. The primary example of this is the interactions with your dad, the King. Although there's only one main side quest involving him that I can think of, the tone of the dialogue with him is something we don't frequently see in Zelda games because Link has never had quite the same kind of relationship with another NPC before. A real focus is placed on the kings love for his daughter and the admiration and love the rest of the people of Castle Town have for the princess.

I think the biggest issue I have with the game is the dungeons and especially the bosses. There's a few reasons for this, I think. Because the use of Swordsman mode is extremely limited (especially early on), all of the bosses require a certain amount of experimentation to figure out a viable strategy. It's not always obvious which echoes will be useful for any given encounter. This wouldn't be a huge issue, except that you have to rely on NPC monster echoes a LOT. This means you have to deal with their limited AI. (As an aside, it feels weird to use that term here now because the well has been so poisoned) It leads to extremely frustrating boss encounters where you're pitting dumb and weak enemies against huge bosses (unless you've managed to pick up just the right echo beforehand), and it's often a bit of luck getting them to attack the right place at the right time. It also doesn't help that the amount of non-enemy echoes that can be used for combat effectively is very low. Combine this with very sparse swordsman energy drops from most bosses, and it often becomes a war of attrition. I usually resorted to cheesing the boss encounters, but then again it seems that's what's called for in this situation.

The only exception here is the final dungeon and boss encounter. I won't say more, except that despite the issues I listed above it was still enjoyable and fun.

As a side note, and not something I have much room to speak on myself, I did notice that they really tried to play to stereotypical "girl" interests and themes throughout. It makes sense that they'd want to make sure this reaches a wider demo, but I think the idea that they had to do anything more than just make Zelda the hero is a little misguided. I don't have their market research available, but I suspect that the Zelda series is already popular enough young women and girls that some of their choices seem unnecessary. For example: instead of items to equip, they're called "accessories". Instead of meals, you make smoothies. Horses have never been used in a top-down Zelda before, and I feel like their inclusion here is to grab the attention of horse girls. I don't know, ultimately it's for someone else to talk more about, but I just wanted to point out what felt like a very deliberate attempt to incorporate what marketing departments usually think of as "girly things". No that it's wrong to try to aim the game at young women and girls, just that I don't know if this is the way to go about it especially considering the wide appeal the games already have.

Side note two: why are they moving away from using the term "Triforce?" I don't think that word came up once in this game (and it didn't come up in BotW and TotK either iirc). This time they called it the "Prime Energy", though they did acknowledge the three parts of Power, Wisdom, and Courage and (SPOILERS) the Triforce itself does appear at the end of the game. Anyway, just something I noticed.

Overall I really loved Echoes of Wisdom. It was really exciting to finally play as Zelda after all these years, and the incorporation of her role as keeper of the triforce of wisdom deeply into her gameplay was very satisfying and I think it paid off very well overall.

[the-final-sif]

So for those unaware, dasnerth is apparently banned from Karl & MrBeast challenge, accord to the discord message he showed today (1/29/2024), (which notably is from 8/30/2023)

basically, as it stands, almost all the "content" you provide by being in a video almost always gets cut out because you're generally pretty toxic, you take the gameplay extremely seriously which makes your time on-screen inherently destructive / toxic. If you are genuinely super interested in not being blacklisted, if you could just refrain from being toxic we can lift the blacklist. It would also mean reporting any exploits instead of abusing them.

A message he published himself, claiming he was only being competitive.

I've seen in response, certain people claiming that this is unfair, that he needs to be defended, or that this will inevitably lead towards toxicity towards people like Sapnap/Punz/Hannah.

This is not true, and I think people need to understand that there is a line between being competitive and being toxic to be around and effectively unwatchable and making others uncomfortable.

First, take note for a moment that Dasnerth has been banned for well over 5 months, and despite being very clearly and flatly told he's unwelcome, he's not only still stalking the discord to try to join stuff, but also then turned to twitter to kick up a fuss about the ban still being enforced.

This is pretty telling of him as a person. He's clearly been told that he's blacklisted and unwelcome, and five months later he's still trying to sneak in. That is a very clear indication of failing to respect boundaries, feeling entitled to participate in contests, and being unable to take no for an answer.

Putting that aside though, you can still clearly draw lines between taking competition seriously and being a toxic asshole in a game. I think a really good example of this is actually, weirdly enough, 5up's lobbies.

If you don't know 5up, he's a guy who plays among us. When he was starting out, he often played with what were called "sweat lobbies". These lobbies often devolved into yelling, shouting, insults, etc. 5up was noteworthy for generally not falling to that level. You can watch how awful of a viewing experience this is here. These lobbies are very competitive, and also suck so bad 5up left despite generally being willing to tolerate a lot of bullshit.

Contrast this to his later lobby that he built with Hafu, a very experienced streamer with a much calmer vibe. The morning lobbies that they built are known for being relatively serious and competitive, but not being toxic messes. Here's a good example, In this game 5up played an amazing crewmate much like the XQC, and caught Steve and Tina (Tinakitten) as imposters. Tina's distressed but not angry or being mean, and Steve compliments him on figuring out! It's a complete flip of the above. People sometimes yell and get excited, throw a bit, or get a bit salty, but it's nothing like what you see above with the constant screaming and insults. People from other lobbies that are more chaotic come in and are generally surprised by how seriously they take stuff.

To go even further, 5up also plays in the stell lobbies, which are very competitive and take the game very seriously. Listen to a meeting in the stell lobbies. Nobody is yelling, even when directly accused. They all remain calm and polite. They're still playing the game very seriously, they're playing to win, but nobody's being toxic or mean.

There's a difference between being competitive in a fun way, where you take a game seriously and try to win, and just being an asshole and disregarding good sportsmanship. It's perfectly valid for contests to ban players for violating good sportsmanship and abusing exploits. Technoblade was a very competitive person, but even when he's being teasingly toxic to squidkid for example, it's clearly in good fun. The two of them became friends. There's a fundamental level of respect there, and nobody is going over the top.

So yeah, while we don't have the specific behavior cited, it's perfectly valid for an event to ban someone for being toxic, and no, banning someone for being toxic isn't bait or eliminating competitiveness. It's just showing an asshole the door.

[aftonfamilyvalues]

Do you think the game is somewhat engaging if you push aside all the identity stuff? I mean, are the storyline, pacing, combat and characters decent? Is it fun? I disagree with the gender stuff, but I wasn't ever all that interested in the characters related to that, so if I just roll my eyes at the stupidity is there anything redeeming about the gameplay?

i like it so far.

the reviews about the dialogue options were right though, theres no real evil options and its kind of hard to even get disapproval most of the time. like i havent gotten even one disapproval from emmrich so far. another thing i dislike is the tracking isnt like in inquisition. you used to be able to track a quest and then put a specific marker on a the map which helped a lot with quests with multiple objectives marked. now its just the quest is tracked and you cant mark specific objectives which has led me to go to something i didnt want to.

i also loooove being a mage. i failed miserably at it in inquisition but because the combat is so different in this one, im kicking ass. i love being able to laser beam everything and its also cool to be able to switch to a dagger for close quarters combat too. ive been playing as a death caller and its so fun.

the characters arent as disappointing as some of the negative reviews led me to believe. ive finished most of the personal quests and i have to say their big ending decisions dont really make a difference to me (emmrich was the only one who conflicted me but, you know, hes MINE)

harding is the harding you know and her new abilities are cool. bellara reminds me of a pixar character (in a good way, shes adorable). neve got fucked over a lot in my playthrough (sorryyyyy) but i love a detective character who loves her home. lucanis is charming and spite is interesting. i love davrins protective nature and how that turns fatherly towards assan and assan is fun (emmrich and him have dad talk, including a dad off "assan can fly" "manfred can open a door"). taash is really blunt which leads to some great interactions but her personal story did not go in a way that i would have liked. and i dont think anyone cares about how much i fucking love emmrich.

but yeah, overall ive had fun so far even if ive been impatient and rushing through things just for the romance. that being said, i would have liked a little more from the romance. emmrichs is beautifully written but theres just not enough and i would have loved to see more. but maybe i just for spoiled by how baldurs gate handled romance (i really want to kiss emmrich whenever i want and i wish there was more details with the SEX LET ME SEE HIM NAKED YOU BASTARDS WHY WAS HE STILL FULLY CLOTHED WHEN THE CAMERA PULLED AWAY) (sorry for talking about enmrich too much) (not sorry)

[kanerallels]

Okay here are my many, many thoughts on Jedi Survivor. I'll keep the spoilers beneath the cut, so all who venture forward have been warned!

The way the game started out was so fun!! The stealth heist! The crew members Cal was teaming up with! Being on CORUSCANT of all places!

I really, really love the gameplay over all. It felt like they took the last game and just improved these tiny little details that I remember from the first one. Tiny things that would seem stupid but also made the game play that much smoother!

KOBOH MY BELOVED IT'S SO MASSIVE SO BEAUTIFUL SO GORGEOUS I LOVE IT THERE VERY VERY MUCH

Also I don't know who decided we should get Fast Travel but I would die for them

I'll probably make a separate post about this, but Cal introduced BD-1 to almost everyone he met-- ALMOST. Not Dagan, and not a couple other people that it was clear he didn't trust. And I for one LOVE that detail

Jedha was so fun other than the fact that I almost died every fifteen seconds

CERE!!!!!!!!! AND MASTER CORDOVA!!!!! WORKING TOGETHER!!!!! WITH THE HIDDEN PATH!!!!!

The Merrical was *chef's kiss* absolutely amazing. They are so April and Andy from Parks and Rec I love them

As a fan of the High Republic books, I thought the Nihil references, along with Dagan Gera and Santari Khri, were pretty neat! He was a fun villain to fight

I really really loved... pretty much all the Greez content? How happy he was to see Cal, and the fact that he had a room set aside for him, and the fact that he ventured back out into the fight just to keep Cal safe. I was mostly neutral on him during JFO, but Battle Scars made me really, really love him, and this game definitely built on that! Also I love that he named his saloon after his grandma (I think?)

Rayvis was an interesting villain! I liked him a lot, especially the final battle with him. They did a good job developing his character

Speaking of villains... I do be feeling some emotions about Cal's fight with Masana Tide. I'm a redemption arc girlie at heart, what can I say? But I see why they did what they did

RICK THE DOOR TECHNICIAN MY BELOVED

THE PONCHO!!!!!!!! THERE WAS A PONCHO!!!!!! I GOT TO WEAR MY BOSS BATTLE OUTFIT TO THE FINAL FIGHT!!!!! IT WAS AMAZING

That one scene where the whole crew was at the campfire together and for like five minutes it felt like everything was going to be okay warmed my heart so much

Yeah I don't remember what happened after that (obvious lie)

I like the new open world features, and the bounties you get to hunt, and the customization and stuff! And those Force tear things are terrifying, but I've completed two of them, and plan to do more as time goes on!

Kriff. Okay I gotta talk about the Horrors at some point. Thanks to my lack of self control, I'd seen some spoilers and knew that Bode was gonna betray us. I didn't know about Cordova (sad) and I didn't know about Bode's secret (SO MUCH SHOCK THAT WAS AN AMAZING PLOT TWIST)

I will say, Cere's final battle against Vader was SO FREAKING COOL IT WAS AWESOME PLAYING AS HER

I also love the fact she set Vader on fire. It's ironic

AULSDKFJLSDKJFLSDKJFLSDKJF AND HER LAST WORDS REALLY JUST SHOT ME IN THE CHEST I'M FINE OKAY I'M FINE (more lies)

Uhhh the Tanalorr plot line was pretty cool! I like the idea of there being somewhere safe from the Empire, to prevent Cal from being killed for plot convinience

Bode's betrayal... yeah I'm not gonna talk about that. I'm not ready, and honestly I have an objectively awful take on the whole situation that no one will like

OKAY THE SCENE WHERE BD-1 REUNITED WITH CAL AFTER HE CHASED AFTER BODE AND JUST LAUNCHED HIMSELF INTO CAL'S ARMS I DON'T THINK ENOUGH OF YOU GUYS KNOW THAT I WOULD DIE FOR THIS DROID

The part where BD-1 was going to scan the trontoshell, and Cal called him BD and THEN BD-1 like he was his mom, full naming him into safety. I love it so much

OH ALSO BD AND KATA'S DYNAMIC IS SO HECKING CUTE

(can you tell I love BD-1?)

I also really, really loved Merrin's entrance. Ten out of ten, the only thing I would change is that Cal should have immediately proposed

Oh! And Merrin and Kata's relationship is so fun I really really like it

Ummm yeah I think I've addressed everything there is to talk about (the most obvious lie yet) so yeah! The brainrot is still strong with me so I might end up posting some screenshots and more thoughts later on!

[wisteria1999]

Ok fine I’m ready to discuss 2.2 stuff now.

Still not over the “oops everyone is white actually” debacle but there is some interesting stuff here (one thing in particular) so here’s the stuff I care about.

I’m ignoring all the story related stuff like the plague because I’ve already been spoiled enough, so sorry if that’s what you’re looking for.

I don’t really care to comment much on the new characters, and I think I’ll be passing on all of them. Not just because of the criticism but because I’ll just be coming off of trying to pull for 2.1 characters so I won’t have much of a shot.

Besides the only character I care about is going to be FREE anyway:

Rejoice! New weird little creature is being added! I love the nonhuman characters, they’re all so fun and whimsical to me. Very unfortunate that White Rum is probably not going to be very powerful because they would be a main of mine IMMEDIATELY.

Anyways, onto the garments:

Poltergeist, Yenisei, Shamane, Vila, Marcus, and 37 are all getting new skins. I only really get skins for characters I really like, so aside from Poltergeist’s free one I won’t be getting any of these. Happy for those who like these characters though!

Anyways, onto the MAIN EVENT (at least for me)

PET CRITTER COLLECTING! THIS IS NOT A DRILL PEOPLE, WE GET TO COLLECT LITTLE CRITTER GUYS! I am VERY excited for this, I love collecting weird creatures in games. Also, it seems like you can assign them to walk around with certain characters, which is adorable.

There are some other new gameplay modes, but this is the only other one that interested me:

This seems to be new battle-based gameplay? This is all they really show of it and I’m not sure what it’s all about exactly, but I’m intrigued. I thought it was pvp at first, but I don’t think it is.

Anyways, a few more last minute things:

New suitcase background.

37 and Mesmer Jr Anecdotes.

Changes to pneuma analysis? Or maybe new stages? I’m not sure.

In conclusion, this update isn’t all bad. There’s actually some pretty exciting stuff coming in 2.2. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still disappointed by certain…decisions… Bluepoch has made with it, but I am still looking forward to it! There’s also some more stuff I haven’t mentioned because it wasn’t really relevant to my interests, so I’d encourage you to watch the trailer yourself. I’d skip to about 2:20 if you don’t want story spoilers, though.

[lorillee]

anyways so i finished the first four chapters of yakuza 0 last night/early this morning if youre picky. initial thoughts (this will not be organized in any sort of way)

gameplay is very fun its honestly impressive how much love was poured into this game. like all the minigames alone are crazy but also just like the little details like how you can bump into the background characters on the street and theyll like complain lol

i also really appreciate the fight difficulty as somebody who 1) does not play video games and 2) is working with a laptop and a touchpad with no buttons LOL its enough to be challenging without being like rage quit levels of frustrating

personally im still in camp "nishikiyama killed that guy" on top of pre-existing reasons of "dont recall seeing this guy on my twitter for you page" and "it would be a really dramatic reveal" if we've already got that majima's current plotline's basis is that he threw his sworn brother under the bus against his will/outside of his control then it would parallel/contrast pretty well with kiryu getting thrown under the bus by his sworn brother in currently unknown circumstances. im like at least 70% confident in this being the case but like puh LEASEEEEE no spoilers or hints

entirely unrelated but i made my oatmeal with not enough water and now i lowkey dont want to eat the rest. but we suffer through it

frankly i dont trust the real estate guy whos name escapes me at the moment at all and i think its kind of insane that kiryu does Like ok so he knows a bunch of stuff and has the pocketwatch...... But we've already established that this guy's network is like unparalleled so knowing a bunch of stuff really isnt proof he's besties with your dad and the pocketwatch could be stolen. but to be fair its not like kiryu's particularly swimming in options anyways

majima's entire situation is insanely funny They put that man in customer service.

but seriously im actually incredibly interested to see where this is going im kind of crazy about (what appears to be so far) his insane suicide plan to rejoin the yakuza so that when his sworn brother, under the impression that he bailed on him last minute, breaks/gets out of prison he will be able to find majima and take revenge by killing him and put the man out of his misery. Presumably because this is the only way he can think of to resolve this whole situation. which is of course insane and im crazy about it. But who knows maybe im entirely confused on what the situation is so we shall wait and see

i seriously odnt want to eat this oatmeal anymore its cold now :(

im VERY curious to see where the situation with this girl is going to go because like okay obviously hes not going to kill her. We went through way too much hassle just to kill her now but also like Well he doesnt really have options going for him at the moment. like the fact that she's got a Kill By deadline aside he's got literally no way to hide her since he has no friends, hiding her at his house would be insane, and. wait could you imagine if he employed her at his club. which would be so absolutely bonkers it might honestly work. like the fact that she's blind does bring into account some logistical difficulties if nothing else that its a pretty. Well distinct and recognizable feature of hers. but still

mahjong kicked my ass these tables are brutal

[cruelfeline]

I've been playing a whole lot of Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and it's been pretty great so far. I'm not super into the combat; it's not my thing, and I'm not very good at it. But the environment is incredible! And I'm a sucker for xenobiology, so just wandering around and marveling at all the different plants and animals is more than enough to allow me to enjoy myself.

I wandered onto YouTube to look at some videos, namely ones that discuss fun little secrets and tips that one may miss while playing.

And y'all, I had another one of those moments where I don't really "get" what people want put of their games.

So like, one of the mechanics in this game involves harvesting resources. Pretty standard thing in any sort of survival/crafting game, but AFOP makes it so much more interesting. Each harvestable has to be carefully tilted a certain way (with mouse or controller) to harvest it properly. Otherwise, the quality suffers, reflected in an item's stats. In addition, each one has a specific environmental factor that affects its quality. Certain plants are best harvested when it's raining. Others with its dry. Others at night. And so on.

One of the YouTube videos I watched had the guy going on and in about what a waste of time the harvesting mechanic was, and how there was an option to turn it off that should absolutely be taken.

Which. Like. I love having that option for accessibility! But waving off an immersive, unique mechanic as something annoying and time consuming? Specifically recommending turning it off so you can just run around and collect everything you see, with no effort, like all the other games?

I was so disappointed in that. Like... this game tries so hard to immerse you in its world, and part of that is taking care and harvesting mindfully, like a Na'vi would do. Learning and memorizing the particulars of every plant. Taking time and not just... I don't know. Running around grabbing shit and just rushing about to shoot more things.

I've seen people complain that the game is just "Far Cry with Blue People," and then they go ahead and recommend skipping gameplay to essentially make it more like Far Cry. Or any other generic FPS.

And I don't understand it. It's like... you see a thing that devs clearly put in there to make things more immersive, to give their game a certain feel, and you just shove it aside so that you can reduce the game down to its most basic, dull components. Why? What is even the point of making all of these games unique if you forcibly avoid what makes them such?

I mean... people should be able to play games as they like, of course. But it's weird to specifically identify a unique mechanic as some sort of flaw that needs to be bypassed.

I dunno. It just makes me feel kind of sad and put out. It makes me think of devs working hard to perfect a thing that they feel is going to help make their game unique and enjoyable, only for someone to shove it aside because it gets in the way of the most basic gameplay in existence.

Bleh.

[visionthefox]

I think sometimes the VAs work when sick, but there are times where they are absent for a whole week just like when moon went missing (I think last year) and it was because he was sick, or more recently Davis and Kat moved and they didn’t appear that’s why foxy or puppet showed up.

But I do agree I wish they could go back like the beginning where they would post lore videos on the weekends and for special occasions like the first Halloween takeover like they are doing it right now. I miss them playing more and just having fun I also wish they could finish a game like little nightmares, idk that’s wishful thinking, but also don’t try and speed run the game, play it like it’s the first time, or for games like cult of the lamb have a new save file start from the beginning so viewers get interested on it, just don’t jump on it and play it otherwise people won’t know what’s going on (I speak from experience, when watching their gameplays).

Ive bought games from the ones they played just to see how it ends or if the game is not available due to it being VR I see another YouTuber playing XD

yeye is kinda of sad they only get a "day off" is when sick, tho maybe we are assuming too much- since only time I knew of Moon's VA- sorry forgot the name- being sick and still working is been these past days - but I cant even say if its true! but the constant posting is something I dont like- one thing is a gameplay, ok is easy you just and play- but lore wise? knowing how that affects the fandom? mmh trickyyy I just wish they had time - just- time - idk get to choose and see if its a good idea or not - also these lines

idk if they meant this- but is indeed a fact too - many have been saying how forced things feel- im sure the discords had to mention this enough times to be mentioned on a video aside with the "harrasment of people because of death characters" (this I know is real) just- aah give em time to cook- and listen I dont see the gameplays unless is horror or like in the villaints takeovers! yet still I rather know we will have 5 games and 1 lore to feel happy knowing is not rushed nor stressing for them if if thats the case ! but yea- let me know what yall think! im too crazy? haha

[themattress]

Hype and Letdown

Disappointment is a factor in media as it is in life, but it's never worse than when you were actively hyped and excited for the thing that then causes the disappointment. Everyone knows that feeling, and I am no exception, which is why I'm listing examples of it from my life.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep: This first example is a strange one as it actually lived up to the hype for the most part. Good graphics, fun gameplay, stellar music, excellent voice-acting (save for Terra and Aqua), and a pretty solid story overall. The problem is that's all surface level. Beneath that surface, this game marked the turning point where the KH series went from a fun Disney/Square crossover to Tetsuya Nomura's personal vanity project, marred by both increasingly complicated lore and increasingly simplistic characters. I felt gutted after I first saw the game's secret ending video, "Blank Points", for I knew the KH I loved was over.

"Absolute Power": The first season of Ben 10: Ultimate Alien had been testing my patience as is, but I felt it might prove all worth it when Ultimate Kevin came along. I loved the evil Kevin 11 in the original series, so him coming back was exciting and I was interested in what ethical dilemmas might arise from fighting him given the circumstances. And then the two-part finale just shit the bed in almost every way possible: characters behaving like idiots, new plot points being thrown in and promptly wasted, an unpleasant atmosphere pervading the whole thing, and an ending where all problems are literally solved with the press of a button followed by the status quo insultingly resuming as though none of this ever happened. This finale made it official: I hated Ultimate Alien, and it retroactively tarnished my opinion of Alien Force too.

"Team Rocket VS Team Plasma!": This climactic two-parter in the Pokémon: Best Wishes anime series was heavily marketed, but then the day after the lead-in aired Japan was struck by a massive earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear plant meltdown which caused the episodes to be pulled from broadcast and later banned from ever airing due to behind-the-scenes drama. Thankfully, we now have the full scripts and this nifty symphonic short video of all footage.

Epic Mickey 2: The Power of Two: I loved the original Epic Mickey for the Nintendo Wii, warts and all, so I was excited for the sequel which promised 2-player co-op and a playable Oswald the Lucky Rabbit. Then I played it. And it sucked. Aside from a few inspired moments here and there, on the whole it was one of the worst video game sequels I've ever played. It's so objectively bad, in fact, that it killed both the Epic Mickey series and the studio that made it.

"Endgame": Going in to the first season finale of Avatar: The Legend of Korra, all momentum was going the series' way. And while it wasn't entirely bad - the stuff with Amon and Tarrlok was fantastic, and the battle between Asami and her father was powerful - on the whole it felt like a deflating balloon, with piss-poor wrap-ups to plot threads and character arcs, capped off with a Deus ex Machina that's laughable even by Avatar standards followed by an abrupt, unearned-feeling resolution. Thank God this show got more seasons to improve after this.

Episode N: Team Plasma in Pokémon: Best Wishes lets me down a second time! Ironically enough, I actually like Episode N and hold few objections to its actual content. The problem is that I was hyped up for it being the remainder of the series....not just 14 bloody episodes which is then followed by an island-hopping filler arc to end the series on! As a result, the final episode of Episode N doesn't feel right...the battle with Reshiram at the White Ruins should have been so much more climactic than it ended up being. It's not bad, just...disappointing.

Yu-Gi-Oh! Arc V - Season 3: For the first two-thirds of this series, I was enjoying it. It was the most fun the anime franchise has been since the earlier seasons of Yu-Gi-Oh! GX. But then the third and final season almost impressively managed to flush all that goodwill and potential down the toilet, to an extent where I was officially turned off of any future Yu-Gi-Oh! anime.

The Netflix MCU - Remember the mid 2010s? Daredevil Seasons 1 and 2, Jessica Jones Season 1, Luke Cage Season 1....they were all great, and so for a while it was really looking like the MCU was going to repeat its theatrical success on Netflix. Then Iron First Season 1 happened, followed by The Defenders, and the letdown was palpable to everyone, including me. Only Daredevil Season 3 managed to recapture the magic afterward, while Jessica Jones Seasons 2 and 3, Luke Cage Season 2, Iron Fist Season 2 and both seasons of The Punisher continued this small-screen MCU's downward spiral until it was all cancelled.

"The Final Battle" - Now, I wasn't all that hyped for this since it was the finale of Once Upon a Time's 6th season, which by and large had been pretty wretched and reinforcing my view that the show should have ended at 5 seasons. But this two-part finale still promised to be a conclusion to the whole series up to this point, so I had somewhat heightened expectations. And for the most part, it sadly didn't live up to them. It's not terrible and in some areas it's surprisingly inspired, but ultimately it was only further proof that this show had lost its way.

Love Live Sunshine - Season 2: I adored the first season of Love Live Sunshine, so naturally I was looking forward to the follow-up. And it was good. Sometimes great. But it was a far cry from the subversive brilliance that was Season 1, to the point where what should have been Aqours' biggest moment fell flat in comparison to the more simple victory from Season 1's finale. Mercifully, the Over the Rainbow movie was not only a return to form but retroactively made Season 2 stronger, solidifying Love Live Sunshine as my favorite Love Live series.

Thor: Ragnarok - The title had me hyped, as did the initial trailer. When it came out, critics gave it rave reviews and it made me more excited to see it. But when I actually saw it, I felt underwhelmed. There is a lot of good in it, and the final act set in Asgard is legit phenomenal, but the majority of the film felt like the director and actors doing a SNL sketch loosely based on the Planet Hulk comic storyline, with Thor and Loki often feeling like comedic parodies of themselves much like Luke Hemsworth and Matt Damon played early on, and the poor reception to the lackluster The Dark World used as an excuse to disrespect the traditional Thor mythos. And Thor in Avengers: Endgame and Thor: Love and Thunder is the direct consequence of this, so I'm proud to have never been aboard with it as a creative direction.

Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi - Here's a funny one for you: the most oft-cited reason for disappointment in this movie, Luke Skywalker and the plotline around him, was actually something that really worked for me! That whole plotline was the highlight of the movie for me and I adore it to this day; people just don't seem to appreciate what it was trying to say, but I very much do. My disappointment with The Last Jedi was with everything else, and how rudderless and meaningless it seemed to make the Sequel Trilogy's narrative. These mostly unenjoyable, bumbling heroes fighting against these more enjoyable but equally bumbling villains in a retread of an old conflict just did not interest me. Episode IX had no hook for me.

Voltron: Legendary Defender - Seasons 7 and 8: In a bottle, many of the episodes in these seasons are still enjoyable. But when taken as a whole, this final third of the series was a letdown that seemed to actively betray much of what had been established before. The actual ending in particular was an absurd clusterfuck that did multiple characters all kinds of dirty.

Kingdom Hearts III - So, I had long since checked out from the KH series, but Kingdom Hearts III was a special case. The hype that came from years in Development Hell was such that not even I was immune; I grew increasingly curious in how the game would turn out. Just like Birth by Sleep, it was all good on the surface level but rotten beneath...though in this case, even the surface level was notably cracked and suffering from issues that no game that took this long to make has any excuse suffering. The DLC made things better and worse.

"Cleaved" - Rowdy C. Moore's thoughts are basically my own. God, what a trainwreck!

Frozen II - The initial teaser trailer made it look like this movie was going to be epic. It was not. Beyond Elsa's new songs and plotline of becoming essentially the Avatar, nothing even particularly sticks in my memory. I can only hope that Frozen III and Frozen IV do better.

Steven Universe Future - Another case of something that wasn't bad, just disappointing as it needed more time and episodes to be properly fleshed out into what it should be. There was way too much in here to be adequately explored and delivered in just 20 episodes, with the finale especially feeling anti-climactic compared to Steven Universe's and The Movie.

Higurashi: Gou/Sotsu - Initially marketed as a reboot, it ended up being a stealth sequel to Higurashi....a work that never needed a sequel. Things only got worse when the culprit was revealed to be a character-assassinated good guy, Umineko and Cicconia elements got shoehorned in despite not fitting, the Answer Arcs all being boring retreads of the Question Arcs, and the finale being absolute nonsense. At least the manga adaptation is decent.

The Hidden Treasure of Area Zero - Pokémon Scarlet & Violet, for all their technical issues, had one of the stronger stories in the game series, so I was excited for the DLC expansion to continue it. The end result, however, makes the game feel like a three-act structure where none of the acts gel together as a cohesive whole. "The Teal Mask" has a great setting and featured Pokémon, but the plot is poorly written and it hamstrings you in a way that makes the characters of Carmine and Kieran frustrating and unpleasant. "The Indigo Disk" spends most of its time in a location that feels way far-removed from the rest in the game and engaging in a mostly filler plot populated by under-developed characters before returning to Area Zero in a visit that doesn't remotely compare to the original and making the big treasure be the turtle Pokémon already used and used better in the current anime, all while Carmine and Kieran continue to frustrate as now does Briar. Game Freak, what are you doing?

Joker: Folie a Deux - The most recent example, which inspired this post. I loved the Hell out of the original Joker, which featured Joaquin Phoenix in an Oscar-winning performance as a Joker origin story in a Gotham City by way of Martin Scorsese. I was initially troubled when a sequel was announced since the movie was clearly a standalone and didn't need a sequel, but all of the casting info, production stills and initial trailer made it look like it was going to be a high-quality film even if not as good as the original. What we actually got was a drawn-out, boring, pointless movie that is actively and maddeningly insulting to the original and anyone who enjoyed it. I genuinely do not understand how this garbage was allowed to be made.

[deadmomjokes]

Betwixt Christmas gift cash and Steam Family Sharing workaround shenanigans, the husband and I have finally started Baldur's Gate 3.

Went in basically blind except for knowing the names of the companions and the fact that Astarion is a vampire (couldn't miss that cultural osmosis).

We also came in on two different meta-levels as players.

He is very familiar with D&D, D&D-based games, computer games in general, and these sorts of games specifically. He's also that kind of person that plays things on Extreme Difficulty Mode for fun. He quits when something isn't challenging enough. His idea of relaxing, rewarding gameplay is ultra-hard-mode Elden Ring and Dark Souls.

I, on the other hand, am bad at games. Full stop. I have lost Wii Mario Kart to a 6 year old, repeatedly. I get hopelessly lost even when there's detailed maps, trackers, compasses, and flagged waypoints. I also panic in combat situations and have no strategic ability aside from "stand there, hit it, and hope it doesn't move." I'm more of a low-stakes visual novel sort of gamer. Stardew Valley is as intense as I get.

He is playing a Seldarine Drow warlock in a pact with an archfey. She's a noble with a ridiculously high Charisma score, a perfectly balanced spell loadout, and an even more balanced overall stat build. She's DPS without being totally squishy and helpless, and has advantage to almost everything. She also has an impeccable fashion sense and always looks put together, even when on death's door to a brain worm. Or, to put it in a way my husband would loathe, she got that drip.

I am playing a ginger himbo of a high elf fighter with -1 to Charisma and a -1000 to common sense. He's an impulsive maniac with, somehow, a +3 to intimidation despite being a truly gentle soul that believes every sob story he comes across. He's a sweaty, dusty, grubby little feral child (outlander background) with the world's messiest ponytail and greasepaint-turned-eyeliner that a 90s ex emo kid would be proud of. And that's him trying to look presentable. Despite having an impressive dexterity score, my natural disadvantage to dexterity (and Wisdom and Intelligence) as the player makes it so that this man bumbles his way into everything and only gets out by making horrifying threats he has absolutely no intention of following up on, or by being forced to stand his ground and take it on the jaw.

So this was going to be An Experience no matter what. And boy, it sure has been.

Thus far, we have:

Accidentally pacifism'd our way into every Goblin/Absolute aligned settlement we've encountered on the pure luck of husband's choice to play a Drow because he thought it would add an interesting dynamic. That interesting dynamic, he thought, would be difficulty. He thought being a Drow would make it harder because of the general hatred toward them. He's technically good-aligned, but, y'know, planet-of-hats racism means he was expecting it to work against him, which he likes because he likes when things are hard. Only now it's basically a free pass into all the areas we'd normally have to fight or sneak into. Great for our shared pacifist tendencies, but LOL

Lost a full hour of progress because my computer screen is tiny and bad at graphics and I hadn't learned all the controls yet, so while trying to investigate a hole in the floor of an abandoned church I tripped in face-first and got us into an unescapable, imminent-TPK situation, whereupon the game immediately autosaved for the first time since waking up on the beach. We have since learned to spam the quicksave button liberally.

Accepted a ton of mutually exclusive quests, half of which we have no intention of doing, just to try and get out of situations without combat, so now the mini map now looks like a cubist rendition of a simple sun drawing and I'm SO worried it's going to come crashing down and get us shanked in our sleep.

MET BEST BOY DOGGO I WILL DIE FOR SCRATCH 😭

Discovered husband's character is, build wise, a carbon-copy of Wyll. This was 100% unintentional and he's BIG mad about it LOL RIP

Impulsively pushed a button in a crypt without saving and woke up a bunch of skellies we weren't prepared for, but were somehow also saved by that same impulsivity because I had previously run around the entire area and looted every single skeleton no matter how useless it was to my character, so they all woke up without their weapons so HAH take that I TOLD YOU being a klepto would pay off

Immediately after this fortuitous stroke of fate, having learned exactly nothing, my impulsive maniac opened the shiny sarcophagus before consulting anyone or healing. Luckily it wasn't cursed or trapped or full of enemies (it was Withers, and I'm love), but I'm now not allowed to open or interact with anything bigger than a crate without announcing it first so husband has the chance to go NO WAIT LET ME SAVE FIRST

Sneaked into a secret underground passage, whereupon my husband sent his invisible'd familiar around to carefully scout the area, discovering the button that would turn off the overpowered guardian statue. My character then readied a crossbow shot to hit said button, but in trying to move out of the way of the other party members, stepped right into the statue's attack circle. I panicked, tried to move, but couldn't figure out how to unselect the attack I could no longer use, and tried to fix it by pausing. But all of that just resulted in me standing there, doing nothing, until I finally dropped dead. Luckily I passed my saving throws, and more luckily still, my husband managed to stop laughing long enough to eldritch blast the statue to pieces and come get me.

So anyway, we're having the best time. I know we're late to the party, but it really is so good. I may have even teared up a little during the dream sequence with the psychedelic neon light guardian warriors. This is going to consume my brain for the next few months, and I'm happy to have paid for the privilege. 10/10, absolutely deserves that GOTY and the $60 price tag both.

No spoilers please, we're only level 3 and just encountering the Goblin Camp. (We've met everyone but Karlach, I believe.) But rest assured, as we learn and discover more I will come yelling and seeking those who will screech with me. Probably mostly about my new sons that I've acquired, namely the lying purple sadsack trash wizard with some horrifying kind of chronic illness and/or addiction, and the prettiest most specialist murder machine who definitely won't admit it but is definitely gonna need a hug when I finish breaking down those obviously performative emotional walls.

Also, Lae'zel scares me. Please stop yelling at me, you cranky fish woman, I'm trying my best here 😭

[sibyl-of-space]

It's time for me to go to bed. And that means everybody gets a Procrastination Essay No One Asked For About Sonic Adventure 1 for the SEGA Dreamcast!

This game is one of my super mega ultra all-time favorites. Every single time I revisit it, I am so afraid that my love for it is entirely nostalgia goggles and it will lose its charm this time around, and every single time, I just have the time of my life because the game really is great. It is so fun. It does some very cool things. It is kind of stupid but it takes itself seriously, and that is very endearing and a million times more interesting than a game that's too afraid of being perceived as cringe to be sincere.

I love basically everything about it. I painted Big the Cat on my Dreamcast and even that is not enough to communicate my vast love for this game.

MANY WORDS BELOW CUT. Visuals, audio, gameplay, I love all of it.

Visuals

The game came out in 1998. It looks like a game that came out in 1998. But the world and character designs are fantastic and the world is so detailed. I could genuinely spend hours just moving around on the Egg Carrier overworld map appreciating all the gadgets and gizmos moving around that are purely 100% set dressing. It makes up for what it lacks in polygons with cool textures and fun trinkets everywhere. The animated CGs genuinely look amazing, and you can forgive the rest of it considering the game came out in 1998.

I also love the splash screens you get after finishing each route. They're so good.

(It goes without saying that the game looks its best on a CRT. There are some really cool lighting effects CRTs just capture better.)

Audio

It obviously has an insanely good soundtrack of just nonstop banger after banger. It also has a very 1998 dub and the sound mixing and implementation are some of the worst you'll ever hear. Eggman has like 5 voice lines that are re-used in every scene he's in. But who can complain about that when they're listening to the likes of "Bad Taste Aquarium"? Literally nobody. Who cares. Every single song slaps.

"But Leo half the time the songs start and stop mid-cutscene because of how the game handles loading" who cares. I can forgive just about ANYTHING a game does in terms of audio implementation if it has a song as good as "Bad Taste Aquarium" in its soundtrack.

Narrative

Setting aside the fact that the story is kind of stupid, I really think we need to appreciate the way it tells it. The way this game has you play through the same story from everyone's different perspective, and how the scenes that overlap actually play out differently depending on who you play as, is so big brain. You don't get the full picture of what's happening until you've played as everybody, and there is no "big group of heroes collectively take on the bad guy" until the very very end Super Sonic story... until then, it's just different people having wildly different journeys that overlap here and there and are all part of a single, bigger story.

That's just cool ass storytelling. Everyone loves to bitch about my good friend Big the Cat but the entire point is that this extremely chill guy who loves to fish and just wants to save his friend was caught up in this Adventure, and he was a small but vital part of it, and it affected him differently than it affected everybody else because he had a different reason for being involved. But that goes for everybody! Everyone's story has an arc with a start and a finish, and most of them don't come close to being involved in the whole thing. Even SONIC doesn't see everything (he doesn't have a Hot Shelter level at all). Knuckles's story ends on a really cool note, with him going "I may never know the full story of what happened here, but maybe it's better that way." Or something close to that.

I also just love the concept of benevolent protector water god goes apeshit at people, as well as the concept of a ghost from thousands of years ago trying to right ancient wrongs. Chaos and Tikal are great.

Gameplay

The thing I love about Sonic Adventure is that every single character is really fun to play. This comes at the "cost" of what you might call "balance," in that half of the characters are broken as fuck and you can just disregard the very concept of platforming with most of them. I couldn't really care less about that because I just enjoy how fun it is to play as everyone.

Sonic Adventure 2 understandably put Tails in a mech because outside of it he is too damn broken. Sonic Adventure 1 lets you play as him anyway, and it rules.

The ONLY gripe I have about the gameplay is that Big the Cat does not have the means to harm robots (because he is too nice and chill to do that), but as a result he is unable to collect animals to give the chao. I cannot think of a single character in the Sonic the Hedgehog universe who would be better suited to raise chao than Big the Cat, but Big the Cat is unable to give them animals to power up. This is a tragedy.

Overall

Sonic Adventure is a masterpiece. Every time I play it I'm like "this is the greatest game that has ever been made." The parts of it that are clunky, awkward, kind of dumb, or very dated are still endearing because it tries to do so many things that you really just have to respect it. This is the kind of game that is fantastic whether you sit down and play it straight through from plot point to plot point or you spend three hours throwing that statue around Station Square into oncoming traffic.

Of course it's not polished. It tries to do way too many cool ass things all at once to be polished. It is WAY too ambitious to be polished. That's what makes it so good. It's perfect exactly the way it is and the fact that people will play this incredible game and go "lol, 3D Sonic sucks" is a good reminder that gamers will bitch about anything and you should never care about what gamers have to say when making games.

Big the Cat has glow-in-the-dark eyes. Game of all time.