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yamisnuffles · 14 hours ago
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DATV Spoiler Free Review
I beat Veilguard a couple days ago and have had some time to let it settle in my brain. So, without getting into the nitty gritty and more spoilery things, here are my overall feelings on the game.
The Great:
The world itself. The scenery. It was really gorgeous and felt fully alive in a way that none of the previous games have quite managed. Since it wasn't as open world as DAI nor as narrow in scope as DA2 (nor as old as DAO lol), it felt more vital. Definitely a place where the advances in graphics helped, I'm sure.
The Good:
The companions. I wouldn't say any of them blew me away but they all at least ranged from enjoyable to very good. I definitely had my quibbles here and there but I think they were all pretty solid. As such, though I've only done one romance, I'll suppose they're all good. A bit... sparse in my experience and from what I've been hearing, but nice enough.
Overall, I also think the story was pretty good. Like much in this game, nothing that blew me away, but solidly compelling.
Also, mechanically, the gameplay and the glamour system. It still doesn't feel like DA to me but it was enjoyable once I got used to it. It works well with how I play games. And it was nice to just set looks for myself and my companions and not worry about stats vs appearance.
Rook. I have some definite Complaints, and so this point is probably closer to the good to mid range, but they did a pretty good job with letting you pull in your faction stuff. I'm prevented from saying great because it feels like, even with what are supposed to be rougher dialogue choices, you're limited to being mildly pleasant.
The Mid:
The music. This is tragic to me because every previous game had some really standout songs and DAI especially was such a solid soundtrack. I love soundtrack music. Also because Hans Zimmer! I love Hans Zimmer. But the entire thing felt very generic epic fantasy to me. It wasn't bad but it didn't feel good. The only times I ended up moved by the music was when they lifted DAI songs.
The lack of imports. It wasn't the end of the world but did make some cameos feel really off. And for all the talk of making what few things were imported matter, that really didn't feel like the case at all (unless you were in a specific subset of players). I didn't care too much, but it was just enough to make things feel weird, especially with characters like Harding who are so attached to previous stuff.
The Bad:
The world felt so sanitized. I have no issue getting rid of real life bigotry that makes so sense in the context of the world. For example, the sexism in DAO especially made no sense. That said, there was a lot of in world nastiness that is just... gone. The game does a lot of telling us the elves have it bad but doesn't show it. No one bats an eye at a Tevinter mage running about outside of Tevinter. No one cares about a Qunari in occupied Treviso. I suppose it's not the worst thing in the world but it feels weird, especially when it's so central to Solas' motivations.
This sanitization carried on through pretty much everything. All of the factions are presented as good and heroic, even the ones that are historically pretty shady. Your companions are all pleasant and palatable. They have the occasional minor squabble but even when they almost have actual beef, it's solved super easily. You might get some disapproval for decisions but companions never seem to much care or hold it against you, even on really big things. I don't need DA2 levels of interparty drama but, boy did I want a bit more tooth sometimes.
The Awful:
I can't get into it without spoilers but it did a Thing that Bioware sometimes likes to do that I absolutely loathe. This is definitely personal but it ruined some of my desire to replay.
Overall:
I'd give the game a 7/10 or maybe 6/10, depending on how I'm feeling. It was enjoyable for the most part but it had so many things that felt like splinters. Lots of little things that stuck under my skin and bothered me. Would I recommend it? Genuinely depends on the person.
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diathadevil · 2 years ago
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Hello welcome to 2013
I’ve just finished my first playthrough of this game and now I’m having Aoba brainrot going on. Nothing but a swiss cheese in my head.
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hattedhedgehog · 16 days ago
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My (spoiler-free) thoughts on Dragon Age: The Veilguard
The review embargo has lifted and I can officially say that I've played through Dragon Age: The Veilguard early! 
Here are my spoiler-free thoughts and personal opinions on the overall gameplay experience: 
Narrative:
Rook's dialogue and decisions impact SO MUCH of the game, and come into play later on. From companions remembering your beverage preferences, to whether someone you spared shows up later to help or harm you, it feels like the game is paying attention and that you matter.
The stakes are unbelievably high. The Evanuris are utterly terrifying villains, in ways that Corypheus wasn’t. You really feel the magnitude of their power on a personal level as well as a worldwide level.
Whatever your thoughts on him, Solas is FUN as a character. He’s fun to talk to, fun to talk strategy with, fun to rile up and verbally spar with and fun to grudgingly ally with. Now that he can drop his former act and appear to you as the Dread Wolf, and you get to see his memories, you and he team get to decide how to utilise his knowledge and how far your trust extends.
The setup and payoff of the story beats are absolutely superb. The emotional turmoil as a player of being ensnared by things that was foreshadowed earlier in the game is utterly exquisite. Every thread of the larger tapestry has been woven with so much love by the writing team, and every character’s arc tie into the larger story in interesting ways.
The characters feel like they have full lives outside of the player character. You frequently go exploring their home turf and can meet their friends and family. They interact with each other on their own and move about the Lighthouse to spend time together, leave notes for each other, and talk about each other even when the other isn’t there. The team feels like they all really care about each other as well as you. 
You can tell what your approval rating is with characters, but if you want to romance them you have to put some thought into it. Interactions and world events besides the heart on the dialogue wheel influence their attraction to you.
Gameplay:
The combat is very engaging, and I enjoyed how unique all the enemies were.
Abilities in the skill tree can be refunded so you can redirect to a different specialization, which is really handy if you’re indecisive and overwhelmed at first (like I get when choosing abilities).  Most companions can get healing abilities no matter what class, so you don’t have to worry about balancing your rogues/mages/warriors (most of the time).
Climbing, balancing on ledges, using ziplines and sliding down slopes made environments feel more immersive. Additionally I like how each companion has unique abilities that let them interact with the world (fixing mechanisms, breathing fire, summoning bridges from the Fade, etc), and learning their abilities alongside them helps you grow closer.
The wayfinder light makes everything feel streamlined, so it's way harder to get lost while exploring an area. I hardly had to look at the mini map at all, and usually I’m glued to it! This meant I could actually look around at the beautiful environments and appreciate how lively they were, even without NPCs.
The upgrade system is far less overwhelming than in Inquisition; there are a finite amount of weapons/armour/accessories to be found, which are designed for each specific character like in DA:O and DA:2. There's also no longer crafting from scratch. If you loot an item you already have, it automatically upgrades the single item rather than giving you duplicates.
You know that frustration of coming across higher-level armour that just isn’t as flattering as your current one? Not to worry, you can collect “appearances” which you can toggle on as the visual for the armour while still retaining the benefits of the original.
I cannot stress enough how simple and easy to use the inventory is. It's heavenly. 
Using the shops of specific cities increases your reputation within those cities, which is a good incentive to explore and use the shops. I usually hate in-world shopping but here it was simple, and thinking about it tactically worked pretty well.
Quests sometimes reach a point where you can't continue at your current place in the story, and must return to in later acts. When re-exploring familiar areas, everything feeling big enough to be fresh with each visit, and new loot and codex entires appear.
Edit: something I forgot to mention. In character creator, you get to make your Inquisitor after you make Rook. The build menus are all the same, so manage your energy accordingly for doing it all again immediately after for your Inky. I spent an hour and a half building my Rook and wanted to get right to playing, and had to re-wire my brain a bit to be patient and keep going with the CC. (Seeing my Inquisitor with new graphics was awesome though).
A couple little things I appreciated:
The control sounds are very pleasing. From the whoosh of opening the combat wheel to the clinking of upgrades to the subtle whir of holding the decision button, they're a nice touch.
If companions are interrupted in conversation by combat, they resume it afterwards with a "what were you saying before?".
Photo mode is so fun to play with, and you can adjust blur/brightness/lens/depth within the scene. You can also toggle on and off the visibility of your Rook, your party, NPCs and enemies!
Assan learns new interaction tricks at the Lighthouse as the game goes on.
Nitpicks:
Overall I had an incredibly positive experience. The gripes I had were tiny things like:
I genuinely like the new art style of the game as a whole. However, the blurriness of some of the features in contrast with some elements being very crisp was distracting.
When trying to sell valuables for faction points without using Sell All, it takes quite a long time to count up all the individual sales, and it isn't a live counter. So it's kind of annoying if you get +3 points for each item you sell, need 150 points to get the next tier of items, and over 10K worth of valuables that you want to sell to other factions. 
If you do lots of quests without returning to the Lighthouse often, occasionally companions at the Lighthouse will have dialogue pertaining to the quests you've just finished as if you haven't done them.
You can pet the dogs and cats in the cities, but Rook turns their back to the camera to do it and it blocks most of the action unless you rotate quickly.
Gender stuff:
I was incredibly moved that not only can Rook be trans/nonbinary in the character creator if you so choose, but they get options to feel differently about their identity and journey, and it impacts their dialogue and how they relate to other characters! To access this make sure to interact with Varric's Mirror in your room in the Lighthouse. There are many conversation options throughout the game to discuss your identity with other characters, or relate your change of self to other situations. Crucially, it comes up when entering a romance and you have to communicate with your partner about it, which I never even THOUGHT of including in a game because it seemed impossible to even allow trans main characters to begin with.
There are also multiple trans and nonbinary characters throughout Thedas. What I found the most realistic was that just like in life, it is a consistent presence in any character's life, and comes up in conversation more than once. I have never seen a game this forthcoming and open about the topic of transitioning, and it was so validating. 
Final thoughts:
I adore the other games in the franchise. Something about The Veilguard affected me in a way no other game has. I cried multiple times while playing this game, both from joy and sadness. What struck me most is that the people who worked on this game REALLY listened to feedback from previous games, and were very set on making a piece of art that meant something to people. Even during the last few years of me testing the game, things have been adjusted and changed in direct response to our reactions and suggestions. It's surreal and quite touching.
Mileage will vary, but my playthrough was 70 hours on very low difficulty and I haven't done every side quest yet. I could easily have spent more than 100 hours in the game if I wasn't pressed for time.
I hope you enjoy this game as much as I have. See you in Thedas.
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froggibus · 2 years ago
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The Three Times You Share A Bed - Leon S Kennedy
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Pairing: Leon Kennedy x reader
Genre: fluff, some light angst thrown in towards the end?
Word Count: 2.7k
Summary: two times you sleep in leon's bed, and the one time he sleeps in yours
CW: roommate! Leon, kinda friends to lovers?, light angst, abandonment issues, paranoia, fear + insomnia, mentions of zombies, bedsharing, leon has intimacy issues (get therapy challenge)
OMG HAPPY RE4 RELEASE!!! I am SO excited to play once im done work this weekend! Leon looks so damn fine in the gameplay ive seen and i am going FERAL! pls no spoilers for anything new in the game! <3
RE4 remake spoiler free zone!! I have yet to play the remake so there are no spoilers in this!
————
The telltale clicking of a key in the door has you on your feet in seconds, abandoning the plush throw blanket on the couch. Before it even opens, you’re standing on the doormat. You feel a little silly, like a golden retriever waiting for its owner, but the shame is washed away when Leon steps through the door.
It’s been three weeks since you’ve last seen your roommate and best friend, and just as long since you last had company. He raises an eyebrow at the sight of you standing in front of him, the dark circles under his eyes becoming more prominent. 
“Aren’t you a sight for sore eyes.” He sighs and drops his backpack on the floor, locking the door behind him.
“How was it?”
You fight the urge to wrap your arms around his broad shoulders and inhale his scent, knowing that’s not what friends do. Still, the feeling is there and if he went in for it, you’d reciprocate in a heartbeat.
He opens the fridge and beams at the fully stocked drinks and snacks. He cracks open a can of cider and leans against the counter. “Long,” he admits, “way too long. And my nose is still burning from the smell of rotten flesh.” You crinkle your nose at the thought. Leon’s never been much of a talker and most of his work being classified didn’t help. Whenever something wasn’t top secret, though, you were sure to sit there and listen no matter how horrific the details were.
You settle in on the couch next to the agent, listening to him drone on about a zombie-like creature that had peeling flesh and fifty eyes. You could vividly picture it from his words alone, and the image of the creature sent a shiver up your spine.
Leon talks for hours, spilling every miniscule detail of every horror he encounters. You stay the whole time, nodding along. Leon laughs at the way you scrunch your face in disgust or close your eyes in fear. He hates how cute you are, but he can’t seem to stop telling you stories. After many hours and a few drinks between the two of you, he’s almost run out of stories to tell.
Leon pats your shoulder gently, collecting his cans from where he’d set them on the coffee table. “I need a shower,” he states. “I’ll see you tomorrow, y/n.”
“Go shower. You stink,” you joke and punch him in the ribs.
He feigns injury at your blow, pretending to suck in a breath like you’d really hurt him. He keeps up the facade the whole way to his bedroom, only leaving character when he shuts the door behind him.
It’s only when he’s disappeared that you realize how late it's gotten—and how dark. Even though your shared apartment is on the 19th floor, you can’t help but worry something is going to crawl through your window. You shake the thoughts away and get ready for bed, but every gust of wind and rustling of leaves makes you flinch.
You close your eyes and tug your comforter over your head, hoping that if there is something out there, it won’t know you’re there. You toss and turn for a while longer, staying dead quiet and pushing your fears away.
Finally, you can’t take it anymore. You take a deep breath, throw your comforter off of your shoulders, and sprint to Leon’s room. It’s like your brain is on autopilot—it knows exactly where to go to be safe.
You don’t knock on the door, instead quietly twisting the knob and slipping in through a crack in the door. Leon sits up as soon as your feet touch the wooden floor, eyes snapping towards your silhouette. He’s been a light sleeper ever since Racoon City, waking at the slightest of sounds.
He relaxes at the sight of you but only for a second. He glances at his digital clock, eyes widening at the time. “Y/n? What are you still doing up?”
“I-I couldn’t sleep…I feel like a flesh eating zombie is going to climb through my window and eat me.”
He chuckles. “That would be my fault.” He shuffles over in bed and pulls back the comforter. “You’re more than welcome to stay here for the night.”
You crawl into bed next to him, keeping as much distance between the two of you as possible. You can feel his body heat radiating through the blankets and smell his body wash on his skin. The feeling is new, yet so familiar it eases you instantly.
“Leon?”
He hums in response.
“Is it safer to sleep next to the window or the door? From like, a secret agent standpoint.”
“We’re on the 19th floor so window, but unless it's a hotel room, the door. You would more than likely hear it if they broke down the front door so you’d have more time to get out.”
You think for a second. “Can we switch places?”
“Honestly, y/n,” he laughs dryly, “the safest place to sleep right now is next to me.”
Your face warms at that and you nod, relaxing into his pillows. While you drift off to sleep, Leon watches over you. He knows nothing is going to come for you here, but he did promise to keep you safe, and he’ll keep that promise no matter what.
When you get home, you’re in a foul mood. You practically throw the groceries onto the counter before walking to your room and throwing yourself onto your bed. It’s been a long day. All of the stores were so busy you could hardly get through the aisles, and all of the people you encountered were rude.
Leon comes out of his room a few minutes later. Seeing the groceries abandoned on the counter, his first thought is to check on you. He doesn’t check on you, though. Not yet, anyway. He knows you’ll just be more upset if the frozen items melt and the milk sits out all night, so he sets out on putting them away.
After almost an hour of laying in your bed trying to recuperate after the day you’ve had, you’re snapped out of it by a text.
Leon: Come here, I have a surprise for you
You don’t feel like leaving your bed, but you force yourself out of it anyway. It’s not Leon you’re mad at. Leon is probably the only person in the world you don’t hate right now. You knock on his door softly, holding your arms behind your back.
“Come in!” He shouts.
You open the door, shuffling into his room and closing it behind you. Your jaw drops when you see a tray in the middle of his bed piled high with your favorite snacks, drinks and two wine glasses. Leon pats the spot next to him and you’re happy to oblige, relaxing onto the mattress.
“You didn’t have to do this, you know.”
He shrugs, pouring you a glass of wine. “It already seems like you had a bad day, I just wanted to do something to make it a little better for you.”
“Thank you.” He nods in acknowledgement, turning on his tv and handing you the remote. “You can choose the first movie. Just—maybe no zombies?”
You snort at that. Classic Leon, using his corny jokes to make light of even the worst of situations. You settle on an old favorite movie you love, handing the remote back to the blond and switching it for a wine glass.
Between your favorite movie, the delicious wine and your favorite snacks, your spirits are lifted in no time. One movie turns into two, and two turns into three. Soon enough, you’re dozing off in Leon’s bed.
He moves the tray of snacks and the glasses off of the bed to give you more room to sprawl out. Laying down next to you, he watches you sleep. A part of him wishes he could see this every night—the same sight he fantasizes about on even the hardest of missions.
He flicks off the lamp on his side table and settles in. “Good night, cutie,” he mumbles, knowing you’re far too deep in sleep to hear him.
You wake up in the middle of the night, moonlight streaming through the window and illuminating Leon’s bedroom. You’re still numb from sleep, your senses dulled just enough that it takes you a minute to realize that something is grabbing you. No, not grabbing—holding. 
You blink a few times. Leon is laying next to you, his chest pressed to your back, his arms around your waist. You can feel the slow beating of his heart and the heat coming off of his skin. He’s so close it overwhelms you, yet it’s all you’ve ever wanted.
You think about slipping away but you know what a light sleeper he is, and you don’t think you could handle it if he woke up and saw how close you were. You close your eyes and try to calm the beating in your heart so you can fall back asleep.
When you wake up again, Leon is gone. Your body feels cold where his once was. You sit up—is he showering? He can’t be, the bathroom door is open. You sit up, letting the blankets fall off of you. You swing your legs over the side of his bed, walking out to the kitchen, but he’s not there either.
Did he leave to go get something? 
You check your phone, expecting to see a text saying he ran out to go get more milk or something, but there’s nothing. You sigh, typing up a message and sending it to him.
Y/N: where’d you go?
You practically jump when your phone lets out a noise, but your heart sinks when you see what it is.
Message Not Delivered. Try Again?
You sigh. That can only mean one thing: he’s on another mission. Typical Leon, disappearing in the middle of the night to go god knows where for god knows how long. The frustration bubbles up in your chest and you feel like hitting something, but you don’t. It’s not worth it.
You try to keep your mind off of his sudden disappearance by throwing yourself into chores. You wash his bedding and make his bed, then wash your own. You sweep and mop the floors and vacuum the carpets. You dust the blinds.
It doesn’t help.
Your mind keeps wandering back to the fact that he left without saying goodbye. That he woke up at some ungodly hour, saw you laying in his arms, got up and left without another word. He didn’t even leave a note. He really cares that little. 
You shake your head and even though the pit in your stomach makes you feel like not eating, you make yourself a sandwich regardless. Seeing the untouched groceries in the fridge just adds to the feeling.
Even though you know he’s not going to get it, you pull out your phone and start typing.
Y/N: do you at least know when you’ll be back?
Message Not Delivered. Try Again?
The message makes you roll your eyes. Leon fucking Kennedy.
A week goes by, and then two, and you still hear nothing from your roommate. You send texts here and there, hoping for an answer, but none of them go through. Eventually, you start venting to him through there, too. Expressing how frustrated you are that he didn’t say goodbye, how annoying your feelings are, how sometimes you wish you didn’t know him so you didn’t have to go through this.
It’s a random Sunday night when you’re sitting on the couch, watching trash reality tv and eating snacks. It’s cold in the apartment, but you can’t be bothered to turn on the heat. Only when your arms puff up with goosebumps do you scour the room for a sweater, settling on a random one hanging on the back of a chair.
It’s Leon’s, an old one from the Police Academy. His smell floods your nose when you pull it over your head, and it's so bittersweet you don’t know if you should laugh or cry. You settle back on the couch, but a rustling at the window makes you freeze in your tracks.
It stops for a moment, and you can almost convince yourself you’ve imagined it or it’s a part of the show—until it happens again. You scramble for the remote, pausing it so you can hear better. The noise starts again, and you waste no time in hightailing it to your bedroom and slamming the door behind you.
You flop onto your bed, trying (and failing) to remind yourself that it’s just the wind. That you’re safe here. But it’s hard when it’s late and you’re tired and you’re alone and the only person you feel safe with just abandoned you.
You curl up into a ball, pulling Leon’s sweater over your mouth and inhaling the familiar scent. It’s enough to calm you down, if only for a few moments. If you close your eyes, you can almost trick yourself into thinking he’s there, and for now, that’s good enough.
Leon knows he fucked up when he gets back to the country and turns on his phone. Almost fifty messages from you, each one more sad than the last. He wants to slap himself—why couldn’t he just grow a pair and say goodbye? Why did he have to be so noncommittal?
He reads every message on the cab ride back to the apartment, and his heart breaks for you. He didn’t think about how you would drive yourself crazy over him or how worried you must have been. All he thought about was getting the call for the mission in the middle of the night and not wanting to wake you up.
But he didn’t abandon you. He thought about you every day and god—he wishes he could have talked to you. Hearing your voice and seeing your face was enough to make everything better. With the horrors he’s seen lately, all he wants is to be back in that bed with you for one more night.
He’s quiet coming into the apartment, hoping he doesn’t wake you up or scare you. And even though he knows you’re sleeping, he’s still disappointed you’re not waiting at the door for him.
He tosses his backpack into his room and strips off all of his holsters and velcro.  He’s quiet walking down the hallway to your room and even quieter opening the door. He relaxes at the sight of you curled up in a ball. 
You look so cute and so peaceful and—is that his sweater? The sight brings a smile to his face. He closes the door behind him with a soft click, climbing into the bed next to you.
You wake up when the bed dips down and arms wrap around you. You’re so tired you don’t even care who or what it is.
“If you’re gonna kill me, can you at least let me sleep first?” You mumble.
You fully awake as soon as you hear Leon’s laugh.
“You’re back?” You say, and you hate the way your voice cracks. 
You turn around to face him, tired ocean eyes meeting yours. He nods sleepily, “‘m sorry I didn’t say goodbye. It was stupid of me.”
“It’s okay,” and it really is okay. All the resentment you felt melted away at the sight of him. 
“C’mere,” he mumbles. 
You lay your head on his chest, wrapping your arms around him. You can hear his heart rate slow down at the contact. 
“I just—I just need you tonight.” Those are big words coming from the agent, and they leave you completely stunned. He must have seen or done something horrible while he was away for him to be this vulnerable, even with you.
“You can have me tonight.” You try to keep your voice even, “you can have me whenever you need me,”
He kisses the top of your head. “But I always need you.”
“Then I’m always yours.”
Neither of you speak after that, Leon falling into a light sleep. You stay up a while longer, watching the blond boy rest beneath you. He looks so fragile like this, you can’t imagine him fighting off monsters and handling weapons. You kiss his collarbone through his shirt and let yourself fall asleep with him. 
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corseque · 1 month ago
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I wanted to make a last-minute prediction post based on what I’ve seen so far. I haven’t looked at new Dragon Age news for the past couple (3? 4?) weeks, and I know I’m (on purpose to avoid spoilers) missing some (probably a lot of) details that other people already know. I DON’T WANT TO KNOW. So if I’m already right or wrong about something,
PLEASE please DON’T TELL ME.
You can come back in a month and tell me THEN. It’s just one more month to wait.
Also, this is just for fun, and it’s not serious. It’s based on vibes and also based on what I would write myself. I have developed a surprisingly specific image of what might happen to Solas and I’m just want to write it down.
I’m thinking “there is no possible way this is right………” but then I’m like “unless…..?” so a vague chance of potential spoilers
First, I’ve been suspicious about the elven gods getting free and Solas being trapped. If you think about what Solas says in Trespasser, it’s very
Part of Solas’ aim that has so far been revealed to us is he likely wants the Veil torn down, and one of the only things that is keeping him from that is the reality of the elven gods trapped in there, who would be released.
Inquisitor: “If you destroyed the Veil, wouldn’t the false gods be freed?”
Solas: “I had plans.”
But that is no longer a concern from that moment in the gameplay trailer where they are released. 
“I intend to restore them. Doing so will most likely destroy your world.”
Two elven gods rampaging across Thedas sounds like the kind of “the world is being destroyed” situation Solas was talking about. It is his incision that breached their prison, and it isn’t impossible that Rook may have been almost manipulated into completing it. I wonder if Solas is playing his two sets of enemies against each other yet again?
In the old tales, Solas uses his enemies to fight each other while he is tied to a tree, trapped. He gives both sides equal advice until they are both defeated, at which point he frees himself and finishes what he set out to do. 
Honestly, even though he’s “trapped,” it sounds exactly like the sort of thing that needs to happen for his work to continue.
(All of this is speculation that I think I’ll have a better idea about once I hear the full first conversation with him, and exactly how he words his point of view of what happened. If he’s very squirrelly in his wording, I’ll know he may have caused it on purpose.)
“I seek regeneration,” he said in Vows & Vengeance. The devs had said that Solas has been bringing back magic for centuries before the series even started. Perhaps it explains why the dragons have returned. It seems that his reshaping the world, regenerating it, will be successful because it seems to be moving steadily without him. So maybe this is a last and, once in motion, inevitable step in “healing” the injured world.
I think that the elven gods are very scary and world-ending, but Solas is the only one of them that reshaped the world successfully. He will be the one to do it again, not Ghilan’nain or Elgar’nan or any other god. He is a trickster his, and Tricksters are the Gods of Inevitable (otherwise catastrophic) Change.
One of the greatest criticisms of Inquisition was the lack of screen time Corypheus had. And how the climax fell flat at the end because he didn’t have enough screen time. This leads me to believe that Solas may be the “Last Boss” of DA4. Because we definitely HAVE a complicated satisfying personal relationship with him that has been set up for two whole games.
So the ending for Solas needs to do a lot of things:
“These are the times in which legends are born or slain” Solas as the Dread Wolf will die
It needs to work for both people who love and hate Solas
In order to defeat the Elven Gods, Rook has to find their weakness, which is Solas’ weakness too (maybe a fatal flaw, or how they can be truly killed) so it can be used on Solas too. Perhaps this will involve Solas trying to obscure this from Rook as best as he can
Solas fully is on Rook’s side against the evanuris, but when they’re taken care of, he doesn’t need to team up anymore
I don’t believe that you will be able to stop Solas’ plans, and I hope that they will change Thgedas’ world no matter what. I hope it’s just a fact of life that the Veil comes down
The story basically needs to involve Solas betraying Rook again, because new players need to experience that feeling in order to be in the same place with him as they were in DA3
It needs to give players a torn situation about him, one that makes you feel he’s reasonable but at the same time make it satisfying to fight him. So I believe this is why he will betray the player again, even if he is getting along with them.
I believe there needs to be a boss fight against Solas because he does have a cool big monster form and people have been promised to be able to kill him
It needs to be satisfying for those who romanced him too, but it also needs to be beautifully sad because part of the draw of the romance compared to all the others in the series is that it’s beautifully sad
For that reason, I suspect (not because I particularly want this to happen, I’m just saying what I see most likely) is that fighting and killing Solas may not actually be optional, and he is killed in every worldstate. This way, everyone gets a last boss fight and everyone experiences pretty much the same story without much branching 
I think the difference between friendly and unfriendly version may be whether he is brought back to life by the efforts of those who care about him after he is killed
So basically:
Veil comes down/magic comes back
Solas helps Rook take down evanuris
Solas betrays Rook when it seems the story should be over
Boss fight with Solas as the Dread Wolf (see: my Tulpa Theory)
Solas is defeated and killed
Story ends there if Solas is hated, (story about Rook getting revenge)
If Solas is loved, Solas is brought back and rebirthed in another freer form through a spirit ritual, perhaps as Wisdom, but some part of it is bittersweet like Rose and Doctor 10 (story about regret).
But basically, no matter how Solas and Lavellan’s story ends, their love enduring will be the path to joy, or them being together. Rook can kill Solas and Lavellan can bring him back. Even if it has to just happen off-screen or in fanfic.
I think it is very likely that Solas kills Varric or another character as a way to transition from passive threat to active threat. Or maybe Rook is responsible because of the theme of regret, idk. But I think we’ll get a great cathartic end for Varric probably.
I think we may have to choose between Varric and the Inquisitor, because it’s similar to the Hawke-Alistair choice
I would be very surprised if the story ended with Solas and Lavellan went off into the sunset together in a perfectly happy ending with nothing bittersweet. But sadly, I don’t really see this happening and I think bittersweet may be the name of the game.
Other things I predict:
We can assume that the Inquisitor will have an optional death scenario when they reappear, where we choose either to let them sacrifice themselves in some way, or save them. So perhaps there is an ending where Solas and Lavellan die together and can be free as spirits, which would also be bittersweet.
I don’t really have predictions for anything but Solas, so the big lore reveals might change the situation so much that none of this applies or makes sense anymore. In which case I will probably be HAVING FUN.
I am not EXPECTING any of this to happen, I am just writing it down and posting it in case I’m right. Anyway please wait until I’m done playing to tell me if I’m right or wrong, and this is just for fun, I wouldn’t mind if the whole game was completely different.
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rpgchoices · 12 days ago
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Very short non spoiler review of Veilguard act 1
I played only to chapter 8, which should be still in act 1, but I am not going to add any spoilers. This is a very generic bulletpoint list of opinions.
GAMEPLAY
Intro is great, art is pretty good too, even the characters
combat is very fun, but I still preferred Inquisition combat
the world is extremely empty. There is one or two talking npc for each faction and that is. Secondary characters do not exist. Quests are all generic (ex. Random nameless character "hey, this person disappeared, can you find them?" with no extra story or explanation)
barely any animals or surprises in the world. The only exploration factor is looking at landscapes and doing some puzzles
there are only three type of puzzles: move object into place to activate door, destroy blight to free door to open, destroy crystal to free door to open. That is it.
choices that matters are identified by the game with a sign, and you will also have a sign that will let you know which dialogue was affected by what
loved the jumping around and the sliding down
you can pet any cat or dog
the world feels empty, empty of lore, empty of characters, empty of animals, quests, people
CHARACTERS
companions are the only characters in the whole game, plus a few associated characters to them
barely any banter and the only banter present is very superficial or more on the funny side
good thing is that if banter is interrupted by a combat it will continue later
my favorite part was seeing characters talk and interact in the lighthouse
do not expect cameo, and if there are cameo they are very short and very generic
companions are very good, very kind, very nice, with little consistency between their characterization and how they behave (ex. Neve is a detective, but she never asks anything or acts differently from other characters or even seem interested in what is going on)
companions seem almost flanderized, with mainly one character trait each
dialogue is sometimes extremely clunky, with "textbook answers" that seem written with AI instead of a writer. It is all "tell, do not show", so it is more likely that a character says "I am shaken" over actually showing how they feel
characters seem to act often like exposition machines, and knows things they definitely should not know
ROOK / PLAYER
amazing character creation options
I played as elf and it has little reactivity, maybe a bit less than Inquisition
the faction has more reactivity, and there are multiple dialogues with your companions about it, mainly little comments that make it feels like Rook has a backstory (much better than inquisition)
Rook facial expressions and movements are a bit strange sometimes, making it seems like he is always smiling and happy even when he should not be
the "purple" dialogue options are a bit meh, definitely not as funny as DA2, and I think "red" might fit more (in my attempt to try and make a more serious Rook)
you cannot really shape Rook's personality
also you cannot disagree with your companions, there is no dialogue choice to disagree or fight with them like in previous games. Most of the dialogue seems to be divided in a few categories: Exposition requests; Flirting; Supportive comment; Joking comment but still supportive.
STORY AND QUESTS
It does not feel like Dragon Age.
The game take theories and secret information from previous games and make it the standard world knowledge
there is no urgency
side quests are forgettable
story is very weirdly paced
each companion has a post-recruitment quest to know them
factions and world seems sanitized. We do not hear about the darker side of the Crows, or about Tevinter's slavery if not in passing
the story is okay but would have benefitted A LOT from hiding the villains and introducing them later. When I say a lot I mean from a 6/10 game to a 8/10 game.
also never thought I would say this, but I miss the Chantry. There is barely any mention of any lore
also only three choices matter - but do they? it felt like everything was a blank state
ROMANCES
By the end of act 1 you can still flirt with everyone.
A lot of flirting options for all characters and if you skip some of them you still get the next ones
I had no romance specific scene yet so it looks like you can flirt with everyone for quite a while before deciding
the flirting is all very PG13 and it is more allusions than actual overt flirting (I mainly flirted with Davrin and Emmrich)
for now I have seen no characters flirting with each other's
I think around chapter 7 and onwards the pacing gets much better, and the writing of the quests a bit more interesting. It honestly felt like a different game in some parts, and I have no idea what happened there. It feels like the game is:
Amazing prologue, probably the best DA prologue yet
First recruitment character and first mission - completely downhill with writing
Pretty slow and weird paced then until chapter 7-8
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nemisuki · 2 months ago
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A Simple Click
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Gamer AU | Finding an outlet to cure her boredom was desperately needed, so much so that she downloads a game full of magic and chibi characters. But what happens when she stumbles across a certain blonde spamming her to join his guild? She takes the offer of course! Gaining a new way to level up, make friends and perhaps even love. 
᧔o᧓ || katsuki bakugo x f!reader, no manga spoilers, no nsfw, online meeting, bakusquad involved, 6.6k word count
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The thought of playing multiplayer games has never crossed her mind. Y/N knew such gaming communities were toxic especially for females. So she strayed away from them and played solo for the most part. But recently as she was mindlessly scrolling through instagram, a gameplay caught her attention. 
The main reason was the unique way the characters looked. They were all chibi and absolutely adorable to her with different accessories and customizable features. The more she looked into this game, the more tempted she was to play. It was multiplayer but she couldn't imagine any toxic people playing this whatsoever. I mean, a chibi game? Yeah right. 
Y/N needed to find a cure to her boredom and her current free-play games weren't cutting it. Now on winter recess from highschool, she had three weeks living in the confines of her room with nothing to look forward to. It felt as if everyone she knew would be going out on travels, besides her. Her family was never one to do family vacations, usually spending the holidays at home. She was beyond bored. 
With not much convincing needed and an empty mind to distract, she went to her laptop and clicked on the app store. Installing the game and settling down at her desk located at the corner of her room. Despite watching a brief gameplay earlier, she wasn't used to these games or its mechanics. This would all be new to her. 
The app ‘Wispy Guilds’ soon popped up on the computer's home screen with a ding! 
Y/N clicks on the icon and loads up the game, not aware of the future chaos she brought into her life. Perhaps it was fate that brought her and a certain blonde together. And it all started with a simple click. 
The program opens and Y/N is welcomed into the opening screen of the app. Faced with a pretty scenery of what looks to be a mythical oasis, different shades of greens and blue filling her screen. It looks to be a forest with a castle-like building in the middle of the area. Little chibi characters walk in and out of the place, majority dressed as wizards and others as knights. While others occasionally wear funny costumes or props. 
Y/N clicks on the bubble letters displayed in the bottom of the screen ‘Create Account’. She types in all her necessary information but pauses when she sees the username section. 
“Aw man you have to pay to get a custom username! This sucks..” she sighs with a hint of disappointment. Her eyes lock on the small dice icon and she mumbles a plea beneath her breath as she hovers the cursor over it. 
“Please nothing too bad” she says as she clicks the icon to generate a random username. Her eyes darted to look at the result…. ‘StarHae’. 
“Oh you've gotta be kidding me! But it could be worse I guess” she whines with a small pout on her face. With that now out of the way, she clicks continue and goes to the next page. The character customization page pops up and Y/N gets right on it. 
Unfortunately there's not much options since she's only level one but she tries picking the cutest options. With no access to the higher level equipment, she decides to put on a starter black cape accompanied with a common level sword. Due to the lack of unlocked accessories, she settles with that and then clicks ‘Finish & Join’. 
Her screen turns into a small loading scene that resembles a portal, almost like she's being transported into another world. Then a few seconds later she is in the game. Her small chibi character spawns in what seems to be in the center of a town. Other chibi players roaming around and visiting merchants or chatting with other people. 
Y/N clicks on the W key on her keyboard to move forward to explore. Her avatar shifts left and right as it explores the town square. This place seems to be the lobby where everyone is able to spawn in and purchase items or trade. She looks around at the other players and notices they're all higher levels from her, as to be expected of course. An occasional low level player here and there is seen roaming around as she walks around the shops, but few are seen.
A bright yellow arrow appears on top of her screen seemingly leading her to this npc character under ‘Quests’. She follows it, her small avatar running towards the yellow area that's lit up to grab her attention. A small tab appears in the middle of the screen once she steps close enough to the character. The npc is an older man with white hair and a beard, a small beginner cape on his avatar. Y/N clicks on the tab and a tutorial quest appears on her screen. 
“Lets see….. Kill five wolves in the hunting grounds” she mumbles out loud to herself. She doesn't have a choice to exit the tab, so this must be required. She accepts her first mission and a few seconds later, another yellow arrow appears to lead her to the different area. Her avatar runs to the yellow circle near the grand fountain in the middle of the town square. And soon a loading screen appears on her screen for a brief moment as her character gets teleported toward the hunting grounds, a forest more specifically. 
A health bar appears and a small tutorial plays to show her the mechanics of the game. She clicks to take out her sword and runs along the path of the forest. The game was surprisingly good quality, she was so engrossed in the beauty of the forest that she was caught off guard on the ambush. A gray wolf suddenly appears running towards her and the game pauses. Text boxes and pointers pop up to teach Y/N some attacks she can use against her first opponent. 
After a moment of reading, she follows the instructions and moves around to find a good angle, then charging at the wolf. It attempts to claw at her but she clicks the ‘block’ button as instructed and avoids taking damage. Then clicking ‘strike’ as the tutorial orders and continuing her attacks. 
Soon the wolf's health bar reaches zero and its injured body disappears with a poof! 
Y/N smiles and continues following the tutorial as follows, slowly learning and understanding how to attack these beasts. Eventually she strikes the last wolf in the area and confetti appears on her screen. She completed her first mission and she even leveled up! 
“Hm, this game isn't so bad! Maybe I should do a few more quests to level up” she says as she teleports herself back to the lobby and walks back to the quests section. Her eyes land on a castle button on the right side of her screen that's locked. Her cursor hovers over it and it states ‘Guild’. She's never heard of that term, but it unlocks at level 15 so she’ll see eventually. 
(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭ time skip a few hours⋆。𖦹 °✩
“This game is addicting” she mumbles to herself as she stares at her new level above her avatar's head. 
Level 15!
She should be heading to bed right now… yeah she should call it a night. 
Just as she's about to click log out, she sees the server chat icon wiggle at each new message. Usually it does once in a while when some players request to trade but not this frequently. It's moving like crazy like it wants her to open it. The universe won so out of curiosity, she clicks to open it and sees some players spamming the chat.
Author's note : I added the cuss words in between brackets so you all understand what Bakugo is originally typing. It's simply to help you know what the censored words are.  Ex : [curse words]  Anyways back to the story  ໒꒰ྀི ´๑  ̫๑`  ꒱ྀིა 
-Public Chat- 
Bakugo : someone join my guild.
Bakugo : cmon you extras I need one player.
Bakugo : oi you ##### [fucks]
Kirishima : bakugoooo don't be so rude and curse or you'll get banned again!
Bakugo : tch shush it, we just need one more extra to join so we can do the guild wars.
Kirishima : cmon man no one's gonna join if you ask like that! 
Bakugo : i shouldn't need 6 players max in my guild to do the war anyways
Bakugo : this is #### [shit]
Kirishima : hey bakubro come back! Don't be so mean!
-End of Public Chat- 
Y/N watches as the character with blonde hair and red eyes goes around to every high level person trying to force them to join his guild. He seems to be max level 100 and has the knight kit equipped, already giving her the impression that he is someone who prefers combat over healing or protecting. His chibi character runs around typing censored profanities to everyone who ignores or denies his request, it was a funny contrast.
A friend of his, a character with both red hair and eyes, follows him around apologizing to everyone for his friend's rudeness. He seems to be the nicer one of the two and clearly trying to calm the situation down. She could tell he equipped the animal shifter kit due to the red scales on his avatar, and like his friend he is a high level but of 95. Her curious mind wonders what animal he could turn into. Animal shifters are a rare kit and can transform into one animal with a lucky roll of the dice for it to be randomized. 
She doesn't have much more time to think as the blonde avatar starts moving over in the direction she is, near the quest station. His red haired friend trailing behind him like a puppy. Quickly she hides in the crowd of other players at the quests station, not wanting to be the blonde's next target. 
-Public Chat- 
Bakugo : one of you extras better join my guild
Kirishima : pretty please? We just need one member! 
Bakugo : all of these ####### [fuckers] are low level
Kirishima : Bakugo!
Kirishima : They are all new! Be nice! 
Bakugo : tch none can even join a clan anyways 
Bakugo : they are too low level
Kirishima : lets try a different server then?
Bakugo : tch we've been at this for a hour 
Bakugo : Oi someones high enough there
Bakugo : hey level 15 
Bakugo : join my guild. 
Kirishima : which one? 
Bakugo : that girl with the cape
Bakugo : hey you.
-End of Chat- 
Y/N reads the chat and whines under her breath, “I'm the highest level out of this small group of newbies… just my luck”. She tries to ignore them and moves her character to the side and walks to the fountain. Only to be followed by the chibi characters of the blonde and the red hair. 
“Damn they won't leave me alone…. But I don't even know what a guild is. I only just unlocked that feature” she mutters with a sigh as she runs around the map. The two characters follow her wherever she runs to. She could just leave but she IS curious about this whole guilds thing. So after much pestering by these two, specifically the blonde, she reluctantly types in chat. 
StarHae : no thank you..
Bakugo : so you do speak 
Bakugo : join my guild noob. 
Kirishima : Bakugo cmon! 
Kirishima : hi can i call u star :3
Y/N couldn't help but giggle at the dynamic between the two, finding it humorous that they're so different. They seem to be in the same guild, a symbol of an explosion above both of their heads confirms her thought. She reads the message from the red haired person and smiles, typing a response. 
StarHae : sure! hello kirishima :3
Kirishima : Just call me kiri! 
Bakugo : so you gonna join my guild or what 
StarHae : what is a guild? 
Bakugo : ugh just join and find out.
Kirishima : a guild is a team basically! 
Kirishima : we go on missions together and earn more prizes 
Kirishima : its better than playing solo and you level up faster!
Bakugo : just join my guild.
StarHae : um…
Kirishima : bakugo is the guild master and i'm his vice captain! 
Kirishima : please join us!
Kirishima : we need one more player so we can do the clan war 
StarHae : um…. whats a clan war? 
Bakugo : you have got to be kidding me.
Kirishima : ah basically all the guilds compete in challenges 
Kirishima : its sometimes quests but we fight with other guilds in matches sometimes
Kirishima : whoever wins gets 10k gold and rare items!!! 
Bakugo : tch this is taking forever 
Kirishima : bakugooo cmon have patience
Kirishima : if we get first then the guild gets popular and more people will join! 
Bakugo : tch we WILL win stupid. 
Kirishima : so will you join us star? 
Kirishima : you'll level up super quick with us! 
As Kirishima explains this all to her, Y/N thinks about this offer. It's not bad at all, and there seems to be advantages to being in a clan. Her level is so low compared to theirs, is it okay for her to just join them so easily? 
StarHae : are you sure you guys want me? 
StarHae : my level is only 15…
Bakugo : tch we know idiot just join or else
Kirishima : our clan has only 5 members 
Kirishima : and you need 6 minimum to participate! 
Kirishima : your level doesn't matter 
Kirishima : dont worry we will protect you!
Bakugo : speak for yourself shitty hair 
Bakugo : just click accept.
Kirishima : pretty please? 
Kirishima : we need a sixth member by today or registration closes!
Kirishima : star dont worry
Kirishima : we can teach you as we play :3 
Bakugo : -_-
After that explanation, a small tab opens on her screen, an invitation to join the guild ‘The Bakusquad’. Y/N looks as Kirishima runs around her avatar in circles trying to convince her, while Bakugo is busy spamming her mailbox with many invitations. She sighs in defeat, this was supposed to be just a calm game for her to play once a while but….. Click! 
Accepted Invitation : The Bakusquad
Y/N watches as the explosion guild emblem appears on her head, the three of them now having matching symbols. Kirishima's chibi avatar now jumping up and down in front of her, clearly happy. The guild button suddenly starts blinking in gold obviously wanting her to click on it. She does and sees she now has the option to teleport into the guilds HQ and have access to the guild chat room and quests. 
Bakugo : tch finally
Bakugo : ill sign us up for the guild war now
Kirishima : thank you star!
Kirishima : you totally saved us!!!!
Adam : can you guys leave now?!
Adam : your spamming the chat!!!! 
Elis : Yeah shush it!!!
Bakugo : HAHH 
Bakugo : FIGHT ME YOU EXTRAS
Kirishima : ah sorry guys ;( 
Y/N couldn't help but burst out laughing at the random messages and the way Kirishima's avatar was bowing in apologies to the random players. While Bakugo was spouting more profanities to the people who were typing in chat. At least this was entertaining, yet what has she gotten herself into….
✦ ⎯⎯ㅤִㅤ୭ ୨♡୧ ৎㅤִ  ⎯⎯ ✦
It's been around 2 weeks since Y/N has joined the guild and to her surprise she is having a blast. Unlike solo quests she can level up much quicker now, to prove it she’s currently level 40! Now she has the option to equip a kit which is very useful for the upcoming event, it unlocks new attacks and weapons available to use. 
“Hm… I think I want to be a mage. I'm not very good at close combat and no one in our guild is one yet. So I'll choose this! Plus I can help give my guild mates some boosts and protection spells!” she says happily with a smile as she makes her selection. She clicks on the mage option and squeals with excitement as she receives her new gear. An enchanted cloak with an adorable dress and boots. She even got a wizard hat and a wooden staff for her spells! 
Y/N didn't waste her money on outfits before, wanting to save it for the future. So this new look was certainly needed! Especially for this week.
It's gonna be the first time since the guild wars started that they'll be fighting another clan. Up til now they've just been completing clan quests like raiding dungeons. Soon it's gonna be her first fight against other players so she's more nervous than she expected. She doesn't want to let her new team down. 
Since she joined she has met all the other members of the guild. Kaminari, Sero and Mina! All of them are nice and often talk in the guild chat whenever they're online. Apparently they go to the same school and forced Bakugo to play with them. Hence why Bakugo is never online whenever clan stuff happens, only joining if 6 players are needed for a specific task. Then leaving right after whenever it finishes. He never turned on his mic either. He's a  complete mystery to her. 
The game offered voice chat for clan members so Y/N and the others often talk on there instead. At first she was hesitant, inserting herself into a new group that already knows each other. Yet she found herself enjoying her time in the presence of these people. She never thought this game would lead to new friends yet here they are. 
Soon the day of the first guild vs guild match came. 
Y/N starts up her computer and logs into the game, feeling a bit uneasy about the outcome of this match. If they lose then they won't be able to qualify for the next round. Thankfully she practiced with the rest of the guild beforehand to strengthen their teamwork skills. However not once has Bakugo joined them on their practice matches. She can only hope this won't cause a problem later on. 
She sees the other members already at HQ and chatting happily through the proximity voice chat they have activated. No nervousness at all detected in their tone. 
 “Ah Star you're here!” Kirishima says as his avatar runs over to her excitedly.
“Heyoooo, we're just waiting for Blasty to join in” Kaminari adds on with his usual hyper tone as he chases Sero around the table who shouts out a quick “Hey Star!” 
“There's my fellow gal! Was worried you wouldn't show up, girl! Thank you for not leaving me with these dummies” Mina says happily as she walks over to the group. 
“Sorry sorry but i'm here now” Y/N says softly with a smile to everyone as her eyes scan the guild room. And a few seconds later, Bakugos avatar teleports inside the room with fresh new battle gear. It looks both enchanted and incredibly rare. 
“Wow man! So this is what you've been doing while you were alone huh?” Sero says as everyone starts crowding around Bakugo to admire his armor. Bakugo says nothing back in voice chat as usual and simply types.
Bakugo : get away from me you damn extras
Bakugo : be ready
Bakugo : we start in 1 minute
Bakugo : don't die.
Everyone scrambles to equip their best armor and gear, it's complete chaos as everyone asks for extra supplies and potions. Y/N already was prepared beforehand so she calmly stands to the side and waits. She watches as Bakugos avatar approaches her and stands there almost observingly. Ah he hasn't joined in a while so he must've just now seen the new kit she equipped for the first time. 
Bakugo : You're a mage? 
Y/N reads the chat box and nervously types back, now seemingly too shy to speak through her mic. She hasn't spoken much to Bakugo in general but she wants to earn his approval. He's the guild master after all. But she can't help but to feel a bit intimidated by him.
StarHae : Yes I can offer support and do long distance attacks :3 
She watches as his avatar stares at her for a while, silently analyzing her new look and skills she presumes. It takes a while, so long that she wonders if he's gone AFK right in front of her after the message. Until she sees a short chat bubble appear in the corner. 
Bakugo : Good. 
A bright smile forms on her face at his message. Sure, it was short and blunt. But from Bakugo? She'll take this as a massive compliment. She watches as he quickly leaves her side to start the battle. From his message alone, she feels motivated to do her best. Hopefully they will. 
It was now time for the guild battle to start. Once Bakugo made sure everyone was prepared, all 6 of them got teleported in front of their castle HQ. The building seemingly teleported onto the battlefield in the middle of a forest. 
“Let's do this!” “Yeah, let's go!” “Just follow bakubro!” “On it!’ 
The group of 6 slowly walk through the woods, cautious of any potential traps or ambushes from the other guild. It's 3 rounds in total without a chance to respawn til a new round starts. 1 life each round. The other guild must be doing the same thing, sneaking around the forest trying to find us. 
“A forest huh” a deeper voice echoed through her headphones, so rough yet smooth that it made her jump a little. Huh? 
“Finally using voice chat huh Bakubro?” Kirishima responds eagerly as he chuckles at the end. You can basically hear the smile on his face from just his voice. 
“Tch shut it shitty hair. Can't type while we're fucking fighting against another guild” Bakugo responds with a small scoff. The others snicker through the mic making Bakugo grunt in response.
“Oi Star, get over here to the front” he says in a somewhat commanding tone. 
His voice…. It's the first time she's ever heard it. She didn't expect that at all. Its deep but nice to hear-
“Oi! Mage! You have ears don't you?” he huffs out seeming to already be annoyed. Ah so he DOES talk in the same way he types. Guess that answers the question she's had for weeks. 
“O-Oh! Yes yes! Sorry i'm going” she says quickly as her head shakes to stop her daydreaming. Her cheeks feel warm to the touch from embarrassment and she's forever thankful this game doesn't have a webcam feature. Or she might really die from shame. 
Her small character quickly runs to get behind Bakugo who's currently leading the group. His avatar looks back at her for a moment then forward again. Clearing leaves and making a path for the group. 
“So that's how you sound like huh” he mumbles almost incoherently through the mic. It makes her heart skip a beat oddly. God what's wrong with her. Getting flustered over a voice when she doesn't even know what he looks like. And what does he mean by that? 
“Oh yeah! You're rarely online so you've never properly had a conversation with Star huh?” Kaminari says as he skips along following the group. 
Bakugo simply grunts in acknowledgement, “Hey Mage. I don't know what training you've done with these extras but just stay out of my way okay? And get ready to use buff enhancement spells on me” he orders out to her.  
Sero sighs at his friend's snappy remark, “Don't mind him Star, he's always like that. Just do your best, we got your back”.  
“Mhm… I know… I'll try-” she says but quickly gets cut off when shots are fired towards the group from the other side of the forest. 
The rounds have begun. 
It didn't take a genius to predict the Bakusquad would easily take the first round. When Y/N watched Bakugo run into the open battlefield attacking with no mercy, she knew he was a force to be reckoned with. She was in a trance as he sent out orders to the rest of them, giving them better positioning to win this. He was amazing, too good. 
So much as when the second round approached, the other guild changed tactics and decided to focus solely on Bakugo. Sending all their attacks at him at once, to which Bakugo must've predicted as he yelled out to Y/N, “Defence spell!” 
“On it!” she says as the spell charges up and envelopes Bakugos character in a green force shield. Healing some minor damage taken as well, a nice bonus she learned a few days ago while training. 
With that everyone except Y/N runs out to take the enemies down at closer ranger. A full fledged group attack and an array of magic blending in the air, metal clashing against each other as well. She tries her best to heal her guildmates while hiding behind the rock, occasionally sending out spells to slow the other guilds movements down. 
Unfortunately she wasn't quick enough to cast a protective spell on Kirishima and Kaminari. Both of them disappearing with a poof as they were cut down by the enemies. Though they didn't die in vain as they took 2 down with them. Mina and Sero successfully took out their foes, winning their individual battles. 
2 PLAYERS REMAINING
Quickly her eyes roamed across the battlefield, the other enemy was currently fighting against Bakugo in a heated clash of swords. Sero and Mina were both low on HP but nonetheless started running towards him to help him out. The Bakusquad had the advantage of 2 extra players, this could be a clean sweep. However her confidence was short-lived as Y/N spotted someone in the air hovering above them. A wizard casting a spell as a large fireball started to form in the sky. This was no low level wizard, bad news. 
“Guys look out!” she says as she emerges from her spot and starts running towards them. Y/N is low on energy and she has no more berries to replenish her magic. Thinking about her options she makes a beeline to Bakugo, “Sorry you two just trust me on this!!!” 
She quickly clicks on her limited spell options, there's enough energy to cast one final spell. This might be a risky move but it's the best one in her opinion. Sero and Mina are both extremely low on HP while Bakugo has more. She quickly approaches Bakugo who got  knocked back by the other player. 
“Bakugo!” Y/N calls out as she runs behind him and holds onto his avatar with one arm while the other rests on his back.
“Oi! What are you doing?! I told you to not get in my way!” Bakugo yells out as the enemy he was fighting starts charging at the two. Y/N ignores him as she quickly puts a protective bubble around Bakugo, the attacker falling back as his sword hits the barrier. She focuses hard and gives any last bit of her energy to him knowing what's coming next, he'll need it. 
“You got this Bakugo! I believe in you!”
Before he could respond, the wizard from earlier shoots the fireball down onto the ground, with a large blast. As predicted Sero and Mina were eliminated by that large blast due to their previous low health. Y/N knew she didn't have enough magic left to protect more than one person, so she decided to put her trust in Bakugo. He was their guildmaster after all, and she knows that the others would have agreed with this decision instead. Her avatar in one swoop, dissolves into thin air from that explosion. 
The green shield she casted on him earlier dissolves immediately but leaves Bakugo unharmed from the attack. Without a second thought he rushed his previous opponent and cut him down. Easily making this a 1v1 with the wizard floating in the sky. 
He curses under his breath as he looks up at the wizard and then back at the spot where Y/N sacrificed herself. He ponders for a moment just frozen on the battlefield as the other guy starts zooming down on his broom.
“Now I'm pissed off” he mumbles to himself as he glares up at the last remaining enemy. 
It was an intense battle but he knew he needed to win. Bakugo doesn't take anything else but a perfect victory, and he refuses having to go to round 3. With this new motivation, he sends attack after attack towards the foe. Taking advantage of the energy Y/N gave to him before she was eliminated. Somehow, he managed to break the wizards broom with his moves, leaving the enemy completely defenseless. After losing his main way to escape, it was a solid victory for the blonde. 
Was anyone really shocked? 
After the victory was granted, the guild was teleported back into HQ. Everyone celebrated and cheered through their mics. But it seems like another person had a different thing in mind. Almost immediately, Bakugo walked straight to her once they respawned at base, not saying a single word to anyone else. 
“Don't pull that self sacrificing crap ever again ya got that?” he spats out as he approaches and stands in front of her. Kirishima quickly tries to deescalate the situation, “Hey man relax! Because of her we won-” 
“We would have won either way shitty hair so shut it” he huffs out pushing Kirishima's avatar out of the way. His avatar grabs her hand and pulls her to the side, away from everyone else. The others watch nervously and attempt to approach but Bakugos avatar turns back around causing them to stay. It was funny to see his chibi character look so scary, he might be the only person in the world that can do that. He looks back at her and sighs seemingly calmer than before. 
“Oi if you pull a stunt like that again i'll kill you myself. I don't enjoy watching my teammates die because of me ya hear me? I dont give a damn if it's just a game” he huffs out as he drops her arm. 
“Got it… sorry” she says shyly through the mic as she tries processing his words. A moment of silence passes between them until he speaks.
“....what's your name anyways?” he says with a softer tone almost as if he's aware of her nervousness. 
“Huh? It’s Star-” 
“Tch. No you idiot. I mean your real name.” 
“Oh…..” she can already feel her face grow hotter the more he speaks to her. Seriously, what's up with this? I guess she should tell him, she hasn't told the others yet either. She doesn't understand why she feels a bit self conscious now but she knows it's because of him, “...Y/N. It's Y/N.” 
“Y/N” he repeats back to her. Her name sounds oddly better whenever he says it. She likes it. She wants him to say it again. 
“Log onto the game at the same time tomorrow” he says as he takes off his expensive armor. 
“Huh? Why? Is there some sort of mission? 
“Because I said so. And don't tell the other extras. So you're gonna join or what?”
“Wait, why can't I tell anyone?” she says confused as she tilts her head. 
“Cause me and you are gonna train alone! You need to practice, don't need you to pull another stunt like you did today. So we're training tomorrow before the next battle” he groans at her slowness. 
“Just… me and you?” Y/N responds a little happier than normal, the idea makes her feel… special to just receive training from him. 
“Hah? Yeah didn't you just hear me! Now don't go blabbering to the other extras, it's a secret.” 
“Okay! I promise I'll join!” she quickly says with a smile. 
“Good. Now i'm logging off, wasted too much time today” he huffs and clicks some buttons about to disconnect. 
“Ah bye-” but before she could finish her sentence his character disappeared. 
Bakugo has disconnected. 
“That jerk! He totally left without saying bye!” Mina says as Y/N walks back over to the group. 
“Hey Star! What were you and Blasty talking about? We couldn't hear from all the way over here” Kaminari chimes in with a hint of curiosity. 
Y/N remembers her conversation with Bakugo and keeps her lips sealed, she was looking forward to tomorrow after all, “Um nothing! He was just telling me to not get in his way haha..” 
“Sheesh! Seriously, that guy is a hot head to the bone. Don't mind him Star, he was just embarrassed being saved by you of all people. Since you're new and all” Sero says while he snickers with Kirishima. 
“Well that should be it for today you guys! It's getting late, so we should log off. Good work today!” Kirishima says happily as they all say goodnight and eventually logging off. 
Y/N clicks the button on her computer, shutting it off as she stretches. She sighs and leans back in her chair. Smiling to herself about tonight. Maybe tomorrow she'll finally get to impress a certain blonde in the game.
(੭˃ᴗ˂)੭ time skip⋆。𖦹 °✩
“That's 10 losses for you and none for me. You're worse at close combat then I thought” Bakugo huffs out as they have a break from training. Eating some berries to gain some of their energy back. Bakugo surprisingly has been using his mic lately which is something she's certainly not complaining about. They have been secretly training together for about a whole week now. Practicing together for hours each day. Yet she hasn't won to him once yet.
Way to go on impressing him y/n…. 
“I can't do it! I'm a mage, close attacks aren't my specialities” she says with a sigh at her failed attempts from earlier. 
“I've seen plenty of mages be good at close attacks. You just gotta try harder idiot” he says as he stands back up ready for another round of training. 
“I don’t know…” Y/N says not wanting to get up and add another inevitable loss to her name. She was embarrassed at him seeing her struggle so much, she just wants to crawl in a hole and never come out. 
“Y/N” he says through the mic in a rough yet soft tone. 
 ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ♡ﮩ٨ـﮩﮩ٨ـ
Her heart quickens at the sound once again. It's been like this ever since that day he first said her name.
“Y-Yeah Bakugo?” 
“Stand up and fight. No one in my guild is weak, ya got that? Tch cmon dumbass” Bakugo scoffs out as he walks over and picks her character up like a sack of potatoes. He leads them both towards the training grounds again, “If you lose then you try again. If you win you keep training. There's always room for improvement, so get that into your skull. No one is perfect.” 
“Even you Bakugo?” she says with a smile at his kind words hidden under his blunt way of speaking. Over time she's gotten used to him by now and knows he means no harm.
“Eh i'm almost there though” he huffs as he speaks in a serious yet cocky tone.
Something about the way he said that compared to his earlier words was amusing to her. He was cocky of course, yet he knew that even he had limits. She couldn't help but to burst out in laughter through her mic. Her stomach felt heavy from the laughs escaping her mouth
“Hahhhhhh?! What's so funny?! You picking a fight?!” 
“Sorry sorry! It's just that you're cute” she says in between giggles while putting a hand over her mouth to muffle her laughter. She didn't even realize what she said at the time, that her inner thoughts slipped out for a split moment. 
Silence was on his end of the mic while she was busy laughing. She calms down eventually when his character completely froze mid walk.
“Hm? Bakugo?”
“What did you…. Erm, actually I'm logging off for today!”
“Huh?! Why?” 
“Because I'm tired, you idiot! Now log off and get some rest!” 
A split of a second later his avatar disappeared, her character falling on the ground, no longer being held up by him. She blinks a few times at her screen confused then logs off as a result. Guess Bakugo got tired of training I suppose. 
After that incident, she noticed that Bakugo hadn't logged into the game for a whole week. Y/N asked around yet the Bakusquad didn't know why either. Apparently he was just busy and didn't have the time to join. She felt a bit disappointed whenever she joined and he wasn't around. Her eyes always scanned the room in hopes of seeing him. 
Until one day she logged in and there he was alone, fixing and adjusting his gear. Quickly she waddles her avatar over, “Bakugo there you are!” she says with a bright smile clearly happy. She sees the way he pauses then turns to look at her, just staring at her for a moment before…
Bakugo : Yeah im here. 
Huh? Why is he not talking… 
“Why… are you not talking with your mic?” she decides to ask hesitantly, the smile slowly dropping from her face. 
Bakugo : Cause
Bakugo : Don't wanna. 
Y/N nervously fidgets with her fingers as she reads the chat. He always used his mic now whenever they were alone. Did she perhaps do something wrong? So he's back to how he used to be? She doesn't like that…. 
“U-Um…..” she speaks before she can think. Her eyes shut as she says her next words, forever thankful no one is around. 
“....I wanna hear your voice… please” 
Silence. 
After no response she says it again in case he didn't hear her. 
“I missed your voice” 
It's quiet for a moment and she's too scared to open her eyes and see in case he responded in chat. That came out weird didn't it? God she's embarrassed. Maybe she should just log out-
“You're an odd one ya know that?” 
His voice echoes through her ears causing her eyes to snap open. Her whole body felt incredibly hot to the touch. He actually turned on his mic for her? He sounds…. less hostile than normal too. Softer. 
“I'm not the nicest guy. Why would you want me to talk in the first place” he scoffs out loud but she can hear the hesitance in his words. Like he wants her to answer him. 
“Because… I like the sound of your voice and talking to you makes me happy!” she says a bit too eager to please him. She mentally facepalms at her cheesy words. 
“Y-You….” he stumbles over his words like he's caught off guard at her boldness. He huffs and continues, “C'mon your level is still too low! Have you not been training while I was gone?! We have to train more!” 
His avatar starts walking to the training grounds with purpose expecting her to follow. 
“Oh okay!” she says as the smile returns to her face, excited to spend more time with him. As they exit HQ and walk together towards the forest, he speaks once more almost as soft as a whisper. 
“....I like it too” 
“Hm? Like what?” 
“Your voice.” 
He speeds up his walking pace so he's far ahead of her, leaving her behind in a complete daze. Was he embarrassed? 
Her hands rise up from the keyboard and cover her warm face as she processes what just happened. But her smile only grew wider. If she only knew how red faced the blonde was behind his monitor. Maybe joining this guild wasn't so bad after all.
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thankskenpenders · 1 year ago
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So I wrote a whole long thing about Amy's tarot cards, but what about, you know... the rest of the Sonic Frontiers DLC? The new alternate story route, the hours of new gameplay, all that?
Having now played it, I'm not sure Sonic has ever had this specific combination of good ideas that make the future of the series look bright, and execution that I fucking hate.
(Full spoilers ahead.)
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The good
There's a lot to like here, conceptually.
First and foremost, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy are finally playable in a new mainline 3D Sonic game for the first time since 2006! Seventeen years! We've been begging for this for so very, very long. Nature is finally truly healing from the fallout of Sonic '06. Early on I hedged my bets and expected them to be locked to Cyber Space or something like that, assuming that there was no way they'd be fully playable in the Open Zone. But sure enough, while they're a bit limited compared to Sonic, they're still all full-blown characters with skill trees to unlock and lots of exploration to do.
We also got a more bombastic alternate final boss fight, after the first take on The End kind of underwhelmed. And it's obvious that Sonic Team has listened to our pleas to focus on the 3D platforming over the forced 2D sections, and to reduce the amount of automation in the level design. This update is chock full of Actual Platforming. Wow! I can only pray this means we never get an area as agonizing to explore as Chaos Island again.
Sure, there's still some jank - especially with Knuckles' movement, which is kinda rough. But if this is the stuff they're trying out so that they can refine it further for the next game, then I'm really excited.
On the other hand, good fucking lord is The Final Horizon tedious. And that tedium sapped most of the fun out of it for me.
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The frustrating
The new scenario massively increases the difficulty over the base game, seemingly out of a desire to give the hardcore players who were posting speedrun videos and whatnot more of a challenge. It's the Super Mario Bros.: The Lost Levels of Sonic. This difficulty comes in many forms throughout your playtime, some worse than others, and continues to ramp up over time.
Rather than giving you a tutorial level, the new scenario dumps you directly into a remixed version of the final island and makes you do some fairly precise platforming with Amy, Knuckles, and Tails - new characters with new movesets that you won't have any experience with. You'll also need to find character-specific Koco that give you free levels, because Sonic's friends all start at level one and certain locked moves in their skill trees will be mandatory to progress. They don't even have Cyloop unlocked at the start. And because they're all low level, that means you'd better steer clear of the beefed-up bosses scattered around the map, which will absolutely annihilate Sonic's friends. (I honestly just avoided them and never bothered beating any of them, not even with my high-level Sonic. I have no idea if they're beatable with the others.)
None of this is explained to you particularly well. I spent my first few minutes with Amy wondering why the attack button did nothing, only to eventually think to check her skill tree and realize that I had to unlock her basic attack. If you don't bother to take the time to read through the skill trees, you'll very quickly find obstacles you have no way of getting past with no clues as to what exactly you're supposed to do.
Adding to this confusion is the fact that objective markers often tell you to go half a kilometer into the sky, and you'll have no idea how to get up there because all of the relevant platforms are out of your draw distance. Many objects seem to only pop in for me when I'm within about 60 meters of them, which isn't a long distance for a high-speed open world platformer like this. I was having this problem running the game with high graphics on PC, so I can only imagine how obnoxious it is on Switch. I'd frequently find myself poking around nearby clusters of platforming objects and praying that they'd lead me to a spring, rail, or cannon that would eventually point me in the direction of the floating objective marker.
There were always complaints about the art direction in Frontiers and the way it relies on floating rails and prefab platforms that are visually disconnected from the natural scenery of the islands, but it's even more dire here. The new platforming sections are dense and complex, but they seemingly didn't have the budget to change the topography of Ouranos Island at all, so it all takes the form of these prefabs. It very strongly gives the vibe of a Forge creation in Halo 3, back when there were no blank canvas maps and people just had to make "new maps" by jamming a bunch of shipping containers and barricades together in the sky above one of the default arenas.
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I was still more or less having fun, though, despite the jank. It's a big creative swing, I told myself! They're trying stuff out! They're experimenting!
And then I hit the towers.
The towers are agonizing because they're SO close to being great. The logical part of my brain understands why some people love them, but god, I just fucking hate them. The platforming there IS cool! These layouts are cool! The individual challenges along the way are a bit tough, but totally doable. You know what's not cool? Making one mistake and slowly falling 800 meters all the way back down to the ground, forcing you to start over. Because none of these towers have checkpoints. For me, this one decision transforms what should have been a fun set of platforming challenges into a massive, unfun difficulty spike.
I enjoy some masocore platformers, but those are typically games with quick deaths and restarts like Celeste, Super Meat Boy, or VVVVVV. Hell, the Mario games tend to get way more difficult than the average Sonic game, and those are obviously all great. Quite frankly, unlike those games, Sonic Frontiers is nowhere near tight or polished enough to make this difficulty feel fair. Bits of jank that I could ignore in the base game due to its lower difficulty are now matters of life or death. Missing a jump because I boosted off an incline in a way the game didn't like for reasons I don't understand is not fun. Falling off a tower because the camera was pointing in the wrong direction while I was in midair and I couldn't see the next thing I was expected to homing attack is not fun.
And it's such a jarring spike when moving from the base game to the DLC that it feels like the game is suddenly quizzing me on skills it never bothered to instill in me. Maybe if you've spent the last year labbing out the movement tech in this game this is all a no brainer, but for the average returning player it's a kick in the dick.
I'm sure I could've beaten these towers normally if I gave them enough tries. They aren't the hardest thing in the world. But I very quickly decided I had better things to do with my life and turned on easy mode, which adds tons of extra springs and homing attack balloons to make all of the platforming piss easy. I wish there was a middle option between Only Up: Sonic Edition and this extreme hand holding, but when given the choice between the two I gladly picked baby mode. I just wanted to see the story.
(The new Cyber Space levels are also long, challenging, and devoid of checkpoints, not unlike the towers. But I only ever found the entrances to two of them. So I only did two. They're theoretically required, because they give you "Lookout Koco" that you need for... some reason? But in a rare act of mercy, Sonic Team put Cyloop treasure spots that give you free Lookout Koco all over the map.)
As I continued, so many little things started adding up to piss me off. Why do you only reveal like five tiny squares of the map at a time? I would've loved to find all the new 1-on-1 dialogue scenes, but not if I had to do dozens of hard mode versions of the stupid little puzzles and challenges to reveal the whole map. Why does every character need their own unique collectibles? What is this, Donkey Kong 64? Why can't I just grab this EXP for Amy when I find it as Tails? Why can I only manually swap characters by talking to an out-of-the-way NPC unlocked right before the final boss? Why is fast travel disabled? Why are the new vocal themes you hear when playing as Amy, Knuckles, and Tails so monotonous, with a single verse repeating over lo-fi beats ad nauseum? Why is the jukebox feature completely disabled throughout the DLC, even after rolling the credits? Why can't Tails homing attack? Why do I have to wrestle with the camera so much while also holding the jump button to fly as Knuckles and Tails? How many right thumbs do they think I have? Why is this animation for picking up animals in the Cyber Space levels so incredibly slow, and why can I still take damage while it's playing? Why does the stupid starfall event have to make it so hard to see what I'm doing when climbing these towers? Why does this shitty combat trial have a popup that makes it seem like I should be using the Cyloop when the actual strategy revolves around repeated parries? And on and on and on...
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The story
What about the new story? Well, there sadly isn't much to chew on here. Most of the DLC has the cast running around and finding different macguffins for arbitrary reasons, as part of some sort of plan to divide up the work on the last island so that Sonic can go train with the spirits of the Ancients and harness the power of his cyber corruption. What the fuck is an Impact Form? I don't know, but Knuckles needs something to do, so go find one.
It's a thin excuse plot meant to make you do platforming challenges around Ouranos Island, with little room for Ian to add any real flavor of his own, even though he certainly tries. Having Sonic meet the spirits of the Ancients who controlled the Titans, who are revealed to directly parallel the personalities of him and his friends, is kinda neat, I guess? It's something. The optional conversations seem to have some fun bits, including both conversations between the supporting cast and additional lore. But again, I only found a few of those because of how tedious filling out the map was.
The writing is also let down by the voice acting - or I guess the voice direction, because I know this cast can do better. Roger's voice continues to be weirdly, distractingly deep as Sonic, which was clearly something that was requested of him just for this game. (For a recent example of him going back to his regular Sonic voice, see this LEGO trailer.) The performances of Sonic's friends are also WILDLY mismatched. This is most clear when they start feeling the effects of the cyber corruption. Knuckles seems to be barely affected at all, Tails sounds like he's moderately hurt and low on energy, and Amy starts completely overselling her pain out of nowhere. The extremely strained performance makes it sound like Cindy's literally being tortured in the fucking booth. I have no idea what's going on over there.
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The final challenges
People have debated whether or not things like the towers and the new Cyber Space levels are fair challenges. What's not up for debate is the fact that Master King Koco's Trial is complete and utter bullshit, and I can't believe they shipped this.
Before you can fight the new final boss, the game forces you to do a boss rush of the first three Titans - INCLUDING the pre-Super Sonic climbing sections - with a hard limit of 400 rings. For all three lengthy, heavily scripted fights. Back to back. You can't even cheese it with the leveling system, because you're forced to do this at level 1. This all but forces you to look up speedrun strats for the Super Sonic fights so that you don't run out of rings and fail the trial.
And the real kicker? They changed the parry just for this trial! Originally, you could just hold down the bumpers endlessly and Sonic would ready himself to parry the next attack, whenever that may hit. Now it requires you to do a "Perfect Parry" with specific timing. And you HAVE to hit those parries if you wanna clear this trial and get to the new ending. Miss a few and you're probably fucked. You just have to reset. Time to go through all those fights, all those climbing sequences, all those QTEs, and all those unskippable mid-fight cutscenes all over again. This is by far the most egregious example of the DLC deciding to quiz you on new skills that the base game never required of you, and it's one of the most absurdly unfair things I have ever seen in a Sonic game.
Easy mode does make this trial easier by making the timing window for Perfect Parries much more generous, but that's all the help you get. It's still easy to lose time failing to parry Wyvern's hard-to-read animations, or to lose rings by getting hit on the climb sections, or for things to just fuck up because these fights were always kinda jank. I gave it a few shots. I looked up guide videos. I tried the Quick Cyloop and stomp combo strat that seems all but mandatory. But I quickly decided that, again, this wasn't a worthwhile use of my time. It just sucks. And I really, REALLY didn't want to overwrite all my fond memories of these Titan fights, some of my favorite setpiece moments in any Sonic game, with memories of this shit ass boss rush.
So I cheated! And if you're on PC, you should too.
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With the worst hurdle out of the way, I turned cheats back off and moved on to the new final boss. It was pretty cool. It's much flashier than the original fight against The End, that's for sure. It's still kinda annoying, and it requires you to do very specific shit without properly telegraphing it, but it's nowhere near as bad as the preceding challenges. I was hoping for one last new metalcore song to go with the new fight, which we sadly didn't get, but at least the new version of I'm Here is good.
The ending is... mostly the same, with a couple altered scenes that don't really change anything in the long run. But overall the new finale was pretty good. I just wish it hadn't been such a slog to get there.
Closing thoughts
Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon wants to be three things:
A patch that adds a new alternate ending that was probably supposed to be in the base game in the first place.
An experimental take on making Tails, Knuckles, and Amy playable again, presumably testing things for the next game. And...
An official Kaizo Sonic Frontiers mod for the sickos.
The thing is, the people showing up for #1 and #2, the main things that Sega hyped up about the update, are not necessarily going to be down for #3. If they had announced some uber-hard new Cyber Space levels for the arcade mode or whatever, I'd be like, neat! And then not play them. I would never touch Master King Koco's Trial if it was an optional challenge. I would leave that for the sickos. But instead, they made the hardest content mandatory for anyone who wants to see the new Good Ending where the final boss gets an actual budget.
I'm mostly left in a state of shock that it shipped like this. I cannot believe they playtested this and decided this was the state The Final Horizon should be released in. That this should be the note Frontiers ends on. That this should be how we remember those Titan fights. That this should be the lingering taste in our mouths as we wait however many years for the next 3D game.
Armchair devs always love to say that things would be "easy to fix," but like... there really would be easy fixes for the insane difficulty and general tedium here! Add a few more tutorial popups explaining what the game expects of you with Sonic's friends. Give the Cyber Space stages and the towers a couple checkpoints. Give the combat trials more generous time limits, especially on the lower difficulties. Remove half of the map puzzles, and make the ones that remain uncover twice as many squares. Skip the startup animation for Knuckles' glide. Let me turn on the goddamn jukebox. Since so much of this update was designed around fan feedback, I can only pray that Sonic Team is still listening, and that they tweak at least a few of these things with a balance patch.
But still, after those many, many paragraphs of complaining... this still somehow makes the future of 3D Sonic seem pretty promising?
Sonic's friends are FINALLY playable again, and the focus is back to proper 3D platforming, rather than railroading players into awkward forced 2D sections in what's otherwise an open world. These are the things that they hopefully want to carry over to the next game. The difficulty? Well, that's just because it's the postgame DLC that's supposed to be the toughest challenge in the game. It's just an unreasonably cruel one of those - an example of how designing and balancing for a vocal minority of your fanbase can really hurt your game. But Sonic Team is onto something here, and I hope that they can learn the right lessons from this expansion and not throw the baby out with the bathwater.
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mythsanddragons · 17 days ago
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“I was feeling epic.”
Welcome to a new legacy based off the television series The Vampire Diaries, featuring both an occult free version for players that prefer realism and an optional occult related track for every generation.
You do not need to have seen the show to play the challenge, however if you want to watch it eventually, there will be spoilers for both The Vampire Diaries and The Originals.
When posting playthroughs, please use the tag #tvduchallenge or #ts4tvduc so others can see your gameplay! This challenge was written by mythsanddragons focusing on the major characters in the series.
Last updated: October 26, 2024
CLICK HERE FOR THE GOOGLE DOC
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GENERAL RULES
It is recommended that while each generation follows each characters’ story, that you don’t try to replicate their story exactly as shown in the show. Even though the goals track their storyline progression through the series, I encourage you to play around, change aspects, and have fun!
The aspirations and skills listed should be completed. You may need to complete other skills for the sims aspiration or career. The skills chosen are more based on personality and hobbies the characters are shown having in the series. When it comes to the aspirations, if there is an ‘and/or’ you may do one or all of the listed aspirations. It’s up to you what you choose for your childhood aspirations. If no teen aspiration is mentioned, you may do what you wish for that character.
The goals are more story oriented than goal oriented, though some correlate directly to accomplishing goals. If you wish to skip certain goals or move them to another category, you’re welcome to. Part one is for teen goals and part two is for YA and above.
Play on whatever lifespan you’d like. I’d recommend a long lifespan or a custom one to be able to accomplish all the storytelling goals without rushing and give you some breathing room, but you’re welcome to try and do everything in a shorter lifespan. You can also change the lifespan for certain generations if they feel like you’re getting through faster than others.
It is suggested that you use mods, especially to accomplish certain goals listed. If you can’t or don’t use mods, you can either do storytelling for that goal or ignore it completely.
You can alter generations to fit your game as this challenge was made with all packs in mind.
Some cheating is allowed, if you like, to reach certain storyline goals or to move things in the needed direction. There are specific areas in certain generations where you might wish to do so to progress the story forward.
In instances where you need to move a lot, you may occasionally cheat for a home if you can’t afford one.
University is listed for most generations, as several of the characters went to college in the series. You’re welcome to pause time during it, shorten it with mods, or not do it at all, if it doesn’t interest you.
You may choose an heir in any way you like. Heirs do not need to be the same in any aspect as the generation’s namesake.
Spin the event wheel whenever you’re told, but if you’re looking for more to do during any generation you may use it to spice things up.
Since the majority of TVD is about grief and learning how to live in the face of it, make sure you celebrate both life and death. For every sim that is important, be sure to have a funeral.
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FAQ
Why are there so many traits listed?
Mostly, it's for variety. You can choose the traits you feel best represent the character listed and/or the sim you’re playing. Also, for people who play with the more traits mod, it gives them the opportunity to define their sim more. Some traits can be swapped out at different times during a character’s lifetime to better reflect what they are experiencing. It’s really up to you. If you don’t know what to pick, feel free to roll for it.
Where do the Occult Optional Goals fit in?
Basically, you’d insert the goals into the list of the non-occult goals. You may place them wherever you like, though in some generations I give clues as to where they might fit in the best. You never have to follow those guides if you have an idea you like better for the placement of the occult goals.
Which generation should I play first?
If you have a favorite, you’re welcome to jump to it. However, I did write Stefan’s generation to be last and I tried to place them in an order where the characters that have interlocking plot lines are further apart in most cases to make it less redundant.
Can I skip a generation if I don’t like it/the character?
If you want! Though, if you’re doing it just because you don’t like a character, you might enjoy playing their story more than watching it because you’ll have a chance to make the character more interesting.
Why is character XYZ not a generation?
I tried to stick to the main characters that were in the series. The only main character I skipped, I believe, is Enzo because most of his life was in captivity or he was a ghost. If enough people want a certain character generation done though, I’m happy to try and create one.
Wait, some of these generations require me to play sims running away or other storylines where they are not in the same household as the previous generation. What if I’m not done with the previous generation’s goals when the next generation is a teen?
There’s a few ways you can handle this. You can stop aging until you’re ready to deal with it or you can rotationally play with your two heirs’ households. I’m sure there’s other ways to handle it as well, if you want to. Get creative!
Do I have to stick with the color palette? 
Only if you want to. They are based primarily on the colors the characters are seen wearing a lot or a color that is associated with the feel of their generation. They aren’t a requirement, but there for fun, as I personally like color associations.
Will this get updated?
If new packs come out that work with the legacy, or if I notice there are goals that aren’t working how I want them too when I play it through, it might!
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LINK TO THE EVENT WHEEL
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RECOMMENDED MODS
MC Command Center
Adeepindigo
Dynamic Teen Life
Healthcare Redux
Highschool Year Tweaks
SimNation Travel
Pandasama – Childbirth Mod
Basemental
Basemental Drugs
Basemental Gambling
Chingyu – More Traits Mod
DQuiet – Sim Control Hub or TitanNano – Control Any Sim
Ellesimsworld – Medical Student Mod
Ellesimsworld – Law School Student
JaneSimsten – Archery Skill
KiaraSims4Mods – CelebritySystem
Lumpinou 
Milestones Expanded
Mood Pack
Open Love Life
RPO Collection
Talents And Weaknesses
LGBTQIA Mod
LaSimLaStars – Mourning Talk
MissyHissy
Highschool Years Tweaks Parenthood Discipline
Attraction Overhaul
My Wedding Stories Interaction Reactions
The Custom Wants Mod
The Hopes & Fears Mod
The Milestone Mod
MizoreYukii – Arranged Marriages
Sacrificial – Extreme Violence
Simsmodelsimmer – Prom Royalty Mod
Utopya – Brawling Mod
Zerbu
Spawn Refresh
The Custom Preference Mod
Go To School
Organized Event Planning
OCCULT SPECIFIC MODS
(Some of these you will only need one of. Read what the mod does before making your choices)
VAMPIRE MODS
CatDevPete – Plasma Fruit Recipes
SonozakiSisters – Deadly Vampires
Triplis – Vampire’s Thralls
Zero
Vampires Can Kill
Immersive Vampires
Reworked Vampire Mods
Baniduhaine – Vampiric Bloodlines
Ilkavelle – Bloody Party Event
WEREWOLF MODS
Chaavik – Werewolf Experience Mod
Thunder1143 – More Interactions Reduce Fury
Thunder1143 – Werewolf Allies Can Pacify
Carl – Better Werewolf Cheats
ChippedSim – Werewolf Tweaks (Including Venomous Bite to Vampires)
Zero – WereChihuahua - Be Less Obvious
HYBRID MODS
Gauntlet101010 – Hybrids Through Gameplay
TwelfthDoctor1 – Occult Hybrid Unlocker & Stabilizer 
GHOST/HAUNTING MODS
Ilkavelle – Spiritualist Seance Event
Lumpinou - Psychic Sims
SPELLCASTER MODS
Rolwen – Werewolf Fury Enhancer and Reducer Spells
Triplis – Become A Sorcerer
Zero
ROM Master Magic
ROM Tweaks
ROM Expand Spell Collection
Expanded Realm Of Magic
Black Magic - Remake
OTHER
SpinningPlumbob – Occult Preferences Mod
Ilkavelle – Vampire Slayer Mod
JaneSimsten – Secret Occults
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GENERATION ONE: Elena Gilbert
“When you lose someone, it stays with you, always reminding you of how easy it is to get hurt.”
►Trauma defines you. Without it, you’re not sure who you are. It makes you want to live and it makes you want to die. You’re not sure how to keep going. Somehow, you figure it out and decide that life is worth living to the fullest. You find that you love to help people and find purpose in assisting others, allowing them to find their second chance as well. With that understanding, that becomes your life: weird, messy, complicated, sad, wonderful, amazing, and above all epic.
COLOR PALETTE: BLUE, LT PURPLE, RED TRAITS: GOOD, CLUMSY, FAMILY ORIENTED, GLOOMY, SELF ABSORBED OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: IRRESISTIBLE, LOVEY-DOVEY, KIND, GENTLE, EMOTIONAL ASPIRATION: GOAL ORIENTED & SUPER PARENT AND/OR BIG HAPPY FAMILY SKILLS: LOGIC, PARENTING, WRITING CAREER: DOCTOR
PART ONE
Start as a teen 
Gain two best friends
Join the cheerleading squad
Get in a relationship with someone from the football team 
Write in your journal at least every couple of days, if not every day
Go to parties in the first half of your teen life and live it up
Complete the Goal Oriented Aspiration as a teen
Have a traumatic event occur that changes your sims’ entire life
Start a wholesome relationship that helps you get past the traumatic event 
PART TWO
Find out you’re adopted and decide if you want to search for your birth parents
Become friends with a teacher
Cheat on your partner with someone who is the opposite of you that you have a steamy/unpredictable dynamic with
Leave the wholesome relationship  
Go to university for biology
Lose someone close to you
Halfway through uni drop out due to feeling lost
If using the med school mod in your gameplay, you may finish uni and instead of dropping out, take a break between uni and med school.
Gain the self absorbed trait
Spin event wheel 3 times and follow through during your break from school
If you do not spin for a fire, have your sims start a fire
Party, drink, go on a bender
Be mean to your friends and everyone you meet during this period of your life
Make a lifelong enemy 
Become best friends with your ex
Start to get your life together (you may swap out your self absorbed trait)
Go back to school
Temporarily separate from your partner for at least two sim weeks
Start doing drugs to get past the pain
OPTIONAL: you may date someone else during this time if you so choose
Either get back together with your partner, your ex, or pick up a new lover
Have at least one child
Get married
Become a Doctor, reach the top of your career
Finish your Aspiration
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Be turned into a vampire
Become obsessed with your sire, doing anything they want
Lose all self control and feed on people, become a temporary menace
Nearly kill at least one of your close friends
Regain your self control and detach from your sire bond
Be given the cure to vampirism from a friend or lover
Become human again
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GENERATION TWO: Caroline Forbes
“When anybody tells me I can’t do something, I prove them wrong.”
►You always feel like you’re playing second fiddle. You’re neurotic, somewhat of a control freak, and know that if you want something done, you have to do it yourself. While you put on a facade of everything being perfect, inside things aren’t so bright and cheery. You often feel as shallow as a kiddie pool, but you’re working on it, and that has to count for something, right? Your life is nothing like what you expected it to be, but you find love and acceptance in unexpected places. You might not always be the first pick, but you’ll always make every moment count.
COLOR PALETTE: YELLOW, PINK, AQUA TRAITS: LOVEBUG, JEALOUS, OVERACHIEVER, MUSIC LOVER, HORSE LOVER, OUTGOING OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: PASSIONATE, SOCIABLE, NEUROTIC, SENSITIVE ASPIRATION: ADMIRED ICON ASPIRATION & FRIEND OF THE WORLD / OPTIONAL: GOOD VAMPIRE SKILLS: SINGING, ACTING, MEDIA PRODUCTION, HORSE RIDING CAREER: MUSICIAN AND/OR ACTOR
PART ONE
Have at least two friends
Have a distant relationship with your parent/s
Join cheerleading and become captain
Complete Admired Icon Aspiration
Have a relationship with an older sim that is toxic and/or abusive 
Get straight As
Manage to get out of toxic/abusive relationship
Make a prom committee club that you run
Have a strained relationship with a jock
PART TWO
Go to university for drama or fine art
Become friends with one of your professors and/or your old high school teacher
Go through a traumatic event
Struggle with one of your parents, have them hurt you 
Become close with your other parent
Start a new relationship
Get stalked by another sim who is obsessed with you
Have them impact your relationship with your partner
Eventually break up due to outside circumstances
Have one of your parents leave you
Have a one night stand with a sim you hate
Become best friends with your best friend’s ex
Gain feeling for them and hook up with them
Miscommunicate with them and become unsure of your relationship
Surrogate for professor/high school teacher 
Decide you can’t give up the baby/babies and move in with the sim you were a surrogate for
Get engaged
Realize you have feelings for someone else
Break off the engagement and start dating the other person
Coparent
Get married 
Player’s choice: You may choose to keep your couple together, become a widow/widower, or break up and get together with someone else
Travel the world (take at least 3 vacations without your children.)
Complete your aspiration
Reach the top of your career
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Become a vampire against your will
Seek revenge on your abusive ex
Drink from plasma fruit as much as possible
Complete the Good Vampire Aspiration
Date a werewolf and/or hybrid
Date a vampire
Have children be spellcasters, werewolves, vampires, or hybrids
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GENERATION THREE: Jeremy Gilbert
“I wake up everyday and I feel okay. But there's something missing, like a hole. Some people, they fit in life or whatever. I don't.”
►You’ve always felt like you don’t quite belong, like you’re alone in this world. You carry an empty feeling inside of you that makes you feel lost. You hold loss close to your chest and are often overcome with a lack of purpose. You try to act like everything is okay so no one worries about you and try to numb the feelings any way you can. You often know you’re making the wrong choice, but you make it anyway. As you get older, you find new ways to cope and contribute to the world around you. You find a strength you didn’t know you had. Will it be enough at last?
COLOR PALETTE: LT GRAY, RED, PINK, GREEN TRAITS: GLOOMY, ART LOVER, GEEK, LAZY, CREATIVE OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: ARTISTIC, HOMEBODY, DIFFIDENT, MOODY, MELANCHOLIC ASPIRATION: PAINTER EXTRAORDINAIRE SKILLS: PAINTING, PROGRAMING, VIDEO GAMING, MEDIUM CAREER: PAINTER OR FREELANCE DIGITAL ARTIST, SECRET AGENT, AND EDUCATION
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Find a sim you like that is hooking up with another sim
Sell weed
Do weed together and other drugs
Get in trouble and get low grades
Hook up with sim you like only to get treated poorly, have a strained relationship 
Fight with sim they were hooking up with
Have sim you like pass away
PART TWO
Become friends with the sim that was your competition
Get involved in art
Meet a new sim to get in a relationship with
Have that sim pass away or move away
Go to university for art
Fall for your sibling’s best friend and get together with them
Make a friend who eventually betrays you
Cheat on your partner with your ex
Have your sibling and your partner find out
Start hitting the gym
Have a two near death experiences during life
Try to get back together with your sibling’s best friend
Work as a freelance artist
Move to a desert world
Become a Secret Agent (get to at least level 6)
Make an art club
Meet up with your art club often, trying to teach sims younger than you art
Roll a six sided die for the number of event spins you need to accomplish (if you get a 1, re-roll)
Complete random event/s
Quit your job
Move back home
Become an art teacher
Either get together with your sibling’s best friend or meet someone new and get into a relationship
Have at least two children
Complete your aspiration
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Die and get brought back to life multiple times
Date a spellcaster
Cheat with a ghost/vampire/other occult
Become psychic, speak with ghosts often
Become either a vampire hunter or a ghost hunter or both (this can be in place of joining the Secret Agent career)
Complete the medium skill 
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GENERATION FOUR: Damon Salvatore 
“Because when people see good, they expect good, and I don’t want to have to live up to anyone’s expectations.”
►You have never been enough. Not for your parents, not for your siblings, not for your lovers. Your life is filled with disappointments — being one yourself and being disappointed by others. You tried to be good, to find love, to be level headed, but everyone turned their backs on you. Instead of living up to expectations, you push everyone away, secretly hoping that one day someone might break through your walls and appreciate you for who you are. Until then, if you’re going to be bad, be bad with a purpose, or else you're not worth forgiving.
COLOR PALETTE: BLACK, NAVY, BURGUNDY TRAITS: HOT-HEADED, DANCE MACHINE, MEAN, PARTY ANIMAL, ERRATIC, SELF-ABSORBED OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: THRILL-SEEKING, UNPREDICTABLE, SMUG, IMPULSIVE, BARFLY ASPIRATION: LIVE FAST & MASTER MIXOLOGIST / OPTIONAL: MASTER VAMPIRE SKILLS: MISCHIEF, MIXOLOGY, CHARISMA, JUICE FIZZING CAREER: CULINARY (MIXOLOGIST BRANCH) THEN BECOME A BAR OWNER
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Complete the Live Fast aspiration
Chase all your love interests
Try several different skills never getting far in any of them 
Rebel against your strict parents, sneak out, try and get away from them
Get grounded at least 3 times
Have your parents favor your sibling/s
Be close to your sibling/s until something happens to diminish that bond (it may be they are your romantic competition like in the show or you may come up with another reason, if you prefer)
PART TWO
Join the military career 
Once you reach lvl 3, drop out
Instantly fall for a sim you have a high attraction score to 
Have a steamy romance where your partner is polyamorous but you don’t want to be 
Fight over other lover/s
Have romance become strained and eventually go your separate ways 
Become a mixologist (culinary career)
Start hanging out at bars at least every couple days if not more
Throw parties the days you’re not at bars
Overindulge on alcohol and woohoo
Obsess over ex, constantly trying to reignite your relationship while having a string of one night stands and other lovers
Treat all other lovers and one night stands poorly
Fight and become enemies with your ex's other lover/s (if you want to kill them because there is more than one, you can but leave one who will be your primary competition — this can be your sibling or not)
Become enemies with a sibling 
Regardless of this, fight anyone that messes with your sibling
Meet a sim that is younger than you that is your opposite, show interest in them
Break off things with your ex for good
Become enemies with your ex
Get together with a sim that is your opposite
Have your ex harass your new lover
Try to fix your relationship with your sibling
After some time, if you’re living with your partner, leave the household (come up with a reason)
Move to a different world and try and live there for a season or two in game
Make a best friend out of an enemy during this time (you can play with this being flirty if you want to, entirely up to you)
Reunite with your previous partner after said break
Lose family relationships
Open and run a bar or a club
You may stay with your partner or choose another if you feel the desire to
Eventually get engaged, married, and have kids 
Roll for how many kids or choose yourself (if following the generations, you will need at least two for the next)
Finish your aspiration
OCCULT OPTIONAL GOALS
Date a vampire 
Become a vampire through a lover 
Indulge in being a vampire, drink from anyone you want
Complete the Master Vampire Aspiration
Threaten, fight, kill whatever sims you want 
Kill at least 5 sims
Kill at least 3 werewolves 
Have your SO become a vampire 
Feed on and kill other vampires for a short time
Become human again together with your SO
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GENERATION FIVE: Elijah Mikaelson
“I have come to believe that we are bound forever to those with whom we share blood. And while we may not choose our family... their blood can be our greatest strength, or our deepest regret.”
►You live by a moral code all your own. Sometimes it’s not always what is right, but what is necessary. You refuse to give up on your family, even when it seems like they can’t be saved. After all, the very definition of broken means that there is something that can be fixed, and you will do anything to make it better. You dedicate your life to everyone but yourself, trying to make up for what you believe are past failings. Will you ever learn to value yourself?
COLOR PALETTE: DEEP TEAL, MIDNIGHT BLUE, BLACK TRAITS: PROPER, SNOB, LOYAL, PERFECTIONIST, NEAT, GENIUS, FAMILY ORIENTED OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: CLEVER, ENCOURAGING, CHARMING, MYSTERIOUS, SMART, ANALYTICAL ASPIRATION: ROMANTIC EXPLORER AND/OR NEIGHBORHOOD CONFIDANTE SKILLS: PIANO, LOGIC, CHARISMA, RESEARCH & DEBATE CAREER: LAW CAREER (PRIVATE ATTORNEY)
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Form a close bond with your sibling/s
Have a strict/difficult relationship with one parent and a close relationship with the other
Have a sibling that is different from you in many ways
Fall in love with the same sim as your sibling
Have that sim choose you
Betray them
Have one of your siblings attack your parent/s
PART TWO
Move to a new world with your siblings
Attend uni for law (do uni from home)
After that attend law school if using mods, if not then join the law career
Find a sim you connect with and make a club only to be ousted as leader eventually
Find a lover
Have your lover become an enemy of your sibling and leave you
Have a brief fling with a sim only for them to die 
Become friends with a sim your sibling cares about
Sacrifice your friendship due to your sibling’s jealousy 
Leave your siblings behind, move to a new world
Make allies, try your best to act against your sibling due to their previous behavior
When confronted with following through, chose to stand by your sibling’s side instead
Find out your sibling is having a child with another sim
Fight at least 3 other sims that dislike your sibling
Spend time with the sim your sibling is having a child with, slowly fall for them
Have them nearly die, struggle and place space between you
Get into fights with other sims whenever your hygiene is low
Have your lover get into an arranged marriage 
Go to therapy 
Connect with a new sim who you hook up with, make them your lover
Have the new lover die in a fire
Get involved in your old club’s politics, assigning a new leader
Get into a fight with your sibling
Have your ex lover either divorce, separate, or lose their partner and be there for them
Optional: have a storyline where your sim gets amnesia temporarily, forgetting those around them
Move to a new world to start over, become a musician
Meet another musician and have a relationship
Optional: have your old lover who was in the arranged marriage die in front of you
*If you are doing the amnesia storyline you make get your memories back
Break up with your lover
Live with your sibling until the end of your days
If you want to marry or reconnect with a lover, you can
Have a child
OCCULT OPTIONAL GOALS
Live among other occults
Become a vampire
Drink from and accidentally kill your first lover
Turn your first sim out of necessity when they find out what you are 
Make a group/club for vampires 
Get ousted as their leader when you abandon them
Briefly have an affair with a spellcaster who dies
Fall for a werewolf/hybrid
Try to make peace with the werewolves and spellcasters
Lose control of yourself and massacre sims when you feel dirty
Have all sims you ever sired died
Get killed by a spellcaster and brought back
Betray and kill a group of vampires
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GENERATION SIX: Matt Donovan
“You can’t possibly hate me more than I hate myself.”
►Corruption is everywhere you turn. You had a rough upbringing and never quite felt connected to your family. You tried to put them first, to keep them afloat, but everything fell apart before you. Even your friends fall victim to losing themselves. You explore the world and take risks before coming back home. You dedicate yourself to trying to better the world around you, to make a difference where you can. After all, as someone once told you: the first rule of truly living is to do what you fear most. 
COLOR PALETTE: LT BLUE, WHITE, LT GRAY, RED TRAITS: ACTIVE, BRO, PROPER, GOOD, PARANOID OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: SPORTY, DETERMINED, MOTIVATING, GYM BUNNY ASPIRATION: BODYBUILDER SKILLS: FITNESS, ROCK CLIMBING, SNOWBOARDING, ENTREPRENEUR CAREER: ODD JOBS & DETECTIVE & POLITICIAN 
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Join the football team
Have a difficult relationship with your parents
Date your best friend that you grew up with
Get broken up with but stay friends
Pine after your ex
Start dating a sim who is popular and has the jealous trait
Have a sibling that does drugs, try and help them stop
PART TWO
Break up with sim you're dating due to their jealousy
Have your sibling pass away
Have your best friend do something unforgivable
Get into a fight with them
Work at a restaurant/bar
Do odd jobs and side hustles to keep yourself afloat
Get into a fight with your best friend when they start dating your ex
Nearly die at least two times
Heal your relationship with your best friend
Meet a sim with the Mean trait
Be pursued by said sim and get into a relationship 
Travel with sim to other worlds 
Have a threesome
Eventually go home and break up
Get into an argument with your friends
Decide to put space between you and them when they chose a different life path than you
Join the police career
Fall in love and get engaged
Lose your partner at your own hand
Decide to leave town and move somewhere else
Try and reestablish a relationship with one of your parents 
Move back to the world you’re from
Leave the police career for the politician career
Complete your Aspiration
Reach the top of your career
Have at least two kids
Optional: meet a new partner and get married 
OCCULT OPTIONAL GOALS
Have a sibling die at the hands of an occult, try and bring them back and instead let them go
Hate occults either as a trait or preference 
Have nearly everyone in your life be or become an occult
Die and come back at least two times
Kill at least two vampires
Date at least two vampires
Be fed on by a vampire and nearly die
Kick all supernaturals out of the town you live in only for them to start seeping back in as you get older
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GENERATION SEVEN: Rebekah Mikaelson
"The first rule of truly living is to do the things you're most afraid of."
►Everything you love turns to ash. You fear being abandoned but it seems like nothing you do can change that. You’re always finding love in the wrong places at the wrong time, desperate to live the fairytale life of true love, growing old together, and having kids. You love through thick and thin, and are more devoted than anyone, yet still it feels like you’re always getting the short end of the stick. You become bitter and resentful, but you keep trying again and again. There is a demon in everyone, and some days it wins, but maybe one day you can control it and finally live the life you dream of.
COLOR PALETTE: WHITE, PINK, MAGENTA, YELLOW TRAITS: MEAN, LOYAL, LOVEBUG, HIGH MAINTENANCE, HOT-HEADED, JEALOUS OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: EGOTISTICAL, ENVIOUS, OBSESSIVE, STUNNING, CRAZY, DETERMINED, NEUROTIC, SALTY ASPIRATION: SOULMATE AND/OR ROMANTIC EXPLORER SKILLS: NECTAR MAKING, ROMANCE, VIOLIN, ARCHERY (MODDED) CAREER: DOCTOR (UP TO LEVEL 4 or 5) &  ROMANTIC CONSULTANT
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Become close to your sibling/s
Try to become popular
Join different after school activities
Try to get prom royalty, get mad if someone else gets it and threaten them
Become close to a sim and fall for them
Get betrayed by your lover
Have your sibling/s take revenge on them
PART TWO
Have a sibling that you’re closest to that is over protective and move worlds with them
Make a friend who ends up using you for something they want
Make an enemy of a sim that acts against your sibling/s
Have at least one mean interaction per a relationship
Get in a secret relationship with someone close to your sibling
Have your sibling find out and forbid it
Get into an argument/fight over it 
Work as a nurse briefly (join the doctor career, leave at level 4 or 5)
Befriend someone at work
Try and find a way to run off with your lover without your sibling knowing
Have your work friend get infected with a disease/poison and die either by accident or at your hands
Have an event happen that causes you to flee to another world with your closest sibling (if you have more than one, leave the others behind)
Leave your lover 
Repeat the same cycle of finding and losing love due to your sibling
Have a flirtation with someone new that your sibling likes
Have that sim choose someone else over you
Hold a grudge against their lover, make them your enemy
Have at least two one night stands
Meet a sim who has the Good trait that you have a connection with 
Get into a fight with your sibling, move out
Slowly move towards a relationship with the Good sim until you hurt someone they care about 
Work towards healing your relationship
Become a better person because of what they’ve taught you (you may swap a trait, if you like)
Go traveling together to at least two different worlds
After the trips are done, decide to part on good terms
Meet up with your family again, keep fighting on and off with your closest sibling
Become friends with your sibling’s SO
Meet up with an ex, start to become close again
Take care of your sibling’s child for them until they become a toddler
Get stuck in an on and off quarrel between your sibling and your lover 
Fight with your lover, wanting them to chose you over fighting with your sibling
Get proposed to, accept
You may choose to continue this relationship, break up and find either someone new or an ex that suits your sims best
Get married to a sim of your choice
Have a child
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Have you and your siblings turned into vampires
Have an affair with a vampire hunter (if not using mods, story tell)
Turn your first friend into a vampire 
Start relishing in brutality, fight and kill at least 5 sims
Have your secret lover turned into a vampire by your sibling
Have your sibling kill most of your lovers
Turn one of your ex lovers SO into a vampire
Become a spellcaster temporarily 
Eventually take the cure, become human
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GENERATION EIGHT: Alaric Saltzman
“I find a way to keep going, because that’s what we do. We find a way to keep going.”
►You’ve never been lucky in love. From a young age when you felt inadequate to when you got older and loss followed you. However, you learned to keep going and move forward, building your family by picking up loved ones along the way. You try to be everything you can be to the people in your life, but you often feel a dead weight. You struggle to connect with people your entire life, but you hope you’ve always done the best you could for those you love. COLOR PALETTE: TAUPE, DENIM BLUE,  MEDIUM GREY TRAITS: BOOKWORM, LONER, SELF-ASSURED, ROMANTICALLY RESERVED OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: NURTURING, COMFORTING, BARFLY ASPIRATION: ACADEMIC / NERD BRAIN SKILLS: RESEARCH AND DEBATE SKILL, LOGIC SKILL, FITNESS FOCUSED ON BOXING, PARENTING CAREER: EDUCATION: PROFESSOR AND ADMINISTRATOR
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Join the chess club
Have acne and glasses
Get the best grades you possibly can
Make a few friends but don’t keep up with them in university
Go out on at least one date
Have a skip prom party with friends for at least one prom
PART TWO
Apply to university for psychology
While at school fall in love with another student 
Get married young
Have them start to behave erratic
End up being left behind, move them out
Move to a new world
Join the education career
Fall for one of your student’s family members (parent/sibling/etc)
Have ex come back into your life, find out why they left, gain a negative relationship 
Have your current relationship get jealous of your past relationship
Get divorced
Have the sim you’re in a relationship with pass away suddenly
Become caretaker to your student, move them in
Try to train the sim you take in in boxing
Fight any sim that attempts to hurt your student
Lose yourself for a while, going to bars, starting fights
Fall for a doctor sim
Attempt to marry this sim only for them to not make it *they may die at the wedding, prior to it, during childbirth, whatever you see fit
Have twins (you may cheat this and you may have more kids if you want after the twins)
Have a surrogate 
Get close to the surrogate
Get engaged
Break up shortly after getting engaged because they love another
Raise your children either on your own or as co-parents
Swap career tracks from professor to Administrator
Have a complicated relationship with your children
Complete your aspiration
Reach the top of your career
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Be a vampire hunter
Have your partner become a vampire
Become a vampire hunter
Befriend the vampire that turned your partner
Go dark side for a while, fight, attack, and kill innocent sims in the name of eradicating vampires
Become a vampire, get cured by spellcaster eventually (you may cheat this)
Attempt to marry a spellcaster
Have multiples that are spellcasters
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GENERATION NINE: Klaus Mikaelson
"What some would call evil, I believe to be an appropriate response to a harsh and unfair world."
►You are pessimistic and paranoid, seeing enemies in everyone around you. As much as you might love, and deeply, your fear of being betrayed controls your life. You want more than anything to surround yourself with those that will see you for who you are and love you regardless, but you are too blinded by your emotions to see clearly those that have stood beside you all along. There is beauty in those that persevere, in those that believe there is good in the world, but so often you allow yourself to drown in the darkness. Will you ever be able to pull yourself out?
COLOR PALETTE: AMBER, OLIVE GREEN, DK BROWN TRAITS: ART LOVER, HORSE LOVER, CREATIVE, LONER, MAKER, PARANOID OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: PESSIMISTIC, SHORT-TEMPERED, DETACHED, DAREDEVIL, ARTISTIC, BAD-NATURED, AVOIDANT, CRUEL, ANALYTICAL ASPIRATION: PUBLIC ENEMY AND/OR LEADER OF THE PACK /  OPTIONAL: WEREWOLF INITIATE (WILDFANG RENEGADE OR LONE WOLF) SKILLS: PAINTING, HORSE RIDING, WOODWORKING CAREER: CRIMINAL
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Form a strong bond with all of your siblings
Lose one of your younger siblings 
Have a difficult relationship with a parent
Get into fights with your parent
Have your parent/s become overprotective, refusing to let you stay out past curfew
Like the same sim as your sibling, have them end up together
Attack your parent and run away from home, taking your siblings with you
Get taken in by a family
Make a friend
Fall for a sim your friend likes, winning them over
Get caught and get into an argument, leave their home
PART TWO
Meet a sim, have them betray you and become your enemy
Destroy your enemy’s family
Be found by your parent and escape to a new world
Adopt a child you feel is being mistreated
Fall out with your siblings, having a good and then bad relationship with them on and off
Find a friend you'd do anything to try and keep
Go around with them threatening sims
Have a falling out after learning they are keeping secrets, fight with them
Meet a sim that dislikes you, be interested in a relationship with them
Try and woo the sim away from their relationship 
Collect a group of individuals that work for you that you consider 'friends'
Work with them to steal something valuable
Hook up with a sim on a whim (either you or they get pregnant)
Have the paternity of the child be questioned by your sim or the other sim
Create a club that is rivals with another club
Have your adopted child turn against you
Meet a bartender you form a connection with, slowly build your relationship
Get into arguments with the rival club often
Send your biological child off for protection but keep in contact with them
Lose the sim you love
When your biological child is a toddler, move them back in with you or the other parent
Share custody with the other parent
Attack members of the other club on sight (if you’re wanting to take it further, you may kill some to escalate stakes)
Fix your relationship with your siblings
Try to fix your relationship with your adopted child
Lose the other parent to your child
Meet up with a sim from your past that you liked
You may choose your ending: either connect with someone you love, meet someone new, or stay with your siblings until you die
Reach level 10 of your career
Complete your aspiration
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Be made into a vampire
Drink from a sim you care for
Make a vampire or werewolf out of your first friend 
Kill vampire hunter sim (if you're not using the mod, you can just kill any sims)
Become haunted by their ghost
Kill the family of the sim that betrays you
Eventually turn the child you adopted
Kill someone and become a hybrid (if not using mods, chose either vampire or werewolf)
Have a child with an occult 
Have the sim you love turn into a vampire and eventually die
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GENERATION TEN: Tyler Lockwood
“Whatever this is inside of me, I don’t want any part of it.”
►You don’t know when the rage started, but you know it completely takes control. You act like an ass, make bad decisions, and treat everyone around you with contempt. It’s hard to understand this beast inside of you, but when an accident happens at your hands, you realize you don’t want to be like this anymore. With the help of your significant other, you start to get it under control, when you lose your grip again. You take off, hoping to get better and to find a new purpose. All you can hope for is that someday you can make things right.
COLOR PALETTE: ORANGE, BROWN, TAUPE, DEEP RED TRAITS: HOT-HEADED, ACTIVE, ADVENTUROUS, MATERIALISTIC OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: HOSTILE, SELF-CONSCIOUS, SHORT-TEMPERED, THRILL-SEEKING ASPIRATION: JUNGLE EXPLORER AND/OR INNER PEACE / OPTIONAL: WEREWOLF INITIATE 
SKILLS: WELLNESS, ARCHEOLOGY, ROCK CLIMBING CAREER: BUSINESS (INVESTOR TRACK)
PART ONE
Join football
Make a friend on the team
Be a jerk to most others
Have a lover you use that you consider less than you
Never let your lover come over your house
Beat up anyone interested in them
Have at least three fights with different sims
End things with your lover (break up, they go missing, or die — player’s choice)
PART TWO
Accidentally kill someone and have the death covered up
Get close to your best friend’s significant other
Make out with your best friend’s parent 
Get caught by your best friend
Get into a bad fight with your best friend where you nearly kill them
Get in a relationship with your best friend’s ex as soon as they break up
Go to university for economics
Have an on again off again relationship with your lover
During your relationship try to behave and get in less fights than normal
Become enemies with a sim interested in your lover
As soon as you break up with your lover, start getting aggressive again
Get into at least two fights
Have your enemy negatively impact your life in large ways
Move to whatever world feels like the mountains/forest to you
Meet sims that help you with your anger
Max out wellness skill during this time
Optional: You may change out your hot headed trait for another
Meet a new sim that you like
Have a relationship for a while
Lose the sim you’re dating (either break up, have them die, or mercy kill them)
Become an explorer, find Jungle Adventure artifacts
Join the business career
Go into the Investor branch
Max out your career
Have at least one kid
Optional: meet a new partner and/or get married 
Complete your aspiration
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Become a werewolf
Date a vampire
Lose control of your rage often, bite at least two sims
Become a hybrid (vampire/werewolf) if using mods
Become friends with a group of werewolves and join their pack
Lose both occults
Reactive only the werewolf side, becoming a lone wolf
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GENERATION ELEVEN: Katherine Pierce
“Life is too cruel. If we cease to believe in love, why would we want to live?"   
►Love is what makes life worth it. All you want is to be seen and loved for who you are. Sure, you’re not perfect. You’d do anything to survive, even if it means manipulating those around you. If your needs aren’t being met, why shouldn’t you do everything in your power to get your way? You’re all about sharing until one day someone makes you feel worthy of love. Will you ruin your life to find a way to be with them? Or will you finally realize that familial love is a bond no one can take from you?
COLOR PALETTE: BLOOD RED, BLACK, SOFT GREEN, PURPLE
TRAITS: SELF ABSORBED, SELF ASSURED, ROMANTIC, MEAN, EVIL, NOSY, NONCOMMITTAL OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: OBSESSIVE, ENVIOUS, COLD-BLOODED, FICKLE, HEARTBREAKER
ASPIRATION: DRAMA LLAMA & SERIAL ROMANTIC AND/OR VILLAINOUS VALENTINE / OPTIONAL: VAMPIRE FAMILY SKILLS: ROMANCE, DANCING, WINE MAKING, MISCHIEF
CAREER: STYLE INFLUENCER
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Complete the Drama Llama Aspiration
Go to parties, flirt with all the cute sims
Crave love so intensely that you believe you are in love with the first sim you meet and have woohoo 
Become disenchanted with your partner after woohoo and find another, woohoo them as well within 24 hours 
Have a teen pregnancy — either you become pregnant or one of your partners does
Give the child up for adoption
Run away from home
PART TWO
Meet other sims that are willing to take you in
Meet a pair of siblings, flirt with both
Make an enemy out of one
Move out and never move back to the world they are from
While you are gone, learn your family has passed
Move locations every season, charming families to take you in, never settling down until you 
Manipulate, flirt, steal, beg –  do whatever it takes to survive
Get taken in by another family with siblings
Have a polyamorous relationship with the siblings until one gets jealous of the other 
Chose one to be a lover you obsess over (in which you believe you love them)
Note: Once you find your sims' obsession, you can choose to keep moving with the option of staying in one place longer than a season or stay in the world your lover is from until the end of the generation. You may return to their world frequently if you choose to keep traveling or have them travel with you.
Either smooth over the siblings jealousy of one another, break up with them, choose one over the other, or another outcome — roll for it or player’s choice
Make at least 4 enemies
Manipulate sims into giving you gifts
Date several sims while trying to convince your obsession they are the one for you
Have your relationship with your obsession go south and gain a negative relationship
Have negative relationships with several of your exes
If our exes become a problem, set them up or kill them (all but the one you're obsessed with, but you may get into fights with them)
When the child you put up for adoption becomes a teen, get in contact with them
Move your child in with your sim
Dedicate yourself to trying to become close to your child despite missing the majority of their life 
Manage to hook up with your obsession again
Have your child get sick and demand your attention
Have your child get mad at you, argue with them
Make a choice between your obsession and your relationship with your child as to which is more important
Focus your efforts on whichever you choose, ignoring the other
Finish your Aspiration/s
Get to the top of your career
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Beg a vampire to turn you after you make one of the siblings your enemy
Turn at least 5 other Sims into vampires
Turn the second pair of siblings you romance into vampires
Complete Vampire Family Aspiration
Betray the 5 vampires that you create
Fight with at least 3 of the Sims you turned into vampires, kill any that are out of line
Kill multiple humans through means other than feeding
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GENERATION TWELVE: Bonnie Bennett
“For the first time, I’m putting me first.”
►Hope is all you have, even though it hurts. Life is unfortunately never easy for you. You give everything you have and everything you are for your friends and family, but in the end you always pay the price. You have strong morals and you try to stick by them no matter what, but if your friends are in danger, you’re not going to stand by and do nothing. One day, you find someone that loves you the way you always wanted to be loved, but you lose them too soon. Will you finally learn to put yourself first and find the true happiness you deserve again?
COLOR PALETTE: AMETHYST PURPLE, MAUVE, GREY, SAGE GREEN TRAITS: SELF-ASSURED, PERFECTIONIST, PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT, LOYAL, AMBITIOUS OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: CHILD OF NATURE, OCCULT ENTHUSIAST, RELAXED, SALTY ASPIRATION: FREELANCE BOTANIST / OPTIONAL: SPELLCRAFT & SORCERY SKILLS: GARDENING, PHOTOGRAPHY, HERBALISM, GEMOLOGY CAREER: GARDENER AND/OR TRAVEL MAGAZINE CRITIC (WITH MOD)
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Have a close relationship with your grandparent
Join an after school activity
Make at least two best friends and two other friends
Get close to your best friend’s sibling
Be there for your friends whenever they call
Become prom royalty
Start dating your best friend’s sibling
Start learning herbalism
PART TWO
Go to university for biology and take photography electives if you can
Get cheated on by your best friend’s brother and break up
Have 3 other love interests for a short time (you maybe become official or not)
Have at least one love interest die
Try to commune with them and attempt to find a way to bring them back by studying the occult
Get in a fight with your two best friends
Get a job as a botanist 
Have an on again off again relationship with your ex
During one of your breakups move to a new world
Become roommates with a sim you dislike
Become close over time (this may be friendly or romantic)
Have them move out without you
Have this loss cause you a depression
Make an enemy in the world you’re living in
When you finally move again, have your enemy follow you
Get in a fight with your enemy
Have your roommate come back into your life again
Meet a musician or an army sim and fall in love
Optional: Using cheats get sick with a long term illness, eventually get cured
Spin wheel for 3 events
Complete events
Lose your lover (death, separation, whatever you want — player’s choice)
Travel the world (visit/live in as many different worlds as possible)
Have at least two kids if going in generation order
Complete your aspiration
Reach the top of your career
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Become a spellcaster
Master Spellcraft & Sorcery Aspiration
Study the occults 
Use your magic for your friends often
Become a master spellcaster in untamed magic
Have your first lover die, bring them back using magic
When they cheat on you, have it be with an occult 
Die at least twice, bring yourself back to life using whatever means you can
Become friends with several vampires
Date a vampire and a spellcaster at some point
Kill at least 2 other occult sims
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GENERATION THIRTEEN: Stefan Salvatore
“We choose our own path. Our values and our actions — they define who we are.”
►You want to believe that people are inherently good, that they are worth fighting for, even when they prove you wrong. There is a hunger inside of you that is inexplicable. It yearns to run free because you don’t know how to deal with the ways in which life has let you down. You drown, over and over again, unable to deal with your problems and face your emotions. Eventually, you find a way, clawing yourself free while reaching for the life you always wanted. Will your life be worthy of being your story or will it all go up in hellfire?
COLOR PALETTE: BROWN, WHITE, INDIGO, DK GREY TRAITS: GENEROUS, GOOD, LOYAL, GLUTTON, MAKER, LOVES THE OUTDOORS OPTIONAL DOWNLOADABLE TRAITS: COMFORTING, KIND, LINGUIST, HEROIC, UNPREDICTABLE, TENDER, UNSTABLE ASPIRATION: RENAISSANCE SIM SKILLS: HANDINESS, COOKING, WRITING, ROBOTICS, FABRICATION CAREER: ENGINEER AND/OR WRITER
PART ONE
Start as a teen
Write in your journal often, because memories are precious to you
Have a close relationship with your sibling
Have a close relationship with your parents while your sibling is distant from them 
Meet a sim, hook up with them
Have this result in a child
If your sim gets pregnant lose this child, if the other does have them lose it without your sim ever knowing they were pregnant **If you want an heir to move on to another challenge after this one, you can have the teen pregnancy go to full term, however do not raise the child with your sim
Join the football team briefly
Decide you want to become a doctor and work towards bettering your grades
PART TWO 
Realize you could never be a doctor, begin working towards engineering
Work as an engineer and/or a writer for most of your life (you may switch between the two)
Meet a sim you’re strongly attracted to
Get in a relationship
Have them also hook up with your sibling
Have your relationship with your sibling become complicated as a result
Have that sim leave you both behind
Get into a fight with your sibling, have them blame you for what happened  
Start drinking 
Move to another world similar to where you grew up
Start getting into fights after getting drunk 
Have a brief affair with a powerful sim and become drinking buddies with their sibling 
Meet a sim who becomes your best friend and helps you stop drinking
Meet a sim that becomes the love of your life
Have them become friends with your sibling, forcing you to spend more time with them
Have an event involving your sibling be the reason you start drinking again
Manage to stop after a while due to the love of your life
Compete for your lover’s affections with your sibling
Have them end up dating your sibling
Make a second best friend
Hook up with the original ex that pitted you against your sibling
Have a tragedy occur involving your sibling
Leave town to try and forget, start a life in a new world
Eventually get brought back to your old world
Reunite with your sibling and repair your relationship
Become friends with the ex you thought was the love of your life
Fall for a sim
Struggle with staying on the wagon
Spin for 2 events to complete
Marry a sim that has two kids (this can be your final relationship or you may divorce and be with someone else, or be alone — player’s choice)
Finish your aspiration
Get to level 10 in your chosen career
OPTIONAL OCCULT GOALS
Date a vampire to be turned by them
Become a vampire
Go on at least three killing sprees in your life, kill indiscriminately while feeding (this can replace the alcoholism or you can do both)
Try to control your hunger by going ‘vegetarian’
Have the person you love become a vampire
Research the cure for vampirism
Help cure them
Kill the first sim that drives you and your sibling apart
Be cured of vampirism
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FAIR USE DISCLAIMER
This document contains copyrighted material, the use of which has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. All rights and credit go directly to its rightful owners. No copyright infringement is intended. Under section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for Fair Use. This entire challenge is not for profit and only intended to be used to enhance gameplay of the Sims and bring about fun for players for individual personal use. 
All quotes cited are written by the creators and writers of The Vampire Diaries and The Originals. Some have been repurposed to write their generation descriptions. I claim no credit for their work.
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starmendotnet · 4 months ago
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RETURN OF THE EARTHBOUND FUNKTASTIC GAMEPLAY SUMMER
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Hello everyone! It is with GREAT ENTHUSIASM that we would like to announce the:
But first… what IS a Funktastic Gameplay Summer?
Us Starmen.Netters are bringing back a long-beloved sitewide tradition! The Earthbound Funktastic Gameplay Summer is an event that dates back to 2001, wherein the community collectively plays through EarthBound over the course of several “Gameplay Points” (GPPs). Everyone is encouraged to play along, and our team of stream hosts will be broadcasting their own gameplay on the StarmanClub Twitch channel. In addition, we will be celebrating MOTHER’s 35th and Earthbound’s 30th anniversary!
Maybe it’s been a minute since you’ve returned to the game. Maybe you’ve never played before! The idea is to get fans, new and old, engaging with Earthbound. With introduction out of the way, let’s move on to the deets:
THE SUBMISSIONS
An integral part of Starmen history is fan submissions, where the community creates fanart about the stream events, and just EB in general. As per usual, here are the categories:
Categories!
Writing: Stories, poems, theories… if you wrote it, it belongs here! Handart: Charcoal, paintings, sculptures… if you made it with your hands, it belongs here! Compart: Digital illustrations, 3D models, pixel art… if you made it with a computer, it belongs here! AudioViz: Music, videos, fangames… if it pertains to audio/visuals, it belongs here!
Prizes!
Winners will receive shiny badges on the forum to show off their mastery of Earthbound funk, as well as forum ranks and avatars!
Of course, opening up the floor to fanworks doesn’t come without its fair share of ground rules. Don’t worry though, it’s pretty simple stuff.
Rules!
Submissions must be related to Earthbound/the Funktastic Gameplay streams
If your submission contains content that would require a trigger warning (violence, sensitive subject matters, etc.) please put it in a spoiler box with a warning.
You may submit as many pieces to one category as you like, but only one can place
You may submit to as many categories as you like
Any submission must’ve been made for this event. No previous works!
THE STREAM SCHEDULE
Keep an eye out in our Event forum for the schedule drop, but livestreams won't be the only thing we've got going on!
THE ADDITIONAL EVENTS
If you can’t catch the streams, don’t worry! The streams are only a small part of our summer programming. In addition, there will be other events to keep the party goin’! These being:
Eagleland Scrapbook (July 15th – August 24th):
Get your cameras out and your bug spray on! This summer, we’re running a collaborative photo book! At the end of the event, your photos will be assembled into a digital booklet for your viewing pleasure. So, where to start? Well, we’re limiting subjects to four categories; birds, flora, fungi, and insects.
A couple notes; you’re more than free to submit multiple photos if you’d like, and there is no judgment on the quality of the photos. Just try your best to keep the camera as focused on the subject as possible. The event ends on August 24th, so get snapping! And most of all, have fun!
EB No Natsumatsuri (August 1st – August 24th):
Our highly calibrated MoonWatch Radar indicates that activity coming from the Annual Gift Man’s base is already approaching usual December levels, and climbing! That can only mean EB no Matsuri has come early, and that can only mean one thing: time to prepare a feast for the Gift Man’s arrival! The beloved Starmen.Net tradition returns, but in a brand new form! Instead of gift giving, we would like to encourage everyone to come up with or find a MOTHER-series themed recipe, make it, and share the recipe and pictures of your delicious dish with everyone! It’s a virtual potluck, and everyone’s invited. (Can’t think of what to make? Make Your Favorite Food, of course, whatever it is!)
And now for our final announcement at this time… prepare yourselves for something very special!
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A NEW AND EXCITING OPPORTUNITY
This message is brought to you by PorcBanc™
The savvy investors over at PorcBanc™ have very graciously offered all Starmen.Net members EXCLUSIVE and PRIVILEGED access to a cutting edge, Earthbound-themed surprise to our Funktastic Gameplay Summer events! A special surprise will be released to the public on July 21st, 2024. Be sure to stay tuned for more details on all your favourite Starmen.Net media channels! Remember folks:
“With PorcBanc™, we guarantee profits HAM over fist!”
Guarantees or promises made by PorcBanc and its affiliated subsidiaries are intended for marketing purposes only and do not hold any legal value.
An event�� by PorcBanc™
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viperbunnies · 2 months ago
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𓍯𓂃𓏧♡ Have you heard of the moon's rabbit?
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Nyallo and welcome to the blog~I go by Tato/Tater or Yu whichever you prefer, also I use they/them pronouns. Welcome to my art blog/twst blog. I'll be posting and archiving most of my art, wips, doodles here, reblogging some art that i like. I'm quite shy, but I'm tired of lurking in the fandom If you wanna be moots just hmu :')
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Do not repost my art or use for A*i learning! Don't forget your daily clicks: https://arab.org/click-to-help/palestine/
Art Masterlist: here! Barren dump acc: @viperbnuy Strawpage (small summary): https://viperbunnies.straw.page/ Current status: In Finals hell ๋࣭݁ ⭑.𖥔 ݁ ˖ ONGOING EVENT: Oc Ask Game!
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[BYF + TAGS + MORE INFO BELOW]
Read BYF: - This blog will be SFW, and while I am an adult I'd much rather if you don't send me NSFW asks. - DNI if you: ship Inc3st/Minors with adults, support A*i art, L0licon/sh0tacon, or fall under any of these. - This blog isn't spoiler-free. If you do not wish to see any spoilers block/filter the tag #spoilers / #twst jp - While my main fandom is TWST as of the moment-- Please do expect that there will be some posts from other fandoms as well. - English is not my first language + I'm neurodivergent, there may be times where I might misinterpret your statement-- clarify it to me gently if i do!
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ASKS ARE OPEN - All my social media are linked on my strawpage, if it's not there it's not mine. - DMS are closed to avoid bot mails, but Mutuals are always free to dm me here (Or ask for my Discord handle if you want to chat!) - I don't mind tags especially from moots! May it be for tag games or something that you think I'd like, feel free to tag me. - I don't mind if you make content featuring my OCs, given that it's done respectfully and SFW. I always appreciate everyone's efforts hehe :>
More about me- - I'm tater! I'm an INFP and Filipino, currently in my last year of Univ so I'm quite busy now (and will be busier in the future) My timezone is GMT+8 but I'm sometimes awake at questionable hours. I like the color blue a lot, and make a lot of OCs. - My love language is gift giving, I do a lot of arts for friends and people I vibe with :3 (Btw please don't feel pressured to give me anything in return! really just interacting with ya'll is enough for me!) - I also don't mind sharing F/Os!
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What to expect from my blog? - Lots of Jamil Viper art, that man cures my artblock and is the main driving force for my art. He is my muse, and I enjoy analyzing his character a lot. - Yumeship/Selfship/Oc x Canon content ! I reblog a lot of yumes from mutuals, and do some yumeship art as well. - Art style practices? My style fluctuates a lot, partly due to me forgetting what brushes I last used and also cause I don't enjoy sticking to one style.
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TAGS
Art related: #Taters doodles - My art tag #Taters fave - Art I'm particularly proud of #Mashed tater - Style experiments/ Art studies / Practices #Taters kid - Personal art of my Original Characters #Viper sightings - Miniseries of Jamil doodles. #Taters inspos - Stuff that I look back on when I need some inspiration
OC / OC x Canon ship related: -> OC MASTERLIST - (WIP) #Oz Damarys - My main twst oc #Ozml - Main tag for my Jamil yumeship (mute it if you want) #AuroraVoid - Main tag for my Silver yumeship #Croccymouse - Main tag for my Yuu and Sebek ship #RiverofMementos - Tag for my Clyde & Idia platonic ship #StripesNClaws - Tag for my Kaden & Leona platonic/familial ship
Miscellaneous: #Taters yap - Some yap session, can be irl or fandom related. #Taters misc - random things, varying from pet photos to etc #Taters straw - Findings from my strawpage #Taters gaming - Gameplay from the many games i play x.x # (Moot's name)tot - Mutuals!
#Taters treasure box - Gifts from others!
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purplekoop · 26 days ago
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So Subnautica 2 got its first trailer today, after already having some teasers and interviews reveal its existence and main new feature of co-op multiplayer, and of course my excitement is right back at its usual highs when thinking about one of my favorite games ever. My friends I've shared the first game with are already hyped for the eventual multiplayer sessions, one even taking it as a sign to play the original on the spot for the first time. But in this excitement I checked the comments on the trailer, and saw some comments that... baffled me. Obviously looking at youtube comments for just about any game is going to worsen your mental health, but beyond the murmurs bemoaning and making edgy comments about Below Zero were people that are excited for the game, and listing what they hope a new Subnautica could offer. Such as... improved combat? New "enemies" and "bosses"? in... Subnautica??
Now, to some people this is probably just petty word choice that just puts Subnautica in line with almost any other game where things can attack you and you can attack them back. But to me, it conveys a misunderstanding of what Subnautica is, and what makes it so so special as a game, beyond just its worldbuilding and survival mechanics, but with its environment, its tone, its heart as a game made with the intention of doing more than just meet expectations.
So, here's:
A Brief Piece on Subnautica, Online Culture, and What Makes a Game Special
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(note: this post will be free of any spoilers for Subnautica 1 or Below Zero, but does contain brief references to real world violence.)
If you took any number of people with a shared favorite game, and asked them why it is, it'd be bafflingly improbable to find they all like it for the exact same reasons. Most mediums of art are like this, but video games especially lend themselves to a greater number of different factors for what makes them enjoyable for different people. Not only can games have audio, visual, and narrative components capable of replicating or outright containing other mediums, but there is the added layer of interactivity and the art of creating a feel of gameplay adds a unique and extremely subjective element to a game as an experience.
Take Sonic the Hedgehog, a series that has a remarkably enduring fanbase for a franchise often panned by outside critics for the gameplay of some entries. While many fans love the series exclusively for the satisfying high-speed flow of some of the games, what draws just as many fans (if not more) is the impeccable soundtracks, or the charming and well-designed characters, or the stories that define those characters, or even the potential for further stories with them that fans realize themselves. A Sonic fan who hasn't even played a single game themselves but still loves the characters, style, music, or whatever other element has just as much reason to be called a "Sonic Fan" as someone who's played every game but never once interacted with the more character and story-oriented side of the fanbase. This dissonance between gameplay-biased fans and fans who enjoy the non-gameplay aspects isn't hard to find, but even within a gameplay focus there's a countless array of potential reasons someone enjoys a game. Minecraft fans for instance consist of speedrunners, minigame server grinders, hardcore challenge runners, people who play on peaceful because they're scared of the monsters, friend groups who goof around on a server playing normal survival badly, absolute mad lads making particle colliders or supercomputers, and your little cousin who just likes building roller coasters. Every single one of these is a valid way to play the game and enjoy it. Even if the core survival mode is the "intended" way to play, it'd be odd to say any of these other options are any less valid.
So... what about Subnautica? More specifically: why my frustration then, if those who see Subnautica's mechanics as a game with enemies and bosses to fight ought to be just as "correct" under this perspective as any other way to perceive the game?
Well, by my own logic, I can't dispute the traditional "fight enemies to win video game" approach as an objectively incorrect way to play the game. If you have Subnautica by whatever means, then you can certainly use the limited tools it offers you to kill any hazardous or non-hazardous creatures you deem fit. You could possibly even use the mods I presume exist that expand the arsenal of conventional weapons you have access to. You're taking an interactive medium and interacting with it how you personally deem fit, in a way that doesn't harm anyone else in any remotely realistic capacity. I can't stop you, or call you an objectively bad person, or even rightly think that much lesser than you.
I can still disagree though, and I'd like to elaborate on why.
Subnautica's lack of conventional weapons or general emphasis on combat is a very deliberate design choice with a very specific point of origin. According to the original game's director Charlie Cleveland, the game was first conceptualized around the time of the Sandy Hook shooting. While recognizing games aren't responsible for these real world atrocities, the idea of making another game that encouraged violent solutions and gun usage wasn't exactly appealing. Instead, Subnautica was made to be a game that encouraged other ways to solve problems. Even the worldbuilding within the game reflects this, as the PDA reveals a terrible massacare led to the banning of fabricating any weapons other than the bare essential survival knife.
This has been the one piece of developer insight on any game that's stuck with me the more than any other. Not to say that I think we should not make games with any kind of guns anymore, that'd be both fruitless and short-sighted. But it's hard for me now to see the world we live in and wonder how we choose to reflect it in the works we create.
For the unfamiliar, I have a few hopeful game projects of my own, one of which is a team-based shooter with the working title "War Bots". It exists as both a love letter to a subgenre I've sunk plenty of hours into enjoying, with the hope to expand and improve on the ideas they present. The violence is intended to be "cartoony", or at least disconnected from realistic violence due to its playable cast being robots and its enemies being hostile plant monsters. Most of their weapons are unrealistically fantastical in some form or function. The overarching story, as pathetically ironic as it may be to try and say, is meant to be a tale warning against mindless violence and mistrust, and that we can only survive by working together to not repeat the mistakes of our past.
I use the tag "war bots" to note my posts showcasing my art and writing about the project. Also using the tag is an entirely unrelated account... using it to discuss developments in drone warfare in the ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. I can't say it feels great knowing I'm sharing terminology and concepts with very real atrocities committed daily on real, innocent people, and using them to talk about a video game I want to make. It doesn't feel right to scrap the project after this much effort, but I don't know how much retroactively applying themes and a story will change the fact that it's. A shooter.
Maybe a bit dramatic, but all that is to say I very thoroughly respect and appreciate Subnautica's active design against violence as an intended solution. Beyond the external reasoning and in-universe backstory, the game also has a very palpable friction against using the tools of violence it does offer you. If you do decide to kill a creature much bigger than a Peeper, which is a tedious process that gets exponentially worse with large creatures, then all you're left with is a corpse. No meat, no materials, even if it's something like a Stalker that has some other means of reaping resources from it. It doesn't poof into a convenient cloud of dust, or dissolve into darkness that gives the deed an excuse as part of a grand war of objective "good" and "evil". It simply remains a limp, static body slowly floating down as a reminder of something that did not need to be done, and brought nothing of value from being done anyways. You could scan it more easily than ever, since it can't run away or fight back. What a reward, huh?
So then... why? If nothing is gained, then why is violence still such a popular and desired approach to play the game? And why does it only seem capable of escalating, with it becoming a contest to see what's the biggest creature you can take down, even if the process is just using a Stasis Rifle to stun it indefinitely while you hack away at it with a pocket knife, a grueling tedium that can't possibly bring any joy? Why did those comments reduce this game's unique approach to dealing with innocent animals to simply be a matter of "enemies" and "combat" in the same way that thousands of other games already offer? When the game down to its very heart and soul wants you to get by in any other way, why is there such a pull to take the path of most resistance anyways?
Well, I think one reason is kind of a natural trajectory that comes out of games as a medium, especially those that interact so heavily with online culture, to pressure players into exhausting every possibility a game can provide and then pushing them further. It feels presumptuous to call it "just human nature", as I think the drive to play games as exhaustively as possible doesn't seem to be a universal experience. Instead, I think it's more often prompted by circumstance. An obvious instance is that someone who doesn't play many different games (either by limitations or by choice) and thus would naturally try to get everything possible out of each one. But I think a more common example, especially for a game with a specific history like Subnautica's, is that it comes as a result of online culture. I recall at the end of playthroughs by the big youtubers that skyrocketed the game's popularity, like Markiplier or Jacksepticeye, one of the last things they did before ending their series was to take down the biggest Leviathans they could. Because after all, they did everything else, right? They reached the ending, had plenty of laughs and screams along the way, what's left to do that's worth doing? But viewers liked the video series, why end it if there's anything left to keep it going? And this isn't to say a big youtuber was the first to try and kill a leviathan, it was probably someone who wanted to got bored and/or wanted something to brag about on a subreddit or steam forum. And then with that community aspect, the cycle perpetuates: "if someone else did it, am I really done with the game until I do it too? Am I too much of a coward for not wanting to sink my time into this like other people already have?". And then after the greatest obstacle has been cleared with tedium but relative ease, the pursuit then becomes to go further. Bigger, badder monsters. better weapons. More rules to make it harder. More challenge. More bragging rights. More because More is all there is left to do.
And then so what we're left with is not only the modding scene of the game being so heavily biased towards these sorts of hyper-aggressive additions, but now the desires of many fans for the actual next game are simply just "More To Kill". Not because it's interesting in of itself, but because that's the expectation.
But is it wrong then for people to want this? Well, no, for reasons I already outlined. But I think it is tone deaf to the artistic intent behind the game, and also to what I think makes the game special.
To me, what makes Subnautica such a special game is how beautifully it surrounds you in a believable world that feels both so warmly familiar and yet so alien, without trying to push into an uncanny valley. The flora and fauna of this world look and move so organically similar to life in our own oceans, yet look distinct in a way that feels oddly more charming than offputting in most cases. I think there is some personal bias though, as I could only sleep most nights as a kid with Finding Nemo on my little bedroom TV, and as a result fell in love with marine life and the lovingly rendered ocean environments that Subnautica captures the feeling of so wonderfully. The way the light dances on the sandy sea floors, the vibrant fish and coral. And looking up from this ocean to see a window of light: which in the game is your guiding target as a lifeline to air in your most dire moments, but was just as much a sign of comfort in hardship and the endurance in life in the film. The very nature of light ties the game into some of my fondest memories in such a profound way.
Of course, for as many people who like me are endeared by the ocean environments the game lovingly recreates, just as many are deeply terrified of the endless, unknowable abyss of the ocean, let alone one with even more deliberately horrifying creatures. I think that sort of dichotomy between comfort and fear is something so unique about Subnautica in particular, where its genre is up for debate as a cozy and uniquely nostalgic survival game or a gut-turning horror game just based on your perspective.
I do think Subnautica's breadth of optional mechanics, while technically being what enables turning its creatures into mere "enemies", are another part of what cements it as one of my favorite games ever. The base building mechanics are so needlessly, gloriously in-depth, to where the inevitable bulk of any playthrough for me is working towards creating a comprehensive mega-aquarium of every species I can put in a tank or growbed. There's also the variety of tools that aren't useful enough to keep your precious inventory space open for at all times, but are so fun to play around with needlessly. Not to be a hypocrite, but it's so funny to breed Crashfish and then use the propulsion cannon on them to make an extremely inefficient rocket launcher that takes too much space to reasonably do any useful damage. Alternatively, you could accidentally hit a big angry fish with your car 47 times to where it's so pissed off it dies by its own fault. Highlight of my streaming career. Regardless, the expansive variety of ways the game lets you interact with it is endlessly endearing, both in spite of and because of the fact you're not required to utilize most of them.
But I think one more big reason Subnautica is special is because it defies a conventional game structure of seeing every living thing that opposes you as an "enemy" that's most efficiently dealt with by getting rid of it. Subnautica hopes you see its world as alive, filled with creatures living their lives in the same way you are. Some of them are meant to be food, for you and for other creatures, but that's part of life too. Every simulated ray of light, bed of sand, patch of coral, and motion of creature is delicately crafted to make this planet feel as believable as possible while still making a satisfying play experience. And by doing so, with just these subtle details, the game offers a question of how do you see this planet, and burdens you to consider the consequences of your presence.
I could absolutely go on further about Subnautica, going more broadly into just what I like about it, but I wanted to keep things ""brief"" just to focus on this more specific topic. I might have lost some nuance or couldn't quite elaborate on every little detail, but I didn't want to leave this tumblr post in production for too long. I was tempted to make an extensive Undertale comparison, as another chronically misunderstood game with the appeal of "these aren't just enemies" that gets boiled down by edgy teenage boys to "how much can I stroke my ego by styling and fixating on the hardest arbitrary challenges it can offer" while completely ignoring any kind of nuance or themes aside from maybe digging into Lore (tm) for the sake of Lore (tm), but it felt like too much of a tangent distracting from the actual subject. I do have a more specific post about Undertale/Deltarune's community and poorly aimed focus that I need to rewrite at some point, but that's for another time.
If you read this far, thank you so much for your time, and hopefully you got something out of my rambling here. I don't often do these long "essay" style posts unless I'm particularly inspired, and hoo boy were those trailer comments inspiring. But this took a bit to write out, so hopefully it was coherent enough to read.
All that said though SUBNAUTICA 2 WOOOOOOOO
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alicelufenia · 4 days ago
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Conquest and Dominion: A Minthara Build
"Once I have had my vengeance and the Absolute is ours to control, people will pledge an oath to our cause. Conquest, and dominion." —Minthara
I'm back in on bg3 after a break, which means even more mods to play with and delay finishing act 2 enhance my game experience! And since my current Dark Urge is the sort who would totally become the Absolute if not for *vaguely waves hands at character growth from interacting with every other companion*, but since as of act 2 she still thinks it's a good idea, and a duo run of her and Minthara would have that as their end game no question, I figured now is the time for Minthara to take up the Oath of Conquest that is her true calling.
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Mods
This build uses just a few mods, MOST of which are available on console, so I'll detail the 100% console-friendly version first. You only need three mods (plus obvious prereqs like ImpUI):
Oath of Conquest Tasha's Feats Mystra's Spells
Technically you could get away with JUST Conquest, but I like the versatility that the other two provide. The addition of several quality "half-feats" that give a +1 ability score means we can do a two-feat multiclass and still can afford to take something other than the mandatory two ASIs.
Onto the build!
Multiclasses
⚔️Conquest⚔️ Paladin / 🧠Great Old One🧠 Warlock (Blade Pact)
That's right we're going lockadin! While any patron could work for gameplay purposes, Great Old One is mandatory for lore reasons. It's literally her lingering connection to the Absolute, the Dominion in the title. Why is she able to have the Absolute as a patron when it's the game's main antagonist? Welllll [REDACTING MASSIVE ACT 3 SPOILERS] suffice to say, it works. Feel free to make use of ALL the Illithid powers on this build too.
Ability Scores
STR: 12* DEX: 14 CON:14 (13+1) INT: 8 WIS: 10 CHA: 17 (15+2)
While we are a bladelock, getting Charisma all the way to 20 isn't strictly mandatory for this build, but certainly an option we'll explore when we get to feats. Minthara is forever cursed to have an 8 Intelligence, sorry I don't make the rules.
*We won't be attacking with Strength, but since we start as Paladin we can grab Athletics and have a semi-decent score to push enemies, and makes us more resistant to being pushed if you go with gear that doesn't prevent movement. If you prefer to dump Strength entirely, you can then bump Constitution to 16, which is what I'd recommend if you're optimizing.
Skills: You'll want to take Intimidation (it's Minthara after all). If you're not taking Athletics, Religion is an appropriate alternative. Otherwise pick what you want, you won't be making lots of skill checks.
Levels 1-2
Paladin 1: Oath of Conquest
We get a really nice violet-themed subclass with this mod, as well as a fantastic level 1 channel oath action in Chosen Adversary. For a bonus action and our channel oath charge, you gain advantage on attack rolls against the target you mark with this ability, and force a Wisdom save when you hit them to make them Frightened. It's just until the end of their next turn, or they take damage again, so it's not the most reliable source of Frightened, but will serve us well until we can get the later features.
Paladin 2: Divine Smite, Spellcasting, Fighting Style
We want to get smites online as early as possible, which is why I recommend taking the 2nd Paladin level before getting into Warlock. You can pick your favorite when it comes to fighting style. I prefer Defense as an always useful option that doesn't care about my current gear. You can be more flexible with your spell preparation since we can actually hit with our spell save DC (we'll get to that) so I'd highly recommend Command and Wrathful Smite, along with old standbys like Bless and Shield of Faith for concentration options.
Levels 3-7
Warlock 1: Great Old One Patron
Right away we're getting the goodies. Mortal Reminder pairs beautifully with our Paladin oath, which loves the Frightened condition, and Minthara, who loves critical hits. Since we are definitely using Illithid powers, Luck of the Far Realms is a guaranteed crit we can use every day, plus our ability to get advantage easily means higher odds for critical rolls.
Our cantrip selection is interesting. It's hard to justify not taking Eldritch Blast to compensate for our lack of a ranged option, however Mystra's Spells means we now have the blade cantrips as options. Both Booming Blade and Green-Flame Blade have their uses; to lock down enemies near you (where we want them) or hit adjacent targets before we get Extra Attack. Regardless of what you choose, I highly recommend picking up Mind Sliver either here or at Warlock 4. That -1d4 to saving throws is going to come in handy (unless you use a broken gear option later)
For spells, Armor of Agathys serves us well, but I'd recommend holding off for now as we'll be getting it later. Dissonant Whispers scales nicely with our Warlock spell slots and is a source of Frightened. I'd also suggest picking up Hex, as it's still useful early on, but we'll be replacing it eventually.
Warlock 2: Eldritch Invocations
The usual picks of Agonizing Blast and Devil Sight work great. If you don't plan to exploit Darkness, I'd go with Repelling Blast as a non-Strength based pushing option. For Spells, I like Magnify Gravity as an area speed reduction.
Warlock 3: Pact Boon
Pact of the Blade at last! Our spell selection depends on our general strategy. Minthara gets a once per day cast of Darkness at this level, but if you are heavily using that strategy you can pick it up here. The problem is it feels real bad to use a Warlock spell slot on Darkness. A better choice would be something like Misty Step (which we no longer get from our oath)
Warlock 4: Feat
This is where the Tasha's mod comes into play. We want to pick a half-feat to take care of that odd Charisma score. In my own game I picked Performer because I wanted Minthara to be able to play an instrument alongside my durge, but you can pick a not-terrible feat instead!
Any of them can work: Actor if you want her to be a face, Fey-Touched or Shadow-Touched for the free spells (Fey is an alternate way to get Misty Step, and I like Shadow for Invisibility, as a nod to her time in the Underdark and a way around having heavy armor), Telekinetic grants yet another way to push without Athletics, and Telepathic is just fully in character.
For our spell I really like Cloud of Daggers for the no-save damage, and can make it really suck for our enemies to be stuck near us (just mind you don't catch yourself in the spell when you cast it!)
Warlock 5: Eldritch Invocation, Deepened Pact
Right on time for level 7 when most parties get Minthara, we have our extra attack now! We can pick Sign of Ill Omen to get Bestow Curse, and for our spell we select Fear. Congrats, you have the 9th level Conquest spells 2 levels early! Especially nice as we won't be getting to 9th level Paladin with this build.
We are also opting to replace Hex (you're definitely not using it by now) and picking the direct upgrade Spirit Shroud. Having a choice of adding 1d8 radiant, necrotic, or cold damage is especially nice when we utilize weapon actions like Cleave. Don't forget, the wet condition doubles cold damage!
Levels 8-12
Paladin 3: Conquering Presence, Guided Strike
A big level for us, we get Guided Strike, which is nice to have I guess, but most importantly Conquering Presence to inflict Frightened to every enemy in a massive area around us. While the Fear spell inflicts the much stronger Fearful condition, this has the advantage of not being a cone, and using a channel oath charge instead of one of our precious spell slots that could be used for smiting. Between Conquering Presence and your Warlock slots both coming back on a short rest, this makes Minthara MUCH less likely to run out of steam in a long adventuring day.
We also get Command and Armor of Agathys as oath spells, which both serve our purposes well.
Paladin 4: Feat
We now have a choice: max out our Charisma score, or get a general feat. Personally, I vastly prefer to pick up a feat here; we have so many ways to gain advantage that we're not hurting on accuracy, and getting our spells to land will not be a problem right around this point in Act 2 (you can probably guess, but we'll cover it in depth in the gear section).
Great Weapon Master is always nice, but again, since I'm building to be mostly weapon-agnostic, I think nothing beats Savage Attacker right now. We have so many bonus dice we can stack on each attack, this is going to raise our damage much more I feel, and still let us use a shield.
Paladin 5: Extra Attack
If you're on Tactician or below, the extra attack we get from Paladin and Warlock's deepened pact both stack. Meaning we now are doing 3 attacks a round, 1 level earlier than a Fighter! Since these don't stack on Honor Mode it's obviously less effective there. As I've never actually completed an Honor Mode run I don't feel confident making an Honor Mode-friendly version of this build.
We also are happy for more oath spells, and pick up Hold Person and Spiritual Weapon, which we LOVE to see! It's never worth it to upcast Spiritual Weapon, as it serves more to have a body to draw aggro and occasionally deal bonus damage. We're a bit late in getting Hold Person, but level 10 is around the time we start seeing more humanoids after the endless wave of undead in act 2, so now is a good time to get it anyway.
Paladin 6: Aura of Protection
An already amazing feature is made even better by our higher than usual Charisma! +4 to all saving throws is WILD, making it much less likely we drop concentration on our nasty, nasty Fears.
Paladin 7: Aura of Conquest
The perfect capstone to our build. All the fear mongering pays off, as now every Frightened enemy within our aura will have its movement reduced to zero, AND frightened enemies take half our Paladin level in psychic damage whenever they start their turn in the aura. Which they will. Because they can't move and we can.
But wait Kaylin! You think. Doesn't the Frightened condition already make a creature unable to move? What's the point of reducing its speed to zero?
An excellent question! First, there are actually several conditions that the game considers part of the "Frightened" status group, which includes both the Frightened and Fearful conditions. Very confusing, I know, but it means all the guys you just made drop their weapons can't even escape you.
In addition, while it's true the Frightened condition makes a character unable to move, their movement speed is unaffected. With zero movement, this means anyone who is affected by this aura and is knocked prone cannot stand up. This is the sort of trick a maiming Barbarian gets to play with, and so can we now with Thunderous Smite.
Gear
And now we need to talk about the hollyphant in the room, the obvious gear combo that takes this from strong to potentially game ruiningly broken.
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Helmet of Arcane Acuity + Band of the Mystic Scoundrel
These two items are the reason why we didn't cap Charisma, and why we don't need to take any spell save DC gear. The Helmet of Arcane Acuity is available right away in act 2, and grants you 2 turns of Arcane Acuity every time you deal damage with a weapon attack. So right at level 7 Minthara can put this on immediately upon joining the team, hit an enemy twice, and you now have a +4 to all your spell save DCs. Use Chosen Adversary with your bonus action, and whatever target you choose is almost guaranteed to fail their wisdom save, and will immediately be Frightened. Next turn you Acuity drops to +3, but you hit a guy two more times, now you have +7. Drink a speed potion, and use any spell you want (like an upcasted Command) and make 3 enemies of your choice do whatever you want because your save DCs are now astronomical. This bonus caps out at +10.
Remember what I said about Frightened and Prone enemies in your conquest aura being unable to stand up? Yeah, you can upcast Command and make all of them grovel, and take them out of the fight until their Frightened shakes.
Which won't happen because your ridiculously boosted spell save DCs apply to their rolls to shake off Frightened. So unless they're immune to fear they are just out of the fight.
But don't worry, we're not done! You can get the Band of the Mystic Scoundrel as soon as you enter act 3. For the low cost of hitting a creature with a weapon attack, you can cast any Illusion or Enchantment spell with a bonus action. What spells do we have that qualify? I dunno how about Command, Dissonant Whispers, Hold Person, frickin' Fear??
Yes please I'd love to cast Fear as a bonus action with my +10 spell save DC. Now five Baneites just dropped their weapons, and they're stuck where they are unable to do anything for the rest of the combat.
So yeah, these two items are like, so game breakingly busted they actually make the game boring and unfun.
In MY opinion. As with all things, your mileage will vary. I can't say I blame you if you want to see Minthara Crit Smite one fucker, Hold Person on two more, then use her two remaining attacks to ALSO Crit Smite those two fuckers. So if you like, go for it!
The alternate: One little cantrip
If you prefer not to use the incredibly broken Arcane Acuity + Mystic Scoundrel combo, there is a more balanced alternative, and that is to take the Mind Sliver cantrip. Giving one enemy a -1d4 to saving throws isn't much in comparison, but with the Mystic Scoundrel ring it's still just a bonus action, and applies to any saving throw that target makes until the end of your next turn, which could help your companions immensely.
Aside from these two, I can just run through a few gearing recommendations quickly. You'll want the best Heavy Armor you can find (+2 Plate with a shield gives 23 AC, not a bad choice considering you want to be surrounded by as many enemies as possible), a bonus to crit chance like The Dead Shot or even using Knife of the Undermountain King as your main hand, Surgeon's Subjugation Amulet to turn crits into boss killers by paralyzing them for follow up crit smites, and The Killer's Sweetheart pairs with the Mystic Scoundrel ring to round out your accessories.
Conclusion
In case you couldn't tell, I really really Really like this oath! It walks this line where the paladin can be heroic or villainous even better than the vengeance oath, and since it lends itself to spellcasting more than other oaths, it pairs nicely with a full caster. If it weren't for the fact we never get 4th level spell slots, I'd call it a top tier paladin multiclass. And while I recognize why Minthara is vengeance oath by default, it doesn't take much prodding to see how she'd fit better as a conquest paladin. Just look at the oath tenets:
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Does this all not sound exactly like how she talks about her plans of conquering and retaking her House, her plans to march on the Sword Coast, even her method of seizing and gathering power in her "stay in Baldur's Gate" ending? For one who has not just renounced Lolth, but pledges to wage war on the Spider Queen and her followers, it feels exceedingly fitting.
It also works for the various evil endings. Should the mc take over the Absolute, this build is primed and ready to slip into power at their side. On the other hand, if the Absolute is destroyed in the end, it is not the end of her ambitions. While I think she'd lose the Warlock levels, no longer having a tadpole or any Illithid powers, I think she'd compensate by becoming a pure Conquest Paladin, and advance to the higher levels beyond the scope of the game.
Alternate Builds
Before I close this post out though, I want to confess that, while the above build is servicable, I personally have gone with something a little different. And it centers around one last mod I didn't mention, one that is (currently) unavailable to console, but I think well worth exploring anyway, especially if it ever does reach console:
Pactbound - A Warlock Overhaul
THIS Warlock variant reworks Warlock from the ground up, using a lot of the new rules introduced in the 2024 player's handbook for 5e. Among those, it expands on Invocations, makes the various Pact Boons Invocations you can take as early as level 1, and moves the patron subclasses to level 3, to match other 2024 phb classes, albeit with a few houserule variants to match the sort of gameplay changes Larian applied to other classes and subclasses in the move from tabletop to video game. This lets us explore some unusual builds, such as:
Conquest Paladin 11 / Blade Pact Warlock 1
With Pact of the Blade obtainable at level 1, we can forgo further levels in warlock altogether, sans subclass, and go the rest of the way in paladin. This is literally Hexadin but better, sacrificing the Hexblade level 1 features for a more useful way to use Charisma for our weapon. This still gets us heavy hitters like the Fear spell, as well as Aura of Courage (it is fitting that the master of fear on the battlefield is fearless herself, as are her allies), and also gets us that delicious Improved Divine Smite. We're a bit weaker on the ranged side, but make up for it by being more durable, harder to debilitate, and just as hard hitting.
More Invocation Options
What I wound up going for in my game is a direct variant on our main build, going 7 Paladin and 5 Warlock, but taking advantage of the new and improved Invocations imported from the 2024 phb. A quick rundown of my favorites: Eldritch Mind (level 2+) - Grants advantage on Constitution saves. Exactly what we want with all our powerful concentration spells, especially as we'll be taking a lot of hits. Otherworldly Leap (level 2+) - Can cast Enhanced Leap and Feather Fall. As they're rituals, no spell slots required. Some handy utility spells we were lacking, and improves our mobility which we are lacking as always, as a paladin. Eldritch Smite (level 5+) - My personal favorite. Once per turn, add 1d8+1d8 per slot level in force damage to hits with our pact weapon, with a chance to knock the target prone. We looove prone, and this is a more effective way to use it, and with the least resisted damage type too! It can also stack with Divine Smite, at least on our first attack in a turn. One With Shadows (level 5+) - The mod lets us select two Invocations at level 5 unlike tabletop, where the extra attack is an Invocation tax, so I picked this up to give Minthy Invisiblity in lieu of taking the Shadow-Touched feat.
Other features from the reworked warlock class:
Magical Cunning - A small bonus, it lets us restore half our warlock spell slots once per long rest. Since they come back on a short rest this is "nice to have" but not vital in any way. Psychic Overflow - Great Old One's level 3 feature in lieu of Mortal Reminder. While we miss the frighten on a crit, this is more reliable, causing a psionic explosion around us, dealing half our warlock level in psychic damage to enemies within 6 meters, when we use a level 1 or higher Enchantment or Illusion spell. Y'know those things we can cast as bonus actions in act 3? Yeah, they just got arguably better.
And that concludes this build post! I'll close with some optional mods you might consider, some obvious recommends, others you may not expect.
Optional Mods
Adjustable Party Limit
Easily the best thing mods have enabled for all platforms. Just take everyone with you! I prefer a 6-character party to prevent things getting too crowded. And if you feel the game got too easy there's:
Tactician Enhanced
As of this writing not currently on console, but it's just come out of beta, so hopefully won't be long before console players can get it too. Can be set to automatically scale enemies based on the current party size. Like the author's other mod, is incredibly well documented in game, intuitive to use, super customizable, and basically idiot proof (only requirement is reading!)
Lighter Half Illithid/Normal Half Illithid
We'll be using advanced illithid powers, so if you don't care for how partial ceremorphosis changes Minthara's appearance (the loss of her beautiful red eyes is the most tragic part) these mods will help. The first one doesn't remove the effect entirely, but does tone it down by 50% and restore the character's eyes (teeth are still a problem). If that's not working for you or you're on console, Normal Half Illithid simply removes the effect entirely.
Cheater's Ring/Cheater's Spell Scroll
Because I DON'T have the time to worry about leveling my characters all the way to 12 when I just want to do the bits I'm interested in. I'm too tired, too depressed and too old for a "do everything" run these days lmao
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phxntomhives · 7 months ago
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Twst theory: the events are all canon, they just fit in a weird timeline for each character
WARNING: Spoilers for Book 7
This is because the events are happening in the dreams created by Malleus' unique magic.
This is just for fun but it always bugged me how much canon the events are. They are not mentioned in the main storyline and the main storyline doesn't really mention them.
Yesterday night I couldn't sleep so I started to thinking about the cards and remembered the groovy animation: there are the thorns covering the card. And there is the black fog (also used when Silver and the others are being trapped in the blot) when the character speaks their line. Then the thorns retract, "freeing" the character and you have the groovy.
An example of a groovy here in case you forgot/don't remember (but litteraly any card is fine): https://youtu.be/vp68GOQnE6w
It would be interesting if this was an hint that the events are just the wishes/desires of someone that became true in the reality that Malleus created. Thanks to Idia we have seen that the dream can reset itself and in general everything goes as intended by Malleus' idea of Happy Ending. It could be that the events happen when the owner is waking up/realizing something is wrong so Malleus uses a panick button and make a nice event for them in order to distract them. Or the person dreaming is just feeling silly and wants to do something different and Malleus just goes "I got you". Plus, if I am not wrong, most, if not all, event are just overall nice, there isn't too much trauma in them (but it is true I am EXTREMELY behind in reading them, I am lazy).
"But the player/us can make decision" my brother in christ, Yuu does barely anything, we are cheerleaders at best. ESPECIALLY in the events. I understand why, on a gameplay level, it is not possible for us to make decision that actively effect the story, but we at most get a line that is slightly different as a reaction. If Malleus can recreate a whole fake universe in a dream I don't see why he can't add a fake version of us to the events, he HAS created a fake Ortho for Idia, Baul and Maleanor for Lilia. He just uses the memories and/or the hopes of the dreamer to create the situation. So maybe the Yuu in the events is just how Malleus and the dreamer sees Yuu. Remember, in this theory everything is working as he intended, even "us". Yuu (player) can't affect the story because Yuu (player) is not living it, it's Malleus' version of Yuu, how HE sees Yuu. Most likely also influences by the dreamer's view. Probably more the dreamer's view of Yuu that Malleus' honestly.
I also like the idea that Malleus just add Yuu since Yuu is basically his favourite human (after Silver/right with Silver) so I can see him going "Yuu brings happyness, let's add them to the dream, it makes sense, they will help make the dream happier."
The I started to wonder: but then why doesn't he add himself to every event? Doesn't he want to be more present in everyone's life? Be invited to stuff and spend time with them? What better opportunity than this, since he is adding himself already to the entrance ceremony? My polite guess is that he knew it would become too weird for the dreamer if he suddently appeared everywhere when he was barely seen until that moment, so he decided to cast himself aside for most events to be less suspicious. Idia realizes almost immediately something is wrong thanks to the insane gatcha luck so imagine if he suddenly found Malleus everywhere? "Why are you here, you aren't supposed to be here????" it would immediately raise suspicious from everyone.
This being said, the theory is likely wrong but I had way too much fun trying to guess who would be the owner of each dream-event. So I tried to think about it and here is my results, feel free to share if you think it different! (Under the cut because it would become kilometric)
Part 1 because it has become SO MUCH LONGER than expected
Happy Beans Day - Seize the Golden Harp!
SSR Azul, SR Jade + Jack, R Cater.
Dreamer - I feel like this is easy: Azul's team won and he is free from the pain of P.E. (felt). So I feel it's pretty safe to assume it's his dream. I do believe this challange could happens also in the main story since it's a yearly tradition, but it would be fun if Azul dreamed of it and maybe changed the outcome. In the happy dream, his team won while in reality he is still stuck with the lessons (I feel your pain Azul).
Why the others are present - I wouldn't be surprised if this is just how the teams were in the main story, and Azul just changed the finale. I don't remember if the first event had the Malleus VS Lilia fight but I like to think that is the real Malleus and he was just training a little to see how much he can affects the dreams and just have a nice sparring session.
Fairy Gala ~Festival of the Spring-Calling Fairies~
SSR Leona, SR Jamil + Kalim, R Ruggie
Dreamer - This was already harder, because no I don't think being the SSR automatically means you are the dreamer. It's too easy and with event with multiple SSR it would be more complicated (plus, this game would become boring quickly). So I reread it quickly and since "Leona and Kalim were tasked by Crowley to infiltrate the Fairy Gala" I believe Kalim would be a nice fit. He is there, dancing, spending time with Jamil and getting to know Leona and Ruggie better, which I don't think he would mind!
Why the others are present - he goes everywhere with Jamil and deeply cares about him, so I can see him trying to add Jamil to the dream in any way possible to enjoy more things together. I feel he could see Leona and Ruggie as a "do not separate" situation so, of course they would come together in the dream too. The reason for "why Leona?", it's because of the "Exotic" (tho I deeply disagree with the term ofc) theme. Vil and Divus are there because they can easily be considered the best for the costumes and training in any situation.
Ghost Marriage ~Proposal of Destiny~
SSR Ace, SR Riddle + Epel, R Rook
Dreamer - well, I think we can all agree it is definitely not Idia lol. As my biggest kin, I can promise you that if I were to dream of being kidnapped I would also be also the one saving myself and I would not want to have a squad of people to come to dig my grave deeper help me. We can also all agree that, most likely, all the slapped boys are definitely not the one dreaming. I don't think Ortho would dream can he dream? of his brother being kidnapped. Sam also doesn't feel quite right. I think it is pretty safe to assume again one of the guys that got the card is the one dreaming (yes I don't feel safe assuming that this is true for all events). But then who? Riddle is off the chart because the rulesTM were almost broken and he was desperate to fix it. I guess he would dream something more peaceful that either follows the rules or completely ignore them. Rook is also off the chart, he can see beauty in everything so he would not make Eliza reject everyone if anything I see him going more for an harem ending. Also he would not let Vil's face be ruined by a slap, I think. Ace or Epel that is the question. My heart is screaming Epel just because he can let go of his frustration by fighting, and he could finally hit Vil (Eliza did it, but it would be his dream soooo). Buut my mind reminds me that Ace has dropped that he had a girlfriend that left him. Seems like a pretty big lore to drop if Epel is the one dreaming. I can't find a reason for Epel to dream about Ace telling of his romantic past. Plus if I am not wrong he is the one that in the end plays the major role of making Eliza realize her feelings. So, for as much as I would like to say Epel, I think the dreamer is Ace.
Why the others are present - for chaos. And the Drama.
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satoshi-mochida · 11 months ago
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God of War: Ragnarok free DLC ‘Valhalla’ announced
Gematsu Source
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Publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment and developer Santa Monica Studio have announced God of War: Ragnarok free downloadable content “Valhalla.” It will launch on December 12.
Here is an overview of the downloadable content, via PlayStation Blog:
(Spoilers for God of War: Ragnarok below)
Journey to Valhalla
God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla will be an epilogue to the events of God of War Ragnarok that follows Kratos on a deeply personal and reflective journey. Set after the decisive battle against Odin and Atreus’ departure, Kratos has seen a path for himself that he never thought possible before. Brought to the mysterious shores of Valhalla accompanied only by Mimir, Kratos will enter its unknown depths to overcome trials within himself and face echoes of his past.
Combat Reimagined
The team here at Santa Monica Studio challenged ourselves to make something different from anything we have done before in God of War history. God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla celebrates the combat you know and love from God of War Ragnarok and blends it with fresh, experimental elements inspired by the roguelite genre. Each attempt in Valhalla will encourage you to master different aspects of Kratos’ arsenal as you face new combinations of enemies and some surprises along the way!
Fight, Learn, Grow
In Valhalla, defeat in combat is not the end of a warrior’s spirit. If Kratos falls, he will reawaken outside the doors ready for the next try. During each attempt, you will learn and adapt to the challenges Valhalla has to offer. The more you overcome, the more resources you’ll gain that can be put towards permanent upgrades that affect both Kratos and even Valhalla itself. Accumulating rewards and knowledge during your attempts will help you get ever closer to discovering the mysteries that await Kratos within.
Master Valhalla, Master Thyself
The shore of Valhalla humbles all those who wish to enter. Kratos must cast off his armor and equipment, and instead build towards both per-attempt and permanent rewards. Kratos will have access to all his weapons and fully-upgraded skill trees at all times, but must commit to a shield and path of Spartan Rage for each attempt. As you overcome the trials of Valhalla and explore its depths, you will make choices between temporary Glyphs for which Stats to upgrade, which Perks to select, which Runic Attacks to wield, and more. Each attempt can play out differently based on the rewards you choose, so keep your strategy in mind when making selections! Wise preparation, adaptability to the challenge at hand, and command of your abilities will be the keys to mastery.
Play in Style
Armor in Valhalla is for appearances only, so don’t hold back when customizing for style! Unlock different looks, then mix and match your favorites between attempts to get Kratos looking fighting fit for all your Photo Mode needs.
Choose your Challenge
God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla has five difficulty settings that have been specially crafted and tuned to the unique gameplay of the downloadable content. Each difficulty setting increases the rewards you’ll gain from battle, and you can swap freely among them between attempts (including to and from the highest difficulty setting, Show Me Mastery). As your skills grow, we encourage you to try out some of the higher difficulties to earn more rewards and test your mastery over Kratos’ arsenal! Between the five options, you will be able to select the level of challenge that is most fun for you. To help further customize your gameplay experience, the downloadable content will continue God of War Ragnarök’s standard for accessibility settings.
Play at Any Time
God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla is a separate experience from God of War Ragnarök, so you don’t need to worry about going in without certain upgrades, equipment, or story progress. If you think the DLC sounds fun, you can jump in at any time! However, if you are concerned about narrative or gameplay spoilers, we do recommend that you finish God of War Ragnarok first as God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla serves as an epilogue to the story of the base game.
A Gift to the Fans
If you own God of War Ragnarok, you will be able to download God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla for free on December 12 at PlayStation Store. On behalf of everyone at Santa Monica Studio, we want to wish everyone a happy holiday and extend our heartfelt gratefulness for the incredible support you’ve shown us over the past year. We truly are fans of our fans, and we hope you enjoy God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla when it comes out next week. We can’t wait for you to play and share your experience with us by using #GodOfWarRagnarokValhalla or #GoWRV on social.
God of War Ragnarok is available now for PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4.
Watch the announcement trailer below.
Announce Trailer
youtube
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demifiendrsa · 11 months ago
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youtube
God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla - Reveal Trailer
The free "Valhalla" DLC for God of War Ragnarök will launch on December 12, 2023.
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Key visual
First details via PlayStation Blog
Journey to Valhalla
God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla will be an epilogue to the events of God of War Ragnarok that follows Kratos on a deeply personal and reflective journey.
Set after the decisive battle against Odin and Atreus’ departure, Kratos has seen a path for himself that he never thought possible before. Brought to the mysterious shores of Valhalla accompanied only by Mimir, Kratos will enter its unknown depths to overcome trials within himself and face echoes of his past.
Tumblr media
Combat Reimagined
The team here at Santa Monica Studio challenged ourselves to make something different from anything we have done before in God of War history. God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla celebrates the combat you know and love from God of War Ragnarok and blends it with fresh, experimental elements inspired by the roguelite genre.
Each attempt in Valhalla will encourage you to master different aspects of Kratos’ arsenal as you face new combinations of enemies and some surprises along the way!
Tumblr media
Fight, Learn, Grow
In Valhalla, defeat in combat is not the end of a warrior’s spirit. If Kratos falls, he will reawaken outside the doors ready for the next try. During each attempt, you will learn and adapt to the challenges Valhalla has to offer. The more you overcome, the more resources you’ll gain that can be put towards permanent upgrades that affect both Kratos and even Valhalla itself.
Accumulating rewards and knowledge during your attempts will help you get ever closer to discovering the mysteries that await Kratos within.
Tumblr media
Master Valhalla, Master Thyself
The shore of Valhalla humbles all those who wish to enter. Kratos must cast off his armor and equipment, and instead build towards both per-attempt and permanent rewards.
Kratos will have access to all his weapons and fully-upgraded skill trees at all times, but must commit to a shield and path of Spartan Rage for each attempt. As you overcome the trials of Valhalla and explore its depths, you will make choices between temporary Glyphs for which Stats to upgrade, which Perks to select, which Runic Attacks to wield, and more. Each attempt can play out differently based on the rewards you choose, so keep your strategy in mind when making selections!
Wise preparation, adaptability to the challenge at hand, and command of your abilities will be the keys to mastery.
Tumblr media
Play in Style
Armor in Valhalla is for appearances only, so don’t hold back when customizing for style! Unlock different looks, then mix and match your favorites between attempts to get Kratos looking fighting fit for all your Photo Mode needs.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Choose your Challenge
God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla has five difficulty settings that have been specially crafted and tuned to the unique gameplay of the downloadable content. Each difficulty setting increases the rewards you’ll gain from battle, and you can swap freely among them between attempts (including to and from the highest difficulty setting, Show Me Mastery).
As your skills grow, we encourage you to try out some of the higher difficulties to earn more rewards and test your mastery over Kratos’ arsenal!
Between the five options, you will be able to select the level of challenge that is most fun for you. To help further customize your gameplay experience, the downloadable content will continue God of War Ragnarök’s standard for accessibility settings.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Play at Any Time
God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla is a separate experience from God of War Ragnarök, so you don’t need to worry about going in without certain upgrades, equipment, or story progress. If you think the DLC sounds fun, you can jump in at any time!
However, if you are concerned about narrative or gameplay spoilers, we do recommend that you finish God of War Ragnarok first as God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla serves as an epilogue to the story of the base game.
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A Gift to the Fans
If you own God of War Ragnarok, you will be able to download God of War Ragnarok: Valhalla for free on December 12 at PlayStation Store.
On behalf of everyone at Santa Monica Studio, we want to wish everyone a happy holiday and extend our heartfelt gratefulness for the incredible support you’ve shown us over the past year. We truly are fans of our fans, and we hope you enjoy God of War Ragnarök: Valhalla when it comes out next week. We can’t wait for you to play and share your experience with us by using #GodOfWarRagnarokValhalla or #GoWRV on social.
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