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samssims · 9 months

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Hi Sam! I was wondering if I could ask for some advice on how to make simblr fun again? I love storytelling (it's how I have fun with the game) but lately with writing posts and even in game, I just find myself stressing over if it's good/interesting enough or if I took good screenshots, if my writing is good, etc. I love this game and sharing my stories with this community, so it sucks to feel like this. Thank you sm ♥

Oh Nonny, how I feel this pain. I wish I had a sure fire answer to this but sadly there isn't just one thing that will work.

I will put some advice below for some things that have worked for me in my experience if you're interested in trying them out to try to find that spark again!

Now I have been on tumblr sharing my sims since 2013 so I have seen the community change a lot. Things change, people come and go, it's just the natural way of things. So a lot of the time your community can change around you and so a few years ago sims storytelling was really popular and it was the thing everyone was doing. And I mean everyone.

But now things have sort of fallen off or shifted and there is no shame in that for those who moved onto other things and hobbies. Sims storytelling, at it's core, is a hobby. No one is making money off of it (unless you write it all down and get it published in which case, hell yeah go you!)

That being said, finding your spark again is going to be finding what YOU like about storytelling in the sims.

So here are some tips you can try out in the game to keep it fresh and exciting:

Play the Game

The game has changed a lot and added a lot. It came out in 2014. It's about to be 10 years old. With expansions still being added. Honestly having a family where you can just play through what the game offers you can offer inspiration on how to use in game things for story related things later on.

I have found having a lowkey gameplay (for yourself or even for your blog if you are posting) is an easy way to stay active in the community while keeping things low stakes and casual for yourself while you work on finding your spark again.

Change Up your Post Style

Idk about you Nonny, but nothing gets me less motivated than having to edit photos. If I could just point, shoot, and post, I would have content coming out my ears. Which is what I started doing with my Princess Legacy. All I do is crop it. I add some things here and there but really it's all pretty much easy.

Now I have done it all.

Prose on photos.

Prose under photos:

Icons Only:

Gameplay Only:

And finally just cropped:

Now what is the best? That is personal preference especially for the project you are doing. However I have definitely discovered the crop method to be SUPER helpful.

It makes me not have to worry about the whole photo. Sometimes I have this SUPER awesome detail in the back of a photo but when I crop them I lose all that. Which is not good for storytelling lets be honest but does force me to focus on what is actually important in the shot.

Example: Here is the full cottage photo from above You can see that I cropped out a lot of the cottage in favor of being able to see the deer and swans as i thought that was more a cozy fairytale vibe than just the cottage itself. I lost a lot of this detail yet the point still came across.

TBH the paired crop photos also makes me cut out a lot of access photos if they don't have a pair. It's sort of made me realize how much I don't need to take screenshots of. Though I am definitely an overtaker of photos so I always have plenty to choose from. Sometimes I even queue them then look back and realize they aren't needed and delete. It's humbled me a bit.

I could break down every one of these posting styles but that's a whole other thing you didn't ask about.

TLDR of this section is to experiment with how you post. You can have a lot of fun with that.

If Something is Boring, Skip it.

Do you hate the infant stage? Age them past it. Do you hate the winter months in game? Set seasons to never have winter. Do you hate in game holidays ruining your plans? Delete them all from your calendar. Is it a crucial part to your story? Not anymore. Write around it. Or find some creative angles and dialogue to write over it.

Make the game fit you!

Follow the Inspo

Have inspiration to make a new sim in CAS? Do it! Want to make a whole new save? Have an idea for one scene that could start a whole story but you have nothing else for it? DO IT!!!

The game is supposed to be fun. If you have inspiration for a project, live in it. Have fun with it.

But Sam, what if only lasts 2 weeks and I never touch it again?

Me too, babes. Happens to me all the time. Own it. Keep it around in case you want to mess with it later. Have 10 million saves. It's your life and if it brings you a moment of joy to work on it, then it totally is worth it.

If you want to be like me: Be chaotic and post it too. Then private the posts later when you decide to never touch it again. Never delete tho. I always tend to regret deleted things.

Find Your Community

You should ultimately write and create for yourself, but find others who are doing it too! Lift them up as well! Use one day a week on your blog to give reblogs or shoutouts to your fellow creators and writers! It's all about lifting each other up and making friends who all have the same hobby as us.

Try New Challenges

A lot of my sims storytelling started from inspiration around legacy challenges. I loved to take challenge rules and figure out how to make a story around them. But remember: Rules are made to be broken. Especially in favor of a good story.

If you are working on a current challenge/story, find another to merge with it or to give yourself a heck of a fun plot twist. There are no rules!

Have Fun!

This is sort of the whole crux of it, right? And if you're not having fun then...

Take a Break

You are not beholden to your queue! Let it die out! Disappear for 6 months. Return when you want. Go play Animal Crossing or BG3 or whatever it is at the moment. Sims is a hobby. But it does not have to be your ONLY hobby. Let your brain rest.

In my case, whenever I leave the sims I am always filled with ideas and ready to come back in like 3 days.

This could also mean take a break from your save too. Maybe spend some time in CAS. Or in build mode. Or cleaning out your mods. You can still do sims things while letting your story brain rest.

TLDR:

There is no right answer for this, Nonny. I promise your photos are all gorgeous and your story is wonderful! But creativity like anything ebbs and flows so give yourself that grace to let yourself rest and just enjoy the game again, or enjoy time away from it! You deserve it you superstar creator!

#Sam Speaks #nonsims #looooong post #so sorry I got carried away #had to wait to get to my laptop to answer this one #which is why it took me a minute #hope you find your spark nonny!

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synthshenanigans · 9 months

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woah hey a year has been passed wowie :0

First two weren't posted here cos they were too long ago & not CJish related but love the way he took up 70% of the year lol

[ Full images + templates below :} ]

[TW for Bright Colors, maybe blood & very very vague themes of depression/suicide for like 2 drawings I believe]

Long text about the arts if anyones actually curious!!

January: An old OC I completely forgot about until making this. He's based on old radio like things :}

February: Played Person 5 Royal last year & drew Joker cos idk he's neat. Fun fact, the same day I fully finished the game was the day Storm & a Spring came out. Also while grinding in the game, I had his Bidding & VoaC covers on repeat. Which was a bit annoying to do since they weren't on Spotify yet & YT on mobile didn't have looping then.

March: The Hawaii Part ii album cover :} I did post that eventually but that's the time I actually made it. Had listened to TME a couple of months before then which got me into the album, so months later I drew it cos why not? [Also the month Vol.1 fully released on everything. What's funny is my gallery for that day was a handful of memes I saved at 4am before I fell asleep. And then the next image saved is when I woke up which was a screenshot of the whiteboard in TfaR lol]

April: First main Jash art !!! And its not even with any of the songs from Vol. 1 lol. I had his Moss cover on repeat again & now that all of Vol. 1 was out, I drew Heart in some moss. Or really in the image from the video.

May: Lil animation I made of Heart with the song Don't Hit the Lights! Link to my post & the song can be found here :}. Still really like the song & even the drawings. Might remake em eventually idk

June: Sky/socialc1imb's Clue AU! I like murder mysteries & this one was real interesting so I drew it a lot lol. Might remake that one or one of the others I made at somepoint? It'll be a bit later if I do but ye

July: A redraw of a HMS piece I originally made back in May, based on the Three Wise Monkeys thing. I like the idea of it so I keep wanting to remake it.

August: I honestly can't remember if I posted that art or not. Actually yea I don't think I ever did PFFT. It's one of the few drawings I did of myself this year & its from CJs Not Perfect cover [as you can tell by the lyrics on it]. Also one of the very very few vent-ish arts I made. I like the background more than anything but its still neat ig?

September: Art for one of the best songs ever. I love Fine, I'm Fine its so good & I listened to it for like 70% of the 20+ hours it took me to make the drawing. Still proud of it so there's the sketch I drew on paper, the one on my tablet & then the final versions.

October: There was a lot from this month due to Jashtober. I still like this one lot & it wasn't insanely rushed so I picked this one to show lol.

November: I have no idea why I made a fun lil soul. I was having an identity crisis over my art style & ig decided to draw the guy who is a walking identity crisis/j

December: Same as September. One of my favorite songs ever was covered & released, so I made a drawing like everyone else lol.

#time is wild #also love the way my art style changes each month or two #anyway tho im actually pretty happy with how much better I've gotten #have a lotta plans for more HMS/CJ stuff #just quite busy & overloaded atm lol #more will hopefully come tho #chonny jash #moss post #-atlas art-

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fierykitten2 · 29 days

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Just some normal selfies of my Scarlet and Violet aces (not in the order I took them, I actually took all the Violet photos first)

Okay if it wasn’t obvious from the cooler uniforms I’m wearing (I really playing into those orange and purple colour schemes I did not realise just how orange Rose would look and just how purple Lavender would look), the nicer distance from the camera that actually allows me to see my Pokémon including Blueberry, the fact that I’m very clearly not in Paldea right now and me randomly adding a Turtwig (which I have no way of obtaining given I don’t have HOME or NSO and the Torterra (I had to look up Grotle on Bulbapedia I genuinely forgot Torterra’s name) raids haven’t happened yet) and a Piplup (okay there I could’ve just bred Emperor with a Ditto. I didn’t, but I could have), I have the DLC now! Btw I had another picture with Quax where he was posing but he was also slightly transparent and luckily I took several selfies with him

Some more screenshots of the babies

I kinda had a plan that depending on who I got from the eggs, I would name any Turtwig “Turt”, any Chimchar “Chimp” and any Piplup “Pip” even if I got the same in both versions. I was honestly hoping (just to match with my starters and event-exclusive Paradox Pokémon) I’d get one Piplup and one Turtwig, preferably Turtwig in Scarlet to finally give myself a Grass-type I can use there when I need one and Piplup in Violet to finally give myself a Water-type I can use when I need one (because apparently Blade the Unrivaled wasn’t good enough) and look at this, I actually somehow managed that (as an extra bonus, me imagining situations where I get the DLC and my aces meet the Sinnoh starters I tended to prioritise Turtwig for Scarlet and Piplup for Violet because that was the “best case scenario”)! I was convinced I’d get Chimchar in one version or end up getting a Piplup in Scarlet (quick reminder, I decided to start with Violet, partly because it’s the version I got first and also partly because it was the game in the game card slot because I was playing it earlier)

And here are their natures and characteristics - Turt is Gentle (like Blueberry) and strongly defiant while Pip is Mild and hates to lose

Also thought I’d pose with Blueberry and Cherry outside the academy before the adventures began and also asked their opinions on the New Winter Uniforms

I didn’t time Blueberry’s screenshot well but they’re both doing their special attack animations so maybe they’re not as excited as I am (surely being part Psychic Cherry should know me having the DLC means at some point I’m finally getting an Iron Boulder and an Iron Crown)

Yeah I kinda fell for Jacq saying he had no idea where the egg came from in Violet but in Scarlet I of course remembered that and did not fall for it

And of course I already visited the first signpost with Kieran

First Hydro Steam and Psyblade of Kitakami!

Of course we gotta make an entrance

Imagine you’re trying to get into Mossui Town only to see the road is blocked by either a massive dinosaur Suicune or a noticeably smaller robot Virizion (I ran out of space for photos on this post at this point so I will have to end this here for now)

#quaquaval #meowscarada #armarouge #ceruledge #roaring moon #iron valiant #walking wake #iron leaves #turtwig #piplup #pokémon scarlet #pokémon violet #pokémon #the teal mask #pokémon jacq #pokémon kieran #pokémon carmine #btw don’t worry that was the second Poochyena in Scarlet and the second Cutiefly in Violet #I already caught the first ones to add to my new and improved Dex

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cilant-lis · 2 months

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rhian's time in dao pt.2

i can't stop myself from imagining just how gorgeous denerim would look if origins ever got remastered....

wahoo, romance with leli unlocked! i love her so much. kissing her in camp, kissing her in denerim, kissing her on a random battlefield, kissing her in front of the corpse of brother genitivi's assistant

perfect timing for the ghoul tamlen encounter :') on the way to the temple of sacred ashes and right after locking in leliana's romance, just as rhian got a tiny sliver of happiness, wham, gutpunch! (oh how i wish there was more companion reactivity, maybe even a cutscene of tamlen's funeral? i have to do everything myself smh)

respeccing rhian as dex dual wielding warrior because of story reasons (definitely not because i hate playing warriors)

i forgot how creepyy haven is. and how the inquisition decided to settle on top of the said freaky place.

more delicious angst for rhian with the guardian's test, but also some closure at last with the spirit-tamlen somewhat alleviating their survivor's guilt

at the urn of sacred ashes: leliana having a deep religious experience while morrigan, zevran and rhian are like 'wow, a vase....'

ugh eamon. hate that guy

off we go to orzammar and deep roads! first time going there with rhian. they're going to hate all the politics stuff sooo much

choosing the 'give me my troops' option every single conversation. i think rhian would support bhelen not because they care about his politics, but because they found bhelen less annoying than harrowmont

i think the most world-changing decision in the entire game is giving leliana a nug. in this essay i will-

bless the faster moving speed mod, breezed through the deep roads while still getting the lovely, creeping dread atmosphere <3

speaking of creepy, somehow i remember the boobmother broodmother fight being much harder. it took less than five minutes now, even though i'm playing on hard. honestly the stupid road to the anvil of the void took more time

cairdin :( i regret not bringing shale to the quest i gotta look up its dialogue during the quest

wahoo, congrats on the coronation bhelen. NOW GIVE ME MY TROOPS

back to denerim we go, and wouldn't you know it, another crash...

two elves and a mage walk into arl of denerim's estate, somehow no one bats an eye, until the arl is killed and all his prisoners are freed (except for vaughan, rest in piss)

captured! my favourite quest! this time i had rhian break out on their own and it was sooo funny. didn't expect being able to seduce the guard with my 'male' warden, but we honestly the unnamed guard is a bicon

doing the alienage quest and i'm wondering, how long ago did the riots take place? and was it during this uprising that the orphanage was wiped out? idk if i'm conflating the two but it really doesn't add up? the corpses are all bones inside, and the beggar outside of the orphanage is an adult? i guess i need to replay the tabris origin for a refresher

love how blase eamon is about what happened in the alienage. shame we can't kill the guy

i'm a queen anora truther, and nothing will ever change that. i'm tempted to play a cousland just so i can marry her <3

landsmeet cutscene is so great for screenshots, i can't concentrate on what is actually being said lmao. i briefly thought of conscripting loghain, but taking roleplaying into account, i don't think rhian would forgive him for what he did in the alienage. (and by now they no longer see being a warden as a punishment)

rhian entering their absent parent era... such an icon (WHY can't we discuss this with our love interest??? blease let me tell leliana and alistair at least) and in the wonderful version of dragon age that exists in my head, morrigan and rhian perform a blood magic ritual instead of boning

the final goodbyes with the companions ;_;

gods, i hate the final battle drag. just teleport me to the archdemon

rhian is my special little guy and they got the final blow animation on the archdemon AND the cutscene (even though in my worldstate they're not even the one to kill it but oh well)

wish the boon the warden chooses had some sort of an impact in the later games... the dalish getting a chunk of land in ferelden is kind of significant, isn't it

after the game, rhian visits their clan (the half of it which remained in ferelden) with leliana, and finally has a brief moment of respite, even if it's only a week. after that, they travel to weisshaupt to get officially recognised as the warden-commander (and in my canon worldstate report on alvea's 'death') and eventually return to ferelden

#awakening time tomorrow! i gotta mess around with rhian's appearance for it :)#july plays dao #hmmmm not importing this save into da2 i think... will have to craft one

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leti-ke · 8 months

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It's been some time since I've played void stranger, life stuff happened and because of that I was not able to write about what happen in the game as I played

BUT! I still have my notes and screenshots, so I can do a recap for myself now! I hope I can play more of it soon

We begin with a conversation between the king and Gray about the princess future, and I'm gonna be honest things are not looking good for her...

The king wants to marry her off, and she is doing everything in her power to scare the suitors away

It got to a point where her father is threatening to keep her locked in the castle until she behaves and accept to marry someone

But again, what does she think Gray can do against the king's wishes?!? I'm pretty sure that if she did that, Gray would be punished...

I feel bad for her, but she is really pushing it, calling Gray the king's lapdog... Well, at least she knew that that was going too far

And Gray is nice and understanding of her, so that's good

Well, back in the void we encountered this... Corpse? I don't know if it's a statue or not, but cool visual!

There is a ghoul (?) In one of the floors telling me they are hungry, so I gave them one of my locus

He is still hungry, and I end up giving them all my locus... Well it's not like I was using them but still really weird, they are still in the way tho

That is until I walked around a little, then they became an egg... I'm not sure if I like the implications here

Next tree dream! Gray and the princess are going to another country to meet one of the groom's

This one was a knight that lead a revolution and became king

Suddenly they were attacked by bandits oh my!

And Gray is being all badass! They are calling her "Gray the destroyer"

What, why I'm playing as the bandit?!?!

And once again the princess is being reckless... How old is she?

Well she is saved by her suitor, his armor is cool, but I'm getting dark vibes from it

The princess is all head over heels for him now, that goes to show the power a cool entrance can have over a girl's heart kkkkkk

Back to the void!

New NPC!

aaand she just stole my rod... so for the next levels I had to chase her and let me tell you it was not fun! game please have mercyyyyy

I finally caught up to her, she gave me an obvious sob story... and when that didn't work she just gave Gray her stuff back, at least now we know that the rod only works for us

for some reason, this image is hilarious to me, I think it's the ditto face!

Here is the thing... my notes get really sparse from here on out, and I'm not sure of the order of events that I don't have screenshots for, but at some point I accidentally threw an NPC into the abyss :( why do I keep doing thiiiiiis T⌓T

More tree memories! The princess is really impressed with her possible future husband, his name is Johann

She is fangirling for him a little kkkkkk

Gray goes to take a walk and look who finds her

She didn't expect to find him kkkkk look at her face

O-O

oh! what she do?

It seems that Gray the destroyer is a sore point for her

Well, Johann is asking for Gray's help in taming the demon or something... I think there are better way to refer to your maybe future wife my dude, I'm not sure if I like you that much

after that I continued for some time and encountered another giant corpse, I'm starting to think these are the void lords from Tail story, are they all dead? Maybe I can find an alive one deeper in the void, but for now it seems that their war didn't really have a winner

And there is where I took a break!

I fell like I was stalling playing the game a little because I didn't write this before, if I played more I would just make the backlog notes longer, you know? But now that I've put this up to date I'm more at ease, so I'll try to play some more this week!

#playing void stranger #void stranger #it's been a while #I hate when ADHD makes me procrastinate things that I enjoy doing

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theultimatepumpkinpie · 2 years

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Originally I was going to add this to the ask @autistictenno recieved about nyx & excal but honestly it deserves it's own post. So here's a little history lesson on Warframe and Digital Extremes for y'all.

A lot of the early concepts for Warframe actually came from DE's older game, Dark Sector. I never played it myself but I've read a bit about it and have been around Warframe since it was in closed beta. Basically Dark Sector had a lot of sci-fi stuff planned for it that got cut and the final product was a bit like resident evil and the story followed Hayden Tenno who becomes mutated as a result of the 'technocyte virus' (cough cough Warframe infestation). The general plot involves him trying to stop a scientist from spreading the virus to the whole world. A lot of stuff about him influenced everyone's favorite frame Excalibur. The final boss of the game, Nemesis, also influenced some stuff about Nyx. This is hinted at with the proto deluxe skins you can buy for them in the Warframe market.

Here's some image comparisons between Dark Sector and the proto skins in Warframe. Some of the images come from the dark sector wiki (https://darksector.fandom.com/wiki/Special:AllPages) The others from this review (http://einfogames.com/reviews/dark-sector/) which was published in 2012, just after warframe was announced but before the closed beta for it started.

Here we have Hayden Tenno and Nemesis

vs Excalibur and Nyx Proto skins (took screenshots of these myself)

Even the iconic glaive got a proto skin (though it doesn't look that much different from the regular one in warframe)

Before Dark Sector DE mainly only did work-for-hire contracts and struggled getting a publisher for Dark Sector which is why a bunch of stuff got cut. The game only received moderate reviews and DE once again ended up doing work-for-hire contracts, and the studio almost became bankrupt before quickly scrambling to get Warframe out the door. They struggled getting a publisher for that too and ended up just doing a closed and then (endless) open beta for the game themselves, the only thing that kept them afloat was the founders program. After awhile, they got their lucky break and the game made it big. Like REALLY big. Like 4 million (losers) users big. Now it's up to 31.6 million registered accounts and an average of 601k players per day. (Statistics by https://mmo-population.com/r/warframe/)

DE and Warframe have been through so much and changed so much through the years. It went from this tiny little game I didn't think much of into one of my favorite games of all time with more breadth and depth (and lore!) than I would have ever expected. And even though updates still often come with a lot of bugs, I really couldn't be more proud of how far they've come all these years. Seeing Steve give Rebecca the pink shorts as a way of passing the torch really touched my heart in a way I don't even know how to describe.

Top image of this section is from a review of closed beta in december 2012 (http://xkrieg.blogspot.com/2012/12/warframe-beta-impression.html) Bottom one is my own screenshot dated today, November 16, 2022 (click it to see full res, tumblr compression kind of sucks for images of that size)

#my posts #warframe #dark sector #digital extremes #de #hayden tenno #long post

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c7thetumbler · 2 months

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Quick Game Reviews: April through July 2024

I fell behind and now I wanna catch up. Also, I have not installed illustrator on my new computer yet, so no new banner for you

Backloggery launched their site remake, which is the website I use to track my games. If you haven't checked it out yet, here's my page: https://backloggery.com/c7_the_epic

Unpacking (Steam)

Logo is from the Steam Page

I actually played this one at the end of March but forgot. That's not an indictment in anyway on this game, I actually quite enjoyed it. I'm just forgetful AF.

This is an organization game with a plot where you follow the life of the person whom is moving throughout their years and help them unpack during these moves. You don't directly hear much about their story, however through the clues as to where they moved and what items continue or are left behind they manage to convey a really compelling narrative.

As someone who has gone through several moves myself, including some of the same move scenarios in the story, this one really resonated with me. The gameplay is fun if you like puzzles with multiple solutions and the aesthetics of decorating, but I found myself constantly wanting to open the next box to see what items made it or move onto the next stage so I could learn more. There's not much replay value to someone like me, but I'd still recommend it myself.

Mario Golf (Switch NSO GBC)

Screenshot from my Switch

This was one I had as a kid and decided to revisit, since even though I was really bad at video game golf, this game has a lot of charm. The world around golf, with challenges, secrets, and a level up system that adds to it all and makes it feel like even failure is progression.

That being said, this game is hard. I'm glad I played it with the NSO rewind and save states; I never would've beaten this normally and it still took me a long time. Like the Game & Watch Gallery games, it has a lot of really great visuals that are iconic for the GBC era. Unlike Game & Watch Gallery however, you can beat the game without ever interacting with any Mario characters! They don't show up until you've done everything in the main world, and then suddenly you get an invite letter that takes you to Peach's castle where you can participate in a final tournament with the Mario gang.

The charm and effort put into this game makes it an iconic entry in Nintendo's history, however don't go into this if you don't already like video game golf or expecting a lot of Mario specifically.

Seal World (Steam)

Screenshot is from the promotional screenshots on their steam page

My steam wishlist has a lot of Indie 3D platformers on it, so occasionally I check it and something goes on sale and I pick it up. This game looked very silly but cute, something that could've had a lot of love underneath it like Lil Gator Game.

This is however a pretty straight-forward game. Not really any challenge or depth with its platforming, the collectibles are for the most part pretty easy to find, and it's a very linear experience. Really its draw is it's humor, which is fine but gets pretty stale by the end. It's not a long game by any means, and while it's not a bad game I can't say I'd recommend it as anything more than a silly experience for a couple hours at most.

OpenRCT2 (PC Download, requires owning RCT/RCT2)

Logo from their fandom wiki

Youtube recommended a Roller Coaster Tycoon expert (MarcelVos) who releases incredibly in-depth video about mechanics and challenges in the original Roller Coaster Tycoon games and it made me want to revisit them. I didn't spend a whole lot of time with it (only beat the first round of scenarios for each) but it was very fun to look at it with improved features and a new light on the mechanics that make the game a lot less stressful.

OpenRCT2 streamlines both games to play better on modern PCs and fixes a number of bugs, as well as offering improvements on the number of guests, options for scenarios unlocks, and a scenario loader/maker as well. Plugins also allow you to change the game more to your liking, ie if you're like me and have played scenarios dozens of times over your life you don't really want to worry about micromanaging things to ensure the money flow optimally enough to do the things you want to do. For that, there's plugins that automatically adjust price based on the scenario and the best you can offer, adjusting for variables like ride age and park value.

If you've not played the original RCT games or haven't played in a long time, I'd give this one a shot! Marcel Vos is also a great watch on the side as well, really opens your eyes on some of the deeper ways that the game worked that were a complete mystery to me when I played them originally. Mainly that mowing grass does absolutely nothing, and that Security Guards ain't worth it.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door (Switch)

Screenshot from my Switch

I was so excited to replay this one! I was definitely one of the people who pointed at the screen and gasped when this was announced, and I picked this one up right away.

As a remaster, this game is great! The additional reactions, back sprites, and new/altered music really helps bring it all together more than the GC release ever could.

If you've never played TTYD, it's the best Paper Mario and you should go pick it up!

For those who haven't played in a while and don't have access to a way of playing it and want to, this is also pretty good!

What I'm going to go into now is what I wish the remake addressed, fixed, or added to. One of the biggest problems with the original, the massive amount of backtracking, hasn't really been solved in any meaningful way. They were definitely aware of it as they have changed part of Rogueport underground to allow for more easier transport between different hubs in the chapters. This existed already in the original, but has been streamlined to have more pipes in a single room to fix it. The rest of the backtracking the game was known for however is still there.

One solution would've been to bring back spinning from the original Paper Mario, as the ability to move pretty quickly and in a way that was more interactive did a lot to cover the backtracking in that game. Being able to take on more than one trouble at once would also help, maybe expanding how shops work so that common items that are able to be ordered from any shop. There are just some parts that are built into it that were made to pad it with backtracking, like Chapter 4 and the start of Chapter 7.

Speaking of chapter 4 though, I am so happy they finally made Vivian actually trans rather than shy away from it. It makes her story really come together in a way that I feel robbed for not having this in the original 20 years ago. The whole chapter is about identity, and centers Vivian and her struggle with her sisters that's been going on since the first chapter. It also really paints Beldam as a much more evil character than she was in the original. Ultimately this was a great update and I'm very happy they did it.

As for actual new content... As far as I can tell there's not much. An extra recipe to address a weird thing from the original, and 2 optional bosses. Both are nice, but even SMRPG added a lot of cool things post-game and I would've liked to have seen that in this remake.

Ultimately, I'm glad I picked this game up again and it's a lot of fun, but the backtracking and stretching of existing sections really grates on you in the modern day. I would've liked to have seen a few more updates that tried to fix that.

Rusty's Retirement (Steam)

That's just a screenshot of a golden pumpkin from my farm. It grew before the update where you could harvest them.

I had a weird obsession with this one for a couple weeks. Like this isn't supposed to be a game you focus on optimizing, but one you have on the side that you can progress in and make your own. Boy was I focusing hard on getting all the achievements and making everything perfectly optimized.

That's not to say I don't like it. Just that my brain is wired to want to hyperfixate and optimize even things not designed to be actively cared about, and then weeks later discarded and never thought of again. Wonder if there's something to that.

... Anyway, The game is a fun distraction, but if your brain is wired similarly to mine and you need to focus on it and optimizations, you can easily pass on it. You can do pretty stuff with it, but that always comes at the expense of space that you could use to grow more plants ore place more automation. To me, it's like how I spend hours on end figuring out how to automate craft-ables and macros in FFXIV and then leave it running and crafting while I do other things.

Modern Modern Chef (itch.io)

Picture from the itch page linked above

This one's a treat! I love the Game & Watch Gallery games as they added in a lot of cute Mario sprites and interactions, more context for what were previously the black/white Game and watch games. This is a fan-game made with Hand-drawn graphics that shows a specific minigame, Chef from Game & Watch Gallery 2 (the only one I owned as a kid), a lot of new love.

This is a great recreation of that recreation! A lot of effort was put into recreating the mechanics almost-perfectly, and even though the game is simple there's a lot of depth in timing and interactions with Yoshi that gets explained and fleshed out in this remake. The "Modern Modern" version isn't particularly for me; I'm pretty bad at timing the flip, but it was a blast playing the game again and seeing the little easter eggs.

I highly recommend giving this mini-game a try! It won't be a long experience, but it's fun nonetheless.

Honestly, Nintendo should hire this man and should release all the Game & Watch gallery games like this. Would make a nice collection.

Cavern of Dreams (Steam)

Image from the preview screenshots on their Steam Page

Another 3D platformer, but unlike Seal World this one takes it mechanics seriously. Definitely Inspired by both Spyro and Banjo-Kazooie, you play as a small dragon collecting his siblings (dragon eggs) and a number of other collectibles as you get a few new abilities and travel further into some strange worlds.

Aesthetically it owns that N64 sharp polygons and Banjo-Kazooie esque characters, with the second non-hub world even being a flying Clanker from Clanker's Cavern. It's definitely pretty within that aesthetic, with its later levels adopting a more unsettling (in a good way) wild aesthetic.

Mechanically, the movement is pretty standard for the most part. You get a jump, you can double jump for slightly more height, and you can roll to gain momentum and cross large gaps and I'm sure that leads to some wild speedrunning tech. Rolling around definitely helps cut the rather slow pace your character normally walks at.

This is a pretty decent game! The platforming puzzles and challenges were pretty straightforward, with some strange exceptions where you need to search a desert for a single egg or some placement puzzles that took some looking up. I'd definitely recommend it if you're craving a simple 3D collectathon to scratch that itch.

Dead Estate: Axe to Grind + Assignment Anya (Steam)

Image from the wiki

I finally hopped back onto Dead Estate after putting it down for the better part of a year, so I had two updates to catch up on. To be clear: these updates are free, adding a large amount of content to an already very fulfilling base game.

Axe to Grind adds in a new character, Axel, who was starring in a zombie film set in the mansion before everything went south and he had to flee to a secret hideout before going through the mansion now filled with real zombies and monsters. He uses axes, which can be charged and thrown, and that hideout gives him some bonus items at the start of each floor. His gameplay isn't too different, and indeed the update mostly is just him + his curses + some balancing changes. It's all still fun, but not much new in terms of content.

Assignment Anya on the otherhand took it to a new, different level. In terms of additions to existing gameplay, You now have a "challenge" mode, where each character has a set of restrictions and must complete some form of challenge or un in order to win. These can be quite difficult, but are for the most part a lot of fun and a welcome addition.

The real meat of this update is in the Assignment Anya sidestory, where you play as one of the extra's in the movie from Axel's side-story and find yourself in a zombie mask surrounded by real zombies and no weapons. Anya doesn't have the ability to jump or attack, and the mansion now has a set layout with maps and puzzles strewn across it like a Resident Evil game. You must progress and solve the puzzles with limited health and inventory space to ration, solving some of the mysteries of the place and finally escaping the horrors within it. At the end, you're graded based on how long you took and how many times you had to heal, as it's possible to beat the story in half an hour or less without getting damaged once you know it.

It's a lot of fun your first go around, but unfortunately lacks the replay value I enjoy out of the rest of the game. Trying to optimize for time without a guide is a very long and tedious endeavor, made all the more frustrating because healing takes off from your final rank and achievements so you have to be extremely patient and well practiced to get the good ranks. That being said, it was a welcome change of pace and very interesting twist on the story which at this point players are intimately familiar with.

I still highly recommend giving Dead Estate a try

Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail (PC)

Pic from the steam page because all my screenshots that are funny with my WoL contain spoilers

Took a while to get back into the swing of things and actually focus down on this expansion, but I eventually got into the groove of it. I'll go from a story perspective first without trying to go too hard on spoilers.

I'll start positive as well: they had an incredibly hard act to follow given that the Shadowbringers/Endwalker story combo both unified and resolved FFXIV's storyline in a way that, while a little convoluted, was incredibly well done and brought tears to my eyes. This story had to then take the WoL (your character) to a whole new land where the stakes by necessity are much lower than they ever could've been in EW, and honestly I think they did a pretty good job. The story has you following Wuk Lamat on her journey to complete her father's (the kings') challenges while competing with her brothers and a challenger that one of the societies in Tural sees as the chosen ruler to the throne. They clearly took a lot of time to define these different societies and cultures within Tural, going from the long histories of each of the peoples on the continent to even focusing on the importance of how their food is supplied, flavored, and the political issues associated with that. This is something they struggled with a LOT in this games history, and I think they nailed it with grace here.

In the back half of the expansion, things take a turn into the high stakes you're much more used to, and uses your newfound familiarity with the peoples of Tural to contrast again that of their "foes". The villains can get comically evil, but that's not really a huge deal in my mind. My biggest "problem" is that when the biggest bad is revealed, they spend a lot of time explaining why they're doing what they're doing and Wuk Lamat spends a long time making it very clear that we as the player should understand the big bad has very good reasons for doing what they're doing. And then never condemns them for doing it, which given the stakes is like, not a great message to end on. Even through the end of 7.0, Wuk Lamat continues to yell "you're a good person" at them when they're actively trying to execute their huge, inarguably evil plan. This could've been really easily remedied with some dialog tweaks, but the devotion to making it clear that Wuk Lamat didn't think the big bad was evil while leaving the condemnation unsaid is a bit of a mistake, in my mind.

Gameplay wise, it's just about the same old FFXIV I remember. I appreciate the new trend of allowing you to run the MSQ dungeons with NPCs that are with you on your journey at the time continuing, and even being expanded to trials. Classes continue to get more and more streamlined, with my preferred class (Monk) continuing to get less complicated and more deterministic with each patch. I don't really like that trend; I do appreciate when classes feel distinct from one another and can even fall into other roles in dire situations, and while yes some abilities and classes could use less buttons, restricting all of them to have a near-identical burst windows and movements within roles is very limiting. I liked being able to off-tank as Monk for a little while, now it's missing its buff and DoT maintenance as well and it just feels like a faster Dragoon.

FFXIV is also showing its age here. A few years ago when I first started I was mildly annoyed but fine with the gameplay essentially being "travel from point A to B and watch a lot of cutsenes for 8 hours and we'll give you enough EXP to do the dungeons", but I didn't get to the first Dungeon in Dawntrail for like 3 days of playing the game and reading all the dialogue. And dungeons are like 30 min to an hour if you bring in the NPCs. That's really just the gameplay loop: run around from quest marker to quest marker, cutscene to cutscene, until the game graces you with one of only a few instances, dungeons, or trials and you get to repeat another few hours of quest marker chasing.

FFXIV is a big game with a lot of very entertaining content to do, but for a big expansion that adds a lot of areas there isn't a lot of like crazy new and fun things to do. All of the things like Hunts, Fates, Role Quests, Side Quests, Leves etc are all still there and added in for the level 91-100 range, but it all feels the same despite how good some of the stories in there are. To me, the game really shines when they try and do something really unique and new with their new stuff, like Bozja, Eureka, The First's whole aesthetic, and even the recent variant dungeons, but all the new content here just feels like the old MSQ content with not a lot of gameplay variation in it. Dungeons are all corridors because they're run in daily roulettes and need to be queued for, so that can't be interesting or else people will be frustrated at each other for not going the optimal path. Once you get to the new City and Sub-city you can immediately identify all of the same things present in every other expansion's equivalent to those and where you know you'll spend the next 2 years grinding out materials for to most optimally interact with your retainers and shopkeepers.

Basically despite how pretty the new areas are, how well written its setting and stories are, and how focused the design of the content is, it falls short of what I was hoping for as an experience in the expansion. I'm optimistic that the patches will bring their more unique content I'm a fan of, but it feels weird to wait for that after completing a brand new expansion. I highly recommend giving FFXIV a shot because it's a great game, however if you grew tired of the gameplay by the end of EndWalker you'll be in for more of the same here. My perspective is not one of a hardcore player though, and I understand that's a huge component of MMOs like these.

As for my personal expansion tierlist:

ShB > EW > DT > HW > StB > ARR

Metroid: Zero Mission (NSO, GBA)

Screenshot from my Switch

This is the only Metroid game I hadn't played-

wait, Prime Pinball and Federation Force. Dang.

Okay well the biggest one I haven't played. It's weird because while I enjoy a Metroid game I don't feel like as attached to the series as a lot of people are. That being said, I know this is one of the best ones in a series filled with bests so I was overdue for giving it a try.

This game "modernized" the original Metroid NES game into a much more approachable version with cutscenes, a better map and UI systems, and a lot of improvements found in Fusion as well. It's a very good game! A great entry point into the series if for some reason Super Metroid wasn't for you.

The challenge is still there but not in a way that makes you feel stuck or confused, the cutscenes are great, and the bonus content added onto the original story is definitely welcome. I'm glad I finally got a chance to pick this up, and I feel like it's usurped Fusion as my favorite 2D Metroid. And I'm aware about how much that last sentence invalidates my Metroid opinions.

Super Princess Peach (Nintendo DS)

Art from Nintendo's Website

This one's one I've always wanted to play for years, even though at the time I passed it by because it was a "girls game." My sister actually got it for me for my birthday, and I was finally able to play through it all. It's pretty fun!

Just a little bit of history on this one: this is one of the few Games Nintendo likes to pretend doesn't really exist for some reason. I can guess as to why; in a world where not falling into gender stereotypes is important, having the only game until very recently led by one of like 3 female characters in your top franchise be based around getting superpowers from her emotions is not a great look. From that perspective they actually could've flipped it around and made it a very powerful story in retrospect. The message shouldn't be able to be construed as "girls are emotional and that's Peach's thing" but rather be clearly about being able to express and handle your emotions in a positive way. This could've been done both figuratively through the plot, or literally through the platforming.

Instead it's a story about Perry, the parasol Peach carries, and how weird it is that he's a powerful umbrella. And then you beat Bowser. Peach isn't really even "present" in the story; she could've swapped places with Mario and it would be an identical game about saving Princess Peach but with weird new emotion abilities. Peach doesn't really say a word or even react to Perry in the few cutscenes there are, which is a shame. Hell, even the emotion abilities could've been something else entirely, like just normal elemental abilities, and it would've been the same story. Because of that, it's very easy to come to the conclusion that they were workshopping ideas and were like "Girls are emotional, and the protagonist is a girl, so she has emotion powers."

But also, it's a really fun and pretty game so they should've made it available digitally somehow anyway. At least when 3DS and WiiU were around and DS games were easily emulated.

I digress though. I really liked this game and recommend it for fans of games like Yoshi's Island. Beating it requires getting every Toad, so be prepared for that, but there's a lot of bonus levels and content as well that make it a good time. You can definitely tell it wasn't made by Mario's typical team but by the Starfy team though; there's a few "guess the door/pipe" and similar design tedious choices that would not fly in games made by the usual teams.

Nintendo World Championships: NES Edition (Switch)

Screenshot from my own Switch

I got a bone to pick with this one. But I'll try and compliment sandwich it.

To start: I love the premise. They did a really good job of getting that 80s aesthetic for the games while making the challenges fun and user experience approachable for people who are not intimately familiar which each of the 13 games.

The unfortunate part is: NES Remix 1+2 did this with more games and had more creative gameplay to it. This game costs $30, and what you're getting for that is ~150 challenges spread across those 13 NES games. That sound like a decent amount, but when you begin unlocking them you start to realize that a lot of these challenges are very short or contained in hard challenges later down the line. Additionally, you will likely only be playing the start of the games contained within; the entire NES games are not included and playable. The "exception" is that the NES Donkey Kong Legend challenge is to win all 3 stages, and the SMB challenge has you beating the entire game via warp zones. The rest of the legend challenges usually are "Beat a single level/dungeon."

The championship mode is cool, and it's fun to see how your stats rank with other players and even within your birthyear, but there just is not enough to go on here. These games are all available via NSO, the normal version, and I have personally purchased versions of each of these games at least 4 times over the years so it's kind of a scummy move to be like "Pay for them with slight modernization again". Nintendo seems to perpetually not understand that while their NES games were culturally valuable, their monetary value is 0 given how readily available they are, even if you repackage them as challenges.

Also 13 games isn't even that many, and there's some glaring omissions. Mario Bros, Punch-Out, Donkey Kong Jr, Clu Clu Land, and Wrecking Crew are all conspicuously absent, and while I understand that puzzle games like Wario's Woods, Dr. Mario, and Yoshi wouldn't have good challenges to them, it would make sense to have them fully integrated with high scores to compare and contrast with friends on leaderboards.

So I don't think it's worth your money, despite how addicting and nostalgic it is. It's repackaging games that you likely already have access to legally with a nice skinner box challenge UI over it. Now, I have two suggestions that would make this game worth it.

All 13 games should be fully playable within this game, and have leaderboards or time trials associated with them. Additionally, other games that don't do well for arcade-style challenges should be included as bonus content.

This game has built in glitch detection, so if anyone uses infinite points glitches, they can flash "Strategy not allowed" on screen and void your score if you go for those, or even have an "advanced strategy" toggle that separates those runs. To allow for easier practice, you could also have your normal NSO functions like save states and rewind that are only usable when not in challenge mode.

There are a few benefits to doing it this way, one would be you now have access to these games without needing an NSO subscription and can participate in the challenges locally. Another is it could breathe life into these games, and allow official leaderboards for games that are still speedrun to this day. I don't know if I'd call that a $30 value still, but it'd definitely be closer to worth it

2. This is free with your NSO subscription, similar to Super Mario Bros. 35 and F-Zero 99

This just makes the most sense to me. Without the NES games themselves included, the sole purpose of this is the online leaderboards and self-contained tournaments mode, which means that while you can play it offline, there's not really a point to. This would make it good supplemental content to the NES game library NSO subscribers already have access to. This option makes the most sense to me, as this game honestly feels like that was designed to be that way in the first place. The main menu always flashing the current week's challenges and your progress feels identical to the style F-Zero 99 has, and the ability to buy more challenges and avatars with in-game coins feels like the kind of padding you'd put in a free game. It would also make it more reasonable to update with new challenges or even additional games, as now it's not behind a paywall. Erm, new paywall.

And to end this compliment sandwich, I really like the variety of avatars and coin bonuses that added in, it feels very satisfying to my collectable crunched brain.

#game reviews #unpacking #mario golf #Seal World #open rct2 #paper mario the thousand year door #dead estate #super princess peach #nintendo world championships #metroid zero mission #ffxiv dawntrail #cavern of dreams #rusty's retirement

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whosyourcreepyunclenow · 1 year

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ETERNAL HANGOUT (the bug I suppose I should share)

if you're tired of goodbyes, try it

invite your friend(s) and go to the cable cars (the icons aren't visible during hangout, so it would be easier to tag the place in advance) wait one, get in, get out, then get in again. you'll see the option to use the cable car for $10, do it. and once more if you're not exited of hanging out on the Chilliad peak.

keep in mind that:

- you can't go to the bar or do any other activity (except shops & customs), the map will be empty as if you were on a mission

- you also can't drop your friend(s) off, only abandon them but you'll still be unable to do something else

- the only way to get out is die

- or load. not sure if you can save during that, but it makes sense to try (as you can save during a normal hangout but not with your phone, the bed only)

- you might accidentally abandon them so make sure they aren't stuck. if you do, you won't get a warning notification to come back, they'll just stop following you (still react on bumps and shoves though, if you're into that))

- they might die. from a tank shot or a plane crash (even if you're on a painkiller and made it out alive)

SO WHAT'S THE POINT? well, first, they'll not be scared when shit hits the fan (did you ever get a message "Trevor got scared" when your car went underwater or something exploded nearby? what a nonsense). second, they'll not be wounded so you can bump into them as much as you want and they'll become much more tenacious during shotouts. third, they'll not suddenly leave you with an unavoidable goodbye cutscene after you spend a few days together. kinda satisfying, for T especially)

♡♡♡

and now a little background. a few months ago I saw a cute trikey dream where they had a cable car ride together. it wasn't the game's one, more like a ski lift but without skis and without even winter, rather a blossoming spring. it felt sorta "secret after-ending scene which you can get only after fulfilling some conditions" so I was somehow aware of myself as a player and took A HELL LOT of screenshots. they weren't an actual couple there, just chilling buddies with a complicated backstory to talk out, so they talked (it's a shame I didn't remember any dialogues, visual only, but the vibes were like "so everything settled, we're both alive thanks to Frank, he did great and we did great too"), they argued, they laughed, and then Michael almost fell off (for wtf reason), Trevor grabbed him. and held in his arms for the rest of the way, Mikey didn't mind (what surprised me most) and they kept talking. then the cable car stopped (or they just jumped off while it was closest to the ground? more likely) and later they were standing on a cobblestone sidewalk, whispering quietly, without moving even an inch away of each other's faces. I turned on my paparazzi mode again wondering why this scene is so underrated and no one even said a word about that. and when I already was like "omfg, they're so damn close it nearly looks like a kiss!!1!1" they really STARTED KISSING without any "looks like". AND AFTER THAT, I thought sincerely, SOMEONE STILL CLAIMS THEY AREN'T LOVERS? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU PPL? ehh it's rather what's wrong with me but ok... more importantly, the one who initiated was Trevor. the view was from his back, so I only could see Michael's face: he wasn't surprised, rather uncertain if he should've done it first. their kiss was long, not really passionate but very affectionate and gentle. like they finally reached their comfort zone and it all worked out the best way possible.

don't recall anything further, guess I just woke up or the dream channel changed to something boring. hmm... probably first.

(just to say, it was long before I learned how to use rockstar editor and started to take these kiss-alike shots, but yeah, I've become obsessed with the idea since that))

next day I tried a cable car with them and detected the bug (or whatever else it is). was playing as Michael and got confused at first, like what do you mean he can't get rid of T now? I suddenly felt trapped. tried a lot of shit to trigger back a normal hangout, with no results. didn't dare to simply abandon Trevor but I knew it can't go on like this. so I just killed Mikey to let him escape lol. such an irony.

so in summary, it's a trap. a gay trap, particularly. maybe you'll find it entertaining ;3

#secret after-ending scene which you can get only after fulfilling some conditions #(not actually)#the magic of cable cars #so my silly romantic trikey dream somehow came true #or at least turned out to be useful #gta v bug #weird game experience #alternative ending lol #trikey #gta 5 #gta v #michael de santa #trevor philips #oops Mike did it again #he faked his death #to get rid of Trev #oh baby baby

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rivenroad · 1 year

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10 years ago today.

Despite playing the beta and loving it, I actually didn't buy A Realm Reborn on release for a few reasons - I was just about to start my third and final year at art school, didn't have much money and my laptop at the time struggled with the game, plus I knew about the server issues going on at launch so I didn't feel too bad for missing it. I owned a PS3, but I'd heard what everyone said about it being inferior to playing on PC, so I was hesitant, but a couple of weeks later I bought it for PS3 anyway because I really wanted it. I feel like that was perhaps the first time that FFXIV helped me to cast off the influences of others and make my own decisions.

The first character I made in the game proper was a Duskwight arcanist. He doesn't exist any more, but I found screenshots of him the other week when I dug out my PS3. Back then, I was excited by the amount of options in character customisation because I hadn't played an MMO before with the level of variety that XIV had. I played around with a whole lot of different characters, most of them being on the extreme ends of things - unnatural blue and green skintones, tiny Lalafells, huge Roegadyn women who towered over everyone else. I really liked that those were options for the protagonist of a game because I hadn't played many other games where they could take a leading role. The first character I took to level 50 and spent the most time on, to start with, was one of those, but it took me much longer to realise that I was playing a character who I wanted to exist in the world, but not one that I actually connected with on a personal level.

Early on I also messed around with male Miqo'te and Midlanders, and I made a couple I really liked, but I was reluctant to actually commit to them and I think it was because I felt like I "shouldn't" - because it was predictable to be an anime catboy or a plain old human man, it was boring, those things had been done before. In a game that allowed you to be some combination of traits that was hardly ever seen in a protagonist role, why would you pick something that was basically... a trope? That's kind of how I felt, or rather, had been made to feel. I was mildly embarrassed that I wanted to be a catboy, so I resisted it for a while.

Eventually, though, I did take the plunge to make one and level him alongside a friend who had picked up the game a few months later.

That was Ayin'a. That was really where things began to change for me. I was finally playing a character who I really felt a connection with, who I felt actually represented some part of me rather than ones who I absolutely loved being part of the world, but just weren't really "me". I started to write, to roleplay, to create, to form connections with people with him as my avatar. I was enjoying myself and I was inspired in a way I hadn't really felt... probably since I was a child, because I was doing things from the heart, rather than trying to follow an idea of what I thought I should be doing.

A lot has happened since then and it's way too much to go into here, but this for me was a huge turning point that provided me with inspiration and passion to hold on to in some very, very bleak times in my life. And from there, more came - with a better understanding of what I found interesting, what I liked in a character, what I was interested in exploring and writing... My identity began to solidify thanks to this process. After a long, long long and dreadful slump I started to make art again because of FFXIV. And now, I'm fortunate enough to be in a position where I can call making art my career, where I can look forward to what the future may hold for me as an artist, because of the experiences I've had with this game.

Incidentally, Ayin'a himself is now retired as of Endwalker, both in and out of character. For as much as he means to me, he was never intended to be "the" Warrior of Light, and as soon as I was able to make a character who suited that role (it only took 6+ years...), I started winding down his role as my "main" in a gameplay sense, because at last I had character who belonged in those MSQ cutscenes rather than having to feel mild uncomfortable as I watched them feature a character who would absolutely not be in that role.

Plus, when it comes to his own story, he's had enough too - he made a bunch of money, got married, settled down in his beachside house with a bunch of odd pets and his husband to be a reclusive and grumpy yet altruistic neighbour. He's still around, and always will be, both in FFXIV and in other worlds I choose to transport him too, but for now that chapter is over. I'll always have a soft spot for him and how he was the start of my journey to understand myself and find my place in the world, just as I'll always be grateful for all the many, many ways in which FFXIV changed the course of my life.

I'm looking forward to the next ten years, and there were times in the not so distant past when I had no hope that I'd ever say such a thing truthfully.

#final fantasy xiv #ffxiv #a realm reborn #endwalker #10th anniversary #the rising #ayin'a quist

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oh-my-may · 6 months

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I FINISHED CHAPTER 11. *the final countdown starts playing in the back*

Nibel Region is beautiful. But lets talk story first.

Was eagerly awaiting meeting Vincent. The way there was painful tho. Listen: I love Cait Sith okay. Love his gameplay, his voice, his character. What they shouldn't have done is put him solo for most parts of this chapter, my patience was tested many a time during the whole manor. Hated the Abjudicator enemies. Did not have the patience when meeting them for the first time - i changed Cait's equipment like at least 5 times and then still died over and over again with just him in the party. Eventually did it the next day after a few tries. The Yin and Yang guy was also annoying the first few times - as I said, I was eagerly awaiting Vincent and the game just kept throwing annoying enemies at me 😭

Same with the puzzles. Took me very long to figure out how to use the throwing system with the boxes. Still struggled a lot after. THE ONE PART WHERE YOU HAVE TO HIT THE MOVING THING???? I was actually going insane. Was getting very frustrated and hated myself for it. I usually like the puzzles in Rebirth, but this section felt too long... Couldn't enjoy most of it. Did like the other boss fights tho. The abandoned experiment felt way too easy but ig I'm at the point of the game where all party members have a decent build so I feel like story bosses up until now have been quite alright to tackle. (Besides a few exceptions like Scarlet)

Vincent was very cool, what can I say. Took a billion screenshots (pictured below). Love how he went all out just bc Cloud touched his coffin... edgy ass. Him and Cait were somehow cute... we love us some coworkers.

Also poor Roche :( his fight was fun but I did see this coming. Had me thinking about Broden from Kalm, hope he is doing alright. I really can't wait to find out the whole story of the cloaked men... i remember in the first game I briefly thought Genesis might be one of them 😭 hope we get to see him during the last game maybe.

Other than that no other thoughts about the story this chapter... just Vincent. I'm just a girl what can I say.

Exploration wise I'm like halfway through Nibel. Took me a little bit to figure put how to get the dang chocobo (I thought we were supposes to distract the other ones, not bait the main one...) but their ability is SO FUN. Water feet farts.

Tried to beat Thorin several times but I couldn't do it even at lowest difficulty 😭 made it only as far as phase 2 where he splits the arena... idk if I'll succeed in getting him ngl.

Other than that I haven't done fiend intel, protorelic or npc quests (besides accidentally starting the one with the chocobo sage bc I stumbled across the farm). Looking forward to it all tho! Then it's time to tackle the last few chapters and then I can finally catch up with hsr ...

#mays gaming #ff7 rebirth #final fantasy vii #ff7 #final fantasy 7 #ff7 remake #ffvii #ffvii rebirth #nibel #nibelheim #cait sith #vincent valentine #roche ff7 #final fantasy vii rebirth #may's gaming

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solwithart · 6 months

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What armor sets does Sol wear throughout the game? I love his style!!

sorry for the late reply, I had to really dig through my screenshots to find examples, but this was something I myself wanted to do, so behold: (beware of some very bad screenshots)

The ARR outfit was not very outlandish, but I think it was what started his constant theme of coats, or at least longer chest pieces.

I really wish I was taking more screenshots during my playthrough, but it is what it is haha

Once I hit HW and discovered the Asuran aiming set in hunt marks shop 5 minutes into Ishgard, I instantly switched to it and went through entirety of HW and its patches (and even into SB) with it

the SB itself gets very foggy, as I wasn't a fan of this expantion, so I can count the amount of screenshots I took on 10 fingers or so, but what stayed through them was this outfit, which I only dyed black later on it seems

(I also have too many bows that I love, so I don't count them much as a part of outfit, because I keep constantly changing them)

ShB was the expansion that I started playing ffxiv, so once I finished it, I started diversifying the glams at long last, but for the msq I had this one, with mask being toggled on and off:

and in the later story I changed his style to this (for plot reasons, but then it kinda stuck):

Once I discovered the existence of Edenmorn coat, I discovered my religion as for it is still in my top 5 favourite pieces, so I went through Shb patches with it, and it was also the time I changed Sol's hairstyle to something more familiar to people who have seen my art through years xD

I had a different outfit for Bozja, as I spent 3 irl months in that place and it felt fitting the area and plot theme of living in the trenches lol

Going into EW, I started of with some experimental glam, but quickly switched back to edenmorn coat, especially once we hit snowy areas

(EW is also where I have finally started taking many screenshots too)

but my true love was discovered in bard artifact gear, that we got at the 89 level or so. It is undoubtedly my number one glam and will stay so for a long time. It just fits Sol well in my head, I can hardly put it in words,,,

EW was also the expansion I started raiding for the first time ever, and gaining a static somehow led me to switching glams so often i don't even have screenshots of most of them (some were simply just to tease some static members). But I will share those that have stayed with me, or those that I seem to come back to most often!

and that pretty much sums up his glam journey for Bard! I play all classes, so I have much and many more glams, but that is a separate topic xD

I am still unsure what to choose for him for DT, so for now he is relaxing in comfy clothes :D

#ffxiv #long post #I don't know how people lived with 10 glam plates before #I need 20 more I have too many glams #help me yoshi p

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joviantwelve · 1 year

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beat the Live A Live remake...I bought it when it came out but my ADHD ass didn't wanna play it until I braced myself fully for all the secret bosses, because I wanted to be completionist this time around...

...was very worth it though! what a good fucking game! everything they added made it even better; the QoL to the battle system alone is just huge. ("there were weaknesses and resistances in this game??" I say, having literally beaten the original)

almost feel like I should get a music player on my blog again so I can throw the new mix of Megalomania up there, because I had it on my blog like 10 years ago and had asks like "oh my god what is that song from??" LMFAO. full circle

I wish every cult classic could get another shot at life with this much love and care. and hey, now it's on Steam, so this is me telling you you have no excuse!!

full game spoilers below, but I had a few screenshots I wanted to take. also some additional, equally spoilery commentary:

...mostly of boss kills, because I started with Prehistory (I like going chronologically, it pleases my brain), so I figured "well I'm grinding forever to take down the mammoth, as well as other superbosses I heard were Hard, I might as well get screenshot trophies of everything"

poop throw MVP

adding voice acting really makes you confront a few things. why did they make ou di wan lee sound hot.

oh my god FUCK THIS SWORD GUY. I was trying to go for oboromaru no kill route so I had to just...grind on ghosts...then this ghost sword guy keeps killing my ass...sob...sob...I actually almost gave up here

then I didn't

the fish was so much easier in comparison man

oboromaru why is your chapter like this

then I blanked and didn't take a picture of killing gamahebi because I was too overcome by the fact I 1) successfully did the no kill run and 2) never have to do this again

awarded myself with gay cowboys next. I didn't go into this thinking "time to award myself with gay cowboys" but like, I last played this game before I realized I was gay. so like. it kind of just hit me all at once. oh no this Did something to me didn't it

I took this screenshot because I was stoned as hell and mad dog's stupid little smug gayboy pose just really got me

hey can I also say I just really like the HD2D style? I never played Octopath so this was my first....and like...this really fucking blows pretty much any SNES FF remake out of the water. I know they don't do this for every game because of Budget I'm sure, but like, God I Wish Every SNES Square RPG Could Get This Treatment

gay???????????

is it just me or is odie o'bright the hardest final boss of the individual character chapters????? fuck this guy

out of context live a live

I love that they added voice to the combat too. hearing Akira go "YOU SUCK!" in a giant mech as he evades an attack is just

so fucking funny to hear in a final boss fight

ok OD-10 had THE biggest glow-up though

every time my eyes got to grace this battlefield/boss I was like mMMmMMMMMMMM

normal final boss fight :)

i love masaru he's just a completely normal dude

THE FINAL CHAPTER HAS SO MANY EXTRA BOSSES AHHH.

FISH 2

actually can I just say I LOVE how they localized the middle ages to be all shakespearean

which means that not only do oersted/odio get to be the hugest drama queens, every boss in the area in general just has the most delightful dialogue

FFXIV has taught them well. did you know the dialogue in FFXIV is NOT like that in japanese?! I can't even imagine

it was around this point that I realized doing EVERY character dungeon probably overleveled me hardcore

and, in that respect, I can see why you may have accidentally stumbled upon the fact that running from 100 encounters nets you a secret boss. I got sick of that shit around when Lei was one-shotting everything first turn

but.

not in a bad way necessarily. like I knew going in this was definitely going to happen since I'm doing EVERYTHING in a chapter where you can technically bumrush the final boss of the game

so I guess my advice is, if you find the battle system a bit difficult during boss fights, leveling solves most ills

the other ills can be taken care of by Cube

I admit I didn't vibe so much with Pure Odio upon first playthrough, mostly because it's hard to compete with Megalomania being there, but I really vibed with the new mix

but THEN

but THEN!!!!

they EXPANDED ON THE FINAL BOSS FIGHT???! HUH???

(ME LOSING MY MIND)

it's like something out of fanfic??? in the best way??? just this small little thing that really makes an impact on the character arc BUT NOT in a way that destroys anything that was there previously

just a small little detail...this is what I kinda wish for more remakes honestly?? expansion isn't BAD. some of the issues with modern remakes of games from 20 years ago is that they DON'T change anything. being TOO loyal can hurt sometimes

also oersted's VA just fuckin KILLED it good job my dude

gay cowboy dad giving the saddest boy in the universe some sympathy

these credits were really nice. always gotta love Montage Credits

OH....WUH...WAHHH....

AND THEN

THE TITLE SCREEN!!!!!!!!!!!

WHHWAHHWAAHHHHHHHHHHH

live a live is so good.....................

i'm so glad this game can reach more people now. definite 10/10

#text #screencap

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alt-bluesman · 8 months

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Animal Crossing memories, part 2

It's brand new day, time to get back to it! I'm going to toss in some of my favourite ACNH screenshots between the paragraphs. Stuff that I wasn't able to fit in previously, most of it silly, some pretty. They don't have anything to do with what I have to say, but I'd like to share them somewhere & I don't want this post to be a plain wall of text either. Let's go!

So what is my overall opinion on the game? I think it's awesome. Like I mentioned in my previous post, I didn't get around to experience any of the previous AC instalments, so I have no way to compare. I know that some of the faithful fans of the series aren't necessarily thrilled with New Horizons & looking at their criticisms, they raise good points! Personally I enjoy the game for what it is: there's no wrong way to play it and there is no pressure to do it one way or another. I keep coming back to the Sims and Minecraft for the exact same reasons.

When I opened New Horizons on my birthday this year, I finally took the time to check out all of the features they added over 2 years ago. Better late than never I say! They were met with a mixture of excitement and disappointment, haha. Mostly that first one, thankfully. Cyrus' customisation workshop is hands down one of the best things ever - you no longer have to hunt down your desired item variations on Nookazon or beg your friends for them. There are so, so many new objects in the game. Some of the prices were reduced. You can customise your home inside and outside as well as expand your storage. Froggy chair is back!

Let me tell you though, I was appalled when I found out that bulk crafting wasn't implemented. Why, Nintendo. Why! I know they're still adding minor patches to the game, but I'm afraid it's safe to assume that we're never going to get that at this point. I understand why it wouldn't apply to big items, but fish bait? Come on. We can already buy stuff in bulk. Same thing applies to Nook Miles tickets, why the heck can't we print several at the time? Or fly from one mystery island to another, skipping the airport? Eugh. I heard that Nintendo is notorious for not taking the voices of their fanbase into consideration, so I believe we're stuck forever with these pesky mechanics!

But I don't want to be a negative Nancy. I will stand by my words: the game is awesome. I'm thankful for what we got! I believe New Horizons truly deserved its success and I hope the next instalment in the series will receive a warm welcome just like this one. Unlike some players, I don't think another major update is necessary. Of course it would be great, though the game feels finished to me - with all the events, items, recipes, customisation options, it's a solid title. I can safely say it's one of my favourites as far as all games go.

Now, with all that said, what does the future hold for my little island of Pan? Well... the days of Pan are numbered. After some back and forth, I decided it's time to delete my save file and start fresh. I will take a hot minute to explain why (so bear with me if you're curious), but first I want to say why it was a tough choice. Pan is nearly dang perfect for me. Great layout, long pier, blue airport, oranges as my native fruit and windflowers as native.. flowers! I have quite a few items & board drawings that I hold very dear because they came from friends. I like all of my villagers a lot. I love how the island looks. I have so many memories. After all, it's my true and only Pan.

What's wrong, then?! A lot, man. A lot. Even though I'm proud of how the island looks, it's not fun to play on and that alone is a big deal breaker for me. I (mostly) finished it around the time when heavily-terraformed and decorated islands were all the rage & unfortunately developed that unhealthy mindset of comparing myself to all those much more skilled players. For whatever reason, I wanted to live up to somebody else's standards. Not anymore! My next keyword would be "less": less decorations, less flowers, less trees, less cliffs, less waterfalls. (Seriously. They are so frickin' loud)

Admittedly, Pan doesn't have nearly as much clutter as some other islands do, but it's still a problem in many different ways. The whole central part lags and it drives me nuts every time. I'm pretty much confined to walking on paths as there isn't a lot of open space anymore. Said custom paths flicker a lot. Performing some of the daily tasks can be difficult. Wanna catch a fish? There ain't no space. Shoot down an airdrop? Nope, no space. Build a Snowboy without the snowball getting obliterated 10 times in a row? No. Space.

I know there's always an option to declutter, remodel or flatten and start over - I did these and considered them again! But each and every one seems so daunting now. This brings me to my next point: I miss so many things from the early stages of the game. The spacious, natural feeling of a brand new island. Darting around the place like there's no tomorrow. Slowly building everything from scratch, making your own way through it all. Catching all the critters, searching for fossils, getting scammed by Jolly Redd. Heck, even paying off all the effing debt!

I'm always a strong advocate for a second playthrough. It's true that I love jumping into games with as little knowledge about them as possible, hardly anything can replace that fresh, first experience! But it's so much fun to rediscover too. I pay a lot more attention to detail whenever I replay because I already know the main story and I'm ready to take in all of the smaller things. There is no real story in Animal Crossing, just progress and I hope to take it a little at a time. When the game came out, I had a bit of an unhealthy obsession with it, haha. (Who didn't, though?)

I never visited any of the famed treasure islands, but I did time travel quite a bit. Both things can be absolutely okay if they're exactly what you're looking for. Not sure if that was the right choice for me. I played for hours on end, grinding so hard that I think I just burned myself out much sooner that I wanted to. I couldn't bring myself to touch New Horizons for a long time after that. I believe many other players experienced something similar. That and also all the dramas that inevitably erupted with an introduction of so many new players to the AC community. The game kind of faded into obscurity after its prime. Folks were collectively tired.

Many aspects of that initial hullabaloo were great, not gonna lie! Jumping on the bandwagon, sharing our adventures, making memes. Still, it feels nice to come back after it all subsided - to a game that is, after all, supposed to be relaxing and mellow. I've mellowed down over the years too. Not only that, but I also don't feel the need to rush through it as there is no fear of spoilers anymore, I already know all the unlocks, I know what happens in the game. I'm looking forward to getting back into it with a fresh, blank canvas to have fun on and a more open mind.

------------------

There will be part 3 to this! Hopefully soon after I can access my Switch again. I ain't letting Pan go without a bang either, I will snap pics all around it and post & describe them here. If I can figure out how, I will record a tour. If it's worth it, I will save a dream address. This little fictional land meant so much to me (and I can't even fully explain why I get so attached to stuff like that). I even don't know why I just spent so much time talking about Animal Crossing. Perhaps it's easier for me to talk about games, cartoons and fictional characters than my personal life? It is easier for sure!

#Animal Crossing #New Horizons #Animal Crossing New Horizons #ACNH

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