#was xenoblade 1 and xenoblade 1 is my favorite game of all time

[mirensiart]

Thinking about nier automata again

[daeyumi]

Also since you deserve some more fun asks, who is your favorite Xenoblade character and how do you feel about the themes in the series (I’ve only played XC1 DE so not all the knowledgeable about the other games but I’m thinking of getting Xenoblade X)

oooooooooooooh omg a chance to yell about one of my fave games of all time??????

okay okay so to answer the first part of the question, my fave character is Shulk! might be a basic answer but he’s just overall a fantastic character, incredible story arc & idk like. just genuinely SUCH a cool character. HOWEVER my very close second fave is Reyn!! i absolutely adore reyn, he’s so fun & stupid & he makes me smile every time he’s on the screen. actually ur ask made me remember & dig up an old doodle of reyn that i did for the “thank you” page of the xenoblade travel zine! (i added a bit of color to him~)

actually, there’s very few characters that i actively dislike in xenoblade 1 lol. but yeah 3rd fave has got to be Melia, i love her so so much. 💜💜💜💜

(i do have other faves from other xenoblade games as well ofc but since u mentioned xc1. well. none of my other faves are quite to the same level as my xc1 faves anyways)

and yeah to answer the second part of ur question, i LOVE the themes in the xenoblade series, genuinely things that hit a very specific area of interest for me and that i think about on a regular basis even to this day, especially xenoblade 1. tbh i don’t think any of the other games in the series nail quite the same vibes as xc1, but i do love them all tho. idk something about the way xc1 handles foreshadowing, the cycle of hatred & revenge, the idea of preventing fate, and idk the whole game just kind of captures a unique feeling of wistfulness and melancholy that i find hard to describe. as well as other themes that i don’t really want to go into detail here in case ppl don’t want spoilers haha.

xenoblade x is a wonderful game, but i def enjoy it in a different way than i do the rest of the series haha. u may already be aware, but def don’t go into x expecting to find the same kind of storytelling as in the numbered xenoblade entries. x is much more about exploring, and kind of living humanity’s desperation alongside them- but less about a sweeping jrpg tale haha. that said, it’s still a wonderful game & i haven’t been able to put down the switch port since i bought it- i’m not terribly far into the game yet, but it’s already such a smoother experience to play than the wii u version was, lol. there’s so many wonderful quality of life improvements to the switch version of xenoblade x, and i can’t wait til i make it to more of the added content as well!!

thank u so so much for sending this ask, i love the xenoblade series so much- especially xc1- & feel like i don’t draw or talk about it nearly enough lol

[dexjarxenoengage]

I have a hot take to give on Fire Emblem Engage. Treating Fire Emblem Engage as a “Saturday Morning Cartoon” ticks me off to no end. IMO, Fire Emblem Engage, and this goes for the other Fire Emblem games out there (Three Houses included) are just as much as anime as Engage is.

Fire Emblem has already had an anime from a long time ago, if you actually look it up to find that out. Speaking of anime, I never understand why people treat anime as some corny joke. True, anime does have some corny humor from time to time, but you can say that for any other stuff you go into that isn’t some gritty anime like Berserk.

Xenoblade Chronicles 2 (one of my favorite JRPGS of all time) also gets accused for this, because there was a time where 1 wasn’t liked because it wasn’t “anime enough.” (ironic). I personally found Engage’s (and Xenoblade 2’s humor) funny for what it tries to be. And as an anime fan, and someone who wants to write their anime story someday, this topic about anime means a great deal to me.

Speaking of anime, Engage’s manga also further’s my point that it’s more than just the “saturated Saturday day cartoon” people give it credit for IMO. IMO, the manga allows Engage to be “more anime” by allowing Alear and Lumera to be just as silly as the rest of the cast, but also allows itself to be more serious as well.

And also, regarding the opening, if Fire Emblem Engage’s opening is a “Saturday Morning Cartoon” opening, then so is Three Houses’s opening (which has a common school setting by the way). So treating Engage has the childish Saturday Morning Cartoon while not treating Three Houses as the same is stupid and hypocritical IMO.

Engage’s opening is more like Tokusatsu shows. And to me, many of the Tokusatsu scenes I have seen are much like anime (exaggerated, yes, but serious when it needs to be). An anime opening usually lasts 1:30 minutes while the dub openings (made with kids in mind) run by less time.

So my overall take that Fire Emblem Engage is a cartoon show is degrading IMO, even if it’s a compliment. (Cough Cough -Bigklingy-, no hate to him though).

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

Pick your faves from my faves game!

Challenge: make a poll with five of your all-time most recent favorite characters and then tag five people to do the same. See which character is everyone's favorite.

thanks for the tag @howlingmoonrise <333

Tagging @internal-morgan, @widowshill, @the-golden-ghost, @girlfriendsofthegalaxy, and @majortomiscominghome, as well as anyone else who wants to; just say i tagged you!

[mikubilliards]

Hey guys I’m back with another ridiculously long appreciation post! There will be massive spoilers for Xenoblade Chronicles 3 in it, be warned. It’s still probably my favorite game of all time so please play it if you haven’t before you read this…or don’t…I can’t stop you…

Alright so

Miyabi Xenoblade Chronicles 3

She’s probably my favorite side character in this game, maybe even favorite character as a whole. Something about her is just so relatable to me and also just like, she’s genuinely so well written is actually insane.

In the flashbacks with Mio, she’s presented as just like an average person, maybe even a little below average when it comes to fighting and such. Mio is obviously upset that she’s paired with her cause unlike with Sena she isn’t just inferior at fighting in her own head. She’s actually not that great at it, but she tries her best to contribute either way. Immediately this clashes with Mio’s sense of having to be the best and deserving to be an elite soldier, not to be relegated to off seeing duty. She doesn’t initially put that much stock in the whole deal, and sees it as a waste of her talent.

But then there’s one scene, seeming about midway through their 10 year lives, where both of them are sending the soldiers who died off. Mio confronts Miyabi about her issues with the role, and Miyabi looks at her, and tells her that this is the most important role they could be playing. That they are helping their fellow soldiers find peace in the beyond. And that’s the greatest gift they could give. She wants her to know that even if they aren’t fighting the enemy, they are still serving their fellow soldiers and that’s something to be proud of. This conversation instills that same mindset in Mio, and even allows her to connect with Noah later on since he shares that mindset. It’s kinda crazy how little Noah and Miyabi interact given their similarities but that’s for a little later. This conversation is the start of Mio’s own journey towards discovering that fighting isn’t everything, and you can see it going back to some of the earlier scenes with her. You can almost see that conversation playing back in her mind during some of those early scenes at the end of chapter 1.

I don’t have nearly as much to say about Miyabi’s hero quest, mainly cause it’s not as much about her as it is about Y and the experiments that are going on. It gives more lore for Moebius and how they got the world to the position that it is now but not too much on Miyabi herself cause she’s mind controlled essentially for most of the quest. Not a knock against the game, especially considering this hero quest is part of the story so it makes sense that it’s more of a broader story than about one single character.

But that brings us to her ascension quest. What do you think her ascension quest, the way to further develop her character after all that we’ve seen from her previously, will do? Well, her feelings of insecurity regarding her own talents and abilities never really went away. She was able to suppress them through her own actions before, but now that the world has been turned upside down for her, shes struggling to find a new way to do what she wants, to serve people in a way that brings them something positive. Enter: the City’s cooking competition. A place where everyone can enter to compete and see who can make the best dish. Since she’s already hanging around in the city, she decides to compete, and even affirms her desire to Mio, who notes that it isn’t really like her to compete in these things. Manana enters too, she’s the resident chef after all, it would be a waste not to compete. So they go ahead and go look for ingredients to make something with. One of those ingredients is a special sauce produced by one of the families in the city. Apparently Miyabi had spent some time with that family, and so the lady who makes it is more than happy to lend her some free of charge.

And thus, the competition begins and everyone makes their dish! The whole competition is filled with fun moments, like Ghondor having to judge her mom’s dish and reluctantly admitting it tastes good, to the ever glorious Mr. Boomer line. Manana’s dish blows everyone away obviously, that’s her job as chef. But then we get to Miyabi’s dish. Compared to the stuff that the other chefs had made, it’s rather plain. It doesn’t look extravagant, use any ultra rare or bold flavors, or any of that. But every judge notices something that isn’t really present in the other dishes. It’s a dish with a certain feeling, that of hominess and warmth. If there’s anything that reflects her character, it’s that spirit of warmth she brings to everything, even her food. And thus, the competition ends and the victor is decided. And the winner is…

Manana.

Yeah, Manana. I mean of course she’d win. Given the new lore from the art book she’s probably been doing this for centuries. What hope did anyone else have against a cook that proficient, right? But yeah, Miyabi loses. Of course, she’s not too bummed about it considering who she was up against, but you can feel that twinge of sadness at losing either way. But that’s when the lady whom she borrowed the sauce from comes up to her. She had sampled the dish and wanted to express her appreciation and proudness that Miyabi’s dish was as good as it was. And that’s when it clicks. Her goal was never to be the best at anything, not since the beginning. She knew she wouldn’t be the best. Even so, she can still make a difference in people. She doesn’t have to be the best or win in order to make others happy. She just has to be herself. She, and everyone for that matter, has the ability to serve and better themselves and others, and people will appreciate it regardless of whether what she did was the best or not. Thats the message of her character, and that’s the message I hope people can take.

As for my own commentary, man it was just awesome rewatching that scene for this, there’s so many details that you don’t pick up on first viewing that you see later and are just like OOOOHHHH I GET IT!!!! Man I should really do another playthrough of the game, I don’t even know how much I’ll pick up on that I don’t see right now or didn’t when I first played. Maybe over the summer when I’ve got days off between work…

Anyways, thanks for reading and have a good day/night/ambiguous time!

[dany36]

i hadn't listened to the xcx soundtrack while jogging this entire year and, these past two days that i've listened to it, every time the primordia theme starts up, it just puts a big smile on my face. like, my usual negativity and haterisms aside, i'm so so so excited for xcx to become available to all the newer xenoblade fans who never got a chance to play it. i'm excited for them to get to experience the incredible soundtrack for the first time while exploring the gorgeous and honestly incomparable world of mira. like, people rave about the xc 1-3's worlds but imo they will never compare to the fantastical and otherworldly setting that is mira. honestly i'm a little envious, like imagine exploring sylvalum for the first time as the night theme kicks in....god what a fucking amazing game.

and of course i'm excited for myself too. despite it being one of my ultimate favorite games, i've only played through it once and that was back on its original release. so, i remember SOME parts of the game, but a lot of the details are super fuzzy. for example i don't even remember doing that lobster collectaton sidequest that everyone seems to be complaining about. also that one scene where elma is pointing her gun towards the camera looking all sad, like i remember who she was pointing it to but not why. i'm excited to explore noctilum once again from top to bottom and bop along to my favorite overworld theme of the game, all of those sidequests of which i remember very little of (will never forget the water purification plant one though), getting to recruit all of the BLADEs again which i also don't remember a lot of their names and just....GEEZ, i have been waiting too damn long for X to get some love and listening to the soundtrack again after months of not having done so has gotten me excited for it again.

[i-like-dogs-and-apologizes-alot]

☆About Me☆

Hiiiiiiiiiiii I'm Paige but you can also call me Caitlin. I'm 20, use She/They pronouns and Indian-American. I also love being annoying about stuff I like!

Things You'll See Me Post About From Time To Time

Video Games: My beloved hobby of all time <3, I'm a huge jrpg fan with my two favorite games ever being Octopath Traveler 1 and Xenoblade Chronicles 1 (Play these games they changed my brain chemistry). Some other genres I'm a big fan of are survival horror and fighting games, though I tend to post about any game that catches my eye.

Motorsports: Mainly F1, Indycar, and Nascar with the occasional posting of MotoGP, IMSA, and WEC.

Hockey: Mostly a Dallas Stars fan as I'm from Texas so I lb about them the most but another teams I have soft spots for are Canucks, Devils, Penguins, and Panthers :3.

Here's a tierlist of my options of the teams <3

^ Current as of post trade deadline

Audio Dramas: My favorite way of passing the time <3 I listen to a shit ton of these so here are some of my recommendations The Silt Verses, The White Vault, Sherlock and Co, Old Gods of Appalachia, and Woe.Begone :3

• And much more I'm probably forgetting about! I'm always down to talk about any of the topics too :3

Under the cut are tags I use ^-^

My Tags

• Paige Speaks - What I use to tag my talking posts

• I Got An Ask! - What it says on the tin

• Paige's Pals - The friends :3

• :Beast_blast: - I mainly use this for when I'm getting too silly about people I find pretty. :Beast_blast: comes from one of the discord servers I'm in (Ily Indyblr <3) and emote looks like this

And that's it thank you for reading :3

[wolfgirltummy]

Okay since tumblr ate the last one I'm coming back in still on anon (for authenticity) to remind you to infodump like crazy next time you find something to sink your teeth into. I need to hear not just about The Thing™ objectively but also your thoughts and opinions on it!

ok its been over a month but its finally happened.. xenoblade x definitive edition came out and its hitting me HARD!!!

i was a bit worried since i heard this one more gameplay focused than story cus story is def my fav aspect of this series, but fuck man they did it again i love Elma i love Lin every new party member is so charming!! its so cool having a xeno game start with an all female cast!!!

btw i need you all to know i am a HARD xc2 truther its myy favorite one without a doubt. if u loved 1 and thought 2 looked stupid i beg of you please try it!!! it has one of my favorite stories and casts of characters in anything ever!!!

[gaysheep]

now my experiences might not be universal but as far as im concerned you asked far fewer questions about video games when you were a kid. the first time you encountered waluigi in mario tennis or mario party or whatever other mario spinoff you encountered him in for the first time because they only put him in spinoffs you didnt say "who's this goofster stomping around like he's a member of the crew?" you said oh ok that's waluigi i guess.

super smash bros melee the crossover fighting game starring all your favorite nintendo characters (well pikachu was second party but thats pikachu everyone knows who pikachu is) had a whole three characters who nobody in north america knew who the fuck they were, two of which were from games that weren't localized at all and one of which was from a game that was enough of a commercial failure in the united states hardly anyone remembered it a little under a decade later. now to be fair ness was in the one on the n64 also but its not like he'd gotten another game. "oh earthbound's failure was overexaggerated" you say that but my brother lived the super nintendo era and not a single one of his gaggle of friends had even heard of earthbound it was not on anyone's radar come on. but no one said "hey these aren't iconic nintendo characters" we all went "well i guess they can be here too" and now we say "you cant main a smash character if you havent played their game" like we werent saying "thats marth i dont know who the fuck he is but hes like a brother to me" in 2001

youd just go into the store and look at a game's boxart and decide you wanted that one and yknow what it usually worked out for you. i did this longer than you'd expect too i was in 7th or 8th grade and thought to myself "yknow i havent really played any console rpgs lately" so i looked up "rpgs for the wii" and i saw a gamefaqs rec thread or some shit where a guy went "well xenoblade is coming out." and i looked up xenoblade and found virtually no information about it other than that it was coming out and thought to myself "yeah xenoblade... that looks like an rpg i could get into." and you know what i did? i preordered it this may very well have been the first game i ever preordered i thought "well they were talking about it on gamefaqs so it must be a big deal i wanna make sure i can play it day 1" but i didnt need to reserve a copy of fucking xenoblade chronicles the store probably could have given me every copy in stock for no profit loss when i walked in there with my gir t shirt and my little receipt because i was one of all three and a half people in north america who played this game counting the gamefaqs guy. and xenoblade chronicles knocked me flat on my ass it was one of the best games i'd ever experienced i'd played plenty of story heavy rpgs before but this one hooked me in a way none of them ever had.

fast forward around 4 years the 4th smash game comes out but this one was different. this was when we really started to go in on the crossover fighters, character slots were now real estate that potential entrants had to earn the right to occupy as if one game ago they didnt make a failed NES peripheral a playable fighter and give it an emotional subplot in subspace emissary. no longer was it "cool i guess this guy is here" it had become "who the hell is this and what do they think they're doing in smash bros?"

and thus came that fateful night when amidst crazy new character reveals like the fucking wii fit trainer they unveil a cinematic trailer and announce that shulk from xenoblade chronicles was joining the fight. to which the unilateral reaction was "who the fuck is shulk why was this trailer framed like we already have a rapport with shulk i dont know this man why does he say stuff like 'im really feeling it?'"

but i knew who shulk was.

[calamari-inari]

Playing this game (without the likes) 🫶

1. enemies to lovers, best friends to lovers, lord and their knight ❤️

2. Not sure if these are tropes, but yandere lover (just not a very big fan of yandere), obsessive love (treating their partner as a possession), misogynistic attitudes or abusive power in a relationship (basically a partner defining what their partner, whether it be a woman or man, should do or behave, and the victimized partner finds it hot???)

3. Gradual mutual understanding for one another! I also learn more about the characters' personalities this way!

4. One or both partners experience withdrawal when they're being separated from each other lol. True feelings often emerge from such situations and it's adorable...

5. Multiship! So far, the only ships I really think about now are from FE3H and a few from Engage and TGAA. Here's a list of several multiships I enjoy!

FE3H (Apparently Dimitri is very shippable to me LOL)

Hubert x Ferdinand

Hubert x Edelgard

Sylvain x Felix

Sylvain x Ferdinand

Dimitri x Ferdinand

Dimitri x Felix

Dimitri x Dedue

Dimitri x Claude

Byleth x any lord

Engage

Alear x Alfred

Alear x Diamant

Diamant x Ivy

TGAA

Kazuma x Ryuunosuke

Barok x Kazuma

Barok x Herlock

6. I like both rarepairs and mainstream! Most of the rarepairs I like don't have any canon interaction, so I like to explore the "what could've been" situations.

7. Monogamy. Not much to explain here. It's just my preference lol

8. Using my favorite pair ferdibert, they are reversible, but I have a really strong preference for dom Hubert and sub Ferdinand. However!! I'm not a big fan of where Ferdinand is written or drawn very femininely. This applies to any MxM pair. I'm not against the concept of femininity in males, but when used in a stereotypical fashion, it rubs me the wrong way. Just a subtle depiction of their relationship dynamic is perfect to me! I'm alright with seeing SFW artwork of the reverse and reading said fics, but NSFW is where I draw the line

9. Thinking about the games I've played, I can think of at least one pair I like to see romantically, so yes 😂

10. Not at all important! After all, my favorite is romantic fluff 🥺 Depending on the intensity of my liking for a ship, the NSFW aspect becomes more bareable since I'm still personally embarrassed consuming such content lol. I am vanilla. Ferdibert is highkey the only one I consume NSFW for

11. A lot of my MxF and FxF pairs are platonic to me! This is likely due to my aegosexuality, which is the closest explanation I can identify with. Not everything needs to be romantic. I find close friendships very heartwarming too 🥺

12. My top favorites right now are ferdibert 🖤🧡, sylvix ❤️💙, and diminand 💙🧡!

13. My favorite pairs from fandoms that I'm not really engaging in now are:

Madeleine Cookie x Espresso Cookie (Cookie Run Kingdom)

Victor x Yuuri (Yuri on Ice)

Link x Zelda (Skyward Sword version)

Reyn x Shulk (Xenoblade Chronicles 1)

Chrom x M!Robin (Fire Emblem Awakening)

14. Domestic fluff is really cute, but the official legal bonding of two partners isn't on my "must have" list for any romantic pairing. I really love seeing creations of my favorite pairs marrying though! Gives me the tingles every time and I just feel so happy 😍

15. As someone that made OC fan kids in the past, yes that is totally fine and I love seeing other people's interpretations for the same pair (if they don't have canon children). I've even made some for ferdibert before but I never fully flushed them out lol

[shrapnelstars]

I've been thinking about a phenomenon similar to that, where streamers and YouTubers complain about the pacing and mechanics of games because they aren't conducive to their show structure, and I do not think games should be made with streamers and YouTubers in mind primarily. They should be made with good faith players in mind first and foremost.

Stories should not be shorter or less in-depth just because a YouTuber is bored or can't follow along, nor should mechanics be altered so that YouTubers can get more click bait soypog moments in. Games should be what the developer wanted them to be, and deliver the experience that the development team intended.

If something like, say, Xenoblade 1, had been made with streamers in mind first and foremost, I would not have had the near religious experience that I had with it. I enjoyed the peacefulness of just roaming around the massive world and doing all the side quests because I enjoyed just existing in that world. A streamer's pacing would have required 80% of the quests and world size cut.

For a show example, Peaky Blinders has the bombastic moments, but it has a LOT of really subtle acting and faint facial expressions that tell you A LOT about what these hardened characters are thinking. They will also blend several expressions/emotions, and you know how a story thread is about to pan out just from those tiny cues.

Sometimes slow burns and subtle, silent actions are the heart of the work. And sometimes, humans need to just sit and ruminate with just one activity and absorb it. That's not always the individual's fault that they can't, but re-embracing just one activity, when possible, allows you to appreciate it more.

I originally planned to have Blade Runner on in the background while I played a game, but it captured me enough that I decided to give it my full attention. It became my favorite movie of all time.

[mirensiart]

So I finished ending D of Nier Automata

MASSIVE ENDGAME SPOILERS under the cut

Absolutely INSANE final boss sequence, how u fight one boss as 9S and the other as A2 in parallel and the more damage u do the faster the gameplay switch happens to the point u go from 9S to A2 constantly within seconds of each othet in the last part

Like it got so confusing at one point but I get the vision oh god I get it

I OBVIOUSLY chose A2 cause like, 9S I love u but he's SO MENTALLY UNSTABLE by the end of the game I was like "lmao YIKES!"

Also that scene where 9S loses an arm and sees a dead 2B model and gently caresses her face and then grabs her hand

I was all "awww he wants her hand to touch his face too" and then the lil shit RIPS HER ARM OFF and attaches it to his body in replacement of his lost arm

Like DUDE WHAT THE FUCK LMAO yoko taro is so insane for this, I love him

The reveal that our 2B is actually a 2E model aka an executioner android and has the task/mission to kill 9S every time he hacks/digs too deep and gets confidential info was MIND BLOWING LMAO

Also the implications that 2B has killed 9S A HANDFUL OF TIMES and 9S has been reactivated in new bodies with his memories wiped, forgetting who 2B is every time is INSANE

When A2 mentions that 2B HATED killing 9S every time was so sad, like my girl :(

A2 being the OG model and her data was the reference for the new android models was kind of expected

Like she looks so much like 2B I suspected that she was an old 2B model, but the fact that she is the blue print for all the new yorha models wasn't expected lol

Also the reveal at the beginning of route C that mankind is extinct and that command is lying about humans being alive so androids can have a purpose (protecting mankind) was insane

Like I was staring at the screen in disbelief like I FELT LIED TO LMAO

The devola & popola mini storyline was so sad too :( they're my favorite design wise, they're so pretty

Anyway this game is insane and mind-blowing and I haven't been this invested in a game plot since xenoblade chronicles 1 and that's like THE HIGHEST PRAISE I can give it

Cause no one competes with xenoblade1's plot for me, but this game is close second

I missed a fuck ton of sidequests so I plan on doing them now that I can select chapters

I'm doubtful on doing ending E cause, like, endgame 9S is so YIKES lmao like I love A2 too much I can't kill her

We'll see though....

Anyway I really wanna draw memes for this game now lmao

[emblemxeno]

Xenoblade 1 DE Main Story/Game Thoughts

Finished the main story! I didn't go full completion but I got full affinity for all areas and saw every Heart-to-Heart. More detailed thoughts-including spoilers-under the cut!

-For starters, DE is a great update to the original. Many QoL improvements trims the extra menu time down a lot (inventory management, art books, equipment/gems, etc.), especially swapping gems. Also hell yes to including the appearance feature from X, as someone who prefers the default outfits for everyone!

-Same applies to battle stuff and general gameplay. Quest tracking, gauges on things like Break and Topple, clearer status effects, chance arts being highlighted, even something as small as the scroll between Talent Arts/Running/Chain Attacks being more streamlined had many great returns on me not pressing the wrong thing.

-However... why did they not just go all the way with more changes? The two big ones that come to mind are trading and Colony 6 collecting. First, why can you not bulk trade? It is such a time sink having to constantly open the menu again and again. And since trading and skip travelling share a button, I clocked probably over a hundred instances of opening the damn map menu instead of trading since there's a second of cooldown before the option appears for the NPC again! It's an annoyance that is easily ignored once or twice, but absolutely brutal after the tenth time.

-Jumping ahead a bit, but I speak not just criticizing DE but XC1 as a whole. It's probably an unpopular opinion but I don't like the ongoing Colony 6 reconstruction sidequest. The first time I completed it-about half a decade ago I think-was magical! Seeing a ruined home blossom into a lively city due to my hard work was something I'll never forget as an RPG fan. But I don't have that kind of time on my hands anymore (or I simply have better management of time now that I don't stay up til 4 am playing video games anymore lol). Exploring Bionis and Mechonis is an undeniably wondrous and beautiful experience, but only when doing normal quests (well most of the normal quests) and progressing the story. Jogging around places trying to find each item is incredibly unfun and tedious. The big offenders are typically Ice Cabbages (luckily I got all the ones I need by playing through the Valak portion of the story), Rainbow Slugs (I spent an entire hour on the Fallen Arm ugh), and the Black Liver Beans. The last one was the breaking point, I can't stand the Bionis Interior and after an hour in there just trying to find one, I said fuck it and did the Time Attack trials to get them that way. It was just not... good! I don't like it a bit.

-Last thing on DE specifically, I found that the graphics are apparently controversial among fans? I'm understanding of the position, as there's definitely a charm that the original artstyle had, especially being on the Wii. But to me the original has more issues in its visuals than just being a different artstyle. Poor resolution, blocky models, souless faces when not in an important cutscene, absolutely diabolical pop-in. And some say that the original gave its characters more personality during cutscenes, which... I don't get whatsoever. Did we watch the same scenes, cuz it's very hard to distinguish emotion in the original, whereas DE has better mouth, eyebrow, and facial movements. Certain scenes may "look" more emotional in the original, but things get exaggerated all the time to compensate for poor resolution or graphics.

-Now on to the just XC1 in general! Holy fuck the main cast is better than I remember. Shulk, Fiora, and Melia were already my favorites, but honestly... Dunban is probably my absolute favorite out of all of them now. His story is just so succinct and he's just so cool and hot and kind and just ughhhhhh!

-Egil is still best villain in the game, no surprise. Revisiting this game honestly made it really fucking clear why I loved Dimitri from 3H so much cuz the two are so similar (to the point where you can pull line's from the game about Egil and put them in 3H). The others fair less well. Metal Face/Mumkhar is delightfully hammy and an amazing threat for the first half of the game, but is as deep as a puddle. Dickson and Lorithia I found I dislike even more, for the wrong reasons; they lack charisma, and it's noticeable in places where the game gets really anime in its hammy villainy, but they're written and played a bit too straight for it to come off as anything other than lackluster. Though at least Dickson has presence as Shulk's caretaker and the guy who everyone knows and respects; Lorithia though? Throw her away. Honestly if Yumea took her place and retained the bigotry against Homs it'd be much more entertaining IMO.

-Zanza himself is a definitive mixed bag. Were I ignorant to Klaus' entire story from XC2, I'd honestly write him off as a by-the-numbers arrogant (but secretly imperfect and prone to "human" folly) god figure that happens in many, many RPGS. But I can't dislike him because I do know the entire story, and Zanza being an utter dickwad is explained in great detail and makes sense. Honestly, he does work for the story that XC1 is telling without playing XC2 as well, but ehhh. I guess it's just really difficult to be the main villain after Egil does such great things in a limited time.

-Narrative is great, just as it was the first time I played. Highlights for me:

Singlemindedly fighting for revenge is destructive not just to your enemies, but to yourself and your friends. Ignorance and unwillingness to look beyond your own world or history means you may be hurting innocent people without realizing it. Chaining your life to the deaths of others rather than supporting the survivors is unhealthy and can lead you down a path of misery and disaster.

Ether is not just analogy for carbon/other base elements in our world. Philosophically it's analogous to light and fate as well. Shulk unlocks the Monado's powers when he stops treating it as a tool with functions, but rather as an extension of his will. He wills his wishes into his heart, and they are made manifest. He protects Reyn with Shield not cuz the Monado lets him, but because he desired it. Same with Sharla and Speed, and it's how Alvis taught him to unlock Purge. It's how he resists Apocrypha, and later gains Cyclone once the Apocrypha is destroyed. His will is so strong, it becomes resistant to Zanza's influence, hence why he starts suffering the more he learns of Mechonis' history. The truth being brought to light is painful internally and externally, as Zanza physically rejects anything that challenges how he sees the world. Shulk brings himself back to life, begins having visions without Zanza, and gains his own Monado-which looks purely made of ether and light-through pure willpower and the desire to create his own future.

Shulk's duality and inner turmoil when he realizes his yearning for revenge is destructive; Fiora's endless strength of heart when dealing with a machine body and carrying on Meyneth's wishes; Melia going through hell and back trying to find a balance between her sense of self and sense of duty (I imagine Future Connected is gonna touch on that more as well); Dunban grappling with his moniker of being a hero and mentoring the party despite being imperfect and lamenting his disability; Reyn's goal of being a protector developing into being a supporter once he becomes insecure over his strength and character compared to Shulk; Sharla trying to keep hold onto a sense of hope that her love is alive before coming to terms with the fact that she needs to cherish her life and love those within it; Riki just being the fucking best dad and friend in the world.

Having played XC2 and XC3 makes all these things even richer as well.

-Last but not least, gameplay:

-Most quests are good. Most. The generic quests weren't ever fun for me, and they cause significant bloat that could've been trimmed IMO. Especially since lots of quests ask you to kill monsters and collect items anyway.

-The method to get quests started though? Awful. I know that things like Community in Torna and Field Skills in XC2 are hated, but man I can't stand having to change the clock and track the damn NPCs in XC1. Especially since there are many areas separated between towns/villages and "wild" areas (Colony 6 and Bionis Leg, Frontier Village and Makna, Alcamoth and Eryth + Valak), it just makes things so drawn out. Going back and forth, changing time and all that, is a sour point on this game.

-Like I said a few weeks ago, the Xenoblade series as a whole is unmatched in gameplay story telling. Beautiful and large environments make curious exploration a treat, especially as you start getting pieces to puzzles that can get completed later. I payed a lot more attention to the High Entia and Giant related sidequests due to the fascinating lore, for example.

-The fights are great, if a bit centralizing. Shulk, due to Monado arts, is the best character to have in the party and is sorely missed when switched out. I have pretty standard opinions on the rest of the characters, so no need to speak on each individually. I will say though, holy fuck is the AI just as bad as I remember. Shulk wastes his Monado gauge, Sharla is terrible at using arts and always puts herself into cooldown, and Melia for the love of god, stop firing elementals as soon as you summon them you're made of tissue.

Topple locking is deffo the prime strategy, cuz there were fights I wouldn't otherwise have won were it not for it, and thankfully Reyn and Dunban have pretty good AI.

Two major gripes though. Spikes are a terrible mechanic, gross. Second, I hate that the enemy tags affect accuracy, it makes certain quests extremely brutal to complete without grinding. And I just hate having to fight tough/overlevelled enemies as a whole, it becomes routine and simple after a while.

As a whole, I like the gameplay still, but it feels very restrictive going back to it after seeing all the crazy tricks I could do in 2 and 3. And also auto-attack arts > timer arts forever and ever.

-Overall a very great experience getting to replay this game like this. Though more rough points than I remember, and with certain things that have not aged well whatsoever , XC1 is still a good game that I'm glad introduced me to this series. I'm taking a break before playing Future Connected.

[ontosgold]

hello klaus!!! 👋 i was curious, who are your favorite characters from xenoblade 1...? xb1 is such a treasured game to me and it makes me happy to see someone else who likes both p3 and xb1 (also splatoon!!!). have a nice day and thank you for all the fun tags, your energy is just so fun to see 🥺💛

HI LIZZ ^_^ !!! and omg xb1 is so so special to me as well thank u for giving me the chance to ramble a bit hehe !!! shulk and alvis are my special guys of all time >>> shulk especially is so so special to me there's so much abt him that i love and resonates with me. like his difficulty communicating with ppl and doesn't wanna burden others (and like the way he's initially super hesitant to tell ppl abt his visions) is just so. yeah. i see so much of myself in that. BUT ALSO !!! i just love how much kindness he holds and how steadfast his views are despite everything the world throws at him (the one scene where he stops dunban from killing mumkhar has always stood out in my brain to me. as well as the moment he has with egil after the fight at mechonis core). and also he's so very autistic to me <3

also I love alvis my silly little super computer who speaks in riddles. and !! shalvis is one of my favourite ships of all time, those two are very near and dear to my heart :>

and uh um yeah my namesake. there's a reason why i stole his name for myself LMAO (also I'm just very normal about pre experiment earth, galea, klaus and the trinity processors. I'm so very normal abt that part of xenoblade lore. u can imagine how i reacted to the end of xb3 future redeemed lol)

OH MY GOD ALSO...!! I've had this on my brain a lot lately... I feel like aigis and fiora would be besties ^_^ two robot girlies who were built to be weapons and are struggling with their identity and feeling "human enough".... yeah

and oouuu thank you I hope you have a lovely day too :( <3 i love never shutting the hell up about the things i love and I'm so glad to share some of that energy on here ^_^ and i love your energy too !!! seeing your tags on my art never fails to give me the biggest fucking smile and i hope u know that i appreciate them so so much :> (i keep going back to look at them!!) and I'm so glad we share so many interests :D <33 !!!!!

[meercacchi]

Tag game! What are you top 10 fandoms of all time? Name them and then tag ten more people. Feel free to write as much or as little about why you like them!

Tagged by @supreme-sauteer~ These are in no particular order and I ended rambling a lil too long LOL.

1. Kuroko no Basuke

Jk, ofc knb has to be first! It's been almost 10 years since I got into it and it's just the gift that keeps on giving. It's one of my comfort shows and it's gotten me through a lot tbh. Special shoutout to Kise, my baby who will forever be one of my favorite characters in media, and Kasamatsu, who I love with my entire being. Kaijou deserves better!!

2. Pokemon

My original hyperfixation before I even knew what that was, LOL. Pokemon has been there for me for as long as I can remember, and I don't think anything will ever quite replicate the feeling of home I get from this franchise, whether it's the games or merch or the show. I will def be there when gen 5028373 comes out, still playing the newest Pokemon game on the newest console no matter how old I am.

3. Xenoblade Chronicles

A newer fandom but one I fell into HARD. XC3 actually altered my brain chemistry and is probably my favorite game ever. My journey through the Xenoblade trilogy was magical and I can't get over how well the characters and stories are written, on top of having pretty fun gameplay. I'm super excited to finally check out XCX in March too!

4. TMNT 2003

Another childhood fave and another comfort show. These boys genuinely feel like family to me, they're just so cozy. I'm honestly shocked how well the show holds up even today; the writing is too good! It's criminal how slept on this version of the turtles is compared to others and I will die on this hill.

5. Akatsuki no Yona

The other day I realized I've been reading this manga for ten years which really made me have a belated quarter life crisis LOL. I migrated over from the anime, but man, it's SO SAD that they haven't animated the arcs after bc I love Yona (and everyone else's) growth through the series. I'm really anticipating how the series ends! Last chapter ripped out my heart thx.

6. Love Live!

I haven't kept up with Love Live and I was introduced to it through LLSIF (RIP) but I still listen to so many of the Muse/Aqours songs to this day! Kotori is incredibly special to me in particular bc I relate to her and I'll always smile when I see her pop up. Also I sometimes use the cards for fashion inspo bc their fits are too cute!

7. Rurouni Kenshin

I haven't felt comfortable following new RuroKen stuff considering everything, and tbh I don't think I'll ever be able to even reread/rewatch it bc it's forever tainted in my mind. But I can't deny how big of an impact it (esp Sano) had on me in my early teens, so here it is!

8. Sengoku BASARA

Tbh I'm not really in the fandom anymore, but I met SO MANY of my mutuals who I'm still friends with today through it, so it'll always hold a special place in my heart <3 Those were some wild and fun times LMAO.

9. Ys

Still making my way through all the older Ys games, but Ys 8 will forever be a legendary game imo and it has one of my fave OSTs of all time. Ys 9 and esp Ys 10 were also awesome! I finished Ys 10 a couple weeks ago and I'm still having withdrawals lol.

10. EXO

Alright this one is kinda eh bc I never got super into fandom stuff, but it's been such a crazy ride watching them from debut to now! Jongin esp is one of my favorite humans on the planet and as cheesy as it is, his words helped me tackle some of my insecurities growing up. I'll always be an erigom and an EXO-L <3

[motionpicturedemise]

myth's game writeup of 2023

i waited until the new year to finish this in case i managed to beat a game during december. i did not. ANYWAY.

this will contain new games as well as games i only got around to in 2023. light on spoilers but be warned

Octopath Traveler II (2023)

as far as i remember, this was the first new game I played this year, and god did it deliver. I've been a fan of octopath since the first one came out on switch in 2018, counting it as my favorite game of all time, so to have a sequel after all this time was thrilling. it did almost everything octopath 1 did and better. new path actions, day/night system, branching stories, fucking boats?? incredible.

my biggest gripe has to be the new hidden classes. I started with throne so getting inventor 10 minutes after my chapter one did definitely fuck up the progression a little bit. I think I preferred ot1 hidden classes. while the dungeons were underwhelming, the boss battles really make you fight for these secret techniques, something absent in 3 out of the 4 hidden classes of octopath 2.

overall: 4/5 BP.

Xenoblade Chronicles 3: Future Redeemed (2023)

xenoblade 3 as the end of the klaus trilogy really didn't sit well with me, for reasons that don't belong on my review of its dlc, but future redeemed fixed nearly every problem i had with base xc3 — both story and gameplay wise. it ties every xenoblade game and even some of gears and saga into a neat little 40 hour bow, and is truly a love letter to the entire series. I can only think of one problem I still have with it. the fucking menu music.

where do i even fucking start with this one really. relatively speaking, I'm a new xenoblade fan, having started xc1 in march 2022 during a harrowing experience with adhd meds, and since then it had kinda consumed me. I finished it in about a week, went on to watch xenoblade 2 because I had heard the gameplay wasn't great, and got my hands on xenoblade 3 day of release.

overall: 5 dance apples.

Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023)

as someone who was not immune to the hype surrounding botw, I had high hopes for the sequel. hopes that were painfully, slowly, fed into a trash compactor over my playthrough. this is another game I got on release day, lining up outside gamestop in the heat, and lets not forget that it's the only first-party switch game with a price tag of seventy bucks.

the game plays like a tech demo. I have a lot of love in my heart for it. the story was better that botw, the world was more expansive than botw, but the problem here is that everything it does is directly compared to breath of the wild. it doesn't get enough time to shine, because we're in the exact same world as 6 years ago, but instead of pinkish black malice we have blackish pink gloom. i much prefer the runes to the zonai abilities, and the sense of wonder that permeated breath of the wild is replaced by a sense of nostalgia that just doesn't appeal to me much.

all of this isn't to say it's a bad game. I think it's a great game, honestly, but a great game that wasn't meant for me. I've seen the insane shit people do with ultrahand, but it just... isn't my style.

overall: 441/1000 korok seeds

Pikmin 4 (2023)

it's pikmin. i dont have much to say about it. it was a lot of fun, loved that part where i bulborbed all over those guys. im not a gameplay reviewer, at heart i mostly talk about story, and a game like pikmin doesn't have much for me to comment on. good fun. lived up to expectations. probably wouldn't replay.

overall: 7500 sparklium

Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood (2017)

oh, stormblood... the rage you still fill my veins with. I'm not going to spend too long on this one because I have better things to do with my life than shit on an expansion everyone already hates, but let me make it clear I actually do have reasons for disliking it.

having ala mhigo built up since the very start of a realm reborn, only to have half of the ala mhigo expansion take place halfway across the star, was very disappointing. the monotony of the three areas in gyr abania compared to the three far east areas was very disappointing. the treatment of the people of the steppe and honestly that entire segment in the main story quest was very disappointing. hien, as a character, in his entirety, was very disappointing.

I will say it had strong parts. the 61-70 quests for several jobs were the strongest in their entire story (see: dark knight). the dungeons started to get more interesting. it gave us the quest Child Labor, which is hilarious and I'll never be finishing it because I want it there forever.

overall: 1/3 WHM Lillies.

Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers (2019)

ffxiv immediately got better the second 4.0 was over. even the patch quests instantly shot up in quality. it's not even funny. the lead up to shadowbringers was the most fun I had had with the game since a realm reborn, and all of the first was heartbreaking to go through even though I was spoiled on That Character's Identity.

the duty trust system (is that what it was called?) made dungeons much more fun. getting to go through hell with alphinaud alisaie and thancred made everything 10x better, even if it was a lot slower. the story, again, heartbreaking — ryne's arc in particular felt like being stabbed by thousands of little needles while trying to play. in the best way, of course. and amaurot... amaurot. getting to quote our favorite knight in there was my 8th umbral calamity.

shadowbringers also marks when a lot of your job's functionality is really unlocked, so doing the level 80 raid series was genuinely a ton of fun. and again the thousands of little needles. i cried at least 7 times during the main story.

overall: 85/100 kenki gauge.

Katana Zero (2019)

possibly my favorite game this year. the protagonist, zero (or as i like to call him, katana from zero,) ticked all the boxes for a character I'd be absolutely obsessed with. true enough, i fell in love. the fast-paced gameplay, the diegesis of gameplay elements which would typically go unquestioned, and the care that seeps through every dialogue choice all solidify katana zero as one of my favorite game experiences ever. I'll leave it at this, because I encourage everyone to at least give it a try.

overall: Yes, that should work.

Fire Emblem Engage (2023)

this is one of the few 2023 releases on this list that I didn't get on launch, because at the time I had relatively little interest in fire emblem as a series. then I made a lot of friends who enjoy it, and in october, bestie sen decided to buy it for me as an early birthday present. everyone say thank you sen.

considering this is my first fire emblem game, i have absolutely no deeper insight into how it matches up compared to the others, and plenty of people more eloquent than me have already talked about that. what I do know is that the gameplay was surprisingly fun as my first tactical rpg, and the story was passable. all the characters were appealing in one way or another, and I'm still mad I had to choose between marrying kagetsu or fogado. they're both my husbands at heart.

overall: I didn't internalize enough of this game to come up with a clever rating.

Fire Emblem Engage: Fell Xenologue (2023)

I was expecting the dlc to continue the main story, so I put it off until I had finished the base game. in hindsight, I regret it, because I'd love to have brought the winds and twins with me to fight their evil versions and alternate universe dad. the story was... alright. I really liked all the small battle interactions between fell characters and our party members which they would've known. I instantly recognized fogado in chapter 1 because I am in love with him by the way.

overall: i dont know. 1¾ dragonstones

with 2024 upon us, I'll probably be writing reviews for games as I play them. I'm trying to use tumblr more as a social platform instead of just reblogging. we'll see how that plays out. if you like any of these games (yes, even tears of the kingdom) please talk to me about them! that's all for now. look out for my mangled thoughts on SANABI and Nier: Automata next :)