#weirdest rpg party ever

[muselexum]

@umbrx sent:

❛ where do you purchase your audacity from? ❜ / and Akane as the best for last

[meme]

The reactions to Shanks breaking Doflamingo out and bringing him along as an ally(?) could not have been more chaotic, but in hindsight things were going a lot smoother than anyone could have expected. Granted, it's not like Doflamingo had much of a choice in his cooperation.

Akane knew that she shouldn't, but she couldn't help 'poking the bear' every once in awhile. It's not like she was the only one that did it either. Knowing that Doflamingo couldn't retaliate without severe consequence emboldened various crew members. It was never to the point of severe disrespect or overstep, but there was something so satisfying and amusing about... the poking.

"Y'know, I've wondered that all my life myself." She replied, kicking her feet up on the table as she tilted her chair back and forth. She was immersed in a fluff of pink feathers, the jacket spilling out across the floor as well. It had been recovered when they were at Impel Down a couple weeks ago, but had yet to be returned to the rightful owner. She discovered it thrown in one of the storage closets and decided to have some fun with it. "Come to find out, I think it just runs in my blood." Grey eyes--a familiar hue, sparkled with mirth. "You wouldn't even be the first warlord to choke me out for it-- although I do suggest you don't do that."

[windienine]

digital directory of jenna moran's ttrpgs and where you can buy them

nobilis, 3rd edition

what is it? (diceless game where you play as a human who's been uplifted to be the demigod of a singular concept [like the moon or baseball or telomeres] by a higher power. you are to keep the world in balance and keep world-ending interlopers at bay.)

how much? ($12.95 for the pdf.)

chuubo's marvelous wish-granting engine

what is it? (diceless game where you play as a resident of a magical island hidden alongside our own world. you are a young god who does not yet know you are a god. explore. experience. discover who you are. the end of the world is coming, so you ought to make some friends first.)

how much? ($19.99 for the pdf. however, i also highly recommend the glass-maker's dragon [a campaign] and by the docks of big lake [a setting guide], both are SUPER worthwhile)

glitch

what is it? (diceless game where you play as a human who has suffered a terrible fate. you have died, but you have died wrong, and while this wrongness has granted you terrible power it also imbues you with terrible pain. you once wished to destroy the universe for this injustice. you're over that, but it doesn't make the world any easier to exist in. how do you manage?)

how much? ($32.95 for the pdf)

the flood

what is it? (diced game where you play as a farmer attempting to make enough money to survive an upcoming natural disaster. your crop of choice is poetry. how willing are you to butcher, graft, and genetically engineer your own craft for the money you need to live?)

how much? ($9.99 for the PDF)

[adventures on] the far roofs

what is it? (diced game where you play as a human called to the strange parallel world atop your city's roofs by talking rat-knights. you will be tested not just by the alien environs, by the behemoth monsters that make the rooftops their home.)

how much? (will be for sale soon. you can get a prerelease copy on jenna's patreon if you subscribe, for no extra cost.)

wisher, theurger, fatalist

what is it? (i kid you not, the weirdest little thing you've ever played. design the rules of a game and its world with friends. create, contemplate, veto, and chart alongside one another to find the structure that works best for you. or whatever else you make of this. who is planning to stop you?)

how much? (you cannot put a price tag on WTF)

[autisticwriterblog]

Snowflake Challenge #6

In your own space, share a favourite piece of original canon (a show, a specific TV episode, a storyline, a book or series, a scene from a movie, etc) and explain why you love it so much. Post your answer to today’s challenge in your own space and leave a comment in this post saying you did it. Include a link to your post if you feel comfortable doing so.

I'm a big fan of the Yakuza/Like a Dragon video game series (called Ryu ga Gotoku in Japanese). They also have a spin off series called Judgment, about a different protagonist but set in the same world. They are set in a series of fictional versions of locations in Japan (such as a city called Sotenbori, which is modeled after the real life Dotonbori, Osaka), and follow a series of protagonists through violent stories about the yakuza and organised crime. They're gritty and violent games that take themselves very seriously... but also have some of the weirdest, silliest sidequests and minigames I have ever seen. 

I joined the fandom in 2019 after playing Yakuza 0, and have been in love with these games ever since. But my favorite game in the series is Yakuza: Like a Dragon (RGG 7), so that's what I want to talk about for today's challenge.

Yakuza: Like a Dragon stars a new protagonist, Ichiban Kasuga, who starts the game by taking the fall for a murder at his boss' request and spends 18 years in prison. Ichiban is an incredibly endearing character, loyal to a fault and a massive dork who loves Dragon Quest and helping everyone he meets. After being shot, Ichiban wakes up in Ijincho, Yokohama, where he begins his quest to work out what happened to him and cope with how much the world has changed in 18 years. 

Other than adoring Ichiban, I love this game because they were brave enough to drastically change the combat system, switching to a turn-based RPG complete with classes (called jobs in the game), a result of Ichiban's overactive imagination and love of JPRGs. And it was a big gamble, but in my personal opinion, it worked. I love the old games and their beat-em-up combat, but I also love turn-based RPGs, and LAD implements all the changes so well. The combat is fun and creative, especially when experimenting with all the different classes.I never get tired of dungeon crawling to level up and find upgrade materials in this game. 

Due to being an RPG, the game of course gives Ichiban a collection of party members who all provide their own skills in battle. You meet your party members throughout the game, and they're all such entertaining and interesting characters who I love spending time with. You can take part in Drink Links at the bar, where you have conversations with your allies that teach you more about them, and also unlock new classes for them to use in combat. 

Honestly, I could ramble about this game forever, but I'd end up going into spoiler territory. So I'll stop here. Thanks for reading my infodump about this video game! 

[anonauthorsworkshop]

fun fact anon’s really short story on rickrolling pisspad lord

ok so this is uh something alright, I asked for you to ask and I’ve now delivered???!!?? this is probably OOC, how do you guys write so well for these guys when the info is so minimal??? you guys are the true anomalies here /j ——————-

What were you meant to do in a situation like this? You could feel your legs starting to lose their balance from supporting you, all you could truly do is curse out which ever god had brought you into this world, the same damned world that barley has a canon in yours! You quickly make a sharp turn not paying mind to where you were headed, it’s not like you were in the right mind to contemplate it either way.

it had been a funny idea at first to come back to Allagada for some of their ‘crazy swag wine!1!1’ and to see how long it’d take for you to ‘let lose’ from it. Yet you just had to overlook the fact you basically were a wanted criminal, no thanks to your weird rpg abilities. You let yourself take a quick breather and lean against a nearby wall, your eyes closed and head leaned back as if trying to think up of some sort of plan on what to do with yourself here. You had gotten pretty good at getting yourself out of life or death situations with that one guy back at the foundation and the latest time you’d found yourself here with the bastard mask, but this time was different. You couldn’t rely on anyone else for ideas as you made the executive decision to solo it.

You weren’t sure who or even what would be after you this time around...but they wouldn’t really have to give chase this time around because you didn't care enough about running away from them. You were done running. You were tired and your headached like crazy. You ready to get out of this hellhole. The best thing to do was to wait for your head to clear up a bit and save enough energy and nope out of there quickly. You bring a hand up to your forehead to wipe some sweat and look down at the ground wondering which excuse to use this time when questioned by the foundation.

As usual, it had been quite loud in Allagada. It was obvious, an eternal party where people were doing god knows what in the streets in the barley governed place. The cheers and loud obnoxious stomps you did your best to block out as you schemed, but those steps seemed to get so much louder. It made your headache worse as you looked up towards the source of the sound, seeing that someone had decided to join your pity party.

How it seemed life enjoyed seeing you suffer in the weirdest of ways. Of course after boxing one of the lords, you had to get found by another. You quickly stand up and stare back at the Yellow Lord. The bearer of the Odious mask, clearly here to ‘decommission’ you. You hold in a breath, just how were you gonna roll with this? Clearly, you didn’t wanna die. You still had to find answers on how you were even Isekai’d into this mess!

Your thoughts come to a sharp end as you realize he’d had been speaking this whole time, wow you needed to really lay off the wines.

-they spoke of something greater than what you’ve seemed to present at this moment. I cannot understand how something as pitiful as yourself could have survived an encounter with The Ambassador, or how you even brought yourself to strike down the Red lord.”

No matter the backhanded insult, you couldn’t just give up on your ability to think quicky! You always thought of great ways to save your self, you just had to think back to the files you’d read before. Or hell, even any form of media that could be a help as your time quickly dwindled away. There had to be something you could come up with, you could only pray the others hadn’t already tried that one. And yet here you are, thinking up of a new strategy. And then a plan came to you…well, not so great, considering this was you especially under the influence. Yet anyone could tell that it was horrible, but you’ve seen enough soap operas and badly done wattpad fanfics. Maybe all those really trash musicals got something right and were actually a warning this whole time to you to prepare! All you could truly do is hope to your old music/choir teacher that all those middle school lessons lead to procrastinating once more at home.

“You truly are a one of a kind of a let down. Something brought up to be something bigger. Perhaps I will grant you the mercy to speak your finale words instead of simply allowing you to meet your demise swiftly.” It scoffed at you, unknowing to your weird plan. You were either gonna prove yourself as a wildcard and die, or think of some better idea to leave but the first option seemed funnier.

You brought your arms to your hips and suck in a breath. ‘I’m a f██ing idiot!’ you chuckled to yourself as your look of pure despair turned to radiating smugness. You breathed out and pointed at the confused Lord yelling out clearly off key,

“We’re no strangers to love! You know the rules and so do I!” You smugly sang out, tapping your foot with your head raised tall to return back the Yellow Lord’s confused stare. He looked as if he was going to say something, but was intentionally interrupted once more. “A full commitments what I’m thinking of. You wouldn’t get this from any other guy!” you continued with the meme’d melody The man in question had clearly given up on trying to figure out what the fuck you just said and we’re planning, instead opting to look it’s shoulder in fear of being caught in the mess you’d caused with someone watching the scene from afar. “What are y-“ you brought your extended out hand towards your chest as the other sat gripped on your hip, “I, just wanna tell you how I’m feeling, gotta make you understand!” You sang loudly with every note, making eye contact with the other man for every line to maximize the awkwardness. No amount of therapy could ever make anyone ready for the part everyone loves, as you sucked in a breath and shut your eyes. You stuck out your hand once more at the embarrassed lord and pointed.

“NEVER GONNA GIVE YOU UP! NEVER GONNA LET YOU DOWN!” You swiftly opened your eyes. if the Sole Intertrode of Amingvolvin was here, he would total sense the sheer smugness radiating off of your aura.

The yellow lord couldn’t bring himself to move in his sheer confusion. He’d practically been so moved he stopped dead in his tracks, staring at you like a fish out of water. His mouth slightly agape as he stared, before shaking his head violently to snap himself back to reality. It’s confused stare turned into one more laced with the one a mother gives to her child while scolding it. As soon as he snapped himself back, you felt your stomach drop with your smug grin slightly faltering. You couldn’t give up now with your real life high school musical performance, you had to keep going, for the vine!

With your hand still pointing out at it, you swiftly continued with your AWE inducing, INSPIRING, INCREDIBLE performance. “NEVER GONNA RUN AROUND AND DESERT YOU! NEVER GONNA MAKE YOU CRY, NEVER GONNA SAY GOODBYE!” You swiftly brought down your hand and rested it on your hip just like your other and finished it all off.

“NEVER GONNA TELL A LIE AND HURT YOU!” You finally finished off, panting heavily as you felt the adrenaline caused by surviving death with a MEME— course through your veins. You felt the Yellow Lord’s stare go through your very core. He looked like he was lost for words for once as he stood there in complete and utter shock of everything he just saw.

It was a rather amusing sight to see, honestly. The man had probably never seen anything like what just happened before in his whole existence. After a few seconds, he managed to find his voice again. “What..what were you saying there?” It asked slowly, clearly having trouble processing what the hell just happened. Then finally, the wave of ��what the bloody [REDACTED] did I just do!?’ hit you, in the moment of feeling like an idiot you played the best card you could think of “IT WAS THEM!” You pointed at nobody in particular behind the lord.

Without thinking straight, most likely from the confusion that was spawned from your amazing performance he threw a quick glance from across his shoulder. Upon inspection, there had been nobody. It hit him, you both were in a quieter part of the country. As he turned back to question you, you had already made your escape back home and disappeared.

A tinge of disappointment seemed to plague him, upon realization of the feeling, questions dawned upon him. Why did he feek this away? It had been a horrible performance really, it was so out of key and incredibly unorthodox with the lack of instrumental. The acapella style was absolutely terrible and totally out of character. What had possessed you to pull such nonsense with the human love song. The red lord had gotten greeted with retaliation resulting in assault, yet he..he got a love song. Why?

Questions that seemed would be left unanswered for a while rang out in it’s mind. He couldn’t waste his time asking himself such odd questions, not when he already failed to apprehend you and would have to report his failure. A human, not to mention a criminal in the wall’s of Allagada, singing out a love song towards one of it’s authorities. As he kept reminding himself of the last scenes circumstance, the more it brought over the thought that all of this seemed just like a play. It shook it’s head at the mere thought, surely you weren’t doing this on purpose right? You were merely confused and drunk and he had more important matters to dwell on! Though he’d found himself questioning the veracity of these claims. It wasn’t as if you had gone out and sung about these feelings to anyone else, would you? ________________

You faceplant right into the familiar floor. ‘F█k yeah! Concreate!’ you cheer to yourself. Not much progress, but I’ll take it!’ You sit up and dust off yourself before sitting against the bed that the foundation had oh so generously given to you rest your face against your hands and breath a heavy and exaggerated long sigh.

Why do you even go back there? Clearly if you had thought about it more, past you would’ve realized that the pros of getting sh█tfaced clearly were outweighed by the cons. But hey, it was fun to let loose after being terrified of what’s next to come in the foundation you thought to yourself as you leaned down on the bed.

Maybe you could squeeze in some hours of sleep before more interviews started up again on why you disappeared from the security cameras. ———- Fun fact: Twenty percent of coffee mugs have traces of fecal matter on them. Good luck living w/ that 😊 -Sincerel, Fun fact Anon.

[milfspiggy]

Let’s Rank Snifits!

Hello! Snifits are my favorite Mario enemy! To share my love for them, I’m going to go through the entire extended Snifit family, and score them all on a scale from 1 - 10 for your reading pleasure!!

The OG Snifit

Perfect! 10/10!! How could you improve upon such a great design?? Well, you’ll see soon enough, but Snifits are the ultimate being in any form. They’re like Shy Guys, which are already great and wonderful - but Snifit benefits from the addition of a little snoot!!! All creatures could be improved with a snoot, I think. Snifit’s snoot especially looks both boopable and smoochable. I wish I had a Snifit plush. Anyway, let’s move on to some of their friends and get started under the cut!

Spookum

So, weirdly, to start things off, Snifits aren’t called Snifits in Super Mario RPG!! They’re called Spookums! I’m not sure why, but it’s kind of cute, I guess?? This is still pretty much just a Snifit, just with a less cute and evocative name. 9/10.

Snifit, Again

So, I lied!! Sorry!! There actually are enemies called “Snifit” in Super Mario RPG, but they aren’t your standard rank and file Snifits in this game! There are only eight of them, and they’re minibosses!! At least, that’s my understanding from the mario wiki. I haven’t actually gotten that far in Mario RPG yet! I’m bad at video games. Snifits four through seven are actually promoted in-game from Spookums to Snifits if you lose to them in battle, though! That’s a really cool mechanic, and I’d love to see things like that more often in video games. I also like the idea that the colour of the Snifit denotes rank, with black being the strongest. Overall, despite just being a black variant of a normal Snifit, I like these ones just a little bit more than your average Snifit! I just think they’re neat! 10.5/10!!!

Whistle Snifit, Slurp Snifit, and Spike Snifit

Sorry, I lumped these guys all together because they’re kind of just normal Snifits wearing accessories!! They’re all from Paper Mario: Colour Splash. 6/10 for the whole set. I love them all very much but they could stand to be a bit more adventurous!! I like the Spike Snifit the most because they’re wearing a cute little hat and also don’t have something stuffed into their snoot. Why would you put something into an already perfect snoot?? It looks uncomfortable. I like that the one with the straw is called a Slurp Snifit, though!! Slurp is a fun word. Also, these guys all come in red, blue, green, yellow, and pink! Yellow and pink are my favorite colours though, so I used those ones to make up for them being kind of boring :3

Chariot Snifit

Hey, this one is just in a car!! That’s somehow both worse and better than the last few from Colour Splash. It gets half a point though for teaming up with a Chain Chomp, which is another favorite of mine. 8.5/10!!!

Snifaro

Aaaaaaaa!!!!!! Look at these two pals!!! I love them!! The Snifaro is actually just a regular sized Snifit with a cool pharaoh mask standing on top of a regular Snifit inside of a sarcophagus!! The Super Mario Wiki says that one of their attacks features Snifit hopping on top of Snifaro’s sarcophagus and riding it like a surfboard. That’s wonderful and perfect! Take notes, Colour Splash Snifits!! This is how you accessorize!!! 10/10!!

Ice Snifit

Take a look at these two!! They are so adorable and look so warm in their little winter coats!!!! I like the walking head version used in the original Mario+Luigi Superstar Saga a lot, but the more standard looking version in the remakes are impossibly adorable. I would give the original Ice Snifit a 10/10, and the revamped one a 11/10!!! It’s quite possibly my favorite Snifit design.

Ice Snifit, Again

For some reason, this is the only image of these guys on the Mario Wiki, but they’re just as adorable as the previous Ice Snifits!!! Yoshi’s Wooly World is, aesthetically speaking, one of the best Mario games of all time. Possibly the best game ever? It’s too bad that it’s such an easy game. Regardless, this Snifit is on par with the last Ice Snifits, but for whatever reason I like the redesign in Superstar just a liiiiitle bit more. 10.5/10!

Toy Snifit

Absolutely lovely!! I’m not sure if these pals come in different colours, and I’ve never played the Mario vs. Donkey Kong series, but this Snifit makes me want to check them out!!! I’d like a real life wind-up toy of this Snifit. Let’s make it happen, Nintendo!! 9/10!!

Scorchit

Very cute! Kind of plain though. Sorry, Scorchit, but simply spitting out fire won’t put you on the same level as Ice Snifit!! It’s also apparently called “Zeus Guy” in the manual for Yoshi’s Island DS? That’s a cute name! I feel like it would fit better if this Snifit spat out lightning bolts instead of fire, though! I like that it’s pink. 7/10

Laser Snifit and Gunner Guy

Ohhhhhohohohohoho!!!!! Ohohoho!!!! This is where the real fun begins!!! Look at these friends!!!! I love them!!!! This is what Slurp Snifit up there should have been!! The snout is the defining trait of Snifits, and these two have bumped it up to eleven!!! Apparently Gunner Guy can’t move on his own, though, which is heartbreaking. Also, he might not actually be a Snifit??? He might be a Shy Guy with a gun on his face! Is that what all Snifits are? Are they the same thing? I choose to believe they aren’t, and the snout is somehow biologically part of their face along with the rest of the mask. I’m rambling, though. Laser Snifit earns an 11/10 from me, while Gunner Guy gets an 8/10 for making me feel sad while still somehow being delightful.

Propeller Mucho

What the heck?!  What a whimsical name!! Unfortunately, this is the only image of them on the Mario Wiki, but they still look pretty cute to me! I imagine they’re the same as Fly Guys, but like. Snifits. I love the idea that Shy Guys and Snifits are kind of mechanical or toy-like in nature. Maybe that’s why they live in the toy box in Paper Mario??? Anyways, 6/10. I wish I could see them better! They would have scored higher, but they’re outdone by.......

Flying Snifit

A friend with a way less whimsical name,  but a way more whimsical appearance!! Look at those wings!!!! Most Mario enemies, when given the gift of flight, have cute little angel wings slapped onto them - but not Flying Snifit!! No, instead, this little garden buddy sprouts a pair of adorable cartoon butterfly wings!!  I adore this Snifit!! They’re going to get a whopping 11/10 from me! We aren’t done with Flying Snifit just yet, however, because they also show up with a couple of friends!!

Flifit and Sneed

I told you our garden party wasn’t over yet!! These are also easily some of the most inventive varieties of Snifit!! There are only a couple of others that stray from the general Snifit body plan, and these two are both some of the weirdest and cutest!! God, I love them. Flifit spits out Sneed, which in turn spits out (presumably inanimate) seeds! I love whatever the heck Sneed is doing in that animation. I choose to interpret it as a little butt waggle. Shake it, Sneed!! For both of these friends, I’m handing out a solid 10/10!!!

Snufit

So, like I said before, there are only a couple of Snifit-adjacent friends that change up the general body plan that is Snifit! Snufits are ghost Snifits that live in Hazy Maze Cave in Super Mario 64!! They’re very cute, but when I was little I was actually kind of afraid of them? I’m not sure why! In the original game on the Nintendo 64, Snufit was round and shaped like a Boo, which is pretty cute! I love the idea that all ghosts in the Mario universe are just big round balls of ghostliness. This version of Snufit gets an 8/10! It’s pretty cute, but the redesign of Snufit in the DS version is so much more appealing to me, for some reason! I think it’s the floppy little sleeves. As someone who always wore sweaters that were much too big for me and always seemed to have “puppy paws” as my mom would call them, this new Snufit just calls to me. Also, shouldn’t these guys have been called Spookums?? I guess Mario RPG did come out before Mario 64, but it wouldn’t be the first time some weird name shenanigans had gone down in the Mario universe. Anyways, the redesign of Snufit gets an 11/10 from me!! It’s up there with Ice Snifit and Flying Snifit as one of my favorites!!

Spider

Hey, these guys aren’t even in any of the games!! I think that should change though. I like them a lot!! Pretty creepy, and bizarre, though! I used to watch The Super Mario Bros. Super Show! a fair amount when i was little, but I must have missed whichever episode these guys appeared in. I think I would have remembered them for the rest of my life if I had!! I used to be really afraid of spiders when I was little. I think they’re really neat now though!! Still, I’m only going to give these guys an 8/10 for virtue of never being used in a game, and also for being kind of creepy and also for not having eight legs. I know that stuff isn’t their fault! It’s just the way things are sometimes. Life is cruel, especially to spiders.

Spiky Snifit

Okay, these guys are the last of the official Snifit friends! I probably should have put them up with Flifit, but I wanted them to stand on their own. I love cacti a lot, being from a desert, and saguaro cacti are just the best!! I also love how Flifit seems to have their mask organically growing from their stem, but Spiky here could easily just be a normal cactus with a Snifit mask slapped onto it!! Does it have a face underneath?? Is it literally just a cactus??? Could you make anything into a Snifit by putting a mask onto it??? Spiky Snifit here raises a lot of questions, and answers literally none of them, and for that I love them. 9.5/10!! 

Finally, I would like to give an honorable mention to one other Mario enemy that I think has been unfairly left behind and forgotten. Let’s take a moment to remember a dear friend....

Tweeter

Tweeter is an enemy that debuted in Doki Doki Panic/ Super Mario Bros 2 alongside Shy Guy, Snifit, Bob-omb, Birdo, and many other friends that we all know, love, and continually see in Mario games even today!! Unfortunately, unlike many of the other enemies from Mario 2, Tweeter hasn’t really ever shown up again! They make the occasional cameo here and there, but even those are few and far between!! Why haven’t Tweeters ever shown up again?? It’s unclear, but they’re also pretty high up on my list of favorite mario enemies! It turns out I just love masks and snoots, especially if that snoot is also a beak. If I were to give these guys a score, and I will, I would give them a 100/100!! Gone, but never forgotten (by me).

If you read all of this, thank you for your time!! I love you, and so does Snifit and all their many friends!! Feel free to shoot me a message telling me your favorite Mario enemy, and check out the blog @weirdmarioenemies​​ !! I’ve been binge reading their entire archive, and as you could probably guess, it heavily inspired me to make this post! I just love Snifit so much, and wanted to spread the love!! I hope you all come to love them as much as I do. Also, @nintendo​, please bring back Tweeter and also make Snifit a playable character in Mario Kart, Mario Party, Mario Tennis, your next main Mario platformer, et cetera, et cetera... In fact, let’s ditch Mario and make the games all about Snifit!!!

New Super Snifit Bros!! Coming soon to a store near you!!

[foxune]

We’re at the end of the decade, and I saw a buddy do something similar a day or two ago, so I decided to look through the past 10 years of gaming and pick out what I’d say my favorite game of each year was. Note that I’m going by US release dates.

More details in the Read-More below:

2010- Super Mario Galaxy 2

Both of the Mario Galaxy games are pure masterpieces, but 2 still manages to be an improvement across the board. It expanded on pretty much everything that made the original great, and added great new features to the mix. Definitely my favorite game to ride Yoshi on, too!

2011- Pokémon Black & White

This year was probably the hardest to choose for.....namely because there wasn’t a whole lot of standouts. While I have trouble going back to the sprite-based Pokemon games at this point (they just feel kinda dead in comparison to the games from X/Y onward), this one stands out for having the best narrative in the series. It’s the only one where I actually cared about the human characters.

2012- Xenoblade Chronicles

Honestly, anyone who’s been following me for a while probably knew this one was going to be here. It’s a serious contender for the best JRPG of all time, in my opinion. While the graphics are a bit dated, literally everything else about Xenoblade Chronicles is borderline perfect. Great story, likeable party that all have their own part to play, massive world....

2013- Animal Crossing: New Leaf

This game was a huge part of my life throughout 2013, and I continued to play it sporadically for the better part of the decade. It felt like a huge step forward in the series, while remaining familiar enough that it didn’t feel too too different. Also, it was probably the funnest game to liveblog and watch other people blog about.

2014- Tomodachi Life

This is probably the weirdest pick of them all, but this is one of the most charming games I’ve ever played, and it’s one I find myself going back to constantly even though I think I’ve experienced almost all there is to see. It’s just super weird, funny, and genuinely touching at times. I don’t think there’s any game I want to see a sequel to more than this. Kinda says a lot that I put this above the likes of Smash 4 and Mario Kart 8.

2015- UNDERTALE

Memes aside, there’s not a lot I don’t like about this game. Top notch character design and dialog, really interesting and unique battle system, and an amazing soundtrack. A bit on the short side, but made up for that by providing really creative replay incentive. In fact, it goes above and beyond the call of duty to provide replay incentive. Definitely one of the best games of this decade as a whole, and an all-time great in the RPG genre.

2016- Starbound

Another weird pick, but this is the game that really got me into PC gaming as a whole, and the first game of its kind I actually tried (played it before Terraria, and I still have yet to try Minecraft). I also go back to it more often than any other PC game. Like 2011, 2016 wasn’t exactly a stacked year for me, either, but unlike 2011, this one was a bit of a no-brainer for me.

2017- The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

In my opinion, 2017 was one of the best years for gaming, period. This wasn’t an easy choice to make, with Super Mario Odyssey, Persona 5 (in the west), and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 all having come out months apart. BOTW is truly special, though. So much to see and do, and practically infinite ways to go about doing it. Truly one of those games that really deserves every bit of praise it gets.

2018- Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Honestly, this is probably my favorite game of all time, let alone in just 2018. It’s literally everything I ever wanted in past Smash games, and is a crossover of nearly all my favorite video game franchises. Helps that it’s insanely fun and has a ton of depth. 

2019- Fire Emblem: Three Houses

This one’s kinda funny.....I honestly had zero interest in it whatsoever in the year or so leading up to release. It wasn’t until AFTER it came out that I got interested, after learning details about the plot and the characters themselves. It’s top notch as a game, and I really enjoy the narrative. It subverts expectations constantly and in ways that don’t feel forced. I really dig that.

[rpgchoices]

Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game with a very particular description that CATER to my OWN SPECIFIC interests, so here we go.

(click here for other videogames)

what to expect from TORMENT: TIDES OF NUMENERA

Isometric rpg, turn based combat and a lot of dialogue stats and alignment based choices

Minimal fighting, I’m pretty sure you can play the game with only two or three fights. Three specializations for combat.

The weirdest world ever, a mix of… Everything. The exploration is a delight, especially in the first area (the city)

You play as the Castoff, a body that a god left behind. The game is mainly exploration and finding out what is going on and who the god is

You can recruit a party of characters. Each one has a quest, some dialogue to explore and some interesting backstory. Minimal party banter between the party

Sometimes the narration is over complicated and seems such a bunch of bullshit.

In some part of the game you can explore and change people’s pasts and memories through a choose your own adventure text like side story. Still, this does not seem to have consequences and is often purposefully and frustratingly confusing

the game is definitely exploration driven, there is a lot of lore hiding everywhere, sometimes it’s absolutely absurd or complicated, just accept it as it is, it all builds creating the strangest world ever

some travelling between worlds and time

different endings based on your final choices

plot? this guy that some people call a god uses bodies and discards them, hopping from body to body. You are one of these bodies, and you find out a mysterious shadow monster is trying to kill you and all the other bodies gameplay? classic rpg, a lot of dialogues and choices and exploration characters? some interesting npcs (especially other bodies/Castoffs), definitely the god is the most interesting one. Plus your companions are all amazing sadness level? high happy ending? deaths? under cut for spoilers

TRAGIC. This game is tragic. A lot of death. You can influence your companions’ stories as well, in some pretty bad ways if you so choose. 

The ending is invariably sad. There are different endings you can choose from but they are all based on bad outcomes or three characters dying. The best ending is probably your own Castoff dying alongside another companion. Quite sad and bitter sweet.

[dukeofriven]

Controversial Opinion:

I don’t care what RPG you are playing, the title of the ‘referee’ or ‘storyteller’ should always be Dungeon Master.

Always. It doesn’t matter if you’re recreating Lord of the Rings, an Edwardian cocktail party, a space marine battle, or a deep-roleplay exploration of The Theory and Practice of Oligarchical Collectivism. It’s Dungeon Master. It is DM. Game Master makes you sound like a third rate Gandalf/Merlin ripoff in an Saturday morning cartoon. Far more than Dungeon Master, Game Master conjures visions of sitting in a musty basement wearing the saddest homemade robe possible, wilting under the withering gaze of your friends who find your performance of Darkbeard the Evil to be less than satisfactory and its only a matter of minutes before one of them suggests “let’s go play the Colecovision” right in the middle of combat and everyone will get up and leave without even looking at you. Calling yourself a Game Master is to set yourself up for sadness. It shares a set of initials with General Manager, for pity’s sake - can you all picture Paul? It’s 1985 and Paul is only 30 but you’d swear he’s 40 and he still has Greg Brady hair -  his childhood idol - and a moustache he thinks makes him look like Tom Selleck. He wears polo shirts that always look baggy on his spindly frame and slacks in the weirdest shade of brown that make his legs look twigs and he works at CompuHome Computers and Electronics on the I-335 just outside of Topeka and you know this because he’s already cornered you three times at this party to tell you this fact and you finally mutter something like ‘that must be interesting’ because its 1985 and talking to someone about computers in public makes you want to die and Paul (getting louder now as he drinks more of that awful punch) goes “Debbie said you know a thing or two about BASIC?” - of course she did you’ll have to kill her - “You know we’ve sold five Model Ds in the last three months - can’t keep ‘em on the shelves! You know, CompuHome is really going places: we’ve, uh, got an opening on our sales floor if you’re interested. It’s a real awesome place: I like to keep the workplace professional but also let our employees let there hair down, you know?” - if he says ‘you know’ one more time you’re going to drown him in the punchbowl - “I can make those kinds of decisions because I’m the general manager, and Mr. Larson - that’s my boss - gives me a lot of control over hiring. Hey, you ever play a role-playing game?” Torn between not letting down the sisterhood and public humiliation you make an ambiguous noise of exceeding vagueness that could mean anything. “Awesome. Heh, we get up to some crazy hijinks sometimes ha ha - every Friday I run a bit of Powers & Perils for the boys. I guess you can say I’m sort of the GM GM!” At that point your soul leaves your body, drifting through Debbie’s pressed fibreboard walls, across her front lawn and the ratty Reagan/Bush sign Mike refuses to take down no matter what the neighbourhood association says - drifting on and up into the heavens, taking refuge in the stars to cuddle with the soul of Laika and commune with the spirit of Ursula Le Guin, who isn’t dead but is undoubtedly planeswalking and might like the company. You can see him now, can’t you? You can see Paul. You don’t want to be Paul. Even Paul didn’t want to be Paul - he invested heavily in Leading Edge and thought P&P would be Avalon Hill’s silver bullet against TSR.

Paul thought Game Master made him sound important. Paul was wrong. Dungeon Master has gravitas. Dungeon Master brings a bit of Middle English grandeur to an otherwise humdrum existence. Dungeon Master knows exactly what it is, and makes no excuses for its existence for it needs none. A Dungeon Master drapes themselves in that sad robe and owns it. In the hands of a Dungeon Master Darkbeard the Evil isn’t a scabrous thirteen year old with a side-high tale and a starchy Victorian blouse that stinks of a chemical pond of Downey and dryer sheets draped in their big sister’s old bathrobe covered with multicoloured stars they cut out of last year’s Eaton’s catalogue: Darkbeard is a shabby, ratty husk of a human being, his flesh mere strips of gristle, his sunken eyes haunted by the triumphs of a thousand vile sins. His decrepitude owes nothing to a meagre costuming budget: it is his calling card, his indifference to the material meaning of a body. It is but the vessel through which the pulsating beat of his hateful heart is dragged through the world, an evil so black, so devoid of light and love and hope, that his very presence frays thread, dulls colour, and burns the throat with an acrid, caustic taint. Those unfortunate to gaze upon him quail at the foundations of their being: look upon yourselves, ye mighty - and despair! Dungeon Master has no time for Paul, with his wet hands, his wheedling tone, and his self-inflicted loneliness. Paul doesn’t have the stature to measure up. Paul never could. Don’t be Paul.

Titles define you. Titles can enthrone you in splendour, should you choose right, or else expose your innate mediocrity, should you choose wrong. Never accept anything less than Dungeon Master.

[acradaunt]

EON Playthrough: Week 5

Did someone order a bunch of stupid-looking boss fights? Because you're tripping over bosses every ten encounters in the 10th and 11th strata. It was nicer when they were dumped in optional areas. The weirdest thing is that I daresay that 11th's boss is easier than 11th's midboss, which is easier than the 10th's boss, which is easier than the 10th's midboss. Difficulty be weird, because I bought basically nothing after fully kitting out for the 10th's midboss, which still proved highly challenging.

Difficulty is still there, perhaps more than ever, though. I don't know if it's just a side-effect of party-swapping and being underlevelled by 10-15 levels, but I'm having as much or more difficulty than the start of the game. In most RPGs, there's this one magical point where the difficulty goes straight downhill, only to recover for ludicrously cheap and unfair superbosses. In both EOIV and EOV, the 5th and final story stratum was just a bulldoze-fest, where even FOEs were immediately swatted aside. Though EOV's 5th stratum's theming suggests that it's supposed to be the weirdest-timed breather level ever, so, maybe that one was intentional, if bizarre. Sure hasn't been happening here. That's a good thing, I think. Though it does make me feel like I started sucking suddenly, or something.

A fairly pointless word of warning: it seems that the 10th stratum boss will crash your game if all four of its minions are out and active at the end of the turn. It's fairly moot though, because if that's the situation, you're probably not coming back from it anyway. Save data was fine afterwards, so I don't think it's dangerous or anything. Game just probably couldn't handle that much garbage thrown my way. Frankly, I'm surprised someone lived long enough for it to crash. I think I've heard that the 12th stratum boss can crash the game too so that's, ugh, nice.

Iris the Protector/Imperial: Tremendously useful during the 10th stratum's random encounters. Virtually every single enemy does mass-elemental damage, though it's not uncommon to see both Volt+Ice in the same fight, so it's choosing which you think you can bind first. Again, it's just bizarre to think that it took until the very last game in the series for elemental defense to be worth anything. It's also probably a little because every other guard skill does nothing at all against elementals that are making them good. I didn't take her for the 10th's boss, and it was kind of hilarious/infuriating that the one/two encounters you have to deal with on your way there proved to be more troublesome than the boss themselves. I guess I wasn't taking them seriously, trying to conserve TP for the boss, but still. Iris fared decently enough in the 11th stratum, especially with the most irksome threat having INSANE speed, but was more there because I didn't trust Olga's survivability one tiny bit. I'm starting to feel that Imperial was a mistake, as Natural Edge does markedly less damage than Shield Bash, and even the almighty Assault Drive does like maybe 600 damage, well under what Laura's doing waving her tiny staff of doom around. On the other hand, I haven't really invested many points into it, so maybe it's not a fair comparison.

Stella the Zodiac/Protector: Also genuinely great for the 10th stratum, with elemental foes generally hating elemental damage. And even if not, Prophecy can shut down an enemy, though it's four times more expensive than the Protector's version.

Klein the Hero/Imperial: I was correct in thinking he was useless damage-wise against the 10th stratum boss. And he was. But Frigid Slash's splash turned out to be more defensively useful than anything else could be. He then immediately went back to sleep for the entire next stratum.

Laura the Medic/Landsknecht: Laura's unironically doing Ronin-levels of damage with Star Drop and Head Bash, in addition to having a get-out-of-bullshit button and being the only class with an actual way to handle row-wide ailments. Yes, she has been hogging one of the two fairly obscene +45 VIT, +50 HP Amulets, which is making her buff enough to take a hit as well as a Landsknecht, but she's making mighty good use of it. Being a Landsknecht herself lets her refresh Coral's Breaks, but I'm never certain if she's extending Coral's superior debuffs or overwriting them with a longer duration. If I was smart, I'd probably look into figuring that mystery out. I am not smart.

Kagura the Ninja/Ronin: Superstar of the 11th stratum. Didn't really know why, but I just randomly felt like bringing her along into dangerous new territory, and wow did it pan out. Everything down there hated either Sleep or Panic or both. There were multiple times I got ambushed by monsters, thought, well, 'I ain't making it outta this, even with Healing Touch', then one sleepy kunai barrage or panic bomb later, the whole encounter just got trivialized. She also made a habit of making Iris look like an idiot for this reason, with her getting ready for a Full Guard, then every single enemy just miraculously drifts off to sleep in front of her. Oh well, better safe than sorry.

Yai the Pugilist/Ninja: Brought her back when Paralysis was needed for a conditional, a whole eight strata since last time. She can hold her own now, though damage remains iffy, but not terrible. As before, her subpar One-Two Punch and Coral/Kahna's subpar Links combine into something rather decent. Being wildly underlevelled meant she wasn't outpacing enemies reliably, either. Still proved her worth, though, as along with universally hating the Ninja's ailment options, nobody really liked Bash, either (probably why Laura could outclip a Ronin in terms of damage). I was sorely debating whether or not to drop the 540k needed to get the ultimate Cestus for the 11th's boss, but after beating it decisively in a 'test run', there really wasn't a need. Now sitting on 630k with the shiny ultimate rapier freshly available (I dumped Formaldehyde on the 11th's boss when it survived with a sliver of HP), I'm tempted more now than ever to buy something dubiously overpowered. Maybe I should buy one of the six or so ultimate armours I've unlocked instead. They're cheaper, and less game-breaky. But I mean, though, I've earned the right to buy them all legitimately, so it's not cheating, so, like, don't judge me if I do buy 'em.

Erika the Ronin/Gunner: Stabbed some foes and bosses. Good as always, though was definitely lagging behind Coral in damage (though she doesn't have Coral's TP issues, so it evens out). I wonder if the rest of the party doesn't think she's got split personality or something, as she and Kagura look nigh identical, are never seen together, and use the same gear.

Olga the Gunner/Ninja: Like Erika, little to say. Came for FOEs/bosses, otherwise was benched for Stella and Yai. Mostly, I just don't have many serious options for backline damage, and with Laura spending 80% of her time up front, there's not a lot of room up there. Heck, even when Iris, the friggin' Protector was around, she was hanging in the back at least half the time.

Leon the Sovereign/Ronin: He definitely would've made the 11th's midboss easier, undoing his highly annoying debuff, but I beat him almost by accident, so I guess it wasn't necessary. Every time I bring him out hoping to use Prevent Order to block Ailments, it fails spectacularly, time and time again. Ronin continues to feel like a complete waste on him. Dunno what would be viable, though. Medic is off the table due to Corsage being that, and Zodiac likewise is taken by Princess Beryl. Landsknecht? Protector? Arcanist? Doesn't really matter, since I'm probably not gonna bother resting, just idle thoughts.

Tate the Arcanist/Harbinger: Proved absolutely vital in taking down a single highly infuriating FOE in a side-dungeon. One who could resurrect itself to full health if it wasn't panicked. Otherwise, still hasn't entered a single battle. So that ice scythe wasn't a total waste of money, after all. Only mostly a waste.

[hydrospanners]

tagged by @meonlyred. time to expose myself as a fake gamer girl. i am too tired to think of other people to tag but if you are reading this and you play video games i would like to know what your answers to these questions are. i am tagging @you.

favorite game from the last 5 years? pillars of eternity 2 & the sims 4. someone please resuscitate the singleplayer story-focused rpg where choices change the course of events and i don’t spend 90% of my game on fetch quests. not everything has to be “open world”. i am so tired.

most nostalgic game? goldeneye. i live for slappers only bighead mode.

game that deserves a sequel?  mass effect andromeda. i enjoyed the game and it was a great concept that suffered for behind the scenes bungling and it really deserves a redemption arc in the form of a sequel with adequate time and resources and good direction.

game that deserves a remaster?  kotor. but maybe i’m just saying that because that’s the game that hooked me on games (with a little help from @lwsupremacy) and every game i have played since has been a futile attempt to recapture the magic of being trapped on taris for 3 days because i couldn’t figure out that i needed to go to that sith party and steal a uniform and also finding out that i was the villain all along.

favorite game series?  kotor & dragon age.

favorite genre?  story-focused rpgs or anything with really detailed character customization.

least favorite genre?  everything else. i don’t actually like video games i just like combining interactive fiction and dress up.

favorite song from a game?  idk man. i really liked mass effect 3′s soundtrack i guess??? 

favorite character from a game? the player character. i’m a self-centered ho who is not too proud to admit to this.

favorite ship from a game? i’ll always be a slut for shakarian. also i am deep in doc x rea hell. i don’t necessarily ship him with every jedi knight in swtor (he is not for everyone) but i sure as shit do with mine. i’ll

favorite voice actor from a game? they are all magic. i have an especial weaknes for brandon keener as garrus vakarian and claudia black as morrigan, but they are all goddamn magic. also all the voicework in pillars of eternity 2 is especially magic and i’m not just saying that because i’m so weak for the cast of critical role.

favorite cutscene? all of the cutscenes in the citadel dlc for mass effect 3??? 

favorite boss? does it have to be a final boss? is this question about mechanics or story??? who cares this is my blog i do what i want. the answer is the broodmother from dragon age: origins. that is the creepiest shit that still elicits a visceral reaction from me even now. even just thinking about it.

first console? the first console i ever owned personally was an xbox gifted to me for christmas at age 16. i had asked for an n64 because i was feeling nostalgic and wanted to play goldeneye and chrono trigger and whatever the fuck else i used to play in the brief moments when my brother would allow me to touch his console, but my mom could not find an n64 since they were a decade old at that point so she bought me an xbox and a couple star wars and james bond games instead. i spent my entire christmas break consumed by kotor and that is how i started really playing video games at all. thanks mom!

current console or consoles?  fuck consoles. sorry horizon: zero dawn but i am pc only.

console you want? i want my brother to give my n64 back so i can play goldeneye. YOU HAD YOUR OWN N64 SCOTT. WHY DID YOU TAKE MINE???? KEEP TRACK OF YOUR SHIT AND STOP TAKING MINE. IT’S BEEN 8 YEARS AND I’M STILL SALTY YOU LIL BITCH.

place from a game that you’d like to visit? all the places in video games are like mad violent and i am painfully aware that in video game world i would be a useless, expendable npc. much as i’d like to see nar shaddaa or the citadel or tevinter i would like to remain alive, out of prison, and out of slavery more.

place from a game that you’d like to live in?  i just remembered stardew valley. i could live there i guess. i wouldn’t say i’d like to but if i have to pick a place from a game.... stardew valley.

ridiculous crossover that would never happen but would be super fun? i want to play a mass effect prequel that is garrus as a citadel cop teaming up with nancy drew in a very weird point and click adventure. what nancy drew is doing there is never explained. why c-sec is working with a 16 year old human girl is also not explained. nothing is explained there is no time for explanations there is a mystery to solve.

book that would make a good game?  brandon sanderson’s mistborn series. honestly anything he writes has a fun system of magic with enough definition to translate in an interesting and playable way to a video game mechanic, but i think mistborn would be the most fun. although the color shit from warbreaker would be very visually striking i think.

show/movie that would make a good game? the good place. it could be the weirdest and most fun game. some kind of weird patchwork of minigames that somehow forms a cohesive narrative.

games you want to play?  cyberpunk 2077 looks pretty good. i usually only get excited about bioware games or games my friends have already played and told me i would like. i am not that hyped for anthem because i hate multiplayer outside of my circle of three friends who i don’t mind holding back with how awful i am at video gaming. i’m still gonna buy it and play it and i am very open to being pleasantly surprised but i can’t bring myself to be hyped.

have you gotten 100% completion in a game? any game that can be completed that i have actually finished playing, i have completed 100%. no fetch quest too small or too annoying bitch.

have you cried over a game? i cried a whole lot on my third day trapped in the upper levels of taris, unable to figure out how to get down the elevator to the lower city. also other times because of emotional beats in the storyline or whatever. i am a human person with skin and feelings.

what power-up or ability would you want in real life?  i really enjoy the direct correlation between effort and achievement and would like to adopt that in my real life. in the sims, when my sim spends 8 hours writing they have a completed novel at the end of it. they put it in the mailbox and then they get royalties for a while. that sounds nice!!!! a specific ability though... i ought to say healing or something actually useful that could help people but if i’m being perfectly honest i wanna force leap. i wanna zoom.

[majornelson]

Xbox Game Pass: Mortal Kombat X, Ashen, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice, And More This December

Here are the new games coming soon to Xbox Game Pass:

Mortal Kombat X (December 7)

Jump 25 years into the future as the epic Mortal Kombat saga continues. Mortal Kombat X introduces a new generation of fighters (including the return of some fan favorites), brilliant cinematic presentation, and the Character Variation system that allows players to pick from special moves, attacks, or weapons that impact both the strategy and fighting style of each character. Gather your best buds to battle it out in this fantastic fighting game.

Pro Evolution Soccer 19 (December 13)

PES 2019 recreates soccer by showcasing the power of football through authentic leagues and enhanced realism — and Xbox Game Pass members will have access to all the action! And now thanks to a recent game update that added new stadiums, team kits, and a new range of football boots and balls, the game is better than ever before. Xbox Game Pass members are invited to compete in the upcoming season of PES League, Konami’s official global esports competition, to find and award the best player of PES 2019.

Spintires: Mudrunner (December 13)

In the harsh wilds of Siberia, take control of mighty, off-road vehicles in Spintires: Mudrunner. Experience mud, torrential rivers, and other harsh obstacles powered by an impressive physics engine that simulates some of the toughest environments known to man. Drive 19 formidable vehicles, each with their own customizable attachments with nothing but your wits and navigational abilities, or with up to three friends at your side in multiplayer! Work together to haul lumber and unlock new vehicles and maps as you go.

Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice (December 17)

From Ninja Theory, one of the creative development teams added to the Microsoft Studios family earlier this year, and the makers of Enslaved: Odyssey to the West and DmC: Devil May Cry, comes a warrior’s brutal journey into myth and madness. Set in the Viking age, a broken Celtic warrior embarks on a haunting vision quest into Viking Hell to fight for the soul of her dead lover. Created in collaboration with neuroscientists and people who experience psychosis, Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice will pull you deep into Senua’s mind.

Ori and the Blind Forest (December 20)

Often described as exquisitely beautiful and heart-wrenchingly emotional, Ori and the Blind Forest earned critical acclaim – with over 30 industry awards to its name – and deeply passionate fans when it arrived on Xbox One. Moon Studios’ side-scrolling platformer combines incredible art, stirring music, challenging gameplay, and powerful narrative into a landmark game that shouldn’t be missed..

Shadow Warrior 2 (December 20)

The lovechild to one of the most frantic franchises in the world and developer Flying Wild Hog, comes the best FPS melee combat system ever made. Slice your enemies into sashimi with lethal blades or go out with a bang using staggering amount of firepower and archaic magic to purge the world of evil. With those elements combined you have the wackiest, weirdest, and bloodiest looter-shooter ever made. Jump into the shoes of Lo Wang, your friendly, neighborhood ninja slash assassin, slash hitman, slash, slash, slash… Defeat unending waves of monsters on your way to solve the mystery of a girl magically locked in your head.

During The Game Awards, we also announced these three titles were coming to Xbox Game Pass:

Ashen (December 7)

An open world co-op action RPG about a wanderer in search of a place to call home. As you adventure through the realm of Ashen, you’ll occasionally encounter other players in a passive, co-operative multiplayer open world. It’s up to you to decide how to deal with them – fight together against evil, invite them into your party or simply ignore them.

Kingdom Two Crowns (December 11)

Work with other players in the brand-new solo or co-op campaign mode to build a kingdom and secure it from the threat of the Greed. Experience new technology, units, enemies, mounts, and secrets in the next evolution of the award-winning micro strategy franchise!

Below (December 14)

A procedural terrarium filled with life, mystery, and death. Test your adventurer mettle against The Isle’s subterranean labyrinths. Explore a large, interconnected underworld crawling with cunning wildlife, deadly traps and stalked by a shadowy presence. Survive the perils of The Depths and unearth what lies below… or die trying.

Join Xbox Game Pass Today

With over 100 great games for one low monthly price, including highly-anticipated new Xbox One exclusives the day they’re released, including the highest-rated* Xbox exclusive of this generation Forza Horizon 4, plus more games added all the time, Xbox Game Pass gives you the ultimate freedom to play. If you haven’t tried Xbox Game Pass, join today and get your first month for $1, and discover your next favorite game.

For the latest Xbox Game Pass news, follow us on Twitter and Instagram, download the Xbox Game Pass app for Android and iOS and keep it tuned here to Xbox Wire. Until next month, game on!

*Source: Metacritic

via Xbox Live's Major Nelson https://ift.tt/2BW0i57

[francostrider]

Tales of Vesperia Thoughts Pt. 3

I want to talk about the combat, but first there are a couple of things I want to go over about me in particular to put these thoughts in the proper context.

Firstly, I am a bit of a purist as far as combat systems go. Give me twitch based combat, OR turn based. And the closest thing to a hybrid you can convince me to play is Bioware’s classic Realtime-With-Pause flavor.

Secondly, I dislike limit breaks. My first foray into RPGs was Final Fantasy VII back when fire was invented, and time has not been kind to them in my mind. “Oh, no! My health is low from getting the crap kicked out of me! I know, I’ll summon a giant ass laser sword that pierces the very orbit and crash it down on my enemies for, like, an eighth of their health! No, this could not have helped at any point in the story!” They break my suspension of disbelief, take way too long, and I prefer combat that relies on the plain factors rather than being drowned in super moves. Such as Pillars of Eternity, Divinity Original Sin and Demon’s Souls.

“Then why the hell did you play a JRPG?” you’re probably wondering.

There are exceptions to my numerous, let’s call them, “guidelines” about what games I will play. Chrono Trigger, Dragon Quest 8, the Fire Emblem series and a few other favorites tend not to have the usual staples that made me tired of the genre. And I’m not entirely against being flashy. It just has to be quick and to the point, not be a small cutscene every other move.

So, what do I think of the combat in Tales of Vesperia?

Okay, I will take a moment to admit that I probably did not have the best grasp of the combat, even by the end of the game. There was stuff that the game was bad at explaining (the special artes during the limit break, for instance). In fact, the Mystic Artes I never used, because never realized that you needed an additional limit break level to pull them off. And in order to do that, I needed to craft a specific item in the synthesizing shop that I completely missed and probably did not have the parts for.

Therefore, my feelings toward the combat was an unsteady waxing and waning the entire game. The beginning really did not equip you well, even the context of starter bosses. Zagi is especially brutal, throwing stuff at you that you would not have been prepared for. Then it was okay for a little while with more in your party. Then it got brutal, and I took some more time to learn it, and turned all of my movements on full manual. Then I got kind of bored, and turned down the difficulty just to move it along. But then that got boring, and I upped the difficulty back up. Then I used two of the +5 levels because I just wanted to see the end.

It’s not my least favorite combat system. I do feel it was worse in Symphonia, and I’ll take this over the one in Xenoblade Chronicles. My real test for a combat system is how well a player can turn things around during a fight. This is not possible in Xenoblade, where you’re either equiped well enough or you’re dead.

But there are little things I like about it. One, you can give direct orders when you need to. Some people scoff at pausing the game for a menu, but when battles are this busy, I’d rather have that than trying to go through a menu in real time. Finishing moves are fun to time and you can, with some thinking, take out higher level enemies.

But this is also one of the weirdest systems I’ve ever played through to the end.

It’s twitch based, but it’s not as straight forward as that sounds. By default, you move back and forth against an enemy on a 2D line. But you can hold a button to free run. This is because there are different directions to attack, not unlike Marth’s combo special in Smash Bros. And the reason for that is because you can use specific directions to break down specific defenses, and that’s how finishing moves are done. Different spells and abilites correspond to different directions...

Okay, I imagine one of two kinds of people is reading this. Either you’ve played this game and going “Oh dear god” at the most tedious description possible. Or, you haven’t played this game and your mind is screaming at the word salad presented to you above. It’s one of those things that’s easier to demonstrate than describe, and even watching a video did nothing to prepare me for what it was like.

You know what? I’ll stick to basics. For twitch gameplay, the enemies movements are not predictable enough to make guarding or dodging entirely viable. Enemies turn at an instant and there can be little to no wind up for big attacks. It’s nearly impossible to back out of an attack, and it can take a while to be able to move again once you’re done with a combo. Item use is a necessity in this game. And because of how the defense system works, a lot of fights were spent using the same attack over and over again, as there is little to no value in mixing up the combo.

Despite all of that, there can be satisfying moments, such as getting through a grueling boss fight. Toward the end of the game, those were the real highlights, as the in between fights got kind of dull for me. 

In fact, I would not have wanted to beat the final boss in any other way than I did. I was basically out of revival potions. With the rest of the party down, it was just Yuri with a handful of healing items, vs the last boss. I looked at his health, did the math, and had the simple thought of “Wait... I can do this.”

Sticking to basics, I blocked, attacked, healed when I could. Then I did one last Azure Edge, the very first ability Yuri gets, and the fight was over.

It was as cinematic as it could have gotten without it be scripted. I can’t deny that the choices I made led up to that glorious moment, and I do have the combat system to thank for that.

However, that may be the last time I touch it. There was a lot of frustration throughout the game, and I don’t know if I would have the patience for it again. I think it’s a greater credit to the game’s writing and characters than the combat that I wanted to see what happens next.

That said, I will admit once more that I likely did not have a great grasp of it. There were a couple of mechanics that I completely missed, and there was always the niggling little thought of “Am I supposed to be playing it this way?”

The answer is probably “No.”

Until next time!

[over-roaming-waves]

Turn Turn Turn

Rating: SFW

Charaters: Yuma Tsukumo, Yugi Mouto, Atem, Yusei Fudo, Jaden Yuki, Carly Nagisa, Jack Atlas, Yami Bakura, Ryou Bakura, Malik Ishtar, Isis ishtar, Mai Valentine, Jounouchi Katsuya Mentioned: Seto Kaiba, Mokuba Kaiba

Pairings: Puzzleship, Visionship, Theifship (slowburn), Scoopship, More to be added.

                                                  January

“O.K., you can do this Yuma. Just go in there and say you want to join. Right then, it’s not like they’re going to kick you out because you’re just start, or you’re too young, or anything like that. And it’s definitely not likely that they will call my sister and tell her everything. O.K., O.K. …Kattobingu! “

He opened the door.

“Hey there, I’m Tsukumo Yuma and I’m here to-“

“Join the gaming club, but don’t tell your sister because she doesn’t know.”

Yuma look where the answer came from and saw a man with platinum blond hair and skin that was several shades darker than his own. He was reading a guide book for a game called Monster World.

“How did you-“

“Please, you were stand in front of the building for 30 minutes. Most everyone heard some part of your inner monologue when they came in.”

“Malik, please don’t be so rude. It was not long ago that you were in his position,” a woman with the same shade of skin and the distinct air of an older sister around her came in. She bowed, which made her black hair flow over her shoulder, “Welcome, I am Isis Ishtar and this is my younger brother, Malik. If you’d like, I’ll take you to the next room and we’ll see about getting you some more information, as well as creating your character for our role-playing game.”

Yuma was escorted inside, thou he saw Malik mimicking his sister behind her back.

He was brought into a big room, with a table near a kitchen area. The table was occupied a figure hunched over an RPG… thingy that kept them hidden from view, only allowing a view of the person’s arms.  In a chair on the left side farthest from the cover, there was a man with two different shades pf brown in his hair, the top part being lighter than the bottom part. He seems occupied by his phone. On the brunet’s opposing side, he spotted two blonds, a man and a woman, with a chair between them. On the man’s left, there was a black-haired woman. She and the man were holding hands.

Deep breath and…

“Hello, I’m Tsukumo Yuma and I wish to join your Game Club. I am going into my third year of middle school and want to be more honest with who I am. Please take care of me!”

He bowed so far down, he felt like one of those wooden birds that go up and down, mimicking a drinking bird. He doesn’t hear anything from the other members but he could feel their stare as they look at him and his outfit that he bought behind his sister’s back. He’s sure that grandma knows already but…he’s scared that Akari would hate him if he told her. He’s still starting out and… this was really the first place that he went to as a man. That poster on the pole felt like a sign that he should be himself. That there were people would accept him as Yuma.

He felt like maybe this was a mistake. Maybe he’s too young. Maybe he needs to do more to be able to join. Maybe-

He smells a chocolatey scent. Someone was walking, put something down (cups maybe?), and walking again. He felt someone guide him up, where he saw bright blue eyes stare down at him.

“It’s O.K., you’re doing fine.”

The blue-eyed masterpiece escorted him to an empty chair, where he gave Yuma a hot chocolate. (Was that what he put on the table?)  he then started talking again in his velvety voice.

“We’d be glad to have you as a member. Isis is just getting some paper work for you to make it all official. Unfortunately, several members including the founder are not here at the moment but you can be introduced to the members that are here. I am Fudo Yusei, and I am like you in body.”

“wow, that pretty good up until that last part. Hey there, I’m Jaden Yuki. Oh, right, I meant Yuki Jaden. Well, what I mean is my personal name is Jaden. I was born and raised in the USA, so I’ll warn ya right now that I will mess up on social niceties. And like Yusei so weirdly said it, I’m a Trans Man. I’ll get your character sheet, ‘kay?” shouted the two-toned brunet, who had put his phone down to look at him with his soft brown eyes. He left his chair to get the sheet.

“Right”, the blond woman said, “You can call me Mai Valentine and I was assigned male at birth. As you can see, I disagreed with that decision. The idiot next to me is Jake Atlas, who is Cis and is dating the only other Trans woman in the place, Carly. The silent Dungeon Master who is rudely ignoring our guest is Bakura. (he heard a grunt by the covered man) You probably have already met Isis and Malik, so that would be a bit redundant and the others can introduce themselves when they come in.”

Then Mai started to explain the rules of the game, how to set up his character, how to roll for the stats, and other such thing while he was filling out the papers Isis gave him … until he heard Jaden yell.

”HOLY SHIT! GUYS, ATEM IS PREGNANT!!”

____________________

“So, you’re preggers, hon?”

“… I wanted to tell you AFTER I told our close family and friends. I already expressed my displeasure in my IDIOTIC, BUBBLE-HEADED, TRATOROUS SISTER telling everyone with an internet connection my current status about something I told her in private!”

“While I’m sure got that by how quickly the post got deleted. I’ll put the congratulatory gifts given to you away for a better time. Call me Curious George but when would you have told your more… distant relatives?”

“ …. When everyone else would know. By the way, how would you think the members of our gaming club would feel about being part of a ceremony that my family is putting together?”

“Pay for the outfits and you’ve got ‘em, Sweetheart.”

____________________

The Kame Game Shop was always slow at 2 in the afternoon. Jaden liked it that was. It gave him time to work on his secret job. Only three people on the planet know that Haou, the author of the hit series Gates of Eterniea, was a trans man living in Japan. He loved taking people to new world with amazing adventures.  He also liked his privacy. Honestly, Jaden probably needed his job at Kame more for his mental heath more then anything.

It keeps him from going into that place he can’t go. where bad things lurk. Wher-

*DING*

“Yug’ why didn’t ya tell me sooner”, shouted the blond that just came in. The blond was none other than Yugi’s best friend from high school, Katsuya Jonouchi, who goes by Jou.

“About…”

“da baby!”

“Well, that’s why I called you. And sent an email. And texted you.”

“… Ya know da Kaiba takes things when we’re testin’, buddy.”

“Really? Well, maybe Seto-kun should revise his policies then. I’ll talk about it with Mokuba when he comes to the next meeting.”

“… Sorry, I fucked up, Yug’”

“By the way, do you have a suit?”

“…why ’da ask about ‘dat?”

“Well, Mama, Ji-chan, and Atem’s parents want to have a wedding.”

“But ya already married ta ‘im!”

“Yeah, but they probably wanted to have a ‘proper’ ceremony. Plus, it could be a fun anniversary gift.”

“Tch, Rich Folks.”

“By the way, can you please tell Anzu, Hiroto, and the others about the Ceremony?”

Jou leaves, no doubt to tell Yugi’s other friends about the party that’s going to happen.

“Jaden?”

“Yeah, boss?”

“Let us tell the others about the ceremony, O.K.?”

“’Kay.”

Now then, how do the Band of the Pejuleum get through the Cave of Despair….

____________________

At the second ever time that he came into the Domino City Gaming Club, he saw two people with spikey black hair that had a rim of red at the edges. Thou they had the same hair, they had vastly different styles, one in head to toe black clothes with a tattoo on his right arm, the other in a grey business suit. He was too far away to hear the words so he jogged over to the two.

“Hi there, I’m Tsukumo Yuma.  I’m a new member of the Domino City Gaming Club. I hope we can be good friends,” Yuma exclaimed as he bowed to his seniors of the club.

The two turned and… whoa, they both looked so weird. The tattooed one had blond bangs that frames his purple eyes, who looked at him kindly. The other, who somehow had darker skin than Yuma’s own, looked so excited at him(?) with his red (?!?) eyes. The red-eye guy, who had blond streaks in his hair to go with his blond bangs, went into a speech that he said with such enthusiasm that it felt like he was trying to sell him on an epic game that he just played that he wanted to share with everyone.

“Welcome once again to the Domino City Gaming Club! I am the founder and fanatical backer of the club, Atem La Lune. The handsome man next to me in my Husband, Yugi. I’m sure you’ve met the secretary of the DCGC, a little nickname I gave our illustrious club, Isis Ishtar, as well as one of our greeters. The brunet giant setting up the duel disks is Seto Kaiba, and the child with the wild black mane is Mokuba. Mokuba is genderfluid, and they indicate what gender they are by wearing a bow in their hair if they wish to be referred to as female, and leaving their hair down if they want to be man at that time. If I’ve read the notes from last time correctly, you were already introduced to Mai, Jaden, Yusei, Jack, Carly, Malik, and Bakura. I apologize for anything that the latter two would have done t-“

“Oy, don’t try that shit with me, you short-ass brat. You were telling your blond Bunny that you got knocked up last time. The least you could due is not act like some fucking saint.”

Yuma saw the white-haired Bakura (he saw him fully when he knocked out the cardboard-thingy after Jaden say that Atem was going to be a papa) charge at Atem. Atem looked ready to fight the white-head when Yugi stopped it in its tracks before proclaimed the weirdest announcement.

“O.k. just want everyone here to know that Atem and I and having a Wedding ceremony, courtesy of the matriarch of the La Lune clan, and all DCGC members are invited and are allowed to bring a guest. This is a formal affair so Atem will pay for any clothes that you would need. I expect to see most of you there.”

“You’re already married,” Shouted Jake.

“Mother insisted on it as an anniversary gift. But if you don’t want to go…”

“Hell yeah I’m going!”

“Woo!”

Yuma stared on as each person there offered their congratulations, their condolences, and their RSVP.

“Things tend to hectic here,” Yuma turned to see another white-haired guy looking on, “But I think that it just gives this group a unique character, don’t you think so?” The snowy haired guy looked at him in fondness. “Bakura Ryou, my brother’s looking for the right personal name, so he’s been going by the familial name for now.”

Yuma smiled, “Yeah, I think it’s good.”

He just knows that this will be a good year.

[amelorates]

1 - 5 for the mun's taste in muses meme!

meme!

1. how many muses, do you think, have you had in total while on tumblr?

a lot! oh wow. i really don’t have a real number i can give lmao but it’s been a high number of different group rpg muses, a handful of indies, and a lot of single-muse blogs for small stuff my friends and i were doing. this blog is my first multi-muse though. i’ve only ever done single-muse blogs before i came on here! 

2. are there any tropes that pull you in or that you realise are reoccuring in your muses?

this goes for my personal writing as well, but... i write a lot about siblings. i know thats more of a theme than a trope but i have a very soft spot for siblings and sibling relationships. i guess i also write a lot of muses with complicated relationship to death and/or immortality on some way. also there’s just a lot of raw Chaotic energy. also mutants/supernatural/eldritch horror stuff always pull me in and i tend to sprinkle that all over my characters’ arcs. something Unknown Looming

3. do you often get ideas when watching new media? do you end up wanting a canon character, an oc in that world, or just things involving current muses in the world / with those characters?

i get plenty inspired from media for my characters. tiny tidbits of a character’s mannerisms (or even looks) or a snippet of dialogue that sticks out to me and i collect it to maybe mold into something of use later. i often want to write canon characters but i... don’t, yet, haha. i’m also scared to make ocs specifically for fandom universes/worlds bc i’m scared of getting FACTS WRONG but mark my words one day i will make a bioshock or borderlands oc blog and it will be great

4. what’s the weirdest muse you’ve ever had?

i had an amnesiac lion tamer oc years ago

also cara is silly. she wants to kill god for not letting her party

5. who is / was your favourite muse of all time to play?

I THOUGHT I HAD AN ANSWER TO THIS ONE BUT I DONT KNOW all the muses i have on here are here because they’re fun to play in their own way and that’s simply that

[ecritetmort]

answer, add, tag

The Rules: answer these ten questions, create ten of you own, then tag ten people.

Tagged by @plsfeedthewriter​ ! By some miracle I logged back in just in time to see this.

1. What are your ideal writing conditions? Ie. weather, noise, time of day, etc.

Between 10:30 pm and 2 am (basically when no one is around and my inhibitions have all been used up for the day). Mid to late afternoon also, although then I am more prone to becoming distracted; either way I mostly just sit at my desk, either with my feet up on the couch arm with my computer in my lap or just normal.

2. Is there anything that prevents you from being able to write?

[gestures wildly at homework, Tumblr, and Pinterest]

3. Do any of your characters have nicknames?

Not really in canon. Their names are short so I just use them.

4. What mythical creature would you want to own as a pet?

@iguanamouth’s jade dog. Alternatively, a Chinese water dragon. A long, protective, patron friend.

5. What holidays, if any, do your characters celebrate? (Don’t have to be real world holidays, if you’ve made up your own I’d love to hear about them!)

(I actually meant to release something for Valentine’s, whoops.) Karyn celebrates Christmas and both the 1/1 and lunar new year (happy year of the dog btw). Not sure about the others, although probably not many except out of habit, although Bella probably celebrates the lunar new year and gets Del and Zeta gifts (usually with Betelgeuse’s help in going to Earth).

6. Your current read/the last book you read?

Currently reading Kazuo Ishiguio’s An Artist of the Floating World. Very interesting, follows a Japanese artist and father in post-WWII Furukawa.

7. Are any of your characters living out a dream of yours? If so, who and what?

lol no, maybe Akdai in her original D&D bard form but even then not really because fantastical racism sure does exist and also no girlfriend (yet)

8. If invited to an open themed dress-up party, what would your characters dress as?

Diana’s been waiting for a chance to dress up as Wonder Woman ever since the movie came out. There’s no way she’s not going to go as her. Less sure about the others.

9. Are any of your characters religious? (Again, made up religions welcome!)

Not particularly; Tijuana, Hester, and André are pretty spiritual (of course), but the closest that anyone comes to organized religion would be the sort of pseudo-religiousness in the Karyn’s world, in how most characters (Diana, Oscar, Anne, etc) follow the order outlined by Life and Death. I wouldn’t call it the same as worship per se however, outside of Zeta who sort-of-lowkey-highkey sees Life as a reverend figure (although this changes through her apprenticeship lmao).

10. Which of your characters would write their own book, and what would it be about?

Triste probably deserves a memoir. I don’t think he’d write one, but it’d sure be a read.

Oscar has written enough poetry to warrant a chapbook but would be too uncomfortable with making it public.

11. What are your characters’ favorite foods?

Karyn, in her own words, is a noodle soup girl (la mian kind, wide rice noodles and anything). Oscar being the sweet tooth he is loves toffee. Diana particularly likes honeydew milk/boba tea. I’ll just let you skim this interview of Triste.

Less sure about the others, although Akdai is definitely a cherry-everything kind of lady (pomegranates are #2).

12. What smell/taste/texture has really negative associations for your character, and why?

Karyn and fire/smoke. Triste and gunpowder. (Also Death and open fire, but he’s getting over it.)

13. Which of your characters has traveled the least far from home? How far?

(pre-canon) Karyn, Delta, and Zeta.

14. Weirdest trick that helps you write?

Not really any, although for some reason listening to Alan Cumming actually keeps me from, changing music every ten minutes,

15. What does your character most dislike about who they were when they were younger?

unsure.

Ten additional questions:

Which characters have changed the most from their original design?

Are there any characters you removed from the story? Why?

When did you first know you wanted to write?

What book/author inspired you to start writing?

Have your characters been adapted from another medium, like an RPG?

How do you name your characters?

Have you had to change a character’s name/title? Why?

How do you write? (full chapters, individual scenes, etc?)

Do you plan to publish in the future?

Would your characters read your book? Why/why not?

Tagging @fanart-pandemic, @thegreatphantasm (most of these can flip into art/drawing I think)

[ascaredindividual]

okay so i'm pretty excited for miitopia rn

i found out about it because i was watching vinesauce and honestly i think he described it best as an rpg sequel to tomodachi life... it's an rpg where you get to play as a mii and cast miis as your party members, various allies and other npcs, and even the main villain himself and you can use your own miis, miis from tomodachi life, and ALSO A BUNCH OF RANDOM ONLINE MIIS CREATED BY OTHER PEOPLE. I JUST PLAYED THE DEMO AND I MADE DONALD TRUMP THE VILLAIN AND I GOTTA SAY IT WAS FUCKIN FUN it looks like the random, less important npcs are assigned miis at random from the ones posted online and like ?? it's hilarious?? the first village i went to had mister burns from the simpsons as a "sassy child" with rey from star wars as his "worried mother," pichu as a nice old granny, and john cena and toriel from fuckin undertale as a "lovey dovey couple" (weirdest fuckin pairing ever but whatevs) (also later on one of the castle guards was arin from game grumps) and basically the plot is that the villain is stealing people's faces and putting them on monsters?? so i had to fight a mouse with toriel's face?? it was fuckin ridiculous and i loved it?? anyway. my team consisted of me (a mage), my gf (a thief), dr. frank n furter (a pop star) and pbg (a warrior) and also the demo is actually pretty long?? i got all of them to level 6 by the end?? so basically on the eshop it says it's gonna be out july 28 and honestly i'm so ready to throw money at this game