#what i wish 9 had is all those cutscenes like 6 had but for each character

[basslinegrave]

everyone: hating dw 6 always and forever

me: unbothered, having fun (<- mains ling tong and doesnt really care about others having a clone moveset, nor the graphics or anything)

[kuroken-lovechild]

How haikyuu characters would play genshin impact:

//featuring me nerding out about mbti types 😔

Karasuno

Hinata

As an ESFP he would probably choose his main based on who feels good to use

Quick movements, lots of jumping, strong = XIAO MAIN (probably finds the flashiness and edginess cool and enjoys the button mashing too)

would aggressively compete with kageyama on who can beat spiral abyss the fastest and with the shortest time

unfortunately they’re both not very good (initially because kenma helps him out after)

Would try to follows the plot but dialogue goes over his head

Does not understand stats other than attack at first

Wish impulse is real and never has any primos

would attempt to talk to every npc

Kageyama

META SLAVE

Has no idea what wishing/gacha is at first and builds his starters really well

Then he found out and currently mains Ganyu, Zhongli, Hutao for the big numbers

gloats about his first 5 star to hinata

Does not talk to NPCs at all and barely digs into the story

only there for spiral abyss and to make his characters stronger

Tsukishima

Didn’t wanna play until yamaguchi dragged him in to have someone to co op with

Appreciates the story and lore more than the gameplay aspect

Eula, razor (cv uchiyama kouki) main—easy to build, easy to use

Doesn’t care about wishing either

Got Eula by accident and now holds it over kageyama’s head

Has really good artifact RNG that it infuriates kagehina (gloats about it to fan the flame 😚)

Yamaguchi

he’s infp he chooses based on characters he likes 🥺

Diluc, albedo, ayaka main

(i can’t explain why I think he’d like those three, it just Makes Sense)

Co ops with tsukki and yachi, plays both dps and support

Spiral abyss makes him anxious but he pushes through anyway!!

Daichi

Starter team king 😩

Feels bad about switching his regular team out FJDFJDJJDDJ DAICHI

Probably a casual player though

Plays to coop with suga and tanaka but they carry him through domains

he’s trying his best

Suga

Mains based on whoever’s fun to play too!!

but enjoys more of a challenge

Childe main

Waiting for Scaramouche to drop hAha 🥲 and harbingers in general

Appreciates the plot and is very interested in lore!!

Diligently does spiral abyss

Doesn’t quite wish on impulse, but if theres a character he likes he’ll spend everything on their banner

Asahi

Does not play, got too scared (see: haikyuu ova)

Nishinoya

Rolls VERY much on impulse

Similar to hinata in that he also likes playing playstyles that feel good

Xiao and/or yoimiya main

(xiao because he’s short jk)

Probably raised Rosaria and planned to use her

Plot who???? we only care about world exploration and fighting in this house

Tanaka

wished for all the women, raised all the women, uses all the women

valid

Primarily mains Rosaria, ningguang and Lisa though

sorry beidou you remind him of his sister too much

waiting for signora like many of us are

Coops with noya and has INSANELY bad rng luck

Yachi

Also chooses based on characters’ personalities

gay, mains sucrose and jean

isfj child and probably feels bad about the underrated characters :(

uses amber, xinyan and qiqi too!

Raises all characters but hasn’t raised anyone to 90

Coops with yamaguchi and uses jean (as healer, support, damage dealer)

Talks to NPCs and sympathizes with their sad backstories

Gets too anxious to do spiral floors 9-12 too (mood)

Seijoh

Oikawa

Oh boy

this ENFJ 3w2 guy? you KNOW he’s gonna be the best

As long as it doesn’t clash with volleyball of course

Very VERY competitive in abyss

Has one character hed get attached to but doesn’t limit himself to using them only

Incredibly focused on team synergy, carefully crafts teams to bring out the best in each character

Tests best damage output too

But also he’d probably use meta characters and secretly raise the ones he actually likes?

Current fave: Yoimiya

Uses strong characters for coop but uses his faves for single player domains (or coop with iwaizumi)

Likes characters but surprisingly wouldnt be too invested in the plot

does not whale out of pride

Iwaizumi

Geo user

Uses characters he finds respectable in the storyline + hard hitters

Razor, klee, jean main but unaware of the family relationship

Sometimes uses beidou although her burst takes too long sometimes

Pretty casual player, only started because of Oikawa

Hanamaki

obviously he and matsukawa would make zhongli pillar dick jokes

Kaeya and beidou main (he thinks they’re cool)

Not that impatient to wait for bursts to charge or has a lot of energy recharge

whale

Matsukawa

……. Hutao main

funeral home

Would use qiqi and hutao together for the meme then grows to genuinely like qiqi

Saves up for a really long time then spends it all at once

Kindaichi

Doesn’t play much tbh

Offline for a week, comes back to do commissions for one day, leaves

Kunimi

Hed be pretty good

but lazy and forget to do dailies

then buy welkin moon instead

Focuses more on the story too rather than gameplay and points out loopholes

Mains whoever he has in his team with good synergy (like chongyun xingqiu xiangling)

Kyoutani

Rage quits 5 minutes in after hearing paimon’s voice 😔

Throws his phone at the wall

Yahaba

Simps for jean

Mains jean

Dedicated to dailies and spiral abyss

But doesn’t wish that much

Was the one who tried getting kyoutani into it and suffered the consequences

Nekoma

Kuroo

ENTP king raises a whole arsenal of characters for spiral abyss

I cant see him really getting attached to one in particular ?

makes zhongli pillar dick jokes every chance he can get

but also uses him for utility

Wants to try using a whole bunch of characters and wishes on every banner

But uses the meta ones with good team comps

sparks twitter debates with ….. interesting takes

“_____ is completely shit”

Kenma

OH BOY HES A GAMER GAMER

Whale whale whale whale

He’s tony to

Best synergy teams, understands the value of elemental mastery, REALLY values good supports, calculates possible damage numbers

Kazuha, zhongli, bennett, venti are a staple in his teams

Helps hinata and kuroo until kuroo teases too much by deliberately playing horribly

mildom and youtube streamer like murase ayumu

Appreciates story and lore very much too

Yaku

he’d LOVE the children

Probably would use characters that remind him of family members and friends

Klee, diona, qiqi, chongyun, xingqiu, razor, bennett

does spiral abyss but not obsessively

Lev

KENMA-SAN!!! LETS PLAY TOGETHER!!!

I’m sorry he would not know how the game works

Doesn’t do the ascension quests and gets stuck at AR 26 with 500k extra points

Thinks he’s amazing but it’s because he’s stuck at world level 1

I’m sorry lev ily but ……. its the truth

Tries pulling for everyone too and mains the first 5 star he got

(childe because he’s russian AKSHDKDHSKSHS /j)

Wants diluc and xiao because they look cool but gets Mona instead (doesnt understand how to use her)

Yamamoto

Also raises the women like tanaka but + kaeya

Lev complained to him about getting Mona while he’s wanted Mona for months

Not really a dedicated intense gamer EXCEPT for during those battle events

Fukurodani

Bokuto

WANTS THE STRONG AND COOL LOOKING 5 STARS

Eula, zhongli, diluc, xiao

but doesn’t know how to build either

doesn’t understand stats

would feel really bad for qiqi

Wouldn’t like signora for hurting venti :(

Wouldn’t like childe too :( until he plays the story quest and sees the ruin guard cutscene

then starts sobbing because of what a good brother he is

“AKAAAASSHI I wanna do that too!!!” then he dies

Tries to use childe but doesn’t understand the cool down management

Mispronounces and misspells tartaglia (タルタリア)

for more info on how bokuto plays genshin see Kimura ryohei’s YouTube channel ✨

Akaashi

the true childe main (just like me)

Uses characters based on utility

but mains whoever reminds him of bokuto FJDHFJFJDKSJ

Very good supports but unlike Kenma, he chooses and builds supports around his main

also uses very good supports so people won’t realize he’s using childe for the cv kimura ryohei (everyone knows anyway)

Literature nerd appreciates the plot, writing and deep lore too

Konoha

Tries pulling for everyone but has REALLY bad luck

Has really good characters but never the one he wants

loses all 50/50s and has a c4 qiqi

Ends up maining qiqi as dps

sorry konoha i didn’t mean to slander you

Shiratorizawa

Ushijima

does not know how to play or build

Uses whoever he has (aka starters)

Only plays because tendou downloaded and made an account for him

Doesn’t know how to ascend characters or farm

Forgets about talents (me)

Weirdly good RNG and doesn’t realize it 😩

“Let me look at your account wakatoshi-kun”

“Sure”

“You didn’t tell me you had 6 of jean’s Stella fortuna???”

“What’s that?”

Tendou

this man pulls for the seiyuus

Mains childe, hutao, mona for 5 stars

childe and hutao’s instinct based quickswap playstyle works so well for him!

jokes about cosplaying mona then actually does

Knows how to build, grinds, and manages ushijima’s account for him

Probably whales too

Shirabu

Meta meta meta meta

But f2p meta

Loves setting up reactions

More into the lore too and researches theories

Remembers actual names of boss drops

Semi: so how many of those buttplugs do you have again

Shirabu: 💢stop calling them buttplugs, they have actual names 💢

VERY diligent with battle pass, dailies, achievements and spiral abyss full stars

Until he //SPOILERS gets into med school and has no time for shit

Inarizaki

Atsumu

Would have a crush on a character I just know it

Invests heavily on his faves and is great at utilizing each of them

fussy . complains about a certain unit and how they can improve

or complains about how the game can improve to osamu

Osamu: yer just saying that cuz you couldn’t get a high score

Archons main (already saving for the tsaritsa)

Wouldn’t have a main dps but several hard hitting supports

Whale and falls victim to the weapon banner

Osamu

More casual player than Atsumu but still tries to get higher than him in events and spiral abyss

If atsumu’s a whale, osamu’s a dolphin

Great at dodging

Catalyst user!!

Mains ningguang, klee, yanfei + other catalyst supports

Also uses keqing

Kita

the man appreciates routine aka VERY diligent with dailies, battle pass, farming

“if you do things properly results will follow” or whatever quote he said ✨

Starter team but raises other characters for abyss

Reads dialogue and appreciates the plot

Barely gachas

Aran

will defend TO THE DEATH the underappreciated characters

Has empathy for noelle 🥺🥺

Noelle, Barbara, xinyan, bennett, children user 🥺

Talks to every NPC and loves the backstories and lore

also would feel really bad for qiqi

Suna

Uses the tall men and women and builds them all as dps (childe zhongli diluc kaeya beidou ningguang jean lisa rosaria eula)

He’d probably make a support character a dps tbh

Disregards team synergy for the shits but somehow manages to do domains and abyss

Itachiyama

Sakusa

c6 everyone

leaves

[shades4dogs]

i had a SUPER tiring day i mite talk abut later but RIGHT NOW i wanna talk about the make it sweet! album for Um Jammer Lammy because i listtened to than a couple days ago, and just today i showed it 2 my little brother, and i wanted to write down what i thought about the tracks!!

i wrote down my personal thoughts on each track and gave it a rating out of 5 Dashies (-= It’s because i’m autistic plain and simple

if you read all of this you’re officially a legend

[1/2) Let’s Jam Together!/KEEP YOUR HEAD UP!!] - waow!!!

I LOVE THIS SONG <3 i really liked this song when i heard it in the credits and was wondering what its name was, it was nice to hear it in the album as the very first track!!

i love the additional dialogue at the start, the “Hey, do you play the guitar? Let’s jam together!” really represents the ragtaginess of the band just kind of throwing themselves together to make music so naturally... like little jigsaw pieces... it makes me want to know exactly how they interacted before the formation of MilkCan, how long they’d known each other/how they had known each other, or if they met right as they made the band.

the playful and funny lyrics of this song are really great, and i like the way it trails off in the middle. like the song was just Katy Kat truly venting off her frustrations and heartbreak about someone she used to like.

i wonder who exactly Katy Kat is talking about here in this song... well anyways she’s got lammy now so all’s well (-=

the second portion’s lyrics sound a little dopey and off-key, but i think it reflects katy’s mood regarding the lyrics of how easy her life used to be, and it all comes together beautifully for the chorus reprise with some pretty strings (i love strings in rock music!)

i bet this kind of music really resonated with some young girls listening. Can’t relate however as I hate men.

overall this is a 5/5 dashies! “Amazing!”

[3) FRIGHT FLIGHT!!] - LOOK UP IN THE SKY.

THIS IS ONE OF MY FAVOURITE SONGS IN THE GAME! when it started obviously i was expecting fussenpepper, and it was shocking to hear katy kat singing it

i think this is one of the covers that katy kat’s voice matches the most! her voice really fits shouting like that, it’s really hyped up

my favourite line from her cover is the “Now it’s time to move on, it only gets much harder, so carry on!”

and obviously i love hearing her say “Now do you like munchies? I wonder where lunch is!”

i do think that captain fussenpepper’s voice suits the song better than her, because it was made with him, but her voice definitely shines on this track!

overall this is a 4/5 dashies! “Really Good!”

[4) BABY BABY!!] - Imagine kids singing this on a car trip with their parents looking dead inside in the front seats.

I USED TO NOT LIKE THIS SONG. but playing it myself really warmed me up on it, and this version on the album made me like it even more!! i love katy kat’s additional lines between the baby’s, she suits giving those secondary vocals and they add a whole additional layer to the song.

i also like that the baby’s lyrics kind of echo over lammy’s guitar parroting, like you can hear the “... ma ma ma ma” coming in at the end of her first part, it sounds really nice!

this is the song i can really imagine kids shouting the lyrics to at a birthday party or something and i think they knew that when they added it O_O

overall this is a 4.5/5 dashies! “Almost Perfect!” i think it would’ve been cooler if the lammy and katy kat parts were more integrated with eachother. don’t ask me how exactly, because i don’t know, and maybe they didn’t either... it still came out REALLY nice!

[5) FIRE FIRE!!] - Aweome where is chief puddle? )-=

i think that this is my favourite song in the entire game, altho that will change depending on what day you ask me it, and a big part of it is fire chief puddle’s vocals and the brass and sound effects of the song

it kind of sucks that a lot of that seems lacking in katy’s version, although i like that it kind of seems like theres more emphasis on the percussions of it!

i don’t like the distant whispery vocals on the “Put it on the fire, feel good, Put it out cold and feel good”, it sounds really weird. because those lyrics are one of my favourites in the original song with chief puddle. i’d definitely rather listen to his version

overall this is a 3/5 dashies! “It’s Good!” i like katy’s vocals, but they definitely come out better on other tracks, and i miss chief puddle.

[6) PJ Berri Jam] - Much Love To The Funny Bear That Make’s Me Smile.

title made me a lot more excited for this song than i ended up feeling about it... OBVIOUSLY NO INSULT TO PJ’S JAM BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN COOL TO HAVE A BEAT WITH ORIGINAL LYRICS instead of just lines from the one cutscene...

it’d have been cooler if it was longer too, but i understand why it wasn’t, because the instrumentals work best in this little snippet instead of long-term where they’d definitely require more lyrics

i like that it sounds like the Fire Fire! parappa version considering that’s his first stage! i don’t know if there’s any verification to this, but it makes me think that the beats for all of parappa’s songs in Um Jammer Lammy are made by PJ, which is just really nice to think about... he’s so skilled ;_; PJ and parappa’s iconic collabs...

i don’t know how to rate this at all, but for the headcanon it gave me, i’m giving it a 4/5 dashies! “Really Good!”

[7) BIRTH SONG] - i wouldn’t play for someone else

EXTREMELY FUNNY NAME

i think i like the choir vocals of the song in the cutscenes, but i definitely love katy’s voice in this one, it sounds really sweet

i can’t remove it from the weirdness of the scenario (the first time i saw that shit i was so goddamn baffled) but this does actually Make It Sweet!

i love how her voice sounds in the chorus, and the last line (“Our newest little baby!”) sounds really nice in her voice!! 

IDK EXACTLY HOW TO DESCRIBE IT... her vocals just seem... sweetly genuine? like not that she’s really invested in what she’s saying, but just that she’s really enjoying singing it in a small and cute way? IDK... EITHER WAY i like it!

i like the additional lyrics as well! extensions to parappa/ujl songs should always be welcomed i think.

overall i rate this a 3.5/5 dashies! “Pretty Good!” weird song made fun and sweet by katy kat, thank you so much!

[8) THEME OF RAMMY] - music that makes you cause problems

yesssss YESSSSSSS YESSSSSSSSSS

WHEN I GOT TO THIS TRACK IT BECAME ONE OF MY NEW FAVOURITES OF THE WHOLE GAME!

i love the ditzy yet cool lull of the electric guitar, it sounds playful and silly, but with the aesthetic of the instruments used in the song it sounds awesome at the same time.

the strings throughout the song following the rhythm of that guitar add a slight classical feel to it as well that i really like, a level of elegance in contrast to the next part i describe

the muffled and staticy electric guitar parts sound so discordant, yet perfectly in control at the same time, and very In-Your-Face as they just come and go at random over the base sillysong. i really really like that, and it shows off Rammy’s fiery attitude!

i really love how the violent clash of the instruments seems to come together so well in this. it is a really well-made song that made me like Rammy more than i did previously. i think people who know me well will understand that i really like strings in otherwise intense songs, like violins and stuff, so i was really happy to hear some!

FULLY HONESTLY, MY ONLY WISH? is that it was longer. LOL

as an aside, the lull i described reminds me way too much of the theme for sam and max’s office in the TTG series. which obviously is a very personal reason to like the song more, but it is a reason for me NoneTheLess.

overall this gets a 5/5 dashies! “Amazing!”

[9) CASINO IN MY HAIR] - texan ear worm signs.

PAUL CHUCK COME GET YOUR SONG

ALSO THIS SONG BELONGS TO SANDY CHEEKS.

katy kat’s voice fits this song EXTREMELY SURPRISINGLY WELL! i like that she puts on the accent and everything, the rhythm of the lyrics and her enthusiasm go together so NICE!

i like the expansion of the lyrics and the repetition of it is one of its strengths, like any song of that kind (hopefully)

it’s a really big earworm for me, and every so often ill just sing out “Where’s that place that comes in pairs whenever I’m aware? Casino here, casino there, casino in my hair!” VERY SIMPLE YET VERY CATCHY

Yee Haw!

overall i rate this a 4.5/5 dashies! “Super Cool!” it couldn’t be better, but i wouldn’t say it’s one of the best, just for the sheer quality of the other songs i’ve given 5/5 to so far

SIDENOTE - [10) Radio Signal Jam] - F*ck you

OK. i like the presentation of this as if it’s playing live on a radio. it’s a nice little additional flavour to the whole thing that i enjoy immensely. HOWEVER.

nothing can match my disappointment at the next song not being Master Onion’s song. My heart will forever be broken by this traitorous deception. I was promised Tamanegi Sensei. Where is he! WHERE IS HE!!! WAS HE TO BUSY GAMBLING?? COME BACK I LOVE YOU

O-K let’s move on

[11) TASTE OF TERIYAKI] - songs that have mood swings

this song baffles me. i definitely get what they were trying to do with the intro portions with the dramatic quiet, the focus on the vocals and guitar with the creeping and echoing drums and reverberating electronic sounds

it could’ve been really cool, but for the most part it frankly sounds sh*t.

if they could’ve gotten some line re-dos from Teriyaki’s singer to match the lower tempo, it definitely would have sounded most excellent. But the use of the lyrics from the high-tempo song here is just jarring. when i showed this to my brother he genuinely just started laughing from how bad it sounded.

BUT HERE’S WHERE I CAN’T JUST RULE IT AS A BAD SONG.

THE SUDDEN SHIFT INTO THE HIGH TEMPO. IT IS BEAUTIFUL. IT ADDS SO MUCH EXTRA POWER TO THE CHORUS OF THE SONG. i like the song more with the brass and the backup singers, but this genuinely sounds so goddamn cool.

i LOVE the additional lines from teriyaki, it makes them sound even more like an idol! they sound amazing!

And then it stops. Back to the slow nonsense. I am left to dream of what could’ve been. i will say this one sounds better than the other one. Possibly because it’s shorter.

AND THEN THE AWESOME SONG COMES BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AND I’M LIKE YEAH WOO!!!!! i love the additional discordant sounds in this version, and i like that they did sometimes include the cool SHHH-PSHHH slap-ish sound in the chorus for this portion. the da da da DA DA! being with guitars instead of brass used to disappoint me, but the more i hear it here, the more i like it.

and then my favourite part of the song: the backup vocals combined with a fast rattling-off of teriyaki’s vocal lines from parappa’s version. this sounds godlike. This is the best. I roll around in circles listening to and thinking about this part. the fact that it fades out right as it gets to that breaks my heart into little pieces.

and then it’s over...

i think it’s very fitting that the song that takes over the album out of nowhere and is literally from hell is the most baffling and loved/hated by me. i don’t think i’ve ever been able to truly say that i both love and hate a song.

if someone was good enough at editing to combine this with the actual version of the song, as well as the vocal lines from parappa’s version, into an essentially extended cut of the album version without the weird slow parts, i would be forever indebted to them.

overall i rate this a ???/5 dashies. ”Help!” it flipflops way too much for me to give a number. Thank you Teriyaki Yoko.

[12) POWER OFF! POWER ON!] - HYYYYYYPE

i need to say it. this song has the coolest sounds in the entire game. this is one of the songs that i might abruptly decide is my favourite for a day or so and then go back to Fire Fire! or Taste of Teriyaki (game version). the guitar is most exquisite in this song.

my little brother adores this song, and a big part of that is credited to the silly vocals of Paul Chuck. he’s like Goofy but extra lethal. i love him

ANYWAYS. after Fire Fire! i was concerned that this song’s vocals would be replaced entirely by Katy, but it seems like they understood Paul Chuck’s integral nature to the charm of the song, and so we get a back-and-forth of them both singing lines, with lammy playing in between. it sounds REALLY good!

i like the additional lines by Chuck at the beginning during the intro. they’re a nice little bonus for the three Paul Chuck fans that exist (two being me and my brother)

as always, gotta love katy kat’s vocals!! they definitely benefit from being combined with the vocals of the original song. the chorus parts where they both sing in unison sound AWESOME!!! i wonder if the Fire Fire! cover would have benefited from this alternation....

the filter over the “NEVER USE JOE CHIN’S CHAIN’S FOR THEM!” really adds to it as well! i like that addition.

by the way my favourite line from this song is the “All I wanna hear is you’ve come over here, there’s no fooling around with gears!” it just has such a good flow. not really explicitly related to this version specifically, maybe less so since i prefer it with Chuck’s voice over Katy’s, but yeah.

this song is really hard for me in-game. like, more than any other song i think, apart from Taste of Teriyaki. which i would like to thank this song for allowing me to escape from (-=

this gets a 5/5 Dashies and a “DA-HYUCK!” from me!

[13) WE ARE MILKCAN!!] - Woaah My Head Is Spinning!

another original that only plays during the cutscenes, understandably without the vocals. i liked it then, and i like it even more now!

katy’s lyrics add SO SO MUCH to the high-tempo intensity of the introduction to this song, and the chaos of the entire thing makes it really fun to listen to

i do still enjoy the slower parts of this song! i can imagine katy singing this as the events she describe happen in real time. i really like listening to her try to encourage lammy and ma-san to get it together and play with her. 

the bouncing between the full music of her lines contrasting with the quiet and dinky replies of ma-san and lammy makes this track really fun to listen to!

after that part, it goes back to sounding like the intro portion again, but increases in tempo drastically overtime, before suddenly slowing down again and then launching into high speed at random. it’s a really fun and theatrical and dramatic piece to listen to!!!

personally though, it’s not so much my thing based on the sound alone. it’s definitely a great song but i like things a little more relaxed and orderly than this. the quality of it comes from the lyrics and the emotions they manage to carry through with the instrumentals. its a really good glimpse into the nature and personality of MilkCan!

i give this song a 4/5! “Really Good!” there’s nothing i’d suggest to improve this song. it’s just a little to hectic for me, and feels more like music for a theatrical play than any other track. i generally don’t like that kind of stuff (altho there’s definitely exceptions)

SIDENOTE - [14) Jam Chin] - F*ck you eggplant head saunaman.

You disrespected Parappa. You disrespected Sunny Funny and her sweet smile. You have disrespected MilkCan.

Thank you Ma-San for killing this man. I love U.

[15) GOT TO MOVE! (Millennium Girl)

the final song... i knew it would be Got To Move... it makes COSMIC sense

i like the additional little part before the song begins giving some time to breathe in before my head starts screaming in excitement at this song.

this is an AMAZING song and another one of my little brother’s favourites! he likes to sing it! it’s not one of my favourites but it’s definitely revered with me. it’s a sheer quality song and the one that best captures the soul of MilkCan!!

and i have to say. this album version made me like it EVEN MORE. at first i was enjoying the regular song, but then in the second part PARAPPA comes in with the alternate lines from his version in-between Katy Kat’s lines. it is SO SO SO cool. i often think about how songs in the game would sound with parappa’s versions incorporated in some fashion like this and it comes out so EPIC!!

it seriously made me pog SO hard when i heard him coming in. SOOOO exciting!

some thought notes about this song:

i really like the guitar during the portion leading up to the chorus, it sounds really cool.

katy’s singing in the chorus itself is the best of ALL her singing! her voice blends perfectly with the tone, the pitch shifts, the vibes... angellic truly

parappa‘s lyrics in-between add such an awesome additional energy, especially the lyrics that go on a little longer, like “But let me give you a word of advice, it seems like a waste of time, but it’s nice!” those lines shine the most to me.

my other favourite part is the rapid backforth in the later part of the chorus, especially the “GO! ON! MOVE! ON!” between katy’s lines. it goes together IMPECCABLY

it should be obvious, but this song gets a 5/5 Dashies from me! “Amazing!” it truly blew me away, just like the 5/5 Dashie portions of Taste of Teriyaki did. i love the fact that Parappa’s lines are slightly more muted and behind a bit of a filter to make sure the focus is on Katy’s iconic lines, but are clear enough to be enjoyed.

Truly Thank U so much if you read this far... i love u so mach.... thank you for listening to me ramble about my current hyperfix <3 (-=

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Six

Wherein we get out into space and explore a bit, and complete our crew.

And post a lot of gifs, because screenshots were lost.

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

So I use the NVidia Control Panel app to take screenshots and videos.  Since it’s already running and it takes good shots it seems dumb to not use it.

I ended up being super busy this week and didn’t play much, just got through like, talking to Kaidan after the big speech on the bridge more or less for the entire week, and through Therum.  I updated my drivers a day or two ago.  And then I didn’t notice that for whatever reason, yesterday when I went to play for a few hours, NVidia decided to record videos just fine, but not take screenshots.  I probably actually mashed the button several hundred times.... but all I got were videos.

Most of it wasn’t a great loss, it was a lot of talking to the crew, and a few planetary missions which... so I’m going to have to go back and redo some of it later for screenshots.

But I thought... hey, for posting on tumblr, I’ll just make it a shorter update and make a few gifs and most this a mostly-gif post!  That’ll be fun!

...and then I spent several hours making almost 80 gifs, including a lot of what I also had screenshots for but thought making gifs would be more fun.  

I mean I was watching the last few eps of the newest season of Great British Bake Off on Netflix, and a few other shows this morning so it wasn’t just gif time... but yeah I made a lot.  So I might split this into two posts now because... that’s a lot of gifs. This post will still have a lot of screenshots, too.  So here we go!

There are so many things to love about this moment.  It’s such a great like, re-launch of the game... Bioware telling us “Okay, now you know the plot, you know all the major players, you know a lot about our world (galaxy) and how it works and who lives here, now, it’s time for you to go out on your own.”

First, it starts with being able to vent a little to Joker, which is a nice touch.  Shepard might feel guilty about taking the ship over from Anderson, but Joker also assures us here, a great preview of the way he’s tasked with helping Shepard keep it together in ME3.

I love seeing Shepard’s words affect the crew.  The swelling music, the same as the “you’re a Spectre now!!” music just underscores the journey, and what’s to come.

I used to always miss this scene by not picking the right speech option, and would be mad Kaidan was left out of this montage.  My fault!

This moment is so beautiful and epic.

...and here we go.

ALOT, btw, makes the galaxy map so pretty.  Sharper and clearer and more colorful.  

We all usually just head to Liara’s Dig Site first, right?  Unless you’re doing one of those “Pick up Liara last just to see what happens” playthroughs?  I did that once. It felt weird.  And sad, when you tell her “oops I killed your mom and I’m not sorry.”  Seems like she shouldn’t have gotten over that so quickly, but well, that’s game design.  The entire plot just doesn’t feel the same and more flimsy without Liara around from the start.

I usually do Therum --> Feros --> Noveria --> Virmire.

Well okay, first a stop at Edolus, since, you know, it’s on the way.

What a LOVELY day, nothing could possibly go wrong on this barren world. I feel like they gave us a pretty easy-to-get-around-on world to start out with.

I honestly love driving around in the mako 90% of the time?  Once you’re used to the controls, it’s not that hard to get most places you want to go.  Though I admit the Nomad in Andromeda is a big upgrade.  I kinda miss it in ME2 and ME3, though I only do what driving is necessary in Overlord and skip Firewalker like, half the time.

First, let’s check out the map...

I’m pretty sure I didn’t realize you could mark your destination on the map and it’d put a handy arrow on your radar until I started playing on PC.  Before then I was checking the map every 5 seconds making SURE I was going the right way.  *facepalm*  

Generally my scanning strategy on the planet is... just go to the things on the map, but do go to ALL the things on the map.  If I see something along the way, stop and get it.  I don’t go way out of my way to look for unmarked stuff.  Usually the UNC missions can be completed doing that + complete planet / asteroid scanning.

Oh hey here’s a guy, let’s just grab what we can off him...

UGH.  MINIGAMES.

Like I get that the minigame is a stand in for “looking for clues, are you successful in finding anything useful?” or whatever but it’s still just the worst.  A minigame is fun occasionally, making it as a gate to something like looting a body is stupid.  I guess I have to forgo actually putting points into things that keep Kaidan alive at the early levels so he can help me... loot bodies.  Cool.  Great.

Since I’m cheating in credits, all weapons and armor get medigelled almost immediately so that I don’t have to do the minigame later on when they get harder, like, ever.

The ME2 minigames at least make a little more sense than this moving puzzler thing.  That’s at least an attempt to look like some kind of code hacking or rewiring/reprogramming.  This thing is just... silly.

ME2 has a disable minigames mod... so there will be no talk of minigames from here on out.  They don’t exist after the easy minigames early on in ME1.

So I ... somehow managed to not get video or screenshots of you know the ICONIC THRESHER MAW attack on Edolus?  So please enjoy this gif I made of it back in 2013 instead.

It’s such a great fakeout and moment.  Like “Oh man how easy my goal is like right in front of me!  That’s great, so easy!” then OH HELL NO, FUCK YOU, GIANT WORM!!

These gifs are from another planet later on, but they’ll do.

My normal MO with Maws is to get out of the way, far enough that they can’t appear too close to or especially under me, but close enough that they do still show up, then stay stationary and jump over the goo while shooting at it.

YOU’RE FACING THE OTHER WAY HOW DID YOU SPIT AT ME?!

This is fine.  EVERYTHING IS FINE. We’re just A LITTLE ON FIRE.  Our shields are at full...

Oh hell, Kaidan slap some medigel on it, please.

Even though we don’t know who Cerberus is yet, FUCK YOU CERBERUS. I always bring the VS to any Cerberus mission because THEY WERE RIGHT NOT TO JOIN YOU IN CERBERUS.  Let’s keep a FUCK YOU CERBERUS count going to remember all the horrible shit we SAW Cerberus do in ME1 to remind ourselves why Ashley or Kaidan is the only SANE ONE for going “No, sorry, I’m not joining you in Cerberus.”

Deep breath

OK, let’s go get Liara.

Wrex comes with us to Therum.

Dear Lord, Therum is gorgeous.

This is real nice just a pleasant day on this thresher maw-less planet and great scenery, we’ll find that asari scientist in no ti--- WHAT THE HELL IS THAT?

Have I mentioned how everything is fine lately?

Well it’s time for how I deal with most of the geth while in the Mako...

Armatures are worth five points each!

Rocket troopers are only two points, but I got a lot of them!

Stopping and fighting in the Mako takes way too long.  Push on through all the way til we’re stopped.

Hm, this is the one I should push, right?

*crickets*

Fine.

Just... real pretty.

I love this part of Therum right here.  A really great, scary fight that feels so dangerous, but winnable.  Great level design, too.

Then this happens.

Does everyone’s hair do that in this cutscene, or just mine, or this hairstyle?

Also, ME3 has a mod now that lets chracters use their correct weapons in cutscenes, my eternal devotion to the modder who could do that in ME1.  None of these characters use assault rifles in-game!!

I’m fairly certain I have played and replayed this fight more than any other in ME1.  AKA RUN FOR COVER OH SHIT AVOID THE BOMBS AND LASERS FLYING AT YOU AT ONCE PLEASE DON’T DIE COMPANIONS PLEASE KILL SOMETHING I CAN’T DO THIS ON MY OWN AHHHHH!!! 

This time around, I died my first time, actually did really well the second time, and decided to go back and record the fight for gifs and... won, barely.  The gifs would not be good.  Wrex and Kaidan didn’t last long. 

Anyway, It’s a great cutscene, but hoo boy I wish it were skippable.

Okay but what were these ruins *for*.  Also, real lucky that they had the boss fight way up here instead of down where Liara was.

Speaking of Liara...

Hello Doctor T’soni!

I have a lot of questions like... how long have you been in that bubble?  How are you sustaining it that long?  How long has it been since you’ve eaten?  If I didn’t come get you until after Virmire, would you have been holding that bubble up for the weeks in between then and now?  

Ah well, you’re here now, and I suppose I’m going to owe you my life later so... welcome to the team.

You gotta admit that’s one badass entrance, though uh, if the forcefield is still up, where did he come from?  Doesn’t matter.  Wrex, let’s kill us one of your brethren (sorry.)

I’ll just *assume* that Liara is too tired from holding up her stasis bubble she was in to actually be USEFUL.

I love the chaos of running the fuck out of there.

Texture popping is still an issue even with a decent computer and texture packs, but at least it’s quick now.

Also I really feel the loss of this conference room in the future games.  The awkward oval table never quite feels the same.  But also, uh, this is a lot of room taken up in this small ship for eight chairs and a holoprojector.  You gotta think there’s more uses for this space than just that.

But yeah, I love these check-ins, it’s a chance for everyone to get together and really hash out what’s going on, as well as reinforcing the plot to the players in a more natural way.  Having Liara this early will let us understand the Protheans better at an earlier stage, even if it turns out she’s wrong about some stuff (though at the time this was written, she was right for all everyone knew.)

Wrex and Garrus don’t talk much here, probably because you can make it through the game without one of them.  I did a “didn’t recruit Garrus” playthrough in ME2 once.  They change like one or two lines then Garrus goes back to talking about Old Times.  So like you CAN, but you really shouldn’t not recruit Garrus, because Bioware didn’t do a great job changing anything aside from your initial greeting during the Omega Archangel mission.

Not recruiting Wrex, though.  Wow that’ll have consequences later on.

OK!  So the gang’s all here, and this post is already very long.  Next time: Let’s go talk to everyone for awhile, and do a few more sidequests because we can’t go back to the Citadel til our persuasion is high enough to grind Mikhailovich’s arguments into the dust!

[felassanis]

Everything I love about Assassin’s Creed

1. Ezio da la la la

2. If you idle for long enough in Odyssey Ikaros comes and lands on Alexios’s/Kassandra’s arm and then alexios/Kassandra will greet him.

3. Edward’s outfit is by far my favourite Assassin robe. It looks so fooking cool.

4. Alkibiades

5. The first mission in Assassin’s Creed III. Finding the temple and it coming alive with all the lights and the humming was so fucking cool and the theatre with Haytham was such a good way to start the game, I loved the environment that went with the theatre and the parkour was really good too, everything was good even though I had no idea why we were there in the first place lol.

6. SHAUN HASTINGS

7. Edward’s tattoos being the only reason why I go whaling in AC:Black flag

8. The dynamic between Jacob and Evie, I’ve always wanted a twin duo in a game and Jacob and Evie Frye were awesome and y’all keep sleeping on them.

9. The different colour schemes in Assassin’s Creed 2 for the different cities gave the locations their own feel and vibe and it differentiated them from each other while also ensuring that the landscapes were utterly gorgeous. For example, Venice had cooler colours, very blue and silver while Florence was warmer, with more orange and brown thrown into the mix. It really gave those maps their own identity and it was great.

10. All of Lineage. all of it, it was flipping fantastic and I know it’s not a game but it was brilliant and the other Assassin’s Creed movie will never top it despite Michael Fasbender being in it.

11. That cutscene in Black Flag where Blackbeard lights his beard on fire, I love that historical accuracy because it was very likely true and it’s so SO bad-fucking-ass

12. Alkibiades

13. How quickly I fell in love with Frederico Auditore despite the fella only having about 5 lines.

14. Also just how quickly I came to love the Auditore family, that was how well written they were, that I fell in love after 30 minutes with them. 

15. LEONARDO DA VINCI

16. Desmond Miles’s snark.

17. ‘Hey whatta matta with you altair,’

18. SHAUN HASTINGS

19. How buffy Kassandra is

20. The hookblade was actually amazing in Revelations and I’m in full support that it shouldbe brought back. The noise it made was also oddly satisfying too?

21. The Glyphs in AC2 were spooky and ominous and I refused to do the last mission until I had found all of them and uncovered the Truth. Because that entire side quest was full of anticipation and the creepy vibe the Glyphs gave off and how the footage of Adam and Eve was cut up and glitchy was just really interesting and it peaked with a climax.

22. LEONARDO DA VINCI

23. The golden beads in Alexios’s hair.

24. And Alexios just being an overall gorgeous human being who’s face was chiselled by the gods.

25. The flying machine mission in AC2 while really aggravating if you didn’t do it the first time was also really fun and getting to see Leonardo all giddy and happy made it worth it.

26. I don’t know if it’s just me? but Connor’s hair? like I know for a fact that I like men with long hair but something about his hair and the feather intertwined into it was just really appealing? and while I know why Connor shaved his hair I couldn’t help but screech when he did lmao but that’s because it’s obviously not my tradition and it’s abnormal to me. pfft

27. Revelations is one of the best AC games and I’ll fight anyone on this. It was phenomenal given how it finally concluded Ezio’s story (and remember Ezio was the face of the franchise for years and he was fan favourite and still is so there were some pressure and expectations) and how it also concluded Altair’s story.

28. Altair wasn’t that interesting in the original game but Revelations added depth and layers to his characters and made him way more intriguing. The game also gave this character important significance to the lore and I think that’s the perfect way to honour the guy who started it all. As much as we love Ezio, Altair came before and without him, Assassin’s Creed wouldn’t quite be the way it was today. (although it’s up to you if that’s a bad thing or not lmao)

29. And seeing Ezio old and matured, becoming this wise legend of a man was really cool and getting to play as him in his final journey was both heartbreaking but satisfactory.

30. I have to give a massive applause to Ubisoft for making Leonardo gay as well in Brotherhood prominently. I don’t think it was ever proven historically if he was? but it was rumoured? and yet Ubisoft went and made it canon giving that representation while also having Ezio outright say he’s okay with Leonardo dating men?! Like, in that time period if you were gay you could go to prison and the general view of homosexuality was that of disgust and yet Ezio is just here supporting his best friend? hell yes.

31. ALKIBIADES

32. I have certain feelings with Unity, but I won’t lie that the parkour was spot on in that game.

33. Gideon Emery....just Gideon Emery as Reginald Birch. The character’s a massive prick but god...that voice.

34. Connor mentioning his grandfather Edward as he’s sailing the Aquila.

35. Getting to see the wreck of the Jackdaw in Assassin’s Creed Freedom Cry was gut-wrenching.

36. Finally getting to pet animals in ACIII.

37. Finally getting to feed pigs in a video game ^^

38. SHAUN HASTINGS

39. OKay, I like Shaun because the guy is really entertaining and he’s British like me and I need to see this fucker in future games again...because after Syndicate he just vanishes and we got...Fucking Layla ugh.

40. The Naval combat in Black Flag is unmatched, fighting other ships never felt like a chore and it was fun and thrilling and the rewards felt deserving. And the feeling of taking down your first Man’o War is RIVETING.

41. Rebecca calling the Animus ‘Baby’

42. She’s another character I want to see come back. And she and Shaun better come back and be alive.

43. Lucy being a Templar was a plot twist I never saw coming but I was all for that angst especially when it seemed like they were setting up what I thought was the inevitable Desmond x Lucy romance. But I guessed wrong.

44. Yusuf Tazim being the joy and light of Revelations. fuck you Ubisoft

45. Ezio’s family theme song is the most iconic video game songs ever.

46. The introduction of Alkibiades in Odyssey, what a great way to introduce a character. like seriously, I fell in love with that fucker the moment he started speaking and felt up Kassandra’s arms while being half naked and wasted.

47. Bayek being a breath of fresh air in wonderfully written complex characters whose story was powerful and tragic. He needs a sequel.

48. Assassins Creed Brotherhood’s trailer being iconic.

49. When returning to Florence to retrieve the apple and you bring Ezio back to his old home only to see the ghosts of his entire family waiting for him. I was gobsmacked when that happened and it’s such a beautiful detail.

50. Mary Read/James Kidd being one of the best characters in Black Flag and leader in the ‘did not deserve it’ club. Every minute of her was flipping terrific and her significance in Edward’s story as one of the driving points that turned him into a better man was great.

51. I cried at the end of Black Flag.

52. The little text about Shaun sobbing when you look at the database on Desmond the dog in Syndicate.

53. The lip scar being shared between Desmond, Ezio and Altair was a cool detail.

54. The interchangeable cloaks in ACII.

55. Henry Green was so soft, kind and lovely and I honestly adore him.

56. Cane swords in Syndicate WERE AWESOME

57. NO fall damage in Odyssey. Keep this feature I don’t care how impossible it is for me to survive a jump off of a giant statue of a naked god it’s cool and I want it for every other game about to be released.

58. If you walk through grass in Origins Bayek sticks his hand out like that scene in Gladiator.

59. The scene in ACII Where Ezio uncovers his father’s robes from the chest and holds it up, It’s an incredible scene and the music fits so well with it and if you’ve watched Lineage it’s all the more amazing.

60. Rosa being pretty and terrifying in ACII.

61. The Bleeding effect being that other thing in lore that is SO BLOODY INTRIGUING and I wish it was explored a bit more. Can you actually imagine having the bleeding effect? where you can’t tell the past and the present apart? where you see ghosts from the past and hear voices no one else hears? jesus,..

62. getting answers about Clay/Subject 16. Ever since he left that writing in the wall with his own blood I was hooked on his story and thank god we got answers and a face to the legendary name. I wouldn’t mind more of him though.

63. I’ve always been fascinated with Native Americans and finally getting to explore them a bit more in ACIII proved to be interesting and I hope it was satisfactory representation for Native Americans.

64. finally getting to play in the present day in assassin’s creed brotherhood and 3, like actually getting to run around and explore as Desmond.

(I did a post like this on my old blog and I’ve rewrote them on here but I also got some new things, I just like having a post like this on my blog and I like seeing people who also agree with these brilliant features in this franchise, you can pretty much tell which two games are my favourite lol, Black Flag and 2 will always have a special place in my heart,)

[comicteaparty]

April 6th-April 12th, 2020 CTP Archive

The archive for the Comic Tea Party week long chat that occurred from April 6th, 2020 to April 12th, 2020.  The chat focused on  Adventurers’ Guild by Phillip MacArthur.

Featured Comment:

Chat:

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB START!

Hello and welcome everyone to Comic Tea Party’s Book Club~! This week we’ll be focusing on Adventurers’ Guild by Phillip MacArthur~! (https://adventurersguildcomic.com/)

You are free to read and comment about the comic all week at your own pace until April 12th, so stop on by whenever it suits your schedule! Discussions are freeform, but we do offer discussion prompts in the pins for those who’d like to have them. Additionally, remember that while constructive criticism is allowed, our focus is to have fun and appreciate the comic! Whether you finish the comic or can only read a few pages, everyone is welcome to join and chat with us!

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 1

1. What did you like about the beginning of the comic?

2. What has been your favorite moment in the comic (so far)?

3. Who is your favorite character?

4. Which characters do like seeing interact the most?

5. What is something you like about the art? If you have a favorite illustration, please share it!

6. What is a theme you like that the comic explores?

7. What do you like about the comic’s story or overall related content?

8. Overall, what do you think the comic’s strengths are?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

What I liked about the beginning of the comic was just the overall pacing. The comic really takes it's time to introduce the world to you and the first set of characters, and it kind of hits that right beat for me where there's a lot of information where I don't feel overwhelmed since the pacing slows to the right tempo to make it work. My favorite moment in the comic so far is probably the battle against Razoku. Without getting too specific, I love just how epic that fight was in general, and also that a character I didn't expect was down for the count for that fight, leaving everyone else to compensate. That is not something you see in stories everyday, plus I liked getting to see Jack do some work since Jack tagged along for the quest. My favorite character at the moment is probably Li, because I have a thing for enigmatic mysterious dudes who I know so little about. Plus, he's a sorceror and I always 1000% support magic classes. As for characters interacting, probably Klaus and Li. I love the hints that they really have some history here, and I like just kind of how they balance each other out. Like sometimes Li is dumb and Klaus is the smart one and then sometimes Klaus is dumb and Li is smart. And it goes on like this for a bunch of different traits, so I like that theyre both kind of on an even footing and that they have this bond and understanding the other characters don't have with them yet. So it's like this warm thing of comfort.

RebelVampire

What I like about the art is just kind of how well it emulates RPG pixel games. Especially how dialogue and other elements are handled to replicate the UI. It's a nice touch that really just kind of sells that whole game feel aesthetic. I liked that the comic explored the moral choice between helping someone vs. fulfilling your obligation. And the tangentially related "Is it okay to lie if it's a stupid noble who wants a thing for aesthetics and frivolous reasons?" Some pretty common themes, yet still important themes always worthy of discussion. I also liked how the noble knew the lie and still just accepted it anyway, since that was 100% now the outcome I was expecting. So it really takes the exploration of that theme a bit differently. What I like about the story is the same thing I like about the art: it really nails the game feel. Like I really do feel I've been watching just an epically long cutscene to some game, but as someone who does like games and RPGs, that really appeals to me. Honestly, I'd be excited to play this as an actual game so I could use Li and cast all the magic. As for the comic's strengths, game feel which I've already discussed. But in general, like the beginning, pacing. I've seen a few comics like this one, but for most the pacing usually isn't that great since pixel art really only allows for so much action to be depicted. So pacing for these things needs to be epically different than it does for most comics. I think this one really nails it, especially with combat. The comic really shows how the combat will be epic, but it doesn't try to pad it out either and just kind of embraces the limitations that come with this specific style.

warriorneedsfood

I am having a hard time engaging in the comic. The layout wasn’t very intuitive for me and it’s very small on my tablet. When I play old school rpgs I look past the interface to get to the story, but this comic embraces the format. It makes me wish the author made a game instead of the comic. However, I didn’t get very far on the first pass. I will be hunkering down with the comic later on this week to read it to get the whole impression of the story.

RebelVampire

Once I adjusted to the layout, I actually found it way easier for mobile personally.

Since I didn't really have to zoom or squint, and the panels were very responsive to touch controls

But it is definitely far from the standard so I can see it as a point of alienation

Eightfish (Puppeteer)

Gotta say, never played this kind of game so this comic isn't really for me, but I did think the format was really unique and cool

I don't have any problems reading it on my phone

Feather J. Fern

I think this premise for the layout is really interesting. I actually think it would have done really well as actually an Instagram comic due to it's scroll, square shape.

I do also have to agree if this was an actual game done on RPG Maker or something, it would fit it a lot more. But I do love the feel it is giving me.

I do have to note that the font is making it hard for me to read, since that font isn't really good for me. My own personal problem though.

I can see why they went with that choice for the old RPG feeling

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 2

9. Why do you think Myra came to Knolton, and why is she hesitant to talk to even fellow Nemians about her backstory? Additionally, why is Jack equally mysterious about his origins? How do you think the truth will change the characters’ relationships with each other?

10. Do you think Klaus will allow Kidd to join the party? If so, how will that change the current group dynamic? Additionally, how will Cedric’s secrecy effect how much trust the other’s put in him?

11. How do you think Klaus and Li met, and for what reason do you think Li joined Klaus’ clan? Additionally, what do you think Li’s backstory might be in general? Do you believe there are secrets that might change how the group sees him, or is it something more mundane?

12. Do you think the group will see Edmund or anyone else they’ve faced against again? If so, what do you think will happen? In general, how will the group’s growing fame affect them and the quests they take on?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

RebelVampire

I feel like Myra probably got exiled or something. If only cause Myra does not seem like she'd have come to Knolton by choice, and you don't conceal your backstory unless you've got embarrassing shit to hide. I assume Jack might be in the same sort of situation. I actually think if Myra and Jack talked about it, though, it'd bring them closer together, as well as the whole group. The truth sets you free and all that. As for Kidd, yes, I think Klaus will let Kidd join. Klaus seems nice like that. As for group dynamic, I think it will simultaneously make Cedric a better and worse member of the group. I kind of feel if push came to shove, Cedric would ditch the others to save Kidd, making him unreliable. But at the same time, if Kidd goes with, Cedric would probably have increased loyalty. As for Cedric's secrecy, I think it'll be a long time before anyone fully trusts him again. I get the impression that Klaus must of met Li when Li was down on his luck, and since Klaus was such a bro and a friend, of course he joined. As for Li's backstory, I actually don't have any theories, although I kind of feel Li is less secret cause of something to hide but more maybe no one asks. Though I'm sure there is at least one secret in there that will make the audience gasp. I do think the group will at least see Edmund again because Edmund seemed an important and noteworthy character who'd come back. I could also see silver lotus noble coming back for silver lotus part 2 only now its a gold lotus. Either way, in regards to Edmund, of course theyre going to fight, though I feel like someone will try to convince Edmund to join their part instead, which Edmund might be convinced somehow. In general, though, their group is definitely gonna attract big baddies and great evil, cause fame comes at a cost.

GuildmasterPhill

Hello, author of Adventurers' Guild here! Just want to chime in and say it's been a real pleasure to read all the analysis of my comic here. It's good to see some of you really getting into it, and I think this whole tea party thing is a wonderful idea. Adventurers' Guild's week is almost up, as I understand it, but I'll be around here for the last bit of it if anyone has any questions for me! (I'm REALLY cagey about storyline spoilers, though, so don't expect any of those!) Thanks again!

Comic Tea Party

DISCUSSION PROMPTS – PART 3

13. What are you most looking forward to seeing in regards to the comic?

14. Any final words of encouragement for the comic?

Don’t feel inspired by the prompts? Feel free to discuss anything else that interested you!

mathtans

Hi! Our modem died, so my internet capabilities are real limited at the moment. But I had a quick look at the start of the week and just wanted to say I think the format is really neat, since I see some back and forth debate about it. All the best with the comic!

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Jumping in late -- the tip about mobile reading helped, it also works on desktop if you put it in a narrow-enough window!

I like the intro, the comedy of "we've only stopped one thief, and technically the quest says it's plural", the awkwardness of Klaus trying to say "I have pointy ears, so that gives me some insight into the discrimination you face as a full-on catgirl" and Myra not having it. Reminds me of the tension in X-Men between the "normal-looking" mutants vs. the ones who are, say, blue and scaly.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Just got to the bit with the cat brothers, and Klaus's reaction is...puzzling. He did all that outreach and effort getting Myra and Cedric to join the party, even getting rejected by Cedric and then following him around until he was talked into joining...but now there's two people enthusiastically volunteering to join, and Klaus is shooting them down?

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

I mean, they were obviously shady, but it's not clear why he was so convinced the others weren't. Maybe he just has Hero Plot Senses.

Seconding that I like the outcome of that arc, though! You think the party's just coming up with excuses for why they can slack off and do a second-rate job and not feel bad when they get away with it...and then, surprise, they don't get away with it, but it turns out their excuses were right and they don't have to feel bad about it.

Won't be surprised if it comes back to bite them down the line, though. Say, that noble uses it to make a fake healing potion, then lets a rival die while appearing to make all efforts to treat them.

And on to the next traveling montage! I like the lighting/colors in the campfire effect, but I feel like it should be built with squares and triangles rather than being a perfect ellipse, so it fits with the rest of the tile-based scenery. (Which is very cool and well-done in general.)

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

Unrelated to anything, I do love when Myra's sprite does cat-poses.

Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn)

All caught up (full disclosure, I skimmed through some of the long battle sequences). One burning question...is there ever going to be more than one female character in this world? Myra isn't just the only woman in the party -- all their other allies are guys, all the enemies are dudes, everyone who hires them for a quest is a man, every random encounter on the street is a bro, every NPC with a speaking line is a fella...

Two of the guys so far have talked about their mothers, but one mom was sick/asleep for her entire on-screen appearance, and the other hasn't been seen at all. (And she was presumed killed...is there some big underground conspiracy to poison and/or murder all the women in this world? That would also be a reasonable Backstory Thing for Myra to run away from...)

RebelVampire

I am most looking forward to learning more about Li's backstory here and seeing all of the components that make Li awesome. My final words are is that I really love how unique this comic is with its presentation. It really stands out against contemporary styles and just overall, was an entertaining read. The comic feels like a true passion project and that really shines through, and while it may not be everyone's cup of tea, it didn't have any of the problems I usually find in most modern comics. So I was glad for that

GuildmasterPhill

To answer your question, @Erin Ptah (BICP | Leif & Thorn) , yes there will be more woman characters--do not worry. ^^

@RebelVampire Thank you so much for all the comments, you seem very insightful! I certainly hope you will continued reading as I go onward.

Comic Tea Party

BOOK CLUB END!

Thank you everyone so much for reading and chatting about Adventurers’ Guild this week! Please also give a special thank you to Phillip MacArthur for volunteering the comic and creating it! If you liked Adventurers’ Guild, make sure to continue to support it via some of the links below!

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[ravenwolfie97]

hey, can i ramble about how awesome pkmn black/white is? cool

specifically i wanna talk about the gym leaders, because they’re one of my favorite details in the games. for the first few generations, gym leaders were just a means to an end, people designed to fight you with specific types of pokemon. they existed entirely to be gym leaders and nothing else. yeah they had design quirks that gave them a vague sense of a life and personality besides gym leading, but they were never actually expanded upon. gens 1 and 4 were good examples of gym leaders with backstory. however, they just never. Did anything with them beyond gym leading, save for a couple short cutscene bits or literally having to track them down to fight them

now gen 5 REALLY amped up gym leaders and the elite four as well, and i love it. each of them is extremely involved in their jobs and hobbies outside of their gym leader status, and they’re reflected in their gym locations. i’m gonna bulletpoint this list of people because it’s an easy-to-digest format

1. Cilan, Chili, and Cress: Grass/Fire/Water leaders from Striaton City They’re restaurant owners and chefs! Their gym is literally within their restaurant, and their waiters challenge you along the way, so it’s dinner and a show! (also all of their names are based on herbs/spices)

2. Lenora: Normal leader from Nacrene City She’s an archaeologist and the curator of the city’s museum along with her husband Hawes. Yeah, this woman’s married! Don’t think that’s been an explicit thing before! She’s also super well-read, with a huge library in the back of the museum, and her gym is hidden underneath the shelves! That’s wild.

3. Burgh: Bug leader from Castelia City He’s an artist and possibly a fashion designer as well! His first gym was an art gallery with honey walls, but his updated gym from BW2 was filled with bug-spun silk and his final floor was flooded with rainbow paint. I don’t know if he’s actually into fashion as well, but I remember he was in a Nuzlocke comic I read, and I could see that fitting for him as well with all the silk.

4. Elesa: Electric leader from Nimbasa City She’s a flippin’ supermodel! Originally her gym was at the end of the rollercoaster ride in Nimbasa’s amusement park, but in BW2 it was changed to a runway with other models challenging you as you advance.

5. Clay: Ground leader from Driftveil City He’s the operator of a mining business! It’s interesting that mining is the main export of a port city, but hey, there’s two caves nearby and his gym is literally a massive crystal-filled mine. He’s super responsible with all that to take care of!

6. Skyla: Flying leader from Mistralton City She’s a cargo plane pilot! Her gym is beside an airport runway and within a mail carrier building. She even flies the player around to certain areas, so she’s still capable of piloting planes as well as battling trainers!

7. Brycen: Ice leader from Icirrus City It’s unclear what he does in BW (he’s like vaguely a ninja/monk?), but in BW2, turns out he’s an actor! You can’t battle him in BW2 but you can find him in PokeStar Studios in his own movies! Just looked it up - he had originally been an actor and then got himself hurt in a stunt gone wrong, so he retired and went to train himself to be more mindful and knowledgeable. Then he went back to acting later on. That’s some good backstory right there.

8. Drayden/Iris: Dragon leaders from Opelucid City I wasn’t actually sure what they did either, but Drayden is the mayor of Opelucid City and Iris is just a very excited Dragon-type trainer from the Village of Dragons. Drayden had to stay in Opelucid as its mayor, while Iris trained hard and became Champion once Alder retired. Both of them had very different goals in their strength!

BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE

9. Cheren: Normal leader from Aspertia City After the events of BW, Cheren becomes a teacher at the Pokemon School in Aspertia, and continues battling as a way to teach the kiddies! It’s a really great position for him to have taken since it aligns with both of his passions: learning about and battling with Pokemon.

10. Roxie: Poison leader from Virbank City She’s the bass guitarist and singer of her very own rock band! Her gym is within a dark and graffitied music club, and her band plays their music on the stage!

11. Marlon: Water leader from Humilau City Honestly not sure what he does, he just seems like a surfer dude who really likes swimming and being in the water n stuff. Maybe he helps out with the Marine Tube? I dunno, that seems plausible.

BUT WAIT, THERE’S STILL THE ELITE FOUR

12. Shauntal: Ghost-type user She’s a novelist! She even has a pen and notebook in her hands as she battles you, and she shares little snippets from her stories every time you challenge her. That’s so cute!

13. Grimsley: Dark-type user He’s a gambler, and really good at it, too - very fitting for a Dark-type trainer. However, he’s got more backstory than I remembered (from Bulbapedia): “He is the son of a distinguished family that fell into ruin. As a result, he developed a gambling addiction.” He eventually went to Alola and got good at Mantine Surfing but that’s not as important. He’s still good at games.

14. Caitlyn: Psychic-type user She seems narcoleptic... Like, her room is literally a giant canopy bed and she’s basically in her pajamas when she fights you. She’s like if Musharna were in human form: constantly sleepy but fueled by their psychic power. Oh! She used to be an assistant in the Battle Frontier Castle in Sinnoh! Forgot about that important bit! And she apparently is actually psychic but is kinda like Mob from MP100 where it gets out of control if she gets too emotional. Neat!

15. Marshal: Fighting-type user He was an apprentice to Alder, and is a very disciplined fighter. His Elite Four room is a big boxing ring and he wears a mouth guard and wears an outfit reminiscent of a gi, so he seems like he could be a boxer or an MMA fighter.

hhhhhhh okay i’m done now

wait, not yet. the coolest thing about all of these guys is that pretty much all of them are involved in the story outside of gym stuff, they all know each other, and at the end of BW they come together to help apprehend Ghetsis

OH AND NOT TO MENTION in BW2 all of the gyms get their own custom remixes! those all further amplify the gym leaders’ aesthetics and sidenote i so wish that’d come back it was srsly super cool

what i’m trying to say is gen 5 was fantastic and did a lot for gym leaders that hasn’t been replicated since. even for alola, that’s kind of debatable; their backstories and trial placements were greatly expanded upon in the same way, but the level of overall involvement in the story was still greatly reduced

tl;dr: BW/2 were great games and i love them ok bye

[valerie-royeaux]

Tagged by the lovely @enchantment1385​! Thank you so much, I love these tags! And I’ll do all of them, believe me!

1. Favourite game of the series? Dragon Age: Origins, by far. In every aspect, in every category I can think of. The characters are better, the story is better, the origins themselves are mind blowing, the companions are unique... The only thing I think Origins does worst than the others is Character Design. Leliana and Morrigan are obviously made to please the BroGamerTM, whereas Sera, Cassandra and Josie are muuuuuuch better designed. 

2. How did you discover 🐉 Age? Pure luck. My wife got me a bunch of games she bought in a bundle, and DA:O was among them. It was 2010, and ever since then, the quantity of games I play dropped *significantly* because DA:O became the bar by which I measure other games. Bioware ruined gaming for me.

3. How many times have you’ve played the games? To quote the wise words of @enchantment1385​:

Ahahahahaha… Umm… I don’t know..? 

So many multiples times since 2010 I honestly have no idea.

4. Favourite race to play as? Given my OCs, I’ve played humans and dwarves. I can’t say I have a favorite. Wait, I can: dwarves.

5. Favourite class? Sword & Shield warrior. I’m the tank, and will always be!

6. Do you play through the games differently or do you make the same decisions each time? Quoting @enchantment1385​:

I kinda vary it, but not as much as I sometimes want to. I’ve never done a pure ‘asshole’ playthrough, even though sometimes I would like to see how it ends up. I blame Bioware for making the NPC’s likeable.

That being said, I do have two OCs already lined up for DA4. And one will be a slave-owning, selfish bastard mage.

7. Go-to adventuring group? In DAO, battle dictates the group. I play on PC with friendly fire on. So I can’t carry companions just because I like them. The party to go is John, as sword & shield warrior, Leliana for Ranged Damage, Morrigan for Crowd Control, and Wynne as Support.

DA2: Meh. Not Varric, Not Isabella.

DAI: Unless I’m out for dragon killing, I take those that have to do with the story. So, for instance, Blackwall will tag along with Crestwood and Adamant. Bull and Sera will never go to Halamshiral. And so on. But for Dragon Hunting, Junia as a dual wielding Rogue for a lot of damage, Cassandra as the tank, Cole for even more damage, and Solas for Support,.

8. Which of your characters did you put the most thought into?

I’d say both of them saw the same amount of effort. John’s and Junia’s stories are intertwined from almost the very beginning. And it shall remain thus!

9. Favourite romance? Sera and Morrigan. Simply for the sheer amount of content and cutscenes, which is more than the other romances. 

10. Have you read any of the comics/📚? Nope. o.O I don’t like most comics.

11. If you read them, which was your favourite 📓? N/A

12. Favourite DLCs? Awakening. I wish it had romance, but I still it’s awesome. 

13. Things that annoy you? Varric’s book cover art, or anything he opens his mouth about the publishing industry, really. It breaks immersion for me in a way I can barely deal with.

14. Orlais or Ferelden? 

Wise words again:

Who in the shit picks Orlais? For Ferelden!!

15. Templar's or Mages? Templars. I know when it boils down to it, it’s abuse. But when you boil down to it, if left free, the mages will rule. It’s either them of us, unfortunately.

16. If you have multiple characters, are they in different/parallel universes or in the same one? The same one. John and Junia are interwined, as I said. I never managed to bond to a Hawke, though. So my Hawke is a parallel universe version of my wife’s Hawke.

17. What did you name your pets? (mabari, summoned animals, mounts, etc.) John had Thorand, Maker rest his soul. Junia never had a Mabari.

18. Have you installed any mods? Only for DA:O. None for Inquisition. I love the ones that enhance the romance with Leliana.

19. Did your Warden want to become a Grey Warden?     Not. Really.

He was forced to do so because his twin sister had been conscripted - not only Gwen had more chances of restoring the Couslands if not bound to the Wardens. He also had to protect her - give his life, so she wouldn’t have to give hers. And he broke his promises to Junia in doing so - spelling the end of their relationship for many years to come. It’s complicated. More details here.

20. Hawke’s personality? None. I don’t have a Hawke. I use my wive’s who’s 3/4 Purple. 1/4 red.

21. Did you make matching armour for your companions in Inquisition? Not really. I don’t think I got the question.

22. If your character(s) could go back in time to change one thing, what would they change? John would change everything. He regrets the most having joined the Wardens, despite carrying his duty as a Warden loyally. That one decision, he thinks, doomed him and Junia to a good deal of suffering that could have been avoided if only the told Duncan to go to hell, and not have nor him nor Gwen.

Junia wishes he hadn’t given her son to the care of her mothers. The convent where they lived was sacked - and she never saw her child again.

23. Do you have any headcanons about your character(s) that go against canon? ALL OF IT.

24. Are any of your character(s) based on someone? John is a shameless self insert. Junia came to life all on her own. She’s this... thing, that exists, that came to life in a way I could not fathom... And I am in love with her.

25. Who did you leave in the Fade? No one. This Inktober sketch shows well what happened with the Nightmare:

26. Favourite mount? Junia, given her height, prefers Harts. John, knight to the bone, horses.

[thezolblade]

Ship Meme! Tagged by @the-cryptographer​ ~

1) Ultimate Otps:

Which of them have ‘ultimate’ qualities...? GS Isaac/Alex would be kind of an ‘ultimate power’ ship, if they got a plot with twists and turns and character development and reasons to cooperate. I’d expect that more from fic than canon - so many other canons have lots of epic slow burn adventure fics for hero/villain-or-antivillain ships. But so far in GS, for those two, I’ve mostly found (good) crackfic, or non-shippy ‘they fight to the death and Isaac wins and marries Mia’  stuff that doesn’t treat them with even as much nuance as the canon.

Not that I mind mudshipping - my ultimate GS polyship would be something like Isaac/Mia/Felix/Alex(/Veriti/The Ice Queen), with interesting dynamics between every two characters in that set of four (and Mia/Veriti), even with some of the bonds possibly being platonic. Though when I’ve written long plotfic it’s very easily gotten platonic/ambivalent/angsty bc it tends so much towards drama, and conflict may drive plots (hence its abundance in plotbunnies), but I find it hard to headcanon characters getting past hurts and grudges very easily; I want to see them make the effort, but it feels like they’d need a lot of time and personal growth to get there, and I might not even figure how well they do until I’m almost 100K words in. And in some very angsty verses there’s no chance. I want to read other people’s adventure fic too, with fun ideas that manage heel-face turns or antihero plots in a slightly lighter way...

PMMM Madoka/Homura is another ‘ultimate power’ ship, if they can get to a point where Godoka and Homucifer can deal with each other as equals again, both with full knowledge of everything that’s happened and the resolve to truly save themselves, each other, and the rest of the universe. :o

Utena/Anthy is quite an ‘ultimate reality’ ship, when they find their revolution.

2) A ship you’ll always 💜??

The Harvest Moon fan in me is going ‘purple heart? that’s not a very high level of affection??’ ...but taking it as an emoji for ‘love’... without repeating anything above, pokemon Green/Red is always nostalgic (gameverse Ash/Gary, the names get a little confusing as there are localisation differences and I like the old manga and anime too but haven’t watched/read anything recent in those canons).

GS Imilshipping, too, in fic verses where they had a close bond. FE Lucia/Ilyana, I wish they had epilogue content after their support, still mean to write out a plotbunny for them sometime. Soren/Ike, of course, and Tibarn/Reyson.

ToS Lloyd/Colette/Sheena/Zelos, again with strong bonds between all of the pairs in that foursome. They did so much to help each other find hope by striving to save and trust each other, creating a new kind of salvation together.

Skies of Arcadia Fina/Aika/Vyse, Vyse/Ramirez, and Ramirez/Galcian. Never found much fanstuff for it, but it caught the imagination.

3) Current obsessions??

Lots of MadoHomu vibes after getting a oneshot written for them. Confident!Madoka makes both of them happy when they’re not dying; it’s a shame she doesn’t get much screentime as her confident and cheerful self, since so much of her time as a magical girl passes offscreen. Even while she was more unsure during the series, she demonstrated her desire to protect her friends, and Homura commented time and time again on her kindness - she loves her for it, and when she discourages it anyway, it’s because she’s come to believe that it’ll be the death of her. If they were truly safe, they could support each other so well - it could be a world away from the desperation that marked the end of Rebellion, when neither of them are at all okay. :s

Also getting quite into darkfic plotbunnies, and I know ‘darkship’ is a term in some cases for character dynamics fulfilling their worst potential, descending into violence and destruction that at least one character Does Not Want, but in the verses of those plotbunnies I guess they still fit the label of antiships better than ships.

4) A ship you never thought you’d like??

Uh, a lot of the stuff on the gs kink meme caught me by surprise, when rarepairs got suggested and the fills or plotbunnies got interesting - Alex/Ivan, Eoleo/Rief, Alex/Amiti (in a BAD IDEA way). And on lj/tumblr, Mia/Sheba was pleasant surprise too. Not that I ever had any preconceptions about disliking ships, they just hadn’t occurred to me.

In FF7, I don’t think I expected to see compelling Cloud/Seph or Zack/Seph at first, all those years ago, but I quickly found that there are a lot of good AUs and darkfic. Especially when they’re alongside other good ships like Cloud/Zack, Aerith/Zack, Aerith/Cloud, Aerith/Tifa, Tifa/Cloud etc.

5) A ship you used to like but don’t anymore:

Uh idk exactly. I used to read a lot of Buffy fic by ship to find characters whose dynamics were interesting in the show, but iirc I ended up skimming any content that was really ‘shippy’ to get to the plot and jokes and emotional bonding over real stuff, not random physical attraction, and nowadays I don’t think I’d bother skimming so much stuff just bc I hoped it’d be interesting and wanted to keep giving it a chance.

6) A ship that should be canon??

Well some that are very strongly implied but not explicitly stated feel like ‘yep that’s canon’ but could maybe use some more in-universe and author confirmation when not everyone seems to agree - Ike/Soren, Utena/Anthy in some versions of canon, etc.

7) A canon ship you hate???

I like to hate the way darkships go sometimes, but that’s what makes them an interesting story, going ‘noo’ about characters’ bad decisions, though that usually only works if they had better potential that they’re falling short of, not necessarily in a romantic sense... Can’t think of many cases where that happens in canon. Uh I think most explicitly canon relationships are either one option among many routes (and I get tired of support grinding), or I’m a bit indifferent, or if I dislike how it’s done I’d still start playing devil’s advocate and wondering how it could have been done differently if I spend any time considering it.

Oh in FE Awakening I kinda hated how Virion’s flirting in the main plot cutscenes was creepy and painted him as a bad joke, but his supports are much better and some of them are great - how do you explain liking his ships when he has such a bad start (and such bad English voice acting)? I also hated the way the player character’s support options didn’t all show up until endgame, so I missed them the first time and had to replay and wait until then to support grind, and then it all got repetitive grinding the same dlc maps so many times over just for such short supports, and the endgame marriage candidates that were most interesting (bc how the hell could the game make that work, with a head of state or a former enemy??) ended up with really rushed and unconvincing relationship development, and the child recruitment maps were hellishly difficult at that point in the endgame, and all in all it got a bit un-fun and not worth the effort. :/

8) A ship you shipped for years??

Most of the above. Also stuff like Saiyuki Sanzo/Goku, GS Alex/Felix or /Saturos, Jenna/Sheba, Karis/Sveta, Pokemon Misty/Erika, FE Florina/Lyndis, and, uh, probably stuff that I’m forgetting right now.

9) A ship everyone 😍 but you don’t care for?

...Was there anything? Some of the cliche stuff bugs me, but I’d usually think ‘what about writing the dynamic this way and maybe adding poly?’

10) Favorite rare pair???

Mm what's rare? Any gs Alex!ships at this point...

Edit: I forgot to tag anyone, so. If meme time sounds like fun, @sazandorable, @meganekkomeguca, @droory, or anyone who feels like it?

[threeambiguouswords-blog]

Shadow Of The Colossus? More like Great Experience Of The Colossus Amirite?

What can I say about this game that hasn’t already been said? I’d bet not much if anything at all to be honest, but on the near to impossible chance that this is the first you’re hearing about this game and I have the pleasure informing you about it (or you’re just here for the mad bants) then strap in.

Kitted out in all the gear.

Quick semi-disclaimer, purely for the fact it's the version i've played most recently and it gives me more delicious cinema like screenies I'll be on the most part talking about the "hot off the press" remaster for ya boi the PS4 rather than the PS2 or the PS3 versions which I definitely own and have definitely 100% completed (Insecurities bleeding through). So then lets get kicking.

General Overview

Gen. Overview, we meet again for the first time. So then, you’ve just bought shadow of the colossus, you’ve remembered the past or heard the hype and decided to indulge and buy yourself a copy for the PS2,3 or 4. After the JapanStudios and Bluepoint logos break the emptiness of your screens you’re met with a stunning scene of a full moon caught amongst shadowed peaks and as it begins to dawn on you what caliber of game this will be and the choir kicks in and after following an eagle soar through this landscape the camera catches and follows out protagonist and his companion Wander and Agro.

So by now the cutscene has ended, 5 or 50 minutes of you sat stunned have past and you realise what you’re in for. You select new game on normal difficulty (because obviously you’re a good gamer but you’re not going to choose hard pfft this game could be crazy) and the game begins properly, for real. Even without knowing anything about this game, reading colossalpedia or reading any item descriptions at all it’s pretty easy to get the jist of what this games about. You’re bae has died and a big gender ambiguous hole in the roof tells you to kill 16 colossi and they’ll return the favour once you’re done, off you pop.

Controls

If you read, watch, listen to other reviews for this game you’ll find that over and over again that this game has terrible controls and that more often than not it’s the games one fault. I however, happen to disagree (oooooh EdGy alternative view), admittedly the original PS2 camera was a tad whacked up but it was a small price to pay for the sheer magnitude of such a game on that console, and even then they made up for it by giving you some wicked collectible postcards in the game box so it’s all cool. Even so, this problem was fixed with later remasters with more fluid camera controls and better graphics to turn “bad camera angles” into “cinegraphic shots”

Photographic proof I’m a hipster collector and can say I know what i’m talking about, even if I don’t.

I’m going to avoid talking about the colossi at the moment as much as I can since i’m going to discuss them later and make this even longer than it’s already going to be so for the remainder of this section i’ll say some stuff about mechanics, scenery and maybe throw some of the bonus stuff in. I don’t know i’ll decide when i get to it.

Gameplay

Once you’ve finished meeting Dormin (The holy hole) and you’ve hopped on Agro you hold up your sacred sword which helps you find where your next victim and you follow it as closely as you can tackling puzzling environments and the most agoraphobic world you’ll ever encounter between your location and your destination. (If only I had that sword I might be able to find where this reviews actually heading). Once you reach your destination and before the cutscene your next epic clash it’s easy to see that each area is specifically designed for how you’re meant to tackle this foe, whether its an open area made to emphasise your battle partner or an enclosed field with brittle spires to take advantage of, every part has been meticulously crafted to make the encounter easier without taking away the incredible feeling of defeating these giants on your own.

Big mommas house.

I’m running out of words for epic and colossus so i’m going to smoothly transition over to mechanics now. Each fight at its core is the same, you have to find a way onto the colossus, hold on, find the weak spot and stab it till it dies, using two main mechanics of Holding/Climbing and Stabbing. Seeing how theres 16 Colossi in this game (A mere glimpse of the planned 48) it would make sense to think that this would get repetative. However, each colossi is so different from the last with only a few showing similarities (ahem the minotaur bros) and this partnered with utilizing the environment, the horse, or the bow in different ways for each and sometimes not at all makes each battle a brand new experience in of itself. Which is great considering you have to play this game at least 4 times to be able to say you’ve completed it, which in a way is like fighting the original 48 planned colossi.

After you’ve completed your first run, experienced the twist ending and had your adaption back into our reality you get to play through it all over again but this time in the aptly named “Hard mode” which is essentially the same except some of the colossi have more weak points, you do less damage but take more and the colossi try to shake you off more and oooooh do some of them try to shake you off. There is no real reward for completing Hard mode except being able to say you’ve done so and no one likes that type of guy (I’ve completed hard mode). With Hard mode out the way you’ve experienced the twist a second time and while the magic of the game never leaves the initial oomph does fade and it’s at this point the time trials come in. From here on it becomes less of an experience and more of a game.

To begin time attack you have to pray at the shrine of the colossus you wish to challenge (which probably has a meaning but this isn’t game theory with mousemat so i’m not going to figure it out). Depending on the difficulty the time you have to defeat it changes but aside from that it’s the same as the previous fights but without the travelling and time pressure is thrust upon you. The best part about the Time attack mode is that for every two colossi you defeat you get a dandy new thing to play with ranging from a harpoon to the worst parachute ever, to save this being any longer than it needs to be i’m going to refrain from listing them all but trust me, they’re alright.

The Colossi

Now ladies and gentlemen the moment i’ve been waiting for, I get to spend an hour writing about each colossus individually hopefully saving whatever respectability there is in this sub-par review. So in no particular order, aside from the order they come in in the game, the Colossi: #1 Valus [Minotaur A]

I’m horny and he’s scared.

I’m going to keep these short so don’t worry, not long left. Valus the shortest of the 4 bipedal colossi and the first of the minotaur bros, valus is an excellent tutorial, not the smallest to take away from the sense of scale but not the biggest allowing for more oompah later on in the game he is an excellent introduction to the game. The platforms on his back have often been criticized but if they weren’t there then where would his pet birds rest. Good/10

#2 Quadratus [The Mammoth]

Only half as horny as I.

Coming in at number two on a list in chronological order is Quadratus, still seen as a tutorial colossus he is the first colossus where Agro and your bow can be incorporated easily. To new players without a walkthrough the only real challenge is getting onto him as his leg hairs aren’t easily accessible but once thats out the way you can prepare for another epic feeling riding this beast for its final moments. ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)/10

#3 Gaius [The Knight]

Duck me.

Strolling by at the tallest of the bipedal colossi its general consensus that Gaius is where the game begins, his battle includes a puzzle, he is a challenge in himself to scale and he has more than one vital spot. His arena gives impressions of being custom built for a champion like him as it’s a flat platform raised above a lake, with little background scenery sans the temple on the horizon accentuating how lanky this challenge is.It’s no mystery why gaius is plastered all over the promotions for this game. 9/10

#4 Phaedra [Kirin]

A stallion, Baby! I can whinny! I can Count!

Phaedra? More like puzzle because holy moly this one took a while to figure out, another where jumping aboard isn’t just an option you have to use the environment and then hop on its banging dreads and once you’re on its head you better hold on because larger Agro bangs his head like he’s bopping along to the games own soundtrack. This is the last colossus at the moment with its weak point on it’s head and things really change up in the next battle. I’m Trotting/10

#5 Avion [-]

I died getting this shot.

The story hasn’t started developing yet and you’re beginning to feel a slight lull at this point, you get the jist, there’s big things you got to kill. So far they’ve all been roughly the same size, had the same pattern and been one of two designs. Enter Avion and you had best jump when he enters or you’ve got no chance at catching this speedy boi, this battle brings back the original feeling of grandeur and sprinkles new flavours of epic over the top. The feeling of flying is portrayed so well here with the wind rush graphics and the resistance you can feel the resistance in the controls. Also as you can see this one’s got a helmet so you’ve got to find those weak points elsewhere. 9/10

#6 Barba [Minotaur B]

Prick

The second of the minotaur bros and by far the worst, I could have done without this guy. After solving the easiest “puzzle” ever you just think back to your training with Valus but instead of go up his back... go up his front! On his big dumb beard. Remember how I said phaedra bangs his head? That’s a spirit level compared to how much this guy shakes and everytime he shakes you have to charge up your blade all over again. If it wasn’t for a slight exploit where you can cancel his shaking animation if you time the stabs right I could have broken my first controller over this spice. -0/10

#7 Hydrus [The Eel]

I wouldn’t swim through that warm bit if I were you.

Another innovative and creative battle? Surely not. Well yes, yes indeed, a slippy boi this time and one of my top three, I love this battle. Often ridiculed for having bad AI or tough combat people ridicule this snake for not coming up to the surface, well i’ve got as word describing people like that bad at games all you have to do is imagine his line of sight and splish around in it and he comes up, you grab on and either tackle the electrode spines or avoid them entirely. Not the only subterranean colossus but the only water one unfortunately. ~~/10

#8 Kuromori [The Gecko]

Not the most annoying mouth cannon i’ve seen.

So far the most Aggro colossus we’ve met and on of the better puzzle ones, it doesn’t get so caught up in being a puzzle it stops being a fight. This colossus is one of the colossi who know you’re coming for their life and he’s not going to let you just take it. Unfortunately once you’ve cracked his puzzle he’s a cakewalk on later repeats but the first time he was the first I considered to be an opponent. Appreciative Head Nod/10

#9 Basaran [The Turtle]

The most annoying mouth cannon i’ve seen.

Here we go, the only other of these creatures I despise, the other being Minotaur Beard. The trick to this one is surgical precision and digitally accurate timing, if you don’t have that then good luck. This monstrosity needs tipping over (Because his developer names turtle *fake laugh*) and the only way to do that is to get him standing over one of the nearby geisers when it goes off, then you shoot his legs out and climb up him when he’s flipped. After the trial and effort it takes after all that you’re met with another run up it’s back and stab its head scenario exactly like quadratus. Also did I mention if you’re not at the exact right range he will spam the hell out of that cannon attack, I did not feel bad killing this one. Fuck you/10

#10 Dirge [Naga]

It took 15 mins and this was the best shot

Similar to his sibling from another parent dirge is the second subterranean colossi and definitely the less chill of the two, you still want to ride this one and stab his back but you don’t have to worry about splishing to get his attention this time. He wants you. One of the better puzzles of the game but not entirely obvious at first you have to get this one to crash into a wall and take the opportunity then to get on his back and land the killing blows. Quite an average experience to be honest lots of people place him at the bottom or the tops of their lists but I feel once you’ve got the trick down he’s a big pushover. Onix/10

#11 Celosia [The Lion]

You mess with the bull, you get the horn.

You find the sunken city, you continue on alone as Agro can’t handle stairs and you enter a temple with flames licking the was. Destroyed pillars? A roof? Before you can begin picturing the type of colossus you will fight an overweight cow with anger issues jumps down from the roof and you have to abuse its psychological fear of fir to break its armour and take advantage of the bare flesh. With it being further in the game it’s another colossus that feels like more of a puzzle than a duel but even so, overpowering a creature closer to your size is just as satisfying as a walking obelisque 50 times your size. 2 Horns/10

#12 Pelagia [Poseidon]

About as large as a blade of grass.

Swimming takes a while in this game. It’s not bad or hard to control, it’s just slow. and this battle has the most need for thought out swimming. Avion was just a swim to the start and Hydrus was just a splish and ride, but Pelagia moves while you swim which takes slight angling. When you get on his rear nub and worm up his back to his head you’re met with a crown of teeth rather than a weak point and with this you get to drive a colossus *play revived power*. It’s the inclusion of the steering your new whip and the incorporation of towers to access the colossus that make this fight original and shows you that the developers still had new ideas this close to the end. 7/10

#13 Phalanx [The Snake]

Game of the year 2005

Here we are, the star of the show. The fan favourite and it’s no question as to why, after a few experimental colossi that required thinking and plans this battle brings it back to the roots. There’s a big thing, you’re hopelessly insignificant, it’s completely innocent and you’ve got to kill it. The only one in which I had to take a screenie of the cutscene as it is too huge to fit in one shot during gameplay. Surely a colossus in every sense of the word and one where the magic never fades. 11/5

#14 Celosia Cenobia [Cerberus]

Mess with the Boar? You get the tusks?

From reading other reviews i’ve found that ceonbia is often cited as the worse of the two diddy colossi saying that Cenobia was a retexture of Celosia in a convoluted puzzle. I disagree though I think this is only because Celosia came first, Cenobia is the more aggressive of the two as it doesn’t have an apparent fear and it’s puzzle is way easier to figure just from looks. My only gripe is that the time to charge its charge is the exact amount of time it takes to get back up from a knock down so if you go down then you might as well move out because you’re done. CtrlV/10

#15 Argus [Minotaur C]

I’m so tired

The third and final minotaur bro and the biggest of the three, Argus. By now you kind of get the jist with these guys you have to get on their head and stab it with maybe another point on his chest, arm or even hand?? Once again often bashed for being another copy especially at the penultimate spot but I think it’s location, this guys cool as hell. Plus he’s the only one with black hair. C/10 #16 Malus [Evis]

He’s just too big for one shot

Finally, the big boss. This is a great boss fight, it doesn’t take away from the grandeur of the previous bosses but he has a whole sense of scale not seen in any other battle yet, and half the battle is just getting to him never mind on him. Also holy moly is he aggressive from as soon as you get up the initial ramp just to see him he’s firing lightnin out of his hands and waving his kilt like a nutjob. He fits perfectly on the difficulty curve of the game and is an incredible end to an incredible game. 16/48

Final Say

That’s all i’ve got to say really, it took me about 5 hours to write this and if that dedication to this game doesn’t convince you to play it then... fair enough it’s not really much of a reason to play it. Although you definitely should, it’s an alright game.

[kuno-chan]

1) bayek & aya 2) korrasami 3) makorra 4) reylo 5) zutara

(Well, I’m going to be here for a minute. I won’t do it though for ships that I don’t ship because I don’t really think about them and I don’t ship korrasami, reylo or zutara. )

Bayek and Aya

General:

Rate the Ship -  Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs

How long will they last? - I WANT IT TO BE FOREVER GDI.

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - Not 100% sure but I’m sure it was over time because their love is so beautiful.

How was their first kiss? - There’s a book that may or may not contain that.

Wedding:

Who proposed? - Bayek, I think?

Who is the best man/men? - Not sure, but it’d probably be Hepzefa

Who is the braid’s maid(s)? -No idea.

Who did the most planning? - Probably Bayek and Aya.

Who stressed the most? -I doubt there was a ton of stress about the wedding itself. They’re both so level headed and trusting of each other.

How fancy was the ceremony? - Not sure how fancy Egyptian weddings are, but knowin Bayek and Aya I doubt it was that fancy.Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? -Uuuuuh, not sure? I mean, I’m going off canon info here so that is not available. I doubt they had a HUGE ceremony though.

Sex:

Who is on top? - Aya apparently ends up on top a lot.

Who is the one to instigate things? - Aya, I’m sure.

How healthy is their sex life? - VERY. Every time they see each other.Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? - I’m... not sure. I doubt it’s crazy explorative. They  have been married for years, after all.Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? -I don’t know because the cutscenes don’t let me know, but I bet it’s long af since they’re both so fit.

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? -Oh, I’m sure they do. Both too considerate of the other.

How rough are they in bed? - I don’t think they’re crazy rough. A lil, but not a lot.Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - ...one ;A;

How many children will they adopt? - None, but I’m sure they would have been open to it had other duties not gotten in the way and/or opportunity arose.

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? -Bayek, actually, I’m sure. He always gets “the dungheap job”

Who is the stricter parent? - I feel like Aya would be. At least stricter in discipline.

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? - Both of them, probably. Bayek and Aya would both be careful, watchful parents.

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - Aya.

Who is the more loved parent? - Eeeh, not sure how fair of a question that is. Khemi loved them both, I’m positive.

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? I feel like they’d alternate if one couldn’t attend, but Aya maybe?

Who cried the most at graduation? -Let’s be real, they either both cried or neither of them did.

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? -Bayek, honestly. Aya would too, I think, but I’m almost certain Bayek would.

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - I feel like they’d do it together.

Who is the most picky in their food choice? - Aya.

Who does the grocery shopping? - Aya.

How often do they bake desserts? - Probably often enough to sate the appetite, but not overindulge.

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? -Meat eaters, but I’m sure they eat veggies, too.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - Oooh, Bayek.

Who is more likely to suggest going out? -Bayek.

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? -...Bayek.

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Both of them.

Who is really against chores? -Both of them are rather dutiful. I feel like they’d both do it, actually.

Who cleans up after the pets? - Whoever found it first.

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - eeeeeeh Bayek, maybe.

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - I doubt either of them really stress about that, but it may depend on who’s coming over.

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Aya.

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Aya, maybe, but Bayek, too. So, it may depend on the day.

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - Bayek.

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - Often enough. On a regular basis.

What are their goals for the relationship? - Uh, to live happily ever after *cries*

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - I’m not totally sure. I feel like they’re both early risers, but Bayek maybe.

Who plays the most pranks? -Aya, I feel.

Makorra

General:

Rate the Ship -  Tis a quite loved ship a mine.Awful | Ew | No pics pls | I’m not comfortable | Alright | I like it! | Got Pics? | Let’s do it! | Why is this not getting more attention?! | The OTP to rule all other OTPs

How long will they last? - In my mind? Forever.

How quickly did/will they fall in love? - They fell in love kind of quickly, I felt, because of the actual pace of the show, but the development in their relationship is gradual, too, over the seasons.

How was their first kiss? - Oh, we all remember that. It wasn’t well.

Wedding:

Who proposed? - Mako. He spent a few weeks learning how to carve so he could carve Korra’s betrothal necklace.

Who is the best man/men? - Booooooliiiiin :D

Who is the braid’s maid(s)? - Opal, Jinora, Ikki. Our regular gang of girls

Who did the most planning? - Mako. Hands down.

Who stressed the most? - Mako, of course.

How fancy was the ceremony? - Back of a pickup truck | 2 | 3 | 4 | Normal Church Wedding | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Kate and William wish they were this big.

Who was specifically not invited to the wedding? - President Raiko, I’d feel lol. Politicians in general that Korra didn’t feel like dealing with.

Sex:

Who is on top? - They alternate.

Who is the one to instigate things? - Korra, mostly, but they alternate here, too.

How healthy is their sex life? - Barely touch themselves let alone each other | 2 | 3 | 4 | Once a couple weeks, nothing overboard | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They are humping each other on the couch right now

How kinky are they? - Straight missionary with the lights off | 2 | 3 | 4 | Might try some butt stuff and toys | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Don’t go into the sex dungeon without a horse’s head

How long do they normally last? -Both Mako and Korra are pretty fit. It’s long enough to make the rest of us envious, I’m sure.

Do they make sure each person gets an equal amount of orgasms? - Knowing those two? Yea, no doubt.

How rough are they in bed? - Softer than a butterfly on the back of a bunny | 2 | 3 | 4 | The bed’s shaking and squeaking every time | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | Their dirty talk is so vulgar it’d make Dwayne Johnson blush. Also, the wall’s so weak it could collapse the next time they do it.

How much cuddling/snuggling do they do? - No touching after sex | 2 | 3 | 4 | A little spooning at night, or on the couch, but not in public | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | They snuggle and kiss more often than a teen couple on their fifth date to a pillow factory.

Children:

How many children will they have naturally? - Two, a son named Nuka and a daughter named Tikaani (according to me)

How many children will they adopt? - None. As it was, Nuka and Tikaani both happened to be born one after the other during a period of peace in the Earth States.

Who gets stuck with the most diapers? -Mako. Hehe >3

Who is the stricter parent? - Depends on what we’re talking about, but Mako feels appropriate here. Korra was gone a lot and I don’t think she’s super stern as a parent. Not super loose, but not super stern either.

Who stops the kid(s) from doing dangerous stunts after school? -

Who remembers to pack the lunch(es)? - I feel like Korra would when she‘s around, but Mako wouldn’t be that bad at it.

Who is the more loved parent? - Again, unfair question, but Mako is generally around more and Tikaani has mommy issues with Korra. That being said, both Korra and Mako are loved.

Who is more likely to attend the PTA meetings? - Those PTA meetings would be on like donkey kong for Mako. It’s a welcome when Korra attends and mr. mom isn’t on everyone’s neck.

Who cried the most at graduation? - High school graduation? I’d feel like it’d be Korra. Just because she’s honestly there and she gets to experience this with her kids.

Who is more likely to bail the child(ren) out of trouble with the law? -BOTH Mako and Korra. Mako will have more preventative measures while Korra would probably actually try to get her kids out of prison even if she has to break them out (with Mako’s help because he’s not going to let his kids rot in prison no how).

Cooking:

Who does the most cooking? - They help each other.

Who is the most picky in their food choice? -Korra misses that Water Tribe food, but Mako has been at a point in his life where he would have eaten anything just to eat at all.

Who does the grocery shopping? - If Mako’s working then Korra will do it. Otherwise, they’d do it together.

How often do they bake desserts? - Korra knows some good Water Tribe desserts that the kids love

Are they more of a meat lover or a salad eater? -Meat eaters, yo.

Who is more likely to surprise the other(s) with an anniversary dinner? - I feel like they’d just chill and plan one together. But Mako, maybe.

Who is more likely to suggest going out? - Korra.

Who is more likely to burn the house down accidently while cooking? -...Korra.

Chores:

Who cleans the room? - Mako lmao, but Korra cleans, too.

Who is really against chores? -Nobody’s against them. They have to be done, but Korra is more lenient on them.

Who cleans up after the pets? - Everybody has to clean up when you have 3 polar bear dogs and an eel hound.

Who is more likely to sweep everything under the rug? - Kooooorraaa XD

Who stresses the most when guests are coming over? - Mako!

Who found a dollar between the couch cushions while cleaning? - Korra. She lucky like that.

Misc:

Who takes the longer showers/baths? - Mako needs that destress time. Korra makes him stay in their longer.

Who takes the dog out for a walk? - Korra’s more animal friendly, but they all kind of have to pitch in with the dogs.

How often do they decorate the room/house for the holidays? - When they can. They’re busy people and it can be hard, but they make time.

What are their goals for the relationship? - Grow old together and raise their kids to the best of their ability. And, you know, just be happily in love.

Who is most likely to sleep till noon? - Korra. Mako has barely slept till noon in twenty years.

Who plays the most pranks? -Korra. Mako’s fun to prank, yo.

[fancyfade]

KotFE chapters ranked best to worst

Just finished kotfe chapter 16 for the second time, so i feel like rating them

disclaimer - highly personal, highly Vaylin based.

KotFE chapter 8 - Taking Flight - Best of the chapters, 8/10. It has some prime Vaylin/Senya interaction, and they are some of the best characters in KotFE, and we get more of how Vaylin thinks and the knowledge Senya is not willing to kill her own kids. You also get to have a cute moment with your love interest if you romance Lana or Koth I think. Arcann appears, if you’re into that.

KotFE chapter 16 - Battle of Odessen - Second best chapter, 7 or 8 out of 10. Again, rated high for the Vaylin/Senya interaction. This is the last place you genuinely assume they are trying to give Vaylin a character arc, especially with how she reacts to SCORPIO taking the fleet at the end, and her dialogue with Senya. Senya gets to mirror her response to her children earlier, by asking Arcann and Vaylin to come with her. This is also the only time i found Arcann like genuinely interesting and relatable - earlier in Kotfe, he’s a boring generic villain who wants to kill destroy planets to go after his father, in Kotet he seems to being yanked around by w/e. Never finished Kotet, so maybe that will change but.

KotFE chapter 15 - the GEMINI deception - third best, 7/10. This was one of the twists SWTOR pulls off without me feeling like they’re just trying to make a twist of the sake of it - it fits the characters 100 percent, and I like it when characters motivations cause them to work against each other, even if we’d all love them to be friends. Also, we got to see more in depth in the GEMINI droids and SCORPIO, and SCORPIO is just really cool

KotFE chapter 11 - Disavowed - fourth best, 6.5/10. I’ll confess, this rating was entirely based on playing Republic Trooper. I got my only companion back who appears in the chapters, and not alliance missions, and I just loved the reunion scene. Otherwise, the plot seemed kind of bland TBH

KotFE chapters 4 and 5 - The Gravestone and  From the Grave - These ones are listed together cuz I always forget where one starts and the other ends. But at least a solid 6/10. Either way - the plot makes no sense, we just stumble upon the most important ship, becuz, but they are rated semi highly because of the crew interaction - I wish we got more of the characters talking to and bickering with each other like this in vanilla game. It is A+.

KotFE chapter 7 - Our Lady of Sorrows - 5.5/10. It had SCORPIO in it and that’s cool, and we got to see a little bit of worldbuilding on Zakuul. Koth mentions the place you visit (forget the name RIP me) as being hand-to-mouth and hard to live in even when he was a kid - so we know things weren’t all paradise-y when Valkorion was in charge, even though he tries to convince us so. It’s nice to see another dimension to things.

KotFE chapter 14 - Mandalore’s Revenge - 5/10. It was cool to see the mandalorians, and we all love Shae, and I think she and my outlander and my outlander and Torian got some pretty cool interaction in. I liked that the fact that our characters were solving everything by shooting it felt natural (like it made sense in story). Not much else to say.

KotFE chapter 10 - Anarchy in Paradise - all right, we’ve gotten past the chapters that are good enough for me to rate them on their virtues (or unfairly boosted in rating cuz I like a reunion scene) and now just have to rate them on me liking characters. 4.5 out of 10. I love Kaliyo, but was kind of bored by the rest of the plot. If you asked me upon pain of death to say what happens here other than “Kaliyo and you blow something up” - you know, the intermediate stages between when you get the mission and when it ends - I would be fucked cuz it was just so unmemorable. Also if you play as a female outlander and try to flirt with Kaliyo, she says some really shitty stuff that was clearly just (probably straight male) writers putting shit in a bi girls mouth - like girls are only good for head games, implying guys are for real relationships. you know. this is called... homophobia. Get better, bioware.

KotFE chapter 13 - Profits and Plunder - 4/10. I love Vette but am super bored by Gault, and it seemed like it focused more on Gault than Vette so I was bored. Also some characters reactions seemed to be written just to make Gault seem more cool/competent (like those guys who assume a guy is trying to save money by blowing himself and them up and just leave? or Lana getting angry at him for beating her at cards? didn’t she say she didn’t play in chapter 9 or w/e anyway?) than he actually is. anyway the rest was fine. Not super exciting would’ve been higher because of Vette’s scenes if she didn’t have to share the stage with Gault who seemed to take up more than his fair share of it.

KotFE chapter 6 - Asylum - 3.5/10. This chapter was so unremarkable I don’t remember anything about it. Vik shows up I guess? And Tora? And the Scions who seem to be in there just so the writers can add some more destiny into the mix.

KotFE chapter 9 - Alliance - 3. something? out of 10. rather dull, we make speeches that seem both OOC and badly written.

KotFE chapter 3 - Outlander - 3/10 the chapters are no longer enjoyable to play even a little. I can’t comment anything on the plot because of the excess of boring skytrooper kills. Very boring. Would not recommend.

KotFE chapter 1 - The Hunt - 2.5/10. Again, just exceptionally exceptionally dull. Often, the cahractres lines (especially Marr’s, Valkorion’s, and Arcann’s) felt over the top like they were trying to make things sound extra dramatic. Too many cutscenes, if I’m playing to get my comps or star fortresses and not for plot, I just space through this entire thing practically.

KotFE chapter 12 - Visions in the Dark - 1.5/10. This makes no sense as a non-Force using outlander. It’s dull, we have to hear Valkorion’s stupid voice, etc.

KotFE chapter 2 - Dream of an Empire - 0/10. Hands down THE WORST kotfe chapter, which is saying something. You spend the entire time in carbon sleep, being talked at (not “to”, cuz nothing you say affects anything) by Valkorion. He’s boring, thinks he’s better than everyone else, an objectively awful person, etc. There are also flashbacks of characters you faced earlier, to remind you of how much less boring the rest of the game was.

[thedragonaspect]

Answers below

1.Which plotline or mission in the series do you feel had the most wasted potential?

Sparing the Rachni Queen – I really wanted a Rachni squadmate for ME3 because it would have been a really alien alien. Specifically, I wanted a female rachni because that would be one lady they really couldn’t design boobs onto, and it would have been a very different personality to work with.

2. You can redesign the canon outfits of three characters. Who are they? Bonus, what would your redesigns look like?

ME2 and 3 Shepard – bring back light and medium armour

ME3 Ashley – bun or haircut

Miranda – less ass

3. Think about your least favorite character in the series. Hypothetically, what changes could be made to their character that would make you like them better?

Miranda – better treatment as a character, not a sexy lamp.

4. What's something your favorite character and your least favorite character have in common?

Huh…Legion and Miranda…both of them saw elements of my Shepard at her worst, post Normandy crash.

5. What's a scene you would have liked to see in the series?

Cutscenes or even stills of some of the interesting battle assets, heavy weapon elcor and krogan on dinosaurs.

6. Which squadmates introduced in ME2 would you have most liked to see return as squadmates in ME3?

Would have gladly had Samara, Thane, Legion, and Grunt back.

7. You can undo three canon deaths in the series. Which ones do you pick, and why? What futures do you see for these characters in the version of canon where they lived?

See, this is complicated, because I can accept all of the deaths in ME3, but I would change some of the rationale for the geth and EDI with the Destroy ending. There were a lot of tough losses in background characters, and rolling back a few of those would be good.

8. Which of the cut same-gender romances are you the most upset about losing?

I’m not upset, I’m just tired.

9. Which NPCs would you have most liked to have as squadmates?

Got nothing ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

10. If your Shepard's clone from the Citadel DLC had lived, what would they have ended up doing? What kind of life do you envision them having? (Do they change their name? Do they try to distance themself from Shepard? What do they end up doing for a living?)

I think they’d drop off the radar for a long time, figuring themselves out.

11. What's a paragon or renegade interrupt you wish the games had given you?

A more direct way to call out Cerberus’s bullshit in ME2, and in ME3, to explain that you never trusted them because you’re not that stupid.

12. How happy are you with your ME3 ending of choice? What would you change about it, if anything?

Unenthused. The conversation with Shepard and Anderson felt like a more natural ending.

13. Which squadmate do you wish you'd been allowed to interact with more? What interactions would you have liked to see between them and your Shepard?

It would have been fascinating to hang out with Legion in the Citadel DLC. And if they’d contrived something in Citadel with Joker having to tolerate Shepard’s driving…

14. Are there two squadmates you wish had been allowed to interact with each other more? How do you picture their interactions?

Thane and Samara had an interesting dynamic that could have had more scenes.

15. What's something you dislike about your favorite character?

Legion – that he’s not in ME3 enough.

16. What's something you like about your least favorite character?

Miranda – it is great when she tells TIM to get stuffed.

17. Is there a character you wish had gotten more character development/changed more as the series went on?

I wanted to see more of all my favourites. But for development, Jacob and James were bland.

18. What unromanceable character do you wish you could have romanced? What would you have liked to see from this romance?

I sympathize with Shoker fans, though I’m not sure it’d go well – they possibly have the most professional sense of relying on each other, and they’re both responsible for the crew’s lives. I’m not sure they’d mess with that.

19. Pick your favorite DLC in the series. What's one thing you would change about it?

Lair of the Shadow Broker…not sure anything needs changing.

20. Is there a character you feel you're more invested in the idea of, rather than the way the character is actually written in the games?

The Rachni Queen, as above. Wasted potential for exploring a very different mindset.

21. In ME2, are there any loyalty missions where you have a specific squadmate you like to bring along, for character reasons? Which mission(s), and which squadmate(s)?

I don’t remember, but I look forward to trying them out again when my replacement disc arrives.

22. If the games had allowed you to choose which squadmates you were close with, which squadmate (not counting your love interest) would you have established as your Shepard's best friend?

Gah, don’t make me choose. Legion, Garrus, Wrex, my buddies!

23. What's one piece of character or species lore that never made sense to you? How would you fix it?

Boobs on drell. No.

24. Have you ever gotten any of your squadmates killed on purpose during a playthrough, whether for narrative reasons or just because you disliked them? Who was it, how did they die, and what were your reasons for doing it?

I almost always leave Ashley behind, because I hate her redesign in ME3.

25. What's your weirdest hill to die on? Your one gripe with Mass Effect that you recognize is unpopular or bizarre, but that you'll never stop being mad about?

The sniper rifle drift in ME was fun and challenging, and actually felt like you had to work at being a good long distance shot. I wish they’d kept it!

So I finally decided to make my own Mass Effect ask game, with more of a focus on things that you would have liked to see go down differently. Because while I've seen a lot of renewed praise for the series lately, I think it's important to acknowledge the ways it could have been better. I adore this fandom and the many people who have poured so much time and effort and love into fixing the games' problems and making their own versions of canon, and this is sort of a love letter to those content creators. Not all of the questions are about things you would have changed, a lot of them are just for fun! Feel free to reblog and have your followers send you asks.

1. Which plotline or mission in the series do you feel had the most wasted potential?

2. You can redesign the canon outfits of three characters. Who are they? Bonus, what would your redesigns look like?

3. Think about your least favorite character in the series. Hypothetically, what changes could be made to their character that would make you like them better?

4. What's something your favorite character and your least favorite character have in common?

5. What's a scene you would have liked to see in the series?

6. Which squadmates introduced in ME2 would you have most liked to see return as squadmates in ME3?

7. You can undo three canon deaths in the series. Which ones do you pick, and why? What futures do you see for these characters in the version of canon where they lived?

8. Which of the cut same-gender romances are you the most upset about losing?

9. Which NPCs would you have most liked to have as squadmates?

10. If your Shepard's clone from the Citadel DLC had lived, what would they have ended up doing? What kind of life do you envision them having? (Do they change their name? Do they try to distance themself from Shepard? What do they end up doing for a living?)

11. What's a paragon or renegade interrupt you wish the games had given you?

12. How happy are you with your ME3 ending of choice? What would you change about it, if anything?

13. Which squadmate do you wish you'd been allowed to interact with more? What interactions would you have liked to see between them and your Shepard?

14. Are there two squadmates you wish had been allowed to interact with each other more? How do you picture their interactions?

15. What's something you dislike about your favorite character?

16. What's something you like about your least favorite character?

17. Is there a character you wish had gotten more character development/changed more as the series went on?

18. What unromanceable character do you wish you could have romanced? What would you have liked to see from this romance?

19. Pick your favorite DLC in the series. What's one thing you would change about it?

20. Is there a character you feel you're more invested in the idea of, rather than the way the character is actually written in the games?

21. In ME2, are there any loyalty missions where you have a specific squadmate you like to bring along, for character reasons? Which mission(s), and which squadmate(s)?

22. If the games had allowed you to choose which squadmates you were close with, which squadmate (not counting your love interest) would you have established as your Shepard's best friend?

23. What's one piece of character or species lore that never made sense to you? How would you fix it?

24. Have you ever gotten any of your squadmates killed on purpose during a playthrough, whether for narrative reasons or just because you disliked them? Who was it, how did they die, and what were your reasons for doing it?

25. What's your weirdest hill to die on? Your one gripe with Mass Effect that you recognize is unpopular or bizarre, but that you'll never stop being mad about?

[spudenfinkle]

30 Gaming Questions

So this was going around Twitter a while back and you were supposed to answer each one as a single tweet, but with these questions I’m going to have to use WAY MORE than 140 characters to answer them because I’m me. So without further ado:

1 - Very first video game

I got an NES around age 5 and got a lot of games with it, but I’m pretty sure that the first one I played was the original Super Mario Bros. It was that half cartridge that also had Duck Hunt too. :)

2 - Your favorite character

You know what? I’m gonna go with Mario on this one, purely for the iconic nature. Plus he’s held almost as many jobs as Barbie, and his games somehow find ways to stay fresh while staying in relatively the same genre all these years. Mario > Luigi 4 eva.

3 - A game that is underrated.

The aptly titled game “Remember Me” is always my go-to for this kind of question. It came out around the same time as a couple bigger titles and didn’t have much marketing behind it, but I loved all the innovative ideas it put into a AAA title.

4 -Your guilty pleasure game

Nothing guilty about it! Uno on the Xbox One is my “I don’t feel like playing anything in particular right now, but I want to play something” game!

5 - Game character you feel you are most like (or wish you were)

So this seems kind of like two different questions, so I’ll cover both. I could not think of any character that I feel like, so I asked my wife about it and got Allistair from the Dragon Age series. He’s a snarky romantic who’s empathetic and likes to deflect things with humor. Also apparently I’m “cute like he is too”. As for who I wish I were most like? I think I’ll go with my version of Lee from the first Walking Dead game from Telltale Games (where your choices determine the story). Lee was someone who assumed the good in people, but if proved wrong was not afraid to take action and stand up to defend those he cared about.

6 - Most annoying character

Okay this one’s a tie for me between Natalya from Goldeneye and the big dumb Hat thing that hosts Mario Party 8.

7 - Favorite game couple

I’m going to go with Varric Tethras from Dragon Age and his trusty steampunk crossbow Bianca. A match made in heaven.

8- Best soundtrack

The game that got me to obsess over game soundtracks was also the first one released commercially through a major record label. Halo: Combat Evolved, and every Halo since has had consistently note-perfect soundtracks.

9 - Saddest game scene

So I could just put most of Mass Effect 3, but the moment that can get me to tear up even when explaining it to people happens towards the end of the Priority: Surkesh mission. No spoilers for people who are running through the trilogy fresh in anticipation for Andromeda, but… :*(

10 - Best gameplay

I’m going to give this one to the Rock Band series. It’s always felt so satisfying to play their instruments, and the gameplay itself helps you live the fantasy of being a rock star.

11 - Gaming system of choice

As was the case even before I got my current position, that would be the Xbox family. 💚

12 - A game everyone should play

Mario Kart. Every age, and every skill level has a blast with that game.

13 - A game you’ve played more than five times

There’s…a lot of those. Gonna have to go with the Mass Effect series here, and it will definitely not just be the second appearance on this list. I’m honestly surprised that there’s only been 2 mentions so far!

14 - Current or most recent gaming wallpaper

15 - Post a screenshot from the game you’re playing right now

16 - Game with the best cutscenes

See, you’d think that I’d be writing Mass Effect here, but I’m actually giving this to the Uncharted games. From the first one to the most recent one, they’ve done the best job at incorporating cutscenes and gameplay as seamlessly as I’ve ever seen while retaining movie-calibur production quality.

17 - Favorite antagonist

The Joker from the Arkham series. Mark Hamill. Playing off of Kevin Conroy’s Batman. Nuff Said.

18 - Favorite protagonist

This is kind of a cop-out, but I’m picking Deadpool from the Deadpool game. They nailed his manic nature, 4th wall breaks and all.

19 - Picture of a game setting you wish you lived in

20 - Favorite genre

Action RPG’s are my fav, though I play pretty much every genre. It comes from when I worked at Best Buy and felt like I had to know as much of the product that I was selling as possible.

21 - Game with the best story

Gonna sound like a broken record here, but the Mass Effect series is by and large my favorite franchise of the last generation. The story is a master class in great characters, witty banter/dialogue, and a wide range of emotions that all lead to greatness.

22 - A game sequel which disappointed you

Especially with how much promise the setting held, I was let down by Assassin’s Creed III. “A half British half Native American fighting through some of the most important events of the Revolution but with an Assassin story overlaid” sounded like the coolest thing ever, but pacing and weird design decisions made it one that I couldn’t even finish.

23 - Game you think had the best graphics or art style

So…those are two very different questions. I’m constantly amazed at the graphical fidelity of David Cage games (Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls), so I’ll vote them for most photorealistic, but in terms of art style I’ve got to give it to Okami or Journey.

24 - Favorite classic game

Either Battletoads for the NES or Mario Kart 64.

25 - A game you plan on playing

MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA. Next question.

26 - Best voice acting

So you’d thought that I’d go Mass Effect here too, wouldn’t you? And while yes, that whole series has some of the best VA in the business, I’m giving this one to the Uncharted series as well. While they get a little added benefit by getting performance capture to enhance their VO, the initial performances are consistently good. Literally every person in the game brings their A game.

27 - Most epic scene ever

If you know me you know that I love Star Wars. Nothing has ever been more epic to me than playing The Force Unleashed and single handedly bringing down a Star Destroyer from orbit to crash into a planet.

28 - Favorite game developer

Bioware. They got their hooks in me early with the original Knights of the Old Republic, then between Mass Effect and Dragon Age they pretty much cemented their place as my favorite game dev. That and so many of their employees are extremely active on Twitter, and they genuinely love interacting with their fans. I’ve even had a few conversations with Bioware devs on there, and I eagerly await my exploration of Andromeda.

29- A game you thought you wouldn’t like but ended up loving

So there was a free game for the 360 that was a blatant commercial tie-in called Dorito’s Crash Course. It was basically like the TV show Wipeout but a side-scrolling platformer focused on speed runs. It was strangely addictive, because the controls were solid and the game was, too! They made a second one that focused a little too much on microtransactions, but that first one was a very pleasant surprise.

30 - Your favorite game of all time.

So…I play a lot of games. This question is super unfair. I can maybe whittle it down to 3 games, and each one for different reasons. The first one is Knights of the Old Republic. This is the game that got me head over heels into RPG’s, and is by far the best Star Wars video game I’ve ever played. It also introduced me to my favorite game dev, so for that I am grateful. Next is Spec Ops: The Line. This game left a marked impression on me. It starts like any other generic 3rd person military shooter, but as the game progresses you see that there is way more going on. It messes with your head, and deconstructs the entire “machismo shooter” genre that was saturating the market at the time. I almost put it on the “Underrated” question, but I feel like more people are aware of it nowadays. Lastly is Halo: Combat Evolved. It was the first really “mature” game that I played. The story, music and gameplay had me sold already, but the social aspect was what had staying power. So many LAN parties dedicated specifically to Halo. I printed out topographical maps of all the multiplayer maps and drew out my strategies. I got into the tie-in novels. It connected me with other gamers even more than the Mario games (which is saying something), and I wouldn’t trade those years for the world.

[annakie]

An Annotated Mass Effect Playthrough, Part Two

Aliens!  Exposition!  Guns!  Explosions!  Kickass Ladies!  Betrayal!  So much death!

Um, this got long. Sorry not sorry.

List of Posts: 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

The first thing Mass Effect does after coming out of the introduction is assure us that yes, we have aliens 

and we have hot guys (and hot aliens, if you’re into that sort of thing.)

They should have made an advertisement pointing out these things just for me so I would have paid release price for this game.  Ah well, I’ve bought it on 360, Steam and Origin now.  They have my money.

We’re going to make it most of the way through Eden Prime in this post.

One thing Mass Effect does a lot of in the beginning here is exposition.  There’s a lot to learn about the state of the galaxy in 2148, and there are people there to make sure you learn about it.  Jeff and Kaidan only do a little bit of exposition, you learn about Nihilus, a tiny bit about Spectres, and that Captain Anderson is badass.  I wish this scene actually lasted longer -- this is the only time we see Kaidan away from his Orange Corner (or that other orange wall) on the ship for awhile.  I guess there’s the conference room, but still.  If they ever do a remaster, please Bioware, let the companions move around the ship like in ME3 and give our boy better lighting.

I love the flow of the Normandy SR1.  It feels the easiest to get around in since it’s so much smaller... except when you have to get on the elevator.  I also love the dark theme.  The ME2 SR2 always feels so... blinding.  The only thing I miss from the SR2 really is my decked out Captain’s quarters.  I mean does anyone even ever go into the ME1 quarters except to get the one codex entry until it’s sexytime?

I do like ME1′s use of ambient conversations, you get to learn a little about Pressley and Jenkins before talking to them.  Those conversations, though, are just such exposition dumps.  I think they do it fairly well, but there’s so much to remember.  Both Jenkins (with Chakwas) and Pressley really harp on what and who Spectres are, pretty sure even before you talk to Nihilus you have an inkling you’re gonna eventually be one.  

I honestly wish we had more actual interaction with Pressley than what we get here, he has very little to say after this point.  Another hope for a remaster.

This kid Jenkins, he’s got a good career ahead of him if we can tame his hot-headedness.  That’ll be his role in the game, I’m sure, the kid you mentor and grow into a reflection of you.  Good to know he’s from the planet we’re heading to, I’m sure he’ll be a valuable source of information there.

Having played a lot of World of Warcraft, and I mean a LOT, from the alpha, then release, for the next two or three years, the fact that his name was Jenkins was actually a bit of a hint for me even then.  But more in the “Wouldn’t it be funny if...?” and then he did.  Nice. 

I’m really glad Chakwas gets fleshed out a little more in just the one more conversation after this one and in future games.  Because there’s not much to say about her here.

Whew!  Exposition over, right?  We’ve learned about Spectres, the First Contact War, about Eden Prime, that we’re in the Alliance, that there’s Turians and a council that governs things and... we’re good, right?

Wait, didn’t Anderson say he was already with Nihilus in the conference room?  Where’d he go?  What a bro, to step out and let Nihilus make a big turn-around moment of introduction to us.  Okay, more loredump.  Cool.  Really getting the concept of Spectres now, for sure, especially from this guy, who is one!

Finally, Anderson.  Just in time to tell us about Spectres, and Eden Prime, and now it’s time to learn about the Protheans.  Whaaaaat?  You want ME to maybe be a Spectre?  I’m shocked! 

Oh sorry, Annakie just flew through time from ME3 to stare into the camera incredulously.

I’m sure that this will be a decision that will be deeply impactful through the entirety of the rest of the series.

But here we learn about Protheans, and they lost me a bit on that one when we first played the game.  Who the fuck cares about what happened 20,000 years ago?  THIS IS THE FUTURE!!!  We’re in SPACE!

Well, we wouldn’t get away from the Protheans so easily.

Oh what the FUCK is that thing?  You’ve hooked me right back in.  Tell Alenko and Jenkins to suit up?  LET’S GO.

You guys... ALOV is so good, and so pretty.  And these screenshots look shittier on tumblr!!  Look how clear these movies are now.  And these are just 720p!   They’re working to upscale them to 4k!  Again I say, all hail the modders.

Still, that giant red spot doesn’t look so good for the people living there...  

I’m sure it’s fine.

We’re all suited up, but sadly the super cool alien isn’t coming with us?  Didn’t he say he was here to follow and observe us?  Well, he knows what he’s doing.

Anyone else already willing to die for Anderson fifteen minutes into this game?

The sky is supposed to be that color red, right? Right Jenkins?

As cool as this level design is, also something that could use improving.  There’s like... no housing here?  Just a bunch of tall towers on the ground all really realy far apart from each other?  You’re on a new planet and everyone lives inside a giant tower?  I mean, good for preventing Urban Spawl I guess.  I’d love to see a more populated Eden Prime.  Even in ME3 we just saw a small dig site and more towers in the distance.  

Anyway, better level up.  Jenkins is young and needs some training if he’s gonna survive this mission!

Here we go, show us what you’ve got!

Shit.

My first time through, I truly thought I’d fucked up and probably reloaded this fight two or three times before accepting he was just... supposed to die.  And then I remembered his name was Jenkins, knew it was intentional, and laughed.  

Honestly, it’s a great fakeout with making us feel like Jenkins is important, and then having him lose the battle right away.  ME1 is pretty brutal that way. It’s a good way to signal that this game is probably going to rip your heart out, so get used to it.  

Shepard and Kaidan have a moment, and I like this because it’s really the first time I think you can really start showing who your Shepard is, with how you react to Jenkins’ death.  Either way, I like it that she tells Kaidan that we need to focus.  I also love that, though we don’t get to see a moment for Jenkins from here on out in ME1, that they finally gave his memory a moment in ME3.

I love Flycam.

What. An. Entrance. For. Ashley. Williams.  

Bioware, give us Ashley and Kaidan living in a Mass Effect Remaster, please.  I will pay $100 for this DLC.  (I know, I KNOW.)  I have only played through with Ashley living all the way through once.  I’m sorry Ash, I love you.  I just... LOVE Kaidan.

But hey that’s HOURS away.   For now, she’s with us, and she’s amazing.

Sorry, I just caught several great images from Ashley’s intro and thought you needed to see them.  It’s gonna be a miracle if tumblr lets this thing post.

This is fine.

Uh, I’m not the only one who still sometimes dies on Eden Prime because I can never remember how the controls work until like, the end of the planet, right?  “CRAP,  WHICH BUTTON IS MEDIGEL?”  “WHY ISN’T THE SQUAD RESPONDING TO GOING WHERE I TELL THEM WITH Q and E?”  “Shit shit shit gotta reload OH FUCK JUST THREW A GRENADE SIX INCHES AWAY.  WHY IS THAT MAPPED TO R?”

Grotesque and yet...  great visuals.  This is when you realize these Geth aren’t playing around.  This is Bad Bad.

Iiiiif you also used to always punch out Miguel and then like awhile later realized how shitty that was and now know that the “Geinuis is the other side of the coin of Madness” speech here is also really shitty... raise your hand.  Especially since Miguel is, you know, right.   Anyway, do better on a remaster, Bioware?

The one good thing here was the “Thank the Maker” at the very beginning of the encounter.  I want Shepard to visit Thedas.  Give us this DLC, Bioware!!

Oh Nihilus, you were too pretty, and trusting, for this world.  

Bioware, again, in the remaster... please go with your original plan and not make Saren all Gethed out this early.  I wish that could be modded away.  It’s so distracting to have him be OBVIOUSLY HALF MACHINE and everyone being like “Saren?  Working with the Geth?  PREPOSTEROUS!!”

Got some AMAZING screenshots of Sovereign taking off thanks to Flycam.

Also, this is just such an OH SHIT moment.  Look at that thing! It’s terrifying!  Also it’s easy to miss if you’re looking the wrong way, this maybe shoulda been in a cutscene. But even so, when you see it, it fills you with SUCH DREAD.  They do such a great job of amping up the tension and drama and mystery bit by bit on Eden Prime.  Giving you bits of the greater story and also feeding you pieces that will eventually come together, but not for awhile.  

I followed Soverign as long as I could before he disappeared.  Got this far away from land.  The actual spaces in the game are huge, but we’ll get to more of that later.

Congrats!   You all survived!  For uh... about two and a half more years?

Can’t believe we can’t loot the Spectre’s body.  

Also... the luckiest dock worker in the world.  I can never yell at him for sleeping on the job.  It’d be hilarious if he showed up alive on Horizon in ME2, and like Haven in ME3.

This is the guy that usually kills me.

OK, this is ridiculously long already.  We’ll finish up Eden Prime and get to the Citadel next time.

[royalxiii]

My Personal Top 10 Games of 2016

I know a lot people had a bad 2016, but for us gamers, it was a pretty good year (if you don’t mind all the delays that is)! So why not make a good old top 10 list? It’s always fun! 

I’m also gonna have my personal “out of 10″ score for each game’s gameplay AND story, since both are equally important to me. As well as a mini-ish review and why it’s placed where it is. Without further ado, here we go!

*Contains Spoilers* 

*Keep in mind I haven’t played every game, nor do I have a Xbone or Gaming PC.*

10) The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD (Wii U)

Gameplay: 8/10 | Story: 9/10

Twilight Princess is one of those “love it, or hate it” Zelda games. For me, even though I’m aware of it’s faults, I love Twilight Princess. Even more so without the motion controls. I love Wolf Link (even though I wish there was more reasons to use him), Midna, Zant, the darker and creepy atmosphere, I love it all! So why is it at number ten? Well, I personally don’t believe ports and enhanced versions should be on a “top 10 games of the year” list (they should be for new games only). But I haven’t finished a lot of games I got this year, and I was missing two slots. So here you go!  

9) Gravity Rush - Remastered - (PS4)

Gameplay: 9.5/10 | Story: 9/10

Like TP above, Gravity Rush is lower on the list only because it’s a port/HD version of a old game. I really loved Gravity Rush back on the Vita, but I was quite confused at the story. But once I replayed it on PS4, knowing what I knew, it was easier to follow (even though you really don’t figure much out by the end). Gameplay feels so, SO, much better on the PS4! I love the Vita, but playing GR on it cramped my hands so much. It feels just right on the PS4 controller. Playing through this again makes me even more excited for Gravity Rush 2 this month! 

8) Pokken Tournament (Wii U)

Gameplay: 9/10 | Story: 3/10

At last, a actual new game! Pokken is such a oddity, but goddamn I love this game. I’m pretty horrible at fighting games, especially ones that aren’t “Smash Bros.” style. But I had fun playing this, and when I had friends over, they loved it too! There’s not much of a story, which wasn’t surprising, but the Shadow Mewtwo segment was interesting enough to keep me playing. Still haven’t beaten the bastard (last battle) though. I hope to see this ported or get a sequel on the NS!  

7) Ratchet & Clank -2016- (PS4)

Gameplay: 9.5/10 | Story: 5/10

Ah, Ratchet & Clank! One of the handful of games on my “Must Buy Day-One” list for every new installment. The series has been a bit on the shaky side after A Crack in Time, both in gameplay and in story. But this game (at least gameplay-wise) is a real return to form! Unfortunately, since this is a game based off a movie (based off a game), there’s pretty much no story since you’re suppose to watch it’s movie counterpart (which isn’t great). But it’s still a fun time! And there’s a in-game cheat to turn bolts into rupees, which is fucking fantastic. 

6) Shantae: 1/2 Genie Hero (PS4, Vita, Wii U, X1, PC) 

Gameplay: 9/10 | Story: 8.5/10

Oh Shantae, you were so close to becoming a 2017 game, good for you for staying in 2016 :3 This is game is beautiful! The animation is so good and lovely! And it’s as fun as any Shantae game before it (I do miss using Risky’s gear though)! My only complaint is the slide segment that’s used twice. For me, they ruin the pacing and they drag on for a little to long both times. Other than that, I really loved it and I can’t wait for the Risky Boots DLC! Also the music is fantastic XD

5) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Spirit of Justice - (3DS)

Gameplay: 9/10 | Story: 10/10

I love the Ace Attorney series, warts and all. That being said, I didn’t like the last game, Dual Destinies. Although I liked a lot of new characters from it (and it’s DLC Case), I never felt so out of sync with out to proceed in the Court Cases. By the end I just wanted it to be over. But with Spirit of Justice, it was like the game was reading my mind or vise versa. I was so in-tune with the cases and only messed up a handful of times! And the story is wonderful and heartbreaking, as this series is known to be. I really can’t wait to see the future for Wright and his friends :D

4) Final Fantasy XV (PS4 and X1)

Gameplay: 9.5/10 | Story: 8/10

People are gonna hate me for this, luckily this blog ain’t popular enough for a huge backlash. FFXV is game I, much like a lot of people, have been waiting for since it was first revealed as Final Fantasy Verses XIII back in 2006. So obviously, there are high, and I mean high, expectations for a game ten years in the making. For the most part, it does succeed, at least with gameplay. Unfortunately, the story is lacking. Not in plot, mind you, but in cutscenes. I know cutscenes are the bane of some people’s existence, but to them I say “fuck you, why the hell are you play a JRPG in the first place then?!” Cutscenes  don’t only add personality to the main characters and depth to the story, but also to show other character’s within the story and why we should care or hate them. I know FFXV will be getting a update with new cutscenes later, but for now it’s sort of bare bones for me, and I don’t want to feel like that for this game. I see so much good in it, so it’s only natural I want to love and care for everything in it, right?

3) Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End (PS4)

Gameplay: 9/10 | Story: 9.8/10

What a way to end Nate’s story, I fucking love this game! It’s so beautiful, the writing is great, the characters are great, and that fucking epilogue makes me want a Uncharted featuring Nate’s daughter. With Sam acting as her Sully. I know it wont happen, but I can dream can’t I? The gameplay is mostly the same, but it’s still fun. I love being able to almost always complete areas in stealth mode. Much like most games on here, I can’t wait for it’s story DLC :3

2) Kirby: Planet Robobot (3DS)

Gameplay: 10/10 | Story: 9/10

This may seem very, VERY, odd that Kirby beat both FFXV and Uncharted 4 for me. But I have to give the number two spot to this game because, well, I just had so much fun playing it! Once I got it, I barley ever put it down. It was 100% fun from beginning to end. Hell, I was actually completing it as I was playing it! Granted, I haven’t picked it back up since I completed it. But I’m already feeling the urge to replay it as I type this, and that’s the sign of a good game. Story-wise, it’s sort of what you’d expect from Kirby, but it’s still fun and entertaining. I wouldn’t change it for the world. I just wish it had post-game levels or something to that effect. 

1) Pokemon: Sun & Moon (3DS)

Gameplay: 9.8/10 | Story: 10\10

Given that my blog is mostly Kingdom Hearts and Pokemon, and all the news updates, drawings, a report of my gameplay for both games, this shouldn’t be much of a surprise. Even though I have some problems with it, this game is fucking fantastic! There’s a lot of upgrades to how things work that needed working on for a loooong time. From small things like your PC no longer has the useless “Withdraw and Deposit” options, to big things like no HMs! And recovering from the somewhat bland story in XY, the story and characters in SM is really fun and interesting! Hell, there were times where I was actually laughing out loud! I don’t think a Pokemon game has ever done that before! This game is just a real treat from beginning to end! As far as nitpicks and things that just piss me off from the oversight, well it defiantly has it’s fair share. But this is mostly at the Trainer Customization and some movepools for the New and Alolan Form Pokemon. In any case, even after beaten both Sun and Moon, I can hardly wait to get another copy to play my Popplio Team :D

Honorable Mentions 

(AKA Games I’m Loving but Haven’t Finished)

World of Final Fantasy (PS4 and Vita)

I honestly didn’t think I’d like this game, but it does grow on you! I stopped playing because I want to wait for the Sora Summon DLC (coming out this month!) Plus Pokemon came out soon after. What makes this game great is that, unlike other non-Pokemon monster-catching games, the monster-catching part isn’t almost 100% completely random. Like Tales of Symphonia 2, Ni no Kuni, and Yo-Kai Watch to name a few. The story is kinda interesting as long as you get used to to voice acting, which isn’t bad but the dialog is kinda awkward and Tama’s the-the is so annoying. In any case, I can’t wait to get back and beat it!

Watch_Dogs 2 (PS4, X1, PC)

I got this game for Christmas, and started it after beating FFXV and Shantae. So far I’ve been loving it! So far it’s much better then the original Watch_Dogs in graphics, gameplay, and story (granted, I’m still basically in the beginning. Doing a lot of side-quest). As of now this is the game I’m currently playing in till Gravity Rush 2, which will then be taken over by Kh2.8.