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floatingcatacombs · 1 year ago

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It’s the Tar Taking Over That Came Unexpected

12 Days of Aniblogging 2023, Day 2

Back when it was a frustratingly rare Wii exclusive, I braved a storm to hunt down a used copy of Xenoblade Chronicles, and it still surpassed my every expectation. So finally sinking my teeth into Xenoblade Chronicles X earlier this year felt right.

This was a Wii U game and it’s still nuts that this was a Wii U game. The only change I made when emulating it was bumping up the internal rendering resolution, and it’s crazy how good it still looks. The highest-fidelity games I play are FromSoft so my frame of reference is busted, but even still, it’s frequently breathtaking. Monolith Soft has always had a reputation for building impressive open worlds on underpowered hardware, and their first foray into HD might be their greatest feat. Or maybe I’m just easily impressed by pretty skies. Emulated at 1080p 60FPS, the experience really clicks, with snappy menus, fast loading times, and the ability to alt-tab to the map on the gamepad. For once I didn't feel like I was missing out at all by not playing on original hardware.

After starting a new game you're immediately dumped into a character creation screen, which means I already have to navigate an old stupid censorship debate. See, there was a whole internet shitstorm back in 2015 when this game released stateside because the English version removed the bust slider from the character creator. This was the era of GamerGate and “localization versus translation” and Fire Emblem Fates taking out a waifu-touching minigame and everything surrounding Tokyo Mirage Sessions – things got really heated for a second! In hindsight, it was weird mixture of niche game publishers misreading their target audiences and hypervigilant right-wing provocateurs gearing up for larger culture wars, using titty games as a nexus for radicalizing nerds.

Things have cooled down a lot since then, as Japanese games generally release unaltered these days, rendering it a non-issue. When controversies do happen, it’s not in Nintendo's court anymore, it’s usually Valve removing Japanese visual novels from their store page in an act of laughable double standards. Anyways, thanks to the wonders of PC emulation and memory editors, I was able to restore the boob slider to Xenoblade Chronicles X, and valiantly used it to make my character flat.

XCX’s design sensibilities are a pretty sharp contrast from the direction the series went afterwards, instead dealing in guns, gritty sci-fi, and a more realistic color palette. The storms and forlorn mecha on the box art tell you all you need to know. It’s all very western, with the designers definitely taking cues from Halo and Mass Effect in a lot of places. The hub city is also based on Los Angeles, further cementing the American influence in everything but the mechas.

Ultimately, I think this all worked out well. The original Wii release of Xenoblade Chronicles isn’t particularly “anime”, after all. Its aesthetic sensibilities are closer to Final Fantasy X than, say, any given Tales. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and 3, as well as the Switch remake of the first game, hew much closer to games like Genshin in terms of colors and character proportions, but Xenoblade X takes the original’s artstyle and places it in a more serious context. I’m glad the series didn’t commit to this direction (it would have gotten bland fast), but it’s cool that we got it exactly once. Despite the more western stylings though, this is still fundamentally a niche anime game, much more so than the first Xenoblade. There’s titty armor and fanservice outfits as quest rewards, a young moe girl in the main cast, and the occasional pervy sidequest. A lot of the localization conflict may have been Nintendo attempting to clean up Xenoblade X in order to pitch it as a mainstream release at a time when the Wii U really needed a hit. While it’s a solid game, it was never going to be able to appeal to a very large audience.

Also, the story’s a bit of a mess. The tone is all over the place, with both comic relief and serious moments frequently failing to land. What starts off as a surprisingly grimdark sci-fi about the last remaining humans trying to survive on an alien planet as their crashed generation ship-city runs out of power quickly morphs into Star Wars levels of goofy aliens. Plot twist after plot twist ensues, defusing a lot of the tension because you know that they’re just going to pull something even crazier out next. Though the main story struggles, the emergent narrative of New Los Angeles is actually pretty good. A lot of the player’s side questing is dedicated to resolving interpersonal conflicts and helping make the city feel like a real home for everyone. Gradually, NLA begins taking on alien immigrants and the mutual fish-out-of-water situation between human and alien refugees leads to some funny moments and the occasional surprisingly thoughtful quest about cultural tolerance.

But for the most part, the story takes a backseat to exploring planet Mira. Through the gameplay loop I’ve come to understand Xenoblade X as something of a single-player MMO. The combat system is based around positioning, auto-attacks, skills that go on cooldown, and extremely customizable character classes. There’s a nightmarish amount of skill trees to keep track off, to the point where I’d forget about them alone until I was having trouble with a fight, and then remember an entire system I’d forgotten to take advantage of. There are item collections to fill out and side quests of all flavors and secret areas and difficult raid bosses yada yada yada…

Okay I can’t hold off from discussing the music any longer. The combat theme for Xenoblade X is the stuff of legends. Terrible, terrible legends.

Putting vocals in your RPG’s regular battle music is a bold move. You really have to make sure you knocked it out of the park, because singing is going to grate on the player far more quickly than any instrumental. Because of this, the battle themes of Persona 5, The World Ends With You, and Get In The Car, Loser! are all something of a flex. Black Tar is not that. I’m just going to link the song, because it really has to heard to be understood.

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Xenoblade X’s battle theme starts off strong, the grim sci-fi tone clearly communicated through the moody synths. Soon enough the guitars come crashing in, giving way to a distinctly nu metal sound. That stylistic choice alone pissed people off in 2015, to which I say grow up, it’s great. But if you let the battle run on for 50 seconds, someone starts rapping.

Black Tar has some of the most nonsensical lyrics ever put to pen, delivered in the jankiest way possible, with words just kind of crammed in without any regard to flow. It’s not even a case of “non-proficient English speaker comes up with shoddy lyrics” as occasionally happens with Japanese songs. Every single word of this is an act of malicious fluency, and if I singled out all the lines I had questions about, I’d be here all day. Opening the first verse with “We’re stuck on a whole different planet” tricks the listener into thinking that the lyrics will to tie into the game’s events and setting, but this is a fool’s errand. The titular tar has no in-game corollary, so to make any sense of it you have to go metaphorical and claim that maybe it stands for losing your squadmates and giving up hope. That's still pretty flimsy! Maybe it really is just be about heroin.

Eventually though, we reach the chorus, and it’s actually a great hook! Except for the fact that it’s sung by a Japanese singer in English. The lyrics were clearly written with no regard for which syllables he’d have difficulty with, and making this guy utter the phrase “Black tar’lll” was an open act of cruelty.

In a 2015 interview, Black Tar rapper and lyricist David Whittaker brings up that the he wrote the words for his first video game song in about two hours, going for “just foolishness”. I imagine his work here was a similar situation.

It’s so, so easy to harp on Black Tar. Everyone did at release, and everyone who hasn’t played the game still does. The thing is, it’s impossible to keep that antagonism up when you’ve got an 80-hour game ahead of you where this is the standard battle theme the whole way through. For the sake of your own sanity, you have to learn to love Black Tar, and pretty much everyone who finishes the game comes around to it. Much to the chagrin of my girlfriend, I quote Black Tar constantly, with less of a sense of irony each time. Eventually, you too will find yourself shouting along with David Whittaker as he raps about being on a sea of dark matter. And of course, the instrumental was always a banger if you weren’t a coward. The theme for New LA also gets a lot of flak for its gibberish vocal samples and St. Anger snares, but I’ve always been a fan and think it holds up great as an endless-looping hub area theme. It’s so…. Sawano zeitgeisty.

The entire soundtrack is actually a Hiroyuki Sawano joint, and he does a pretty good job. It very much all sounds like the kind of music he’s known for, with the exception of the overworld themes, which instead try to mimic the compositions of the first Xenoblade Chronicles. Primordia’s theme is an excellent response to the first game’s Gaur Plain, with a more techy and ominous tone that nevertheless still evokes the sense of grand exploration ahead.

The edgy atmosphere, the washed out palette, the Sawano tunes….Xenoblade Chronicles X is extremely of its time, in a way that comes across as deeply charming 8 years later. It’s kind of terrifying that something can already be an early 2010s period piece! The Sawano music alone will shoot you back to the days of Kill La Kill and Aldnoah Zero, when Gen Urobuchi was absolutely everywhere and the default crap anime genre was magic school instead of isekai. The mere idea of early 2010s nostalgia sets off alarms in my head, but it’s definitely real, and will only become more of a thing in the next few years. Brace yourselves for the flow of time.

Last, but certainly not least, the mechas! They’re one of the main reasons I tried the game out in the first place. Giant robots are often part of Xenoblade worldbuilding, but they don’t really factor into the gameplay. X is the exception. From the first preview trailers to the title screen to their first step into New LA, the player is made to want a Skell. They’re so cute! The Skells were designed by Takayuki Yanase, one of the people who worked on Gundam 00, and I can see the similarities in the combination of curves and blocky elements. There’s quite a few mecha otaku who work at the NLA hangar out of love for the Skells. Most of them are women, a detail that made me really happy!

Adding even more to the player’s desire is the fact that Xenoblade X withholds Skells for a very long time. You have to make it more than halfway through the story and substantially explore the first three continents on foot before receiving your piloting license. And it’s Xenoblade, so these places are massive. Even with an extremely generous jump, you’ll run into countless clifftops out of reach. They really make you work for it, but at least the core gameplay loop of exploring to setting up waypoints and mining devices is a lot of fun on its own (I was curious if the plot would ever get around to problematizing the resource-extraction gameplay loop, but no dice).

party members next to the Skell for scale purposes

When you finally get a Skell about forty hours into the game, everything changes. One of the major challenges facing mecha games is getting the scale right –it’s pretty easy for the giant robot to feel human-sized if all the player is ever doing is piloting. Xenoblade X avoids this by making your human pace painfully clear before giving you a ten-meter robot to traverse those same landscapes. It’s night and day how much more quickly you can navigate. Skells are also wildly stronger than characters on the ground, and being able to take on behemoth creatures as well as pulverize the human-scale enemies you’ve been fighting all this time keeps the scale relevant. It provides a real power fantasy and makes them feel believable in-setting. Being able to get in and out of your Skell at will goes a long way towards making it truly feel like yours, and this mechanic also acts as something of an on-the-fly difficulty modifier for the remainder of the game. A few chapters later you get a flight pack for your Skell, and the world opens up all over again.

not pictured: the j-pop earworm that plays every time you start flying

After spending so much time hanging out with the mecha pervert mechanic girlies in the NLA hangar, the back half of Xenoblade Chronicles X finally lets you be one of the mecha pervert girlies. Customization is on the lighter side, as you can’t mix and match body parts like in Armored Core, but there’s still plenty of color customization and weapons fine-tuning to do. I totally fell in love with my robots, and that alone makes it a victory of a mecha game.

A new song plays during Skell combat, and it’s…. more verses of Black Tar!! There truly is no escape. The backing has more of an EDM sound to it, and the lyrics are even more laughable than before. “Shoot them with your guns” still gets me every time. And yet, I would be lying if I said I’ve never headbanged to the part about being stuck on a different planet. You learn to love these things.

So that’s Xenoblade X. It’s a weird-ass game, a real triumph but also absolutely the wrong thing for Nintendo to have to put out in 2015. It’s easily the most impressive Wii U exclusive and I’m glad Monolith Soft took this detour. You’d be disappointed in it if you went in with purely the expectation of a mecha game, but as a Xenoblade fan who’s been gradually falling deeper into mecha, it was a great genre blend. Xenoblade X’s servers will shut down next year, and while I didn’t partake in any of that (the multiplayer elements seem fairly minor anyways), it will be the end of an era for sure. Just in time to start fondly reminiscing.

#12 days of anime #xenoblade x #xenoblade chronicles x

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dippydippycritiques · 24 days ago

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Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door Remake...Overhyped Much?...

So, ok, here's the deal.

I was SUPER excited for this game when it was announced. The original TTYD is hands down my favorite Mario game of all time and I was so excited to see a new generation of players try it out.

For them, it was probably a fantastic experience.

For me, however, when I beat the game...

I felt the magic the original had was just gone.

It's really hard to explain. Some things I can definitely pin point, others, I can't, but I will start with the things that absolutely kill this game for me.

That number one thing being the music.

Intelligent Systems, for god sakes man. I am so sick of you making dumb decisions. This isn't the worst thing you have done recently, but man, there is a reason I specifically put you right under Gamefreak as WORST right now.

Ok, let me explain. The NEW tracks, to which I have listened to most of it...is...not, good. It reminds me a lot of Yoshi's Island 3D soundtrack and for my first play through, I turned that shit off immediately and turned the nostalgic tunes on that switches the soundtrack back to the original game.

I would, in theory, praise IS for this...if they didn't completely fuck it up! When you turn that badge on. Firstly, not all of the original songs are present (The end of chapter 5 is a good example of this), and when that happens, the game defaults to the new track, which defeats the purpose of the nostalgic tunes badge. There is a song during the last thirty minutes of this game that is INTEGRAL to that particular scene...and it's just fucking gone! And the new song IS chose for one of the very last scenes of the game is again, 1.) terrible and 2.) defeats the purpose of the nostalgic tunes badge.

Leave it up to IS to not use common sense while making there games, speaking of which...

The 60 FPS controversy

It bothers me.

Listen, the reason we might have gotten this remake to begin with is because of Arlo's petition and for that, I am very thankful. However, we do not see eye to eye when it comes to the 60 FPS thing since 60 FPS should be THE STANDARD.

Yes, you can still have fun with the game at 30 FPS, I won't deny that, but it's 2024. Most games, I hope so anyway, should be aiming for 60. If the original TTYD could run at 60, why can't this? They didn't really add anything new to the game other than a couple of new bosses and a major upgrade to the graphics. I cannot understand why IS couldn't build this game around 60 FPS when Xenoblade Chronicles exists and blows all other excuses out of the water.

Oh, the switch can't handle it. Oh, the developers had to make these decisions to compensate for the graphics. No. It's laziness, which is what IS is known for right now as someone who has played and dissected Fire Emblem Engage TO DEATH. Probably one of if not the worst FE game they ever put out.

There is no reason why TTYDR cannot run at 60 FPS. There is no excuse and, to me, it is noticeable, but not terrible to the point that it ruins the game, but it still bothers me and it's not just an IS thing, it's a Nintendo thing.

The last thing I will say is a lot of the edge the game hand with it's writing has been changed...and ik, ik. It's the original Japanese script for the OG TTYD and is the most accurate...

I don't know. Some of the changes they made to the original game I liked more than the original Japanese script, and this is one of the VERY rare occasions that I will say that. The one good thing that came out of the OG Japanese script was that they finally got Vivian right, but outside of that. It just feels off to me, but for new players, they will probably love it and will not notice the changes, which is absolutely fine.

Outside of this, and I don't know if it's just me. I played through the game twice already and I'm just kind of done with it. It's not like the original where I could play the game on repeat. Something about this version, the magic that I described earlier, is just not there. Now that I think about it, and again, it could be just me. I think, maybe, MAYBE, the graphics also has something to do with it.

The best way I can describe it is how anime looked during the 80s, 90s, vs the present day. Take Pokemon for example. Even if the writing can be bad, I still to this day LOVE the original anime's classic look. It's very old school and it's very appealing to look at. Now if you compare that to, let's say, Pokemon Sun and Moon or Journeys, Something about the animation is just too bright and colorful for me. I dare even say the anime's looks is "too clean." I know that's a bold statement to make, but that's why I prefer watching older iterations of famous anime franchises to the newest version. I think Sailor Moon is a really good example of this.

That's the feeling I get from the TTYDR. The older style felt more in line with it's story book esthetic. When you learn the backstory of the thousand year door. The game was meant to have this ancient look to it that I feel the new version got rid of completely...but that ancient look was the point since the thousand year door was meant to be an old folks tale in this world. I completely understand if you don't agree with me, but that's just how I feel personally.

There are good things with this game. The gameplay and bosses are still great. The story, despite the changes, is still one of the best in the Mario series. I love all the characters, the villains, the chapter progression, the badge system, and so much more and despite how I feel. TTYDR is still worth a buy, only because I do want the next generation of players to experience it. It's kind of the same way I feel about Danganronpa Decadence. Yes, those games have problems...maybe a lot of problems, but it's a series I feel a new generation of young adults should experience despite its flaws.

Anyways, that's it for me! What do you think? Let me know in the comment section!

#paper mario the thousand year door first impressions #paper Mario the thousand year door #paper mario #super paper mario #Mario games #Mario rpg #mario #princess peach #goombella ttyd #Vivian ttyd #Yoshi ttyd #paper mario games #paper mario the thousand year door remake review

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mr-mikey · 27 days ago

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OH MY GOD the announcement of the Xenoblade Chronicles X Definite Edition on the switch caught me by surprise! And three friends had to tell me about it LMAO

I'm curious about the game and how it might be different compared to the Wii U version. But I'm not sure how much attention I want to give the game since I 100% cleared the game, which took a lot of work.

#mikey speaks #xenoblade chronicles x #I am SUPER happy that it's coming to the switch #along with so many ported games

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ratralsis · 5 months ago

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Sorry I still haven't written anything that I promised a couple of weeks ago. I'm still working on the ol' novel, and the thousands of words I spent writing about Tina after her death might count for something. I dunno.

If I can manage to get my sleep schedule back to something resembling its previous normal soon, and get a little further ahead of schedule on my progress on the novel, I'll try to write what I hoped to write earlier for this blog.

Tina used to be pretty demanding that I go to bed before 10 PM. I actually had a decent handle on it for a while. I'm gradually getting my bedtime slightly earlier again now, but after she died, I was definitely up pretty late for a few days because I wasn't looking forward to going to bed without her. Which I realize is absurd, but it's still the truth.

If you missed the earlier posts on the subject, Tina was my cat. She wasn't, like, a human lady I lived with who dragged me to bed every night and slept next to me. She was a small cat who demanded I go to bed every night and then came and went several times throughout the night but almost always was there when I first fell asleep. Now she's not, because she's dead, and I let the vet who came to my house to euthanize her take her away for cremation and to scatter her ashes. I do still have Max, but he has never been good at sleeping next to me at night and, at fourteen years old, I don't think he's likely to learn now. He might, though! He's also never been the only cat in the house before. He and I are both still getting used to that.

I spent the last few months playing Xenoblade Chronicles 3 on my Switch off and on. Much like I did with Pokemon Legends: Arceus, I finished the game and then figured out a way to grind for resources without actually needing to play the game, which inflated my playtime by over 100 hours, but I still put over 200 into the game. That includes all the DLC. I liked the gameplay, though I honestly never really connected with the characters that much. I don't have a specific reason why not. I just didn't like them or care about them nearly as much as I did even in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. But the game itself was fun, and I really did enjoy the postgame Archsage Challenges and learning how to build party compositions that could tackle the hardest challenges. It took me a lot of tries to finish the 140th stage of the Gauntlet on Hard mode, but I did it, and then I did it again, and then I bought everything I wanted from the store where you use the currency you earn in those challenges and I realized I was done playing the game.

Since I did back it all the way back in 2020, I've decided to try playing Eiyuden Chronicle. I started it yesterday. So far, I don't like it much, but I said the same about Xenoblade Chronicles 3 when I first started it, too. But Eiyuden Chronicle has two big things working against it: I hate the way it looks, and it has really bad performance issues on Switch. Neither is a surprise.

I've always, always, always hated the way it looks when 2D sprites are in a 3D environment. That was true from Xenogears back on PS1 up to Octopath Traveler. I just think it looks jarring and bad. The camera moves slightly and the background moves and the character sprites can't and it just looks dumb to me. I can't get past it. I'm not at all looking forward to the HD-2D remake of Dragon Quest III (and possibly the first two games, as well), but I'll probably get it, because I love Dragon Quest III enough to have played nearly every version of it already, even the untranslated Japanese Super Famicom version. My Japanese is probably at the level of a 9-year-old native speaker, but believe me when I tell you that that's good enough to play Dragon Quest III, because I did it.

It's also good enough to tell you that the localization for Eiyuden Chronicle takes some pretty serious liberties in its translation of the Japanese dialogue into English, but I honestly don't mind that part. I think it goes a good job of turning the subtext from the Japanese dialogue that would be understood from context and tone and turns it into text that an English reader can understand, which is the most important thing. Anybody who complains about the localization would be better off spending that energy studying Japanese themselves.

Anyway, I got sidetracked. Point is, I'm still around. I'm feeling better than I was a week ago. I'm still writing, just not here, and I'm holding down my job and doing everything I need to do and playing video games on the side and so on.

#ratralsis writing

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emblemxeno · 6 months ago

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Xenoblade Chronicles Definitive Edition Replay Thoughts + Now Starting Future Connected

-Played through and beat the game again, not new game plus either, from the ground up. Yes I'm nuts for doing this a few weeks after the first time.

-99.9% completion this time though! Full affinity chart (I'm talking FULL, like establishing every link I could possibly get with regards to my choices, even ones that don't come from quests), full party affinity, all heart-to-hearts, all available quests, complete collectopedia, defeated every unique monster including Final Marcus, all locations/landmarks, all hidden treasure chests, maxed out all 5 skill trees for the entire party. The only thing I didn't do is beat the superbosses other than Final Marcus, since...

-I still don't care for enemy level affecting accuracy. Not hitting anything and losing tension which leads to hitting less things is such a shitty feeling. I didn't feel up to making gems to counter the other superbosses cuz I just... didn't care enough to endure those battles lol.

-That said, I enjoyed the actual fighting a lot more on my second playthrough, mostly because I tried new stuff. I played around with other arts I usually don't use, especially with Reyn (War Swing my new beloved) and Dunban (Heat Haze + Soaring Tempest makes my Monado become the big Monado :3). Similarly, I used more medium and heavy armor and unique items instead of just exclusively light equips with empty slots. There's a lot of fun weapons that I just didn't bother using before and I'm happy that I did this time. Because I had more fun with the combat (and also decided to use the EXP and AP gems lol) I was able to do every quest and beat all those unique monsters without that much grinding tbh.

-That said, spikes are still the worst thing in the world, I'll never change my opinion on that. And the close second is still the NPC hunting.

-Doing more of the stuff that DE introduced really elevated my experience as well. Using expert mode at specific intervals instead of just hoarding it all until after Mechonis Core is really the way to go. Also, every time I saw the time trials warp in a new location, I did the new trials since usually that means there's more added. While the last time I played DE, I quit the colony 6 hunting at the very end by doing trials I was feeling bad about it cuz it felt grindy and exhausting. This time around, I treated it as another quest to do in between story beats, and by the time I got to the endgame, I had enough Noponstones to get the annoying materials out of the way. So using the new features really helped me. Again though, I wish they went the extra mile and just let reconstruction materials be trackable.

-Nothing changed regarding my likes of the characters, whatsoever. It's still a great cast. The only thing I keep getting hung up on is why the scene at the end of the game where Alvis shows Shulk what happened that created their world wasn't a bit updated to be more in line with how XC2 revealed it. I'm not talking line changes or even the saviorite attacks, but moreso the space facility not looking like the beanstalk. Seeing the old version of the orbiting station is strange nowadays lol. But it's just a nitpick.

-Overall, better the second time around, glad I did it. Now, time to actually start Future Connected, and see the big new stuff.

#xenoblade #xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade chronicles 1 #playingxc1

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chubby-aphrodite · 7 months ago

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fuck the xenoblade chronicles definitive edition version of mechanical rhythm all my homies hate the xenoblade chronicles definitive edition version of mechanical rhythm

they fucking neutered her they neutered my girl

#fae talks #xenoblade chronicles

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unicornlovers10 · 2 years ago

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I know that this is extremely unlikely, but I hope that Monolith makes a definitive version of Xenoblade Chronicles X. If only because I won't be able to get the game until after the eshop closes, and I won't be able to have the full experience of the game.

#tia talks #tia talks about xenoblade #no spoilers ofc #xenoblade chronicles x #i know that they won't make it bc it would be too expensive and the game didn't sell well #but consider this - it was on the wii u #games didn't sell well on there in general #feel free to double check the exact stats #but generally speaking - most games sold better once they were ported or remastered for the switch #slight vent #vent #vent post #tw venting #tw vent #tw slight vent #tw vent post

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riddlerosehearts · 1 year ago

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Zelda x Link from Legend of Zelda

Shulk x Fiora from Xenoblade Chronicles

zelda/link:

i ship them more in some incarnations than others, but like, they're literally soulmates and every time they interact, no matter which version of them it is, i just love them. i'm playing majora's mask right now and ugh i miss zelda, why is she not in this game >:( also, it actually kind of drives me nuts that botw/totk-verse zelink specifically isn't canon?! like literally how are they not!! the game like. heavily implies that they share a house because "zelda's" house is just straight up link's old house and it has his champion photo and his hairtie and stuff in it. and also only one bed. but then, nope, link doesn't live there anymore and you've gotta buy him another house?? whyyyy nintendo. why would you have zelda steal link's house but keep his stuff in it akjsdfgfdkggd--

okay, sorry. the point is i love zelink lol

shulk/fiora:

i like to multiship with the xenoblade 1 cast, partially because it's a bit of a niche fandom so i'll take what i can get--for example, did you know that one of the most popular ships in the xenoblade chronicles ao3 tag is a smash bros-related crossover ship (it's shulk/robin from fire emblem)? i know this because after i played xenoblade chronicles definitive edition i basically went on a huge xenoblade 1 fic binge and during that time i read a lot of shiora fics! i've seen some criticisms of fiora's character, saying she should be more developed outside of her relationship with shulk, and to an extent i agree but i also still really like how their relationship is portrayed in the game? they're childhood friends who are just really sweet and supportive of each other and i'm glad they get to be happy together. i only didn't circle "i need this to be canon" because of course, they're already canon!

#asks #owlfrompluto #ship bingo #i hope i'm not rambling too much in these LOL #they're just a good excuse to talk more about my ships

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25thnightbaam · 1 year ago

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I finished the Future Connected story today, the base game about two weeks ago, thus I have finished re-experiencing this beauty of a game! Re-experiencing the main story and experiencing the extra story for the first time. One, more like three, of the things I wanted to get when I finally bought the Switch last October was the Xenoblade Chronicles games. I already have the original Wii version of the first one and X, although I have not finished X, I'll need to get back into it. Out of the games of Operation Rainfall, Xenoblade was the one I most wanted to get localized, and lo, and behold it was.

Wanna know what happened back then? Little ol' me instantly got hooked into it! I don't recall if I ever bothered playing any other game as I played Xenoblade. It quickly became one of my all time favorite games! It is up there with Shadow of the Colossus, the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, Pokemon HeartGold, Metroid: Zero Mission, Luigi's Mansion, Shadow Hearts: Covenant, Metroid Prime 2, etc. (I'm not gonna list them all, least I derail this topic). And, as I played through the Definitive Edition, memories came as I recalled locations, quests, monsters, and cutscenes. It got all hooked me into it again! It's been a wonderful journey going through it again and now I just started Xenoblade Chronicles 2.

#25thkingsplotinposts #xenoblade chronicles #xenoblade #monolith soft #xenoblade chronicles definitive edition

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owlixx · 1 year ago

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Operation Terminus

So…I’ve canceled my plan to play/replay the first nine Assassin’s Creed games following my current playthrough of Valhalla. Instead, I’ll be cleaning up my “backlog”. Given the nature of what I do and how I play games, that’s less about which games I “own” and more about which games I’ve already sunk some time into.

Games I’m close to finishing:

* Assassin’s Creed Valhalla Xbox

Yeah this is the one I’m currently doing so definitely going to finish here before moving on, but I maybe do some small sonic game runs before digging into this operation proper.

* Phoenix Wright 1 3DS

I’m sooooo close, I’m like halfway through the final case, the DS exclusive one.

* Midnight Suns Xbox

Okay admittedly I’m only like…just past the start of Act 2 but this one is a priority before all the information completely leaves my brain. Plus the DLC is all out now and I own it!

* Wind Waker Wii U

I’m literally over halfway done with the triforce hunt so this is super close but I lost about an hour of progress last time I played over a year ago and haven’t touched it since. Shouldn’t be more than a couple days of playing left.

* Sonic Unleashed Xbox

Stuck on empire city, I just need to get some more medals to progress. Using a guide should help.

Games I’m near or around half done:

* Skyward Sword Wii U

In Lanayru Desert for the first time, not yet to the dungeon. So 1/4 - 1/3 done with the game? The motion controls kill me but standing up might help

* Metroid Prime 1 Wii U

Similar to wind waker, lost a good chunk of progress last time I played to space pirates. I don’t think you can turn down the difficulty after starting a playthrough but I should if I can.

* Donkey Kong Country Tropical Freeze Wii U

Stuck on boss of world…3? I do really enjoy this game when it works well

* Wario Land 3 Switch

I think I’m around half? Game is just big and other stuff came up

* Hot Shots Tennis Get A Grip PS Vita

Actually no idea how long this game is but it’s awesome

* Ratchet and Clank 2 PS3

I think I’m around half? Just got new ps3 controllers

* Bulletstorm PS3

I think I just started act 4 of 7, enjoying it so far

* War For Cybertron (dad?)

Okay admittedly I’m like less than half done with the first of two campaigns but I think I’ll be trying this coop soon online with my dad

* Fire Emblem Awakening 3DS

I think I’m on chapter 8 of 25

* Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes Switch

I can’t remember how far I got actually but I feel like I poured a good amount of time in already

* Xenoblade Chronicles Wii

Maybe 1/3 done with game?

* Professor Layton 1 DS

Maybe 2/3 done? I tried to omit games I’ve already beaten from this list unless I’m super close to beating them again and it’s been a while

* Mario Kart 7 3DS

I just kind of plink away at unlocking all the courses now and then but this shouldn’t take long with any effort applied

* Monster Tale DS

Again no clue how long this one is but I feel like I’m a good chunk into it, maybe 1/4

* Deadpool PS3

I think I’m on chapter 4 of 8

Games I Can Skip The Intro On:

* Mega Man Battle Network DS

I’m past the first main boss but not yet to the second. Playing a fan Tran of the Ds remake

* Mega Man Battle Network 2 GBA

I think same as above

* Death Stranding PC

Honestly this is a huge game and I’m only maybe 6 hours in

* Disco Elysium PC

Maybe 15 hours in?

* Metal Gear Solid 4 PS3

Barely past tutorial

* Bayonetta Wii U

Literally just past tutorial

* Mario and Luigi Superstar Saga Remake 3DS

Out of tutorial and past first main boss

* Final Fantasy Tactics Advance GBA

Decent clip into this one, maybe 15 hours, but it’s a huge game

* Puzzle and Dragon Z 3DS

Still in the tutorial in the main game, on world 3 or 4 of the Mario version

* Pilotwings Resort 3DS

I mean, it’s such a short game that the couple hours I’ve played is like half of it

* Dragon Age Origins Xbox

Maybe ten hours in? Big game though

* Final Fantasy VI GBA

Only 2-3 hours in and a huge game

* Twilight Princess Wii U

Just past the tutorial if that

* Crisis Core PS Vita

Think I’m still in the first real mission after the tutorial

* Locoroco PS Vita

Towards the end of world 2

* Patapon 2 PS Vita

Okay not actually far in but I’m considering the five or so hours I spent in Patapon 1 to be a kind of sunken cost tutorial

* Dead Space Extraction Wii U

I think…3 missions in? Out of 10?

* Sonic Colors Wii U

On world…3? Out of 7? Played before and replaying taking turns with partner

* Uncharted Golden Abyss PS Vita

Okay just past tutorial admittedly

* Wipeout 2048 PS Vita

Like Mario kart, i plonk away at this here and there

* Luigi’s Mansion 2 3DS

First of five mansions down

* Retro Game Challenge DS

I wanna say I’m on the third or fourth game of 8

* Grand Theft Auto 4 PS3

Maybe 2-3 hours in

* ICO PS3

1-2 hours in

* Demon Souls PS3

Okay barely even got past making a character, just got to the hun world at all

* Pokémon Sun 3DS

Okay this one I’m actually more like half done with I think, maybe closer to 1/3 but it’s been a while.

* Elebits Wii

Maybe 3 or 4 of the 25 levels done

#gaming #Wii u #wii #Ds #3DS #gba #ps3 #assassins creed #Phoenix Wright #midnight suns #ratchet and clank #wind waker #Zelda #Nintendo #Sony #sonic

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void-kissed · 2 years ago

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actually no that last reblog has set off a ramble so let's go down the list

How human are my self-inserts?

(..The actual list is under the readmore, but for most of them the answer is "not fully", ahaha)

Adriana Laverre (Pokémon) - human, but the fact she's originally from the previous timeline and got brought forwards by Anna after dying there probably makes her come across as a bit.. not right. But hey, at least she got cute reverse freckles and fancy Giratina wings from the process. Aria Fiore (Kingdom Hearts, etc.) - not human, because she's a Heartless (so, technically she used to be a human, but isn't anymore). This also applies to her TWEWY version, where she's one of the Shinjuku Reapers (though, again, she was originally a normal exchange student before dying in Shinjuku). Sapphire "Paronet" (Xenoblade Chronicles) - technically human (Gormotti, specifically), but.. also technically a Blade Eater, courtesy of the shards of Avalon's Core Crystal she fell on. Alectra (Genshin Impact) - not human, because she's.. essentially a dead nightingale that got brought back to life through a mixture of emotional and elemental power. So she's an elemental more than anything else. "Lamia" (Genshin Impact) - not human, because she's really a Pyro Abyss Mage! Her current form is a disguise she maintains using magic, similarly to how Enjou does it. Lorenza/"Colombina" (Final Fantasy) - not human, because she's a voidsent! Technically, she's a hybrid of voidsent and the-Thirteenth's-equivalent-to-Miqo'te, like how Zero is a hybrid of voidsent and whatever-the-Thirteenth-calls-Hyur. Calanthe Marsanes (Xenosaga, Xenoblade Chronicles) - human! In Alrest, her accent would imply she's Tantalese, even though she doesn't have the red hair that is commonly seen in people from Tantal. Aline Erica (Xenoblade Chronicles) - human (well, Gormotti, specifically)! Citri Cerinthe (Xenoblade Chronicles) - initially human (or, Homs, strictly speaking, which are not the same as humans because they need ether but basically they're human), but later half-Machina due to being made a Face pilot! Nova Chromalum (Pokémon) - human chosen by a legendary Pokémon (Reshiram, specifically) Catarina di Erinacea (Fire Emblem) - human with a Crest (specifically the lost Crest of the Thorn Dragon) Ardea Volucris (Dragon Quest) - not human, because she's a Celestrian! This is true even after she loses her wings and halo from falling off of the Observatory. Camille Solane (The Elder Scrolls) - initially human (Breton, specifically), but is later turned into a vampire by Serana Lady Telanthera Amaranth (Four Leaf Cloverse) - human! Emily Azalea (Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons) - human (though her boyfriend almost definitely isn't) Seralune (UTAU, etc.) - not human, because she's an UTAUloid, specifically one designed to be like a lunar goddess.

Linaria Volucris/"Ves Fiore" (Dragon Quest, Kingdom Hearts) - not human, because she's a Celestrian (and that persists even after she loses her halo) "Xiara"/NIL-XIARA (Kingdom Hearts) - not human, because she's a (data-)Nobody MT001524: Echo (Parties Are For Losers) - technically not human, because she's a mutant, but those are more like "humans with powers" Alise Tayle (Four Leaf Cloverse) - not human, because she's fae Carmine the Clever (The Elder Scrolls) - technically not human because she's a Khajiit? Mimi Aster (Kirby, Super Mario) - not human! She doesn't actually know what she is, but she definitely looks human by default despite having the ability to shapeshift. However, she is in fact a magic ancient, which will probably only mean something if you're very into Kirby Cat Teuthis (Splatoon) - not human, because she's an Inkling

Jet Chromalum (Pokémon) - human, even if some suspect she has to be otherwise given that her partner Pokémon is a massive golden Luxray Amber Rylin (The Elder Scrolls) - technically human (Nord, specifically), but is also Dragonborn, so.. "human with the soul of a dragon"? Chiara Verdrose (Four Leaf Cloverse) - technically human as I think of her, but it depends on whether or not witches count as humans in Cloverse, since she is a witch! Elisa Merlot (Scienceverse) - human! Very normal human despite the lab she works in

#a call from the void #heart of the void #selfshipping #self-inserts #no I am not tagging every single one #everyone is here!#echo's info posts #technically #this is.. a long post haha #I think the award of most normal human self-insert probably goes to emily?#but the self-insert who looks most like me is probably catarina. since emily has really long hair

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