#yeah I’ve technically posted this art before but now there’s *lore* | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

genaleah · 4 years ago

Text

ANSWERING WILDCARD QUESTIONS

For the first time in about a year maybe??? Some of these might be even older than that.

Yes, it is Korka! I definitely want her involved, she’s a wonderful character and there is a *lot* of fun paranormal stuff going on in this setting that she can help them research. Also, I’d just love for her and Nelson to become friends!

Thank you! I love him a lot, and it’s fun to picture him interacting with the other guys. They’d all make for some interesting uncle figures, but they might not be that great in terms of role models.

OHOHO. Devilish laugh. That’s a wonderful idea, and a good way to keep him occupied at some point. He’s a great character, but he’s incredibly powerful, and I want these dudes to solve their own problems whenever possible.

A good question! I don’t remember most of my dreams, but there’s usually a consistent look to the vivid ones. Lots of water, mountains, creeks, and high, winding roads. There are also a lot of buildings that are closely integrated with nature, even though I have almost never seen construction like that.

I had not, but now I have! Here’s a trailer, for anyone else that missed it:

https://youtu.be/33HXHaaagsw

I really like these new models! I’m looking forward to watching a playthrough when that’s available. Just like with Rhombus of Ruin, I don’t think I’ll be able to play this one myself.

DOUBLE FINE, I WISH TO SPEAK WITH YOU- no, I’m kidding! I think great minds think alike. But I’m really excited to learn more about that character and possibly involve them in this whole au eventually.

I’ve actually tried to avoid almost any info about Psychonauts 2 so I can go in mostly-blind, and a lot of the characters are vague to me. It’s fun to look forward to, but it’s also a little harrowing because I don’t know how to anticipate for it!

N...NO..... I NEED TO... Honestly those are old enough that it might be a good idea for me to re-make them, as well as the playing cards I made for the mega playlist cover. I think it’d be nice to remake them as vectors... that might make for a nice art stream sometime. I’ll mention publicly if I start doing that, and sharing any of these conceptual Wildcards arts when they’re done.

And if you’re just curious about what the tarot cards for the other characters are going to be, it’s this:

Eddie: Judgement, The Magician, The Emperor

Manny: Death, Justice, The World

Sam: The Chariot, The Tower, Strength

Max: The Devil, Wheel of Fortune, Joker

Although! I may actually give the Moon card to Max instead of the Devil, and replace the missing card from Nelson’s selection with the High Priestess? 🤔 I’ll decide when I get to it.

Could be! I’ve flip-flopped occasionally on if I want the split-a-cab gang to participate much in the story. I think they deserve a break, and splitting an apartment in New York seems like a good situation for the four of them.

Oh boy, that must be so disorienting for him. The Psychonauts deal with a lot of hippy-dippy weirdness in a seemingly organized way, but it seems like they’re not as paranoid about safety as a real federal organization would be. Not necessarily a good thing, considering one of their camp counselors went AWOL one day, and the head of the Psychonauts got kidnapped the next. They kinda need to get their act together.

Fun fact, in one of the earlier drafts of Chapter 3 I was actually going to make Nelson get scanned by the equivalent of a metal-detector for malevolent thoughts at the door and get really spooked by it, but I decided against it.

YEAH IT’S ON THE LIST

Honestly, a big bulk of the plot in this just regards characters having to face their mental health struggles... via facing it as literal internal demons, unstable powers, etc. It’s going to take a little while for any of Eddie’s teammates to realize how MUCH he has going on under the surface because he does a pretty good job of hiding it. “Needing to help others above ever helping themselves” is a hard issue to notice if you’re not looking for it. But it’s a guarantee that once they find out he needs help, they’ll give it; whether that’s making sure he’s not working himself too hard, or fighting off demonic cultists. Care comes in many forms.

SHE NEEDS TO REST.... POOR SYBIL (on the upside, they don’t TECHNICALLY work there, so she might be fine most of the time.)

Strong Bad isn’t a Psychonaut! He’s just a vlogger and a petty (psychic) criminal. It’s honestly not very different from canon.

Free Country, USA is a smalltown hotbed of psychic activity. Nearly everyone there has some mild capacity for supernatural powers, but nobody really notices or cares. Strong Bad just pops the tops off of cold ones and.... sometimes alters reality, a tiny bit. But mostly just in regards to media. The cartoons, comics, etc, that he invents and talks about have a tendency to suddenly voip into existence and nobody knows how. I swear, there’s actually a line of him saying something to this effect, but I can’t find it anywhere. Don’t worry about it! Nobody in town is ever going to do anything truly nefarious with their powers, so it’s not a high priority on the Psychonauts’ radar, just a weird footnote.

The only reason Homestar is an actual agent is because he seems like exactly the kind of guy to sign up for a job like that on accident and then stick with it. And he’s a talented telekinetic! None of his other friends know about his job or notice his absences.

And just for fun, here’s some weird instances of psychic overpowering that happened in the cartoon:

---

(Poor Strong Sad)

I’ve actually answered this one before! BAM Pretty sure all of it is still accurate.

Nelson: He sees floating sheets of paper containing notes, questions, etc. Anything that he wants to know more about regarding that person. The notes are subject to edits, cross-outs, ripped pages, etc.

Guybrush: He sees the item that the person is carrying that he wants most. As he gets to know people better, he sees them for their useful skills first.

Manny: His view of most living people is not very kind...

The people he’s closest to will eventually look a lot less garish. More like a flattering, camera-ready versions of themselves.

Eddie: Sickass sketch drawings that look like they belong in the margins of a composition book. The illustrations improve as he gets a better picture of where they’d fit in the internal lore of his mental world.

Sam: A lot like Nelson; Sam pictures case files, though his are a bit more in-depth.

Max: Max’s visions of people are highly personal and uncomfortable for those who witness them. He sees Nelson as a puzzle with a piece missing. Guybrush is a ripped up voodoo doll. Manny is a forgotten ofrenda. Eddie is a powder keg with a long, lit fuse. Sam is Sam, but he’s the wrong one.

I also got two questions that were pretty big subjects, or that I didn’t want to repeat, so I’m gonna cover them pretty broadly:

REGARDING [X] CHARACTER OR SERIES INCLUDED IN THE AU

Sure, I support it! I’ve gotten this question a few times in regards to things that I haven’t had time to delve into yet, or I’m not interested in, so I’m not going to include it into the AU myself. But if you want to explore an idea like that, feel free! This AU is pretty dang collaborative.

My main focus is just on the main 6 properties: Psychonauts, Puzzle Agent, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Brutal Legend, and Sam & Max.

But my general rule of thumb for “characters that exist somewhere within the background of this story” are any other properties owned by Telltale, Lucasarts, or Double Fine. And considering all of the licensed games that Telltale was getting into before it kicked the bucket, that includes some really weird characters, even up to the Venture Bros. I loved that series, but I’m not really interested in doing anything with them for this story! Partly for my sanity, the canon I’ve picked are already a lot of content to play with.

ASSORTED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE WILDCARD AU DISCORD

There’s no particular criteria needed to join the discord, and it’s not strictly on a need-to-know basis! Because it’s been a long while since anyone has joined, I've been hesitant about adding new people in... But I‘ve decided to try sending invitations again! Everyone who had asked about it in the past will be getting a ping by me in about a day or so, since I want to double-check if you’re still interested. If you’ve been nervous to ask you can reply to this post or message me privately.

Some things to keep in mind before asking or accepting the invite:

If you’re not a friend or a follower I recognize, I will likely double-check your tumblr along with some other current members before sending the invite.

Here’s the Rules page, so you know what to expect before you join:

Be Mindful - Respect other people's boundaries, don't do or say things that would cross the line. If your behavior makes other people feel uncomfortable or unsafe, I will remove you from the chat. In most cases I will try to resolve things with you and offer a chance to do better, but that will depend on the severity of the situation. And if you have any concerns regarding another member of the chat, you can contact me privately.

Health Boundaries - While discussions of mental health do occasionally pop up, do not rely on the chat for help. None of us are equipped to handle serious mental health concerns, and it will only cause distress for everyone. Please seek real help if it is needed! If you rely on people beyond the point that they have asked you to stop, I will remove you from the chat.

NSFW - Generally speaking, try to keep NSFW talk to a minimum. Swearing and humor is fine, but don't get too explicit please! Discussions should usually keep to a PG-13 / occasional R, but no NC-17.

Spoilers & Censorship - Please use the spoiler function to hide story spoilers, as well as discussions and graphic depictions of gore/excessive blood/body horror/severe psychological horror. Include a content warning so that people know what they could potentially be seeing when they click on the censored content. If the spoilered content is the subject of a back-and-forth discussion, please use another warning when you are switching to a different spoilered topic. (Note that these rules were added to the chat later, so be careful when using the search function or back reading.)

The canon series involved with the Wildcard AU are Psychonauts, Puzzle Agent, Monkey Island, Grim Fandango, Brutal Legend, and Sam & Max. Please be mindful of story spoilers!

Channel Organization - Also be mindful of which channel you're in and move a discussion over if need be! That way they don't get too clogged with unrelated info.

Creative Criticism - When it comes to writing, art, or character creation; try to be open to suggestions from others! Nearly all of the creative work in the chat is collaborative, so input from others is important! Creative criticism is not the same as judgement, and is not a personal attack.

Have fun! - Discussions move quickly in this chat! Don't feel bad if you ever need to step back, whether it's because of the speed or a disinterest in whatever current topic we're focusing on. If you ever want to come back, we're happy to have you and can give quick explanations if you feel out of the loop! :thumbsup:

We’re a group of approx. a half dozen to a dozen people, either posting very very quickly in a span of a few hours or barely anything for a few days. We’ve been in an activity uptick lately and there’s about a year and half of back content, too. If it’s hard to keep up on, not that interesting to read through, or you just have a hard time gelling with the group that's already there, there’s no shame in just lurking or dipping out if you need to.

We also talk a lot about Psychonauts OCs, so anticipate that.

#wildcard au #wildcard hcs

30 notes · View notes

moviegroovies · 4 years ago

Text

confession time: for someone who (semi) actively runs a movie blog, i really haven’t seen a lot of classic movies.

(i know this comes as a shock for those of y’all who have been subjected to nothing but my half-baked thoughtpieces on bad 80′s horror for the past couple of years, but bear with me.)

to be honest, even this review doesn’t REALLY represent me making an active choice to remedy that so much as it does me pulling a long con where i endear myself to marilyn monroe by watching her movies to get myself excited to watch the miniseries blonde (2001), for abnormally pretty, young jensen ackles purposes*, but let’s not dwell on all that. the practical result is the same; i watched some like it hot (1959). now, i hope y’all are ready for a few some like it Thoughts™:

first, idk how much attention y’all have been paying to the loose bits of personal lore i occasionally scatter within my reviews, but one thing about myself that i feel i’ve been pretty open about is the fact that i’m trans. this being so, and knowing not a whole lot about the movie beyond the very basic premise “1959 extended man in a dress gag,” i can’t say i went in with the highest of expectations. imagine my surprise, then, when the gender aspect of this movie was... actually pretty good? i mean, full disclosure, it’s not exactly gender studies, but it’s passable! it’s tolerable! there were even a few moments where i felt inclined to say the words “oh, GENDER?” out loud!

perhaps most impressively, i’d say the Cis Creator Cringe Factor of some like it hot was actually impressively LOWER than a lot of modern moves with genderswapping premises tend to be. like, i know that one definite explanation for that would be the fact that trans experiences are more widespread today, so modern filmmakers don’t feel comfortable playing with ideas like this without at least giving lipservice to them, while the era that bore some like it hot didn’t face the same “pressure,” but, okay. listen. compared to another movie i watched recently--freaky (2020), in which a teenage girl swaps bodies with serial killer vince vaugn, featuring one incredibly anvilicious scene where, upon being informed by a gay boy that she’s in the men’s bathroom, the girl’s best friend retorts, “she [vince vaugn]’s got a dick in her hand, and you’re wearing chanel no. 5. i think we’re past labels.”--some like it hot, a movie older than my father, was wayyyy easier to watch**. actually, you know what? yeah. listen to me. cis content creators? movie producers? i’m talking to you. DON’T EVEN BRING GENDER (or gender “identities”... which is an incredibly gross term, anyway) UP IF YOU’RE NOT PLANNING TO DO SOMETHING WITH IT. sincerely, this particular bad taste corner of the trans community :).

...anyway.

some like it hot, by contrast, did it right. YES, the premise of the movie was two presumably cis men in disguise as women. i’ll put that in the open. however, there was a certain... i don’t know if “respect” is the right word, but there was an avoidance, at least, of the usual predatory tropes. in fact, the worst behavior by far from either main character comes when joe manages to take off his female disguise, donning another, male persona and using things that sugar (marilyn’s character) confided in “josephine” to create a nonthreatening, desirable “millionaire” in order to trick her into sex. okay, like i said, it’s not gender studies, but, the humor in some like it hot comes from generally the right place. joe and jerry don their female disguises in a matter that in quite literally life and death for them (and it’s more than the creators ever thought of, i’m sure, but there IS an interesting analysis to be had of them needing to pass to live), which to a degree removes the usual pitfalls of male to female crossdressing as a gag; they’re neither doing it for lecherous reasons, nor to parody the female experience. this being a comedy, there is a degree of humor found in the situation, but it’s directed at jerry and joe, the characters, more than their disguises. the general assumption is that they both pass without question, as long as they’re wearing their ladies’ clothes; jerry once comments that he’s “not even pretty,” but it’s never an issue to contend with.

wrt the crossdressing, the worst moment for me, personally, was a scene on the train when jerry prepared to take off the disguise in order to sleep with sugar, and even this ends up comedically averted at jerry’s expense.

and speaking of jerry.

jerry is actually the most compelling part of the movie for me, especially viewing it through the lens of gender. while joe, who gets the girl and manages to spend large chunks of the latter part of the film in his second, male disguise, never thinks too much about what they’re doing beyond the survival aspect of it, jerry is the one who, erm, “gets into character.” joe’s female name is simply josephine; before they get on the train with the woman musicians, it’s assumed that jerry will be going by “geraldine.” however, when they give their introductions, the duo becomes josephine... and daphne.

as the movie progresses, this distinction grows more pronounced; when joe has to remind a smitten jerry on the train that he’s a girl, referring to their disguises, jerry miserably repeats the affirmation: “i’m a girl. i’m a girl. i want to die. i’m a girl.” later on, however, as joe’s relationship with sugar develops, “daphne” becomes acquainted with local horndog millionaire osgood, who he at first dislikes, but comes around to after being forced on a date as part of joe’s plan to trick sugar. after seeing jerry excited by the prospect of marrying osgood, a bewildered joe has to remind jerry why it’s an impossibility, and in the same miserable tone as before, jerry/daphne muddles through a new affirmation, one that definitely didn’t ring false to my trans ears: “i’m a boy. i’m a boy. i want to die. i’m a boy.”

hm. actually, now i’m thinking about a trans male reading of joe. he was the one at first resistant to taking the job (with the all-female band), when they only needed money, and not a place to hide from an upset mob boss, but also the one who seems to know more about the role when it comes time to get into character. while jerrydaphne gets increasingly comfortable with femininity as time passes, joe never performs it in anything but a perfunctory, necessary way, and sloughs the costume EVEN WHEN the danger of being found out has not yet passed, because pretending for such a long period of time is just untenable. something about passing for female being a safe haven and a burden for both closeted (re-closeted, in this case) trans men and out trans women?

anyway. by the end, though both osgood and sugar do find out the truth about the disguises, sugar seems to instantly forgive joe for his treacherousness (again, referring more to his actions as the shell millionaire than his escapade in drag), while osgood appears unbothered by daphne’s truth, leading to an ambiguous ending for the futures of the characters, and any realizations that might come later.

no, it’s not the “real transgender experience.” it (thankfully) never claims to be. BUT, being trans myself, there were some moments that made me feel linked to our protagonists, and relatively few, if any, that made me feel alienated. all in all, that’s a lot more than i hoped for going in, so that’s what i’m happy with.

watch some like it hot, y’all. it’s a good movie in a timeless way, and, as modern movies appealing to short-lived trends that will feel outdated next week (if not by the very time of their release) will show you, that’s more than it needed to be.

*since my original draft of this post, i DID watch blonde, and i don’t know if that’s technically fair game for this blog (not exactly a movie) or what, but 6/10. fairly well done piece of art but just BEATINGLY tragic, so proceed with caution. jensen ackles literally is THAT PRETTY though, so the jackles cut i give a strong 11/10. i am a homosexual. **i would like to clarify that this isn’t me telling you not to watch freaky. yes, some of the dialogue is tragically riverdaleian, but there’s also a scene where vince vaugn makes out with a teenage boy. so,

#some like it hot #text post #freaky (2020)#link #jerry/daphne #joe #transgender

17 notes · View notes

ravenbrenna09 · 4 years ago

Text

When Isak is Also Even

This story is partially based on this post and here’s AO3 Link

...

Since wtfock season 3 has ended, I dived further into the lore and mythos of the Skam universe. Skam was a fandom that I always followed (when it was trending) but it was really Robbe and his season that fully brought me into it. Now, I’m in the midst of watching through Skam NL—I’m at the very beginning of episode 5—and I’m planning on watching España later on because I just love all that I’ve seen with the girl squad.

But, Lucas always surprised me as a character—but especially as an Isak because he always seemed to have Even-like traits. From what I’ve seen, he’s primarily headcanoned to go on and study art. Because of this, I decided to play around with the idea that he has equal traits of the two.

Because of this, I wanted to explore the idea that our “Isak” is given the storyline that Even normally represents especially given that Lucas’s own mother is bipolar as well. But, I did write Lucas as closeted as the other Isaks typically are at the beginning of their season—maybe more so?—so that is something to note. Now, of course, this is all fun and it’s just something that I wanted to explore—especially in a one shot.

but, this is also my birthday gift for @peaceoutofthepieces (who is currently still sleeping rn) and it’s basically midnight for me SO THAT MEANS IT’S OFFICIALLY YOUR BIRTHDAY. HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATALIE AND I HOPE YOU HAVE A WONDERFUL DAY.

It’s really short (about a length of a clip of Jij Verliest) but I wish it was so much longer but I couldn’t manage it. I hope you enjoy it <3

…

The second that an Even sees their Isak is when their story starts changing, for the better, and life goes on to form something more precious than it was before.

But, this story is different.

Lucas van der Heijden is an Isak—technically, in someone else’s story—but he moved to Antwerp to get away from his father who tried to control his life and breathe down his neck about his medication. His mother had encouraged him to do so—to try new things—and with the Academy sending him an acceptance letter, it seemed so perfect, to go live in his cousin’s spare bedroom and get away from his father. So, because of this, Lucas van der Heijden is also an Even—technically.

One day, in the midst of it all, Lucas spots someone who instantly has his attention. Because Lucas is technically an Even—as much as he is an Isak, the person in his sight is his Isak, in every sense of the word. But, his “Isak” also happens to be another’s “Jonas.”

...

Lucas van der Heijden

Standing in front of the classroom, his photography teacher, Mr. Maes, a recent graduate from the Academy who returned to teach, lectured on and on about the various lighting techniques and what they tell the viewer. Mr. Maes had his brown hair meticulously styled. Today, he decided to wear a long-sleeve black shirt that clung a little too tightly to his biceps and a pair of jeans that clung tightly to his hips. Despite Lucas’s interest in the class—photography was his favorite medium and this class was his favorite of the semester—his brain kept fading in and out of the lecture.

For whatever reason, his eyes kept returning to the curves of his muscles with a frustrating intensity. It was ridiculous that Lucas was getting distracted by something that didn’t interest him at all—outside of an artistic standpoint, of course—and he kept trying to force himself into the lecture. But, his brain also seemed to remind him of the text messages on his phones, the ones his father sent him as a botched attempt to bring him home despite his upcoming exam.

Dad: Come on Lucas. Your mother doesn’t understand.

Lucas: Really? She seemed fine when I called her. I have an art history exam next week that I have to study for. But I guess I don’t understand.

Dad: Lucas, that wasn’t what I meant.

Lucas: I know exactly what you meant.

Shoving away the thoughts of his father’s texts, Lucas’s eyes drifted back to Mr. Maes. Lucas was talking about lighter settings now, but his voice was growing increasingly muffled as the seconds stretched on. Lucas could feel his mind working, mentally sketching the scene in front of him—Mr. Maes enthusiastically talking about the various types of lighting. Normally, Lucas was always attentive during this class—as mentioned previously, it was his favorite class—but his mind continuing to wander was frustrating, to say the least.

His dad had to message him before his class, didn’t he?

There was a tap on his shoulder, jolting him out of his thoughts. Glancing around the room, Lucas realized that their class had been dismissed and Mr. Maes was conversing with several students who lingered. Lucas felt his cheeks flush, his thoughts returning to his head, as he tried to shove them away.

Eager for a distraction, Lucas turned to the person who broke him from his trance. His classmate, and friend of about a month, was standing beside him with his leather jacket thrown over his shoulder. Sander Driesen was shorter than Lucas with short brown hair that was growing out. He always wore some sort of graphic t-shirt and a pair of skinny jeans and Doc Martens. His Instagram was covered with pictures of him with bleach-blond hair—something that Sander insisted was returning as soon as his hair grew out again.

While they had bonded in the classroom, Lucas had met Sander two weeks before the semester starting… at their therapist’s office. Once they found out that they went to the same college—and found out they shared a class, they had become close. Sander was taking the class as an elective, but they still collaborated when given the chance. Sander knew about Lucas’s father and the spiral that ended with his diagnosis and his grief over leaving his mother. Lucas knew about Sander’s fascination for spray painting and his diagnosis at the age of sixteen and his artistic muse—his boyfriend who had hair that curled when it was too long.

A week ago, Lucas learned from his new roommate, Zoë, that Robbe, Sander’s boyfriend, had his room last autumn—but Lucas still hadn’t gotten the chance to physically meet him. Even though Sander had shown him every picture that he had of Robbe.

Sander stepped out of his way to let Lucas out and they slipped past their professor, who didn’t seem to notice Lucas’s absent mind. But, Sander did, asking as they headed out of the college, “Is everything okay?”

“Yeah,” Lucas said, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s just my dad being an ass, trying to get me to come home because my mom doesn’t ‘understand’ or whatever.” Sander scoffed, rolling his eyes. “I called her and told her that it was because of my Art History test next Wednesday.”

“Yeah, those Art History tests can be brutal,” Sander admitted.

“Thanks for the support.”

“You’re welcome.”

As they stepped outside of the building, the sunlight shined down upon them. On most days, the sun was energizing and bright. But, today, it felt daunting and tiring to Lucas. It might’ve been his text messages with his father, but the fact he got little sleep wasn’t helping matters. His cousin was… loud and Lucas didn’t have noise-canceling headphones like Zoë had acquired. Before Sander stepped away, Lucas asked, “What are your plans for the day?”

“Robbe and I are going out to dinner with some of his friends,” Sander said. “What about you? Did you want to come?”

“No, thank you though. I can’t today. I’m going to buy noise-canceling headphones and study some more for that brutal Art History test,” Lucas said.

“Milan?” Sander asked, grimacing. Lucas fervently nodded his head and Sander chuckled. “Maybe, one of these days, you can get him back someday.”

“I doubt it,” Lucas said. There was a flash of movement over Sander’s shoulder and Lucas’s eyes found it immediately. A person was running in their direction—or more specifically at them—with curly brown hair and a face that Lucas knew intimately for someone he never physically met. Before Lucas could even form a warning to Sander, Robbe was jumping onto his friend’s back. The force had nearly knocked Sander over and Lucas moved to help

Sander quickly found his balance, gripping onto Robbe’s thighs like a lifeline to keep him stable. The leather jacket that Sander held in his hand had hit the pavement and Lucas bent down to pick it up. His boyfriend’s legs were wrapped tightly around his waist and his arms bound around his shoulders. As Robbe pressed kisses against his boyfriend’s cheek, Sander exhaled, relaxing, “For fuck’s sake, baby, don’t do that.”

“Sorry,” Robbe said, giggling with a wide grin on his face. Sander reached out his hand to Lucas, making a grabbing motion for the leather jacket, and he handed it over without hesitation. As if noticing Lucas for the first time, Robbe glanced over at Lucas. “Oh, you must be Lucas, right? I’m Robbe.”

Lucas chuckled, glancing at Sander. “Yeah, I know who you are.”

“What do you mean?” Robbe asked. “I’ve never met—” There was a look of realization on his face and his cheeks flushed instant. Immediately, Robbe turned shy, burying his face in the crook of Sander’s neck. Lucas was barely able to hear a muffled, “That’s so embarrassing.”

Sander chuckled. “Don’t worry, I only showed him the PG sketches.”

Robbe pulled himself from Sander’s neck to say. “And that’s supposed to make me feel better?!”

“Woah,” Lucas said. He waved his arms as though he could somehow block out the newfound information tainting his mind. He covered his ears and took a step back away from the couple. “That’s too much information.” Still holding Robbe on his back, Sander nearly doubled over in laughter and Robbe gripped onto him tighter. “I’ll see you tomorrow, Sander. If I can even look you in the eye anymore.”

“You’ll understand one day,” Sander said, moving in the way Robbe had come. He lifted Robbe a little higher on his back as they walked away. “Goodbye, Lucas! I hope your dad stops being an ass and you study for your test!”

“Thanks,” Lucas said. “I’ll do my best. Nice to officially meet you, Robbe!”

“You too!”

Sander turned away, taking Robbe with him. Lucas watched the happy couple moved away from the school intertwined and holding onto each other. Robbe was still high on Sander’s back, clinging to him like a koala, and his face buried into Sander’s neck. The two of them looked so happy and proud, intertwined with one another so easily and simply. Lucas felt a sense of longing flash briefly in his chest as he watched their retreating forms.

Lucas moved in the opposite direction. His mind was already marking the path to the video store to buy a pair of the best noise-canceling headphones. As he pivoted to leave, his eyes caught sight of Sander and Robbe with someone else and—for whatever reason—Lucas halted to a stop without having gone too far away from his original destination.

There was a tall guy was walking up to Sander and Robbe. Behind him, two guys were chatting loudly but Lucas couldn’t hear him—and he couldn’t tear his eyes away from the guy in the center. The guy in question was taller than all of his friends, but his shoulders were slumped a little. Even though he had a maroon hoodie over his head, Lucas could tell that his hair was a jet black. Lucas could see his sharp jaw and the upturn of his lips as he teased Sander and Robbe.

He was beau—

Lucas cut off his thoughts, abruptly turning around.

Lucas’s brain was screaming at him to turn around, to make up some excuse as to why he can join, simply to find out the name of the beau—no, the man there. But, Lucas knew that he couldn’t. It wouldn’t make any sense for him to change his mind now. Forcing one foot to move in front of the other, forcing himself away from the guy that had captured his attention, Lucas swallowed deeply as he tried to keep his thoughts even.

Lucas had never been like that before.

It wouldn’t make sense for him to be like that now.

But, as he turned the corner, Lucas snuck a glance back to him—just to see the guy smile dazzlingly at Robbe and Sander.

...

Note: There was supposed to be a second part of this from Jens’ POV a few weeks later where Jens would actually meet him, but I wasn’t able to get it on time. I hope you enjoy this section and maybe I’ll do Jens’ POV after Jij Verliest ends?

#wtfock #skam nl #lucas van der heijden #jens stoffels #van der stoffels #vds #crackship #jens x lucas #lucas x jens #even!lucas #i just had a lot of fun playing with the role switches here lol #robbe ijzermans #sander driesen #lucas and sander friendship rise #i felt like it would be such an amazing friendship #but i can dream #long post

66 notes · View notes

normal-thoughts-official · 4 years ago

Note

what are some things you think magnus would do to feel close to his culture/roots? one thing my mother (who is also south east asian) does is speak her local dialect with her siblings, but i imagine the language will have evolved over the years, and he wouldn’t find speakers who speak it in the same way as him (if that makes sense?)

it makes a lot of sense! and i definitely agree. i think about that all the time, how the language magnus (and warlocks in general) was raised in doesn't exist anymore. and in a way he almost envies warlocks who speak now-dead languages (like not really but there's that thought sometimes) because at least they get to keep them as they were? but with magnus he has to see his language slowly become something else, something that isn't his and that he doesn't follow because he's not at the heart of it while it changes, and it's like it slips through his fingers and is stolen away, you know? like obviously language is constantly changing and there's nothing wrong with that, but esp with magnus having little contact with speakers of his mother tongue, he's not even aware of the changes until he says something and ppl look at him weird or straight up don't understand him

and current indonesian has many words that were borrowed from english, dutch, and portuguese (source: im studying it - not because of magnus, i just heard it on a video and thought it was so beautiful and im a slut for languages - and it's easy to tell) because of colonization, so that in particular is probably what hurts the most. seeing his language slowly be morphed by the language of the ppl who claimed his land, killed and oppressed his people, tried to destroy his culture... it really fucking hurts. especially dutch, as it was his stepfather's language

so yeah he doesn't get to use his language to feel close to his culture anymore and let me tell you that really fucking breaks my heart because your language is who you are, it's how you think, it literally shapes your brain physically. even if you're fluent in other languages, it's a part of you. i can't imagine living in a world where brazilian portuguese as i know it no longer exists except for me. even the idea of like, moving to p*rtugal and speaking their portuguese instead hurts me and makes me really uneasy. so like this is such a huge loss and makes him feel even more like he's being stolen away, you know?

okay this is getting too depressing and isn't really what you asked im sorry ifnfifn

as for what i think he does to feel closer to his culture!

food. yes i've said it a thousand times before and ur probably sick to death of hearing it but what can i say, it's true. especially living in the US like disgusting sometimes i hear about the "food" my US american friends eat and im just like damn yall live like this? and not just that but US americans (and most europeans) really don't.... understand and value food in the way that other cultures do. like i think it might be the individualism inherently entrenched into most of their cultures but to me food is love and food is family, its meanings are so deep and they... don't really understand that. so keeping close to his food is important. and with magic he can even get his ingredients exactly as they used to grow there, tasting exactly the same, so he does get to keep his food

flowers. I'll forever be a slut for magnus and jasmines and the hc that they remind him of his mom? i mean jasmines are even indonesia's official national flower and it matters a lot for indonesian cultures as a whole (same source). so the smell of jasmines, growing jasmines, jasmine tea... it makes him feel like he can keep a part of her with him

tea. i know this technically falls into food but i think tea is special for him in a way that i can't really explain (possibly because i don't really like tea. or coffee for that matter which brazilians and latinos as a whole are all sluts for) because it has its own ritual, you know? the way it's made and drank, the way it's served, everything about it is very important culturally. i think it's no coincidence that magnus was drinking tea when he was being plagued by memories of his stepfather. like usually he goes for alcohol when he needs support, so why tea? i think tea provides him a comfort alcohol can't because it makes him feel close to his roots

religion/spirituality. ok admittedly i can't say a lot about this because i never identified with my family's religion and i'm far from being an expert in Hinduism or Islam, which are the two most likely religions for him to have been raised in, so jdndidnd. but since sh lore doesn't exist in Islam and magnus practices magic, Magnus couldn't be a Muslim, so i think this would be specific for the case of him being Hindu, or having an indigenous javanese religion, according to my muslim friends

but like. religious practices are definitely important community builders and carry super important cultural meanings. so i think this is another way. i know that i have quite a few hindu friends and followers, so if any of y'all want to add into this with more detail, i'd be delighted, and you're definitely all invited to weight in.

another important detail is that if magnus is hindu that adds even more layers to his relationship with flowers, as they are extremely important, especially for indonesian/balinese hindu people

music! again magic helps because with memory magic he can literally bring the sounds of the music he was raised listening to back to life, but like, traditional music styles always live on. so i think singing songs from his childhood definitely helps as well. actually, well, i think art in general falls here

obviously, visiting, since java and its culture are far from dead. it's changed, yes, and i think in that sense it's bittersweet, but there's a lot about it that still feels like home to him, not to mention indonesia still has quite a few traditional communities (although, from what i've seen, most of those are in bali, not java, and with magnus having been raised specifically in jakarta that makes it even more complicated, but also.... previously colonized cities are a weird thing. i live in the biggest city in the whole of south america and there are still plenty of traditional indigenous communities right inside the city. but i can't speak for jakarta) so he could also visit those places. and just like being in a place where everyone (or ok, almost everyone) is javanese? where so many of the small cultural things in everyday life are still present? you know? like the air feels different, it's in the way people move, gesticulate, speak (regardless of language), interact, eat. it feels like home in a way nowhere else can't and it makes him relax and feel so much more like himself, just by being there

and okay that's what i have. take this with a grain of salt as i'm latin american, not south east asian, so most of what i've said here is based on research i've done before for other asks + things i've heard from my SE Asian friends + more generic experiences with being a third worlder/previously colonized. thank you so much for that, i really loved this ask!

all the thanks to @pastaingallday for being an absolute babe with endless patience and helping me out with my muslim magnus questions. this post would probably be a mess without her <3 thank you so much baby, i love you

#magnus bane #magnus bane meta #shadowhunters #sh meta #sh #meta #ask #anonymous

16 notes · View notes

aion-rsa · 4 years ago

Text

Mortal Kombat and the Man Who Gave Sub-Zero a Soul

https://ift.tt/3rEA11N

Mortal Kombat’s Joe Taslim (aka Sub-Zero) is one of the hottest martial artists on screen right now. It’s been a decade since his breakout film The Raid took the world by storm, and Taslim has consistently delivered high-octane action with dashing panache ever since. As movie martial arts masters go, few others are on Taslim’s level. While most action stars have some martial arts training in their bag of tricks, Taslim is more invested than most.

Prior to The Raid, Taslim was a professional Judo athlete and a member of Indonesia’s National Judo team from 1997 to 2009. He won gold medals at the Southeast Asia Judo Championships and the Indonesian National Games. No other actor can boast a competitive record like this. What’s more, Taslim is also trained in Wushu and Taekwondo, and he picked up Pencak Silat for The Raid, so his combative range goes far beyond Judo throws and falls.

The Raid was a game-changer for the martial arts genre. It placed Indonesia firmly on the map when it comes to action films, delivering relentlessly unflinching action and intensely complex fight choreography, held together with a threadbare plot. If martial arts movies are compared to porn films, The Raid was hardcore. The film spawned a sequel which picked up the action right where it left off in the original. In addition to Taslim, the franchise also introduced a stable of Indonesian action stars to Hollywood including Iko Uwais (Mile 22 and the upcoming Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins) and Yayan Ruhian (Star Wars: The Force Awakens, John Wick: Chapter 3).

Taslim moved on to Hollywood too. Two years after The Raid, he landed the role of Jah in Fast & Furious 6, followed by an appearance in Star Trek Beyond. But he never abandoned his country and continued to deliver films made in Indonesia specifically for that market. Most notable was The Night Comes For Us, which reunited Taslim with Uwais. Although an Indonesian production, The Night Comes For Us gained worldwide exposure after it was picked up by Netflix. He also starred as the villain in the South Korean film, The Swordsman, and became more recognizable to Western audiences audiences by playing the conflicted Tong hitman Li Yong in the Bruce Lee inspired series, Warrior.

Now Taslim is at the forefront of another predominantly Asian cast for the new Hollywood feature film, Mortal Kombat. And he is donning yet another villain mask as Sub-Zero.

“Sub-Zero is just an amazingly powerful, iconic character,” says director Simon McQuoid. McQuoid’s film explores the inbuilt rivalry between Sub-Zero and Scorpion coming out of the original video games. The connection between Sub-Zero (real name: Bi-Han) and Scorpion delves deep into Mortal Kombat lore, and within the film, McQuoid says this is symbolized by a bloody kunai (ninja ring dagger) which plays a critical role throughout the film.

“Blood is such a [vital] ingredient in Mortal Kombat,” explains McQuoid, “but we wanted to make it feel more than just blood splurts. We wanted it to have a blood line and lineage meaning to blood as well. We liked the idea that we could tell an emotional version of that blood story.” Just like the fighting game, Mortal Kombat is evenly split between good guys and bad guys, but ultimately Sub-Zero becomes the standout villain in the film.

“Once we got Joe,” beams McQuoid, “then we knew he was going to be a pretty kick-ass character because Joe’s so fantastic.”

Den of Geek had a video chat with Joe Taslim while he was home in Indonesia.

Den of Geek: Was the Mortal Kombat video game popular in Indonesia?

Yeah, I think it was 1995 when the first one released. I was actually not in the capital. I was born on the small island in South Sumatra, in Palembang, that’s my home city. So, I remember when the game came out and people talked about the game because it’s unusual because it was so violent. And it’s still violent now. So it was popular until now. But unfortunately, MK11 got banned because Indonesia is very sensitive of the violence level in that game where it’s just like funny now. The censorship here is like, “Oh, this is too much for Indonesia, so probably not.” So a lot of people played the game by downloading it. They know how to do it.

Did you play?

I played MK11, MKXL, yeah.

What challenged you the most about taking on Sub-Zero?

Well, the fans know Sub-Zero is badass, kick-ass, so much swagger, and a lot of attitude. But as an actor, the challenge for me to be in his shoes is to give him more soul, to give more heart, to make this character live. The fight is a visual. People enjoy the fight. But to bring people to feel inside the fight is something else, it means that you got to give more. You got to give the intention. You got to give a story, without delivering any lines, that people can see. Is he losing? Or does he know he’s going to die? Or is he very confident?

Jet Li did an amazing job in his movies to deliver those attitudes—the story of the fight. So I learned from him and I learned from The Raid, The Night Comes for Us, and I just bring everything to Mortal Kombat. There’s a lot of stories in that final fight. You can see the character is just dynamic—what he’s feeling, the way he fights, he’s just getting slower and slower. He’s just catching his breath.

So that’s the most important thing in fights, in my opinion. Because a lot of people think a fight scene needs to be badass, kick-ass. That’s number two. But number one is you got to be inside the shoes and know what’s going on inside this character first. Then when you visualize the fight, it makes sense.

How was it working with the mask?

Ooh. Well, it took me a while to adapt because it’s a heavy costume. And the mask, kind of like, well I have the mask. [Taslim holds up his Sub-Zero mask]

Ooh.

Well, the awkward thing about the mask, because when you move, the mask doesn’t move because it was a solid mask. So it was quite technical. If I have to move really fast, sometimes my face moves with like a delay. You see the mask kind of follow in slow-mo. We did a lot with this—put a lot of straps here just to make when I move really fast, so the mask could follow. A lot of technical stuff happened in the process, but yeah, it was a fun journey to just discover the best look, the best fit for the mask, the costume for me to be able to fight the best.

How was your experience fighting with all those special effects?

I think this is my first [movie] that involved the supernatural. The superpower stuff in previous movies, it was like a man versus a man or a man versus five men. But in this one, a lot of imagination is involved for sure. I’m glad I’m a gamer myself. I played a lot. I’m used to being a daydreamer. I’m still daydreaming until now. I have this mind that I like to have fun with. So during the shooting [when] it’s involving something they’re going to add in post, they ask me just to imagine, which I love imagining things.

I had so much fun just imagining the sword and creating the icicle—the ice sword—because it wasn’t there. Everything is in post. So I was just like, “Sure, believe that it’s there. It’s there.” You don’t see it, but I know it’s there. When the camera captured that moment, and if I believe in it, then I think everybody’s going to believe in it as well.

Movies

Mortal Kombat: The Challenges of Making the Movie Reboot

By Gene Ching

Movies

Mortal Kombat: Why the Movie Created New Main Character Cole Young

By Gene Ching

I really loved your role in The Swordsman. And I got to be honest with you, because I’ve been following you, and I was surprised that I didn’t recognize you for quite a long time in this film.

Really?

It wasn’t until I recognized your eyebrows. You’re playing a lot of villains now. Do you like playing villains?

I was a good guy in The Raid and The Night Comes for Us, but yeah. Playing villains is interesting. Because as an actor, you know when you play a villain role, almost there’s no limitation because there’s no rules. [There’s no] you cannot do this, you cannot do that, because you’re the protagonist. “You have to speak this way because you cannot be evil when you speak—you’ve got to be polite.”

When you play a villain, there’s so much freedom. In The Swordsman, I remember I had so much freedom. And the director, he was just like, “What do you think about the role?” I say, “I don’t want to sound like this. I’m going to change my voice.” I’m going to do that because he’s a nomad and he’s from Qing dynasty. He’s Manchurian, and their language is like almost from the throat. I want to deliver that. I want people to see that genetically, when people speak through the throat, they’re going to sound different.

So all those freedoms that you have as an actor, and the director gave you the freedom to do those stuff, it’s a blessing. Because it’s just so easy for the director to just say “no,” and now you’re in trouble. And you’re just a puppet. “Do this, go there from there. And don’t smile. Don’t do anything.” That’s the nightmare for an actor to work in that condition.

How was it for Mortal Kombat? Were you given a lot of leeway with Sub-Zero?

A lot! Simon [McQuoid], he’s amazing. With almost everything, we’re on the same page. I came up to him almost every morning because we stayed in the same hotel, and he’s actually on the same floor with me. So before, I bothered him a lot. And I know he was busy. I need to ask something. I want to do this. I want to do that. I want to have this layer of him when he’s doing this, he’s doing that. So he was like, “Do that. I love it. It’s brilliant. We’re on the same page.” So it reached the point, I think half of the movie, he just looked at me, I just looked at him. Sometimes we just looked at each other, and we understand we’re on the same page. It was a beautiful relationship with him.

Do you feel that you captured Sub-Zero in a way that you wanted to represent him? Was he a character that you played when you played the game?

Probably different because in a game, people probably like more Kuai Liang, the brother. I think the Mortal Kombat 11, it’s more about Kuai Liang [the original Sub-Zero’s brother], and Bi-Han’s already a new cyborg. But I’m happy with what I saw. I’m happy that this anti-hero character, even though it’s a very thin layer here and there, but I gave it on screen. I gave [a lot to] Bi-Han/Sub-Zero. And probably people don’t know, but there are a lot of layers that I gave to this character. People need to see the pain of him. In the beginning of the fight, when he’s inside the house, for me, I look at this boy and it reminds me of my brother, Kuai Liang. That’s why I smile at him.

And then I just realized that my destiny for this family is to wipe them all. So those small thin layers here and there that I gave in this character, it’s there. They didn’t cut it. Everything is there. I’m so happy that I know when people watch it the second time, they will probably pick up a little bit of that here and there.

I remember Jax—Mehcad [Brooks]—said “You’re a bad guy. You killed a boy. But somehow I feel you. Somehow, I feel so weird, but I feel empathy for your character.” And then I was like, “Okay, that’s it. That’s the goal. That’s what I wanted to do.” Because Sub-Zero/Bi-Han is a dark character. But tragic things happened to him when he was a kid. He got abducted. It’s by force, to become an assassin, to be part of Lin Kuei assassins, because he didn’t choose that path.

It was destiny [that chose to put him on] that path. And then for him, well, while a lot of people probably look for the light, he is just the kind of person to say, “It’s too late. I’m just going to be who I am.”

Mortal Kombat premieres in theaters and on HBO Max on April 23, 2021

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

The post Mortal Kombat and the Man Who Gave Sub-Zero a Soul appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3aqWgCG

#aion-rsa #Den of Geek

2 notes · View notes

rukia-kuchiki-divided · 5 years ago

Text

THE POSITIVE & NEGATIVE; Mun & Muse - Meme.

fill out & repost ♥ This meme definitely favors canons more, but I hope OC’s still can make it somehow work with their own lore, and lil’ fandom of friends & mutuals. Multi-Muses pick the muse you are the most invested in atm. image:

My muse is: canon / oc / au / canon-divergent / fandomless /

Is your character popular in the fandom? YES / NO. Is your character considered hot™ in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. (It depends? I think she’s gorgeous lol) Is your character considered strong in the fandom? YES / NO / IDK. (She should be and I’ll fight anyone that says otherwise) Are they underrated? YES / NO. Were they relevant for the main story? YES / NO. Were they relevant for the main character? YES / NO / THEY’RE THE PROTAG. (cue argument that Ichigo and Rukia are two halves of a main protag) Are they widely known in their world? YES / NO. How’s their reputation? GOOD / BAD / NEUTRAL. How strictly do you follow canon? — I follow canon pretty much up to the last few chapters (although I do rp the ending ship as well) so it’s really flexible within canon. Ichiruki is my OTP but RenRuki is my second favorite. I do not believe Rukia would have been fine with everything going back to “status quo” in the Soul Society so that’s where I refuse to follow canon at all.

SELL YOUR MUSE! Aka try to list everything, which makes your muse interesting in your opinion to make them spicy for your mutuals. — Rukia is one of the most selfless characters in this series. She would not hesitate to risk her life to save a stranger. She doesn’t tolerate bullying or any abuse of power. Frequently she puts the needs of others above her own. Rukia takes her duties as a soul reaper very seriously but is not a blind rule follower. If a rule doesn’t match her morals, she’ll ignore it. She’ll come across like a noble (because she technically is one by adoption) but she can go from sipping plum wine elegantly in a super expensive silk kimono that will take your breath away to pickpocketing your valuables, sweeping your legs out from under you and fighting dirty. Can you ask for more?

Now the OPPOSITE, list everything why your muse could not be so interesting (even if you may not agree, what does the fandom perhaps think?). — Well she’s not particularly striking physically. She’s very small and doesn’t look very intimidating. Rukia is also not very friendly naturally. This doesn’t mean she’s rude, she just doesn’t let very many people into her inner circle. She’s not very physically affectionate with those outside her group and is a little awkward with receiving it from others. Also while Rukia doesn’t lie, she would say somewhat neutral things rather than hurt someone’s feelings. I think some of the fandom might think she’s weak and constantly just getting rescued by someone stronger than her, I severely disagree with this (and have words for Kubo about that). Her bankai I think is one of the most powerful but in a quiet way. (No one else has to actually die for the bankai, do they? Yeah, she’s bad ass.)

What inspired you to rp your muse? — When I first started watching Bleach, I connected with Rukia instantly on a very personal level. I loved everything about her and she resonated with me a lot. I feel like I can understand her easily and it just flowed. When I first joined the RPC, there was no question as to which character I would be doing. She’s the only one I’ve very really roleplayed. I cosplay her at cons and I just love everything about her, flaws and all.

What keeps your inspiration going? — Honestly, that connection did not waver, even during my hiatus. I love the fan art and fan fics, head canons, etc. I love exploring her character and developing her beyond what Kubo gave us.

Some more personal questions for the mun.

Give your mutuals some insight about the way you are in some matters, which could lead them to get more comfortable with you or perhaps not.

Do you think you give your character justice? YES / NO. ( I hope) Do you frequently write headcanons? YES / NO. (YES and I love it) Do you sometimes write drabbles? YES / NO. Do you think a lot about your Muse during the day? YES / NO. Are you confident in your portrayal? YES / NO. (sometimes?) Are you confident in your writing? YES / NO. (sometimes?) Are you a sensitive person? YES / NO. Do you accept criticism well about your portrayal? — ahh so I take criticism super personally even when I know it’s not meant so I guess it depends on the delivery? I will probably mull it over for a few days before the sting is gone. So if you have some, just be nice? lol

Do you like questions, which help you explore your character? — YES YES YES! I absolutely love head canons and questions that make me think about what my character would do or think. I welcome them all the time and I don’t care how silly or obscure they may sound so send them my way!

If someone disagrees to a headcanon of yours, do you want to know why? — Sure. I mean, if it’s just a difference on opinion without much fact to back either one, then it’s probably just going to be an agree to disagree. But if it’s something that they have more information on that refutes something I said (like canon evidence), please share! It could be that I didn’t know or we interpreted it differently. I welcome that kind of debate or conversation.

If someone disagrees with your portrayal, how would you take it? — I mean, everyone is entitled to their opinion and I certainly don’t believe everyone has to like my way of writing Rukia. If they don’t like it, I would probably just say they can ignore it or unfollow (because why would you follow me if you don’t like what I write? I mean, come on.)

If someone really hates your character, how do you take it? — Well, if it’s like they just can’t stand my character at all, again... you can unfollow me anytime? Why would you follow an rp blog of a character you dislike so strongly? I mean, I don’t mind anyone following me if they keep it to themselves but if someone is going to be upset anytime they see my writing or my character on their dash, doesn’t it make sense to not follow? I’m not sure what the purpose of this question is but again, everyone is entitled to their own opinions.

Are you okay with people pointing out your grammatical errors? — So I’m human like anyone else. Sometimes I’m typing on my phone, sometimes I’m typing really fast, sometimes I’m distracted by my toddler or work. I don’t mind gentle corrections but if I feel that I have to proofread my threads or posts before posting them because of someone pointing out errors, it’s really going to make me hesitant to write. So I guess what I’m saying is if you want do so kindly and every so often, that’s fine but if you get to be a stickler about it, it’s going to make me less likely to interact with you.

Do you think you are easy going as a mun? — I would like to think I am? This is probably a better question for my partners but I don’t think I’m too strict?

That’s about it, congrats for filling out! tagged by @bleachintothemultiverse Tagging: @wild-pineapple-butt, @nightbeat-cat, @deivorous, @toomanydamnmuses, @glacies-tempestatem, @t-hitsugaya, @toshiro-hitsugaya, and anyone else that wants to do this lol

#rukiakuchikidivided #dash memes #~this was fun #~lol

9 notes · View notes

thewakingcloak · 5 years ago

Text

ProtoDungeon: Episode II

(Quasi)Daily Updates Thus Far

Hey all!

ProtoDungeon Episode II (TWC prequel) is coming along nicely, and I’m building out a lot of vital systems for it, future episodes, and The Waking Cloak. I also began a sort-of-daily update on the Discord server that I’ve been meaning to post here but keep forgetting to because I am a scattered, scattered person.

Anyway, uh, yeah, there are a lot of these, lol. I’ll try to post these more regularly in the future, but I hope this is fun and informative for those of you who like reading weirdly specific details about gamedev.

Daily Update - May 24, 2019

Summing up what I've already done before today: -Ring mechanics are done -Day, night, and light sensors are done (though don't have any art) -Created an object that will switch day/night

Today: - Reworking my "interaction" code so that you stop walking after interacting with something during the walk state.

Daily Update - May 25, 2019 -Finally resolved the "interact" code by adding a new player state. Now the player actually stops when interacting with objects instead of just walking into them the whole time. -Fixed a small bug where dialogue boxes would show up with the first message already "fast-forwarded" to the end with no sound. -Started working on polishing up the day/night switcher object (this is what the interact code was for). Should be important in this dungeon since the player won't have the cloak!

Daily Update - May 26, 2019 -I tend to take Sundays easy. I worked on a bed sprite for like ten minutes though!

Daily Update - May 27, 2019 -Added the ring and its upgrades to the test room! We're now technically ready for super early patron alpha testing, which I'll put up sometime in the secret patron channel in the next few days!

Daily Update - May 28, 2019 -Set up the Itch build for pre-alpha patron testing -Worked on figuring out how to clarify the day/night and ring mechanics, visually -Began sketching out dungeon layout, now that I have mechanics set (as opposed to Episode I where I had to retrofit my design a few times after it was mostly done).

Daily Update - May 30, 2019 -Finished the rough draft of the dungeon layout!!!

Daily Update - May 31, 2019 -Finished the second draft of the dungeon map, including several more detailed rooms with puzzle designs

Daily Update - June 1, 2019 - Finished the THIRD draft of the dungeon map, think I've finally got the layout and puzzle locations pretty much settled (it's been a toughie with day/night/dayshift/nightshift)

Daily Update - June 3, 2019 -Updated level 2 of the Ring of Starlight to generate two blocks instead of one block with a dayshift/nightshift effect. This is like what was originally level 3, except the blocks will move in sync with each other -Changed the ring upgrade descriptions. I'm going to try for a more lore-based, somewhat poetic approach for these over a mechanical explanation. (Level 3 is obviously a temporary description) -Pushed the build up to Itch as v0.3.0

For those of you who have access to the pre-alpha and are using the Itch client, updating should be very easy! However, since something got renamed somewhere along the line, you will most likely have to remove the previous version of the game if you don't want it to ask you to select your version when launching the game. I don't think this will happen again... probably. :) I'm still working on the level 3 mechanic, also.

Daily Update - June 5, 2019 -Decided on new lvl3 of the ring -Fixed blocks so they now fall into pits. Long live the king. -Updated Itch app to v0.3.1

Daily Update - June 7, 2019 -Added level 3 of the ring. -Fixed a bug where pushable blocks couldn't be pushed. You had one job, pushable blocks. -Fixed a bug where the player wouldn't fall into a pit after swapping with something that's over the pit. -Fixed a bug where the synced level 2 ring block would not collide with objects when starting from "rest".

Daily Update - June 8, 2019 -Fixed bug where the dialogue box would crash sometimes. I fixed this bug before. I don't know why it came back. The code I used to fix it was gone. Will keep an eye on this code to see if it disappears again. -Updated HUD to display ring and ring level instead of scroll and swap spell level. -Fixed the controls. Space was mapped to both item "A" and item "B", and apparently it doesn't work that way when the item isn't mapped to both slots :P -Fixed a bug where the game would be very, very tiny if it was not in focus when starting in fullscreen mode. I commented out a line of code when updating the application surface resizing and forgot to uncomment it. -Updated v0.3.9 to Itch -Started work on the next draft of the dungeon sketch now that the ring mechanic has been finalized wooooo

Daily Update - June 12, 2019 -Competed new draft of the dungeon, pretty happy with this one. I'll just need to work in the puzzles and make sure the dungeon graph (a la GMTK Boss Keys) works out so players can't get stuck. -Fixed an issue where you could push blocks past the edge of the screen (and a related one where when you tried to do that, you would keep moving through the block while the block stayed still). -Fixed an issue where you could create blocks on top of each other.

Daily Update - June 14, 2019 -Started working on Tiled draft of dungeon -Began experimenting with larger default room sizes. One aspect I liked from Blossom Tales. Still keeping rooms, of course, since that's what counterintuitively makes an overworld feel big, but bumping up their width/height by about 50% each makes them feel that much larger and explorationy. -Updated test room to new room size. -Uploaded v0.3.12 to Itch, which includes the new room size, as well as the fixed bugs from the June 12 daily update

Daily Update - June 16, 2019 -Continued working on Tiled draft of dungeon. Slow work at this stage, but I believe the overall layout is complete. -Started laying out my sticky note version of the dungeon and puzzles. Lots has changed since last time I built puzzles for this dungeon, so reworking it has been fun.

Trying to decide whether the blocks should stay put when you move out the room, or disappear like the Cane of Somaria. Persistent blocks would make for some interesting puzzles.

Also trying to decide how the overworld will map down to the dungeon, since some of the dungeon rooms are a bit small and constrained. I'd like them to line up. Might still make them the same size as the overworld rooms, just with long connecting bits.

Daily Update - June 18, 2019 -Puzzle design is done! -Tiled map draft is coming along much faster now that I know what to fill the rooms with. Already making tweaks to the puzzles (and I'll certainly make more tweaks when building in GameMaker, just how it goes)

Daily Update - June 19, 2019 -Tiled map draft is almost done! Getting verrrry close now.

Daily Update - June 21, 2019 -Tiled map draft is COMPLETE!!!

Daily Update - June 23, 2019 -The actual dungeon in GameMaker is underway and making quick progress. Already improving on the Tiled map, I think! Could be done with the graybox and have it playable for patrons by the end of the week--stay tuned. Lemony Snicket voice "Graybox" here means "with crappy programmer art and white/black tiles"

Daily Update - June 24, 2019 -Made major headway on the dungeon in GameMaker. Very close to wrapping up the graybox tiles, and I've made a bunch of refinements to the existing layout and puzzles!

Daily Update - June 26, 2019 -Layout and graybox tiles are done -Colliders are done -Cliffs are done -Stairs are done -Pits are done -Item upgrades are placed -Some keys are placed -Buttons are placed (not hooked up yet)

Quasidaily Update - June 27, 2019 -Worked on hooking up buttons and bridges and simplified the lvl1 ring room (for me, should be about the same for the player)

Quasidaily Update - June 28, 2019 -Finished doors and hooked up buttons -Fixed various puzzles and rooms that weren't working correctly

Quasidaily Update - June 39, 2019 -Finished the ladder! -Finished bridge collision -Completed... the trap room -Hooked up the doors/buttons I missed (pretty easy to find since I use a red color blend on the offending buttons ingame) I... uh... am just gonna leave that as the 39th Very very close to alpha now, unless those two bugs end up just crushing me

Quasidaily Update - July 1, 2019 -Added day/night blocks -Added a missing teleporter (int/ext door) -Fixed one of the two softlocking bugs (in about 5 minutes)!

Remaining before patron alpha release: -Secret thing -Second bug -Verification that the dungeon is playable from start to finish

Quasidaily Update - July 2, 2019 -The second bug is technically fixed, but it's pretty janky and unpolished. I'll keep working on this tomorrow. -Cleaned up and optimized the block pushing check logic, which had all kinds of duplicate collision checks and wack timers being set all over the place

Quasidaily Update - July 3, 2019 -Finally fixed the second bug. This was a block syncing/pushing issue that would've prevented everyone from completing the dungeon -Began testing the dungeon's playability from beginning to end. Ran into a few more things I fixed: -Added a level 3 ring upgrade description since it actually does something now -Some bridges were missing pits under them, so you could walk across even if the bridge wasn't activated. -Discovered the level 1 and 2 ring blocks don't fall in pits anymore. Oops. Gotta fix this still. Quasidaily Update - July 3, 2019 PART 2 -The dungeon is playable from start to end (except you can't get in the final room yet, but that's a quick fix) -Hooked up MORE buttons/doors that I had missed -Replaced/moved the keys around--I think this will be much more satisfying now -Added the method to get to t h e s e c r e t Pretty pleased with it this time around--I think it's even more cryptic and fun to discover ehehehe "ehehehe" is to be read with a witch's voice

Quasidaily Update - July 4, 2019 -Tweaked t h e s e c r e t entrance ほほほ -Worked on t h e s e c r e t puzzles.... they're pretty devious お~~ほほほ

Quasidaily Update - July 5, 2019 -Fixed broken challenge puzzle. -Fixed bug with lv1 and lv2 ring mechanics--they weren't falling down pits anymore. That just makes this game way too easy. -Fixed a bug with lv3 ring blocks that was also breaking the challenge puzzle -Added some tiles to cover up my greybox "answers" -This wraps up all the changes for alpha. We'll go live with the alpha for patrons early tomorrow!

Quasidaily Update - July 6, 2019 -Released the patron alpha! Woohoo! Rali has been enjoying it at least/ -Released v0.4.2 update: -Fixed two unmarked pits. Kinda sucks to fall into the solid ground. -Game Over now resets only the player, not the entire game.

Quasidaily Update - July 7, 2019 -Released v0.4.4 update: -Added collision around water bridges so you can't walk on or get trapped on the water... -Removed a call to GMLive that may be causing a crash on the PlayerEquipmentRingState script.

Quasidaily Update - July 7, 2019 PART DOS Released v0.4.10 update: -Removed "You got a key!" text because... well, it should be obvious. -Do not freeze player on headstone moving. -Fix stutter when a level 0 equipped item is "used." -Made it so you can't push jars and blocks up stairs. They are TOO HEAVY. -Added an escape route to the challenge room so you don't have to throw yourself in a pit to get back to the start if you get stuck. It doubles as a "skip" for one of the puzzles once it has been opened. -Fixed challenge room exit so you don't get trapped. :)

Quasidaily Update - July 9, 2019 -Fixed colors on the east/west player "use ring" sprite so that the night palette shader doesn't miss it (meaning it would render her skin in the day palette) -Updated teleporters to use channel strings so I don't have to manually set the target coordinates for ALL THE TELEPORTERS AAAAAAAH. -Oh, and yeah, most importantly: released v0.5.0 update! Completed dungeon remodel!! It uses the build-a-final-key method like in Episode I. This allowed me to make the dungeon a bit less linear. It also meant I knocked down a wall or two, added another puzzle or two, and all around made something I'm much more satisfied with.

Quasidaily Update - July 10, 2019 Released v0.5.5 update! -Fixed a crash when attempting to push arrows (read: moving toward an arrow while it's trying to kill you). -Toned down the arrow knockback effect -Fixed awkward/slow interaction with arrows knocking you into pits -Shortened room respawn freeze time -Fixed a bug where the player could walk directly into the arrow and avoid taking damage. Pretty sure that's not how arrows work (this was related to the pushing bug above!).

Quasidaily Update - July 11, 2019 -Starting to place actual tiles over the greybox tiles and gosh it's nice to have real art.

Quasidaily Update - July 12, 2019 -Majority of the final tiles have been placed and it looks great. I still need to make a few interior wall sets and a handful of floor tiles. It really brings the dungeon to life

Quasidaily Update - July 14, 2019 -Released v0.6.0!!! I'm very excited about this one because it's the first of the graphics updates. The majority of the basic final tiles have been placed. There are more graphics updates to come (which you'll note if you play this version), but is the biggest of 'em. Looks great in day and night!

Quasidaily Update - July 15, 2019 -Added new one-way-jump wall tiles -Completed secret room tiles and decorations -Added lighter tall grass

Quasidaily Update - July 16, 2019 -Today was a writing day, mainly. I'd like to have the little snippets of dialogue and bookshelves and so on done in a day or two. It's exciting stuff, showing off the tips of all these icebergs. -Last night I pushed v0.6.4, an update that had lots of good graphics updates. Except I forgot to replace the player back at the start of the level after testing, so neipo had some fun times starting at the END of the level. Fixed and uploaded in v0.6.5!

More! -Uploaded v0.6.6 in which I fixed an arrow issue that I already fixed previously. Except, I had only fixed it for ProtoDungeon I. Which is why @neipo13 ran into it to my great confusion.

More!!! Uploaded v0.6.8: -Fixed one of the lvl3 ring puzzles so it didn't have a ridiculously easy solution (thanks for finding that, neipo). -Fixed description of round key.

Quasidaily Update - July 17, 2019 I intended to do some writing today, but I got more excited about something else.... sooooo, cue the upload of v0.6.13 - The Optimization Patch! - in which the average framerate on my dev laptop is now 260fps up from 120fps. -Moved the half-speed/GIF mode to only be available in debug mode (this was "G" on the keyboard, so people could just press it and not be sure why the game was running so badly). -Scott's [regular & mod on the server] lappy had major framerate issues running the game, so I did some optimization and found out the pits were accounting for 50% of the time of every single frame. The best part: they only needed to run the offending code ONCE. So I moved that code from the step event to a one-time event and voila, framerate is way more stable. -Turned off GMLive entirely and added an easy toggle for me. This is very useful during development, but it likes to make lots of calls when turned on. -Updated the "listener" step event, which was setting a blend mode every single step. In debugger mode, this is so that stuff like buttons and doors turn red if they're not hooked up. Otherwise it "unsets" the blend mode by setting it to -1 every single step (regardless of debug mode). Apparently this has some unexpected overhead, even if the blend mode is ALREADY -1. A quick and easy fix. -Swapped out the existing (non-moving) tombstone objects for different objects. Almost all of the tombstones were instances of the same object as the ones that move, but that came with a lot of additional overhead (my "listener" object still accounts for a lot of time because it's doing some checking with ds_lists every frame for every listener object; the moving tombstones have listeners, the normal tombstones do not). They're behaving themselves now.

Quasidaily Update - July 18, 2019 Uploaded v0.6.14! -Fixed up collision in the secret room -Finished secret room lore dialogue

There's still more writing to do for the headstones, bookshelves, and a certain NPC who isn't in the game yet, but yeah! Getting there!

Quasidaily Update - July 20, 2019 Over the last day or two, I've slowed down a lot--think I'm getting close to burning out, plus not certain I'm satisfied with the story implementation thus far in Episode II (am I too obscure? Revealing too much? Will people care? etc). That said, I've gotten some stuff done, and uploaded v0.6.19 -Fixed some borked collision near the hut (thanks for finding that, Rali) -Fixed tombstones so they could display text -Added text to various tombstones >:) (and bookshelves) -Fixed the interaction check so that you don't interact with objects to the north of you when facing to the east or west.

Today I switched gears and created a batch file that could compile an executable without even opening GameMaker!! This is actually pretty exciting. I could almost, at this point, switch completely to GMEdit, which is significantly faster and more intuitive tham GM workspaces. Oh, and the batch file also uploads the compiled exe to Itch

Quasidaily Update - July 20, 2019 I decided to switch gears again and work on the save game feature. Not done yet, but it IS saving the player/inventory objects, and I'm setting it up to be pretty easily able to take in any set of objects, auto-read all their variables, and set 'em.

Quasidaily Update - July 22, 2019 Been working on the ol' save system still. It's going well. I had to fight a bit with my camera system (like always lol), and now I'm making sure the ring blocks properly reset--currently they crash the game which isn't quite right...

The system as planned for PDII will essentially be an autosave that triggers on entrance of each room. When loading the game, all solved puzzles should remain solved, and ring blocks should remain in place, and you'll appear at the entrance of whatever room you exited the game from. At some point in a later episode I'll include slots and specific save points not unlike bonfires from Dark Souls

Quasidaily Update - July 23, 2019 Saving and Loading Continued Cleaned up the loading--it would snap you back to the load point and the camera had trouble keeping up. Now it's a nice, clean fade transition with no camera moving around.

What's left: -Properly saving blocks and other puzzle elements. Currently it, uh, duplicates them? So that's nice. -For some reason, the ring itself disappears when you reload the game -Need to set up the fadeout transition so it finishes before puzzle elements get reset and the time of day changes -Set up an autosave on room enter -You can actually get stuck in the first ring room by crossing a bridge and having that bridge disappear behind you, then quitting and loading your save. I'm trying to think of a good way to solve it now and in the future without making it easy to miss setting up something manually.

Quasidaily Update - July 25, 2019 Moar Savingz Ring blocks are finally managing their own order, and it's wayyyyy more stable and uses a ton less code than before. Previously, during the player's "use ring" state, it would call the inventory manager to update the order of the blocks, which it stored in two variables. It worked, but occasionally the order would get really weird and so on, plus it was going to be a nightmare for reloading. The problem is that the inventory manager was holding the ring block IDs in those two variables, and IDs are not guaranteed to be the same on re-run.

Solution: ring blocks get an integer variable that stores their order, called order. When a ring block is created, it tells the other block to update its order. If that order is already 2, destroy it. Simple, and easy to save since it's an int.

In a pre-quasidaily update today Daniel learns why his ring blocks aren't loading They are And then they're instantly destroying themselves Because of the code he wrote To tell them to destroy themselves Thank you

Quasidaily Update - July 26, 2019 Uploaded v0.6.22, possibly the final 0.6 version since saving is coming sooooooooooon. BUT. Here's what you guys get: -Fixed some more collisions near the hut (seriously, did I move that entire room over one tile somehow) -Allow jumping off ANY ledge (WOOO) -Fixed occasional crash when creating ring blocks

The save/load system is working also, but not available outside of debug mode yet! As far as I can tell everything is saving and loading properly as expected. There are a couple places you can save scum past, and I have a few ideas for handling those, but that probably won't be something I deal with for a bit. However, the player is not currently able to save or load (unless they're in debug mode, as mentioned), which leads me to the next major update I will be working on: M E N U S and O P T I O N S

Quasidaily Update - July 27, 2019 I'm 25 minutes through a 70 minute series by FriendlyCosmonaut on a menu system. This is a lot lol.

In the process, I did a little bit of reworking/cleaning on my controls system. I now have some global variables that hold all the currently configured controls, instead of hardcoding the controls into the input manager. This was in preparation to allow control remapping!

Quasidaily Update - July 30, 2019 Been quiet for a few days--hard at work on the new menu system. This one is a doozy, you guys. I haven't done this much straight code on the TWC "engine" since Episode I.... maybe even longer.

Finished the FriendlyCosmonaut series, which was a great foundation. Now I'm building off it (and trying to get tons of parts of it to actually work still). I'd ideally like to have it look a lot like the old mockup from my blog post on difficulty settings (many of those difficulty settings will not be used in ProtoDungeon or TWC).

Here's what I got so far. Still a lot of the FriendlyCosmonaut design in this, which is good, but doesn't quite fit with this game.

brightness/contrast do nothing, window actually works pretty well--unless you change the smoothing size, in which case it starts acting up...

vsync.... I think works? I haven't even tried toggling screenshake I want to use the "bouncing arrows" style from the mockup instead of color, fix the on/off to use arrows instead, fix the sliders so they use pixel arrows instead of drawn circles.... so much left to dooooo I just have to remember it was loading a black screen this morning

Quasidaily Update - August 7, 2019 Been alternating between taking breaks and working furiously on menu stuff, as you can see with screenshots.

Spending a lot of time on remapping. There's a lot to polish here, stuff you might not think about on first glance (What happens if a key is already mapped to another? Do you handle the menu not closing while you're remapping the menu key? Do you handle the menu so it doesn't navigate when mapping the back key? Do you include primary and secondary control sets, and if so, how do you display that clearly? Etc.)

Not all these questions have difficult answers, but they add up. So that's basically all I've been working on for the past week or so :)

Today I got the gamepad up and running and the secondary control set as well. I forgot how good it feels to play the game with a controller vs a keyboard. My wife happily exclaimed "You're playing with a controller!" :D

The secondary control set was a back and forth decision. The deciding factor was mainly wanting to ease the initial "time to start" for different players--so you can move with WASD and the arrow keys, or with the dpad and the stick. I have a pretty good idea how the UI will work for this too, so now that the gamepad is working, I'm gonna start on the secondary controls.

Quasidaily Update - August 11, 2019 -Primary and secondary gamepad button remapping are working -Got some cool new gamepad icons, improved thanks to Corvos -Fixed the menu so you couldn't close it on the menu page when starting the game -Added a second, ingame menu with resume/settings/save & quit as options -The new menu will pause all "actors" (objects with states) -Fixed a bug where the secondary gamepad right input was not mapped

Quasidaily Update - August 13, 2019 -"Defaults" option now works for keyboard and gamepad -Fixed an issue where you couldn't remap some of the secondary keyboard inputs (broke it with the gamepad remapping). -Fixed an issue with the menu arrow being in the wrong place (broke it with the gamepad remapping). -Removed light blue coloring on selected menu items. Judging by other menus, arrow seems to be enough by itself. -When remapping, the current selected control will now blink instead of remaining static. -Made sliders more usable--it wasn't really possible to move them 1% at a time, which was unwieldy and annoying. Now they have a "ramping" speed and are much easier to control.

Quasidaily Update - August 13, 2019, Part II -Toned down the strength of the brightness slider just a bit. -Updated the shaders to affect the GUI as well as the game. This should include the menu as well as the HUD, the dialogue box, and, in TWC, the inventory screen. I kinda like this. We'll see if it bothers people. :D

Quasidaily Update - August 17, 2019 -Fixed an issue with menu sliders not being drawn when the shader is applying to GUI elements. Turns out the built-in line drawing doesn't pass texture information to the shader. At this point I'm not sure how to configure the shader correctly, so I just made the lines into sprites instead lol. -Added title to the top-level menu! Yay! -Fixed game loading so it would load the correct room (both GameMaker room and in-game "area"). -Autosave the game on room entrance. -Autosave the game on getting an item (this way you can't cheese certain rooms). At this point, playing the game, quitting, and coming. back to continue is working REALLY WELL. -No longer save "region" (rooms in the game) objects, since these get created and setup perfectly fine on room creation. -Added SOME SECRETS YAY! -Autosave the game on "teleporting"--going through doors, up/down stairs, etc. -Fixed the "circle out" transition, which was apparently not working or used anywhere. -Changed all "teleportation" to use circle-in/circle-out transitions--a little less visually jarring and much nicer looking than a fade-to-wipe-from-center.

Quasidaily Update - August 19, 2019 -Added tiny pause in the middle of the teleportation transition so that it's a bit less jarring -Simultaneously, allowed toggle to camera easing so that I don't have to add fragile pauses to loading and certain transitions and so on (to wait for the camera to finish moving to catch up with the player loaded position). This fixed a small camera jerk when loading the game. This will eventually be an option on the menu for those that don't like the easing (and also because turning off subpixels makes camera easing REALLY BAD). -Fixed issue with audio groups not loading (by loading them, wow). This is probably temporary since next big task is to add the Wandersong audio engine, but the fix let me actually see my debug messages instead of spamming "Audio Group 2 is not loaded" whenever a sound is played lol. -Fixed bug with loading the game on a teleporter (doors, stairs, etc.) where it would immediately take you to the target location. This had multiple parts, but namely 1) just making sure to set the global "isLoading" flag and to not teleport during that, and 2) setting the "isLoading" flag earlier, since the teleporters were faster than my load manager lol. -Fixed "New Game" issue where it would fade to black, start the game, and then fade to black again. Turns out if you call "fade out" twice, it will fade out twice.

#gamedev #indiedev #devlog #devblog #game development #The Waking Cloak #prequel #ProtoDungeon

42 notes · View notes

weirdmarioenemies · 6 years ago

Photo

Name: Ink Theory

Debut: Splatoon 2

You know, for all the months I’ve been writing for weirdsplatooncharacters.deviantart.gov, I’m surprised it took me this long to get to my absolute favorite Weird Splatoon Characters, Ink Theory! Now, as we all know, it is a scientifically proven fact that Splatoon music slaps. Anyone who’s played Splatoon knows that, and anyone who disagrees is a coward who has never heard of taste. How disappointing!

But can you boil down music that slaps to a science? In-universe, the band Ink Theory decided to put that to the test, blending “academic music theory with modern sensibilities” to create what, in theory, should be the jamminest music of all! So what does the jamminest music of all entail?

youtube

Being able to shred a trumpet, apparently! I did not know that was possible, but then I played Splatoon 2, and learned that everything is possible. That’s Great!

Some people, again, cowards who have never heard of taste, might say this music sounds bad, but personally this is my favorite music in the game! I love the diversity of the Splatoon soundtrack, and I love the absolute chaos that seems to unfold whenever one of these tracks is playing. Is it just me, or are matches where Broken Coral plays the most chaotic matches of them all? And by extension, the best matches?

I am glad that Splatoon has frantic jazz tracks, and even more glad that there’s a canon in-universe band that produces these frantic jazz tracks, and even MORE glad that said jazz band consists of six lesbians. Don’t believe me?

Well then believe this Splatoon art posted on Valentine’s Day! That’s an entire day dedicated to romance! We have a whole triple date worth of lesbians here! It’s weird, there was an entire Nintendo Direct on that day, featuring Mario Maker 2 and a new Weird Mario Enemy, and yet somehow, this image is what stood out to me the most.

But enough talking about the band as a whole! Let’s talk about the six individual members, because they each have a whole lot more to talk about. All of this is under the cut!

Name: Yoko

As the band’s trumpet player, and focus of their sound, Yoko serves as the band’s frontman, though, from what I can gather through “translating her bio in google translate,” her relationship with the other members of the band is a little bit distant. In fact, it’s not just that, it seems she just. Has depression! Her bio more or less mentions her feeling a bit dreary regardless of the weather, though nonetheless, she is always to give a solid performance on the trumpet, so that’s good I suppose!

You might notice that as an Inkling, Yoko has four differently colored tentacles, which is not really a common thing! Apparently, she has a mutation that causes her tentacles to appear different colors, which might sound cool, but it’s also likely to draw unwanted attention, and apparently, if my translations are right (they probably aren’t) leave her susceptible to atmospheric pressure.

Yeah, it’s a bit unfortunate that Yoko lives such a terrible life. They could write anything they wanted for this weird squid girl, and they decided to give her depression! But it’s not all bad! Let’s zoom in on that Valentine’s Day art!

Apparently, her hat doesn’t have gibberish Splatoon characters, but actual Japanese kanji! Kanji that spell out “Karen.” And who’s Karen?

Name: Karen

The band’s pianist, and from all logical evidence, Yoko’s girlfriend! While Yoko is the band’s frontman, Karen is the band’s founder, and she is (currently) the only Nautilus we’ve seen in the Splatoon universe! While squids, octopuses, and apparently cuttlefish are all pretty heavily anthropomorphized and humanoid in this world, nautiluses are more-or-less exactly the same, just larger and with longer tentacles. In fact, can we focus on that for a second? I love that Karen’s entire body is like, 85% tentacle. If she wasn’t wearing a dress, Karen would mostly just be a writhing mass of tentacles.

But Karen isn’t a nudist! She’s a pianist! One time she listened to the music of Hightide Era (another obscure Splatoon band) and said, “wow, this slaps,” and after that decided to start her own band! She graduated at the top of her class, and combined with her positive attitude, she’s been able to get a lot of moral support from her bandmates. Karen’s life is fortunately, nowhere near as difficult as Yoko’s, but she does occasionally worry about the band lacking proper motivation, which I suppose is a fair enough thing to worry about if you’re leading a band.

And this might just be me, but I feel that Karen is totally the mom friend of the group. Like, this was something I thought before I knew the names or personalities of any of them, but all official information is completely backing me up here. I mean, her name is Karen for crying out loud! If you have that name, you’re probably either a mom or a computer.

Name: Bibi

Okay, let’s get this all set straight. Bibi is cooler than any of us will ever be. I mean, look at her. You could say anything you want about Bibi, and not only would she be able to blow it off, but she’d probably make you look like a fool for saying it in the first place, and to make it all the more humiliating? She does this all while playing the kazoo.

Shredding the trumpet? Playing a kazoo and looking cool? I mean, Ink Theory is full of all sorts of impossibilities, and I am here for that.

Bibi’s bio was unfortunately kind of hard to translate, but I was able to pick up that she’s the member of the band that gets the most mainstream attention, and is kind of sick of being swarmed by the paparazzi all the time. Also, she’s never struggled much financially. Oh yeah. She’s rich and fabulous. Again. While playing the kazoo. I’m usually not a fan of rich people, but I don’t know if the law legally allows me to say anything bad about Bibi. I fear the repercussions for that.

Name: Aachin

Alright, so what species do you think Aachin is? Any guesses?

Three.... two... one...

Okay! Time’s up! She’s an urchin! A very specific type of urchin, actually, Hemicentrotus pulcherrimus! No common names in English over here, I’m afraid! But if you didn’t figure it out already, Aachin’s name is really just “urchin.” Because she’s an urchin! Look at her hair, it’s based on a test of an urchin, rather than the spikes we are used to seeing, but don’t worry, if a spikier urchin is what you want, we still have that! I guess Aachin just likes to go around with a shaved head.

According to what I translated, Aachin grew up in a strict household, always appreciating contemporary music herself, but as time passed, she grew to appreciate modern music as well. Now! The last sentence of her bio actually threw me for a bit of a doozy a few months back, as after trying to figure it out like seven times with no better tools than Google Translate, I believed that Aachin had fallen in love with someone depraved! Did they seriously just put this funny urchin in a toxic relationship?

Nope! I’m just terrible at translating things. Apparently the gist of that sentence is just that she’s a bit shy and inexperienced when it comes to romance, and she admittedly falls for people who are “bad,” in some nebulous sense of the term. Are we talking like, 1950s cool biker bad? The person that corrected my mistranslation said “slobs,” so maybe she just falls in love with people who are really messy.

While it’s good that this lovely urchin is not in a toxic relationship, I still think she deserves better, on sheer account of being Aachin. She always deserves better. Even if she has it good! She deserves better. Because I love her.

Name: Mayaya

Up next we have Mayaya! Mayaya is a sea anemone (not a sea cucumber as I previously believed) whose facial anatomy slightly baffles and scares me, but that’s okay, because I still love her.

Another top-of-her-class graduate, Mayaya’s own professors said she’d be best teaching music herself, but Mayaya decided she’d rather have fun making her own music, and decided to join the band! She plays “percussion,” which seems to suggest any percussion instrument other than drums and cymbals, and she doesn’t just play for Ink Theory! While Ink Theory is her main squad, she apparently freelances percussion for other bands in her free time. Which bands? We don’t know! It’s never specified! But any time you hear any percussion ever, just know it might be Mayaya herself playing.

Name: Kitamura

And last, but not least, we have Kitamura, the band’s drummer, who might just be the most adorable character design I have ever seen in any piece of media ever! And that’s saying a lot, considering all we’ve covered on this blog. Urchins are hardly ever unlovable, and the little ribbons simply make her all-the more adorable, but what really draws me in here are those eyes. Now, urchins don’t technically have eyes (though their spikes can function as a makeshift compound eye) but as far as eyes go, Kitamura might have some of the most precious looking eyes they could give an urchin. They almost look scrawled on! Heck, part of me wonders if Kitamura just draws on her own eyes to look cute. It’s either that, or her eyes just naturally look like that, and I am personally fine with either possibility.

Oh! Right! Her lore! There’s actually not too much about Kitamura that we know, but we do know that she is fittingly, the band’s mascot, lives on her own, and pays close attention to her curfew. She apparently has a high singing voice also, but we never hear it because none of the Ink Theory songs have vocals. Maybe someday! Maybe someday...

In the Valentine’s Day artwork, we see Kitamura getting to eat a whole lot of ice cream. Do you think Kitamura deserves that much ice cream? Because I do.

This is far from all I have to say about these characters, but there’s not much more I really can say without diving deep into headcanon territory, so I suppose that’s all for now! I hope you appreciate this deep dive into Splatoon lore, and have a wonderful day!

#splatoon #splatoon 2 #ink theory #weird splatoon characters #mod hooligon #april fools #a lot of this is probably actually wrong #but give me a break!#all the info on them was in japanese and *i* had to translate it!#have you ever tried translating information in a language you don't even speak?#i had to use google translate which isn't very accurate at all

245 notes · View notes

bbs-backlog-challenge · 5 years ago

Text

BB’s Games Of 2019

2019 as a year felt like it lasted two years, and a lot happened in my personal life. Got a new job, learned to drive, got my first car, moved out of the in-laws’ basement into our first real apartment, started my first long-term game of DnD (which in itself has involved a new relationship and an emotional breakdown)- and between it all I somehow managed to play 77 games. Backlog’s down to 35 titles, lads- at this rate, I’ll be down to zero by July 2020. (Not gonna happen.) In 2020, I’d like to explore the SNES catalogue a little more, but before that happens we have to review everything 2019 brought me, in a somewhat chronological order.

- Near A Tomato Carry-over from last year’s post since I was in the middle of playing it at the time. I definitely never quite got a handle on the combat and I think some of the themes went over my head, but I still had fun here, and the 9S hacking minigame never got old. It was a gift from an old friend who I miss. Was nice to reconnect. - SSBU With my new main Zelda, I cleared all of WoL and got every spirit on the Spirit Board. I never really used her before but she’s cute now! Really liked the attention to detail in the spirit encounters. Unfortunately, Cloud is still in the game. - Mega Mans 1 2 and 3 I actually spoke about my experiences with the Mega Men in my BBLC post for Mega Man Eggs, so you should read that right now. - Metroid Samus Returns It’s Good. Like, a solid Good. Never Great, never Bad, just Good. It’s nice to see one of the least accessible games in the series get a remaster, but it feels very disposable, if that makes sense. Like they just needed a Metroid to keep people busy while they reboot Prime 4 development. AM2R is vastly superior, go play that. One point of amusement- the game tells its story without narration, and also seems to pre-suppose you know Metroid lore. I was entertained by the thought of a newcomer to the series being completely mystified by the sudden space-dragon that comes out of nowhere to wreck you at the end of the game. - Khimera: Destroy All Monster Girls You can click here to download it, ‘cos it’s free, which is almost criminal. This is one of the higher tier games I’ve played this year. A little bit Mega Man, a bit Metroid, with hints of Touhou and Undertale, it’s pretty tough at times but never to ‘precision platformer’ levels. It’s a lot of fun and the dev deserves your support. - Steve And Ollie RPG Oh, I made this one. Making something else next year? Question mark? - Prof Layton 3 Feels like these are getting weaker as they go along. The story has always been absolute boohockey, but the puzzles feel like they’re degrading in quality too. With over 200 in each game, that’s not super surprising, and I’m glad they didn’t bulk it out with a load of the awful block-slider puzzles. Still, it’s Layton, if you liked any of the other games you’ll like this cos it’s the exact same thing. - Fault Milestone Two Yo, there ain’t a damned thing I can say about Fault, so go play the first one and then play this and you’ll understand. - Full Throttle I never bothered to finish it. The obtuse old Sierra puzzlers were hard enough to deal with back in the day, and just feel kind of inexcusable now. I don’t have the patience for it. - eXceed 3rd Slick and fun bullet hell with a nigh-incomprehensible story and great music. Touhou fans will like it. Music by SSH who is relatively well known in doujin circles. - ASAMU Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Eternal Senia Everything I said in my post rings true- do your best to look past the wonky translation, because there’s a heartfelt story underneath it. Very accessible gameplay, by design. - Inivisble Inc You have never before been, nor will you ever again be, so aware of having left a door open. I fully expected to hate Invisible, but I got hooked pretty hard. Quite tempted to do another run of it once the backlog is clear. - Pyre GOTY. Supergiant’s best game so far, and that’s not an easy thing to say for this Bastion veteran. I sobbed by the end. I’m not being dramatic- literally sobbed. Please play it. Music and writing and, just, heart, are all top tier. All the Nightwings are the best, but Hedwyn is the best best. - Ellipsis Finished it before writing my BBLC post! - Just Cause 2 I found myself getting bored very quickly. The main missions are all identical (really, they are) and the side missions are very uninspired. Blitzing around in a jet or grappling around a mission target is a lot of fun but it feels very shallow. There’s a lot to do but not really any reason to do any of it. I dunno, it’s a kind of hollow experience, that I nonetheless had fun with. - LiEat It went over my head a little, but that’s more on me I think. These horror-esque, eccentric japanese RPG Maker games usually do. But, it’s neat, and short. If this sort of thing usually sticks on you, I think this is a good title. - Shantae Pirates Curse These games always felt non-essential to me; I’m not sure why they never stuck. They never really go below or above Good. Entirely enjoyable but I don’t feel like I’d have really missed anything if I hadn’t played them. It is, however, absolutely worth investing in for the utterly superb sprite work. That doesn’t sell a game by itself, I know, but Shantae is a pixel art masterclass. - FF5 I’d more or less finished it by the time I wrote my BBLC post, so I don’t have much to add. It’s a refreshingly goofy entry in a series known for taking itself too seriously, even compared to its predecessor. Look forward to my entry for this game in my Games Of 2020 post, having played the Four Job Fiesta! - Touhou 17 It’s mid-tier in the touhou hierarchy, IMO. Didn’t set my soul alight but I did enjoy it. Playing as Wolf Marisa makes the final boss too chaotic to really enjoy, but playing through again with Reimu made it more fun. I beat Extra on my third run through, which gave me false confidence that after 10 years I might actually be good at these games- to then be quickly humbled by attempting Th11’s Extra. Final Boss’ theme song has one of the greatest lead-ins of all time, especially given you start the fight by running away from her! Also really loved the Stage 4 theme as you barrel head-first into Hell (the real one this time), and the haunting, calm-before-the-storm serenity of Stage 5, overlooking the City Of Beasts. - HackNet + Labyrinths GOTY. (Yes, I know I already said Pyre was GOTY; it’s my post, I can have two GOTYs. Make your own damned post!) It’s hard to say what I loved about these games without spoiling too much- just know that they play very much like investigation games, and figuring out the puzzles feels great. Labyrinths technically takes place during the events of Hacknet, with a somewhat more Black Hat approach to things- despite this, play all of Hacknet first, and then play Labyrinths. The expansion introduces a lot of new stuff and much trickier challenges, such that going back to the base game afterwards to finish that would leave it a little hollow- a disservice to how great the ending is. - Mega Man X I said everything I wanted to say in my BBLC post, and anything I didn’t cover was better said by Egoraptor. - Octodad Finished it before my BBLC post! - Chroma Squad The final mission is disappointingly poor, but everything up to that point was pretty good. Huge variance and creativity in the bosses. However, the most fun I got from it was when I realised the game allowed me to customise my team name, transformation name, and other such terminology. Dave, Dayve, Davy, Davina, and Dehve shouting “It’s time to Chromatise, Chroma Squad!” very quickly became “It’s time to shit, you bunch of fucks!” and it was funny every single time. (Personal favourite bit of dialogue- “I tried to shit! It worked!”) - Pyrite Heart Finished it before my BBLC post! - Starfox 2 Finished it before my BBLC post! - Burly Men At Sea Finished it before my BBLC post! - Disc Room Finished it before my BBLC post! - Kokurase Finished it before my BBLC post! Should have broken these ones up a bit! - Metroid Rogue Dawn Very, very impressive romhack let down by a distinctly un-fun final section. They managed to fix so many of OG Metroid’s problems, I’m surprised the gauntlet of terribleness that is Tourian escaped with only a cosmetic change. Nonetheless, it’s free, and the other 95% of the game is superb, even from a purely technical standpoint. - Wuppo I dunno what happened here! I was full of praise for Wuppo when I played it, but somehow I just couldn’t stick with it and just never felt like playing it. It’s a very aimless game, and I wonder if that might be why? It’s a shame, I feel disappointed in myself for not seeing it through, but ultimately I play games to have fun and I just wasn’t quite there with Wuppo. - Super Mario Odyssey I loved it, obviously. I wrote my BBLC post towards the end of my time with Odyssey so most of that stands- I do want to add that the controls always felt a little loose, like I wasn’t quite as in-control as I was in Galaxy. Also Mario prioritises walljumping over ledge-grabbing and it’s super-hard to unlearn that instinct after 20 years. Finally- Long Journey’s End is just bullshit. - Secret Of Mana Dropped it pretty soon after Finning it. There’s some logic to the way the game works, some kind of hidden turn-order system, that I could not at all figure out. My AI companions (useless, btw) would hit an enemy which meant I couldn’t, except sometimes the hit would still register but only actually go through 3 seconds later, without any way to tell which way it was going to go. It takes like 7 months for your character to get back up after taking a hit. It’s just, wonky, and I couldn’t solve the puzzle of how to make the game do what I wanted to do. - Pokemon Shield Still working my way through it. It’s- yeah, it’s pokemon. Get a similar vibe to Sun/Moon with it that it’s kind of unfinished- lots of small (and some not so small) parts of the game just feel like there were bigger plans that couldn’t be realised in time. I’m still enjoying it! They did a great job of making the gym battles, and the whole process of 8-badges-then-champion, feel like a spectacle. I think only the anime has managed it to this degree before. - Earthbound Man, I really, really want to like this game, but the battle system is terrible. I need to play through the game again buffing my party up with cheats or something, because it’s so unbalanced and cheap. Everything else about the game is wonderful, but I got so frustrated with the fights! - Mario Kart 8 Didn’t play any of the single player this time, it was midgi’s christmas present so I just joined a couple of multiplayer games. Absolutely baffled that the game features F-Zero style anti-gravity courses, has Mute City and Big Blue, and even has the Blue Falcon as a selectable vehicle, but they haven’t put Captain Falcon in it. Like he’s ever going to get another game of his own? Let him have this! - Carmageddon 2 It’s pretty clunky by now, being 20 years old, but still plays well enough. The physics are super loose so you slide around like your tires have been buttered. It was more fun when they were zombies instead of just normal people. Missions are brutally hard and should be skipped with cheats. - Neopets After 15 years of playing, I finally got a Ghostkersword. The site as a whole has gone through a lot, and certainly its heyday is long gone, but there’s no other game quite like it. I’m playing the Food Club every day, still. - SIF New phone can’t run the actual gameplay section well enough, so I just log in occasionally to grab free scouts. Here’s another one whose golden years are behind it, sadly, but I certainly still have a lot of affection for SIF. - FF1 Mobile version, which fixes a lot of the bugs with the NES original. This year I completed a solo run with 1 Red Mage, a 4-black belts run, a low-level run, and a 4 White Mages run (which ended up being a lower-level run than the low-level run). I’m fairly comfortable in calling myself an expert in FF1, now. There’s still not really any other games like it- build a party as balanced or imbalanced as you like, and see how they fare. I’d like to build my own game in a similar style, one day. - Re: Live Gacha games and RPG just don’t mix! Both gacha and events do not gel with core RPG mechanics of your character(s) developing in strength as the game goes. It seems impossible to balance the game well- do you cater to the whales who spend and spend until they have the strongest teams possible, meaning the free players or the terminally unlucky can’t stand a chance, or do you cater to those players and give them no reason to spend for the more powerful characters? It’s a shame, because the anime was baffling but in that enjoyable way where you just kind of go with whatever it throws at you, and exploring that in a non-freemium game with a solid beginning middle and end would be really interesting. - Tiny Thief Mobile game that’s not available any more, I think my BBLC post covered it well enough. - F-Zero One of the criticisms most commonly levied against F-Zero is that it wont hold your attention for long. While that’s true, it’s not like you have to make a purchasing decision about it any more- it comes bundled in with the other games you’re buying, so the only investment is time. Ignoring that, it’s still fun to burn around the tracks, and the sense of speed hasn’t ever diminished. The music, too, is underappreciated, with Port Town being my personal fave. - F-Zero GX I can’t believe Nintendo hasn’t done anything with this ridiculous universe for 15 years now. The cutscenes are so hilariously overwrought, and the cast of characters is huge! It could so seamlessly intersect with the Starfox universe, too. There were rumours of a Starfox Racing title some time ago, and I really hope that’s the case. It’d work so well (by which I mean, a particularly enjoyable kind of awful). Anyway, the game still plays great, Story Mode is WAY too hard, Dr Stewart’s theme is a Tune. - Stratosphere This game is from 1998! Build a flying fortress, deck it out with fortifications and weapons and power supplies, then use it to destroy other fortresses. I only ever played the demo as a kid, never got the full game. Took some cajoling to get it to work on modern hardware, but eventually I got in and it wasn’t worth it at all. Wow, that performance, apparently it was designed to run at a terrible frame rate and it wasn’t just a result of my 1998 PC not being up to the task! A shame, but I guess it put one of my ghosts to rest. - DKC 2 The best of the three SNES games, despite the inclusion (and protagonism) of Diddy Kong. Lots to love here, but the OST is top notch. - DKC 3 Not as good as 2, but IMO better than 1. There was a much heavier emphasis on gimmick levels in 3, not all of which hit their target, but does provide a great deal of variety. Consensus is that 2 is better, but if someone claimed 3 was the best DKC, I’d let them get away with it. - King Arthur’s World (SNES) Speaking of putting ghosts to rest… We somehow always managed to get this game whenever we got a SNES, and kid!Beebs most certainly didn’t have the patience for it. Adult!Beebs barely does, either. It’s a very ambitious attempt at some sort of RTS/Puzzle hybrid, somewhat comparable to Lemmings? King Arthur must make his way from his starting position to the throne elsewhere in the map to claim it as his own, using the myriad abilities of his soldiers to get him there in one piece. I decided this year that I was finally going to play through the whole damn thing, start to finish, for the first time ever. With copious use of save states and rewinds, I was finally able to slay this demon. For as fiddly and frustrating as it is, I would still say people should check it out if they have the tools to do so- there’s not really anything else like it, on SNES or otherwise; you’re guaranteed a unique experience, if nothing else. - Oscar (SNES) Terrible. - Spanky’s Quest (SNES) With a name like that, how could I refuse? It’s a weird little puzzler, aping (wahey!) Bubble Bobble and Parasol Stars a little. You’re a monkey who can blow bubbles that stun enemies, but if you bounce the bubble on your head it gets progressively larger and can be burst to send a barrage of similarly-sized sports balls at your opponents to knock them out. You know, just like real life. - Addam’s Family (SNES) This easily-dismissible movie tie-in is actually a very competent platformer with some very, very light metroidvania exploration involved. Gomez has to go through Addams Mansion and rescue the members of his family who have been kidnapped by… something. There’s hidden secrets everywhere and the family can be rescued in any order you like. Genuine recommendation. - Panel DePon/Tetris Attack The only vs puzzler I enjoy (yep. Not even puyo puyo. I know.) I played the HECK out of this in my teenage years, and got crazy good at it. Tendonitis says I’m not allowed to do that any more, but once I shook the rust off I was still pretty strong! It was released as Panel DePon in Japan and was fairy themed, but for the western release they replaced all the fairies with Yoshi characters and renamed it Tetris Attack despite having nothing to do with Tetris at all. Up to you which you prefer- language isn't too much of a barrier here. Soundtrack is killer. - Subsurface Circular Finished it before my BBLC post. Still not decided if I liked the way it ended. - Master Of Orion 2 C’mon. After playing three other pretenders to MoO2’s throne, I had to give the real deal a couple of spins too. It’s Civ 5 in space. Customisable race builds. A whole galaxy to bring peace to, by whichever means you prefer. Would love for someone else to get into it. - Touhou 8 Last minute entry I just played yesterday ‘cos I wanted some Touhou and I haven’t played this entry in a long while. A Solo Marisa Normal Final B run, if you’re interested. Kaguya beast-mode tearing apart the Spell Of Imperishable Night at the end of the game is still an awesome moment, but it’s a shame you can miss the last couple of spells if you take some unlucky hits. - And here’s the list of Bins, which are all covered in their BBLC post: No Time To Explain MoO Skyborn Jumpjet Rex StH 4 Ballistick Munch’s Oddysee Outland Project CARS RiME Magicka Waking Mars Urban Chaos Divinity: Dragon Commander Strike Suit Zero Hell Yeah! Lambda Wars Beta Stranger’s Wrath MoO 3 XCOM Lots more Fins than Bins this year! Good to see!

#gaming #video games

1 note · View note

drink-n-watch · 6 years ago

Text

Genre : Action, fighting, supernatural

Episodes: 12

Studio: Platinum Vision

Something has awakened. Something that’s been slumbering for a long time is beginning to stir and the shockwaves are being felt all over heaven and earth. Demons are getting restless and the attacks on innocent villages have become routine. Thankfully, the Sanzo party is here to protect the good people from the fiends that would do them harm. Never mind that they happen to be just as fiendish themselves. As long as you can pay for the services, you can trust them. Probably. After all, you have to be able to trust a venerable Sanzo monk now don’t you? He’s the one smoking and getting into a fist fight with his demon buddy while screaming obscenities. Yeah, this should work out just fine!

The journey for this little title to make it on my to watch list went something like this: this looks like an otome adaptation, it’s probably really stupid, I’m gonna watch it. a week later – yeah there’s plenty of stupid out there, maybe I don’t need this one, I’m going to flush it. Wait the summary says Yokai, I like Yokai, I’m going to keep it. OK, I guess I should really watch this at some point…

yeah…this is a smart way to start this post…

If you didn’t pick it up from my little skit there, I did not know what I was getting into but I sure thought I did. The production value for this show is decent. animation can get a bit visibly cheap with reused scenes and stills with offscreen battles but for the most part, everything is well done. Voice acting is quite good, colours stick to a signature palette, design and art is pretty.

Unfortunately, I think this pretty design and art is in fact doing Saiyuki Reload Blast a disservice. I took one look at those chiseled young men and their intricate costumes (all different and this is important) and I immediately thought, this is clearly an otome. At best it’s a poor man’s Touken Ranbu which remains one of the best cute boy shows I’ve ever seen and also only. The lack of a clear female lead was pushing me towards option number two but I was expecting some basic slice of life nonsense with historical flourishes thrown in for flavour. Some manservice and if they wanted to push it maybe a drop of hoyay suggestion.

look at all that…mancandy?

I judged it entirely on it’s cover I have to admit. I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one at that. That’s the problem you see. Those that are generally uninterested in those types of shows probably dismissed it offhand. I don’t blame them, the aesthetic is pretty glaring, and it’s not entirely wrong, the show is classified as Josei. But aside for a few scenes in the OP, there’s no fanservice at all (unless you count the lady monk with the super tight outfit) and none of the expected staples of the genre. Someone specifically looking for the show insinuated by those visuals, would be disappointed or at least, confused.

The narrative and execution of Saiyuri Reload Blast is closest to a rather traditional fighting shonen. If you had switched one of the main characters’ design to a sexy lady without changing anything else at all, you could have marketed it as such easily. The season is roughly separated into three arcs. The opening establishing arc plays out as a series of monster of the week episodes, with our main party going from one village to the next and saving them from demon attacks. It’s fine, a little dry but I’ve seen worse.

I said it was ok….

The second arc is a flashback to 500 years prior where the story starts to really from and the foundations are laid for the greater lore. It quickly became apparent the this show was basing itself on a Journey to the West, which is pretty awesome. It’s a very loose retelling but there were enough similarities for me to recognize it pretty easily, that made my appreciation for the series rise quite a bit.

This flashback arc was rich in references to classic Chinese folklore and filled with a tense atmosphere unmatched by the other episodes. I also found the flashback characters considerably more interesting. Despite how bloody and ultimately sad this arc was, it was by far my favorite part of the anime and I would have loved a season that explored just that story. The last arc brings us back to the present where past and future collide in an all out multiple episode battle.

After watching the show I found out that Saiyuri is an expansive franchise. Reload blast is only the latest in several anime incarnations, a whole series of OVAs, multiple rounds of manga, at least one movie and a stage play. This may in fact explain some of my gripes. You see, Saiyuri really plays up a lot of shonen tropes. The never ending battles, mid-fight monologues (this is so prevalent in fact that I think in the middle of battle is the only way we get an exposition), the best friend fisty cuffs, the super dramatic realization screams and the cathartic last minute saves.

Nantaku really needed more development mind you

They’re all there and all well done, except this is a 12 episode series. When you’re characters are going through this massive emotional struggle over what is a pretty silly situation in fact at episode 60, it works because you’ve grown to really know the characters and you accept their eccentricities. Also the stakes have been slowly rising so you got accustomed to it at your own pace before everything spilled over into ridiculous. Now you’re just kind of in for the ride. When the same thing happens at episode 4 you’re like, yo relax dude and this is kinda silly.

The low episode count and the need to fit in a fully realized three arc narrative with a centuries spanning background really condensed everything. To Saiyuri’s credit, the narrative was still pretty easy to follow and although the characters were pretty shallow, they weren’t completely 2 dimensional either. But the dramatic pacing is what really suffers here and ultimately will stop most people from engaging with what is at it’s core a decent, even interesting story.

mullets again…

If you happen to be interested in the Four Great Classical Novels of Chinese literature, I say give this anime a shot. It has some good moments and the parallels with Journey to the West are really fun to notice. If you like the character designs and are in the mood for a fighting anime that won’t make you commit to a high episode count, this could also be for you. Otherwise, it’s uneven and clumsy. There was enough there for me to be intrigued about the other anime seasons and-or manga but not enough for me to actively seek it out.

Also, in the very last episode we find out the jeep they have been driving in al along has a mind of its own and is in fact Hakuryuu which is Hakkai’s pet dragon. We find this out in the last 5 minutes of the last episode. Like wha??? OK, I’m done now. Oh no wait one last thing. There’s no Yokai. I mean the demons are technically yokai but they call them demons and they look like demons… this show has some failings is what I’m saying.

Favorite character: Field Marshal Tenpou (If there’s a season dedicated to the heaven’s arc – I will watch it!)

What this anime reminded me: This is the only way a monocle makes sense:

The problem with some people is that when they aren’t drunk they’re sober

Suggested drink: Berry Burbon Blast

Every time Sanzo is sleepy(ing)– take a sip

Every time Gojyo gets called a water sprite – take a sip of water

Every time Sanzo tells someone to shut up – take a sip

Every time we hear a stomach growl – get a snack

Every time Hakkai spouts random facts – humour him

Every time Gojyo’s chain scythe thingy appears out of nowhere – take a sip

Every time Nantaku gets hurt – take a sip

Every time Goku throws a fit – roll your eyes

Every time anyone smokes – take a breath

Every time there’s mid battle monologue – laugh, it’s all you can do at this point

Saiyuki Reload Blast – Journey to the Middle Genre : Action, fighting, supernatural Episodes: 12 Studio: Platinum Vision Something has awakened. Something that's been slumbering for a long time is beginning to stir and the shockwaves are being felt all over heaven and earth.

#action #anime #blonde bishie #fighting #Saiyuki #supernatural

2 notes · View notes

stompsite · 8 years ago

Text

This Is (Not) A Review Of Dishonored 2

Dishonored 2 is the game you get when a team of the world’s most talented creators at the height of their powers put their heart and soul into something. This is a game that, through my entire run, never ceased to surprise and delight me. I didn’t know what “couldn’t put it down” meant until I played Dishonored 2. If I had a review score system in place, I’d be giving Dishonored 2 a 10 out of 10, because it’s a game that anyone interested in playing great video games should play.

There are a billion reviews out there, so I don’t want to waste too much time repeating what they’ve said. Dishonored 2 is an action game in the stealth mode. The levels Dust District and A Crack in the Slab are a brilliant one-two punch of level design, but to be honest, I can’t think of a single bad or unmemorable level in the game, except maaaaybe the final encounter. The stealth is good, the mechanics are empowering in the best ways, the enemies are superb, and the heart remains one of my favorite mechanics in a video game ever.

If you liked Dishonored, then you’ll be happy to know that Dishonored 2 is so good it makes the first Dishonored look like Superman 64, and Dishonored is one of the best games of the entire Xbox 360 generation. Dishonored 2 is Extremely Good Stuff, a stratospheric improvement in most ways on one of my favorite games ever.

Why?

First, you’ve got the narrative angle. A lot of games focus on Stuff That Doesn’t Matter, like lore or whatever. Too many developers obsess over all the wrong details; they want to tell you about how the economy works, or the political relationships between various factions, or what have you. They’re too busy trying to be George Lucas on the Star Wars Prequels to get to the stuff that actually matters: drama and motive.

Dishonored 2 is focused on the important stuff. The game begins, immediately, with a coup attempt. You are happy, everything is fine, and then an impostor to the throne shows up, turns someone into stone. If you choose to be Corvo, the Lord Protector and protagonist of the last game, this means that you want to save Emily from being turned into stone. If you choose to be Emily, the Empress, you want to save Corvo from being turned into stone.

I was playing Bioware’s Mass Effect 2 recently, and that game’s like “dang, everything blew up. Now you need to go recruit people for a suicide mission against an unseen foe that’s killing humans for some reason.” Bioware just kinda expects you to care because the people you’re saving are members of the same species. Dishonored 2 brings the father/daughter relationship established in the last game to bear: you want to save your family member because they’re you’re family member.

You’re also in the throne room when you’re deposed, giving the whole “return the rightful ruler to the throne” objective more juice because you get to see what you’ve lost. I’ve played too many games that take something from you without giving you a chance to connect with it. They’re just not as compelling as Dishonored 2. Oh, and Delilah, the pretender to the throne, is a mystery, so figuring out just who she is gives you yet another great motivation.

So, there you go, off like a cannon shot, fighting your way out of the palace and onto a boat, powerless and alone. You have questions that need answering, and you want revenge. It’s a great way to start a game.

Every level is incredibly dense in the best possible way; they’re ‘small’ in the sense that a game like Skyrim or Grand Theft Auto V is much larger, but there’s so much detail in these levels! I completed the first level in an hour or so. A friend of mine spent hours there, exploring literally everywhere. According to the super helpful post-mission screen, I missed a lot of stuff in that first level. This is one of Dishonored 2’s best features, by the way, because Dishonored is a series about making plans, and letting you know you missed something is a great way to get you to start formulating new plans. It offers plenty of tools and positions you in just the right way to give you plenty of opportunity to make plans and execute them.

Wait. No. That’s… well, it’s true, but not quite right.

Dishonored 2 is a game about questions.

You start a level overlooking an area. Immediately, you start asking yourself “...can I do…” and working out whether or not you can. You assess the tools at your disposal, both the ones you came in with, and the ones you didn’t. Sometimes, the questions are narrative: who is this person? Other times, it’s about solving puzzles; overhear a conversation that tells you about some shady figures, and you start wondering who they are and where to find them.

Sometimes, it’s just the way the level obscures things from view. What does this lever do? What did this look like in the past? How can I break in there? Where does that path lead? What was that sound? Other times, it’s the mechanics. If I do this to this guy, what will that guy do? I wonder if I can put this razor mine here and lure one of the witches over there…

You get the idea.

And the great thing is, the game has big and small scale questions. You might want to wonder what’s through that door on the ledge, so bam, you blink up there and head on through. Or you might have the bigger, juicier questions, like spending an hour trying to solve the game’s Zebra Puzzle.

Maybe it’s not fair to say Dishonored 2 is about questions.

Dishonored 2 is about drama.

Drama is basically this: the protagonist wants something, but something else is in the way, so the protagonist must engage in conflict to achieve their goal. You want to get from point A to point B, but there are guards in the way, so you must be sneaky about how you get there. Delilah has stolen the throne, so you must find a way to take her down in order to return it.

Motive is the impetus, drama is the fuel. So you’ve got this amazingly compelling level design, great mechanics that work well within it, and this constant series of big and little questions that need answering. You’re always moving forward; no moment feels wasted.

The icing on the cake is that the levels are all unique in some way. There’s always an interesting hook. Plenty of games have something to differentiate each level--back in the day, a game would have its cave level, its water level, its lava level, and its stealth level, for instance--but Dishonored 2 is smart. Rather than just having visually distinct locations, or breaking up the gameplay with a mandatory sequence where the rules change (like a forced racing sequence), each level provides an opportunity to use the tools in different scenarios.

One level’s geometry shifts. Another level has you picking which person you’d like to assassinate. The tools and abilities remain the same, but the context you use them in change. I love Doom, but its encounters wore thin because the context rarely changed: it was a perfect combat loop in a diverse series of locations, but once I knew how to play, nothing changed. I love Ratchet & Clank, but not for its forced hoverboard sequences; it’s a completely new way of playing the game that is just kinda forced on you part way through the game.

Most reviews talk about graphics. In fact, some time ago, a developer did some research and found out that graphics were the single-most talked-about thing in reviews. Since this is my blog, and I can talk about things however I want here, I’m going to avoid talking about them so I can avoid being like everybody else. All I will say is that: holy crap, this is the best water in a video game ever, and I was so busy playing the game that I couldn’t stop to take pictures of its art, which is too bad, because this game’s art design is phenomenal. It was the best art design of 2016, and I can’t see anyone else coming close this year either. I was too busy staring at the game to take pictures of the game.

Dishonored 2 never breaks its established rules. Breaking into Jindosh’s workshop or Stilton’s mansion means thinking about using the same tools you’ve mastered differently. Maintaining a consistent set of rules over the game really helps it feel great.

Since this is supposed to be a review, I’m trying to avoid spoilers. This is a great game. You should play it. It accomplishes almost everything it sets out to do with jaw-dropping perfection. It’s a game that, months after its release, I’m still thinking about. Can Arkane’s next game, Prey, live up to the lofty expectations set by Dishonored 2? I hope so, because I wish everything was as good as Dishonored 2.

“But Doc,” you might be asking, “I heard that the game had a lot of technical problems!”

I didn’t encounter any, so I can’t really talk about them beyond saying that yeah, it looks like about a third of people had some serious issues early on. Those issues, as best as I can tell, have been resolved with patches. You should buy the game right here and now. It’s better than most everything that has come out since. I like it more than Zelda: Breath of the Wild, folks (and I have way more performance problems in Breath of the Wild too!).

Do I have problems with the game? Yes.

These problems can be divided into two categories: the first is about actual problems I had with the game, and the second is about what I wanted the game to be and how I felt it didn’t live up to that. The first category are legitimate complaints. The second category is more about me. So. Keep that in mind.

As for actual problems I had with the game, from a gameplay perspective, I felt like enemies detected me a bit too quickly. Like… several times, I found myself in a situation where enemies would start to detect me, but I couldn’t break line of sight without continuing to move slowly through the level. I could get up and run, moving quickly, which would get me caught for sure, or I could continue to move slowly, eventually getting caught before breaking line of sight. I don’t feel like I had this problem in Dishonored, so experiencing it in the sequel was a source of frustration.

A couple times, I killed people accidentally. One target spawned some bugs whenever I knocked her out with my knockout darts, and the bugs killed her, and I could never figure out how to knock her out, undetected, and get her over to the nonlethal objective I wanted to.

Some of the line deliveries weren’t very good. I was disappointed with Stephen Russell’s work here. There’s one line where he’s like “I’m going to kill you all” in a deep, growly voice, “...and save Emily,” he adds, almost like an afterthought. It’s a weird delivery. I had a similar problem with the last game; they had all this amazing voice talent, but the actors often sounded bored and strange. It’s better in Dishonored 2, but still not quite there.

At the end of the game, I got the worst possible ending, and I felt like I didn’t deserve it. There are a couple reasons for this: I killed some people the heart told me were bad. Like, one dude was an unrepentant murderer, so I put him down, because no one else would stop him, and in doing so, I saved lives. To me, this is a net positive.

My thought process was like, hey, I was a magical assassin in Nazi Germany, maybe I would kill some Gestapo. Wouldn’t it be better to kill Amon Goeth (Ralph Fiennes’ character in Schindler’s List) than let him live? This is what I felt Corvo was doing whenever he killed, and I made sure he killed sparingly. Here I am, fighting a one-man war against an invading force.

One scene in the game has Corvo suggesting he didn’t know how bad things had gotten in Karnaca, and he resolves to improve things after he saves the empire. Then, a few levels later, the game’s over, and apparently Corvo decides to rule with an iron fist. It just didn’t make sense to me.

Part of the issue could have been that I killed every single witch in the game. I believe this was the right course of action to take. A friend got Extremely Upset with me for this, which I found surprising, so let me explain my reasoning.

Witches are women who’ve been given supernatural powers. Their universal response to this is to torture, maim, and kill literally everyone they see who isn’t a witch. Worse still, they seem to enjoy it. I mean, when I enter a museum to find out the staff’s been horrifically murdered, and witches are laughing about it, my instinct is to stop them. The thing about witches is that they have powers, and to my knowledge, there is no way to strip them of their powers, incarcerate them, and put them on trial.

Having power makes them dangerous. Using that power to kill people makes them evil. Enjoying the act of murder makes them monstrous.

So, of course, I killed every single one of them. Dishonored 2 routinely shows you the effects of their power, and there is no case where this is portrayed as a good thing. Okay, so one of the witches was set up to be married to a guy she didn’t want to get married to. She had a sad life. I get that. It sucks. I’ve had people abuse me. I’ve had people try to get me to kill myself. I’ve had people do an awful lot of terrible things to me. But y’know what? If someone came along and offered me super powers to go murder a bunch of innocent people, I don’t think I could be a good person and take that deal. I don’t think I could ever justify it.

So yeah.

Corvo, Lord Protector of the Empire, the only law enforcement left in the world, put down a bunch of awful monsters who’d rejected their humanity in favor of slaughtering innocents. I acted in accordance with his role as a character, and believe I picked the morally correct option. Because the only other option was to let them live and watch them kill more innocent people. How could I protect anyone if I let them kill people?

Sure, it would have been nice to have some sort of magical cure--one enemy can be cured of her crazy--but the game did not give me the tools to take those actions. So I killed all the witches, and the game punished me for that.

Your mileage may vary.

So, if you’ve stuck with me, you might go “this sounds awfully nitpicky,” and you’d be right. It is awfully nitpicky. I think the game should treat witches like rats and I wish the stealth detection was a little bit better. With those two tweaks, I think Dishonored 2 would be essentially perfect.

But then there’s the… “I wish it was…” part of me. I’m only talking about this because I like ruminating about video games. This does not reflect on Dishonored 2 or Arkane so much as it reflects on me. The review’s over. If you liked what you read above, please go buy the game, support me on Patreon, do whatever.

If you want more, well… here we go.

I think Dishonored’s biggest weakness, in both games, is its morality system. The games are engaging and brilliant because they encourage you to plan. But if you’re constantly thinking about “well, if I do this or that, I might get the worst ending,” then you’re thinking about gaming the system, and you’re treating the game like a game. When you’re wholly engrossed in the world, making decisions as you think your character would, it’s so much more satisfying.

I have a similar problem with Ghost Runs in stealth games. When I focus on ghosting my way through a game, and I mess up, and I immediately load up a save to get that perfect run, I’m treating the game as a game, and I’m no longer part of the experience.

In film, this idea is referred to as suture. The audience and film make an unspoken contract. Both will treat the experience as real for the duration of the work. It’s why we feel powerful emotions when characters do things--if we think about fast-forwarding this or knowing the actor didn’t really die in that scene, the movie stops feeling real, and the power of the experience is lost.

By telling us that our actions will influence the outcome of the game, then reminding us of this throughout the narrative, the Dishonored games break suture, and I, personally, wish they would not do that. You may feel differently.

There’s also the fact that my morals don’t necessarily reflect the game’s morals. I think killing Gestapo during an invasion is the right thing to do in a situation where there is no better option (like incarceration). To me, the French Resistance during WWII are heroes. They killed people. Dishonored’s stance seems to be “killing people, no matter what, is wrong,” and… like, that’s a valid stance to take, but I feel it ignores reality.

Years ago, I was told that BTK, a serial killer active from the 70s to the 2000s, targeted my family for death before he was caught. I still think about what would have happened if he wasn’t caught. I like to think I would have fought back. If he tried to kill us, and I fought him, and I killed him, would I be just as evil as he is? No. He killed for sexual pleasure. I would have killed in self defense.

To me, by suggesting that all kills are equivalent, Dishonored is not only breaking suture, but it’s resorting to Gray Fallacy, which is the idea that two people who have done a wrong are equally at fault. A person who said “you’re a jerk” to the mugger who stabbed them and stole their wallet is just as guilty as the mugger.

With kills as the primary determining factor in the whether the game’s ending is good or bad (and let’s be clear, the games have a ton of endings based on all of the actions you perform; Dishonored is super responsive to what you do! This is just one specific aspect I don’t like!), Dishonored, especially Dishonored 2, is taking the stance that any kill is morally equivalent.

Killing bad, not killing good.

One of the reasons I loved Dishonored was because often, not killing someone was a fate worse than death. Plenty of games have non-lethal kills, which are functionally identical to a kill. A few truly great games, like Bioshock 2, allow non-lethal choices that change your relationship with characters in the game, which is brilliant.

Dishonored let you carry out justice. Like, hey, here’s a guy who’s been using Dunwall’s religious institutions to hurt people, so you brand him a heretic, which means he gets see what it’s like to be the people he’s been persecuting this whole time. Some fates aren’t so cruel: I spared Daud the assassin. Other fates are worse: Lady Boyle was turned over to her stalker. It’s a gross and horrifying fate, and we could argue about whether or not she deserved it, but to me, that’s what made the game so interesting.

So many developers make games where you can be lethal or nonlethal, and the nonlethal ending is treated as the morally superior option no matter what, regardless of the outcomes. Dishonored required you to think about making the right choice; does Lady Boyle deserve to be killed? Does she deserve to be given to this horrible man?

Subverting the tradition of “nonlethal good, lethal bad” is part of why I found Dishonored to be such a great game, but in Dishonored 2, the nonlethal options are… pretty much always good? Off the top of my head, you can either kill someone or cure her of the mental illness that’s making her bad. You can kill a guy, or you can knock him out, which prevents him from going to a thing, or you can let him go to the thing and he goes crazy. You can remove a witch’s powers. Not send her to jail, not stop her from assisting Delilah in any ways. Just… take away her super powers, which is crappy, but it’s not much more than that.

It felt like Dishonored 2 was a lot nicer to its villains. Killing them is bad, saving them is, well, nice to them, but isn’t tied with justice or mercy. It just kinda lets you feel good about yourself for not being a murderer. The harder choices were few and far between. And to me, that’s a problem. To other people, I’m sure it’s quite fine. All I can do is illustrate my own position.

I’m not one of those people who wants everything to be an equal shade of gray, right? I hate when games give me options, and both options lead to equally bad outcomes. But at the same time, I do like making tough choices, and with Dishonored 1, I felt I should spare some and kill others. With Dishonored 2, I always tried to spare people.

This extends to Delilah herself. The game clearly demonstrates that she is a bad person, but it sabotages itself in explaining her origin story. It’s constantly trying to make her sympathetic--she was a bastard daughter of the Emperor. An argument could be made that the throne belongs to her. She was wronged by so many.

But you have to remember that she also killed a lot of people, ruined the empire, tortured people, destroyed the local economy and ruined lives, and on and on it goes. Life under her is bad. But the game sort of leaves that in the background. When it talks about Delilah, it talks about Delilah the victim, Delilah the woman who took power for herself. It quietly shows us what she has done, but it shies away from explicitly stating “this is who Delilah is. She is a monster.”

As someone who’s been through hell, I firmly believe that you are the person you choose to be. Delilah is despicable because she chose to become a monster, but I felt as though Dishonored 2 kept trying to go “well, it’s not really her fault that she’s a bad person, because a lot of people were mean to her.” No. No. We shouldn’t let her get away with murder, torture, turning people to stone, and destroying Dunwall.

(from here on out, all screenshots are from the first Dishonored; I wasn’t joking when I said I was too busy staring at Dishonored 2 to actually take screenshots)

I think I would have liked the game a lot better if it hadn’t tried to justify her actions. It’s like playing a game set in World War II that keeps trying to characterize Hitler by telling us about how he had a rough childhood, or explaining how the unjust Treaty of Versailles made the Germans angry at the world, or all this other stuff. Like, hey, you know what? No matter how human we are, some people are just plain evil. We don’t need to sympathize with them.

Delilah has no redeeming elements. Her actions speak volumes, but Dishonored 2 keeps drowning it out by telling us about her past. She brought murderous monsters into the world and turned both Karnaca and Dunwall into dystopias. She doesn’t deserve to have her story told. She rejected any claim she had to compassion a long time ago.

Again, it’s that Gray Fallacy problem. The game seems to treat the injustices done to her as being equal with the monstrosity of her regime. She’s literally trying to use magic to destroy everyone and the game’s like “well yeah but, you know, she was rejected by her father and taken advantage of by other folks, so it evens out I guess.”

If you’ve played the game, maybe you feel differently. That’s cool. This is just how I perceive the game.

If you’ve forgotten how much I love this game, remember that my first sentence was literally: “Dishonored 2 is the game you get when a team of the world’s most talented creators at the height of their powers put their heart and soul into something.”

This is totally minor stuff, but it’s complicated, so it takes a lot of words to get through. Even writing it, I’m like “dang, am I being too negative?” because the sheer bulk of the words makes it feel like there’s more negativity than there is. Honestly, if you have thoughts about this, you can message this tumblr by clicking “ask us anything” up there at the top. I’ll reply and we can chat about it. Talking about how games handle morality is super interesting to me.

Right, so, that’s the morality stuff.

I have some mechanical complaints too.

So, Dishonored 2 is an immersive sim. An awful lot of people have a lot of different ideas about what that means. Like, I’ll tell you that there’s no way in heck that Gone Home is an immersive sim, but Steve Gaynor will (and he’s wrong!).

At GDC, Steve Lee, one of the level designers on Dishonored 2, did a great talk (which you should watch if you can) that got me thinking. Something he said got me thinking about how I’ve heard several times that Arkane’s very tool-focused. Like, Arkane’s approach to game design is basically giving players lots of interesting tools to do things. That’s Arkane’s idea of the immersive sim.

It’s a philosophy I’ve heard from a lot of folks, not just people talking about Arkane, but it’s also one I can’t help but feel is wrong.

See… when I first played Dishonored, it actually took me a while to get into it. I kept trying to play it like a Looking Glass game, and something just wasn’t clicking with me. It wasn’t until I really started thinking of it as being very Player Tool Focused that things started clicking with me. “Ahhh, this is a game about making plans and using the tools to execute them. Now it all makes sense.”

Far Cry 2 takes this approach as well, and I know a lot of people who feel like Far Cry 2 is a true immersive sim as well.

So, look, I know I’m just a dude sitting on a couch in my apartment looking for a job somewhere, and not someone who could be considered an authority on the subject, but I’d like to make an argument that this tool-based definition is an incomplete picture of the genre. In fact, I think most every definition of ‘immersive sim’ that’s out there is… uh…

You know the story about the blind men and the elephant? Each blind man thinks the elephant is something else, because he’s only touching part of it? I feel like that’s what the immersive sim is.

A long time ago, I was listening to a podcast with Paul Neurath. You might know of him as the guy behind Looking Glass, the studio that invented the immersive sim. Dude knows what he’s talking about when he talks about the genre. One thing I’ve heard him say several times, over the years, is how he wants to make sure that people who play his games can treat the situations as if they’re real.

Watch the Kickstarter video for his latest project, Underworld Ascendant. Note how there’s this common theme about the game being about how you can be in this place and relate to it in a natural way.

When I play Far Cry 2, I’m very aware of the designer’s hand. Every single safe house is the same thing. There’s a formula to it, a kind of repetition. The bases are all functionally identical. So much of Far Cry 2 is this sort of… discrete, repetitive thing that feels artificial. Yes, you have cool tools, and yes, you can do neat things with those tools that surprise and delight, but because the game’s so darn gamey, it’s… just you, sitting at your computer, playing with fun tools.

Looking Glass games were so much more than that. Far Cry 2 runs together in my memories. The Dishonored games stand out more because they have impeccably unique scenarios, but there are so many times when I feel like… I’m still playing a game. The morality system is a big part of that, which is why I’ve spent so much time talking about it. It pulls me out of the game world, makes me think about gaming the game, rather than being a person reacting naturally in the space.

With System Shock, Ultima Underworld, and Thief, I always felt like I was inhabiting my character, making choices because they made the most sense to make. It’s about being there. When I read about how Looking Glass applied the logic of flight simulators to the RPG and birthed the immersive sim… it makes perfect sense to me. I grew up with flight simulators. For most of my teenage years, flight sims were the only games I was allowed to own. My personal priorities lean super heavily towards simulation.

I could be another blind man, groping the elephant, but I feel like maybe my background in flight simulation (when I could program, I used to mod MSFS all the time; even rewrote the game’s smoke system so I could fire weapons in it) means I ‘get it.’

Gone Home is a game with nondiagetic audio in a house that makes no naturalistic sense. It’s not an immersive sim, it’s an art installation. Far Cry 2 is a really cool game with a unique systems focus, not an immersive sim. Dishonored 2… sometimes it’s an immersive sim, and sometimes it isn’t. In those moments when I’m engrossed in the world, making decisions because I have become Corvo and these are the decisions Corvo makes, it’s sublime. When it yanks me out of that, tearing the suture, to let me know my decisions are gonna be tallied up at the end, I get frustrated, perhaps more than I should.

(As an aside, I think the only game that ever reached Looking Glass heights was STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl and maybe Clear Sky. Definitely not Call of Pripyat, because that’s the game where GSC Game World decided to listen to the fans and make it extremely gamey, rather than creating a simulation)

I think having simulation elements are a really important component of the immersive sim. Not a simulator, mind you--I’m not talking about a boring game about real life behaviors--but a simulation. I think when people create a living, breathing world, one where the inhabitants (there must be inhabitants) respond to you in naturalistic ways, even if they’re fantasy creatures in a magical world, they’ve created an immersive sim.

Tools aren’t so much the focus as a necessary component of the simulation. Breath of the Wild is, in some ways, the best immersive sim in years. Fire burns wood because fire burns wood. Heat rises, because that’s what heat does. Tools exist to take advantage of the game’s naturalism. Metal Gear Solid V is another game that heads down this avenue. Tools are means of enhancing naturalism, and that’s what creates the sense of immersion in the simulation, giving us the immersive sim.

Like, it’s cool that I can turn into rats or teleport or whatever in Dishonored 2, but I feel like an immersive sim takes things a lot further. It’s one of the finest games ever made. I stand by that. My passion for it hasn’t faded. It’s a masterpiece, a literal masterpiece, but… I don’t know, something in my head doesn’t quite want to say it’s an immersive sim? It still feels designed. Immaculately designed, for sure.

I am so profoundly grateful for the trust that Arkane puts in me as a player. I love that they’ve given me so many amazing tools to work with, rather than exercising an intrusive authorial control over my experience. I literally cannot express how much I love this game. It’s so good, ya’ll, everyone must play it.

Whether or not it’s a ‘true’ immersive sim is one of those things I’d like to hash out with people over a good barbecue. I’m meandering, I know. And I’m sure lots of people who’ve played or made more immersive sims than me have thoughts about it.

At the very least, what I can say is that what I personally value out of immersive sims isn’t here in Dishonored 2.

I know it’s a bit gauche to make a food analogy, but… if Dishonored 2 is the world’s greatest Texas barbecue, all I’m saying is that it’s not Kansas City barbecue. Yeah, it’s barbecue. Yes, it’s literally flawless. But it’s just a tiny degree removed from what I think about when I say “I want barbecue.” People who say it’s barbecue aren’t necessarily wrong, but we’re talking about distinctly different things.

So that’s Dishonored 2. One of the best video games I have ever played, in so many ways. A game that, from a pure gameplay perspective, is unmatched in its brilliance. I would love to see the next Elder Scrolls game borrow from its combat system heavily, not gonna lie. I do have some quibbles, but most of them are personal and relate to my opinions about morality and genre classification.

This is a review, so. Hey. Buy it. I’m sure you’ll love it as much as I do.

#game review #games criticism #dishonored #dishonored 2

5 notes · View notes

katieskarlette · 8 years ago

Text

Warcraft Chronicle Vol. II - An Illustrated Reaction Post

I had the day off from work yesterday, so I binge-read the second volume of the World of Warcraft Chronicle. Another very enjoyable read, and a must for any self-respecting lore geek.

[General comments follow. Spoilers will be below the Read More.]

I reallllllllly wish this had come out prior to, or concurrent with, Warlords of Draenor. Almost all my issues with “This is only happening in an AU so why do we care?” and “Did any of this happen in our universe?” would have been taken care of.

There’s a wealth of lore on the breakers vs. primals, the gronn, ogron, ogres, orcs, botani, and arrakoa. Everything makes so much more sense now! WoD would still have been plagued by the same gameplay issues (*coughcoughgarrisonscoughcough*) but the story would have grabbed me more. I mean, yes, a good deal of the Draenor lore in Chronicle II (maybe even the majority of it) was in-game, but to have it all in one place, to see how the parts all relate to each other, to have it told as a cohesive story, and to know that it occurred in our universe and not just an AU, made all the difference in the world.

My only complaint about the book was the lack of references to any of Deathwing’s children. We did find out some more about what he was up to between the War of the Ancients and Day of the Dragon, but there was no mention at all of Sabellian, Nefarian, Onyxia, or any others.

[I’m going to make a separate post about the Deathwing parts of Chronicle II, since this one got really long.]

The primordial lore of Draenor, with creatures of stone or plant life that towered higher than mountains and caused the world to shake with every step, was awe-inspiring, terrifying, and epic.

Er...take my word for it. It was awesome. *ahem*

Grond, the rock giant created by the Titan Aggramar to fight the Evergrowth, broke down into a series of lesser beings as time went by, each kind smaller but smarter than the last. Thus were created most of Draenor’s sentient creatures (minus arrakoa, saberon, botani, and sporeggar).

I know Blizzard is trying to sand off the rough edges of the lore and make things fit more seamlessly, and in the vast majority of cases I think the Chronicles book do that well. At first I thought orcs being descended from ogres was an exception, but then I really looked at the pictures and realized...yeah, it works. Orcs and ogres share the same jaw structure, at least. (I’m still not sure how one eye turned into two, though, and the number of toes increased a lot in the last two iterations. Also, it appears bad posture skipped ogres and popped up again in orcs...) ;)

(All images in the above graphic are from Wowpedia. And of course I used Varok Saurfang as the quintessential orc because he’s freaking Saurfang. ‘Nuff said.)

I wonder if dwarves know that orcs are technically descended from rocks, too... It also means that ogres and orcs have Titan origins, albeit not as directly as vrykul, mogu, gnomes, dwarves, etc.

Goria, the capital of the ancient ogre empire, was destroyed by orc shaman, working with the elements of Draenor to avenge the desecration of the Throne of Elements. (The ogres had barged in and tried to take the power of the elements with brute force, which...didn’t go well.) The city was buried by the forces of earth, and none of the races of Draenor wanted anything to do with the site afterward...until the draenei crashed and were like, “Hey! This looks like a great place for a city!” Thus Shattrath was founded.

Meanwhile, I imagine the orcs, ogres, arrakoa, etc. were peeking over a hill nearby going, “WTF are those new guys doing? Everybody knows better than to build there!” It’s like building a subdivision on top of a cursed native burial ground.

As it turns out, none of Shattrath’s problems had anything to do with unhappy ogre spirits, but the bad karma didn’t do the city any favors, either.

In WoD, Alliance players drink an elixir to witness a vision of the Iron Horde using the Dark Star to conquer Karabor despite Velen’s best efforts to defend the holy site.

In our universe, the non-iron Horde did basically the same thing, but Velen was able to escape. The void energies corrupted the site into the Black Temple. Fel seeped in later when the demons took over, but initially it was the void that wrecked it. Interesting.

When Grom Hellscream learned of Draenor blowing up, he assumed Garrosh was killed, and “the news was devastating.” He forced himself to “put aside his grief” for the greater good of orckind and led the remnants of the Horde into the Swamp of Sorrows.

If only Garrosh knew that his father cared that much about him, even with the red pox, maybe he wouldn’t have been such a mess. :p

Long before anyone on Azeroth had heard of an orc, the Gurubashi trolls attacked Stormwind (as seen in the Bonds of Brotherhood graphic novel that was a movie tie-in.) All seemed lost until Medivh stood on the ramparts and unleashed a firestorm of magic down on the invading trolls.

My question is, did it take as long to clean up the charred mess from that incident as it did to repair the city after Deathwing damaged it at the beginning of Cataclysm? ;)

(At least there were no huge statues near the gates to tip over in those days. I still remember the first time I saw the cinematic of Deathwing casually knocking over Danath’s statue on his way by, and how freaking awesome that was. Oops, this was supposed to be the non-dragon section. Ahem. Moving on...)

Taria Wrynn was killed while she and Varian were trying to escape the city during the fall of Stormwind. Lothar saved the prince but could not save the queen. :(

No mention of Varian’s sister from the movie-verse.

Miscellaneous tidbits:

Before the Scourge, the Eastern Plaguelands were known as the Eastweald.

Maraad had a sister named Leran. She was captured and killed by orcs in one of the first clashes in what would end up being the draenei genocide. No mention of our universe’s Yrel, though.

The Scepter of Sargeras that my warlock has as her Legion artifact shows up in one of the art pieces in Chronicle II, in Ner’zhul’s hand as he splits Draenor asunder. Pretty damn cool. I mean, I knew the history behind the weapon from playing my lock, but to actually see it being used at that historic moment gave me a thrill. (Although the thought of such a powerful weapon bumping around on some chucklehead player’s back is kind of scary... Stand in the fire, accidentally shatter the planet...LOL!)

The cutscene in original Karazhan showing Nightbane’s origins was revisited and expanded upon significantly. It seems that Arcanagos (Nightbane, pre-crispification) was one of Aegwynn’s few true friends (along with Moroes!), and they came to Karazhan together to confront Medivh about the Dark Portal after they sensed his magic behind it.

Sargeras took over Medivh and was like, “Hey, Aegwynn, long time no see! Remember me? You thought you killed my avatar, but I actually hitchhiked in your body for awhile and then possessed your son. How do you like them apples?”

And Aegwynn was like, “WTF? YOU ASSHOLE!”

They fought, and although Sargeras was, y’know, a freaking Titan, he was working with a sliver of his real power in a body he had only been inhabiting for a relatively short time, and Aegwynn was not only more experienced fighting as a human, but she was extremely pissed off. Arcanagos got fried when he tried to help her.

Sargeras was like, “Shit, I’m actually losing,” and sucked the life energy out of everyone (except Aegwynn and Moroes) in the tower. Thus all the ghosts you see there today. With that power, he could have obliterated Aegwynn, but deep in his brain Medivh was like, “Not my mother, you bastard!” and exerted his will so that Aegwynn was banished to some far-flung, unknown corner of the world instead of being killed.

When he came to his senses again he was like, “WTF just happened? Did I black out and kill everyone again? Ugh, I hate when that happens.” And he felt very bad. As one does.

[#tw: mention of rape and vague allusion to incest in the following section]

Garona’s plot definitely draws from the comics, but there is zero mention of her having a romantic and/or sexual relationship with Medivh, which I assume is Blizzard’s way of saying, “Med’an? Who’s that? Never heard of him! Ooh, look, a squirrel!” Which is honestly fine by me. Briefly canon or not, Medivh/Garona is kind of a NOTP as far as I’m concerned (one amusing screenshot not withstanding.)

I actually rather liked the movie-verse idea that Medivh was her father, partly because it made for an interesting, poignant story (and got rid of the rape element), and partly because it made the original Warcraft I story of her being half human, half orc canon again. Retcons are a necessary evil, but clever ways to get around them are fun, too.

However, Chronicles II makes it clear that Garona’s father was an orc warrior and her mother was a draenei prisoner. Which, okay, fine, it would be pretty jarring to go from “babydaddy” to “actual father” in main canon, so as long as they got rid of Med’an, I’ll take it. They were still friends, and bonded over their shared feeling of being an outcast.

I’m sure I’ll think of a million things I’ve forgotten to mention as soon as I post this, but I’ve rambled long enough and I haven’t even touched the black dragonflight stuff. Suffice it to say that Chronicle II is amazing, and while the dragon lore may not be as detailed as I’d like, we did get some juicy new tidbits to chew on.

#Warcraft lore #warcraft chronicle #warcraft chronicle spoilers #medivh #aegwynn #sargeras #garona #the titans #grom hellscream #and others #ogron #gronn #faillords of draenor #katieskarlette makes images

22 notes · View notes