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airplanned · 3 years

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Ned Talks About Fight Scenes

I write a lot of fight scenes, and I consider it something I'm good at. There are a lot of things to consider when writing a fight scene and they all intersect with each other. I'm going to talk about three things: Clarity, Emotion, and Flow.

Clarity is important, because you don't want your reader to stop and say, "Wait, there's another guy?" "Since when did they have an axe?" "I thought they were on the ground?" "When did they get inside?" Anything that pulls the reader out of the story disrupts your flow and is bad. You need things to clip along, so be sure that your choreography makes sense and that you're clear about what's going on.

The biggest problem I see in fight scenes is when a transition is missed so a character is over here, and then all of a sudden they're over there or facing a different way. I'm not saying that there needs to be a whole big thing made about the transition, because that will affect your flow and slow you down with excess description, making it feel bloated. But saying, "He turned around," takes up minimal space and will sometimes save you a lot of grief.

I think the easiest example to show of this is actually a make-out scene I read ages ago. (Make-out scenes and fight scenes have a lot in common.) It went something like this: "He came up behind her, wrapped his arms around her waist, and kissed her shoulder. She hopped up and wrapped her legs around his waist." ... The picture I have in my head is that he’s still behind her, but her legs are folded backward like a ballerina. This would be easily preventable with a simple "She turned around and..."

Now, this example is a very close example. The characters are attentive to every little moment, so a jump into a different position is jarring. A fight scene example would be if you have a one-on-one duel, and it's emotional and calculating, and your character is very attuned to every movement that their opponent makes. It's a little different if you have a sweeping battle scene with a horde of hundreds of enemies, like if you're writing an Age of Calamity battle. Your main character isn't thinking in minute steps, but rather in sweeping moves, so your reader is fine not hearing that your character has turned around, but wouldn't be fine not knowing that your character is suddenly bleeding from dozens of fatal wounds or is half way through a battle with a big monster that actually matters. So be aware of the scope of your scene, and that will guide you in how detailed you need to be. (Also keep in mind that you can zoom in, like you fight a big Age of Calamity battle, but then things get more personal when you meet the boss and fight them.)

I know that just saying "don't so this" is not super helpful. First of all, sometimes something is so clear in your head that you don't even know that your reader isn't following you. The main solution to that is a beta reader. A second set of eyes can easily point out these moments. You can also draw stick figures (it's fun!). For each sentence, draw where they would be and make sure the change between them makes sense.

Sometimes, you might have something very complicated in mind. But if you cant describe it clearly, it's not worth it and it might be worth scaling back. Killing your darlings happens.

Sometimes, the fight will be a huge mess and our hero will be flailing around, not knowing what's going on or which way is up or when it's going to be over. But in that case, you can just say that. Be clear about it. And then tell us what your POV character does know. If they're overwhelmed, tell us what they feel. Adding in emotion can actually be clarifying in explaining to the reader why the character acts the way they do.

Which brings us to

Emotion. It's important for a lot of reasons. First of all, if you leave out the emotion completely and have it be straight action the whole time, then your hero looks as if it's no big thing. This battle is simple and they are a killing machine. Maybe that's what you want. But if there's no tension for your character, there won't be any tension in your reader. If you say that this scene is no sweat, I (the reader) will not be sweating. But if your character is struggling, if they're fearing, if they're exhausted or hurt, I'm going to worry for them and you automatically have tension.

Second of all, I tend to write more character driven things, and what's the point of the fight scene if it doesn't have some effect on the character or show something about them? What purpose does it serve in the story? Maybe it's just to be cool, and that's okay, but don't expect more from it if that's the case.

The other cool thing about including emotion is that if you have a paragraph in the middle of a fight scene where the character is thinking about how hard the fight is or worrying about protecting someone or excited to finally be using a sword again after a long hiatus, then your reader will assume that time is passing while they're thinking, and then when you pull out of that paragraph and back int the action, your character can be in a new place, fighting a new monster. It's one way to avoid that jarring lack of transition that we talked about earlier.

So returning regularly to your POV character in a fight scene is a good idea. I tend to do one pass where I just write the choreography (unless some big, climactic emotional moment is the whole point of the scene/story, in which case I'll write that first), then I'll do a second pass inserting some interiority.

Flow deals with how the scene reads. You want it to read fast (action packed!) because your character will be thinking fast and things will be moving fast and you want your reader's heart to be beating fast.

You can achieve a lot of this on a micro level with just word and punctuation choices. 1. Commas: a comma is a way to show a pause for breath, so in some cases, misusing commas and using a run-on sentences is your friend. Lists are also your friend, because you can have this happening and that happening and something else over there and they felt dizzy and tired and yet the list goes on.

2. Longer sentences tend to pul you forward through the sentence whereas short, choppy sentences have a lot of periods, which are hard pauses.

3. To Be Verbs slow you down. A "to be" verb is any conjugation of "to be": was, is, were, are, be, am. You might have heard this in high school English class and rolled your eyes, and I have strong feelings about how this is not a hard and fast rule that should be used in all situations. However, to be verbs DO slow you down, and that's not what you want here. So let's use a test sentence like, "He was running towards the moblin." The thing about this is that "run" isn't the verb. "Was" is the verb. What was he doing? He was existing. Which is more exciting: existing or running? Change this to "He ran towards the moblin," and already that reads faster.

4. Over-specificity will slow you down too. There are so many fight scenes out there where I think they're trying not to fall into the trap discussed earlier of being unclear, so they go hard in the other direction and over-specify. If you want to tell me at the very start that our hero has a sword in his left hand and a dagger in his right, go for it, but I don't want to hear about what anyone's left hand and right hand are doing during the actual fight. (Unless handedness is a theme or something in your story?) I don't need to know how many degrees they turned to block a blow. I don't need to know too many adjectives, because each of your adjectives should be hitting me in the face.

There's a lot more I could say about flow. I do a lot of work with numbers of syllables and length of syllables, which means that certain words won't fit in the sentence I'm working on. I do a lot with timing the big moments and arranging the white space around paragraphs so that the reader has a pause to go "oh shit!" when I want them to go "oh shit!" I do a lot of onomatopoeia (sound effects) as shorthand for movement. "ClashClashClash. Boom!" But I feel like getting into all that will be a bit too much and it's kind of more of a feeling than a science, so I'll stop here.

Good luck!

#follower day #craft essay

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technomaestro · 3 years

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Top 5 Video Game Soundtracks

Ok. Let's try this *again*. I had a whole thing written up and I accidentally refreshed the page, so tumblr ate the entire thing, and I lost it.

Destiny 2 There's a reason D2 is one of my all time favorite games, and the music for it is one of those reasons. Destiny 2's sweeping orchestral soundtrack is full of songs that encapsulate that grand, epic nature of the world and conflict you find yourself in as the Guardian. From the mission tracks like 1AU/Forge Ahead , Valkyrie, and Guns Blazin which provide this cinematic backdrop as you fight for your victories, to the epic swelling of the raid bosses where the tension in their first phases is replaced with triumphant moments where the tide turns as seen in Riven of a Thousand Voices or Insurrection Prime (even the most hated boss in Destiny has a pretty baller theme with tons of brass in it as you get ready to put him in his grave one last time after fighting him multiple times throughout the raid). Locations such as the Dreaming City have tracks that manage to encapsulate the mystery and history behind each location. No matter my feelings and critiques on the gameplay or the story, the music in Destiny 2 is just an absolute gift of musical genius. Michael Salvatori (yes, that same Michael Salvatori from Halo) is one of my favorite composers for the work he's put into that series. Favorite track: Journey ft. Kronos Quartet. This is the song that plays after the deafening silence that comes from escaping the city during the initial Red War campaign, where you montage your way through an unforgiving wilderness, powerless, as the city fades into the distance behind you. You've been beaten, your home taken from you, but the music swells with hope as you follow a sign from the Traveler - and you know you'll return to reclaim your city. I highly recommend taking a peek at the mission, as you can't play it anymore, to see what I mean as to how the track absolutely enhances the experience.

Hades Supergiant games - the people behind Bastion and Transistor, two other games with amazing soundtracks - really did knock it out of the park with Hades. This game's soundtrack is a wonderful blend of classic acoustic instruments (Check it out - it's called a Bağlama) mixed with metal and electronica to create a theme that evokes not only the aesthetics of the region, but also give it a modern twist that meshes with the dark, haunting vibes of the underworld that you reside in. Each track flows so well from one into the next, mixing perfectly with each area or character you encounter. And the two musical characters you encounter - Orpheus and Eurydice - add in plenty of musical flair to the game themselves. The motifs present in the songs are called back frequently to make it a coherent, consistent soundtrack, and it remixes so incredibly well. Favorite Track: God of the Dead - the theme for the final boss of each run, this track is incredible. Not only does it reflect the theme of Zagreus in a different key, showing the link between Hades and his son, before delving into this heavy, frantic track that perfectly encapsulates having to fight

Payday 2 There are exactly two ways to play Payday 2. The first is stealth - you won't have much in the way of music as you silently slip by cops, cameras, and civilians to reach your score. The other is the way I play, where you suit up in the heaviest body armor you can get, grab two automatic shotguns, and go to town to some of the best soundtracks in the game. Payday 2 has a unique musical cue system with it's audio during loud heists, where it amps up the tracks in time with what the cops are doing. At first, before you've been detected, you have the Stealth track which is always low and very basic to not intrude. In low points, like when you first go loud and the first responders arrive on the scene, you're in a Control track. Then, as the police gear up, it switches to a higher temp Anticipation Track, and then when the police storm your position, the Assault track. So each "song" in Payday 2 is actually 4 songs in one, that the game blends seamlessly together in order to match the audio with the gameplay. It's an incredibly clever system that keeps you immersed in the tension of the heist even as Bain, your mastermind, calls out over comms with instructions. And it helps that almost all of the tracks are exceptional bangers in their own right, with amped up electronica with great percussion and bass lines alongside rebellious hard hitting metal and rock. But during those assault tracks, there's something satisfying about hearing the build, reloading your guns, then timing you leaving cover to unleash fury with the bass drop. There's a great playlist here with links to the different types of tracks if you want to take a peek yourself. Favorite Track: I Will Give You My All - one of the few tracks with built in vocals. This particular track feels like the exact kind of music I'd see in a movie, and with the build I run in game for Loud stuff at the moment which incentivizes me running face first at bulldozers and cloakers, giving it my all is *exactly* what I intend to do in that game.

Horizon Zero Dawn HZD's soundtrack is full of the same sort of sweeping orchestral stuff that made me love Destiny 2, with tracks that serve to accentuate the world around you. The only reason it's down here at 4 and not higher is because there's a somewhat lack of variety; as a singleplayer story game, most of the music you encounter tends to be in cutscenes, rather than during gameplay. That isn't a *bad* thing however, and over the hundreds, if not thousands of games I've played, reaching #4 on the list is no small feat. The actual orchestral bits pair so well with being able to cultivate this theme of a world full of grandeur, the kind of which you'd see in nature documentaries. The various tracks illicit this feeling of a long forgotten hope, which if you know anything about the plot, ties in perfectly. The music that *does* play outside of the incredible cutscenes add to the world's aesthetic so well, pairing the sort of instruments you'd find people playing in the civilizations you encounter with the environments you find them in. Even the battle music, when there is battle music, is a tense affair; the game incentivizes you to stalk your prey, as Aloy is not a frontline fighter: she's a hunter among predators, and the music matches that tone. Favorite Track: A tie between Aloy's Journey, which provides not only natural sounds mixed with the instruments of the Nora and the underpinning of techno that permeates the story (in addition to one of my favorite musical things where you have these grand sweeping vocals that aren't actually lyrics) and Your Hand of Sun And Jewels, which gives off this sort of air of walking through city streets in golden sunlight, where people dance just a block away and you can smell the fragrant spices of the local cuisine. It makes me yearn and if I listen to it on full blast I can forget that I'm stuck at home for a moment.

Pokemon Heart Gold & Soul Silver Pokemon OSTs hold a special place in my heart because as much as I loved games as a kid, getting started on things like Mappy for the NES (which, now that I write that, really shows how fuckin *old* I am), Pokemon was one of the first things that I basically turned into my personality as a child. Silver version especially was one of the ones that *truly* got me going, as in Blue version I always felt one step behind my brother but Silver was *my* game, my generation. I have extremely fond memories of that game, from the Lake of Rage to trying to beat a ghost gym with a Sentret and it taking four hours because normal types and ghost types are just... immune to each other. But when Soul Silver came out and remastered the soundtrack, it brought back this wave of nostalgia. The bit tunes I remember had been brought to life, in a way that was recognizably Pokemon. Hearing it again brought back the waves of wanting to journey and be a hero again that when the game came out, I was sorely missing. The music in the game is upbeat and chipper, befitting a near solarpunk world that I want to live in. Iconic tracks remain iconic but with a bit of cultural flair, showing that the Johto region hasn't lost touch with it's roots. While it isn't the almighty trumpeting of Gen 3, the nostalgic tracks that are already evocative of nostalgia brings a yearning back for a time when things were simpler and I could just play games. Also, the Rival theme is *rocking*. Favorite Track: Route 26 Theme. Route 26 is also known as Tohjo Falls, the place which connects Johto and Kanto together. And for me, this route represents having reached a triumph and the energy to explore what's next. It's a critique directly against the Hero's Journey's unfortunate end, that they can never go home - the hero here *can* go home, but they choose to set out again for new sights. It's full of the fact that when it plays, you're taking your steps into something new, something bold, and full of new challenges that await you. It is, by far, one of my favorite tracks and the orchestral version brings me to tears.

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fnlrndcllctv · 3 years

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THE YEAR IN FIGHTING GAMES: 1994

As the original release of Street Fighter II turns 30 this year, we are taking a look at the landscape of fighting games between 1991 and 2021 on a year by year basis!

This week, Shaun Eddleston takes a look at 1994…

1994 was an eventful year for video games.

Nintendo was starting to wind down on its production of NES games, while celebrating the success of games such as Super Metroid and Donkey Kong Country on the Super Nintendo. SEGA’s Sonic The Hedgehog series was going strong with Sonic The Hedgehog 3, and games such as DOOM II and Warcraft were making their way onto computers all across the world.

It was also a year where Germany placed Mortal Kombat II on its index of media works deemed harmful to young people by Germany's Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons effectively banning the game from sale in the country (and remained that way all the way up to 2005!).

Let’s take a look at 1994 in fighting games...

One of the more obscure Neo Geo titles, Aggressors Of Dark Kombat (known as Tsuukai GANGAN Koushinkyoku in Japan) was an interesting title that felt like a bit of an experiment in the genre. The game’s movement feels more like it would fit into your standard beat ‘em up game such as Final Fight and Streets Of Rage, and even drops weapons into the stage for fighters to use.

The game also includes a fun comeback mechanic, the “GAN GAN attack”, which kicks in once a player’s health bar drops below a certain point, and their power bar is full. Once one of these mega attacks connects with an opponent, the player automatically wins the round.

Art of Fighting 2 continues the story that kicked off in the previous year’s entry, as we immediately learn that the identity of Yuri’s kidnapper, the tengu masked Mr Karate, is none other than Takuma Sakazaki, Yuri and Ryo’s father. This is all part of a much bigger criminal plot that ends up being spearheaded by a certain young crime lord from another popular SNK fighting title…

As for the game itself, almost every aspect of the Art Of Fighting experience was rebuilt and polished. The character sprites and stage art looked better, and a new “Rage” gauge mechanic was introduced into the mix. All of the game’s characters are immediately playable in arcade mode, and each have their own specific dialogue when interacting with other fighters.

The first 3D weapons-based fighting game was also one of the earlier releases on the Sony PlayStation, and was poised to be the game that would “outshine” the impressiveness of Virtua Fighter’s groundbreaking graphics.

While it didn’t quite beat out SEGA’s franchise, Battle Arena Toshinden still had a couple of interesting aspects to it that are still worth mentioning today.

First of all, it is arguably the first “true” 3D fighting game, as it included the ability to side-step or dodge roll during a fight. This meant that the act of avoiding projectiles now had more options outside of blocking the hit or jumping over it, giving the game a little more depth (both mechanically and visually).

Thanks to the newly opened up 3D movement, ring outs are also possible in the game, where players can lose a round by simply falling off the side of the stage. This is an element that many gamers see as a bit of a cop out during a fight, but I personally see it as a fun way to humiliate opponents and even bring overly confident fighters back down to earth.

Capcom’s massive success with Street Fighter II was one of the most important moments in video game history, and the game was still going incredibly strong since its release 3 years prior (including this year, which we’ll touch on later in the article). There was a big question that lingered though; what non-Street Fighter fighting game would Capcom bring to the table next?

That game was Darkstalkers: The Night Warriors.

Darkstalkers wasn’t a million miles away from Street Fighter II in terms of gameplay. It utilised the same six-button L/M/H attack layout, and even used a Super Gauge that would be shared with the series.

The main strength of Darkstalkers that set it apart from its more famous older cousin, and that was its characters and theme. Instead of a tournament of worldwide fighters that many 2D fighting games utilised, Darkstalkers took inspiration from classic horror movies from the Universal era and offered a cast of 10 fighters that range from werewolves, sasquatches and vampires to Egyptian mummies, zombies and a Frankenstein’s monster for good measure.

A spooky cult favourite!

1993’s Fighters History was a controversial entry in the fighting game genre. Not necessarily because of any violent content or especially iffy storyline, but for just how similar the game was to Street Fighter II. It was so similar, in fact, that Capcom attempted to sue Data East for just how much of a shameless ripoff the game was.

Capcom wasn’t successful with the lawsuit, and Data East went forward with a sequel, Fighters History Dynamite.

The game, perhaps more commonly known in some places as “Karnov’s Revenge”, added more characters (including the game’s boss fighters, Karnov and Clown) to the playable roster and spruced up the game's stage backgrounds.

Other than the slightly expanded range of fighters, and a hilarious hidden character to discover, not a lot else has changed from the first title, and still feels like it can’t shake off the original comparison that it got into trouble for.

Many 2D games up to this point were trying to mimic Street Fighter and Fatal Fury’s cartoonish graphics, there wasn’t really anything outside of Mortal Kombat’s digitised graphics that truly felt “next-gen” going into the middle of the decade.

Enter Killer Instinct.

While Rare as a developer was having a fantastic year already, with the success of Battletoads and Donkey Kong Country leaving long lasting impressions on the industry, their fighting game was a revelation in arcades, bringing a mix of 2D gameplay on 3D stages, strong bloody violence and a ridiculous new combo system to the table.

The characters were memorable, the animated FMV sequences were jawdropping to watch, and witnessing the game announce blare out “ULTRA COMBO!” whenever someone nailed a particularly savage sequence of hits just felt right.

Why not check out our thoughts on the game’s “killer” soundtrack?

Inspired by the popularity of Ryo Sakazaki (Art Of Fighting’s main protagonist) and his appearance as a guest character in Fatal Fury Special in 1993, SNK decided to go all out and start a crossover fighting series that brought together characters from their library of past games.

The game, named after the fighting tournament in Art Of Fighting and Fatal Fury, allows players to choose from a selection of 3-member teams that have been designated to different countries of the world, and matches revolve around an elimination system. In addition to a selection of original new characters, KOF ‘94 mixed together the Ikari Warriors, Psycho Soldier, Art Of Fighting and Fatal Fury franchises to fill out one of the largest fighting game rosters around at this point.

The game’s music is the subject of our very first entry in the Soundtrack Sunday series, so check it out!

Of the slew of games that took direct inspiration from Mortal Kombat, very few actually left a lasting impression.

One of the exceptions to this was Primal Rage, which saw stop motion dinosaurs and prehistoric apes duke it out for supremacy in the new “Urth”.

The game, which also took inspiration from Taito’s Dino Rex from 1992, caused its own controversy with one of its fatalities. In 1996, a woman from Arizona said that her 11 year old son had bought the game, and used a strategy guide to execute the “Golden Shower” fatality (in which, as the title suggests, the character Chaos urinates all over the corpse of an opponent). She flipped out and started a grass-roots campaign against Primal Rage, which resulted in some US stores withdrawing copies of the game, including the already-censored SNES version, which didn’t even contain the offending move.

The game was also successful with its merchandise, and saw a line of toys and a board game to accompany it.

The first Samurai Shodown game was, and still is, one of the finest fighting games of the early 90’s, so SNK had a huge task on their hands when it came to creating a sequel.

With Samurai Shodown 2, they absolutely knocked it out of the park in pretty much every aspect. All of the sprites of the characters who reappeared from the first game had been completely remade, a bunch of new characters had been added in, everyone got amazing new moves and a number of new game mechanics were also introduced to make the game feel much more balanced and fun to play.

One of these new mechanics was the “Weapon break” system, which meant that if a player got hit with a particularly powerful attack, there was now a chance that it would knock their weapon clean out of their hands, leaving them unarmed until it was recovered. The sheer panic of scrambling to pick up your sword while the opponent is slashing away at you is a thrill that still feels as effective today as it did back then.

Street Fighter II’s reign as king of the arcade fighting games was starting to wind down by 1994, so the game saw a final upgrade in the form of Super Street Fighter II Turbo, which added more game speeds, new animations and moves for all of the characters, a new “SUPER” gauge system and the introduction of a hidden character that would quickly become one of the franchise’s most recognisable fighters; Akuma!

While many more casual players may not have felt the real impact of these changes (this was the third update in as many years since the original release), it remains as the “definitive” version of Street Fighter II, and is still used in tournaments to this day.

Developed by Namco (and ported to PlayStation in 1995), Tekken took the 3D fighting style that was pioneered by 1993’s Virtua Fighter, and added its own spin on things in regards to the control system.

Instead of using the traditional fighting game inputs that corresponded to the strength of the attacks, Tekken utilised a system that dedicates a button to each individual limb of the fighter. In doing this, the game became more of a learning process for players that wanted to do special moves and combos. This departure was so innovative, that experienced players could now figure out special moves by studying the fighters limb movements during their animations.

Known briefly as “RAVE WAR” during its beta test stage, Tekken quickly found itself as one of the most popular PlayStation games in history, and became the first game to sell over a million copies for the console.

Take a look at our thoughts about the game’s soundtrack!

Virtua Fighter was an incredibly important moment in gaming, so following up with a sequel that lived up to its predecessor was absolutely vital for SEGA.

Luckily, with Virtua Fighter 2, they managed to not only surpass the first game in the way it looked, but how it played too. Improved movesets ramped up how authentic each individual martial arts/fighting style felt, and with things running at 60FPS in the arcade version, the game felt like it was miles ahead of its competition.

The third entry in the World Heroes series was yet another improvement on the games that preceded it, but considering the sheer amount of solid competition it was facing in 1994, it still fell to the wayside.

The game added two new fighters and added a brand new boss to face off against, but things were starting to feel somewhat dated with the series now, and it suffered as a result.

While there were many action-adventure and side-scrolling beat-’em-ups based on characters from the Marvel universe, it wasn’t until the early 90’s until we got a fully fledged fighting game. It only made sense that Capcom, one of the heaviest hitters in the genre at the time stepped forward to fix this.

Released in arcades in late 1994, X-Men: Children of the Atom established what would become a beloved and fruitful relationship between Capcom and Marvel, and laid the foundations for the successful “Vs.” series that fighting game fans have played for nearly 25 years now.

The game is loosely based on 1993’s “Fatal Attractions” storyline, in which Magneto and his Acolytes return to confront the X-Men, tempting Professor Xavier to cross a moral line to stop them. It’s a pretty insane storyline with some fairly gnarly imagery (one such example sees Wolverine getting the adamantium ripped out of his skeleton!), and the good vs. evil dynamic lends itself perfectly to the setting of an arcade fighting game.

1994’s entries in the genre saw developers starting to take full advantage of the new 3D graphics that SEGA introduced with Virtua Fighter in the wake of a new console generation, while 2D fighting games kept on coming hard and fast to try and best Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat’s popularity.

Join us next week as we take a look at the games of 1995!

Did we miss anything from 1994 that’s worth mentioning?

Let us know in the comments below!

#Aggressors Of Dark Kombat #Art Of Fighting 2 #Battle Arena Toshinden #Darkstalkers #Fighter's History Dynamite #Killer Instinct #The King Of Fighters '94 #Primal Rage #Samurai Shodown 2 #Super Street Fighter II Turbo #Tekken #Virtua Fighter 2 #World Heroes 2 Jet #X-Men: Children Of The Atom #Capcom #Namco #SNK #1994

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delfinodreams · 3 years

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OKAY i said i would make a post about my thoughts on paper mario a while ago and im finally writing it out

ill put it under a break because its probably gonna be long-ish

update: yea this bitch is LONG

okay so overall i really really enjoyed it!! it was really solid for the first entry in the series and i could definitely see the inspiration that ttyd later took from it. one thing that i didnt know about was partners not having HP, which threw me for a little bit of a loop. partners as a whole in this game don't play as active of a role as i wouldve expected because they have so little lines but using them in battle is still very fun! another small thing but i also hadn't expected mario to be completely silent, but it later grew on me!

i'm also gonna list my experiences and opinions on each chapter so here we go!!

chapter 1 - pretty alright for an introductory chapter! i didnt find anything especially notable, apart from getting 2 partners in one chapter. navigating the koopa bros. fortress was fun, and i loved the battle at the end!! their theme is SUCH a banger i had to sit back and listen to it for a bit when the fight actually started ehe

chapter 2 - not quite a fan of this one imo? i liked the first part through the mountain, but the trek though dry dry desert kinda took it out of me. BUT the addition of my favourite partner made up for it! parakarry my beloved <3 also the cutscene where dry dry ruins rise up??? that shit was SPECTACULAR. i absolutely loved how it turned dark when it first came up, i wish it stayed like that for more than just until you entered the ruins. the boss itself wasn't too exciting for me, probably because there wasnt much of a story?? i dont know how to describe it. actually its like that for quite a few of these bosses, but its the first entry for this series, so i wont fault it too much.

chapter 3 - this might be my FAVOURITE chapter- the suspense buildup throughout the entire chapter was AMAZING holy moly!!! first through the forever forest when you have bootler ask for you, and then wandering the mansion itself. i TOTALLY thought that boos were gonna be actual enemies when i saw them floating around. sneaking around tubba blubba's castle was so so fun to do, and i legitimately panicked when you ran into him in the hall and also when he wakes up and chases you back to the windmill. i didnt actually think the heart itself was the boss, just a miniboss, so i freaked out when i left the windmill and was immediately thrown into a battle with tubba blubba. i cannot express just how much i enjoyed this chapter, seriously!!

chapter 4 - coming back to toad town with the music change threw me for a bit; i wasnt expecting action to pop up so soon! figuring out that you could actually go into the toybox was such a "wait, what??" moment for me, but like, in a positive way. it was really cool to navigate this chapter and the lantern ghost encounter genuinely creeped me out at first because it was COMPLETELY dark. the fight against general guy is also a BANGER i could listen to it all day

chapter 5 - man i LOVE the whale. just a big guy willing to take u across the ocean :^) i really appreciated how you weren't stranded on the island too, like how you were on keelhaul key in ttyd. the ravens are also funky little guys, love them too. again, the lava piranha didnt really have any substance to it BUT it was a nice fight nonetheless! when it popped up again i was shocked but i made it through!! also fuck kolorado he doesnt deserve his wife

chapter 6 - this one's formatting is really neat- one central area with lots of branching paths, which i hadnt seen in my past pm experiences! i loved the quest leading up to the big beanstalk, plus the environment was so pretty!! the little part with the sun tower popped out to me, i'm not sure why though. maybe it was the music, it was so different from the flower fields theme. at first i had actually expected to go up to the clouds earlier, maybe like midway through the chapter. i thought that would be the "dungeon" of this part, so i was a little bit let down when i realized that the fields were the majority. however, the bit of the clouds we do see is SO good i LOVE the atmosphere!! huff n puff was actually relatively easy, using parakarry and lakilester for their all-around attacks. the guitars were a nice touch for his theme as well!

chapter 7 - oh dude i LOVED this chapter. i didnt know what i was expecting when i first went into the pipe in the sewers, whether it would put me into a village immediately or if i would have to make it through some screens before. needless to say, i was relieved when it popped me out into shiver city. the whole place felt "warm" which was really nice!! i was comparing it to ttyd's chapter 7 and fahr outpost which i didn't really vibe with, so it was a nice change! the whole murder plot was also unexpected but i enjoyed the whole "whodunnit" mystery! omg as im typing this i realize just how many aspects of this chapter i love this is gonna be long,, the entire snowy atmosphere is just so PRETTY and starborn valley felt so solitary to the rest of the land, like its own little bubble. i also had no idea that ninjis were in this game so when i saw one at merlon's i was like HUH?? anyways the way up the mountain to the crystal palace kept me on my toes; i thought that was the dungeon at first! the small bit where you see madam merlar and she tells you the story of the palace really got to me i have no idea why. the music and mysticality of it all was just SO good. dont even get me started on the crystal palace itself HOLY MOLY. the whole reflection bit was SO SO clever and the moment you realize its NOt actually a mirror?? fucking magnificent. this has to be my favourite dungeon in the whole game because it has such a NEAT gimmick!! it also has my favourite mario enemies, duplighosts! FUCK the crystal king though. he stunlocked me with his freezing move because i could not get the hang of blocking it. my partners really carried me for that battle; thank god for quick change

chapter 8 - THIS CHAPTER DELIVERED. the buildup for the entire game leading to this point. OUTSTANDING. i had to sit back and admire star haven because its so pretty- did i mention i love the water graphics in this game?? it has a pixelly look but it works SO WELL. going to the ship to take you to bowser's castle really felt like a "this is it" moment. the entirety of bowser's castle was So Good, it kept me on my toes the entire time!! slowly advancing as the music got more intense REALLY pumped me up. tracks that start off with only a couple instruments and eventually add more as you progress is one way to make me go BONKERS. the one bit where you make your way outside on the bridge and the music dials down and then you re-enter on the other side to it SLAMMING you in the face- that was Great. and then the complete silence as you get outside peach's castle HOLY SHIT. and then you actually enter the palace and the music is SO EERIE and youre like OH SHIT THIS IS REALLY IT. seriously, the buildup for this entire castle is done SO magnificently. i hadn't expected to fight bowser twice, i guess it was the game's way of letting u level up One Last Time before u got to the big bad. that being said, i wasn't too worried on getting a game over since i was fucking stacked on items. but that's besides the point- the fight itself got my heart POUNDING. the effects for the star rod and the star's powers were really nice to see in action, and the little section with peach and twink was so cool! i was expecting a little interlude where you would get your stats maxed out because thats how its like in every pm game, but it was still moving :)) bowser's final battle theme fucking SLAPS. the guitar especially sounds AMAZING. you really see him as a threat here and its so badass. his healing move fucked me over multiple times- i probably ended up having to deal with double his base HP over the course of the fight.

after the fight was over and you got to see peach's castle float down with the soft music in the background, it really hit me that its done, its over. again, the effects in this game are so pretty and theyre utilized SO well for the n64. visiting toad town one last time with all the npcs was a really nice touch- for some reason i really loved being able to interact with vanna t. (chuck quizmo's toad assistant) she's ADORABLE and i will probably end up drawing her sometime :)) the credits were also something that i really enjoyed- i LOVE the ongoing theme of parades at the end. seeing everything and everyone in the game condensed into a short 8 minutes really got me, i cant remember but im pretty sure i was smiling the whole time! and a small sidenote- TOADS WITH GLOWING SPOTS ON THEIR HEAD HELLO?????? I WANNA DRAW THAT SO BAD.

the ending screen with peach and mario looking at the fireworks made me really soft and i teared up a little because i was finally finished. the addition of pop diva's solo in the track was also so touching, it was my favourite sidequest in the game so hearing it again brought up Emotions :')

one thing i wasnt sure of was if there was a post-game mode and my completionist heart was disappointed a little when i found out i couldn't advance from the end screen and was forced to reset. although not many games from this era had post-game content so i cant dock too many points for that.

the paper mario series has a fond place in my heart, and finally being able to play the game that started it all really was a special experience. it really cemented my love for the original formula and i could see many places where ttyd took inspiration from. this game really is fun, and i would highly recommend playing it yourself if you have the means!

#i just finished typing this out #i did not mean for it to get this long omg #i just have Many Thoughts #and you guys get to deal with them #i just checked and this is nearly 2K WORDS HELLO??????#paper mario #paper mario 64 #dreamy convos

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chaoticspacefam · 4 years

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OC Playlist Meme - Saarai (of course)

I was tagged by @thehighground (thank you! :D) this one was super fun!! I was caught between the twins of who I should do for this one, Saarai won because she is my favourite and her 70-song playlist was basically made for memes like this (yes, you heard me, 70. No it’s not a typo. Yes I have a slight, maybe, problem with her being my favourite LOL) 👍

I’ve shared all their playlists at various points, if you search up the “swtor oc theme songs” and “oc playlist” tag on the blog you should be able to find them! Or if you want links to the full playlists drop me a line and I can link you to them no problem! :D

Just the one this time cause this one’s pretty long, if I get tagged again tho I’ll do Ni’kasi next! :D

I shall tag (if you feel like it, no pressure as always!) @abyssal-space @stratosara @anchanted-one @pauletta-00 @hypnowinnermugpeach and anybody else who wants to have a go, this one’s super fun! Long post so under a cut! <3 gonna pop the content warning up here to: TW for mention of past abuse/manipulation and parental abuse in one of the songs in case ya wanna avoid it. there’s a warning above the specific section as well if you wanna read the rest and just skip that song, up to you!

♦️ Their intro theme: Up The Wolves - The Mountain Goats

“I’m gonna get myself in fighting trim, scope out every angle of unfair advantage. I’m gonna bribe the officials, I’m gonna kill all the judges! It’s gonna take you people years to recover from all of the damage!! Our mother has been absent, ever since we founded Rome. But there’s gonna be a party when the wolf comes home.”

♦️ Their own favorite song: DARKSIDE - Shinedown

(She has to set a good example with being one of the leaders of the Alliance (especially because her saying “don’t do that” is the only reason her sister and Aria don’t go for their new Jedi allies - at least to start with, before the Alliance y’know, bonds and becomes a proper coalition!). But learning to trust Jedi was still hard for her after what they did to her people, and I feel like if it existed in the verse she’d find it relatable and listen to it a lot.)

“Can you hear me, am I speaking clearly? Are you star-struck or just made of stone? Block out the actors, and all these bastards. That took all the fun out of rage and revenge.”

♦️ Their boss battle theme: Castle - Halsey

(it was difficult to pick one for this one, she has quite a few in her playlist that I consider her “boss battle” songs for various points in her life/the two different verses. But I think this one is the most universal! :D)

“I’m heading straight for the castle. They wanna make me their Queen. And there’s an old man sitting on the throne there sayin’ that I ‘probably shouldn’t be so mean.’ I’m heading straight for the castle...they got the kingdom locked up. And there’s an old man sitting on the throne there sayin’ ‘I should probably keep my pretty mouth shut!’.”

♦️ Their love song: (one for each of her main ships, but again, they have whole playlists because I use playlists to “set the mood” of the character/ship while I write. Pro writing tip, do it. It helps [nod nod] <3)

For Zephyrverse/Sash: Heaven’s Gate - Fall Out Boy

“And in the end if I don’t make it on the list, would you sneak me a wristband? Or would you give me, give me, give me a boost? Give me a boost over heaven’s gate. I’m gonna need a boost, cause everything else is a subtitute for your love. Give me a boost over heaven’s gate.”

For Subterfugeverse/Lana & Koth: The Last Of The Real Ones - Fall Out Boy

“I know this whole damn city thinks it needs you, but not as much as I do. As much as I do...Cause you’re the last of a dying breed, write our names on the wet concrete. I wonder if your therapist knows everything about me. I’m here in search of your glory, there’s been a million before me, that ultra-kind of love you never walk away from. ”

♦️ Their sad times song: Bruno Is Orange - Hop Along (tw: mention of abuse/manipulation, parental abuse)

“ ‘Bruno, what happened to your good sense?!’ I broke down ‘That man was good!!’ ‘I bet he works for the government!’ Did you hear about that mother, broke her daughter’s legs in two and said: ‘It’s too dangerous out there to walk so I have to save you!’ ”

♦️ A song that fits their aesthetic: Woman King - Iron & Wine

“Black hoof mare. Broken leg. Eye on the shotgun shell. Age old dog. Hornet’s nest. Built in the big church bell. Hundred years, hundred more. Someday we may see a woman king, sword in hand, swing at some evil and bleed.”

♦️ A song that reminds them of a better time: Downhill - Lincoln

(though most of this song has sad undertones to it, this part in particular would remind her of the short time she had with her father when he was alive, when he would take the twins outside and sit them on his lap to look at the stars <3)

“Cause you were the first one to show me the stars. And they don’t mean much to me, but I still wonder where you are. Some nights I still try to find you, relative to constellations. And all your relatives are still on vacation, or so I heard from a friend...”

♦️ A song that calms them down: 10,000 Enemies - Emeli Sandé

(headcanon that this is a song their mother D’leah used to sing to her and her twin, Ni’kasi, when they were children hiding out on Rishi and it stuck with her.)

“I hear the sweetest sound, blowing from the North. It says ‘don’t panic now, what’s mine is yours...’ I hope 10,000 times you tell me the truth. Cause now there’s much to do. I trust in you. I shall be free...I shall be free. We shall be free.”

♦️ A song that gets them hyped up: Young And Menace - Fall Out Boy

“We’ve gone way too fast for way too long. And we were never supposed to make it half this far. And I’ve lived so much life, lived so much life. I think that God is gonna have to kill me twice.”

I’m assuming this section is meant to mean a song the character would associate with each season? So I hope I’ve interpreted that correctly, I wasn’t really sure what else it was referring to. So that’s what I’m doing LOL

♦️ Spring: Thunder - Imagine Dragons

“Just a young gun with a quick fuse. I was uptight, wanna let loose. I was dreaming of bigger things and wanna leave my own life behind. Not a yes sir, not a follower, fit the box, fit the mold, have a seat in the foyer. Take a number, I was lightning, before the thunder.”

♦️ Summer: The Times They Are A’Changin’ - Fort Nowhere

(a.k.a the time of year where everything went to hell for her, though she uses it to remind her of how far she’s come once she’s older and more at peace with everything that happened so it’s positive in the end!)

“Come gather round people, wherever you roam. And admit that the waters around you have grown, and accept it that soon you’ll be drenched to the bone. If your time to you is worth saving, well you better start swimming or you’ll sink like a stone. For the times, they are a’changin’.”

♦️ Autumn: Dragon - Built By Titan feat. Skyborne

“When I was younger, I had a dragon. We would fly away to places you can’t imagine. And this is a story, of a lonely island. And a boy who found a way to become a lion.”

♦️ Winter: Youth - Glass Animals

(Winter is when Ty was born so it’s a mixed bag of trauma-induced depression (See “sad-times” song above), missing her twin and being sad about what happened but also wanting to make sure Ty never has to experience what she did and just wanting him to have a safe & happy life, so. This song kinda fits that.)

“Boy, when I left you you were young. I was gone but not my love, you were clearly meant for more than a life lost in the war. Oh, I want you to be happy, free to run get dizzy on caffeine, funny friends that make you laugh and maybe you’re just a little bit dappy.”

♦️ The song that plays while they’re lying on the ground bleeding out in a Walmart: Everything You Ever - Neil Patrick Harris (from Dr Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog)

“So your world’s benign. So you think justice has a voice? And we all have a choice? Well now, your world is mine.”

♦️ The song that would play each morning if they’re stuck in a time loop: Ends Of The Earth - Lord Huron

“ Oh, there's an island where all things are silent, I'm gonna whistle a tune. Oh, there's a desert that size can't be measured; I'm gonna count all the dunes.”

♦️ The song they’d listen to while robbing a Wendy’s: Pork Soda - Glass Animals

“Somebody said I’m a fucking slum, don’t know where I belong. Maybe you’re fucking dumb, maybe I’m just a bum. Maybe you’re fucking scum, don’t you go psycho chum.”

♦️ The song they’d accidentally introduce to people in medieval times if they were a time traveller: The Time Warp - Rocky Horror Picture Show.

(Also not accidentally, she has a silly side and she’d probably play this one for the LOL’s to see who got it or who got mad. She’d totally learn the dance moves and do those too XD)

“ The blackness would hit me And the void would be calling Let's do the Time Warp again Let's do the Time Warp again.”

♦️ The song they’d play in the middle of the night when their neighbors are being too loud: Blood // Water - grandson

("Do you think if I play a really loud, aggressively threatening song they’d shut the fuck up? I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna try it.” XD).

“You’ll never get free, lamb to the slaughter, what you gon’ do when there’s blood in the water?!”

♦️ The song that plays at their funeral: Sax Rohmer #1 - The Mountain Goats

“Ships loosed from their moorings capsize and then they're gone. Sailors with no captains watch a while and then move on. And an agent crests the shadows and I head in her direction. All roads lead toward the same blocked intersection. And I am coming home to you. With my own blood in my mouth...yes I am coming home, to you. If it’s the last thing that I do.”

♦️ The song that plays when it’s revealed that they faked their death: Joan of Arc - Arcade Fire

“You’re the one that they used to hate but they like you now. And everything that goes away will return somehow....first they love you, then they kill you, then they love you again...and then they love you, then they kill you, then they love you again.”

#swtor #star wars: the old republic #OC meme #tagged meme #swtor OC playlists #swtor oc theme songs #swtor oc: saarai ahaszaai #sith warrior #sith pureblood #[me cackling gleefully as i have yet another excuse to put my excessively-in-depth character playlists to good use]#except for the time warp obvs that's not in her playlist but c'mon what other song would you play to troll people when you time travel XD #let's face it saarai's basically taken over this blog #i should change my icon to one of my many screenshots of her really #tw: past trauma #tw: past abuse #tw: parental abuse #tw: manipulation

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flynn-science · 5 years

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Ryan Reacts to Kingdom Hearts 3

Okay, so this is a mix of live reactions and post-world reactions. Lot of live reactions in the beginning and end, more sporadic in between. You can probably guess what I’m reacting to most of the time from the sequence of events.

Mmm dat orchestral Don’t Think Twice Needed a minute on the menu. Finally seeing it say KH3 was A Lot. HOLY FUCK WHAT A COOL INTRO The speed is the same as 0.2, with that sprint that kicks in. Will take some getting used to. The stained glass looks gorgeous though Nice touch of KH1 Sora’s jump animation changing to KH2 Sora’s Making choices again like the original. Vitality is probably health, Wisdom is probably magic, and Balance is, well, balanced. I’ll go balanced. (I’m on Proud, btw) Guardian, Warrior, Mystic. Same as the weapons in KH1. In that case, I’ll make the same choice I do there: Guardian. SORA HAS AN IDLE ANIMATION OH MY GOD BLOCK AND DODGE FROM THE START! Also this sky place is new for a Dive to the Heart (AND THOSE HOOOORNS, LISTEN TO THEM) The water looks great A four-hit combo instead of the usual three? Huh Scan from the start too Nice detail of Sora’s head angling towards the locked on target All this music sounds SO GOOD I’MMA NEED THIS SOUNDTRACK ONCE I’M DONE Ahhh that little soft version of Sora’s theme WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS KINGDOM HEARTS II.9 SHIT These Instagram-style posts on loading screens are adorable Oh damn, we get a LOT of abilities from the start. And this is on Proud! Dodge Roll, Air Slide, Aerial Dodge (formerly a Master Form ability), plus all the Flowmotion stuff Wow, THREE shortcut menus! 12 total! Wow, and a LOT more control over how allies use items. That can be very useful! Sweet, synthesis materials are back! Water is an interesting new spell. And being able to reorder the Magic menu is nice (though I only use shortcuts). Kinda glad the item art has stayed the same. Also hey, Wellspring is from BBS. And first AP Boost of course goes into Sora, as will they all. WOW USING THOSE IS WAY FASTER NOW Yooo that Underworld music with the Titans’ appearance Take a shot every time someone says “Sora, Donald, Goofy” Sora, Donald, Goofy counter: 1 HERCULES HAS JOINED THE PARTY “Team Effort: Always start battles with a team attack command.” Damn, what are those that this ability is FIFTY AP?! (Are team attacks that move we saw Sora and Goofy do in a trailer? The throw?) I like that tutorials are playable at any time Also I was worried Save Points might not return with that auto save message at the start ALSO THIS IS NIGHT OF FATE PLAYING IN THE COMBAT TUTORIAL Ooh, Panacea art is nice. (Panacea has only appeared as a command in games like BBS and re:coded, so it hasn’t had art before) *reads Ability Ring* Damn, if 10 AP is a SMALL boost, I can’t imagine how expensive abilities are gonna get (well, Herc does have that one 50 AP ability) Ultima Weapon returns, looks like Synthesis recipes are based more on collector’s goals than finding them. Looks like there’s 60 synthesis materials, sounds about right. Ooh, synthesis item rarities, types: soothing and pulsing are from BBS, writhing, betwixt, sinister are new. Looks like everything goes in Shards, Stones, and Gems. Ooh that’s a lot of Heartless. Hey when is Jiminy gonna show up? Gonna need to complete that Journal again. Oooh battle music has bits of the old Coliseum battle music. Sora, Donald, Goofy counter: 2 Environmental fire damage followed by Sora’s butt on fire limiting my actions. Neat. Okay, these have been live reactions so far, but I’m gonna stop doing that because it’s slowing my progress. “What the heck is Rage Form?” “OH. OH THAT’S A THING.” I keep seeing hidden Mickeys, I bet those are gonna be a thing with the camera once I get it. Also damn are they giving me a lot of ingredients for the cooking minigame I can’t play yet. So the biggest thing I’ve noticed about the new combat is that because they give you so many really powerful abilities (grand magic at higher levels, formchanges, attractions, team attacks) that are all basically free (are you hitting things with your keyblade or magic? Can you hit this specific enemy once? Can you wait for your teammate to give you a prompt?), the number of enemies in each fight seems to have SIGNIFICANTLY increased from previous entries. KH2’s level design this is NOT. Lots more nooks and crannies to search. Me approaching the gates of Olympus: “Is this Anor Londo?” Yay nostalgic Coliseum music! And oooh little environmental puzzles are back! Like from KH1! I forged Goofy a new shield! Aaaand playable Riku. I have no idea why they were so dodgy about the second playable character. This is only the third time Riku’s been playable. Anyway, gotta fight the Demon Tower again. Damn, Riku is WAY stronger than Sora right now. Wish I could have read his abilities (and moved shortcuts). Nice emulation of the death screen. Also hot damn, is that Repliku talking??? I guess Riku’s “other me” really could be Repliku. Awwwww yeah, Lea’s getting new clothes too! YEAH JIMINY! “Dream Heartbinder” So Heartbinders must be this game’s summon gems, and this one lets me use Dream Eaters. SORA’S THEME IS THE RINGTONE!!! Ienzo’s here, with a bit of OrgXIII music from CoM. HOLY SHIT THE GUMMI SHIP IS THE BEST IT’S EVER BEEN UPGRADEABLE KEYBLADES?! I guess that makes sense, considering they all have different formchanges. They want all of them to stay viable throughout the game. OH MY GOD, DEMON TIDE HAS SO MUCH HEALTH I guess the bosses have to with all these powerful attacks I have Does Hayner have a new voice? Olette sounds different too. Checked the wiki, all three have different actors. Pence sounds closest to his original though. So judging by the Dusks and Snipers, no more enemy-specific reaction commands. The Ducklings sell Gummi blocks now?? Huh. Whoa wait, the road out of Twilight Town’s Tram Common leads back to the world map? Can I NOT go to the clock tower in this game?? Man, Twilight Town felt really small. Hope the remaining worlds don’t, though they’ve certainly seemed significantly larger than the two I’ve been to so far. Also, totally called the Lucky Emblems, though I’m gonna keep calling them hidden Mickeys. I think Tou Story is my favorite world. Granted, I’ve only been to three, but still. The Gigas are super fun, Woody and Buzz look amazing, and I can’t stop whistling/humming along! AHHH CREEPY DOLL Lol, the Verum Nox poster even has a Square Enix logo. First death, the Gigas battle in the video game. GOD DAMN! WOODY dropping an amazing “The Reason You Suck” speech to Xehanort! “Unless you’re in the ~real~ Organization too? Good for you!” Damn, Sora! Also love hearing that music from Chain of Memories every so often Glad flowmotion’s jump isn’t as level-breaking as it was in DDD. Same goes for the attacks. Wow, so Rapunzel permanently leaves the party. Was wondering they’d just give her a different moveset like with Mulan/“Ping”. This is the first time a character permanently leaves your party. And of course, Marluxia. Who I didn’t think could or would return. And Vexen who rejoined willingly, which is, man. Not something I’d have done. Both Norted of course. And was Saïx missing his scar? Maybe he’s just Isa now. I could tell it was Unversed, and Flood specifically, in that first Monstropolis cutscene just from the sound of them spawning. That’s how I know I’ve put a lot of hours into this series. Monstropolis feels the most linear so far. Arendelle’s ice labyrinth is awesome, the level design gives me some light Dark Souls vibes. I like how there’s zero explanation for Sora, Donald, and Goofy being able to breathe underwater in The Caribbean. And by that I mean I would have liked even just one line to explain it. The ship combat isn’t as good as AC3’s and AC4’s, but it’s still pretty good for a one-world mechanic! The ship is a LOT more responsive than the AC ones. And damn, is this world open. Okay, San Fransokyo is gonna be a pain to search for chests and Mickeys. PRESS TRIANGLE TO SORA IS THE BEST REACTION COMMAND I HAVE EVER SEEN Jiminy telling people about summaries on the gummiphone is Square Enix saying “IF YOU DIDN’T PLAY THE GAMES, READ THE FUCKING SUMMARIES” Giant battle at the start of Keyblade Graveyard was cool, but hurt the frames, especially on the fake shadows. And just as I was getting hyped at the possibility of having Riku and Aqua as party members. Oh hey, just realized Riku’s keyblade has a Mickey keychain now too. “And so, as legend foretold, darkness prevailed and light expired...” “Your hearts will be torn from your bodies” “To move through time, you must leave your body behind.” THE FINAL WORLD?! Wait, Sora’s been here MULTIPLE times?? Okay, so the star talking about the person who’d miss them, whose heart has been taken by another’s? Strelitzia? Talking about Lauriam? Love and hate? Going back for fight after fight? Hm. Cloud or Sephiroth maybe? (Longshot, but it doesn’t sound like a khux character, or anyone else) Identical pair? There’s no twins in this series. Like walking alongside a mirror... maybe it’s not an literal identical nature? Same clothes, same food, maybe Xion?? “Nothing left to teach you”? Damn, that’s not much to go on. Maybe Eraqus’ and Xehanort’s master?? “Just friends... stepped back” Skuld maybe? “I’m gone... they’ve added another member” Could that be Xion? Wait, no, how could Xion be here, she’s still within Sora’s heart. Are these actual named characters we’ve met before? Or not? The one who was defeated and supposed to fade... Repliku?? But he’s with Riku now... Someone searching for their Papa??? Most of the characters in this series don’t have parents at all, so my only guess here is Pinocchio?? No way a Disney character ends up here though. I don’t think all of these are characters we know. Someone holding onto a sliver of memory, and a servant?? Yeah, these could all just have been ordinary people. Naminé?! What happened to Kairi??? Okay, so the darkness split them. KAIRI IS KEEPING SORA FROM FADING AWAY OH MY HEART “GO TO HER” SHE SAYS "That's not the official thank-you!" Lol Damn, this area is fuckin huge, why is it so huge?? A PORTAL?! A DDD PORTAL HERE?! Well this place is rad. I better see that weird Darkside at some point here OOOOOHHHHHHHHHHH OH IT ROTATES THAT'S FUCKIN SICK God damn, this game's got some of the best level design of the series! Is... is this OUR Chirithy? “He doesn’t remember the past”? Although I guess it could be Marluxia/Luxord/Demyx’s too. Or Ven’s. My bet is that it’s Ven’s. DID SORA JUST TIME JUMP BACK A FEW MINUTES??? Aaaand did nothing different. So now we’re world-hopping like we did back in End of the World. OH WHAT IS THIS DIVING INTO STATIONS TO PICK A WORLD?!?! YOOOOOOOO Just Kairi and Lea are left. Haven’t hit San Fransokyo or Twilight Town yet. Guess they must be in those two. Last one is San Fransokyo. Lea must be here. Kairi’s probably gonna be the last. “Traversing hearts to reach worlds” That must be what I’ve been doing here. Not jumping between worlds, jumping between HEARTS. Was Sora just considering telling her he loves her? He should have. Wait, am I back in time? This already happened... OH SHIT! THE LINGERING WILL IS HERE! EPHEMER! OHHHHHHH HO HO WOW! OHHHHHH FUCK! YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Congrats to all the lucky people who got their names in the game! PRESS TRIANGLE TO UNION X GIANT SHADOW MASTER XEHANORT IS TERRIFYING I like how Axel is holding his keyblade by the guard instead of the handle OH SHIT MASTER YEN SID! YOOOOOO! Okay KH3, I want to fight thirteen bosses now, you hear me? DAMN that Ancient Light finisher on Starlight’s Second Form is STRONG YOOOOOOO THREE BOSSES AT ONCE??? (I really hope this is as tough as they were before, but seeing as Xemnas was harder in 1 than in 2, doubt it) Went to help Mickey first, so I’m taking on Marluxia, Luxord, and Larxene Oh come ooooon, I barely got to fight them! Luxord’s out, 12 to go OH SHIT THE OTHER TWO Larxene’s done, 11 to go. With XI conveniently up next. Marluxia’s defeated once again. 10 left. Hey whatever happened with that comment of their ancient keyblade legacy...? Xigbar... might be gone? So maybe 9 left. Dark Repliku is defeated, and light Repliku gave himself up so the Replica could be used for Namine. That’s sweet. 8 left. YO actual time of day change! I like the door switches. Nice having little environmental things like this. Hm, Kairi and Lea one way, Aqua and Ven the other. Well that’s no contest, gotta go back up my girl Kairi! Mysterious new hooded figure??? Oh. Oh no. I think it’s Xion. D: Yeah. It’s her. *Xion stops Xemnas “YEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYEYYE YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHH” *Roxas shows up “OOOOOOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHHHH FUCK” THE WHOLE GANG’S HERE YOOOOOOOOOOO Shout outs to Ienzo, Ansem, Vexen, and Demyx for helping Roxas return! WHY THE FUCK IS KAIRI GETTING KIDNAPPED A-FUCKING-GAIN, NOMURA WHY WAS SHE EVEN TRAINING, FUCK Okay, so Kairi and Lea/Axel are out, BUT ROXAS AND XION ARE IN OH HOLY SHIT, SORA SQUAD FORM UP!!!! I HAD TO STOP AND LISTEN TO THE MUSIC FOR A MINUTE It’s all three of their themes! (Plus a bit of Another Side) THIS IS THE HYPEST SHIT Aww, Saix’s death mirrors Xion’s. AND THE SEA-SALT TRIO REUNITE! Saix is out, 7 left. Xion turned, 6 left. Vanitas fades again, 5 left. I know some people had hoped for a heel-face turn, but I knew it wasn’t likely. WHAT TERRA’S HEART WAS IN ANSEM’S GUARDIAN THIS WHOLE TIME. THAT THEORY WAS RIGHT! Terra-nort’s back to just Terra. 4 left. Just wanna say, I love that it’s Sora who gets to turn the tides of all these fights. Who’s dull and ordinary NOW, huh?? AND he’s still going! Oh boy, time for a triple Xehanort fight! UMMM NINE KEYS (but why are they No Name and not the X-blade?) OOOOOOOHHHHHHH THIS BLEND OF ANSEM, XEMNAS, AND YOUNG XEHANORT'S THEMES Guardando Nel Buio, Darkness of the Unknown, and Impeto l’Oscurito 1V3 ME, I'LL TAKE YOU ALL ON Young Xehanort returns to his time. 3 left. I like how we all agree to pause the fight whenever someone falls. Xemnas fades. 2 left. Ansem as well. Just 1 darkness left. WHAT THE FUCK, KAIRI NOOOOOOOOOOOO AH SHIT HE’S GOT THE X-BLADE AH SHIT HE’S GOT KINGDOM HEARTS Oh hey, everyone’s caught up. Donald: “You can’t do anything without us, Sora.” Me: “Donald, shut the FUCK UP.” Xion: “Kairi will be alright.” Me: “OH THANK GOD” Scala ad Caelum. Stairway to Heaven. It looks like a proto-Land of Departure. But the music is Case of the Foretellers from X Back Cover. Could this place and Land of Departure once have been Daybreak Town? Damn, Dark Kingdom Hearts is over the ENTIRE Keyblade Graveyard now Spooky twelve figures are spooky Why do they have the Organization’s weapons?! I love this return of Destati though They all had a shared HP bar? Scala ad Caelum’s world icon is kinda shaped like a heart Oh wow, full Inception Weird hearing Rage Awakened without the Lingering Will here “There is one sky, one destiny!” “DEEEESTAAAATI!” Ohhhhh shit Shout out to the heart in the floor design though And the figure in the middle has 7 points Classic Xehanort pose from the KH2 secret ending Aaaaand now he’s got ANOTHER Kingdom Hearts! GREAT WHOA HE FORCED ME INTO RAGE FORM DESTATI IN FULL FORCE WHAT A RAD FINISHING BLOW! The canon death screen, the heartbeat, Donald and Goofy calling from my controller! ONE BIG BLAST! So Xehanort sees himself as some sort of white knight? A templar to guide the masses with an iron fist? Yeah, no dice dude. Sora’s right, not your choice to make, and destiny is beyond your control. So Eraqus really WAS with Terra all this time. MARK HAMILL IS BACK!!! Xehanort just hands it over, huh? Wow, closure between Eraqus and his apprentices after all these years Eraqus and Xehanort mimic Sora and Riku from KH2, and pass on. Go get her, Sora. HIKARI ORCHESTRAL Ven met his Chirithy! Lea’s finally wearing his new outfit. Aw, Xion looks good too! And Isa’s here! Naminé is back too! And I bet the Namine/Riku shippers are happy! AWWW They’re all hanging out at Destiny Islands! Look at them all being friends!!! THERE THEY ARE! WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT

Epilogue: XIGBAR HAS BEEN LUXU THIS WHOLE TIME?! WHAT WHAAAAAAAAAAAT?! You know while watching Back Cover I was like “Man, the Master of Masters really talks like Xigbar for some reason.” BOY DOES THAT MAKE SENSE NOW So what was it about Ava’s role with the Dandelions that led to her absence here? AND WHAT’S IN THE GODDAMN BOX Is it a Book of Prophecies? Something else entirely? In any case, I doubt Maleficent and Pete would be able to get it away from them all. Secret Ending, “Yozora”: Ooh, “Another Side, Another Story” vibes right off the bat. SORA! And... Riku? Well this is just Japan. Wait, the guy from Verum Rex? And a black coat, who’s probably Xigbar/Luxu or the Master of Masters? After watching, a friend informed me that Riku is in Verum Rex. And Sora’s dead. Cause he’s in TWEWY’s version of Shibuya, since that one building said “104.” But which one is the black coat in? It could be the Master of Masters dead, in Sora’s world. Or Xigbar/Luxu, still watching things.

I have no idea what comes next. But I am excited.

#kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 #kh3 spoilers #kh spoilers

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yo-namine · 5 years

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Last KH3 playthrough post! Endgame spoilers are below the cut.

Just a warning: This post is REALLY long and contains, um… opinions.

I’m glad the final battle trailer scenes happen right off the bat. I had no idea what would come next, and it made the experience that much more interesting.

Why do none of these keyslingers know how to block? First Aqua tries to shield Ven with her own body, then Sora does the same for Kairi. Just hit square, guys.

ZETTAFLARE DONALD ILU SO MUCH

The way Riku and Aqua stepped up to Sora’s side made me think they were going to be party members in another demon tide battle, but nope. Boo.

I’m surprised that Aqua just… let the demon tide take her? What the hell?

Sora loses Kairi, Donald, and Goofy and just… crumbles. He completely gives up and says it’s all over. Riku almost starts to try to soothe him, but instead, he gets up, tells Sora that he knows that’s bullshit, and then faces off against the demon tide (which was polite enough to wait for Sora and Riku to finish their conversation before attacking, by the way). It’s like a moment of tough love, and it’s actually what I was expecting Roxas to do back when I assumed he would be the one to show up in the Graveyard and pull Sora back on his feet. I wasn’t expecting a bunch of reassurances like “no, you’re not worthless, we can still do this, everything will be okay” but rather, “Get up, we’re not finished here.”

So Riku confronts the heartless and Sora just… watches in horror as they take him, too. And he doesn’t even fight back when they turn and come for him. And then the screen cuts to black and shows the final line of the prophecy, and… That was a really effective way to end that scene. Damn.

Yeah, I don’t know how to play chess, but I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to just conjure extra pieces from thin air, Eraqus. That was a nice line from him, though, about light from the past. Like, “The light doesn’t need time travel bullshit to kick your ass because HEARTS.”

Sora fucking died. Sora actually, literally fucking died. He goes to the Final World because he died. Holy shit.

The Final World is beautiful, and the music is lovely, too. The first thing I did after getting control again was take some selfies of dead Sora, ngl.

Sora’s been to the Final World before in his sleep, and Chirithy just let him pass through lmao.

Who is the first star that Sora talks to here? At first I thought it was Xion, but she says a “somebody” sent her to the Final World, so… Strelitzia? Ava? Skuld? lol I like that Sora just sits down next to her like this conversation’s the most normal thing ever. He’s dead and talking to another dead person, and he just rolls with it. I love this kid.

Some of the optional star conversations really got to me. One of them says that their friends replaced them after they died (“That was my seat. That was my place at the table.”). There’s also one that was apparently a child looking for their father, and that one actually made me tear up.

I’m not sure who the one who talked about being “identical” was. I think a third talks about their mentor, and perhaps that was a past keyblade apprentice? Another says that people teased them and a friend about being an item, and they pulled away from the relationship, and the other person never closed the distance. All of their little stories are just… sad. Jesus.

Naminé has a star! I missed her star on my first playthrough, but I replayed this part just for her scene. I wish I’d gotten it the first time, though. She clarifies that Kairi’s the one keeping Sora tethered to the world of the living. And god, Naminé’s words are so sad. She truly doesn’t think anyone really misses her or that she matters at all. But Sora says that he and the others (including “someone else special,” who I think may’ve been Xion?) miss her and want her back. AND she mentions her conversation with Terra from the orchestra! Holy shit, WHY was this conversation optional? That was important story stuff that explained why Lingering Will shows up when we rehash the fight in the Graveyard. Naminé came through for everyone in a pretty major way, and if you don’t talk to her star (which is VERY easy to miss), you’d never know it. Though… I guess that’s kind of fitting in a meta way. Naminé helping people from behind the scenes and not expecting any credit, I mean. Still, I wish I hadn’t missed this on my first playthrough. Anyway, Naminé’s “Let’s just say I’ve got your back?” was really cute. And then Sora thanks her and gets all flustered. “That’s not the official thank-you!”

I’m… still not clear on what exactly the power of waking is or how it differs from restoring someone’s heart the old-fashioned way (i.e. taking a Keblade of Heart to the chest), but okay.

JIMINY SURVIVED ALL OF THAT JFSKLFFJL

I liked going through the different worlds to save all of Sora’s friends. It was a nice callback to KH1, when you visit different worlds in End of the World, and when you get to Realm of Chaos and have to rescue Donald and Goofy from Ansem SoD’s heartless… ship… thing. It was really annoying fighting the same boss over and over again, though. It wasn’t difficult (save for one instance where the lich spammed aeroga and pinned me against the ceiling. I only survived because it triggered rage form.), and I get that it was just a series of symbolic battles, but I dunno, maybe just giving him less HP for me to have to mow down would’ve made it less tedious.

So the power of waking is “traversing hearts to reach worlds.” So I guess that’s what Sora was doing while falling through the different Stations of Awakening and then arriving in different worlds.

“There’s no saving you.” Fuck, okay, after finishing the game, this line in the sleeping San Fransokyo hits a lot harder. You think Kid Xehanort knows that Team Nort is planning to snatch Kairi and use Sora’s desire to save her to ultimately destroy him? Because if so… ugh.

Sora and Kairi’s little spin when they reunite is so cute.

“I feel strong with you, Kairi.” Awww but also UGHHHHHHHH because I know what’s coming. And then Sora has flashbacks to Eugene and Anna sacrificing themselves for someone they love, and I’m not 100% sure why. Is it just foreshadowing his sacrifice for Kairi? Is he afraid that her rescuing him will cost her her own life? Whatever it is, Kairi seems to read Sora’s mind and says that he’s safe with her. And again, that’s really sweet, and I like that her PoH powers are FINALLY being explored in some way, but fuck, knowing how this all ends makes watching this scene so painful the second time around.

I was so confused when Sora was revived and we started replaying that confrontation scene in the Graveyard. The first time I played it, I was very seriously considering skipping the cutscene and reloading my save because I thought I’d gone the wrong way or something, but then Lingering Will showed up and the scene changed. Phew. I guess we went in a little time loop there. But wait, if everyone’s aware that Sora revived them, then they must remember how they were taken in the first place, right? If that’s the case, why the hell did Ven run up to Terra a second time? Why didn’t anyone stop him? Why did Aqua have to look “Terra” in the eye a second time to know it wasn’t him? Am I to assume that if Naminé hadn’t summoned Lingering Will, these dingdongs would’ve all lost their hearts AGAIN?

I’m so over demon tide boss fights, but damn if that battle theme doesn’t kick ass.

EPHEMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIT, OF ALL THE THINGS I NEVER SAW COMING. He helps Sora use the keyblades of all the fallen wielders from the first war to fight off the heartless, and you use the names of all those KHUX users who won that KH3 contest as attacks. Oh my gosh, what a sweet tribute. I like thinking that Larkey’s keyblade helped, too. <3

Oh god, when KH1 Riku showed up and Forze Del Male started playing, my entire life flashed before my eyes. I DID NOT want a rehash of that fight. I was relieved that I didn’t have to, but I was also just a little disappointed because that Xehanort shadow that emerges from him looked like a cool potential boss. I feel like there are actually a lot of scenes that happened in the Graveyard that would’ve worked better as actual battles or gameplay, tbh.

Also, that Forze De Male remix was hot as hell.

R.I.P. to all of fandom’s “Yen Sid is useless” jokes. What a way to go.

“You’re a whole pint by yourself, Sora.” I LOVE THIS DUCK SO MUCH.

I like that the maze tries to force you to choose between helping Riku or Mickey first like it’s some tragic moral dilemma. Like oh gee, let me think: Best written character in the series, or corporate icon Ricky Rat? That said, I actually did go to Mickey first just because I couldn’t get past the moving wall puzzle lmao. I wish this area had had a few more puzzles, though. I felt like I breezed through it way too fast.

Riku is really nerfed as a party member. He was CONSTANTLY KO’d in my fight against the Norts. Like damn dude, even Kairi stayed conscious through her battle (all 5 seconds of it, but still).

Repliku tears himself away from his own vessel and leaves it. For Naminé. Fuck, I didn’t expect that at all. What a great scene, and what a better ending for a character whose story I thought ended in CoM. I loved that.

Didn’t love that Riku and Sora just left Naminé’s vessel facedown in the dirt, though. Like… at least prop it against the wall or something guys, geez.

I like that you get a sort of farewell scene between the heroes and all the main villains of the series. It may’ve been a little fanservicey, but oh well. I’m not so hot on it from a story standpoint. Like I know we’re doing the anime thing where “I defeated you in battle, now we’re cool” but it still felt… odd. But at least it’s not as obnoxious as what comes up later with Master Xehanort.

I liked Larxene’s take on this especially, how she’d rather be destroyed than be a Nort. Why she joined up in the first place is still a mystery… And her answering Sora the way she did implies that the Norts aren’t just possessed mind slaves. They do have agency, though I guess that was clear from Even and Demyx turning against them, now that I remember it.

Building on the agency thing, I liked Vanitas’s scene with Ven. Ven wanted so badly for Vanitas to come to the light, but… It really wasn’t what Vanitas wanted for himself. “We decide who we are.” “I did decide who I am.” It’s tragic, but I like that it showed that not everyone was getting a happy ending from this game, and that there are some people you just can’t save.

COME GUARDIAN WAS TERRA’S HEARTLESS AFTER ALL. FUCK YES. I love that theory and I’m so happy it turned out to be correct!!!!!

And then we finally get a Wayfinder reunion!!!!!!

“What final words do you have for your superior?” Okay, I know this game is rated E10, but I half expected Axel to just look up and say “Fuck you.”

Xemnas and Axel’s conversation was so meta. Axel bragging about how popular he was, Xemnas calling Axel’s keyblade a joke. Like… Damn, they really paid attention to fandom over the years, didn’t they? I just wish they’d paid this much attention to all the fans who wanted a good storyline for Kairi. Anywho, Xemnas destroys Axel’s keyblade, so we lose two Lights from this scene. I’m kind of grateful that happened, actually. Having Axel lose his spot made it a little easier to accept Kairi losing hers. But only a little. Kairi getting kidnapped AGAIN was still stupid and contrived.

Unlike the other Norts, Xion’s apparently not acting on her own free will when the fight starts. Sora telling her “You can stop now” seemed to break something within her. And then Xemnas turns to attack her, and Sora’s heart reaches out to someone, and then BOOM. Roxas shows up to sass Xemnas and save the day!!!

I barely did anything in that Isa fight, lmao. I tried to land a few hits on him, but then I realized Roxas could handle him just fine alone, so I just hung back with Xion and cast cure here and there.

I’m disappointed that there’s almost no interaction between Roxas and Sora beyond a couple of nods, tbh. It’s kind of a weak payoff after all the fuss Sora made about wanting to save Roxas at the start of the game. That was what Sora decided to fight for “with all his heart,” and then once Roxas is back, we just keep blazing ahead with the story without a moment to appreciate the fact that he accomplished his goal (or rather, someone else accomplished it for him).

Aww, Xion looked so left out when she stood of to the side and started crying. It was almost like she was hesitant to join Axel and Roxas after she came so close to almost killing both of them. She didn’t even reach for the other two when Axel pulled them into a group hug, she just kept her hands clasped tight together and sort of curled in on herself. Aw, honey. Anyway, I’m glad these three will get to be together again.

I half expected Riku to snap “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?” when Sora tells him that Kairi’s been kidnapped.

I liked both Xemnas and Ansem SoD’s sendoffs. Kid Xehanort doesn’t give a shit that he lost, though, he just fucks off back to the past knowing damn well what’s about to happen. And to that, I again say ugh.

And then we get… that scene. What the fuck did Xehanort mean by “You need motivation.”? Motherfucker, we are already out here in the Keyblade Graveyard having this showdown. Kingdom Hearts is looming above us. Sora just got done killing all ninety-seven billion Xehanorts. This fight is happening no matter what you do. This doesn’t make any fucking sense. Having Xehanort kill off Kairi was stupid and unnecessary and pointless and lazy and truly horrible, horrible writing. And see, I can’t even give Nomura the benefit of the doubt here because he actually had Xehanort call Kairi Sora’s “motivation.” That was it. That was the only reason Xehanort killed her. Not because she was a keyblade wielder who was in the way of his goal, not because she was a Princess of Heart whose power could pose a threat. Not because of anything Kairi did or who she was as a person, but because she was a THING that was important to Sora. Fuck that. Fuck that entire scene, fuck everything about it, fuck everyone who gave that writing decision the green light. Fuck it. And knowing how this game ends (with Sora apparently sacrificing himself to save Kairi), Kairi now has more motivation than EVER to fight to get him back, but you know Nomura won’t give a shit when it comes time to write scenarios for KH4. He’s just gonna throw Kairi back on the islands and have Riku be the hero. Riku will find Sora, they’ll have adventures together and apart, they’ll continue to grow as characters, and then they’ll go home to where Kairi’s just sitting pretty, waiting to be the perfect reward for everything Sora’s accomplished. So there you go, that’s Kingdom Hearts IV. I just saved you $50 in the future (not adjusted for inflation).

Just. Jesus Christ, of all the idiotic tone-deaf bullshit… To have so much self-awareness while writing Naminé’s dialogue in the Final World and Axel’s scene with Xemnas in the Graveyard and then NONE OF THAT WHATSOEVER when it came to writing Kairi’s final scenes… That’s unreal. It’s almost unbelievable, but I really shouldn’t be surprised. Nomura’s pulled this shit before, so oop @ me for actually expecting better from him. Lesson fucking learned.

Anyway, after we get past all that stupid sexist bullshit that I actively hated, Sora gets ready to leave for the next area. I like that Donald and Goofy literally pick him up off the ground and help him stand, and that they go with him afterward. I just love the Trinity Trio in this game so much. They feel so much like a family now, and since I’m clearly never ever ever ever getting any decent Destiny Trio development, that’s a nice comfort. The other keyslingers stay behind to keep Kingdom Hearts shut, and Xion tells Sora that she can sense that Kairi will be okay, which… Yeah, alright. I just saw Xehanort slash into her back and shatter her into thousands of pieces, but no, I’m sure she’s fine. flskjdf Okay, sorry, I get what that scene with Xion was trying to do, but it just doesn’t make any sense? Xion is Sora’s replica, not Kairi’s. I could buy that she can sense Sora’s heart, but she has no real connection to Kairi’s at all, so how would she know that Kairi’s okay? Maybe she was just saying that as a way to comfort Sora, like a “she’ll always be in your heart” kind of thing, but even that feels off. Like that’s the kind of thing you say to someone a couple weeks after the funeral, not right there at the crime scene. Oh well. I guess it was sweet that she at least wanted him to hear that.

Then we get to Scala ad Caelum, which was kind of a letdown, really. I was hoping to get to explore the city, but you really just have one large area that’s ultimately just a battlefield. The boss battles weren’t much of a challenge at all, and you don’t even have to defeat them all, which was disappointing, but eh. The only tense moment was when Xehanort triggered Sora’s rage form in the final battle, but Donald and Goofy kept me healed up enough that it wasn’t much of a problem.

Xehanort uses the “one sky, one destiny” line from Kairi’s letter. Like it’s not enough that he killed her, he’s gotta plagiarize her, too. Dick.

Donald and Goofy help Sora ward off Xehanort’s final attack! Like they literally, physically help him push back against it! I love these half-pints. <3

Eraqus! He asks Terra to look after his other apprentices for him, aw.

Xehanort gives Sora the X-blade, and there’s no “sorry I killed your friend” or anything. He just goes on to be at peace with Eraqus. Seriously? This dude abuses Ven, hijacks Terra’s body, throws Aqua into the Realm of Darkness, murders Kairi, and he still gets to pass on peacefully into the next life with his bff? Come the fuck on.

Hearing “Always On My Mind” again was nice. That was always one of my favorite tracks from KH1.

Okay, after rewatching the ending cinematic, it makes a lot more sense to me. Riku suggests that they all go back to Yen Sid’s place to figure out how to save Kairi (which… why are we all acting like this is something that can just be undone? She wasn’t taken into darkness by the heartless like before; Xehanort struck her down. We didn’t see her heart leave her body or anything, she just shattered. To me, that looks like an E10-rated game’s version of death.), but Sora knows what he has to do. It wasn’t until the second time through this ending that I realized he was already planning on waking her heart at the expense of his own life. Knowing that, it’s a little odd that Riku just lets him go with a roundabout way of saying “I believe in you.” Kairi’s supposedly Riku’s friend, too, isn’t she? And he knows how to wake sleeping hearts, too, so why couldn’t he go with Sora to find her?

I loved seeing the Wayfinder Trio laying flowers at Eraqus’s memorial. I also like that keyblades are apparently used specifically for this when the wielder has passed on. That’s a nice bit of world building. And Chirithy is reunited with Ven after all (who apparently remembers them)! Aww. I still don’t know how the hell Ven exists in this timeline, but still. Aw.

I love Xion’s new outfit, and that she and her boys got to go back to Twilight Town together. I’m not so hot on Isa being there, though, and I’m really put off by how chummy he and Roxas seem. I know these scenes are taking place after a little time has passed, so maybe there was some tension between them at first that we just don’t see because it’s not particularly relevant, but still… Anyway, a shadow passes over them for a moment, and I think it must’ve been the gummi ship arriving to pick them up and take them to a party on Destiny Islands. Nice.

When I got to the scene of Naminé waking up in Radiant Garden… I actually started sobbing. Like that’s embarrassing to admit, but that scene hit me so hard. Just watching her open her eyes, and then seeing Dilan and Aeleus lead her out to the courtyard where the ship lands. Seeing her smile when Riku holds out his hand to her… I started crying while typing this up just remembering it, haha. I loved that moment so, so much. I’m so happy she gets to be her own person, that Ansem helped restore her to finally give her a life of her own after everything he put her through. I love that Riku’s the person to welcome her onto the ship, that he’s doing this for the Replica who gave up the vessel for her, but also because she’s been his friend, too (albeit largely off-screen). And the final shot of her laying her hand so gently in his... Holy god, what a finale shot. That scene ALONE was worth the thirteen year wait for me. I am truly stunned that that was part of the ending, that Naminé—of all characters—was the final person they built up to. That was just so much more than I had ever hoped for for her.

And then the actual final scene. You have all the main characters playing on the beach. Xion and Naminé are finding seashells; Riku, Roxas, and Terra are running around doing… something; the Twilight Town kids and Goofy and Donald are making sand castles; Lea, Ven, and Isa are playing frisbee. And then everyone stops to look at Sora and Kairi on the paopu tree. Sora vanishes, and you see Kairi start to slowly curl in on herself as the scene fades to black. And… upon rewatch, I actually like this ending? I was confused the first time I watched it because I didn’t have Kid Xehanort’s words in San Fransokyo fresh on my mind at the time, but when I went back and watched all the scenes together, I understood that Sora woke up her heart, and him “abusing” that power took its toll. I’m alright with us actually not seeing him do this (or at least, I’m not bothered by that by itself. I’m really bothered that it happened like that after Kairi got fridged the way she did, but on its own, it’s fine.). I’m upset that Sora’s gone, but truthfully, I was sort of expecting it. And like I said in my tirade about Kairi’s writing a few bullet points up, you know he’ll be back. It’s just really upsetting to know that Kairi now has to live with the guilt over the fact that he gave up his life for her, and that—as far as she knows—she’ll never see him again. And you just know that Nomura will absolutely, positively not let her do anything about it come KH4, to which I can only say, again: UGH.

I don’t care about Braig being Luxu, bye.

I think I’m still too raw from the emotional highs (and lows) of this game to really analyze everything as clearly as I’d like. There’s still stuff I want to talk about, but I’ll save that for another time. I can’t deny how much I enjoyed everything that happened before Kairi got fridged, but man, that one point really sours a lot of this game for me.

But yeah, that’s all for now.

#kh spoilers #kh3 spoilers #my posts #kh3 #kh3 bloggin

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zchaotic · 5 years

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USUM, its Story’s message and how this intermingles with SM’s actual message.

A lot of people have the misconception that the message of SM is standing up to your abuser and taking life into your own hands. After all, the first half of that happens when Lillie called Lusamine out.

A lot of those people tend to willingly forget the reason that Lillie wanted to go into Ultra Space and the things that happened after that showdown.

Lillie’s real reason to go into Ultra Deep Sea was to save Lusamine from herself. The damage on Alola was already done, was ignored and all of Lillie’s growing self confident/ inspiration from you the trainer was more her taking life into her own hands.

After Lillie had Nebby separate Lusamine from Nihilego, that woman said a few pleasant words and Lillie... automatically forgiven her, decided to go to Kanto to help Lusamine recover and leave her newly found friends/ family to go back to her mother... who still didn’t understand what she did wrong. The fact that the only reason Lusamine didn’t go to your champions party was because she was sick and not... because she put everyone in danger and tried to kill you, makes all of it pretty creepy and wrong.

It is pokemon, Lillie and Bill ARE able to find a way to heal Lusamine. Sacred Ash’s are a thing and it is strong stuff.

Meaning that despite everything... Lusamine got off scott free for her actions, her and the whole of the Aether Foundation (As we seen in the post game.). The writers also forgotten about Gladion and he became acting president, running the very place he and Lillie were abused in. The very place he and Null wanted to leave forever. This was a grim conclusion for him, he wasn’t taking responsibility, he was just back in the hell he was in... because Wicke didn’t take the damn job herself.

As emotional as Lillie’s goodbye was, it botched its own supposed message of standing up to your abuser and taking life into your own hands. It undid a large chunk of her character growth, it left us with no real closure or hints that she was going to be fine considering how bleeping awful Lusamine was and now Lillie is back with her. This is a dangerous message for kids and the fact many players blocked this part out... disturbs me.

I think Gamefreak noticed this and changed things around in USUM... it was minor changes that contributed to a larger picture and contributed to giving out its message... what is to me, better.

The narrative shift and where the changes went to... was USUM’s attempt at becoming its own, despite running through the same beats as to SM. Lusamine had Mohn trauma, did horrible things in her attempt at keeping things the same/ refusing to let things go, Gladion got fed up with it, stole Type:Null... ran. Lusamine became more frantic and done things to the Cosmog, Lillie noticed... saw it as inexcusably wrong... stole it and ran.

This part was 3 months prior to the events of the games, before you came to Alola.

Like in SM, we see Lillie as a timid girl that wasn’t able to do much on her own, had anxiety for days, yet kept being inspired by the trainers around her... and you the new trainer who was accomplishing the impossible.

This... leads to a similar build on both games having a recurring theme. You having the strength to do something and having an influence on her and those around you. Much like how Hau was having an influence on Gladion, how Guzma was one to those around his grunts and putting the last one in a negative light, how Lusamine was a negative influence on her children. (Through years of neglect/ emotional abuse.)

When we reach Aether Paradise the second time, we are told and seen just the kind of crushing influence Lusamine had on her kids. How she was quick to tear down on her daughter for running off and going against her wishes... for thinking for herself. (Lusamine’s goal in USUM might be trying to beat Necrozma... but she was doing it her way, a way that did endanger Alola, she was someone who was doing it for her own reasons and that is what the Ultra Recon Squad got pissed off about when she went Leeroy Jenkins.)

This becomes more apparent when Lillie and Gladion’s pleas to her fell on the ears of someone who was thinking it was her way or the highway. She tried to battle you as a way to get her kids to shut up. Lillie was helpless once again in trying to do something to protect Nebby. (Grant it in SM, Gladion and Hau were part of a battle royal against many things and that scene was more crazy in comparison.) How Gladion was once again.... unable to do something to stop another one of his family from being lost into Ultra Space.

After which, you left Lillie alone to think things over. ...

The next day, Lillie cast aside her old clothes, her mother’s overbearing shadow and put on her Z Powered form. Accumulation of you and everyone from Alola inspiring her to make that next step towards becoming her own.

That is when you and Lillie take that journey to Poni Island, where you and Lillie have a goal in mind. Get Lusamine off her high horse and confront Necrozma as a unified force.

While I didn’t like how Exeggutor Island was removed, that scene can be put into its message of how you were inspiring Lillie. She remembers that sweet moment with her mother and came to the decision in becoming a trainer. I’ll get to where this went later.) The rest of the journey played out as is, Lillie had the confidence needed to face things that would have scared her before and the desire to face her mother again. All because you inspired her. In turn, you also inspired the Ultra Recon Squad into thinking that they really need to start fighting their own battles and are willing to work with you to deal with Necrozma.

Once you reach past Poni Canyon, the two of you blow the flute and evolve Nebby. The scene plays out like in SM and with the same spirit, Lillie wanting to confront her mother... in SM we got to see that among seeing Lillie use that inspiration to call her out. But note the things I mentioned that happened after.

In USUM... Necrozma punted Lusamine and Guzma out, ate Nebby and things go off the rails. The Ultra Recon Squad lend you the opposite of Nebby and you take the reigns of the legendary they were friends with. (Though it was stated the URS didn’t have real control over it, it was able to listen to a trainer with strong enough will power.)

You go off and be the hero once more... leaving Lillie and the URS to tear at Lusamine. This was off screen, but when you come back... you end up seeing the aftermath, Lillie... with her newfound strength, got Lusamine to have a change of heart... influencing that woman to change her ways. The mother and daughter have an understanding of each other.

It isn’t as emotional since we didn’t get to see the whole thing, but we see Lillie being able to begin a new start in her family relationship. After which, the mother and daughter go back to Aether Paradise to tend to Nebby.

This also brings Guzma’s quote to consideration, something that Hala tried to teach Guzma in SM’s post game. “Maybe if you bring out the best in others, you bring out the best in yourself.”

There you go! That is USUM’s message and to an extent, SM’s true message since you brought out the best of Lillie. I personally believe this message was better executed in USUM since it affected much more people and we got to see it stick.

Because it isn’t just you that was bringing out that. It becomes apparent during Mina’s trial when you next see Guzma.... you and Hau inspiring him to get his head out of his ass and make something of himself.

This becomes repeated when you see Gladion, who got inspired by you and Hau to find out just where real friendship can get ya. You see this in his Crobat, Lucario and Silvally.

You are then told to go to Mahalo trial where you meet Lillie... with a healed Nebby. She got more inspired to part ways with her friend, under more logical reasons... like helping Necrozma. Lillie became inspired and strong enough to let go of her past, to let Nebby go... much like in SM... only this is better executed due to where I am going to get to soon.

You and your strength also has an influence on even the Big Bad of USUM... Necrozma. You have the tools and the power... to ease his ever lasting pain, to hopefully... one day, restore him to his prime and possibly make a difference for the people of Ultra Megaopolis.

Necrozma took their light and they are stuck in something they didn’t want... but maybe in time, they will get a happy ending.

You find your influence comes again at the Pokemon League, where Hau got inspired by your constant beat downs of him to take things more seriously.

Seriously enough that he became the final boss. As a rival should have been. You brought out the best in Hau.

You beat him and the credits role, its all find and dandy, especially when you see Gladion go off to Kanto, he got inspired by watching you and Hau to find his own way to get stronger and protect those he held dear. It isn’t as emotional as Lillie’s goodbye... but that isn’t why it was so good, on his way out... he saw Lusamine showing up in the distance. He was initially scared of her being there... until he saw her waving goodbye to him, something affected Lusamine to give her a full change of heart.

In the post game, if you go to Aether Paradise and visit that woman before RR. She has an identity crisis, Necrozma kicking her ass and bringing havoc on Alola and the things Lillie said to her... gave her a self reflection of some kind. That she was god awful as a person, who is in no position to face anyone after the things she did, no position to be a mother to her children or to the pokemon she was suppose to care for.

She had this crisis in between the prelude to RR and the end of RR. Where she was going to come clean to the people of Alola and tell them what really happened and what was going to happen to prevent another Necrozma like incident from happening again. Then came RR and Lusamine in her stubbornness, tried to stop Giovanni and got knocked out... becoming a damsel of some way. This is karma at its finest due to how for most of USUM, (and a lesser extend SM where she was the big bad.) she was the one knocking other people down to do what ever she wants.

Then you the hero come in to get RR out of Alola. Lillie is there and unlike from before, the courage she gathered has given her the final step needed to her full blossoming. Into a trainer, she kicked a RR grunts butt and followed you to the castle. Where she was willing to fight with you against a treacherous Faba and an employee. Lillie sent out her Clefairy and if you know what you are doing, that Clefairy is SO good as a support. The two of you kicked Faba’s butt and go into the castle, despite how Lillie was still scared as hell in going against Team Rainbow Rocket. You and everyone’s influence... lead to moments like this.

You also get to see Guzma’s change of heart in full as he too helped you take on RR. Of course, Lillie has only started as a trainer, so reality ensues, this is as far as she can go in directly helping you and she waits in what was her mother’s room while you do the rest.

But that isn’t to say that this Lillie became a wimp again, she had enough balls to talk back against freaking Ghetsis... and got held hostage as a result. (Not that she was pleading.) In fact, Lillie’s presence in RR is a visual of the end result of her growth, she was more that willing to do her part in stopping RR and rescue her mother.

This... this is one of the highlights of Lillie’s growth in USUM. Being inspired to become strong and protect those close to her. (Much like what Gladion was doing and much like what Lusamine... attempted to do but went completely the wrong way to where it became abuse.)

Then you beat Giovanni, the day is saved and Lillie gives a cute confession to you the player. Much like in Exeggutor Island from SM and go back home.

Then comes the aftermath of RR. Where if you visit Aether Paradise... Lusamine has a resolve in what to do with her life. Vowing to love her kids from a distance without interfering with their lives. Those frozen pokemon that were there at the end of RR are scheduled to be thawed out.. Lusamine is making amends for those she had hurt. The things she had to say in title defense... showed that you and Lillie brought a change in her heart... enough that she gets... why you were able to make a difference in her kids lives. Enough that she understands her kids a bit more.

Then came a month later, where Gladion returns with his newfound strength and takes you on. All seems normal until you visit Aether Paradise again, where Lusamine meets Mohn again. It seems like a pleasant conversation, but Mohn doesn’t recognize his own wife... Lusamine is hiding her heart break and in a final sign of her growth... she lets Mohn go... lets the past go. This was the height of Lusamine’s growth in USUM, she learned to let go of the past and focus on becoming a better person.

Gladion being on better terms with his mother that he visits time and again, but still being let out to do things of his own. Shows that he and Silvally are inspired and free to do their own thing, no longer bound by the past.

Lillie, went back to Kukui and Burnet. You the player can visit her AND she becomes your partner in the Battle Tree... as one of the best supporters in that place. Which fits with Lillie’s character as someone who doesn’t want pokemon to get hurt and thus does everything possible to ease your pokemon’s pain. Lillie is on Alola with the new friends and family she made, living her life as a trainer. Because you the player.. along with those Lillie met... have inspired her to make that leap. To her... if you are able to do the impossible, then so can she.

“Maybe if you bring out the best in others, you bring out the best in yourself.”

That is the message of USUM and the message SM tried to tell us.

The closure USUM gave, delivered this message in ways that SM didn’t when they had the story end where it should have continued.

It is pretty sad how so many of the fan base didn’t get that message in SM, thought it was something else (though to be fair it is an extension of that message.) and hate on USUM’s story for making the message more clear.

Even if USUM didn’t give us as much of those heart felt moments with Lillie. It delivered its message much more clear.

#USUM defense.#It's story wasn't bad despite the changes.

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spiritgriffon · 7 years

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Rachael’s favorite Pokemon + Pokemon related things!

In preparation for Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon, I figured I’d post a list of my favorite Pokemon, games & characters!

Blue or Red versions: Blue, Silver, Sapphire, Leaf Green, Diamond, Soul Silver, Black, Black 2, X, Alpha Sapphire, and Moon. I didn’t realize how consistent I was until just a couple or years ago lol

Favorite Main Game: Part of me is tempted to say Silver or Soul Silver, since it was not just my first Pokemon game, but my first game period (Mom bought me Silver & a GBA for Christmas and took me out to eat at Wendys. I can still pick out the booth we were sitting in. I got stuck in the bedroom bc we both thought the stairs were a bookshelf lol). It still holds a very special place in my heart but Black is the BEST. Pokemon has yet to outdo itself.

Favorite Side Game: Pokemon Mystery Dungeon- Explorers of Sky! (SERIOUSLY GUYS THIS IS MY FAVORITE POKEMON GAME OUT OF ALL OF THEM EVERYONE SHOULD PLAY IT AAAAAAAAAA)

Favorite Generation: GEN 5 GUYS. GEN 5. Sinnoh is another one that means a lot to me bc Diamond was the first Pokemon game I ever beat (Way back in 2007!) but I LOVE GEN 5 SO MUCH.

Favorite song: Temporal Tower, Temporal Spire & the final boss theme for PMD:EoS! Though if I had to pick a top 5 from the main series, I guess;

1- Red/Lance

2- Zinnia

3- N’s Castle

4- Ghetsis (Black/White version)

5- Team Galactic Grunt (The Smash version especially)

Favorite Villainous Team: PLAZMAAAAAA!!!!! (tho. Galactic has a way better battle theme. The Brawl remix is still my jam all these years later- and part of the reason I love Lucario so much! Oh man, that intro in Subspace Emissary!)

Favorite Character: I bow before my Lord and Savior, N. I mean there’s a BUNCH I like (Silver, Green/Blue/Gary, Steven, Looker, Cheren, Guzma, Lillie, Gladion, AND ZINNIA, ESPECIALLY ZINNIA, are all great too! I love them all!) But N is like, an all-time fave for me outside of the Pokemon series too.

Favorite Anime-Only Character: Sir Aaron form Lucario & the Mystery of Mew! (I love Lucario. I love the Lucario man.)

Favorite Player Character: Hilda from Black/White! Out of all the main series games, it feels like she has the most personality, and I like her design the best. Though if we’re including side games, the avatar from any of the PMD games is a better character... by virtue of having any character at all. (I like the female avatar in Conquest a lot as well! Not a lot of personality, but she’s really cute!)

Favorite Gen 1 Pokemon: Lapras

Favorite Gen 2 Pokemon: Lugia

Favorite Gen 3 Pokemon: Absol

Favorite Gen 4 Pokemon: Lucario

Favorite Gen 5 Pokemon: Zoroark (tho Hydreigon is such a close second.)

Favorite Gen 6 Pokemon : Xerneas

Favorite Gen 7 Pokemon: Silvally

Favorite Starter: Typhlosion (I didn't really love them until I played Pokemon Mystery Dungeon, but now they’re my go-to starter! Fun fact: I much prefer Quilava to either of it’s other evolutions. By like, a lot.)

And my favorite water & grass starters are Samurott and Decidueye~

Favorite Eeveelution: Umbreon! It’s a real shame it’s stats are so mediocre bc I love it lots

Favorite Legend: Lugia! (Tho Lunala and Dialga are really close. Dialga due to Diamond the Dialga being the first mascot legend I ever caught back in 2007 and Lunala bc Nebby is amazing and I love them.)

Favorite Mythical Pokemon: Jirachi (I remember watching Wish Maker back when it first came out and loving it except that Absol needed way more screen time. I never got quite as attached to Jirachi as I did Lugia from 2000 but they’re still my favorite mythical Pokemon by quite a bit)

Favorite Ultra Beast: Pheromosa (Why can’t I get one at a low enough level to use on my team during a playthrough rip)

Favorite Mega: MEGA ABSOL YO. (It made one of my old favorites actually viable to play AND IT’S SO GORGEOUS OH MY ARCEUS)

Favorite form variation: Alolan Ninetails/Vulpix!!! (I’ve loved Ninetails since Gen 1 but it just isn’t that useful of a Pokemon in game play normally. It’s still not the best BUT IT HAS THE BEST DESIGN SO I BRED ONE AND USED IT ON MY TEAM IN MOON FIGHT ME AND MY PRETTY FOX)

Favorite Pokemon Overall: Lucario!!!!! Ok, story time:

(under a cut bc it got a bit long)

It was 2010. I was a lonely, home schooled 13 year old, an only child with only one parent, and said parent owned and was the head chef in a struggling restaurant. I had exactly one friend- my best friend had moved away a short while ago and my home school group, including the teacher, absolutely hated me because I didn’t go to their church. Said singular friend is special needs and hadn’t been allowed to spend the day at a friend’s house without her parents ever.

Oh, and we had dial-up internet. The restaurant’s back room was close enough to someone with wifi down the block that I could watch Youtube during business hours, but none of my game systems could pick it up.

Life kinda sucked hard. But that’s not my point. BUT IT DID IT SUCKED SO BAD

Mom had helped me dig out my old Nintendo 64, so I had that, my Gamecube, Youtube, and my DS to entertain me for about 5 years. One day I’d decided to look up Smash videos- and there was a sequel! It had Princess Zelda from my favorite game, Ocarina of Time in it! So I bought Melee, and then I bought Twilight Princess when I found out that was a thing, and then my mom’s childhood friend took pity on me & bought me a Wii (I’m p sure I cried trying to thank him) and then I got Brawl!

So it’s 2010, and I go into brawl completely blind- the only characters I know are the Zelda ones, Pokemon Trainer/Pikachu, & the Mario characters from Mario 64. I start playing Subspace Emissary and even though I don’t know most of the characters it is awesome. So I get to the Ice type level- I know the Ice Climbers from Melee & Meta Knight from the old Kirby anime, and this awesome jackal ninja character shows up and oh my god it’s so cool!!!

And then the Pokemon music starts playing.

I think I screamed. I hadn’t evolved my Riolu that Riley gave me in Diamond, and it had been long enough since I’d beaten Cynthia that I’d forgotten Lucario existed. There has never been another Pokemon that I’ve seen in my entire life that made me go “WOW!!!” half as much as Lucario.

And that’s how Lucario got to be my favorite Pokemon~

#Pokemon #Lucario #N #pokemon usum #character hate #in tags #I don't actually hate him I just don't have nice thing to say about him #I had a hard time coming up with a fave for gen 6???? I had to go into pokemon bank to find one #I love ORAS but #idk I think it has my least favorite pokemon of any gen #personal #XY is kinda sorta really my least favorite main series games #I don't really like anything about them other than Sycamore and the Looker missions #Lysandre kinda fell a little flat for me even #I want to like him but he's just... a bit too cartoony for me to take seriouly #and considering how his plan is legit the most dangerous of ALL the villains & I should be taking him the most s... yeah they screwed him up #*serious #My computer won't let me edit tags sorry guys

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tophertv · 6 years

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I’ve tagged it, but fair warning - this post is about death in dungeons and dragons.

Fantasy is primarily used for either escapism or a way to study human nature, and I like to use it for the former.

when I run dnd campaigns (pathfinder specifically) I like to let my players basically do.... whatever they want. I know they’re not going to ask me to narrate anything inhumane or terrible, and we all play the game to have a fun time anyway, so it usually works out fine. you wanna ride around on a giant wolf? you got it. Your character has a strange relationship with interdimensional space time? lets make a thing out of it. You wanna invent a new cooking recipe every night? let’s get ignis on the phone.

these things are structured, of course: players more often than not can acquire what they want through feats or level ups or rolling, so we use the built in system to explore the effects and give the players a sense of progression.

but the system has its.... flaws. sometimes these are flaws in design, like a game breaking combo (I’m looking at you, rage cycling) and sometimes these are flaws in theme, like with death.

death in dnd is not permanent - it’s just a temporary setback. and that seems a little incongruous to me. Like, in video games, a death is a loss of time - specifically, how much time you put into getting where you are from where you respawn. but dnd has two competing models for death, not just the one.

1) death is a setback where you have to stop playing until your allies fix you,

2) death is an opportunity to create a new character, and let your old one fade out.

and the designers have limited your ability to overcome death by making death cost something: usually either a material cost like in game loot (diamonds) or a statistical cost like a negative level. and players have to make it a certain distance into the game before they can acquire a resurrection. casting the spell requires the party to have either a higher level, or to find someone of a higher level to cast it, and earning their favor.

now these are fantastic limitations, and I am quite fond of them both, but as the game of dnd progresses further and further, the stakes are supposed to get higher. you’re no longer killing rats in the tavern’s basement for a place to stay the night. You’re now fighting the Lich King Big Bad Evil Guy to save the land from his tyrranical rule.

and this matters! if the players have no investment in the story, then it isn’t so much an epic tale of their power fantasies as it is a new episode of “how I met your mother (which is a good theme, just not the theme I’m going for). If I wanted to play HIMYM, we’d be playing munchkin, not pathfinder. I’m putting more work into this, and I want it to be serious.

but what’s interesting is that as the stakes get higher and higher for players facing more and more powerful foes, recovering from mistakes becomes easier and easier. the players get more HP making it harder to kill them, they get higher stats for better rolls and more chances at success, and they get access to more death defying spells like resurrection!

now, I want my players to feel more powerful the longer they play, but I want them to feel like what they’re doing matters and they have a substantial chance at failure. And I worried that resurrection level spells would dampen that severity, and wondered what whether I should step up the cost of death.

Critical Role DM Matthew Mercer has a similar concern, and he did just that: he changed the rules about death. casting resurrection in his campaign requires the material components to begin a ritual of sorts. but then the player who has died must roll to see if they can come back; and they might fail! the ritual becomes harder and harder each time the character dies, and players may make offerings to the ritual (ranging from a magical trinket to a pledge of love or service) to give the dead character a better chance to come back.

But I wasn’t sure that I wanted death to be that difficult, just more serious. And I was still grappling with this issue last night when we had a total party kill. Well, we didn’t really ave a TPK, but we got close.

the players in my “Rise of the Runelords” pathfinder campaign were tasked with finding the bones of a dead dwarf and returning them to the spirit of his deceased brother, as part of a deal where the ghosts would then lead them to the lair of the BBEG. So they ventured out into a snowstorm to scour the cliffs looking for a corpse, hoping to defeat it’s ghost and return its body.

players who are hoping to play “Rise of The Runelords” at some point should probably skip the next 3 paragraphs to avoid major spoilers.

the complication arose from the death of the dwarf from the hands of a wendigo (not a proper cultural wendigo, mind you, but a deer headed hunger spirit written for gaming purposes. I know the significance of the Wendigo to culture is still hotly debated and misunderstood, but I didn’t write this character into the story to appropriate culture, the adventure path authors wrote it in to make my players face starving in a snowstorm.)

the dwarf’s restless spirit manifested as a powerful ghost with the ability to dominate monsters of the cold subtype, which basically turned this level 15 encounter into a battle on a cliffside against a powerful cannibal ghost and an advanced frost worm. And his is when it gets interesting, because ghosts only take half damage from non-magical attacks, and frost worms.... explode, when they die. in fact, the errata for how this ghost behaves in combat literally included the statement “if the frost wom is getting close to death, the ghost kills it himself with a melee attack to trigger its death throes ability, knowing that he will only take half damage from the piercing effect of the attack, and none of the cold damage.”

Now, we’re a good portion of the way into this fight, and the worm is down to about 25 hp left of 200, and the ghost is down to 15 of 161, when the party gunslinger gets a critical hit on the worm and deals 45 damage to it, killing it almost instantly. I take a look at the death throes ability on the frost worm’s stat block to see what happens, and I am met with 12D6 cold damage and 8D6 piercing damage in a shockwave that hits everything in 100ft. for those of you not familiar with D&D terminology, that means I need to roll 20 dice that have 6 sides (your standard cubic dice) and add up the numbers: 12 of those will be of type cold damage (meaning iceblooded magical creatures might ignore some or all of it) and the other 8 dice will be stabbing damage from the shrapnel of the exploding worm. fortunately, the ghost (who only takes half of the 8d6 piercing damage) takes 15 damage and dies. but that’s not where it ends.

To those of you who skipped the spoilers, welcome back. After rolling out all the dice, we find that the party’s main healer (a witch), the healer’s familiar (a goat), and the ranger’s animal companion (a mountable wolf) are completely dead. the party’s tank, a dragon disciple, is at exactly 0 hp, and will start bleeding to death next turn, and the remaining party members are heavily injured. The rogue is down to 14 hp, the ranger is down to 9, and the gunslinger is the only one who succeeds on the reflex save to avoid the blast, and is left with 45 hp out of her starting 80.

this party isn’t even injured anymore - they’re just mostly dead. but the fight is over for the next 3 rounds, and the players have a moment to recuperate. of course, in a moment or so, the players will face the boss of this area (spoiler: It’s the wendigo who created the ghost that they just beat (also, just to reiterate, cultural appropriation is bad)). it’s about this time that 4 things dawn on me.

1) I’m a murderer

2) this is the perfect opportunity to explore death in pathfinder

3) if I drop the boss on them now, they won’t survive

4) oh my god I’m a murderer

now, the gunslinger multiclassed bard early on to get some healing spells and support abilities, and she casts her cure wounds spell on the party member that’s at 0. The dragon disciple wakes up a moment later, and realizes that the party is mostly dead or injured and trapped on a cliffside in a snowstorm. she uses her daily extraplanar portal ability to pull the party members out of danger, and send them all to their cleric, who is able to cast resurrection.

this cleric is a good friend of the party and owes them some favors, so he casts the spell for no charge. the players are fairly rich in gemstones, so trading out for diamonds is no issue. mechanically speaking, the players will get out of this situation and recover as if nothing was wrong, and I know this.

So I decide to do something a little... mean. I begin to narrate their deaths.

I describe to the ranger that his wolf is unmoving. I tell him how he runs is fingers through her fur and calls her name, but she does not answer.

I describe to the party how their witch friend is still. how her body is contorted from the blast, twisted into an uncomfortable position, and making no effort to right herself. I describe how the goat’s eyes hang open, unblinking, unseeing, staring without focus.

I describe to the witch what she sees when she reaches her afterlife. how she meets her patron, how her patron thanks her for the work she did, how her patron regrets that the journey ended so soon when there was so much left to do, how she welcomes her into an afterlife without her familiar and companion the goat.

and then I describe to the players how they find the cleric - playing with a small child in a moment of peace and education, to juxtapose the moment where the dead and dying meet the young and living. I tell a few jokes to make the players laugh, and then dive right back into the death, the stillness, the wrongness.

and then I describe the casting of the spell and the resurrection and the healing that he cleric provides, and I bring the party back to normal - fully healed, all their HP restored, all their wounds gone.

and in the end, the players recover from their encounter as if nothing was wrong. they managed to beat the monsters they were fighting and will get to fight more monsters in the future. but for a few brief moments, I drove home to the players how very close they had come to failure. how very sudden and silent and still death might be.

and I learned in that moment that death CAN be final, even in pathfinder/ Dungeons and Dragons. that if everyone in the party dies, the party dies. that there i no coming back from a TPK.

the campaign has been really easy up to this point, with a few hard moments in the middle. so this was the first time that the players really had to face the possibility of a hard loss. and I think I managed to create that moment with narration; a tension and a consequence and a feeling of importance - this matters. I don’t think I’ll have to do it again, either. not in this campaign. the players will forever know that even though they have safety nets, even though they have great power, there will always be a chance that they can fail. And that will lend meaning to the struggle towards the end, I hope.

But part of me worries that I’ve overdone it. Part of me worries that by trying to create a setting where story matters, I have sacrificed the escapism that the game lends. We’re close to the end of the campaign, and I look forward to running a new game in a new setting with these players, so I don’t want to drive them away. I hope it all works out.

anyway, death is an important part of dnd, and I wanted to write about it.

#death #dnd #pathfinder #happy ending

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rachaelwatchestv · 4 years

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Baywatch - Season 1 Episode 3 - Heat Wave

Here I am, watching yet another episode of what might be one of the most campy shows ever to grace America’s television sets. Why? Because somewhere along the past two episodes, I’ve become Baywatch trash. And now I want to watch another episode before bed.

Alright so the official hulu synopsis of this episode is “During the hottest day of the summer, Craig has to choose between his career as a lawyer and the job he loves being a Baywatch lifeguard. The choice is made when two boys get trapped in a storm drain which is rapidly filling with water.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Craig chooses Baywatch. You know...because that’s the name of the show...of which he is a main character. Also, I’m going to be daring and say that the kids get stuck in a storm drain because of bad parenting.

Only time will tell if I’m correct. So let’s get started.

So I'm going to be skipping the theme song from now on. This is the last time I'm going to say skip. Skip.

We open on a seedy hotel with suspenseful music playing. Honestly not at all what I was expecting for an episode about a heat wave. A guy with a gun is clearly looking for someone while another guy is in a hotel room with his sleeping son. He quickly grabs his bag and gets out of there, avoiding the guy with a gun. He takes his son with him too. Obviously. The guy tells his son that they'll be in LA by morning, so clearly they'll meet our favorite lifeguards while they're there.

Cut to LA where said guy and his son show up at Mitch's house. Turns out Mitch and the guy, Steve, are old friends.

Steve lies and says they're there because his son, Mike, has never seen the ocean. Steve and Mike stay for breakfast and catch up and Steve implies that he wants to stay at Mitch's place. Mitch agrees.

At work, Mitch confers with Craig how he thinks something's going on with Steve. They also bring up the custody battle over Hobie, so that story line didn't just get dropped! Craig says that he can't work Baywatch today, he's gotta go be a lawyer and make the money he needs to afford his loft (alright he didn't say it, I did, but same thing).

A lot of other lifeguards are calling out too, so it's mainly rookies on the beach. It's expected to be a crazy day due to the heat wave coming in.

Steve takes Mike and Hobie to the beach. Eddie finds a kid throwing wet sand at sunbathers and drops him off with his mom who vaguely lectures him and then tells him to "go find something to do." 10 bucks says this is one of the kids that get stuck in the storm drain.

Steve and Hobie go into the water and leave Mike behind on the beach. Wet sand kid joins him and is obviously a little turd. He convinces Mike to walk the beach with him.

At the office, Craig is lectured by his boss that he doesn't want his priorities split and wants him to be a lawyer seven days a week. He needs to make a decision by tomorrow.

Time for this episodes montage! This one is of how busy the beach is and Mike and Wet Sand Kid getting into trouble. They break into a construction zone (eye roll). I'm gonna go ahead and say they're the two that get stuck in the drain. And it is because of bad parenting....look who was right!

So the kids disappear into the drain, and two construction workers show up to lock the door. Because of course. How else would they get locked in there?

Meanwhile at Baywatch HQ, it's popping with missing children. 50 so far and it's only 11 am. Steve shows up and says that Mike is missing and asks Mitch for help. Mitch assures him that they get hundreds a day and they all turn up sooner or later, but Steve isn't happy with that answer.

In the drain, Mike and Wet Sand Kid try to get back out but there's obviously now a lock on the door. They shout for help but no one can hear them over the water and the tide is starting to come in.

Gina's at home painting when Craig gets home early because he needs to have time to himself to make a decision.

Craig decides to go do his thinking at the beach, and Gina remarks that that says something about what his choice will be. Gina is definitely an I'll-support-you-whatever-you-decide-type.

Meanwhile Gun Guy from opening seen shows up at Mitch's house having tracked down Steve's car somehow. This was the 80′s before there were trackers on cars, I'm assuming, so I really don't understand the logic. From there, he goes to Baywatch and talks to Mitch about Steve. Turns out Steve did not actually get custody of Mike, and he kidnapped him from his ex-wife.

The water is getting high at the front of the drain so Mike and Wet Sand Kid (whose name is Ricky) run back to the end of the storm drain. They crawl through a narrow tunnel, because that's a good idea.

Gina shows up to the beach and meets Craig to encourage him to leave the law firm and be his own lawyer on top of life guarding. She is so supportive and I love her.

In his search for Mike, Steve accidentally grabs the wrong kid and ends up in a fight with the kid’s Dad. Eddie has to break it up and Craig intervenes before Steve can get into trouble.

Mitch confronts Steve about being a kidnapper. It's revealed that gun guy is actually an investigator looking into the kidnapping. Craig is there to be a legal consult and Steve confesses that technically, he did kidnap Mike because of how much he loves him.

It's been a while since Ricky and Mike have gone missing, so Craig and Mitch decide to get the junior lifeguards involved (including Hobie) since they have a unique perspective on where kids would disappear to.

And it's time for a second montage! This one is the junior lifeguards running around looking for the boys.

Meanwhile the boys are still taking their sweet time crawling through this tunnel when a massive rush of water comes in and pushes them into a larger chamber where their heads are just barely above water.

Also according to closed captions, Shawnie's name is actually spelled Shauni. Apologies for my mistake, I will spell it correctly from now on.

Hobie talks to Shauni about the drain who says that maintenance guys were there to put a new lock on the gate. She calls Mitch and they decide that it's worth checking out. They follow the tunnel to the storm drain and collection chamber to see if the boys are there.

Sure enough, looking down into the storm drain, Craig, Mitch, and Hobie are able to see Ricky and Mike. The water is slowly rising, and is deep enough that they have to tread water. Mitch and Craig decide to go into it from the riverbed.

The fire department finally shows up to try to get the grate off so they can get to the kids easier, but Craig and Mitch will probably get there first because, you know, heroes.

Sure enough, here comes our heroes crawling through a tunnel. They get to the end of their tunnel but a grate is blocking them and they watch as a huge wave comes in and sends both boys underwater. Mike comes backup but Ricky doesn't. Mitch is finally able to break through the gate and pull Ricky up. They save the boys and the fire department gets them up with a ladder.

Steve hugs Mike and says that it's time to give his mom a call and go home. So maybe he won't actually be in trouble for kidnapping after all?

Gina shows up at the beach again to talk to Craig. He informs her that he's decided to take her advice and open his own practice while life guarding. The episode ends with a shot of marital bliss and damn if I don't want my own marriage to be like that forever. Craig and Gina are OTP material, that's for sure.

#baywatch #review #recap #tv

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recentanimenews · 5 years

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One Piece World Seeker Is A Monkey D. Luffy Highlight Reel

There are a lot of ways that One Piece World Seeker could've gone horribly, tragically wrong. And honestly, sometimes it felt like it was about to. The second or third time a random villager tells you "Hey, could you find two potatoes for me!" or "I need three small flowers so that I can ask a girl on a date!", you get that terrible feeling in the pit of your gut that says "Oh no. This might be all that the game is. This might be it."

But even when it's lackluster (and trust me, finding items for strangers is rarely anything but), One Piece World Seeker rides on a wave of simply being inherently pleasant to play. In fact, I don't think it's ever been this fun to play as an anime character in a non-fighting game. Playing as Luffy is rad. Zipping up on signs and propelling yourself through the air never gets old. Building yourself up so that you can use your Gum Gum Elephant Gatling Gun attack or go into Gear Fourth is always a treat. And gaining new powers so that you can find fresh ways to explore the island makes updating your skills a fun exercise, rather than something that you feel forced to do just so you can keep up with the game.

I know that some of you are probably hesitant to purchase this game because you can only play as Luffy and none of the other members of the Straw Hat Crew, but if there's one definite thing that can be said about World Seeker, it's that at least the character that you DO get to play as is awesome.

But even if you can't play as them, don't worry about not getting to hang out with your various Straw Hat pals. They can be found on the Thousand Sunny or around the Prison Island, giving you missions and helping you with your equipment and such. And along with them is basically a montage of One Piece villains, many of which you fight in battles that often come out of nowhere. But we'll get to that in a second.

The plot of One Piece World Seeker is this: Prison Island is a land divided, with its citizens being either emphatically for or against the heavy navy presence there. And stuck in the middle is Jeanne, daughter of the former leader of the island and now trying desperately to keep things from falling into chaos and corruption. Her brother is Isaac, and he is mysterious and has sweet robot hands. That's all I have to say about him.

Over the course of the game, you'll delve into the secrets of the island, duel with many pirates and navy operatives, and try to help Jeanne. And man, does Jeanne need a lot of help. Though she does grow over the course of the game, many early portions involve her being unable to settle even the slightest dispute among islanders, only to have Luffy remind everyone to be nice for once and/or beat them up.

In One Piece World Seeker, Luffy is not only a prolific adventurer, but a relationship counselor and therapist. Somehow, Luffy's suggestion of "Hey, it's family! You should help 'em out!" fixes all woes. And on that note, I never noticed just how much One Piece has in common with the Fast and the Furious franchise when it comes to their themes and structure. A group the collects members as it goes in order to complete increasingly huge and explosive missions, all while constantly reaffirming the importance of family? Huh. That's a neat realization.

However, the main draw of this game isn't the conflict resolution discussions, surprisingly. It's the open world adventuring, and it only gets better as it goes along. I know that open world games usually suffer from the opposite: You're presented with this big, huge Gotham City or ancient civilization or whatever, and you come to find that it's mostly just an empty slog that doesn't improve no matter how good you get at the game. With World Seeker, as I mentioned, it definitely improves as you acquire more skills. There are copious Fast Travel points, but as you build up Luffy's attributes, you'll find that the canyons and rivers and mountains that once seemed tiresome to maneuver around are now easily traversable.

And while it isn't the most inspired open world setting that I've ever seen, there are some places that are legitimately beautiful. Ruby City, which is filled with farm land, is so nice to behold and run around in. The underground prison, dampened by the water that you have to drain out of it and lit by dim lights and alarm traps, is super cool to look at, provided that you've taken out all the guards and aren't currently getting annihilated by sea stone bullets. The little towns are very quaint and cute and honestly, the worst section of the game is Steel City, and even then, you can swing from sign to sign in a Spider-Man-esque display of "Please do not sue us, Marvel."

Oh, and those boss battles with villains that I talked about? Stay on your guard, because along with being fun, they can beat the crap out of you when you least expect it. I did not think I'd have a problem with the three jerk brothers from Germa 66, nor did I think a sudden skirmish with Admiral Kizaru would be that tough. But the game lures you into a false sense of confidence where you imagine that most battles are won by waiting for an enemy to stop shooting before you rush forward with rubber punches. No, you gotta learn how to properly evade, how to take down aerial foes without pausing too long, and when to unleash your special skills. There was nothing quite as sad as thinking that my Red Hawk was gonna take down Fujitora, only to discover that he was blocking and about to bring down a meteor on me.

Yes, the "family reunion" approach to bringing in characters can sometimes be a little confusing when you think about the story being told. You wonder why Tashigi is hanging out, or why Buggy just happened to be near you, or just what part Trafalgar Law has to play in all this, considering that when he first appears in the game, he says about two sentences and then leaves for hours. But World Seeker made me yell, outloud, "OH MAN. CROCODILE'S HERE?!?" at 3 AM, so I can forgive a lot of that.

However, World Seeker is not a perfect game. Much like with the main One Piece series, you're often left wondering "Okay, how much left is there?" This is especially true with the types of missions that I mentioned at the start of the article. You go find someone, and then they ask you to collect something, but then you have to beat up some no-name pirates, before going to another guy to settle it all. It's busy work, and as much as it's a staple of modern open world games, it still sucks to see it here.

Also, the lack of voice acting can often be a bummer. There is SOME voice acting, but it's usually reserved for major cut scenes and those are few and far between. You just end up having to make do with reading the dialogue and hearing repetitive noises from each character, though I'll never get tired of Mayumi Tanaka's iconic "I'm exhausted and I want meat" sigh for Luffy.

Lastly, the story is often not very engaging. I liked learning more about the hidden plot behind the game's events and about the Dyna Stones, gems of immense power that could destroy everything. But hearing about the squabbles between anti and pro navy people made little difference in my overall impression of the game, especially since most of this part of the story took place as you had yet more conversations with townsfolk about why they were so grumpy.

Overall, One Piece World Seeker is a game that, despite a few narrative shortcomings, I had a ton of fun playing. It's hard to determine what kind of open world experience that One Piece would "deserve," considering that One Piece, along with Tolkien's Middle Earth, are basically the best depictions of "open world" fiction. But if you're looking for a game where, ten or twenty hours in, you're still not tired of using Monkey D. Luffy to explore forests and punch Akainu in the mouth, then pick up World Seeker. It's not the ultimate One Piece game, but it's one of the best times I've had playing one.

REVIEW ROUNDUP:

+ Playing as Luffy is joyous, and will keep you coming back to the game

+ Seeing all of the different heroes and villains is always nice

+ Some sections of the game are really, really pretty

+ Learning new skills is quick, easy, and never a chore

+ Captain Buggy is here!

- The lack of voice acting is pretty disappointing

- The story is pretty muddled

Are you planning to pick up One Piece World Seeker? What aspects of the game are you most excited about? Let us know in the comments!

-------------------

Daniel Dockery is a writer/editor for Crunchyroll that is currently playing more World Seeker. Ask him about it on Twitter.

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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deckthehollss-blog1 · 5 years

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Email Advertising And Marketing Lesson (3 )

youtube

Email Advertising and marketing LessonI moved into a brand-new workplace recently as well as was unpacking when I recognized I was fading quick and needed a caffeine fix. Appears my Starbucks coffee device had obtained shed with the movers. I panicked." residential doors Weatherford OK what?" I believed. I had never gone a full afternoon without a latte. I understood something would certainly happen if I didn't get one, and it would possibly be the example that would create my specialist, so skipping my caffeine solution was not an alternative. I currently had two pages of issues we were covering. I guess the unboxing would certainly need to be placed on hold.I established my Starbucks radar on full sharp and also complied with the route of laid-back organisation clothes. Indeed, 2 blocks later I located a Starbucks on the edge. As I drew open the door, a little gent whisked in under my arm. And that is exactly how I fulfilled Mr. Pibs.Mr. Pibs had actually been coming to that certain Starbucks considering that it opened up. Every mid-day regarding the very same time as my existing 'mind fade,' he also needed a solution. We got our coffees as well as made our means to the comfortable chairs.Mr. Pibs told me he remained in wholesale animal products and also had his own manufacturing facility. He launched 25 years ago with a small shop in his garage and currently leased a 200,000 square foot center and also used over fifty employees. We drank our coffees as well as chatted regarding company. I asked him exactly how he marketed his products to prospective retail outlets."We have a subscriber-based newsletter," he claimed. "About 2500 quality family pet stores throughout the United States."I was impressed! 2500 leads does not seem like much but these stores had asked to be gotten in touch with. The shops were real, prospective customers looking for product. "So do you keep in touch month-to-month or do you find seasonal jobs much better?" I delicately asked."Regular monthly!" Mr. Pibs said loudly in horror. "That would be $50,000 of postage a year! No, we send our full color sales brochure on a yearly basis, costs us about $4000 in mailing charges. I draw a couple of girls off the setting up line and also get them licking stamps as well as stuffing envelopes. We've been doing our advertising similar to this given that the second year we started. Certain is fantastic that printing is a whole lot cheaper nowadays. Conserves us a bundle!"I gagged on the foam in my cup and also really felt an acquainted feeling come over me. Prior to I knew it I was standing and swing my arms around my head in big circles."Mr.Pibs, are you ridiculous?" I chewed out the top of my lungs, and started to tirade, arms swing. "What marketing cave did you simply creep out of? Why not put your brochure online? Why not make use of a normal Email Advertising campaign to communicate with the family pet stores regularly? Are you anti-technology? Why are on planet are you sending out all that stuff by mail?." And also then I realized I rarely understood this man as well as was essentially informing him he was a buffoon. But I didn't have time to compose myself because at that very minute, when I was in mid-sentence of my Email Marketing tirade, in walked my grandmother.Crap! I had actually forgotten Grammy was going to satisfy me at my new workplace! She promptly identified me as well as made a beeline in my direction. As she got closer I discovered she had a very strange looking hat on her head. It was all bumpy and sort of appeared like a bag. I observed an acquainted looking tag: Victoria's Secret.Since when did Victoria's Secret make hats?But I did not have time to ask, I had to make Grandmother believe we were expected to meet at the Starbucks and I likewise had to make up quick with Mr. Pibs before my brand-new close friend assumed I was a lunatic.I looked to Mr.Pibs, as well as discovered he was frozen, mouth hanging open in shock at my Email Advertising, arm swing, soapbox speech.Grandma got hold of the uninhabited seat next to Mr. Pibs and plunked herself down, scooching her behind, frantically trying to get it past the arm rests.Mr. Pibs defrosted and also whispered in scary, "That females has a set of underclothing-- on her head."And also indeed my Grandma did without a doubt have a set of Victoria's Secret undergarments on her head, hiding a mass of curlers.I gasped."Child," my granny said, "I have actually been looking almost everywhere for you!" Noticing Mr. Pibs, as well as not aware he and I had been having a discussion, Grandma looked a little alarmed at my little frozen pal. Not a surprise; the lack of color in his face was tough to miss. "Tiny man," she said, "You look ill, is the coffee as well solid for your tiny tummy?""Granny," I spoke gradually, transforming toward Mr. Pibs. "This is my brand-new pal, Mr. Pibs." : "Mr. Pibs, I apologize for my Email Advertising tirade, this is my Grammy. We had a coffee day this afternoon."My grandmother extended her hand in a motion of welcome. Mr.Pibs rested still, looking at my grandma's hair curler cover."Woman, why is there underclothing on your head?""Oh this?" she claimed, as she whipped off the over-stretched skivvies, discovering a selection of pink and white curlers. "These are old and also all extended of form from too many years on the rear. This pair functions wonderful to keeps my curlers in position. I upgraded to organic cotton underclothing years ago."As well as with that said we, or instead Grandma and also Mr. Pibs, laughed as well as talked away the afternoon. Those two hit it off so well I located myself a little bored. Simply as well, I could not obtain Mr. Pibs"advertising and marketing method' out of my mind. Well, at the very least the United States post office would certainly not go out of company anytime soon with Mr. Pibs around. I rested there enjoying those two laugh it up, as well as drank my head in shock at my granny's Victoria's Secret curling iron coverer. Mr. Pibs' advertising and marketing strategy was a whole lot like those underclothing. Old, unfit, and all drooped out.I fulfilled Mr. Pibs once again for coffee (without the interruption of Grammy as well as her head gitch) as well as stated to him that any type of company that was not energetic online as well as making use of Email Advertising and marketing may wish to retire. He concurred that his whole method must be placed in a remainder residence. It was type of challenging explaining all that Email Advertising and marketing things to Mr.Pibs; he was an actual Email Advertising and marketing newbie.I battled for a little bit with examples as well as realized the photo of those droopy undergarments on my Grandma's head was a best location to begin. I kept selecting the gonch theme and also Mr. Pibs gradually began to recognize the difference in each sort of Email Advertising method. We talked Email Advertising and marketing method and exactly how a cabinet filled with a variety of undergarments styles was genuinely the most effective alternative for complete marketing support.If you are having a difficult time explaining Email Marketing to your antique boss or your customers, feel totally free to try out several of these. They worked with Mr. Pibs so I make certain they will certainly help you.Broadcast Messages are like Bands: These little numbers function excellent at introducing, "Hey take a look at me, look at all the things I need to use ... today!" You do wish to exercise some restraint, nevertheless. Much like you do not wish to be using a thong everyday, neither would you send a broadcast message everyday.Auto-Responders are like Complete Figured Female's Petty Pants: If you are not up on full-figured minor pants, they look extra like a pair of long tight shorts. Large figured women use minor trousers to stop the upper legs from rubbing with each other. In a similar way, auto-responders protect against the chafing away of your time and sources because of answering the same questions over and over as well as over. Female's minor pants make all numbers, regardless of dimension, resemble a million bucks. Auto-Responders make you look like a hero with prompt practical feedbacks despite if it is simply you running the program or a whole office packed with customer care reps.Regularly Delivered E-Newsletters are like 100% Cotton Briefs: For routine wear you can't defeat a set of 100% cotton briefs and also for client retention you can't beat a consistently delivered e-newsletter. Every person prefers a various cut of brief relying on the amount of desired coverage, and it's no different in the e-mail world. Every business has a various idea of what their normal e-zine will cover and also what type of promo it will offer their products and services.Mr. Pibs and also I still meet at the Starbucks once a week or so for our mid-day caffeine repair. His firm has actually truly taken off because he got on board with Email Advertising. I assume he will probably be moving right into a bigger warehouse in the New Year just to stay up to date with orders. He also released a new line of product (using e-mail, certainly)to commemorate - Pudgy Young puppy Petty Pants.And the notorious curler cover? We did not understand it till later on that day however Grandma's droopy underwear got left on the table at Starbucks together with a calling card I had actually taken out throughout my Email Advertising tirade. I question that discovered the saggy gonch? Would certainly I ever before discover? Would the discoverer of those skivvies come to be a future client? I'll maintain you uploaded if anything materializes.And me? My Starbucks coffee machine surfaced after 3 months of circumnavigating the western states yet I still locate my method down the block most afternoons. I have actually likewise been reworking my own regular email advertising project due to my decision to try a reduced cut short for routine wear. Revealing more product details is confirming to be very reliable. My conversion price suggests my customers are actually valuing the enhanced direct exposure I'm providing my products as well as services.Is your advertising and marketing technique a little sagged, over stretched and broken? Attempt Email Advertising and marketing on for dimension. It can be found in all type of cuts as well as designs assured to enhance your lower line. I observed a familiar looking label: Victoria's Secret.Since when did Victoria's Secret make hats?But I did not have time to ask, I had to make Granny assume we were intended to satisfy at the Starbucks and I also had to make up quick with Mr. Pibs before my brand-new good friend assumed I was a lunatic.I transformed to Mr.Pibs, as well as noticed he was frozen, mouth hanging open in shock at my Email Advertising and marketing, arm waving, soapbox speech.Grandma ordered the vacant seat next to Mr. Pibs and plunked herself down, scooching her behind, seriously attempting to obtain it past the arm rests.Mr. Old, out of form, as well as all drooped out.I met Mr. Pibs once more for coffee (without the distraction of Grammy as well as her head gitch) and also stated to him that any business that was not energetic online and also using Email Marketing could desire to retire. It was kind of difficult clarifying all that Email Advertising things to Mr.Pibs; he was an actual Email Advertising newbie.I had a hard time for a bit with examples as well as recognized the picture of those droopy underclothing on my Granny's head was an ideal area to begin. I kept going with the gonch theme and also Mr. Pibs gradually started to comprehend the difference in each type of Email Marketing technique. We talked Email Advertising method and also just how a drawer full of a variety of underwear designs was absolutely the finest alternative for total advertising and marketing support.If you are having a challenging time discussing Email Advertising and marketing to your antique employer or your customers, feel totally free to attempt on some of these.

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milliethesillie · 7 years

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Time for a stupid review rant

Beat Superstar Saga HD..... I’m still stupidly mixed on it. Also spoilers pretty early on in the review because I’m fresh off of it and I’m going on how I feel about stuff

Visuals: at a first glance its gorgeous but theres alot of little things that suffer because of it. Lets take chucklehuck woods for example. The lighting is cool how it peeks through the trees but because of the lighting it makes bean spots harder to see. Then theres alot of attacks that are much harder to dodge because they’re models instead of sprites. 2 examples are the poison clouds fired by the blobs in Jokes end and Cackletta’s soul’s fire attack. They’re prettier but its alot harder to tell where the attack ends and starts. Cackletta’s soul fire is a major offender because its impossible to tell if its even on the ground yet or not so I’m jumping over fire that isn’t there yet. You know the final boss fight is a good summarization of how I feel about the visuals. Cackletta’ Soul is visually terrifying and amazing and i love it but she’s got so many attacks thats near impossible to tell where the are spacially, her fire, to a lesser extent her thunder, and her carousel of arms which used to be one of her starting attacks easier attacks became a Mario Killer because I could not tell when it was going to hit the guy. and apparently alpha dream knew this because its no longer a starting attack and she now only uses it late in the fight. Also I swear everything moves a fraction of a second slower then it did in Superstar Saga. I mean the game looks good i guess but the graphics effect gameplay negatively and the original sprites of everyone just popped out more so.... I was going to say next but I forgot to mention a small number of the unique designed enemies were replaced with typical vanilla Mario enemies and this does fit in visuals so there.... Thats the complaint. and the toads from little fungi town are boring now.

Music: Lets get the easy crap out of the way. All overworld themes sounds just like they did in the GBA cept with more modern instraments and they are good.... However Those aren’t the tracks that I care about. So lets go over the ones I do care about. First the Main battle theme: So apparently all trumpets were brutally murdered right before the development of this game because the trumpety tracks from Superstar Saga features little to no trumpets. Main battle theme being one of them. Technically speaking theres already an HD version of this theme with trumpets from Paper Jam but they messed up some of the notes and for someone who’s played Superstar saga so much its just impossible to listen to that and not notice. Superstar Saga HD’s battle theme got the notes right.... and whatever the instrament they use is ok.... But I still prefer the 8-bit trumpets.... or modern trumpets where they don’t mess up the notes but apparently thats not possible. Ok So next is the Main boss theme: while the original lacked trumpets to be murdered for the remake I’m still iffy on how to feel about the new one. Mainly because I have no idea what the main instrument is. Like I want to say the new one is better but that weird main instrument almost sounds... muffled for lack of a better term. Moving on because thats honestly just taste. Popples Theme: They murdered the trumpets but I still really like this one. First battle theme that I can say is on par with the original no question. Those were the main ones that I was worried about going into the game so the other ones just get a pass in my book. So yeah overall.... Some of them work.... Others not so much but..... eh?

Gameplay Changes: Ugh where to begin on this one. Lets start with out of battle stuff because this will take less time. Mario and Luigi can no longer swap places manually. Now instead you press L or R to swap through a long line of moves and Mario and Luigi will swap places when that move is selected. This means no more annoying the front bro by hitting or handing them before learning the required move which stinks and unless you’re using the touch screen going through your moves is alot more tedious. Invisible Bean spots are now visible so you don’t need to walk around with small mario and look for an exclamation point. THey added blocks that carry cassette tapes that contain the games music both old and new so I can dig that. The Mush badge got nerfed so you can’t cheese the game with it anymore and believe me I tried (99 regular, supers and 80 ultras plus whever 1-ups and goldens I had and I didn’t feel that cheesey). They probably needed to do that to make sure the game wasn’t impossibly easy.

Difficulty: So lets talk about how the game is easier. So Mario and Luigi’s stats are naturally higher then they were in the original, and they forgot to balance that with the stats of the first two areas, so you’re going to kill the first boss in 2 turns and the mini boss of the next area as well as the dragon atop hoohoo mountain.... Ok fine maybe 4. Queen Bean and Popple and Rookie 1 seemed less fragile but the overworld enemies were still babies, this made me constantly paranoid about if the game was ever going to get hard or make me try because I was missing alot of counters and still wining. It almost balances out... and I know I was never overleveled because of one thing that paper jam started doing that I hated. You see every enemies level.... Why? The game is stupidly easy for the first few areas so you never should feel like you have to grind. Plus enemies always go for you. Mario and Luigi games are designed that if you just kill every enemy that starts a fight with you or whatever gets in your way you will level up enough to fight whatever boss is next. You should never feel underleveled unless you’re speedrunning the game. Oh yeah I forgot to mention some other things. THe basic jump hits twice when done correctly which makes it just plain better then your hammer and hands 87% of the time. Countering hammers can’t be dropped but I mean they were doing that one since Parters in Time... although I didn’t find out till late in Bowsers inside story, but I was hoping they’d keep the old droppy hammers. And then theres your bros attacks. Even on the normal difficulty for the attacks the screen still turns dark and gives you a prompt so practicing isn’t really nessecary especially with the the colored spiky background box prompt being replaced with a circle slowly shrinking to show you when exactly to hit it. The only bros attack I can’t consistently excellent is cyclone bros because apparently I’m not as good at button mashing as I thought. But yeah I could rant forever about how the game is alot easier.... But I was gladly surprised when Cackletta’s soul threw me a curve ball. I might have complained earlier but I still liked this fight alot. It was beating me up and I almost died alot. It was a really fun and sometimes frustrating fight and the first victory I felt like I actually earned.

Things they added: Welp theres Minion Quest.... which is a non game with a somewhat enjoyable story... Theres amiibo support.... which gives you 3 of each bean and a random piece of equipment that you can already get in game.... Thats it. I was really disappointed when I found out theres no X Bosses in this game. How hard can they be to add? Just buff some stats and boom you’re done! I know exactly where to put it too! The arcade machine in little fungi town with a towel over it! It would be perfect there! But yeah aside from a few minor things theres else nothing major added.

Final Verdict: Idk. I’m willing to admit I’m overly harsh on this game but I don’t see this as better then the original. If you don’t have the original super star Saga get in on VC or emulator. If you have played it I’d still recommend this. I don’t think its as good but its still a good game. I’d Recommend this over Paper Jam! Heck play Super star saga twice and paper jam 0 times! Its pefect. Whatever I’m tired leave me alone

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mukyoucom · 7 years

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XSEED GAMES BRINGS GIRL POWER, NEWLY REVEALED TITLES, AND FAN APPEARANCE WITH SENRAN KAGURA PRODUCER TO E3 2017

From XSEED Games Blog

Experience First-ever Hands on with Today’s Announced ‘Zwei: The Illvard Insurrection’ Action RPG from Nihon Falcom, Recently Revealed ‘Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin,’ and ‘SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash’ Plus Nintendo Switch Versions of Fan-favorite Titles

Torrance, Calif. – June 2, 2017 – XSEED Games, the independent-minded publishing brand of Marvelous USA, Inc., today announced its exciting lineup of games, both newly announced and reintroduced via new platforms, which will be playable for the very first time at the 2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) from June 13 – 15 in Los Angeles. Revealed today is Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection for Windows PC, a quirky and charmingly presented 3D action RPG from acclaimed developer Nihon Falcom, which was originally released in Japan as Zwei II Plus.

The company will also showcase a number of titles that star powerful, distinctive female protagonists, including SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash and Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin for the PlayStation®4 computer entertainment system, the upcoming Nintendo Switch™ edition of Shantae: Half-Genie Hero with its feature-rich Risky Boots DLC, and the upcoming Nintendo Switch edition of Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star.

As the show is open to the public this year, SENRAN KAGURA series producer Kenichiro Takaki will attend for his first-ever American fan appearance, which will take place on Thursday, June 15 from 3:00 – 5:00 PM PDT. In addition, XSEED Games will be selling games and merchandise from their online store at their booth for the entirety of the show.

“For XSEED Games, E3 has always been a time of excitement, as it’s our opportunity to share upcoming titles with the industry,” said Ken Berry, Executive Vice President at Marvelous USA. “This year, I’m overjoyed that fans are able to be a part of that experience. Not only do we have a fantastic lineup of titles at the show, it’s also rather diverse in terms of themes and genres, and we invite everyone to stop by the booth and check us out.”

“I’m very much looking forward to meeting fans of my work at E3,” said Kenichiro Takaki, SENRAN KAGURA Producer at Honey ∞ Parade Games. “I never thought that the series would leave Japan when I createdSENRAN KAGURA, but now that it has gained fans worldwide, I want to meet them and am so happy that Marvelous and E3 has allowed me to do just that.”

XSEED Games will be located in the West Hall, Booth #4700. The following titles have not yet been rated by the ESRB unless stated otherwise.

Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection

[Platform: Windows PC; Release: Summer 2017] – Originally released in Japan as Zwei II Plus and developed by acclaimed RPG developer Nihon Falcom, Zwei: The Ilvard Insurrection is a charmingly presented action RPG featuring a unique food-based experience system, a colorful cast of characters, and a quirky, standalone narrative. When the haughty vampire princess Alwen du Moonbria saves the life of brash, treasure-hunting pilot Ragna Valentine in exchange for a blood contract, the unlikely duo must set off to recover Alwen’s stolen magic and usurped castle. The game’s real-time combat is tied to a unique leveling system that allows players to choose when to apply experience toward leveling up or whether they should save it for extra perks later on, and pets can fight alongside players to help take down some of the massive bosses encountered on this lengthy adventure through the land of Ilvard. Fans of vampires, treasure-hunting, fairies, ninjas, luchadores, cat-people, vintage airplanes, magic castles, robots, chickens that lay bombs, and more will find lots to love!

Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin

[Platform: PlayStation®4 and Windows PC; Release: 2018] – Developed by Edelweiss, the talented indie team behind the acclaimed shoot-’em-up Astebreed, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is a side-scrolling action platformer inspired by Japanese mythology that breaks up the action with rice growing sim gameplay. Players take on the role of Sakuna, a proud yet lonely harvest goddess who is banished to a dangerous island with a group of outcast humans. Sakuna tames the island by defeating demons using farm tools as weapons while chaining attacks with her “celestial scarf,” a magical item that allows her to grapple distant enemies and platforms. The game’s painstakingly researched story incorporates Japanese history and legend, with its heroine facing off against numerous types of demons great and small as she traverses detailed landscapes. In addition to serving as a love letter to Japanese mythology, Sakuna: Of Rice and Ruin is an ode to the artistry of cultivating rice, and features an engrossing simulation of the craft behind the agriculture.

SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash

[Platform: PlayStation®4; Release: Summer 2017] – The summer of bouncy, high-flying hijinks continues for everyone’s favorite shinobi schoolgirls in the series’ latest entry and third-person splasher, SENRAN KAGURA Peach Beach Splash. Players will choose a team of five from the more than 30 girls available, outfit them with customizable weapons and abilities, and then lead them into lighthearted water gun battles in a variety of combat arenas. Players can also go online to join their friends and take on opposing teams in 5-on-5 battles as well as survival matches. Come on in; the water’s great!

Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star

[Platform: Nintendo Switch; Release: July 25, 2017] – Following a successful launch on the PlayStation®4 and “PSVita” systems, the Nintendo Switch version of Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star comes loaded with 35 previously-released paid DLC costumes along with an exclusive new Unshackled Bride outfit. Developed by Marvelous Inc. and expanding upon the extensive Fate universe with an original story from acclaimed series writer Kinoko Nasu (of Fate/stay night fame), Fate/EXTELLA: The Umbral Star features playable characters from multiple Fate productions across three distinct narrative perspectives, delivering the series’ most legendary showdown yet in one action-packed title. This title has been rated “T for Teen” by the ESRB.

Shantae: Half-Genie Hero

[Platform: Nintendo Switch; Release: Summer 2017] – Following a successful launch on the PlayStation®4, “PSVita” and Wii U™ systems, Shantae: Half-Genie Hero is headed to Nintendo Switch with new content as fresh as the open sea. The Nintendo Switch version of this hair-whipping action platformer comes packed with the game’s upcoming Risky Boots DLC, Pirate Queen’s Quest! In this salty new adventure, players take the role of Shantae’s arch nemesis Risky Boots, as she travels to the four corners of Sequin Land in search of components needed to deliver its destruction. New puzzles, new enemies, and all new gameplay aim to augment this already awesome adventure. This title has been rated “T for Teen” by the ESRB.

For more information on XSEED Games products, please visit www.xseedgames.com. Fans can also follow XSEED Games on Facebook at http://ift.tt/1bMXu9N and on Twitter athttp://www.twitter.com/XSEEDGames.

The post XSEED GAMES BRINGS GIRL POWER, NEWLY REVEALED TITLES, AND FAN APPEARANCE WITH SENRAN KAGURA PRODUCER TO E3 2017 appeared first on Ship 2 Block 20.

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