#I almost have his stats fully maxed out…

[blazestar0525]

Small Pokemon Rant

Okay so I was finishing up the DLC and I wanted to say my honest option and reactions to the DLC.

Okay first off, Kieran says that the player was stronger than him and want to surpass them? Im sorry but dearie you nearly swept me with your team if I didnt have to use max potions and my one max revive in the bag! Legit my team consisted of Meowscarada, Skeledirge, The shiny Lucario from a gift code, Ogerpon (I didn't send her out, because I forgot to switch her out for the battle and I didnt want her to fight especially against Kieran!), Chein-Po, and Miraidon and let me tell you this! My team was all near level 95 and the only level 100's I have is Meowscarada & Skeledirge. And Kieran casually knocked out every single pokemon on my team that was sent on the field and at the end of the battle Meowscarada, Skeledirge, Lucario, and Chein-Po were all knocked out while Miradion was in the red! Ogrepon was the only one at full health since she didnt fight and I had to max revive my Skeledirge in order to beat him!

Kieran is selling himself short because he managed to take down my frankly overpowered team that I trained to max out both attack and defense stats and consisted of mostly legendary/mythical pokemon! If that isn't strong then I dont know what is!

Kieran is strong but he sells himself short since during the DLC he would only see himself as a strong trainer if he beaten the player. I think he was too caught up in that to realize he was strong since the beginning! He was too caught up into 'being like the player' that he failed to realize that he's his own person and his own trainer which leads to him underestimating his strength.

Heck even when I played part one when I was doing the last battle with him during the DLC and I nearly lost since I only had 5 pokemon on the team and I was not using my usual team since my team was really overpowered so I wanted to use lower level ones.... that was the biggest mistake! If I didnt have my Meowscarada in the team I would have lost.

This in my head, shows that Kieran is a strong trainer ever since we met him. I think that we only beat him was because we had more experience. It wasn't the terms of strength but instead it was more about experience in a way. If you beat the entire main game before playing the DLC, its clear that there's almost like a experience gap since the player had: beat the league, beat 5 Titian pokemon, went to Area Zero, went through life and death experience, but mostly because they fought hard opponents that no regular trainer would fight against.

Now im not saying Kieran is a weak trainer because he isn't! I just see it as since Paldea is a place where it provided a challenge so when they went to Kitakami, it felt like everything was easier for them due to Area Zero.

In my head the player was just stronger because of the trauma of Area Zero and the Titian pokemon which in my head has their brains programed to think outside the box and be required to be stronger in order to beat pokemon that the world isn't aware about besides Arven, Penny, Nemona, Turo/Sada, The elite 4, and Geeta.

Kieran is a strong trainer, in my opinion more stronger then a regular trainer but I feel like he shields that talent since he is the younger sibling and because of Carmine's constant verbal abuse towards him although it isn't fully intentional on her part (in Carmine's head) it still affects him and makes him believe he's the weaker sibling where he isn't! His team can frankly overpower Carmine's team in my opinion.

Remember most of these trainers: Penny, Nemona, Arven, the Player, Carmine, and Kieran are just kids/teens! But a few of them after some experiences in their lives it's clear that there's always an outside factor that affects them which physiologically affects them which then in my head affects how they look on battling and how they view their strength.

But I'll tell you one thing, one: that this game left me and mostly my pokemon Violet oc: Ava even more traumatized after the event of Area Zero and two: Im rewriting the entire DLC to have some form of a 'good ending' and more fluff moments between Kieran and the player since it's clear that they have some type of chemistry! If the Applin doesn't say anything...

#pokemon #pokemon dlc #pokemon kieran #pokemon carmine #pokemon mc #pokemon spoilers #pokemon violet #pokemon scarlet #pokemon oc #the teal mask #the indigo disk

[f0point5]

I really do wonder if drivers low-key get irked that the history books are going to remember them as mid because they happened to be driving in the Verstappen era?

//

Sorry for just jumping in and giving my two cents that nobody asked for but I do think that this is very real. Bc there are a few drivers on the current grid that would be considered great maybe even generational talents if not for the fact that they were driving against/in the era of Max Verstappen (aka the talent of the century, thx Niki Lauda for that one).

And yes, social media and the internet has changed things drastically but I still believe that just like almost nobody remembers who it was that prevented McLaren from having the perfect season back in the day, in 30 years times people will remember Max and the incredible season he had, not who won Singapore.

And most of the drivers will be forgotten, maybe not fully but not of importance anymore. A few will be remembered as could have been, should have been, would have been great. But it is Max who will be remembered as the greatest of them all (and maybe even more than that) and I do think that stings.

I don’t think any of them would be considered generational, except maybe maybe and it’s a big maybe, Charles, because the point of generational is that that person sets themselves apart. And I think Lando, George, Carlos, etc., and imo Charles (nobody come for me I cannot be bothered with this debate with today lol) are kind of too close together in terms of ability for any one of them to be standing out. Now, obviously that’s kind of a moot statement because you can say that having such a good car has given Max the opportunity to develop his skill in a way the others haven’t had etc., but I am of the opinion that Max is, and always would have been, something special, above and beyond the talents of his peers.

But certainly there would have been more race wins, points, and historic drives and stats to go around without Max in the picture. And I feel like when drivers are little kids they see themselves as Schumacher, or Hamilton, or Senna, right? They were once kids who remembered the big name heroes of the sport, so they must realise that they’re now kind of background characters in one of those stories. And maybe that isn’t a big deal to them but with the level of ego drivers tend to have I kind of feel like it would be?

And yes social media plays a big part now so kids have more access to other drivers and can have different favourites than back in the day but that’s a very present thing. Are kids born in 2040 going to be interested to know who was on the grid with Max Verstappen when he won ten races in a row? Idk. History says not.

So yeah I do wonder if when there’s like, an itch in all of them that won’t get scratched because they will probably never be the heroes they thought they would.

#max verstappen

[mdhwrites]

Fire Trailblazer is Slept on Too Hard

Since I got him, he has been a permanent part of my team. Literally only Skaracabaz has ever convinced me to take him out. He was my sole sustainer until Phantylia, at which point I rocked dual sustainers with him and Bailu and I have cleared up to Conundrum 6 of Gold and Gears with him as my SOLE sustainer running Nihility.

And very reasonably you might ask "HOW THE HELL DID YOU DO THAT!?"

They (and sorry that I'll likely use He a lot in this, I have Caelus) don't look impressive. They don't even look functional! A LOT of people have stories of what is supposed to be their showcase fight leaving only them alive to fight the Phase 2 of Jarilo 6's boss specifically because he couldn't keep them alive. So what gives? Do I just have the most cracked out Trailblazer on the planet with literally as high defense as you can get it?

No, I just have the defense set on and the Belobog Planar Ornaments on. I have okay defense substats but when I put together the set, I wasn't paying hard attention to substats and haven't grinded the set since. I admittedly have even defense boots on him so quite literally EVERYTHING gives him defense besides his gloves but that's it.

The thing that needs to be remembered about the role of sustainer, especially for preservation is that their job isn't to make sure you take no damage, it's about keeping you alive. Fire Trailblazer does that. Even if you're taking chip damage each round on your characters, he's still reducing the damage they're taking by roughly 10-20% of their health for most characters in the game. After all, max level of his ability might only be a bit over 6% of his defense but 6% of FIVE THOUSAND DEFENSE is still over 300, plus another 89 base on top. That's 400+ shield in a game where most characters have less than 4000 health at level 80, even when fully equipped, if not almost 3000. And the game's damage understands this, keeping damage a lot lower than you expect in most scenarios so that your DPSes in main content don't just crumple up and die from a light breeze. This gives them the extra buffer those DPSes need to stay alive A LOT longer.

And that's without recognizing two elements:

1: He has an emergency button for if aggro gets off of him and your DPS is getting hammered. His ultimate not only deals not an insignificant amount of damage (his damage scales off that giant defense stat after all) but also reups his shield because

2: Literally every action he takes gives you his shield. You don't need to spend skill points to get this buffer. If you do use his skill, not only is his defense already super high but he takes 50% less damage than he'd already be taking while giving a 15% damage reduction to your allies for those pesky AoE attacks. Which...

Let's admit one of the biggest issues for him: He doesn't have a natural taunt, he only has his skill. Admittedly, Preservation characters inherently pull more Aggro inherently but you DO want a Landau's Choice or Moment of Victory on him. I went from sometimes everyone ganging up on my DPSes and causing problems despite the party wide shield to that being a LOW chance of happening after getting Moment of Victory on him. But that only happened for me maybe two months ago. Slightly before Scaracabaz came out. I still used him before then because any defense Preservation LC works and I literally didn't get Landau's Choice until like maybe a month ago. My luck in this game is not good.

The other big detriment for him is that he is slow and his shield only lasts two turns. This is okay usually but it easily can leave your party open to the first attacks from the enemies (then again, there are enemies with 140 speed and so will outspeed most DPSes with their speed boots on so good luck stopping that damage with anyone) and there can be times where because your other characters lap him, they may briefly be without shields, especially if you don't hold back on his ultimate to be able to cover those blind spots. And the defense aren't insignificant. They give me 600 defense. Sure that's like 40 points of shielding but you are barely keeping your shields on people after an attack already. It can be daunting to want to swap out for that speed even if it means more consistent defense. But if you want speed boots on him with some good defense substats to help make up for what you're losing, it's the ONLY variable relic he has that has more than one substat you care about. Heck, his chest, rope, boots and orb could all be dedicated to getting speed substats if you wanted because they can't get the ONE substat he cares about otherwise which is Defense%. Unless you want to go Energy Regen Rope which is an interesting idea that I wouldn't go for personally but that's because I use his ult as a panic button.

I've saved his best role for last though, and frankly want to do a couple blogs about this game mode: He is the best sustainer in Simulated Universe. Aventurine is the only who is going to rival him in this and you get Fire Trailblazer for free.

That might sound even more insane than the rest of these claims but it's actually really simple. Shields are a lot harder to come by than healing in Simulated Universe. Literally only Preservation and Remembrance don't have a way to give you back health in their blessings. The only ones with any form of shield though are Preservation, Remembrance, Destruction and now Erudition. Erudition's requires using its keyword though so it's not easy to pull off while funny enough, the only one who can't heal in combat with a healing blessing they have without their keyword is Abundance. There's also only one relic that gives health during combat... But zero that give shields.

And hey, the way to get shields in these paths isn't consistent. The ONLY consistent shields (especially ones that are worth a damn) for multiple rounds in Preservation, the shield path, is a level 2 blessing that has an 80%/100% chance to give a 12%/15% shield, usually weaker than Trailblazer's already, and a level 3 blessing that gives its stackable shield. Meanwhile, the blessings that heal? Most of them are level 1 blessings with a couple stronger level 2s. Some paths like Hunt even get more options for healing once you have their keyword. That healing can turn on Abundance's blessings but you're going to hard pressed to enable Preservation through blessings alone.

Which is a kind of a big deal when one of the level 1 Preservation blessings just gives a flat damage decrease of 16/24% damage which is a LOT for the only requirement being that you have a shield on. Preservation in general has a lot of strong blessings that can be utilized by any other path, not just when you're focusing Preservation... So long as you have a shielder.

And Fire Trailblazer doesn't even stop there as his offensive ult makes him able to take advantage of some fringe elements like ANYTHING in Erudition and being able to be given a follow up attack from Elation. All while giving a shield that makes sure that your characters aren't one shot. Hell, I run dual sustainer a lot of the time with Bailu as backup and those teams literally HAVE to be oneshot to die at that point most of the time. I don't know if I've ever lost an SU run with those two as my sustainers.

So yeah, I REALLY like Fire Trailblazer. It'll be hard for any other version of trailblazer to be better than them in my opinion, especially as a free character. Aventurine after all is the one I said could dethrone him as the best sustainer in SU after all and he's a limited five star. The fact that no one else in my opinion has beat him yet is kind of a big deal. I won't say he's the best sustainer everywhere, Huohuo kicks ass and Luocha is honestly so mechanically perfect as to be a mistake, but there's a reason I haven't pulled on another sustainer's banner yet.

I already have one that has almost never let me down.

======+++++======

Frankly, I could try to use Fire Trailblazer against Scarakabaz at this point. His death balls just kind of spooked me with their damage and so I actually swapped to running Bailu and Gepard for the fight so that essentially I could ult for ult his explosions. It's not a fast way to do the fight but it got me through it, even with Welt and Yanqing as my two DPSes otherwise.

And I am serious about wanting to talk more about SU stuff. I saw a comment of someone going "I can clear Memory of Chaos 12 but can't beat Swarm Disaster 5" and that has gnawed at me because it's a skill issue but a reasonable skill issue because not everyone is good at roguelikes. It's just that talking about that has so many facets it's probably going to be multiple blogs interlinked to each other because just general advice/rules I have on the mode would be LONG.

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#trailblazer #hsr #Honkai Star Rail #Gaming #Analysis

[hooves-of-hyrule]

Hey, Zelda - Checked in on the Thundra Plateau Herd

“Hey, Zelda” is a documentation of my personal Tears of the Kingdom playthrough, told through the eyes of Link in a series of monologues.

In the brief intermission between Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, Link and Zelda spent a lot of time together - and by that I mean, they lived together. They shared a house, shared meals, even shared a bed (though if you asked them, they would’ve told you it was for comfort and safety, and yes, they’d really believe what they were saying). Link, however, also shared stories. Old habits die hard, and after Zelda disappears, he talks as if she's there listening to him just to keep some semblance of normalcy in his life.

Note that these are incredibly self-indulgent and I fully expect no one but myself to actually care about any of these lmao.

~~~~~~~~

I had a busy day today. Discovered some sky islands where apparently Zonai youth would be challenged to freefall through a series of light rings. Not totally sure what the significance of that is, but I did get an incredibly cool outfit out of the deal. It has fabric that can attach to the arms and legs to create a sort of… wing-suit, and makes it so much easier to maneuver through the air without a paraglider. If you were here, you’d probably insist on taking it for yourself on occasion. …I bet it would look even better on you than it does on me. Which is saying a lot, by the way, because it does look very good on me. You’re missing out. Also managed to get all but two of Purah’s skyview towers activated. When you come back you’re definitely going to have to give one of them a try. It’s about the closest thing you’ll get to flying!

Second thing I did was check on the Zonai horse herd we’ve been keeping an eye on. Remember that one foal we’ve been watching especially closely? That beautiful silver bay with the dark face? She’s finally all grown up. Managed to get a hold of her and she definitely was worth the wait. I can’t wait for you to meet her, I think you’ll like her even more than Dauntless. The rest of the herd is doing well too. One of the bands has been forced to move up toward the mountain though. You know the one that stayed on that ledge? That one. Turns out the stone talus got replaced by a lynel. That was… a surprise to say the least. Anyways, when I got back to the New Serenne Stable to register Wick as my own, I noticed someone worrying over a broken wagon so… obviously I fixed it for her. Turned out she had only just gotten the wagon but somehow didn’t even know how to catch a horse. Since catching horses is pretty much my only pastime, I figured I’d grab a nice gentle one for her. Managed to find her a beautiful bay paint with a long mane… honestly I almost kept him for myself, but apparently I need to rack up more “pony points” before I can register another horse. …Rant about that later. Anyway - I gave her the horse and she hitched it up, and then she asked for my name, which I told her. Her name is… Zumi? Zuli? Something like that. Apparently the only reason she asked was because she wanted to name the wagon after the two of us. So now it’s called Zunk. I can tell she only did it because she thinks I’m attractive or something, which is… uncomfortable, but I can forgive it because Zunk is honestly the best name I’ve ever heard and I think if we ever get a dog someday it should be named Zunk. Or maybe Zenk, actually. Get it? Zenk? …no, that’s stupid. Maybe Lilda? …Lelda? Zink… Zelink… hm. That’s a work in progress.

Oh, I asked the stable owner about whatever happened to that golden horse the two of us have been working on training. Apparently she got transferred to the Hebra snowfield stable, which is just about the worst place she could’ve been transferred to. I hope she’s doing well. I’ll go check on her for you tomorrow.

~~~~~

Author's Note: Wick is one of the two-max-stat-one-almost-max-stat horses I was talking about in the notes of the prologue. Now she's a 100% max stat. She's also, really freaking pretty. And as my friend said, "omg it's discount store-brand Epona."

Also I wish the paints and appaloosas didn't have such bad stats :( Someday I'll actually keep one and just upgrade it. Today is not that day. I hope Zumi(?) likes her horse that she will literally never use.

#legend of zelda #tears of the kingdom #fanfic #zelink #hey zelda

[crystalelemental]

Unit Teambuilding - Lance

Ah, good old Lance Dragondick.  The guy who got his ass beat by Blue and Red, but got his job back because they both just kinda fucked off.  Lance has been a long-standing sort of joke unit, having the coveted Hyper Beam as a move, but the ability to buff no stats at all ever.  All his trainer move did was max out move gauge, something Rosa could do, but for some reason it also cut his HP in half.  But hey, he’s got Potion?  Needless to say, this has been a source of much frustration.  But in one move, DeNA has blessed him not just with a 5/5 expansion, but with the 3/5 expansion as well.  And with this, is it finally enough to salvage Lance?

General Overview Oh.  Oh my god.  Oh wow, okay.  Yeah that’ll do it.  Wow.  Okay.

So, let’s go through the sequence.  Atk and Sp Atk +20 nodes are great freebies, that’s directly relevant to his role.  At 2/5, he gets Quick Cure and Sharp Entry as full cost skills, but Ramp Up 2 on trainer move and Furious Brain as half-cost skills.  The only one worth noting is Furious Brain.  As a striker, he’s not taking hits, so Quick Cure does little aside from negating the rare flinch from an AoE move like Rock Slide, which is already low odds, but since he has Unflappable as a natural passive I really wonder if this is supposed to do anything.  Ramp Up 2 is insufficient to justify the pain of his trainer move.  At 3/5, he gets Critical Eye 1 broadly, and Haymaker, both as half-cost skills.  This is good.  This is incredibly strong.  Haymaker fixes a lot of his sync, while Critical Eye means he’s at least partially self-sufficient, and no longer needs the crit buff to function.  This is pretty good so far!  It’s not perfect, but nice multipliers and some relaxing of buff requirements.

4/5 then adds, for full cost, Initial Injured Damage Guard, and Initial Injured Recovery.  These activate at 60% HP or below, and gives Damage Guard Next, and a First Aid 4 recovery respectively when you first hit under that threshold.  That’s good!  The recovery is, anyway.  Damage Guard isn’t bad, but it’s somewhat questionable.

5/5 offers Injured Propulsion, which doesn’t state “initial” but only works the first time so no fun for you, and Initial Injured Ferocity, which is a whole +6 to both Atk and Sp Atk.  Lance just became fully self-sufficient.  He requires, effectively, no buffing support.  So that’s great!  He’s moving on up in the world!

*pssst*  No he isn’t.

Okay, that’s mildly unfair.  His damage, both for move and sync, is now approaching SS Serena-tiers of damage.  He still falls short, but it’s impressive that she’s his nearest comparison.  The complete removal of self-setup, effectively capping offenses turn 1, and completing crit by first sync, is incredible.  But Lance has one major, painful flaw that I think is really worth noting.

He can’t buff accuracy.

This is such a small thing you almost forget about it.  Like it’s so common you’re just like “Yeah okay, 90 accuracy, the buff is in there somewhere or he’s got Piercing Gaze, just gonna ignore that.”  But you can’t.  Lance’s Hyper Beam only has 90 accuracy.  And the node for Accuracy +10 comes at the cost of a sync tile, which puts him on the back foot.  You can take it, and should given how bad it gets when you miss, because otherwise you’re reliant on someone buffing accuracy, and those options are not always ideal.

The other angle is that the capping of attacking stats is based on a 5/5 grid, which is not a small investment.  While it’s potentially life-changing, it’s also a lot to ask, so I imagine many will not have that kind of access.  So 3/5, while improved, still comes with a whole host of problems related to buffing, and the disconnect between special DPS and physical sync.

As such, I’ll be specifying move levels for recommended teams.  Some of them won’t work unless you have higher move levels.  But the goal here is going to be on making the best of 3/5, which is, again, a pretty respectable improvement.

Team 1: Lance, Lodge Raihan, Lucian/Kukui Lodge Raihan is a solid partner to Lance, giving both offensive stats a nice buff, and providing Gradual Healing for removing the rest of Lance’s recoil damage.  For CS, Raihan has Endurance, so he’s likely to survive until Lance is topped off.  For Gauntlet, Lance has Potion support to keep Raihan alive, and can safely grid an MPR alongside the accuracy +10 and new tiles.  The lack pick is between sync or DPS support.  Lucian is the most notable benefit, giving special defense debuffs, but also boosting team speed so Lance can spam Hyper Beam.  Kukui is a low-cost unit who can flinch, or debuff defense AoE.

Team 2: Lance, Hop/MU Torchic, Lucas If you don’t want to or can’t grid Critical Eye, you can spec Lance into just sync or just DPS, focusing on Atk/crit support for sync, or Sp Atk/crit for DPS.  Hop covers the former, MU Torchic’s grid allows it to cover the latter.  Lucas is here not just for Zone support, but also because he’s good as both a sync nuker for Lance in Gauntlet, and a secondary DPS in CS.

Team 3: Lance, BP Clemont, Lucian And now we get to the 5/5 grids that involve capping all his relevant offensive stats.  BP Clemont gets special note for buffing defenses as well, and perhaps most critically, boosting accuracy so Lance can save energy.  Screech debuffs for Lance’s sync, while Lucian is debuffing for DPS and speed buffs.  Lance is slow and needs gauge support badly.  A support like BP Clemont is going to be fairly demanding in terms of needing speed.

Team 4: Lance, SS Brendan, Anni Raihan If you want, there’s another option.  Initial Propulsion with Anni Raihan’s Sandstorm spam means SS Brendan can get sync a turn early, doubling your DPS.  His Team Sharp Entry caps crit, and +4 special attack on trainer move means Lance’s Ramp Up 2 is sufficient.  Anni Raihan can also grid Team Pinpoint Entry to save Lance the 10 energy on this accuracy node.  SS Brendan’s role then becomes debuffing special defense to maximize Lance’s DPS.  The team may be a little slow, but Brendan’s at least packing Freevenge 9.

Final Thoughts Lance is a great indicator that DeNA knows exactly what a unit needs to succeed, and is willing to play favorites about it.  I want you to compare this to Cynthia.  At a surface level, both got excellent expansions that got pretty much everything.  But where Cynthia actually did get everything barring Sandstorm on entry, a minor inconvenience in the grand scheme of things, Lance got everything but accuracy, which is wildly painful.  Considering Unflappable as a passive, Quick Cure in particular feels like a slap in the fact when it could’ve been Pinpoint Entry to remove that pitfall entirely, while Sharp Entry is less painful but equally redundant with Critical Eye 1.  Either could’ve been the accuracy solution to great effect.  But they didn’t do it.  For, as far as I can tell, no real reason.  And so, here Lance stands, celebrating his rise to fame and making a huge scene about it while standing on the third place podium.

#unit teambuilding #lance

[sysig]

I finally married she

#WPRF #Rune Factory #It's been almost three years but I finally did it #That's what happens when you stop playing a game for like two years lol #She looks so cute! #I just barely caught her while she was out on the big lily pads in front of Kasimir #It's required for her path but I think it's cute that you get married on Hol haha #Everyone came up and congratulated us - I apparently have full heart points with Bianca so I wasn't surprised that she hit on me but like #Time and place Bianca pls #And now Melody and I can keep being best friends!! Yaaaaay #It was way too awkward when she confessed and I had to turn her down and then reset so she wouldn't hate me haha owq #Also Mist was like ''You can keep the house I guess'' like yeah I'd hope so I've been working the land and upgrading it for three years #Pfft no but it was fun #I made popcorn with her packed lunch lol #Unrelated to this other than the fact that the bastard married my wife I also checked out the Jason file again #His inventory was such a mess I forgot how bad it was jfdsfd #I also don't really see the point of keeping it around like - it's a fully beaten game with maxed stats but garbage everything else #No organization the field's a mess the monster huts are empty of feed etc. etc. #Aren't life sims meant to be played moreso than beaten like #I get RF's also got a plot (kind of) but it's a farming sim! What about the farming?? #I guess there was spinach in Danaan but other than that #Even the caves were left a mess! I can't be odd for cleaning up all the caves meticulously surely that's expected #Well anyway now that I'm married guess I should go see what's in Greed's basement hm hm #Maybe I should max out my forging first... #WPVG

[veonhagen]

tot boys as genshin impact players ( ft. me losing more and more of my composure as this post progresses )

this isn’t a request but i’m writing this as a desperate attempt to bait albedo and marius ssrs home

… artem wing

diluc main. i’m probably not taking this prompt seriously but i really do feel like artem would be a diluc main ! he probably rolled on the standard banner like three times and his pity got fucking terrified of him so they just . pushed diluc over to him on the fourth wish ( the thought of it is too funny but shh ).

he probably has never lost the 5O/5O, not even once. just like i said, mihoyo got too intimidated by him so they just flipped the switch whenever he wanted it to.

his main party would probably consist of diluc, keqing, ningguang, and zhongli. he also has venti but ( as painful as it is to say, ) he thinks that he gives him a headache at most times, so he keeps him benched.

surprisingly a f2p. he has all the money he could ever want as a senior attorney, yet he chooses to play as a f2p because he’d like to experience the trials and tribulations of having to grind endlessly for his characters.

highest dmg he ever dealt was probably 4k in the spiral abyss. he probably almost never levels up the artifacts his characters have.

overall, 9/1O would definitely want to steal artem’s account. hand it over.

… vyn richter

lisa main. he knows the best artifacts for her, has her ideal weapon maxed out, he basically has the most perfect build ever. the crit rolls are in his favour.

vyn’s main party most likely would consist of lisa, aether, fischl and xingqiu. he insists that he uses xingqiu a lot but he’s just there as a battery </3.

secretly cried a little when he lost the 5O/5O to kazuha. he got jean instead, but he is reluctant of using her because of how much painful thoughts of unluckiness it brings vyn whenever she appears in his party.

highest dmg dealt was a whole 7Ok when he fought the cryo regisvine. ( well damn vyn hand over your build rn )

f2p. vyn doesn’t see a valid reason as to why he should spend money on a game such as genshin impact. he claims it was purely a ‘small activity’ of his, not something he plans on taking further ( though he spent at least half an entire day building lisa …… ??? )

1OO/1O want his account, i’m taking his artifacts with me too.

… luke pearce

out of all four of them, i think luke’s the most relatable to most of us. 💀💀 cause he isn’t all that rich and yeah … overall the bennett of the group ( i am so sorry luke )

OKAY BUT BARBARA MAIN LUKE PEARCE. i feel like he’d be the type to main someone who is bubbly and kind, and you guess it, i’m placing my bet on our favourite deaconess to be his main dps in the game ( if you disagree with me you’re WRONG /lh )

his main party would consist of barbara, bennett, razor and xiao. xiao’s probably his only 5 star as of the moment so of course like would include him in the team.

always the first one to die whenever he fights domains or bosses in coop. he barely carries the group but hey, at least he’s there for the healing.

actually has a decent build ! sure, some of them are four star artifacts and not all of them have been fully leveled up, but he has the right stats and all that needed. so his highest dmg dealt to an enemy is probably 12k, and he struggles to get past that achievement.

light spender, only because he’s used his entire wallet on genshin so he has nothing else to spend. the most he bought from the game was probably two months of welkin but that’s kinda it.

overall i want his account like 7.5/1O because he has xiao and buff barbara yes

… marius von hagen

dear god if you guys think i’m going to treat this man nicely just because he’s my bf you’re wrong.

1OO% a kaeya main. partly because he finds kaeya similar to him in terms of personality, and also partly because he likes ice bridging with him, so he’d rather travel by water than going on land ( man’s confusing but you do you, mister von hagen )

A FUCKING WHALE. AN ABSOLUTE MENACE TO SOCIETY. THE REASON WHY I HAVE NIGHTMARES EVERY NIGHT. this man has a concerning amount of money ( well, it was expected because he’s the literal heir of the pax group. ) and of course he chooses to spend it on whaling for 5 star characters, etc. i bet he’s at ar 58 now at least.

his main party consists of kaeya, childe, zhongli and diluc. he finds the four characters extra cool so he added them to his party, though it sometimes gets rotational. he also apparently almost has every single 5 star in the game ?? this is why he’s a menace to this fandom. /j

biggest dmg marius has dealt using kaeya is ( surprise ) 1OOk while fighting a ruin guard. would also shamelessly flex about his damage but all he ever gets is an emoji in the coop chat LMAO.

13773637268162/1O want his genshin account i’m already omw to hack it

Ⓒ veonhagen, do not steal. 08/08/21.

#i did not take this post srsly but shh this was kinda self indulgent #veonhagen writes #tears of themis #tot #artem #artem wing #vyn #vyn richter #zuo ran #mo yi #luke pearce #luke #xia yan #marius #marius von hagen #lu jinghe #genshin impact #mihoyo #headcanons

[whatdamiwatched]

Max & Helen - From the Beginning...

In preparation for the sharpwin ship sailing next week, I went and rewatched season 1 to really contextualise the way their relationship has developed, and I have to say it was quite eye opening.

The Introduction

We are introduced to Georgia in the first scene with Max via his phone screen, there’s a photo of her as his background photo. Their first conversation on screen happens when he calls her in the middle of this day just after he speaks to Helen for the first time

Max- Just calling to say hi

Georgia- Really?

Max- isn’t that what people do?

Georgia- people, yes. You…not so much.

Max- I’m trying, I’m going to change, I’m going to win you back

Georgia- well you have 12 weeks.

It isn’t until later that we find out fully that this marriage is failing and being held together by guilt and a difficult pregnancy, which makes it even worse that Max’s attempt at “trying” was calling her in the middle of the day to say nothing compelling.

Enter Helen- confident, smart, an asset to the hospital and the only doctor Max personally seeks out on his first day- to insist that she immediately cut down on travel or get fired. While the other doctors are stats and figures to him when he starts at New Amsterdam, Helen is Dr Helen. Already their relationship is being established as different from his relationship with the other doctors. In a throat biopsy, he’s distracted by her on tv- so distracted in fact, that he’s pushed to give her another ultimatum even though the first one hasn’t expired.

Max’s ultimatum was significant for Helen because for the first time since she had been running and hiding from the pain in her life, someone saw her and cared enough to make her stop. Even though it was a medical director she just met, and it was because of work, it was grounding for her for someone to see her and need her in that way.

Her choosing to come back was significant, not just because of Max, but because it was the catalyst for facing the emotional baggage she had been trying to escape.

So here we are- Max in the hospital where his sister died and donated her organs, trying to find closure and Helen- weighed down by emotional baggage that she’s ready to face.

Tell Me One True Thing

Georgia and Max meet in the hospital where he works- her energy is light and energetic; their connection is fun and their first date is in the hospital cafeteria. From that scene, their banter is fun and flirty, but Max is relaxed – they both are, it’s an easy connection. When Max proposes, he does it by the hospital when he’s on call! He’s in his scrubs and not only does he think that’s okay- she thinks that’s okay.

Their relationship never really existed outside of his career, he never put her first, and she points this out when she finds out about the medical director job. She knows that he will not choose her over the hospital, especially not the hospital where Luna died. The thing is, Max doesn’t even really try. He never chooses her, and she never actually expects him to.

When he almost dies at the lake and has the temporary epiphany that he has to take his cancer seriously, she doesn’t advocate for him to leave his job- even though…he almost died. She knows the job still comes first. Georgia and Max’s relationship thrived on emotional distance- when Georgia begs him in her hospital bed to tell her one true thing- he could only say- I love you. While he and Helen debated his cancer treatment, her only input was going with what Max wanted? When he woke up from his minor tooth surgery, his first thought wasn’t how the surgery chain went, it was what helen said specifically.

I love my doctor

Before Helen, Max had likely never felt true intimacy and vulnerability. He had likely never been able to be himself completely with a partner. We don’t know much about his relationship with his parents, but we can deduce that he’s not close to them.

Although the physical chemistry was palpable from their first scene, Max and Helen built a friendship based on trust and honesty since they let each other in very early. This relationship was built with the best intentions but every relationship comes to a point where emotion supersedes emotion and that’s where we ended up at 1x 16 where the clairvoyant tells Max that he’s going to lose someone close to hum. As soon as she assured him that it wasn’t his wife, he pulls Helen aside to reassure her and try to explain how he feels about her ending by saying “I love my doctor”.IN THE MIDDLE OF TREATING A PATIENT IN THE MIDDLE OF A STORM WHILE MARRIED. At this point, both Max and Helen are at a crossroads of the undeniability of their connection, even though they are both too principled and respectful to call it anything other than “this thing between us”.

At the lake, when he goes to spread ashes for Luna, he says to her- or to the wind that he’s addressing as her- everything I do is because of you. I just keep trying to save you , over and over that’s all I do and I never, never will.

Now where did we end up hearing those EXACT words before?

In that moment, it’s Max admitting that he’s been consumed with emotions that are clouding his judgment and he has to let go.

When Helen uses those words in 2x16, the subtext is the same. By that time, she had saved his life and even Georgia’s life- multiple times. She even saved his life twice in one episode! She saved his life by taking on his cancer in the first place, she saved his life by choosing to pass him off to another doctor when he was using their relationship as an opportunity to not take his cancer seriously and she saved his life by making the decision for him to stop that treatment when it wasn’t working. She took on the role of deputy medical director- which let’s face it was more or less the medical director, she found him, not one but two trials, she gave up half her department that she loved more than anything. She gave up her romantic relationship- she meant it when she said everything I’ve done I’ve done for you- just like Max meant it when he said it to Luna. Max and Helen had have both poured themselves into people that couldn’t pour back, one because she was dead, and the other because he had too many warring emotions to deal with.

Helen could have let Max save her more- he definitely was willing to be that person and showed it many times, but we have to accept that she was in a very difficult position. Just as soon as she felt settled, started a new relationship, made a decision about freezing her eggs, she’s hit with a consuming, intimate relationship with someone that’s married. She had to leave some walls up.  

Everything I Do Is For You

Their characters have gone through a lot- Helen has a dead parent and a dead fiancée, fertility issues and a fear of vulnerability and the feeling of running out of time- Max has a dead wife, who he had outgrown emotionally, raising a child alone, battling with grandparents that blame him for their daughter’s death and parents that by all indications don’t play a significant role in his life, plus a dead sister he has carried with him his whole life. Finding each other was in many ways, the catalyst each of them needed to move forward with life at so many points. For Max, he could have very well died without Helen- Georgia could have died in the bedroom without Helen- his grieving process would definitely have been longer and more complicated without Helen – it wasn’t insignificant that she was the one that pushed the ghost of Georgia out of the apartment, she was an anchor through it all.

For Helen, she was pushed to come back to the hospital and by having that anchor to a place and her patients, she was able to explore romantic relationships and face her fertility and wanting a child head on, she was able to explore how much of herself she could give to another person again after Mohammed died and try another relationship. In turn, she was able to be in a different position when Mina came to live with her.

By Max receiving the kind of selfless love he had never gotten before (from the parts of his story we’ve been told), he was finally able to heal, from so much of the stuff he’d been carrying to come to a place where he feels able to match Helen’s energy. To come to a point where he’s able to see himself as a WHOLE person, not just a flawed one- not just a guilty one- not just an overworked or crazy or erratic one. The speech at the end of 3x13 to Luna’s parents showed just how far he’s come; how much he’s changed and how much his relationship with Helen has changed him. The confidence that he was enough as- is a Max that we had never seen before.

And Helen- naming them- before now, it’s always been Max with his double meanings ��and his “I want to build something better for you and Mina” and “It helps not to be alone” and “I can’t do this without you”, but this time it’s Helen- Helen who is saying “us”- Helen who is putting them together as a family and is relaxed and comfortable doing so. Helen who isn’t simply giving him advice as a friend or listening to him but giving him advice as an anchor- we are here and we are fine and you need to fight for our family because it’s worth it.

I see you

The decon shower. His hand trailing down her neck. Those voicemails. Here they are finally, trying to get into an ADULT relationship. Moving beyond the cute hand holding and lingering looks, to hopefully many kisses, many distractions and many mornings waking up next to each other.

Sharpwin is coming and I’m ready!

#sharpwin #new amsterdam

[gale-gentlepenguin]

Gale Reviews: No More Heroes 3

Thanks to @knightsweeties for this art

Its been 10 years since the last mainstream no more heroes game and things really get shaken up.

Travis now is fighting for the fate of the earth.

Can this Passing Assassin become the hero earth needs? Or are there really no more heroes?

So for this review I will be covering the following:

1. The Story

2. The Gameplay

3. The side quests

4. Difficulty

5. Appeal

Spoilers below:

1. THE STORY

So its been 10 years since the events of Desperate Struggle. There is a rich CEO named Damon who reunites with his alien best friend FU. (in a ghibli-esque short of ET). And when FU returns he and his crew had basically escaped space prison and came back to earth to conquer it. FU then claims he and his crew are Superheros (as a subversion of the trope.) And Travis sees these a**holes destroying his city and decides to f*** them up.

After killing Mr.Blackhole. Travis finds out the UAA basically created a new list. The Galactic superhero rankings. And Travis now has to fight his way to the top to save the world. (though he initially agrees because His wife, Silvia, promised him something. Which we are believed to be dirty)

But s*** gets personal when FU shows up, Kicks the s*** out of Travis, Disarms Shinobu and murders Badman, AKA a friend of Travis from a previous game. Now basically making this whole game VERY personal.

So there is so much more to it, and there are so many twists and turns to the point where trying to explain it all would take away from it. But lets just say aliens arent the only opponents Travis fights.

Even when things get nuts the story knows when to take itself seriously and when to have fun with it. Anyone familiar with Suda51 will get a kick out of it.

But just know the plot itself is not the main appeal of it, its what happens during that makes it so interesting. The twists that had me saying "What the fuck?" are what really make it. And the genre changes that come in. Suda really went ham with his wild style and it shows. Dont do drugs kids, just play suda51 games and you will have the same effect.

It will leave you with more questions than answers.

2. The Gameplay

Lets get right to it. The game play is the best part. Fighting the different enemies, the puzzling yet fun bossfights. Thats where this game really shines. I recommend players start on Bitter. I started with Spicy and got my s*** handed to me early on. After beating it the first time then you can try the harder difficulties.

The death glove powers gives the player options when things look bleak and clever use can really turn the tides. The Chips the player can collect and craft also give Travis a lot of customization. Also some chips are WAY more useful than others. But the important thing is that you pick the best one for your play style.

I found most of the boss fights pretty balanced and have their own gimmick which has each one stand out.

And good news for the bitter players. Even if you die in bitter there is a chance you can come back with the chance wheel. And with sushi meals or to go items, you can boost your health and stats before a big fight, giving you all the advantages you need to win.

Another great feature is the time machine, which allows you to re fight old bosses. Letting you get coins that can up your stats and items for crafting. And you can battle them on different difficulties, from Berry sweet (I basically want to curbstomp the boss) to Death ( one hit will kill you). I reccommend saving the last difficulty for when you fully mastered the game.

Overall the boss fights, the mini boss fights, and the space battles are relatively fun and will keep you on your toes.

3. Side Quests

Honestly, meh.

The overworld is not as awful as people complain, but it is pretty bare bones. Some of the sidequests very from boring to midly entertaining. The search quests for the cats and stickers are a chore and the rewards are only some what worth it. The scorpions is the worst one since they can sting you and you lose your chance to find them.

On the plus side, its much easier to get money for the boss fight fee, and you can pretty much skip money grinding as the fights will often give you enough to pay for whatever. The money is mainly for the tee-shirts and Chips.

The game has a ton of collectables which are cool easter eggs and thankfully none of them are optional for the true ending, which means you dont need to do them if you dont want to. Which makes it a lot more tolerable. Only the diehard Suda fans really will care about them.

4.Difficulty

I touched on this earlier, with the different levels. But I will say that the game overall is not super difficult. Once you get your playstyle and max out your stats, you are basically able to have little issue beating most of the bosses. In Bitter its a lot easier.

In spicy, the early game is ABSOLUTELY brutal.

While most of the bosses are pretty balanced, some of them are really difficult. (Fu's boss fight can be ESPECIALLY painful EVEN WITH MAXED OUT STATS). But its not at the level where its not fun or broken. I would say the fights are the most balanced in the series.

Though some of the requirement battles before the big boss can be spiritually taxing with some of the minion combinations.

So just watch out and be sure to stock up on sushi.

5. Appeal

This game is fanservice to Suda51 fans. Its clear that first and foremost. If you arent into No more heroes, then you likely wont be as invested in it as someone who is. Now you dont need to play the other games, but I would recommend it, just so its not so confusing.

As a beat-em-up slash game, its one of the better ones. If you love that style of game you will be enjoying this one.

But really this game is an acquired taste.

Overall:

As a fan of Suda51, I give the game a solid 8/10.

If the overworld wasnt as barren and almost pointless, I would probably bump it to a 9.

The ranking is basically 4 points for the style, references, and overall experience the game gives, while the other 4 are for the nice fighting mechanics and gameplay.

If you arent a suda fan, then I would say its more a 6.5 out of 10.

#no more heroes 3 #gale reviews #nmh3 spoilers #travis touchdown #its a good game

[bnhaficsforthesoul]

BNHA characters and their genshin experiences

I've been way into genshin for the past couple months, if anyone wants to play with me message me (I'm lvl 45 rn) but be warned I have shitty internet and am a partial razor main

but this is mainly characters I can see actually putting time into genshin

Bakugou

Mains: Yanfei

his main has probably been most every pyro character at some point

he wants diluc so bad, whenever someone else complains that diluc ruined their pity he wants to ruin their existence

before yanfei his main was probably hu Tao

hed definitely play klee if he had her lmao but he doesnt and is patiently waiting for her rerun

he has a lot of 5 star characters and is f2p, he can always get banner characters within at least the first pity, but for standard 5 stars hes gotten keqing and qiqi way too many times and hes livid

especially as a previous hu tao main, he was begging for Jean, still has yet to come home

hes probably a very high level, not fully maxed out considering he hasnt been playing all that long, he was probably forced to start when the rest of the bakusquad started playing it and he just took off

has really shitty artifact luck though, like his characters arent bad or anything but they could be so, so much better

and ugh hes livid

explores everything, has 100% exploration everywhere, but hes not bored hes still got artifact farming to do and he enjoys terrorizing enemies

in co op he will set you and everything around you on fire. cope.

Todoroki

Mains: Xiao or Ganyu

probably only started playing because Izuku asked him to

kaeya has also been on his team since day 1 and he is never leaving doesnt matter his friendship has been level 10 for weeks now who cares

was f2p until xiao, who didnt want to come home at all, and he finally got him on his 180th pull

now he doesnt care and will buy primogems whenever hes bored

he has a lot of constellations on kaeya and hes so proud of that, probably c4, is considering buying way too many primogems just so that he can hopefully get his c6

now his artifact luck is godly, you'll go into a domain with him and be like ugh I got nothing and hes like I got a 4 piece set with all attack or crit rate/damage main stats like haha I hate you

but yeah his characters are very strong cause of this, but he doesnt put effort into building a lot of them, he only levels up and gives good artifacts to his team and a couple other characters he likes but everyone else just sits there for a while

hes not super obsessed with the game, but he does think its funny seeing bakugou get so upset whenever they do domains together

doesnt even bother doing daily tasks really unless hes trying to save primogems

Midoriya

Mains: Venti

hes so good at building characters, like he looks up builds online and watches those "do INSANE damage with these tips" videos - and he sets out to get them done and he does

bakugou is once again livid whenever they play together, because Izuku barely has to try and can do so much more damage than him

he does have to put in a lot of work for his artifacts though because he doesnt settle for the okay ones he needs the absolute best

he builds his favorite characters the most ofc, but he evenly distributes things to other characters he knows can be useful- those characters might not have insane stats but they're still good

will not kill timmies pigeons, hell hunt birds in the wild for fun though

definitely a food hoarder

also does a lot of exploring and probably has at least 90% for each area

Kaminari

Mains: Lisa

he is 1000% in love with Lisa, he took her quest very seriously

and so many people say shes horrible, he hates it, hes made her crazy strong out of spite

his team consists of only his wifus- meaning lisa, beidou, rosaria, and mona

for a long time beidou was his second but then rosaria came along and hes like ugh big tiddy goth gf, but lisa still remains queen

these are the only characters hes built though, save for a couple like probably razor and xiangling that he used before he fully got this team

is an ayaka saver

he doesnt care too much about most 5 stars but will sometimes get them just to say he has them, but they end up just sitting there rotting away because he never puts work into them

he does have hu tao though and would get ganyu if she ever had a rerun

Kirishima

Mains: Diluc Razor or Beidou

they're all on his team, the last person switches out but it's most likely zhongli or childe

hes all about dps, support who, he just wants to hit hard and do insane damage , so yes he made dps zhongli

except his builds arent that great, with some help his builds are decent, but on his own hell be like ugh that's some sexy 300 damage

probably didnt know what 90% of the stats even meant and just put random attack ones on people and went yeah that looks good

doesnt really care though and is just having fun so hell play how he wants (as he should) but he does have to ask for help when farming bosses

loves exploring but misses so much, hell get distracted easily and end up just messing around

honestly probably hasnt bothered to ascend his world since he got to level 35, if he did the quest hed probably go straight to 45 and even then hed still have extra exp because hes been there for so long oml

but eventually he would have to and hed be trying to do it like :,) this is fine and it takes him a lot of tries but he gets there eventually,,, only to immediately have another one waiting for him poor baby

Mina

Mains: Klee or Xiangling

thinks baizhu is hot (and is correct) so shes desperately waiting for him

was a I must play 24/7 player until after the last story quest, then she got kinda bored but still plays frequently so she can save primogems and likes playing co op

goes into random peoples worlds a lot

shes got some pretty strong characters and is proud of her account

definitely makes tiktoks of her playing with the bakusquad cause it's always v chaotic (it's probably only denki and kirishima most of the time, but sometimes either bakugou or sero will join in)

does all the genshin tiktok trends

shes a pretty high level since shes probably been playing for a while and has most everything done

she loves helping lower level people though she thinks it's so cute and loves the power she feels when she one shots things

Sero

Mains: Xingqui

hes a pretty casual player, kinda only plays when hes bored or the others make him play with them

but his stats arent too bad, they're fairly average but he gets by

has so many primogems because he doesnt bother to wish on anyone, probably wants kazuha though

he does get super invested into the story though, hes so curious about the world and where the story is gonna lead

probably watches a lot of genshin theory videos and now he over thinks everything in the game

he explores a lot, not so much to find every single thing but more so just because he likes looking at everything, hes very excited for all the new places

Shinsou

Mains: Childe

hes a very thorough player, he explores a lot and puts a lot of work into building his characters

most of them arent all that great but he has plans to fix them

his main team is very well built, not the best, but still good

he struggles when he has to switch someone out for a domain or something because his other characters are so painfully mediocre right now and he feels so bad

shinsou, playing a character that can do like max 200 physical damage and biggest damage is like 2 thousand, repeatedly saying I'm sorry, I'm sorry, you deserve so much better, I'm so sorry

even if it's not the worst damage by far, he feels bad about anything under his main team's stats because they're just so much higher

broke. has no primogems. spent them all on childe and his constellations. does he regret it? well he sure does appreciate his c6 so- hell manage

yes he spent real money on his stupid mass murderer who he loves very much

fights childe every day even though he already collected the treasure, he is but a humble simp

probably decently lucky with wishing like he can beat the 50/50 almost every time

Tamaki

Mains: Chongyun and Sucrose

he only started playing recently, probably kirishima got him into it, but he immediately fell in love

kirishima was like tell me when you're level 16 so we can play together !!! and 2 days later tamaki was level 16 and kiri was shook because how the hell did he do it so fast

hates domains, the dread he feels when he realizes the lower level isnt going to give him anything anymore, and he has to move up to the next, and the next,,

asks kirishima to help him only to realize he isnt much help, is too nice to say that so he let's kiri keep trying- one day kiri gets deku to play with the two of them and tamaki almost cries because finally he can get through the level 90 domain and actually get things ugh

cannot get xingqui to save his life he refuses to come home and poor tamaki is so sad he wants him a lot hes even got all his materials saved up

Monoma

Mains: Ningguang

honestly doesnt play all that much but takes pride in making his account seem v good, is a whale

but hes very good at the game, didnt know what the artifacts were for at first and gave people ones based on how they looked but once he figured it out hes fixed them

is a very standard player, logs in every day to do his commissions and use his resin then logs out, he doesnt put too much time into the game and doesnt worry if he misses a day or two

worships ningguang, also really likes xinyan, his other team members are probably venti and albedo

has every single banner 5 star that has come out since he started playing, probably doesnt have klee though and is v upset about it, and is thanking the heavens for all the reruns lately

also doesnt have keqing and wants her a lot cause he likes her

accepts every single co op request he gets, and despite what a lot may think hes actually a very nice person to play with, not toxic at all - unless you're someone he knows then he might be mean to you shshshsh

Shigaraki

Mains: Razor

haha isnt it so odd that they sound so similar haha (if you dont know they have the same japanese va and I'm guessing hed play it in Japanese)

obviously he can be kinda busy ya know being a criminal and all that but when hes not he puts a lot of time into genshin

sadly doesnt have very good luck when it comes to characters or artifacts, but hes doing his best even with 0 primogems and his 50% crit rate

doesnt explore all that much, most of the exploring hes done came from him trying to get all the oculus

his razor is so good though, except that's the only character hes put tons of effort into

except for now zhongli, hes not replacing razor but ugh does he love zhongli

but his other characters are pretty mediocre at best, he could build them if he wanted to, hes good enough at gaming to figure it out, he just doesnt have the time to spend to do it so he focuses on his main team

also (spoiler alert kinda) when we had to go to the wolf spirit to fight the abyss herald and razor was there, afterwards how razor was saying how he was too weak and stuff and was super sad, at that very moment shiggy decided the entire abyss order had to be destroyed - sorry aether (he chose lumine) but razor is more important than you

#theres probably more charavters that would play but i can add to this later #did i describe myself througout these #yes of course #anyways diluc supremacy if youre not apart of the 70% of the fandom that hates him then youre superior i dont make the rules #bnha headcanons #bakugou #shigaraki #todoroki #kaminari #kirishima #midoriya #deku #shinsou #monoma #amajiki

[beels-burger-babe]

Thank you so much Bee! "Simple" guides on the internet always just shove like 50 pages worth of stuff in my face and never give points of focus. (Also if it isn't too much trouble, I'd love some character building tips)

Ooof, I feel that. And it was seriously my pleasure!

So character building!

I'm a pretty role play heavy player when it comes to D&D, so the most important thing to me for my character is their backstory. Everything else is built around that.

Obviously, the first thing you need is an idea. I have formed characters from songs (my fire genasi, rogue, Kenna is heavily inspired by the first and last verses of "In My Dreams" from Anastasia), pictures/art (water genasi, phantom rogue, Astoria inspired by slime girls/ghost art that I found around Halloween on Pinterest), a certain style or personality (my Kalashtar, enchantment wizard Ingrid was created because I wanted to play a deceptively sexy and charming character that was super smart).

A good way to get inspired, especially if it's for a long campaign, is talk with your DM about the world you're going to be playing in and be inspired by the history or story that they're building for you. (My first D&D character, a noble, teifling, warlock, was inspired by my DM's lore for teiflings in her world Hastia. My protector aasimar, order cleric, Riona was inspired entirely by my other DM's gods focused world and my thoughts on how it would change the mentality of a person to live amongst them or even be raised by one of them).

Regardless of your inspiration ALWAYS work with your DM to assure your backstory doesn't conflict with their lore or the story that they have set. This will make the game better for both of you and allow the DM to make it more personal for the players (which is the BEST FEELING IN THE WORLD!) Okay! So once you have an idea of what you're going for, it's time to choose your race, class, sub-class and background. Now some people prefer to min-max and choose their race and class-based on what pairing will give them the most damage and stats for combat. There is nothing wrong with this, especially for more combat-focused players. It's just not how I play.

What I do is carefully choose races and classes based off of what best fits the backstory/narrative that I have in mind. Let's take Ingrid for example. I knew Ingrid needed to be a race that was seen as beautiful, angelic, and charming. I could've gone with high elves, but Kalashtar are more exotic (which suits her backstory better) and are noted for having an almost celestial presence. Next, I had to choose class. You have to keep backstory in mind when choosing this. We're gonna use Ingrid as an example again. Heads up, I fondly refer to her as my prostitute wizard for a reason. Ingrid's backstory is that she was an orphan raised in the *clears throat* entertainment district of the city the campaign is set in. She grew up wanting nothing more than to get out of the slums of the city and to make a name for herself by becoming famous. The problem is that she isn't exceedingly talented in anything, and was fairly average in most skills and talents, if not terrible. She was smart and good with magic but was dismissed by schools due to her societal class. Once she hit 18, she realized the only extraordinary thing about her was her appearance. She mixed that with her magical abilities in enchantment to lure shop keepers into giving her goods for free so that she could survive on the streets. Eventually, she caught the eye of Lycus Maddox, a famous and powerful brothel owner and sorcerer, who "kindly" took her under his wing. She was trained to use an aerial hoop for the circus-like shows that he hosted nightly at his brothel and became his most sought out worker. She eventually notices that with Lycus, she's more trapped than she's ever been and runs away (there are more details behind that, but I've gone on long enough). A year passes, and she meets the party while still on the run and now working on the streets once more.

Seeing this backstory, one might think that a Glamour Bard would work great for Ingrid. And that's true. It wouldn't be bad. But Bards are performers above all else, which is something Ingrid is not. A Bard's skill tends to come naturally to them, and Ingrid had to work hard for her abilities. For that reason, an Enchantment Wizard was the best choice for her. It still allowed her to magically charm people but kept the focus on her brain and strategy skills.

In simpler words, the best and most fun choice for your character isn't always the most obvious. Don't be afraid to question norms and mix and match things.

After that, it's just a matter of choosing a background (be sure you fully understand how the background fits your character before choosing it) and creating your character sheet!

I don't know if this helped at all, but uh yeah 😅

#suvi ☀ #dungeons and dragons #the hive #ask b #b answers #🐝 answers #tips and tricks

[cruddyborderlandstheories]

"cut content is just a part of game development unfortunately"

And I genuinely feel so bad for the development team because that cutscene was brutal and the fact they even admit "yeah this scene was super important to us, but we had to cut it" like jfc. It felt REAL. Like idk how to explain it other than that is how it was all meant to be, it feels like real people interacting and reacting to what had just happened. Of all the stuff that had to be cut. This one fuckin hurts geez.

kinda spoilers for the upcoming dlc mentioned under the cut? I talk about the linked Twitter post and interview with Sam Winkler a bit.

Also the interview kinda irritated something in my brain regarding siren stuff. No clue why because everything was already explained in game, but is it then that Nyriad had Phaselock since Maya is the only person to ever mention her. With the part that says sirens have a connection to previous power holders going back like a line. Granted it is in her sleep, but still. If so, then where did the phaseleech powers come from for the twins? Just vibing? Does that mean siren powers CAN escape Vaults? I could've sworn it was all but confirmed that Nyriad had the phaseleech powers because she locks herself (and her powers) away bc they're too dangerous. I'm confused. Did Maya just mention Nyriad in her sleep for a different weird siren reason? Also why doesn't Tannis ever note having a connection to Angel. I feel like even a side joke placed as a reference or call back could've fulfilled that.

Like not even just me crying over Ava's reaction to Maya's death, but also Lilith being PISSED and fully in disbelief at first like "oh haha she went back to Athenas" instead of barely showing any emotion when Maya is dead. Yelling that she should've been the one to go down and Ava of all people being like no the fuck you shouldn't have, you couldn't have done anything to snap her back to reality. Tannis immediately going on to theorize with her Horrid timing but is 100% how she would respond and honestly gives a side of her we don't get in game because everyone just memes that Tannis is a sirentologist but gives almost no fucks about Sirentology in game. And Lilith immediately telling her "no not now" with her first name no less, holy shit that's the kind of Commander stuff we needed?? One cutscene and all of that. And they feel like a family in it and it isn't awkward and... What da hell.

Also Krieg apparently being in the background 🥺 "As players watching the scene might guess from his presence, Krieg was intended to appear in the base game during the Promethea storyline" yeah we know but it doesnt hurt any less to see him on Sanc-III with Zer0 hearing that Maya is gone.

Also, random thought but if Nyriad did have Phaseleech like I thought I wonder if it was even necessary for Typhon DeLeon to exist so the twins could open Pandora. After all, they'd have their connection to Nyriad who definitely knew where everything was and how it worked as she left her messages everywhere we go in Bl3. Granted we don't know how strong this connection is or how it works or... Anything. But there is one and it's an interesting thing to think about. Would the twins be able to see her memories? Use new power techniques she discovered? Just get weird feelings of deja vu when walking the same places she did? Is the link messed up because it's split between two people? I feel sad that this is never explored in the game because it's a cool concept. Even with Ava being connected to Maya, we don't see that either. I really hope we do in the director's cut.

Actually, wilding, why does Lilith never mention feeling a connection to her past power holders. Is she just not that in-tune believing her powers exist just because she's maxxed out her hotness stat? If so then I guess Maya muttering Nyriads name in her sleep does make a lick of sense. Even tho Nyriad was Phaseleech and not Phaselock? I think? I wonder is Amara is maximum connected since she appears to be the most in tune with her siren powers. Seems like a fun concept to explore if not weird. Like he says death for sirens is complicated but I mean. At least we've never seen a Siren ghost.

#I take a nap after class and wake up to Patricia not now and I cry #borderlands #borderlands 3 #Directors cut #Spoilers #Borderlands 3 spoilers #Directors cut spoilers #Can we get a mass effect patch where they add this cutscene in please

[self-loving-vampire]

Ultima VII Part Two: Serpent Isle (1993)

Summary

Serpent Isle is a direct sequel to the Black Gate. The arrival of the Guardian has been prevented and his cult has been outlawed and disbanded, but his most loyal follower has escaped to a place called the Serpent Isle to enact their backup plan.

But the Serpent Isle is not just an island, it is another world that you find yourself in after sailing your ship between the Serpent Pillars (yes, you get isekai’d while already living in another world).

This strange land is populated by people who fled from your lord long ago, and it seems to be suffering from an apocalyptic event that you soon experience for yourself, as a magical storm teleports your companions away and replaces most of the potent items you arrived with with random junk.

So your goals are clear: Recover your items, find the Guardian’s followers, and try to prevent the world’s destruction.

In many ways, Serpent Isle can feel like a more linear and limited game than the Black Gate (for one, you can’t own and freely sail a ship), but there are actually many things that I think it actually does better.

I played it using Exult and the SI Fixes mod.

Freedom

While Serpent Isle is not fully linear, it is definitely not nearly as open as the Black Gate was.

Where the Black Gate lets you travel nearly anywhere in the world almost immediately, even enabling several forms of transportation for this purpose, Serpent Isle initially allows only one section of the island to be explored with the rest opening up as one progresses through the game.

To its credit, the way in which these areas are locked off are sometimes reasonable and do not feel arbitrary. For instance, Moonshade is an island and nearly every ship in the land have been wrecked by the same magical storms that affected your party at the start of the game, so reaching it is not as simple as just buying a boat and going there.

There are other cases, however, where the restrictions do feel nonsensical. Such as the way the Bull Tower pikemen demand obscene amounts of money for the captain’s release but will happily accept a single much less valuable gold bar instead (since acquiring those is tied to a plot point). Then there’s all the stuff with the Hound of Doskar...

On the positive side, you can deal with various parts of the game in whatever order you desire within these limitations. This includes resolving the central quests in each of the land’s three cities in your own preferred order.

However, the game is still lacking in alternate solutions for quests in general. There are some decisions to be made, but they are rather minor in the grand scheme of things.

Character Creation/Customization

This aspect of the games is just as barebones as the Black Gate. You can only select your name, gender, and portrait. Your starting stats are pre-set and there are no further decisions to be made there.

However, Serpent Isle does have a marginal benefit over the Black Gate in that how you spend your training points matters a lot more, since you can’t just automatically max out your stats by completing the expansion.

Even then, there is not much to the character creation here at all.

Story/Setting

I think this is one of the game’s stronger points. The Black Gate may have had a larger world with more total settlements, but Serpent Isle’s three cities of Monitor, Fawn, and Moonshade are each significantly larger than the average Black Gate town and, most importantly, this world feels more dynamic.

Due to the way many of the game’s quests and events work, Serpent Isle manages to feel more alive than its predecessor. I will not spoil the details, but you often feel like something is always happening and like new developments are organically finding you rather than you having to actively search for them.

As has become typical of the Ultima series, the setting this time around is also centered around virtues, but in this case it goes beyond the Eight Virtues you mastered in the last trilogy.

Serpent Isle’s three cities are inhabited by the descendants of people who fled the reign of Lord British and who resent his edict of the eight virtues. The knights of Monitor considered Valor to be the highest virtue, the sailors of Fawn wanted to elevate Beauty as a virtue, and the mages of Moonshade did not feel that their profession should be associated with the virtue of Honesty.

But in addition to all that, much of the game revolves around learning about and mastering the ancient Ophidian virtue system, which functions differently from what you are used to. 

The Ophidian virtues are divided into Order (Ethicality, Discipline, Logic) and Chaos (Tolerance, Enthusiasm, Emotion). The forces composing both sides must be in balance to achieve a new set of principles (Harmony arising from Ethicality + Tolerance, Dedication from Discipline + Enthusiasm, and Rationality from Logic + Emotion).

The incoming apocalypse you face in the game is the result of a cosmic imbalance in these forces. The ancient Ophidians polarized into Order and Chaos factions that warred each other, with Order winning the war and destroying the Chaos Serpent, which causes the universe to begin unravelling.

While this game does have an antagonist, resolving this imbalance remains the most significant part of the game in terms of story.

The game also has multiple big scripted scenes that did not quite exist in the Black Gate, and the world as a whole changes dramatically partway through as a result of a certain event.

Immersion

As previously mentioned, things like the quest design and more dynamic world can help make this game more immersive than Black Gate in some ways. I am reasonably certain that some of the NPC schedules are a bit more complex this time around as well.

There are also a few new things, such as a frozen wasteland up north that you need warm clothes to traverse without freezing.

Apart from that, all the features mentioned in the Black Gate are still present here, such as weather, day/night cycles, and more.

But really I think one of the most significant differences is actually just the fact that you are significantly less overpowered than in the Black Gate and have less allies. I feel like that changes the feel of the game a lot on its own in ways that have to be experienced to be fully understood.

Gameplay

Combat is, as in Black Gate, automatic and uninteresting, though it is slightly more difficult now overall.

The rest of the gameplay is largely the same as in the Black Gate as well, though dialogue has been slightly expanded with more complex trees.

Really the main difference comes down to the differences in the world and available items rather than any mechanical changes.

Some of the most significant items are a ring (obtained from the Silver Seed expansion) that provides infinite magical reagents and a magical goblet that provides endless nourishment. These things are not nearly as broken as what the Forge of Virtue provides in the Black Gate, but are still nice conveniences.

While this game has less towns than its predecessor, it does have larger and more interesting dungeons overall. The one issue with them is that some of the puzzles in them are not very interesting (often amounting to just placing items on pedestals and such).

This is also where I should talk about one of the game’s major flaws: It is the first one where the influence of Electronic Arts began to manifest. It is nothing too major at this point (just wait until we get to Ultima 8 and especially Ultima 9) but it does mean there are some questlines that were left unfinished due to EA rushing things.

It’s not just questlines either. The towns were supposed to be larger and with more content, the player was meant to eventually gain a ship they could freely sail like in the Black Gate, and a major plot element had to be changed. The Silver Seed expansion in particular feels incomplete and inconsequential in terms of story, and is largely centered around four dungeons to explore for unique loot (both the dungeons and the loot are reasonably good at least).

I also dislike just how many plot-critical items are in the game. I would like to use my backpack space for other things.

The game also offers a decent amount of locations to explore, including many optional curiosities unrelated to the main quest.

Aesthetics

While the engine and graphics are largely the same as in the Black Gate, there have been graphical upgrades, most notably in the form of significantly more detailed and lifelike portraits for NPCs.

But I would say that the biggest aesthetic changes here have more to do with the game’s design and atmosphere. 

Serpent Isle is a far more unfriendly place than Britannia, and you will be accosted by assassins and deceivers during your quest. It makes for a more grim adventure.

The whole game has a much darker tone than any in the series since Ultima 5, I think. The world is completely falling apart due to the imbalance, with storms obliterating Fawn’s fleet, goblins making significant gains in their war against Monitor, and plagues are starting to break out. You do get the sense as you explore the world that this is a land experiencing its final days.

And things only get worse from here too.

I also like how unique several of the locations are. The city of Monitor is not just a walled city, it is populated by knights who organize into three different commands that rule the city. Meanwhile the city of Fawn is completely unlike any other in the series, being built entirely over the sea.

It is good stuff, and I wish they had had the time to expand and develop these locations as they had originally planned.

Accessibility

Exactly as good in this regard as the Black Gate, I think. Even the increased difficulty (which is still not enough to make this a “hard” game by any means) does not really matter since at the start of the game you get a magical hourglass that can be used to resurrect any fallen party members and the local monks will take care of your own mortality as well.

If there’s frustrations to be had here, they may come more from some of the less intuitive puzzles than anything and plot points than anything. The core gameplay is still extremely simple.

While the game can theoretically be played on its own, I strongly recommend playing at least the Black Gate first to learn a little about the events that led to this whole expedition. The two games really are part of the same package.

Conclusion

Between the Black Gate and Serpent Isle, I always got the impression that the Black Gate was the more popular of the two. I can understand why, as Serpent Isle was a bit rushed and lacks the open exploration that has defined the previous games in the series.

Despite this, I remember loving it about as much as the Black Gate largely because of the atmosphere and how the game feels. It is a particularly easy recommendation for those who enjoyed the previous game, as the engine and mechanics remain largely the same.

I also recommend this game for anyone who may be interested in following the story or looking for an immersive experience, but who doesn’t want to bother too much with stuff like combat or numbers. Even just watching the NPCs go about their day can be fun in this game.

#vampire reviews rpgs #ultima 7 #serpent isle #long post

[supercantaloupe]

i rewatched The Dangerous Mind of Aelwyn Abernant tonight and took notes because that’s just where i’m at right now as a person. anyway here’s a few things i thought were interesting (total spoilers for all of s2):

1. angwyn can cast multiple Dominate Persons (without taking a rest between them) and Teleport. that’s two 5th level spells and one 7th level, and only 13th level or higher wizards have that many spell slots available. this means he’s at minimum a 13th level wizard. he’s also a bitch and an immortal elf so he could be much more powerful than that, but that’s the minimum.

2. we all know wizards are squishy but they still get 1d6 + con mod per level for their max HP. now i haven’t taken a math class in a hot minute because i’m just sexy like that, and i’m not terribly well versed in the mechanics of determining HP max when rolling a characer in dnd, but i’m pretty sure, without applying any con mods, the max HP for a wizard at 13th level would be between 13-72, averaging around 45. 

3. in the calethriel tower fight, angwyn takes no damage in the whole battle until he hits the ground floor. then kristen’s Spirit Guardians deal him 22 damage and remove his Invisibility, after which he is dealt another 27 damage by fig. in the span of 2 hits in approximately 6 secons of actual time, he goes from his full HP to completely downed after taking 49 damage.

(3.5. tangential point here, but kristen takes 36 damage falling from the tower. it would be so fucking funny if they’d managed to just yeet him out the window and take all or very nearly all his HP out in a single move that way)

4. now, in the season finale, adaine one-shots angwyn for 77 damage, which fully kills him, no death saves or anything. to fully kill someone you have to do at least double their HP max. half of 77 is only 39 (rounding up, ‘cause when damage is halved in dnd you round down). 

5. so angwyn literally has. at maximum. like 39 max HP. this is less than the average max HP for a 13th level wizard, which is the minimum wizard level he could be at. brennan must’ve rolled this character some shitty stats and HP by either poetic luck or on purpose. by all means, angwyn could and even should be a higher level wizard than that, with a higher HP max. honestly the chances of rolling an HP max that low seem to me almost staggeringly unlikely, the only way i can imagine this even being possible is if he has an incredibly shitty con score with a negative mod. even at level 9 adaine has almost twice his max HP at 67.

conclusion: angwyn abernant is one weak, pussy ass motherfucker. 

#fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year #fantasy high spoilers #fantasy high sophomore year spoilers #dimension 20 #dimension 20 live #dimension 20 live spoilers #d20 #angwyn abernant #brennan lee mulligan #im making my personal brand just angwyn abernant hate #and taking unnecessarily meticulous and detailed notes on the characters and events of the show #sasha speaks #sasha reviews #ket if you see this you're not allowed to read this post yet. spoilers ahoy #if i remember correctly his spell save dc is only like 14 too. what a loser

[tartagliaxx]

call me stupid or whatever, but i spent like 20 wishes on the permanent banner and i finally got another 5*, which is skyward pride. was it worth it? perhaps. i still have like 10.6k primos so i still have guaranteed for albedo bc my pity on the event banner is 50.

i also already ascended skyward pride to lvl80 and i'm conflicted on whether to replace diluc's r5 lvl90 prototype archaic with skyward pride considering the sub stat is energy recharge and diluc doesn't need that like, at all. i suppose i could give it to chongyun or razor? but i'm gonna have to build them then, which is gonna suck up my resources even more.

but ngl, skyward pride on him is so eye catching. he's dressed in all black while this gigantic shiny blue-green coloured weapon that seems to have ancient texts or smth hangs on his back. the contrast is rlly pretty.

and i feel like i don't even have a proper team now. i benched diluc for a while bc i ascended qiqi to lvl80 and she does rlly well with xiao, but i don't have an archer on my team, which gets pretty annoying at times. zhongli is a must have bc his shield saved me so many times. and bc i just love kazuha's playstyle, i also benched venti for him. i wonder what position albedo will be in once i get him bc my team is just all over place rn, well, if he's gonna rerun this time that is.

i'm almost done with exploring the inazuma islands too, like i've been playing so much that i already have 4 out of the 5 islands 100% completed, and the last one is 94%. i literally am speedrunning through inazuma even if i have no intention of doing that. also, i already caught like 300 fish in my world alone. stardew valley has prepared me well for this lol

— r. anon

ooooooh skyward pride!! congratulations!! i’m not too sure which is better but skyward pride has a higher base attack than prototype archaic so maybe diluc would benefit more from that? having high energy recharge on diluc would make ult spamming like… a hundred times easier too but its not like he needs it so idk. maybe enhance skyward pride and do dmg testing? then again, aesthetic could be so much more important too… aahdgshahshahbaha idk idk 😭😭 im now facing a dilemma even if it doesnt apply to me directly… why must i be born as an intp-t?

i dont even bother w teams anymore. i just.. smash the people i feel like playing as that day w no regards to synergy and build. heck, im currently running fully built ayaka, lvl 3 talents (but maxed out otherwise) raiden shogun, lvl 70 kaeya with +0 artifacts and lvl 20 rosaria with literally nothing to her name. nothing.

woaaaa that’s so quick tho?? i havent been able to play much bc of school and the billion and one papers that they’re handing us smh. i have the first 3 islands at 50% at least but the new ones are stuck at like 10%. as for fishing… i have 100 alr i think… im not too invested in it but the collector in me is begging me to get all the rods and r5 the catch. i think i’m about 30% in that goal? all that but at what cost?

#˗ˋˏ°• letters from cat island •°ˎˊ˗ #˗ˋˏ°• from my darling : r •°ˎˊ˗

[burgerpocalypse]

Back 4 Blood Beta

It's not good. I don't recommend buying or playing this game. Avoid it. If you like it, you're actually wrong.

I'll be directly comparing Back 4 Blood to Left 4 Dead because it's the same development team (supposedly). I'm also in an especially unforgiving mood, so this will be an outwardly hostile discussion of this terrible product. If you think I'm just being overly negative and want the game to fail because I'm an asshole, well, yeah, I am, but this shoddy product deserves considerable ire and I won't be convinced otherwise.

Some publications and individuals are calling it good, a worthy successor to L4D. They're wrong. L4D was a charming, polished, streamlined game. B4B is passionless, janky, and complicated. It makes mistakes that L4D solved or cleverly avoided, and introduces critical issues that ruin the experience.

Game Feel

Shooting feels weak and unresponsive, slows your movement speed, and requires aim-down-sights to have any accuracy.

Basic movement is slow and plodding. Sprinting drains stamina almost instantly, and is barely faster

Melee attacks rapidly drains stamina and has dubious reach; shoving enemies provides almost no benefit unless you have a specific perk card.

Zombies (or Ridden, a terrible, thoughtless name for zombies) shumble at you like they're competing for the Jank Olympics. One zombie can drain your health bar in seconds through sheer jankitude.

Players will regularly be yeeted, and it will seem like you just experienced an unintended bug or glitch rather than a deliberate force.

You're constantly taking damage from random, unidentifiable sources.

In summary, the game feel of this particular game is woeful.

Characters and Monsters

I hate the player characters. Well, that's a lie. HG, the prepper guy, or whatever his name is, is the only one I don't hate. He doesn't say cringeworthy lines, and he has a definable personality beyond broad emotional traits or bog-standard tropes. Player animations are also jank

The Ridden, which I will reiterate are named terribly, are indistinguishable from each other, players, and the environment. The common zombies are of the same color and height as players, so you're gonna probably be shooting teammates a lot, especially when everyone's covered in blood effects. Special zombies are awfully designed, to the point that I have to complain about them for the rest of this section. They:

are unpredictable, in a bad way

have entirely too much health with easily missed weak points

do far too much damage from unreasonable distances

move faster than the player's default speed, and can charge for extended distances

often appear in multiples and crowd chokepoints

The Hocker operates like the Smoker from L4D, but can lock down multiple players at once, chunk your health from great distances, and repeatedly jump from vantage point to vantage point at random. Its name is also stupid.

The Snitcher calls more zombies if you shoot it, which isn't obvious at all until you end up shooting it and call more zombies. It's also a key mistake that the developers of L4D avoided through rigorous playtesting, which allowed them to see that a similarly designed enemy was completely unfair, resulting in it being cut from the final release. Its name is also stupid.

The big fat guy can douse you in health-draining bile from 50 meters away, is difficult to kill, and has a variant that charge you and explode. This like they took the Boomer and made it worse in uniquely awful ways, just to see if they could. I don't remember the name, but its probably stupid.

The big arm guy can thwack you for 50% of your health bar, pin you in place, is also difficult to kill, and has a variant that is even more difficult to kill. I don't remember his name either, bu its definitely stupid.

The final one I can remember is the one that sits in a flesh pod and ambushes a player that gets too close, pinning them exactly like the Hunter would. The flesh pod blends into the environment in an especially egregious way, and the enemy itself looks stupid. Its names is also probably stupid.

Difficulty

I've cut my teeth on L4D and other coop shooters. I've beaten all the official campaigns on Expert. This game is stupid hard and unforgiving to such a degree that I fully believe that the developers do not understand at all what made L4D fun.

As players lose health, they also accrue trauma, which reduces maximum HP, potentially down to 40 HP. This cannot be recovered, even after respawning at a safe room or midround, unless you find a special medicine locker, which costs copper to use.

Levels are far too long, and there is never, ever any room to breathe. Players are constantly assaulted by zombies from all angles with no sense of rhythm or dramatic tension.

Levels also have no flow. Players will feel as though they are randomly wandering with no sense that they are being led in a particular direction. In L4D, the player characters would constantly be making observations about the environment (i.e. "Up that ladder!" or "We can use X to get across"). While L4D used tooltips to point out important objects, B4B relies entirely upon them.

Players have an elaborate inventory and currency system that is confusing and unreliable. Instead of providing healing and ammo at the start of each level, players have to buy it with copper. Like, literal in-game microtransactions. Each player has a unique wallet, though any copper picked up is given to all players equally. The copper system is an unnecessary addition that serves to slow down the start of a round.

Players can hold one offensive, healing, and support item. Medkits are not given a specific item slot, but instead compete with bandages and pills for inventory space. Guns and melee weapons also have tiers and ranks that are ill-defined. I have an extensive list of gripes I could go on about with this system, but I'll list some key issues:

There are too many items of each type, and they are too plentiful in the environment to be worth spending copper on

Ammo is broken into 4 types, which can leave you with lots of ammo for a weapon type you aren't using and no ammo for the gun you're actually using

Weapon attachments and ammo upgrades do nothing but provide confusion and force you to stop and stare at a stat screen to understand what it is you're adding to your gun. You also can't transfer them between guns, so you'll eventually have to swap a lower-tier gun with great attachments for a higher-tier gun with no attachments

Some offensive items do not behave in the way you expect them to, or provide so little value that they aren't worth using

Bandages and medkits operate identically, offering no interesting decision-making opportunities

The efficacy of healing items in general is needlessly reduced by players being able to heal by killing enemies, as well as trauma reducing max HP to the point that they don't provide any value

The Legacy of Left 4 Dead

Left 4 Dead provided a tightly packaged experience that nearly anyone could pick up on, and has a satisfying core loop that kept me coming back for years in spite of its many obvious glaring flaws. It was not bogged down by unnecessary progression systems or overly complex mechanics.

Since Valve allowed the series to shrivel and die, there has been no refinement of the mechanics that give L4D its magic, only inferior imitations that do not understand why things were they way they were.

Warhammer: Vermintide fails by being too complex, with vast differences between player characters, and an awful gear system that locks players out of higher difficulties with an arbitrary power system and random lootboxes

PAYDAY has zero polish, an unfathomably dull progression system, uninspired characters, awful artificial difficulty, and generally wastes the player's time with crushing amounts of busy work and waiting around

Back 4 Blood could have been great, but it completely misses the point. I'm going to try and play more of it while the beta is open, since I'm a miserable masochist, but also because some small part of me still wants to like it.

I'm sorry that this was so long and uncoordinated. I also apologize if you do enjoy the game. I just hope that I was able to provide a unique perspective of some small value to someone.

Thanks for reading. Sorry there's no interesting art to look at. I only put that comically small cover image there because it made me feel slightly better.

#back 4 blood #turtle rock studios #left 4 dead #video games #review #sorry for the rant