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ghostlymonade · 10 months

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Now it's Persona-l: Escapism and Freedom in Tokyo Mirage Sessions and Persona 5

On the surface, Tokyo Mirage Sessions seems about as Diet Persona™ as a game can get. With a cast of colourful teens out to save the world using their Stands Persona Performa, some critique of our society, and the same amount of clueless running around Shibuya, it would be easy to write the game off as a quick cash-grab by their respective studios. But when giving TMS another look, you might be surprised at the depth that lurks beneath the pastel-coloured waters. Today we’ll be taking a deep dive into two specific themes that persist across both games.

For those who somehow missed an originally Wii-U exclusive JRPG which didn’t include the Fire Emblem or Shin Megami Tensei tags in its title, Tokyo Mirage Sessions: FE is a collaboration between Atlas and Intelligent Systems to bring a little Fire Emblem flavour to the familiar Zio-spamming recipe of the Shin Megami Tensei and Persona series. The game follows Itsuki Aoi, a nineteen-year-old with dark blue hair who has therefore been recognised by the universe itself as the main character. He discovers his ability to summon a Performa— a Fire Emblem character turned to a Persona – and joins up with other Performa users to battle mirages (i.e Shadows), pursuing their dreams and growing stronger as they do. It’s a setup that requires no further introduction if you’ve ever picked up an Atlas game before. They have a rightful confidence in this formula that allows them to focus on refinement and improved storytelling, the benefits of which absolutely shine in Persona 5.

Tokyo Mirage Sessions predates its more successful cousin by two years, but I argue we see the same brilliant attention to detail, themes and realism across both, and nowhere is this more apparent than in how both games handle freedom and escapism. For those still working through these eighty-hour behemoths, not to worry! There are spoilers for the first few story dungeons and other aspects, but not the endings of the games.

The two player teams present an interesting dichotomy, partly because of how similar they seem on the surface. Take their publicity situation. Posters of the Phantom Thieves’ logo plaster every building in P5, and Shibuya 106 is always displaying posters of Kiria or Tsubasa’s newest production— a very nice touch for TMS’s story, considering how much focus is placed on the nitty-gritty, mechanical aspects of building a career in performing. But there is one key distinction. While neither group is recognised for their heroic work in the Metaverse or Idolasphere respectively, the names Kiria Kurono, Tsubasa Oribe and Mamori Minamoto have gathered everything from a cult following to a full-blown fan frenzy. This has fascinating ripples throughout the rest of the story that feel fully considered by the writers.

Within the P5 cast up to Okumura’s Palace, many members join the Phantom Thieves because they feel backed into a corner. In Joker’s case, the corner is very literal. For Ann and Makoto, they could, in a purely technical sense, do the bidding of the villain and escape physically unharmed, but nobody in their right mind would suggest submitting to Kamoshida or Kaneshiro is a good idea. Imagery of imprisonment is everywhere, through promotional art and cutscenes and every line of dialogue. But this imprisonment is rarely a physical thing. Even in the literal jail of the Velvet Room replaces one wall with a huge portal back to the real world, albeit obscured by the camera angle. Restrictions on the Phantom Thieves are often nebulous or even self-imposed, and I find it fascinating that their problems rarely evaporate after they awaken their Persona and gain a new outlook. While the pressures of society are given a face for each Thief, the writers never make the mistake of treating it as if these singular persons are the only issue— instead, they represent a wider imprisonment.

Conversely, the Mirage Masters don’t seem to face these same issues. Not to say they have no conflict, but there is a sense of freedom that permeates every aspect of the game. It’s an interesting approach; their lives aren’t ruined or ended by failure, but their dreams will crumble before them if they can’t push on in their professional journey, and the world will be worse off for the loss of talented creators to the mirages. The Idolasphere may not feel of much import. Obviously there are consequences to leaving it unchecked, otherwise there would be no driving plot force to have the characters enter at all. But the Idolasphere and its adventures seem to be an inconvenience to most of the TMS cast. They aren’t actively seeking out new Idolasphere locations, excitedly searching for new equipment and attempting to train their Performa in their off time, the way the Phantom Thieves do. These are driven young professionals, yes, perhaps with the exception of main character Itsuki Aoi. But not driven by anything the Idolasphere offers- they already have their career aspirations, and it isn’t to fight shadows mirages for the rest of their lives.

This is even reflected in gameplay. Where leaving the palace in Persona 5 ends your day and has you missing out on a limited timeslot, TMS allows the player to jump in and out of any Idolasphere location, at any time. You could say that this is because TMS lacks the limited time frame mechanic that appeared in all three modern Persona games, but I would say the lack of that day-by-day mechanic is, itself, another way to show the freedom the TMS cast enjoy.

For the Phantom Thieves, the metaverse is their escape. Even in official art, you can see the grins as they jump into action:

Regular life, for the Thieves, is a tedious Sisyphean battle, where they feel like they have little power and little control. The power of a Persona is one thing that elevates them, makes them special, in their minds, anyway. Right from the flash-forward at the start of the game, it’s clear that the world is hostile to them. While Joker bounces around with a grin on his face and heaps of style, crowds react to him with fear, scorn, and derision. This in spite of the fact he has seemingly done little more than nab a prize and disappear, in true phantom thief style. And when Joker is caught by the police, the prospect of the truth being discovered becomes more and more unsettling, the closer the Phantom Thieves grow to each other. Beside the criminal charges: Ryuji is separated from his single mother, Ann loses her career and support network, Morgana loses the only people who understand him, Makoto loses her best chance at individuality and self-expression. The world is out to get the Phantom Thieves, and if that happens, they lose everything. They won’t die, presumably, but their lives are likely to become hollow and empty. This again emphasises the idea of their imprisonment being a less tangible thing, hard to fight and much harder to escape from.

I could probably go on for another few pages but we’ll draw things to a close for now. Escapism has always been a less talked-about motif in Atlas games, rarely the ‘point’ of any one story, but it’s often there, an interesting compliment to the main theme. Persona 3 delves into mortality, and I believe escapism is a fascinating part of that, as a way to distract from it and try to live a happy life in spite of the inevitable end. Persona 4 focuses on finding the truth, despite a society that tries to force conformity, and they discover comfort and freedom by finding people who let them be their true selves. Persona 5 was merely the first game to push these themes into the spotlight. But let’s not forget the lesser-loved Atlas games, either! And hey, maybe if you see Tokyo Mirage Sessions on sale? Give it a go. I promise it’s pretty good.

#fire emblem #persona 5 #p5r #tokyo mirage sessions #game discussion #rambles

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kaeyapilled · 10 months

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in the noblesse domain if the entire team dies i am always the last one standing and i am always playing as diluc and it's always the pyro mage left

#every single time #game discussion

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grimmylover7 · 2 months

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I gotta know- Does it bother anyone else while playing FC5 how inconsistent Jacob appears? Like, loading screen, versus game start screen, versus cutscenes and even in the cutscenes he’s a little different each time you see him… Gah, he deserved better 😩

#far cry 5 #jacob seed #game discussion #welcome to my TEDtalk

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limbobilbo · 7 months

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One of the things I love about Disco Elysium and especially how it depicts harry is that Harry does not suddenly get better at the end of the game, and some of the horrible stuff he’s done is not forgiven.

Like if you try hard and play harry sober and trying to be a better person the conclusion is that he’s taken a step in the right direction, but that he still has huge ways to go.

Like big props to zaum and the creatives for making a redemption arc that doesnt forgive someone when they do one good thing.

Also side note the fact that kim vouches for you no matter what is so sweet he genuinely cares about harry and is like one of two characters willing to give him the benefit of the doubt. Along with Annette.

#196 campfire #disco elysium #game discussion

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syvisvt · 1 year

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Playing DREDGE made me think about horror, ambiance and how media builds these.

The game itself leans into the fear of the see and cosmic horror.

Being a small ship on the sea, endless expanse below you, around you and even above you.

A moving shape bellow. It all leans back into intrinsic human fears and builds a tense atmosphere without any graphic depictions. In general horror seams to lean into well known fears, extrapolating on them and turning them from single aspects of resistance into the bedrock of a horror medium. We all might feel a bit uneasy thinking about the vast space bellow the surface of a sea.

#dredge #vtuber uprising #vtuber #Syvis #Syvis live #horror #game discussion

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greenflamethegf · 10 months

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I don't know if anyone will see this, much less care, but here goes my dame design pet peeve.

I gate when a game's meta progression undermines its moment to moment gameplay. This effect games I do like (such as Age of Wonder) and one I do not (such as Heroes of Might and Magic), the auto-battle button is just too tempting. Often I know I won, because my army is a lot bigger and 5 hp on a scout isn't worth going into manual battle. A similar thing happens in many RTS Games, in Stagecraft 2 you improve a lot just by looking up and build and training to do it quickly. Rather than depth of strategy, SC2 asks you how quickly you make units and how well you can micro them.

Similar thing happens in X-COM, I never cared or the base building, but yet you have to do it. Do it poorly, and you will lose no matter what, do it well your units will be so OP strategy doesn't even matter.

I am halfway tempted to try making a game like X-COM or AoW, but it's a roguelike. You would go from battle to battle and try to keep your units alive. Quite possibly, with a limit of how many you can begin into a fight, so there will be added strategy of what you do and do not bring. A bit like what The Dragoness: Command of the Flame did for Heros, but with actually meaningful grid combat.

This however would be either too much work for my current skillets, not to mention server other games I want to make first.

#video games #gamedev #game dev #game discussion #video game #game design #rant #small rant #age of wonders planetfall #age of wonders 4 #x com #heros of might and magic

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int0x · 3 months

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youtube

THE SEARCH FOR MARIA 🌻 PART TWO OUT NOW

#TCM #tcsm #maria flores #tcm maria #tcm lore #txchainsawgame #texas chainsaw game #texas chainsaw petals #johnny slaughter #tcm johnny #game lore #game discussion #horror game #leatherface #Youtube

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kalina-c · 8 months

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(Dark Souls/Elden Ring posting) Split Damage Doesn't Suck. In fact it is the best damage in the game for a significant percentage of situations and setups.

Part 2 (ctrl-f “so let’s count up the ways”) Part 3

Stumbled upon a youtube review of elden ring's daggers and rapiers, the critical hit weapons, in response to patch 1.10 the patch specifically buffing ripostes and backstabs, and the first and constant thing the youtuber says is that Split Damage Sucks?

My friends, Split Damage is so very specifically the final form of specifically critical hits in particular that Chaos Daggers have been the parry king weapon of dark souls 3 since forever.

There's a hundred and one details about how "split damage sucks" came to be accepted wisdom and why it's actually wrong in way more situations than you'd think, but in the first place, just, if you're looking for a good dagger for backstabs and ripostes, Split Damage Is The Absolute Best. A weapon that gives you elemental damage right away without any whetstones/ash hunting just yet, and on the weapon class that specifically multiplies elemental damage in particular to high numbers on its signature attack? Surprisingly good utilization of the game systems! (The weapon in question might suck, but for entirely different reasons than being the same damage type as the kind of Misericorde that can do ~3k ripostes.)

Split damage weapons are so good at crits that a dark souls 3 character with fire gem starting gift and a Fire Dagger +0 as soon as you reach Firelink gets a gigantic 500-600 damage one-shot weapon for absolute free, on like nearly everything in the early game. Conventional wisdom was that the best lightweight riposte in dark souls 1 was a normal +15 rapier with a damage buff applied, which is hilariously easily disproven by side-by-side testing with any Chaos or Enchanted Rapier maxed out in the same game.

So anyway, let's get into the really autistic detailed breakdown of the whole thing right after the break.

So why does "Split Damage Suck"?

Probably someone tried a magic weapon on their pure physical build and found it to do less damage than a pure physical weapon with a buff applied. They then needed an explanation for why that happens.

I don't know if that's exactly what happened, but going by the way "split damage sucks" reacts to the fact of elemental damage and the lightning infusion in elden ring, that is like literally the only thing I've ever seen it saying in practice.

Isn't that just making a bad build decision and blaming it on the weapon?

Literally yup! But for the sake of fairness we'll just leave that aside and focus on the facts of how split damage works in practice.

But isn't it worse to apply damage multiple times and eat defense multiple times, than to do one big number and eat defense only once?

Technically yes! in an extreme case. When I was taking my sorcerer through my first dark souls 1 run and damage testing on the crystal golems in Seath's garden, I found that Dark Bead did significantly less total damage than Crystal Soul Spear.

Yes, Dark Bead did less total damage than Crystal Soul Spear. In Dark Souls 1. The game where Dark Bead is so overpowered that pvp'ers everywhere have been spamming and dreading it since the original release of the DLC and PtDE, and that speedrunners have been incorporating it into all bosses routes until move swap completely obliterated the game.

Do you begin to see the problem with just a flat 1:1 damage comparison on paper. Theoretically, in the right very situational interaction, using only the same R1 to R1,

on a specific build at that not even all builds because the specific reason I've been researching and testing this stuff since my first dark souls character in 2013 or so, is because of finding that my pure int build did the opposite of what people said and I did gigantic R1 damage with split damage and absolutely piss-poor R1 damage with unsplit damage,

yes a split-damage weapon can do less damage than an unsplit weapon. Theoretically. Not in practice, where for every other enemy and especially boss in the game the literally split damage by definition Dark Bead is specifically the singular most broken attack in all of Dark Souls 1; or Chaos Dagger backstabs and split damage Lothric Knight Greatsword charged R2's do the best-in-class damage for their respective weapon classes; or the optimal speedrun route in Dark Souls 3 involves tumblebuffing a Fire Shortsword which is *literally* actually a three-way split damage attack, *never* an unsplit damage stack even when it's fire buff on fire infusion.

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The fact that this canard took off during Dark Souls 1 in particular is actually pretty specifically egregious, because like,

The overwhelming very smart-sounding argument is that if you look at the AR on paper of an unsplit weapon at 300 physical attack, vs the AR of a split weapon at 150 physical and 150 fire, and then apply the damage formula with such and so defensive values, you will see that the 300 AR, on paper, does better damage than the 150 + 150 on-paper AR.

In other words, it's an all-in focus on AR to AR, in the status screen only, as if that is always a reliable indicator of how much damage a weapon will do when it hits.

Friends, we're talking about a game that specifically has a weapon that contradicts every possible thing about that entire understanding of AR, and one that does so to such a spectacular degree that it is far and away one of the most popular weapons in that entire game.

There's two "middleweight" weapons in dark souls 1 that are notable for kind of punching above their weight, the Great Scythe and the Claymore. The Claymore is an eternal series favorite (and my actual vote in Elden Ring for best main-hand weapon in a powerstance generally) because it is pretty much always the only great sword with a thrusting attack in its moveset. The Claymore bounces back and forth in the relative ranking of how much AR/attack power/etc it has in its weapon class depending on the game, but the fact of the thrusting attack's speed and safety and counter damage means that the Claymore is frequently a real contender no matter what the game.

Now here's the real rub. The Claymore and the Great Scythe in Dark Souls 1 occupy the same niche, in being a high ROI weapon for the weight and the stat requirements. The Claymore has a higher AR than the Great Scythe for any given build and infusion (called ascension in souls 1), but the Great Scythe can consistently do more damage than the Claymore, not just on one or two attacks, but on the entire moveset unless there's a counter hit situation where the Claymore can do more damage. (Counter hits with thrusts are so punishingly precise in Dark Souls 1 that I never learned how to land them consistently enough for easy damage testing.) This should be the first clue that AR on the status screen isn't everything and that there's multiple multiple multipliers and damage variance between movesets that goes into just a normal, unbuffed R1 on a normal enemy before we apply any buffs, rings, special defense situations, etc.

The Monster Hunter community coined the term "motion value" to refer to the fact that each move in a given weapon's move set applies a multiplier to the attack number on its status screen before anything else in the damage formula applies, and the term has found obvious use in describing basically the same combat design philosophy in Dark Souls. Say a longsword does like 80%, 80%, 100% on its first R1, second R1, and uncharged R2. (I don't know the exact numbers, but anyway) That means that a 300 AR longsword is doing 240 AR, 240 AR, or 300 AR on those attacks, before defensive values are applied.

The Great Scythe very obviously, very blatantly has Motion Values that are bigger than its AR on paper suggests, on every one of its moves. I've run Enchanted vs Enchanted Great Scythe and Claymore side by side on enough sorcerer runs to know that it's in there and on the entire moveset, not just the riposte that impressed everyone looking for the best dex weapon back in the day. This is also blatantly the reason Chaos Daggers are the best ripostes in Dark Souls 3. The riposte attack on a dagger's moveset already multiplies the attack power to an absurd degree, way bigger than any singular number from any other weapon class on any attack (save for ultra greatsword and similar weight charged R2); and then Dagger applies the highest crit modifier in its weapon class for the biggest number yet.

Contrary to what it looks like on paper, a split-AR Chaos Dagger is not doing split damage at all in the slightest, it's doing the most concentrated unsplit fire elemental damage all at once to the enemy's defense, and then a nice beefy concentrated unsplit big fat physical damage number on top. This is literally the same reason Magic Misericorde and Dark Moon Greatsword with its weapon buff up in Elden Ring do damn near the highest crit damage in the entire game.

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There's a hundred other fun little details too about how people have entirely the wrong understanding of split damage, even when they're really really good at beating dark souls in the most skillful of ways. GDQ events will tell you that tumblebuffing fire resin onto a fire weapon will give you better damage than applying lightning damage onto the fire weapon, implicitly because Split Damage Sucks ("because of the way defenses are calculated"), which is an absolute lie. I've spent hundreds of hours damage testing various combinations of damage types to hell and back on Dark Souls 3 in particular, on Lothric Knights and Ringed City bosses, very specifically trying to figure out the optimal damage setups for my mage, and tumblebuffed fire resin and lightning resin will apply exactly the same damage increase for exactly the same numbers on a fire shortsword before elemental resistance disparities are applied.

See, here's the thing about Dark Souls 3 and damage calculations. Say you have a weapon that does like 100 damage on an R1 attack and 900 damage on a riposte. With a Crystal, Chaos, or whatever other elemental infusion, that can jump to like, 180 R1 and 2200 riposte or something.

If you apply a damage buff on top, whether from resin or from spell, that might bump the R1 to 150. The riposte also only goes up by the same flat damage amount, to 950. The split infusion scaling is so real that even Fire and Dark Daggers, with their zero stat scaling, do outright better ripostes than physical infusions on the same Daggers. Like, Fire infusion has been a pocket pvp meta pick for builds that don't have int and wis investment for the Chaos maximization and Dark Lothric Sword.

I've tried this like a billion different times on a billion different weapons. Weapon buffs conspicuously do not scale with any motion values ever in this game. Crystal infusion in particular is far and away the most optimal use of int investment for weapon damage, no exceptions, even on a longsword spamming R1's where you'd think applying a flat damage increase would be more optimal. Nah, the absolute disparity in stat and motion value scaling is just entirely too big.

I've also tried this like a billion different times with all four elements of buff. The same flat damage increase applies in the same way across all elements. The same scaling rules date all the way back to Dark Souls 1, where tumblebuffing reveals that the magic buff onto a magic weapon does not stack with the innate magic scaling at all, it's a completely separate hit split off as another instance of enemy defense applied all the same as when it's buffed onto a physical weapon.

(Fun fact, Crystal Magic Weapon and Lightning Blade apply the same multiplication from the catalyst spell buff. Dark Blade has the worst scaling, probably from being technically available at the almost-start of the game, and Carthus Flame Arc has far and away the best scaling probably to compensate from being usually confined to just one catalyst and not having access to Yorshka Chime or Court Sorcerer Staff-levels of spell buff.)

So in other words the real reason tumblebuffing fire resin is better than lightning for the Cursed Greatwood is because it's hitting his elemental weakness, not because it is unsplit damage at all. It's literally a goddamn three-way split, exactly the thing that makes people say Drakeblood Greatsword is sub-optimal in the same game. You're literally using the same damage type and split as the Drakeblood GS when you tumblebuff fire resin on a fire shortsword.

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Incidentally the other conspicuous presence of a gigantic all-in-one motion value, that turns a Split Infusion into an Unsplit gigantic fat smash of elemental damage, is the biggest burst hits on giant weapons.

Ultra greatsword criticals are absolute ass in Dark Souls 3. Like I'm not talking about the crit modifier at all, a dagger or thrusting sword in any of these games with a 100 crit modifier is usually doing better riposte damage than other weapon classes with a 110 modifier. Giant weapon backstabs are just about the same damage as a basic R1 swing, making it feel like a waste of an opening to do the backstab and relegating the move to i-frame safety only.

There were three conspicuous hits on my souls 3 sorcerers that hit nearly identically the same giant one-shot number. Crystal Soul Spear off of a Court Sorcerer Staff, obviously; Crystal Dagger crits; and— Crystal Lothric Great Sword charged r2's! They seriously beefed up the motion value on that attack so high that it's one of the strongest burst hits in the history of this running ruleset.

Like, this is the reason it's important to pay deep attention to the moveset and motion value of the weapon, not just its AR on paper. Ripostes are supposed to be your giant damage opportunity and they're part of the Demon Greataxe one-shot against Gwyn in Dark Souls 1, but they're the ultra greatsword's singular worst attack in Dark Souls 3. Charged r2 is so gigantic that elemental infusions on ultra greatswords specifically outstrip anything physical infusions can do on the weapon class's best attack.

This absolutely carries over to Elden Ring, where charged and jump R2's are a colossal weapon's best friend and Lion's Claw is easily the best melee DPS on a generic ash-swappable big boy sword. The scaling rules have not changed any since Enchanted Great Scythes were doing 4-digit ripostes in Dark Souls 1, my Elden Ring mages have been doing absolutely cracked damage with the obvious moves on Magic Zweihanders.

To be continued because this rant is breaking the editor lol

#dark souls #elden ring #fromsoft #fromsoft games #rant post #build discussion #game discussion

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trivorowo · 9 months

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I am in a constant contradictory state on my opinion on tears of the kingdom.

On the one hand, it retreads the same general gameplay as breath of the wild, with a similar structure in each of its four specific dungeons and shrines. This is then counterbalanced by ultrahand and fuse being so much fun and elevating the traversal and combat.

On another hand, it feels (currently) that there is somehow less story in this than in botw, exacerbated with the exact same cutscene happening at the end of each dungeon...but still the characters are fun(Sidon my beloved) and a lot of the small off the beaten path side quests are neat and charming, with some nice callbacks to botw.

The game feels so dead set on pushing you towards a linear path, but at the same time you can just as easily turn that all off. (The first thing I did after Purah put the markers on the map was to immediately turn them off). This, combined with the expanded above and below makes it feel still fun to explore anywhere, being surprised at what is and isn't there now.

Either way you know this is going to sweep the game awards no matter what.

#tears of the kingdom #gaming #game discussion #legend of zelda #it's still fun to play #but something just isn't sitting right.#a paradoxical review

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findmeabowlofundertale · 11 days

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So I think a lot about how monster food is magical, and associated with green magic (healing) in particular. Anything you eat in the underground heals you at least a LITTLE (not counting the Bad Memory). Toriel’s pie— which is made with all the love of a mother, all the desire to protect of a grieving parent, all the skill of an experienced baker, and all the power of a Boss Monster— heals ALL your HP, no matter what. On the other hand, the instant noodles, which you (a human) cook yourself, heal… 4HP (not counting geno).

I’ve half-jokingly talked once before about how it makes sense that Alphys’ fake bathroom door might work as a cover for the lab even though it’s set up early in the game that monster food doesn’t “go all the way through you” because she eats human food from the dump. But I think there’s something to that.

However, that does beg the question of how monsters have a source of food to begin with. They definitely have a lot of ingredients that aren’t that easy to just find.* Undyne mentions buying pasta at the store in direct contrast to making the pasta at home, so there are obviously grocery stores beyond the shops we encounter. But where do those get their products?

I think that, aside from the fact that gardening (and therefore some degree of farming) is obviously a viable option (sunlight canonically in New Home, Asgore gardens, there’s lots of water in the underground, etc), and so people probably create more processed goods (like pasta, refined sugar, etc) themselves to sell, the obvious answer would be that a lot of it comes from the surface via the dump.

But then that circles back and confronts us with, “If so much of it is just human food products, then how is it magical and healing?” Well. I think I may have an answer. I believe it is a combination of passing through the barrier (made of powerful magic), being surrounded by all the ambient magic of the underground, and being prepared by magical beings via magical means. Allow me to elaborate. Intention is crucial to the outcome of something, in Undertale. It stands to reason, both by logic and by in-game data, that the same would be true with preparing food. Toriel’s pie heals so much because 1) she loves you and desperately wants to protect you, 2) she is a very powerful monster, 3) she made the pie herself, 4) she uses magic to cook. In contrast, the instant noodles heal you a little, and only because they exist underground and have passed through an extremely strong magical field. They heal you more in the bad route, when you don’t cook them. Cooking them, as a human (and an inexperienced child at that), actually diminishes their healing because we aren’t magic. Everything else (that’s actually food— I’m not counting Temmie Flakes because they’re cardboard, or Dog Salad because the Annoying Dog is literally the god of that universe) heals somewhere in between those because it was prepared/grown by magical beings in a magic-saturated environment.

(And even if it’s not consciously thought about, the intention when making any food, even if you’re going to sell it to strangers, is that the food will be nourishing. Feeding someone has always been associated with hospitality, with kindness. And therefore it’s fittingly associated with green magic, kindness, and healing. I digress.)

The instant noodles would probably heal more if Alphys cooked them, tbh. But even so, because they require such minimal preparation, and therefore minimal interaction from a monster, I think they’re the closest thing to true human food (that is, the least magical food shown in the game) that a monster could make. Yes pasta is just cooking noodles in hot water too, but 1) Undyne and Papyrus make their own sauce and 2) they both clearly have… very strong intentions even when they’re just boiling water.

SO! With this all being said. I think that because monster food heals you inherently, and the intention of the person who made the food would probably NOT be to hurt you, I don’t think allergies or food sensitivities would apply in the underground. I think that if you were deathly allergic to strawberries but Toriel made you a strawberry pie, I think you could eat it and be completely fine.

I was going to say that by this reasoning, lactose-intolerant people could eat all the Nice Cream they wanted, but then I realized that’s the case even if I’m wrong because it wouldn’t even get through your digestive system.

* ingredients that exist in the underground: Eggs (quiche, cinnamon bunnies, pasta, shown on MTT’s show), flour (pie, spider donut, bread, cinnamon bunnies, pasta, hotdog/hamburger buns, croissants), sugar (monster candy, spider donut, pie, cinnamon bunnies, bisicle, Nice Cream, powdered hot cocoa mix, soda, shown on MTT’s show, Starfait), milk (butterscotch, Nice Cream, shown on MTT’s show, Starfait), yeast (breads), tomatoes (and other vegetables), cinnamon (pie, cinnamon bunnies), potatoes(???) (popato chisps), chocolate (possibly a rarity— chocolate bar, powdered hot cocoa mix), some kind of meat alternative (Face Steak), local edible plants (water sausage, crab apple (said to be an aquatic fruit), whatever is brewed to make sea tea). They also obviously farm snails, though it seems only Toriel really ate those…? Still, the idea of farming bugs/molluscs/other invertebrates as food makes sense since they’re small and plentiful. I mean the spiders are already at it.

#seeker talks #really just me rambling #game discussion #undertale #undertale theory #pfft. barely #long post

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ghostlymonade · 11 months

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Three Hopes, The Best Way to Experience Fódlan

That might be a pretty bold statement, especially given the rather lukewarm response most Warriors-style spinoffs inspire in fans. However, I'm here to tell you exactly why I think, (writing-wise anyway), Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes is the best way to experience the world of Three Houses. Note: This post will be based on my playthrough of the two Blue Lions routes for the most part, both for brevity and fairness!

I’m assuming if you did choose to read more, you’re familiar, at least in passing, with Fire Emblem. But for those who don’t know, a brief summary: the Fire Emblem series is a longrunning tactical RPG franchise which finally found a well-deserved audience with the thirteenth game, Fire Emblem Awakening. Since that overwhelming success, Fire Emblem has been cementing itself, game after game, as one of Nintendo’s exclusive heavy-hitters. And I would argue the entry that truly brought Fire Emblem to its current status is the first Switch title, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. While it retained many of the popular features of prior games, there was a notable tone shift. This was Fire Emblem’s big Switch entry, and it was definitely a bold swing. Fódlan feels storied, complex, and rife with intrigue in a way I haven’t really found a Fire Emblem setting to be since the Tellius duology. At every corner, there’s more to learn, and you can feel the weight of that history bear down on everyone in the Officers’ Academy. While there are definitely aspects of Three Houses that feel rushed or glossed over, few would argue the worldbuilding isn’t up to snuff. Where I feel Three Houses misses the mark somewhat is two key aspects: the character writing and trajectory of the story. These sound like huge, thorny issues, but hear me out; Three Hopes does it better. Everyone who’s played both games is certainly in consensus that Hopes learned from its predecessor in some important ways (namely, no more spending three hours between levels running around the monastery), but I rarely see discussed how the writers handled Three Hopes’ story, and I think I can guess part of the reason...

Ah, well. I can’t force anyone to play it through, but I would argue the writing of Three Hopes is a lot more thoughtful than most give it credit for, and that between the two games, it’s the better way to experience the excellent world of Fódlan. We’ll go through two key issues that I, and quite a few others, had with Three Houses, and how they’re tackled in Hopes. What do you see in him, girl?

Despite Byleth having the approximate appeal, charisma and personality of a damp sock, all of Fódlan falls over itself to tell them how amazing they are. It’s been a recurring problem with the player avatar in recent Fire Emblem games, but I argue it feels more egregious with Byleth than any other. They’re the Ashen Demon, a mercenary with inhuman skill. They’re a capable professor, there’s something about them that draws in all three lords, instantly... Lacking any demonstration of the why or the how in action, it feels like the worst kind of player pandering, almost nonstop. And what bothered me most was the talk of Byleth’s mercenary prowess, constantly. Given we never see them in battle acting like their Ashen Demon namesake, I hated hearing every single character in supports and cutscenes speak of their mercenary prowess with such quivering awe. So when this trailer dropped?

Consider me hyped. And the game’s intro did not disappoint. Not only did we see Byleth earning their title, I also appreciated the intro truly establishing Shez as a mercenary. They’re part of a company, they actually talk about having to work for a living...it’s still the Fire Emblem brand of mercenary, complete with Honour™️ and hard limits on what they’ll do, but they felt more of a mercenary in the first ten minutes of Three Hopes than Byleth did in ten hours of the first game. And that persists throughout the game, too. Shez talks about sleeping outside, about the reality of working a job where people can die any minute- for lack of a better term, they show a real mercenary attitude. Behold, My Edge-elgard! (Credit to Kotor for the meme)

Three Houses has a tone issue, at times. What I definitely enjoyed was its refinement of the fledgling idea that Fates played around with: War sucks, actually, and it sucks for everyone because these are real people killing each other. Having three nations that aren’t ‘The Nice Ones’ and ‘Nightmare Before Christmas-themed War Crimes’ certainly helps, and I think introducing the player to each nation through getting to neutrally meet and grow close to some future key individuals before they launch into any huge conflict is a much better setup than Fates’ attempt to make Nohr’s leadership seem less evil through Corrin’s family being nice...to Corrin. However, I believe that at times, it swung a bit too far into Angstland, and lost its way home. Azure Moon is a great example of this, often feeling as though things get worse, then they get worse, then they get worse. Contrast this with Azure Gleam, the Three Hopes route. While war does, indeed, still suck, there’s a distinct feeling that things can and will get better, so long as the team can pull together and keep fighting. They have victories and losses. One moment that particularly stuck out to me was this conversation with Felix:

He’s always critiquing Dimitri to his face, but it’s clear that Felix holds a lot of concern for him, even if he conceals it as purely being concerned about the future of Faerghus. And Dimitri does need that voice, to an extent. When you look at the rest of his circle: Dedue will die for him and follows Dimitri more or less anywhere, regardless of what he does or the reason why. Sylvain and Ingrid both know he’s been through a lot and try to take it easy on him. Felix is the only member of this close circle who seems willing to say anything negative to his face. In this sense, you could say Dimitri has the healthiest circle of any of the three lords. Claude has a goofy group of chill friendos, and Edelgard has Hubert, who is ride or die no matter how often she tries to kill God. It was a sweet little moment, and a fascinating insight into where Felix sees himself in this group. Azure Gleam is full of this kind of thoughtful writing, and it makes playing through the darker periods of the story feel like it’s worth doing, rather than giving the impression that the only good choice is to put the game down and take Byleth’s horrible influence three million miles away from these poor kids. I don’t just say that for comedic effect- it’s tacitly implied by the two games’ radically different stories that Byleth chasing support ranks and engaging in waifu-motivated war crimes is part of why Three Houses ends up so much darker than Three Hopes. Shez has a distinct, headstrong personality, and they aren’t afraid to offer their opinion. Not falling down a canyon for five years helps. In a sense, the two issues play into each other. If Byleth was better defined as a character, it might be easier to understand and believe their motivations throughout the war arc especially. If the war arc finds its way out of the angst, even for a day trip, it’s easier to believe Byleth can have a real, positive impact on how things turn out. This is a big part of why I think Three Hopes is the best way to experience Fódlan. The title is, admittedly, clickbait-y, as I think Three Hopes truly shines in the context of having played Three Houses first. But when taking both games together, it’s fascinating to see how differently things can go, when the writers had a chance to explore their world from a new angle, and I for one, look forward to seeing more of this alternate timeline style writing in Fire Emblem in the future! Hey, they’re already doing it in Heroes.

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fire emblem three hopes #game discussion #fódlan #fe3h shez #byleth #fe3h

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