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untilteddocument · 2 years

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So I've Been Thinking About: Phoenix Point

Welcome to the inaugural So I've Been Thinking About, a journal series where I talk about things I find interesting or appealing about various pieces of media, often video games. This time, I'm gonna talk about Phoenix Point, a very PC-style strategy/RPG (by that, I mean more X-COM than Fire Emblem) designed by none other than X-COM creator Julian Gollop himself.

The basic premise is, you're the last remnants of your organization, some of humanity's finest, navigating a post-apocalyptic world filled with monsters and untrusting people, fighting to survive and end the threat of the monsters. Not all that distinctive, right?

Well...

Has The Sweet Breeze Blown

The actual premise is that of a world still going through the throes of social, political, and environmental collapse. A climate-change-thawed mutagenic pathogen, dubbed the Pandoravirus (the game was released in 2019 with backstory elements written since 2017, so considering that and similar dynamics being observable since at least the Spanish Flu in the early 20th century, I don't believe that the comparison to SARS-CoV-2 being The Coronavirus was intentional), is in the process of rewriting every ecosystem on Earth, impeded in no way whatsoever by the now-crumbled world of neoliberal and neoconservative capitalism, who used it as yet another excuse for its endless rounds of power plays.

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In the face of destruction, humanity retreated to havens, small settlements where they can exist without attracting too much attention from the eerily-conscious mist and the creatures it made out of family and fauna. Precarious though they are, enough havens hold. People make it through each day as best they can, slowly reaching out via long-distance communication and careful trade by aircraft, and they spend the next 25 years coming together into three relatively solid factions:

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The right-wing militarists of New Jericho, led by soldier-businessman-business, man-philosopher-king Tobias West. Hammered out of his pre-collapse PMC, Vanadium, Tobias West seeks to claw normality and humanity back from the jaws of the alien...at the very least, what he deems normal and human.

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The anarchist assemblies of Synedrion, who coalesced from refugees, revolutionaries, and independent scientific groups who were trying to share data on the mist that was being hoarded and used for saber-rattling by the governments of the world. At once insular and forward-thinking, they seek to realize their dreams of a world without hierarchies...if they can all agree on how.

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The mysterious and obscurantist Disciples of Anu, a radical transhumanist cult born from the shards of doomsday cults that had seen the world die, and, at long last, see an opportunity to birth a better one in its place. Led by an ecclesiastical hierarchy culminating in the enigmatic Exalted, they accept the vast waves of change enveloping the world while rejecting its more destructive effects...but secrets are ever present in their halls.

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Dealing with all, any, or none of them is the player's group, the Phoenix Project, the latest iteration of a long but often-broken chain of secret societies that had stumbled upon the same information and dared to know (their motto, in fact: Sapere Aude) and prepare for what was coming.

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It's The World I Know

Let's go over a few details there and how they change the tone of the story as a whole. In post-apocalyptic scenarios, there is, of course, the apocalypse to explain. What caused it, how people reacted, what replaced the old world, what the new environment makes possible and impossible.

Going through the in-game snippets as well as the short stories included with the game and on the official site, Phoenix Point is clear on what led things to where they are. Yes, the Pandoravirus mist, the people it took control of, the monsters it made of them and the ecosystem itself, those were all horrific force majeure that no ready-made solution would have easily solved.

However, no solution was ready at all, because nobody in power cared. This is one of two things that all factions agree on. The Powers That Were saw Tobias West as a dumb hick with soldiers they could use for their squabbles. The Powers That Were saw the Firebird Initiative and the people of their own countries as greater threats to their power than the mist. The Powers That Were ignored the sick and suffering who then, bereft of hope, sought to find it in cults and from anyone else who promised it. When The Powers That Were at last saw that the mist was an actual problem...they tried to leave the rest of the world to die.

I'm just going to...leave that there, and...let people chew on that for a bit.

Every faction is a response to this last severing of ties. Tobias West let his customers throw their bought-and-paid-for rocks at each other while he focused on solidifying his holdings, crafting Vanadium into a force that could weather the collapse. The Firebird Initiative and the various refugees and revolutionaries that would become Synedrion didn't even have to change their strategy; they defied the governments of the world and worked on technologies to save others outside the grip of monetization and weaponization. The Disciples of Anu reached out to the infected, those abandoned by everyone else as lost causes, and gave them a way to live.

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And I Laughed At Myself While The Tears Rolled Down

I do mean live, by the way. Distinct from mere existence. The mood of the game is so powerful in part because of the care it takes to be so deftly unambiguous about what people are looking for, even staring out at a wasteland. People need to have fun.

People need humor.

People need lives outside of survival.

The factions feel so much more real because the writers understood how to make them feel like they're populated with characters rather than plot devices. It goes into the factions' overall characterization as well. The leadership of New Jericho and the Disciples, despite their moments, often seem reluctant to accept the frivolous (in the former's case) or the unsanctioned (in the latter's case) as part of what they are. By contrast, Synedrion is full of jokes and memes, though in turn the other two factions would probably say that this and their tendency to argue distracts them from important work. That factional interplay is a big part of what helps me care about the world, because I can imagine these people being the ones to inherit it.

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Has All Kindness Gone

The big uniting concept that gets me about Phoenix Point is that despite being a horror story and a war story, it never ends on the more unsavory conclusions that often arise in those stories. It is true that times are grim, and trust is scarce, but Phoenix Point reinforces that people have to care. Fiercely, bravely, people have to care.

Care about our memories.

Care about each other, even if it's not safe.

It's a bit of a read, but "The Interrogation" is one of my favorite short stories for the insight it offers.

Quick note: Spoilers ahead

Despite it being the "wrong decision," I don't think Lt. Petyaeva was wrong for reaching out to Amanda whether by my standard or the narrative's. Despite being unable to countermand the Pandoravirus's orders, interrogating her while denying her personhood would not only have been outright useless, it would have been a denial of Lt. Petyaeva's humanity as well. In a way, both of them were denied personhood. "Subject 16 is not a person." "We don't get to choose our fate anymore. We all have to do our part." What's more tragic is, considering the short story "Harbinger," which is likely about "that woman in Greenville," if Amanda had been picked up by the Disciples of Anu rather than New Jericho, she would have had a chance to live.

End spoilers

It's not just that story either. Hell, Citizen Zhara of Synedrion outright voices her thoughts on the matter in-game.

This sort of sentiment isn't unheard of in other stories, of course, but oftentimes, it's presented as foolish naivete that will only get them killed, or at best a tragic dream that is chosen in the place of survival.

What does Phoenix Point have to say about it?

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Hope Still Lingers On

Quick note: Spoilers ahead

In the end, Zhara's hopes are proven not only well-founded, but reachable, and the game lets you do so. In her specific ending scenario (Synedrion has two subfactions you can support; hers is the Polyphonic tendency, which refuses all hierarchies, including man vs. nature), Synedrion is able to break the mind control on the Pandorans, freeing them as well as humanity and allowing for true coexistence. They do gloss over the method somewhat, but what we are given seems plausible enough, certainly no less believable than New Jericho's idea that nuking the final boss will be a permanent solution. Either way, rather than promoting detached cynicism disguised as stoic realism, the devs emphasize the importance of the player caring enough to take a side. The absolute worst ending you can get comes when you don't make a choice, just hedge your bets until the end. You end up resolving to commit a genocidal atrocity, the factions put their differences aside to try and stop you, you wipe out 90% of the population of the world, and end up taking authoritarian control over everyone left because no other option exists at that point. Even the New Jericho ending, which results in a war of extermination even in the face of evidence that the Pandorans aren't essentially hostile but enslaved and mind-controlled, at least leaves more people alive. (The same consideration for the enemy is present in some measure in XCOM 2, where the Elders are shown as having to put their entire faction, ranging from their vat-grown ADVENT soldiers to their elite alien troops, under constant mind control or else many of them would surrender or turn on their masters. It was a nice touch, and part of why I also hold XCOM 2's story in high regard.)

End spoilers

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Why Am I Even Using Collective Soul Lyrics For This

This has been meandering and probably incoherent, and believe me, I could go on, but I think that's enough for now. There's plenty of words out there about the gameplay, but not many about these aspects of the story and general mood, as far as I've found. This game had so much I've been looking for, and I hope I've managed to explain why.

#youtube #So I've Been Thinking About #Phoenix Point #game journal #phoenix point spoilers #long post

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todayinfiction · 1 year

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TODAY IN FICTION: A mutagenic alien disease is discovered frozen under the ice caps in Phoenix Point (🇧🇬/🇩🇪2019)

Unspecified date, 2022

Two and a half million years ago, an ancient and advanced hominin species emerged in Antarctica. Their civilisation was destroyed by a disease introduced from the planet Yuggoth in the outer Solar System; a disease which would later become known as the Pandoravirus. This virus was a deadly mutagen, capable of transforming any living creatures into terrible monsters, but thankfully it became trapped in the ice beneath the frozen continent.

Today, an operative from the Phoenix Point organisation travels to Antarctica to investigate reports of a possible biohazard at an outpost near McMurdo Station. There he discovers the science team has been mutated into horrifying abominations after a sample of the Pandoravirus thawed from the permafrost.

With climate change and the melting of the ice caps ever-worsening, it seems like it won’t be long until the virus is able to break out into the ocean. Perhaps it already has, and horrors beyond comprehension lurk just out of sight beneath the waves...

This information comes from a series of short stories that were released online during the game’s development. The events mentioned in this post mostly come from The Tomb of the Phoenix and Semper Fidelis written by Jonas Kyratzes in 2017. Phoenix Point was released on this day three years ago.

#today in fiction #phoenix point #aliens #climate change

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cyberdhole2069 · 8 months

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twitch_live

[Vtuber] Red Lobster was the first to fall, right in the middle of Lobsterfest. (Phoenix Point)

#vtuber #furry #dhole #livestream #fursona #twitch #Phoenix Point #CRAB PEOPLE #Time for crab

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o0kawaii0o · 18 days

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Ace Attorney x Hades

#the arrows are about their hair if that wasn't clear LOL I could have done a better job at the clarity of that #anyway first fanart of these two! I started playing hades during the holidays/january and started AApw in march #finished the first game of AA this last week actually! loved it!#fun fact: I started playing AA due shipping zagreus and thanatos haha - hope you can connect the dots #so yeah yk what will come next >:) (or at least at some point)#always rumbling in the tags sorry #ace attorney #aa fanart #phoenix wright #hades game #hades supergiant #hades zagreus #hades fanart #o0kawaii0o

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eddybelly · 2 years

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This is best place to annoyingly show this video again that I made of me being bad at Phoenix Point

#phoenix point #kinda violent at the end #i needed a dumb thumbnail #I will post better stuff soon I promise #dumbass video for now

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kata-kemi · 28 days

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🔥Murisa - Eye of Fire - lvl 19 Monk I love my firebender monk (even she is more closer to a druid in The Plane of Fire) with supeority complex.

#dnd #murisa #zelda oc #dungeons and dragons #monk #dnd 5e #firebender #i love her very much and yes those are stars of selune #shes not religious bc she has very efreeti point of view of higher powerful beings but selune blessed her eloped marriage #and she respects for itr #even tho now... shes gonna reach level 21 bc my girl consumed power of a phoenix and went thru ascension #so she can handle the power of a volcano trapped in her chest #fire genasi #genasi

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rendevok · 8 months

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Bite me <3

#im not saying he said this. but it FEELS like he said this.#guy who is soooooooo getting what he wants rn #narumitsu #wrightworth #miles edgeworth #phoenix wright #vampire nrmts owns my entire ass. there will be more /threat #its MY art and i say they’re BOTH vampires #wrightworth? more like frightworth ahahaha #or maybe even biteworth #narumitsu but naru-bit-u #ahahahahahhhahhahahahaa😳😳😳😳#anyway sorry this took me so long to post but it’s friday the 13th and it’s been the best day ever so have a treat on me #also this was not INTENDED to be the server icon but it will be until halloween lol #if i dont have people biting me in the notes whats the point #fan art #aa #rendevok

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corviiids · 3 days

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as part of my pitch re: this post please see below my original concept donut steal for an "if phoenix wright had to catch kira death note" au. best regards

more about this, probably:

this is probably the last case of the game where it transpires that all the other apparent murders in the game have been somehow set up as part of kira's master plan (kira has found creative ways to get around the fact that you can't use the death note to force one person to kill another person and also around rule 10 of the death note that a written death cannot cause other deaths. if you have further queries regarding this matter please do not hesitate to contact me via email best regards)

framing L involves setting up an elaborate murder scene with preset evidence where L is in precisely the wrong spot at the wrong time. L of course anticipated this

the detective character is soichiro, but the real detective character for most of the game is his son light who is a very helpful young man and in fact is the one making most of the contributions

L is ostensibly a detective character too but he mostly just shows up, licks some evidence, blinks at you, and fades out. until he gets arrested

the prosecutor is still miles edgeworth. consider the following:

edgeworth: we have security footage of the defendant holding the murder weapon, at the time of the murder, standing directly in front of the victim, using the weapon on the victim, and then the victim dies

phoenix: okay... but... what if there was a magic notebook

#rookposting #yes planning to do something stupid with this at some point.#harassing poof about comix already. i also kind of want to make like a very stupid little playable demo #death note #ace attorney #we're also not going to acknowledge the confusion of me using phoenix's english name but japanese honourifics #i declare that language is fake. and i can do whatever i want

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mlgwolves · 16 days

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Don’t get me wrong, I love the sunshine/grumpy dichotomy of Wrightworth but Phoenix has shown on multiple occasions that most of the time he is ““The Straight Man””.

He’s a wet blanket and routinely gives snide comments on all the weirdos he has to hang out with in the investigation segments. The only time his silly weirdo side comes out is when he’s in court with Edgeworth and that’s because it’s a kangaroo court where he’s fighting for his life the whole time.

In Phoenix’s world Edgeworth is not only infinitely more competent than he is, he’s also the only other normal person. At least in the trilogy that is.The first time I played turnabout big-top I thought I missed a game, or a character interaction or someone else wrote the game because he was such… an asshole? To maya to everybody. He was so 100% no nonsense it freaked me out. But then it was revealed that Edgeworth “died” and that really struck a cord with me.Phoenix’s factory settings are all “Im a mature straight laced lawyer” until he’s around Edgeworth.

Whenever there’s a “sweaty Phoenix.png” in a case against someone else other than edgeworth,it’s because he’s incredulously tolerating the other person’s nonsense.Whereas whenever it’s with Edgeworth it’s given the connotation that he feels he’s less competent.Sort of in silent reverence that he thought that he could get one over Edgeworth.I really love this aspect of Phoenix and I feel it gives his character a ton of nuance besides just being sunshiny or just being prudish. I wish I were better at writing i would totally “wright” him more than with this aspect of his personality specifically.

Bonus points if you factor in that while he was with dahlia he was lovestuck and silly and how that means that this is not only consistent with the type of guy he is when he’s in a relationship but how that could mean he sees himself in edgeworth’s and that’s why he likes him.

#wrightworth #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #ace attorney #I had to articulate this here #narumitsu #if you have anything to add feel free #headcanon #it might as well be canon at this point #i love these two boring dads

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lorillee · 11 months

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sorry i doodled out the first one as a dumb expression practice and then things got wildly out of hand (feat. obligatory waiting for godot joke). anyways i havent played aa4 yet so i know this is definitely like wildly continuity breaking but I DONT CARE 💥💥💥💥💥💥 this is my new vision. ive got much more extensive thoughts on this but since this is already getting pretty long for an art caption if you want to know just send me an ask or something. anyways yeah the ideal ending for godot is for him to go live in kurain with pearl and maya i think 😎👍

#ace attorney #godot ace attorney #diego armando #maya fey #pearl fey #phoenix wright #miles edgeworth #lorillee.png #this is like . extremely target audience: MEEEEEEEEEE but to be honest thats why i drew all of this #bc nobody else is gonna do it for me. which is tragic but true #tbh though there were more ideas i had but i feel like this is already pretty long at this point. so maybe ill doodle them out later #on the bright side its been great for forcing me to relearn how to draw people . i even drew the inside of a room #this is like huge character development for me #anyways praise be to setteidreams.net for reference sheets 😎#the fey family period drama

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untilteddocument · 1 year

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After-Action Archive Phoenix Point 2nd Gig - Hack the Planet, Part 2

Note: Being that this is an ending-related entry, unmarked spoilers ahead!

Welcome back, one and all, to my After-Action Archive! This is the second part of my recap of the final Phoenix Point mission when aligned with the Disciples of Anu. Let's get to it.

Last we left off, we'd just gotten past the Pandoran gatekeepers. The only thing left between the Exalted hijacking the Yuggothian Receptacle and turning into Good Nyarlathotep is...the Yuggothian Receptacle itself, plus a few elite guards and gradual but endless reinforcements.

First off, we parked ourselves at the gate, waited for the fire to burn out (it was a little close and I didn't want any careless moves to result in unnecessary damage), and slowly refreshed our Willpower Points. It took a few rounds, but we weren't speedrunning this, so patience was our ally. After everyone was good and ready, we put in.

The final charge was a bit trickier than the gatekeeper battle. For one, fewer and tougher enemies with more space between them and starting farther away from us means even a Terminator or Jedi would have trouble starting and sustaining the kill chain.

Micaela was able to get some shots in on the Siren and Chiron who were crowded together over on the right side, and the Siren in the central hallway was pretty easy pickings, but that Chiron on the left side was able to get off a shot...

...that totally missed, so fuck 'em! Ms. Howard and Ms. Brown with some support fire from friends below paid it a visit and brought it down.

There were some reinforcements that managed to catch us, but they were of little concern. However, it wasn't entirely sunshine and rainbows.

The Yuggothian Receptacle doesn't have immediate power on its side, but Mark of the Void offers inevitability, and every turn we spent dealing with the bodyguards was one more turn it had to wear us down. The good thing is, thanks to the Legacy of Ancients weapons having no ammo requirements, we definitely had more kick than it had ass. The trick was bringing it to bear fast enough. Cue montage.

Aside from a few required heal-ups from the Technicians, it was pretty steady going. There were a few rocks in the grind, though, in the form of those reinforcements. Two of them had the Tar Shadow ability, and I was running low on incendiary grenades. 'Course, killing them with fire isn't the only way to deal with the problem.

There's also...not killing them.

The first one, a gun-toting, grenade-launching Scourge which appeared during our approach, I had the Exalted mind control. No need to worry about it dying if it's helping us out. As a plus, Ms. El-Haddad's Synod head was paying the upkeep cost of the mind control, so all the Exalted had to do was stick nearby her.

Next up was another Scourge that came up from the rear, and Milas Johnston was the rearguard. In addition to sidestepping Tar Shadow, the benefit of not killing reinforcements is they don't send more reinforcements to replace them. Aside from mind control, the other way to safely not-kill them?

Paralysis.

That Athena sniper rifle put its two cents in nicely, stymieing both the Scourge and a Shieldbearer that tried to hold the line. Two shots each was all it took, and while the Scourge did manage a Return Fire burst on him, it wasn't anything that a Technician couldn't patch up.

Turns basically started to blur together.

Step 1) Find hole

Step 2) Fill with bullet

It's like the most bare-bones summary for TF2 porn ever.

Still, we kept the pressure on, and before long, we were listening to the sweet, sweet sounds of victory.

The Exalted was able to handle her end of the plan, and we were able to head out, fulfilled and comforted by the knowledge that our god was a hot giant squid lady, and she was right over there.

Thanks to everyone who stuck with me for this recap, and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I did writing it! I'm not sure if I'll do any more of these even if I do another playthrough, but never say never, I guess, so until next time.

#phoenix point #after-action archive #2nd gig #long post

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