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allsports4123 · 1 year

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Zinedine Zidane is the Maestro

a former French football coach His position as a player was an attacking midfielder.

He spent his heyday in Juventus and Real Madrid, lifting numerous championship cups, including two Serie A, one La Liga, and one UCL, and also led the French national team to the 1998 France World Cup and Euro 2000. He has also earned numerous individual careers, including the World Cup Golden Ball, UEFA Euro MVP, Ligue 1 MVP, Serie A MVP, Ballon d'Or, FIFA Club Footballer of the Year, and UEFA Club Footballer of the Year. In other words, he has won more than once in all major competitions except for the FA Cup and has been selected as the best player at least once.

Since then, he has been appointed as the coach of Real Madrid and has won three consecutive UCL titles.

Rough pressure has become a key tactic, and it was the last playmaker to symbolize traditional No. 10 in modern football, with fast offense and defense, the rise of defensive midfielders and diversification of central midfield roles. It is right to say that this No. 10 playmaker role has been cut off since Zidane and Rickelme, but has appeared with a new role. In other words, it can be seen that the traditional playmaker has lost its reputation in Zidane and Rickelme Line. But unlike Riquelme, whose limits are very clear, Zidane is widely believed to be able to peak in modern football since the 2010s, limiting Zinedine Zidane's style to the traditional playmaker framework is no different from describing his versatility as focusing only on playmaking and technique.

Unlike Rickelme, however, Zidane was a slightly anomalous playmaker at the time, although he fell into the traditional playmaker category. In general, existing playmakers had small physical conditions instead of good technology, and for now, they were located in the second line and often focused on chance making by going back and forth between the center and the side. However, Zidane was not only in the second line based on his excellent physical condition, but also frequently came down to the third line throughout the ground and was deeply involved in controlling the team's tempo and developing the ball. The expression of the commander of the midfield was just right. Also, as can be seen from the nickname of commander, his ability to coordinate the game was very excellent. Compared to other world-class playmakers of the same era, he was good at adjusting the tempo of the game, but he was in a master's position in selecting the direction of the pass slowly when he needed to take the lead and quickly giving a tremendous kill pass when he needed a counterattack. In addition, he had the ability to readjust the position of other team members around his movements while traveling through the entire stadium.

In addition, he was very good at building up in modern soccer terms these days, but Zidane was a master of building up games around him throughout the stadium through his unique ball control and short passes. However, the difference from modern soccer is that in modern soccer, the entire team builds up through team play, but Zidane's build-up is a build-up led by Zidane himself around him. That's why Zidane's position is actually called free roll. This style is Zidane's own original football, rarely found in modern football, and only in some past football, including Di Stefano.

Zidane was not deprived of the ball even if he pushed into the deep area of the opponent due to his excellent physical strength and excellent technique. Zidane's unique Marseille turn represents a splendid play. It was also unrivaled in clean ball trapping and artistic first touch. This is because it has the ability to use all parts of the foot freely in a timely manner, and like Ronaldinho, he was able to handle the ball using all parts of his body, such as the feet, heels, ankle, and so on, and use all of his body parts such as the GIFs to touch or trapping.

In addition, he has a good goal determination to support his tendency to rush while holding out from the front to the point where the name of the midfielder is overshadowed, and his ability to take control of the air supply and succeed in the header was good because of his good physique. The kick power was considerable, so he was good enough to be in charge of both free kicks and penalties for the French national soccer team, and especially for penalties, he showed confidence by scoring a Panenka kick in the World Cup final. However, during the Real Madrid CF, there were all-time kickers such as David Beckham, Luis Figo, and Roberto Carlos, so they took turns kicking.

In addition, because of his excellent physique, he rarely loses ground in physical fights, and he made very good use of the small space he made. Rather, he enjoyed playing using the empty space after bringing the defender to his side. In particular, Zidane's ability in Real Madrid, which not only has a high understanding of the space of each player, but also emphasizes free movement, created tremendous synergy. Zidane's remarkable understanding of space based on his tremendous soccer intelligence is phenomenal enough to make him wonder if he is looking at three-dimensional space alone. Some even think that while 21 players are only good at soccer, Zidane's play is a video game. Zidane himself was a free roll, and he also played the role of a side playmaker skillfully and freely. In the Real Madrid game, you can find the fun of soccer just by watching the players change their positions according to Zidane's movements and the overlapping of fullbacks.

Among Zidane's numerous advantages, clutch ability and fighting spirit are the biggest advantages. The team gave a big shot several times at every important moment in crisis. A case in point is a game that led France to a come-from-behind victory by scoring two goals at Injeori Time, which was losing 0-1 against England in UEFA Euro 2004. He showed this heroic aspect from the beginning of his career by saving the team from defeat by scoring two goals in his national debut, and was praised as the king of France by scoring a goal against England. He has always been the most brilliant fantasy star in his career, including multiple goals in the 1998 World Cup finals in France, as well as the winning goal that led to the UEFA Champions League title. This can be said to be the difference from Lewis Figo, a rival of the same era.

#Zinedine Zidane

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jeremy-ken-anderson · 2 years

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Tempo Strategies

So there’s a really weird paradox that shows up in games with any kind of strategy, particularly if advancement is one of the pillars of the gameplay:

If your opponent is attempting advancement, the rock to their scissors in the counter-strategy circle is to rush them down.

In Dominion this might mean buying out a third stack to end the game before the enemy’s engine gets going full-tilt, or in certain games might mean focusing on attack cards. In League of Legends it means harassing the enemy ADC so they never have enough gold to buy the items that let them pop off. In Starcraft it means an early strike to punish the enemy for trying to drop all their gas on upgrades instead of troops. In Magic or Hearthstone it means running a deck that tries to kill in the first five turns or so.

The paradox is that - to me at least - the rushdown strategy just feels kind of shitty.

Maybe this is a subjective thing and paradox is the wrong word? I don’t know. What I’m trying to express is that the development of resources - the flourishing of a build - reads to me as an inherent good, and a fundamental part of why we play. Which means rushdown strategies always feel like preventing someone from playing the game. It feels like stopping the game early, which is in mechanical terms not true; mechanically the game is designed to end when one player’s hp reaches 0 or when the third stack is bought out or when the base explodes. That’s the designed true end of the game and whenever that happens it was proper. If it’s happening too early there might be tweaks to units or cards to make rushdown weaker against a stalwart defense.

It doesn’t help that in multiplayer settings it feels like bullying. In fact that’s generally what it’s called in-game - bullying your lane opponent. It has a different (much less negative) connotation in games; It just means “pressuring,” really, not throwing slurs at them in chat or emoting rudely over their corpse. And since you’re on opposing teams it’s not like you’re supposed to be cooperating. But again, it hits this feeling of stopping someone from experiencing the game as it was meant to be played. Their deck doesn’t get to perform its cool combo. Their champion doesn’t turn into a whirlwind of death. Their army of battlecruisers doesn’t get to sweep across the map.

Part of what I like about Dominion is how poorly it allows for rushdown, I think. The game almost always ends with a comparison of engine vs engine, with one of the engines having come to fruition a little earlier than the other, and if the other didn’t quite get going that’s usually down to either luck or its designer (that is, the player who was trying to set it up).

The other piece of this is the premeditation in a lot of these games. You have to build your deck to try and stop the enemy up short, in Magic and its ilk. You’ve set up your strategy on rock, and if they’re playing paper instead of scissors you’re in for a rough time from the start. The same is true of some champions in LoL, who don’t scale well and are better-served trying to win the game before it runs long or else doing all they can to feed power into their own scaling champion.

A fortunate part of these is that they aren’t binary (trinary I guess, since this is a rock-paper-scissors analogy). They’re on a sliding scale between these points and rare is the champion or deck that focuses so totally on one point that it doesn’t do SOMETHING toward the other points. In fact it’s nearly impossible; The most aggressive M:tG deck I know of - Sligh from the Tempest block - still had creatures that were capable of blocking (though I don’t think I ever saw it happen), and spells that were capable of killing enemy creatures (which it did sometimes but only to keep those creatures from blocking its own). To be truly 100% aggro it’d have to have creatures that could only attack and spells that could only damage the enemy player and that would be stupid; Those limits while “more pure” would actually make it worse at aggro.

I don’t know that there’s a solution to this. Dominion’s route is fun for me but I’m also aware that the cost for that avoidance of the trinary of strategies was direct interplay between the players. Dominion often feels like playing a solo game at the same table and being told at the end which of you did the solo game the best. And if development of resources is to be a valid strategy its validity is tied to the possibility that attempting the strategy won’t work. For that to be possible there has to be a counter to it, and the counter has to be baked into the list of options.

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charbway · 4 years

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A guide to Team Fortress 2 for new players

A lot of new players struggle to play TF2 when they first start out since the tutorial is very outdated and the coaching system has basically been abandoned at this point, so I thought I'd share what I know about the game. (This is more for casual TF2 than competitive TF2, since nearly everyone starts out playing casually.)

General tips

Movement

Don't stand still or walk in straight lines. Moving predictably (or not moving at all) makes you a much easier target for the enemy team, especially for Snipers and Spies. Jumping around and strafing makes it harder for opponents to hit you.

Learn to rocket/sticky jump. Advanced explosive jumping can be very tricky to learn, but even basic jumps will improve your mobility greatly.

Learn to crouch jump. Crouch jumping lets you jump onto props or ledges that you normally wouldn't be able to access by jumping normally, and it also increases the distance you travel while rocket or sticky jumping. (It's actually very easy, just press the crouch key and the jump key at the same time. I have crouch bound to Q instead of Ctrl to make crouch jumping easier for me.)

Team coordination

Don't forget about the objective. Getting epic gamer frags is fun and all but you will lose the game if your main focus is on killing and not on capturing/defending the objective. (There are exceptions to this rule but I'll get into that later.)

Don't throw yourself at the objective. Throwing yourself at the objective is not an effective way to get things done and will almost always just result in you being killed and your team losing the objective or failing a push. Wait for your team and make a push together, your team is much harder to take down if you're moving as a unit as opposed to everyone running in on their own and getting picked off one at a time. (An exception to this rule would be when the point is almost completely captured, and the enemy team is mostly dead.)

Don’t stack classes. All classes in TF2 have counters, and stacking classes makes it easier for the enemy team to prevent your team from pushing simply by playing the class that counters the ones you have stacked. (i.e 4 Spies can easily be countered by a Pyro, and 4 Heavies can easily be countered by a Spy or a Sniper.)

Try to play what your team needs. If your team is having trouble with a Heavy/Medic combo, try playing Spy or Sniper and to take care of them. If your team is dying a lot during pushes, try playing Medic to help keep them alive. If the enemy team has a lot of sentries, try playing Demoman or Soldier to take them out. If you think your team needs a class that is already being stacked, try asking someone politely to switch off so you can try, or play a different class that could achieve a similar result.

Don’t overextend. Overextending is when you or your team pushes so far forward that you are no longer focused on capturing or defending an objective, which usually works in the other teams’ favor. If your team is overextending while defending, a Scout or a Spy on the other team can easily slip by and capture an objective while no one is guarding it. (Overextending on offense isn’t as common since there’s usually at least one or two people focused on the objective, but if it happens then make sure to go back and make sure someone is pushing the cart/on the control point/etc.)

Things to look and listen for

Paying close attention to your surroundings can be difficult when you're in combat since you're very focused on fighting and staying alive, but listening and looking around on occasion can be beneficial for both you and your team.

Look for:

Teleporter trails. Teleporters are extremely useful, but can be a nuisance if the enemy team has one. You can easily find out if they have one by looking at an opponent's feet. If a player has recently used a teleporter, red or blue light will briefly trail off of their feet. If you notice something like this, then the enemy team has a teleporter up. (If the enemy team has any buildings at all then it can be assumed that they have a teleporter as well.)

Sticky traps. Good sticky traps can be difficult or even impossible to spot. However, if you see one or more stickybombs near a doorway or on a wall, chances are there's a demoman waiting for someone to walk by their trap. Stickybombs can be removed with hitscan weapons like the scattergun or minigun, or moved with explosives or the flamethrower's airblast.

Sniper dots. When a sniper scopes in, a small red or blue dot will appear wherever they are aiming their crosshair. If you notice one of these, that means a Sniper is watching that area and peeking will probably get you killed. Don't go through an area that you know a Sniper is watching unless you're confident that they aren't going to be able to hit you.

"Teammates" acting strangely. Things like teammates running away from the enemy team, Medics running around with their primary weapon out instead of their medigun, Snipers running around near the front line, and Scouts moving slowly are all behaviors that indicate that that teammate is an enemy Spy. If you see someone acting suspicious, try shooting them a couple of times. TF2 doesn't have friendly fire, so you won't hurt them if they actually are on your team.

Listen for:

Spies decloaking. If you listen carefully enough, you may be able to hear Spies decloaking behind you. The stock invis watch and the Cloak & Dagger are both very quiet, but the Dead Ringer is considerably louder. The latter two watches make a faint wooshing noise, while the Dead Ringer makes a loud ringing sound. If you hear anything like this while playing, turn around and begin spychecking.

Footsteps. These are usually hard to hear while in combat, but can be helpful for tracking flank classes like Spy and Scout.

Voice commands. There are 3 voice command menus that can be accessed with Z, X, and C by default. These commands allow you to convey ideas or call attention to something without using a microphone or the in-game chat. A few examples are "Help!" (C1), "Spy!" (X2), "Move Up!" (Z4), and "MEDIC!" (Z1 or E). Listen for and use these commands so that you can convey and receive information quickly.

Voice command menu options:

(Z)

MEDIC!

Thanks!

Go! Go! Go!

Move up!

Go left!

Go right!

Yes

(X)

Incoming

Spy!

Sentry ahead!

Teleporter request

Dispenser request

Sentry request

Übercharge request

Übercharge ready (Medic only)

(C)

Help!

Battle cry

Cheers

Jeers

Positive

Negative

Good shot

Good job

Class related tips

Scout

Your speed is your greatest advantage over the other classes. It lets you flank quickly, dodge projectiles and bullets, and escape unfavorable situations easily.

Your scattergun is most effective at short and medium range. getting close to your opponents will help you kill them quickly, but I wouldn't recommend getting too close if you're new to the game, especially if you haven't gotten a handle on dodging yet.

You capture objectives at 2x the rate of any other class. This makes Scout players extremely useful on offense, but less so on defense since he doesn't revert captures in the same way.

Don't run directly at the enemy team. Instead, use flank routes to get behind them and take them by surprise.

Make sure to use your secondary. A lot of Scouts will opt to switch to their melee if they run out of scattergun shots, but the pistol is much better for finishing people off.

Soldier

Soldier is a great class for beginners. He is the first class you learn to play during the tutorial, and is easy for new players to be effective with in a casual setting.

Your rocket launcher has splash damage. This means that you don't have to aim directly at your opponents in order to damage them. Try to get your opponents into small spaces (such as hallways) to ensure that they cannot avoid splash damage from your rockets. (Side note: Splash damage from rockets can hurt you as well. If you're in a close quarters fight with someone, switch to your shotgun or melee if you're not confident that you can kill them and also tank the damage from your rockets.)

Shoot rockets at your opponents' feet. This will ensure that they will take splash damage and will slow them down. This is especially important when fighting Pyros, since shooting rockets at their feet makes them harder for them to reflect.

Rocket jumping is an incredibly useful skill to have. Again, it takes a lot of practice to get more complicated jumps down, but it’s extremely useful since it improves Soldier’s mobility drastically. (Soldier is the 2nd slowest class in the game.)

Pyro

Your flamethrower is only effective at close range. In instances where people are out of your range, switch to your secondary weapon or try to ambush them.

Your flamethrower has an airblast. This can be used to reflect projectiles, push enemies around, or extinguish teammates that are on fire. Airblast is especially helpful for pushing back Übered combos and reflecting spam.

Spycheck often. Pyro is an excellent counter to Spy, since Pyro can reveal and track cloaked Spies by lighting them on fire. Even if you don't think there's a Spy around, do it just to be safe.

Demoman

Practice your pipe aim. Aiming pipes can be very difficult to learn, but it's worth it for the amount of damage a direct pipe can do in a short amount of time.

Place sticky traps. The stickybomb launcher is a great tool for denying areas, and the bombs can be detonated at any time. (Even when you're not looking at them or are holding a different weapon.) Capture points, doorframes, or around corners are good places to put sticky traps.

Place stickies down if you're being chased. Demoman doesn't have any hitscan weapons, so fighting classes like Scout or Pyro can be challenging. If you find you're not hitting them consistently or are taking too much damage, retreat and place stickies around where you think they'll chase you.

You are just as effective on offense as you are on defense. Demoman is extremely versatile and the amount of damage he can put out in shorts amount of time is great for both making and denying pushes.

Heavy

Your bullets come out of your head. I know that sounds really weird but Heavy's bullets actually come out of his head and not his minigun. This is important because it allows you to duck behind cover and still be able to do damage as long as your head is still poking out.

Wait for the enemy to come to you. Heavy is not that great at chasing due to his slow movement speed and his minigun’s rev up speed. He is most effective at ambushing unprepared opponents since they won't have time to fight back.

Jump and rev up around corners. Heavy slows down when he revs up or fires his minigun, which can be detrimental if you're taking a lot of damage at once. You can pre-rev your minigun by holding the right mouse button, and if you jump while revving up, you won't slow down until you've landed on the ground again. Jump-revving allows you to take your opponents by surprise, which is where Heavy shines the most.

Your sandvich can heal your teammates. I haven’t gone over any other classes’ unlocks and I probably won’t in this post, but the sandvich is so widely used that using Heavy’s stock secondary (the shotgun) is only ever used jokingly so I feel I should talk about it here. You can use the sandvich to heal yourself, but it can also be thrown on the ground by right clicking. Doing this creates the equivalent of a medium health pack, which you can use to heal wounded teammates. This is one of the reasons Heavy is a great pocket for Medic, since Heavy can protect the Medic and heal them if they’re in danger.

Get to safety before using your sandvich. Heavy is extremely vulnerable while eating, so you should only use your sandvich in closed-off areas and out of Sniper sightlines. You should also keep your back against a wall so that Spies can’t backstab you while you’re eating.

Engineer

Make sure your sentry is covering the objective, or protecting your other buildings. Sentries are great at area denial, but if the area your sentry is denying isn't important to the enemy then it isn't in a good spot. This doesn't mean to place your sentry super close to the payload cart or directly on the control point, but you should be putting it in a place that makes it harder for the enemy team to capture it defend it. If you’re on offense, you can use your sentry to protect your other buildings, or to help your team during a push.

Don't group up buildings together. Putting your buildings together in one place makes it easier for Demomen and Soldiers to destroy your entire nest with only a few rockets or pills. Make sure your buildings are far enough away from each other so that they won't susceptible to splash damage, but close enough to you and your team so that you can use them when you need to.

Don’t sacrifice yourself for your buildings. Sentries, dispensers, and teleporters can easily be put back up after being destroyed, as long as you're alive to do it. Sacrificing yourself just to make sure one of your buildings doesn't get destroyed may be helpful in the moment, but usually ends up with the building being destroyed anyway and you having to sit through a respawn timer before you can build it again.

Dispensers and teleporters are very important. A lot of new players like to only build sentries because they kills, but you aren't going to be able to keep your sentry up on your own without a good metal supply and your team backing you up. Dispensers provide you with metal which can be used to upgrade and repair your buildings, and also supplies you and your team with a reliable source of health and ammo. Teleporters are also very important to your team (especially Heavies) since they get your team to the front lines quickly so they can help you defend your nest and defend/attack the objective.

Don't build on the last point or on any other inactive point. Your team needs your buildings at the point that they're currently defending, and denying them the help they need just so you can get your buildings to level 3 only helps the enemy team in the long run. They would essentially be down one player for each objective that you're not helping them defend. Even a level 1 dispenser is better than nothing.

If you have other Engineers on your team, help them build and maintain their buildings. Nests are much harder to destroy if all the Engineers are working together. Things like repairing and upgrading buildings, spychecking, and removing sappers are all things you can do to help the other Engineers on your team and in turn make it harder for the enemy team to progress. (Side note: Try not to take metal from another Engineer's dispenser if you're only upgrading your buildings. They need that metal for their buildings, so if you don't have a dispenser, use resupply or find an ammo pack to do whatever it is you need to do, or build a dispenser yourself.)

Medic

Medic is the only healer in TF2. Plus all Übercharges, regardless of type, are a fantastic tool for making or denying pushes and breaking stalemates. Typically if one team has a Medic and the other doesn't, the team without the Medic will lose badly solely because they have no reliable source of health. Even being healed or having overheal is usually enough to win a 1v1 or kill multiple people. Because of this, the enemy team will want you dead as often as possible.

Don't waste your Übercharge. A lot of players think using their charge as soon as they get it is a good idea, but you should really wait until your team is ready to push to use it.

If you have Über and are about to die, use your Übercharge to preserve your life. I know this sounds contradictory to the last point, but using your charge to keep yourself alive in emergencies is significantly better than dying and not getting to use it at all. Your team needs you to stay alive so they can stay alive, and using an Übercharge to stay alive helps everyone in the long run. Plus, you can get your Übercharge back faster if you're alive and healing people instead of sitting through a respawn timer.

Don't stick to healing only one person. I know Meet the Medic had Medic pocketing Heavy and he killed like 1000 Soldiers and it was really cool and epic and swag, but he also healed Scout and Demoman before that because they were his teammates and they were hurt. Having a pocket is perfectly fine, but neglecting your team just to constantly heal one person is a waste of time for you and unhelpful for the rest of your team. You build Übercharge much faster when you're healing multiple people who are hurt, so you're not going to get as many charges if your only goal is to keep your pocket alive.

Some classes are better at being Medic pockets than others, but individual skill is what matters most. When or if you're deciding to pocket someone, make sure you're choosing someone who knows what they're doing. For example, Heavy is a pretty good pocket class for Medic, but if you had to decide between A) a Heavy who just installed the game and doesn't know how to play yet, or B) a Pyro who has been playing for years and has been pocketed many times before, the Pyro would be the better choice. The Heavy is objectively the better class, but in this instance the Heavy player lacks the experience playing Heavy needed to be effective. The Pyro has experience, so they will know how to protect you, what to do during Übercharges, and probably won't lead you into any danger.

Don't follow people into danger. If you're healing someone and they're about to walk into a room full of enemies or a sentry nest, try to tell them not to go in. If they keep going, abandon them. (It's a little different if you have an Übercharge. If you want to use it to push forward then definitely do it, but if your pocket is going too far in and there's still danger around, leave them and get out.)

Sniper

Prioritize your targets. This is pretty important for every class, but moreso for Sniper since he can pretty much instakill anyone from any distance. Medics have the highest priority since again, they’re the only healers, but after that I’d say to focus on any class that’s giving your team the most trouble. (Except for Spy and Scout, since they’re generally pretty hard to hit.)

Charged shots deal more damage. While scoped in, there’s a little bar on the right that gradually fills up the longer you stay scoped. This is your charge meter, which indicates how much damage you’ll do once the shot is fired. An uncharged headshot deals 150 damage, which can kill Snipers, Spies, Scouts, and Medics as long as they aren’t overhealed. A fully charged headshot deals 450 damage, which is enough to kill an overhealed Heavy.

Bodyshotting is okay. You should always try to go for headshots since they’re the most effective, but if you or your teammates are in danger and you think a bodyshot is enough to kill them, then go for it. An uncharged bodyshot deals 50 damage, which can be used to finish off enemies at low health, and a fully charged bodyshot deals 150 damage.

Try not to get tunnel vision. It’s always important to be aware of your surroundings, but it can be difficult while playing as Sniper since you’re usually so focused on landing headshots. Make sure to periodically unscope and check for anyone trying to ambush you, and listen for things like footsteps or Spies decloaking. You should also make sure to stick with your team when they move forward, and avoid focusing on a single sightline.

Spy

Don’t rely too heavily on disguises. Most people who are playing TF2 today have been playing for a while, so they can usually tell if someone is a Spy. If you can, use your cloak to get behind enemy lines.

Cloak before you disguise. The disguise kit creates a small puff of smoke around the player using it, which can be used to track your position even while under cloak.

Try not to bump into anyone on the enemy team. If you’re cloaked, a team-colored outline will appear around you briefly, which will give away your position and can get you killed. If you’re disguised, it’s immediately a dead giveaway since people who are on the same team can walk through each other.

Try to go for backstabs when your enemies are distracted. When people are out of combat, they’re far more focused on not getting backstabbed, especially if they already know that the enemy team has a Spy. They’re more likely to randomly check their backs if they have nothing else to focus on, so try to wait until their attention has shifted onto something else. (Example: scoped Snipers and revved-up Heavies are usually very easy targets, since they’re focused on your team and they don’t move around too much.)

Trickstabs should only be used in emergencies. Trickstabs very are useful for getting out of bad situations as a last resort, but you should use your revolver or cloak instead if you’re not confident that you can land one.

Try to make your disguise believable. If you’re in a situation where you absolutely cannot use your cloak, then do your best to try and act like the class you’re disguised as.

General disguise: Using voice commands that don’t show up in chat and jumping around/strafing can sometimes fool even experienced players. You should also be aware of the position the class you’re disguised as is usually in. (Example: Snipers, Engineers, and Medics usually behind their teammates, and Soldiers and Demomen are usually at the front lines.) You should also pay attention to your disguises’ health and act accordingly. (Example: Say “MEDIC!” or “Help!” a lot if your disguise is at low health.) You can also switch your disguise’s weapon by switching to the appropriate weapon slot and pressing B. (Example: if you’re disguised as Engineer and want to hold the wrench, switch to your knife and then press B.)

Scout disguise: This disguise can be hard to pull off since Spy doesn’t gain any kind of speed boost from disguising as Scout, but it can be useful if you’re not really focused on acting and just want to stab someone and get out since it doesn’t slow Spy down either.

Soldier disguise: Again, very hard to pull off since most Soldiers get around by rocket jumping, so seeing a Soldier walking around looks pretty suspicious. This disguise can be useful for getting the enemy Medic to heal you though, but it isn’t one I’d use in most situations.

Pyro disguise: Pretty decent disguise since Pyro (usually) isn’t very mobile and is often found around flank routes and sentry nests.

Demoman disguise: Under normal circumstances, this would just be a better Soldier disguise since Demomen really only ever sticky jump to get to the front lines quickly, so seeing a Demoman walking around isn’t as suspicious. However, there is currently a bug where the Demoman disguise will be missing his legs, so try not to use this disguise either.

Heavy disguise: Good for getting the enemy Medic’s attention, not so much for stabbing anyone since it decreases Spy’s movement drastically.

Engineer disguise: Very similar to Pyro, but a bit better for sentry nests. Don’t disguise as an Engineer if the enemy Engineer is still alive and around their buildings though.

Medic disguise: Probably the best disguise for Spy, since it doesn’t slow you down and everyone expects Medics to be around their teammates anyway. Just make sure your disguise has the Medigun out and not their primary or melee.

Sniper disguise: Not bad if you’re far behind enemy lines since Snipers are supposed to be there anyway, but not a good disguise for trying to pick off front line classes.

Spy disguise: Very similar to Scout in that its only usefulness comes from its lack of any speed penalty. Most people tend to spycheck any friendly Spies they see, even if they aren’t disguised as anything purely because they’re Spies.

End Note

The stuff this post covers is pretty surface level, and TF2 goes much deeper than just what’s written here (I didn’t write about any unlocks except the Sandvich because that would take me forever and this post has already been sitting in my drafts for months,) so if anyone has anything they’d like to add then absolutely do it because my hands hurt from typing this out.

Some other stuff I recommend if you’re new to TF2:

Community jump maps. They’re solely used to practice rocket jumping for Soldier, sticky jumping for Demoman, sentry jumping for Engineer, and flare jumping for Pyro.

Buy literally anything from the Mann Co. Store. Being free to play is terrible because you get barely any backpack space and you will absolutely regret deleting your Ghastly Gibus/Pyrovision to make room in your inventory for weapons you want to try out.

Online tutorials, such as Lazypurple’s “How it feels to play” series, Uncle Dane’s Engineer tutorials, and MrPaladin’s Spy tutorials. There’s also an official TF2 Wiki that has basic strategies for each class, and goes over each classes’ unlockable weapons.

Offline practice. It’s not a great substitute for other players since the bots are pretty janky, but it’s good for learning basic stuff the layout of various maps and how each class functions ingame.

Mess around with your settings and hud, and maybe think about getting a config if your PC doesn’t run TF2 very well. Make sure to set your FoV to the highest setting and to turn on minimized viewmodels, because TF2′s default FoV and viewmodels are terrible and there’s a lot of stuff you won’t see coming if you don’t do this.

Ask for help when you need it. There are always exceptions, but I’ve found that the TF2 community is generally pretty open to helping out new players. Just don’t listen to anyone who tells you to “type unbindall in console for a free hat” or anything like that.

Don’t get discouraged. TF2 is deceptively difficult and has a pretty steep learning curve, so don’t worry if you die a bunch of times and get like 2 kills in your first game because we’ve all been through that phase.

Mute text/voice chat/other people when you need to. Again, the TF2 community is pretty okay as far as online FPS communities go, but since it’s a video game and video games fanbases can get really toxic, there’s going to be a point in time where you’re going to want to do this for your own sanity. You can mute text/voice chat in advanced options, and you can mute individual players by clicking the icon with the speech bubble and an x near it in the menu.

Anyway it’s nearly 1:00 am and I just finished typing this so uh. gn.

#long post #tf2 #team fortress 2 #scout #soldier #pyro #demoman #heavy #engineer #medic #sniper #spy

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wesimpforxiao · 3 years

Text

Say My Name and I’ll Be There: Chapter 10.1

Author’s Note: Travelers! We are nearing the end of Reader’s journey! (I’m expecting it to end at 10.4 but we’ll see if that ends up being an accurate estimate lol) Enjoy the newest chapter!

Zhongli was lost in deep thought as you and Xiao faced the Tsaritsa, while Paimon and Aether were arguing on whether they should jump in to help or not. Despite Paimon's protests, it seemed to Aether that Xiao could very well handle the god on his own. He wasn't exactly a team player to begin with...

"ZHONGLI!" Paimon's high-pitched screech finally prodded a hummed response from the former archon. "We need to jump in!"

"It would be wise for the two of you to leave the palace at once," he advised instead of indulging in the mascot's wishes. It wouldn't be long now; he could feel the power from the battle reaching its peak. "Xiao cannot unleash his full power with the three of you here. Your bodies would not be able to withstand it."

"We've already fought with him plenty of times and we're fine! Don't go underestimating us now!"

"As much as I agree with you, I'm siding with Zhongli. We'll only get in the way."

"W-Wha-!" The frustrated emergency food placed her hands on her hips as she gawked at Aether for a few seconds. Then she turned to Zhongli. "Then what about her? Shouldn't we get her out of there too?"

"Do not fret, dear friends," the metallic clank of his polearm rang against the floor, "I will retrieve her. We'll meet again outside. Go now." Aether nodded and ran in the direction from which the group had entered--followed by a pouting Paimon. Zhongli returned his eyes to the throne room as the tiles in the hallway began to freeze over.

"Now." You and Xiao nodded in confirmation before pushing off the ground in opposing directions. The air parted for you like the wind had granted a favor, though you had yet to realize you were the one manipulating it. Metal and gale met ice in a shockwave that sent the Tsaritsa's opponents flying backwards.

Xiao landed more gracefully than you did and was already at the Tsaritsa's neck by the time you sat up. He swung his lance down at her, rage filling his eyes. The karmic debt illuminated his body in black fog, but the Tsaritsa remained unfazed.

She caught the blade in the palm of her hand like it was nothing more than a wooden staff. The force of the impact sent icy winds ricocheting into the walls. The support beams and columns groaned unhappily from the jolt, and parts of the ceiling crashed to the floor around the three of you.

"I've killed your kind with ease in the past," she cooed up to him.

"And I've slaughtered hundreds of gods stronger than you."

"Then you've underestimated my strength." Her free hand swung towards his chest, with a dagger of ice forming from her palm.

"And you've underestimated mine!" The chunks of the stone ceiling came tumbling at the god from both sides at a tremendous speed that should've been impossible given their weight. The hand that was about to pierce Xiao gave up on the idea and went on the defensive to stop the boulders in their wake. Ice pillared up just in time. Xiao flipped back with his lance still in hand. There you stood, on the other side of Tsaritsa with both palms facing her as you controlled the gales.

How is she manipulating anemo? Did Barbatos- Xiao squinted only to find your beltloop devoid of any vision. And since when was she ever this powerful-

A deranged, fed-up cackle chilled the throne room further, and the Tsaritsa now set her sights on you. She was before you in an instant. A breeze was enough to send her back a few inches--a subtle defensive tactic, but it worked enough so that you had a fraction more of a second to react. Xiao went for her nape, then her knees. But the god was prepared for the repeated pattern of attack; she ducked enough to expose you to his blade, and Xiao was forced to shift his momentum with exercised precision to avoid decapitating you instead.

A burst of ice emitted from the Tsaritsa and blasted the two of you several feet away from each other. Xiao, just like last time, landed nonchalantly on his feet while you violently collided with a pillar. Besides the dull jarring pain ringing through your spine, a sharp one stung your hand as you pushed yourself to all-fours.

"What..." It wasn't the blood that caught you off guard. Carefully but quickly, you removed the glass from your palm. Then your tunnel vision dropped to your empty beltloop. My vision shattered? When did my- Realization finally struck you like a brick wall. How had you been fighting all this time? How did you have access to manipulate the snow? Were those stars above you related? Wide eyes stared at your bleeding hand, your brain pushing out the sounds of the battlefield and of Xiao yelling for you to get out of the way. When sound finally returned, your gaze trailed upward to find a wall of iced spears barreling at you.

"Rise!" Another wall of material shot up in front of you, though it was way more solid than the Tsaritsa's attack. The pillar blocked the spears' paths, then the familiar boots of Zhongli entered your vision. A hardened gaze met your lost ones, and flashes of a Zhongli in a white hood interrupted the present. The faint golden glow of his shield shimmered protectively around your crouching figure.

The archon held his hand out to you with a warm expression. Mesmerized by his conflicting appearance, your hand met his. "Rex Lapis..."

Looking down at you, Zhongli couldn't help but see Xiao in your stead just like all those years ago when he had taken the yaksha under his wing. "Come. Let us leave now." It was clear you were having the same sense of deja vu as he was.

You stood obediently, but quickly snapped back to the present moment when you heard Xiao's grunt as he struggled fending off the cryo archon. "Wait," you stepped away from Zhongli, attempting to get past him. "We can't leave him. I have to fight!"

"Xiao is more than capable of handling this matter on his own. You'd only get in the way." A grip on your arm was somehow enough to stop you in your tracks despite how light and gentle it was. Your head whipped back to him.

"I can't abandon him."

"He will join us as soon as he's done. Do you trust me?"

"I-" Your gaze returned to the violent battle ahead of you. At some point in your daze, the Tsaritsa had injured him; he was bleeding from his arm from what you could make out. "Zhongli, I can't leave him. He's injured. We can't leave him!"

"Do you not sense the power in the air?"

"Huh?" The question made you falter, but he was right. Something about the air was different. Whether it felt thinner or heavier, you couldn't tell--but there was a clear, crisp feeling to it that wasn't correlated to the icy chill of the Tsaritsa.

"Xiao cannot unleash his full power with you here. Trust in him; he needs you out of the way."

"...Fine," you muttered with an ache in your chest. Zhongli pulled you towards the exit as more pieces of the ceiling came crashing down behind you. You regretted glancing over your shoulder when you heard a cry of distress once you reached the door. "Z-Zhongli, wait-!" The entrance collapsed before you had the chance to dive back into the throne room and chase after the sight of a severely injured yaksha.

"We must go!" He didn't let up his grip on your wrist.

"Xiao!" The desperate cry fell from your lips this time as you still attempted to fight against the archon's grasp. "Xiao!" Please don't die! You come back to me alive, you hear me?! Please!

..................

Golden hair was the first color other than white that greeted you outside. "Aether? Paimon? What're you three doing here?"

"We must keep moving." Zhongli finally let go of you and took the lead away from the palace. His grim expression made your puffy red eyes fill with more tears. Zhongli said to trust him and Xiao, but what if Zhongli didn't believe that Xiao could win this fight on his own?

"Come on, it's okay. We'll get you out of here." Aether protectively wrapped an arm around your shoulder and pulled your heavy feet forward. "Xiao will be just fine."

"Yeah! He's handled worse than this," Paimon encouraged. "He'll meet up with us once he's done!"

"Just how far are we going?" The group must have walked a mile or two from the palace by now--the sight of the shrinking building filled you with trepidation. That battle would not be easy to win, and it wouldn't be a short one, either. Still though, you couldn't help but panic at how long it's been already. "Isn't this far enough?"

"We will rest for a few moments, then we must continue until we get out of Snezhnaya. Xiao will-"

"I thought we were going to wait for him."

"The country is swarming with Fatui. We cannot risk-"

"You didn't mention we were going to leave him behind completely! We can't just leave him, Zhongli! Do you not care at all what happens to him?"

"Keep your voice down-!" Paimon shushed. "We can't attract any unwanted attention..." The ground shuddered, and Paimon's eyes widened as she stared past you.

"What?"

"T-The palace!"

The group turned its attention to the epicenter of the earthquake, and was met with a disturbing sight. Pillar by pillar, wall to ceiling, the building collapsed on itself. The palace was reduced to rubble in mere seconds, and the sound echoed faintly until it was replaced by an eerie silence.

"X-Xiao," a faint murmur, then your knees gave out beneath you. All you could do was stare in shock at the palace, unaware of the tears that streamed down your face. "Xiao...? Can you..." hear me?

"Seems the Tsaritsa finished her fight," a foreign voice had everyone but you on edge. The view of the rubble was blocked by a large hat and blue hair. "What luck, that I've run into the intruders."

"Scaramouche." Aether tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword.

"Hey, get behind us!" Paimon yelled out from behind you. "You're in no shape to fight!"

"No...shape...?" Your gaze finally focused on the harbinger directly in front of you. He found amusement in your broken expression, his lips even having the audacity to curl into a sadistic, lopsided grin.

"I have orders to kill, but I won't give you the chance for reciting your last words." He raised his hand to strike you down--

--And was met with a blast of anemo that countered his electricity. He stumbled back into the snow, his hat even dislodging from his head. "'No shape to fight?'" Paimon was met with desolate eyes that lacked their usual copy of an amber tint. Puffy eyes were dried and replaced with a rendition of anger that was neither boiling rage nor cold revenge. Zhongli could've described it as similar to the Tsaritsa's change of heart over the centuries. "I feel perfectly fine, Paimon."

"Are you...?" Aether took a step forward and lowered his sword when you held your palm out to him as a threat.

"I'm fine. I'll hold him off. You guys should leave before things get messy."

"Messy?"

"Traveler," Zhongli caught the attention of Aether and Paimon. "I think it would be wise to follow her lead."

"But she's not in the right state of mind--"

"I'm afraid that's exactly why we should listen to her. Come now," he ushered them over and they all began to head in the direction of the border. Aether was still protesting, but you couldn't hear what he was saying.

"You--" An angry voice prompted you to turn your head. "--are DEAD!"

"On the contrary," you didn't budge when he came running at you, "it's you who'll die today."

Sparring sessions in the snow with Childe made it much easier to navigate the fresh layers. It appeared that Scaramouche's time in Mondstat had made him rusty when faced with using the snowy terrain to his advantage, but that didn't stop him from promoting a superconductive reaction whenever he managed to get close to you. If your vision didn't break, it would be much easier to use that strategy against him. Instead you relied on an old tree branch as your weapon and the wind to guide your stiffing movements as the temperatures finally bit into your skin.

Speaking of Childe, where is he today? He couldn't be waiting at the border to ambush the group...right? A quick glance over your shoulder gave Scaramouche an opening.

"Haah!" Electricity pulsed through the branch that blocked his attack from striking your head.

"Ngh!" Bear through it. I've felt worse pain. I can handle this! "Get back!" Your hurricane-force winds didn't catch him off guard now that he knew it was your only strategy against him; you had no idea how to use this unfamiliar power, and while your movements were quick, your inexperience showed.

Scaramouche leapt in time to dodge the gust that tried to sweep him off his feet, and the hat that was in his hand struck your jaw hard enough to bring stars into you vision. Who knew such a small person could strike like one of those electro skirmishers-

You stumbled and attempted to regain your footing, but not before those all-too familiar jolts rang through your body. "Ah!" The snow beneath you didn't help, and neither did the fact that you were now on your knees. Violent winds whipped blindly in every direction; you couldn't bring yourself to open your eyes. It seems you were missing your target since you were still being electrocuted.

A sharp kick to your stomach, and you were now staring at the overcast sky. Then that damned hat obscured your view. "After this, I'm killing that hero of Mondstat and your retired god."

"Tch." The taste of iron overwhelmed your tongue. "You won't kill us that easily."

"What do you care? You have nothing to live for now that that adeptus is dead. Die while you still have some smidge of dignity left."

Your confidence faltered if only slightly. "Take that back. Take that back!" You swung the branch at his catalyst and leapt to your feet. "He's not dead!" Your aimless, sloppy swings were enough to draw a laugh from the harbinger. At least, until he kicked you backwards, using his vision to push you further and harder into a tree behind you.

CRISTCH.

W-What...Involuntary tears of pain made it difficult to see where the wound was until the pain pinpointed somewhere around your right kidney. What just...?

"Good, right where I want you." Scaramouche began to stalk over with his catalyst floating closely behind him, eyes glinting with satisfaction at the growing spot of blood at your abdomen.

"The tree..ngh..." What do I do? What do I do? I'm pinned. I can't--I can't think straight--

"Hey girlie, hold still." TWISH. The firing of an arrow rudely interrupted the battlefield and the force of his elemental burst knocked your opponent off his feet. The voice of a dangerous man shouldn't have been this comforting.

"C-Childe? What the hell are you--"

"What the HELL are you doing?!" Scaramouche readied his catalyst and sat up prepared for 'friendly' fire. Anger practically radiated off of him.

"Making amends. What does it look like?" The harbinger emerged from somewhere behind you and moved so that he was between you and your opponent.

"What...?" Your whisper reached his ears, and Childe glanced at you briefly.

"What a gorgeous sight you make, ojou-chan! Your blood on the snow is simply breathtaking." The friendliness in his eyes emptied. "Unfortunately, I'll have to cut my admiration short. Can you move?"

"Ngh, I think so. Give me a minute."

"Perfect," he returned his attention to his fellow harbinger. "Sorry to interrupt, but you won't be killing her today. And I have to say, Scaramouche, I've been looking forward to this for a long time."

#genshin impact #childe genshin impact #xiao genshin impact #xiao x reader #genshin x reader #say my name and ill be there #xiao fanfiction #fanfiction #genshin impact xiao #wesimpforxiao

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tobi-momo · 3 years

Text

"The Setter's Help" Chapter 8 - Final Chapter

Pairing: Kageyama Tobio x Volleyball player!reader

Synopsis: With a big game coming up, the confidence in your setting has gone down significantly. Knowing the setter on the Karasuno boy’s volleyball club is good at what he does, you ask him for help. Will he help you build your confidence and skills or will he just tear it down more?

Genre: Romance, fluff, some crack, angst, hurt/comfort

Chapter Warnings: Cursing

Word Count: 3.5k

Taglist is CLOSED

The air that enters your lungs comes out in puffs, a clot in your throat that prevents the swift in take of the oxygen you need for your vision to move somewhere that wasn’t the dirty floors under you. The fear and the intimidation that ran through your jamming pulse radiated out of you, the stuttering of your nerves creating a fog in your abdomen- moths instead of butterflies. Your body felt fuzzy, even as you looked at the trembling hand that floats in the air, it felt numb. A raggedy breath leaves your lips as you gather feeling back into all the nerve endings that rest in the pads of your fingers. Your eyebrows furrow in concentration as you screw your eyes shut, feeling the cool air sweep up against your skin.

It might have been a new, refreshing light that flows through the strands of your hair, or maybe- just maybe, it was the doors opening to let the other team enter.

Holy shit it’s happening.

This is it. The one thing you’ve been practicing for for weeks.

The big game.

You take a quick look around the gym- the room not fully set up, people getting ready to sit down in the stands, the players from the other team setting their bags down and stretching while their coach gives them a quick pep talk- your teammates doing the same. You saw the boys’ team sitting down, as well. Half were munching on snacks, the others indulging in conversation with each other, Nishinoya and Tanaka multitasking and doing both, while the rest just sat and got their phones ready or just watched the other team, including someone in particular.

It’s been a couple days since you’ve taken a good look at him. His arms were crossed as he observed the other team with annoyance, gathering the information he needed on all players. It’s not like he was going to tell you- well, not anymore. He took a chance, when he flicked his pupils to match yours. Even though he didn’t expect you to look back, he did it anyway. And when he caught the color of your iris looking right back at him, he shook with nervousness. You turn away quickly the moment he sets his eyes on you- a hitch in your throat creating a sort of choke that crept up. His stare lingered longer than it should have, watching you pick a ball up from the court with your clammy hands and slap it on the ground before partnering up and warming up your arms.

For whatever reason, he kept his vision nailed on your wrists, watching them carefully. He was surprised at the improvement you showed since he started working with you. Your arm looked strong, powerful. That was good. Your eyes were taped to the ball, as it should be. Your wrists were flicking at the right time and the ball floated in the air gracefully, like he taught you. So why, he asked in his head, why were you so nervous? You’ve had games before, this is just another one. Why was this game so important?

His attention was brought back to the team that practiced on the other side of the mnet, watching for weaknesses and advantages.

This was going to be tough. They had control over their energy- they were confident. Sure they were going to win this. You, on the other hand, had doubt painted over your face in red. God, he felt like an idiot. What was he trying to prove? He made you feel like nothing when he should have been helping you conquer the world. Dumbass.

“Hey, do you see their setter?” Hinata asks out of the blue, pointing to the other team.

“Number three?”

“Yeah, I think she’s a third year. Do you think Y/n can compete with that?”

“What do you mean,” he asks defensively, “why wouldn’t she?”

“Well, she’s probably had more experience and has played against many other people just like this team, Y/n hasn’t,” the ginger explains, using tiny hand gestures.

“That doesn’t mean anything,” The blackette stops him, determination lining his pupils as he focuses on you, “Y/n is a good player, she’s just nervous or something. Give her time, she’ll do fine,” he pauses, “I think.”

“I hope so,” Hinata breathes out, watching the girls do their drills. “Does she play all around?”

“Probably,” Kageyama answers nonchalantly.

“Oh,” the boy mumbles. They continue to watch the girls warm up.

~.~.~.~

“Hey, hey, calm down, okay? You got this!” A girl beside you on the bench holds her water bottle while cheering you on. You give an awkward smile, just wanting the antics to calm down a bit.

You were fine. You were okay. You were good. You got it. You can do it. You recall the moments you got a strained compliment from the man you looked up to, the one who helped you become better. He’s only said subtle things like “that was good” or “nice job”, but every time those words left his lips a sense of comfort and reassurance washed refreshingly over your body, like you really earned it. Maybe you could do that again.

“Thanks, I think I’ll be fine,” you respond, letting her tone down a bit before you get up to your position.

It was a weird rotation, although you thought you had it nailed down pretty well. Practicing over hours everyday helped you feel better about memorizing where everyone goes every time you rotated. So, as you walk over to right-front, you watch the referee check the girls’ spots, then you get into position.

Once the sound of the whistle went off, your vision tightens to the people on the other side of the net. Strangers, they were, trying to invade and conquer your land.

You weren’t about to let them do that.

~.~.~.~

“Wow, she’s really good,” Hinata notes as he watches your form as you jump up to toss the ball, your loud cheer echoing with the smack of the ball once your teammate smacks it towards the other side with power. “Was she like that the whole time?”

“I guess,” Kageyama mumbles with his vision glued to you. He watches you form a fist as you grab another point, a wild smile covering your face. He could almost smirk at the joy he was watching, your smile didn’t have to be that contagious, you know. The happiness and excitement that grew on your face spread to everyone else on the court, your teammates reciprocating that emotion. You did it on purpose, he knew. Even if you weren’t actually feeling like it, you needed your teammates to, or else this game was out of the window. Why didn’t he tell you that you needed that, too?

It seemed that every time he looked at you, there was another thing that he left out. Another thing that he could have taught you, let you know of, showed you. Especially that you were good enough. That you had the talent, the skill. All that you needed…was to believe in yourself.

Why didn’t he help you?

“I’ll be back.” Kageyama practically jumps out of his seat, storming out of the gym without a single glance to pay towards the game once more. The boys don’t question it much, only exchanging quick glances to each other before going back to whatever they were doing beforehand. He exits the gym, his back slamming against the wall while he groans. Upset, he places his hands on his head in frustration, turning away from the people still entering.

He could have done so much better.

~.~.~.~

“Yeah! Nice kill!” Your cheerful shouts reverberate throughout the gym, your smile radiating off to other players. Too bad you were still too nervous to actually enjoy this.

You saw what the other setter could do. Three could do things you couldn’t. Three had talent and skill that was just so beyond your reach. You knew it was the end of the road for you. God, you knew it. You had failed before you had the opportunity to even get your first victory. First victory as first setter.

“Y/n, it’s to you!” You shake your head vigorously back into focus as you plop your arms out in front of you, receiving the aggressive ball. It spins up in the air as you yell, “Setter out!” so somebody else can take hands. The red spot that spread on your arm felt really good, like something that was supposed to be there. The ball was supposed to hit right there, bounce up perfectly and create a beautiful play. Like Kageyama taught you.

Was it bad that you sort of missed him? Were you a bad person for wanting him back in your life? After he was ripped away from screaming insults and attacking you, literally, he seemed to really, genuinely be sorry. You wanted- want to forgive him. You want to do more than forgive him. You want to be with him.

You’re climbing the score board, stealing point after point. Soon, it’s the fifth set. Two to Two. The spike in your nerves were inexplicable, the numbness coming back. This- this was it. You got it, just breathe. Control yourself, you can do it. You were in the perfect place, no need for you to switch position with another after the ball is sent your way, your feet stomping on left-front for grip.

~.~.~.~

“Kageyama, it’s the fifth set, come back in, the game is almost over. You missed a lot, dude.” Hinata says half way in the doorway of the hallway, the loud cheers and squeaks of shoes reiterating. “Kageyama-”

“I heard you,” he cuts the red-head off firmly. He picks his head up from the ground, inhaling to calm his nerves. When he walks back inside, his eyes immediately tape onto your figure, not on purpose, but subconsciously. He didn’t mean to, he just did it. The way you stepped perfectly as you did your approach and hit the ball down on the other side forced his feet to slow down, just to watch you a little longer while you made that court yours.

He saw the nervousness seep into you the moment the score hit twenty-four to twenty-three. One point. One point was all that it took to win, or to tie. He saw the trembling in your hands, the hot breaths that left your mouth, the boiling beads of sweat that helplessly dripped down your skin. He knew what you were thinking, but he was too afraid to say something to help. Coward.

As he sat down, all eyes were on you.

~.~.~.~

Your heart beats irregularly, your lungs almost hyperventilating when you watch the reff raise his arm in the air towards your team, blowing the whistle while folding it to his chest.

This was it.

He watched your fret in concentration with a furrowed brow, his arms crossed and his back leaned forward in the stands.

You get in position at the net, your hands floating in the air, inches away from the net. You make eye contact with the setter on the opposite position, her deathly glare making your deep sigh seem more in defeat than it was in anticipation. The toe of your shoe tapped the floor, your vision zeroing in on the girl in the back that bounces the very ball that determines your fate on the sore floors.

Take a deep breath, Y/n. Just take a breath.

The ball is sent over. Good. It soars over to middle-back, ‘don’t let it get there’, Kageyama told you once. Send the ball somewhere they can’t get it, not directly to the player.

She receives it. Beautiful. “Mine, mine! Nice receive!” You yell to the libero, who nods after she sends the ball towering. To set this, you need to run deeper- it didn’t go directly to you. So you do. You run. You sprint, actually. You rush your way under that ball, which powers it’s way down- God, it’s so low. Squat, you have to squat! Getting down, you stretch your hamstring and balance on your heel while the ball finally makes contact with the tips of your fingers. Remember the wrist, Y/n, remember the wrist. Flick! The ball floats effortlessly in the air, as if in slow motion. You watch as the right-front hitter does their approach, springing themselves up in the air and as you stand, smacks it down.

Shit. Shit!

Where is the defense?? Where are they??

You take a look around the second before the ball is forced over to see absolutely no one covering the hole. The girls weren’t in the correct positions, an entire spot being empty at the front of the court. You needed to get there.

Your ball is centimeters away from making contact with the blocker on the other team, your feet not moving as fast as you need them to. Millimeters, now. And… bash. The hand of the middle blocker hits itself against the ball, ricocheting off her skin back to your court.

Time is running out.

You’re running again. A strained heave leaves you as you almost trip over your own ankles to chase after this ball. Of course it’s off to the hole. Still, nobody moves. They just watch.

‘If you absolutely need to get something, dive. Let’s practice that.’ Kageyama taught you this. You can do it. Dive. Use your hands to slow yourself down, and not go too far or injure yourself. You don’t have time to breathe properly, you just need to get there! Please! Just get there!

Your stomach slides on the floor as your wrist reluctantly pops the ball back in the air. Come on, come on, come on!

Oh! The ball rises just far enough to touch the top of the net, your teammates still frozen as they watch the scene play in front of them. You wanted to be upset, but you didn’t have time for that right now. It wavers, you’re not sure if it’ll make it, and you can’t touch the ball again without giving them the point, and your teammates refuse to work with you.

This was unbearable.

It slowly walks along the net like a tightrope, not picking a side to fall on before- yes! Yes, yes, yes! Your strained, stretched, wide eyes couldn’t tell anyone how fast your heart was beating, how fast your thoughts ran through. Absolutely nothing could compare with the adrenaline and the anxiousness that makes your pulse beat as it falls to the setter on the other team. She was shocked as she crouched her body to get this under the net, her arms stretching to make contact with the ball and-

The whistle blew. All noise stops, your ears are practically ringing, though, as you whip your head to the referee. The ball is forgotten, hitting the ground repeatedly and faster every time it makes contact with the floor until it rolls away. The whistle stays in his mouth, but his arm moves. To the net? Your head follows the line his hand points to, all the way down to the…to the foot that rests past the line.

Your breath wouldn’t come out, your stinging eyes not seeing everyone in the audience stand up and lean down to see and your ears not picking up the sudden screams that they let out. Your teammates were jumping up and down, piling up on top of each other, dragging your body with theirs as they celebrated the victory. Your victory.

Because you fucking won.

The tears that poured out of you were something that wouldn’t go unnoticed by Kageyama. For he was just…watching. Watching you. Watching you cover your mouth with your hand slowly, falling on your knees in realization that you, essentially, won this game. The circle your teammates made as they bunched up together in celebration didn’t include your sobbing figure. Your shoulders bounce as you cry on the dirty, sweaty floors of the court you just dominated. The steaming tears left your waterline and puddled on the floor, splashing on your hand as your back falls forward towards the ground.

You- you did this. After all this time, and all this work and practice, you did it. And as you hunch over and hide the bawling you can’t keep to yourself, the person that you wanted to thank the most’s hand places itself on your back. The warmth and the tingling was undoubtedly him, his fingertips lightly scratching your back when you take the risk of looking up at him. Turning your head, you see his figure already squatting down next you, his head only a couple inches above yours. He smiles, a real smile. One that he showed you when he was proud of you, when he was happy and content with your actions. The screams of everyone in the room were muffled, everything was blurry except his dark blue eyes that bore straight back into yours. Did you deserve this? Did you deserve to win?

His thumb cautiously brushes your cheek when you start to sit up, your spine lining up straight again. “You did-” he clears his throat, “you did good out there,” he mumbles, slightly embarrassed, but doing his best to swallow his pride and tell you what you deserve to hear. You look down in disbelief, almost scared you weren’t hearing this correctly. “Hey, look at me,” he mutters to you, taking your attention once more when your glassy eyes flicker back to him again. His palms rest on your cheeks, his thumbs wiping away the continued tears that slip free from your puffy eyes while his pupils stay focused on yours. “You deserved it, okay? You really did.”

Another sob lets go, and it wouldn’t stop even if his shirt caught it. You both sat on your knees, his hand on top of your head as it rests on his chest while you cry. His other hand just sits on your back, unmoving yet not faltering to give you the reassurance you desperately needed.

“You did good,” he repeated, just in case you needed to hear it again.

“Thank you,” you whimper into the fabric he wears, your lips shaping an ‘o’ while you try and take your breaths slow and steady. The hands that lay dead on the floor come up and wrap around his torso, squeezing him closer. His breath hitches. “Thank you so much, Kageyama.”

He only hums, letting his hands snake around your form as well. It was a subtle embrace, his warmth covering yours, but very affectionate and meaningful, and noticeable, by the way the Karasuno boys’ just won’t stop talking about it.

He tries to ignore the little clicks and flashes and the giggling and snark behind him, but he groans at his friends and glares at them after leaning his head back. They take a step back, but still “observe” from a further distance. He turns back, relieved. His head droops down to lay on top of yours, no care in his body for the sweat that gathers in your hair. No regard for the sweat anywhere on you, really. He just wanted to enjoy this moment.

~.~.~.~

“So…”

“So…” you repeat, walking with him down the sidewalk with your fingers wrapping around each other bashfully, your heads turned towards the ground shyly while you walk hand in hand. Your arm swings back and forth and his thumb rubs the back of your palm.

“Do you want to practice volleyball with me again? Another time?” He asks nervously with speed.

“Ah, volleyball?” You ask, contemplating. “Would you like to do something else?” He blushes. “I don’t know, like, get coffee somewhere? Or maybe just hangout at my place?”

“Uh, we can do both!” He shouts, trying his best. You can tell he’s incredibly tense, anxious about this topic. You giggle at the effort.

“Sure, okay, then. Let’s do it.”

He smiles with you, an excited smile you don’t think you’ve had the pleasure laying eyes on before. His smiles never seemed normal, but they were always the cutest thing to behold. You loved them. You loved everything about him. And you were grateful. For everything. You couldn’t have done this without him, and you made sure to let him know that with the kiss you left on his cheek before you went inside. His burning cheeks seemed on fire when your sweet lips made contact with his skin. He was as stiff as a board, his face melting in shock while your hands placed themselves on his shoulders. Your head moves back, your nose tickling his as you look him in the eye.

“I’ll see you tomorrow, Tobio.”

“Uh, yeah, yeah. I’ll see you tomorrow,” he stutters. His eyes wide as a deer in headlights with your face as close to his as it is, a breath falling out of him he didn’t even know existed when you turned around to head inside of your house.

He waved to you politely before he watched your body disappear behind the door. But this time, he knew you were coming back.

A/N: holy fucking shit its over omg- like theres the epilogue and then the setter's help is done! im actually so sad its over and im gonna really miss it :( thank you wombat so much for helping me seriously you are a big part of why im posting this thank you love <3 also sorry for the delays lol im buried deep in school

taglist in reblog!

(reblogs are VERY appreciated <3)

MASTERLIST

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allykakamatsu · 3 years

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Hypothetical P5A

Okay, gonna make this clear right up front, I wanted to make this post for a while but the main reason I decided to do it now is because the Atlus announcement thing is almost here, and also cause I saw a video on this topic by Thorgi’s Arcade (go watch it btw it’s good) and while I agree with a lot of what he said, there’s also some things I’d change, not just cause I disagree, but also cause I think it would be fun. Anyway enough beating around the bush, let’s do this

Gameplay

I’m a firm believer in the phrase, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it, and the Arena games are already really good so not much to change. That being said, I still wanna change some things. First off though, we are keeping this 1 vs 1, no tag team matches. The arena games already have a lot of Mechanics going on and trying to keep everything as well as some new stuff WHILE adding a tag team button, yeah no let’s not outside of maybe a bonus mode.

This means I can’t add Batton Pass in as a new mechanic to represent P5, but I have a solution, that being Technicals. Status ailments already exist in this game, so how about when you inflict one and do a specific combo you do more damage, also providing risk vs reward as the player with the status will have a better idea of what the opponent will do making them more predictable. Also as for Persona’s, mostly everyone’s will be fully evolved, minus Yu cause him getting a final boss persona normally is a tad to OP, meanwhile the P5 characters will have their starting Persona’s, but they will evolve for big moves, like awakened mode supers and instant kills

I’m also borrowing Thorgi’s Arcade idea of having supports giving a slight buff in battle, like if you pick Fuuka your meter can build faster for a bit, meanwhile if you pick Futaba you’ll get an attack and defence buff. It’s the fairest way to include them without having to make them playable. I know Rise is already playable but this roster is going to have to be small as it is, and being a support doesn’t mean you can’t be DLC later.

Also, we’re not bringing back the Shadow Characters, just, we are not dealing with the likes of Shadow Naoto again.

:readmore:

Story

I am about to cop out a bit here, but Thorgi’s Arcade video had a really good idea for the story so I’ll just link it here https://youtu.be/yyB5rEM9UVU

youtube

To summarise for people who don’t want to watch, Nyarlathotep, the main villain from the Persona 2 games, has been gaining strength from all the suffering humanity has gone through due to 3, 4 and 5, and has gained enough strength to create a new Joker to try finish what he started and destroy the world. Mitsuru might think the Phantom Thieves are behind it cause this is clearly persona related and the fact that the leader of the PT’s is also named Joker is public knowledge, Naoto gets largely the same idea, Katsuya and Maya decide to have their own investigation, meanwhile the Phantom Thieves are trying to prove their innocence and help save the world. Nice excuse to bring everyone together, but who will the everyone be?

Base Roster

Okay, I know the dream is getting everyone from Ultimax back plus the new P5 characters, but given Arc System’s standard for small base rosters, I’m not holding my breath. The ideal would be everyone plus who I’m about to say for P2 and P5, but I’m keeping it… somewhat realistic. Anyway onto the actual size, 16 seems fair enough. One more than the most recent Guilty Gear game for a series that had pretty big success so that sound fair enough. Let’s get the obvious out of the way though, all the base 8 Phantom Thieves besides Futaba are making the cut

Okay so that’s obvious but how will they play? Starting off with Ren/Joker, Smash Bros already laid a great foundation with him being very fast on the ground and in the air plus being great at combos, so I see no reason to change that. Also no need for him to be a Jack of all trades either cause spoilers, Yu is coming back and he already fills that role.

As for the others, Ryuji I can see being a slugger charge hybrid. Basically starting out he hits pretty hard but is a bit on the slow side to compensate, but just like any good athlete, give him a chance to warm up, ie do a charge input, and he becomes a lot faster and has better combo potential. Or we could make him a toned down version of Little Mac where he’s great on the ground but he’s in trouble the second aerial combat is involved. Then there’s Morgana who with his ability to turn into cars and the fact he introduces thief tools like smoke bombs, I can see him being a faster but frailer successor to Teddie.

Then there’s Ann who, no doubt, she’s a Zoner, and with her fire she’ll be Yukiko’s sort of successor. However instead of healing, I’d implement the fact that she learns concentrate and have it so the more she charges it up, the stronger her attacks get, but the Meter will gradually go down over the match. Yusuke, as tempting as it is to cop out and say ‘have him play like Vergil in Marvel vs Capcom’, I have a different idea. Namely, take advantage of the fact that Yusuke can learn counter by having him be the defensive specialist, set up ice traps to freeze the opponent, and if they get close, he can either counter or go for some combos.

Then there’s Makoto who would definitely be a grappler. I mean, she practices Aikido and is really strong, she can 100% pull it off. Finally Haru…… TANK! I mean come on, Haru wields an axe, has a grenade launcher, and Melady is literally a dancing tank in a pink dress, it just makes too much sense. I’d also give her a bit of armor cause if she’s slow she at least needs a chance to get her attacks in.

Okay so that’s 7 out of our 16 slots down, and given that one slot will have to be saved for the Evil Joker who would be the villain, we’re halfway done with 3 games to go, lord help me.

Okay, starting this off with P4, I’m gonna give them more than the others purely because they were the focus of the originals and there’s less realistic cuts I can make compared to 2 and 3. To make things simple, every returning character would play the same, and as for the ones I’d bring back for the base roster, we’ve got Yu, Yosuke, Chie and Naoto. Why them specifically? Well Yu is the main character, Naoto being a detective would basically mean she’d be the one getting everyone involved in the first place, Chie is currently training to be a cop as confirmed in P5 so her getting called in makes sense, and Yosuke is the best investigator after Yu and Naoto, he’s always up for a mystery and the second he learns Yu is involved he’s joining in. I just couldn’t cut him.

Now before the really painful cuts, Persona 2 is really easy. Out of Innocent Sin party members, by the end of the series Maya is the only one left with a Persona, and Katsuya is not only older brother of Innocent Sin’s protag Tatsuya, but he’s also pretty important and a detective so he’s definetly the one Maya’s dragging into this. As for how they play, they both use guns like Naoto, but how I’d mix them up is with Katsuya, I’d let him attack while moving (unlike Naoto who has so stay still to fire) at the cost of less combo potential, meanwhile Maya dual wields her guns so she’ll probably play like Noel Vermillion from BlazBlue where she’d more or less just use the guns to get longer reach melee attacks instead of shooting.

Now, for the hard part. There’s only 2 slots left, one of them basically has to go to Mitsuru (not that I’m complaining I’d probably add her anyway) meaning now I have to choose between the rest of the Shadow Operatives/SEES for the last slot. I narrowed it down to the 3 that were in the original Arena cause they’re the most plot relevant, but that still meant I had to choose between Akihiko and Aigis. I ended up deciding on Aigis though cause A, with Labrys not making the base roster someone has to represent the robots of the series, and B, with Akihiko currently pulling a Ryu by travelling to get stronger, it makes more sense that Aigis would be closer and easier for Mitsuru to call up. Honestly I was tempted to bump the roster up to 17 so I could have both of them on the base roster, but this is ArcSystems, 16 is already kinda pushing it.

DLC

Given that this is a modern fighting game, DLC is inevitable. However since this DLC will likely be like Ultimax where the story acts to wrap up loose ends and have a new story, it’s going yo be big, especially since there’s going to be a fight with Nyaraloptep, so go big or go home in this case. Okay so first order of business, anyone who was in the previous arena games who wasn’t in the base roster is getting added back in, it’s only fair. That out of the way, the new faces I’d add are Futaba actually being playable now and the big 4 P5 characters I skipped, Akechi, Yoshizawa, and Sophie. Before anyone asks though, Sophie was added into a Dragalia Lost collab with Koei Techmo not being credited so she’s likely Atlus’s copyright so she's safe to add.

With that out of the way, how would they play? Starting with Futaba, I’d think she’d be the resident puppet fighter, sitting on top of Necinomicon and only occasionally adding in some of her own attacks like a projectile. Also she'd also probably act as a bit of a grappler cause her Persona has tentacles (no hentai jokes please) which have long reach so that'll be perfect for it. Next up is Akechi who I can see as semi being two characters in one. My basic idea is that at first Akechi will be fighting with Robin Hood and he'll be a solid jack of all trades with a slight focus on rush down. However once he goes into his awakened mode he'll gain Loki, which will increase his speed and attack strength, at the cost of his defence, turning him into a glass cannon.

Next is Yoshizawa, or 'Sumi as I like to call her, and her thing will be she's the mobility focused fighter, namely constantly moving around the stage and poking at her opponent while doing it, at the cost of being frail. Finally there’s Sophie who would be a combo focused zoner, as in her standard projectiles (the yo-yo’s) wouldn’t hurt that much on their own, but she can string them together into the fancy yo-yo tricks to potentially do big damage. As for how much this DLC would cost, it’s going to be very big, so €25 to €30 sounds fair

I think that more or less covers my thoughts. I could keep going on about this for a while, but I think this is a good place to stop. Hope you like my idea!

#Youtube #persona 5 #persona 3 #persona 4 #persona 2 #persona arena #phantom thieves #investigation team #SEES #shadow operatives #happy 25th anniversary Persona!

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rosiethorns88 · 4 years

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Queen of Nothing Thoughts / Reflection on the Series

Many people are asking me, so I’m pooling them here. I’m not a writer or a reviewer, just a reader. :)

SPOILERS AHEAD:

First, an expectation summary:

- Overall, the book hit all of my high notes and succeeded in its story telling to me, personally. Holly has a pattern with climax building reflected in all three of her books that I really enjoy as a reader. There are shocking moments about two-thirds of the way in each book that feel like climaxes, but after the sudden burst and fall out, it slowly builds up again to another and greater peak. I find the early upsets and expanded conclusions of the final acts to be really satisfying to unfold, page by page. Cardan and Jude are two fascinating characters and the friction their personalities cause with one another make for some satisfying sparks. The whole cast of characters are colorful and the world building is rich, and I enjoyed the escapism the entire series brought to me with each visit.

- I was completely satisfied with the pacing, because it worked for the story at hand. Madoc was making his move and allies from all over Faerie were seeing Cardan’s control over his court wane in his wake. Both Jude and Cardan had to move and move fast to get themselves in a position of defense. In fact, the one act that I feared may have dragged on the longest, Jude’s ‘entrapment’ at the camp, actually moved forward quite quickly and kept my interest once Grimsen and the Ghost entered the mix. To spend time tying up every frayed thread with other non-player characters before the end would have lessened the urgency of story’s impending conflicts. Let’s get Jude and Cardan settled and to their honeymoon first before we chat about Nicasia’s love woes over tea.

- The Jurdan reunion was great, I love how it reflects the previous books with them having to first play act with each other again. Though I was hoping for it to last a bit longer with Cardan stringing Jude along in her disguise. I was really excited for Jude to play switch-a-roo as Taryn, but didn’t expect it to end so suddenly. It would have been a great call back to the circumstance of Cardan’s being tricked at the end of The Wicked King.

- The fact the Cardan was so involved with Jude’s runarounds: the rescue attempt from the palace, the actual rescue from the camp, his tag-alongs with her questing. It made all of their interactions very satisfying as it was expanding beyond the verbal throw-downs they only had before. I’ve seen many people complain there were not enough Jurdan scenes, but y’all. We barely had a breath of their interactions from the 1st and 2nd books compared to QoN. I was thoroughly pleased.

- The fact that Cardan indulges in Jude’s political nature and wears it proudly like a brooch when he’s addressing his court. He’s basically like, “I’m here to be my witty and sarcastic self; she’s here to be her just and vicious self. We complete each other.”

- CARDAN REUNITES WITH HIS DOOR! This was my favorite reunion scene as it was one of the many world building elements I enjoyed from the first book. Cardan’s playful and endearing greeting to his door at Hallow Hall was such a thought provoking element - I could only imagine as he grew up at the hall, he had little things or persons to befriend. And with the revelation of Cardan sneaking out human servants in the night, it makes sense he could get away with it with this unique friendship. I’m so glad this was a payoff.

- Madoc - I love Madoc. SO MUCH. He’s such a rich character, it’s so hard to call him morally grey when his character is so colorfully rich. Every chapter I either put an extra tick on his ‘I hate you so much’ or ‘I love you so much’ tally. He’s so true to his nature as a red cap, yet still so loving and caring for his family. He truly shows his hurt and conflict in his anger towards Jude after he finds she has betrayed or outwitted him. I reflect back to The Cruel Prince, when Jude was reminiscing how she and Madoc would play a board game of strategy (like chess) and have to interrupt it. All day, Jude would think about her possible moves and his possible moves, so when they returned to the game, the entire strategy had changed. This is how they interacted all through out the novel. Every thought and move was predicted, then challenged, then overturned before they could even meet face to face again. It’s amazing how there are no villains or heroes in this story; Jude and Madoc’s conflict were just an ever spinning tornado of their own morals and loyalties and ideals.

- Ghost & Taryn redeemed! I must admit, I was completely shaken by the Ghost’s betrayal in TWK, and did not expect him to be a redeemable character, though I did expect him to be involved somehow. I’m a little less satisfied with how quickly Taryn changed her spots back, especially with the build up from The Lost Sisters novella, and wish that Locke wasn’t killed off-screen. I can believe what she said happened, and that she was unhappy with the situation, but for it all to be delivered in one sitting as a monologue, it didn’t sink in for me for a while. I didn’t expect to have a redeeming arc for either of them, nor expect hints at their possible relationship, but it all fell into place nicely. At the end, I felt that the Ghost deserved to have his freedom, and that Taryn was appropriate to hold him to it.

- The Bomb and The Roach! I was happy for them to find their happily ever after, but Noooooo I didn’t want the Roach to be fridged! The Roach x The Bomb x Jude x Cardan interactions produce the best lines in the entire series and I was super sad to see the Roach exit so early. But from the little we received, it was a delight.

- Nicasia, Valerian (his curse), Locke - to me these three didn’t have the conclusions I was hoping for, but there may be open lore left to explore for Holly. I do understand why others insist that the last book be split into two and expanded upon, but the book was sharply focused on Jude and Cardan’s predicaments. Nicasia, Valerian and Locke all had unfinished stories and conflicts with both of them, but they were past issues that weren’t actively affecting the plot, and so I wasn’t troubled by their absence. But I’m hoping short stories or expanded lore in other Holly-verse novels may touch upon them.

- Vivi / Heather - This side plot got a little more attention than I expected, even though I didn’t appreciate the decisions both Vivi and Heather made (just as Jude didn’t). I was actually expecting Heather to take the route that she did, but just a little bit further than where she ended up. I love that she went completely Hermione on the group, but really wasn’t helpful in the end (which is ok). However, I think the true recourse for Heather’s involvement was intended solely for Vivi. By Heather experiencing Faerie a second time with the expectations of the terrors it offered, she was able to see other facets of the world Vivi has ties too, which is why she gave Vivi the second chance to reintroduce it to her in a better light.

- Oak / Oriana - I find Oriana such a delight as a character, but I don’t know why I always forget she exists until she appears on page. Which is appropriate, as she makes herself seen and be heard when she wants to. I love how helicopter parent she is with Jude even though she’s made it clear that she barely tolerates their familial ties. Still, her ability to parry Jude’s rebellious and un-lady-like behavior with her witty retorts gave us some of my favorite scenes from the previous books, and I enjoyed their brief reunion under the same circumstances at the camp. Oak, on the other hand I felt was underused as a character, and instead, justifiably used as a political object. Oak and Oriana’s relationship made for an interesting divisiveness between Team Madoc and Team Jude, that I think was an important factor, but ultimately Oak didn’t have much to do in decision makings in the QoN like he did in TCP. However, I feel this is because his character arc begins at the end of this novel with the new character ex-Queen Suren. And whether or not that story makes it onto a page, I can accept that his story was left open-ended to begin here.

Regarding Jude:

I think it’s important to highlight Jude’s development with her feelings toward Cardan - specifically with her reaction toward her exile. I wouldn’t say she’s an unreliable narrator, more so, she’s an unreliable romantic. Jude is the ‘DON’T Notice Me Senpai’ main character who throws red flags up for every action Cardan does.

A very popular theory about Cardan’s exile was that Jude would be able to pardon herself since she is part of the crown as queen. When that turned out to be true, I saw a lot of disappointment from readers with the obviousness of it - but that’s because it was obvious to ourselves, and it always has been. Cardan’s wordplay is a defining trait for his character and there have been several scenes where we the reader are completely in the know when he’s doing it and are charmed by it right along with Jude. During the exiling, Jude is not in the know and is blinded at first by her stupor as a newly wed and then later with her doubt in Cardan’s feelings for her as she flat out admits to herself that the crown pardon could be a loop hole.

This is what makes the rose garden scene such a great turning point - because they both realized they fooled each other without knowing it and are both distressed by each other’s reaction. Their trust in each other was becoming more brittle as it grew, until they realized they both could no longer play their old schemes against each other without risking that trust breaking.

All throughout, Jude has been judging and second guessing everything he does while she scrambles across this political chess board. Deny his feelings, manipulating her own feelings, pushing and pulling and advancing further to the top before her desire for power and her desire for Cardan meet at the peak. And here, between the possibility of losing the power she gained or condemning the feelings she found, is when she finally has to make that choice for herself, when she had viable reasons to go either way. With the way she struggled for both, she earned that right to choose.

Favorite moments / quotes:

- Cardan flinching at Jude’s indirect confession while she was disguised as Taryn - and Jude wholly unaware of the implications.

- Cardan relishing in his cleverness about the exile, while Jude is like WTF and they’re completely clueless about each other’s reaction until in the later rose garden scene. - Cardan’s ‘Jude, DON’T!’ - seriously, listen to the audiobook, you can hear the fear in his voice as his murder wife runs off to battle. And because we the readers can hear that fear, while Jude doesn’t, makes it more heart breaking.

- Madoc alluding to Jude (as Taryn) about Cardan’s berserk mode when he tried to prevent Jude’s capture at the palace. And of course, Jude denying it (psh)

- Cardan doing the grunt work in Jude’s camp rescue, and getting socked in the stomach for it - hah! And of course, The Roach preening he warned him.

- Cardan subconsciously protecting Jude from the arrow trap

- Jude scaring off a faerie guard with mortal menstruation.

- “Do not touch her. She is my wife.”

- How LONG have I waited for Cardan to finally witness how much Jude mutilates her body from her fights, and then for him care for her himself in his bed was just an extra mountain of whipped cream with sprinkles on top. (remember, she hid from him her hand stabbing, her self-poisoning, her leg injury from Locke’s attack, the details of Valerian’s attempt to murder her TWICE, the details of her torturous time in the undersea, etc. Let him know your WOES, woman! Y’all need to cash in some empathy points!)

- Jude having no choice but to wear Cardan’s clothes

- SLAP

- “Maybe he’d like to hear me scream.” exchange. And the hair touch!

- MY DOOR!

- The Ghost spider scrambling up the wall towards Cardan, and Taryn whiplashing him. Poor baby!

- Cardan intrigued by Slushies and Gummy Worms

- Cardan privately reprimanding Randalin about Jude and him scurrying out of the room in a panic. WHAT WAS SAID? CARDAN WAS SMILING.

- Freakin Cardan confessing and cutting her off at the door.

- Jude taking the time to panic, to mourn and to plan after the transformation. I felt giving too much haste toward a ‘Disney-true-love-spell-breaking ending’ would have ruined the direness of Cardan’s sacrifice.

- That fingers-digging-into-her-back hug.

- Tight pants, t-shirt and a Lopsided paper crown.

#queen of nothing #spoilers #queen of nothing spoilers #qon spoilers #qon #the queen of nothing #holly black #the folk of the air #cardan #tfota #jurdan

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dandystory · 3 years

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A Black Eagles Retrospective on Maddening

I’ve been spinning plates for a few months with real life events, and I’m actively trying to lighten that load one plate at a time. In an effort to regain some balance between my career and myself, I returned to a little bit of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, a game I hadn’t really touched since blazing through it at launch. At that time, I blasted through both Black Eagles and Blue Lions on Hard/Classic, and I felt a genuine connection to both my units and the overall flow of both paths.

That being said, each path is a pretty large time commitment, and the lack of difficulty, huge amount of activity points and the overall sameness of the first half for each route caused me to lose some steam before making my way to Golden Deer. This time, however, I decided I was ready for a new adventure with a fresh set of units and supports to explore. I decided to up the difficulty to Maddening, and start on a NG+ plus file to avoid some of the built-in monotony(I’m looking straight at you, fishing) and off I went.

Initially, my ask for a challenge was rewarded; the first few chapters of maddening are easily the most frustrating, and I was in a for a rude awakening with just how squishy a lot of my units were. Additionally, unlike El and Dimitri, I found I couldn’t just throw Claude into a group of enemies and come out with a win. I had to adjust my strategies, get comfortable with the idea of taking turns slowly, and learn when it was OK to push, and when I needed to take advantage of a quick retreat.

Looking back on it, those chapters served as the building blocks for how Maddening operates. They aren’t nearly as difficult as they felt at the time, and the more I played, the more I realized they were just introducing a method of playing the game that was necessary on this new difficulty, but not so on Hard or Normal. Much like playing Sekiro, the more I played through the game, the more comfortable I got and the more I felt like Maddening was the most natural way for me to experience this third path.

Unfortunately, NG+ put a rather large damper on this whole experience the further along I went in the story. I’m fully aware that this was probably my fault, because after all, NG+ really only adds more options. You don’t have to add professor rank, and you don’t have to insta-recruit all your favorite students. But the more I played, the more I realized how hard it was to pass up that easy convenience. This brought on the slog that usually awaits the player near the end of the story to chapter 6 or 7, and I honestly wasn’t ready for that. I made it to chapter 13, and then I felt like I was done for a while.

Instead of playing more FE3H, I started to watch more content about it on YouTube. I saw a lot of the planning, careful recruitment of characters, and overall fun that comes with playing the game on maddening without the benefits NG+ provides. I’ll be honest, I also saw that title screen that comes with beating the game without NG+, and I was drawn to picking up the game one more time.

Rather than go back to the Golden Deer route, I decided to pick a house I was more comfortable with. Edelgard was the reason I choose the Black Eagles in the first place, and I felt like I wanted my first clear on this difficulty to be with the house that made me love the game. I was familiar with the units, with what their general strengths were, and I also wanted to learn a little bit more about how I could optimize them with a little bit of planning. I did a little bit of research on what abilities and classes I should pick up along my journey, and also made a commitment to using my in-house units as much as possible this time. No Shamir, no Lysithea and no Felix this time around. Well, maybe just a little bit of Felix.

I’ll go over each of the units I used below, and how useful I thought they were on this game mode. Ultimately, reaching the end on this route proved to be more challenging in some ways, and a lot easier than Golden Deer in others. Generally, I think the ways the player can break the game apply to all routes, but team compositions and roles for each unit offer enough variety that I think I’ll be playing through on this mode again with a different route.

Edelgard

Edelgard was easily my favorite unit after Byleth for this run. My view of her was a little warped after my initial run with this house, as I left her in her unique classes for much of the second half of the game. I appreciated her survive-ability, but I often found her lagging behind and I honestly wasn’t familiar enough with Warp/Gambit strats to make her more of a viable tank.

This time, I went straight to Wyvern Lord and never looked back. There were a few times where I overstepped my limits in the initial stages of the game and had to Divine Pulse her back to safety, but she grew as a Dodge Tank and player phase wrecking ball as the game went along. By the final chapter, all the gardening I’d done for strength and speed boosters made her a 40/40 unit. She consistently functioned as my secondary dodge tank, a buster for monster and boss health bars, and a free pass for my team to slow down large enemy groups thanks to her ridiculous charm stat. Her biggest contribution by far, though, was wiping out 2 full bars of health from the Immaculate One to end the fight in the last chapter of the run.

I also S-ranked her in the end, which felt the most natural of all the options available.

Byleth (The Literal MVP)

I usually run a male, Enlightened One Byleth, but I decided to go with a dodge tank Falcon Knight this time around. For much of the game, she carried maps as a reliable front line unit that set up kills for my weaker units. I found myself wishing I’d invested more in axes in part 1 for pure damage, but I realized just how much I appreciated having a good sword unit when Wyvern Lords started to flood the later game maps.

I made sure to pick up both Death Blow and Darting Blow for this run, and I did the standard two tea times per month to pump up her charm as much as possible. Honestly, it felt like I messed around with this Byleth’s class progression a little too much (I debated if I really needed another flier on this team), but she still ended up with 40/40 strength and speed, and she was nearly untouchable on enemy phases with her Rapier.

Overall, she was the MVP for most of my maps, and she functioned as my primary method for pushing forward my units. I feel like Wyvern Lord and Falcon Knight are probably the most optimal way to play Byleth as a unit, but I’m a little mixed as to whether I’ll be taking this path again going forward. On my next run, I’d like to let some of my other units shine as well.

Ferdinand

My previous experiences with Ferdinand before this run were really poor. In my first run, he went through Paladin and carried a lot of the early game, but he fell off in the second half of the game. Because I didn’t know about death blow and swift strikes in my first run, I didn’t take advantage of his full tool kit and I had a really poor impression of him. I also tried incorporating him in my Golden Deer run, but he had awful strength gains and became a liability really quickly.

This time, I decided to run him through to Wyvern Lord. Initially, I was a little hesitant because I felt like I was crowding my team with too many fliers, and missing out on some helpful gambits. But my faith was rewarded, and Ferdinand turned into easily the third best overall unit on this run. By the final chapter, he’d naturally grown into a 37/37 strength and speed unit without the help of stat boosters, and with a little bit of focused healing to proc his personal ability, he handled enemy phases with ease and contributed a ton of chip damage.

My Ferdinand wasn’t optimized, though, as he never learned Swift Strikes and spent most of the game with a Hand Axe equipped for handling pesky snipers on enemy phases. I needed an answer for Falcon Knights, though, and Ferdinand served as a secondary answer behind Edelgard in the late game. Ultimately, I feel like I got a little lucky with his growths, but I’d definitely be more open to utilizing him going forward.

Jeritza

When I first played through Black Eagles on launch, I don’t believe Jeritza was available, and his addition to my team on this run honestly made me realize just how much Crimson Flower needed another versatile unit. He was easily one of my favorite four units, but I won’t say he was a wrecking ball like Edelgard, and he didn’t provide as much utility as Ferdinand during enemy phases. Instead, he acted as a balanced combination of offensive punch with enough defense to absorb both physical and magic hits for my weaker units.

I made sure to master his Death Knight class on this run, and although I certified for Wyvern Rider in preparation for the final few chapters, I never felt the need to switch his canon class. The fact that he couldn’t keep up with my front line units turned out to be a blessing, as he could soak up hits for both Dorothea and Lynhardt in the back. On player phase, I gave him a few Killer Lances and a Crit Ring, and he mowed down a lot of the Sword Masters that were giving me trouble in the early game.

Honestly, there’s not much to say about Jeritza other than that his balance and array of abilities brought an offensive punch to my team that I felt was missing from my first Black Eagles run. As good as the Black Eagles roster is, the lack of a physical tank posed a problem for me in the first part of the game. Though I remedied it by implementing a few dodge tanks, I wish Jeritza had been available a bit earlier to provide some balance to the team.

Felix

As I mentioned earlier, I was hesitant to recruit much during this run based on my experiences with Golden Deer NG+. But I realized pretty early on that I needed a Sniper replacement for Petra and Bernie as I took them down different routes this time. My previous experience with Felix was as a Swordmaster, and then as a War Master. He excelled in both, but as I looked through the roster of available units to fill my Sniper void, I found Felix to be the most suitable.

In retrospect, I didn’t fully understand Maddening when I first started this playthrough. If I could go back, I’d probably choose Ignatz instead, as his personal ability and versatility lean more into the sniper class in my opinion. Felix was a perfectly serviceable sniper on this run, but I always felt like I was lacking some of the kill potential I had with Ignatz on my previous Golden Deer run. At the same time, i felt like I was missing out on the War Master class by forcing Felix into a void I needed to fill. I also didn’t really have time to get him death blow on this run because he was a late recruit, so that played a factor in his performance as well.

Still, he consistently doubled leading up to Hunter’s Volley, and he was a decent crit machine in the middle chapters. My Bernie lacked punch on this run, and he more than made up for it all things considered. This was my most replaceable version of Felix and I don’t think I’d use his Sniper class again going forward, but he was perfectly serviceable in his role.

Hubert

Honestly, Hubert was pretty terrible on my first run on Hard/Classic, and that was probably due to my mismanagement of his class path and general lack of understanding of how to optimize mages. This time, I was a little bit more prepared to deal with his short comings, and I patched over them with better class and ability optimization and the Dark Knight’s increased movement.

Maddening presents an interesting challenge for mages, as they seem to provide a little bit more utility and chip than the raw offense they provide on lower difficulties. For example, my Golden Deer Lysithea fell short on a lot of damage thresholds, but she was great at warping units, and she was an easy out for Cavalry units. Though I didn’t generally love using her, I found her kit to be useful, and that generally applies to Hubert as well. Though he can’t Warp units around, I did make use of Banshee and Mire, and I also made sure to build his faith enough for Recover to act as a secondary or tertiary healer for Dorothea and Linhardt.

He also packed enough of a punch, though, that I overall enjoyed using him far more than Lysithea. He also was a little bit more sturdy, so I didn’t have to treat his movement with kid gloves. That was a welcome change for this difficulty, as it was one less worry for how I routed my maps. Overall, I really enjoyed this Hubert, and he was easily the 5th or 6th best unit on my team for this run.

Petra

This one was really hard for me, because Petra was a fantastic unit in both my Black Eagles and Blue Lions runs on Hard/Classic. However, I was indecisive with her class path on this run, and I think Maddening’s enemy stats punished her pretty severely for that.

Petra ended as a Wyvern Lord on this run, though for future runs I might take her down the Falcon Knight route. Maybe I was a bit unlucky, but her final splits for strength/speed were 30/40, which meant I was able to reliably double for much of the game, but a lot of my damage felt like chip at best. I found myself leaning harder into her bows for reliable chip damage the farther along we went, and though this was probably an effective use of her strengths given the rest of my units, I felt like I minimized some of her effectiveness the farther the game went along.

I initially planned to use her as an assassin, but I felt like her progression was lacking in the mid-game. I didn’t find many opportunities for her to provide value, and she was lacking some of the punch and defense that my other units provided. I made the decision to take her down the Wyvern Lord path at some point, but it was probably too late to save her strength stat, and at that point my front line units already had established roles I was comfortable with.

This Petra was mainly used for her movement utility to get chests before I cleared maps, and some reliable chip damage for breaking monster shields and getting rid of pesky fliers. Not a bad unit, and she provided good utility, but probably not my best Petra.

Bernie (A Utility Pitfall)

My first Black Eagles run gave me a mediocre impression of Bernadetta; she was my best sniper, but I was too focused on Edelgard and Byleth running through the enemy like hot butter to really appreciate the value she provided on that run. Additionally, I neglected feeding her experience before the timeskip, and I put her in too many sticky situations on the enemy phase to have a realistic chance of providing value.

On my maddening run, however, I made the decision to play around with Vengeance tactics to make my life a little easier. In the first half of the run, she was a secondary boss killer when Byleth was either too far behind, or was picking up some stragglers for experience. I put her in Pegasus Knight and watched the magic happen. She was the perfect glass canon for my team, and she made a lot of frustrating maps seem really simple when I was still struggling to adapt to this mode.

However, the further I went along, the less apt I was to go through the set-up of lowering her HP, and the less I wanted to use another flier on my team. Honestly, having a team of 6 or so fliers just didn’t seem fun, and so I transitioned her to Sniper, and then Paladin to make use of Hunter’s Volley for a while, and then Vengeance when I recruited Felix. As the game went along, I found myself using Encloser far more than Vengeance, and while it’s probably a pitfall to freeze an enemy in place rather than just killing them, I really enjoyed the utility. Her final class ended up being Bow Knight, and she transitioned from a boss killer to a utility superstar. Although she probably would function better on most teams as a vengeance flier, or as a sniper, I had enough firepower to make it through maddening already, and I really loved this utility version of her. Not my best unit, but one of my favorites.

Linhardt

Having used all of the main healers in the game, I can say with ease that Linhardt is my favorite. He provides a ton of personality, and his versatility with Restore and Warp really made me appreciate his overall viability as a main healer. For overall healing, I know Mercedes provides a little bit more oomph, and I think Marianne offers more raw damage output, but ultimately I didn’t really need either of those traits from my main healer. Physics were my main form of currency on Maddening, and I had enough damage up front to compensate for Linhardt’s lack luster offense.

Ultimately, there’s not much to say. He was really key in keeping my units alive through this run, and he was key in setting up Byleth on Felix’s paralogue as well as Manuela’s paralogue with Warp. I just stuck him in the Bishop class and let him go work. He was also decent at providing chip damage in the late game, and I never felt especially worried about his fragility. I just paired him with my dancer and Jeritza, and it made for a pretty safe back line.

Dorothea

I royally screwed my dancers on all of my previous runs, so I committed to at least using a dancer on this playthrough. For some reason, I’ve made Flayn a dancer on all three of my runs prior to this, and each time I completely abandoned her for a better unit (or she’s been kicked out of my house thanks to Crimson Flower), so this time I picked Dorothea.

Dorothea struggles pretty heavily early on in the run, as she just doesn’t have a wide enough spell list to really kill enemies for EXP. As such, she was pretty underleveled for most of the first half of the game. I considered benching her, but I committed to the dancer plan, and just focused as much as I could on building up her utility until then. Her secondary function was to dish out extra physics when possible, and to provide chip damage on nearby enemies when my back line couldn’t finish the job. Ultimately, though, she ended up functioning as a way to support Linhardt’s low movement, and to move Jeritza and Hubert through maps with limited movement for mounted units.

In the end game, she helped Byleth and Edelgard chunk down the Immaculate One before she could get off her AOE, and she was just a really solid unit through the mid and end game.

Caspar

We’re reached the point where I’m digging into my filler units, and it’s a little bit sad for me to see Caspar here. I benched him in my first Black Eagles run, and though I was committed to him this time, I quickly realized he probably just wasn’t worth the trouble. He was already conveniently able to serve as a guard adjutant for my non-mounted units, and he racked up enough experience doing that to stay relatively close for maps that needed an 11th unit.

Ultimately, I decided on War Master for him so could provide some punch on the last map. He wasn’t terrible, but his low speed and versatility overshadowed his raw strength.

Sorry Caspar, I promise I’ll commit to you one day.

Constance

I probably could have put some more time and preparation into the selection of my last unit, but honestly I really like Constance’s design, and she provided some utility and damage on maps that allowed for a 12th unit.

I had initially recruited Sylvain for this role, but he was so far down the Fortress Knight path that he’d become borderline unusable in regular combat. He was perfect as a guard adjutant, but his strength ended up at something like 17 by the end game. I ended up babying Constance up to the Dark Flier class, where she primarily functioned as a funnel for EXP as Byleth’s adjutant. She stayed consistent on levels, and she was my only mage able to really use the Thyrsus without any drawbacks.

She provided good utility with her spell list, and she was never really in danger thanks to her class. Not a great unit on this run, but she served her role well, and I’d definitely be interested in committing more time and resources to her on future runs. Plus her character design is really cool.

#fire emblem #three houses #black eagles #maddening #playthrough #video games

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baconpal · 4 years

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Bravely Default and BD2

Here it is, the partially prompted bravely default rant/retrospective/whatever the fuck!

With the announcement and demo of bravely default 2 out now for a bigger market than the original game ever had, I feel that as a massive fan of the original I should put some amount of effort into explaining what the appeal of the original is, why bravely second missed a lot of the appeal, and why bravely default 2 has been very, very worrying so far.

If you care about any of that, come on in and I'll try to actually avoid spoilers this time and make this a more legitimate recommendation of a game than usual.

THE APPEAL OF BRAVELY DEFAULT The games obviously have a beautiful art style, especially when it comes to the backgrounds. Every city is like a painting, a beautifully composed shot that you see from just one direction to give you one very strong impression. While the overworld and dungeons are fully 3d and do not have as strong of an artistic impact, they are still very competent and have good colors and cohesive elements. The character design, including the job outfits, the monsters, and all the villains are just top notch. Simple, evocative designs that make the most of the 3DS' limited hardware and build upon the teams skill in making handheld games look good. (its the same team that did the ff3 remake and 4 heroes of light, which looks absolutely kino on original DS) The music is also consistently excellent, with great use of motifing, a full and varied orchestra, and many good slow paced tracks for most of the non-combat segments. Shit like "Conflict's Chime" being the main battle theme, "Infiltrating Hostile Territory" being a common dungeon theme, and "That person's name is" as the rival boss themes makes even the seemingly repetitive songs a constant joy to listen to.

The story is pretty decent, it's not the best part of the game, and there are definitely some aspects of the story some people loathe, but the characters (specifically ringabel fuckin love him) are pretty good and the make for an enjoyable experience. The side material like D's journal are really well done and integrate into the main narrative well for how tucked away and ignored it is.

The gameplay and systems are also some of the best of any RPG I've played, and I've played far too many. The job system from ff3 and 5 is brought to an even greater depth with the addition of universal job abilities, allowing any character of any job make use of another jobs features to create an endless depth to strategy. The way various jobs can mingle together, and how no job is completely perfect on its own makes for very compelling team composition and unit design. The extensive amount of jobs helps as well for replay value and for assuring that no easy winning strategy is found by all players.

The BP system makes battles take on a very unique pacing as the player and enemies can choose to save up turns or blow them all at once to make more complicated strategies possible, or to make the most of an enemies vulnerabilities. This powerful option gives the player a meaningful way to capitalize on their knowledge of the game, while also allowing them to make truly detrimental mistakes. That may sound not good if you're a fucking baby, but nobody wants an RPG you cant lose, but losing because you fucked up is much better than losing because the enemies are just stronger than you or anything to that effect.

But the single greatest part of bravely defaults, which creates the games wonderful balance and unique design philosophy, is that the player is expected to hit the level cap long before finishing the game. Reaching level 99 should occur somewhere just after the middle of the game, at the point where the player has access to almost every job and has encountered almost every type of threat. Reaching level 99 brings with it a certain security, the implication that from then on, all enemies will also be level 99, and that any failure to defeat an enemy will be a result of a bad strategy or the players own mistakes. The game is not easy, and is certainly intended for veteran final fantasy players used to the games with job systems and changing up your entire party to combat a single encounter. Leveling up is not a slow grind part of the game, as you have a lot of control over the speed and frequency of battles, and it is not difficult to keep up with the games level curve.

The other layer to this unique design is that the game expects you to "cheat", or use strategies that would be overpowered and frowned upon in most other games. Bravely default easily expects you to know or discover strategies such as: applying a status to all enemies and killing every enemy with that status using another spell, cycling a counter move over and over to have a nearly invincible party member, applying a healing attribute to a self-damaging character to get huge damage at little cost, casting reflect and dangerous spells on your own party to bounce them at the enemy, or duplicating a move that does maximum damage 15 times in a row. The game builds all of its encounters with the knowledge that your team will be the maximum level and that you will be using the most vile tactics you can come up with, and the game will do the same. Bosses and even common enemies will employ equally vile tactics using the exact same moves that you have access to, meaning you can learn from your enemies or quickly grasp the enemies strategy through your own experiences. One of the late game dungeons is entirely optional, but involves several fights against parties of 4 just like your, using the same jobs and skills you have gained during the game as a perfect test of your ability to develop counter-strategies, instead of relying on your own overpowered tactics. This type of design is really not something you find in many games due to the prominence of grinding or the lack testing strategies, and it is the most true appeal of bravely default to me.

BRAVELY SECOND EXISTS I GUESS So bravely second, a direct sequel to bravely default, definitely is a video game. It uses the original game as a base to generate more content, but completely misses the appeal of the original, and the new content added makes the experience even less focused. Overall, it's still a fairly alright RPG, but it fails to follow up on bravely default in a meaningful way or to provide as compelling of a gameplay experience. Here's some of the things it fucked up.

The game reuses almost everything the original game had, including the same music, world map, and most of the original's towns and dungeons, while adding a few of it's own. Going through areas you've been before never feels good, and the new areas lack the quality or brevity of the original game, leading to uninteresting areas that overstay their welcome, despite being the only break from repetitively reused content.

This extends to the classes but in an even worse sense. One important trait of the original jobs is that they were not perfect by themselves. While every job provided some useful abilities to be shared with other classes, or provided a good base with which to make a character, no class was without flaws. The new classes in bravely second are a lot of the opposite, they are closed loops that think of everything they could have to make a good standalone character. The 4 starter classes you get in bravely second are all brand new, and there's almost no reason to use any class besides those 4 as they are just insanely good. The priest and magician specifically augment magic in a way that makes spells infinity scalable into the end game, completely trampling on any other magic classes territory without needing the extra effort of grinding a new class out. Many of the new job concepts are actually really interesting, like going back in time to return to a healthier state, or a class that changes the stats and attributes of all units in a battle, allowing for all new kinds of strategies; but these classes lack any opportunity to be used to their full potential since they don't mesh well with other jobs and are limited by their self-centered design.

Another completely missed aspect of the original is the level curve discussed before. Bravely second only really requires you get somewhere in the ballpark of level 60-70 to comfortably beat the final boss, and getting too leveled up is really hard to avoid if you are plan to try out various jobs.

Second also fails to account for how many incredibly strong strategies the player can come up with, and even introduces some of its own strategies that it has no way to counteract, such as halfsies (the first skill the first class gets) pretty much splitting the game in two by tripling the value of items like phoenix downs, and allowing for fool-proof strategies by making 1 character focus entirely on defense, effectively making the party unkillable. Essentially, if you play second after having played the original (like any sane person would) then you will absolutely destroy the game with no sense of satisfaction.

The story is also a large step down, enough to become an annoyance, as the writing style changes to a strange romantic comedy situation with, for lack of a better term please forgive my sin, anime writing, but like bad anime writing, ya know the kind of shit that makes people write off all anime cus a lot of it is awkward and unpleasant to listen to. The story tries to mess with some big concepts like "what if new game + was a real thing???" and time travel and shit like that but it doesn't mesh with the tone the rest of the game has and that tone doesn't mesh with the world or art style and it's just a mess.

BRAVELY DEFAULT 2 SEEMS KINDA POOPIE SO FAR So unfortunately, the big appeal of bravely default being part of it's end game makes it hard to judge how 2 is gonna go given we only have a demo of the beginning, but given that the original team behind bravely default has slowly been stripped out of the series as it goes on, the outlook is bleek.

Most immediately obvious is that the artstyle has made a horrible transition from handheld to console, somehow even worse than pokemon. The areas are all fully 3d and lack the style or compositional excellence of bravely default, and the outside environment look like asset store products. The small proportioned characters with simple features to be readable on a small screen have been replaced with identically proportioned characters with excessive detail and ugly features, and look horrible up close on a big screen. Only the negatives of the art style have made it over, and everything good has been made unsavory. The character and enemy design overall is much worse as a result, everything is messy, unclear, and clashes with everything else. It's an absolutely shocking downgrade.

The characters themselves are overly hammy and feel like shallow attempts to have a similar party dynamic to the original without having identical character types, and the writing as a whole doesn't seem to have improved from second, which was already quite a step down from the original.

The gameplay also has not done anything different or interesting yet, and seems to be selling itself to people haven't heard of or gotten enough of the BP system. Enemies being on the overworld as opposed to random encounters shows they have dropped the player agency over encounter frequency, which is dumb. The battles lack any of the flow the original had, especially when using the battle speed option, as the camera does not present everything very well and changes position often as a result. Overall, I have not enjoyed the bravely default 2 demo and feel it shows nothing but a continued decline in the series that likely should have just been a single game. With the release date being set for sometime this year, I feel there is no chance any amount of player feedback could save the game or even begin to pull it in the right direction, as it seems to be fundamentally flawed with an inescapable feeling of shovelware.

SO WHAT? Basically, all I wanted to say here is that the original bravely default is a very unique experience I think every RPG fan should give a good chance (and just do all the optional stuff during the "repetitive" part of the game, it's where all the best content is you bozo) and that the sequels are NOT the same experience. I guess it's kind of mean to just say "hey don't buy or like this new thing cus its not like the old thing" but people should know why there's a bravely default 2 in the first place, and should fight for what made the original great. I worry that BD goes down the same sad path that FF did, becoming a completely hollow, middling series that strayed so far from it's home that a whole new series had to be made to give the fans of the old style a place to go.

Thanks for reading, and hope you got something out of it.

#bravely default #bravely series #bravely default 2 #juvenile rant #vote now for the next rant! including things such as The Great Ace Attorney and why it's kino #or why i think arms is a really well designed game even tho i'm fucking shit at it #very exciting topics indeed #or ya know whatever other shit you think i have a lot to say about

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zerochanges · 3 years

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2020 Favorite Anime

I am sure I don’t have to exactly spell it out that 2020 was a different year, we all know the spiel now. It was in particular a bad year for me for a lot of personal reasons on top of the whole world wide pandemic thing killing millions and shutting down business and and all our hobbies--so I really was straight up not having a good time. It’s because of that I honestly didn’t really keep up with a lot of my hobbies this year so when it comes to choosing my favorite anime and games of 2020, I don’t have as much as I usually would.

So this year I decided to just say screw it, there are no rules. I usually try to impose some on myself every year for my lists: rules like no sequels, no long running shows, no shows that technically started last year, only new content from this year and not older stuff I watched/played this year but came out from a prior one. This time, there are no holds barred. I am just going to list my top whatever the hell I feel like listing. So starting with anime and in my usual alphabetical order; here we go.

The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?

Maybe a guilty pleasure? Maybe I just enjoy some trashier shows? It’s hard to say. There is nothing that great about 8th Son, it’s very bland and doesn’t stick out amongst the million other isekai (another world) power fantasy series that are all the rage now and yet there is a strange draw to it. Perhaps it’s because almost all the isekai elements in the series feel more forced than anything else, like they are just tacked on to appeal to modern audiences.

8th Son honestly feels more like a good old fashion fantasy series from the 90’s that just had to add isekai elements in it to appeal to kids today. I really enjoyed it for that aspect. The power fantasy isn’t too out of control (although the protagonist is quite strong), and there is no real end goal or attempt to return to your previous life. The protagonist Wendelin is more or less just cool with how things are now. Instead it focuses on his growth as a mage and how he tries to navigate the political intrigue of this feudal world being one of the youngest born in a noble family with no clear line of succession to take over yet being the most talented and magically gifted child of said family.

Ascendance of a Bookworm

Proving that not all isekai series have to be a power fantasy, Ascendance of a Bookworm plays out more like an educational take on medieval times, think something among the lines of Spice and Wolf, if you will. One day Motosu Urano wakes up in the body of the small child Myne in a fantasy world much like medieval Europe but with a few other elements like magic and sorcery. While at first that may sound like a high flying adventure it really isn’t. The series is more about following the average life of a peasant in this world and how far out of reach literature is to them, given the lack of printing press and the like. Urano now Myne tries her best to create books for the common people and spread literature, a herculean task considering the insane douchebaggery of the higher caste in this world. But armed with modern day knowledge of the 21st century Myne is able to create modern conveniences and wow most people around her.

Black Clover

So I am going to include long running shows now this year, get over it. Black Clover has been a favorite of mine in recent years. Out of the modern Jump battle series I find myself more and more drawn into Clover (and also my one true love, the ever underappreciated World Trigger) than the other more popular ones that seem to rule all the anime conversations today. Since I was following the series dubbed as it aired on Toonami this year brought me the end of the first part of the series; finally seeing the epic conclusion of Clover Kingdom’s long standing battle with the Eye of the Midnight Sun and revealing some pretty great and shocking twists behind the war of elves and humans along the way.

This finale was fantastic and honestly while I am glad to see the series continue on and grow from there, and look forward to seeing more of this new second part of Clover that focuses on a war with the Spade Kingdom, I absolutely would not have complained if the whole thing ended right here with this story arc. It wraps up so beautifully and is a compilation of three great years of episodes.

BOFURI: I Don’t Want to Get Hurt so I’ll Max Out My Defense

Bofuri is not a series I thought I would enjoy as much as I did but it really won me over. Essentially just a ‘cute girls do cute things’ kind of show but with a twist of it being in an MMO game, there is something about it that made it so comfy and easy to watch. There’s always something enjoyable about watching the protagonist Maple, an absolutely clueless newbie at video games continue to be the bane of existence to the developers and admins of the game as she constantly breaks it and becomes insanely overpowered on a regular basis all from her own cluelessness.

As the title suggests she is the only person in the world to get scared of taking damage in a video game and puts all her stats into defense and literally nothing else entirely. After so much grinding the girl is such a tank she can just walk through enemies to kill them. It’s fun little things like this that make the show always worth a chuckle as her legendary player status continues to rise while in reality she just has no clue how to play RPGs whatsoever.

Boruto: Naruto Next Generations

If you think Black Clover had a great run of episodes this year in 2020 just wait until you see what Boruto had to offer. While not a perfect year, the series did take off for about 2 months thanks to a pandemic hiatus, once it came back it was stronger than ever. We came out of the gates running and kicked off the return of Boruto with a fantastic 20+ episode long story arc centered on introducing the main group of villains in the series, the Kara. The world of Boruto became much bigger and much darker, and the series in the last year has started to bring in a lot more manga content and moving at a brisker and faster pace, changing the status quo up quite a lot. Watching the New Team 7 grow so much and rise to these challenges was rewarding and I am so excited for the vessel story arc teased at the latest Jump Festa this December.

Ultimately though their first encounter, crushing defeat, and subsequent rematch with Deepa; a new anime only member of Kara meant to introduce the organization to anime viewers was an insane show de force of animation and one of the best battles in 2020 anime, dare I say. These kids are growing into great warriors and the stakes have been raised so much.

Cardfight!! Vanguard Gaiden IF

The 2018 reboot of the Vanguard series saw not only the card game get refreshed but the television anime as well. Dubbed the V Series by fans thanks to all the new card serial numbers starting with a V post reboot, these last two years have been fun and full of fan service for long time viewers of the anime. Gaiden IF is the final season of this reboot before the fourth entry of the franchise Overdress begins in 2021, and was a very strange and experimental one at that. Gaiden IF holding true to its name was a gaiden, or spinoff of the series that wasn’t necessary in the same canon as the regular show and more fascinating had zero card fights during the entire show--instead being one huge parody of card game animes in general and the beloved cast of characters the series has built over its ten year run.

It’s quite hilarious and a great round of fun, especially since there isn’t a main character in sight. Gaiden IF is carried entirely by a cast of side characters and former villains now taking over the role of protagonist. I’ve never seen a show go for an entire season with such minor characters playing such a huge role and that is one of the best aspects of it. Every week watching Ibuki Kouji, one of the most feared and powerful villains in the series being tormented and kicked around as a would-be hero now honestly carries the entire show.

But really, this was one of the first anime to air post pandemic hiatus and it was so refreshing to have Vanguard back. Every week it reminded me how much I loved the franchise and anime in general, it was such a delight to finally have something enjoyable back in my life after such a grueling pandemic hiatus of nothing.

Dragon Quest: Dai no Daibouken (2020)

Never in my wildest dreams did I ever think there would be a modern adaptation of Dai no Daibouken, or The Adventures of Dai as it is being called in English now. This was one of my all time favorite Jump manga growing up and I always thought the original unfinished 1991 anime was the best we were ever going to get as far as animation goes, so to see this beautiful new series with its fantastic storyboarding and animation, great use of CG mixed in with hand drawn, and what seems like an outright declaration from the series itself that it will adapt the series in its entirety this time, it’s all too much.

This new Dai adaptation is like a dream anime that was made just for me. Every Saturday morning I giddily log on to watch the new episode just like being a kid again with Saturday morning cartoons. If you are sleeping on this show, don’t! You won’t regret watching it, Dai was one of the all time great Shonen Jump properties of the 90’s and is ready to show kids today what that era has to offer!

Gundam Build Divers Re:rise Season 2

Rerise was hands down one of my favorite shows last year when the first cour aired, and this year is no different either, dare I say once again this was probably my favorite show of the whole year. It’s hard to really go into what made this second cour so good without flat out spoiling all the best parts, and all the character development, and all the amazing battles, but suffice to say, this may be one of the best Gundam shows of the entire decade, Build series or not. Hell I ain’t afraid to say this kicked G-Tekketsu (Iron Blooded Orphans) ass this way to Sunday, I don’t care that this is a toy commercial for a much younger audience. Basically, watch Rerise, it’s going to be a great time.

If My Favorite Pop Idol Made It to the Budokan, I Would Die

This was another series that I expected very little from but ended up really enjoying each week. The basic premise is pretty simple, a super fan obsessed with an idol (singer) goes to insane lengths to support her and thinks her love will never be reciprocated but maybe it just might be. It’s kinda strange and an unusual romance series that isn’t really all that big on romance. In fact it seems to be much bigger on being informative about idol fan culture and nerd culture in general and poking fun at that while never being too mean spirited.

I think that’s the charm of this one. These are by all extent weird kinda creepy people that are obsessed over young girl singers but it never demonizes its cast for that nor does it ever go too far in the power fantasy of them ‘getting the girl’. It’s about the struggle of fan life and the tightknit and utterly bizarre groups of friends you can make in a fandom--and also maybe some love might happen along the way.

Jujutsu Kaisen

Another big modern shonen jump battle manga got its chance to be animated this year, and this time courtesy of studio Mappa who are the real stars of this party. Everything about Jujutsu Kaisen feels like Mappa throwing down the gauntlet and trying to one-up the highly praised and beloved Demon Slayer: Kimetsu no Yaiba from last year that wowed everyone with UFOtable’s signature beautiful animation. It’s very fascinating to see the insane levels of gorgeous jaw dropping action set pieces between these two series, both raising the bar to ridiculous levels in their own ways. On top of the animation front though are some very easily lovable characters, a much darker feeling supernatural story than one may expect, and probably Crunchyroll’s best dub produced in 2020.

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken!

Keep Your Hands Off Eizouken is another series from beloved auteur Masaaki Yuasa. Bringing with it his signature style and wonderful animation, his hardworking compatriots at studio Science Saro deliver something truly special, an anime about why anime is great and just how the heck it is made to begin with. I think one of my favorite aspects of Yuasa’s work is just how sincere almost his entire output is, and how you can really feel a certain kind of emotion and vision behind each work that is unique to it. For Eizouken it is definitely the joy of creation and what it means to pursue something creative. Easily one of the best watches of 2020 for both its visuals, sound design, characters with great chemistry that have to deliver very heavy and technical dialogue but do so in a really natural and enjoyable way--and hey the shows within the show that the girls make are also usually pretty interesting and good too.

MAJOR 2nd Season 2

I think my favorite aspect of this new middle school arc of MAJOR 2nd was seeing just how much Daigo has changed over the years since we last saw him in elementary school in the first season. No longer in little league and now trying to save his school’s baseball club, Daigo has grown into a strong leader and really feels natural with everyone he talks to. It’s a huge departure from the bullied and reclusive selfish kid he was in the first season. Seeing the kid grow up into somebody reliable and caring like this almost brings a tear to my eye.

It’s an old cliché but saving the falling apart club in your school is a classic underdog story and the fact that Daigo built his own team from the ground up really sells it. The team is largely made up of girls too which brings a really great girl power aspect to it as well. With just 3 boys and the rest of the positions being filled with females, the haphazard team Daigo put together not only has to show that nobodies can make it but that girls are just as good as the boys.

Rent-a-Girlfriend

I love trashy romcom harem anime, I will be the first to admit it. I am not even their target audience, in fact I am probably the exact opposite of their target audience yet I can’t get enough of this kind of garbage, and Rent-a-Girlfriend brings in the garbagest of garbage it can! The name says it all right there, our hero is literally so pathetic he has to pay girls money to go on dates with him. And he just continues to ruin everything around him with his constant lying and all around patheticness. He is like a blackhole of suck that will drag down any and all that go near him. What more can you even want?!

I am half facetious here of course, but to an extent what I said about Kazuya isn’t wrong. He’s the biggest loser around, and I love him. It’s fun to watch him squirm, and it’s nice to learn more about him and see he has a good side deep down too. In a lot of ways he’s probably one of the more relatable leads in these kinds of shows as he’s just as pathetic as all the rest of us who watch these kinds of shows are. But besides Kazuya there are plenty of nice leading ladies too and probably most surprisingly a fairly well fleshed out circle of friends that he hangs out with. Usually these kinds of shows will sideline the male friends of the leads and only focus on time between the lead and the girls, so it’s refreshing to see so much time spent with other boys in the show too.

Also as an addendum to anyone who watches the series dubbed, Aleks Le‘s performance as the lead role is maybe some of the best casting in modern anime dubbing I have ever heard. He kills it in this show. It’s a performance that carries the entire show.

Shadowverse

You might say, I saved the best for last, but honestly this was a coincidence. Shadowverse is a by-the-numbers card game anime. It starts very slow and very bland, and offers nothing new to the genre instead sticking entirely to the classic tropes and clichés of sports anime and Yu-Gi-Oh clones alike. That is for the first 12 episodes or so. It begins to evolve and gets a little more interesting from there, then something happens. Something I cannot explain. Something that makes no sense. Something that the production committee probably should not have allowed to occur. The show just goes absolutely, positively, certifiably, fucking insane.

Out of nowhere, the plot suddenly turns into a straight Neon Genesis Evangelion knock-off, complete with plugsuits, random nonsense mysticism from exotic religions, and soul crushing nightmarishly harsh treatment of the child protagonists. Suddenly time freezes for everyone but the main characters, and the totally original not Kabbalah, Tree of Woe, begins to end the world. Now armed with their new psychic powers (that they just have now out of nowhere!) the kids have to fight brain washed former enemies and loved ones alike that seek to destroy the world via assimilation into the darkness.

Suddenly we have moments like the above where Luca, the coldhearted and cool Shadowverse player who only ever began fighting in tournaments to earn money for his younger sick sister’s treatment has to face off against a possessed evil version of his sister who bemoans all the isolation he put her through, never being there with her, always away trying to earn money. She berates and destroys the young man’s heart for his well intentions. Luca with no other options has to put her down for the good of the world.

You know, for the 12 year old kids in the audience that signed up for a show about a cellphone app.

I haven't even gotten to the best part yet, the show isn’t over! There’s still 12 episodes left in the series and do you wanna know the best part?! The heroes already failed! The world blew up and everyone got sucked into a blackhole and died! That’s not a joke. The bad guys won. And there’s still another season worth of episodes to go! I am not kidding, this is how the show ended the year 2020! This is legendary, no fucks given status if I ever saw it. The best way to end 2020 if ever there was one:

Every week I anxiously log on to watch Shadowverse after it jumped the shark just to see what insanity happens next. This is Tommy Wiseau The Room energy levels of pure insane dribble. Shadowverse might be the biggest disaster of a card game anime of all time, and I simply cannot get enough of it now.

BONUS THOUGHTS For 2020

Random Anime Collecting: This year saw Discotek release three Case Closed/Detective Conan movies on blu-ray. Detective Conan is a series near and dear to my heart, and one I spent a lot of my college days obsessed over. This is a franchise I really went to great lengths to collect after Funimation reprinted many of the long time out of print volumes of the series back in 2013, and I bought them all back then. Buying new Detective Conan movies in 2020 felt super surreal, and also wonderful. I really hope I can keep buying more in 2021.

Hidive for these hard times: I didn’t include anything really from Sentai, I am not sure why, maybe none of what I watched this year would count as a favorite of mine, maybe I was just lazy and didn’t want to add to my list anymore. Honestly though I watched a lot of series this year on Hidive. I think my favorite has been the new dub of Pet Girl of Sakurasou.

A Lost Classic: Nobody is talking about God Mazinger finally getting released in English from Discotek and that kind of bums me out. The series was one I obsessed over when younger, especially because it was rare to find even raw footage of it lead alone subtitled. It was never subtitled in fact, so Discotek’s release is the first time it has ever been in English.

#anime #The 8th Son? Are You Kidding Me?#Ascendance of a Bookworm #Black Clover #Boruto #Boruto Naruto Next Generations #Bofuri #Cardfight!! Vanguard #Dragon Quest #Dragon Quest Dai no Daibouken #dragon quest the adventure of dai #Gundam Build Divers Re:rise #JuJutsu Kaisen #Keep YOur Hands Off Eizouken #MAJOR 2nd #Rent-a-girlfriend #Shadowverse

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tacticsroom · 5 years

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Ninian: Oracle of Destiny (Unit Review)

Available at 5★ (Heroes’ Path Reward)

Lvl 40 Stats (Flaw/Neutral/Asset)

HP: 39/42/45 Atk: 21/24/28 Spd: 30/33/36 Def: 20/23/26 Res: 23/27/31

Neutral BST: 149

Max Dragonflowers: 10

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Skills

Weapon: Light Breath+ (300 SP)

Mt: 13. Rng: 1. If unit initiates combat, grants Def/Res+4 to adjacent allies for 1 turn after combat.

Breath. Can be inherited. Can be refined (Upgraded Effect).

Upgraded Effect: Mt: 14. Rng: 1. After combat, if unit attacked, grants Atk/Spd/Def/Res+5 to unit and allies within 2 spaces of unit for 1 turn. If foe's Range = 2, calculates damage using the lower of foe's Def or Res.

Assist: Dance (150 SP)

Grants another action to target ally. (Cannot target an ally with Sing or Dance.)

Cannot be inherited.

Special: None

A: None

B: Escape Route 3 (240 SP)

If unit's HP ≤ 50%, unit can move to a space adjacent to any ally.

Can be inherited.

C: Fortify Dragons (200 SP)

At start of turn, grants Def/Res+6 to adjacent dragon allies for 1 turn.

Can be inherited. Breath only.

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Analysis

With a Gen 1 dancer’s BST, Ninian doesn’t have much to offer in combat. Of course, this means very little as Ninian will likely spend almost all of her turns refreshing allies. In fact, Ninian’s stats are quite decently distributed with hardly any Atk in favor of decent bulk to help her survive rather than kill.

Aside from being a dancer, Ninian’s most notable asset is her relatively high and easily stackable HP and Res. There are several support skills that involve a HP check like Panic Ploy and Infantry Pulse, as well as Res checks like stat Ploys and Sabotage skills. Using such skills allows Ninian to contribute as much as possible even despite her ability to directly fight the enemy.

On the other hand, Ninian is fairly hindered by being a dragon unit. With an extremely limited pool of inheritable breath weapon skills to choose from, not to mention many of them favoring combat-heavy playstyles, Ninian’s weapon skill slot can essentially end up being a waste of a slot, whereas most other refreshers can equip defensive, type-effective, or even debuffing weapons to extend their utility.

Ninian prefers boons/assets in Res and HP. Her preferred bane/flaw is Atk.

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Similar Units

Rinea: Reminiscent Belle (38/30/33/23/28)

Ninian: Oracle of Destiny (+4/-6/+0/+0/-1)

Lene: Yearning Dancer (35/28/35/23/28)

Ninian: Oracle of Destiny (+7/-4/-2/+0/-1)

Reyson: White Prince (37/29/34/24/26)

Ninian: Oracle of Destiny (+7/-5/-1/-1/+1)

Olivia: Blushing Beauty (36/28/33/27/26)

Ninian: Oracle of Destiny (+6/-4/+0/-4/+1)

Azura: Lady of the Lake (36/31/33/21/28)

Ninian: Oracle of Destiny (+6/-7/+0/+2/-1)

Ninian: Bright-Eyed Bride (34/28/33/18/27)

Ninian: Oracle of Destiny (+8/-4/+0/+5/+0)

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Builds

Budget/Low Investment:

The first build rounds out Ninian as much as possible to survive fights in emergencies, particularly stacking up her Def. If Ninian can safely attack an enemy, Light Breath+ and Atk Smoke can significantly turn the tide for that turn by buffing nearby allies for +5 all stats and debuffing enemies for -7 Atk. Her default Escape Route can help her get in position to make the most of these two effects as well as to gain Atk/Def Bond’s stat boost, although Wings of Mercy is easier to set up as Escape Route requires Ninian to take significant damage beforehand. Spd Smoke can be used as the Sacred Seal instead for even more debuffs.

The second build is more specialized, namely for dueling sword units and other red units. Using both Triangle Adept and Swordbreaker significantly improve Ninian’s ability to tank damage from reds and even deal more of it herself. With doubled weapon advantage, guaranteed follow-ups, and a Moonbow proc, Ninian’s pitifully low Atk may still keep her from landing kills, although may be just enough to take out low-Res swords.

Magic Wall:

27 neutral Res isn’t exactly stellar, but with investment Ninian can stack up her Res quite well.

The first build uses Warding Stance 4 and Warding Stance 3 together for +14 Res in the enemy phase, with Lightning Breath+ to let her retaliate against mages and charge her special faster against them. This build puts her at 48 Res which is plenty for tanking red dragons and mages and Warding Stance 4 prevents such units from bursting her down with special damage. Water Breath+ can be used to further increase her survivability (with 52 enemy phase Res) if so concerned with counterattacking mages.

The second build is more focused on utility, increasing her visible Res as much as possible in order to apply Ploy debuffs. Wings of Mercy is arguably the most utile B Skill a dancer can have, however a Sabotage skill can be quite useful in conjunction with Ploys for as many debuffs as possible.

Infantry Support:

As aforementioned, Ninian can rely on her HP quite well to support her team passively through start-of-turn effects and preserving her actual actions for refreshing. Infantry Pulse can set up some especially powerful builds, particularly those that abuse Special Spiral effects. Using both Sudden Panic and Panic Ploy increases her reliability in applying the Panic effect whereas if using only one or the other she would either be restricted by positioning or leaving it up to the enemy AI behavior. If fully investing in Ninian, B Duel Infantry can of course be used instead of HP +5.

The second build uses the Infantry Breath skill, freeing up melee infantry allies’ A Slots from using a Breath skill themselves. This allows for incredibly powerful builds as such allies can thus combine a greater number of powerful effects together in the enemy phase (such as a unique weapon effect with Distant Counter or a Distant Counter weapon with a powerful A Skill such as Bonus Doubler or a tier-4 skill). Because Infantry Breath only has a range of 1, using it can compromise Ninian’s safety, so using defensive Bond skills and Glittering Breath+ help her avoid putting herself in too much danger.

The third build uses Infantry Rush/Flash to free up allies’ A or Sacred Seal slots from Heavy/Flashing Blade. The rest of her kit revolves around allowing her to safely apply Dark Breath+’s AoE debuffs, making it easier for her allies to pass the Atk/Spd checks and soften up enemies outright. By both boosting her Res and denying enemy follow-ups in the player phase, Mirror Impact helps Ninian safely attack magic enemies while Windsweep and Phantom Spd allow her to avoid being counterattacked entirely by physical enemies assuming they have 48 Spd or lower.

#fire emblem heroes #feh #unit review #Ninian: Oracle of Destiny #breath/infantry #blue breath/infantry #Blazing Shadows #Heroes' Path #mod lucius

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scoutception · 5 years

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Final Fantasy I review: a pragmatic evolution

Final Fantasy; one of the largest and most influential game franchises out there, and my personal favorite video game series. It’s kind of surreal to think that it started out as what was basically an unlicensed Dungeons & Dragons adaptation from a failing company that only approved it to try to top Dragon Quest, like so many others back then. For all the faults it had, like being so utterly buggy that it artificially increased difficulty through things like mages not actually being able to gain more power for their magic, and several spells not even working, period, it pulled through with an innovative team building system, a great soundtrack that would help cement Nobou Uematsu as one of the great video game soundtrack composers, and a much more developed exploration system compared to Dragon Quest, giving you access to vehicles like an airship. For this review, however, I shall be reviewing the PSP version of Final Fantasy I, which is quite a different experience, for reasons I shall tackle shortly. Otherwise, in we go.

Story

The story is about a world home to 4 elemental crystals of earth, fire, water, and wind, which once blessed the land and its inhabitants with peace. However, the Four Fiends, the Lich, Marilith, the Kraken, and Tiamat, have since corrupted the crystals, depriving the world of their blessings and causing the appearance of monsters across the land. Despite the bleakness, however, the people keep faith in one thing: a prophecy stating that four Warriors of Light will appear one day to restore the crystals and defeat the Four Fiends. 400 years after the first of the fiends appeared, the Warriors of Light finally arrive at the town of Cornelia, where they are tasked by its king to save his daughter, Princess Sarah, from Garland, a traitorous knight, who has taken her to the Chaos Shrine. Afterwards, the king builds a bridge in gratitude, allowing them to skip over to the next town and beat up some pirates for their ship. Most of the “plot” of this game takes the form of fetching key items and chains of deals that stand in the way of you actually taking the fight to the Fiends, with the worst taking place right after getting the ship, involving almost every single area you can even visit at that time. It was probably a bit more interesting at the time, especially compared to Dragon Quest, but it’s a huge drag nowadays.

After killing all of the Fiends, the game decides to pull a twist: as it turns out, an evil force 2000 years in the past is still stealing the power of the crystals, originating from the Chaos Shrine. After traveling through a time portal, and killing all the Four Fiends again, the game pulls a bigger twist: they find Garland at the bottom of the shrine, having been sent back in time by the Fiends. Using their power to transform into the monster Chaos, he then used his power to send them into the present, creating some time loop that allows him to live forever. After defeating him, the Warriors of Light are returned to the present, having retroactively prevented any of the disasters from taking place, even ensuring Garland would never betray Cornelia. Doing this erases their memories of their journey, but the legend of it still lives on.... somehow. It’s not exactly a deep plot, but it can still be decently entertaining to go through, especially with the vastly improved translation of the later versions, which gives quite a bit of dialogue a surprising amount of charm.

Gameplay

The gameplay of Final Fantasy I is about the most standard NES era RPG you could get. You travel on a world map, exploring towns and dungeons and getting into random encounters, with the battle system also being a very standard turn based system, selecting all your party’s actions at the beginning of each turn, and having choices of attacking, using magic, using an item, defending, or attempting to escape. You gain the use of a ship, a canoe, and eventually an airship which pretty much invalidates any other form of travel for navigating the world map, though the ship can only dock at certain spots, and the airship can only land on grass tiles. This can pose a problem to a new player, as the continents are large and often force you to land farther away from your goal than you might expect. This is doubly bad as the game initially seems to lack a map feature, which can make navigation very difficult sense the map loops when you reach an edge of it. While there is actually a map you can access on the world map, which even displays the locations you’ve discovered, you can only bring it up by hitting a button combination the game never outright tells you, only being mentioned, and backwards, at that, by some brooms in an early area (it’s ok, it’s the home of a witch), which could be passed off as random nonsense if you’re not in the mood to think laterally.

The most interesting gameplay feature FF1 has to offer is its party building system. Instead of just gaining predetermined characters as you go on like, say, MOTHER, or only having one character, like Dragon Quest itself, you have 4 party members all the time that you select at the start of the game, picked from 6 different classes: the Warrior, the very standard physical fighter with great attack and defense, whose only real downside is being very reliant on equipment, the Monk, who is pretty much the opposite of the fighter, being a physical fighter who specializes in fighting unarmed, to the point of equipment actually lowering his attack and defense after a while, making him very cheap to use, and very broken after the first few levels. There’s also the Thief, which is bad on defense, but is good for attacking and has superior speed. The second half of the classes are magically focused. The White Mage specializes in healing and support magic, though they also have offense in the form of the Dia line of spells, which is effective against undead, and Holy, one of the major attacking spells of the series. The Black Mage, conversely, focuses on offensive magic, though they also have access to some very good buff, though they’re perhaps the most vulnerable of any class, with abysmal HP growth, at that. Lastly, there’s the Red Mage, the jack of all trades, master of none. They can use swords, have good defense, and access to both white and black magic, though they’re worse at all of those than the classes that focus on them individually, and can’t use most of the later game spells or equipment, though since you’re stuck with your chosen classes all the way, they’re never an outright burden, and plenty of people find them great regardless.

Aside from leveling up from fighting random encounters, you power up your party by buying equipment, or finding it in dungeons or other areas, and buying spells from towns. There’s 8 spell tiers in all, with all having 4 different spells per tier for both black and white magic. However, the spellcasters can only know up to three spells for each tier, with the red mage having to use those spaces for both white and black magic. Some tiers have better spells than others, with most spells more complex than simple healing or damage usually not being worthwhile. However, a lot of spells and equipment available around the time you get the airship is not actually usable by your party members, and this is because of a sidequest offered by Bahamut, the king of the dragons, to go within the Citadel of Trials and retrieve a rat tail. Doing so will cause for your party members to class change, aka basically promote into stronger classes. The Warrior becomes the Knight, the Monk becomes the Master, the Thief becomes the Ninja, the White Mage becomes the White Wizard, the Black Mage becomes the Black Wizard, and the Red Mage becomes the Red Wizard. This grants them better stat growth and access to stronger equipment and spells, and the Knight and Ninja gain white and black magic, respectively.

The NES version of FF1 is infamously difficult, but over the many ports, starting with the Playstation version, and most notably advanced with the GBA version, the game became much, much easier. Whether it be the fixing of damaging bugs or the ability to save anywhere instead of the world map, which, granted, was only sensible considering portable console, to switching the spell system from each tier only being usable a certain amount of times before needing recharging at an inn, something borrowed from Dungeons & Dragons, to switching to a much more traditional MP system, to just a general rebalancing of the classes, it makes for a much easier game to get through. Too easy, honestly. You gain experience much, much faster, so as long as you fight the majority of the encounters you get into, you’ll quickly end up overpowered. It’s very easy to reach level 99, and much of the best equipment is easy to get. However, I don’t think the easier difficulty, and the general simplicity of the gameplay, are necessarily bad things. On the contrary, it makes the game very easy to pick up and play through, and it’s surprisingly fun despite how simple the combat is. This, I think, is the saving grace of the game, and even if that doesn’t satisfy you, the bonus content added in the later ports are the highlights of the game.

The GBA version added four bonus dungeons collectively called the Soul of Chaos, unlocked after each Fiend you defeat. These dungeons consist of a set amount of different, and often wacky, floors that load in a randomized order. While the first two dungeons are fairly standard and short, stuff begins picking up with the third, and the fourth is a 40 floor gauntlet of fun and creative little challenges and maps. In addition, each dungeon contains cameo bosses from Final Fantasy 3-6, complete with remixes of their boss themes for the PSP versions. These include Shinryu and Omega, who are the hardest bosses in the GBA version, and Gilgamesh, one of the most famous characters in the series. All in all, these dungeons are actually really fun to go through, as long as you’re properly leveled, and are definitely refreshing compared to how most RPGs handle bonus dungeons. On that subject, however, is the Labyrinth of Time, added in the PSP version. It consists of time puzzles, 30 in all, though you only do so many in each run, that ends with a fight against a newly added superboss, and the usurper of the title of hardest boss in the game, Chronodia. The catch is that Chronodia has 8 different variations, with different rewards and bestiary entries for each, and which one you encounter depends on how many puzzles you finish in time, and how many you only complete after running out of time, causing a fog to roll in that saps you of your HP and MP, and allows random encounters while in the puzzle areas. While creative, the Labyrinth of Time is overall maddeningly difficult and not fun. This is one to skip if you value your sanity.

Sound & Graphics

The graphics of FF1, again, judging the PSP version, are actually really good. The characters look distinct, and the monster graphics especially are great, and represent Yoshitaka Amano’s designs for them very, very well.

The areas are also surprisingly well designed. From the ruins of the Chaos Shrine, and the complete version of it as the final dungeon, to the underwater ruins that house the lair of the Kraken, to, most notably, the flying fortress of the Lufenian civilization, home to Tiamat and far advanced compared to all the other locations, especially in the original NES version, where it’s a space station, of all things.

As for the music, it holds up amazingly. Aside from many of the most famous themes of the series, such as the Preude, themes like the town theme and the Chaos Shrine theme are amazingly atmospheric, and it overall still stands out as one of the best soundtracks in the series to me. Even if he wasn’t involved in the rearranging for the remakes, this was a significant step for composer Nobou Uematsu.

Conclusion

Despite how fond I am of this game, my recommendation rating depends. If you’re looking for a nice, easy to pick up RPG, perhaps as an introduction to the series, or to RPGs in general, I would give this a recommended. If you’re looking for much past that, however, I would give it a not recommended. As transformed as it is, it is still a very old game underneath, with unclear goals, very barebones gameplay systems, and with all the innovation it did have swept away over the years. Still, if nothing else, it’s a very respectable start to Final Fantasy. Until next time.

-Scout

#final fantasy #gaming #long post #game review #jrpg

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apexwtfmoments-blog · 5 years

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Apex Legends review: a more welcoming take on battle royale

Battle royale games can feel, particularly for newcomers, like a monumental challenge. Even the most talented players will marathon through sessions in which their best efforts are laborious but futile. Forage for weapons and armor, scramble to eliminate other players for a momentary shot at glory, and push forward into danger to escape the rapidly shrinking circle — and then, more often than not, get killed and start the entire process over.

Skill is of the essence, as are patience and good communication. When playing in squads, the need to speak into a microphone, if only to facilitate teamwork with complete strangers, adds a dollop of anxiety to each scenario. Battle royale games can almost feel like a host body rejecting its players, allowing only the absolute best to enjoy victory.

Respawn Entertainment’s Apex Legends is no less challenging, but it is more inviting.

Polygon Recommends is our way of endorsing our favorite games. When we award a game the Polygon Recommends badge, it’s because we believe the title is uniquely thought-provoking, entertaining, inventive or fun — and worth fitting into your schedule. If you want to see the very best of the best for your platform(s) of choice, check out Polygon Essentials.

Apex Legends’ robust ping system allows squad members to communicate with startling ease and clarity. At its core, it’s a single button I can tap to let everyone know what I’m up to. It renders voice chat with internet strangers largely unnecessary. Want to suggest a location to land on from the dropship? Just point to that area and ping it. Wish to tell your teammates about a nifty weapon upgrade you spotted among the desert dunes? Just aim your crosshair on the attachment and ping it. Want to suggest camping in a nearby bunker? Just ping it.

This feature adapts to the context of situations both in and out of combat. For instance, one player can simply agree to another’s suggestion to head in a general direction by clicking on their ping. Among teams, this voiceless setup becomes a beautiful, seamless, and unspoken tango.

Now, playing with strangers in other battle royale games, the alternative proves to be unbearable. I suspect you’ll get what I mean when you inevitably get paired up with that one player who can’t stop yodeling commands and pointless exclamations into their microphone. Apex Legends - wide shot of Kings Canyon in The Outlands Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

The ping feature is emblematic of Apex Legends’ accessibility and savviness as a multiplayer shooter. Building upon the successes of progenitors like DayZ and PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds, the game doesn’t stray too far from the tried-and-tested formula, but still offers a flavor distinct from those of its peers.

One of Apex Legends’ biggest draws is its emphasis on cooperation, particularly its refreshing twists on permadeath. While reviving squadmates on the brink of death is now a conventional feature among shooters, getting knocked out doesn’t spell the end of my round in this game. Instead, I can gain a second wind if someone picks up a banner that my avatar drops upon death, and then brings it to one of the many beacons dotted around the map. Not only this does this give less experienced players some breathing room to pick up the basics, it incentivizes working together. I’m not going to get far on my own, since other squads will have the opportunity to revive their team members, too. "The roster of characters is small but diverse"

Unlike its competition, Apex Legends also tosses character classes — common in hero shooters like Overwatch — into the mix. The game still sticks to familiar archetypes from such shooters; I have the more combat-focused Bangalore, the defensive tank known as Gibraltar, and the stealthy skirmisher called Wraith. The notion of choosing and learning a character (or Legend, as they are referred to in the game) can seem like an intimidating prospect. For many shooters, picking a different class can offer a wildly different experience, but it also corresponds with a steeper learning curve.

Conversely, the legends in Apex Legends remain on equal footing. This is largely made possible due to their abilities, which are unique enough to differentiate the classes, but slight enough to complement rather than overwhelm one another. Not only does this make switching between classes a lot less complex, it further accentuates teamwork rather than individual skill. Apex Legends - Caustic, Lifeline, and Mirage with unique skins Respawn Entertainment/Electronic Arts

Take Pathfinder, an automaton that’s handy for mapping out shortcuts and unconventional paths out of danger. Its abilities mainly revolve around its grappling hook, which lets the character quickly reach areas that others can’t easily access. Meanwhile, the soldier Bangalore has a passive ability that allows her to sprint faster while taking fire, or call in an artillery strike that’s more useful at scattering opposing squads rather than eviscerating platoons of enemies.

Instead, my lethality in combat has more to do with the array of weapons I can get hold of in this sprawling battleground. Here’s another clear example of Respawn’s meticulousness. Coupled with the aforementioned ping system, these traits work in concert to deliver an exhilarating battle royale experience — one that’s hyper-focused on elevating teamwork. "Pings render voice chat with internet strangers largely unnecessary"

It would be remiss of me not to point out the small but diverse roster of characters in Apex Legends. Out of the current band of eight Legends, the presence of four people of color and two LGBTQ characters is a heartening first step. In particular, the mysterious hunter Bloodhound is probably the most — if not the first — prominent example of a nonbinary character in a mainstream shooter. Yet Apex Legends also faces the same narrative challenges that the relatively progressive Overwatch had with inclusivity. In a genre that carries a greater emphasis on gameplay rather than storytelling, injecting meaningful representation can admittedly be a trying process.

For instance, Gibraltar’s character biography on the Apex Legends website casually mentions a boyfriend, but players who mostly just interact with the core game can easily miss this detail. It’ll be interesting to see how — or if — Respawn will expand upon Apex Legends’ lore and stories. Perhaps that’ll come through comics or short films in the near future, if the studio follows the formula established by similar competitive online games that use other media to carry the bulk of the story.

The very concept of becoming the last combatant standing is a core tenet of battle royale games, but it has also kept the genre intimidating for rookies. Even with a significantly smaller number of players per session in Apex Legends, the game features a steep learning curve, while its tutorial level is a tad inadequate in familiarizing newcomers with the game. Yet Apex Legends’ astute take on squad cohesion and its brilliant communication system have made it enormously playable not just for veterans, but newcomers too.

Source : Apex Legends review: a more welcoming take on battle royale

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maniactypewriter · 4 years

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The backlog Week 4 [where the hell have you been edition]

I LIVE! In all seriousness, when im at school, I don't have access to my gaming computer and my laptop doesnt have enough space free for a project like this. Anyway, I am back for the next month, so let's get to the first game(s)

Anomaly warzone earth + Anomaly 2 playtime: 4 hours total

Im bundling these two together as they are very similar in game play. In Warzone Earth, you play as the 14th platoon deployed into the heart of the Anomaly, a giant mysterious dome that crash landed on top of Baghdad and tokyo. As the platoon leader, its your job to make sure the convoy of APCs and walking missile platforms gets through the level safely. The game refers to itself as a tower offense game. Essentially its a tower defense game, but instead of placing down towers, you are the targets that the towers are shooting at. Your vehicle team is constantly moving forward and its your job as commander to choose the right path for the vehicles to drive down and to strategically deploy the four power ups at your disposal. Your tools include a repair which heals your units, a smoke screen which makes enemies less likely to hit your units, and a decoy, which enemies will shoot at instead of your units. Usually the player is spending their time babysitting the convoy and rushing to collect more powers as they are dropped from killed enemies. Each mission has a different objective, but it usually devolves into, get to a place and kill all the towers.

Anomaly 2 is much the same as its predecessor. Set in the far future after an alien invasion, the earth has frozen over and humanity’s numbers are dwindling. Humanity’s only hope is a single convoy on their way through a frozen america to get to New york. As this is the future, humanity's weapons have evolved as well. The standard ACP with a gatling gun on top has evolved into a car with two gatling guns. And it also turns into a walking mech flamethrowers mounted on either arm. Bad ass. The power ups have also changed a little. You have your standard repair bubble, there is a focus power up which will tell all your units to focus fire on one tower you want particularly dead and an emp type power up which will disable enemy towers for a short while. Anomaly 2 also has multiplayer, but I didn't play that as it is most likely dead at time of play.

Antihero playtime: 70 minutes

Antihero is a competitive digital board game where each player plays as a master thief in a victorian england type setting. As the leader of a thieves guild, you have to go around a burgle the good people of “London” to fund your operations and buy pieces to put around the board. You can hire urchins to occupy specific buildings for special bonuses, hire thugs to block access to areas, and gangs to off your opponent's units and hunt down targets (as well as making a little extra dosh along the way.) this game takes advantage of being a digital board game because everything your opponent does is done mostly in secret. Obscured by the smog of war, you can not see what your opponent is doing, which could spell your doom if you aren't fast enough to look into his territory with your master thief.

I am not great at this game. I couldn't get past the second level on easy mode that's how bad I am. However, I can see it is a fun game, and I can see how this game’s multiplayer was popular for a time. However, I dare not go there as I fear that I may be utterly stomped by a player who has had several years more practice than I have at this game.

Apotheon playtime: 4 hours

Apotheon is the story of one greek guy not named kratos going to olympus to kick the butts of all the greek gods. The most striking thing anyone playing this game will notice is the artstyle. It is drawn to resemble Greek pottery paintings. You know the kind. The ones that depict Hercules doing his trials or some other greek hero doing something impressive. Anyway, story. The earth has been screwed over by the gods because chronic rapist Zeus decided to revoke humanity’s access to the things that are necessary to life. Hera picks you as her champion then sends you to mt Olympus to gather the gifts of the gods and maybe smack some sense into her cheating husband along the way. The game play is a 2D mix of dark souls and metroidvania games that are so prevalent in the modern day. However, Apotheon came out before the current wave of soulslikes so there is some small growing pains. Combat is kinda clunky and your character can sprint at 30 miles an hour but immediately slows down to a crawl whenever he so much as touches a staircase. Combat as mentioned before is mildly clunky. It uses a physics engine to do all its swings and stabs. Heavy weapons like a club have a wide swing arc and is directed by which way you tilt the left analog stick. The Reliance on physics to get the job done can lead to some interesting results. I saw one raider in the first area get launched into space after being double teamed by me and a friendly malita man. Apotheon is an interesting game with a stunning artstyle and compelling exploration. Which in this modern age of soulslike metroidvanias, is all you really need to stand out.

Aquaria play time: 1 hour

Speaking of metroidvanias, Aquaria. As the name suggests, the game is an underwater metroidvania mostly concerned with puzzle solving over combat. You play as Naija, a lonely fish lady who can use the power of song to do magic. As a fish lady, you can swim around the oceanic caverns with relative freedom. The game wants to be played with a mouse and keyboard, as my attempt to play it with a controller was thwarted swiftly. As is fitting for a game where the protagonist’s main power is singing, the game has a killer soundtrack. In the little bit ive heard when I was playing, it was some pretty good music. Visuals are decent. The game has a hand painted aesthetic, however some of the animations are kinda stiff and stilted. This game was originally released in 2007 after all. Small indie metroidvanias were not knocking it out of the park yet in terms of animation yet (im sure someone will correct me on that point eventually…) the small amount I played had me swimming around a claustrophobic map going around and solving puzzles that lead me to new areas and new song powers. One of the first i got was the ability to pull around large rocks. The second allowed me to transform into an old fish goddess and shoot energy missiles at hostile fish. While the game is focused on puzzles and exploration, that doesn't mean it is devoid of combat. I feel as this is the weakest part of what i played. I gave up on the game when i died to a puzzle boss who’s apparent solution didn't work. There is probably a lot I didn't see in my short time with the game. There is a whole cooking mechanic that I didn't fully grasp, as well as pets and the ability to decorate the main character’s house with special decorations you found out in the world. I may revisit this game at some later point, but for now its going back into the backlog as I search for more interesting games with less obtuse boss fights.

Armello playtime 2 hours

Armello is yet another digital board game. Set in a fantasy version of zootopia, the king of the land has fallen ill with the Rot. and all the clans of the land have sent their strapingest of adventurers to go and try and claim the throne for themselves. This can be done in one of four ways. Having the most honour points (gained by killing other players, or completing quests), gather four spirit stones and cleansing the king of Rot, having the most Rot yourself, or just straight up murdering the king. In the few matches I have played, the easiest one to achieve is the Honour victory, although that might just be my play style. Like most board games, rounds are taken in turns. Each player has a certain amount of hexes they can move, and landing on spaces will have different effects. Most events that happened as a result of landing on a space are luck based. “Perils” have you rolling dice, quests have you selecting from a circle of icons trying to pick the one that will net you a reward, and a random spinner that could give you anything from rot to gold to teleport you to the other side of the map. Once everyone has had their turn, day turns to night and new monsters spawn on the board. When the sun rises again, the king dies a little from his fantasy aids and gives the person with the most honor points the choice between two Decrees which will most likely be terrible for everyone involved. On top of all this, players have access to a hand of three cards. Which have various effects. Proper use of your cards can lead to victory or defeat depending on who you're playing as. Armello has an online mode, but like the other online modes in this batch of games, I dare not touch for fear of getting crushed. The game also has an online store where you can buy new skins for your dice and new character packs. It's a fun little board game, but im putting it on the shelf for now because i’ve had my fill and have no friends to play it with.

#Anomaly warzone earth #games #video games #writing #review #reviews #Apotheon #Armello #antihero #aquaria #board games #metroidvania

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afoolsingenuity · 7 years

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Bite Sized Books // Where I Declare My Love For Mariana Zapata’s Books

I have been intending to write a review for Mariana Zapata’s books for a good long while. A month, even! I read them when I was on holiday and adored them in every way. At least, the first ones I read (the two I read when I got home weren’t quite as good but they showed great potential). I knew I wanted to tell you guys how brilliant they were but I really couldn’t find the words to say why other than to flail and say read them! I still knew I had to feature them, though. There are just some books you have to talk about even when you’re utterly inelegant about them. I mean, even Zapata’s worst books were enjoyable they just weren’t up to scratch to my favourites from her.

The Ones I Adored

The Wall of Winnipeg and Me – Mariana Zapata

Published: 28th February 2016 Source: Bought Genre: Sports romance, Contemporary, Adult My Rating:

Vanessa Mazur knows she's doing the right thing. She shouldn't feel bad for quitting. Being an assistant/housekeeper/fairy godmother to the top defensive end in the National Football Organization was always supposed to be temporary. She has plans and none of them include washing extra-large underwear longer than necessary.

But when Aiden Graves shows up at her door wanting her to come back, she's beyond shocked.

For two years, the man known as The Wall of Winnipeg couldn't find it in him to tell her good morning or congratulate her on her birthday. Now? He's asking for the unthinkable. What do you say to the man who is used to getting everything he wants?

This was the first book from Zapata I heard about. I am a girl who loves romance, and more specifically sports romance, and I also adore fake relationships so when I heard there was a book which included all three of them you can bet I was interested in reading. Only problem? It was over 600 pages long. The average romance is like 300 pages, you can imagine I was intimidated by a book which was twice that. It’s why I didn’t bother buying until I knew I had all the time in the world to read it, when I was on holiday. I almost didn’t pick it up even then, luckily I avoided that mistake and found my first of my favourites from Zapata.

I adored Vanessa, she puts up with no crap and she didn’t swoon for Aiden just because he was some hot shot NFL player. She didn’t care. He had been a means to an end so could pursue her career. She handed in her notice and didn’t look back and I didn’t blame her as Aiden was annoying as hell, he was an island, and he didn’t stand up for her. She would have stayed focused an independent from Aiden if he hadn’t offered something she wanted, money to truly give her the independence she craved, she just had to marry him to help him stay in the US. Easy, right?

Well, it’s safe to say from there I fell in love as Aiden stayed being gruff and focused, but a little less of an island under Vanessa's influence. And I adored it. I didn’t even notice the length of the book because I was so invested in these characters. I swooned and sighed and grinned like and idiot and fell head over heels. I truly did, this was the best. Don’t be put off by the length but strap yourself in for a slow… very slow ride. This is the ultimate of slowburn. The romance moves at a glacial pace and it might frustrate the hell out of some. I was on the edge of my seat and loved every minute, though.

Dear Aaron – Mariana Zapata

Published: 10th June 2017

Source: Bought

Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Adult/New Adult

My Rating:

Ruby Santos knew exactly what she was getting herself into when she signed up to write a soldier overseas.

The guidelines were simple: one letter or email a week for the length of his or her deployment. Care packages were optional.

Been there, done that. She thought she knew what to expect.

What she didn’t count on was falling in love with the guy.

Then onto the second of Zapata’s books which I read. I hadn’t got this one on my radar until Nick reviewed it (funny how Nick often is the person who puts romance on my radar). I wasn’t quite as eager to get a hold of this one because Nick had said the pacing was a bit off with some of the romance and that it could have been shorter, the concern I had when it came to buying Wall of Winnipeg. I went ahead, though, because I loved the idea of a couple writing to one another and falling love. The concept slayed me and the reality was even better than expected.

Ruby and Aaron were so cute together. Ruby was brilliant and I loved that she lived with her parents still but was pursuing her career because I live at home too and it isn’t great but it’s a good means to and end. And Aaron was great building this friendship with Ruby as one of his few contacts back home so he could cope throughout his deployment.

I adored it and was totally sucked in from the start. I was gone for Aaron and adored Ruby from the very beginning. She was way geekier than me but I totally got her and her fandom ways and her quirkiness and how utterly why she is. I just connected with her straight away as I saw a lot of myself in her.

I loved how the format of the book demonstrated the progression in the relationship. We begin with emails being sent with them being a bit awkward as hey got to know one another and slowly connect. It then changes to IMs as the pair get closer and talk more often and it develops as they grow closer. It totally worked and I loved it.

This was such a cute book and I was expecting it to be angstier because Aaron was in the army but it actually was way more cute and fun and I loved it for that. It was nothing like I thought and everything which I wanted in a romance. I had a silly grin going on while I was reading and I'm not ashamed of that fact.

Kulti – Mariana Zapata

Published: 20th March 2015 Source: Bought Genre: Romance, Contemporary, Sports Romance, Adult My Rating:

“Trust me, I’ve wanted to punch you in the face a time or five.”

When the man you worshipped as a kid becomes your coach, it’s supposed to be the greatest thing in the world. Keywords: supposed to.

It didn’t take a week for twenty-seven-year-old Sal Casillas to wonder what she’d seen in the international soccer icon—why she’d ever had his posters on her wall, or ever envisioned marrying him and having super-playing soccer babies.

Sal had long ago gotten over the worst non-break-up in the history of imaginary relationships with a man that hadn’t known she’d existed. So she isn’t prepared for this version of Reiner Kulti who shows up to her team’s season: a quiet, reclusive, shadow of the explosive, passionate man he’d once been.

Nothing could have prepared her for the man she got to know.

Or the murderous urges he brought out in her.

“Sal, please don’t make me visit you in jail. Orange isn’t your color.”

This was going to be the longest season of her life.

And then the third, and in some ways my favourite. I actually had to figure out how to connect my Kindle to my phones internet to read this one while I was away because I brought it halfway through reading Dear Aaron because I knew I needed to read more Zapata and especially this one. It was another that had come onto my radar when I heard of Wall of Winnipeg because sports romance! I was put off by the fact it was a football (soccer) romance because I am not a huge fan of football, I see it enough on TV at home, do I really need to read a romance about it too. Also, the last sports romance which involved football I tried to read was Scoring Wilder and I hated it so I thought I might not like Kulti I was convinced by the fact Zapata wrote it and I am so glad I was.

I think this one clicked for me because I adored the fact it was a romance with an age gap. I was full on in love with Kulti too. Also, it was so similar to Pitch and my favourite ship in that (Mike/Ginny 4eva) that I was fully in love from the beginning.

This one was an enemies to lover romance and it was spot on. Even better, Sal wasn’t the usual girl in her early twenties falling in love but instead 27 and had several years playing on the football team who was focused on her career. She was determined to be the best she could be (with a few exceptions) and she was determined to do her best. And Reiner Kulti was a grumpy guy who had passed the peak in his career and who really didn’t want to be coaching when he was a world famous player. And he had been a dick to Sal’s brother and was basically horrible to anyone he spoke to and so Sal wasn’t willing to put up with crap from him at all.

I loved the dynamic between the two whenever they spoke and how throughout the book they grew closer. First, they became friends before any hope of romance happened. And then there was Sal’s family! I adored her parents and would have happily had them feature far more in the book. I would return to read more about Kulti and Sal’s life given half a chance.

This was the best kind of sports romance for me. It was about a female athlete for once and was absolutely brilliant. It even had a really good age difference romance for me to love. I will read all the books!

The Ones I Liked Less

Under Locke – Mariana Zapata

Published: 19th January 2014

Source: Bought

Genre: Contemporary, Romance

My Rating:

He was my boss, my brother’s friend, a Widower, an ex-felon, and a man I’d seen casually with a handful of women. But he was everything that gripped me, both the good and the bad. Worst case scenario if things turned awkward between us, I could go somewhere else. I’d gotten over epic heartbreak before, one more wouldn’t kill me.

After moving to Austin following six months of unemployment back home, Iris Taylor knows she should be glad to have landed a job so quickly... even if the business is owned by a member of the same motorcycle club her estranged father used to belong to. Except Dex Locke might just be the biggest jerk she’s ever met. He’s rude, impatient and doesn’t know how to tell time.

And the last thing they ever expected was each other.

But it was either the strip club or the tattoo shop.

… she should have chosen the strip club.

It just makes me sad when you read a book which doesn't work for you from an author you love. I mean, I still haven’t read all of Zapata’s books so there is still a chance there are more from her I don’t like but it made me sad as this was the first book by her I didn’t adore. It was partially a me thing for me to dislike it. I wasn’t a fan of the whole motorcycle gang aspect of the book. I may have enjoyed Sons of Anarchy but it’s a bit iffy when it comes to gang things. Also, when I began reading it was the last day on my holiday and my brain wasn’t totally focused on the book. That lack of focus when it came to reading this meant I didn’t become fully absorbed either.

It had all the usual marks of a Mariana Zapata book but it just missed the mark for me. I think it was the fact it was a biker gang book and Dex was just not what I wanted. He came across as a dick (hence the nickname in the book) and whilst he revealed a softer side his dickish tendencies were too much for me.

It was a good read for some, I’m sure, but not for me. It makes me sad but there always has to be one, right?

Lingus – Mariana Zapata

Published: 7th August 2015 Source: Bought Genre: Contemporary, Romance My Rating:

Most people would describe Katherine Berger as a responsible girl with a big heart, a loyal friend who takes care of those close to her, and the possessor of a wicked sense of humor. There was something about her that most people didn't know. "My name is Kat Berger, and I love porn."

When twenty-five-year-old Kat is dragged to a porn convention by her best friend, she's both embarrassed and nervous. The last thing she ever expected was to meet someone who makes her laugh like no other. This is a story about acceptance and friendship, and a love born out of the most unexpected of places.

This was a really good friends to lovers story and I enjoyed it. I didn't fall head over heels for it like Zapata's later books but you can see the essence of the great stories she writes and I did enjoy it. This only ended up on the bad list because I wasn’t head over heels and totally absorbed like I expected to be.

The book starts at a porn convention so it was safe to say I was a little hesitant going in to see whether I'd like it. Turns out it was hilarious and I enjoyed it. Sure, occasionally Kat and her friends seemed a bit OTT, almost like caricatures of who they really were because they were too much. But I did enjoy it and I loved Kat's close-knit group of friends and how they were all so close.

I thought some stuff went too fast in this book and some things too slow but the pacing wasn't a major issue. It was the first time I felt like a Zapata book was a touch too long though. I actually noticed a bit of a drag in the story towards the end.

As a whole it's a funny romance that I enjoyed as a weekend read. It may not have ticked all my boxes but it did tick a lot of them.

Now I have declared my undying love for Mariana Zapata I feel a strong need to go read those last two books by her. Who was the last author whose entire backlist you went and bought after one book? And any awesome romance authors you feel the need to recommend?

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#a fool's ingenuity #books

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