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shift-shaping · 7 months

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What are your top ten video games?

Tagged by: @ellana-lavellan-rp (thank you :D)

Tagging: @veshialles @keturagh (pick which ones are least bad ig) @mallk-z @dreadfutures @redinkofshame @inner-muse @skiitter @storm-of-feathers @dreadwxlf @drakonovisny @little-lightning-lavellan @kirstinetheartist @first-flower-of-my-house @sugarspunquill @disasterdrvid and anyone else that wants to!

I am going to enforce a rule on myself of only one game per series. In no particular order, and based on how I am right now currently feeling:

1. Pokemon Insurgence - Cringy, edgy, and over-the-top in the best way while also delivering a challenging and genuinely very fun experience. I love the canon Pokemon games, but a good fangame can really bring out the best of the series while catering to longtime fans and Insurgence does just that. My Insurgence team is still the one I remember best out of all of my Pokemon teams. Cannot recommend enough if you can handle a little "i'm twelve and this is deep" writing. It's ridiculously fun.

2. Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles - Everything about this game is beautiful and haunting and it fundamentally changed me as a person. The world it creates is one of profound isolation while the characters and themes emphasize the importance of connection and hope. Everything I have ever written carries some of its DNA. It is also a kind of boring hack n' slash dungeon crawler with a lackluster remake and a really annoying difficulty curve in the endgame. i never successfully played it in multiplayer as intended because i did not have any friends. It also made me bisexual.

3. Hades - Extremely fun and challenging with fabulously tactile and energetic gameplay. If you have not played Hades, you really should. Also Megaera is there. 4. Stardew Valley - everything you could want in a farming sim, especially with its excellent mod support. My only issue is: where does everyone poop?? 5. Skyrim - Obviously. if you think skyrim is bad you are kidding yourself. skyrim is the most video game of all time.

6. Dragon Age Inquisition - even more obviously. The apex of the series, though it is far from perfect, especially in its pacing/story construction. Still, Origins has its pacing issues too, and Inquisition has much better/more fun gameplay. I will not argue on this. Block me if you disagree i guess. Bad hair though. 7. Subnautica - Stunningly beautiful and terrifying, even on the goddamn Switch where it barely runs. I put so many hours into it on creative mode that I broke my save and had to send it to the devs to fix. They never did get back to me... 8. Disco Elysium - hnnnnngggggghhhhnggggn it's so good you guys it's sooo good it's so fucking good guys it's soo gooooood

9. Fire Emblem Three Houses - i love these stupid anime kids so much. i love big titty byleth. this game is so bad. i think about it daily. do not play this game 10. Animal Crossing New Horizons - just a lovely little game. being able to customize your entire island is A++++, enough so that i'm willing to forgive how many features it is straight up missing and how bland the dialogue gets.

Honorable mention: Wingspan - BIRDS AAAAAAAAAAAA

#video games #enjoy this dumb post #also hey the post editor on pc is uhhh bad #it's quite bad

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voldheart · 16 days

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How comes Ghost gains a likeness towards Godseeker? (I wanna know mooore about the AU sorrynotsorry)

In Game Godseeker at first was very arrogant towards them and just started to show interest in Ghost, when they reached higher Pantheons. She doesn't strike me as the Kind of Person that would be interested in Rebuilding Hallownest because the Bugs there are no Gods. But feel free to change my mind!

Yeah, theyre not gods to a "Higher being" degree, but she considers them "holy" in some way....? you can actually see statues of vengeflies and husks in the hall of gods Which is kind of funny knowing how lowly she thinks of the knight at first lol

my interpretation is that the "holiness" these bugs possess comes from being under the influence of a higher being, be it Radiance or pk in Hallownest's case (mantis lords being the exception for being cool as fuck), which would explain why she doesn't want to have anything to do with the Knight, as it probably has its own thing going on that she did not understand at the time.

In this case she probably wouldn't care much for the bugs at Dirtmouth since most are new to the kingdom. But now that tk ascended into "godhood", maybe she wouldn't mind them much for being it's friends…? idk

As to why Ghost ends up liking Godseeker, i think that her call for powerful beings might have unintentionally pulled it into godhome, getting it to complete pantheons and, subconsciously, getting interested in her. even through all the insults and everything. i mean who doesnt like a big mean woman am i right haha *SWEATING*

THOUGH, as to why i believe it feels affection towards her i'll be talking about that below the cut (post got a bit too long sorryy)

ok just to be clear, the knight barely gets any sort of indication of personality in game, this is all just me overanalyzing Every single little crumb of possible person(bug?)hood I could find. which is kind of nothing honestly since all of this could be intentional or not, but i'm feasting on that shit like crazy

1: One thing (and its kind of the main thing that funnily made me descend into this rabbit hole) is that canonically, you can only gift her a delicate flower AFTER completing p2, which by this point it very much knows what she is like. Now i am aware that this could mean literally anything, but i highly doubt it would gift her a flower out of hate or indiference. That shit is hard as hell to deliver.

2: So a while ago i made this gifset about its walking animations. Something that, as I've noted in the post, it normally does when confronted with something important to it... For some reason TC felt compelled to program that for whenever it encountered Godseeker in between pantheons, despite the slight inconvenience it might cause for gameplay, so it was probably not added for that. at the very least i assume that theres a sort of respect it has for her

3: this post team cherry made promoting Godmaster which i find very funny

4: ok i know this sounds like reaching too hard but im just so obsessed with how despite falling down so violently, it still holds her so very gently here . it's almost as if it puts in the effort to not hurt her in a way. i mean shes standing there on her goddamn bug tippy toes and she barely even budges ? like 🏳️‍🌈?

5: shes hot asfuckkkkkk i rest my case

#.... with all that said im gonna be 100% real rn im just really gay for her #and tk is the perfect self insert as i experience heavy gender envy from it #like literal unrealistic transition goals i mean it. bug sized and everything #kind of embarrassing to admit but it's the honest truth #symvoidsis #sorry i took a bit to reply my adhd ass kept getting distracted😭

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ha-lame · 3 months

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its 2 am and im awake thinking about the leon kennedy vs joel miller argument again and LEON WOULD BUST JOELS ASS ARE YOU KIDDING ME???

like in terms of the canon of each franchise as opposed to the actual gameplay, leon has been through the fucking RINGER with these bio weapons. within the cg movies alone he has been fucking thrown around like a chew toy and the worst injury we ever see him get is what looks like a dislocated shoulder.

whereas joel? yeah when his heads in the right place he can be downright brutal (e.g. the hospital or anything pertaining to Ellie and her wellbeing) but when his guards down? he gets his head beaten in with a golf club.

now i personally think that you really shouldn't compare these two franchises due to how different they are in how they treat their characters. resident evil never really takes a step back to examine the characters or even let them be characters. they're all just the husk in which we experience the "much more entertaining" zombie story through, and when they do address the trauma these characters have, its always used as a steppingstone for the rest of the story. Chris's ptsd induced amnesia in re6? jills arch from re5 to death island? they're treated as little wrinkles that are easily ironed out, if you went from playing re 5 to watching vendetta or death island, you probably will never realize Chris had his entire team die on his watch or that his partner died to save him cus he acts the exact same. this is why characters like Leon can be thrown around like that with seemingly no consequences, cus it just looks badass and nobody at capcom could care less about the actual pain the character would go through.

whereas the last of us is much more character focused, due to the fact that it doesn't dwell on the zombie aspect of the story. where resident evil is like "HEY WEVE GOT COOL ZOMBIES AND ACTION AND COOL SHIT EXPLOSIONS" the last of us focuses on the fallout of that, what happens when we just have to live in a zombie infected world? it also takes the time to build up the audiences relationship with each character. when a character dies or is hurt, no matter how big or small their role in the story, it has a profound impact on the audience. i know plenty of people who hated abby while playing as her but by the end of the Santa Barbra section when they found her again, they were shocked and didnt even really wanna fight her as ellie.

the last of us's characters feel human, they feel real, but resident evils feel like game characters, literal chew toys for capcom to throw around. hence why i cry when i replay tlou part 2 and see joel die again and laugh when im watching vendetta and leon gets flung across the top of a skyscraper by a bioweapon.

so yeah leon would win in a fight between him and joel thats all im saying :3

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friedunicornstudio · 4 years

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Just wanted to just leave these perfectly normal Byleths here, don’t mind me.

(Byleth’s mug was a gift from Leonie)

#fire emblem #fe3h #fe3h claude #claude fire emblem #byleth #fire emblem three houses #timeskip #fried unicorn studio #I will accept ludonarrative dissonance when I must #But I personally am team its all canon even gameplay #So Byleth may be an emotionally unavailable murder machine #But they are also a dingus that fishes way too much #And learned most of their teaching skills via fishing #And also mine at least keeps just throwing flowers at people and leaving #So they're just kinda a trainwreck #and that's great

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dreampathic · 3 years

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┇haikyuu boys on facetime w/ you┇

❥characters: hanamaki, bokuto, tsukishima, suna, and kenma

❥warnings: foul language, suggestive??

❥genre: crack, fluff

❥a/n: this is unedited bc i wrote this at 12am with my head filled with facetiming thoughts

part 2

HANAMAKI

he was so nervous to call you, he had to text mattsun if it was the right time to. mattsun called him a pussy and that’s what gave makki the confidence to call you

but now he calls you for everything just to get a reason to see your face and talk to you

it’s also canon that he has a younger sister and an older one and most sisters are nosey as fuck

like me

so I 100% see that one day, when makki was taking a nap, his younger sister stole his phone and called you

ya know it freaked you out because you didn’t expect a pre-teen’s face on the phone but then you didn’t really care because you thought it was funny as fuck

what ends up happening is this girl deadass starts asking you questions like it’s a whole ass interview and she’s writing them down in her sparkly justice notebook to tell her older sister later because they wanted to know as much shit about the person on the phone with their dumbass brother 24/7

you two ended up having a great conversation and exchanging phone numbers and she texts you almost everyday about anything

makki isn’t aware of this.

BOKUTO

mans would not hesitate to facetime you the first time

if he wants to see your face and actually talk to you instead of text, he will

besides, he’s the type of person that prefers facetiming over text messaging anyway

like @katiea03

not me being on the phone with her right now

he would call you bright early in the morning, waking you up

he would feel bad for like a second but then not care because now see your pretty face <3

even though its the morning and you look crusty as fuck

he legit stays on the phone 24/7 with you it’s fucking insane

he eats on the phone with you

does homework on the phone with you

you have to force him

works out on the phone with you (smirk face goes here to indicate that yes i’m imagining bokuto shirtless and working out in front of me with his rock hard abs and juicy thighs and bootylicious ass)

showers on the phone with you..(eyeballs indicating that yes if i were to be on the phone with him when he takes a shower, you best believe i’m imagining how big his shlong is)

sleeps on the phone with you (cute eyes indicating that the other two things i just said weren’t vulgar at all and I’m not a horny fuck when i am)

you get the gist

also, since his older sisters don’t live in the house anymore he could be as loud as he want when his parents aren’t home

you don’t mind him being loud as long as you get to see him shirtless

i mean talk to him.

you don’t mind him being loud as long as you get to talk to him.

TSUKISHIMA

honestly this man would be a dry ass texter so he prefers facetiming like bokuto

he is kind of hesitant to call you the first time but then he’s like, “fuck it”

and when he does you guys don’t really talk that much

it’s a comfortable silence whenever you guys call

he does his thing, whether it’s homework or scrolling through social media while you do yours

he always asks, “which playlist do you want to listen to?”

obviously every now and then you guys would have a full ass conversation but most of the times you guys are just chilling, listening to music and enjoying each other’s company

there was this one time though where his brother came home from college unannounced and you two were chilling as usual, his laptop was sitting in his lap as he leant his chair back a little, propping his legs on top of his desk, typing away on an essay while his phone was leaning against the wall while you were focusing on your own homework when his brother bursts through his door saying, “I’m home!!” which scared the fuck out of tsuki, making his chair lean ALLLL the way back, causing him to fall to the floor lol

you and akiteru laughed your fucking asses off and he was so embarrassed, he hung up on you which made you lowkey sad but he ended up calling you back later that day and falling asleep on the phone with you<3

SUNA

mans is on his phone 24/7...

so he prefers texting over facetiming 100%

he expresses his emotions with memes

so he was kind of nervous facetiming you for the first time because what if he isn’t as entertaining?

but turns out he is

he loves talking to you

but so does his little sister

while he’s in his room and his sister hears that you’re on the phone??

she literally swings his door open and jumps on his bed and is like, “I KNEW IT WAS Y/N!”

it annoys the fuck out of him omg

he just wants to talk to his s/o without her interrupting every time

another thing she does is whenever he has his phone propped in the kitchen or where ever, she goes over, grabs his phone and starts fucking bolting LMFAO

my sister does this shit omg

he has to fucking CHASE her

he obviously catches up because it’s a 4′3 little girl vs. a 6′3 teenage male

you get a kick out of it either way

KENMA

you actually call him first

and his heart dropped when he saw your name popped up asking to call

honestly kenma doesn’t have much social interaction with anybody other than his volleyball team and the only person he really talks to is kuroo so he just doesn’t want to be awkward on the phone with you

he’s like tsukishima where you guys don’t really talk

he just plays his video games while you do your own thing

sometimes you just talk to him, or rant and he just listens to while also focusing on his game, replying every once in a while

he loves hearing you speak and he’s glad you don’t mind that he doesn’t talk that much

when he isnt playing video games or doing homework, he’s usually laying in his bed watching gameplays as he shares his screen with you

i know this isn’t a facetime feature but let’s pretend it is

you guys usually fall asleep watching youtube together

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itsclydebitches · 3 years

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re: the game.......it's supposed to be 100% canon (according to miles in part of the stream) and it's set during v7 which is why they intentionally had that timeskip montage to leave room for the events of the game. and miles made a pithy 'before you ask why they didn't talk about it in the show, there's only so much we can do lol we're trying our best' response to what is sure to be criticism the game will draw if something significant happens that we are left wonder why tf none of them ever mentioned anything (especially if they already have plans for the game when they were writing v7)

im already tired

I was admittedly dismissive of the game the other day, mostly because writing up a response to the teaser took a bit of time and when nothing in the game trailer grabbed me I was just like, "Eh, boring." Going back and giving it another go though I'm... mostly confused? First of all, why do we need to essentially skip things in the primary narrative to make room for the game's story? We've spoken ad nauseam about RWBY's tendency to put critical information in its supplementary texts and it's looking as if Arrowfell might be the next on an ever growing list. Why not just do an AU-ish RWBY with a self-contained story? Or rehash the webseries plot with gameplay elements? A lot of us thought Volumes 7-8 were missing crucial character work and if that ends up in the game rather than the show... well, as said, that's an ongoing problem. This approach of, 'We needed to save this for the game and then didn't have time to reference it in the show, sorry' remains incredibly strange to me. Your show is your foundational text! That should always take priority.

Second, am I the only one who finds it strange that we're getting this material immediately post-Ironwood's downfall? Not that RWBY can't ever return to villainous/dead characters, Roman is recent proof of that, though Roman also has a good five years between his exit and this new book. In contrast, we just watched Ironwood turn into someone willing to bomb his own city. He just died a pointless death as his entire Kingdom sunk. We just had the drama surrounding that paid message and the subtle implication that it's weird to care about him as a character, outside of hating him as a villain. Yet now, coming right on the heels of all that, we've got like... super peppy Ruby excitedly following Ironwood's orders?

The timing feels strange to me and even if I'd personally been happy with Ironwood's arc, I'd still be unsure of how to approach this. Again, if it was a self-contained story involving a whole bunch of RWBY characters, regardless of their status in the show — just like Chibi does — then good, great, I understand how we're approaching this. But canonical material of Volume 7, provided via the game as opposed to the show? Am I supposed to just turn off my brain and enjoy the side-scrolling hack-and-slash, putting the concept of canon aside? Read this with an element of tragedy as they do fun side-missions, ignorant of what's to come? Like yeah, it really doesn't need to be that #deep, but just from a storytelling perspective it's strange to get this after we've seen these relationships destroyed.

Finally, but very much going off of the above... why does the group start out fighting mechs? The gameplay and dialogue revolves around grimm attacks, but the opening is Team RWBY being super serious against Ironwood's army, their presumed allies at this point in time.

So what, is it another hack? Is the game going to explore them turning against Ironwood in a manner that retcons the end of Volume 7? Is this a meaningless opening just there for the drama? If so, why not just make all those goons grimm...

As said, the trailer mostly confuses me. I mean, the combat looks decent so far (from what little we can see), the characters are recognizable yet stylized, there's clearly some RPG elements in the form of a plot... I just don't know how to approach this as a piece of the larger RWBY puzzle. Making it "100% canon," rather than a stand-alone RWBY title feels like a mistake, one that keeps cropping up.

#rwby #mymetas #rwde

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dappersheep · 3 years

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Food Fantasy: An Analysis on what killed a Golden Goose (3/3)

Ladies and gentlemen, we've arrived at our final destination.

Again before we start, we have our obligatory disclaimers. I do not own the game or its characters, nor do I claim to know the true history and likely fate of this game. I am entitled to the thoughts and opinions written within this post. Feel free to agree or disagree with the points being made.

This post also remains untagged from the main foofan tag. Only my followers will see this.

We are in the third and final stretch, and the checkpoint is past the cut.

Community

So... here we are, fellow Master Attendants.

As consumers of this piece of entertainment media, we are free to enjoy it however we wish. Appreciating what is there, creating something new from what exists, playing the game by the meta or however you want to play it (within your means and at your own risk of course). There's no one true and absolute way to experience the game.

However, just as you can enjoy something, doesn't mean you can't also point out flaws or shortcomings of the media in question. As an active veteran player, I've already pointed out the many gameplay design flaws already. And I'd be pretty dumb to say that Food Fantasy's writing is perfect. Hell, it has a lot of holes from a worldbuilding consistency standpoint.

And what of things from the community side? Yes, there will be times you'd see content you consider cringe, or something in fanon you don't agree with. Or there happens to be fan theories and fangirling posts you don't like the take of because of X or Y.

And that's fine. If we all happen to play the same way, like the same thing, agree on the same thing and produce the same thing, well, this would be one helluva boring community, wouldn't it?

But what if someone decides the way you're playing the game is wrong and harasses you over it? What happens if someone decides that their interpretation of the game's flavor text and lore is more important than what anyone else thought about it? What happens if someone decides that they're absolutely right, and you and everyone else who disagrees deserves to be bullied out of the fandom?

As much as I want to say we aren't part of the problem why the game is deteriorating, we are unfortunately, part of the reason why the game is as such even if most of the blame is directed towards Funtoy and Elex themselves.

⦁ Whale Authority. Whales will always be part of a gacha game's ecosystem. Without them, the game won't be able to maintain its upkeep costs, moreso for one that services global regions instead of just one. But when a game decides to cater its decisions of what features should be prioritized and when it should be launched around only its most elite paying players' voices -even if that influence has since tapered off-, you know there is something wrong with the publisher's management team and priorities.

⦁ Interguild drama. While I did not personally follow any of this, this has certainly been the peak of in-game tension back in the day. Poaching good players from both competitive and smaller guilds, guild mergers that often ended up making the annexed guild/s the equivalent of UK colonized India or Australia, suck-ups chummying up to guild leaders to keep a spot in an active, high ranking guild (for bragging rights!) despite never contributing much to overall damage, and just general dislike of certain players' attitudes. Actions like this have disillusioned many players about their playing experience and the reason why many eventually just lost the motivation to log into FooFan.

⦁ Cheaters. You know very well about the Hacker-teme I've mentioned before, but that was in context of Elex being incompetent with dealing with them. Here, I would like to point out the players who are desperate to dominate the playing field for whatever reason to the point that they would resort to cheating the ranks with forceful modifications of the APK. Whether it is to rank high in catacombs weekly, get a top spot in daily disaster damage, or weasel their way into the competitive whale ranks of a major ranking event, these are the people who have no qualms messing with the code to give themselves an easier time with the game. And if they're caught? Some pretend that they've made a mistake, some quickly sell the account to escape the blame, some others just scamper away into the dark and hide in the lower ranks where they can't be found. Others simply don't care and keep cheating until Elex decides to finally ban them... if Elex ever decides their rebates score isn't worth saving the account.

⦁ Ship wars. Ah yes, a staple of drama in any fandom. There doesn't need much explanation to this as we've all had our fair share of running into a battleground in whatever fandom we visit. Someone ships BB52 wholeheartedly? Nope, problematic 'age gaps'. Someone likes Napoleon with Pastel? Someone's bound to misinterpret their bios in order to justify that Napoleon was being abusive. Spaghetti and Borscht? Borscht is minor coded, ship her with Vodka instead. Whiskey and Pizza or Cassata? Cancelled! And I've never heard of the Foe Yay trope or pretend I don't know about it! Rarepairs? Disgusting! No fanon in my canon playground! Turkey and Eggnog? Gasp! How dare you, you pedo-shipper-even-though-you-never-said-you-shipped-them-romantically-but-that-isn't-my-point!

⦁ Character Obsession: Bias. On one hand, you love a character so much. Relate to a character so much. You have thus pulled this character into the folds of your bosom and coo at them like a mother dove and get so minutely triggered if someone so much as makes one disagreeable or joking comment about the character that you fly into an overreactive ballistic rage that would make a Canadian goose honk in fear. You don't care what they are in canon. You don't care about the possibility of mistranslation. What matters is the fanon space you carved out for them to exist in and that's all that matters. The problem with this is when this obsession takes over common sense and social etiquette and it steps into harassment territory. You begin to think: I'm the only one who 'understands' the character. I'm the only one who wishes better for the character, everyone else is out to defame them! Oh wait, you like them too? Do you like them the way *I* like them? No? Maybe if you're my 'friend', I'd let it slide. But to everyone else? No one else has the right to like them as much as I do. No one! Never mind that they're completely fictional- No one hurts my bias because in turn, they're hurting *me*!

⦁ Character Obsession: Anti. On the other hand, you hate a character so much. This character just makes you see so much red. Their smug little smirk just makes your blood boil. Their fictional backstory makes you recoil in disgust. You hate that someone else loves a character you hate so much. You cannot *believe* that someone could be so daringly stupid to like a problematic character. They must be problematic too then. They must be hiding real life secrets that are problematic! Yes, yes. That's right. That person's a supporter of abuse. That person's into pedophilia. That person is into military lolita fashion that Japan started the trend of but clearly Japan was part of the Axis Powers! And that... that person... that person... is a roleplayer and a yaoi fangirl properly interacting with minors and adults. How dare they...!

⦁ Fan Translations. Normally it wouldn't be a problem that a group or two or several are translating pieces of the game's lore ahead of the official. But with Elex's very delayed translations and extreme allergic reactions to translating Food Soul bios, people have become dependent on fan-translation groups to get their fix. The problem herein lies... is when the translators get drunk off the power that they are one of a handful in a small community who can magically transcribe the oriental moonrunes into English. The problem starts when the translator starts to have an inclination. The problem starts when the translator loses their professional detachment and start adding in details here and there into the fan translated product that ultimately changes the meaning and direction of the entire story. The problem is also escalated when that translator's embellished product is touted as the truth by their followers. If there was an upcoming character whose backstory is connected to a character they hated (either because of someone or they just don't like the character) and you were hoping to read the fan translation? How would you know that what you get isn't something doctored to the point it's basically fanfiction?

⦁ Social Justice Vigilantism. Sometimes someone does not have a character obsession or need it to be annoying. Sometimes, someone just wants to ring the alarm over something they find 'problematic' in order to police and sanitize the enjoyment of the media for 'everyone'. They no longer really take enjoyment out of a new Food Soul design being leaked, they no longer read the lore just to enjoy what it has to offer. Instead, they nitpick bits and pieces of the design and point it out repeatedly as a reason why the whole thing is bad. They point out bits of the story and inject their interpretations of it without really comprehending what they've read in full and react badly to it. What's worse is that they have no qualms publicly posting their reactions and eagerly and hungrily await those likes and echoes of agreement that they were right.

⦁ Circles of Influence. Everyone has a group they eventually gravitate to in a fandom. It comes with its own pros and cons. Sometimes you join a group because someone you admire is in there, sometimes you join a group because you just want to mingle and see more content. All valid reasons. Arguments can't be avoided in a group, it has to happen... But you have to take care. You have to take care to feel the change in the air of the group. When someone starts pushing people to agree with them. When your most admired people start to feel overly sensitive about certain characters or issues. When you start to feel obligated to spy on other groups outside of this one for 'nonbelievers', 'traitors' and 'heretics' who do not think the way this group does, and that bringing back bits and pieces of gossip as offerings would somehow make you more favored in the eyes of the inner clique or remain inside it. There is a gripping sense of annoyance when that person comes in to complain but you can't do anything about it but nod and agree. There is a pervading sense of fear and apprehension of overstepping an invisible boundary. There is fear that you might be next on the chopping block, after witnessing one of the others being ganged up on and thrown out without a second thought, their name spat upon like they're worth less than dirt. And so reluctant you are to give up what you have with them that when they push you to do something you are reluctant to do, all in the name of 'harmony and justice'... You do it. Even though it would mean offering yourself up to the mob with no salvation, and the stark realization that... [they] never cared about you as a friend.

And we've come to the end of this analysis trilogy. The writing got a little bit strange in this post, but honestly this is the best way I could put it. I'm aware things can and will be more complicated than the bullet points I've written but I'm just one person and I tried very hard to keep details of all the drama that happened in this fandom as vague as possible. Of course, that wouldn't work if you know what I am talking about.

The community is quiet now for the most part, the game is somewhere between limbo and the living plane. Things could be better for us, but I don't really count on it.

I wish I could leave a bit of a moral warning or something. But rather than do that, I just hope this was an entertaining read into one individual's eyes into Food Fantasy and everything that makes it up.

#ravings of a madman #food fantasy but not tagged right

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gayreneewalker · 4 years

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I saw @fxcrt mention Glove Stank in a fic and just. i gotta do this

The Foxes’ Favorite Non-Foul Court Assholery

Dan: pretty reasonable, she enjoys talking shit. If she escalates, normally it’ll be into a full scale scuffle

Kevin: canon implies he is just a rude bastard. I choose to believe he also makes comments about the other teams players’ preformance, with all the derision and none of the helpful criticism.

Andrew: When there’s a pause in gameplay he Will shove his stinky icky gloves in your face to grab your cage and rattle your helmet if he really wants to shut you up, if youre too close to goal. Relatively uncommon. Mostly he just lobs balls at the heads or ankles of people, though. Avoids fights by the ‘don’t fuck with the goalie’ principle, and also having a scary bastad reputation.

Matt: Shittalk. Like, yeah, he’s a nice guy off the court, but he def had some hockey player friends in highschool and believes chirping is an essential part of playing a sport (hes right) and also is weirdly good at finding sore spots when he gets irritated. He probably has sparked a few “what AM i doing with my life” crisises

Aaron: like Andrew, gloving. He doesn’t grab the face cage, though, he just puts his hand like right in your face. Also calling people multi-curse insults, but tbh it’s only notable for the intricacy and creativity of it. Mostly avoids fights because suddenly going and beating the shit out of someone a full foot shorter than you on live tv is not a good look

Seth: Honestly the dude just hurled insults or punches, very little creativity in being a Rude Obnoxious Ass but still real effective

Allison: She’ll do gloving, although she won’t even look at you while she just drive-by drags her palm over your face cage. Its really condescending and an extention of how she flaunts the Rich Bitch vibes on court. Yeah shes gotten into fights doing this.

Nicky: Elbows people. Like he is catty and talks shit ofc but the most unusual habit is elbowing. The style/size of pads he wears means theyre still p sharp and he has uncanny aim for not hitting armor. He’s also good at doing it within allowed perameters. He preaches nonviolence off the court but tbh the dude wouldn’t play defense if he didnt want to beat people up a little and nobody can escape.

Renee: she’s a goalie and she actively tries to be a good person. She does not do anything outwardly assholish, but sometimes she will very quietly goad someone else into trying to fight her, and then they get the shit beat out of them by the other foxes because Goalies Are Off Limits And Renee Is An Angel

Neil: smartmouth bastard. Eventually picks up nicky’s elbowing habits and the habit of shoving a stinky glove in someone’s face if they don’t back off with insults when there’s no action, and decides its fun to taunt someone and just dance out of range when they start swinging so they look dumb. Still, dragging someone within an inch of their life is still gonna be his go-to.

#all for the game #the foxhole court #andrew minyard #matt boyd #nicky hemmick #seth gordon #nora sakavic #renee walker #alison reynolds #neil josten #dan wilds #aaron minyard #kevin day #i cant believe i almost forgot to tag kev sorry kev ily #also im like 1000% less popular than fxcrt but if you havent read his stuff DOOOO ITTTT its some grade a shit

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maskydoolovesmasseffect · 3 years

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Mass Effect Tag

Wellio, I’ve been tagged by @berryshiara. Passing this on to @grummel83

Gunna answer my questions now. Y’all feel free to tell me what you think of these answers.

I’m a fan since: 2008. I was just out of high school and still not over KoTOR. I was fresh in the army and got to talking to some other dude fresh to the army about video games. He asked me if I played Mass Effect. I said no. By the next day I just about totally forgot about him, then he suddenly appeared out of nowhere sat in front of me in the chow hall and pulled a copy of ME1 for Xbox 360 out his pocket like he was a magician doing a magic trick (ACU pockets are huge.)

Anyway turns out that guy was a romance option and I must have picked the right dialogue options. I’m still with him, too.

Favorite game of the series:

Mass Effect 2. It seemed like that’s the one where choices mattered most and you really got to know your squaddies. Also MAJOR gameplay improvements over the first game. And that game gave me the most freedom to do basically whatever I wanted and wasnt afraid to give me consequences for it.

MShep or FShep:

FShep. Nothing against MShep, but for me the real Shep is FShep. Can’t beat Jennifer Hale’s voice.

Earthborn, Colonist, or Spacer:

Colonist. I like having the background of knowing just how dangerous the galaxy can be and how the Alliance can’t be everywhere at once so sometimes you need to manage your best on your own.

Biotics or Tech:

Both.

Paragon or Renegade:

Paragon, mostly. I tried being renegade but some of the actions are just so pointlessly dickish, or even outright unhinged in a way that would make it impossible to believe the Alliance would ever promote Shepard as an officer or even keep her in the Alliance at all, especially in the first game.

That said, there are times where a renegade action is more expedient and practical than a paragon one, like in 2 when you stab a dude in the back to prevent him from repairing an enemy gunship, so even with a paragon playthrough, my Shepard will have no issues taking that opportunity. She’s already seconds away from betraying all those guys anyway.

Paragon in treatment of others, renegade in combat pragmatism.

Favorite Class:

I play as infiltrator and vanguard.

Infiltrator is great for using a sniping and opening loot, and then for going invisible, and if I remember right AI hacking too. That’s cool and I wish there were more genuine opportunities for stealth.

Nowadays I play as Vanguard in my playthroughs mainly just so my Shepard can be canonically biotic for story reasons. From 2 on when looting no longer needs a special skill and I get to charge around the map. I don’t really care much about using biotics (that’s what the squadies are for) but the movement is super useful (when Shepard actually does the thing instead of just standing out in the open soaking up bullets until the ability decides to actually work.)

Favorite Companion:

Garrus. I like to set him up in sniper positions. When he actually STAYS where I put him instead of running straight up to enemies to try to snipe them at point blank, he’s great.

Also his quips in 2 on are pretty entertaining.

Least Favorite Companion:

Garrus, Oh my god. Go back to the sniper position where I put you. Leave tanking to krogan; you do not have the HP for this.

Also Kaidan in ME1. He can not shoot to save his life - literally.

My Squad Selection:

For all ME1 playthroughs after my first one, Ashley and Kaidan, just of their comments and because... well... I only have so much time with them.

Apart from that I mainly just pick my team based on who’s likely to have the most interesting commentary on whatever the mission happens to be, squad balance be damned.

Favorite In-Game Romance:

Garrus X Shepard is my favorite love story. They are just so adorable together and always supportive even when they disagree.

But my cannon romance is Kaidan X Shepard for the drama and angst.

Favorite NPC:

In ME1 there’s this random Turian on Noveria who randomly has like a New York accent and I absolutely adore him. He plays basically no part in the story other than some minor information but he’s just so pleasant to speak to.

“If you need anything, I’ll be here.”

Favorite Antagonist:

Morinth, the Ardat-Yakshi daughter of Samara. Yes, she’s a murderous vampire who will absolutely kill you given the chance... but like, it’s a medical condition. And I really can’t help but feel for ardat-yakshi in general when their only options are to spend their whole lives on the run from justicars out to execute them, or waste their entire 1000 year lifespan imprisoned in a monetary unable to experience the world at all. Yeah, Morinth is evil, but Ardat-Yakshi don’t exactly have a good deal.

Favorite Loyalty Mission:

Grunt’s loyalty mission is the best. I get to help my baby boy, reunite with Wrex, enjoy krogan society being fleshed out, have a kickass battle against a thresher maw, and get a breeding request. It’s nice to have a quest that isn’t about family drama and genuinely gets a happy end.

Favorite Mission:

Despite Citadel DLC requiring everyone to have a deathgrip on an idiot ball, and also basically gloss over some really dark stuff, the whole clone storyline with the whole crew is an absolute ride all the way though, with lots of interesting and unique scenarios, a ton of replay-value, and funny party banter that feels like it came straight out of a Marvel movie.

Favorite DLC:

Again, Citadel DLC. Not only did it come with the story above, it also had all those interactions with past and present crewmates, including a memorial for Thane (finally!), a cool apartment to hang out in, a party, an arcade, and an awesome battle arena. It really added a TON. Also, it’s nice to see Bioware figure out that DLC needs characters - I’m remembering back in the DLC to ME 1 the party never had a single thing to say, no matter what was going on. The fun and wacky Citadel DLC is a far cry from the serious and somewhat dark space opera Mass Effect started as, but as the final DLC capping off the end of the series, it gets to do a silly victory lap (and get the taste of the ending out of our mouths.)

Control, Synthesis, Or Destroy:

No.

Favorite Weapon:

Sniper rifles, whatever I have that’s fast and has high damage output. Also that one pistol that shoots tiny energy grenades. Pew pew.

Yeah I wasn’t really big into the weapons so much. I’m here to get my story on.

Favorite Place:

The presidium on the Citadel. It bothered me a lot when I couldn’t explore it in the second game. I know it would have been terribly impractical, but as the presidium is just a huge ring, it would have been cool to be able to explore the whole thing, going past all the little park areas, shops, monuments and so on until you loop aaaaall the way back around to where you started. Like, how cool would it be if the ring had a running track? Maybe C-sec academy trainees would be spotted jogging together along it in formation. And can you imagine grabbing a coffee (I was going to make up a space-related name for Starbucks but it’s already STARbucks...) and taking a nice stroll along the water before finding a nice bench to alien-watch from? Other locations in the game are like great places to explore and do gameplay stuff, but the presidium seems like a nice place to just be.

Favorite Quote:

"Stand in the ashes of a trillion dead souls and ask the ghosts if honor matters. The silence is your answer." - Javik.

This is such a fucking raw damn line. It makes me think a lot about Cerberus. When ME3 wasn’t out yet, I thought maybe the plan was Shepard would at some point choose a side, Alliance for paragons and Cerberus for renegades. It would have been so cool to have morality not merely be good vs evil, but idealism vs that ruthless calculus Garrus mentioned. How fucking raw would it be if Cerberus wasn’t just generically evil for no reason and suddenly indoctrinated but really were embodying that ruthless calculus, determined to defeat the reapers at any and all cost. Maybe Cerberus actions’ were more likely to do terrible things for the sake of ultimate victory, doing whatever it took, whereas the Alliance would be less willing to make the terrible choices and ultimately be less likely to succeed.

Now obviously, that’s not what happened, as it would have required Bioware to basically make two entirely separate games. But that line from Javik makes me think of that concept, and a universe where like Dragon Age party members can approve or disapprove of actions not merely as good or evil but along the lines of their personal values. I think Javik would sit at victory at all cost.

Also that one mission in 2 where some random NPC catches Shepard sneaking around and is all like ‘what are you doing here?’ and Shepard is like ‘What am I doing here? What are you doing here? Get out here before it blows!’ and the guy’s freaking out like WTF and she says ‘RUN!’ then laughs to herself as he flees from an imaginary bomb. Shep you troll.

The thing I like the least about the entire franchise:

The misogyny and objectification that crept its way in, epically from the second game on. Really didn’t like those ass-shot camera angles, or female characters being slut-shamed in-universe for the clothes the designers made them wear. Yikes.

But the biggest yikes for me in that regard is actually the reveal in 3 that the prothians guided asari development. That was fine and all, but the part that bothered me was the characters commenting “ooooh, so that’s why asari are so advanced,” as it was ever any kind of mystery before that exact moment. For one thing, asari aren’t really shown as being more advanced than anyone else, apart from having discovered the citadel first, and for second, why wouldn’t asari be advanced? All the way from ME1 it’s established that 1: Asari live for a really long time, and 2: can instant transmit information directly from brain to brain. That means they have long lifetime in which to accumulate knowledge and experience, and also can easily spread and preserve that knowledge without even the need for books. That ALONE should put them ahead. And even with all that, they only barely beat the salarians to discovering the Citadel first. But no one asks for an explanation for why salarians, who live only a few decades and can’t do mental data-transfer, are so advanced. No, only the success of the all-women race needs explaining. It was just one moment but it still bugs me.

Also the general loss of realism after the second game. First game everyone gets armor, including full-face helmets automatically on in environments that need it. After that, people can apparently just wander the battlefield half-naked and even somehow survive in a total vacuum if they just put a plastic cup (that isn’t even connected to anything) over their mouth and nose. In the first game they at least made up some reasonable-sounding science fiction explanation for things, but after that it’s like F-it everything is just space magic now.

Oh, and those repetitive unlocking stuff minigames. I use a mod to just skip those.

#mass effect #tag

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739337369137371082 · 3 years

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Hey so I found u thru the Halved Live Funnies and I gotta ask... whose Leon? What series these dudes from?

i got this ask and then forgot about it for like 2 days. anyways.

IVE ANSWERED THIS BEFORE BUT. GOD. LEON. ok so like....... long story short last year was when i first played resident evil........ bc we got a copy of re2remake in and.... jesus christ. i hyperfixated so fucking hard for the better part of a year going on into this year. and then i watched hl/vr and well. we know where that went. but now i am once again hyperfixated and now im back to where i was in like.... june of last year LMAO. but anyways i am once again going to ramble under the cut about them <3 (seriously. its very long and doesnt go much of anywhere. also spoilers)

tl/dr:

OK. SO. resident evil. the last time i answered this ask i either hadnt played some of them or just completely forgot the plot of others LOL but now upon beating/playing a large majority of them (besides 6 which i have not touched yet, and 7 is first person and im not rly interested in it rn)...... well others have said this as well but if you like cheesy b action movies you would love resident evil!!!

the orig 1-2 are more survival horror which is what i like the most. 3 is where it starts branching into more actiony stuff but is still survival horror. but 4 and after is just like..... cheesy action stuff which is fine but not really like.... my thing. altho i do think that they are fun in a “this plot is hilariously bad” type way because i do enjoy horrible things. but people who like resident evil dont like it for the plot they like it for the characters. and for me i latched the fuck onto leon kennedy and tyrant t-00 aka mr fucking x

listen.......... you guys know me relatively well enough to know that i have a type......... and i would define leon as not really fitting under it usually because he is 1. under 6 foot 2. human and 3. very much not a villain. but something about (mostly remake) leon hits fucking different!!!!!! hes kind and means well, thinks about others constantly, looks like an actual fucking person in the in game graphics instead of being some manufactured perfect model, nice voice, etc....... i fucking care him so much. also gameplay wise i find his weapons to be more enjoyable than claires so i always end up playing his route/2nd route the most compared to hers. but i do also like claire :) shes nice and epic

i dont really like the newer leons (4 and afterwards) as much.... i mean a lot of it has to do with trauma and general “growing up” after what happened in re2 but hes just so constantly... snarky? jaded? constantly spouting lines to make him seem cool? when in my head hes very much like... a loser LMAO. i mean dont get me wrong hes a badass. he survives a fucking zombie outbreak and nearly gets murdered dozens of time. thats the definition of badass. but also you cannot change my mind that hes also a anxious loser twunk. there is literally nothing you can do to convince me he is “cool” like the games and movies want to think. this is probably heresy to re fans but this is my truth

https://youtu.be/aVZWuSfGStk?t=129

here is a vid of his cutscenes. obvious spoilers in there but you can skip around and see how cute he is. also yes in his first cutscene he is listening to butt rock. i switch between thinking hes just listening to it because nothing else is on the radio or his taste really is that terrible

also you literally CANNOT convince me that he is straight. the games try SOOOOO hard to get you to ship leon/ada or leon/claire but like...... i cannot see it. he has one of the gayest run animations i have ever seen in re2 remake and i mean... he just radiates gay trans man energy to me. also please look at this small scene from one of the animated movies where a licker jumps on top of him and he wraps his legs around its hips and lifts it off of him to not die. gay king

https://youtu.be/d-VNikxYBPw?t=9

but yes ive basically decided to ignore all characterization from re4 and onwards regarding leon at least. every leon after that is not my leon (except in special cases when im thinking about something like leon/jd from re damnation..... they did jd so dirty and they should have fucking kissed. or how cute he looked in vendetta sometimes)

ANYWAYS. MR X

so basically there are these enemies in resident evil called “tyrants” that are manufactured by the evil capitalist company umbrella that are near indestructible save for like.... rocket launchers or super heavy artillery that youre not buying at your local gun store. and in re2 one of them get sent to the police station where leon and claire are and is told to wipe out all witnesses. (i also do think that 2 or more were sent there... or at least in the area when this happened due to some very obvious plot hole stuff on each route no matter how you play, even tho the devs have come out and said that only 1 existed in the game and that each route is like “a parallel dimension” to each other. i wont go into it more than that but i choose to ignore that)

and well. when i first played it i knew of mr x but didnt like... know much about him other than that he was a monster and Tall (like 7 or 8 feet tall) and that he chased you around. that already sold me on him but then. well. you first encounter him because he lifts up an entire goddamn helicopter and then proceeds to chase you. and it was then that i knew i was in deep shit because he fucking stomped his way into my heart and never left.

mr x basically has serious Side Character Disorder where (even tho the remake made him very cool and epic and did him really well compared to nemesis in re3 remake which is an entire different can of worms) he has LITERALLY no personality or like. thoughts. or anything. hes only there to chase you around and be on screen for like 10 seconds for a couple of cutscenes and then not show up again until the very end of the game for you to fight on leons route. but god. he means so fucking much to me.

you know how people latch onto random side characters that have no personality and essentially flesh them out more than the creators ever will? thats me with mr x. its gotten to the point where certain songs come on on my spotify and i actually get EMOTIONS or even TEARS because they remind me of him, but its not even really HIM, its the fucking ideas that ive come up with regarding him because all he ever does in game is chase you around and punch you and then die and is never brought up again

but anyways. mr x is a tall monster who chases leon and claire around in their routes but mr x is leons main monster in the game (claire has a different one). he chases leon around, literally never stops looking at him as he chases him, gets hit by an entire fucking car which then explodes BUT THEN chases him down into the sewers and into a secret underground lab just to get to him like a fucking bloodhound who, once he has the scent, will never stop chasing him

(you can see why this made me kind of insane)

just. AGHHH. the tyrants in this series get treated so dirty. i desperately want capcom to give us some sort of tyrant that can actually fucking like.... go against orders and brainwashing or whatever and actually have emotions and thoughts!!!!!!!!!! but capcom would never do anything with it cause its a rough and tough action series and people arent here to see tyrants have some sort of thought process beyond punching and killing and people only want to shoot guns at them instead of thinking about the possibilities of a tyrant that goes against its programming.

i so desperately want an au where mr x got the transmitter shot off of the side of his head (and while capcom never mentioned this ever many re2 fans have since decided that it is what feeds info/orders to him. i flip flop between thinking that it either is near controlling him and prevents free will and thought or that its just giving him orders and that hes just burying/hiding/not showing free will and thought in fear of being killed. either that or someone at umbrella is “piloting” him but also the whole point of tyrants is that theyre supposed to be smart enough to think for themselves somewhat so... eh). GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! PLEASE!!!!!!!!!!!!

ive explained a bunch of this stuff in my other ask about it but just...... xleon means so much to me when it should not and will never be actually canon

anyways please play re2 remake at least, you dont have to know everything about re1 to like it, just go into it knowing that a few months ago in the mountains outside raccoon city claires brother chris and a few members on his team went to a mansion where they discovered umbrella doing shady zombie shit there. re2 remake was hyped up for years for a reason and it is really good, even if its short (altho i do appreciate short games in this day and age cause not every game needs to be like 60 plus hours long).

maybe one day when its not late and i can actually think i will explain all this better but todays not that day <3

(EDIT: ALSO RE DAMNATION TYRANTS ARE 14 FEET TALL. AND CHASE AROUND LEON AND ACTUALLY FUCKING RUN. FUN FACT! anyways while i do think jd in that movie and leon should kiss i also want leon and a tyrant from that movie to kiss. bye)

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sage-nebula · 3 years

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Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity (Demo) — Thoughts

Exactly what it says on the tin . . . er, title. I’ve played through the Age of Calamity demo (which includes all of the first chapter), and I have some Thoughts™ that I will put under the cut as a courtesy for those who don’t want spoilers.

So, first of all, let me just say that even though I knew I missed Breath of the Wild, I didn’t realize how much I missed it until I heard the familiar sound effects (the menu selection, Sheikah Slate sound, etc) and heard the music. The theme that plays over the map is, I think, a higher tempo / more upbeat version of the main Breath of the Wild theme, although it’s hard for me to tell because it has the same notes as the Miraculous Ladybug theme in part of it, which distracted me. Still though, I am so happy to be back in this Hyrule, I love absolutely everything about it, I’m so happy to get to explore it again.

With that said, though . . . I’ve noticed some inconsistencies with the story so far that worry me.

It’s not that I think that Koei Tecmo is making things up, because I know they aren’t. The same team that wrote Breath of the Wild wrote this game as well. But because of the need to give players a challenge, they’ve done things such as not give Link the Master Sword / have him known as the Hero yet, as well as brought back Calamity-stricken Guardians, which . . . raises some issues. Namely:

While his bravery and prowess in battle certainly did have something to do with it, Link was appointed Zelda’s personal knight because he was the Hero—and it was this that caused strife between them, initially, on top of the fact that he didn’t emote much or talk to her, because Link so easily coming upon his destiny made Zelda’s insecurities about being able to unlock her own power worse. I suppose if they give Link the Master Sword early they could still have all those moments take place, but the Master Sword is no doubt going to be presented as an OP weapon (as it should be), which makes me think they’ll save it for much later. And that being the case, it seems like it’s going to rewrite how their relationship plays out.

On that note, Link was noted to have pulled the Master Sword from the pedestal at a very young age. I just checked Creating a Champion, and while no specific age is given, Link is noted as a child of a line of knights when he extracts the Master Sword, and this is noted to occur before Impa introduces Zelda to Purah and Robbie. Meaning that, yes, Link should already have the Master Sword before chapter one of Age of Calamity, which is an inconsistency for gameplay reasons that seems minor, but as with the bullet point above, throws a wrench in things.

Oh, and the timeline also says that the Sheikah Slate was discovered and had partial functionality after the meeting with Purah and Robbie as well. So there’s that, too.

On top of this, some of the Guardians already being contaminated with the Calamity’s power throws the entire plot into shaky territory. Calamity Ganon overtaking the Guardians and the Divine Beasts was supposed to be a complete shock to everyone involved. The Champions had no idea that there was even a possibility that there could be Ganon Blights waiting for them in their Divine Beasts. The Guardians were everywhere in the past because everyone, Hylian and Sheikah alike, expected them to be a protective force. If they already knew there was a possibility the Guardians could be possessed, why keep using them? How would it be a shock? And they definitely do know that there’s a risk given the attack in the very first chapter! I guess they’ll probably try to excuse it by saying they found a way to prevent Calamity Ganon overtaking the machines, but even that’s a stretch. While I know that Guardians were an expected adversary, having them as an adversary this early instead of treating them as the final boss they’re supposed to be damages the integrity of the original storyline.

I’m also really not sure how I feel about this whole time travel plot. I was ready to accept excusing the Egg Guardian’s presence even though we never saw it in the memory flashbacks because I figured they’d have a good reason for it not always being around. But having the Egg Guardian in every single scene / battle, as well as having it somehow travel back in time to “save Zelda” when the battle showed Zelda awakening her power as she did in the original game? That doesn’t sit right with me. I originally thought there was no way that Age of Calamity would have a “happy” ending where everyone survived because they need it to end in the Calamity in order to lead into Breath of the Wild as a true prologue. But this is starting to make me worry that they’re going to give an “alternate ending,” or at the very least say that the only reason why Zelda was able to awaken her power on the battlefield was somehow because of the Egg Guardian, rather than her love for Link and her determination to protect the people of Hyrule, which I really don’t like. I’m still going to play the full game and make my final judgment once I do, of course, but I don’t like where this is headed so far. Depending on how it plays out, I might end up choosing to disregard it as Breath of the Wild canon even though I know that Nintendo has certified as Breath of the Wild canon because they have the same team writing it as they did Breath of the Wild. (And while I know some would point out we’ve had split timelines in Zelda before, I would like to remind those people that the entire reason why Breath of the Wild and its history take place so far ahead on the timeline is because Aonuma wanted to fuse the three timelines together again so the development team wouldn’t have to worry about it. Even the 10,000 years ago past of Breath of the Wild happens after the timelines converged again. So it really doesn’t make sense for him to then immediately OK a split of the timelines for funsies. Besides, the way they explained the timeline split in the first place was already kind of stupid, so I’m not eager to revisit that again anyway.)

All in all, I did enjoy it and I’m still looking forward to the full release, but these are my story-related worries right now.

#loz: breath of the wild #loz: age of calamity #hyrule warriors: age of calamity #all in all I've been saying for years that I know more about Zelda than Aonuma & his team know about Zelda #& it feels like I'm about to be proven correct yet again #I just wish it wasn't in a canon game #SIGH

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officialotakudome · 3 years

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New Post has been published on Otaku Dome | The Latest News In Anime, Manga, Gaming, And More

New Post has been published on https://otakudome.com/reviews/crash-bandicoot-4-its-about-time-review/

Crash Bandicoot 4: It's About Time Review

Crash is back for a third time in Crash 4: It’s About Time. Following two remakes, Crash returns in this brand new game for the first time in twelve years. Taking place after the events of Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped, (thus omitting the events of the fourth and final canonical game of the original series) Crash 4 has the titular character once again facing off against the now joined forces of Neo Cortex & Nefarious Tropy, He, his sister Coco, and Aku Aku & Quantum Mask Lani-Loli work together t0 stop them from interfering with the fabric of space-time before all of existence collapses on itself.

Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time is a 2020 platformer game, it is developed by Toys for Bob, and published by Activision. It is currently available for Playstation 4 and Xbox One.

Editor’s Note: A review copy for Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time was provided by Activision in support of this coverage. Near complete to complete spoilers for Crash 4 may be present in this review

Activision goes all in on Crash with a new entry for the first time since 2008.

After many, many, many (and many still) years Activision has returned to one of it’s most beloved properties in Crash Bandicoot. Having attempted a reboot in 2008 that was in fairness moderately successful enough to garner it’s own sequel, Activision gave the Crash franchise another life by remaking the first three games from the ground up as well as it’s racer Crash Nitro Team Racing. While it ignores the events of then canonical final game of the original 90s series, it’s quite clear that the Crash of old is here to stay at least for another good while. In Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time you play as Crash, Coco, Cortex, and an alternative timeline version of Crash’s ex girlfriend Tawna as well as former enemy turned ally Dingodile as Crash and co. use the new Quantum Masks to control space-time to stop Cortex and Tropy from destroying existence from where it stands.

Meet the new and improved Crash in Crash 4: It’s About Time.

THE GOOD: In Crash 4, Crash and Coco are out relaxing at home before Aku Aku senses a disturbance; the return of Cortex & Tropy to their world. Going off in a nearby temple Crash discovers a Quantum Mask known as Lani-Loni who is one of several that can control certain aspects of reality such as bending time and space. Quantum Mask are essentially the elders of Aku Aku and the Guardians and like Aku Aku, Lani-Loni has several relatives. Lani-Loni decides to trust Crash and co. having seen them befriend Aku with finding his own brothers to fix the fabric of time that has been broken by Cortex & Tropy’s return. Crash and the others race through time and space against Cortex and Tropy before meeting an alternate version of Crash’s ex-girlfriend Tawna who lends her assistant while simultaneously doing her own thing. As Crash, Coco, and Tawna along with Aku Aku & Lani-Loni try to stop Cortex and Tropy, Crash’s former enemy Dingodile has reformed and opened a restaurant. Following his restaurant being burned down by a rivaling restaurant Dingodile begins inadvertently aiding Crash and the others across space time. Crash finds most of the Quantum Masks and face off against Cortex. only for Cortex to be betrayed by Tropy upon his defeat who reveals his new ally; an alternative female version of himself from alt Tawna’s universe. Cortex agrees to help Crash defeat the Trophies out of spite. With their combined forces they beat the Trophies, collect all the Quantum Masks, and save space-time. The group take a trip to the future to celebrate their victory, but Cortex plans his own betrayal taking Quantum Mask Kupana-Wa to travel back to the past of Crash’s invention in an effort to stop it. Past Cortex refuses to stop the experiment and Present Crash & the others send Present Cortex to the ends of the universe. Crash accidentally intervenes in Past Cortex’s experiment on Past Crash essentially ensuring the timeline is mostly intact. Dingodile reopens his restaurant, Cortex is on a beach, and Crash, Coco, Tawna, and the masks play games on N. Sanity Island. A dimensional rift opens in front of Cortex revealing Uka Uka who was previously thought to be dead is alive.

The Crash crew are playable again for the modern age with a new dimension jumping story.

Toys for Bob being the quality developers they are had a lot to work with by trying to make the Crash formula feel refreshing and new & damn did they nail it. From it’s humor, character direction, and insanely difficult gameplay Crash feels as good as it ever has. Even with the nostalgia Crash 4 does what many years-long sequels fail to accomplish and that’s riding on it’s past glory while also providing something new. This is mostly done through the Quantum Masks and their unique abilities, but there’s also new mechanics for it’s platforming such as wall running. Admittedly the newer aspects feature in Crash 4 aren’t many, but it doesn’t have to be and it’s partly why being a fan of a series and hoping for a new entry & getting it years later can be so frustrating. Often times we don’t get a mix of nostalgia and something new it’s either one or the other. Granted I’ve only recently become a Crash fan having missed out on the series during my childhood, but this issue applies to almost everything that takes a hiatus and comes back. And it says a lot that Crash was gone for over eleven years and still pulled it off. Crash 4’s faithfulness while also trying something new is one of several reasons why Toys For Bob have become such a fan-favorite developer.

Enemies become friends in Crash 4.

THE BAD: Just like the originals Crash 4 is am extremely difficult game so if you aren’t prepared for patience and turbulence then you’re probably going to be in for a very bad time. I honestly can’t stress enough how hard this game actually is and there are times when deaths feel cheap often coming out of nowhere, but you get the hang of your landings and such fairly quick. In regards to the story I personally think time travel has been done to death the last half a decade. but I will admit that for the continuation of Crash that Activision & Toys For Bob are going for it makes. Clearly, they want to reboot the series without alienating fans of the original nor abandoning the original plot so to work around this without too much plotholing or a full on reboot time travel actually works fairly well to circumvent the direction.

New powers and abilities prepare Crash for a grand comeback for years to come.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: Crash 4: It’s About Time brings a classic flavor to a modern aesthetic with a blend of old school platforming and time-bending level jumping. While the story does have a bit of redundancy it’s done so in such a way that still respects the original trilogy while given a ton of options for Crash’s full-fledged revival in the near future. Co-op, secret tapes, unlockable costumes (for free) and multiple endings provide tons of hours of replayability and in most cases you’re going to want to experience everything the game has to throw at you.

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kyu-bri · 4 years

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Magia Rapport pt 2

@magiarapport

August 24th prompt: What was your favorite event, and why? Is it because of gameplay or the story?

It’s hard to choose so I’m gonna just, gush a bit.

As you can probably tell I’m very biased toward the OG girls, I started Magia Record primarily because PMMM had become my new obsession and I wanted some sort of constant flow of content out of decade old anime lmao.

But another thing I think I hooked onto was Inu Curry’s writing. They really know Madoka Magica and aren’t afraid to really play with them- something the writers for a spin-off gacha game (as with most spin-off stories honestly) can be scared to do. Inu Curry made references, revealed secrets and built upon the story we already know- which lets be honest is what we always truly want from a spin-off series. Magia Record proper does this well by putting more magical girls into the world and letting us see things work out better for them than for the original cast, but what I really appreciated with this story was getting to see that old original cast get to get in on that, and these events managed to do that without watering them down any.

Under the cut is me going on for 3000 words about why I love these three events I’m so sorry. TL;DR at the very end-

I’ll go in release order,

A La Carte Valentine was one of the first if not THE first event I got in on. I was eager to bc 1 Gay Magical Girl Shit Guaranteed. And ofc 2 OG Cast participation.

I want to preface by saying I actually loved all the girls’ stories in this. I was very much still in a state of getting used to Iroha’s gang let alone trying to care about the secondary girls. I knew Tsukasa had this angsty Twins Separated At Birth Deal and liked seeing her home life (also I immediantly stanned Take. Regular well-meaning dude who has no idea whats going on just trying his best and hating his boss). I knew nothing about Ami except Cowgirl Meguca and getting the bulk of her personality in one short even I think really kept me from being absolutely sick of her, she’s just a cute silly teenage girl who could be in literally anything and I was able to just endearingly giggle at that. Hinano managed to do the heterosexual unrequited crush cliché without me groaning or missing any of her regular personality. Also was there a Ren part? I don’t remember because everything Ren does feels like a Soft Yuri Valentines Special. Also I love Momoko. Ok moving on to what I Really wanna talk about.

Madoka is genuinely my Least Cared About of the Holy Sextet. I don’t think she’s bad or even boring- Madoka has a depth to her character, like, really deep- but that’s not something ever really touched upon by the fandom. Even when people like her and make her the Heroine she’s Supposed to be, it’s usually in the context of “Girl who feels nothing but kindness and happy thoughts would cut off her right hand to feed to a hungry dog. Isn’t she so Good????”. And honestly, while I understand the point it was going to make, I wasn’t crazy about her sacrifice in the end of the series. (Team Homura “Rebellion Is Good Actually” ftw) All because I think that I’m an Adult Woman watching this like “You are 14yrs old and need to be home playing Sims and not sacrificing yourself for the greater good you stupid silly little baby girl”

So my point is here near all fan content I encounter tends to emphasize whats sort of my least favorite facet of Madoka. I don’t think she made the ‘wrong’ decision in the context she and the story were given, but it’s still a sad thing to show a depressed(!!!) insecure girl resolving to give away her very existence so that every other girl on earth has a chance to just Dream. Oh and they still usually die young. But that’s ok because then she takes them and lets them sleep peacefully forever in her Heaven Basement (Yes I am bitter stan Homura I would yank this savior complex infant girl out the sky too)

MY POINT BEING (The servers closing let me BLEED OUT ALL MY FEELINGS) This event did not do that!!! It made Madoka…….. EVERYTHING SHE SHOULD BE??? ALWAYS??? Showed her HOW WE SHOULD BE ABLE TO VIEW HER??? (Read: Happy and Alive and Confident at no foreboding or sacrifice of anyone else!!!!)

She is Sassy and Surrounded By Friends and Really Funny??? And we get this Ridiculous Oh My God On Crack metaphor about her being this all-powerful apocalypse bringing being which is representing her love for the universe through her Witch form of Wanting Everyone To Be Happy And Safe With Her??? And she still risks herself to save everyone as is her Thing to do but we get to have her do it without erasing her existence as a human being at the end and if that is not some GOOD SHIT????

Ok next:

NGL Sayaka’s (fav character, inarguable best girl, can u not tell) parts in MagiReco til like the last arc have always left me a bit disappointed. She was the only late comer of the OG girls from what I understand and it kind of gives her the air of what a lot of the second(/thirdary?) girls suffer from. You can tell the writers can’t even figure out a trope to apply her to to make her easy and two dimensional to write about so they just don’t know what to do. They definitely try to make up for it (especially in the anime which Praise Be but that’s probably Inu Currys doing) but she’s still lacking like, any of the depth of her personality. Which, I guess I could anticipate. Because most of the fandom tends to as well. (again)

Gonna stop complaining and get on with- That didn’t feel as much the case in her Valentine event. Sure it was still the same formula of “The Issue Is Kyosuke” but that didn’t play out as grueling as her personal story did with “Nine Episodes Of “The Issue Is Kyosuke””

There was one big glaring heart-aching detail of “Mami isn’t really there because SHES IN A FUCKING CULT RIGHT NOW” which kind of jarred the event out of the ho-hum silly valentines sidestory these events usually keep up.

Sayaka has this crisis about Doing Anything Meaningful With Kyosuke which we all know what That’s calling back to, but in this environment we get to have Kyoko come right up and be in a position with her to earnestly and affectionately Push Her To Do It. The lonely little tsundere bitch girl pushes her Not Friend to Give The Bastard The Gotdamn Chocolate Already and for a moment you can only think about What If’s and If Only’s. Sayaka’s is still the weakest of the threes stories in this event but it worked harder to show us different sides of the characters then 6 chapters of Another Story managed to do.

And then there’s fucking Homura.

I will be, eternally grateful for Kuro. As a character that becomes metaphorical for the 2D ways we initially viewed the feathers and just NPCs in games in general, and also like, giving Homura a friend she actually cares about that isn’t the tangled dark web of Bullshit she’s gotten tied up with Madoka in. Please ask me about all my AU’s where Kuro is Homuras first girlfriend.

Seeing Moemura in Magia Record has always been a bit surreal, we never really understand just what stage of Trauma this Homura is in because Multiverses Are Hell, but this event gives us a good chunk of a Homura who still has hope and faith both in the world and Madoka. Theres this wonder to her that while still bogged down by terrible experiences still has the energy to be Trying. And she sees a girl who used to be like her- which when you think about it is probably what Madoka saw in her- and she wants to help. Because Madoka helped her. And Madoka is the best thing in the universe and maybe Homura can be just a little bit closer to that.

Kuro is too far gone though, as is the reality frequently in this series, things don’t work out just because of circumstance. Kuro was a bullied, insecure little girl who realistically shouldn’t have had to become a rampaging monster because of it. We’re reminded of this being the reality of the Madoka universe. Homura, is reminded of this reality. Homura loses this one chance to bring hope into the world like Madoka brought hope into hers.

And then her story ties into the ending of Madoka’s. Madoka saves her life yet again, even as Homura continues to feel miserable and empty. But at least Madoka is with her. The girls then share a quiet, intimate Valentines together. And you sort of understand how Homura fell so far into the darkness that the only thing she was able to still care about and fight for was Madoka’s safety.

That shit slaps. It slaps you right in the heart and causes fucking bruising but then u want it to do it again because you’re masochistic and Meguca Is Suffering.

Anyway I hope Kuroe slaps our hearts more in season2

MOVING ON!!!!

~Nagisa’s Wish~

Ok, I don’t remember what got me so simp over Nagisa, I think it was the heart-aching irony that Mami adopts the witch that fucking ate her. But that is my baby now and I’d die for her. Fandom Charlotte whose pink and silly and loves her mom and is Mami’s cancer-riddled girlfriend is cool and all but she isn’t a tiny Halloweeny baby whose fucking bitter angry and manically obsessed with cheese due to PTSD.

I had saw a summary of Nagisa’s Wish reposted just to quickly explain Nagisa’s backstory, and as such immediately had to search out if that crazy ride was true- so I actually watched this whole event probably before I downloaded the game. It was surreal on its own but replaying it when it came to NA didn’t lessen it any- I got to process more of what I was witnessing and as result stanned Yu pretty hard.

I guess to explain my Emotions here, saving Yu for later- calls for me to just, describe who Nagisa is as a human being and my headcanons surrounding it all with what this event gave us. Whether you consider it canon or not it’s one version of events that we were given and that I am all for accepting.

Nagisa’s Mom was a celebrity, she could have been an actress though I also like the idea of her being an Idol. She met Nagisa’s Dad oh-so romantically and got knocked up- they very well could have been married but it doesn’t seem clear enough. He seems to have left too suddenly for legal matters like that. Nagisa is approximately 11, and while she seems to remember her Father, she doesn’t in the sense of having had a relationship with him or any feelings. Her Mother has to “explain” why he left, so Nagisa was probably still young even if not a baby. What I’m getting at here is the timeline for when Nagisa’s Mom Got Like That. Nagisa can remember her from before she was, and then says that she got sick after her Dad left. So what I’m wondering is did Daddy Momoe ruin this young rich girls life, give her syphilis and then leave her with a baby she was unfit to care for in poverty? I know half of this is running on anime logic but Holy Shit all the possible ways reasons and ideas for why things could’ve gotten This Bad.

Is it ridiculously dark and edgy that the original story we were given was “Girl wishes her dying mother could have her favorite cake but then realizes OOPSIE-DAISY I could have wished for her to Not Die instead!!!!” got turned into “11yr old hates her abusive mother so much she wants to make her suffer in the most symbolic way she can and then goes mental when she isn’t able to do it”??? Yes. But if I had the mental capacity to I have to admit I was in a position to be just as bitter at that age too. I can’t call it unrealistic. I may infact be projecting hard with how much I support and enjoy this backstory.

Anyway Nagisa was in such a state of trauma and distress at a horrifically young age when she died that it broke her mental faculties so severely that even when she came back as a literal Angel of God she had blocked it out so deeply and thoroughly she seemingly regressed to an even younger capacity and hyperfixated on the trait that she has before used to try to bond with her Mother who she had died hating.

And that also slaps u right in the heart.

A N D T H E N !

~Beachside Bonds~

Just the simple structure of this story was so enjoyable and nicely done. We finally get to see the OG girls in a context we wouldn’t be able to in literally any other scenario. They’re going on a summer vacation together and Homura is sentimentally journaling every single second of it. Is this mayhaps because she’s never gotten to be this happy and blissful with these girls she loves so much??? Of course this is are you not paying attention what the fuck. Homura is so optimistic and healed and hopeful she’s acting like what she might actually be doing as a normal teenage girl. (A heartrending contrast to the end of her Valentines Special)

We get nothing short of pure fluffy Slice Of Life shenanigans on the beach which even includes a bunch of the Kamihama girls that the OG crew knows! And they talk about it! And introduce eachother! And their friends commentate on it! Ren gets to see Kyoko Not Being A Bitch and then Sayaka teases her about having made friends and oh my god my heart is turning into cottoncandy as we speak Mom holy FUCK

Sayaka’s existence fucking matters in this story! It’s her families Hotel they’re staying at and she has relationships and memories with the creepy twins that live there and she talks like a fucking person??? And gives opinions??? That aren’t just copypasted “Justice is Good and Bad things are BAD!!!!”

Mami is fresh out of her fucking Cult Drama and she’s still trying to be cool Senpai but then she DECKS Homura in the face and gets scared by the ghost stories and then turns into pudding and waxes nostalgia at Kyoko out of nowhere IT’S ALMOST LIKE SHE’S A FIFTEEN YEAR OLD GIRL????????

G H O S T S ? ? ? ?

Y U ! ? ! ? ! ? !

(IS G A Y ! ! ! !)

This whole fucking backstory and truly horrifying Romeo and Juliet on Acid love and death story between Yu and her girlfriend and like if I wasn’t fascinated enough by Yu just being the creepy organ harvester before but apparently thats what she became after she literally made some sort of wish that erased all of her memories besides the nickname her sweetheart used for her and coincidentally also added to her the task of killing all Bad People?????

Yu made a wish to be able to get rid of All Bad People preserving the innocent version of herself who grew up with this girl and it was right after a failed double suicide attempt on fucking Doomed Lovers Cliff fucking Lifetime Will You Ever.

It then pairs with Homura whose PTSD gets to shine through a bit in being unable to believe any bad sort of Madoka which how could you try to force her to at this point while Also pairing Homura with Ren in the “Gay Love Saved Our Lives: Traumatized vers & Vanilla vers”

I don’t remember if there was a symbolic finale and tbh I have forgotten a lot of the details with Yu and her girlfriend Whatsherface because that shit was just so shocking and bizarre to read and much too painful to reread in a timely fashion just.

That shit hurted but it was full of so much love and hope both doomed and stolen but still was wrapped up in the comforting concept that This Is The Universe Where Homura Gets To Be Okay This Time.

She’s still scarred beyond comprehension and this ghost drama accentuated it all but at the end of the day this is still the Safe Universe where all of them are alive and the Holy Quintet are friends and they’re all going to be okay (Godoka & Aniplex willing) and so many of us love Madoka Magica because it shows girls fighting through the same pain we’ve been through and keeping their hope alive and here we get to see them actually find peace in a clunkily written fanservicey spin-off mobile gacha game and hey, that made me happy while I got to experience it. Thanks for the ideas and memories and tragic backstories and funny thirdary characters MagiReco I’m gonna take em all and Run.

Akjsladbfalkjfsbslk If you read this all without getting a migraine or blocking me ily thanks for listening!!!!!!

TL;DR

Me likey A La Carte Valentine bc it’s silly and gay and I simp Kuro

Me likey Nagisa’s Wish bc sawft baby is good and so are Tragic Edgy Backstories

Me likey Beachside Bonds bc Gay Ghosts and Our Girls Finally Get To Be Happy Peaceful(ish) Teenage Girls and that’s all I want for them ;w;

Reeses In Pieces ya’ll

1Ten 2More 3Words 4To 5Hit 6(3000 7Words 8Woo 9Boy 10Howdy

#magia rapport #magia record #pmmm

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dlamp-dictator · 4 years

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Allen Rambles about Episode 6

Man... I’m just never going to actually talk about anything in a timely manner, am I? Every time I say that a Rambling is coming I get distracted and talk about bad anime, other video games, or I draw my OCs for a months on end and forget all my drafts exist.

And since Children of Ursus... dense, to say the least, I’ll just finish up this draft of Episode 6 and hopefully get on some kind of proper schedule for October... hopefully.

So, Chapter 6 came out... month ago, and I’ve been meaning to talk about for some time. Honestly, I have more criticisms than praises for this episode, but there are a few good points worth talking about.

But first, as usual, a synopsis.

To keep things simple, Episode 6 focuses on the joint operation between the Hong Kong Lungmen Guard Department and the Rhodes Island Pharmaceutical Company. After Episode 5, Rhodes Island finally rendezvoused with Ch’en’s detachment in Lungmen and the two groups come up with a game plan to take out the Reunion troops in the city. Ch’en focusing on the slums and a few key locations while Rhode Island takes out the commanders, namely Frostnova, Faust, and Mephisto.

That’s the basic summary of things, but things go a little deeper.

The Story

A looong while ago I said Code of Brawl contained the best and worst aspect of Arknights. Episode 6 really shows what can be bad about it.

Okay, I’m being a little unfair since this latest Episode just pails in comparison to 5, but it’s still a little disappointing. My main issues are the disjointed story arcs and the attempted at humanizing Reunion, but before I get to that let me just go over all the little things first, just so I can clear the air of all the nitpicks and not accidentally make a 500-word segment about minor things. With that said...

Small Things that Only Bug Allen

Blaze gives Greythroat shit for reasons that seemed to have happened off screen. This makes her seem really catty (pardon the pun) toward Greythroat for no reason aside from assumed slights and weakens Greythroat’s later character growth as we don’t see her show hatred or prejudice toward the infect, not in the same way as Ch’en in Episode 2-ish.

The Doctor’s role as a self-insert really harms more scenes than helps. A lot of moments where they’re the focus feel flat since they don’t have a real personality to play off of. Just for example, imagine if Amiya was trapped in with Frostnova instead of the Doctor, I could see a much stronger chance to characterize both characters in that situation.

Gavial was mentioned several times in this Episode and didn’t get any dialogue. How dare you not give Gavial screentime.

This Episode has proven that Amiya is canonically a 14-year-old loli and in charge of a total not private military company, no I swear, those soldiers are just for CC and special ops don’t think about it too much Silverash is just a CEO of a company stop asking questions.

This isn’t a story complaint, but 6-16 was a bitch to get through. The randomness of Frostnova’s AI combined with that high damaging AoE attack just kills it for me (and half my units).

And while on gameplay, Stage 6-17 was really dumb and its only redeeming value is a free Originite Prime. I get the narrative point of it, but it’s still dumb.

Okay, so with the small stuff out of the way let’s hit the big issues, starting with...

The Disjointed Arcs

So... this Episode wanted to explain Frostnova’s backstory, explain Mephisto and Faust’s backstory, introduce GreyThroat and Blaze while giving them a character arc, further Ch’en’s character arc, humanize Reunion, do world-building on Lungmen society, reveal a political conspiracy of Lungmen that dates back years before the main story, kick-start what I pray isn’t a redemption arc for Mephisto (that’s a Rambling in itself), hint at Crownslayer’s backstory, hint at Talaluh’s backstory, and possibly reveal some stuff about Ursus.

And folks... that’s too much for one Episode to handle.

Compared to Episode 5, which just focused on Ch’en and the LGD, this was just a mess, there’s no two ways about. They were trying to do too much and front-loaded a lot of the important bits toward the end. I really wish they only tried to do two or three things on that list instead of 10 things. Arknights has a bad habit of trying to tell too much in the limited time it has our attention. Episode 4 was guilty of this, elements of Operation Intelligence was guilty of this, and even Code of Brawl has hints of this issue too by trying to hint at Mostima’s backstory while giving Bison and some other characters an arc. I get that they’re trying to lay the ground work for future events and story points, but this is really just too much, at least for one episode.

But speaking of things that are too much...

Humanizing Reunion

This is what really grabs my goat. I’m conflicted on how to feel about the attempt to humanize Reunion and add grey morality to their role as antagonist. My original draft had said this was a bad thing, since Mephisto is so cartoonishly evil any attempts at redemption feel flimsy, but... I think it could work.

The main issue of trying to humanize Reunion is that our introduction to them was Mephisto, who is so far down the moral spectrum that it’s impossible to think he or the faction he represents are redeemable. However, characters like Faust, Skullshatterer, and Frostnova are much more reasonable/understandable in their motives. Skullshatterer is ruthless to his enemies, but kind to his soldiers, and his ruthlessness is really only on the battlefield. Faust is essentially Mephisto’s leash, and just tries to reign in his evil while protecting him. Frostnova just wants to have a home for her Yetis and doesn’t care what side she has to join in order to get it, though she has her doubts about Talaluh.

This is fine by itself, but due to all the evils of Mephisto and the cruelty he’s done to Rhodes Island, Lungmen, and Ursus, it makes it really hard to see Mephisto as the exception instead of the norm for Reunion’s methods. It makes Faust’s death and Mephisto’s devastation of it feel flat since, frankly, the brat’s cocky attitude got his friend killed, and he’s just getting what he deserved. He’s killed and tortured too many for anyone to really feel sympathy toward him. When even Amiya calls Mephisto a bastard, there’s really no redemption, and while Episode 6 doesn’t try to redeem I’ve seen enough anime to know they might try and make it broken state seem more sympathetic than it should be.

Which leads nicely into Frostnova, who’s arc was done very well by my standards. While I personally think giving her solo time with the Doctor was more detrimental than helpful, it worked well enough to show she wasn’t a monster like Mephisto. It gave us some time to understand the motivations of the Yeti Squad and sympathizes with their goals of finding a home, gave us a nice hook for when Patriot comes around in full after being teased in both Episode 4 and Operation Intelligence, and if this Episode only focused on that I’d say it was a good story over all.

But... Episode 6 wanted to also hint at so much more that it was suffocating. I’ll at least say that Ch’en’s segments were fine and move on.

Gameplay

I’m going to keep this as short as I can since the story section was the big thing I wanted to talk about. However, there are a few things I want to mention in terms of the game.

6-7 was probably the best chapter in the game so far. I loved how they gave you an team already with most of them at E2. It was a great way for people without GreyThroat and Blaze and test them out. It let you see how some Operators you might have ignored perform at a higher level. It gave you a hint at where you should be at the point of this level, and the for the lore nerd it gives us a good idea on how an official team is structured for high-level missions. I’d love to see more missions like this in the future where they give you a ‘canon’ team already and have you work out the puzzle of who goes where and when.

6-16 is probably the worst. Frostnova having high stats and a second stage I understand, but so much of that map relies on getting around the randomness of what tiles she knocks out and praying you can survive her massive AoE attack in her second phase. My entire team was E2 Level 30 and it took me over ten tries to 2-star that stage. I was using a guide too. A lot of that map revolved around just praying Frostnova didn’t bonk out certain tiles or praying that her AoE attack didn’t randomly proc at a bad time. There is way too much left to chance on her stage.

General Gushing

I think that’s enough critique, let’s get to some happy stuff and talk about the things I enjoyed.

Blaze’s cattiness aside, I liked her a lot. She’s confident, she spontaneous, she’s... basically a rowdy housecat. Seeing more elite operators would be nice so Rhode Island feels like an actual force with some power and order and less ragtag.

Ch’en character arc is shaping up nicely, her barging into Wei’s office to chew him out gave me the largest grin.

Amiya’s whole speech to Wei was just great as well, really reminds you she is the top executive of Rhode Island for a reason... despite being a 14-year-old bunny loli.

Everyone mildly talking about Gavial makes me really curious about seeing her speak and act in the story. She seems like a feared woman to be sure. I’m we’ll be getting her event somewhere down the line.

Faust and Frostnova’s death, as forced as they felt, were genuinely sad and made me feel something. It gave the series a bit more weight to it.

Speaking of, Faust and GreyThroat had some pretty nice parallels, both Crossbowmen fighting for causes they’re initially apathetic toward save for a very small handful of people. Mephisto for Faust, and Amiya for GreyThroat.

“She jumped down?!” “She jumped down...” Best exchanged in the game so far.

Like Code of Brawl, save for some of the bullshit maps that just spammed the strongest, hardest-hitting units (yes, I do mean 6-5) I found a lot of the maps required some creative thinking. Despite this Episode needing E2 units, my E1 Vigna was the MVP of most stages. Ethan as well, as I didn’t have Manticore at the time and his damage of time skill and AoE damage really made those chokepoints work.

In the Future

As always, I don’t like the idea of fixing something that’s already out, but asking for future changes seems reasonable. To that end, I hope Episode 7 is focused on only 2 or three characters with little distraction. Episode 5 was great not because it focused on a fan-favorite character, but because it was a solid character arc for that one character. So far we have Ch’en and Amiya getting ready to maybe stop a war between Lungmen and Ursus, so let’s focus on these two characters. Amiya maybe finding out that Ch’en is slowly becoming Infected and helping her come to terms with that. Ch’en revealing her past to Amiya and the two connecting over losing so many close to them due to Oripathy. The two standing up to the political corruption of Lungmen, shoulder to shoulder, as women that refuse to see another life lost due to the indifference of a city’s politics.

And no bullshit maps like 6-5 too.

Anyway, that’ll do it for me. I’m... off to write some more essays and get a queue going.

#arknights #your dictator is speaking

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cyberramblings · 4 years

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Sonic & Tails: Ideas for a new Sonic Plot and Partner System

So, first off, there is a game called Sonic & Knuckles. It is basically just the second half of the overly ambitious Sonic 3. It is not Sonic 4, but it is a standalone game. Anyways, there isn’t a game called Sonic & Tails yet, so let’s make that happen.

Regardless of that, I wanted to talk about my vague conceptualizations of a Sonic game plot. I WANTED to continue my thoughts on other Sonic characters, but my stupid brain can’t stop thinking about “what if Sonic and Tails fought?” Again, this is getting into some borderline fanfiction territory, but I write the blog AND the rules.

Piggybacking off my previous post detailing my thoughts on Tails, I had said that I liked the idea of Tails taking over Robotnik’s lab after he is defeated once and for all (or temporarily, I don’t expect Sonic Team to kill off the main villain, as much as I’d pseudo-ironically love Sonic Adventure 3 to open with Eggman’s funeral while Sound of Silence plays like the overly edgy funeral scene from Watchmen 2009).

Now, this is also getting into some serious Marvel Civil War or Batman v. Superman territory, but stick with me. I feel like one of the most underutilized aspects of Sonic as a series is the cast of characters. Maybe it is just me, but I feel like Sonic fans want to see their favorite obscure character return or see as many characters as possible. Even the most trivial characters have a cult following in the weird Sonic fandom. It was really cool to see the obscure Sonic the Fighters characters return for a boss fight in Sonic Mania, even if they were just an illusion. I am proposing a Sonic game where nearly every characters returns to make up the boss fights.

Now, the first issue with this idea is that typically the “rival” battles in Sonic are a bit hit or miss. Fights against playable characters in the Adventure IMO felt pretty flat and uninteresting. Now, 2D Sonic has some better boss battles against the likes of Metal Sonic and Knuckles and the same goes for Generations, so maybe those could be emulated. Regardless of gameplay, I’d like to see all the weirdies like the playable cast of Sonic Heroes, The Fighters, Emerl, Blaze, Gamma E-102, etc. return at least as boss fights, if not as playable characters, even if they are just piloting the mechs that would typically be piloted by Eggman. I get zero excitement from fighting Eggman anymore, but just put Rouge’s model in the cockpit and suddenly its way cooler with more potential for unique boss dialogue.

So far I have proposed a Civil War-style plot where Tails goes a little bit off the deep end and a Sonic game where the boss fights are all the beloved recurring characters. It should be obvious how these two parts fit together. Perhaps the dual story structure of Adventure 2 is overplayed by this point, but obviously it would fit in with these ideas.

To get into the nitty gritty and provide an example of what I am imagining, consider Metal Sonic. I can easily see a plot that starts with Tails reconfiguring Metal Sonic to be “good”. This bring back a classic character in a new way and allows for a lot of angles for the plot to go, of course borrowing from various Iron Man plots and the Buffy-bot from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

One idea from Sonic Adventure that I would really like to see return is the ever-evolving nemesis concept. Even if Sega never really brings back Chaos, I’d love to see a rival that increases in power as the game goes along. This could totally tie in with my previous idea, with Metal Sonic becoming more powerful over the course of the game, possibly with the acquisition of the Chaos Emeralds like Chaos does. Metal Sonic already has been shown to take on a few different forms, such as at the end of Sonic Heroes.

Another story beat that I’d like to see replicated is the end of Adventure 2 where Sonic and Shadow have to team up. Now, in this hypothetical Sonic & Tails game, that would obviously be Sonic and Tails teaming up, but I’d also love to see them bust out Mecha Sonic as a kind of retconned prototype of Metal Sonic from Sonic 2/3 as a last resort too.

I also love the story beat of all the playable characters at the end of Sonic Adventure bringing the depleted Chaos Emeralds to Sonic for the final fight. I would love to see something like this but a little more weighty. I have a clear mental image of something like the Breath of the Wild loading screen that shows your level of progress though the game, but instead with Sonic endlessly walking towards the camera as the game loads, surrounded by more and more characters walking towards the screen as you rescue/recruit them.

Personally, it seems like Sonic games struggle to balance multiple playable characters, so I’d settle for something like Advance 3 where you pick a partner that enables new moves. I would prefer to find a way to include every possible character as playable, but I would settle for a 3D Sonic game where Sonic (and maybe characters that control near identically like Metal Sonic, Shadow, Silver, Blaze, etc.) is the only playable character, with characters like Tails, Knuckle, Amy, Big, etc. are relegated to the partner role, but swappable.

Playable Characters:

Sonic: Everything normal

Metal Sonic: Just make him control like he does in Adventure 2: Battle, so faster than Sonic but with less moves. I don’t think Metal Sonic has ever been canonically playabe, only appearing as a boss fight or playable in racing games or bonus modes, so that would be my biggest request.

Shadow: Just Sonic but slipperier and please give him a teleport instead of a homing attack

Silver: Again, just Sonic but make his double jump more offensive to represent his telekinetic abilities

Blaze: Her name is BLAZE and she has FIRE POWERS in Rush and Rush Adventure, so please just make her control like Sonic but with a fiery homing attack or her fire hover from Rush

Espio: Just give him some kind of limited invisibility or maybe the tornado attack as a reference to Heroes

Mighty: He could probably be thrown in with his moves from Mania, but this is reaching

Jet: Probably asking too much, but he’s never been playable in non-racing game, so even seeing him with his board in a main game as a kind of joke would be cool

Assist Characters:

Tails, Cream, Charmy: Obviously, limited flight with slightly different characteristics. Cream could alternatively have the Chao attack from Advance

Knuckles, Rouge, Tikal: Either a limited glide or the digging

Amy: Piko Piko Hammer as an attack or as a big jump. She could also maybe be a Sonic-like characters, but I feel like she was shoehorned into the speed role in Heroes

Big: I just like seeing this dumb idiot return. It seems like asking a lot for the fishing rod to be used as a grappling hook, so maybe he could just have a big area attack

Fang/Knack, Bark, Bean: I mean, maybe just show up and fistfight some enemies?

Vector: Something music based, realistically

Chaos: Again, this is reaching, but maybe this ties into Tails taking over Eggman’s research

E-1XX Alpha, Gamma, Omega, etc: It is asking a lot to have all the robots return, but I’d love to see them all as slight variants of “shoot a bunch of missiles” or limited hovering

Omochao: Personally I’d love to see this little guy as an assist who just never shuts up, maybe with some hidden secret-unlocking potential

Vanilla: She doesn’t have a lot of game appearances, I’d take anything

G.U.N. Commander: Again, I just think this would be kinda funny. He could summon robots or just fire missiles

Eggman Nega: Not sure why he would help the main characters, but I’m always rooting for weird stuff like this

Wave, Storm: They could function like Tails/Knuckles or grant a temporary board for tricks or whatnot, maybe like the skateboard powerup from Sonic Generations

Tails Doll: This is dumb, but it would be fun to see as a little throwaway easter egg

So, that was a bunch of random nonsense directly from my brain, but you probably get the idea: find a way to include a lot of characters in the plot and the gameplay. Do I expect any of this to ever happen? No. And honestly, I’d prefer to see another game where I can actually play as characters like Rouge, the robots, Amy, and Cream.

ONE LAST THING: There should really be a Sonic rhythm game. They have so much music, both the classic songs as well as the Crush 40 songs, with tons of remixes of both already existing and even more possible. It would fit perfectly with the gameplay of Sonic, you could just have the notes appear as obstacles or powerup boxes. There are a million different ways to slice it, but it just makes too much sense to ignore. I don’t have enough ideas to make a separate post, though. Maybe I’ll make a playlist sometimes of songs I’d like to see included, but the issue is that it would be way too many songs. As with the main point of this post, I would love to see many different playable characters with very slight changes to their properties.

ONE LAST LAST THING: Since Sega hates localizing Puyo Puyo games, they should just make a new Mean Bean Machine with HD graphics and all the various Sonic characters represented somehow and then release it internationally either as Mean Bean Machine or just Sonic Puyo Puyo. Again, I didn’t have enough ideas for a whole post.

FINAL FINAL FINAL RAMBLES: I kinda wanna play Sonic 06 since I actually just recently found out that Rouge, Omega, and Blaze are playable, but the disc is 20 bucks at gamestop for 360. I also kinda wanna play Unleashed, but not enough to buy it. I really get more excited when more characters are playable, which makes me wish I enjoyed playing Sonic Battle more. I also have my eye on Chronicles if I can ever get the patience to actually sit down and play it. At this point, I should just make my own dang original game or story inspired by the things I like about Sonic.

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