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vestige-nan · 2 years

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The Thorn in my Side, the Pebble in my Shoe: Ch 6

Summary: The main quest line in Mannimarco’s perspective, except that he falls chaotically in love with the vestige just as much as he chaotically hates them.

Fun stuff: As always, vestige is gender neutral and physical features are not described. Also, now we get to see where I got the title! Also also, I assumed it was this way for everyone who plays, but whenever I play ESO and NPCs join me to “help” fight, they’re usually useless and don’t help at all (unlike in Skyrim), so I translated that to the vestige is just so cool and good at fighting compared to everyone else.

I wasn’t disappointed. I was angry.

After raising Tharn above his station, after promising him the right hand of godhood, after taking him under my generous wing when I could have just as easily sent his unworthy, traitorous soul straight to Coldharbour, the mealy disloyal politician still sided with the divine’s forsaken vestige.

The very stupidity of such a thing! To side with a gullible, unintelligent fool over the greatest necromancer the world has ever known! The King of Worms, and future God of Schemes! Ruler of Oblivion and Nirn! And he chose the soulless corpse walking around who couldn’t pick an alliance!

How I wanted to tear the skin from their flesh and the flesh from their bone when I scryed Tharn projecting in front of the vestige, begging them for “asylum”. It was so pathetic I was glad to see him traitorous, and yet my rage remand.

What was so special about this soulless fool of a being that they could steal Tharn from me? That Tharn would measure being the right hand of a god to a rebel on a losing side and pick the latter? So they had pulled a few capers here and there, that meant nothing! Tharn had seen my power and the vestige was able to take him from me anyway.

No matter. The vestige would try in vain to take a soul from Coldharbour, and this time they wouldn’t succeed. I would make sure of it. This time, I planned to be there to stop their foolish crusade.

I felt a strange... thrum? Lilt? I’m not sure what it was—In my chest cavity. It would be my first time seeing the vestige in person, or more importantly the first time they would see me. Not including the time I killed them. Even just recognizing the fact caused the lilt in my thorax to return.

Surely, I couldn’t be nervous! I had a plan in place in the off chance the vestige does best my undead army, so nervousness had no logical rationale. Then... perhaps it was excitement? Yes, certainly it was simply excitement to destroy an irritating obstacle. Excitement to prove to Tharn he made an error in evaluating my enemies. Excitement to show the vestige just how powerful and superior their adversary really is.

That last one invited the lilt back into my chest. I decidedly chose not to dwell on that any further.

I watched the vestige carefully through my magical visage. I watched and I waited for the perfect moment to have my entrance: right when I could watch the hope build in Tharn’s eyes, just so I could take it from him when he believes he’s free.

I watched how compliant the vestige was as Aquilarios commanded they and the half-giant retrieve Tharn. I watched as they obediently followed Tharn’s unhelpful instruction without complaint. I watched as they eclipsed the half-giant completely in skill and ability, leveling my raised soldiers and cultists alike. I even watched them as they attempted a bit of necromancy.

A thought came to me as the vestige completely obliterated my useless regiment. The vestige... certainly wasn’t untalented. Foolish, dimwitted, and utterly beneath me, yes but not... untalented. I was reminded of their ambition I had pondered earlier. If I wasn’t planning on forcing them to drink their own blood, I might toy with the idea of enlisting them myself. That is, if they’re torture wasn’t even more tempting than their talent (which it was). (Greatly).

Ah, yes. The vestige had climbed to the top of the tower and made their way to Tharn. This would be the moment I interject. Though, ever precautious, it would only be as a projection. Nevertheless, my power, while only dulled slightly by my caution, would be enough to entrap Tharn, imprison Lyris, and take my leisurely time in crushing the pestering little vestige.

“So, we meet in person at last. You looked taller in your projection.“ Tharn quipped to the vestige.

“I’m here to get you out.” The vestige was slightly out of breath as they spoke, their weapon tightly gripped in their hand.

"And not a moment too soon. If I had to inspect one more bloody soul gem, I'd have thrown myself from the tower." Ah. Tharn would inspect every last soul gem I collect for the rest of eternity for his treason.

The vestige paused a moment, before looking to the half-giant. Their brow seemed to furrow as they turned back to the imperial. “Why should we trust you, Tharn?” So, they had at least modicum of sense.

"A fair question. I know things. Things that can help you—”

Before the imperial could let his silver tongue loose, I banished Tharn in a flourish of dark magic. The vestige and the half-giant took a step back, and my voice rang out clear to instill fear into them.

"Now, now, Tharn. No telling my secrets." I mused, perfectly. And as the magic settled, my projection appeared, commanding in presence and regal in nature. “Go to your room, Abnur. I will deal with you shortly."

I turned to the half-giant, a smirk marking my features, "Ah, dear Lyris. Your old position at the Foundry is still available. We'll even give you your own set of unbreakable chains." I could see the way the half-giant’s resolve crumbled at the mere mention of her horrors, and her despair only fed my delight.

"And you.” Lastly, I turned toward the vestige. How different they looked when their attention was on me. The slight crease of their brow, their conviction tempered by trepidation. The way they gripped their weapon just a hair too tightly, their lips pursed as they swallowed, and their eyes—their eyes which I had never seen hold both curiosity and dread at once—quivered under my scrutiny. I could bask in their enthrallment to the end of time. “The thorn in my side. The pebble in my shoe. How strong are you? Shall we test your limits?”

At once, I rose my undead servants to battle, a horrible cacophony of chattering bones and black magic being raised by a gesture of my hands. The vestige had to tear their eyes from my projection, and the struggle they had doing so made me grin.

Unfortunately, my grin was quick to fall. The vestige was swift to act, and my first wave of undead servants didn’t stand a chance. Watching the vestige on the other side of a looking glass was one thing, but even seeing their capabilities as a projection was something else entirely. If it hadn’t frustrated me so much, I would say it was impressive.

I was quick to summon another onslaught. However, attack after attack didn’t seem to slow the vestige down. Even as Lyris, the half-giant, began to depreciate in strength, the vestige remained stubborn. I could feel my grip on my composure slipping, my nails digging into my palms and my teeth bearing against one another. As the last of my skeletons collapsed into dust at the hand of the vestige, my temper snapped.

"How infuriating! The process drains the energy from most victims, yet you keep fighting!" I snapped, and the vestige looked up at me with a maddening sort of accomplishment. I hadn’t meant my furious outburst to be taken as praise, but of course the soulless fool took it as such. I composed myself quickly, straightening my back and letting out a short, marked exhale. “Your strength surprises me. But how much more can you take, I wonder?”

That was right. I had all eternity to abolish the vestige’s strength, and no matter how accomplished or skillful they were, the vestige couldn’t keep this up forever. As the vestige recognized what I had, I could see the apprehension in their expression and, even better, in their attacks. I could drink their dismay, and I wanted to chase the pleasure I derived from it.

In a torrent of sickly black magic mixed with bones and death, I conjured a horror that would surely disparage the vestige enough to force them to their knees in surrender. The size of a troll with ribs layered like armor, a monstrous bone colossus erupted from my craft.

To my disappointment, the vestige was not trembling with fear. They did not fall to their knees and beg for my mercy. No, instead of fear in their eyes, the vestige took one look at the bone colossus and their eyes lightened with... excitement. What should have struck terror into their soulless heart instead inspired challenge.

What was worse was that I seemed to be enjoying this just as much as they were. I hated to admit it, but I liked testing their limit; seeing how much they could measure up to my power. I wanted to try them further, to count how many of my servants they defeat and to see how long they would last. I wanted to craft the most appalling, gruesome, nightmare-inspiring, horrifying amalgamations and see which one makes them tear the air with their screams. I wanted them to fill my castle with the bodies of my own creations just so the satisfaction of their defeat would be so much more.

When the vestige met the finishing blow on the bone colossus, an excited thrill traveled up my spine. I was always the type to enjoy the hunt over the prize.

I rolled my shoulders back, let my tongue graze my teeth, and held up my hands to conjure something even more terror-inducing, when suddenly I was stopped.

"Mannimarco! You dare attack the chancellor of the Elder Council?" Tharn’s nasal tone tore my concentration, along with his effete magic. However, it was enough to stop me in my tracks.

I felt a snarl curl my lips in disdain for the imperial as I cast a blast of magic towards the chancellor.

“His power wanes, Vestige! Strike him down, while his attentions are on me!" He called out.

I didn’t have a moment to reacted before my projection was shattered. Eyes wide and my magic slowly dissipating, I whipped my head to Tharn as he disappeared before my eyes, "How dare you betray me, Tharn? Your suffering will be legendary!"

As my projection and magic faded, I was alone again. Wrath filled my veins and boiled my blood until all I could see was red. I destroyed whatever work I had on my desk in front of me, slamming my fists on its surface and dragging them across the intricate soul gems and scrolls.

“He will pay for his treachery!” I hissed aloud, and in a jerky, rage-filled movement, I conjured my scrying visage.

The vestige, Lyris, and Tharn were escaping through the refuse chute. My mind was flitting through how I could drill regret and remorse into the traitorous imperial. Just as I was wildly grinning at the trio’s capture, the doors from the refuse chute being locked, a soul shriven out of nowhere teleported into the chute and offered them escape.

My desk collapsed with a loud SNAP as my fist came down on its surface.

“You-!” My words felt like venom on my lips and my eyes burned with hatred as they drilled into the vestige’s body. “You vile, deplorable, soulless-!” With a wave of my hand, I shattered a random soulgem, scattering it into a thousand pieces simply because the act of destroying a life calmed me. However, this time it didn’t seem to calm me as much as I hoped. I whipped back toward the visage.

“While Tharn will suffer a thousand lifetimes for his betrayal, you, dear vestige,” I spat. “The end of time could not stop your torture!”

#ho boy he's getting obsessed #this is the part where i said it gets intense #Mannimarco #mannimarco x vestige #tes #teso #the elder scrolls #the elder scrolls online #the vestige #the thorn in my side the pebble in my shoe

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beardedhandstoadshark · 11 months

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Have you played Tears of the Kingdom yet? If so, what are your thoughts?

YEA I DID (haven’t finished it yet tho)

-> this ask keeps getting postponed because when it came in I just started playing for a few days and made a list of some highlights but then I found more stuff while playing and it got longer, and longer…so

TDLR

game good, I keep getting distracted by EVERYTHING, Rauru >>>> Rhoam, I like how they changed all the things that would’ve been deliberately sought out by returning players like the towns or Satori yet kept the rest the same enough to not feel alienating, Zelda‘s voice actor did not need to go that hard on the blood moon clip (though I‘m not playing with English dub since dubs are generally pretty good here which is nice :3)

Also here’s the list:

I miss my ice module anon. I miss her a lot

Also one of the new enemies gave me a total jumpscare. Like, an actual jumpscare, I was just walking around some random cave collecting stuff and then BAM. NIGHTMARE FUEL. They did not have to bring deadhand back like THAT man ;-;

LOVE the new towers, it’s such a cool way to see stuff and travel fast

Not sure if I should hate or love the fire temple- on one hand, the intended way seems convoluted af and I could not understand where I‘m supposed to go with the carts for the love of me- on the other hand, there’s so many ways to go through this dungeon on your own

Surprisingly did not run into any Redeads yet despite doing a good chunk of the maps and 3 dungeons but it can stay that way NVM I FOUND THEM. OH HECK NO.

Whoever decided one of the most horrible enemies of the entire series should be reimagined from undead corpses to the insects feasting on said undead corpses is both an utter genius and I hope they get cursed for the horrors they unleashed upon the world

Also unlike the promo art Gdorf isn’t green in the scenes I’ve seen so far which is…interesting- is that smth they did with the other versions too, and greendorf was just nostalgia bait? Is it censoring? The green just a side effect of the evil goo I haven’t seen yet? All of it?

Speaking of I THINK I JUST FOUND THE FRICKIN OOT SPIRIT TEMPLE!??? I‘d recognize that main room with the stupid middle light anywhere, took me WAY too long to figure out how to get on the middle platform-

Can’t wait to jump into a well and get jumpscared by the goo hands =)

Between Rauru‘s name, the temples, and the whole thing with Ganondorf essentially being the first part of oot all over again there’s lots of ocarinas here for something that mostly referenced skyward sword so far-

RIP Wolf Link,at least even in the Sacred Realm he still gets to hunt and bring insane amounts of meat to Link :(

Where is Kass. Seriously where is he. I didn’t find him on the road or in Rito village is he ok-

F to the Sages of Shadow, apparently they got fired

BOTW DLC ITEMS IN BASE GAME LETS GOOOOOOO

Also the details that‘re here because of botw, like NPC’s recognizing Link or that one town existing, paints a really interesting picture of the "canon“ botw run: mainly that Link did most shrines, talked to every main quest npc, helped with the town, saved his house from destruction and gave it to Zelda (or they took SO long to demolish that Zelda could buy it herself, but the first one‘s cuter)

but also that Link never talked to any other non-important npcs, and that he did the whole thing without buying a single piece of clothing other than the Hyrule set. My man did the entirely of death mountain and the desert purely by chugging potions and eating food. (And a vai outfit lying around somewhere or sold, presumably. So weird that you can sell clothing, does anyone actually do that? They’re so expensive to buy)

#another anon ask #i keep playing until 1% and always sit there wondering it’s been that long already!?#then again the switch basically turns into an oven so. It might be thst.

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trashcatsnark · 3 years

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WHY THE FUCK WERE UP SO LATE??? FUCKING UR SO LUCKY I CANT BEAT UR ASS OTHERWISE ITD BE KNUCKLE CITY

anyway, speaking about johnny boy i was thinking about him + nibbles and our like collective desicion that he is essiently a cat and it is really weirdly fitting that it just makes me like ???? so like cats themselves are a reoccuring motif within the game from the start, when u go to viks, when ur chatting up takemura and at the end with the rooftop that also doubles as like the millionith matrix reference. they follow v and they take up the role of the bakeneko, which i think in the game is defined by them appearing near death ? or just disaster. the obvious thing is that it is to do with v's inpending death and their whole sitation but like the general point is like the cat symbolises the death that follows v as the cat follows them. this puts johnny in an interesting sitation from his catlike nature to how he seems to like and get along with nibbles, he is linked with cats. he is also the parasite that is killing v. he is V's bakeneko. their signal of death. the events start because of his relic, jackie dies for him, and soon does most of the cast from act 1, and a large part of the death from then on is a direct result of them trying to solve the relic and johnny's whole presence is a signal for hey v ur fucking dying. he is death for them. the bakeneko.

makes me wonder if his catlike attributes were intentionally done cause that boy aint right or we just accidently walked on a really thematic fitting landmind

Spoilers within, again, also leave my sleeping schedule alone, I do not function. Additionally, I have a lot to say about Nibbles, omens, cats, and pets then how they all relate back to Johnny so congrats on opening a flood gate my friend!

think the thematic thing with Johnny and cats and the bakeneko has to 1000000 percent be intentional, because he even sees a cat when Alt is kidnapped. And that goes back to Cyberpunk Red. Like that was used and utilized and then became such a large part of the story.

Johnny is clearly meant to be a bakeneko; he’s actively next to the cat in that conversation, leaves when it does, see the same cat before Alt’s death, and is again the visual representation of what is happening to V. He is the symbol of their death, whether he wants to be or not.

I think it’s also interesting to note, the Bakeneko, which is described as an omen of death and misfortune isn’t the only way we see cats used thematically within the game. Albeit, this way is more subtle and perhaps intentionally so. We also see the maneki-neko; the lucky cat statues are everywhere in game. In V’s apartment, Misty’s shop, Vik’s clinic. Everyyyyyywhereeeeee.

So, we see two mythological cats from Japanese culture. One brings misfortune and one brings good luck. And Johnny exemplifies both.

Johnny is a visual representation of all that is destroying V. His mere existence and presence a constant reminder that their death is around the corner. An ever present omen that V’s clock is ticking. He also often pops up to have a comment just before massive relic malfunctions and disasters. The end of every main game quest is punctuated with a relic malfunction and a lecture from Johnny.

But without the chip and by extension Johnny, V would already be dead. If the chip hadn’t been the exact right place to be damaged and activated by the gunshot; it would have killed V right then and there. And while this wasn’t an active choice on Johnny’s part, he is the visual representation of the chip. Even then, he later does make an active choice to save V’s life. When V is hit with the worst malfunction yet; Johnny grabs them, “you aren’t dying yet, I got you” and he takes them to safety. He refuses to watch V seize and die in a puddle of their own sick in the middle of nowhere (for me it’s always at the sunset hotel, idk if this changes based on the order you do the events tho) So, he takes control, he eases their pain and takes them somewhere safe, somewhere that means something to him, and swears to die for them.

Luck both good and bad. Fortune and misfortune. A sign of better days and an omen of death. A maneki-neko and a bakeneko. The time bomb in V’s head and the guy who saved their life. He is both.

Now, stepping away from the mythological aspects. Lets talk about Nibbles the cat, Johnny, and pets within Cyberpunk 2077. Animals and by extension pets are considered a luxury in Night City. They’re taxed to fuck and back, generally only the wealthy can have them. Its also often brought up that real friends and family who stick by you are very difficult to come by. V becomes through Nibbles one of the rare people to have a pet. One of the other people who had a pet is, Barry their neighbor.

Barry and his mission is one of the first you can unlock and see in the game. He’s V’s downstairs neighbor and his story is played out so fucking similarly to V’s. Barry lost his best friend, he’s quit his job because he can’t handle the weight of the NCPD’s corruption, and he’s thinking of taking his own life. V has lost Jackie, its stated in game they get less work than usual because of Konpeki (cant be put on a crew), and very early on can say to Misty “be better off putting in my head”.

But for Barry that friend ends up being a pet tortoise. And its clear what that tortoise represents; a constant companion, a safe place, and a comfort. Something Barry couldn’t find among his peers until later on when they learn just how much he’s been hurting. And this is treated as such a tragedy, that he only has a pet to turn to.

And so V gets a cat, because they too are fucking hurting and having a little meowing bundle of skin running around their apartment helps. Something to come home to, something to make that apartment a little less empty, a little more alive.

So, how does this particular aspect of Nibbles/cats/pets relate to Johnny, I hear you wondering (as well as wondering when Im going to shut up). Well, we know Johnny is linked symbolically with cats and thats the choice of pet for V. And we knows pets have been likened to support without judgement; a companion who you can tell everything too and they won’t abandon you.

And while Johnny has heaps of judgment and is a dick. He is V’s only constant companion. I know a good junk of people don’t like him or his commentary; but imagine V’s life without Johnny in it through the game events. Imagine how lonely they’d be.

Johnny is the only one who knows everything and is there with V from the start to the final moments in Mikoshi.

Vik and Misty know, but they’re no edgerunners, they have no idea everything V is doing out there. Part of why as much as I do love Vik, his frustration with V hurts so much in the end because he talks like V hasn’t done anything to save themselves. Because, Vik doesn’t know what V’s been doing this whole time.

Each part of the main quests in Act 2 are linked to an NPC; Judy, Panam, and Takemura. And not one of them know or are there throughout the entirety of V’s journey. Judy doesn’t get told the full details of what’s happening until later in and stops helping V one Evelyn is saved. Panam doesn’t learn the full details or anything really about the chip until much later. And her quests become her own personal journey once V finds Hellman. And then depending on V’s choices, Panam can come in to help at the end. Takemura knows V is dying and is there to help with the parade and then he’s gone; either dead or in hiding. He refers to anything that doesn’t involve him as V’s shady dealings and leaves it at that. He’s there to interrogate Hellman but he doesn’t know all V did to find him. None of them know everything, none of them have been there the whole time. And that’s not a condemnation of them, I do not expect them to drop everything to be glued to V’s side 24/7 but, I can’t fucking imagine how alone V feels.

River has no involvement in any main quests and only finds out anything if V chooses to romance him. Kerry knows what Johnny told him and depending on the ending may even leave V. Again, wanna be clear, that isn’t a condemnation on his character. I understand why he does this and i understand his hurt and how it led him to that.

But this is about how truly fucking alone V is in all of this. Not a single person there start to finish, not a single person knowing all that they have suffered, all that they have been through and are going through.

Except Johnny. He tells V in the oil fields, closest to him by far, there 24/7, yet they don’t seem to hate him. And he’s that for V too; there the entire way, their demon never leaving. Johnny knows everything happening; because he’s part of what’s happening. He’s been there through every struggle, every step, every slap in the face as V’s tried to save themselves. Has felt their pain as they lose themselves, has known the people who’ve had to die for them to get this far, as felt their heart break when all they found was betrayal by the Voodoo Boys, Ai Alt asking how V’s life is her problem, getting recommended a hospice by Hellman.

And as dickish as he is, his comments help. V always has someone there, as much as he sucks. He always has something stupid or naggy to say to help keep some of that weight off their shoulders. Imagine if they didn’t even have that. If Johnny never talked to them, never showed his face.

A constant companion, like a supportive pet cat except he can talk and did a lot of meth.

And this is a sidenote that has nothing to do with cats specifically, but that through Samurai music this isn’t the first time Johnny could be compared to an omen. Its no secret that the music was largely created around the game and as such, many of his songs have direct parallels and messages related to the game. Never Fade Away while in universe written in regards to Alt’s death also has so much in common with his journey with V. This brings me to the song Black Dog.

“Black Dog inside my head, guiding me until the end.”

Black Dogs are figures in Irish Mythology who much like bakeneko’s are talked about in game; are omens of death and misfortune. I just find it interesting I suppose, like Johnny is either a dirty alley cat or a big mangy dog, but either way he’s here cause someones about to die.

Okay this is well over a thousand words, Imma shut up now. This is probably a mess, but anyone here for coherency is in the wrong place.

#cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #cyberpunk 2077 spoilers #johnny silverhand #silverv #tender-wounds

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nightcoremoon · 2 years

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oh my god skyrim is so bad

so you’re in windhelm just doing your business before heading off to go kill bandits in the east to do a quest (because you wanted to go on an adventure east before going to whiterun because fuck whiterun it’s worse than metro tunnels and repconn hq combined, and accidentally found ulfric which is convenient because fuck the empire, although then again these guys are racist cunts, so at the very least there’s actually a conflict in choosing who to side with rather than “some taxes” vs “all women are slaves” vs “literal fascism” in new vegas which I love but wow the NCR are the good guys full stop if you disagree you’re an idiot).

you go to the inn, last stop, and you find a guy who wants to brawl, which you easily win, and then try to stealth kill him with a bow from the shadows because he’s an evil racist asshole who literally wants to round people up in the streets. but oh wait YOU CANT KILL HIM because “that would break a quest” and god forbid that happens because these people don’t know how to program choice and consequence in a game. okay fine nothing matters cool. oh hey this guy wants to challenge me to a drinking contest. I get it, these are all just tutorials. ok I’ll bite and steal this random guy’s money.

then suddenly you’re on the complete opposite side of the country because skyrim says “fuck you, play how we want you to.”

oh I spilled trash all over the temple you say. yeah. two items and a piece of paper. what a mess. did the quest designers even try? okay fine whatever. can I bribe? can I persuade? can I intimidate? can I be lucky enough on a speech roll to succeed? it doesn’t matter. literally every single choice leads to exactly the same line of dialogue. trust me, i checked it. did the writers even try? okay fine whatever. after using a quicksave and checking just how trash the dialogue trees are and deciding okay fine I’ll do this stupid quest. I pick up the three items accept the quest and think I’m about to step out in the snow of windhelm and SUDDENLY MARKARTH.

fuck you todd. I was exploring at my own pace and you hijacked it with random bullshit. even fallout didn’t do that and fallout 3/4 are horrible RPGs (good shooters though). whatever. I’ll just fast travel back. oh wait there was a murder and now suddenly there’s another 4 NPCs talking to me and I have a fuckton more quests. I wanna go back to windhelm. fine I’ll just explore this city and then I’ll go back. oh wait this city has a lot more shit in it. too much shit. these dungeons are atrociously designed, they’re fucking death mountain, they’re fucking silph corp, they’re a goddamn maze. okay fine let’s exterior collisions matrix this bitch. oh. oh no. it’s not working. did the dungeon designers even try? whatever.

I have tried. I have given skyrim one, two, three, four chances now. it is not a good game. it looks nice, it sounds nice, the animations are okay when they fucking work but usually they don’t, the operant conditioning functions as it should which means that going shopping is almost completely pointless, there’s a lot of shit to do which I guess makes everyone with adhd go ballistic with adoration and praise for this game. but the camera is godawful, the stealth is broken, the random critical hits interfere with your choices, magic is stupidly op, enemy damage values are so fucking random (basic feral ghouls or deathclaws, there is no in between), if you don’t quicksave every five seconds then an anvil falls on your head and you repeat 20 minutes of walking, the writing is weak, combat is repetitive, if you get lucky drops it becomes a cakewalk but if you get unlucky you’re bashing you head into a brick wall for hours on end and there is no in between, the crafting recipes are severely lacking, food is unnecessary and irrelevant anyway because every single character can heal 10hp per second with a basic spell that everyone can use regardless of how you skill up, skilling up necessitates grinding or dumping cash which requires grinding or you can just break it and savescum your way through pickpocketing the gold right back (grind savescum or use the console commands to disable achievements until you quit out and go back in so there’s no consequences at all, pick your fuckin poison).

enderal is going to be fucking phenomenal when I play it.

but skyrim? a footnote in failure only loved by the lowest common denominator, and the reason behind dark souls’ unearned status as “the hardest game ever”. it’s so bad.

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flareondotcom · 3 years

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SKIN IM BOUT TO BUY A 3DS WHAT POKÉMON GAMES SHOULD I PLAY IVE ONLY PLAYED BLACK AND POKÉMON GO.

oh man oh boy, personally i recommend omega ruby or alpha sapphire if you haven't played a gen 3 game (ruby, sapphire, emerald), theyre probably the most faithful and visually beautiful remakes ive ever played!!! plus it significantly improves on a bunch of new features introduced in X and Y that came right before it, like mega evolution and pokemon-amie (stupid name, but its the mini game where you can feed and pet your lil buddies!!!) plus the post-game is one of the best!!! it also introduces the DexNav, which lets you sneak up on pokemon you can actually see in the overworld, which at the time was a very big deal. The soundtrack? Fire. The intro sequence when you first start a new game? Fire. the map? maybe a lil too much water in the latter part of the game, but it’s FIRE. gen 3 did so much for the franchise with introducing new landscapes, weather, unique environments not seen in any other pokemon game. people CRIED when OR/AS first came out, because it’s like a love letter to the original games while introducing so many cool new features it felt like an entirely new adventure while DRIPPING with nostalgia, they’re so fun!!!

if Hoenn doesn't suit your style, or you want to start with something more original than a remake, another good place to start on 3DS is Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon!! those are the gen 7 sequels, theyre Very similar to sun and moon but imo enough improvements to cinematics and story (and pokemon available!!!) are made that it would save you the time of playing sun/moon first while still getting the full taste of the alola region!!! you can customize your player character which fuckin rules, AND without spoiling anything, if you play US/UM youll recognize some things from pkmn Black!!! gen 7 is visually stunning and has some of the best NPCs in the franchise, and is just super fun and rewarding to explore every nook and cranny. it's actually worth it to talk to the NPCs you see around bc sometimes it'll trigger little stories to play out or side quests to do, which is pretty unique for a pokemon game!!! it made the world feel richer, and lived in, very cool. BUT the Alola region is unique compared to other regions because they don't follow the Gym League Circuit model all the other ones do, they do what's called the island challenge!!! S/M and US/UM are structured differently (although not TOO differently) than any other game, so it's refreshing, but if you're looking for a more classic experience maybe start somewhere else first.

X and Y are near and dear to my heart, but it was a big transition from 2D to 3D, so they aren't as "polished" as the games that came after. hate to say it, but although X/Y introduced mega evolution in the first place, OR/AS does it better. They're still really fun though!!! they're the first games in the franchise where you can customize your player character, and the Kalos pokedex has a GOURMET selection of pokemon. gen 6 was the first game to really amp up the variety of pokemon available before the national dex is unlocked, mostly because this was the first time people were seeing their favs in full 3D, so they wanted to include as many as possible. the post-game is very lackluster, but the sheer VARIETY of mons makes replayability pretty high and enjoyable. there are 593 different pokemon available in x and y more than ANY OTHER GAME (besides swsh im pretty sure?) like. holy shit, right? you can build ANY team in that game, endless possibilities. plus im really fond of the characters they introduce, they’re so unique and adorable and dare i say..... found family???

i know you didnt ask about this specifically so feel free to ignore this part, but 3DS pokemon games can be pretty expensive, however they are VERY easy to pirate, and run great on most computers!!! you can even play the older games, gen 5 and below, on a non-apple smart phone with little to no issues!!! im pretty technologically inept and even I could figure it out, so if you want tips on emulation to get that sweet sweet pokemon content for free, i can help with that too <3

MANNNNNN im so excited for you, i wish i could go back and experience them for the first time again, how special!!!

#worldbreake-r #pkmn #i could go on honestly but those are my takes on the 3ds specific games hehe #if you liked black then im obligated to recommend black 2 or white 2 if you havent played them #like the names would imply that they arent that different from bw but they ARE #theyre SO different and SO good #but those arent 3ds games iirc #they do run on 3ds tho so if you really liked unova and feel so inclined i cant recommend the sequels enough!!!#thank you for thinking of me i hope this helps hehe

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evajellion · 3 years

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2020 vidya ranking: #1 Bug Fables The Everlasting Sapling

You already knew that I was going to tell you that this was the best game I had played last year.

Imo, this should have been indie GOTY back in 2019, but whatever, I guess I should explain why I ranked this one at the top.

Back in 2004, Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door was released. I had sadly missed out on getting the original game on the Nintendo 64, but I was nonetheless very excited for the sequel. I got the game, still have my copy even years later… aaaand I got confused in Rogueport Sewers because I was a dumb eight year old, but I swear I picked up the game a second time. Got through all of the chapters, and had fallen in love with the game.

I loved the characters, the battle system, the story, the chapter progression, the cooking system, even the hidden lore and the amount of side quest scattered throughout the game. I even cried. It was the first time I had cried over a video game.

I wanted more, but then, Nintendo didn’t do it again. Sure, Super Paper Mario had a fantastic story, and a lot of people treasure that game the way I do TTYD-- I wouldn’t even mind if the series stayed in that direction. After that though?

Well, Sticker Star happened and stripped away all of the things I loved. Two similar games and one spin-off followed after that. Needless to say, me and several other fans of 64, TTYD, and Super weren’t happy about it. Seemed like I would never get another game like the one that was so dear to me ever again.

Cue me finding Arlo’s video about a cute little game called Bug Fables, just around the summer time. It had come out in 2019 and had been in development for some time by an indie studio. I was skeptic, but at this point I wanted anything-- besides, I actually love insects.

And after the first two chapters, which were a bit bland, I found it. I found the game I had been looking for. I was so afraid that this would be another Mighty No. 9 or Yooka-Laylee, but Bug Fables was anything but. Sure, it took inspiration from Paper Mario with its gameplay structure, but saying that this game is “just Paper Mario” doesn’t do it justice, because game can stand tall on its own.

I loved just about everything here in the same way I loved TTYD. Characters (except for two), the battle system, the story, the chapter progression, the cooking system, the hidden lore and the amount of side quest-- and there was even more than that.

“Gee what did Bug Fables have that Paper Mario didn’t?”

More than one super boss

A card game

Three party members in battle at a time

An entire side quest chapter that you can miss

An in-game randomizer

Higher difficulty settings

FREE DLC

Actual quality of life improvements

And finally, a villain who doesn’t just get a mere slap on the wrist as punishment for their actions. It’s one of the things Super did far better than TTYD because Beldam being let off scott free in the ending always pissed me off as a kid. The final boss is less ham-fisted in general too.

You have three characters at all times-- they’re your only party members and the only ones you need because they’re all perfectly balanced: Kabbu, Vi, and Leif. The third of which you won’t even meet until a bit into the first chapter. You don’t have to worry about wasting turns by switching your members out in this game.

The story starts off simple with the team of three collecting artifacts for Queen Elizant II, who seeks the Everlasting Sapling for an unspecified reason. About half way through the game and into the fourth chapter, the tone of the situation begins to shift, as the wicked wasps from the Wasp Kingdom also seek these artifacts for their lord.

This game doesn’t skimp out on being accurate to bug details either, there are little nods to how things work in real life, which is something I always appreciate. There isn’t really a dull moment in the story or a second where you feel stuck, because with the amount of Medals you get, there are plenty of strategies you can play around with.

Bug Fables is also… surprisingly dark, which perhaps isn’t unfitting of a game inspired by Paper Mario, given the direction TTYD and Super would get into. I can’t really spoil anything in regards to that, because much like with Three Houses, I would rather someone experience that themselves.

In terms of the flaws in this game, I can only think of two. One is regarding a terrible Flappy Bird game that’s required for 100%. It just shouldn’t be there, or at least be easier on the eyes.

The other is that this game suffers from having too many characters, when only four of them get actual character arcs: The main trio and the queen. You have some characters that get more fleshed out in side quests such as fellow team members or NPCs, but I feel like other “major players” suffer in the process.

Neolith is a big one. Cute nerdy moth who just exists as exposition for the artifacts and is a part of Kabbu’s backstory, but he never really does anything besides that, which is disappointing because he’s very cute. I would have loved more lore to him and Kabbu’s past, maybe a future DLC quest can solve that!

Your “rival team” also suffers a bit in this department. The team leader, Mothiva, is a snooty diva who never properly gets her comeuppance or realization that she needs to stop making everything about herself. I guess that’s the point, to give that vibe similar to old Pokémon rivals. But we’re supposed to believe she’s an official couple with her partner; Zasp, who just seems to simp for her in a one-sided way. Perhaps this could also be fixed with another DLC quest.

The worst of the bunch is Kina, Maki’s overly protective and possessive sister to the point of it being creepy. Unlike Mothiva, who is your rival, Kina is supposed to be a supporting cast member, yet she has even less likable traits. She stalks her brother and constantly wants to be with him, gets upset at the idea of him needing space, threatens a small caterpillar character-- you could remove her from the story and it changes nothing. There’s not even a backstory reason for her to be the way she is.

Mind you-- these are very minor nitpicks that don’t really bog down the game. Some may say the main villain of the game suffers from this as well since he shows up halfway into the game, I personally think he was handled perfectly, because you can piece together his motivations and backstory through lore.

Speaking of lore, I hope with so much in this game, that we end up getting a sequel. There are so many questions left unanswered, so much more I wanna know about!

Other than that thought? The trio of Kabbu, Vi, and Leif and their story is just about perfect. I can’t thank Arlo enough for introducing me to it, and I think this game will catch on more in the future since Chuggaconroy said he was playing it on Twitter, and Fatguy just completed his LP of the game.

I think… we’re entering an age where we should start expecting this level of quality from indie developers more often. This game didn’t feel like an indie game, it felt like a grade a RPG. Which is funny, because that’s what Paper Mario used to be.

God speed, Paper Bug devs. Keep up the good work in the future, thank you for bringing back a feeling I thought I’d never experience with a video game again. I know it sounds cheesy and stupid, but that’s.. just how much Paper Mario effected me back then. Even now, it inspires the books I wanna write, and it’s safe to say Bug Fables did the same.

By the way, can I talk about how delicious some of the food items look in this game? This is insect cuisine, and even I would eat these.

For recap on what the other games I had played this year were, just so you know how Bug Fables topped ‘em:

2. Fire Emblem: Three Houses

3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

4. Story of Seasons: Friends of Mineral Town

5. Super Mario All-Stars

6. Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and The Blade of Light

7. Final Fantasy VII

8. F-Zero

9. Star Fox

10. Puyo Puyo Champions

#bug fables

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thegreatyin · 3 years

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I'm not very good at mmos but I love final fantasy, do you have any tips or advice? Your character is cute!

i don't actually know much about a good chunk of the game- i'm only at early heavensward context (the second expansion) so take my advice with a tiny pinch of salt.

having said that, sure, i can try to give advice! also please note that ffxiv is my first final fantasy game, but i'm experienced with mmos, so it's like... the opposite outlook.

if you look up literally anything about ffxiv, it'll be veterans saying that the current base game (a realm reborn) is slow and largely boring. i disagree for a number of reasons, but... it certainly does drag on for awhile. as i said, i don't know how this compares to other games in the franchise, but this one is a slowburn- well worth the payoff, but still slow as hell.

a single character can play all of the classes! this means, for example, rigel (my oc-turned-player-character) can be a black mage, white mage, warrior, dark knight, ninja... basically, alts (mmo-speak for alternate characters, basically any character you create and play outside of your "main") are effectively useless, but still fun to do if you don't mind a grind.

for the sake of all that is holy, when you unlock a job quest, drop everything and do it. these almost always give new abilities that become an essential part of your toolkit, and when they don't, they're leading up to one. i don't care if you're about to do a main story quest and think you can pass by without it, just do it and save yourself the trouble later.

you get your first mount at level 20, the grand company chocobo. however, due to the stupid amount of exp early quests give you/depending on if you're in a favored server or not, you'll likely be far above that when you finally get your bird. rigel was around 27 when he got bird-riding rights. said rights are tied to the main story quests, as is everything, so make sure to do those too.

red mage is really really fun i highly recommend it

at early levels the 2.5 second gcd (global cooldown, a timer where you can't use any abilities for a period of time) will seem agonizing. it gets better. by level 50 as a black mage i felt like it was too short.

i don't know how to navigate square enix's terrible site but be warned it is certainly something that needs mental preparation before attempting. buying this game is a nightmare.

so don't! the free trial goes up to level 60 and includes the entirety of the first and second expansions (first is actually the base game but that's a whole other can of worms) and lasts indefinitely. you can be a free trial player for years and never stop. just be warned that once you buy the game you can't return to free-trial status so once ur sins are committed, they're committed for good.

love yourself. don't play a healer class. or do, if you're into masochism.

housing is a fucking NIGHTMARE i haven't touched it with a ten foot pole

you can use FATES (open-world multiplayer events, basically) to grind extra classes in a pinch. it's not much, but you can do it.

you know that starting mount i mentioned? the grand company chocobo? you can nickname it. and dress it up. and change its colors. and eventually summon it to fight alongside you as a bird pet/companion/best friend and legitimately why would you use any other mount

seriously rigel's bird is named luhmel and i cherish him SO much i spent all my gil on outfits for him birb my BELOVED

i'd honestly recommend ignoring the gold/normal sidequests after the first few levels- they usually don't offer much, and don't give much back. it's only worth doing the blue "plus" quests (which always unlock something for you/your character) and the main story quests (which. are main story, lol. they're marked with a fire symbol around the edge of the icon)

oh hey whatcha know your job quests are blue plus quests maybe that means something

if you want to take Aesthetic Screenshots™ there's a thing called group pose (aka gpose) that you can use to loop an emote and modify lighting and everything to make some really nice pictures. i haven't used it much because i unironically discovered it two hours ago but i sure will use it in the future

once/if you hit levels 50/60/70, you should start hoarding poetics/tombestones! these can be used to buy fresh new gear that not only looks stylish but also will legitimately last you for half of the next expansion. i'm not joking. these are absolutely worth the investment.

if you play lalafell you WILL be pat on the head. it's normal. let it happen.

y'shtola best girl

new players are called sprouts, and are given a little sprout icon beside their name to represent that! this actually stays for a while- 168 total hours played and completion of stormblood (3rd expansion), iirc. i'm still a sprout. rigel's a little sprout boy.

once you unlock the waking sands, i highly recommend going into the side room and talking to all the npcs there! they have different/new dialogue every time the main story quests tell you to return there, and getting to know them all... well, let's just say that it'll make some parts hit harder, y'know? it pays off.

i haven't personally done them but i've heard the hildibrad sidequests are really funny i recommend those

there's a gambling cactus to gamble your life away and the parkour minigame infuriates me beyond reasonable definition

the community as a whole is super nice, and way better at giving advice on the spot than i am! for an anime game where i can play my depressed edgy angsty angel boy as a walking disaster gay catboy, it's really wholesome. not for everyone, but definitely a good time if it is your kinda thing.

okay but seriously do your class/job quests

#ask #ffxiv #thank you rigel is super cute i love my catboy

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lamiahypnosia · 3 years

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Top Five NPCs of The Outer Worlds

I don’t feel like the Outer Worlds gets enough recognition for how excellent the character writing is. Sure, we love the companions but I’m talking about the rest of the cast. The characters that help build the world of Halcyon.

So in true internet countdown fashion -and written because I’m too dumb to use editing software- I’m counting down the Top Five NPCs in The Outer Worlds.

Spoilers ahead! Let’s begin.

5. Martin Callahan

Mad scientists, swearing vicars, space pirates and what have you, Martin Callahan somehow became the fandom’s darling. People cry out on social media for DLC to help Martin out of his helmet and possibly make him a companion. It’s actually kind of charming that players want to go out of their way to help this guy. He’s not a quest giver, he’s not essential to the plot, he’s just some guy who works for Spacer’s Choice slowly going mad inside a mascot helmet. His resignation to his fate utterly encompasses the tone of the game universe.

Maybe it’s his dry tone while selling quality Spacer’s Choice goods or the mystery behind the mask- the poor soul stuck in the Moon Man helmet shackled to his little Spacer’s Choice stall on Groundbreaker is without a doubt the ensemble dark horse of The Outer Worlds.

4. Minister Aloysius Clarke

Though he technically has a huge role in the future of Halcyon I put him pretty low on the list since after your initial meeting with him during Phineas’ storyline you don’t talk to him much. Aloysius Clarke is the Minister of Earth who should be touring the colony but he’s placed under house arrest by Chairman Rockwell. The interesting thing is you see his face everywhere before you ever meet him and likely assume he’s a Board lackey.

But happily Clarke isn’t bending to the corporate lies and money grubbing and recruits the Captain to send a message to Earth to enlist for aid.

When you finally meet him Clarke takes you for a sycophant and is kind of a jerk until you’re a jerk right back. He’s so pleased to find someone who responds to his sarcasm and isn’t brainwashed to perfect obedience.

Clarke becomes a bit of a fanboy of the Captain if you express the desire to screw over the Board. You can also learn he loves comic books, especially Dissident Hunter, a series that is essentially propaganda against free thinkers.

The Outer Worlds already has a pretty refreshing human character design that features many characters that are people of color. I thought it was neat that Clarke is almost certainly biracial that goes to show what a true melting pot the Halcyon Colony is. Also he has on a beautiful suit and rocks some fingerless gloves. Well dressed comic sarcastic comic book geek. The Minister of Earth. I can’t help but love this guy.

3. Sanjar Nandi & Celia Robbins

This is kind of cheating but I put these two together since they’re pretty much two halves of a whole character. When I first walked into Stellar Bay I expected them to do the ‘woman behind the man’ schtick where Sanjar is an incompetent jerk and Celia does all the work and gets treated like crap. Thank the Grand Architect that this awful trope is dead.

Sanjar Nandi is the CEO of Monarch Industries and Celia Robbins is his assistant. And that’s all we get out of these two. We don’t know anything about their families or friends or how they ended up working together but what little we know is that they have a good deal of respect for one another. It’s not Sanjar has a stupid idea Celia shoots down, it’s Sanjar has a good idea and Celia helps him fine tune it. Sanjar has a good eye for detail and Celia helps him see the bigger picture. She helps him with his plans, he pays her well and treats her with respect.

Individually they're still fun. Sanjar’s dorky excitement over paperwork and crush on the Captain -regardless of gender- is weirdly charming. So is Celia’s shyness regarding the guy she likes and her gentle encouragement of Sanjar is actually very sweet.

I got the sense that Sanjar overworks himself and only Celia can convince him to rest now and then.. Honestly, if everyone on the Board worked as well as these two maybe there is hope for Halcyon.

2. Anton Crane

Where do I begin with this guy? Anton is another deceitful bugger. You think he’s a Board bootlicker but as you peel away the layers you get that he’s a decent man even if he has blinders on. Anton Crane is a scientist that works for Auntie Cleo developing new products, specifically toothpaste. In Halcyon, an individual who creates a product that sells well can earn a place in Byzantium where the idle rich dwell and Anton Crane aims to do just that.

In his own personal quest for fame and fortune Anton tends to push the workers below him too hard including his protégé Jameson but at least seems to dial it back when he realizes Jameson is starting to resent him. Also once you read his terminal entries he still pushes against the corporate mandates, refusing to okay a product that has a possible side effect of blindness even when he’s told to ignore it and work on taste instead. (I don’t know how a toothpaste could cause blindness. Only in Halcyon, right?)

Anton starts off as a pompous coward only bent on his own goal to join the Byzantium elite but the more I read into him I find him to be a complex and interesting character. He’s also got this posh manner of speech to make him seem elegant that you don’t hear any other characters use except for in Byzantium. So it’s like he’s practicing being a goldblood. Anton Crane- ambitious corporate lackey or well meaning idiot? You decide.

1. Chairman Cha- jk, it’s Phineas Welles.

Yeah you didn't see that coming a mile away. Maybe I just have a soft spot for old men of science but the more I played The Outer Worlds the more Phineas became my favorite character. Straight away players fell in love with Phineas. Between his cartoony movements, love of science, introverted nature or patience with the player character it’s probably safe to say he’s nearly if not absolutely universally loved by the fanbase.

Phineas is a mad scientist yet when you wipe off the black comedy and satire you find a broken man. At first Phineas forcibly recruits the player character in hopes that they’ll be obliged to help him. He comes across as trying to hide his desperation for you to cooperate and constantly has to correct himself ‘help me- I mean help us’. He genuinely wants to help Halcyon but if only to heal his own guilt. As it turns out before his success with reviving the player character he failed- multiple times- at the cost of several lives. And he carries that with him. If you read his notes toward the end of the game the ‘liquefaction’ Phineas jokes about in the introduction is a problem he faced. When he tried before to thaw the colonists they died horrifically in front of him, screaming in agony often for over a minute and a half.

On top of that his notes in the Hope’s terminal indicate Phineas has post traumatic stress disorder because of it. Law, somebody give this man a hug.

Through it all Phineas is chipper and trusts the Captain. Phineas is endearing as a grandfatherly type. He puts a ton of faith in you but he’s never cross or impatient with you even if your character has low intelligence. Even if his motives aren’t altogether selfless- in the end he’s still trying to stick it to the Board and that’s not even that bad. He trusts in science and not the status quo. Phineas risks his life and sanity for the greater good. Thirty five years in exile is a very long time. It’s never stated what happened to his family or anything else that he left behind. Him calling the Captain ‘friend’ at the end certainly isn’t said lightly. He could have easily lived in luxury for the rest of his days but decided ultimately to forego his needs- for the needs of the many. Phineas Welles- the best character in The Outer Worlds.

#the outer worlds #spoilers

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danielsullivan · 3 years

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uh so my thought on cyberpunk, basically: Story wise it’s pretty good. There’s plenty of room for a post ending DLC, which is VERY good in my opinion, since the ending felt a bit lackluster to me. The story is nothing ground breaking, but it’s fun and worth experiencing. The characters in the game is what makes experiencing the story go from being a decent experience to being something extremely enjoyable. The side missions were a lot of fun as well. I was happy to see that they included Johnny in most side missions, and not just have him show up in the main quests. V is an amazing main character!!!!! I love them so much. The character creator needs better lighting though, and I wish we’d get customization in the actual world, like tattoo parlors, plastic surgery, piercers, barbers, and HONESTLY? Transmogification. (What’s the point of being a badass merc if you ain’t cute?? Let us CUSTOMIZE OUR CLOTHES!! It would be SO COOL!! ) I do however wish that we’d get some more romance options, and that the romances had been a bit..more, in general. It felt like once you agreed to be in a relationship with your LI the romances were over, which is an odd choice. ( Give me Takemura/claire/Viktor/Meredith or give me DEATH is what my heart is screaming though. ) I love the look of the game. The aesthetics are ON POINT. Night city truly feels like a futuristic hell hole, and i’m all for it. The map is huge but it feels like there’s a reason for it to be so big. ( I hope that they’ll add some more stuff to the north of the city, though. DLC DLC DLC?? ) If you’re able to play the game with RTX on, i’m so happy for you, because it’s out of this world. I will say that there are many things that we were promised that they didn’t deliver on, like smart AI. NPCs walking around the city feel stupid and more like clutter than people, and the Police/wanted system in the game’s basically not there. It kinda feels like the AI’s functions have all been turned off all together. Combat is fun, but it also suffers from the AI being absolutely stupid. Some things about it are broken/not very rewarding at all, which is a shame. I played on casual to push the story but with the AI being so stupid I felt no reason to turn the difficulty up, because they’d still be stupid, only with more health. Bug wise I’ve been extremely lucky. I’ve had some visual bugs, like characters T-posing, things not showing up and things hovering weird. Dialogue has also been a bit weird sometimes, like the audio not playing, or phone calls sounding weird, etc. I also feel that with my beast of a computer with the 3070 graphics card/screen with V-sync I should be getting more than 50 FPS when i’m in the city, but I don’t know if that should be considered a bug. I’m not gonna give it a rating bc I know nothing about that stuff. This is just me sharing my thoughts on the game since ppl have asked. TL;DR Good game at its core, great story, should allow more customization, need more content w/ side characters, looks good, combat fun, AI stupid af, kinda buggy but not game breaking. PS. Be nice to the devs, they’re people too. You not liking a fucking video game doesn’t give you the right to show off your shitty personality to them.

#Agnes plays cp2077 #cyberpunk spoilers #cyberpunk 2077 spoilers #cp2077 spoilers #long post #I GUESS #This is basically me just brain farting for myself

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benisasoftboi · 4 years

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Unorganised thoughts on Trails in the Sky: Second Chapter:

Unorganised thoughts on the first game are here

No longer spoiler-free, sorry

So tl;dr I loved this game and I love these characters and this world and I’m so excited to play through the whole rest of the series. What an underrated gem

I liked that everyone’s status portraits were updated, FC’s were a little rough. Except Olivier’s - his original art is miles better, good lord. The updated one is so generic :(

Speaking of updates, here’s some on how I feel about the major characters:

Estelle: Estelle deserves the world. I love her and her development, she’s just so great. What I especially love is that I cannot think of any other JRPG hero I’ve seen who reacts to the villain’s grand monologue like she does. Most of the time it’s like, huge declarations of justice, and how evil will never win, but Estelle’s reaction to Weissmann ranting about the inherent evil of man was just, like, ‘nah, actually that’s stupid, I love my friends and we’re all nice people. You just suck dude’. And that works so well, and it was really refreshing, honestly. I just... love her. I really love her.

Joshua: This poor traumatised boy who also deserves the world, my god. His backstory was so much darker than I was expecting (if I understood right, there were some implications that sexual assaults occurred in the Hamel massacre!? And that it nearly happened to his sister!? Which made me have to sit back for a moment because I did not think this game was gonna go there and it threw me for a loop). I like how his whole arc is about learning to not define himself by his trauma, I haven’t really seen that in a game before. I also love him.

I think Estelle and Joshua cute together and I support their romance, but if the game could stop reminding me post-get together that they used to be pseudo-siblings that would be great thank you

Agate: I did the Agate route mostly because I prefer using him in combat, and goddamn if I thought I liked him before. I think his arc is one of the best in the game, and I love him, and are you seeing a pattern? His friendship with Tita is also so sweet. I want to be friends with Agate

Schera: Might have had more to say if I’d done her route. I appreciated getting her backstory, and I thought her relationship with Luciola was well done, if not incredibly fascinating. As it stands, I like her just fine, even if I’m not as passionate about her as I am some of the others

Olivier: I still love this guy. I had his twist spoiled, but let’s face, it wasn’t the hardest to guess anyway. His rivalry with Bleublanc was funny, as are most of his interactions with other characters. He’s good comic relief in general, and I love using him in combat - on that note, though, I’m very angry with him for leaving in chapter 8, because he was the character I had invested the most into arts-wise, so I had to go fix up Schera just for that chapter (and then swapped to Zin as we lost ZFGs, for obvious reasons). I will say that he seems to have become a little more... creepy feels like a strong word, but I don’t think he was so forwardly suggestive in FC. It felt to me like he sort of went from Yusuke Kitagawa to Yosuke Hanamura, in a sense. But all the same, I still like him

He should have stayed in his prince look at the end though, it suits him better

Side note, I really love Mueller, and I love his and Olivier’s interactions, and I want more Mueller, why does he have to be a minor character :(

Kloe: So I wasn’t super into Kloe in FC, but I actually really loved her this time around - I thought her arc about deciding whether or not to accept the crown was well done, and the little conversation she and Estelle can have on the stage at the academy is one of my favourite scenes in both games. Also GOOD LORD do I love her outfit change at the end, she’s so pretty I want to cry

Tita: Most of what I like about Tita is her friendship with Agate, and also how smart she is. I’d probably have more to say about her if I ever used her beyond when the plot forces me to (I don’t like using glass cannon characters in games), as the unfortunate nature of SC is that you don’t get much dialogue if you’re benched. But yeah, I still like her as a character

Zin: I don’t dislike Zin, but I still find him kind of dull compared to the others. He’s fine, he’s there, he’s got a backstory with Walter and Kilika and that’s neat. Honestly the main thing I remember about all that is Zin revealing that their master had terminal cancer because I kind of just... didn’t think cancer existed in this universe, I guess. It threw me

Kevin: Firstly, I find it really, really funny that such an important and mysterious character who looks the way he does is named ‘Kevin’. But yeah, I like Kevin, I’m excited to learn more about him in 3rd. I liked his relationship with Estelle (It’s nice to see a guy who’s capable of backing off without being an ass about it. Shame there’s such a low bar). I am, though, honestly very creeped out by the mere concept of the Gralsritters, ngl

Bleublanc and Campanella were easily my favourite Enforcers. Bleublanc especially gets points for keeping himself relevant for the entire game

Renne is a character who I think I’m probably meant to feel more sympathy for than I actually do, to be honest. You can’t make me like someone just by making them a cute little girl, Falcom, I’m sorry. Maybe I’ll feel differently after playing 3rd, I know she’s in it

I thought Loewe was well handled and I love that scene where he and Joshua hug at the end

I love the Ravens. I love that they got actual art. They’re amazing. I would play an entire spin-off game about the Ravens

And the Capuas! Can they all team up? Please?

Especially Josette, I came to really like her

A thing I’ve kind of realised about this game and its characters is that it’s a really good example of how tropes and cliches are not inherently bad - everyone in this game is based on some kind of mostly-unsubverted cliche, but they are incredibly well-executed cliches. You can have the most original characters in the world, but if they’re not written well, then what’s the point? I think a lot of writers conflate ‘unique’ and ‘surprising’ and (ugh) ‘subverting expectations’ with ‘good’. This game doesn’t make that mistake, and I appreciate that

Don’t get me wrong, unique and surprising and expectation subverting is also not inherently bad - just that it’s all in the execution

I like that Richard came back! And reformed! To be honest, though, (maybe this is controversial? idk), I thought he was a better antagonist than anyone in Ouroboros. His motivations made a lot more sense than those of most of the Enforcers

Honestly (excluding Renne and Campanella because those haven’t been fully revealed to me yet) Bleublanc was really the only one with a motivation I liked - I can respect a villain who does crimes just for the sake of being an asshole

Oh yeah, there’s also Anelace and her team - they’re all great. I would like to know more about Grant, he doesn’t get to do much

The side quest in chapter 8 at the academy where we get Kurt and Anelace is one of the best quests in the game

Oh, and that reminds me, Gilbert! I love Gilbert, he’s so lame. Fighting him is hilarious

I was very happy to see minor NPC Clive on the Arseille at the end. It’s what he deserves

I love that this game got me invested in the lives of the random NPCs

Screw that Abyss Worm bounty hunt, and also that fight with Renne on Ambryl Tower

I don’t know whose idea it was to fill this game, in this setting, with GIANT ROBOTS but it grew on me and I kind of love it now

I’ve decided Ruan is my favourite region, but Rolent is my favourite city

The Liber Ark is such a cool setting, I’m sad we only saw a tiny part of it for one chapter

I knew they weren’t going to kill off Joshua and Estelle, but I still cannot describe the rush of relief I felt when the dragon saved them at the end. I care about these kids, damnit!

There’s that one section in Grancel where everyone’s talking about Crossbell and then it never comes up again - set up the next arc of games a little less subtly, why don’t you?

(And then Cassius being like ‘the adventures will continue! But with other people!”)

I read all of The Doll Knight and I genuinely enjoyed it

This game has maybe the best end credits I’ve ever seen

...think that’s all my thoughts expunged! Now to play 3rd :D

#trails in the sky #trails series #trails in the sky sc #trails in the sky: second chapter #long post

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monabela · 4 years

Text

ha! here I am for the last day of @aphrarepairweek2020, magic, with another pairing I think is very interesting but had never written before. this was a lot of fun, and I really like this little au, tbh. I feel like there could be more stories in here. I guess I alluded to a bunch of pairings, but they’re really not important and can be Ignored :)

~~~

the bard’s song

pairings/characters: Iceland (Egill)/New Zealand (Riley), Liechtenstein (Erika), Hong Kong (Leon), Taiwan (Mei), Seychelles (Angélique), Latvia (Raivis) + mentioned Moldova (Luca), Australia (David) & Norway (Einar)

word count: 3182

summary:

Egill really wishes Riley’s stupid D&D character would stop trying to seduce his own character. Mostly, he wishes Riley would try to seduce him instead.

~~~

“Well, Riley, if you insist…”

Egill can feel his eye twitch while Erika gestures wearily across the table at Riley, who looks poised and ready and far too pleased with themself.

“I guess you can roll to seduce the Owlbear. You know what to do,” Erika finishes. Riley is already throwing the twenty-sided die. On Egill’s other side, Leon is shaking with suppressed laughter, like he wasn’t the one who brought the menace of Riley Greenwood and their weirdly seductive halfling bard into their D&D group.

Riley actually pretends not to know what exactly they’re rolling for or what to add, as if they don’t try to seduce literally every NPC Erika throws at them, and then triumphantly declares it’s a seventeen. Egill pushes his hands into his hair, groaning. Erika just gives a resigned sigh, planting her elbows on the Monster Manual behind her little wall of books.

“It’s going to attack you anyway, I hope you know.”

“Can’t hurt to try,” Riley replies cheerfully.

“It literally can!” Egill says, and then he has to bite his lip and look away when Riley grins one of those mischievous grins of theirs, one that makes their eyes crinkle up and pulls at one corner of their mouth. Leon, who had just managed to calm himself, starts giggling again, and Egill elbows him.

“Egill, it’s your turn,” Erika says. He consults his character sheet.

“I could see Riley’s dumb bard being stupid, right?”

“Don’t talk about Minto like that!” Riley interjects, crossing their arms. “He’s wonderful and everyone loves him.”

“His wisdom modifier is minus two,” says Mei, who somehow always remembers everyone’s stats. Well, not that that particular tidbit is hard to remember. “I didn’t know you could get minus two.”

“Minto is special and I bet Yawen is jealous.” They raise their eyebrows at Egill. He sighs again.

“Well, I guess Dûrion is going to try and get Minto out of harm’s way.”

Riley beams from across the table, and it somehow makes Egill’s skin tingle.

It’s very likely that everyone in their casual little D&D party is aware that it isn’t an accident, at least on his part, that Minto and Dûrion, Egill’s high elf artificer character, are so often off on their own or just helping each other out in their sessions. It’s embarrassing as fuck, of course, but Egill has long since given up on trying to do anything about it. Soon enough, Leon or Raivis or another one of their friends will do something dumb, and Egill’s crush on Riley will be completely forgotten. Maybe even by Egill himself, although that seems unlikely to him at this point.

Riley might be aware of it as well, or they might not. They’re notoriously difficult to get a read on. Even Angélique, who has known them the longest, seems to have trouble with it. Egill thinks Riley enjoys it that way.

“Right, that’s fine,” Erika is saying, pushing her short hair behind her ears. “Tell me what Dûrion’s going to do, then.”

Egill manages to save Riley—well, Dûrion saves Minto from being eaten—and the rest of the party make quick work of the monster guarding the cave that contains whatever horrors Erika has in mind for them. For such an innocent-looking woman, she sure has a twisted imagination.

“Now that we’re out of combat,” Riley says, once Angélique’s druid has distributed some healing spells, “can I roll to seduce Dûrion?”

“Yes!” Angélique shouts, adding, “That’s in-character. Rovanon’s very keen on love.”

“Aryax hates love, and also Rovanon,” Leon puts in.

“Aryax hates everything, he’s just an excuse for you not to help.”

He finger-guns at her, and she shakes her head, smiling.

“So,” Riley says, “can we get back to Minto seducing Dûrion?”

“Maybe Dûrion isn’t interested in being seduced,” Egill replies, raising his eyebrows and hoping he isn’t blushing.

“Does Dûrion want a long-term relationship?”

“Aryax vomits in disgust,” Leon says.

“No!” Raivis yells. “Daina immediately hides. Last time Aryax vomited, he barfed lightning everywhere and nearly killed her.”

“Not my fault Daina’s human.”

Erika, as per usual when they go off on tangents like this—which is most of the time—looks both pained and amused.

None of them are really cut out for Dungeons & Dragons, Egill thinks, at least not in any serious way. The whole thing started as a joke in his first year of university, with just him, Leon and Erika, because the three of them were procrastinating on assignments and wanted to have something to do. Egill had been the DM, because it was his idea and his brother did tabletop RPGs, so it was assumed he’d know how it worked. He did not.

His brother, Einar, was the one who pointed out how crap he was at it and that Erika would probably enjoy being the DM more. Leon keeps trying to convince Einar to join a session, and Egill spends much of his time trying not to think about his best friend’s weird crush on his brother.

In the four years since then, the three of them have accumulated the rest of the party. Raivis dated Erika for a while, and took over her character, Daina. He stayed after they broke up, having become a good friend to Egill over that time. Mei was Leon’s roommate for a hot minute, and Angélique was her friend. Riley, in turn, was Angélique’s friend, but Leon is the one who convinced them to join after they came to watch one day. Their last party member, Luca, is studying abroad at the moment, so his character has been captured and they’re technically always on a quest to free him, but Egill thinks it seems likely Luca won’t return to be Raivis’s roommate ever again, so their wizard will probably die.

It’s a shame. Luca was the only useful person. Certainly more than fucking Minto.

“Don’t take off your clothes!” Mei is yelling at Riley. Egill blinks dazedly.

To his disappointment, Riley isn’t actually taking off their clothes, just crossing their arms petulantly, only the edge of the intricate tattoo on one of their forearms visible.

“You’re on a mountain,” Erika reminds everyone. “If Minto takes his clothes off, I will need a saving throw to see if he freezes.”

“It’s fine,” Riley says, “he’ll bask in Dûrion’s hotness.”

Dûrion only knows ice spells because Egill thought that would be a cool theme to have, but he doesn’t point that out.

“Aryax vomits lightning,” Leon says, reaching for his dice.

“No!” Mei yells.

“At Minto,” he adds.

“I can’t believe Minto died,” Angélique says drily. “Can Rovanon have his bagpipes?”

“No one can have Minto’s bagpipes because Minto isn’t dead yet,” Erika interrupts before they descend into chaos again. “Leon, is Aryax actually attacking him?”

Leon nods, in response to which Riley throws Egill an imploring look, which is just unfair. He tries to frown back, but Riley just smiles in a surprisingly soft way he’s never seen before, pushing their brown curls out of their face, as if they know Egill will help anyway, and not just because Dûrion has a good alignment.

Leon elbows him, and he snaps back.

“What?”

“Aryax missed,” he says sadly.

“Oh!” He turns to Erika. “Is anything on fire?”

She considers this for a moment.

“Yes. Minto’s bagpipes are on fire.”

“Nice.” Leon grins, and even Riley has to laugh at that. Egill decides Dûrion definitely won’t use a spell to douse those flames, and hopes Riley doesn’t remember anytime soon that Minto has more bagpipes. He exchanges an anxious look with Mei, who obviously does remember.

“Are we ever going into this cave?” Raivis asks.

“Daina is hidden, no one can hear her,” Erika reminds him.

“Guys, where’s Daina?” Angélique says, pretending to be distressed. “She must have gone into the cave! We have to help her! Rovanon charges into the cave.”

“I can’t believe Rovanon died,” Riley says. “He will be remembered. Minto composes a song for him on his… Flute, I guess.”

“Make… Make a performance roll for how good the song is,” Erika says, probably just to annoy everyone by making Riley look at their character sheet and remember they have no flute, because Minto traded it for more bagpipes.

Riley rolls the die, and starts to giggle. Angélique and Raivis peer over, and groan in unison.

“Erika, I’m delighted to tell you… It’s a thirty-three on how good the song is. Does everyone cry?” They lift the die to show off the twenty they got.

“Everyone weeps and your bagpipes are magically restored,” Erika confirms, much to everyone else’s horror. And, while Riley holds both hands up for high-fives that go unanswered, “And I think we’ll have to end it there, because I have to go.”

“Boo,” Mei says, winking. Erika ducks her head, cheeks turning rosy, and Raivis raises his eyebrows, looking between them. That’s pretty interesting.

“Sorry. Everyone, remember where you are.” She makes some notes behind her book partition before starting to dismantle it.

“Well, Rovanon is apparently in heaven,” Angélique says. “Mei, can Yawen come and get him? She can fly.”

“Possibly,” Mei muses. “We’ll see what Erika thinks.”

“I think Rovanon is in a cave and can see in the dark because he’s a half-orc, so he’s probably not dead,” she says, putting her bag on her lap and starting to stuff her books into it.

“Aw, I never get to fly,” Mei says, sadly. Angélique pats her hand. “Thanks.”

“I’ll find a way to make you fly,” Erika tells her, pushing herself backwards. Mei makes a face at the whole table. That sounds ominous.

Everyone puts away their dice and character sheets. Leon sweeps the blueberries he was eating into his bag wholesale, as he usually does. Egill is afraid to find out what the inside of his bag looks like.

Mei pushes the door open for Erika, who smiles gratefully up at her and wheels herself into the front room of her brother’s bakery. They’ve been meeting here for a while now, but he still won’t give them any free pastries. Luca had been getting through to him, but, well…

“Hey, Riley,” Angélique is saying, walking backwards to the door while looking at her phone, “do you want a ride? Me and David are going to the beach, we could drop you off. Or you can come along, if you want.”

“Ah, sure, because my middle name is Third Wheel,” they joke. “I’m good, thanks. Tell Dave he’s an idiot for me.”

“Will do. Bye, everyone!” She flits off, almost tripping over Erika’s wheelchair as she somehow always manages to do. “Sorry!”

Raivis just waves, slinging his backpack over his shoulder and picking up his longboard. He hurries through the bakery, apparently still convinced Erika’s brother hates him for breaking up with her. Riley chuckles next to Egill, hands in the pockets of their maroon pants. They rock back on their heels when Egill looks down at them and smile at him while Leon exits as well, crunching on something he unearthed from his bag on the way.

“Well,” Egill says, absently pushing his tongue against his lip piercing, “guess I should go.”

“Yes. No.” Riley blinks and takes a deep breath. They smooth an errant curl off their forehead. It bounces right back. “Actually, I wanted to ask…”

“Do… You need a ride with me?” Egill asks. “It’s no problem, I’ve got a spare helmet.”

“No. Well, I mean, hell yeah, that sounds amazing,” they reply, hazel eyes lighting up. “But no, that’s not it.”

“Okay.” Egill watches curiously while Riley fidgets with their belt buckle. He doesn’t think he’s ever seen Riley fidget before; they always seem to know what they’re doing, even when what they’re doing is pretending to be unaware what’s going on when they most likely caused it.

“I wanted to know… Well, I know Dûrion isn’t interested in being seduced and all, but I kind of hope you are.” They gesture helplessly as Egill’s breath hitches. “I’ve got a feeling you are, and I’d like to try, eh? I’d like to—I like you, is what I’m trying to say. And I’d like to take you on a date?”

“Okay,” is all Egill can say, dumbstruck. And then, “Really?”

That, thankfully, gets him one of those smiles that pulls at Riley’s eyes and makes them twinkle.

“Yeah, Egill, really. You’re interesting, and I like that.”

He pushes his tongue against his piercing again.

“And also, that’s ridiculously hot and I don’t think you’re aware,” Riley blurts, eyes wide.

Egill stills, biting his lip, and just blinks down at them.

“It’s offensive.”

“Sorry?”

“Minto almost died because of that, you know? It’s distracting as fuck.”

“You’re, hm… You’re better at hiding it than I am,” Egill stutters. Laughing, Riley grasps his forearm, thumb stroking the pale skin as if on instinct.

“You do realize I’ve tried to seduce you and no other party members during every session for the past six months?”

“I—Riley, it doesn’t work like that!”

“Yeah, I get that now.” They shrug apologetically. “I thought it was fairly obvious. Everyone else seemed to know. I thought maybe you weren’t interested, but then it seemed like you were so I thought, you know, take a page out of Minto’s book and try it.”

Looking back, sure, it’s perfectly Riley to go about—about flirting so completely backwards, because just flirting like normal people do seems to be how Riley communicates with almost everyone. They can’t seem to help it. Egill thinks it’s charming. Mostly.

“That’s fair,” he says.

“I guess it works better for me than Minto, eh?”

“Unsurprisingly, yeah.” He wants to say something about Riley being much more attractive than fucking Minto, but doesn’t quite know how without embarrassing himself to death, so he just bites his lip again and smiles. Luckily, Riley seems a little unsure of themself as well, for once. It’s strangely bolstering. Egill leans a little towards them, catching the hazel gaze.

“Woo!” Mei suddenly says, from by the door, and Egill jerks up. “Sorry! I left my hair tie.”

Flushing, Egill just stands there awkwardly, with Riley still holding his arm, while she grabs the accessory and then pauses by the door on her way back out.

“Good for you guys,” she says, then flashes a peace sign and disappears back into the bakery. Riley clears their throat. Egill huffs.

“Well, that saves us the trouble of having to tell everyone,” Riley says, chuckling.

The idea of this being something that’s serious enough to tell their friends about is exciting. Mei is a notorious gossip, so Egill thinks Riley might have a point. He leans back over again, cautiously touching their shoulder, and they grin up at him, hair brushing his hand. It’s as soft as he always imagined it would be, and the curls bounce as they move their head.

By the quirk of Riley’s mouth, they can read the desire to run his hands through their hair on his face, which is probably still red too. Riley’s tan skin is only slightly flushed.

He bites his lip. Watches Riley’s eyes widen again, lips parting. Some eyeliner has smudged on their eyelid, and this is the first time he notices just how many faint freckles there are scattered across the bridge of their nose. It’s exhilarating to be able to look.

“So, you said something about a spare helmet?” Riley asks, a little breathier than usual, their eyes still fixated on his mouth.

“I did.” He takes a step back, then a step forward, back into Riley’s space. A wayward curl brushes against his nose, where the top of their head is, as they look up. “Where do you wanna go?”

“Well… I’m hungry. We could go eat something.”

Egill pulls out his phone to check the time. It’s going on five in the afternoon. He nearly drops his phone when Riley touches his hip, but smiles when they aim a questioning look at him. He isn’t very used to dating, hasn’t done so in a while, but this is good. And, really, he didn’t know if Riley dated at all; he’s never heard anything about it.

Evidently, they do.

“We could go for dinner, then?” He thinks about it. “We should take something out to the boulevard, it’ll be nice.”

Riley nods, grinning.

When they both start towards the door, Egill bites his lip and reaches for their hand, knocking their fingers together. Grinning even more, so much it almost looks painful but is very flattering at the same time, Riley grasps his hand and swings it between the two of them as they leave through the bakery.

Outside, they wave merrily at Erika and Mei, who are chatting on the sidewalk. Mei grins. Erika raises her eyebrows, resting her elbow on her bag and her chin in her hand. Egill blushes again, and Riley squeezes his fingers.

“Have fun,” Erika says, sketching a little wave. Just then, Raivis flies past on his longboard. He slows down and grins an uncharacteristically vibrant grin before speeding off down the winding street. Egill blinks after him.

“Hey, Erika!” Angélique calls from the passenger seat of a Jeep reversing out of the parking lot next to the bakery, poking her head out of the window. “I have—”

She hits her head on the top of the car when she spots him and Riley, and swears loudly, which is rare. Riley snorts, knocking their shoulder into Egill.

“Yeah, me too!” Erika calls back to Angélique, laughing.

“I regret this already,” Egill says, turning his head just enough that Riley’s hair blows into his face again. Riley just grasps his arm with their free hand and leans even more into him, so it isn’t all bad, really.

From the Jeep’s driver’s seat, Riley’s best friend, David, shouts something as he drives by, and they flip him off in response, letting go of Egill for a second. Angélique laughs, and David honks as they drive off.

“Come on,” Egill says, pulling Riley with him to the parking lot, where his motorcycle is. It used to be Einar’s, but he finally painted over the emblems his brother put on it, and it really feels like it’s his now. Riley gets an excited spring in their step as they near.

Of course, Leon is there, because why wouldn’t he be, sitting on his bicycle and looking at his phone. He glances up, thick eyebrows twitching.

“Oh, nice,” he just comments, and looks back down.

“Text Luca while we’re at it,” Riley says, dry as bone. Leon smiles.

“Maybe. Hey, I could text Einar.”

“Fuck off,” Egill tells him. He winks, puts his phone away, and bikes off.

So they finally leave, Riley hanging on to Egill and whooping excitedly at every turn and bump on the way to the boulevard, and the evening is wonderfully sun-soaked and bright, and Riley tastes like cheap wine at the end of it, so all in all… Maybe that dumb bard is good for something, after all.

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carewyncromwell · 4 years

Text

Stealing this from both @lunasilvermorny (who originally made this) and @immagrosscandy --

How would your MC react to the HPHM cast (that has appeared/will appear in a dating quest) having a crush on them?

Take it away, Carewyn!

Barnaby:

If someone else told her:

“(prim and proper) Could you not? Barnaby’s a close friend of mine, and I don’t think he’d appreciate you swapping false rumors behind his back like that.”

If Barnaby told her:

[Cue a flashback to Barnaby quasi-confessing to her during the whole Ismelda/Love Potion incident.

Aaaaaaaand cue the guilt and self-loathing.]

“...Barnaby...”

Merula:

If someone else told her:

[Carewyn stares, stuck between revulsion and utter bewilderment.

Then bursts out laughing.]

“Are you daft?”

If Merula told her:

[Carewyn stares, stuck between revulsion and utter bewilderment.

She does not laugh.]

“Are you serious?”

Penny:

If someone else told her:

“(boredly) And last week it was rumored she was dating Skye Parkin -- is Penny’s love life really that interesting to all of you?”

If Penny told her:

[Oh great, more guilt and self-loathing.]

“...Penny, I’m...sorry, I...”

Rowan:

If someone else told her:

[Insert tired sigh here.]

“You do realize you can love someone without it being a romantic thing, don’t you? Honestly, next you’ll be matchmaking me with Charlie...”

If Rowan told her:

[Swerve! Carewyn’s been completely blind-sided.]

“You -- but -- we -- since when?”

Do I really not know Rowan at all?

[Even more guilt and self-loathing.]

Ben:

If someone else told her:

[Now this? This Carewyn could believe. Ben sort of latched onto Carewyn at the start, and him acting like he wants to “protect her” now, even if it’s stupid, could be explained by him wanting to impress her.

But Carewyn has no interest in this rumor circulating and embarrassing Ben -- so she laughs it off.]

“I hate to disappoint you -- but that’s a load of bunk.”

If Ben told her:

[What’s this? Is Carewyn actually irritated?]

“Well, if you’re acting all ‘invincible’ with the thought that it’ll impress me, then I’m sorry to disappoint you.”

I like dating people who don’t act out just to make a point.

Ismelda:

If someone else told her:

[Facepalm.]

“I don’t know where you heard that, but that’s absolutely ridiculous.”

If Ismelda told her:

[Cue Carewyn looking incredibly confused.]

“...But...you hate me. You literally told me I reminded you of your sister. The sister you hate.”

Tulip:

If someone else told her:

[Here, have a very confused frown.]

“That literally makes no sense at all.”

I mean, come on, the Queen of Pranks fancying me -- a Prefect who she has on more than one occasion called a stick in the mud? Get real!

If Tulip told her:

[Assumes it’s a joke at first.]

“Very funny, Tulip.”

[...Wait, she’s serious? ]

“...Oh. Oh, Tulip, I...I’m sorry, I...I thought you were joking...”

[Oh great, more guilt and self-loathing. She hadn’t wanted to hurt Tulip!]

Andre:

If someone else told her:

[Bursts out laughing.]

“Seriously? Of course I know that, we dated for over a year.”

If Andre told her:

[Oh wow look, more self-loathing.]

“...I know, Andre. I know.”

I wish things were different, but...it just wasn’t working. You needed more from me, and I...I’m just not good enough.

Talbott:

If someone else told her:

Talbott would hate people gossiping about him -- I better squash this.

[Carewyn shuts this down lickety-split.]

“I’m sorry, that’s just not true. You know, you really shouldn’t pass along stuff like that -- even if it were true, it could still hurt somebody, and when it’s not true like this, it can hurt even worse.”

If Talbott told her:

[Anybody care for some guilt and self-loathing?

Carewyn can’t say anything for a long moment. Then, smiling slightly, she says,]

“...Can we fly around a bit, Talbott?”

[She’s never thought of Talbott romantically before, but they’re good enough friends that the last thing she’d ever want to do is hurt him. And really...she does likes spending time with Talbott. They do have quite a bit in common...

Maybe if they fly around a bit, she’ll have some time to think over a proper response.]

Jae:

If someone else told her:

[Carewyn can’t hold back a laugh.]

“Uh...no. No, I don’t think so.”

We’re, like, literal opposites.

If Jae told her:

[Blink. Blink, blink.]

“...But...why?”

Chiara:

If someone else told her:

[...Are you starting rumors behind Chiara’s back? No, really -- are you starting rumors behind Chiara’s back?

Cue a Mama-Bear-level shutdown.]

“What are you doing? No -- no, no -- don’t answer that. I know what you were doing -- and you should be ashamed of yourself. I don’t care how juicy the rumor is: other people’s love lives and who they may or may not like are none of your business. How would you feel if everyone at school was going on about you having a crush on Ismelda Murk, hmm? Wouldn’t like that much, would you? Well, then don’t do it yourself. Five points from [insert NPC’s house here]!”

If Chiara told her:

[Carewyn reacts in visible surprise, her face flushing.]

“...Really?”

((OOC: Almost added Diego too, but...welp, he hasn’t been a dating option yet! I could see Carey blushing quite a bit if Diego confessed too, mostly out of complete surprise, and even if she didn’t return his feelings at that point, she would still give him a chance, kind of like Talbott. I don’t know if Carewyn/Chiara would be my endgame, but I’ve always liked it, and now that Andre’s no longer an option and I headcanoned him and Carewyn breaking up, there is now nothing preventing me from having her and Carewyn date for the upcoming event! Squee! ^.^

Any of you other HPHM players, go ahead and steal this from me if you want! It was so much fun!! *blows kiss to @lunasilvermorny*))

#carewyn cromwell #roleplaying #jacob's sibling #hphm #hogwarts mystery

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gayregis · 4 years

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if you've read season of storms is it any good? i read a sample and was kind of bored but i don't want to spend money on it if it's going to be like,,,,,,,,,lady of the lake

reading this i was like “wait lady of the lake was good though,” then i paused to actually think about it as a cohesive narrative for a bit, and went “actually wait never mind :/...” it was good thematically, and there were a lot of great scenes, but like as a whole book... if you could only read that book on its own... it would be very long and confusing. i just think lotl’s good because i do the uncivilized thing of skipping around to the parts i like and then i don’t read the parts i dislike

but luckily i have already ranted about season of storms before, and i’ll post that rant here now. for context, i actually read season of storms from cover to cover... yeah.

overall, it's a disorganized and aimless plot. it's set inbetween tlw and sod, so there's no quest to find ciri, because geralt hasnt met ciri yet, he's still our free bachelor geralt. which means hes still quite directionless and when it comes to his personal life it's mostly preoccupied with romance. but more importantly it means the plot is incredibly aimless and NOT PERSONAL to geralt, like all the stories in TLW and SOD and all the saga books revolve around events and people super meaningful to him. what happens in the plot is a whole JUMBLE of things that feel like sidequests from the witcher games, not a story from the witcher books. nothing really means anything for geralt's character development, and it suffers from being so long because there's like a lot of different settings and characters and everything just seems completely thrown together, mashed up, and not coordinated.

i will admit that baptism of fire & tower of the swallow followed a style of “random encounters” in which geralt and the company traverse on and just interact with whatever they happen to find, but it felt like they were accruing knowledge (and also. members of the company) as they travelled on. in season of storms, it feels like geralt starts over and the entire book resets itself every time there is a new scene. none of the plotlines fit together, so it is just a super confusing and exhausting reading experience, unlike in bof & tos, where you can follow the action quite easily and it’s very pleasant to read because it’s all one continuous storyline.

in addition, all of these mashed up stories are pointless, because they dont END with the reader learning anything about the universe the characters live in or their relationships with each other. we might learn that sorcerers are power-hungry, but we already knew that. we might learn that people are violent and corrupt, but we already knew that. we might learn that geralt loves yennefer, but we already knew that. in the short stories, you learn so much about the world and geralts relationships (for example: we learn so much about the situations surrounding the elves in edge of the world, so it’s worth reading because otherwise you will not understand anything when the scoia’tael show up in blood of elves and later in the saga). and in the saga, this continues and more worldbuilding/relationship building occurs (geralt and ciri’s relationship grows from a question of price and then becomes crazy right around baptism of fire when they’re super linked by destiny). it really doesnt in season of storms. you don’t learn anything meaningful about the world or the characters like in the other witcher books.

another large flaw is that in the stories and saga, sapkowski was really good at creating likeable, enigmatic characters no matter how few pages he had to create them. they were deep and almost lifelike and also usually told a larger message. the NPCs- sorry, "characters" in season of storms are SUPER flat and uninteresting.

coral is h*rny for geralt and jealous of yennefer, like every sorceress ever to exist, pratt is a dick and corrupt, degerlund is corrupt and evil, mosaik is timid, the werewolf guy is JUST THERE, the auguara isn’t super interesting despite being cool, nimue feels flatter as a character than usual, even dandelion- okay actually jk i liked dandelion he was the sunny part of this book AS ALWAYS ... ofc he felt one-dimensional but he usually does so you know, EVEN GERALT feels a little one-dimensional and not his typical introspective self

one of the worst things sapkowski did was [SPOILERS] make the major villain character of the book gay and feminine... like its mentioned SO many times that "ohhhh this is a man that looks like a woman WOW HOW EVIL!" and he literally does the worst things like rip ppl to shreds and want to kill geralt painfully by torture with syringes, also he uses his sexuality to ?? seduce an older sorcerer to be his favorite so he can keep his job as a sorcerer??

and OK vilgefortz and bonhart arent complex villains. but theyre despicable and it feels a little deeper bc vilgefortz has that backstory and hunger for power, and bonhart is just terrifying and the embodiment of wretched evil, this guy from season of storms is just annoying and anime villainy like “OOHOHOH watch how i kill you now >:)” also theres a lot of crass humor like fart jokes and villains that are described as really super ugly like omg wow never saw that one coming!!! it just feels super bland and basic and almost like the antithesis of The Witcher as short stories and a saga, super out of place with the rest of the series. [END SPOILERS]

in my opinion, the BIGGEST FLAW with season of storms is that since the plot is so all over the place, and since the characters are so flimsy, the entire book feels meaningless. it feels like it would appease games or netflix fans who just want to read about geralt going on some crazy adventures, and it does serve that purpose, but it is NOT a “book belonging to the witcher series.” it has no depth where there should be... i do not feel like sapkowski is trying to tell me something as a reader about human nature, or the nature of parent-child relationships, or society, or violence and war...

it just feels like geralt is doing all of this shit just because sapkowski had some remaining ideas and wanted to get all of them out into the world all in the same book, like sewing a vest out of fabric scraps. it was not refined like the witcher saga, because none of them were really meant to fit together anyways, and because they weren’t meant to fit together, there is a distinct lack of message and substance to it.

TLDR: no cohesive narrative and a confusing plot, no deeper underlying message or arguments about humanity or society or nature being made by the author, cheap new side & background characters, no ciri and no yennefer so geralt is quite directionless and stupid

other remarks that are just my personal preferences and comments:

geralt & dandelion:

geralt mostly works alone in this book... which is... not my favorite. this is why i got bored with tw3 after i read the witcher books, because i can’t stand geralt being alone, the world feels so... lonely! although he meets up with dandelion and has an affair with coral in season of storms, most of the book is him waffling about with side and background characters that i couldn’t care less about because sapkowski put no effort into developing them to be enigmatic or at least lifelike and likable (unlike some really minor characters in the witcher saga that, although they were so minor, were incredibly likable: for example, applegatt and toruviel i quite like).

of course, i also have a preference for when geralt hangs out with dandelion, because it usually creates more of a lighter tone for the scenes and a more humorous nature overall, plus geralt changes his personality to be not in such a bad mood and we get to see him being kind and friendly. so it annoys me that although dandelion has some scenes with geralt, they never really have deep conversations like they do in a little sacrifice, or witty remarks & banter like in the edge of the world... i feel like dandelion was quite in-character for the whole book, which is good, but also, he’s dandelion so he’s pretty easy to get in character. he’s just easy-going, arrogant, preoccupied with earthly delights, cowardly, and friendly to geralt. but it annoyed me that their scenes together were both not very deep, and that they didn’t get as much interaction as i think they deserved. usually in a witcher book or story in which geralt and dandelion have met, they stay by each other’s side for like, the whole book or story, lmao...

that being said, they do have some fun moments in this book and dandelion has some funny lines which i quite enjoy. like. they are eating at an inn, and the innkeeper asks them “how are you finding the pork?” and dandelion replies, “we’re finding it among the kasha. from time to time. not as often as we’d like to.” and somehow i just find that line so fucking funny... i think it’s just because it’s really relatable

sorcery:

coral is SOOOOO one-dimensional, she really is just like the same character as fringilla vigo or some other sorceress that’s jealous of yennefer for getting to bang geralt, and this lack of characterization is super transparent. people laugh about how many affairs geralt has had, but they never discuss how all of them have been super uneasy and unfulfilling.

already said that i hate degerlund as a character and all of the sorcerers being morally wack is predictable if you’ve read like, anything from the saga about the sorcerer/esses. also geralt talking with sorcerers is like, interesting if the sorcerer in question is vilgefortz, but everyone else is just super boring

other:

i didn’t really like ferrant de lettenhove until the very end of the book (which i won’t spoil) but because of this end, i wished that he got more backstory/development

NIMUE I LOVE YOU and it was nice that nimue got some more backstory in this.

i do enjoy the end of the book. not to say “my favorite part is when it ended,” but it’s true, because the ending in kerack is interesting and full of drama, the moments in the inn are alright if a little void of substance, the ending with geralt and dandelion on horseback is beautiful, and the epilogue with nimue is wistful and beautiful as well.

sheer pettiness:

oh my GOD why are the CHAPTERS so SHORT? it’s like, 20 chapters plus a bunch of interludes and an epilogue, and the book is only 357 pages long. it feels like as soon as i was getting into a scene, it switched to another chapter. i mean, idk whether i prefer this, or the haphhazard long as fuck chapters from baptism of fire where i’m not quite sure when a chapter begins or ends because i memorized the scenes and not when a chapter occurs.

i dislike how coral is on the cover of it, even though it’s fitting, because if there was a work about... oh idk... the hansa... then angouleme could have been on the cover... and then i could have had geralt + yennefer + ciri + dandelion + the hansa on the covers... like wow that would be cool...

this book would have functioned much better as a series of short stories... i think sapkowski has talent for the short story medium, but novel-length books are more desirable by publishers, but this is literally just a guess, i don’t have anything to back this up

my recommendation: don’t buy it if you are just looking to read the witcher books as in, get a feel for the book canon world and characters. it’s pretty unnecessary for that. do buy it if you are a completionist like me / the witcher is something you’ve been into for years and you’re about to buy all the books as a set and it would feel weird to not have all eight books on your shelf and it’s only like $5 more to buy the set of 8 as compared to the set of 7. don’t read it and expect perfection, it’s basically like “drabbles” but canon from the author. there are like 2 or 3 nice gerlion moments if you care about that.

#ask #season of storms #dandeliyn

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atopearth · 4 years

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Final Fantasy VII Remake Part 3 - The “Death” of Avalanche (Ch 12-14)

Seeing an extended version of the Avalanche members’ dying is going to be terrible. I think the fact that Wedge calls Cloud “aniki” is so cute, so it’ll be sad that this is the last time we’ll hear it. My heart kinda broke for Biggs tbh. Seeing him entrust the future to Cloud, and for him to think about the Leaf House orphanage kids even during his dying moments was saddening. I remember being so surprised at Ms Folia (the orphanage teacher + Honeybee dancer) saying that the one who taught her everything and inspired her to be who she is was Biggs. I knew he had a big heart and cared for everyone, but it was nice that they added in all these other little things about him. I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle Jessie’s death tbh. It’s going to be heartbreaking!!

Aerith going to save Marlene is something I looked forward to seeing, and I think it showed really well how gentle of a heart Aerith has, and how self sacrificing she is. Especially when she encouraged Wedge to not give up and allow himself to have regrets for not doing more. I like that the Shinra soldier Wedge passionately convinced into opening the gates to leave Sector 7 for everyone to escape was the newbie soldier that was kinda in training and couldn’t be mean to anyone (when you talked to him before this). It’s understandable that he would be the one to go against orders. Nice to see Tseng! He looks pretty good. On the other hand, Rude interfering with Reno so that his gun would miss Tifa was hilarious. I love that they kept the idea that Rude likes Tifa, I guess they’ll be keeping the idea that Tseng likes Aerith too then! Elena liking Tseng is something expected though since it’s a big part of her character imo haha. Btw, I’m glad that Reno recognised how tasteless it was to have to do the pretend act that this whole destroying Sector 7 thing was done by Avalanche. Anyway, Aerith convincing Marlene to come out and leave with her was adorable~

It was hard to see Jessie go again, especially when she talked about how she kinda “deserved” it considering the amount of people she killed with her bombs, which was something that always stuck with me in the dialogue of the original. Despite Jessie’s hopes for the future and everything, she knew what what she was doing involved the deaths of a lot of people, innocent and guilty alike, she always felt terrible about it, but she wasn’t as soft as Tifa to think about giving up on it. She took those burdens with her to achieve what she needed to, so it’s heartbreaking that she had to die thinking that. It was saddening yet cute when Cloud said Jessie owed him a pizza, so she can’t die haha. It’s too bad that it’ll never happen. Sometimes I wonder if the reason they all like pizza is because of how Barret refers to the plates above them as a “pizza”, so they like to eat them up hahahaha, nah just kidding, pizza is good, everyone loves pizza.Seeing Reno and Rude tag team fight was so cool! I loved how Reno still had that skill that puts you into the triangle barrier to kinda immobilise you. Otherwise, Reno is so difficult for me to handle lolll, I suck fighting against him. And Rude hits Tifa when you control her!! Although he kinda just does a light chop to her, not sure if it’s specific to her but it was kinda cute lol because it honestly seemed like he was taking it easy against her compared to other battles when we faced him. Seriously though, I think it’s so annoying how those “ghosts” always interfere at crucial moments, it’s like, it wasn’t in the original game and it’s honestly unneeded here. The truth is that Cloud and them were unable to stop the plate from falling regardless of whether those ghosts were there or not, it’s annoying to make it seem like they could have stopped Rude if they weren’t there, when in reality, it shows (in the original) a much crueller way of looking at things when you try your best but you’re still too late. We don’t need no supernatural phenomenon to make it seem like it’s at fault and that’s why Cloud and them failed! Yes, I rolled my eyes when they appeared because at this point, I’ll admit that I’m sick of them. It’s like how they ruined Aerith and Cloud’s first meeting with them! I only wanted sweetness and curiosity towards a flower girl, not mystery with these supernatural things I don’t care about! Sigh!

Anyway, seeing Tifa and Barret broken over not being able to save their home and its people was saddening. Maybe it’s nostalgia or whatever, but I think it hit me harder in the original though. Btw, it’s kinda funny but understandable that instead of Tseng flying near the explosion to kinda show that they’ve captured Aerith etc, Tseng tells them through the screen haha. Gotta protect the Ancient! Oh, and Sephiroth honestly appears way too much, I honestly don’t remember him being so apparent, I know they’re really just the numbered black robe guys, but I feel like back then it was mostly just Cloud feeling the effects of something, but not being very clear on what it is. Now we’re just stuck with an overbearing Sephiroth zzz, yes there’s such a thing as too much Sephiroth. I guess it’s nice that it kinda explicitly tells you through them that Sephiroth thinks/believes/insists he’s got Ancients’ blood running through him, so he’s the rightful ruler of the planet though. Really though, with the plate falling, you can really understand the helplessness and fear of the people under the plates (through the NPCs talking in the background), it’s like, wow, they can actually fall and destroy everyone?! It kinda shows that regardless of how great Shinra is in giving people “better lives”, Shinra is also essentially in control of their lives. Oh yeah!! And Cait Sith!! Did not expect to see him! It felt weird without his white doll (since I used to think the white doll was him until I realised there was a cat on top lmao), but it was nice to see how *spoilers* Reeve tried to do something about Sector 7 in both forms. Seeing Cait Sith devastated at the sight was pretty saddening. But I have to admit, imagining Reeve controlling it and making it fall to the ground is funny yet interesting loll.

Omg, how old is Tseng?! Aerith is like this little kid and he’s an adult already?! I never realised there was such a big age difference.. Anyway, kid Aerith is adorable. Elmyra’s story is always saddening to hear, but I think the original showed it a bit better, mainly the train station part. I remember in the original, you could really feel the sadness of Elmyra through the contrasted happiness of the people beside her at the train station who were overjoyed at seeing the people they were waiting for come home to them. And it slowly shows how nearly everyone who was waiting there was able to reunite with their loved ones, everyone except her who waited every day there. I feel like she even asked the train station attendant if there were any more trains or people too. Her taking in Aerith healed her and herself, so honestly, I’ve always been happy that they both had each other to lean on for so many years. But yeah, otherwise, seeing Ifalna (HD) and everything was nice. It’s interesting that Aerith needs to be willing to go to them in order to help with their quest in finding the Promised Land, because how exactly do you make her willing?? Hahaha. I mean, she just did it for Marlene so she’s not exactly “willing”. It’s so weird that they didn’t bother adding the line where Barret asks Elmyra to take care of Marlene for him. It’s like, you can’t make him a “caring dad” and not even say something like that before he leaves lol! It’s important!

Okay, I’m glad Wedge is alive, but at the same time, I have mixed feelings towards it haha. It’s nice though, gives Cloud and them more hope I guess. We should all thank cats, they save lives apparently~ On the other hand, Aerith appearing in Cloud’s dream was…very interesting. Like, it was nice, but at the same time weird loll. Especially when she told him that if they seemed like they were attracted to each other romantically, it probably wasn’t real. I honestly didn’t need that, especially when I feel like the Tifa fanservice coupling is everywhere and more apparent than with Aerith imo. I felt like the romance with Tifa was more vague in the beginning for the original. Anyway, Cloud was right, Aerith can’t just one-sidedly say all that and just leave, he should have his say too, especially since these are his feelings! And tbh, although Tifa and Cloud are super comfortable with each other and rely on each other, I feel like a lot of the times, they feel like trustworthy friends more in the remake imo. I think what solidifies (for me) how much Cloud cherishes Aerith was when he said he’d take her home again (lmao) after she showed him the way to Sector 7, enough concern over her safety with Don Corneo that he would cross dress, and his reaction when Aerith shows up with the extravagant red dress. He was so stunned at how beautiful she was! To be fair though, I was pretty stunned too, until I realised I better take screenshots lmao. Overall though, Cloud is constantly saving and taking care of all the girls, it’s kinda crazy. Like, I know he may be Prince Charming but c'mon! Only Tifa gets to be cool whereas the other girls get saved wayyyy too much whether it be from random falls or whatever. I also feel like Elmyra stopping them from going to save Aerith felt more like an unnecessary plot delay to squish in the Wedge part, but oh well lol, time for Shinra building time! Can’t wait to see Red XIII!

Or not, I’m stuck doing side quests lmao. Those pull ups were more annoying than squats zzzz, but they were okay I guess. Didn’t take that long to win the pro. The most annoying thing was that letting the pull up timer go on (when I obviously failed) was faster than the stupid loading screen when I press give up lol. Mireille being the Angel of the Slums was expected I guess, although I was never curious anyway haha. Kyrie is kinda cute but annoying lol. Kinda sad that I don’t actually get to ride on a Chocobo though….like I found all those lost chocobo and yet I don’t actually get to ride them? T_T Wow, I can’t believe the behemoth horn was used for medicine!! What kind of medicine are they making??! It was a hassle to kill that guy! Lmao tonberry is as cute and deadly as it usually is! Kept stabbing me lol! I know I could have probably thrown magic at it, but I thought it was hilarious to see it stab me lmao. The Colosseum battles were pretty easy, I was kinda worried but all good! Whack-a-box was super easy for the hard mode btw! I was like ohh noo when I saw hard mode thinking it’ll take me a while like the pull ups but dang, third time was the charm! Smashed it!🥰 Hmm, pedometer materia was interesting…lol, super easy to get the 5000 steps since I had to look for those annoying chocobos, but yeah I guess it was worth it! AP Up would be useful. I’m glad the side quests didn’t take too long because I really started considering just dropping them lol.

I’m glad they delved more into Leslie’s backstory, but I guess it was expected since he was the only pretty boy out of all the lackeys lmao. I found Leslie really endearing though, mainly because of his looks and how kind he was to keep warning Cloud and Aerith that they shouldn’t go to the audition haha. It’s saddening that his fiancee was chosen by Corneo and now she has disappeared. I kinda liked how his story interlinked with Cloud and Aerith though. Tifa told Leslie that the flower pendant his fiancee gave back to him before she left meant “we’ll meet again” in flower language, and that’s the flower Aerith gave Cloud, so it’s nice to see how Cloud linked that, and sorta renewed his resolve into finding her asap. It’s nice to know that rather than focusing on finding Corneo to exact his revenge, Leslie is now instead looking for the girl. Good that he’s got his priorities straight. She’s much more important than revenge! Hope we get to see him actually find her in the later parts or something~

Overall, not much to say about these few chapters. I think the running up the stairs/pillar part to save Sector 7 + Wedge, Biggs and Jessie were pretty faithfully done, and it was done pretty nicely too. It felt just as annoying with the monsters/soldiers, whilst being just as saddening with seeing the death of the Avalanche members lol. My only gripe with it was the Whispers popping up ruining the whole mood of the event, it really made it seem like Cloud and them could have changed the outcome that ended up happening but was stopped for “reasons” beyond their control, so they shouldn’t feel too bad about it kinda thing, it just changes the whole “feel” of it. Anyway, the changes with Wedge being alive and the “dream” with Aerith are things I have mixed feelings about. Wedge being alive really, as I kinda said before with the pillar, it changes the mood and atmosphere of everything. Like, it’s not terrible, but what solidified a lot of my feelings towards Avalanche and the dropping of the plate in the original was done with the impact of the deaths of our Avalanche members because they’re the main people we’re familiar with. Anyway, gotta love how (aside from Biggs and Jessie) a lot of the people we’ve seen are alive and well, and lol even the item shop etc people have good stock! Kinda miss the days in the original or in other older JRPGs where shops would follow the story and be lacking in supplies or whatever during times of disaster etc. Anyway, that’s just me being picky as usual lol. And yes, I’m starting to see how A LOT of the scenes involve Cloud and the others saving each other, mainly Cloud saving all the girls, and it’s nice but honestly overdone considering the amount of scenes where it happens. This time around, the changes (from the original) are half half to me, not better, but not exactly terrible I guess. Anyway, now that I’m going through this and reading my thoughts again, this was probably the point when I started thinking about whether I liked the remake for what it is or was I really just banking in on the hype and nostalgia of a favourite game? Honestly, it’s mainly the latter (sadly).

#final fantasy vii remake #ffvii remake #ffvii

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bloody-fists-beating-hearts · 5 years

Text

It’s a Fallout76/Bethesda rant

Bethesda just released Fallout 1st, a horseshit pay-to-win subscription system for their absolute cum-bubble of a game, and while it’s getting the flack it deserves there are people already putting on their kneepads so they can gobble down Todd Howards entire turgid cock, and as someone who likes rpg’s way too much this irked me, so have a massive and barely coherent rant i took off the discord because why not.

I want to start off with this: Every good thing about current fallout comes from the fanbase. The stories people tell, the headcanons, the fanfics, the art, everything fans do for it is made with more love, and more thought, than anything Bethesda’s writing and games design team has done in the last 10 years

Now first of all, I haven’t bought or played 76. People are gonna stop me right there and go ”well you haven’t bought it how would you know its bad!!” yeah, I’ve never eaten dog shit either but I can pretty well guess that I ain’t gonna fucking like it.

I knew the second he said "there are no npcs" with actual enthusiasm that this game was gonna be shit. And if you give me 2 seconds to gloat, I never bought the game and I knew this was gonna happen and I was RIGHT so suck my fat hairy nuts all those fanboys who pre-order things mindlessly just because there's a brand name attached to it. If there is anything you take from this its DO NOT PREORDER. BRAND LOYALTY IS FOR BOOMERS AND BOOTLICKERS. FOR FUCKS SAKE BE SMART WITH YOUR MONEY.

Games like this are fucking 80-90 dollars or more in Australia so I actually have to think about whether this momentary distraction is worth almost an entire days paycheck, and I’m still looking for employment which means I actually haven’t bought shit in a while (side note, anyone wants to commission me for 10 dollars I’ll draw damn near anything. God I need to make rent)

Every executive at Bethesda seems to be playing catch-up to EA's monetisation scheme. Beth has abandoned their model of single-player rpg's in favour of a "games as a service" model. Fallout 76 seems to me like its a weird experiment for just how far they can stretch this and still make money. It actually makes me wonder if they are

a) just completely unaware of fanbase response [no idea HOW]

b) are running into financial problems and are doing this out of desperation

c) todd howard is still mad that obsidian made a better fallout than he ever could and he's doing this out of spite

Games as a whole has become much like the movie industry where publishers will throw big buckets of cash around to development teams, and those teams have CEO's and higher ups that throw lavish meet n greets and have nice fancy suits and cars and then treat their development teams like shit, overworking them to the point of exhaustion, because the product has to be on time for release dates that are scheduled to be the most profitable (christmas is a notable one).

And those products are consistently bland, shitty, shallow experiences. Narrative cum-dumpsters that are purposefully made to toe the line as safely as possible, to be open to as wide as an audience as possible so they can make the most money, and Bethesda is a huge offender. Skyrim was fun, sure, but it was watered down to fuck, it had shitty dialogue, it had bland one-note characters, it had a simplified skill system. It was impossible to lose. Seriously, try and fail a fucking quest in skyrim, other than one or two, it's a hand-holder of an rpg, but it has a huge community of fans that put in monumental effort, for free, because they like the Elder Scrolls, and they like the world bethesda made.

Then Bethesda goes "hey, that watered down thing we made got huge! lets release it about 12 more fucking times, with some of the SAME bugs, with the SAME content, with the SAME limitations and Yes, we absolutely expect you to pay for it, again. Then they release the remastered edition which, to their credit, is free to anyone who already bought the legendary edition (on PC), and does actually have updated 64bit capability and some graphical enhancements (that aren't anywhere near what some goober in his basement cooked up in his spare time, but whatever). Then, seeing that Skyrim was so popular, with kids especially, and made money, they turn their sights to fallout 4, a game that was so anticipated that someone made a fake countdown and caused a small meltdown on tumblr/social media when it was revealed to be fake (i was part of that fiasco, i remember the hype, i was there goddamnit)

So Fallout, a franchise that literally has its theme as its FUCKING TAGLINE, an ADULT game that is equal parts crude, gory and humorous. A game that satirises the cold war era of american my-country-tis-of-thee blind loyalty and openly mocks the way war was idealised, and shows that not even the literal end of the world could either stop humanity's lust for blood or its desire for conquest. Games that showed you the growth of the world - from shady sands to the NCR, from the vault dweller to arroyo, shit actually happened in the games, the world didn't just stop turning when the bombs dropped. A game where you you become a porn star for fucks sake, and it's funny.

So Bethesda sees that, makes something like it (fallout 3) which is good, but a little rough around the edges when you look at it too hard. But the way they suck you into the vault, the way they build a relationship with your dad and your way of life is immersive as fuck, so when you leave the place you actually feel like you're leaving something important, not just finishing the tutorial

then they outsource a Fallout game to obsidian, because hey, we saved your franchise by buying it off you, but if you can make an entire game in one year and get a metacritic score of 85 we'll even throw in a bonus. And fuck me sideways and in the ear, if the obsidian devs didn't work themselves harder than a 4-armed hooker. And they made a game that on release was a clusterfuck of bugs, because they were given an unrealistic time limit and missed the metacritic score by ONE POINT so bethesda goes "nhey heh sucks to suck" and fucks them off the franchise forever. EXCEPT (and I admit I'm biased here) the game is good. The game is actually really good when you remove those bugs, and people start forming attachments to it, and mentioning how bad fallout 3's writing is by extension.

So Todd and Co. in his infinite wisdom, decide that the only thing a fallout rpg needs is 50s aesthetic and fuck all else, and he releases a game so watered down it can't even be called an rpg. And its not. There are no skills. There are barely any dialogue checks. Instead of dialogue, Nate/Nora is a flat, samrish individual that is either "yes sir right away sir may i have another", "yes but i'm gonna make an unfunny quip about it" "this option pretends to say no but its gonna give you the quest marker anyway".

The game drops any pretence of difficulty by giving you a deathclaw, a minigun and some power armour in the first 10 minutes, allowing you to effectively reach late-game power levels with some minor scavenging for ammo or cores. Then the game ropes you into some inter-faction war that realistically you wouldn't give a shit about, because some spud in a cowboy hat fucking deputizes you into a military general because you shot like 4 raiders from a rooftop (with a minigun. in power armour. making you nigh-invulnerable to bullets). You're sad about your son about 3 times the whole game and then you're on your merry way to mowing down humans left right and center without a care in the world. God fallout 4's writing is so stupid it gives me an aneurysm.

Remember the part about resources wars and america only having the veneer of a strong country while riots, inflation, and resource shortages tore it apart from within? Bethesda doesn't, have an eerily stepford pastel coloured glimpse at a world that was totally fine, nothing wrong here, shame it got nuked oh well moving on

Your spouse? yeah you love them, they're said 2 whole sentences to you then they died, be sad because you totally loved them and it is totally sad that they are dead. Your weird play-dough son shaun, you love him so much, you even tickled him on the chin once, okay he's gone off you go to chase him - woah now, don't chase him too hard we have all these side quests for you to do! What would be the narrative reasoning for a supposedly distraught parent to fuck around boston instead of finding their goddamn child? fuck knows! just go pick up some goddamn wood and get to base building sonny-jim!

Companions? yeah, they're fun, we gave them a romance questline and it's thus: if you pick enough locks and pass a minor charisma check maccready will be ready and willing to tell you about his sick child, and then he'll ride you like a stallion. Talk to him like, 4 times, and he will be your bosom buddy for life in about 3-5 days if you just pick locks like a fucking madman, because character growth is hard and counting beans is easy.

Also your son is a part of the faction we were talking about! something about synths, remember that one questline from rivet city that barely anyone actually remembers and was an interesting time waster at best? Well get ready to do that same quest but about! 15! more! times! because we could not think of anything else to write about synthetically produced humans that assume peoples identities other than having them as a hamfisted metaphor for slavery. Why do they take over people's identies? Well because the institute needs them to aasdkfjdh kshshshsh t9oe of course.

Speaking of hamfisted metaphors, here's the underground railroad, named after the underground railroad that actually mattered, except this time its the same thing but synths. They are so top secret that the only way to find them is to follow the only bright red line in a street that is exclusively green-brown otherwise, and then enter their super secret password, which is "password"

They are then, like every other faction, absolutely willing to trust you, at face value, no questions asked, because have to actually do something or require a skill check might make this hard for people under the age of 12 to play. Then you go do whatever fuckin shit you do, I stopped playing at this point, and then you find out your son is actually 60, you guys have a tearful, 10 sentence reunion, then he diesthe whole reason you were out here in the first place dies, and you react appropriately, which is to say you say his name really sadly, and then go back to mowing down raiders with reckless abandon

And then 76 gets released, bethesda drops all pretense of fallout still being an rpg. You want a story? Fuck you, pay up. Its retro future and thats all that makes falloutSatirizing war mongering? You can nuke things in this game and its totally fine, its actually the goal, because fallout has nukes in it right? Pay us 10 dollars and you get army olive drab spraypaint because hurrgh war is fun and great, wasnt that the tagline from the first game?The more i rant the more angry i am because people put their heart and soul into writing this. The lore and dialogue is actual work that someone researched and loved and felt proud of and now it's becoming a hilariously meta parody of itself.

Honestly FUCK bethesda and and fuck todd howard for his pisspoor cash grab. Not even worth calling it a video game anymore

#good lord what is happening in there #meta #listen i fucking love fallout #but this aint fuckin it chief #fallout #fallout 4 #fallout 76 #fallout 3 #fallout new vegas

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