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bluerosesburnblue · 4 years

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It’s just now occurring to me that Seren/Talbott makes significantly more sense if you know how I’ve re-written several sidequests to better fit Seren’s personality, which I keep forgetting is not how canon went because half of these quests came out way too long ago and I’m far too attached to my rewrites

The only things that Talbott knows about Seren in Year 1 are that when she was announced for their sorting ceremony a LOT of people started whispering (about Jacob, the Dwyn Family getting kicked off of the Sacred Purebloods list, etc.) and that she sits in front of him during Transfigurations. Once he hears about what Jacob did, his curiosity is settled and he doesn’t think about her at all

I’m putting the Hagrid’s Birthday timed quest to Year 2, after you help Hagrid save Fang. That would make sense of the fact that Fang has a name and Merula’s dialogue about Dumbledore giving MC 100 House Points. And Hagrid’s birthday is December 6, so… that’s when the quest happens! December 6, 1985. (Probably starts a few days earlier, like the 3rd or 4th to account for party planning time)

This is relevant because of the moment where MC is keeping watch of Fang while Merula and Ismelda are teasing Talbott in the background by levitating his clothes and flinging him around. In the canon version of that quest, a Niffler (possibly Sickleworth since the quest came out after he was introduced?) chases them off. But, since I’m putting it in Year 2 before Rakepick is at Hogwarts there’s no reason for that Niffler (assuming it is Sickleworth) to be there

In my rewritten version it’s Seren who goes over and chases them off, because she’s not oblivious and even in Year 2, when she’s still super shy, she’s not just gonna let Merula pull something like this. It’s one of those rare moments in the early years where you can catch a glimpse of who Seren’s going to become, where she gets very assertive and fearless. It’s only because she’s defending someone else at this time, it’ll start to become her default state in later years

Of course, she’s still extremely shy and awkward and so is Talbott, so when she asks him if he’s okay he just... freezes and doesn’t say anything. And Seren doesn’t know what to do so after, like, 30 seconds of silence and just staring at each other she just kinda nervously screeches “OKAY, GREAT,” and jogs off with Fang

This is the moment that Talbott starts taking real notice of Seren. He hasn’t had anyone stick up for him like that. He remembers her sorting, now he’s trying to put together a profile of her. Figure out what she’s all about. He’s so curious, she seems so similar to him sometimes, but then she gets these bursts of confidence. Part of him wants to drop it, he figures it doesn’t matter. But then Penny (who is both Seren’s friend and her roommate) starts tutoring him in Potions and she’s telling him all these stories and he’s just getting even more invested in figuring out “what’s the deal with Seren Dwyn?”

Seren doesn’t remember the incident at all. It wasn’t the first time she’d ever chased Merula off from bullying someone, and her mind was preoccupied with party planning so she just never thought about it again. She won’t remember it even happened unless Talbott brings it up, and her response is just going to be “Wait. That was you? WAIT-”

After that moment in Year 2, they don’t interact again until Year 5. Talbott has been keeping an eye on her out of sheer curiosity for years and Seren hasn’t thought about him at all

So, that brings us to the Animagus quest, which I changed a lot. Not that there was necessarily anything wrong with it, but it was the first Timed Sidequest and was teased for long enough that I’d... kind of already plotted out how I wanted most of it to go by the time it did. Also, a good chunk of it didn’t fit with Seren’s character at all

So, first of all, third year? For one of the most difficult pieces of Transfiguration magic? Uagadou school teaches it to 14-year-olds, so it’s possible, but they’re teaching it professionally and MC is flailing about with just Talbott and Penny figuring it out in the canon quest, so I’m gonna give that year a no. Also, it makes more sense for this to occur after the second Rita quest, otherwise why would Dumbledore have to explain Animagi and the registry if MC’s already an Animagus? Personally, I’m placing the start of it in late November of fifth year (1988 – maybe January 1989)

I’m also not a fan of the fact that we’re doing this just because Penny wants to brew a tough potion. Personally, I don’t see Seren and Penny as that close. They’re friends, but I generally play it more like Penny’s more invested in their friendship than Seren is. Not to mention it completely kills any sense of agency MC has, and I’m really not a fan of all of their friends trying to force a potentially dangerous, potentially illegal life choice on them for reasons such as “I want to brew a tough potion!” and “It would be cool!” If Penny or Seren messed up even a little she could end up as a half-human-half-animal amalgamation permanently! Think of Hermione’s Polyjuice Potion mishap from Chamber of Secrets but for the rest of your life. Seren would make a life-changing, potentially dangerous decision like this for Jacob’s sake only. So the rewritten motivation is looking for any edge on the search because she’s getting frustrated that it’s been five+ years since he’s disappeared and she still can’t find him, but she has found notes suggesting that he was an unregistered Animagus (such as the potion recipe being in his room)

She’s partially trying to figure out what Jacob’s Animagus form is. If it’s informed by your personality and everyone tells her she’s “just like her brother”… then maybe her form would be close enough that she could figure out what his is (or, in a lucky break, exactly the same as his)

She gets the idea after the second Rita quest, and spends the end of Year 4/beginning of Year 5 studying up on the Animagus process and looking for any opportunity to make it work

And, because Year 5 is the year she’s stuck in detention and thus, under intense scrutiny from the faculty, it opens up opportunities to sneak out for the Vault search if she needs to so she sees little downside in trying

Seren would not be open about doing this. So cut out pretty much any friends being told about it or getting directly involved. This is a Secret Seren Project, which is pretty typical of her, actually

She’s also not gonna have Penny just brew the whole dang potion. In fact, she’s not gonna involve Penny at all. (Seren’s capable of doing things on her own, game. She doesn’t need Penny to stand next to her and tell her what to do every time she tries to brew a potion). Because she has no intention of registering (it would defeat the point of using it to sneak around), she doesn’t want anyone involved because then they become accomplices. Also, Seren just likes doing things for herself. I think she’s a little offended every time Penny refuses to let her brew potions for the Vaults

Also, no McGonagall involvement! She’s not planning on registering. Why would you tell a teacher you’re gonna commit a crime?

The only time Professor McGonagall gets involved is Seren asking theoretical questions about the Animagus process under the guise of both OWL studying and because Seren’s just known to ask questions about theoretical magic (“Do potential Animagi keep the leaf in their mouth to absorb saliva from all parts of a biological lunar cycle, or is it more a demonstration of perseverance to focus the soul?”)

So the actual meat of the quest starts pretty much the same. Tulip and Barnaby bring up Talbott at lunch one day and Tulip mentions that he seems to know a lot about Animagi. Seren shows mild interest, but not much beyond that (“What? Seems like a lot of work for not much help, to be honest.”) Secretly, she’s ecstatic because she’s finally got a chance at making an Animagus transformation work beyond what she’s read about it (the potion she could do on her own, but he might be able to show her the spell and probably won’t turn her in to the wizard cops)

She asks Talbott about it at dinner when all of her friends are gone and she’s pretty sure nobody’s around to hear it. Talbott still overheard them, and still references it, but it’s more of an “I heard what you were discussing at lunch” thing. She asks him what he knows, they do their little back-and-forth. Then he brings up that she’s got a reputation for helping people with occasionally sketchy things with no questions asked (*cough*CHARLIE AND THE DRAGON EGG*cough*) and she’s pretty forthcoming about it (“Just keep in mind that I’m both a Prefect and in eternal detention, so request wisely.”)

Secretly, Talbott is very excited. Seren contacted him first and finally gave him an excuse to follow her around and finally get those answers about what her deal is that he’s been craving for years. He’s not even thinking about her as a possible friend or anything, he just wants to figure out what makes her just... act for the sake of others, completely without thinking about damage to herself, and with such wild conviction that every year she seems to outdo herself in wild success with tasks that should be way above the average student’s skill. Part of it reminds him of his parents, but he’s also just found her so interesting from afar (made even worse when Seren goes through her drastic change in presentation at the start of Year 4 and starts acting like she did when she chased Merula off all the time). She’s like the world’s most intricate puzzle

In this rewrite, Talbott is still looking for potion ingredients for Penny, but they’re not for an Animagus potion. They’re for the Draught of Peace that she’s making to help out Madam Pomfrey because she’s being overwhelmed with kids coming in overly stressed about OWLs and NEWTs, and Penny knows what it feels like to be so stressed that you feel you need the potion (but she also respected Seren’s advice to not take it to deal with the Beatrice situation, at least not without Madam Pomfrey’s supervision). It ends up being a “you scratch my back, I scratch yours” between Talbott and Seren. Help me break into Filch’s office to get confiscated potions supplies because Professor Snape won’t let Penny borrow enough to make all of the Draught of Peace that she wants to, and I’ll teach you what I know about being an Animagus. Talbott has them pick up the materials for the Animagus potion while they’re collecting stuff for Penny. He’s tempted to ask Seren about herself, but just ends up staying silent and watching how she handles getting the ingredients

Seren is way less pushy about being Talbott’s friend than MC is in the quest. She still teases him about his use of “we” but it’s more of a partners-in-crime jab. Like, it’s Seren. She can relate to everyone thinking you’re a weirdo. She can relate to wanting to go solo and avoid people. She’s not even sure how she has friends, they just sort of happened. So when Talbott says “I fly solo,” Seren doesn’t tell him “everyone needs friends,” she says “Understood. But I’m here to help if you ever need some.”

They deliver Penny’s stuff and she’s honestly surprised they’re hanging out. Talbott insists that Seren’s only there because he needed to get into Filch’s office, Penny buys it because this really isn’t the first time Seren’s helped someone without question. Heck, this isn’t the first time Seren’s done weird things to get potion ingredients for her. So Talbott gets to teaching Seren about the Animagus transformation (and supervises her. They’re not friends! But he doesn’t want her to get seriously injured doing this. This is the girl that stuck up for him years ago)

Because it’s Seren, she’s got the entire Animagus process planned down to the second. She’s scheduled her leaf-in-mouth thing to overlap with Christmas break, which she plans to spend in Hogwarts and won’t need to talk to anyone during (Wed. Nov 23 – Fri. Dec 23 1988, with Dec 23 – Sat. Jan 21 1989 as a backup date if she swallows the leaf. She’s praying for luck with the full moons). She’s got an old-fashioned windup alarm and an almanac to get the times for dawn and dusk right (and Christmas break means she’ll have the dorm room to herself, so she won’t wake up her roommates and give away what she’s doing). She’s even got some gum to secure the leaf to the roof of her mouth/under her tongue

Her plans get derailed HARD when Bill and Charlie decide to stay at Hogwarts for Christmas to keep her company because she stayed during fourth year to avoid going home to parents who were going to ignore her or yell at her, and who hadn’t had it in them to celebrate Christmas for years, when at least she gets decorations at Hogwarts (she told Charlie this, so naturally Bill knows). She’s forced to bring them in to what she’s doing (“But you can’t tell anyone! You’re accomplices to a crime now!”)

She actually really appreciates it. She tears up a little. But seriously, boys, this was not the best time to do that

They can’t help her keep track of doing the spell at dawn, but they can totally run shouting at her when dusk’s approaching. She ends up keeping the leaf in her mouth on the first try

Talbott also stayed over for Christmas because he doesn’t really have anywhere else to go

Heck, I could see Seren inviting him to sit with them for Christmas breakfast and the four of them just sharing a nice, happy moment for once. Seren gives out gifts. Charlie is DELIGHTED at the dragon sculpture that she enchanted to move around (and she’s delighted that it actually worked. She jumps up and cheers when it bursts out of the box like she planned). She even gives Talbott some cookies she baked (“Consider them a thank-you for all of your help with that project.”)

Also, Seren starts singing Christmas songs at breakfast and Professor Flitwick overhears. He IMMEDIATELY starts trying to get her to come back to the Frog Choir after she joined briefly in Year 4 and then quit at the end of the year. But, oh man, professor, she quit for a reason and now she’s a Prefect, too, and there’s just no TIME…

Gobstones with Talbott in the courtyard still happens, but this time it’s over winter break and there’s no one out there to hear him confess his backstory to her, and no one around to see him transform into an eagle and fly off. It’s a huge show of trust to Seren now, and not one of the stupidest things I’ve ever seen bird boy do

Seren hides the Animagus potion at the top of one of the abandoned towers that she walks near during her Prefect patrols (probably the Lookout Tower due to the open area) and uses her patrol schedule to go hide it. Do Prefects even need to patrol during winter break? I mean, probably. There’s still kids there and likely a shortage of Prefects

Choses a thundersnow storm at some point during the break to complete the ritual. It is freezing, and very dramatic. Bill and Charlie are there just in case something goes horribly wrong

Seren transforms into a raven and it’s the happiest she’s been in a long freaking time. She perches on Bill’s arm, she perches on Charlie’s shoulder. She changes back and she’s laughing and crying and just so happy that it all worked so well and it’s like, a tangible thing. It’s physical proof that she’s getting skilled enough to get Jacob back. And it’s the best Christmas present she’s ever given herself

The three of them get caught by Professor McGonagall leaving the tower, but do a bit where they pretend that Seren heard something up there during a patrol and called them over to help her investigate it just in case, but it was just the wind knocking the loose door around. Bill does an excellent performance miming the door swinging back and forth while Charlie nods enthusiastically. It’s very convincing, I assure you. McGonagall does let them go, assuming they were just getting up to some Christmas fun

At some point a particular golden eagle hanging out in the Owlery gets his day rudely interrupted by a very loud and excitable raven. He can hear Seren giggle out a “thank you” when she leaves. He’d never admit it, but he found it charming. And then immediately tried to convince himself that he did not think that about her, because it’s dangerous to get attached (but it’s already begun to be too late for that)

(Side note, but Rowan eventually finds out by accident late Year 5. She stumbles into Seren transformed in their dorm, freaks out that there’s a bird in there, and Seren has to transform back and tell her everything to calm her down. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier!?” “I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO BE AN ACCOMPLICE!”)

After everything that happens in the quest, Talbott’s started developing a friend-crush on Seren. She’s quiet and respects his space, she’s pretty damn smart (he’s particularly impressed at how much she knew about the Animagus process without him telling her), and there’s something about how dedicated she is to whatever she decides to do that interests him

Seren kind of thought that at the end of the quest, she and Talbott already were friends. And she was really happy to have a friend with the same sense of humor as her, who she could have some really interesting discussions with. But...

After worrying that he’s starting to like her too much, Talbott kinda ignores Seren for a couple of months, which makes her upset but she doesn’t know how to bring it up with him. Then Flying Solo happens around the beginning of April. It’s 80% the same, minus MC being pushy about being Talbott’s friend. Other minor changes are:

When learning Obliviate from Flitwick, Seren insists that both of them do the spell as it’s only fair, and she catches on easily since she’s started Legilimency training by then which gives her an edge with mind-based spells

Instead of telling Talbott some big secret, Seren goes on a five minute rant about how much she hates potatoes (”You’ll never forget how much I hate them when I’m done!”). Talbott tells her that he’s wanted to talk to her since their second year when she saved him from Merula but he didn’t know how. This elicits the above “Wait, that was you?” response before he Obliviates her

Seren ends up being really shaky and mumbling a bit after Talbott Obliviates her, and he’s terrified that he messed something up before she gets herself coherent enough to say that she felt this exact sensation earlier in the year (Pettigrew Obliviating MC). This relates to my headcanon that as a Legilimens, Seren’s more sensitive to mental spells like Obliviate. Flitwick recalls the incident and assures Talbott that Seren will be fine, Seren thanks Talbott for finally proving to her that she was Obliviated that night

Talbott and Seren agree to tell each other what they Obliviated. Seren tells him about the potato rant at the fountain that night when they’re waiting for Merula to show up, and Merula shows up just before Talbott can tell Seren about when she helped him in Year 2. He never does tell her, Seren forgets that he was supposed to entirely (though I think he will when they’re adults)

The thing about Year 5 Seren is that she’s... uh... constantly about to snap at any given moment, so the idea of Merula finding out about not just her illegal Animagus status, but Talbott’s (which, funny enough, is even better blackmail material because Seren prioritizes others over herself) sets her off. Bad. When it comes time to Obliviate Merula, Seren just tells Talbott to follow her lead, he already did his part getting Merula there

Seren successfully Obliviates Merula and then, less than a second after, Depulsos her into the wall. Talbott is just... stunned and confused as Seren walks up to Merula ranting about how she can’t do anything without Merula following her, makes a show of reluctantly apologizing “but you really startled the shit out of me!” and drags her up by her sleeve

The goal was to overwhelm Merula so that she wouldn’t even have time to process what was happening or that she could have been Obliviated. It works. A very disoriented Merula asks what happened and Seren pointedly pulls a notebook from her bag and slams it into Talbott’s chest “I was trying to help Talbott catch up on our Tranfigurations work when you came up behind me shouting! If you need Rakepick so bad, she’s not here. Can’t even do something as simple as this without you getting involved, can I!?”

Merula leaves after questioning what Seren even has to do with Talbott anyway, which lets both of them know that the Obliviation worked. Talbott’s kind of confused about his feelings because that whole display was both very smart, but very aggressive and a little intimidating. When he asks her about why she even helped him at all she tells him that she “wasn’t about to let Merula put you in danger, especially since it was my fault anyway.” It really clicks for him in that moment that Seren will genuinely go to any length she needs to to protect others, and that what’s been driving her though the Vaults is her loyalty to Jacob, that unstoppable sense of determination, and this overwhelming feeling of responsibility for everyone’s safety. He’d always though she was clever enough to be a Ravenclaw, but now he sees that the core of her is Hufflepuff ideals taken to the extreme. There’s a new sense of respect there. And then the “oh no I’m getting attached” fears kick in again

He tries to give Seren her notebook back, she insists he keep it. It’s actually just a copy of her notes that she made using Geminio that she was planning on giving him anyway to help with the classes he missed. Talbott still insists that they’re not friends. Seren doesn’t fight it. After all, she just almost exposed his secret. Even if she set it right, she knew that the breach of trust alone was probably going to be the end of things. Besides, she’s been pushing away everyone all year. What’s... one more? Especially if he’s going to push himself away

She wasn’t planning to pursue it anymore until talking with Penny over lunch and realizing that even if she kept Talbott’s secret from getting out, something’s still bothering him. And dammit, even if he doesn’t want to be her friend no one else seems to care that something’s up with him and no one deserves to be just left to struggle alone the same way that she was when Jacob went missing. So she talks to McGonagall, finds out about the necklace, firmly informs Talbott that she’s going to find it, no, she’s not leaving, just tell me where you were you don’t even have to come with me, but I am finding that necklace

The necklace search goes the same as it does in canon

During their talk at night after finding the necklace, Talbott asks Seren why she was so determined to find his necklace out of nowhere. She pulls her locket that she keeps under her clothes off and holds it in her hands for a few moments before responding “Because if I couldn’t bear the thought of losing mine, I can’t imagine what you must’ve felt.” She opens it up and hold it out for Talbott to take

He’s the first person at Hogwarts to see the enchanted picture inside that locket. Two kids, one as young as three years old, posing in front of an ivy-covered wall. The little girl is holding a plush baby seal in front of the bottom half of her face. Her brother tries to get her to smile and accidentally knocks the plush out of her hands. She looks like she’s about to cry before he scrambles to pick the plush up and starts tickling her face with it, saying something that can’t be heard. The little girl starts giggling and her brother hugs her before indicating the camera for her to smile at

“That’s him.” It’s not a question; Talbott can tell by their resemblance exactly who the boy in the photo is. Seren moves to stand next to him to look at the photo, too. “Yeah. That’s the boy who started it all. Jacob.”

After four years, Talbott finally gets what the deal with Seren Dwyn is. They talk a bit, he becomes one of the few people to learn that her father’s a Squib, her mother’s a Muggleborn, and her grandmother’s a Pureblood supremacist that hates all of them. She figures it’s only fair to share since he told her all about his parents. Seren admits that she’s jealous; she would’ve rather had parents that she believed loved her for a time, even if they were gone, than parents that she knew would never want her and that could easily come back to remind her even if she did leave. It’s a conversation that illuminates all of their similarities and differences. The mutual respect they have for how strong the other must have been to deal with the suffering, the appreciation for each others’ wit, the realization at how naturally they work together...

Talbott can’t deny that he thinks of her as his friend anymore. But to his surprise, she tells him no.

“Talbott, I’m going to strongly advise against that.”

“What? You can’t go to all this trouble and tell me we’re not friends now.”

“I just- I’m not- I can’t really stop you, but I get involved in dangerous situations every year and I don’t want you to feel you have to- to care about...”

“It’s a little late for that.”

“...I know.”

He thinks she’s cute when she’s flustered. Oh wait no oh no is this a crush???

After this it’s a little more flimsy. Not sure what exactly I want to do with them for Year 6 because I’m not entirely sure how much of Year 6 I’m going to want to rewrite. I know that I definitely want Talbott to find Seren, who still traumatized about the Portrait Vault, sitting on the ground when waiting for the Hogwarts Express. She clearly hasn’t slept and is only partially responsive. Even though she’s supposed to go in for a meeting with the other Prefects on the ride over, she ends up falling asleep in a quiet cabin that she got with Talbott. He doesn’t wake her up and hides her from any Prefects that come looking for her (which ends up just being Charlie and the other Hufflepuff Prefect in their year)

Full disclosure that I haven’t finished the Festival sidequest yet, but I’m considering keeping it sans Talbott revealing himself as Seren’s secret admirer. Not wholly sure where to slot that in, though it would probably be just after Flying Solo but before the Portrait Vault putting it... late April/early May of 1989 or so?

#harry potter series #harry potter hogwarts mystery #hogwarts mystery #hphm #jacob's sibling #seren dwyn #talbott winger #behold: talbott/seren the novel #the slowest and possibly most obnoxious slow burn ever #i have a document full of sidequest rewrite notes that i keep forgetting about #though it's mostly regarding the animagus quest and chiara's quests #quidditch could be its own document because seren doesn't join the team but i still want her to befriend at least murphy and rath #probably orion too but i can't see her getting along with skye at all #anyway for blacklisting purposes i'm gonna tag seren/talbott as #dwynger

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jeanjauthor · 4 years

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No Fandom Flame Wars, But...

...I am prefacing this with the statement that I am NOT going to participate in any arguments over ANY of this. You have a right to your opinion, and I have a right to my own. Respect that. There is NO need for a fandom flame war of any sort (and y’all will be ignored if you try to ignite one with me). There is room for all sorts of viewpoints.

With that said...

Time for one of those Controversial Opinions™* that we keep seeing on Tumblr and Twitter, etc, ad nauseam...and here is my own (potentially very but who cares) Controversial Opinion:

I like the way The Witcher series has been plotted and filmed.

You don’t have to read any further (and I’m implementing a cut to avoid #spoilers for those who haven’t seen it yet), but that’s my take on it, and the TL;DR version of why is because The Show Is Making Me Think About All The Things In It.

This is a rare thing these days, because so much is spoon-fed to us in other shows...but I like it. And for me...it works.

The rest is behind a cut. Be warned, if you click the Keep Reading, you’ll be entering the *spoiler*-filled mists on those archaic medieval maps where cartographers usually put warnings like “Here Be Dragons” and such...

And yes, that IS a deliberate pun. *spoiler spoiler spoiler!* It was also a good episode, and yes, I want that tent. I just don’t want to have to transport it physically, yeesh...trust me, I KNOW how much tent that is to try to transport, the tent on the inside. (The one on the outside still requires a horse at the very least, but only one horse.). I’ve been playing around in the SCA, medieval society, for decades!

Anyway...on to why I like the series:

At first, I was hella confused. I literally had to rewind and repeat several time the scene where Renfri talks of Calanthe just having won her battle...when earlier, I’d seen Ciri telling Calanthe that “when you were my age”... (Which, on a side note, is what I thought was the age of 14 years old. Dunno why I stuck on that number, but apparently in the chronology she’s actually 11yo, I guess, when Ciri’s storyline takes place? Since Geralt left 12 years before, when she was still a nausea-stirring little zygote or whatever...but I digress.)

So the first episode confused me. But holy hellz ballz, the fight scene was freaking awesome! That was like...some grandmaster fight choreographer’s fightporn wetdream! Every move Geralt made in the fight against Renfri’s men was believable. Fast, realistic, hella good choreography! ...Gross, gory, and at a few points I could see hints of the CGI used, but I was actually rather grateful to see some of the CGI, because that kept me from flinching too much...though certain scenes later on definitely made me Look Away.

[Btw, for anyone watching, #spoiler for #implied #suicide #attempts. Also, magical #cannibalism, yuck.]

Anyway, that first episode was fascinatingly good in its fight choreography, Geralt was pretty to watch, and I found myself interested in what was going on.

I’ll also admit I was confused enough to go looking for spoilers, and found some comment somewhere explaining that the different scenes were being told non-sequentially. That each different main character was in a different time period. The post I read reassured the readers that, if we paid attention, we could figure out which stories were being told in which era, the more we went along.

THAT made sense to me...and I decided I’d give it a try...but to be honest, I wasn’t entirely wasn’t sure if they could pull it off.

I do think that is what has put a lot of people off, the way the story is initially being told, by the way. Some people have compared it to a (grimdark) version of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys...but I really don’t think that’s a decent comparison. Not because H:TLJ is better or worse in any way, but because it and X:WP were their own things, without consistent story-threads woven throughout each and every episode as a single tapestry.

...That’s actually a pretty good comparison. In fact, it’s so good, let’s use this as a metaphor for the difference between the two.

This is Hercules: The Legendary Journeys as tapestry art:

Here are several different tapestries. Each one is full of plantlife and people and animals. Sometimes the animals are mythical, like unicorns. Sometimes there are hunting dogs and horses. Often times there are flowers and fruits. A number of the tapestries have similar objects repeated over and over from one to the next...but for the most part, they are separate stories even if they have similar themes. This is H:TLJ. A series of separate or similar-themed tapestries. Sometimes you’ll even get some telling a progression...but for the most part, they’re a bunch of different tapestries woven by different storytellers.

This, on the other hand, is The Witcher as a tapestry:

...Most people will recognize this as the Bayeux Tapestry (Do NOT @ me about it being technically an embroidery, not an actual woven tapestry, shush!)...but what you may not realize is that I’ve taken pieces of it from the very long single image posted on Wikipedia (located here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry just click on the images on that page, click through, and find the really long super skinny horizontal version).

More than that, I’ve taken pieces from it, and mixed up where they come from in the chronology...but it is all still one and the same story.

These seemingly disconnected bits and pieces are like finding a bunch of chests in an old storage room in a cathedral somewhere, opening them up, and finding folded bits of cloth with magnificent images embroidered on them...but not knowing that you’ve opened the chest with panels 4-6 first, and that the next chest you open has panels 25-27, and the third chest you open has panels 13-15. You see these images, they’re fascinating, yet they seem disjointed and unconnected...but...they’re not.

We just have to put them into the right order to tell the full tale.

This is something we don’t get in storytelling. Not very often, at least! The storytelling invites us to put the pieces together. Now, I’ll freely admit they could’ve done a somewhat better job in the very first episode, and finding that spoiler-warning that the chronology is mixed up did help...but I do like to think I would’ve figured it out as I went along.

Yes, I only just started watching the series, after all 8 episodes were out of the first season (prequel season? whatever) so that all the spoilers were already out, yadda yadda. And yes, it’ll suck having to wait for the next season. I am not sure if they’ll keep telling the storyline in this same open-a-random-tapestry-chest fashion, but since I do know (haven’t watched it yet, but it’s next in the queue) that in the 8th episode, Geralt and Ciri finally meet (and he’s already met Yennefer), that we finally have most of the pieces spread out on the walls.

They may not be originally laid out in their proper order...but we have enough to put things in order. And that, dear readers, fans, etc, is our job to do, in the way this story is being told.

It is not for everyone. I freely admit it. But it does make those of us who stick with it invest more of ourselves in the story.

We’re the archaeologist finding these treasure chests full of these tapestry stories, and we’re just now realizing that this is a HUGE SINGLE TAPESTRY, with massively intricate details...some of which are just lending color to a scene, but others of which will be referenced later, or be a foreshadowing of something to come, or a flashback of what has already occurred.

That is why I truly like how this story is being told.

It’s not something I could enjoy within each and every story across all of creation...but I don’t need a bloody Bayeux Tapestry each and every time.

I got to puzzle out some really cool things. I got to experience several aha! moments. I had a number of wtf was that?? moments, too...and lord knows I got plenty of delicious eye-candy. (Also the scene of the half-paralyzed bard dropped into the midst of the orgy scene was freakin’ hilarious, because you know he was being tormented, heaven-and-hell all at one and the same time, the lustiest night of his life...and he could not participate, poor fellow.

Also, “Toss a coin to your Witcher” and the other songs are actually pretty decently done. I love the fact the actor playing Jaskier is the one actually singing these end-credit songs.

...One last thing. Some of the people don’t appear to age. That might give the impression that most do not...and that did lend some to the illusion of chronology confusion. In truth, most folks in this universe do age, but they’re mostly background characters. Calanthe and her husband showed signs of aging, Mousesack certainly aged, and Yennefer gets in a good crack at the bard about his crow’s feet, a common sign of aging, if not one instantly visible to most. (Since he doesn’t get many close-ups, you can’t tell he has crow’s feet...but neither can you not tell...so that and the quality & style of his clothes changing help tell you that he’s been aging.)

To be honest, your genetics does quite a lot to determine how “old” you will look. I knew a woman who looked like she was 92 (roughly the age my grandmother died) when she was actually only 62 (about a year before she died). At the same time, I knew a woman who was celebrating her 90th Birthday, but she looked like she was at most in her late 60s.

Some people don’t get grey hairs until they’re in their 60s. Some turn grey-haired in their 20s or 30s. When I think back on the differences in appearance for people like Calanthe, she did look younger in the earlier era scenes...and she did look older in the later era scenes. Plus, the better your diet and exercise are, the healthier and thus younger you’ll look...so it’s expected that a queen wouldn’t age nearly as fast as a commoner.

Additionally, when you have magically modified characters who cannot age, and they’re the main / primary characters...well, we really don’t spend nearly as much time looking at the secondary & tertiary characters. Yet they did put some effort into aging those characters appropriately.

So with that observation made, I think they did a reasonably good job...because they’re also dealing with the constraints of a production budget. Netflix took a risk on this series. They sunk a lot into the special effects, blood splatters, choreography, magic effects, etc. But I think it’s also a case of deliberately obfuscating the puzzle pieces. They didn’t go in for the overblown obviously older effects (makeup, CGI, whatever)...because they want their viewers to think about what we’re watching.

But I’ll bet that, if we go back and take a second look...we’ll see the little details of non-immortal (or at least regular lifespan) folks actually aging, if they get to appear in two different timelines. When you have a story this large and this long, however...not everyone will get to reappear.

Anyway...that’s my Controversial Opinion™. I genuinely like the way The Witcher has been told in its first season. For me, it genuinely works. I’ve had fun discovering and opening all the tapestry-boxes, and am having fun trying to fit together all the puzzle pieces of each story section so that I have the full chronology in my head.

I like the amount of time that I’ve had to invest in this story to make sense of it.

...And I especially like the use of the word “Fuck.” If you’ve watched the series, you know which one I mean. The one that was quietly said, in the very quiet room, in front of a whole bunch of very quiet people.

Very well said.

*applauds*

#*fake trademark but you gotta admit it's a common meme atm #The Witcher spoilers #mention of spoilers containing implied or off-screen attempted suicide

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eggoreviews · 5 years

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Top 10 Switch Exclusives

With Nintendo finally pulling themselves out of the mild rut they found themselves in with the Wii U, the Switch is now producing games of monumental quality, so I’m here to take you through the top ten essential Switch exclusives for those of you who just don’t know which games to pick!

Note: I’m including Wii U ports here bc the Switch did them better and they’re still Nintendo so u know

10. Octopath Traveler

One of the many fruits of Nintendo and Square Enix’s growing partnership, Octopath Traveler is an adorable, retro-style JRPG that released on the system in mid-2018. The game features turn-based combat and eight playable characters that vary massively from each other in their personalities and backgrounds, meaning the game always has a fresh perspective. Overall, this is a creative but somewhat underrated title for the Switch that you should definitely pick up if you’re a fan of RPGs.

9. Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze

The latest entry in the DK series brings all of the bright colours, charm and difficulty in glorious HD on the Switch. While this was ported over from the Wii U, it’s certainly a worthy port to say the least. For fans of challenging platforming, Donkey Kong will tick all the boxes for someone who enjoys fun, colourful gameplay that will sometimes make you want to tear your hair out in frustration. Though, if you want things to be slightly less hard, the brand new funky mode lets you play as Funky Kong (but to be honest with you, it’s still hard. I know I keep mentioning it’s hard but I just really need to drive that home).

8. Bayonetta 2

The critically acclaimed hack ‘n’ slash series Bayonetta, while it began on the Xbox 360, is now a Nintendo exclusive, and the sequel to the already mind-blowing first game is definitely something to behold. The fast-paced, combat heavy gameplay is perfect for the Switch and, of course, Bayonetta as a character is as brilliant as ever. So if you’re someone who would enjoy fighting massive demon creatures as a semi-naked, sassy witch then boy is the franchise for you.

7. Super Mario Party

It’s the game that everyone’s citing as ‘the one that made Mario Party good again’. That’s right, the latest iteration of Mario Party on the Switch has ditched the weird car system that made it not into a board game, and now it’s a board game again! Perfect for any small awkward friend group or big party you misjudged and brought a Switch to, this game comes packed with 80 new minigames. Which is a lot. So if you like Mario and party, then pick this up. Prepare for lots of motion controls.

6. Xenoblade Chronicles 2

Another one for JRPG fans, it’s the latest entry in the series that made a name for itself for having anime-style protagonists with weird British accents, it’s Xenoblade 2! Another one of Nintendo’s charming, unique series, Xenoblade boasts an array of memorable characters, a polished, enjoyable combat system and a story just weird enough to be placed alongside most other JRPGs. Throw on top of that a solid DLC add-on in Torna and you’ve got yourself one fine viddy game experience that will definitely swallow up a couple hundred hours of your life.

5. Splatoon 2

The Splatoon series is one of Nintendo’s newest, shiniest IPs that sees their first and hugely successful foray into an online shooter. Splatoon subverts everything we know about the online shooter genre, which now seems to be over-saturated with gritty, laggy messes with little depth and has given us a genuinely fun and colourful game. A variety of game modes, weapons and customisation options for your Inkling bolster this game’s addiction factor and, on top of that, the recent Octo expansion throws in a genuinely solid single player campaign to boot. This is one basically everyone needs to try.

4. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

The latest and greatest in Nintendo’s flagship fighting series, Ultimate was basically dropped on us at E3 and gave us all a heart attack. If you somehow haven’t heard, Ultimate brought back every single veteran to the series, as well as a solid handful of new characters, plus DLC coming this year that includes Joker from Persona 5 and a plant. If that hasn’t piqued your interest, I don’t think anything will. One of the most ridiculously fun multiplayer experiences you will ever have is waiting for you in this game, especially when playing locally with friends, and the new spirits system has helped to conceive an equally amazing single player campaign, World of Light. This game is oozing with fun and intense love for the gaming industry and you can really tell how much hard work they put into this. Go play it.

3. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

Quite possibly the definitive multiplayer experience, Mario Kart has been a staple of most people’s get-togethers since the first entry on the SNES. And much like Smash, Nintendo have created the series’ best entry in 8. Ported over from the Wii U, this game includes all of the DLC plus some new characters and karts, so for some reason you can now play as Link in Mario Kart! Cool! I don’t think anyone knows how to feel about this! The point is, it’s fun so you should probably play it.

2. Super Mario Odyssey

Odyssey is hotly contested to be one of the best 3D Mario games since 64, but even if that somehow isn’t true, you can’t deny how wonderfully unique it is. Each kingdom brings something new to the table; a lush, interesting environment in each one. With so many highlights to pick, from the brilliant puzzles to the new Cappy possession system to the boss fight with the massive dragon, Odyssey is packed full of content and collectibles to keep you coming back. Plus, the festival sequence in New Donk City? I want to play that bit forever.

Before I reveal the top pick that might seem glaringly obvious now, here are some other games that didn’t quite make the 10 but are also v much worth your attention!

Kirby: Star Allies

Pokemon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee

Captain Toad: Treasure Tracker

New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

I mean, what else was it going to be? Zelda came roaring through the gates when the Switch was finally released and boy, did it deliver. Being the first Zelda game to delve properly into open world, an intense amount of love and detail was poured into every single moment of this beautiful game. Following the themes of lost memories and friendship, you travel across the vast land of Hyrule as Link trying to recover the memory of who he was 100 years ago. And each combat, each encounter, each visit to literally anywhere will leave you laughing, crying or anything in between. This was a game so powerful, it immediately became my favourite game of all time. I know there are a lot of people out there whose hearts are still with Ocarina, but for those new to the series who want a genuinely amazing, heartfelt experience, let Breath of the Wild swallow your whole life. As sinister as that sentence sounds, you really won’t regret it.

Thanks for reading! Let me know your favourite Switch game down below, if you wanna. Hope u find some money in one of your pockets that you didn’t know about.

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notajinn · 5 years

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Ranking Video Games Played in 2018 But Less Detailed Because of Procrastination

Starting this in the evening on the 31st, so let' see if I even get this done in time. Normally I start more ahead of time, and provide seperate detailed post for each game in my list. Initially I wasn't planning on making a list at all this year since I played very few 2018 releases. But then I realized not only that I played more than I thought, but that the non-2018 games I played for the first time this year deserve some love as well.

I conveniently played ten games this year, so here is the ranking of my top ten games:

10. Marvel Puzzle Quest (Mobile)

This game is garbage, and I play it every day. It's a Match-3 puzzle game, which I somehow never played until this year. And it's on mobile and with a Marvel flair to give it an edge, plus a Gacha mechanic for longevity and scum.

Pros

The actual puzzle gameplay is fine. I have no other Match-3 to compare it to besides Puzzles and Dragons, which I tried out around the same time solely due to Persona 5 characters being in it. And I enjoyed Marvel more. You can only move each gem one space rather than across a line or column, or straight up anywhere like in Puzzles and Dragons. But there is no time limit, which I really appreciate.

I like a lot of Marvel characters, so I don't mind them as the rewards. Each one also has different Abilities which make a bigger difference in the gameplay than I initially expected. I unfortunately do not have Ms Marvel, Gwenpool, or Silk yet, but I do have Spider-Man.

Speaking of, the free characters they give you are pretty decent. Within the first few missions, you will come out with Spider-Man, Iron Man, Storm, Black Widow, Hawkeye, and Thor. You can also get Juggernaut and Venom with only slightly more effort.

The game has thus far been very generous with the gacha resource, but I can't comment on the actual pull rates (which may be where they really make their money).

Cons

You may get a lot of chances to pull, but you have a limited barrack you can recruit characters into. And the resource to increase slots is VERY slow. Which means you could potentially pull a great character, but either wait a few weeks to earn enough coins to buy a new barrack spot, remove one of your existing characters, or give them money. And if you wait more than a few weeks, your un-recruited character will be automatically "sold" for resources. I've lost one or two characters to this already. At this point the smart thing seems to be to never pull unless you have open slots, since your recruitment resource does not expire (that I'm aware of).

The difficulty is all over the place. Even the so-called "Prologue" has unusual difficulty spikes in terms of enemy levels.

The leveling system is also garbage in general. You need duplicates of characters to level up, but higher rank characters start at higher levels. Which means even though I pulled and merged like 6 Iron Man, the single 3-star Dr Octopus is significantly stronger with no effort.

Final Thoughts

This game is garbage, and I will continue to play it.

9. Fire Emblem Heroes (Mobile)

Not long ago, Fire Emblem Heroes was one of my favourite games. But the game fell so far in 2018, perhaps outlining the heightened speed of a gacha game's life-cycle.

Pros

They started adding alts of characters that were not from Awakening or Fates. It's not exactly good that we're getting so many alts, but at least they're not all Camilla or Xander.

The new Aether Raids mode is legitimately good. It allows you to create your own mini-maps with different structures and traps, and play against other players. You win a new resource called Heroic Grails, which you can use to summon otherwise limited-time free characters like those from Grand Hero Battles, or the Tempest Trials. I should specify this lets you select characters, not go into a random gacha system. You want more of Joshua? No problem, just select him from the list and hand of the Grails, and you've got him. A lot of characters I like fall into this category, so I especially appreciate it. The actual mode of fighting in user-created maps is also fun.

Book 2 of the story had some good moments early on, and I liked some of the new characters. Said new characters were also added into the summon pool, and not as limited-time units either.

A lot of older characters got new weapon refinements to help them keep up with the cast slightly. Some of these are only okay, but some have been amazing. Still waiting for my man Matthew to get one.

Also this one is kind of cheating since it didn't happen yet, but we are confirmed to finally be getting Laguz (the beast units from the Tellius games) in 2019, which I am very excited for.

Cons

After a decent start, Book 2's story fell into disarray. A comically bland villain was the worst offender, feeling like an OC a child came up with that kept getting sudden new powers for no reason.

Said main villain is also the focal point of the powercreep in the game this year. The absurdity of how good 2018 units are compared to before is frustrating, and I say that as someone who doesn't particularly care about ranking. A lot of these new units and skill sets are just plain not fun to fight against.

Outside of Aether Raids, the game felt pretty stale in terms of having things to do, and I simply found myself far less interested.

Final Thoughts

Laguz will keep my interest for at least some of 2019, but I see myself playing this far less next year. And with a new real Fire Emblem game coming out, I may leave this game entirely.

8. Final Fantasy Record Keeper (Mobile)

This is an unusual one because I didn't play this game much this year. For a few months, I didn't even bother logging in. And 90% of the time I do log in, I just grab the daily rewards and leave. So how did this beat Marvel Puzzle Quest and Fire Emblem Heroes?

Pros

This game is absurdly generous with resources. Keeping in mind this is a gacha game way past it's prime, and being cannibalized by its own parent company through other newer Final Fantasy mobile games, Record Keeper has been trying very hard to keep people playing. Even as someone who barely plays, I am flush with good resources. Enough so that, if I get interested enough, I could probably catch up to the meta-game.

The game has also continued its policy of "characters are free, the gacha is for equipment" that I love. I have no trouble getting characters I want (new ones I liked added this year include Marche from Final Fantasy Tactics Advance, and Sora and Riku of Kingdom Hearts).

The gacha itself is also generous, with multiple event banners that guarantee at least one 5-star for every 11-pull. I wish other gacha games were this generous.

It also keeps the great aesthetic and soundtrack that got me into the game.

Cons

I've played it so much over the years that it's not super fun, but I appreciate it's there for me and doesn't feel like scum.

Final Thoughts

Thank you for doing a gacha game well, Square-Enix.

7. Mighty Switch Force (3DS)

Though I got this years ago in a Humble Bundle, it wasn't until one bored weekend this summer that I actually tried it out Wayforward's other first-party game. The Mighty Switch Force DLC trailer for Shantae: Half Genie Hero also helped.

This is an interesting little arcade action/puzzle hybrid that's a little unusual. It puts you into different areas where you have to use the main gimmick of moving things into and out of the foreground along with other puzzle mechanics to find and arrest some escaped criminals.

Pros

The main mechanic of moving objects forward and backward is pretty fun, and while it's been occasionally seen in other games it's worked more effectively here than I've ever seen. I also appreciate that most levels will add a new mechanic you have to learn.

The levels are short and easy to digest on the 3DS.

It's got the classic Wayforward cartoon aesthetic.

Cons

This is mostly personal preference, but I don't play puzzle games a lot; they don't hold my interest too long. So this was a one weekend game. I didn't beat it, but I got my fill in those two days.

The lack of story really drives home the "arcade" aspect of the game, which is frustrating because I like the often silly pacing of the Shantae series. I'm also someone who invests in characters heavily, so having very little to go off but designs really hurt my long-term interest here.

Final Thoughts

This is a fun little puzzle game I recommend to try out considering it's often on sale and under $10. It's far from the best game, but you'll probably have fun with it.

6. Bayonetta (PS3)

For better or for worse, my first introduction to Bayonetta was when she was added as a DLC character to Super Smash Brothers 4. Suffice to say I was bummed a character I had no interest in won the people's choice, and that definitely negatively tainted the series for me for a while. But after getting itnerested in character-action games by playing Nier Automata and Platinum's Legend of Korra, I ended up picking up Bayonetta on sale on the PS3.

Pros

Oh my god, the combat is so strong. I knew this from Platinum's other games, but it has a different feel. Korra was ultimately a budget game, and Nier Automata was an RPG first, but Bayonetta was a character-action game through and through. The combat is not easy to learn, but when you figure out and see the radical moves you're pulling off, there's a certain unmatched joy to the gameplay.

The plot is campy and silly in the vein of Devil May Cry, and has a good handful of characters I like (particularly Jeanne and Luca). It ramps up to hilarious scales.

The music is so good, and I wish more of it made it into Super Smash Brothers.

I love that you have a space to practice combos without any repercussions by turning off the timer in the loading screen transitions. This helped me so much early on to get a hang of which combos I could both pull off effectively, find a use for, and actually enjoy.

Checkpoints are fairly generous, and so long as you don't care about your score you can continue to try again with no repercussions until you win.

Cons

There are certain sections of the game where you are pulled into on-rails vehicles. These sections are not fun, and last FAR too long. To make matters worse, the best boss fight in the game is in the second half of a level where the first half is one of these terrible vehicle sections. Which means I'll never fight that boss again since I don't want to go through that initial part.

Through a combination of the initial negative reaction and the fact there are more interesting characters around her, I didn't end up attached to Bayonetta herself, which is disappointing considering how much I like Dante and the Nier Automata cast.

The first few levels are also far harder than the rest of the game. This happens because you're learning a new combat system, have less moves purchased, and most importantly do not have the Bat Within ability that increases your dodge invincibility. This move probably saved me so much, and you can get it pretty early, but not until you get past some hard parts. In particular, the first major boss has you contend with the above issues and, for no particular reason, is the only major boss without any checkpoints. This boss almost made me give up on the game, and heavily slowed down my progress and general enjoyment.

Probably the biggest issue is that this is a PS3 era game, which means you can expect tons of QTEs that cause instant death if you fail them. These even happen during bosses. It's such a product of its time.

Final Thoughts

If you can struggle through those initial hard (but not un-fun) levels and that first frustrating boss, you have a great game ahead of you. With some truly awful vehicle sections thrown in, but mostly great. At the very least, grab the soundtrack.

5. Dragalia Lost (Mobile)

Oh you thought the mobile games were all at the bottom? Then you forgot about Nintendo's newest IP, Dragalia Lost. Which would be fair, because this game is available officially in very few countries, and it's kind of crazy.

With the success of other mobile games, Nintendo decided to try out a new IP in a mobile game with the help of the experienced developers CyGames. What we got was a mobile MMO with a heavy anime aesthetic and a lot of love.

Pros

The character designs vary, as they do in any mobile, but one major strength of Dragalia Lost (and the reason I started the game) is the large percentage of dark-skinned characters. It may seem silly, but as a South Asian it's so rare to see dark-skinned characters in this aesthetic. You'll get your token characters here and there, but Dragalia Lost alone probably has more than I've seen in a few other series combined. I'm pretty sure they have more than Fire Emblem Heroes, or at least an equal amount.

The developers have been very generous with resources, and so far have given you a free 10-pull whenever there's a new event.

We've also already had a lot of improvements due to developer feedback, which is a great sign for the game's future.

The strangest thing perhaps is...the gameplay is really fun for a mobile game. It's a top-down action RPG with heavy MMO elements in terms of leveling and co-op play. While your party setup means a lot, your skill in-game means even more if you're skilled at dodging, effectively moving around the map, and knowing when to throw out which ability. As you have such a heavy level of interaction with the characters, you also feel more attached to them, which is great for longevity in a gacha game. Each weapon type plays very differently, and with different elements and abilities you get a lot of variety. You also have different dragons you can transform into as essential limit breaks.

I really love how seamlessly co-op is integrated. You can play any mission with or without co-op, and it takes very little effort to group up with people.

Cons

It's still a gacha game, so a certain level of garbage is expected. The rates of pulling a 5-star seem far worse than Fire Emblem Heroes and Final Fantasy Record Keeper. To make matters worse, you can potentially pull a 5-Star Wyrmprint (a type of equipment) instead of a character or dragon, thus resetting your pity rate.

In co-op, if a host quits the entire battle is considered a fail. Which makes logical sense, but it's frustrating when the host quits while you're winning.

Bows are also significantly worse than the other weapon types, but my favourite character is an archer. This presents a problem.

It’s only available in a small number of countries, with still not announced plans for others.

Final Thoughts

It's the best mobile game I've played this year, but it's still a mobile game. Unless you're looking for a mobile game, I recommend just appreciating the art from afar. If you ARE looking for a mobile game, however, I highly recommend this. And if you care about Nintendo, maybe keep an eye on this; I could see this IP eventually coming out of mobile.

4. Deltarune (PC)

It's tough to write these all at once. Okay, Deltarune. The surprise game from Undertale's creator. I still don't want to get into too much detail in case you haven't played this free and relatively short game, but it's been a while. There will be sort of spoilers below, so if you want to go in blind, skip down to number 3.

Pros

From the graphical style to the writing to the soundtrack, it's got the same great charm of Undertale in a smaller package.

The battle system is more involved and honestly a lot more fun. You're also not forced to go Pacifist to get the good ending, so you can actually enjoy it like a normal RPG. Even if you do go Pacifist like I did, the inclusion of different abilities gives you a lot more to do than just dodge enemy attacks.

The progression of Susie and Lancer as characters is fun to watch unfold, and the game does a great job making you invested in these characters within such a short time frame.

The final section of the game, without mentioning any spoilers, is also a nice little reward.

Cons

Simply because of playing Undertale, you may assume you have to play Pacifist and thus miss the main combat. This is untrue, but hard to know since you also want to go in blind on your first run. This is entirely a self-made issue, but it is nonetheless a common issue I can see.

..I don't really have any other negatives offhand except that it's short?

Final Thoughts

If you played Undertale, play this. If you didn't play Undertale, probably play that first and you'll enjoy this more. But you'd probably enjoy this regardless. And hell, it's free and under 5 hours, and runs on probably any modern PC.

3. Dragonball FigherZ (PS4)

There have been so many Dragonball Z games, but the quality never hit this level. Remember when we considered the Budokai games to be amazing because of the competition? Now we have a DBZ fighter that's not only the best of the series, but also a legitimately great fighting game when compared to the other big fighting series. No weird 3D mechanics, no attempt to heavily integrate fighting. This is just a solid 2D fighter with some unique elements and a DBZ flavouring.

Pros

Made by Arcsys, the gameplay is unsurprisingly amazing. It's fluid, has a lot of ease-of-use for beginner players, and a lot of more complex mechanics to make high-end gameplay fun to watch. I was able to teach some friends in a short amount of time how to play this decently, which is very important with a multiplayer game.

And despite most of the characters fighting extremely similarly in DBZ, each character feels unique here. They're all just throwing punches, kicks, and energy blasts, but they all have their own distinct feel. Even the various orange-gi-black-hair characters all stand out with different silhouettes and colour tinting.

The new OC that Arcsys seems obligated to add may be strange as an Android/Buu hybrid, but adding a new female character to such a male dominated series is much appreciated.

The online lobby is easy to find the types of fights you're looking for, and provides a good deal of variety.

Cons

The DLC lineup is awful. Two versions of Goku, two versions of Vegeta. Really? Do we really need that? Then we got Goku's dad Bardock, who visually looks like another Goku. And then we got Fused Zamasu, who is basically an alternate version of base game charater Goku Black. The only characters unique in both design and gameplay are Broly (who I generally hate), Android 17 (who's great), and Cooler (who's not quite as cool as his brother). There's so many good choices for DLC, but short of a second season, this is what we got stuck with. And honestly, good DLC characters can make or break my interest in a fighting game long-term. This was what broke it.

Final Thoughts

It's a great fighting game, and hands-down the best Dragonball Z game. But there's only one fighting game series that is able to hold my interest long-term.

2. Super Smash Brothers Ultimate (Switch)

It's still wild this was announced and came out in the same year. After being used to a long pre-release for Super Smash Brothers games, Ultimate really bucked the trend. It's also not like the other games in other ways as well, opting to include as much old content as possible instead of taking the usual "add a lot but cut a lot" approach.

Pros

One of my long-time top wished characters finally made it in: K. Rool! And he's so well-animated and sporting so many references! They really put a lot of love into him.

I'm vicariously excited for all the Ridley fans who finally got their big space dragon into Smash. They were always steadfast beside us K. Rool fans, and really deserve this win.

No one has to worry about their main being cut, because everyone is here. For those few people that legitimately liked Pichu, that must be a great feeling.

The core gameplay also received a nice boost in speed so it's not overly-fast like Melee, but still a lot more fluid than the other games. Bringing back moving air dodges, and clamping down on over-dodging have helped make the gameplay feel much smoother.

After the disappointingly poor single-player of Smash 4, I love all the single-player modes here. Classic has been redesigned to give each character a tuned and unique experience. We have a big single-player mode in the World of Light, and the smaller but more long-term Spirit Board.

Spirits in general are just a great way of reusing Stickers from previous games in a way that makes everybody excited. Seriously, they are just your typical gacha JPGS, but throwing effects and levels onto them really makes them feel more involved than trophier or stickers in past games.

My main, Zelda, got significantly buffed. This is really specific to me, but it makes a big difference.

Mii Fighters also feel far more viable this time around.

The range of music and stages in the game is just amazing.

Cons

For a game that promotes itself as having everything, it's bizarre and frustrating that the Stage Builder was completely removed. I really enjoyed playing around in there, and being able to use tracks I like from stages I don't like.

We also lost modes like Target Smash and the Home Run Contest for almost no reason. Short of these being added in future updates, I find this odd.

I could make a lot of complaints about character choice, but I'll keep it short and mention that I'm one of the few people not happy about the Piranha Plant, and I would really have had almost any non-3DS FE character instead of Chrom.

World of Light is also really long, and unlike the Subspace Emissary lacks cinema scenes. The opening scene everyone has seen is great, and then...that's it so far. I am expecting one more at the end (I'm maybe halfway through), and maybe one in the middle, but it's not going to live up to the SSE.

I also can't believe the huge backwards step taken in the online mode. Rather than having a separate Casual and Competitive mode like every other fighter (including the last Smash Brothers), there is only one queue, and you can easily get thrown into the opposite type of style you want. I actually cancelled my plans to buy the online service after I heard how bad this system is.

Final Thoughts

It's a Super Smash Brothers game, so I will enjoy it for a long time. The Spirits add a lot of longevity, but unless the online is heavily fixed I can see myself dropping out of this game within the next year.

1. Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4)

This game had such bad timing. Released alongside the similar but more anticipated Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild on a competitor system, and the different but same-system Persona 5, I think a lot of people completely missed this game. Or as many as can miss a big AAA game. If this came out just a few months earlier or later, I'm sure I'd see a lot more talk about it. But as things stand, it seemed to disappear from everyone's minds very quickly.

If you're one of the ones that forgot, Horizon Zero Dawn is an open-world action-adventure about a post-apocalyptic world where humans are left to deal with the increasingly dangerous machine robots built by pre-apocalypse humans, and is just as much about dealing with different tribes and cultures that emerge in this new world.

Pros

Alloy is one of my favourite new main characters in a long time. Not just in video games, but in general. While having some of that player-character "choose their personality" feelings here and there, she is mostly a defined and often interesting character with distinct strengths and weaknesses.

Voice acting from Alloy as well as the entire cast is superb, and really sells the world.

The gameplay is heavily archery focused with a lot of traps and different ammunition to help you bring down the machines that heavily outmatch you in a straight fight. The game is built to allow you to play with stealth or as an action game depending on how you select your skills. It's also got a good level of difficulty where you will definitely die a few times, but never get overly frustrated.

The story hits on many different points, and most of it has something interesting to offer. Don't expect story quality on the level of something like Nier Automata, but for a new IP it's pretty impressive.

One thing I love about fast travel is that, early on, you have to use consumable items to do so. This means you're initially encouraged to manually explore, and in doing so will learn a lot more about what the game can offer. Once you get a little further, you can unlock the ability to fast-travel with ease so you can backtrack and do quests without an issue. It's a good way to try to balance having people skip over environments.

Also it's a big AAA game with NO MICROTRANSACTIONS AT ALL!

Cons

The subtitles are pretty small based on my TV size and the distance I sit at. If you sit closer to your TV, it's probably fine.

For a game with such good quality everywhere else, the soundtrack is honestly pretty average outside of the main theme.

The open world is nowhere near as fun to explore as in Breath of the Wild, and holds far less secrets.

Final Thoughts

This feels strange to say for a AAA game made by first-party Sony, but please don't sleep on this game. It's really good, and it's been insanely cheap for the latter part of this year.

That's it. That's all the games. This took a lot more time than I expected, and I don't feel like proofreading since now it's already almost midnight. 2018 may not have had that many good new releases, but I found fun with video games.

Looking forward to playing Fire Emblem Three Houses and Kingdom Hearts III next year, and talking about them next December. Hopefully not on the 31st again.

#top games of 2018 #even though half came out in different years #holy crap this took forever

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ravenpie52 · 3 years

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With Domicile’s Conclusion:

I’m writing a wrap-up of sorts here, explaining all the lore and background info for the series (and where it might go?) in a fully transparent manner. Don’t read this if you want to puzzle some of it out first after finishing the series. I’m posting the art assets I drew at the bottom too.

Prepare for a long one.

1. Series Lore

First off, the most important thing. Raven is not a true “Player.” I categorize Players as beings separate from mobs that sorta just, appear (though they all have their own backstories). They have a lot of power at their fingertips. They can manipulate the world drastically, travel between worlds, and set up worlds as “hubs” (servers) for others to gather in. The existence of a Player influences the world around them. Worlds are literally made for Players, and can barely exist without them.

So what happens when a world lacks a Player? Well. Mob AI is fundamentally changed, for one. They do not aggro on beings that aren’t mobs unless provoked. Therefore, all hostile mobs ignore Raven’s existence because they are not recognized as anything worth paying attention to. Things also got messy and the world deferred a sort of “awakening” to those of the highest “power,” Evokers, in order to try and pick up the slack in a way. (Though the world doesn’t have thoughts, I’m just personifying it for ease of explanation.)

Evokers in Raven’s world have a higher “sense of self,” and in doing so took on a fraction of Player abilities (building/exploration/crafting skill and world manipulation). Many of them banded together into the Evoker Collective to try and figure out what’s going on with the world. There are legends of “Players” that all sapient mobs know, and yet....there is no trace of one...

Eventually, one such Evoker got the idea to try and MAKE a Player, or at least, create an entity that could try to fill the void. Enter our dear shapeshifter. Unfortunately, Raven either accidentally killed both their creator and work partner in their eldritchy infancy without realizing, or scared the two off for good. I’m leaving that for others to decide. Thankfully they started learning life lessons from passive mobs and ended up in a village in a form where they were mistaken for an actual Player and could learn about it.

Secondly, in a broken world, the connection between the dimensions is super fragile. This is why Raven didn’t get any dimension-related advancements. They don’t exist. All knowledge regarding the Nether and the mobs within was left vague or nonexistent and Evokers had to figure it out themselves. At most, villagers know of a far off place that is very warm and red. And they know of a hard, purple rock, that when made into an upright square...does something... Only Evokers actually ended up getting there.

When it comes to the End, that’s a complete mystery, though they did find a stronghold containing a portal. Unfortunately, they didn’t know enough about Endermen (named “Warpers” instead) to figure out the whole deal with the frame.

There is no Enderdragon. With no Player to defeat her, she does not exist, nor do her pillars, her crystals, or her egg. And with no dragon to defeat, there are no End Cities. The only thing that exists is the anchor point, the bedrock fountain.

IN COME CYAN AND GREEN: residents of The Liminal, the space between worlds and dimensions. You know that dirt screen you see whenever Minecraft is loading, showing an error message, looking through options, playing the credits, etc.? That’s a place. You can fully enter it only after hopping into the fountain the first time in a world. All those other times you’re kinda just a blip.

It’s implied in my custom End Poem that it is possible to acclimate yourself to The Liminal better and eventually stay there without being pulled away. Furthermore, it is being said that Raven has the possibility to join the ranks of Cyan and Green since Raven’s also somewhat detached from the universe (due to being made from its own cracks). However, that will take, like, hundreds to thousands of years.

Cyan and Green gave Raven a boon after being impressed by their ability to be, well, a person. They gave them the knowledge and ability to world-hop, like Players, so Raven can now go to other worlds as well as servers and isn’t stuck in a broken one, hooray! All the other worlds they visit will be actually made for Non-mob Beings, so there’s proper mob aggro, regular dimension stuff, etc. There’s gonna be a violent few lessons Raven’s gonna have to learn fast. Good thing the other ability that Cyan and Green gave Raven was the ability to respawn in other worlds. Yep! Raven was unknowingly in hardcore mode this whole time and didn’t realize there was anything different!

Despite getting a slight power boost, Raven is still unable to shapeshift properly. They can only get forms slightly right. They worked really hard to maintain their zombie mimicry at this level of finesse (even if it isn’t perfect), so they’re unlikely to change shape unless it’s necessary or accidental. People are more receptive to Raven in this form, after all. This is my excuse for why Raven doesn’t shapeshift in-game at any time....there are no mods for this.

2. Out of Character Stuff

Here’s a previous OOC post I made regarding some of the filming stuff.

Domicile was always meant to be Raven’s backstory. It’s something I could point to when people might go: “What’s their story?” It was just for fun, but I put a lot of work into it, and it has felt very rewarding. For example, I’d been trying to figure out how to present the flashback of episode 6 and the custom End Poem for episode 7 for aaaages and getting those all settled has been great.

If you’re wondering why I have silent moments for montages in my videos and didn’t see the answer anywhere else, there were times where it just didn’t work out to use the webcam microphone I was borrowing, or said microphone messed up the audio (I’m FINALLY getting a replacement mic in a few weeks). At a certain point I decided it was a feature to have montages with only in-game sounds. Like, asmr or something.

None of the mods I installed changed generation. Everything that looks different from vanilla I made happen in creative mode. I made the mini-mansion in the roofed forest, the temple topper and stairs for the stronghold, fixed up Hometown to be nicer, and got rid of all the obsidian End pillars with creative mode punches. The pillars still stick out of the bottom of the island, I couldn’t be bothered to do that too. ( >3>)

One of my rules for the RP was to keep all knowledge in-universe. Raven had to only know things they could conceivably find out from villagers or their books. (And sometimes they just straight up forgot some of it.) After this, there’s gonna be a time skip where Raven learns a whole bunch of Minecraft basics from faceless Players. So in the future I won’t have to pay quite as much attention to what gets called its proper in-game name or not.

Also I had to hold back from singing any real life song lyrics to myself and I couldn’t give anything a name that alludes to our world. The orange tower is called Traffic Cone in my head but Raven can only call it a tower. That sort of thing I can be way more lenient with from now on.

I want to make future RP content with my character, but I have no friends who are fitting that particular niche to roleplay with me for a multiplayer series. I’m keeping an eye out for potential roleplay servers and such for outside of video RP. But at this point, I think that if I am to make a multiplayer video series, I’m gonna have to wait for someone to approach me with an offer.

Though, I’m still gonna post art of the character here, no doubt.

By the way, since this is working as an archive of sorts, here’s the link for the written piece that started me on the track to making the series. I’m thinking of changing the canon time Raven spent wandering around the tundra thinking they were a mob to be a bit while longer than a day.

More stuff involving my Minesona can be found under the #Domicile tag, but later I’m just gonna tag all new stuff as just #minesona.

3. Art Assets

Here are the assets I made for the videos, excluding the blurry picture of the Evokers, that one’s kinda not worth much, lol. I’ve posted the first two elsewhere, but thought this would be a good archive.

The thumbnail:

The title card:

Raven falling from The Liminal, losing their form a bit after Green and Cyan’s influence and Raven’s emotional bewilderment:

(You can really tell that I loosely traced a reference photo of someone falling, lol. I have no shame, this pose rocks.)

For fun, here’s the skin I use! I didn’t make it, but I’ve used it for years, so it’s me now. >:)

Here’s the Skindex link.

Once again, thank you all so much for anyone who watched the series. Every view means a lot to me. I’m so happy that people watched my stuff and liked it. Thanks for reading this! <3

#Domicile #Minecraft #Minesona

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queen-of-the-crows · 6 years

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OC Fact Meme

Another OC meme! tagged by @a-shakespearean-in-paris you should all follow her, shes awesome. I’m gonna fill this one out for Thea Hawke seeing as she romances my favorite character

Also, I need to finialize some stuff for her since that’s going to be my next little fic

GENERAL

Name: Thea Amaya Hawke

Alias(es): Lady Amell, Lady Hawke, Champion of Kirkwall, Hawke, Thea (Fenris is the only one of their company who calls her by her first name but only after their first night together), Love (Fenris calls her love when they’re alone after getting back together), Jynx (Varric’s other nickname as bad things seem to always follow her)

Gender: female

Age: 21 at the destruction of Lothering, 28 at the end of Dragon Age 2

Date of birth: Dragon 9:10, winter

Place of birth: Denerim, Fereldan. This is where her parents stayed until she was born and they didnt have to worry about her mother traveling Spoken languages: Common tongue, some Qunlat (taught by Fenris while she taught him to read) Sexual orientation: She considers herself to be straight although she spent some time with other girls while she was a teenager in Lothering; its men that she’s attracted to Occupation: Champion of Kirkwall, former tavern girl while in Lothering, Vicountess of Kirkwall although she didn’t hold the post long, former smuggler

APPEARANCE

Eye color: bright deep blue Hair colour: pure white. her parents always said it was the magic in their blood and the Fereldan winter that made her hair white Height: 5′6 Scars: The largest is one that spans from her left shoulder blade and then goes down her back on a diagonal, ending at her right hip, received from a Qunari blade during their siege; Anders healed it enough for her to fight the Arishok but even his magic had its limits. She has another on her left forearm from when she was teenager received in a fight depending Bethany from a bully which she won of course. The thid is a stab wound in her right thigh given to her by the carta when she was smuggling. Burns: N/A Overweight: No Underweight: No, she isn’t under weight she is thin and toned for her size. Being a rogue, she relies on speed and not the muscle for brute strength.

FAVOURITE

Colour:

blues and dark red

Hair colour

she always thought she prefered darker colors, like black or deep brown until she met Fenris and couldn’t imagine it any other way

Eye colour:

Any color that would captivate her and mesmerize her, draw her in making Fenris’s eyes the most beautiful she had ever seen

Music genre:

She doesnt spend much time listening to music, she reads or plays Diamondback or Wicked Grace or draws. if she was a music person she would probably listen to things like Evanescence.

Movie genre:

Mysterys as she loves puzzles to solve and comedies cause sometimes she would need something lighter in her life

Tv show:

She would probably watch shows like Doctor Who, full of adventure in strange places and Sherlock cause of mysteries

Food:

She’ll eat whatever but her favorite thing is any type of pasta and she has a wicked sweet tooth for cake

Drink: Rum, specifically spiced rum

Book: Anything and everything. she did read all of Varric’s Hard in Hightown.

HAVE THEY

Passed university: definitely not, with apostates in her family she didn’t have formal schooling Had sex: Yes of course Had sex in public: if by public we mean not in someone’s home then yes. but no one was ever around, they were always alone Gotten pregnant: no and she doesnt want children Kissed a boy: Yes Kissed a girl: Yes Gotten tattoos: No Gotten piercings: no Had a broken heart: Somewhat, their was a boy in Lothering when she was 16 Been in love: With Fenris Stayed up for more than 24 hours: definitely, more than once

ARE THEY

A virgin: No A cuddler: oh most definitely A kisser: there are few things that she would rather do more than kiss Fenris; correction there are none

Scared easily: by things no, by the thought of her own death no, by something happening to Fenris most definitely, nothing scares her more

Jealous easily: Fenris gives her no reason to be jealous as he only has eyes for her so she has never really had her jealousy tested to know Trustworthy: Yes Dominant: she does both, depending on her mood and Fen’s mood Submissive: see above, their relationship is a healthy mix of both In love: Most definitely Single: Nope and never will be again

RANDOM QUESTIONS

Have they harmed themselves: No, not on purpose. There were training incidents when she was younger and learning her weapon Thought of suicide: somewhat but never in a she would do it type of way; she would be lying if she said the thought never crossed her mind after losing Carver, Bethany, and her mother but it was more in passing and then not again Attempted suicide: No Wanted to kill someone: Oh yes, the monster who killed her mother and Danarius and she took joy in both their deaths. Except in circumstances like that, she doesn’t relish killing people Drove a car: She’s a fairly competent horseback rider, in modern times she would probably drive a classic muscle car Have/had a job: she was a tavern wench in Lothering and was briefly Vicountess of Kirkwall, also was a smuggler Have any fears: Fenris dying or being taken from her, her life meaning nothing, failing the ones closest to her

FAMILY

sibling(s):

Carver Hawke, younger brother by 3 years. Killed by an Ogre while escaping Lothering. He always had a rough relationship with Thea and they never got the chance to repair it before he died.

Bethany Hawke, younger sister by 3 years. Died in the Deep Roads during Bartrand’s expedition, taken by the darkspawn taint. She was always very close to Thea and her death devastated Thea. She wanted go get something special to remember her by but hadnt found the perfect thing. Bethany was sunshine in her life

parents:

Malcolm Hawke, from Ferelden, an apostate who escaped the circle. Died in Lothering, taught Thea how to use a quarterstaff as it was close to wielding an actual staff and the only weapon he knew how to use

Leandra Amell Hawke, from Kirkwall, thought she was left out by her parents when she chose Malcolm but they loved her all the same. She didnt always agree with Thea’s choices and they did but heads over some things including Fenris initially and the fact that Thea didn’t want to live the life her mother wished of her which was that of a noble. she came around though

children:

none, she and Fenris decided that wasn’t something that they wanted for their life

pets:

As a child she had a fat grey kitten she named Charcoal who followed her everywhere, she had the cat from kitten all the way until the day it died when it was about 15 years old.

a Mabari that she ironically named Barkspawn who found her while waiting for the ship to Kirkwall and immediately took a liking to her and came along for the journey

Wow this took a while, but it was fun! Tagging @annorarutherford @enchantment1385 @sassylavellen

#oc fact meme #thea hawke #queen of the crows #1 down 3 to go

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gamersonthego · 6 years

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Chase Koeneke’s Top 10 Handheld Games of 2017

2017 represented a big shot in the arm for handheld gaming. As the Vita clings desperately to life support, Nintendo has graced us with the Switch, and with it, a bevy of AAA titles not normally seen in the handheld space. Maybe it’s not fair to pit Breath of the Wild and Mario Odyssey against something like Iron Marines, but hey, this is the shot across the bow. It’s time to step up your handheld game in 2018.

Honorable Mentions: The Binding of Isaac: Afterbirth+, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Dragon Quest VIII: Journey of the Cursed King, Puyo Puyo Tetris

Personally, I never feel good about double dipping on a game come GOTY list time. I love The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth on the Vita, and Afterbirth+ is even better on the Switch, but it’s pretty much the same game. The same can be said about Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Dragon Quest VIII is excellent, but it’s a straight port of a 13-year-old game, and even if it’s one I experienced for the first time in 2017, I can’t in good conscience count it here on this list (though watch me do just that for my #3 game this year). And while Puyo Puyo Tetris got its stateside release this year, I’ve been plugging away at my imported Vita copy for the better part of two years. It’s an essential Switch title, but I didn’t play the game much in 2017 and to put it in a list of my favorite games this year doesn’t really make sense.

Dishonorable Mention: Fire Emblem Heroes

I think I played more Fire Emblem Heroes than any other game this year. I know I spent more money on it than any other game this year (and probably more than any other game ever). And while I really enjoyed my time with it, its money-sucking greediness became too much for me to bear. I had to quit the game cold turkey and delete it from all my devices. It’s a truly special game, completely marred by bad business tactics, and that is heartbreaking. And while it has been disqualified from this list, its impact deserves some sort of recognition, even if that’s in the form of a warning..

And with that out of the way, let’s get to the top 10!

10. Monument Valley 2 (Mobile)

While it didn’t quite grip me as hard as the first game, Monument Valley 2 still manages to put together stunning visuals with simple, but effective puzzling. And man, it’s really fun to make those kaleidoscope/snowflake things. Make sure you listen to the GOTG episode about the series with Bobby Pease too.

9. Mario + Rabbids: Kingdom Battle (Switch)

I laughed right along with the rest of you when the images for this leaked out online before E3. This seemed like a bad idea from the start, and I didn’t much trust Ubisoft to execute the idea. But Kingdom Battle is a surprisingly strong strategy game. With simplification where you want it and depth where you need it, there’s a lot to like about the way this game plays. Forcing you to keep a Rabbid in your party at all times and less than interesting puzzles outside of combat keep this from greatness, but this a great foundation to build upon.

8. Iron Marines (Mobile)

It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Kingdom Rush and its developer Ironhide Games. And I’ve been waiting for Iron Marines to release for years after playing a demo at PAX East in 2015. Now that it’s here, I can say that yeah, it was worth the wait. It’s the best RTS game on mobile and builds on Ironhide’s strong tower defense roots. And if you need to hear more, I spoke with two of the developers earlier this year for GOTG.

7. SteamWorld Dig 2 (Switch/Vita)

I’ll be honest, I had misgivings about SteamWorld Dig 2. I loved the first game for its condensed experience. Hearing that the sequel was going to be much bigger worried me. Was Image & Form about to bite off more than they could chew? Thankfully, my worries were completely unfounded. SteamWorld Dig 2 is fantastic. A solid platformer through and through that lives up to the SteamWorld name. Now we just need a SteamWorld Heist 2 on Switch.

6. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Switch)

I am notorious for my inability to get through Zelda games, and Breath of the Wild is no different. But even in my relatively short time with the new game, I’ve come to realize how special this series really is. There’s a transcendent quality to exploring Hyrule, taking in this massive world that feels so natural and yet is so densely and elegantly packed with life and mystery. I don’t like the weapon degradation and I think the combat is a little too simplistic, but those are small gripes when you consider how this game makes you feel on a moment-to-moment basis. It’s not my favorite Zelda game, but it is the best Zelda game. Maybe one day I’ll finish it.

5. Golf Story (Switch)

I. Love. Mario. Golf. Specifically, I love Mario Golf for the Game Boy Color, which smartly combined RPG mechanics and a thin, but enjoyable story into a golf game. Since the GBC release, Mario Golf has become increasingly generic, dumbing down the RPG mechanics and losing what made it special. Golf Story is the second coming of Mario Golf GBC. The writing is top notch, it brings back the RPG mechanics I’ve been missing and dammit, the golfing is pretty good too. For Sidebar Games’ first release to be so strong out of the gate, I’m just so impressed. Now let’s tackle a baseball RPG please.

4. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch)

Nintendo really knocked it out of the park this year. First they launch the Switch with the best Zelda game ever and then they follow it up with one of the best Mario games ever. Super Mario Odyssey manages to be a love letter to both 2D and 3D Mario games of old while simultaneously raising the bar of what a Mario game can be. Everything is just so inventive and imaginative. The simple act of moving Mario around the different kingdoms is sublime giving you the freedom to do some spectacular platforming if you dedicate yourself to mastering the controls. And some of the later kingdoms are too good to spoil here. You really need to experience them for yourself.

3. Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (3DS)

Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates were my favorite games of their respective years of release and I expected Echoes to be in a similar conversation this year. And it absolutely lived up to those lofty expectations, but not in the way I initially thought. Echoes is way more than a remake of an NES game. It deftly weaves in the story, themes and mechanics of that game into a modern video game, managing to feel faithful to its source material while never being tied down by it. Whereas Awakening and Fates are built from a rich history of mechanics from past Fire Emblem games, Echoes is almost experimental by comparison. Not all of those experiments pay off, but enough of them do that I truly hope the next new Fire Emblem game takes some notes from Echoes (and I hope more Fire Emblem remakes of games that never made it stateside appear in the future. May I suggest The Binding Blade so we can all see what our Smash Bros. friend Roy was up to?)

2. Sonic Mania (Switch)

While I’m a Nintendo kid through and through, I’ve always preferred Sonic to Mario when it mattered. Sonic 2 beats Super Mario World any day. But Sega has continually missed the mark on giving fans the good 2D Sonic follow up we’ve been craving…until now. With the help of Sonic’s most hardcore fans, Sonic Mania is the perfect sprint down memory lane. Remixes of old stages and music, brand new ideas that would feel right at home on the Genesis and some incredible references and callbacks to even the most obscure Sonic games and lore, Mania just nails the Sonic experience from top to bottom. My only complaint is those damn blue sphere bonus stages plucked straight from Sonic 3. Those were terrible then and they’re terrible now.

1. Monster Hunter Stories (3DS)

This one was a surprise to me. I’m not a Monster Hunter fan. I just can’t get into them. But a traditional JRPG using Monster Hunter’s cool creature, armor and weapon designs intrigued me enough to give the demo of Stories a try. Over 100 hours later, and I think it’s fair to say the game hooked me. The combat is the star here. While you fully control your character, your monster partner has a mind of its own. Only by gaining kinship during battle can you call out specific attacks for your monster to do. Whether you or your monster are calling the shots, the action takes place in a rock, paper, scissors style battle, but unlike Pokemon’s type advantages, each monster has certain tendencies, and picking the right move can cause additional damage to the enemy while taking minimal damage in return. But sometimes monsters go against their tendencies, making each fight a unique chess match that stays engaging throughout the experience. Like Dragon Ball Fusions last year, this game came out of nowhere and blew me away. As developers continue to embrace the Switch, this may be one of the last great RPGs for the 3DS.

#goty #gotggoty2017 #chase koeneke #fire emblem heroes #monument valley 2 #mario + rabbids kingdom battle #iron marines #steamworld dig 2 #the legend of zelda: breath of the wild #golf story #super mario odyssey #fire emblem echos: shadows of valentia #sonic mania #monster hunter stories

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desperatelyseekingroleplay · 7 years

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Looking for Fandom or Original based RP

Name: Ceph Age: 18 Time Zone: Mountain Time (UTC -6:00) Main Fandoms: Invader Zim, Monster in Paris, Creepypasta, Undertale, Borderlands, Overwatch, Black Butler, Mass Effect, Inuyasha, Kamisama Hajimemashita, Pokemon, Homestuck, Problem Sleuth, Marvel, and DC

Intro: I have finally graduated high school, and to celebrate I have decided that it would be best for me to get back into roleplaying so I can keep my brain up and running while I take a break from school for a year; reach out to people and see if I can get something started again. School had been keeping me busy and my old partners all kinda packed up and bounced due to my lack of responses– which I totally understand– seeing all of that is behind me now however, I’m hoping that I can finally keep up with things. So- let’s start with an introduction shall we? My name is Ceph, I am 18 years old and have had over 11 years of practice with role playing. Ceph isn’t the only name I go by of course, so if that isn’t to your liking I have nicknames you can use; my friends like to call me Squid or Shell, while online I’m known by “Illustrative Cephalopod” to all of my 2 followers. I know, impressive… I’m pretty sure those are just friends too… I don’t run a blog by the way, I run an art account on the much loved but also very hated Deviantart. Where there is talent and cringe in every corner. I have a Tumblr too– but anyways, ignoring that, I’m going to go back to the point of this since I don’t want to bore you to death. I am looking for both fandom and original roleplays. Fandoms including the main ones listed above, and the others that I am into listed below along with the rules. Those will be OC/Canon pairings while Original will be– surprised– oc/oc pairings. I know people don’t really like reading paragraphs all too much since they just want the rambler to get to the point, so let’s start with the rules:

RULES: Style: I am not picky with this, in fact I am known as a Mirror. You wanna write a 4 page novel per response, I will do my best to match it. Want simple dialogue, I will gladly match your style. I have done many roles played in the past and both can be extremely fun and descriptive at times. So really it’s just based on which do you prefer: fast responses or a slower ones? Grammar: I mess up every now and then, nobody’s perfect, so I don’t expect you to be. Just no text talk unless it’s OOC and do try your best. I know some people struggle with typing in general. Smut: I don’t like smut without a plot, so don’t come to me planning to create a plot based around smut unless you are able to talk me into it. I can promise the wait will be worth it since I have been writing smut for years, still a virgin though so I may have a few things off, but I do go into detail if you wish me to. Other than that I will fade to black if you have no interest in it. I don’t have a lot of restrictions with smut, it’s writing not reality. Some shit i’d punch people for in real life but over writing it’s just better to stay a fantasy. Pairings/Romance: I don’t do yaoi. I have had terrible experiences with it in the past and do not want to try it again, so don’t message me about it unless you know you can talk me into a realistic relationship between two men that aren’t the usual twinks. F/F I will discuss, but I prefer and focus around M/F pairings. I’ve been writing them since I was a kid so I am most experienced with that.

Gore: Lmao, I’m a horror fan so I could care less about how much detail you put into it. If you wish for me to chill on the gore, I will gladly do so. OOC: This is required. I love talking to you guys out of roleplays and it really helps keep things going. Plus it makes things less awkward and allows us to understand one another’s situations more. Double-up: In fandoms, I expect to double up. Which means I play your oc’s love interest and you play my oc’s love interest. As for how many characters can be in it, I love playing a lot of characters so I could care less how many love interests or characters are put into it in the first place. Such as instead of a main character there are multiple main characters. I love making things combine at one point too, like make everything fit like a puzzle piece.

FANDOMS: AU worlds are totally fine with me as long as the characters don’t really change. Even crossovers, it’s always fun bringing in multiple characters. Shows: Steven Universe (Male & Female gem AU) ★ American Dragon ★ Invader Zim ★★★ Danny Phantom ★ The Batman ★ Transformers Prime ★★ Transformers ★★ TMNT ★ Movies: Any Disney Movie ★

Transformers ★★★★★ Guardians of the Galaxy ★★★

Pirates of the Caribbean ★★★★ Monster in Paris ★ Starwars ★

StarTrek ★

Jurassic Park ★★★ Anime: Black Butler ★★ Tokyo Ghoul ★★★★

Inuyasha ★★★★ Kamisama Hajimemashita ★★★ Noragami ★ Bleach ★★ Fushigi Yuugi ★★ D.N. Angel ★ Fruits Basket ★ Princess Tutu! ★ Inu X Boku ★★★★ Attack on Titan ★ Skip Beat! ★ Amnesia ★★★ Vampire Knight ★★★ Diabolik lovers ★★★ Homestuck ★★★ Videogames: Undertale ★★★★ Destiny ★★ Mass Effect ★★ Borderlands ★★ Fallout 4 (I need to replay the others before I play those characters) ★ Bioshock ★

Pokemon ★★★ Animal Crossing ★ Harvest Moon ★ Legend of Zelda ★

Super Smash Bros ★ Sonic the Hedgehog (etc) ★★★ Fire Emblem ★

Others: Creepypasta ★★★★★ Satan and Me ★ Youtubers ★ Bands ★ Marvel ★★ DC ★★

Tbh I probably forgot some things to put down so please just ask or tell me a list of your fandoms and I’ll tell you whether or not I know them.

ORIGINAL: Romance ★★★★★★★★★ (required) Horror ★★★ Sci-fi ★★★★★ Fantasy ★★★★ Slice of life ★★★ (Pairing Ideas) Criminal/Cop Pirate/Mermaid Alien/human Alien/Alien 2

Monster/human Human/paranormal

Human/Supernatural Human/fallen angel angel/demon

Good/evil

Creation/Creator

Therapist/patient

Victim/kidnapper

Victim/Stalker

Criminal/Innocent

Villain/Villain

Hero/Villain Person/Hero Person/Villain Vampire/human Werewolf/Human

werewolf/vampire

Urban Legend/Human

Mafia/cop

Mafia/victim

CONTACT INFO: Email: [email protected] Discord: Cephalopod#8210 Google Drive: [email protected] If you have any other way you’d like to keep in contact, please just email me and we can discuss the topic further.

#Desperately Seeking Roleplay #roleplay partner search #fandom rp #Original RP Wanted #rp partner wanted #rp partner needed #RP Partner search #RP partner ad #writing partner wanted #submission

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freshginandtonic · 5 years

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My Watch is.. still going

Since starting a new position at work and waking up at 2:30 every morning I have become a hermit - bad for my social life and general wellbeing, but a great time to start watching a new TV series. Or rather, a show that’s not new at all, just one that everyone has been watching for 8 years, and I’m just jumping on the bandwagon now. Yes, I have finally gotten into Game of Thrones. As I write this I have five more episodes of the final season to watch, so I figured now was as good a time as any for some self-reflection on the fact that, in between working ten hours a day, the rest of my time has been devoted to finding out who will end up on the Iron Throne and sleeping.

I’ve always been of the credence that yes, one day when I’m 60 and have enough time, I will in fact sit down and watch Game of Thrones. That all changed at 4am in the last week of May, when I arrived at work to find a package on my desk - w the words ‘unbowed, unbent, unbroken’ written on it - I later learned that was the motto of one of the great houses of GoT - and a USB inside, with the first season all ready for me. Thanks to my colleague Will, my watch had begun.

Throughout each episode I’ve live texted Will my thoughts, emotions and reactions to just about every scene - usually in all capitals. I’ve noticed this has greatly added to the quality of my viewing - it’s nice to know you can send a one line quote from Season 2 episode six and he’ll know exactly where I am in which episode and can respond in kind with a follow up line, appropriate gif or meme. It’s different to the normal viewing experience because while you don’t have the immediacy and intimacy of an in-person response, the anticipation of a text reaction feels like more of a shared, special event - I’m taking time while watching this thing to let you know I’m watching the thing: here are my raw thoughts. Far more exciting.

My phone had to be put down for some moments though - particularly for the Battle of the Bastards - it was such a sensory overload I couldn’t be trusted to text properly AND keep track of Jon Snow.

So I began, a novice in season one (in love with Jon and Robb and protective of Ned - how well did THAT turn out?) and I quickly realised I wasn’t going to be able to get through this without some help. So I had some red wine to cope with the first big death of the season (it’s been so long I can’t really remember who it is now) and got on with it. Then came Ned’s death (cue gasps) and onwards to the most important part of season three - no, not the Red Wedding - you better believe I’m talking about Robb Stark’s first relationship and sex scene w cute healer Talisa. I will say I never thought a scene with a leg amputation could be choked with sexual tension, but let me tell you GoT made it happen (context: Robb is on the battlefield being smouldery, Talisa comes to help a wounded enemy soldier and has to cut his leg off while she and Robb exchange heated flanter) and then they finally get it on after she tells some heart wrenching story about her brother (sad but it went right out of my head as soon as I saw Robb’s bum. It’s the important things).

There’s been a lot written about the shock value of Game of Thrones - killing main characters for the sake of killing them, using sexual violence as a plot device, and gratuitous violence. Regarding the sex and violence; first, there’s a Lot if it. A lot more than I thought. Lots of boobs and bums and moments where I had to pause when a family member came into the room. I was pretty surprised at how normalised this became for me - before long I found myself glad and inwardly cheering when someone got axed, poisoned, or ripped apart by dogs (you all know who I mean here.)

When violence was used, sometimes in not-so-great moments (shall we be reminded of Sansa’s awful rape scene) - it did sometimes serve as a real catharsis to see some truly terrible people be given their comeuppance (Ramsay’s great ending, Joffrey’s wedding, ) Other people who don’t deserve it are brutalised as well (once again Sansa, and how many others I can’t remember). There’s definitely no discrimination on that front.

There’s also a weird sense of redemption. Not in every character (obvs - what show is this again?) but being able to follow a character’s arc in one go without break has made their journey all the more meaningful. Particularly for the character of Theon: (a brief summation: he betrays his adopted family and best friend, then gets mutilated and psychologically tortured and broken down before he breaks down and changes). Seeing him come to back to life and find his morals again has been a real highlight and emotional strongpoint of the show for me. I cheered and teared up for each bout of progress he made - fair play to him, he took his fucking time and made loads of mistakes along the way, but he got there.

Regarding the controversial Ending™ my dad told me he read about one guy who binged the whole show like I’ve done, and he had a markedly improved opinion of the final season compared to other people. Everyone I’ve spoken to has, in their own words, said there’s a Golden Period (roughly seasons 2 - 6), and then everything from then on is basically horse shit. I don’t know if that’s right or I’m in a position to judge yet, but right now there’s nothing more satisfying to see characters who have been on separate journeys for literally 8 seasons come together and interact after so long.

So to sum up watching seven and a half seasons, roughly 68 hours and 4080 minutes of TV in under a month - it’s been A Lot. I think I have popular and unpopular opinions about the characters and storylines (pop: Jaimie and Brienne need to bang) vs (unpop: Dany’s character development - nope and she needs to stop conquering cities pls). I am glad I’ve waited this long to watch it all in one go (if I had to wait a year to find out what happened to Jon Snow after the season five finale I would have fucking RIOTED). I’ve appreciated the small moments: the Night’s Watch banter, the dire pups, Jon and Ygritte’s excellent enemies to lovers relationship (a personal favourite trope of mine), and everything Varys says, to the bigger pieces of the puzzle: Jon’s true heritage, the Stark’s getting avenged, Arya’s and mainly Sansa’s transformation from the girl who wanted to marry Joffrey to the absolute badass bish she is from where I currently sit.

So is my life changed? Nope. But at least now I’m part of the cultural carpet. My watch is nearly over, but what an absolute time its been.

HONOURABLE MENTIONS OF GREAT MOMENTS FOR THOSE IN THE KNOW (AKA EVERYONE ON EARTH)

Sam getting ripped for reading by all the dudes in the Night’s Watch

Dany’s excellent outfit choices in s7/8 - a particular shoutout to the winter outfit of season 7 episode 8 and the grey frock with the red dragon cape (LIVING for the texture)

Ditto Cersei - taking power suits to a whole new level since taking the Iron Throne (this particular outfit is an absolute LEWK and the picture doesn’t do the spiky shoulders justice)

Jon’s transition to the man bun post-resurrection (I personally detest man buns but I absolutely loved this change for him)

Sansa’s dead straight curtain of hair - there’s something super satisfying about it after years of her wearing those Padme Amidala style ‘Southern Style’ hair

The entirety of House Tyrell (particular mention to Lady Olenna who deserves all the awards in the world for only killing one character in this show)

Lady Margaery’s sassy backless dresses (she knows how to make the most of the King’s Landing climate)

Jaime and Brienne’s entire relationship (from the enemies to friends trope to him GIVING HER HIS SWORD AND A WHOLE SUIT OF ARMOUR) - if that’s not a love confession then I will just cut off my own damn hand

The entirety of the shirtless Flex Scene™ of the pilot

Sansa saying the iconique phrase ‘How do you answer these charges, Lord BaELISH’

Any time anyone said the words ‘King in the North’

Battle of the Bastards - need I say more. I won’t big it up like so many of the magazines and entertainment websites did, but it felt like one of the most realistic depictions of a medieval battle you could find. I felt it in my gut. I don’t know how you couldn’t. When Jon couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t breathe.

Bran literally being the group member of the assignment who drags you down bc he just sits in a cave

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fyrapartnersearch · 7 years

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Looking for Original or Fandom Based RP

Intro: I have finally graduated high school, and to celebrate I have decided that it would be best for me to get back into roleplaying so I can keep my brain up and running while I take a break from school for a year; reach out to people and see if I can get something started again. School had been keeping me busy and my old partners all kinda packed up and bounced due to my lack of responses-- which I totally understand-- seeing all of that is behind me now however, I’m hoping that I can finally keep up with things. So- let’s start with an introduction shall we? My name is Ceph, I am 18 years old and have had over 11 years of practice with role playing. Ceph isn’t the only name I go by of course, so if that isn’t to your liking I have nicknames you can use; my friends like to call me Squid or Shell, while online I’m known by “Illustrative Cephalopod” to all of my 2 followers. I know, impressive… I’m pretty sure those are just friends too… I don’t run a blog by the way, I run an art account on the much loved but also very hated Deviantart. Where there is talent and cringe in every corner. I have a Tumblr too-- but anyways, ignoring that, I’m going to go back to the point of this since I don’t want to bore you to death. I am looking for both fandom and original roleplays. Fandoms including the main ones listed above, and the others that I am into listed below along with the rules. Those will be OC/Canon pairings while Original will be-- surprised-- oc/oc pairings. I know people don’t really like reading paragraphs all too much since they just want the rambler to get to the point, so let's start with the rules:

RULES: Style: I am not picky with this, in fact I am known as a Mirror. You wanna write a 4 page novel per response, I will do my best to match it. Want simple dialogue, I will gladly match your style. I have done many roles played in the past and both can be extremely fun and descriptive at times. So really it’s just based on which do you prefer: fast responses or a slower ones? Grammar: I mess up every now and then, nobody's perfect, so I don’t expect you to be. Just no text talk unless it’s OOC and do try your best. I know some people struggle with typing in general. Smut: I don’t like smut without a plot, so don’t come to me planning to create a plot based around smut unless you are able to talk me into it. I can promise the wait will be worth it since I have been writing smut for years, still a virgin though so I may have a few things off, but I do go into detail if you wish me to. Other than that I will fade to black if you have no interest in it. I don’t have a lot of restrictions with smut, it’s writing not reality. Some shit i’d punch people for in real life but over writing it’s just better to stay a fantasy. Pairings/Romance: I don’t do yaoi. I have had terrible experiences with it in the past and do not want to try it again, so don’t message me about it unless you know you can talk me into a realistic relationship between two men that aren’t the usual twinks. F/F I will discuss, but I prefer and focus around M/F pairings. I’ve been writing them since I was a kid so I am most experienced with that.

Transformers ★★★★★ Guardians of the Galaxy ★★★

Pirates of the Caribbean ★★★★ Monster in Paris ★ Starwars ★

StarTrek ★

Jurassic Park ★★★ Anime: Black Butler ★★ Tokyo Ghoul ★★★★

Pokemon ★★★ Animal Crossing ★ Harvest Moon ★ Legend of Zelda ★

Super Smash Bros ★ Sonic the Hedgehog (etc) ★★★ Fire Emblem ★

Others: Creepypasta ★★★★★ Satan and Me ★ Youtubers ★ Bands ★ Marvel ★★ DC ★★

Tbh I probably forgot some things to put down so please just ask or tell me a list of your fandoms and I’ll tell you whether or not I know them.

Monster/human Human/paranormal

Human/Supernatural Human/fallen angel angel/demon

Good/evil

Creation/Creator

Therapist/patient

Victim/kidnapper

Victim/Stalker

Criminal/Innocent

Villain/Villain

Hero/Villain Person/Hero Person/Villain Vampire/human Werewolf/Human

werewolf/vampire

Urban Legend/Human

Mafia/cop

Mafia/victim

#oc rp #multiple paragraph #para #semipara #oneline #short term #long term #email #messenger #tumblr #marvel rp #avengers rp #fire emblem rp #harry potter rp #pokemon rp #smut rp #dc rp #submission

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breadtastesgood · 7 years

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After 200+ hours of playing Breath of the Wild, I have finished my adventure. Here are my thoughts. (Spoilers)

So, almost two months after its release, I have officially completed The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and oh boy, do I have a lot to say about this game. I’m a little hesitant to call this a review, I guess, because it’s not organized too well or intent on giving a score or anything silly like that. But considering my love for this series and acknowledging this game as a huge departure from what many have grown used to, its got my head spinning with a whole bunch of thoughts that I just feel like dumping somewhere. This is mostly an art blog, it feels a little weird sticking this here but I honestly don’t know where else I’d put it. I’ll try to organize my brain and keep things as short as possible, but for the most part I’m just gonna jump in.

Ok, let’s get the big stuff out of the way: I like this game. Even if you haven’t played it, if you’ve so much as searched Zelda within the past month, this near universal opinion shouldn’t be unfamiliar to you. You could go anywhere on the internet around its release and see overwhelming praise, 10/10, a “masterpiece” or even “the best game of all time”. I’m kind of opposed to scores and big statements like that because they have the power to label a game as perfect or flawless, even if they don’t mean to; but the acclaim isn’t necessarily undeserved, this is a great Zelda game, and a really good video game in general. One of the biggest reasons for this praise is attributed to how big of a departure it is, it really sets itself apart from past Zelda games; However, that’s also what inclines me to dissect this title far more than any of its predecessors.

Since this isn’t really a proper review, and I’m assuming most of the people reading this have already played the game in some capacity, I’m just gonna quickly summarize what I like about it. If you want more in depth conversations about the positives you should go ahead and find something on IGN...or Youtube or something I dunno, honestly anywhere, this game has gotten nothing but glowing reviews, it’s not too hard to find something better constructed than my stuff.

-It’s gorgeous, the cel shading and overall homage to japanese animated films *cough* Ghibli *cough* is wholeheartedly welcome and beautiful to look at. This is the first Zelda game where I didn’t want to cut the grass because it was just so damn pretty. I’d constantly find myself placing link in compositionally pleasing settings to just watch the world teem with life and wonder.

-The runes and their implementation with shrines and the divine beasts make for some clever puzzles, even if they are a lot of the times maybe a little too easy and kind of short. When the puzzles are at their best, you can’t help but smile.

-I like the basic concept of the story, it’s nice to see Zelda explored as a character. (Though I will say that Link not being as expressive in this title was a bit of a let down, he’s expressive in the world and not in the cutscenes which is odd. I know there’s a canon reason for this but still, I miss the personality from previous titles. I hope they weren’t trying to reel back on his facial expressions for fear of breaking “immersion” or something silly like that, no one I know sees link as themselves, I’d like to think most people really do see him as his own character.)

-The outfits are great.

-Different weapon types are super cool.

-I actually ended up not hating the voice acting, in fact, I feel like there should have been more of it.

-I love how the world is constantly being traversed by characters that always have something funny or useful to say. I remember one guy telling me that his name was Spinch and his horse was named Spinch too; so completely random. You engage with him further and he’s just like: “We’re both Spinch and I don’t even care.” It killed me, and it’s stuff like that that was part of what made exploring fun.

-It acknowledges the series’ timeline and lore in the most direct way yet. I particularly love how they sprinkled Fi’s theme into scenes with the Master Sword, it gave me chills. Makes you feel like all your past adventures really mattered.

-Music is beautiful, the main theme and Hateno village are some of my new favorites and I can’t wait to hear them Live. Gotta love that Dragon Roost callback too.

-Character design is great. Even the most insignificant npcs have great character designs. This particular reincarnation of Zelda is definitely my favorite appearance wise, the developers did a great job with making her look adorable, dignified, and adventurous all at the same time.

-I like the return of character schedules from Majora’s Mask, makes the world feel alive.

-The champions are all great personalities, but it sucks we couldn’t spend more time with them. (more on this later)

- Prince Sidon is hilarious and really charming.

-Paya is disgustingly cute.

- Bolson is the best god damn npc in the game, that gay ass motherfucker.

-Climbing is fun, unless it rains.

- Fighting is fun (until you’re about 50 hours in and it starts being a little less creative. Once you have a ton of money and really good weapons, the incentive to fight and raid camps isn’t really there anymore unless it's fighting for just fighting’s sake. This made be a bit sad.)

-Based on its basic game mechanics alone, Breath of the Wild is, in general, pretty fun. There’s a lot more I could say, but I feel like it’s fairly obvious what the really good things are in this game.

The list goes on and on and on...but these are my main take aways without getting TOO entrenched into a stream of consciousness. I don’t really feel the need to go too in depth about the games positives, because they’re widely discussed and loudly appreciated across the board; I wanted to be brief with my addition to the echo chamber. With that said, I actually have a few fairly substantial grievances with this game that prevent it from being a masterpiece for me.

Saying this feels like betraying a best friend, especially after waiting 6 years for this game. But I think it’s necessary to put these thoughts out there when a game gets universally good reviews, I want Zelda to grow and improve beyond this point. It’s obvious Nintendo won’t see this shit, but it’s good to get a conversation going, especially when every single Zelda game gets widespread acclaim upon release and only a year or so later do people tend to tone it down a little. This is fairly ironic in my case, as Skyward Sword is one of my favorite games and it seems to have the starkest contrast between its initial opinions and those that popped up a year after. I just have some things that really irk me about this game, which sucks because I actually love it a great deal, I’m super torn.

My biggest takeaway from 200 hours of traveling across Breath of the Wild’s world was that its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness. Nintendo set out to spread its wings and build this immense world that inspires wonder and awe, and it certainly does that, but I feel like that’s mostly all the game is at times. It’s funny, because as soon as I start to say stuff like this, I can’t help but think, “Wow that’s actually really great, I’m glad the game went this direction.” But I also feel heavily conflicted about that direction’s consequences. This may sound strange and it’s not really bad, but I felt like the world is almost so open ended with itself that its identity is spread a little thin.

I’m kind of going against my own logic here, because I’ve always wanted a Zelda game with an immense amount of side quests to beef up the experience outside of the main quest. I’ve prayed for a huge world to explore, to really feel the enormity of this land that needed to be saved. And there really is a lot to do, there's a ton, but only a handful of the sidequests outside the shrines have much heft. The game doesn’t really have a set pace as a result, which can be seen as a good thing I guess. I can agree with the sentiment that this choice was necessary as a stepping stone going forward, I think Zelda definitely benefits from the nonlinearity approach, and Nintendo going as far as they did with it this time will help them see its advantages and disadvantages. If Skyward Sword was an extreme in linearity, Breath of the Wild is an extreme in the exact opposite direction. In my opinion, they both still work well in their own regards, albeit in incredibly different ways.

When I say that the game doesn’t have as much of an identity compared to past Zelda’s, I mean that in a way where the identity of the game is largely shaped by the player’s own experience and not by the narrative itself. This can be seen as a huge triumph in player agency, where the power (or in this case courage) really is in the hands of the player. But you can’t curate nonlinearity, at least not entirely. As a result, we tend to lose some of the pacing that made past titles feel “epic”. I guess what I’m getting at is that my main gripe has to do with how the game’s narrative structure comes together.

The developers were definitely aware of a narrative problem, as they needed a way to glue the game together story wise, and the memories were a pretty clever way to do it; honestly, I don’t know how else they could have made it work with their open air concept. But as much as I find the story compelling and interesting, there’s simply not enough of it, which is a real shame because you feel a need to get closer to these characters, especially the champions. Much of this game feels like you are showing up late to the party. There's a weird dichotomy between the past and present as a result. You end up feeling like you need to care more about the champions in the past, but characters in the present end up getting more development, just less emotional weight attributed to them. It’s a weird flip flop, because I loved Prince Sidon as a character, and thought he was the most developed out of all the main quest based npcs, but Mipha kind of steals the climax of the Zora’s Domain story. What sucks about this is that Mipha has, what appears to be on the surface, a tragic and emotionally affecting story, but we don’t get enough time to dwell on it really, so we’re in this weird flux. This past and present problem actually has made me feel the most disconnected from Link than I ever have, and if I was gonna be disconnected I would have at least liked to have seen him show a little more personality, but he only does this in small instances in the present.

This formula disappointed me more and more with each main questline, especially when all the others tended to be less concerned with getting you familiar with or attached to their respective characters. The worst offender is the Rito area, which I swear can be completed in an hour. It really cheats Rivali out of getting any meaningful development, which is a huge missed opportunity because he was funny, quippy, and a nice rival character for Link. Imagine meeting Groose at the beginning of Skyward Sword, except at the end of the tutorial someone pushes him off Skyloft and he straight up dies, the end. Think about how big of a missed opportunity that would be. That’s kind of how this felt.

Now I know that you can argue that Zelda has never been about the story, but honestly I still thinks that’s up to the player, no matter how simple these stories tend to be. It’s mostly less about story and more about how much time is spent on the fun characters Zelda is known for, and the game loses a bit of its heart as a result. A lot of people, like me, are super into the lore and the characters this franchise has to offer; things don’t need to be convoluted like Kingdom Hearts or emotionally complex like the Last of Us. Many players enjoy the adventure of befriending characters, helping them with their problems, and feeling fulfilled by that alone.

Quests that had this fulfillment element were my favorite, such as cooking a rock for a malnourished Goron to help him regain his strength, or building a town from the ground up with a bizarre cast of carpenters that you can’t help but adore. These are rewarding for me, not because of the loot, but because it’s simply just entertaining and makes me feel like I really accomplished something. Once I reached about 90 hours, I didn’t need rupees, or another royal claymore, what I was really looking for was a reflection of how I impacted the world around me. I wanted to suspend my disbelief and truly get absorbed in this world not only for its beauty and sheer size, I wanted to feel like I mattered to its inhabitants too. And the game does this enough to be fairly satisfactory. Though, there are plenty of quests that get halfway there but end up feeling more like fetch quests, which aren’t so bad if they have a nice reward, but they’re still kind of bland and sometimes a chore.

To kind of wrap all this up, I want to say that Breath of the Wild’s biggest and most glaring problem is that its main quest is severely lacking. There is a lot to do in this game, just not a lot of “big” and memorable things. There’s an almost endless list of small challenges, but few end up feeling all that compelling. I know a lot of people have been talking about the dungeons being a huge weakness, and I think that's definitely part of the problem. There really needed to be more substantial dungeons in this game, I’d say there’s about a dungeon and a half in this title. Maybe we can have a discussion about how the shrines make up for that, but I feel like at least for me, most of them were very simple and too many of them were rewards for easy feats or tests of strength. All things considered, the breadth of this game is impressive, but imagine if you fit a main quest from The Wind Waker or Twilight Princess on top of this huge world; imagine big dungeons with a well paced main quest, along with all these sidequests and a beautiful landscape, that would be amazing! I know this comparison has been made a bit too much, but Skyrim found a way to have a good linear main quest packed into a non linear world, you could in fact avoid it altogether and just do “side quests”. Many of its sidequests had significant weight to them that made them feel like they could've been part of the main mission, you weren’t left with a sense of emptiness if you avoided the main route. I think Zelda could learn a lot from this kind of approach to open world games.

Now I will say that there’s a lot to Breath of the Wild’s main quest that I really love (i’ll be doing a lot of fan art because of it!), I just think it needs to be expounded upon a bit more. There’s all the makings of a true masterpiece here, but the center of it feels a bit fragmented. Bigger dungeons, bigger story, more enemy types, more villages etc. I think the game needs more of these large central elements. There's so much I could say about this game, but that would take forever, these are more or less my biggest criticisms. I once again want to reiterate that I like Breath of the Wild and I really love Zelda as a series, I can’t stress that enough. Feel free to disagree with me and maybe start up a dialogue through messages or something, I’m always willing to discuss! I’m not super focused on checking this for structural issues, it’s not really an organized essay, sorry if it was a bit rambly.

Thanks for reading!!!

Sidenote: I’m aware of the story DLC and new dungeon in the future. I’m extremely excited about this and the DLC will hopefully address my grievances with the game.

#Zelda #Breath of the wild #The legend of zelda #The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild #loz #I'm critiquing a zelda game...#hope I don't get killed

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Crunchyroll Favorites 2018 Part Two: VIDEO GAMES!

Welcome back for Part Two of Crunchyroll Favorites 2018! Yesterday, we shared our favorite anime and manga of the past year, but this time, it's all about our favorite VIDEO GAMES!

I always like to start these end-of-year lists by saying something like "2018 was no 1998 (or 2005, or 2017)," but y'know what? 2018 was a very good year for video games, and I don't feel right saying otherwise. Games about dads, games about the dead, people still playing Overwatch and Breath of the Wild with plenty of gas left in the tank, we got a new Call of Duty and a new Assassin's Creed as expected, and I told an ungodly amount of people to buy Stardew Valley for their Switches.

The rules were simple: only games that were released (or received a re-release) in 2018, or had a major update or expansion. Now, let's get started!

Nate Ming

Dragon Ball FighterZ- What a world we live in where the purest, meanest fighting game to come out in 2018 is also its most beautiful. FighterZ is exacting and ruthless when it comes to advanced play, but is still accessible enough to let new players have a total blast. And for once, it's a Dragon Ball game that not only plays excellently, but is filled to the brim with callbacks to the manga, TV anime, and movies--what absolute perfection.

Yakuza 6: The Song of Life- The end of Kazuma Kiryu's long, violent road took us from the sleepy streets of a Hiroshima neighborhood back to the bustling Kamurocho. The Yakuza games are so perfect, and full of so much to do: recruiting for a gang, managing a baseball team, adopting kittens, lifting weights, babysitting, beating the crap out of people--this was the best way to say goodbye to the Dragon of Dojima, and a surprisingly thoughtful and emotionally smart look at masculinity, fatherhood, and legacy.

God of War- The other Dad Game this year was also a great ride, this time dealing with a regretful father who wants to make sure his child never ends up like him. This game really felt like a long holiday weekend with my own old man, making it equal parts endearing and infuriating.

Return of the Obra Dinn- A rich, multilayered mystery from the creator of the equally-slick Papers Please, there were no games in 2018 that took over my life like The Return of the Obra Dinn. I was taking notes, studying the ship's layout and crew's roles, and basically becoming the investigator character as I worked to find out what killed everyone aboard the H.M.S. Obra Dinn. What a ride.

Into the Breach- I'm kind of a perfectionist, which makes a game like Into the Breach so much more difficult for me to play. This is a game about either making hard turn-based giant mech-vs-kaiju choices and living with them, or constantly resetting the timeline to try and get things perfectly right this time around. Spoiler alert: you very rarely will.

Honorable Mentions: GRIS, Yakuza Kiwami 2, Mega Man 11

Cayla Coats

Hollow Knight (NS)- I’m a big fan of so-called “Metroidvania” action/adventure/platformer games, and Hollow Knight is the best I’ve played in a long time. The game feels wonderful to control, the player character and attacks both having a real sense of weight to them. Wrap it all up in some beautiful 2D sprite and background artwork as well as an ethereal and haunting soundtrack and you’ve got one great game and one happy Cayla.

Soulcalibur VI- I honestly haven’t played a Soul game since Soulcalibur II, and just happened to play this entry after my roommate bought it. And I love it. Every character is a joy to use, and offers the seemingly impossible mixture of accessibility and complexity. Also Voldo is still… Voldo, and that’s worth something, right?

Night in the Woods (NS)- I missed out on this indie gem when it first launched in 2017, but thanks to the surprising indie game oasis that is the Switch, I got to enjoy it early this year! Equal parts Animal Crossing, Gone Home, and Twin Peaks, this cute-but-creepy coming-of-age tale makes the best of its midwestern setting.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate- I mean… it’s Smash. It still rules. There are approximately 3 billion really fun modes to try out and 9 billion characters to unlock. It’s just good. Go play it.

Nicole Mejias

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate- The amount of hype this game generated was one of an undying level. Was that hype warranted? Oh, hell YES! Super Smash Bros. Ultimate is an insanely fun game with unending hours of mayhem for you and your buddies! And most importantly, EVERYONE is there!

Yakuza Kiwami 2- I’ve been playing through every single Yakuza game available, and it’s been one gaming journey that I’m glad I took! The series really has it all: hot-blooded action, romance, heart-wrenching drama, and even comedy, which wasn’t something I was expecting at all. Some of the fights in this game had me on the edge of my seat and made me fall completely in love with the series. If you haven’t checked out the series yet, now’s the perfect time!

Battle Chef Brigade (NS)- Ever since I heard about this game, I’ve been itching to play it. A challenging puzzle game with some beat ‘em up elements? I’m ALL IN! Battle Chef Brigade did not disappoint; it’s such a charming game with a lively cast of characters and intriguing Iron Chef-like story! My only complaint is that it was over way too soon and it left me hungry for more.

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee- Pokémon is pretty important to me; playing Pokémon Red as a kid helped me grasp the English language when I was still living in Puerto Rico. Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee is a passionate love letter to Pokémon Red/Blue/Yellow, and experiencing all the battles and events from those past games in this brand-new one was a delight! A must for Pokémon fans for sure!

Deltarune- Deltarune is probably one of the biggest surprises in 2018, with Toby Fox giving us the most delightful of treats on Halloween! It didn’t take long for me to be smitten with this new world with some familiar faces we all know and love. This time around, your choices don’t matter, but what will that mean for the next chapter? We’ll just have to wait and see.

Daniel Dockery

Dragon Ball FighterZ- Finally, Dragon Ball gets a fighting game that lives up to the franchise’s immense legacy. Not only is it fun, but it’s a huge “LOOK AT HOW AWESOME THIS IS!” love letter to the series as a whole.

Monster Hunter World- I’ve been playing Monster Hunter since 3, and I must say that while I deeply enjoy the 3DS entries, it was nice to really feel the scale of these gargantuan beasties that I’m tracking down. Switch Axe 4 Lyfe.

Pokémon Let’s Go Pikachu/Eevee- Didn’t expect to like this game. Ended up loving this game. Tattoo Pikachu on my eyeballs, for I need to see nothing else.

That One Mission From Red Dead Redemption 2 You Know The One I’m Talking About- Walking up to a mansion with your crew to rescue a boy, fighting your way through it, and then burning the whole thing to the ground is a high moment in a game that could go from satisfying to “JUST EQUIP THE RIGHT GUN, ARTHUR, COME ON” in a heartbeat.

Luigi’s Mansion 3DS- My favorite Mario-related game that isn’t Kart or Smash Bros. came out on the 3DS. Clear the mansion of its ghosts for the sixth time in my life? Gladly, Professor E. Gadd.

Peter Fobian

God of War- An awesome reimagining of an old franchise, and one of my greatest hopes for ambitious narrative single player titles in the AAA industry. It absolutely deserved every award it got in the Game Awards. The story, characters, and world were all top-notch. The cinematics were fantastic and brutal. I can’t wait for the sequel.

Monster Hunter World- My first dip into the Monster Hunter franchise, this game probably had the biggest skill curve I’ve ever seen in cooperative gameplay, with mechanics stacked on mechanics that seemed to have no bottom. I got a lot of frustrating and satisfying hours out of this game, and I’m still not sure if I’ve discovered even half the things you can do in it.

Hitman 2- There were a lot of questions about the future of Hitman that were riding on this release, and I’m very happy to report that the newest title in the franchise is extremely good. This one got particularly creative, with some of the mission set-ups and conditions and each new map was excellent, even making American suburbia into an interesting mission area.

GRIS- I’m glad I was able to find time to play this final addition before years end because it definitely deserves a spot. Although I can’t really say GRIS is unique in being a atmospheric platformer focusing on depression/loss, it might be the best. The visuals and soundtrack were amazing, especially together. The environments and use of camera were also excellent. Also go play The Missing.

Dead Cells- I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of indie roguelike platformers and Dead Cells, as above with GRIS, may be one of the best of its genre. It’s got a cool aesthetic, some wicked gallows humor, and an unlocking system of items and powers that can result in the player having to formulate some absolutely ridiculous strategies from life to life.

Joseph Luster

Celeste- Playing Celeste reminded me of all the fun I had when Super Meat Boy first came out, but this time I actually cared about the characters and the journey. The narrative is woven into the action, as it should be in a video game, and it actually has something interesting to say. The way Celeste treats difficulty and accessibility will no doubt prove influential, as well. At its core, though, it’s simply an unbelievably tight platformer that provides ample challenges for players of all skill levels.

Ni no Kuni II- The sequel to Ni no Kuni isn’t actually all that much like Ni no Kuni. The battle system is completely different, the Pokémon-esque monster collecting is gone, and the story has been boiled down to the bare essence of Japanese RPG motivation. It’s almost embarrassingly earnest, but it’s also gorgeous, and combat is a joy for the full 30-hour run. There’s plenty to play around with after the credits roll, too, but I was mostly just proud of myself for actually having fun with and completing an RPG in 2018.

Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon- The award for “Game I Actually Bothered to Beat Multiple Times in 2018” definitely goes to this unassuming bite-sized prequel to Koji Igarashi’s upcoming Bloodstained. It’s so much more than just a downloadable “extra,” and in many ways it out-Castlevania IIIs the original Castlevania III. Play this game immediately if you haven’t, and take the time to get every ending for maximum satisfaction.

Dragon Ball FighterZ- I don’t really play fighting games anymore. I haven’t in years, despite trying to pick them back up seriously when Street Fighter V first came out. Not living with roommates anymore has a lot to do with it, but that enthusiasm roared back to life when Dragon Ball FighterZ arrived in jaw-dropping style. This is the essential anime fighter, and nothing made me and my friends cheer and shout at the screen more in 2018.

Iconoclasts- Like Dragon Ball FighterZ, Iconoclasts came early in the year and started 2018 out on a really strong note. This is probably the “smallest” a list has ever been for me in terms of the sheer scale of the games themselves, but titles like Iconoclasts just fired up my imagination more than the big AAA beasts. From the lush sprite-based visuals to the soundtrack and the excellent pacing, this one is going to stick in my mind for years to come.

Nick Creamer

Hollow Knight/Dead Cells- Though both of these were technically 2017 releases, their continuing developer support and my own delayed play schedule means I’m celebrating them now anyway. And they’re great! If you enjoy games like Metroid or Castlevania, you absolutely must pick up the richly atmospheric and remarkably vast Hollow Knight. If you want an experience like that in a more arcadey, roguelike package, Dead Cells cannot be missed. It’s nice to live in a golden age of challenging indie action games!

Celeste- Speaking of great indie titles, this year’s Celeste likely needs no introduction. Though it theoretically falls in the same punishing platformer space as something like Super Meat Boy, Celeste’s charming storytelling, neatly partitioned challenges, and robust assist features mean it’s a platforming experience that basically anyone could enjoy. Thoughtfully written and brilliantly designed, Celeste shouldn’t be missed by any platforming enthusiasts.

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate- I am perfectly comfortable admitting I’m one of those Smash fans who up until now, basically just stuck to Melee. The combat in Brawl and Smash 4 always just felt far too floaty for me, with both my character jumps and the impact of my hits making me feel like I was constantly wearing a big balloon suit. Ultimate counters that complaint with crisp, speedy combat harkening back to Melee’s rapid-fire exchanges, along with the most luxurious suite of characters and secondary modes Smash has ever seen. This truly feels like the definitive Smash experience.

Monster Hunter World- MHW was my first experience with the Monster Hunter franchise, and it was glorious. Well, it was eventually glorious--the first fifteen or so hours were an interminable learning process, while I figured out the game’s inscrutable controls and systems, ponderous movement, and extremely vague directions. But after that, hoo boy! Monster Hunter is essentially “Boss Rush: The Videogame,” complete with dozens of intimidating creatures who all demand their own hunting strategy. As an insatiable gobbler of challenging RPG-adjacent action games, I had great times hunting deadly beasts all through last winter.

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And that's a wrap for Part Two! Be sure to join us at the same time tomorrow for our third and final installment, focusing on the EVERYTHING ELSE of 2018--movies, TV, books, comics, food, life experiences, and more! If you're in the mood for more CR Favorites, here are the links to past years' features:

Crunchyroll Favorites 2017 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2016 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2015 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2014 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2013 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll Favorites 2012 Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Crunchyroll News' Best of 2011 Part One | Part Two

What were your favorite video games of 2018? Remember, this is a FAVORITES list, not a BEST-OF list, so there are no wrong answers--sound off in the comments and share your favorites!

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Nate Ming is the Features Editor for Crunchyroll News and creator of the long-running Fanart Friday column. You can follow him on Twitter at @NateMing. His comic, Shaw City Strikers, launches January 15, 2019.

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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