#WHAT does this game need a sequel for. it had such a nice ending

[sukunasun]

WHERE OUR PIECES FALL IN PLACE | NANAMI KENTO X CHUBBY READER

instead of an expected reunion—imagines that he’ll meet you in the middle of the street randomly one day by fate. maybe in a garden among pretty flowers but you’d be the only thing he can’t take his eyes off. or by the ocean, no one else but a man confessing his sins that shall be buried below water and he’ll be anew, he'll be forgiven—nanami is only left with silence on your end.

a sequel to 'SAY IT'S HERE'

sometime in the middle of the twin's birthday party, when the candles are blown out and yuuji's tiger face paint starts to crack around the corners of his smile, geto hands nanami two slices of cake. nice thick wedges of strawberry and chocolate, alternating pink and brown towered high with rainbow sprinkles on top.

it isn't a surprise the twins couldn't decide on a cake flavour so geto layered them both, however, what does surprise nanami is that he hands it to him on a plate with ice cream on the side as well. he pokes his spoon into the melting scoop of vanilla and wonders how people have the appetite for something this insanely sweet. then looks up to see gojo gobbling down his fifth serving of cake, exerting himself in getting that last piece of boba at the very bottom of his milk tea, plastic cup contracting with these resounding pops they both ignore. not to mention that he's already gone through two pints of rocky road.

geto's face is stoic but reluctantly so, a crease forming between furrowed brows, "thanks for coming, and thank you for the gifts, the girls love them," is all he says, voice even. despite his loyalties to you, he doesn't forget that he's nanami's friend too.

which nanami could commend him for, he doesn't make it about himself, this is the day his daughters were born, he's meant to celebrate. call it common ground. geto's lips lift at the corners when he looks over to see the two of them slowly prying wrapping paper off the multiple boxes nanami had flown in. he'd been undecided on what to get because gifts are not his strong suit, he's never understood the need for such materialistic representations of love but he likes the twins, so he bought...everything under the sun. (yuuji helps them with the bigger ones and in the process, screeches so loud he almost breaks a window when it's revealed that nanako and mimiko have received not one, but two game consoles.)

"by the way, i'm not picking sides but i think you should talk to her," geto says warily, his hand clasped beneath his chin as he eases his way into the subject. to say that he's torn would be an understatement because he always does this. gets in his feelings and worries til grey hairs and frown lines appear yet, it shows. geto can't help but care for others and make it known, say it with words that don't get caught in his throat, and proves it through his many sentimental ways.

nanami almost dismisses the notion because it's not like he hasn't tried. it's been the longest time without seeing or hearing from you since...well, since you broke up with him via call, left your job, and stopped coming around the usual places. the cafe, the bakery. there had been a few missed calls in between (47 to be exact, all sparingly spaced out across weeks because he doesn’t want to seem too desperate. he's meticulous like that) some voice messages he's left in your chat that probably went unheard. he's even contemplated if he should show up at your apartment. (but he's not crazy. of course not.)

instead of an expected reunion—imagines that he’ll meet you in the middle of the street randomly one day by fate. maybe in a garden among pretty flowers but you’d be the only thing he can’t take his eyes off. or by the ocean, no one else but a man confessing his sins that shall be buried below water and he’ll be anew, he'll be forgiven—nanami is only left with silence on your end.

"i appreciate your concern, but this is neither the time nor the place," nanami's face is impassive, showing no signs of honing any hard feelings. not on the surface at least. "besides, what good will it do, she has moved on." a tugging in his chest is felt as the memories of you showing up at his favourite bookstore with another man come flooding back.

gojo interrupts his thoughts, "about damn time, she's liked you for ages, i tried warning her but who knows what she ever saw in you," he complains while geto clicks his teeth and shoots him a piercing glare because he's definitely not helping the situation.

nanami clenches his jaw, he doesn't need reminders. he of all people should be very well aware that he sits in geto's living room with pompompurin ears on his head feeling at his very lowest because he's lost you and he lives with that regret every day.

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the tokyo museum hosts an exhibition on rodin sculptures. his life's work displayed in phases, epochs depicting the best and little-known, of stories centred around great heroes and lovers. their lives and feelings depicted in dynamic poses, down to the most intimate of embraces chipped and carved into bronze, alabaster, and marble. a preserved intimacy, a history behind every look and touch. haunting and somewhat forever living...just like the image of nanami in that bookstore haunts you.

"thanks for that," you say to the man beside you. voice travelling over the loud chatter among patrons. young and old and excessively rich. looking down, you peer over the pamphlet tucked by your elbow, stepping before different sculptures of varying sizes. you're stunned by the mastery of craft and precision but the emotions evoking within you are hesitant. like it was...wrong to be here with someone else. to be looking at these figures and having no relation to them. all that passion and yearning, why is it that you feel grief instead. a part of you missing.

"i saw it in his eyes, he's guilty," higuruma strolls next to you, bored out of his mind. “i mean, he looks guilty.”

“i’ve never seen him like that," you explain. not even when there were rumors about his past breakups floating around the office. nanami only seemed nonchalant. like it barely affected him. cutting someone loose a mere task he's checked off before it's back to work.

“what did you think he’d look like?” higuruma asks.

“relieved? happy?” he looked like a shell of himself, hollow, miserable. you wished you could relish in that, take pleasure in the way he seemed so empty, so dejected. payback, you think. for only loving you in silence, and thus, he suffers in silence too. but you find that you've been feeling just a brokenhearted.

hiromi shrugs, “from what i've seen, you’re entirely capable of making him as..." he pauses—tilts his head when you both come closer to a sculpture—then continues, "...afflicted as he is with you."

whatever hiromi means by that, you don’t know. his voice almost lost on your ears when he moves away from you to examine it closer. here, the sculpture portrays the man as a figure who is fully at the woman's disposal due to the adoration he possesses for her. 'The Eternal Idol' it reads. tenderness, sensuality, submission, and humility to the world in a woman's form.

you dismiss him, “please, you say that like he was head over heels in love with me, i think he just pitied me,” luring you in with the homemade bread and leatherbound jane austen. a voice so soothing and a face you see in every other man. an urge to place him next to them in comparison, hoping they’d shift and mold themselves to be the capable salaryman with blue shirts and a suit jacket that pools over your shoulders, smelling like tea and galettes and that they’d be just like him. only that they’d love you differently, loved you more, kiss you til your lips swell, and there wouldn’t be a need to hide or to fear or make you chase after the unknown, you’d know he loves you and only you. 

"these accusations you make are unfounded,” higuruma merely states, "and it's also rather unjust to yourself." when he turns towards you, you expect to see a teasing, flirty glint in his eye. instead, you're greeted with nothing but his flat expression before he looks away. oh, he was just being factual.

“you should be his attorney," you try to joke.

his lips quirk up by the corners, “not even i could plead his case, the man reeks of remorse, even if he did deceive you, he’s not proud of it, which makes him less likely to defend himself..." his hands come up to brush over the engraved caption on the plaque. they're nice hands, rough, but a little too big, too gentle, like he could let you go at any moment if he wishes. nothing like nanami's. if nanami were to hold your hand he'd hold on for dear life.

“there’s no justice in that,” higuruma's decided he's done with this sculpture, picks his head up and moves away to the next one, he doesn't get attached. he doesn't linger. maybe that's why you never took things further, he's always seen things in black and white, like you were just another one of his cases. saw the teary look on your face, the long hours pouring over every detail leading up to the end and he couldn't leave it alone.

you sigh, wrapping a hand around his arm as you continue to walk down crowded corridors. "speaking like a true lawyer, one who's so distinguished."

he breathes out a rare laugh, not a real one, just these puffs of air he exhales along with a grin. "so depraved, haven't i told you the system's fucked?"

at that, you let out a laugh too, for the first time in awhile, "i'm afraid it's the same when it comes to matters of the heart." you look up, savouring him for now. he's just here right the wrongs, bring some perspective, and that was all there was to it.

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by midnight, your phone starts buzzing by your side, jittering against the mattress. without looking at the screen, you have an idea of who it might most likely be on the other end.

ding. ding. you reach for it to see that it's nanami again. for the fifth time today. a new voice message he's recorded for you sitting there in your messages. waiting as always, for your recognition, for your reply. you wouldn't want to give him the privilege or the pleasure. you've broken up with him after all, but you're unable to pull away from him and his futile attempts. forget that you have yet to wake from the lingering bits of a dream, or that you've got an interview come morning.

nanami's voice fills the emptiness of your room, spine-tingling and molten hot. you almost miss the intros—hi, hello, please bear with me, all the usual. you've heard it in clipped and composed tones, as if he's rehearsed these lines, must have written them down on his legal pad before pressing record, his lines spoken awkward and uncertain way, tightly wound in guilt.

only now he sounds different. the exhausted drawl, the languid pulling of his syllables, slurring and seductive. "those hyacinths..." he starts, "don't over-water them." he had them delivered to your place and you had only accepted them because they were a gift, it would be sad to turn them down after he's paid for them. plus, it would be a shame to send them back, these florists have put in so much effort.

nanami pauses for a second, you hear him taking big gulps, no doubt the whiskey bottle is empty at this point before he continues, "am i any closer to getting you back?" after a short pause, the message goes silent, like he's realised what he's asked.

you press play on another where rambles on, or whatever is nanami's version of rambling. a deep voice rumbling from his chest, a heavy sigh, a string of words you can't tell decipher. if they're genuine or not with how needy he gets. nanami never gets needy. nanami never begs. it's just the alcohol talking, you wouldn't know what he's like when in the throes of proclamation...still, his voice curls its way into your heart, wringing it tight when he drawls, "tell me so i can be put out of my misery, or better yet, come back into my life."

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geto and gojo sit across from you at the library. their bodies dwarfing the kid-size chairs and desks. close by, mimiko and nanako work on their math problems both with equal amounts of distaste but suguru's promised they'll get double the snacks as a reward for tackling their multiplication tables, hence they try their best, fingers counting down one by one.

on the other hand, you're busy colouring a page from a fairytale. a scene of a royal couple dancing at a ball, lingering by the edges is a crowd looking on happily as they twirl under glittering stars, a whole universe cheering for their union. you hold back the forlorn sigh as your hand involuntarily reaches for a yellow crayon, even here, you wish to colour in blonde locks below the prince's crown. you can't see it any other way.

"sorry about the party," you apologize, missing their birthday bash hadn't been the plan, but suguru had given you the heads up on nanami's appearance and you thought...it wouldn't be a good idea. things were still too fresh, too new, it would've been uncomfortable for everyone.

you know it was a selfish excuse, but suguru won't hold it against you. "i understand," he replies but his smile doesn't reach his eyes. 'i understand' doesn't mean the same as 'it's okay to miss out on a special day because you're afraid of conflict'. which is why you're trying extra hard to make up for it now. shifting focus to your friends instead, you avert your attention. dodging any discussion about the breakup, or nanami, or the fact that you cling on.

satoru however, doesn't fall for any of it and jumps into his interrogation. his honesty comes out sharp and biting albeit genuinely oblivious—"how long are you planning on avoiding him?" his voice is too loud for comfort and the librarian would shush him if it weren't for his charm. he's been flirting with her so they get to check out as many books as they want, plus, waiving late fees goes against geto's rules but he'll take it as a kindness for now.

you roll your eyes, he's way too good at reading you, or maybe you've just been so transparent anyone would've notice. "i'm not avoiding him, it's called moving on," you try to reason, although it's starting to sound exactly as gojo puts it.

nanami chases you down for reconciliation and nothing more, a settlement of sorts. you've already assumed it was because of guilt. he doesn't want to be the bad guy possibly. why else would nanami be leaving messages, making calls, and sending a million flowers if not as an act of atonement.

and when has he ever needed to repent, nanami's always been so aloof, you've seen him brush things off with a calm and cool demeanour, sorry is merely a word he gives to strangers he's accidentally bumped into on the train. he'll come out of this with that perfect head on his shoulders held high after the remnants of past memories have faded and no longer hold any significance to him. he could always bake more french loaves and there's more wine to be tasted. he'll continue siphoning his emotions into the separate little folders of his makeup. you've never taken up the space of his heart because that shall be reserved for someone else—"he'll get over me in due time," you say, loathing how the words taste, how it makes you hate yourself.

"geez," satoru shrugs off the tension from his shoulders, "melodrama doesn't look good on you," the jab strikes where it hurts the most.

your face falls, give it a few seconds and you'll start crying in the middle of the children's section, "i guess i wanted more," you swallow down the embarrassment, typical that you've ended up here. back to where you've always been. single, jobless, a few pounds heavier, a few more cracks in your aching heart.

"there's a lot going on—" suguru cuts in, hoping it'll make you feel better, "—it's okay to feel as you do." sympathetic as it is, you start to wonder if you've traded in a birthday for a pity party when there's a truth in what satoru says.

in the silence that passes, the scene you work on is full of colour, save for the stars you've left in white. the twins have completed their exercise sheet, and satoru stretches his limbs and yawns like a cat basking under an afternoon sun. suguru might give him a pep-talk after this and he might feel bad for bringing up the whole thing, but it has to be said— "talk to the guy, he's never looked worse."

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on the walk home, the clouds start to gather. greying skies and thunder roaring above you. behind the clearing of mist and cold, you see him standing right outside your building. not knowing how long he's been there, but judging by the steady rhythm of his pacing feet, nanami's been waiting for a while. if anything, he's patient and—god help you—persistent.

the drizzle gets heavier and rain pours down over his body, soaking through the layers of fabric; his coat, his tie, his white shirt. golden blonde hair turning into a muddy shade of ash, strands clumping together, droplets hanging off and sticking to his skin. to his foggy glasses, thin-rimmed and shining. although drenched and dishevelled, he is every bit the man you love, and you hate that you can't look away, turn him down and kick him to the curb, pretend he doesn't exist.

taking him in, your heart clenches when the light of a lamppost next to you cuts a glowing line across his sullen face, highlighting the deep depths of his cheeks. you see that he looks exhausted, more so than usual, and he's lost a little bit of weight. you think to say something, ask him if he's been skipping meals, that it's no way to deal with his remorse. anything that would break the tension but kento beats you to it.

"we need to talk," he says in a low voice but it takes almost every fibre of his being to say it, "i thought this was the only way we could do so." he recognizes what he's doing, he's being invasive, he's being desperate and when was that word ever associated with him. not til now he supposes, not before you.

“don't you know it’s embarrassing to chase after an ex?" the bite won't be drowned out by pitter-patter, it stings, but he doesn't move an inch. swallows that lump in his throat and prepares himself for the words he's about to utter.

"i am not the best with words, but believe me when i say i am not ashamed of you–" he pauses. waits for your reaction but chooses to continue, nothing will come in between, not here and now, "forgive me—for my ignorance, for my restraint, it is because of me that you felt our relationship was one-sided."

that should do it he thinks, he's laid it out on the table, he's said what he came to say. placid and concise. and at first, he's relieved, he professes and proclaims without expectation. he didn't come here hoping for more, that part of him has been tampered with and put out by his own self-doubt. he only wishes to let you know. he'll force himself to be content with solely acknowledgement.

but he starts to worry when he sees the anger seep into your features. “you’re upset,” he states, unsatisfied, "i thought it would be best if we got closure—"

“did you come all this way just for closure?" your question hangs in the air. each passing second filled with the sound of raindrops and the million thoughts bouncing off his brain. you shouldn't put him through this anymore, it's practically ruining him from the inside out. “you’re forgiven, let it ease your conscience,” you say, ready to turn away and leave him for good this time.

he sucks in a breath, frustration prickling all over, “i am a man that’s lacking, trying to convey to you the things that cannot be conveyed, i have never been a passionate person and you knew this." you can see it so obviously in his expression that you've made him this way, twisting him up into knots over the need for verbalization, for definitions and arguments he can't give.

your eyes narrow, getting defensive. you always thought you could be the exception, that you'd be the one to experience it firsthand, his fervent need for you, whatever version of it you could get. "you denied me in front of people you cared about, you were always so cautious and constipated, like you couldn't bear it, i get that you're not into big girls but—"

"that's not true!" he says quickly, voice rising with tension. his hands come up to hold your face in them, thumbs rubbing over damp cheeks and warm skin before realizing...he's neevr actually felt it. how does a man concede, he's scared, fearful of an inevitable end, "i didn't want to lose you," he admits softly. lips less than an inch away, breaths a hair's width apart.

you try to pry his hands away, shaking your head, there's no use when "you can't love me the way i want you to and maybe i'm not the one who's meant to be loved by you."

nanami doesn't let go, "i can only love you the only way i know how, it was never my intention to make you feel less than—" with no more hesitance, no more weighing speeches and consequences, he tells you the truth—"my love for you...has made me selfish. it has consumed me, i want you so much that i don't know what to do with it. why should i put you through that, burden you with me."

"you were never a burden 'ken," his name sounds so bittersweet, as if there's still a fondness there, the way you gently hold those syllables without spite but he hears the longing, the hurt. "i didn't want you holding back for my sake, i've liked you for so long, i was ready for it all, even when it came to losing you, i don't need you to be something you're not."

he's never had that ability, despite his efforts, he isn't capable of detachment, with all his distractions and defeats, he's ultimately bound to you, too well tangled in his soul. "you shall move on but i cannot do the same—my life starts and ends with you, do you understand?” 

you nod silently, looking up at him with widened eyes and catching the specks of dew on his lashes when his eyes travel toward your lips, his thumbs caressing them tenderly, benevolently.

"despite my shortcomings and the fact that you are now seeing someone else, i would like to try again, please allow me to do my best." nanami opens up to you as a flower blooms, petals blossoming, coming apart to reveal the innermost parts of himself. red spreading across his skin from the tips of his ears to his lips when he parts them under yours. he wasn’t made to hide it, all that restraint keeping him from you, from what he knows is his deepest desire. made to love, loudly and forever. there, where two lives meet again, coming together and converging.

#'i am not the best with words' proceeds to pour his heart out in the rain #go look up the sculpture its one of my faves ! #sunpiece #jujutsu kaisen #jjk fic #nanami kento fic #nanami x chubby reader #chubby reader fic

[pikabian]

more fnaf thoughts now that ive slept on it

so im kinda holding onto the theory that mike n abby are henrys kids, and possibly the puppet in this universe is mikes brother that died. which would make sense as to why they put so much emphasis on his last name and why william recognised him. mike also mentions that his dad offed himself which so did henry. i definitely feel like if they did a sequel theyd address that, esp with the puppets theme in the end credits and the message spelling out "come find me," after we still didnt find out what happened to his brother (like we know afton took him, but where he ended up is left up in the air. all the other kids had animatronics to possess)

that feels like such a weird loose end for them to leave but i think im forgetting that thats in general what fnaf is. scott is notorious for that so i shouldnt be so surprised the movie is the same? i suppose i was kinda expecting it to be more cohesive now considering the budget and more ppl on the writing team. but its fine tbh

i think my problem and a lot of other ppls problem was going into this expecting it to fit perfectly into the canon of the games, or even the books, when rlly its meant to be its own universe. i also think the complaints about it not being gorey enough were??? the og games were never gorey. also a guy got chopped in half tf do u want.

"they literally built a fort with the animatronics!! theyre meant to be scary!!" - were u not paying attention. they were doing that to gain abbys trust. and literally in the games im p sure its said that they dont go after kids? like i feel like that attitude is so willfully ignorant. aftons whole thing was gaining kids trust and luring them away, how did u think he did it?

anyway i did like the movie. i think id need to see it again w a more open minset than looking for ties to the games yk. it does make me wonder what someone who knows nothing about fnaf would think of it

also i completely forgot about that dog animatronic. that threw me off entirely 😭 kinda cool tho a nice lil easter egg

#fnaf movie #fnaf spoilers #i just cant stfu

[evilwickedme]

You seemed sad that nobody's asked for jayroy fic recs. I want jayroy fics! I am a simple creecher with simple needs.

God what a mood tho. ngl I'm obsessed with these two

I've already recommended some of my favs in previous posts! here and here for your enjoyment

anyway here we go

ace-spectrum!Jason

one of my favorite hc and with a lot of support from the text imho; I have more of these these are just my favs

Kiss Me, Kill Me, Take Me Home - 5+1 times somebody kissed Jason, ace!Jason

Jane Austen Never Said Anything About Speed Dating - this one's pretty long. an au where Jason never died and is dealing with trauma from an abusive ex. again, outright ace!Jason and his ex absolutely raped him, so dark subject matter but it's still so good. Jason's brothers try to get him back in the game after the breakup and he ends up running into Roy at speed dating; they decide to fake date to get both their families off their backs. some nice Lian stuff here too.

Between These Pages (Is a Wonderful Place To Be) - ace!Jason gets extremely injured and Roy reads to him, cute little oneshot

(can you feel) the fire burning through your veins - nothing wrong with a little bit of self promo, right? this is demi!gay!Jason figuring his identity out and navigating his changing relationship with Roy. it takes place in a slightly alternate timeline where he's been to therapy for a couple of years and he never slept with Talia so it's his first time with pretty much everything. there actually is smut but it's Jason's first time :D

there is sex in this

I’ve Got the Feeling You’re the Right Thing After All - more poisonivory??? yes please!!! Roy's has had feelings for Dick since their teen titans days, but still ends up in a fwb with Jason when he's asked to help Jason run the iceberg lounge... somewhat plotty, smut in basically every chapter, so fucking good

Let me shipwreck in your thighs - we all have a thing for Jason's thighs, lbr

Arrows and Bullets - a two fic series. injured Jason falls into Roy's apartment and stays there until he heals. once again, some quality Lian stuff here. the sequel fic has some minor Jason-comes-back-home and surrounds christmas.

Boys Don't Cry - trans!Jason. I think this does have a minor plot?? I can't remember it's basically just fifty thousand words of marathon sex over the course of like at least a week

there's a middle ground between ace and outright smut actually

Some Kind of Disaster - this is actually one of my favorites and I've reread the whole thing more than once even though it's a mildly long series (although tbf I've reread longer). instead of outright dying at sanctuary Roy is just grievously injured and Jason runs to his side the moment he hears and refuses to leave. there's a lot of angst. one of the fics is smutty; halfway through the series Roy discovers Lian exists and that's where the plot really kicks in. so good

The Midnight Snow - Robin!Jason is in a time loop and Roy gets trapped in there with him

Flowers Are My Love Language - Jason keeps trying to get Roy to date him using flowers, and Roy simply refuses to get the message

Around Red Hood's Barn - Neighbors au where Roy and Jason are still partners as vigilantes, Roy just doesn't know Red Hood's identity, and Roy CANNOT STAND his new neighbor Jason. I love me some good identity shenanigans in a superhero fic

Magnet Tar Pit Trap - I already linked one cowboy au in the first fic rec (linked above), why not one more

other

remember how canonically Roy died in Heroes in Crisis? ow. I actually already rec'd my favorite one of these in the first Jason fic rec (linked! above!) so check that one out too

It is only, and all about Roy - I actually really regretted not putting this in the original fic rec (again, linked above). Jason shows up in Star City and ends up collaborating with Oliver. JayRoy is only implied but either way Jason is clearly deeply grieving Roy's death and so is Ollie

Please, come back - JayRoy were together before sanctuary and Jason grieves his death deeply. happy ending tho!

anyway yeah that's some good fics believe me when I say I could've rec'd twice as many honestly. unfortunately I had to stop somewhere so that's it for now

#there's so much good jayroy+lian fluff I wish I'd put more here but again. this is already so much #like fifteen is just so much #I also tried to include mostly fics that are actually respectful towards Roy cause a lot of jayroy fics are really only interested in Jason #jayroy #roy harper #jason todd #lian harper #oliver queen #arrowfam #batfam #dc #dc fic #fic recs #gail speaks #ask #vote-4-crow #jason todd my beloved #jt

[captain-peanut110]

Percy Jackson and the Olympians episodes one and two, immediate impressions

Written by someone who absolutely lived those books as a kid and is no less obsessed with them as a grown up.

I will try to avoid spoilers for anything that comes later in the book or in later books in case people who have only watched the show will be reading this, but there might still be unintentional spoilers and there definitely will be spoilers for how the event of the first two episodes went down in the book.

I have been waiting since before the old movies came out, suffered the disappointment of their existence, was part of the collective agreement Lightning Thief had no sequel and am finally ready to see them try again.

I have just finished re-reading the first series and am nearing the end of House of Hades, so all the book stuff is fresh in my mind.

(I also bough the first five and all five Trials of Apollo for only £12 yesterday 🎊🎊🎊 now my tiny London apartment is flooded with books I already have no space for 🤣🤣🤣 so worth it though.)

Episode 1

- seems lovely so far;

- Percy is perfectly himself and the acting is damn decent;

- Little Percy is very cute, but also sort of spooky, make me think of the ocean, no matter what, there is always something eerie about it;

- Nancy is as awful, as she has to be and it is a nice thought that Percy understands she bullies him because of her own issues, yet also acknowledges it is still not okay;

- Brunner is perfect, they nailed his feel and presence 10/10. Why is his horse part not white though? Come on, it doesn’t have to match his skin tone and would have looked super cool, setting him apart from other centaurs like it does in the books;

- The kindly one (what they call Furies in the book) is well done and properly terrifying;

- Sally Jackson is the star, seriously, she is everything;

- Smelly Gabe is authentic enough to smell him trough the screen;

- Super funny that his reward for letting them take the car in the show is a sandwich he never ends up getting at all. At least in the books he got his dips

- BUT!!!!! Wtf with Gabe saying please? And them watching the game together? Why is he suddenly not that terrible??? How could they have decided to give redeeming qualities to this guy??? He is like the definition of awful and there really was no need to make him better in any way.

Initially I did not particularly notice this, because he was disgusting in my eye, yet upon watching for the second time, I replied he repeatedly said please and his conversation with Sally seemed suddenly more like banter than the awful way he treated her in the books. This gives their marriage something to it and makes it feel like there might have been a reason why they got married other than Sally wanting to protect Percy though Gabe's smell. And that is just wrong. Gabe was absolutely the king of awful in the books and he should have stayed that way.

I felt like I had to go back to add this point, because I missed it in my initial watching when I was writing this immediate reaction.

It can be argued that even the worst abusers are not horrible 24/7 and are ofter nice to the people around them from time to time, which makes it even more confusing and hard to leave them. But this does not really fit to the situation here, Gabe had zero redeeming qualities in the book and I can't see why there would be a need to give him any in the show;

- Sally being firmly on Percy’s side is pure gold and absolute parenting goals;

- Blue candy !!!!

- D’Angelo sandwiches though??? Hmmm…

- “Who is Yantsy?” 🤣🤣🤣🤣 Gabe is so dumb, i love it;

- Hades is not satan, they finally got that right! At least I think that’s supposed to be Hades;

- Can’t stress enough how awesome it is that Percy is not an orphan in the books. His relationship with Sally is everything. It is also a whole lot less lazy than just having an orphaned protagonist and also a lot more relatable for the readers;

- I love the scene where Percy is confused and scared, trying to get her to stop, but Sally keeps talking, as if she knows if she does not say it out loud, she will never be able to;

- Sally: “He was a god.” Percy: “You fell in love with Jesus?” 🤣🤣🤣

- Grover is so funny though, I can’t even;

- The Minotaur cgi looks decent;

- And he is wearing underpants!!!

- Bye-bye Gabe’s car;

- Grover is supposed to be unconscious!!! That’s a major point of his later self-torments, the fact that he got knocked out and Percy had to carry him all the way.

I cannot see why he needed to be present for this scene. He doesn’t do much of anything other than having Sully make him swear to protect Percy, although I am not certain what that was emphasised for?

- Sally is badass! Hell yeah for mothers doing mad stuff to protect their babies, super on point and as someone who does have a baby, super realistic;

- Noooo!!! Sally!!! Proper heartbreaking;

- He did not have the sword yet! Or Grover there! And he fought the Minotaur anyways!!!

It was supposed to be the first sing of his endless courage bordering on idiocy and a serious lack in the self preservation department when it comes to people he loves being in danger.

Which ultimately is a super important point in the story. I feel they missed an opportunity to show just how many fucks are absolutely not given when Percy sees somebody dear to him threatened;

- He does still kill him with the horn, not the sword, so I guess I can forgive the sword being there for a brief second. Although it would certainly add more meaning if it wasn’t;

- Show us how he carried Grower to Camp after killing the Minotaur!!! Percy did it all on his own, no help whatsoever! That’s part of what made other campers so interested in him!

- Annabeth!!! My best girl!!!

Episode 2

- Percy’s eyes are so book accurate, a proper proper sea green, I am happy happy happy;

- And Walker is such a perfect fit for the role, it really feels like he is Percy. I can forgive them for not having someone else, who had dark hair, his casting in on par.

Also I feel like nailing his eyes is more important than hair. They are an important part of the character, a reflection of his connection to the ocean.

I can also completely get behind not immediately wanting to dye a child’s hair, so it’s not that important.

I am personally of the opinion, that unless a character’s appearance is a point in the plot, such as relation to a certain someone hinted at trough similarity in looks/belonging to a certain group/coming from a certain place/being singled out positively or negatively because of certain features/etc, changing it doesn’t matter;

A good example is the colour of Percy’s eyes. It needs to be maintained, as they are a reference to his father being Poseidon and him being a child of the sea;

- The same goes for Leah, she has absolute Annabeth energy and is just perfect every step of the way, so the fact that she ain’t blonde doesn’t really matter. It was not a particular plot point in the books and the change will not affect her character in any way;

(If Elle Woods suddenly wasn’t blonde anymore, that would be insane, in Annabeth’s case, it is not that important.)

- Aww, Percy thinks Poseidon is going to be there at camp, that’s heartbreaking :((

- Peter Johnson !!!

- ‘He’s starting with me!’

- For a moment I thought he was gonna say ‘the wine dude Dionysus’ 🤣 that would hardy have ended well;

- ‘Your Highness’ 🤣🤣🤣 Percy is adorable;

- Mister D pretending to be Percy’s dad and trying to get him to fetch a bottle of wine is sooooo funny, I died. Chiron’s face though… 🤣🤣🤣 ‘I could be!’ ‘But are you?!’

And this:

- ‘Son.’

- ‘Dad?’

- ‘Yes Peter!’

- ‘Percy!’

- ‘Exactly’

- And Percy looking at Mr D and thinking: ‘Mom fell in love with and spoke so highly of this guy? He is basically Divine Gabe.’

I will be anything upon first meeting him in the show and hearing the ‘i am your dad’ thing, that is exactly what Percy is thinking. ‘Oh no, my dad is the Less Smelly Gabe?‘

- The Hermes cabin is looking good, the chaos seems very authentic;

- As someone who had been bullied at school for different from other kids, it is a very touching moment, when Percy is sure the Hermes kids are about to start some trouble, but Luke is just so lovely to him instead.

It is honestly every weird kid’s dream to have someone approach them with something kind to say.

And when he says: ‘you are just like everyone else here’, it must have felt so nice for Percy to finally hear something like that, like there is somewhere he can belong as himself;

- Luke, my sweet tragic baby ❤️ i cannot help loving him so damn much;

His underlying wistfulness and hidden pain from not feeling loved by his dad break my heart into a million pieces. And the way he just older-brothers Percy from the beginning is everything ❤️

- But does this show hate blonde people?

Cause Luke isn’t blonde either. 🤣

Once again, great acting, charisma and that feel of Luke’s powerful awesomeness tinted with desolate melancholy was captured brilliantly.

Charles does have that vibe and is great in the role. But I just had to note the ‘nobody is blonde’ thing cause it’s funny;

- More importantly though, WHERE IS LUKE’S SCAR??? That little scrape he’s got on his face is way too small and insignificant to be the unfortunate trophy from a dragon fight.

It looks nowhere near ghastly enough!

The whole point was that Luke was super handsome, but his scar was there like a tear in a beautiful portrait.

Charles is a good looking fella, he could have easily pulled off having a huge scar running across half of his face and still be a ladies’ dream;

- The Dryad with Grover has such sweet motherly vibes;

- Is it me or do Grover’s goat legs appear somewhat skinny?

- ‘Like an old banana’ Damn, Grover. I feel like this nicely reminds everyone Grover is not the human child he appears as;

- I feel like it is more realistic that Percy comes to believe his mother can be saved from the underworld by himself, since it is pretty logical, if the underworld is a place you can go to, you could theoretically bring someone back.

There didn’t really need to be an ominous investigation conducted by Grover for Percy to come upon that idea;

- More creepy ass dreams;

- CLARISSE MUST BE BUFFER!!!

And here I somewhat don’t get it.

Cause Dior looks perfectly buff enough for the part in pictures online, but it almost feels like they made her look smaller on camera, instead of using filming techniques to make her look even bigger.

All I could think while watching those scenes was “Clarisse must be bigger!”. Why does she look so skinny in the show, when the actress has got proper muscles irl?

- Percy being terrible at everything he tries reminds me of Harry trying the wands out and making stuff blow up

- He set the Hephaestus kids’ stuff on fire 🤣🤣🤣 Leo should have been there 😉

- Is there a god of disappointment 🤣🤣🤣

- But you burn the stuff to send a message to the gods, not mortals or dead people. Burnt offerings are only messages to a god they are offered for.

Did Percy misunderstand this or did the makers of the show?

Cause there should be no way for Sally to have actually gotten that message;

- Burning candy and talking to mama hits right home though. Very painful, peak cinema, hurts a lot. Poor little Percy, he just needs a hug;

- Not from a gutter, Clarisse, what the actual?!?!

- Aaaand Supreme Lord of the Bathroom emerges!!!

I just love how good old Jonny outright refuses to harm Percy.

But does this mean Poseidon is the god of toilet water as well 🤣🤣🤣 what about everything that is flushed with it? Would he have power over that as well? Or only clean gutter water?

Also!!! Is Percy immune to ‘the Neptune’s kiss’?

(‘The Neptune’s kiss’ - is an unfortunate occurrence while going number two, when one of them lot falls down into the bowl with a blast and the water splashes back onto your unprotected buttcheeks.)

Cause that would be a seriously cool ability to have indeed;

- Annabeth!!! Always a win for Annabeth!!!

‘i can explain!’ ‘No you can’t!’

Absolutely chemistry

‘Are you stalking me, Annabeth?’ ‘Yes’

- Forbidden kids… hmm.. that’s an interesting way of putting it;

- Annabeth is Sherlock with better social skills? Hell yeah, Percy can be her sword-wielding Watson;

- Their armour looks so good! Like actually pleasant to look at, you can see effort and thought went into the costumes in the show.

Seeing them all dressed up reminds me of the longstanding tradition at Camp Halfblood of running outside wearing a breastplate and underpants when danger strikes in the middle of the night!

I really really hope they show that in this series;

- Percy should appreciate Annabeth standing there silently and waiting for him to get up, since any other classmate from his past would have made fun of his fall and certainly would not have waited for him to get up.

The way Annabeth reacted is decent between two warriors.

She did not mock his fall, waited for him to get up and made no unkind comments about it afterwards.

She did not help him get up, because he does not need assistance with such a minor trouble, which is something Percy will have to learn very soon.

As someone who has been bullied back at school, sometimes standing there silently is the nicest way someone you don’t know very well can react to you embarrassing yourself;

- I love how Annabeth doesn’t flaunt her being better at stuff in Percy’s face, he is the one who says that in a fit of self deprecation.

The writers could have easily had her say something like ‘of course i’m better’, as happens a lot in modern cinema, when characters boast about how awesome they are instead of showing it.

She respectfully listens to his ranting, then simply straightens out his breastplate, which is such an adorable moment between them my heart is going to shatter into a million pieces.

She then proceeds to tell him ‘you don’t even know how you fit into all this’ , basically saying ‘you don’t know how powerful you are’, but Annabeth is being wise.

She knows there is no point in telling Percy how awesome he could be. She believes in him and knows he needs discover his awesomeness on his own.

(I am currently re-reading The House of Hades, about half-ways trough.

Thus seeing cute Percy and Annabeth moments soothes by bleeding heart.

If you know you know, not gonna spoil an ancient book, ahahahha. )

- Yankees’ cap!!! (I know i am way too easily excited to see stuff from the book, but I was a Percy Jackson fan when the first movie came out and i still carry that damage, so cut me so slack)

- Game on! And she absolutely believes in him and never says anything demeaning, that is so awesome.

There is a trend in modern cinema to show characters’ badassness and awesomeness by having them be demeaning and rude to their companions.

This has been around for a while where the guy who was the best at everything was just allowed to be awful to everybody because of it.

Recent it has infected movies with female leads, as if the only way a woman can be portrayed as strong and capable is by being a bully to lesser men around her.

I love what they did with Annabeth here.

She is spectacular, she’s got a great plan, she knows it, she doesn’t have to repeat it.

But she does not need to be compared to Percy to be amazing, she simply is.

She also has faith in Percy and is supportive of him, without being patronising or feeling the need to over-explain.

She is confident he will know what to do when the time comes and believes honestly he will do well.

She does not tell him what to do because she is sure he will know when the time comes and that is a smart way to teach him a lesson about having faith in himself;

- Luke is so awesome, they nailed him! His faith in Annabeth and the way he says ‘Percy’s on it’ with no doubt whatsoever… i am loving it all;

- Percy is authentically adhd, this shit is so relatable 🤣

Petting that lizard is such a banger thing to do, i mean…

- It did not happen in the books like this, but these are such Percy moments, i cannot even 🤣 the main actor was a top choice;

- Closing your eyes and touching leafs or rocks is something I also absolutely love doing, Percy knows what’s on;

- Clarisse’s spear looks nifty as heck.

While I did complain that she needs to be bigger, Dior is perfect in this role. The casting generally is great so far.

She does portray the big bully energy really well;

- I have enjoyed the fight, although wasn’t Percy only supposed to get his power up after he touched the water? (I most honestly don’t remember)

Here it seems the presence of the river so close was enough and I must agree that it does look awesome when he suddenly begins fighting properly;

- And he falls into the water, heals up and is claimed by Poseidon. Precious!

- I am loving the Poseidon cabin vibes, it is just like the ocean. Beautiful and charming, but eerie and mysterious;

- I do not understand why they had to change it from Percy taking the quest immediately with the hidden idea of saving his mother, to his blatantly refusing the quest, only to have Grover tell him Sally can be saved to sway him to go anyways.

I think this was somewhat of a weird choice, but maybe it will matter later on, who knows.

It does fix up the rift between Grover and Percy with the whole Grover lying and getting him expelled situation, but that wasn’t really in the book at all, so…

I guess they wanted to try and not copy the book word for word, but Percy refusing the quest so harshly out of self preservation we have already established he doesn’t have much of seems a little out of character.

Maybe they are trying to emphasise that he would do anything to save his mom, but even without that, Percy would still have agreed to save the world and all, that’s his whole point.

And he did go with the idea of saving his mother in the book, he just didn't Grover to tell him it was possible, he simply refused to accept his mother was dead and was set on getting her back.

He is not a reluctant hero, he marches head first into danger, risks his life to save the world all the time and eats reality shattering prophecies for breakfast. (If you know you know ;)) )

I guess it doesn’t matter all that much.

In the book and the show he agreed to go on a quest in great part because he thought he could to save his mother, it was just presented differently. But I do feel once again they are diminishing Percy’s badassery.

This sweet and wonderful child doesn't need anybody's permission or reassurance, he simply though: 'Wow, there is my opportunity to go to the underworld, my mother must be there, to hell with Hades, I will make him give her back!"

He basically thought she was dead and still planned on getting her back anyways!!!

As we have seem during the duel with the Minotaur, when given proper motivation (or simply when pissed off and/or desperate enough) Percy is absolutely unhinged.

He takes no shits from anyone, god, monster, or whatever else.

It just feels a bit weird to see Percy Jackson yelling ‘no’ to a quest.

And feels like Percy's determination and intelligence are diminished because he did not come upon the idea of saving Sally on his own.

- Also, since when does Percy have a sense of self-preservation, aahahaha he could have really used a bit more of that in the books

Overall 7/10 so far

One point off for the removal of Percy's grand refusal to accept death and his brilliant sneaky plan to attempt bringing his mother back from the underworld while the quest for the Masterbolt provides a valid reason to go there. Seriously, this was perfectly devious in the books. He kept the idea to himself and simply nursed a plan to basically bring his mother back from the dead all on his own.

One point off for Luke’s scar being tiny. Everything else appearance wise is not important cause the actors are great. But not giving Luke the proper huge scar is a cosmetic decision that I do not condone

And one extra point off for Gabe saying please and having redeeming human features, as well as Sally actually wanting to watch the game with him, I could not imagine she would have ever wanted to do anything with Smelly Gabe, no no no no no

All in all, this is great so far, I need more with urgency.

Thank you for reading this much 💚

#percy jackon and the olympians #disney #percy jackson #annabeth chase #grover underwood #luke castellan #rick riordan #riordanverse #percabeth #clarisse la rue #dyonisus #hades #hades is not satan #please for Hera’s sake Hades is not satan and the Underworld is not hell #so far so good

[teecupangel]

Tee, I'm adding another fandom to our Isekai Protagonist Desmond bunny bank. I finally got around to playing Rune Factory 5 (after being distracted by a bevy of other games) and was hit by the idea that Desmond would find eating BREAD to gain new crafting recipes to be really fucking wild. Like. How in the hell?! And that, to separate them from normal bread- they're. They're just. They're just called [Insert Craft] Bread and that's it.

For example! You want to make a potion? Gonna have to scarf down some Chemistry Bread! A new battle-axe with added poison damage? Weapon Bread! Wanna learn how to make some, I dunno, soup dumplings to woo the local wolfman himbo? (Or himbo wolfman, either way he's pure of heart and dumb of ass.) Well, you might need to level up your cooking skill but once you've gotten a level (or three or ten), then you might get lucky after chowing down three or four Cooking Breads but when you don't get any sudden bursts of enlightenment after that then you're gonna need to level up again!

All of it might have Desmond questioning reality some more but at least he's got some eye-candy to make up for it all! (And we could even make some of the potential husbands local expies of his usual AC partners. And yes, you can choose to romance and marry your own gender now in RF and it's non-fantasy sibling game Story of Seasons.)

(Just in case anyone is wondering, Story of Seasons is the real Harvest Moon sequels, not whatever ‘Harvest Moon’ game Natsume Inc is publishing. If you’re wondering if it’s a real ‘Harvest Moon’, any Harvest Moon released in the US by 2014 named ‘Harvest Moon’ are not part of the real series under Marvelous/Xseed)

Okay, so let’s talk about Desmond waking up in some weird place he has no idea ever existed in his own world. People assumed he has amnesia because he ‘forgot’ so many things about their world but Desmond is pretty sure he’s been transported to a different world.

Exhibit A: monsters.

Exhibit B: the logic behind these… ‘specialized’ breads.

So Desmond is left with no choice but to… well… go with the flow.

He has no idea why they gave him a farm though but… it was nice.

There was something nice about how everyone was helpful. It made Desmond feel like he was truly part of Rigbarth. SEED sounded fishy as hell though so he didn’t agree to joining them (also, he didn’t want to join any organization right now).

Overall…

Desmond liked to think of this as his retirement.

And it was fun trying to figure out how this world works. There was a lot to do for the farm but, even though that was true, Desmond had never felt more relaxed.

There were also a lot of kind people who didn’t mind joining him in exploring what lies beyond Rigbarth.

Hell, he even got a monster ranch going on in one part of his farm.

And then…

A man with amnesia going by the name Lucas arrived in town and…

He believes he knows Desmond.

He doesn’t seemed to remember when or how though but it was a clue. A clue to why Desmond had been sent here…

But the real question is…

If he finds the answer to his questions… would he be able to return to his old world?

Did… did he even want to?

Unorganized Notes:

I kinda like the idea that the bachelors and bachelorettes remain who they are and this will be a case of Desmond finding love in the ‘strangest’ of places.

His children though… the game gives 3 (1 older and twins) so that means we can have Desmond’s children be reincarnations of Altaïr, Ezio and Ratonhnhaké:ton (called Connor in this one). The twist can be hidden at the beginning on and Desmond learns they’re really his ancestors later on. This does mean that you’re free to choose who Desmond falls in love with (or make it a vote idk).

Considering Lucas’ true identity in the game, this might end up being one of those “eternal love” setup where Lucas used to be an Isu who created the world Desmond is sent in as some kind of simulated universe and placed his conscious there to escape the Solar Flare millenias ago. Minerva’s last ditch effort to save Desmond pushed him into the Grey and Lucas noticed that Juno was trying to take him so he grabbed Desmond and yanked him to his ‘safe world’. Lucas lost his memories because Desmond isn’t part of his world so Desmond’s sudden appearance caused a chain reaction that ended with Lucas’ amnesia (as he’s being repaired). His children being ‘reborn’ is actually his Bleeds gaining their own bodies.

Will Desmond make his own Brotherhood in this one? Probably not. At most, he’d teach his children Assassin-like tricks to help them be safe but not train him the way Bill did. That’s why it took a while for Desmond to realize his children are his ‘ancestors’. Ezio was the one who realized something fishy was going on at the start because (1) his older brother is named Altaïr and (2) one of his parents is named Desmond. The monster and fantasy-esque setting of the world he was reborn in offkiltered him a bit though XD

Up to you if you want to have an actual ‘oh the world is in danger… sorta’ plot as well or you just push it in the background with Lucas and Radea and let Desmond have his retirement.

#ngl #i went for reinhard for the sole purpose #of him being voiced by chris hackney #dimitri alexandre blaiddyd still has me XD #this has become a #fic idea: crossover #assassin's creed #desmond miles #ask and answer #altaïr ibn la'ahad #ezio auditore #ratonhnhaké:ton #connor kenway #fic idea: rune factory #rune factory 5 #teecup writes/has a plot #fic idea: assassin's creed

[sofia-d-asb]

Ask - Stanislas & Will/MC

Hi! Ever since I've finished my playthrough (loved the full game so much, by the way!), I've been obsessed with one specific question and I feel like I NEED to ask it.

My MC was pacifist and idealistic to the extreme, and a very nice and sweet person in general, mostly versed in politics and also an amazing aether user. He had as good a relationship as can be with Stan, though it was never romantic. So unsurprisingly at the end he spared him and "took him in" for his advice in the future (I also thank you so much for this option - felt so rewarding!).

Now, my chosen RO was Will, and considering Will and Stan were best friends - almost siblings I guess in a way - in the past, and seeing as Stan tried to convince Will to join him and all... The question is - what are Stan's thoughts once he discovers Will is actually in a relationship with the MC? What does he think of that? I mean, he may probably think it explains the level of loyalty Will displayed towards the MC, but beyond that. Is part of him happy for his old friend to have found love with a person like that kind of MC? Is he still more frustrated that it may have prevented Will from joining him instead, even if he finds the MC is a good person and likely a good ruler to be? I know it's a very specific question, but somehow it's the one thing that left me most curious after being done! Thank you for reading this and indulging me if you chose to answer! Though don't worry if you don't - I understand it may be a complicated thing, or something you'd prefer to keep secret in case of a sequel!

Have a great day!

what are Stan's thoughts once he discovers Will is actually in a relationship with the MC? What does he think of that?

Nothing good; he already thinks that Will is too loyal to the royal family, so seeing them in a relationship with the MC would just make it worse, in a "how far have you fallen" kind of way. Even if the MC is objectively a good person, Stan is wary of them, simply because they're a d'Arcadie. Would he come around eventually? Maybe.

Thanks for the fun question! Have a great day as well.

#ask #arcadie second born #stanislas #will #mc

[gren-arlio]

Olympics ain't until next year, so let's talk about the objectively cooler one. Welcome to Episode 9 of (Waku) Puyo Extras.

(Always liked how the characters are drawn when they're small. Oh, and the lad next to Satan? That's Rasp, and I believe they don't have a set gender. Least from what I heard from the EPPC.)

Hello one and all, it's the guy who's harassed by Witches (or just a single Witch) all day, every day without fail. Seriously, outta anyone in the world, it's the dude with the Yosuke pfp, it really does run in the Persona Bro archetype to have wack ass luck. (World's worst crackship)

Silly stuff aside, welcome to the 9th episode of Waku Puyo Extras, and if you've been following for a bit, nice to know you've stuck around, and for new guys, it's fine, there's no continuity. Im just late posting this.

This time around, we're talking about PuyoLympics, and I hear you wondering, "Didn't you say you'll talk about Arle's Travel Log last time?" And you're absolutely right, I did. However, it's kinda hard to find footage for the game itself, and I do need extra time, so we'll cover it next time. Curse these games for being niche.

I'm glad PuyoLympics isn't as niche as the others we'll cover some other time (Madou Sugoroku is going to be awful to find footage for,) and I've had this on my backlog, we may as well cover it now, yeah?

So let's cut to the chase, shall we? Not having a tiny video to translate does feel weird still, but otherwise, hope you enjoy.

-----

So, What's the Origins?

Like Serilly's Happy Birthday, PuyoLympics was also a Disc Station game, released in 1997 for PC. Is it safe to say that PC got more games can console players?

(Not exactly the coolest looking start screen, but the opening itself was pretty cool.)

What's interesting about this game is that there's...two versions of it. Well, sorta. PuyoLympics in Basa~ru is technically a sequel, but it's more of a minigame from the original, so there's that. (Covered an entire game in one paragraph.)

The game itself is a sports game, yeah, but it's also somewhat a collection of minigames as well. Think those Mario Party sports minigames, but Puyofied and also you only can choose 2 characters.

-----

Alright, So What's the Story?

It begins as usual, to be honest. Satan is cooking up devious shit again but he somewhat wants to have a twist. In the meantime, Arle and Witch are arguing (leaving even the narrator a tad confused,) about Arle being unathletic.

(The peak of this argument. Words I can't even say.)

They then stumble upon a flyer, stating basically "Yo the Olympics are starting. Win to get a wish." and to settle their scores, Arle and Witch compete, along with a couple of other guys we can't play as, notably Rulue, Draco, and Schezo.

Satan decides that everyone will duel for the prize itself, though you only really play as the two girls. But to get in spirit, he dresses up as a coach to fully begin the thing.

(For some reason, all the footage I got were on Witch's side, even with looking on NicoNico. It was legimately hard to find footage for Arle. However, I do know both their endings, at least.)

For Arle's ending, Satan does say that she can indeed make a wish. However, Arle's unsure of what she should even do, and settles for...losing weight. In which Satan gives her...whatever is shown on the bottom.

(Seriously, what is this? They say it's a magician training cast but...I dunno, man.)

And how about Witch's ending? Well, Satan gives her the choice of whatever she wants, and she's also kinda unsure. However, unlike Arle, she has too MANY wishes to have, and Satan gets absolutely fed up and leaves, angering Witch. And you know what? Good on you, Satan.

-----

So, How's the Gameplay?

Gameplay itself is compressed of several minigames that you play as either Arle or Witch. The Olympics are a big deal after all.

Some of the events are things like the Meter Dash (I'd assume 100,) swimming, and...one game where you smack Puyos aside. I can't explain that one well.

Though in the swimming one, other characters appear at the very least.

(The whole squad came to cheer you on. You can't tell me they're not good friends.)

The games themselves are fairly short, and usually range about the 40 seconds to about a minute or so, they ain't called minigames for nothing. Still, there's some enjoyment itself with playing them.

-----

How About the Visuals and Characters?

Visually, least in my opinion, the game looks really good, and the OST itself is up to par with the series as a whole. Every character looks fairly well made to boot. Good on ya Compile.

And how about the characters themselves? Well...thankfully, they're fairly retained to what we're used to. Let's talk about the main two.

-----

Arle:

Our 2nd favorite girl Arle is roughly the same that we usually know her of. Here, she's still pretty dang cheerful thankfully, though with the argument with Witch and the whole going to the Olympics thing to settle their score...it's not petty, I swear.

However, something I want to note is that (supposedly not) due to Witch's comments about her being unathletic does actually kind of stick with her, as her wish is to lose weight...even if Satan kinda went the weird route to help change that. At least it shows she does have insecurities. (Seriously, what the hell is that armor going to do?)

And hey! If you play her route, Rulue makes an appearance early on, as well as Draco, who's sporting her outfit from Puyo SUN.

(Why are Rulue pants so different anyways? Still, it's nice to see her and Draco appear, even if she's more-so just a conversation with Arle and another for Witch.)

-----

Satan:

Ah, good old Satan. Never fails to just being a stupid idiot that we love. He's the whole reason why this Olympic thing began, and he's somewhat embracing it. Due to image limits (Yes, I plan the image routes ahead of time,) I can't show...In photos.

Here's a link to it. May as well, since it's so relevant.

He's a blast to actually hear and listen to. I genuinely like this version of Satan. And he even got turned into stone from a comment once. Now THAT'S comedy. I wouldn't say he carries the game, everyone does their part, but I gotta say that he's easily one of, if not the best, written character in this game.

-----

Witch:

As per the Gren Norm, I got so much more to say about Witch because...if the meme told you anything, she's definitely out there. The whole Olympic thing somewhat escalated due to Witch insulting her over being unathletic, which I mean...ouch.

If you play her route, you actually get a cameo appearance with our boy, the 2nd big guy in this Tumblr blog, Schezo Wegey. And if you know me, I'm gonna explain what happens. (At this point I document every misdeed this girl does)

So, Schezo comes into the frame wearing his Puyo SUN outfit as well, and while Witch says hello and why is he here, immediately labels him as a pervert after he claims he wants Arle again and also wants to win the Olympics.

(Silly Schezo. You're not playable.)

Witch then asks to take off his cape, because he looks like a pervert when he does...and low and behold, he actually does it, shocking her.

And frankly, I'd be surprised also. However, as none of us predicted, Schezo says if she's gonna laugh, to just do it. But she doesn't. Rather, she compliments him. A lot.

(If you've seen the meme, she's basically saying that he has a nice physique for his title, and that he has really healthy skin.)

Schezo asks if she's okay, (she's not) and she yells that he's wonderful/beautiful, causing our boy to think that she's gone insane and runs.

And she chases after him.

(Welcome to my ""Job"". Went from knowledge and Schezo to Knowledge, Schezo, and a lot of documenting of Witch and Arle. You signed up for this.)

Good on Schezo for taking the initiative and actually just leaving...well, more like run away, but good on him.

-------

So...Final Verdict?

The verdict is fairly simple honestly. Elementary, even. The game itself is a very charming game, with a really nice OST, artstyle, and even character writing to an extent. Every character is just fun to read ok and listen to, and it's nice to see such a silly concept be done fairly well.

-----

And For Those Wondering About Arle's Travel Log And Updates Overall:

Don't worry, I got it planned. I'm writing it, I didn't forget it. It's just footage is hard to come by and I want to make this the best I can. And besides...I'm making a Halloween special. I gotta.

And after that special, I plan to take a week or two off to relax. Then...idk, we try to translate Arle's Route of Waku Puyo Dungeon. The Waku part of Waku Puyo Extras will become real AGAIN...

Then, I'll take a break during New Years/Christmas. I don't want to risk burnout. But that'll be all for this time.

See y'all another time.

#japanese translation #madou monogatari #schezo puyo puyo #puyo puyo #sega #arle nadja #rulue puyo puyo #disc station #draco puyo puyo #draco centauros #satan puyo puyo #compile

[homesick-incorrect-quotes]

Bella: Did you ever have like a pet run away and find it or anything?

Poppy: I had a lizard that I burnt.

Raven: Time for plan G.

Tomoha: Don't you mean plan B?

Raven: No, we tried plan B a long time ago. I had to skip over plan C due to technical difficulties.

Rayne: What about plan D?

Raven: Plan D was that desperate disguise attempt half an hour ago.

Gressil: What about plan E?

Raven: I'm hoping not to use it. Samael dies in plan E.

Samael: I like plan E.

Rayne: Welcome to my very first vlog, in which I try different hair products!

Rayne: *sprays hairspray into her mouth*

Rayne: Well, right off the bat I can tell you this one is not very good.

Kenny: Why do I always try to tell people we're cool? We are so very uncool.

Navin: So, everyone, what does a story NEED?

Kenny: A character!

Rayne: A setting!

Tomoha, a gleam in her eyes, in a near-whisper: REVENGE.

Navin: Hey do you wanna hang out this weekend?

Poppy: Generic excuse.

Navin: I can't believe you said that out loud, to my face.

Poppy: I can.

Navin: Kenny, are you drinking... drinking hydrogen peroxide?!

Kenny: It says H2O2! That means it's the sequel to water!

Samael: What are you playing?

Oak: Go Fish.

Samael: That's a nice, safe game.

Samael: But don't you need cards?

Oak: Where do you keep the spear gun?

Gressil: Detective! The man belonged to some kind of cult that worshipped a divine forest creature with antlers and that's how he met his end.

Oak: Dear god!

Gressil: Yeah! Exactly!

Kenny: Where did you get that tomato soup?

Poppy: It's actually a bowl of ketchup I just microwaved.

#homesick iq updates #bella homesick #belladonna homesick #nightshade homesick #poppy homesick #raven homesick #gladiolus homesick #tomoha kobayashi #tomoha homesick #rayne liebert #rayne homesick #gressil homesick #samael keene #samael homesick #kenny luckstar #kenny homesick #navin blouin #navin homesick #oak homesick

[msookyspooky]

Out of ALL the Scream movies; Scream 4 could have been on par with Scream had they kept the deleted scenes

Here

- The fountain scene that paid homeage to '96 and ACTUALLY made this teen group seem like friends and a true remake

- The killer copying kills and Dewey talking about Tatum. We hardly hear him ever talk about his little sister AND it would make the 'remake' argument make sense because this feels like another sequel in the franchise; not a remake like they claim

- The Crime scene that was by far one of the eeriest and one of the most realistic scenes in any Scream movie to show how brutal the kills really were

- The original opening kill where Marnie thinks Jenny is pranking her and Ghostface is standing in the hallway while they talk

- The very short scene of Robbie and Charlie setting up the barn. It was goofy and made them feel like people instead of only red herrings (Which will obviously make a suspect list harder...Why do you think Scream is so good? Because every single suspect feels human instead of just a one dimensional red herring shoe in.)

- Kirby talking to Charlie and Robbie in the hall because once again it makes Charlie less suspicious because 'Oh he's doing it to be cool and get the girl' not 'this freak is having a secret party for an unknown reason during a killing? Yep another Stu def the killer' IT FELT SO IMPORTANT! We never got a motive for the party and in this scene we kind of did

Now, I agree with them getting rid of the hospital scene with Trevor and Jill bc even tho I liked seeing Trevor's character fleshed out it made Jill look like the killer and her being the killer was one of the most shocking reveals that I would not want ruined by something as heavy handed as her getting angry at Trevor for reading Sidney's book. The one with her missing her phone felt off too. Or Gale and Dewey in the morning because not only did Gale's "Has she ever been to one of mine?😒🙄" over Dewey asking her to go to Sid's book signing makes me hate her BUT it was also pretty much a pointless scene that would've taken too much time. I'm on the fence about the alternate scene of Dewey figuring out it was Jill before Gale did because it makes sense with Gale still under anesthesia not being on her A game and would be a nice change for Dewey to be the one to figure it out BUT it feels more in character for Gale to figure it out first.

But at least half of those scenes should've been kept in!

Controversial but some scenes have to be scraped to keep those deleted ones so:

Ditch the Trevor and Robbie exchange with that cringy 'Rawr' thing he does it gives me secondhand embarrassment everytime, get rid of some of the scenes of Judy and Gale pointlessly beefing with each other over oblivious Dewey who's already married to Gale and faithful what is the point of it?? Especially as much as we see it like we get it Judy likes Dewey and thinks Gale's evil stop wasting film, shorten the long ass opening kill that imo is one of the worst opening kills and the kill within a kill within a kill thinh I'm sorry but I skip it everytime ESPECIALLY seeing the deleted scene and how much better it could've been, shorten Rebecca Walter's death to what it was in the deleted scene. Anything to keep these scenes IN THE FINAL PRODUCT WHAT THE HELL

And don't even get me started on the alternate ending that should have happened and the 'new final girl' theme we'd get in 5 with a Ghostface versus a Ghostface instead of what we got...AND IT WOULD HAVE MADE IT POSSIBLE TO INCLUDE THESE SCENES BECAUSE THE HOSPITAL SCENE WOULDN'T HAVE EXISTED.

This movie could've been so great and here we are with one dimensional characters, plot holes that don't make sense, awkward scenes that weren't needed and a new cast that was 'meh' except for Kirby because of deleted scenes.

#scream #scream 4 #scream 4 spoilers

[sublime-beyond-loss]

Having listened to most of the narrator’s lines in Dungeons 2 and 3 over the last few days, the Dungeons narrator really is the TSP narrator Doing His Thing, just in a different game series. 

I’ve decided to make it my headcanon that the Dungeons-verse is where he fucks off to during the skip button/epilogue/whenever the player stops playing TSP. Dude’s clearly living his best life narrating the Dungeons games. Everyone is a morally dubious asshole in these games and there are no true good guys, so his more cruel streak shown in some of the endings in TSP is right at home in this verse, and even then he still throws the player bones using his powers over the narrative just as much as he likes to fuck them over. He clearly starts developing a softer side for the ‘evil’ faction by the end of 3 too.

One of the more surreal aspects about going from TSP to this is that in Dungeons 3 he starts to regularly converse with at least one character in the game, which given some of the things Ultra Deluxe puts out there about him, it’s weirdly cathartic to see this lonely bastard finally making some friends who can talk back to him and that he can bounce off of and get into endless snark wars with lol. Yeah, it’s probably not actually canon to the TSP narrator, but if you try to put some continuity between the two series, it really does feel like the bastard goes through the found family trope and some character development by the end of Dungeons 3. A weird, horribly messed up family, of course, but at least he’s taking his omniscient narrative powers out on people who more than deserve it now lol.

Probably the weirdest thing a few of his lines imply in Dungeons is that there might actually be an entire narrator species out there, and boy if that isn’t a scary thought lmao. 

There’s also some nice meta irony to be had in the fact that he might very well be narrating the games for Stanley while not knowing that he is doing so, if the player is one who has already played the role of Stanley before. Especially since he becomes the voice for the voiceless Ultimate Evil protagonist (antagonist) of the game on multiple occasions since it (yes, that’s its pronouns if you’re looking for a game where you are called by those pronouns the entire time) cannot speak for itself. 

And I mean, there’s something really nice about the idea that if you consider this the TSP narrator, that upon leaving the room after being repeatedly skipped by the player (if that’s what happened), or giving up on his game and its sequel after it bombed (if that is what the epilogue is implying), or even when it comes to the existential stuff about him knowing he’s a fictional being who only exists while being perceived by the player and thus the game being turned off by the player cannot be a good thing for him, that him finding himself narrating a series of games where the plot is more goofy than anything and everyone is laughably evil, thus the stakes are much lower, and that he suddenly has other characters to bounce off of and alleviate some of his existential dread. It feels like a surprisingly good bookend for a character like him. While he doesn’t know it, if the player is someone who played TSP before, he’s still narrating a game for Stanley, and in the end, while he has no way of knowing this, the player didn’t abandon him as thoroughly as he thought, if the skip button shenanigans are to be taken into account. 

He starts narrating in a much less oppressive and frustrating setting for him once he has let go of the parable, and he can even interact with the player in an ever so slightly more co-operative manner once he no longer knows it’s Stanley he’s still gaming with lol. I think this is the closest thing to a happy ending you could get for the TSP narrator. Now he narrates for a world where everyone needs a therapist as badly as he does so it all evens out for a change lol. Here we were all sad about the epilogue when it turns out the narrator just went off to narrate Dungeons instead lol. (It’s canon in my heart)

#the stanley parable #dungeons #the narrator cinematic universe

[ilikedetectives]

Hi Colin, I came across your blog after getting around to playing Control in January and I love seeing all your photos/screenshots of Jesse. I saw through your blog you also talk about how female characters are portrayed in video games, so I wanted to ask you something. I was thinking about gender roles in Control and how I wouldn’t have played this game if the roles were reversed between Jesse & Dylan (I got interested in this game because there’s a female protagonist). I mean, if wanted to see a piece of media where the man saves the woman, I could play like every other video game, movie, book etc.

So you know how in media typically when they have a female lead character they still cater to men and often times (like in Disney princess movies) in order to compensate for having a female lead character they often end up making the rest of the characters as male ones? I was just wondering since I haven’t seen anyone mention this/really unpopular opinion what do you think about instead of a brother they gave Jesse a younger sister? I would have liked that so much and wish they did that. The previous game Remedy did (Quantum Break) had two brothers, it would have been nice if they had two sisters.

Anyways, I was just wondering about your thoughts on this because when when it comes to siblings, I don’t see a lot of sister-sister relations in media. I can only think of like 3 at the top of my head and the lasted one being Arcane. I don’t know if you watched that, but I loved Vi & Jinx’s relationship and it would have been cool to see something like that in Control. In regards to the sequel, I was thinking about Jesse & Dylan’s relationship and how they would go about that because often times in older sister/younger brother relationships they put the sister in a motherly role which I don’t really like.

In the first game, I know myself and others didn’t care for him (and the story at least imo didn’t try to make you care). I know depending on how much emphasis they put on their relationship in the next game, they would have a lot more conflict, but idk I’m not really feeling their relationship as siblings. I think I’m more interested in the fact that it would give her character development/more of an emotional arc, not the relationship itself. Anyways though, at least they have Emily because I loved their relationship, especially in The Foundation. Sorry if this is a weird (and long) question I wanted to know your thoughts and this what you think about them giving Jesse and younger sister instead of a brother? Thanks!

Hi anon *wave* Thank you and I'm glad to hear you're enjoying Control! Funny you mentioned, because I've always loved the evil twin tropes. I still wish Kassandra had an evil twin so Deimos is just her twin sister (so when you go to the protag choice menu it just says "Kassandra" or "The More Unhinged Kassandra"), and to an extent, I wish Jesse had an evil twin sister (does esseJ counts?).

You brought up a good point we often don't see sister-sister relations in media and I too wish we had more (I still need to watch Arcane and play Quantum Break, oops). If Jesse had a younger sister, I'd definitely be more personally invested in the sibling character. I can still relate to Jesse and Dylan sibling relationship as I have a younger brother irl, but I'd definitely prefer Jesse to have a younger sister given the choice (I also have a younger sister irl). Sister relationship is rarely portrayed in games, I just want to see more of it and get my brain chemically altered forever after that (like how we rarely get mother-daughter relationship explored as protags in movies and eeaao hits like a truck). This last point might simply be pure coincidence: I remember Courtney discussed about losing her brother (x), so I'm not sure if that was the inspiration for giving Jesse a brother, this is just my speculation though as there's no official confirmation about it.

The Dylan Easter Egg (x) imo hints the Hiss is coming to NYC along with an eclipse (you can see the One World Trade Center and the Brooklyn Bridge), combined with the Control 2 poster showing that the Hiss is outside the FBC, it's very likely that Dylan is up to no good or maybe it's the crime syndicate group that trades OOPs for profit (who knows what kinda reality portal bending OOPs they're holding). Idk if we will know more about Dylan other than the creepy weird brother who brings troubles that the older sis gotta clean up the mess in the sequel, but yes like you, I hope Jesse got more emotional character development arcs in Control 2, even if it means I'd have to ball my eyes out when I finish the game.

Anyway I'm still so excited for Control 2 and fingers crossed for more Jessily aaa I'm excited for the sequel!!!!

#control #control game #control remedy #jesse faden #dylan faden #anon #answered

[lostplay]

Game 7: Psychonauts 2 (Jan 2023)

Like Alice traveling through Wonderland, so to does Rasputin travel through a mystical adventure in Psychonauts 2. It really is astounding just how much imagination, creativity, and humor went into this project to make it the way that it is. It honestly does feel like a parallel to Alice in Wonderland on so many levels that it will leave you with that same sense of whimsy and awe. Perhaps what is most striking about it all is that it just doesn't really fumble on any of it's elements.

Graphically Psychonauts 2 looks amazing, it's basically just using an upgraded version of the previous models and characters they had on top of giving us these wonderful landscapes and worlds to go across. Both the worlds you explore both in and outside the brain-scape are interesting and filled with purpose and history. Sound design is wonderful too feeling satisfying on any given beat. As well the soundtrack for this game really helping elevate the wackiness and absurdity of any given situation you find yourself in.

Platforming is still the basic bones of what helps make Psychonauts entertaining, and the sequel doesn't stop on the hits there. You're given plenty of interesting and neat worlds to explore on top of a bunch of new mechanics to either travel or interact with it. Each world both has this nice sense of familiarity while having it's on motifs and platforming obstacles. In a lot of ways just traveling through the worlds gives you plenty of story and character without any real dialogue needed. So each platforming challenge you come across both ends up a bit like a story while at the same time providing entirely different experiences and challenges. Add on the additional fighting elements they gave to not only make combat interesting, but challenging as well really helps boost Psychonauts 2 into just a bigger, better version of it's previous self.

Then the story? Oh my goodness, the story is just amazing, and the way they are able to set this all up with little need to explore either of the other games really just helps set the mood for it's own adventure. Each beat to the story not only helps introduce new characters, but also gives plenty of context for the older ones introduced in the first two games. You are just given so much interaction, and insight to it's massive cast of characters that honestly it feels like a circus act with the way Psychonauts 2 juggles them around. Then you have the ongoing mystery plaguing the main story that slowly gets wrapped up into a world climax that just feels like a wonderful form of vindication for the series. There is definitely more for this series to explore, but for this outing it really helped set Psychonauts 2 as a proper world that feels lived in and realized.

Really Psychonauts 2 is just an outstanding display of vision coming out in full force, and keeps me in awe with how much it impressed me. It absolutely uses everything it can to it's advantage to give any player out there some wonderful worlds that are challenging , funny, and super interesting. And honestly I can't see Psychonauts 2 being in any other median because of how well it uses everything. If you ever need a game to show how it's art, Psychonauts 2 makes a great candidate.

#Psychonauts 2 #Psychonauts #lost reviews #Xbox game pass #Great Platformers #My friend didn't tell me about a certain person being in here #I WAS SO SURPRISED #Legit that's when I knew this game was special #It's also just consistently funny throughout #AND GAY RIGHTS #LETS GOO #FINALLY WOKE Psychonauts #mainly because that's what you are trying to do for the majority of the game #is wake people up #lmao #Can't wait for Psychonauts 3 #But this is kinda that right? #Still need to 100% this @w@

[danwhobrowses]

God of War: Ragnarok - Review

No secrets on how I felt about it given the gif, and to tell you the truth I still have some Berserkers, Muspelheim trials and one very feisty Valkyrie Queen to deal with, but I've dealt with the main story and if I keep delaying it (having to wait over a month to get it because people were nagging me for birthday ideas) I'll end up not doing it, so here's a more in-depth review of the game

Spoilers for the game

So yeah, I really enjoyed the game, probably a little more than the first of the Norse saga, there's plenty it excels at but at the same time there are elements I found were not as good as the previous. We'll get the negatives out the way.

What I didn't like as much Perhaps my bigger gripe (which is an actual gripe) is the combat. The invincibility frames, and lack thereof, are frustrating especially against Elite and Boss fights, you can take a ton of damage when you're doing a Runic attack or you can hit an attack that should stun an enemy and then the enemy will no-sell it and land a stronger blow. With bosses I also didn't like that you couldn't tell between a dodgeable red attack and a red attack where you need to attack them to stagger them, so it can get annoying. Personally I also preferred when summoning the axe was a simple triangle, using the D-Pad does slow my rhythm.

In addition, the Amulet of Yggdrasil is a bit of a downgrade to the equipment slots, there are less customization options as well which makes it harder to get a decent armor build, in the end I stuck with the Survival gear because it had the best stats - which makes you wonder why do you bother with the other sets? I also felt sad that we lost out on some skills and runics, Ivaldi's Anvil thankfully stuck around but all the other Runic attacks I used before didn't transition to the sequel. It would've also been nice for the companion armor to have some stat modifications too.

While it was good to visit all the realms, the time you spend in each realm isn't so well spread out, Vanaheim is beautiful but I lost my senses with how long I was in there, Day/Night based missions with respawning flora catching me out, we spent so much time there and yet Jotunheim, Asgard, Niflheim and Helheim used very sparingly. This transitions into my least critical gripe that we could've spent more time in the main story; take the Atreus quests (or Loki Sennas as I sometimes call them), Ironwood was just one whole chunk and you only get 3 Asgard chapters, which does reduce our time spent with characters like Skjoldr, Thrúd, Thor, Sif, and Angrbroda, I also feel like we could've spent more time with Freyr's rebel squad a bit more, Birgyr's sacrifice may've been undercut by surviving but the act of his sacrifice would've landed much harder if we had spent more time with his character. On lighter sides, I do also wish we had some more creative special bosses, particularly Bitter Squirrel I wanted to smack that rodent around, fighting the Norns would've been interesting - and I do wish we could go back just to show them that we survived anyway - and got to visit more prophecy cabinets' secret rooms just to learn more of the world.

And finally, when we talk about characters, Thor. Now I loved what we did with Thor because he was in many ways a mirror of Kratos, who also found a sense of peace by bettering himself from his brutal, genocidal and bloody past, and while I understand that Odin killing Thor is a big moment, it also sucked that we robbed Thor of the chance to better himself by having him die the first moment of agency he has against his father. While it does represent the continuation of the cycle Kratos tried to avoid by killing Baldur in the previous game (Parent killing Child/Child killing Parent) I felt there could've been more stock in Thor getting the chance to be good, especially with a potential sequel, we could've also done more with Gryla.

What I really liked Of course we can choose 'everything else', because this game is a lot of fun with equal parts of frustrating - unsurprising that previous annoyers like Wulvers and Revenants come back just to join new annoyers like the Dreki and Bifrost users (like seriously that Bifrost Berserker...) - with stunning visuals and music to boot.

Its crown jewel is of course the character building; each character undergoes a compelling journey, most compelling is Thor with how his character is subverted from his stories into a sympathetic grieving character and Kratos' journey to try and find a way to live knowing that Atreus will soon seek his own path. We also got new characters such as college bro Freyr, Angrboda (who exposes Atreus' inability to flirt), rough and tough aspiring valkyrie Thrúd and 'face in the dictionary' bastard Heimdall who made strong impressions without overshadowing the current characters. Odin's role as chief villain as well is great because of how unlike God of War it is, his villainy isn't some hulking muscle sponge for Kratos to skewer like it's a washboard, he's cunning, sly and manipulative, having influenced Atreus throughout the whole story by posing as Tyr (I did wonder why he was caged in such an unguarded area), which leads us into the tragedy of losing Brok. The dwarves' 'chaperoning' did provide some good comedy, and as we built to Brok being without part of his soul we slowly didn't clock onto his death, which hurts even more given how he was both correct to suspect 'Tyr' and we had recently come back from a deep scene of him blessing the Draupnir Spear. Admittedly I didn't like the blipping out animation because it always feels like a bug, but Sindri's grief is a heartbreakingly tragic part of the story necessary to bring us to our lowest point, while the grief will linger with Sindri, I felt that Sindri being the one to 'kill' Odin was justified.

Initially, I wasn't sure I'd like the Draupnir Spear; as a ranged weapon I worried it wouldn't fit with the more hack n slash style, but I was greatly wrong in that department. The Spear is great, I use it a ton especially against the Drakes, Wights and Phantoms since it's good for stunning and longer range. The expansion of allowing Atreus to fight alone with his own unique skill tree is also a lot of fun, having his own variation of 'Spartan Rage' in shapeshifting, as is getting to have Freya as a companion to fight alongside too by being able to use her Valkyrie powers. Dialogue also remains fun and witty, expanding on elements of the speaking character, particularly Mimir and his past, but it was also surprising to see Kratos open up on his past a lot, not only to Atreus and Mimir but to Freya too (who engage in a lot of 'hate flirting' and just general flirting) even mentioning his wife and child and also Deimos - existing only in PSP side games.

While we spend A LOT of time in Vanaheim, all of the realms are good to explore, Jotunheim is particularly breathtaking and both Vanaheim and Svartalfheim has some fantastic scenery, Asgard itself is good to look at too, very Nordic in its aesthetic of longhouses and taverns, each realm feeling different for the other. And then the crescendo of Ragnarok did set up a big and dramatic ending.

The ending too is bittersweet, but it fully encapsulates the themes of God of War; choosing ones path in spite of prophecy, letting go and embracing the unknown - which Odin couldn't comprehend doing, and not responding to grief by sinking into old ways, it is a perfect end to the Norse saga while leaning but not fully copying aspects to how Ragnarok and other aspects of Norse myth - such as the origin of Loki's 'children' - went down (though I would not have minded Fenrir just popping up and swallowing Odin whole much like he does in Norse Ragnarok). And yet, then there is still a wealth of post-game still to achieve, which does benefit in extending the play time.

So yeah, everything else.

The Norse Saga ends, but what next? I know that Barlog has said that the Norse saga is over, and that they're eyeing Egyptian and Maya mythology, but part of me does feel like part of the Norse saga is still unfinished.

If it were me at least, I would look towards perhaps working on a multi-pronged assault. Odin is dead but that doesn't mean his religion is all gone; he was worshipped by Saxons and other Germanic faith too, which could invite British folklore to come to try and avenge Odin and perhaps even trigger the Wild Hunt - which Odin sometimes leads. We could also use Odin's oft-forgotten brothers Ville and Vé and refashion them into leaders of other pantheons in other lands, seeking to avenge their brother in the same way. While that is happening too we can have Sindri's descent, acting upon rage and the path of revenge since killing Odin didn't give him the satisfaction he had hoped, in that aspect Sindri could be Atreus' enemy but one Kratos can eventually talk down after he gets clarity over the damage he has caused - probably through association with another, for instance Vidyar, son of Odin and god of Vengeance, or by creating Tyrfing the cursed sword that kills whenever it was drawn to rival the Leviathan axe out of grief and anger, knowing that to get to Atreus he'd need to distract Kratos. Finally I feel like we should also consider bringing Athena back as a manipulator in the shadows, looking once more for a chance to drop the hammer on Kratos at his most vulnerable, she could also be associated with the mask, since they both bore an ethereal green light and she did find a way to avoid death in a higher plane of existence.

With that we could also get Atreus seeking other lands for more Jotnar who established themselves as other deities from other pantheons, while maybe also inheriting his mother's axe in the end while Kratos seeks to fulfill Faye's new vision for him by protecting the lands that home his allies and family, therefore bridging out to other pantheons that way without having to kill off or discard all of the Norse saga's groundwork.

Regardless, and I have cut a lot short just so it didn't get too long such as gushing about Fay, all the doggos, the Tortoise with a mini tree growing out of its back etc., Ragnarok leaves me fulfilled with my playing experience and yet equally eager and anticipating for more, so I hope to see what Santa Monica has for us next.

#god of war #god of war ragnarok #gow #gow ragnarok #gow ragnarök spoilers #god of war ragnarök spoilers #kratos #atreus #loki gow #loki god of war #mimir #freya gow #freya god of war #odin gow #odin god of war #thor god of war #thor gow #gow thrúd #thrúd #sif god of war #sif gow #heimdall gow #heimdall god of war #freyr gow #freyr god of war #norse mythology #vanaheim #asgard #midgard #svartalfheim

[the-au-collector]

I have no backing for this but I feel like every post about KH I’ve been making lately has been very negative??? Idk I reblogged a post today and realized it was really really negative? And like. I don’t like KH3. I stand by that. And it’s because I fucking love this series. I love it’s characters. I love how much of a madman Nomura is.

But. I can also feel the lack of love that went into KH3. That’s not to say there wasn’t any love. The world designs are phenomenal (did you know they modeled a specific city block in San Francisco for San Fransokyo’s level? I need to post that comparison soon). The gameplay, while too flashy and breaking the flow of gameplay constantly, looks really good. The game looks good. It feels good to play. I hate the game yet it’s my most replayed KH game to date.

Yet I can’t help but feel like Nomura was tired when writing it. He was tired of these characters. Tired of this arc. He wanted to move on. I don’t blame him. He’s been working on the Xehanort arc for around a decade. Damn, I would be tired too. But it’s a problem when I can feel that tiredness in the story.

And it permeates the story. The sequel-baiting. The bringing up things out of left field. Fucking Verum Rex. It’s just. KH3 feels tired. It feels tired of its own IP. It feels tired of the arc it’s supposed to be ending. It feels tired of Disney and Sora and the characters we’ve been following for years.

Idk, I mostly just feel disappointed about KH3. At this point, I’m just tired of it. I loathe the game because I love the series and I hate how lackluster of an ending KH3 got because Nomura got tired/wants to do other things with the series (*side eyes the hideous rebrand of Versus XIII as Verum Rex*). This series is near and dear to my heart and it’s just sad. When the game came out, I felt betrayed. There was too much coming out of left field. Too much focusing on what was ahead instead of closing off arcs. It was too little too late.

We waited thirteen years—and for what? For Sora to be sent left and right with no direction across 6 Disney worlds? For everything to be wrapped up in a nice little bow with little to no struggle or emotional agony that all of the previous games have consistently given us? For Sora to just be able to fix things with no consequences? For every world Sora was sent to to feel inconsequential (and I can see the effort there. I can see so, so much effort to make something. Each movie featured has themes of loss and sacrifice but it’s just not there in KH3)? For Sora to not even take a front-seat in most of the story? He’s just there, a vessel for the player to watch events that he has nothing to do with unfold? What happened to Sora, the main character? Why does no one want to involve him on anything? Now he’s just the dues ex machine all the important people get to call when they get in trouble. Where’s the setup? Where’s the payoff? Where’s the hours of Lea agonizing over Roxas and Xion? Where’s Aqua and Ven trying desperately to save Terra, knowing he might be too far gone? Where’s Sora, facing up against the biggest foe of his life, who’s supposed to be the most conniving, deceitful man ever? It all just gets shoved to the end, barely mattering outside of a single world.

The worst part is—I know Nomura can write something good. I know he can do the setup and payoff. He explained why Mickey was shirtless in KH1 for Pete’s sake! He did really good at Union X’s story and making us really care about the new characters we have never met! He made impeccable Disney Worlds in Dark Road that had plot relevance! I know he can make something good, great even! So why didn’t he with KH3?

Sorry for the long post. Figured I’d explain some of my disappointment in KH3. I really do love the series, and it’s what makes KH3 so disappointing and bad to me. I know this is a 5-year old conversation but I’d figured I’d put my 2 cents into the pot.

#kingdom hearts 3 #not kh3 friendly #collectors thoughts #not linked universe #I’m feeling chatty today I guess #I love kingdom hearts #but it’s been feeling bitter lately

[motherfuckermorgan]

kirby's return to dream land thoughts

didn't really go into this game planning to make a post like this, this was just a game i wanted to give a go but i ended up having a decent amount to say about this game that i can't really fit into twitter posts neatly.

modern 2d kirby games are really interesting. i think they are the most mechanically rich the series has ever been, though admittedly they do end up sacrificing some of the simplicity that it core to kirby as a result. though this also creates a contradiction where because you're given so many more options the games are now also generally easier. kirby games were always pretty easy, though i did find myself more likely to die if i was playing haphazardly in those. more options = easier yet less simple, but also allows the game to create a higher skill ceiling for its most difficult challenges in the postgame. i didn't really try any of these so i won't speak on them, but the main campaign of this game is relatively breezy. i had 80 lives by the end of the game and i'd imagine a kid could make it through with a fraction of those lives.

return to dream land is also the first console kirby game in a while, and in a lot of way it's really really safe. mechnically speaking the only thing they push outta the game that would've been unreasonably for the poor feeble DS was the addition of 4 player multiplayer. graphically though? this game takes full advantage of being on much beefier hardware. kirby character designs have, to me, always translated extremely well to 3d designs. some series do struggle graphically when making the transition to 3d, meanwhile with kirby? kirby 64 is by far the best looking game on the N64 in no small part to the simple character designs lending themselves well to a lowplay style. but i digress. i played the switch port for this playthrough and damn, i gotta be real, the thick outlines of the characters contrasting the levels really does look nice. it gives the game a nice bit of pop and does account for the fact that a lot of people are likely gonna be playing this as a handheld game. the wii original is no slouch in the graphics department, but the switch version is, in my opinion, the best that kirby has ever looked in 3d!

while it is a very nice looking game, in terms of theming... it's nothing that kirby hasn't done before. you got your beach levels, your volcano levels, industrial levels, grass levels, etc etc it's all very safe. i guess it makes sense given kirby hadn't been on a console in over a decade, but it does make this very odd to me, in terms of comparing it to the game that would follow it. the theming of the sequel games is STRONG. triple deluxe takes a more naturalistic approach, while planet robobot contrasts this with an industrialist approach. star allies ties together what is otherwise mostly a game for fanservice with a kid friendly cult. forgotten land takes you to an apocalyptic world, a world now overgrown but still containing many manmade structures that create a dark undertone that forces you to ask "What happened here". return to dream land, again, does not in my mind have this sort of distinct theming. we're just in dream land again. we're gonna see the same kind of levels we've come to expect, without much of a twist on them. perhaps this is being unfair to the game, and i would at the very least place it higher than star allies, but i can't pretend like this game left all that strong of an impression on me in this regard.

i cannot say the same for the game's villain, magolor. holy shit does this guy steal the show. if there's anything to remember about this game, it's him. in a similar vein to marx, he feigns being kirby's friend by laying a problem in his lap. magolor's ship has crashed on popstar, and he needs help repairing his ship to make it back home. of course, we're never given a reason as to why he came out of a big ass black hole far away from home, but kirby's just a nice guy and is willing to help out. we've no reason to be overtly suspicious about magolor, other than he's rather secretive about how he even ended up here. this, in my opinion, helps with the twist later. his true nature is revealed when, upon defeating the dragon that doomed his ship prior, it is revealed that magolor is another power-hungry maniac trying to conquer the universe. he is so nice to you up until this point, it is easy to get attached and therefore easier to feel the betrayal. marx doesn't really have this? he shows up once before deciding, actually, i want to take over the world. magolor is a constant presence, he IS the driving force of the game. he is the one you meet at the end of each world, and he is the one who drives you to slay the only beast keeping him from obtaining ultimate power.

i had a lot to say about the set dressing of the game, but how about the levels themselves? they're about as good as they've always been, i reckon. they also come with some of my kirby gripes. i've always felt a bit odd about how kirby games did puzzle solving for its optional areas. it makes sense that they'd want you to engage with a specific copy ability, but i always found this hard to come to grips with. kirby games are so easy, it would be most fun just to blast through the game with your favorite copy ability. this is actually how i often play through kirby 64! but it's also not practical if you wanna get the most out of the game. i'm not really sure what the solution is, it's not like i want the puzzles to be less interesting, but i can't pretend like it isn't a problem for me personally.

in general, the level design is pretty solid. they're nothing you haven't seen before, but then again, that's a reoccurring theme. i do think the expanded movepools give you more to do when you're going from level to level, as well as giving more depth to the bosses.

i will say also, the central gimmick of this game is... underwhelming. i think this is the BIGGEST issue with modern kirby games. often times the gimmick of the game is an uninteresting one. i think the only games where i'm fully on board with them is the robots in robobot and mouthful mode in forgotten land. the stronger copy abilities are... fine. i do think that they kind of make my problem of "Having to constantly switch copy abilities isn't the most fun" worse. i also think that a lot of them don't create the most fun puzzle solving. pretty much all of them just boil down to hitting the attack button in the right spot, which i suppose you could argue is how a lot of kirby puzzles go, but it feels more egregious when you have to watch a longer than normal animation every time. you're also just practically invincible during these segments. sure, you CAN get hit, but also, the second you see an enemy, it's as easy as hitting the attack button every time. shout out to the snow roll though, that one was genuinely fun pretty much every time i came across it.

seems like this game got me to bitch a LOT. but it's really much easier to nitpick a game like this than say "it's cute and i like it :)" over and over. this is a great game! it's just a game that IMO lives in the shadow of better games that have followed it since. more than worth playing, but don't expect this to be a big shakeup for the kirby series or anything.

#games post

[justal0wk3yg4mer]

Things I've Said: Ghostrunner (Spoilers)

Me: *Player/My actions* Character Dialogue

My man...bot, woke up a chose violence.

Sweet free running. *Immediately misses a jump and dies.* Ooohhh...I'm gonna lose sleep over this.

Air zoomies?

MATRIX bitch!

He does a lil' sword twirl, that's adorable.

Bro first mission took me fifteen minutes...I'm really gonna lose sleep.

You're bossy for someone who's asking for help to get out of prison. And you're very rude 😠

Mmmh, that gravelly voice.

Ninja slaves?

Is he lowkey calling him fucked up?

SUPER MURDER ZOOMIES

I feel like I am staring at the virtual eye of Saron.

Why can't Zoe be the voice in our head? She's such a nice rebel.

I've already died so many times, I don't need competence.

Bitch, there is no trust; spill the tea Zoe.

Jack's gone deviant.

No, no, no, no, please don't jump at me. I'm delicate, please. *Screams as enemies proceed to do just that.*

Good, stay on your side of the barrier and I'll stay on mine. Respect the boundary.

I completely forgot that I had throwing stars.

So I'm an airbender now?

Stop with the compliments, they are beginning to sound vaguely perverted.

I'm sorry, you prepared for an uprising? Then you knew that a multitude of people don't fucking like you.

I'm not a criminal. Just your friendly neighborhood Ghostrunner 😄

Bootleg Ghostrunner.

Can Jack have a gun now? No one cares about your (Architect) weapon preferences, Jack need a fucking gun.

I would like to correct my previous statement. This, this is the bootleg Ghostrunner.

Never have I met a character where I knew off the rip that they were going to betray the main character and every time they say something it just solidifies my opinion. Maybe I'm not playing enough games, but this dude is pretty obvious.

Zoe no! Don't leave me alone with the talking headache!

What the fuck was that!? It makes sounds and--I can't. Nope.

This is the first time you (Architect) have said something that I completely agree with.

Dammit now I agree with the crazy lady. Both of you are fucked.

This is beginning to sound like ex's going at it with their kid in the cross-fire.

Edgy Doc Ock?

WHAT DID I SAY!

That is called a dictatorship with delusions of self preservation.

Go off Jack. *A little later* GO OFF JACK!

You (Adam) look like a lil bitch.

Sequel baiting? *Checks* Yes, yes it is.

So let one thing straight...I am not the best gamer out there. My type of games are the open world story driven kind where I can spend hours fucking around. When I started playing Ghostrunner, I was flabbergasted at the control system and died soooooooooooo many times. But, I really liked the world design and the story so I powered through and honestly, I ended up enjoying it. It is such and underrated game and I was excited when the DLC came out. You best believe I'm gonna play sequel (there is one in development), and find out what they did to my bot Jack. Anyway, I figured y'all would what to see how badly I struggled. For your viewing pleasure (and comedy) my death count for Ghostrunner! (Feel free to let me know y'alls count and any tips and tricks)

Death Count: 3,076

#things i've said #video games #gaming #ghostrunner #jack #the architect #cyberpunk