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satoshi-mochida · 3 months

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Some games on the PSN New Year Sale. Ends February 1st.

13 Sentinels

Actraiser: Renaissance

Afterimage

AI: The Somnuim Files

ALTDEUS: Beyond Chronos

Anima: Gate of Memories

ANONYMOUS;CODE

Arcade Spirits

Ary and the Secret of Seasons

A Space for the Unbound

Assault Suit Lynos

Bayonetta and Vanquish

Buried Stars

Castlevania Anniversary Collection

Chaos;Child

Coffee Talk

Coffee Talk 2

Control

Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

Cris Tales

Cross Code

Cult of the Lamb

Cyber Citizen Shockman

Cyberdimension Neptunia

Danganronpa 1-2 Reload

Danganronpa V3

Darkwood

Death end reQuest

Death end reQuest 2

Devil May Cry HD Collection

Digimon Survive

Dissidia Final Fantasy NT

DJ Max Respect

Double Dragon Gaiden

Dragon Ball FighterZ

Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Dragon Ball Xenoverse/Xenoverse 2 Bundle

Dusk Diver

Earth Defense Force 5

Earth Defense Force: Iron Rain

Exoprimal

Fallen Legion: Sins of an Empire

Final Fantasy XV: Royal Edition

Final Fantasy XV: Comrades

Freedom Planet

Ghost n Goblins Resurection

Ghost Trick

Giga Wrecker Alt.

Ginga Force

Goat Simulator

Goat Simulator 3

God Eater Resurection

God Eater 3

Gravity Rush Remastered

Grim Fandango Remastered

Gungrave G.O.R.E.

Harvest Moon: The Winds of Anthos

Hatsune Miku: Project Diva X

Horizon: Zero Dawn

I Am Setsuna

In Nightmare

Jak and Daxter

Jak II

Jak 3

Jak x: Combat Racing

Kaze and the Wild Masks

Kerbal Space Program

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 + 2.5 Remix

Kingdom Hearts 2.8

Labyrinth of Zangetsu

Laika: Aged Through Blood

Legend of Mana

Light Fairytale Episode 1

Light Fairytale Episode 2

Like a Dragon: Ishin

Little Nightmares

Little Nightmares 2

Little Witch Academia: Chamber of TIme

Lock's Quest

Lost in Random

Lost Judgment

Made in Abyss; Binary Star Falling Into Darkness

Maglam Lord

Mary Skelter Finale

MediEvil

Metal Gear Solid 5

Metal Max Zeno Reborn

Mirror's Edge Catalyst

Monster Hunter Rise

Mr. Driller DrillLand

My Aunt is a Witch

My Hero: One's Justice

Several Naruto games

Neverending Nightmares

Ni no Kuni 2

Obliteracers

Omega Quintet

Several One Piece games

Oninaki

Our World is Ended.

Owlboy

Persona 4 Ultimax

Persona 5 Royal

Potion Permit

Praey for the Gods

Pumpkin Jack

Raging Loop

Relayer

Re:ZERO -Starting Life in Another World- The Prophecy of the Throne

Several Resident Evil games

River City: Rival Showdown

Romancing SaGa 2

Romancing SaGa 3

Root Film

Root Letter

SaGa Fronter Remastered

SaGa Scarlet Grace

Sakura Wars(PS4)

Samurai Shodown

Scribblenauts Mega Pack

Secret of Mana

Sega Gensis Classics

Simulacra

Skul: The Hero Slayer

Slender: The Arrival

Song of Memories

Sonic Frontiers

Sonic Superstars

Steins; Gate

Steins; Gate 0

Steins; Gate: My Darling's Embrace

Super Bobmerman R

Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz HD

Super Night Riders

Sword of the Vagrant

Taiko no Tetsujin: Drum Session

Tales of Zestiria

Tembo the Badass Elephant

The Evil Within

Several King of Fighters games

Valkyria Chronicles 4

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story

Valthirian Arc: Hero School Story 2

Various Daylife

Warborn

When the Past was Around

Yakuza 3 Remastered

Yakuza 4 Remastered

Yakuza 5 Remastered

Zanki Zero

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bylerbigbang · 5 months

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afterimage

Fic by @ratherbeyouthful | Art by @junkoandthediamonds & @paladibun

Teen | 17k words

When his sister gets married, Mike and the rest of the Hawkins crew travel to attend. Amongst family problems and resisting the urge to be happy, Mike Wheeler has a bigger problem: he’s in love with his best friend at a time when love itself is the highest celebration. Even bigger than that problem? They’ll be standing on the same steps of an altar during a wedding, and his imagination keeps running wild. Throughout the rehearsals, the ceremonies, the dances, and miscommunications one after the other, Mike realizes that the love of his life might actually feel the same, no matter how much he tries to keep himself from believing it.

(feat. Mike’s struggle to accept that he should pursue what makes him happy, i.e. Will, and Will’s refusal to let Mike slip by him no matter how hard he tries.)

Warnings: Mentions of past trauma, PTSD, Minor internalized homophobia, Mentions of past violence

Read on Ao3 | View Art (1) (2)

Read an excerpt below:

“You didn’t lose me,” Will says. “I didn't mean to make you think that. I didn’t think you would understand, but I didn’t expect you to follow.”

“There’s nowhere you could go that I wouldn’t come after you,” Mike says. He realizes Will’s hand still sits atop his. “I would have followed you into the Upside Down the first time if I knew how.”

“Mike…” Will says, and falters. Surely he recognizes the sentiment from their terrified fight that night, Will’s face blazing. Why did you come? And Mike, the blood dripping from his neck onto Will’s fingertips: Where you go, I’m going. “That’s—”

“Until you get rid of me,” Mike says, unsuccessful at hiding the waver in his voice, “I’ll be there. No matter when or where it is. And I’m sorry I didn’t tell you sooner, before then. I just thought you knew. You’re my best friend, Will, and nothing could ever change that.”

“You’re too good for me,” Will says, and then he lets go of Mike’s hand and yanks him into a hug, his arms sturdy around Mike’s shoulders. The action crushes Mike’s fingers against his collarbone, but he moves his free hand up to hug back, his chin hooked over Will’s shoulder.

“No way,” Mike says. He laughs, and it comes out clotted with the humble beginnings of tears. “We’re a mess, aren’t we?”

“The biggest mess,” Will answers, and then draws back. He reaches over to pull Mike’s hand away from digging into the scar looping about his skin. “I want you to try and be happy, Mike. I don’t know what’s stopping you, but if I can help, tell me how.”

Read more on Ao3 >

#byler big bang #bbb23 #byler #byler fanfiction #byler fanart #masterpost #afterimage

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stopthatbluecat · 2 years

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Oh, Julian, loves to be pushed up against wall in whatever universe or mindscape...

#julian bashir #garashir #siskoshir #elim garak #benjamin sisko #worf #distant voices #shattered mirror #afterimage #ds9 #deep space nine

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charlottessecretartstash · 8 months

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And winner for hardest fucking design ever goes to afterimage good god

#battlebots #robot combat #robot fighting #robogames #afterimage

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motheyesofnight · 1 year

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(from "The Color Theory") I'd rather open my eyes, look at the light and bring the paper back which I threw it far away savor the childish splendor I couldn't understand why they were getting so upset

#poetry #colortheory #colorful #afterimage

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sshbpodcast · 2 months

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Character Spotlight: Dax (all of ‘em!)

By Ames

We give Deep Space Nine a lot of credit for fleshing out Trill culture after the confusion that was TNG’s “The Host.” Trill characters become so much more interesting when the joining gets retconned to be more of a personality melding than an overwrite, and we’ve got Dax to thank for that. All the Daxes! Sure, we’ve also been frustrated that every Dax-centered episode seems to rewrite how being a Trill works, but we’ll get into that in a second.

Your hosts at A Star to Steer Her By decided to clump all the Daxes together for this spotlight, so we’ve got your gorgeous Jadzia, your cute-as-a-button Ezri, and even some mentions for Curzon and other bonus Daxes to round out our Best and Worst Moments lists! Check them out below, listen to our discussion in this week’s podcast episode (jump over to 1:09:24), and find out if the spots do go all the way down.

[Images © CBS/Paramount]

Best moments

A different kind of worm pouch, er, hole! Deep down, Jadzia is just a science nerd who wants to science, so it’s only fitting that she’s the one who does all the heavy lifting when it comes to discovering the wormhole in “Emissary” (not to be confused with “The Emissary” from TNG). Her study of the orbs leads her down the rabbit… er, worm hole until she and Ben go investigate and accidentally start this whole series!

We were just… wrestling One thing the show makes clear about Jadzia early on: she fucks. This girl is unapologetic about how she seeks consensual sex, and good for her. In “Playing God,” she has clearly just struck the mat with her wrestling coach in a scene meant to raise eyebrows, but she’s so forthright about it that viewers go right past feeling titillated and straight to accepting that she knows what she wants.

You are the only one who can give yourself another chance The rest of “Playing God” is spent appraising her Trill initiate, Arjin. And while she’s more polite and forgiving than Curzon would ever be, she’s also upfront with the little dweeb. She tells him that if he’s only looking to become a joined Trill for other people’s sake and not his own, then he’s bound to fail both himself and a symbiont. He should do what he wants to do.

A Klingon blood oath can never be broken It’s in “Blood Oath” halfway through season two that Jadzia truly emerges as a powerhouse character. Not only does she fight like a true warrior, but she stands up for herself when her old Klingon friends are wary of honoring the blood oath they made with Curzon. It’s the first time Jadzia does something for her after a couple seasons of us questioning her character’s agency, and she slays!

I don’t want to lose you, not again The next really epic, character-defining moment for Jadzia comes in “Rejoined” when again she is fighting for something she desires, even if it will mean the end of the Dax symbiont’s legacy. But screw it, Jadzia lives for love, and her relationship with her old partner Lenara Khan is so deeply felt that we really root for them, and feel all the more crushed at the end.

The only adult in the room Jadzia’s character is so frequently marked by the experience of several lifetimes that she just has this maturity and wisdom about her sometimes. Especially when everyone around her is acting like children, like in “The Sword of Kahless” when Worf and Kor were being selfish brats about finding the legendary bat’leth and Jadzia has to shut them both up. With a phaser.

Kahless hearts Lukara Jadzia’s sort of a hopeless romantic sometimes, so it’s only fitting that she try to earnestly help her friend Quark woo his lady love, the glorious Grilka in “Looking for Par’mach in All the Wrong Places.” When it’s not enough to teach Quark some Klingon languages and how to fight with a bat’leth, she even brilliantly concocts an optronic relay to allow Worf to fight for him remotely.

If this story had an unhappy ending, I would have never forgiven you Sure, it’s mostly a Jake Sisko episode and Jadzia has pretty much just one actual scene in it, but there’s just something about her talk with Benjamin in “...Nor the Battle to the Strong” that’s so sweet. Sisko is stressing out about Jake being in a warzone, and Jadzia tells him one of her past host’s parenting stories to put him a little more at ease, like a good parent would.

Retreat, acquire, confront, evade As we saw in “Looking for Par’mach in All the Wrong Places,” Jadzia’s friendship with Quark has always been well depicted. In a show in which we’ve complained (multiple times) about racism against Ferengis, Jadzia is the only one to give Quark the time of day, and also the one closest to him to tell him to stop weapons dealing in “Business as Usual” because she cares.

Oh baby, I hear the blues a’calling Sadly for us, we lose Jadzia after season six, but happily, there are a couple good moments for the next Dax, Ezri! The first counseling gig she picks up is a bit of a doozy, as she tries to help Garak work through his claustrophobia and his feelings of identity crisis in “Afterimage.” And like all mental health battles, it’s an ongoing one, but she at least gets things started.

The killer in Dax We don’t get enough of the character to see the consequences of summoning that psycho Joran in “Field of Fire” but we can tell it’s noteworthy. Ezri is the only Dax who gets tested by that murderer who briefly had the Dax symbiont, and watching her stand up to him, refuse to give in to the lure of wanton homicide, and solve a case is impressive indeed. If only the episode weren’t otherwise drek.

The Klingon Empire is dying. And I think it deserves to die. Insert any Dax here and they probably have a better understanding of Klingon culture than Worf, but it’s Ezri who really schools him. In “Tacking into the Wind,” she throws in his ridged face just how crappy Klingon politics are and how Gowron is sending the whole empire down the shitter, giving Worf the peptalk he needs to go murder the hell out of that bulgy-eyed fascist.

—

Worst moments

The prosecution rests Early-seasons Jadzia hadn’t yet found her agency, which was the biggest character facet she was lacking. A good representation of this in the episode “Dax,” in which she ostensibly should be the focus character, but spends her entire courtroom hearing refusing to speak for herself and allowing a room full of men to dictate her fate. I rest my case.

Don’t call me Benjamin For some of these Worst Moments, we’ve dipped into other hosts of the Dax symbiont to round things out a bit. And that includes that prick Verad Dax, even if he only has the symbiont for a little while in “Invasive Procedures.” But what an asshole! This guy hires goons to help him kidnap the symbiont, forces Julian to perform surgery, and would have left Jadzia to die.

Talk about an earworm! Here’s another alternate host who does some nasty deeds. We learn in “Equilibrium” that Dax had a secret host, Joran, who happened to do some murdering in order to get/keep the symbiont. It’s still unclear to me what his deal was because later episodes “Facets” and “Field of Fire” retcon his character all over the place until we have no idea how many people this guy even murdered!

And then we can count each other’s spots I’m vomiting in my mouth a little over the cloyingly sweet romance in “Meridian.” While we can commend Jadzia for being sex positive in our Best Moments list above, it’s also incredibly tiring how boy crazy she seems sometimes. It’s like the writing staff can’t help but define Jadzia by the men in her life, and falling so hard for a milquetoast guy like Deral in like a day is proof.

The way to a man’s heart is through his ears Yes, I will include on my Worst Moments list every time women give a Ferengi oomox. Bev did it. Lwaxana did it. T’Pol did it (and I’m sure I’ll mention that when we get to her spotlight). And when Jadzia sensually rubs Quark’s ears in “Facets” to convince him to take on a role in her zhiantara, I find it disgusting because it’s a woman engaging in sexual acts only to titillate the audience. Gross.

You were so young, so lovely We’ve got another guest host to give a piece of our mind to, and that’s Curzon Dax. In “Facets,” he reveals that he washed Jadzia out of the Initiate Program because he was in love with her, and that’s just awful. This guy should have recused himself if he couldn’t remain unbiased in his assessment. Poor Jadzia, always being seen through a sexual lens by men, on and off camera.

What if there was a way for you to kill your brother without killing him? Dax’s heart is in the right place when she tries to find a better place for Kurn when all he wants is to die with honor in “Sons of Mogh.” But the option that she offers to wipe his memory to give him a fresh start is SO MESSED UP. Kurn has no consent in the action that Jadzia and Worf (and Julian, whom we’ll point the finger at next week) impose on him. Dishonor on their houses.

There are some things in life you can’t control, and one of them is me We gave Worf a lot of stick for how badly he treats Jadzia, especially in an episode like the notorious “Let He Who Is Without Sin,” which last we checked had the lowest IMDB rating of all of DS9. And for good reason! It really makes us judge Jadzia quite a bit for staying with Worf when he treats her like his property, which is no good foundation for a relationship.

How do those boots taste? Jadzia struggling through Lady Sirella’s rituals in “You Are Cordially Invited” is demeaning, even in Klingon culture. It shocks me that Jadzia going to grovel to the lady of the House of Martok wins her favor. Instead of rewarding bootlicking, there should have been a more Klingon twist: it should have been a test of how long a prospective house member can put up with shit before they snap and do battle! That’s how you honor a house!

I’m sorry, the baby… Jadzia gets killed off in “Tears of the Prophets,” and it feels like a damn waste! It’s always sad for a beloved character to die, but for Kosst Amojen to take her out like a mere bystander brings up memories of Tasha Yar all over again. And then for her death to get undermined by her and Worf’s plan to procreate just feels like we’re back to Jadzia being defined by her relationships after all that progress.

Anyone can steal a shuttlecraft We’re fairly critical of Ezri Dax on this podcast, and some of that is unwarranted. But when Ezri does stupid shit like stealing a runabout to go save Worf in “Penumbra,” we raise an eyebrow. And when she and Worf bicker like old lovers, we roll our eyes. And when she and Worf have sex instead of dealing with trauma in a healthy and mature manner because it’s all a story trope, we lose some respect for these characters. Dammit.

If Worf hadn’t come along, it would have been you Ezri is barely here for a whole season and already she’s paired up with two of the male crewmembers. In “Afterimage,” Ezri tells Julian that Jadzia was into all the constant flirting, but she isn’t. But by “What You Leave Behind,” they’ve hooked up anyway, and it just feels like smashing the two dollies together to make them kiss. Can she be a character first before she hops into bed with the male character, please?

— Time to put this symbiont back in its pouch and call it day. As alluded to, we’ve got more DS9 characters to spotlight, following with Julian Bashir next week! So stay tuned here for that, follow along on SoundCloud (or wherever you get your podcasts) for more Enterprise watchalongs, hail us on subspace over on Facebook and Twitter, and stop retconning how joined Trills work already!

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autisticsupervillain · 7 months

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It's Fictional Throwdown Friday!

This Week's Fighters...

Renee vs The Chosen Undead!

Conditions:

No restrictions. Both sides have absolutely everything.

Scenario:

The Chosen Undead hears of a legendary warrior who can regenerate from nothing but their soul and travels to Engardin to usenit as kindling for the First Flame. Renee refuses to let her soul be used in another cycle of blood and conflict.

Analysis: The Chosen Undead

The world is ending. Not with a bang or a crunch, but with a shuddering, prolonged whimper. The heroes of the land have all either died or gone mad, and the inspirational legends behind them are all nothing but ancient history. Humanity would want nothing more than to roll over and die. Pity that that is the last thing they could do.

Humanity has been cursed with fragments of the all powerful Dark Soul, ensuring that all humans are naturally undead. This meant that they would eventually live long enough to eventually go Hollow, dying a slow and painful death in the throughs of madness as their humanity left them. Exploiting this fact, the Gods used this curse as propaganda to trick humans into sacrificing their fragments of the Dark Soul to fuel the First Flame, the Sun the lights the world and whose creation and existence fuels that concept of time itself. For the Gods feared the power of the Dark Soul and wanted to keep their reign in the Age of Light going for as long as possible.

One of the humans who bore the Dark Soul was the one who would become the Chosen Undead. Shipped up to an aslyum in the North to be contained when they went Hollow, the Chosen Undead was rescued by a giant raven and informed of their destiny. Dropped into the land of Lordran, the Chosen Undead would have to fight their way through the mad gods, fallen heroes, and treacherous monsters to save the world from the Age of Dark.

...Well, I say "save". More like "torturously prolong". It is Dark Souls, after all. There is no true happy endint to your grand quest, whether you ignite the flame to keep the cycle going or let it die to condemn humanity to darkness, Hollowness, and dispair. So what's the point, you may ask? To die. Over and over again, until you succeed. It is the struggle that makes the Undead's journey worth it.

And luckily, The Chosen Undead would find countless weapons and spells to aide them in their journey. The most prominent of which is the Dark Soul itself. By using bits of it as kindling at bonfires, The Chosen Undead can resurrect from the dead, over and over again to retry whatever fight is killing them. Though this process deprives them of all the souls that they've collected and slowly drives them closer to Hollowness, the humans of Dark Souls don't need souls to survive and The Chosen Undead can, to an extent, resist the effects of going Hollow through sheer determination. As long as they don't rage quit, the Chosen Undead can return as many times as they want and eventually win.

And with pockets as deep as theirs, one of their weaons is bound to give them a winning strategy once they learn all your tricks. The Greatsword of Artorius, whose cursed varients can kill ghosts, Gough's Greatbow, a massive bow with pillar sized arrows that csn shoot down dragons, and the Dark Hand, a mark that can warp space itself to create a shield and absorb people's souls, just to name a few.

And they're also a master of sorcery and magic. With spells such as the Homing Soulmass to directly target and home in on a foe's soul, to the Hidden Caster spell to turn themselves invisible. Or, they can just say "fuck magic" and use the Vow of Silence to keep people from casting spells entirely. Helpful for managing their limited magic supply. They can even use their magic to summon heroes from other realms to aide them in combat. Or they can go to other people's realms and invade their lands to steal their things. Try it and I'll shove a great sword up your ass before you finish praising the sun, Dave. And that's on top of being able to reflect damage, control minds, shoot fire balls, and throw sunlight at people. Sunlight that they are fast enough to dodge when being invaded by other Players, mind you.

And all that arsenal isn't being thrown around by a witless dolt either. They've managed to kill Seath the Scaleless, the immortal dragon who invented sorcery in the first place, before carving his ass into the beautiful Moonlight Greatsword. They've killed Nito, the God of Death, The Bed of Chaos, the mother of all demon kind, and Artorius, the greatest knight in history.

But, for all their unrelenting stubbornness, The Chosen Undead does have limits. They are just another cog in the endless cycle of the Ages of Light and Dark. The First Flame created the very concepts of Light and Dark. Energy and Time. Like a mythological big bang. The power that the Chosen Undead would need to power it is immense.... but not limitless. The First Flame will wain again in another thousand years and the cycle will begin anew. And while the Chosen Undead can resist the corruption of Hollowing, even they can eventually succumb. Depends on if you decide to rage quit.

And doesn't that just sum up the entire Dark Souls mythos? And endless cycle of death and suffering, until everything gives up.

Analysis: Renee

Long ago, a powerful being grew bored with her eternal isolation and decided to create the world of Engardin. This being, known as God to her worshippers and Luca to her friends, created all the species of the world. She created the Sea of Souls to house the dead, the Goliaths to protect the ecosystem, the Phoenix to pull the sun into the sky every morning, and the humans to enjoy the world she'd created.

And then, for reasons unknown, God left the world she'd created. And everything immediately went to hell.

Many of the species of Engardin died off without God's power to sustain them. The Humans and the Goliaths went to war, nearly driving each other to extinction amd decimating the world in their brutality. The Goliaths severed the link between the Sea of Souls and Engardin to keep humans from reincarnating, causing the dead to rise as bloodthirsty zombies and ghosts.

Fearing the concept of a permanent death, the human leader, Eseus, begain creating human experiments so as to find a way to subvert mortality. The resulting successes, named the "Essentials", seemed to be what she was looking for, as they had the ability to cheat death by regenerating from nothing but their soul. However, the Essentials rebelled against their creator's mistreatment and escaped to live their own life.

One of the escapees was fatally injured during the escape, losing her memories. Seeking to atone for his race's genocidal atrocities, Ifree, the current Goliath of Pyro or leader of the Goliath people, fused his soul to the girl's to stabilize it, allowing her to survive until she was taken in by a small human village. The village named her Renee and raised her as an ordinary girl.

Renee grew up in the peace that came after the war, with both races trying to put the brutality behind them and survive in the world they'd created. Engardin was seeing an era of tentative hope as everyone adapted to the new normal and Renee was able to live a happy life. Until her village was slaughtered by a strange monster and her mentor was kidnapped by a mysterious figure. "Dying" and "reviving" as a result of her Essential powers, Renee survived the bloodshed and avenged her people, before setting off on a quest to rescue her mentor and discover her past.

In her travels, Renee would become the greatest hero Engardin had ever seen. She would become a master of every weapon imaginable, swords, bows, whips, and scythes among them, and a master of magic second to none. She possed the ability to go intangible, her weapons can hurt and kill ghosts, she's fast enough to dodge light, agile enough to stick to walls, and her numerous magical weapons grant unique boons that allow her to switch her combat style on a dime. Bloodbath feeds on her blood and the blood of her enemies to boost her strength, Sword of the Hermit boosts her strength so long as she believes she can wield it, and the Muramasa can devour souls, at the cost of feeding on the wielders own. Yet, her most powerful weapon is arguably the Nameless sword. The sword that her dear companion Ifree himself used to split the universe between Engardin and the Sea of Souls, cutting humanity off from the afterlife.

Renee has survived visiting the Sea of Souls, despite the experience driving other humans completely mad, and can even regenerate damage done directly to her soul. There is, however, a cost to that. As an Essential, Renee can regrow her body from her soul as often as she likes, but damage done to her soul can slow down the process and outright destruction or absorption of her soul can permanently kill her. Once she discovered this, Renee cast six spells to create a barrier around her soul, preventing the villainous Essential Red Renee from absorbing her soul.

Ultimately, Renee would go on to put her dark past behind her, defeating both Eseus and the new Goliath of Pyro to stop their genocidal plans against the other's race and stop their attempts to restart the war. With the Afterimage of the war finally put to rest and her mentor saved, Renee was free to live her life as she saw fit. After decades of brutality and hardship following the disappearance of God, Engardin would finally know peace and begin to move on...

Throwdown Theme:

youtube

Throwdown Breakdown:

Welp, time to once again ask the age old question: "Which of these characters can kill each other?"

The ability of both to absorb souls is completely irrelevant here. That wouldn't kill the Chosen Undead and Renee's barriers protect her soul from that very kind of attack. Both are about as fast as each other due to both being able to dodge light, both would be constantly switching up their combat styles as they keep dying, and both should be similarly have similarly versatile arsenals. They should even both be comparatively skilled, as they've both taken down the most skilled fighters within their universe. Even the Chosen Undead's ability to control minds is moot, due to Renee's resistance against the mind altering effects of the Sea of Souls.

There is one major advantage, however, that ultimately makes this Renee's game: Power.

The Sea of Souls and the ocean surrounding Engardin have both been stated several times to be literally endless by numerous knowledgeable characters. And Renee is swinging around the sword that split the two apart in the first place. Hell, in the bad ending, Renee is powerful enough to kill Ifree, who himself could light up the entire ocean with a single spell. The ocean is, again, described as literally being infinite in size. Meanwhile, we know full well the First Flame cannot be infinite because... well, then it wouldn't go out in the first place.

Thematically and dynamically.... this is just Frisk vs Chosen Undead again. The Chosen Undead is fighting against someone who can come back as many times as they want just like they can, but the issue is Chosen Undead will eventually go hollow due to not being able to match the infinite power disparity. The victor is from a more optimistic series and their victory in this fight ultimately ties into their series's themes about moving on from great tragedy.

That... was not intentional in the slightest when I made this matchup, that's just where I ended up. In fact, I was fully expecting CU to win this. Apparently the Chosen Undead's real weakness is optimism. If they got therapy, they'd be unstoppable.

This Throwdown's Winner is...

Renee!

#fictional throwdown fridays #afterimage #renee afterimage #dark souls #the chosen undead

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weatherman667 · 7 months

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AFTERIMAGE

(because the title is written in block letters; it has yet to explain what the Afterimage is, other than having an empty menu section for it).

A wonderful game that lets a bunch of stupid decisions keep it from greatness.

Dash is not invulnerable, à la old school gaming, but the game makes it ridiculously easy to get surrounded. If you want to NOT have an invulnerable dash, you need to make sure enemy movements are more ponderous, so you can quickly dodge them.

Enemies have contact damage, which, goddamn, seriously? They are still giving enemies contact damage?

It's easy to get surrounded, and your basic attack cannot attack behind you. You cannot turn around without moving in that direction, leaving a deadzone which you cannot attack, (without the scythe). Again, dash is not invulnerable, and enemies have contact damage.

These combine together to make it impossible to have a tight, challenging gameplay. So, instead, the game buffs your HP to the point you can almost ignore most attacks.

The voice acting is bad, while the one doing the most talking is your exposition fairy, and it downright aggravating.

They want to have progressing levels for weapons, and start you off with a ceremonial sword. Which, sure. Then you find a wooden sword, (boken, which they should NOT have translated), which counts as your starting katana. Which, sure. And then they give you a WOODEN scythe. The flavour text for the wooden scythe proves that the writer had zero interest in writing flavour text for it. Which, if you aren't going to pay the slightest interest in the flavour text for your weapons, then you destroyed a perfectly good storytelling vehicle you were trying to use. They could have just used a Rusted Scythes, with "So rusted it might as well be blunt."

It should be translated as The Goddess, and not God. These two phrases have completely different meanings in English.

They made the world too beautiful. to the point there is a lot foreground obstruction, which enemies can attack from. Not because they are ambushing, but because their attacks just happened to move them there.

The first real person you meet steals your mentor's soul, and doesn't know why this annoys you so much. The dialogue heavily implies it's setting you up as Inspector Javert, witlessly causing destruction as you pursue an innocent (wo)man.

None of these ruin the game, they just prevent it from being as good as it could have been. It's fun to play, but not going to make a run for Hollow Knight of Ender Lilies.

#AFTERIMAGE #video games

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