#also I love botw i haven’t had time to play much recently but I miss it

[cynderrfall]

Recent botw studies

#legend of zelda #loz #botw #breath of the wild #loz botw #i think I found a solid way to do backgrounds :)) #also I love botw i haven’t had time to play much recently but I miss it #legend of zelda breath of the wild #legend of zelda fanart #botw fanart #my art #2022 art #personal favorites

[only-by-the-stars]

the annotated Tome of the Wild

Part 6: Into the Wild!

- I have no regrets about torturing you all with that dream at the beginning. Not just because it was a bit cruel, but because it’s a nod to the series tradition of Link starting his adventure by oversleeping.

- Anjean is a character from Spirit Tracks. A game in which you use a train to explore New Hyrule. Which I put into the chapter that has a speeding train play a pivotal role in Link’s accidental fall into the river, without realizing it till after the chapter was up. THIS WAS HILARIOUS TO REALIZE.

- A pale yellow half-moon and a canopy of stars presided over it all THERE’S THAT MOON AGAIN

- Teba! I like that guy. In BOTW it’s established that he looks up to Revali a lot, and is trying to master his Gale; this is understandable, given that Revali was a legendary hero of the Rito, who fell tragically in battle a hundred years ago. But when he gets to meet him during AOC, he’s... less than impressed with Revali’s behavior towards Link. He still admires his skills, of course, but that hero worship has been tarnished a little by the actual personality of the Rito Champion. It’s like that old saying about how you shouldn’t meet your heroes. So for this, I wondered: what would he think of him if that “hero of legend” factor were removed and Revali was just an exceptional student who also happened to be a major jerk? And thus you get his veiled references to behavior he won’t tolerate regardless of a person’s skill level.

- Aryll put one hand on her hip and thrust her other arm into the air. “Experiment time! OH YEAH!” She giggled. “He says that every time we get to do science stuff.” Another reference to Robbie being Aryll’s teacher.

- And we have our first onscreen appearance of Riju and Medli! I’d mentioned them in passing in one of the letters in things I didn’t send, but now they’re here. I chose them to be Link and Mipha’s friends for a couple reasons. One is simply that I really like both of them; another is that they’re close in age to those two, so it was easy to make them all the same age without it being weird. Medli is one of my favorite characters in the series, and I really liked Riju a lot, especially after being able to fight as her in AOC, so I have a lot of fun bouncing them off Link and Mipha.

- “Yes, we do see.” Riju sounded like she could barely contain her glee. “Thank you, Aryll. You've just helped us solve a very irritating mystery.” And thus is Aryll inspired to play at being “Detective Aryll”, thanks to Riju’s thanking her for this. She and Medli have been just as confused as Mipha about Link’s disappearing act, and very angry, particularly on Mipha’s behalf, as they’ve seen firsthand just how hurt she is by his behavior. But now, seeing that he made a mixtape for her? That changes everything. As soon as they see it, they finally understand: he’s been acting this way not because he suddenly dislikes Mipha, but because he’s got romantic feelings for her and is unable to talk to her about them. And as I established in Mipha’s second letter in things i didn’t send, they’re also aware of her love for Link, and so they really want to get the two talking to each other so this can be sorted out at last.

- “Don't they have to be somewhere wet?” Link glanced back at where the school was getting smaller and smaller as they kept walking. “I know they need a lot of water.” Yeah, like the river you’re about to fall into very soon.

- “You're right! I almost forgot! It talked about that in a show Mom was watching last week about people who catch frogs for making medicine and stuff. Did you know some people actually like to eat them, and think they're a delicacy?” A reference to how you put them in elixirs in BOTW, as well as the Akkala Buns that Midna loves. Link’s disgust here is a callback both to that and to his refusal to eat a frog in that memory in BOTW with Zelda trying to get him to eat one for science.

- Could this night go any more downhill? It can, actually. Literally, in your case, Link. Another bit that was completely accidental and I found myself laughing about later when I realized during the editing process.

- Look. Riju and Medli absolutely want their friends to get together, and they’re more sympathetic to Link now that they know what’s behind his recent actions. But they haven’t completely forgiven him yet, and so they kinda got their revenge by fucking with him a bit when he came back for the tape. Which they did genuinely put in Mipha’s pocket as a way to try to help the two start talking to each other and confess their real feelings.

- “Just think of us as mail carriers!” Medli piped up. Also this is a reference to how the Rito delivered mail in Wind Waker.

- Link's heart skipped a beat as he saw who was standing next to it, her sweater stuffed into the elephant's head-shaped basket as she put her helmet on and climbed onto the seat. Mipha’s bike is Vah Ruta.

- Bazz and Gaddison are, of course, two Zora who were friends with Link in the Domain when he was a kid there, who along with Rivan all formed the Big Bad Bazz Brigade. So naturally, they’re his fencing team teammates.

- “Oh yeah, that fucking guy.” Gaddison rolled her eyes. “Mr. 'I'm the best at everything and don't you forget it, you chumps can't hope to keep up with me, wah wah how asinine'.” She flapped her hands in a mockery of wings, and Link had to struggle not to choke on his water. Two things here. First, I really enjoyed writing Gaddison mocking Revali and using his ‘asinine’ catchphrase. Second, Link seems to keep choking on water, doesn’t he? First when Midna reveals her favorite meal, and now again. Hmmm...

- She laughed too, but something about it sounded strangely off. There was a long pause, as if she was weighing what to say next, and then she took a deep breath. As I established in the final letter in things i didn’t send, Mipha is well aware that Link was at her practice, and is trying to find some way of asking him about it, figuring that the walk to the graveyard will be a good opportunity. She’s also been trying to hide how hurt she’s been at Link’s behavior, so that’s why her laugh sounds off: she’s startled by him acting like himself for that brief moment, but doesn’t want to let it show, so Link is unaware for now of just how deep her pain goes. He’ll find out soon enough, though. And of course, Mipha is also unaware of the tape that’s so, so close, something she later feels a lot of horror and pain over.

- “... Oh. I see.” He looked up in time to see Mipha turn her head away, an unreadable expression on her face. “I understand, of course...” This is the moment when she all but gives up on him, which shatters her heart. It’s perhaps the most agonizing missed opportunity in the whole chapter, as the tape is right there and she doesn’t know, and Link fucks up by pulling away again. He does reach for her, which might have changed things if Revali hadn’t picked that exact moment to walk in and interrupt. If not for that, Link would’ve touched her arm and started a conversation that would’ve led to a breakthrough that didn’t require a near-death experience. All these points of divergence are going to haunt them both later.

- Mipha tries to be outwardly polite, but she can’t stand Revali because of how he treats Link and never would’ve dated him. She goes to the graveyard because she wanted to try and get a reaction out of Link, even if she can’t bear to look at him for fear of what she’ll see on his face, something she feels ashamed of later, but that attempt at politeness just feeds into Link’s insecurities, unfortunately. “The love is requited, they’re just idiots”, indeed.

- To fill out the graveyard group, I chose Yunobo and Komali. As a descendant of Daruk, it stands to reason that he’d still be related to him here, and attending school with Link and the others. Plus his anxious personality makes for a perfect fit for such a scene. And Komali is another Rito from Wind Waker, who is friends with Medli, so that was another no-brainer.

- Mipha's expression was closed off and neutral as she stared down at her own hands in her lap She is trying her hardest to conceal how heartbroken and miserable she is, the poor girl.

- “Give it a rest, Revali!” Riju, sounding remarkably like her mother. I went ahead and made Urbosa Riju’s actual mom in this AU, and this is my little hint as to that.

- “Hey, what's all this ruckus, then?” bellowed a loud, croaky voice. “Buncha Poes sneaking into my graveyard? I'll show you what for!” Another reference to Poes, and though I don’t mention his name, the gravedigger is of course Dampe from OOT, MM, ALBW, and the LA remake.

- “Link, look!” She held it out as he walked over to join her. “I got a frog!” Which means you’re close to water! ... oh shit.

- Which brings us to the cliffhanger, with the reveal that Link and Aryll are drowning while the events in the Wild are happening. I was so excited for this, it’s what so much foreshadowing has been leading up to. I even stuck it in the first letter of Link’s in things i didn’t send, when he compares the effect Mipha has on him to drowning. Which is easy to mistake for yet another use of water imagery in connection with our lovely Zora princess, a recurring element in my work, but becomes more sinister when you know what befalls him here.

and that covers part six!

#annotations

[astralescent]

Art credit [x]

I confess this is long overdue, I said years ago I would do one for 300, then 400, and when I got to 500 I barely had the time to think about it before I was at 550... anyway, you get the idea. I don’t know where you guys keep coming from, but man am I glad to see you. It’s thanks to all of you this blog is still kicking well into its third year and I’m honestly so thankful this blue prince can still instigate some interest.

There are some people I want to give a special shout-out to, however, because they keep me motivated to get online every day and do what I do more than most. 

@ofimitations / @windsadept / @felinae / @birdballads / @larchangele​ ; This is probably getting repetitive at this point, but you still deserve a mention more than anyone else. You were there long before this journey started and I hope you’ll be there long after. I still very much admire how well you can grasp the characterization of any muse you dare pick up and, of course, your talent for art. Hopefully you keep sharing those with me for many more years to come. You’ve been the greatest friend I could have hoped for and a reliable enabler, supporter and reminder that someone somewhere does enjoy the effort I put into this character - on top of being an outstanding roleplay partner and writer. Together we ride -- and that’s an understatement.

@radiantxhero ; you were the first person I met through this blog and definitely the one to have the biggest influence on it. On day one, we had an immediate connection both ooc and through roleplay, and I knew I could count on you to push my writing and characterization to the next level. I was right in the sense that there’s little I haven’t done with you. Our muses have come much farther together than I had ever expected them to, and I’ve found a friend I know I can always confide in and who will never give up on me, no matter what.

@miracleblossom​ ; you let me into your sanctuary, quite literally, and that’s something I’ll never stop being thankful for. Not only is it the side of this community I like best, but you also turned out to be a very good friend, and I love getting to geek out over games and movies with you - as scarce as it is nowadays. I’ll never forget the early botw days, or our few movie nights, and you’ll always be one of the best things that happened to this community in my opinion - no matter how sparse your activity becomes.

@caraidean​ ; you honestly restored my faith in multi-muse blogs. It’s so refreshing to see someone who’s so dedicated in developing them based on canon rather than collecting them for the heck of it, and to have them all be treated with the same amount of effort. It’s admirable, really, how well you manage to do them all justice, on top of being an excellent partner in general when it comes to plotting and writing long, relevant threads. I hope you stick around for a bit because I’m so excited for the couple of things we have planned. I’m definitely glad I found you and hopefully I can live up to your expectations.

@bladeoath ; I haven’t forgotten you and all you’ve done for me when I was first getting into this blog; pushing me to live up to your writing but also encouraging and reassuring me regarding my first language handicap. You more than anyone taught me to keep my head up and just do what I love no matter if it pleases other people, and I’ll never forget that. You can disappear for months and keep switching blogs but you’ll always be my Lucina, and you’ll always be my friend.

@recklessmoon​ / @galdrxr​ ; we may not see much of you these days but I still love your muses and your writing to bits, and it’s always a treat when you show up in the server on discord. I hope you’re doing well and I that we can see more of you sooner than later.

@pueravem​ / @absolutely-peachy​ ; our interactions may be kept to a minimum but you’re still one of the first Smash blogs that stuck out to me as someone that was here to stay, and I don’t forget people who reached out to me when I was at my lowest. I know real life can get in the way, but you’re truly one of the most positive presences in the community and I hope you’ll continue to be for a while.

@madkingtrashking​ ; I know you’re probably very aware of this at this point, but you are such a refreshing presence on the dash, the way you care about your muse despite how most people feel about him is admirable, and you deserve more recognition for the work you put into him.

@naglfcr / @delleal​ ; I may have only found you recently but I love how you go about portraying your muses. I can easily agree with how you think of them for the most part, and I very much enjoy your interventions on discord.

@dawnpriiestess​ ; I fell in love with your Micaiah instantly - though I believe I already told you that, so things could only get better when you joined the chat and I got to see you were a really cool and creative person on top of a good writer. Here’s to hoping you stay with us for a bit, I really like having you around.

@radiantwill​ ; a weird egg, but a good one. I already told you how much I love your portrayal of Ike, but I should also point out the intensity and sincerity with which you write is just as phenomenal. I’ve found in you a very relatable roleplayer and person, too, and I can’t wait to get started on those few shenanigans we talked about.

@clericallis​ ; we’ve barely scratched the surface of our first thread, but I can already tell I love how much you care for your muse. It shows in your writing, but also in the way you speak of him, and I’m looking forward to seeing more of both.

@valflame​ ; my biggest regret is admittedly not clicking that follow button earlier; I absolutely adore how you don’t back down from situations where your muse’s more ‘negative’ qualities need to be put forward. It’s amazing to finally see someone bold enough to portray a villain in all their flaws and complexity instead of shying away and caring only about making him them look good. I hope neither of you ever lose that fire, and that I’ll still be here to see it for some time. I know you get this a lot, but if anyone in this fandom makes me want to play fe4, it’s you.

@heroismdreams ; you’re doing amazing sweetie. honestly, you deserve all the love and attention coming your way, your cynthia is incredible. I can safely say this is the best second gen portrayal I’ve seen since leaving the fe13 community, and I love how sincere your writing is and how willing you are to reach out to the FE community beyond Awakening.

@ardent-lux​ ; our interactions have been minimal up to this point, but it’s still a treat to be following you and to see you on the dash. You’re both an impressive artist and a talented writer, and you have one of the best developed OCs I’ve had the privilege to see on this website. 

@daein-liberation​ ; you deserve a shout-out if only because the Dawn Brigade deserves more development and appreciation, and I’m glad you’re providing that for us, and doing so with great accuracy, at least from what I’ve observed. I also enjoy how interactive you can be - it really brings the dash to life which I was missing before I found you.

@tikiwiki​ ; I don’t care how long you’re away or that you may never return, you’ll always be my Tiki and I will never stop hoping you’ll be back.

#[★ promotion ] #this... looks bad but i really just cared about getting this out at last #tl;dr i love u all and thank u for being there

[al-is-on]

The Rachel Awards for Vidja Games

So I tried my hand at some writing and just expressing my thoughts on this Fantastic year in games. I’ve played a good number of games this year, but I’ve finished a much smaller number so since it’s the end of the year, here are my Games of the Year (that I didn’t finish) followed by my Games of the Year:

Honorable Mention: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Its 100% the best Mario Kart and the best way to play it, but the game really came out 2014 so it doesn’t really count. But if you have a Switch play it cause 3 years later its still fun as hell.

6. Has-Been Heroes:

Pros

Fluid combat and interesting gameplay mechanics

Cons

Its a roguelike

Why I haven’t finished it

This game is hard and I’m not actually good at games

5. Golf Story

Pros

Well written and funny

Somehow it makes playing golf not suck

Cons

It’s golf

Why I haven’t finished it

I moved on to other games

4. Sonic Mania

Pros

Wow a Sonic game that’s not hot garbage

I got farther than I did play Sonic 2 in elementary school

Cons

Still missing a few modern conveniences

Why I haven’t finished it

Mario Odyssey came out

3. Mario Rabbids Kingdom Battle

Pros

This game is fun and has no reason to

It’s literally X-Com with Mario

Mario has a gun

Cons

Damn Rabbids

Why I haven’t finished it

I bought it last week

2. Cuphead

Pros

Have you looked at this game it’s fucking gorgeous

The whole aesthetic is just

Wow

Shooting is good too I guess

Cons

Fuck, this game is hard as balls

Why I haven’t finished it

See above

1. Nier Automata (Rachel Award Winner for Best Mouthfeel 2017*)

Pros

It’s a shmup but also an action rpg?

I love this artsy shit, lets talk about the uses of mediums and what art means

Why I haven’t finished it

I also bought this last week and it’s easier to bring the switch places

*Controls feel natural and fun

And here are my actual Games of the Year:

2. Super Mario Odyssey (Rachel Award Runner-Up for Best Mouthfeel)

Super Mario Odyssey is the most fun I had playing through a game this year, and one of the best Mario experiences I’ve had. The game is a perfect match for the switch: something that can be played docked for hours on end or in short bursts in handheld mode. I found myself looking for one more moon whenever I had a chance, and its the game I keep coming back to over the past few months. No other game this year has kept with me and I expect will keep with me as long and as much as Mario. Aside from the great use of the platform, Odyssey is also a fantastic game, maybe the best 3D Mario. Playing Super Mario Odyssey is like watching a Pixar movie: everything feels fun and lovingly thought through. Similarly, the story stays simple and very effective, but expands massively when you look at the details. The expansive worlds feel fresh and vibrant compared to recent 3D Land-style games or even the larger planets of Super Mario Galaxy. These worlds are built to be explored and offer you every tool possible to explore the hell out of them. So much of the worlds are filled characters, creatures to possess, and secrets to find where even if you’ve lost your way on a main quest, you’re likely to discover something even more interesting (Not to say that the main story isn’t also amazing). The game never fails to keep me interested and keeps surprising me with new ways to explore and new things to find.

1. The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

No open world really grabbed me until Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule. Something about Zelda is different from every other open world game I’ve played and maybe every other game. Compared to my brief stint in Skyrim and the 3 hours total I’ve played of the Fallout series, BotW is infinitely more interesting and most importantly more lively. What sets Zelda apart from every other game is that every part of the game feels tailored to trying new things and more importantly makes it rewarding and fun. In my time playing Breath of the Wild, I never got tired of exploring parts of the world, jumping off new mountains, and finding new inventive ways to take on enemies. The game sets you out on your own, but you never feel lonely or lost on your journey because of the mechanics and the world, filled with unique characters and locations that kept me drawn in. All the gameplay and story are only bolstered by Breath of the Wild’s visuals. The game looks like a Studio Ghibli film and keeps you drawn in. I feel like I don’t have as much to say about Breath of the Wild because so much of it is the experience. The emotion when leaving the Plateau for the first time to discover a beautiful open world, when I first took on a gang of moblins in a way I never though possible, or when fighting (or more likely fleeing) a Guardian is something I have rarely experienced in my time gaming. An Aside: A case against Zelda, my game of the year- Zelda is an amazing experience, but its greatest strengths are also its weaknesses. The expanse and freedom of Hyrule can sometimes feel overwhelming. Between the moments of joy and amazement I found myself frustrated searching for shrines and especially the FUCKING RAIN. Don’t get me started on the rain that just happens to show up whenever you need to climb somewhere and just stops you for 10 minutes and is the absolute worst. While Zelda is by far my Game of the Year and the Best game released in 2017, I’m not sure its my Favorite game released in 2017 or the one that will stick with me the longest.

Finally, here are the games I didn't play or haven't played yet but are interested in or enjoyed secondhand:

Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds Persona 5 Wolfenstein 2 Prey Resident Evil 7 Horizon Zero Dawn Hellbalde: Senua’s Sacrifice What Remains of Edith Finch

#rachel.txt #long post #games journalism #if you call it that

[quarantineculture]

quarantine days 4 and 5

Saturday, March 21, 2020 and Sunday, March 22, 2020

Didn’t update yesterday. You already know why. Zelda, baby!

Anyways, back to your regularly scheduled Quarantine Blogging.

The days are starting to all blur together. It’s hard when I do pretty much the exact same few things every day, just in slightly different order or for varying amounts of time.

RAMBLING ABOUT THINGS I SAW AT THE PARK AND ATTEMPTS TO MAKE UP NAMES FOR LOCAL FLORA AND FAUNA WHOSE NAMES I DO NOT KNOW (with pictures!)

Here’s something funny that I saw/heard yesterday. At the park, there was a family gathered at the edge of the lake, all looking down into something. A little girl, probably 5 or 6, was pointing at a dead fish floating at the surface and saying, “Look at the fish! Can we bring it home?” (I have no idea if she realized it was dead or not, but I am gonna assume yes?) And her sister who’s probably around 9 was like, “Yeah, take it home and we’ll cook it for dinner!” Their parents were trying to be encouraging but not let’s-grab-a-very-dead-fish-out-of-the-pond kind of encouraging.

That fish was probably smaller than the palm of that little girl’s hand. LMAO. You couldn’t feed anyone with that. It was just a funny conversation. Kids are so idealistic.

I wonder what it must be like for kids right now with no school. Do they realize what’s going on? I’m sure they know something is off, but I wonder how excited they are to not have school. Are they going stir crazy yet? I know a lot of college kids are already going stir crazy being stuck at home with their families. It kinda feels like high school again, but we don’t even have school to hang out with people your own age. Also, who came up with the word stir crazy? I feel like I only started hearing it very recently. Maybe because it describes what a lot of people are feeling right now, but I feel like there was a different term that I used before, but I can’t think of it off the top of my head. Restless?

NEVER MIND! I FOUND IT! Thank you, Wikipedia. It’s called cabin fever! That was the word I’m more familiar with. Wikipedia says the therapy for cabin fever/stir-craziness is going outside and direct interaction with nature. Good thing I’ve been doing that every day! Thank God for NYC parks. The one near my house is so big that once you get deep enough in you can’t even really tell you’re still in a city. I mean, you could. But if you look myopically (is that a word?) at just one small area of trees or whatever those grain-like bushy things are called- bushtails? – you could pretend that you’re on a prairie or something and not in New York City.

BUSHTAILS? I know there’s a word for it! Please let me know if you know it.

Yesterday (Saturday) I saw a whopping THIRTY-SEVEN (37) TURTLES! But today I only saw like 6 or 7. It was hard to count exactly because they’re kinda far away and you can’t get too close because of the fence around the whole lake. Today was pretty cold so I guess the turtles stayed inside. Look at this picture. How many turtles does it look like to you? 3? 4? 5? I can’t tell.

It’s blurry because I already had to zoom in a bunch because I was so far away. The struggle is real ☹

Look at these boys above. Don’t they kinda look like they’re playing leap-frog? Hehe.

And here’s a cool bird I saw! Red-breast? I’m just making up common names for things I see around the neighborhood now. If you know what it is please tell me so I don’t make a complete fool of myself. (I think it might be too late.)

REFLECTIONS ON LIFE IN QUARANTINE:

It’s different than the lifestyle I’m used to, but not altogether bad. At school, I’m running around a lot, going to classes, dining halls, hospital job, RA duty, library, meetings, TA-ing, etc. I don’t really spend much time in the dorm at school. (Also because being in my room kinda stressed me out when I was an RA, because I constantly felt like I had to be telling my residents to be quiet, but I wasn’t sure where to draw the line because I thought I might be over-sensitive to noise. It was really difficult.) Since all my friends lived at different parts of campus, I’d usually go over to their place to hang out with them or meet at a dining hall or study somewhere together. But now that we are all practicing ~social distancing~, I get to stay at home and relax all the time. It’s kinda freeing to not have as many obligations and it’s wicked nice to be able to sleep late. But I do have this looming feeling of needing to get work done for my two exams that are coming up, and I really do need to work on my thesis which I am ridiculously, ridiculously behind on.  

A lot of people are making memes commenting on how introverts are actually thriving right now in quarantine because that’s how their (our?) lives are usually. Staying home, doing your hobbies, not leaving the house unless absolutely necessary, etc. I remember having this conversation with several of my very introverted friends – they were telling me that during college winter break, they just stay at home and don’t leave the house for days on end. My roommate was like that. I love that girl so much. She said, and I quote, “Why would I go outside when there are so many things I can do inside?” She pointed out – reading comics, watching TV shows, playing with her sister, browsing Instagram… there was a whole list and I’m only really recalling some of them, but you get the point. I appreciate that. I realized that a lot of the hobbies I had in middle school and high school – playing guitar or piano, writing stories, etc., I just stopped doing in college. I thought it was because I was so much busier with schoolwork, which is true, but I think it’s also because all my friends were so much closer to me in college. Like, there’s nothing stopping you from going to your friend’s house to hang out all afternoon and night if you want when you’re in college. Whereas in middle school or high school, you have to make a whole arrangement between you, your friend, your parents, and your friend’s parents to set up a time and date and place and who’s going to drive you there and back if you want to hang out with them outside school.

So I do appreciate this time to work on my hobbies. I’ve been working on a lil crochet chicken project. It took me a long time to get started but I am making slow progress now! I’m excited for how it turns out. Maybe after I go back to my dorm and get the stuffing and other materials from my room I can make more. I miss my friends kind of, but I guess I’ve already become so accustomed to being back at home that I don’t actively want to go back. I guess since it’s still technically spring break it doesn’t feel as real that the semester’s gonna be completely online now.

GRATITUDE LOG:

Caught some nice horses in Legend of Zelda! Cute dogs in the park. Funny little family talking about bringing home a tiny fish. The weird chiffon cake that my sisters made and gave me even though it didn’t have any sugar in it because they somehow forgot to add sugar. Downloaded a drawing app but haven’t used it yet. Made progress on my little crochet chicken project! Texted a bunch of friends that I haven’t talked to in a while. It’s nice to hear from people that you haven’t heard from in so long. Got a FREE Scribd account to read books!! GET ONE Y’ALL you don’t even need a credit card for 30 days!! Get those books for free that you’ve always wanted to read!

QUARANTINE BY THE NUMBERS (Saturday 3/21)

Time outside basement: 1 hour

Screen time on phone: 6 hours 7 min

Toggl-logged studying: 1 hour 34 minutes

Times I fell asleep while studying: probably at least 3

Turtles spotted: 37

Legend of Zelda: approx. 4 hours

Horses in BoTW tamed: 3 or 4 (I think one of them I tamed, then jumped off, then had to re-tame)

New horses registered in BoTW: 1 (the FASTEST horse EVER!!! SO worth it!)

QUARANTINE BY THE NUMBERS (Sunday 3/22)

Time outside basement: approx. 1 hour 15 min?

Screen time on phone: 5 hours 39 min

Legend of Zelda: 0 playing, a lot listening to music

Toggl-logged studying: 2 hours 25 min (a lot was probably sleeping tho)

Toggl-logged blogging time:

Turtles spotted: 6 or 7

Chocolates eaten: 1 (unfortunately)

#quarantine #quarantine blogging #covid-19 #coronavirus

[semi-imaginary-place]

fe3h blogging 5 because I’ve been posting on discord and I can’t remember what number I was on oct-feb???

So I'm doing another no recruit run and realizing how much planning I need Me: why do I do this to myself  Specifically its SS usuing none of the black eaglea So Byleths going to be soloing until I can recruit all the church staff... or flayn comes along... 

Lambert and the death knight have the same voice actor. Lambert=death knight. Mystery solved

Loog was only able to gain faerghus independence because the emoire was already weakened from its failed invasion of dagda

Also its part if the seiros canon that a great evil darkness came out of the north. That couldn't posaibly feed into racism

The greatest sin this game has commited was giving gilbert a redemption arc

if only the devs weren’t cowards...

Why does dorothea even have A supports with guys? Her head is filled with only girls. has she ever shown interest in a guy?? Beyond a I want to be financially secure and tolerate your presence. everyone else is bi/pan[ Except caspar Hes just an idiot 

I'm gonna post hot takes for the sexuality of each character and yall cant stop me

Edelgard: lesbian Hubert: Edelgard Ferdinand: pansexual Linhardt: grey spec pan but prefers men+ Caspar: too stupid to evaluate Bernadetta: "I want friends" Dorothea: big lesbian Petra: pansexual

Dimitri: confused and repressed Dedue: gay Felix: swords redheads Ashe: pansexual Sylvain: pansexual prefers women Mercedes: pansexual prefers women Annete: lesbian Ingrid: pansexual prefers men

Claude: Demi pansexual/romantic++ Lorenz: ~~noble obligations~~ pansexual and repressed Raphael: grey ace/aro+++ Ignatz: pansexual prefers women Lysithea: pansexual++++ Marianne: pansexual Hilda: pansexual but usually dates guys Leonie: grey ace

+Linhardt feels romantic/sexual attraction but not strongly. He feels romantic love but he doesn't get crushes. ++Claude is the type to fall in love slowly after an emotional connection has already been formed and then get a crush after they've been going steady for 10 years. +++Raphael feels romantic/sexual attraction but not strongly and usually prefers queer platonic relationships ++++more to do with the individual than gender, but girls are cute

Game crashed and I lost like 4 hours of progress TT^TT

I'm on SS (which is the only route I haven't played) and hnnnnng I miss claude its been like 3 months since I played VW. Also I need to write down a time line some time but the stuff the agarthans have been pulling feeds the world builder in me. especially hyrm

as nice as the idea of all the lords getting along and talking things out is, it wouldn’t work out in canon, Edelgard has tunnel vision. Dimitri is irrational and would rather listen to his hallucinations that evidence. And no one trust Claude enough to believe him

Hilarious really how Edelgard will call for Hubert to carry you despite her massive strength and how hubert looks like a gentle wind will blow him over

Macuil/Indech:  Shun society. Run off into the wilds. Have vaugue legends be told of you. Be a crpytid

linhardt is such an unrepentant bastard

I had a dream where I could make male units pegasus knights. And then I woke up to cruel reality

Alois is growing on me. At first I was like uuuggg another bumbling idiot. But you know what? Fuck Seteth for not giving Alois more vacation time to see his family

Cavalry units be like: crushes a watermelon with their thighs

Some of the knights were bullying Alois. Who was it. I will bring them untold pain.

Reason #??? to punch Gilbert: he saw this poor child struggling to control his strength and went this boy doesn't need to learn how to control his strength, what he needs is more strength training.  I mean absent emotionally distant and all over shitty father to annette is reason number 1. But dimitri is reason number 2.  Oh let's make this kid lift rocks and run around the moutains at night in full armor in winter. Instead of being able to pick something up without breaking it and you know be able to perform basic daily tasks.  Let's make a human shaped weapon instead of a functional person.  Gilbert single handedly ruined AM for me because he just wouldn't stop messing up everyone else's lives

Each character's recruit requirements are what they admire/respect in a person

I forgot hubert becomes unavailable in month 2. and now I'm stuck with his stupis razor

Hot take. BotW Link and part 2 Ingrid have the same haircut

I'm on my last route (SS) but i hate rhea so much...

why do you think maurice/the beast's crest was used to make aymr?

Also all the nameless backgound characters have brown hair but of the main cast, its only dorothea and claude

Annette’s handwriting: Neat and cute.  Linhardt writes in cursive because he cant be bothered to lift his pen Sylvain has nice handwriting. Ingrid's is very functional, felix's is half way to chicken scratch lots of sharp angles. Dimitri cries on the inside at the thought of picking up a pen. as a kid Dimitri has terrible handwriting and breaks a pen every 5 min. He practiced so hard. Most of what people think is his handwriting is Dedue's (neat and pretty) because dedue writes most of his letters for him

me playing azure moon: I want out. get me off this death train

Finally getting alois's support and wow he's like a human shaped puppy in the sahpe of a middle aged man.  Always falling over himself. Ridiculously happy. 100% all the time. Running and barking everywhere

Fact of the day: dorothea hates eating fish

Alright. Seteth and Flayn's descriptions of her mom are very different.  Where is the truth???  Seteth was like shes demure, quiet, pious, and honest. And Flayn's says she's like Judith

game is forcing me to flirt with Alois? Can I not please!

I keep saying it but Lorenz grows on you like a fungus. He has excellent supports

 i want to weave gold thread into claudes hair

Under rated character development: Dorothea. Every one of her lines in part 2 makes me want to cry.  "every rose has its thorns" -> "only thorns left on this rose" Her character development is that she just gets worn down by the war and I want to bundle her up in a blanket and give her a cup of warm milk.  Dorothea is so full of love. So she feels the sorrows of the war so intensely.

FE3H needs better dads. I mean even jeralt and seteth aren’t great dads. They're just not down right horrible.  Jeralt is emotionally distant with an alcohol problem that byleth had to clean up after him. But there are worse dads Alois seems decent but he needs to spend more time at home. Seteth should have given Alois more vacation time.  They aren't terrible dads. But they aren't getting medals either.  Love their kids but have flaws of their own.

ANNETTE DESERVED BETTER THAN GILBERT Burn him at the stake No wait. He’d want that

My loathing for gilbert is beyond description.  He hurts everyone around him, then doesn't listen to what they have to say, and then keeps continuing his existence as a sad sack of shit.  1. Emotionally distant, strict, and often absent father. Clearly cared about his work for than family.  2. He then straight up leaves with out a note or telling his family anything.  3 knows that annette is looking for him and avoids her.  4. Annette just wants her dad back. That's what would make her happy but he denies her that because he's a selfish bastard.  5. Then he goes on and on about his man-pain while not helping anyone. he self flagellates and blames himself a lot but he never tries to change and so he stays there, is this cycle of self pity.  "Ohhh I have sinned and can not be forgiven" .and I'm like why not do right by the people you hurt? And he's like "no no I have sinned. I cannot see them" or some other bullshit.  He also gets some bullshit redemption arc that I want to scrub clean from my memory because he doesn't deserve it.  Annette's support is all about oh i forgive you. And it puts all the emotional labor on annette and just makes me real angry. And i am going to stop thinking about that disgrace of a human now.

Seteth is controlling. Wont let flayn have friends. Boys arent qllowed to talk to her.  She can't go out. He has to know where she is 24/7. Seteth really is suffocating Flayn. Early in the game Flayn compares herself to a hot house flower, confined to a green house, doomed to die outside it. It bring up the question which is better, to live a long life in constant fear and isolation (remember flayn is very much a people person), or to live a short fulfilling life. The answer of course is that it should be flayns choice. But Seteth denies her autonomy. Flayn is not quite an adult, but even discounting the decades* that she has lived, even a teenager should have some say in the direction of their life. Time and time again Flayn expresses her will and Seteth ignores her. She is allowed little existence outside of him.  Its also hilarious how bad their cover story is.  Its true they love each other but Seteth causes Flayn a fair bit of suffering. Its played for comedy sometimes. And Flayn to some degree tolerates it because she understands that he does it for her sake, and she understands the real danger she is in. They just disagree with what is an acceptable degree of risk. Seteth tolerates no risk which at that point can't be called living. Flayn accepts the danger and believes it is worthwhile to enjoy life and help people despite it. the counselor box also reveals that seteth has been stalking her and think her talking to dudes is bad despite that having nothing to do with the danger of the agarthans.

A fun thing to think about is if Flayn was born of 2 nabeteans, she's a human halfie, or someother sothis bullshit.  I reviewed the sea nd sky paralogue recently looking for answers and there were some hints? Maybe? nothing definative. all we know for sure is that flayn’s mom died in the nemesis war.  Also I have a hypothesis that flayn was in a regenerative coma for most of the 1000 years so she's been active less than 200 years which is why Seteth treats here like a waylaid toddler.

the flayn seteth c support is great Seteth.exe crashes and then reboots right in front of our very eyes

Catherine has such big wlw energy. I didn't quite realize it until I got her supports but hooboy.  Saw a lady so pretty she forgot she almost died pfft.  And this is just with rhea.  The catherine-shamir supports themselves are gold.

Catherine: ever see a woman so beautiful you forget you almost died and decide to devote your whole life to her?

Catherine->Shamir: i get worried when you go out on missions on your own. I'm not there to protect you. I'm scared of you leaving me behind. I never want to leave you side. Between my life and your life i'd choose your life me: ! Shamir: i don't know what the future holds, but let's get married me: !!!!!!!!!!!!

Also catherine/christoph was a thing in the past. Highschool sweethearts. Before she executed him for treason

Ahahahhha this is great! And by great I mean hilarious. Dimitri dies even more offscreen in SS than in VW.  Ghost dimitri in ss made me laugh but  do we ever get an explanation for ghost dimitri or it like the cf finale? Themetically significant. Sure lets go with that

I'm really starting to see where the parts of vw and ss were smushes together

Embarr has the best night life

Recruiting sylvain into the gd feels mean. I'm taking away the only one with 2 braincells to rub together

Under all the noble bullshit, Lorenz really is a great guy

Do you think every demonic beast looks unique and its only that the devs didnt want to make more models that they dobt look different in game?

Recruiting sylvain into the gd feels mean. I'm taking away the only one with 2 braincells to rub together in the blue lions

Sylvain is warm

I wish we got to explore derdriu

PETRA DESERVES BETTER WRITERS. and give her a fluffy coat. She's gotta be cold in garreg mach

Count Varley is at the top of the hit list

Add alois onto team i'm scared of ghosts (lysithea, ashe, annette)[5:44 PM] That's it. I'm kidnapping alois from the church's clutches and taking him home. The church doesn't deserve him. And he hates his job

W h y  i s  everyone from faergus so eager to give up their personhood

Does faerghus seem really backwater to anyone else? Faergus reminds me of like 900's europe while leicester and adrestia are more like 1600's europe.  they still have that germanic warrior culture thing going. This is deep in the dark ages. I will accept the later half of the dark ages though since its post introduction of christianity. Leicester and Adrestia feel more like 1600-1700s They feel not quite french revolution, but getting there.  Yeah like the old institutions (crown and church) are still there but the cracks are showing.  Also the clothes

I thinki talked about this before. But when I say dorothea deserves the world. DOROThEA DESERVES THE WORLD. she’s been through so much

I need to go compare this with the verdant wind scene, but I was under the impression that sothis was in a regenerative coma after the war with the agarthans. But nope according to ss she was straigt up dead huh

i know I'm suppose to be fighting but I spent the last 30min exploring shambhala again

Damn it Shamir! Why'd ya have ta crit. I was trying to get dialog!January 2, 2020

gatekeeper > you < gatekeeper's identical twin brother who's on the opposite side of the war Its a sandwich

Oh wow the church really was up to some bloodborne level stuff

I turned every single one of the black eagles into a brigand (except linhardt and hubert).  Brigand gang brigand gang

The devs knew Claude and Lindhardt would just be too powerful. They had to be separated. thats why they dont have a support chain.  Sylvain and Claude has more energy but Sylvain has the conscious that Lindhardt lacks.  I mean Lindhardt singlehandedly lock picks  the holy tomb and disables rhea's magic mechs all while complaining he's sleepy.  Sylvain can be bullied into doing things and I love him for it.  Ah. I want both support chains

After Jeralts death both Claude and Edelgard both tell you that the world will continue spinning regardless of what befalls you personally but they do so in rather different ways. Edelgard phrases it like pull yourself together or the world will leave you behind. Claude phrases it like personal tragedies are such a small thing in the face of the world. You may have suffered a loss but there is so much to the world beyond that. There are still worthwhile things in the world. Both of say the world doesnt stop for you but mean different things.  And both are trying to motivate you to pull yourself together.  Whereas dimitri is like: you want vengence? You should go for vengence. I'll help you rip them apart. I'll kill for you.

Edelgard is socially awkward and blunt. She's also very practical minded so she doesn't know how to won't say something comforting when she can say something useful.  She's trying in her own way  To motivate byleth to start picking up their life.  Edelgard doesn't get people. Social interaction is a total mystery to her. She's just too stubborn to realize it.  At a couple points you can tease her and she thinks you're threatening her. She's not good at the people thing.  While she can come off a little rough because she doesn't understand how other people work. Hubert understands other people rather well and is an asshole anyways. List of characters who have threatened byleth: dimitri, hubert, sylvain, jeritza, catherine

Was sothis one of the divine dragon tribe? a lot of the other divine dragons had green hair especially the ones worshiped as gods (duma, mila, naga, tiki). But not fae or nowi.  I always got that dragon stones were like a dragon's essence sealed away so that while in human form they could stave off dragon degeneration. But what are crest stones. Were they made by the agarthans (artificial dragon stones) or are crest stones a natural part  of the nabeteans and the agarthans just harvested them. Or... ARE THERE BOTH. But the pov characters cant tell the difference.  This one group has messed with how many nations now?? SS has an interesting tidbit that's  been stuck in my head:  In the final map of SS its revealed that all high ranking church officials recieve Seiros' blood and a crest stone shard. WHERE ARE THE SHARDS COMING FROM. DAMN YOU SETETH YOU CANT JUST SAY THINGS LIKE THAT AND LEAVE ME. because if they are seiros crest stone shards that neans crest stones are not an Agarthan invention. But that condridicts VW where rhea says creststones are made of nabateab hearts. tldr: I'm confused. where are those fragments coming from??? Wait. This is all assuming a nabetean needs their heart inside them to live. Given how violently rhea reacts to losing even 1 crest stone I don't think she used the ones of her brethern. Which logically leaves only one weird possible answer. That rhea took her own heart/crest stone and has been giving out fragments. I mean she probably retrives the fragments when the priest dies.... this also means that nabeteans can survive with their heart outside their body... like a litch.... which I mean given sothis isn't too suprising? ??

VW and SS have such wacky endings. Let's go fight the cyberpunk mole people now!. Zombie invasion?  : check Weird bloodborne stuff and then we fight rhea?: check

Yeah VW was my first route and whew that was a wild ride. AM is so tame is comparison. but SS and VW lack the setup to pull out twists like that.  If this was like Nier: Automata where you get endings sequentially, it might have worked. But on their own the last 2 maps don't have anything at stake

hmmm  switching the final battles of verdant wind and silver snow? What would make a better story and why?  rhea kinda works because SS is all about rhea and saving her from herself as well as a revival of the church. But Nemesis also brings closure to Rhea's arc. She's been stuck for the last 1000 years to to fight the man who killed her most important person for good is like also really good thematically. VW is all about something new. Doing away with old structures and what better than to kill the pope? But facing the 10 elites also works for VW because that's the begining of the crest/nobility system you are literally killing.  I just like recruiting everyone and then killing the 10 elites with their own weapons wielded by their descendants.  its symbolic

Byleth is an excellent brigard. Went beigand and then wyvrn and their strength was higher than dimitri's

Claude: Rule? Nah. Gonna go be a scholar in an isolated mountain range. Books

Sylvain is a himbo wannabe

I should recruit annette and let her kill gilbert...  The one thing I'm worried about is that it'll hurt her more than it'll hurt him ... can I get crusher in crimson flower? If I were to recruit everyone and then get them all killed, what route would that be best in? Guess I'll be doing a death pact AM run some time in the future

Also koei tecmo and intsys are cowards for gender locking classes.  From a gameplay perspecrive too some characters are locked out of their ideal classes (war master for catherine and gremory for lindhardt). And then there's the in lore significance. Let hubert ride a pegasus.

Dorothea spent the entirety of their paralogue hitting on Ingrid. And then the RING at the end??? and they can’t support. Also Ingrid should have gotten an A support with Mercedes. They get along so well

Edelgard got the best designs in the game but Dorothea got the next best

Its canon. Edelgard thinks Claude grew up to be hot. Edelgard acknowledging that Claude is hot but but that she’s going to kill him anyways is just so good ....aaaaand one again I'm a coward who couldn't bring themself to kill Claude. But the completionist in me really wants to. The scene after sparing cluade between him and edelgard has kept me up too many nights.  What are the emotions here? My first guess was loss, grief. Someone else has interpreted it as aggtession though. And maybe we are both over thinking this but to me Claude's lines here say "I have failed"

Dorothea deserves a dragon

Caspar is actually real good for bernadetta. Its like talking to a sack of potatoes and doing so forces her to communicate better, firmly express herself, etc. Caspar has such great supports with all the ladies really

I really am just linhardt. I too disregard authority and despise being woken up...

I feel like we should all appreciate dorothea more. Death to the haters

ingrid equipping the duscar cavalry battalion is like  "I can exploit their labor so it’s alright"

I found felix was my solace in AM just because everyone else goes full death cult. despite how much i wanted to punch him when he told ingrid to go get a husband.  Also I should note I'm not sure felix whole heartesly believed what he said to Ingrid. I got the impression he said the thing he knew would upset her the most.  Not necessarily what he believed. That said he may actually believe it too.  Ingrid and felix remind be of squabbling siblings just saya the worst stuff to each other.  Unless felix has actively confronted the notion of faerhgus patriarchy he probably has internalized some of the beliefs. We all do. Thats why theyre so hard to dig out

Since we talk a lot about dads. Let's talk margrave edmund. tldr: complicated and interesting relationship with marianne.  What we know: he adopted marianne some time after her parents died, before she enrolles into the officers academy. Marianne says he's usuing her as marriage bait to marry up and increase the standing of house edmund.  This tracks with what others say about edmund: he's politically ambitious. And he's good at it enough to have gotten house edmund a seat at the round table.  In pretty much all her endings, he tutors mariannne until she's a political savant.  He forbid her from leaving the monestary in part 1.  Now let's go in between the lines. In part 1 marianne seems nervous of margrave edmund, but she also seems nervous of everything is part 1. In part 2, along with being more comfortable with herself she seems more familiar with him.  After the end of part 1 she likely returned to house edmund despite the attack being the perfect cover to disappear.  We don't get get much on edmund's personality buy he comes across as ruthlessly practical. The sort that goes "I can and will use everything to get what I want".  He likely adopted marianne not out of charity or compassion but so the house could have a crested heir and so he could use her as a bargining chip to other houses. But he sees enough potential in her to train her to be the next head of house. I think what started out as "ah another piece i can use" transitioned into a more friendly relationship as marianne began to assert herself and margrave edmund came to acknowledge her as more than how she could benefit him. I don't think he ever got over the "how can i use this" mentality but I'd like to think that after some years they came to get along. Ah yes I meant to do a hyrm thing and put it off for months. The Agarthans had long been infiltrating the empire and slowly increasing their influence on the government. In an attempt to stop this emperor ionius ix attempted to gain more power for himself to counter them by centralizing the government and taking power away from the nobles. House Hyrm attempted to defect to the leicester alliance with the help of house ordelia. In retaliation the Agarthans under the guise of the empire killed the members of house hrym and took control of hrym and ordelia. Also in response to ionius' move, the top ministers of the empire backed by the Agarthans began the insurrection of the seven where all political power was taken from the emperor. The Agarthans than experimented on ordelia and the royal family to implant crests while usuing hrym as a base of operations. After Emile killed that scrumbag baron bartels as well as the rest of the bartels family. Edelgard thought he could be useful as a piece not already controled by the Agarthans, and with their helped fabricated him a new identity as jeritza von hrym since hrym was a puppet for the Agarthans. Lord Arundel (Thales) then ensured jeritza a spot at garreg mach so he could act as an inside agent.

Anyone know the significance of rhea's mech's names (wilhelm, iris, etc.). past friends?  lol would it be messed up or what if its powered by his corpse 

Jeritza really is an acquired taste... wow

... I wonder sometimes if I like making things hard for myself... like I'll make rules like 4+ units have to attack an enemy before I kill them... or certain units can't be next to each other or just other abitrary rules. Anyways I'm just complaining because I did all this on the final map while under leveled last night (?) and am now just going "...why" at myself

Also, I wish we got the option of keep class headgear.  Some of it looks really cool and some of the classes (bishop??) look incomplete with out it.  Let me have my little hats!  Like mortal savant gets an oni mask which looks rad. And warlocks get flowery witch hats! Just finished crimson flowers again with warlock and then gremory dorothea and was like hmmmm.... she needs flowers in her hair

Also if you look up dimitri's dancer skirt you'll see he's wearing black short shorts

Team heretic: edelgard, hubert, petra, claude, leonie, linhardt in the closet: lorenz

So for those of you that keep up with my rambling... remember how i said the funal cf cutscene makes no sense? Did sothis self terminate? If she dud than why arent there records of other crest stones disintigrating? Or is it a sothis specific thing? Its possible sothis’s consciousness is stored in her creststone/heart but then how can you still s support her in CF? i've been trying to logic and reason this for several months and i cant get it to all fit. But on a symbolic level its like the coming of a new age, sothis' hold on the world (and her influence on byleth) disappears. Live on without dieties (literally in byleth's case). The new age of humanity and all so byleth becomes a normal human, no god powers yada yada. I think claude is the only one that knows byleth has no heartbeat?? (Maybe? I cant remember) since claude reads jeralt's diary. Thematic significance > narrative consistency. There's also that rhea goes beserk in SS and not VW, when the same stuff happens to her in both. Which doesn't add up for me. And Nemesis ...is he still sitting there in the other routes... Where did he get an army anyways? I assumed the agarthans just had a whole army frozen...But then why didn't they use it earlier? And can you imagine just a whole city of cryo pods underground. Just there.

Anyways I'm off to kill all the blue luons and solo with dimitri on maddening!  Can I get gilbert killed in AM or is he too plot important. I've been playing on casual like a coward so far

Ah ashen wolves shadow cinders looks edgy. I wonder why they have 4 kids in a dungeon. Theres that npc that talk about hiw garreg mach needs the abyss to survive. I wonder why they keep this system

I dont keep up with english VAs but it'd be funny if yuri was voiced by yuri lowenthal

anyone with a crest has less of a chance of  demonic beasting than someone with no crest in lore. In gameplay you can use any crest weapon as long as you have any crest. You just wont get the added benefits of that specific crest

Yuri is very pretty and I’m weak for beautiful long haired men.  But i kinda wish the nintendo would let us have BEEF

If only i could have 300 save files...

Yuri really just is Leon with amnesia. Down to the red eyeliner...

Who let balthus into a highschool

I have that insistent desire to punch the writers for putting dorothea and mercedes through all that

Manuela. Has. So. Much. Love!  And her line about how [as teachers] we cant lose the students to violence or cowardice

The head of felix plopped onto a generic brawler body will always be funny to me

Yeah... sylvain really treats you different when male.  There was a reason were many reasons I really wanted to punch sylvain when I first started playing. namely the misogyny

male Byleth just looks really good as a swordsmaster

From a gameplay perspective I think divine pulse should have been removed for maddening.  From a story perspective they did a pretty good job integrating time mechanics as god powers

I wonder if Jeralt reminded Rhea of Wilhelm

i love giving bad advice for the advice box

why is tea time is the hardest part of the game

Seriously. How does garreg mach even work? Fail school and you get sent to the dungeons for life. What.

Sylvain would totally be one of those dudes with too much money dolling out patronages

Let hilda be warmaster

Hmmm edelgard... fatalism....

Please mod gilbert out of the game Lorenz has got a good heart. But the words that come out of his mouth sometimes...

Oh yeah you know that rainbow flash dream sequence right at the begining of the game? Is it me or did I see skyscrapers in it

The inside of byleth's head is a smash tournament

Seteth can die and I'll kill him.  (Ok ok I don't actually hate the guy. But I don't like him either. He's the type I'd tolerate working with but want nothing to do with outside of the professional setting)

Caspar and linhardt really are THAT comedy duo. I need a whole book dedicated to their paired endings

Sylvain's dick is still the funniest joke on the internet

The weirdest part of part 2 felix's hair isn't even the aggresive side sweep. That can be explained by having stiff straight hair. Its the limp pony tail. If your hair is that stiff, any ponytail that length is going to stick straight out like as anime character. I have this hair type. I've succeded in replicating the side sweep, the ponytail doesnt work

give mercedes a gun cowards

Marianne with a cute bob. Marianne with short hair. very home of phobe of intsys not to make marianne like an actual werewolf or something

devs should have let Bernie learn how to beat her dad to death with her bare fists

I've returned home to my boy. I love Claude!

Mortal savant ignatz. I mean strength in swords and budding talent in reason. Youre going to ba a magic samurai ignatz!

I had forgotten how much gd plays like a mystery game. Also, whatever I said earlier I take it back. Lysithea has a crush on Leonie

I keep trying to imagine an adrestia that isn't tropical (because why else would they wear heavy coats), and failing...

I really love raphael. He's so good

Claude's this interesting mix of cynical and idealistic yeah. He has a number of strong ideals and believes in the potential of humanity to do good, to grow and learn, to come together and built. But he also struggles because at the same time he also believes humans will usually choose the easier path of ignorance and hate. People are cruel and don't care.[5:30 AM]He's really cynical about what people are actually going to do

Sylvain's just layer upon layer of unhealthy coping mechanism

I don’t really like the ingrid/claude ship. ingrid tends to fixate on one shallow quality in a person and then ship them shit about it. and that’s the support. and the writers don’t have her ever acknowledging the rest of the character’s personality or admitting her first impression might have been incorrect.  that especially doesn't pair well with Claude who hides so much of himself. Out of all the characters Claude can A support Ingrid's the only one I where I went "whyyyyyyy"[10:02 AM]It really felt like the typical C-B support. Of i cant stand you because of 1, 2, and 3. To hey maybe you aren't so bad

i can't help but think the empire and alliance are incredibly stupid for making lorenz a cavalier. He's terrible at it.

Hold the phone. Was jeralt a soldier in the leicester independwnce war? (On thw faerhgus side).  But thats 300 years ago. All we know is that hexs older than 100.  The almyra unvasion is another option. Its also possible that jeraly wasnt involved in any war

So I'm trying to get rhea killed on the last chapter of part 1 for GD and wow its really hard to lose the fight this way. Enemies will avoid her like the plague. I cant believe I'm struggling to lose a fight Rhea is unkillable. I have taken no actions for 15 turns are she is still not dead Starting to think its impossible to lose by rhea death in this battle Turn 31. Its only raphael and hilda left Yeah as long as you have 1 unit to keep enemy infanty out of the pink squares this map is inpossible to lose on hard mode  60 turns. All of Rhea’s spell and weapon uses are gone and she still wont die. I give up

I've been thinking of hilda dimitri hypothetical supports recently and i think they"d be halfway between her lorenz+ferdinand supports and her marianne supports.[1:48 AM]Hilda is the QUEEN of suckering people and dimitri is the biggest sucker in the game[1:51 AM]But like marianne's clumsiness, dimitri can't do basic tasks well so hilda hoisting her chores on him is sure to backfire hilariously. He also has that kicked puppy pitifulness that part 1 marianne has so hilda will end up feeling  sorry watching him struggle and help out[1:52 AM]But these 2 are both deeply compassionate so they could actually get along.  You know... i can see ferdinand and claude hating each other's guts. But there's such potential for personal growth...

Why is it that the agarthans have the most named npcs out of any factionJump

If gilbert is what it means to be an "exceptional knight". Then i dont want it. I dont want knights and i especially dont want execptional knights

I like playing on hard because i never have to worry about winning a fight only about how many style points I can rack up.

Why does fodland new year start on month 3.  Look i get that the japanese adopted the chinese calendar system of new year in early spring before adopting the gregorian calendar so "new years" events ended up split between month 1 (new years celebration) and month 3/4 (start of school). But that makes no sense for fodlan. In universe it doesnxt make sense. Why not have month 1 start in spring or have the new year in winter. Ok let's be real. The real reason its like this is that due to globalization and post ww2 american influence not to mention european colonialism, the gregorian calander is the one the world runs on. So its for us players benefit that month 1 is in winter and month 6 is summer. But in universe it doesn't make sense! Not unless you start making really convoluted excusrs[4:00 AM](Sorry southern hemisphere   No representation for you today) This only works for chinese new years because its 2 different calender systems being used at the same time. Which doesn't make sense in fodlan because why would rhea allow a new calander system in given her isolationist policy. Or if its a remnant of an old calender system, there's no way it lasted 1000 years

If jeralt hadn't been killed by kronya, he would have been consumed by the hivemind in SS and you would have been forced to kill him

The devs really went out of their way to give jeritza a unique class huh. He's a dark knight+swords. You can say it. He's just a dark knight. Yet they really went and slapped death knight on him[2:49 PM]Also as a pc his crit rate in underwelming

The s suport cgs are more stylized and its a little jarring

Is it only me than. Who get ways too many support points thant hey know what to do with.

We need a cats remake but its called rats and is dimitri in every role

I want a lysithea hilda a support[5:48 PM]Hilda's the only ine lysithea likes from the start[5:48 PM]They have mutual respect for each other[5:48 PM](Also side note. Wow lysithea is mean to ignatz. Poor baby)

Reminder that its Marianne who title drops vw

Did I miss something? Felix becoming the top advisor for all of fodlan seems like a bad idea. The only thing that comes close to showing he's competant is his ingrid support where it shows he's decent at tactics. Reason number 76 for why I'm worried for fodlan post AM. Along with ... ya know .. the Agarthans still running around.

One part of vw i didn't like was when the merchants went woohoo no regulations and free trade yay!Jump

I'll be honest. 7 year old me would have swindled dimitri out of his good halloween candy

#fe #fe3h

[crystalnet]

What I Like About FFXV Comrades DLC and December Patch

This game will just not go calmly into that good night-- but somehow, I'm perfectly okay with that. I've overwritten about this game on this blog at this point and yet the updates and content continues to roll out, and all year there's been a good reason to come back to it every couple of months. 

Recently the multiplayer DLC Comrades dropped, and I've been playing it off and on for the past couple weeks and beat the main story on it last night and wanted to mention all the things that I really enjoy about it. And even after logging 10+ hours into the thing and technically "beating" it, I certainly plan to continue playing to unlock all the classes and get in on some of that delicious online multiplayer action. Here's what I liked in no specific order:

-The magic system seems preferable to the one in the main-game. Really loved being able to spam spells and have four different spells available, all attached to different weapons. 

-class system seems really sick-- I think it was wise to start people as healer because the position is always valuable to have on a party, but as you unlock more, the possibilities for battle stratagems become much deeper. I still have a lot to get after beating the story so it functions in that way as well. 

-The lore and story details were pretty substantial! I think we got more story in this than the Prompto or Gladio episodes, as it fills in a literal gap in the narrative. It's like if Ocarina of Time had a multiplayer mode that took place in the 10 year gap between child Link and adult Link.

-Weapon upgrading is really solid in this, and though I think there could be a bit more weaponry to choose from, I haven't unlocked everything and there's a fair bit of customizing to be had, more than the main-game. 

-Combat is generally deeper than the main-game? Funny how a lot of the battles seem more involved in terms of the tactics which they call for. Add in the weapon upgrading, magic options, and Sigil/class abilities and this seems significantly deeper than combat in the main game. It's like it used the main-game as a foundation and built a more appealing, deeper multiplayer game on top of that. The only thing the main quest has on it is that it all looks a little nicer. Though I guess character-swapping may balance things out in a couple of weeks. I might add more because this was an all-around very good experience that I still haven't gotten enough of. The only way it could be better to me is if it had a lobby area where you can just like chill with other players. I have a fetish for lobby zones and I get why  Lestallum doesn't function in this way but I wish it did. Even if it was only in the hotel there. Just being able to shout Kenny the Crow emojis and maybe even enter into teams/missions would add a lot. But that's like literally my only complaint. 

It's just generally cool to fight alongside other players with this combat.  It was already a fun system in the offline mode if a bit superficial, but here it's been tweaked and working together with team-mates can be super satisfying. And with a solid character-maker, it's fun to see what other people cook up, as well as to unlock new accessories and such. 

So yeah, I'm generally way into this, and judging by all the support, they'll probably end up continuing support of this specific part of FFXV's DLC even further. If they didn't though, it'd still be a great little feature. I can probably still count on one hand the times I haven't been able to get a party for a mission, and it's usually when it's a crazy time of night, so there's definitely been a healthy amount of traffic on the servers. 

All in all, I'm still increasingly in this game's corner. I think for a second by the end of the summer when I was getting sick of just the timed quests, I was starting to second-guess my initial love of this game, but by now, there's been so much added and announced that it feels like Square has made good on the potential that might have initially seemed just slightly squandered upon initial play-throughs. 

I need to get a handle on how much story content has been added to the main game but beyond extended cut-scenes being patched in, since November we've seen...

-That moogle festivle, which was an okay distraction I guess. Felt superficial though, and I wish we could have run around the city with other players. 

-Episode Gladio, and extended Chapter 13- Solid little DLC chapter with the brawl-ier Gladio. These DLC seem a bit odd to me as replay value seems low, but now that character-swapping in the main-game will be a thing in a couple weeks, they function as great tutorials and chunks of lore at their best. 

-Off-road Regalia vehicle- I thought this was a nice little bonus Square put out when they really didn't have to. Now no one can complain about being stuck on the roads, and it's pretty fun to drive. Now if only you could turn into the airship from the off-road mode...

-Timed Quests- these were kind of cool earlier in the year when they were first dropping. I missed a few though and so missed out on sweet EXP and now I can't beat that crazy dragon in Leide that's been the quest for months cuz I'm like 20 below level cap now. Damn. 

-Episode Prompto- Cooler than Gladio, imo, in that it's metal gear-styled combat is an even bigger departure from the main-game than Gladio was, and yet still manages to feel like part of the XV universe. Also Aranea. 

-Assassin's Quest- weirdly fun for how weird and frivolous it was but clearly dev team's time could have been spent more wisely. 

-Comrades- A whole freaking game inside of a game. Deeper than just a tacked on multiplayer for sure, almost to the point that it reminded me of FFXI Online glory days during my finer moments of locking in with a team and pulling off dope strategies. Read write-up above, it's rad. 

And now character swapping in a couple of weeks and DLC support in '18 announced? Yeah okay, go ahead Square, I'm not even skeptical anymore. Yeah I could trot out one of these tired anti-DLC arguments but I've been generally impressed. This game, like BotW, both seem super rich in the way they can function as foundations. And while BotW never actually needed anything added, XV felt like it was kind of missing something at launch, and so I'm glad to see both games getting continued support. The game feels like an especially unique experience at its best, and so I think it's only right for the developers to spend even more time exploring the possibilities it allows for. I'm sure I'll be writing about a new patch soon, but I leave you with this: If character-swapping is a thing in a couple of weeks, meaning you can play as all 4 members, what's stopping them from making the main-game have online functionality? So you could play through the main game with 3 buddies, all focusing on one of the bros? Then comrades AND main-game online? Move over FFXIV, there's a new online FF experience in town. One can dream, but having seen what Square's done already, I don't think we should rule anything out.

edit: what if you could play the main storyline as your comrade character with other comrades?? Now that’d be some deep and dank role-playing.

#ffxv #comrades #ffxv comrades #comrades dlc #dlc #square enix #final fantasy #final fantasy xv

[gaainsborough]

Get to know me tag game!

I was tagged by @tenebies! thank you!! ♥

also I lost internet connection for a couple of hours last night while I was doing this so I’m posting it now instead 

Rules: Answer these 92 statements and tag 20 people.

LAST:

1. Drink: pepsiii 2. Phone call: uhhh, when I ordered chinese food the other day lol 3. Text message: to @starpendle!  4. Song you listened to: River in the Desert ♫ 5. Time you cried: this morning, I didn’t have a nice dream last night

HAVE YOU:

6. Dated someone twice: no 7. Kissed someone and regretted it: no 8. Been cheated on: no 9. Lost someone special: yes 10. Been depressed: pretty sure I have it but haven’t been properly diagnosed 11. Gotten drunk and thrown up: I don’t drink 

LIST 3 FAVORITE COLORS:

12-14: Sky blue, mint, pastel pink

IN THE LAST YEAR HAVE YOU:

15. Made new friends: yes! 16. Fallen out of love: no 17. Laughed until you cried: yes 18. Found out someone was talking about you: yeah but just work nonsense  19. Met someone who changed you: no 20. Found out who your friends are: ?? 21. Kissed someone on your Facebook list: no

GENERAL:

22. How many of your Facebook friends do you know in real life: all of them but like haven’t been on facebook in almost 6 years lol 23. Do you have any pets: yes! one kitty named finn. there are 2 other kitties here but they aren’t mine and their names are rie and tomo 24. Do you want to change your name: nope 25. What did you do for your last Birthday: saw moana with a couple of friends and we couldn’t decide where to eat so we ended up at ikea lmao 26. What time did you wake up: around eleven  27. What were you doing at midnight last night: playing persona 5 28. Name something you can’t wait for: episode ignis 29. When was the last time you saw your mom: uhhh 2012 30. What is one thing you wish you could change in your life: motivate myself to change things 31. What are you listening right now: watching friends on tv 32. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom: yes 33. Something that is getting on your nerves: I’m still being petty about automata lmao 34. Most visited website: tumblr and twitter probably

RANDOM INFO:

35. Mole/s: oh jeez I’ve never counted but I have a ton. there are 3 on my face, like 7 I can see on both of my arms. I’m sure there are more tho lol 36. Mark/s: even more of those lmao, most noticeable one is probably the one on my left hand from when I got a second degree burn  37. Childhood dream: I wanted to be a vet 38. Hair color: dark brown 39. Long or short hair: I just got it cut a couple of weeks ago so now it’s short 41. What do you like about yourself: my eyes 42. Piercings: 3 in my right ear and 5 in my left 43. Blood type: I have no idea lol 44. Nickname: Nat, but I’ve missed being called Nats so I’ve asked newer friends to call me that if they want~ 45. Relationship status: single but also marrying Ignis 46. Zodiac: Sagittarius  47. Pronouns: she/her 48. Favorite TV Show: I rarely watch anything new on tv these days, friends, law & order svu and south park are pretty much always on if I’m watching it though 49. Tattoos: nope 50. Right or left hand: right hand 51. Surgery: had a hernia when I was 4 and eye surgery when I 6/7 52. Hair dyed in different color: got highlights before 53. Sport: did ballet?? kind of?? 55. Vacation: I’ve never really been on one 56. Pair of trainers: a what now??

MORE GENERAL:

57. Eating: my diet is basically anything that is cheap/filling because I’m too lazy to cook an actual decent meal lol 58. Drinking: I don’t drink anything with alcohol. recently I have become addicted to the caramel frappes at mcds  59. I’m about to: I was gonna start FFXII but I’m tired, so I might just play some botw before bed 61. Waiting for: pay day 62. Want:  63. Get married: as someone who can’t even picture themselves in a relationship, I don’t see it happening lol 64. Career: I’m.....lowkey trying to get into something now but it’s mostly a pipe dream atm

WHICH IS BETTER:

65. Hugs or kisses: hugs!! I like giving big bear hugs~ 66. Lips or eyes: eyes 67. Shorter or taller: don’t really care 68. Older or younger: older I guess 70. Nice arms or nice stomach: I don’t care about this stuff tbh I’m just gonna skip the rest lmao 71. Sensitive or loud:  72. Hook up or relationship:  73. Troublemaker or hesitant: 

HAVE YOU EVER:

74. Kissed a Stranger: no 75. Drank hard liquor: no 76. Lost glasses/contact lenses: I only wore glasses when I was a kid but don’t remember losing them 77. Turned someone down: yes 78. Sex on the first date: 79. Broken someone’s heart: I highly doubt it 80. Had your heart broken: somewhat 81. Been arrested: no 82. Cried when someone died: yes 83. Fallen for a friend: no

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:

84. Yourself: no 85. Miracles: somewhat 86. Love at first sight: no 87. Santa Claus: no 88. Kiss on the first date: depends, but yeah

OTHER:

90. Current best friend name: don’t have one and never really liked the term tbh 91. Eye color: blue 92. Favorite movie: LotR: Fellowship of the Ring

tagging: @applegumi, @natszume, @starpendle, @ecruzm, @sorariku, @elliejoys, @cetras, @nyaanko, @sephhiroth, @kaineh, @mickeyblades, @datamarluxia, @2b6o, @kishou, @kirschtein, @fangmich, @zacksoldiers, @antheise, @castleoblivions, @shepplo 

as always feel free to ignore!

#tagged #sorry I posted this on mobile and couldn't do a read more ;;;;

[eggoreviews]

13 Nintendo Direct Predictions! - 13.2.19

In case you haven't heard the exciting news, Nintendo is giving us a lovely 35ish minute direct tonight, which is all regarding viddy games for the Switch (I'm not crying over the 3DS you're crying) So below you will find my best attempt at picking out 11 predictions for this direct, all of which I've probably gotten wrong. Enjoy! Note: These are in no particular order, but I'm more confident about some over others. Also, Fire Emblem Amiibo Festival Three Houses news is absent here because we already have confirmation that's happening.

Luigi's Mansion 3 news

I think this one is almost a given, considering it's a title that we know is dropping in 2019 we know basically nothing about. Everyone wants to know what kind of direction the game will take this time around. Will the third in the series take the route of the first and have one big ol spooky mansion for Luigi to navigate? Or will it be a much more fast paced, moment-by-moment experience with multiple mansions to explore akin to Luigi's Mansion 2? Or hell, maybe they'll go down a whole new road with it, it really is all up in the air. All I'm sure of is that they'll be plenty of ghosts and also probably amiibo support. Weird request, but I'd love a King Boo amiibo. Animal Crossing news

Another (almost) given, Animal Crossing is a title we haven't even seen gameplay for yet. This means we've got arguably less of an idea of what kind of mechanics will return. But now the series is finally making its return to a powerful home console, it makes sense to take how the game itself plays into the next gen too. A popular request I've seen thrown about a bit is the ability to customise your town however you want, with the option to build literally anywhere you like. As a newcomer to the series, this would definitely draw me in, as I'm waiting for this title to experience AC for the first time. In any case, I'm sure Nintendo have cooked up a game with plenty of fishing, digging and also amiibo. Trailer for Bayonetta 3

One of my more risky picks, I think we're pretty likely to get our first proper glimpse of the Bayo threequel that isn't just a vague teaser. Whether this will kick off the direct or will be something they'll sneak in the middle, a tentative release date and a cheeky look at gameplay I feel are more likely than some may think. I think the basic rule is that if it's anything like 2, it's gonna be pretty darn brilliant. So watch this space, and if it isn't this direct, I'd expect it soon after. SNES for Switch Online

Another slightly risky pick considering Nintendo haven't confirmed any classic console support on Switch beyond NES, alongside the fact that they're still releasing NES games on the system, it could be that SNES is just that bit further away. But with the recent datamine leak listing 20+ games for SNES online that I feel to be credible enough to keep in mind, this could yet be something Nintendo surprises us with. And if it's true that'd be a little bit too exciting. As for the N64 Classic, I'm gonna go ahead and say we aren't getting that here. Or maybe not at all. Who knows at this point. NO Pokemon

Yep, you read right, this prediction is more of an anti-prediction, but I firmly believe that Pokemon will be entirely absent from this direct for a number of reasons. With this direct focused around Fire Emblem and seemingly other announced but yet to be detailed games, I feel that any games we don't know about yet will either get a small trailer or they'll be saved for something bigger, like E3. It's that and to be honest, I've just got a gut feeling that they're not quite ready to show off the new Pokemon just yet, Let's Go is still relatively new so I think Nintendo will let it simmer for a while longer and focus for the most part on games we already know about. But you know, we'll see. Super Mario Maker

Considering how well Mario Maker did as a whole on the Wii U and 3DS, and seeing how the business of Wii U ports is looking pretty spicy at the minute, I think either a Mario Maker enhanced port or even a sequel could be imminent. The versatility of the Switch would be perfect for a game like Mario Maker and I believe it makes a lot of sense for them to wait this long, as a game like Mario Maker would've very much undermined their recent port of New Super Mario Bros. U. It's either this or they'll have to think about Mario Golf Aces so I reckon they'll take this route. Pikmin

As the list of fairly current Nintendo IPs yet to be represented on the Switch grows ever shorter, fans seem to be turning their attention to the likes of Pikmin. Knowing that Pikmin 4 was finished a while back, but was unannounced as to what system it would appear on, makes a Pikmin 4 trailer pretty darn likely. However, if ResetEra leaker King Zell (who correctly leaked the date for this direct by the way) is to be believed, we could even be seeing a port of Pikmin 3 instead, although personally I find this a bit less likely, especially if 4 is already apparently finished. Zelda HD Port(s)

Continuing the theme of Wii U ports, Nintendo seemed to have wholly recognised that not many people actually owned a Wii U in the grand scheme of things and there's a heckton of people who are eager to play some of the games they may have missed on the last console. I certainly think this extends to the relatively recent HD remasters of Twilight Princess and Wind Waker, both of which I would basically swallow up if they were announced. While this isn't a certain pick, I'd say it's a fairly safe bet with the surprising amount of demand I've seen for this titles. In a really ideal world, this would be bundled alongside a brand new shiny HD remaster of Skyward Sword, but I guess we'll see. Oh, and going back to King Zell for a sec, he's said a new 2D Zelda is happening. As much as I'd love this to death, I'm also going to be saying that won't happen either. Smash Bros. Ultimate Joker Gameplay

Seeing how there's probably been a couple of dedicated months of development for Persona 5's Joker since he was announced at the 2018 Game Awards as the first DLC fighter, it's not outlandish to think that he might be at a stage that a gameplay showcase could be possible. Hell, maybe they'll even give us a rough release date for him, which would get me heckin excited bc I am V E R Y hyped to play as my best boi. Alongside this, a possible stage reveal or a music track list is gratefully very plausible. And although I could see yet another Smash reveal as unlikely but plausible, I think they'll get Joker done and dusted before they drop another one on us, but again, it's certainly not out of the question. Metroid Prime Trilogy

Here it is, the prediction I'm arguably most confident about. Since Prime 4 was halted this month, and the growing rumours around an imminent Prime Trilogy release refusing to go away, I reckon this direct is finally the time for a whole new generation to experience what brought Metroid into glorious 3D. As always, nothing's certain, but part of me would be unusually surprised if this gets skipped out on, especially since this direct is so close to the recent Prime 4 announcement and Nintendo will likely be looking for something to give to the Metroid fans to make them a little more patient. And, you know, to get everyone else excited too. DLC for Mario Odyssey/Mario Kart 8 Deluxe

As I've mentioned in previous posts, these two are basically DLC goldmines waiting to happen. And to e perfectly honest with you, I wouldn't be mad at all. New worlds to explore in Odyssey, perhaps even based on previous 3D Mario games, would definitely elicit some excitement, while the addition of even more tracks and characters to the already great MK8 would help to draw a bit more attention back to the launch titles that got the Switch its initial sale spike. And, you know, in a lovely dream world where BotW wasn't already announced as finished, there would be a DLC pack 3 for Zelda but I'll keep that locked in the hopeless dream box. Dragon Quest XI & Persona 5 for Switch

The latest installment in the long running, critically acclaimed Dragon Quest series has already been confirmed to be coming to the Switch at some point, with Switch exclusive content to boot, but we don't really have any indication when. This direct I believe is incredibly likely to finally deliver a release date. As well as this, Atlus' weird cryptic Persona trailer they released a little while back could very well point to a Switch port on the horizon and, even if it didn't, I still think it'll happen anyway. Especially now Joker's been Smash'd. And these are both must plays if you haven't had a chance to get hold of them yet!

Final Fantasy VII drops immediately after the direct

With the recent announcements of release dates for FFXII and X/X-2 for April this year, we’re still in the dark on when Square Enix plan to release VII and IX. Considering that FFVII has started appearing in Switch adverts, it feels like it’s getting close and I can definitely see them taking us by surprise and dropping this imminently.

Something Kingdom Hearts related?

For those who haven’t seen, Square Enix producer Shinji Hashimoto, co-creator of the Kingdom Hearts series and producer for several of the Final Fantasy games, retweeted the Nintendo Direct announcement TWICE. While this could just be a prelude to more Final Fantasy news, there’s a chance it could be something relating to Kingdom Hearts too. Reeling off the list of slight possibilities here, we could be seeing a 1.5. 2.5 and 2.8 port for the Switch, the announcement of a future Switch port for KHIII or, if we really want to dream big here, the reveal of Sora for Smash. But that won’t happen. So I’m trying to push down my hype as far as I can.

And that's all my predictions for tonight's direct! Want to see my personal wants for this direct? Check it out here and let me know what you think! Whatever happens, keep your expectations tempered to avoid disappointment, because I think we've all been guilty of getting a little too hyped at one point or another. But above all, I hope the game you want gets announced! Unless it's a new F-Zero, because that really isn't gonna happen. Sorry friend.

#Nintendo Direct #nintendo #nintendo switch #mario #zelda #kingdom hearts #final fantasy #dragon quest #persona 5 #super smash bros #smash bros ultimate #Super Mario #mario kart #pikmin #pokemon #bayonetta #animal crossing #Luigi's Mansion #Metroid #Metroid Prime #switch #3ds #the legend of zelda #gaming #eggoreviews

[geekyzelda]

On Breath of the Wild

Now that I have had a few days to reflect on the game I’ll make a post. Under the cut cuz spoilers for endgame & it got long oops.

I have been hyped for this game since they first announced it, as most Zelda fans. Link looked so different and the fact that they finally added in technology highly intrigued me. So of course I had high expectations, it’s Nintendo, they know what they’re doing. and before you click away, look at the bottom.

The game play is pretty dang good and the fact that it’s so open world you can defeat any beast at any time is so intriguing. I haven’t played many open world games so this was a new experience for me. However, I think it distracted from the end game itself. I am so incredibly disappointed by the final battle with Ganon.

I spent a good week after I finished my last beast, searching out shrines, tracking down Koroks, and leveling up my armor to be prepared for the final battle. This is where I made my mistake. I didn’t need the 20-some hearts I had to fight Ganon. I didn’t die once in the final battle and I’m actually a bit upset by that. 

I had a ton of hearts, all the food I could carry, the strongest weapons you can get in the vanilla game, an armor level of 72 and I didn’t need half of that stuff. I spent so long stocking and powering up I forgot the story. Memories was one of the first Main Quests I finished, so the final cut scenes, even though I got the best ending, had very little effect on me. I want to cry, I want to be emotional, especially with this game but it just didn’t happen.

I understand that the open world format has to allow for people to be able to fight the final boss at any time if they’re skilled enough but, for lack of a better phrase, I don’t care. You made this game for people to play, you should have an incentive for people to play it all the way through. (Granted, I understand that I’m not a developer and I’m very, very glad they’re bring in new people to the series.)

Also, the final battle itself is highly reminiscent of Twilight Princess??? You climb to the top of Hyrule Castle, fight Ganon up there, then are teleported out to Hyrule field where you fight Pig Ganon, on your horse, shooting light arrows. It’s not exactly the same but, come on guys. I wanted to run through the castle or something, not like Ocarina but idk. You developed this awe inspiring landscape of ruined castle town and the castle is more fleshed out than it’s ever been. You should show me more of that.

Furthermore, the thing that bothers me most, is that there is no ending blow. In other Zelda games, there is that moment when you have the chance to give the Final Blow. Link jumps on Ganon and stabs him good, taking him out, and you feel a rush of emotion and it’s so incredible. In Botw, you free Zelda after two stages and she sweeps him up and banishes him. If you’re like me, & most of the people I’ve talked to, that final shot was with your bow & it lacks the badass feeling. Its awesome to see Zelda working and kicking ass and I want to see more of that but, you play as Link. This is the end. It should leave a lasting impression and it just left me feeling like something was missing.

Now that I’ve ragged on it let me say the good things.

All in all, I absolutely adore the story. It’s not very different from standard Zelda story, Zelda’s in trouble and Link has to save her & Hyrule along with her. I did not expect the Old Man on the Plateau to be the king, so that was a nice twist. And the fact that Link has been asleep for a hundred years is heart wrenching when you find out he pretty much died saving Zelda. The story is so incredibly sad. These people died. The champions and Link all died trying to fight Ganon and that is so over whelming when you consider the fact that they have NEVER failed before. This is what makes Botw’s story different, especially from other Zelda games. Your main character FAILED and pretty much DIED.

And the game is about Zelda. It’s about her journey as she fails to do what she was born for. It’s raw and powerful and it breaks the player’s heart, especially if they are invested in the characters.

The NPC’s are incredible. You can find so many people who are just wondering and they?? all?? sell?? to you?? And you can sell to them??? It’s great! The character designs are pretty dang awesome from the new look of the Gorons to the beauty of the Gerudo, I love that they kept the lighthearted cartoon style but it’s still somehow realistic.

I also adore the throw backs to the other games. Link to the Past’s jingle in the shrines. Romani Ranch. The bridge of Hylia. The fact that the rito are a race! The goddess statues. The spring of power looking like Skyward Sword. The parachute! You can see all the little influences from other games. This open world is what they wanted for ALBW. The parachuting anywhere is inspired by SS. It’s so thrilling to see this come to fruition. I know the developers were aiming for a style somewhere between Twilight Princess and Wind Waker and I think they nailed it on the head.

I adore The Legend of Zelda. It’s my favorite video game franchise. I’ve grown with it and it’s amazing to see this game be what they’ve been working toward with the recent additions to the series.

TL;DR: I’m disappointed by the final battle but the rest of the game, and all it’s aspects are incredible. It’s beautiful, fun, intriguing, it’s everything I’ve wanted out of a Zelda game, and I’m going to replay it many times. Don’t take too long once you’ve finished the beasts and found the memories or else the story will have less of an impact once you finish. I can’t even imagine how they are going to top this with the next game but I’m not sure my emotions are ready. In the end, I would give the game a rating of 9.5/10. The only reason it’s not higher is because of the final battle.

#loz #botw #Zelda #the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #geeky speaks #I've been thinking alot. #Don't get me wrong #I love the game #but i wouldnt say its my fav just because #the ending battle #i can complain about it for ages #i just expected MORE #And i know that Zelda isn't particularly hard #it's not meant to be #but is it so bad to expect more from your big time game developers

[bomber-base]

Sora Says: Super Bomberman R Sure is a Thing

Bomberlovelies! It’s your fruit-snack-loving neighborhood Sora here with some SBR stuff.

First off, I’m not sure how many people this matters to, and I suppose technically I’m practically a month late on this, but! I’ve been striving to keep the Base as spoiler-free as possible for those unable to play SBR for the time being. So, as you may have noticed, spoilers are noted and/or cut in the posts that they happen to appear in. I’m not sure how long to keep this up for; maybe six months to a year? What do y’all think? This is the first time I’ve ever had to be cautious about spoilers for a general audience, so I’m a little unsure on the etiquette.

Secondly, I’ve tested out the recent patch for SBR, and the controls are definitely improved. I had to use the not-quite-a-d-pad on the Joy-Cons the first time through, but now I can comfortably use the joystick to get around. I’ve been lost in the fields of Hyrule for the time being, though, so I haven’t yet had too much occasion yet to fully enjoy this update.

Thirdly, to the surprise of absolutely no one, I have Thoughts™ about this game. Not comprehensive ones, not coherent ones, and probably not even particularly interesting or unique ones, but Thoughts™ regardless. So here they are, spoiler-free: not so much a proper game review as it is me just bomberblathering into the void.

***

Super Bomberman R appears to be the result of what Bomberman used to be trying to score with what Bomberman could be. Unfortunately, they barely make it to first base, and on the way to second base they fall into a sudden rift in space-time that leads to the universe of Normal End TSA, a universe which could ultimately be considered responsible for that other reboot everyone knows about. This is a terrible metaphor from a terrible fan with terrible crack theories. That is to say, SBR should have been a triumphant return to form for the Bomberman series, but ends up being...a little less so.

For a loser like me, who properly came in during the Nintendo 64 era and had been super-stoked about the apparent return to that style of gameplay with the now-canceled Bomberman 3DS, the reality of SBR is once a golden promise and twice a leaden disappointment, a description which really shortchanges lead in its ability to shield us from bone-frying radiation. While obviously I was -- and still am -- relieved that Konami is actually making good-faith efforts to bring Bomberman to life again and save him from the nothing he’s become, I was much less thrilled with what they threw back to, and wholly unimpressed by the result from a gameplay standpoint. With mechanics that are pared down even compared to the game that inspired them, SBR completely failed to sell me on the old-school formula. It’s more impressive in terms of the rebooted aesthetics, with stronger visuals and writing, but the general execution of the reboot arguably comes at the cost of some of the nostalgic power that Konami wanted to harness.

Fans who lit their fuses with the SuperBomb games might feel differently than I do, of course. It’s entirely possible that maybe this game isn’t “for me,” that there’s something I’m missing about SBR that would trip the nostalgia wire in someone else. As a childhood fan of the Bomberman games for Nintendo consoles around the late 90s and early 00s, it’s difficult to talk about the flaws of SBR without making it sound like I’m just bitter that it’s not Bomberman 64 R(edux). I mean, I am, but that’s beside the point. Also I have yet to properly play Bomberman 64 so I’m probably not even a real N64 fan. In the cascade of sentiments that follows, though, I've done what I can to meet SBR on its own terms in order to argue that, even by the retro standards it draws from, it doesn’t live up to what it could or should have been. Conversely, there were things I quite liked about the game! And I’ve made my best effort to give credit where credit is due. Make no mistake: SBR had more pressure than other games I could name (like a certain legendary one...) to pull off a perfect 10 on balancing tradition with innovation. Both directions come with their high points and pitfalls, and fans will have differing opinions about how well Konami scored on either.

Personal grievances aside, I ultimately think it was important for Konami to first prove that they still had a handle on the bomberbasics, especially given the quirkier entries that got released in the lead-up to Hudson Soft being assimilated into the Konamiborg. (I mean, I liked Custom Battler Bomberman and think more people should check it out, but how did they even decide it was a good idea?) While I’ll contend that this game is maybe too basic, the overall choice to reference the SuperBomb series makes sense considering that Bomberman’s heyday was during his Super Nintendo days. (My gosh, have you seen the merch? The merch!!!) So in the end I can’t really blame Konami for using it as a springboard. I can only wish that they’d stuck the landing a little better.

The takeaway: Super Bomberman R is a more of a gilded lead pebble than a 24-karat star, but, like lead, it still has its uses and strengths. It’s a relatively decent effort by Konami to reintroduce him back into console gaming, a distinctive entry in Bomberman’s history up to this point, and a solid choice to start a revival with -- almost in spite of itself.

Hate the Game, Not the Player (The Game Already Hates the Player)

(I should note that I’m saying all this from the standpoint of having beat single-player once on Beginner mode. Aside from being a terrible fan with terrible metaphors and terrible theories, it also turns out I’m also a terrible gamer. The Terrible Tyrantress of Bomber Base: that’s me. So it’s entirely possible that some of my beefs with the gameplay are rectified in the two other difficulties, or in some other unlockable thing I haven’t done or heard of yet.)

How “pared down” are we talking, in regards to this game’s mechanics? When I began the initial round of wordbarfing, I initially wrote that Super Bomberman R was such a throwback that remote bombs don’t exist in it. Turns out that both Super Bomberman 3 (which appears to be the primary inspiration for SBR, considering that they share the same basic plot premise) and the original Bomberman game for NES featured them. Whoops. No Hearts or Louies/Tirras either, which means that Bomberman is back to the good ol’ days of being a one-hit wonder. Fair enough: that’s pretty old-school, right? We don’t need no stinkin’ heart meter in these parts. But let’s take a closer look at the powerups. SBR has a functional enough set comprised of Bomb Up, Fire Up, Fire Down, Speed Up, Power Glove, Boxing Glove, Pierce Bombs, and Rubber Bombs. But it’s quite clearly lacking when you compare it with SB3′s offerings. And for a game which actually translates your score into in-game currency for continues and unlocking multiplayer options (a.k.a the shit that 99.5% of bomberfandom cares about), it’s unfortunate that Konami decided not to include bonus items (which, again, were featured in both the original Bomberman for NES and Super Bomberman 3) to help boost your numbers. Additionally, the lack of Bomb Downs and Speed Downs/Sandals lowers some of the stakes of the gameplay. You gain points for every power-up you collect, so it’s not inconceivable to theorize that running into a Bomb Down or a Speed Down would result in you losing those points. (Admittedly, I’m not sure at the moment how Fire Downs function in the game from a score standpoint, since I’ve avoided them thus far.)

I can’t believe I had to satisfy my thirst for remote bombs with BotW. Unexpected perk of a Zelda game is unexpected.

The lack of item variety might not grate so much if the overall context of the gameplay were more diverse and/or expanded. SBR does a little better than its predecessors in introducing alternate stage objectives for each world, but I found that the ones for world 1 and world 5 were too similar, which is fairly glaring when you’re only looking at five worlds in total. Additionally, the objectives that requires you to find a set amount of certain objects don’t randomize their location, removing an element of challenge from the gameplay. The field enemies are generic and monotonous, with what seem to be only aesthetic variations across worlds (and movement speed across difficulties, as I understand it). You can sometimes take them out via bombing a support structure that collapses on top of them, which can be fun when it happens, but there aren’t too many opportunities to pull that off and not much incentive to do so other than personal validation. The Baroms/Balloms/Valcoms/no-one-cares-about-localization-consistency-with-Bomberman highlight my earlier point about SBR’s innovation at the cost of nostalgia: their flipped design is an interesting twist, but I admit I didn’t even realize what they were until someone pointed out their balloony nature. On the other hand, at least SBR also gave us the Hige Hige Bandits (technically they’re from the Saturn iteration of the games, but it was around the same era and they’re cute so I’ll let it pass), and you get the impression that the mecha forms of the Dastardly Bombers were absolutely made for 3D. Their arena fights feature some really smart AI as well, even on Beginner mode. (Though there are still sometimes...mishaps...) However, I’ve seen less-than-impressed comments about the rinse-and-repeat nature of their mecha fights, which further reinforce the dull repetitiveness that appears to be endemic to this game as a whole. At this point I would almost welcome a bonus stage of Pontans armed with just 1 Bomb, 1 Fire, and 1 Speed. While there are over 50 stages in the game, 1/5th of those are boss battles (if you count the arena battle and the mecha battle as two separate stages) and they overall go by quite fast.

Comments about the disparity between the dearth of game content with the game’s full retail price are further underscored when you consider that story mode’s main replay value appears to solely be in earning currency to unlock all the multiplayer goodies and custom antenna attachments. Not that replaying story mode for battle mode booty is anything new, of course. But at least something like Bomberman 64 also featured a way to unlock additional story mode content, and you were able to customize the full character instead of just the antenna. The setup reads like Konami trying to Stockholm players into liking a half-assed single-player misadventure. I’m a little concerned that SBR potentially demonstrates the modern limitations of Bomberman’s original arcade-based formula, i.e., the gridded, linearly-progressing stages. With the chance to reboot Bomberman for a new generation of gaming, Konami needs to do what the Zelda team did for BotW and sit down to figure out what is actually a legitimate convention of bombercanon, and what is a convention only because “that’s how it’s always been,” especially if it grew out of the technical limitations of the past. 

I’m not gonna shut up about Zelda, okay. I was Zeldatrash before I was bombertrash.

In terms of multiplayer, well, we already know that Konami sorta bombed it a little out of the gate, given the lag issues for online play. But even at its core, the multiplayer experience doesn’t make the grade -- or at least as high of a grade as it should have for a series that has such a huge reputation as a party game. You can’t even argue that it’s just “going back to basics,” as SB3 at least let you choose whether you wanted to do an all-out Battle Royale or a Tag Match, along with offering item minigames to let players have a chance to start the following match at an advantage. On the other end of the spectrum, one of the selling points of the Switch is its ability to adapt to multiple setups for on-the-go or at home. It’s not hard to surmise that Konami wanted to get hitched to the Switch in order to promote Bomberman’s multiplayer capabilities. So why are the battle mode options aside from the stage selection so bare? Obviously we don’t yet have any sort of insight into the development process and timeline of SBR, but it seems like they should have at least blown battle mode out of the water given 1) the price they charged for the game and 2) how much downtime the franchise had. It’s not like they didn’t have any inspiration for it, either: all they had to do was look at Bomberman Generation and they’d be set to start the party. Online play does host some interesting features, such as ranked match-ups and the ability to create individual battle rooms for yourself and whoever you invite to fight things out with, but I’m not sure how this compares with something like, say, Bomberman Live. Someone more informed is going to have to pick up the slack. The point is, where’s my Reversi Battle, dammit?!

Even the Way I Do Subsection Headings is Cool (Spoilers: It’s Not)

The first surprising thing Konami did for the franchise this year was to announce an actual console game for it. The second surprising thing they did was to upgrade the aesthetics of the original in both visuals and storytelling. The third surprising thing they did was Bombergirl. That they bothered to introduce no less than eight protagonist characters, animate cutscenes with those characters in them, and have those characters voiced with (at least in Japanese) some all-star talent continues to astonish me, not to mention some of the little spoilery details they threw in. While I generally agree about how short the cutscenes are, the writers still managed to make the most of what they were given to work with. Each sibling gets their fifteen seconds of fame not by hogging the spotlight and leaving the rest of their siblings in the dark, but by sharing it and letting the personality dominoes fall where they may; notable moments for me are the ending cutscenes for world 1 and world 3. In this way, in spite of the large cast and the decidedly-less-large narrative space, no character feels too neglected. We’re not talking JRPG levels of writing depth here, not by a longshot, but it’s probably the most consistently entertaining writing I’ve seen from a Bomberman game.

(Granted, the Bomberman series likes its writing the way Zoniha likes her men, i.e. barely there. So it’s not like SBR had a high bar to clear.)

The colorful cutscenes directed by Poeyama and illustrated by Hideyuki Takenami burst with expressiveness and fun, and the redesigns for Bagular/Buggler and the Dastardlies are delightful extrapolations of their older looks. So it’s a mystery to me why Konami didn’t extend any of that good stuff to the actual gameplay graphics. I said in a previous post that the contrast between the realistic environments and the cartoony vibe of the characters would probably help with navigating the game world, but in actuality I found the environmental details too overwhelming and distracting, which when combined with the then-iffy controls led to more than a few deaths for me. (World 3, I would say I’ve got my eye on you, but I need to keep what’s left of my poor eyesight.) Additionally, while they’re well-rendered, they’re also on the generic side, which is doubly disappointing given the distinct nature of the cutscene visuals and the character designs. It’s not like there hasn’t been a 3D Bomberman game with overly-stylized gameplay graphics before (see again: Bomberman Generation, and to a lesser degree Bomberman Jetters), so why so standard? Especially since such a direction, again, arguably neutralizes some of the nostalgic charm of SBR. Who the hell hails the Bomberman games, especially the Super Bomberman ones, for their ultra-realistic graphics?

The animation only kinda makes up for the uninspired environments. Konami gets my applause for the unique walk cycles, victory poses, and idle stances, any one of which would have been more effort than I would have expected out of them. But they all have the same bomb-throwing animation that honestly barely qualifies as an animation considering how it feels like it lasts half a frame. I wouldn’t normally harp on something so nitpicky except that Konami’s own promotional efforts for the game made such a big deal of the UNIQUE PERSONALITIES!!! of each bombersib. If they were already going as far as to customize each character’s idle stance, it seems like such a gross oversight to not also customize the other basic movement associated with a Bomberman character, or at least give it a little more flair and presence. The enemies also just flop over and blip out of existence when they die, which aside from being unsatisfying in general also doesn’t do justice to the source material. I’m not asking for bloody gibs splattered across the scenery here (although that could be kind of funny if handled in just the right tongue-in-cheek sort of way), but watch a couple of minutes of gameplay from SB3 and you’ll see that along with featuring death animations in general, different enemies even have different ones. In short, despite some genuinely nice attention to detail -- let me reiterate that the designs for the Dastardlies’ mechas are pretty awesome -- the gameplay visuals generally don’t match up to the fun factor of the cutscenes, resulting in a slightly inconsistent feel for the game and (more importantly) some missed shots at recapturing the charms of the original.

Given the effort Konami has put into the upgraded aesthetics and narrative and the subsequent promotion focusing around that (yes, I’ve seen episode 2 of Bomberman TV and me and BDR are working on summarizing that; well, mostly BDR, really), it’s hard not to think that Konami was trying to cover up a manure mound with sheets of rainbow gold. Nevertheless, that same effort, along with some spoilery stuff, suggests the possibility of follow-ups in this particular iteration of the canon, which can hopefully only be a good thing. I’d still prefer a return to the more traditional Bomberman lore, but I don’t mind riding shotgun for this. I mean, shit, the scenery’s great.

The Rest is Still Unwritten (Because My Pen Ran Out of Ink and Pommy Ate My Spare One)

There are some other things I could kvetch about in this game (things I didn’t touch upon here: the English voice-acting and the music, particularly the menu tracks), but in the end, I’m still happy SBR exists, and I don’t regret shelling out full price for it. The awesome thing about modern gaming is that Konami is able to fix parts of SBR according to player demand via online patches, as mentioned at the top of this post, which also means that, theoretically, there’s room for DLC to address the lack of content. The recent releases of Bomberman games of VC indicates more official interest in the series again, while the direction displayed by SBR show promising experimentation and expansion of the canon. And the scale of the promotional efforts for SBR is clearly Konami putting on some serious gameface in the matter of making Bomberman relevant again. It’s like seeing the signs of the apocalypse on Opposite Day.

As of the time of posting, the third week of numbers is in for SBR, from both Media Create and Famitsu (via Game Data Library). No matter which metric you go by, SBR has broken over 50,000 copies sold in less than a month, which is on par with or beyond the lifetime numbers of many other Bomberman games. Super Bomberman R might be far from a perfect game, with some circumstances mitigating its impressive numbers, but it’s still one to respect.

#bomberman #super bomberman r #news #review #even though i said this wasn't really a review #sora says #but seriously #don't let me do a comparison of botw's throwback approach versus sbr's #it's only going to lead to kool-aid tears #and more terrible tsa references #also i'm old enough to eat mario kart fruit snacks whenever i want

[crystalized-dreams]

So, it had been a bit of a crazy weekend between desperately trying to get a party hat Pikachu before they left today and also getting a Nintendo Switch. I had been wanting to talk about this for a while, but just have not gotten the chance. I’ll get to more of that soon, but for now, let’s get to the start of it all. I will admit this does go into a bit more personal stuff so if you’d rather just stick to more game-focused things, I’d either skip to where I start talking about Pokemon GO or wait until my entry sometime later this week about the latest Story of Seasons game :) But yes, moving on…

With the weather being so… odd lately (in fact, it was quite cold today, is supposed to be hot tomorrow, and then snow sometime later this week…), it’s hard for me to really feel up to doing much lately. I’ll start to feel better and then suddenly feel like I’ve been hit with a bag of bricks and it’s the absolute worst and reminds me of some of my worst days when I was younger. That said, with the fact that this has been something that has been effecting both my husband and myself these last few months, we had a feeling we just might not be able to do the Nintendo World launch event for a Switch. Until the weather normalizes a bit or our allergies get used to it, we both would just end up being very sick by having to wait on line for 24+ hours. Thus, we decided to fully depend on Amazon this time around.

Due to the aforementioned issues, things weren’t going as smoothly though. I at least managed to get the Grey Nintendo Switch and the Special Edition of Breath of the Wild (sadly not the Master) right as Amazon put them, but I missed the Neon Switch (which was put up later), the Amiibo, and the Pro Controller which was pretty discouraging.

Regardless, I was glad I at least got the system and felt, even if we couldn’t get to the launch, at least we’d still have the system, right? And as I heard of some Master Editions being cancelled, I felt maybe it was okay that we only managed to get the Special Edition. Until my order didn’t update on Thursday. Or Friday. And thus, like many others, it seems our preordered Nintendo Switch was currently unavailable.

While I generally may have been able to wait, The Legend of Zelda is one of Mark’s favorite game series and he’d been excited for it since it was just announced as the next Legend of Zelda. And thus, I was pretty upset. Especially as I felt it was my fault for not encouraging us to go to the launch more where, even if maybe it wouldn’t have been the best choice for many many reasons, we would have at least got the system. Heck, we probably would’ve gotten everything else we wanted to. While I was able to somehow preorder all the Amiibo from Best Buy a few weeks ago (which thankfully did all come), we did still want the Pro Controller and who knows, maybe by some miracle they even had Master Editions.

Regardless, I was at a loss and didn’t know what to do. That was when I stumbled upon someone mentioning that the Nintendo NY Store still had Nintendo Switches and even some Master Editions along with plenty of many other things. They mentioned it taking about 15-20 minutes, but I was set and with some help (because I was just not doing great, driving wasn’t really an option), I was off.

The car ride took forever due to so much traffic. I did, however, hatch my 10KM Egg in Pokemon GO and get a Chansey which made me feel like maybe, things would work out and I’d get lucky. I also managed to FINALLY get some Party Hat Pikachu–both males and I was unable to get a female, but at least I’ll have one Party Hat Pikachu and Raichu now… Unfortunately, I wasn’t really dressed to be waiting long due to rushing (I wore a dress–I probably should have worn pants) and it was very cold. The line took about 40 minutes, but thanks to some nice people in front of me for talking to me on line, it made it a lot more bearable and helped me get my mind off a lot of it.

And despite all the craziness (and feeling even worse due to how hot it was in store compared to the coldness of outside), I did manage to get everything we wanted–the Neon Nintendo Switch, the Master Edition of Breath of the Wild, and a Pro Controller. I might have picked up Bomberman too, but it was already sold out. Regardless, I hope we’ll be able to get it soon. One thing I was really surprised about though is I only managed to get 8 StreetPasses… I’m really worried I may not be able to finish the StreetPass games at this point :/ I did complete the main “goal” of Market Crashers though with the most recent group:

And I did at least take some other pictures in the store as well: #gallery-0-9 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-9 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-9 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-9 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

We’ve been having fun playing Zelda since (I mean, we do sleep at points but besides that :P) and I’ve even gotten a Pink Horse I named Shortcake (because Strawberry was too long :( ): I plan to give it the flower mane.

I’m also hoping to find a plain pink horse to give the teal mane and name after the My Little Pony that was made for me: We unfortunately haven’t seen anymore pink horses though :(

I feel like it’ll be a long time before the game is done due to all the exploring. I don’t see us finishing the main plot until every other thing is done.

Moving onto Pokemon GO again, as I mentioned, I got a Chansey and two Party Hat Pikachu on Friday! Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to get more to either evolve one or get a pair of females as well now that gender differences are in. I really wish they were around longer and had their percentages upped again. They only had them upped once and that was halfway through the event and it still wasn’t enough for me to see them around my neighborhood at all. If I hadn’t run into Manhattan, I never would have gotten any Party Hat Pikachu :/

There’s a lot I like about Pokemon GO, but it just keeps finding new ways to disappoint me mechanic-wise. That said, right now Sprint and Pokemon GO have a fairly neat Rewards Program that will let you redeem some neat stuff including $10 gift cards for Apple Store and Google Playstore. There apparently will be special events as well and you do not need to have Sprint as your phone provider to participate.

Meanwhile, moving onto Fire Emblem Heroes, they are doing their new voting today. I’m stuck between Lucina and Elise, but something tells me Lucina is going to blow the entire competition away… Speaking of Elise, I FINALLY got her thanks to the new Princess Focus. Now Linde is the last super wanted character on my list. I’d like to get Azura as well, but she’s a much lower priority and I’m still debating on Klein who is in the Sibling focus.

I’m keeping an eye out for Super Mario Run’s Android release. I really hope my IOS progress carries over considering I connected it to my Nintendo ID, but I’m really worried it won’t be… Fingers crossed anyway.

I also am super curious about the Animal Crossing one, but still concerned. Regardless, I’m going to stay positive.

Besides BotW and Mobile stuff, I’ve mostly been playing Story of Seasons: Trio of Towns, but that will wait until my next entry~

Finally, here’s some lovely pictures of all the Master Edition stuff: #gallery-0-10 { margin: auto; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-item { float: left; margin-top: 10px; text-align: center; width: 33%; } #gallery-0-10 img { border: 2px solid #cfcfcf; } #gallery-0-10 .gallery-caption { margin-left: 0; } /* see gallery_shortcode() in wp-includes/media.php */

Pokemon GO & Nintendo Switch Adventures (and a few other things) So, it had been a bit of a crazy weekend between desperately trying to get a party hat Pikachu before they left today and also getting a Nintendo Switch.

#Breath of the Wild #Fire Emblem: Heroes #Legend of Zelda #LoZ: Breath of the Wild #Mobile Games #Nintendo Switch #Pokemon Go