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innuendostudios · 2 years

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To Filth: Thoughts on Life is Strange: True Colors

[spoilers ahead]

1. I will state my biases before the court:

Maybe you have a person who is, for whatever reason, not in your life anymore, and you have missed them every day since you said goodbye. Their absence is a scar, a bit of ostensibly healed flesh that nevertheless acts up when the weather changes. That person whom you can think about, after several years of effort, for up to thirty entire seconds before crying.

I don't know how universal this experience is. But I have that person, and True Colors' protagonist Alex Chen reminds me of her so much. The hair, the fashion sense, the taste in music, the unexpectedly good singing voice, her friends' exclamation of "oh my god, you own a skirt???" Even the central hook of taking on everyone else's feelings. It's uncanny.

And I adore her. I would do almost anything for Alex Chen. And random moments were so authentic to my own, hyper-specific experience that I was devastated in ways pretty much no one but me will experience that way. The other 99.9999% of players may be devastated by the same moments in similar ways - a lot of us have That Person and, mathematically, at least a few will be like Alex Chen (in fact I think Alex Chen is the kind of character destined to be That Person for a lot of people) - but they won't drag up my memories. They won't think of that one day, that one moment, that one song. No one has lived my life but me.

So this game hit in ways particular to Ian Danskin, and it will hit different for people who are not me.

2. So here we are again. I made a whole video about Life is Strange. I did a write-up on Life is Strange: Before the Storm. I devoted 1/3 of another write up to Life is Strange 2. (Are those diminishing returns? Maybe.) I guess I'm a lifer for this series, even as my thoughts on every single one have been different phrasings of "mixed."

Life is Strange: True Colors isn't getting a video, but it deserves a full write-up.

In absolute terms, this is probably the series' best entry since the first. It also, I think, marks the point where the series stops growing. This is the FarCry 3 of Life is Strange. Dontnod created the IP but it's owned by Square Enix, and they've handed it off to Deck Nine. Dontnod are a weird bunch, driven to do weird things, tackle weird subjects, mess with weird mechanics. They have heads bursting with ideas; their reach is very long, and their grasp very finicky; they are a claw machine.

That's not Deck Nine. Deck Nine played things very safe when they made Before the Storm, their previous entry in the LiS series, made while Dontnod was working on the (ambitious, disastrous) LiS2. And they gonna take it from here. Dontnod will be off doing weirdo shit like Twin Mirror and Tell Me Why and Squeenix will leave Deck Nine to make LiS the sweet, offbeat series the first game was about 40% of the time and will try to wrangle the other stuff it was into something... manageable. Peripheral. Repeatable.

It's good, but it's also the end of something.

3. Thing is, Deck Nine does what it does well. Per Goethe's three questions, I am ambivalent as to whether Deck Nine should be turning Life is Strange into something cozy and safe, but damn if they don't sell it!

True Colors is about another young person with superpowers, using them to explore human drama (and the occasional criminal conspiracy) in a sleepy noplace with a one-block Main Street and about 12 residents who've known each other since forever. (Haven Springs is very much a pretty how town with up so floating many bells down.) Another bisexual love triangle, another set of tragedies, another pack of hallucinatory images safely cordoned off from the narrative in dreams and visions.

But Deck Nine can write. Deck Nine can animate. Deck Nine is more about tugging heartstrings than punching feels, but they are expert stringpullers. The first chapter (this is a single game in five chapters rather than Dontnod's episodic structure) is more or less perfect. The depth/nuance/subtlety on Alex's face, the amount of emotion she conveys with a nervous, sideways glance (you can tell she's breaking eye contact even when the person she's talking to is unseen). How do they pull off "conveying emotion while trying to hide it" solely in facial animations when they clearly don't have Last of Us money?? How do you capture "trying to disappear into the background" and make it look easy? Because, friends, I know it's not easy. And the dialogue is miles beyond what Dontnod can pull off, not even when they brought in ringers for LiS2. These are nuanced, believable, human characters who come into focus with only a few lines and expressions.

If you're going to make Life is Strange be about this and only this, the quiet, the human, the slice-of-life shit, it helps to be really good at that.

But there are reasons True Colors had so much good will when it was new but seemed to fade quickly from everyone's memory. Cozy and safe doesn't leave an impression the way a Dontnod dumpster fire does.

4. Here's the hook: Alex can feel people's emotions. They cast auras that she can tune into. For most strong feelings, she can hear the associated thoughts; for particularly intense ones, she feels them to the point of losing control.

Alex's deal is she and her brother, Gabe, lost their mom as children and, after a few years, their dad bailed and they ended up in the foster system. She and Gabe were separated when he stole a car and got sent to juvie. You can imagine a young girl with no family and a lot of trauma surrounded by a bunch of other youths dealing with similar and who literally feels all of their feelings as well would have a rough time at the orphanage. She is afraid when other people are afraid, gets in fights when other people are angry, and has a long history of scaring away friends and foster parents. As the game begins, she is finally a legal adult, about to reunite with her long-lost brother who settled in a small burg in Colorado.

The way Max's time travel powers in LiS1 could function as a metaphor for youthful indecision, Alex's work as a metaphor for empathy. This leads to a lot of beautiful moments; like, shockingly beautiful. Genuinely incredible. But between those moments are choppy waters.

5. Basically, a metaphor - especially an interactive metaphor - should illuminate something. It makes the abstract literal - emotions, ideas, what have you. Like, part of Max's story was about how every choice has consequences, that there isn't always a "right" decision, a "good" ending, that it's all trade-offs and decisions. Becoming who you want to be is giving up all the people you could have been. Making that tangible with time travel is a great way to explore the idea! It helps us get into guts of it, gives us something to hold onto, to visualize. It works.

Alex's powers don't work as a metaphor for empathy. They're too simple, too literal. Alex is carrying a lot of baggage, her emotions are erratic. She's understandably anxious and focuses a lot on how people around her are feeling. As a child she took it on herself to make peace between her ever-fighting father and brother, stuffing her own feelings down for their benefit. She gets in fights when other people are angry at her, or even around her. She panics when other people are afraid. She needs everyone around her to be stable before she can be stable herself. And now, as an adult, it means becoming a caretaker for everyone around her, even her elders, diving into everyone else's fear and anxiety and trauma, trying to help them instead of asking them for help with her own shit.

I didn't need a metaphor to explain any of that. Those are perfectly understandable themes. In fact, Deck Nine's precise set of skills are ideal for exploring them. Much of the game is them doing precisely that - conveying these themes with nothing but good writing and careful animation.

And, worse than not adding much, the superpowers are actually where the game feels... over-simple. Mechanical. Gamey.

6. The big upheaval at the end of Chapter 1 is that Gabe dies. His long-term girlfriend's son, Ethan, runs off to the mountains alone, Alex and Gabe and Gabe's best friend Ryan go looking for him, but the mining company is blasting that night and this causes a rock slide. Alex is tied to Gabe with mountain-climbing gear, but he gets knocked off the cliff and starts to drag Alex with him, so Ryan, to save Alex, has to cut the rope, letting Gabe fall to his death.

As I said, this chapter is more or less perfect. The set of puzzles you solve to figure out where Ethan has gone (reading his homemade comic book and realizing it's based on his adventures at the abandoned mine) really work. Alex has to save the kid despite having to fight through his fear as well as her own. It's really good! And that final beat - Ryan cutting the rope - sets up a lot of possibility for the rest of the game.

I mean, imagine it! A girl just out of the foster system, reunited with her brother, coming to a tiny town that immediately promises to stitch her into the community as they've already done with Gabe. A home and a life and a new set of friends, all the things she's been missing. And now that brother is dead. Imagine her having to deal with her own grief and everybody else's. Imagine the question of whether Ryan was wrong to cut that rope, whether Alex could have pulled Gabe up instead of going over, whether Ryan had any right to make that decision for her. Just think!

So many of these possibilities are weakened by the central metaphor. Alex starts tapping into people's feelings without getting overpowered by them (the thread where anger and terror make her lose control is swiftly dropped) in order to fix people's grief. We get little puzzles where we dig around in their memories of Gabe so she can find just the right things to say. Sometimes we get visualizations of their pain: Ryan's surroundings fall away until there's nothing but him and the cliff where Gabe died; Gabe's girlfriend Charlotte's abstract sculpture turns into a manifestation of the people she's angry with. And these all turn into little adventure game puzzles where you find all the memories and say the right thing, and... poof! Grief resolved!

There's just so much about the subject matter that can't fit into that Psychonauts loop. How on Earth am I doing little puzzles to relieve Ryan of his grief over killing my brother?? How is he not dealing with my grief? Where even is my grief? At the end of Ryan's puzzle chain, I'm given three dialogue options regarding who should forgive Ryan: does Alex forgive him, would Gabe forgive him, or does he need to forgive himself? What it doesn't give me is the option of Ryan not getting forgiven. Not because he doesn't deserve forgiveness, not because he should've risked us both dying, but because it's too soon. I believe Alex can forgive Ryan someday; I can even believe she'll need to for her own healing. I don't believe she can forgive him the day after it happened, nor that he could forgive himself so quickly. But it's a sequel to Life is Strange, so we've gotta have a bisexual love triangle, and Ryan's the only eligible bachelor in Haven Springs, so we've gotta get that pesky "grief over letting your brother die" thing squared away with a single dialogue puzzle.

(Which, by the way? Not a fucking chance. I got together with the cool lesbian - you think Alex Chen is straight? Do you see her side-cut? (Though, unlike Warren in LiS1, I could at least see the appeal of Ryan - he's sweet and lumbersexual. It's just that he killed my brother.))

This is the issue. The very first thing Alex does after Gabe's wake is solve a little puzzle to make Steph (the cool lesbian) feel better about her friend dying. Then she helps the old lady in the early stages of dementia deal with her fear and confusion. And on and on.

And the game lends itself to the interpretation that Alex is dealing with everyone else's feelings rather than addressing her own, and that this is her character flaw, the thing she'll need to overcome. But it doesn't actually go there. Because, like, that's the core mechanic! You help people with their problems. The game is gonna keep making you do it, so it can't come out and say "this is actually deeply unhealthy for Alex." (I mean, Dontnod would've done it. They spent the second half of LiS1 saying that about Max, but those are the very parts Squeenix hired Deck Nine to sand off.) So many interactions resolve with Alex "forgiving" people at the time in her grief where forgiving others would be most painful, and, based on the framing (and the "other player stats" at the end of each chapter), I can't shake that this is, canonically, the "right" way to play.

7. Let's talk about what works.

Beyond that immaculate first chapter, there's an extended bit in Chapter 3 that is pure delight. To cheer Ethan up, Steph plans a an elaborate LARP set in the universe of Ethan's own homemade comic, with Alex playing his companion (in my game she was a bard). The whole town gets in on it - the local bar is converted to a tavern managed by the local high-functioning alcoholic, the record shop sells "potions," a townsperson whose cat went missing in Chapter 1 is pretending to be a blacksmith and when you read his mind he's really into it. Also Ryan shows up three times in three different masks as monsters to be felled. And when you enter battle? The camera moves to the side and, since it's a LARP and you have to yell out what move you're doing, you of course pick your moves from a dialogue tree, but that means, functionally, the game becomes a turn-based RPG. It's wonderful.

Oh but it gets better. Ethan has been having a hard time since Gabe died, and this is the first he's really perked up. And at the end when he finds his magical boon, he's so happy that Alex starts picking up on his joy. And it does that thing where she gets visions of what the other person is experiencing, so the whole town turns into an actual fantasy realm and you fight the final boss in realistic garb with realistic ruins and the same sideways camera but now selecting moves from the dialogue tree has the Final Fantasy "bwip bwip" sound effect and the moves have particle and lighting effects instead of just a boy swinging a cardboard sword and yelling "two damage!" It's beautiful. It's everything.

And in Chapter 5 there's an extended tour through Alex's memories, where she has to "play her part" in the moments when she lost each member of her family, and it's absolutely heartbreaking. (Though it ends with her imagined Gabe telling her to stop blaming herself and "let it go," which, once again, is treated as an event rather than the beginning of a years-long process but whatever!)

And the climax is Alex confronting the man responsible for covering up Gabe's death. (Oh, uh... Gabe's death wasn't an accident, the mining company set off the blast knowing people were on the mountain, and there's been an elaborate cover-up because it's not Life is Strange without a small-town criminal conspiracy! Anyway, Ryan's dad was in on it and he shoots you and drops you down a mine shaft at the end of Chapter 4.)

Anyway, you confront Ryan's dad (Jed) at the end, and it's another of those scenes where the game reviews all your choices for you, this time by seeing who in town believes your story. The nonbelievers think Alex is delusional and only looks like hell because she wandered into the mines alone. (Weirdly she never says "I have a bullet matching Jed's gun in my gut right now." (And this would be a really easy plot hole to fix? Just have Jed kick Alex down the mine shaft instead of shooting her. C'mon people!)) And, whatever, that's always hokey, but I've come to expect it from these kinds of games.

But then her powers come into the confrontation and it's... glorious. Because it's the first time Alex uses her powers to do something other than make someone's bad feelings go away. She uses her power of empathy to read Jed to filth.

And it works so freaking well. She, I dunno, freezes time or something (don't ask questions) and basically searches his soul and tells him everything that's going on inside him. Tells him why he covered up the truth, what lies he tells himself, what feelings are under those lies. She uses her empathy but not to absolve, not to heal, but to confront. She uses it to inform her own emotions, and then make someone else see how she's feeling. She is able to feel complete and total empathy while still tell him he is wrong. And, if you are inclined to read her character arc as being about learning not to caretake everyone around her, it's a real culminating moment (though you'd be doing most of the legwork there). I still think the game wants me to forgive him but it at least gives me a choice this time.

Confronted with the brutally honest truth about him, forced to feel all the things he's buried, he bursts into tears and confesses.

This scene is powerful.

8. In the end, True Colors is a bunch of good parts. It's not more than the sum of its parts. I'm not convinced it's less, either. I don't think it's parts sum at all. It's a collection of good bits and some stuff holding them together. It doesn't feel complete. It doesn't cohere. There is so much it should be that is left on the table. I am left wanting. But it has parts that are among the best moments in the series. And that's what I'll be remembering. I won't remember this as a whole game. I'll remember it as a character I cared about, and a handful of scenes that meant the world to me. And the rest, I'll just... forget.

It could have been so much more. But it could have been so much less. I don't have much hope for the series' future. But. We had some moments. I'll hold onto them.

And I'm going to miss Alex.

#capsule review #adventure games #life is strange true colors

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supplements-superachieverclub · 2 months

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Why is EVERYONE Talking about Pure Himalayan Shilajit Benefits? What is it Good for?

Discover the best Shilajit supplements: https://super-achiever.com/best-shilajit-to-buy

#himalayanshilajit #shilajitresin #mumijo

Hello, Achiever Fam! 🌟

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asexual-vampire · 4 months

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I've decided I need this image on my blog

#also while looking for the source of this image (which i was not able to find)#i found out that there is a product called 'clitter' which is a dissolvable capsule full of glitter #meant to be inserted into your vagina before sex #which. sounds like a mess tbh. and also it has pretty mixed reviews :/#anyway im not a twilight fan but i would use the vampire glitter lube #edward speaks #nsft

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eaminbhola · 8 months

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#livpure weight loss reviews #liv pure supplements reviews #livpure side effects #livpure capsules reviews #livpure ingredients #livpure results #livpure supplements #livpure official website'

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skitskatdacat63 · 8 months

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Every semester, I feel like my instant thought is always "I am dropping every class. They're all horrible." but by the end usually end up really liking it so I really just need to ignore my first impressions, but god looking at the syllabi really destroys my mental state

#yet i dont remember liking the first class i took for my one major and im not excited for it this time either 😐#even tho ive spent the most time around that prof cumulatively i still dont really think i like him all that much 😭😭😭#my department sucks because theres only 2 profs and the one sucks so bad that she has a 1 star review #and the other prof who i feel lukewarm about goes so far as to tell his students to avoid classes with her #so im really stuck between a rock and a hard place 😭😭😭#i think he just gets on my nerves too easily. and he was on the abroad trip i went on so i do feel like ive gotten closer #but like you know those people who the dynamic feels very one sided with? thats him for me. i think its just a cultural difference tho tbh #but otherwise i think my other classes will be fine :D #just feeling a bit 😧 rn bcs i have to make an introduction vid for my online class and I DONT WANNNAAAAAAAAAAA #also i miss all my profs from my prev semester :<#i think i talked about it on here but ahhhh my one linguistics prof she was so nice #but it haunts me bcs she asked if she could use one of my papers as an example paper in the future #and i was of course very honored....#BUT ALSO THE PAPER I WROTE USED F1 DRIVERS AS EXAMPLES LMAO #so im so glad that the first half of the 2023 season is now just a time capsule in that class #like literally a time capsule where you can exactly tell which era it was bcs i used Nyck as an example 🌚#well anyways wish me luck i hate starting things it's like trying to cram yourself into a new skin or something #and then when youre very pleased and comfortable with it all its then over :(#catie.rambling.txt

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15tarlit5kyline · 9 months

Video

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check my page for other cool aesthetic bits

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healthyoga88 · 9 months

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lady-phasma · 1 year

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I posted 1,053 times in 2022... all since mid-October

That's 1,053 more posts than 2021! Because I came back around October 15th this year. I have too much free time and no shame.

364 posts created (35%)

689 posts reblogged (65%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@adderess

@flowerpotmage

@aemonds-war-crime

@lady-phasma

@aemonds-sapphire

I tagged 943 of my posts in 2022

Only 10% of my posts had no tags

#house of the dragon - 524 posts

#hotd - 494 posts

#aemond targaryen - 366 posts (surprising no one)

#aemond one eye - 288 posts

#matt smith - 231 posts (also no surprise)

#prince aemond targaryen - 201 posts

#daemon targaryen - 201 posts

#doctor who - 118 posts

#11th doctor - 103 posts

#aemond the kinslayer - 87 posts

My Top Posts in 2022:

The Eve of Battle

Aemond x gender neutral!reader

Fluff and hair braiding. Soft Aemond with feelings and he talks about them! What? I know right! General audiences. 1k words

I have another Aemond x gn!reader short fic here

713 notes - Posted November 12, 2022

Oh hello there!

For the smut prompts may I request #100 pretty please?

Anything for you! 💜 You didn’t say which so you totally wanted Daemon, right? 😉

Title: Enough?

Aemond x fem!reader 18+ NSFW

861 notes - Posted November 8, 2022

(100% @em-writes-stuff-sometimes fault)

I've gone from cautiously enjoying the romance between an uncle and niece to screaming letting everyone know I ship a brother and sister in less than two months.

888 notes - Posted October 17, 2022

Mother! I was 100% looking for you and not Helaena. Yup.

901 notes - Posted October 17, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Can you write cockwarming but like, not with a very subby reader and dom aemond, more intimate and loving and equal. From our babygirl’s pov? 🥺

Aemond x fem!reader

look what we accomplished together @adderess

See the full post

1,545 notes - Posted November 19, 2022

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #my tumblr time capsule #aemond targaryen #daemon targaryen #matt smith #doctor who

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cozy-possum · 10 months

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Zombaes Forever Wild Vibes: Big Cat Un-Rescue review

Support Me?

Caved and got this from amazon for 23€

The box is slightly strong cardboard, the printed design is nice, I love a good zombie skull theme. The two dolls (I'm guessing some approximation of a tiger king reference) are cute, here's them compared to a capsule chix in size and the capsule chix wearing the 'boy' mullet hair/wig

The little tiger is a soft-ish rubber, think poly-pocket clothing; he has a small handle on the inside of his mouth for the dolls to grip on, as if he's eating their hands; I'm assuming most of the pets from the other sets have this feature

Theres the checklist for the new series if anyone is interested

#zombaes #zombaes forever #dollblr #dolls #capsule chix #stattic #doll review

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healthlean · 10 months

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innuendostudios · 2 years

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Nietzsche's Eternal Return (to Monkey Island)

[spoilers ahoy]

Theme The person who is returning to Monkey Island here is, most obviously, Ron Gilbert. He got him brand back. Go Ron! And, look, I was skeptical. I mean, I was, above all, cautiously optimistic! But I was keeping my skeptic hat on the coat rack next to my hoodie, you know? I said the philosophy of The Secret of Monkey Island is "cheerful nihilism," and I stand by that. But Ron Gilbert's nihilism is not always cheerful. Or, actually, I think he's usually having a good time, but it often feels at my expense. How badly did I want him to take me back to the first series I ever loved?

I am on record as having never liked the ending of Monkey Island 2, which is the last Monkey Island game Ron directed (though he apparently had some peripheral involvement in Tales of Monkey Island). I am also on record as having haaaaaaaaaated the ending of his last adventure game, Thimbleweed Park. Ron likes a cop-out ending. Frankly you should know that by now - don't play Return to Monkey Island if you aren't prepared for a cop-out ending. It's what Ron does. And sometimes... sometimes it's a deliberate rug-pull. Sometimes he's laughing at you for expecting the ending to be good.

The Secret of Monkey Island's ending was a bit of a piss-take. It was short, it was abrupt, it rendered the entire plot up to that point irrelevant. Its instant replays and Blimp-cams and snarky final lines made it a parody of a video game ending. But, parody or no, it was an ending! It was a climax. You returned to the starting point, blew up the villain, and reunited with the love interest. Even in air quotes, it was the way you expect stories to end.

Monkey Island 2 intentionally denied you that ending. Refused closure. Told you all the events you just witness, and the events of the previous game, may never have happened. I originally played the game on its "easier puzzles" mode, and, when I got to the end, thought there must be a proper ending if you play normally, but nope. Spent a solid year stuck on Part II, refusing to get a hint book, before finally getting back to the ending, and thbthbthbthbthb. Fuck me for caring I guess.

The joke of The Secret of Monkey Island is Monkey Island having a secret is brought up in Part I, so you expect it to be relevant, given the game's title and all, and then, once the plot kicks into gear, you get focused on Elaine's kidnapping and the rescue mission and confronting LeChuck, and it's not til sometime after you finish that you think, "Wait... they never told us the secret." I don't think it's even mentioned after Part I.

Monkey Island 2 never lets you forget its macguffin. You are searching for the treasure of Big Whoop. No one knows what it is, but it's what you're after. There is no distraction, no romantic subplot that takes over your attention. Hell, the game makes it clear that Guybrush's obsession with being the kind of famous pirate who would look for Big Whoop has ruined his relationship and annoys his friends. The game hinges on Big Whoop. But, once again, you never find out what it is, and it's not an "oh that's funny" moment that hits you an hour after you play; it is, as Cobain would say, a denial.

And then Gilbert left LucasArts, the series was continued by other developers, and whatever resolution he had in mind for the MI2's putative "cliffhanger" ending was left to our imaginations for thirty years. Until now.

So the question is not whether, in Return to Monkey Island, you will finally find the secret. You oughtta know you're not finding that secret. The question is: which kind of cop-out will Ron give you?

And what Ron has done is kind of amazing: he has found a cop-out ending that is, for the first time in the series, emotional. He has made the denial of closure resonant. He has gone meta that quiet, knowing way that most Neil Gaiman stories are meta: yes, this is a fun story about pirates, but it's also a story about stories about pirates. This is Guybrush, the guy who couldn't shut up about the greatness of his adventures in Monkey Island 2, telling his son a story. He's not telling it because the ending is exciting, because the Secret of Monkey Island is so mind-blowing once revealed. He's telling it to relate to his son.

The ending is a big nothing. It's a joke. Elaine walks up when it's over and says "you tell that story differently every time." When your son presses you to tell him what the secret is, the game gives you six dialogue options with different answers. It doesn't matter what the secret is. And, unlike when a young Guybrush found the empty chest of Big Whoop, this time he knows it. He has a family and a storied life. That's the treasure a lifetime on the seas brought him.

Some people hate this ending. But, maybe for the first time, I'm on Ron's side of a polarizing ending. Monkey Island has always made me laugh; even the mixed bags that are Escape and Tales find chuckles somewhere. And the developers who are not Ron Gilbert have attempted pathos before; Tales went so far as to let Guybrush die - like, not fake his death like in Curse but legit die - but the results were mixed. This is the first time Monkey Island has given me feelings. Ron Gilbert, the man who told stories deep-fried in irony, who gave me the finger for expecting them to resolve, finally, all these years later, gave me feelings. Maybe he could only do it after thirty years, once a sarcastic parody of a pirate game starts to feel nostalgic simply because it's been in your life so long. But he did it.

Go Ron.

Design The clever thing about Return's structure is how it apes, subverts, and expands upon those of Ron's other two entries. You spend a decent chunk of this game tracing the footsteps of Secret: Part I is on Mêlée Island, with the Scumm Bar and Otis locked in jail and its twisty forest surveyed with weird maps; Part II is on a ship to Monkey Island where you have to recreate the potion that took you there in the first game; Part III is on Monkey Island itself, with its banana tree on the beach and its giant monkey head and its incredible view from the mountaintop; and Part IV seems to be wrapping things up, as you hurry back to Mêlée because the place you needed to be all along is back where you started.

And just when you think the game is wrapping up... it turns into Monkey Island 2.

Suddenly you have a ship and a map of the surrounding seas and a whole bunch of new islands to check out. It's that enormous sprawl from Part II of LeChuck's Revenge.

It's a bit cheeky to get to what feels like the end and think, "huh, I guess this game is a tight 7 hours," and then run aground on the game's surprise second half.

The player's (presumed) familiarity with the series becomes a playground for the designers. You expect insult swordfighting, so you laugh when LeChuck gives you two comebacks in a row and then just punches you. (It's also cute that Guybrush and Carla the Swordmaster can only converse while swordfighting.) You already know the potion that takes you to Monkey Island requires a pressed human skull, so of course this time it's Murray; "pressed" is his default emotion! You expect Guybrush to fall off the side of the plateau and get bounced back up by a rubber tree, so you laugh when Guybrush keeps jumping up and down on the bit that broke before only to have it stay solid, and then later when he gets kicked off you think "ahahahaaa, he's going to land on the rubber tree!" only to find him twisted and mangled having landed on... a rubber tree stump.

LeChuck's Revenge was such a departure from the first game that you can see, in Curse, how the new developers wanted to course correct. This is a trend, I've found: an IP comes out that is widely beloved; the first sequel is the same team doing something weirder and more ambitious, and is met with divided response; then the series it taken over by fans of the original who, instead of being weird and ambitious, ignore the first sequel's innovations and turn the original entry into a formula. I guess what I'm saying is, much as I enjoy it, Curse of Monkey Island is the Jurassic Park III of the series. (See also: Myst.)

First island: map, ship, crew. Then a stretch on a boat. Then a new Island. Then a (usually short and lackluster) confrontation with LeChuck. There will be some variant of insult swordfighting. You will have to decipher an obtuse map. Everything that made the first game unique will be repeated. This is true of Curse, and much of it holds for Escape and Tales.

Return knows this formula has been established, knows you have expectations. And anywhere the player has expectations, they can be confounded.

Character The Guybrush of Return to Monkey Island feels like a magic trick. He manages to feel continuous with every previous iteration of the character, none of whom felt continuous with each other. He blends the naïveté of Secret's Guybrush with the amorality of LeChuck's Revenge Guybrush, the wiseassery of Curse's Guybrush with the dipshittery of Escape's Guybrush. (I don't really remember what Tales' Guybrush was like.) You can see how this guy(brush) grew from the straight man of the first game, chilled out from the asshole of the second game, wised up from the fool of the fourth game. The series' inconsistencies now seem like one person in different phases of his life.

Who Guybrush is is more relational than in games past. His marriage to Elaine (properly written as the most competent person in the room, finally) seems like it could be in danger, as she becomes steadily more aware of how amorally Guybrush is acting in pursuit of The Secret. LeChuck is framed for the first time as a foil for Guybrush, as the two start to resemble each other the more obsessed each becomes with beating the other to the prize. (One character says of their enmity, "you deserve each other.")

These are, of course, both handwaved in the end. Elaine confronts Guybrush with his misdeeds, but just asks whether The Secret can possibly be worth all the questionable things he's done. (She's not fussed that her husband is amoral, she married a friggin' pirate.) The LeChuck confrontation is a big nothing because, right when you're about to confront him, the cop-out rug-pull happens. Guybrush not telling his son what The Secret is shows that he clearly learned the right lesson and did not turn into LeChuck. The game simply elides the inevitable confrontation-and-epiphany moment; why does the game need to show it to you if you already know it's coming?

And it's just nice to see Elaine and Guybrush... be together. They get together at the end of the first game and are broken up in the second, and she spends the next three getting damseled over and over. Serialized stories are always bringing romantic pairings together and splitting them up, because reuniting is easier than the drama of maintaining a relationship. (I mean, how many times have Nathan Drake and Elena broken up between games?) The moments where you get a sense of Guybrush and Elaine's relationship, how little time they get to spend together because he's a pirate and she's a professional do-gooder, how he adores her like a goddess and she adores him like a puppy.

Beats the hell out of Tales' ill-advised love triangle with a "human-again" LeChuck.

On another note, it is interesting that, for all the effort the game makes to not contradict the canon of the non-Gilbert games, it doesn't mine them for content, either. Murray is the only character from Curse onward to make an appearance. Morgan LeFlay got a passing mention in mine. But there's no Cap'n Blondebeard, no Edward Van Helgen or Cutthroat Bill, no Ozzie Mandrill, no Pegnose Pete. Meanwhile, seemingly everyone from Monkey Island 1 & 2 show up. There are the obvious ones - The Voodoo Lady (finally given a name), Wally, Stan. But there's also Otis and Carla, and the Scumm Bar cook, and Herman Toothrot is in a cave, Kate Capsize gets a mention, I'm pretty sure "Apple Bob" is the skeleton who pops his head off in the first game (now voice by Rob Paulsen, great choice), Cobb is still in the bar with his Ask Me About LOOM button ("I'm more button than man")... come to think of it, I think even the LOOM seagull who stole your map piece in MI2 gets a cameo. Narrative economy, I guess - if you find skeletons on Terror Island, they might as well be the Men of Low Moral Fiber, right?

While it would be interesting to see Ron and Dave Grossman's take on some of those characters, many of whom have, I would say, unrealized potential - they do a bang-up job with Murray - it's clear this is about wrapping up the story they started back in 1990. It may be improbable that half the people you meet are people you already know, but... it's good to see them all the same.

Conclusion No I'm not making a video about this.

#capsule review #adventure games #return to monkey island

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supplements-superachieverclub · 2 months

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Shilajit Side Effects - Is The Pure SHILAJIT Supplement Safe? The Truth They Don’t Want You to Know

Discover the best Shilajit supplements: https://super-achiever.com/best-shilajit-to-buy

#shilajitresin #mumijo #himalayanshilajit

Hello, Achiever Fam! 🌟

We've been exploring the ancient marvel Shilajit, known for its transformative health benefits. But as with any potent remedy, there's a flip side to consider. Today's focus is on the critical aspect often glossed over: the side effects. Let’s delve into “Is The Pure SHILAJIT Supplement Safe? The Truth They Don’t Want You to Know!” Ready to uncover the full story? Make sure to subscribe for in-depth health insights. 🛎️🏔️ Understanding Shilajit: - Not a herb, but a mineral pitch derived from centuries of plant decomposition in mountainous regions. 🌱➡️🪨 Heavy Metals Concern: - The risk of contamination with heavy metals like lead, arsenic, and mercury is real. Ensure you're choosing shilajit from reputable sources that purify their product. 🔍💡

Iron Overload: - Naturally rich in iron, Shilajit could exacerbate conditions like hemochromatosis for those with already high iron levels. Consult with a healthcare professional before starting. 🩺🚫 Allergic Reactions: - Potential for allergic responses in some individuals. Start with small doses and be vigilant about any adverse reactions. 🚨🤒 Medication Interactions: - Shilajit may interact with medications, particularly blood thinners and diabetes drugs. Always discuss with your doctor before combining supplements with your medication regimen. 💊👥 The “Not-A-Cure-All” Disclaimer: - While Shilajit is revered for its numerous health benefits, it's not a substitute for professional medical treatment. It may complement but should not replace prescribed therapies. 🩹✨ Is Shilajit safe? With responsible sourcing, mindful usage, and professional guidance, it can be a valuable addition to your wellness toolkit. Remember, knowledge is power when it comes to integrating natural supplements into your health regime. 🌿💪

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tekinn32 · 1 year

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Metabo Flex Reviews - The Natural Weight Loss Supplement You Can Trust 2023

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gridpenalty · 2 years

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As we see Perez start to drop off in performance as Red Bull develop the car more to Verstappen’s preference - I predict that over the next few years we will see a repeat of the RB 2nd driver effect

Perez will continue to fall back and won’t be re-signed. Every driver that takes the seat after him will not have experienced the incremental increase in difficulty and will find the car unmanageable. An inexperienced junior will be promoted, because no one else will take the job, and burn their career to a crisp within six months

#sealing this little time capsule to review in 4 years #f1

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yellobb · 1 year

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Yellobb’s Year In Review

I definitely stole the idea to make this shortened and not as ugly, so thank you Em and Raen for that 😆

I posted 1,900 times in 2022

That's 749 more posts than 2021!

126 posts created (7%)

1,774 posts reblogged (93%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@microglia

@icaruspendragon

@dizzying-sights

@literallyheretorotaway

@jasonfunderberkerthefrogexists

I tagged 1,305 of my posts in 2022

Only 31% of my posts had no tags

#the simon snow series - 339 posts

#simon snow - 286 posts

#baz pitch - 245 posts

#toh - 213 posts

#snowbaz - 205 posts

#the owl house - 203 posts

#m rambles - 103 posts

#toh spoilers - 94 posts

#hunter toh - 73 posts

#current events - 72 posts

Longest Tag: 139 characters

#i didn’t make either simon or baz a vscode user in my fic because you only find vscode after you’ve healed internally and they haven’t lmao

My Top Posts in 2022:

My Simon Snow birthday art, where I screwed up and gave the last Simon a random age instead of looking up how old he really is

118 notes - Posted June 22, 2022

That post about how 40k words is classified as a novel got me thinking: how many people in the Simon Snow fandom have written not only a novel, but a longer novel than the source material?

Please note that, while I could probably get the data for what authors have written more than one/all of the books composite, this is mainly focused on the lengths of individual works. I used the Carry On fandom tag on AO3 for searching, since the Simon Snow and related fandoms tag has one fic that would place, and it’s a Fangirl fic, not a Simon Snow fic and AO3 is where most of the fics seem to be posted anyway.

This post is too long and I tagged too many people, so shortening it for y’all

180 notes - Posted November 22, 2022

Based on this reel I saw the other day that immediately screamed Simon and Baz

(Click for quality)

209 notes - Posted June 3, 2022

Thinking about how viscerally affected I was watching Kate in Don’t Look Up. How she is the only one who shows the very human reaction of being furious that people are making light of this thing that will be everyone’s doom at the beginning, but is essentially written off as being too emotional and “crazy”. How throughout the entire film this brilliant astronomer who LITERALLY DISCOVERED THE FUCKING COMET is discredited and ostracized for being just a tiny bit upset about everything and made out to be an idiot that no one should listen to. How she chooses to grit her teeth and bare it, but it blows up in her face because she still isn’t acknowledged. How she continues to try with all her might to save everyone until there’s no other way, but she still fails because there’s just too many forces working against her. How even when she doesn’t give a shit anymore because she’s just so tired of being pushed down she still cares so much, she just has to come to terms with the fact that she tried, and maybe that wasn’t enough, but that’s all she could do.

431 notes - Posted January 7, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Eldest AFAB sibling, queer, neurodivergent, former gifted kid, perfectionist culture is curling up in a ball and sobbing at all three of the Madrigal siblings’ solos

436 notes - Posted January 28, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #m rambles #kind of surprised it’s not more Simon snow people in my most frequently reblog HES #but hey #my blog isn’t just Simon snow #it’s more of a stream of consciousness experience where y’all are subjected to my every obsession and whim #not shocked that the Encanto one was my top post tho lol #definitely surprised that my don’t look up monologue made it so high #and for the uninitiated: my current events tag is mostly a time capsule #a current event is everything from boat stuck to Lizzie in a box

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