#full gameplay too not just cutscenes

[sonic-adventure-3]

these are both sequences where shadow is on a mainly hero/neutral path until the end where he betrays sonic. what the fuck do you mean “destiny for two” and “a pair of shooting stars” what do uou mean by that

#LIKE. WHAT. #thank you so much to youtube user yumeko margatroid for playing shth 327+ times and uploading every single sequence #full gameplay too not just cutscenes #they have my graditute for the rest of my life #anyway these are honestly more interesting on paper than in execution but MAN what’s on paper is interesting m #the thing with shth05 is that any given route is pretty much a loosely if at all connected jumble of scenes #a fair few of those scenes are super interesting or more honestly have incredibly interesting IMPLICATIONS #but don’t really form coherent stories cause they absolutely can’t when theres like 30 unique ways to get to each ending #but goddamn the potential and the earnesty and the effort in this game fr #i love shth05 so fucking much #rambles #shth05 #i so wish more people talked about this i wanna see shth fix-it fics #THERES SO MUCH POTENTIAL!!!! #yknow what actually my words were a bit too harsh #shth05 like. is clunky most definitely. i think it’s format works against it #but it’s good. it’s so good and interesting and hurts me sometimes! #augh shth05 my beloved

[kelbunny]

Go update Triangle Strategy right now asdfghjkl

New Golden Route Scene! Wedding Scene :D

He's telling Frederica :0. And the fact he turned to his brother and made sure Roland was okay with it aaah these siblings

Anna, Geela, and Erador trying to have a nice conversation only to be intrupted by Lionel smh

Archibald trying to tell these two greedy merchants to stop being greedy lol

Anna also telling them to stop being greedy merchants

Milo being her cheeky nosy self trying to tell Lyla to go hug her son, he's literally been having visions of hugging his mom at the wedding

Asdfghjkl aaaaahhhhhh h u g

Quahaug hug

This one was really sweet. Two parents who lost their children realizing they need to carry the ardent dreams of the youth in their stead.

Roland finally accepting Avlora who's being an angsty butt bc she doesn't want to ruin the happy wedding

Serenoa wedding sprite?

FREDERICA WEDDING SPRITE!?

And I forgot up until this moment that you can check characters profiles when they're speaking and just... new art! In their wedding clothes!

I also want to rewatch just to see what everyone's profiles look like haha

Credits for the extra chapter had some art not shown in the Anniversary Livestream :0

You can now replay all story battles you've done as mock battles haha now you can get trounced by ng+ Trish and Travis whenever lol

You can also rewatch any Character Stories you've seen can't rewatch story cutscenes however

#triangle strategy #triangle strategy spoilers #Kelbunn's gameplay #Sorta #Mostly just screencaps haha #I was smiling like an idiot the entire hecking time #I just it's too sweet #And all of this is a free hecking update #I'm not going to complain about not being able to rewatch story cutscenes bc like #Tristrat before the update was a complete game #These are just bonus qol stuff #It's like getting a full cake and then a while later being told that they also got you a bunch of cupcakes #Anyways go play Tristrat #Serefrede

[rawliverandgoronspice]

I think what particularly annoys me with the "zelda was always gameplay before story" is that... it's not true? At least I don't think it's true in the way people mean it.

Zelda games were always kind of integrating story based on the standards of the time. When game stories were in game pamphlets, Zelda's stories was in the pamphlets. ALTTP tried to tell a pretty complicated stories with the limitations of the time. OoT was actively trying to tell an epic, cinematic tale packed with ambiance and expand what 3D could offer that 2D games struggled with. Majora's Mask is deeply character-driven in many, many ways. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess are both pretty concerned about their stories, down to the point that some people were bored by TP's cutscenes in particular. Skyward Sword, from what little I have played it, is very very invested in its characters and their journey (and 2D Zeldas have Link's Awakening, Minish Cap... None of them are visual novels, but they are concerned with emotional journeys, character arcs, mysteries about their own world...)

What is true is that the narrative wraps around the mechanics, and not the other way around. The mechanics drive themes, aesthetics, emotional beats and character journeys; and that's great. The world is a puzzle, and the world is delightfully absurd when it needs to be, full of heart when it calls for it, dark and oppressive when it suits the player experience.

That does not mean the games aren't invested in their stories. Even BotW has a pretty complicated story to tell about an entire world rather than one specific tale or legend --all of it at the service of the gameplay, which is exploration and mastery of your environment.

So. Yes, none of the Zelda games are million-words long visual novels that care deeply about consistency and nuance; but stories don't need consistency or deep lore to be meaningful and serve an emotional journey. Again: gameplay is story. The two cannot be so easily parsed from each other.

And Zelda as a franchise obviously care deeply about story, characters and setting (and still does right now --otherwise there wouldn't be a movie), even if it doesn't try to imitate prestige narrative-driven games, which is great and part of why I love this series so much. Doesn't mean it couldn't have done better in the past, it obviously could have, but I feel like pretending that nobody ever cared about story or character is just... false? It's a huge disservice to the devs too. Some of them obviously cared immensely.

The "gameplay above story", at least in the extent to which it is paraded today to defend TotK, mostly, is a really recent development. And I think it's one that deserves to receive some pushback.

#thoughts #tloz #zelda #the legend of zelda #totk critical #(sort of) #(I mean this is the subtext) #guys in 1998 nintendo was trying its darnest to make an epic story (with uhhh the writing that it got) #(love that game to bits but won't defend the actual writing) #the fully gameplay-driven game was mario 64!!! #I think this perception is also partially the fault of that “narrative game” category that is just.... kind of like Prestige TV but for gam #as if most games don't have some form of storytelling within them #and that coherence and vision and consistency are part of game design too #and will hurt a game's enjoyment if not handled correctly #a really really paired back narrative game is really difficult to pull off actually! #because you still need stakes and some degree of intrigue #so you need to figure out how to introduce this without walls of text and is it narrative design? is it game design? it's both!! #anyway anyway

[pukicho]

Elden ring or God of war for game of the year?

Oh boy, it's a close close call. I’m gonna rant. 

In some ways, Ragnorok is an infallible game, it’s so perfect that poking holes in it seems so nit-picky that you just come off looking like a little jackass creature. I loved every second I played of it and I can't think of a better written, better performed, more charismatic experience. I've seen morons complain that the game has too many cutscenes, as if they didn't know what type of game they were buying into. I would whine about the cutscenes more if they sucked or if the game lacked actual gameplay but it most certainly does not. This game is CHOCK FULL of things to see and do, and all the flavor-text and optional dialogue is insane, on top of that, the game feels amazing to play and the move-set is sexy. When everything is going crazy, there are few games as exciting as this one. At the end of the day I can't think of a more satisfying experience, with one of the most thematically satisfying endings ever in a game.

Elden Ring on the other hand has its problems. It has a difficulty-scaling issue, it's buggy on every platform, it most certainly looks worse than Ragnorok, it has less endearing characters, and what little dialogue it has is pretty mediocre. That being said, Elden Ring is my GOTY. This game is kinda like my dream-game made real, an open world souls-like made by Hidetaka Miyazaki the legend himself - a game with the mystique of Breath of the wild without the shortcomings of content and variety. This game, in my eyes, is the single best example as to why a game should be open-world. So often in games I feel like an open world is a crutch. -- In ghost of Tsushima the open world disconnected me from the pacing and character-growth of our MC, the objectives felt so systematic and ubisoft-esque that it 'gamified' itself as you played, removing the atmosphere and experiential qualities of the experience over time - this effect can also be seen in Horizon Forbidden West, and Dying light 2. Elden Ring uses the open-world to surprise you, you learn so much, you need to be aware of your surroundings, understand the lay of the land, and find things without guidance. It does what Dark Souls did to adventure games and it removes the handrails from the experience, in this case, Elden Ring unlocks the open-world experience. As a result, there aren't many games that evoke such a CANDID experience in me. I've never had so much fun exploring a world, and I've never been so surprised by a game's sheer amount of content. I could go on and on but ultimately it removes the burdensome systems that typically plague games of this scale. I think the game has the best reward-feedback-loop ever, where every item is invaluable, versus the generic inundation of materials in other games, etc etc etc... At the end of the day, Elden Ring just another valuable lesson for the gaming industry; I feel like Fromsoft pops up and teaches the whole industry a new lesson every once in a while - like they know what people want at a fundamental level.

On paper, Ragnorok could be seen as the better overall package but as a result of it being linear, it lacks the candid experience that Elden Ring delivers in spades and I think, despite Ragnorok being one of the best-ever narratives put into a game of this caliber, Elden Ring captures what it means to be a video game better.

[lesbiansforboromir]

I am sorry, but LOTRO is...like a LOTR game? The plot is good? It has which characters?

HAH you know that's such a good question, didn't even think to explain it properly.

LOTRO is an MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role playing game), think World of Warcraft-esque. It's about 15 years old so it's a little on the dated side graphics wise and it's gameplay is essentially landscape exploration and combat, with group content that goes from three-person dungeons to full 12-person raids.

BEING a 15 year old game the plot is... enormous. Like its hard to even talk about a 'plot' at this point, since there are about 30 different individual storylines for each zone strewn throughout a multitude of quests that see you talking to every character imaginable. Like 'which characters does it have'? all of them, LOTRO has all characters from lotr in it. LOTRO has characters you don't even remember in it. In LOTRO you get major questlines from Denethor's two unnamed elder sisters. In LOTRO they make you care about the men named amongst the dead in the song of lament after the pelennor fields, people you never speak too in the books.

You create a character and choose your race and begin to journey from the furthest west (Ered Luin, the Shire, Bree or Cardolan depending on choices) to the furthest east and act as a side character to the main plot of lotr. You cross paths with the fellowship at various points and develop relationships with all of them, up to and past the death of sauron (currently the game has expanded into Umbar, months after Sauron's defeat in game canon.) All of the game's story is told through quest dialogue, which you have to read, it's a hell of a lot of reading, whether thats reading what people are saying to you when you accept a quest or reading what NPC's are saying to you within quest instances and 'cutscenes'.

So there is an overarching plot, called 'epic book quests', which will take you on this journey, but it is dwarfed by the sheer number of surrounding tales going within each area you visit. Dunland is an excellent example, you have to travel through it to get to Rohan but what you're doing whilst you're there is investing yourself in the struggles, politics, dangers and cultures of the people who live in Dunland. And that is true for every area you visit, which inevitably makes LOTRO a massive worldbuilding and expanding project for middle earth. Like it's really hard to put into words quite how much 'plot' there is in this game. Some of it is good, some of it is not so good, some of it is so good it makes me want to bite the game, some of it is so bad it makes me want to bite the game, you will find 30 favourite plots and 30 hated plots and 100+ more in the middle.

Of course, this means LOTRO also creates it's own characters to fit into the world and get attached too, many of whom I now love and care for just as much as original canon characters. Like fucking Ayorzen. Oh my god. I love Ayorzen. You only meet him at level 110 in mordor and it takes you real life months of questing to reach that point. Not anything repetetive either, you do not grind exp in this game unless you actually want too, there are just that many quests and storylines between you and mordor that it takes you months to finish them all. Are some of the epic book quests kinda superfluous and make you run around way too much? Yes. I don't care about them, the point of lotro is in the smaller stories you find along the way. The game is about being able to walk, by yourself, no loading screens, from the Shire to Mordor and beyond and experience the minutae of middle-earth living whilst you do it. Hope that somehow answers your questions!

Oh it's also a dress up game, forgot to mention that, the lotro devs will disagree but this is a dress up game except you're dressing up TO journey through middle earth and you can unlock multiple outfit slots to customise that you can change your character into whenever you like, no restrictions on what you can put on your outfits regardless of levels or classes so long as you have wardrobe space. Unfortunately the game's armours are ugly as sin until level 50, though happily that's a shorter trip than it sounds, early game goes by much faster than the post-50 stuff.

#chats #Anonymous #lotro

[dreamsy990]

so 358/2 days, amiright? heres my thoughts

this game is just. god its an emotional rollarcoaster

i guess ill start with the things i dont like!! which is mostly the gameplay. i dont really mind the mission structure shockingly (i like being able to roam around but having a clear goal makes things easier for my adhd ass, and i think the miniature storylines are very good for the most part) but i simply could Not get into the combat. especially coming off of kh2 it feels so stiff and unfun to play the only part of the game where i enjoyed the combat was fighting riku at the very end. i think the panel system is okay but i dont like that levels take up space. why did they do that.

story-wise, i dont like the retcons!! a lot of the ones i take issue with are very minor but things like roxas only fighting riku once instead of the implied multiple times (even the dialogue doesnt make sense when you change that, why does roxas say 'how many times do i have to beat you' when theyve only fought once?) are the kinds of inconsistencies that just annoy me.

im also a little bit annoyed at the very concept of this game at all. i think roxas worked just fine as a character without this game. it feels sort of unnecessary in the grand scheme of things. also, xion. i love xion, dont get me wrong, but i dont think she adds anything to the series over all. thats not to say she doesnt add anything to this game because shes a great character and i love her, but shes just. kind of like this game in that if you got rid of her i dont think it would really change the narrative so much.

BUT DESPITE THAT ALL!!!!!!!! i fucking ADORE this game. it is genuinely so full of charm and soul that i just cant bring myself to dislike it. i think this is one of the best written games in terms of dialogue. every scene (at least for me) hit exactly as emotionally hard as i think it was meant to. i was laughing at demyx's antics and crying at xions death and yelling at saix and i think thats exactly how the game is meant to be seen.

days at its heart is a slice of life. its working a 9 to 5 its going through a depressive episode its losing friends its grieving its making fun of your coworkers its living. its a game about life and i love that.

this game really did make me forget that axel roxas and xion dont get a happy ending. i spent so much time looking forward to them making up that i forgot that roxas ran away. hell i almost forgot that xion died.

days is emotional and its story and its characters are just so fucking good. the conflicts all felt very real and you can tell exactly where everyones coming from. the way axel roxas and xion fall apart hits so fucking close to home. but god damnit if axel had any good communication skills like half of this could be avoided

its also one hell of a love letter to axel's character. hes always been one of my favorites (he recently earned first place) and i think this game does him a lot of justice. hes trying to do good. he wants to keep everything together he wants to be there for his friends he wants to make things right but he just cant. its just AUGH its so fucking good

that thing about axel's characterization really also applies to roxas. i dont have much to say about him beyond the fact that i think it does his character very well. also tism. hes so autism.

i kind of like the very limited graphics too. sue me i enjoy low quality games. the hands are not animated and they all have two expressions (blinking and not blinking) and their weapons are flat and im living for it. the very few fully animated cutscenes are good too!!

the (real, i dont count riku) final boss is unfortunately very easy. you can just stand directly in front of her and mash a she wont hit you its too easy but vector to the heavens did mess me up a bit. also earlier scene but "ill always be there to bring you back" with the other promise playing over it? fucked me up man. yoko shimomura is once again killing it

i cant believe roxas didnt get to go to the beach.

i have to give this game a 9/10. its writing is incredible but the gameplay could use a lot of work. its just not fun to play. but again the characters, emotions, and music all make up for that tenfold.

#kingdom hearts #kh 358/2 days #doodles #roxas #axel #xion #kh review

[siilvan]

random post, but shoutout to 12 y/o me who got MW3 from her aunt one day and played it, expecting just to shoot stuff and not get into it… she didn’t know she had daddy issues even after clinging to every commanding officer in the game (sandman and pudovkin <3), and i didn’t know until years later that i clung to this stupid ass trio.

my boys. my idiots. my loyalist commanders. my war criminals. 2/3 are dead. 2/3 were ugly. yuri had no less than four missiles shot at his feet. nikolai’s face changed every single game. kamarov lived for drama and nothing else.

i loved them for no reason other than “teehee older man that i can substitute for my lack of father/older male figure.” yuri was silent 80% of the game. nikolai was perfect. kamarov appeared just to die. i didn’t even play MW2 or watch gameplay of MW1 until 2022, but i clung to this trio nonetheless 😭 soap, price, and team metal, as well (sandman my first love), but these three… special place in my heart.

(MWIII pics used BTC)

AND WE OFFICIALLY HAVE ALL THREE OF THEM IN THE REBOOT LETS GOOOOOOO

*sobbing on floor*

listen. listen. this doesn’t matter to anyone but me. i know i chose the worst group to attach my daddy issues to. in my defense, i was 12 and didn’t even know i had ‘em. honestly, “daddy issues” makes it sound too cute, i was a kid when i started getting comfort from these guys… call it father problems or paternal predicaments 😭

i’m just. look. i know how i look to an outside audience. i know how my blog looks to someone who doesn’t know me well; but, i’m not just fawning over every russian character. these three specifically, *tapping glass that they’re encased in*, are special to me. if i attach to them and pretend like they’d love me (romantically or platonically), then i can feel the love that i’ve never gotten from a father or an older male figure.

this is just a nonsense ramble because i’m so sleep-deprived, but you don’t understand. my boys are back and better than ever. nikolai eats everyone up whenever he comes on-screen. yuri actually gets to have a full name and cutscenes outside of “dust to dust”. kamarov isn’t ugly (gene farber 🙏) and they’re all just AKEHDKRJWJDKFJE.

i love them. i love the comfort they give me. i know it’s odd for me to cling to this trio of all people, but i have. my boys. my dumbasses. the reboot did them right. now, i just need them all on-screen at the same time.

i want them to have a podcast. i’d listen to it.

#idk i’ve just been in a ramble-y mood #ever since i got a serotonin dump from yuri appearing – i’ve been very happy #and with how bad MWIII was…. really reflecting on the OG versus the reboot lol #MW3 is a game i remember very fondly because it was my first COD game and the only one i played for several years #so the cast from it holds a very special place in my heart #team metal. price. soap. yuri. nikolai. kamarov. hell even the randos like sgt. burns. harkov. pudovkin. #and even makarov is up there; i HATED him at first. but then he praised me in a spec-ops mission and suddenly he was tolerable 💀 #there’s a reason why petra is dating yuri; best friends with nikolai; and good friends with kamarov #i just love them all so much 😭😭 #sylph.talks

[felassan]

A few more snippets of interest and insight from Mark Darrah, from an older Mark Darrah on Games YouTube video where he was livestreaming playing Dragon Age: Origins some months ago -

Chat asked "Why are there no Desire Demons in DA:I?". Mark said "I think they need a visual redesign and there wasn't time for them, and they're not, they require a combat rethink in terms of how they're used in combat, and a visual redesign, so it was basically just de-prioritized."

[please note this video streamed 4 months ago] "I'm not worried about DA:D not having been at TGA 2022. I mean they're doing it probably because they don't wanna date themselves. Their earliest launch date would basically be end of this year [2023], so it's rational for them not to be at TGA 2022. I assumed they would be mainly because of just the way the marketing campaign has gone, but the fact that they aren't is actually a strong signal that they've decided to regain control of their marketing campaign, which is actually probably smart. Yeah, they're not out of beta yet." Chat commented here "I'm kinda relieved to hear that because I was afraid they would push the game beyond Q4 24." Mark said, "No I don't think so. For them to go to TGA 2022 would have meant having full gameplay and they probably just didn't wanna polish it up. I should've clued in when they released a whole cutscene from the game on DA Day 2022 that they weren't gonna be at TGA 2022. That was a pretty strong signal. For them to do both wouldn't have been. There's no way that Geoff Keighley was gonna let them put that cinematic trailer on the stage at TGA 2022. So what they have is this sort've, too little for TGA 2022 but it's a big drop for DA Day, so that was the thing that I missed."

[following on from the previous point, and when chat was discussing feeling drip-fed] "It's just, I mean, for reasons that make sense for the project but less sense for the marketing. DA:D has been announced for a very long time. You wouldn't voluntarily announce a game so early if you didn't have external reasons. Also, harder to cancel an announced game."

"Cullen's story is done in DA:I."

"We've recast people before, for sure"

Chat said "I feel like DA fans have this tendency to cling extremely tightly to existing characters. Like, there will be a ton of characters introduced in DA:D that we will fall in love with, and not really miss people from previous games." Mark replied, "Yeah, you're right about that. That's exactly what happens, is people want stories with the characters that they know to continue but once they feel that they've seen new characters then they're a lot less concerned."

"I mean the general rule is, you don't bring back followers who are romances or who could be dead. So Cullen kind of doesn't meet any of the criteria for coming back. The quantum on DAII characters is really high. I guess there are a lot that don't die, but."

"My feeling on Absolution, I think everyone else is a bit too under-played and Qwydion is a bit too over-played. If you like brought her done one notch and everyone else up one notch it would be okay. But yeah, she does stick out a little bit for sure."

Chat asked "Was there any thought given to bereskarn in DA:I?" Mark replied, "I think the problem is the artists don't really like the visual design of bereskarn. I think there's a cool model to be had there, but they just don't have it at the moment. I think there's a general desire to move away from just generic wilderness creatures as combatants, like wolves and bears and stuff, so maybe they'll make a reappearance."

Chat asked "Who does everyone think the 'default' Divine is?" Mark said "Interesting question, I don't know."

Chat asked "Do you think that the Architect will make an appearance in DA:D?" Mark replied, "I don't suspect, I think they'll let the Architect just be, the place for the Architect to appear was DA:I, I don't think he will appear in DA:D. I think the reason why he doesn't appear in DA:I is because he could be dead." Chat commented, "Wouldn't he have the same powers as Corypheus though, and just come back?" Mark replied "Well that's true, that's a good point. I don't know that we established that by then or not but I don't know, maybe. He could've linked himself to a, could've been body-hopping."

Chat asked "Do you see DA continuing as a franchise after DA:D?" Mark replied, "Oh yeah, I don't think they're done with DA."

Chat said "We saw Hira in Absolution using a flying magic disc. Do you think they will implement that in DA:D as a new form of magic?" Mark said "Yeah, I don't know. It was interesting because when Hira uses it the first time she uses it to lift someone else, which is sort've how I imagined it working, but then she actually flies with it later. I don't know if that was just poetic license given to the anime creators or if it's an actual plan for going forward. It's definitely presented as quite an awkward way to fly."

[source]

He also talked more generally about DA:O and the franchise and things in general. These bits are collected under a cut due to length -

"I think you can always see the Black City in the Fade, I think that's been said/is correct"

"I like that in DAII the darkspawn have a consistent visual. They don't in DA:O. So I'm pro-that. A lot of the darkspawn in DA:O have like orc plus zombie equals question mark"

"They did lose the grab animation from enemies in DAII. I don't think DAII had any sync animations"

"Stun on the player is not a fun ability. It's not so bad if you have a party fully controlled by the player (you can switch to another party member to try and break it) but only one party member, it's not fun for sure. You definitely need some sort of range attack otherwise you just end up kiting like the Arishok fight in DAII"

"DA does have a tendency to use the Pride demon model as 'generic high tier demon'

"I don't regret putting Cullein in DA:I , the characters are not their voice actors"

"Oghren is kind of a caricature in Awakening"

"Lore in DA is always presented through someone's interpretation"

"In Awakening the Children don't really fit in with the rest of the design up until this point"

"The official response to Leliana's death retcon in DA:I is that the only way Leliana can die in DA:O is at the Urn of Sacred Ashes, so the Urn brought her back. The only way she dies is a weird, specific choice, you're making a choice if you kill her in DA:O for sure. It's not a common choice. Desecrating the Urn doesn't make any sense, I don't think there's a rationale given for why you do that. I can see 'destroy it' but I don't know why in the world you would desecrate it so. Very few people are able to, Renegade in Mass Effect is actually not widely chosen"

"Golems of Amgarrak DLC is there to [just] be there [basically]. Most of the DLC in DA:O doesn't have any particular goals. It was just to make DLC. Like Leliana's Song doesn't really expand Leliana very much. Darkspawn Chronicles is just kind've a fun thing to exist. In DA:O DLC was pretty much still a new concept, at least big pieces of DLC. So kind've trying to figure out what people wanted"

"Awakening is an old-school expansion pack in a time when expansion packs are gone basically. So that's why it feels so big"

Chat asked, "As Executive Producer, did you have any say on the story and direction of the lore?" Mark said "I'm always involved in that kind of stuff, I'm not the one dictating lore but I'm influencing it for sure"

Chat asked "Any chance of the DA tactics game actually being made at this point?" Mark replied "There was not really any chance of a DA tactics game being made. It's pretty antithetical to everything EA believes in"

Chat mentioned that golems in Awakening lack a 'gap closer' move. Mark said "that's why they got chucking rocks in later games"

"Strategy guides used to be a big money maker for games. Not so much anymore"

"The models got new bones in DAII"

Chat asked "Is there a reason why the Legion of the Dead don't automatically just join up with the Wardens?" Mark said "Politics I guess"

[source]

(pls note that in places there is a bit of paraphrasing of the info, the best source is always the primary source with full quotes in their original context)

#dragon age: dreadwolf #dragon age 4 #the dread wolf rises #da4 #dragon age #bioware #video games #greg ellis mention #long post #longpost #dragon age: absolution #dragon age: absolution spoilers #mass effect

[wariofranchisefanblog]

A new WarioWare has come out and I got enough playtime in to feel comfortable talking about it in full, so I’ll do just that.

Right off the bat I can say in short: this is a good game and a good WarioWare. Not up there with my favs, but it does a lot right. My experience did end up quite differently than anticipated and I’ll explain why soon enough.

First I want to talk about the presentation, which I think is an easy high point. Everything is vibrant and colorful, the art keeps showing the strengths of the current style and everything feels very much like it should. Microgames run that perfect mix of genuinely nice looking and deliberately cursed and the cutscenes are the best of both worlds, being smooth and lively, while returning to Gold’s full voice acting.

Speaking of cutscenes, that brings us to the story related stuff and that’s where the game shows some interesting tricks up its sleeves. In terms of structure it’s a return to the pre-Gold era, with the closest to an overarching theme being the vacation set-up.

I do think the Ware crew is in top form, likable, fun and full of life as always and two stories in particular even do something major.

Kat and Ana’s story marks the shocking return of Cractus, bringing a Wario Land character into WarioWare and Young Cricket’s story sees his Kung-Fu Ball partner finally brought into WarioWare properly. Both of those are really massive and show a willingness to more heavily utilize elements from other parts of the verse, which I find incredibly exciting.

Oddly enough, the weaker link of the story for me this time is Wario himself. Now don’t get me wrong, everything that happens here is usual Wario antics and I do like how non–english versions of the script like japanese and german, have him be actually be nice about bringing the others along. His confusion at the Crygor drawings and later ascending to godhood, with the cast roll confirming he got a happy end, are all good too, plenty of nice stuff here.

He just feels weirdly absent here. Having no presence in the Remix stages, no bonus mode in his image and even the final stage has him stuck being cursed to have his face be the avatar of an angry volcano. It doesn’t really feel like Wario and ends with him being the only one of the cast with no moment to shine during the climax, which I can’t help but find a little disappointing.

Still, it’s not a big deal, after so many games Wario taking a slight backseat isn’t a dealbreaker, it just stood out a little.

Moving away from that, there is the audio side of things. The music as usual is full of unapologetically catchy jingles and some major stand-out tracks such as MegaGame Muscles and the Form Guide theme.

We got full voice acting again and with it our first taste of Kevin Afghani as Wario. Pre-release stuff had me very on and off with how I felt about it, but having heard all of him in the game: yeah, I like him! He does have some wonky deliveries, but the overall voice still feels like Wario and has its own fun appeal. Certainly more noticeably different than Mario and Luigi, but I am optimistic Kevin will greatly grow into the role, as he gets to play him more and more.

Then we get to the big one, the gameplay and this is where I was thrown for a loop the most. With this being a direct Smooth Moves successor I thought I’d know what to expect, but was quite caught off-guard in many places.

This surprisingly ended up being the most difficult WarioWare for me by a long-shot, enough that I actually had to take advantage of the second chance mechanic, which I never had to do in Gold and GiT.

If I had to sum the game up in one word, it would be demanding, Wario commanding you to move it is not just a funny title, it’s the name of the game.

With the Wiimote, you could get away with just sorta doing the poses in a lot of cases, but Move It really demands you do the exact poses, down to holding the Joycon juuuust the right way. 

More than anything I was surprised how strict it could be in that regard, not following the form instructions is asking for trouble, but I have to say, at the same token I was amazed how well things worked once I got the hang of it.

I’ll admit, I was ill while playing the game, so maybe that caused me to be a little more daft than usual, but it took me a bit to really get into it and I had to consult the museum several times for some microgames to figure out what I even needed to do.

I do think the game is a touch more complicated than usual for WarioWare, since you have to take effectively two controllers and specific poses into account, on top of grasping what each microgame demands of you, but once it clicks everything feels well thought out and purposeful. Getting things down is immensely satisfying and shows some really stunning results of what the Joycon can do.

That said the game isn’t entirely without jank, Hand Model being a notable culprit of it. The game finds several fun applications for it, but anything regarding reading forms or how many fingers you hold up, can be really clunky in the heat of the moment. In general, the strictness of the forms also means you need to really be prepared for every microgame, since slouching with your form could lead to a bad desync

Still, even with some jank I do think stepping up to the challenge to get a feel of it and get better is very much worth it. I wasn’t sure how to feel at first, but my opinion on it only went up the more I played.

That covers it for the main stages, as for the side-content though, yeah, that is where the game shows a weaker side of itself.

Not so much in terms of what’s here though. You got your standard towers, as well as MegaGame Muscles, which no joke, may be my favorite stage in the game. It’s frantic, fun, the music slaps and the set-up of Mr. Sparkles having ascended to being a literal god of fitness, is pure WarioWare.

The new Pyoro game of the day is a fun, different take on it, much like the one in Smooth Moves was as well and Dirty Job is a cool bonus game expansion of a more stand-out microgame concept.

That is really it as far as the single player content is concerned though and it does feel a liiiittle on the meager side. No souvenirs, which Smooth Moves and GiT didn’t have either, but Smooth Moves had more bonus games and GiT had the final Pyoro stage, Penny Remix, more bonus games, unlockable art and the Wario Cup.

We do still have a decent variety of multiplayer modes to work with and I did get a friend to come on by to try them, save for the 4 player exclusive one.

I think it’s a good selection, in concept it has the best multiplayer mode offerings since Mega Party Games (though I did like GiT a lot too), but there is one issue I have with it and I think GiT was a little guilty of it too.

As I mentioned, I do think there is a learning curve on how to play this game most effectively and you feel that even more in multiplayer, where someone not as in the know, is naturally gonna accidentally grip his Joycon slightly wrong, despite doing the pose and need some extra instructions, much like the characters in GiT can take some learning.

It is something you can overcome and have a good time with, WarioWare is a very good ‘’don’t take me too seriously’’ kind of multiplayer experience, but on the whole, if they want a true party game WarioWare, I still think something simpler like Mega Party Games is in order and by all means, I wouldn’t mind them doing something like that again.

On a side note, I also find it a bit of a shame that the nice new models for the cast, updated to resemble their designs in this game, are ultimately watered down to sprites of their heads during multiplayer gameplay. With how much emphasis is being put on multiplayer to carry the game for longer, I think it would have been nice if they put in the work to fully animate GiT-style models for the multiplayer modes.

That small gripe aside, as I said, I think multiplayer is fine, but not quite the pick up and play experience for people new to the game, as I feel they wanted it to be and I do think a bit too much of the game is locked behind multiplayer.

But yeah, that’s WarioWare Move It. It’s good and if you like WarioWare, you’re getting what you wanted out of it. It’s not one of my top games in the series and feels a bit too lacking on the side content front, but on the whole, I had a good time and it gets a surprising amount out of a controller that I have an openly low opinion on.

#WarioWare #WarioWare Move It

[goldensunset]

first they complained that nonnumbered kh games come out on like eleven different consoles from eleven different companies thereby making it inaccessible and difficult for the average consumer to be able to play all of them (pre fm or collections) and now that the nonumbereds are releasing on a console virtually everyone has (phones) they r still mad about it. blehgh

and like y’know. tbh that isn’t a ridiculous complaint. the series has historically been inaccessible. it’s still inaccessible to me (because i personally can’t justify the financial investment of a playstation; i’ve poured everything into my switch) but like that’s my issue not theirs lol. (i mean i am mad that they kinda like acknowledged there’s a demand for kh on the switch yet made it cloud-only which is almost disrespectful and totally not gonna happen here. but like. i can get over it). i don’t see anyone out there actually complaining about kh being a playstation series like lbr that’s totally fair

BUT they’ve updated them with the all-in-one-playstation collections now! if you have a playstation there is no excuse! it’s not that hard and not that expensive! smh!!! and yeah, even with the updated collections now you do sorta miss out on some of the stuff that was removed or changed from the original versions. the mobile games only offer theater mode now. but like… it’s ok to have to go on youtube or wiki or second-hand sources to dig up old easter eggs and trivia sometimes…

and it’s ok to not have physically played every game yourself!!! like i honestly think if you take every single game up until now into account you’d be hard pressed to find a person who’s done literally everything from the console games to the handheld games to the mobile games etc themselves. like i’m sure they exist but there aren’t a lot of them. it is perfectly fine to just watch cutscenes. and if you care about the story of this series as a whole you really need to

like… i get it. it’s a video game series. one would expect to be able to play a video game instead of essentially watching a bunch of movies. that’s fair. but if you care about kingdom hearts as a franchise, whether you’re an old nostalgic vet or a newbie, doesn’t the story matter to you??? wouldn’t you do what it takes to be immersed in this world in order to fully understand the story going forward? if it’s just the gameplay you’re after like idk man i feel like you could find a similar style of gameplay as a replacement out there but idk

point is. one would have to be completely blind at this point to not realize that the mobile games are full of lore that are relevant to sora’s own journey and especially will be going forward. nomura has made it clear he’s not forgetting about sora and he’s never gonna replace him as the protagonist and heart and soul of the series. it is simply not possible to jump between numerical titles and still comprehend this stuff. this is where the series is going. there’s this thing in fiction called plot progression where some narrative threads will be resolved and left behind while new ones will be picked up. and it’s up to the author to determine this, not the nostalgia of fans. either drop the series as a whole or get on board with where it’s going

the original khχ came out like what, 10 years ago? almost half the runtime of the franchise. it is not new anymore. this is not new information. anyone who still hasn’t bothered to pay attention to that whole storyline at this point, even given all the hard work that fans have put to make it more accessible to either casuals or specifically stubborn people like that, then like. skill issue tbh.

and people complaining it’s all way too complicated? man.., find another series. i feel like it should be self-evident that this series is not known for narrative simplicity. it’s known for making everyone insane in a good way. even back in kh1 stuff was always kind of wild. everyone’s beloved kh2 is especially where we start ramping up the insanity. i fail to see how all that’s ok but the concepts of more keyblade wielders and like a lengthy timeline aren’t. after 20+ years it should be evident that things aren’t so simple and clean.

rant over *drops mic*

#as far as i’m concerned someone who’s been into kh for just a couple years but is interested in everything #is more of a real fan than a vet who swears up and down everything past kh2 is a mistake #asks #thanks anon #kingdom hearts #(now granted. i haven’t fully watched every cutscene comp either. #but that’s for a different reason. that’s because i INTEND to play the games myself someday <- delusional #either by like mooching off of riya in small increments over many years [not gonna happen] #or eventually saving up to afford the stuff myself #or hoping they really do put it on the switch in an offline form #but like that’s *my* issue! i don’t make it everyone else’s deal #i’m not walking around ignorant either i absorb information about the main titles second-hand #or i watch some scenes and not in order #the reason i do this is bc w h e n i play the games myself someday i want to have a unique new experience #even if i know what’s coming i don’t know when or how #that’s what i want #but if there’s something i need to know i do my research dangit! and lbr i don’t talk about the numerical games that often #but when i do i approach the subject with love in my heart for the series and not disdain and willful ignorance)

[ohnoitstbskyen]

What’re your thoughts on Horizon:Zero Dawn and it’s growing franchise?

I... find the games really mediocre?

Well, okay, that's not fair, there are parts of those games that are absolutely astounding. The character designs of all the robot dinosaurs are universally great, I love Aloy's design and animation, the cutscene animation in Forbidden West is genuinely amazing a lot of the time, and the games' use of color and environment design are genuinely jaw-dropping at times.

But the actual gameplay, both moment-to-moment and more broadly? Really... really mediocre. Just... very boring and repetitive and derivative. Bog-standard and deeply uninteresting open world slurry, it is a series that prioritizes keeping you busy over giving you anything meaningful to do with your time.

I also don't really have much great to say about the story. There's some genuinely heart-felt and well-observed character writing, I like a lot of the relationships with Aloy's companions in Forbidden West... but the series buys uncritically into what I would consider some extremely ahistorical tropes about "primitive civilization," and some extremely reductive views of how religion and spirituality works that I find genuinely unpleasant to engage with.

It's a series that sometimes feels like its lore and concept was conceived by people who enjoy Ricky Gervais stand-up specials and have shelves full of the collective writings of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens.

It at least had the good grace to make its villains capitalists and colonialists doing Super Climate Change, but it's ironic that a series with such a condescending view of spirituality nonetheless had to invent essentially AI Satan to act as the overarching threat.

Anyway, don't take any of this complaining too seriously, it's just some games I don't vibe with.

#tb answers #horizon zero dawn #horizon forbidden west

[loveofdetail]

a thing about me is that i very much fall in love with games in a mechanics-first way, with storytelling perhaps following later. i’m pretty sure i could talk for at least half an hour PER MISSION about just the gameplay and level design decisions in KoD/BW, without even getting to the narrative and themes and characters at all.

the transition from linear-leaning to open-leaning environments that occurs the instant you reach the slaughterhouse yard

the way the slaughterhouse interior combines both extreme verticality AND enclosed spaces

the fact that you can induce the hatters and guards into fighting each other in the second mission merely by manipulating the environment

the way the first part of the legal district specifically has many guards placed up higher than usual so the rooftops are not quite your playground they way they often are in dishonored

the one-way dumbwaiter (but with a specific floor’s dumbwaiter door left open) in Timsh’s mansion

if you draw the Statuesque corrupted charm early, it opens up a entirely different kind of stealth strategy

the expedient paths navigating Rudshore as Daud facing Overseers are quite different from the paths that were expedient traversing the same area as Corvo facing the Whalers

opting for the overseer outfit changes the entire beginning of the coldridge mission, including your spawnpoint

all the little opt-in npc interactions along the way (the rothwild laborer you can later meet at the textile mill, stopping Officer Thorpe’s execution, taking on Jerome’s little sidequest, the traitor witch in the final mission...)

in coldridge, they give you full granular control over opening any exact combination of cell doors your heart desires!

the intense foregrounding of the hatters/eels conflict, with jussssst the right distribution of breadcrumbs to foreshadow that the witches are here too and this is actually a THREE-faction level

there are three independent ways to retrieve the engine coil in the Dead Eels mission, and one of those methods renders an entire section of the level (the sewers) optional and skippable

things like restoring the water to the canal and destroying the slaughterhouse let your actions affect dunwall in a way that is unrelated to your main mission AND not determined by chaos level alone

the Outsider’s speeches at shrines and in cutscenes have more fine-grained chaos differences than anywhere else in the franchise

the final mission is arguably the most visually unique in all of DH1. after a whole game + DLC of traversing cityscapes you get lush greenery and sinister flowers that only serve to emphasize just how out of your element you are

and then the manor itself adds to that close quarters, a confusing layout, and teleporting enemies, to fully max out the disorientation as you near the final confrontation

#dishonored #long post #dh

[tacticaltaxonomist]

Listen, I wanna ship soap ghost so bad. The fanart is poppin, the fanfic is also probably poppin, but I’ve never played a single second of cod in my life. U got any like???? In game clips of them being homos??? Or anything???? I’m so lost and I don’t waNNA BE

I gotchu!!! I have played very little of the actual game, mainly because I'm just really bad at fps (I'm a turnbased strategy kinda guy lol).

What i did was to watch on youtube! I get really motion sick from let's plays, but this [here] movie style version worked well, because it's mainly cutscenes and only the necessary gameplay parts.

Ok so this thing is over 3h, want to start easier? Yeah I did too. How about just a [Soap and Ghost all dialogues] video of half an hour. The Alone mission's a bit annoying in this one cause of all the dialogue options but yk *shrugs*. Just remember it's a bit confusing since you're missing major plot (which is why i went n watched the full thing after). (If you want something shorter just search sth like 'cod mwii soapghost funny' or similar for shorter/incomplete compilations).

Hope this helps!

#cod #mwii #soapghost #tactaxtalks #anon #anon ask #now that i think about it you're the second person to ask me lol)

[saffronaa]

Clearing up some misconceptions about Overwatch 2 and its "Overwhelmingly Negative" reviews

Okay I just wanted to write something 'cause I saw a lot of misinfo and some confusion about what Overwatch 2 (OW2) even is, especially now that it's getting more (negative) attention again. Starting with what OW2 even is and how we ended up with such a hugely negative reception.

What's the difference between Overwatch 1 and Overwatch 2?

OW2 is free-to-play

OW2 is 5v5 (1 tank instead of 2 tanks)

OW2 has a different monetization scheme. It has a new buyable currency used to purchase cosmetics (mainly skins) from the store and to buy the battlepass

OW2 purchases are all cosmetic items EXCEPT when a new hero is released. Purchasing the battlepass will give you immediate access to a new hero. Otherwise, you will need to play enough games to unlock them.

Everything else in OW2 is either standard update stuff (new heroes, new maps, new gamemodes, etc) or carried over from OW1 (Yes, you keep all your cosmetics from OW1)

Why did they create Overwatch 2?

The original vision for Overwatch was a PvE game:

The Overwatch team, especially at its inception, considered itself an MMO development team. As we transitioned away from that original concept and started creating Overwatch, we included plans to one day return to that scope. We had a crawl, walk, run plan. Overwatch was the crawl, a dedicated version of PvE was the walk, and an MMO was the run. (Source 1)

Overwatch originally intending to be a PvE game was brought up in a Tweet 2 years before as well (Source 2).

Overwatch 2 was meant to be a major sequel with the focus on PvE.

What happened to PvE?

I recommend reading the full blog post, but I'll try to summarize.

Essentially the original vision of PvE was:

Story Missions (co-op gameplay with cutscenes)

Hero Mode (skill trees for each hero to upgrade and play in PvE)

When you heard the news that "OW2 PvE was cancelled", what was actually cancelled was Hero Mode. Story Missions were just released this season. This is still a major blow to PvE, because Hero Mode was the piece meant to give a reason for replaying the PvE missions over and over again.

PvE was cancelled because ultimately it was too much work, and they were not making enough progress at the cost of the original PvP game. (More on this later)

Why is Overwatch 2 receiving so many negative reviews?

I'm gonna give bullet points but I wanna address something first: A lot of people have mentioned the lawsuit against Activision Blizzard for sexual harassment and discrimination (More info) when talking about why Overwatch 2 is being reviewed poorly. While this is obviously a serious issue within the company and the game industry at large, the truth is that if this was the only problem, we would not be seeing reviews this bad. Unfortunately, the average gamer does not care about how game developers are being treated. See Epic Games crunch culture and the lawsuit against Riot Games for sexual harassment and discrimination. Fortnite and League of Legends/Valorant are doing just fine now.

Here is a list of some reasons why I think Overwatch 2 is being reviewed so negatively:

The original PvE vision with skill trees was not realized

Preferring the old monetization scheme of "buy the game once, earn cosmetics" instead of "game is free, buy cosmetics"

Believing the current cosmetics are overpriced

Not having immediate access to new heroes unless you pay

Preferring 6v6 gameplay to 5v5

Frustrated with content delays (Like Hero Mastery)

Expectations for more content on release

Misinformation (like PvE being completely cancelled)

Bandwagoning on the Overwatch hate train

Other pretty standard reasons to dislike a video game (game balance, don't like the lore, etc)

Distrust in Blizzard/the development team

And the last one is one I want to talk about a little more

Why is there so much distrust between the development team and the community?

While Overwatch 2 was in development, Overwatch 1 was abandoned. And the community largely felt that the content brought by OW2 was not worth the time lost for OW1.

OW2 was announced at Blizzcon on November 1, 2019. Since its announcement and until OW2 was released, Overwatch received 1 new hero and 0 new standard maps in 3 years. It previously was getting 3 new heroes and ~3 new standard maps each year.

If OW had kept its release schedule, we would've had 8 new heroes and 9 new maps when OW2 released. We got 3 new heroes and 6 new maps.

When OW2 released, lots of people wondered why they abandoned the game to make a sequel nobody asked for and with not enough changes. The developers are already aware that they made a mistake:

When we launched Overwatch in 2016, we quickly started talking about what that next iteration could be. Looking back at that moment, it's now obvious that we weren’t as focused as we should have been on a game that was a runaway hit. Instead, we stayed focused on a plan that was years old. Work began on the PvE portion of the game and we steadily continued shifting more and more of the team to work on those features. (Source 1)

This was especially frustrating for the people who were only interested in PvP.

But some people did hold onto the hope that the eventual release of PvE would make up for the lost development time for PvP.

And then the scope for PvE was cut in half, and once again the community felt that they were being served half-finished content.

It's been a continuous cycle of:

Overwatch announces a new feature

Everyone gets their hopes up that this new feature will fully deliver on everyone's expectations

The feature does not meet expectations (and is sometimes less than what was originally teased) or is delayed

IMPORTANT: And while this is all frustrating for players, and it makes sense to negatively review for these reasons, please never harass individual game developers. 99% of the time, game developers are just as passionate about the game as you are. You don't know what kinds of hells are going on behind the scenes that are preventing them from doing their job well.

Does Overwatch 2 deserve all of the negative reviews?

Obviously it's subjective, but I just want to throw it out there that I still think that Overwatch at its core is a good video game. I still play and have fun playing both ranked and quick play. I think the gameplay is very good. Everything else surrounding it is very frustrating and discouraging at times.

#overwatch #overwatch 2 #ow #ow2 #steam

[watermelinoe]

i think totk improved on botw in a lot of ways but i also still had the same issues w it that i did w botw and it had new issues as well (the inventory was a nightmare, armor upgrade reqs were ridiculous, too many collectible-based quests esp the fucking hudson signs)

but my biggest complaint was that even with a storyline that i personally found more interesting, there is just zero connection to it at all. botw and totk feel like revenge for skyward sword being so emotional, linear, and story-driven (iirc miyamoto was not happy with its direction and he and aonuma (?) were just undoing each other's work which is partly why the game suffers from repetition)

so now we get zero emotional attachment to anything that's going on except in cutscenes that aren't even required and have no visible impact on link in any way. hardly any of the sidequests feel meaningful, and the ones that could have been always seemed to fall short. the npcs seem weirdly chipper about the gloom spreading, the ground splitting open, and the earth levitating into the sky. many of them that should remember you just... don't, for some reason, like there's so little development in any of link's relationships with any of these people, zelda included, as if he hasn't even existed for the past eight years between games, like what was with the hateno village retconning

my personal favorite quests were awakening the fairy fountains (felt like classic zelda and i liked that it made a permanent impact on the world, even rewarding you with a permanent new rendition of epona's song at every stable), giving all the bubbul gems to koltin (you have to go out of your way to talk to his brother kilton to get the full kinda bittersweet ending and it's a rare touching moment imo), and the balloon thing with rhondson and hudson's daughter (i liked that it actually expanded on a questline from botw and it was also bittersweet), also i liked penn and the newspaper questline

the biggest improvement imo was the shrines, the puzzles were so much more interesting with so many possible solutions, and the temples/bosses were so much better than the divine beasts and stupid scourges

but idk i just... feel like i wanted more from it. to me the story is just as important as the gameplay and tbh in both games link feels so detached from the plot, like it's just happening around him, not to him. and you can argue that in the older games they didn't explore his emotional state or w/e but the narratives were tight enough that you felt immersed anyway, and could project your own feelings onto him. these games actively thwart your attempts to humanize the silent protagonist bc he's more emotional about fucking cooking than about being manipulated by a creepy puppet of the woman he's been with for 8+ years at this point (should've made puppet zelda a boss again smh) or seeing memories of people dying horribly

all of which is too far spaced out between, idk, grinding for lionel parts

with the world as big as it is, nothing in it is allowed to be too big and i'm concerned that this is just what zelda games are going to be like from now on. i hope the next project announced will be something completely different.

#loz #having played every single-player zelda game i'm not really a purist #bc every other zelda game is a ''black sheep'' lol #so i like it when each game is something different #botw was just such a departure but it felt big and new and exciting #totk is bigger but that's the problem imo. there's just nothing that new or threatening. #once you get used to the depths it was just kind of a slog to map out the entire thing #and there's nothing as scary as the guardians wandering around #i honestly think the depths should have been smaller + more concentrated #or more like traditional dungeons #basically i have a lot of Thoughts abt zelda and if you read all of this i have kissie for u mwah

[invinciblerodent]

I just spent a good 40 minutes searching for where I could have messed up on the whole "letting Astarion drink" matter, and.... apparently instead of responding "I'm not opposed to you feeding on me", I said "sounds good" (the option I think I thought sounds most like my self-assured, no-waffing about Iona, and the one of which he approves) 7 full hours of gameplay ago.

The romance is active. I got all the scenes I didn't get before. I could offer to let him bite her during the sex scene without issues. All that's missing is the repeatable "you can feed on me tonight" line without a cutscene, and the (frankly pretty annoying) debuff that comes with it.

.... I don't think reloading 7 hours is worth that. As far as I know, all I lose out on are some vaguely horny voice lines (frankly it's so easy to mess this up, it's a wonder I didn't the first time- it makes sense that it wouldn't be tied to a lot of extra content) so I'm not too bothered, but it's still got me a bit miffy about it.

I'll just do the same thing I do on my other run: have him bite the first bandit of the day, and just... headcanon in that she's obviously letting him feed, only it's not giving her the debuff. Because of her draconic blood or something or another.

I mean, I already headcanon in the majority of at least their early relationship (which, all things considered, is at least 32-40 total hours with nobody but the other for company- 4 hours each night, due to the elven sleep thing), what's this one more thing. It's just a missing dialogue option in recordings that nobody's gonna see anyway; I just need them for fic reference.

.... She's not impressed though.

(gwumpy gorl)

#squirrel plays bg3 #oc: iona raedir