#god that makes me want to replay dragon age origins again | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yukichouji · 3 years

Note

So, I’ve been meaning to ask, since you first said you were going to play them I wanted to know: what did you think of the dragon age series in general? And if you had to give a review of all 3 of the games separately in a couple of sentences, how would you?

Hi :D First of all, I'm so sorry it took me so long to answer! It's been a rough couple of weeks xD I still don't have much of a voice, but at least it seems the worst of the cold is over and things are starting to get better again alskdfjsld Anyway, to your ask! :D

Thank you so much for sending it, I love being able to ramble a little about the games!

I just absolutely fell in love with the whole series in general. The games somehow ended up being exactly what I was looking for. It's like they were made with specifically everything I enjoy about a game in mind xD It can be kind of hard for me to really find a game I can get into like that. The last one for me had been Witcher 3. I loved that one. But DA managed to be even better. It kind of took everything I loved about the dark fantasy world of Witcher and gave me original player characters (male and female - and everything inbetwen that), a much more diverse set of companions and non-het romances. I mean, I am aware of the fact that each of the games still has its flaws, but I am not going to seriously complain about any of them until I can find a set of games that offers me something better. So, yeah. I owe my entire heart to @tokugou for giving me the final push I needed to buy DAO when it was on sale on Steam. And then subsequently the other two as well xD I'm so glad I found them!

As for the short reviews (and boy I hope you know how hard it is for me to do short xD):

DAO: Despite the least comfortable gameplay out of the three, it is still my favorite! I love everything about it when it comes to the dark atmosphere, to the different origin stories, the wonderful dialog options, I think it has the most ways you can influence the story and its outcome out of all three, and of course the companions. Not to mention the story itself. I love all companions out of all games, but the DAO and DAA ones will always have a special place in my heart. I really do hope DA4 does a bit of a back to the roots things and takes up some of those things I loved so much in DAO.

DA2: At first I was a little disappointed about the fact that you are so limit with character creation (no different races and all) and origins and was kind of expecting to not like it as much because of that. But, damn, was I wrong. Somehow, while 2 is the shortest game of all three, it still feels the most self-contained and it just does a lot of things really, really right when it comes to its story. Despite the short time they had to make it it is wonderfully written and don't even get me started on how much I love every single one of the characters in it. The romances are perfect and I adore the whole rivalry system and rival-mance options. Not to mention that the story to game ration actually works best in this one, at least for me. I adore it, very much. Also, there are so many details to love, like the fightings styles, the mages whacking shit with their sticks, the companion interactions etc, etc. A true labor of love despite the short time it was made in.

DAI: Gods, is this game beautiful or what??? The MAPS. They truely blow me away. And the cutscenes for the big missions as well. Holy hell. Just the entire thing. I really like the gameplay as well, it is very comfortable. I've replayed it the most up until now, because optics are a big part of the appeal for me and it can actually be kind of relaxing to go out and to those huge maps and chill. But, while I do very much love this game, out of all three it is still the one with the most 'flaws' to me. The biggest one probably being that the story to gameplay ratio just feels way off to me. You spend so much time on the gameplay and while the big missions and companion missions are all great, they still make up a relatively small part of the game and it is easy to feel like you're getting lost in the little stuff and like you keep losing the flow of the story. If you could just, I don't know, scrunch it all a bit more closely together, that would be perfect. This way it also just feels like your companion interactions are used up so quickly and then they just stand around decorating the place for the rest of the game xD I'm not trying to be mean or anything. I still really love the game. But, yeah. That's how it is for me. Won't stop me from replaying it obsessively a ton of times still :D

That didn't really end up all that short afterall, did it? alksdfjsld Sorry haha

#me things #da #satanic fruitcake #thank you for your ask! <3

5 notes · View notes

zerochanges · 3 years

Text

2020 Favorite Video Games

I don’t know if I am an outlier or if this is the same for everyone else but I really did not play a lot of games this year. 2020 was a very harsh year for all of us, especially for me for some personal reasons. So to get to the chase, I am just gonna say it left me not doing much in what little free time I did have, and I didn’t play much either. Usually I try to keep my lists for ‘favorite of the year’ to only titles released that year but since I played so little this year, screw it. I am gonna include any game I played this year regardless of release date.

Collection of SaGa

By far a flawed rerelease. It’s bare bones: there are no advance features you would usually expect out of these kinds of emulated rereleases like save states, fast forward, or rewind, and there was no real effort made to touch up almost 30 year old localizations that had to meet Nintendo of America’s then harsh standards. This really is just 3 roms slapped into a nice looking interface with an option to increase the game speed (which by the way you better use, the characters walk very slow in these old games).

I am bit harsh here, but only because I thought the Romancing SaGa remasters and the upcoming SaGa Frontier remaster all looked like they got a great budget and a lot of love while this is just another Collection of Mana situation (moreso specifically talking about Seiken Densetsu 1/Final Fantasy Adventure/Adventures of Mana part of that collection). I would have loved to see Square Enix do a bit more for these older games. Or at least include the remakes. Seiken Densetsu 1 had two great remakes, both unused in Collection of Mana, and all three of these original SaGa titles have remakes that have never seen the light of day outside of Japan. How great would it have been to get the Wonderswan remake of SaGa 1, as well as the Nintendo DS remakes of Saga 2 and SaGa 3?

But my gripes aside, these games are still fun as they ever were. Replaying SaGa 1 specifically during the holiday season really helped calm me down and made me feel at ease. It’s easy to forget but even in their Gameboy roots there are a lot of funky and weird experimental choices being made in these games. They aren’t your run-of-the-mil dragon quest (or considering the gameboy, maybe pokemon would be more apt) clones.

Raging Loop

Perhaps my favorite game of the year, Raging Loop is one of the best visual novels I have ever played hands down. The level of creativity and splitting story paths that went into it is simply mind blowing. The basic premise is both a wonderful throwback to the old days of Chunsoft sound novels while still modern and somewhat reminiscent of both Higurashi and Danganronpa. Essentially you play as Haruaki, a poor slub that got lost in the mountains with no clue where to go until you stumble upon an old rural village with a strange history and even stranger superstitions. Before you know it there has been a murder and the Feast is now afoot.

The less said about Raging Loop the better, although I do want to say a lot about it one day if I ever can write a proper review of it. This is a gripping game that will take hold of you once you get into it though and never let go. I actually 100%-ed this and I very rarely do that. I got every ending, every bonus hidden ending, played the entire game twice to hear all the hidden details it purposely hides on your first play through, played all the bonus epilogue chapters, unlocked all the hidden voice actor interviews, collected all the art work, etc, etc. I was just obsessed with this game, it’s that damn good! And the main character is maybe the best troll in all of video games, god bless Haruaki.

Root Double

From Takumi Nakazawa, long time contributor to Kotaro Uchikoshi’s work comes a game any fan of Zero Escape or Uchikoshi in general will probably enjoy. Root Double, like its name suggests is a visual novel with two different routes, hence Root Double. The first route stars Watase Kasasagi, the leader of an elite rescue team in the midst of their greatest crisis yet that could lead to nuclear devastation as they try to evacuate a nuclear research facility that has gone awry.

The other route stars Natsuhiko Tenkawa, an everyday high schooler whose peaceful life is thrown into turmoil when he stumbles upon a terrorist plot to destroy the nuclear facility in the city and his attempts to stop them. Together the two separate plots weave into one and creates a really crazy ride. Part Chernobyl, part science fiction, any fan of the genre will easily enjoy it. And hey it’s kind of relevant to include on this list too since it just got a Switch port this year (I played it on steam though).

Snack World

I was shocked upon starting Snack World as it is instantly incredibly charming, witty, and downright hilarious at times yet I heard almost zero people talk about it. EVER. This game is Dragon Quest levels of quirky though, and the localization is incredible. The game has such an oddball sense of humor that works really well with its presentation right down to the anime opening video that sings about the most bizarre things. Instead of the usual pump up song about the cool adventure ahead we get stuff like wanting to go out to a restaurant and eat pork chops.

The self aware/fourth wall breaking humor is just enough to be really funny, but doesn't overstay its welcome and always makes it work right in the context of the dialogue. And finally, just everything; with the menus, the name of side quests and missions, and the character dialogue -- are all just so witty and full of quirky humor. This is one hell of a charming and funny game and addictive to boot.

Trials of Mana

Trials of Mana has gone from one of those legendary unlocalized games, to one of the first major breakthroughs in fan translation, to finally getting an official English release complete with a fully 3D remake. In a lot of ways from a western perspective this game has had an incredible journey. As for this remake itself, I really found myself having tons of fun with it. I loved the graphics, and the voice acting while a bit on the cheaper side almost kind of adds to the charm since both the graphics and acting really give it an old PS2 vibe. I know that is probably just more me being weird but yeah, I had to say it.

I really hope Square Enix sticks to this style of remake more often, instead of just doing Final Fantasy VII Remakes that break the bank and involve extensive tweaking to both plot and game play. I’ll take smaller budget projects that play more like the original game any day personally. I wouldn’t mind if they also deliver a brand new Mana game all together in this engine either.

Utawarerumono Trilogy

This year saw the release of the first entry in the series, Utawarerumono: Prelude to the Fallen--and thus finally after three years since the sequels Utawarerumono: Mask of Deception and Utawarerumono: Mask of Truth came out in 2017 the trilogy is now complete in English. I ended up binging through Prelude to the Fallen very fast shortly after it came out and immediately jumped on to the sequels. Perhaps the best part of 2020 was that I finally played all three of these fantastic games, and did so back-to-back-to-back. Playing the first Utawarerumono was an experience I will never forget, it was like visiting old friends again that I haven’t seen in ages, by and large thanks to the fact that I saw the anime adaption of the game when I was much younger, nearly a decade ago. Back then I would have never of dreamed that I would get to play the actual game and get the real experience.

And it only got better from here, as all three games are such wonderful experiences from start to finish. The stories are all so deep, and by the time you get to the third entry, Mask of Truth, it’s crazy to see how they all connected over so many years and weaved together into a plot much bigger than they ever were. What carries it beyond all that though has to be the fun and addicting strategy role playing game aspect, which while a bit on the easy side, is still so much fun and helps make the game feel better paced since you get to play the conquests your characters go on and not just read about all the battles they fight. Beyond that the games are packed full of awesome characters, and I know I’ll never forget the amazing leads in all of them. Hakuowlo, Haku, and Oshtor will all go down as some of the greats to me.

Ys: Memories of Celceta

Ys: Memories of Celceta is a full 3D remake of Ys IV, a rather infamous game in Falcom’s Ys series. Not to get bogged down too much into the history of Falcom but by this point they were facing a lot of hardship and had to outsource this entry to other developers, and thus passed it on to two particular developers they had a business relationship with, creating two unique versions of Ys IV. Tonkin House who had worked on Super Famicom port of Ys III with Falcom ended up creating their own YS IV entry, Mask of the Sun for the very same system, where Hudson soft who had produced the much beloved Ys Books I & II remakes for the Turbografix (PC Engine) CD add-on created their own Ys IV entry Dawn of Ys for that console. Both games followed guidelines and ideas outlined from Falcom themselves but both radically diverged from each other and turned into completely different games.

Falcom finally putting an end to this debate on which version of Ys IV you should play have gone and created their own definitive Ys IV in 2012 for the Playstation Vita. I played the 2020 remastered version of this remake on my PS4. I even bought this on the Vita when it first came out but I am horrible and only horde games, never play them. So it was a lot of fun to finally play this.

Memories of Celceta is probably one of the best starting points for anyone looking to get into Ys, especially if you only want to stay with the 3D titles as out of all the 3D entries this explains the most about the world and series protagonist Adol Christian. Beyond that it’s just another fantastic entry in a wonderful series that has a few good twists hidden behind it, especially for long time fans of the series.

Random Video Game Console Stuff

Xbox Has Blue Dragon: I actually got an Xbox One this year for free from my brother. Because of that I started to play Blue Dragon again and there’s a lot I would love to say about this game. I don’t know if I am fully committed to replaying it all the way through however but I find myself putting in a couple hours every few days and enjoying myself again. Does anyone else remember Blue Dragon? I feel like it really missed its audience and had it come out nowadays and probably for the Switch it would have really resonated with the Dragon Quest fandom a lot more instead of being thrown out to die on Xbox and constantly compared to Final Fantasy VII and the like which it had nothing at all similar with.

The Turbografx 16 Mini: This was probably one of the best mini consoles that have come out and I feel like thanks to the whole 2020 pandemic thing it was largely forgotten about. That’s a shame, it has a wonderful variety of great games, especially if you count the Japanese ones (god I wish I could play the Japanese version of Snatcher included), and a wonderful interface with fantastic music. One of these days I would really like to be able to play around with the console more seriously than I have already.

Fire Emblem Shadow Dragon Never Existed: So Nintendo localized the first ever Fire Emblem game on Nintendo Switch which is awesome to see them touching Famicom games again--I haven’t seen Nintendo of America rerelease old Famicom titles since Mysterious Murasame Castle on the 3DS, but their trailer hilariously made it seem like this is the first time ever they released Fire Emblem when in fact they had already localized the remake Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS nearly 10 or 11 years ago. I and many other fans I talked to all found this really hilarious, probably solely because of how much they kept repeating the fact that this is the first time you will ever be able to experience Marth’s story.

All that aside though I have to say the collector edition for this newly localized Famicom game is probably the most gorgeous retro reproduction I have seen in a long time, and I really spent many many hours just staring at the all clear glass mock cartridge. I have found myself really obsessing over retro reproductions during 2020, and obtained quite a few this year. I really hope this trend continues to go on in 2021 as recreating classic console packaging and cartridges is a lot of fun.

#video games #collection of saga final fantasy legend #SaGa #SaGa I #SaGa II #SaGa III #Raging Loop #Root Double #Snack World #Trials of Mana #Seiken Densetsu 3 #Utawarerumono #Ys #Ys IV #ys memories of celceta

23 notes · View notes

motheatenscarf · 3 years

Text

Now that I’ve reached the actual end-end of Early Access, I’m going to review BG3 by the only metric that matters;

Comparing the shenanigans I got into here with the shenanigans I got into with the same character in my actual D&D game!

So here we go. Things that happened in BG3 that also happened to Goblin Squad in our homebrew campaign;

the characters all begin the story on a ship which crashes and strands them on an unfamiliar beach, forcing them to work together to survive

they meet a band of people who are also stranded and are hiding from a horde of goblins

these people are led by a tiefling who wants the gang’s help in getting everyone home

Aashi murders a fellow hunter in a swamp to protect a vampire she’s casually acquainted with

Aashi gave up her bread and butter for the sake of a party member because of her stupid sense of loyalty

I came up with a plan to sneak onto the roof of a barn and ambush an enemy only for the plan to go horribly wrong and nearly get everyone killed

the party played nice and lied to goblins to get into the heart of their stronghold only to corner the leader and have the (at that moment) strongest party member deal with him by going YEET

the party wound up being 3/4 some kind of elf at all times

the rogue was the first one to Actually Full On Die and not just go unconscious

Aashi killed the leader of a bunch of filth dwelling amphibians and convinced them that she keeps what she kills, thus becoming their leader, before robbing them blind and abdicating to leave them in leaderless chaos

a Singh woman gets drunk at a victory celebration and fucks an elf and winds up living with the consequences of it for the rest of her life.

It was a fun game and I like it a lot so far. Here’s hoping we get to see chapter 2 onward soon-ish, hopefully before Goblin Squad goes on hiatus again because this really scratched the itch that only comes from the chaos of D&D in a way few other single-player RPGs do, not even the Dragon Age games.

I love Dragon Age, I love my characters in Dragon Age, don’t get me wrong, but I played as Aashi for my recent Origins replay and it was kinda boring? It felt like an Aashi who was tweaked and adapted for someone else’s game, whereas this felt like someone had picked up my level 1 feral bounty hunter by the scruff of her neck and flung her into this world and she was reacting and failing accordingly.

Hard to rate it when so much of the game is still buggy and unfinished, but the combat was REALLY fun, the characters are all very likable and entertaining, and the story is engaging with what seems like a lot of replay value. If you like D&D you’re gonna love this game, if you like RPGs you’re gonna love this game, it’s very loveable with a lot of personality.

I would change only one thing;

Please for the love of god, make Astarion take damage from eating garlic, sometimes I just need to hurt him from the awful things he says, but I don’t want to KILL HIM, I just wanna Pavlov him out of the Neutral Evil selfish dickhole zone, and so far there are no newspapers to swat him with, so this will have to suffice

#Caitlin Plays Baldur's Gate 3 #BG3 Spoilers

16 notes · View notes

lucienfairfax · 4 years

Text

sometimes I do want to write for Dragon Age again because... well, because of my OCs, basically, lmao. most of them are over 5 years old by now and they’re very dear to me, I put a lot of work into those beautiful canon-noncompliant motherfuckers

but every time I go trawling for ideas I get waylaid by how much headcanoning I’ve had to do and yet still have to do to get around the shit about Thedas I don’t like so I can write about shit I do like

for example, I want to mess around more with the Old Gods and the Evanuris stuff and Razikale’s trickery and all these other fun absolutely-batshit ideas I had but doing all this dancing around the Maker and the implicit “monotheism good, everything else fake” bias that is literally baked into the canon just makes me Tired(tm)

and of course every time I have to be reminded that slavery is a thing I lose a half-year off my life immediately, which gets in the way of writing stuff like fic with my dearest Fenris, and let’s not even get into the Circle bullshit, which I’m also 1000% sick of at this point (which sucks because man, do I miss writing Orsino)

this is also why I stopped playing -- I managed to get through a recent replay of Origins and Awakening mostly by virtue of Alistair banter (and later, Anders banter) but I got about 2 hours into DA2 before I felt the weight of “nope” just settle into my soul. my brain really be like “why be here... when we could be... there *image of the FFXIV title screen with blingee graphics all over it and airhorns blaring in the background*” and I go, “damn. u rite” and click on the launcher to play through that 400-hour MSQ for a second time (third time, even, for ARR and most of Heavensward)

seriously, literally my only recourse at this point would be to follow in @elfyourmother‘s footsteps and drag all those OCs and adopted NPCs into Eorzea. when your world is a dumpster fire, just jump through an eluvian and find a better one amirite (oh god I just imagined Orsino as an Ishgardian cleric and I’m dead. DEAD I tell ya)

otherwise I really might have to pack it in. I’m just. so Over It.

#insourced content #literally my experience poking through wikis for info was just *facepalm* *sigh* *double facepalm combo* *rage* *tableflip*#shut up about the fucking maker. shut up about the fucking maker #also i had to read a david gaider post to find out something and that also took years off my life

3 notes · View notes

ooachilliaoo · 4 years

Text

Love Yourself Challenge

I was tagged by two amazing lovelies @rpgwarrior4824 and @pip-n-flinx – Thanks for thinking of me you guys!

Rules: It’s time to love yourselves! Choose your 5 favourite works you created in the past year (fics, art, edits, etc. ) and link them below to reflect on the amazing things you brought into the world. Tag as many writers/artists/etc. as you want (fan or original) so we can spread the love and link each other to awesome works!

Because of my weird non-chronological way of writing I haven’t actually posted 5 things this year (even if you take ‘this year’ to mean since April 19) so I’m going to include some WIP’s here if that’s ok.

1. Time Effect Coda Fandom: Mass Effect/ Dr Who Pairings: Shepard/Kaidan Alenko & Rose/Ten.

So, this went up yesterday and damn I have been dying to share it. Don’t get me wrong I love ‘Time Effect’ and when I started, Time Effect was just going to be a happy little adventure where Commander Shepard met the Tenth Doctor and chaos happened. (If anyone is interested, I chose Ten because I personally found his particular cadence easier to write). Then my brain went ‘hey hold up just ….HOLD UP a minute. What if we made it PAINFUL?’ and ‘Coda’ was born (though credit for the title should rightfully go to my amazing editor @faith-less-one).

This one has a lot of my personal headcannons for events that happened after the Reaper war wrapped up in it which I loved laying down on paper. The Rannoch section came to me really easily, so that was joy to write. In contrast the scene on Tuchanka took so damn long and had so many iterations I honestly lost count of how many times I started over but when it was done I was SO HAPPY with the result.

2. Promises

Fandom: Dragon Age Origins. Pairings: Alistiar Theirin / Elissa Cousland.

I honestly can’t remember how long I had chapter one and two of this laid down. It was definitely years maybe something as long as like…3 years? I always knew ultimately where it was going but then like DAI happened and all my Dragon Age energy went into DAI fic for a time.

I think I actually rediscovered it when I was moving files onto my new laptop and it had been long enough that my brain was like ‘this is good’ rather than seeing like…all the mistakes? So I knuckled down. I remember though I was writing the end and I knew I’d planned to do the wedding a-la Elizabeth Swan and Will Turner but somehow when I got there the tone didn’t feel quite right. So I messaged my wonderful editor and best of friends @faith-less-one like ‘you’ve read chapters one and two of this? Should I include a Pirates of the Caribbean wedding at the end?’ and she dead ass responded, ‘honey if the opportunity for a Pirates of the Caribbean wedding presents itself you put in a Pirates of the Caribbean wedding’. So I did, because I had to, clearly.

3. Memories Fandom: Mass Effect Characters: Liara T’Soni

Look, I’m never going to write anything better for N7 day than ‘Tough Kid’ it’s just not going to happen and I can accept that. But this? This came pretty close. Once again this contains some more of my long-held post war headcannons and it was nice to write from Liara’s perspective for once. I think this one was inspired by a post or a tweet or something that pointed out that due to the lifespan differences and ages eventually Liara and Grunt would be the only surviving members of the Normandy crew. So, I took a shot at what that might look like.

4. Untitled Mass Effect Longfic – hit 160K

Fandom: Mass Effect Pairings: Shepard/Kaidan Alenko

This thing. This thing doesn’t even have an official title. But I’ll tell you what it does have - over 160K words making it the longest thing I’ve ever written. I’ve been working on it for years - no I am not going to say how many, and it’s probably not even half way done. It’s basically a re-telling of the main storyline with a little post-war fix it tacked onto the end. It might one day be finished and see the light of day or I might end up working on it and reworking it forever.

It’s big. It’s messy and because I don’t write chronologically I need a whole ass indexed excel sheet to track what parts I’d coved already. It definitely contains some of my best writing and probably some of my worst. 160K leaves room for a lot. But hitting 160K felt good.

5. Untitled Robin Hood DAO AU.

Fandom: Dragon Age Origins. Pairings: Alistair Theirin / Elissa Cousland.

So, this was an idea I’d had for I don’t know how long. I know it happened because the BBC Robin Hood series starring Jonas Armstrong was on Amazon Prime at the same time as I was replaying DAO and my brain just went ‘what the hell’. But god knows how long it sat on the shelf as a vague idea before I even started it. The basic idea was that this would be an AU where Alistair grew up as landed nobility (still the kings’ bastard but a titled bastard). Then when he returns from an exalted march to a Ferelden ruled by Logain he basically …becomes Robin Hood.

I actually started it during NaNo. To be clear I hadn’t planned to write it during NaNo. I have a few ‘longfic WIP’s’ as a I call them and rarely the attention span to write just one of them every day for a month so usually I flip between them (yes, I know this makes me a NaNo rebel but in my defence …shhhh). In September I work at getting all my longfics to a level word count (to make tracking the 1,667 per day easier) so I had 2 ME longfics and 2 DA longfics at precise word counts at the start of NaNo.

Then what did I do?

I started this AU instead. 15K of this AU laid down in NaNo and it’s just a joy to write. It’s got limitless capacity for banter and snark and I love writing banter and snark. I also like crafting an Alistair that’s not a million miles from DAO Alistair but changed slightly by growing up with responsibility and family.

So yeah that’s some of the stuff I’m proud of from this year.

I’ll Tag: @faith-less-one @poweredbycoffeeandwine @ljandersen @hawkeykirsah @alyssalenko @natsora & anyone else who wants to! (No obligation of course and also sorry if any of you have already done this and i missed it!)

#this is so sweet #love this idea #writer things #show me all the stuffs

16 notes · View notes

murfeelee · 4 years

Text

TS3 Simmer - Get to Know

I saw Katsuijii do these here and whaddaya know, it’s that time again!

Your name: Murfeelee the Khaleesi

Languages you speak: English. My Latin's fallen to the wayside, but shockingly my limited Japanese isn’t as bad as it could be. Thank god for anime. :P

Are you a mermaid: I’m seasick and can’t swim. No.

Your play style: Usually for my gameplay posts I have an idea pre-planned, that I force my sims to fulfill come hell or high water. I don’t care about your Wishes, your Needs, your job schedule, the neighbors, your crying kids, or your starving pets; stop stomping your feet and turn that sim into a zombie! >_<

Your selfsim picture:

Stories or gameplay, builds, lookbooks, edits or cc: Gameplay and builds. I like lookbooks, but I never do them?

Your favorite age state: Young Adult, cuz they have the most content & abilities.

Your favorite season: Winter is so pretty in TS3, but I like default Summer, cuz who wants to be bundled up like a burrito all effing year.

Your favorite holiday: Halloween.

How was your day: I was supposed to do some homework, but instead spent the whole frikkin day prepping my next CC upload and making gifs. #Priorities #ProductiveMuch? U_U

Your favorite career/profession: Ghost Hunter.

Your favorite Lifetime Wish: Paranormal Profiteer, Master Magician, Renaissance Sim

Your favorite EP or SP: Supernatural all day everyday

How old is your simblr: 7 years old. Good lord.

Have you woohooed:

Your favorite skill: Artistic, Athletic, Childish, Disciplined, Evil, Green Thumb, Proper, Supernatural Fan, alright I’ll stop now.

The size of your mods folder: 2.61GB, without me adding gameplay-specific CC (I rotate them out whenever I start playing something else).

Your 3 favorite mods: Everything by Nraas, Cmomoney’s Time/Seasons Mod, Buhudain’s OMSP Resizers & You Are Real mod, BrntWaffles’ Dream Dimension + 100% Auroras lighting mod, CmarNYC’s tattoo mod, I can go on. Your interests (other than The Sims): Playing other video games. watching anime, reading Anne Rice novels, eating junk food, etc.

Your favorite sim (picture if possible): Thinking about Nagron (Nasir and Agron from Spartacus) always puts a smile on my face; they’re so freaking precious. :3

Which Sims games you have played (including mobile games): TS1, TS2, TS3, and I watch the not-so-little-one play TS4 out of morbid curiosity but haven’t deigned to play it myself #BecauseEA.

Propose a crazy scheme: TS5 actually being better than Paralives.

Best part of simblr: Connecting with other simmers, and seeing the cool & creative new ways other simmers play The Sims and push the borders of our sandbox. Worst part of simblr: EA’s brainwashing influence making simmers complacent with mediocrity, constantly voting with their wallets for watered-down regurgitated content rather than putting EA’s lazy uninspired arse to the flames so they can finally make content worth the money we pay for these games year after year.

What other games you play: Most recently: Dragon Age: Inquisition (if EA shuts down Bioware before they make DA4 Imma be so freaking angry! I need CLOSURE!); Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice; Hellblade: Senua’s Sacrifice; my zillionth replay of God of War 4.

Other websites or accounts (origin, twitter etc..): Ew, no.

Are you single: Like a Pringle! ^_^

Thanks for reading!

I tag everybody who wants to be tagged.

#questionnaire #simblr

28 notes · View notes

luobingmeis · 4 years

Note

DAO really was the best game, the lore the ability to absolutely wreck shit, the fact that they didnt do that bullshit ‘all sides are grey’ and clearly showed oppression. I think of my warden, an elven mage, and wonder how she’ll be rewritten more than anything.

right like!!!! i love each dragon age game with my whole heart and they all have super special places in said heart, but origins handles a lot of the social problems really well, or at least from the perspective that i play it as (also an elven mage!)

the rest i’m putting under the cut bc holy shit i can talk abt dragon age a lot. also nothing is proofred. i’m so sorry this got so long i hear “bioware” and “grey morality” and i go wild

(pls talk to me abt dragon age.....)

(also please don’t reblog this!!)

like i understand da2 having a type of grey-morality thing bc the final battle was choosing between the mages and the templars (tho imo they could’ve done better than “the mages hate us bc we keep them locked in a tower and there are multiple accounts of us abusing them and therefore some of them turn to blood magic so therefore we should kill all of them” but still, in a setting like that where the Main End Game Choice was mages vs. templars, then that is understandable)

(but also i haven’t played da2 in a couple years so maybe it’s more nuanced than that)

but inquisition! it’s weird bc inq has a super special place in my heart. i’ve played it 6 or 7 times to completion, not counting the other times i got 20/30 hours into it before external forces distracted me. inq is overall the game i think abt the most, most of my playthroughs average over 100 hours, it’s the only game that i have all the dlcs for, for me it’s the easiest to replay, and yet there’s so much that frustrates me abt it! like, i’m gonna avoid talking abt the actual parts of the writing that bother me, bc that can be it’s own standalone thing, but imo it felt like they never actually solidified what actually caused the mage/templar war? there are those that say anders started it (seems likely), then there are those who talk abt fiona leading the rebel mages in the war? and there, of course, is the “the templars have done wrong but so have they mages and therefore you’re shamed either way for what you do” like i Get what they’re trying to do, trying to encourage players to explore their options and really delve into their own moral values of the game and not just adhere to what the game says, but idk the way they always went abt it always rubbed me some type of wrong

i think part of it is bc, when people mention circle mages turning to blood mages and demons and such like that, it was always framed as “ah these evil mages!” and not “[if these are circle mages] most likely their want for freedom pushed them to that”

does that make it right? no, not necessarily! look at uldred from dao! imo, he was wrong! i don’t like the circle and my warden herself has a complicated relationship with it, but i like that you can say “hey! this is wrong!” without legitimate plot-based “but what if it isn’t?”

of course there will always be companions who push for the more chaotic/harsh choices (morrigan is the one i have the most experience with giving me disapproval for being what i think is nice) (still love her tho), but i think dao handled “okay, look at the big picture, and really think abt what hill u want to die on” stance well

and then there’s the way the mage/templar thing is handled in inquisition vis a vis companions. specifically cullen. and, listen, i as a player have a very complicated relationship with cullen and my heros do too lmao. and i really don’t want to get into the nuances of that bc that can 1) turn into a fight i don’t feel like having and 2) can be it’s own discussion, but basically, from my own perspective, he’s a well-written character who makes for a good antag to a mage-siding hawke in da2 bc of how pro-templar/anti-mage he is. again, don’t agree with any of it (honestly da2 alone puts me on the “okay fuck this” level w/ his character), but it does offer an extreme that is interesting to see. origins is more complicated bc in a game not directly stepped in mage/templar and also a game that stems from 6 different origin stories, it’s very easy to be a non-mage and be like “why do i care abt this guy” (if you get what i’m saying? like i got immediately invested in saving the mages bc my first warden was a circle mage so i was very put off by being told to kill all of them, as compared to if i played a non-mage origin and didn’t really have that background knowledge). but overall, origins and da2 puts cullen on the “pro-templars, mages are more dangerous than they are good side.” and then inquisition is where things get interesting!!

and, for a quick ref, i’m very into getting invested in my characters and really figuring out their morals and what they would actually do, or at least think, so dai becomes interesting bc i play as another elven mage who has never stepped foot in a circle and never will. so, bc of that, i play him as naturally more inclined to not initially Think abt cullen’s past like as a templar bc, as a dalish mage, i hc that he does not know what actually goes on in circles (as compared to my warden, a circle mage, and my hawke, an apostate) (but i hc that, overtime, as he has more and more experiences with templars, he becomes more cognizant of that) (but bioware doesn’t give me the option to just dictate everything my camris lavellan is thinking akjsjkdjk)

and dai-cullen, imo, is actually very interesting! and, tbh, i do have to give it to bioware. i feel like i’m abt to say an unironic controversial opinion, and i feel like i’ve already talked abt the nuances of all of this, but i do think dai did well at reworking cullen’s character. however, i feel like that was also done to feed into the grey-ness of the mage/templars. and, imo, i think they almost did well at actually making cullen show regret for how he treated mages. almost. again, i think there’s a lot of nuance! bc we do see him show some type of regret for how he treated a mage!warden (if he said all that shit like “all these people’s blood are on your hands” if u talk abt not wanting to kill innocent mages) and we do see him step away from templar life (that is, if you tell him to stop taking lyrium)

but!!!! there’s One Thing that puts a thorn in this, and it’s that cullen says something along the lines of, “meredith wasn’t all wrong, she had reason” like bitch!!! no matter what side you choose in da2, you fucking fight meredith!!! she’s wanted to kill innocent mages/make them tranquil even before anders blew up the chantry!!! meredith was all wrong!! she was evil!!!!! she was objectively a harmful person!!!!!!!!! bioware really makes this bitch the final boss of da2 and then has the audacity to say “but maybe she wasn’t all bad” in dai like WHERE IS THIS FOR ORSINO??? ORSINO ISN’T ALL BAD, IS HE???????? OH BUT HE IS BC HE RESORTED TO SUDDEN BLOOD MAGIC IN THE LAST TEN MINUTES OF THE GAME, AS COMPARED TO MEREDITH WHO WAS A DANGER FOR THE ENTIRE FINAL ACT and i digress but the fact that bioware is trying to redeem cullen but also showing that he still sympathizes with a woman who 1) turned against the templars and 2) Literally Everything She Did To The Mages always makes me “hmmmm are u really trying tho :/”

also tho one thing i’m actually not the biggest fan of is that cullen is like “oh i knew hawke in passing........ knew varric in passing.............” meanwhile let’s just cut to everything that happened at kirkwall. this is my own opinion bc i see varric as hawke’s #1 but i personally think that at least half of the comraderie varric and cullen sorta-kinda-had in inq was varric testing the waters of “okay what is cullen going to be like if and when hawke shows up”

also tho i will say a hot-take of mine is that if cullen gets to be redeemed by bioware, then i want something for anders, too, but i doubt bioware would do something so clearly pro-mage. but it could be two sides of the extreme! extremist templar gets redemption, extremist mage does, too! come on, bioware, show your grey morality

(again, i think it’s interesting what they did with cullen in dai and does give some sympathetic light but i also do think the reworking of his character was working towards bioware’s moral-greyness agenda with dragon age. not that that’s necessarily a terrible thing, i understand them wanting some nuance, but it’s the way they do it. like, you can show bad templars and bad mages and still not have “but who is really the bad guy? the oppressors or the oppressed? who is it really?”)

(and also just bc i feel like i need to put my own player claim in this, my opinion on cullen is complicated and also i’m gonna be completely forth-right with u, dear anon, i appreciate cullen in inquisition but, as a whole, he can be terrible to ur warden in dao (that’s not me being shifty it literally just depends on the choice you make in broken circle) and in da2 he’s a nightmare, so bioware had to do a lot of legwork in dai) (tbh tho in my personal-player opinion, if i was to ever romance cullen in inq, it’s not gonna be with a mage)

god this got so out of hand anon i’m so sorry you probably didn’t want this messy essay but i just love talking abt dragon age!!! i think abt it a lot and i have five years worth of headcanons and i have a family tree set up for my surana/lavellan bc of some bullshit i pulled and also!!!! bioware’s writing can get so frustrating but i also think it’s so interesting to pull apart and discuss bc i think the bioware has actually shifted from pro-mage (origins) to neutral-mage (da2 kinda) to anti-mage (dai) and i feel like So Many Choices with characters and their plots reveal that!!! so it’s a frustrating agenda but i also just love dragon age so much that i can’t help but get excited and talk abt it!!!

like, as all things, i do believe there are times when grey morality does work, but, at least from a mage-siding perspective, it hasn’t really landed well for dragon age. bc, and i don’t want to drag in real-life scenarios bc i feel like it would be incredibly inappropriate of me to use any oppressed minority as a comparison for a fantasy world, but it’s the age-old thing of people saying the shitty “but the oppressed fight back and therefore they’re just as bad as the oppressors!” and that’s like....... not how it works.

but also you’ve caught me in a wonderful mood so i feel like, if i was in a bad mood, this would be a lot more “and fucking bioware can’t make a goddamn decision on what side they actually support so instead most of the companions are gonna made rude remarks abt you supporting mages and the ones that support you are seen as distrustful and fuck this and fuck that” but i think that is the joy of loving something with you’re whole heart and also saying “there are so many things abt this that piss me off and so many things that i would change”

and also!!!! ik bioware probably killed my warden so like rip electra surana but i would love for the warden to make an appearance in da4 as a temporary companion/advisor. but! but!!!!!! i also don’t know how much i trust bioware with my “elven mage who is alistair’s mistress and preferred the mages and wanted to free the circles and etc etc etc” bc... idk how to explain it? like, i don’t want them taking my warden and putting words in her mouth that go against choices i meticulously made in dao

#im ending this now #i went thru like 8 different discussion points im so sorry #im also not tagging this as d/a bc i try not to start fandom shit here #not for any moral reason #i just dont feel like arguing w/ strangers on the internet #i like discussing tho!!! like genuinely #also im sorry this conversation became so cullen-centric #i just feel like he is who bioware puts a lot of their moral-greyness in #answered #Anonymous

13 notes · View notes

macgyvertape · 4 years

Text

I wish i liked turn based combat

With the announcement of Baldurs Gate 3 I was thinking about turn based combat games I played. Tides of Numeria is on my to play list, but I was trying to think of a turn based combat game I liked:

Dragon Age Origins: my first introduction to turn based combat games, first rpg, and 2nd triple AAA I played (Halo CE was my first). I did a mage build, did a bad build, and soft locked myself in Archdemon fight where I ran out of potions and my weak party couldn’t do enough damage. I’ve tried to replay it through atleast 2 other times, but gave up partway through, which brings me to my main point

Turn based combat fucking draaaaags.

The pause -> select abilities -> watch both sides do damage -> pause again

it just kills my enjoyment. Sure you can do it on no pause but then that leads to my next problem

KOTOR 1/2: they’re turn based combat games that want to be real time strategy games. So then the stats of your gear and the stats of your build start to matter much more than positioning and skill sync from DA:O. Honestly to finish either game I just turned on god mode by the end. Trying to optimize gear and weapons just felt like a waste of time because nothing was a clear “do a bigger damage number”. For Kotor 2 especially all the different blaster shots felt like they did the same thing, so you might as well just stick to which ever one you leveled the highest the entire game.

so then when you get to the point that you can’t figure out what gear is better:

Baldur’s Gate 1 & 2: Baldur’s Gate 1 is extremely unforgiving, I only beat it on my 3rd try by just keeping a guide open. Baldur’s Gate 2 I said “fuck this” and ragequit after the asshole paladin who was carrying my party through combat left when there was no option for me to go recruit new party members. For both games I just picked what reddit said was the easiest build, which isn’t exactly fun, but it’s so easy to make trap builds in that game and run into problems if you don’t have good gear according to the archaic DnD rules where lower number better.

Really the only turn based game I liked was:

Divinity Original Sin 2. That was fully turned base, no blend of real time elements. If I made a mistake with a build I didn’t feel like it was unrecoverable, because for fights that I started, I could bait the enemies into bad positioning. It was annoying that I felt like I could never use Source abilities, because I was always saving them for a suprise bossfight, after that one necrofire zone from hell near some giant platform. I remember having to go back to a save like an hour earlier, and walk away from that zone and go back later, the fight was that bad after several attempts. However, DOS2 is that it’s one of the few games where I just went “this is too long, I’m tired of playing this” and just never got to the ending. But thats partly a pacing issue, and partly that the combat never felt fun that I would want to do it for several hours on end.

Overall I think one of my problems with turn based combat is it’s easy to fuck yourself over in the future and not even realize it, when you are new and unfamiliar with the systems. If you’re struggling in a fight, it’s partly a question of skill, knowing what to do when. But there’s a bigger part where skill doesn’t matter, the numbers do, and so practice can’t do anything to close the gap like it does in first person shooters, or action adventure games like Witcher of AssCreed, or soulsborne games where munckining is advantageous but technical precision is also needed.

#mac plays video games #turn based combat

3 notes · View notes

dlamp-dictator · 4 years

Text

Allen Rambles about Dusk Diver

I finished playing Dusk Diver, a small beat-em-up by JFI Games. I originally played it because it was on sale, I’ve had my eye on it for a few months now, and I needed a break from DMC5 for a bit. And boy do I have some thoughts about it now that I’m done with the game. Namely a bunch of nitpicks, but... we’ll get there in time.

But as always, let’s start with that Synopsis.

Dusk Diver takes place in the Ximending district of Taipei, Taiwan. The story focuses on Yumo Yang, a Taiwanese high school senior that got caught up in a spiritual adventure over her summer vacation. While out with her friend she was randomly pulled into the alternate dimension of phantoms and demons. Before she was about to get killed by one a local loin god protects Yumo by (accidentally) transferring his powers to her. After she fends off the phantoms she decides to help clean her city of phantoms over summer break with the god’s help, along with the help of his eccentric and frugal boss... Boss.

The plot takes off from there as Yumo pummels phantoms, gains allies, brightens up her town, and learns more about why the phantom and human realms are colliding. I gotta’ say, it’s nice to actually write the synopsis without having to either look at wiki article or outright copy it. This game is very simple for both good and ill.

So... what do I think of this game?

Well, unlike Assassins Pride I’ll be going over the bad first and then try to end on a high note, since for all my issues and nitpicks I did enjoy this game very much.

With that said, let’s start with...

The Bad

The Localization

So the localization is very similar to Under Night In-Birth Late[st] in that it feels very unfinished. When I talked about Under Night’s localization I was a little too harsh on it for my current liking and I’ll use Dusk Diver to explain myself a bit better.

Dusk Diver’s localization isn’t bad. I played this game listening to the Taiwanese dub and nothing sounded too off, but the script, the actual words on the screen, were rife with spelling and grammar errors, inconsistent terminology, and even moments where you could read the actual code of the game in the text. This the translation was either rushed, or it didn’t have enough time to really finish it, which makes it feel really sloppy. The said thing is that this game does have a rather charming script despite this, but reading all those errors and trying to correct them in your head can be... annoying.

The RPG Elements

So... this game is a beat-em-up that revolves around doing large combos and keeping up a hit counter to get higher drops of health, SP, TP, and other resources. The main goal of combat is to get combos going, collect SP and TP, and use those to do more damage to the enemies.

So why is there an RPG level up system in this game?

I still have a lot of DMC5′s mechanics ingrained in me, so forgive me if this sounds pushy, but in most hack-and-slash/beat-em-up style games tacking on an RPG-style upgrade system only slows down the overall gameplay.

Let me explain. Every time you complete a level for the first time you gain skill points. You use those points to improve your HP, SP, attack, etc.. This doesn’t feel good to do for this style of gameplay. In most beat-em-ups/hack-and-slash games skill points and similar currency are typically used for new moves or special abilities. DMC5′s red orbs are for new moves, Nero’s devil arms, and a limited amount of health and devil trigger increases. Senran Kagura uses its currency for costumes, accessories, and music, with the mere act of leveling up giving you higher bases automatically and more moves when you reach a certain level that proves you’re familiar enough with your current moveset to expand it. Solely making the numbers of damage and health go up doesn’t make you feel more powerful, it makes you feel like you can just handle the enemies that have gotten a lot more health and do a lot more damage for no reason other than slowing down the gameplay. I’ll save my recommendations for later, but the quick version is that the skill points should be used for more moves, more SP, and Drive duration only, as health and attack feel really arbitrary points to tack on for this style of gameplay.

The Platform/Alternate Gameplay Modes

Not often and namely during side missions for the Boss, but sometimes you have to do platforming segments and reach a certain point on the map and defeat some enemies.

They’re terrible.

Much like Devil May Cry, movement, jumping, and generally getting around feels fine save for me wishing Yumo’s run speed a bit faster. However, precise jumping and general platforming just don’t work. I don’t believe there’s a drop shadow in this game, the jumping itself has much different momentum when trying to maneuver in the air, making some moving platforms a pain to reach, and while the platforms themselves are rather large, the moving platforms go too slow compared to a lot of the fast-paced combat, making it a painstaking wait to get to the next fight.

Again, like DMC, this most platform this game should have is fighting on rooftops. In fact, I believe in the second or third mission you did have to traverse rooftops and it was actually pretty fun. Like I said, the platforms are usually wide enough that even with the wonky jumping it’s not a pain and getting to a higher point on the map and seeing the overall scenery is... nice.

It’s just when you want me to pull off jumps like this is a Mario game is when things get dicey.

But those are all the big issues down, or at least my top three so...

Smaller Issues that Bug Allen

Like I said, I have more nitpicks than actual problems with this game. The game itself is a fine 10-15 hour experience, but there are several smaller issues that just pile up as you play it. It shouldn’t take you out of the game, but they did frustrate me a little. With that said though:

The minimap needs an ability to mark sidequests, it’ll make for a lot less backtracking and random pausing to look at the map and see where I need to go. I understand that this game is a more or less faithful for recreation of the Ximending district, but for non-locals playing this game like me finding locations is rather difficult.

Since this game has visual novel styled cutscenes it’d be nice to have a log button to backtrack conversations just in case you skim over some important dialogue.

On that note, an option to control the speed of the text would be great as well, as I didn’t see one in there initially.

Cutscene Skip Button. It’s annoying to do the hard mode of these stages and having replay cutscenes I’ve already seen. Especially when I’m just hunting for Dragon Vein Shards.

Dragon Vein Shards should be tied solely to upgrades, as using them for plot advancement only adds to the grind... or so I would say if not for me have twice as many of the shards needed for progression every time. Again, I’ll go more in depth when I talk about my desires in a sequel, but for now I’ll just say these items should either be for leveling up or as a sort of collectible.

I’d like the rank system to be more like DMC, tying clear time, damage taken, max combo, and things like all together so that the end goal isn’t just to speedrun a stage for the S-rank.

Can the menu option be mapped to the triangle button like every other game? It kept throwing me off when I tried to pull up the map.

There doesn’t need to be a small cinematic when you do certain guardian attacks. It locks Yumo in place and has a real high chance to miss its target save for bosses.

It’d be best to map items to the buttons instead of the d-pad, as it kept tripping me up when I was trying to heal.

I think that’s it for the major nitpicks, so let’s move onto the the good stuff.

The Good

Story and Theme

The story of Dusk Diver is simple, but effective. You go around saving the district by fighting monsters, you see how those monsters effect the district in each arc, and you solve the problem, usually getting an ally along the way. The few people that are aware of your secret job as a magical martial arts girl, usually the elderly or spiritually attuned, are very supportive toward Yumo.

The game has an overall light, encouraging tone. It wants you to love the city as much as Yumo and Leo do, and it works. All of your side missions have you help out the locals in some way and you gain increased power for the super mode. You work at a convenience store, you partner with the local gods and guardians. Everything you do reinforces the idea of protect, preserving, and understand the town you live in. Yumo gets bonus dragon shard veins by frequently eating at local restaurants and becoming a regular. You help tourists out finding places to visit. You help an elderly man by taking photos of his old stomping grounds and he reminisces on what those old buildings were originally for. You help a coffee shop for free drinks. The list goes on, but a lot of the game reinforces this theme of community and loving the town do so much in. This is a very comfy game despite all the action of bashing demons and phantoms.

Characters

While simple, Yumo as a character is a very cheery girl that just wants to help others. She’s a bit annoyed at being forced to help at first, but she is someone that’s helpful at heart. And seeing her want to protect her friends and town is genuinely heartwarming.

Plus, I really like her design. I’ve always been a fan of simple street clothes, and black with yellow highlights will always sell me on a character.

Your guardians are pretty fun too. Leo’s knowledge of the city and desire to help others really gives him a cool grandpa vibe. Bahet’s a quiet and encouraging guy with a noble background despite his punk fashion. Le Viada is a model with a complex around her age and big sister mentality, the list goes on. Again, these characters are simple, but effective.

Gameplay

While I did have my nitpicks, the gameplay is solid beat-em-up action. Light and heavy attacks with the occasional use of the the guardians. And each guardian has a special ability with their damage. Leo can do massive damage to enemy shields, getting rid of them in one or two shots with his more powerful moves. Bahet can slowly chip away at an enemy with his scythe’s poison effect. Le Viada’s guns can outright ignore enemy armor and punch through it, as well as lay down traps, and... there’s a fourth guardian for when you beat the game. I won’t spoil it, but they’re basically a turret that stays in one place while you summor your other guardians, making her unique as you can’t usually summon two guardians at a time. And like I said before, aiming and lining up certain attacks can be a bit unwieldy since some moves playcinematics that lock you in place, but it’s overall fun. Racking up combos, using big AoE moves, it all feels great.

And with all of that out of the way.

Wishes for the Future

Much like in my Fire Emblem rambling I don’t like the idea of correcting a story or game that’s already been finished, but I find no issue with discussing what I want for the future. And I really thing this game can have a sequel. The game states that Yumo isn’t the first person in recent time with latent spiritual powers, or that this is the first time that the phantom and human realms became loose. And hell, Yumo is still someone that wants to protect her town, so it’d be easy to make a game in another area of Taipei that’s gone out of whack, or even give the reins to someone else. And I do want a sequel.

Like I said, my main issue with this game are some nitpicks that could honestly be fixed with a patch or a two-month delay. If this game sold well enough to get a sequel I’d buy it.

That said, here are a few things I’d like to see in that hypothetical sequel. Such as...

Rankings

A lot of these are going to be taking a page from DMC since I was taking a break from DMC5 to play this, but the ranks shouldn’t be tied solely to clear time. That just makes people speedrun the stage and miss Dragon Veins. Having rank linked to time, combos, hits taken, and so on would give you some breathing room when you try and explore a stage, as you wouldn’t be punished for being curious. You’d still need to be quick, but you won’t be completely screwed either.

Leveling Up

Leveling up give you skill points that you can stick into your health, SP, attack, super mode duration, just dodge duration, luck, and moves. This game shouldn’t give attack or health for skill points. This is just my belief with design, but beat-em-ups shouldn’t just jack up the health of normal enemies as you get stronger, instead just giving us tougher enemies with different patterns of attack. The game already does this with some success, so those slots that increase health and attack seem pointless. You get skill points when you complete a stage for the first time, or find dragon vein shards. This... really puts a lot of pressure on the kinds of skills you upgrade, and while I’m not against that it does make this very light-hearted oddly restricting as you debate what to upgrade. I’d recommend using those dragon vein shards solely to level up instead of for story progression as well. With each upgrade costing more and more dragon veins as you increase your stats. In this first game you can collect over 150 dragon veins. You only need 50 to complete the story mode, and I had about 75 by the time I reached the final mission.

I know some people struggled to grab them, but... I didn’t, so... maybe have the veins do something else than gate story progression.

Post Game Activities

If we are going to have a post game to finish up some side quests for 100%, then we might as well have some extra things to do too.

Oh right, I never mentioned that yet.

Yeah, once you beat the game you’re essentially in a free-run mode to finish some leftover side quests and do a few extra things you might have missed, but... I finished all the side quests before the final story, so I was left with just finishing some hard-mode missions and finishing up my upgrade tree. That said, if there is going to be a post game here’s a few ideas:

Survival Mode where you fight waves of enemies. Some akin to a Bloody Palace Mode where you can compete for a high score among friends and online.

Post Game dungeons that are hard as hell, this could be DLC if you wanted as I wouldn’t mind paying for more content like this.

Extra moves/skills. Yumo’s moveset is rather small compared to DMC and Senran Kagura. If we’re going to have just one character to play as then I’d rather have a complex character that takes awhile to learn than an easy one where I’m spamming the same moves over and over... or give us more characters to play as with equally simple movesets.

That’s really it. The game overall is fun with it’s only real flaw being a rather short game for 35 bucks. Like I said, either some DLC or a sequel would make me feel better about recommend this one, but if you want a fun, short beat-em-up game then this is out on steam, PS4, and the Switch. Feel free to get... though I’d recommend waiting for a sale.

In any case, back to DMC5 for me.

#your dictator is speaking #dusk diver

1 note · View note

himboholhorse-moving · 5 years

Note

1 2 4 7 8 9 13 18 20 26 27 29 30 32 39 40 41 43/44 45 46 49 51 53 55 56 57 59 63 65 that is. so many dghsdghsdgv I'm sorry I just see an ask meme and go crazy aaaa go stupid aaaa. You can just answer whichever u like from those!! also 69(nice): you seem rly nice and funny from your 🅱️osts and I appreciate u... I hope you can find better irl friends who aren't trash

HDSKFJKS I completely understand but lucky for u I LOVE to talk !!

1) How are you?

Pretty good, actually!! Which is a nice change of pace. I went to Walmart with some friends yesterday and got a few things, baked a family recipe that my friends LOVE, and finally did my laundry (it’s been a couple weeks we love depression and executive dysfunction dfhkjsfd). I went to Cracker Barrel with some friends and earlier and played a 4-way game of Tetris after. :3c

2) Post a picture of yourself.

Here you go !!

4) What is your entire name?

Sierra Alexis and my last name is something constantly misspelled so I’ll give you the name of a historical figure whose name is a letter off from mine: George B. McClellan, to whom I may or may not be related because last name variations are fuckin’ WEIRD.

7) Your zodiac/horoscope and if you think it fits your personality.

I’m a Capricorn sun and moon, and Libra rising !! And from what I’ve read on Twitter from various astrologers, like Milkstrology, I LOVE her, I’d say it’s pretty accurate with my personality!! I like to say Capricorn’s aren’t cold bitches but, I Have A Tendency To Be One !!

8) What did you do on your last birthday?

God what DID I do on my last birthday… it was in January, so like, I SHOULD remember… OH I went to IHOP with my friends !! I share a birthday with another friend and I got a JoJo notebook and something called a Fuggler! They’re stuffed animals more or less but designed to be “ugly.” I got one that looks like Philadelphia Flyers mascot Gritty because I LOVE Gritty… he’s so fun and funky.

9) What is one thing you’d like to accomplish before your next birthday?

Get all my requests in my inbox over on my writing blog done KJHFDJKSF it’s been a few months and life has been. Hectic to say the least.

13) If you could change your eye color, would you?

There’s so much weird as hell brown-eye-phobia so like… I think blue eyes would be pretty neat. OR PURPLE… give me some unnatural eye colors pls...

18) Do you have any tattoos?

Not yet!! I’m going to get one the next time I go back home for break. :3c And I have a few ideas for other ones!! I wanna get a big-ass “Dragon Age: Origins” tattoo that’s the dragon on the cover on my thigh. I also wanna get a DA2 and “Inquisition” tattoo… and the Joestar birthmark… too many ideas…

20) Left or right handed?

Right-handed !! I could have been left-handed or ambidextrous if I broke my arm AFTER I started kindergarten, but alas that was before.

26) Something you are working on right now:

This !! But also the script for my next podcast episode that I record on uhhh Monday I think. Should probably figure that one out dsjfjhsf

27) Do you have any “rules” about food?

I answered that in the last ask !!

29) What would you say is your best quality?

I also answered this in the last ask !!

30) What do you think you’re really good at?

Writing, I’d say! And memorizing trivia about the stuff I’m super into. If it’s stuff pertaining to “M*A*S*H” or old movies or TV shows or actors or specific historical events, I will know that shit FOR LIFE. Don’t ask me to do math pls thank u

32) What talent do you wish you’d been born with?

I wish I was able to do stuff with music. That was never really in my blood, despite all the music classes they make you take in elementary school. I just never learned how to memorize or read sheet music. :/ I would have loved to play violin, tho… my friend plays and she says I would have been a good cellist.

39) Do you sleep with a stuffed toy?

YES… have for years. I still have my Care Bear from when I was 5, Gritty as mentioned above, a plush of my school’s mascot, and a little Fugo !! He’s so tiny.

40) What do you think about the most?

Everything and constantly and all at once. But the past really because I can never let stuff go and even the small things I mess up on haunt me forever… Wish that wasn’t the case but it is !!

41) Share two habits:

Biting my nails and having a very specific routine in which I get ready when I wake up. Like, I’ve gotta go brush my hair before I put my important cards in my left pocket, then put on my silver bracelet, then my beaded bracelet, then my earbuds in my right pocket, then put my earrings in. I HAVE to do it in that order…

And other oddities that include, like, if I need to go around something I HAVE to follow the urge to go one way and not the other, lest I feel the need to go back and fix it. And then which foot goes first before I reach a crack in the sidewalk, or up or down a curb, etc.

43) What are your career goals?

If I can just make people happy or get some kind of joy out of the things I do, I’d call that enough. :)

44) What is your ideal career?

Mmm, either a film historian or a film professor !! Preferably at the college I’m at right now but wherever the wind takes me, I’ll go! Or a Twitch streamer or YouTuber, it really depends on my mood jdhfjskf

45) Is your life anything like it was two years ago?

It was pretty much the same !! Freshman year was pretty lively, I didn’t have a job on campus yet though, or my podcast. Everything else is basically the same!

46) Do you replay things that have happened in your head?

CONSTANTLY… good or bad it’ll play back over and over and over again.

49) Do you have any phobias?

HOO BOY, DO I… fear of heights; fear of insects/bugs/arachnids/bees/wasps; I have a strong dislike of the number 13 but I don’t know if it’s a phobia, I just. REALLY hate it; the unknown, more or less what lurks somewhere beyond where I can see. Not so much a fear of the dark with that one, just what could BE in it.

51) Are you allergic to anything? If so, what?

I answered this in my last ask, as well!

53) Ever come close to death?

Two or three times, maybe? Two of them involved what’s called a laryngospasm, typically it can happen when your sick, which is what happened to me both times. Basically your throat just closes up on your for a hot minute and you can’t breathe. The first time I genuinely thought I was going to die (and my dad still sent me to school that day… HOE), the second time I was also sick and was losing/had lost my voice DURING A JOB RETREAT and it happened in the middle of the night so that was funny sitting there gasping for breath in the pitch dark.

At the FIRST retreat I went on for that job, you had to take pictures as part of a scavenger hunt, and the place used to be an old military fort, so there were still the old bunkers there. We had to take one on top of it and I was taking the picture, and it’s a wide shot so I go to take a step back but before I do I look behind me. If I hadn’t I would have fallen a good 10-15 feet down onto solid Civil War-era bunker concrete. I’d consider that being a “close to death” moment because I really could have died!

55) A random fact about yourself:

I have a half-brother !! My sis and I finally found him after her 23andMe results came back (which she decided to do despite us being like THE GOVERNMENT WILL COLLECT OUR DATA) and we didn’t think our mom would be happy she found him but she was !! My sis might reach out and contact him, she just wanted our mom’s permission first to do it.

56) What are three things most people don’t know about you?

Well, that I have a half-brother. I don’t mention it a lot. Aside from y’all on here and my sister, most everyone else doesn’t know I’m nonbinary! Everyone else knows I’m bi though lmao. And that there were times I’d stretch or bend the truth or lie about something just to impress someone else. It’s a… Bad Habit. Another thing is that most people don’t know I like coffee? Like I need to put a shit ton of creamer in with it because I’m a Bitch, but yeah.

57) An unknown fact about your life:

I wouldn’t call this an “unknown” fact but I’d used to go to work with my dad every now and again when he worked at the Home Depot and he was assistant manager. I’d either chill in the back room which was an office he shared with two other guys, or walk around the store with him. I had my own apron, too, which was my name with “Mini Mac” next to it, “Mac” being my dad’s nickname and something easier to say than my last name. I actually helped a few customers out so I wonder if I should have gotten paid for that despite being like, ages 9-13 when I’d go jshfkjd

And I guess I technically tested video games as a kid? Basically, when my dad was stationed at Fort Knox, they’d get demos of video games that hadn’t come out yet to test I suppose? and I still have a few somewhere. He’d hand them off to me and I’d play them so there’s that.

59) Five weird things that you like:

Eating globs of wasabi for no reason.

Scaring my friends also for no reason.

I wouldn’t say using cotton swabs to get wax out of your ears because it feels good is weird, just more medically inadvisable if anything.

When I was younger I’d like to floss really hard because the slight pain from it felt good. Young me was a #Freaque KJHDFJJDHF

I don’t know if being fond of alphabetizing and reorganizing things is considered weird but I LOVE doing that.

63) A quote you try to live by:

“It matters not how strait the gate, / How charged with punishments the scroll; / I am the master of my fate: / I am the captain of my soul.” It’s from the poem “Invictus” and the last two lines are what I’m getting tattooed !!

65) Weird things you do when you’re alone:

Practice the “Lucky Star” dance. I GOT THE LYRICS DOWN… JUST NEED TO DO THE DANCE NOW…

69) Leave me a compliment:

“you seem rly nice and funny from your 🅱️osts and I appreciate u... I hope you can find better irl friends who aren't trash”

Anon pls 🥺 I do my best to be nice but my friend really do test me sometimes... my feelings bounce back n forth like if they do something my feelings can switch to angry or like, hate, and then if they do something nice I’ll like them again. It sucks but ! I just take it one day at a time. Anon I care for u 💜💜💜

#anonymous #asks #ask games #I love u anon 💜 thank u for letting me just Talk jdhsksjf #Anonymous

5 notes · View notes

eluvianarts · 5 years

Text

Oh, my heart.

As I’ve mentioned before, Dragon Age Inquisition was my introductory game to the world of Thedas. I can honestly say that if I had started with Dragon Age Origins I would’ve been much less likely to play the other games, but it’s not for the reason you think.

It’s my own fault.

((For the quick version just read the last two paragraphs)).

My first playthrough of Origins I was a female elven mage, (aka - my usual). I romance males, & being that Alistair is the only male romance option for what felt like most of the game at the time, I naturally chose him as my LI. Then Zevran finally entered the picture & I flirted with him because it seemed harmless enough until I read online that you gain high disapproval if you flirt for a lengthy period of time before confirming who your one LI is.

So I told Zev that maybe he’s getting the wrong idea. Got that disapproval knockdown, which I managed to bring back up later, but then all our conversations were the “friendly”/”non-flirty” options. Ok.

Then came the time to make Alistair king. I knew from Inquisition the repercussions of letting him stay with the Wardens, so to save his own skin, (because I knew I wasn’t sacrificing my Hawke although I was yet to play DA2 at the time), I had to make him king. I’m also strongly against “hardening” characters, so I didn’t choose that one specific dialogue choice after meeting Goldanna. I pronounce him king and then....

Wait, you can’t marry an elf? We literally had this conversation when we first started dating! I asked if it would be a problem & you said no! Sooooo... where does that leave me? Oh, now you’re only using the “friendly” dialogue options. Great. Guess that’s that. Fine. Well.... if one of us has to die to kill this Archdemon it might as well be me since you gotta rule Thedas. Saving your skin again.

Then Morrigan. I wanted to like her, I really really did! But when push comes to shove & you announce that Flemeth only saved the two of us so you could make an old-god baby, I’m confused. Why would your mother save a female? I can’t produce an old-god baby, (or maybe I can, but you didn’t give me the option). Meaning, the only reason Flemeth saved me was so I could romance Alistair & have an emotional connection to him so you could use that as leverage to get me to agree to you not only sleeping with my man, (excuse me, “ex”-man), but to product an heir with him, which according to Grey Warden facts, I cannot?! That’s really awful, Morrigan! So no! I’m going to die to save Thedas from this Blight & you can go away empty-handed you deceiver! I wanted to be frieeendss!

“You know how I feel about you. I won’t let you die. Not while I can do something about it...”

Wait, Alistair wont let me kill the archdemon?! He dies anyway?!

Zevrannnn! I’m so mad at everything! Are you at all interested in me? ... Oh, we’re now stuck as “just friends” even though I would’ve dated you from the start had I known you were gonna show up! ... I have made some poor decisions.

In summary, because I romanced Alistair as an elf in DAO, the end of my Warden’s story was completely maddening & unfruitful to me, so if that’s what I had come to expect from the Dragon Age games, I probably wouldn’t have continued playing them. (For the record, I replayed as a female elven rogue, romanced Zevran, & suddenly Alistair seemed like such an ungrateful crybaby, so he made that old-god baby, became king, & I got to continue being epic with Zevran!)

All of that to say - With Dragon Age 4 officially announced, & many many MANY hints at the Solavellan romance ending in utter & complete heartbreak... I’m fearful. I know real life isn’t always “happily ever after”, but that’s why we watch movies, play games, & read books; to experience the happy endings! Having romanced Mass Effect’s Thane as well, gosh am I suffering at the thought of my Lavellan fighting so hard, staying so strong, only to have something entirely awful happen - like a red-lyrium-corrupted Solas going mad, Lavellan never actually being a part of the next game so she simply never sees Solas again, or the unavoidable slaying of her love either by herself or by another (because the game wont progress until you do). Please let there be some way, any way at all, that a Solavellan romance can end without tragedy! Just please!

#Thane deserved better #Lavellan deserves better #Dragon Age #DA4 #thedreadwolfrises #Dragon Age Origins #Dragon Age Inquisition #Solavellan #Alistair #Zevran #Solas #Bioware #Thane #Alistair Therin #Zevran Arainai #Dread Wolf #Fen'harel #Thane Krios #Lavellan

57 notes · View notes

victoriousscarf · 6 years

Text

Okay so it may have been somewhat obvious that I'm riding super high on Dragon Age feels and that's because I decided, like an idiot, to replay all three games jumbled up like mess, including the DLC for DA2 for the first time (shit Legacy is really good and after like four playthrough without Sebastian he's actually a bit of an adjustment and God the dog is so good). Which means I've like gone from Legacy to the Siege of Adamant to the Landsmeet in Orgins basically on different nights this week and it's been a ride and I have a lot of various thoughts but

One thing that constantly stands out to me is how lopsided the Warden vs Hawke choice is in Inquistion. Like I know a lot of people when confronted with Allistair like love Allistair (and no lie I'm fond of him even tho I've thrown him under various buses in my five playthroughs possibly more on that later) but like he'll never hold a candle to disaster dumpster child of my heart fucking Hawke.

But even more so narratively the Warden sacrificing themselves vs Hawke sacrificing themselves does not feel equal for several reasons.

One it feels like a betrayal of Hawkes story and arc, a sad, bitter end in a life full of bitter defeats and more than anything he's alone. Varric may or may not be there but Hawkes story was about their friends, their family, and to end alone in the darkness feels like it just spits on so much da2 was actually about. (I feel like YMMV here for sure but it doesn't sit right for me, being able to casually kill off the protagonist of a whole game and it feels more like a bitch move against the bad reviews da2 got than something that made narrative and emotional sense. I'm not saying Hawke wouldn't and shouldn't sacrifice themselves at some point, just man, not like this).

But on the flip side it does feel like a more satisfying end to basically any of the warden's stories. In no small part because bioware has been doing it's best to make us forget warden's short lifespans, plus, their whole motto is literally about sacrifice.

Okay so. Allistair abd Loghain both become wardens in Origins which is roughly ten years ago from the beginning of Inquistion, Inquistion is about three years long (?) so Allistair has been a warden longer than Loghain but they're both at the very least a decade into their wardenship. Pretty sure Origins doesn't mess around when they say wardens have about fifteen years to live post joining which means they're both dangerously close to the point where the taint is gonna start taking over their bodies and the calling becomes too loud to ignore (I think inquistion did weird things with the calling as being the only peril to wardens: uh no the point is the taint consumes them the calling gets louder and they go to the deep roads to die fighting rather than become a ghoul twisted by their poisoned blood. But of course that's a larger story about Inquistion trying to walk back a lot of the fucking weirdness and terror of the earlier games. Aside from Envy they somehow made fighting an army of blood mages dull I still don't get it). So what I'm saying is the Origin wardens don't really have that much more time. We don't know when Stroud joined but it was probably as long if not longer ago. Hawke meanwhile is probably somewhere between 30 and 40 and doesn't have a five year will probably be dead window.

Now this is the first time I've played Allistair as the warden so I'm not really through his bit yet so I can't speak to it entirely (tho I admit I find him sorta annoying? Like after all this time and you're as childish and victimized as ever. Ten years of being a warden and you can only complain? Ok. I get wanting to keep a character recingizable but I feel like what character development he gets in Origins is sorta ignored). But even so a dramatic sacrifice after being betrayed /again/ feels like a decent enough ending for his years as a warden. A redemption for an order he loved from the start. Stroud meanwhile is such a non character it's almost irrelevant to talk about him except to quote the warden motto: In war, victory. In peace, vigilance. In death, sacrifice. You might as well do the dramatic sacrifice to save others that's your job as a warden.

Loghain is last here because I actually think sacrificing himself in the fade is the best ending to warden!loghain's story you can actually get. (Also unlike Allistair who is upset and whiny about being hunted Loghain takes this with his usual grim humor like ah yes I'm still not one of them fancy that and I'm sorry I love him and his redemption arc so fucking much leave me here). Because like, he was the farmer turned poacher turned revolutionary turned war hero turned traitor turned king turned warden. He believes completely in his goal in front of him to the exclusion of things like sensibility and morals. He's loyalty was never to people but to Ferelden itself... Except sometimes he tripped on the way and then his lionheart tendencies go into overdrive. Marric. Anora. He loves selectively because he loves somewhat completely. He calls the Warden friend here in Inquistion something that makes me drop my controller and clutch my chest (and this last playthrough I actually earned a lot of approval from him so we actually /were/ just about friends... All you have to do is compliment Anora and you get +6 to +12 very quickly he's such a proud papa fucking kill me). Loghain doesn't have a lot of friends! He was never truly accepted by the wardens! He should have died during the Blight ten years ago! He's basically been living (and fighting) on borrowed time since then.

But here's the other thing: he doesn't have a lot of friends. The Warden. Marric.

Hawke.

He calls Hawke friend. (How did they meet??? Why don't we get along? How does mage!purple!Hawke and Loghain become friends??? I need to know!) This is a dude who cares for very few people but he and Hawke refer to each other as friends.

He's been living on borrowed times. He's been fighting all his life and he's betrayed and been betrayed and has done horrible things and made up for it as much as he can with his blade and blood and he's been hearing the calling scratch with it's claws at the back of his mind for months...

And if it comes down to him or Hawke let him sacrifice himseld for one of the few friends he's ever had. Let him make the choice to live up to his warden oath to eke out the tiniest bit more redemption open to him. It would have been a relief to him to die during the Blight, imagine how much more it is now, knowing he's protecting one of the few friends he's ever made. Knowing despite Hawkes furious yells this is better, because Hawke is a survivor and they're going to make it out of this too.

Tldr leaving Hawke in the fade seems a terrible end to their arc, leaving the warden makes narrative sense considering like warden lore but fuck me up it's like Loghain's best possible ending and I'm really emotional him and Hawke are friends wtf bioware you can't just say that and then never show me how this happened

#loghain mac tir #i have been emotionally compromised by dao #vs does a text post #vs yells about dragon age

16 notes · View notes

randomramblesandlearning · 7 years

Text

10 Things I Loved About Mass Effect:Andromeda

Warning: Spoilers! And I wrote this on the spur, so there might be grammatical errors.

1. I enjoyed the story. Yeah, people will say it recycles from the trilogy, but come on, people. Why are you surprised? Bioware recycles their plotlines all the time. It’s pretty much the same in all of their games. A protagonist gains special abilities and leads a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits team to defeat a big threat. And I’m not bothered by that. Sometimes familiarity in your franchise is good, just as long as you do new things to the formula, and I think they do.

What interested me the most was the theme of starting over. A lot of people in the Andromeda Initiative were former criminals or outcasts. The reason they joined was to start a new life, and it’s explored in the main questlines, the loyalty quests, and numerous side quests. I was worried about the game talking about colonization since humans are looking for a new home, but I was pleasantly surprised that the game made it clear that Andromeda is the angara’s home first, and humans and other Milky Way species will have to work with them. Thank god! No Mightey Whitey trope this time!

2. Ryder as the player character. I honestly never thought I would love Ryder as much as I did when I played the game. Sure, no one will ever replace Commander Shepard, but Ryder isn’t meant to replace the Commander, rather show a different perspective in a new story. Commander Shepard is the hero we want to be while Ryder is more of a relatable character. Ryder has to learn through the entire game how to be a leader while going through the obstacles of their inexperience and youth so people will take them seriously. And it was compelling, uplifting, and at times amusing to see them become a hero in their own right and step out of their father’s shadow.

Also Sara and Scott felt like their own person. In the original trilogy, the player character is pretty much the same no matter what gender. But sometimes the dialogue can be different depending on if you play a male Ryder or a female Ryder. That’s because they are two different people who have had their own experiences and personalities. That really adds to the replay value!

3. Female aliens everywhere! One of my major issues with the original trilogy was the lack of female Turians, krogans, and salarians. Sure we had asari an all-female race, and female quarians, but it felt weird that we met so many aliens with very few ladies. Not only do we get a female Turian squadmate, we also get plenty of lady alien NPCs gathered everywhere for random quests. We also have Kesh who works at the Nexus. And we get to see female salarians! And they kind of look the same as male salarians except with different voices. Thank god! It would’ve been horrifying to see salarians with boobs. Uh! And I’m pretty sure there were just as many female angara NPCs as there were males.

4. The romances. Especially the queer ones. One of the things I love about Bioware games are the romance paths. Bonus points if there is a queer option. And as of patch 1.08, this game has the most number of queer romances in any Bioware game. I think my two favorite romance paths are with Sara and Vetra and Jaal and Scott. While representation for the LGBT community is improving in media, there’s no denying we still have a long way to go. And after again the crap year 2016 where we had a huge number of queer women characters die in tv shows, it was so wonderful to have a healthy and happy relationship between two women when I first played the game. And even if it wasn’t added until the patch, the romance between Jaal and Scott is absolutely sweet since we see two men show a lot of love and affection for each other which is rare to see in media.

5. The Tempest Family. I adore every single character on the Tempest, and they really did feel like a family once you played further into the game. I am a sucker for found families, and to see these people who are trying to find a home ending up finding a home with each other just gives me so many feels!

Since there’s not really a huge crew in the ship like in the original trilogy when Shepard had an army of humans. In Andromeda, we have six squad mates, four additional crew members, and Ryder. And I think it made the family more intimate. It’s like our own little family lives on the Tempest.

Also I liked how there were more quests spread out throughout the game with the squad which I think was lacking in Inquisition. Plus. Movie Night is the best scene ever!

6. In my opinion, the side quests were fun. I think this was one thing they improved from Inquisition. Inquisition side quests just felt like a bunch of fetch quests that got kind of boring pretty quick, and didn’t really add to the overall story. Some highlights from Andromeda were: Kadara, the angara reincarnation questline, the Turian jailed for murder, the anti-AI group, meeting Zaeed’s son, and those kids sending out a distress signal for a new light for their weed plant. HAHA!

They were compelling in their own right and included cut scenes instead of the Inquisitor going to some location like in Skyrim to do a thing come back to the quest giver saying, “I did the thing.” “Ok, good.”

7. Unlike in Inquisition, there’s actual payoff for some of the quests you do. I don’t mean to be mean to Inquisition, I still love the game, but remember when we were promised that you had to build your forces up in order to defend against the main threat. Yeah, you built forces to get influence points to gain perks, and that’s it.

In Andromeda, while, yes. It’s not the same level as Mass Effect 2. When you actually complete quests and help out leaders, you can get different results during the final battle. Like, there’s a chance Captain Dunn may not survive.

Also, when you get 100% viability on all the planets, you get a special surprise on Habitat 7- being told that it will one day be habitable because of our efforts. Sure it was a side quest, but it just felt so rewarding!

8. The climax was actually fulfilling and exciting. Again, something else Inquisition was lacking in. Seriously, when I first played Andromeda, I legit gasped when the archon was taking control of SAM node. The villain was actually living up to his threatening nature!

Just when we think we got everything under control, and are about to find Meridian, the Archon fucks shit up, and our sibling has to step up to save the day. Then we have to gather people we helped out and prepare for a final battle, and Ryder can finally prove themselves as a true Pathfinder and kick the Archon’s ass once and for all. People are saying the ending was as disappointing as ME3’s? Pfft…What are you even talking about?

9. The angara. Bioware never fails to make me love an entire fictional species. Yeah, it feels a bit off that they pretty much have the same faces and the same 3 voice actors, but I really do love their culture. And I appreciate that they were clearly coded as POC while Andromeda didn’t go through with the whole Mighty Whitey Trope. The game wants you to respect their culture and to respect their home.

I love the angaran people are open about their feelings, I love how their religion believes in reincarnation, I love how we see angaran scientists, soldiers, merchants, mercenaries, and civilians. Also Aya and Hivraal are absolutely gorgeous!

And when Jaal finds out his people were created by the Kett, I was worried it was going to go the Dalish elves route, but Jaal points out that it doesn’t change anything about the angara. They are still their own people. And that was such an uplifting message.

10. The overall light-hearted tone. I wrote a small post that got a good number of notes. (Probably the biggest number I’ve ever gotten), so to quote: “There was always this sense of hope and optimism about finding a new home. ‘Yeah, things may have gone totally wrong, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make them better’ was the overall message I got.

And really, with so many bad things happening in the world right now and too much of our entertainment supposedly being our escapism being dark for the sake of dark, this was something I think a lot of us needed.”

Mass Effect 3 had its light-hearted moments, and I love it, but man, that game was emotional draining.

It’s a bit discouraging to love something so much and get recommended videos on youtube pointing out the same flaws of that certain game, and why they thought it was a huge disappointment. Do I agree with some of their criticisms? Sure. Does the history behind the production explain the flaws? Oh absolutely.

But people seem to forget that the original Mass Effect trilogy wasn’t without its flaws. I mean, sure everyone can agree on the Mass Effect 3 ending, but I could make a list of all the issues I have with the other Bioware games including Dragon Age: Inquisition (which despite winning Game of the Year, kind of suffers the same problems Andromeda had).

So yeah, after the crap year of 2016, I was so excited to get a newly-released game that made me happy. And still makes me happy, and makes me in the mood to play another Ryder.

#mass effect #mass effect andromeda #me meta #meta #top 10 list #mass effect andromeda positive #bi jaal #angara #ryder #scott ryder #sara ryder #vetra x sara #vetra x ryder #jaal x scott #jaal x ryder #tempest family #mass effect positive #me:a #me:a spoilers

2K notes · View notes

swimintothesound · 6 years

Text

Swim Into The Sound’s 2017 Un-Awards

Welcome to Swim Into The Sound’s first annual Un-Awards! In this direct (and more negative) companion piece to our Diamond Platters, we take a moment to reflect on some of the worst moments in music over the past year. From bad lyrics to tasteless cover art, this is a quick-hit version of the lowest points that 2017 had to offer.

In a year where we keep thinking “well, at least things can’t get any worse” 2017 always managed to surprise us. From politics and celebrities all the way down to movies and music, this was a year of general-purpose deplorable behavior and reprehensible choices. While there were plenty of good moments over the past 365 days, you will find that none of that light reaches these depths. This post is a place of darkness, a hell devoted solely to the most soul-crushing and life-questioning music of the year.

I’d also like to throw out a disclaimer that I don’t particularly like being pessimistic, especially when it comes to art that people have (presumably) worked hard on. Aside from that, negativity stands in direct opposition to the ideals that this website was founded on in the first place. What I’ve found is that it’s hard to talk about the good without also thinking of the bad, especially for a year like 2017. As I mentioned before, the previous post is the exact inverse of this one, and the next article going up will cover our favorite albums of the year, so if you are searching for affirmation, this is not the place to find it. Just think of this as the lone negative meat in a positivity sandwich.

Truth be told, aside from a few visibly-frothy entries, most of these awards are positive spins on negative experiences: moments that surprised me, music I’m embarrassed to enjoy, or weird synchronicities that I noticed throughout the year. I could have gone out of my way to shit on Katy Perry, The Chainsmokers, Imagine Dragons, or any number of middling radio-ready albums that were released this year, but at a certain point that all just feels redundant and hack. I prefer to be original in my distaste. So without any further adieu, I’m proud to present Swim Into The Sound’s list of the most spine-chillingly-regrettable music of 2017.

Biggest Disappointment

Winner: Queens of the Stone Age - Villains

Being a fan is a mixed blessing. The upside is that you get to enjoy the rollercoaster of hype that is an album rollout and you get the sweet experience of listening to a highly-anticipated album for the first time when it releases. On the flip side, that fandom can easily backfire if your expectations have been built up too high. While I love Queens of the Stone Age, in 2017 I fear that I may be outgrowing them. The group’s 2004 release Songs for the Deaf is literally my favorite album of all time, and there’s no higher praise than that. Each record since then has been good to great until 2013’s ...Like Clockwork which just didn’t sit right with me outside of a select few songs.

This year, the group’s seventh LP represents a new artistic low. Featuring limp “dancy” grooves, irritatingly-clean instruments, and some of the most laughable lyrics I’ve ever heard, the band we see on Villains bears little resemblance the one that I fell in love with years ago. I recognize that wanting a band to stay the same is a shitty thing for a fan to ask, but I just can’t understand, enjoy, or tolerate the direction that the group is headed. I’m a lifelong fan, but that makes these recent records hurt all the more. When you love a band, you devour each release that they put out. Even if the last few records haven’t hit as hard, you stick with them because you want them to be better. The excitement of something new is impossible to stay away from, but now after months of listening, all I want is for Villains to stay away from me.

Runner-up: Portugal. The Man - Woodstock

While I wrote glowingly about Portugal. The Man’s entire discography last month, Woodstock (while not bad) is not an album that I particularly wanted. It’s not the band’s worst, but it’s the most sterile, safe, and poppy album that the group has ever created. Outside of a handful of adrenaline-pumping car-ready songs, Woodstock takes no risks. The album breaks no new ground, asks nothing of its audience, and seems entirely too content to settle. While those qualities are the exact opposite of what I expect from the trailblazing Portlanders, I’ll hold my reservations until I hear what comes next.

Album I Feel Like I Will Adore In A Few Years

Winner: Fleet Foxes - Crack-up

Until earlier this year I never particularly liked Fleet Foxes. In preparation for their 2017 release, I found myself endlessly replaying the group’s self-titled LP alongside Helplessness Blues while doing other things. Somewhere along the line “inoffensive background music” turned into brilliant folk epics, and I finally understood what made the band so unique. However, in a Bon Iver-esque pivot, Fleet Foxes’ third LP Crack-up represents an experimental shift in sounds, and unfortunately, it’s a change that doesn’t sit particularly well with me. There are some awe-inspiring moments scattered throughout this record, but as a whole, it’s not a release that stuck with me in the slightest, let alone one that can hold a candle to the band’s earlier work. I recognize that there’s something special going on in Crack-up, but I feel like it will just take some time for me to properly excavate it, just as I did with the group’s first two records.

Runner-up: Sun Kil Moon - Common As Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood

Sun Kil Moon is another artist that I’d never listened to until 2017. After hearing this year’s mouthful of an album Common As Light and Love Are Red Valleys of Blood, I came away pleasantly surprised. Featuring solemn, looping instrumentation and long podcast-like narration by Mark Kozelek, I listened to all two hours and ten minutes in complete fascination. I dipped back into his previous work like Benji and loved it just as much, but for whatever reason, I never ventured back into Valleys after that first listen. Maybe it was the album’s lengthy running time or the idea that the narration would prove too distracting for a casual listen, but Valleys always felt too daunting to dive back into. I feel like one day when I’m a middle-aged dad with a couple of kids I’ll finally have the time to revisit this album and it will speak to me on an entirely new level. The songs and stories here feel like something that I will find solace in when I’m older, but I just don’t have the 2+ hours right now.

WTF Moment of the Year

Winner: Bhad Bhabie

Of all the memes to emerge from 2017, few have been as successful as 14-year-old Danielle Bregoli. She first gained traction in January thanks to a Dr. Phil clip in which Mrs. Bregoli challenged an audience member to “cash her outside.” The teen’s delivery of the phrase caught fire and became a meme/infinitely-renewable social media caption for a hot minute. One of the more perplexing news stories of 2017 (and that’s saying something) was Danielle’s announcement of her music career as “Bhad Bhabi” complete with a deal on Atlantic Records. Preceded by an appearance in a Kodak Black video, this announcement blindsided the music world and spawned a million think pieces. However when Bregoli released her first song in August the unthinkable happened: It wasn’t that bad.

The video for “These Heaux” was the first part of a one-two punch alongside “Hi Bich” that set social media ablaze in September. As everyone collectively remembered the months-old meme from what seemed like a lifetime ago, most people took this as an opportunity to laugh at her once again. Meanwhile, I watched the same videos as everyone, and recognized it as bad music, but found myself embarrassingly enjoying both songs. “Heaux” and “Hi Bich” are both competent and well-produced Rae Sremmurd-esque bangers that, yes, are propped up by production, but still enjoyable. The truth is, they’re musical fast food. It’s not nutritious, healthy, or even filling, but sometimes you just need to bask in the utter trashiness that is Bhad Bhabie.

Runner-up: Lil Pump

Earlier this year I wrote a 3,000-word post in which I attempted to reconcile my newfound love of trap with my extreme dislike of the current crop of SoundCloud rappers. While that write-up was primarily inspired by the reprehensible human being that is xxxtentacion, I now regret lumping Lil Pump into the same category. While his brand of blown-out hyped-up trap is of the same school as xxx, Lil Pump isn’t nearly as bad on a personal or musical level as Onfroy. More surprisingly, I actually found myself liking his breakout single “Gucci Gang” more than I am comfortable admitting. Featuring a worryingly-mindless chorus and the same laundry list of flexes as most trap hits, “Gucci Gang” manages to be an infectious banger that has also propelled Pump to the forefront of both the charts and popular culture.

Most Un-sexy Sex Song

Winner: Alt-J “Hit Me Like That Snare”

In an interview with Q Magazine, Alt-J’s lead singer Joe Newman described “Hit Me Like That Snare” as an “atypically filthy psychedelic grind.” Wow, guys. Wow. If you want to avoid listening to the song, I don’t blame you. All you need to know about this track is that the band rhymes “slithering” with “scissoring” (yes, that kind), and the lead singer describes the song as “spicy.” Whew.

Runner-up: DJ Khaled “Wild Thoughts”

While I thought “Wild Thoughts” was exceedingly-sensual on first listen, the song now has too many things working against it for me to find any titillation here. From Rihanna’s baby talk to memories of dancing hot dogs, I just can’t listen to this song without picturing Santana’s face, or DJ Khaled screaming. The single achieved a level of cultural-pervasiveness so quickly that it became saturated beyond its original artistic vision. God knows I have no problem with DJ Khaled, but this track now contains too many distractions to remain pure. The music video is still unspeakably steamy, but as a whole, “Wild Thoughts” has lost what little sexy luster it initially had.

Am I The Only One Seeing This Shit?

Winner: Rappers Counting

I’ll admit that this category was created with the sole purpose of repurposing already-written articles, but that doesn’t make the observations contained within them any less valid. The first of these two hyper-specific happenings of 2017 can be found in this article where I outline three examples of rappers using numbers as lyrics. Not like clever wordplay involving numbers, but counting upwards sequentially one numeral at a time. It’s a weird thing to have happened multiple times in one year and feels like such a lazy cop-out of songwriting, but at the same time, each artist in the list manages to make it work for one reason or another.

Runner-up: 21 Savage’s Food Lyrics

Another weirdly-specific phenomenon of 2017 is something that I noticed while listening to 21 Savage’s debut Issa Album over the summer. Despite his tough gangster exterior and dark, moody beats, 21 also managed to fit an alarming number of food references into his first retail outing. While not particularly jarring, these references provide a weird contrast to the rest of the Mr. Savage’s “murder music” and end up sticking out like (multiple) sore thumbs throughout the record. It happened just consistently enough that I began laughing every time they poked up, and I felt the cosmic need to compile them somewhere, so I did.

Most Insensitive and Heavy-handed Song about Suicide

Winner: Arcade Fire “Creature Comfort”

On this second single off Arcade Fire’s Everything Now, we hear Win Butler clumsily address the topics of suicide and self-harm. The song’s first verse explains “Some boys hate themselves / Spend their lives resenting their fathers / Some girls hate their bodies / Stand in the mirror and wait for the feedback.” Taken on their own, these lines aren’t particularly offensive, but it’s the second verse where things get truly tactless: “Assisted suicide / She dreams about dying all the time / She told me she came so close / Filled up the bathtub and put on our first record.” I mean, what a pretentious and shitty way to insert yourself into someone else’s misery. It’s such a bizarre form of narcissism and masturbating to your own past, this line truly is one of the grossest sentiments that I’ve heard put to music over the past year.

Runner-up: Brand New “Same Logic / Teeth”

While it’s true that suicide isn’t exactly a groundbreaking topic for an emo band, Brand New somehow manages to stumble over it fantastically one of the few times that they tackle the subject. Surrounded by excellent songs of diverse sounds, styles, and topics, “Same Logic / Teeth” sticks out as Science Fiction’s most significant blunder. With questionable lyrics, bizarre vocal choices, and overwrought sentiments, it’s easy to see why most bands would prefer not write songs about killing yourself because the only time I have ever wanted to end my life is when I’m hearing Jesse Lacey sing about how fish won’t judge me by my faults.

WTF Moment of the Year 2: Weird Boogaloo

Winner: Vulfpeck “Captain Hook”

Venturing back to the “WTF Well” for two more entries, another of 2017’s biggest surprises came at the end of Vulfpeck’s Mr. Finish Line. The band’s third full-length studio album is a stone-cold chiller, but after half an hour of unspeakably funky tracks, “Captain Hook,” the record’s final song threw me (and every other listener) for a massive loop. Teased as a collaboration with Bootsy Collins, most fans expected a brainwave-shifting epic of an album closer, a modern “I’d Rather Be With You” but with even tighter instrumentation. What we got was a goofy comedy track featuring two of Vulfpeck’s members affecting the voices of an infant and an old Jewish man. Bootsy’s contributions are noticeable but minimal, and as a whole, the track is just a fantastically-bizarre experiment. “Captain Hook” is a weird child-like song featuring a trio of the three most disparate voices you could ever imagine, however (now that I know what to expect), I absolutely adore the song. It’s such a weird marriage of voices that, when combined with Vulf’s approach to music, circles back from annoying to endearing. It’s one final cherry of weirdness on top of the funk sundae that is Mr. Finish Line.

Runner-up: Taylor Swift “Look What You Made Me Do”

Preceded by snake imagery and a dark rebranding, “Look What You Made Me Do” marked Taylor Swift’s long-awaited return to the forefront of pop. After 2015’s 1989, numerous turbulent relationships, a public unmasking via Kardashian, and a complicated legal battle, the song represents Swift’s full embrace of the dark side. As the first single released off Reputation, “Look What You Made Me Do” was met with waves of confusion when it dropped this fall. From the Right Said Fred sample to the thinly-veiled jabs at her detractors, nearly everything about this song was poked and prodded through upon it’s August 25th release. There’s a strange schadenfreude to watching the biggest pop star flail to spectacularly, but at the end of the day she’ll still make a million dollars, sold-out rock stadiums, and be more successful than the richest DC supervillain, so as much as I want her to succeed, I guess it’s also okay to laugh. I definitely haven’t “come around” to the song, and I doubt I ever will, but the air of “what the fuck” was palpable the night that this song was released.

Weirdest Flex

Winner: Lil Pump “Gucci Gang”

After a brief intro and meme-ready chorus on “Gucci Gang,” Lil Pump surveys his surroundings and begins to describe them in the song’s sole verse. “My lean cost more than your rent” he boasts, “Your momma still live in a tent” he continues, “Still slangin' dope in the 'jects / Me and my grandma take meds.” These lines are so outlandish and bizarre that I can’t help but love them. First, we get the worrying comparison between the upkeep of his own opiate addiction to monthly rent, then the (uncalled for) implication that the listener’s mother is homeless, and the final cherry on top: the fact that Pump spends quality time popping pills with his grandmother.

It’s actually one of Pump’s numerous references to the elderly on his scant number of released songs, leading me to think that this is either A) a genuine lyric, or B) a worrying cry for help. At least he’s spending some quality time with his elders before they pass. Even if it’s a drug-fueled haze, I hope that both parties treasure their remaining time together.

Runner-up: Drake “Gyalchester”

On one of More Life’s most hard-hitting tracks, “Gyalchester” finds Drake braggadociously displaying his opulence in rapid lyrical flashes. Halfway through the first verse, the song’s beat cuts out just long enough for Drake to exclaim “I don't take naps / Me and the money are way too attached to go and do that.” While the sentiment of money over everything is hardly new for the rap game, using naps as a framing device to explain how fond of currency you are is such a “Drake way” to go about it. At this point, Drake is far beyond the memes of his earlier career, but lines like this one are how he got that reputation in the first place. All this said, I’m not gonna begrudge anyone their beauty sleep or lack thereof, everyone has their own unique schedule... Plus the song bangs, so cornball lyrics are easier to overlook.

Most Abhorrent Cover Art

Winner: The Darkness - Pinewood Smile

I honestly don’t want to write too much because I just want to stop looking at this. The facial hair. The teeth. The nose ring. The Photoshopped band members. I’m sorry I had to subject you guys to this, but this abortion of a cover is too bad to not share.

Runner-up: Maroon 5 - Red Pill Blues

*Adam Levine walks into the studio*

“Hey, have you guys heard of Snapchat?”

Most Undeservedly Shit Upon

Winner: Arcade Fire - Everything Now

For the sake of ending on a somewhat positive note, I’m going to wrap up by talking about two albums that were widely disliked, but I managed to appreciate. First off we have Arcade Fire’s fifth LP Everything Now. While I did just spend a paragraph dunking on the album’s suicide track, I actually thoroughly enjoyed this record. I’ll start this off by saying I have no reverence for this band, I don’t care for their older work, and they’ve always struck me as a painfully average indie group. Perhaps thanks to this lowered expectation, I emerged from my first listen of Everything Now with a smile on my face. It was goofy and cheesy, and about as far from subtle as you can get, but I still enjoyed it for what it was. Since the album is in this “shit upon” category, I guess it goes without saying that I was largely alone in this sentiment.

Maybe people were turned off by the unrelenting social media campaign, or just expected more based on the group’s previous work, but either way, it seemed like indieheads the world over were sick to their stomachs after hearing this record. I personally think the album has a wonderful Abba-esque charm to it. There’s a tremendous melodic through-line with the titular “Everything Now,” there are memorable choruses on “Creature Comfort,” and even a gloriously chunky riff on “Chemistry.”

At the end of the day, I think I enjoy Everything Now for the same reason that I enjoyed M83’s Junk. I went into both albums with low expectations and ended up loving the cheesy throwback vibe that they embraced. I can totally understand why that pivot would turn off long-time fans, but apparently, this sound is right up my alley. It’s not going to be on my end of the year list or anything, all I’m saying is Everything Now is good for what it is. You know what? It’s great for what it is. If fans could take their blinders off, remove their feelings on the album’s lead-up, and take this as a standalone adventure, they would probably enjoy Everything Now for the goofy romp that it is.

Runner-up: Foo Fighters - Concrete and Gold

Even before Concrete and Gold was released, I saw about a half dozen articles about how the Foo Fighters have nowhere else to go and are the embodiment of “New Dad Rock.” While it’s true that the band is unchallenging to listen to and don’t exactly think outside of the box, the criticism is a double-edged sword. Aside from being a thinly-veiled put-down, the dad rock label means that Foo Fighters won’t ever release a “bad” record, but they’re also never going to release another “classic” like Colour and Shape. While I agree the group is in a weird spot career-wise, I resent the idea that they won’t ever release something impactful as Colour and Shape simply because they’re older. Apart from the fact that 2011’s Wasting Light was one of the band’s best, on Concrete and Gold we see a band that’s still incredibly hungry.

Eschewing the conceptual framing devices of their past couple releases, Foo Fighters set out to make a straight-up rock record, and they succeeded. The band still go through their usual motions, oscillating from biting punky tracks to slow moody epics, but as a whole Concrete is a record that’s well-paced, well-produced, and solid from front to back. Just because it’s played on the radio doesn't mean it’s an inherently “okay” album, and just because the band is growing old doesn’t mean they’re settling. Concrete and Gold is concrete proof of that.

1 note · View note

helloimzerountamed · 5 years

Text

DragonKiss Chapter 10

Snapdragons Part 2

My first girlfriend I had was during my 13th summer.My mother had signed me up for a church related program that was going on during the summer at my school;as if I wanted to be at my Christian school during the summer.It was there where I had met Aiko Tanabe.She was the same age as me and always wore the same black/red tracksuits everyday.On some occasions,I was allowed to go over her house and we spent days,even nights together listening to music.If it weren’t for her,I won’t never have gotten more into Utada Hikaru which she played a lot during the time we played together that summer.

It was during a night I had spent at her house where that feeling I had tried to bury away from elementary school soon rose from it’s grave.While we were playing the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts collection,I was playing and Aiko started to lean closer next to me.”Hey.Is it ok if I lean on your shoulder?”She yawned and I let her.That’s when that feeling I felt towards Yoshimura and my teacher flooded me as I could feel my entire body temperature rising.For the rest of the night,we spent the remainder of it cuddling and secretly dating behind my family’s back.

That is until she moved away from Shimokitazawa and that was the end of my first relationship.After my first relationship ended,I tried dating boys because I wasn’t sure if who i liked.However,I broke up with every boy I tried to date because none of them could make me feel the way I did around girls.At 14,I started dating another girl.She was much taller than me with her black hair that had small strands of white sprouting like weeds and she was always cheerful looking.We had been spending a lot of time together like best friends.One day during a school field trip,We had both fallen asleep on our way home from the trip.Both of our heads are resting on each others shoulders and she mouths,”I love you.”under her breath.That’s when we pecked each other on the lips and it was the most beautiful feeling I had.”Holy Fucking Shit.”I couldn’t stop thinking about my first kiss and how it felt right to me.After this,I realized that I truly love girls,not boys.

“I’m gay.”I came out to myself,twice when no one was home.After coming out to myself,I felt like I was ready to tell the world.After I decided to start small,I chose to come out to my male classmate and best friend,Kenji.His reaction didn’t turn out the way I hoped for.”Why would you even want to be gay?”He said to me once I came out to him.That's when I remembered that verse that was stuck in my mind since I converted to Christianity.After coming out to Kenji,I fell into a deep pit of hopelessness and started having nightmares.Most of them involving my school,family,That one bible verse,and God repeating that I was disgusting and that I’m going to Hell.”Please help Ryu cleanse away all of these homosexual thoughts and demons that are restraining her.Oh Lord Jesus,Oh Lord Jesus,Oh Lord Jesus,Oh Lord Jesus…. ”Kenji would try to help me pray away those thoughts I kept having because again,I didn’t want God to hate me.He even helped me snap of out it even if I just looked at a girl.One day,he was absent from school so we didn’t have our praying session.I also noticed that a lot of my classmates were talking about this user on Tumblr so one day I asked them about the person.”She’s this girl around our age who posts incredible artwork and has a love for dragons.She also has on her bio that she’s openly gay and she calls herself,blackdragonsegg”.With the information I gained about this girl,I wanted to get to know this person and so I did.I logged into my own Tumblr account and checked out her art blog on there.It was mostly filled with her original artwork she did and blogs about her personal life.I decided to then strike up a conversation with her through messaging.It started with a risky text that soon blossomed into deep,late past my bedtime conversations with blackdragonsegg on my laptop.We talked about many different things such our favorite movies,books,music,likes,dislikes,and school lives.Throughout our conversations,I began getting to know her more and more.She lives all the way in San Francisco,she has a sister who’s 3 years younger than her,she goes to an art school,likes American literature,has had Autism since she was in elementary school,and is a Satanist.

When I first learned she was a Satanist,(keep in mind I come from a strictly Christian aunt and a family who’s converted to Christianity)I was freaked out at first since my family taught me to believe that those type of people are devil worshippers that commit murder and decapitate animal heads to use as sacrifice.However,even before I found that out,blackdragoneggs wasn’t at all any kind of devil worshipper or animal killer that my family viewed Satanists as;she was very welcoming and pleasant to strike up a conversation with about our favorite books or dreams of the future.She’s also listened to me when I talked about how my struggles with being both gay and Christian had made me hate myself in the form of inspiring words.”The worst thing you can do in this world is to be ashamed of who you are.Being gay is a part of who you are,it doesn’t make you any less of a Christian than anybody else.Never let anyone make you feel that way towards yourself.So what if people don’t like who you are?It’s their problem,not yours.”With those tear jerking words,I realized that maybe I’m not the one who needs curing.I hated how I was trying to push away the real me because the more I was doing it,the more damage I was doing to myself.

So as senior year was slowly coming to an end and everybody was trying to get into their dream colleges,I had the next chapter of my life all planned out.First,I would move to San Francisco to meet blackdragonsegg in person.Next,I would be attending the same university with her instead of the religious college my family wanted me to go to about that was back in Nagoya.I had already saved up enough money from my part time job at a beef bowl shop to pay for everything.Finally,I decided to tell Kenji about it.We had arranged to meet up at the school rooftop afterschool.”Ryu-chan,is everything alright?”He asked me,looking worried.Despite my stutters,I let it all out to him.”I’ve been thinking about it and I want to move to San Francisco”.Kenji then gave off a saddened look in his face.”But,Ryu-chan you aren’t even cured yet.”He said,voice shaking with shock.”Kenji,A good friend of mine has taught me that the worst thing I can do is be ashamed of who I really am.I’m not ashamed to be both gay and Christian.Also maybe I’m not the one who needs the curing.”I flat out told him and he starts shaking more.”What about your family and the church,are you just gonna leave it all in the dust?Please,Ryu don’t do this to me or your family.You’re my best friend.I know you can still be cured.”He then starts walking towards me,face soaked in tears and he attempts to peck me on the lips with his own,but I push him away from me.I couldn’t believe what the hell he was trying to do;why would he think that kissing me would turn me straight?”Forgive me,Kenji.I really do hope I get to see you after graduation.”I said to him as I gave him my school badge,walked away from him and I could’ve sworn that I heard him whisper under his breath,”Fine,If that’s how it’s gonna be,then it’s over.”After that incident,I never spoke to him again.It wasn’t until I got a message which contained horrible names directed towards me and that I was disgusting.I then told this anonymous messenger off,calling them a sinner and a hypocrite.The anonymous person then told me how ironic it was that I was calling them a sinner since they reminded me what the bible said about homosexuality.I couldn’t tell my family or my school about it since it would just cause a major chain reaction.

Despite this,good things soon started to come my way eventually.I spent more time with blackdragonsegg and we would send gifts to each other.For example,She sent me a bunch of rainbow iron on patches,pins,a Felix The Cat plush toy,movies on a flash drive and wristbands.I sent over a Japanese version of The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo as well as stickers,Utada Hikaru CDs,and her favorite manga for her 18th birthday.

After graduation passed,I revealed my big plan to her.”Does your family know about it?”She asked me through Tumblr,which I replayed with a,”Not at all,they think I’m going to college in Nagoya.”I later started getting ready for the next chapter of my life,making sure I had everything I needed:new clothes,money,blankets,camera,food,etc.It was coming along all according to plan.

Chapter 10/End.

0 notes