#i think the other minibosses need attention too

[incorrect-ghost-simulator]

Anonymous: Not saying I want to undergo drmonic possession, but it might be a nice little break to have someone else steer for a while.

Anomaly: Listen, someone needs to take the wheel and Jesus ain't coming

#submission #source: tumblr #anyway minibosses are fun and need more love : ) #with grim getting more exposure #i think the other minibosses need attention too #anonymous #anomaly #backdoor npcs #miniboss ghosts

[catreginae]

Thou Shalt Not Fall: Dungeon Crawl

Warriors gets to actually explore a dungeon for the first time and he's not impressed. His determination to speed up the process leads Warriors to discover new things about himself. I got some ideas for this chapter from nitroish! It also won a tumblr poll, so it goes up now! Surprise!

If there was one thing that Warriors was thankful for, it was that he didn't have to deal with dungeons at home. That wasn't to say that the war was a pleasant alternative but at least the fate of Hyrule didn't depend on his ability to transverse an ancient, decrepit temple because he was pretty sure his skill set wasn't exactly suitable for it.

He was more than happy to let the others lead the way, now that he was physically able to explore one with them. Apparently, letting the others lead the way actually meant studying the architecture while the group studied the room and debated on how to solve the puzzle if the solution was immediately obvious to the veterans. He liked a good problem that needed to be solved – that was the basis of strategies. However, Warriors just found that he wasn't that interested in the puzzles the dungeon had to offer.

"Not a dungeon guy, are you?" Wild asked suddenly, breaking Warriors away from his one-sided staring contest with a wall.

"Nah. Some confusing fort layouts, maybe, but nothing on this scale. What about you?"

"I had shrines, and mobile fortresses called the divine beasts. They required me to think outside the box sometimes but the shrines are more like... a couple of rooms of a temple at most. The divine beasts were like a small temple, I guess? Either way, this is a lot bigger."

Well, at least he wasn't entirely alone in feeling at least a little bit out of place.

"Oh, we're moving on."

Warriors followed the group into a new room that was rectangular shaped, with a locked door to his left, some sort of indentation in the wall in front, though it was too high up for him to see what that was all about, and a regular door with a regular handle to his right. There were no monsters in the room to speak of.

Legend was busy looking at the map.

"Our key is up there. In the indentation."

"You sure?"

"The compass says so."

Warriors tuned out their conversation to turn his attention to the locked door. Maybe they could skip the key entirely if he could just destroy the door. However, he began to doubt himself when he realized that the door was thick metal and the door had an internal lock. He had superhuman strength but there was a limit as to what he could do with it. He could try to break it, but he didn't exactly feel like breaking a bone if he was right about the door being too thick. He wanted to be able to get through at least one dungeon without breaking a bone. His track record wasn't great so far.

"To get back there, we would have to go through three more rooms and then the way up would be in the fourth," Legend mumbled. "I don't think there's any treasure chests in those three rooms and nothing that looks like a miniboss room. If we got that chest now, we could skip all those rooms."

"Wild, Warriors, I think you two would be our best shot. We don't have a hookshot or clawshot target, so that's out of the question. I think it's down to Wild being able to climb up or Warriors being able to jump," Four said.

Wild wasn't the kind to say no when he somebody told him to go climb something, so he all but ran to the wall, running his hands over the texture. After a moment, he turned around and shook his head. "It's too smooth for me to climb. I'm pretty good but this is like the walls in the shrines. Somebody thought ahead."

"Wars?"

He eyed the distance. He was pretty sure that it was too high for him to jump, even with his vampire powers. It wouldn't be a problem if he had more of the same kind of powers that the real vampires because they could walk on walls and ceilings like they were floors. Or fly. If he could just do one of those things, he could get the key and they would be one step closer to getting the fuck out there.

His gaze caught Time's.

"You can do it."

Warriors wasn't sure if Time knew he was thinking about the wall crawl, or if he really did think he could jump that high. Regardless, he wasn't going to learn anything if he didn't at least try to jump and see how high he could get. Maybe somebody had something that could cover the gap.

"Here goes nothing," Warriors muttered, mostly to himself, as he pushed his fangs out and retreated to the back wall to give himself a running start. He counted down to three in his head, then ran as fast as he could towards the wall.

He jumped.

And didn't get anywhere near the top. He got maybe three quarters of the way there before he found himself bracing his hands and feet against the wall as he started to slide down.

No no no no.

He gritted his teeth, letting himself hiss under his breath. He wasn't going to lose his progress. Warriors was going to get to the top so they could all leave the damn temple and he could get on with his day. He wasn't going to sit through through four more rooms just to get the key when it was right there mocking him.

Suddenly he stopped sliding, staying completely planted in the middle of the wall with nothing holding him there. Somebody below him gasped.

Was this it? Was this really it? Could he actually have more vampire powers than he thought?

Warriors removed one hand and when he stayed where he was, he removed the other. His feet remained where they were at, planted flat against the wall. He let out a breath he didn't know he was even holding.

More confident, he stood up, ignoring the strange change in perspective. Instead, he chose to focus on his feet, focusing on walking and tuning out everything around him. Before he knew it, he could see the chest, so he quickly stepped over to it and opened it up before any higher being decided to change their mind about giving him more powers. With the key in hand, he walked back to the edge of the platform and jumped down to meet the others, ignoring the pain shooting up his legs but the pain wasn't agonizing so he figured they weren’t broken. He was too excited to let the pain sour his mood.

"Wars! That was soooo cool!" Wind exclaimed as Legend swiped the key out of his hands. He could tell by the look on the veteran's face that he was also curious about what he just saw but he was also just eager to move on. Finally, they were picking up the pace. "What was that?"

"We'll talk later. Let's just focus on the dungeon first," Warriors answered as the door was opened and everybody began to file into the next room.

× × × × × × × × × × × ×

After another hour of exploring, they killed some giant skeletal creature and Legend was the proud owner of a whip, which was all well and good considering he never quite took his eyes off of Sky's whip. He was testing it out just a few feet away from their campsite but he clearly needed some more practice with it. Sky was with him, his own whip in hand as he gave Legend some tips.

Warriors was debating on whether he was going to hunt or beg Wild to have some bottled blood. He wasn't sure if his exhaustion had anything to do with the powers he just discovered but he hated feeling tired when the sun was just starting to set. That was supposed to be his awake time!

"Hey, you can sleep after you explain yourself."

"I thought you were playing with your new toy."

"It's story time now."

Warriors sat up a little straighter when he realized that everybody was looking at him. He took a breath and collected himself.

"The vampires call it wall crawling. They can walk on any solid surface by ‘sticking’ to the surface, essentially. They don’t need it on the ground obviously but they can walk up walls and stand on ceilings. It's something I knew they could do but I thought that being half vampire meant that I wouldn't be able to do it."

"That's so much better than my climbing skills."

"Nah, your climbing skills are actually pretty impressive. You're the only the Hylian I know who could climb such steep surfaces with little to no gear," Warriors said. "Vampires use magic whereas you are just full of skill and the determination to get where you want to go."

Wild beamed.

"Wars, have you thought that you couldn't possibly have more powers than the strength and speed this whole time?" Hyrule asked, quirking an eyebrow.

Warriors nodded. "They tried to get me to do the same things they were doing, for a quite a while, but I struggled to do any of it. There was no sign that I had anything other than the strength and speed. I just gave up and figured it wasn't meant to be. I'm not even very good at magic in the first place. All I had before turning was my focus spirit, but that just enhances my muscles and my ability to hone in on a weakness."

"Being physically able to do magic is only part of how magic works. If you are physically able, and learned how to do it, most of the fight is intention. You kept telling yourself that you couldn't, so you basically made sure that you wouldn't be able to. Whatever you were feeling today while you were doing it, keep that with you and think about it every time you want to do it."

The captain could only blink at Hyrule. He was the most skilled with magic so Warriors knew he should take his words to heart, but it was also something he just had to give himself a moment to process.

It didn't help that the vampires couldn't exactly explain how to do it either, not that he blamed them. It came naturally to them, so it must have felt like they were trying to teach somebody how to breathe. Even the most basic abilities, like the ability to retract his fangs hadn’t come naturally to him. He supposed that in hindsight, he should have been able to see that just because it didn't come naturally didn't mean that those powers were completely inaccessible. He was just too frustrated at the time, much like he was getting frustrated just thinking about it again.

It was irritating that he just gave up like that. He had no plans to use his powers back then, even if he could use them, simply because he hated the fact that he was a vampire at all. However, it just wasn't like him to have given up so easily.

His frustration must have been palpable because Hyrule raised his hands in front of him. "Wars-"

"It wasn't anything you said," Warriors replied, running a hand through his hair. "I'm just overthinking something..."

Thankfully, he didn't have to think about the memories anymore because he was joined by Wind, who came bursting into his personal space to access his ear. "When you start using your new power to prank somebody, let me know. I want in."

Oh.

OOOH.

Fun fact about this chapter: some of it was written while I was struggle with The Past: Teaching Old Vampires New Trick. I think I finished this one before I finished The Past arc, so I really made sure to make Warriors doubt himself and his powers in The Past so he could get mad at himself here. This story is still largely episodic but is still sequential in nature as far as the current timeline goes, so I do my best to make sure previous events or discoveries kind of inform the collective knowledge of the chain. I can move chapters up and down fairly easily but I still have to make sure the collective knowledge still makes sense. I feel like this is a big moment so I will definitely have to do a thorough review of all unpublished and still in progress chapters to see if this power is actually useful in other circumstances. It feels like I'm playing chess against myself sometimes.

#catreginae: thou shalt not fall #linked universe #linkeduniverse #my writing

[eldricktobin]

Gamer colors

[ taaaaags #VTuberEN #Vtuber #ENVtuber #VTuberUprising #pngtuber #justvtuberthings ] [on tumblr for spaaaaaaaaaaaace ]

Be you vtuber or gamer or vtuber gamer, you fit somewhere on a skill spectrum. From humble greys and white to meteoric red you fall somewhere both in actual skill/talent and perceived same.

More importantly however us what you seek from gaming. For simplicity we'll stick to the same color spectrum.

Grey - pushover but in bulk.

White - a light meaningful challenge

Blue - a small test of prowess, often the start of middling increases in reward but nothing ground breaking.

Green - gives a jog for your money so to speak. Rewards for your time and challenge start looking worth it.

Yellow - the challenge middle ground, and reward plateau some seek. This class of content can drain not just your proxy, but you as well.

Orange - now we're talking some will say. Real planning needed challenges even if just a quickly respawning wandering miniboss, or a puzzle you may have to look up additional materials to solve online. Oh but the rewards are finally worth all the effort.

Red - You're now chasing the Endgame Dragon. World bosses and dreaded machinations that could unravel a civilization are the bread and butter here and need all your attention. Companies think this'll hold you until real endgame down the pipe. They call it endgame content but in 6 months it'll just be more 'yellow trash'

Purple/Violet/"sometimes straight up Black" - You balance the whole setting on your actions. The doomsday machine you unravel could destroy the whole world, or the Boss dominate it and have you hunted down /for sport alone/ if they win the day.

Do I sound like I have a handle on this? I shouldn't. I myself am a Yellow filling my gaming days as a Bully of Blue and lower content. I go after Oranges when I can solo them. I see few Reds unless they are well crafted /solo/ encounters, or you can solo them once you can Bully the weakest of the Red's components.

I'll run the whole spectrum if it's solo content. I can hammer away at it like a sledge on a thick thick stone column until I bring it down. Brute force the puzzles if they are too far beyond me.

But it will be solo and an experience for me. I don't do well in Multiplayer as I'm not micromanage good every aspect of every character on the field. I might as well be the only Real Human Player in a squad/platoon of Bots. Other Real Players will get in the way. I will have to turn myself into a Bot, not even a Cog in Their Group Machine to attempt to function, and I will not do well.

It's not that I have to be in control, more that the interpersonal linkages will Become the Content, and the Game will become a nuisance getting in the way of this Other Higher Spectrum Content.

I kinda need to bring a sledge to take on Purple Content afterall. And whittle at it for days.

What about you? What do you find yourself as, and striving for? Is this spectrum too vague, too limited?

[[For reference I started with Mmorpg Con Circles. "Should you CONcider fighting this monster?" And expanded from there. I did Not factor for Gold/Legendary/OtherMetals as those often fit in this framework, and some randomly (A silver border could be a group take down required mob, a midboss of an expansion to test what you've learned before a Gold Border Boss, a common foe in a Dungeon, or just That One MFer who takes one shot from The MacGuffin to bulldoze and mulch... I'm looking at you WoW).

I also couldn't easily factor for games that stack healthbars, or -like the aforementioned WoW Dungeons- use a different Soectrum for Instanced Content.

For Example Early Lost Sectors in Destiny 2, are mostly Yellow content -at least on paper. Some apparently are now Orange since Witchqueen. I've barely touched the game since Beyond Light dropped and not for lack of trying]]

One gamer, vtuber, writer, dungeonmaster, and INFPB&J's opinion done.

SUBMIT POST!!11!!1

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh S5 Ep 23: No One Expects Bakura

Got a lot of lore in this episode, which I didn’t really expect in any part of this arc, but it sure happened. And it’s so wild I’m still processing it. So lets dive into some lore because I need to write some words about the places this episode is going to go.

We step out of the magical glowing door, only to arrive at the original map.

And out of no where this guy shows up. Alexander the Great decides he’s done stalking the crew and wants to join them at the very, very tall fire they lit in the woods. Honestly, Maybe Alexander the Great was like “holy crap these city kids are going to burn down my entire woods holy crap.”

Tea does throw Alexander directly under the bus upon meeting him, maybe not as bluntly but still pretty blunt. And Alexander is like “Don’t I know it.”

And while I’m sure y’all are like “wow, Yugioh sure thinks a lot of themselves to put the literal King Alexander in their TV show.” Don’t worry. There’s a bigger twist coming.

(read more under the cut)

First thing he does is whip out his coat with this stance that conveniently also shows off his built arms, to which all the men were like “woah” while Tea rolled her eyes. Not sure what Alexander the great is lifting out here in the middle of nowhere, maybe a couple of duel monsters? Maybe some trees? But clearly he still has the energy to do his daily HIIT.

I really can’t think of a worse punishment for a famous warrior than the worst armor ever made.  After introducing his armor, he decides to give us a history lesson, which literally no one paid any attention to because of the glaring situation hanging underneath King Alexander’s neck.

YEAH.

I keep falling for it. Every time I’m like “ah, Yugioh is calming down for a spell” they do this to me. Here I was kind of wading through this predictable arc and then the writers were like “We’re losing them, we have to pull out the rug” and they did. They pulled out that one spice in the back of their cabinet that seems to fix so many seasons of Yugioh.

Bakura’s back. Welcome. Hell knows, we missed this mess.

I guess he’s not literally “here” here, but the same ghost inhabited both these boys, and one of the boys went so nuts he decided to conquer the Old World before he turned 32, and then the other boy spent his time stabbing himself to trick people to take him to the hospital, pulling out false eyeballs, shooting lasers, and killing old minibosses in graveyards.

And just...the implications here.

Like everyone who uses the same millennium item throughout time has some soul-similarities, almost like a reincarnation. Like Yugi and Pharaoh are such a good blend at this point that Yami answers to Yugi’s name basically always. Even when people know Yugi is dead, they stilled didn’t call Yami Yami. There’s some type of soul that has to use a certain item, and when you mess with that, you get Marik, who couldn’t control his millennium item properly if Seto (who was supposed to own it) was nearby.

So the implications here are that while Pharaoh is pretty powerful, Alexander the Great...conquered Egypt. And you got Kaiba who I guess was Rosencratz in a video game and Yugi also was Henry the 5th once...

...but Bakura was Alexander the freakin Great and I’m just letting that sink in because now he’s just going to hang out with them as if he’s a normal guy. As if he’s just a Bakura hanging out with his frenemies around a camp fire.

Which...the last time they hung out around a campfire with Bakura, he did end up murdering all of them 5 minutes later to try and steal the necklace but like...

...holy crap literal Alexander the Great might be nicer than actual Bakura...

So, you may be wondering how Yugioh explained what the hell happened to Alexander the Great, and what that has to do with card games. Don’t worry, we have that other guy who we only see show up once a blue moon, that’s right, you completely forgot about him, and I know you did, because I completely forgot about him, too.

It’s everyone’s favorite life-ruiner, Shadi! He even has a new belt!

Bro was like “lol what if he has a millennium belt?” and um...it does seem to have an eye on it, so chances are high that’s a cursed belt for a spinoff.

So I’ve been giving Alexander such a hard time about this convoluted game of nursery rhyme riddles but...it was Shadi. Which makes a lot more sense because Shadi has been not really alive for a really long time. He might not remember how people work. 

And, in Shadi fashion, he actually is doing the Season Zero thing of judging whether you have authority over your item which...about time. He forgot to do this to Marik (or maybe he did and Marik got through by accident?) and he didn’t seem to care about Ishizu (which...yeah) but he did show up about 12 years too late to be like “Yo I think you might be disrupting all of mankind, Alexander.”

It’s all Shadi’s fault. I can’t believe Alexander the Great was Shadi’s fault! Shadi has screwed us a lot, but I can’t believe he’s been screwing humanity for That Long and at That Scale.

Bakura is just in so many places--because he’s also in Yugi’s necklace right now, watching this and being like “Oi, it’s my ex. Awkward.”

So the nice part of the ghost that has since moved on and currently lives in modern Bakura hangs his head in shame, because his nice side has been cruising around this horrible tabletop game for like thousands of years.

TBH he deserves it, Alexander the Great killed like.....so many freakin people.

and no, the show never tells us that Bakura ever entered this pyramid, and there’s a good choice that the Ghost side of Bakura has learned to keep it lower key so he doesn’t have to deal with Shadi’s BS...but Shadi WAS on the same blimp as the rest of them, right? He knew all the items were in one place, he told us.

But ah, I am remembering now, that he then he looked at Bakura passed out on a bed, and then up at Tea who was possessed by Bakura and holding onto that ring, and Shadi was like “oh it’s this dumbass. Well, DnD pyramid’s full, maybe next time.”

So while they definitely wrote this arc looooong after S2, it does work into the lore that, because Bakura was already shadow realmed, Bakura missed this wonderful opportunity to hang out in the ghost pyramid with his early incarnation that also has a British accent for some reason.

HOLY CRAP.

The British accent was foreshadowing. That’s insane. I can’t believe the foreshadowing is that he was 1.) British and that’s it. No other things. Just British. Other than that, nothing else really feels Bakura about his look, he’s a completely opposite body type.

Freakin this guy is towering over the rest of them at like 10 feet tall. Ancient Bakura was a roided giant. Like Pharaoh is still tiny in his era like Yugi is, but Bakura? A freakin beast.

So Alexander OldBakura pulls a riddle out of his pocket because he couldn’t figure it out himself all those years ago when he hella died in this pyramid because the only smart part of Bakura is ever in ghost form--”nice” Bakura is always kind of a sweetie dumbass that habitually does bad things.

Although this one is played off as more a himbo in this show, which is crazy, because I never thought I’d call Alexander the Great a himbo. But compared to the other villains...yeah...

PS, you may be wondering...but he didn’t die in India, Alexander left India, didn’t he? You’re right. He didn’t die in India. The show has a loose interpretation of history at the best of times, but they addressed this and inferred that Alexander went full ghost after half of him got lost in the pyramid, which lead to him getting hella betrayed and he died. They leave it very vague since IRL we don't know what happened to Alexander’s body and he died in kind of a weird way, which I think I went over already in a previous episode. People like to make Alexander’s death kind of mysterious IRL, but that’s mostly History Channel propaganda--he most likely just took a while to die and they called him dead too early.

Well...at least this clears up what his tomb is doing in India, because this isn’t a tomb. It doesn’t exist! Shadi’s ghost magic at work, this place is fake. Which is how no one else has found it.

How did Joey end up with a ticket here? How did Grandpa get a message from Alexander the Great, who I guess was his protege and closest friend (according to the...other Alexander standing outside who...I’m not sure who that guy is actually.) So many questions that I have that we will not get to because we still have to do the riddle Macguffin quest that every episode of this arc has to do.

I can’t believe the audacity of this show that they’re going to explain away Alexander the Great. How close are we to bringing in Atilla the Hun or Ghengis Khan? I shudder to even say this but like...they thought about Hitler right? Hitler was definitely on the table to have some sort of eyeball implement in his pocket? Thank GOODNESS we finally stepped away from alternate Hitler in media lately because there was a period of just...too many Hitlers in movies and TV (I say knowing full well they’d probably just write an alt Robert E Lee instead with way too many belts on and it’d probably whip ass.)

Anyway, the last riddle is kind of dark.

Hey guys, just an art tip, never draw a dragon so it’s tail goes in between it’s own legs like that. It’s like...I mean you can see it, right? Phallic dragon in a big way? Like Kaiba can do it because we all know that’s what he’s after, but I don’t think the spooky Dragon Cult was going for the same suggestive stance.

So we start off this riddle by walking in on a girl who is ready to fling herself off of a cliff, as you do, in order to power up the White Eyes Blue Dragon, which sure is a weird lore footnote for this kid’s show to shove into a side arc. Pharaoh and Joey are like “woah guys, this seems super unnecessary, like I get that everyone here is fake, but come the hell on.”

And what’s crazy is that we have seen this story before about the 5 headed dragon at the end of S1. It came back.

Kaiba’s bad VR experience is so far better than Shadi’s, I’ll give him that. Almost like Kaiba makes games for a living.

There’s also this dragon chick who I wish was that girl that Seto Kaiba hallucinated once in a card game, but it’s instead just some weird ass girl (yes, I looked this up). Still thinking she might turn into a dragon though because...she’s just really freakin weird.

And so the writers had us go to 5 separate locations in this very short episode, when all I want to do is discuss why the hell Bakura and Alexander the Great share the same damn necklace. But sure, we’ll go to 5 different locations, why not.

Also Joey does this without skipping a beat it’s like...yeah, Tristan almost dies (and literally dies) all the time, this is probably the right choice.

Then they get a little tour of the city by the dragon sacrifice girl, where we meet a plot relevant sword, because swords in this arc are kind of like Legend of Zelda keys. We got like 9 different types of swords at this point, but we gotta keep stacking em out of a paranoid fear that we’re gonna miss one and get softlocked out of the water temple.

Yes, the nasty-ass Bakura-god Alexander the Great was not pure enough for the sword of “divinity” and that sure is an understatement.

Pharaoh also can’t lift the sword and he just shrugs and says “We’ll get to it later.” because Pharaoh knows how DnD works. He decides to follow the DM’s clear pathing and go to the 5 locations although we all know this won’t matter. He already knows this is a pointless quest.

Luckily, they did remember they can fly this episode, and so fighting their dragons with the other dragons, they quickly realize “yeah these are invincible actually.” And Yugi is like--”Quick, to the plot sword!”

Yugi picked up a monster at Lava Lava Mountain, but I do not remember it’s name. I only know is that, when fused, it makes very busy Xenoblade armor. Like kind of if an AI bot made Xenoblade armor.

I don’t like it. Anyway, he puts down his crazy shaped decorative blade that wouldn’t be able to cut freakin anything, and picks up the normal shaped blade.

And after this they actually had a really good idea for some visual spectacle. Problem is, it just wasn’t executed well, I couldn’t even cap it because it went by in too few frames. They wanted to have the energy from the dragons swoop into this sword and then light it up into a 10000 ft light saber that fills the screen as he flicks it around. This could have looked pretty neat, I think that the story-boarding intended it to be cool, but wow, the execution. Man.

A shame, how much potential there was in this sword fight that didn’t make it because this side arc is so compact that they only had like 10 seconds to work with.

Not like it mattered.

Behold:

Look, it’s every one of us walking out of quarantine. mm. I feel you, 5-headed dragon. Same. Big Same.

Anyway, next time hopefully we’ll just get through this dragon fight quickly because um--Bakura, what the hell?

Anyway, I’ve been hella slow about doing these, but hopefully I’ll get back into the swing? (and maybe I’m just a one post a week person now ((two weeks? OMG when was the last time I posted?))) Anyway, now I’ve since learned not to do 3 side-projects at once.

And to read these in chronological order, here is the link: https://steve0discusses.tumblr.com/tagged/yugioh/chrono

#yugioh #YGO #Yu-Gi-Oh #S5 #Ep 23 #Yugi Muto #Joey Wheeler #Tristan Taylor #Tea Gardner #Bakura #But not really but a least a part of Bakura #which is freakin wild #I just...I did not see that one coming at all #dragons #episode recap #photo recap #Alexander the Great #has joined the party #which is wild

[willidleaway]

OK, about 12 hours in and at 43% save completion. general summary: still love it.

I think by now I’ve unlocked most of the other minigames, all lovely—and I did not think we would get a sequel to Kirby Tilt’N’Tumble but here we are. (I jest but only because Kirby Tilt’N’Tumble was way more difficult than Tilt-And-Roll Kirby.) the general pacing of how everything unlocks and unfolds seems really spot on—the minigames unlock right when you’re probably a bit tired of the platforming, Elfilin gets captured right when you’re probably a bit tired of Elfilin, etc. so the way the game flows overall feels really smooth.

so far I’ve had only one real moment of rage, which is when Blizzard Bridge wanted me to save a Waddle Dee by doing a no-hit Twin Wild Frosty fight. not even no-damage (which at this point I can cheese pretty reliably with Ice’s invulnerable dodge for the proper bosses, including Dedede whose pre-fight area basically handed me Ice on a silver platter daring me to do the no-damage run first try)—proper no-hit! Drill is a really good ability for this but going underground with it isn’t completely invulnerable, and with two of Wild Frosty going around doing belly flops and stomps and what have you it’s really easy to get hit if you’re not constantly paying attention and ready to move (which I am fundamentally incapable of doing). I guess at least it wasn’t Twin Wild Bugzzy?

but honestly it’s impossible to hold a grudge against this game for very long, and not just because of the cute aesthetics. when you’re not doing a miniboss rush or a boss fight, the level design is as it’s always been for Kirby games at their best—somewhat linear but still encouraging exploration and experimentation without egregiously punishing you for mistakes. yes, you almost always miss out on some of the Waddle Dees the first time you play through, but you don’t necessarily need them all to progress so you can always come back and explore more closely later. plus, as Kirby games tend to be nowadays, this game does hold your hand a little bit so that you’re not too frustrated—having copy abilities strewn about near puzzles is still a thing, and having a retry option specifically for things like races and other Mouthful Mode vehicle segments is excellent.

I know I said before that this feels like it’s really a successor to Kirby 64, and at first it felt like a direct sequel to Kirby 64 rather than all the games that have come since then—pause screen lore has basically been replaced by the figurines, which are basically a nicer version of the Enemy Info Cards that you get from the Kirby 64 picnic bonus game. (I am kind of sad that pause screen info is gone, but the boss lore being in the figurines bothers me a lot less than things like attack combos missing. at least it means I don’t have to go back through a boss fight just to pause and read their backstory ...) but having played through more of it, it also still seems quite reminiscent of RtDL—properly revisiting the idea of Challenge Stages with the sometimes frustrating but extremely rewarding Treasure Road, having an in-universe hub for minigames and such, dividing up the worlds in two halves with a key story beat, and so on. it is interesting because 64 and RtDL of course lead into and out of the troubled development of Kirby GCN during which HAL first attempted a properly 3D Kirby, and now that Kirby is properly 3D it’s those two games that Forgotten Land seems to draw from the most. and of course they are two really excellent games to draw from!

this is not to say that aspects from games after RtDL have been discarded entirely though. it’s nice to see the stock items return from Triple Deluxe and Planet Robobot, for one thing. and there’s a real Star Allies-esque sense about the way the story gets presented with a sense of fun—the Dedede fakeout reminds me a lot of the fake credits gags in the main story and Guest Star modes.

so, as I said at the top: still love it. and as someone continuing to play through this completely blind, the fact that it draws from 64 and RtDL now has me super confused about whether to be suspicious of Elfilin’s motives ...

#kirby spoilers #kirby and the forgotten land

[torchiiko]

like everyone else i wanna make a scrybesona but unlike everyone else i havent figured out a cost system so heres other ideas and concepts instead! (cut for length)

scrybe of.. something to do with fantasy and creativity bc i love fiction and daydreaming an making things up!!

method of inscrybing... im basic and boring lets go with digital art bc i have no other artistic ability + this is a sona so she mostly takes after me <3

she would take inspiration from the other scrybes and incorporate their cards and sigils into her game! tech, beasts, dead, magick, they all make an appearance

hybrid cards!! finds ways to mix & match different themes and costs to make unique cards (things like a haunted machine or gemified/crystallized animals!)

her campaign itself is basically like a visual novel. videogame-esque like p03s but heavier on the story and atmosphere like leshys, with an emphasis on splitting paths and your choices impacting the story and the ending you get!! different characters and bosses,, different battles and unlockable cards mmm

she wants you to Pay Attention! the way you play will also affect the story! for example, you enter a fight where she describes 2 bear cubs play fighting and inviting you to play with them. if you use a low power card to attack them, the fight will end with you playing with them and them running off happily :) if you use a much higher power card however.. the fight will end with you injuring them and later being attacked by the mother. and if you win by attacking the empty spaces, the fight ends with you simply running past them

she would have secret minibosses based on each scrybe :) optional fights that dont progress the story or make you game over if you lose, theyre just fun homages to her fellow scrybes (and also you get a special little reward if you win so maybe its worth fighting them)

also in these miniboss fights you can only use the cards for each respective scrybe theyre based on!! if you dont have enough in your own deck, theyll lend you some and let you pick one to keep if you win (but thats not the special reward)

day/night cycle bc i think its cool also it could allow for events that are specific to the time of day! like getting certain cards or meeting an npc whos only available during the day or night. probably based on the challengers turns, so every x number of turns it turns to night and then x number later its back to day (after battles of course)

plus!! cards are split by nocturnal or diurnal and cant attack if you place them at the wrong time of day. But!! there are sigils that change the surrounding lighting so you can play them :) things that glow in the dark + things that cast shadow to the spaces directly next to them, allowing ally cards to attack

these sigils are dual purpose!! if, for example, its daylight and you place a glowing card, it blinds the card opposing it and reduces its attack. your ally cards are fine tho

also!! during each time of day youre more likely to draw the appropriate cards so you dont get screwed over by all your cards being blind :) thered probably also be a sigil that lets a card see in any lighting without the need for glowing/shadow sigils too tbh

#inscryption #inscryption spoilers #only slightly tho #scrybesona #scrybe oc #as for her relationships with the others... her feelings reflect my own feelings toward them for the most part #crawls over to p03 to beg for help in balancing the gameplay bc she focused too much on making lore #chills with leshy and asks for advice on narrating to set up certain moods and atmospheres #goes to grimora for milk and cookies :) #regularly steals lonely wizard from magnificus to provide them with Stimulation and Enrichment #bonus: if she got turned into a beast card shed be a jerboa :) mostly bc my sona has a fluffy jerboa-like tail #low attack and health bc she is a mere little rodent but she would have mighty leap bc jerboas do big jumpies #nerd time #ramble

[kitty-ray]

Something Like Home Ch. 2

Hey so I really liked this story so I decided to make a second chapter. Basically it’s more bkdk fluff (here’s part one) 

AO3 

Katsuki suddenly has a lot to think about. Last night, totally unprompted and totally not unwelcomed, Deku decided on his own free will to crawl into Katsuki’s bed and demand Katsuki to hold him. Honestly? Who is Katsuki to refuse such an offer?

However, this is Deku we’re talking about. The same fucking Deku that would snivel and cry yet not give up in a fight no matter how beaten down he was. The same fucking Deku Katsuki watched time and time again almost die because he has no value on his life (which, side not, that is something they are definitely going to have to talk to him about). The same fucking Deku that’s been on the edge of his mind for his whole life. Sure, some of those thoughts lingered around Deku’s mouth. And yes, maybe some of those thoughts led elsewhere, but that’s beside the point!

Katsuki grabs his pillow and screams into it. How, oh how, did Katsuki Bakugou ever get in a situation like this?

See, this wouldn’t normally be an issue if it weren’t for the fact that Katsuki’s heart was most definitely slamming against his chest almost all last night. He’s only ever associated that feeling with a fight, and Katsuki knows for a fact that they weren’t fighting.

Katsuki’s not dumb. He’s not entirely immune to emotions and feelings. Hell, he’s had his fair share of crushes in his life, but those were way before middle school. (Okay, that’s a lie. He may or may not have had a crush on a few of the boys in his class, but those were quickly pummeled away before they could go any farther. Don’t tell Kirishima.)

What he’s feeling for Deku is definitely not a crush. It’s more of a… childhood friends turned enemies turned rivals turned hey, let’s occasionally sleep together because neither of us knows how to sleep alone anymore, yeah? That’s it. That is exactly what they are.

“I,” Katsuki whispers to his ceiling, “do not like Deku. I hate him.”

He did not, but it’s easier to say that than anything else. This mantra repeats in his head until he’s almost certain that he believes it. It seems to work, especially when they’re in the locker room almost a week later and somebody brings up relationships.

“Yeah, we’re going to go get lunch Sunday. Got the release forms and everything,” Sero says to the Kaminari. He grabs his uniform jacket. “I’m really excited.”

Kaminari slaps Sero on the back. “Hell yeah, man! Hey, does she have any single friends?”

“Dunno, but I can ask.”

“Sero, my pal, my dude, you are the bestest friend ever.”

“Pretty sure that’s not a word, Kaminari.”

Katsuki frowns into his locker. He should have expected this. They’re high school students, so dating is not totally out of the question. He can’t help but feel slightly behind in that regard.

But then he reminds himself that if he’s going to be the Number One Hero™, then he has no time for trivial things like relationships and dating and (dare he say it) kissing.

“So, Midoriya,” the grape fucker’s voice rings out. Katsuki tries not to look at them. “You’re popular with the ladies. I caught you behind the school the other day with some pretty girl confessing! Tell me, tell me! She’s got big boobies, right? You said yes, right?”

Kirishima walks over, crossing his arms. His mouth curls in disgust. “Dude, too far.” Then he looks up to Deku. “But yeah, Midoriya. We all heard about it and kinda want to know how it went.”

Next to him, Deku’s face goes bright red. Katsuki denies the fluttering in his stomach, choosing to ignore whether it’s because of delight or jealousy. He pulls out his tie, pretending not to listen.

“Oh, well, um…” Deku’s voice trails off, and out of the corner of his eye, Katsuki can see how red his face is. Cute. Turning back to his locker, Deku hides his face. “I turned her down,” he whispers.

This time, the butterflies Katsuki elects to ignore are definitely from delight.

Deku comes again, later that week. Katsuki’s full attention is on his small TV screen, the controller in his hand warm from lengthy use, and he’s just about to beat the boss when there’s a knock at the door. Quickly, he pauses it, the threat dying in his throat when the door opens and Deku slips inside.

“The fuck? Deku, it’s late.” Katsuki says, rocking his chair back. It takes a second to register his red-rimmed eyes and shiny lips. By then, Deku has already made his way to Katsuki.

He fully expects him to climb into Katsuki’s bed, as per their unsaid rules of whatever the hell it is they have going on, but Katsuki only stares in amazement as Dekuk crawls into his lap and buries his face into Katsuki’s shoulder. “H-hey!” he splutters. Real smooth.

“I’m sorry,” Deku whispers. His arms loop Katsuki’s middle. “Just go back to your game. I’ll move if I’m in the way.”

Suddenly, he is infinitely grateful that Deku isn’t looking at him because his face is certainly a bright shade of red. He doesn’t say anything to Deku before unpausing the game and finishing the fight. It’s hard to play like this, but Deku’s warmth and sobs keep him from moving, so he stays. If this is what the nerd needs, then the nerd gets.

A cut scene comes along, and Katsuki takes this opportunity to hug the nerd back. He won’t let himself go any farther; no kisses or sweet nothings to be had. Sure, he might have slipped up a few nights ago (okay, twice, but who’s counting?), but Deku was asleep then! He wouldn’t have noticed! Not like now when he is very, very much awake and very, very much moving.

It’s not a lot of movement, but every time the nerd shifts his hips to get comfortable, Katsuki notices. Oh boy, does he notice. It’s a totally normal reaction for a teenage boy to have on his crush rival! Especially when said rival is sitting on his lap and practically grinding on him.

Deku’s fingers grasp the bottom of Katsuki’s shirt, and he nearly explodes. Okay, Katsuki, think of puppies, kittens, Kirishima’s god awful--shit no, don’t think about Kirishima! Girls, think of girls! Mom and Dad! Oh, shit, I got to call them, don’t I?

“Kacchan,” Deku whispers, his small voice bringing Katsuki out of his attempt to calm down. “Thank you.”

“For what, nerd?”

On the screen, Katsuki’s avatar finds a treasure chest full of useless items. He’ll have to sell those later to buy something good.

Deku doesn’t answer, so Katsuki focuses his attention back on the game. He feels Deku’s lips on his neck. It’s soft, barely there, and probably not intentional, but it makes his brain go haywire nonetheless. He fumbles while trying to take down the miniboss and loses half a life.

Eventually, Katsuki has enough and saves the game. Deku shifts again. “Oh. Are you done?”

He grunts in response. The controller hangs loose in his hands as he wraps his arms around Deku, hearing him squeak. It takes a couple of seconds for the nerd to relax again, but when he does, he starts crying again.

“I had a nightmare again,” Deku whispers. Saying nothing, Katsuki rubs his back. His mom used to do that when he was a kid, and it never failed to make him feel better. Occasionally, whenever Deku would sleep over and he’d have a nightmare, she would rub his back, too.

Katsuki buries his nose into Deku’s curls. They’re still wet and frizzy from his bath. (That’s another thing they’re going to have to talk about.) “Wanna…” he pauses, unsure of himself. “Wanna talk about it?”

They don’t talk about the nightmares. It’s another unspoken rule between the two; you have a nightmare and you go back to sleep. That’s just how they did it.

But this time is different. The last time was different, too. Deku came in here, on his accord, asked Katsuki to hold him, and dealt with the nightmares in a different way. So, yeah, maybe their unspoken rules can be bent and broken once in a while.

Deku sniffles and pulls away, green eyes glassy. The light from the TV and desk lamp makes it hard to see anything but shadows on his face, but Katsuki has known Deku long enough to know exactly how he looks crying. “It’s stupid,” Deku mutters.

“Yeah, and so is Dunce Face, but we still put up with him.”

“You don’t.”

“That’s not the point. What’s the nightmare?”

He cracks a smile before wiping his eyes. “I’m going to tell Kaminari you said that.” Seeing Katsuki’s determined stare, Deku sighs. “Sometimes, I dream of you dying. Or it’s me. Or it’s everyone else. I just… I feel so helpless and I can’t do anything about it and-and--” His words are cut off as he gasps for air. “They just won’t stop.”

Katsuki does something he might regret; he takes Deku’s face in his hands. It’s wet underneath his palms, but he doesn’t pay attention to that. He does, however, pay attention to how soft his cheeks are or how bright his eyes shine. Katsuki suddenly feels the urgent need to kiss him.

“Do you…?” he starts to ask but trails off. This has never been a spoken thing between them. If he says it out loud, he might break the fragile thing they have set up. They’re swimming through uncharted territory, fumbling along as they try to make sense of what is up and what is down.

Thankfully, Deku seems to know what he’s trying to say. A scarred hand lays across one of Katsuki’s as Deku smiles at him. “Can I?” he asks, his voice barely above a whisper.

It doesn’t occur to Katsuki until now that he could be asking a double-loaded question. What he means to ask is if Deku wants to sleep here, yet he also recognizes that he very well could be asking to do more. He tries not to look down at Deku’s lips, tries to keep his gaze locked onto Deku’s, but he ultimately fails. Hopefully, Deku doesn’t notice.

He does notice, and Katsuki notices him noticing, and it’s enough to make his heart do somersaults.

There’s a new question hanging between them. This one is exhilarating and terrifying and makes Katsuki rethink his entire position about relationships and dating and (he dare says) kissing. His fingers find their way to the curls at the nape of his neck. They’re not as soft as Katsuki thought they would be, but they still feel nice.

Katsuki nods, answering both questions at once.

At first, his lips are barely there, but when Katsuki doesn’t pull away, he presses further. He rather likes his lips. He also likes how Deku is obviously just as inexperienced as he is, and he especially likes how Deku breaks up the kiss because he’s smiling.

“I, um, yeah.” Deku rests his forehead on his. “Was that okay?”

Katsuki opens his eyes, and he sees that he’s already looking back at him. His cheeks are still wet from his tears, which he finds disgusting. Unfortunately, his tissues are too far away.

“It was fine or whatever.”

Deku knows he’s lying; his shit-eating grin tells him so. He pokes at Katsuki’s ribs, causing him to yelp. “It was fine, Kacchan?” Deku laughs. “Only fine?”

“Ah! S-stop! Deku!”

“Admit it! It was good!”

Katsuki locks eyes with him, his own fingers coming up to Deku’s sides. When Deku squeaks, he smirks. “I will say no such thing.”

“Kacchan! Sto-o-op!”

There’s banging on the wall before Kirishima yells, “Shut up!”

They try to wiggle away from each other, but with Deku’s legs locked around Katsuki’s waist and Katsuki balancing in his chair, they only manage to crash on the floor. Groaning, he rubs his arm. “Fuck you,” he mutters.

“You okay?” Deku’s green eyes are alight with mirth as he stares at Katsuki. It makes his heart flutter with unease and excitement. He nods.

In this moment, he realizes that his stupid face is actually rather beautiful. The soft glow of the desk lamp highlights his freckles and scars, his cheeks flushed from laughter, and Katsuki thinks he might be falling a little bit. They’re staring at each other, both not wanting to break this tension. It’s electrifying and exhilarating and makes Katsuki absolutely terrified of what he’s feeling. Deku’s legs are entangled with his, but that doesn’t stop him from reaching over and interlacing their fingers together.

“I liked it,” he whispers, almost afraid to break this little bubble of theirs, and they don’t break eye contact as he whispers, “and I think I’m starting to like you.”

Deku smiles at him. “I think I’m starting to like you, too.”

It takes them several moments for them to even think about getting into bed, and when they do, Katsuki doesn’t hesitate to pull him close. His fingers trace random fingers on top of his shirt, and he smiles. Maybe crushes aren’t so bad after all.

#bkdk #bakudeku #katsudeku #bnha #look more cuddles and fluff because i'm a sucker #the world is falling apart and i only care about gay shit #first kiss #more cuddles #last chapter i promise

[will-bulmer]

Research: Skul: The Hero Slayer

Normal enemies:

There are different enemy types in the game, ranged, melee and heavy. The differences between these enemies make it so you need to pay a bit more attention whilst dealing with them, for example you could get shot with an arrow while fighting a melee type enemy or get charged by a heavy. This sort of variation between enemy types is what, I think, should be present in most games like this to keep it interesting and I intend to implement it into my own game.

When entering the next zones, you’ll start to encounter new types of enemies, such as this one which blocks your attacks from the front with a shield, making it so you can’t just cleave them down alongside all the grunts. There are more variations of the standard enemies and even more new ones to come in later levels, which I think this is a good way of scaling up the difficulty as you pass through more levels and progress to new areas.

 Minibosses:

In Skul: The Hero Slayer, there are minibosses which you face a little while before the final boss of the zone. Just like normal enemies, they vary in many ways, for example there is a paladin miniboss which does slow but hard-hitting attacks and puts up an impenetrable shield in front of him to block your attacks. There is also the ninja, who throws shuriken from a distance along with dash attacks, but he doesn’t have as much health which he makes up with his speed. The two I have briefly spoken about are two of five minibosses overall.

As your progress further into the game, you will eventually end up fighting these minibosses in greater numbers, up to three (and maybe beyond that, but I haven’t been able to get far enough to see). Then the minibosses will eventually be fought as full-fledged bosses, using different and more powerful attacks.

If defeated by a miniboss, their level increases, making them more difficult to fight as you die to them.

This is an example of a miniboss, specifically the ninja.

I’m thinking of adding a similar sort of thing in my own game, where there are randomized minibosses to teach you about game mechanics and to help speed along character progression. Minibosses levelling up when you die is also a cool idea, this means that experienced players would have a harder time if they kept dying to them early on, which makes them consistently interesting and challenging.

Bosses:

Bosses are the final, well, bosses of the zone. They’re the biggest hurdles to overcome in the game and require effort and concentration to best (except from the first one). They also usually have multiple phases, the first phase being the easier one and then the second is like an enraged state, they gain more power and different abilities to learn as you go and are more relentless.

As the you progress through the game and your strength increases, you’re met with stronger bosses.

The first boss of the game is called Yggdrasil or the Elder Ent. In his first phase, he slams his fists down onto you and swipes across the whole screen to try to hit you. If the first phase goes on for too long, then the Elder Ent will start firing large homing projectiles which pack a punch, though afterwards he’s stunned shortly, which makes his first phase easy enough to finish off.

This is an example of the Elder Ent in his first phase, ready to slam his fists down onto the player.

The Elder Ent slamming his fist onto the player and the player dodging out of the way.

When the Elder Ent’s health reaches 0, he goes into his enraged state, his health bar fully regenerates, and he becomes more aggressive. Usually, the Elder Ent would only slam one fist down at a time, but in his enraged form he slams twice.

This is like his first form when he sends projectiles flying at you, but in his enraged state they move faster and rain down onto the arena randomly like a meteor shower. He also gets stunned after this just like in the first phase, allowing the player to get some easy damage in.

When the Elder Ent gets to low health in his enraged state, he slams the ground which affects the whole arena floor, which you must jump to avoid. Afterwards, he resumes his normal attacks, and you can finish him off.

  I think he’s a great first boss, and I am thinking of adding a boss like him in my game. He eases players into some simple boss mechanics, and is mostly static, making his head easy to hit, this is also helped by the two branches sticking out of his neck which act as platforms. The obvious cues for attacks and simplicity of the boss fight are also another reason as to why I think he’s a good inspiration for a first boss.

After defeating a boss, they drop items and sometimes large health recovery orbs. Again, this would be another way of powering up your character by getting items from defeating bosses and minibosses.

     NPCs:

The NPCs in this game are all found by progression through the game and freeing them from cages, after you do this, they will be present in the demon castle, which is where you start, to offer you, their services.

The witch is the first NPC you free, and she can use the dark quartz you collect to give your character permanent buffs; unlike other currencies, dark quartz is not lost on death.

The second, is the fox hunter, he will give you a random free skull at the beginning of every run and will give you another at the cost of 10 dark quartz. Though he’s very useful, the skulls are never above common rarity.

The third is the ogre peddler, and he gives you a random free item at the beginning of the run and another at the cost of 10 dark quartz. He works very similarly to the fox hunter, but he gives you items instead of skulls.

The fourth is the druid, who causes a fountain to spawn in the demon castle for you to use, allowing you to have a random temporary buff, not unlike the statues you find throughout the levels, but they’re longer lasting.

The fifth and final NPC, who is non-essential to the game’s progression, is the Death Knight. You can spend a LOT of dark quartz to start to rebuild the demon castle and restore it to its former glory.

I’m thinking of having NPCs like this in the game to make the early levels easier and to provide some support in the late game with the upgrades from an NPC like the Witch. Also, having something to do on the side like restoring the demon castle with the Death Knight, seems like a fun long-term goal to have in the game.

 User interface:

The user interface in Skul: The Hero Slayer is simple; it doesn’t clog up the screen with unnecessary UI elements and tells you mostly everything that you need to know.

Here is a screenshot of a part of the UI. It shows what abilities your current skull has, tells you which skull you have equipped with the larger portrait, and what your secondary skull is along with their abilities with the smaller icons. It also shows you the keybinds to use your abilities and to switch between skulls.

In purple is your health bar, self-explanatory, it shows you how much maximum health you have and how much of your max health you have left.

Just to the right of your health bar, are your buffs and debuffs, easily the messiest part of the UI. While it shows which buffs and debuffs you have, it doesn’t show them separately, and I’ve found no way to check the effects of them to tell what my character has been affected by.

This shows how much of each of the currencies you currently have in your possession. The order goes, bones, gold, and dark quartz. 

This is the minimap, it shows the level in a minimalistic way to help you navigate it. Enemies are shown in red, with larger enemies are shown with big red rectangles whilst the smaller ones are shown with small red rectangles. The player is shown in yellow, and the exits are shown in green. The idea of a minimap in a game like this is good, where exploration isn’t necessary to progress, and you just need to fight your way through the enemies to get to the next boss. The levels are simple enough, but it’s a nice bit of extra help.

Just above the minimap shows the enemy count on the level, telling you how many enemies are currently alive. Though this number can change if more enemies spawn in, it’s a nice and easy way to check how many are left.

This just shows the boss’s name and the health it has left, meaning you know when the first phase is about to be over or if the boss is about to be finished.

 The red border on the screen shows when you take damage, and the red floating numbers near the character shows how much damage the player has taken. This is a great way to show that you have taken damage and how much of your health has been removed.

The floating yellow number shows how much damage you have dealt, while not necessary, it can add a level of satisfaction from landing a powerful attack, or if one of your attacks crit.

The faint text above the character saying “Gains an HP barrier” is a notification showing that you have received a buff from destroying one of the many statues in the world. It says exactly what it does, letting you know that you have received this buff and then you’re not left wondering what you broke and why you did.

The UI in Skul: The Hero Slayer is simple but effective. I want to aim for this sort of design in my own game, to make a minimal, easy-to-understand, and effective UI.

Environments:

Throughout the game, there are certain things in the environment that either hurt you or your enemies, tell you which reward is behind what door, or are just breakable for fun.

A couple examples of things made to hurt you can be found in the first zone.

 This is a strange tentacle of some sort that hurts you if you get too close to it, though you can also bait enemies into it and use it to kill them.

Below is a flower on a wall that shoots fire, which also hurts enemies, but isn’t as nearly effective as killing them yourself.

These are spikes that hurt you if you touch them, depending on where they’re placed (floor or wall) you can hit enemies into them to make them take massive damage.

The explosives shown above are scattered throughout the environment but if you hit them, they only do damage to enemies and launches you back, though if there are spikes above you then you will end up taking damage.

Certain things in the environment can also be destroyed without them being necessary for any sort of progression, such as the tents in the background which were previously intact.

As you can see here, there are two gates, both lead into the same level, but they change what type of reward you will receive at the end. If you go through the gate decorated with treasure, you’ll receive money at they end of the level, if you go through the normal gate, you’ll receive a random reward, and if you find a gate decorated with skulls, that one will reward you with a random skull of any rarity. Sometimes, one of the two gates are destroyed, giving you only one gate to choose from.

[abizarreyodelingincident]

Ridiculous Optimization: The Art of Finding the Right Tool for the Wrong Situation

Chapter Four: Stronkman be stronk

It is a truth universally acknowledged that a Link in need of an item must first ask Legend about it. No one could really agree on the rest of the saying, beyond concerns about hoarding and getting a thick skin to survive the possible onslaught.  

Strictly speaking, Wild did not need this item. His arsenal fulfilled all his exploration-itch, with the occasional pyromaniac impulse and even the companionship, though the slate's wolf-summoning function had been on the fritz roughly the same day he had met Twilight on two legs. He was however very much the type to be attracted to the shiny, and Legend had a lot of those.

Slowly, Wild reached for the golden bracelet he saw litering the ground at Legend's hip. It reminded him of Gerudo craftwomanship, the way they imbedded magical gems in the jewelry they sold. The ruby in this one glinted just a little more than it should when the sunlight hit its center. Magic, he knew.

“Soooo,” Wild began, rubbing a finger over the gem, “what's this for?”

"Power bracelet," Legend explained dismissively, "you can take it. I've got half a dozen lying around. For some reason, there's one or two of those in every region I've gone through. Pretty basic as far as items go."

Four, who had been polishing some of his arsenal, looked up and nodded.

"I have some of these too. They're good for clearing heavy obstacles. Didn't you have anything similar?"

Wild looked to the side, wondering if the way he used his Sheikah Slate counted. The little voice in his head that sounded like Twilight (and thus was often boring and ignored) sadly replied that no, it didn't count.

"Well, mostly, I just climb over them. Or use Stasis and some bombs."

Legend massaged his forehead, mumbling something about how that explained a lot. It certainly didn't for Wild, but who was counting?

“Take it if you want. I'm good. Already wearing a pair anyway.”

“Really? Sweet! Thanks, Legend!” And with that, he ran back to the rest of the camp, his new treasure firmly in hand.

Wild, however, did not put on the bracelet.

***

"For me, Cub?" Twilight asked, nonplussed by the sudden present. It wasn't that he didn't appreciate the attention, but he was certain he hadn't forgotten an occasion and they had spent the last three days journeying through the wilderness.

Also, he was pretty sure that bracelet had been in Legend's bags an hour ago. Was this a prank? Was he the prank or the prankster?

Wild grinned. “Yeah, Legend lent it to me.” - Well, that eliminated the worst case scenario. - “But really, I thought you should have it.”

With a pensive frown, Twilight picked up the bracelet and examined it under the light. “Why a strength bracelet? I don't really need one.”

“Precisely!” Wild piped up, the spark of his inner gremlin coming alive.

His outburst caught the attention of a few other Links, who stopped their various activities in favor of listening to what might be the prelude to a disaster. It paid to be attentive when Wild got creative.

“What?” Twilight contemplated putting a hand on Wild's forehead, just in case his protege was running a fever.  

“You're already freakishly strong. Like, remember that landslide you helped clear out?”

Twilight grimaced. “I better. I felt it in my back for the rest of the day. Where are you getting a-” he trailed off, the pleading look on Wild's face hurting his soul. “No. I know where this is going. You can't rope me into stupid ideas if I don't give you rope.” Wild hung his head, missing only the cold rain to express his deep depression. “Tell him, old man!”

Sky, who had been strumming his harp by the base of a tree, shot an uneasy look to their unofficial leader.

Unfortunately, Time lifted his lips from his ocarina, a glint in his one good eye. "Can't say I'm not curious, pup."

Twilight gaped like he'd been stabbed.

“I really don't think I should d-”

“You heard him, Twilight!” Wild clapsed the bracelet over his big brother's wrist.

Then, the little traitor bolted and climbed up to Sky's branch. Probably figured that Twilight wouldn't harm the innocent in a sudden quest for revenge. Unfortunately, he was right, and Twilight was a firm believer in retribution for the guilty and the guilty alone.

They waited with bated breath for his next reaction. Some a little more tense and flightly than the others. For a man that did not appreciate the spotlight and eyes on him at all times, the attention got a little on his nerves.

First, he flexed his fingers, trying to get a feel for the magic, the difference in strength if any could be found. Urgh. This was about the farthest from his specialty as it got.

“What do you even want me to do?” he asked the others.

“Lift something heavy?” Hyrule shrugged.

The tree didn't stand a chance.

Legend hummed, examining the uprooted plant. “That's sort of a level two bracelet result.”

Twilight held back a sigh. “... Really?”

Unfortunately for his peace of mind, Time smirked. “He's right, Pup. I have something that lets me lift about a pillar of stone over my head.”

Twilight didn't say anything. In fact, his expression remained remarkably blank. His eyes searched and found Wild, who looked both awed and a little scared but the result of his thought experiment. Upon being focused on, he squirmed a bit, giving Twilight a thumbs up that cemented his decision in time and space.

Wordlessly, Twilight marched out of camp and down the hill they'd passed. Followed by the others, he marched right up to a small plateau in the terrain that hosted a few rock formation, the largest of which looked mostly buried underground.

Wild's stomach sank. “Wait, that's not a boulder! That's a Ta-”

Twilight stood, and the stone monster lifted with him. The rest of Wild's warning turned into a strangled squeak. The 'feet' of the miniboss dangled in the air like its lesser counterparts.

“-lus.”

Deep in the shadow of the rock monster he lifted, Twilight grinned and let the feral darkness inside slip just a touch. By the many flinches around (and yes, Twilight did see that, Old Man), he succeeded.

“And now, I yeet!”

The Links watched as the giant monster arched through the air, passing the clearing it had made its home in and started to fell over the abrupt drop off that split the terrain in two. The Talus' mournful cry resonated all the way down the canyon, echoing for every violent impact it made with the cliffsides, and many of them happened on the way down.

Wind, ever curious, ran right up to the edge and pulled his sister's long view.

“Oh man. That's one way to make silver moblins pancakes.”

Bonus:

Time contemplated the hole left by the Talus' untimely demise, then the normal bracelet on his pup's wrist, then the golden gauntlets he wore. With slow, deliberate purpose, he began to pull one off.

Legend slapped the offending hand away. “No, that's too much power, Old Man!”

Double Bonus:

“… Say that again?”

A hushed silence crashed on top of the heroes' camp at the restrained violence dripping from Twilight's voice. One, because for many, that was a voice that preceded flashbacks to darker times. Two, because it was Twilight and he got angry about as often as Sky did. They counted. So, with just those three little words, that innocent sounding question, all activities in the camp grinded down to a halt in favor of mentally preparing for damage control between Twilight and his target, a nonchalant Legend refusing the power bracelet back.

“You need a power bracelet to lift a pot?”

“Huh… yeah?” Legend replied, frowning. “Why? That a problem, country boy?”

Violence made way for hysteria. “A pot.”

A vein twitched on Legend's forehead, but it was less attention grabbing than the faint blush creeping up his neck. “Why do you care?”

“Show of hands, who needs a power bracelet to lift a pot here?”

A cricket chose that moment to fly through camp, cricketing all the way. Even the non-religious Links considered that one of Hylia's sign. Legend, looking thoroughly annoyed, deliberately crossed his arms over his chest despite insistant staring.

From seven other heroes.

His ears twitching, Twilight eyed the suspiciously flipped over pot and glared.

“Cub, stasis Legend.”

“... Why?”

“I need to go 'patrol' for a minute and see where our wayward Four's gotten to. Then, we're starting a training regiment." Even as he disappeared through the woods, his grumbling carried over. "Can't lift a fucking pot!”

#Linked Universe #Linkeduniverse #LU Twilight #LU Wild #LU Legend #LU Time #RO:ART

[makeste]

BnHA Chapter 227: Basically Just Me Saying “Holy Shit” a Bunch

Previously on BnHA: We went on a semi-enlightening romp into Toga’s past. Basically she was an adorable child who just so happened to have a taste for blood. And whoever’s job is was to explain to her, “hey Toga, I know you like blood, but other people like being alive, so, you know. Let’s explore some other options for you,” they basically dropped the ball there. So after she murdered her hapless Deku-looking classmate in middle school, she went on the run, and we basically know the rest. Back in the present, Toga had just been blown up from the inside out as you may recall, so she spent most of the chapter kind of out of it. At one point Kizuki even started talking about her like she was already dead, reassuring her that she’d become a martyr for the Army’s cause (which, no thanks). But then Toga managed to stumble to her feet and transform into Ochako as she tried to flee. It was revealed that while transformed, she can use the quirk of whoever she’s turned into, and she proceeded to demonstrate this by floating Kizuki (and half her redshirt goons) a hundred feet into the air before dropping her back down to the pavement. Yeah. So I’m pretty sure she’s dead now. Ah well.

Today on BnHA: Toga passes out in a shed after a job well done. We learn that the MLA is recording all of the fighting, most likely for propaganda purposes because as we have previously established they’re a bunch of dicks. Hanabata confirms that Kizuki is dead and gets the Army all fired up. They charge at Tomura, who is really fucking sleep-deprived you guys, and as he stands there blinking at them he has another flashback. Turns out the little girl from the previous flashback was his sister, and back when they were cute lil munchkins and she was still alive (sob), she showed him a picture of Nana and told him that their grandma was a hero. Tomura doesn’t remember this clearly, but he remembers the accompanying emotions, which is enough to get me hyped out of my mind fyi. Back in the present, Tomura disintegrates I’m-gonna-go-with-about-200 Army henchpeople basically instantaneously without even touching some of them, which, oh shit. And then Dabi is all “oh cool I want to do some mass murder too” but before he can let loose, some dude with fucking ice powers shows up to challenge him. I guess this means we’re never going to get Touya VS Shouto, or if we do it’s going to be very repetitive. But it’s not like I’m complaining either way. Here’s hoping the villain flashback trend continues next week because omfg.

(All comments are my unspoiled reactions from my first readthrough of this chapter like an hour ago lol. I did a quick edit for grammar and clarity, but aside from that this is as close to a live liveblog as I’m going to get. It took two-thirds of a year, but these recaps are finally caught up.)

this is so exciting guys. I mean, for me the reading process is basically the same, but the posting process is going to be a new one since I’ll be trying to get this up the same day once I’ve read it! so you can expect many exciting errors and brain farts! prepare for the full brunt of my unpolished rough draft thoughts!

so anyway, here’s Toga

lol so much to analyze here. real quick:

“sleepy.” if that isn’t the most relatable chapter title in the history of time, though

loving the “my villain academia” logo in the background! as far as I’m concerned that’s the official title of this arc

“the conclusion of the battles” y’all I read this and I was like “what?! already!?!” but then I realized they’re talking about volume 23, which features the conclusion of the joint training battle arc. so who knows how many more villain battlin’ chapters we’ve still got ahead. I have a feeling we’re already winding down, though

note how all of the stuffed animals are stabbed. ah this girl

it’s 2214, who the fuck still uses polaroid cameras. that would be like someone in our time using a [googles inventions from 200 years ago] modern suspension bridge. ...wait

anyway you guys maybe I should start reading the actual chapter already if I want any hope of actually getting this posted before fucking midnight though

oh hey, so Toga is dying in a shed you guys. fun

I’m not really thrilled about this! to be honest! I mean for fuck’s sake she’s only 17. she was blown up from the inside out. and although the consequences initially seemed to have possibly been handwaved, it appears that no one can escape BnHA’s realistic injury clause for long! so. yeah

I get why she hid, because it’s not like the others are just gonna drop everything to come help her (although Twice, though...), and there are enemies everywhere so this is probably safer. but it also means that if she passes out here there’s a good chance she’s not going to wake up again! and that is bad! that is very much not good

what she really needs to do is call Ujiko! hitch a ride out of there while you still can! he is a doctor, right? even if it is the questionable mad scientist type! worst case, you end up as a Noumu. actually, wait a sec, maybe we should think this through

and yet the fact that she’s still laughing, though. just. goddammit. I love her so much. I swear to god Toga if you fucking die...!!

so now she’s curling up in the fetal position and thinking “once again I’ve gotten closer to you”

yeah, Deku really does do this every other week. or he did for a little while at least sob

and now we are cutting to ReDestro who for some reason is monologuing about Toga!

oh right, because he had the cameras and shit set up to livestream that shit

okay but is it just me or is he not looking at any cameras. he’s just enjoying the view from his little observation tower same as before. does his quirk allow him to see everywhere at once or what

is it bad that I barely even paid attention to the actual content of his ramblings lol. it’s just the same old same old. blah blah society rejects anyone who’s different, it’s so unfair, blah blah

it’s not a bad point, mind you; it’s just that RD and his army are completely full of shit and acting like they’re so much better even though they’re just a bunch of mur-diddly-urderers. it’s like how PETA acts like they’re champions of animal rights when really they mostly just kill shelter animals, insult Steve Irwin, and claim that milk causes autism. but I digress sob

oh shit I forgot about this dude

here I was thinking there was only the one other miniboss to go before the big bad. silly me. how could I have forgotten that two page spread and our friend here with the Gorillaz mouth and the Beatles haircut

wow are you serious?

Giran sitting there with one skeptical eyebrow raised thinking about how these guys threatened to kill him in order to lure his friends out so that they could, you guessed it, kill them!

and also, way to completely disregard the dozens of other minions who already bit the dust before Kizuki. like, your entire town is basically doomed, guy. but sure let’s cry for the one dead villain who actually had a name though

holy shit you guys

are you telling me that’s why you were recording the whole thing? is that why you invited the League here in the first place?? for the fucking publicity? kill the bad guys and earn the public’s good will? did I miss that part of the planning sesh, or was this objective already painfully obvious and I somehow either missed it or forgot all about it?

either way it’s amazing how these guys become bigger assholes with each progressive chapter

oh now he’s explaining it all on the next page lol. so I guess I didn’t miss the memo, good

okay but first he’s getting real physical with my boy Giran here though

okay first of all, all he did was say “footage...?” like wth was so fucking impolite about that. and second, why do I get the feeling that there’s probably a fair percentage of people who read this chapter and got to this panel and now suddenly ship it sob

I mean, he just got so up close and personal though. all up in his face. this guy has such a weird energy and it’s really creeping me out now ngl

anyway so here we go with the explanations

holy shit you guyssssssssss

when did Giran get so fucking hot?? and is he single?! asking for a friend???!

anyway so now RD is wiping away his crocodile tears and says Giran is lacking in imagination

oh hey

what an interesting segue back to Tomura!

wow, Spinner’s asking how much longer until Big G wakes up, and Compress says one hour and twenty minutes. so that means they’ve already been at it for like an hour and fifteen minutes! minus however much time it took to warp over and then follow Back-Stab n’ Go out to the center of town for the ambush. even if that took a whole half hour they’ve still been fighting for a long time! but I guess they’re more than used to that by this point, thank you so much Ujiko and your six weeks of brutal endurance training

Spinner’s all “no matter how many we defeat, they just keep on coming!” and I know, dude, it’s almost like there’s over one hundred thousand of them or something dfskdj

although to be fair, probably not every last one of them is actually there. can you imagine. it might take a whole nother hour to beat them all

now Hanabata is driving in on the back of an election van. because apparently he just fucked right off in the middle of his fight with the League, and then came back. with a van

so he’s all “EVERYONE I HAVE SOME DEEPLY SADDENING NEWS” and oh my gosh what is it

oh

yeah dude we already been knew. RIP and all that

so the crowd is all distressed and asking what the Supreme Leader said

really?? that’s what they call him?? yeah you guys aren’t evil at all

and Hana quotes, “‘do not let her sacrifice be in vain’“

sorry bruh. but. it’s gonna be in vain. hate to break it to you

right??

GASP

TWICE STOP BEING AWED AT HANABATA’S INFLUENTIAL AURA AND START PAYING ATTENTION TO THE DUDE WHO’S SNEAKING UP BEHIND YOU AND TRYING TO SNATCH YOUR MASK OFF

anyway so in the meantime this is happening

maybe there are 100k of them. seems like there’s a lot. I do like that from this angle it appears that Tomura and the others have holed up in a relatively narrow alley, thus creating a choke point and limiting the number of enemies who can attack them all at once. although this panel does make it look like there’s just a big ol’ wave of bad guys surfing their way towards them though, so it remains to be seen how effective this strategy will actually be lol

eh?

yeah no shit boy you’ve been fighting Daruk from BotW for the last month and a half

anyway so apparently he’s feeling ~weird~ though

I shit you not guys, my sister was hospitalized a couple months back (she’s fine now) because she started hallucinating after a three-day bout of insomnia. shit is no joke. don’t be like Tomura. go to bed and don’t stay up all night fighting villains

-- OH SHIT!?!

ASDFALSDFHLKSDHLFKJHAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

IT’S A LITTLE GIRL!! AND SHE’ S OPENING A SECRET DRAWER!!

SHE’S ALL “IT’S OUR LITTLE SECRET!” OH MY GOD

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

SWEET JESUS MARY JOSEPH!? HORIKOSHI DO YOU FUCKING READ THE THEORY POSTS ON TUMBLR JUST SO YOU CAN IMMEDIATELY SHIT ON THEM TWO DAYS AFTER?? HOW THE FUCK

AND IS NANA’S SON WEARING DEKU SHOES?? OH MY GOD PLEASE

AND THIS MEANS THE LITTLE GIRL IS ACTUALLY TENKO’S SISTER SOBBBBBBBBB NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

BUT ON THE PLUS SIDE THIS MAKES TOMURA MUCH MORE LIKELY TO GO APESHIT ON AFO’S ASS IF HE COMES TO REALIZE THAT AFO INDIRECTLY MURDERED HIS SISTER OH SHIT

BUT SHIT YOU GUYS, SHE’S SO CUTE AND SHE’S FUCKING DEAD NOW SOB THAT’S SO FUCKING HORRIBLE I MEAN IT I’M REALLY UPSET THOUGH

BUT LET’S CONTINUE WITH THE FLASHBACK TO SEE IF HORIKOSHI WANTS TO TOY WITH MY EMOTIONS ANYMORE!!

NANA DIDN’T DO A GOOD ENOUGH JOB ERASING ALL TRACES OF HER CONNECTION TO HER CHILD AND IT EVENTUALLY RESULTED IN HIS DEATH OH SHIT. I’M SERIOUSLY SO UPSET ABOUT THIS??

NOTE HOW BABY TENKO’S FACE IS PURPOSELY BLACKED OUT EVEN THOUGH (A) HIS SISTER’S IS NOT, AND (B) WE SHOULD, IN THEORY, ALREADY KNOW WHAT HE LOOKS LIKE! IT’S BECAUSE HE DOESN’T HAVE THE SCARS OR THE WHITE HAIR YET CUZ AFO HASN’T WIPED HIS MEMORIES. [nods sagely as though I have any sort of proof of this whatsoever and it’s not all just wild speculation and conjecture]

HANAAAAAAAA oh shit I better come up with another nickname for Hanabata then. looks like it’s Back To The Full Name for you mister

!!?!?!?

okay you guys I think this is intentional misdirection. we’re meant to believe that Tenko’s dad was perhaps abusive and that his behavior toward his son ultimately triggered the awakening of his quirk and led to all of the subsequent Horrible Things happening

but I think what it actually is is that Tenko’s dad probably resents Nana for giving him up. and maybe Tenko wanted to know more about her and maybe he got in trouble for it? because now Hana is showing him the picture, and then talking about this mysterious conversation with their dad and saying she’s on Tenko’s side. so that’s my bet

anyway! but this means Tomura might not need as much convincing as I previously speculated! I figured he probably wouldn’t know much, if anything, about his grandma even if he did somehow get his memories back, because he was only four when all that shit went down, and Nana had parted ways with Tomura’s dad years ago. but if he actually did know a bit about her and even possibly felt a connection with her, as this flashback suggests, that could go a long way towards fueling his eventual breakaway from AFO’s side once All Might is able to explain the truth

ahhhhh you guys this is exciting I’m excited. though also still very sad though because wtf seriously

so Tomura’s tiredly thinking that the least his stupid memories could do is show him the whole picture instead of these fragments. “it’s like a broken tape recording or something”

HOLY SHIT

...I have no words. holy shit

anyone else getting flashbacks to the Highway to Hell though? what is it with Tomura and periodically pulling off the most badass stunts in the whole fucking manga. all because he didn’t get his nap dsflkjlk

ReDestro look at this loss of life. are you crying again. no, I can’t imagine that you are. you ass

you guys are probably getting tired of me just going “holy shit” over and over, but

hooooooooooooly shit

guys, if Tomura can dust people without even touching them he might as well just change his name to fucking Thanos and we’d better start praying this kid gets redeemed and soon

so now there’s a panel of Tomura being all drooly, and honestly he looks like he’s about to pass out. not sure if this is intended to be a glam shot or what lol

ohhhhSHIT

YESSSSSSSSSSS DABI. DRACARYS

!LKJDSLFKJLSDKJF!!

OH SHIT YOU GUYS, IT LOOKS LIKE WE’RE ABOUT TO GET ALL A SONG OF ICE AND FIRE UP IN THIS BITCH

who is this weird little black mage. I’ll tell you one thing, he’s the only guy I’ve seen so far who’s actually dressed appropriately for fucking December weather, though, so good on him

will he defeat our boy Touya (spoilers, he won’t)? will Touya have some flashbacks of his own (TOUYA PLEASE), since that seems to be what all the cool kids are doing these days? will I lose my fucking shit all over again next week? stay tuned! but yes I absolutely will, oh jesus this is awesome

#bnha #boku no hero academia #bnha 227 #toga himiko #giran #shigaraki tomura #bnha spoilers #mha spoilers #makeste reads bnha #are there any theories about tenko's sister possibly still being alive? #please you guys I need there to be theories where she lived #justice for the shimura sibs #brb going to pore through the entire manga looking for clues about who she might be if so #she's probably a couple years older than him #but we don't know her quirk #she could be anyone dammit #shimura hana please show yourself please I need this

[takenbyemrys]

Chapter 2/10

Main pairing: Peter Parker/Harley Keener

Chapter 1

Tony’s Monday morning was going a little differently. He understood Harley’s need for some independence, so he hadn’t sent a private jet. The kid had told him he’d be there around 9, and to ‘not leave him waiting in the lobby, old man.’ Yeah, okay, Tony was nervous. It’s not everyday that you introduce your two adopted sons that knew absolutely nothing about each other. He refused to admit to anybody but Pepper that he thought of them as his children, though. Pepper had given him a warm smile and corrected him. “Our children, you idiot.” Tony might have cried after that. A million different scenarios ran through his head. Harley was a bit rough around the edges and didn’t do well with other people, but god he hoped Peter’s literal ray of sunshine personality was enough. If it wasn’t he could only imagine the tension and arguments. He had kind of put all his eggs in this basket and couldn’t afford for them not to at least be civil. That’s really all he was shooting for, maybe over the summer they would be able to get along well enough to realize they could work together. So Tony might have shut himself in the lab all weekend to worry. It happens. When his phone buzzed on the table, he jumped sky high, not expecting it to be nearly nine already.

Harley Received 8:51am I think your ego presented itself in the lobby.

Harley Received 8:51am Like really gold inlay?

Harley Sent 8:52am Wait at the reception desk. I need to come down to approve your badge.

Tony was in the elevator a second later. Harley was leaning against the reception desk, arms crossed, a smirk on his face, and a duffel bag at his feet. Kelly, the receptionist was occasionally shooting him a smile, but Tony could see her glare pulling towards a large tour group in the lobby. He ignored it and continued. Kelly raised an eyebrow as Tony walked up to her desk. Tony could see her trying not to smile. Harley raised an eyebrow. “Wow you look like shit.” He smirked, his southern drawl falling smoothly. “Keep at it kid, I'll send you right back to Tennessee.” Tony grumbled. Harley rolled his eyes and sent Kelly a dashing smile, who was covering her laughter with a cough. “Good morning Mr.Stark.” She said sweetly. “Morning, Kelly. How’s the wife?” He asked politely. “Fabulous of course. I am a bit worried about how she’s going to do with that.” Kelly gestured to the tour group. “I can send someone?” Tony asked. Kelly shook her head. “Peter already agreed to help tomorrow.” Tony raised an eyebrow at that. “But anyway. I see we have a request for an alpha level badge printing.” Kelly sent Harley a smirk. “Another one I see.” “Another one, what?” Tony asked incredulously. Kelly just shook her head with a smile. “I knew PENIS Parker was lying about his stupid internship. Why else would he skip?” An obnoxious voice sounded from the large group. Tony froze. He watched as Kelly sent another glare toward the group. “Kelly.” He said slowly. “Mrs. Potts approved an overnight tour for a local STEM school.” Kelly said, keeping her voice even. “What school?” Tony asked, afraid he already knew the answer. “Midtown Tech.” Kelly pursed her lips. Tony’s blood ran cold. That motherfucker had called his kid what exactly. “That’s happened about four times now.” “Louder each time too,” Harley drawled. He gave off a carefree attitude, but Tony could see the underlying tension. Harley didn’t really take well to true assholes. Maybe this would be good for their relationship. “Right, Kelly please print the badge. Harley, we’re going to threaten children.” Tony smiled. Harley grinned and followed.

“I’m assuming this has something to do with the other intern you mentioned?” Harley asked. Tony nodded. When they reached the edge of the group, Tony could hear the voice of a teacher giving directions. He scanned the crowd, but didn’t find the source. He looked to the right and jumped out of his skin when his eyes met the indifferent glare of Michelle Jones. “MJ,” Tony greeted. The girl scared the crap out of him. She was a tiny angrier Pepper. She nodded and her gaze quickly found Harley. She smirked. “Another Murder!Child I see.” She snorted. Ned squeaked from his spot behind her. “I- excuse me a what?” Tony asked. Harley was smirking. “Murder. Child. The new one you ordered for Peter.” MJ enunciated. “MJ.” She jerked her chin toward Harley, who looked mildly scandalized. “Harley.” The boy drawled. At this point, they were getting the attention of the teenagers around them, but they didn’t notice. “And southern to boot.” MJ smirked again. “1. Hello Ned. Stop hiding. 2. I did not ‘order’ him for Peter, Jesus Christ. It’s long past time they should meet. 3. What in all hell is a murder child?” Tony gasped. This was not how this was supposed to be going. “Hello Mr.Stark,” Ned squeaked again and stepped out from behind MJ. “I think that by tomorrow, they’ll both agree otherwise.” MJ’s eyes dragged up and down Harley, who just raised an amused eyebrow. “And a murder child is anyone with an instant kill protocol.” MJ glared at Tony. Harley’s eyebrows shot up at that. “Peter doesn’t-” Tony sputtered. “You’re not the genius he thinks you are if you don’t believe he has one.” MJ rolled her eyes. “For the record, I don’t think i count as a ‘Murder Child,’ and I don't play well with other people.” Harley smirked again. God Tony wished he would stop doing that. MJ smirked right back. “Ever almost killed someone, hell ever actually killed someone?” Harley shrugged noncommittally. “Exactly. Murder Child with an accent?” “Don’t forget the evil smirk.” Ned stuttered. MJ nodded. “Welcome to the IronFamily. I have no doubt that the minute you set your eyes on either Peter you’ll be just smitten.” “How does fifty bucks sound?” Harley raised an eyebrow. “Wait either Peter?” Tony asked, eyes flicking between the three of them. “Yep.” MJ popped the ‘p’. “MurderChild!Peter and Soft!Peter. Either one. I won’t forget to collect.” Harley shot out his hand and they shook. Tony rubbed his temples. “Jesus christ what did I get myself into? Where the hell is he anyway? I can’t see him.” “Maybe it’s because you’re so short.” “Thin fucking ice Keener.” “He got permission from May to not come.” Ned stuttered out. MJ was smirking. She shared a knowing look with Ned. “What so he’s just home?” Tony asked. He pulled his phone out of his pocket. “FRIDAY where the fuck is Peter?” “Language. MiniBoss is in Training Room 4.” Harley snorted, but he sent MJ a look when he heard ‘MiniBoss’. She just smirked at him. “Wait he’s in the fucking tower? When did he arrive? Why didn’t you notify me?” Tony started typing quickly. “Language. MiniBoss arrived at 3:14pm on Friday. You were notified when he met you in Lab 34.” FRIDAY sassed. “He hasn’t fu-reaking left since Friday. Jesus tell me he ate.” Tony groaned. “Smooth.” Harley said. Tony glared at him. “MiniBoss and TheBoss had breakfast and dinner together every day.” Friday confirmed. Tony’s jaw dropped. “Wow, IronDad really dropping the ball. What could your kids possibly be feeling right now?” MJ asked. “I am not dad!” Tony said incredulously. “Ms.Jones Mr.Leeds, i’m sure your conversation isn’t as important as…” The teacher called, but quickly trailed off when Tony turned to him. The class collectively gasped. “Hello Midtown.” Tony said. Harley snorted next to him. Tony sent him a glare. “Sorry to interrupt, I was looking for someone, who apparently isn’t here.” A tall kid pushed through the crowd. “Wait, were looking for Penis Parker?” The kid smirked, well it was like a weird grimace, but an attempt at a smirk. It was like he believed Tony would never fucking say yes. Tony’s eyes narrowed and he stepped forward so that he was right up in this kids face. “What the fuck did you just call my kid?” Tony growled. The kid paled instantly. He heard MJ snickering behind him. “I- I uh… Your kid?” Flash stuttered. “Peter Parker. My personal intern. One of the possible future heirs to my company. Like my own fucking son. You were talking about that Parker, correct?” Flash swallowed loudly. Behind him, Ned’s jaw dropped and even Harley’s eyebrows had shot up. MJ just looked amused. “I’m sorry.” Flash stumbled backward. Tony surveyed the rest of the crowd, noting the look of incredulity on their teachers face. He turned back to MJ. “No one believed the internship?” He raised a single eyebrow. MJ nodded, a smile twitching on her lips, before she cracked. “Not a dad, my ass. FRI save recording to IRONDAD Moments.” She guffawed. “Saved.” “FRIDAY where’s the kid again?” Tony sighed. “MiniBoss is in training room 4.” Friday answered. “For what?” Tony nose scrunched in confusion. “Family day.” FRIDAY said simply. Tony threw his head back and groaned. “So it’s a murder child kind of day.” MJ smirked at Harley, who was honestly so fucking confused. “FRIDAY, please record the meeting with Peter and send it to me.” “Of course, MiniPepper.” FRIDAY said. Tony whipped around to see MJ blushing. “Right, well, welcome to Stark Industries, be nice to your guide. She’s a gem. Don’t break anything.” Tony said to the teenagers. He saw a handful of teenagers nodding. He turned to walk away and found Ellen smirking at him. “Mr.Stark. The badge you requested.” Ellen handed a red badge to Harley. “I heard you adopted another one.” Tony sent a glare towards the reception desk. Kelly just waved. “Training room 4 is on our route today. Would you mind telling the fam? Just in case they want to evacuate.” Tony nodded. “Kid, get your bag.” Tony nodded to MJ and Ned and led the way to the elevator. “You need a badge to make Happy, well not happy, but less angry at me. FRIDAY took your bio scan so she will let you in any door. You have clearance for the whole building.” Tony grumbled as he walked into the elevator. “So Peter?” Harley asked. Tony rubbed a hand on his face. “Okay, only Pepper and Bruce, and now apparently a group of fucking teenagers know this, but Peter is being trained to be part of the team to take over SI should something happen to Pepper or myself.” Tony said very carefully. “A team?” Harley asked. “Why a team?” “Because Peter is also being trained to take over the Avengers.” Tony admitted. Harley’s jaw dropped. “Jesus, don't tell him any of this. Though I have no doubt, the scary one has already texted him.” Harley nodded. Tony kept sending him looks. Should he tell him that he’s part of the team? That they are the whole fucking team? Well MJ too honestly. She’ll definitely be their Pepper. Tony shook his head and decided against it. “Training room 4 FRI.” The elevator shot up.

#Peter Parker #peter parker fanfiction #fanfic #marvel fanfic #harley keener #harleypeter #Peterharley #parley #parkener #marvel

[airlock]

airlock grades the Punchable archetype

so far, a majority of the Fire Emblem villains I’ve covered in this series are the sort who are meant to be liked, forgiven, sympathized with... these here are not those ones. these are the ones whose singular purpose in the narrative is to piss you the hell off. so, which of them played that role to excellence?

(do note: under cut are spoilers for… everything, and also a significant amount of me criticizing or blamming characters that you might- okay, yeah, no, you probably don’t like anybody on this list, but you may still strongly disagree with my opinions of them. you’ve been warned! ha, no way these fools would set about reading the whole post now... what!? impossible!)

a foreword

so, to be very specific, I’m not rating every flatly irritating miniboss here; the definitive aspect here is that the character has to be a recurring one, whose extended screentime never quite ends up giving them a chance to be something other than vile. but more important than the hair-splitting here is giving some consideration to how exactly I’ll be doing the rating; after all, I’m not supposed to like any of these people, but there’s still better and worse ways to be despicable as a character.

I’m running pretty much on two central critteria: is this character entertaining, and is that character satisfying to take down. it’s more important to hit one than to hit both; a character who hits neither is significantly more likely to be a pure waste of bile, however.

without further ado, let’s start gritting those teeth!

fuck this guy

(9/10)

directly enabling the single most badass scene in all of Book II obviously lands you on the upper echelons of this here character type. but that’s just the effect; we should peer into the cause of what makes him work so well!

of the critteria I mentioned, Lang goes for the latter: he’s not only quite satisfying to defeat, it’s also great anytime someone finally talks back to him and puts him in his place. that’s because he’s not the sort of character for whom this sort of thing is a given. a lot of the ones we’ll see ahead of him are incompetent toadies on top of being amoral, but not this guy; he knows exactly what he’s doing, relying on the backing of the most powerful nation in the continent to plunder, raze, and oppress to his heart’s content. the business of doing something about this dipshit gets severely delayed by the dire consequences of crossing him -- until Marth finally decides that enough is enough.

and THEN Jagen tells him to meet him 9 PM at the Grustian denny’s parking lot for an old man brawl-

fuck this chin

(3/10)

I struggle to understand ol’ Kaga’s obssession with jealousy as a villainous character motivation, I really do. it’s one entirely realistic thing to envy someone for having riches, fame, status, influence, the attention of one’s crush, or other such things that are more or less objective and palpable. it’s also entirely a thing to have an inferiority complex and fear or spite people one perceives as being more talented, better looking, stronger, smarter than oneself. but the way these characters are written tends to come across like they’re furious because they’re underwritten gonk and not everyone else is.

... which hey, would be a pretty upsetting thing if it happened to a real person, but I don’t think meta-commentary is the point here, is it? I sincerely hope it isn’t...

fuck this lady

(7/10)

the second leg of Genealogy of the Holy War finds you facing the same sorts of enemies most of the time: half of them are Satanists, and the other half are unfortunate innocents trapped in the crossfire of courtly intrigue. it’s exactly because of this that the arc desperately needs a villain like Hilda.

Hilda is just someone who doesn’t particularly mind if the most effective path up the social ladder involves destroying her relatives, daughter included, or capturing children and forcing them into murder tournaments. how is the imperial machinery of tragedy and death supposed to run without someone like her cranking a couple of the levers? er, I mean, you don’t really crank levers unless you’re doing something weird, but... okay, moving on

amidst all of the battles you might struggle to feel were worth fighting, Hilda here serves as a reminder, as a face of every reason why the Empire is the enemy and must be defeated.

and yes, making Tinny kill her rocks

fuck this guy IN AMERICA

(2.5/10)

not too long ago I would have dropped him a straight zero, but I’ve recently been reading through the Project Exile text dumps for a new Thracia 776 fanslation and what can I say, they put good work into making him tick properly and I essentially have no choice but to keep that sort of thing in consideration when making the ratings, being that all of the other villains are also characters I only have indirect contact with through a translation that may have improved or worsened things.

but the good work is no miracle -- although given much-needed entertainment value, this guy is still who he is: practically a standard-fare asshole miniboss who ends up getting three whole chapters to chirp into. and to make matters worse, you only actually get the payoff to him in one of two possible routes!

I am strong, I am clever, I am handsome, and most importantly, fuck me

(4/10)

I can’t possibly deny that his antics are some of the most hilarious on this list; the ridiculous speeches, the facial expressions from the manga, the fact that he gets demoted on screen... and I mean, they got Kaiji Tang to put voice to his high drama on Heroes, on top of it all!

alas, it just really spoils the fun to a significant extent that his very introduction in Binding Blade sees him macking on a captive prepubescent girl. however entertaining it may be that she snatches his wig on that occasion anyway.

fuck this morph

(5/10)

yeah, some people wish. notably including Brendan Reed-

the thing with Sonia is that she’s a little less believable than most folks in this archetype -- specifically because she’s not, like, working within the structures of power that would let her get away with being as much of a dip as she wants to; she’s earned her influential position by seducing the boss, which is hard to buy when, however attractive she may be, she never has a single positive interaction with anyone and nobody trusts her (barring Ursula on both counts, but she’s not the one who needs to be brought on board anyway). I realize what a phenomenon it is to think with one’s dick, but come on; surely, you don’t let your new friend with benefits tell you how to do your job just because she’s that good in bed or something.

that said, although her overall spot on the plot feels weakly implemented, she still makes for a tremendous bulwark to overcome specifically within Nino’s subplot. what a powerful confrontation against a lifelong abuser she provides in the end!

do not fuck this guy what is wrong with you

(3/10)

Valter is just uncomfortable as a character, which is limbo as far as emotion-inducing goes; it’s not particularly entertaining, and nor is it artfully terrifying in the way that Orson is. furthermore, I normally praise Sacred Stones’s antagonists for averting the way of behaving like a plot device, but this guy is the exception; he seems to primarily show up to cause trouble because trouble needs to be caused.

I feel like he’d have made for a far stronger character concept if his backstory had been handled differently, being more specific in what part of his mind broke when he held the cursed lance, instead of just being “now he does bad things and talks like he’s vaguely horny throughout”.

at least he’s quite a bit entertaining in Heroes where he gets voiced lines and no particular characters or plots to interact with -- but if that’s what it takes to make the character shine, it doesn’t really say good things about him.

fuck beauty

(5.5/10)

so, the truth come out: does this guy is deserve becoming the absolute teacher’s pet he’s been since Radiant Dawn? my verdict on the matter is: not really.

I mean, Path of Radiance actually writes him into a solid niche; for all the big words he emits about being a patron of beauty, he’s ultimately just the same kind of petty, ostentatious garbage that poisons the governance of Begnion, and finally taking him down for good and all makes for an excellent dive after all the work it takes to set the light of justice on him -- not just in Day Breaks (oh gooooooooddd) but over the course of the several chapters it takes.

it’s all downhill from there, though. his appareance in Radiant Dawn is not only unecessary, but also a deviation from the established writing to focus on pallid, ineffective jokes, like someone invented Heroes writing before the thing itself happened. he fights on your side because now he genuinely cares about beauty and art to the point he’ll fight a goddess over it? yeah, that’s not who he was.

and seriously, one strongly gets the impression that, in that appearance onwards, the punchline is just supposed to be that he’s fat, bald, wordy, and has a shitty mustache -- which, besides being blatant fatphobia, is seriously stale; “it’s funny because he’s ugly” is, like, at least two random minibosses per game, usually more.

fuck the senate

(2/10)

although he jabs a lot of the buttons that should make for an entertaining and stalwart hate sink, it ends up not really working.

his narcisism lacks the performatic grandeur of the likes of Narcian; it lands as pastiche at best, and common annoying smugness at worst. and although he’s powerful and influential enough to cause a bunch of problems, he’s introduced at a weird time that fails to make his specfic capabilties relevant to opposing the protagonists, and he ends up not doing a lot more than severely inconveniencing Zelgius (who is on his team) a couple times.

at least, the battle dialogue against him in Part 4 still provides some of the most fierce drags in Radiant Dawn

fuck the valm arc

(0/10)

seriously, fuck it

but ahem, onto the guy in question: he’s an annoying waste of writing space that doesn’t seem to be intended for any reason other than making the rest of Team Bad Guy look good, plain and simple.

you might be thinking, airlock, this is the third Awakening villain you blammed in four posts, are you just biased? the answer is: yes, but even if I were being perfectly fair, let’s be real, antagonists are just not one of that game’s strengths, overall. that just happens sometimes; I can really say the same thing of like Thracia 776, y’know?

fuck playing f- yeah, okay, that’s just low-hanging fruit

(??/10)

honestly, from this distance, none of Fates’s fixed antagonists bar Anankos really give me the impression of not just being despicable pastiche, but I’m guessing he’s supposed to be the one who actually intended to take it as a niche?

so, I’m just going to assume you hated this, but how was it? are you glad it’s over, or do you regret having read it at all? we’re probably not going to be spared from one of these characters on Three Houses, but specifically how much would you like to hate the one that comes along? to be honest, your thoughts aren’t remotely as good as mine, so I wouldn’t bother replying or reblogging to share them, worm. what? you’ll do it anyway!? how dare you! do you know what I’m capable of!?

#airlock grades the villain archetypes #fire emblem is tagged in this post

[sluttyopinions]

Difficulty in Dark Souls and Why We Can’t Live Without It

April 6, 2019

Written by Samantha, Slutty Opinions

The debate on the role of difficulty in video games seems to, never actually end. It feels like something people talk about literally every year, and for some reason, Dark Souls (and the many games that have followed in its influence) is always the target. It feels like something that doesn’t need much debating in my opinion, but it gets brought up often regardless. For some reason, this topic gets me really riled up and I have a lot of strong opinions on it. It feels like I’m ready to go into a tirade any  time I see it, and lately, I’ve been seeing it way too much. This article is kind of my own way of venting, as well as collecting all the arguments I’ve found in favor of how necessary challenge is, primarily in the new generation of From Soft and Hidetaka Miyazaki games. I think it’s important to address why this issue is truly a non-issue, why it came to be an issue in the first place, and why I even care. For the purposes of this article and keeping it simple, I’ll mostly be referring to one of my favorite games,

Dark Souls isn’t about being really hard

I’d be lying if I didn’t admit to Dark Souls being, pretty damn hard. It’s well above average in the department of making me constantly die and wince and feel tense. It’s not the type of game you can just pick up on a whim and breeze through, yet some people clearly want that experience from it or else I wouldn’t be writing this. For some ungodly reason, Dark Souls, or at least most of Miyazaki’s action games since Demon’s Souls is ALWAYS at the center of these discussions. Dark Souls has been the go to analogy for “hard game” for most gaming writers and journalists for YEARS now to much criticism and booing all around.

It’s hard to blame people who haven’t been exposed to the actual games for having this thought process. When Demon’s Souls first came out, it was a breath of fresh air for many in a time when games were getting more and more “dumbed down” across the board. Bandai Namco, the publisher for Dark Souls, decided to use this reputation to its advantage in advertising, calling the definitive edition of Dark Souls the “Prepare to Die Edition”. Streamers caught onto the game quickly as a very easy way to get views because seeing people die and struggle can be, well, fun!

Despite all this, that’s not even close to all there is to Dark Souls. The reputation can be a bit misleading, and it feels like a lot of the easy mode begging crowd knows not much else other than this reputation when it comes to the game. Probably the absolute best aspect of the way Dark Souls was made was its world. The map design is impeccable, it’s very very difficult to find a map more lovingly designed than Dark Souls 1’s. It has so many interesting rewarding shortcuts, feels completely logical and real in the way it was designed despite being in a fantasy world, feels extremely fluid, and is loaded with detail and character. If I were to recommend Dark Souls to someone, I would start with how much I love the world itself in all its aspects. The narrative, the characters, the detail, the risk and reward. I would never even think of telling somebody “It’s really hard and makes you feel cool at the end” (even if there is truth to that statement).

Nonetheless, Dark Souls wouldn’t be worth playing without challenge

I may have said that Dark Souls cannot be reduced to simply “hard game”, but, without being hard, it wouldn’t be a game I would recommend to anyone. All the goodness and enjoyment you can find in the depths of the game is built around the base of it being not an easy time. As I hinted at in the last section, the world design is very risk-reward in nature.

You often encounter forks in your path where you must decide which path is closest to the next checkpoint, or if you want to risk your current experience for more experience and treasure on the more dangerous route. Finding your way around this fluid map wouldn’t feel like much anything without the risk involved. The reward is only rewarding because you banked your skills on that risk. On an easy mode, any path you take would feel the same. Sequence breaking into a much higher level area would not have the punishment it contains to make the rewards worth it if you could waltz into those higher level areas.

The bosses are designed around persistence and patience. The reason the bosses are interesting is because they are something you learn. Many action games are built around reflex as well as training but Dark Souls’ philosophy of design is around dying as a teacher. Not only the bosses, but you advance slowly but surely through levels each time you come back. You win some, you lose some. Enemy placement is designed in a way so that each time you memorize them more, and in a sense, the game then becomes easy. That is the end goal of your adventure, at least, mechanically speaking. Easiness would strip that functional identity from it.

An easy mode would strip Dark Souls of its narrative identity as well

The idea of people asking for an easy mode so they can see the world and story without having  to put in the time shows me that those asking don’t really know a lot about Dark Souls to begin with. As I already said, mechanically, the world would become uninteresting without the risk and reward. The writing of the game also revolves around this risk and the concept of persistence I described earlier. All you’d be doing on an easy romp is looking at a lot of brown stuff and reading cryptic item descriptions. I can’t comprehend wanting to pay for an experience like that and not just watching videos about it all that you can do for free. VaatiVidya has some great ones seriously, you don’t even have to have played the games to enjoy the videos. But, it would certainly help a lot.

The entire theme of Dark Souls is, patience and persistence. In the world your adventure is set in, humans are cursed to be undead and revived again and again. Miyazaki loves making gameplay have as little conflict with the narrative as possible, which is part of what makes his works so unique. This dying and reviving you do in game is what most people in the world around you do. However, most npcs have, limited purpose. Being a shopkeeper, being a warrior, a scholar, maybe even a cynic. Once their “purpose” they have sought out to find has expired, or they have lost confidence in it, they lose their very minds.

Your duty as the player character is to find the First Flame. Not important what that means for the sake of this article, just, your goal. The goal of many others in this world who are just like you. Because the player character is an extension of yourself, your will to find the ending, to find the flame, is imposed upon your avatar. You deciding to get up and give it another go at your true goal is like your character giving life another shot. Even in a cold, nihilistic world like that of Dark Souls, humans can find purpose and determination. Hope and patience are virtues in human beings, and they can allow us to surmount anything. That determination can even surpass the might of the gods themselves. The will to get up after being knocked down a ridiculous amount of times is what makes humans good and what makes life worth it. If you could run to the ending in 5 hours, you would not have gotten anything out of the writing in the game. All the character arcs, the crushing despair around you, the theme itself, gone. Someone could explain it to you as I am now, but that simply isn’t the same.

As I said earlier, a Dark Souls without challenge is a game I would simply never want to play. Miyazaki didn’t choose to make his games hard so tryhards and elitists could masturbate over their digital accomplishments. He makes them hard because that’s the way he feels he could make his art mean something. The way he could use the medium and the art form to the full advantage of his work in every dimension. It’s insulting to imply nothing would change with an easy mode added. I wouldn’t trust anyone who played the game on a setting like that to be able to give the game a proper analysis or review, especially not a journalist who is supposed to convey the core experience to an audience who doesn’t know what it is yet.

Dark Souls difficulty is overblown and overhyped

The reputation preceding Dark Souls is somewhat a false one. As I had previously said, saying it’s an easy or even moderate experience would be a lie. Dark Souls is definitely a hard experience, and one that serves it well as a piece of art. However, it being the “only hard game ever” as it seems to be conveyed in pop culture is a little ridiculous.

There are, a ridiculous amount of difficult games out there in the market. Many of which are much more difficult than Dark Souls and its sequels and much less forgiving. Many of which also do not have easier modes. Dark Souls gets an irregular amount of attention in the public eye and especially to lazy journalists for not much reason.

The game design in Dark Souls is built off pure willpower and the willingness to retry, not often reflexes and exact timing. It is designed in a way so that every death contributes to your end goal. Maybe on one run you opened a shortcut that makes your route easier, maybe you cleared out a miniboss that won’t respawn. Or you mastered your way around a specific enemy. There is no “game over state” in Dark Souls, and what you lose can easily be won back. The game design is punishing, but it gives you the resources to make sure you’re not losing progress or just going insane in general.

Let the artist decide their own art: Not all media has to be for everyone

In the end, an artist has the right to decide how they create, and what they create. As consumers, we reserve the right to get or not get a piece of work as well. If we feel something just isn’t good, or it isn’t accessible to us, or even just not our style, we don’t have to get it or consume it. Of course, this doesn’t mean you’re not allowed to complain about something. I complain about entertainment all the time and always make sure my thoughts on something are fully voiced even if my wishes are unrealistic.

Sometimes though, a piece of entertainment can, thoroughly not be your thing. That doesn’t necessarily mean it was poorly made, at times far from it. A personal example would be I did not like Zelda: Breath of the Wild as much as most. It was enjoyable, but more on an “average” level of enjoyable for me and I left frustrated not wanting to pick it back up, and just missing the older Zelda formula. While I do have specific critiques of the game and things it could have improved, I don’t think it’s a “bad game”. It’s amazingly made and there was a lot of love behind it. It’s just the exact adventure it was going for was not the adventure I was looking for, and that disconnect pushed me away from it.

I’ve seen people on the other side claim the statement of “not all entertainment is for you” is on its own elitist and gatekeepy but, it’s only an undeniable truth about the world. This statement doesn’t even have anything to do with the difficulty. If you REALLY REALLY didn’t enjoy Dark Souls no matter how many times you tried, making it easier wouldn’t change that. Maybe you disliked the tone, the aesthetic, the characters, the feel of the combat. All of that is valid because not everyone has to like everything. Changing some stats like health pools or damage won’t change the game design (The funny story is, I really didn’t like Dark Souls when I first tried it. I tried it maybe 10 times before it clicked, and now it’s my 2nd favorite video game franchise of all time.)

Comparing Dark Souls to other video games is quite honestly, a dishonest debate tactic. Trying to claim that “X hard game has an easy mode so, so should Dark Souls” is not very fair to it as a piece of art. Art is not homogenous or standardized, it’s art. As I explained very thoroughly before, I feel Dark Souls would be butchered had it had its challenge removed, even optionally. Some games even if designed with being very hard as its normal, can get away with easy settings for a variety of reasons. The story can be viewed through interesting dialogue and cutscenes that someone with less patience and time would want to see, it can offer a fun exploration of the mechanics in a way that makes you feel like you’re on a power trip versus on an uphill battle, etc. That choice is up to the individual game and the creator. It is clear Miyazaki and team have no interest in changing their art for the masses, and I can easily see why.

The claim against easy modes is not inherently elitist

People who stand up for my argument or parts of my argument are often targeted for being elitist gatekeepers trying to keep their precious game away from the masses. Making it easier would allow others to play it without struggling the same as the veterans, which would make the veterans insecure enough to fight against it. They earned their pointless digital trophy already and they want to keep it, all to themselves. Or at least, that’s what the people saying this stuff would have you believe.

“If the easy mode is optional, how does that bother you? You already finished the game, and now more people can play it! It’s a win-win. I can’t imagine a reason for fighting that concept other than to maintain your secret club and the status of it.” The truth is, Dark Souls fans (For the most part at least. I won’t deny elitists exist) desire more people to play their game with them, and will help anyone who seeks it. We just don’t want people playing a bastardized version of the game which as I explained, I wouldn’t recommend to basically anyone. It would be like discussing an entirely different game with people who think there is no difference. It’s not because they’re “weak” or “uncool” for choosing a hypothetical easier setting, it’s because that experience would not carry even near the same identity.

I cannot overstress the fact that Souls fans absolutely love to help. It is possibly one of the most guided games ever made. Video guides, written guides, guides of all types for all different people. The fandom is one of the surprisingly nicest, funniest groups I have known which is surprising due to how toxic the nature of fandoms tend to be, and how dark and lonely the concept of Dark Souls is. I guess this loneliness inspires people to band together in the real world, and try to make things light to contrast the nihilism often found in the world of the game? Just me throwing out crazy theories a little.

I would personally love to help anyone who wanted to try the game, the way it was designed to be played that is. I would sit beside any friend who wanted to get into it and help them until it clicks, if it ever does. The experience requires a lot of dedication and patience, so I would help teach that to others. Honestly, if it weren’t for friendly people in the community and the wonderfully put together internet guides, I never would have gotten into this series. The truth is, Dark Souls doesn’t have a magical barrier keeping gamers from playing it. The barrier is your own determination. Everyone is encouraged to try, and every single one of us as human beings have the potential to overcome it and learn it. It’s not that some people “can or can’t” play Dark Souls. It’s that some will, and some won’t. And any won’t can become a will. It’s an equal opportunity beatdown.

This argument is not actually about accessibility

Strange I had to wait until the end to get to this, since this is what the argument seems to revolve around the most. Is keeping Dark Souls as purely a difficult experience physically preventing disabled gamers from playing it? The journalists and pundits who advocate for the easy mode would like all of us to believe that. Kind of funny how little if any of those advocates are disabled or understand what disability means.

Accessibility is how, well, accessible, something is. It’s a really stupid statement but I can’t think of a better way to word it. Access is if a person can get their hands on something and experience it to the end like the rest of their peers. Is being simply, not easy, an accessibility issue? In my opinion, no, not at all. Accessibility issues include things such as good controllers, customizable visuals and user interface, customizable button mapping, fair game design, etc. None of these categories has anything to do with difficulty. Implying disabled gamers can only play point and click games is kind of insulting in my personal opinion, not that I am disabled myself so forgive any assumptions I may make.

The truth is, disabled gamers CAN play Dark Souls and similar games. As I have basically beaten to death already, the core game design of Dark Souls is patience, and determination. It’s about basic learning and trying, a very human instinct that all of us have and can use or weaponize. The gameplay is fair, and somewhat slow, and more punishes you for not being prepared or for lapses in judgement than simply not being able to press the buttons fast enough. If a gamer has the tools needed to physically play the game in as comfortable a way they can, how hard the game is shouldn’t change their access.

Difficulty, at least in a fair game, is only a test of how many times you are willing to get up and face adversity, a lesson Dark Souls tries to impart in its own story. If anything, disabled people all over the world know this lesson by heart already. It doesn’t matter how unfair the cards you were dealt are, or how oppressive your surroundings are. If you want to keep moving, and if you have reasons to keep moving, you can find, purpose. Regardless of how you were born or what life has done to you if you continue to get up you can essentially win. Dark Souls is easier than life in that way since it does have a definitive “end state” to it. An end that is accessible to anyone of any standing given the patience and drive, and resources to experience the world.

This whole debate is manufactured to an extent

The reason this debate even arose again to begin with, and why it keeps showing up over and over again is you guessed it, games journalists. Even though by writing this I’d consider myself a journalist as well, I don’t hold much high regard for the field as a whole which is not a very unpopular opinion and hasn’t been for quite a few years. The easiest way to get clicks on anything, video game news or news news, is to get people angry at what you’re writing. Hate clicks generate easy revenue. If someone sees something they agree with while scrolling, they may nod and keep going. But if they see something that makes  their blood boil, they’ll screenshot it and read it to make sick burns against it and show the mess to their followers.

Of course then that starts a cycle of people pulling said article up over and over and it generating an internet hate storm with people now defending the original point. This whole mess was the internet falling hook line and sinker for some poorly paid overstressed sap’s click scam. Probably multiple scams coalescing into one bigger mess. I admit I in writing and publishing this have fallen for it, but hey, I enjoy doing what I do, and I feel it’s worth sharing my side.

Another possible motivation for manufacturing petty crises from a journalist’s point of view as I’ve seen many point out is the simple fact that journalists face deadlines. It is a very and I mean very stressful part of their careers, and for game journalists, their deadlines are based on when they can finish a game. It’s why a lot of lengthy rpgs don’t get treated very fairly or have entire sections excluded from review, and why now these same people are begging for notoriously difficult games to be easier. The sooner they can finish it, the sooner the stress is gone and the sooner they can be paid. Having the responsibility of your paycheck based on your patience when you don’t have much time for patience can cause some to snap and write what they wrote. In the end though, I just pray I never have to read reviews of journalists reviewing a From Soft game on easy mode, because that wouldn’t be much of a review at all.

Why I even care

For those of you still reading, thank you, so much. From the bottom of my heart. It may have become clear in reading why I put so much time into this, or why I get so angry every time I see this argument come up, but it may not be. I’d like to make it very clear why. This game series is very close to my heart, and seeing people act all-knowing about it when it’s clear they haven’t touched it at all or for at most 5 minutes makes my blood boil.

On top of pretending to know game design on a game they know nothing about, they resort to cheap tactics such as guilt tripping and shaming. The whole “elitist” route trying to make the opponents seem like pretentious asses is not very mature for starters, and trying to shift the fact that they lack patience or simply don’t like a game onto being about the rights of the disabled makes me angrier than anything. I have seen many many disabled gamers become furious at these people and for good reason. I have been furious about this for a very long time now, and I hope putting my thoughts to paper will calm me, even if only for a little while.

I sincerely hope my thoughts gave you a new outlook on something or other. That is the most I could ask for as a writer. If not, and you still read this far, I hope I made your day brighter.

#dark souls #essay #article #easy mode #difficulty #gaming #journalism #sekiro

[metalempire]

Fire Emblem Three Houses Review: A Great Game Crippled By Squandered Potential

Now that the clickbait title has grabbed ur dick and engaged the hate boner it’s time to sit down and take a look at the newly released Fire Emblem game everyone loves (including me, to an extent, despite what the title says.) 

I’ll put the whole thing under a readmore to safeguard from spoilers, save dashboards and for anyone who doesn’t give a shit to just stop reading now at a convenient point. As for mobile users, fuck you, I’m a phone hating old man. Read this on an Apple Refrigerator or die.

The TL:DR version is: Game good overall, but not enough variety and near lazy repetition makes both gameplay and story feel a bit disappointing overall once you play all the routes. 

Also you can’t fuck Rodrigue so 0/10 worst game in the series. 

Right now I’ll address the good points about the game since I do in fact have heaps of praises to sing it’s just easier to clickbait with negativity of which I do have but the positive bits come first cos I said so. 

The gameplay is good Fire Emblem, unlike SoV which was ass don’t @ me, as the kids say. Aside from fog of war and a very occasional desert map there’s not too much unpleasant shit and there’s not really any spam which is great since the past few games were getting guilty of that. The maps are a bit plain in layout but they’re not bad either and the enemy placements, choices, map features and terrain are all nicely put together to make a fairly pleasant experience with each one. There are no desert fort maps surrounded by 5 range archers on all sides. There are no cantors spamming infinite terrors or infinitely spawning faceless reinforcements. The weapon triangle might be absent but the breaker skills have been retooled and brought back to allow you to choose if you feel like opting into it or not on your own end. It allows alot of units and weapons to shine and combined with the class freedom the game gives to allow you the wiggle room to make your own playstyle, so if an entire army of Wyvern Lords if your thing then the game is nothing short of an enabler there. Combat Arts are back and nicely well balanced and feel more useful than in SoV, not to mention gambits being a natural expansion on them, Battalions being a positive this game brings to up the scale of warfare rather than it just being Anime Teens VS The World and adds another combat art not tied to a weapon and nice stat boosts and effects to change how you interact with enemies, such as using Assembly to drag a boss off a heal tile, and so forth. The more options the better, and the game is full of freedoms for you to play around with. 

Garreg Mach Monastery is where most of the game takes place and where a good chunk of hours are spent. Being able to train weapon and movement type ranks outside of battle is also great and adds more micromanaging onto a series about alot of micromanaging and helps units keep up with each other, as well as letting you farm your own resources, bond with the gang and do little activities to give you some reprieve between fights. You can tell Koei Tecmo did alot of work on the development of Three Houses since this section of the game reminds me of Dynasty Warriors when you go back to your base and sort things out there and wander around. It also breathes some life into the setting and gives a good sense of permanence to the world and its’ characters. 

The world of Fodlan is also a major strong point, there’s lore, backstory, history, politics, a culture and even clashes and divides. It’s the most well realised world in a Fire Emblem game since Jugdral which it clearly has drawn inspiration from and I cannot praise Fodlan enough for being as well realised as a setting as it is, since the characters and exposition really give you a proper impression of how this world functions on social and political levels. The school setting of Garreg Mach is one I was initially iffy about but it fits surprisingly well and definitely grows on you over time since the game does a good job of immersing you in the role of a teacher. 

Tying into the world is also Crests, which, when combined with the Ability system, is great, making you pay attention to your characters crests, what they do, how they can benefit you, how you could use them, and to pay attention to enemy bosses and minibosses to see what crests they have, and in turn, pay attention to abilities some more too, to both create your ideal units, and keep an eye out for the same on the enemy team. It’s quite well balanced overall and is a sneaky hint of a possible Genealogy remake on the way someday.

The characters are also wonderful, often three dimensional with their own political views, own social perspectives, quirks, oddities, backstories, character conflicts, relationships, and of course, boatloads of trauma. Watching them all interact with each other and reacting to the story events and getting to know them was an excellent experience in proper character writing and interactions that the series has been starved of thanks to the very hit or miss (mostly miss) characterisation from Fates. The main lords are also incredible, from Edelgard and her dark as fuck backstory and her powerful resolve and willingness to do whatever it takes to achieve her wider scale goals, to Dimitri and his intensely personal conflicts and emotional baggage and his journey of highs and lows, to Claude and his boundless charisma and similarly his own ambitions and dreams all wrapped together in a charming package. The characters are all great and I can’t really find myself with any grievances about them that don’t boil down to wanking off over nitpicks over Hubert’s left testicle being out of place in a cutscene or something daft like that. 

The soundtrack is good. Not my favourite one but as always with Fire Emblem it’s good and makes the maps more fun since you can listen to a nice tune while thinking about how to murk the pair of armour knights. My only gripe really is the normal versions of songs all sound better than the in-battle variations they get. I also like that a boss theme or miniboss theme will continue to keep playing on the map itself until you beat that character, so you dont have to dip and dive into chip damaging Lyon to hear The Prince’s Despair anymore. 

The overall story is fairly decent, not as bad as Fates’ writing, or the fairly bland writing of some of the past games like Awakening that play it too safe. It’s willing to go in dark directions and focus in worldbuilding with its’ plot. However I do have alot of negatives to say about it by contrast but know that the overall story of the game and its’ many routes is one that I don’t hate, but I certainly feel wasn’t as well handled, especially in the second part of the game, as it should be. On an individual level, each route is decently well paced, aside from Edelgard’s route which is mysteriously 4 chapters shorter than the rest for no discernable reason at present until developer interviews shed light on that. The plot is for the most part decently well executed on an individual level. 

Now I’m going to insert a very important opinion of mine. I think a game can have a bad story, or no story at all, and still be great, so long as the gameplay is good, because gameplay is what makes a video game a video game, rather than just a dvd with an interactive menu. A game can have a great story, but if the gameplay is shit, the game suffers as a result, and it needs to play its’ focuses very well in order to redeem that. I try not to put as much important on story if I can’t help it, since I’m playing games for the game part first and foremost.

I bring that up because unlike Fates, where you can ignore the plot and have a good time with it, Three Houses isn’t so merciful, due to how much raw time is spent in cutscenes before, during and after battles, as well as engaging with the story at the monastery too, alot of time in Three Houses is not spent in the gameplay portion, but interacting with the story instead, so I have to place importance on the story because the game is, so I have to put more focus than I usually do on it because the game does by necessity of raw amount of time. Otherwise I honestly wouldn’t mind either way if the story was bad or good. 

This is to transition over to the negatives. 

For the bits where I’m not tying the gameplay and story together for reasons seen in a bit, understand that I was wary about the removal of the weapon triangle. While I don’t mind how it’s been handled, I still think the game is missing something for not having it since the beginning, and it’s definitely a core aspect I enjoy about the series, since now you can forgo unit variety and planning weapon level ups and just use whatever to win, and that level of freedom can hamper strategy in thinking on a more necessity based level, which in turn has subtle but noticeable effects on difficulty. 

The amount of time you spend not doing maps is honestly still jarring. Most of the time in these games if you’re ever spending lots of time between maps, it’s usually to get through a mountain of supports you forgot about, rather than spending alot of your time in cutscenes and doing stuff in a monastery. While I don’t hate it, I find alot of my time is spent not doing the Fire Emblem parts of the Fire Emblem game I’m playing and considering the fact that each route is 18-22 chapters long, compared to most FE games which go more than that typically, and you come to realise that the other stuff is sort of padding to distract from the low chapter count overall.

Now this is where I tie gameplay and story together in terms of the more major flaws to the game and what really held it back for me. 

Three Houses has 4 routes, all of which I’ve played; Edelgard’s route, Dimitri’s route, Claude’s route, and the Church route. The big problem here in both story and gameplay is the raw amount of repetition and lack of variation the game has with this. Unlike Fates, where the three routes all featured both unique maps, variations on maps, or if they did share maps, usually put them at different stages in the game, Three Houses doesn’t do that at all. Map variety is something this game is weak in, since paralogues just reuse story maps, and so far, only 2 or 3 maps seem exclusive to paralogues, and even then can be repeated by other paralogues. Worse still, earlier paralogues, like Ingrid and Dorothea’s, can spoil maps later on, and don’t even make sense when you get the context for that location. In every other past FE game, the paralogues all got their own maps. Repeating maps in a single run is already a risky business, but then there’s overall repetition. The first part of the game is exactly the same on all routes, it follows the same story and overall beats, an the only variation is chapter 12, if you’re playing Edelgard’s route, if not, it’s the same for the other 3. And for context, I did Edelgard first, Dimitri second, Claude third and Church last. In hindsight, that was a terrible order, since I basically ended up repeating myself 3 times in a row thinking I was getting something different. When the timeskip hits you expect each route to get different, but only Edelgard’s does. the other 3 routes are all about fighting the Adrestian Empire to save Rhea. That’s it. Dimitri, Claude and the Church routes all follow the same story, and by extension, maps, making you do them all in the same order as each other, with a minor variation here or there like Dimiri getting a chapter to retake Fhirdiad then resuming the static map path. The only difference is in the plot contrivances that don’t come up on the other routes despite following the exact same events to steer you towards a different final boss. Those Who Slither In the Dark are a great example of this. They destroy Fort Merceus only in Claude’s route, and for no reason are barely involved in the fights of the other routes and are never dealt with. They themselves are also wasted villains, with Kronya and Solon shown off once, then killed off in their second appearances, then Thales barely being in the game only to die in Claude’s route. The game sort of forgets about them in the other routes, and, insultingly, they’re fought by Edlegard in her route, but only in the epilogue, rather than having her missing 4 chapters cover that conflict. 

Really, the only point to playing a route is to get a different final boss, and to get some different lore in the final chapter. You only learn about Nemesis right at the end of Claude’s route, you only learn Byleth’s origin story at the end of the Church route. Outside of things like that, you’re just playing the same game, same maps, and same story but with different playable characters over and over again with no real variety until right at the very end, which is highly hollow. Edelgard’s route offers the most variation on all this, and yet it’s 4 chapters shorter than the other routes, so you’re either condemned to play the same shit over again, or you barely get any time with the one that’s a bit different. It really sucks since the map variety really is nonexistent. You play the exact same game for 12 chapters, think you’re getting some variety, then just get the same shit as the last run, or, only get a few maps and then you’re done. Either way, the sheer lack of variety in maps and accompanying story really makes the hyped up timeskip feel like a colossal disappointment in hindsight, and when Fates, a 3DS game, has more map and story variety (yes even if that story was awful) than a home console game, then something is deeply flawed about this game.

The pacing is also fairly bad if not close to terrible. At most the game is 22-23 chapters at the most, 18 at the least, and it spends 12 of these on the Academy phase of the game. The game drags its’ feet with the story for the first half, slow burning its’ way along, feeding you hints of lore to come and setting things up and, to be honest, doing a good job at worldbuilding. Then the timeskip happens and the war phase just rushes by at one hell of a fast pace. The maps being the same across them doesn’t help, but pacing can also damage the routes. For example, Verdant Wind builds up to fighting the Agarthans, it builds up to them but only with hints and setup while you’re busy fighting Edelgard, and then once’s that’s done, you have two chapters left, one of which has you fight the Agarthans in one map, beat them, and then have the final battle with Nemesis, which, while the map itself is arguably the best of the 4 and really feels like a final battle, story-wise comes out of fuckin nowhere just to have a cool end to the game. And then there’s Crimson flower, which steamrolls through the game and is definitely missing chapters, with key events like the battle at Gronder just not being there at all. In general the story pacing is just too wonky and every route really needed more chapters to flesh out the conflicts rather than rushing along the most engaging bits of the game.

Also the graphics are kind of weird looking for a 2019 game and some of the cutscenes are animated so stiffly it’s strange to watch. Honestly the visual presentation in Fire Emblem has never really been very good outside of fully rendered cutscenes in previous games like Awakening or Radiant Dawn, but it’s a shame the Switch’s capabilities weren’t fully utilised, especially with some textures, although Warriors with its’ JPEG stone floor in Hoshido Castle is no doubt to blame as well for that influence. That said, it’s not all that big of an issue for this series, and you really don’t notice it as much, just felt the need to address it since it is there and the Switch launched with Breath of the Wild which looks wonderful and then there’s Three Houses looking like it just got out of bed by comparison.

My main issues with the game stem mostly from the larger segment above, the constant repetition of maps in almost perfect order after each other, the exact same story playing out for the majority of what should be different routes, and the school phase being the most repetitive as well really dragging the game down. The first time I played the game I loved it, no doubt, but the subsequent runs made me realise that alot less overall variety was put into the game than I thought would be, and that hurts the quality for me, to know that 3/4 options have me doing 95% the same thing but with different units, and the other option is just a bit too short to be able to fully enjoy what it has to offer. Fire Emblem is a bigger name now than it used to be, and Three Houses honestly deserved to be a bit better than this overall. 

Also you can’t fuck Felix’s dad so what’s even the point of it all, really. 

 I have no doubts though that people will still love this game, and rightfully so, it’s a great entry in the series, just not the best. I’m sure people who’ve only done one or two routes will think it’s fantastic, but once you do all four of them, I think the honeymoon period will pass by, and the initial spark of excitement of a new game will wear off, and just like how everyone tore into Fates a year after release, I think Three Houses might end up suffering a slightly similar fate as well once people realise that the game really doesn’t offer as much variety as it seemed to be offering. Maybe there are people who don’t mind all the repetition and the sameyness of it all, but for me, it held the game back from being truly great. The Lords are what really carry their respective routes, due to their character strengths, and a certain route definitely suffers for only having Byleth (and Seteth of all people) as the main driving force of that route. 

All that said, I really recommend any Fire Emblem fan or even any Switch owner to play Three Houses. It’s not perfect, and it certainly loses it’s magic over time and really needs some reworking in places and major injections of variety, or a really good DLC,  but it’s still definitely got plenty of good quality to enjoy and the bits that are good are really good and worth sticking through each route to be able to play with. 

The score this game gets is a

Forever Pissed I Can’t Marry Rodrigue/10

#Fire Emblem Three Houses #Fire Emblem #FE3H #long post

[ryttu3k]

1, 3, 5, 9, 10, 11

Already done 3, was given 13 instead.

1. Top 3 incarnations of Link?

OoT/MM, Skyward, BotW. Uh, going to be hella hard choosing between them, but they’re definitely up the top. OoT is my tragic child who needs a hug. I’m his parent now. Skyward is a sweet sleepy baby who steps the fuck up when it’s required. Needs a hug and a nap. And BoTW is my daughter and I love her.

5. Favourite and least favourite boss fight?

Favourite is totally Koloktos. Design is amazing, music is gorgeous, it comes at the end of my favourite temple of all time, and GIANT. FUCKING. SWORD. And the giggle and smile what the fuck :D That said, the all-out sword fighting against Ghirahim (first and second) and TP Ganondorf, the FLYING THROUGH THE SKYYY for Argorok, and the sheer holy shit quoitant of Phantom Ganon.

Least-favourite… can I nominate a miniboss? Because Bigocto (and Jabu Jabu’s belly in general) needs to go fuck itself. If I have to choose a main boss, then Tentalus. That battle was painful when you’re not so good at aiming at shit XD;;

9. Favourite Link design?

Probably a bit cheating to say BotW because. Customistion XD But honestly, I actually really love the Champion’s Tunic, too. Blue looks good on Link! My default outfit is the Champion’s Tunic, diamond circlet, and either the knight greaves or climbing pants dyed orange (works super well with the blue-orange Sheikah magic aesthetic!).

10. Favourite Zelda design?

Heck. Um. The classic look is great, but I think I have to go with BotW as well! I love her adventurer outfit, it’s just super fun, her dark blue royal outfit is really elegant, and her white snow outfit is so cute.

Honourable mention to the small child in the GIANT HULKING ~pink~ Phantom armour :D

11. Favourite Ganon/Ganondorf design?

Twilight Princess. Looks majestic as fuck.

13. Top 3 non-hylian races?

SHEIKAH. I have a Sheikah tattoo I nearly started crying when I saw the BotW logo because they were finally getting the attention and focus I’ve wanted for sixteen years. I fucking adore the Sheikah I have a tattoo.

Second and third are a tie between Zora (the OoT/TP/BotW versions, not the, uh, other versions) and Kokiri. Good forest kiddos.

#zelda #memes

[yomigaere]

Why I love Tokyo Xanadu

I just posted this gushfest to my Dreamwidth, and I thought I'd post it here too because I really want this game to have more fans; at the very least, I'd like to let people know just what it is I like about this game so much!

Cut for length, but there shouldn't be any spoilers.

What is Tokyo Xanadu, I hear people ask? To those who know nothing about it, it's an action RPG by Falcom, best known as the creators of the Ys and Trails series. TX takes elements from both of those -- Ys's action gameplay, plus emphasis on story and especially characters a la Trails, on top of using Trails of Cold Steel's engine in particular -- and throws it all into a modern Japanese setting instead of a fantasy world.

To most gamers, TX probably gets a lot more comparisons to modern Persona games. It is mainly about high school students who get involved in fighting otherworldly terrors and summon psychic weapons to do so, after all.

One big thing that separates TX from Persona for me, though, is that it's a whole lot more player-friendly. I admittedly never got very far in P3 and never actually played P4, but much of the reason why I stalled on it early was because I felt so utterly intimidated by the amount of time management involved in doing all manner of key things in the game with all their deadlines; it left me feeling like I needed a detailed guide to even play the game properly, which is not how I prefer to do things.

TX doesn't do that. It always lets you know what major quests are available in a chapter (though there's usually more that you have to find for yourself), which characters you can increase your relationship values with and how many opportunities you have to do so in the chapter, where you need to go to advance the story, and so on -- and when you do go to advance the story, the game tells you when doing so makes you lose out on optional stuff and makes sure that's okay before moving the plot along, so you always have the chance to get everything you want to do over with beforehand.

On the action front, combat is fairly straightforward but pretty fun, with an emphasis on targeting enemies' weaknesses by switching characters (all with their own fighting styles) on the fly. Dungeons are mostly quite fast to get through, too -- I think even the longest one only took me, what, half an hour the first time round? -- so you'll never be trudging in a given dungeon for ages. There's also some big ol' bosses to fight, which pose a good challenge.

As I sort of touched on further up, though, just because TX is an action RPG doesn't mean it neglects its story or characters; in fact, the characters are among my favourite things about it! While one could whittle them down to tried-and-true archetypes, they're very endearing and have a decent amount of depth to them, and they're nuanced enough to feel more like people than anime clichés.

I'll talk about Asuka as an example, because she's one of my favourites. She's basically the defrosting ice queen type, but her aloofness and tendency to keep people at arm's length is rarely to the point of being a downright asshole, and her sense of duty is always apparent; she'd more than happy to save your friend for you, she'd just rather not get regular people involved in the dangerous stuff she'd entangled with. (Kou, of course, insists on getting involved anyway because it's gotten personal for him.) Even before her character development kicks in, there's a touch of warmth to her. There's also little details like the fact that she has a thing for Japanese sweets (she lived in the US for several years before the start of the game). Oh, and it helps that she's very hot and badass, but that's just me going into shallow mode.

Speaking of little details, one minor aspect of the game I have a soft spot for is the fact that, after beating minibosses in dungeons, the characters sometimes compliment each other on doing a good job. Every character has a quote like that for every other character, which helps to give an element of camaraderie between party members.

There's also tons of NPCs to interact with! Aksys makes a big deal out of talking to every single NPC while playing, and it's easy to see why; they all have their own little lives going on and many of them have their own quirks, and since their dialogue changes every time the plot moves forward, many have their own character arcs outright.

What's more, the game rewards you for immersing yourself into the world of Morimiya City that way. Not only can talking to NPCs let you find hidden quests to do (with rewards to be gained for doing them, naturally), but the game remembers optional things to do. For example, if you take a character out for a boat ride at one point in the game, the next story event will acknowledge that this happened, and character development that NPCs go through as a result of doing certain quests will stick throughout the game instead of being forgotten by the next chapter. That kind of attention to detail is my other favourite thing about the game!

Oh, and the music's great, but it's a Falcom game so that's to be expected.

With all the gushing I've done, I'm not saying TX is a perfect game by any means. Its main flaws are that it gets off to a slow start -- it takes a while before you get to do any fighting -- and that the localisation has a lot of typos and inconsistent terminology. I've also seen people being unhappy that the voices are Japanese-only with no English dub, but outside of wishing that a certain part near the end had a few extra subtitles, it doesn't bother me at all (and in fact, I'd be worried about mispronounced names if the game did have an English voicetrack).

Other than that, I adore this game and I hope my fannish ramble might pique other people's interest and encourage them to give it a try. :3

#tokyo xanadu