#their dialogue options have no impact on anything

[infamous-if]

So sorry for the delay! ! My VS Code program wasn't calibrated with CSIDE and in the indentions basically messed up. The prologue coding is so wonky that honestly if I do anything I end up fucking up 2839393 lines of code. If you've been following a while, you're probably well aware of much hatred for the prologue's coding lmao but we live and we learn.

Storyline wise, not much has changed. Scenes are largely the same, since I'm pretty happy with what I wrote a year ago. For this rewrite, I focused mainly on the big things like choices that will impact the rest of the story and O's gender selection. Some new things include:

you can now play with Orion or Oriana Quinn

you can now express if the band went through a musical rebrand after seven and what the old genre was (which will come up later).

you can now choose whether mc "changed" after seven and what change that was (there's 4, technically 2, options and a "default" vague option, im open to more options since I wanted to do this but couldn't really think of any believable ones beyond the four).

new mc personality: attached vs detached. your mc can have an extra attachment to the band for obvious reasons, or can feel the opposite.

coordinating outfits can now be exclusive to the band members. your mc can be the unique unicorn of the group since they're the lead singer (this is definitely not gonna bite them in the ass later)

adding to that, your mc's reason for fame can be due to wanting to keep the band together.

a new flavor text feeling about seven is now added which is basically "idk how I feel" instead of hating or loving them, you can just make it that MC's feelings for them is just a big question mark. REALISM!

stat changes: stern/playful -- same thing as humorous/serious I just wanted words that encompassed a wider range of behavior Leader/follower - whether mc takes on the leader role or not camaraderie - a band stat that measures the trust/morale/closeness of the band

u can probably see where im going with the stats huh....

smaller changes include:

more choices and options

prose changes + dialogue additions and expanded/ added scenes

The beta testers have not touched this yet, as I wanted to bring it out to collect some last suggestions, ideas from Patrons. Of course, as always, if you do catch errors, please let me know.

My main concern for errors: O's pronouns. It was a long process but I may have missed a few pronouns here and there. Please let me know if you catch any <3

PROLOGUE: 93K WORDS (for context, the old prologue and chapter 1 were 92k together. The prologue is a tiny bit inflated but :))) 

I will make a post about beta testers soon. I've been quiet on that front because I've been just prioritizing getting this out first.

Now available for Band tier! (6$)

#update #rewrite

[i-heart-hxh]

So, a few days ago I found this post on Reddit from 2 years ago (that sadly barely got any attention at the time) that sheds a ton of light on the separation scene between Gon and Killua, and my mind is blown! I've known for years that there was some sort of Togashi "coding" in the dialogue and it was always like I could get halfway to understanding, but this post gives the rest of the puzzle pieces that I was missing, and ties into other scenes that I was uncertain about the meaning of as well. It's heartbreaking, but also hopeful for their future! I had to share it with you all. Please read it!

The original Reddit post has been deleted, but here is a link to the author's Reddit profile. (I received permission from the original author to post this here.)

In-Depth analysis on the Hidden Reasons behind Gon & Killua's separation scene (ep 147) Why Gon is 'Number 2'

The translations across the separation scene in both manga (chp 338) and the anime (ep 147, 2011) have some shortfalls. These dialogues are vital for understanding even the first layer of reasons behind this separation.

REASONS FOR KILLUA'S DELICATELY PLANNED SEPARATION 

1. WHEN -

There are very important reasons why Killua picked a specific timing to tell Gon about Alluka. It was Killua's plan all along, to only tell Gon at a moment's notice, to make sure Gon won’t get time to ask any DETAILS. He is deliberately downplaying the seriousness of everything he’s been through to heal Gon, so it will have less impact on Gon, and at the same time, avoid Gon asking details. Prior to healing Gon, Killua specifically asked Morel and Leorio to promise not to tell Gon that he saved him. After Gon was healed, there was a scene in the anime (ep 148) which showed the three spent a night together before reaching the World Tree. During that time, Killua still haven't said anything. It wasn't until the moment when they were literally saying the last goodbye, Killua casually brought up:

“Oh, by the way, this guy healed you."

I want to emphasis the word Killua used to address Alluka was “こいつ”. This is a very light and overly casual word used to address someone you know, and usually a playful guy friend (e.g. “This guy used to be my neighbour.” type of feeling). The manga and anime translation, “She’s the one that healed you,” did not clearly depict the intentional casualness.

2. WHAT was SAID -

If Killua just doesn’t want to burden Gon with guilt and responsibility, then why not just keep his mouth shut and say nothing? That’s because Killua found a better option than not telling Gon anything. Killua shifted the “priority of reasons” a bit, so the VERSION OF EVENTS he told Gon, was PRIORITIZED on Alluka’s rescue rather than healing Gon. This way, they will also get to THANK Gon, and put an emphasis on thanking Gon because Killua make it SEEMED like it was more important to rescue Alluka, that the INITIAL REASON for Killua to go home, was to rescue Alluka. Only AFTER Alluka was freed, they came to the hospital to heal Gon, out of convenience, since only Alluka has the ability to do so, and since she’s now outside. The MAIN motive for these past events has been delicately swapped around by Killua, so the focus switched to the rescue of Alluka, rather than healing Gon. Hence Alluka is “No. 1”, Gon is “No. 2”. Downplaying it so healing Gon was just a bonus convenience (ep 147, 19:12 to 19:51).

Killua then goes on another level to make this version of events seem even more realistic, by saying “….You owe me a lot now,” in a teasing and playful tone of voice. This is to again, downplay the seriousness of everything he’s been through, to comfort Gon that "Yes you owe me one now, but don’t you worry! I will make sure you pay it back okay?! Hehe!”

3. WHY -

The fight with Pitou allowed Killua to witness Gon's ultimately immature mind set when it comes to “repaying someone, and redeeming himself.” Kite lost an arm and his life to protect him. So Gon gave his life and was even more happy when Pitou took his arm too. Gon will always want to “match” what was sacrificed by another, by throwing away AT LEAST the same. Not “sacrificing”, but THROWING AWAY. It’s so immature, so dangerous, no one will be able to keep up with him. Killua was very confident with how much he could take, but even Killua himself is at limit. This ultimate baka!! (ep 136, 17:50 - 20:17)

If this is how far Gon will go for Kite, he can only imagine what Gon would go recklessly into if he knew the DETAILS. This is when Killua decided on a way to part with Gon the way they did, and to PROVIDE him a particular REASON.

“I’m prepared to spent the rest of my life protecting her.” 

This is the reason Killua wants Gon to know, but NOT what he actually wants to do with his life. Although it’s true he feels responsible and genuinely wish to protect Alluka and Nanika, but it’s not what he ultimately WANTS to do. He NEEDS to protect Alluka, but he WANTS to spent his entire life by the side of a certain baka…

After the previous events, Killua was traumatized, especially when he saw Gon's twisted decaying arm. That was a breaking point for him, after that, the only thing that matters THE MOST for him is for Gon to be safe. He also realized that in order to protect this baka... it’s better if he keeps a distance for now, until he finds a solution to keep Alluka safe from Illumi and his family.

4. THE PARTING -

By planning this parting with Gon, Killua hopes Gon will become detached from him. And that time and distance will slowly render him less important to Gon. So if he was to die... (because Illumi is hunting them down) he did for Alluka, he did it for the vow to protect Alluka, not Gon. We knew Killua always plans ahead, and here, he plants this reason for Gon in the future so he won’t need to feel responsible if he was to die protecting Alluka (or die with Alluka while Illumi is hunting them). This is what’s going through Killua’s head:

“If I die, you’re not responsible for anything. You don’t owe me anything, so NEVER throw your life away again. My only one wish, is for you to be safe. So here I am. I’m parting ways with you... Because I SAID you are only ... No. 2 ... I SAID you are not the most important to me.. So don’t think of me as the most important to you too….”

This, is Killua’s eternal Devotion. 

5. THE RESULT -

As a result of this deliberate planning by Killua,

Gon was made to believe:

While I was recovering in hospital Killua had to go home and rescue his sister 

Alluka is such a cute sister and she can grant Killua any wish?!!! Wow…that’s one cool sister…

Well… no wonder Killua thinks his cool sister is more important than me, it’s only natural. 

Looks like Killua finally found what he wants to do. He will enjoy traveling the world with such a cool sister, it will be so much fun. I should be happy for him, I can’t hold him here... I have to let him go…

VS

The DETAILS omitted:

Gon was not recovering at all in the hospital. Killua RESORTED to USE Alluka in order to heal Gon. 

Alluka’s blood stained dark past and the risks and uncertainty that still involves.

Baka Gon is always No. 1 !

Killua and Alluka are desperately trying to find a way to out of Illumi’s grasp. Illumi is hunting them down and trying to make Killua his puppet again. And this time it's not going to be just a needle in the head... Killua can feel it. And if things doesn’t work out, he will just kill Alluka.

These Reasons are the core of the separation. We have a song named “Reason”… aren’t the lyrics shedding a new layer of light now?

6. IMPORTANT WORDS ALLUKA USED TO FACILITATE A BETTER RELATIONSHIP AFTER REUNION -

Killua promised to “always be together” with Alluka.

But to this promise, Alluka’s response was always silent (episode 145, 3:32 to 4:19). She looked at Killua with deep thought. Because even in such a short amount of time, she realized Killua is doing all this to ALSO or MORE SO protect Gon. It was never just for her, it will never be just for her, and there will never be anyone more important than Gon for Killua. She’s moved by Killua’s devotion and resolve, and she can also feel his sadness…   

If, the situation was different, if Gon was never there to begin with, and Killua just happened to solely come to Alluka’s rescue, and then make a promise to stay together with her forever, Alluka’s natural reaction will be melting with happiness, she’d be crying tears of joy, and hugging Killua. But in this instance, she was composed, she sensed her brother’s deep seriousness and sadness. That’s why later on, she reassured the two at parting, that they will see each other again, without disclosing Killua’s true REASONS. 

The Exacted words Alluka used (Manga chpt 338, 2011 anime epi 147)

a. Manga translation: “I’m going to HUG my brother for a while and then I will LET HIM GO.”  

b. Better translation: “I’m going to have my brother all to myself for a while and then I will let him free.”                            

c. The exacted phrase: “I’m going to Monopolise my brother Exclusively for a period of time, then I will Release him.”

独り占 (Monopolise Exclusively) 

Very strong characters with Explicit meaning. Have it all to oneself. Same characters and meaning used in Chinese as well. （独占）

解放 (Release) 

This is much more formal and serious than “let go”. It implies the subject was initially bound/locked/restricted. Also the same characters and meaning used in Chinese.

Alluka employed these words to imply a forceful lead in this “deal” of owning Killua exclusively. These words have an underlying tone of enslavement. 

Why? Because Alluka knows, the harder she IMPOSES herself on Killua during their time together, the more effective it would be on the easing of Killua’s own guilt. 

Killua felt immensely guilty.

No one will enjoy a relationship bound by guilt. 

Alluka knows clearly that part of her brother’s promise, was formed with guilt, from using her and Nanika, that he was having fun with Gon while Alluka was literally forgotten. Although it's true that this was largely due to Illumi's manipulation, but the fact that he did just left her in the basement all this time was both unacceptable and unforgivable to Killua himself (episode 138, 13:28).

Therefore apart from protecting Gon, this was the other important reason for this separation. Almost as if Killua has accepted this as a befitting price to pay in order to redeem himself as a brother.

Alluka and Nanika have no condition nor demand in return for Killua’s requests. But Killua imposed a price on himself for having Gon healed. Out of guilt. Alluka knows, Nanika knows. That’s why Alluka used the word 解放 (release), because it will make Killua feel better, that he has complied with her ‘enslavement’, so when the time comes, Killua will be able to release HIMSELF from guilt, and go back to Gon, properly. Alluka loves her brother, and she’s prepared to help him towards a better relationship with Gon in the future, by helping him to eliminating this chain of guilt.

lol Alluka totally ships Gon and Killua ! XD

Thank you for reading.

#hunter x hunter #hxh #killugon #gonkillu #gon #killua #alluka #meta #PLEASE read this post if you have lingering questions and confusion about the separation! #like most of us do! #I think it's incredibly helpful and explains so much #having this makes a big difference to me in how I interpret the meaning and reasons for the separation #and what Togashi did and did not tell us with it

[abby-howard]

Scarlet Hollow decision tree

People occasionally ask to see a decision tree for Scarlet Hollow, so a while back I put one together for episodes 1-4! It’s not comprehensive, as most scenes at this point have at least some variation due to any number of tracked variables, but it accounts for most of the really major deviations.

For those who don’t want spoilers but would like to hear about how we kinda structure the game: I like to talk about it as more of a braid than a tree, which is not a new concept or anything, but I feel like it helps other narrative designers understand how to limit the absolute vastness that you can get with branching structures. The narrative branches off at decision nodes, but instead of continuing down significantly different routes, it comes back together at key moments. So there’s a single narrative throughline to the game-- events unfold in the town and you witness them in some capacity, but your perspective on them, who you’re with, the options available to you, all these are impacted by other choices you’ve made along the way, including the character traits you chose at the start of the game.

It’s not necessarily easier than doing routes, since it means Tony and I have to keep track of a ridiculous number of little variations including one-off dialogue choices players have made AND steering players to the important narrative moments can be tricky, but I think it makes for an interesting player experience! People get so excited when, say, a line at the end of Episode 4 calls back to something they said when they first met Tabitha at the beginning of Episode 1.

ANYWAY, HUGE SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT, do not proceed if you don’t want to know about basically everything that’s currently in the game!

Things start to get a little hard to read from here on out....

Episode four had to be broken into four images and looks like spaghetti

I’ll make another one of these for Episode 5 after it comes out sometime next year! (I know that’s a bit of a wait but it’ll be worth it >:D)

#scarlet hollow #spoilers #visual novel decision tree #narrative structure #video game narrative #we don't use trees like this while we're in development #we tend to just remember all this stuff #or reference the game files if we need calrification! #i made this as a resource for people who don't necessarily read the discord religiously #and wanna know how to get certain outcomes #and to see if a map could be drawn without being too impossible to read #getting there with the episode four stuff.......

[yuurei20]

Hi! Thank you so much for all your hard work compiling these posts for us! I would like to ask, is there a compilation of information regarding the MC/ Yuu? I'm referring to stuff like where they get their money from or any random details mentioned about themselves/ their home (Eg in the new White rabbit fest we find out that they can play the bugle of all things??) We know things like how their home is modelled off of earth with halloween and football but is there more information about themselves/ their personality? Just curious

Hello hello!! Thank you for this question!

Concerning the bugle: the prefect's ability to play instruments varies by dialogue option ^^

The same situation arises in Harveston!

Depending upon which option you go with the prefect can be either an accomplished bugle-player and/or flautist or just as poor at instruments as everybody else, and neither option seems to have any impact on the story ^^

The game-prefect is possibly being kept an empty slate on purpose!

This might actually be easier for EN, where things like personal pronouns (watashi/ore/boku/etc) are all "I" and anata/kimi/omae/etc are all "you," while which you opt to use in Japanese can portray a lot of information about yourself and your relationship to the person with whom you are speaking.

(It is very interesting that you mention football! In the second novel Yuuya asks Crewel if Spelldrive is similar to soccer or football and, while he is familiar with soccer, Crewel says that he has never heard of football before.)

Here is a small compilation of current information that I have!

・"Is it ever shown how the MC refers to other people?" (twitter link)

・Ace and the Prefect (pt1)

・Ace and the Prefect (pt2)

・Has the Perfect ever given gifts?

・Could it be that Idia actually considers the prefect to be a friend?

・Do Leona consider mc/yuu as friend or just a normal classmate?

・Grim and the Prefect

・Crowley and the Prefect

・Is the Prefect really like a counselor for the overblotters?

・How many people know about Yuu is actually from the other world

・I was wondering what yuuya does during the OB battles?

・is there anything in the novels where Yuuya going into a club is brought up?

・Does Crowley give the MC any allowance?

・Does blot not harm Yuya?

・Does novel Leona treat Yuuya differently compared to the game?

・Compilation of Ace/Yuuya (novel) interactions

・when Yuuya arrived in Twisted Wonderland, did he instantly understand the language there?

・With regards to the difference between the game and light novel is Yuuya more prominent in the novel than Yuu in the games

・Reactions to the prefect

・do you have any idea as to why the novel Yuu has severe social anxiety as opposed to the other Yuus?

・...what do you think of the idea that the game's MC is a Will'O the wisps Fae...disguised as a human... (twitter link)

・Did the novel talk about the effects of blot on normal people without magic?

・Yuu the ghost?

#twstask #twisted wonderland

[ravenwoodalum]

on karamelle, why it sucks, and redeeming azteca's reputation.

I just got to Karamelle for the second time, and good lord. I hadn't forgotten how much I hated it, but it hit me like a wall of bricks. And I'm already preparing myself to marathon it and be fucking done questing here for at least a year.

I think it breaks down like this.

Baby's first workers rights movement/sugary-sweet surveillance state Listen. I know this is a game that doesn't allow for player characters to have much individual impact on the in-game narrative. I know we've had to do errands for cops. I know we work for a war criminal. I KNOW there are flaws in the system. But there's something about the way that Karamelle's set up that makes it all feel so. much. worse. And that's the fact that Karamelle has such a stellar reputation within the Spiral before this. The happiest place in the Spiral, the sweetest treats in the Spiral. Everyone seems to fucking love this place. Almost no one outside of those actually working there seem to understand how corrupt it is. And so the YW is talked down to at every turn, like this is their first exposure to a corrupt environment. And sure, maybe it is within, canon. YW gets isekai'd at a very young age and then made into a child soldier, maybe this is actually the first time in canon that they've been introduced to these concepts. But (and this may just be me) it feels really rude to the player -- who might actually have experience with these ideas -- to make them feel like a fucking idiot with the dialogue options. Karamelle's characters just feel rude.

Oh, so the Gobblers were a fatphobic, Roald Dahl type thing from the start. Cool cool cool. Any of you ever read Roald Dahl's book "The Twits"? It's a very unremarkable story all things considered, except for this bit.

Aside from Roald Dahl's unavoidable history of antisemitism, does this remind you of anything? Honestly, this reminds me of the Gobbblers.

We first meet the Gobblers around level 10 in Wizard City -- creatures driven by consumption. And then we get to Empyrea and hear that the Alphoi -- skinny "civilized" creatures -- can become Gobblers if they eat too much or are unhealthy in their eating habits. Which makes one of our oldest running enemies a loop-around fatphobic thing, ESPECIALLY when we get to them in Karamelle, the home world of the Gobblers. Rosina, especially, just oozes fatphobia and diet culture. The literal vilification of being fat isn't even subtext, it's just text.

The Old One, The Cabal, and what to do when your escape from the world ends up shoving what you were escaping from right back in your face. When I was in sophomore year of college, fall of 2019, I had one of the worst mental health periods of my life. Antisemitism was fucking everywhere, I was always a moment away from a panic attack, and it felt like no one understood. While I'm lucky in the fact that I was able to get an official diagnosis for genetically inherited PTSD, alongside the reassurance that I wasn't fucking crazy, there was a period when I just needed to go home for a moment. So when I was going back to my dorm from the dining hall to make sure all my stuff was ready to go, I opened up tumblr and made a post on a long-gone RP sideblog I had for the Swedish Chef (y'know, from The Muppets? long story), and before I'd even gotten halfway across campus, I'd received threatening and violent messages from someone RPing as Borat, which only got worse when they realized they were talking to an actual Jewish person.

That escape from reality didn't even last five fucking minutes before the horrors I was trying to avoid found me.

Now, Wizard101 has always been a source of comfort for me. I made my account fourteen years ago, and I do not know what my life would look like if I hadn't done that. There are flaws with this game, yes, sure, but over the past five years (since I got a wiz compatible laptop) I've developed a bit of a reliance on it to get me through the horrors. No better form of escapism.

But no art form is free of the horrors.

And Wizard101 has the fucking Cabal and Old One.

The Cabal within the fiction of Wizard101 is a secret, nefarious organization pulling the strings on events across the Spiral, controlling history from the shadows. This term literally originates in antisemitic conspiracy theory, with the term 'cabal' originating from the term for Jewish mysticism, 'kabbalah'. And I promise you, you've heard plenty of applications of this conspiracy theory in real life too. It feeds into the idea that Jews (or 'global elite') control the government, the media, the banks.

And then, we get to the man in control of it all. The Old One. Whether or not this was intended, he's a walking, talking antisemitic caricature. The octopus as a symbol for the mythical Elders of Zion is a longstanding dogwhistle (see attached for a guide to this and many other visual dogwhistles). "Oh, he's based on H.P. Lovecraft-" So he's based on the works of a famous racist and antisemite, cool cool cool.

It's just exhausting, walking through a world that is so clearly modeled after Germany and other parts of eastern Europe, and finding antisemitism around every corner. And even more exhausting considering it's almost impossible to tell if they meant to do it. Antisemitism is so fucking ingrained in the world at this point that I don't actually know what they meant to do here, what they did maliciously or out of ignorance, or if any of it was put in with the purpose of turning it on its head. Over the past few years, it has become glaringly obvious that a lot of people don't realize when they're running across antisemitism, or even taking part in it. Including people I really thought would know better.

Side note. For those of you who know I see Dasein as Jewish, you may be wondering how I balance that out with the antisemitic nature of The Old One, since they share a physical form. I think of it like this. Dasein did not choose The Old One. He did not choose to resemble that, but he can attempt to reclaim it. Dasein's Judaism comes not from the resemblance he holds to the hatred that haunts us, but from the love that keeps us going. He questions authority and longstanding tradition, chooses to do what's right instead of what's expected, and is kind in the face of hatred. He literally makes himself, and a world, out of nothingness. Something out of Nothing. He's so Jewish you guys.

The Spiral's "Worst World Award" goes to... I know we all say "fuck Azteca" pretty often on this website, but I don't think it deserves to be deigned the worst world in Wiz. My main gripe with Azteca is how inaccessible it gets after Xibalba strikes -- the flashing lights aren't exactly photosensitive friendly. Which further lends frustration to my completionist nature, meaning I have to finish all quests, badges, and fishing before I finish the world (making it take forever to finish). Aside from that, there really isn't that much wrong with the world (and if you argue that it sucks because you can't save Azteca, I get it, but some tragedies are inescapable by their very nature). It's a problem of gameplay, versus a problem of plot in the case of Karamelle. And maybe its just because I'm a writer, but problems with plot feel much more egregious. I really do think Karamelle deserves more vitriol than it gets.

G-d, I can't wait to get to Lemuria.

#behold. the long awaited kvetch. #wizblr #w101 #wizzy101 #wiz101 #wizard101 #y'all better check out the resources i've linked :gun: #there really is something to be said about fantasy worlds where Judaism does not textually exist but antisemitism DOES. #like hmm. where did that come from. anyways.

[daz4i]

this is So Much

1. their shadows being the same but going to different sides. specifically, the sides we see them positioned in in the prison scenes (fyodor to the left, dazai to the right)

2. fyodor being in an unnatural color for a human, while dazai just looks like himself. in atsushi’s mind, fyodor is this creature beyond humanity, something not like him. his dialogue - calling fyodor a monster - even backs that up. meanwhile, dazai is the man who gave him a home and a new family to belong to. he doesn’t doubt dazai’s humanity, and so he looks up to him.

2a. notice that fyodor’s shade of blue is very similar to the shade of blue the decay of angels is represented in in the op’s face frames, rather than the blue used for the ada’s abilities

3. the colors of the backgrounds also play a part in that. they’re actually the colors of their abilities, i’m pretty sure (tho no longer human tends to appear more blue-ish in tint at times).

3a. red could very easily be a color to instill fear in atsushi, as the color of rashoumon, as well as. well. blood. basically, it is a color of danger in general, but especially to him.

3b. white, a color of purity, neutrality - in a situation of everyone being against you, a color to indicate safety. alternatively: a symbol of objectivity, which atsushi is looking for in order to make a decision. ...and another option: white is atsushi’s color. him seeing dazai standing surrounded by it in his mind is a sign of his trust in dazai and the impact dazai has on his psyche

4. as for the actual shapes in the background, my only thoughts are about fyodor’s red lines looking either like cuts - fits how violent his plans are - or like red string you use on conspiracy boards - works with him being the brain behind the plan, and tying the conspiracy to the detective agency

5. dazai’s pose is the same one he held when he first introduced himself to atsushi. i take it this is how he’s cemented in his mind. i don’t really have an idea for fyodor’s pose, but he kinda looks like he’s being crucified, which i wouldn’t put past him honestly.

5a. fyodor’s also standing with his back turned, highlighting the alienation atsushi feels from him, while dazai is facing him (but, not fully. imo both to fit that original pose^ but could also be a nod to his current separation from the agency)

these are my takes for you today. really interested to hear if i missed anything or if you have any other ideas for the details i did present! 👀

#bsd analysis #bungou stray dogs season 4 #bsd spoilers #bsd fyodor #bsd osamu dazai #dan rambles #i promised i'd make a post about these didn't i!

[plinko-mori]

Why do I think this scene:

Is a horrible adaptation from this manga panel:

Dialogue

That's an important thing to consider, because we have a case of almost opposite messages

In the anime it is «That's right, what of it?»

It's a confirmation of what Yosano is asking to Ougai, almost immediately when she spoke to him. First point to consider

He's answering "yes" in other way, he's basically doing an affirmation of what Yosano said. While also telling her indirectly that he doesn't care and doesn't feel bad about it using a question, we have an affirmation and a question in the same sentence

We can interpret that easily because everything points to that option

«What you say is correct, why should I care?»

But in the manga it is complete different

We have «... Even if that's true, so what?»

It's a question in all the dialogue I'm analyzing, being that the first difference

He takes a pause, takes his moment to think of an answer and then he speaks, those details are important differences because it shows you how different they are

His questions is related to a possibility. In other way to say what Mori said would be «Even if what you say is true, what does it matter?»

We can't do an affirmation/confirmation if he cares or not, because what Ougai says makes us do multiple interpretations based in Yosano's reaction, his facial expression and character in general since the intention isn't 100% clear... Basically doing theories and more theories because everybody has their perspectives and own ways to interpret what happened there

Expression and feelings related

In the anime we can say Mori speaks self-confidently as if he were too superior to the others

Acting like that, he doesn't care, he doesn't even look at here

While he's just acting calm, a little grumpy maybe, fixing his clothes... The anime indicates that he cares so little about what she says that he does something else at the same time

I could add that he even looks disgusted and annoyed but I'm horrible at socializing and reading emotions-

And the scene is too different from the manga that he has his eyes closed in all the dialogue while in the manga they are open

In the manga we can't guess emotions at all since Ougai looks extremely cold! Those dark eyes, that expression, his words of not caring about the consequences, here we can do a confirmation about it

Something to add is that we can see Yosano's reaction, because in the anime we lost all of those expressions that it's so sad :(

Ougai in the manga is more cold, less expressive, gives more things to leave many to imagination

How does Mori's character work?

It's not like saying «Mori in the plot works in a specific way»... But a «Mori has this behavior that repeats a lot»

He acts when necessary, speaks and gives orders when he considers necessary, he's a rational character that is thinking most of the time (to not say all the time)

The fact is that, when he doesn't gives orders... He says things that are left to interpretation since he doesn't explain them deeply

Things that actually share the real life author, and we have seen it in many times in the manga that, since Ougai doesn't explain anything, sometimes it feels like he says something that doesn't make sense or contradicts himself

We can't deny that he's smart enough to understand, know and comprehend the impact of his words

Mori is a genius, is a fact that we can't deny... It's just that we don't compare him too much with Dazai, Ranpo and Fyodor, specially when they have more time that “we can see them being intelligent”

But if it counts as a proof... Mori was steps forward compared to Dazai, just one specific time, that Dazai ended up

Mori knows, and we have to agree that Mori is capable to do many things

Why do I say it reflects Mori's character?

The scene has specific things... That I will explain

✓Pause → The detail of Mori taking his time to think reflects his rational side that doesn't get carried away by his emotions when acting, something that we see in him a lot, that he knows what he does, is aware of this and tries to make it all work out in his "somewhat dirty way of playing"

✓Dark eyes → A fact that we forget is we don't know how he ended up being like that. He's cold He can be cold when necessary, and we can't read Mori at 100%, no matter how hard we try is like trying to understand a void that you can't see their begining and end

✓Even if that's true, so what? → Both character and author: Interpretation. The author was characterized by playing with perspectives, showing different ones, leaving things to interpretation and letting the reader draw his own conclusions from what he read... Something that is also seen in the character. You have to draw conclusions from how he acts and talks, it's hard to understand him 100%, he makes people have so many different perspectives towards him that matches his author. Ougai plays with the perspectives and emotions of the rest, the author to tell stories to the people around him, the character to act and keep on living in his world with all the danger around him, and around his organization

#bsd mori #bsd ougai mori #bsd ogai mori #bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd mori ougai #bsd mori ogai #bsd mori analysis #bsd analysis #ougai mori #mori ougai #mori bsd

[munmomuu]

Gale's ambition and the orb's hunger

Rambling about Gale's ambition after seeing the alternative ending dialogue for Gale. Spoilers for the entirety of his story.

This dialogue shows that even though Mystra doesn't rid Gale fo the orb, after defeating the Netherbrain his orb seems to change. It's hunger, gone.

Did Mystra quiet the orb?

If the player asks about it being Mystra's influence, Gale doesn't deny it could be Mystra, but refers that the orb's hunger was fuelled with his own. I have seen some origin spoilers for Gale that Mystra does apparently tell him that the orb is a consequence of his actions - this is why she hasn't "done" anything about it. It's a punishment.

It wouldn't make sense in this timeline that she would rid Gale of his orb because during the game, he didn't obey Mystra at all. While it could be possible that Mystra would do it out of "well you saved the world, I guess that's good enough" reward, she never really presented that as an option. She wanted the crown. Saving the world was seemingly secondary to her.

What we know about the orb previously?

So, just to know if Gale being content would affect the orb, we should consider what it does to him. Thorought the game, we get several references it being compared to hunger directly. "Clawing my insides like a teething displacer kitten"; narrator describing the hunger when he shows the orb to you; his condition is called "Arcane Hunger".

His treatment is literally feeding pure weave to it, and this is also what Mystra does once Elminster places her charm on him. It seems like the Karsite weave is to made to consume weave. He descibes that consuming the magic "never feels right, but it relieves".

We can't talk about the orb without mentioning Karsus. There's also a lot of mentions about Karsus being ambitious, same as with Gale, especially after hitting act 3. We know that Gale was ambitious even before the game - his orb is the consequence of that ambition, when he wanted to prove himself worthy of wielding more power to Mystra.

Was the orb's hunger strenghtened by the tadpole and the Crown?

Gale doesn't seem to know that the orb is Netherese until Mystra tells it is Karsus' creation. Gale seems to know the orb is Netherese origin, but doesn't connect it to Karsus until Mystra tells him. We also know from the hag, if we try her let help us with the tadpole, that the tadpole is imbued with Netherese magic. Gale's offhanded comment about the orb destabilizing because of Netherese sandals seems like a joke to me, but his condition started to decline eventually when he was tadpoled, until Mystra starts to feed it.

I think being near the crown also affected Gale. During his romance scene in act 2, he mentions about feeling the heart of Absolute, and how much heavier his heart becomes. It could be a metaphor just him sensing being closer to death, but what if it is actually a physical sensation he feels being nearer the crown? He can't feel the hunger anymore that the orb would cause, because it is being fed.

If you kill Elminster before he can set the charm on Gale, the end of act 2 is the furthest you can get Gale to come with you until he leaves permanently, because the orb gets so destabilized he feels it's not safe to be around you anymore. This could be the Crown's influence on him overtaking his hunger.

Act 3 - Physical hunger is gone, but the mental hunger lingers

The reason why I keep repeating that the orb is being fed, is that it's important to understand that Gale doesn't feel the orb's hunger physically, but the mental hunger still is there. Ambition. This is why there is quite a swap in Gale's demeanor once he sees the Crown - I believe the orb somehow influences the wizard's ambitions, similarly to Karsus.

At this point, the player has quite the impact on how Gale wil handle his ambition. I will talk only about romance standpoint since it's the one I'm familar with. If you choose him to give up on his ambitions with the crown, you have to convince him that he is enough as he is. This is a completely new situation for him - he always has strived to be better and do more. He doesn't know how to just be. Of course he wants to survive the battle with the Netherbrain, but after that? What ambitions he would have anymore? The orb has nothing to work with anymore - the tadpoles are dead, the brain is dead, the Crown is shattered in the Chiontar.

What about if you encourage his ambitions? His mindset seems to shift quite drastically compared to when we met him. He's feeding into the resentment for believing Mystra took his powers and that she didn't give him more than what he deserved in his mind.

A small side tangent: With Patch 4, Larian added a glow effect to the orb while he says the line about controlling the Karsite weave. I've been thinking about the symbolism for it - is it a power flare up? It is the same effect which Mystra's charm has, does it mean that Mystra stopped feeding Gale's orb?

Whatever it is, at this point Gale has completely changed. During the boat scene he says he doesn't wish to ascend, but now he wants to be a god. If Tav tries to tell him not to do it, he emotionlessly leaves them. Let that sink in. The hopeless romantic, who shared his spirit with his lover, assured how there is no force to come between them and disobeyed his goddess for them, leaves them for more power without hesitation.

And that isn't even the worst part of it. Disclaimer: Datamining is never "a sure way to know what the devs intented" and shouldn't be used as a true point for canon, but let's humor my angsty mood with it. According to the datamined endings that Withers would have told what happened the companions after the game, even if Tav would support sharing Gale's godhood, Gale never returns to Tav to fulfill it because ambition doesn't like to share. That shows how much Gale changes during the game if his ambition takes over. Maybe even claim that the orb's hunger takes over. ** Strikethrough added after patch 5, see my note in the end.

To end this on a more positive note, him overcoming that toxic ambition is huge, and the fact that he would feel content by Tav's side is really romantic considering all what could have happened.

** Added after patch 5 and epilogue stuff: I won't be typing out what happens in the epilogue (I have posted the outcome to Youtube if someone is curious), but needless to say, it's a good point on never trusting datamining as a canon point. But, the epilogue proves that original datamining point obsolete.

#gale of waterdeep #gale dekarios #baldurs gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 gale #i needed to get this out of my system #gale is such a great character

[starrypawz]

So You Want to Code Dive?

I did not discover this method myself, I actually found this via this reddit post but I'd thought I'd make a quick guide

Why would I code dive?

Reasons include:

Exploring alternative choices without replaying the game

Rereading scenes without having to replay the entire game

Checking lore details and dialogue for meta/fanfic reasons

Working out how to manipulate stats for specific outcomes

Game guide creation

Studying choicescript

Poke through the code at weird hours of the night so you can look like

Are there any consequences? As far as I know no, doing this doesn't impact the game in anyway. You are unable to edit the code through this method and it will not do anything to your computer.

You should not use this to duplicate or reupload anyone else's code without permission please respect the wishes and work of the original creators of whatever you are looking at.

How do I do it?

Firstly you will need

A Choice of Games account (which you should have if you have purchased a game, if not make an account and it should give you an option to restore your purchases tied to your email you used to purchase games, note: I can confirm this works for Steam I'm not sure about mobile downloads )

The purchased game of your choice

A web browser

Tutorial continues under the cut

Note if you are looking at a game that is currently a WIP and hasn't been published through COG yet you can just type /scenes at the end of the url and will get a list of clickable chapters and it functions much the same as what the following will open up, this is for published games

Firstly, Make sure you are logged into your choice of games account

When you go to your profile you should have a list of your purchased games, pick the game you want to look at for the purposes of this tutorial I'm borrowing @the-passenger-if or follow the browser link for your game

You will open a browser version of your selected game, and will pick up where you left off whenever you were playing last

Go to the address bar and add

/scenes/startup.txt

And you should be presented with something like this

The dollar sign marks any scenes that are not available in the demo version of your game. Then select whatever chapter you want to look at and then you swap out startup for whatever scene that is you do not need to worry about the dollar sign

And then you should be presented with something like this containing the text of whatever scene you opened for the purposes of this tutorial I've opened the prologue

And there you have it you can dig through to your hearts content and if you use ctrl+f you can search for specific words or phrases like searching any other webpage like so

Have fun

#choice of games #interactive fiction

[centrally-unplanned]

As I have been sick over the past week+ (doing better now I think) I have put in *checks save file* over 100 hours into The Last Sovereign, the ero-kingdom-builder-RPGmaker indie game. I am as done as I can be with it pretty much right now - its being released piece-by-piece, from all plot suggestions it is right at its penultimate chapter. I highly recommend it - it's a full-on RPGmaker game and not by someone who is a tech or art wiz breaking that box's confines, so you have to be down for that aesthetic & design style. But if you are the game has one of the most detailed "politics of rulership" games I have ever played in the genre, and done very seriously through the hilarious ero-lens of you dealing with succubus migrant populations, church purity inquisitions, and orc intelligence uplifting experimental breeding pits. This plot concept lets the game be hyper-realist and irreverently funny at the same time, a welcome tone.

But it's me, so I am here to whine about some stuff!

The game has, as typical to the genre, "hidden variable" systems for resolving big political plot elements - you talk to people, make dialogue decisions, those get stored as variable counts or binaries, etc. More uniquely it also has a huge economic investment system, where you make choices balancing money-making, military, political, and social investments through cycles that give you more money and impact said political plots. This is all quite complex but it works really well in the beginning, when everything is contained.

Chapter 3 is you and your harem plotting a false flag-style insurrectionist takeover of a kingdom, Yhilin. You made some investments pretty much purely for profit in the last chapter, so you got some opening cash, you have some allies to talk to, decisions around orc recruitment, and a one-off political event. This is all pretty clear - the game even locks some of your money in a vault to make sure you spend it on military supply industries, so you can't screw up by under-provisioning. You know you are gonna invade Yhilin, and you know that you need a good army, good allies, you have a desire to minimize civilian casualties for morality reasons, and a desire to minimize damage to reduce rebuilding costs. Should you save some of your army strength at the expense of more civilian deaths? Whose to say what is better in the long run, but you know what you are choosing. This part works great, it's the best part of the game. The plot is linear, sure, you are gonna win no matter what, but based on your choices the Yhilin you conquer can be quite different.

In future chapters, particularly chapter 5, the scope is drastically wider; you are dealing with *does some head math* 10 countries in your main continent of Arlecent and ~7 nations on other continents, all of which have investments opportunities, political decisions, and hidden variables. Big plot events will occur where 4-5 different variable tracks from different countries will come into play. And the game is not built for this, for a few reasons:

Most importantly, Chapter 3's Yhilin invasion was ordered correctly; you were told you were gonna attack Yhilin first, then made decisions after. Each big political event after that is a surprise; you will have terroristic Incubus Kings attacking via magic portals three kingdoms with no warning, and your multi-track variable scores of each of those countries will impact those events.

The UI is just not built for this. Its RPGMaker, and all the variables are hidden; you can access a ledger list of investments but it doesn't tell you how important each is or anything, just money. I could track one goal in Chapter 3 around a concrete list of options and tasks; that same UI doesn't work here.

All of this would be fine if it was mainly plot, and every option was "equally good", like in some playthroughs Givini does well and Ardoheim does badly, that's cool. But it really isn't; if you know the plot ahead of time, time investments for each event, and so on, you do way better in the game, get bonus equipment and even characters. Hell it's an ero game, you get bonus sex scenes! I skip all those but I'm sure it's important for some of the players out there. So these hidden decisions are high stakes.

So yeah, all that combines to make what should be a "making tradeoffs" political management plot feel way more like a lottery system - and in practice the game is just ludomantically begging you to read a walkthrough. I tried for a long time to play the game sans guide, and as its scope expanded I gave up; I was essentially missing a lot of content because my decisions were suboptimal and I couldn't track all the decision points I ran across to make decisions between them (Also its combat is really hard and easily-missed items can make a huge difference, another guide-pushing factor).

I personally would fix this in the obvious ways; make these variables not hidden, and rewrite the plot to have less "surprises" and more telegraphed decision moments. And then make me actively choose between Ardoheim & Givini with known consequences instead of accidentally doing that (the game does have some decisions like that, its not amateur hour over here; its just out of balance).

But the more important thing to do is imo that UI, and 'conveyance'. Right now all the investment opportunities for example are discovered organically - you talk to a person in Gasm Falls (yeah, that's in the succubus kingdom, how'd you know?), she tells you about a religious order expansion opportunity, and if you wanna spend the coin you go back and talk to her. Again, fine in Chapter 3; but when there are over 50 concurrent investment opportunities across the globe in later chapters, I really can't track this all; I am making decisions somewhat arbitrarily. Instead I would have more structured events; at the end of each cycle you sit down with your harem-ministers in a room and go "here is the list of investments; if you select these 13 here is a loose summary of the bonuses each nation would get, expected revenue, etc." Since RPGs don't typically do that this game doesn't, but it's not a typical RPG right? Its UI needs to evolve with the game.

Which, btw, it is doing! So there are a bunch of political conferences throughout the game's story, and at first it was just talk to people, make dialogue tree decisions, hope you keep it all in your head and make it work. But for the last few one of the mages in your harem would cast a "display spell" making a little magic demiplane with characters who summarize all the information for you. Dealing with potential suitors for the new Queen of Ardoheim? Let's line 'em up and give you a summary of their current odds if you talk to them:

This is great, it's way better! Why aren't there more of these? I am pretty sure it's because, ya know, the creator didn't think of it until recently lol. It's an indie game, being updated live and serially. This is likely feedback in action; the events of Chapter 3 & 4 got too unwieldy, the creator realized that, so in the last few sequences in Chapter 5 improvements were added. But going back and adding these to already-completed sections? Ugh, that can't be a priority in comparison to finishing the damn game.

Which, as I often say, is why I don't judge a game harshly for these issues when it's an indie creator and their small team making their vision. The creator knows this is a problem, but fixing problems is hard! They can't do it all. It's actually very cool to see the game 'evolve' over time as they got new ideas for plot concepts, map design, and structuring political mechanics. That makes the game messier, for sure, but also more interesting; a tradeoff I normally will take.

#The Last Sovereign #Ash RPGMaker Adventures

[fainlin]

I never really wanted a Gortash romance, like yeah it'd be fun but there's far more things the game needs done to it than adding more content that would just end up being incomplete. And, I think that is what is upsetting me more than the loss of the Franc letters. Act three is still a mess, Wyll still has less content than literally every other companion even his quest in act three isn't even really his it's a Balduran lore dump. Halsin is still pointless past act two and feels like he's just there to bang, and Minthara still is a mess. There's still content from EA just sitting around, voice lines that make no sense, pieces of content that go no where and are entirely pointless and instead of addressing any of that, Larian seems more focused on changing little things and sanding down their own characters. They feel like they don't even have confidence in their own writing anymore, it's not EA so I don't see why these things are really necessary other than to try to please everyone and end up pleasing no one. Removing the lanceboard scene when the guy in question literally only has eyes for himself, to the point I wouldn't be shocked he has a mirror on his ceiling to watch himself get railed by himself. He has no interest in Mol in any way other than to pluck her soul because he's a devil. He's just gross like that. Then to make Lae'zel nicer, like sure I like the changes for approval I guess but certain changes end up feeling more like they're fan servicey and less about actually improving the game. I understand the outcry when people thought Larian had changed Gale for a moment because Larian keeps doing things exactly like that, albeit in small ways. All I really want is for Act three to have impact and not be as flat and pointless as it is, for the main two villains to actually be villains instead of feeling like cheap tiny lil mini bosses when Raphael gets to feel like a real boss and he's not even main content he's entirely optional. Losing the slithering wet malice thing isn't even that big of a deal to me what is though is the fact they're willing to completely give up character personality and not even address that they're making these changes in the patch notes. It feels like I have to go in and take stock of every letter and every book and every dialogue option before it inevitably gets changed because Larian has no spine when it comes to their characters and their writing. It just sucks, it doesn't feel like this is making way for any new grand content it doesn't feel like anything but sanitizing at this point. I don't even really understand what could come from making Gortash bland boring tyrant no.56093 because yeah anyone could write that, it makes him entirely less memorable and I hate that because Orin and Gortash really deserve so much more than that, they deserve to be as fleshed out as Ketheric thorm, but instead they're just fucking jokes. If that was Larian's goal well I think they succeeded. TLDR; Act three is just incredibly unpolished, and I don't see why kissing animations and changing small little flavor letters, and making characters nicer and this and that really solves any of the actual problems the game still has. Sure it's nice, but I'm tired of seeing this be what the game has ultimately devolved to. Really hope I'm wrong, hope there's big content on the horizon, maybe the upper city making a come back, but I'm not gonna hold my breath.

Edit: And to be real here, I still like Gortash, I'd still love a romance if one ever happened. It's just I'd really like it to be thought out and not just well thrown together and spit out really fast. I just really want the game to be complete and it's best cause I really love it.

#bg3 #baldur's gate 3 #bg3 critical #Lord Enver Gortash #Enver gortash #Gortash #franc peartree #Forever mad for Wyll #Anyways gonna be taking a break from bg3 everything. See you space cowboys hope y'all continue to have fun. #Sorry again for the wall of text #just had a lot of thoughts today

[time-to-write-and-suffer]

why did I play wayhaven chronicles book 3

A list of grievances and observations as I played this heck of a game

Spoilers for all of it because I don't care and you shouldn't either

How is the writing getting worse. HOW IS THE WRITING GETTING WORSE. DON'T YOU HAVE EDITORS? BETA TESTERS? AUGH.

there's so much stage direction it's unbearable. people smile, smirk, chuckle, roll their eyes, shrug, scoff, groan, all of it, always, often for no reason, often to just fill word count, often so unnaturally it reads like they're all robots.

descriptions and dialogue are repetitive as fuck, and the prose quality is so poor. i feel like you could write a better game faster if you just had a better editor. or AN editor, really.

It really is a game that bit off more than it could chew so it didn't chew anything at all and just spit this back out.

I encountered like 3 major bugs in my first playthrough that would've broken the plot/game, if any choice actually mattered and the vampires didn't just swoop in to save my ass no matter what I did, so I guess no harm done ????

MAKE A SMALLER GAME THAT YOU CAN ACTUALLY BOTHER TO PLOT OUT AND CODE

You can't keep bragging about how much you loooove adding variation when seemingly no or very few options actually impact anything

No seriously, the amount of times player agency is discarded just because nothing is allowed to matter is staggering (why couldn't the detective confess their love for Mason? well because it would change the dynamic uwu!)

Speaking of Mason, look how they slaughtered my boy!

I refuse to believe M is this fucking stupid, they clearly know enough about romance to realize that some other people might want more than they can offer (in fact they say this exact thing if you reject sex in book 2) so like ?? why wouldn't they be able to recognize or even entertain that that's what's going on? sorry i get not realizing initially but the longer it goes on the more annoying and less realistic it becomes

But that's a non-issue right? Because the romance develops in this book? Sure, it does, and that's one of the few good things about it, that there's visible romantic development with M at least, but it also just completely doesn't care how you approach the romance at all. If you try to approach M's romance as a slow burn, it's not taken into account. Because the game doesn't seem to track which kiss is actually your first, ANY of them could be, so they're all written as equally important, meaning none is allowed to be more important than the others

Same goes for the sex scenes. You're waiting until the best in-character moment to fuck M? Well fuck you. it'll be the same as any other. This was the first time? cool cool, the game doesn't care. headcanon your own emotional weight of the moment, asshole. first time my detective had sex with Mason was written with pretty much the same weight as any previous ones I read, and we didn't even get a morning-after scene when Mason ditches their ass. I'm sure your slow-burn, slow-to-trust, emotionally motivated detective is tottally chill with their lover leaving in the morning after they finally brought their guard down and let Mason in, right? no? well fuck you. it's a week later now and they have no comment to make.

"oh but it's sooo hard to code alll of these variations! you can't expect the writer to take your headcanons into account!" they're not headcanons. i can reject Mason's advances at every step of the way, but the game doesn't care about this beyond the next page where the rejection actually occurs. anything else plays out like it does regardless of whether it's your first time doing anything or not.

Here's a simple, cure-all solution to writing choices that are too complicated for you to handle: don't! just don't put them in if you don't honor them! DON'T FUCKING PUT THEM IN IF YOU DON'T HONOR THEM.

Speaking of fuck you, if you're playing as a nonbinary detective and you have sex with M? congrats on having ghost genitals. your "detailed" intimate scenes are so vague and noncommittal that it's difficult to tell who's doing what with what body part. it's all so vague and bland that there's really no point in picking the option at all. Pro tip, cissies: nonbinary people have genitals, too. I know! Wild, right?

What's funnier, you always get to pick if you "initiate" or not (I assume this is code for topping). But if you're NB, regardless of what you pick, you don't really find out what your character is doing, even though Mishka gave herself a perfect out to write player-based variation. Everyone's got holes, man. It's not that hard.

Basically the game insists you have sex with M ASAP because there's no material reason not to, but if you dare to be nonbinary and fuck M, good luck on figuring out that sex scene, bitch!

Rebecca is still getting so many excuses and second chances that it's getting genuinely triggering to read at times. Your character keeps having to confront her about their relationship and it's like it wants you to forgive her because it's #feelgood. Plus, if you decide not to work with her at one point, you get a shorter climax where you're a cringefail idiot who can't do anything right. If you work with her, everything works without a hitch and you get to waltz out being all cool and badass. huh? huh ? huh ???? i hope this is just something me and my pals who played this are missing and maybe there's more variation??? but man oh man the Rebecca stanning going on in the narrative is so uncomfortable :')

We really peaked with Falk. This new villain is barely a presence and doesn't even get named until like halfway into the story. We meet him once and then he's defeated.

Sin, who got a lot of hype and buildup ... is not of any consequence. He just leaves.

You don't even find out what his deal is if you go the combat training route. Oh you thought this was vital info that would be delivered to you regardless of your personal character choices? fuck you.

Addie, the face of the victims of these gruesome kidnappings? comes back at the end as a non-speaking character you never even talk to personally.

The whole entire kidnapping+human/supernatual trafficking thing is just so ... bad. It's all so poorly constructed and not thought-out at all. Why would you go here with your silly vampire detective romance? Who thought this was the place to do that?

The detective's emotional breakdown is triggered by a random nameless victim who never comes back into the story again

The detective's emotional breakdown involves them being naked in a shower with their LI. This is (in M's case, at least) never brought up again and barely has any impact on the romance (because you can avoid it, so it can't matter too much<3)

The blood drive that was set up as being a potential major issue and would maybe tie back into the alleged "main plot"? Easily avoided, explicitly in-universe boring, and literally of no consequence

After all this, after three books of being dumb as shit for no reason other than idk cringefail cheap angst? Mason confesses his love for the detective via a NEVER-HAVE-I-EVER DRINKING GAME.

NO REALLY. I'M FUCKING SERIOUS DON'T WALK AWAY FROM ME I AM 100% TELLING YOU THE TRUTH RIGHT NOW

This is, of course, not touched upon at all and the detective (who, at this point, is pretty much aware they're in love with M) barely reacts at all

THE FAMOUSLY EMOTIONALLY IMMATURE HORNY SLUT CHARACTER, WHOSE REALIZATION SHOULD ALLOW FOR SO MUCH ANGST AND JOY IN ANY GOOD ROMANCE, CONFESSES THEIR LOVE VIA DRINKING GAME

honestly it wouldn't be so bad if it were acknowledged or discussed afterward or if it had any fucking effect on anything ever but it's barely even played as a joke so we can't have that! Why????

Because the book is over. if you're an M-mancer the book ends with a drinking game indirect love confession and you don't get to react to it at all

But here's a cheap stinger about the detective's relative who's totally evil and will totally be a main antagonist eventually!

did you have fun??? no?? well fuck you.

#twc spoilers #twc critical #shoutout to my lads in that one discord server for helping me compile this list #there was ... a lot

[animentality]

Things that could be further developed in act 3:

1-The press quest, what do you mean the guy you made an alliance with is sabotaging you for free and what you do has no impact on the merchants in the city?

2-Gortash, as a whole, my experience was he was in the morphic tank when I did the Gondian quest, and he doesn't say anything when we meet, I was like, brother, there's no robot in the city anymore.And tav dear,you discovered how the citywatch is fucked up, and you SAY NOTHING?

3-Karlach as a whole,my hope is now that she is top 3 romanced character she will get some development,I think the developers didn't expect her success, like she's not even on the official poster.I am even ok, if you can't cure her but at least idk discuss how she is trying actively being a good person, after she worked for gortash and spent years as a frontliner in hells,how just because you're good now does not mean it erases the past. (Redeemed durge parallels let's gooooo)

4-THE WHOLE PLOT TWIST THAT THE EMPEROR IS BALDURAN, AND HE KILLED HIS EX BOYFRIEND.And I as a balduran and a BARD (I was waiting for the dialogue check for me trying to flirt with the dragon to save myself, a classic cliché) for rp reasons I don't want to kill ansur.

5-Apparently there is no epilogue if you choose the ending in my name or in bhaals name, at least I didn't find it.So...cmon Larian let me see 😔😔.

Listen to me, anon, and listen well.

There needs to be a fucking Avernus/Devils/Hells DLC.

Hear me out. Who is missing the most content?

Karlach and Wyll.

What are they connected to? Devils. Raphael. The House of Hope. Zariel. Mizora. Hello???

PLUS, I get to see more Gortash shit, because he should've been sent to the House of Hope, and you should've had the option to save him. Maybe have HIM fix Karlach's goddamn heart, and start his road to...being useful, if not redeemed.

AVERNUS. HELLS. DEVILS.

They gave us the House of Hope but didn't involve Gortash with it at all??? Besides some crummy voice lines?

That's horse shit.

Oh the people I'd kill just to see Raphael and Gortash have a single scene...urgh.

#bg3 #enver gortash #karlach #wyll ravengard

[firestorm09890]

I’m never going to get over the first time you see a pre-sephirah breakdown flashback in Lobotomy Corporation. Ayin does a lot more horrible shit later on but nothing compares to the visceral horror the first one evokes. An image of Elijah, bleeding on the ground, desperately begging Ayin to kill her to end her suffering... and then three options appear. You’ve done this before- you can pick whichever you want, and it doesn’t really matter. Maybe a line or two of dialogue will change, but that’s all... “in a scenario like this, maybe my choice will have a bigger impact,” you might think. Except here, all three options are the same:

Ignore her.

Ignore her.

Ignore her.

It’s not the illusion of a choice; they’re all identical. There’s nothing to choose. But it’s not the same as if there hadn’t been anything there at all, and you just got to advance the scene and watch Ayin be a terrible person on his own. No, no, it’s there to hammer home the fact that given a choice, Ayin would never have done anything different. He wouldn’t have even considered doing anything different.

Ignore her. Ignore her. Ignore her.

That’s just the kind of person Ayin is- the kind of person YOU are. And you’ll do it again, and again, and again, perpetuating suffering without a second thought. But as it keeps happening, you become desensitized to it. Yeah, here’s the part where Ayin does something awful, what’s it gonna be now- oh, probing the brain? Okay. It’s never as jarring as the first one.

in conclusion

#lobotomy corporation #lobcorp #ayin #ayin lobcorp #malkuth #me post

[warden-melli]

Diamond Clan Analysis Part 1: Adaman’s Big Lie

This post started as way for me to give more context to an observation/interpretation I made in a seperate post, but it’s evolved into a larger analysis of the Diamond clan as a unit. More specifically it focuses on the ways that it’s individual members communicate, and of the ways that impacts their relationships, the world around them, and the greater plot. Before I start though, everything I post lore wise is 100% based on canon sources, and can be supported with screenshots/canon resources if necessary. This is my personal interpretation of events, but any/all speculation is based on canon information. Your interpretation may vary.

Fairly early in the game Kamado, Irida, Adaman and the player character meet in Galaxy Hall to discuss the noble pokemon Kleavor, which has become frenzied. It’s a touchy subject as Adaman advocates for a direct approach to the threat, implying that Lord Kleavor should be taken down. This is despite knowing that the Pokemon is sacred to the Pearl Clan.

Irida is understandably resistant to such a plan, pushing back against the idea as the two argue. Notably Adaman offers an interesting fact. that if his Clan were to interfere directly it would risk war/conflict with the Pearl clan.

Irida makes the point that they don’t even know why Lord Kleavor has became frenzied in the first place, and Adaman agrees, stating that he too would like to know the answer, and claiming that Lord Kleavor’s frenzy is a first for as far as his clan knows.

The group discusses their options, and to be respectful to the Pearl Clan’s concerns Kamado offers a compromise.

Instead of directly confronting (or defeating) Lord Kleavor, you (the PC) are granted permission to investigate before deciding how to proceed. Adaman, despite advocating for a more direct approach only minutes earlier concedes, and the group all come to the decision that you are to simply observe Kleavor to try and gather more information before deciding how to handle the situation further.

After the meeting you report to Cyllene to be briefed before you’re to head to the Heartwood to begin your investigation. It’s during this meeting that Adaman and Mai approach you. After exchanging pleasantries he cuts to the point. Despite just coming to an agreement with both the Pearl Clan/The Galaxy team that you are only to study Kleavor, he directly asks you to go behind their backs and quell his frenzy instead.

This is a major ask/risk. If Adaman was discovered directly interfering by asking you to go behind their backs, it could risk war with the Pearl Clan, (and quite possibly also the Galaxy team, as this request directly undermines the plan that all groups agreed to) but at the same time if you were to be the one to succeed and quell the frenzy, he would have achieved his goal, and his involvement need never be disclosed.

(It’s important to note Mai’s presence in this meeting, as it is implied by dialogue/earlier events that she is the reason that Adaman asked you specifally to be be the one to quell the frenzy. After agreeing to help her earlier in the plot, Mai witnesses you defeat an Alpha Kricketune (proving to her that you are potentially strong/skilled enough to handle the task), and relaying this information to her leader. This informs Adaman that you are not only competent, but also trustworthy as you have helped out his Clan in the past. This is why he is not only aware of your skills, but is willing to take a chance by reaching out to you)

He then goes on to explain his situation in more detail, offering more context as to why you may want to help him, and of why he would risk a possible war with the Pearl Clan in order to find a way to cure a frenzied noble. He reveals that his clan has a similar situation, and that a pokemon that is very dear to him up in the mountains (Lord Electrode, The Pokemon Melli is sworn to protect) is also in a frenzy. He is willing to risk anything to find a way to help/protect Lord Electrode and Melli up in the mountains.

Adaman openly deceives the Pearl Clan, and the leader of the Galaxy Team in order to discover a way to quell a Nobel pokemon. He does this in order to help his friend (We know from dialogue in the Daybreak update that Adaman and Melli are childhood friends, and that Melli only became a warden in the first place in order to help Adaman) and the Nobel that he serves up in the mountains. While his deception/lie is never openly discovered by either Irida or Kamado, Adaman faces the consequences of this decision in other very impactful ways.

This leads me into Diamond Clan Analysis Part 2: (Coming soon)

#adaman #Irida #kamado #warden mai #warden Melli #pokemon legends arceus #pla lore #pokemon #Melli speaks #long post

[mantisgodiveblog]

Just so you don't get too-high expectations - there's not really big branching paths or anything like that loop-to-loop. Stuff changes, but it's not like a tree of choices with huge impacts. My partner got very frustrated at the limited choices because she had previously played DBH and Life is Strange and expected something similar (way beyond the scope of an RPGmaker game with one writer). I've also seen people get frustrated at 'unfair' deaths in the story because they went into it expecting a roguelike's fair challenge and got a visual novel in the shape of an RPG instead. Also, there's a couple things early on that almost everyone misses, so I'll let you know. Firstly, there's three Loop chats that are only available when you have done something 2-3 times, 4-8 times, and 13+ times respectively. It's a once per loop thing and you haven't seen it yet. If you lock yourself out of a chat you can still get the later ones. Secondly, there's a secret room - many people find it at some point, but there's interesting dialogue in it in Act 2.

...we think that you presenting "visual novels" as something that doesn't imply that your actions will have a branching tree of consequences with huge impacts that may also include a large amount of scenes locked to obscure and strange combinations of actions that may or may not lock certain things behind them is messing with our brain a bit, sorry.

Maybe it's because of the specific visual novels we're playing, but we're fairly used to them having adjacent staples to older point-and-click games, just with less things to click - which, uhh, older point and click games are actually one of the main genres we enjoy, and probably where we picked up the foundation of our problem solving. The fact that DOSbox is on our desktop probably dates us quite a bit, though we only really remember where a handful of the games we have that work on that currently are.

We quite enjoy visual novels. We've played quite a few of them, they lend themselves well to writing in formats we quite like, and make it very easy to break down where to poke to find certain things. We are also very very used to visual novels having alternate routes and extremely elaborate unlock requirements for those routes. We also use this same sort of technique when we play text-based RPGs, or similar. We spend a lot of time exploring alternative routes for, uhh, pretty much anything - the difference between RPGs and visual novels tends to just be that in the visual novel, the secret might-lock-your-whole-game-if-not-picked-up option is an option that clearly pops up on the screen, rather than a missable pixel on the floor.

...if you can list the things that we need to do 2-3 times/4-8 times/13+ times when they turn up so that we don't accidentally lock ourselves out of conversations, it would be appreciated. We'd rather not run ourself into a wall too early - we'd like all the dialogue we can get! Also, if there's any dialogue that's locked behind stuff like staring at barrels, we've already failed the 2-3 times requirement and the 4-8 times requirement, we've checked literally every barrel in the game that we have access to. Some multiple times.

#asks #we speak #not liveblog #lukiyu #the fact that we actively enjoy old point and click adventure games probably explains a lot about us in general actually #anyways we know that VNs are the Dating Sim Genre we just play enough of them that we're very used to like #a LOT of the “you must make absolutely sure that youre at THIS POINT in THIS RELATIONSHIP to view this scene” type shit #though we sit in the specific niche that overlaps with text-based rpg so maybe thats a sign or something #a lot of the more complex visual novels are not safe for work but in our experience the especially tangled ones tend to be uhh #also made by a single guy. just a single guy on itch.io using ren'py rather than a single guy on steam using rpgmaker #something something “if you want to get really good at something then you need to find really specific perverts” effect #this thoroughness is ALSO why we're keeping multiple saves as unfortunately space quest has instilled much thoroughness in us #puzzle games. visual novels. text based rpgs. with their powers combined we are unreasonably thorough about exploring every available avenu #no matter how obscure or just fucking bizarre to explore #anyways we miss point and click adventure games we wish that they got made more often again #though if this isn't going to have roguelike apects in the climb we may have to wind up purposefully killing siffrin to get all dialogue