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sage-nebula · 3 years

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Game Review — Blue Fire

One of my all-time favorite game series is The Legend of Zelda. My favorite game of all time is The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. And my second favorite game of all time is Hollow Knight. So it would make sense, then, to think that a combination of the two would be the most amazing thing the world had to offer me.

Overall Score: 7/10

Well . . . it could have been better. It also could have been worse, absolutely, but it also could have been better. For more detailed thoughts, jump below the cut (and view on blog due to formatting).

The Pros:

The graphics and animation are beautiful. The specific Zelda game the graphics brought to mine (despite the color palette, which was clearly more Hollow Knight inspired) was The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. Whatever reason the developers had for going the cel shaded route (maybe they had an artistic vision in mind, or maybe it was easier somehow) it was a good one to make. In particular, all of the glowing and flame effects were lovely, the shadows all fell in the right places, the characters were charming to look at, et cetera. Everything worked well with the acrobatics as well. Visually, the game is beautiful.

For the most part, the platforming is fair and even platforming challenges are doable with enough practice. This is particularly true for the overworld / main dungeons, rather than the Voids, which are more extra dungeons that you don’t have to complete to beat the game (although doing so certainly makes the game easier given that each completed Void gives you another life heart). While there were some areas where the game lagged for whatever reason and threw off crucial timing, as well as some Voids that were definitely more Platform Hell than simply platforming, the platforming puzzles were very well put together for the most part and were enjoyable to play.

The fast travel system, when unlocked, is incredibly convenient and takes a lot of the headache out of traveling around the world, particularly given that you use the shrines for a number of things (fast travel, saving, char—spirit equips) and there aren’t any maps present in this game whatsoever. It does take some time to unlock fast travel and you’re not exactly pointed in the direction to get it (in fact I had to look up to figure out where I was supposed to go to get it), but once you have it it’s a well-developed system that took a lot of pain out of playing that would have otherwise been there.

A minor thing that I liked, but (just like in Hollow Knight) when you die, your spirit or soul is left behind. Also like in Hollow Knight, it keeps all of the money you had on you when you died. Essentially, it is the exact same thing as the Shade from Hollow Knight, but white instead of black. Anyway, the minor thing I liked about this is that if you die in a boss fight, your spirit waits for you directly outside the boss arena, meaning that you don’t have to try to reclaim it while the boss is trying to kill you. It was a nice bone the developers threw the player.

While no tracks in particular standout, and while the OST doesn’t live up to the OSTs of the inspirations behind this game, there were times when the music was very nice, which is always a plus.

While the main quest is very short, there are numerous sidequests you can do even apart from the Voids that give you things to do in each area, making them feel a little less small and giving you a bit more time with the game, as well as unlockables as rewards (mainly in the form of new costumes, but still). There are lots of little secrets hidden around in each area too, which is nice to discover if you’re someone like me who loves exploring in games.

The Neutrals:

The story. The story is . . . how do I put this . . . okay. So, it’s clear the developers wanted to write a story with the aesthetic of Hollow Knight (ruined kingdom, lots of shadow / light dichotomy, fallen kingdom, et cetera), but with an overt storytelling style like The Legend of Zelda. So you get a lot of exposition about what happened in the past, and what you as the main character are supposed to do now . . . but the thing about the exposition is that not only is the same thing repeated about fifteen different times (such as the constant harping on about how the main character contains both light and shadow within them), but also there are huge chunks of seemingly important detail that are just left unexplained. Like for instance: we know that the Fire Guardians from the Fire Keep were one of the last strongholds against the Shadow (who was also the sixth god and has also corrupted the queen yadda yadda). And we can extrapolate that the Fire Guardians were specifically trying to create a warrior that was both light and shadow based on the fact that the game starts with the main character breaking out of a test tube with a bunch of corpses that look just like the player scattered around, seeming to be failed experiments (i.e. just like how the Pale King created the Hollow Knight in Hollow Knight). But the only Fire Guard that we see around is Von. I think he mentions briefly once that the Fire Guards were trying to make the warrior, or had made the warrior, or something like that, but we’re never told why, exactly. We don’t know what processes led to that. We don’t know who was in charge. We don’t know why this specific type of warrior was needed except “since you have both you may be the answer.” And the fact that there were apparently a bunch of failed experiments is never really touched upon either. Furthermore, we’re told that the five gods had lifted Penumbra (the world) into the sky to protect it from the Shadow (a la Hylia raising Skyloft to protect the people from Demise), but that it didn’t work and the Shadow ultimately got to them anyway. So allegedly this is a post-apocalyptic land. But the only thing to really be ravaged is the Temple of Gods, where apparently the corrupted queen sleeps. Everyone else seems mostly fine as long as they avoid the monsters? It’s like they were going for what Hollow Knight did, but didn’t quite want to go the full route of having corpses literally everywhere on-screen at all times. Although weirdly enough, there is also a distinct lack of NPCs which makes the world feel more empty than Hallownest despite the circumstances . . . What I’m getting at here is that there definitely is a story, but it was told in a way that was pretty sloppy. It’s not so sloppy that it detracts from the overall experience, but it’s like too much was piled on in some areas and not enough was explained in other areas. Or like they took some things they liked from other games (e.g. making the creation of the “warrior of light and shadow” reminiscent of the creation of the Hollow Knight) without following through on what made those things work. Like it wasn’t just that there were a lot of failed Knights and that their corpses were tossed into the abyss and that The Knight had to try to claw his way out (as did Broken Vessel and others) while the “successful” Hollow Knight was raised by the Pale King. It was also that we know that the entire reason why the Hollow Knight was created in the first place was to contain the Radiance / the Plague. It was also that these hundreds or thousands of corpses were the Pale King’s children. It was also that the Pale King has a monologue over that segment saying, “no mind to think, no will to break, no voice to cry suffering” as requirements for the Hollow Knight to be considered successful. The horror didn’t come just from the corpses being tossed down the pit around you as you had to climb up in an attempt to get out, but also at all of the surrounding context, which was left entirely out of Blue Fire’s version with the warrior of light and shadow. Not that they should have copied it (although if they had it really wouldn’t have been surprising), but it’s clear what they were trying to do and where they failed because they didn’t have the follow through to go with it. I feel like the above paragraph is so critical I should move it to The Cons, but I do want to say that I don’t think the story itself was terrible. It borrows so much from both Zelda and Hollow Knight that it really isn’t original and it doesn’t follow through on things that made those stories work, but overall it doesn’t ruin the experience, even if all of the repetition gets old pretty quickly. Although as a final note, I’ll also add another thing that bugged me, which is that we never learn what the people of Penumbra are. Like we know the Shadow is bad, but they all look like Shadow people. We know there are creatures called “onops” but we don’t know what they are, or if everyone is an onop. Whereas in Hollow Knight we know that all the characters are bugs. It’s just another little thing that wasn’t explained but probably should have been.

On a less long note, the combat is also pretty mediocre. Again, it’s not bad. There is a parry system that, if you learn to time it right to actually pull off the parry, is pretty cool. But although you are given magic, which is useful for killing long-distance enemies, the magic can’t do a single thing for you in boss battles no matter how many times you upgrade your mana. Additionally, it is very much a “mash Y to win” type of game, where Y is the button you use to attack and you just mash that while jumping around. There’s no complexity to the combat at all or any strategy that is really required. It’s not bad, per se, but it’s nothing to write home about either.

The charms in this game are called spirits, and while you can buy a majority of them from shopkeepers, you can also “capture” your own by coming across the spirit of a dead person and trapping it to use its power for yourself. This is made apparent when you go back to a young child who is dead the second time you go to see them, and capture their spirit for use. Also when you literally murder an NPC for a sidequest and then later capture their spirit to use for your own use. And aside from the sidequest giver being horrified you killed the NPC and telling you to keep it hush-hush (without even knowing that you can and will capture the spirit of that murder victim for your own use) this . . . is never really remarked upon. Ever. And the thing is, it creates a sort of dissonance, because your character is treated as a hero in this game. No one seems horrified by you, there’s never any question of whether your existence is moral or not, nor any reason to think that your character would be amoral. In Hollow Knight, the Knights were created to be soulless husks who were there to be vessels for the Radiance / infection. Hornet in particular calls out your cursed existence and how she does not like you because of it. But although you can learn “emotes” from statues (which is teaching your character either actions or emotions, it’s unclear), no such deal is made here. So this aspect of the game is strange, even if I can at least appreciate that they tried to make their spirits a tiny bit different from Hollow Knight’s charms. Though with that said . . .

The Cons:

It’s one thing to be inspired by other games, but the sheer amount that this game cops from The Legend of Zelda and Hollow Knight is, at least to me, incredibly distracting. Just a handful of examples off the top of my head: — In Hollow Knight, you have a Shade that lingers where you last died and keeps all of your money from when you died. In Blue Fire, you have a spirit / soul (again, it’s unnamed) that lingers where you died and keeps all of your money from when you died. You have to retrieve them before you die again to get your money back. — In Hollow Knight, you have different circular charms that each have a different design, name, and grant you different abilities. You can only have a certain amount equipped at a time (though you can increase how many you can equip at once) and you can only equip them at save points. In Blue Fire you have different spirits that are contained in circles that each have a different design, name, and grant you different abilities. You can only have a certain amount equipped at a time (though you can increase how many you can equip at once) and you can only equip them at save points. — Everything I explained above about how the main character breaking out of a test tube at the beginning, surrounded by corpses just like them, felt like an echo of the Knight’s creation in Hollow Knight (but again, not as effective for reasons outlined above). — The default tunic has a hat that is exactly like Link’s from The Legend of Zelda. This is made even more obvious with the dyed green tunics. — The story segment detailing how the five gods created Penumbra was copped from how the golden goddesses created Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. To compare the dialogue: Ocarina of Time: “Din. With her flaming arms, cultivated the land and created the red earth.” Blue Fire: “Dina, God of Land. With her mighty body of stone, Dina carved mountains, deserts, and landforms in the earth.” It’s in the exact same cadence, to the point where I half expected the artifact they created at the end of the story to be the Triforce (instead it was called the Oath of Sarana). — In Hollow Knight, the titular Hollow Knight is housed inside the Temple of the Black Egg, and is in fact locked inside that Black Egg to seal the Radiance / infection. There are three locks on the egg, and each one will only be broken when one of the three Dreamers dies. You have to break all three locks to face him, a corrupted “final” boss. In Blue Fire, the corrupted queen is housed inside the Temple of the Gods. There are three locks on her door, and each one will only be broken when one of the three Shadow Lords dies. You have to break all three locks to face her, the corrupted final boss. — It’s implied that, especially in places like the Temple Gardens, that the humanoid enemies that attack you are not monsters, but are people who were once completely normal and even forces of good who were corrupted by the Shadow. This is exactly like how all of the enemies you face in Hollow Knight (with the exception of, say, Hornet) were also once normal bugs before they were turned into zombies by the infection. I could go on. The point is, it’s perfectly fine to be inspired by something. Hell, it would be hard to find an action/adventure game that wasn’t inspired by The Legend of Zelda at this point. But it’s one thing to be inspired by something, and another thing to completely rip-off your inspiration to the point where the similarities are distracting to your audience. And it’s not just me; when I was looking up the exact dialogue for the story of the gods from Blue Fire, I found others who were pointing out just how similar everything was to Hollow Knight in particular, including someone who, like me, realized that the Temple of the Gods was essentially the Temple of the Black Egg. When things are this blatant, it feels a whole lot less like inspiration and a whole lot more like plagiarism.

The Voids all have a star rating to indicate how difficult they are. These star ratings are completely meaningless. Granted, partly it’s because everyone is going to have different abilities and so it will be hard to create an overall difficulty scoring that will be accurate for every player, but it’s also telling when a four-star course is miles easier than a two-star course, which I found to be the case on more than one occasion due to level design that was, at times, kind of bullshit.

Although there are NPCs, there are none who are memorable or standout, despite the fact that most of Penumbra’s populace is (maybe?) still alive. Unlike in Hollow Knight, where there were characters like Elderbug, the Last Stag, Hornet, Quirrel, and so forth that were memorable and lovable, all of the NPCs in Blue Fire feel rather the same and are pretty easily forgettable.

The world itself is incredibly small. While the fact there are no maps makes this kind of a good thing, on the other hand it’s a bit disappointing that there are a total of two towns and then a few small connecting areas. It doesn’t really make it feel like the kingdom that it’s supposed to be.

On that note, why aren’t there maps? The fact that there is fast travel is really more of a necessity than mere convenience because there are no maps to help lead you around. If you put down the game for a while and then go back to it, you might not remember how to get to different areas in the game, and if you haven’t unlocked fast travel yet (since it is something you have to unlock) you’re going to be pretty much boned due to the lack of a feature that is in basically every other game.

Overall, while this is not a game I think I would ever go back to, it also isn’t one that I regretted purchasing and playing. It could definitely have been better, but it also could have been worse. My only hope is that the next game this studio makes is more original, rather than copying so much from other, more successful titles. (Or at the very least, that they study why certain things worked in more successful titles, instead of just copying at the surface level and calling it a day.)

#2021 game reviews #blue fire #blue fire game #have had this sitting in drafts forever #tbh probably could have added more but I just don't feel like opening this game again to refresh my memory #which probably says more than this whole review does tbh

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goldenkamuyhunting · 4 years

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Ramblings and crazy theory time about GK chap 231 “Birth”

So new chapter and it’s a chapter about some really important things among which there is…

Yeah, courage.

No one would think GK characters are lacking guts, they’re veterans they can face bullets and dangerous situations and yet, almost all of them show they’re afraid to face what really matters: their own inner fears so I’m really glad to see them trying to do so in this chapter.

But let’s dig into the story.

We’ve left Tanigaki and Inkarmat reaching Huci’s house.

We see that Huci’s next move is to go call Osoma’s mom so she can provide her help as a translator (Huci doesn’t talk Japanese) but also during the childbirth.

Personally I’m glad to see Osoma’s mom. Previously we never got to see her, only Osoma’s father, so I was a bit worried Osoma was another motherless character. I’m glad that’s not the case, though I wonder why Noda, in addition to telling us this woman is Osoma’s mom, didn’t tell us her name as he had done for Koito’s mom.

Normally hiding a character’s name in Golden Kamuy often ends up meaning we need to learn more about that character, so it can be Osoma’s mom is more than she looks like. Wouldn’t it be interesting if it were to turn out she’s Ariko’s relative for example? She doesn’t share his tanner skin nor his eyebrows but her oval and the shape of her nose might remember the ones of Ariko’s mom, Ikaripopo. Not that Tsurumi mentioned Ariko having another sister beyond the one who moved to Hidaka but it can be he just didn’t finish his list. Or maybe Osoma’s mom is meant to be relevant for something else, something that’s uniquely hers and not related to a relative. We’ll see.

On the other side as Osoma’s mom is an Ainu there’s the small chance Noda hadn’t found a suitable name for her yet.

Again, we’ll see.

It’s a bit sad but I’ve noticed Noda isn’t really ‘naming Ainu prone’. Many of them are labeled just for their relations to Asirpa or Huci… probably because coming up with Ainu names isn’t as easy as coming up with Japanese names for Noda (it’s worth to mention we don’t have yet Huci or Asirpa’s mom name either!).

Back to the story as Tanigaki worries ONLY NOW about how the 7th division might be keeping watch of Asirpa’s village, Osoma’s mom informs him he’s a lucky man as the guy the 7th division sent to check on the village… gets regularly drunk thanks to Makanakkuru offering him a lot of alcohol to the point Osoma can step on his face and only wakes up around noon.

Really, I don’t know what they were thinking when they sent such a fail to keep guard.

On a sidenote I still wonder if Tsurumi has a spy in Asirpa’s village. It would make sense as that village was Wilk’s village and Tsurumi knows all of the people involved in the gold incident and their relative, as we saw when he dealt with Ariko. It would explain the choice of such a soldier for keeping it controlled. The soldier is just for outside appearance. As they’ve someone inside, they don’t really need a capable soldier to check the place. Oh well, we’ll see.

Meanwhile Tanigaki worries about what Huci is doing to Inkarmat.

We get some explanations about how Ainu think they can figure out if the baby is a boy or a girl and how they handle those two childbirths differently due to their own beliefs. What’s more though we learn of how Huci was assisting births since she was 19 and she’s a veteran midwife who assisted Asirpa’s birth as well.

On a sidenote I normally don’t pay much attention to the line on the cover because it’s usually something not Noda but the editor wrote but I’ve to admit I particularly like how, this time, it says ‘purpose is handed down from heaven’.

It’s a call back to the line that’s written in each Golden Kamuy volume 'Kanto orwa yaku sak no arankep shinep ka isam' [“Nothing comes from heaven without purpose”] an Ainu proverb that’s important in this story because it well remarks how everyone matters.

Anyway now, since Tanigaki thinks he can leave Inkarmat in Huci’s hands, he points out how Tsukishima, pardon, the Tsukinator, knows about that Kotan, would probably realize they came there and therefore how Tanigaki plans to lead him into the mountains to face him in a terrain that will be advantageous to Tanigaki.

Well, this isn’t completely bad, at least Tanigaki figured out he has been BEYOND OBVIOUS in choosing that place to hide, that the Tsukinator will figure it out and that drawing the Tsukinator on a terrain in which Tanigaki would have the advantage would be a good idea.

Of course it would have been ENTIRELY MORE INTELLIGENT to make a PLAN prior to go rush save Inkarmat and not attempting to make one after everything has gone downhill due to complete lack of planning but whatever, I think I stressed how bad this was in the previous chapters.

Back to the story Inkarmat though has probably figured out that, advantage or not, Tanigaki isn’t even remotely a match for the Tsukinator and tells him not to go.

Tanigaki, either thinking he’s being reassuring, protected by his noble goal or that Sugimoto’s supposed immortality is infectious claims ‘he’s immortal’ so he’ll be back. Honestly he would have been more reassuring if he had said he has a plan, or that he knows exactly what to do or knows of the Tsukinator’s weakness. Everything but trying to feed an adult, intelligent woman an impossible story.

So, of course, Inkarmat, who’s not a child and who has a working brain, points out how no, Tanigaki isn’t immortal and should just escape.

Tanigaki instead blindly runs out to face the Tsukinator … and basically doesn’t make in time to make a step out of the house that the Tsukinator has ripped from him his rifle, used the butt of the stock to hit him in the face and then kicked him in the face for good measure, sending him back into the house.

So much for Tanigaki’s immortality and his plan to ‘face Tsukishima into the mountains’. -_-

So time for plan 2. Tanigaki tells the Tsukinator he MUST NOT lay a hand on Inkarmat, Huci or the rest because he only needs to kill him.

Note I don’t know why Tanigaki felt the need to include Huci and the rest in the equation.

I can understand the Tsukinator wanting to kill Inkarmat, as she can be a threat to Tsurumi’s plans but Huci and the rest are specifically kept alive by Tsurumi to draw Asirpa there. They aren’t deserters or anything and it’s worth to point out the Tsukinator is in his full rights to kill Tanigaki, as he’s a deserter.

However, as long as no one tries to get in the Tsukinator’s way, there’s no need for the Tsukinator to make a massacre there all due to Tanigaki.

Anyway okay, plan 2 is even worse than plan 1, really, as Tanigaki is overvaluing a lot of things here:

- his own importance (Tsukishima won’t sacrifice Huci, an important paw to draw Asirpa, just to punish Tanigaki)

- his influence on the Tsukinator (yeah, of course Tani, if you tell the Tsukinator do not lay a hand on them he won’t… he’s so scared…)

- the Tsukinator’s murdering impulses (Tsukishima isn’t someone who likes to murder everyone, Tanigaki, please!).

So Tsukishima (yeah, I’ll call him Tsukishima here) gives him a reality check. They didn’t end in that situation due to Tsukishima. They ended up in that situation because Tanigaki screwed up, long, long ago and kept screwing up and he’s still not realizing it.

Yeah, Tanigaki has been screwing up from a long time, from when, after he broke his leg and said leg healed, he decided not to come back to the 7th division (and this only because Tsukishima doesn’t know that Tanigaki actually could have turned back even sooner, when he had been saved by Nihei… or maybe even prior to it if he were to manage to walk that much). Tanigaki, who had blamed Ogata and Nikaido for deserting, is actually no better than them. He wasn’t allowed to just decide he won’t go back to the 7th division but pursue his own sidequests (capturing Retar, repaying Huci, bringing Asirpa back…).

Although it might not look like it, the 7th division is not just Tsurumi’s fanclub, from which you can decide to drop out if you grow out of love for him, it’s an army division and you don’t drop out of the army at will, this is called desertion and it’s a crime.

I think deep down a side of Tsukishima was always a little angry at him as Tanigaki had been allowed by Tsurumi (for Tsurumi’s own goals) to do as he preferred as if he were a spoiled child instead than continuing to serve in the division as the others were forced to do, and Tsukishima was probably even more annoyed by how Tanigaki didn’t seem to realize it. Tanigaki basically deserted when he decided to pursue Retar and in a way deliberately got in Tsurumi’s way by trying to support Hijikata and Sugimoto into having Asirpa met her father but Tsurumi took him back in the 7th division after Abashiri without even giving him a slap on his wrist and Tanigaki didn’t even seem to realize how lucky he was not to end up having his nose and ears cut before being forced to commit Seppuku (Tsurumi declared this would be the punishment for deserters).

No, what’s worse is that Tanigaki not only didn’t realize it, in Karafuto he seemed to think HE could just drop out at will, ‘sorry boys, I’m a Matagi, your silly Wajin problems don’t really regard me’

and when Tsurumi tells him ‘sorry, no, it REALLY doesn’t work this way and if you hadn’t gotten it before I’ll make sure you’ll get it NOW’ Tanigaki just attempted to shrug it off again and Tsukishima should have felt he really had enough.

While Tsukishima had to threaten Koito to stay loyal or he would have to kill him,

Tanigaki went and though he could desert AGAIN. And now he’s painting things as if it’s Tsukishima who’s being mean and he’s being noble and self sacrificing when actually if Tanigaki hadn’t deserted in the first place they would have never gotten to that point. Really, I think Tsukishima is feed up and, if this wasn’t bad enough, Tanigaki doesn’t even seem to realize Tsukishima isn’t enjoying this a single bit.

He doesn’t want to have to shoot Tanigaki and Inkarmat but he views himself as ‘forced to do so’.

In the middle of all this Koito, who also has figured up where Tanigaki would escape (because really, who in the world wouldn’t have?) reaches them.

Really, the Karafuto trip did good to Koito as he had the good sense to chase them on a horse (Tsukishima has chased Tanigaki, who was on a horse, by foot).

Koito calls Tsukishima, ordering him to stop.

Tsukishima’s face his shadowed and he barely turns to look at him, asking him if he followed him just to see if Tanigaki and Inkarmat would manage to escape safely. Really, this makes me think Koito and Tsukishima exchanged words at the hospital before Tsukishima started chasing Tanigaki and Inkarmat because he knows Koito isn’t there to help him get them back but to support them in their escape.

Instead than answering Koito tries to get Tsukishima to reason.

He points out killing them would do any good because actually Tanigaki isn’t their only way to find Asirpa so, if Tanigaki doesn’t want to help them and wants to run away with Inkarmat they should just let him go.

This… seems a really nice solution but Tsukishima points out the foolishness of it, the real core of the problem.

A threat loses its meaning if one isn’t willing to go through it and won’t serve as a warning to ‘anyone else’ (read: ‘Koito’ in this specific case... but also anyone else really because if Tanigaki can drop out, what would stop the others to do the same?).

Tsukishima then claims he has warned Koito he would kill him if he were to get in his way. I think this doesn’t refer to just what they said in chap 210, probably Koito had already tries to stop Tsukishima when they were at the hospital and Tsukishima had told him to stay out of his way… because Tsukishima then points his gun at Koito and asks him if he’s also planning to betray Tsurumi.

And this is part of what pushed Tsukishima to become the Tsukinator, I think. He HAD to kill Tanigaki and set an example for Koito, so that Koito would know Tsukishima’s threat was serious, wouldn’t try to betray Tsurumi and Tsukishima wouldn’t have to kill HIM.

So Tsukishima tries to scare Koito into compliance again. His gun pointed on Koito he asks him on which side Koito is, if he’s going to join the traitors because he and his father were used and therefore this caused him to lose faith in Tsurumi.

The scene is interesting. On the upper part we can see Tsukishima’s eyes. They’ve a lot of stress lines and on the right side of his face we can see that the veins are still prominent due to Ienaga’s injection. The shadows on Tsukishima’s face are made with a swirling screentone that usually points to inner turmoil. The background behind him moves from dark to a very clear grey as the panel moves toward Koito.

In fact on the lower part we can see Koito.

His panel is small compared to Tsukishima’s and it’s worth to note next to it there’s also the previous panel with Tsukishima.

Koito’s panel is surrounded by Tsukishima’s panels, pressed down by them, trapped by them.

Also, contrary to Tsukishima, Koito’s eyes are barely visible, as if to conceal his feelings (or better his eyebrows as they often betray what a character is feeling). From the little I can see he still seems to look straight at Tsukishima, possibly with a determinate expression. We can well see that there are many stress lines below them, maybe even more than there were when he let Tanigaki and Inkarmat go. Although the screen tone on his face seems to slightly darken near his eyes, it’s barely noticeable and not swirling. He’s not sweating and his mouth is close in a firm line. It’s the background behind him that’s made by many swirling lines.

I think the idea is that the focus is on what Koito will say now, that’s why Noda is showing us his mouth, because we should listen him, and listen him well.

And, I’ll be honest, Koito will be almost as awesome as Shiraishi here!

In fact this time, Koito won’t let himself be intimidated, nor he’ll panic or will let his feelings overtake him.

Calmly, looking straight at Tsukishima, he ORDERS him to lower his weapon.

‘Jū o orose, koreha jōkan meirei da’ [銃を下ろせ、これは上官命令だ “Drop the gun, this is your superior officer's order.”]

He then says that he has every intention of watching Tsukishima and Tsurumi to the very end, but this time he’s not doing it from the position of a blackmailed man, but from a position of power. It’s HIS decision to watch, something he chose on his own, not something Tsukishima forced him to do. Tsukishima doesn’t control him, Koito is still his superior officer, as he underlines in his order, and Tsukishima is the one who has to obey him.

And this is probably the very first time we see Koito acting like an officer with Tsukishima. Normally Koito deferred to Tsukishima and, even if here and there he told him to do something, it was clear Tsukishima would do it only if he were to be okay with doing it. We see it right in their first interaction when Koito tell Tsukishima to make him some glue and Tsukishima flatly refused (chap 101).

Koito was the officer but we saw him asking Tsukishima tons of times what to do. When he acts on his own is never from an authority position but from an impulsive position, with Tsukishima scolding him afterward.

This time though, Koito is his own boss and his compliance has nothing to do with Tsukishima’s threats or his dependence to him.

Tsukishima is clearly surprised.

In a way this is the second time they have a serious conversation, the first being in chap 210 when Koito asked him explanation but back then Tsukishima didn’t take him seriously and, although Koito had done some solid thinking back then, he still wasn’t in control as he is now. He asked Tsukishima for explanations, he clearly wanted Tsukishima to give him reassuring answers, when he didn’t get them he lost it and didn’t manage to remain in control of the conversation.

He was upset, sweaty and grew angry and rash when he didn’t get what he wanted, to crumble completely when the truth he should have been expecting came out. He knew Tsurumi had used him, that Tsukishima had been his accomplice… but wasn’t really ready for it and that’s why he crumbled and Tsukishima took control of him, forced him into compliance.

Now time has gone by and Koito is finally ready to face Tsukishima for real.

He’s firm, he’s calm and, what’s more, he’s willing to listen Tsukishima.

Koito refreshes Tsukishima’s mind on what he told him, about how if Tsurumi uses people to save them, then people has no right to complain. Koito says he can agree on that. In a way he humbles down, he accepts that he can be used as a pawn for a greater purpose, that people don’t own him the truth or to view him as an equal… but he claims he’ll accept this, only if the purpose is something his sense of justice can accept.

Koito won’t bow blindly to Tsurumi anymore. He wants to know his goal and wants to be allowed to judge it, decide if it’s a goal he can accepts working for. Salvation isn’t enough if the price is supporting something he can’t accept otherwise he believes he’ll be tormented by feelings of guilt and regret.

While there’s a bit of Koito’s prideful self, in how he believes Tsurumi’s goal, to be valid, should live up to KOITO’s standards of justice, when Koito is clearly not a model of virtue or impartiality, his reasoning is still very solid, much more solid than Tsukishima’s idea of blindly following Tsurumi in hope everyone would be saved without really knowing where they were going.

Koito’s position might be self centered, but his stance is valid. One has to know the goal of the leader he’s following and share the belief it’s a goal worth pursuing or he can end up supporting him to reach a horrific end, one that would disgust him as well. One must not give his all for a cause that’s wrong for him. Blind obedience always ends up leading to disaster.

And that’s why Koito thinks they must absolutely not kill Tanigaki and Inkarmat. Because killing them goes against Koito (and Tsukishima’s) idea of justice and if they were to do it they would be tormented through their whole life.

Tsukishima counters it’s too late for him.

This time it’s Tsukishima who’s losing his composture, not Koito. Koito has found the right words, he has affected Tsukishima he has stuck a nerve. Tsukishima overreacts because Koito’s words were the words he needed to hear and yet, at the same time, he rejects them, he’s afraid to accept them.

He points out that he has killed too many and used too many, causing them to die. As he says so he thinks back to Edogai, whom he clearly regretted leaving behind.

Tsukishima is clearly not in the ‘redemption’ camp.

He doesn’t believe he can get redemption. He knows he did evil, he believes this can’t be fixed and, therefore, to him, this means he can’t do anything else but evil. Tsukishima too has a black and white mentality and, since he is black now, he believes it’s too late for him.

‘Will all great Neptune’s ocean wash this blood/Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather/The multitudinous seas incarnadine,/Making the green one red.’

Once a murderer, always a murderer, since he can’t fix his wrongdoing he must continue doing wrong.

It clearly pains him but… at the same time it’s a very convenient mentality as it requires him to do no effort to improve, to correct his way and… and it’s terrible at the same time because it means he won’t stop doing wrong. That since there’s no salvation for him, no redemption, to way to fix things, then he’ll have to continue murdering, using people and leaving them to die… because that’s what happens to people when they stop believing they can turn page, they can change their life.

It’s unlikely they’ll shoot themselves in the head, they’ll just continue doing wrong and before justice, human or divine will reach them they would have caused the death and suffering of many others.

So yes, I know many in the fandom are sick and tired of redemption stories but that’s why instead I find them SO IMPORTANT.

Many focus on how when someone has done too many wrongdoings he can’t pay back the victims.

It’s true, it doesn’t take a genius to say even in this case Tsukishima won’t be able to pay back his victims as, for Tsukishima’s own admission many of them are dead and Tsukishima can’t resurrect them… but he can stop making more victims for a change.

We can fix the past but we can try working for a better future.

So no, Tsukishima can’t make up to those he has abandoned, to those he has killed and to their families who suffered for what Tsukishima has done.

In this he’s right. It’s too late. Too late FOR THEM. He can’t save them anymore. But it’s not too late for Tanigaki and Inkarmat. He could save them. He can turn page.

And Koito slams it on his face.

It’s not too late, Tsukishima doesn’t have to continue on a way HE KNOWS IS WRONG, A WAY HE REGRETS FOLLOWING IN THE FIRST PLACE.

And at this Tsukishima points out something really relevant. His problem is not just he hurt others. His problem is not just he stepped over his sense of justice and did things he knew were wrong.

Tsukishima’s biggest problem is he gave up on what was truly important to him and threw it away.

As Tsukishima says so, we see images from chap 150, images that points to how Tsukishima accepted Tsurumi’s words about Igogusa and, so as not to get further hurt, threw away her hair. He gave up on her, gave up on returning back to her. He was afraid to discover Tsurumi lied to him and she’s dead and because he was afraid to know the truth he gave up on knowing the truth, on trying to find her. He was torn.

He believed Tsurumi lied to him yet he couldn’t accept the idea she was dead for real so he refused to know the truth. When he refused for Inkarmat to find something for him, it wasn’t that he was afraid she was trying to turn her to her cause. He was afraid she could tell him the truth.

If Igogusa is dead… he believes for him this would be a heat shattering pain. But if she’s not… he had given up on her and this is equally horribly painful. Tsukishima is stuck between a rock and a hard place and obeying to Tsurumi is his own idea to hide his head in the sand and escape from the pain.

Tsukishima believes it’s too late for him because he is simply afraid to turn back and discover there’s nothing but terrible pain waiting for him. By not knowing the truth, he thinks he can protect himself.

The truth can be terrible after all, Koito had to face it first hand… but, differently from Tanigaki, who discovering Kenkichi didn’t murder in cold blood his sister couldn’t just go back to his father, tell him as well the truth and admit he was wrong in pursuing revenge or from Tsukishima, who has been actively trying to not know the truth at all, Koito has faced the truth. Sure, he has suffered, he has hesitated and almost bowed to the crushing weight of truth but now he’s reacting.

He’s fighting.

He’s not focusing on his mistakes in the past, he’s looking straight at his future and trying to see what he can do. In short he’s being awesome and I’m proud of him.

So when Tsukishima claims all that’s left for him is to do his job, Koito doesn’t just wave his words away. Koito listen to him and understands him. He understands Tsukishima is being so unbending because what he threw away was SO VERY HUGE… but by understanding it, by voicing this, Koito helps Tsukishima to face again what he thinks he threw away.

Igogusa.

We finally see her face, how she smiled as she looked at Tsukishima.

And as Tsukishima concedes himself to think back at her all of sudden he can’t give up on her any longer and finds the courage to try to ask Inkarmat if she…

he trails off, his expression broken but still Inkarmat stretches her hand toward him.

She’s willing to help him to try to read and find what Tsukishima is desperately searching but… call it bad luck or the tiger curse, anyway Tanigaki’s baby can’t wait any longer.

Inkarmat bows in pain and Osoma’s mom, the other awesome person in place tell the men they can finish their business later as Inkarmat is about to give birth. Then, without waiting for them to answer, she starts to assign them jobs.

Tanigaki has to boil water, Koito to gather straw and Tsukishima to watch Sakamoto and O-gin’s child and this is maybe the most clever thing. Tsukishima needs some gentle human contact right then, something soothing and at the same time something that won’t mentally exhaust him. Holding a baby, carrying for him while the baby can’t question him or threaten him or judge him is perfect for him to get human contact, get a sense of self worth and, at the same time… emotionally rest.

Add to this that in a way Tsukishima and that baby are connected, as they’re both the children of people Tsukishima deemed monsters and therefore condemned to grow up as terrible people according to Tsukishima. Holding that baby can help Tsukishima to revalue himself, to realize he wasn’t born rotten.

So as we see the other working and giving their all to help Inkarmat, Huci and Osoma’s mom and getting instructions and information and then working some more all in a frenetic way, we also see Tsukishima sitting, the child in his arms, letting the little boy gently touch his face.

As the moment of the delivery comes and the men are chased out of the house we can see that he’s sitting down, clearly emotionally drained, his gaze downcast and looking really small, like a lost child not like our always in control and competent Tsukishima. Koito, who, is worth to mention, was still convalescent and yet has left the hospital and rode till there, has retrieved the kid and is holding him, letting Tsukishima have a break even from caring for the child (Koito is good with little kids), while someone should have bandaged Tanigaki’s arm and we can see he tries to peek back in the house, clearly nervous.

In the last pace we can see the baby finally had birth, and we can hear her crying voice. She’s probably a girl as Ainu believes girls has to be delivered facing up and boys facing down and she was delivered facing up.

We can’t see Inkarmat. I hope she’s well. Honestly, I worry for her. From her survival depends not only Tanigaki’s happiness now but also Tsukishima’s and possibly Koito’s.

They got the tiger curse and, unless it’s broken (but can be broken) the three of them are fated to a unhappy life but I hope the idea won’t be that Inkarmat will have to die to reach this goal.

On a sidenote I wonder if the baby will get named after Ienaga, who gave her life to help them to escape… or, since Tsukishima might help them, after Igogusa (are we going to finally learn her true name?).

Last but not least… we still have no news of Nikaidou who also was in the hospital from which Inkarmat escaped. If Koito could track them… Nikaidou can probably track them as well and Nikaidou has a grudge with the three of them, Tanigaki who caused him to be attacked by a bear, Tsukishima who watched as Tsurumi cut his ear in punishment for his betrayal and Koito who stole his prosthetic hand and his chopsticks.

Really, I’m worried but, at the same time, I’m really glad I got to see Koito further growing up, managing to overcome his fears, managing to keep his calm, managing to stay rational and managing to be supportive and pursuing the right concept of justice.

He’s been a complete spoiled brat for a long time but he’s finally growing and he’s growing well.

And I’m glad Tsukishima is trying to face his fear too. Tsukishima, for his own admission, did plenty of wrong things, things that probably can’t be forgiven, things for which people won’t forgive him also because they can’t, as they’re long dead and you can’t fix this… but I hope he can at least turn page.

Tsukishima… like almost everyone in GK, wasn’t born evil. He took the wrong path. I think it would be awesome if he could finally find the way back and now pursue the right path or, at least, try to do so. Face his fears, his actions, Tsurumi himself and improve. I’m so very afraid he won’t get the chance but at the same time so very wishing he will get it because this would be so important, so beautiful, it could help not just Tsukishima but also so many people…

But, as usual, we’ll see.

Lastly... I hope Tanigaki will profit as well from this experience, not just becoming a father but also by doing some personal grow, learning that he might need to revalue people as they aren’t so black and white as he seems to think and can even change and also learning to revalue himself. He got into his mess because he made a mistake after the other, starting, as Tsukishima said, when he felt entitled to remain in Huci’s village, which basically equated to deserting the 7th.

Well, actually Tanigaki’s mistakes dates before than that, when he didn’t listen to his father and chased Kenkichi pursuing an useless revenge but it would be nice if he were to get at least some of them. Only when you realize your mistakes and face them you can grow and improve and I want for Tanigaki to grow and improve. Maybe holding his own child will also help him to realize he’s stubborn and hardheaded as his father and finally make up with him.

Last point worth to ponder, this chapter showed Tsukishima with his eyes nearly closed when he talks of how he had given up what really mattered, his eyes nearly closed like Usami's were when he said he did what he did (murdering Tomoharu) because Tsurumi told him (to fight there).

Not only same expression means same feeling but I wonder if this is meant to be our clue that, for Tsurumi, Usami sacrificed Tomoharu, which, despite what Usami said, also really mattered to him. We’ll see.

Anyway Noda really delivered a great chapter and I can’t wait for the next.

#Golden Kamuy #Asirpa #Tanigaki Genjirou #Inkarmat #Tsukishima Hajime #Koito Otonoshin #Tsurumi Tokushirou #Koito Heiji #Osoma #Makanakkuru #Golden Kamuy Ramblings and Theories #Susupo #Harumi Chiyo

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robotslenderman · 4 years

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sdfasdfasdf @victorluvsalice wrote an awesome quiz for VTMB OCs, and tagged me! :D So here’s the quiz for Madeline, under the cut!

1. How many of the sidequests did your characters do? Did they manage to complete all of them?

Maddy completed most of the sidequests up to Hollywood/Chinatown -- she missed Ash Rivers’ one before the cutoff, so didn’t save him, and in Chinatown I got totally sucked in to the main plot and basically forgot about the existence of sidequests. Oops. In my headcanon her age isn’t an issue -- she looks and holds herself like an adult, so most people just assume she’s an adult, and when push comes to shove (ie when getting guns or going into the porn shop) the people involved were too dodgy to give a shit about proving her identity.

She also offended Imalia the Nosferatu, so she didn’t do that quest. Also did not take Gary up on his offer of Sexy Posters because “ew, WTF?”

2. How long do you think their stay in L.A. lasted, from Embrace to ending?

My headcanon is that the main quest ended a couple of weeks before Christmas. So, two months. I think the canon is a lot shorter than that, though.

3. Which ending did they go for? And if they’re the rare Kindred who sided with Ming or LaCroix, did they somehow manage to escape their canonical fates (blown up/sunk to the bottom of the ocean)?

She pretty much went straight to Strauss, very warily, expecting him to try to murder her (or, at the very least, scold her severely) but knowing he disapproved enough of LaCroix she might have a chance of making it through that encounter without having to kill him.

She was very pleasantly surprised when he was delighted she was “alive”, and latched on for good after that.

4. How do they feel about the major power players in L.A. (LaCroix, Strauss, Smiling Jack, Nines, Isaac, Ming-Xiao, Gary)? Did their opinions of them change at any point thanks to a quest or just more time spent with them?

LaCroix -- She actually liked him from the beginning, although I’m not sure if that was just her glomming on to the first person to interact with her in her new life during a time that was pretty traumatic, even if she didn’t feel traumatised. I don’t think it sank in how little he gave a shit about her until long after he was gone.

She was pretty neutral in terms of Camarilla VS Anarchs, but she didn’t think LaCroix was actually trying to kill her until he sent her to the Sabbat hotel. During the first mission with the warehouse she didn’t think he expected her to come back from it, but she didn’t think he was trying to deliberately get her killed, either -- just that she was there and available to use, so he used her. She was too stressed out with adjusting to her Malkavian symptoms and to being kindred to be particularly upset about this, and later on she doesn’t blame him either because “well, using people is a kindred thing.”

Towards the end, though, she was deeeefinitely getting “yeah, this guy just wants power” vibes.

TL;DR -- She liked him and didn’t really hold his actions against him nearly as much as she should have.

Strauss -- She adores Strauss. She appreciates his calm, soothing voice, his dadlike tendencies, and that he seemed unfazed by her Malkavianness. My headcanon is that he also finds her a lot easier to understand than most people do, because she often speaks in metaphor/synonyms and he likes his poetry.

She also has a huge crush on the guy, but he’s waaaaay out of her league. (Although Strauss doesn’t consider himself as such, if he thought about it... but only because her generation is so low and she’s so competent. Still out of her league due to her being less than a few centuries old, but not as much as Maddy thinks he is.)

She wants to cuddle up to him while he reads her a book. She has never dared say that out loud though, lmao.

She’s never forgotten Rosa’s warning, though, that nobody other than Mercurio and Beckett could be trusted. She knows full well Strauss would punt her under the bus for the Tremere if the Pyramid asked him to, without even blinking, and that’s the only reason she keeps him at arm’s length.

TL;DR -- Maddy adores him, but she knows it’s not mutual and he should never be completely trusted.

Smiling Jack -- Likes him, but also there’s a bit of resentment, too. He knows perfectly well she’s a fledgling who has no idea what’s going on, but she felt pressured to join the Anarchs without much more explanation than “the Camarilla are mean sometimes.” It took a bit longer for her to actually learn the Anarchs have valid grievances against the Camarilla, but the Anarchs in the Last Round don’t exactly portray that. They just seemed to be -- well -- how Strauss described them. Kids who resent the adults that know what they’re doing.

Nines -- She liked Nines, had a bit of a crush on him early on. Much like @nightingaletrash‘s Evie, though, “we could use you” twigged her the wrong way in the end.

She does owe her life to him twice over, though, and she hasn’t forgotten that. She refuses to let the Camarilla use her against the Anarchs without good reason (and Strauss doesn’t try) and keeps on good terms with him. Or tries to -- I don’t know if Nines would want to be on speaking terms with her after she becomes Sheriff.

Isaac -- He pissed her off at first, but they came to respect each other. She thinks he’s no different to the Camarilla and that he only doesn’t like them because he views them as competition, but otherwise she likes him.

Ming-Xiao -- Didn’t really talk to her often enough to form an opinion.

Gary -- She actually was a lot less impatient than the PC was and thought he was funny. She liked him.

5. How did they handle the situation with Heather (or, if you’re like me, whoever you replaced Heather with in their personal story)?

“Oh crap.”

She kept Heather pretty reluctantly and tried to send her away at first. After a bit, though, she got used to it and started viewing Heather as a pet and would let Heather cuddle up to her so she could stroke her hair. She did find it really uncomfortable that Heather offered her money -- she either didn’t take it, or would take only a little if she needed it -- and tried to encourage Heather to go back to school.

She didn’t try that hard, though. She didn’t understand the full extent of the blood bond for a while and just thought Heather was Like That. She knew some of Heather’s feelings were not her own, but due to her not seeing any obsession from Romero, Vandal or Mercurio, thought it was just Heather being... Heather.

The Sabbat got her, of course. Madeline was absolutely infuriated by her death and just went absolutely apeshit at them for that.

After the events of the game she became Mercurio’s regnant. My headcanon is that ghouls only act obsessed around their regnant and can easily hide it or downplay it when they’re gone (hence why Vandal is able to be pissed at Therese at all), and that Mercurio’s personality changed drastically towards Maddy after she gave him enough of her blood. It was only then that she realised the full extent of why Heather acted the way she did, and she was pretty devastated about how deeply it affected and changed both Heather and Mercurio -- especially Mercurio, as she knew him before she took him in.

6. More generally, how closely does their storyline stick to how you have to do things canonically? For example, in quests, did they find third options that weren’t offered by the game? Are their stories affected by mods you use while playing the game?

I’m half considering headcanoning Andrei as surviving the encounter at the hotel because I like him and I can. Him calling in to Deb was hilarious.

The only real divergence is Maddy’s sire and the prologue -- he wasn’t a one night stand, and he wasn’t her real sire either, but he was a “relative” by kindred standards and just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

7. Do they have an alternate storyline/history of what might have happened had they been Embraced but not ended up the protagonist Fledgling?

Rode around for a while with the Cabbie, before he gets bored and pretty much abandons her. In that AU I think she ends up hanging out with the Nosferatu a lot, because she doesn’t know where else to go but she knows how to track down Nosferatu -- so she goes underground and pretty much gloms on to them instead. They tolerate her because the younger ones who don’t have mastery over obfuscate yet can use her around the kine.

It seems she feels drawn to groups of vampires no matter where she starts out.

8. Is the Cabbie a) Caine, b) another Kindred who believes himself to be Caine for whatever reason, c) another Kindred playing the long con by pretending to be Caine, d) something else entirely?

B. He’s a fourth generation Malkavian whose chief delusion is that he is Caine, although he occasionally believes himself other important figures too. He’s also Maddy’s real sire.

9. How do you handle/explain away obvious “this only works in a video game” mechanics in their storyline (e.g., the inventory system that allows them to carry like seven guns and melee weapons at once)?

Maddie sticks to bludgeoning her enemies to death with a tire iron and, later on, the sledgehammer. So she doesn’t carry around a ton of weapons. The fight with Bach was a wake up call that she almost didn’t get out of alive, and she had to retreat, grab some guns, and basically fight him that way -- flat to the ground, mostly missing with her shots, and hiding and using obfuscate to get closer to him. After that she starts carrying around a single gun, a rifle on her back when she’s not around a lot of kine, and the sledgehammer.

10. How do you explain why the Fledgling is so ridiculously overpowered when compared to most other vampires their age (beyond the fact that they’re likely 8th generation, going by their blood pool)?

She’s fifth generation, so she’s naturally “born” with more power than other kindred are, although it’ll take a few centuries for her to come in to her full power. For a long time she doesn’t know it’s actually there, and so doesn’t hone it at all, just relying on natural abilities. She doesn’t know how much power she has, or how low her generation is, until long after the game.

I’m still not sure if Strauss ends up telling her, or if she actually puts the pieces together herself. While Strauss is generally thorough with her education post-game, I don’t know if he withholds some knowledge on vampire generation or not. He doesn’t want her knowing the full extent of her power.

Most other vampires, who can’t intrinsically tell how powerful someone is like Strauss can, write her success off as “she’s Malkavian, so she’s batshit by nature and that’s what gives her the advantage.”

#VTMB #Madeline Jones

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cloudbatcave · 4 years

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I experience love, loss, and loathing in Las Vegas Unova.

I have to admit one of my favorite areas in Gen 5 is definitely Chargestone Cave.

It’s Bianca again! With Professor Juniper! To give me very important lessons about pushing floating rocks.

WHAT THE FUCK. RIVALI JUST DIED TO A FUCKING ARCHEN USING ACROBATICS.

WELL SHIT ON A STICK. MY GIRL. GONE.

MY TRANQUILL ALSO DEAD??? WHAT THE FUCK

Fuck, fuck, fuck. I have Fiend and Simon, who as fighting and grass are WEAK TO FLYING and fucking Mito, who’s STILL FRAGILE AS TISSUE PAPER.

I’m just going to have to hope Fiend can take the blow.

THANK GOD HE BARELY SURVIVED. BUT THE DAMN ARCHEN ISN’T DEAD.

HYPER POTIOOOON.

Thanks to the first Rock Tomb lowering Archen’s health enough to ping Defeatist (its worthless ability that lowers its attack after its HP falls below half), Acrobatics wasn’t as strong the second time, and then the stupid thing used Quick Guard so I got in another Rock Tomb and killed it.

Jesus Christ I just lost two of my team to this AWFUL FUCKING BIRD.

ALL OF MY HATE.

“Someday, I will be able to challenge the Pokemon League!”

I will murder you with an icepick to the fucking face long before you ever get close, you sorry son of a bastard. And your little rock bird too.

My Tranquill’s last act is to fly me back to Driftveil. Thanks, Mar, named for my friend who is also a bird.

Right, now I have to decide who replaces them. I really was not planning for this.

I guess Klink would be a smart call, because it knows electric moves and the next gym is flying, and the one after that is ice, which is weak to steel.

I’ll grab Boldore as a throwaway shield until I get something better, because I’m not keeping it permanently given it can only evolve by trading.

Klink is proving its worth! This is the gen when Steel type still had a whopping 11 resistances, so thankfully these little gears can shrug off a lot.

I need a nickname for it.

“You are the trainer my lord N is worried about!”

He’s just gay, because I am incredibly handsome and not easily impressed.

Watchog tried to put Klink to sleep twice and failed because Hypnosis sucks. So does Watchog and it dies.

“We hold competitions to sort the strong from the weak. Is this fair? Is this right?”

No one’s forcing anyone to compete, random Plasma grunt, so yes it is.

“Pokemon like this electrified cave. Don’t you think people should stay out?”

YOU’RE HERE.

Just killed a Lilligant that was worrying me with its Quiver Dance setup but thankfully I wiped it with two vital throws regardless.

N rants about some shit and then asks me if I have a dream.

Sure, If you count improving the Unova population’s critical thinking skills so I no longer cry myself to sleep.

N says it’s great I have a dream and he’s going to find out what it is in battle.

Okay.

“Do you believe that pokemon battles help us understand each other?”

If so, it sure isn’t working with you, I comprehend half of what you say ever.

“My friends getting hurt…that’s what a pokemon battle is.”

That’s why we invented pokemon centers, N.

“Is it impossible for me to win while feeling bad about being a trainer?”

I really do not know, my man, that’s between you and the therapist you sorely need.

“As if I could pursue the truth with something as meaningless as a battle!”

Being a sore loser isn’t a good look on you, N.

“As if that could make me worthy to become friends with the legendary pokemon!”

You’ve lost me, son.

Here comes Blondie and the professor.

N rants at Juniper about the pokedex being racist or something, and then gets mad and asks her if she wants him to “let others treat pokémon how they want, no matter whether the pokemon suffer?”

On one hand, N’s making a massive generalization, but Juniper’s response was pretty wishy-washy and not accounting for the harm some people do to pokemon.

I waltz into Mistralton City and who should show up but Professor Cedric Juniper.

I don’t like Cedric.

Not as a character, he’s perfectly fine and indeed more tolerable than many other people in the game, but what I don’t like is that the first generation ever to have a female professor just HAD to have her dad in the game too…who is also a famous professor.

Because god forbid she not stand in her own in the field without having to share space with a guy.

Cedric is unnecessary, and I dislike the misogynist undertones of his existence. Am I reading too much into it? Possibly, but the pokemon series is far from innocent where sexism is concerned. Lest we forget, this is also the first generation to have black characters. That took until 2011.

He compliments me on my pokedex, and Skyla the gym leader is with him for a moment before waltzing off to Celestial Tower, because no gym leader in this game ever stays still long enough for me to kick their ass until I do a sidequest.

She apparently thinks there’s a sick pokemon there because she…saw something from her plane. Why a random ill pokemon would haul itself to the top of a tower is anyone’s guess. This isn’t like Ampharos in gen 2, which actually lived at the lighthouse so it made sense for it to be at the top.

I explore town and having found nothing but planes, townspeople, and the TM sky drop, I go to the northern route and trade my Boldore for an Emolga, partially since I happen to have it on me but also because Emolga might come in handy against the flying gym.

It also knows Acrobatics, the move of doom, and given I lost my Tranquill, I need someone to fill in for flying coverage right now because I don’t have anyone else effective against grass.

Which is a notable problem I realized I had against that Lilligant; if it had attacked me instead of just setting up and using teeter dance, I could’ve been seriously boned.

Mito finally evolves into Duosion, and still has bad defense and special defense but an absolutely bonkers special attack stat, so I feel validated in keeping her. Let’s hope she survives to become Reuniclus.

#cloud plays white

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yume-x-hanabi · 5 years

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Yeah, I pretty much marathoned the rest of the game, except Elympios.

The party met with the king of Auj Oule, who then promptly started arguing with Milla because of course those two would butt heads. I'm not going to go into detail about that meeting here because I already talked about it in the past. Love Rowen and Elise's little strategy, though I feel sorry for the poor guard who so earnestly vowed to take care of Teepo during the audience. He didn't deserve getting punched :( Oh and also Alvin is a traitor and Jude is maaaaaad about it. Defining Leia moment while they try to flee, where she doubts herself (Elise's words really hurt her, huh). I love how Milla just plainly states she's not useless. I live for Milla plainly stating positive things. They fight Wingul and Presa on the way, where Wingul acts like a disenchanted Rowen fanboy (aaand the booster Long Dau stuff too I guess). No but seriously he spent the fight targeting Rowen, it was hilarious (not for me though cuz I needed the geezer alive to help me cast spells). Back in Xian Du, Alvin strolls in like nothing happened (but Jude is maaaaad and Elise starts sassing him it's the best thing ever) and Yurgen proves to be the most sensible man in the world when he decides he doesn't need to know what happened. Good guy. A pretty animated cutscene later we crash in Kalakh Shal and Driselle is the most precious NPC in the world. I love how she gets the vet to treat the wyverns by telling him they're basically like horses XD Well at least he managed to treat them, so... There's a few Milla Side-exclusive conversations with the party - I especially liked Rowen's and Leia's. Wish Elise's had a bit more consistence though. Then she talks with Jude, who says he wants to protect spirits too, which makes her really happy. She's spent all this time trying to protect both spirits and humans, so it must feel great to have a human want to reciprocate. Those two are really a good pair. I also love how they basically promise to stay together at the end (though we all know how that turns out ;_; ) The time for the confrontation with Nachtigal comes near, but first there's some shenanigans with the Lance of Kresnik and Agria. I'm not too sure whether she actually tried to destroy it (on orders from Gaius?) or just made stuff explode for fun. She's kind of hard to read sometimes. Well, she's completely crazy tbh. It's really sad to see her in that murderous state. I wish she'd been given a chance to heal from her trauma and regain some stability. She's better when she's just with the Chimeriad (and hilariously proper when talking to Gaius), but we barely see any of that in game. What a shame. Talking to Nachtigal goes as well as one would expect, and we beat his ass. Rowen seems to talk some sense into him at the end, but it's far too late, and anyway some mysterious ice attack does him in. Bye Nachty, you were kind of forgettable, wish you'd had a bigger role. But no time to rest, because Gaius is invading from where no one expected him (and this is where my inner Gunshi Kanbee fangirl takes over and gushes about Wingul's clever strategies). But Gilland has a plan and it involves the Lance of Kresnik, which is bad news. To war we go! I spent the whole battlefield map sequence reading the Rieze Maxian writings on the map and laughing my ass off (no but seriously, it contains little gems like "we can fish fish here" and I need to find a video somewhere to take screenshots and translate them all, this needs to be shared). Alvin's acting suspicious again, and again the party just lets him be lol. Anyway, after a very long fight against both Auj Oule and Rashugal forces, we meet three of the Chimeriad blasting off enemies like badasses before deciding to fight us. Honestly I think their deaths were foreshadowed here, with this bit of dialog: Rowen: But it is an unnecessary step, one that could cost your lives. Who would be left to support the king? Presa: His Highness can look after himself. YES HE CAN BUT THAT DOESN'T MEAN HE SHOULD YOU DUMBASSES *ahem* Anyway we win, Wingul faints like a Pokémon after revealing his booster is in his brain, Jiao doesn't answer Elise's questions and Jude convinces Alvin to not off Presa (yes Alvin, don't do that, it's rude). So who's left to face now? Why, King Badass of course. He and Milla resume their debate (may I note how much I love how they're actually listening to each other? At first glance it appears they're just butting heads stubbornly, but every time they meet they show they've given some thought to what the other said before, even if they still disagree. Great dynamics. Also the contrast with Nachtigal is interesting. The pre-battle talk was more about how Nachty was not worthy to be king and how they were going to stop him, while with Gaius Milla actually asks him to let her do her thing. She recognizes he's not a bad guy and tries to leave the door open for a conflict-free resolution. He'll do the same later, too. Aah I love them so much). iirc you don't have to win this fight, but I managed to do it (took me 16 minutes and I ran out of Life Bottles orz). The fight gets interrupted by Ivar, who stupidly activates the Lance (Milla's facepalm lmao). Aaaand that's when everything goes downhill. Elympios invades, it's chaos everywhere, Gaius and the Chimeriad are the most badass characters ever, and then Jiao sacrifices himself and I cry. No srsly whyyyyyy T_T let me just pretend he managed to escape somehow and is just taking time off to recover Milla has a weird dream and wakes up all confused and makes a bunch of mistakes, which is really unlike her. She's noticed the contradiction between her mission and her actions and she's really anxious about it. Still, it doesn't prevent her from reassuring Leia when she's the one sharing her own self-doubts. I love their relationship. When they meet up with the rest of the party, there's a new addition: Milla's "sister" Musee. I think it's good she appeared on Jude Side - it leaves the player completely confused about her on Milla Side, which is basically how Milla is feeling about this whole thing hahaha. After listening to Gilland's announcement that he's taken control of KB (and spouting a bunch of bullshit about it too), Wingul invites us in, and Milla then reveals the truth about the world, and Alvin adds some more information and speculation. Of course Gaius is displeased about a lot of things (I would be too if I just learned I was gonna be used for fuel), so while he's no longer antagonistic, he's not being very cooperative lol. Such a shame. With him and the Chimeriad, the party would have been unstoppable. Well, at any rate, we're fighting on the same side now, even if separately. The retaking of the capital shows once again how badass the king and his aides are (they keep stealing the show lately), and we take the castle back and steal an airship rather easily (no thanks to Ivar lol). While resting, Milla witnesses Agria bullying Leia about Jude (and gets the dokidoki when Agria says Jude has the hots for her), and then Alvin trying to hit on Presa (stomp on him Presa). Wish there'd been a scene with Wingul (AND JIAO), but oh well. Anyway, she's starting to realize why she's so anxious and the reason for the contradiction. That's something I totally missed on first playthrough, I thought it was all about her developing feelings for Jude (due to the Agria and Presa scenes), but it's actually about her identity as Maxwell. Though I guess you can't really know that on first playthrough, since the truth only comes up later. But it's interesting to see Milla knew then, way before it's laid out clearly for the players. Also Musee's creepy. Nothing new here. Oh, but I forgot to mention, Alvin's stopped being shady (or has he?). His momma's dead and he hates Gilland, so he's now 100% on our side. Gaius and the party depart for the Zirnitra, where Gilland and the Lance is. On the way, everyone's mana gets sucked up and sent to Elympios, showing Alvin was right about the fuel thing, and Milla almost confesses to Jude, but they get interrupted by Agria. On the Zirnitra, Ivar decides to join the Chimeriad (the actual Chimeriad's glare when he says that is wonderful), and we go our own way. Alvin explains a bit more about Elympios and how Elympions don't have a mana lobe so that's why they need spyrixes. When we confront Gilland he explains about Celsius and spyrites - spyrixes that don't kill spirits. But to them they're just tools (you're the tool Gilland!) and he's an jerk anyway so we kick his ass. He then dies because of the spyrite. Serves you right. Gaius and the others arrive then and this time they're letting Milla destroy the Lance. Hah, looks like we're cooperating more and more... except we get interrupted by Musee's Gravity spell and Milla gets the grand idea to sacrifice herself to save everyone. Milla bby don't do that :'( But the (now freed) Four interfere and save her soul from cleansing, attempting to revive her as herself. Which doesn't really work at first as she's lost her memories (she progressively gets some of them back though). I gotta say I absolutely love the spirit world part. It seems bland if you just go straight for the story part, but it's actually a lot of fun to explore, talk to NPC, listen to the Four's comments, do the little sidequests... I do wish there'd been more to it, especially when you consider how much stuff happened on Jude Side during that time, but what we do have is really fascinating. Also, Spirits interactions. Good good. Even without her memories, Milla is still Milla and doesn't want the Four to die, and they decide to stick with her, even if it angers Musee and the actual Maxwell. I had to change the difficulty back to normal for the Musee fight because I suck at 1-on-1 battles (esp without healer). After that Milla gets her memory data from Maxwell's replica and goes up the Hallowmont while Musee gets mad about Maxwell's lack of answer and flies to the human world to do who knows what. At the summit, the Four get summoned by Maxwell, and Milla follows them. There, she sees Jude and the others fighting against Maxwell, and she finally remembers who she is, making her come back in style. We absolutely destroy Maxwell's ass (yay Gravity Well spam), and then convince him to stop being a grumpy old man and believe in humanity for once. He agrees, but then enter Gaius, who looks pissed for some reason (it's funny to play this from Milla's Side, because last time we saw him he was almost becoming friendly). He then starts spouting nonsense about becoming Maxwell himself since the old one is useless, traps him with the Lance of Kresnik (he got it in the end...), and then there's that gross scene where he pulls a sword out of Musee I'd rather forget. Srsly developers, couldn't you find another way >_> He tries to send the party back to Rieze Maxia (instead of killing them, he's still nice even when he's mad), but Maxwell sends us to Elympios instead, where we conveniently end in the care of Emperor Peony Alvin's cousin Balan. to be continued...

#yume plays xillia #it's long #and probably incoherent

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sepiadice · 5 years

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Tales of Genius Ch. 3: Blossomforth Brides Pt. 1

(1/26/2019)

I’ve been wanting to get to this session for years. Literal years. Since the overly dramatic high school group, when I first introduced and used North Fort in a Pathfinder session, then reiterated on for years after, always dying to do this campaign.

What feels like a decade later,[1] we finally reach Blossomforth.

Shorter session this time. Limited player availability, late start, arguments over the difficulty dice in magic, my usual distraction making dinner.[2] The usual.

Hopefully I can coordinate sessions more often, since we actually stopped two-thirds of the way through my plans.

I’ll have to actually figure out what happens next. Dang.

CAST

Eli Roberts: (Played by Lyons) Child of Clio. Doctor, travelling to write a medical text akin to Gray’s Anatomy. He’s an Intellectual! Older gentleman, hits on women to fluster the GM.

Olivia Grayson: (Played by Maddie) Child of Thalia. Apprentice to Eli. Believes her Squirrel-raccoon companion is her boyfriend reincarnated. Murdered a dude, stole his clothes.

Fromthe: (Played by Jose) Child of Calliope. Military veteran and current mercenary. Also has some mercantile ambitions. Doing fine.

Jean De Ferrero: (Played by Anthony) Child of Terpsichore. Travelling con artist. Took aforementioned murder victim’s gun.

So we pick up where we left off last time: standing outside the Soldier’s Rest Mayor’s office, Eli with a letter. I had an idea for what they encounter if they backtracked to North Fort,[3] if they stay,[4] and of course if they actually move forward.

This is why it’s handy to be loose with session planning: gives you extra room to think up threads for other locations if the party goes rogue and wants to go back or over there. If you intend to mostly wing it, you can write out a couple sentence-long ‘this is a possibility’ suggestions, and be prepared to improv if you get called on it!

But the players tend to be good at minding my overly obvious plot threads. Maybe in an overly meta way. I have to learn subtlety.

Anyways, the party reviews the plot, and figures out how to advance. Namely, by going south to the nearest train station in Blossomforth.

They get a wagon ride and arrive about a half day later, in the evening.

Blossomforth is an agricultural town well regarded for its Strawberry Wine, which is exported even beyond the borders of Astree. Small town, traditional, and because I’d watched a Let’s Play of Night in the Woods, there’s a subtle undercurrent of the younger folks moving away and the older folks being afraid of the town fading away.

Eli happens to know someone in the town whose son he saved.[5] William lets Eli and pals stay at his home, noting his son moved to Taffyport and works at a factory.

Which is the first canon mention of Taffyport.

Unfortunately, due to winter, the trains aren’t running up to Blossomforth just yet. That’ll have to wait until after the Forest Bride Festival.

You see, every year, a little before spring, the town gathers to prepare for planting season and celebrate surviving winter. They open a barrel of Strawberry Wine prepared during the last Harvest Festival, dance, sing, play booth games, send a maiden into the woods for an ancient ritual, feast. That sort of stuff.

The party joke about human sacrifices. William gets uncomfortable. After some needling from Dr. Roberts, William comes clean:

The titular Forest Brides are supposed to come back. Historically, they do! Bring in a bottle of wine and food, supposedly talk to the local deity,[6] then come home.

The last two never came back. So the town’s divided. Be Tevye and continue tradition, or maybe stop losing girls to the woods... Forest? I’m not clear on that.

Anyways, Olivia hears forest and wants to go that way. We really need to examine why she’s learning medicine from Eli if she hates people so much.

The party manages to talk her into waiting for morning.

The next morning, she immediately heads towards the woods. The rest of the party follow. So I move a character from town to the woods so I can do the plot.

This is Ms. Marian Shepherd. In another, more elf-inhabited universe, the niece she shares a name with is often called Trix.[7] Marian’s trying to get a pair of town guards to let her into the woods to investigate. Both Eli and Jean try to flirt, but Ms. Shepherd is more concerned about one of her pupils, Maryanne Diane, being this year’s Bride. Olivia hides amongst the trees.

Fromthe is businesslike, so she mostly deals with him.

She says they’d need to get permission from the town council, and agrees to take the party to them.

Olivia senses magic. There’s a lot of magic. Unfamiliar magic yet similar to what the party sensed in the mines they’d come from.

The party goes to where the festival preparations are happening and meet with the town council, who Eli decides he knows. I compromise, but mostly ignore the personalities he ascribes. We have Briggs, Sarah, and the third member who never got a name.[13] The party try to negotiate permission to investigate, mostly to Briggs.

Briggs is initially hesitant, but slowly comes around. The first Bride to go missing was his granddaughter, Ashley, but it’s not impossible she used the chance to run away and find a new life elsewhere. Fading town subplot, after all.

Councilwoman Sarah is opposed and doesn’t particularly like Eli, and tradition demands no trespass in the woods. Argue argue.

The third councilman, who most falsely assume is senile, speaks up and gives permission. As he’s the oldest person in a town that operates on a Town Elder system of governance, it’s the final word.

Briggs gives them a permission slip.

They invite Ms. Shepherd along, but she concedes she has nothing to offer, and was only trying to get into the woods so someone would be looking into things. Now someone is.

Into the woods.

The party follows the source of the odd magic, and eventually come upon a woman sitting on a boulder, eating a Corned Beef Sandwich with extra mayonnaise.[8] She introduces herself as Isabelle.

Oh, and Isabelle is wearing the same robes as the man Olivia murdered in the mine, and a rabbit skull mask. She also does not like seeing Olivia wearing the cloak and snake skull mask she looted, and demands to be allowed to burn it.

Olivia refuses, and after the party try to convince her to give the items up, Jean just grabs the mask, and eventually Olivia agrees to give up the cloak.

Turns out she’s here for the same reason as the party, more or less, and as they walk deeper into the forest, she provides some exposition.

She’s a Dark Shepherd, a secret society dedicated to maintaining cosmic balance and the traditions of Deep Magic, sometimes called dark magic or blood magic and the like. But it’s not really a morality thing, don’t worry.

The guy killed in the mines, however, belonged to a splinter group: the Feral Oaths. They think covering the land in iron and the growth of industry is bad and should be undone to return to the old ways.

She also says that, while deeply tragic, killing the giant snake in the mines may have been necessary, and doesn’t condemn the group. And while the loss of life is always sad, the man Olivia murdered[9] was a Feral Oath, so screw him.

They reach a clearing in the center of the forest. There’s a serene pond with a small island in the center with a tree on it. Isabelle takes a moment, concludes she doesn’t actually know if there’s a proper ceremony nor how to perform it, so she just sits.

A massive deer emerges.[10] The tree, as it turns out, is part of an antler. He’s really big.

He speaks. Probably in the mortals’ minds for the time being, but I didn’t specify that since I needed to get to a dramatic hanger.

So he’s been lonely. No one came last winter. Or the winter before that.

Which means the brides haven’t reached their destinations.

Huh.

Thus ends the session.

This is actually a little earlier than I planned, so I’ll have to figure out how to fill out the next session. I already have the general path Eli’s following, and I have schemes prepared for Fromthe and Olivia. I need to figure out something for Jean De Ferrero.[11] Probably should just talk to the player. Like a reasonable GM.

Lessons learned: nothing concrete comes to mind! I’m feeling more comfortable behind the screen, even though I still feel an amount of inadequacy. And I still need to confront my anxieties about my voice and speech impediment[12] before I can shift into a podcast project, but practice is always important. And hopefully a group that can lend gentle criticism and maybe argue about the magic rules less.

I think a good background thing is that it’s okay to have sidequests and plans that need to be triggered like a video game, and not to close options because the players didn’t jump on them. Narrative time is flexible, things can get moved, cooperate with players and grant them the chance to do what they feel is pressing and/or fun in the moment without sacrificing story or investment.

Until next time, may your dice make things interesting.

[1] Can’t be bothered to do the math. Write up should be on this blog.| [2] Everytime I tell myself ‘Next time, casserole’. Then I make something with curry. [3] Fun fact: in North Fort, I had a vague concept for what would happen if they decided to screw the catacombs/mine, and instead try going North to ask for help. Also an explanation the North Fort mayor would give for not trying this himself. [4] Both events could still trigger. Heh heh. [5] Lyons has picked up on my willingness to accept things that circumvent minor problems or non-issues. Would’ve let them grab an inn, but it doesn’t actually matter. He also names everyone because I’m garbage at names and haven’t enacted any solutions to said garbage. [6] Who isn’t a wolf that resides in wheat, and don’t you suggest I wear my inspiration blatantly on my sleeve! [7] Original, Pathfinder plan was this was a retired Trix, but things shifted, and Ms. Shepherd doesn’t have the right personality. [8] She needs the calories. [9] There were some lies about what happened, since he didn’t get a shot off, or really provide any characterization himself. [10] I decided to reference Princess Mononoke moments before I utilized it. So add it to the list of things I blatantly rip off. [11] Maybe he can found a confection company? [12] This has been occurring more often at work than the table, but still. [13] Lyons said third council-guy is name Lysander. I don’t recall this happening, so it’s a footnote of dubious canon now.

#sepiadiegms #genesys #tales of genius

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frasier-crane-style · 7 years

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Thor spot

It’s not good. It’s bad. It’s “Shake Weight joke in the first five minutes bad.” It’s “Surtur gets taken out in the opening action sequence” bad. There’s no heart, no humanity. It makes the Guardians of the Galaxy look like fucking Shaft. Those movies were still about something. Ragnarok is just a massive piss-take. If GotG was sarcastic, Ragnarok is snide.

It’s one half epic trilogy conclusion and one half total farce, which gets you Tonal Inconsistency: The Movie. Half of the film (the one the director cares about) takes place on Planet Goldblum and is all wacky fun and crazy antics. (Note: this plotline gets the most handwavey of handwaved conclusions.) The other half is on Asgard and features deaths by the hundred, including name characters being brutally murdered on screen. Like, they’re mortally wounded, then they take a finishing blow. In their first five seconds of screentime! Without a word! That’s how two-thirds of the Warriors Three goes out!

Thor doesn’t even seem to care. It’s like, hey, remember your best friend Volstagg? The guy with a wife and several kids? He was stabbed to death and Thor has more of a reaction to having his hair cut. I’m not kidding.

Like, Iron Man 3 is controversial, but at least they were trying to subvert the expectations of a trilogy capper. Ragnarok is trying to be a straight-up trilogy capper, and a silly parody at the same time, and it ends up feeling like a Muppet version of a Thor movie that could’ve been really cool. Or like a two-hour Saturday Night Live special devoted to making fun of a real movie. Or maybe someone found a way to film two hours of a fuckyeahthor Tumblr…

GotG makes jokes about having a cliche ‘team coming together scene’ that’s still an effective ‘team coming together scene’. Ragnarok would cut out all the moments where the team talks about how they’re probably going to die and Quill talks about how they’ve all lost people (because the director thinks it’s gay), and just make it a bunch of comedians riffing on each other, and then still end the scene on a big musical note as if we’re supposed to take this half-assed improv comedy seriously.

Although even the serious half of the movie isn’t that good. Hela, instead of Loki’s daughter—wouldn’t Loki as King of Asgard, now having to deal with a rebellious offspring, be a fun twist?—is now Thor’s long-lost sister. Yes, the movie is less accurate to Norse mythology than the Thor comics. As it turns out—deep breath—

Long before the backstory we were given about Odin and Odin’s dad in the previous movies, Odin was actually an imperialistic conqueror and he took over the Nine Realms (…remember this) and killed everyone! And Hela was either the Thor to his Odin or the Skurge to his Hela—the movie can’t really decide. Then, inexplicably, Odin decided to just not be a conqueror anymore and turn good. Also inexplicably, Hela disagreed with that and became evil and he had to banish her or imprison her or something.

(This seems like a good place for the Goddess of Death thing or Hel or Niflheim or the spirits of the dead to come up, but it really doesn’t. She might’ve been staying in a loft in Soho doing actuary work, we don’t know. The whole idea of Death’s Domain or her wanting to take the souls of the living, they don’t do anything with that, she just wants to conquer the universe. I guess the Hela, Goddess of Death thing is just a nickname and not something important to who she is as a person. Oh, but she makes a horde of CGI monsters. That’s an important aspect of grappling with your mortality, as personified by Hela. Sometimes there are CGI monsters that you can kill without getting an R-rating).

Of course, stating that a character with a long-established characterization was actually a totally different way that doesn’t fall in line with their personality at all, until suddenly they decided to act in-character with no prompting—good writing. It all basically makes no sense and goes down with so little embellishment that you almost feel like they’re setting up a twist, but then it turns out, no, they just really didn’t care about creating compelling characters or giving them personalities.

And I’m not sure why everyone is so aghast at Odin being a tyrant thousands upon thousands of years ago. Tessa Thompson plays a slave trader in this and Loki killed thousands so recently that people are probably still in therapy for it, but they’re both forgiven with barely a word.

I guess TT has a grudge against Hela, but then that never really comes up or has anything to do with stuff. You think she’d get some big moment of getting her revenge by striking some pivotal blow, but I guess instead she just slashed a bunch of zombies like everyone else.

You know how some comic book movies feel like they haven’t read the comics? This feels like they haven’t even watched the other movies.

Like, I think Tahiti Wahoo is under the impression that Odin rules the Nine Realms? He doesn’t. Earth is one of the Nine Realms. Hel is one of the Nine Realms. Jotunheim, etc. He and Asgard basically act as an inter-realm peacekeeping force. If the US Army shows up in Rwanda to help with a flood, does that mean the President rules Rwanda?

They also have Hela say “Odin ruled the Nine Realms. But why stop at Nine?” Because… that’s all there is. Asgard is one universe, Midgard is another universe (with Earth and Mars and Pluto and everything else in it), and there are nine universes in total. That encompasses, basically, Hell, Heaven, the mortal realm, everything. This is kinda, like, Norse Mythology 101.

To say nothing of the fact that Hela is Odin’s kid, she’s pissy and wants the throne and actually manages to take it, she’s kinda justified and sympathetic but also a real horror… she’s essentially a lady Loki. I don’t get why we waste a bunch of time with Thor discovering Loki is on the throne and removing him from the throne (in the most half-assed, anticlimatic manner imaginable), only for another pissed-off descendant to take the throne and kick Thor out. Why not just have Loki knock Thor over to Planet Goldblum himself?

Also, apparently Hela is powered by Asgard, so if you destroy Asgard, she’s powerless or dead or whatever. Is that how Odin and Thor’s power works? It seems like Thor still has his power when Asgard is destroyed. Like it’s just a part of him. So, uhm… I guess… I guess Hela’s power doesn’t work like that. Even though she has the exact same origin as him and they’re going for this whole parallel thing… but I guess no, their powers work completely differently. For no reason.

And I thought we were still doing “the Asgardians are just stupidly advanced aliens.” If so, how can Hela be Goddess of Death? She raises the dead! What science is that? If it’s some sort of nanotechnology, fuck, why bother with bodies? Just have it make a statue move around or something.

Like, all this stuff about Asgard having a secret history and Odin being a bastard and Hela being Thor’s sister—it all sounds like it should be interesting or thematic or something, but Thor and Hela and Loki just meet for thirty seconds, then the boys go off to Planet Sidequest and never see her again until the climax, so it’s just like… hey… Thor… your dad wasn’t such hot shit after all… and Thor’s just like… I guess not… but then I did already know that from the last two movies... and I also still call on his spirit for advice and support like he’s Obi-Wan Kenobi or something... and all in all they don’t really do anything with that or make anything of it. They’re just putting that out there.

In fact, Thor is pretty much just Tony Stark in this. He makes a bunch of dumb fratboy jokes and he embarrasses himself like an idiot and he has a bunch of daddy issues because it turns out his father is an ass… Now he only does the whole “you shall not triumph over the power of Asgard” stuff when it’s about to be immediately undercut… which the movies have already joked about. And Mjolnir takes a while to show up, which the movies have also already joked about.

Like, the stinger in Doctor Strange actually has Strange and Thor interacting like equals, it breathes, it’s well-paced, it feels like part of some cool adventure--then the version in this movie is edited into basically a Youtube Poop, with Thor bumbling around and being an idiot because that’s good for a cheap laugh and it’s easier than writing jokes. Look, he knocked something over!

For some reason, they specifically mention that Jane Foster was dumped by Thor. I know Natalie Portman doesn’t want to do these movies, and I guess they can’t recast the character, or cut some Gwyneth Paltrow deal to have her show up for one scene, or just refer to her without having her show up like in Ultron. It’s not like Thor has a romance in this one that would preclude him being with Jane. I guess they just wanted to say fuck you to Natalie Portman. And get a cutting-edge “she didn’t dump me, I dumped her!” joke in there. Comedic genius Tadpole Whammy, everyone.

Replacing Jane as female lead is, uhm… I don’t think they ever give her a name? Valkyrie? Although that’s her job title, not a name, so... Yeah, she’s a slave trader. That’s kind of weird. That one of the heroes in the movie is an unrepentant slave trader. She specifically takes free people prisoner and then sells them for money. Into slavery. And not to work on a farm or something either. To be killed in gladiatorial combat. So she’s like a slave trader who deals exclusively with snuff filmmakers and serial killers. Or maybe she also sells sex slaves, but it’s off-screen. I don’t know, that’s going a little far. She’s probably one of those nice slave traders. The ones who only barely torture their slaves into submission with agonizing pain. Which she does. On screen.

I mean, is slave trader the only job this woman can get? It seems like Planet Goldblum has this huge city with millions of people in it. Are they all slave traders? It seems like some of them would be weathermen or babysitters or stunt choreographers. Maybe she could get a job doing one of those things. Instead of being a slave trader. Which is what she does. For thousands of years. I mean, Hela predated Thor and Loki and Odin fighting the jötnar, and Tessa Thompson went to Planet Goldblum immediately after fighting Hela, so… that seems like a long time that she’s spent capturing people and forcing them into slavery for money. She’s probably ruined as many lives as Loki, if you tally them all up over the millennia. Oh, but I guess she’s bisexual. That’s the important thing. Not her selling people like groceries.

Aside from, you know, the character’s involvement in atrocities, the entire thing is just a wash. Obviously, a 5’2 black Valkyrie is violently miscast—something along the lines of John Leguizamo playing a sumo wrestler or Michael Cera playing the most badass rapper on the East Side—but even if we didn’t give a fig about the cultural heritage of real life people, the movie’s conception of her wouldn’t work. She’s supposed to be some roguish, bedraggled, gin-soaked cynic that’s haunted by her past, but as played by clear-skinned, bouncy-haired Tessa Thompson, the character comes off like a pissy sorority girl who’s had too many mojitos.

Speaking of, I swear, there’s some weird racial polemic thing going on. Odin dies, the Warriors Three die (but the Asian one gets to put up a bit of a fight), Heimdall ends up getting a rather undue blowjob as a character (as he’s the only one who isn’t killed off or made a joke), Asgard turns out to be some sort of evil colonialism thing… I guess the director really wished he could be ruining Black Panther instead of Thor. And I really have a hard time imagining a movie that would make a white slave trader a hero, so are they saying that the bad thing about the American slave trade was that it was white people doing it to black people, and that if a black person enslaved a white person, it wouldn’t be so bad? That’s gotta be the nadir of identity politics.

I’m not sure why Hulk’s in the movie. He doesn’t contribute anything to the plot besides fighting one of Hela’s subbosses in a short, unsatisfying bout. His character doesn’t really change or grow, except that Bruce doesn’t want to become the Hulk for a while, but then he becomes the Hulk for the greater good because it’s an emergency. So, you know—that’s never been done before. And I guess all that control he got over the Hulk in the last few movies is gone, because now he’ll turn into the Hulk over loud noises?

Loki, he kinda screws Thor over, but also kinda redeems himself. I don’t see why the MCU needs a movieverse Magneto. I mean, he just did this in the last movie. And in this one, they take time to make fun of that for being gay shit (I mean, I’m pretty sure the director thinks this is all gay shit and no one but him is clever enough to make fun of how Thor talks funny, but). You’d think maybe they’d at least come up with a definitive end for his character. I mean, if we’re streamlining the comics and getting rid of questionable aspects, why not the part where people keep putting up with Loki and forgiving him, even after he’s responsible for mass murder?

Just… there’s no mood, there’s no tension, there’s no sense of scale or excitement or wonder. The villains have no menace. The action has no thrills. The heroes have no coolness or power. The jokes don’t undercut the atmosphere because there’s never any atmosphere established. An average episode of The Simpsons has more momentum, more romance, more adventure. Like, I’m honestly shocked Cate Blanchett agreed to this. An Oscar-winning actress, playing Marvel’s first female villain, and she’s a total nothing of a character who the movie is endlessly disinterested in in favor of Jeff Goldblum playing a meme.

Every single character is either a joke or hastily bridge-dropped in hopes of establishing some stakes, then the movie has the audacity to ask you to be emotionally involved in these characters who it treats as fucking clowns nine times out of ten. It’s like some kind of anti-storytelling. They might as well superimpose Teaspoon Westeros making a jerk-off motion every time the characters have a supposedly heartfelt moment.

I mean… I wouldn’t even be totally against a Thor movie that’s a complete lark. If there’s one thing the Batman movies have taught us, it’s that not every villain can be the focus of an epic, personal plot. Otherwise you get shit like the Riddler wanting to suck the Earth’s brainwaves or the Penguin wanting to blow up Gotham. Bond fans are downright sick of epic, personal Bond movies that change everything for 007. They just want a nice, normal mission where Bond flirts with Moneypenny, gets gadgets from Q, is ordered off somewhere by M, fights a villain, saves the world, gets the girl.

So a Thor movie that was just him and Hulk on Planet Goldblum, trying to start a revolution, that’d be fine by me. They’re going to make a million of these things anyway and they can’t all be Superman 2, so why not? As long as, in being a silly lark, it didn’t burn through stuff that could actually make for a real movie in the hands of someone who gave a shit. Surtur? Skurge? Hela? All three of the Warriors Three dying? Asgard being destroyed? Thor being blinded? Loki being redeemed? Those are big-ticket items and they deserve to be the focus of a real story, not just ‘Get Ready For Infinity War’ items ticked off in-between lengthy rounds of improv comedy. I swear, their version of Skurge redeeming himself is just that he acts like a bit of a jerk for five minutes, is kinda uncomfortable with Hela killing everyone, and then he sacrifices himself as a complete afterthought. It’s like a version of Lord of the Rings where Boromir dies in the background while Frodo and Sam are doing a bunch of gay panic jokes.

He’s not even a villain! I guess he redeems himself for the time he lifted up an axe. Yes, now that he’s made the ultimate sacrifice, that sin can be forgiven.

Just as a counterexample, I don’t think Christopher Nolan is a dyed-in-the-wool Batman fan, but he respects the material and engages with it and wants to give the audience something for their money. He’s not just saying “wow, this is a bunch of money, I can make Inception and call Leo’s character Bruce Wayne and people will like it because in one scene he wears a cape.”

#thor

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shmosnet2 · 4 years

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Best Written Video Games

No matter the form of media, good writing can be admired like good cooking. A suspenseful intro hook thrown in to simmer with an intriguing storyline, seasoned by a logical plot, as well as a satisfying ending is as much akin to a meal as I can think of. I believe it was Ray Bradbury who said something along the lines of “every story has but one (proper) ending,” and I found this quote to be more and more relevant throughout writing this list. In this list we will be examining some of the best written games whose aspects– in terms of writing– are very well-rounded. Good endings require an amazing setup, like propping up dominoes only to watch them fall elegantly and haphazardly into place. So please enjoy this list, gamer or not, because everyone enjoys when dominoes drop (i.e. the climax).

While Mass Effect may just be the latest blockbuster production to hit consoles, there is a specific reason it is included in this list. With many gamers carrying over their previous save from the first Mass Effect, they let their previous choices impact the sequel in ways not seen before. From the start, this is an achievement in writing (specifically in games), rather than continuing a story over starting a new one. You are left to live with the aftermath of the decisions that are made in the first game, in the second. Characters that died don’t return for this round. The narrative aspect of Mass Effect 2 was also highly praised, as it covered every nook and niche that players could find themselves in. Contact with familiar faces from the first game play out like fortuitous reunions between old acquaintances, and with depth like that it walked away with several Game of the Year awards, along with various writing awards and best RPG awards. With Mass Effect 2, writing is becoming ever more prominent in modern gaming.

A platform and puzzle video game developed by independent software developer, Jonathan Blow, Braid was released to the Xbox Live arcade in 2008, greeted with unanimously positive reviews and became the second best-selling Xbox Live Arcade title in 2008, selling 55,000 titles. While critics labeled its one primary shortfall as its short length, this title proved that games could come with stories at flash fiction length. Braid involves several time-based worlds, each of which involve their own mechanic to solve the puzzles. In a game about time, Tim is a man searching for a princess who has been snatched by a supposedly evil monster. The only relationship we know he has with the princess is that he wishes to reconcile something. As you continue through each world, you learn more about the central plot, mostly through text and the ending is left purposely ambiguous. Some have likened the game to Memento and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind with the way it interweaves its plot and narrative. Others have said the princess is analogous to the atom bomb. If you ever play Braid, carry this simple creed: “you must look back to go forwards.”

Set in an alternate history during 1960, the game takes place in the underwater city of Rapture, the inner workings of which were inspired by Ayn Rand and Objectivist philosophy and rhetoric. This time around, the game is more focused on setting than anything else. The once ordered civilization in Rapture now has become a dystopian society that you, the player, Jack, has crash landed near, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. As he makes his way to the seabed and into Rapture, you begin to uncover the inklings that led to the downfall of Rapture. The underwater realm is filled with a cast of characters that fit the assumptions one would associate with an underwater city, and a half-dreamt nightmare. Big Daddies resembling old-fashioned diving suits, and splicers seeking ADAM from the Little Sisters, commonly accompany the corridors of Rapture, and as the plot begins to thicken you see how this society corrupts under its rules and morals, you realize what’s been shrugged off is that questions are actually implicit commands.

With the advent of the Writer’s Guild of America accepting and commending outstanding writing in 2007/2008, it came as a surprise to those not in the know that Bioshock or Portal were not among those nominated, and even some that were nominated, such as Dead Head Fred, didn’t seem to offer much credibility that the WGA was accepting of video games as a medium for writing. With the small and dedicated team at Valve that worked on Portal, however, it may have come as no surprise, for you needed to be a member of the WGA to be nominated. Portal was lauded for its story, ensuing meme, gameplay, characterization, and its short format, as it was crowded onto a disc within the Orange Box. Its story is centered around Chell and GLaDOS, a simple protagonist vs. technology in strictest terms of literary conflict theory. But this conflict is not immediately apparent, only seeming blatant after never receiving your cake. The quote that spread like wildfire after Portal’s release: “the cake is a lie,” began to become a meme, meaning you were reaching an empty, unattainable goal. The characterization in Portal is that of sheer brilliance, featuring only two characters: a test subject and a somewhat sentient, passive aggressive AI. GLaDOS is our antagonist here, promising you cake, insulting you, and criticizing your every move while Chell increasingly struggles to make it through the next test chamber. As the credits roll and GLaDOS can be overheard in musical overtones, a thought occurs– you’re still alive. 6 The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion 2006

In a game where you can easily get lost between the subplots and side-stories, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion is an architectural writing masterpiece. While you may get sidetracked for several days on a sidequest, the main storyline is still at play, laying the groundwork and framework for all your voyages into the environment. Non-playable characters may lie to you, or react to you differently, depending on your race and gender, a subtle, but powerful undertone. Starting off as a lowly prisoner who gets a chance shot at escaping his cell, you begin to tackle the task of closing the gates to Oblivion– no easy feat. Although all of this can be ignored and you, the player, can spend your time exploring the countryside, doing the above-mentioned sidequests, and building your character up, the story is quite driven by the increasing number of Oblivion gates and their dominant presence on the hillsides. Each subplot eventually leads back and keeps you coming back to the main storyline.Though, even when the story is over, the game isn’t finished. There were some jarring dialogue flaws as well as unbalanced leveling by enemies, however, Oblivion won several awards, including Game of the Year and Best RPG from multiple publications. 5 Shadow of the Colossus 2005

At the forefront of the defense of games as an art form (prompted in part by Roger Ebert) is Shadow of the Colossus.The game was made by Team Ico, the developers behind none other than Ico. Shadow of the Colossus is a spiritual successor to the aforementioned game, and will be followed by yet another similar spiritual successor in 2012, by the name of The Last Guardian. To make things more interesting, the game only has 16 enemies in total. You start off your journey as Wander, with your horse Agro, appealing to the god Dormin to revive Mono, who you later learn was sacrificed due to a cursed destiny. In this land, desolate and forbidden, you know little background between the characters and their relationships to each other. You are tasked to destroy the sixteen colossi by Dormin. After you fell the first colossus though, it is clear that there is something more sinister at play, as you are pierced by black energy and awaken at the shrine. The game does an excellent job of creating a bond between you and your horse through the use of minimalistic touches, the horse will steer itself away from cliffs and jump when needed, and will even go off and graze on its own when you clamber off. As the game and story advances you learn that Wander is being followed, and you begin to witness one of the best uses of antihero ever. After every colossus killed, Wander becomes more dirty, ragged and clumsy. This results in your questioning of Wander’s motives, and just which side you should be rooting for. 4 Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) 2005

A cult classic, Fahrenheit, or better known in North America as Indigo Prophecy, was a precursor to the much more well-known Heavy Rain, and its cinematic gameplay. But where the game really stands out is its deep, captivating, and oftentimes disturbing story. The tale, which opens prolifically and profoundly with a murder, and is ranked as number ten on Game Informer’s Top Ten Video Game Openings, centers around Lucas Kane and the supernatural forces that he must fight to comprehend why New York City is being targeted by a series of mysterious murders that follow the same pattern: ordinary people becoming possessed and killing absolute strangers in public. Receiving the Best Story and Best Adventure Game award from Gamespot, Fahrenheit is not a game to be passed over in the used section of your local game shop.

Receiving a letter from his wife asking him to come to their special place, James Sunderland becomes drawn to Silent Hill. It is a quiet town they had frequented in the past, before the sickness took her from this life; she’s been dead for three years now. Upon entering Silent Hill, James encounters gruesome monsters and exaggerated versions of humanity, including a girl oblivious to what is happening around her, a man who has killed someone, and a woman who’s a spitting image of his wife, although she is dolled up and does not possess his wife’s subdued behavior. Finding more and more clues that lead to the revelation of the murder of your wife, Silent Hill 2 addresses your problems with analogies and metaphors. Silent Hill isn’t a town, it is your emotional being, and every door and corridor could contain a clue to James’ past, and the further you delve in, the more you must fight the mental blocks that portray him in innocent and culpable lights.

With a surplus of over 40 Game of the Year awards, and also including the accolade of Best Story, Deus Ex comes loaded with great expectations. In this cyberpunk themed tale of a world controlled by conspiracy and on the brink of collapse, a bionic government agent, J.C. Denton, is issued a series of risky covert assignments by his employer, UNATCO. A lot of background information is presented in the game that is purely optional; books, newspapers, e-mails, passwords, and other lines of text that are pertinent to the story and often contain allusions to science-fiction references, such as Tron and Blue Harvest. UNATCO coworkers react to your actions towards your enemies, appraising you or giving you the cold shoulder, and enemies can be hounded for information. Pioneering the FPS RPG formula, Deus Ex frequently finds its way near the top of the greatest games of all time lists.

For those of you following the list order, it is in reverse chronological order, and with that, we come to one of the greats of modern game storytelling: Half-Life. Considered and cited as being revolutionary in terms of the immersive gaming experience, interactive environment and storytelling, Half-Life was released to overwhelmingly positive reviews and, like Deus Ex, frequents greatest games of all time lists. The game has received over 50 Game of the Year awards as a tour de force first-person shooter as well as holding a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as best selling FPS of all-time. Half-life contained artfully scripted in-game sequences and a story that the player became captivated by. Offering a proposition or a battle Gordon Freeman has no chance of winning, an anticlimax after what you’ve survived, it is time to choose…

L.A. Noire is an upcoming detective video game that looks very promising in terms of writing. Set in post-war Los Angeles and directed in a film noir style, the game is said to focus on a series of murders that the player is openly allowed to solve. However, not every source is reliable, or can be trusted; lying, in video games, is evolving. Honorable Mentions: Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Kingdom Hearts, Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers, Bully, Assassin’s Creed, Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth.

https://ift.tt/2Yp0Hqg . Foreign Articles December 06, 2019 at 12:02PM

#. Foreign Articles Best Written Video Games

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bluerosesburnblue · 7 years

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Liz Liveblogs Bravely Second: Chapter One

Bravely Second Chapter 1: When Duty Calls, Who Will Answer, GO!

Oh hey Kamiizumi. What the heck are you doing on a canoe in the middle of the ocean? Also, how is the boat moving but you are not?

WHO BRINGS THEIR CAT TO THE MIDDLE OF THE OCEAN???

Yew is blaming himself for the very existence of the traitors like??? Buddy. I don’t think that betrayal had anything to do with you

THEY’RE ALREADY A FAMILY IT’S SO CUTE

Tiz is tracking Agnès’s location based on the birds she can see from her window. What is this boy?

Team went back to Gathelatio for a boat and ended up discussing childhoods. Yew is a sweet little bookworm after my own heart and Edea’s answer is SWORDFIGHTING (”Didn’t you play tea parties?” “No, SWORDFIGHTING.”)

Edea is so excited to see Kamiizumi! He won’t explain HOW he’s alive, but hey! Free boat!

Yew gave a rousing speech to the remnants of the Crystalguard and big bro Tiz is just gushing about how Yew sounded like Agnès. And big sis Agnès agrees! (this family kills me)

“And everyone knows there are no squid on the Moon... only octopuses.” Tiz what... how do you know that? Is the moon colony a well known thing? Did we all just forget to mention that people live there in the first game?

And Magnolia doesn’t even know what an octopus is!

Everyone spies on Yew while he narrates his diary entries to himself and... ah, this must be where the “party members write comments in the bestiary” thing from the demo comes from

“Tiz please stop them.” “EVERYONE PICK A COLOR. I CALL GREEN.” Tiz...

They really are just a group of dysfunctional siblings already. It’s adorable

No one is impressed by Kamiizumi’s rowboat. Also he just... has a cat now. Okay.

Villains are talking about “an experienced assassin” and my jobs list is telling me that catmancer is in this chapter... so is this “assassin” the catmancer?

...those were cat noises in the background so I’m gonna say maybe

Oh god they flipped the perspective on the map so Eternia/Eisenberg are on the right and Harena/Florem are on the left. Oh god I’m gonna get so lost

That boat did NOT last long

Ughhhhhhh catmancer girl is making cat puns ughhhhhh at least Kamiizumi likes her because cats

And whoops now Kami’s cat is under her control and attempting to murder us

Hey! It’s Al-Khampis from the demo! And... Pudgius Bismol. Who was most certainly NOT in the demo

Okay I was worried about Yew being Tiz 2.0 at first but now he’s my precious nerd child

Cute Al-Khampis girl from the demo has a name and it’s Rifa! Yew knows her

I still can’t use the Al-Khampis inn, just let me heal please

“The five star gentleman I used to know” ...were Yew and Rifa dating?

Magnolia sure seems to think so because she’s getting jealous

Oh, so Rifa studies Ba’als! I suppose that’ll be our next target, then, along with tracking Agnès

Someone who looks like the owl guys that gave you summons in the first game is watching the party. It’s... ominous. He isn’t even speaking English, but Magnolia can hear him and understand him (no one else noticed because Edea’s throwing a fit over food)

Oh no he’s a Chomp cultist. He gave us chompcrafts. Time to become excellent plush toy makers

Just leave the game running and the team will auto-make plushies to sell. That’s neat

Oh christ I did it again I spent too long on minigames

Edea just introduced Tiz to someone as Agnès’s boyfriend and his response was to shove his hand on her mouth and basically go “HAHA what no” Tiznes is the best ship

Ughhhh who let Fiore “I kidnap women and wanted to destroy Florem” deRosa teach at a college? At least he bought the team lunch I guess

And they’re studying “somnial energy” to put an end to wars (as if people won’t just fight over the new energy source but whatever)

I can already see where this new “choice-based sidequest” is gonna go. Jackal wants more water for the people of Harena, deRosa wants more water to develop his wonder energy, and we’re gonna have to choose who to give water to

(Btw, Yew took everyone to a folklore lecture and Tiz was really into it. I love that the game makes sure you know that Tiz, despite being a farm boy, really loves learning. Also just furthers my belief that Tiz and Yew would be cute brothers)

T-t-teleport... pig??? There’s pigs that teleport you between towns??? That’s convenient but huh???

I like Jackal, he’s actually a nice guy, but I want the Thief job more, so sorry buddy (and like everyone in Harena)

It’s making me sick to side with deRosa, especially since I don’t trust a single thing he says about somnial energy and his “let’s have everyone move to Florem if they want water” plan is stupid as hell

AND IT COULD BLOW UP A TOWN my god deRosa is the WORST

His contingency for “what if someone uses it as a weapon” is I’LL TELL EVERYONE SO EVERYONE IS EQUAL AND NO ONE WANTS TO USE IT (buddy that’s just how you start Cold Wars, your plan guarantees nothing)

Ah well, I’ve already been spoiled on the fact that this game has time loops, so I can side with Jackal in the “canon run” I suppose (second loop?) I still hate this

God and now Edea’s preaching about how ideals are good but to never forget what people have sacrificed, forgetting that there isn’t even a guarantee that deRosa’s dumbass plan is even going to work! We screwed these people over for potentially nothing! So a little rich boy could feel better about his thesis work!

And the game presents it like it was a difficult moral choice, in a way that assumes that deRosa’s plan was anything short of poorly thought out and horrendously terrible. Also like the previous game didn’t do everything in its power to let you know that Jackal only ever did bad jobs in order to provide for all of the orphans he was taking care of and deRosa did a LOT of REALLY SHITTY things to women just because he felt like it. What I’m saying is, if you’re gonna write something to seem “morally grey” you have to be very careful, and basically not. Do. This. Especially if the choice is between a jackass who takes care of orphans through crime (morally grey on its own!) and a serial molester

The Ba’al is not in its crater. Edea thinks it doesn’t exist. Magnolia and I can see this for the omen it truly is

Magnolia has a communicator bracelet and called up VP Appleberry, who I am assuming is also a moon man given that he speaks fluent French. The Ba’al is on its way

So Ba’al v: Urchin. I think this is the one from the demo? Wasn’t that bad once I started chaining everyone’s specials (save accidentally healing it with Magnolia)

Magnolia’s explaining how she’s from the moon and fights Ba’als which... I thought we already covered, but okay (Rifa’s concerned that A. people live on the moon and B. the moon people have been fighting Ba’als for generations)

Insert *touching but cliche friendship speech by the team in response to Magnolia declaring that she’ll defeat the Ba’als even if she has to do it alone* here

Yew no joke made everyone umbrellas out of the Ba’al (and Tiz is the only one to genuinely compliment him on the resourcefulness, as opposed to being disgusted)

Yew and Magnolia are sharing an umbrella and he’s BLUSHING LIKE CRAZY that’s so cute (and Edea had to explain the Japanese “couple sharing an umbrella” thing)

CHRIST Edea. Tiz was just trying to help by sharing his umbrella. You didn’t have to drop kick him and smash his umbrella. God they’re all so MEAN right now

Agnès is in Anchiem! Move out!

Ah geez, the sandstorm from the demo is back. Let’s see how this gets resolved

Oh good. I’ve been waiting for the moment where Yew tells Pudgius to get lost because he outranks him (the noise Pudgy makes when Yew tells him he had a special sixth star is beautiful)

The Seven Horrors of Al-Khampis sound up there with the Seven Wonders of Twilight Town on the list of “things that are probably not what you think they are.” Wonder if the world is gonna glitch out

Mister Bones: the skeleton in the biology lab that comes to life at night oh my god these are already great

Professor Norzen is making some... weird noises at his star predictions (he’s also the astrologist from the beginning. Time to take his asterisk!)

Norzen set up the sandstorm to take down the Skyhold. Totally willing to sacrifice the people of Ancheim and Agnès. Yeah, no. Glad he’s crazy so I’m less conflicted about this than the Jackal fight

“I didn’t do anything during the events of the first game, so this time I will bring justice!!!” glad that Edea and Tiz chime in with the fact that their attempt to bring justice got a lot of innocents killed last game

I’d heard that fight was supposed to be hard, but I was overleveled as hell soooooo

“It was all a test!” Y’know, I saw that coming yet I’m still disappointed

Go find the compass, he says. What do you mean the cat that was suspiciously on the scene was being controlled by the catmancer. I never coulda guessed

Oh god she’s singing a song about cats and called herself a “meowsassin” can I give her an award for most obnoxious new character?

Wow. One scratch from that cat just straight up murdered Norzen. What the heck buddy

...the kaiser just said “Who’s a good kitty now? Who’s a good widdle kitty?” to Minette and I’m just ???

Mephilia vs. Kamiizumi sidequest. Gho Gettar has two choices: follow his dream and study with Mephilia to summon Amaterasu or follow Kamiizumi’s advice and go give his awful job another try. Not gonna lie here, I’m with Mephilia. While I agree with Kamiizumi wanting him to work hard, I feel like it would be better for him to work hard pursuing something he loves, rather than an awful job he hates just because that job is the right thing to do. And I’m with Mephilia: the break someone down so that you can build them up again mentality is fucked up and honestly more likely to cause someone to give up forever than actually help them

So naturally in the interest of making this the worst timeline and my own love of the summoner job, I’m gonna attack Mephilia. Sorry Gho, go back to your dead end minimum wage job for now

Well, at least Gho got promoted and is happy with his job. Still not super okay with condoning the “break them to make them” mentality

At the Harena Sea Caves for the compass. I think this was a demo location? It’s very familiar

Cats are here. I think we may be late

Goddamn my game hates the Harena Sea Caves. It’s crashed twice since I’ve been here. Thank god for autosaves

...does that compass just have a giant sword attached to the center?

Ah, but of course. Minette is here. (Just let me kill her already)

“Mewtralize” JUST STOP

Oh god Minette is calling herself a cat, and also the queen of all cats. She’s too far gone

Oh and the Kaiser loaned her a lion. Where did he...? Why...?

“Yew Mewnimeowgia” alright she’s dead I can’t take this anymore

Ultimately not a hard fight, but Minette can put the whole party to sleep which is annoying

Well she’s dead, but also handed off the compass to Janne. Annoying until her dying breath

Wait. According to the Journal she’s seventeen?!?! What?!?!?

Oh and it just flat out gives you a list of all the abilities and what creatures give them and the items needed. That’s WAY better than the Vampire blood magic from the last game

The Skyhold is still in Ancheim so the team is gonna see if they can get on it before it leaves. Through the Mill Works!

Ah, okay. So Catmancy skills are learned when ANYONE in the party is hit by a learnable attack, which the catmancer can then cast by using items. Interesting

Addendum: a catmancer/someone with Learning equipped must be in the party when the move is used

Magnolia is very impressed by the Ancheim windmills. Given that I assume the moon lacks an atmosphere that would make air power viable, I suppose that’s expected

Heyyy Private Piddler’s back

“I was hoping for someone more... competent” damn Janne is brutal

Janne is explaining why he hates the Crystalguard. Way back during the wars mentioned in the first game the Orthodoxy’s Crystalguard made a peaceful surrender when the Anticrystalists showed up BUT they also destroyed anyone who opposed the surrender... violently. Which included Janne’s parents. Yeah, I guess having your family murdered and erased from all historical records would screw you up pretty bad

Yeah Janne’s House Balestra was specifically killed by houses Geneolgia and Camlann. So Yew and Othar’s families killed Janne’s

Yew isn’t taking it well, but he’s also not buying it as an excuse. Sad backstory or not, Janne killed Yew’s friends and kidnapped Agnès. Basically, “cool motive, still murder.” And another reason to love Yew for the list

Aaaaand here’s Amphisbaena, which I’m gonna assume is the boss of the chapter. It’s uh... a two headed worm thing? Ugly as hell? One head is weak to magic and the other physical attacks. They also swap positions

A poor showing on my part: I forgot that using the Rejuvenation special attack would make all of my attacks heal so I ended up healing the damn thing back to full for a few rounds

Oh dear god according to the Journal that thing was PEOPLE, specifically one of a set of twins that ate its twin after being mutated. And since the twins were trying to protect Tiz they placed the monster in charge of defending his pod. Holy SHIT the Empire is messed up

Yeah any sympathy for the Empire gained from Janne is lost IMMEDIATELY after reading that

Yeah of course we’re not getting on the Skyhold. They sent their sniper after us

Wait... she’s shooting from EISENBERG? That’s across the ocean! How?

Foiled by a cowgirl and a bored baker. Typical

Also they’re probably dating? At least flirting really hard with each other

I wonder who the person doing the end-of -chapter narrations is supposed to be. She’s talking about love and figuring out if feelings will be true, which I’m not sure relates to what just happened, but alright

Wait the intro video is playing. Didn’t that already happen? Is that gonna happen every chapter? Like anime opening/ending credits? That’s neat, I guess, and it’s very pretty so I’m not complaining

And that ends Chapter 1! What a... strange series of events. I can already see where it’s improving on Bravely Default, and the story is already wackier, so I guess I’ll just have to wait and see if that’s a good thing or not. Until next time!

#bravely default #bravely second #liz liveblogs bravely second

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katrinawritesthings · 7 years

Text

OT5; resume game; PG

listen... more d&d au

“When did you even get an antimagic spell?” Key asks. She sounds more impressed than anything by this point and Jonghyun snorts.

“Two levels ago, when you told me it was useless, remember?” he asks. Jinki doesn’t even have to look up to know that Key is blushing and Jonghyun is smirking. “Also,” Jonghyun adds. “If this works, then I’m technically the one that beat him, and the rules that all of you fuckos set up say that that means that I get to decide what to do with him. So don’t hurt him.”

part 1

ao3

As the small group of adventurers advances further into the forest, the phoenix elf spots a clearing in the distance. She signals to the others and as one, they sneak quietly through the trees until they have a clear view. Set up in the loose grass and small boulders, a group of six humans lounge lazily around a fire, laughing and talking with smug pride. None are watching the trees and they have bags and boxes full of what appear to be the stolen artifacts from the city’s museum.

“I can get one between the eyes from here,” Yavè says, hand confident on the crossbow under her robe.

“We’re supposed to capture them alive,” The Double M-C growls. Their bear claws flex at their sides and Yavè sighs, crossing her arms.

“You’re right,” she mutters. “I can get one through the leg from here,” she offers instead.

“We can just… walk up and ask them to give the stuff back nicely.” Skell’s words are small, but louder than they have been, his growing confidence and experience showing in his actions. Yavè rolls her eyes, but Ace nods slowly.

“Let’s do that, but more… intimidating,” it says with a raised eyebrow and a little smirk in The Double M-C’s direction. The half-bear grins slowly back, lifting one big bear arm to point at the tree creature.

“I like that plan,” they say. “Come on.” They head off towards the clearing, leading the party with no stealth straight through the trees. They growl in the back of their throat and rustle the trees as they pass. Ace stomps its heavy oak legs extra hard against the ground, so the earth trembles slightly with each step. Yavè pulls off her hood and casts an illusion on herself, turning her already fiery colored hair into what looks like real flames and giving her eyes a deep red hue. In the clearing, the humans all startle and look around in a panic.

All at once, the party bursts through the trees. With an enormous, earsplitting roar, The Double M-C bares their claws and their fangs in a display of power that sends one human stumbling to the ground in fear.

“Draw your weapons and fight, theives!” they bellow, towering over the humans and snarling down at them. On their right, Ace thumps its huge wood club menacingly into its palm. On their right, Yavè draws a fire-tipped arrow and trains it expertly on the furthest human.

From the back, Skell scoots forward silently. Peeping his pink-haired head out from behind The Double M-C’s furry elbow, he waves gently and gives them a small smile.

“But, you don’t have to fight if you don’t want to,” he calls.

(“Jonghyun.” Minho hisses. Their hand is clenched around their dice, eyes closed as they take a deep, steadying breath. Jinki watches with the utmost amusement as they open their eyes and turn to face Jonghyun’s pout. “Will you please. For once. Let me do this.”

“What?” Jonghyun whines. “I’m not stopping you.”

“Yeah, but you kind of ruin the effect,” Taemin says. It shrugs lazily in its pillow pile. Key nods and Jonghyun grumbles at all of them, holding his pillow tightly under his chin.

“Minho, roll for intimidation with an advantage. Jonghyun, persuasion,” Jinki says, pausing their hundredth argument for just a moment. Both of them glance at him; Minho rolls two dice and Jonghyun grabs his.

“Twenty-four,” Minho says, and then, “I’m a big giant bear person,” they whine. “Like, half of my points are in intimidation. Let me intimidate people.”

“You can intimidate people,” Jonghyun huffs. He jiggles his die in his hand and tosses it into what he calls his lucky cup instead of the stimmy cup he’s been casually throwing them into the whole game. “I just want them to know that they don’t have to fight. They can just surrender. I’m helping.” He frowns at the outcome of his die and tips it back into his little tray. “Nine,” he tells Jinki. Jinki nods at both of them, picking up his own die to roll for the humans while Jonghyun and Minho keep up their bickering. They’re cute. As he rolls for each human, he snorts and smothers a grin in his hand at a particularly bad number.

“Okay, so,” he says, interrupting whatever point Minho was bringing up.)

Almost every human yells and stumbles back in terror. The sight of the half bear, half human, a monstrosity on their own, is enough to have them trembling in their boots. Two of them back up even more, turning around to flee, but their leader catches them by the elbows.

“Stay here and fight, you cowards,” they snap. They seem to not have been affected as much by the party’s entrance. They’re a seasoned veteran at this kind of thing and have seen worse, as evidenced by their firm stance. Their companions, however, have hands that shake as they reach for their weapons. One of them doesn’t even draw a weapon at all; with a glance at their leader, and a meaningful glance at Skell, they slowly slip sideways, slinking behind one of the larger boulders.

Skell’s eyes light up in delight and at his first opportunity, while the others are fighting, he jogs over there to meet them.

“Are you hurt at all?” he asks, holding out a worried hand to the shaking thief. “I can heal you,” he offers brightly.

(“Oh my fucking god,” Minho mutters.)

“You know, I’m sure you have more fairy in you than just your hair. Your smile is dazzling.”

“Yeah. And your sweet spirit is positively angelic.”

“We can’t thank you enough for convincing those hunters to leave our village alone.”

“Ooh.” Skell smiles wider, cheeks flushing as pink as faer hair, and nuzzles up to one of the many tall, handsome, suave boys speaking to fae at the bar. The village is celebrating their party’s victory over the attackers in the inn and fae’s having a lovely time surrounded by admirers. Fae draws invisible little lines on one man’s broad chest and looks up at him through faer lashes. “Tell me more about how pretty I am,” fae says.

At the other end of the bar, The Double M-C snorts, shakes their head, and returns to the story they were telling to the group of young children gathered around them. Yavè rolls her eyes and asks one of her own crowd of admirers to get her another drink. Ace sits moodily in the corner, arms crossed and frown directed towards the tallest of Skell’s babes. As they all go about their business, from the entrance, a--

(Jinki stops suddenly in his description when Taemin slips him a folded up note. He takes it, glances at Taemin’s little grumpy face, and reads it.

“I’ll give you five dollars if you make your hot self-insert bartender kick them out,” it says.)

“Okay, we’re just gonna barge in there, take out the bodyguards, kill the lord, get out, and--”

“What the fuck? No, we can’t kill him.”

“That’s what we’re supposed to do, we’re supposed to kill the asshole so the village can live in peace from his reign.”

“Okay, technically, maybe they want us to kill him, but they didn’t say we had to. We’re gonna tie him up and throw his ass in his own garbage jail.”

“Oh my god, this is going to take forever.”

“Well sorry I’m not a murderer--”

“It was your idea to take this fucking sidequest in the first place--”

“The people needed our help--”

“Lets just fucking get in there already oh my god--”

(“Hey, uh, real quick,” Jinki interrupts Jonghyun and Key’s hissed argument with the most amused hand between them. They frown at each other for another moment before turning to Jinki. “Are you two having this conversation, like, in the game?” he asks. He gestures at the little ambush setup they have on the table between them.

“Abso-fucking-lutely,” Key says. “Yavè is liking Skell less and less by the moment.”

“Of course,” Jonghyun says. “Skell thinks Yavè is being a big anus.”

“Ace wants to hurry up so it can eat,” Taemin mumbles.

“Yeah, and I feel like I’m like. Really worried, waiting at the inn for them to come back,” Minho adds. “Can y’all please hurry up and finish breaking the law?” They’re pouting really hard and Jinki chuckles softly.

“Okay, well,” he says, getting back to his point. “Since you two are arguing out loud, then, uh.”)

As the two’s bickering grows louder and more intense, the secret door behind the lord’s office is swung suddenly open. Three of his bodyguards, huge and intimidating, glare menacingly down at the party, swords drawn.

“Shit,” Yavè hisses.

“She was the one that wanted to kill you,” Skell says immediately, pointing at the elf.

(“I’m not taking you to the movies this weekend anymore,” Key hisses at Jonghyun.)

“I hate,” Ace growls as it sucks down one of its last healing potions. The magic of the drink bubbles and fizzes inside of it as it heals its wounds, but it doesn’t feel nearly as satisfying as they usually do. Ace peeps out from where it took cover behind the rocks to watch the other three try yet again to harm the warlock.

Yavè fires a perfectly aimed arrow from her crossbow, then casts her volley spell to duplicate it hundredfold. Every magic arrow rains down on the warlock with grim accuracy, but with a great acrobatic effort, they dodge and weave through the brunt of the attack. The ones that do strike him are taken easily, their magical force lessened and their damage partially healed by his many protective spells.

The Double M-C, freshly healed by Skell, hurls themselves again towards the wizard with a fierce roar. A reckless charge, they’re able to get closer to the warlock than anyone has yet so far, but still are blasted back by his powerful magic at the last moment. As they tumble back towards the rocks and pillars of the cave, their roar is one of defeat.

At the third round of repeated failures, Skell sneaks a peek out at the wizard from behind his own rock and huffs. “This is garbage,” he mutters.

(“Alright, listen, wait, Jinki,” Jonghyun says. Jinki turns to him with a hum of curiosity, trying not to grin too wide as his frustrated little pout. He shouldn’t be having this much fun with this, but the others are just having garbage rolls today and it’s way too funny. This really shouldn’t be that hard of a battle. Jonghyun reaches over to their little figures on the table and pokes the warlock gently.

“This fucko,” he says. “He’s like. Some scrawny old fuck that’s been living in a cave for too long, right?” he asks. Jinki snorts. That’s one way to put it.

“Basically, yeah,” he says, because it’s not like Jonghyun is wrong.

“He’s gonna be splattered all over the cave when I’m through with him,” Key mutters darkly. Jinki throws an amused smirk her way. Her patience ran out several turns ago.

“And, like,” Jonghyun says, ignoring her little comment. “He doesn’t have any actual weapons, right? Just his hands?”

“Yeah,” Jinki shrugs. “He had a staff but you all burned it, remember.”

“Mmhmm,” Jonghyun hums. He pouts at the little wizard figure, finds his own figure, counts the little spaces of distance between the two. “Okay,” he says. “So, I’m gonna-’’

“Wait, are you actually gonna attack him?” Minho asks. Their eyes are huge as they look at Jonghyun and Jinki honestly has to agree. What the fuck. Jonghyun curls up smaller under everyone’s disbelieving looks, but picks up his little figure anyway.

“It’s not like you guys are getting anywhere,” he mutters. “Jinki, I’m gonna cast an antimagic sphere on myself, run at him, like, full speed, and then just. Jump on his back.”

He hops his little figure across the table, struggles for a moment with balancing it on top of the wizard’s, and then just kind of sets it behind him. Jinki stares blankly at him. Holy shit. The other three are looking at Jonghyun in much the same way. Oblivious to their silence, Jonghyun fixes up the two figures on the board and then looks up at Jinki.

“What do I roll for that?” he asks.

“Um,” Jinki says. Uh. He doesn’t know. Constitution maybe?

“Are you serious?” Taemin asks. Jonghyun huffs at it with a little nod.

“Yeah?” he says. “All this fucko can do is magic. Just walk up to him and capture him gently while I’m blocking all of his spells and shit. I wanna get out of this cave.” He jiggles his die impatiently in his hand as Jinki flips through his guide book to figure out what attribute is best for this.

“When did you even get an antimagic spell?” Key asks. She sounds more impressed than anything by this point and Jonghyun snorts.

“That doesn’t--”

“They are the rules,” Minho sighs. Key huffs and crosses her arms in defeat.

“It won’t work anyway,” she grumbles. “Nothing has been working today.”

“Roll for dexterity,” Jinki mumbles, pointing vaguely in Jonghyun’s direction. He slowly closes his book as he finishes reading. Dexterity now, and then it’ll be constitution every turn to stay on. Yeah. Jonghyun tosses his die onto the table and when it settles, everyone kind of just stares blankly at the first twenty anyone besides the warlock has gotten all session.

“Plus four,” Jonghyun adds, pointing at the numbers on his character sheet.)

Skell takes a deep breath, casts an antimagic sphere on himself, sprints across the cave, jumps effortlessly onto the wizard’s back, and clings there.

(“Like a cute little koala,” Jonghyun adds, poking his figure with a grin.)

Skell clings to the wizard like a cute little koala.

“And I owe all of this to you, Skell. Sweet, sweet, lovely Skell.” Jo’s wicked smirk turns wider, more natural, more charming, a shadow of the old smile he used to give Skell before he turned into an asshole. Now it just feels like a mockery. He walks up to Skell and caresses his face, laughing softly when Skell jerks away. On the rocky mountainside cliff they’ve been backed up on, Skell stumbles, almost losing his balance, before Jo tuts and yanks him a single step away from the ledge.

“Don’t leave me yet, babe,” he chides. “You still have to watch me take the orb and harness its darkness to take over the world.” He backs up lazily towards the Darkness Shrine and holds his hands out, relaxed and confident and smug. “You should have listened to your little friends when they told you not to trust me,” he says.

(“Yeah. Jonghyun,” Minho says. Jonghyun rolls his eyes, squeezing his pillow close to his chest. Jinki props his chin in his hand lazily as he watches the other three glare at the soft little bub.

“Remember when I told you that your hot new boyfriend was just using you?” Key asks. Her voice is light and casual with just enough bite to get her point across.

“Remember that time a few days ago when he literally just suddenly screamed and grabbed his head and took, like, thirty points of psychic damage for no reason at all, and Jinki said that obviously the gods were displeased with him for something?” Taemin asks. It doesn’t do as good of a job at keeping the annoyance out of its voice.

“But no,” Minho says dramatically. “Jo’s great. He’s soooo romantic. He helped us fight sometimes. He just gets intense headaches every once in a while. Nothing’s wrong with Jo.” They lean really close to Jonghyun, trying to stare him down as he stares blandly at the table. “Do you think Jo’s gonna let us fall to our deaths, or will his charming gentleman’s heart grant us the mercy of killing us first?”

“Alright, can you, like, get out of my space, please?” Jonghyun asks. He’s perfectly calm and pleasant, flapping a gentle hand at Minho until they sit up straight with a huff. “It’s fine,” he says. The other three groan, probably because he sounds exactly the same as he has sounded for the past in-game week of them telling him that Jo was bad news. “It’s still fine,” he says. “It’s always been fine.”

“Explain to me how this is fine,” Taemin huffs. Jonghyun huffs lightly right back.

“I mean, if you would let me do my thing instead of whining at me, you would see,” he says.

“What thing,” Key scoffs.)

“Jo, honey,” Skell says sweetly. He takes several small, shuffling steps forward through the snow and the rope binding his feet, smile playful on his face. Jo pauses in his dramatic reaching for the orb, turning to look at him with a cocked brow.

“Stay back, cutiepie,” he says. “I would hate to have to kill you first.”

“Oh, I know, baby, but,” Skell pouts. “Can I have one last favor?” he asks. “Pretty please? For me?” He bats his eyelashes prettily and Jo laughs. He thinks it’s absurd that Skell still thinks that he actually ever cared. Still, the little pink haired human is absolutely adorable. One last request couldn’t hurt.

“Sure, kitten,” Jo shrugs. “What is your dying wish?” He hops off of the shrine with his arms crossed in front of him. Skell smiles, bites his lip, giggles cutely.

“Let us--”

(“Oh, wait, Jinki--he has more than fifty hit points, right?” Jonghyun asks quickly. Jinki cocks a brow, checks his notes, and shrugs innocently. Telling is cheating. Jonghyun huffs. “Come on, Jinki, you know I don’t want to accidentally kill him,” he pouts.

“How the fuck…?” Taemin mumbles. Jinki sighs and shrugs again, but this time with a little nod. He can’t say no to that face.

“Yeah, he has more than fifty,” he says. Jonghyun smiles bright and wiggles happily.

“Okay, anyway.”)

“Let us tie you up right now,” Skell says clearly.

(“Really? That’s your fucking plan?” Key hisses.

“Shh,” Jonghyun hisses back.)

Jo looks at Skell blankly for a moment, and the bursts into loud laughter. He holds his stomach, bends over, wipes a tear from his eye.

“Wow,” he says when he composes himself. “I thought you were going to ask for a final kiss or something.” He grins, steps forward, pecks Skell’s cheek, and backs up. “Not gonna happen, babe,” he grins. Skell just smiles pleasantly back as Jo turns back to the shrine.

Two steps up, Jo stops suddenly, stiffens, clutches his head, and screams, just like that time a few days ago. As soon as that happens, Skell pushes all of his concentration into another spell that hits Jo with force. Mid-scream, mid-horrible writhes of agony, Jo stops, frozen in place by the magic.

Skell turns quickly back around to his other three companions.

“Hurry up and get yourselves free, this freezing spell only lasts for a minute and I don’t know if a second one will work,” he says.

(“Holy shit,” Minho whispers.

“I told you it was fine,” Jonghyun grins.

“I thought you didn’t like to hurt people?” Key asks. She’s staring at the five damage dice Jonghyun rolled onto the board with wide eyes, and Taemin is giving Jonghyun the same look. Jonghyun shrugs, a sweet little smile on his face.

“I don’t like liars,” he says. His pleasant tone is betrayed by just a touch of a hard edge.

Jinki had known about Jonghyun’s secret curse plan the whole time, but it’s at that moment that he really remembers that chaotic good players play by their own rules just as much as the evil ones do.

“Holy shit,” Minho whispers again.)

#jongtae #jongyu #jongho #jongkey #jonghyun #ot5 #dnd au #pg #fantasy #listen this au is Important nd i keep thinking about it lmao #jong just : ) making friends and being nonviolent #they take the group of thieves back to the town to chuck them in jail but skell '''accidentally'''' loses track of the one that didnt fight #like '''oh darn :/ guess hes gone :/ too bad :/ but i rly think :) things were looking up for him :) hes rly gonna turn a new leaf :)#minhos just like Oh My God #his lawful good ass cant Stand jongs chaotic good ass #key doesnt mind as much bc sometimes they can be chaotic together but She Just Wants To Murder #and ace just wants to be skells favorite boo #also rip in pieces jo skell was playin u the whole time #jong Knew he was shady from the start nd had like a whole List of secret notes to jinki about his secret curse and secret plan #i forget what its called but the spell was basically just #''''u can give someone one command a day for a month and they dont know u did it but if they disobey they take a Lot of psychic damage'''#skell: dont lie to us okay honey?? :)#jo: uwu of course babe #jo two hours later: ha ha what?? no im not planning anything shady at all lmao #The Spell: hello i am here u fuckin liar #jinki: hmm wow guess the gods just hate u dude #everyone else@skell: >:vvvv #jong@jinki for following the plan: ;))))

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esseastri · 7 years

Text

Literally everyone: AAHH MASS EFFECT ANDROMEDA!!!! Me, seven years late with starbucks: so, I just finished ME2 and yowza, guys

Okay, so some of you might remember that a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (oh shit wrong fandom), I was liveblogging Mass Effect 2. For various personal reasons, I stopped the liveblog some time ago--I jumped ship and liveblogged all three Dragon Age games, and then, when I was meant to pick the ME2 blog back up, some personal shit happened and it was easier for me to just finish the game without the liveblog. I’m sorry if you were looking forward to live Suicide Mission reactions, but I can provide, in bullet point form, a summary of what would have been the end of the liveblog if I’d been able to finish it properly!

(Having now written it up, I guarantee, you’re not missing anything by this not being an immediate liveblog--it is JUST as funny this way, I promise!!)

It did get quite long, so here it is, under the cut:

I successfully scanned/probed every. planet. in the galaxy. I’m not joking. Every single one.

This made for a lot of boring scanning time, but it also revealed a lot of sidequests--all of which I completed.

This included taking out the entirety of the Blue Suns mercenary operation via fucking up their fake-distress-signal trap and stealing their stolen cargo after killing off several of their captains.

Also I stopped some missiles from crashing into a small colony? I think?

I successfully completed every sidequest that had anything to do with quarians.

Samara’s loyalty mission!

I flirted with her daughter so badly it was embarrassing, but hey, that’s the way to bait serial killers into getting KO’d by their moms, so...

Thane’s loyalty mission:

I’m still genuinely surprised that that security guard honestly believed I was a health inspector are you kidding me I’m fully armed and armored how does this outfit say ‘health inspector’ to you pls I fear for the security of the Citadel

But hey, we stopped the kid from killing anyone, so that’s good.

Also, what is up with my squadies having kids who want to murder people who we have to prevent from murdering people? Guys. This is bad parenting. Pls.

I scanned some more planets and did a few more sidequests.

Miranda’s loyalty mission:

there was some hinky shit with this whole situation, but it’s Miranda: of course there was hinky shit. But I’m glad her sister was WAY Chiller about the situation than I thought she was going to be.

I AM SAD I MISSED THE PARAGON QUICK-TIME-BUTTON AND MIRANDA MURDERED HER CHILDHOOD BESTIE THAT WAS VERY UPSETTING AND I’M NOT ABOUT THAT LIFE

Jacob’s loyalty mission:

TALK ABOUT HINKY SHIT WITH THE WHOLE SITUATION

tbqh, I’m still not 100% sure what the fuck happened on that mission. I got the toxic food made people wacky, but I’m unclear on the ten-year wait before activating the distress beacon. You cannot have just been chilling like a king while the crew got slowly more poisoned for ten years and been having a good time. Bro, pls.

I’m v glad Jacob was chill with me throwing his dad in jail.

I did some more sidequests. I cannot stress enough how many fuckin sidequests I completed.

LEGION: hoooo boy.

1. I fucking hate husks and fighting husks and getting swarmed by husks and dying a lot but it’s fine, I’m fine

2. Geth still make me nervous. I understand that there are good geth and bad geth, but I spent waaayyy too long fighting that Colossus on Therum in game 1 to fully be okay with them.

3. Tali’s non-reaction was the most ridiculous and out of character anything in the Bioware universe. There was NO REACTION AT ALL to us activating a geth on board a ship that has an AI installed on it. And no reaction to us recruiting that geth. The only reaction we got--finally, AFTER FINISHING Legion’s mission--was her anger over Legion trying to send info on the Flotilla to the geth. Which, yes, warranted a reaction, but sO DID A LOT OF OTHER STUFF. And the fact that Bioware was too lazy to write Tali some reactions to this geth just chillin’ in our AI Core offends me deeply.

4. Legion’s mission: I really, really didn’t want to do either option, tbh. One felt like genocide and one felt like mind control and I was 100% not there for either of those versions of events. (I eventually decided to blow up the station: see point 2 above.)

The second EDI was like “u should take everyone on the shuttle; the ship will be fine!” I was like, “OH JESUS FUCK NOTHING WILL EVER BE ‘FINE’ AGAIN”

There is nothing--nothing--more #relateable than Joker running through the ship as it’s getting attacked by Collectors and just repeating “shitshitshitshitshit” for the entire time.

It was about this time that I realized the next THING was the Omega-4 Relay and I had to do some googling. Did you know that the Mass Effect Wikia is 100% Useless when it comes to figuring out how to get through the Suicide Mission without getting anyone killed?

I spent a lot of time being TERRIFIED that I’d somehow missed a ship upgrade, even though there was no possible way for me to have missed a ship upgrade.

GARRUS AND I FINALLY DID THE DO. THERE WERE CANON FOREHEAD TOUCHES. HE WAS A NERD. IT WAS SO FUCKIN CUTE I DIED. IT WAS SO CUTE.

The fight with the Oracle in the basement was waaayy chiller than I thought it was going to be, and my sister, from across the room, just laughed and reminded me that I was playing on Casual mode.

The briefing room scene:

Miranda: “We’re going to have to split up into several groups.”

Me: “Worst. Idea. Ever.”

Miranda: “You have to pick someone to go in the vents. I volunteer!”

Jacob: “I also volunteer!”

Me: “Ahh, thanks, but I’ma send Legion, ‘cause Legion is the best tech guy we could possibly ever have? Considering it IS...tech?”

Miranda: “Ugh, fine. Pick someone to lead the second squad. Again, I volunteer.”

Me: “That’s nice. Hey Garrus, darling--meet me at that fucking door, and you better be alive, babe.”

Garrus: “Sure thing, babe.”

Miranda: “Uuughhh, at least we know he knows what he’s doing. Fine.”

SO WE SET OFF INTO THE COLLECTOR BASE, SPLIT UP INTO SEVERAL GROUPS, AND I ALMOST HYPERVENTILATED OUT OF NERVES AND MADE MYSELF COUGH.

I got Legion through the vents without it melting.

I spent a lot of time reminding myself that if you murder all the collector drones before you kill Harbinger, then you only have to kill Harbinger once, as opposed to once for every drone in the room.

There was a terrifying moment at the first locked door, when I was very certain we were all going to die.

No one died.

I WAS REALLY WORRIED THE CREW HAD BEEN LIQUEFIED BUT THEY WEREN’T, I SAVED THEM ALL! IT WAS AMAZING!

Also, the liquefying was suuppper gross and unnecessary, thanks Bioware.

The First Regrouping scene:

EDI: “Sorry, guys, but you need to go through that hallway full of seeker swarms, good fucking luck.”

Samara: “I could probably make a biotic barrier and keep them off us? It’ll be slow, but I can do it.” Miranda: “SO COULD I. Any biotic could do it! I VOLUNTEER!”

Me: “Uh, it was Samara’s idea, soooo...she’s gonna do it.”

Miranda: “FIIIINNE. Someone has to be a distraction and go the other way, though. I fucking volunteer, goddamit, Shep, just let me do my fucking job.”

Me: “Garrus. Darling. Babe. Be safe.”

Garrus: “Sure thing, babe.”

Miranda: “I’m. going. to. stab. you.” Doctor Chakwas: “Can someone get us back to the ship? We’re all in really bad shape.” Miranda: “We do not have people to spare, sorry.” Me: “Hey, Mordin, I love you, but you are not extra great in combat. Want to escort mission this shit?” Mordin: “Good idea. Joker: need coordinates for pick up.” Miranda: “GOOD. LET’S GO. WE’VE GOT SHIT TO KILL. COME ON.”

At this point, I did feel a little bad for Miranda, but listen: I googled who was best for what, okay. Everyone had to live, okay.

We hiked it through the seeker swarm hallway and it was actually a really cool mechanic! I was impressed!

Thane kept getting into cover outside the protective bubble though, ‘cause he’s a doofus, and Tali and I were just like “pls, son, get inside and stay alive, we can’t take all these collectors just the two of us. I mean, we can, but it’ll go much faster with you helping. get inside the bubble. pls.”

I legitimately thought Samara was going to die of exhaustion before we reached the door. I assume that if she’s not Loyal, she might die there? But everyone was super loyal so it was fine, but I WAS WORRIED.

I had a heart attack when Garrus called for help and we had to bust down the door and save him and the other squad and I WAS SO WOORRRIIEEDD

AND THEN IT LOOKED LIKE HE GOT SHOT IN THE STOMACH AND I LITERALLY SCREAMED I WAS SO TERRIFIED BUT HE WAS FINE AND IT WAS FINE EVERYTHING IS FINE

It didn’t happen, because the game doesn’t support public displays of affection, but if you think that Gen didn’t grab Garrus’ face and kiss the fuck out of him once she’d decided he was alive and not shot, then you and I are not watching the same show.

So, after the traumatized, mid-battle kiss:

The amount to which I wanted a v small, v scared scene in which Shep got to say a non-goodbye to the LI she is leaving to cover the door as she goes on ahead is astronomical, but the game did not provide, so I’m just going to have to fanfic the shit out of this.

The fucking human-reaper-larva was NASTY AF and I took half a look at it and went “NOPE, I’MA TAKE MY GLASSES OFF AND DO THIS FIGHT BLIND”

my sister laughed at me

I realized after two seconds that that wasn’t going to work ‘cause I couldn’t see the adds, and I had to murder them, too, sooo I put my glasses back on, and it was AWFUL

The “shoot the canisters” part of the fight was SOOOO easy, I was v concerned that I’d messed something up because it was so simple? Just waves of collectors? and then it just FALLS? I was Suspicious.

The Illusive Man chimed in with a “haven’t you people ever heard of working toward goddamned human supremacy” and wanted me to SAVE??? the collector base???? for “““RESEARCH”““???

So I said, “yeah, that’s fucking dumb, we’re not going to do that” and set the place to blow the fuck up

AND THEN I HAD TO FIGHT THE FUCKING TERRIFYING HUMAN REAPER THING AND IT WAS GROSS AND DIFFICULT BUT I WON IT WAS GR9 I DIDN’T EVEN DIE ONCE!!! OR RUN OUT OF AMMO!! IT WAS AMAZING! A MIRACLE!

So then everything blew up and THE PLATFORM STARTED FALLING AND I 100% FOR SURE THOUGHT TALI WAS DEAD

YOU HAVE NO IDEA HOW TERRIFIED I WAS

I STARTED CRYING IMMEDIATELY AND THEN SHEP GRABBED HER HAND AND THEN LOST HER GRIP AND THEN THEY LANDED AND THERE WAS A GIANT BEAM ON TOP OF TALI AND I LEGIT STOPPED BREATHING

I STARTED COUGHING BECAUSE I WAS SO UPSET I STRESSED MYSELF INTO A COUGHING FIT IT WAS AWFUL I WAS CRYING AND MY SISTER WAS JUST LIKE “she’s Loyal, you’re fine, she’s fine” and I continued to freak out until she stood up and it was terrifying.

I then told the Illusive Man to fuck right off, stole the Normandy, and got my peeps together to murder some Reapers.

and BOY HOWDY THAT WAS A LOT OF REAPERS LIKE #YIKES???

SO That was the end of ME2!

A brief review: I liked bits of it, and viscerally hated other bits, tbh. I’m still not a fan of the mechanics, but once I figured out which guns to use against which enemies, things did get slightly better. I still hate the very idea of the Collectors--no one needs bug aliens who kidnap and liquefy people, I mean COME ON--but there was some cool stuff with that plotline as a whole. Also, I hate Cerberus, and I wish the game had let me more explicitly publicly pronounce myself as working WITH them out of desperation as opposed to FOR them because we believed in the same things.

Listen, Evil Martin Sheen, you underestimate how much I LOVE ALIENS and how little I care for the human race. So,

anyway

overall: not bad. Looking forward to the third one much more than I expected, tbqh, and that should be starting soon! I do plan to get back into the liveblogging swing of things, but that one WILL be over on the liveblog blog, found here. I’m hoping to start sometime next week, if not before then, as I’d really like to get to Andromeda before I have to fight the internet over spoilers. So, yeah! Thanks for putting up with this liveblog dying and being resurrected in this truncated form. I hope to see you on the liveblog blog for #Megan plays ME3 SOON! :D

#op #Megan plays ME2 #ladyknightliveblogs #Mass Effect #PHEW that's done then!!#I really did enjoy the end #getting to the end was a TRIAL but the end was rEALLY FUN #STRESSFUL AS FUCK but fun

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sleepymarmot · 7 years

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MEA liveblog #7

Spoilers!

Multiplayer

This interface is a mess. I move my mouse onto "exit lobby" and it turns into "kick player". Buttons just jump around and transform all the time.

And the APEX mission shit needs to be fixed. When you select a mission to play, don't direct me to lobbies who play the same enemy/map/difficulty but not as the mission! Join lobby, see "custom", exit lobby, select "custom game", re-select mission, join, end up in the same lobby, rinse, repeat...

At least I can end up second when I join on wave 5 as a human vanguard lol

F Human Vanguard card!

Tempest

Non-custom weapons of different rank shouldn't exist as separate items in the inventory! Unlocking a higher rank should upgrade the old item like in ME3! This stupid inventory system exists solely because of crafting! If you need inventory limits so much, let them apply only to the crafted items! I've already complained about rewards being lost with no warning if the inventory is full and it's still bullshit!

I crafted the N7 chestpiece! 25% shield on kill (of course), 5% damage resistance, 2% shield restoration, 2% health&shield regen speed, 2% max shield. I called it "N7 Slayer X". And turns out, it was dad's armor...

Oh right, it needs a new color scheme!

Havarl

I like this ex-STG, he's talking properly.

I don't like the sound effect from Annihilation -- it's like water in my ears!

Hey Peebs, how do you immediately know where the next piece is as soon as we pick the current one?

Kadara

Here's the bar fight. Animation is not bad but has no energy.

Told the asari dancer that I'm done here and she needs to talk to the dude herself, but the quest still sends me back to him -_-

Tempest

So, Kesh was adopted?

Okay, Kalinda is 100% Marjolaine. Peebee's personal storyline is even more copy-pasted from Leliana than Drack's is copypasted from Wrex.

Aya

So many sidequests again!

The Moshae's words about the definition of victory! That's the smartest thing I've heard in this game in hours.

It's really weird to hear her talk so sweetly to me... When we first met she didn’t seem to like me.

When Vetra said people were staring at her, I couldn't resist suggesting they're just all in love...

I suggested taking people who sold their Aya slots onto the Nexus. That's not even charity -- the same ambassador gave me a task to convince angara to come there anyway! So this would kill two birds with one stone.

For the visitor who wanted contact with his family, I had to reload. The options didn't even seem too different... Got it right for the other two: gave an honest professional answer about health issues, and a confident casual answer about finding work.

Great, now I have to head back into the city to buy stuff... This is literally a fetch quest lol

Eos

Omg, the Architect is in orbit now!

The Roekaar fight in an old settlement was very chaotic and fun with Flamethrower/ED/Lance, though it'd probably be easier to just charge

Tempest

Aaaand Jaal gives me his loyalty mission. It's funny that I'm going to do my own love interest's mission last...

Jaal's LM

I continue to be unimpressed with the Roekaar being pure antagonists. :/

Didn't shoot the guy, told Jaal he was badass.

Why are loyalty missions so short?

BTW Ryder just looks wrong in N7 armor... She's not Shepard, that's not her allegiance or her story.

Tempest

Jaal, just as we're leaving Havarl you decided to invite me for a visit down there?

Turian ark

Avitus has very stylish armor

For fuck's sake, Bioware, why do you hate gay men so much?

I convinced Avitus to take the mantle. It was a very sentimental decision for Ryder -- because her situation is very similar. Her SAM and the connection he had with her father are unique, but she didn't think of that in that moment.

Nexus

"Better to find your wings as you fly" Easy for you to say, Sarissa, your predecessor wasn't a loved one

Tempest

I'd agree with Peebee about relationship and baggage, but of course I felt obligated to take the romantic option

(I don’t think there’s an option to agree with her, though, so it’s only for the best)

Voeld

Liam, Vetra, don't fight!

Whoops, sorry for leaving you to die in the purification field, Vetra

...I liked the old color scheme better. Green light looks more alien, but less pretty.

Nexus

Final memory -- here we go!

My theory was that the Archon was somehow Ellen, but that made so little sense I didn't even write it down :D This is simpler.

BTW there's finally Shepard's gender we had to select in the beginning -- in translated subtitles :D Didn't hear it even once in the audio -- could it be Bioware actually took their foreign audience into consideration? :O

Honestly, it's weird that the Reapers info is so secret... From the OT I got the impression that Shepard was yelling about it to everyone at every opportunity...

Fine, fine, you made me emotional with Liara's message.

Shit, I was expecting this decision...

I feel pretty sad now. That's all?

Peebee's LM

Oh, so that's why she lives in an escape pod :D I thought this was only a characterization thing, not a Chekhov's gun!

I said I wasn't mad, though I was a bit. But I mean Ryder *is* mad but also having the time of her life so...

Shit I just shot Kalinda instinctively lmao

Ok I replayed the entire sequence and Idk. This is really the hardest choice in the game...

I'm tempted to say "Yes, literally" :D

Since it's so hard to reaload, it's fair game to watch videos before deciding for myself. Okay, "Yes, literally" is way too harsh.

Alright, this Ryder is not going to make Peebee sad, but I've already planned a Renegade-ish playthrough with a Ryder who values knowledge over everything, so... :D

(Btw, I love that MEA's brand of a more ruthless protagonist is not "uncontrollable brute" but "intellectual snob". As tedious as this game is, I'm already super eager to play character who has those values & takes urgency of tasks seriously.)

This mission is enjoyable and the choice feels maybe the most meaningful... But it has all the classic Mass Effect problems. Kalinda sends a shitload of people to murder us, we murder them, but when she's helpless and we have a finger on the trigger all of that suddenly doesn't matter. Sidonis all over again. Sure, murdering people begging for help is bad in a lot of ways, but she did just try to kill us, a lot of times... Plus, why the fuck can't Ryder jump over and catch the Remnant thing?! That needed to be a second, Paragon interrupt after the Renegade "shoot her." And Ryder is a goddamn biotic, as is Peebee, as is Kalinda! Peebee, Pull is your first goddamn skill! It'd actually be completely plausible if the artifact had shields and/or armor and therefore immune to Pull or Singularity -- but not giving the characters even an idea to try is just stupid!

Tempest

Inviting Peebee to live with together made me revisit my room and inspired me to make some changes. You know what, I'm going to play music in my quarters and change into the short-sleeved pajamas. It's my own ship, why do I walk around it in street clothes? The jacket is stylish but too much to wear at home. I wish we had a "formal" outift for Nexus/Aya/other hubs in addition to the "casual" clothes we wear on the ship.

Shit I went to read someone's post about Peebee's LM and caught a spoilers about the romance post-LM

Addison is right, getting pregnant in that situation was irresponsible

Ah the continuity in this game. "Found more outposts"? I have every possible outpost and all planets at 100%!

"On hold: Place an outpost" bitch where

Voeld

What, there's still a cold hazard?! What was the point of the vault, then?!

Whoa, so the angara believe exaltation not just kills their people but destroys their immortal souls? Wow! That should have been said by a major character during the main story, not by an easily missed NPC!

Oh great, I died and the game refuses to load the last autosave

Dear game. Why did you create four autosaves for the same second. All glitched. Half hour of gameplay lost... God please let the last manual save work. I was sure I saved in between, but just now my PC decided that we still have daylight savings clock change when we do not, and the timestamps on all recent saves are messed up. This especially sucks because I'm trying to rush Peebee's romance because I don't know when the sex scene comes up but I want to make sure it's not when my mom is home while I play it on her PC lol

Tempest

Fuck, that was cute! And Peebee did tackle Ryder, as promised! :D I wonder what she says through Zap in the platonic version...

Addison please don't say the baby screams "like a banshee". I fucking jumped.

"Before you say anything: no PDAs" :D

Level 50! Time to craft myself a powerful new Dhan. I've been running with rank three all this time...

I love that whenever you ask about Kalinda and then return to the general dialogue tree you say "Let's talk about something else" and Peebee responds "YES. Please."

Voeld

Alright, so: the kett leaders are dissatisfied with the Archon because he hasn't reported to them recently, the communication with the kett homeworld(?) might be disrupted in general and the Scourge might be to blame.

Tempest

Damn, SAM has a pretty insightful speech about death! The only thing that can't be rationalized after experiencing it, which is why it fascinates. I actually haven't heard it explained this way before.

My movie night quest hasn't progressed since I brought Jaal his device...

Eos

Ryder watching and playing football with two giant guns floating near her hips... omg

Elaaden/Kadara

What? I'm completely confused by all these identical salarians.

I don't understand this choice. He promises to give us the intel if we let him go... what proof do we have besides his word? And how would arresting him stop us from getting intel from his computer etc?

Reloaded to see both options, chose to arrest him

Havarl

I'm not hugging Jaal's mother wtf

Ryder has surprisingly good facial animation when Jaal shows his mementos

In theory Ryder should like Jaal for being such a nerd but the only thing he makes me feel is mild irritation. His interest in "taking things apart" is an informed quality just like his supposed emotional openness. It's not reflected in his dialogue or storyline at all.

And now I'm finished with all quests in the ally category. I wanted to finish the game asap, but now that we know the patch is coming on Thursday, I'll wait for it.

Multiplayer

Extracted from Silver for the first time as Human Vanguard (level 8, rank IV)! It was against Remnant, so Observers and Destroyers were the only problem. Nullifiers are ridiculously easy for a melee character -- like Ravagers, but without acid.

Got Krogan Vanguard from a pack. Will I have to tolerate the Rage overlay?

The first game with Kroguard was going well, he's got a stong melee even though he's slow... and then wave 6/upload/Kett killed us all :(

Completely unrelated to anything, but I just realized that if you pick the romantic option in the escape pod with Peebee, they don't actually have sex. Call me stupid because that's what Peebee's initial condition is, but I thought Ryder's response changed her mind! When Ryder said "Let's not rush things" I interpreted and meant it in the emotional sense, as "It'd be dishonest to hide that I have a crush on you, but you don't owe me anything, and if you don't ready for a Serious Relationship and Grand Romance yet that's fine because I'm not either, so let's just hook up and leave reflection for later" -- which I thought was pretty sweet and interesting? Because this whole relationship to me was built on the fascinating contrast between Peebee's emotional reservations and casual/flirty attitude, and conversely, on Ryder very consciously respecting Peebee's emotional space. Maybe I just fundamentally don't understand sex and romance lmao. But if character A propositions character B, character B says they have feelings for character A, and the scene promptly fades to black, I assume they do the do because that's how these things are filmed? Only in comparison with the other option, which is actually pretty explicit, it became obvious to me that's not what the director meant. I'm pretty disappointed because I thought it was a good subversion of Jack's "either sex or romance" thing in ME2. And it messes with my headcanon/characterization... I guess I'll have to retcon it into one of the two options. I'll probably go with casual, not romantic in that case. But I just read that Peebee will tell you she's glad you said no, so... :/

Multiplayer

Failed a Silver APEX mission agains the Remnant as a human vanguard :(

Got an asari sentinel!

The patch is here, but I can't launch the game now :( This needs some work.

Ugh, I stop playing for two days and have no motivation to pick the game up again...

#mass effect #mea spoilers #blah blah blah

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slci-lions-roar · 5 years

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Red Dead Redemption 2: Best Game of 2018

By: Dan Cheng (Gr. 12)

Backstory:

In 2010, Rockstar Games released one of the greatest games in history, Red Dead Redemption.

It pretty much set the expectations of what a video game based in the wild west would be like to the highest and broke those expectations with an uppercut through the roof, scaring all the other video game developers out of ever trying their hand in the old west genre.

It told the beautifully painful story of John Marston, a former outlaw turned bounty hunter, as he hunted down his old gang to save his family from the Feds. The gameplay mechanics of Red Dead Redemption, such as the weapon wheel and Dead Eye, have since inspired a great many games that came after. But what did that leave us after we beat the game? Only 8 years of anticipation and conspiracies., Iin 2016, we finally got confirmation that Red Dead Redemption 2 was coming. Having been delayed twice, the game finally released (for PS4 and Xbox One) on October 26, 2018.

Installation details:

Red Dead Redemption requires 106GB of hard drive space available to install. After installation, it gives back 50GB of space back to you, so it only takes up 56GB to keep it inside your system. Delete it and you need 106GB to reinstall it. Capiche? If that’s not enough to make you punch yourself in the gut, the game comes with TWO discs. Yeah, that two disc thing hasn’t happened since “Metal Gear Solid: Twin Snakes” on the Gamecube. Anyway, the first disc is the data disc that has the first half of the game’s data and the second one is the play disc. It has the second half and it's the disc you will use to play the game. What else…?? Oh yeah, the installation is two to three hours long and takes even longer if you aren’t quick enough to change the discs as soon as the first half of the installation is done.

Story Details:

The story of the game is 60 hours long and I’ve only been playing for 17 hours. Yes, I’ve destroyed my social life, mental health, vitamin intake, kidneys, and mother’s patience in the first 8 hours. What is real life? Is it a legendary animal? ...Girlfriend, you say? Is that an expensive weapon? Anyway, the story is a prequel to the first Red Dead Redemption and the gist of it is pretty simple.

Set in the 1890’s, the beginning of the end of the Wild West. You are Arthur Morgan, a member of the Van Der Linde gang led by Dutch Van Der Linde (a major antagonist in the last game) and accompanied by not only the guys you were supposed to kill in the last game… but also John Marston. A robbery went bad in a town called Blackwater and now the government is hunting your gang down. The main objective of the story is to go on the lam and survive off the land. The story so far is quite amazing. It not only engages the player in dialogue, it also makes you want to keep going. Keep seeing how it all plays out in the end. The first chapter, in my opinion, was a little stretched. While it did set up some good introductions to characters, the chapter mainly acted as a tutorial disguised as part of the story when you could have essentially taken that part out all together or made it as an option for players who want a tutorial and as an option to skip for players who don’t… either way, it wouldn’t change the story that much as the beginning of chapter two likes to reinstate the issues in chapter 1 enough that anyone who was just finally starting to pay attention would be able to understand. Either way, it is quite amazing to see how the gang members develop into the villains you kill in the first game. You will play as Arthur Morgan for the first 6 chapters and play as John Marston for the epilogue, setting up the start of the first Red Dead Redemption.

Gameplay:

Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of those games that truly lives up to its predecessor and then some. The gameplay is so vastly improved and dynamic from the first game;, it’s like video games can hit puberty. The mini map design, dead eye and weapon wheel mechanics make a return, but better. The mini map is now interchangeable to a degree that it's more convenient than the tediousness of just pausing the game to open the map. The Dead Eye mechanic no longer relies on a V.A.T.S-like protocol of waiting for you to confirm where you want to shoot, it will automatically mark a spot, allowing you to be quick when using Dead Eye and conserving Dead Eye power. This more reliable Dead Eye also has a drawback in that constantly turning on Dead Eye means accidentally shooting where you don’t want to, making you waste needless Dead Eye power. I like this as it not only makes players treat Dead Eye as a valuable resource instead of just an easy way to play, it also forces the player to get better at hand eye coordination so they won’t rely on Dead Eye. The weapon wheel is pretty much the same as always, with a few changes. Because Red Dead Redemption 2’s game engine is meant to be realistic as possible, the weapon wheel has been limited to only three firearms (or two firearms and one bow) because nobody can realistically pull 30 different types of guns from an invisible bag in their pants (looking at you, Grand Theft Auto V). Switching weapons ingame is also quite cinematic. Say you’re in a gun-fight and you want to switch from your carbine to your revolver. Arthur won’t just sling his carbine over his back or make it disappear from reality. He’ll hold the carbine by the barrel with his left hand and use his right hand to shoot the revolver. This realism of how guns are held was no doubt inspired by Max Payne 3, especially when you get the option to dual wield two revolvers or pistols. One excessively strange feature is the Eagle Eye ability. This is essentially a carbon copy of the Eagle Vision from Assassin’s Creed, most notably the version from Revelations. Eagle Eye essentially slows down time when you walk or crouch (like Dead Eye, but without being able to shoot a gun) and tracks animals you hunt by highlighting the trail they took. Red Dead Redemption 2 is teeming with several things to in your free time when you feel like exploring the world. You can shave your beard, get a haircut, get a bath, get a girl to give YOU a bath, play five finger fillet, order food, order drinks, cook food, go hunting, murder people, rob people, play poker, buy guns, buy clothes, get drunk, rob houses, rob everything, kill everything and most importantly… all you had to do was follow the train, CJ!. No really, Chapter 3 has a mission where you literally follow a train. It nearly broke my thumb.

I absolutely enjoy the fact that there is more customization in this game than the first one, as the first one only had full outfits to choose from and this one allows you to mix and match to create custom outfits while also forcing you to dress according to the weather. Yes, like Breath Of The Wild, you have to dress according to the game’s climate (hot, cold and average). The option to wield a bow is awesome, but I wish there was more than one. As an archer myself, I do pride myself on knowing what kind of wood my bow has and if its a recurve or longbow.

Unlike the first game, Red Dead Redemption 2 focuses on realism, so that means survival needs and hair upkeep. Eating or neglecting to eat will affect Arthur’s cores (Cores are Health, Stamina and Dead Eye). Eating will increase health, but bring down stamina, with neglecting to eat doing vice versa and causing Arthur’s weight to change. Yes, you can be a fat outlaw. Sleeping is essential for keeping your cores recharging at normal speed. The same can be said for consumables, although it does annoy me that Arthur takes one puff of a cigarette or cigar (both of which increase Dead Eye at the cost of stamina) and throws it away. Its surprisingly satisfying to watch Arthur eat a meal or drink coffee at camp while walking into the morning sun. Hair and beard will grow over time, but slowly. It’s annoying if you want to keep short and clean shaven like in the military and agonizing if you want to do Forrest Gump during his three years of running.

The bounty system also makes a return from the last game, but in a much easier fashion to survive and harder to be rid of. Bounties are more realistic, forcing you to wear a bandana to avoid being identified, lest you pay hundreds to the post office to remove your bounty.

Speaking of realistic, the weather in the game is highly dynamic. The snowy mountains feel like Canada during the winter of 2009, the canyons feel peaceful as you gallop through to see the sun shine over the road, the desert landscape in certain towns bring a paranoia of lack of vision and the night is ACTUALLY dark.

Final Thoughts:

Red Dead Redemption 2 deserves a 13/10. It truly is game of the year and nothing can beat it.

Excellent story, a vast amount of activities/sidequests, the most massive playable map I’ve ever seen and near flawless realism with a few hiccups of glitches that are forgivable.

Lets have some moonshine, boys and girls, Arthur Morgan’s story will go down as a classic.

#december2018

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