#The layout doesn't map 1-1

[inkperch]

Oh my fucking god its the vents.

Cassies line about how "it's like an oven!" made me fucking realisr-

The weird,, somewhat nonsensical rooms full of fire sat beneath fnaf6 are the vents we play in, the "labyrinth of sights and sounds, a maze with no exits."

We put the 'scrapped' animatronics and had our own office in the damn basement, how did it take me this long to put together-

[buildthoughts]

Minecrafters Using Reference

Reference as in real world architecture, not other minecrafters' builds, though that's a fair way to learn too. Studying real world architecture gives insights about designing buildings, while studying other minecrafters would give insight into how to accomplish certain effects in Minecraft.

I didn't have more than passing interest in architecture before watching mcyt, but now whenever I'm outside, I'm evaluating the buildings around me. Do I like their shape? color? Any interesting details? Any wear or texture? And above all: How would you do that detail/shape/etc in minecraft? (please note: I don't even play minecraft)

Rendition and Inspiration

There's a minecraft project called BuildtheEarth that's replicating the earth in minecraft on a 1 to 1 scale. There's some fantastic builds on there.

On hermitcraft, Joe Hills is known for creating to scale renditions of real world places/objects. In season 10, he's tackled a project of massive scale with Bell Labs. He used a map from the library of congress to layout all the shapes!

These are examples of renditions/replicas/copies/whatever you want to call it (Although Joe's doubles as a community build area in place of massive parking lots).

Then there's using the buildings for inspiration. This may involve just taking bits and pieces. Or maybe you just take a color palette. Or maybe just the shape. Maybe you don't take anything but vibes. As a general rule, I think having multiple sources of inspiration is important so the new build doesn't end up feeling like a rendition instead of its own thing.

Bdubs in season 9 used the bakery from Kiki's Delivery Service as inspiration for his mud cafe. It can be seen in the wood framing, the stairs, the archway, the shape, the shed, the chimney designs. But the colors, the composition, Bdubs made changes that made it his own and combined the addition to his previous shop Moss o Menos.

The aesthetics of Geminitay's season 10 base is based on the video game Dredge. I feel like the most obvious influence is in her research castle and fishing boats. She used inspiration from the spooky sea creatures in the game to create a uniquely frightening angler shop.

In Pearl's Build a Day series, she did a week focused on real world places. Here's the one she designed after a countryside home in Australia (her home country):

Goodtimeswithscar in season 7, when starting Aqua Town, based his shop on old department stores:

I like looking at his Aqua Town builds in comparison to his Scarland Main Street facades, which draw additional inspiration from Disneyland:

I feel like, comparing the builds you can see how he's grown; he's learned new detailing tricks, found colors and textures that work better with the architecture style. The main street has a similar layout to Disneyland, but his buildings are all unique.

Mogswamp is working on a massive build that's based on architecture drawings from Renzo Picasso:

He's incorporating groin vaults from roman architecture too!

I think builders learning about existing architecture is so good. It can give them so many ideas to add into their toolbox. It reminds them of small details that give builds life, like small sheds, some pipes, porches. And the builds don't need to be realistic; My mind goes to work by Shovel and Joel. Or everything Mumbo has done in season 10.

[hollowed-theory-hall]

My Hogwarts Castle Design

Some of my notes regarding it can be found here and some of my rambling about the castle's architecture here along with the map of the castle's environment here.

In this post, I'm just going to post the images I came to as an amalgamation of all book quotes regarding the castle's structure merged with the basic structure and some floor plan elements from Hogwarts Legacy (since the castle is gorgeous and similar in aesthetic to the movies versions. I'm saying versions because every movie had a differently designed Hogwarts).

Maybe I can make a post regarding all the book quotes that went into this design like Ron saying the lake is to the south of the school (PoA), the DADA and the Transfiguration office have a view of the Quidditch Pitch (OotP, PoA) and the Quidditch Pitch is near the lake (OotP), the lawn for the flying classes is on the opposite side of the grounds to the Forbidden Forest (PS) and the Whomping Willow is visible from the Herbology Greenhouses (CoS), the moving staircases aren't accessible from the ground floor near the Great Hall (PS), Myrtel's bathroom near the DADA office (CoS), hidden passage with the trick step being near the DADA office on the 2nd floor (location mentioned in HBP, but the passage itself is mentioned in multiple books), etc.

So without further ado, my attempt at a Hogwarts floor plan:

There might be some inaccuracies, becouse this was a crazy puzzle to try and make sense of so I tried my best based on various quotes in the books. Locations we know exist but aren't told anything about where they are, were just placed down where I thought reasonable.

I kept the common rooms/dormitories layout similar to that in Hogwarts Legacy (since it's pretty), but I made sure all of them would have enough dorm rooms and bathrooms (which isn't the case in the game).

(I hope my calligraphy is legible enough. I advice zooming in if you want to read all the details on the images)

Dungeons:

Left - Lower Dungeons, Slytherin's Common Room.

Right - Dungeons, Potions Labs, Snape's office, Detention Chambers, the obstacle course under Fluffy's room.

Basement

Left - Actual Basement - Kitchens, Hufflepuff Common Room.

Right - Half floor between Basement and Ground Floor - Hufflepuff Girls Dorms.

Ground Floor

Entrance Hall, Great Hall, Staff Room, Filch's office, Viaduct Courtyard.

1st Floor

Classrooms 1-15, Hospital Wing, Viaduct, Greenhouses, DADA classroom, History classroom, Muggle Studies classroom.

Classroom 11 is said to be on the ground floor, but I placed it on the 1st floor, which is technically the ground floor of the second building. It just worked better with everything else.

2nd Floor

Classrooms 1B-15B, Transfiguration classroom, Ancient Runes classroom, DADA office, Moaning Myrtle toilet.

3rd Floor

Classrooms 1C-11C, Fluffy's room, Charms Corridor, Charms Classroom, Trophy Room, Armor Gallery, Library.

I tried to make the scene in which they accidentally run into Fluffy's room after the Trophy Room, and I think this sort of works for what Harry describes if you squint. The description just doesn't make much sense when trying to keep the general structure seen in the movies/games.

4th Floor

Classrooms 1D-8D, Restricted Section.

5th Floor

Classrooms 1E-5E, Ravenclaw Common Room entrance, Prefect's bathroom, Arithmancy Classroom.

6th Floor

Classrooms 1F-2F.

7th Floor

Classrooms 1G-2G, Gryffindor Common Room entrance, Divination Classroom, RoR.

Towers

Left - Floor 8 - Headmaster's Office, Owlery

Center - Floor 9

Right - Floor 10 - Astronomy Tower

[cosmerelists]

Favorite Video Game Genres of Cosmere Characters

As requested by @thesternest :)

1. Silence

Silence: Don't know why, really, but I like casual games, games that are just like real life. Silence: Something about doing your daily life, but in game form--very relaxing. William Anne: Uh, mama? I think "Silent Hill" is a survival-horror game. Silence: It is? How so?

2. Marasi

Marasi: [Looks around nervously] Marasi: I...well, I like first-person shooters. Marasi: I-I just like to pretend I'm in the Roughs, like Wax! Marasi: I don't want to be Wax in real life or anything, but...it can be fun in a game!

3. Dalinar

Dalinar: In real life, war is a terrible necessity. Dalinar: In games, war is fun. Dalinar: ... Dalinar: I like tactical RPGs.

4. Vin

Vin: Huge fan of platform games. Vin: Jumping from ledge to ledge, controlling my speed and trajectory, occasionally swinging from hooks or managing double jumps... Vin: It's just like moving through the city as a Mistborn! Elend: Your high-score is RIDICULOUS, Vin! Vin: I'm also REALLY good at it.

5. Yumi

Yumi: I wasn't allowed video games for a long time, but now that I can play them... Yumi: [eyes sparking] I've become a HUGE fan of visual novels! Yumi: It's like Seasons of Regret, only *I* can be the one making the choices!

6. Leshwi

Leshwi: Like many Fused and Singers, I find myself quite taken with Rhythm games. Leshwi: Now that it is no longer appropriate for me to fight the Windrunners, I do like to challenge them to Dance Dance Revolution instead. Kaladin: OH COME ON I DEFINITELY HAD THAT Leshwi: I always win.

7. Steris

Steris: I used to think games were a waste of time, but then Wax introduced me to these construction simulators. Steris: My city is a paradise with excellent infrastructure, logical layout, and plenty of greenspace. Wayne: You should try to mod that makes a tsunami hit your city! Steris: Oh please, I beat that mod yesterday on my first try.

8. Navani

Navani: Recently, I've gotten into Tower Defense games. Sibling: I can defend myself, thank you very much.

9. Vivenna

Vivenna: Love a good roguelike. Vivenna: It's something about trying it over and over again until you're perfect. Vivenna: The victory is sooo sweet when you've worked hard to achieve it, dying many times. Siri: Oh me too!! I especially like Hades--the art is AMAZING. Vivenna: (scoffs) You mean a rogue-lite? Siri: I'm telling you--you should try one! Getting powerups in between runs is pretty sweet. Vivenna: Hedging out a difficult victory after hours of blood, sweat and tears is also fun! Siri: If you say so...

10. Lightsong

Lightsong: Soooo addicted to Candy Crush. Lighsong: Can't even tell you why. Llarimar: Perhaps your divine eye is drawn to the bright colors. Lightsong: Whatever makes you feel better, Scoot.

11. Adolin

Adolin: Lately I've become completely engrossed with life simulators. Adolin: I make my character get up, make breakfast, go to work, go on dates, learn the piano... Adolin: WHY IS IT SO ADDICTING?? Shallan: This may be a sign that your actual life is incredibly stressful and the allure of a simple, daily life is drawing you in? Adolin: No, that doesn't sound right... Shallan: You want to date a bisexual vampire? Adolin: ...That could be it.

12. Rlain

Rlain: I'm quite taken with these cozy farming games. Rlain: You just build a nice farm, meet the villagers, explore around. Renarin: Rlain, please, it's been six hours! Rlain: Just one more day...

13. Tress

Tress: I've been enjoying survival games! Tress: It's fun to gather and cook and build a base! Tress: A little bit unrealistic, because the rain doesn't make anything explode, but I guess they wanted to make it easier than real life, not harder.

14. Shallan

Shallan: It has to be MMOs for me. Shallan: I like a game where I can do pretty much anything I want. Shallan: Advance the story, collect every type of mushroom, fill in the whole map... Shallan: Plus, I like leveling every class and giving each one their own outfit and personality. Veil: You named the rogue after me, I see. Shallan: It's a compliment.

15. Kelsier

Kelsier: There's only one type of game for me: and that's a game where the name of the, uh, game is survival. Kelsier: And I especially like it when you have to survive as a team. Kelsier: Especially against great odds--like lots and lots of real-life players. Kelsier: Yup, yup. Kelsier: It's all about Fornite for me.

[change-name-later]

I am done. I am calling this thing done. I know this isn't perfect. It could definitely be better. And I am by no means a draftsman. This is just me with my silly little screenshots trying to make sense of the layout. And now if I wanna draw/write about the inside of the cafe in the future for whatever reason. I have reference of where everything is at.

This was supposed to be a small project meant to give reference to others that didn't want to rely on screenshots alone. Or were like me and didn't have a way to access any fanmade maps. (I do not own gmod). But it's done, enjoy. With and without the screenshot references. As a treat.

If you guys had been following me for a while. You know just how much I had struggled working on this during my free time. However it became so much easier when I realized the square exterior was just a vague suggestion to how things would fit inside. That's for sure...

Anyhoo. Below the cut, you can listen to me crazily ramble on about the issues/inconsistencies I found while making this. But it's fine if you don't read and just want the references. The cut is just me specifically venting out all the slight insanity I felt making this.

Hey you're still here? Cool. Awesome.

So before I begin. Just to avoid any confusion. When indicating direction in the ramble below. I will be referring them in the way I oriented the map. For example, North is the entrance. South in the shelf selling bombs. Etc...

Main Floor/Cafe

1. The East wall has a door leading to the bathroom ("SMG4: The Inspection"). But it exists in a space that is not there.

2. The East wall also shows two windows on the outside. But only one window on the inside.

3. Both the backroom and hidden elevator are also are in a space that doesn't exist.

4. Speaking of the backroom. According to the concept sketch. There are windows on the West wall. Which, yes, should not exist. As we do not see any windows there from the inside. Unless they are being blocked by the shelves. Or those windows are just decorative stickers...

-Though I'm willing to give it a pass since we haven't actually seen that side of the wall in the show.

5. The front window's decal is not mirrored on the inside (this one is just a small nick pick. But something I couldn't unsee once I saw it).

Evil Lair/Basement

6. Past SMG3's bed (East side of room). There's a unknown area that turns off from the left of the entrance. With a solid wall immediately to the right. The tiles could mean it's a bathroom/kitchen area. But we don't see much more of it past the view from the doorway. I point this out because in "SMG4: You Used To Be Cool". There's a part where SMG3 shoots at the fireplace. Creating a hole and revealing a shower behind it.

-It's very confusing how you would get there. Because since there's a wall in the east room that could have lead there. The only other way to get there is the hypothetical space (shown in map) past the elevator to get to this shower. But again, this is not shown. So cannot be confirmed.

Anyways, that's it. That's the ramble. This project was more chaotic than I first thought it would be. And unless the official map comes out and I buy gmod to explore it. I am not touching this thing again.

[songoftrillium]

Werewolf: the Essentials Project Update 12/1/2024

Hello, Kinfolks! So, where is book 1?

In the words of an old teacher: "Vinegar is fine, but wine takes time." If you take something sweet and let it ferment, you'll get a tasty drink sooner or later, but there are many steps between juice and wine, requiring checks and cleanup and careful measuring. Vinegar on the other hand, put anything sweet in any jar and it'll be vinegar in a couple days without trying. It's easy to make something sour, but making something of lasting value takes effort.

In short, the book is not ready yet. I'm still not happy with what we have and it needs a little more work done, both in terms of writing and layout. Some pieces we're waiting for and life just got in the way of some deadlines. Others need some rewrites to capture the pathos right. Others just need laying out and we haven't gotten to them yet.

So, what's our road map for release look like?

Copy editing and layout

In-Line writing

Annotation

Indexing

Preflight

Let's break this down:

Copy Editing and Layout

The copy edit is where you have the written portions of a document and lay it out in a book. This becomes a game of word economy on the page, and sacrifices (and embellishments) have to be written to make things all fit in their sidebars and sections in a manner that is visually satisfying and doesn't waste space. My design ethos is that nobody wants to pay for white paper and double spacing. This isn't a college essay after all.

Where the document template we've been using to write can hold about 900 words per page, the book is tidy enough to hold about 1300 words per page, taking all the preplanned formatting in the master docs largely out the window by the time it hits the page. While we can (and do) perform some formatting magic to flex this number a bit and add graphics to fill out dead page space, that'd require we add and format images for every single page, which I refuse to do. We'd be looking at hundreds of images in the book. While there is some degree of using graphics to fill in dead space, when it's deliberately padded this way on every page, it stands out in an unpleasant way.

In-line Writing

On the note of not using too many images to fill in dead space, I'm doing some writing while doing layout, and by some, I mean a lot. On average I'm adding an extra 100 words per page as I go along. As a perfectionist I'm trying not to make the words empty either, so of what writing I am doing, it's adding value to the book on the whole. While 100 words per page doesn't sound like a lot, in the scale of 250-300 pages I am effectively writing a novel in addition to what's already written. Getting closer to the holidays, people are spending more time with their loved ones and nearly all this writing is being handled myself.

Annotation

This is the biggest one. Annotation involves not just making endnotes referring people to other books but also cross-referencing sections inside the book. If someone sees the word "Rekindling" in the book and clicks it, they can be instantly taken to the main section of the book written on the subject. This elevated the final product to one that is not just informative but also useful at the tabletop for quick lookups.

These cross references have to be added for every instance of that kind of referencing, and that takes time. That same treatment comes for both things being indexed for the back of the book, as well as formatting for the table of contents. This is all well and good, but also, cross referencing cannot happen until all the book sections are added, so there will be additional time needed even after I'm done with the layout. We have our citations ready thankfully, we just need those sections down.

Indexing

Which brings me to indexing, another task that largely needs to happen after all book sections are added and laid out. In order for an index to be effective you don't just need to flag words to add, but you need to create topics and subtopics, and designated white indexed topics are written more comprehensively than others. Like cross referencing, the ability to rapidly find the core articles being indexed means having those sections defined. If you index things without the right topics to place them under you're just doubling the work needing to get done.

Preflight

This one's gonna hurt, and tbh is a massive unknown for how long it'll take to pass. Preflight is a term used by desktop publishing software that consists of a system of checks and error reporting to ensure the book doesn't contain formatting errors before rendering it to its final document. This encompasses word table flow, graphics resolution, and color grading. This is the final check stage, and if we do not pass it, the software may not render the book correctly (or may not render it at all.) WtE as a series is being produced in what I'm calling a "Print-Ready" state. This means the final document is being made at high resolution, in a CMYK color profile, as though it will be printed as a book. To be clear, we are not planning to print hard copies at this time (Paradox Interactive's community content guidelines do not allow printed fan material at the time of this writing.) What this does offer, however, is future-proofing. Should the opportunity present for the series to be printed, it can happen without any ceremony. This will also accommodate higher resolution screens in the future, and we can release a higher dpi edition in ten years.

That said, however, passing preflight is a Sisyphean task, where solving one prerequisite may unsurface others. Converting graphics in RGB over to CMYK is also no one-click operation without things coming out a lot duller in appearance. While it's not hard to do all the proper conversions, it's tedious, and the more images added to the pile, the more time spent converting things manually.

Text being pushed behind the borders of a table is easy to miss and may lead to missing book passages. It's an easy mistake to make, and indeed several older edition books have passages missing for this exact reason. Then, when you bring it to wrap into the next table, it may wreck formatting for the rest of the chapter and need further corrections.

I'll be the one to say giving a fixed release date was a mistake, and it's why I'm not giving a hard release date on final release. I thrive on deadlines, but a deadline on final delivery is a dangerous gamble. I can say confidently we're past the worst of it and that "Soon" truly means "Soon."

The good news is that we're done with writing, but the book isn't ready yet. So, when is it coming out? I'm not sure. I'm at a point where once we're past preflight, I intend to immediately release it, and that's kind of where we're at. I'll have a future update to announce once we're in preflight. When we hit that stage, it could be a matter of a few days or hours until release.

Vinegar is fine, but wine takes time.

In the meantime, enjoy our comic, Cracking the Bone, and we'll see you soon~!

[yayasvalveplay]

https://www.tumblr.com/yayasvalveplay/774783569177493504/but-now-that-is-out-of-the-way-all-they-see-is-a?source=share

Orion might be living the hentai protagonist life rn but internally he is going through the DEPRESSION TRENCHES

Not only does Orion miss Dee; his carrier coding is going crazy from being horny for his baby daddy, preparing for the sparkling–BUT ALSO Orion's also stressing over the truth of Sentinel/Quintessons/Cogs–with what the High Gaurd told him so he's very worried for Dee and the others. As he rests in the crashed quintessons ship, veil over him to prevent overheating a gift. Orion feels like he doesn't deserve to be treated so nicely since he left D.

Sure it was for their sparkling, now that the High Gaurd are teaching him about sparkling care but given what he's been told— he realizes he truly wouldn't be able to care for his baby, to know what to do without them — hence he feels horribly selfish.

He's gonna be a first time mom, it ain't easy for him even with the seekers' help 😭

Meanwhile for D-16, oh that sire coding HITS HARD, it was a little slow for him but when he finally learns what a sparkling is and what Orion left for. THE SIRE CODING OVERDRIVES AKA FERAL

D-16 gets territorial even; It doesn't take a genius for everyone; D doesn't like the new miner AT ALL, its only when at this point will D crash out which honestly better to crash out now that later ngl D-16 sneaking out more— no one dares mention it, he's becoming withdrawn. The miners really want to stop him– he keeps ignoring them or just gives small replies—so out of character for the mech who a stickler for protocol it lowkey scary; the closest ones who barely get enough even then who talk to him are Elita and Jazz.

He's depressed and pissed off; WAY MORE HORNY his sire coding is basically telling him that he only transfered once so HE NEEDS TO FIND HIS BABY MAMA RN, is maybe having a life crisis over protocols, information concealing, etc including what's really happening due to how can they just replace Orion like that so fast. Then the mining accident occurs with Jazz; how everyone was so quick to let him die, where Orion would've helped Jazz, how Elita-1 gets demoted by Darkwing. They simply didn't follow protocol, right? But with extra knowledge currently from the Archives, there surely could've been another way? Orion has his sparkling—Jazz was going to die– why deny aid?

How I imagine D-16 eventually ending up in sublevel 50, is that Dee eventually has his crash out moment which better now than later fr as he gets caught by the gaurds, outrunning really doesn't mean much when you really don't know the layout of the place like Pax would.

D-16 who's running on fumes, emotions a crisis and sire instincts do him in, the gaurds are just done with his shit so they throw him down.

That's where/when he meets B-127. The usual happens, the map is revealed via Steve death. D-16 really should've figured this out — had this been before Orion's disappearance, he wouldn't even entertain the idea. But... it's a start.

I was not expecting to wake up to a wall of text this morning.

But yessss Orion may be living like a queen, gifts to help out with the sparkling arrival. But he's missing Dee, he's missing his baby daddy and wants his transfluids badly, but by the time the sparkling emerges Dee's transfluids have been gone for a while.

In Iacon Dee's sire protocols slap him in the face our of no where, and now he can't really control what he does or say. He knows he's acting feral, more scary to the other bots. Yes he's sort-of ok being near Elita and Jazz. But even then they can push him to a breaking point.

Yes he's also sneaking out more, putting more pieces to the puzzle. Finding out gestation takes a full year to complete.

How long has Orion been pregnant for, has he missed the birth of his sparkling? Will his baby grow up not knowing who he is because Orion refuses to come back!?

D-16 is desperate and wants to find him so badly.

It's how he gets caught. He was so far deep he couldn't stop himself. Now he's on a train grabbing for Elita as they climb up and up, then out, looking at the first sunrise of their planets surface.

I say by this point the baby is born. And for tf baby's it only takes about 2 weeks for them to go to full adults. So by the time this all happens baby Tronus I'd ready to go on his first expedition.

Funny how his first expedition he meets his true sire.

[coldgoldlazarus]

Okay, mostly done screeching in excitement, now it's analysis time.

First point: That purple blast of the turret getting taken out looks great.

Looks like we're opening hot, a lot like Corruption's beginning. Hopefully won't be quite as protracted as the Norion battle, though, lol.

Also, I've seen some jokes already about how this section will end with Samus getting depowered like the openings of Prime and Echoes, but given how barebones her arsenal seems to be here, (missiles and morph ball, which sometimes she just starts with and keeps, maybe bombs too) I don't expect that to happen.

The HUD and helmet edges are a lot more dialed back this time, pushed as far into the corners as they can go. Probably better for visibility this way, but I am gonna miss the more wraparound feel of the previous setup, with the missile count and hazard meter along the sides. But this isn't a bad look by any means, and we still have a fair few items here.

A & B: My bet is this is the replacement for the old hazard meter. In addition to keeping it out of the way, putting it right next to the motion tracker is a good move. I may actually remember to use that more this way.

C: Health bar is obvious, of course, but I really like the move of tucking it away into the notch on the top of the Echoes/Corruption/Beyond(!) helmet visor. The lines around it suggest an empty row above, undoubtedly for the energy tank pips once those are picked up.

D & E: Minimap is present as usual, not really much to say there, but I love the addition of a compass direction scroll beneath it, which should be helpful for putting places in context of the broader map. (Tallon IV's elevator label system, anyone?)

F: Missile count has been shunted down from the side to the bottom corner. I'm interested to see if it will grow upward, or just stay in its present spot and scale accordingly, as you collect more expansions.

G: This is the one everyone's already pointed out, but it seems that we won't have a visor OR beam swap readout.

Scan Visor is still an option as shown in the next bit, but based on the lack of an indicator in the hud, it's probably just going to be a toggle between that and combat, without anything else like X-Ray or Thermal or Echo or what have you. (Or it could be that that would only get added to the HUD after picking up a third visor, but I won't hold my breath for it.) Kinda disappointing to deemphasize one of the cool new mechanics the Prime subseries brought to the table, on one hand, but I'm still grateful to have the Scanner, and the extra ones always did struggle a bit to see much use.

Similarly, a bit disappointed this means we're probably looking at a stacking beam like in Corruption and the 2D games, (unless of course beam swapping is still there and just being left off the HUD until relevant for the sake of cleanliness #copium) but not entirely surprising; I'll live.

But what is interesting is what's there instead. The D-Pad seems to be tied to non-Beam weapons or tools instead, with the missile launcher as the only one available at present. I'm really curious to see what the other items will be; I imagine this is going to be Prime 4's unique spin on things. I saw someone suggest affinity weapons like in Hunters, but given those all function like Beams, it feels weird to me to set them against Missiles instead, ammunition requirements notwithstanding. I'm not going to rule those out, of course, but I could see this being something completely different entirely.

Again, I am very glad to see the Scan Visor is still here at least. Even better is that it uses the full-body highlighting of objects like Echoes and Corruption instead of Prime 1's icons. Pretty minimalistic layout, all told; I like that the scanning bar is a ring now. And it doesn't reflect Samus's face by default like in Corruption, which makes sense since we're not liable to have the same kind of mutation shenaniganry happening here.

I forgot to snag a screencap of this bit on my computer, so forgive the lower quality, but this scene is interesting for a few reasons.

The Pirates' breaching charges letting them into this room just as Samus passes through a gap in the wall overhead is a nice touch, and also remniscent of some sequences from early on in Corruption.

The Federation guys in here seem to be wheeling away someone or something on a stretcher in a hurry. That could be important.

Energy tank up in the rail section, but blocked by a box. Are we just going to bomb through to get it right away, or will we drop down into the room, and have to come back from the other direction to pick it up? (Please be the other direction)

Samus looking spiffy here, even at a distance. And as some have pointed out, looks like she's walking out of a portal instead of a door, pointing to either more dimension-hopping shenanigans like in Echoes, or possibly the time travel elements I recall hearing Tanabe wanted to play with at some point. (This plus the black hole look of the logo makes me think this could be more likely.)

Whatever the nature of the portal, though, the interesting thing to me is the sort of circular structure in the rock around it, suggesting a doorframe almost. A lot of the portals on Aether seemed to actively cut into the environment at random, the rock carved out in perfect spheres with fucked-up edges, and interrupting the pre-existing architecture or geology. In contrast, this looks like it was put here on purpose, implying a more controlled creation. Potentially really fascinating implications in that.

I also kinda wonder if these portals will be replacing elevators as a way to get between regions.

Ignoring the big numbers in the middle, (though they do kinda mess with my prediction that Prime 4 was going to be a 2024 holiday title to avoid getting eaten by Switch 2's inevitable 3D Mario launch title,) a couple things stand out to me here.

Giant tree in the background is giant, and I love it for that. Also looks like it's not the only giant tree here, even if still probably the biggest. I hope we get to go there later.

But in addition, we have a bridge in the middle distance, and a tunnel opening in the foreground. I will eat my hat if we don't get to cross that bridge, and my bet is that they're going to pull a similar trick here as with Skytown, letting low-poly versions of other "rooms" be visible from the current one, but dividing them with interior sections for optimization reasons, allowing for amazing landscapes of all traversible terrain. I loved that there, it looks great here, I can't wait to go explore all this myself next year.

[macbethsymphony]

The Swordsman and the Blacksmith | Chapter 7

Roronoa Zoro x Reader

Chapter wc: 2.5k

Chapter rating: SFW

Content/Warnings: NSFW, 18+, Fem!Reader, Enemies to lovers, SLOW slow burn, Eventual smut

Summary: Your skills as a blacksmith have made you desirable to both the government and pirates. You know you have to leave this island if you want to escape your fate, but that doesn't make the choice of leaving any easier. Roronoa Zoro is intrigued by your skills as a blacksmith. Your work is like nothing he's ever seen before. Unfortunately, you're hot-headed and he's rude and you both definitely hate each other.

Chapters [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Masterlist

Slowly crossposting from AO3 Feel like binging the rest of it? it's all there!

Chapter 7: A Heist Gone Wrong: Part 2

The soft tick of the clock was the only thing keeping your mind tethered to reality. You weren’t quite sure how long you’d been sprawled on the cold tile of the infirmary. You weren’t conscious enough to keep the count in your head. Had it been minutes? Hours? Time felt abstract. Your whole body was numb, your breaths increasingly shallow with each exhale, darkness threatening to take over your gaze. But even as it threatened to claim you, a stubborn flicker of defiance burned within your soul. You refused to surrender to the void, clinging to consciousness with a tenacity born of sheer determination.

Yokubari laid unsheathed in front of you. You had to cover it again, before someone tried to hold it. You attempted to move your hand without success. You couldn’t manage even a twitch of your finger. The sword lay tantalizingly close, its gleaming black blade a stark reminder of the danger it posed in the wrong hands.

Darkness continued its advance, creeping in at the edges of your vision like a relentless tide. Panic set in as you grappled with the reality that the basic functions of your body had begun to shut down.

A distant shuffle of footsteps barely registered in the conscious part of your mind. The sound seemed to come from a world far from yours. Seconds, or perhaps hours, passed in agonizing uncertainty. The footsteps drew nearer. Someone was approaching, and the urgency to protect Yokubari intensified within you.

Boots came into sight, then three swords. Ah. It was the swordsman. He was safe after all. Thank the gods.  

You don’t feel his grip on you as he moved you, the environment spinning violently as your brain struggled to comprehend the sudden change in your vision. The swordsman’s gaze was on you, his brows furrowing in a mix of confusion and concern. “What the hell happened?” He asked, his voice cutting through the hushed atmosphere of the infirmary.

You strained to respond. Nothing.

Your eyes went to your sword. His followed. You watched in horror as his hand went to the scabbard.

No.

You panicked.

Summoning every ounce of strength, you tried to muster a sound – a groan, a whisper – anything that might convey your plight.

“Don’t,” you managed to rasp sluggishly; voice barely perceptible.

His hand stilled. Zoro’s gaze flickered between you and the unsheathed sword, realization downing in his eyes. There was a hint of annoyance in his voice as he asked, “Want me to leave it there then?”

Fuck.

You couldn’t leave it here.

If Yokubari fell into the wrong hands… You weren’t sure you could live with yourself if it happened again.

Zoro searched your gaze for the answer.

“I’ll sheath it as fast as I can, alright?” He said, voice uncharacteristically soft.

You didn’t answer, consciousness starting to fail you.

His hand went to your neck, looking for a pulse. “Shit.” He muttered under his breath. “Hang in there.”

You hazily see him grab Yokubari before the wave of his haki interacting with the sword knocks you out.

Roronoa Zoro found himself navigating the labyrinthine corridors of the marine base, a crumpled map clutched tightly in his hand. Though he would never openly admit it, he was hopelessly lost amidst the maze-like layout. Yet, there was a hint of satisfaction in the fact that he had managed to locate the map – a small victory he anticipated flaunting in the witch's face later, if only he could recall the exact room from which he had made his daring exit through the window.

Before he could dwell further on his thoughts, a commanding voice sliced through the air, halting his progress.

“Hey! You, there! Doctor! Where do you think you’re going?” The taller of a trio of officers shouted at him.

Zoro didn't bother to glance back as he responded gruffly, his frustration palpable. “Got some patients to check on.”

The officers quickly converged, forming a blockade in his path, their skepticism evident. “Patients, huh?” The tall lanky one questioned. “We weren’t informed of any new transfers this month. What’s your name, doctor?”

Zoro let out an impatient sigh, his hand instinctively inching toward the hilts of his swords. He didn’t want to do this. Those officers were barely more than children. Their faces were still round and freckled. “Does it matter? I’m needed in the infirmary. Now step aside.”

The boys exchanged wary glances, unsure of how to proceed in the face of the swordsman's blatant lie.

A pudgier one took the lead from the taller one, “We’ve got protocols here. We need to verify your identification. Besides, the infirmary is that way.” He said, pointing back from where Zoro had come.

Zoro’s eye twitched in annoyance. With feigned compliance, he pretended to search for his nonexistent identification. His fingers were hovering dangerously close to his weapons as he searched his pockets, preparing himself for whatever confrontation lay ahead.

It was then that a tidal wave of power flowed through him. His senses instantly overwhelmed by its intensity as it threatened to drag him under, to drown him under its domination. The air crackled with energy, thick and suffocating, as if he were submerged in an ocean of raw force. Every nerve in his body tingled with the electric surge, and his muscles tensed instinctively, bracing for the onslaught.

But it was too much. He hadn’t been prepared for this assault. The pressure bore down on him without mercy, forcing him to his knees. His hand shook uncontrollably over the pommel of his sword, the haki coursing through him like a tempest threatening to consume him whole.

Beads of sweat formed on his brow as he struggled to maintain his composure. His breaths came in ragged gasps, each one a struggle against the oppressive weight pressing down on his chest.

In front of him, the trio of officers collapsed like marionettes with their strings cut, their bodies convulsing uncontrollably as white foam gathered at the corners of their mouths. Zoro watched in stunned disbelief, his mind reeling from the sheer magnitude of what had just occurred.

With every ounce of willpower he could muster, he forced himself to take in a breath, the air filling his lungs like a lifeline in the midst of a raging storm. And then, as suddenly as it had appeared, the wave of power vanished, leaving behind nothing but an eerie silence in its wake. Zoro remained on his knees for a moment longer, his chest heaving with exertion as he struggled to regain his bearings.

With a grunt of effort, he pushed himself to his feet, his muscles protesting the exertion as he stood unsteadily. The corridor stretched out before him, empty and silent, the only sound the soft echo of his own breathing.

For a moment, Zoro hesitated, unsure of what to do next. He crouched next to one of the marines, taking the boy’s wrist in his fingers in search of a pulse. Nothing. He was dead.

A chill ran down his back. He knew haki could have this effect, but still he’d never seen it happen. He didn’t bother checking the other two officers.

He stood back up. This power, he’d felt it before. But never in such despair. It had felt like a dying animal’s last screech. Dread froze his limbs.

Something was wrong.

Incredibly wrong.

Zoro didn’t need a map nor a sense of direction to pinpoint the location from which the surge had originated.

He ran.

His heart pounded in his chest as he raced through the winding corridors of the marine base, his senses heightened by the urgency of the situation. Every fiber of his being screamed at him to move faster, to reach you before it was too late.

With each step, a feeling of fear gnawed at his insides. He couldn’t shake the unsettling feeling that something sinister had happened. It was his fault. He shouldn’t have let you out of his sight.

The door of the infirmary was open. It didn’t take long for him to understand what had happened. A man in a lab coat was dead on the floor, syringe in one hand, a small vial in the other. His eye narrowed as he searched for your form.

His heart dropped. You let out a ragged breath through your lips. Its sound barely perceptible, almost eclipsed by the tick of the clock.

Without hesitation he moved to your side, crouching, so he was in your vision. His gaze met your unfocused eyes. Recognition was slow in your stare but then there it was, followed by relief.

Guilt settled on his features.  “What the hell happened?” he asked.

There was a struggle in your eyes. No answer.

Shit.

Your gaze left his, to settle on your sword. He followed, trying to understand what it was you were trying to say.

Ah.

Understanding flowed through him. The sword had been what had unleashed the wave of power. With uncertainty he reached for the scabbard. He’d have to sheath the sword.

“Don’t” you managed to rasp sluggishly, voice barely perceptible.

His head snapped back at you. The fuck was he supposed to do then? Leave it there? For some marines to take? The implications of such an outcome made his spine go cold.

He didn’t know what to do.

“Want me to leave it there then?” he asked, awaiting your decision.

He searched your gaze for the answers. No. That’s what he thought. No way in hell he’d leave it here either if he were you.

“I’ll sheath it as fast as I can, alright?” He said, as much for him than for you.

He wasn’t sure if you’d heard him, the consciousness in your eyes slowly fading away. He took your wrist in his hand, looking for a pulse. You were cold, clammy in his grasp. He couldn’t feel it. Panic shot through him, his hand going to your neck.

There it was. Faint but there.

“Shit.” He muttered under his breath. This situation was a nightmare.

He repositioned your head so you looked him in his eye. “Hang in there.” He said as reassuringly as he could before turning to the sword.

He could hear his heartbeat in his ear as his hand reached for the handle. His fingers wrapped around the silk weave. There was a moment of calm before the wave hit him.

His mind seemed to merge with the blade. His haki fighting against the sword’s authority. It threatened to take away everything from him, to consume the essence of his soul. He tried to control the wave that flowed from his encounter with the sword’s will with little success. He prayed you were alright in the aftermath of it.

His gaze locked with the black sheen of the blade. He knew if it went on much longer, he’d lose this battle of willpower.

Without losing sight of the blade, he grabbed the scabbard. His grip tight, white knuckles almost cracking the polished wood.

He had to time this right. He breathed in, summoning all the strength he could. His mind concentrated on the rhythmic hum of the blade, trying to decipher its pattern of demands, to find the right moment.

Now.

With a quick movement he sheathed the sword. The domination the blade had over him stopped instantly.

He’d done it. Exhaustion washed over him as he struggled to find back his breath. He retched. An after-effect of his altercation.

Fuck.

He hadn’t felt this weak in over two years.

He turned back to your form on the floor, feeling for a pulse. You’d passed out, but you were still breathing. Good. He crouched next to you, picking you up and throwing you over his shoulder. His mind raced as he carried you out of the infirmary. His muscles screamed in protest with each step, but he pushed through the pain, his focus solely on getting you to safety. The weight of responsibility heavy on his mind as he navigated the maze-like corridors of the marine base.

"What the fuck happened?" Sanji's voice rang out from the end of the corridor, filled with concern and confusion.

Zoro spared a glance over his shoulder, his gaze meeting the cook's worried expression.

"I almost died! Twice!" Nami's voice echoed not far behind the cook.

“She unsheathed the sword,” he said, as though it explained the situation.

Sanji raced next to him. Taking in your limp body over the swordsman’s shoulder. “What the fuck happened?” He asked again, anger filling his eyes this time.

Zoro looked past the cook, not meeting his eye.

“Sanji, not now,” Nami stated. “We need to get her back on the ship.”

Her plea fell on deaf ears.

“She unsheathed the sword,” Zoro repeated in a daze.

Fury blinded the cook. “You bastard!” Sanji said, gripping Zoro’s coat tightly. “You were supposed to protect her.” He shouted at the swordsman.

Zoro’s eye settled on him. “You think I don’t fucking know that.” He shouted back.

The tension crackled in the air between them, each word heavy with unspoken emotions. Zoro's jaw clenched as he fought to keep his composure, the weight of Sanji's accusation bearing down on him like a physical blow.

"We need to get her to Chopper.” Nami interjected, her voice urgent but firm as she placed a hand on the cook's shoulder, attempting to defuse the escalating tension. "Arguing won't help her."

Sanji's grip on Zoro's coat loosened slightly, his anger still simmering beneath the surface but tempered by Nami's words. With a heavy sigh, he released his hold and stepped back, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

“Brook and Luffy went to get the Sunny.” She said solemnly. “We won’t need an escape plan. Everyone we’ve encountered is dead.”

Zoro took a deep breath, his muscles still tense with adrenaline. He took a step forward, following Nami as she guided him out of the door you’d entered together not even an hour ago. He could feel the weight of guilt bearing down on him, a heavy burden that threatened to consume him whole.

They watched the Sunny approach in heavy silence.

Chopper’s concern was palpable as he took in your form. The doctor hurrying the swordsman to place you on the bed of the infirmary. Zoro tried to explain the events the best he could, answering the questions the doctor shot at him.

He laid your sword at your feet before being chased out of the small room. Zoro’s fists clenched at his sides, his gaze lingering on the closed door. He wished he could have stayed, help in some way. But he knew Chopper needed to focus on treating your injuries. He let his body glide against the outer wall of the infirmary, letting his head fall in his hands.

The ship was well on its way to the next island when the doctor finally left the infirmary.

“She’s stable for now” Chopper said his voice tired but resolute. “But she’s still unconscious. It's going to take a few days for her to recover fully.”

Relief washed over the crew at Chopper’s announcement, their tense shoulders sagging with the weight of their collective worry. Zoro let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding.

He had to get stronger.

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Masterlist

[forevergoldgame]

Episode 1 Progress Update

According to timestamps it's been approximately 3 months since our last update. Embarrassing! This is why I'd never survive as a career social media person. Thankfully, the lack of updates isn't due to a lack of progress - we've been working on the game the whole time. There's just a bit of a story to tell there... you may have heard the phrase, "progress isn't always a straight line." It is a phrase that haunts the mind of every creative, but our contempt for it does not make it any less true.

This post is all good news, though! Keep reading for more details.

So, what happened?

As we said last update, after the demo we more or less jumped right into producing Episode 1. We had a clear vision of the common "beginning of story" pitfalls we were going to avoid, and our strategy for avoiding those. There was just one problem:

We spent so much energy avoiding them in our first pass of Episode 1 that we accidentally ended up ignoring what the story needed and recreating the issues we aimed to avoid.

Luckily, we had only wasted maybe a month or so on this version of the story. We knew it would cause delays, but we didn't want to write an update about it until we had a draft of Episode 1 that we trusted. An update that only reads "um... yeah we don't like it, we're going to do something else but we dunno what yet" doesn't exactly inspire confidence in a project, you know?

It is safe to say we have that better draft now. There are still many scenes to finish and editing passes to be done and bugs to quash, but this improved version of Episode 1 has made it through the uncertainty of development and I can say with confidence it is the version of Episode 1 you will receive.

Compared to the draft we burned, this one is much better suited to the twine medium. While certainly longer than our freakishly truncated first draft, the pacing is far more organic, allowing players more opportunities to play and make decisions as they are brought up to speed on the status quo of the setting and Quincy's place in the world at the outset. Though there is a lot of ground to cover, my hope is that it will be interesting in and of itself and not reek of "unskippable videogame tutorial."

With that out of the way, I'd like to address a question a few of you are probably thinking:

"Will these sort of draft rewrite delays be a common issue?"

Nope! We meant it when we said that our aim for future releases is smaller, frequent updates. The problem with Episode 1 is that it is a unique challenge to build and by nature cannot be a "small update."

There is no other point in the story (aside from perhaps the beginning of Act 2) that is going to be as fiddly as this. Episode 1 bears a lot of responsibilities that other episodes just won't. It has to be a hook for the main plot. It has to give readers enough information about the setting and how it works to understand said plot. It has to introduce a number of core characters. Toughest of all, it has to do these things competently enough that people who read it want to come back for Episode 2!

So, we kind of have no choice but to put in the extra time here. Them's the breaks!

In other news...

The delays on the writing end gave me more time to sure up the UIX and fix/pretty up some stuff I was originally going to let be. I won't detail everything I've done, but mobile users will be pleased to know there will be an adjustment slider for swipe sensitivity and all users will be pleased to know that the layout just generally breaks less in the coming version of the game. I've continued to implement user feedback and make navigation more intuitive where I can.

I've also prettied up some layout elements even though no one asked me to...

...and redrawn other utility art for the game. Look at this map! You can kind of tell what Vestur's landscape is supposed to be like now! You can hardly detect how much I struggled when deciding where the major rivers were!

As we continue to lick Episode 1 into shape, we hope to share more specific tidbits with you all. If all goes well, the phase of development where we can show teaser screenshots is right around the corner.

Thank you for your patience!

-LS

[emblemxeno]

Cindered Shadows Thoughts

Btw if you don't wanna see thoughts on my 3H playthrough block this tag #playing fe3h

-Finished it in exactly 8 hours, at least 2 of which could've been an email /s

-It is truly a microcosm of my foundational issues with 3H as a whole, besides two things

-One is that exploration isn't as tedious because Abyss isn't as big as the monastery, but I guess that isn't really a point in its favor since that's the whole point lol

-The second is I feel like Byleth's dialogue and text selections with the characters is a bit better. There's less instances of , what I describe as "characters extrapolating how Byleth feels in 1-2 text boxes before actually responding to what they said", which I swear is a cause for why the main game reads as if it's 10% longer than it's supposed to be.

-IMO unique map objectives don't save map design that's pretty uninteresting at the end of the day.

The first map's layout is cool! Until it gets reused in chapter 4, where it's only saving grace is a new objective utilizing prior knowledge established in chapter 1. Clever, but still a reuse in a game that infamously spams repeat maps. And outside of Chapters 2 (a slog where you defeat enemies in waves which isn't fun in FE) and 7 (a cramped hall where you have to brace against a monster boss), the other maps are reused from the base game, even chapter 3 is a slightly modified sealed forest.

-Combat itself is so slow, I'm really just debating turning off animations in general when tackling the main game. Not only do the animations take forever, but they don't look interesting, are surrounded by washed out textures and models, and-my personal biggest grievance-have absolutely no momentum nor weight behind them. The Tellius games, from what I've seen, yeah the animations take decades, but from a visual and sound design point, fighting feels significant. 3H also being sandwiched between Echoes (the gorgeous culmination of handheld 3D Fire Emblem presentation after half a decade) and Engage (which to me set a new, high bar standard for 3D FE presentation going forward) is an extremely unfortunate situation and I feel really sorry for it.

-Music still hits though, Shackled Wolves never gets old

-Another thing that 3H does that this DLC reminds me of is the amount of -Stand Around- cutscenes there are. It confused me that Engage gets the most heat for this, when this game does it more, due to more drawn out dialogue, simpler camera angles, stiffer models with fewer animations, and an absolutely diabolical background setup. For a game with an expository selling point, it repeatedly falls short at being engaging in a visual sense, with its scenes always being saved by the phenomenal voice acting. Almost always, at least. The scenes where the Wolves are getting their blood drained while they just stand there is so jarring and bad, it's nearly funny, when it's obviously not supposed to be given the lines, their delivery, and the accompanying music.

-The story from A to B is sweet I guess, but given that the devs said the Cindered Shadows version of events is basically non-canon to what happens in the main game sours me on it. Like, yeah it's cool that the Wolves can technically be capable enough to do it offscreen on their own, but then what's the incentive then for me to recruit them beyond the player's pre-established care? There's no narrative payoff in the grand scheme :/

-Also the whole plot is "what if Yuri, Rhea and somewhat Claude/Linhardt do everything and also these other goobers are here" which became really funny, because after a while even the lines had characters deliberating the sheer amount of coincidences and melodrama that was occurring. 3H style writing shoved into an 8 hour timeframe is accelerated, exhausting nonsense.

-Sothis not being in the plot is fine, because even though it doesn't make sense why she wouldn't comment, it's not like there's anything of value she would contribute beyond her usual schtick of "bratty banter, where are my memories, i sleep now".

Not having Jeralt though? Absolutely ridiculous. I don't like Jeralt as a character (he's my idea of pretty face and that's it), but there's no convincing me why he couldn't be here but Alois can. Love Alois! But he was a device used to have the Knights on standby and nothing more, which Jeralt could've done and it would've let him have a proper impact on the ordeal with Aelfric.

Speaking of which, revisiting this DLC had me thinking... wow this love of Aelfric is veering very close to cult-like, and it's cut short after chapter 5 because we don't go back to abyss once that map's done. I'm left with wondering how the Abyss denizens would feel after knowing that their caretaker was Like That™️, which is a completely foreign feeling to me when discussing 3H's narrative since the game normally never lets it be remotely unclear how the characters or the player should feel about anything ever. So... props for that for making me flex that part of my brain! You did it Fodlan, the creepy custodian plotline that was left dangling was great fridge horror material.

-The constant suspicion throwing and animosity towards Rhea and the church is tiring as usual, and also sometimes downright baseless. Like, at one point it's said that orphans are among those who are relegated to Abyss or otherwise ignored on the surface which is flat out not fucking true, Rhea literally takes in former bandit kids and Remire orphans, what are we doing here.

-Balthus has a cringe "fight the system line" meanwhile he's an irresponsible jackass pushing 30; Constance is written like a joke; Hapi's writing is a joke; Yuri is as incomprehensibly competent and storied as ever and I love that cuz it's nonsense.

-Overall, not godawful terrible, but nothing in it that's worth coming back to in my eyes.

[felixcloud6288]

Dungeon Meshi Chapter 39

Oh I am going to love this arc.

We're now at the sixth floor, the subterranean canals. When the party first traveled here, the level was hot, but now it's freezing cold.

There have been comments all throughout their journey that the dungeon has been shifting and it seems like the shift is more extreme the further down they go. The third floor was the first one that anyone commented on, and it seemed like the layout only changed enough that maps had to be redrawn. Meanwhile the fifth floor changes constantly. Hopefully the sixth floor doesn't also have the whole layout constantly changing thing.

There was no commentary on the fourth floor changing though. Maybe since it's a water level, actually trying to move things would cause flooding so it's left alone. If the sixth floor is a canal, it might also be best to not alter it.

For now, the party is going to look for where they lost all their gear. Does this mean Laios is going to recover that shield he was using in chapter 1? And I hope Marcille finds that soap she lost.

Some discussion about Delgal. I'm still hoping to find out if the Winged Lion was a figure before Delgal or not. When Marcille mentions inscriptions about him, there's a lion head with Delgal's name inscribed, so that should imply the lion was a thing at the same time as him. But considering the magician's obsession over Delgal, it's possible all the random inscriptions were made AFTER the kingdom turned into a dungeon.

But yeah, this chapter confirms that Delgal was the one who gave the offer of the kingdom when the dungeon was first discovered. He's dead and his soul is no longer in the dungeon. Depending on how effective that resurrection Marcille used is at resurrecting someone, maybe the magician might try using something like that if he ever finds out.

Laios actually remembered the stuff he saw in the living pictures. And he also managed to infer the magician's motivations based off that. Laios sucks at socializing and picking up cues, but he's not dumb. He can connect the dots when they're all laid out before him.

Some elf lore. They can live to about 500 years and there are records implying they lived longer. ...Poor Marcille. She's going to outlive the others by a gigantic margin.

I want to know what Marcille was saying but its getting drowned out by Senshi's lack of understanding or interest.

Who's hand does that belong to? No one in the party wears that gauntlet.

Now we get to the fun part. The party escapes the blizzard, Marcille conjures a light source and...

I really need to point out a bunch of details leading up to this moment that makes this so much better. First, and most obviously, when the party grabbed each others' hands in the blizzard, we never saw two people in the same panel. The clones had been made during the storm and as far as anyone was aware, they were holding the hands of the real companions.

Second, before the lights come on, everyone's voices are coming from different directions. Once we know what's happening, it turns out several copies were responding to Laios.

Third, Marcille covered her head during the blizzard. So no one would have been able to see what her hair looked like at the moment the fakes were made.

But still, none of the clones are wearing that gauntlet of the person Marcille was holding hands with. For a moment, I thought it looked like something Shuro would wear but he doesn't wear it either. I'm sure I've seen it somewhere.

I would hope Laios's story of shapeshifters is just a story. Or at the very least, they were only hunting sheep. If their disguises are based on peoples' recollections, it would be easier to hunt sheep than people most likely. A shepherd with 100 sheep probably isn't going to remember every unique feature of the sheep.

For simplicity sake, here's how I'm going to address everyone going forward. From left-to-right, top-to-bottom from this image:

F1 Laios

F2 Laios

F3 Laios

Laios

F1 Marcille

F2 Marcille

F3 Marcille

Marcille

F1 Chilchuck

Chilchuck

F2 Chilchuck

F3 Chilchuck

Senshi

F1 Senshi

F2 Senshi

F3 Senshi

I'd seen images of F2 Marcille from the anime and I always thought it was an edit based on the "Handsome Squidward" face.

So we have the first round of Spot the Imposter. The party eliminates the three Laios clones and F2 Marcille. Then Chilchuck and F3 Chilchuck point out F2 Chilchuck and F3 Senshi's outfits are wrong.

I think it's worth pointing out that F2 Chilchuck helped Chilchuck point out which of the Laios's were fakes. So even though it would be in their best interest to sow confusion, the fakes are acting exactly like the real ones would which includes trying to figure out who the fakes are. The fakes probably don't know they're fake.

In the second round, everyone shows off their gear and the ones with obviously fake equipment are locked away. Funny thing is, F3 Marcille is the one who began the line of thinking leading to this suggestion and F1 Marcille, F3 Chilchuck, and F1 Senshi were the ones who suggested showing their equipment which ended up exposing F3 Marcille, F1 Chilchuck, and F2 Senshi as fakes.

So far the party has managed to eliminate most of the fakes because the fakes keep selling each other out. And in the case of F3 Marcille, selling themselves out.

Marcille points out how F1 Marcille's grimoire has several grammatical errors, but it's never mentioned that F3 Chilchuck's lockpicking tools are wrong. We get a detailed look at them in chapter 13 that we can compare.

The chapter ends with them about to go onto the final round. Everyone else will cook a meal and Laios will observe them and decide who is real based on their behaviour.

The others are not confident considering Laios didn't realize he'd encountered the magician, or picked up on Shuro's feelings, or remembered where he'd met Kabru.

But really, that shouldn't matter. Laios doesn't have to realize a stranger is a specific person, understand anyone's feelings, or recall memories. He just has to pay attention to what the party is doing now and pick up on any behaviours outside the norm.

So who made what? The fakes are based on everyone's thoughts of the others so each of the fakes is what they look like in everyone's minds. I'm going to take a shot at guessing which fake was made by which person and when the arc is done, I'm going to look up the answer and talk about the implications.

Laios

His Chilchuck and Senshi were already stated to be F2 Chilchuck and F3 Senshi. They're very close to correct, but Laios missed trivial details like thinking Chilchuck wears a scarf or Senshi's helmet having holes in it. Along that train of thought, I'm going to guess that he made F1 Marcille. He doesn't remember exactly what her hair looked like before this, but he had a general idea how it was laid out. He also has been learning magic so he'd know enough about what the contents of her grimoire looks like to make a convincing fake.

Marcille

I'm basing this entirely on her being a long-lived species and how she interprets everyone else based on their given age. Back in chapter 13, she called Chilchuck a kid when he said he was 29. So I think F3 Chilchuck and F2 Laios are her creations since she'd see them as teenagers. Meanwhile, I think F1 Senshi is her creation as well for the opposite reason. She interprets him to be older than he actually is.

Chilchuck

Every time we got to see Chilchuck's internal thoughts on the party, it's never flattering. So I'd guess he created the dumbest and goofiest looking fakes, F3 Laios, F3 Marcille, and F2 Senshi. F3 Marcille doesn't have any obvious hints to being stupid, but her grimoire is very much wrong, and Chilchuck doesn't know a thing about magic. It also has the line "Spell to turn back time", which is something Marcille was looking for in front of Chilchuck in chapter 33. The word "turn" was also misspelled and crudely corrected, implying F3 Marcille is not as smart as she acts.

Senshi

He has not been with the party for long. And he doesn't pay much attention to anything that doesn't have to do with cooking. So his mental image of the party are probably closer to caricatures rather than their real selves. His internal thoughts on their looks are probably something like "Laios is tall and he is pretty strong. Everyone says the elf-girl is pretty, but I don't get it. Chilchuck is a little baby who I must protect and nurture." Therefore, I think he made F1 Laios, F2 Marcille, and F1 Chilchuck.

back

[transparencyboo]

For the last two weeks or so I've been playing the Mega Drive dungeon crawler Shining in the Darkness. I've recently been going through all the various action-RPGs the system had to offer and kinda found myself lusting for more, so I expanded the scope.

Shining in the Darkness had one of those cover arts I vividly remember seeing in game stores during the 90s, I understood already back then that whatever this was would be too complicated for my feeble preschool brain, but it had a shiny glossy allure that still beckoned to me with promises of daring adventures and grand battles. Questions lingered in my head: Who is that evil bastard zapping sparks at Cavin from the Gummi Bears? Why has the king entrusted the safety of his kingdom to a meagre boy and his two misfit friends?

Well, it turns out that big bad guy is called Dark Sol, the bane of all game difficulty discourse, and the reason the king has enlisted three poor kids is because there is no one else to rely on after your daddy went missing. Everyone else just sorta gives up along the way.

My initial conclusion of this game was to commend my young self for the striking assessment, my five year old self would never get anywhere in this game between the English text, abstracted navigation and number crunching battle mechanics. Shining in the Darkness is a bona fide classic dungeon gauntlet endurance simulator, where you traverse vanishing point block tunnels and encounter enemies. I've played one or two games like this before, like the original Phantasy Star, but this time a new desire struck me. I wanted to draw maps. Maybe I'm just getting older and more patient, leading me to wilfully ignore easily available resources online.

By my recollection, this is the first time I've dedicated myself to playing a game like this. Usually I just resort to my sense of direction, which I've gathered seems to at least be above average, since anytime I go anywhere with anyone I always end up playing shepherd so they don't get lost. Worst case scenario I'll just fall back to mapping efforts by online heroes from years past. For Shining in the Darkness I persisted blindly about halfway through until I admitted to myself charting a map of the labyrinthine caves would be a lot easier. Luckily, the game allows you to spend 1 MP to see a chunk of where you've walked, meaning I could get neatly organized segments to copy by hand.

Perhaps my biggest takeaway from this endeavour was how much of the game experience was expressed through this map project. I spent just as much time slaying beasts as I did counting tiles and filling them out with my pencil. It became a natural counterbalance that provided vital pacing to the game mechanics. Walking, fighting, charting. In turn, through the principle of learning by doing, I gained a more intimate familiarity with the environments by just replicating them out on a sheet of paper. I found that while the map helped, I actually didn't need it much for backtracking because my drawings had helped me remember the layouts of the corridors anyway.

I guess the lesson learned is that while old design sensibilities may appear to be arcane and cumbersome when easier solutions exists, the obfuscation is part of the fun. The game hands me an intentionally hard to navigate world, shows me that it's fully capable of displaying maps of it, but still asks me to provide that dimension myself. Through doing this, I discover that drawing maps is both surprisingly enjoyable and cognitively stimulating. I realize that had I downloaded some pre-packaged maps online and used as my bible, Shining in the Darkness would've been a vastly different experience, one of monotonous meandering through endless fights while confidently striding along the known path.

Perhaps that's why the game was called Shining and the Darkness in Japan, it doesn't flow as well as the western title, but at the same time it poetically reflects this act of discovery. I am Shining, the game provides the Darkness, we work together, we must unify to become whole.

As for Dark Sol, he turned into a big monster boy and was vanquished by a spunky cartographer child and her two cohorts. The unknown has been made known and the kingdom is once more saved.

/Kiki

[celestiquetower]

How to steal like an artist (and still create something original): creating an environment, part 1

In a previous post I talked about how it felt to make building thumbnails. But there I got lucky that I came up with details to use — usually I have a really big block with that. I constantly want to make something original. To come up with things myself. Therefore I often forget to use references. I used them, but for inspiration for the bigger forms — and the smaller remained blurry in my head. So I was stuck in guesswork and got frustrated often. Then I explored — what's the path to make this work more smoothly?

I started drawing existing building thumbnails I found and looked what made them interesting. A youtube video also helped me (link at the end of this post). Here's what I found out:

Terrain first: The buildings are built on it. Is it flat? Mountaineous? Are there broken off rocks nearby? Is the building on a cliff?

Complexity factors to make them look interesting: height and width variety & depth (overlap of different parts) and size variety

Surrounding nature: Maybe there is a tree or ivy growing at the building?

Use simple forms to create: Simple forms are simple, but adding them together or cutting parts of them is what creates complexity & interest

These are the fundamental things to build the silhouette. But how do I come up with detail? Here's what I found out:

I decided to take Chinese and mediterranean architecture vibes and threw together some references found on shutterstock and normal image search. Usually it's better to use few references so that the results remain cohesive, but I gathered a bit more for the exploration part — for the separate designs I'll limit myself on fewer forms.

I put these references together and outlined some forms that I liked on these pictures. Now I need to decide: what kind of building will it be? Important buildings would be bigger & detailed, while simple houses are kept less eye-catching for composition purposes. I will go with a gliding tower placed on the highest point in the kingdom.

I am doing a wind kingdom on plateaus — so this time I need to have an image of a place, not just a building. The building is just the focal point. But I have big difficulties imagining a whole place together (usually photos of cities look like a lot of houses thrown together into a pile and organically grown cities are too structureless for me to understand and implement at this point), so how will I do it? Let's take a look on a few top-down views of villages (because cities are too complex to understand):

Often villages and cities form around its terrain. The buildings are arranged in an imperfect grid. Simplest layout. But if I build a top-down layout of a lot of buildings arranged in a single grid it will look too uniform.

Radial layout from the center creates some "pizza slices" and continues the road in different directions (up/down/right) and break in smaller branches. The center is a clear focal point + the right road leads to a second, secluded one, on a more mountaineous terrain. But generally, we can see how these houses are grouped together in clusters.

That's something we can try now. I will go with this shape of plateaus arranged around a lake:

I roughly divided the platforms into a grid going from the tower. Doesn't have to be final, we just need something to put our houses on.

Randomly spread some houses on the "slices" I created and added some shadow to roughly indicate the landscape (value variation would also do, just haven't thought of it right away). The streets naturally formed in-between the houses. I haven't done everything since I just need the part around the tower.

Now I have an idea of how the environment looks like and I can map it better in my head. Now we need to define the buildings in this area: the tower, safety gear store, maybe a small restaurant, pantry with stuff to maintain the tower or an administrative building, since it's the focal point of the city, someone's houses. Normally defined by function. We also can add some nature around. When I have difficulties deciding what's going to be there — I ask ChatGPT what types of buildings could be in such an area or research. Doesn't always come naturally to me.

Now to thumbnailing the buildings! I start with just randomly stacking some boxes in 2d frontal, rooftops and some forms using the observations stated before: terrain (flat), height and width variations & overlap and size to make this look interesting. I'll explore some more iterations behind the scenes (the first idea usually isn't the best one).

In my experience, it's inadvisable to start with complex shapes right away. Use simple shapes (boxes).

Once I'm satisfied with the silhouette I go back to the details I outlined on the references and use some of them to bring these boxes to life. Basically the things we "stole". Some simple shadows for depth. I will do the same again for smaller buildings, but with less complexity.

I will continue with drawing this in perspective and thumbnailing in part 2 so it doesn’t get overwhelming all at once :) (I am out of breath myself)

[19thperson]

19th's Steam Next Fest Impressions June 2025 Edition - Day 1

Okay, even discounting real life stuff going on, jumping back to back between Hundred Line, Deltarune, The Summer Game Fest showcases, and Next Fest happening immediately after, I am exhausted with all these self imposed game obligations.

But the show must go on.

Beyond The Board

A puzzle game where you play as a Rook going, as the title suggests, beyond the board.

During a chess game, the ground suddenly falls out beneath the pieces and they find themselves in a vast tiled dimension beyond their understanding. (I hate it when that happens.)

The puzzles are either "Traverse this space, using turn-limited switches to reshape the map," or "corner the black chess piece using the asymmetrical layout." There's some interesting stuff done with the fact that the player can also be on walls as long as they're properly tiled, but it's not fully explored here.

The demo does have a boss battle, against the "eldritch king." He shoots lasers at you in set intervals, as a chess king normally does, and you have to move to jump between solving the puzzle and dashing for cover. It felt a bit trial and error.

Despite having a really abstract and kind of thin premise, I am really liking the games aesthetics and overall vibe.

Everdeep Aurora

A metroidvania about a little cat thing in the underground looking for her mother.

First thing's first, the presentation is really nice. I like how the palette changes from area to area. It gives spaces that would normally blend together some more identity.

General movement is alright so far. It's definitely at the early metroidvania problem of the player instinctively being able to tell their kit is incomplete. Oddly enough, the dig mechanic that seems to be the centerpiece of the game is barely used here.

The demo felt... weirdly aimless? The protag wakes up with a letter from her mother saying to meet in "their usual place." She walks five feet to the right, and suddenly the neighborhood kids in a dilapidated mansion are trying to scare her away by pretending to be ghosts. When that fails they set up a hide and seek game for the right to explore deeper into the mansion.

I do not know why I am doing any of this, or how it relates to my search.

The writing wasn't all "bad," though. There's some fun implied lore, stuff like a brewing workers revolt, vague statements about the surface being unsafe, and some implied history, but it's mostly vague hinting. There were also an odd number of NPCs with no dialogue whatsoever. Those could have been used to flesh out the scenario a bit more.

In conclusion, an interesting game whose demo doesn't put its best foot forward.

Prison of Husks

A late PS1/early PS2 styled soulslike, with a heaping helping of Fumito Ueda.

You play as a nameless "doll," who wants to escape the prison they wake up in. You fight other dolls and enemies with a sword. There's lore probably.

The game makes some major deviations from the souls formula. There aren't any player stats, just weapon stats, and enemies don't respawn with saves. It seems to be stripping away most of the RPG aspects, and aiming for more straight action.

This game's parry equivalent, a perfect block, doesn't seem to stagger enemies, instead just auto-refilling your stamina. The player has armor points that let them tank a couple hints, and those can only be refilled with a crit. Crits are only available if you've emptied the enemy's refilling poise bar. It all comes together into a system that encourages aggression, while still trying to heavily punish player mistakes. The only thing missing is a good sense of "impact."

I'm enjoying the throwback graphics, but there's some odd disconnects. The game's presentation is deliberately low resolution, but parts of the UI and menus are way too crisp. I get it's probably for readability, but it clashes.

The demo is pretty dense, featuring both some hidden areas and two bosses. My main complaints at the moment are technical. One enemy, when strafing me, looked less like they were stepping and more like they were gliding in A pose. I was also able to cheese the demo-end boss by getting it clipping halfway into the ground.

Generation Exile

A management game where you try desperately to keep a dying generation ship alive after the attempt to flee a ruined earth goes pear shaped.

I am bad at management games in general, and tend to bounce off them early. This game caught my interest because it seemed more plot focused. If there's a good story hook, I can imagine dragging myself through the learning curve. It worked for Lobotomy Corporation, after all.

That wasn't what I got. That isn't to say the trailer is lying. It's just that it seems special events are not frequent. The cast seems procedurally generated too, so it doesn't look like there will be much overarching character arc stuff. I'm sure there will probably be an overarching mystery to follow, but I could not get near it before I just got frustrated by my ass building placement, wanting to start over.

Whether or not its an especially good management game on its own merits is someone else's wheelhouse. Not a great judge of this genre.

Neon Inferno

You're two badasses who run n gun their way through both the NYPD and the yakuza. That's all you need to know.

This is an arcade ass arcade game, for better and for worse. The default difficulty is "arcade," and every other option dials it down from there.

The presentation is top notch. This is some quality spritework. A lot of the art direction feeds back into some of the game's more interesting gameplay decisions.

The game is a Metal Slug-ish run-n-gun, but both the player and enemy sprites take up more screen real estate than usual. To add more threats, there's also a foreground layer of enemies to deal with. The player can shoot into the background, but they can't move while doing so. Combine this with a chunky hitbox, and it's a game where you can easily get checkmated if you aren't keeping enemies under control.

The player does have some extra defensive options, but they're intentionally limited. There's a dodge roll, but it's a relatively short and slow one. There's a bullet parry, but only special green bullets can be reflected.

This is a game that demands not only good reflexes and spacial awareness, but also a little bit of routing and optimization. Which means, depending on your tastes, it'll either be a nail biting challenge or drudgery.

I thankfully landed in the former here. I really liked it.

[lightningarmour]

ABSOLUTE UNIVERSE First Wave

Back when they were new, I made a whole post going over my thoughts of the first issues of the Absolute Universe titles, and now with the release of Absolute Superman #5, and the incoming release of Absolute Flash #1, it feels like we've reached the end of the first "wave" of this experiment and I want to review and expand my thoughts about these titles now that each has had time to stretch it's legs and breath a bit, and each series seems to have been structured as a 5 issue debut story arc, so it feels like as good a point as any to really assess the merits of each series. One issue isn't always enough to go on but by 5 it seems like you should be hitting your stride, and well, maybe I'll just get into it.

ABSOLUTE BATMAN: THE ZOO I was obviously unimpressed with issue 1, and Batman is a character I already have many problems with so I might be acting less generous to this series than the others, but I really think that this one is just a poorly executed idea. Of all three series it feels the least like it's committed to the premise it's alleging to present.

Basically the entire story arc spends way more time on all the parts of the first issue that I hated and pretty much completely ignores all the parts I did like. Beyond the first issue we get almost nothing to do with Bruce Wayne's civilian life as a supposedly working class construction worker or whatever the hell he's supposed to do. We get none of the "examining Gotham and what makes a city a living thing" like I was pontificating about in my last post.

Instead basically all we get is more edgelord Batman having access to just an absolutely ludicrous amount of resources and assets. He has a fucking like excavator dump truck as a Batmobile that also is a transformer that turns into a giant car. Where did he get this, how did he modify it to be a transformer. Why did he make a bunch of safe houses throughout the city in the exact shape on the map as his bat-symbol? There's no way that's the most convenient layout to have hide-outs, it's just to look like a bat. How did he do a controlled demolition of a skyscraper to have the silhouette of the exploded building look like his face? It's all so stupid to the point of taking me out of the moment because it really just makes it all feel like it doesn't matter. Fucking anything can happen. In the final issue he's shot by guns at point blank range and literally set on fire with a flame thrower and falls off a fucking building, and he just kind of walks it off. Like yeah we're meant to believe he's hurt but like, it's not going to be in any way that prevents him from doing Batman shit.

Absolute Batman is also the only series so far to full on have a filler-issue complete with backup artist. Which suggests to me that the scripting for this series is kind of a mess. Issue 4 is 100% a flashback to Bruce's childhood with him like, inventing the super material that his cape is made of or whatever. In this issue we also see a flashback to the like 1.0 version of Batman which is an eye-roll reference to Golden-Age Batman, and in this sequence Bruce mentions that he is wearing fake fangs dipped in a paralytic neurotoxin. WHERE THE FUCK ID HE GETTING NEUROTOXINS? Like he is supposed to be just a guy.

The ultimate "climax" of this story arc being that Black Mask offers Batman like 20 million dollars or something as a bribe to just let the party animals keep doing crimes for no reason and Batman pretends to accept before setting the money on fire, presumably because he doesn't need it anyway because he just has plot-armor and weaponry anyway so why need the money?

Oh yeah, also the whole reveal of the party animals being that it's basically like an augmented reality crime video game where you get paid thousands of dollars in crypto-currency for killing people and causing mayhem(presumably all financed by Da Joinker for yadda yadda reasons) is pretty lame, and just feeds completely into the inherent fascism of superhero fiction. There is just completely motiveless crime happening all the time by faceless, barely human criminals and they must be violently punished!

Much like Bruce Wayne's position as part of the working class, any attempt to draw any real like, social commentary to this problem is done completely aesthetically and with zero conviction. Black Mask goes on facebook live or whatever and gives a little screed about how the rich take advantage of the poor and corrupt politicians let it happen or whatever so fuck it why not commit arson on a daycare full of children for 10,000 dollars? It's so hollow and full of shit.

The final gripe I'll waste my time on here is that this also feels like the least complete full story arc of all three series so far. Issue 5 ends with Batman beaten up and in retreat, and then just like, the party animals leaving crates full of guns and animal masks on the streets of Gotham. So like, the party animal thing is just going to keep going, it's entirely unresolved and if anything, escalating. Batman accomplished nothing.

ABSOLUTE WONDER WOMAN: THE LAST AMAZON Hands down the best of the ABSOLUTE line so far and it's kind of not even close. I'm going to once again attribute this to the fact that writers probably have more freedom to kind of do whatever they want with Wonder Woman because her supporting cast and rogues gallery and whatnot are not as iconic and like, pop culturally ever-present as Bats or Supes. So because they're not trying to include quite so many prescribed story beats, you can do something much more creative with it.

Also, I think what I said last time still holds true in that, the pacing of this first arc is just much better than the others. Both Batman and Superman each have a whole single issue of their first 5 dedicated as a flashback to fill in backstory details which takes up a lot of time in a 5 issue story. Wonder Woman manages to avoid that and have a story that is always moving forward while still utilizing flashbacks issue to issue to give you relevant information, and even still manages to lay some crumbs and keep you curious about the details. It's all done so well.

In my last post I definitely complimented issue 1 for being brave enough to not feel the need to do a lot of character cameos for the soyface reaction, which I still stand by, but it is pretty fucking funny because like, immediately in issue 2 they introduce Steve Trevor, and from there you meet Barbara Minerva, and Etta Candy, so they do also play the hits, but it feels less forced.

This opening arc also has a great sense of like, escalation to the action. Each issue you get some kind of new weapon or tool or skill Wonder Woman has in her arsenal to help solve the problem she's faced with. Pretty interesting twist reveal that she's missing a fuckin arm. That's a change that feels like a meaningful departure from classic Wonder Woman, in a way that say, Batman doesn't have anything that really really makes him feel like a different person.

The artwork in Absolute Wonder Woman is still my favourite of the three series so far, and tbh it has probably the best panel layouts as well. And on top of everything else, it's just the fucking coolest. Again, Wonder Woman riding a skeleton Pegasus, fighting monsters with a big ass Guts sword? Bad ass! There's a part where she casts an enlarge spell on her big ass sword and it grows to be absurdly huge so she can use it to slice a kaiju sized monster in half. That fucking rocks. And then she polymorphs into Medusa which is pretty wild. Very interested to see if that becomes a recurring kind of bit.

Overall, everything about the series just clicks. It's good, folks.

ABSOLUTE SUPERMAN: LAST DUST OF KRYPTON I certainly had some aspersions after the first couple of issues, but I think looking at the first 5 issues as a whole, it comes together pretty well, if maybe lacking some real iconic or kind of "stand out" moments. As with Batman you still have the baggage problem. Trying to fit too many of the origin story parts into this while still actually having something happening as part of the main plot, and I think overall not much really happens and that's a bit of a let down.

Overall I really like this set up. Refugee Superman fighting against an evil exploitative corporation and it's PMC army. Good stuff. Lois Lane as a military operator makes sense, if you're looking at this all as like, her being pressured into joining the army by her asshole dad instead of being able to follow her passion of being a reporter and whatever, but as far as what the result is, I don't care much for jarhead Lois. The Brainiac thing I still find a bit odd and I am curious to see how that all plays out and ties in, but in a more cautious way than I am to learn about say, all the shit with the gods and Amazons in Wonder Woman. It seems like there's going to be some kind of overarching thing about like other alien technology being swooped up by Lazarus.

I'm a bit torn on the Krypton stuff. On the one hand, it is all incredibly heavy-handed, especially with the whole like, "society controlled by AI" thing. Feels maybe too on the nose but then again we do not exist in a world of subtleties anymore, so I suppose why not have the like Ecological destruction of Krypton by a caste of self appointed techno-supremacists? It seems as though Krypton is fully dead and gone so the fact that it's society is a kind of ridiculous exaggeration of ours is fine and doesn't need to raise too many questions.(although I do have my fears that they left it too open to other kryptonian survivors showing up eventually.)

The reveal that Kal-El has only been on Earth for like 6 years is very interesting to me, and I think makes a really interesting change in his character. So he has obviously living memory of Krypton, but not even like, oh from when he was a young child, but like incredibly recently, and when he was old enough to understand what happened and why. So he crashes on Earth and probably immediately starts seeing the reflections of Kryptonian society in Earth and now has this almost desperate need to try and save us and this planet from ourselves so the same thing doesn't happen all over again.

Jimmy Olsen being part of an eco-terrorist organization is kind of funny to me. Like yeah fuck it why not, though I'm unfortunately going to guess right now that they are going to set up some kind of conflict between Superman and the Omega Men where they are fine with resorting to violence and don't care about civilian casualties or whatever and Superman will have to come in and say "No, it is morally wrong to do acts of violence or sabotage against capitalist enterprises, instead you should vote" or some bullshit.

Superman having an AI voice in his suit doesn't bother me as much as it did in the first issue because mostly Superman kind of doesn't do much in this opening arc so there's not that much time to see how his AI thing really behaves or whatever. There's an extended bit in issue 2 where Lois handcuffs herself to Superman and the suit spends the whole issue doing some kind of stupid glowy bullshit to get it off which is like ehhhh.

Overall I really ended up liking the visual effect of the dust cape, that's a great artistic choice IMO, but I kind of don't like that it's a nanotech thing. Where his suit like, dematerializes to create more of the cape, and also like heal wounds? What happens if he runs out of Krypton dust? And we see the same technology in the Krypton flashbacks like acting like a nanotech 3D printer or whatever where the suits and spaceships and even weapons and shit are all just materialized out of the red dust stuff, so like can Superman just turn his suit into a gun or something? It feels a bit too far afield for what Superman's shtick is supposed to be.

And like I said earlier, this opening arc is really lacking in big moments that make me go "Oh hell yeah, this is some quality Superman." Because mostly he saves a bunch of people in issue 2, then the rest of the story is Krypton flashbacks and Lois Lane trying to track him down. By issue 5 I think it ends on a good "the stage is set" moment where I think things can really start happening and gaining momentum, but that's just speculation.

So in conclusion, it's still a 2/3 on the Absolute Universe with one of those two massively excelling over the rest, but I'm hopeful that Superman has hit it's stride.

as for the future, I'll probably do another post for the first issues of wave 2. Preliminary thoughts are: Flash is a Wally West story written by Jeff Lemire so I can't possibly hate it, Martian Manhunter looks so interesting and unique and experimental to the point where it will probably be the single most interesting and different of all the Absolute line. And Green Lantern sounds kind of lame, if I'm being honest. Just kinda don't care about Lanterns that much to begin with, and the fact that it's starting off with the ensemble cast is kind of whatever because I'm of the opinion that there are too many fucking GL's.