#actually i really appreciate game with choices adding this type of stuff | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

karaageandtarts · 1 month ago

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i got my sick ass out of bed for this, appreciate it/silly

For Bellamy -

Have they ever gotten collared by Riddle? For what? How long? How often does it happen?

How many rules have they memorized? How many do they actually follow?

What's your OCs favourite flower? Would it be realistic for them to grow it in their room/on the dorm somewhere?

Do they work at the Mostro Lounge? If so, what position? Was it by choice? Do they enjoy it? What's their biggest customer pet peeve/most ridiculous request they've seen/heard?

What DnD class would your OC be? (I ask this bc I feel like. Pomefiore has the most diversity in that aspect than any other dorm)

^ i added this because i die for DnD AUs

What's a hidden talent they have?

What's a hobby they enjoy doing alone? What's a hobby they enjoy doing with other people? If it's gaming, what type of games do they enjoy most?

How competitive is your OC? How easy is it to rile them up?

Is there anything your OC would infodump about? How do you get them to share? Do they ever get insecure about their rambling?

Does your OC ever find out what Idia's (canon) UM is? If not, do they have a theory on what it might be? What is it?

What's their relationship with their parents? Siblings?

If they could magically change ONE aspect of their life immediately with no repercussions, what would it be?

ya girl likes her questions. if this is too many you can also just smite me and answer the ones of your choosing (flutters eyelashes)

AHH, I've been chipping away at this for days now-

Have they ever gotten collared by Riddle? For what? How long? How often does it happen?

Nope! Riddle's threatened like "If you were one of MY dorm students, I would have taken you head three times over for interfering." (Doing things in Idia's place as a nobody messenger again) and liiikee... one of their 2nd-3rd meetings ever, he got really close because at the time the major (heh) infraction of "interfering" with classified dormitory work, AFTER he was told to stop, was unacceptable. Trey stepped in though, and even lied and said he didn't KNOW Bellamy wasn't a vice or anything, and he'd asked him for a favor. (Like in his Ceremonial Robes(?), Trey sympathizes with Bellamy the way he (wrongfully) does with Jade, thinking they're both just vices who get a lot of work put on them by their heads. So he's sliiightly more willing to shoulder some fake blame.)

How many rules have they memorized? How many do they actually follow?

Even though Major isn't a Heartslabyul student, he knows quite a few!! Less than Trey, though. (Most of them he learned in passing while doing things that required visiting Heartslabyul. He does admire Riddle's dedication to the rules though, so he learned some more niche ones out of respect..)

What's your OCs favourite flower? Would it be realistic for them to grow it in their room/on the dorm somewhere?

Ooh.. I think Bellamy would just find all flowers cute/pretty, but likes the smaller ones that grow in bunches the most, like Milkweed! Considering she lives in Ignihyde... I don't think any flowers are growing in there 💔 unless it's like. one of those engendered underground greenhouse gardens.. and the main perk of Milkweed in particular are the butterflies!! So no lol.

Do they work at the Mostro Lounge? If so, what position? Was it by choice? Do they enjoy it? What's their biggest customer pet peeve/most ridiculous request they've seen/heard?

He's been forced to pick up a few shifts in Floyd's place, and he HATED it at first... but the way people just let loose in Mostro is very unique, and very useful for collecting gossip. A lot of the customers talk really loudly too, so he doesn't have to make as much of an effort to get in (if Mostro has a break room, I know what they say in there would never see the light of day. Juicy stuff.)

On top of that, Bellamy has a fairly large palate, being in the Gastronomy/Gourmet Club, after all. So sometimes he DOES judge what people order (I wouldn't say the weirdest, but the people who don't like seafood who still go to Mostro, which no doubt has a seafood-based menu... are you serious?)

What DnD class would your OC be?

🛐 I don't know much about DnD beyond rpghorrorstories and a few podcasts I'd listen to in the bg sometimes, so... being basic, maybe Artificer :3? Or bard. For Vicious Mockery.

What's a hidden talent they have?

"Talent" uhm, uhmmm.. maybe sense of balance? As in physically wwasbs. Maybe it's just not expected out of a sheep with a docked tail.

What's a hobby they enjoy doing alone? What's a hobby they enjoy doing with other people? If it's gaming, what type of games do they enjoy most?

Like any classic Ignihydian, Bellamy likes video games... alone. Due to his eyes, he actually can get overwhelmed by the screen and lose track of what's going on, which is not good for multi-player.. It's also embarrassing to let other people see how distressed he gets after multiple losses lol. He also gets a little impatient when it comes to simulators or VNs (Thinks they're tedious). But he likes rpgs, especially the rpgmaker type.

How competitive is your OC? How easy is it to rile them up? Well, depends! There's riling up Bellamy 'righteously', in whihc he gets worked about the twst idol version of Dawn Bellwhether and Judy Hopps- he'll go on full defense mode for them. But even then, that's the more squeaky 'Uhm, well..!'. But he thinks they're on the level of the Great Seven. With people, he'd probably only internally compete with them lol.

Is there anything your OC would infodump about? How do you get them to share? Do they ever get insecure about their rambling? Previously mentioned, the twst version of of Dawn Bellwhether and Judy Hopps. They're probably called something like the Reliable Deputy Mayor and Rabbit Enforcer or something lol- the City of Beasts' culture is viewed very childishly at NRC, especially by Savannaclaw, so he gets a little insecure about it around them. Does your OC ever find out what Idia's (canon) UM is? If not, do they have a theory on what it might be? What is it? Bellamy takes an active part in Book 6, so yes. He doesn't know the incantation, but he does know what it does. What's their relationship with their parents? Siblings? 🐑🐑🐑 If they could magically change ONE aspect of their life immediately with no repercussions, what would it be? Bro lowkey doesn't want to be a sheep lol

#cephalotyrant ask #major bellamy

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neurotonic · 1 year ago

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Auuu...for the ask game: number 9 and/or 16 with starstruck or roxanix your choice

@enhanced-operatives-division

YEAHHHH I'll do both of these questions for both of these ships. I cannot be Stopped. ONCE again this got way too long so.. answers under the cut! [questions from here!]

JUNICRANE / STARSTRUCK:

9. soulmates by fate/chance or by choice? I think they're soulmates by choice! They had to work hard to get where they are right now...They didn't think they were destined for one another, especially with the circumstances of their first meeting (for Reggie at first, it was all but an impossibility: an actor falling for one of his fans? That's ridiculous! and a Zoraxis operative falling for an Agency handler..........)

When they saw each other as equals, when Juniper actively makes amends, that's when they felt things finally click. I think they'd both find it special because of the work they both put into getting closer to one another.

16. three to five non-sexual acts of intimacy. I think at the start Juniper would be the type to buy a lot of gifts for his partner...but since he doesn't have that amount of money by the time he finds Reggie (in my head) I think he finds intimacy in talking about anything (like flowing discussions), doing chores together, and sharing things about himself. Being open about himself and his interests is a struggle, but he finds Reggie so comforting he allows himself to be...well, himself! It's nice. He also likes the rhythm of domestic life To Be Honest. He could be physically affectionate too, like he's a bit touchy-feely with Reggie. He quickly finds that doing this without a script is infinitely more enjoyable.

Reggie, on the other hand, also likes to talk and talk and talk about anything and everything, so at least they're both enjoying that. The thought that Juniper's actually listening to him makes him feel content. Once in a while he'll vent to Juniper--it's a little strange, but Juniper reassures him that he doesn't mind...before he starts to trash-talk whoever Reggie's having trouble with (reassuring...?). He's also very big on cooking/baking stuff for people he cares about, so he does that a lot for Juniper.. his calories....And of course, the classic: falling asleep together in each other's arms. Lol and lmao look at these gay guys

ROXANIX / KINETIC MOCKTAIL:

9. soulmates by fate/chance or by choice? Soulmates by fate, in the sense that they were each other's fated rivals (what's more homoerotic than kickstarting each other's character arcs lol), but the road to friends and lovers was chosen on purpose. They chose to stick together and save each other.........like COME ONNNNNNN!!!!

Obviously it took some time for Prism to get around to that point, but for Phoenix it was a faster choice, more for the fact that they don't have an ounce of vengeance against her.

16. three to five non-sexual acts of intimacy. For Phoenix, it's spending time to understand Prism's interests so they can help her work. They're her little science assistant :'3 It's a little slow-going for Phoenix, but they understand the important parts..........well. kind of.........BUT they're trying okay?? There's also an added bonus of listening to Prism's sweet sweet voice while she infodumps on them, which they love to bits. Additionally, they lovee trying to pull Prism back into bed so they can cuddle more (and also it's an effective persuasion technique for Prism to get more rest than she allows herself to). They're also quite silly goofy, I feel like they love cracking jokes and making Prism laugh. The corny ones get her the most and Phoenix is always so proud.

For Prism, I mentioned it earlier but generally being able to infodump about her interests is something she considers really intimate, and she appreciates that Phoenix listens to her every word. Her passions have been either rejected or used against her, so it's hard for her to find comfort in that again. But...she trusts Phoenix. Phoenix trusts her. It's okay. She also likes to return their warm ass cuddles. They both do this a lot, Prism more so--she kisses their scars a lot...reverently, like a reminder that she loves every inch of them. I feel like Phoenix is still a little insecure about them but that melted their fears real quickly. She's also very big on comfortable silence as well... just chilling. you know. after all the horrors they both deserve a relaxing time in one another's presence.

#gene answers #enhanced-operatives-division #CHRIST. THESE ARE SO LONG LOL #not beating the verbal meanderer allegations #ieytd #i expect you to die #john juniper #reginald crane #starstruck #junicrane #roxana prism #agent phoenix #roxanix #kinetic mocktail #creator and me #godddddddd. theyre honestly so good #john juniper x reginald crane #roxana prism x agent phoenix

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fruitcd · 2 years ago

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i finished bg3

i really enjoyed it! i tried to take my time with this game and it was so nice to just have a really meaty, fun game to sink my teeth into. it was a super engaging game with a pretty good story, great characters, and fun mechanics. i've rarely played games with turn based mechanics before and i was surprised at how easily i adjusted and how fun it was. im also not really a big dnd fan but i found this game really streamlined a lot of the dnd aspects i find tedious irl (sitting and rolling die and adding up bonuses makes me wanna kms)

there is truly a lot of choice in this game and i know "your choices matter" is something of a gaming buzzword atp, but it does genuinely feel like what you choose impacts the game. i also just really appreciated the world and the aesthetics, i've never played a baldurs gate game before and i found the world to be really intriguing and fun. it's also just a beautiful game (when the textures load in properly) and all the environments/character/armor design are gorgeous.

there are a couple things i could critique though and my big one is just that it's pretty obvious that some stuff was added last minute. halsin's character was the only one i could never really get invested in, it really did just feel like he was a non-party member elevated to companion bc ppl thought he was hot in early access. i also found it strange that the polyamory SOLELY revolved around halsin, especially when it was a big part of the pregame marketing hype. like, shadowheart and astarion will be in a throuple... but ONLY if halsin is also involved. how does this make sense???????? other characters will also signal that they're ok with "sharing" like laezel and karlach, but will actually get super pissed if you actually try to open up your relationship. which again is like okay but then why market the game as having poly romance where there is ONE poly romance that you basically have to jump through hoops for...

another critique i have is that the character creator is SO diverse in some ways but there's one giant noticeable weakness (and i think it's strange that i haven't seen more talk about this)... why can you only be skinny and buff?? i get having body type presets, but when the only presets available are "short buff" and "tall buff," it gets really annoying. especially when this game is marketed SO heavily as being a game where you can really create your OWN character you identify with. it feels like "play your way.......... unless your way is fat." it just annoys me especially because otherwise the character creator is such a giant step forward in terms of customization

couple more critiques but they're spoilery so they're under the cut

but these small critiques aside, i REALLY REALLY enjoyed the game and definitely think it's worth all the praise it's received. i can already tell this is a game i'm going to come back to over and over again!

**SPOILERS**

the emperor's character ultimately just fell flat for me. he never really got a solid, consistent character and the big "reveal" that he's actually balduran feels like such a nothing revelation bc no one really reacts to it and it's brushed off. also, it's just a really weird writing choice to have him side with the elder brain if you decide to free orpheus, because the ENTIRE GAME has been about him trying to kill the elder brain and the speed at which he completely switches sides gave me whiplash. i can definitely see him turning on US and trying kill us to take the nether stones, but why the fuck would he side with the elder brain completely of his own free will? just feels weird bc there's a million ways he could have still been a final antagonist (mind control, turns on us, etc) but the way they chose to do it felt so.... contrived

some of the character endings felt really well developed and some felt really weak. i LOVED karlach and wyll going to avernus together, i liked laezel basically getting recognition from orpheus and being tasked with freeing her people, i got a nice ending with the person i romanced (astarion), but the way shadowheart and gale just like... vanish is really funny to me. even gale has a little exchange where he's like "well i guess im giving up on the crown of karsus" (which felt really anticlimatic considering his is basically the only companion quest that doesn't get resolved until the VERY LAST SECOND OF THE GAME), but shadowheart literally is just like "yay we saved the city" and then never speaks again 😭

but again overall i did really enjoy the game :3 it was so nice just to spend hours and hours playing a good, solid game!!

#long post #chatter

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mapsofnonexistentplaces · 5 months ago

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I found your approach to the DD2 backstories a very interesting lens, because I had never seen it that way. If you feel up for entertaining the thought, I always viewed the hero shrines generally as less of a “repent for the sins you’ve committed” and more “make peace with who you’ve become”. For example, Vestal laments the loss of her sisters, but also has pride that her feelings of love are human and not shameful. In the case of grave robber, she may be pained by the memory of the abuse she lived through, or her loss of social status, but she’s also in afraid in the end to embrace that she left that life of restrictions behind to tread her own path. The underlying theme in many (though not all) of the stories being that change can be scary, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing. From that kinda angle I feel like the “face your failures” part of Body of Work provides a robust parallel. Going back to grave robber, she kills her husband again as her specter and in her dialogue takes pride in that decision.

It can be painful to look on the past not necessarily because what we did was wrong or right, but because we can’t really grow unless we look on of all the struggles that paved the way.

This isn’t to say every hero backstory is the peak of writing, but it felt a bit reductive to paint it as DD2 shaming them for their choices.

oh yeah i definitely do get what they’re going for and i don’t think it’s as grand of a failure as i paint it out to be, it’s mostly a matter of comparison to dd1 lore which i myself am like. not exceptionally gleeful about doing because i know how much people like to trash on the second game while praising the first and i think it’s unfair, however i think it’s slightly more apt of a comparison considering (most of) the characters come from the first game as does their lore

from a metafictional lens i think i just prefer the presentation of each hero backstory as a ‘silent film’ of sorts with ambiguous elements and separate flavor text adding dimensions to those narratives, it just feels more effective and thematic to me but i do actually enjoy some of the additions dd2 made. like baldwin’s backstory singlehandedly made the guy one of my favorite characters and made me enjoy him in dd1 even more, bonnie is a newcomer and her backstory is one of the strongest, with those there’s a lot of nuances added to the world of dd that i appreciate. but then there’s other things that i cannot see as anything but lazy writing like damian appearing in two different backstories to be The Evil Guy Of Religion (i thought the first game’s array of religious characters and general portrayal of religion was effective enough to display it as a ‘neutral’ force that can be Good or Bad, and damn even dd2 itself does it more subtly with bonnie) also all the stuff with death and everything is just like. Ugh. to me.

i do think the change to vestal’s backstory was maybe for the best because a lot of people like to just note her characterisation down as Haha Horny Woman which i think downplays the very real story she had about religious organisations and the limits they can place on regular human thought and emotion, which i thought was very strong in itself, but i do get the urge to make it more Physical if that’s the right term. same sort of thing applies to grave robber — in dd1 lore i liked the ambiguity in the death of her husband/father/whoever, the ambiguity in That is also much more interesting to me — and i do get why they went for her directly murdering her husband and i like the setup it has for both the poison themed stuff in her kit and her general attitude but really my main grievance is the fact they had to be like. Oh yeah. Her Husband is an evil guy because he drinks alcohol!!! and he becomes evil and fucked up!!! i just don’t like the moralisation of addiction, in general i don’t like ‘alcoholic abuser’ type characters because it feels like lazy writing with very very unfortunate implications.

#long post #ask #thesis statement: ???? dd2 is not bad!

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newtonian-tragedy · 1 year ago

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youtube

Here's a full 30-minute playthrough of The Discovery of Robert Hooke: A Microscopic Adventure. You can try it yourself through the Legends of Learning website but it requires an account. The most expedient way to access the game is by signing up as a teacher and adding it as an assignment. Keep in mind that it runs on WebGL and therefore isn't supported by mobile devices.

Review under cut:

So, even though this just your basic education game commissioned by some guy on Fiverr for a website that uses some questionable assets (the avatars resembled reskinned Animal Crossing characters, and you're assigned a companion that is basically a Pokėmon ripoff) this is obviously my special interest and I just wanted to take a moment to discuss this delightfully bizarre little addition to Hookedom.

The game is described thusly:

Hmm. "Graced", you say? I doubt it was intentional, but I really appreciate that subtle choice of words.

Also yes, our Bobert literally magically shrinks down to a microscopic size after using what is beginning to sound like a cursed object that doesn't even belong in his lab to begin with.

A very small act of defiance against his rival. You love to see it.

The main summary states that it wants us to "join Robert Hooke in his great adventure through the cellular world discovering and classifying different types of cells, facing and overcoming amazing challenges, and becoming the most famous and adventurous scientist of the century" which sounds great until you find yourself asking "which century"?

Because, first of all, this raises an immediate red flag:

After pondering the smallness of a cork in the opening cutscene, or hero begins rummaging through some chests stuff with books so that he can locate a microscope with which to examine the object.

He then finds not his own microscope, but one from 300 years into the future. For some reason, he doesn't question this. Then again, he also has several portraits of 19th century scientists around his room.

Anyway, upon peering into the microscope, Hooke is immediately isekai'd away into a strange world, which is strange to think had existed on his little piece of cork all along.

(Take note of what he is wearing while he is being shrunk down—this will be important later on.)

From here, Hooke encounters a humanoid worker who is oblivious to the fact that an alien just landed at his feet, and instructs him to collect some scientific samples in a psychedelic-looking platformer environment.

The gameplay is pretty brief and basic. There are a couple of obstacles that try to crush you, but there are zero damage penalties because there's no health bar in this stage. Which is good, because I was accidentally crushed twice in a row, and thankfully nothing came of it.

When he is finished, he enters the Experiment Room and is instructed to use yet another microscope to examine and classify several samples based on whether they are unicellular or multicellular organisms.

And no, please don't ask me how any of that works if everything is already supposed to be microscopic to begin with. That's like some kind of micro-ception that I can't even begin to wrap my head around.

Next, we get to the lengthiest segment, in which Hooke is instructed to construct three different types of cells in a factory-like setting, where each part and its function is described.

I dunno, man. Should he even be entrusted with that kind of power? Then again, imagine the look on Newton's face if he knew that his rival was tampering in God's domain. Why, he'd die of jealousy!

The final segment is the Chaos Room, in which you basically just sort four different organisms into their respective areas based on cell functions.

You can actually lose health here, so you know that shit's about to get real when the health bar appears on the screen.

On my first playthrough, I lost a life when I was unexpectedly struck by cannon fire whilst carrying "Grandma" to the "Animal Eukaryote Zone" where she rightfully belongs. Yes, you read that correctly.

Speaking of Grandma, I'm not sure how comfortable I am with the implication that she may contain sperm.

For this path I was scared of falling, so I pussed out and took the easy route. Don't you dare judge me.

Immediately following this harrowing exercise where it feels like everything wants you dead when you're just trying to learn science, we are alerted of a very literal virus alert.

I am ashamed to admit that the combination of the text-to-speech narrator and the cheesy alarm sound effect actually triggered a flashback of those noisy pop-up ads from the 90s that was so convincing that I actually shit a brick for a split second, thinking this game injected some kind of malware into my laptop.

But alas, there was nothing to fear, for our hero Robert is here to save the day—with the power of soap bubbles.

Here you basically just smash the space bar, keeping the wave of respawning goobers at bay until either the time expires (50 seconds or so) our you reach a certain number of kills (the minimum for me was 132). Not sure which one comes first.

As bland as the gameplay is, you have to admit that the image of Hooke manning a turret on the bed of a moving truck is one of the most badass things ever. I might be a little biased because I draw him equipped with a pair of pistols, but now I'm more convinced than ever that this man was made to wield firearms.

Alas, once the viral menace is eliminated, Hooke has little time to participate in the (semi-nude?) festivities that follow, for he soon finds himself quickly un-isekai'd away just as quickly as he had arrived.

Remember when I said to pay attention to his outfit?

Opening cutscene? Pants. Gameplay? Pants. The ending, however?

That's right. Bottomless disco, baby. For whatever reason, the normally modest Hooke decides to abandon all inhibition and engage in the decadent customs of this apparently Sodom and Gomorrah-esque society.

Perhaps it is this very display of degeneracy that makes the mysterious Powers that Be decide that enough is enough, and Hooke is beamed up in a sudden one-man rapture.

He is returned home safely, but no less nakey (and probably traumatized for life).

Come to think, many reports of alien abductions turn out the same way. 🤔

So what are your thoughts?

My personal conspiracy theory: Newton sent the cursed 1965 microscope in the hopes that his rival would meet a gruesome end in another dimension, only to withdraw him once he saw his victim having too much fun indulging in his sexual vices.

Anyway, that concludes my autistic take. If you made it this far, thanks for reading.

#robert hooke #the discovery of robert hooke: a microscopic adventure #Youtube #review

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sinnersandsaints-linwrites · 3 years ago

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you know sometimes a lot of if authors ask us if we would like options and interactions added to the game......so it's not so outlandish and strange when things get asked for. but i suppose you didn't ask for suggestions which means people definitely shouldn't give you unsolicited suggestions. but speak for yourself. Use "I" not "us authors". My MC. My characters. My-oof we get it. no ones saying its not YOUR characters and not YOUR game. okay? maybe go write a proper book or something where it can properly be your mc with no customization or variations. (I'd definitely buy it) and no suggestions to allow to say something snappy to RUDE characters. RUDE. i like rude characters so not complaining lol but idk what being neurodivergent has to do with it especially in this instance lmao. especially if it's just being RUDE and HOSTILE to one person, aka YOUR mc. We weren't talking about you and you not being neurotypical and what you do because of that, we're talking about these types of characters who are just plain meanies so please keep stuff like that out of it.

also about your other post. what does self inserts have to do with anything??? because someone would like the option for the mc to wear glasses??? cause they maybe wanna not have the mc get stepped on willingly at all times??? fanfics have set personalities for the 'Yn' character so i cant really understand what you could mean? the only thing is that they dont have a name?? the yn part?? and if you play that way, interactive fiction is more self insert and oc insert than yn fanfics will ever be. idk how the lines can be blurred lmao?? we knowwwwwwwwww its the authors character and not us as a reader. we knowwww. its just fun. it's just immersive. please calm down its not that serious and again speak for yourself cause i have never seen anyone else complain about that before. *priest voice* and if you do, speak now or forever hold your peace. all your other points are valid tho I'm sick of that whole; "it's not my preference so please change this character to suit me" bull. anyway I've never been this rude to anyone on the internet in my life but you just irk me so I'm tryna fight. please reply accordingly. and yes I'm on anon oof so cowardly yudda yudda yudda idc. ooooh you should start an if authors union ya know! since you feel so oppressed by entitled readers wanting the interactive fiction game they're playing to include certain interactions. no no I'm not deluded, you don't have to do that honestly but just say no and stfu about it. maybe put somewhere in your bio "don't suggest things, i dont care, this is MY mc not yours and MY game." it would be sooo iconic if you actually added that lol. i sound like a pos spoiled brat towards the end even to myself but oh well. cue the ass kissers and dick riders to your defense ig. if you answer this at all. "dont listen to them-" "I'm so sorry you have anons like-" "the audacity of some peo-" "don't worry, they're wrong, keep complaining abou-" "if they don't like your posts then they shoul-" "I can't believe -" "this is so rud-"

Hope you don't mind, I'm a no nonsense type🥔

Well this is a lot. I’ll just go point by point. And to preface people saying “ignore it and move on” thank you, I’d rather not. Even if the ask does not seem too constructive. So, here, anon, your 15 minutes of fame and attention.

You are correct — I did not ask for suggestions as to what choices I should make available. Sometimes I ask for suggestions about different things, and I do appreciate that feedback, but I do not appreciate unsolicited suggestions as to how I should write my game.

I use “us authors” and not “I” because I am not the only author who gets the ‘suggestions’, it’s easy to see since almost every week at least one author deals with something of the sort.

“My MC. My characters. My-oof we get it. no ones saying its not YOUR characters and not YOUR game. okay? maybe go write a proper book or something where it can properly be your mc with no customization or variations. (I'd definitely buy it)”

Auch, ‘proper book’? Appreciate the info that you’d buy it, but this is just a backhanded compliment of sorts. I (and other authors as well!) repeat it often that the characters are ‘ours’ because people do forget that, often.

“i like rude characters so not complaining lol but idk what being neurodivergent has to do with it especially in this instance lmao. especially if it's just being RUDE and HOSTILE to one person, aka YOUR mc. We weren't talking about you and you not being neurotypical and what you do because of that, we're talking about these types of characters who are just plain meanies so please keep stuff like that out of it.”

Lot to unpack. I assume you’re referring to some older responses I gave, where I mentioned that neurotypical people can often perceive behavior of neurodivergent individuals as ‘rude’ when the person is not rude; they just don’t conform to neurotypical standards. I also mentioned cultural differences; for Americans for example, behavior of Poles is often perceived as rude, but for Poles it’s being neutral. I respectfully decline, and I will keep mentioning things like these.

Idk who’s the ‘we’ you talk about, maybe speak for yourself? :/ (I think I’m allowed a bit of pettiness here)

The entire thing about self inserts — let me guess, you self insert? (Last bit of pettiness I promise)

I’d appreciate if you specified which post you mean, since I’m not clairvoyant. I’ll assume you meant my post from TNG blog, since it’s there that I spoke at length about self inserts. I’m not sure what’s your entire point with this, to be frank. Readers can headcanon whatever, that’s quite alright — you can self insert all you want; what stops being alright is when the authors boundaries — mine for example — get disrespected because a reader got too deep into their self insert, or when I get treated like a one-shot writing machine with someone’s overly specific, detailed scenarios, or when people complain about their MC “being stepped on willingly at all times.” If you don’t want your MC to be “stepped on willingly at all times” feel free to simply not read. It’s that easy.

Y/N fanfics often have a bland ‘Y/N character’ with minimal personality and characteristics, it’s a hollow character most can project into. Y/N fanfics have also things like: your last name, your eye color, your hair color, but often they’re so easily self-inserts because of how empty they are (that being said, still most Y/N fanfics are written with an able-bodied, NT, white, cis women in mind). Y/N fanfic is a clear self insert, it’s meant as self insert — Interactive Fiction is not.

“idk how the lines can be blurred lmao?? we knowwwwwwwwww its the authors character and not us as a reader. we knowwww. its just fun. it's just immersive. please calm down its not that serious and again speak for yourself cause i have never seen anyone else complain about that before. *priest voice* and if you do, speak now or forever hold your peace.”

Feel free to read through the responses in the tags and replies to that post then if you have never seen anyone else mention this. You may know the difference, some people don’t — I for one often get asks worded as “I wouldn’t do that / behave like that / I’m not attracted to that” etc. “I” not “MC”. So.

“anyway I've never been this rude to anyone on the internet in my life but you just irk me so I'm tryna fight. please reply accordingly. and yes I'm on anon oof so cowardly yudda yudda yudda idc. ooooh you should start an if authors union ya know! since you feel so oppressed by entitled readers wanting the interactive fiction game they're playing to include certain interactions. no no I'm not deluded, you don't have to do that honestly but just say no and stfu about it. maybe put somewhere in your bio "don't suggest things, i dont care, this is MY mc not yours and MY game." it would be sooo iconic if you actually added that lol. i sound like a pos spoiled brat towards the end even to myself but oh well. cue the ass kissers and dick riders to your defense ig. if you answer this at all.”

#lmao what is that #I'm just impressed this person had time and energy to write all that #Anon Chill #if: sinners and saints #if community #I technically am supposed to write my thesis #but I saw this and I went 'oh someone was bored'#if authors union #not a bad idea tho

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gb-patch · 5 years ago

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Ask Answers: December 11th, 2020

How old are terri, miranda, lee, shiloh and jeremy? Are they all the same age as the mc?

Step 1: MC is 8 and Shiloh is 7

Step 2: MC and Lee are 13 and Jeremy is 12

Step 3: MC, Lee, and Terri are 18, Miranda is 19 (though she just barely turned that age)

How many different personalities are there for Jamie? Does picking one color of dialogue option mark down the personality or is it the choices and actions themselves?

There’s not really any set amount of personalities. You can mix and match traits in different ways and different levels, it’s really up to you. The colored options just give an idea of the tone of what you’re doing (whether it’s serious or more lighthearted or more emotional, that sort of thing).

Hey! Sorry to bother, but I was just curious. Why does MC and Cove react the way they do in the errands moment? It just sorta seems like they overreacted to being left alone in the farmers market.

I’m a little confused on what you mean. You can choose not to care or to have a good time, your MC doesn’t have to be upset. There are more choices that lead to upset feelings, but that’s because there’s really only one way to say you’re really okay and multiple ways to feel upset (sad, angry, scared, etc). And if someone is upset, there’s nothing wrong with that. Feeling fine is okay too.

As for Cove, he’s just like that. Cove is a sensitive guy and he is especially bothered by parents pulling stunts without talking to their kid ahead of time. If you wanna annoy Cove, that exact thing they did is one of the fastest ways to do it, ahah. And he’s not gonna let it slide just because it was the MC’s parents doing it to them rather than one of his own parents doing it to him.

so if I were to become a one time patreon pledger, would I still have access to the things from that tier after the month is over (such as 18+ pics or access to a demo/beta)?

If you join Patreon for one month you’ll get everything released that month and have access to all our past posts, and you can save the stuff to your own computer to keep it forever. But you won’t get access to things that come out after your subscription has ended. So if you want to join for a specific piece of content, just make sure you wait until that content has already come out and then subscribe.

Why did Noelani and Pamela decide to adopt within the USA when they had previously adopted abroad?

Because we wanted to highlight more than one type of adoption. Both are valid.

At what age was MC adopted in our life?

Only around a year old, but it’s flexible based on what the player wants for their story.

If Pamela is estranged from her family and Noelani doesn't really talk to her's, where did Lee come from?

Lee is a backer created character, she wasn’t originally part of the cast. Because our main supporter wanted her to be related to the MC’s family, we gave Pam one sibling she still talks to and that sibling has a daughter, Lee. The game was still in pretty early development way back then when we first mentioned the family situation. It’s just kind of inevitable that during the game making process some things ended up changing, aha.

In the relationship DLC’s for Derek and Baxter will there be options for polyamory to include Cove?

I’m afraid not. The way Our Life: Beginnings & Always works doesn’t support developing a poly relationship well, it’d very quickly build up too many alterations to manage. But we do hope to feature polyamory options in future games.

Will it be possible to confess to Cove (or vice versa) in Step 4, if it hasn't been done already?

Yeah!

are you going to put the credits song on youtube or spotify? i really like it and want to play it for my friends 🙏🥺 ty

I’m so glad you like it! We have rights to use the song in our game and for our game to be the only game it’s ever used in, but the rights to sell/upload the song belong to the actual creators of the music. We’re happy to let them decide where they’re comfortable posting the track.

Quick question, do you plan on continuing to use MC we can custom? I liked all your games but being able to customize Our Life's MC was awesome

I can’t say if every game we ever make from now on will have a super customizable MC, but we are planning other projects with that feature. Our Life: Beginnings & Always won’t be the only one. It’s nice to hear you appreciated the effort to add that.

Can I just express my disappointment that you only get a 'makeout session' in Step 3 if your MC is outgoing? My shy MCs miss out on grabbing the Cove booty... xP

Whether or not you can make out with Cove and how intense it can get depends on how long you’ve been a couple. If your shy MC takes longer to get with Cove, he’ll need more time before he’s ready to do that sort of stuff. And if your confident MC has been with him for years already, then he’s at a point where he can go that far with them. I’m afraid patience is required when it comes to romancing that boy, haha.

If we played in 1.0 and we updates to 1.1 do we have to start over? Or do save files transfer? I hit the "ignore" not sure if I should have for the game to work properly

1.0 save files should work with version 1.1. If you’re getting error reports can you send us more details about what the error is saying?

Bug report: At the end of the 'Mall' DLC moment in Step 2, there's a point where Cove says the MC's name, but it's said in his Step 1 voice instead of his Step 2 voice. I don't know if it happens with ALL names, but it happened with my most recent game using the name Devin.

As a follow-up to my earlier bug report about the voiced names (or at least Devin) in the Mall moment, I had the same issue in the Soiree moment as well (with the same name - again, it might just be that one).

Thank you for the report! Can you let me know when you downloaded the DLC files? I think that should be fixed in the most recent version of them.

Dear gb-patch, I'm one of the OL Kickstarter backers (and I had and still have a great time with your updates, it's great to see the project grow and you are great in communicating with your fans 💕).

I want to wait until all steps are complete until I play, I know I'll enjoy it even more if I can experience it all together. Because of that I didn't open the game myself but I just saw your post with the screenshot of the voiced names and noticed that the name that I submitted to you isn't on the list. The name is Mai (or May), will it be available later?

Thank you for supporting us! Mai is one of the names that we’re still working on. It accidentally had a tone missed.

And thank you for all of these asks <3

—————————————————————— We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

#our life #ourlifeba #Our Life Beginnings & Always #ask #asked #gb patch #gb patch games

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roseyful · 4 years ago

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Mars Red: Edge of the Nightmare - Review

Now, my Tumblr has been a bit quiet lately (been queuing a lot of things so then it wasn’t too quiet during my absence), but it has been for a good reason; last month I was approached [on my private twitter account] and asked if I would be able to playtest a game and write a review, and of course, being someone that enjoys games, especially those that follow an otome style, I had to say YES.

So its proud to say that after a while of playing the game, I finally get to write this review.

Now before I get into the game itself, I would like to take the moment to give appreciation to the team for being so helpful during my time of playtesting the game and before that, as not only would they let us know when there was an issue and the date had to be pushed back, they were so polite and helpful whenever I would run into a problem. That’s something you’d want to see in a gaming company and I’m so glad that my first experience with this company is one with positive results. I personally found no issues with the team themselves, and I do hope they keep this up after the release. Thank you favary for being so lovely and patient with me, and other beta testers.

Mars Red: Edge of The Nightmare was the game that they asked for me to play, however when I originally looked at their website, I couldn’t help but notice that the concept was originally one of a ‘Sound Theatre’, and while I couldn’t figure out what that was, I eventually was lead down a rabbit hole and ended up looking at the other things that Bun-O Fujisawa has worked in. Very interesting stuff, just like the game. However, it’s best to look at his other stuff in your own time.

Please note: I will be keeping this spoiler-free for the sake of letting people go in with no idea of what’s going on besides what I mention and on the website.

Story

The game is set in the early twentieth century in Japan, or better known as the Taisho, in which the website also says ‘[is] influenced by Romanticism’, in which vampires rule the night, as they could only feed off blood and those that stepped into the sun would surely die. Keen senses, incredible physical abilities, and yet they were still vulnerable. You see that very early on with the main character that we play as; Yutsufusa Yuki, a vampire whom became one against his will.

I will be honest, I did not like Yutsufusa when I first started playing, as I felt like he was a bit too willing to die, but that is something that you can overlook when you get further into the story. Yutsufusa is obviously one of the youngest in the group, due to the fact he wears the more ‘modern’ [at the time] clothing out of everyone, well, there is someone else who wears similar clothing but he’s human.

You control Yutsufusa throughout the game, influencing his voices and living his life through his eyes, him acting as the reader insert as you learn about the other characters and begin to grow a bond with them. While the story is a bit slow at first, it does start picking up around the middle-end of chapter 1 and the beginning of chapter 2 after you play the prologue, as you begin to assist “Code Zero” in their work to rid the world of vampires that wish to feast on humans..

Be mindful that there is an anime, however, Yutsufusa does not appear in it, as it focuses on the other main characters, so if you have watched the anime already be sure to remember that they’re either two separate timelines or different points in time. I do not want to confuse anyone with this.

The main cast is quite an interesting bunch, as it covers a wide range of personalities, and sometimes even time periods as you play through the game and unlock things; you might say you might learn a bit of history from it if you end up looking up some of the references I’ve found in the game. This is a great reflection on the idea of ‘immortality, and even has moments where said immortality leans into a few jokes (such as knowledge of birds).

If you’ve played games such as ‘Ikemen Revolution’, you may be familiar with the ticket system. Every day you’re allowed a certain amount of tickets to progress through the story, however, if you run out of tickets and you must read more, then you’re able to progress the story via using ‘amber’, the game’s currency that you can use for different functions. However, this is not needed, as every day your tickets will be replenished. I personally found myself not even needing to use my amber, as I would always wait for the next day. There are mini-stories that you can get if you finish a chapter within a certain amount of time, but I personally don’t find them to progress the story a lot after I read the first one I got. Then again I had other things to occupy my time while I wanted as well. If you wish to reread chapters, you get a bonus third option of currency; coins. Coins can be used to reread chapters in the place of amber or tickets, which means that you can grind out coins via the exploration option in order to see more options (looked at a bit later).

I personally found the story to be engaging, between the use of minigames (or investigations, covered a bit later), it broke up the reading with fun activities that progressed the story.

Is the game an Otome?

No! I was shocked as well when I saw the all-male cast since I was wondering if I was playing a boys love game, but in the end, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that this is actually a detective game. While it may carry the usual look of an otome, with the story and choices of how you speak influencing the endings of chapters, the game more feels like one of finding new friends and solving kick-ass investigations than finding romance. It’s refreshing.

This is especially true between the minigames in which helps influence the story that is all very unique in their own way and do not seem repetitive once you get into the flow of how they work.

Minigames

The minigames come forward in two forms; investigation, interrogation, and infer. Investigation sounds exactly how you’d expect, as you have to poke around and look at things, which you can review in a little notebook that sits in the top right of your screen in the case you need to review what you’ve looked at. When I was first launched into this section for the first time, I had a little trouble remembering exactly what I needed to look at (as I was given a set of things to tap), however, I do have to thank the team for thinking ahead and adding the option to be able to watch ads in order to see what you need to do. This was one of the two times I’d have to watch ads, as they don’t shove them in your face every few seconds like most mobile games do which is rather nice. Sometimes you gain information or items that you have to use later, so it’s a good idea to keep track of what you look at.

Interrogation acts as a question-based information gathering, in which you talk to NPCs in order to gather information to use in the investigation. Like Investigation, these points are put into your notebook for later.

Infer takes the first two investigation segments and combines the information, as you now get interrogated by one of the main characters, and you must respond back with the proper information in order to make sure that this segment is successful. You are able to read back on the notes from the other segments at this point by pressing the button with the book icon in the upper right corner, as this aids you in selecting the right answers. When I first came to this section, I did feel under pressure due to it, but it was interesting to see the negative answers from the character if I got it wrong.

Exploration is another part of the game, that while outside the story, there are parts that require a certain amount of story points in order to clear ‘point blocks’. This is where you get the coins from and frankly is good to use once you have finished using all your tickets for the day and want to use the rest of the time to grind coins. During the exploration, you set up 2 characters, a place, and a set [in real life] time of how long you want them to be out and about. Depending on the number of points earned, you may earn something called a ‘mummer’, which reveals more about the characters you chose to send out, and even get dialogue of the characters interactions (which can be pretty funny in itself) that shows the dynamic of the two characters- are they friends? Are things tense? You get to learn more by sending them out together.

Artstyle

As an artist, I was incredibly pleased with the art of the game, as the characters do not look the game, there are different body types and ages (from teen to elder), you never had to look at the same face twice for two characters. I will be honest, I do wish the characters were a bit more ‘animated’ with their expressions (such as body movement when they’re feeling certain emotions), however other than that, the sprites are magnificent.

The backgrounds are also really interesting to look at and even tell so much story before you even start investigating within the investigation sections. The design team also needs props, because while a few characters are wearing similar outfits, they’re all wearing them in different ways which shows their character and even the way they probably fight. Though I will say I am a bit biased towards Takeuchi, then again, I really enjoy fun and loud characters in general, and his hair is interesting in a sea of mostly black, purple, silver or blonde hair. Maybe will make a fanart of him in the future if I learn to draw his eyepiece. (on that note, please release the full sprites for us artists to reference, we’d love you eternally for it haha).

Oh no, it’s a-

Yes, its a bit of a gacha game, however, you do not need to actually play the gachas in order to progress through the game; it mostly just unlocks bits of story for those that want to have extra stories, or just want that extra dose of dopamine (haha, me). As someone who plays gacha games ever since they turned 13, I was glad that this game isn’t actually gacha centric, and thus is very free-to-play friendly due to this.

Who would I recommend this for and would I recommend it myself?

Personally, I think this is a game that suits the niche of those that enjoy a good mystery and even play those ‘find an item’ games, mixed in with those that enjoy reading otomes and history. Maybe even someone that enjoys theatre since there’s a character that does theatre. Would I personally recommend it? Yes, I would. The game is very interesting and engaging, the staff behind the game are so lovely.

Once more, here’s the game’s website link ❤️: https://marsred-game.net/en/

#Mars Red #Mars Red: Edge of The Nightmare #otome #game review #otome review #mobile game #mobile otome

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casualotptrash · 4 years ago

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Fixes to the Persona Series

Oh boy I hope you all are ready to talk about this for the hundredth time!

My recent tirade about the FES vs Portable discussion started to make me think about what I think could be done in the next coming installments of the series to make it either feel a bit more fresh or just as an overall improvement. Now, I know many of the things I’m about to say have been said time and time again, but...this is my post so I’m going to give my opinion on this :)

Enjoy and feel free to vent with me about your biggest gripes with the series, because I’m always ready for a salt-fest.

(This post will pretty much have any spoilers about Persona 3, 4, and 5 (including Royal) so beware if you haven’t finished those)

To clarify right off the bat, anything I don’t mention in here as something I would fix I either don’t think it is a problem or I just happened to forget it.

1. Player Gender Options

(Royal Spoilers)

Starting off with a great one, I think that an improvement to the series would be to allow an option between a male and a female MC. I don’t think this choice would affect the story in Persona 3 or 4 very much (and we’ve seen that with Persona 3), but I have imagined and seen so many fanfics about how it would actually be a really interesting twist for Persona 5. For most of the story it probably wouldn’t matter too much, but it could impact the first palace so much. The first palace/story arc is already one of the best arcs in the game, so imagine if the player could relate to Ann and Shiho on an even deeper level? To be clear, I’m not saying the player has to be sexually assaulted or something, but I imagine Kamoshida would at least treat the player more like Ann rather than just a delinquent nuisance.

Also, and this just came to mind, but picture this: in the third semester Maruki actualizes things that he thinks will make others happy. Obviously, Joker and Akechi are against this. In the game itself there are a lot of clues to point that Joker does care about Akechi, and does want to see him again, but in the end they both agree that they need to fight for the real world that they worked for, not for a fake reality. If Joker was a female, they could still go the route of doing this (especially if romancing Akechi was an option? Or they just hint at them having feelings but Akechi doesn’t want to commit because he’s a self-loathing boi who needs to work on himself first).

Alternatively...what about a badass narrative of a girl, in a powerful position as the leader of the Phantom Thieves, fighting against a man who believes he knows what’s best for her and tries to appease her by just bringing back Akechi? Kinda like a “Yeah fuck what you did, you just need Akechi/a man and he’ll make you happy” type of thing. Obviously this would all be subtle, because I do think Maruki has good intentions, but he also blames himself for all of the hard things Rumi has gone through and may internalize that as women needing a “strong man” to protect them. Of course this might seem too preachy for people, but I thought it was an interesting idea to run with and that some people could relate to the whole “Woman trying to think and do things for themselves? Nah just sit in your little fake world and be happy, thanks.”

(Sidenote, Sae would be such a good role model...after her change of heart of course. You crush it girl.)

However, I do understand that this could be a lot of extra work, especially when the game is so long and tedious. That’s why I would also be fine with the strategy of “switching off” per say. By that I mean if Persona 5 has a male MC, then Persona 6 would have a female MC, and if a 7th game was made (in 2040 or whatever) then it could go back to a male. This would eliminate the issue of having to record all the voice lines twice or any other extra work that would come with having to make both genders an option. Honestly I know this option doesn’t matter too much to people, they just want an MC who is either a self-insert or actually a character (more on that later), but I do think it would be a very nice inclusion especially for the female fans of the game. It kind of sucks that three of the most popular games in the series all have male protags, and the female protag who was introduced often gets shafted for very dumb reasons. (Oh no, you have the option to romance a kid that most people don’t even choose or like, that means she’s a p*do! :I I know this comment is normally a joke but seriously it’s not funny).

2. Setting of the game (not transfer but also maybe involve the other games?)

(Spoilers for the Arena games and Persona 5/Royal)

So there are two main points to this suggestion: where the game takes place and how it relates to the other games.

As we all know, the three latest entries in the mainline Persona series have all followed a certain trend. They are all high schoolers, who transfer to a town, and know basically no one there. This formula has been repeated for the last three games, and while they are still great games, I think this trend needs to change. Any amount of switching this up would be better than nothing in my opinion. For example, the MC could be a new college student who goes to a new place for college (if they wanted the MC to move somewhere), and there meets the party members who are a mix of people who also don’t know the area (new to the college) and those who do know the area/some people there. This would appease people who have been really wanting an MC to not be a high schooler, while also giving the feel of meeting new people and seeing a new place.

On the other hand, the next game could take place in the MC’s home town, where plot stuff happens and they connect more to the people they already knew (aka party members) to solve the plot stuff. They could be in high school or college, either I think would work, but it would appease people who don’t just want to be a transfer student each time and also have some connection to the characters prior to the game. However, this would be difficult to do given the current “flow” that the games have, that is that the MC doesn’t know anything and has to ask a million questions. It would be very strange to go up to someone you have known most of your life and ask them a basic question, which is why that style of storytelling(?) would not fit well with this and other methods would need to be used.

Now, for the second point, I understand that they don’t make strong connections to the other games because they want each game to be able to be played as a stand-alone, and not to hold people back by forcing them to play the other games to understand this. Makes sense, but usually what happens is that people play one game in the series and then try another game, if they really like the one they started with. After playing through the ones they want to, and if they like them, then there is an appreciation for the series as a whole. Of course Atlus sneaks in little references here and there, like having the P4 gang go to Iwatodai or some TV news announcements on P5 that allude to Adachi and other characters, but those cant always cut it. One of the biggest letdowns I would come to know is the fact that the Shadow Operatives are not mentioned at all, outside of those small references, in P5.

Persona 5 literally has the PT’s broadcasting all of their heists, and includes major government officials like Shido. There are also the mental shutdowns/psychotic breakdowns, which also have people confused, along with how the PT’s steal hearts in the first place. I don’t know about you all, but this seems like the perfect opportunity to get the Shadow Operatives involved. This is like...literally what they were made for? Investigating persona/shadow activity and such, and we already know that the PT’s deeds reached at least Hawaii so it would be strange for the SO’s to have not heard anything. There are headcanons that they were blocked by Shido or something, which is pretty interesting to think about/develop, but it was only thought up to make an excuse for why they aren’t there. Persona 5 introduced a lot of people to the story, so yeah some people would probably be very confused about who the SO’s are and stuff, but it could payoff in the long run for long-time fans and those who play the other games after.

Depending on the story of P6, I don’t think it would be a bad idea to start including casts from the other games into newer ones...especially when each game introduces 8-9 new characters per game, and those games usually get made into spin-offs that include the characters made in the previous games! Counting only the characters introduced in the previous games (3-5), Persona Q2 has 33 characters (11 P3, 10 P5, 10 P4, and 2 P3P, this includes the velvet room assistants for each respective game). That’s a ton! Sure, having new characters each time is part of the fun, but I believe there is definitely a way to split them up. I don’t think it would be too much of an issue to have a smaller party member group (you can only have 4 fight at a time anyway), that way there is still the enjoyment of seeing new characters, while also filling up some of those spots with preexisting ones.

3. Characterization

This kind of piggybacks off of the second point, but personally I think they need to stop with the self-insert protags. First, like I mentioned earlier, it kind of messes up the “flow” of the game since they have to pretend that the character doesn’t know anything because the player doesn’t know anything (yet). For example, how many times did the option to say “Probation?” or “Expelled?” or something like that come up as a dialogue choice in P5? Too often, in my opinion. I assume anyone over the age of 15 would probably know what those things mean, but in case anyone doesn’t they have to make it an option to say.

Adding onto this, it also seems like people start to like the characters a whole lot more when spinoffs or movies/animations come out that really expand on the character, because in those games/mediums the player is taken out of the self-insert role. I would say out of the three games, the Persona 3 protags have the most characterization in game through their dialogue. I haven’t watched the movies, but I heard it fleshes the MC out a lot more. In Persona 4...well, I see what they’re going for but I also feel like Yu has the personality of a cardboard box. The animations definitely helped out this one, as did Arena, and I’ve seen other people agree that they liked Yu a lot more after playing/watching those things.

As for Persona 5, I think they tried to give Joker some characterization (and oddly enough “Joker” has a lot more to him than Akira/Ren, but he still fell more on the side of self-insert. P5 the animation is...of questionable quality, but I think Xander did a good job in the Dub (which is the one I watched) in trying to make him feel more like a human being. I haven’t played Strikers, but I assume it goes more on the route of P5 because you’re still controlling Joker. Oddly enough, I feel like the dancing game gave him the most characterization? Call me crazy, but his dance moves and voice lines just ooze of his suave, friendly, and supportive attitude. I wish that they took whatever those voice lines embodied and just put them into the game, because I would like Joker a lot more than I already do (which, to be clear, I do still like him a lot).

Although this doesn’t have much to do with the characterization, it would also be nice if Atlus could just put the “canon name” in the game while also still having the option to choose your own name. Again, this might add a little more work but maybe if someone chose the “canon” option then their name could be spoken in voice lines, but if they don’t then the names would be left out (except for text) like usual. Honestly this is mostly up to personal preference because I like some of the “not canon” names more so I would want to use those if I could, but I also don’t like having the characters just randomly cut off in the end of sentences when they’re saying your name. Just kind of breaks immersion, which is probably why I really like Joker because at least they say “Joker” quite a bit.

(Little rant, but why do the PT’s get like two group names? At first Morgana defaults to “The Phantom Thieves of Hearts” but then when you get to choose the name of your team, that name is what shows up instead. However, everyone still calls you the “Phantom Thieves” and the gang refers to themselves as that too! I get naming the group is kind of cool, but I would have preferred if they were just called The Phantom Thieves (of Hearts) and that way their name could be spoken in dialogue too.)

4. Choices matter...please? (romance and regular dialogue)

This might be easy or difficult to implement, I’m not so sure because I’m not a game developer, but I really wish choices mattered more in this game. I feel like most of these suggestions (especially later on down the list) are just little things that could be added to the game that would really amp it up, and this is one of them.

When I talk about choices mattering, I do not mean that dialogue should be so open that there are branching paths and that your choices affect the story. What I mean is that you could choose two different options and not get the same exact answer. I get that this isn’t always the case, but when it is it feels very strange. In this same vein of things, please stop with the illusion of choice because everyone sees right through it. I didn’t really see this as much in P3, and I still need to finish P4, but it was definitely apparent with P5. I felt that so many times in the game there were two options that were just “Option A” or “Synonym for Option A” as the choices.

Along the same lines, I think it would be great if romance choices were actually acknowledged. Again, there is a little of this in P3 and P4 where some party members comment on your relation to the other party members (Ex. Junpei saying to take care of Fuuka if you date, Yukari stating that Akihiko probably wouldn’t want FeMC going on a group date if they’re dating, and Yosuke coming to assumptions about who Yu spends the summer festival with), but they are very few and far between. I also saw no evidence of this at all in P5, which was pretty disappointing. In fact, in Persona 5 Royal if you are dating Ann and go on the Christmas Date with her, she makes some comment about not wanting the others to find out about them. Like...girl, considering someone can finish Ann’s social link as early as June or so on NG+ I’m pretty sure your friend group would notice if you’ve been dating for 6 months?? I know that romance is definitely not the focus of the game, but if you’re going to include it why is it shoved into the farthest corner and never touched?

Don’t get me wrong, it is cute to see the romances in the game play out and such, but on the same hand I can see how much better it could be. In reality it kind of sucks to romance someone in the Persona games because no one acknowledges it, and you only get like 3-4 small scenes in each game to spend with them (beach in P5, festival in all, Christmas in all, valentines except for 3, White Day in P5R). Just imagine if you could take a walk in Kyoto with whoever you romanced, or were able to take your partner to the Jazz Jin in P5R and they would get like special date dialogue or something? Very very small additions, but it would go a long way in making the romances feel a bit more connected.

5. LGBT Romances

I went into this in some detail in Part 3 of my FES vs Portable debate post, so I to save your eyes from reading more I’ll just quickly say that Atlus definitely needs to add in more LGBT romance options because it’s ridiculous at this point. The fact that you can’t romance any guy (because all of the MC’s are male, this is not including the FeMC stuff because that’s not typical in the Persona series) but can have a whole harem (despite what they may do to you) is just ridiculous. They’d rather let you date a fully-fledged adult than someone of the same gender.

Also they’re cowards for scrapping the Yosuke romance and that’s that :)

6. Fixing Social Links

Link to the stand-alone post about this section.

I literally was going to include this in this post, but this section alone (which I knew was going to be the biggest) was almost as large (a few hundred words off) than everything prior to this point put together. I’ll make a separate post with just this section soon, but this criticism of mine can basically be boiled down into the fact that the main growth of a character should happen outside of their social link in order to avoid tonal whiplash in the story, and that this will fix the problem of some characters feeling “one-note” if you do not do their social links/confidants. Essentially, go back to the P3 method.

However, something that needs to be fixed for all of the games is that you shouldn’t only get social link points for saying what the person wants to hear. I get the train of thought that if you say what they want to hear they will like you more, but that’s not how real friendships work? Obviously you shouldn’t be saying something that offends them and think it will raise your points, but sometimes people just need to hear things?

I can think of three standout examples: Nozomi in P3 (Gourmet King), Mishima in P5, and Shinya in P5. Nozomi’s link is a hot mess in of itself, but it was very frustrating to at one point just be like “Hey can you chill?” when he’s trying to induct you into a scam/cult or whatever, and it reverses the social link. Like ok buddy fuck you too, I was just trying to say no and that you need to stop scamming people?? For Mishima in P5 (I’ll go more in depth on him in a later post), it’s just kind of strange that you can clearly see him starting to obsess about the PT’s but you can’t really tell him he needs to stop until the social link demands it. Even then, the only way to get points is pretty much to go “Wow Mishima, you’re the best! You’re the reason we exist! We love you!!!” and it just feels kind of wrong. Shinya’s is very much along the same line as that, except you basically have to do something even worse and encourage him to keep being a bully? Thankfully P5 doesn’t reverse confidants, but I probably would have done so with Shinya because I kept telling him he shouldn’t bully others until I realized how to get points with him. It just feels wrong to encourage such behavior until the character suddenly realizes they’ve been acting wrong. No shit, I’ve been trying to say that.

I think social links need quite the fix to them, but this is definitely one of them. Strong, real relationships are not just built upon telling the other person what they want to hear.

7. Have Characters Hang Out

This is mostly a suggestion based off of P5′s downfall in this aspect. I think that P3 and P4 did a good job at showing the characters hang out in other aspects, or hang out separately outside of the MC. P4 had a lot of good group hangouts, but not many scenes without the MC. P3 had the opposite where members kind of hung out together a bit, but also showed or mentioned them hanging out without the MC. However, P5 didn’t have much for the group hangouts and also I can’t really recall a single scene of the party members hanging out outside of the MC.

Along with all of the problems I mentioned earlier with the cardboard cut-out personalities, I feel that this contributed to P5′s group feeling a bit less cohesive. Obviously when they all hung out they acted like a real group of friends, but it’s hard to see it as legitimate when 95% of their hangouts are just meetings for the Phantom Thief stuff. The only times they hang out outside of the PT stuff is the TV station, the fireworks festival, helping Futaba + the beach trip, and the culture festival. Like I said, I can’t recall them hanging out together outside of being with the MC/PT business, although I could have missed some stray text message if one was mentioned.

In this aspect, P5 feels like a small step down from P3 and a huge step down from P4. I think some of the events in P4 are a bit unnecessarily long, but at least they go through the effort of showing that the group is also a real friend group, not just people trying to solve the murder. Strikers may be a step up from P5, but I haven’t played it yet so I can’t judge that.

Also bring back school trips to prior locations of Persona games. Imagine P5 group going to Inaba and it turns out this is the small country town that Joker came from? And they sprinkle in references to P4? *chefs kiss*.

8. Remove/Change Certain Tropes

(Spoilers for the babe hunts, stupid ass hot springs scenes, and Ryuji abuse after certain palace)

By that spoiler tag, you can probably tell that this is the category I’m most passionate about. I can deal with social links feeling a bit disconnected. I can deal with the MC being a self-insert. What I cant deal with anymore? These. Dumb. Ass. Scenes.

Let me explain (insert Sojiro voice here)

Every game has three main tropes. One, the babe hunt scenes. Two, the hot springs scenes. Three, one character being dunked on by everyone else. I’ll go through each, scream about my feelings about them, and why they need to change.

First, the babe hunt scenes. I don’t have much of a problem with this trope to be honest, I just think it could be done better in some games. I actually think the one in P3 was quite funny, because the group treated it like an “operation” which added a bit to humor. Truth be told, I was just a bit disappointed in P3P FeMC route when you didn’t have your own version of the “babe hunt” thing. I know Yukari and Mitsuru aren’t the types to go hunt for boys, but perhaps the MC could have suggested it as a fun idea. In P4, this scene happens in Okina and largely remains the same as the P3 formula, but I think it lacks just a bit of the humor that the P3 one had. Lastly, in P5 this scene happens during the beach trip but compared to the others it’s pretty...lackluster?

It shows a montage of Joker, Ryuji, and Yusuke talking to girls but no actual dialogue goes on. After talking to three or so, Yusuke disappears and this is when Joker and Ryuji meet the two “flamboyant” men again. This time, the men either chase them down or call after them (?) depending on if you’re playing Vanilla or Royal. I don’t like how they use these men in the first place, but on top of that it kind of takes the “babe hunt” out of “babe hunt” if you don’t actually...hunt for babes? Like no actual dialogue is spoken when trying to convince the girls, which was most of the fun in the other scenes. You don’t even have free reign to walk around at the beach, and the scene is formatted in a more cutscene type of way. It just makes P5′s babe hunt fall flat in many ways, and overall I finished the scene with a strong “meh.” The only good things about this was watching Makoto and Ann defend themselves and Yusuke with the lobsters.

Now for the hot springs scenes....hoo boy.

Simply put, in my opinion, these scenes suck ass in almost all of the games. P3 is the least egregious in my opinion, for a couple reasons. First is that it shows that Junpei and Ryoji were kind of trying to peep on the girls, and Akihiko and MC were just dragged into it. They have some funny dialogue, and in FES and Portable they even included the option to try and evade the girls. I found the little evade minigame to be really fun, even though every time I can’t help but fail because I want to say “It was a cat!” I find it interesting that there is the option for the men to get off scott-free, and that their dialogue after the trip is over changes slightly because of this.

On the FeMC side, I also find it fun that you have the reverse of the minigame and actually seek out the boys. My only letdown with this entire scene is if the boys are caught. I get it, it’s supposed to be funny with Mitsuru executing them and such, but as a reasonable person with a brain it seems really dumb to me that Mitsuru would just punish all of them when it’s just Ryoji and Junpei’s fault? This is nothing against Mitsuru, but her actions just seem so...exaggerated for some reason? Like Mitsuru is usually smart, and even if she is embarrassed I don’t get why she would punish innocent party members. A huge disappointment for me was that the FeMC isn’t able to stop Mitsuru from doing this either. Not even a choice to try and encourage Mitsuru or discourage her (so both options would be available). You just kinda sit there and watch, even after Akihiko say “It was a misunderstanding!” or something. For me it was especially strange because MC was dating Akihiko at that point, so why wouldn’t I try to hear him out? Just struck me as kind of dumb.

If I thought that was dumb, P4 and P5 were out to really make me roll my eyes and sigh in disappointment. Unlike P3, which has most of the scene being pretty good besides the very end where Mitsuru punishes the boys, the P4 and P5 scenes are all bad. This is not the first time anyone has said it, and won’t be the last, but they aren’t funny scenes in the slightest.

In P4, it’s actually the girl’s fault that they’re in the hot springs when the boys walk in. They stayed over their allotted time and into the time when boys are supposed to be in there. So what do they do? Get flustered, yell at them, and throw buckets at the group. Oh, and they don’t listen to the boy’s protests at all. Really.

Who thought this was a good idea?? The girls even realize after that they were in the wrong, say they should apologize, but I don’t think they ever show a scene of them apologizing after. This whole scene, like the hot springs ones in general, are just exaggerated (ie. throwing masses of buckets) to be funny, but they really fail in my opinion. It just serves to make the player kinda angry (since they’re usually on the receiving end) and make the girls look wildly unrealistic and dumb. I have never really thought that needless physical abuse is funny, so these scenes are just the bane of my existence apparently.

There actually isn’t a hot springs scene in P5, but they did add one in Strikers.

If they wanted to still do these scenes, maybe they could switch from making it “just beat up the boys” into something else. For example, the girls could try to peep, or walk in on the boys. Equality y’all, sometimes girls can do those things too (but still don’t beat them up. Just don’t beat anyone up). If none of that happens, or maybe that’s how the scene ends, the rest of the scene could just be a chill, relaxing scene between those involved. Essentially, how the scenes go before the whole “lets beat up the boys” thing comes in.

Lastly, on basically the same vein as why I don’t like the hot springs scenes, I’m starting to get real sick of the “let’s shit on this one character” trope. In Persona 3, I don’t think it’s that bad because they kind of do it with Junpei but they also give him a lot of character development, and eventually the sort of hostile shitting on him turns into just gentle teasing.

For P4 I still don’t think it is too bad, because Yosuke is kind of the one being shit on but he also does the same to the other people in the group? I suppose the only thing that really sticks out to me is how Teddie abuses Yosuke’s wallet (making him buy/pay for a lot of stuff with his hard earned cash), but I also don’t like Teddie at all in the first place so I may be biased about him. Oh well, he still shouldn’t do those things and I don’t really find it funny but to each their own.

However...this problem walks and rocks the fucking runway in Persona 5. Namely, this happens with Ryuji. The most obvious aggressor in this is Morgana, because him and Ryuji butt heads so often, but the other thieves kind of do it as well. Obviously they don’t do this all the time, but it’s extremely frustrating when they do. Morgana getting into arguments with Ryuji at the drop of a hat get old very quick, and the other thieves poking a bit of fun about how dumb Ryuji can be is also not that riveting. Despite all of that, the scene that highlights all of this is the scene after Shido’s palace collapse.

You all knew this was coming, but I couldn’t resist talking about it. The scene is so tone deaf in so many ways that it takes away all of the emotional impact that they were trying to build. Even the first time I watched this scene, in which I didn’t think they would kill off Ryuji, I could still sympathize with the group being concerned about him. Then when he shows up they...just beat him up and leave him unconscious next to a pole while they walk away? Wow.

On all subsequent playthroughs I just skip this scene, but I truly cannot understand why that was the angle they went for. Were they trying to insert some humor right after an emotional scene? That can be done in certain cases, but....why??? It’s so unbelievable it’s almost laughable. It’s not even like the bath scene where the the girls think the guys are trying to peep on them. It’s simply because he survived which I assume is what they wanted!

“Oh no you made us thought you were dead (even though he didn’t because he couldn’t control any of this), we’re going to beat you up!” Now you just make the characters look like irrational idiots.

Seriously Atlus, stop doing this. In most cases it just serves to make the player kind of frustrated, and in this case it it literally takes all of the emotional weight out of the scene and makes me think worse of the entire female cast. Please. Stop.

Well that’s the end of that. I don’t think I said anything too revolutionary, although my opinions about the social links and characterization might get me some flak. I just want the characters to be more than one personality trait... This was a really long post again, so kudos to whoever made it to this point!

Next time, on Dragon Ball Z Casual’s pointless posts: something Persona related :)

#long post #persona 3 #persona 3 portable #persona series #persona 4 #persona 5 #persona 5 royal #p3 #p3p #p4 #p5 #that's a lot of p's #ready to get shit on for my opinions #but maybe just ask me first before doing so #who's ready to play persona 6 when it comes out and be slightly disappointed #I am!#but I'll still like it because it's persona

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drimareuniverse · 4 years ago

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Looking for a creative writer/storyteller

Hello! I'm Jay, I'm a non-binary artist and I'm looking for a creative writer that can help me write stories for my pet project Drimare Universe! Particularly my Webcomic and Visual Novel.

More details below, all help and sharing is appreciated!

The Drimare Universe is a world located within the dreams of humans, and the Drimare are its main inhabitants spread through various different regions.

It's composed of smaller stories focused on specific groups of characters (Like how Marvel has Spider-man stories, Iron-man stories, etc.) The general tone is a fun modern fantasy slice of life type.

I've been working on the project on my own for the past 10 years, and although I have a lot of lore and character info written down, when it comes to writing stories themselves, my skills are lacklustre. I finally accepted that I need someone that could help me with that, so here I am!

I keep most of the character info and lore archived on its wiki here if you're curious to learn more about it.

My current two projects that I'm looking for help on are a Webcomic and a Visual Novel, both of which are on hiatus because of my difficulty and general dissatisfaction with my own writing :(

I basically have loose plot points, certain scenarios, conversations and ideas, and I need someone that can tie those things together in a satisfying narrative way.

You don't have to work on the comic AND visual novel, but I am looking for help in at least one of those projects.

General requirements

Be over 18 years old. I'm 23 and not comfortable working with minors.

Be LGBTQ+ friendly! A LOT of the cast is LGBTQ in some way and certain characters focus a lot on topics of gender and sexuality so the more you know about the topic, the better :)

Have the patience to learn about my characters and world's quirks and lore lol! I'll try to explain things as best as I can! Bonus points if you have weird ideas yourself.

Basically, you write, I give my input, and then we use the finished script for the comic and/or visual novel.

You will be credited!

As for rates, my budget is small so let me know how much you charge! I'm somewhat of a writer myself and I don't feel comfortable having someone work for free, but I also have no idea what people usually charge for stuff like this. I can also offer my art in exchange if the person is interested/comfortable with that! Examples are on my DeviantArt as well as other links found on my profile.

I'm looking for someone I can work with for the long term so expect me to be a returning client if I enjoy your work! :) Ideally, I'd like to make a team eventually, but a writer is the priority atm.

I don't really have a set deadline so don't worry about having to finish things by specific dates.

It's my first time trying to commission someone for writing so I apologize if my etiquette is off, I'm only experienced in art commissions. I have no idea how I'm supposed to commission writing so I'll just describe what I'm looking to get below.

For the webcomic

Drimare Universe is the first official webcomic series based around the world of Drimare Universe, focusing on the origin story of the two siblings Zelly and Blade, as well as other characters they meet throughout their journey. It's set roughly around 10 years before the current timeline.

Available to read on Tapas here

It's an origin story for two siblings, followed by episodic stories of them meeting other characters from the cast and learning about the world around them. It's sort of built like a cartoon show, with more serious episodes, others more light-hearted, some important one, etc.

There are only 13 pages in the first episode so far, but I'm unhappy with the current script for the rest of the story and need help with it.

I'd like for someone who is actually good at writing and having better ideas to give it a look and either suggest things that could work better or straight-up rewrite it from scratch but better

The other episodes only have the general main plot points written down, with further episodes still being in a draft phase (I got so caught up with my writer's block with trying to figure the first two episodes, that I haven't been able to focus on the following ones)

***

For the visual novel

Drimare Universe Friendsim, is an ongoing Visual Novel project that will feature various characters from the Drimare Universe series, it is currently being developed on Ren'Py and free to download on the DU Friendsim itch.io page.

It is heavily inspired by games like Hiveswap Friendship Simulator as it follows a similar concept of a Human protagonist meeting various cast characters in order to form friendships with them.

The series will be released in various volumes, each one focusing on a specific character, with the events changing depending on the player's choices.

Available to download for free on Itch.io

It's about a human dreamer character who wakes up in the dream world and meets respective Drimare characters.

If you've played Hiveswap Friendsim or Pesterquest, it's the exact same concept. YCH protag meets characters in a very Isekai inspired scenario. It's like a dating sim, but friendship focused instead.

Unlike the webcomic, which takes place in the past, this visual novel takes place in the current timeline. Also unlike the comic, the visual novel is not canon.

Each volume is focused on MC (Who is referred to as "Dreamer") meeting a specific character, with other secondary characters making appearances as well.

There are two volumes available so far, each composed of one short story.

The tone is playful and comedic, I guess "quirky" could be a word to describe it. But still capable of having its serious moments,

Each volume has three endings. A short bad ending, a neutral ending, and a good/true ending. (The length and amount of endings can be flexible)

You don't have to know how to program visual novels or anything like that, I just need help with the stories. I'll be in charge of adding the writing to the game, animating the sprites accordingly, etc etc.

Apologies for the long text, I just want to be sure people understand exactly what I'm looking for! Ideally, I'd love to find someone that could share my passion for creating content for this project, but for now, I'll just settle for just finding someone at all lol

You can contact me through PMs here, though I also accept messages through Twitter DMs or Discord!

Twitter - https://twitter.com/NE0Nbandit

Discord - Jay 🌸🌊#9625

Thank you for taking the time to read this! <3

#commissions #comic #webcomic #visual novel #vn #writing #creative writing #storytelling #how many more annoying tags can I think of #Drimare Universe Webcomic #DU Friendsim #Announcement

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spicycreativity · 4 years ago

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Fanfic Appreciation Week Day 7: A Place Where I Can Breathe

Yes, folks, I'm appreciating my own darn fanfic for the final day of Fanfic Appreciation Week because I worked really hard on it and it was a labor of love for/with one of my QPPs, my roommate, the man who got me into Sanders Sides: @\cadeorade-powercade (That's him in the aesthetic board)

Allow me to present the director's commentary for A Place Where I Can Breathe:

Content Warnings: All content warnings mentioned in the fic apply.

Chapter 1: I actually wrote this fairly late in the game. It's meant to serve as a prologue and orient the viewer in the universe, s opposed to staring on Chapter 2, which just throws the viewer in without context. I think it was a good choice, as it also allowed me to introduce the concept of the Sides having power focuses early on.

The Premise: Cade is a Virgil stan and he was getting frustrated looking for Virgil fic. He was finding a lot of stuff written without nuance by young authors, a sort of "by teenagers for teenagers" type deal. We are not teenagers, so we both have a hard time relating to that kind of teen angst fic, as we're not the target audience. So he asked me to write him a Virgil fic and we worked together to identify what plot he wanted, what the Mindscape looked like, and what quirks the Sides have. So a lot of this fic is quite gratuitous and self-indulgent

The Title: Lizzie McAlpine has a song called "Apple Pie" which includes the lyric "I've been running around trying to find a place where I can breathe." Apple Pie SCREAMS Moceit to me, and I had taken notice of the lyric and wanted to use it as the title for a Moceit fic. I didn't really have an idea beyond that, and when Cade asked me to write this fic, I realized it was actually perfect and summed up Virgil's inner struggle quite nicely. So cheers to "A Place Where I Can Breathe," the Moceit Fic That Wasn't

-Cade asked me specifically to include Virgil having a spider and I wrote nearly the whole fic without doing so, then had to go back and sprinkle some references in. I think I managed 2 total.

Chapter 2:

"Uh, how about I hold off on that until I actually see my room?" Virgil stared expectantly at Roman, who bounced on his toes. "Lead on, Macduff."

"That's not the line and you know it," Roman complained, but he turned to lead Virgil to his room. "It's ' lay on, Macduff,' and--"

-This fic was originally supposed to reach a climax with a confrontation between Remus and Roman, and "lay on, Macduff" would come back as a brick joke. Unfortunately, the original ending was a result of me getting tired and lazy, so I had to go back and fix it, and we lost the Roman-Remus confrontation.

It was hard for Virgil to not shudder at the sudden heat and weight on him. With his senses already open and taking in more information than his brain seemed to want to process, touch was an added stressor, more unwanted sensory input.

-Virgil being touch-averse is a direct shoutout to Cade, who is also touch-averse.

Roman had already transformed the living room: metallic streamers of purple and black stretched across the corners of the ceiling, and shiny balloons spelling out A-N-X-E-I-T-Y hovered above the TV.

-Upon first writing, Virgil had already given the upstairs crew his name, so the banner spelled out "VIRIGL" which is way funnier than "ANXEITY." But then his name reveal became a plot point so I had to go back and change it.

-Let! Virgil! Be! Mean!

-Virgil's line about hearing refrigerator noise when Roman talks is another shout-out to Cade, who has leveled that accusation at me

A small, cruel part of him protested at the idea that he would need special treatment and desperately wanted to throw it back in Patton's face. He wasn't a sweetheart, he wasn't a baby. He didn't need to crawl into a blanket fort with Dad just because he was a little stressed.

-Remus calls Janus "Janus Geminus" because I was tired and couldn't come up with a pun. "Geminus" is one of the Roman god Janus' epithets; another is "Pater" meaning "Father." That led to a conversation about Remus deliberately confusing Patton by calling Janus "Daddy," but I couldn't think of a clean way to fit the explanation into the narrative, so I stuck with "Geminus."

Chapter 3:

"There's nothing normal about that! " Roman stared in horror at the coffee massacre Virgil had orchestrated. What had once been a respectable (if not very tasty) cup of black coffee was now part of a 1:1 coffee to milk suspension, the liquid a tasteful shade of tan suitable for business casual trousers or a show-ready chihuahua.

-Cade is a certified Nightmare Man and came up with Virgil's horrifying coffee order after I asked him about it. Keep an eye out for Janus' equally horrifying coffee order later in the fic.

1) Shouts out the fact that Janus is canonically a Dostoevsky fan

Chapter 4:

Janus smiled at him. "Where reason fails, the Devil helps." He fussed with his gloves and straightened his capelet. "It's showtime."

-I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Look at me. Look at me. I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Janus' quoting Raskolnikov serves multiple purposes:

2) Lampshades the fact that Roman just conveniently happened to be alone in the living room, because I didn't want to waste time getting him there. That makes me, the author, the Devil

3) Foreshadows the impending disaster. When Raskolnikov says this line it is because he had planned to commit axe murder. The axe he was planning to steal had been moved, but he finds another, different axe to use. Raskolnikov messes up the murder and ends up killing an innocent witness in addition to his intended target. Janus messes up his manipulation attempt and ends up murdering Roman's self esteem

-I was going to include a reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Remus' line "debauchery and vomit" was originally going to be "blood, love, and rhetoric") but I didn't because... Uh... Hm. Why didn't I do that. Maybe I just forgot about it???

-Roman is too stubborn to manipulate for long and that is a fact.

"I was pretty much done anyway," Remus said. "There's only so much debauchery and vomit you can fit into one story."

-Cade specifically ask me that nobody cry in this fic, but after I had Janus eviscerate Roman I knew he couldn't not cry a little. I kept it to a minimum because there's already a billion fucking fics about [literally any Side] crying on the shoulder of [literally any other Side] and it's really just not interesting to either of us.

-It didn't come up because it doesn't matter, but Thomas dreamed he was participating in the exact Dionysian orgy that took place in The Secret History because it's my fic and I said so.

Chapter 5:

He just sat back and watched and tugged at his hair while Janus spooned mound after mound of crisp white sugar into his mug and Virgil poured his customary eight fluid ounces of milk into his own mug.

-Cade strikes again. Virgil's coffee order is equal amounts milk to coffee; Janus' is equal parts sugar to coffee. He had asked me to include a scene where Roman catches Janus massacring his coffee and is appropriately horrified, but I uhh... Didn't write it. I still might include it as an omake someday.

-I imagine that Roman feels really strongly about dragons vs wyverns, and Remus just pretends to give a shit because he thinks it's funny to wind Roman up. Fortunately for me but unfortunately for my sense of realism in writing, I can't relate because I adore my sister and we get along perfectly almost 100% of the time.

"You shut us down every chance you get!" Remus said, baring his teeth. "How would you like it if your pens never wrote, hm? What would you do with all those thoughts in your head?"

-I do wish I had developed the concept of power focuses a bit more, established rules and such. Basically, Patton is always on the prowl for wrongthink and actively represses it, which in turn breaks or sabotages the Dark Sides' power focus.

Chapter 6: This chapter really should have been Janus and Roman but I was really tired and didn't want to bother with it. Plus, you know, Moceit. This chapter was meant to demonstrate how the characters would get along without Virgil nannying them. There's friction, but everyone is making a conscious, deliberate effort to get along because they love Virgil, and love is a series of choices you make.

I chose "Leo" as the answer for the answer to the crossword clue instead of "Virgo," because my other QPP is a Leo. She'll never read this fic, but I did it anyway because I love her. (Trivia: My sign is Virgo, so it was really a choice between shouting her out and shouting me out, and the last chapter is self-indulgent enough, thank you).

Chapter 7: I was gonna write a fic where all the Sides watched Cats the Musical because I was going through a phase. Then Cade requested this so I combined the two ideas. By this point I was fucking exhausted, and that's the only thing that saved you and the rest of the world from me writing the Sides riffing on the movie scene-by-scene. I could come up with snarky commentary for almost every, if not every single song from the movie.

Most notably, I cut a Patton-Remus interaction where Remus declares his love for Grizabella and Patton gets all staryy-eyed about Remus connecting with the idea of rising above rejection and being loved and accepted only for Remus to shoot him down and explain that he just likes that she got to die in a tire fire.

Other cut scenes include Janus quietly pretending not to go feral over Mister Mistoffelees, Patton full-on fucking sobbing over Grizabella and the kittens, and Logan experiencing a deep, soulful kinship with Munkustrap during Of The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollices (and henceforth introducing the phrase "like herding cats" into his regular vocabulary

#spicypost #fanfic appreciation week

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vernyhore · 4 years ago

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I saw the devil (in me) - chapter 4

Takemura doesn't believe in ghosts, not really, but a man driven to his limit might believe in just about anything. Trapped in a losing game and consumed by grief, he returns to Night City looking for closure. but ends up finding something much more.

ao3 I chapter 1 I chapter 2 I chapter 3

As he opened his eyes, the first thing Takemura noticed was that he was no longer lying on a leather chair in the center of the clinic, hooked up to an impossible amount of monitors, a painfully bright surgical lamp hovering over him, blinding him to the point where it wasn’t possible to keep his eyes open even if he wanted to. Instead, Takemura found himself lying on an actual bed, frame creaking with every little movement he made. It was pushed to the side of the garage, away from prying eyes, but still within Viktor’s line of sight. The other man must’ve moved him at some point, though Takemura wouldn't be able to pinpoint when exactly, the brief moments he could recall an unsettling blur in an otherwise blissfully void unconsciousness.

Misty’s terrified face. Viktor leaning over him, still in that suit he wore to the funeral, bloody smears staining his otherwise perfectly white shirt. The bitter taste of vomit flooding Takemura’s mouth, a pair of strong hands helping him turn to the side so he wouldn't choke. And the cold. An unyielding chill that’d shake him awake every few hours, teeth chattering despite a thick blanket he was covered with. Eventually, it was gone, only to come back in the form of searing hotness, one that made his optics go haywire, spitting glitchy warnings all over his feed before he drifted off again. And Viktor’s hand against his forehead, his skin almost ice cold in comparison with his own.

In short, Takemura felt like absolute shit. Like he’s been dragged through Night City’s trash dump and back. At least the clinic didn’t seem to him a rocking boat anymore, the soft, neon lights no longer so unpleasantly bright as they were merely a few hours before. It seemed surreal, but it’s not like Takemura didn’t know what to expect. He’s been through cyberware withdrawal in the past, the memory of the last time he ended up in Viktor’s clinic in a less than presentable state still fresh in his mind, but this felt so much worse. In the moments he was lucid enough to form such judgments, Takemura kept telling himself it was his injuries aggravating his symptoms, these two unfortunate circumstances layered on top of each other yet another instance of bad luck that seemed to follow him the moment he stepped foot in Night City for the first time not even a year ago, but he knew well enough it was bullshit. It almost felt as if his body finally found an opportunity to carry out a proper vengeance for the last few months in Takamatsu.

When Takemura first stepped off the AV, a sense of relief washed over him. Finally, he was back home. He made it, carved himself a path back under Arasaka’s wings, the only place he ever truly belonged. The circumstances were different, sure, and he was yet to swallow the disappointment that being dismissed from Saburo-dono’s side was, but everything was back as it should be. At that point, Takemura could still force himself to push the memory of V far back into his mind, convinced that it was her who made the wrong choice, though little did he know it wouldn’t be much longer.

He refused to acknowledge it, but even before V started haunting his every waking moment, even his favorite foods felt bland to taste, far removed from the richness of flavor he remembered. Then came the memories and guilt that kept him awake at night and copious amounts of coffee to remedy the lost hours of sleep by day, his meals growing smaller and smaller, reduced into a bare minimum necessary to keep him going. He was never a man to refuse a meal, the hunger that plagued his entire childhood burned into his mind, but these days he couldn’t stomach more than a few bites before he felt it lodge down his throat.

Takemura slowly sat up and almost immediately regretted it, his back protesting the movement after all the hours he spent in one position. He ignored it, running a hand through his hair to pull back the loose strands plastered to his skin. To his mild surprise, he was no longer wearing the suit he left the hotel in, but a stretched out t-shirt and sweatpants, both a bit too loose on his smaller frame. Viktor must’ve changed his clothes at some point, most likely before the blood had a chance to stiffen the material. It didn’t make Takemura feel embarrassed. If anything, he was grateful for the care, but the state he was in certainly made him feel vulnerable, much more so than he’d be willing to admit. Fighting the anxiety rising in his chest, Takemura looked to the side, fully expecting his left arm to no longer be attached to his shoulder, but there it was - heavily bandaged, but still in one piece. He tried moving his fingers and saw them twitch before a warning flash of pain could reach his senses.

The clinic was quiet, save for a quiet hum of machinery and the sound of a boxing match playing in the background, punching and grunts faded out by a speaker spitting commentary faster than a machine gun spits bullets. All of that was interrupted by a soft creak as Viktor got up from his chair and walked over to Takemura.

“Good to see you back among the living,” Viktor said, a faint smile on his lips. He was back to wearing his usual blue shirt, sleeves rolled up over his biceps, stethoscope hanging around his neck. He seemed much more at ease than the last time they met, the clinic being his natural environment much more so than the bar, though it did very little to lift the dark circles beneath his eyes. If anything, he looked even more exhausted.

“How long was I…?” Takemura’s voice came out hoarse and strained, barely audible even for him. As if reading his mind, or, more likely, simply having a decent bedside manner, Viktor handed him a glass of water.

“Here you go. As for your question, four days, give or take.”

“And did anyone..?”

“Did anyone come knockin’ lookin’ for you?” Viktor asked as he grabbed himself a chair and sat beside Takemura. ”Luckily, no. Left me wonderin’ what the hell happened. Somehow I doubt it was the Valentinos you met on a late night stroll, so let me make a wild guess - tough day at work?”

“You might call it that.”

“So what, Arasaka is sending their assassins after people for missing a day off work now?” the doctor asked, not much humor in his tone.

“It wasn’t...exactly that. I apologize, but I would rather not discuss it right now.” Takemura replied but didn’t provide further explanation. To his relief, Viktor didn’t push for it either, at least for now. Before the silence between them could grow any heavier, Takemura added: “If you are worried about troopers bursting through your door, there is no need. If they had not done that already, I believe it means that I...got my point across.”

“Should’ve seen the other guy, huh?” Viktor asked with a husky laugh.

A wet sound of a blade piercing the sternum, going right through the aorta. A seasoned Arasaka agent struggling to load a magazine, fear in his eyes as if he had seen the devil himself. A quick cut to the neck of a practically defenseless man, still recovering from the shard’s aftereffects, dead before he had a chance to see what happened to his companions. That’s all it took, it seems.

***

“Since you’re out of the woods, allow me to give you a quick rundown of how it’s lookin’ for you: a gunshot wound to the stomach was a walk in the park compared to the scrap metal that was the wiring in your left hand. I hooked you up with some suitable replacements, should be workin’ just fine if you allow the cuts to properly heal, so take it easy for a while. I took the liberty to go in and tweak your CPU a little, managed to restore some basic interface functions, but I'm afraid all the other implants are a goner.” Viktor said, fingers dancing as he typed on the screen he was holding. “No way for me to reset them, Arasaka tech is way above my pay grade. You probably know that already, which brings me to another matter we should, uh, discuss.” the other man’s expression changed, his brows furrowed in concern clearly evident on his face.

“Yes?” Takemura’s fingers froze halfway through buttoning the coat Viktor handed him. To his relief, Takemura realized it was his own coat, seemingly fresh from a half-decent laundry service, one that managed not to completely ruin the heavy grade wool. Buttoning it wasn’t easy with only one hand, but whatever was left of his pride made it impossible to ask Viktor for help.

“I just found it concernin’ that you had such a strong reaction to bein’ cut off from implants, especially since it ain’t your first time. You should have experienced some mild nausea, light oversensitivity, maybe a vicious headache, but your other injuries aside, it knocked you right out for days. I ran quite a few scans when I was treatin’ you but didn’t find much to explain it. How’ve you been feelin’ in the last few months? Eatin’ well? Sleepin’?

Was there even a point in lying?

“Not really, no.” Takemura said, unable to look the other man in the eye, fingers slipping as he rushed to fasten the rest of the buttons,

Viktor hummed and stopped typing away at the small screen he had been holding, letting his hands rest on his lap.

“Listen, uh, the past few months have been tough on all of us. I’m not good with this sort of stuff, but if you need someone to talk to, I can give you contact info to a great doc.”

“That will not be necessary, but thank you. I appreciate it.”

“Alright, but you know, if you need it, don’t hesitate to ask. With the way things turned out, I presume you’ll be staying in Night City for a while?”

“I’m afraid so. It would be unwise of me to come back to Japan right now.”

“I know it was supposed to be a short trip, so I don’t presume you came prepared for a longer stay, huh?

“I have some funds stashed away on a secure account, but it will take me some time to gain access to them. I will pay for your services, of course.”

“Nah, it’s not my fee I’m concerned about. I don’t want you to roam the streets in the dead of winter, not an eddy to your name. Suppose what I’m askin’ is if you have a place to stay?

“Not at the moment, no.”

“Then how about you stay in my place until you figure out what to do next? I’m not there all that much anyway, been spendin’ most nights at the clinic lately. Shame for the place to go unused like this and it seems you need it more than I do.”

Takemura hesitated. Viktor has already done so much for him, from saving his life to letting him run up a tab on little more than a word. He knew he'd never be able to repay such kindness, but the ripper was right. Before he jumps all the hoops to access the little cash he had stashed away on an account so deeply buried even Arasaka wasn't able to cut him off from it, more than a few days will pass. He still felt weak and even just the thought of spending the night outside was making Takemura miserable. At the same time, he didn’t want to stay in the clinic any longer, knowing that his presence had effectively stopped Viktor from taking up more than a few clients he trusted well enough.

“Thank you, Viktor,” Takemura said and bowed slightly, as deeply as the stitches would comfortably allow.

“No problem, really,” the man smiled and handed him a shard. “Just jack it in, it’ll tell you the location and grant access to the building. It’s a few blocks away, you won��t miss it.”

“See you later, I suppose?”

“Sure. Go get some rest before you go out to roam the streets and remember, your body ain’t got all the fancy tech to patch you up in no time. Folks like you often seem to forget that. Just take it easy, Takemura.”

“It’s Goro.”

“What?”

“Call me Goro. And I will, do not worry. I have...a lot of things to figure out.”

#goro takemura #goro takemura/viktor vector #victor vector #viktor vector #takemura/viktor #cyberpunk 2077 #cp2077 #cp77 #the devil ending #cp2077 spoilers #writing #vikemura #takevik

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raquellplanningwell · 5 years ago

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THIS ARCANA PROLOGUE UPDATE WHOOO 🙌✨

TL:DR I loved it, it made the game even better, s/o to the creators for going back to it because I really think it makes SUCH a difference & develops the characters so beautifully, especially the three newer love interests, so many pleasant surprises throughout this play-through. Longer Verison (If you’re up to it, please enjoy!)

Okay so when I say I’ve been aching for the creators to fix up the prologue I really mean it & this was beyond satisfying, like better than I could imagine.

There’s so many effective changes & they didn’t just fix one or two things here, they went INNN. The format has changed, things that were consistent in the story before are now in line & are much stronger with this new prologue.

Listen, I’ve tried to get multiple friends to play the Arcana & more than one have stopped at the prologue because it didn’t grasp them, this, this is a huge improvement & I got so hyped playing it.

Starting off even how Asra’s introduced feels so much smoother, not just a story thrown on you. The lost memories are mentioned & Asra delicately treats the apprentice, you see how he worries & care about them. Plus with this fun option, there’s a new chance to give your character some more personality, I love it. The Trouble option was worth it 👌🏻

Truth be told I haven’t played the prologue in a while, so perhaps some details I’m re-appreciating from the previous version but I love that they went back & changed it, like that to me, shows how much they still care, & that the creators genuinely want to improve & nurture their game

Okay changes to Nadia introduction, ALSO GREAT, @ devs thank you for not just having the apprentice follow her blindly !! Like she explains the situation & lets the apprentice know exactly why she’s calling on their services right off the bat. Another detail I liked, is Nadia showing some vulnerability in this time, there’s a description of her sleepless eyes as well & I really like that! Like she’s not just the countess, she’s a person coming to you for help.

Portia’s intro is in there!! Bless!!! My girl finally being put out as a main & I JUST CAME TO THE REALIZATION THAT MEANS SHE’S STAYING YAAAAAAAYY, VERY EXCITING STUFF 🎊🍾

This is gonna a long post, if you’re still reading, thank you as well. So next is Julian’s entrance, I appreciate the options that from my knowledge stayed the same in how you react & I choose ‘negotiate’ as my own apprentice would & the details were great lol like this breakdown from the apprentice 👇 yup that sounds like the dumbass doctor alright

Another nice detail, they exchange names earlier! The apprentice states their name when they first meet & Julian is even surprised when the apprentice doesn’t know his. And!! These warnings that come from the love interests in the beginning, that’re new characters at first, they’re not so ominous! Isn’t that awesome, like they make so much more sense with the story & who the characters are & what they know.

Like this ^ right here ^^ that is phenomenal. The wording makes sense, what he’s talking about makes more sense as you get to play the game, like it’s how it’s meant to be. Before I believe his warning was about how the “witch” cares about the MC but that they shouldn’t trust him & more than anything that made me feel confused about who to choose & what was true, even in a prologue so this change is very welcomed.

The portion with the voice in the dream & being able to pick whether to follow it or not, super glad about that like those feel like meaningful choices & even the dream scene being added, so cool! I’m assuming as of now the voice was Lucio & I think it was really well played

Muriel’s CG, I really yelled. when I say it’s incredible, like CRAZY GOOD, I mean it. The lighting, the mood, even the angle because yes he will likely be towering over the apprentice & that’s a lovely thing to consider, also his expression is so good & yes! No strange warning that sounds out of character to his route, it starts off with “...” as it should, the most Muriel line.

Even the way it’s described matches up so well lol like yes you can see you’re definitely engulfed in his shadow, he looks huge. Plus “and I look up… and up.. and up” is very funny. Again the fact that his first lines are “…” that’s perfect. I feel like the Grinch when he’s auditioning Max for Rudolph, he says nothing & throws off the nose & the Grinch goes “BRILLIANT”, that’s me. Like even Muriel stumbling back & having trouble saying anything is great. It’s how he is throughout the story, & especially in his own route, he has trouble talking to the apprentice. I’m uwuing at the stuttering too, baby, just a glimpse into what he’s gonna be like in his route & that’s a good intro in its own! 👏 This is like world’s improvement. Also if you’re still with me bless, thank you for being here & congratulations. I’m thinking of breaking this down in parts as I didn’t expect it to go so long but here we are & enjoying each minute of it.

*taps microphone* The use of the word, “bamboozled” thank you for your time.

I can’t believe this is now in the prologue, I am giddy

OKAY! Into the market we go, & Portia is introduced! She introduces herself! We don’t just accidentally bump into her! & she’s with the baker! Very cool! OKAYYYYY, lol mind you I’m typing my reaction as I play, & Portia already showing her interest in the MC being a magician like she does throughout her route, noice. She’s so cute, & you get to ask about herself right off the bat, really enjoying these changes, they add so much to the characters. It might just be me but there’s more sound effects too? The cards shuffling, the gate opening. I also really like that the charm is mentioned again. Like feels more tangible than how it was before, I wasn’t even sure we had hung onto it before & now it feels like a personal item that can actually protect the apprentice & connect them to something more.

Next Chapter, really liking how clear things are right off the bat. In the old prologue, I remember being unsure about Nadia’s relationship to Lucio, but here it seems quite apparent they don’t share the same tastes, & the apprentice gets a moment to take it all in. THE VOICEEEE, Oh that’s an awesome addition. Also @ devs thank you for mentioning some compensation for the apprentice as well. Playing the game, it’s clear Nadia takes good care of them but yeah in the beginning it was very much like, ‘why am I doing this again other than you being Countess and asking me personally’, I appreciate it. And Devorak isn’t just described as the dude who confesses, he’s introduced as the apprentice’s first lead in this investigating, awesome!! I don’t recall this from the previous prologue but we’re actually discussing more of the murder mystery of this, I definitely think this is one of the Arcana’s strong points & I’m glad they’ve added to it. The story & world building potential for this game extends infinitely. The way that the dinner with Nadia has been built upon & improved, it feels meaningful. It makes me like her even more as character, like she’s not just a political power, she’s a person trying to figure this all out, do what’s best for her people & bring them together, as well she makes the goals in this investigation very clear.

Portiaaaaa, I like that you get the chance to ask her more & she shows you more, the CG is so nice & suits her so well!! & the situation is a perfect intro to what to expect while in the palace, because that happens a lot, secret passages in just about every route, Lucio even mentions it himself in his own route how there’s so many about the palace grounds. But Portia telling you a ghost story in the Count’s wing is right on brand & I think it prepares you well for the first chapter of her route. I know I wasn’t expecting going straight for ghost hunting when I started her route.

There’s a ‘snoop around’, option now. I choose it & wow it’s a great time, tea & snacks with Nadia & Portia, bless. The scene is so fun & almost feels like a tale, like it feels special & you get to enjoy more of the love interests personalities. The mention of pepi is sweet. + the use of puns, 10/10 I love my girlfriend ✨

Nadia’s note, a lovely touch.

IV The Emeperor

The nightmares, woah!!!! Okay this !! this is super effective. When I first played the game I remember bring confused who the blond guy was, why his eyes were red, why he was even an option if he was the count that passed away but the nightmares & how they introduce him really feels full circle. It’s so cool getting the choice to interact in the dream as well, I keep finding myself impressed & amazed with these new additions. Hdbshsk he really said “What’s the matter? Goat got your tongue”. A legend, dedicated to his aesthetic 🙌

Asra’s talk in the fountain, mentioning Julian, much better. I remember last time it was him not speaking kindly of the doctor behind his back & now its more, ‘it is what it is, please be careful’ like ‘yes, thank you for the trust’. It looks better on their character when they’re a little more open & honest about the other, than to vaguely bad mouth each other. Perhaps I don’t remember it correctly but I think Asra used to call him Ilya right away & I know that caused some confusion for me in the beginning, so introducing like this is 👍 👍 👍

MALAK POPPING IN, LOOK AT THIS GOLD, & more notes!! Yes!!! Very cool, MC is just going out seeking the truth too, as they ought to be. Also Julian’s trust in Malak is astounding lmfao.

I will say it’s very strange to take out the letter desk option but it seems like it’s good overall. The fcking Fylnn Rider moment, they’re not subtle! “They just can’t get my nose right!” 😂 something about this new dialogue feels more intimate or real, like lol yes Julian makes such a good point the apprentice could’ve just called the guards in there, that’d make sense for them to do so but they give Julian a chance & trust him, because they want to go after the truth. I gotta say I’m surprised the CG works so well even with the new content, like they got the mood just spot on.

I’m just speeding through Julian’s convo at this point getting really into it & wow soon Portia’s there then Muriel, ‘what the fuck is going on’, I said aloud at this point. I gotta say, as much as I’m loving hearing all these details right in the beginning, it got me thinking they’re things that’re revealed later. When Julian “breaks up” with the apprentice in his route, he explains the plague, like it really has got me wondering if they’re gonna adjust the rest of the story, to not avoid repetition. THE MURIEL INTERACTION HERE IS SO GOOD, I LIVE. There’s also another paid option with Muriel, this is GREAT & for some reason they’ve been already unlocked to me. (I’m guessing it’s because I had a prologue scene with Julian & a few books acquired) but either way I’m very grateful. Muriel is the best baby & honestly this is really introducing his character so nicely, him walking you, him questioning that you didn’t run away knowing about the ghosts, works well with his route’s path, all while maintaining the “Go away!” “B-but not too close!” tsundere preciousness, GOOD SHT. lastly I love that instead of saying “don’t trust the witch” they show you that Asra hasn’t told you certain events throughout the prologue, with Muriel & Julian being surprised that he wouldn’t mention these things to you.

Pure

Okay so all done! Thoughts, I love that they went back to it, I’m curious to see if they’ll do anything else with it but the changes are very welcomed, I think they’ve improved it greatly. I will say it’d be nice to be able to maneuver through the prologue’s chapters but honestly that update was so remarkable, I’m very grateful.

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unexpectedreylo · 5 years ago

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Congratulations, You Played Yourself? Why We Didn’t See TROS Coming

I read a great meta by @ariainstars and it inspired me to finally address something I’d been meaning to write about since TROS came out. How were so many smart Reylo fans and Bendemptionists convinced things were going to turn out with a happy ending, Rey and Ben riding off into the sunset, when JJerio as well as fired writer Colin Trevorrow clearly had other ideas?

This isn’t a defense of TROS or its spin-out-and-crash ending. I still think Ben’s fate was totally mishandled and it leaves DLF with the choice of a) never addressing the post-ST galaxy or b) resurrecting Ben from the dead in one form or another. (When that will happen is of course a mystery. My guess is not for at least not another decade.) Returning to Rey Whateverherlastnameis without Ben is to dig their hole deeper, especially since I think the pop culture gods will determine that Ben’s departure was premature and unlike the deaths of Boba Fett or Darth Maul, materially damaging to the overall story.

This is an object lesson though in how fans and creators can end up on different pages and also how creators underestimate the power of their own work.

I thought that death was always on the table for Ben but TLJ’s compassionate treatment of the character and his relationship with Rey as well as piles of well thought-out metas convinced me he was going to survive. I was sure they were going for an unabashedly happy ending because it was the last film (not simply because it was Disney) and they would want to go out on an up note. I didn’t think a Dead Ben would end things happily (and really I was right...the air gets sucked out of the movie the second he abruptly dies). I also didn’t think they would solve the Skywalker problem by tacking the name onto Rey at the very end of the movie (sigh).

I think the fundamental problem was highlighted in @ariainstars‘s meta: many thought we were getting Pride And Prejudice or 50 Shades Of Grey while they were riffing off of Phantom Of The Opera. All of those stories are variations of La Belle Et La Bete, Beauty And The Beast. POTO though ends tragically because Erik is too much of an outcast and his crimes are too terrible. @ariainstars states that Kylo/Ben was always doomed because he’d killed his father. A happily ever after was never going to be possible for him.

Why did so many of us reject the idea that killing Han meant Ben had to die in TROS? Because a lot of sequel fans grew up with Asian and Asian-influenced media, namely anime, manga, and shows like Avatar: The Last Airbender or Dragon Ball Z. Serious crimes weren’t necessarily bars to redemption or a happily-ever-after. There were and still are lots of comparisons between Kylo/Ben and Prince Zuko, who was redeemed, survived, and marries (though not Katara). Dragon Ball Z’s former villain Vegeta sacrifices himself but is allowed to return to his body and he gets to be in love with Bulma.

JJerio and Trevorrow though didn’t grow up with that stuff. They grew up with Star Wars and everything else Hollywood produced in the ‘60s-’90s. While I’m pretty sure Rian Johnson would’ve sold it better if he’d directed and wrote IX, I am not sure if Johnson would’ve let Ben get a happily ever after either. While Star Wars always had an Eastern influence, it still is very much a product of the West and all it entails.

Maybe the trouble with Ben’s arc is Abrams and Kasdan deciding he had to kill Han Solo. When I saw TFA, my first thought was Kylo would redeem himself in the last movie but he was toast. Which is too bad, because you doom your character in the very first movie and that’s not fun. TLJ then only offered false hope that this would not be the case. I get that Johnson was making redemption credible but either he was too optimistic that whoever followed him would consider letting Ben live or he unwittingly oversold Ben to the point where you not only wanted him redeemed, you wanted him to survive so he’d have a chance to be happy and free. (And of course that Rey would have lasting companionship with an equal.)

Another reason why we thought we’d get a happily-ever-after is because Kylo/Ben was the son of Han and Leia and the only Skywalker scion, this meant he was somehow bulletproof and his importance in the story was only going to grow. Adding to this assumption is Rian Johnson referring to Ben and Rey as co-protagonists. But to Abrams and company, these movies weren’t about Ben. This was Rey’s story and in case you don’t understand that, she appears in nearly every scene in TROS. While Kylo/Ben leaves a big impression, if you pay attention you’ll notice he gets less screen time in the movies than guys like Poe or Finn. To those who made TROS, Kylo/Ben was little more than a foil, a catalyst for their heroine. He was supposed to be Darth Vader to Rey’s Luke Skywalker. (If you want to understand why some fans who clearly aren’t TFM types don’t like these movies, there’s your answer...the Skywalker family got sidelined in the last third of their own saga.)

Perhaps though there’s another simple answer and that is fans are great at being in denial. If we want a certain outcome, we’re going to bet the farm on it. Soon among a subset of fans, it’s practically a tenet of being a part of that subset. This led to what I call following “signs and wonders,” fans believing there are secret codes they were putting out to reassure us we were going to get what we wanted. I”m seeing a lot of that now with regard to Ben returning, though I don’t buy they are really giving it much thought right now.

Reylos correctly predicted that Ben would turn and there would be some acknowledgement of the attraction between Rey and Ben. We actually got most of it right. But Ben’s death wasn’t an outcome most Reylos entertained to any extent. There were fans who predicted Ben’s demise but they didn’t talk about it very much and those metas weren’t as enthusiastically shared. Why? We didn’t want it to happen and we didn’t want to think about its possibility.

Whatever JJerrio’s and Lucasfilm’s intentions, Ben Solo was a character who had escaped. I guess everyone knew Kylo Ren was going to be popular and iconic but those guys severely underestimated his power. It’s due to the mystique built up in TFA, the revelation of his humanity in TLJ, being the last Skywalker, and his relationship with Rey over the course of the films, all expertly performed by someone who always brings his A game and had plenty of charisma to spare. Some sympathetic story groupers added further pathos to his back story in various comics and novels. He, like the cinnamon roll The Onion made famous, was too pure for this world.

Moreover, they severely underestimated the power of Reylo. They unwittingly tapped into something primal and mythic with those two. Nobody could’ve foreseen their incredible chemistry and they didn’t fully understand or appreciate how epic the pairing truly was. Or at least those not named “Rian Johnson.” But many in the audience could see it. There was a lot in the media about Reylo. The two times I saw TROS in the theater people applauded when Rey and Ben kissed. It was the gas in the ST’s tank.

That’s why we bought it. It’s amazing to me how often studios, filmmakers, and show runners miss this stuff while fans keep expecting a different outcome.

#reylo #reylo fandom #reylo fam #ben solo #bendemption #tros #bring back ben solo #kylo ren

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