#starting with the overworld for the level selection

[ellraiser]

playing with some overworld designs to match the book schematics!

[suppermariobroth]

In Super Mario World, using Start+Select to quit out of a level actually adds 1 to a specific memory address every time, which causes it to overflow when it is done 255 times in a row. The next time Mario finishes a stage after doing this, specific overworld events will not activate.

While this is purely deleterious in most instances (no overworld paths spawning and thus further progress being prevented), it has a unique result with Switch Palace levels. These normally self-destruct after being cleared, but will be prevented from doing so in this scenario.

This allows Mario to re-enter a cleared Switch Palace and discover that the switch is actually gone when it has already been pressed. The code that removes the switch when it is already active can never be seen in action under regular circumstances.

Main Blog | Patreon | Twitter | Bluesky | Small Findings | Source: mrcheeze

[sexybritishllama]

well. i finished clair obscur: expedition 33

my non-spoiler thoughts: i love this game. have YOU played clair obscur? will you play clair obscur? when will you play clair obscur

my spoiler thoughts (warning- many):

ughhhh uGHHHHHHHHHH. i'm still processing the ending and honestly my thoughts on that are going to be its own whole post so i'll sort of avoid talking about that for now, but my more general thoughts:

the fact that they found the composer through him just posting on soundcloud and some indie game forum is insane, the music is SO GOOD. it's so atmospheric, there's so MUCH of it, it's such a delight to hear consistently different battle music. nothing bugs me more than when a game has decent music but it only has like, one battle theme and one boss theme, and you hear it so often that you just get sick of it. never happens here! unique themes for EVERY area and then some, unique themes for each boss, each character, variations on different motifs in more calm or frantic environments. love

i LOVED the gameplay, the mix of turn based and QTE kept me so engaged i wasn't bored for a single second. i actually found expeditioner mode perfectly challenging for me.... UNTIL i got to the end of act 2 of so, when the story bosses suddenly starting feeling like they were made like tissue. the final bosses were particularly atrocious for this- i had to literally skip turns just so i could see all the dialogue because even my base attacks were doing too much damage

it seems like they scaled everything for the player who has done literally not a single piece of side content at all, which is kind of an insane decision considering how MUCH side content there is and how natural it is as a player to want to explore and try that out before finishing the story. and i was only level 60! i actually left a lot of side content because my bf warned me in advance not to overlevel. it's a real shame because the final bosses have SUCH cool music and presentation and i wish they felt like an actual challenge

more gameplay notes: the different builds you can do are very fun and i'm looking forward to seeing the mental multipliers people manage to make. i think around a third into the game i was a bit overwhelmed with just HOW MANY weapons and pictos there were, and how often i had to allocate new points or get skills. i got used to it but i do wonder if maybe just turning down the number or frequency of levelling up at least would help + make it feel more significant when you DO get new stuff

some other QOL stuff that would be nice: an actual save button that doesn't just = me forcing autosave; a 'restart battle' button that doesn't make me go back to my last save; an option to save 'sets' of pictos or lumina so you could have different preset builds without needing to manually select them all each time; a beastiary of some kind maybe to keep track of monsters and get some lore as well? that'd be fun

controversially, i think the idea not to add a minimap was great. minimaps kind of ruin games for me. i DO think the addition of some kind of marker on the overworld map to indicate like, you have visited this before, or you have got all of the treasure in here before, would be nice though

art: the landscapes are beautiful, stunning, the contrast between light and dark occasionally a bit much when it came to trying to go down shadowy paths but considering chiaroscuro is literally the name of the game i suppose it was kind of part of the experience

the game did seem to experience occasional textural issues (notably i walked into my bf's room at one point when he was fighting some random enemy, saw that maelle had white hair, asked if that was a spoiler, he said no. ironically enough it actually WASN'T her actual white hair, he hadn't gotten to that point in the game yet- it was genuinely just a textural glitch. it happened with outfits and stuff sometimes too. not crazy common but i assume it could definitely do with some optimisation)

good character designs! i didn't make much use of it because of immersion but i do appreciate the different outfits/hairstyles, will make it fun in postgame or ng+ content

i saw someone with the most baffling take ever which was that 'all the women in this game have same face syndrome and only the guys get to be unique' which i thought was insane because the guys look so similar i literally thought it was a plot point that they were going to end up all being the same guy or something. also two of them were actually related and so kind of had an excuse. so like. what game were you playing

that same person also said that verso and sciel was 'pseudo-incest' so yknow. i don't think their general reading comprehension or perhaps perception in general is the best. it took all my power to not make this its own vaguepost jsyk. i'm going to hide it in here instead because i know no one will actually read all this but know that reading those takes actually made me feel like i was losing my mind

ANYWAY

i do think the romantic relationship things were unnecessary and felt pretty shoehorned in. luckily they were such a tiny part of the conversation dialogue and pretty easy to ignore that i'm not tooooo bothered, but i really think they should have just left them out

or at the very least let sciel/lune be an option. cmooooon at least in acts 1 and 2 when she doesn't think she can get her husband back. be so fr rn

voice acting was 10/10 across the board, just incredible work all round, honestly no notes here it was just really good

i'm not saying renoir and emet-selch are the same characters by any means. but it IS the second time i've played a jrpg with a compelling old man antagonist who is (initially without our knowledge) mourning the main protagonist's original self and is essentially committing genocide in a world of people he doesn't really consider 'people' so that he can save HIS loved ones. so that's a thing. great character btw

in general the characters were all really well done, dialogue was really believable and flowed well, i loved the way they had actual conflicts with each other and it felt like everyone had their own rich inner worlds and motivations. even just little things like the fact lune is both a scientist/mage person who is very intellectually curious AND she plays guitar- not to be funny but in a lot of jrpgs those would be two very distinct character types ('music type', 'nerdy type') and never the twain shall meet. v refreshing

gustave i miss you. gustave i love you. gustave......

i don't think verso should have been the player character after gustave died. i get from a mechanics standpoint of him taking gustave's lumina and weapons and whatever (even if it does UPSET ME) but he shouldn't have acted as the player character in camp for several reasons

i DID like though that you can swap between what character you can be during any other time without it affecting battles. i liked floating around as lune. wheeee

OH did i mention the general enemy designs are just really cool too?? some like that weird marionette one are so genuinely creepy. great designs

hmmm this has become very long. i have more thoughts probably but a lot of them are to do with the plot and ending, and that's going to be its own thesis entirely, so i'll make a separate post for that. but overall nitpicking and QOL improvements aside, please know this is such a fantastic game. i can tell it's easily going into one of my top games of all time already. everyone say thank u clair obscur. if you haven’t played it yet you shouldn’t be reading this because my blabbering will mean nothing to you anyway but on the off chance you’re lost and ended up at the bottom of this post without having played it pls go buy it right now or get it on game pass or WHATEVER idc just come join me

[justahumblememefarmer]

Is Pokémon intuitive to play? An Experiment

My friend was over recently and we were talking about how he'd hardly played any video games. I've been playing many games for so many years that the story structure and controls feel pretty intuitive to me. Particularly with Pokémon. So we agreed to an experiment for him to play and see how he fares without the intuition and experience that I rely on.

I had him play Shining Pearl to start off with. The other Switch Pokémon games have a lot of gimmicks, more complicated controls, and overworld encounters that you have to react quickly to. Shining Pearl is almost 1:1 with the DS game, with a pretty linear story and plenty of tutorials.

If he had any questions, I would answer them, but other than that he pretty much figured everything out himself

The only time I stepped in without asking was when he was choosing a starter to make sure he didn't choose one without looking at all 3 options

The first thing that he had an issue with was with the ledges. He discovered that he could not cross them when running into them. After obtaining his starter and being able to get to the other side of the first ledge he assumed he would still be unable to cross. He did not talk to the NPC that tells you that you can. He eventually discovered you could cross a ledge by accident.

He couldn’t figure out how to get to Sandgem Town at first (didn’t see the grass at the top and was frustrated by the ledge)

The Potions given to him were the first healing mechanic introduced, so while he grinded in the grass before Sandgem town, he would just use Potions whenever his health got low.

It wasn’t until he got to Jubilife that he started exploring more, going into every building and talking to every person

Using the fishing rod he went to the bag every single time to select it, but after three tries with no bites he gave up

He asked me during the first rival battle how to give his Pokémon “The Claw”. I explained that he would have to give the Quick Claw he received to his Pokémon before the battle began

After a while he asked me how to tell what type a Pokémon is (couldn’t tell whether Kricketot was a Fire type), so I told him he could look it up in the Pokedex

The first item he found on the ground was a potion, so upon seeing a second, he said “Oh another potion!”

He did not try catching wild Pokémon for a while. His first trainer battle he tried catching the opponents Starly, and I learned that there’s a special animation where the Pokeball bounces off and the words “don’t be a thief” pop up. He didn’t try to catch a Pokémon until after his first Rival fight (a Starly)

His next 4 encounters were Starly, which frustrated him because he wanted to catch new ones. He finally found a Shinx, which he killed

Barry mentioned Oreburgh having a Gym, which meant nothing to my friend

When he reached the 4-move limit with Chimchar he decided to replace Leer with Power-Up Punch (who really needs status moves?)

While he has caught two Pokémon (Starly and Shinx) he has not yet changed the order of his party, nor switched it out in battle as his Chimchar hasn’t fainted. He just keeps using potions on it in battle if it’s health gets too low (although it got paralyzed and he has been very frustrated by those effects)

He finally started switching out his overpowered Chimchar in battle, but hasn’t found out how to change the order of his party yet

He asked if he caught a second Shinx would it be seperate from the one he caught or add to it

“I think I saw one of those yellow floaty things, I think it’s called a Charmander” I was very confused about what he meant, but in remembering the 10 Pokémon he’s seen, I think he meant Abra

He’s decided to go train on the route between Sandgem Town and Jubilife City with it’s level 2 and 3 Pokémon, but is also complaining that he wants to catch new ones he hasn’t seen yet

He just discovered the guidebook in his key items section and is looking up how to Fish

He’s just gotten the Hidden Machine app and is very intrigued by what it means

lol I forgot that before you can fight Roark, you have to find him at the mine. He is very confused as to where the mine is, and is exploring the tunnel between Jubilife and Oreburgh

Chimchar evolved into Monferno in Oreburgh mine right after meeting Roark. He described it as “A baboon, but it’s also kind of like one of those pilots with the scarves.”

He entered the gym for the first time and then (accidentally) walked right back out

He hasn’t seemed to notice (or said anything) that the attack moves of his Pokémon have an effectiveness rating next to them. The idea of type matchups have not fully sunk in yet

While fighting Roark he tried to switch out a Pokémon and said “I’m looking for one of those Water/Grass Pokémon thingies the guy recommended” looking at his team of Monferno, Starly, Shinx, and Geodude

He doesn’t think to be constantly healing his Pokémon. Entered the gym with Monferno slightly damaged, fought the two gym trainers and approached Roark with Monferno at half health

So far every new move a Pokémon learns he has not looked at what the new move does AT ALL, just seems to blindly pick a move to replace, although most of the time it’s been a status move that he erases

After beating Roark he decided to look for the other 7 gym leaders, who he assumed would also be in the same town

Things he did before trying to catch a wild Pokémon

Been reminded by Dawn to catch Pokémon

Gone to the trainers school

Commented that multiple trainers were “cheating” by using 2 or more Pokémon

Won his first rival fight against Barry (his Piplup used NO water moves and got burned. I was hoping fainting would cause him to try and catch more)

Beat every trainer before the Oreburgh Tunnel

I think he may end up continuing playing the next time he’s over. Every Pokémon is brand new to him. We have hardly touched upon the plot yet. No hints of Team Galactic yet.

[lamaison]

Well, I've spent about four days with Zenless Zone Zero (and truly other than my Genshin and HSR dailies it's all I've played in those four days). I'm at the beginning of Chapter 2 in the story, where they soft lock you behind Inter-Knot level 30. I've also played a small about of the Hollow Zero and Shiryu Defense modes.

So time for some non-spoilery thoughts!

In terms of combat, it's very fun! I was worried it would be too frenetic for me, but it does a good job of prompting you. The perfect assist is so satisfying. I appreciate the option to select casual or challenge difficulty. I'm on casual difficulty and I'm starting to get to more difficult content, but the regular story missions are honestly hard to fail on casual.

I know a lot of people have problems with the monitor portions, but I enjoy them. There have been some fun puzzles with these and I love a good puzzle. I had a few problems where it wasn't responsive but that was my only frustration and that might just be my internet connection.

The activity loop is enjoyable too. You can definitely see the inspiration from Persona with the day being divided into sections and actually feeling like time is passing. And there's a good balance between activities that cost energy and those that don't. It's not open world but very similar to Persona there are small areas of the city you can travel to (I do wish these spaces were a little bit larger however, it seems kind of silly to have three fast travel points within the very small construction site area)

THIS is the comedy Hoyo game - they tried to sell HSR as the comedy and it's funny, but this is over the top. I have laughed out loud at multiple points. The animation in the cut scenes works for it too; it has a bouncy quality that fits the tone. They must have their own animation team because the quality of the cut scenes is so different from Genshin/HSR.

I really like that no matter which sibling you chose to play as, both Wise and Belle are present and active in the story. They also have individual rooms above the video shop!

I like the story so far - it's got enough to hook me for the moment. I'm excited that it looks like we might be able to get outside the city in the story that's available now. I'm just not far enough to tell for sure. Also lore players rejoice, they gave us a reason to play the roguelike mode! You're able to pick up lore clues like audio files within these levels so at least for me now I have an actual motivation to play that.

I ADORE the city and NPC design. Hoyo has really struggled with interesting NPC design, reusing the same bodies with different outfits. Here the NPCs have many different bodies and outfits and it adds so much life to the city. You can also run into current and possible future playable characters in the overworld.

Finally, props to ZZZ to be the Hoyo game brave enough to go full furry and not just humans with animal ears/tails. I love the bears that work at the construction company.

Overall, I've enjoyed my time with it so far and I'm going to continue playing.

[stelliferousduo-a]

;;ooc: For the New Year, I will be reviewing all of my current Genshin builds & how I want to improve them in the upcoming year.

This is a very long post so buckle up! I currently have 27 characters geared up and ready to go which is way too many, I am aware. I should really start investing more in a few select units but I love the Genshin cast so much, I want to use them. T ^ T There's still so many other units I want to build too but I'm all out of artifacts haha.

Of course, we have to kick things off with my girl herself!

Right now, I have an 'all-purpose' build on her with balanced ATK%, EM, CRIT and ER% stats.

As much as I would love to have a cracked 4P BiS for each separate element, I simply have not had the time nor resin to do so while also giving some love and attention to my other characters. T ^ T

I do have her skill and burst talents leveled to at least 10-11 for all elements, with Dendro MC having the highest investment because it is the element I use the most.

In terms of which elements I use - from most to least - it would be: Dendro, Electro, Geo, Hydro, Anemo. All of them are used as sub DPS characters aside from Hydro - who has no off field abilities so she is a vape DPS instead.

Goals: First and foremost, I really want to get Jade Cutter for her. This does mean I will have to change her sands to an ER% one and her circlet to a crit DMG one, so it will require some additional farming, unfortunately. I do have a pretty good off set ER% sands but no emblem crit DMG circlets.

My precious boy is finally on a 4P vermillion set! He is definitely high investment and without Xianyun, he does not hit those crazy numbers yet but I hope she will have a rerun in either 5.4 or 5.5 so I can give his damage another boost.

Goals: I would like to get a sands with a bit higher crit DMG and perhaps some ER on there as well. The one Lumine has an off-piece right now is pretty good, but that would require an on-set crit DMG circlet with a decent amount of ER%. The circlet he has right now has a bunch of ER% rolls and that's exactly what this build needed since I don't have his C1 or a triple anemo team to boost the particle generation.

The second little meow meow is here! He got a 5* weapon quite recently when I pulled Lost Prayer from standard banner. His build does not rank very high on Akasha but I enjoy using them. In overworld, I prefer Wanderer over Xiao because he's not reliant on his burst to do 90% of his damage.

Goals: Getting a 4P desert pavillion is obviously the dream but I don't know if that will happen this year haha. A goblet with both crit stats or a flower with some atk% and higher crit DMG would be nice. I might go back to strongboxing some VV next year so perhaps he'll get an upgrade there!

This man is the GOAT. His crit DMG is on the lower side for an obsidian codex build but this is what works for me now since I don't have a crit rate weapon on him. The damage he does in a classic burning team with a F2P craftable weapon (albeit R5) is honestly pretty insane. He has saved me the past 3 abyss cycles and I have not regretted pulling him at all.

Goals: A crit DMG circlet is the ultimate goal. This would require either more crit rate stats on his other artifacts or switching back to Serpent Spine for his weapon. Although I'm not even sure if it would translate to more damage since the Earth Shaker passive is really good on him. Perhaps I will pull for his signature on his rerun, we'll see...

Alhaitham you are hot af but you're also one of the hardest characters to build...This man needs EM, crit and ER% and he ascends with NONE OF THOSE. I do have other builds with higher CV but then his ER is barely existent so I had to find a balance. I think a bit more CR and maybe some less CD might get me better results but I have switched around artifacts on this man so many times, I just cannot anymore. T ^ T Gilded Dreams has to be my most unlucky artifact set ever...

Goals: I would love to get his CR up to 70~75% while maintaining at least 300 EM and 150-160% crit DMG. I tried to pull for his signature but lost to Skyward Harp, unfortunately. If I do end up getting Jade Cutter from chronicled, I might sometimes put it on him so I can focus more on crit DMG with his artifacts.

Mualani is a character I was super excited about getting because I loved everything about her: design, vibes, idle animations, etc. Hydro is one of my favorite elements too. At first her playstyle was really fun because in Natlan, she can keep surfing almost endlessly. ...But then I began playing her in Abyss or outside of Natlan and suddenly I had to actually stack her hits quickly or her skill would end with me only getting 1 or 2 skary bites off. I am a skill issue player and I suck at playing her, so she has been benched for the past month or so. I really hope I can get better at playing her one day because her damage potential is insane. She has hit the highest numbers on my account ever with over 300k in Abyss.

Goals: Her build is super solid as is, but a bit more EM won't hurt. Her crit DMG is quite inflated so I wouldn't mind sacrifying some of that for more HP%, EM and a teeny bit more crit rate.

My very first 4* from standard and the only Pyro DPS on my account to this day. Hu Tao? Nah. Lyney? Nope. Arle? Nu-uh. I have a C2 Diluc collecting dust because Yanfei is my girl! She might not be as strong as 5* units, but I love her attack combos and always have a blast playing her!

I recently changed her build from 4P Wanderer's to 2P 2P because Tighnari needed some of her pieces. At first I thought it would be a downgrade but the boost in ER% and crit DMG makes it so she actually hits harder.

Goals: A flower and feather from Wanderer's Troupe with similar stats as my current 2P MH so I can get her back on a 4P would be nice. A bit more crit rate wouldn't hurt either. She does get a 15% increase when targets are below 50% HP, which is nice against chonky bosses but doesn't do as much against overworld mobs which die very quickly anyway.

I used to have this boy on 2P WT and 2P Deepwood but by yoinking some pieces from Yanfei, he's now on a 4P Wanderer's Troupe! I feel the difference more with him than I do with Yanfei, so I think it was worth it.

My biggest struggle with Tighnari is that I can never fit Nahida on his teams, so I end up having to run Zhongli on deepwood instead. Perhaps in the future I will build my Kirara to fill the role of shielder + deepwood holder instead. For off-field electro, my only options are Fischl and Kuki but Kuki isn't great for ranged combat and Oz is single target, so I need Kazuha for grouping & spreading the electro aura to the other enemies.

Goals: Higher crit DMG and for Hoyo to make an electro shielder with off field electro application lol.

My electro queen and the first 5* I pulled from standard banner! She was my main for the longest time alongside Yanfei. I have been purchasing Wolf-Fang from the BP forever so she doesn't have to share with Alhaitham lol. Again, I might sometimes run her on Jade Cutter went I get it from the Chronicled Wish.

Goals: Her pieces are honestly kind of garbage but her crit DMG ascension + crit rate weapon make up for a lot. I do have a flower with higher CV but I need this one for the EM - which is already very low for an aggravate comp. I'm forced to run her with double dendro + Nahida to get about 250 extra EM.

The Pyro Archon - BOUKEN DA BOUKEN! I swap around his circlet and weapon quite a bit depending on what my team needs. Favonius with crit rate circlet when I need particles, Sapwood for the bigger attack buffs and healing bonus circlet when I run him as a solo healer with Furina. He never gets all of the fanfare stacks but usually the atk buff he provides is more valuable than getting full fanfare.

Also yes, I activated his C6 and have not regretted it at all. I actually like playing around with it at times.

Goals: I would love to get more personal damage out of Bennett as he can actually hit really hard with his burst when running a Pyro DMG goblet and crit circlet. I just haven't really invested enough in Noblesse to have the right pieces for that.

I did not get Xingqiu until quite a few months into playing the game and even when I did, I did not build him right away because I hate his original design lol. Now that he has a skin, it's gotten much more comfortable for me to play him because I actually enjoy looking at him. His build is pretty average but he does what I need him to do - apply a whole bunch of Hydro and enable reactions such as vape, hyperbloom, etc.

He is insanely strong and while his design might not be my personal favorite, it would be a huge loss not to use him in a lot of my teams.

Goals: Level his talents to 1/12/12 and maybe get a bit more CV on him. Other than that, he does his job just fine as is.

I have a love-hate relationship with this girl right here. I know she's supposed to be AMAZING but my build on her is pretty mid and I also really struggle with Oz uptime...In AoE content in particular, she feels quite clunky when you don't have a grouper like Kazuha around.

Goals: Get a better crit rate circlet or an on-set atk%/EM sands which will allow me to use an off-set crit rate circlet.

Do not fear, Yaoyao is here! Using her as a typical healer did not do much for my account nor did I enjoy playing her that way, so instead I slapped my unused MH set and spare Deathmatch on her. I also have a spare PJWS but Deathmatch gives more CR so it works better with my current pieces.

Goals: Get a flower with crit rate on it. The one I had on her previously was given to my Yanfei, so I had to change my build a little. Yaoyao is not top priority - of course - but I'll have to farm the MH/GT domain anyway for Fischl and Albedo so if I get an upgrade for her along the way, I won't complain.

Zhongli also has two builds: the first focuses more on his personal damage as a burst sub DPS. The second one is specifically for teams with a Dendro DPS, either Kinich with Bennett/Xiangling or Tighnari with Fischl/Kazuha.

Zhongli is the second limited 5* character I pulled and while he is never the highest DPS option for a team, he is so comfortable for a skill issue player such as myself, I can not imagine how I would play this game without him.

Goals: I think I want to eventually change his sub DPS build to 2P Noblesse / 2P Tenacity for the 20% HP. I generally run him with. Bennett on teams which benefit from the atk% boost, so the 4P is a bit overkill. It's just that right now, I have better DPS pieces for Noblesse than for Tenacity.

Probably the easiest character to build on my entire account because I already had a 4P VV with EM main stats ready before I pulled him. (Thank you Strongbox for that EM goblet!) Even with lower crit stats, he still does amazing and his grouping is so much fun when taking on smaller mobs in the overworld. Just like Zhongli, I cannot imagine an account without him. I skipped on C1 Xiao to have a guaranteed for this boy and I do not regret it at all.

Goals: A feather with EM and a flower with more EM would be nice. Or more ER on my sands/circlet which could allow me to run an EM weapon instead. Although Fav is so good for team-wide particles, I think it's more worth it than hitting the 1000 EM on him.

The other Pyro Archon, Xiangling! Even though she's on banners every other patch, she's never on the ones I wish on so this girl is stuck at C0, unfortunately. Maybe I can get a copy or two from the Chronicled Wish banner because I would love to have her C4. Her build is pretty good but without C4, her damage output is just a lot less, unfortunately. T ^ T

Goals: Cons, please...Also maybe a bit more ER% and EM without sacrificing too much crit.

Remember when I said Gilded Dreams is my unluckiest artifact set? When it comes to Alhaitham pieces - it is - but Kuki pieces? Oh boy the game loves giving me those HP% and EM rolls. Just look at those feather and flower! I have her on a 5P Gilded now because I don't have a single off-piece which is better lol.

Goals: An EM goblet with HP% is the only thing which could improve this right now. It's very low priority though because her heals are pretty decent even now.

Kaeya is a character which I was not originally going to build but I had these artifacts leftover and figured: why not. It's not a great build but he's mostly there to enable melt reactions.

Goals: I would like to give him a proper build and improve his pieces. Especially the goblet is not great but it's the only Cryo DMG goblet I have leveled on my entire account whoops.

The best character in the whole game, anyone? Seriously Furina is so good - both her personal damage and her support capabilities. When I use her in the overworld, I can just sit around for the most part and let her little animals take care of the easy mobs.

Goals: Get a bit more ER. I sometimes have to switch her to fav, especially in teams where she's the only Hydro character. Other than that I'm very happy with her build!

My first limited 5* and the character I started playing the game for. I love soft pastel girls and Kokomi fit the bill perfectly! Even though she cannot crit, her mono hydro team with Xingqiu, Kazuha and Furina is so comfy to play and I have actually cleared the Abyss with it as well.

Goals: None at the moment! I do have a lot of wasted crit rolls on her pieces so I might eventually farm a second Ocean-Hued Clam set. Then I can potentally transfer some of these pieces over to a character like Qiqi or Charlotte who can benefit from the crit stats more. I should probably level her weapon to 90 as well haha.

Nahida my beautiful radish baby!! I am so sorry that I had to skip you in 4.4 but my guaranteed Xiao was waiting for me. When I got her and Kuki on her latest banner, it instantly boosted my account by giving me access to some very strong hyperbloom teams. I can slot her and Kuki on basically every team and it works great!!

I have another build with almost 100 EM but way less crit rate so I actually prefer this one. Especially since I generally run her with a 1000 EM Kuki so she still gets the full buff with her burst!

Goals: Perhaps a bit more ER on the goblet or some more EM on the flower/feather. Crit rate on the sands or crit DMG on the circlet would be nice too but none of those are priority.

This is barely a build but I do use him in some double Geo comps so I decided to put him here. Not having his 'signature' from the limited event hurts me every day. Harbinger is a great weapon but it does mean he is attached to Zhongli's hip or I have to swap off him very quickly.

Goals: Where do I even begin? I want to do a complete overhaul of his build. Either a new 4P Golden Troupe with better substats, or I might aim for a 2P husk 2P GT or even 4P husk instead. I am also considering leveling the new Natlan DEF% sword for him. It all depends on the main stats/substats I can get on my artifacts.

My Faruzan is basically just there to buff Xiao/Wanderer, which is why her pieces are very scuffed. I just tried to get enough ER and some crit rate to proc the favonius weapon. Which is a shame because her personal damage at C6 is nothing to scoff at either.

Goals: I want to get more Tenacity pieces so I can give her a proper build with a nice 1:2 crit rate (60/120 would be ideal) without sacrificing ER. A bit more atk% would be nice too. Lastly, I want to get her final acension and max out her burst level talent for optimal buffs.

I don't use my Jean super often, but sometimes her team-wide healing is very nice alongside Furina. I got her from Noelle's banner when I just started playing so I honestly should give her more love, but I've build too many units, it's hard to give all of them attention.

Goals: I think having a 4P VV set might be better on her so she can also res shred when I'm playing any team with reactions. I also want to get a bit more crit DMG and atk on her.

Layla's shield is THICC and that is all I need from her. If I ever get her C6, I might build her for damage too but right now her shield and normal attack buffs are all I need. I love her design so it's a shame I can't play her on field, but she's still quite useful to me in melt or freeze teams.

Goals: Right now I'm happy with her even though she does not crit. Her shield is almost as strong as Zhongli's and the fact that she does have some decent Cryo application is nice when I use her with Yanfei.

This character threw me off guard with his personality so much. I thought he was gonna be an edgy/cold boy but he's such a precious ray of sunshine!! I am so glad I managed to get her on one yolo 10-pull. His build is something I threw together quite quickly so he's hard-carried by his weapon but I love using him in taser and even hyperbloom teams!

Goals: I want to switch him over to Chain-breaker so I don't have to keep on swapping Skyward Harp between him and Tighnari. This means I will have to get a better 4P Scroll set on him so that's a top priority for now.

Last but not least, we have everyone's favorite housewife - Thoma! I got C6 while wishing for Kinich and this is pretty much the only team I use him on right now - hence the 4P deepwood on him. He doesn't do much damage on his own but he enables Kinich to do big PP damage and that's honestly what I want from him the most.

Goals: His HP% is quite low because he's only level 70 for now. I would like to get him up to 80/90. I generally run Zhongli on my Kinich teams as well (giving him Layla's tenacity set) so the weaker shield is not that big of an issue. I maybe want to play around with Burgeon Thoma too, but that would require getting FLOP pieces.

[mog-moment]

Final Fantasy I: Randomizer

have you ever felt that FFI is too easy of a game?

would you like to make it easier? what about harder? want to remove the world map? what about completely redesigning the world map? what about changing entrances around, moving from Gaia to Mt. Gulg in a single doorway?

then you should try the Final Fantasy Randomizer!

the FFI randomizer will completely restructure the classic NES RPG to however you wish to play it, completely new ways to play it in any way you can think of.

there's a selection of randomization preset options, between "beginner" selections to make the randomization more easy if you're newer to the game, to "intermediate/expert" options if you're more familiar with the world of FFI.

Improved Vanilla and Beginner are the best selections for starting the randomizer. Beginner works by changing the game just enough to get you to be more familiar with how the randomizer works and functions, while IV fixes bugs that were present in the original, as well as adding quality of life fixes present in the later FF games.

Procedurally Generated Overworld is just what it sounds like - your stock-standard FFI experience, but the world has been completely randomized, areas will never be in the same spot twice.

Floaterless removes the airship, adding extra docks to the upper continent near most noteworthy areas.

Oops, All Loose! and Shard Hunt add key items and completion objectives into the item pool, chests will now carry items you need to finish the game! Shards themselves are the objective rather than the Orbs you need to collect to reach the Temple of Fiends.

Entrance and Floor Shuffle is exactly that. Doors will never lead to their original locations, you can go from one area to another without knowing where you go until its too late.

the beginner options are all simpler, they make the game just tricky enough to add a new challenge, and improve EXP and gold gain accordingly! but that's not all, the intermediate/expert options make the game all the more confusing.

Chaos Rush unlocks the Temple of Fiends immediately. your classes are pre-selected, and all methods of travel and upgrades unlocked. you level up much faster to compensate the end of the game being thrust upon you. how fast can you beat Chaos?

Deep Dungeon turns the game into a dungeon crawler. Coneria Castle turns into a 52 floor dungeon with Chaos waiting for you at the bottom, and different towns peppering the floors to make your trek a bit easier.

Free Enterprise models the experience after FF4: Free Enterprise. you start with 2 party members, and you get the opportunity to recruit more as the story progresses. there's quite a lot to this one!

Over Randomizer changes everything! new weapons, spells, enemies, bosses. anything that can be changed will be.

Hidden Chaos is my personal favorite. where is Chaos? who knows! you have to find him, trapped in a random chest somewhere in the entirety of the world!

Lich's Revenge changes the story, with the Fiend of Earth taking over, rather than Garland. all of humanity has fallen under the necromancer's plague of death, attacking you once their job has been done. bikke will strike as soon as you recieve his ship, as will the dwarves under mt. duergar, and even the king of dragons will challenge you once you prove your might as champions.

NOverworld is the final preset - not as a final challenge, but probably the hardest in my eyes. every village, castle, and dungeon is connected via staircase. the challenge comes from memory, and exploring every nook and cranny of the world to find out where the hell you need to go to get to Mirage Tower.

overall? FFIR is an incredible experience. all the presets change the game in a fun way, making everything so much more than the original game. not to say the original FFI is a bad game, it's a blast! but you should take some time to try FFIR, experiment on some of the extra options as well!

transmooglification? custom sprites? melmond zozo-fication? random vampire attack? major item shuffling? the world is yours to randomize - play FF1R with your own legally acquired ROM.

have fun!

[phantom-witch]

Phantom's Finished: Super Mario Odyssey (Replay)

On one random evening, I was chilling in call with @dayofpi as we gushed about Mario. Eventually it lead to me grabbing my Artbook of the game this post is about and adoring all the ideas and missed potential of the game, to the point for a few months I genuinely wondered if I might rank the game lower than I used to.

This thought lingered within me until I decided to finally start an important replaythrough of the game, and here's what I think...

Upon booting it up, I already felt an endearing familiarity to what a 14 year old Phantom felt in 2017. I wanted to enjoy this game mostly for what it is and not what it wasn't. Super Mario Odyssey is still one of the best 3D platformers of all time that is like a playbox of fun left right and centre.

Sonic: Frontiers is often compared to Breath of the Wild when I couldn't agree less. With the mini platforming and challenges, I would absolutely compare it more to Odyssey in that regard. Before I state what I say, let it be known that I really enjoy Frontiers okay? Okay!

Sonic Frontiers wishes it was Odyssey when it comes to it bitesize challenges, as they almost always serve for strong level design in enclosed or open areas that consistently interconnects. Sonic Frontiers has a lot of mindless points to its bitesize elements of "press/hold button". That's what Odyssey gets right, the constant thrill of platforming within the sandbox level design and the freedom of how different of an order everyone's experience can be. You can play the main story moons, or during that grab side moons, challenges and items.

Gameplay:

If there is one thing that always pulls me back into this game, it's gameplay. Odyssey is the perfect example for everything working around its base gameplay as a perfect core, that being the hat throw. the hat throw is integral to why moving as Mario in this game is so responsive and fun to master. Dive into the hat for horizontal air movement, use it to collect coins as you continue on your path, capture a vast selections of enemies and objects for a quick yet responsive gameplay change.

Speaking of, I love how the captures have a snappy switch up of gameplay whilst always limiting controls to two buttons for easy pickup for how many different things Mario can utilise. Everything is super responsive and it feels beautiful to experience the loop of this game. Every playthrough feels different due to how you can go for different moons each time, experiment with where I go and even get places I didn't know I could ahead of time! Its my favourite controls platformer in 3D (celeste being my fav 2D platformer controls)

However, I do feel the game sometimes lacks a bit in level design. A lot of the time it's really good! Sub-Sections are very good whereas I feel the Sandbox areas of the Kingdoms are inconsistent. My biggest issue is they often lack a level of cohesion with the rest of the world (New Donk especially is guilty of this) and I wish they covered a wider area a lot of the time as with Mario's moveset it is so quick to get through. I feel the best Kingdoms are ones like the Wooded Kingdom where there's multiple paths, elevation and it stretches a wide variety. New Donk for example does have that elevation but it's so simple to get up there it just kinda exists? I wish there was more interesting areas within New Donk to play around as it isn't as fun on replay.

Then there's the few Kingdoms that SCREAM missed potential with the Cloud Kingdom and the Ruined Kingdom. These two are literally just for a single boss and nothing else in the overworld, which is super disappointing with two really cool aesthetics, especially with Ruined Kingdom's unique artstyle.

Artstyle:

This is one of the trickiest part of the game to talk about. Because I both love it and have qualms with it for a lot of reasons...

Firstly though, this game has an insane variety of styles, setpieces and colours! From Bonnetons Nightmare Before Christmas inspiration to Bowsers Kingdom of Japanese traditional samurai aesthetic, the game constantly throws different visuals upon entering any new world. Odyssey thrives on this idea of different cultures and parts of the world for contrasting artstyles and it really works!

However... I feel this also is where my biggest criticism for the game lies. It's that these artstyles don't push themselves far enough when they could contrast even more! Bonneton for example, it has a fun Halloween vibe but why couldn't they have pushed that with the shapes of the environment being crooked and twisted and maybe have the shadows be sharper and stylised? That's what I mean, the styles still all fit into a mold they don't break out of that I wish the game did a lot more

And here comes the big one: New Donk City!This is where the game really conflicts me with its artstyle, as it tries to contrast in such a way that feels unnatural and uncanny. The realistic humans are extremely unnecessary and the artbook shows many better solutions they had in mind. The colours of this world are also lacking quite strongly which again the art book showed a bright bold bustling city with a lot of nods to the series. It feels they wanted this to be the contextualised version of Mario's origin home which makes sense when you consider all the donkey kong references and the fact Pauline is there!! This is considered the iconic local in the game when for me it feels like the one that could've been filled with beautiful fanservice and nostalgic feel. I don't like using the artbook as criticism but for New Donk City I feel it's kinda necessary due to how they clearly had a vision that wasn't able to happen and its one of this games biggest letdowns.

Other:

There's a lot I wish to get into that aren't as extensive due to how much I have to say, so it all goes into this last section!

Starting off with music, which is weird to me. There's a lot of really good music in this game! From Cascade Kingdom to the transition into the tech part of the Wooded Kingdom. However there's a lot of music that is just, average? A lot of music that isn't bad but nothing memorable, which isn't something I can say about most Mario Games' OST. There's also a lot of 8-Bit versions of music in this game which I really enjoy! But I do understand opinions that they should've used a better NES sound chip for it as it doesn't feel as perfect as it could be.

Next up is story and animation! Easily my favourite animation in a mario game with so much squash and stretch the recently released Mario Wonder seems to emphasise even more! I love Bowser and Mario's animation, and enemy animations are amazing too. However I feel characters like Peach could've had more stylised animation. The story itself is good! It's practically the perfect conclusion to the Peach being Kidnapped Saga, a full on wedding where Bowser takes it way too far. Obviously I don't like damsel Peach as she's a lot better when she's a participating role. However, in the context of her being a damsel this is her best one as she is actively seen throughout the game whilst standing her ground at the very end. I love how she doesn't reciprocate Bowser or Mario's feelings whilst Mario and Bowser have an amazing dynamic this game.

My favourite element of this games story is how it feels like an amazing conclusion to the traditional Mario story, whilst now we're getting new stories with Wonder, Origami King and even Peach getting her own tale. Mario stories don't need to be huge but it's important it still fits the themes and adds fun characterisation to them, alongside giving all of them amazing designs... speaking of

COSTUMES! Mario gets loads of cosmetics in this game through coins, giving them a purpose whilst having a very fun way to have different looks and fanservice. You can have a top hat fancy look fitting Cap Kingdom or a Samurai costume to befit the Bowser Kingdom. Then there's cool costumes that are just their own idea like skeleton, zombie or even underwear Mario! They range from cool, cute to gender and funny with so much to work with. I love this element of odyssey a lot, its one of my favourite things to do especially after I've beaten the game to run about it fun combinations (I love the Sunshine outfit)

Lastly is the postgame! A really fun fanservice Kingdom with the Mushroom Kingdom, and whilst I still criticise the level design cohesion like before, I still think this is an amazing world with a lot of fun to be had, alongside a really fun final level that brought me to tears with Cappys final like

"Thank you, Mario. For letting me walk a mile on your head."

.

This game is beautiful, I have my qualms but its still my favourite 3D Platformer of all time 💙

[the-monkey-ruler]

In Lunar: Eternal Blue (1994) ルナ エターナルブルー

Date: December 22, 1994 Platform: Sega CD Developer: Game Arts Co., Ltd. / Studio Alex / Vanguard Works Publisher: Working Designs / Game Arts Co., Ltd. Genre: Adventure / Role-Playing Theme: Fantasy Franchises: Lunar Adaption: Inspiration

Summary:

A classically styled Japanese RPG, the game centers around a small band of heroes traveling the world of Lunar via a World Map. Scattered throughout that overworld map are towns, cities, and outposts where the player can interact with NPCs, buy new equipment and items, and heal themselves at Goddess Shrines. These areas act as respites where the player can progress the story in a narrative fashion. Dungeons, shrines, temples, and many other dungeon-like areas are also scattered throughout the overworld map of Lunar. In these areas, the player can progress the story through fighting enemies and bosses. The player will also fight in Lunar's overworld map while traveling from one place to another. The game is largely linear but the player can backtrack and even, after a certain point, travel around the world of Lunar if they so choose.

The fighting system is menu driven and turn-based. Each turn, the player can either issue commands to each character in their party or allow the computer, through a pre-fight A.I. option, to fight for them. The player can have up to five characters in their party at any one time. The only character the player can't control is Lucia. Lucia will change her fighting techniques as the story progresses. Her health is dictated by Hiro's health. Each character can fight by performing a normal attack, using magic, defending themselves, using an item, running away, or the player can let the computer decide what that specific character will do for that turn with the A.I. option. The character's location relative to the enemy will determine if, and how well, they will be able to attack that enemy. Melee characters require close proximity to the enemy while magic users and ranged characters can fight at a distance. The characters' locations can be determined by the player in the options screen before or after a battle. The player can also set up multiple tactics in the game's option menu that can be selected at the start of each battle. If all of the characters in the player's party die the game ends.

Each character is defined by a number of stats that determine how they perform in battle. These stats will improve as the player fights more enemies and gains more and more experience points. After a certain number of experience points are earned, the characters will level up. Each level comes with increased stats and, occasionally, new abilities. Each character has a certain number of hit points and magic points. The character passes out (or dies) once their hit points reach zero. Each magical ability uses a specific allotment of magic points. When a character's magic points reach zero that character can no longer use magic. As the characters level up their hit points and magic points increase. After each battle, Hiro's companion Ruby is given magic experience points (MEP). MEP is used to save the player's game (which can be done anywhere as long as the player has enough MEP). MEP can also be used to increase the levels of each magical ability each character has. As a magical ability increases so does its usefulness.

Source: https://www.giantbomb.com/lunar-eternal-blue/3030-14733/

[minophisch]

wuthering waves blah blah 2

super quick post but I've been thinking lately - miscellaneous things // wall of text incoming...

Partially recording my thoughts here for the next player survey

I liked the story for 4.2; not as impressed as all the talk around it had me hoping but the writing has definiteily improved generally.

Everyone still talks a lot but it holds my attention a little better than g*nshin still... .somehow? i'm not sure why

Rinacita is really beautiful and fun to explore. Could use fewer enemies in the overworld though because I feel like I'm triggering combat every 3 seconds

Flying is awesome.

I like the fairy tale theme of Rinacita a lot! and the strong colors (deviation from the 1.0 stuff that was really muted and really didn't have strong color really anywhere.)

The overflowing palette puzzles are my favorite and I like going around the continent to look for those specifically. I still haven't bothered to figure out the block smashing mechanic but that's ok.

At first I did not like the anniversary event. But then it really grew on me. Real turn your brain off combat and numbers go boom. It's fun to make your little neopet cube buddies stronger and equip them with absurd modules. And I like that the plot was stupid and really trying to keep it light.

MOST OF ALL - all the events felt super achievable. I didn't play a lot due to a hand injury and only started playing in the last third of the event, but I still was abel to get pretty much all the major event rewards quite comfortably without really breaking a sweat. WuWa respecting my time again W.

More below the cut (cutting at an arbitrary place)

I was able to snag carlotta from the anniversary selection banner - super happy about that.

I think the discount for the character skins is dumb because it's not enough for me to buy a full skin which means I'd have to purchase currency in order to take advanrage of it... so.... pass......

I was weirdly invested in getting the oven creature a job at the bank mini event. I was actually lowkey sad when it didn't get the gig. I think the devs should have let the oven cat achieve its dreams.

The character design felt really strong to me up until Zani. I am... starting to side eye all the character releases after that.

Ciciaonna isn't terrible ... she's fine but I don't really like her outfit

Cartwheel's outfit however... disaster. I actually hate it. girl is wearing rags. She's great from the neck up... but everything else...

and not just because it's gooner bait it's just bad.

It's ok we can all be gooners but it's annoying when having as many cut outs as possible and weird skin windows is the main idea of so many of the upcoming designs. I feel like we're limiting ourselves from trying new things...

Also I feel that the designs are starting to drift to what I call "generic fantasy gacha" territory - too many floaty straps. Too many metal bits. Too many weird banners. Not enough big shapes or grounded ideas that give the characters world identity. When I can stop telling if a character is from genshib or hsr or wuwa or pgr i think that's an issue

It bothers me a lot. Please bring back serviceable character design and flavor for locations. We are drifting.

On an equally important level - i think the main differentiator for wuwa for me is the refined mechanics and needing to really pay attention to the gameplay. I want to bring back simpler attack mechanics.

particularly for bosses... I don't like it when they just splash random attacks and I like it when it feels more like a duel. Sentry, crownless, tempest memphis and scar are good for me. Fleurdelys and lorelei too

Hecate and the dragon on the other hand.... cry

ok that's all for now haha

[creepypasta-boy]

Pokemon black

I’m what you could call a collector of bootleg Pokémon games. Pokémon Diamond & Jade, Chaos Black, etc. It’s amazing the frequency with which you can find them at pawnshops, Goodwill, flea markets, and such.

They’re generally fun; even if they are unplayable (which they often are), the mistranslations and poor quality make them unintentionally humorous.

I’ve been able to find most of the ones that I’ve played online, but there’s one that I haven’t seen any mention of. I bought it at a flea market about five years ago.

Here’s a picture of the cartridge, in case anyone recognizes it. Unfortunately, when I moved two years ago, I lost the game, so I can’t provide you with screencaps. Sorry.

The game started with the familiar Nidorino and Gengar intro of Red and Blue version. However, the “press start” screen had been altered. Red was there, but the Pokémon did not cycle through. It also said “Black Version” under the Pokémon logo.

Upon selecting “New Game”, the game started the Professor Oak speech, and it quickly became evident that the game was essentially Pokémon Red Version.

After selecting your starter, if you looked at your Pokémon, you had in addition to Bulbasaur, Charmander, or Squirtle another Pokémon — “GHOST”.

The Pokémon was level 1. It had the sprite of the Ghosts that are encountered in Lavender Tower before obtaining the Sliph Scope. It had one attack — “Curse”. I know that there is a real move named Curse, but the attack did not exist in Generation 1, so it appears it was hacked in.

Defending Pokémon were unable to attack Ghost — it would only say they were too scared to move. When the move “Curse” was used in battle, the screen would cut to black. The cry of the defending Pokémon would be heard, but it was distorted, played at a much lower pitch than normal. The battle screen would then reappear, and the defending Pokémon would be gone. If used in a battle against a trainer, when the Pokéballs representing their Pokemon would appear in the corner, they would have one fewer Pokéball.

The implication was that the Pokémon died.

What’s even stranger is that after defeating a trainer and seeing “Red received $200 for winning!”, the battle commands would appear again. If you selected “Run”, the battle would end as it normally does. You could also select Curse. If you did, upon returning to the overworld, the trainer’s sprite would be gone. After leaving and reentering the area, the spot [where] the trainer had been would be replaced with a tombstone like the ones at Lavender Tower.

The move “Curse” was not usable in all instances. It would fail against Ghost Pokémon. It would also fail if it was used against trainers that you would have to face again, such as your Rival or Giovanni. It was usable in your final battle against them, however.

I figured this was the gimmick of the game, allowing you to use the previously uncapturable Ghosts. And because Curse made the game so easy, I essentially used it throughout the whole adventure.

The game changed quite a bit after defeating the Elite Four. After viewing the Hall of Fame, which consisted of Ghost and a couple of Pokemon I used for HM`s, the screen cut to black. A box appeared with the words “Many years later…” It then cut to Lavender Tower. An old man was standing, looking at tombstones. You then realized this man was your character.

The man moved at only half of your normal walking speed. You no longer had any Pokémon with you, not even Ghost, who up to this point had been impossible to remove from your party through depositing in the PC. The overworld was entirely empty — there were no people at all. There were still the tombstones of the trainers that you used Curse on, however.

You could go pretty much anywhere in the overworld at this point, though your movement was limited by the fact that you had no Pokémon to use HMs. And regardless of where you went, the music of Lavender Town continued on an infinite loop. After wandering for a while, I found that if you go through Diglett’s Cave, one of the cuttable bushes that normally blocks the path on the other side is no longer there, allowing you to advance and return to Pallet Town.

Upon entering your house and going to the exact tile where you start the game, the screen would cut to black.

Then a sprite of a Caterpie appeared. It was the replaced by a Weedle, and then a Pidgey. I soon realized, as the Pokémon progressed from Rattata to Blastoise, that these were all of the Pokémon that I had used Curse on.

After the end of my Rival’s team, a Youngster appeared, and then a Bug Catcher. These were the trainers I had Cursed.

Throughout the sequence, the Lavender Town music was playing, but it was slowly decreasing in pitch. By the time your Rival appeared on screen, it was little more than a demonic rumble.

Another cut to black. A few moments later, the battle screen suddenly appeared — your trainer sprite was now that of an old man, the same one as the one who teaches you how to catch Pokémon in Viridian City.

Ghost appeared on the other side, along with the words “GHOST wants to fight!”.

You couldn’t use items, and you had no Pokémon. If you tried to run, you couldn’t escape. The only option was “FIGHT”.

Using fight would immediately cause you to use Struggle, which didn’t affect Ghost but did chip off a bit of your own HP. When it was Ghost’s turn to attack, it would simply say “…” Eventually, when your HP reached a critical point, Ghost would finally use Curse.

The screen cut to black a final time.

Regardless of the buttons you pressed, you were permanently stuck in this black screen. At this point, the only thing you could do was turn the Game Boy off. When you played again, “NEW GAME” was the only option — the game had erased the file.

I played through this hacked game many, many times, and every time the game ended with this sequence. Several times I didn’t use Ghost at all, though he was impossible to remove from the party. In these cases, it did not show any Pokémon or trainers and simply cut to the climactic battle with Ghost.

I’m not sure what the motives were behind the creator of this hack. It wasn’t widely distributed, so it was presumably not for monetary gain. It was very well done for a bootleg.

It seems he was trying to convey a message; though it seems I am the sole receiver of this message. I’m not entirely sure what it was — the inevitability of death? The pointlessness of it? Perhaps he was simply trying to morbidly inject death and darkness into a children’s game. Regardless, this children’s game has made me think, and it has made me cry.

[suppermariobroth]

In Super Mario Advance 2, a unique glitch exists that results in broken overworld movement and, in some cases, the ability to access unused or glitched locations.

For this, the level select screen must be accessed on the first frame of Mario starting to walk away from a level on the world map (by pressing Select and a direction on the D-pad on the same frame). On the level select screen, selecting another level will then cause the glitched overworld movement, with each combination of source level, held direction, and destination level yielding different results.

One of the most striking results is seen in the footage, where Mario starts walking away from Ludwig's Castle in mid-air diagonally, but gradually slows down to the point that it looks like he might stop above the Star Road in the middle of the map. Then, he suddenly speeds up and walks to the inaccessible "fake" version of Yoshi's Island on the world map, reaching Yoshi's House (which is displayed as Cookie Mountain in the caption due to that being the level the game expects to be reached after walking in that direction from Ludwig's Castle).

Main Blog | Twitter | Patreon | Source: youtube.com user "LuigiBlood"

[hoodiegal]

Saw someone make a post about "What would you want out of a new pokémon game?" and my wishes were rather counter to theirs, so I decided to make my own post instead of replying.

Things I'd want out of a new Pokémon game:

Graphical style: Either a return to 2D graphics, or a 3D graphics style like Pokémon Let's Go.

Drop the open world stuff. It's not good. Routes with a mix of trainers and wild pokémon creates a meaningful sense of progression.

Wild pokémon encounters: Keep the "pokémon appear as visible 3D entities in the world and you initiate a battle by walking into them" thing, it's a great spin on the old (annoying) random encounter design.

Keep the "your pokémon walk around the overworld with you" thing that appears to and fro in many games. It's just good fun and it helps me develop more of an emotional attachment to my pokémon.

Keep the hidden move system where you don't have to teach your party pokémon the moves, but rather you have some other way of using them, like Sun and Moon introduced.

Pokémon availability that is somewhere between gen 5 and gen 2. At the beginning, there are only new pokémon available, after 2-3 gyms select pokémon from older gens start becoming available.

No battle gimmick mechanics. No mega evolution, no Z-moves, no dynamax, etc. The battle system is solid without those.

Frequent double battles. They add a lot of strategic depth and encourage you to work on team synergies instead of just having 6 sweepers with different type coverage.

Less intrusive story/dialog. Don't make me take a break from gameplay for 20 minutes to watch NPCs talk about stuff, please. The early games did fine without this. Playing 2 hours of Sword and Shield, I did like 4 trainer battles and didn't even reach the first gym. In 2 hours of playing Gen 2, you've probably done 20+ trainer battles and you're on your way to the second gym. I'm not asking for Gen 1 levels of "here's the premise, good luck", I'm just asking for moderation.

Proper QA. *side-eyes Scarlet and Violet* Come on. It's one of the biggest franchises in the world, you can afford to make sure your games work properly before launch.

I really love the catch combo system from Let's Go, and I'd love to see some version of it implemented even if the catching mechanic is not a fit.

Honestly the catching mechanic and how it replaces wild pokémon battles in Let's Go is probably my favorite game system change-up they've made since the physical/special attack move split. I'd love for some version of that system being the default going forward, but I realize that might be a bit controversial.

[yubellia]

„Miraculous: Paris under Siege“ Review!

Ok. Here we are. I told you that it was coming and I (always try to) keep my word.

For those of you that saw my other post, I already did a ‚second hand‘ review after watching a let’s play.

Now, I got the game myself. On the switch. In other words, I did choose the worst console to play this game on. At least I think so.

Some of the things I talked about already are still true or I can confirm them now. Here, I plan to compare the first game ‚rise of the sphinx‘ with the new one.

Also! I won‘t talk about the story at all or keep it very limited, to what you saw in the trailer or what has been advertised. So this post, for the most part, is spoiler free!

Here we go.

Story and ‚Hub area‘:

In rise of the sphinx, you can run around in a pretty big area. You don‘t have many things to do but at least you can visit some familiar areas from the show. Like the school, a park, the area around Adrien’s home and other places. You even HAVE to run around and talk to characters to push the story forward and start new levels. There even are dialogue screens and dialogue options to choose from.

In ‚Paris under siege‘, that area you can run around in is much smaller. This time, you see the insides of Marinettes home and a little from the area around it. That’s it. I mean, you can explain this with ‚well stormy weather and the other villains are taking over the city. So it’s under lockdown.‘ but not even the first game did that.

If you want to start a new level, you walk over a bridge and enter a screen where you HAVE to choose a level. (Yes have to. You can‘t leave once you are there. There is no going back.)

Between the levels, you can talk to some of the characters. But what they have to say is not really important. It helps you to understand the story but technically, you can walk right past them. You don‘t have to stay and talk. Also, there are no dialogue screens and no dialogue options.

Gameplay:

How do I put this? Well, in rise of the sphinx, the fighting gameplay was a bit ‚stiff‘ in my opinion. And it was pretty easy. Except for a few boss fights, I can‘t really remember having trouble or taking much damage. However, it felt stiff and slow too. It was pretty much „punch punch punch. Done. Next!“ the entire time.

In Paris under siege, like I said before, they tried to do something that’s closer to Spider-Man. At least it feels like it. There are more possibilities. Everything is faster but also a lot less precise. I miss enemies all the time.

Also, another big negative aspect for me is the dodging mechanic. Why? Because it doesn’t work. At least for me. I never get away from them once I start fighting. Or I have horrible timing. In rise of the sphinx, the dodging worked just fine!

Also, another point is the camera. In rise of the sphinx, it was fixed in position. That was not very practical but also not the biggest minus.

In Paris under siege, the camera moves around. That’s good!…. Mostly. Because in this game, ladybug can swing to the next area using lanterns (in most cases). If that happens, the camera moves too. Now, if you swing from one lantern to the next, you have to see what you are doing. Because you have to press the button again! I stopped counting how many times I fell off because the camera can‘t keep up. Especially if you play the levels for the first time, it’s not funny.

Next is the damage reaction. That’s actually something I would like to criticize in Paris under siege. Most of the time, thanks to the fast and ‚shaky‘ controls, you get thrown across the arena. Especially in boss battles.

Replay options:

In Rise of the sphinx, you can run around in the overworld and select the levels. Every level can be replayed on a harder difficulty (even though the real difficulty lies in finding the collectibles). By getting the collectibles, you can unlock concept art, soundtracks and other things in a special in game shop.

This is actually something I have to fix. In my second hand review, I said that it doesn’t look like you can replay the levels at all. And that is wrong….. partially. Ok it goes like this:

While you are playing the story in Paris under siege, you really only can play the main levels once. You can‘t fight Lady Wifi for example twice. Instead, you have arenas which allow you to collect shiny objects that let you level up the characters. Yes, arenas. And you can repeat those as many times as you want.

You get stars for finishing the levels. And a Highscore too.

After you are done with the main story, you can‘t go back to the overworld. Instead, you can choose the levels directly from the main menu. That’s not a bad thing because there is nothing to do in the overworld. There is no in game shop for soundtracks, art or something like that. This is actually pretty sad.

Like I said, there isn’t really a dialogue option in Paris under siege. You can‘t interact with the characters. Which means you also can‘t get any achievements for good friendships either. A real shame.

So in short, you can replay the levels in Paris under siege. But you only do it for a Highscore and for fun. There are no collectibles you are working for. Again, a shame.

But there are also positive things I can talk about.

The levels in Paris under siege are longer than in rise of the sphinx. Also there are multiple levels before you get to the boss. The bosses have minions fitting for their powers and the area they are in. So they did pay attention. And not just for that.

You can‘t really interact with the characters. But if you do, you get some references to the show.

This is the only slight spoiler section.

For example, Alya talks about how Marinette trusts her with a miraculous and she gets akumatized.

Luka talks about how he wrote a song, thinking about Marinette. References the ‚almost relationship‘. (Sidenote: Marinette was blind. She should have chosen Luka. End sidenote.)

So they did try to stay true to the characters and the show. There isn‘t much story but they did what they could.

Bugs?:

Ohhh boy. Now we are getting into interesting territory. Are there bugs in these two games? And are they bad enough to break the game?

For starters, no. I did NOT encounter any real game breaking bugs. My switch did not crash, the game didn’t have to be closed, nothing.

But…. That doesn’t mean that there aren’t any mini bugs.

For example. The text boxes when you talk to characters. I don’t know if that’s a German thing, but the text never matches what they say in English. That’s probably a translation thing though. But there is more.

As you know from the trailer. Stormy weather kidnapped our companions and turned them into villains. After that, you have to play the game and get them back.

By the way, it looks like you could go straight to stormy weather without helping your team. This might me something I test next time.

Anyway, back to the topic. You have to help your team. Each section is named after one of the villains you are going after. Spoiler: Luka is turned into Truth. If you try to choose his level, unlike the others, it doesn’t tell you the location and his akumatized name. Instead it said „you can improve you stats by using….“ to be honest, that made me and others giggle. There obviously went something wrong in the code. And whenever you read his name, even in his boss battle, it happens again! But that was the only misstep of that kind.

What happens in the final levels though was a bit worse. I am not telling you too much but because of stormy weather‘s powers, you have to jump from one floating area to the next.

It actually happened to me that parts of the level disappeared and I fell down. Thanks to this, I had to go extra slow, so that i wouldn’t trigger it again. I did finish the game somehow but the final levels were not fun.

I had something similar in rise of the sphinx too. For those of you who played that game. Do you remember Chloe‘s Level? Clonika I think? There, I fell through the ground and was able to walk under the map. It was fun for a moment but i couldn’t get back up so i had to do the entire level again. Also, I think some people had problems with the end sequence. They could not trigger that. I didn’t have that problem though.

That’s it however. I didn’t encounter any other ‚serious‘ bugs in either of these games. That’s pretty good for both games. Paris under siege did not crash once and for rise of the sphinx, I can‘t remember. That’s probably a ‚no‘ than. The only thing I can remember, is ladybug running slowly. I think the switch was struggling there. Still, that’s something you can overlook.

Conclusion:

So. What’s my final thought on ‚Paris under siege‘? I would say, my thoughts from my first review are still true. I played it now and I can confirm „yes you can have fun with that.“ to be honest, when I saw who was producing this game, I was scared.

Playing it however, it becomes clear that this time, they focused more on the gameplay and the fighting (even though the ‚dodge mechanic‘ is shaky), than the story and the characters. For someone like me however, that’s unfortunately not a good thing.

All the little things that gave the first game it’s charm, like the Kwami shop, Marinettes diary with all the achievements or the friendship mechanic with the other characters. That’s missing.

Instead, you have arenas now. That can be fun. But with the gameplay being the way it is, it’s a bit difficult.

I am not someone for Highscores but others might enjoy it and try to beat their time. It’s a game I will pick up again but…. Not really for hours to play it again like the first playthrough.

So yes, now I can say, I think you can buy it if you are a miraculous fan. Keep in mind that the graphics’s and animations might not be the best (especially on the switch) but you can enjoy it.

However, you really don‘t need the pack with special outfits. The base game is more than enough.

——————————————————

And here we have it! It’s a bit late but I hope you still enjoyed it. I‘ll see you again next time. Oh! And if you find any grammar mistakes, feel free to keep and collect them.

See you next time!

[linuxgamenews]

Discover the Adventure with Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss Expansion

Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss due to receive a new major game expansion on Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Thanks to the team at Games by Malcs for making their title even better. Due to make its way onto Steam soon. Big news from Jagex Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss DLC expansion is coming on June 13th for Linux and Steam Deck. Get ready for some serious action as you dive into the Abyssal Realm and take on the mighty Xon, the Abyssal King. The Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss expansion is all about high-level play. After Bane's defeat, things have taken a dark turn, unleashing Xon and his armies. Now, it’s up to you to stop him from conquering the overworld. There are two new Combat Challenges. First up, The Abyss, a huge dungeon filled with tough enemies. Make it through and you’ll face off against a massive boss. Then there are Strongholds, where you’ll battle waves of monsters to reclaim areas from Xon’s forces. The Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss DLC also introduces Skill Trees. These trees add new gameplay layers and bonuses, tailored to your playstyle. Plus, there’s a new leveling system—Abyssal Levels—bringing fresh content for each skill. You’ll also get to use two new Abyssal Skills: Harvesting and Corruption. Harvesting lets you gather unique resources, while Corruption gives you random buffs during fights.

Here’s a quick breakdown of what’s coming in Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss:

Abyssal Skill Levels: A new leveling system for every base game skill, with 60 levels of new content.

Abyssal Damage & Resistance: Equip gear with Abyssal Resistance to survive against monsters dealing Abyssal Damage.

Corruption Skill: Gain random buffs in combat, but beware—monsters can use Corruption too.

Harvesting Skill: Gather resources from veins in the Abyssal Realm to craft items.

Skill Trees: Unlock bonuses and passive abilities as you level up within Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss.

Combat Challenges: Explore The Abyss dungeon and tackle Abyssal Strongholds.

New Content: Over 1,000 new items, 96 monsters, 15 pets, 12 Abyssal combat areas, and more.

New Skills and Mechanics: Including new Abyssal Magic Spells, Prayers, food modifiers, and more.

Resource Gathering: Woodcutting, fishing, firemaking, cooking, mining, and more with new resources.

When you enter the Abyssal Realm, you’ll see a new realm selection menu to keep things organized. Abyssal Levels start at 1 and go up to 60, giving you plenty of new content to explore. You’ll earn Abyssal XP by doing activities in the Abyssal Realm. The Abyss is the main combat challenge with eight depths to conquer. Since each ending with a tough boss fight. In Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss, your Corruption Skill adds a twist by giving you and your enemies random combat buffs, keeping battles unpredictable. The Harvesting Skill has you collecting resources from veins, which get more rewarding as you increase their Intensity. Use these resources for crafting across various skills.

Skill Trees:

Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss Skill Trees add another layer of strategy, letting you unlock bonuses for each skill as you level up in the Abyssal Realm. Since this gives Linux and Steam Deck players a chance to customize your playstyle even more. Monsters in the Abyssal Realm deal Abyssal Damage, so you’ll need weapons and gear that match. Also, the combat triangle is reversed here—melee beats magic, magic beats ranged, and ranged beats melee. For those into honing their strategies, food modifiers provide specific bonuses when you have the right food equipped. And for extra challenge seekers, there are new mechanics for Adventure Mode and Ancient Relics Mode. So gear up, level up, and get ready to dive into the Abyssal Realm. Melvor Idle: Into the Abyss is a major expansion full of new adventures, challenges, and loot. See you in the Abyss on Steam, June 13th. Coming to Linux, Steam Deck, Mac, and Windows PC. Stay sharp and game on!

[aquanutart]

Promo cards obtained!!

I looked through all the featured illustration contest entries when they came out, and I'm so happy the Feraligatr was made into an actual card!! I thought the style was so cool with the graphic shapes, and you really feel the atmosphere with the sun filtering through the water. I love the lighting in Pikachu's card, the sunlight from the lazy summer day seems to shine out of the card and makes me want to yawn too. And Toxitricity looks so dynamic at that angle!

I didn't know what the Pokemon Day event was and I was planning to just pick up the promos and leave, but I brought my Pokemon TCG deck just in case.

I arrived in the middle of a small TCG tournament. I wasn't going to try to get in because I was late and didn't want to disrupt things, but I was asked to join because I would make it an even number of players, meaning everyone would get to play.

So they let me into the tournament, though I got an automatic loss for the first round that I missed. This was fine with me because I usually don't win at these anyway. I don't play a meta deck because I prefer playing with my favorite Pokemon (in tribute to my original Pokemon, who I also played with in the TCG at the local leagues as a child). It makes me feel like I'm really out in the world with my Pokemon, and makes it all the more special on the occasion we do win.

Somehow, that day, we actually won both of the rounds we played. I got to talk to a couple of other people who remembered Pokemon from the earliest days and had a great time.

I didn't have time to play my Game Boy again until the weekend. I went to work on Friday with tears in my eyes. I felt like I loved everyone and everything because I was so overjoyed my Pokemon are alive. My mom used to tell me that when I was born, she felt like she loved the whole world, and now I knew how it felt.

I tried to be cheerful with all the visitors at work because I wanted everyone else to be happy too. It was busy and exhausting, but I wanted to be someone that my Pokemon would be happy to be with.

All I could think about was that tomorrow I would go back and see my Pokemon again. I wished so hard for them to wait just a little longer. I wanted to come through Victory Road and beat the Elite Four, just as we had set out to do 27 years ago.

On Saturday I started the game and my Pokemon were there, waiting for me to continue.

One of the other things about the first games is that if you just walked up to a rock and pressed A, it wouldn't give you the option to move it. You had to actually go into the menu and select your Pokemon and choose the HM move from the list, and then you could return to the overworld and move boulders as much as you wanted.

Before I had gone to meet Moltres, I had pushed a boulder onto a switch. My guide said that this would remove a wall so I could continue to a lower part of the level. I kind of forgot what the walls looked like, and wandered around on Level 2 until I bumped into a square I couldn't walk through, preventing me from accessing a ladder.

Oh. So that was a wall. It wasn't the one I removed, apparently.

I returned to Level 3, searching for the place I could walk through, and vaguely wondering if I had to press the switch again. I must have found the right place, because I wound up at the bottom of the level.

At this point, I'm running from fights and dodging trainers because our PP is running out. Blastoise is doing an amazing job against the Rock Pokemon in this cave, but we can only use Surf a few more times. There are two Trainers here, both looking in opposite directions, and I'm unable to avoid running into one of them.

She sends out Weepinbell and Victreebel, and I bring out my old MVP, Hypno.

Back when I was stuck at the Rock Tunnel (like I got stuck at every cave area), I started training a Drowzee because I needed sleep attacks for catching, and because it was one of the only Pokemon that could use Flash.

I had accidentally knocked out the only Pikachu I'd ever seen on my first trip through Viridian Forest (I caught mine much later), Jigglypuff kept putting my Pokemon to sleep so I didn't know how to catch it (I feel like I have this vivid memory of blacking out on Route 3 after an encounter with a Jigglypuff when my Pokemon were low on health, which really scared me as a kid, but I'm not sure how it happened because I don't think the Jigglypuff on that route even know Pound--maybe the sleep carried over into other battles), and I had never seen a Clefairy although I really wanted to. And how on earth I was supposed to catch Abra was a huge mystery to me when it always disappeared as soon as I saw it.

So Drowzee was the one who helped me overcome the Rock Tunnel. And then it learned Confusion, and I got very attached to my little sleep elephant, whatever form it became. I liked the Confusion attack so much that when it tried to learn Psychic, I said no because I didn't know what the attack did and I was happy with the attacks we had.

Whoops. But I will say that having 25 PP is a boon in a longer dungeon. I remember how much I like the Confusion attack when it keeps landing critical hits. Weepinbell and Victreebel's Poison typing makes them weak to Psychic, so Hypno easily defeats the trainer's Pokemon. Amazing, Hypno!! Just like old times!!

I push a rock down a hole, and trigger a switch that removes the wall I bumped into earlier. I'm finally able to go up the ladder, and...

I step out into the sunlight. I MADE IT!!!!

My guidebook doesn't have a map for this section. I'm 5 years old again and I'm in a new place I've never seen before. The road seems to point upwards, so I guess I will go up.

I'm almost there. I'm going to see my Pokemon again!!!

I was talking and I mentioned that I have my old Game Boy and original Pokemon cartridge. I said, "I think they still work."

I was told, "The internal batteries on the Game Boy cartridges have run out. They're all dead."

"Oh," I said, trying not to show how crestfallen I was. I felt like I was losing nerd cred for not knowing that, although I never kept up with that type of info anyway. I'm here for the fantasy and imaginative aspects of games, and tend not to follow the competitive or technical details.

I tried not to feel anything as I went home. If they were real animals, I reminded myself, I would have had to say goodbye long ago.

But like so many other people, Pokemon was my childhood. It was all I thought about and dreamed about, and the closest thing I could imagine to heartbreak was the knowledge that they weren't real. I spent nearly all my time writing longhand self-insert Pokemon fanfiction--far more than I spent actually playing the game. My Pokemon were with me in my imagination wherever I went. I started playing Pokemon Blue when I was 5, and the last time I had played it was probably when I was 9 or 10. I remembered I had turned it on again one more time after that, not to play it, but to look at my childhood Pokemon.

It was during high school, after a move overseas that completely upended my life, and I was struggling with the crushing blow of being taken away from everything I knew and trying to make sense of anything (least of all adolescence) in another language. All I wanted was to go back to childhood and have everything go back to how it was before.

Seeing my Pokemon, just as I'd left them, had comforted me. I had looked at their stats pages, taken photos of them with my digital camera (that I don't even know if I still have), and then turned it off without doing anything.

That was probably 9 or 10 years after the games came out. It had been a long time since then. I had long since taken the AA batteries out of my Game Boy Color and left it untouched. I didn't even have AA batteries anymore.

It had worked then. But now it had been 27 years... I thought about not trying to turn my cartridge back on. As long as I didn't turn it on, I could believe my Pokemon were still there, the way I remembered them.

On my day off, which happened to be Pokemon Day, I googled and read that some people on forums and Reddit were still able to play their original Pokemon games.

Then... it was possible. I went out to buy toothpaste. At the store, I asked where I could find AA batteries.

It was a big thing for me to be able to go to the store and buy things myself. When I moved at age 13, I felt like something went wrong with growing up. It was difficult to follow what people were saying, and people didn't always understand what I said either. I had been introverted even in English, but now I had enough negative experiences that I became afraid and stopped trying to talk to people altogether.

I threw myself into video games and reliving childhood memories. The internet was where I could communicate in my first language and understand. I lived online and didn't interact with the real world. On the internet I felt like I was understood and could find people who shared my interests the way I did, but in the real world it always felt like I could get hurt if anyone knew me.

I realize now that I could have had a better experience overseas if I'd known how to adapt and socialize, but this was not something I knew even in English, and trying to learn in another language made it ten times harder. I'm sorry now for missing out on interactions that I know I could have had, but I just didn't know how. I wouldn't know how until I learned, and it took me a long time to learn.

I grew up online, in the company of others who had trouble fitting in with the real world, even in their own language. Those experiences shaped me, and the friendships I've made and support I've received online are invaluable to me. The internet gave me a way to live, and through it I learned how to interact with others. But in many ways, for many years, it felt like my life was put on hold and I stopped growing up.

Several years ago I moved back, to not far from where I was born, and I was able to work for the first time. I began to interact with people and feel like I had a place in the real world.

After shutting myself away for so many years, every little step I made out in the world felt terrifying. But every little thing I did on my own made me feel like I was living for the first time.

Even something as little as going to the store and buying a pack of batteries.

I was directed to a shelf at the end of an aisle, and found myself looking at a rack of lithium AA batteries. Did they not sell the old kind anymore?

I walked around to the other side and was relieved to find the familiar black and brown Duracell batteries I'd known from my childhood. I felt more confident about putting in a battery that looked the same as I remembered. The smallest pack they sold was an 8-pack for $12.99. I really didn't need 8 batteries. I didn't have any other devices that used them.

I thought, what if I turn it on and it doesn't work and I'll have wasted $12.99?

I also thought we might already have batteries. I might be able to say, "Mom, do we have any batteries?" and she'd pull out two AAs from a drawer somewhere and I'd save my money.

But somehow I felt like part of what was important about this was being an adult and being able to buy my own batteries.

Yet... what if it just ended up making me sad? Was it better not to know?

I went to the checkout with just the toothpaste and stood hesitating at the edge of the checkout line.

If I didn't get the batteries now, and it turned out we didn't have any batteries, I wouldn't try it. I knew I would just put it off until even more time passed, and then... "Are you in line?" someone asked me.

"No," I said, and I turned around and went back to the shelf.

I bought the batteries.

At home, I took out my original Game Boy Color from the drawer where I left it, the one my dad had surprised me with when I was 5 years old and that I had brought overseas and back.

I put the batteries in and turned it on without a cartridge first to make sure the batteries were inserted correctly. The Game Boy logo scrolled across the screen and it made the familiar blinging Game Boy startup noise. I turned it off again, satisfied.

I took out my original Pokemon Blue cartridge, momentarily having to remember which way it went in, and slotted it in.

I turned it on, watched the whole Pokemon Blue intro out of nostalgia, and then pressed START.

My heart leaped for joy.

MY POKEMON!!!! MY POKEMON ARE ALIVE!!! 🥺🥺🥺

My original Pokemon, that were with me in 1998 when I was 5-6 years old, are still with me 27 years later. I want to cry!!! I love the old sprites, I'm SO happy to see them again 😭😭😭 the Pokemon look so little and cheerful at the same time, which I love 🥺🥺🥺 I know there are people with many more hours on their games, who have leveled all their Pokemon to 100. But these are my Pokemon who were with me through my childhood, and I spent many more hours making up stories about them than actually playing the game. I'm so happy to see them again 😭😭😭

All I want is to see my Pokemon. My other Pokemon are in boxes. Now, how do I get to the nearest PC? Where am I?

Oh... Oh. I have to confess something. When I was a kid, I was scared of the dark cave areas, and whenever I got to them, I stopped playing for a while. (I was stuck at Mt. Moon until I was like, 7.) So I never actually beat the game.

And here I am on Victory Road, with the team of Pokemon I was taking to the Elite Four, without an Escape Rope.

The only way for me to see my other Pokemon is... to finally make it through Victory Road, after 27 years?!