#I like it even better now that I’ve switched teams which is absolutely going to help.

[heyclickadee]

I’m extremely lucky to be able to work from home for a company that lets me work at pretty much any time of day, and I still feel like I need a solid month off of work to have the energy to consistently do anything besides work right now.

Edit: To be fair, I think having been very recently (in the past week or so) removed from a very bad situation at work that I’d been sort of fixated on for the past year (it wasn’t actually that bad but it was affecting me badly, it was all I could think about, and I’d get so paralyzed about it that I couldn’t work and then would have to put in more time to make up for it until I finally exploded a month ago and talked to someone about it) is definitely going to help.

[chilchucks-timbs]

What do you think of the sequel of twewy then? You talk a lot about the original but I'm interested in your opinion of the second part because I saw a few fans disappointed :o

OKAY. Omg.

So first of all? Soundtrack? SLAPS. We won. We won with the sequel soundtrack. I actually prefer some of the new remixes to the original!

The artwork? Stuck to the original style. Can’t complain at all. The new designs? PEAK. They’re so cool. There’s new shopkeepers- who look AWESOME- who have LORE. We can access NPC LORE. I read about one who is married to one of the players? Catch me eating popcorn at that story.

Shout out to the sprites you get when you’re feeding your party members? They’re so cute. In original TWEWY we just had a voice telling us if they liked it after I’ve fed them. NOW we get to know via their face going 🤢 or 🥺 BEFORE they eat so I can give them something they definelty like! and I think that’s fun and funky fresh.

Gameplay? Fantastic. Absolutely brilliant. - the original game had a switch port and honestly? I really think they should’ve done better with the controls. What worked and was beautiful for the ds- felt very clunky on the switch. Especially when playing console? I mean what in the Wii controller buLLSHIT. I need my attacks ACCURATE and on tv that’s very very hard. My friend managed it but? Maybe I just need to get good LSLGFSPALDL. But NEO twewy? beautiful. Perfect. Great for the switch. no complaints on the new battle system.

The story:

edit: THE HUMOUR IS THERE. I FORGOR. I forgot how fucking funny it is. The amount of screenshots I have? Hilarious. Not any like quotable moments like there is in the original game. But there’s so much silly billy shit going on. Bunch of CLOWNS I swear.

Its messaging is not driven home as much as the original twewy is. Like my friend had to explain to me what they were doing because it’s very very subtle. The characters are changing but only just a little. -unlike the first game which, like? At the end of the game? These guys are CLEARLY not the same people who entered the game!! These are Zuko ATLA level transformations!!!: whereas Neo twewy game says? Hey. Your actions are kinda sucky bro. Ever thought about changing up your style? Like it’s THERE. But it’s clearly not the CORE of the game like the first one. And that’s where it falls flat FOR ME. I LOVE and ADORE character development and it’s just not the focus of NEO twewy. But that doesn’t mean I hated the game. I just don’t prefer it over the original.

What NEO twewy DOES focus on is world building which. I think they’ve made some super cool and interesting choices. Even if I, and many Joshua kiryu fans don’t agree with them. 💛 we just straight up ignore the new lore because we don’t like it- the one around Joshua anyway. They bring in some new reapers and some new plot line surrounding shinjuku. That’s fine. That’s fun. But. Joshua? MY MAN? No square enix, you don’t know my blorbo of 10 years better than me :))

So. In conclusion. I was not DISAPPOINTED. I just think they lost the core of what twewy meant to people for the sake of focusing on the new details theyve added. I think rindo and fret and nagi deserved better development.

ALSO IDK HOW I FEEL ABOUT TEAMS? I MISS PARTNERS. LIKE TEAMS IS FINE I GUESS BUT. PARTNER WAS SPECIAL.

Okokok real conclusion is that I was not disappointed. I had fun. I loved a lot about this game. But the original hit home so hard, and the sequel was just a good game.

[yesloulou]

ALEXIS, I just reblogged your ask about how checo has been flopping since ausgp and your whole point of the narrative remind me of something I’ve been trying to put into words for so long and I think I’ve finally GOT IT:

As much as racing bros don’t want to admit it, F1 isn’t just about racing. It’s theatre and spectacle like literally ALL FORMS of entertainment is. And there always has to be a story. Look at how a large section of F1 fans have termed this season as “boring”. Even during the merc domination years, there was a clear story: Lewis going after record after record (“how high can he climb” type narrative) and he had the nico rivalry to bolster his title reigns. Seb also had a very clear narrative for his return to the title scene.

Max, as much as I love him, doesn’t really have a “story” per say and checo is NOT anywhere close to providing him with one. But who has a better story this season than Daniel Ricciardo? The whole Icarus falling, prodigal son returning, tireless underdog storyline is ALL RIGHT THERE. And that’s why he’s been generating the most headlines all season, even before he got into the AT seat.

While we’re on the subject, who has a better story WITH MAX expect Daniel Ricciardo? His favorite teammate, the only one to beat him in equal machinery, the one who’s clawed his way back to the top after so much struggle while Max has had so much success? Just imagine how much more Max’s third title would mean if it came down to him and Danny in that last race, than him and Checo…who he’s already dominated all season 🙄 It’s actually a disservice to Max more than anything that he doesn’t have a real “battle” like he did with Lewis and Charles the last two years.

But they have Danny there as their ace they can pull out and suddenly EVERYONE is invested in seeing them go at it, even if its only one more time. In short, this is my essay that I’ll be second to RB headquarters as to why they need to switch Danny over in Vegas 👼

What you said!!!

(Btw saying max's season doesn't have a story is not a dig at all imo. He has no story because him and the new reg rb cars have been unchallenged. It really just speaks for how good he is as a driver and rb has been as a team.)

I really enjoy looking at the juxtaposition of how F1 exists because of the athletic spirit of pushing human performance to the extreme but at the same time is a media/entertainment event at its core. Especially in the context of Daniel's career, since he is a bit of an outlier in terms of career trajectory vs marketability (and is therefore more telling of how F1 functions as an ecosystem).

It's really no secret that F1 doesn't thrive under single team dominance. The more competitive the field is, the more interest there will be for the races and ultimately for the sport (source: domenicali himself). People's interest then translates directly into F1's livelihood bc F1 as an organization profits primarily through selling broadcasting rights and ad opportunities. Now that RBR has built themselves a gap even bigger than F1 had expected (source also domenicali) with no signs of slowing down or as you pointed out, alternative marketing angles/entry points like the lewis/nico situation, this season has begun to bore, which will hurt F1 financially, if not already.

On the other hand, it's against sportsmanship for F1 to do anything that can be considered manipulation to change this reality (it was explicitly stated that F1 "cannot intervene" RB's dominance). Domenicali's best bet (and what F1 has been doing so far) is to exercise budget caps in hopes of a convergence over time and a shortening of RB's cycle of dominance, with 'hope' being the keyword since there are way too many factors for anybody to really predict how this RB era will ultimately play out. While the hoping and waiting continue, F1 is in need of other ways to keep their seasons interesting. And you're absolutely right about this being where Daniel's marketability (existing and potential) comes into play. On top of the fact that people are simply massively interested in him in or out of a car, front or back at the field**, he also has the potential ability to make the championship itself interesting again, something Ferarri, Merc, Checo (and Domenicali himself for the time being) have all failed to do. As marketing-minded as F1's management is (remember when Domenicali literally flew to nyc for red bull's 2023 car launch with horner but then decided last minute to not attend in order to give Ford the full spotlight?), I wouldn't be surprised at all if they welcome Daniel's comeback as much as his fans, or maybe even more so due to its financial implications.

This is ofc not to say F1 can or will do anything about it (just like on principle they can't intervene RB's dominance). But if you think about it, at this point, everyone -- fans, media, sponsors, suppliers (the amount of ford/daniel content we've seen so far), Red Bull as a team, F1 as an organization, even (or like, especially) Max himself -- all want to see and benefit from Daniel coming back on top (except for maybe Checo but at the rate he's been going lately i actually don't know anymore lol). This is a momentum whose importance should not be underestimated. This is exactly why, even though Daniel's stock was at an all time low after mclaren, he was given opportunities and tool sets to rebuild and reestablish himself in this otherwise extremely exclusive, brutal in nature sport. Red Bull (and Mercedes at one point) does not do this out of charity or nostalgia. They're simply an acting agent for this momentum.

Anyways, this is why I think Daniel's F1 career is far from over. People who are quick to conclude "without a wdc ricciardo can't just come and go like alonso" fail to recognize that even not racing, Daniel generates more public interest than the majority of the grid**, an interest that ultimately ties back to this sport, which puts him in a very unique position.

** According to google, Daniel created thee biggest headline F1 has had in the past 3 months, with his overall google search volume ranking 3rd amongst all drivers despite not actively racing.

[darkx-the-dragon-kn1ght]

Chapter 19- Part 5

Ooooh, I was afraid of that- so that’s why Team Meteor is so insistent on getting a hold of Heather and the ring. That must mean there are other gem-related items corresponding to the other three colors somewhere- that’s concerning.

Friend!? So Victoria was taken here, I knew it!

Okay, so we’re gonna be fighting Aster and Eclipse? And not Commander Ponytail? Uh…okay, fair enough.

…So let me see if I have this right: Reborn City was built on top of some…holy site connected to this doorway. Commander Ponytail and, I assume, all of Team Meteor aren’t huge fans of this, so they’ve been working to destroy the city and kill and/or drive out the people in it so the land will be free again. At the same time, they’re also trying to track down these four gemstone key things- one of which is Heather’s Ruby Ring- which, when brought before this door, will unleash Reborn’s true power and supposedly restore the land…somehow. That seems to be the core of Team Meteor’s plans and motives.

So they’re not just a terrorist organization- they’re a religious terrorist organization! Perhaps even a cult! 

But for as much as it sucks what was done to this place- assuming Commander Ponytail is telling the truth, anyways- there is absolutely no way Xera is going to just stand by and leave Team Meteor unopposed, no matter what Ponytail tells her. She made a promise to protect someone, after all.

And speaking of a desire to protect the small handful of close people in one’s life, I’d say it’s time we go and find those two Privates. But not before another random encounter, apparently-

Ah, so this is the Unown’s special little room! Fitting, considering the ancient history aspect and all. Alas, we’re not here to fight the alphabet, we’re here to fight other people.

AND THERE THEY ARE! And there’s Victoria, too!! It’s been so long, oh my gosh! Nine entire chapters! That’s almost half the time I’ve been playing this game so far!

It is! Reunited at last! It’s been 3,000 years!!

Oh yeah, this is a cult-

Oh- Victoria my friend, I appreciate the enthusiasm, but I don’t think she’s gonna be able to do much, they probably took her Pokémon before anything else. Although- it doesn’t look like she’s tied up or held in place by anything, she’s just…standing there by the rocks.

Huh-!? Okay, she does still have her Pokémon! How did that even go through-?? Actually, no, not important right now, we just have to win this fight.

Now, double Intimidate would be huge, but unfortunately, Lunatone and Solrock are probably more likely to use special attacks instead of physical. And with them both being part Psychic…yeah, we’ve gotta get Glare out. I can’t use Crater here, since they both can only have Levitate, so…maybe Riptide is better. I don’t want to overlevel him, but at this point, what choice do I have?

And they’re both Psywaving into Glare’s slot- yeah, that’s about what I expected, so good choice on switching out, me. At least Torracat read the assignment and is using Bite.

Previous

Next

[goldensunset]

heehee seeing your pokemon playing posts make me so happy, esp now that you're playing platinum :] one of my fav mainline games for sure

can we get a peek at your teams? 👀 and any favorites?

awaaawawaaaaaaaa i love knowing that a bunch of oldschool pokémon fans follow me and enjoy watching this rookie’s dive into insanity. like my joy is multiplied by y’all’s joy at my joy. it’s a virtuous circle. plus online forums have absolutely nothing on y’all as far as helpfulness

so as you’ve probably deduced i’m raising a male kirlia in the hopes of getting gallade bc i think the moment i got my first one in pla i immediately got attached. i love that guy’s design and his little chirpy cry and i love his moveset. the kirlia is almost at level 30 so i have to box him for now

you’ve also probably deduced i have an umbreon bc i won’t shut up about her. i’ve never really used eeveelutions before but i’ve always loved their designs esp umbreon. they were always like little collectible figurines to me. glad i have a good excuse to use one now

i have prinplup that used to be the classic overlevelled starter but then i kind of ran short of uses for a water type, surprisingly. so now it’s kind of lagging behind the rest of the team. but i’m very much a ‘taking your starter out of your party even for a second is a federal crime’ kind of person. as embarrassing as it is i have him on the exp share rn. don’t worry emile you’ll get your time to shine again

i have a staravia who’s also been super helpful. i’ve got secret power (hidden power? which one was it called) on it too for slightly better coverage. that thing has single-handedly swept 2 gyms for me now. yeah baby

i also am constantly making reference to ‘skibby’, the kitty i named as a shinx when i was sleep deprived. i adore skibby and now she’s my highest level mon and she’s been so helpful w her moveset. first fully-evolved three stage mon i’ve got in this game. luxray is so cool man. at this point i’m not even switching into mons with type advantages i’m relying on bite, leer, swagger, and spark from a mon w good stats to take care of everything for me

hmmm uhmmm so i haven’t really decided on my definitive six yet so i have a few more that i’m investing in but like. not too hardcore investing in. i have a machop that i kind of have to keep around as an hm slave and a fighting type rep until i get gallade, a crobat i’m really not sure what the plan is with yet, a bibarel i’ve pretty much stopped using, and… some other new mons caught at a high level. honestly i need to remind myself that i don’t need to hand-raise every single baby pokémon i caught on the first two routes bc catching strong wild pokémon later is a thing. but then i also feel most attached to the ones i’ve had a while. i don’t feel like investing in my ponyta tho i’m banking on catching a better fire rep later. for the time being i’m just going without fire. or grass. or.. well, a lot of types actually. i don’t have enough diversity in my team is the problem. but i like the mons i have…

tldr this pokémon strategizing thing is hard but i like that i’m being forced to do it. i really brute forced my way through both pla and violet bc leveling up mons and getting new good moves was easy then. now even from the very beginning of the game before the first gym i’ve had to make tactical decisions at every turn and i love it actually

[blueberry-lemon]

When trailers outshine themselves

I like watching trailers. Maybe even more now than I used to.

I’m well aware that the purpose of a trailer is to build hype and interest. It’s a commercial, to get you to buy something. In some cases, they spoil or ruin the very story they’re advertising. In some cases, it’s way better to go in “blind” than to look at marketing materials.

But, like many of us, I can’t help myself.

I really love a good trailer. It’s a cool artform. Somewhere between an advertisement and a music video. And because the trailer is such a different artform than the actual movie or game that it’s advertising, sometimes the trailer itself is even better than the final product. Sometimes I’ll go back and rewatch a trailer over and over, even after I’ve completed the actual thing it was hyping it.

I write this post not to complain about being disappointed about films or TV shows or games, but rather to give a shout-out to the trailer teams who I think did a fantastic job with their assignment.

The first examples that always jump to my mind are from Marvel Studios. I think they’re pretty great at trailers. I started noticing this when they started making their Disney+ shows. 

WandaVision: Both the initial trailer and the mid-season trailer are fantastic. I’ve watched them over and over. They do a good job of being charming, romantic, and lovesick. They do an even better job of being mysterious and unsettling. It’s a pitch-perfect way to get you to buy into the concept and want to check out the show. I enjoyed watching the full WandaVision show, maybe moreso than any other MCU Disney+ show, but I wouldn’t hesitate to admit that I like these two trailers even more than the show. Kudos to the editors that put these together.

Falcon and the Winter Soldier: I had absolutely no intention of watching this show. I’m not particularly interested in this genre or either of these two characters. But the trailer sold me on it, with its hype music choices and intense cutting. I ended up enjoying the show enough in the end, but definitely not as much as this hype trailer.

I thought Marvel did a great job again with Loki’s trailer and Hawkeye’s trailer. Loki’s trailer makes the show seem a lot more mysterious and surreal than it actually ended up being, haha. Hawkeye does that classic “sweet Christmas music juxtaposed with action sequences” trick.

They got me again with Moon Knight, a character I didn’t know anything about. Although I’ll give credit, I feel like Moon Knight was about as weird and wild as the trailer hyped up it would be. So in this case I think it was a satisfying match.

Another satisfying match? The trailers made for Undertale. The release trailer and Nintendo Switch trailer come to mind. They’re fun, funny, and show off how the game works. I love this unique version of the Bonetrousle track that they use, which becomes very dramatic and grandiose. They’re also good examples of including original material into trailers that aren’t actually in the final product. That practice, generally speaking, doesn’t bother me. I don’t mind if trailers “lie” or show different footage, so long as it’s effective and doesn’t feel misleading. 

There are other trailers that I feel like match pretty well. I didn’t feel any gulf in expectation or emotion between the trailers for Avengers Infinity War + Endgame versus their final movie versions.

The trailers for Pixar’s Turning Red made me blubber and tear up, and the full film completely lived up to that and even exceeded it. So for me, that was a great film where the trailer editors captured it perfectly.

And for an example of one where I felt mixed on the end product, both the trailer for Pixar’s Elemental and the full Elemental film felt pretty equivalent to me. It wasn’t my favorite movie in the world, and I feel like I got that vibe accurately from the trailers.

But now, finally, for the trailers that brought me to writing this.

I really love the trailers for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.

I’ll include two here. One is the “release date announcement”, and the second was the “theme song announcement” that was aired at The Game Awards.

This is great. It’s moody. It moves into one of the game’s fantastic battle themes (which is itself a sweeping battle rendition of the original game’s main theme.) It’s shows off how the combat works beautifully, intercut with tantalizing plot snippets. The trailer builds up mystery and adventure. It confirms that Yuffie and Cait Sith are playable. It shows cool Synergy combo moves. It manages to somehow transition gracefully into Golden Saucer minigame mayhem. Love it.

Another fantastic one. And the last piece of marketing material I would ever need to see to sell me on getting the game.

The trailer is split into two halves. The first half establishes the plot of the game. It gives us Cloud and Zack’s stories intertwined. It shows us weird, confusing story stuff that sets the Remake trilogy apart from the original. It shows us different environments you’ll travel through. Gives us a heartfelt conversation between Cloud and Tifa. Snippets of Barret’s story too.

The second half is the new original song for the game, No Promises to Keep, which was performed live at The Game Awards along with the footage. I really adore this song, to be blunt, so maybe that’s doing a lot of heavy lifting here. But it really makes me emotional and ties a lot of these disparate clips together. The animation of Aerith singing is beautiful, and it ends on a heart-tugging cliffhanger.

Now….my partner and I have been playing Rebirth. I’m early on, but they’ve only got about a quarter of the game left. We’re enjoying it, it’s great.

But…

…would it be out of line for me to say that the trailers are more effective than the game itself?

Much like WandaVision, the trailers for Rebirth sew all of the different scenes and emotions together into a seamless tapestry. It makes everything feel intentional, beautiful, well-paced, and packing an emotional punch. When my partner and I play the game itself, it feels harder for that intentionality and emotion to come through. Of course your mileage will vary. But, for me, it’s hard for the minigames to live up to the frantic montage when playing them in-game isn’t super fun. It’s hard for the emotional storytelling of the game to live up to the trailer when it’s spread out thin over hours and hours. Nothing in the game itself as made me feel as emotional or hooked in as these two trailers have, at least so far.

Again, this is not a knock on Rebirth. It’s the reality of how much easier it is to move hearts with a 2-minute trailer versus a 60-hour video game. A completely different artform.

And, most of all, it’s kudos to the trailer teams who work at Square and at all these companies for knowing the assignment and knocking it out of the park. I really love what they did with it.

[yesterdayiwrote]

Some of the takes I see about George online are actually insane.

I saw someone saying basically the issue with the W14 is that mercedes followed how George felt about the car in development and not Lewis, therefore it suits George and that mercedes should not have taken georges opinion in development as seriously as Lewis's. That they should have focused on making the car suit Lewis and have George adapt.

Its like people aren't aware that these cars are a different era of cars to what lewis won his championship with. Plus it isn't like the engineers are gonna go sure we will go with George in this even though what Lewis says will be faster. They go with what they feel the fastest concept will be, they don't just decide to go with George because they like him more than Lewis.

Plus it ignores the fact that George was working in the Mercedes simulator all the way back from the brocedes era. It was his work in the simulator which gave him opportunities to test drive cars and do free practice sessions and tire tests. Surely he must have some abilty in the sim and the engineers have alot of trust in him. They are always praising his technical knowlege. Just look at last weekend. Lewis even admitted that George chose the better set up and strategy, even though on paper it shouldn't have been.

Honestly I feel for the lad. People insulted him last year because apparently he didn't do enough for development for the car and lewis was doing all the experiments and it cost him points and now because the cars a bit crap its all his fault because they put more weight into what George has said about development. Both cannot be true. You can't say George didn't do any development last year but also blame him for the car being bad this year because of what he said in development last year.

Okay, I’ve been trying to think of a way to answer this since I got it, and I’m really struggling to find a way that covers ALL the nuance of the situation whilst simultaneously airing my frustration and trying not to be a biased dick about it. I do genuinely like both of them.

This creeping narrative that everything that goes wrong is because of George and everything that goes right is because of Lewis really does fuck me off big time because it’s just such childish bullshit and I can’t be dealing with it. That said it’s so ridiculously childish that it’s barely worth giving much credence to. The people know what they’re doing and sometimes you just have to let people have their copium and just… laugh?

I think people need to allow Lewis to be vulnerable and this aching need by some people to paint this picture that he is a perfect, fully rounded driver with absolutely no flaws or weaknesses does no one any favours. Sure we haven’t seen them as much, because success has a tendency to conceal these things, but even the GOATs have areas that need improvement. Merc have no responsibility to treat him as a first priority in all eventualities, and doing so would do Lewis more harm than good? If they had insisted on switching the cars in Jeddah like some people wanted, it surely would have been ten times more humiliating for him when he got passed by his teammate five laps later going quicker on the harder tyre?

George has a really solid eye for strategy. He can call strategy in the car while he’s driving a race and that’s no mean feat. Personally, I feel Lewis is weaker in that area. He prefers the team to lead his strategy and he puts his full faith in them to get it right and that’s fine, plenty of drivers do that. It’s not a glaring void in his arsenal, but in times when things go wrong it gives George an advantage he can draw on. People get angry at him doing it, because he’s ‘putting himself first’ but equally sometimes you’ve got to control your own destiny.

The whole situation with the car design is getting a bit ‘He said, She said’. Lewis said no one listened to him and he had all the right answers. George said they all agreed the direction together. We’ll never know who is telling the truth. Chances are it’s somewhere in the middle. Some teams do design their cars to suit one specific driver over another. I don’t know that I buy into any theory that suggests in Merc it would be George, even if he did come out on top last year. I said before I was a bit disappointed with Lewis’ comments and I think they were ill advised and borne out of frustration, as did he in the press conference, and then effectively doubled down and said something just as contentious in the post race interviews 🤷🏼‍♀️

We know George has done car development. You can’t joke about him being locked in the Sim and then simultaneously accuse him of not assisting with development, and then simultaneously accuse him of driving the entire development direction to suit himself. Like any sane person knows all of those things can’t be true cos the maths ain’t mathing?

Lewis isn’t ultimately responsible for his fans and the things they say, that being said I do feel like he sees more than he lets on and he knows when to give a crafty stir of the pot. They all do? This is purely his fans doing it though, not him, even if Spinz hasn’t helped matters in the past 😒

I think it’s a shame it’s got to this state though. I feel sorry for George and I do feel sorry for Lewis as well. It is a tougher situation for him in light of 2021. None of this is George’s fault though and it’s sad to see the online discourse getting so… tribal at times.

[everygame]

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey Redux (Nintendo 3DS)

Developed/Published by: Atlus, Lancarse / Atlus Released: 15/05/2018 Completed: 13/09/2022 Completion: Finished it with the new chaos ending. Did barely any of the side quests, admittedly. Trophies / Achievements: n/a

Hmm. Might sound surprising, but Strange Journey has always been the Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve been the most interested in. Something about the setting–a scientific team investigating a world-threatening anomaly at the south pole–really intrigued me.

(I tend to wonder if it also really intrigued Jeff VanderMeer, considering Annihilation is pretty similar, if not actionably so, and the book came out about four years after this.)

After playing Shin Megami Tensei III: Nocturne, I have to admit I was pretty jazzed to finally play this! And you know what–when it started, I was having a pretty good time! The setting was what I hoped, the first few levels were entertaining first person dungeon fun… but then the problems started to mount up. And quickly.

First things first: the whole demon fusion system in this game is completely wack. Now, I know that I played a remaster of Nocturne, so it was definitely made a bit easier to cook up exactly what you’d like, but Strange Journey saddles the players with demons who don’t learn anything when levelling up, and who instead give you their “demon source” after a few battles with them. This source, which is extremely hard to collect more than once per demon, is the only way to get to choose what skills a demon inherits, by which I mean “you can give it the skills attached to the source.” (Meaning that if you’ve got two low-level demons with great skills who turn into a much higher-level demon with crappy skills, uh… you’re stuck. Hope the source you use has good skills.)

You might think this doesn’t sound totally ruinous, but it all incentivises which is what I would call “completely the wrong way to play the game.”

What it means is that as any time spent with a demon that has given you its source feels like wasted time, you’ll be fusing them at an absolutely insane pace. And, because you’re using demons for, like, five to ten battles, it feels like a waste to use your sources on them, especially when you can’t guarantee that a future demon will inherit those skills without you pouring over online fusion tools to try and get the best outcome (on a demon you’ll use for twenty minutes.)

It creates a pretty tedious cycle, which is made even worse by the fact that the game doesn’t use the Press Turn system in a real “let’s re-invent the wheel” move, and instead gives you free almighty damage follow-up attacks from team members with the same alignment. Considering you’re (probably) cycling demons like a maniac, this can be insanely annoying to sort out and is.. only mildly rewarding.

So if I’m going to advise anyone on playing this, I’d say “don’t be trying to fill out your demon list and/or collect all the sources.” Instead, just try and sort out a team in each new dungeon that’s your alignment, give them the needed elemental attacks etc. via sources (just use ‘em up, you’ll get more) and only fiddle about in the periphery with fusion when it’s going to pay off or it’s demons you’ll never use. You will have a much better time.

But I think this problem fades into insignificance, honestly, compared to problem number one. The dungeons. Now, I don’t want to get ahead of myself here. It’s not like Strange Journey is Wizardry IV or anything. But it does, very quickly, reveal itself to be for CRPG experts… by which I mean insane masochists. The game might auto map, it’s true, and they can’t get away with the old trick of spinners as a result, but every other dirty trick in the book is used here. You’ve got warp mazes, invisible walls, hidden paths, dungeons layered on top of dungeons that you need to switch between to navigate… oh, did I mention that the warp dungeons sometimes need you to do the warps in specific orders? And they never label which warp takes you where on the automap?

It is… miserable. There are huge segments of this game that are tedious beyond belief I think unless you absolutely adore this kind of dungeon design. I’m the kind of guy who just wants to walk down corridors and punch things, filling out a map. This game’s maps turned me off from that so much that by the end I was literally just looking up the maps online and going the fastest way from point A to B not even filling in all the squares of rooms I was going in. That’s completely contrary to my beliefs!!!

SEVENTY SEVEN HOURS. Seventy seven hours is how long I spent playing this even resorting to such cheap tricks and avoiding most of the side quests!

And three hours of those seventy seven were just trying to beat the final boss!

Let’s talk that final boss. It’s probably the hardest boss in any video game I’ve ever played–certainly any RPG that I’ve committed to finishing. Fair play to it for being thematically appropriate, I guess, but it’s designed in a couple of ways: one, it reaches a point where you can only damage it through same-alignment follow-up attacks. Two, it casts a spell reflecting all damage from the predominant alignment in your party for several turns. 

Can you work out why that’s unbelievably cruel? Yes, because if any player hasn’t made sure to have literally three, top-level demons that aren’t of their alignment available, they’re fully fucked. Meaning that advice I gave you about using up your sources on same-alignment demons actually means you might not be able to finish the game without some insane grinding.

Here’s the weird thing though… it was a bit exhilarating, though, beating this boss. I’d probably have snapped my 3DS completely in half if I had died in my final run considering it alone took about an hour, but if you can survive the first time it reflects an entire alignment, you can swap your “good” demons out and put them back in once she sets up the wrong alignment protection.

I literally had to set up my party with sources to make sure I had three demons with the ability to resurrect and most of them offering healing and I barely survived it, with my MC dying at least six or seven times (including one particularly hairy moment when only one demon was alive and in the party.)

Once I’d won… I dunno if I felt anything but relief, to be honest, but it was definitely one of those moments you only get from video games.

But right, uh, do I recommend this or not? I think you can have a lot more fun with this if you let yourself get more attached to your party of demons than collecting sources, but you really need to love just the most horrible dungeon design to bear this at all, and an enjoyably brutal final boss doesn’t pay it back at all. I can’t say I regret playing this–it’s on 3DS, you pick it up and play it when you’ve got some downtime, there’s telly on in the background, you’re on a plane, etc.--but I don’t think I would knowing what I know now.

Will I ever play it again? It’s absolutely wild to me that these games track which endings you’ve got like you’re going to play them from scratch every time to see them all. Who on earth has time for that? Six endings in a game you could maybe speedrun in… 20 hours if you knew it inside out (yes, speedrun.com has several at about half that, but those are serious outliers.) Anyway, no.

Final Thought: However, speaking of endings, I will say that I appreciated that this game pushed me into a position that I didn’t expect, which was choosing to go Chaos. Without going into too much of spoiler territory, I think this manages to nail the ol’ “maybe man is the real monster” trope and offer the player the choice of forgiveness (or not). I took not, saw it through to the end, and really did feel like I got the best, most fitting ending. Thankfully. Did I mention I played this for seventy seven bloody hours???

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi, either via a one-off donation (pay what you like) or by joining as a supporter at just $1 a month.

[niemernuet]

okay so i have very many thoughts about the tie video.

just imagine! imagine gino in front of his mirror like… nope. this is too difficult. this requires tEaM. OR oooor, alternatively, „if i ask odi to tie this for me he‘ll have to come really close and touch me very gently“ but either a) everyone interrupted or b) gino did not factor in odi‘s absolute hopelessness in the field of actual adulting.

also the fact that mauro, instead of being a helpful older brother and tying it for gino, chose to film him struggling instead.

so many thoughts. so many.

Silja, the way your brain works...💕. I also can't get that video out of my head, and your points are all so valid, though I think Mauro did the right thing as an older brother. That video will only get better with age, and will lighten up many boring Christmas get-togethers. I'm tending towards 2b with a hefty dose of 2a, personally, and managed the first 1'000 words in one evening before I ran out of steam (story of my life).

Mauro:

After more than thirty years on this earth, Mauro knew his brother quite well, which was why he arrived ten minutes earlier than he said in his text. To his surprise, Gino was not in his bathroom in nothing but his underwear and socks surrounded by a cloud of various sprays and in a state of frenzy, but waiting outside. Not to his surprise, he was still not ready.

“You forgot your tie,” Mauro said while the window of his car still moved downwards. “Either you get one, or you have to change the jacket. You can’t wear a double-breasted suit like that.”

With a smug grin, Gino pulled said tie out of the pocket of his trousers, not unlike a clown conjuring a string of tissues. He dangled it in front of Mauro as he plopped down in the passenger seat.

“I didn’t forget anything,” he said.

Mauro could feel his brows fold themselves into the usual frown whenever his little brother was up to something. “Don’t you…want to put it on?”

Gino’s grin did not waver one bit. “Nope. Don’t you want to drive?”

Mauro huffed, and turned back onto the road. The congestions of rush hour were slowly dying down, and quickly they reached the motorway. The sun shone directly into their eyes as they sped towards Zurich, which did nothing to alleviate the growing headache behind Mauro’s forehead.

“And when are you going to put your tie on?” he asked after a while.

“I’ve been thinking,” Gino said in response, as if it was an acceptable answer.

“Oh god, I hope you didn’t break something.”

“Ha ha,” Gino deadpanned. “I’m serious. I’ve…had some introspection. After your retirement.”

Mauro waited for him to continue, his lips pressed to a thin line.

“Things changed after you left,” Gino explained. “Not like…outwardly, I mean. You’ve been gone for quite some time after all…”

“M-hm…” Mauro said.

“But on the inside,” Gino continued, and wistfully stared out of the window and at the grey noise protection walls fencing the motorway. “I realised I had to change. Because the truth is I’m stuck, and if I don’t start to act right now, I might forever regret it. I might…I might forever stay where I am now, and…and I realised I can’t. If I ever want to get results, I have to do something.”

Mauro threw a quick glance at his younger brother, and choked down the guilty conscience rising within. “Okay, first of all, I didn’t die, I just switched jobs…so to speak. And second of all you shouldn’t be so harsh with yourself. You raced onto the podium in arguably one of the most difficult giant slaloms last year, and you made great progress in your new discipline. You have to believe in yourself. Because I do.” He turned his head again but his brotherly smile was met with a dumbfounded frown.

“What?” Gino asked.

“What?” Mauro asked right back.

“I wasn’t talking about skiing!” Gino exclaimed. “It’s about Marco!”

Mauro blinked. “What?!” he asked again though this time a bit louder.

“Yeah, I realised I have to stop pining, and finally make a move!” Gino explained. “Because life is too short, and one day this will all be over.”

“Again, I didn’t die…”

“For years I’ve been too afraid, and when I left Andorra I hated myself for what I had become. But now everything’s going to change because I have a plan.” With a bright smile, Gino turned his head, though it died when he saw Mauro’s incredulous look.

“And what is that plan, if I may ask?”

Gino rolled his eyes, and raised his hand from his lap, once again dangling his tie across the centre console. “I’m going to pretend that I don’t know how to knot this, and he’s going to help me.”

Mauro paused. “Knot…this? Your tie?”

Gino nodded. “Yes.”

“After crying about him for years you’re… going to ask Marco to help you with your tie…to get together with him?” Mauro repeated.

Gino frowned. “What’s not to understand?”

A first sign announced their exit, and Mauro set the blinker. “Nothing,” he answered with a big smile. “That sounds like a great plan!”

-----

“I don’t get it,” Alex said between two sips of beer. “Gino wants Odi to help him with his tie? Even though he knows how to put it on?”

“He’s an even bigger moron than I thought,” Justin said.

“Hey,” Mauro threw in softly as he tried to hide his grin, not because Justin was wrong but because it was his brotherly duty.

“How many years have we been working together now?” Justin asked. “And he thinks Odi can do this?”

“Should we help them?” Romain piped up.

“Maybe later,” Mauro answered.

“At first I didn’t really want to come because I thought it’ll be terribly boring,” Alex grinned, “but now I think it might turn out to be quite entertaining after all.”

The Swiss Ski federation knew their athletes and coaches well, and to placate them for the coming, tedious hours they had put up a long bar right in the middle of the foyer. The small group around their table however had no eyes for the crowd in the big atrium because they were all too busy staring at the scene unfolding in a quiet corner. Marco stood with his back to them but from the way he was cocking his head like a confused dog Mauro knew exactly the kind of puzzled look he must be showing at the moment. He listened intently to Gino, and they spoke together in hushed tones, until eventually he turned around, and scanned the foyer. His face lit up when he recognised the group around the small table, and before Gino could protest, he grabbed his hand, and dragged him across the room.

“Hey, does anyone of you know how to tie a tie?” he asked. He had opted for a tuxedo with a bow tie like Justin, and even as Gino tried to throw them a warning look the hearts in his eyes were unmistakable.

“Didn’t you learn this in the army?” Alex asked with raised eyebrows, and Mauro had to bite down on his cheek to keep from laughing as a faint blush crept over Marco’s cheeks.

“I didn’t really get it when they demonstrated it,” he confessed, “so Fabian did it for me and since then I’ve never untied it again.”

Alex tutted, and shook his head. “Disappointing.”

“As if you still know how to do it,” Gino snapped.

“Which is why I left my double-breaster at home,” Alex smiled, and pointed at his shirt and jacket.

Marco chewed on his lower lip for a few moments with a pensive look until Mauro took pity.

“I’m sure there’s a video somewhere on the internet.”

Marco’s face lit up, and he beamed at Gino. “You’re right!” He pulled his phone out of his jacket, and tapped furiously on the screen. When he placed it on the table, Mauro casually lifted his own, and pressed play on the video-button. Gino shot him a murderous glare but got distracted immediately.

"Quick, it's running!" Marco said, and waved his hand at the tie hanging from Gino's shoulders.

To Mauro’s left, Justin could not stop wincing as Gino tried to follow the instructions and Marco threw in unhelpful tips.

“You have to pull it through…”

Romain broke first, and grabbed one end of the tie. “Here!” he said. Gino almost swatted his hand but caught himself in time.

“Marco, you have to show him!” Alex grinned but he very obviously could not follow the video, and looked like an overwhelmed puppy again.

“Here, like this!” Alex said, and held out his hand.

Finally, Gino snapped. "I can do it!" he hissed, and with a few quick moves had the tie snug around his neck.

“Congratulations” Mauro said, and received another glare from his brother. “That was wonderful teamwork.”

[tiggymalvern]

Burn Notice - s7 rewatch

I finished rewatching season 7 of Burn Notice a couple of weeks ago now, and on second watch, it worked better for me than it did the first time. The first time, the ending felt rushed, and I didn’t entirely buy into Michael’s switch of allegiance; but knowing it was coming, and watching the details more carefully, it seemed more realistic. And I’ve been pondering over it since, poking over what I felt were flaws on first viewing, and it holds together a lot better than I thought. It always made sense that Michael would turn against the CIA, given how they treated him and everyone he cares about, given the corruption he uncovered among them. On first watch, though, I didn’t buy that turning against the CIA would immediately mean siding with James. There had to be a third option. Except there pretty much wasn’t, from Michael’s perspective. He didn’t know that the rest of the gang were already working on the ‘get the hell out of the country’ plan – and even if he had known, the last time they all tried that, it went appallingly badly. Michael’s first choice for getting out was to die. He expected James to shoot him in the head, and he was so done with everything, he was fine with it. But James didn’t – instead he exploited Michael’s weakness. He knew that Michael was doing everything to keep the people he loved out of prison, and he offered Michael another way to do that. When Michael was in the world’s shittiest frame of mind and not likely to be making good choices, James dangled a carrot in front of him. And Michael being Michael, if he decides he’s going to do something, he goes for it 100%. That’s always been one of his primary strengths, but applied in the wrong circumstances, it becomes a massive flaw. In Nature of the Beast, Michael admits to Sam that he’s struggling, that he likes James and Sonya despite who they are, and he says he’s relying on Sam to help him. Two episodes later, when Fiona confronts him about it, he’s all, ‘Nope, I’m fine, nothing to worry about here.’ I don’t think he would have said that if he and Fiona had still been an item. But he knows that she’s moved on with Carlos, and there’s a combination there of Michael not wanting to dump his crap on her when she wants nothing to do with his world anymore, and Michael not wanting to rely on her when he’s no longer her priority. It’s a case where he’s protecting both of them from each other, I think, but it results in him turning away from support even though he knows he needs it. And he turns away from it more after some of the things he has to do. After he has to kill Roger Steele, after he watches James shoot the useless dude. Michael’s got some pretty bad self-loathing going on at that point, and he’s deliberately dodging the rest of the team because he doesn’t want them judging him too. When he needs help the most, he won’t ask for it any more. It's been apparent for a long time that Michael’s the most dangerous of the Burn Notice crew. Fiona’s dangerous because of what she might do when she’s furious, in a particularly bad moment. Michael’s dangerous because of what he might do when he’s cold and semi- rational. Because of that Larry-like part of him that’s he admits is in there. Michael might do terrible things when he’s not actually all that rational, but he thinks he is, and that can be so much worse. Sam and Jesse, meanwhile, are the stable ones of the group. Which isn’t to say that they can’t get angry enough to want to murder someone – they absolutely can. But they nail that shit down. It’s most obvious with Sam when they’re interrogating the guy who tells them how he took Sam’s friend out into the Everglades and shot him in the back of the head. At which point Michael grabs Sam and hauls him out of there – good call, you should absolutely do that. But later, Sam’s back inside asking the guy who paid him to do it. Which makes sense, because you don’t make the cut for a SEAL team if you can’t get a grip on yourself under just about any circumstances. And Jesse somehow manages not to murder Michael after he figures out Michael was the one who destroyed his life. Those two guys are reliable pretty much anywhere and anywhen – they’re the stability Michael needs to be utilising and isn’t. Another big flaw of Michael’s is that he’s willing to hurt people he cares about to protect them. He tells his mother early in season two that he ghosted her for ten years because he wanted to keep her away from his world. He knows the rest of the gang will vehemently disagree with what he’s doing, but Michael’s convinced himself he’s right. In his own head, he’s not turning on the gang, even when he is. When he and Sam climb out of the water after their fight, Michael leads his threat with, ‘Because we’re friends,’ - still present tense, even when he’s warning Sam to stay the hell away from him. And that fight on the bridge is SO perfectly done. We’ve seen disagreements between these two turn physical before when Sam’s tried to stop Michael from doing something stupid. With the stakes so much higher this time, neither of them were going to back down, and it was always going to get ugly. Sam knows that in a straight fight he’s going to lose, so he plays it smart and gets them into the water. It takes him a couple of tries, because Michael sees it coming. – they’re both smart. And it works. Sam has the advantage, and if he’d wanted to kill Michael, he could have. He loses because killing Michael is the absolute last thing he wants to do, and because near-drowning is so unbelievably dangerous. He has to loosen his grip and head for the surface the second Michael goes limp, and so Michael fakes him out. They both played to their strengths and their understanding of each other, and Sam really couldn’t have done anything differently. There are a couple of things in season 7 that don’t really work. First of them is that it takes Michael any time at all to make his decision on the roof. Sonya vs the woman he’s been in love with a decade – he really shouldn’t have to think about that. Even if Fiona tried to move on emotionally, it’s obvious all season that Michael hasn’t. Dramatic tension and all, but… nope. The big thing that bugs me is James’ security lapse. Sonya vouches for Michael, and then Michael gets put through days of sleep deprivation, drugs and interrogation before James will trust him. Which makes sense in a vile way. But then James takes Fiona, Sam and Jesse on trust because Michael trusts them? Meets up with them more than once, lets them see his face? Since when? It’s not even necessary for them to ever meet James. Michael could have worked with the rest of the gang exactly as Michael worked with Burke and Sonya prior to meeting James, all at one step removed. That’s what I would have expected. Yes, they have to be able to recognise James when they see him with Michael at the end of the series, and know that Michael’s lying to them. But they didn’t ever have to meet James for that. By then, they’ve already got James’ full name and background and details from his ex-colleague at the mental hospital, so they’d only need photos to recognise him. If James had stayed away from everyone but Michael and Sonya, that would have been consistent behaviour and changed nothing about the overall plot. The only detail that would have been different is that the others wouldn't have been there to see James kill the useless dude. But that could have been worked around. The others could have been all, 'Hey, where's useless dude these days?' and Michael wouldn't have wanted to explain. And they'd figure out he's dead quickly enough, and maybe they even start to speculate that maybe Michael killed him... Season 7 still has its glitches, but fairly minor ones in the overall plot arc. The writers wanted to send Burn Notice out with a dramatic bang, and they certainly did that.

[imasimpleguy]

Feel like a huge piece of shit. I’ve once again been dragged into a situation where I’m just gonna lose indefinitely, how can a woman throw themselves at me for so long only to switch on me so quick even though we are housemates and known eachother for 10 years only to blame it on the facf that we are fucking which is bullshit everhthing was fine until 2 days ago what the fuck happened I’m so over it I’m so over the mind games of I’m a fucking idiot I’m a useless cunt then you tell me to come cuddle you on my bed that we moved into the loungeroom. I feel cheated out of something good again and even though she was was planning on leaving anyways which I was fine with I was happily accepting of the fact that we could rnjoy this last month together I thought we’d be a team but you make it out like I’m against you like I hate you or you hate me or something it fuxking sucks and I can’t wait for this lease for end you’re my best friend in the entire world and yet right now I don’t want to be anywhere near you how do you think that feels especially when I’m pulled on the side of loving you to absolute bits what am I meant to do you say we aren’t gonna fuck anymore and yet I’ve only ever made the move to fuck you once but you’re the one making all the moves showing all the public affection I’m clearly worried about how people perceive you and us together as friends but I don’t think you care at all about whether we are friends or not I don’t know what to do anymore it feels like I’m running around in circles we bicker during the day we get really close at night and we cuddle it makes me feel so conflicted in one side I want to say no and I don’t want to continue that attention but at the same time I crave your touch and being with you and being around you and it’s hard being pushed away like this you say I’m you critique me but you’re being mean and it hurts me alot that I let it get to me because I shouldn’t it’s just y own stupid thought pattern that puts me in this position every time I can’t help myself anyone who shows some attention I get attached and I fuck it all up every time without doubt I’m just waiting for this to hit the boiling point and we’re gonna have a big argument but I don’t want that I’m not a fighter I don’t want to throw words I need to talk about issues evens if I’m not good at them I’m trying to get better at it but it’s hard i csnt just flip my switch overnight and be a better person if I fucking could I would but that’s not how this goes unfortunately and unfortunately it won’t go my way like I said Im in the lose lose situation where something good gets stripped away from me you say things that cut straight through to me and it hurts alot and I wish things were different so I didn’t have to stress about this

[bng-health-tips]

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[masnmount]

you’re so right, i’ve noticed most of the chelsea supporters just switch up so fast… specially whenever there’s new signings. there seems to be this mentality with thinking like “oh we have this person now, you don’t matter anymore” 😐 which is so damaging because if you’re not backing your entire squad then are you a true supporter even? it’s quite common for players to have better and worse patches in their careers, it’s just so annoying to see people absolutely tear them apart whenever they’re not to their best. stand beside them at least. you don’t have to love their performances whenever they’re not up to “the standards”, but the amount of hate is so so shocking. i always think that reading one of those comments about me would be the absolute death of me bc i’m not strong enough mentally to deal with those things, specially whenever i’m a bit down myself - and people seem to forget players feel that way too. it’s so frustrating to see. you’re so so right about the way they talk about enzo and everyone used to praise mason only to now tear him apart bc it’s the new cool thing to do online it seems. so stupid. i just truly hope he’s ok or at least coping with this phase in the best, healthiest way possible (as well as any other player struggling! we’re a whole team, so many “fans” treat them as individuals only)

just the way people talk about him like he’s not been absolutely one of if not our best player for the past 2 seasons like lay off it man, he’s not doing terrible he’s just not doing amazing like you’re use to

the level of hate is disgusting i find it hard to read so i can’t imagine if it was about me

it’s just sad, like you support the club, how does tearing down one player go alongside supporting the club???

[obsessiveshayme]

I agree with everything, and there’s a lot of debate on Reddit but I’ve seen others voice the same concerns about sully, dumo and Jeff. I’ve been wanting sully out for the past two seasons now….he’s too stubborn to an absolute fault, I remember I think it was during this seasons 7 game L stretch that he was making 0 line changes, which he still doesn’t, unless it’s like 1 guy…and then all he does is put them on a different line but all the same players overall….that’s just not enough imo, like pull some players up from WBS, we need change. Shake it up idk this team is just so stagnant. Honestly I think the wins we’ve had since those 7 games have been pure dumb luck for the most part. We’ve only been scoring on power plays our 5v5 is laughable. And it’s always pissed me off that sully never pulls the goalies when they’ve had absolute shit games. Dumos been hot trash for a minute imo, I don’t understand why we’ve kept him so long. To me he hasn’t been anything worthwhile since our last cup win. Jeff, idk like yeah he’s playing bad rn but he was doing great earlier in the season and last season so I hope it’s just a funk. He still has a great face off percentage. If anything has to change though I really want it to be our head coach. Sullys playbook just isn’t working for this team anymore. Yeah he WAS a great coach, emphasis on was. The only defense I’ve seen is “he’s won us back to back cups🥴” as if he’s the only one to ever do that? He’s not. Idk. Like I said this team is stagnant. idk if I jinxed it or predicted it but as soon as the first period ended I was like watch us blow it. Don’t even get me started on overtime. The only thing good right now is our penalty kill if you ask me. And I am so not looking forward to this winter classic game. Bruins have been REALLY good, and we’re going into that game after this dog shit back to back? Hopefully we can win against the devils save some face, cause we’re gonna get creamed by the bruins and it’s only gonna add salt to the wound.

I said the same thing to my friend. We never really started playing better after that seven game losing streak. We pretty much got lucky. We are not playing well right now. We cannot keep a lead. We cannot win in overtime. We are dog shit 5v5. These are not opinions these are plain facts that you can back up with numbers and video. Yet instead of trying to fix this Sully keeps doing the same things over and over and over. What is the definition of insanity?

What was great about Sullivan in the early days was that he was not afraid to change it up. He was constantly switching the lines and putting different people out for different things back in 2016-2017 when we won the Cups but that was a long time ago and he's not the same coach. This is another thing I think people are not willing to admit. He has changed just as much as the players have changed and he has gotten stagnant. I told my friend that we win in spite of him and not because of him sometimes and that doesn't make a good coach.

I want dumo to find his game. However as you said he has been off for some time and I think we just turned a blind eye because we were winning. Now we are not winning so we are forced to look at the problematic parts of our team and unfortunately he is one of them. I don't know what he needs to do to find his game but I do know he does not need to be on that second pair. Why is he getting so many minutes when he's not playing well? Another baffling coaching decision.

I think Jeff will get it back and we don't really have to worry about him but pointing out that he's not playing well right now is not a bad thing. It just is what it is. Him getting that goal last night gave me hope.

But I agree with you because when you boil it down a lot of what is going wrong with us right now comes down to bad coaching. Fire the coach and win a Cup?

[theaword-livingwithautism]

Adolescence and Undiagnosed Autism

Hi, and welcome back! Today I’ll be sharing some of my personal experiences throughout my adolescence and my struggle with undiagnosed autism, as well as how the events of my adolescence have affected me into my adulthood. So, let’s jump in!

What was Intermediate School Like?

Middle school was going to be bliss, or so I thought. I had been accepted to a Science Magnet school, or one with additional science curriculum and opportunities, required science fair participation each year, and offered classes not offered anywhere else in the district. While all of these things were true and I love the academic aspect of middle school, socially, middle school was the worst years of my life. While I’ve been thankful to learn in recent years that I far from the only person who feels this way, it’s also disheartening that middle school is almost universally perceived as socially brutal. I made one of my first friends who was also undiagnosed autistic, and we shared a special interest. This friendship was my closest for my three years of middle school, although it fell apart after the friend moved away. Other friends were difficult to come by, as I was absolutely absorbed in my studies. I was also learning a new skill from scratch, which came with a lot of frustration throughout middle school that overshadowed my mood frequently. While I love playing cello, the first two years were difficult to gauge my own progress and to learn in a way that made sense for me.

While sixth grade was mostly uneventful in terms of formative events, seventh grade was anything but uneventful. I decided, in my infinite wisdom, to try playing school sports. For some reason, I decided to play basketball. In hindsight, it was maybe one of the worst decisions I’ve ever made. While I loved playing, the social dynamic of the team was completely foreign to me and very few people would ever speak to or acknowledge me, even during games. The coach and I didn’t get along on a very base level, and because playing basketball meant I had afternoon practices, I had to warp my entire schedule to fit to it. I was now waking up at five every day, driving across three towns to get to school, I had to shift all of my classes to later time slots or even switch teachers, and was often staying at school until six or seven in the evening. My academics started dropping, and I dropped out of the basketball team after just one semester, completely resetting my grades and schedule to what they were before.

However, the original schedule move to accommodate basketball crippled me socially, as I lost all of my friends in the process, and certainly carried no friends over from the basketball period. This left me completely alone through the second semester of seventh grade, which is when I began to develop severe anxiety and depression over not fitting in with my peers, holding “childish” interests and hobbies, and became extremely depressed as I was alone nearly all the time. I had my first encounter with a suicide hotline around this time, which resulted in me getting in trouble with the school after I told someone that I had called. I got in trouble because I “probably didn’t need it” and that “I didn’t look depressed to everyone else”. So suffice to say, I’m no longer trusting when it comes to school administration.

Things improved in eighth grade as I moved into my first serious relationship which would last for the next four years, made a core group of friends who stayed with me until the end of the year, and made a couple of friends who would stay with me through a good portion of high school. The year was definitely great, although my anxiety and depression were worsening in the background of all of these good things.

What About High School? Did Things Get Better?

The transition into high school was brutal but not unexpected. Everything was so much more important, there were so many more people, and so many new things to learn, both socially and academically. While the academic portion of high school was always a great experience for me, as I loved most of my teachers, excelled in every class, and had a great honor society track record, social life bit me once again. The friends I did make in my freshman year were by no means healthy friendships and caused me trust issues that I still struggle with today. After coming out publicly as queer during eighth grade, I began to get bullied for not only being queer but also being the “weird kid”. I wish that I could say that things improved, but as COVID-19 hit the area I lived in, my father passed away around the same time, of unrelated reasons. We were displaced from our home and I lost my father, COVID-19 was battering the world, and things were pretty bleak, to be quite honest. I spent a lot of lockdown extremely quiet and kept largely to myself, reflecting on my experiences and my life and taking stock of the world around me. Eventually I came to the conclusion that the only way out was forward, and I began to write poetry to help me cope with everything going on around me. During this time I wrote not only about COVID-19 and family matters, but wrote about my anxiety and sensory issues as well, which sparked the catalyst in my family that maybe I wasn’t just the “weird kid”. I also discovered my love for dance, which helped me to stay in shape and pick up my spirits.

After I returned to high school for my senior year with a change of career plans, a new outlook on life, and one less parent, things really started to fall into place for me. I started seeing an amazing therapist regularly, I got diagnosed with autism and started putting together the things that I have struggled with for so long, I got psychiatric medication which has massively helped me in my day-to-day endeavors, and I started relearning what it means to be me. I learned about autism and its core behaviors, what causes me to act and think the way I do, and how to make autism work for me in all its aspects, and how to work around the aspects that have troubled me or increased my struggle in past years.

How Did All of This Affect You?

Going undiagnosed throughout my adolescent years has definitely affected who I am today and how I deal with my emotions and reactions, but as I continue to age, I make an active effort to acknowledge my emotions and to take care of my mind and heart. Although I certainly have a lot of room to improve, going through high school undiagnosed was pretty harmful to my high school experience, and I did end up feeling robbed of a lot of friendships and opportunities because I didn’t understand why my brain was going the things it does or how I can work through my issues effectively and healthily. As I continue to grow and heal from the bullying and trauma I experienced throughout high school, it does make me realize that while going undiagnosed did some damage, a diagnosis might not have improved upon most things.

This is to say, of course, that just because I know I’m autistic doesn’t make autism go away or make it less visible. It would give me personally some answers and some ways to work through difficult situations instead of just suffering through them and not knowing what’s wrong with me, but I still would have gotten bullied for being the “weird kid” because it’s just who I am. It’s nothing wrong with me, and being autistic, diagnosis or not, doesn’t change my personality. Although personal reassurances during that time in my life would’ve been helpful, I still would’ve gotten hurt, which is a fact that I feel like is worth acknowledging.

So, in conclusion to the undiagnosed period of my life, what I would like you as a reader to take away is this: Knowing from a young age that I was autistic would’ve given me perspective and reassurance as to why I think and operate the way that I do, but it wouldn’t have magically made my life easier or saved me from being bullied. The inability of my peers to accept and be friendly towards children different from them was the real problem here, not my lack of diagnosis. We should all teach the people around us to not just tolerate the existence of autistic individuals, but not to shun them just because we’re autistic. Thanks for reading.

[crystalelemental]

So the team I’ve been using in the Singles format in Battle Tower in Shield:

I’ve been running an all-Psychic type team, and just finished beating Leon in Master Ball rank.  While I have a full team of six for Psychic-types, these are the ones I’m using:

Indeedee Bold nature Psychic Surge Terrain Extender 252 HP, 252 Def, 4 Sp Def Expanding Force, Mystical Fire, Shadow Ball, Calm Mind

Metagross Adamant nature Clear Body Rocky Helmet 252 Atk, 252 Speed, 4 Def Meteor Mash, Zen Headbutt, Rock Slide, Earthquake

Gardevoir Timid nature Trace Choice Scarf 252 Sp Atk, 252 Speed, 4 HP Psychic, Moonblast, Mystical Fire, Focus Blast

They’ve beaten every fight.  Indeedee actually solos quite a few of the teams along the way, due to the absurd power of Expanding Force, and the potential of Calm Mind boosting its special defense to keep up with its physical bulk.  It helps that the AI still attempts to read my plays and counterpick, but mostly runs into “Run out the Terrain with Protect strats,” which more often than not benefits me by giving free turns for Calm Mind.  Indeedee’s an absolute champion.  Even without that Calm Mind, Expanding Force is often a 2HKO against super bulky things, like Leon’s Rillaboom and Seismitoad.  I keep underestimating how ridiculous it is.  It’s outright better than her other attacking moves, which exist mostly to answer things that may resist.  I might switch Shadow Ball to Dazzling Gleam for some Dark types.  We had one run-in with a Scrafty that was kinda scary, that would’ve been immediately solved by Dazzling Gleam, and Shadow Ball thus far hasn’t been like...hard required against anything, since the only other type to worry about is Steel, which can go down to Fire.

Metagross is the other one that often solos.  If Indeedee seems like it won’t handle whatever leads on a team, Metagross almost always does.  Usually, this is something like Togekiss or Clefable.  Something super bulk that Metagross definitely comes in safely against and can wreak havoc.  In some situations, Metagross will take Dynamax and just aim for a clean sweep.  It’s pretty effective.  It’s also a huge help, given the accuracy checks on this thing.  I don’t know why I decided to live dangerously, I usually hate that, but it’s been working well.

Finally, Gardevoir, my ace.  I love Gardevoir so much.  Her role is cleanup if the other two get bowled over, or at least cleaning up after Indeedee faints if she seems the better choice.  The real function of Gardevoir, however, is beating Leon’s Charizard.  Full disclosure.  I think Leon cheats.  Somehow, his Charizard always outspeeds me.  I know that thing is only base 100, how is it doing this?  The guides say it has a static Berry item to negate Rock-type damage, but is it secretly Scarfed?  No idea, because Dynamax bypasses the “only use one move” restriction, which is hilariously broken and the reason Gardevoir always takes Dynamax in my fights against him.  The real draw though?  She’s max Sp Def IVs, and is able to take both G-Max Wildfire and Max Airstream in succession and still survive.  Dynamax Gardevoir beats Gigantamax Charizard.  That one?  That one’s for Diantha.

Apparently you get a cool ribbon when you beat Leon in Master Ball tier, so now she is Gardevoir the Tower Master.  Witness.

I also beat the Psychic Restricted Battles mode in Isle of Armor.  That one’s five consecutive battles with two heals, so a bit more dangerous, but again, Indeedee is so stupidly strong that she kinda handled a fight after each heal.  We got through six battles before we couldn’t continue.  I might try Poison for a long streak, though.  Between Toxapex and Galarian Slowking having Regenerator, and Vileplume packing Strength Sap/Leech Seed, I think we could have a really self-sufficient team.

But yeah, shoutouts to Psychic team.  I know some disagree, but I think this is exactly as Battle Tower should be.  If I know the mechanics of setting up good natures, correct ability, and good EVs, I should be able to power through this in a day or two.  It shouldn’t take weeks because of frustrating, overly punishing mechanics kicking away all your progress for one bad matchup you didn’t know was a Zoroark.  I really like this, and am going to test out Doubles next.  I’ve got a real team in mind, not just Psychic types, so stay tuned for that nonsense.