#I would just watch cutscenes on youtube over and over again

[wildstar25]

But are you not thinking about the following hijinks of a mighty trio (of which one is Y’Shtola, surely) going on adventures for closure/discovery? Not thinking of the growing bonds in the wake of G’raha fading away, until he is found?

Totally not thinking about dress-spheres, I’m sure! (Happy to see another X-2 fan, and I love the idea!)

absolutely Anon, I am not thinking about any of that at all. I'm totally not thinking about a trio of Arsay, Y'shtola, and Lyse (AYL) travelling together on a ship with Alphinaud (nav) and Alisaie (pilot).

I'm absolutely not thinking about their field work constantly being side tracked Arsay, who will always feel like she needs to help everyone she possibly can with anything. With the rest of the crew going along with the little side quests to varying degrees of enthusiasm. Each adventure bringing the trio closer as friends. and yeah, certainly not thinking about magical girl transformation sequences via dress spheres. Or arsay getting the ability to sing well when a specific one is in use. Not thinking about Arsay/Lethe (arsay's azem) parallels with Yuna/Lenne. That would be silly.

[not-your-bro]

Tell me rfn the kind of video games climbing class stays up until 3am grinding and getting way too invested in

OOH. this is an interesting question bc i think they have fairly different taste in video games.

chris is into games with deep mechanics, so he gravitates to rpgs, including turn-based. likes strategy games, too. as a example of his taste, chris loves pokemon, but he plays it in a way i do not personally understand, in that he's crafting the most optimal team and also not naming his pokemon. all that said, he isn't opposed to turning his brain off with fps games when he just wants to relax. in all games, he is a chronic cutscene skipper (a trait that makes josh grind his teeth). if he picks up an in-game document that he deems too long, he's like "i ain't reading all that. i'm happy for u tho. or sorry that happened."

josh plays fewer games and has narrower taste. obviously, he's into horror in all forms, from AAA down to the smallest of indie titles (tho he prefers indie). i think he wouldn't have pegged himself as a fighting game guy, but he checked out mortal kombat bc of the fatalities and got really into it. he'd be into hideo kojima games. if i can include post-2014 games bc we're just having fun here, this would include death stranding (which chris would not understand the appeal of). josh would also love the weird, wide world of elden ring, in particular how it's stripped of things like quest logs. he would really enjoy making his own physical notes (which, again, would feel like homework to chris).

now, here's what they learned they can't play together.

moody, atmospheric horror that relies more on suspense or dread than fear. josh would love silent hill games (the good ones lmao), but chris would find them unenjoyable to play and narratively confusing & boring. warning for silent hill 2 spoilers here, but i made a joke in a fic about chris getting, like, too deep into sh2 before going, "oh. did this guy do something to his wife?" and i stand by that. i think he's just like whatttt is going on and when will this be over.

competitive games that rely too heavily on luck. obvious examples are mario party & mario kart games. josh gets too fucking moody when he feels he loses unfairly, and it brings the (mario) party down. and every time he suggests them, he's like "i seriously won't care, like it's not a big deal." but it is a big deal. in his heart. if he loses fair and square, he's fine, but he hates feeling robbed by bad luck.

...and here's what they do play together.

freaky asf horror games. like, the kinds of games with moments that are gonna have "streamers react to..." compilations on youtube. ideally, chris is playing and josh is watching, bc josh loves to watch chris react to games like this, especially if he himself has played them before. nothing more enjoyable than sitting next to chris, knowing what horrors await him but not saying anything. josh has a ps4 with p.t. (which he will never, ever delete) and he delighted in making chris play that. he also made chris play doki doki literature club, under the guise of "giving him a well-deserved break from horror." good one, josh.

chris's rpgs are long as hell and he gets very into them, so when he's particularly sucked in but josh still wants to hang, josh is like ok just bring your console over and play here, idc. now, josh knows chris is a cutscene skipper, so josh spends the entire time peppering chris with questions. what's happened so far? what's going on right now? who's this guy - what's his deal? at some point, they start making shit up, spitballing what they think is going on based on context clues, but also throwing in their own wild ideas just to make each other laugh. (after chris finishes the game, they read a plot summary to see how close they were.)

i think chris is a kingdom hearts fan, but again, not the way i'm a kingdom hearts fan. he thinks they're fun as fuck to play, but he has NO clue what's going on. in fact, playing kingdom hearts as a kid is probably what triggered his aversion to cutscenes. he was like that shit goes on FOREVER, and for WHAT? i'm enamored with the idea of chris foisting kingdom hearts on josh - like, "try it, bro, it's really fun. but just skip the cutscenes they're super long and confusing." and josh is like "now, now, christopher. a lot of work went into these cutscenes. we can't just skip them. that would be disrespectful." so josh lets them roll - initially as a bit, but then they both get invested, and next thing you know they're barreling through all 983094 games together.

resident evil 4. periodt. it has stuff that appeals to them both: horror/gore for josh, more action-oriented gameplay for chris, plus short cutscenes they can both find enjoyment in, because they're either freaky or funny or both. they would lament (as did i) that re5 and re6 have co-op but are so much worse, but they'd still play them once. and they'd both love the modern remakes + new re games. josh's favorite of those would be re7, and chris's would be re2 remake.

[dirtbag-linecook-kyloren]

oh sHIT I FORGOT TO POST THIS EARLIER i had an idea for an epilogue scene to an au I haven't written yet and I needed @jaynesilver to see it so I typed it as a warm up for once which i NEVER DO but because it's typed you all get to see it too!!

all you need to know if kylo is a beauty youtuber at abt jeffree star's peak fame levels and Hux is a guy with an engineering job who also streams stardew valley speedruns as a hobby and they're very in love at the end of the fic (that again I haven't written yet)

ANYWAY have 1.6K of beauty blogger au under the cut, I'm gonna keep it out of the main tag bc It's not for a current au and I don't wanna clog it up

Armitage doesn’t read Chat while he’s in the mines, with the small exception of checking to make sure he hasn’t missed a ladder. Most of his viewers are used to this. When the first good luck day of a run comes along, and he makes the loop for foregables around the map, when he skips several cutscenes using exploits and puts years of animation-canceling muscle memory into his keystrokes, Chat dies down, mostly talking amongst themselves. 

Commentary is easier; he can talk and click, talk and type, talk and debate using a cherry bomb on a group of copper ore to save himself a few seconds. 

“I’ll save it,” he tells Chat, shifting in his chair. “If I can use it on iron later, it’ll save even more time.”

This run is going well, so far. It’s his third reset of the stream, but Armitage already has all the copper he’ll need for basic sprinklers and he’s almost through the dark levels. Huffing under his breath, Armitage imagines explaining any of this to his coworkers, can already see the glazed-over look in their eyes. He’s familiar with how they stop paying attention when Armitage talks about his hobby. Gaming, they can understand. Replaying the same niche farming simulator over and over to get the fastest time on a silly leader board? More of a stretch? Do that for strangers on the internet to watch as they pay him money? A step too far. Most of them don’t know what Twitch is, let alone understand why anyone would watch it. 

Kylo shifts in his chair on the other side of the room; it’s quiet enough that Armitage can’t hear it over his headphones, so he doubts the microphone picked it up, but the movement catches his eye. This is their first time having him in the room as Armitage streams. He’s editing, an oversized t-shirt hanging off his shoulder, and Armitage wishes there was time to have more thoughts about that, but he gets one last ladder and moves on to the iron floors. 

“I’m suspicious of how well this run is going,” Armitage says, eyes darting to his second monitor as he works his way through dust sprites. “I’m good at the mines, but I’m saving this seed to see if I can work out a perfection run from it.” 

It’s as he’s reading through other people agreeing that this level of luck is unusual, including a stranger accusing him of using mods as if Armitage would dare bother to cheat instead of just ‘getting good,’ as the kids say. 

BornToSlay: what’s ur skincare routine jesus

The huff of laughter is involuntary; he upgraded his web camera at Kylo’s request, and now it feels like his every fucking pore is captured and streamed. He’s gotten a few comments about it, but beyond technical questions and a single curious person asking why he upgraded, something Armitage lied about, the new image quality has gone unnoticed. Because he’s a good mod, Mitaka has already messaged him that the same user asked about Kylo earlier, and Armitage just missed it. 

They expected this, and they were prepared for this. Kylo’s channel has millions of subscribers on YouTube, he’s arguably a D-List celebrity at this point. Armitage speed runs Stardew Valley as a hobby. They’re operating on different levels of internet fame in different niches, but people have been curious, and some of those people are bound to stop in and watch him break rocks for fifteen minutes while hoping for a bounty of cave carrots. 

Still. Most of them have dropped in, decided his content wasn’t for them, and gone away. Apparently, this user has stuck around for a few streams, and Kylo said it was up to Armitage how much or little they interacted. He’s right there, and the run is going well enough he can afford to waste a few seconds entertaining this line of questioning. 

“My skincare routine is whatever Kylo forces me to do, now,” Armitage says, popping his headphones around his neck. “Kylo?”

When he looks over, Kylo is editing; he’s just also got Armitage’s stream up on his second monitor. He doesn’t bother to pretend he was working when he looks at Armitage, turning in his chair. 

“Someone wants to know what my skincare routine is, and I doubt you trust me to explain it properly.” 

Kylo laughs, and when he stands, Armitage can finally read the text on his shirt, and - Jesus, he’s wearing Armitage’s merch, they’re never going to hear the end of this. He can already see the stream compilations, and Armitage thinks he’s wearing Kylo’s sweater. 

Armitage finally uses the cherry bomb on a chuck on iron and Kylo settles behind him, his chin resting on Armitage’s head and his arms around Armitage’s shoulders. 

“It’s not consistent,” Kylo says, looking at the camera. Armitage can see him in the Streamlabs window, a lazy face of makeup and his hair piled on his head in a messy bun. He looks fantastic, which is to be expected when his entire internet presence revolves around beauty, but Armitage will never get tired of looking at him. Kylo keeps talking, but Armitage tunes him out, focuses on hitting floor forty, getting seven more iron, and then passing out so he can start building furnaces. 

Chat has started speeding up; Armitage doesn’t even have to ask Mitaka to turn on slow mode so Kylo can read anything, he just already does it. Kylo doesn’t have his contacts in, so he shifts his glasses up his nose to read the screen. 

“They want to know if I ever put makeup on you,” he says, and as Armitage makes his way into town to buy seeds from Pierre, he huffs. 

“I’m wearing makeup now,” he mutters, and he knows the mic will pick it up clearly, but he almost wishes it could be an aside. “I’ve been wearing makeup from streams since my first few months. Someone wouldn’t stop talking about my freckles, so I bought some shitty foundation at the grocery store so I wouldn’t have to ban the word.”

Kylo laughs, and Armitage can feel him look down, can feel his thumb drawing circles on his chest. 

EmilysWife: Beauty icon Hux PierreSucks: omg is that how you met

Now it’s Armitage’s turn to laugh. In the few weeks since someone recognized him out with Kylo, the few weeks since Armitage tweeted to confirm that was him, that he wasn’t Kylo’s assistant, it hasn’t come up how they met. They’ve not talked about keeping it a secret, although perhaps Armitage would like some parts of their relationship to stay between just them. 

This seems harmless enough, though. 

“Kylo tells this story better,” Armitage insists, because he loves Kylo, but he’s also cruel. Kylo’s breath is warm against his skin as he hides his face in Armitage’s neck. “Would you like to tell Chat how we met?”

“No...” The words are groaned, drawn out, a tone that perfectly conveys both Kylo’s embarrassment and his willingness to share. He stands up straight, and Armitage misses the press of his body, but he can hear the shuffle of his shirt, can see the chat as his absolutely ancient merch is on display, the screen printing cracked and faded from wear and hundreds of washes. “I was a fan.” 

“That’s shorting them the full story.” Armitage’s tone is teasing as he sleeps, wakes up, loads his furnaces and waters his crops. It’s a cycle of days he could do with muscle memory alone, has done blindfolded for a video on YouTube. “Phasma is a friend of mine, and when she did a video with Kylo, they had to pick up something she left at my house. What were your first words to me, Kylo?” From his spot hiding again, Kylo’s words are muffled. “I’ll tell them, then. He said, and I quote: ‘You talk me to sleep every night.’ That, Chat, was his opening line.” 

Kylo’s head pops up, and Armitage can see his pout on the screen, his playful glare. 

“It worked.” 

Armitage laughs. 

“After seven attempts to make yourself not sound like a stalker, I suppose it did work. Or, alternatively, I didn’t know you were hitting on me until we were on our third date.” Armitage could sound sad here, but he decides against it. He hadn’t been able to imagine a world where Kylo found him attractive. It never occurred to him that Kylo might be interested, so he lusted in quiet, alone at night with his own hand. “I still maintain that those dates don’t count, since I was unaware they were dates.” Kylo’s acrylics dig into his shoulders, and Armitage hisses in mock pain, as if Kylo’s nails aren’t rounded at the tip. “Don’t put holes in your own sweater, idiot.”

Though he attempts to fake angry, the last word comes out soft and fond as he looks up, doing his best to forget they’re on camera for a moment, to forget that he’s streaming this live and that he’ll be hearing about this for weeks. Phasma has already messaged him on Discord; Armitage will deal with her after the stream. 

The press of lips on his cheek is welcome, the loss of Kylo’s warmth less so. He waves to the web camera one last time before heading back to his own desk, putting on his headphones. Half of Chat is talking about his insane luck and all the pumpkins he’s going to plant while the other half still can’t quite believe Kylo was there, and is speculating how many streams he’s been just in the background of. Armitage won’t answer that; he doesn’t want to encourage them to ask for Kylo every stream, though he imagines they will anyway, now that the flood gate has opened. 

KyloAmidala: I normally just watch from the other room, though now I have to settle for replays if my sleep schedule is messed up. 

Armitage can hear Kylo snickering even as he puts his headphones back on.

[tactax-art]

I enjoy your Ghostsoap art and posts but I don’t play video games. I want to get into the ship/fandom but don’t know where to start. Any help would be appreciated ❤️ Thanks

Welcome to the fandom I guess :D I'm putting my reply under the read more (and have a sleepy Ghost, just cause :)

Disclaimer, I've only gotten into this in february, it's been uuuh 2 months. I'm not a canon-phile, but i do like to know that basics, despite not playing games a lot either.

I did start with just the soapghost scenes (x), but after that i wanted to know what the heck is going on with the plot so I went for the full one.

First off, what confused the hell out of me until I asked a friend: There are two iterations of CoD:Modern Warfare2, the 2009 one and the 2022 reboot. They carried over characters, but seem to have revamped both them and the plot (though idk how much they changed the plot).

I'd recommend watching the movie style playthroughs (cutscenes + only story/dialogue relevants of gameplay) on youtube, this is the one I watched (x). (I get motion sick when watching fps 'lets play's, but this one was alright, probably because there's lots of cutscene breaks!)

There are also of course their wiki entries Soap & Ghost.

Regarding the preboots again, here's some stuff that is pretty commonly referenced in fic and art but it's actually from the 09 canon: everyone canon dies, Soap being captain, soap's eyebrow scar, soap being an artist/keeping a journal, ALL of ghosts backstory (afaik we got nothing on 22!ghost).

Hope this helped!

[thevindicativevordan]

thoughts on Suicide Squad: Kill the Justice League?

Watched some of the cutscenes on Youtube out of curiosity and it's exactly what anyone familiar with looter shooters was expecting gameplaywise. I leave analysis of that part to others, and will stick strictly to the story and how it pertains to Superman. Spoilers below.

My biggest complaint from the start was "why isn't there a Superman villain on this lineup? It's set in Metropolis! It advertises a boss fight against him as the big hype moment in trailers!" Guess the reason was because he ends up almost being an afterthought. Despite the game being set in Metropolis, Superman is barely in the game. He shows up about halfway through, kills Wonder Woman and goes back to Brainiac's ship to heal after getting impaled with kryptonite, then comes back so the Squad can kill him. Since none of the Squad has any history with or connection to him, he and they just spout canned one-liners at each other, and when he dies none of them really care.

The deaths of the Leaguers are all underwhelming. Wonder Woman has the best one simply because everyone acknowledges that she was a hero and it sucks she died. Superman comes in second because they don't shit on him or mutilate his corpse, hell it barely even gets acknowledged. GL and Flash get the worst of it. Batman's death scene is a lame ending for the Arkham Batman, something Superman himself lampshades when he confronts the Squad. I'll leave those for others to pick over, mostly because I don't have much to say beyond "they're terrible". The fights themselves and interactions with the Leaguers vary.

Boomerang has a funny feud with Flash that actually builds hype for the fight. Harley and Batman obviously have major history that we've seen unfold on-screen in previous games. Meanwhile Deadshot and King Shark stick out like sore thumbs. Putting aside both the dumbass retcon of this guy being the "real" Deadshot, and how annoying it is that the black sharpshooter villain who pumps Superman full of kryptonite bullets isn't Bloodsport, Deadshot has this feud with GL that is a game creation. The two black supers get paired together because of their race, and it doesn't work at all. There's no comic history there for Rocksteady to lean on to do the heavy lifting for them, and it ends up feeling forced. King Shark is an MCU Drax copy, and while funny, doesn't add anything. Should've been Bizarro or a GL villain in that spot.

Switching back to Superman, holy fuck is he written terribly here. At first I was pleasantly surprised, in the main game he barely does anything because he resisted Brainiac's reprogramming the longest, which was nice. Sure it's bullshit that he outwilled GL, but fuck it he's been shitted on for so long that I'll take that minor win that he lasted longer than Batman. On-screen we only see him kill WW who will probably get resurrected somehow too, meaning he didn't come off too heinously here unlike his Injustice counterpart. Unfortunately my initial goodwill was shortly soured thereafter when I found out that Superman is the reason everything went to shit.

Reason the JL gets enslaved is because Superman is a fucking idiot who mandates everyone walk into the Skull Ship without planning for betrayal after Brainiac invites them in to negotiate. Sure GL agrees with him, but let's be real Superman is going to get all of the blame and he deserves it based on how he's written here. God, just because Superman is an optimist doesn't mean he's a moron for Christ's sake. This is a guy who can hear all the terrible things happening around the world every time he listens in, there's no way he's naïve. A Superman this goddamn gullible would be killed or enslaved by Lex in their first meeting. Even takes like MAWS where he's a rookie don't have him being this stupid. Rocksteady doesn't get the character at all, and after this game I hope they never touch him again. Why are the video game takes on him this shitty, between Rocksteady and NRS it's like the two of them are competing to see who can dump on him more. Rocksteady originally hired Paul Dini to help them with the script for Asylum and City, and I'm convinced any Superman game appearances needs to hire one of his comic writers because a lot of these adaptions do not get him. They need to hire Waid (he's written for video games before) or PKJ or Williamson to help with the script.

The story here sucks and the kicker is that even when they bring the JL back (don't even pretend you're surprised by that) in later seasons, Rocksteady has still utterly destroyed the Arkhamverse.

I've seen people say maybe Rocksteady can continue the Arkhamverse with a new Batman game, or star one of the other heroes, and HOW THE HELL WOULD YOU DO THAT? Batman and Green Lantern at the very least killed fuckloads of people! Batman is directing Brainiac's forces, killing plenty of people personally, while GL was leading massacres and rounding up metas to be transformed into monsters. In the DCAU, which the Arkhamverse heavily leans on, Batman retires in shame after merely pointing a gun at someone in self-defense. Arkham Batman murdered God knows how many innocents, we even hear him kill a guy talking to Lois over the radio. No fucking way could Bruce live with that and keep being Batman, the shame and guilt he should feel would destroy him. Same goes for all of the other Leaguers, especially Superman.

All of this is on Superman's head, the population of Metropolis essentially has been wiped out. Lois survives (somehow), possibly some of the other Daily Planet people do too, but there's no WAY Clark can return to the Daily Planet and resume his normal routine. His actions here are what happened at the end of Superman: TAS, when Darkseid enslaved him, on steroids. Everyone is going to hate and fear him after this, and frankly I feel like Superman would exile himself to space out of shame and guilt. You cannot do a "traditional" Superman game after this, and a prequel is pointless for the same reason people are angry the Arkham games now lead to Batman being brainwashed and getting shot in the head by Harley. Could do a hell of an Elseworld game where Superman is trying to rebuild the wreckage of his life after the JL is disbanded and Earth 2 Lex Luthor becomes the most beloved man on Earth. Make it so Lois and Jimmy are either dead or want nothing to do with him, and he goes to Warworld on a suicide mission to find redemption in death. But a "traditional" follow up also set in Metropolis? Nuh-uh, I don't buy it. The Justice League has to go the way of the Justice Society after fucking up this bad.

Shame because he and Lois don't have bad designs (Lex and Brainiac on the other hand...). Metropolis itself is gorgeous and there are some fun Easter eggs that I've seen, never would've imagined Bendis' Invisible Mafia getting referenced. But after this shitshow of a game I want nothing more to do with this incarnation of Superman. Give the IP to another studio and let's make a game set in it's own universe like Monolith is doing for WW.

[asleepinawell]

i'm in some sort of Mood about finishing the kh series (for a given value of finished) since I've been playing it since kh1 on ps2 a million years ago but instead of dealing with that i'm going to write my mini retrospective of the titles based on my replay

rest below the line

kh1

story - 7/10. it wasn't the most interesting but it was the first and laid the groundwork for the series. maleficent had a lot of screentime which is always a big plus. love her evil ass. it's also the start of the 'kairi never gets to do anything ever and gets kidnapped every time she tries' persisting problem in the whole series

gameplay - 6/10. feels a bit clunky now in comparison to some of the newer ones. it was harder than some later ones, but mostly because of wonky control issues and not great boss fights. but it's very playable and fun still. mushrooms do a little dance and shake their butt at you. i will never not feel nostalgic about traverse town music. THANK GOD YOU CAN SKIP THE PRE FIGHT CUTSCENES ON RETRIES NOW OH MY GOD YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THE ONE BEFORE THE DARK RIKU FIGHT WAS LIKE TEN MINUTES AND BACK IN THE DAY YOU HAD TO REWATCH IT EVERY TIME AAHHHHJHHH *i am tranquilized and removed from the room*

re: chain of memories

story - 8/10. i love the focus on the organization 13 internal drama. bitches are running around bad mouthing and killing each other. larxene is a constant joy. marluxia is pretty and goes swish swish and makes flowers. axel was an instant fave. zexion is a shitty twink and i do so love shitty twinks. there was some disney stuff too i guess

gameplay - 2/10. the first time i played it my brother was crashing at my apartment and watching me play and got very into making cool deck combos. so i had him do that for me and i did the combat and the fun sibling shenanigans got me through it. this time i quit after thirty minutes and watched the cutscenes on youtube. it's just so repetitive and meh

358/2 days

story - 7/10. that's too many soras! put some back! story was a bit slow at times but i did enjoy seeing the daily life of the organization and axel/saïx handling their divorce so so well. needed more demyx

gameplay - it's packaged as a movie now so i did not replay the game and can't fairly rate it. i remember it being not the best combat but not terrible for a ds game

kh2

story - 8/10. it would get higher but the fact the beginning is incomprehensible if you haven't played com and 358 loses it some points....i had not played com when i got kh2 and boy howdy. it made more sense on the replay of course and yeah it's a good story. obsessed with how maleficent remains one of the main recurring characters in this series and just Does Shit from time to time because why not. god forbid women do anything etc. also the gay divorce continues to go terribly. saïx is handling this so well i say as he goes into berserk mode again. needed more riku screentime tho

gameplay - 9/10. huge upgrade from previous titles. it was very fun and fluid. the form shifts were a great addition. there were a lot of options but it didn't feel overwhelming or like it disrupted combat. my only real complaint was it felt a bit too on rails at some parts... like cutscene, battle, walk three steps repeat. oh and i hated the gummi missions but i am a gummi hater in general. oh also antiform was amazing. sora can turn into a feral creature... as a treat

birth by sleep

story - 10/10. fuck i love birth by sleep. aqua my beloved daughter who is the most terrifying keyblade master ever. terra my troubled son who got fucked over by shitty adults on an hourly basis. ven the thousand year old little kid who has never caught a break once. also hey it's xehanort and he also has ex husband drama. only note is that aqua should get to say fuck

gameplay - 10/10. the command deck was right up my alley and command forms were the best form gameplay they've done. i loved how all three kids had a unique style and abilities. i loved melding cards and gems to make new cards. i enjoyed playing monopoly. i thought it was the best game in the series when i first played it and that remains true

re:coded

story - 6/10. it was okay? it was largely a rehash but did add a few things. my friend and i kept saying welcome back alvis whenever data riku used a computer so that was fun

gameplay - this was also presented as a movie in the bundle so i won't score it. i don't even remember how it was from way back when i played it

dream drop distance

story- 9/10. the games that switch between multiple perspectives seem to be my favorites and i think it's partly that it makes the story more interesting. the time traveling norts were a bit wtf but that's just an inescapable part of the series. inspired me to get twewy which i will be playing next. MEOW WOW!!!!!

gameplay - 9/10. flowmotion was really neat and fit the style well. i loved the pokemon aspect so much you have no idea. i was a little sad you couldn't meld command cards but it would have been Too Much with all the other stuff going on. a few fights near the end had some really dumb mechanics (the type where when you look up a guide it just says good luck) but there were also some excellent ones. i do think it lost a little something in the port because the stylus on 3ds was important. however there is nothing is quite as satisfying as seeing meow wow hit xehanort with giant bouncy orbs so I'm willing to forgive it a lot

union x/back cover/dark road

story - 9/10. i was shocked how much i enjoyed the story of these. i got very invested and i was only watching the cutscenes, not playing. really interesting world building and the master of masters was an instant fave. one of the only kh titles that passes (barely) the bechdel somehow. also could be retitled as kh: dead kids, because boy did a lot of kids die! extra points for maleficent managing to set major events in motion twice and being very eh whatever about it. love her for that. and the backstory of the xehanort/eraqus divorce, of course. i love a good divorce

gameplay - didn't play this one, just watched ELEVEN HOURS of cutscenes. no longer available which is hilarious considering how much important lore is in it that is referenced in kh3. hopefully they make it into a single player offline game someday with better gameplay

fragmentary passage

story - 8/10. very short but filled in some gaps. i love aqua so i was predisposed to love this one

gameplay - 8/10. it felt like a rough draft for kh3 and that meant it didn't have all the annoying extra crap kh3 added in and played pretty smoothly. i liked the little puzzles. it was a unique game and i enjoyed it more than i expected

kh3

story - 6/10. the fact i had to sit through entire disney movies worth of cutscenes brings the score way down. we did not need to see 3 musical numbers in frozen. if i wanted that I'd watch the movie. i just wanted to play the damn game. the majority of the game is sora got benched and has to get his groove back which was very disappointing for the climatic finale to the series. once i got into the end game though it was much better (i would rate the later game stuff way above a 6 which just makes my frustration with earlier stuff worse). re:mind added in the bits i felt were missing and i came away satisfied overall with the wrap up. axel/saïx had divorce arc three and then got back together finally 🏳️‍🌈🥂🎉. xehanort/eraqus also got back together as they fucked off to be gay in the afterlife. finally we are free of the norts (OR ARE WE???) and the master and the foretellers are slated to come back next from the looks of things. maleficent continues to hang out in the wings waiting for opportunities to #girlboss and I'm excited too see what cataclysmic events she sets off next

so that's it. i did watch the brief melody of a memory scenes but there wasn't too much new there. i may watch the cs from the missing link beta at some point. otherwise it's back to my life long journey of waiting for the next title to drop

gameplay - 5/10. ugh. i bought the game when it came out but between the full length disney movies and the over saturated gameplay gimmicks i didn't get far. this time i powered through and by the end i was enjoying it for the most part because I'd figured out what things to ignore and how to avoid them. attractions were the worst addition to gameplay ever. everything was too flashy. way too many instances of being locked in a "cool" transition animation instead of actually doing combat which broke up the flow of things. i missed the command deck and how much it let you customize your play style. i didn't like the keys being locked to command forms as much as the bbs forms since it meant if you had a keyblade with better stats but hated the special on it you were kinda fucked. this became less of a problem as the game went but was still annoying. overall felt like a step back from the others. they tried to do too much. oh also why were there ten thousand instances of having to learn new controls for some new mini game in every area??? just let me hit things i am begging you. it really felt like they went for cool spectacles over satisfying gameplay

general notes on all of them: i enjoyed the story much more this time due to being able to play them in order. the fact they all released on different platforms originally made the complicated story even more confusing since i couldn't afford to buy a new system every time a new one came out. i really hope they veer away from that practice in the future but i kinda doubt it especially since they've got another mobile game lined up already. while the disney stories were fun early on it felt like the story outgrew them (except for the characters who were in the main story as well like mickey and maleficent) and they were kinda a drag by 3. i doubt they can move away from those since they're the whole gimmick of the series but it would be better imo. deeply worried they'll start bringing in newer disney acquisitions.

one of my biggest complaints about the series has always been how few female characters there are and how little many of them are used. it got slightly better later in the series but overall was still not great, especially for kairi. i kept wondering if they added stuff for her in re:mind due to complaints about this.... the dlc felt like an apology for several things tbh. aqua was great but she shouldn't be the only one and even she got upstaged in kh3 when she's supposed to be the third most powerful keyblade master. weirdly enough maleficent was probably the best written female character. really wild how much she wove into the plot and affected events so much without even trying to (especially in union x). she should fire pete though (i think she should hire demyx)

I'd like to see them let you play as characters other than sora more often since that was always really neat (he's had a billion games to himself now). I'd love a kairi and aqua game but i can imagine square and disney both clutching their pearls over female protagonists

something i noticed was that playing them when i was older i liked sora much better. when i started the series as a teenager i found him annoying. as an adult i have more sympathy and tolerance for teenaged boys who are Going Through It. growth or something

[sweet-lemonad-rose-sapphire]

Why I’m writing a BOTW prequel

I got into the Legend of Zelda (TLOZ) fandom in May of 2023 (2 weeks after TOTK came out so it was probably the best possible time to discover it!). At first I just watched the BOTW cutscenes on YouTube in chronological order, but then I ended up getting INVESTED in the story!!! I had already watched a video about Top Ten Saddest Video Game scenes at some point, so I knew that the Champions would die, but I just wasn’t expecting how REAL the scene was!

The next night I decided to watch the TOTK cutscenes because BOTW was so interesting, and of course, I fell in LOVE with the games! I loved how they portrayed Zelda and her character arc, I loved how the storyline wasn’t afraid to take a dark turn, but most of all, LINK stood out to me.

I had already known that he was a “Silent Protagonist” but I think that was the reason why I was interested in watching the BOTW cutscenes in the first place. I wanted to see how it was pulled off, being that Link was the main character after all. Yes, admittedly there were a few scenes that made me just want to shake this man, yelling “JUST SAY SOMETHING DUDE!!!” I still found his backstory interesting… or more lack there was.

I read the diary entries from the game and had questions like “So what, he’s just been silent for years? What caused this? What was he doing with the Master Sword during the ages 12/13 to 17? What caused such a change of personality at such a young age? It couldn’t just be because of the Master Sword… right?” I was absolutely HOOKED on finding answers! Then I found out about Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity.

At first I thought the cutscenes were from BOTW, then I saw the title of the video and thought it was a fan project, until I found out there was an ENTIRE prequel game of BOTW and I couldn’t understand why not many people were talking about it! Just a few nights after watching the BOTW cutscenes, I waited until my mom went to bed, popped some popcorn, and sat down on the couch, pulling up YouTube. I was about to get answers, and these next 3 hours were going to emotionally destroy me! And I was ready!

“IT’S A WHAT IF SCENARIO?!?!”

I was destroyed, but not for the reasons I thought I’d be… Things were happening in a different order, Link didn’t have the Master Sword yet (even though he was CLEARLY older than 12/13!) and they knew when Ganon was going to attack! I was a little upset. I thought I was promised a Prequel, but ended up getting what felt like a Fan-fiction! I did like the awkward Link scene and the smile he gave Zelda at the end though…

By the time the cutscenes ended, I just remember staring at the screen for a while. Processing.

I still had so many questions.

After a while, I got on Amazon to find out how much a Switch was.

“Fine,” I said. “My turn!”

I’ve grown to enjoy AoC for the moments that couldn’t possibly happen in BOTW (Sidon getting to see his Sister again, Zelda and her Father reconciling), but I just REALLY wanted to know Link’s story.

WHY did Link not talk?

WHEN did Link meet Daruk (why was he taking a casual stroll through Death Mountain)?

HOW did Link end up with the Master Sword at 12 or 13 years old if it was in the middle of the Lost Woods?

WHO was Link’s father (and his other family)?

WHERE was Link during those 4 or 5 years and

WHAT was he doing?

I was determined. I did research, I bought the game, I bought the DLC, I even bought the Masterworks Book! Video, after video, after video, I learned all I could about Link, Zelda, and the Champions! I also learned about the storyline of each Zelda game.

By the end of all this, I ended up with what I’m pretty sure is an entertaining story. I had to split it up into 2 books, but that just made Link’s story even more interesting. I will certainly be taking some creative liberties, especially during the first book (the part going over what was happening during the time between Link finding the Master Sword at 12/13 years old and him becoming Zelda’s personal knight), but I think the information I found should be enough to fill in the blanks.

I’ll be sharing my findings during the next few months (only sharing what has been explained or hinted at within the games, of course) so I hope you guys enjoy what I found!

[quirkywaffelfries]

So I got the Mario RPG remake and I've been playing it recently

The entire week before it's release was probably the week I was most excited

The ONLY way you would be able to top that is if Nintendoland got a remake as well.

But yeah, I got the game and I've been playing it since it was released. So here's my story so far...

CAUTION!: Beyond here be MAAAAJOR spoilers for the Mario RPG remake! If you want to play the game yourself, now would be a great stopping point! Oh yeah, this is also a veeery long post. I'm not joking. This may be one of the longest fucking posts I have made, tops. You have been warned.

In the beginging...

I start up the game. I get the opening sequence with Peach chilling in the tulip field with butterflies. Sky goes dark, Bowser shows up, aaand I'm sure you already know where this is going. Mario shows up, and the game starts out as any Mario game would- defeat Bowser and save the princess. So, off we go to the castle.

Bowser's Castle

Bowser's castle is what you'd imagine Bowser's castle would look like- eerie and creepy, with stone statues lining the halls. After fighting some guards and crossing the lava drawbridge, we get to the throne room, and Peach is tied up on the ceiling. Mario jumps on the chandelier, and Bowser's on the other one in front of him. Bowser does his usual shpeel, and the fight begins.

Now, even though I haven't played the original, I watched someone play the original on Youtube, so I knew not to attack Bowser, but the chain chomp holding the chandelier. A few jumps later, the chomp isn't able to hold the chandelier anymore, and drops it, along with Bowser.

Just when you think it's over, Bowser throws a hammer at the chain chomp holding the chandelier Mario is on. Except it doesn't fall, so he does it again. After the second hammer hits the chain chomp, it finally releases the chandelier, dropping Mario. The rest of the cutscene plays out with Mario jumping on Bowser to reach Peach, when suddenly, the castle shakes. The screen shifts from the inside of the castle to outside the castle. A large rainbow star gets pierced by a comically large sword with eyes, which falls directly into Bowser's castle.

After the Sword Fell

Cut to Mario flying through the air, conveniently falling into the chimney of his house (which is a wrap pipe, for reasons I do not understand) and even more conveniently falling onto his bed. We get out of the house, and there's a toad waiting outside. Giving the toad a quick recap of the last two paragraphs, we head to the Mushroom Kingdom. We get some money, some health, some FP, and a mushroom from the silly little secret in the fireplace in Peach's bedroom.

We're about to leave, when suddenly, someone cries out. A cutscene starts playing, with Croco running away from our little marshmallow boy, Mallow! Croco's stolen the frog coin that Mallow got from his grandpa for an errand, so now we're chasing him to get the coin back. After a quick chase, we finally catch the filthy thief and start fighting. Since Croco is weak to fire, I had Mario just use fireball over and over until the bastard went down. We get the coin back (along with someone's wallet), and return to the Mushroom Kingdom...

For it to be overrun by Shy Guys on pogo sticks. Getting to the castle's throne room, Claymorton and his bodyguards pick on Mario a bit for not being able to jump (which is obviously a lie), and then start fighting him. After giving Claymorton a quick mind-read, I learn that he's weak to lightning. So I have Mario use regular attacks, and Mallow use thunder spell. A good few turns later, Claymorton finally reaches 0 hp. The Kingdom returns to normal, and we get our first star in our journey, which was just chilling behind the throne.

When everything returned to normal, I wanted to do a few more things before we left. First, I returned the wallet and got a mushroom for it. Second, we went to the item shop and got the cricket pie that Mallow was sent out for. With that out of the way, we left for the sewers.

Into the Haunted Sewers!

So we head on our way to meet Mallow's grandpa. The pathway? A sewer. So I think, "okay, this won't be so bad. It's just a half-land half-water level, won't be a problem."

Boy, was I WRONG.

There's a Kikuohana song called It's Another Maze There, and that sums up what this felt like for me. I'd go through one pipe just to end up in an area I've already been in, and I just kept going through one pipe after another. A lot of the time, I just ended up back at the beginning again. Oh, did I forget to mention that I wasn't alone? Yeah! There were rats, ghosts, shadow, and freaking hobgoblins in there!

When I finally made it out after a good 20-25 minutes of hell, I finally made it to the goddamned bastard that is Belome. At this point I just wanted to get out of there. After defeating Belome, it turns out that he was the thing keeping the flood gate behind him from opening. So after a failed attempt to close the floodgates, the Midas River minigame began.

So I'm fine with the first part, heck, I'm decent at it. It's the barrel event that I'm so bad at. I always hit at least one or two fish. The thing I'm so embarrassed about is that even with the 20 coin discount, I couldn't afford one frog coin. Worst part? I was one coin off. Humiliating.

Out of the Sewers, and Into the Pond

We finally make it out of the Haunted Sewer Meikyuu™ and into Mallow's home. We hop across the tadpole bridge, and the classic cutscene in which we discover that Mallow is adopted and is most definitely NOT a frog. I'm sorry, but I simply couldn't take the music seriously at first. Ah well. Before I left though, we gave Frogfucius his cricket pie, and he gives Mallow a froggie stick. Yay! A weapon for Mallow!

And now, for my favorite part yet...

Meeting 🌟🌟 The Boy! 🌟🌟

So I get to Rose Town, and the first thing I notice is that there are arrows falling down everywhere. I check out the inn, and there's Gaz playing with his toys while his mother watches over him. Eventually, Gaz notices Mario, and asks him to play with him. Mario accepts, and plays the Bowser doll while Gaz plays the Geno doll. Gaz launches Geno's bullet launcher (I forgot the name), which misses the Bowser doll and hits Mario instead. Apparently, that's enough to knock out Mario. ...Huh.

Well- now for the part that I was most excited about. In the middle of the night, while everyone is sleeping, something descends from the sky in the form of a yellow, glowing ball of light. observing the dolls, it hovers over each of them, one by one. First over Geno, then Mario, then Bowser, then Peach. It hovers around a bit before floating to the Geno doll, and possessing it. Then the doll begins to glow brightly, which makes the whole screen turn white. Once the bright white blast fades away, we see the Geno doll once again, but he's grown to the size of Mario. Out of nowhere, he begins to move, twitching his hand, then looking up. He then looks down at his hands, clutching and releasing them. After doing this twice, he tries to get up, but awkwardly stumbles and hits the ground. He tries again, and succeeds, and takes a step, only to lose his balance again and hit the table, falling to the ground again. Unfazed, he shakes it off, gets back up, and walks out of the inn.

Morning comes, and Gaz is trying to tell his mother about how he saw Geno walking around, but she doesn't believe him. Gaz apologizes to Mario for what he did the previous morning, then we leave for the forest.

Getting to the cross-section of the forest maze, we noticed Geno walking around, and tail him because it didn't look like there was anywhere else to go. Eventually we get to a point where we manage to exit the cross-section, and come to a straight path. Ahead of us is Bowyer, who's shooting arrows. Mario tries the classic maneuver of going in fists flying, only to be stopped by Mallow, who's playing it far more cautious. Hearing someone approaching them, Mallow tells Mario to hide, so they duck down in some nearby bushes. One of Bowyer's arrows shows up, dragging a star piece with him. Bowyer brushes it off, saying that he doesn't want to be disturbed since he's practicing. Suddenly, Geno appears from the sky, demanding that Bowyer cease his shenanigans and return the star, to which Bowyer has the AUDACITY to call Geno strange-looking, and starts a battle.

Bowyer asks who Geno even is, to which he responds that he serves a 'higher authority' and that the star piece belongs to everyone and the Bowyer isn't allowed to keep it. This angers Bowyer, so he begins to shoot arrows. This causes Geno to slightly panic and tell Bowyer to 'chill out.' Cut to Mario and Mallow, who are talking about helping Geno fight Bowyer. Mallow agrees with Mario that they should help, and swears to do everything he can... from a distance. Suddenly, an arrow falls nearby, hitting the ground. Seeing this, they start running, dodging the arrows. During this, Mallow trips and hits the ground, flat on his fluffy face. Mario doesn't notice this, and accidentally leaves him behind. Transition back to Geno, who has had enough of Bowyer and uppercuts him. Angry at being hit, he fires an arrow directly at Geno, which is intercepted and blocked by Mario's very convenient timing. Geno thanks him for the help, and asks who he is.

Almost as soon as he asks this, Mallow catches up and yells at Mario for ditching him. He then remarks at how Geno looks awfully familiar. Geno, recognizing Mario's name, says that 'we' know a lot about him. Before anything else can be said, Bowyer interrupts the conversation, remarking that he is insulted for being ignored for so long. So after that long intermission, the actual boss begins.

Bowyer... actually wasn't much of a problem. even with his button-lock mechanic, he was easy to beat. Eh, whatever. Once he's down, Mario grabs the star to Geno's request, making that the 2nd out of 7.

AAAAAAAH OMG THIS POST IS SO LONGGGG I'M NOT EVEN DONE YETTTT

Ugh, guess I'm gonna have to make a part two because I'm eepy and no longer have motivation to write

Anyways g'night folks

see y'all in the morning

[timegears-moved]

hellooooo, totk rant anon here again! i'm not feeling so good right now so words hard, but i can't just not send in an ask when you've gotten to the terrako credits/true end and the dlc, both of which i love dearly!

fun dub fact: depending on which language you're listening to the terrako revival cutscene in, revali either chuckles at terrako's antics OR sighs in relief. honestly not sure which one i prefer because both options are really sweet?? good revali moment either way!

and yeah!! revali's part in the credits is still incredibly cute!! though i also love the champion's ballad reference at the end. it's got to be a reference because the characters' positions match the final champion's ballad cutscene almost perfectly. (except for all the other characters being there, of course. special shoutout to rudania climbing all over hyrule castle and no one doing anything about it. they're gonna wake ganondorf up 100 years early if they're not careful.)

and now... the dlc. it's got quite possibly The best revali content in the game (the ultimate proof that he's good with kids! and he glances at teba right before he starts laughing too so it seems like he might have caught on to the fact that teba was worried about tulin making a good impression with him and did it on purpose to lighten the mood...) but having played that prior to totk's release definitely made my disappointment about revali not being referenced at all worse. there was so much buildup in that one cutscene for tulin's role in totk ('someday i'll master the great eagle bow', 'it won't be long before you're master of the wind just like me', etc.) that it definitely felt like totk dropped the ball there in particular.

anyway, on a more positive note, there's actually a compilation on youtube of all dubs of that cutscene if you are interested in that! (or if you just want to hear teba awkwardly try to pretend he's coughing and not laughing and/or revali & company laughing their heads off in 6 different languages.)

aaaaaa i hope you feel better soon anon <333 take care of yourself!!

OH MY GOD??????? i just tried listening to the japanese version and it's a little hard to tell with the others laughing but i think???? i can hear it???????? you're right though regardless it's very sweet either way. revali being secretly nice is gonna fucking kill me.

and yeah when i was watching it i saw how the positions perfectly matched the picture from the champion's ballad perfectly!!! also what the fuck rudania hasn't hyrule castle been through enough recently jahdghdwohwhd

part of me wants to say that the reason revali is so soft on terrako is because he views it as a little kid. honestly shout out to aoc for making "revali has a huge soft spot for kids" canon because i saw it being tossed around in fanon a few times before aoc came out so to see it fully realized is kinda insane. also i noticed that he glances over at teba right after tulin thanks him and it comes across like a nervous glance?? like he's not used to the praise?????? and god i knooooow totk was such a huge disappointment in this regard. not mentioning him was already bad enough but retconning his legacy to be about a sage who you would literally have to hold me at gunpoint to force me to care about is actually horrific to me.

watching it rn!! teba trying to stifle his laugh is so goddamn funny (also i love how that aoc got writing young kids right with how funny and cute tulin is).

[adaru32]

Have ya tried Peak of Combat yet? Opinions? :O

Heya! So I have stated a few times in some older news update posts of mine that I'm not a cellphone game player, and never planned on getting the game. I was just gonna watch the story mode cutscenes and boss battles on Youtube. But from what I've been hearing about the game from a majority that played it, it ain't doing so good where they're claiming that it's just as bad, if not, worse than Devil May Cry 2. Then again, it's basically a gacha game. There have also been claims that they've had difficulties launching the game, even on they day of its release. If anything, I've only seen a fraction of players enjoying it due to the costumes, selection of characters to play as, and the character interactions in story mode. And from what a majority of beta players stated, they preferred the gameplay mechanics of the 1.0 version of it, one of its earliest versions when Yunchang games was still developing it, and when its story was gonna be canon with the other games before Nebula Joy took over and changed everything. Speaking of Nebula Joy, they're another reason I don't ever plan on getting this game. I was hoping to get it if there ever was gonna be a Steam release, but now I'm not so sure. With the state of it that it's in, I don't know if there will ever be a Steam release now. So about Nebula Joy...I have no plans to ever support them because there have been claims from fans and mod developers that ever since they took over, things went completely downhill from there where they'd do nothing but spam a bunch of ads out there, let alone ads using A.I voices and showing off cutscenes that don't even feature in the game at all.

And Nebula Joy has a reputation of being a schemey company that would scam not only the players, but influencers and mod developers as well.

In my last news update post, I shared a statement from one of the mod developers about their experience of working with them.

Even shared with them what a friend's friend went through when working with them.

And with these fans stating their concerns about them and the game, I'm just shocked that Capcom didn't bother dropping them. But on a good note, Capcom hasn't even been promoting them and that game onto their pages and channels. That at least says something right there. Now aside from the negative parts about it, I'm just glad that we've got some kind of new Devil May Cry game with features that any Devil May Cry fan would want in one (except for the gacha part of it, of course). And it's nice that Capcom got to be a part of its development, and how Casey Edwards got to make a song for it, but it's just too bad what it's become. I was hoping for it to be better...

[doodleduds]

YOU !!!! I WAS HOPING I’D SEE YOU IN MY NOTES !!!! YOU’RE MY SONIC MUTUAL !!!!

hi 🥺👉👈 hello i think i would like 2 enter the sonic fandom. how do i partake in sonic. i dont know where 2 start 😢 ive been vaguely watching some of the fandubs and i just played the murder mystery steam game and !!!! i didn’t grow up with it bc i was a pokemon and mario baby but yea [: ALSO if you see me perusing your art that is why [:< !!!! (and because you are very talented and a beloved bestie mutual)

HI!!!!! Always love seeing u beanie I hope you’re good!! This might be a long response so I’m preemptively putting a cut lol

HI AGAIN BEANIE!!! Disclaimer I’m certainly not an expert BUT i’ll try my best 💙💙💙🫡🫡🫡

The murder of sonic the hedgehog is REALLY good. Its definitely got a lot of love packed into it and it shines through the whole thing. Its a favorite because its a little silly but they still work to take the characters seriously (idk. U can tell the devs really loved doing it. I think its all around a fantastic introduction to the series!)

I’ve been hooked on Sonic from a SUPER early age. Like playing on hand me down consoles and stuff. My favorite game ever was sonic and knuckles or sonic 3 and then it was sonic the fighters. And then every game after that until Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) for the xbox 360 came out and despite the glitches and everything else im sure anyone could tell you about it younger me just found it SO striking. Everything about it. I used to sit and watch all the cutscenes on youtube on the family computer like it was my JOB. Idk where the turning point was I’ve played all the other titles except for a couple here and there more recently but I def think you could start where-ever you want!!!

Theres some games I think most people in the fandom would agree are unplayable or just Bad (for any number of reasons, everyone has their opinions! But think like notoriously bad like sonic boom..or specifically sonic colors nintendo ds version) BUT I’m a firm believer that if Sonic 06 specifically didnt have game breaking issues it would have been a masterpiece (look up project 06…! its a labor of love and it made that game feel like what I thought it did when I was itty bitty and more. Beyond my expectations. Genuinely impressive and really shows how much could have been fixed/polished for gameplay/overall) obviously I’m very biased but 06 is something I’ll never get over and I think more people should see Project 06 because the work put into it is immaculate and really showcases what I loved and still love about that game

The fandubs are good! If you’re looking for more watching stuff instead of playing stuff the original remastered Sonic OVA movie is up on YouTube for free and I think you’d really enjoy that too! There’s some design choices (like knuckles just flying for half the movie/not gliding like he would in later titles) that are more timeline based (like they hadnt gotten a firm grasp in franchise what was what yet etc etc) but it really sticks to that charm that drew me in to begin with so its a 10/10 in my book.

Games I think you could start anywhere you’d like (even if people say you’ve GOTTA play x or y or z or whatever you do what you think you’d like) but as a die hard fan you know I’ve got to mention Sonic Adventure 2 or Heroes or one of those. More ‘recent’ games I’ve really enjoyed that didn’t feel rushed/scrapped halfway through.. Sonic Generations is good, Sonic Unleashed is good (and theres a short film called night of the werehog thats official you could watch!) Frontiers obviously is the best I think we’ve gotten in a while narratively.

And im biased but I really. REALLY like sonic and the black knight. I think it being on the wii was a little bad controls wise but it has some charm! The storybook ones (Sonic & The Secret Rings and Sonic & The Black Knight) were super interesting to me when they came out just because it was a fresh art style lol.. Still very charming to me

The Shadow The Hedgehog game will always hold a special place in my heart and I know you like that guy so if you haven’t checked out that game (it has so many endings.) I think you’d personally love it!!

Other than that I think IDW comics are really great if you can get your hands on em! I don’t read them very often if at all anymore but I keep up to date on new characters in gen (more out of interest for the designs and direction theyre going) but if you EVER get the chance to read the arc with the metal virus you absolutely should. All the comics are great but I think you especially would think that arc in particular is incredible

I’ll link the ova and the werehog animation below but every games cutscene you can find on youtube if you’re ever interested! I can always find more stuff and link you if you want : - )

ONE FINAL NOTE IS THAT SONIC GAMES SOUNDTRACKS DO NOT EVER MISS A CHANCE TO GO HARD AS FUCK FOR NO REASON!!!! All of the games OST’s EVER have at least one song for everybody on planet earth and I will not retract that statement ever. If u havent listened to any I highly recommend it

THANK U FOR THE ASK!!!! Always love to talk about whatever so holler if you want!!!

LINKS FOR U:

SONIC OVA:

NIGHT OF THE WEREHOG:

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

hello uhh I hope I'm not bothering you but can you help me with er stuff, you're the expert that I know of

I was watching this youtube video tutorial for HoHE(??) and they use terms for the signets like Griseo 2 and Kalpas 2 but I have no idea which that is... so how do you figure out which signet is signet 1 or signet 2 or signet 3 and so on, please help me I'm suffering in ER and this youtube tutorial is my salvation but I can't figure it out..

THANKS IN ADVANCE I REALLY NEEDED THIS

Alright so!!! First off here are some text guides (warning for some choice cropping coz they’re made by redditors):

When someone says “Griseo 2” or such it means her second Nexus signet. You get to pick one Nexus signet per Flame-Chaser per run when you have have 3 or more normal signets of a Flame-Chaser upon beating a level where their portal appeared.

In other words, you should try to get the same Flame-Chaser over and over again until you have the buffs you want. You can do this by equipping a corresponding signet rate up item and/or being lucky. You also get to reroll portals three times in a run, and three additional times if you equip a specific item.

When you’re picking a signet from the list of 3, the above guides will often have recommendations of which signets you should take in priority. If you can’t get the one you want, it’s okay, you will probably go through that door again, just pick the next best thing you can think of— either more damage or utility (Mobius Lodging: -20% cooldown for summoned entities, support valkyries and ELFs, for example, is a pretty good utility signet to have even if it doesn’t give you more damage)

When you’re in the shop, you can buy signets without going through doors BUT you’ll never get a Nexus signet that way. I would recommend you try to have 2 signets of the Flame Chaser(s) you’re aiming for when you’re ready to exit the shop, so that next time their portal shows up you can directly get their Nexus signet. If you have extra coins of course you can grab more stuff (to take the previous example, Lodgings is always useful to have).

Pay attention to what you’re taking though— less damage taken is usually useless, and Hua signets have damage types that can be useless for your valk (Pardo does ice damage so she can’t use Physical Breach or Physical Damage, while Miss Pink Elf does physical damage and can’t use Elemental Breach or Elemental Damage). If you’re never dodging, Sakura signets will probably be a waste of time. If you’re always at full HP, Kalpas signets will be useless until you grab his second Nexus, etc.

Follow the guide for your valk, and remember what kind of damage you do and what kind of abilities you use!

That said. An important point these guides forget is that not every player has beaten all of ER’s story. Flame-Chasers are unlocked by storymode. If you haven’t met certain characters during the story chapters yet, you won’t be able to get the signets of the corresponding Flame-Chaser.

So if you’re in that situation, use what you currently have and play storymode to unlock more Flame-Chasers! If possible, play a character who’s using the early signets.

Unlock order:

Chapter 1 + potentially the beginning of Chapter 2

Elysia

Hua + Kevin + Sakura

Kalpas

Eden

Su(?)

Mobius

Su(?)

Chapter 3

Pardo

Kosma

Griseo

Aponia

Vill-V

I’m not sure about Su because I’ve heard his order was changed to after Mobius for some people, not sure if it’s random, an update change since I played it, or a bug.

You will unlock the items of the Flame-Chasers by playing Elysian Realm and upgrading their Remembrance Vessel with a currency you earn with every run. This will unlock a cutscene (don’t skip it, ER story is really good) and pretty quickly the items. Additional items and emblems can be unlocked through doing certain tasks in ER over and over. Don’t sweat it, just keep playing the game mode and they’ll be unlocked eventually.

Each time you upgrade a vessel you’ll also unlock a text called a Recollection, reading it gives your crystals and it’s more delicious, delicious lore.

Sometimes there’s bad translations though, especially in chapter 3. You can read most of the recollections as better quality fan translations here:

And you can find a sometimes anotated transcript of all of ER-related content here:

Hope these help you enjoy the story as well 🥰

Oh and, as for rewards, the minimum difficulty you need to beat to get all of them is Corruption. Finality is for the bored and the tryhards. If you can’t beat Corruption, just downgrade the difficulty until it’s easy enough for you to beat then try to go for harder content progressively. Even if you can’t win, you do unlock rewards relative to your score, and your valks become stronger the more often you play them in ER (and upgrading them all the way to ER level 15 also gives crystals).

Good luck o7

If I didn’t cover something, feel free to send another ask.

[elinorwritesstuff]

Writing Advice Answers #3: How do you keep canon characters in character?

How do you keep canon characters in characters while writing them?

So there’s two halves to that for me: Does the character sound like themself? And, “Would the character do/say this?” 

“Does the character sound like themself?” can be really easy, or really tricky, depending on the character. I’m from the northeast US, so a lot of characters sound enough like me that I don’t need to be super particular. So I start with reading/watching/playing the material a lot, which is something I’m usually already doing, because I like the material enough to want to write fanfic in that fandom. And you get a feel for which character is going to say “I’m leaving,” which character is going to say, “I’m gonna get outta here,” and which character is going to say, “I’ll take my leave now.” You can look at contractions: Some characters say “would have,” some characters say “would’ve,” and some characters say “woulda.” (Sometimes the difference between “would’ve” and “woulda” is a style thing, tbh, but you get what I mean.)

And then you have the tricky characters. I’m going to talk about Devil May Cry because that’s where all my recent works are: I was really nervous about writing V, and I still feel like I’m terrible at writing Nico. With V, now that I’ve been writing him for a while, I feel like I’ve hit my stride, and with him, and to do that I had to intentionally look for patterns and lines that stuck out to me. What I really noticed with V is that he tends to alternate overly formal/archaic speech or poetry with very informal speech. So if you look at his voicelines (I have watched the “All V cutscenes” and “All V voicelines” videos on youtube so many times), he’ll say “pin ‘em to the wall!” one time, and the next time he’ll say “Enjoy the taste of despair,” or “Your death shall end your nightmare.” And honestly my big secret to writing V is one line that always stuck out to me: the line at the end of the Nidhogg fight where he says, “‘The cut worm forgives the plow.’ Whaddaya say?” I use that pattern over and over: Formal speech and/or poetry quotes, and then the last line is very informal, and it always comes out sounding like V.

I have one big piece of advice for “Would the character do/say this?” Dig into the character’s backstory, motivations, personality, wants, fears, etc. the same way you do for your OCs. This is especially important if they’re not the viewpoint character. Why would they react this way? Why would they want to do one thing, and not another thing? What are they actually thinking?

Once again, you can also look for patterns. Go back to the original story and look for similar situations: what did they say or do then? This is great if there’s enough material in the story to come up with more than one similar situation and find what’s in common with their reaction. When they’re confronted with a difficult topic, are they open when they talk about it, or do they close down, or get angry, or crack a joke to change the subject? When they’re afraid, do they charge forward, or run away, or freeze.

For me, the big guns are to write part of a scene from their point of view. I had a fic a while back where I was having a lot of anxiety along the lines of “would the character really do this, or am I just having them do what I want them to do?” So I wrote the scene in question from their point of view to see if what they were thinking (or what they would have needed to be thinking in order to act they way they did) made sense. As a bonus, this can be really fun, and spending more time with the character’s voice can really help with writing their dialogue.

Sometimes the trickiest thing is letting go when you realize that they wouldn’t do or say the thing; I have a WIP with Vergil, and there’s one line I have marked to rewrite on the second draft because he just wouldn’t say it. But that’s not a big deal; it’s just one line. Then I have this Dante/OC idea that’s driving me nuts, because I really like it, but I came up with it while playing DMC4, when he’s very much in his confident scoundrel kind of persona. Then I watched the anime and played DMC5, where most of the time he’s dropped that persona, and spent more time thinking about who he really is, and realized he just wouldn’t react the way I had him reacting. And it’s driving me nuts because I haven’t found a way to fix it and still have the story go the way I want it to.

[nei-ning]

Blasphemous 1 and 2

This post will be about my own opinions about Blasphemous 1 and 2. I will put B2 under the cut since I don't want to spoil anyone - just in case. NOTE: This post has mentions of blood, gore, horror etc!

I don't have Nintendo Switch, PS5 or PC to play the said game but my sister has Nintendo Switch so I was able to play Blasphemous 1 with her because of this and, boy, wasn't that game AMAZINGLY INSANE!

Like WOW! From the very first minutes I was consumed by horrible feelings! I was disturbed, feeling anxious, depressed, horrified, sick, disgusted etc. and I LOVED every single feeling! That game was doing it's job, ahah! No any other game EVER has deliver me such feelings so that says A LOT!

Blood, gore, violence, heavy theme through the whole game, a word "miracle" is NOT the same for me anymore either :'D It's ruined, ahah! Not to mention this monster boss, Ten Piedad (Have Mercy) and his theme! GOOD GOD! I loved him SO much but at the same time he freaked me out so much that I was scared to go outside during the dark, on this small forest road to leave food for wild hares and rabbits, ahaha! Again, this game and the Blasphemous team did their job! :D

I honestly loved everything in Blasphemous 1! There was NOTHING what I wouldn't had loved! But for here we get on Blasphemous 2.

It was HUGE disappointment after first 15 minutes or so. No, I haven't played it. I watched 10h long video on Youtube. I was around 3h and I was so done already, frustrated that I had 7h more to go :'D

But let me tell you why I was disappointed. Cut scene animations. Not done in pixel style but rather like anime. No. Those didn't fit in the game. They broke game's own flow so to say. Many people have complain about this. Lack of enemies. So MANY of the enemies were the same, used over and over again on different states, maybe changed some color or their element. This also leads on lack of executions. Just few different ones and that's it! Most enemies, as well as bosses, were too human like. No monsters like Ten Piedad in B1. People have complain about this too and I perfectly understand it.

No any of those horrible feelings what B1 delivered. Absolutely none. Music wasn't as good either (which made me sad). In B1 I loved almost all musics. I think there was only 1 which I didn't like. In Blasphemous 2: I only liked 6 songs. The areas / backgrounds also weren't as creepy, sickening or depressing as they were in B1.

I have been going through videos on Youtube about B2, reading peoples comments and many agree with me: B2 was disappointing. Some say that B2 was more like Castlevania and I agree on that. Of course there's those who also loved B2 and I get it too.

When Blasphemous team decided to put their resources on creating 3 different weapons, it ate a lot of resources which could had been used on enemies, executions, cutscene animations etc. and therefor the game suffers from it as I have listed above. I am not against having many different weapons as long as it won't make the game suffer otherwise. Sadly it did in this case.

Also the lack of gore, heavy theme and all that what B1 had... It was like Blasphemous' whole core, whole being. It was gone in B2. The game felt empty and boring. Some people agree with this.

I am happy there are people who also love B2 since, heck, we definitely want and need Blasphemous 3! I sent email to Blasphemous team, telling them my observation, feelings, comparing B1 and B2 etc. They kindly replied they will take my feedback seriously so I hope they would get back on B1 styled game and feeling with B3! But only time will tell ~

[dundunny]

My friend came over and beat Silent Hill 3. Considering we played 2 over a decade ago and 1 I think two or four years ago, my memory is a bit fuzzy for comparisons but I don't think I'm far off. My buddy knew the first two installments very well and finished them easily, but even though he was less acquainted with 3, he still managed to beat it in about four hours. So that should give you an indication on how short it is. Not that Silent Hill games are lengthy, but I feel this was a bit of a rushed installment.

Let me elaborate. By no means is 3 a bad game, but it lacks the complexity and nuance of its predecessors. Here's an example. Upon entering the hospital, the protagonist Heather can find a note with a doll from a dude named Stanley Coleman, and throughout the level more notes will reveal his obsession with her and that he's watching her movements. Eventually the player can learn the boss of this level killed Coleman and you can actually find his body in the morgue, making choking noises. The whole situation is creepy because we're currently in a hellscape where there shouldn't be any cognizant people, yet Coleman was able to observe the player unnoticed. Yes, that's Silent Hill-esque, but that's where that subplot ends. He never comes up again, and honestly when my friend played he never completed Coleman's storyline and I had to learn a lot of what I typed here from watching a youtube video. I think if this took place in 1 or 2, Coleman would be interwoven much better into the general plot instead of being this one-off event.

That's just one example but the whole game feels like that. Considering there's only one ending (yeah, OK, there's the aliens and such, but only one canon ending), it really limits the player to a linear path, whereas in even the PS1 game you had many different choices with how to handle the situation as Harry Mason. I think the developers were leaning more on trying to create that weird Silent Hill ambiance without the substance that would make me question the myself and the situation. Another example is noise. All of the games use it to frighten the player, but 3 really oversaturated it to the point it was no longer useful to discern if there are enemies in the area, nor did it scare me as much.

However there were some really great aspects to the game. Heather herself is actually an amazing protagonist. Yeah, OK, for some reason she was a shittier fighter than Mason or James Sunderland, but in terms of personality she's great. One criticism I'd give the previous games—even the much-beloved Silent Hill 2—is the conversations were stilted and unnatural. Maybe it was 90s and early 2000s terrible translations and voice acting, but whenever there was a cutscene sometimes I could no longer suspend disbelief. If I found myself in this nightmare world with demons, and I stumbled upon one seemingly normal person, I would not be entertaining whatever random tangents this person wants to talk about. I'd just be hyping over and over that we need to stick together and figure a battleplan to survive. Heather leans more heavily towards my instinct, and her conversations often follow the themes of who the hell are you, what the hell is going on, and if you're responsible for this get away from me. Also whoever animated her face deserves all the accolades. This game out in 2003 and we played with the original disc in my PS2, and holy shit I think her expressions look better than some modern games today twenty years later. I can easily perceive every single one of her emotions from skepticism to fear to anger... It's all there.

My friend told me this is the last of the original development team and afterward it goes downhill, so probably this is the last Silent Hill for me. I'm glad he was able to play for me because it was truly delight even though I hated every single moment of it.

[the-firebird69]

Watch "Destiny 2 | EVERY PYRAMID CUTSCENE IN DESTINY 2" on YouTube

Inside of these pyramids all over the place no behind the moon nope behind Saturn yes and mean something and it's a certain amount of them and he's right you don't cut these unless you're ready and they cut them and they prepped them and cut them up there and Saturn's time is approaching it's one of the mega ships and we can tell you which one for a price

Billium

I'm going to bed so Hudson Bay because of the yellow Japanese motorcycle and everybody's going up there and somehow they figured it out

Zues Hera

Well yes that's the one

Billium

Account enough for two so you better think again and it's not the one that's sitting on either one it's a bit bigger

Hera

I'm um um

Zues

Let someone else answer okay

Hera

Oh oh oh Mrs Hera I mean alkali

Zues

I said no not you okay we'll have to wait poo I don't have to poo no I don't have to thank you that's terrific yeah I can imagine it now and that's what he said I can't do what's that smell

Hera

Hahahehehe I got to return the motorcycle and a friend next door says send it over I'll give you the money tomorrow so I guess I'm laughing about this kind of stuff no no no what about to say is funny f*** is wrong with you father what are you nuts you stupid you gay you lame you weak you dumb you too Jason wacko weirdo worms don't care how about a fat where I'm a dying worm a dead worm a pharaoh a dead feral you don't give a s*** about us they probably have just something else oh s*** one ship that would be you in Saudi Arabia

Dan