#I've been unlocking the shrines but not actually finishing them

[dutchdread]

Rebirth update 5

Just got done with costa del sol and have to say, slightly annoyed at the moment. Just got a date quests which forces you to go with Aerith. Now that by itself isn't a problem, the game loves forcing you to go on dates you don't want to go on, and Aerith also goes on a date with Tifa. Clearly anything is a date in this game. The problem is that I'm trying to keep Aeriths affection rating low so I don't want to finish the quest, but after talking to the NPCs initiating the quest I no longer had any option to refuse to do it. This also wouldn't be too big of a problem....if it weren't for the fact that now Aerith is following me around Costa Del Sol wherever the hell I go. Also, I've noticed that with Aerith our "relationship" is always forced from the outside. Either it's Aerith forcing Cloud on a date in Remake, the Wall market people or other NPC's just asserting they're love birds, Aerith forcing Cloud up a clocktower or grabbing his arms when he's clearly uncomfortable. It never comes from Cloud himself, it's never natural. It actually kinda reminds me of Cleriths trying to force Cloud into something he clearly doesn't want. It's honestly really uncomfortable to see. Anyway, the sidequests here were fun but not the easiest to get through. Getting a perfect score on the piano took me at least 5 tries and required me to reset the entire game when I made a mistake since it didn't allow a simple "try again". Got very lucky with RedXVIIs football game, took me about 3 resets I think, and managed to get through barrets pirate minigame after some trial and error as well. Biggest issue was finding the yellow hand in spot for the segways, I accidentally finished the entire "cactuar photo" sidequest while just riding around looking for the yellow hand in.

My beachwear style matched Tifas naturally, so that was nice, and I like it when the game is more obvious about what the right choices are, like choosing to go help Tifa and Red during the beach assault. Wasn't sure what the good and bad options were during the beach conversation though so I looked it up and discovered I actually didn't select the best option for Tifa in Junon, which is unfortunate but still. Also found out that every option is "good". Fighting with Tifa in a bikini adds at least one star to this game, and in general I am always happy though when running into Andrea Rodea or Madam M so all in all good times. And Johnny is just always good fun. Something I realized I am not too big a fan of are the summonings in general. In FFVII unfortunately summoning has never been a massive part of the story like in FFIX or FFX. They could have potentially addressed this by tying them in with "WEAPON" more explicitly, but since that didn't happen they're mainly reduced to just being a mechanic that's there because all FF games need Summonings. But the way to remedy that would be to make the summons an integral part of the world, to tie them into the sense of adventure through exploration, by making them a part of the natural landscape in some way. And the groundwork for that is there, the summoning shrines, those are great. But why is the culmination of these quests done in a soulless vr simulation? These should honestly be like regional bossfights that are unlocked by completing a set of regional intel stuff. I feel like this is a really big missed opportunity. Next up is another round of region intel, I wonder what the speedrun time of this game will be, I'd like to see a speedrun which incorporates doing every single minigame 100%

[thegeminisage]

alright, im headed back to the great plateau today...i unlocked faron but didn't really go in since i got killed instantly, but i bet i can get there without needing to kill the gleeok, there's plenty of routes

not that im not looking forward to the gleeok, but i cant upgrade my armor yet. every time i get hit i almost die instantly

btw it is SOOOO cool that sidon AND tulin can run around with me now...i thought i'd have to pick!

i gotta say, low grav above the zora island really spoiled me........i miss being able to jump around like that :(

lmao this monster camp was booby trapped. i always mix up which stick to click for crouch and nearly DIED (am posting a video which will have finished uploading by the time i hit post on this liveblog)

big problem w this camp is that some of them have stone helmets...i have no rock-crushing weapons and no bombs...

OH WAIT JK I DO HAVE BOMBS I BOUGHT EM FROM POE GUY

it is so RIDICULOUSLY helpful to have two separate allies here. wtf. and i get MORE later???

that was a good fucking smoothie. i feel nourished. hydrated. it's possible i have been ignoring my physical needs to play video games.

got my tower! i can see the great plateau.........

dude, there's so many chasms there. wtf..............................

wait. wait, wait, wait, oh my god. the chasms are WHERE THE SHRINES WERE.......

the four original tutorial shrines!!! nothing but chasms now!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

did the tower, landed on some sky islands right above the plateau...i'm weirdly a little nervous about seeing it all again!!

landed at the temple of time. there are of course monsters

aww everything's the same here

oh what the FUCK

the goddess statue doesnt just trade you shit anymore she's actually got a message???

"i am trapped underwater behind a stone gate of the great plateau" what the FUCK???? that's fucking creepy

where is the stone gate of the plateau??? i've forgotten........

in the meantime i want to see if i remember the way to the shrine of resurrection

i always avoided coming back here after the tutorial in botw bc it felt lonely without the old man. i'm happy sidon and tulin are here lol

oh..............i found the remains of his campfire...................................

found it. the view's changed...but it's still good <3

[girlfriendsofthegalaxy]

tuesday again 8/30/22

goodbye august (almost)

listening friends at the table is an actual-play ttrpg focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interactions between good friends. the scifi seasons in particular, counter//weight and partizan, are particularly dear to my heart and have kept me company through some of the worst times of my life. we are going BACK to my favorite setting for the next season, and jack de fucking quidt has done it again with an eerie, experimental...electronica? piece. there's a glitchy guitar bridge. there are my favorite sputnik-style bleeps and bloops. "Permanent Peace" is so ominous as a title. i'm so fucking hype for this season. ty to @bronanlynch for gently bullying me into listening to this podcast (TRAIN GOES BY NOISE) years ago.

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reading grabbed a random paperback bc i had to do a lot of sitting around and waiting on sunday, and this one has a hell of a concept. unfortunately it is the third book in a series, which took me a while to figure out bc it was printed in the back and not the front. the character introductions are extremely abrupt, which is reasonable for a third book but i have no fucking idea who these people are. if i can track down the first book in the series i'll report back.

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watching a wide variety of things. i seem to have temporarily burnt myself out on spaghetti westerns due to a string of terrible django ripoffs, so i am filling the void with mediocre action movies. nothing terribly notable except for Dick Tracy (1990, dir Beatty) which was a colorful spectacle and GOD was madonna hot. this dress perplexes me bc im pretty sure there's a way to engineer it so you don't need that uncomfortable looking proto-spaghetti-strap. perhaps by boning the everloving shit out of the bodice and judicious application of fashion tape, but i'm not a costume designer

how'd i come across this: it's been on a horrible awful google keep list with hundreds of entries of movies i want to watch for literal years. i am slowly transferring that list to letterboxd bc unfortunately that site significantly reduces the number of steps it takes for me to watch a movie

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playing breath of the wild, bc the switch lives on my nightstand and it's easy to pick up and put down. i don't think i've played this game in this house yet. or at least not since i right after i moved? im fucking around in rito trying to finish a couple shrines (killed the hobgoblins or whatever near one shrine thinking that might be the key [no], followed a bunch of fallen pillars in the directions they were pointing [no, but did find a chest], gave up and googled it and the answer was to go back to the main town and listen to a song, and glean from that song that i was supposed to build a fire on the pad at 1230 PM. i would never have arrived at that on my own).

different shrine, walking into this cave was one of the coolest experiences this game has given me. i gasped out loud. i've been looking for this fucking thing for SO long bc it's the last leviathan skeleton i needed for a quest, and coming around that corner and getting to climb all over it? mwah. it's so hazy bc it's that far away!!! this cave is enormous!!! video games good (sometimes).

if i have done my math right (unlikely) there are like fifteen shrines that i have absolutely no fucking clue where they are (not counting the dlc bc i didn't have dlc money when i bought this game and still don't). i am GUESSING at least half are in central hyrule bc i simply have not fucked around in there at All other than unlocking the one memory. i will not be collecting all 900 or whatever korok seeds bc uhhhh fuck that.

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making cracked open the late seventies stand mixer i bought a month and a half ago to find it is just fucking Full of powdery white mold (not flour. don't @ me). i had previously taken off a bunch of dials to clean them and found mold underneath, went "i don't want to deal with this right now" and stuffed it inside a taped-closed plastic bag. dealing with that now, i'm not confident i can clean it enough, and thinking about completely breaking it down to clean it after every use makes me not want to use it ever, so back to the thrift store it goes. so it goes sometimes, they don't let you take appliances apart in goodwill and i had not previously considered this as a thing to look out for, since modern stand mixers have far, far fewer apertures and openings for shit to get inside.

[unpretty]

totk progress report: i got all the hudson signs and all the wells! my next goal is all the caves :3