#I've just played sword and shield and enjoyed it a lot

[patchwork-crow-writes]

Thoughts on Kris x Ralsei

This is so long I had to split it up into parts - this is Part 1, which looks into how the roles that Kris and Ralsei are given contributes to the idea of their romance. As more parts are written, they'll be linked below in this handy-dandy TOC!

Part 1: And They Lived Happily Ever After <- (You Are Here!) Part 1.5: I Believe Your Choices DO Matter Part 2: A Pair of Star-Cross'd Lovers Part 2.5: In Another World, We Could Have Been (Just) Friends

Okay, so.

Wanted to elaborate a bit on my viewpoint of this ship, because I don't think it's something I've ever really discussed before and I think it's actually a very interesting dynamic (or at least has the potential to be, depending on where the rest of Deltarune goes).

So, Kralsei is cute, isn't it? It's fun to hug the fluffy boy and watch him melt into incomprehensible stuttering and blushing. All the little signs he's really, really into Kris, all the cute little snippets of dialogue you can initiate with him, all the alone time they spend together, in both chapters... honestly, the game makes it hard not to root for this pairing.

And yeah, it's cute... in a very surface-level, don't-think-about-it-too-hard kind of way. But once you start thinking about it... hoo boy. There is. A LOT to unpack here. So much more is going on just under the surface, and once you see it, it's difficult to un-see it. And in my opinion, it makes the Kralsei dynamic so much more nuanced, more compelling, and potentially quite tragic.

Now, a disclaimer: it's fine to like this ship on a surface level. No real harm is being done, these are fictional characters and it doesn't matter what reason you enjoy it for - if it provides comfort to you and gets you through, then more power to you! This is more me sorting through my thoughts on the subject and is not a judgment on how others approach it. With that said, and in the spirit of full disclosure, this will go into slightly uncomfortable territory - picking apart the idea of destined love, the deconstruction of common romance tropes, how outside manipulation might play a part, and even the potentially incest-adjacent nature of the relationship. If you don't want to deal with any of that, you can stop reading right now, and that's okay. Please continue to enjoy Deltarune in the manner that is best for you, and thank you for your attention thus far :)

If you're still with me, then please click the read more and we'll get started.

Part 1: And They Lived Happily Ever After

The first thing you have to understand is that Deltarune is utterly determined to cram the notion of Kralsei down the player's throat. The game is not subtle about this in any way, shape or form. Everything from the narration, to the dialogue, to major game events, to item interactions, and even the roles that Kris and Ralsei play both in the story and the party, serves to reinforce the notion that these two are very likely to end up romantically involved with each other in some way.

Let's look at the characters first. Kris is portrayed as the noble knight - stoic, unwavering, courageous, a natural leader - clad in medieval-inspired plate armour and wielding a sword and shield. And Ralsei is the archetypal princess - demure, dainty, kindhearted, nurturing - who uses magic to heal his allies and pacify enemies.

I did not mistype there - Ralsei is a prince, but the characteristics associated with him are more commonly found amongst female healers in JRPGs. Think Fina from Skies of Arcadia, or Marle from Chrono Trigger (minus the temperment), and you might have an idea of what I'm on about.

Think of knights and princesses for a moment. Imagine St. George slaying the dragon to save a helpless damsel. Imagine Lancelot and Gwenevere. Robin Hood and Maid Marion. Link and Zelda. Squall and Rinoa. Every single fairy tale involving an imperilled princess and a knightly rescuer. For a more modern take, imagine The Bodyguard. Ness and Paula. I could go on, but then we'd be here all day.

Suffice it to say that there is a pretty entrenched tradition surrounding these archetypes - a male-coded, phsyically-adept, courageous, stoic, action-oriented figure, is paired with a female-coded, magically-adept (depending on the medium of course), less-physically-capable by comparison, emotional, and more passive foil. The (male-coded) knight protects and rescues, the (female-coded) princess nurtures and soothes.

It is a very, VERY emotionally-charged dynamic, by its very nature. Through their acts of service to their protectee, the Knight displays their devotion and care for the Princess, and is in turn emotionally-enriched and cared-for. There is a great deal of physical and emotional vulnerability between them, and it is therefore ideal for romance stories.

Look at Kris and Ralsei again, through this lens. Kris is immediately put into the role of Knight, and Ralsei quickly establishes himself as a classic Princess. Almost instantly, before you've even become aware of it, you've made the connection - they're going to fall in love, because that's what ALWAYS happens in these stories. Ralsei supports and encourages Kris, both in dialogue and in battle, and Kris...

...Kris, uh...

...they...

...hug Ralsei sometimes...?

...they... they give him a ribbon...?

...no, that can't be right.

But it is right, for two reasons. One, Kris doesn't have to do anything. The roles are already established, and Ralsei is playing his part like a pro. And two, Kris doesn't do any of those things in the first place - you do. It's the player who hugs Ralsei, who gives him the ribbon, who picks the dialogue options, who makes the connections. You're the Knight in this scenario, not Kris.

Because Kris doesn't get to make that choice. Kris has to do what you tell them to do. And many of us have already jumped to the conlusion that this romance is happening, becuase that's what always happens. The Knight and the Princess fall in love. They get married. They live happily ever after.

So we ship them, because hey, it's cute, and it's easy. I can't stress enough how easy the game makes this. I'm fairly convinced that Ralsei was designed by comittee, like the Funzo toy in that one episode of the Simpsons. Like he was created with the sole purpose of being the most disgustingly adorable, lovable, awkward little cinnamon bun that ever existed. Like he was created to generate the maximum emotional response in players. It's the cuteness response dialled up to 11, and we are almost hard-wired to want to protect this little bundle of fluff from any and all danger, because lookit how sweet and adorable he is! The glasses make his eyes look all big, his fluffiness is reminscent of that of baby animals, he stutters and fumbles his way through dialogue, and you just want to scoop him up and put him in your pocket or something.

And so, we're more than happy to fulfil the role of the Knight to Ralsei's Princess. Whether Kris actually wants to or not. Because it does become increasingly obvious that outside of our influence, Kris is still their own person, with their own goals and desires, but no real agency with which to pursue them. Would that we could know what they truly want, but we are never presented with an opportunity to find out.

The thing is, Kris is not particularly... knightly. They play pranks on their friends, they swipe sweet treats from their mother, they seem to enjoy getting a rise out of people, and particularly from Asriel, if the story about "dropping the lizard into the pit to jump higher" is any indication. They sleep through class, yet by Berdly's grudging admission they are the "third smartest in the class". The only reason they go to church is so they can drink the "sick fruit juice". They don't seem to have any issue with prank-calling their mom, while she's taking about them with their tutor, while they're standing just out of sight, while they're balancing a trash orb on their head.

Nothing about this behaviour screams "Knight." If anything, it would make more sense for Kris to have become a Rogue-type character upon entering the dark world. So the question remains - why is Kris forced into that role? And to what extent is the seemingly "fated" romance between Kris and Ralsei part of that role?

Folks, we have barely scratched the surface here. If I keep writing here this will become a novel, so I have to stop for everyone's sanity. But I will follow up soon, looking into the ideas of Purpose and Destiny and how they relate to Kralsei in-game. If you've stuck with me up to this point, let me just say thanks, because wow I wrote a lot here, and it's probably a bit rambly and says the same things two or three times, but I just. Had to get this onto the page in some way or another, so... here it is.

Thanks for reading, and see you in the next one :)

[omgfloofy]

Audi Star of Lucis Text

During a discussion in the FFXV Book Club discord, the wayback machine link for the Audi Star of Lucis webpage was linked, but when nothing came up, it was immediately dismissed as not working.

In an attempt to find any leads to more content, I started digging through the page inspector to look for the source and found all the text - archive.org wasn't playing the script, and thus none of the text would display.

I initially started to work up a page that preserved some of the styling, but I opted to not do that since that was a lot of work. LOL

So instead, I've just pasted in the text below the cut with *some* styling going on. The primary reason for this, though, is because OF COURSE, there would be some tiny tidbits on the world in the midst of this flowery marketing copy.

Enjoy!

INTRODUCTION

Insomnia, Crown City of the enchanted Kingdom of Lucis

The walled city of insomnia, Crown City of the kingdom of Lucis, is shielded by a force field that offers full protection against enemy attacks and has granted its citizens an extended period of peace and prosperity. This protective shield is generated by a mysterious crystal in the control of King Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII.

Insomnia is a maze of transport arteries, neon illumined skyscrapers and ancient marble monoliths adorned in gold and platinum that cast splendid reflections upon surrounding skyscrapers. Visitors are typically mesmerized by the rare amalgamation of ancient culture and modern technology.

The best of Audi and the Royal Art Society of Lucis

Audi has played a pivotal role in the evolution of automobiles, always driven by its Vorsprung durch Technik slogan. One of its pinnacle achievements is the Audi R8, a genuine handcrafted work of art. Components are manually produced, assembled and polished to lustrous perfection by a small team of master craftsmen at the quattro GmbH factory.

The Royal Art Society of Lucis has likewise been a leader in the production of groundbreaking products. For over 150 years, it has taken on new challenges while never straying from its tradition of innovation and excellence. The unprecedented challenge this time was for the seasoned professionals at the Royal Art Society of Lucis to join Audi's top engineers in creating something truly extraordinary — the Audi R8 Star of Lucis. A fusion of car and crystal.

From Audi to the Kingdom of Lucis

Audi proudly received a Royal Warrant from the Kingdom of Lucis in recognition of its automotive quality, performance and styling. In commemoration of this honor, and to celebrate the 20th birthday of Prince Noctis, heir to the throne, Audi custom designed the Audi R8 Star of Lucis for the Prince. This gift reflects our heartfelt gratitude to the citizens of the Kingdom of Lucis and to the Royal Family, which has long supported the automotive industry. We hope it brings joy to the Prince, his family and friends for years to come.

COLOR

An exquisite finish in the royal color

Black represents the light of the Lucis Royal Family and coats the great crystal, intensifying its brilliance. There are many attractive shades of this royal color in the Kingdom of Lucis, including Ramuhstard Black and Lucis Ebony Black. However, we chose Ultrossic Black to complement the premium metallic finish with a subtle trace of purple.

DESIGN

Design inherited from the gods

Arabesque pattern

This traditional pattern of the Tenebrae oracle clan confers peace, blessings and well being on the Kingdom of Lucis. It has long graced the decorations, attire and accessories of the Royal Family. Delicate yet strong, it conveys a luxury and dignity commensurate with a work of divine art.

Lucis emblem wheels

Each intricately crafted wheel represents the Kingdom of Lucis emblem with finely sculpted swords, the symbols of true mastery, brandished amid rose-like petals.

INTERIOR

An interior fit for the Prince

In pursuit of interior beauty befitting the Royal Family, Audi pondered perfection and the qualities most valued by the Prince to arrive at a gratifying solution. The cockpit is efficiently designed and thoroughly refined to make driving intuitive. It frees the Prince to focus on the road while comfortably cruising for hours at high speed. The steering wheel is wrapped in fine leather that gently clings to the palms and features orange stitching carefully placed to enhance tactile pleasure. Clear royal quality audio is delivered by an advanced Bang & Olufsen sound system. A fully digital Audi virtual cockpit graces the instrument panel. Audi connect® provides internet access while Audi connect Navigator instantly links the Prince with an operator at any desired time. Diverse infotainment is always at the Prince's command and within his field of view.

PERFORMANCE

Performance worthy of the future King

In the Crown City Insomnia, where the automobile industry flourishes, a rare fuel from the Western Cavaugh is being fused with crystal to develop a new source of energy. Much of the technology is still experimental, but a number of resulting advances have already been applied to the Audi R8 V10 engine with dramatic effect. The engine responds smoothly and quietly through the streets of Insomnia, but roars with wild abandon when released from civilized constraints in the vast outer reaches of the kingdom.

Bonus

In my tumble down the rabbit hole over the side content for the car, I came across information of a Concept Book (also with an insanely limited print number), and it has some other little things in it.

But first, this cover is NUTS. And I'm all for it.

It looks black until you look at it through a cell phone camera. And you can apparently see the image if you shine a bright light on it.

One of the images in the book, though, has this-

The most important part of this, is I think at the bottom of the plaque, it says something like, "Dedicated [may be incorrect on this] of this first day of the first month of the year seven hundred fifty six."

So it makes me think that this was meant as a 'Coming of Age' gift as much as a birthday gift. (Especially since Insomnia is heavily based on Japan, and at the time FFXV came out, 20 was the age of majority. (it has been lowered to 18, as of 2022.)

It's an interesting thought, I think, that goes with it. I'm trying to find more info on the Concept Book, though, and may post more about it down the line if I do find it.

[championfrolicfleece]

Champion Frolic Funfacts/Lore Master Post

Here's a Master Post on Funfact/Lore about my very first experience in Sword And Shield!

1. I named the player character Frolic because of Hop's name. I just thought it would be adorable if the rivals had somewhat matching names.

2. I stared Shield as a Nuzlocke, but quickly got bored of playing the game when I finally got to the first gym, so I set the game down for a few years.

3. Once I returned to the game and remembered I was Nuzlocking it, I lost my dearest Yamper in the Water gym and decided to cancel the Nuzlocke and play normally. I didn't want to lose my sweet puppers </3

4. After removing the Nuzlocke conditions, I found myself enjoying the game far more, and quickly fell in love with the story and characters.

5. I ship Gloria/Victor with Hop, Postwick Shipping is beautiful.

6. I do not really ship Leon and Sonia, I'm a soft-core shipper of them. I can appreciate artwork/fanfics of them, but I don't think I'll create much shipping content of them. I'm more of a Leon X Raihan shipper, and will def make shipping content of them. However, I also have my own ship with Leon. I ship him with my first ever Pokemon Oc, Oleander. I will post lore/backstory on Oleander in another post after I finish their design!

7. Scorbunny was my starter of choice, and their name is Scorch and they have an amazing nature that ups their physical attack power, which in turn makes their Pyro Ball attack a deadly force to be reckoned with. It says in their summary that Scorch loves to battle, and honestly, rock on lil Bunny Man!

8. I one-shotted almost all of Leon's Pokémon, save for his Dragapult, I sent out Frostine, my Frosmoth, to ice-beam it. I didn't realize it had flamethrower. I one-shotted his Charizard with my Vaporeon named Mistral.

9. I completed the post-game in like 3 days.

10. I actually love the fact that Leon, for the most part, keeps the player and Hop out of the big and dangerous stuff. How he goes out of his way to handle things, like FINALLY! Adults doing their jobs! I honestly didn't mind the fact that the player wasn't going around beating down some evil team or something. Because I was honestly getting bored of that rinse and repeat plot. I actually enjoyed the fact that the player and Hop were just allowed to be kids and enjoy their journey, and the only reason they get involved is because they choose to do so.

In most games, the protagonist is kind of just pulled into the conflict just because they exist. But here, it's because the player and Hop want to help Galar and Leon. I know a lot of people really disliked how disconnected the story was, what with how the game didn't show you a lot of the stuff happening behind the scenes, but I didn't mind it, personally.

I was just happy running about doing trainer things and beating gyms, and connecting with my Pokémon through camping and eating curry. I've never felt more connected to my Pokémon in any other game than I do with my Pokémon in Sword and Shield.

11. I have many questions about how Leon survived getting blasted by Eternatus's power after it broke out of the Pokeball. Like how the fuck is he not dead? I even have a Youtube video I made discussing my confusion-

SERIOUSLY HOW IS HE NOT DEAD?! I LOVE HIM, BUT WHAT?! POKEMON, EXLAIN.

12. It took me so many hours to finally get the berry sweet to evolve my Milcery into Alcremie. I kept getting rare candies, and the same sweets over and over, I think it took like three to five days in total to evolve them into the Alcremie with the blue berries in their swirls. Whose bright idea was it to LOCK all of the evolutions for Alcremie behind such a WHACK system anyways? Like if they're gonna do that, then at least make it so you can battle the cafe twice a day, and one victory gives you a guaranteed sweets prize!

13. The Water-bike kind of sucks, like even with the upgrades you're still kind of slow in the water, I hate when I'm riding the bike and accidentally hit the water and all the momentum just... stops. It's a buzzkill, like let me go FAST!

14. I feel as though I understand Leon, I easily get lost in the game, and forget where shit is. Honestly, I don't blame him for getting lost. Without being able to fly from place to place, I think it would take me hours to figure out how to get back to where I wanna go.

15. Leon is the first ever character to make me read character x reader fics. I am not ashamed of that.

16. I noticed while playing that Leon and Hop have such an interesting dynamic with one another and their family members, and I wish it had been explored more. Like, their mother and grandmother seem to really only talk about Leon, and there's no pictures of Hop to be seen, and well it just seems Hop is put on the backburner, while Leon is at the forefront of the family. I really do wish that this Leon and Hop and their family aspect was explored more, because it's obvious Hop really feels pressured to be just as great as Lee, and to not drag his name through the mud. In the game it's really obvious that Hop has some complicated emotions when it comes to Leon. He loves and adores his brother so much, but he also feels lesser than him, feels like he'll give him a bad name if he doesn't become just as great as him.

17. Hop made me feel for him in the game, never before have I ever felt so conflicted in defeating a rival and crushing their hopes and dreams right in front of them - Wally is a close second-. Like, fuck me, this poor boy cannot catch a break. To be honest, him wanting to become a Pokémon professor didn't hit right with me. I feel like he would be more suited to a Pokémon Ranger type, it just seems more his style. Going out and saving People and Pokémon, still battling, capturing Pokémon, and filling up his Dex. Being a Pokémon Ranger would allow Hop to go out and journey far and wide, and help People and Pokémon in a more Hop like style. I feel like him being a Ranger would have been a much better choice for his character. Pokémon Ranger Hop was a missed opportunity.

Well, that's it for now! I'll add more funfacts/lore/feelings about my first Pokemon Journey through Shield later. It's almost 2 am and I'm eepy. Goodnight!

[macgyvertape]

Thoughts on TFS Campaign

please note spoilers for everything

Gameplay:

It only lasted for less than a day but the launch errors were so bad. Not just Battleye disconnects during fights, but Prismatic unlock being bugged, and completely missing cutscenes after missions. It was enough to ruin the experience so waiting to play it was absolutely worth it. I guess it's a sign of there being a lot more moving pieces on the backend than is apparent when things go smoothly.

I’m amazed at the shifting environment inside the Traveler and the dev work it took to do that. Not just creating new paths, but the environment terraforming as you run. The map design is amazing: it's a hill and it's a statue of a cat, its a tree but its also person shaped. Thrilled by how many creepy faces there are in the map, and how the horror and faces just ramp up as the zone continues. The highway where the underside was just hands was one of the more fucked up ones for me

I like that the game warns you if you leave the campaign to the Tower. Plus the “End Draws Near” buff was appropriately ominous

Also if there is “social” Tower what about “Legend” Tower, or “Grandmaster” Tower lol

Mission 3 where you’re locked in with a room of sword arm guys took some adjusting to. Really like how the shooty eye blast Orge fight was set up in mission 3. Good intro of mechanics, how it will absolutely fuck you up, then it comes together in the final fight where the different types of ads help the combat loop. I’m getting a lot of use from “gain armor charge from breaking shields”

The Dissent mission was the point where I couldn’t solo Legend campaign anymore. The Ogres were fine, but I don’t do great in small rooms with little cover and enemies that rush at you. It's noticeable where earlier missions have a much shorter repeat run back section when you die than this mission. 

Final mission was rough due to a lot of mechanics and a long final fight with little room for error. I’m glad the random cool person I found for the previous mission was such a good sport since it took about an hour.

This is the most mechanics heavy expansion so far, they introduced each mechanic through earlier missions: blights, VotD style symbols tracking, VoG relic shield, RoN shoot the darkness seeds, kill 3 giant hive knights on a time limit like Shattered Throne. That’s just a lot of mechanics to juggle while dealing with prismatic shields and aggressive Dread enemies

Overall I enjoyed Legendary Campaign on my Warlock, haven’t finished it on the other classes. Outbreak Perfected fucking shredded especially combined with Chromatic Fire

The new Suspectrum Heavy LFR is way too visually similar to Taipan. Wish the icon was at least a different color. I do like the art on the new craftable campaign weapons. 

I appreciate that with Ghost as the vendor I can easily swap ghost shells to see what the damage looks like on different ones. Like Sagira’s Shell (for the angst) or Last City Shell (Damaged).

There were so many post campaign story missions, I appreciate how they filled out narrative threads that didn’t fit in the base campaign but also all quests now can be right clicked to be launched

The post raid 12 person activity was great. I've been wanting a 12 player activity to be introduced ever since the time of 12 person raid bug, and it felt an appropriately “epic” scale with no raid context needed

It would be cool to see a flowchart of all the musical callbacks in TFS, I’m recognizing a lot even if I don’t know the track names

This expansion really felt cinematic, a grand finale. I love how many cutscenes both artistic and pre-rendered there were, capped off with the final post raid cutscene. My favorites were of course the ending cutscene but also the opening hawk covered in goo cutscene to set the tone

Story Thoughts under cut

Love the hawk being back and notes of Journey from the D2 base campaign

The guardian taking critical damage when Ghost gets possessed in Temptation really added to the feel. Glad to get one more story beat of Crow angst

Crow and Cayde going back and forth with banter makes it a lot more tolerable than just Cayde the funnyman. Also a fun bit of “3 sharpest hunters” when I played Hunter

Ikora’s reaction/processing of Cayde being “alive” had a lot more emotional impact for me than the Guardian reuniting with him. Of course Cayde did it in the most dramatic way possible

TARGE!!!! Excited to hear him in game. Love the visuals of the Witness smoke coming from the family house

I’m glad that Zavala’s character got so developed over the seasonal storylines, it makes the pathos of his encounter here so much stronger. He’s one of the big emotional anchors of the story and while Keith David does a great job filling in as Zavala it feels awkward considering out of game context to hear Zavala talk about dying and not making it back

The cynical part of me thought; ok narratively there’s been a moment to be sad about Cayde 6, sad about Zavala’s dead family, sad about Amanda. Are we going to get narratively sad about Rasputin? (edit: nope)

That Cayde came back from Crow’s wish was something I thought had been heavily hinted at?? Like it wasn’t a surprise to me. 

It would be cool to see a flowchart of all the musical callbacks in TFS, I’m recognizing a lot even if I don’t know the track names

Holy shit mean Zavala, but I like how the Guardian then gets called out for listening on the radio unlike any other time they snoop in this or last expansions on deeply personal conversations

I’d like to wish a very happy Luzaku to all Hive/Guardian shippers

“I’m yours, and you’re mine” I love Ghost this expansion and how it really touches on the long partnership. Ghost is really only a character in the expansions and this expansion was great for that emotional arc

Liminality Strike crossed the line from Zavala reacting poorly in a moment of stress/grief to “Out of Character is serious business”. It was heavily foreshadowed before that Zavala isn’t doing well and something will happen to Zavala, by the end of the season I hope he gets some ending that has him at peace

“They’ll speak up if they have something to say, that’s what I do” Targe has been lore only so long, he’s even better than I thought with voice acting how he speaks with a kinda decisiveness.

Damn RIP Targe the game got me to fall in love with him in such a short time. Deeply hilarious IMO that then we got a lore page from Immaru

The statues that look like a sheet-ghost were always kinda creepy, but the ceremony where they were falling down dead and it looked much more like funeral shrouds for living beings made them soooooo much creepier

Keeping with the theme of OOC is Serious Business, it was noticeable when The Witness lost its cool and anger/aggravation was clear in its tone

The Iron Lord sigil and the axe in Temptation was the first reference to Crow being the last Iron Lord in a long time, very cool to then see him summon a flaming axe at the end. 

Ikora was a supporting character this expansion, but the writing really showed how she is a necessary part of the Vanguard fireteam

Postgame:

Excited to see Micah-10 another favorite previously lore only character

Queens Part 1: Very in character of Savathun show up uninvited, to have her hostile forces with their own agenda at the precipice and almost end of all things. “My Guardian. My Friend” Transactional relationship for now until she decides she no longer owes us, the style of Hive violence as love. Fits right in with the Star Jasmine lore. I love her.

Queens Part 2: I was really smiling listening to Savathun and Mara go back and forth sniping at each other and being catty. I love when Mara isn’t nice! 

Can’t believe the Mithrax missions introduced “escort NPCs and keep them alive” style missions. In aggravating tradition, player healing mechanisms do nothing. Just like the meme of “aren’t you tired of being nice” exciting seeing him lose his shit, yell ANSWER ME, then avenge his mother by dropping a Brig on the enemy guy

Caiatl quests: love when she fights alongside us, really enjoyed the furthering of her and Zavala’s relationship as leaders. Incredibly gallows humor that Zavala’s dead family farm is just a permanent part of the Pale Heart.

I really liked the Crow/Cayde camping quest, it felt very much like the Guardian was living through investigating and being with these characters vs drop in, fight, and leave. Sort of like how FF14 Shadowbringers had your character narratively go to the inn to rest.

SCUR-V and Halsiks my friends in the final mission!!! Loved seeing all of our allies fight alongside us, then seeing so many cameos from characters in the cutscenes

Guess the vanguard does make people shave their head lol, I will miss his old look as I loved the bird chaperon style hood with cape

Great way to end the expansion and this storyline of Destiny; Ghost and Guardian sitting together peacefully staring at the Traveler with riffs from Deep Stone Lullaby playing

[northwest-cryptid]

Okay can I just for a moment here please tell you about the most gender fucking game I've ever played and I've been playing since like middle school? Yes it's an MMO, but just... hang in there for a second because I firmly believe this is like, the Anti-MMORPG, the MMORPG for people who DO NOT enjoy MMORPGs, and you might like what you see. I'm very autistic about this thing in particular for reasons that will become apparent VERY quickly.

Like please, this game doesn't assign the player character a canon gender and ALSO has a Deity who is CANONICALLY genderfluid and uses "We" and "Deity" in the place of the word "god" or "goddess" or other pronouns; being referred to by others as both "he" and "she" respectively.

QUICK EDIT: I GOT SUPER AUTISTIC (positive) ABOUT THIS UNDER THE CUT SO IF YOU CLICK THAT READ MORE JUST KNOW YOU'RE IN FOR A RIDE

Oh shit you actually clicked the read more? You want to hear about this? Oh man oh shit okay here we fucking go then!

I'm gonna get into some of the mechanics and more specifics of the game here for a bit to explain why I think it's so absolutely fucking good for people who DON'T like MMOS real quick, but if you're just here because you saw me say this game is gender, skip down to where I start dropping pictures and you'll get what you came here for.

Okay so my silly autistic brain has trouble even knowing where to start with this game. So I'll start at well the start; so in most MMORPGs one of the first things you do is pick a class right?

Classes are a standard thing, everyone knows what they are; typically they are the overarching label for what you can and cannot do. If you're a paladin you're probably tanky and have a sword and shield with limited magic and all that. If you're a mage you probably use a staff and are a lot squishier right?

Okay so SOME MMOs might even let you multi-class like "oh you're a mage and a paladin so you can be a spellsword" right?

But what if there was a GOOD classless system. Not just a system without limitations but a system that actually let you form your own playstyle around what you enjoy; and what if it WASN'T LIMITED TO COMBAT SHIT.

You heard me, what if gathering/production was actually GOOD and wasn't limited to it's own class.

Well in Mabinogi (yes this is about Mabinogi shush I love this stupid game and I'm forever annoyed with how it's represented in NA but we'll get to that later) you don't have a class, you have a TALENT.

"Isn't that the same thing just called something different?" No, actually not at all and let me explain why.

A class typically limits what you can do right? Well talents are exclusively a boost to a specific set of skills.

If you're currently (again we'll get to why I say currently, bare with me here) a Mage Talent, then all your mage skills will rank up at 2x the speed they normally would, but the game absolutely will not restrict you or punish your ability to wreck shop with a giant fuck all axe or even a bow for that matter... or a shuriken, or guns, or fists, or- you know what I'm getting ahead of myself let's bring it back a second.

So Talents are exclusively BOOSTS, meaning they only serve to reinforce the way you want to play the game; but you still have to pick one and decisions are hard because you may not know what you want to do right off the bat; especially with so many different sets of skills (I mean for crying out loud you can fight using puppets in this game) well you're in luck because every day (under level 1,000 I believe? May have been raised to 10,000) you can use a function called "Rebirthing" where you reset to level 1 and can pick a new talent; and the best part is after level 1,000/10,000 you can still do this for free, just every real life week as opposed to every day.

"Hey Cryptid, why the HELL would I want to go back to being level 1?!"

Well that's a fair question, see Mabinogi works off a skill system, not a level system. Everything you do in this game, from fishing to fighting to harvesting wheat to playing an instrument; are all skills. Skills can be ranked by practicing the skill in question, so if you play an instrument you'll get better at playing instruments and this will grant you an array of bonuses from playing the song more accurately to boosting your bard buff skills; but it ALSO gives you permanent stat bonuses, both for the skill itself and for the governing Talent.

That probably doesn't make sense so let me break it down like this:

Let's say at level 1 (absolutely baby new character) I have 10 in all my stats, so my stats look like this: Str: 10 Int: 10 Dex: 10 Will: 10 Luck: 10 Now let's say I buy an instrument from the general store and equip it; learning the skill "Play instrument" in the process (yea you learn a lot from just doing things in this game it's great but more on that later) I use the skill fulfilling the requirement "use the skill" and this gives me enough EXP training in the skill to rank it from Novice to Rank F (Ranks go from Novice -> F - A -> 9 - 1, and in specific cases there's some bonus ranks after rank 1 mastery that amplify the skill further but that's not too important for now.)

After ranking the skill to Rank F I gain +1 Dex, this means my Dex permanently (no matter what level I am) will go from a base of 10, to a base of 11. Now the Playing instrument skill falls under the Bard talent, and the Bard talent gives a Talent Bonus of additional Strength, Max HP, and Music Buff Duration. For the sake of example at Master Bard you get +15 to Strength and Max HP

Now it's actually not really possible to reach Master Bard with only Rank F Playing Instrument but if it were our stats at level 1 would suddenly look like Str: 10 -> 25 Dex 10 -> 11 And if our HP was maxed at 100, it would now be a max of 115

At this point no amount of Rebirths can take those bonuses away from us. So even at level 1 the stats of an experienced player with plenty of high rank skills will look like the stats of an unskilled level 100 player.

So WHY would I want to go back to level 1 anyways? Well to put it simply, now that you understand how skills work you might wonder how you actually go about ranking a skill once the EXP is full. Well you do that with AP (Ability Points) which you earn upon leveling up.

As you can imagine, like any MMORPG the EXP needed to level from level 1 -> 2 is significantly less than from level 50 -> 51. What this means is that typically once you reach higher levels in an MMO you need to grind a lot. However Mabinogi handles things differently. You get a solid amount of EXP from anything you do because you not only get EXP for killing monsters, but also from just about any skill. So if I want to spend my day doing crafting at the engineering mines I can literally hit level 50-80 from level 1 just making my friends some guns and such. Then I can rebirth back to level 1 and do it all over again.

In Mabinogi you have 2 different types of levels those being Current and Cumulative (or Total) [ A Quick side note: this is not to be confused with Exploration levels those are technically the second type of level that you get from doing exploration related stuff but they give you stats and AP all the same so I don't know why it's like that.]

Believe it or not, level 25k as a Total level is still considered a newbie player lol. This is because leveling in this game is made extremely easy no matter what you do. My friends and I have a lot of focus on production skills like Carpentry (for making instruments, and bows) or Tailoring (for making clothing) or Blacksmithing (for making armor and weapons) just as a few examples. Those skills all give enough EXP that we normally hit level 70 - 100 fairly quickly (within about an hour of playing with no need to grind) because crafting gives a ton of EXP. You could also do Alchemy or magic craft or engineering or cooking or handicraft or potion making but again I'm getting ahead of myself.

What I'm saying with all of this is that there's practically NO GRIND (unless you really want to grind, then you absolutely could grind) the core gameplay loop here is essentially:

Rebirth to level 1 -> Engage with your chosen talent for this rebirth whatever that might be -> Earn levels through your gameplay no matter what that might be -> Rebirth to level 1 with the new stats, skills, and AP you earned.

This means if you play the game for a bit as say a Warrior talent, learning all your close combat skills, ranking them up earning HP, getting armor that's actually going to block damage, getting your defense up; becoming an absolute beefy tank of a player and NOW you go "hey I want to be a mage..." that just works! Not only do you still have access to all your close combat skills while under the Mage Talent but they still get EXP and you can still rank them, and all the stats you got from them carry over so now you're effectively a spellsword who can sling magic around, heal people, use mana-shield to become EVEN TANKIER, and you never need to worry about being that "squishy mage" and from there if you wanted to you could rebirth again and go into a talent for herbology and potion making, creating a sort of Cleric who uses close range combat to stay up front with the party but also can craft potions from herbs found in dungeons and can use healing magic to keep everyone topped off while fighting; and the best part is that none of this detracts from your ability to do whatever YOU want to.

One of my friends plays almost exclusively as a tailor, the only other thing they do is fish; they try to fill out their fishing journal and they try to become a grandmaster tailor; that's almost entirely their play style and you know what's great? We can just invite them to run high level shit with us because Fishing gives Strength, Dex, Will, and Stamina while Tailoring, Weaving, and Sheep Sheering gives Dex. Meaning they actually have very consistent damage output since your weapons "balance" (likelihood your weapon deals closer to max damage) is determined by Dex, they use melee which is effected by Strength, and which has skills that consume Stamina, and if they DO take a hit they have a fairly high chance to survive thanks to Will being not only a buff to crit chance but also a chance to not take fatal damage since it's literally a measure of your determination. What I'm saying with this whole blurb here is that my friend who's essentially a Slice of Life type who focuses on tailoring, fishing, and hanging out with their pets on the side; can fight side by side with my ass who has a focus on close range combat and magic. They're allowed to play the game in the way they want to, without being penalized when I want to bring them along for content that is more suited to my playstyle; and the BEST best part is that for being in a party together my bonuses for crafting apply to them as a party bonus, so just for teaming up they ALSO get a bonus to playing their way with increased success chances on their crafting and tailoring.

Now I hear you saying "That's cool and all Cryptid but YOU SAID THIS GAME WAS GENDER EXPLAIN YOURSELF" Yea you right, you right; let me get to that already...

So now that you understand that Rebirthing resets you to level 1, I should probably mention that during rebirthing you can also edit some things about your character; mainly your gender.

Yes. You heard me correctly; you can just swap your gender every day/week in this game for free.

This isn't even taking into account the sheer amount of customization the game gives you, allow me to explain.

First I will show off my blorbos and then I will show you some REALLY creative people I've seen around town as well;

So, here's my character as a man. I personally love the fact that if you look closely you'll notice that not only does their hair change nearly constantly, but I can also change their eye color (and skin color, and just about anything else about them) on a whim.

I'm not going to lie to you, being fashionable in this game and having like 80 different aesthetics for your character DOES take a little bit of time; but it's ultimately achievable without whaling. I really don't drop a lot of money (if any; I'm poor and I have to pay rent) on this game. Yet events are literally constant, giving out free pets, outfits, dyes, whatever you name it there's probably an event that gives it to you for free.

"Okay that's cool and all but what if I'm not a skinny twink? What if I want to play a game where I don't have to be some absolute twig?"

Well then you're in luck my friend, because this game has plenty of body options. See the thing is with Mabinogi what you eat does more than just give you bonus stats. You eat to replenish hunger but you can also change your body shape with food. Some foods will slim down certain parts of your body, other foods will make you bulk up.

I mentioned a little earlier in this post I have a friend who mostly focuses on tailoring and fishing, they look like this:

That's because they wanted to bulk up so they ate a lot of bread and the like, they DID look like this:

With the knowledge of what food changes what parts of the body you can basically achieve any body type you personally desire. If you want to play as a twig you absolutely can (I know as someone who's underweight I personally vibe better seeing representation of myself who is also underweight because it makes me feel less bad about my body) and if you want to put some meat on your bones and be chubby you can absolutely achieve that as well; it won't effect your stats or ability to play the game what so ever.

You can even pick from a wide array of skin colors which range from pale to dark skin they've got a ton of shades of red, orange, brown, black, it's actually super inclusive and I love it a lot because you get to see people of all skin tones playing this game as a character who they can actually relate to

You might also notice some skin tones like blue, red, purple, pink; you can absolutely just say "I would rather not be a natural skin tone" and create a character that fits more to your aesthetic; for example here's someone who runs a dye shop that I saw and absolutely loved the design of:

They even have a cool tail and wings and bunny slippers. Like what a cool idea for a character!

Mind you that in this game your character ages every week, this character was likely around 13 - 15 given their size. Your size depends on your age (from I believe about 10 -> 20? Could be 18 I'm not sure exactly) and you can rebirth to keep yourself as young as you'd like if you prefer to have a small character.

So what can you achieve with all these options? Well a lot actually; here's some cool people I've seen around who I have hidden the names of for privacy reasons but I absolutely love their styles.

You got EDGY LADS

You got Modern Cozy Lads

You got High Fantasy Witch Lads!

You got lads who you just know can kick some ass just by lookin at em!

No idea why this one doesn't want to work as a gif but boi I love their styles.

YOU EVEN HAVE COSPLAY LADS! (I left their names because their names/titles add a lot here)

By now you're probably seeing a lot of this fashion and wondering how it all works; and to that I have to explain something amazing about this game. See in a lot of games you have dyes; you can dye a piece of gear a color that better suits your aesthetic right?

So what if you could dye like... multiple parts of that thing?

And as you can get by now that's literally exactly how this works. There's a ton of different kinds of dyes in this game, most dyes come in either "dye ampules" or "metal dye ampules" and can dye that kind of surface respectively, so metal dye for anything made of metal (no shit) and dye amps for just about anything else. There are VERY few things in this game that can't be dyed and most things that CAN have not just Parts A and B, but most have A, B, C, D, and E... like it goes from "oh my god I can look however I want" to "OH GOD I NEED LIKE 5 DYES TO MAKE THIS LOOK GOOD" real quick lol. However I really love the system, it operates off RBG but also off the hex code so if you know you're really looking for a specific shade of blue, you can get that.

If a dye ampule is "Fixed" it means it will always result in that exact color, while anything that's not Fixed actually has a 1 in 5 chance based on where you drop your pins.

Also cool thing here, as far as gear goes you get a slot for your main body (torso and pants), your shoes, gloves, helmet, robe/wings, and two accessories (now accounting for your tools/weapons) and none of these things need to match as a set if you don't want them to. If you think those shoes look good with this shirt and that hat with these gloves GO FOR IT, give yourself horns, give yourself wings, give yourself a cool tail or a halo or a little bird who is totally not an abnormality who breached containment I promise he's just a little guy leave my bird alone!

Yes I dyed the bird, yes you can dye accessories too; yes I made him into punishing bird. (Yes I still need to dye this outfit more it doesn't match entirely and it DOES bother me lol)

So now we've gone over the fact that you can have clothing that's gender nonconforming (like skirts or maid outfits for men and butler outfits and suits for women and the like this also includes wigs made for specific genders and such), we've gone over inclusive skin tones and even non-natural skin tones that let you make characters that might not even look human (aside from the Elf and Giant races but you know what I mean), and we've gone over the fact you can have basically any body type you'd like with eating food (most of which is easily obtainable so it's not like it's hard to even get the body type you want), AND we went over the fact your character isn't locked into a gender, being able to swap between gender as you want; SURELY this game can't get any more inclusive can it?

EVERYONE PLEASE GIVE A WARM WELCOME TO THE DEITY OF FREEDOM AND SECOND CHANCES, HYMERARK WHO'S CANONICALLY GENDERFLUID! (AND COULD KICK MY ASS)

THIS BITCH RIGHT HERE IS REFERRED TO IN GAME AS BOTH HE/HIM AND SHE/HER AND CANONICALLY DOES NOT HAVE A GENDER. THEIR GENDER IS ??? AND I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

If you're curious this game is based on Celtic folklore and it actually has such a cool aesthetic of mixing Celtic aesthetics with the fact it's a Korean game that has anime crossovers.

Alright alright let me talk more about the mechanics a bit because if you're interested you might be thinking:

"Well geez Cryptid this game seems rad but if I DO play and I want to have a bunch of different skills and stuff isn't my inventory going to get so full it's going to be annoying to keep organizing it"

HA! OH LORD OH GOD OH NO BOI YOU'RE NOT READY FOR THIS GAME'S INVENTORY SYSTEM!

Okay so the way Mabinogi does Inventory is terrifying as someone with ADHD.

You have your main inventory right? It looks like this:

The 1 and 2 columns are expandable so by default you'll only have the 6 x 10 space which is more than enough, because you see; in Mabinogi Inventory size is determined by how many BAGS you can fit into your base inventory.

Yea so basically, you get Bags which are all essentially bags of holding; there's a bag that is an additional 10 x 17 (yes that's literally an additional 170 spaces of inventory which is bigger than your starting inventory mind you) AND THE BAG ITSELF IS ONLY 1 x 2 in your base inventory. Meaning it takes up literally 3.333% of your available inventory to give you just over DOUBLE the inventory room. So allow me to do a quick google search for Mabinogi Inventory and uh... YUP there it is:

Image credit to bladeskletch on Reddit

In the bottom right you can see their base inventory full of little bags and then ACROSS THEIR WHOLE SCREEN YOU CAN SEE EVERY FUCKING BAG THEY HAVE.

So no you won't run out of space very quickly, but YES it is going to be a pain to find things if you don't stay organized lol. (There is a search function because they know it's hard to find a tiny item among the clutter)

Now at this point you've probably noticed something, the UI in this game is this sort of clear black and grey right?

Wrong.

Mabinogi actually does this super cool thing that new games don't do but older software did a lot and gives you the ability to change the color theme of your games UI.

and the list of available options they give you is longer than it actually needs to be if I'm being honest:

So not only can you customize your blorbo to be whatever gender, skin tone, body type, and general aesthetic that you want, you can also change up your UI to vibe with your personal aesthetics as well!

AND IF THIS ISN'T ENOUGH FOR YOU YET DON'T WORRY THERE IS MORE!

This game comes alive in the details, all the little things you might not even think a game needs but it has them for some reason.

You want Commerce? Sure why not! This game has a whole commerce system where you can buy and trade goods between towns as you fend off bandits trying to steal your goods. If you do it on the bigger continent you can buy an airship and fight off giant dragons that try to break your ship out of the sky.

Speaking of exploration on the bigger continent; there's literally a whole exploration system complete with hot air balloons, rafting; and dowsing for hidden relics (some of which are literally dungeons).

The music you play as a bard can be written by players so you're not playing "Default Song #4" you're charging into battle to the tune of Megalovania or literally whatever song you want.

Giants can carry humans because giant big and human small and it's super cute:

You can also fly in this game, and you can pick up other players in your party to fly with you.

Some mounts in this game are able to be ridden by multiple people and some function as more than just a pet/mount like the food truck you can use as a cooking oven.

I cannot stress enough that BOTH these characters are male, this game gives 0 fucks:

You learn new skills by talking to NPCs using a memo book your character will take notes in as you play the game and you can actually have proper dialogue with NPCs to find out they're not just these flat characters but actually have lives and religions and thoughts about the world and some of them will send you on quests to help them do things around town if you bother to actually talk to them. Those quests teach you how to interact with the world and it's mechanics.

Furthermore you earn Titles as you play and if you're wearing specific titles some NPCs will react differently, like if you wear a title with religious significance some people who worship the religious god/goddess in question might actually give you items and such.

Every real life day of the week has different bonuses to different things, so crafting on a specific day of the week can yield better results, gathering on some days might be easier.

Crafted gear not only has a signature of who made the gear but can gain bonus stats based on how well it was made; so you actually have an incentive to buy player made gear over just getting something from the NPC Blacksmith. Personally I'm working with my friends to have gear entirely created by my friends because I love the idea of running around with my friend's signatures all over my gear. I do Engineering/Magic Craft and Carpentry my friends do Tailoring and Blacksmithing respectively.

You can have a family, adopt other players as kids, and even set a family rule that if broken will strike someone with lightning; if you're evil make the rule "you can't drop items" or "you can't eat berries" or "you can't kill animals" and watch people get struck by lightning mid dungeon run (it won't hurt them but it will drop them to the ground for a moment).

You even get a Homestead which allows you to basically play the Sims and have a small plot of land you get to decorate, it starts off as a farm and then expands to where you can have a house on it and such. Your pets can also go there to rest and go on pet quests.

The pet system in this game is fantastic with pets having their own inventories as well as their own skills and stats; you can even log in and play as your pets. I personally have a small army of corgis who are my designated battle pets considering Pet Trainer is a talent and I'm dedicated to making these corgis into absolute gods of destruction by feeding them smaller weaker pets until they become powerful:

Yes one of my corgis is named Taii. (Hello fellow Wonder Lab enjoyers)

Learning advanced magic requires you to actually have and use beginner magic and then go find pages to put together the books that you can ACTUALLY READ (yes every book in this game is actually full of lore and explains in game reasoning behind everything and yes players can publish their own books in game) in order to learn more advanced forms of magic, you actually get to go like; study magic and not just talk to some guy and then learn a higher level skill.

You can form a bond with your weapons turning them into spirit weapons that have special abilities and you can name them; I have a baseball bat named Majima

Weapons in this game fall under a few specific trees of skills but many can use skills from other trees. The list of weapons you can use in this game includes but is not limited to:

Lances

Swords

Bows

Axes

Scythes

Rapiers

Pom-poms

Chainsaw

Baseball Bat

Hammers

Puppets and Control Bars

Dual Guns

Shurikens

Just a Stick

Knuckles / Fists

Musical Instruments

Staffs / Wands

Atlatls

Surf Board

Chain Slash (basically chain whips)

Alchemy (everything from pocket sand to summons)

At one point the game basically becomes a dating sim where you get to manage a group of knights and accompany them on missions. I don't have a lot of experience with it but if you're into that sort of thing, you'll probably enjoy that whole mechanic.

Humans can transform into Paladins or Dark Knights. Elves can transform into a humanoid bird called Falcons Giants can transform into giant yetis called Beasts

Every race can transform into a demi god

Every race can then later transform into some kind of cool customizable deity thing that I've not got around to unlocking but I know it's neat.

Aside from those transformations there's also a skill for Transformation that not only lets you turn into NPCs but also a ton of enemies and animals all of which can use basic combat skills lol.

Players regularly host concerts where they play music on a big stage as a whole ass band and it's really cool there's a whole venue you can go to in one of the towns where the concerts are held and you get a buff for it.

There are banquets every week that just give you free EXP and there's raffle drawings for prizes.

THE OST IN THIS GAME FUCKING SLAPS AND UNDER THE OPTIONS YOU CAN CHANGE IT FROM THE DEFAULT OST TO THE ORCHESTRA VERSION AND IT'S SO GOOD!

You can have a Red Panda and feed it special bean tofu to make it absolutely massive, like ungodly huge. Because why not I guess.

LASTLY!

The game is small, it takes literally maybe 30 minutes to download with bad internet and it has so much heart and soul that I can't even get into here.

DO NOT GET ME STARTED ON THE FACT IN NA WE GET THE MOST GENERIC KINDA CRINGE ADS BUT IN KOREA THEY GET HIGH BUDGET FUNKY MUSIC VIDEO ADS AND I AM NEVER GOING TO FORGIVE NA FOR THIS.

Anyways yea thanks for coming to my TED talk :P

If you have questions, I have answers.

[msviolacea]

enshrouded is the obsession for february

So, @garafthel and I have been absolutely addicted to Enshrouded the past week. Enshrouded is in early access, just released a week and a half ago on Steam. The Steam description calls it "survival, crafting, and action RPG" - think Valheim meets Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom, in a lot of ways. If you like crafting, gathering, building, exploring, with a smattering of occasionally challenging combat, then I very highly recommend giving this game a shot.

Survival games are not always my thing, mostly because I hate being on a perpetual timer - I want to be able to play the intended gameplay loop, whatever that may be, without having to constantly worry about whether I'm going to starve or freeze or whatever. I don't mind grinding for resources - it can be soothing, in fact, in the right game - but once you tell me I have to return to base every six minutes or else I'll be eaten by the shadows or whatever, I'm out. So the fact that Enshrouded only has a small bit of that is a huge plus for me. The vast majority of the land you can explore is perfectly normal; then there's the titular "Shroud," which is basically toxic fog, and you can only venture into it for a certain amount of time before you'll die. Going into the Shroud is necessary - most bosses and a lot of needed materials are there - but you can choose when you want to go in and how to tackle it.

The core conceit of the game - the plot, such as it is - is very Breath of the Wild. You wake up as one of the few survivors of a fantasy apocalypse long past, and now you have to make your way through this overgrown, ruined world, finding other survivors, making your home, and figuring out how to combat the deadly Shroud that still lingers. And ... that's pretty much the entirety of the plot. There's not a lot of story here. There's lore built into documents and artifacts you find along the way, that tell some of the story of what happened before the Shroud took everything, but don't expect anything narrative.

Since I know most people have probably just skipped over this because tl;dr, let's go with some bullet points to break things up, shall we?

You can play solo or co-op with up to 16 people. Either playstyle is totally viable, but co-op can definitely make the grind more entertaining.

You can build houses from scratch or choose to renovate/fix up old ruined farms and estates. The building system is very intuitive; it can be fiddly, and since the game is early access, there are some bumps along the way, but ultimately it's the easiest building system I've come across.

The vast majority of your time in this game will be spent gathering resources - to build, to fulfil quests, to make buff food, et cetera. Like I said, I actually enjoy gathering in video games, and this is a very satisfying gameplay loop for me.

The character creation is ... sparse. And all body types look kind of like hobbits. But there's a decent variety of skin tones, which is something.

The combat is pretty intuitive, I say as someone who is a mediocre action combat gamer. There's the usual array of options - sword and shield, two hand, bows, magic - but you can do everything if you want. And after just a few chaotic wipes, I started to get it enough that I'm able to solo the low-level bosses with just a little bit of effort. (Haven't gotten up to higher levels yet!) If you've played the last two Zelda games, chances are good you'll get this with no problem.

The whole world is hand-crafted - no procedural generation here - and it is HUGE. The developers say that only a portion of the map is currently available, that it will be even bigger when they get to full release, but even as it is it's bigger than most other games I've played.

Anyway. If any of the above sounds like your jam, I highly recommend picking this up, even in early access. I'm ridiculously impressed with what the devs have put together so far, and it's going to satisfy my urge to craft and gather for a good long while. I'm gonna have to take a short break for a few days for D&D and so I don't get hopelessly spoiled for Star Rail 2.0, but I'll be dreaming of renovating our cool farm the whole while.

[deathmetalunicorn1]

Hello dear I have a question,

Are you an Nintendo gamer? What is your favorite game by the way? 💜

Hello my dear one,

I'm not as big of a gamer as other people, but I do enjoy playing certain games and Nintendo has supplied several of the ones I adore.

I enjoy playing Animal Crossing, as it's soothing and calming to play ( I usually play it when I feel stressed or just need something that doesn't require a lot). I also enjoy Street Fighter, as I've been playing those in arcades for years. I've only played a bit of games like Mario and Kirby, but nothing major.

However, my big favorite and most played is Pokemon! I played the originals, then fell out of it, then I got back into it in Kalos and I've been playing ever since. Despite Scarlet and Violet being the newest ones out, my favorite is actually Sword and Shield, because I love the Isle of Armor.

I would like to know all of your favorite Nintendo games as well!

[phoenixgryphon]

3, 6, 8, 16, 18, and 23 for the video game asks. I feel like I already know the answer to some of these BUT You Will Answer Them Anyway.

1-3 games you’ve played in the past 12 months that you really enjoyed: Risk of Rain 2 - I play this one to b i ts and somehow never get sick of it, it's a roguelite/like/idk but it's really fun and there's a ton of mods for it. Hades - I love the sheer amount of dialogue and the artstyle. UNFORTUNATELY I burnt myself out on it and didn't get very far oops. I gotta pick it up again one day because I feel like I barely put a dent in it. Elden Ring - Finally got around to starting this and while I'm not great at it, I love running around and dying a lot and exploring. I actually prefer it over Breath of the Wild and I'm not sure why. I couldn't click with BotW even though I love Zelda games.

A series you’ve enjoyed since your early days of gaming and still enjoy to this day whether it still has games coming out or is one you return to: SEE I REALLY WANT TO SAY POKEMON- nvm I'm saying pokemon wh e eze but oh god Sword and Shield disappointed me so much it's made me wary of all the recent games. THAT SAID I still want to get Arceus one day because it mixes it up a bit and looks interesting. I've played pokemon since the gen 1 days HGJKBKJD and I still play my Soul Silver game because Silver was my absolute favourite. I loved that you could venture between Johto and Kanto.

A series you haven’t played but are interested in trying: Castlevania I really want to play Symphony of the Night but it hasn't been rereleased and trying to get it work via...other means is a pain.

A game you’d like to replay that you haven’t: I should replay Hollow Knight given Silksong is coming out in another thousand years.

A game location you really like Does all of ABZU count Also there's something I really like about big lake areas in games.

A “Wow” moment of awe: IT'S CLICHE but there are some terrain generations in Minecraft that can be absolutely wild. Also there was a point in Breath of the Wild where I saw a dragon just...fly out of a body of water and I spent the next five minutes watching it.

[glassmarcus]

The Rogue Lite Mexican Stand Off

*All games played in January 2023, Written in November 2023

I've had a backlog of Rogue Lites I planned on checking out for years now. This list keeps growing and I've accepted that I'll never reach the bottom. So I decided to knock out the three I felt were at the top of the genre at the very least. First I played Hades, a title I wasn't super psyched to try because I'm not a huge fan of isometric angles in games. But word of mouth overcame that doubt and I gave it a shot anyway. And yea, the game is aces. I was not led astray. Second on the docket was Rogue Legacy 2. I knew I was going to love this game because of how much I loved the first. To zero shock, I loved Rogue Legacy 2. Last was Dead Cells. A game I was interested in because I heard it be compared to Dark Souls at one point. What got me to finally buy it was the Castlevania DLC which I had to purchase because I'm a huge shill. By the way this game is also pretty good.

I see why this gallery of Rogue Likes are praised so highly and I enjoyed my time with them immensely... But which one is the best? I tried to place them all on the same level in my mind, but that's not how I operate. There needs to be a clear pecking order. A hierarchy must be established and that's exactly what I will do here. I'm going to pit these three Rouge Lites against each other and see who comes out on top. And no, I will not stop using the terms Rogue Lite and Rogue Like interchangeably. I know they are technically different things, but they sound far too similar for me to care. All games that expect you to complete their procedurally generated adventure in a single run are Rogue Likes/ Rogue Lites. That's the definition I'm using here.

In one corner of this Rogue Like Mexican stand off is Hades. Hades is a mechanically efficient masterwork of roguish progression. Not a single aspect is wasted and unpolished. You look at the weapons you get and might think "oh, there's only six of them" only to realize that they only made six because you only need six. Every weapon is completely fleshed out and has its own advantages over others. Swords deal high damage and take out a lot of enemies at once, but require putting yourself in risky situations. The Bow is weaker but safer as you can attack from anywhere in the screen. The Spear is somewhat of a jack of all trades, not as much range as a bow, not as much power as a sword, but enough of both to be worth using. Shields take a different approach in being a middle man by having its normal attack be melee and it's special long range. Fist and Guns act as the gambling man's version of the sword and bow. With Fist, you can get a lot of damage in when you're close, but it's harder to gauge when you should retreat. With Guns you can get way more hits than with the Bow, but you also have to manage your ammo and if you lose count you'll be shit out of luck.

I gotta say, there is no clear best weapon to use. I like the fist the best because obviously I'm gonna gravitate towards the punchy one the most, but I can't say it's strictly better than the others. And I came to this conclusion by naturally trying out every weapon. Hades attributes a point bonus for a random weapon in each run. These points can be used to permanently upgrade yourself between runs. So you have to decide if you want consistency with the weapons you are used to, or invest in the future by trying something new and getting potentially more points. Its a great way to incentivize variety and exploration of the mechanics of the game. The weapon options don't even end there as you get the ability to permanently upgrade your weapons after you've probably found a favorite. And these upgrades can substantially change the way you play as they aren't merely damage increases, but diverse effects that you can take advantage of to great result.

This game could just have these weapons and be perfectly great, but what takes it to the next level are the mid run upgrades you'd expect from any rogue like. Boons, the power gifted from the gods, are what really counts in getting you strong enough to claw your way out of hell. When you understand the advantages of your weapon, the permanent abilities you've acquired, and the effects boons can have, you can figure out which boons cynergize with you the best. As I stated prior, I was a Fist Aficionado. A weapon that hits fast and requires you to get in and out of enemy range. So when I picked boons that worked well with that, I got outstanding results. Abilities that decreased enemy attacks were my go to, because I knew I was going to get hit so I thought I might as well make it hurt less. And figuring out that build myself was when I really started to mesh with Hades. At first I wasn't getting any of the mechanics, flailing around with my standard attack until I dodged. But as I progressed it only kept feeling better to me. They introduce new combat options and improve the old ones. I think the game went from decent to incredible once I got a second Cast.

Cast are such a beautiful mechanic. Somehow both great for single target damage and Area of Effect depending on what boon you choose. But no matter which you choose, it changes the flow of combat due to the fact you have to pick that shit up. Keeping your rhythm despite cast not recharging automatically is the heart of why combat feels so good to me. Calls and Specials are great, but the real heroes are Cast, Attacks, and Dashes. In my experience, that’s actually the order I prioritize these moves. Your cast always have some effect that influences how you attack so that comes first. Then you attack to take advantage of what the cast does. While attacking you are dodging to stay alive. And then the cast wears off and they are left on the ground. And now you must use your attack and dash to navigate through enemies and pick up your cast so you can start the whole thing over again. Once you get into that flow state and start incorporating specials and calls into the equation, the combat of Hades becomes something truly special.

On a gameplay level this is brilliant. And you know what? The story ain't too bad either. Most Rogue Lite stories aren't something to write home about as far as I've experienced. After all, they are kind of the junk food of video games. Short and sweet experiences that don't have time to make an interesting story. Hades is built a bit different. Every run you do progresses the story and everything you do is canon. Games have been explaining away respawning for decades now, but I think this is on a different level. Characters acknowledge the things you did in prior runs. Story lines are moved through both success and failure so there's a palpable sense of progressing delivered in multiple ways. There's dating sim elements. And every character is hot. The story of Hades doesn't just work well, it works in a uniquely video game way. The setting of Hades is roguish in both thematics and mechanics. It's all about taking failure on the chin and accepting any help you can. It drove me to play it even more than I normally would have and made each run unique. It drove me to play it even after I beat it. This game’s story doesn't conclude until you beat it 10 times and I’m not upset about it one bit. You can customized each run's difficulty in a variety of ways after you beat it to add new rewards and content.

It really is a near perfectly crafted game in its genre. The only thing it drops the ball in is music which is a bit underwhelming. Don't remember a damn thing from it. And I've heard praise for the OST too, but it appears to not be my bag. It worked for what the game was going for and it matched the environments well, but it didn't stick with me the way I'd prefer an OST to stick with me. That's really is the only issue about the game I can conjure...but if it was clearly the best one of the three, I wouldn't be writing this.

In the second corner we have Rogue Legacy 2. Rogue Legacy is the inverse of Hades. Its narrative foil in a way. They are both games about overcoming impossible odds with the help from your family and end up being equally powerful despite going separate routes with this premise. Hades is based around Nepotism. You get to know your uncles and cousins throughout the game and your bonds with them push you forward. As such Hades is a more character driven narrative due to how large and important the supporting cast is. The cast in Rogue Legacy 2 is potentially bigger, but they're mostly all the same character. The Premise of Rogue Legacy 2 is that each run follows the latest heir of a family sworn to conquer an evil castle. When you die, you play as your offspring in the next push through the castle. It's a different character technically, with a different class and unique attributes. But one thing is maintained between the end of your last journey and the beginning of your new one: Your Bank Account.

If Hades is about Nepotism, Rogue Legacy is about Inheritance. Your character is given every advantage their predecessors were given and then some, assuring the next generation grows up stronger. Rather than death being equated to a minor setback, it's given real narrative consequence in a way. Every failed run is an echo of your past self. And it's cool that their efforts aren't going to waste. You are carrying the weight of your entire bloodline on your shoulders and it makes it all the more gratifying when you get to your points of respite. It's not as interesting as the standard well written game story, but it's just as powerful as one. When I beat the game and saw 100+ ancestors given their due credit, I felt that shit.

None of this is authentic by the way. Every bit of this was executed in Rogue Legacy 1 prior. The thing is, the sequel is better than that game in every conceivable way that it overwrites its very existence. I'm not exaggerating one bit when I say that there is zero reason to play the first game anymore. I get that it would be embarrassing for a game about improving over generations to not be way better than it's predecessor, but Junior didn't have to go this hard. I'd go as far to say that the first area of Rogue Legacy 2 completely encapsulates the experience of the first game. Everything beyond that point feels fresh and new. So for the remainder of this essay, Rogue Legacy only refers to the second game. It's such a large improvement to an already good game.

Rogue Legacy works because it's unabashedly brutal. Your hit boxes are so small and the enemy hit boxes are so big. Damage values are obscene. Enemies are around every corner and are relentless. Conquering this game is supposed to be difficult so it is designed around failure. It's not fair, but doesn't pretend to be. Your goal is rarely about accomplishing shit on your own and is more about fostering a new generation. Sewing seeds for the future. This game has six areas you need to conquer before gaining access to the final boss. Areas that you can access in a non linear way. It's essentially six separate Rogue Likes glued together. After you beat one area, you can still revisit that area in future runs, only the boss is permanently dead now. Once you've built an heir capable enough, you have the freedom to make short runs where you B-line to the boss or long runs where you scrape each prior area before the showdown. The draw of Rogue Legacy lies in how unlikely it is that you beat it in under a few dozen runs, but because every single run you failed in built towards your eventual victory, it is all the more satisfying.

Rogue Legacy is a game with an insane number of mechanics. Classes, armor, seals, equipment load, bank interest, skill trees, artifacts, upgrades and the list keeps going. Rogue Legacy takes Search Action gameplay and implements systems with the breadth and complexity of a 60 hours long RPG. And it functions perfectly because this is going to be a very looooong game, so the player has time to understand how the systems interact. Unlocking a class you can vibe with and figuring out which abilities and equipment optimize well with it is one of the many joys of Rogue Legacy 2.

Classes define your initial weapons, skills, and spells and additional stats. Class skills and stats basically determine how you're going to play. Weapons are important too, but the skills and stats can't be swapped out the same way weapons and spells can. And much like any craft, they can be improved. You can level up classes by playing them and defeating enemies. This incentivizes focusing on a single class that you've grown fond of so that their base stats will improve. But the random character generation limits your choice in the matter. It forces you to choose different classes. You're always making the best with the hands you are dealt, similar actual genetics. Classes aren't the only thing randomly generated in character creation. Each heir has a genetic trait that has a benefit and drawback. You can be born as a dwarf with shorter weapon range, but makes more money per chest. You can start off with a character who falls slowly, making some sections easier and some a nightmare. Every aspect of build creation of this game has a push and pull.

The armor you buy in this game increases your defense but the set bonus combination for said armors can give you extra stat or ability modifications. Seals are exclusively ability modifications guaranteed to make the game more fun to play with reliable effects. Artifacts fulfill the same purpose a lot of the time, but they are objects you find within the castle runs themselves. Having the right class, armor set, artifacts, and seals can make for a devastating build that will get you far in your adventure. But it's never that simple. Everything in this game has a cost. Armor cost money and ore to make and their weight fills up your maximum armor equip limit. Seals cost money and blood stones and have their own equip limit as well. Artifacts cost resolve and maybe re-rolls to get the best ones, and your resolve lowers if you have too much armor. The lower your resolve gets, the lower your Hit Point Maximum gets, making the character’s stats themselves a form of currency. Nothing in this game is simply handed to you and you have to do everything yourself with the small loan of 1 million gold your dead father gave you.

These systems and how they interact push this to being a phenomenal game, but they wouldn't mean anything without fun gameplay and that is something Rogue Legacy has in spades. Movement is the best part of this game I feel. It really leaned into the Metroidvania aspect. You get powers throughout the game that make world traversal delightful, and become even more fun when you have seals to build off of. Not many games let you do a quintuple jump into a triple air dash, but Rogue Legacy is one of those games. No mechanic you are given is that complicated as they are simply extensions of what you can already do. Attack, Magic, Skill, Dash, and Jump are basically the whole of the gameplay. Just fine tuning those things makes it satisfying to master. But there is one aspect added in this sequel that felt so natural I forgot to list it.

The Spin Kick. The spin kick is essentially a Duck Tales pogo. But you don't get that much height from it. But what it loses in height, it makes up for in surface area. You can spin kick basically any thing in this game so long as long as it's physical or electrical matter. Enemies, projectiles, weird candelabras, are all spin kick approved. Think Cup Head parry, but exclusively down ward, which doesn't seem that great, but it's a platformer essentially. You are jumping a lot. It's really not that different from attacks coming from the side when you are in mid air so much of the time any way. This platformer parry is utilized throughout the whole game to making interesting level obstacles and boss patterns. It is the unsung hero of this game and 3 playthroughs later, I'm still finding joy in executing it.

It's very hard for things in Rogue Legacy to overstay their welcome. Even the procedural level design remains fresh. Lots of variety in the rooms. It's not only a series of corridors where you have to kill enemies in a generated mini level. Some rooms are puzzles. Some are platforming challenges. Some are gauntlets and mini bosses. Some are purely story related. Also the 6 level motifs are distinct both visually and how they are designed. Level 2 almost entirely horizontal while the last area feels like a true dungeon crawler due to how dark and dangerous it is. I wasn't kidding before. Rogue Legacy 2 is 6 Rogue Legacy sequels stuffed into 1 game. And the post game adds another layer to that variety. One of the best parts about a long dev cycle is that entire trends go by in the middle of it. And because of that the creators can be given new ideas. Rogue Legacy blatantly takes the same post game ideas displayed in Dark Souls and Hades and injects it into itself. Rogue Legacy waited until the last moment to turn in its homework and then unabashedly copied off its classmates for an easy A. And god bless it for doing so. With the scaling and customizable difficulty, expansion of rewards and enemies, and completely unique bonus challenges, I'm gonna be playing this one for a long time.

So clearly I enjoy these two games a lot. But what about Dead Cells? What does it bring to the table? What can it do to stand up to these titans. Well. Honestly not much. If Hades is Angel Eyes, and Rogue Legacy is Blondie, then Dead Cells is Tuco stuck in the stand off with an unloaded gun.

Dead Cells is a good game. It looks better than Rogue Legacy. I might enjoy the gameplay more than Hades. But that's where the advantages end. And I'll be honest I haven't spent enough time with this game to truly have scholars opinion on it, thus I can’t write paragraph about its design. But that's kind of the problem. I beat this game in 4 runs. I'm no god at gaming. I'm slightly above average on a good day. The fact that I stumbled upon the ending of this game so early is disappointing. Rogue Legacy, I died a hundred deaths before reaching credits. Hades took me around 14 to beat the first time. Dead Cells gave it away and it was so deflating. I didn't work towards anything. I just sort of won. I never even died to a single boss. Once I upgraded how many estus I could hold, the only thing that mattered was the pick ups I got during the run. I'm sure if I go back there is way more to the game, but after seeing the credits I kind lost all motivation to play it. It's not fair to the game that I did that, but that's how I feel and I got other things to do with my time. It’s too bad I had the idea of comparing these three games before playing all of them.

So it all comes down to Rogue Legacy 2 and Hades. Hades has untouchable presentation and succeeds in everything it attempts with grace in a way that Rogue Legacy 2 doesn't. I can't really break down why, there's an air about it that makes it feel more thought out and seamless. But...I value what Rogue Legacy 2 is more as a game and more over, as a Rogue Like. Sure I like 2D games more than isometric games, but even beyond that, Rogue Legacy has a layer of exploration that pushes it over for me. I find it far more replayable. Hades likely has more condensed quality, but the quantity of Rogue Legacy makes up for it, and quantity is a bit more important for the genre honestly. The depth in content for Hades lies more in the story after you've beaten it, while Rogue Legacy is more in the gameplay. There are more things to do and experience, so it has more value to me. It was likely obvious what my preference was due to how I wrote more about it and made that spot on Dollars Trilogy Reference, but I couldn't really hide it. It's just that damn good.

[therapy-ghost]

Hi! Here's my information for our mega matchup exchange. Could I please get a romantic matchup for Resident Evil, DC, Marvel, JoJo's Bizarre Adventure, Helluva Boss, Hazbin Hotel, Pokemon (with a preference for Sun/Moon or Sword/Shield), and Genshin Impact?

Pronouns: She/Her

Sexuality: Straight

Age: 20

Zodiac Sign: Gemini

MBTI: INFJ-A

Ennegram: 5w6

Personality: I'm pretty quiet in social settings but if someone talks to me first, I can keep a conversation going. I will occasionally go up to someone to initial a conversation but not very often. With people that I'm close with, I'm very open and sarcastic. And I make a lot of self-depreciating jokes (even though I have a high self worth). I set very high standards for myself but I also usually meet those standards. People say I have a good poker face/a scary glare but I've never seen it. People also say I look like someone who "knows what they're doing".

Likes/Hobbies: Reading, writing, anime, video games, and listening to music (stuff like Hamilton, Panic! at the Disco and Offspring). I want to be a fantasy writer and I am currently studying an English major at university.

Dislikes: Spiders (deathly afraid of those), being forgotten when I'm gone, and disappointing those who I care about.

Looks: I'm 164cm (5'4") and have an average build (not too curvy but definitely not straight up and down). I have green eyes that everyone thinks are brown and curly/frizzy dark brown hair that is down to the middle of my back

I hope you have a lovely day and that life is treating you kindly! Looking forward to getting to work on your matchup as well!

~Eren

Resident Evil: Luis Sera

I love him to be honest(I dont like his remake design tho)

he 100 percent has a pokerface as well, he just has a bit of a hard time keeping it

also makes self depreciated jokes so you can easily have a joke off.

if you two are sitting on the couch and you both see a spider at the same time; he left an hour ago.

he's a hamilton viber; will rock out to the schuyler sisters with you and try and sing you'll be back like in the musical(Spit and all)

DC: Dick Grayson

supportive king right here

you wanna write a fantasy book? already bought! as sson as you start writng he is on the waitlist for one.

he's a bit of a diva; so if he has something to rant about, he play with your hair while you do whatever.

now, unlike Luis, he can deal with spiders for you; he is your knight in spandex armor.

he also will watch anime if you are watching it, just wants to spend time with you sice most of the time he is either working or... working.

Marvel: Bruce Banner

he is also kinda quiet in social settings so you two togetehr is just like your own little bubble.

you have a little corner dedicated to you in his lab for you to write or read or whatever when you come to visit him.

he will help you if you want help in your quest of high standards.

he has somehom gotten hulk not to try and kill you so... yay

JJBA part 5; Bruno

mom's are made to be supportive and thats what he is, he is a mom

he buys a copy of your book once it comes out for everyone.

he would never be disappointed in you; he is there for you always.

he enjoys simple small talk about how your day is going and what you have been up to.

if you need peace and quiet, consider everyone gone on a job.

Helluva Boss: Vortex

bro is chill

he is like 6’11” so you look short compaired to him lol.

music exchanging with each other, I feel like he will enjoy a bit of offspring.

if you need help with anything to achieve your goals, he’s the man.

he’s the extrovert for you so you don’t have to start up conversations and just jump in when you feel like it.

Hazbin Hotel: Lucifer

honestly… *shrug*

golden retriever x black cat but the golden retriever will bite you with out hesitation.

he’s described to be very silly and out going, so I guess the conversations with be fun.

Relates to King George a bit to much(being to head of hell in all his greatness)

treats you like a literal queen; what ever you feel like, videos games, books, movies; you name you have it in your hands in the next 20 seconds, and if you don’t want anything, that’s fine to.

Pokemon Sword and Shield; Raihan

using his internet following to advertise your book once it’s out.

matching bandanna’s for you too

he is probably one of the more extroverted people on this list so conversation jump started

uses you expert ability of dialect to make his post and literally anything seem better.

with his social following and the fact that he is with you; you will never be forgotten

Genshin Impact: Kaeya

This cheeky bastard will pick you up, he is a ‘tall male’ after all.

he is very sweet to you; every time he comes back from a mission with the other knights, his first course of action will to be hunt you down and give you a hug.

he is also quite sarcastic so… joke swat?

he likes to sit literally anywhere and read with you.

if you like to have your hair played with… so does he; so playing with hair is also something he does(it’s a blue character thing)

I really hope you enjoy this; and have a wonderful day/night!!!

[scarletooyoroi]

Another load of Thoma technique based HCs for your doorstep.

+ He's capable of flight! Compared to the ease in comparison to anemo energy holders. Thoma's technique on the matter is to use jet propulsion instead through by either his feet or through the use of the Crimson Ooyoroi. For the latter, the slots amidst the armor would be molded to allow powerful jets of roaring flame through, it can manipulated for high speed/maneuverability.

The trade off upon such technique is his shieldcraft. Outside of making a protective layer upon his skin (and even that starts off weak, needing to rev up with damage), he can't create any protective barriers while providing himself the constant blaze in order to let him fly about. Attacks with fire blast are easier, since they go on the same principle or just shooting at differing outputs.

(Tbh I find this possible for all pyro/electro/anemo users with their ends of expertise.

...

You know. Maybe Hydro holders could actually 'swim' in the skies on rainier days.)

+ I've touched on this before but Thoma is an active practitioner of Ki. This is an energy that isn't derived from any Vision usage, rather, it's a power that comes from being able to successfully hone and apply the spirit through bursts of willpower made manifest.

So concepts like those sword beams you see through blunt physical force is well within his skill set. Similar to the Kairagi frommmm--

That fighting event from once upon a time! The only reason this is electro infused isn't due to any Vision properties. It's only the paper seals from the lost Kamuno arts that are literally spread all over Inazuma. So given that Kairagi themselves are capable of this due to their limited martial prowess, the higher scales within Teyvat can easily be capable of such feats.

So things like force slashes, force strikes has long since been added into his repertoire long before the gaining of his Vision.

+ Speaking on being of a tranquil mind. Thoma's mindset/spirit plays a very important part of how he manipulates the divine nature of his Pyro energy. Allowing it to differentiate as if it's extension of himself, allowing him to leave his enemies charred while any curtains of flame upon the land itself would leave it virtually unscathed (just a bit toasty) heavily depends on this practice.

Exercises such as meditation thus becomes an important part of his routine. Not only does it increase the potency of both shieldcraft and his offensive arts, it just allows his Pyro energy to defy the natural function it provides as if it's a switch to be played with. Losing this state of mind reverts to where it can be the all consuming flame it's originally fated to be. It's also how he infuse his companions with bursts of heat energy for the following--

+ Thoma's C6 is one of the most offensively inclined spells he's come to learn. By purposely fashioning the elemental energies within his allies, it allows for him to rouse their power to a blood boiling high. In turn, allowing for them to gain explosive bursts of strength while in his vicinity and underneath his blessing. While I have other ideas of what it does in my interp of playing with these powers, this is closer adherence to the canon.

He's gained a solid idea of the general baseline of what people can handle. Those underneath Pryo Resonance by working along with him, or just simply have a higher aptitude of handling intensity can get a more intense variance of this buff.

+ While he rarely enjoys using his abilities in this fashion. Thoma can also turn his shield onto opponents instead. Except, instead of a protective bubble, it's more of an enclosure that intends to pressure cook them. Unlike the ability of protecting others that resonates greater with his Vision's divinity, thus giving it more power, this alternative use of his ability demands a lot more out of him.

Enemies already have to be in a stunned state for him to successfully draw the barrier around them, on top of that, transforming the intent of his shield is a process that leaves him stationary as to keep them properly sealed for all the thrashing to follow. He normally keeps this as a teamwork based ability as his allies provide the openings. It's normally something he can never truly use on his own unless it's to finish a job.

+ I might've touched on this one before. Yet, smoke and steam are equally viable weapons to make use of within his hands. For smoke based attacks, it's an uncomfortable, itchy heat that doesn't burn, yet it heavily inhibits as his attention is to dwindle living opponents the use of their natural faculties. He normally saves this for crowd attacks by his lonesome, or to create ample get away moments.

Unlike his flames, this state of using this ability is dangerous at all, which is why he often forgoes it in team situations.

Meanwhile steam is a touch closer his essence of Pyro. This can be safely warded through and around by his allies, just being more of a humid hot to deal with compared to anything else. In comparison, the intention to his foes is to literally scald and melt the skin/construct off of their bodies, whether they're a living entity, mechanical or foes from the great beyond. The usage of divinity is what makes possible to more abyssal oriented foes.

[zer0stormz]

Fav games I played in 2022 #3 - Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate

Ever since I got my first taste of Monster Hunter last year with Rise I've been addicted lol. I saw MHGU on sale and had to pick it up. I'd played parts of some of the older games too (FU, P3P, and 4U) so I knew what I was getting into with the older style of Monster Hunter. So with my trusty sword and shield I began GU.

This game is so full of content it's insane. I know it's an anniversary title and all but holy heck!!! It has so many monsters to fight, 93 total!!! It's also filled with quests. I won't forget this time I was doing a kill 50 small creatures quest and I was gathering and stuff when all of a sudden I get sent flying. As I'm getting up I pan the camera around in time to see my first Deviljho roaring at me.

I love the combat styles and arts in this game!!!! They add a lot to the variety and I really enjoy using the SnS's arts. I stuck to striker style so I could use a lot more arts, Chaos Oil ftw. The combat is much more rigid and deliberate than Rise, but smoother than the older games I think and I really enjoyed it a lot. Oh also the fact that you can play as a palico (the cat partners you usually bring with you on quests) is pretty wild and awesome! I haven't played around much with it yet myself but it's so cool and wish they would bring that back!!!

With such a full roster of monsters there's a lot of variety and I love it!!! My fav monster is definitely Valstrax. I loved it in Rise, and I love it just as much here in it's debut game!!!! Compared to Rise this one seems a lot more calm and calculating which is so cool and makes sense as the Rise one is supposed to be a more berserk variant. I struggled a lot to take it down my first time. I think it took me at least 10 tries and it was so satisfying to finally have taken it down. Even if it's easy to dodge I love the move where it flies out of the area and circles back and dives into you like a comet it's so cooool!!!!!

Also love the fated four they are all so unique. You got a gigantic icy mammoth, a slippery bubble spewing fox leviathan, a thunder based insectoid wyvern, and a fire dino that basically has a sword for a tail and I loved getting to fight all 4 in a single quest!!! Narkakos is also so freaking badass and the concept of a cephalopod camouflaging itself with bones and using mimicry to look like a hydra and distract from its actual body is amazing!!!

I also really loved the dialogue in this game, so many charming characters. That's something I love about Monster Hunter in general! The whole concept is be this badass edgy hunter person taking down all these dragons, dinos and beasts, and then you got all the cutesy and funny stuff like the palicos, it's great. While I have completed the main village story there's definitely a LOT for me to still do as is standard with Monster Hunter and cant wait to get back into it!!!!

[epicspheal]

I miss when you could pet your Pokémon friends.

Hi there anon! Same Anon, big same. I really enjoyed Gen 6 and Gen 7's Pokemon Amie/Refresh since we actually got to pet our beloved mons. Like it was one step closer to making the world of Pokemon feel world. Seeing it being largely ditched on the Switch is just really sad. The camping option in Pokemon Sword/Shield was really cool but the lack of petting the Pokemon really made it miss a lot of its potential. I haven't gotten a chance to play Scarlet/Violet yet but I've seen we could at least wash our Pokemon again in that game...I haven't seen anyone pet their Pokemon yet so if anyone has screenshots of that please send them my way!

[kodocha4ever]

long post about how i'm enjoying pokemon scarlet :D

warning for some spoilers for the game. not story spoilers. just spoilers on some mechanics and moments that could be enjoyable as a surprise!

so a little of my background with the franchise before i go into my thoughts (so you can see how closely my own opinions align with your own, and therefore know how much my opinion on the game does or does not mirror yours).

I grew up with the spinoff games, Stadium & Snap for the N64 were some of the first video games I ever played (and played constantly all the time growing up). And when I was around 7/8/9 I got really into the Pokemon Ranger series (my favorite of the time being Shadows of Almia) and I played Battle Revolution a lot as well (I used to rent it all the time from the library). This is of course, in addition to watching the anime.

I tried other pokemon games, including the main series, but they didn't resonate with me at that phase in my life.

so anyways, when Pokemon Black & White came out, I was suddenly interested in the main series. if i had to guess -- i think it was because people i knew on deviantart at the time were into it lol.

so that came out, i played through it. enjoyed it enough! black & white 2 came out, i played through it and enjoyed it enough.

then X&Y were announced, and it was the first era i was actively watching nintendo directs all the time, and just keeping up w gaming news. so i was stoked! i got it on release day, and played through it very quickly, and tried matsuda method shiny hunting when i was done lol (i never got the shiny tho. i quit after like 600 eggs)

meanwhile in contrast, when sun and moon came out. i was keeping up with things, but idk? i have to assume it was the stage in my life i was in (i was 17 and it was my era of dropping out of every extracurricular activity i was in because i couldn't be fucked to do or care about anything that wasn't drawing). i bought the game, but legit only played the first few hours and stopped playing. it's always been funny to me, because i really loved the way the 3DS era style had been plused up. i liked the new pokemon, i was interested in the story... but it just didn't keep me engaged at that time.

so when sword and shield came out and it was soooo blasted. i didn't know how i'd feel about the game, but still bought it release day. and uh. i loved it? i loved it so much. its the most fun i've ever had with a mainline game.

so now going into scarlet & violet, there's a lot of options on the table for how i'd feel about it lol. i wanna add: i'm not done yet. i've beaten 4 gym leaders, gotten one titan, and my pokemon are level 35-40.

I didn't like the start of the game very much. There was no easy answer for how to handle it, like they needed to give a lot of info out the gate, and it's hard to do that in a way that isn't overwhelming. I like Nemona a lot though, and I like how the legendaries of these games are just with you the whole time (the way legendaries are handled typically is not for me) also i LOVE the customization out the gate (hair & face & stuff) i love how my character looks.

so anyways, felt negative for the opening. and then when i started with my adventure, i was soooo bugged by the camera angle you have in most battles. like i'm a slut for a fixed camera angle. the way the camera moves in past pokemon games did not need to be changed lol. the new free camera just has no optimal view. i feel so far removed from the action, like im watching ants.

when i complained abt this to a friend, he brought up it might have to do with the way terrain works in this game. and like... that could be true? but also i don't think the terrain being the way it is is a good enough mechanic to warrant removing the fixed camera. i wish they figured something out.

so the thing that made me start feeling positive was sort of a funny thing lol. i was feeling bummed abt the things all above, and i was also feeling weird abt the nonlinearity. like it means there cant be as many unique interactions since they dont know where in the game u are. and in sword & shield, i really got attached to the gym leaders (for the first time) and i wasn't feeling that same spark here.

i sorta felt like, lol. well. the nonlinearity is here, i might as well take advantage of it and just go across the whole map to get a pokemon i like early (in this case my goals were to get: zorua & gothita).

so i started on my way, and i was passing through one of the dessert/mountainous terrains and i bumped into that giant klawf (the stony cliff titan). and was trying to avoid him bc i didn't know what was going on and didn't want him to wreck my pokemon. but i accidentally got in a battle with him. and panicked a bit because i thought i sequence broke and wasn't supposed to be there yet or something, only to get him in one hit because i was actually over leveled LMFAO.

stumbling on major events randomly like that are my favorite part of nonlinear sandbox games. and it just gave me this perspective change of like, okay. this isn't sword and shield. it's not meant to be sword and shield! this is it's own game, and i should enjoy it for what it is and not dwell on what it isn't... and i'm having so much fun now lol.

i got an outfit i like, my team is bringing me a lot of joy, i'm gonna ask if my bestie (who happened to get violet) could send me a misdreavus because thats my only fav [who's in the game] that i don't have yet... and its because they're not in my version of the game lol.

here's my party right now :D

other good experiences i've had: u can see my beloved babygirl Gus in both of these. azumarill and the line has never been a fav of mine, but i was charmed by a wild azurill near the start of the game, and decided to catch it. i was talking w my mom while i was playing, and asked if she wanted to name her, and she said "Gus" SOO fast. like even before i finished asking her. thank u mom, i love gus so much.

i ADORE how when tandemaus evolves into maushold, the game doesn't tell u. like, i thought i'd encountered my first glitch (that people love to talk abt so much).. but no its just the cutest mechanic.

[samuelanderson1-blog]

RP anyone?

30 ftm here.

Anyone interested in some Anime Roleplay? Must be 20+ (even if there’s no funny business going on, I won’t RP with anyone under this age), and open to RPing with male OC’s (either as just friends or more), as that’s all I really RP as. Would prefer to RP over private message and not on Tumblr boards, Discord preferably. Just personal preference! Anime’s of interest are currently as follows. Most of these anime’s have more than one OC from me, so if you’re interested we can chat.

Haikyuu (I’m not caught up, but spoilers are AOK! I have three OC's for this one, two cisgender oc's (one libero, one middle blocker) and one ftm oc (who is a setter).

My Hero Academia (Caught up on the Anime (dubbed). Two OC's for this one. One has the ability to melt into shadows and carry a limited weight of items/people, the other can transform into a wolf and is wheelchair bound (double amputee) )

Free (Just have to watch the final stroke episodes. I have one OC for this world who is pretty deaf and has some deformities with his ears and some major trauma in his past.)

Yuri on Ice (Also caught up on the Anime. Three OC's for this one. None of them compete anymore, but one travels with is group to help out from Denmark, another travels with his sister as moral support from Québec Canada, and one is more of a homebody in Australia. The one who travels with his sister is blind, but does skate, though not competitively obviously.)

Kuroko No Basuke (I am not fully caught up on the Anime, but spoilers are AOK. One OC for this anime, someone who retired in high school after an incident leaving his back broken. He's able to walk again after surgery and rehab, but he can't compete anymore.)

Soul Eater (Caught up with the original Anime, not Soul Eater Not. One OC for this anime, a Meister who is honestly only one out of obligation than anything.)

Percy Jackson (caught up on all the books. Two OC's for this, one son of Apollo, one son of Athena.)

Pokemon could be fun, too! (I've seen all the anime, and have played all of the main games except for sword and shield. One OC for this, a canine type trainer from Alola.)

86 (Caught up on the anime, slowly getting through the light novels. One OC, a one legged ex republic 86 soldier who worked as a mechanic at the Spearhead Squadron.)

You're also welcome to RP as an OC, so long as said OC isn't over powered and has some thought behind them (I've RP'd with a lot of OC's that were just made up on the fly and were honestly a hot mess... but I love a well made OC!). Or you can RP a Canon Character!

I'm also not so good at RPing with female characters, and most of my characters are bi (with heavy preference towards men) or gay, as friends however they're fine.

I try my best to be literate with my replies, and personally do not enjoy one line RP's, though I myself don't write novels, so no major requirement on length! I'm also not the GREATEST with proper punctuation and grammar, but I try to get the point across.

Also open to just casual slice of life RP's with no series to necessarily dictate the theme. (example: I also have OC's who are dog show handlers, jockeys, rodeo cowboys, general medical professionals). Also not opposed to trying out a Game of Thrones RP, but I've never RP'd that before, so there's that. All characters from the Anime's would be aged up to minimum 18 (so like going to college or already in the work force)

Can either message me here on Tumblr or on Discord (more likely to get a reply on discord as that's what I have access to outside of the house). tommy36011

[ascalonianlightbringer]

Mesmers are my favorite class (both in GW1 and GW2, though they're quite different in each game!) and I've always especially enjoyed the more damage-oriented mesmers. I loved playing Domination Magic-focused GW1 mesmers with Backfire, Empathy, Power Spike, Energy Surge, Cry of Frustration, etc (I actually learned how to play GW1 on a Domination mesmer, which was ... a steep learning curve, but a blast once I got the hang of it). In GW2, before the Mirage specialization got nerfed to hell, I loved my Condition Damage mesmer/Mirage, and Power builds + greatsword are always really fun on core mesmers and chronomancers.

(I can't speak to Virtuoso—I've heard great things but I can't bring myself to give up my emotional support clones.)

My main, Gwen Velazquez, originally went from a very damage-oriented core mesmer to a sword-based Power chronomancer—fun in groups, but squishy in solo play unless she manages to kill everything first.

However. My family has played the GW games together since Prophecies and my mother's main is an even squishier Power elementalist who does huge amounts of damage but often dies. So I was trying to think of ways Gwen could help my mother's character survive—and then, after all these years of ArenaNet nerfing the originally superb support/defense chronomancer into oblivion, they buffed the defensively-oriented chronomancer back into effectiveness. This was months ago now, but I was working on my dissertation and only recently got the chance to really try playing Gwen as a chronomancer built around defense and support rather than strike damage.

Holy shit, it's so fun.

Yeah, it takes her a lot longer to kill things, but now she can afford to pick fights with much harder foes all by herself. She's gone from glass cannon to regularly soloing champions if I'm even somewhat paying attention to what she's doing (and chronomancer is a complicated enough class that I'm usually paying attention).

Another player showed up to one of the champion fights I was soloing and advised me to stop using ranged attacks (all that Gwen has now) because those also would reflect back to me, and I didn't have the heart to say it made zero difference because it wasn't getting through Gwen's blocks and she hadn't even needed to heal yet. She's using scepter/shield + staff and it's just like block, block, dodge, block, set down her AOEs, get a chaos aura by teleporting out, oh look her blocks are back and she's got her healing and stability mantras for emergencies.

I gather that the rifle chrono is even better, but defense with a Chaos/Inspiration/Chronomancer build actually being good again makes the scepter/shield+staff chrono feel incredible. Love playing a light armor chaos mage as an unkillable god.