#all of the news surrounding gameplay seems SO MUCH

[spidezer]

sometimes you just need to be a hater

[harrypotterandthefandomaccount]

worthy of trust

pairing: sebastian sallow x fem!reader

warnings: sebastian being a jerk & calling you ignorant, angst, feeling like you lost a friend but he makes it up to you with a lil kiss

note: i've been obsessed with hogwarts legacy and the gameplay itself is just phenomenal. 39 hours into the game lol and still so much to do, so enjoy this sebastian oneshot. based on his questline, in the shadow of the mine i think?

important note: i do NOT support hate towards the transgender or LGBTQ+ community. JKR has made her stance very clear and i could not disagree and be disgusted with her more. this fic and future ones merely pertain to the character(s) in hogwarts legacy and to my knowledge, JKR had no part in the game. if you are still mad i play the game/write fics for hogwarts legacy, you can scroll past this. thank you!

you had no qualms about trusting lodgok since sirona ryan had known him for years, along with miriam. while the both of you had been albeit hesitant at first towards one another, he had proven his loyalty to stopping ranrok and was actively trying to be one step ahead of him - which is exactly what you, sebastian, and the others wanted.

however, when the opportunity arose to tell sebastian about lodgok, it all came flooding back to you - anne.

you and sebastian had just finished clearing out a cavern of arachnids, which quite honestly, was pretty exciting. you had even reminded him that well, spiders aren't insects.

"don't you start," he had responded, a small smirk on his face.

after finding the last piece to the tryptich and hoping to solve the mystery concerning isidora morganach, returning to the undercroft was the last step. you both were eager to see if the portrait piece would fit, and once it had been placed, you were able to breathe.

"please tell me you recognize the location in this bit of canvas," you said, turning around to face your slytherin partner in crime.

he sighed, "the good news is, i do, in fact."

your shoulders dropped, "and the bad news?"

sebastian turned to look at you, "we're in for more trouble."

you groaned, leaning your head back as Sebastian's eyes seemed to darken; gluing your attention back to your slytherin friend, he continued, "i know that coast. Ranrok has taken over a huge mine and the surrounding area. Marunweem has suffered for it. It's as bad as Feldcroft's become."

with a sigh, your eyebrows knitted together and you looked at the triptych once more. sebastian glanced towards you, "should we head there now?

you shook your head, "no, we should wait."

sebastian immediately questioned you, "why?

you gave a grimanced look, "all this time, we've been a step behind ranrok. I may know someone who could help us get head."

sebastian raised an eyebrow, "who is that?"

before you could even think about formulating your answer a different way, the words slipped out, "a friendly goblin named lodgok. he wants no part in ranrok's fight."

sebastian immediately became disgusted, angry, even. "a friendly goblin?" he started, "you know goblins cursed my sister to shut her up! said she should 'be seen and not heard.'"

you took a step towards sebastian as he stepped back. taking a breath, you nodded, " i do, but not all goblins-"

he glared towards you, "not all goblins what? have you forgotten feldcroft? have you forgotten the mine we just went through?"

you sympathized with him, no doubt. you knew how close the twins were, how much Sebastian loved anne and cared for her - but this fight against ranrok was against all wizardkind, not just anne. and you knew she would understand.

shaking your head, you tried to reason with Sebastian, "no, sebastian, i haven't. you're not listening to me."

sebastian scoffed, "why would i listen to someone so ignorant?"

ouch.

you knew sebastian could be mean, cruel, but throughout these months of knowing him, he has only been so kind, sweet and soft with you. there was never any malice towards you, no anger or disgust. towards the goblins and ranrok in conversations with you, but it was never directed. it was understandable that what happened to anne was hurting Sebastian as well, but this anger was now at you, and he was changing.

you already had reservations working with lodgok before sirona ryan said you could trust him, but there was something he wasn't telling you. but it wasn't a secret that jeopardized your working relationship with him, no. if it had been, you would have turned your back and not worked with him another day.

it wasn't ignorant at all, you knew that. a bit sketchy at first, sure, but not ignorant. lodgok had proven himself trustworthy and has helped you in being one step ahead.

you stepped back in surprise, "that was cruel. perhaps your uncle was right about you - you don't know when to stop."

sebastian glowered over you, stepping forward as his words were laced with venom, "oh, i do know when to stop. unbelievable."

taking a deep breath, you turned and walked out of the undercroft, ready to scream. you understood where Sebastian was coming from but the way he talked to you was so...angering. maybe you should have lied about who it was, about what lodgok was.

but calling you ignorant? okay, yes, this was your first year learning about magic and catching up to the rest of your peers, but you earned respect and knew - for the most part - what you were doing. you would never intentionally put Sebastian, anne, ominis, whoever in danger if you were not confident.

with a sniffle, you made your way through the dark arts tower to your common room, ready to just cry about how upset and angry Sebastian was. but before you could, ominis's voice stopped you, "coming from the undercroft, are we?"

you turned around, eyes glassy with unshed tears - albeit glad that ominis couldn't see them. you gave a small smile, "oh, yes. we were just discussing a painting we found."

ominis hummed, not entirely satisfied with your answer, "your voice is shaky. what happened?"

you let out a breath, "i - we can't talk about it here, ominis. too open."

he sighed, and with his free hand, he grabbed your arm, pulling you towards an owl statue inside a small window, before it turned around and you found yourself...well, inside a wall at hogwarts.

before you had time to question ominis of where you were, he asked once more, "what happened?"

you explained everything, just leaving out the parts where Sebastian was intent on not stopping to find a cure for anne, but moreso focused on the triptych. when you revealed who lodgok was, ominis cringed.

"oh, that's not the worst part," you said, wiping a stray tear, "he asked why he should listen to someone so ignorant."

ominis winced once more, "yikes."

you grumbled, "tell me about it. i want to cry because, well, i understand why he is upset but lodgok is a lead to stopping ranrok, to being one step ahead."

your blind friend nodded, "agreed, and if sirona trusts him, that's saying something."

you both stood in silence, the occasional sniffle from your nose giving ominis hints of how much this bothered you.

"give him time to cool off," he began. "anne is a sore spot for him, but he needs to understand that she won't be the only one cursed without your goblin friend's help. you made your way into his heart, those that he cares about. you'll be fine."

you nodded, trying to formulate your words, "thank you, ominis. i apologize for putting you in the middle of this, but it was nice to have someone listen."

ominis smiled softly, "of course, y/n. meet you at dinner?"

with a quiet, "yeah," you watched ominis make his way out of the secret room, and once again, you were left with screaming thoughts. sobs immediately racked your body, regret aching from your tears and sore throat. there was nothing left by the time you were done, face dried with tears as you composed yourself.

taking a breath, you left the room and immediately looked down, seeing a letter by the 'door.' on the top left was ominis's handwriting, but the letter itself was unopened: told you he's gone soft for you.

with a pained sigh, you picked up the letter and opened it, reading the words:

we need to talk. undercroft after dinner?

"merlin's beard."

dinner was not something you could stomach at the moment, and to be honest with yourself, you were sure it could come right back up as you made your way to the undercroft. with a wave of your wand, you opened up the clock-looking door and headed inside, anxiety eating you up like a full-course meal.

sebastian had his back to you, staring intently at the triptych until he heard the door open. his eyes met yours immediately, and he softened.

"hi," he said, biting his lip nervously as you made your way over to him.

"sebastian, i-" you began, but he shook his head. with a small smile, he grabbed your hands and held them against his chest, "it's ok."

your eyes welled up with tears, "but it's not, seb. i should've been honest with you and i wasn't. I'm sorry, you have every right to hate me."

sebastian was silent as the tears fell down your cheeks until he wiped them away with his thumb. you sniffled, looking up at him. he grasped onto your hands once more, "you were hesitant to tell me because you know how much i care for anne, for my sister. you listen to me and want what is best - that has always been you. I'm not mad at you, dove. I'm mad at merlin for making that our last option."

you gave a sad excuse for a chuckle as he smiled at you. he continued, "dove, listen to me. I'm sorry for what i said. i know you aren't ignorant; i reacted harshly about your goblin friend, but you understand why?"

you immediately nodded, squeezing his hands, "of course, seb. i know how important it is for you to find a cure for anne, and i would never jeopardize that if there was a chance lodgok could betray us. but he's good, honest."

sebastian grinned, and you continued, "i'm not mad at you either, y'know. you're good to me, seb, and i was just scared i lost you."

he held your face between his hands, thumbs softly rubbing over your cheeks as he adored you, "you could never lose me, dove. you are one of the few good things left in my life and i'd be an idiot to let you go."

you swallowed a sob as tears clouded your vision, but Sebastian hushed you, "it's okay, sweetheart. we're okay - i trust you. promise."

you nodded and gave a small smile, "i trust you too, seb. promise."

leaning forward, sebastian nudged his nose with yours, and you giggled as he mumbled, "there's my pretty dove." and with that, Sebastian sealed your lips in a kiss, your hands wrapping around his neck as he grounded himself on your hips.

maybe you should send lodgok a thank you card.

[pukicho]

Elden ring or God of war for game of the year?

Oh boy, it's a close close call. I’m gonna rant. 

In some ways, Ragnorok is an infallible game, it’s so perfect that poking holes in it seems so nit-picky that you just come off looking like a little jackass creature. I loved every second I played of it and I can't think of a better written, better performed, more charismatic experience. I've seen morons complain that the game has too many cutscenes, as if they didn't know what type of game they were buying into. I would whine about the cutscenes more if they sucked or if the game lacked actual gameplay but it most certainly does not. This game is CHOCK FULL of things to see and do, and all the flavor-text and optional dialogue is insane, on top of that, the game feels amazing to play and the move-set is sexy. When everything is going crazy, there are few games as exciting as this one. At the end of the day I can't think of a more satisfying experience, with one of the most thematically satisfying endings ever in a game.

Elden Ring on the other hand has its problems. It has a difficulty-scaling issue, it's buggy on every platform, it most certainly looks worse than Ragnorok, it has less endearing characters, and what little dialogue it has is pretty mediocre. That being said, Elden Ring is my GOTY. This game is kinda like my dream-game made real, an open world souls-like made by Hidetaka Miyazaki the legend himself - a game with the mystique of Breath of the wild without the shortcomings of content and variety. This game, in my eyes, is the single best example as to why a game should be open-world. So often in games I feel like an open world is a crutch. -- In ghost of Tsushima the open world disconnected me from the pacing and character-growth of our MC, the objectives felt so systematic and ubisoft-esque that it 'gamified' itself as you played, removing the atmosphere and experiential qualities of the experience over time - this effect can also be seen in Horizon Forbidden West, and Dying light 2. Elden Ring uses the open-world to surprise you, you learn so much, you need to be aware of your surroundings, understand the lay of the land, and find things without guidance. It does what Dark Souls did to adventure games and it removes the handrails from the experience, in this case, Elden Ring unlocks the open-world experience. As a result, there aren't many games that evoke such a CANDID experience in me. I've never had so much fun exploring a world, and I've never been so surprised by a game's sheer amount of content. I could go on and on but ultimately it removes the burdensome systems that typically plague games of this scale. I think the game has the best reward-feedback-loop ever, where every item is invaluable, versus the generic inundation of materials in other games, etc etc etc... At the end of the day, Elden Ring just another valuable lesson for the gaming industry; I feel like Fromsoft pops up and teaches the whole industry a new lesson every once in a while - like they know what people want at a fundamental level.

On paper, Ragnorok could be seen as the better overall package but as a result of it being linear, it lacks the candid experience that Elden Ring delivers in spades and I think, despite Ragnorok being one of the best-ever narratives put into a game of this caliber, Elden Ring captures what it means to be a video game better.

[thesoulshyperrealaslacreatura]

Drakenier: Violence as expression and affirmation - Pt.1

It has become a rather well-known piece of trivia (or at least, well-known within the niche internet circles I flow through) that 2010's Nier Replicant / Gestalt had its overall message thoroughly inspired by well, 9/11 - the discourse that produced it, that came of it, and became it. Although it may not be a direct quote, "to kill someone, you don't have to be out of your mind, you just need to believe you are correct" is a sentiment clearly echoed throughout the game; as the many layers of its central and side conflicts drop alongside the curtains to its second, third (and maybe kind of fourth) playthrough, so does what had, for quite a ways into the game, seemed like a story mostly about finding, nurturing and protecting a community - people to call home.

However, the statement above seems to somewhat conceal-so-as-to-merely-hint-at what I'd argue is a much more complex argument the games lay forth, when looked at as one series. I, myself, have found it difficult in the past to distill both Replicant and the wider series as a whole into one coherent message or thematic frame; partly (and beautifully), because there mustn't be one - this singular reading which eclipses the broad range of experiences that people have come to share with the series - such an idea is preposterously reductive. Still, I think that this mish-mash of "the game is about philosophy and tragedy and nihilism and existentialism and society and humanity and life" and whatnot misses a bit of where the different themes intersect, producing further instances of meaning from the text. I hope to discuss the evolution (were I to sound even more pretentious, I might have used the word genealogy, but I would never stoop to that) of a few central concepts surrounding drakenier's "philosophy of violence" and where they seem to have informed or have been informed by other aspects of the works.

Strap in, because just from writing the introduction I can already tell this is gonna have to come in multiple parts. Hopefully my writing can steer away from boring you to tears throughout all of it.

Spoilers for the whole series!

Part 1: Replicant, and the subjective experience gained from that funky 9/11 fun fact

"Blood is sound, sound is words, and words are power"

This quote, almost a chant from Weiss as the player starts to grasp the gameplay loop of attacking enemies to allow for magical attacks, ties in the game's teaching of that system with what I consider to be the most powerful writing from Replicant (I'm going to refer to it as Replicant for the sake of convenience, obviously Gestalt is included in that). And it is deeply tied to what Taro himself has credited as a major source of inspiration for Replicant in relation to his previous game, Drakengard.

In some ways, Nier Replicant isn't introducing a new, foreign idea over the original Drakengard, so much as bringing out new elements from within its predecessors' critiques of the gaming landscape. Though that only really becomes clear by taking future foresights the series would reach into account; this is the point at which it becomes prudent to ask ourselves one question - how might the game's design regulate the player's interaction with the game world? (A question that, if you're at all even familiar with Drakengard, you probably already know the answer to)

From this, we can extrapolate a lot of meaning from how the original Drakengard was conceived: a game about violence, from the perspective of people who were so immersed in their own awfulness and the general precarity of their world that they cannot enact anything but that same violence. And it is that violence which comes to define them.

I'd also like to do the pedantic thing and bring up the fact that violence can be thought of as more than just physical harm, but also in terms of violation. In that sense, when I claim that Drakengard's characters are defined by violence, I mean it in that their reduction of other people to objects serves as an exertion of themselves - the Dynasty Warriors inspired combat of cleansing battlefields as the only win state reflects back at Caim as his only method of building an identity of his own, one based on strength demonstrated from conquering his enemies. You might find that these 'enemies' are violated the moment they're placed into the game as props that sustain its overall narrative.

In fact, this 'loss of personhood as self-affirmation' theme reverberates into another key factor of the game's story: pacts. They explicitly deprive humans of something of themselves - their ability to communicate, to see, to age, to have hair (sure????) -, and reduces both parties into one shared essence, yet it is what permits its characters to have strength through which they find themselves as able to inflict that dehumanization onto others. Dehumanization becomes their characterization, both from the audience's perspective as well as in-world.

Following that, Nier Replicant does not dispute that destruction of the other simultaneously inflicts upon the self both corruption and affirmation. If anything, it only takes measures to strengthen that sentiment, in light of how the added theme of perspective brings forth a need to now more closely study the subjective experience of perpetrating violence. Thus:

"Blood is sound, sound is words, and words are power"

The gameplay system I've anchored this analysis to comes into play; attacking your enemies gives you the literal strength to continue your offense, by design - ridding them of their life force, their blood, perpetuates the narrative, the words being built, the sealed verses of a prophecy you've set for yourself: that of being a hero to your sister/daughter, friends and general community. This even extends to the lyrics of Ashes of Dreams:

"Are we the plaything of fiends or merely the dreams that we're telling ourselves?"

Though we shouldn't forget that Weiss' comment takes the form of X=Y=Z=W, and it seems I've neglected the 'sound' part of the sentence. As I was writing this, my brain immediately made the association between that and Drakengard 3's focus on the power of Song, which, in fairness, definitely was made with the rest of the series in mind - but, in this instance, that sounds like a bit of a lucky coincidence. Still, what the concept of sound brings to the statement doesn't seem too far off from what meaning could be made at a bit more of a general, rudimentary level, that being: our lifeforce (blood) translates into our ability to be heard (sound), thus effectively giving us narratives about the world around us (words), which gives our actions direction, purpose (power).

From that, we can take a closer look into a lot of different aspects of the game. After all, the reason I proclaimed this piece of writing to be so powerful isn't really because I could - and did - stretch its interpretation to its fullest, but also from the way it manifests itself around the struggles of various characters, while being tied to the game's overall systems and world. Emil receding into his identity as a weapon in order to redirect what he sees as his curse onto those who seek to harm his friends - leading to his sacrifice; Weiss, who also goes on to sacrifice himself, does so in the name of putting an end to this now 5-year mission, grown into his own center of existence; Louise, perhaps reacting to the world around her, saw humanity as something to claim from others, and faced erasure upon perceiving herself as incapable of acquiring it. For better or for worse, the moral codes characters create from their own intentions of living become rigid scripts to follow as self-fulfilling prophecies of their own identities.

We can see that, ultimately, characters across both games tend to follow journeys with a general structure of: bleak circumstances > feeling of powerlessness > violence as a misguided means of reclaiming the power to define oneself > entrenchment in violence becomes overbearing, coming to annihilate the very self which sought to instigate it. From the first Drakengard to the first Nier, this hasn't changed a bit. What changed is a distinct awareness in how the self, or what we might call "us" stands in conflict with the generalized other, "them", and where it uses morality as a catalyst for smoothing out the uncomfortable edges of that conflict.

In fact, the annihilation of the self as, paradoxically, an act of self-affirmation is the very core of ending D for Replicant. And this is, partly, where the inciting 9/11 quote comes into play - given our newfound empathetic understanding of where violence comes from, how do we process it? How do we make sense of it? From the way the world is established, the very act of surviving, for both replicants and gestalts, is somewhat tainted as immoral, and predicated on the erasure of an 'other'. It leaves room for later material to find itself more at ease with this question (and those circle back nicely to ending E from the new version, as well). For now, most of what the game feels comfortable in concluding comes from Kainé, who stands in contrast with most characters by fully rejecting the notion of being a moral agent throughout the entire story, yet the game still offers us the chance to save her - it, mirroring the protagonist, relentlessly believes in her. Not even that "she can be better", whatever better might mean, just that "she can be".

And obviously, finally, we can extrapolate plenty of social commentary from this. Playing off of the thematic material introduced in Automata, we could argue that Replicant's plot is, in retrospect, about slowly building up to the depiction of a certain "Death of God" - which, in nietzschean terms, is not merely society straying from religiosity, but represents an irreparable shattering in the very idea of a centralizing narrative that everyone could subscribe to and fit within. So ends humanity, not just as a species, but as a concept; no longer are people able to identify themselves as containing some unified essence of 'humanity', recognizing the other as a complete self in its own right, as they retreat into the violence that was inflicted against them, which they inflict back at the world - to have your totality reduced to a role in a play that the winner gets to write. And in that sense, I'd argue it captures specific facets of a post-9/11 climate pretty well.

Anyway, gonna make a separate post that's just about Drakengard 3, and then one that's just about Automata, but at a later time!

also, this thesis becomes more relevant when the time comes to analyze automata, but it was still helpful in having me think through the previous games, so I'll drop it here as a reference for now, and will mention it more loudly once we come to specific sections later (not about to be the next target for hbomberguy lmao): http://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/14525

Cool that there are people writing about it!! Thank you Xinlyu Tan, the goat!!! Would love to go through more material, but I'm writing this for fun on the side... hope anyone reading this has enough fun with it to go looking for more on their own, go extend the discussion further, blah blah blah. Also hope that I make any sort of vaguely coherent point. And, lastly, I hope you enjoy yourself!

[nerdyadoptee]

Mask of the Rose: The NerdyAdoptee Review

PUBLISH DATE: June 8, 2023 PLATFORMS: Windows, macOS, SteamOS, Linux, Nintendo Switch (launch); PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S (unspecified later, post-launch)

This is the game I've been waiting for.

Mask of the Rose is a visual novel from UK-based Failbetter Games, developers of Sunless Skies, Sunless Sea, and Fallen London. I've long followed Failbetter's work because of their commitment to worldbuilding. All of their games share a common universe, an alternate Victorian vision of the 19th century world, with generous helpings of the unexplained, the supernatural, and even dashes of Cthulhu-esque cosmic horror. London has sunk underground, and the residents of London have lost contact with the surface. In this dark world (nicknamed "the Neath"), we encounter things that are familiar (the Queen is still around, although she's become curiously reclusive) along with the less familiar (what exactly are the "Clay Men?").

This world has been built by Failbetter over three games and thirteen years, but Mask of the Rose doesn’t require any previous knowledge or experience with their games. A character creator allows you to choose your character's background, silhouetted portrait, and how others address your character, from "Captain" to "My Lady" to "Citizen." In addition to the gender inclusivity of the character creator, it's wonderful to see Failbetter give the player the option to specify the kind of romance they're looking for in this visual novel. You can pursue friendships only, seek romantic relationships, physical relationships, or both--and choosing any of those options doesn't prevent you from seeing certain endings or lore, it just gives the player agency in this quite personal choice.

From there, we're introduced to the world and its wide and diverse cast of characters. Going into almost any detail risks ruining the discovery that is such a beautiful part of Mask of the Rose, but I'll at least say that the characters in Mask of the Rose feel complex and unique, each with their own voice and desires. The gameplay loop revolves around choosing how to spend your time--like with other time-management-style games, you can't have conversations with everyone. In each conversation, you're making dialogue choices that have an impact on the people you speak with and on the character you're building over time. The choices are well-written, and show an insight into the complexity of conversation and tone that is often missing from less thoughtful visual novels.

Each day in Mask of the Rose is split up into a Morning and Afternoon time, adding weight and stakes to each playthrough: do I try to get the exhausted pastor to spend more time with a mutual friend, or do I cozy up to the streetwise merchant who seems to know what's going on behind the scenes? More importantly, WHOM DO I WANT TO SMOOCH?

Ahem. Excuse me.

Mask of the Rose has so much story to uncover that one playthrough isn't sufficient. You're trying to solve a mystery, you're trying to uncover more about London's peculiar new surroundings, and you're trying to matchmake your friends, and you might be looking for romance for yourself. A playthrough generally takes me about 3-4 hours, and although I've done multiple playthroughs, there's still more to discover. I'm excited to learn more about each one of the fascinating characters, and I'm further drawn in because Mask of the Rose weaves a tale that touches upon so many elements of 19th century English society, from British global imperialism and colonialism to class struggles and privilege.

While I love the writing and Mask of the Rose's visual novel gameplay (and unique "storycrafting" mechanic/minigame, which is another gameplay pillar), I did run into a few frustrations. I would've appreciated an option to fast-forward text I've already seen. Mask of the Rose helpfully provides a fast-forward option, but it's too easy to accidentally skip past new dialogue and lore. In a game that demands multiple playthroughs, a smarter fast-forwarding option is a really unfortunate omission. I also felt like the time management aspect felt very constraining; it could be my own lack of intuition and understanding, but I sometimes found progression dense or unforgiving. The subtlety of Mask of the Rose is a strength, so I’d love if hints or some kind of help could be an option that players choose to turn on. More days and levels of signposting to clues would go a long way to making me even more excited about future playthroughs.

Overall, I'm smitten by Mask of the Rose. It's the game I've been waiting for because I've wanted to explore this world for a long time, but have struggled with the gameplay and difficulty of Sunless Sea and Sunless Skies. If you share a love for evocative writing and thoughtful worldbuilding, you've got to get Mask of the Rose.

Be sure to tell me whom you smooch!

[maxwell-grant]

Reverse Unpopular Opinion: Necalli

I like his moveset, I enjoy wild man characters and I liked the idea of a character who could bring back some of the face-biting inscrutable beastman mystique that Blanka had to shed (not that Blanka doesn't bite faces or does vicious attacks anymore, but it's different than when you first meet him). I still think he had one of the more well-done incorporations of the V-Trigger mechanic via the transformation. I also like his design, not one of my favorites, but I do like it. I feel like it was really hampered by really wonky hair physics and the game's artstyle, but I could see it working gangbusters if he was introduced in SF6.

Necalli's one of the few fighters unanimously considered a dud (and might be the only mainline character who wasn't even a little retroactively embraced? Even Rufus, Falke and Ingrid have their shooters) but I honestly think the problem wasn't with him as much as it was the writing for SFV being garbage and them being unwilling to commit to the hype they built for him. I think Necalli had plenty of individually cool components that could have amounted to something cool, maybe even great, if he actually even remotely mattered outside of being a boss fight for Ryu.

I love G, infinitely better than Necalli, but I call bullshit on him being supposed to be the Final Boss, they hyped up Necalli as someone who could devour Bison and gave him a Saiyan form and stamped V all over his body. He was clearly meant to be the guy, and if G was being hyped up to play a role in A Shadow Falls, I guarantee he would not be so fondly remembered. The same thing happened with Necalli, everybody was onboard with the Pillar Man mystery box until it was time to open it.

His Story Mode, and the version of him that exists in the Story Mode, honestly should have been what they went with for the guy, it's part of why him being dissappointing soured people.

I think he could have worked pretty well as the resident Weird Monster of the setting, and that's not exactly a niche anyone else is filling.

He is an "Emissary of the Gods" who shows up every few hundred years to seek out and consume the strongest warriors, and frankly you could get a lot out of unpacking just that, that not only does are the gods of the Street Fighter universe just as obsessed with battles as everyone else in this world, but they created a horrible monster to be summoned by combat and fight the worthiest warriors for, why? To honor them? Prune them? Punish them for excessive fighting? Cut monsters like Bison down before they get too strong, or push them towards new heighs as he did with Ryu? What is he for?

He can possess animals, and enter dreams. He can expand and balloon his flesh into gross fleshy Tetsuo/Majin Buu mutations in order to absorb people, and that never shows up in his gameplay, in fact none of his weird powers do except for that V-Skill where he barfs on the floor. He is summoned by conflict and his drive is to kill and devour the source of said conflict. He seems barely sentient but apparently has a "hidden genius". He can inflict a literally paralyzing fear and is surrounded by a noxious gas that "pollutes" the souls and turns the infected into beings like him that seek other souls, and that literally never shows up in-game, ever, apparently that was just for a blog post.

Is it too much? Probably, yeah, but it's something. It's a lot of somethings instead of a literal nothing. He doesn't do anything much for Ryu's story arc, he doesn't even do anything for Akuma's currently abysmal kill record, because by the time Akuma kills him, defeating Necalli is the least impressive thing to do. If you're gonna pull the trigger on having a guy this full of strange powers and prophecies and mystery boxes as the villain you put front and center on the advertisement, the least you can do is try to deliver on them. It's kind of confusing that they didn't even try.

I feel like you could even maybe salvage the dude if you just leaned on the weirdness. Apparently one of the Udon comics established he is "a conceptual being who is tied to the aspect of conflict, and cannot be destroyed by normal means as long as there is a universe where conflict exist"? Okay, lean into that. Make it so that he is Necalli, plural. As in, there's multiple of him, maybe one's not that strong on his own, but nobody's ever had to fight several at once and all of them trying to kill and absorb you into the collective. Maybe he is a viral sickness that comes up again and again all over the world, that was supposed to only happen every few hundreds of years but has been happening more and more frequently ever since Bison darkened the world, or maybe ever since Street Fighter tournaments became the thing the world revolves around, maybe ever since Ryu got a taste of the dark side and mauled Sagat for it.

He is not the answer, but a cancer at the heart of battle, waiting for the next warrior who falls victim to their own strength, the next person to be corrupted by the Satsui no Hadou or Psycho Power, a persistence predator biding his time until the warriors are too weak to fight him off, and then he'll take the souls that belong to him, or maybe even come from him, if he's to be believed. Because really, WHY is there a Necalli? Why would the gods sign off on this existing? Could it even be they were right to do so, given the role he played in awakening Ryu's potential so he could stop Bison? Is he a sickness or a cure, and what does it say about our beloved World Warriors if the fabric of the universe deemed it necessary to sick such a horrible thing on them?

This guy could even allow for a Street Fighter equivalent to a zombie apocalypse, if they even incorporated that toxic soul gas thing into anything we see in game. It might not the best idea, but it's something? Anything? Anything better than what he did for sure.

Idk man, even if he was never going to be a particularly interesting Final Boss, you can't dissappoint on such a scale if you never promise, and for a hot second, Necalli WAS promising. There was an excitement around him and around the things built up for him. That's more than I can say for a lot of other characters. I'd like to think a Mortal Kombat character who somehow found his way into Street Fighter is an idea even a little worth salvaging.

But then again I definitely don't think we need to have MORE fuckers surviving encounters with Akuma so, RIP bozo.

[died-but-not-dead-propaganda]

Dastardos Propaganda

while not being explicitly stated to be undead/have died, his backstory heavily implies it and its pretty much accepted fanon. (The lore of Viva Pinata is weird and there's a lot of context to explain so bear with me, but if you want the whole backstory you can find the unlockable storybook from the game on youtube easily)

Originally named Stardos, he was the eldest son of the best gardener on Pinata Island and replaced his father's incompetent and scheming gardening assistant Lester at a young age. Some unknown time later, Lester sends Stardos' parents on a wild goose chase to find a dragon pinata and Stardos is left in charge of the garden. Lester then lures Stardos away from the garden with promises of sharing a type of candy he's made that can attract any pinata to a garden (the main gameplay premise of the game is creating a garden and getting wild pinata to live there, essentially) Stardos goes with him most likely hoping to impress his dad by having lots of new pinata in the garden when he returns (another theory is this is because of insecuritites surrounding his baby brother Sidos who is like a gardening prodigy from birth basically). But obviously this is a trap and Lester gives him a SOUR CANDY (sourness being an evil substance on pinata island) which poisons him and, as far as his family know, Stardos was never seen again.

Meanwhile the garden was being completely destroyed by the evil minions of Lester, who renames himself Professor Pester and becomes the main villain of the series. little Sidos runs away to live in the swamp and becomes Seedos (whole other can of worms), their mother also goes missing presumably drowned at sea, and their father ends up wheelchair bound and unable to restore the ruined garden (which becomes the players job)

a little while after that, Dastardos appeared. A corrupt version of Stardos who's own family can't recognise him. His whole deal in-game is that when you leave a pinata sick for too long, Dastardos acts as a grim reaper of sorts. He floats into your garden, humming a random, creepy tune that's said in the game's journal to have a calming effect on pinata, and then he'll smash the sick pinata and take their life sweet, which is described as "the very essence of a pinata). Then you'll get an alert with his one voice acted line, saying "I've broken open a precious little pinata. Easy come, easy go" and then laughs

One of the biggest things that imply he's died in some way or another, are his abilities. I've already mentioned that Dastardos floats, but if there are obstacles in his path to a sick pinata, then he'll just turn himself transparent and float right through the obstacle as if it isn't there! Combined with the floating, that sure seems ghostlike to me! Another thing is that he can't be hurt. Obviously you can't seriously hurt people in the pinata garden sim game, but you CAN whack other NPCs with your shovel and they'll react to it, but Dastardos doesn't react at all, no matter how much you hit him. Until you manage to unlock the "Dastardos shovelhead" for your shovel, which is described as "being on the same frequency" as Dastardos. HMMM. Hitting him with that stuns him for a moment, giving the doctor npc more time to reach your sick pinata.

Another interesting point is the life candy. When pinata are broken, either by other pinata (the game has quite a robust food chain), the villains or a cruel player, they, of course, leave behind a pile of candy. Most of this is generic candy, except for the single life candy (which looks different for each pinata species). Dastardos stands out as a villain when contrasted to Professor Pester because while Pester will come into your garden to smash your most valuable pinata and eats ALL the candy it drops, Dastardos only picks up the life candy and then leaves. Interesting that it's specifically the LIFE candies that he steals, and we don't know what he does with all those candies at all...

In a minigame from the sequel where NPCs will judge your pinata, Dastardos implies he still cares about pinata and gardening. He's mischevious and makes cruel jokes, but he also tells a some half-truths. "I used to dream of breeding award-winning pinata myself, but my career advisor said i didn't have the right temprement for it" in particular calls back to his backstory while also making it sound like he's making it up to be funny if you don't know he was Stardos. During this minigame, NPCs all have different biases and they'll vote for different pinata when they're judging. Dastardos specifically judges for pinata that have NEVER been sick, and seems harsh on gardeners who let their pinata get ill frequently. Overall he's a pretty complex and morally grey villain!

I know it can be hard finding good information on Viva Pinata lore, so here's some links if you want calrification on any of this!

Dastardos' family's wiki page: https://pinataisland.info/viva/Characters

Storybook chapters on youtube: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFFHHsIDSEqFucTky111oXivoLC0Xe5ua

Video of him smashing a pinata and one voice line: https://weirdlittlegames.tumblr.com/post/184089814125/dastardos-voice

VP transcript google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1OSS1rFvgLSNR1-e3AFgOsfeROwnM_EFDyMnNUcDkgFs/edit

(All these resources were made by me

Sorry for the novel in your submission box asrhgfseawsrheg but I wanted to give the context needed to understand why this character is assumed to have died despite no official confirmation! + Viva Pinata is very niche and even among people who play the game people rarely pay attention to the characters and lore

He came back wrong but we love that for him.

HE IS LITCHERALLY UNDEAD ate a bad candy and now he’s a spooky reaper :( He deserves so much better but it’s pretty epic tbh

[everlasting-evocation]

Fear and Hunger Thoughts - Ending A - SPOILERS Ahead

I've been having a lot of thoughts lately about ending A and it's significance within the lore as a whole, especially it's impact during the Termina timeline. As dark and violent as this game is, I truly believe that the core theme it's trying to convey is the idea that it is necessary to cling to hope, even through pain and despair. Fear and Hunger are core experiences of not only humanity but every single living being, as ancient and painful as life itself. The dungeons were created by The God of The Depths specifically to destroy the minds of all who entered, destroying them and trapping them in the inescapable darkness. The Gods, both old and new hold many varying and distinctly different ideas and ambitions when it comes to their influence and legacy, with Nilvan believing in the boundless potential of humanity and it's ability to grow and progress. The idea of hope being born from suffering is such a naïve concept for Nilvan to believe, but it is also so painfully human to long for a positive outcome despite the circumstances, even when, logically, it is impossible. Sometimes blind hope in the midst of suffering will not conquer evil, and I appreciate how the lore acknowledges that the birth of the Ancient Soul, forced to endure a life of constant torment, would not bring about the peace that Nilvan had so desperately aspired to create as a continuation of her legacy.

Despite everything, the Ancient Soul is a benevolent God, at least to some degree. It has festered within the tortured soul of a child locked within the dungeons for as long as it has lived, knowing only suffering for the entire duration of it's short life, yet in spite of this it does not cause pain without reason. It understands what the player character has endured throughout the dungeon and knows that even if they were to return to the surface there would be no way to overcome the trauma they experienced. The dungeon itself (or your character's inner voice) comments multiple times that you have delved too deep, marking The Gauntlet as your final resting place from the moment you entered the mouth of The God of the Depths. There is no way out, and the God of Fear and Hunger clearly has the power to impose a torturous death upon the character if it wanted to. The character is in it's domain and defeated it in a battle, it can be argued that the newborn God even had many reasons to want to hurt the player. Instead, it offers a gentle death without further suffering for someone who has already endured so much for a mission that was doomed from the beginning.

The gameplay itself is all about starting over and hoping for a better outcome even though you know you're probably going to fail again. Whether you're interested in the lore, have grown attached to the characters, or even feel like you have something to prove by 'beating' the game, the dungeons of Fear and Hunger inspire perseverance and show the strength of the human spirit even in the face of what seems to be impossible.

Every aspect of this game is focused on suffering, even down to it's name and yet the community surrounding Fear and Hunger is so upbeat and full of joy.

During my spring semester of college this past year I was having probably the worst week of my entire life and, as a result of this, I ended up writing the final essay for my Philosophy class about the futility of existence. Essentially it boiled down to nihilistic ramblings about the hopelessness of life and how humans clearly were not created to serve a higher purpose and how life was full of nothing but suffering so "why even try?" In the moment, everything I had written made perfect sense, but looking back on it I realize that life does have purpose, and that purpose can only be found through hope. Only in pushing past the obstacles that oppose us can the human spirit find the will and strength to move forward, and this is something I believe wholeheartedly. It's true that in many situations there is nothing to be gained from suffering, sometimes it just hurts. It does not teach you anything, it does not make you stronger. But sometimes the pain we face is a lesson, instead offering new insight and experience to learn from. It is reasonable to fear the unknown, but unless this fear is confronted, it will consume us. Yes the world is cruel, yes it is unforgiving and heartless (oftentimes without reason). Pain and suffering are unavoidable truths of life, but they are also not impossible to overcome.

None of the endings in Fear and Hunger are particularly positive, even if the characters are able to complete the task they set out to achieve. The dungeon has changed them, forcing them to live with the memories forged within the depths. But life goes on. Despite the odds the human will to survive can find ways to surpass even the most impossible challenges, with the existence of Termina being evidence of this. The Cruel Age was not the end, but instead acted as a stepping stone for immense progress, cementing the The God of Fear and Hunger as an Ascended God who continues to be worshipped throughout the present timeline. The God of Fear and Hunger's birth and subsequent reign throughout the Cruel Age spurred movement and widespread progress despite the initial pain that it created. It is loved for the suffering it created, inspiring humanity through hardships and pushing them towards a new and brighter future.

[ahmedmootaz]

How does a distorted X will fight Roland and Ayin? What annoying thing X will do if it's in a game? What happens if Roland and Ayin loses to X? To the de-agers?

Dear astrocurier,

Hello! It's always a pleasure to see you again! And with more questions regarding Distortions, it seems as if a lot of asks are curious with their regards, hehe.

I think that Distorted!X would've used Arbiter-esque powers in an attempt to overpower both Roland and Ayin; he would've thrown them around like ragdolls, used the surrounding furniture as makeshift weapons to throw at them, and perhaps used the tendrils that came out of him as a sort of extra member that could sweep an area behind his back and thus cover that blind-spot for him, allowing him to focus all of his attention on attacking in every possible direction instead of having an obvious weak-point that could be easily and seriously exploited by his adversaries. I believe he would also be able to summon spikes and stakes from the ground, not to mention that the shockwaves he would possess and the pillars could have a myriad of 'creative' applications that I doubt will be very pleasant when applied against either Roland or Ayin. And of course, the chain nooses aren't simply for decoration; they could probably be fashioned into whips of sorts of a method of grabbing enemies from afar.

Something annoying he could do if he was a gameplay element? Well, I think that Distorted!X would have very strong regeneration powers to make up for the large, distended stomach of his that would be self-repairing at every moment to regenerate the damage it's causing itself. As such, he would be very difficult to push down because it's not just about beating him, it's also about demoralising him enough to the point where his regeneration is no longer effective. Not to mention that said regeneration could probably grant him access to some devastating attacks such as the ability to generate lots of blood and then release it with a high pressure by lacerating a small part of his body in order to blind/harm foes with the resulting fountain of blood. A bit cheesy and maybe a little too gorey to the point of comedy, but PM games always did have the occasional bit of comedy to them with attacks, so I suppose this fits the bill as well.

As for the last question, I think that they would simply be forced to comply, at least outwardly. Distorted!X never wanted to harm either of them, after all; he simply wanted them to see the errors of their ways and to give up on returning the children back to adults at all. Even if he did want to harm them, I doubt Distorted!Carmen as his muse will allow him to harm her beloved Yinnie in any way or form, so his end goal would be to beat Roland and Ayin into submission and force them into forgetting about the De-Agers in general and the fact that there was a life before the De-Aging Incident; he wants them to just enjoy the new life that they have without questioning it or seeking to return to a life before it. I believe he may try to destroy the De-Agers to reach his goals and attempt to force Roland and Ayin into accepting the fact that there's no way to turn back the clock as they originally wanted, though with his more...shall we say, warped mind, it may be possible to trick him into destroying similar-looking trinkets and hide the De-Agers until the opportunity is right to strike back...

But that's a line of thought for another time! For now, and as always, thank you ever so much for the fun asks, astrocourier, and for the immense patience you display while waiting for each answer. I hope to see more of your asks, and until next time, be well, stay safe, and see ya'!

[victorychest]

Signalis - post mortem (SPOILERS)

What a cool game...

I had a really good time with Signalis. Everything from the presentation and the reimagined combat system, to the surrealist story and clever puzzles, Signalis is certainly one of the most innovative gaming experiences of the year. And though I haven't played everything, from what I've seen/read about, Signalis brings a deep breath of fresh air when compared to other new releases this year!

I obviously enjoyed my time with this game, but I wanted to share a few things that really set it apart in ways that aren't as specific to me.

Level Design/Gameplay Cohesion:

My enthusiasm for Signalis is found in one main accomplishment. I love that the design really makes you feel and understand the way the Elster feels. Somehow, we feel their determination, fear, and even the desire to leave as they feel those things. When you are discovering an area for the first time, the enemies are scary and the level is unpredictable, but when you are solving a puzzle, the game somehow, subtly shifts into feeling like you are in control of that same area as you go to collect items and read notes. Then, as you travel through the depths of horror to save Elster's most treasured person, you feel that need to keep pressing on to find out more, despite your surroundings. This may be a "standard" to survival horror games, but it is so well done here it is hard to imagine any other game having as much success. It may seem silly but I really feel like this simple core element is enough for me to recommend Signalis to people as a must play.

Impeccable Vibe-age:

Another thing that stands out in this game is the world and art within it. The setting Signalis takes place in is not simple in any way at all. I was blown away when I started reading more and more into the lore of this game and how deep each subplot goes. There are many elements to the story and they take off in different directions starting as soon as you finish the prologue. However, the excellent art direction and visual designs end up being the glue that holds the whole game together with each aesthetic decision serving many purposes in the overarching story.

One example of this is something I actually read on TV tropes. The beautifully bleak 90s tech aesthetic that permeates the work station in Signalis is not only used to invoke the classic dystopian sci-fi/cyberpunk/outrun touchpoints we have outside of the game, but it is also used to show the nation of Eusan's hyperfocus on one subsection of technology. The story points out that the development of Replikas and use of bioresonance was the sole focus of Eusan, to the point of practically erasing other parts of tech from the picture.

The way that Rose-Engine is able to craft such an interesting story while supporting it with more than just notes and journal entries is another perfect reason to recommend Signalis to anyone.

Game Feel:

This has been stated many times already so I will keep it brief. The "pick-up-and-play-ability" of this game is truly the best modernization you can ask for in the world of PS1 inspired survival horror games. I know that this is everyone's complaint since the beginning of time, but games need to be fun to play for me to enjoy them. Signalis is most definitely fun to play.

Final thoughts:

With that I just wanted to say thank you for reading and thanks to Rose-Engine for making such an awesome experience. If you had any thoughts about the game, please share them below so we can share this game together!

-VictoryChest

P.S. The art above is by yours truly.

[hoshi-y]

Hiiii!!! Hoshi!! Can I be your friend? Also can I get headcanons of Tsukasa and Mitsuba (yanderish?) with a s/o who is like Mikan from danganropa? Especially when people look at them and seek them taking to the ghost boys and don’t see anybody but seeing their happy face ❤️Please and thank you!!!(if you need her personality she’s shy has trust issues and apologizes a lot and offers to take her clothes off due to abuse and you don’t have to add that)

Happy to be with you

Genre : Fluff

Characters : Yugi Tsukasa, Mitsuba Sousuke

TW : Bullying, Murder, Kidnapping, Abuse, Foul language

A/N : AWWWW OFC!! Love making new friends LMAO and thank you for including her personality! I've already watched gameplays or some parts of the anime so I kind of forgotten how she acted HAHA

But one thing I remember, is that she always gets picked on and says sorry alot but your information helps 💗

I hope you enjoy 💗

Don't worry Love! We just had a discussion~

You were never the brightest color in the crayon box

Yet you'd often get picked on

Why though?

Is it because you're an easy target? Or is it because of your shy nature, You don't speak much maybe it's cause they took your shyness as an advantage?

Maybe it is that..

It was one of those days again

Where this 3 girls would pick on you everyday

This time, they did it INFRONT of your lover

You think Tsukasa will let that slide? Nope!

The three girls infront of you started laughing hisy "What we're you smiling about earlier freak? Awww did your imaginary friend say something funny?" One girl cackled as she left and the other followed

He saw it all unfold, Right infront of his eyes, what went from a very lovely conversation with his S/O turned into a wreck after you left, You already had enough bruises as it is yet those girls had no mercy and made sure to pepper your whole entirebody with bruises

When he followed you to hive you a bunch more kisses the scene unfolded, he wanted to do something, but for the first time he froze in his spot as he watched you get beaten up, You stood up and wiped your tears "I-i'm sorry.." Everytime you wipe your tears, new ones just kept coming

This broke Tsukasa's heart as he immediately ran to you and held you in his arms "Hey.. hey.. shhh.. It's okay, I'm here now.." Tsukasa ordered his Tseushiros to bring them to the broadcasting room, As black smoke surrounded the two of you, both of you were now in the safe zone of the broadcasting room

He held your arm to look at your bruises as you whimpered in pain, He didn't like seeing you like this. So he was gonna take matters into his own hands.

He bandaged you up and comforted you with hugs and kisses until you've finally calmed down and fell into a slumber, He laid you down in a comfortable position as he wiped the rest of your tears away, He hates seeing you like this, It breaks his heart to see you like this, He doesn't want not one scratch on your perfect skin

Tsukasa kissed your forehead as moved away strays of hair off your face "Don't worry love, I'll do something to make them stop." He ordered one of his Tseushiros to watch over you and he dissappeared somewhere.

The next day, You heard rumors that the three girls that always picked on you got injured, One went missing, the other was found dead, and the other was hospitalized.

"Its crazy... they were just doing fine yesterday"

"Who cares, they won't bother us anymore.."

You heard the rumor and the murmuring of the students, You went straight to the broadcasting room and opened the door to have Tsukasa jump on you "[F/N]!!! My lovely and dearest of S/O~" He wrapped his legs and arms around you like a koala and snuggled on you "Hi Tsu" You ruffled his hair

You two sat down, seems like Sakura and Natsuhiko weren't here yet "Where's Natsuhiko and Sakura-senpai?" You asked Tsukasa "MMMMM probably on a date~ HEY we should go on one too!!" He excitedly suggested, you didn't wanna decline him so you accepted

He was opening up the boundary when you heard muffling you turned around and saw nothing "Are you okay?" Tsukasa asked

"Mhm, I just heard something"

"Probably A rat! Come on let's go~ We have the whole day to ourselves" You held onto his hand as the two of you dissappeared to the location

The source of the sound earlier?

It was one of the girls who kept giving you the worst bruises of all. Tied up to a pole as her mouth was duct taped and blindfolded

But of course, Tsukasa didn't want you his lovely S/O to know about that right?

He doesn't.

Oh, well why do you care they went missing?

Mitsuba was your boyfriend when he was alive

He helped you escape out of your abusive household, Scare away the people that were bullying you even though he was scared himself

Or is he?

It shattered you whole when you heard he got into and accident and passed away on the arrival

You couldn't move on

Without his protection or his guidance to escape from your house

Everything just got worse

But, after 2 years

You found him again, as a ghost..

You were overjoyed and the two of you continued where you left off

You still loved him, and he still loved you even after death

But the thing that you didn't know was, you were the only one who could see hik and not other students

In their perspective, you were laughing and talking to air

"Look.. aren't they weird.. they have been talking to herself everyday.." A guy said passing by

"better clear way, we might get infected" The two of them laughed as you lowered your head

You heard what they said, but you were used to it

But not Mitsuba

"What the fuck are their problem? Can't keep your nose out of something?" He hissed

You were already having a hard time at home and yet the students here also give you a hard time, Can't they give you a break? does seeing you this vulnerable make them happy?

Mitsubas blood boiled in anger, he has witnessed EVERYTHING everytime the two of you talk in a more quiet and isolated area. Yet students just can't stop snooping around can't they?

"Mitsuba.. It's alright.."

"No. it's not." He looked at you as he held your hand "come.. I'll bring you to my boundary hm?" He said in a calm voice, he didn't wanna trigger any bad memories you had

He took you to his boundary and that's where the two of you continued your conversation

As you were doing your own thing, He excused himself and said he'll be back shortly.

When he finally came back, he had a blood stain on his cheek "A-ah! Mitsuba what happened?! did you.. Did you get hurt?.."

"No no.. I was.. Making you a uhmm.. Strawberry.. Cake!! See?" He held out a box as your eyes sparkled

This is the type of reaction he wants to see from you, The happy go lucky and free attitude you have always shown.. Yet those people took it for granted.

He wants to see you stay positive all the time while he watches over you

So he took out the negativity out of your life

One.

by

One.

I feel like I didn't portray Mikans personality right so pls educate me HAHA

[voistly]

WHAT are ur top 5 favorite viddy-o games of all time

listed in no particular order. i am not a seasoned gamer so many of these are focused on how the art/writing/story has impacted my own worker over the mechanics of gameplay. because truth be told i do not understand game design all that well and the art/story is often what draws me in and keeps me around.

also note that i have trouble with picking favourites of all time since my tastes change very frequently. that being said think of these more of 'games that i think about a lot.' very rambly thoughts.

ultrakill

i haven't played many boomer shooters, but the few i have played don't have the same kick as ultrakill. i really love the entire art direction and the conceptualization of hell (for example i love how cerberus is designed after rodin's thinker from the gates of hell rather than the 3 headed dog.) also i have to give it some credit because i think ultrakill gave me much better reaction time & aiming skills for other shooters LOL

2. team fortress 2

not a game i'm particularly good at but i'm not terrible at it. i'm sad that a lot of the new maps seem haphazard and poorly thought out compared to some of the older community maps, but despite all of its jankiness i still have a lot of love for it (even venice... even wutville.) again something i have to give credit for being a huge inspiration on my art style. i think the tf2 comics are some of my more obvious style inspirations & the design of actual game got me thinking heavily about how to conceptualize a character (example being sniper being one of the tallest character to see over sightlines, engineer being the only character short enough to hit a teleporter without crouching, etc)

3. disco elysium

wonderful story. wonderful art. without hyperbole, i think about this game at least 3 times a week since i played it a year and a half ago. i think its also really obvious how disco elysium has impacted my art style (my work has gotten a lot more painterly since i first played it!) & now that i think xyril's city as a point&click/vn style game like disco elysium. but something obvious probably only to me is how its impacted my writing style... i tried to read sacred and terrible air, but i only got a few chapters in. of course i was interested in the story but since it was a fan translation it didn't have the same flow and pairing of phonetic sounds as disco elysium did. i like how the writing sounds when you say it out loud, like 'jamrock shuffle' or 'tequila sunset'

4. undertale & deltarune

honestly the game that got me into worldbuilding and writing in the first place. the role of the player & the world/characters surrounding them is what pushed me into actualizing my ocs into their own stories rather than as vague, dissonant concepts with a fun design.

5. lethal company

i get one recency bias answer. its just a really fun game and i really like playing it with my friends. i wouldn't say it has influenced my art or writing like any of the others have, but i think its gotten me to think about game design & sound design a lot more. especially sound design and how nicely it pairs with the aesthetics. all of the unique sound cues are really helpful in understanding your situation when you can't easily see your situation (low fov, low fidelity graphics, can't crane neck all the way down, etc).

honourable mentions: rimworld, barotrauma, pentiment (i was going to include this alongside disco elysium but i decided against it), portal 1 & 2 (was also going to include this alongside tf2)

[spewagepipe]

Spewage Litmus: Her Story

As much as I wanted to like Her Story, my experience with it was more like feeling lost and aimless instead of like a cunning detective. Maybe some of this is down to my ADHD, but I found that every time I caught on to a new lead I was forgetting the previous ones that I still needed to follow up on. This became easier once I started keeping my own notes – but if note-taking is a critical feature of Her Story's gameplay, then I can't easily forgive the fact that a simple text editor app wasn't included among the game's sundry desktop icons. The story was quite interesting, but I got a lot more satisfaction from just watching the complete interviews in order after the fact than I did from my own inept sleuthing.

REJECTED

I want to give Her Story a little more space on my blog than just the usual "APPROVED/REJECTED" because, while I can't approve a game that didn't work for me, I really recognize a lot of the cool stuff that's going on here.

Sam Barlow clearly set up a few intentional threads to follow, where looking up obvious keywords in one clip leads to others that build a related story. I have to applaud the intricate scriptwriting necessary to make that work, and to conceal heavier spoilers by ensuring there are at least 5 insignificant videos that mention any given word that might otherwise unveil the whole mystery too soon. But I think my experience was actually hampered by this feature – I got the impression that I was being strung along with a provided assortment of breadcrumbs, instead of making my own inferences.

That was, at first, the only real way for me to play at all, since the way Her Story throws multiple leads at you at a time was quite antagonistic to the way I normally correlate data, and so I just stop trying. Eventually, as I started to hit a wall where none of the search terms I could remember were turning up any new clips, I restarted from the beginning, this time transcribing keywords onto my own notepad so that I could follow up on each of my passing notions.

This eventually got me through the game, but the ideal approach probably would have included constructing at least two timelines: one to track which information appeared in which of the interviews, and a second to track the supposed timeline of events surrounding Simon's murder. That kind of structuring probably would have been too much for a lot of mystery enthusiasts, but also would have been invaluable accessibility features for me.

But the biggest reason I wanted to give an "APPROVED" to Her Story was just because it was a totally new and unique take on how to construct an interactive mystery. It may not have worked for me, but it worked for tons of other people, and I think that deserves recognition. I think it deserves to be copied and iterated upon, because it seems to me that games in general still haven't found a clear, working paradigm for mysteries – and this, or something based on it, has great potential.

[therichantsim]

I originally wrote this after reading Gym Life S15.Ep:43-BMB21, but before I saw that Spa Day S15.Ep:44-BMB22 was posted. After reading Spa Day, I had to consider whether or not my thoughts changed. So I sat on it for a bit. Then I read Get Somebody Else to Do It S15.Ep:45-BMB23 this morning and that confirmed for me that my thoughts didn't change.

I agree with what Quinton was saying in the last scenes of Gym Life. BUT!

I think Quinton missed the mark with Yasmine's date. They are all perpetually being put on the spot; they're all interviewing for the role, but so far, everyone's date has been couched in their interests but in a way that they could offer commentary on it but also enjoy each other's company. With Yasmine, he took her to a place, albeit, very much couched in her interests, but in a way that she became the sole object of commentary. Dani didn't have to convince the club to cha cha slide and Noemy didn't have to prepare a feast; they both got to enjoy their interests whereas Yasmine had to prove hers.

I think it came from a good place, the same place in Quinton that produced the other dates, but since she's an influencer, he could have seen what she was made of in that respect from her social media. I think the gym environment was inspired, but at a gym it would be inappropriate for her to comment on the other gym-goers, so she couldn't even turn the tables to her advantage and could only do what he asked her to do from the door, which was perform. He has some far-reaching connections, so maybe he could have arranged for her to get a peek behind the scenes of someone she admired in the industry; not to meet them, because three's a crowd, but just to hang out, observe, and experience it a bit. Something like that would have afforded her the same advantage as the others.

As for Yasmine, she seems to have completely forgotten it was supposed to be a date. Not entirely her fault considering what she was initially tasked to do, but it was not a good look for a perspective partner or future trainer for her to be so focused on herself. She only checked in with him once. Her bio might say that she's looking for love, but she seems like she'd be better off with a business partner.

Now, while Quinton didn't get to interact with Yasmine in the same way as the others, he did get to see her passion, her determination, her tunnel vision, and that while she seems to be competitive, she's mostly competing with herself. And, if nothing else, I think he got to see that she is not ready for a life with him and what that entails. Tunnel vision and child rearing don't mix.

Even if with the date Quinton was aiming to see if Yasmine, when surrounded by her interests, could manage to broaden her focus and be aware of and attentive to her company, I still think making her perform when the others didn't have to was shortsighted of him. He's a thoughtful dude, so I know it wasn't intentional, but the consequences of that was Yasmine was at a disadvantage and that Quinton didn't get to share the time with her in the same way. They did have time after the workout on the sofa, but by then it was already too late because the cadence had been set.

Now, that is what I wrote initially, and after Spa Day, my thoughts haven't changed. But I will say that while it wouldn't make sense for Quinton to take her to hot yoga before a workout, the new experience aspect of the session was more in keeping with the previous dates. Since it came after the performance, though, it still feels like Quinton missed an opportunity to get to know her in the same way/at the same pace.

Rockwall climbing was a new experience as well, but it was wrapped in the performance, so I don't want to say it doesn't count, but maybe that it doesn't carry the same weight.

But I guess when all is said and done, he still learned what he needed to.

I am so happy to have your feedback because I struggled to write this date, because gameplay it was awful. Any interactions outside of them working out seemed to irritate him. His mood was often either bored or tense. Her negative trait is self-absorbed. So, story wise I ran with that to match why he had a negative moodlet. However, without giving up too much info Quinton has plans for Yasmine. But I love how you broke this down. Yas also had no backstory outside of her being a barista and wanting to train celebs for me to build upon, so I heavily leaned into the self-absorbed or "tunnel vision" as you put it. Even in the house she always goes off on her own to swim or workout. She never interacts with him without me queuing her up to do so. While at the spa when they got in the hot tub, he actually moved away from her, but I left those pics out because it seemed too harsh. I actually felt bad. Now, remember Yasmine has a free pass from elimination this first round because she won the bowling tournament. So hopefully things can turn around.

[dogydayz]

could you imagine if Sega were to release a new game with seemingly no ties to any other games they've ever made, and the entire thing is like a very much story-based game with interactive world elements (almost like Presentable Liberty in overall theme and gameplay, though) where you play as a strange little girl kept in an unknown and mysterious sort of place. You can interact with her toys, go through various activities and hobbies of hers, draw and stuff as her, shit like that, and the whole time you're kept confined to a simple room where she simply overhears others outside of the room talking about her, talking about her family, talking about strange other things that seem.... Entirely otherworldly. You learn that she'd never gotten to live long on Earth, you learn that she's been isolated most of her life, you learn that she's loved greatly by her family.... And you learn that she's surrounded by very dangerous people. You still never learn her name, but as time goes on old time fans of SEGA games would begin to realize where the fuck this was all going, as references would start to be made about some strange undercover experiment being conducted, and soon you'd get to see the proper reveal of what this game is. Soon she would be finally be allowed to leave her room, escorted out by threatening soldiers, to a much darker area, where the actual storyline of the game would become known. The entire game, you've been playing as Maria Robotnik, and at this moment she would be shown Project Shadow. The second half of the game would mostly be interactions, still in her room, but every now and then a much younger Shadow would be brought to see and interact with her. No longer is the game hiding what it is, so Maria would be referred to by name, and you'd also get to see more of pre-trauma Shadow and how his mind would develop. Both Shadow and Maria would now overhear arguments and conflicts from her room, they'd hear Gerald yelling at the guards and fighting with the researchers on the ARK with him that he never really wanted there, they'd overhear Shadow being referred to as a bioweapon despite Maria seeing him as a friend, a brother even, and this would be before Shadow would've ever really known or understood his proper conflicted purpose... Aside from being designed to protect and help. You'd get to play silly mini games with him, Maria would sit him down and have tea parties with him and her plushies, and the two would just enjoy time together. Until Maria would start to understand just what exactly was happening, what those "strange guards" were planning to do with Shadow. And the ending climax would suddenly shift to a more horror-esc action part, where you play as Maria trying to divert the attention from Shadow as she desperately attempts to help him escape. And the ending, while it wouldn't visibly show what happens to her... You'd still see more of her perspective, seeing her closest companion screaming out to her as she sacrifices herself to get him out of there. And that would be the ending. To a game not ever initially called a Sonic game, to a game marketed as a small experimental piece, or perhaps hardly marketed at all. The developers would probably be some small team who simply wanted to add more to the story already shown in earlier games, who wanted to bring more life to a character with such great importance to the background of one of the franchise's most beloved characters. SEGA wouldn't do much marketing, but they'd license it and very briefly refer to it as "a fan-project made canon", but until one plays the game, whatever it's made canon TO would be entirely unknown.

[ballwizard]

speaking of plvaa we just started the final trial so thoughts on it so far before we actually get to the ending!! Under cut :-3

so overall the game has been VERY fun. bear in mind that I've been playing with octavius which makes games both more fun and funnier had I played them alone, so my opinion is a little rose-tinted a la having fun with my friend. HOWEVER. ive found the story and mysteries really fun and engaging!!! some of the twists have been pretty easy to call but i don't think that's necessarily bad? other than espella being bezella. that one is like comically obvious. but like the twist of both maya and layton being presumed dead?? that was fucking bonkers and i loved every minute of it (though it was obvious neither of them would 'stay dead'). i ALSO really liked the segment where Luke was a witness; it worked really well as a show of his character as well as a story beat. I'm always a sucker for distrust between good friends due to circumstances and it hit just the right pitch of desperation to be really really fun.

i think gameplay-wise it's a nice mix of both series, with the investigation portions taking after layton and the court parts taking after ace attorney (obviously). the hint coins in trials is a really nice mechanic & being thrust into an environment with new rules other than what seems most logical is a really fun way to play off the ace attorney format of solving cases.

I've had a running argument with otto that it's not actually magic and I'm genuinely excited to see how it goes. I still am convinced it's all just some incredibly convoluted plot a la unwound future or curious village or. any of the Layton games, but theres just enough doubt in my mind that it's compelling to consider. Im really excited to see how the final mysteries pan out...

visually the game looks pretty nice! though I do agree with the common sentiment that the styles clash a bit (every time we see phoenix in a cutscene surrounded by labyrinthians he looks SO out of place, or the one scene where phoenix and espella are talking and luke looks copy-pasted in). I would've loved to see the whole game in the Layton style, considering most NPCs trend that way anyways. It makes the more ace attorney-styled ones stick out like sore thumbs, like Greyerl and Mystere. Though it's so odd that most plot-important NPCs so far have been ace attorney styled, except for Kira? It caught me a bit off guard. But, even with the style mismatch, it still holds together.

I did want to talk about my disappointment with Greyerl though. Ive never been a fan of the 'secretly a girl/boy but posing as a different gender for REASONS!!' trope, more often than not because it's a) Easy to clock and not very interesting and b) Tends to lead into weird transphobic territory, a la "he's ACTUALLY a SHE?!?;?" or vice versa (or, in more annoying cases, like robin newman from dual destinies, flipping a switch in their behavior and suddenly presenting the complete opposite way. though i will admit i liked robin as a character). It kind of annoyed me with the whole thing. Either way, it was a smaller thing that didn't really impact my enjoyment all that much, but I still wanted to address in some way. I liked that Greyerl got to say it themself instead of being completely forcibly outed this time, but the whole thing with the unpinning of the hair was pretty dumb to me. I think their design could have stayed the same either way; an androgynous butler is not that strange of a character archetype, and makes way more sense than them just. Having extremely long hair somehow pinned up to make it look like a bowlcut. Blech. Whatever.

ANYWAY. This post is far too long already but I just wanted to close it out :-P TL:DR PLvAA has been a very fun and engaging experience so far and i hope and pray that it sticks the landing 😁👍💥‼️