#also time for a new game plus and seeing how many quests i have in fact. missed

[torgawl]

slightly disappointed - just slightly - that they didn't include fischl in the windblume event because she would fit the legend/fairytale category of the charade so much?!

[thehappiestgolucky]

just beat dragons dogma 2 im gonna throw up/pos

[caliblorn]

I promised to make this post months ago and completely forgot about it until the last few days (a classic!), so here I am now. Making it. And with silly art included. Yay!

As many of you know, Mannimarco and Vanus Galerion in Elder Scrolls Online are portrayed as 2E contemporaries who mirror each other journeys to leaders, out of the Psijic Order and into their own groups. ESO makes it clear that they're meant to be similar in age as well, and it does so both by de-aging Mannimarco's model for the "Half-Forming Understandings" quest, and by making it say by Vanus himself in Artaeum Lost.

BUT! If you have played Morrowind or Oblivion, you might already be familiar with Where were you when the Dragon Broke?, an account of different people's experiences during the Middle Dawn, the 1E Dragon Break. And oh! Look who it is.

(notice also he says God, not King) The Middle Dawn happened between 1E 1200 and 1E 2208. Time fuckeries as much as you want, but nonetheless, 1E ends in 2920, and we know FOR SURE that Vanus was born the first years of 2E and that he joined the Psijics as a 11 yo. So, even if we took into consideration ONLY the latest period of the Middle Dawn, Mannimarco would have been a... 700+ years old novice when he met Vanus. Very funny to think about, but an old mer having an intellectual rivalry with a teenager doesn't really scream "brilliant" to me.

I'd say the retconning of his age is also supported by Worm Saga, were he doesn't mention at all his period in the Maruhkati and makes it sound like he was either born or taken to Artaeum at a very young age.

Plus, both in Worm Saga and in the Vault's flashbacks and in every other source ever (WRITTEN FOR ESO. AHEM.) we see that his "discovery" of necromancy happened on Artaeum. Like, it's screamed into our ears a couple of times or more in the game itself.

The problem with all of this? The book that implies he lived through the Middle Dawn is still present in ESO.

Which is to me one little example of a bigger issue with ESO writers rewriting/retconning things without taking away/trying to somewhat link the original sources. But I digress, there are different ways to make this work but since some are too complicated to be discussed now, I'll just share with you what I usually go with;

Mannimarco is a great liar. Not only a liar, a politician. A sales man. A guru. He knows how to give himself prestige. What "Where were you when the dragon broke?" is to me is either fake accounts fabricated by the Cult themselves, or stolen accounts (probably from Artaeum's archives!) where his false experience was added and then sent around Tamriel.

If I had to make a TIMELINE for all the pieces cited, I would say the publication order would be "Where were you when the dragon broke" (used as propaganda by the Cult to make Mannimarco's figure important)-> "Artaeum Lost" (disproves what was fabricated about Mannimarco)-> "Worm Saga" (new attempt to give himself prestige with that "aldmer, scion of et'Ada").

[misc-obeyme]

Random castle trivia because why not? Running up to said person and asking "what's your favorite and least favorite dish to eat? No, pickles don't count(diavolo)/ make?(Barbatos)" Or like "do you consider barbatos a threat? I think you should. No one in their right mind wears that much green." Slightly affectionate. Maybe "what's your worst and best courting (dating) experience? Barbatos do you even get approached? If so I'm surprised people approach you, you look like you'll kill them for even thinking about it" I love him but he's so creepy (affectionate)

Side quest: do you think barbatos eats food? Like yeah he doesn't have to and he drinks tea but I can't remember if he's ever really eaten. (I'm not a new player just not far in the game cause I take random year long breaks from it)

Bows for barb

LOL but Diavolo hates pickles! To the point where Barbatos tried to make them himself in an attempt to get Dia to try them... I think it failed but I can't remember for sure.

Diavolo's favorite food item for the special guest is Barbatos's tea which is like okay come on lol. But we also know he's fond of uhhh shoot what're those cookies Lucifer tried to make and absolutely failed at making?? Something something rolled cigar mushrooms? Hang on. Hellfire mushroom rolled cigar cookies!! Whatever those are even supposed to be. Cookies with mushrooms in them? Are they cigar shaped? I just... so many questions...

Barbatos seems to be happy making all kinds of different things. I wonder if he does have a favorite though? He seems to enjoy making things for other people more than making things for himself. So I kinda wonder if his favorite things to make are things he knows are faves for others to eat... if that makes sense lol.

Considering Barb's other main color is black, I do see how that could be kinda threatening. But he's so pretty, honestly who could truly be threatened?

I suspect Barbatos doesn't get approached much. Partly because he's quiet and partly because WOAH intimidating. I know that if I met Barb irl, I would be too afraid to even look at him, let alone talk to him. Too pretty, too elegant, too poised, I'd lose my whole mind.

I do think Barbatos eats food. He spends too much time making it not to try it for himself sometimes. Like to make sure his cooking is up to snuff, you know? Plus there are Devilgrams where he goes places with MC and it seems like he's eating with them. Though he certainly seems to prefer making food for others and watching them eat, he has definitely tried different foods. His special guest food is Madame Scream's Macarons, so presumably he's eaten those at some point. I can't remember if he's eaten anything in the main story... but it's for sure happened in Devilgrams, possibly events?

[thefangirltreehouse]

general observations (cyberpunk 2077)

just to preface, i’ve not played through the main story at all since 2021 on my base playstation four and i’m currently replaying on my playstation five. i played as fem!corpo!v both times. this will probably have continued updates as i get further into the endgame.

“don’t look now, but that’s jenkins’ girl.” i know it’s probably not intentional but that sounds like a loaded statement.

the way kerry calls fem!v “doll” is so fuckin’ cute.

wakako calls her “honey” which again, very cute. also was dying at her “is this the dali lama?” when v sarcastically implies she simply couldn’t fathom murdering for money.

the peralez’s are one of those couples and i cannot get that out of my head.

fuck the voodoo boys. i didn’t pay much attention the first play-through and ended up siding with them because of how much the game makes it clear that you shouldn’t trust corpos and i hadn’t wrapped my head around the evelyn stuff. choose netwatch and felt a little better this time.

joshua still makes my skin scrawl and i dislike those like him irl but i wish we had more interactions like what happened with vasquez - him seeing v as a legitimate dangerous liability. (i’m genuinely surprised they didn’t do that with river, surely he done some digging into v?)

i’m terribly paraphrasing but i’ve noticed there is a couple of thugs in a coronado / arroyo side mission that are like “yo, that’s v.”

i saved brick and royce, kinda disappointed you’re stuck with royce in the totentanz mission - nice to see dum dum remember v by name and how nippy v gets over jackie’s mention.

royce - or millitech obviously kill brick because his grave is there

honestly i just wanted more of the ol’ samurai geezers.

i forgot just how many npc’s hit on fem!v in comparison to male!v like, fingers guards, jacob, the roadie, general population, the bargest guards when leaving the black sapphire (that might be both v’s), they also say “ooh! you little whore!” and also kerry’s “nice rack” dig at johnny. not to mention how many folk call her a bitch, slut, cunt and white during combat.

skippy’s disturbia never gets old, especially considering it’s seventy-years-old at that point.

i still don’t understand why there isn’t an option to give kerry back his guitar - that he clearly wants back - if you’ve met him before the padré side-quest.

really not a fan of having to build quickhacks when you’re essentially buying a blueprint.

“where’s kerry been hiding you?” oh he definitely told them the ‘new output’ shtick.

jesus christ it is so much easier to make money now.

i know it’s the future and things are a little more blasé plus he’s an old, jaded rockstar but i was a little taken aback with just how much kerry calls us cracks “whores, cunts, sluts and bitches” like chill.

a little disappointed aurore had no intention of fucking v.

i can’t stand grimes but i wish we had one more mission for lizzy wizzy

style-wise, phantom liberty is a massive step-up but the clothing in this game is atrocious especially if you want to wear anything girly.

it’s nice to be able to see the colour of v’s hair this time.

i love my little type-66 avenger.

corpo!fem!v is the perfect foil to johnny. also love how some the most notable people in johnny’s life are women. alt, rogue, denny, nancy and depending on your choice, v.

i don’t really ship johnny with v, but the “old married couple” dig was spot-on.

i’m personally conflicted on so-mi, but i’d probably lean towards saving her. that said, i fundamentally believe v wouldn’t. she’s looking for a lifeline and so-mi purposely dangled it over her. she’s not got beef with the nusa, they’re offering what so-mi cannot.

still cannot stand the photo-mode filters.

i’m forever curious about the sobchak cut storyline that was given to river and takemura.

vik’s mocking, “ooOOoooh” towards zetatech and not being allowed drink on the job.

leigh’s acting when johnny simply takes v’s body after the rogue arasaka mission and just the entire langley section are so well executed. v and river’s farewell’s in langley and in the badlands will always break my heart.

sampson’s grave just read’s “he loved his car.”

[apples-of-apples]

No, go ahead. talk about digimon games. I need more research 👁👄👁

*Heavy breathing* Someone asked about digimon...

*AHEM*

anyway, I'll tell you about the ds games! yes the world games and ds games are separate even through two of the games are known as digimon world ds (dawn/dusk) I'll explain.

The digimon ds games are a bit confusing for new players as the English translation made them be named after the digimon world franchise instead of existing as their own thing, but the original name they carry are the Digimon Story games! Story because they are the jrpg part of digimon lol

There are also a few universal mechanics like farm islands, devolution + evolution, SPECIES EXP, etc. the game will teach you about these, but feel free to ask about them!

-----

DIGIMON STORY (digimon world ds)

Pros:

Game is pretty short for a Jrpg!

Digimon selection isn't too shabby with there being many classic ones in the bunch, So there's a lot of variety!

Post games quests are really fun!

Digimon can enter the farm and give quests (I like how it gives the digimon some personality without needing to be full characters all right)

Cons:

This game is extremely easy. Until that boss.

Like this game is so easy that it almost leaps into mind-numbing

The mind-numbing comes from the grind being really bad...

Some of the best designed and most iconic digimon are locked behind online battles, you might see why this is a problem.

maps are mazes. this is not good. (They aren't hard, but they can be a bit confusing)

----

A quick summary for this game is that it's definitely made with the idea that kids are going to want to try and get every digimon and that they'll spend A LOT of time grinding for that. Otherwise this game is actually pretty fun!

-----

DIGIMON STORY SUNBURST AND MOONLIGHT (digimon world dawn and dusk)

Pros:

Game is a bit harder than the original digimon story!

Almost the same amount of digimon as the original digimon story!

Cool fusion digimon are no longer locked behind online battles!!!

extremely quick if you use the resources at your disposal! I've beaten it in like 18~ hours.

Cons:

Grind is much, much worse (It can become much easier, but it requires planning)

Cool fusion digimon are locked behind post game quest that is the second to last fight in the game :/

Side quests are mandatory throughout the story(Not a personal problem, but a warning)

You cannot get 100% in one game, because these games have ✨Version exclusives✨ plus optional side-quests are locked behind certain digimon, with certain personalities, with certain farm islands, and ✨✨multiple✨✨ ✨version exclusives also have quests✨

Maps are ripped from the original digimon story! with some changes!

Final post game quest needs to be unlocked through cheats because it was locked behind online battles as well...

----

Quick summary! I literally love these games, it's Stockholm syndrome 💖💖💖. also despite the negatives these games aren't that bad! just a bit boring sometimes! Planning is a bit more important in this game as a lot of things depend on how much mechanics you can figure out... honestly I'd say to give it a try! Btw here's a digivolution guide for the game! you can thank me later lol

----

DIGIMON STORY LOST EVOLUTION (No official translation)

Pros:

best ds game by far!

More digimon than ever with a built in evolution tree checker to plan out parties much easier!

less grind due to the game giving out more experience per battle, and a longer overall playtime so levels will not suddenly jump for any bosses!

a decent story with fun locations!

optional bosses throughout the game that reference other digimon media!

a reason to grind past levels! (tree of evolution plates, with expand if you want!)

side quests now have a list to see what digimon you need! and actually good rewards for completing them!

NO MORE LOCKED FUSION DIGIMON!!!!

Farms are finally helpful! They give plenty of exp once you unlock the upgrdaes for them!

Cons:

mandatory quests are still here!

you might need to look for a guide to see what digimon have what evolution plates for your personal team!

Ancient beasts and sovereigns are basically post-game digimon...

Post game quest is locked behind 100,000 tamer points... (for reference main game is completed with only 50,000 points necessary)

there is another That boss you will need to grind for.

Only official translation is an English translation made by fans :/ (game isn't hard to follow without a translation, plus there are Eng guides with digimon evolution info sooooo it's more a personal preference :p)

Has pokemon HM system but the digimon have traits that allow them to do specific things on the map... (you get three digimon with traits to help progress, but you do not need to stick with them, just keep this system in mind.)

30 digimon limit :(

-----

Quick summary! This is unironically one of my favorite games ever! It's game play improves greatly from dawn and dusk, and are very easy to get into without much knowledge of anything! There are a few problems outside of nitpicks, but if you choose one game to play out of all of these, I would 100% recommend this one!

[rpgchoices]

Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game with a very particular description that CATER to my OWN SPECIFIC interests, so here we go.

(click here for other videogames)

what to expect from ENDERAL

Free Skyrim mod which has an indipendent lore and story from Skyrim. It is a sequel of Nehrim but Nehrim is not necessary to understand the story

This game deals with PTSD, abuse, trauma and depression in quite an explicit way to be careful, if you are triggered by these topics

You are a refugee looking for a new life in Enderal. You can choose different abilities (magic/assassin etc.) and races (always half human)

Very eery feeling and mystery feeling - honestly, some of the sequences in this game still haunts me

To avoid spoilers I will just say that you end up thrown in trying to solve a mysterious diseases that makes people aggressive, murderous, called the Red Madness

the game has a lot of lore and is mainly based on finding out more about this mystery and how to stop it - you won't find all of the answers, and not everyone will tell you the truth

like Skyrim the game has combat + dialogue choices, expect that your choices here matter for the outcomes of different quests and the final ending (there are three endings)

many quests are actually quite long and filled with material and characters, not a lot of fetch quests

you have two temporary companions (Calia and Jespar) who are recurrent, and then you have other characters who sometimes accompany you. You cannot choose your companions, they are more like characters who gets assigned to the same quests

Romance is indipendent from your gender and you can romance Calia or Jespar. Both have multi-parts personal quests/interactions

There are other characters who have big roles/quests: Tharael, Esme, Yuslan, Lishari, Dijaam.

The game is quite big, the area/world is also pretty big

One of my least favourite parts is that the game is quite dark - as in I had to use torchlights all the time (my pc also doesn't help, here)

You can buy two houses and decorate them!

The game is relatively linear, you have a series of main quests and you can explore the whole world and accidentally find other secondary quests

beautiful scenery!

there is fast travel all over the world, plus you can ride a horse or a donkey

ALL characters are voiced (a part from the protagonist)

plot? You play as a refugee escaping from their old home. While on a ship to Enderal, you end up discovering you have mysterious magical powers, a magical fever and can sometimes see events that have not happened yet. gameplay? Action rpg with dialogue choices and exploration, story-rich also it is a free mod characters? yes even secondary characters usually have an interesting story/personality. You end up with a cast of main characters, among these Jespar and Calia are sometimes your followers and have personal quests sadness level? MAXIMUM LEVEL

Under cut HEAVY spoilers about death-level in all three endings:

.

.

There are three main endings: one where you sacrifice yourself and it is assumed that part of the city got destroyed... everyone dies but your lover/closest companion. Another ending where you escape with your companion - the world is destroyed and only you two survive. And a third ending where based on when you drink a potion, you save the world without sacrificing yourself and survive with your companion - or did you? It might be a dream.

[dogshit-enchantment]

Harvestella credits rolling... Time to give my thoughts on the game

Spoiler free thoughts:

Genuinely terrific game, I will bite the hand of whoever at squenix's marketing department declared this game to be "just a farming game" instead of the cosmic horror jrpg it actually is

Cry count was somewhere in the 15-20 range, had some of the most heart-wrenching side quests I've ever experienced in my many years of playing jrpgs. Main plot made me go "what? Hello? Huh?" Almost every cutscene, but in a good way.

A solid 10/10 game I love it to fucking pieces

Soundtrack was a genuine 11/10 I want to inject it into my brain

Characters were 10/10 love them so much

Combat was a 9/10 I didn't mind it being on the simpler side, though the final boss dragged a bit

Inventory and crafting gets a 10/10 I love how the inventory/storage works

Farming and ranching gets a 9/10 just cuz I could never get a hang of crop placement and had to axe so many plants OTL (skill issue)

Environment is a 13/10 I love the scenery and towns they're so incredible

Game performance on switch gets an 8/10 it was really solid for like 80% of the game but once u get more than 2 farm upgrades it rly starts to struggle on frame rates on the farm. Overworld also had that issue towards the very end. It was on switch tho so I'm not docking it too much for that, it did rly well (though I did suffer two crashes so OTL)

‼️‼️SPOILER ZONE‼️‼️

I will say, the ending didn't get me as teary eyed as I was expecting, but I felt it did a good job and didn't let me down. The final final boss could have had better line delivery as well as a bit of reworking of her final lines cuz by that point it felt a bit hollow to me. Though maybe I was just jaded from fighting the dream of man's end. That boss fucking sucked

(NVM loaded up my new game plus and getting the letter in the mail saying "humans, I love you" made me cry. I love you too, Omen.)

Favorite boss was by far Aria. She had incredible dialogue and I loved seeing her character getting pushed into a corner and the very human way she lashed out. So incredible I love her so much, and it felt so rewarding to give her back her diary and bringing her back from the brink of despair. She's such a relatable character.

I will say it's also incredibly funny that the minute I got to the American flag in Heine's quest I instantly put together where the plot was going, the fact that it was so warn, the way no one knew what it was, what an incredible morsel for them to give.

Favorite quest was probably a close tie between Istina and Dianthus. I loved that istina was given a "traditionally feminine" role, but was by no means treated differently for it. There was no hint of "you'd calm down if u just had a kid" type shit u see from so many pieces of media. Instead she got to have a storyline about learning how to be happy, how to help others have a happy childhood when she never got to have one. And Dianthus just... I fucking ugly cried at her quest I'm ngl. Her deciding to create art, as inspired by Emily... Makes me feel so much.

I also love that Geist went fucking crazy trying to realize his full potential with the metaphysical, meanwhile Dianthus is like "I'm simply built different" and handles it no problem.

I love Dianthus so much. She was my fave when I first picked up the demo and she stayed my fave the whole way through. Can't wait to date her in post-game.

Harvestella is so fucking good I'm gonna eat my hands

[williamafton2030]

Things I want to see in the Help Wanted 2 DLC (or in a future game or book)

I'm going to comment on all the things that I would love not to be left up in the air. I think these have a lot of potential and it would be a shame to waste it just like that.

Gregory as GGY: This is one of the ones I'm most looking forward to seeing since it's almost confirmed that Gregory is GGY. But why do I say that it is almost confirmed? Because it has not yet been clearly stated that it is him, although there are many clues that can confirm it.

These are: GGY story from Tales from the Pizaplex where Greg is described as Gregory and it is implied that he is GGY; Security Breach CDs that are related to the story since GGY is patient 46; the canon ending of Security Breach being that of Princess Quest since Gregory, having been GGY, was able to complete the minigames that were impossible for others to do; a discarded phrase of Freddy telling Gregory that he remembers him from… (it is unfinished so many said that this phrase was because Freddy had a soul but with the release of the GGY story this changes since Freddy is the companion of this); that in Freddy in Space 3 Gregory is a boss, is in Freddy and throws retro CD as a weapon; and that Vanessa at 6 a.m. Tell us that she has a gift for us, this being a retro CD.

For all these things I think it would be incredible if they confirmed it 100% and then we would also have more things about him. We might even know how he fell under Glitchtrap's control and how he broke free. In addition to having mentions of Tony and Ellis and knowing if they are alive or not.

Explanation of the VANNI network: I am a super fan of the concept of the VANNI network and how the mask that is given to us in Ruin and that we have again in Help Wanted 2 can create this reality or transport our body to this semi-digital world that is the AR (depending on how you think the mask works, it will be one or the other). I say that it is semi-digital as it is AR and it is not completely independent of reality since it is not as different from it as VR would be, which would create a scenario from scratch.

Other things I would like to know about this are: how it was created or if it has always been there, how the laws work in that reality, how is it possible that a simple mask allows us to pass through tangible objects such as doors, walls, how can we teleport from one place to another? place to another crossing portals that exist in this reality…

In addition to all this, I would like to know who created this mask since it is called "Security Mask" and according to Helpi it is a mask that Class V technical Fazbears can use, plus Helpi himself seems to be Fazbear's creation to help technicians. However, this is not that simple because if it is the work of Fazbear, why would it be in the form of Vanny's mask? Vanny created his costume and Help Wanted 1 mask based on this? But this couldn't be this since Help Wanted 1 is supposed to happen before Security Breach and not at the same time so Vanny's mask was already there before the Pizzaplex. What does all this mean? I don't know but I would love for it to be explained.

Another thing that reinforces that there is something wrong with Helpi and that Fazbear may not even have created it is the ending "Helptrap" of Help Wanted 2 where from what I understand Glitchtrap hides in Vanny's mask to avoid being eliminated from the game. all and this with the fact that Helpi changes his eyes… Although the latter can also be used in favor to say that Helpi is Fazbear's creation and that Glitchtrap is only present in him when his eyes change to orange. Either way, it's something I'd love to see addressed in the future.

Mimic: This is the new antagonist of the franchise and, although many of us hail him, many others hate him (in fact, I hated him at first). One of the reasons why he is not loved as much as others is that his existence is left quite up in the air. I'm not talking about the books since they describe very well the origin and evolution that led him to be what he is, but in the games we are barely given any information about him. I think it happens to him in a similar way to GGY, who is similarly criticized by many. Seeing a character change without even an explanation is a lot for people who don't like reading books (not my case but I know people who do).

And it's a shame because many say: "he is an extremely boring character who only imitates" when they themselves have not read the books. And be careful, I'm not saying that this way of thinking is wrong (everyone has their opinions and they are equally valid as others) but that if more information about Mimic was added to the games it would teach these people that he is one of the villains. most complex that we have in the saga.

In addition to all this, I would like it to be confirmed or denied if he is Glitchtrap and Burntrap. I sincerely think so but I respect all the people that these two characters are William Afton (as I said before, one opinion is equally valid as the other).

Cassie's Fate: Cassie is without a doubt one of my favorite characters: I love her personality, plus in Ruin she wears the VANNI rather called the "Security Mask". Truly she is very brave to enter the ruins of the Pizzaplex alone to save Gregory but it was of no use since she was deceived and fell under the clutches of Mimic. However, we don't really know what happened after what many people believe (myself included) to be the canon ending. Cassie went to the elevator, got on it and in the end it was pulled by Mimic or Gregory (personally I think it was Mimic and I'll explain why). Finally, after the credits we hear Roxy's voice saying Cassie's name.

This is why I have put her in this post and I would love for it to be explained what happened to her and what the canon ending she took is.

I take this opportunity here to point out again a theory that I share and that is that it was Mimic who threw the elevator to turn Cassie against Gregory and thus turn her into "the lying child" from Candy Cadet's story from Help Wanted 2. This would be incredible since it would open the door to, as I already said in the post that Gregory deserves to be the protagonist again, for Gregory to return and this time remembering his GGY stage so we would have several things. On the one hand we would know what Cassie's fate was after Ruin and on the other we would have more information about GGY.

Identity and fate of Cassie's dad: From the beginning of Ruin we are focused on this character, telling us that he was a technical Fazbear from the Pizzaplex, but it was not until we obtained several AR objects that we found out that this character's favorite character It was Bonnie, who knew what happened to Glamrock Bonnie and that it seems that he is no longer alive because Cassie speaks in the past tense about him.

Many people thought that it was not at all an unimportant fact that Bonnie was his favorite and that she had been in the Freddy and Friends on Tour era and they wanted to look for some character in the past that coincided with these characteristics. They searched and searched until they found the Bonnie Masked Bully from Fnaf 4 and from there the theory was born that Cassie is the daughter of this character (which I find very curious and interesting)

However, in the evidence that is given to say that this is the identity of this man, the Faz-wrench code is never mentioned since this is the purple code in reverse. I personally am not a big fan of the fact that she is the daughter of an Afton but I find it a very curious detail.

Finally, point out that it may be that in Help Wanted 2 we are him. I am 50% with this theory since being a GGY lover and wanting him to appear in a game I would love for us to be GGY but I don't rule out this theory either. In both ways Help Wanted 2 ends with its DLC, I will like it. Of course, if GGY does not appear in this DLC, I ask and pray that I do so in the future.

For all this is why I would love for the topic of Cassie's dad to be touched on in more depth and confirm or deny whether he is the protagonist of Help Wanted 2 and if, as many theorize, he is the Mask Bot that gives us gives the mask in Ruin.

MXES and its origin: This is without a doubt the character that surprised people the most when Ruin came out (including me) since when the trailer came out we all thought that he was Glitchtrap and that in Ruin we were going to face Glitchtrap using the Vanny Mask. However, this conception of the character changed at the end of the game when it is revealed to us that he was not Glitchtrap but a security program designed to keep Mimic trapped and that he was chasing us because he was doing his job of preventing him from escaping.

This is one of my favorite Ruin characters and I'm very curious how Gregory created this antivirus. We know it was Gregory since the mission of MXES according to Gregory is to keep him trapped and this was 100% said by Gregory since it was before the interference. So he knows about the functionality of this program and since in the story of Candy Cadet de Ruin it is made clear that Gregory trapped Mimic in the sinkhole so he created MXES.

Another thing I would like to know is what the letters that make up his name mean since it seems to have a meaning like VANNI does.

Finally, mention what makes me most curious about MXES and that is its appearance. Why would Gregory choose to make the security program look like a rabbit? Well, what many think (including me) is that after the end of Princess Quest Vanessa told Gregory about Mimic and together they went to the sinkhole to catch him. It is said that Vanessa used a part of what had been Glitchtrap to create it and that is why it has the same poses as Glitchtrap, it is a rabbit and the security nodes are in the shape of a rabbit.

More information about Fazbear Entertainment: After explaining why I consider Fazbear Entertainment as one of the villains of this saga, I think it's time to talk about what I would like to know. I would love to know how the company was born and why it became so corrupt; who is the CEO of the company currently; why the hell did they think it was a good idea to build the Pizzaplex on top of Fnaf 6 (we know it's for money since they wanted to make Fnaf 6 a museum but there might be something else); Whether or not they were the creators of the Security Mask…

All of these things are things I would love to see addressed in the Help Wanted 2 DLC and future games/books. Before I go, I should mention again that this is my personal opinion and that if you have a different one, that's fine and I respect it because all opinions are respectable.

[heedra]

I'm trying to get into caves of qud after seeing you post about it but i'm finding it so hard! Do you have any tips for a new player pls? ty

oh man, yeah, the starting curve can be really really difficult! here's my tips for how i get a run off the ground! 1. Avoid min-maxing on a build while you're still getting a feel for what different stats can do for you. Even if you have a very specific idea in mind, it's way more important to have a strong core than idealized stats at game start. Dipping very low on any stat will be punishing in different ways so plan carefully 2. Start in Joppa if you're new to the game. Even a procgen village that's still in the marshes is a way less controlled starting environment.

3. The chests in Joppa that are in rooms with closeable doors can be opened as long as you are in the room, alone, with the door closed. You can often find enough artifacts in there to complete Argyve's first two initial fetchquests right away, which brings you up to level 2 immediately. Even if you don't, you will find stuff to help round out your starting gear! I don’t always do this, and it’s not like, a necessary step, but its good to know about. 4. The chests in Argyve's hut can also be safely opened in his presence as soon as you complete these first two quests and get made his apprentice, if you're looking for more gear with less theft involved. 5. OBTAIN A MISSILE WEAPON AND AMMO FOR IT AS QUICKLY AS POSSIBLE. Cannot stress how many runs I've lost very early because I think to myself 'maybe this time I'll be fine leaving town without a ranged weapon'. There are a lot of enemies that are easy later who you really do not want to touch you at low levels. Even if it's just a shortbow, you want something you can kite and run with. If I start with a bow, I generally pick up all the ammo the merchant has, so that if I pick up a better missile weapon with different ammo requirements later, I'm prepared. 6. Don't do the starting quests straight away! I generally try to spend my first levels exploring the salt marshes and hunting crocs and then only try hitting up Red Rock around level 5 unless I'm really confident I've got a tough build for close-range melee going. There are some valuable things in the marshes that you can stumble across to make your starting game easier, such as a very high-tier merchant and a set of mechanical wings that you can repair post-Red Rock to get in and out of the Rustwells fast. Plus, exploring is fun! 7. If you do just want a big glob of xp that you can obtain relatively safely you can also get the zealot's quest and high-tail it to the Six-Day-Stilt immediately. The desert is pretty safe to traverse if you only do so during daylight, bc you can see the whole tile at once and avoid tiles with enemies. (And if you are traveling to the Stilt at a low level you will want to avoid every hostile creature you see). Completing this quest awards you a big packet of xp, and the Stilt has further opportunities to get xp. (You should honestly always go get this quest first thing even if you don’t intend to complete it for a while, because the zealot doesn’t stick around forever).

8. If you're playing a truekin, you can find at least one guaranteed Becoming Nook and credits to use it at the Rusted Archway, but be warned that this is definitely something you want to do after your starting stuff, it's a little tougher than Red Rock. If you haven't found any cybernetics stuff before this point tho its a really good resource.

9. There is nothing wrong with cutting and running from situations. In fact, even at higher levels, the biggest tool in your arsenal is knowing when you need to bail on a situation and having the means to do so.

10. Do still be prepared to die. A lot. Starting out in Caves of Qud means learning through your own death quite often. I'm still occasionally finding novel new ways the world around me can kill me! It's part of the experience!

[happymeishappylife]

I just finished Tears of the Kingdom and wow oh wow, what a game! I have soooo many feels as the story was just beautiful and watching all the memories start to finish before fighting Ganondorf just hit sooo hard. That battle too! Dang, I thought I was going to biff it too because I didn't really bring enough gloom potion/food, but thank god I was overpowered and had all my hearts. I also didn't know what I was supposed to do when Ganondorf backflipped and that was what tripping me up until I figured, huh if I shoot bombs at him that does more damage, lol. But then being on Zelda and fighting his dragon was soo cool because I did spend a lot of time riding Farosh, Dinrael, and Nadrya so navigating a dragon was easy for me. And then that catch at the end was so satisfying!

I am also glad the game gave me a group of friends to fight with. I loved having my boyfriend, my girlfriend, my nephew, and Younoubo with me, teehee. My nephew, Tulin, is the MVP of the team. Coming in clutch with those arrow shots and always helping to get me where I needed to go. It was cool to see the others step up into leadership as well. Because in BotW we only saw them as youngsters or with leadership thrust upon them, just trying to help, but all of them now really stepped up to help their communities and that was great. Even their soeech at the end where they kind of messed it up, they still continued and they are trying their best. I love it.

I also loved exploring Hyrule and all its changes but also all its similiarities. I finished BotW last year so jumping back into this world was easy-ish until you discoverrd the sky islands and the depths! Plus they put new spins on some of favorite places like the Labyrinths which was cool. And while it was cool at first to have all my horses back, the way this world was set up made me just go wild in how I explored it. I also loved seeing the people of Hyrule mingle with each other. Before they felt so isolated, but it was cool to see a mix of races in each town and for them to be friends adventuring or building lives together. Even accepting Kilton is a step forward though now that Kolton is a Blupee, I wonder how that will affect him.

I wanted to stay in the world forever and except for 2 shrines in the sky (damn that thundercloud island), I am proud to say I found them all myself. Having the lightroots connect to the ones on the surface was a great feature to know you caught them all. Then except for q guide to find the last 45 caves and 21 wells, I feel proud to have done all my other quests by myself. I also laughed when I went to Hyrule Castle already with Mineru and my sword in hand for that fun scene with Purah because I thought the castle was going to be end game again, whoops lol.

Overall though it was magnificant. One of my favorite games of all times and the best Zelda game for me. I think I might take a mini break before hopping into more games because this one really left me witha lot of feelings.

[basedkikuenjoyer]

And now the big one. The first two as a set seemed like a good deal and worth trying, this one had me excited. It was a hunt to find it too! Even had some high drama for my young self. I think my brother stole some of the money I set aside for it, but I had enough spare change to make up for it. Nintendo Power mad the GBC rerelease look so cool, I could be a girl hero and there's a personality system that affects your stats? A human board game?

Now you're a party of four and aside from the main hero's special class you get to pick the other three! Leading to one of my favorite aspects of early Dragon Quest. The simple, elegant brilliance of its multiclassing system. You can start a character over at level 1 in a new class, with half stats and all spells/skills retained. A warrior who can double up on the handful of key buff spells. A speedy cleric. Making an absolute physical juggernaut out of the dealer/fighter. It's all possible and never that complex to get what you want.

Picking up from the first installment, this series may be simple compared to other RPGs but it is tight. As long as you are using your head a little, you can do wildly different strategies and they will all work. Maybe Dragon Quest games never have the massive spell lists counterparts like Final Fantasy do...but you know how those often have a couple dozen you never really use except once? That's not true in DQ. Most bosses will be susceptible to a status ailment or at least lowering their stats and the latter does it enough to be relevant. It might just be playing with numbers, and it's impossible to truly get without playing, but the design makes these boss fights have so much more of an exciting flow to me than more graphically impressive contemporaries and honestly what will follow for many years.

When you have rock solid mechanics like that, the game writes it's own stories. Like...last time I played a couple years ago I had a lark naming my party Kiku/Neko/Inu/Kawa(matsu). One dungeon that's never been iconic to me or anything took on new life as Kawamatsu was the sole survivor of the boss fight. Which meant my quick exit mage was dead. So Kawamatsu had to make a harrowing escape and it sticks with you. Or using my hero being Kiku as an excuse to try the Noh Mask exploit in the hero's solo dungeon. Now I'm going to say a word on the main story and the iconic twist, I'll hide for those who may want to try these.

I got to play these as a kid perfectly unaware of one of the most legendary twists in gaming. It blew my mind to finally beat Baramos and have more game left ahead...in Tantagel no less. Then we finally beat the real demon king Zoma only to find out I was Loto the entire time. This was a prequel, not a sequel. Which made the fact the world we started in reminded me so much of Earth even cooler!

That plus the legitimately good drama around the search for Ortega. It gets me when you come so close to a happy reunion only to have that dashed. What if you had been just a little quicker? Zoma was scary too if you're unprepared. Dragon Quest makes good use of buff spells and they're the golden strategy in this installment. So that iconic debut of the Icy Pulse ability that wipes them is backbreaking. Also love the Divine Dragon stuff in the post game for the remake. They went all out on that GBC re-release to a degree you didn't often see in those days.

[spawnofbhaal]

Realizing that one of the plus sides of BG1/BG2 being more simplistic in terms of visuals and audio is that it allowed for so many mods that can change/add to the story if you want them. Like want a new companion character? There are like 30+ to choose from. Want a romance with a character that wasn't originally romanceable? Chances are there's a romance mod for them. Want a new quest in the game, or one that was cut before release? There are mods for that.

(More rambling under the cut because this got long).

Sure, some mods are . . . weird or annoying by varying standards, or not the best written (a lot of modders didn't speak English as a first language, or were teenagers when they made them), but the love behind the writing can absolve some odd phrasing. A lot of people in the modding community also translated mods into their native, non-English languages. All of this for free, just because they loved the game. The level of content (dialogue, quests etc) in some romance mods puts any studio-made romance to shame, because a modder could just focus on romance rather than all the other aspects of game development.

(Also, IMO Bioware totally took the "kiss your love interest" option in DAO from "flirt pack" mods and other romance mods where your character could choose a lot of different flirtatious things to try on your love interest, from kissing, hugging, playing with their hair, etc. Or you could ask them more about their past, their family, or whatever the modder thought to add. The Bioware devs were definitely aware of the modding community and I honestly think that's one of the reasons you can kiss your LI on command in DAO and now BG3).

I think what I've felt kind of sad about, or like I'm "missing" with BG3 the past few days, is this . . . sense of almost infinite possibility with the game, and collaborative storytelling. Which is silly, because obviously BG3 is a great game as is, and Larian has been doing a great job of updating things, and there are a lot of talented writers, artists, and modders who make content centered around the game.

But I have to reconcile the fact that there are probably never going to be companion mods for BG3. There are never going to be new quest mods for BG3. Like for BG2, someone would totally make a mod to adventure in hell with Karlach or cure Astarion or romance Raphael (like a real romance, whatever that would look like, not the incubus thing). A mod to hug Gale, or ask Astarion about his family before he was turned, or braid Shadowheart's hair, or ask Wyll to tell you all the Baldur's Gate scandals he's heard. But with games being more advanced with graphics and voice acting these days, I seriously doubt any of these things will happen unless Larian does them. And Larian only has so much time and resources. (I also get that for many people, graphics and voice acting are more important than having more written content, but for me it's the opposite). Fanfiction helps a lot, but there's something really magical about seeing things happen in the game.

And if I'm somehow wrong about how these mods will never come to be, I'll be happy to see it (unless people try to do crap like add voice lines with AI, in which case I do NOT want to see it. Ever). But modern game modding has mostly just become cosmetic as far as I can tell. When there's such a focus on graphics, that's cool and all, but I sincerely doubt I'll remember a mod hairstyle after 20 years. Story and character mods I do remember.

[osvaldvanstein]

So, had my timeout in the Octopath Traveler 2 demo this morning, and got to say, I’m having a great time. It’s going to be a long 2 weeks for sure.

Decided to start with Osvald for... hopefully obvious reasons, and then work my way around the "2" on the map in terms of starting locations.

Thoughts:

Starting with Osvald was an excellent choice. His story so far is as dark as I was expecting, and I was wondering how they were going to keep a scholar in prison for so long. He's also just a useful character to have around in terms of elemental breaking and spotting weaknesses. No regrets.

On that note, I'm not sure how to feel about the scholar job changes where it loses the multi-hit magic attacks. Didn't manage to unlock the new skills, but I do hope that missing the double-hit attacks isn't too costly as the game picks up in terms of shield points.

After spending just under 2 hours on Osvald's path, made my way over to Temenos. Decided to skip on any detours, but the locations are absoutely gorgeous in terms of music and design. It's just a really good looking game.

I do love the new character introductions before starting their quests. It's interesting that unlike OT1, you don't join halfway through their chapter 1 to help them out on their quest - rather you join them after chapter 1 (or so it worked for Temenos). It makes sense in terms of balance, so that all of the story quests have their own NPC companions and wil be level balanced.

Temenos. Oh boy, Temenos. I love him so much. He's such an interesting take on a cleric, and I love the detective aspect of his story line. Plus, that opening scene was completely unexpected and amazing. Can't wait to see where his story goes from this point onwards.

Managed to make it to Throné's city and get her quest started. Loved the opening, was a great way to set up how things work in her organisation. And then got locked out before getting to the exciting part. That said, there is a part there that's a bit reminiscent of Primrose's quest, and I hope it doesn't use too many of the same tropes - but I didn't get much further than the stealing tutorial before getting kicked out.

All of these stories have started comparatively darker compared to their job counterparts in OT1. I'm curious as to which characters may have lighter stories, as a contrast. That's not to say that OT1 was a light-hearted game - but all of the three opening chapters I've run into so far have had very dark aspects to them which I am greatly enjoying.

I know I touched upon the music earlier, but the tracks so far are extremely good. Yasunori Nishiki has done it again. That first Decisive Battle theme that I ran into was fantastic, not to mention the character themes and the location themes. I can't wait to buy the OST when it's released in March.

As tempted as I am to go and try out some of the other stories, honestly I just want to wait for the release. I'm happy with my starting choices, and since I'll be playing all the opening chapters anyway on this save file, might as well wait.

It's going to be a long two weeks for sure.

[midnightwind]

so I beat BG3 finally and I have.... Opinions. This is going to be Very Long and full of spoilers, obviously, so fair warning

So to open with, I do really like Act 1 and 2. They have solid pacing and while Act 2 might be missing more side content, it does makes sense given the whole curse making it difficult to move freely without always having a torch out which can severely impact some builds. So I'm glad we don't spend very much time having to deal with that. (I am dual wielding thief rogue scum, so the torch was Agony)

I think Act 1 does an okay job leading you towards the goblin camp as the big end all of the story section while letting you also decide to hop into the Underdark for extra optional content. The Creche is kind of nightmarish depending on your choices, but I think it's still good content. I simply don't care for the Gith much as a people, but they're an important story beat so it's nice to get more of them before you delve into cursed lands. A1 has a nice balance of exploring and side content to do and I really never feel lost or in a lull. I have a goal and the freedom to do whatever else I want on my way to it. Plus the companions have a lot to say and a bunch of interactions together, especially if you change out a member periodically to trigger new ones.

Act 2 is a bit more rail road-y story wise, but you have the little side quests for Astarion and Shadowheart to pursue, helping Halsin, and a few npc quests to pick up or find. I think the inn defense is a bit of a nightmare because Jaheira will sometimes just nuke the tieflings for daring to be near an enemy, so trying to keep everyone alive is.... it can be a lot. But that's going to be more rng to blame than anything else I suppose. And like, if you don't care about saving everyone then it's a breeze I'm sure, I'm just a goody two shoes. The only bad time I really had in Act 2 was due to bugs, so that wasn't the story's fault! (I fell through the floor and only survived because of Thief's passive to reduce falling damage) Well, okay, the Nightsong fight also sucked. Shove being a bonus action is bullshit and also why would they make that such a problem on a floating rock? I had to redo that fight so, so many times to have my party all make it to round 2 without someone getting launched into the void. But otherwise! The build up to Ketheric and actual execution of his fight were all really good. (Well, I skipped phase 1 of his fight because funny persuasion, but I digress)

They really made you worried about Ketheric, showed how much power and sway he had over the land, especially by making him the source of the curse that was poisoning the land. They went in on making him the big dead boss you had to work to beat. I was excited to see what Gortash and Orin had working for them in Act 3!

But then I actually did Act 3, and man, you can feel the rush here. There's just so much squished into the city to the point where having it split in half doesn't help. The game can barely handle how much it has to always have loaded and moving. And the amount of story feels like they were going to have 4 Acts total, but then were told to push the game out and they just had to throw it all into one Act and hope. I think having Tav deal with either Gortash or Orin for Act 3 would have been better for the pacing and allowed for both of the villains to get proper sway over the city they were taking over.

Gortash has some sway with the Steel Watch stomping around, but they really aren't all that threatening unless you decide to slap one on the ass in the town square. You get a glimpse at what they really wanted to do with Gortash at his coronation, but it never really leaves Wyrm's Rock. Maybe it's because I was playing Rogue and sneaking past every locked door, but I never felt like Gortash was a threat. He was more like a snotty kid in the corner muttering rude names at you. The second he tries to go for you without the public eye around, he's dead. He doesn't even do a good job manipulating you. He's all about schemes and having power over people, but his solution when he sees Tav and the gang is to just... ask them to kill Orin for him and share in the power afterwards. Which would make sense if he hadn't led with the whole killing his last partner idea. Why should Tav trust him to hold up his end of the bargain if he clearly would rather rule solo? If Gortash has full control over the city, or the beginnings of it, shouldn't he be making connections with the big entities? Shouldn't he know more about the group of adventurers set on ruining his plans? He clearly can have Orin walk around the camp whenever he wants, so why isn't he turning any of the companions' baggage against them? He could link up with Cazador to send Astarion into a panic, snap up any stragglers of Karlach's friends to keep her from playing baseball with his head, tempt Gale with magical secrets and knowledge of Netherese. He had an in against Jaheira with Orin's shapechangers infiltrating the Harpers, but apparently they suck at their jobs because they got caught instantly, and also the game just shrugs and doesn't have us save the Harpers. Like, so many of the companions are linked to Baldur's Gate somehow and it isn't used to control them. If you take out the foundry, Gortash is just a guy in a booby trapped room with two goons. There is some poetic justice there about how the schemer is just a man at the end of the day, but Tav doesn't do anything to take his power away outside of getting rid of the mechs and maybe changing a single day's paper printing, if you were so inclined. We have no chance to stop the coronation, to break up the blackmailing and mind controlled nobility, hell he doesn't even make it hard to walk the streets if you betray him! He's supposed to be the schemer, the brains behind the operation, so why does he just sit in his castle and do nothing? He could enforce a curfew, forcing the gang underground and into back alleys. Like, I could see it making some builds more tedious to get around with, but they needed to show his power over the city somehow. The Steel Watch just don't cut it, in my opinion. (I also basically one shot him in his fight with 0 traps even going off so perhaps my opinion is colored by that experience)

Orin, then, well... she barely exists as a problem honestly. She steals a party member a few days after Gortash warns you about her, but the reveal just removes the taken character and you're left down a man. She's a serial killer, Bhaal's own unholy assassin who can change her shape as easy as one dons a cloak. So why does she let her ruse be revealed so easily? I think it would have been more compelling, more insidious if she were to take Tav's love interest (or highest approval companion) and just never reveal it's her. You could stumble across the real companion later, mayhaps fleeing from the cult in the sewers, and be forced to make the call on who's real and who's the fake. We have multiple forms of revival in the game, so you could make this hurt without actually losing a companion forever. You would never know when the switch happened and if you chose wrong, imagine how gut wrenching that would be! Instead her cult is more annoying than she is. The whole Sanctuary mechanic is tedious, the amount of the fuckers in the city begs belief, and having to try to save random npcs on a bloody note proves extremely annoying quickly. We don't know the npcs being targeted which is fine, but when I've restarted 3 times to try and distract the 8 assassins with my party so they don't hit the 50 health citizen 20 times, I start thinking the random shop keep might be better off dead. And it is doable, to save them, it just takes so much to pull it off. Again, maybe it's because I was going through the game determined to save everyone, or near enough, so what should have been moments of feeling helpless were more just a huge pain in the ass. The threat of Orin is too simple because they drop the doppleganger act so fast. Plus, she even offers to call off the killings if you take care of Gortash for her and then meet her for a duel! She solves herself. I think it's honestly a disservice to the idea of the character and she feels like a lot of the ideas behind her just weren't given the time they needed to pan out.

And then we move past them, to the Elder Brain. You spend all of Act 3 working your way up to either taking over this thing or killing it. And then you get stuck in extremely long mob fights for the next few hours before finally reaching the damn thing and it's both a dps check and a fucking heal check. The whole endeavor was a pure slog to me and making the summon allies a full action made it feel like it was just never worth it, I could dish out more damage with my own actions. Plus, the allies can't even follow you inside to deal with the brain so at best you use an action to summon hopeful meat shields. It feels like a poorer version of the defense of Denerim in DA:O. The other companions aren't shown doing anything, or even really hinted at doing anything except for like, 4 of them being at the rallying meeting. And the choice between supporting the Emperor or freeing Orpheus! It felts terrible either way! Support the entity keeping you safe, but lying the whole time who doesn't seem willing to talk about it's plans after dealing with the brain or free the trapped Prince of the Gith and hope he doesn't instantly kill you or lead his people to kill everyone in a war of conquest under a new name because you honestly have no idea what he'll do. It's shit either way.

The actual character endings are rather sparse. Also, fuck whoever thought it'd be funny to have Astarion running off screen if you destroy the brain and the vampire rules reassert themselves. You spend the whole game with him mentioning loving the sunlight and seeing the world how he used to. And then you make it a joke when he loses that? It's a heartbreaking moment and it was ruined by having it framed that way. It felt cruel.

I only got to see the epilogue with Astarion, because I romanced him, and Karlach returning to the Hells with Wyll and while they were both nice, they felt very short. I wanted to see what everyone would do, if the gang would stick together or stay in contact. How would they settle into the remains of the city, who would tag along if Tav decides to adventure on, do they have reunions or get togethers, do we get to have that party? It feels so rushed, like a lot was cut to ship the game out, and the companions all suffer for it. Granted this is if you destroy the brain. The endings where you take it over seem even shorter, albeit executed well for the power trip they're setting up, but you don't get much beyond that to my knowledge. (I haven't gone back to see all of them yet) I spent something like 130-140 hours in this one play through. You spend the whole game working up to this confrontation, this resolution, and it feels so truncated. Even just a still image of the landscape or characters with some text slapped on top to detail how they wrapped up the adventure would have been better than having 80% of the gang forgotten. I didn't take them all out into the world, finishing their personal quests, to have them be left behind like that. I love them all and I wanted to see their happy endings.

I loved my time in Faerun, despite it all, and I'm just a little disappointed with how the last act played out. I wish the game had been allowed more time to be finished, for the love and care that so clearly shines in Acts 1 and 2 to be allowed to flourish in Act 3. The people who made this game clearly care, and they had a story to tell, and it leaves a bitter taste behind that they so clearly were not permitted to tell it how they wanted to.

[miloscat]

[Review] The Lord of the Rings: The Third Age (GCN)

I’ve been sent back, until my task is done.

So I took some time off from my quest to play Lord of the Rings games. Quite some time, in fact. But no matter. Previously, I’d wrapped up the movie-based tie-ins and was ready to start on sidestories. So, after EA Redwood Shores (later known as Visceral Games) finished the Return of the King game, they started on a game ostensibly called LotR Trilogy, teased at the end of the former. I don’t know if this is what they were planning it to be all along, but the name at least changed.

I’ve heard people call this a Final Fantasy X clone. I can't really speak to that, but it’s certainly a turn-based RPG with one of those initiative queue systems. Progression is streamlined: some areas have branching paths but many are straight corridors, the skill trees are simple, there’s no shops and no currency. The traversable zones seem like little more than set dressing until the next drawn-out battle. These are mostly prescribed (most areas have no random encounters) and give predetermined loot. You’ll be spending a lot of time in the menu between battles fiddling with stat numbers and equipping the new drops (they’re cosmetically reflected on the characters which is nice).

If it sounds a bit railroaded, well it is. Or you could view it as one of those miniature trains in a model village, a pleasant ride to see some sights. I do recommend turning on Easy mode in the options, as it will reduce the amount of time you’ll spend watching those belaboured battle animations. (Note that I tried to play this on my Xbox but the disc was too damaged and failed after my first session, so I continued using Dolphin; the blessed speed-up feature saved me figuratively millions of years.)

There is some freedom with your character builds and your choice of party. I chose three of the six available (Idrial, Morwen, and Berethor) and used them as much as I could, and got by just fine. There’s a mechanic where you gain skill points in one of your two ability fields for each time you use an action of that type in battle. This incentivises using your skills—and they are useful—to learn more of them. I literally never used the ordinary attack! The game throws restoratives at you and you’ll frequently level up for full heals too, plus the save points replenish you. OK, so I was on Easy but the way I see it the harder difficulties were just wasting my time, and there was some challenge later on anyway.

Anyway, as an RPG it’s fine, but how is its use of the licence? Well, it feels quite fanfictiony, for better or worse. The story plays it safe by following a B-team Fellowship, closely shadowing the actual Fellowship and cleaning up after them, and almost all the six party member are expies of other characters, at least on the surface. Berethor is a Boromir type, although you find out later that he was secretly brainwashed by Saruman... and also Sauron I think? He’s a paladin type with excellent party-wide buffs. Idrial is just Arwen in the Fords of Bruinen scene, has sword but mainly healing and magic. Elegost is Strider-like, a Dunedain ranged attacker and debuffer. Hadhod is a Gimli-esque dwarf, a tank with some defensive and fire spells. Later you find Eaoden aka Éomer-lite, a Rohirrim knight with some technical buff skills, and Morwen. She’s a bit similar to Éowyn but the most original, a woman of Rohan with a tragic past and a need for vengeance who fights with double axes and thievery skills.

There’s some developments with these folks, aided by cutscenes with new narration by Sir Ian over movie footage, lending some authority while bridging the narrative to the films’ events... and the events and backstories of the game and its characters. You see, it’s told in a disjointed way, and supposed twists are just tossed off, so it ends up feeling a bit half-arsed. There’s even an unnecessary forced love triangle. It doesn’t help that several of the actors seem to be Americans faking British accents, and the voiceover recording in general could have used a pronunciation coach, but this has frequently been a problem in the movie games with their proper nouns.

It is fun getting something of an original story in this world, but it sticks very closely to the movie events for most of the time, unlike the later and more ambitious War in the North. The new characters are fun but heavily retreading known archetypes. You do get a ridiculous climax by fighting the Eye of Sauron at the summit of Barad-dûr: this is the fun kind of nonsense the game could have leaned into more, and even it seems thrown in at the last minute with no lead-in at all. There’s apparently a co-op mode but it is separated from the main game in some way, and the touted “Evil Mode” where you play as the baddies is a minor side-event that’s just a series of battles. Basically I just wish this game had gone harder and more out-there, but it’s a fun fluffy bit of fanservice all the same.