#black code rpg

[anjona-art]

Eleanor the Prophet, martyr saint of the Temple Arcology depicted on glass.

Also seen here with her head yet intact.

[sharkylass]

im so in love with 'in repetition and change'. genuinely such an interesting concept with INCREDIBLE art to boot !!!!!! so i just. have to say how much i adore it

but! i was going through the irac tag and noticed that. isa's wish isnt stated anywhere! you mentioned that you know his wish, but !!! i am going crazy thinking about what he couldve wished for !!!!!

so i must ask. what did he wish for, and what was his equivalent of the act 5 finale fight? how did he learn to let go of his wish ??? im losing it

thats all, thank you for making this stellar au :))

Yeah no I also wonder what got him eternally stuck [MASTERPOST]

Also some more stuff, cause I made quite a lot for this-

Death Loop gif, for fun. I initially did the audio for this but I leave you with this.

Sif eating with em big cheeks like they were meant to

And of course, the drawings.

I also didn't get to answer one of the questions- I am not fully sure if Isa told everyone about the timeloops. Tho the way I imagine it is that he told them the entirety of Act 2, and after reaching the end he stopped, but I'm just not sure how that would work with the timeloop mechanically.

Maybe in order to do the friend quests he has to pretend he doesn't know everything that's gonna happen, and during that loop the game asks you to go through without skipping- After that he probably just stopped telling them and just pretended everything was fine.

[sysig]

Time Loops are they/them culture (Patreon)

Bonus of my little guy in ISaT style:

[solaresources]

She's... crazy?

[TEMPLATE/ROL] — she's... crazy?

Gente, esse é um código feito com muito carinho por mim, cuida! ‹𝟹

Se for usar, mande uma ask/reblogue/curta, por favorzinho. Nunca retire os créditos, Deus sabe de tudo!

Pagar pegar o código, meu solzinho, clique AQUI.

[elodieunderglass]

You posted a while ago about Grant Howitt's RPG There But For The Geese of God, where the players are archangelic geese trying to shepherd Martin de Tours into sainthood by whatever means necessary; you might also be interested in

His RPG Everyone is Seagulls, where the players are a flock of 30 seagulls and you can only communicate by loudly yelling at each other what you want to do, and

Sean Bean Quest, which is a modification of his RPG Goblin Quest in which you play five Seans Bean (in series, not in parallel), trying to ensure that at least one of you survives until the end of the movie.

Thank you so so much for thinking of me. I am hanging this up in my house in a beautiful frame and adjusting it so that it’s beautiful. I am grateful for your friendship and good taste.

I should be honest though. I actually know fuckall about roleplaying games. Absolute black hole of knowledge actually. People kindly and generously sent me the goose one because it’s highly elodie-coded (and you can see why! It’s elodie reblog bait!) and I admired and reblogged accordingly in complete support of the vision. No further thoughts or opinions. HEAD EMPTY. “Haha sounds great!” I say, instantly filing it where I put the isogenic cryptography I had to learn about against my will for work and which I refused to retain in any meaningful way. My brain has simply left the building to pick flowers. “I would enjoy that it’s right up my alley,” I say, eating the bottoms of the grass blades vacantly.

I have exactly three experiences of tabletop roleplaying games ever in my life and i should write a post about them but

- single session of dnd with older guys when I was a teenager

- shepherding children through an interactive storybook in which Bug, 4, simply kept assassinating their older sibling (they were not supposed to be able to do this??)

- playing a small amount of gloomhaven: jaws of the lion, in which I became distracted by hating the whole concept of unpainted ugly gaming miniatures so much that I made my own and then. Wandered off. Apparently forever

Anyway even if it’s wasted on me these are delightful and I’m happy to admire them conceptually and share them and hang them on the wall

[mythalism]

blah blah thinking about the popular rebuttal to complaints about veilguard's politics being "bioware was never leftist so you shouldnt have expected veilguard to be" which is... interesting.

true, of course. the expectation part i disagree with but thats not what ive been thinking about. im thinking about what made it feel so different to the very similar centrism of da:i. and maybe someone who didnt black out the entirety of veilguard as a cognitive protective mechanism can speak to the specifics but i think ive settled on it being that da:i is undoubtedly neoliberal and centrist just like da:o and da2 before it but despite their clear framing and limitations there was always the encouragement to think and the freedom to do things that the game might condemn narratively as "too radical" but you could at least do them. or say them.

this erodes by the time you get to da:i but in veilguard its absent completely. like making leliana divine or putting briala on the throne, for example. the game presents these options in a very neoliberal and centrist way. the un-softened leliana divine epilogue slide features much of the "radical violence bad!!!!! bad choice!!!!" connotation that all of veilguard has. but you can still do it. briala has incredibly limited power as gaspard's puppetmaster and her epilogue slide similarly slaps the player on the wrist for behaving so radically by putting *gasp* an elf in power resulting in Bad Disruptive Uprisings throughout orlais. but you can do it. hawke can spare anders and let him go. again, the game slaps you on the wrist via character disapproval and the fact he becomes a wandering hermit or whatever the fuck but. you can still let him go. in origins you can make shianni bann and the consequences are disgusting and horrible and writing it that way is literally sickening, but the game lets you do it. origins lets you do a lot of buck wild shit, some decisions less real-world politically coded than others, but you get to DO IT. even if the game and its writers scold you afterwords for getting too disruptive. YOU CAN STILL DO IT.

and this goes the other way too. there is a reason people like greg ellis had a home with dragon age for so many years and his beliefs were able to go under the radar for so long. there is a reason transphobic gamerbros love origins. there is a reason there was backlash to da2's rampant bisexuality. because dragon age let you be leftist about as much as it let you be a racist misogynistic asshole. you can do horrible things in these games. you can quite literally sell people into slavery. templar aligned hawke lets the kirkwall circle get annulled and becomes viscount as a reward for their loyalty. the inquisitor can just execute literally everyone they judge. now, i'll be the first to say that a lot of those options are not nearly narratively condemned enough. bioware has fumbled many a topic in their misunderstood pursuit of "grey morality" that leads them to feel the need to morally equalize situations of clear, unambiguous injustice (cough mage templar war cough). in fact, decisions like sparing anders are often far more clearly narratively punished than things like giving fenris back to danarius, (which kind of just blows over after some approval loss???) and in my opinion that is a writing flaw. i do think RPG games should have choice, and allow players to be evil, but i also think that writers have a responsibility for the message their writing sends to the world. some decisions in dragon age are well-handled. many others recreate and reflect real life racism or misogyny or islamophobia, and reveal the writer's bias against real-life groups of people or political movements. this is the risk of writing stories like these.

but veilguard does not let you do anything. in either direction. ive been calling it a "thought-terminating fantasy cliche" because... it really is thought-terminating. you are not supposed to think about alternatives that may be too radical in the writer's eyes (what if i let anders go instead of face the justice [haha] the game clearly thinks he deserves? what if i install an elvhen puppetmaster on the orlesian throne despite all of my advisors recommendations? what if i support the murder-pope in reforming the chantry through violence and bloodshed?). veilguard has..... what if i save this city over that one? the only one i can think of is saving isseya. are there any others? genuine question. theres nothing to decide and therefore there is nothing to think about. you dont get to think of possibilities past the narrow centrist path presented to you. you dont get to think about an end for solas that doesnt end in jail. you dont get to think about who becomes tevinter's archon and what policies you might like to see them have. you dont make choices between major factions based on ideological and/or practical differences like recruiting mages vs templars. you barely even get to decide anything for the characters, half of the choices are purely cosmetic.

like i feel like theres something to be said for having the choice even if the overall narrative still condemns it. the writer's bias leaks in to the world's reactions to your decisions but you are still allowed to make them. i always intentionally leave leliana hardened because i think radical insane murder-pope who diversifies the church through ASSASSINATION is based. i dont give a fuck if david g/aider thinks its too crazy and tells me so in a thinly veiled epilogue slide reprimand about "the consequences of my actions". idgaf! 1. its a video game and 2. idc what he thinks.

and yes, nothing ever actually changes. dragon age has never allowed you to make radical change within its world even with the decisions that brush up on the possibility. but you can still be someone who believes in the possibility. you can play a mahariel who hates humans and poisons the ashes of their prophet because why should they care when they stole everything from the elves first? you can play a blood-mage circle-abolitionist anders-apologist hawke doing their best to survive in a city where survival and self-preservation sometimes forces them to act against their values. you can play a lavellan inquisitor who refuses to believe in andraste or the maker, advocates for elvhen liberation, and installs an elf on the orlesian thrown despite being forced into the role of figurehead for a religious empire. sure, you cant really actually do anything for the elves, but you can be someone who believes that change should happen. its not perfect. its certainly not some radical revolutionary fantasy nor does literally anyone expect it to be and when people say that its always in bad faith.

bioware has always been canadian liberal centrists and so have their games. but they used to let you get a little fun and crazy and then just reprimand you via epilogue slides or retcons in later games that we all just got to complain about online. but veilguard forces you to roleplay someone else's ideology; a boring centrist status quo loving fantasy with no opportunity to do something different. elven rooks cannot question dorian on tevinter slavery like elven inquisitors could. rook cannot ask lucanis about the child recruitment practices of the crows the way the warden could to zevran. rook cannot ask davrin about the warden's pressure into conscription, joinging and eventual calling the way the warden could alistair or hawke can to anders in legacy. you cannot ask about alternatives or question a single authority or character of any kind. you cannot voice dissent. the dialogue option does not exist. what was once a slap on the wrist in previous titles has become reactionary and preemptive. you wont get slapped on the wrist in the first place because you're stuck in a boring, empty room for after-school detention, railroaded into "good" behavior and confined to one path so you cant get into any trouble on your own. thought-terminating fantasy cliche. it didnt need to be some insane groundbreaking revolutionary work of marxism or whatever the fuck hyperbolic nonsense people are trying to straw-man the criticism into to disprove it as unreasonable. it needed to not advertise itself as an RPG and then force me to roleplay white canadian millenial neoliberal afraid of getting canceled on twitter simulator 4.0 because if i knew thats what i was signing up for i would have respectfully declined and saved my $70 on something that doesnt condescend to me for enjoying bald war criminals and stories about revolution

[fratttymatty]

La Marca Del Jaguar

(All characters are 18+)

Matty Klein was 18 and felt like a walking glitch in reality. Pale, thin, glasses that slid down his nose, and a voice barely above a whisper. His dark brown hair was always flat and lifeless, his clothes a little too big, and his limbs just a little too awkward.

He was gay, quiet, and shy — not because he was ashamed, but because life taught him early on that being soft in a loud world got you ignored… or worse. His passions were anime, coding, and obscure RPG games. Friends? Just his online guild.

Mexico was supposed to be a “spiritual” reset, according to his mom. Two weeks in the sun, off his devices, “embracing life.” It was their last family trip before college — or so his mom hoped.

They stayed near Mérida, close to jungle ruins and cenotes. But Matty mostly stayed indoors with books and bugspray. Until one evening, when he got separated from a tour group.

That’s when he found the jaguar.

It was carved in obsidian — a black jaguar statue, hidden beneath vines in the ruins. Its eyes shimmered with a low golden light. Something about it called to him, made the hair on his neck stand.

He reached out. The moment his fingers touched its stone fangs, a claw of fire gripped his chest.

He screamed.

His voice echoed as a disembodied one answered: “La bestia dormida… despierta.” (“The sleeping beast… awakens.”)

A gold mark bloomed on his chest, shaped like jaguar claws. The world spun.

Matty fell to his knees.

Then the transformation began.

The first thing to change was his bones.

Cracks echoed through the trees as his spine extended, vertebrae popping in rhythm like drumbeats. He grew taller — inch by inch, his limbs stretching out, awkward angles realigning into a lean, muscular frame.

His chest thickened. Shoulders widened. His frail arms swelled with new muscle, veins surfacing across his forearms like rivers. Matty gasped, voice breaking—no, deepening.

He looked at his hands. They weren’t his.

A warm, searing pulse washed over his skin. His pale body darkened into a deep golden tan, smooth and sun-kissed. Every trace of acne vanished. His jaw sharpened, cheekbones rose, lips plumped slightly into a faint natural pout.

His hair unraveled into thick black waves, wet-looking, messy but perfect.

Then came the voice. “Tu alma es de calle ahora.” (“Your soul belongs to the streets now.”)

His thoughts warped. Words in Spanish surfaced. His tongue felt heavier. The next time he spoke, his soft American accent was gone—replaced by a smooth, Mexican street drawl with lazy consonants and a cocky rhythm.

"Damn, bro... que chido..." he whispered, admiring his reflection in a puddle. It wasn't Matty anymore. It was… Diego. Diego "Fiera" Ríos.

And Diego smiled.

When he returned to the town, no one recognized him. He strutted shirtless, abs flexed, drenched in confidence. His old T-shirt clung like a second skin. Girls stared. Guys stared. He didn’t care.

He met a crew within a day — locals who ran street races, protected their neighborhood, lifted in rusted outdoor gyms, and wore jaguar tattoos. They called themselves La Marca — the mark of the jaguar.

They saw the golden claw mark on Diego’s chest and brought him in like blood. One of them, a muscled guy named Chuy, slapped his back and said:

“You’re one of us now, hermano. You were chosen.”

He didn’t remember how to code. Didn’t want to.

Now his days were spent pumping iron under the sun, his muscles swelling more each week. He tattooed a jaguar jaw across his collarbone. He flirted shamelessly. He threw punches when he had to. And he felt powerful — free.

Elliot, Matty… whoever that soft little boy was — he was gone.

Diego Ríos had taken his place.

One night, a tourist kid recognized him. A guy from one of his online groups, wide-eyed and stunned.

“Matty? Is that you? Oh my god, what happened?!”

Diego just tilted his head, cracked his neck, and let out a slow chuckle.

“Nah, bro. You got the wrong vato.”

Then he walked off into the humid night, golden eyes flashing under the streetlights. His gang waiting. Music thumping. The scent of smoke and sweat and freedom thick in the air.

They say the jaguar’s magic chooses those who need to be remade. Not everyone can survive the mark. But Diego?

He was born for it.

It was late afternoon when Diego Ríos spotted her — on the steps of a mercado, sipping a mango smoothie through a bright pink straw, oversized sunglasses sliding down her nose.

Emilia.

Sundress short. Hair blonde and wavy, almost glowing. Laughing to herself while texting in rapid, dramatic bursts. Her sandals were bedazzled, and her voice was airlight — high, sweet, and a little clueless. She was a walking contradiction to the gritty, shirtless gang boys flexing in the shade of parked bikes.

And yet Diego stared. Hard.

She noticed. Smiled. Giggled like she'd just won a prize in a candy store.

“Are you staring at me, tigre?” she teased, popping her gum. “Maybe,” Diego said, leaning against his bike, eyes locked on her. “You got a problem with that, muñeca?”

Her eyes widened. “Okay, wow. You sound like you eat protein powder for breakfast.”

He smirked. “I do. And eggs. Raw.”

She made a dramatic gasp. “Gross. I love that.”

They started seeing each other the next day. And the day after. And then it became constant.

Emilia had been vacationing from Guadalajara — meant to stay a week, maybe two. But Diego? He was magnetic. She’d never met someone so wild, so rough, so proud of his body, his tattoos, his gang. And he had this arrogant swagger, this slow way of talking like the world owed him a favor.

She couldn’t resist.

He’d pick her up in the back of a matte black pickup with his gang, blasting Bad Bunny or Peso Pluma. Emilia would sit on his lap at parties, twirling his chain around her finger while he flexed, showing off his biceps and kissing her neck between sips of cheap rum.

Everyone in La Marca called her "La Güerita de Diego" — Diego’s blonde girl.

She didn’t understand their slang half the time, but she didn’t care. She just liked how he looked at her like he owned her. How protected she felt. How big he was when he hugged her. How dumb he acted about everything except her.

One night, after a party under the stars, Diego brought her back to his room — a converted loft above an old boxing gym.

Emilia sat on the bed, looking around at the punching bags, weight racks, and empty protein tubs.

“Wow,” she said, holding up a dumbbell. “Your house smells like sweat and... like, testosterone or something.”

Diego grinned, peeling off his shirt and tossing it aside.

“You love it,” he said, voice low.

She looked up at him, wide-eyed. “I really do. You’re like… a hot jungle caveman.”

He leaned down, nose brushing her cheek. “Say that again.”

She giggled. “Jungle. Caveman.”

He growled, and she squealed, pulling him onto the bed. Their laughs echoed between the cement walls and faded out with the creak of the mattress.

They weren’t just a fling. They became that couple — the girl in the too-tiny top, sitting behind her buff boyfriend on his bike, arms wrapped tight around his chest. Diego taught her how to do curls. She taught him how to take cute selfies.

He didn’t remember ever being shy. He didn’t remember Matty. But sometimes, when she curled up beside him, humming some random pop tune, he’d close his eyes and feel — not regret, not guilt — but peace.

Because whatever magic had changed him… it gave him exactly what he never knew he needed.

A body built like a god. A gang who called him brother. And a girl who called him mi tigre and meant it.

One evening, as they lay in a hammock outside his gang’s compound, Emilia traced her fingers across the jaguar claw mark on his chest.

“What’s this from again?” she asked softly, half-asleep.

Diego looked down at her. Smirked.

“Destiny, baby.”

[doriana-gray-games]

A little poll to help me with a thing 💖✨

Imagine a game:

a small-scale 3D, third-person, unreal engine RPG that focuses on immersion, player choices, and romance. 💖

Magic school sim (+persona like). 👩‍🏫

Gothic fairytale coded. 🥀

Villainess Femc. 👸

Which tone and aesthetic style would you be drawn to then:

Gothic Romance ❤️

Rose red, Moonlight white, and coal black.

1800s Historical.

Low-mid fantasy.

More grounded – in world and humour.

The school is old and haunted, by both spirits of good and ill will.

Classic Villainess 💜

Royal purple, midnight blue, and blushing pink.

Fantasy historical.

Mid-high fantasy.

More fantastical and surreal. Lighter writing tone.

The school is more elegant, shiny, safe. With a hidden darkness.

Grimpunk 💚

Pallid green, dusky black, and greying white.

Steampunk-esque victorian.

Low fantasy, higher tech.

Darker in tone. Stylised, and surreal.

The school is dusty and creaking. Dangerous and alive.

FURTHER DETAILS BELOW:

Colours (gothic):

3D art style (gothic):

Inspo (gothic):

Colours (classic):

3D art style (classic):

Inspo (classic):

Colours (grimpunk):

3D art style (grimpunk):

Inspo (grimpunk):

[meglosthegreat]

So, Veilguard was bad and Dragon Age is probably done forever. What now?

If you, like me, spent the past ten years in anticipation of the next instalment of your favourite series of all time, and were then grossly and horrifically let down by what we ended up getting, you're probably feeling pretty bummed out right now. You might be wondering if anything out there will ever make you feel how Dragon Age did, and may be at a loss for what media to develop unhealthy levels of attachment to next.

With that in mind, I have compiled a list of my own personal, 100% Dragon Age fan-certified recs across media of all types. In the interest of presenting these in a way that feels more relevant in comparison to Dragon Age itself, I will not be grouping them in any kind of logical category but will instead be going purely off Vibes. I will also not be listing in detail certain titles that I think are too well-known to be useful in this list - namely Bioware's other games, among others. I will give brief mention of these, but I want to focus on less widely-known properties, or things that you may have heard of but have not seen recommendation for specifically from a fellow DA fan.

I may be updating this list further if I find something good to add, or if I think of something I hadn't before. And if you have further recs not present here, please feel free to reblog with your own additions!

Vibe #1: Good ol' High Fantasy

This category pertains to works that fall under the same broad genre definitions as Dragon Age, with similar overarching tones and themes. Not listed: Baldur's Gate 3, The Elder Scrolls, Avatar: TLA.

Divinity: Original Sin 2 (Video Game) - Easily my top pick for other RPGs that elicit the big world stakes and sweeping plot of DAI. There's even an EXTREMELY Solas-coded character who I won't spoil but let's just say as a Solas enjoyer myself they did absolutely nothing wrong and I would die for them. D:OS 1 is very good too, but they are both standalone stories and 2 has more of the DA feel than 1, so it takes the place on this list.

Unsounded (Webcomic) - This one hits so many DA boxes while at the same time being something extremely unique in itself. It's got deep, multifaceted characters. It's got a fascinating world and huge amounts of fantasy politics. It's got humour interposed with horror and tragedy with neither undercutting the other. It's got not one, but TWO extremely pathetic war criminal dads, who somehow are constantly at odds with each other and yet are forced together into Situations nonetheless. And it's free! Go read it right now, there's absolutely nothing stopping you.

Bone (Comic Series) - This is almost a reverse-recommendation in a sense, because I read it years before Dragon Age ever existed and is probably one of the reasons why I was drawn to DA in the first place. It's epic, sprawling fantasy but constantly grounded in the small, personal stakes of it all. Imagine an isekai but the isekai'd are from a pseudo-modern maximalist cartoon land and have been thrust into a gritty medieval fantasy. Don't let the jokes and the goofy main characters throw you though because this series gets dark.

Vibe #2: Found Family

If your favourite part of Dragon Age is the character dynamics, and you don't particularly care about genre trappings, this is the section for you. Not listed: Mass Effect, KOTOR

Farscape (TV Series) - Oh my god I am begging you, imploring you, to PLEASE watch Farscape. David Gaider has said before that he loves the show, and it's the reason Claudia Black became the voice of Morrigan. If that isn't enough of an endorsement for you, it also has THE MOST fucked up little blorbos the world has ever seen. Literally nothing, and I mean nothing, comes close to the wet cat/kicked puppy energy that these characters exhibit, and what's more 50% of them are dressed in early 2000s tight leather getups 24/7 while the other 50% are composed of the most incredible puppetwork and prosthetics you've ever laid eyes on.

Unavowed (Video Game) - This is a point-and-click adventure game about a team of supernatural investigators, and for such a relatively small indie game compared to the likes of DA, it does a hell of a job creating compelling and complex characters who you get to know and love. The opening act of the game has a bit where a monster rips someone's face off, and yet there is something so cozy about it I just can't explain.

Aurora (Webcomic) - This one has all the good found family vibes, with a cast of characters that each has their own Deal, who bicker and squabble incessantly but manage to pull together when it really matters. And when they don't, you can be sure they will Get Into It with themselves, and with each other. It's got tons of heart and soul, gorgeous colour work, and is also totally free!

Vibe #3: Worldbuilding & Political Machinations

If you love digging into theories and lore, and appreciate stories with complex fantasy politics, look no further than here. Not listed: The Witcher, Game of Thrones, Fallout: New Vegas

Pillars of Eternity (Video Game) - This is a broad rec for both Pillars games (and hopefully, if it ends up being good, the upcoming Avowed). While the gameplay is on the whole more difficult to get into and there isn't as much time dedicated to party members as in DA, PoE1 has some of the tightest, most well-thought out lore I've encountered. If the factions of DATV were a huge disappointment to you, PoE2's main focus is a handful of incredibly complex ones that pose you genuinely difficult questions about ethics and morality. Also like half the characters are voiced by Matt Mercer, it's great.

The Wheel of Time (Book Series) - The reason I didn't put this under Vibe #1, despite it being solid high fantasy, is that I didn't connect so much with the story and plot developments as much as I did the worldbuilding and politics of the series. Fair warning, this rec does come with several giant asterisks, as it is notorious for having infuriating characters and baffling gender dynamics, but if you are able to look past all the weirdness, you'll find what was clearly a lot of the inspiration for DA's world underneath. The recent TV show is... a mixed bag, but probably the only alternative to reading fourteen tome-sized books if you don't have the stomach for that.

Vampire the Masquerade: Bloodlines (Video Game) - You've probably seen this one recommended before, but if you're having a hard time getting past the early 2000s graphics and weird engine jank, let me assure you that it is well worth the hassle. There are lots of games out there that try to make you feel like a pawn in someone's greater plan, but none of them come close to matching what VTMB managed. If you like your politics and scheming more personal and visceral than grand and world-spanning, with excellent roleplaying options to back them up, this is the game for you.

Vibe #4: Fucked Up People in a Fucked Up World

This one is easily the most "hear me out, bro" category, but if Dragon Age 2 specifically is your jam, and you crave more Kirkwall energy and Greek tragedy in your life, I have a feeling you will really like these. Not listed: Arcane, Disco Elysium

Dishonored (Video Game) - This one has always been a tough sell, because despite it being, imo, one of the best designed games of all time, the way it was marketed makes it seem like a real Gamer's game, with super epic stealth powers! And badass kill animations! But behind all that, you'll find some of the most Characters of all time, including a soggy wet twink god who gives you magic powers but will be such a little bitch about it. The whole thing is steeped in potent atmosphere and incredible worldbuilding. Also everyone is gay.

Planescape: Torment (Video Game) - This is widely considered one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and though you have to deal with a fair amount of jank and perhaps a little more reading than you'd like in a video game, the design and atmosphere of Sigil alone make it worthwhile. Then there's the cast of characters, most of which are like two bad days away from becoming a supervillain and all of whom hate each others' guts. Need I say more?

The Magnus Archives (Podcast) - TMA is definitely not for all DA fans, but if your favourite part of DAO was the broodmother section, and you really enjoyed the slowly unfolding tragedy of Kirkwall and the feeling of Hawke being doomed by the narrative, you might find yourself hooked, as I did. There are also some extremely good characters in here, all uniquely fucked up in their own way, and getting to know them in between the main segments of episodes was the definite highlight for me.

That's all for now, and again, if you'd like to add to this list, please be my guest! There are a handful of things I think would probably fit here but I haven't watched/played/read yet, so if you think something extremely obvious is missing, that's most likely why.

[lactoseintolerentswag]

Rise Characterizations Pt. 6!!!!!!

After the turtles and Splinter, here we have the girl Ever. She's pretty spunky, I had fun analyzing her for writing.

April O'Neil Character Notes

Language Habits:

Uses bae/aave, something she could have passed on down to Raph and Mikey as they also use bae/aave

Most notably uses "mm-kay" in place of "okay"

Uses a lot of filler language, interjections, or onomatopoeia. Think "mhm", "uh huh, uh huh!", "oh yeah!"

"Ah nuts" is her go-to disappointed phrase

Grits and or strains her teeth when she's frustrated

Uses her own name (the full "April O'Neil!!!!") as a battle cry, or brings her name as a motivator i.e. "the one and only April O'Neil will solve this case!"

The more worked up she the louder she tends to be, this extends to stronger emotions such as passion or panic

Over text uses emoticons

Refers to splinter as "splints"

Refers to the turtles as "the fam"

Refers to villains/antagonists through insults rather than their names

Personality:

Adrenaline junkie, as she's often the first to jump into a fight. She also laughs in the face of danger, and was seen maniacally laughing and smiling the entirety of the gumbus episode

Jack of all trades. April has a lot of skills she's picked up from various jobs or personal adventures she's seeked out (like canoeing through the sewers in a hazmat suit and earning a crane license)

Wild and blunt. April is Loud, and rarely ever afraid to share her opinion. This can either make people draw back from her bluntness or be drawn in by her excitableness

Self-conscious. Despite her strong sense of self-esteem, April is still often motivated to impress the popular kids at school or at least fit in. She doesn't want to be seen as the weird kid, or associated with the weird kids

Persistent. April is always quick on her feet to hit back whatever comes at her. She has a good set of problem-solving skills that she's gained from all the skills she's picked up

Loyal. She's always willing to back up the turtles, and goes out of her way to keep Splinter happy with her company. Once she finds a friend it's hard to pry her away

Unlucky. Mostly in absurd or mundane ways. She has that whole curse with her birthday, but things don't often tend to go right for April O'Neil, which contributes to the disasters that cause her to get fired all the time

Miscellaneous:

Code-named "yellow submarine" by raph

Tends to have information on wifi passwords, secret exists, and access to keys from all the jobs she's been hired and fired from

Has a preference for blunt objects as weapons (most commonly bats, clubs, pipes)

Uses the environment in a fight in general

She's been part of the "warren stone fanclub" since 2010, and keeps all her ids in her wallet

Likes unicorns and cats (as seen through her brief texts with sunita and her pajamas)

Loves laser tag

Can beat Donnie at video games (if he didn't use cheat codes)

"sherlock_corn" is her handle online

Lives in an apartment/flat with her mom (showed onscreen briefly), that has its own bathroom

Has a subtly mentioned interest in fantasy, as noted by Donnie she tends to download fantasy rpgs and freaks out over cosplay wizards

Just an end note to all of you who aren't black, some offensive tropes I would stray from is making April the angry black girl. This is one of the most common stereotypes of black women in media. I wouldn't mistake April's passion or loudness for aggression. It would be a disservice to dilute her lively character into familiar but ultimately harmful tropes in media.

I am in no way saying you cannot portray April as angry, this is a powerful emotion and it should be explored with black characters, but I am saying that should not be the base of her character. Because well that's not even April's base. She's centered around fun and thrill-seeking.

Wikipedia (yes I know, But they have proven to be more dependable these past years) has a good article on the angry black woman stereotype, so that would a good place to start research on what to Avoid. In my splinter post I also provided some links on doing research on writing poc.

---

Anyway!!! We've ended our analysis trip of the main cast in s1. Next I'm thinking of picking apart our antagonists :]. Gonna take a break to work on my own fic, but stay tuned if you found any of my other posts helpful! It's been a fun ride with you all <3

[postgamecontent]

You Can't Buy Final Fantasy These Days*

*Okay, you can, but only secondhand in its original format.

You can't buy Final Fantasy these days. I mean, you can buy a game called Final Fantasy on most platforms. It's this one:

It's really pretty, and has some nice orchestral music. It's a lot of fun, too. A very breezy affair that even those less inclined to like turn-based RPGs might have a nice time going through. Every party is viable! That's nifty. Yes, I like this game a lot. I recommend it. But it's not Final Fantasy. It's based on Final Fantasy, it has the same name, but it's not Final Fantasy.

Also not Final Fantasy.

Still not Final Fantasy.

Not Final Fantasy either.

Okay, we're back to Final Fantasy.

So, I've been replaying Final Fantasy via the Japanese 3DS Virtual Console release. The original NES game, that is. It's been a while since I played this version of the game, as I generally go to whatever remake is newest when I feel like playing Final Fantasy. Playing this has reminded me of just how far away the game has gotten from the source material through those various remakes, and it makes me a little sad there's no real way to access this version of the game through official means right now. It's a problem we see a lot when there are remakes in play, unfortunately.

I'm not trying to be a gatekeeper about any of this. What I said about Pixel Remaster goes for any of the Final Fantasy remakes. They're all very good games in their own right, and I wouldn't be surprised if any of them were the one that someone fell in love with. But I also don't think they are the same game as the original, and I think we lose something by not having that version readily accessible alongside whatever spiffy new version Square Enix wants to sell.

Final Fantasy is kind of slow. Turns take a long time to resolve, especially when there are a lot of enemies. Your characters and the enemies both frequently miss their attacks. Level-ups take a lot of experience, and getting enough money to stay equipped with fresh gear and spells pretty much requires a lot of grinding. If the enemy a character targeted is already dead by the time their turn comes up, they'll just whiff the air. A bunch of the spells are bugged and just don't work, or work in weird ways. Some of the enemies accidentally show up in edges of areas where they shouldn't. People figured this out and a Peninsula of Power was born.

It's really easy to die in Final Fantasy. Healing options are more limited than in many other RPGs. Potions heal so little they are almost useless past a point. Status ailments are deadly. You can only save at inns or by using tents, cottages, or houses on the overworld map. The jobs are horribly balanced. A barehanded Master/Super Monk can take out the last boss with ease. Really, by the time a Black Belt/Monk reaches level 8, there's no point equipping any weapons on him anymore. Just how the math works. Whenever you open or close the menu or world map, you get this funky colorful flashing.

Final Fantasy is a 1987 console RPG. It has a lot of friction. It was coded by one guy, and it often shows. It sometimes has more heart than sense, and it's definitely short on modern niceties. Final Fantasy is a very challenging game, and it's easy to lose a ton of progress with just a bit of bad luck. Dungeons are genuinely dangerous because you can't save inside of them. Even normal enemies can hit really hard, and bosses can thrash you. Spell management is a pain because you never really have enough charges to let fly the way you would like to. Getting to the end of the game takes a lot of persistence.

The remakes of Final Fantasy make for more accessible and comfortable experiences, but those qualities in and of themselves mean those games are not the same as that NES original. And that's fine. Lots of people don't want to deal with all that nonsense. But Final Fantasy is the game that was enough of a hit that all those sequels and remakes happened, and it doesn't deserve to be scrubbed away. I'd love if the Pixel Remasters included the original games as an extra, so that people could at least choose to break their teeth on them if they want.

You can't buy Final Fantasy these days, and that's too bad.

[anjona-art]

So, the campaign is officially finished, but my buffer of fanarts is not!

This scene is not from the final session but from the mid-finale, when our group "infiltrated" the base of an anti-corporate organisation, located under an exclusive night club. The first time we met Zjava (https://anjona-art.tumblr.com/post/707177066330783744/anyway-the-current-campaign-i-play-in-is-black) face to face as well, and foiled her plans of spreading black code through insect-like microbots. Fun times.

Also, I was co-GMing this one, and got to kinda betray the party, I have fond memories.

[prettycottonmouthlamia]

I still do play F/GO but it has definitely become more of my side game instead of my main game. F/GO is in this kind of weird state that I'm going to attempt to elucidate my feelings on by writing it, and while I'm here I'm not going to spend too much time talking about the writing because I haven't really actively followed the story since LB6 and a significant portion of that was me trying to see what Tenochtitlan's deal in OC3 was as well as reading Traum to my general suffering. I do think F/GO is massively spinning its wheels on the main plot but I digress. Apparently OC2 is really popular.

The core gameplay of F/GO is not...bad. I don't know if I would say it started from a particularly inspired place, but it is still a turn-based RPG with a relatively simple overall structure. I regularly play RPGs like Dragon Quest or Earthbound, frankly this isn't really that bad of a system. It does fairly often get used in interesting ways as well. Boss fights in F/GO, especially within the last few years, have been generally quite good. They're very often using the mechanics to tell a story or illustrate something about the boss. Barghest steals your Command Codes in battle because she's the devouring black dog who consumes everything powerful in front of her. Cernunnos explodes on your party every time you hit him because he's basically a corpse reanimated by the collective curses and grudges of thousands of years. ORT is shown to be hulking and extremely difficult to defeat though a massive raid battle where you constantly throw your entire repertoire of Servants in front of it, over and over again. Every single time, they fail. Their information gets absorbed by him. You can't use them again, and you literally are incapable of even delaying his progress.

The issue that F/GO has is that it is not a game that is a visual novel cut by climatic boss fights. Instead, to get to those really good boss fights, you often have to do _dozens_ of absolutely lame ass fights. There's a huge amount of dead air. In a game like Arknights, every fight does need to be handled with a modicum of different strategy and every event and story chapter has new gimmicks to throw your way. Sure, there are jokes that you can just throw overpowered 6-stars at everything, and yeah not all of the event mechanics are good, but they are there. In F/GO, 95% of the content can be handled the exact same way, only allowing for some slight differences depending on what flavor of DPS you're feeling on that day.

When none of the non-boss fights are remotely interesting, when they are all some kind of bland loop em all gameplay, the game grinds to a mind-numbing halt. This isn't helped by the fact that there are so many combat nodes in any given story chapter. I do like the harder content they've put out to a point, but I do often struggle to get much enjoyment out of the game right now mechanically.

[thoughtsroamguy]

What was your inspiration for ToX? Do you get inspired by people in your everyday life?

Honestly the original inspiration for Tears of Xivo started simple. When I first started messing around with DAZ and going through the marketplace, I came across the sword(s) that the protagonist uses.

When I was a little kid, before I knew I wanted to be a writer, I would draw swords a bunch (I’m not very good at drawing 😅) and come up with cool powers and such for them. I honestly think swords are just the coolest weapon. Their iconography is unmatched to me, but I digress. So when I saw this sword, its crystalline appearance struck me and I immediately started coming up with a story for it.

I usually come up with a story behind a character before I come up an actual external story for them. In this case, our protagonist Katrina has her destiny tied to this sword. I don’t wanna give away more than that.

Past that, having played a lot of video games I’ve always wanted to make them. Ironically, when I was younger my mom put me in a video game making program but I thought the computer science aspect was too difficult so I just stuck to writing the stories I wanted to go into a video game. Now here I am, years later, teaching myself programming 😅.

If I had to name games that influenced me the most, I’d have to say Fable

This was my first RPG with a morality scale and choices you can make to affect the story. It’s safe to say anyone that played this game has a direct look into my brain on how I think games should operate. Tears of Xivo won’t be like it that much in terms of everything, but I want to make a game like it one day.

Now as for the overall aesthetic, I definitely draw inspiration from real life. I want this game to be Black As Hell. I wanted the game to have an almost anachronistic feel. People have modern materials and styles, yet magic and fantasy is the core of what they wear.

With Katrina, specifically, I wanted her to have a Stemme (white ppl call it Futch) look. Like she’s a girl from the block but in a fantasy setting. From her chains to hair, I wanted no doubt in anyone’s mind she could easily exist in our world.

Most of my characters are Black or Black-coded if they’re nonhuman.

For Artelia her dreadlocks and Terrya with her braids, both have protective hairstyles. (Terrya was a nightmare to find a hair style that fit with her horns)

Here are some enemy NPC concepts that keep the theme

Everyone should feel like they’re just a step or two from our world, in terms of their styles.

Black culture a stated influence on my world building process. One of the locations in the game is gonna be called Sycpher island. Like a cypher in rap, in which ppl come together to come up with rhymes on the fly. Ppl there will [spoiler alert].

We’ll see Black culture influence in pretty much every aspect of the game. However some characters will vary culturally, such as Xiuhcoatl here:

If her name wasn’t enough, one might recognize the weapon she’s leaning on as a macuahuitl, an Aztec obsidian longsword. Yeowch!

Thanks so much for the ask, I had fun thinking about it!

[fault-classic]

It's been a little while, what have I been working on?

My latest work went into making some pretty significant tweaks to the battle results screen. Really starting to tie things together now, but it's not quite finished yet! That's not all, though.

Back in May I was experimenting with RPG Maker's "weather" system. I had implemented a map-specific "overhang" layer that framed the edges of rooms with black space. That prevented weather effects - like snow particles - from displaying beyond the boundaries of the room.

The frogs are just my debug objects for turning the snow on and off.

But it's not like I wanted it to snow indoors - after I had the overhangs figured out, I rewrote the behaviour and graphics code for the "snow" particles to create these dust particles that float around aimlessly.

This ought to make the catacomb interiors feel appropriately dusty - and make the environments feel less still and lifeless in general.

They even display on the battle screen... though sometimes they tend to crowd around the left side of the screen because of the panning and sliding during the battle intro animation. I'll have to fix that at some point.

During May and June, Vito got a complete set of battle sprites and an attack animation.

And so did Yolei. Oh, and the dog enemy is also new.

The dog enemy is very evasive, but also cowardly and not very tough.

It is capable of the "flee" action, something that slimes and skeletons will not do.

At the end of June I added a MAJOR quality of life feature. When Ashley is facing something on the map that can be interacted with or talked to with the action button, a quotation bubble with an exclamation mark will pop up above their head. No ambiguity! No more pixel hunting or mashing the action button in front of every random tile!

I didn't save any screenshots in July, it was a busy month I guess. But in August I got back to work.

Remember this old sprite? From February of 2023?

Well, I'm revisiting this enemy type with more practice under my belt. Here are some gifs I recorded as I was figuring them out and implementing their assets and abilities.

As armored enemies, they are very hardy - the weaker party members will have a hard time damaging them with basic attacks.

In addition to their basic attacks, all undead enemies can perform a skill that inflicts "fear" status on one party member, which depletes their morale over time...

Here's the same battle running with the mood lighting and dust effects turned on. While I was fiddling with the code, I was also able to configure the target animation to not play if the skill misses. It looked sloppy otherwise.

At some point I put a big, animated door on the front entrance of the debug dungeon. I used this door as a testing model for other interactive doors to use later.

I also spent the last few days of the month filling out Nana's spellbook with some more spell animations. "Dazzle" inflicts dizzy on the entire enemy party. Dizzy enemies have a chance of hitting the wrong target with their basic attacks - including their own allies. Hitting a dizzy target with a basic attack will also knock them down and stun them for one turn.

"Fume" poisons one enemy with a cloud of noxious gas, dealing damage over time.

I should of course note that since skeletons don't breathe, they can't be poisoned in the final game - I was only using this one to demonstrate the animation here.

that's all for now!

[archoneddzs15]

Super Famicom - Fist of the North Star 6

Title: Fist of the North Star 6 / 北斗の拳６ 激闘伝承拳 覇王への道

Developer/Publisher: Toei Animation

Release date: 20 November 1992

Catalogue Code: SHVC-K6

Genre: Fighting

A lousy fighting game on the Super Famicom based on a high-profile IP. The series was popular in America and Japan a few years back, but nowadays, there is only a small cluster of fans of this hardcore anime left. I am proud to say that I am one of those fans, and those who have not watched a Fist of the North Star episode or read any of the manga novels are seriously missing out. The series was set in a post-apocalyptic era where the world had transformed into a nightmarish landscape ruled by violence. It followed the adventures of Kenshiro, the successor to the Hokuto Shinken martial art. He basically went around fighting his power-hungry brothers and an entire gallery of heartless enemies eager for power over the new world.

So it seemed obvious that in the bowels of the games library of most retro systems, a game bearing the Hokuto name would lie decaying, with exceptions, of course. There was Fist of the North Star on the Sega Master System, which was pretty mind-numbingly simple and boring (it was released in the West as Black Belt), and Fist of the North Star on the Sega Genesis, which was way too complicated (it was released in the West as Last Battle). After all I can't say I have found many good games based from manga and anime series and the chances were that any Hokuto game is destined to suck. The only ones I enjoyed so far is the Hokuto no Ken release on the PlayStation 2 as part of the Sega Ages 2500 series, as well as Lost Paradise on PS4, Legends Revive on smartphones, and Hokuto no Ken on Sega Saturn. If Raoh had anything to say about this, it would probably be on the lines like The Gods have already condemned the Hokuto series of games (or the majority of them) to death!" and the sad thing is that he would be right. Hokuto no Ken 6 is no exception here and follows the doomed path that most of the games fall into.

This time, the gameplay takes a break from the usual action or RPG format that its prequels followed. The concept seemed like a brilliant idea, taking a selection of the greatest fighters in the series and putting them in a fighting game so they could kick the hell out of each other, but Toei Animation (who also developed this) messed up here big time. The selection of fighters is adequate, to say the least. You have Heart, the overweight giant with rubber-like flab that is impervious to punches. You have a few lesser-known characters like the Demon God Kaioh, Kuroyasha, an old midget with claws who uses the Hokuto Ryuuken style, and Falco, a general in Raoh's army.

The other four characters are the better fighters to use and are some of the more popular characters in the series. Souther (okay, not THAT popular) is a man who gave up emotion after killing his master accidentally in a training exercise. He is a master of Nanto Seiken (Hokuto Shinken's rival school of martial arts) and a deadly fighter in that art. Rei is also a master of the Nanto Seiken style and has the fighting grace of a waterbird. He is Ken's best friend and accompanied him on many adventures. Last but not least, we have Raoh, the oldest of the four Hokuto brothers and a man with amazing power and strength, and Kenshiro, the Hokuto master with seven scars on his chest, a man who needs little introduction.

Unfortunately, Hokuto no Ken 6 on the Super Famicom is a little off when you control your chosen character. First of every character you play moves as if they have crabs. The controls are so stiff that it's almost impossible to make any quick movements. Anywho, during a fight, you will notice that your character has three bars at the top of the screen (a recipe for confusion, no doubt). One is your health bar, which lowers until you are defeated, and the other is your specialty gauge, which controls your character's Aura. If you charge your aura, you will be able to pull off special attacks which range from devastating punches to minute projectiles. If you do charge up your aura, an actual aura will appear around your character, allowing him to perform stronger moves. It will change colour from yellow to green, and this will indicate the current power that you have charged up. If you charge it to the max, then you can produce more effective moves.

The reasons why Hokuto no Ken 6 is poor aren't just the confusing power gauges and iffy controls, but the fact that the game picks a lot of lousy characters and leaves some of the better ones out in the cold. Kenshiro, Rei, and Raoh are fighters who deserve to be in this game, but the majority of the other characters are poor. The inclusion of better and more important characters like Toki, Jagi, and Shin would have probably helped made this game better, mainly due to those characters are more interesting than Kaioh, who is pretty much Raoh with few mutations anyway, and Heart. If characters like those were included in the game and a few of lesser known ones removed, it would've contributed a bit to this game's improvement.

Hokuto no Ken 6 follows in the footsteps of most of its brothers, and flops pretty badly in most angles. With very stiff controls, which make the characters jerk around like robots, an average range of characters from the series that could have been edited easily enough to house more interesting and important ones, and also a confusing gauge system, Hokuto no Ken 6 is a poor man's Street Fighter. It will only be enjoyed by really hardcore fans, and even then, I still doubt that fans will find it that great.