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somniferouseyes · 3 years

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Home Sweet Prison - Thoughts on Silent Hill 4: The Room

Recently I had the pleasure of finally playing the fourth Silent Hill game after years of planning to get around to it. I just finished it last night after three lengthy play sessions over the past week. It definitely had its flaws but I couldn’t help but love the game and wanted to share some of my thoughts. Obvious spoilers below.

This is going to be a long one, so buckle up. First, a little background. If you really don’t care and just want my thoughts on the game, skip down to below the line of ‘=‘s.

It must have been around 7 years ago I played my first Silent Hill game. I had heard bits and pieces about the series for a long time and finally I managed to get my hands on a Playstation 2 along with a copy of Silent Hill 2. The TV at my mom’s place didn’t make much sense to play games on, as I had to share it with a family that didn’t care much for watching games, and so only allowed me to play for short bursts. Definitely not suitable for playing through a game where atmosphere is one of the key elements to the experience. So instead I absconded with my PS2 and the game to the ancient CRT TV in my bedroom at my dad’s place, where I spent the night at most a few times a week. The solitude and old television at night made for a near-perfect playing environment for a game like SH2. The sound effects of the menus and the vibrant red of the save screen casting a bloody shade over the walls of that room are memories permanently imprinted in the inside of my head.

I had a great time with the game and eventually picked up Silent Hill 3 as well, excited for another journey to that destitute, foggy town. Unfortunately, after playing through around a third of the game, I discovered my disc was scratched and couldn’t continue, despite my best attempts to clean and buff it out. At that point I didn’t have any sort of disposable income so buying another copy just didn’t seem worth the expense. So unfortunately, my journey with that game ended there.

I was aware that the fourth game, like the first three, was fairly highly regarded, so I kept a tab on it in the back of my mind for opportunities to play. This past fall, I finally got my chance. I jumped with excitement at seeing GOG offering the now-ancient (by video game standards) title and immediately purchased it, fully prepared to experience what I had been missing all this time. I booted it up several days after and played for around an hour. There was the gameplay I remembered in all its clunky glory. As well as the haunting sound design and twisted visuals. It was a great throwback, but for some reason I didn’t come back for more. I planned to play more but it sat on the digital shelf for months before I would finally touch it again, this time with my partner at my side to experience it along with me. At first I worried having another person there would take away from the atmosphere, which is what I always saw as the strongest part of the series. Thankfully this wasn’t really the case. Anyway, now after enough extra shit, my thoughts on the game itself.

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What first struck me was how creative and intriguing I found the setting to be. I’ve known for a long time what it was, but actually playing it now I found it resonated with me in an unexpected way. I recently moved into my first non-college apartment and as I played I found myself sort of day-nightmaring about what it would be like to wake up one day and find myself trapped in my apartment, door chained shut, windows stuck, and no real communication to the outside world but a strange hole which has appeared in my bathroom wall. Letting myself sort of float in that headspace really got me immersed into the world and I really grew to appreciate the apartment as a sort of hub world in the game. A safe space from the horrors that lay on the other side of the hole. At least, temporarily safe as I would eventually discover. Throughout the first half of the game the apartment served as a resting point in between forays into the unforgiving outside world.

Then one time I came home to discover that the ceiling fan had mysteriously broken and smashed down upon the coffee table. Henry, our lovely protagonist, commented that the air felt heavier as though a weight was bearing down upon him. The in-game ramifications of this event didn’t become clear until a bit later, when I discovered that my health no longer regenerated when in the apartment. My one reliable form of healing had been taken away from me. And the game being a survival horror game, I very quickly felt its effect. Healing supplies were very limited and I found myself struggling to survive through various enemy encounters now where before I had done alright with occasional trips home to heal up. But this was only the beginning.

It couldn’t have been more than an hour or two later that upon entering the apartment I was greeted by a castrophony of crashing and banging coming from the living room. I entered and found the windows there shaking and slamming against their frames, as if by the manipulation of some violent poltergeist. Even so much as nearing them damaged me and despite the frustration at not being able to interact with them anymore without fear of taking lethal damage, it was one of the coolest things I’ve seen in a game for a while. From that point onward every few visits to the apartment, I was met with some new form of haunting in various parts of the few rooms I had. Eventually they crept in the way of the save point, forcing me to put myself at risk in order to even so much as save my game. It was a level of brutality that has become much less common in games. Thankless and cruel. But I loved seeing my safe prison twist and disfigure into a dangerous nightmare. For once in a piece of horror, whether game, book, or movie, I felt as if I was the one being haunted. This was my home and it was being slowly but surely wrenched from my hands. The hub easily became one of my favorite things about the game as a result.

My feelings about the rest of the game were a little more mixed. As is Silent Hill tradition, the controls were a clunky mess. I’m sure it was by design, as fumbling with them creates a tension in common interactions in the game not unlike the loss of coordination one might experience in a dream. As neat as that is as an artistic touch, from a gameplay standpoint it did sour the experience a bit when it came time to deal with enemies (FUCK the ghost victims).

On a related note, for some reason the devs thought it’d be a good idea to have the entire back half of the game be a goddamn escort mission. One where the quality of your performance affects the ending you get for some reason, no less (???). In general I liked Eileen as a character and appreciated the whole slow possession thing she had going on, but trying to maneuver through the cramped corridors of the game while also trying to move around her and make sure she didn’t get left behind with a bunch of enemies was a nightmare in and of itself. One of the worst things about the game, honestly. There were times I made sure she got left behind in areas just to give myself some room to breathe.

Enemies in general were a massive pain in the ass, at least until late in the game when I figured out how to deal with them efficiently. It didn’t help that their designs for the first third of the game were so bland. One of my favorite things about the series is seeing all the fucked up enemy designs and the speculation from the fanbase about what they might represent from a narrative standpoint, so I was super disappointed to find the first chunk of the game only feature zombie dogs, some ghosts, and pointy bats. Later on I discovered that the ghosts were actually Walter’s past victims who had lost all control and sense of reality after being slain for his ritual, which was a VERY cool detail I missed early on. It lent a whole new dimension to what would otherwise be boring generic ghost enemies. I just wish it had been conveyed better, because obviously I didn’t recognize any of them until Cynthia’s showed up during the second visit to Subway World (Yep. It’s actually called that.) It was a lot of fun seeing how each of the people I had seen murdered had unique abilities as ghosts meant to represent their personalities or behavior in life.

Once I hit the water prison, the game’s enemy design picked up though. I had seen images of the Twin Victims before, but it hadn’t prepared me for their sudden appearance in those cramped circular halls. In the past games and the beginning of this one it seemed like enemies usually had a sort of introductory cutscene showcasing a little of their personality or abilities, but for the Twin Victims? Nope, you get nothing. One second you’re in ignorant bliss of their existence, the next a two-headed shrouded figure is charging at you on its hands.

The rest of the enemies were all decent I think in my memory, though some better than others. I’m not sure who gave the okay on the decision for the Patient creatures in Hospital World to fucking let loose the most wild burps known to man whenever they take a hit, but it was simultaneously tension-ruining and laugh-inducing to knock one down the stairs by accident only to receive a musical number comprised solely of belches in response. Definitely a highlight of the experience, if an unintended one.

Since I don’t want to spend a ton of time on the areas themselves I’m gonna just throw together a little list here of quick opinions on them.

Subway World - Awful. Boring area, especially since this exact type of thing was done already in a fairly lengthy section in SH3. Fuck the dogs. Second visit wasn’t any better because being chased by Cynthia’s ghost was incredibly annoying, especially since you’re still just figuring out the mechanics of Eileen following you at this point.

Forest World - Refreshing after Subway World but still boring. Just a bunch of trees and annoying bats. Highlight was Jasper, my bro whose character arc consists of being scared of rocks, drinking some choccy milk, then burning to death. Second visit was a little better? I liked the torch mechanic and finding the body parts in the 5 wells was a creepy little sort of puzzle.

Water Prison World - One of my favorite areas. Really interesting design and home to one of the few true puzzles in the game, even if it is kind of explained to you outright. Also home to the debut of one of the creepiest enemies, Twin Victims. Second visit was kind of underwhelming and frustrating because of Eileen getting swarmed by them though.

Building World - Other than winning the Dumb Area Name of the Century award, this place was fine. Some areas were a bit too swarmed with enemies, but otherwise a pretty fun place to explore. Reminded me of past games in the series in terms of design. Second visit was ROUGH. I finished with no healing items and only a sliver of health remaining as I went into the boss fight, so I had to make sure I wasn’t hit once for its duration. Also what the fuck is up with the way Richard’s ghost moves? Thought my game was straight up glitching for a bit.

Apartment World - I think possibly my favorite area of the game. Just your classic Silent Hill apartment complex. Loads of rooms to explore and find keys for, etc. Second visit was exactly what I wanted. Just chaos throughout the building and creepy shit around every corner. Highlight for me was the chains on the superintendent’s door, for some reason. Just thought it was cool setpiece.

Hospital World - A pretty cool place overall, but too short and with no second visit it had me wishing there was more of it. A bit simplistic in design but I had fun checking out all the various rooms and the creepy shit inside them. Creepiest Shit in the Game award goes to the massive bloody head of Eileen that stares you down with eyes that can only be described as vibrating. Normally I’d be annoyed at Henry literally not reacting to it, but it somehow adds to its disturbing factor. Almost as if its some kind of meta-scare that Henry can’t even see.

As for the characters, I found them overall to be okay. Nothing special really. Henry is boring as hell and doesn’t really seem to react much to any of the crazy things happening around him, which makes me question his mental state a bit. Eileen is probably the best of the group in my eyes. She goes through a LOT during the game. I thought the possession mechanic with her was very cool and loved eventually finding out that her level of possession actually modifies her dialogue at various points in the game. Definitely a very nice touch. Walter is pretty meh. Just your ordinary insane serial killer really. Nothing to write home about. Didn’t really have a personality beyond “I’m bloodthirsty and I want my mommy.” Also, for someone who was trying to kill me, it really didn’t feel like his heart was all in it. He was easy to sidestep and he’d just sort of become disinterested and wander off. I was a bit underwhelmed to find the superintendent didn’t have any role really past the halfway point in the game. Where did he go? In one of the endings he’s confirmed to be dead but otherwise not mentioned at all. He got a lot of the spotlight in the first half so it really makes no sense.

The plot was pretty entertaining. Might be sacrilege to say so, but I think I preferred it to SH2′s despite its flaws, though it’s been a while since I played that so maybe I’ll have to give it another run-through sometime and see. I just had a lot of fun following Joseph’s notes and slowly learning about the Wishing House cult and Walter’s murders. I found myself guessing at what we could expect from Walter and his twisted ritual around every corner and how the tale would eventually unravel.

Upon tearing into it more closely my partner and I found a number of weird little issues and nitpicks with the plot that we couldn’t seem to find any explanation for. Was Walter ever really in prison? The game is deliberately vague about this detail, and I assume we’re meant to come up with our own conclusions, but it felt a bit strange to not give a more solid explanation, as other issues arise from the lack of one. If he did really kill himself in prison, how did he get out of his grave and perform the Ritual of the Holy Assumption? If that wasn’t him in prison, why would anyone bother digging up the grave at all? And either way, why mark the coffin with his number, 11/21? It doesn’t really make sense. Not quite related, but we’re also missing the why of Walter’s split manifestations. What about the ritual caused him to split off a child version of himself? It’s not exactly important to the plot’s progression, but it’d be nice to know if he fucked up some part of the ritual, or was punished for being a little shit by God or whatever.

Unfortunately my partner and I found the endings to all be pretty lame. I got the ‘21 Sacraments’ ending, which I guess is to be expected because I wasn’t very careful in taking care of Eileen due to the controls being a massive pain in the ass while also not really understanding how to purge the apartment of hauntings with candles. I understood the mechanic but literally couldn’t figure out where to place the candles to achieve the desired affect despite all my attempts to, which was a shame. I’m also still not entirely sure why the ending I got results in Walter possessing Henry’s body when I clearly followed the instructions to put a stop to his ritual, but the other endings aren’t all that much better. In the ‘Mother’ ending, apparently Eileen is somehow still possessed? Why? By who? No explanation is given! Always a good time.

Despite the nitpicks at the plot, the confusing decision to make most of the game an escort mission, and the messy Silent Hill game controls, I still had a fantastic time. I still felt just in love with the atmosphere, sound, and enemy design as I did back when I played SH2. I wish there were more in the series to experience, but it seems like my options aren’t all that great. The first game is kind of a dated mess visually, I’m not sure I have the heart to replay so much of the opening of the third game to allow myself to experience the entire thing, and apparently all the games after kind of suck in various ways.

I find myself leaving Silent Hill 4 with a renewed sense of sadness at the cancellation of PT and the grim hopes for the future of the series, but excited to maybe get back into playing more horror games. It’s a genre I used to be all over but eventually fell out of entirely, save for a few recent titles, such as Resident Evil VII.

I’d definitely recommend Silent Hill 4: The Room in a heartbeat to anyone who can stomach the clunky controls as well as some some dated graphics and game mechanics.

Goodbye for now, Silent Hill.

#silent hill 4 #silent hill spoilers #horror #silent hill 4 the room

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like-twilight · 4 years

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The Last of Us 2 thoughts eyyy longgg and spoilers

This is my opinion before hearing anybody else’s opinion about it.

I only want to discuss the story as it is the only thing I can really speak of since I didn’t play it for myself. All I can say is I wish I could’ve and I’ll always regret not being able to because I really wish that could’ve been my experience as it was with the first game that I could play myself. It’s also probably noteworthy that the first game was the first video game I’ve played in my life so I’m probably biased.

So I’ll go all over the place because why not.

The false advertisement is extremely scummy and I don’t really know what to do with it, I blame it all on the No Spoilers Culture we currently have going. I don’t think anybody would’ve watched any of the promotional stuff a better marketing team could’ve put together and said “ah you can’t see old Joel in action, I bet he dies early in the game, I won’t fucking play this”. There was plenty of buzz around the game and there was no reason whatsoever to falsely market it. That part’s bullshit and I condemn the company for this.

From the story side though, Joel dying was honestly not that huge of a surprise or shock to me. TLOU is a game that has you watch a kid die in the first section of it then does more than enough to establish itself as a game without taboos. Now whether that’s something you like or not is not important, what cannot be said about the game is that it didn’t establish itself as a game that would do this.

I also think arguments like “Joel wouldn’t go out like a bitch” are silly. The beginning told me Joel, the badass and smart survivor he is, was very quick to adjust back to a small town life with a now pretty much surrogate daughter. I’m not saying that excuses the unceremonious death but to me Joel is not a gun-blazing badass hero, not even an anti-hero. He’s just a dude. He got overpowered and then he died.

See this is where the game could never win. If you leave Joel alive and he’s in the story then it’s just a repetition of the first game. If you leave him alive but he’s not in the game much then you underutilise him and people miss him. Also if you leave him alive then people will just say you’re a little bitch because it’s fanservice that Joel is technically invincible because he’s the face of the game. But if he dies, people riot. The creators couldn’t win either way and so I’m glad they made up their mind and stuck to it. It’s also very useful to get people talking.

Before I tie that into the rest of the story, I also have to mention that one of the few things I heard about the game was the expression “torture porn” and maybe I’m just desansitised but I didn’t feel like it was that overwhelming or unjustified. I didn’t watch too much of the promotional material but I saw what I think was the gameplay reveal where the devs said in this game enemies would call each other by name when you kill someone or they find someone dead. And I think that’s a neat detail but I think it also has a lot to do with what the game is... about.

That the hundreds of faceless people you slaughter during the game all have a video game or more worth of story behind them. They are people with their own twenty plus years of survival in a world gone to hell whose story ends the way Joel’s did. By meeting a person who just... wins the fight over them.

So that the deaths are really personal and intimate in that way feels justified. You also have this crazy technology that allows them to animate people very realistically. This is the last big game for the PS4 and they really just brought the technology to its limits, I feel. For them to then say “oh a sledgehammer to the face doesn’t look that bad” or “we just won’t add more types of weapons and have one type of death animation just cause we don’t want to overdo it” is just. It’s not gonna happen.

I never felt like those were glorified, I think they all added to that feeling that bubbled to the surface towards the end of Ellie’s first stretch of the story where I just couldn’t stop shaking my head, going Ellie... Ellie, what are you doing, look at yourself... look at what you’re doing. So to me that wasn’t really an issue.

I can imagine some people, maybe even most people would play the first stretch of the game in revenge mode. You know, let’s get this bitch. But in the same time, I also couldn’t really deny that Abby was like... kinda right to want revenge. I’m not saying I’m glad she killed Joel I’m just saying she had a reason to. (On that sidenote, Abby being that surgeon’s daughter did nothing to enhance this feeling. I could’ve imagined Abby in a settlement much like Jacksonville where they’re all hopeful because they found a surgeon who’s leading research about the cordyceps, maybe he’s a super good leader, inspires the Fireflies to keep up their spirits, all that. Maybe Abby’s group could’ve been his super close-knit group of soldiers taking care of him and running errands for him, even then the rage would’ve been justified.

I get they wanted to draw the parallel between Joel-Ellie, surgeon-Abby, dad-daughter relationships but that added nothing to the story for me. It didn’t take anything away either, I just kinda rolled my eyes like okay, whatever.)

So when Ellie was on her revenge quest, I liked that she and Dina were in Tommy’s footsteps, I thought that was a nice touch and kinda foreshadowed another section of the story where we would meet up with Tommy eventually.

Now, Dina and Jesse, I found nothing wrong with Dina or her being pregnant (except that it reminded me of Aniara and I hate that movie with my whole being). I thought it was a good enough source of conflict and I really liked Jesse being around. When he shows up and they’re just saying they’ll get Tommy and then get the fuck outta there you can already tell Ellie is obsessed but you’re still holding out hope that Dina will be enough to get her mind off of it but she’s just too far gone.

So the shift to Abby and the scars.

Jacksepticeye said it while he was playing that Abby’s part should’ve been like a DLC or something but I honestly don’t agree. I mean I don’t disagree but I think it worked the way it was. I definitely think most problems people have with this switch that doesn’t stem from the fact that people disliked Abby or that they can’t admit to themselves that they were caught off guard by the changed narrative style, could’ve been solved with different pacing. Now I don’t know if they would’ve had to constantly switch between Ellie and Abby for it to work or figure some other way out because I’m no expert but still.

I liked the beginning when it switched to Abby, the whole atmosphere was so eerie like you could tell they were on a collision course and it was going to get ugly. Maybe something like that could’ve worked but it could’ve just been either too suspenseful and tense the whole way through that it draws the attention from the gameplay or it would’ve been even more on the nose than it already was with the parallels between Abby’s group and Ellie’s group.

Now I honestly really liked that Abby’s story was so different because when she returns to the stadium, the part of her story that involved Joel is over. She got her revenge then she goes on with her life. She had a life before Joel entered it, she has one after she killed him. And it just so happens to be a good opportunity for the game to showcase some of the shit that goes on outside of what we’ve known so far and what Ellie knows.

I didn’t mind the religious aspect, I think it makes sense, like enough time passed since the apocalypse that the then grown up generation is distant enough from their old lives, and the generations after them are growing up in the ruins of the old society, that a messiah figure like that lady could emerge. That it just had to be transphobic and shit sucks of course and I do understand the frustration with it. I can imagine better writers coming up with a way to make the Scars despicable without them having our current society’s problems. They could still have the trans and the Asian characters still of course, but without them having to face the struggles trans characters do in our current world.

So that Abby only realises Ellie’s just one step behind her when she still has the climax of her individual story to get through was just. To me it worked so well. Like here we play as Ellie for half the game, this girl is consumed with rage and then Abby’s just fucking off and doing something entirely different because that’s... how little... it affected her. Or at least she personally got her closure and is ready to move on.

I personally liked the conflicts she had in her group, it was believable, it felt reasonable for the kind of life they lived. Of course we already spent one full game with Ellie so Abby was never going to catch up, but if you’re thinking like me then by less than half of Abby’s story you already don’t want Ellie to kill her.

The confrontation in the theatre was messy but since it’s not the end of the story I sort of don’t mind. I know some people don’t like how Jesse died or how little time we have to process certain deaths and story beats and of course it can just be bad pacing but that was again something that to me just brought the player’s world on the same level as an NPC’s world. That for one enhanced the experience for me.

Okay. Let’s talk about the last part that starts with Dina almost dying at Abby’s hands, especially after she says “good” when Ellie tells her she’s pregnant. Of course there’s the callback to dead Mel. But I liked that Lev was there and his presence sort of switched Abby’s role. Up to that point Abby had been Ellie. But then when she has Lev, and she acknowledges him as “her people”, she becomes Joel. And then she becomes a better version of him. Or at least a version of Joel that has mercy.

And you’d think being this close to losing Dina is where Ellie would snap back to it. And she does, for a while.

Here’s when I admit the pacing definitely needed some work regardless of anything. Up until that point we go through three days, albeit twice, but three days. Then suddenly we’re nine plus months later and the setting is different and we don’t get enough time here before Tommy shows up with the end of the story...rope... we got cut in half in the theatre.

I’ll take some time here to genuinely express my what the fuck at Tommy here.

My memory is a little fuzzy here but wasn’t Tommy on board with returning to Jacksonville when they return to the theatre? I actually just checked, Tommy says “they got what they deserved” to which Ellie says “but she (Abby) gets to live” and Tommy says “yeah”. And then when he visits Ellie and Dina suddenly he’s a dick about it saying Ellie made a promise? Is that something that was supposed to happen off-screen or a plot hole? Did that conversation in the theatre have more versions they went through and the wrong reaction got included? Maybe I just didn’t pay enough attention but it felt out of the blue for me and I can safely say that’s the character moment I’m disappointed in the most, especially because we never see Tommy again.

One could argue that the choppiness of time is supposed to symbolise the dissociation and out-of-body experience you can have when you’re living with trauma but I truly just have it down to bad pacing here. I get that they wanted to show the baby but I truly believe with enough polishing they could’ve come up with a scenario that works better and flows better.

I truly could’ve had Ellie maybe leave with Dina and Tommy and then have her turn back before they leave Seattle and then they have the conversation with Dina and then Ellie starts tracking Abby. Here we could’ve had more of what was in the beginning of the story, sort of switching between the two, maybe slightly altered gameplay, etc. Even though the last level as Ellie was really cool and once again I liked how we just barely got a glimpse of how other people live, you know. Those prisoners in those cells have a hell of a 25 years behind them and being freed by this stranger might be the best thing that will have ever happened to them, but to Ellie they’re just a background noise to her mission.

I truly liked those parts.

I could imagine Ellie being kidnapped similarly to Abby but they are treated differently and somehow still end up escaping together, maybe even helping each other the way Ellie almost did with cutting Abby down and letting her get Lev to the boat. And then you’d have Ellie still be consumed by her rage.

The whole time I wanted her so much to just scream everything at Abby. Because look, life for these people is a whole ass trauma. Some people like Dina might handle it differently, or it’s easier with a community around you, but Ellie’s life has been very strange, with her immunity, with the realisation that Joel killed and lied for her, all that. She would need a fucking good therapist. I wanted that catharsis, for her to scream at Abby, to sob until she can’t even breathe, for Abby to do the same, except she realises she got her closure while Ellie never did, and then maybe for Abby to give some sort of... forgiveness to Ellie. For her life not having meant anything in the end.

I don’t know, I wanted that for her.

If there never is a last fight, if Ellie never so much as punches Abby, that would’ve been fine for me.

Two more things that I liked were that Ellie actually started down a path of forgiveness before Joel died. You know, when we see the scene where Ellie tells Joel off you’re like “oh that’s the last thing she said to him, no wonder she feels so guilty” and then you realise, oh no wait, they were actually eventually going to be alright. They just never got the time. To me that hit so much, that was a good scene.

The other thing I liked is Dina leaving. Once again this could’ve been something like, Ellie goes back to Jacksonville and there they tell her Dina left or sum shit idk how that could’ve worked, I’m just saying that losing that farm life didn’t really make me feel anything because we didn’t get the time to grow attached to it.

So Dina leaves, and suddenly you’re back in the room with Sam in the first game when this bitten boy asks Ellie what she’s most afraid of, and she says she’s scared of ending up alone. And this immune girl Joel killed and lied and died for, eventually ends up alone.

So I understand that a lot of TLOU’s fanbase that belongs to a marginalised group, especially those part of the LGBT+ community would be hurt by this ending. By this interpretation. The LGBT+ community, as far as I know, at least a huge part of it, seeks to heal. We use fiction as escapism in a way people who don’t know, who can’t know our struggles will never be able to sympathise with. And as such, we as a community in a large part, have moved on from stories of pain. Not necessarily in that we turn a blind eye on it or anything, but I think it’s a mostly universally agreed thing that after so much suffering we’re ready to see ourselves, and people like us end up happy. And as such the demand from this community towards creators have shifted to not necessarily fully happy endings, but some sort of relief. And as such, this ending is cruel.

It is heartbreaking. My heart breaks for Ellie because I can practically feel the weight in my chest that she carries around when she walks away. She lost everything and she never got the closure. She never got that relief and neither did we.

Once again, if you personally have a problem with this ending and it ruined the game for you, I understand it completely. That’s your own experience with the story, and even though I feel much of the same things, I’m once again left here thinking this is the way the creators wanted to do this and that they did it like this makes sense. It makes sense for the story, the characters, it just does. If it had happened differently in a way that also makes sense, I would not think “oh this should’ve had a heartbreaking ending, this is bullshit” but I do think the ending makes sense.

Overall, I’m pretty much pleased with most everything, except fuck false advertising, fuck Tommy, and fuck uhhh, I’m pretty sure I mentioned something else too. Oh yeah, pacing. Jack actually offered a really great alternative to the beginning, where the museum scene of Ellie’s birthday should’ve been the first scene, and then you could’ve had Ellie wake up four years later at the end of the countdown. That Joel told Tommy about the hospital could’ve been implied through dialogue and interactions.

I also don’t think Joseph Anderson’s theory is hurt by this, he said personal decisions and morality aside, the Fireflies were fucking idiots and they couldn’t have come up with a cure even if they had given Ellie the chance to say yes, because of how unprofessional they’d been and how much they rushed into the surgery. Just because Abby’s dad was a good dude and a good surgeon doesn’t mean shit when you’re dealing with something you’ve not seen before, such as Ellie’s immunity. And I think knowing that wouldn’t have mattered to Ellie either to change her mind about forgiving Joel. And this is what I’ve always said. Like the Fireflies or not, believe in them or not, taking a choice like this away from Ellie because you can’t stand losing your daughter again (and that is why Joel kills the Fireflies, not because he shares Joseph’s opinion) is objectively wrong and borders on the same obsession we see consume Ellie. Joel is just as unhinged by that point as Ellie is, he’s just more... mature about it, I guess.

That could’ve been even more painful, sort of, to not have Abby be the surgeon’s daughter but just for her and her group believe in this doctor that might just be talking out of his ass so much that them avenging his death sets off this terrible cycle of vengeance. I think that could’Ve been very “gritty” and shit, that would’ve hurt because it’s even more pointless. People killing over lost hope.

So, pacing, Tommy, false advertising, bad points, everything else, yeah alright. 7/10 sounds good to me. I will play this one day >)

#the last of us spoilers #tlou2 #tlou 2 #tlou 2 spoilers #the last of us 2

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geekgemsspooksandtoons · 4 years

Text

My thoughts on Bioshock 1

I just wanna put this out there. It’s 12:01 am and I find it nice that I finished it before Sunday popped up. This post is gonna have major spoilers. I’ll post the screenshots in a different post. I don’t know if I should call this a review. But yeah I didn’t wanna make this quickly. Took time making some popcorn(two bags for a bowl) and getting a Diet Dr. Pepper.

But my thoughts on the game itself. A game that gamers have considered one of the greatest video games ever made.

I want you all to know. The reason I went back to playing it because I was looking up the terrible voice acting of the original RE game. That it got me to wanting to play a older game...which is the first Bioshock on my main computer.

But in a nutshell I thought it was a pretty nice game. The gameplay is pretty stellar. Especially the combat. But I will admit, the game didn’t really scare me. Because it was considered horror by some folks. But the way I was playing I think a way how you would describe....something out of the Doom series.

Yet this is because I was playing on easy mode. Because I wanted to experience the story. Especially when I upgraded my weapons. I was basically a walking powerhouse. Along with the fact I didn’t use my plasmids a whole lot. But I did use them when they seem needed or when I wanted to try them out. I was mainly a weapons guy.

But yeah upgraded weapons made the journey easier. Even during the final boss with Frank.

The story is pretty alright. Even though some of the audio diaries I decided not to listen to except for some. Especially when the big reveal was coming.

I will admit and I think people may know of this. But I knew of the big twist and read stuff about how Jack was basically controlled through most of the game. Where the phrase, “Would You Kindly” Atlas was saying to control him. Where this becomes more clear when you enter a room that has, “Would You Kindly’ on the wall and...those diaries crap....a dog getting it’s neck snapped....to be honest I feel like the moment Jack see’s that. I feel like he was probably confused or just wondering, “What the fuck?”.

But basically where Andrew Ryan exposes this by saying the phrase a couple of times, and asking Jack to kill him with the golf club. Gonna admit to watch that twist in motion, for some reason I wasn’t expecting it to be that dramatic. Because I was expecting it to be simply casual with Andrew explaining what Jack is actually. Where Jack realizes when Andrew asks Jack to kill him, he was telling the truth. Yet I strangely like it how Andrew was trying to showcase more that using the phrase a few time to really showcase Jack was never in control.

Yet it was nice to finally see the scene in full motion in the original game. Since I’m not playing the remastered version.

To be honest I think the most shocking thing was the fact when I went on the Bioshock wiki. That Jack is literally 4 years old. 0_0 Just....I actually found that to be the most surprising.

Including just the whole set up of why Jack is there isn’t by chance. Honestly despite the dimension hopping that surprised me a lot. Just Jack growing up and all that...surprised me the most.

But I find it nice how Andrew during the game as you get closer to him. He’s alluding to the fact that it seems like such a coincidence that Jack crashed near that lighthouse above Rapture. As if it was some sort of miracle.

I’ll stop talking about the twist sorry. So I was right, Atlas who is Frank didn’t really have a family. I will admit Frank’s a pretty damn good actor. Because I feel like people who first played this and if I didn’t look into certain stuff. It would of been more of a surprise. Because I find it amazing he can change his voice.

Including the fact when you get closer to him. He’s just talking about you and him tricking you. Including why are you even still trying to get him. When Jack doesn’t have a family. I guess I can say he didn’t disappoint me as a villain.

Again the gameplay is wonderful, Rapture was a interesting place. Both to look at and I guess to explore. I will admit I sometimes couldn’t find some stuff right away. Such as a Big Daddy helmet after a while.

The Splicer are cool and have some variety, the Big Daddies are pretty nice too. Yet what I’m amazed by and I’m glad I couldn’t find that Big Daddy helmet right away because the last two Little Sisters that were with Big Daddies were near by.

I actually got all the Little Sisters that I recall. Basically rescuing all of them. Meaning I got the best and what I know canon ending. Gonna admit that last scene and just watching that cutscene. Despite it’s actually very quick. I can’t believe I had tears or so....despite I don’t seem to build a connection with these girls.

There is just something beautiful about that ending. Including to see they offered Jack the key to Rapture but he denies it.

Also there is something of just seeing all these Little Sisters just literally murder Frank and I got a shot of that actually. I saw that in a video once and it’s just intriguing. It seems kind of ridiculous but once you play the game, you understand how they are overpowering him.

The soundtrack....I’ll be honest I didn’t think about it much. Mainly because I was so focused on gameplay and getting through the game. Also weird thing this didn’t happen a lot. But I remember one time one of Franks line was up and he wasn’t talking.

Listen to any fans of Bioshock, sorry that I’m rambling. But I’m sorry I’m not praising it to the heavens. But I felt like I did myself a favor because this is a very loved game. It was nice to finally play it and finish it. I think it’s because I’m still processing some stuff. Including during a time in my life I thought gameplay is more important than story. Which was a thought I started having when I became a fan of Doom. But then loving Resident Evil again got me to realize liking video game stories. Considering before the gameplay thing, I would always prefer a single player over multiplayer.

But now I like both. It’s just I was I guess annoyed by how much praised Bioshock gets and it makes it seem like 2 and Infinite are hated on a lot. Including it just...bothered me and that I’d felt rebellious to not play the original. Because people made it seem like what I like to call it, “The Citizen Kane Of Gaming”. It was a game changer and I should understand that.

Yet you can thank my good bro and buddy @pikablob for being the reason why I got into this series more. All because I was wondering why does Elizabeth in Burial At Sea look so young but in the timeline she would be 66. Until he explained to me things about dimension hopping and after my surprise and shock of what he told me. That got me basically be like, “Okay I need to play these games because holy shit”. Even though I’ve played 2 before and finished Infinite and Burial At Sea episode 1 before.

It was just so insane to learn that I needed to experience these games myself as I’m older now.

I feel like overtime I’ll like Bioshock more. Because I had predicted this could become one of my all time favorites. But I don’t think so right now. Maybe when I ever replay it again and maybe even the remastered version. I may love it more. But I felt like compared to games like the original Doom, Doom 2016, Halo Combat Evolved(Because I recall from my experience that game is a classic), and even the Call Of Duty Modern Warfare trilogy. Especially 1 and 2, with 3 being a fitting conclusion to it. I got more out of those games.

Which I sound stupid for mentioning. Bioshock is a whole different beast. I’m talking about a game where someone like Andrew Ryan literally made a city underwater that wouldn’t be affected by what he considered, “Petty morality” and look where Rapture ended up as....a fucking shit hole.

That I recall I don’t feel terrible seeing Andrew Ryan die. Yet it’s probably because he wants to die and he accepts it. Including his final words and the way the scene went. Yet I was surprised that golf club got stuck in his head when Jack did the final blow.

But I think that’s just my mind set. Including on a silly note and I’m finally gonna say something I’ve had in my head. I just miss Elizabeth. Again I may enjoy it more as time goes all. Because it is a excellent game.

Because even though I haven’t played the remastered versions of Bioshock 1 and 2. I feel like if you want to. I’d recommend checking out the original Bioshock if you want to. It’s a well made game and I hope I think it’s genius about the fact The Bioshock Collection exists and it’s on 8th gen consoles now(Especially it got released on Nintendo Switch last month) and for PC’s if you want remastered versions of the first 2.

Basically was looking at trailers for the collection. I think it’s genius because that package seems perfect for any new fan who wants to experience the complete saga as of now.

I think I’ve said enough on my piece on the original Bioshock.

Anyway during the making of this post. I was listening to this kick ass rap. I find it awesome I finished the game and got to experience it for my own. Here’s JT Music’s Bioshock 1 rap, “Rapture Rising”. Been listening to this when making this. Warning in case even though I talked about spoilers in here, you have spoilers in this rap. Again well done rap.

youtube

#bioshock

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kyouxa · 5 years

Text

Diabolik lovers Chaos Lineage: Ayato Sakamaki (Story 04)

In terms of the gameplay: The black choices lead up to a bad ending, the white choices lead up to a good ending. Please no reposting onto other sites, ask me before translating this into another language too! I’m an amateur translator, but I hope you do enjoy it anyway!♡

Monologue

After a few days.

Shin-san and Kanato-kun went to monitore the families,

and Ruki-kun continued to receive the report.

When are they going to start the fight?

I become uneasy just thinking about it

However,

Ayato-kun made a proposal.

Place: Orange Mansion - Livingroom

Ayato: I'll make her sleep in my room

Yui: Huh?

Shin: What? Are you being selfish yet again?

Ruki: What kind of an idea is that? Aren’t you already spoiled enough?

Ayato: What’s that supposed to mean? Anyway Ruki I thought that you‘re busier with other stuff.

Yui: (Although Ayato-kun has forgotten me, i‘m really happy that we might share a room)

(Because I was a little nervous to be alone in my room)

(We just need the permission from Ruki-kun, right?)

Ayato: Even if you disagree I‘ll still do it. I‘m not someone who follows orders in the first place

Ruki: Listen, if you have a good reason to keep her in her room i‘ll allow it

Yui: (That’s right. I need a good reason why i‘d stay in his room...)

Choices

1)ー love for another (white)♡♡♡

2)ー protecting (black)

ー love for another♡

Yui: Ayato-kun and I are in love with each other, isn’t that enough...?

Ayato: What? What are you saying?

Shin: Are you insane going insane? That’s not what our brother asked for.

It might be more efficient if you were next to your guard Ayato, he could protect you from the enemies way faster.

I‘m sure thats what you actually mean by that.

Yui: Oh, thats right...

Ayato: Well, if that’s your reason why not saying it earlier, but...

Yui: Hm? What?

ー protecting

Yui: Uhm, I‘d be with Ayato-kun all the time if someone would start a raid.

If the enemy comes to attack, I think that the possibility of being taken away is pretty high...

So I wondered if it's better to have the same room as Ayato-kun?

Ayato: You...

Ruki: I see, thats not a bad reason.

Certainly what Eve says is also worthwhile. It’s a better answer than Ayato would give.

Ayato: Asshole, stop making fun of me! ....but, it‘s finally decided then

Yui: eh?

end Choices

Ayato: I see, Chichinashi. I understand the reason why you want to stay with me.

Yui: What?

Ayato: Thats right. You wanted to be mine and that’s why you desperately searched for excuses to tell Ruki, right?

Yui: (Well, it’s not wrong at all right...?)

Ayato: Well, that’s it! You should come with me to my room already, let’s go.

Yui: yes...!

(I‘m glad that i‘m going to share the same room as Ayato)

Shin: Brother wait... Is it really okay to let them share the same room?

Ruki: Don’t worry. It’s fine

Place: Orange Mansion - Ayato's bedroom

Yui: Well then, from now on, I'll be sleeping in Ayato-kun's room, right?

Ayato: Yes, theres only one bed in my room, but we both can sleep in there.

Yui: uh, thats right

(That means we‘re going to sleep in the same bed every night. There is nothing that can be recalled now)

(Moreover, the house is quiet now...)

(After that, Shin-san took Kanato-kun and they went for a reconnaissance. So thats why it’s so silent)

Ayato: Ah~hah. I was forced to go back to my room when everyone is outside. After all i‘m stuck in here.

Yui: ...y-yeah

Ayato: That asshole Ruki. It’s helpful that he‘s so clever yet serious... but I don’t wanna stay here.

Do you think so too?

Yui: About that. I think it depends on...

Ayato: ....

Yui: Ayato-kun? You‘re starring at me. Is something in my face?

Ayato: Well, I just thought that, thanks to you I won’t get bored in here anymore.

Yui: Eh?

Ayato: It is a great opportunity to play with you. Hey, why don’t we have fun together?

Yui: Let’s stop at this point. Wouldn‘t Ruki-kun become angry at you again?

Ayato: Hah? It’s not like I actually care if he‘ll get angry at me. I lost my respect roward him already.

Oh, while we’re alone, I’lI teach you more enjoyable ways of playing around. Thank me later okay?

Yui: Eh, what? Why are you removing the strings...

Ayato: I‘ll tie your hands and feet together so you can’t get away from me.

Yui: What?! Stop it! What are you doing?!

Ayato: Tch! Stop struggling! .... connect here, and..

That’s it! I did pretty well tying you up!

Yui: Hey Ayato-kun, let’s stop. I want you to understand...

Ayato: What are you talking about. From now on, we‘ll do more stuff like that. Hehehe, it looks good.

Yui: No... I don’t like this at all, get those string away from me ...

(I want to be treated more as a lover...)

Ayato: What are you saying. It’s not like you‘ll die from it. Anyway, where should I start today.

Yui: ...no...ah... not on my feet, it tickles...!

Ayato: Hehe, you‘re giving me a really good view, how are you feeling? This position is...

Yui: Hah! Stop it, it tickles...!

Ayato: You‘re pretty weak everywhere. That’s interesting. What about here...

Yui: Ayato-kun! Don’t open my blouse... stop it!

Ayato: That’s fine. You have no breasts to show anyway

Yui: (This is really awful...! Today is the worst day!)

Ayato: Look here. Your clavicle comes out beautifully. Maybe I should do it along the bones —

Yui: a...ah...no...

Ayato: I know you feel the pleasure. It’s not like you need to hide that aroused face of yours.

Heh, shall I start with my nails? Or you prefer if I start with my fangs?

Yui: Thats...what...

Ayato: Heh! I can’t hold back my thirst any longer. ...ahh..!

Yui: ....ahh!! Why so suddenly...!

Ayato: Ah... Hmm... Hmm... !

Yui: Ah... Haa... Aah... !

(I thought it was going to be awful at first, but I feel he’s softer today ...)

(Hey, it feels like it's going to be actually really good this time...)

Ayato: Hah .... are you enjoying it? If I‘d suck it a little more gently, your blood might get sweeter.

Do you like this? Do you prefer me being a little more gentle today?

Yui: I...wouldn’t mind...

(Because thats the Ayato-kun, I fell for and I love with my whole heart.)

Ayato: Well, I finally get to know your taste. You love it when it’s painful but gentle don’t you?

Yui: Eh?

Ayato: Next time I will do my best to pleasure you with my fangs. Ah... Hmm... Hmm

Yui: Ayato-kun...ahh!

(Ouch! He‘s forcing his fangs too deep in my skin...!)

Oh, Ayato-kun stop... it hurts so much!

Ayato: Shut up already. Just a second ago you were highly enjoying it ... hm?

...Tch! It’s this dazzling again...

Yui: (Whats happening? What should I do...?)

Ayato: I wonder why it came back...

Yui: Is Ayato-kun in pain?

Ayato: It’s not like you need to worry about me, it’s probably because I sucked your blood.

Yui: Ah...I see

*Ayato lets go*

Ayato: I‘m not feeling like it anymore.

Shit, that’s annoying. I thought it would be refreshing.

Yui: (Am I annoying Ayato-kun...?)

Ayato: I think it's going to be really boring...

—That’s it!

Yui: (I wonder what came to his mind. Maybe it’s a good idea tho!)

(More than that, I wonder if I can get ride of my tied hand-feet situation)

Ayato: I don’t care about the orders ruki gave me, I don’t need to do them.

I have to sneak out of the mansion and slam the enemies by myself!

Yui: (Huh! To be honest, that’s a really stupid idea...)

Well, but if you do something selfish again, Ruki-kun will...

Ayato: Hm, I don’t care

Besides, if I can get ride of our enemy, not even ruki will be able to complain

Yui: (i don’t want to say anything. He’s super serious)

Ayato: But if they will attack... I can’t just leave you here on your own.

Ruki should be outside tho. OK, I will take you with me

Yui: Huh?! That's not good. aren‘t you told to not leave the house?

Ayato: Aren’t you my toy? That’s why you shouldn’t go against your master.

You have to listen to what I say, or i‘ll leave you with your hands and feet tied. We‘ve been locked in here for so long.

Yui: Fine!

Ayato: Well then, let’s go! We‘ll be back in no time!

Place: Outside - Forest

Yui: (I‘m a little surprised. It was pretty easy to escape from the mansion...)

Ayato: Are you surprised? It’s pretty easy to do whatever you want if Ruki‘s not having his eyes on you.

I've been searching for a way to go outside secretly for quite awhile!

Yui: (Is that so. Well then, it’s been awhile since I went outside last time)

(But if Ruki-kun notices, he will be very angry at us)

(This will be a raid alone... I think it will be pretty dangerous)

So, where are we going now?

Ayato: The scarlet mansion

Yui: Scarlet...

Ayato: Yea, that silly dude with those city glasses is the head of that mansion.

Yui: I thought Kanato would go there to get informations today. Aren’t we going to meet him by any chance then?

Ayato: I‘m not sure. I guess that guy wont do the reconnaissance properly anyway

Yui: Oh! Is that so?

Ayato: So theres basically nothing in our way anymore. This could be our chance.

I‘m going to defeat them all and prove everyone that i‘m the best.

Yui: (It’s all about fighting. It would be a terrible fight if we‘ll see Reiji-san)

(I don’t want to fight anyone. Ayato-kun please he‘s one of your brothers)

Place: Somewhere - Garden

Ayato: You should see the Scarlet mansion soon

Yui: (Now it’s my last change to stop and return home. He may be angry again and he maybe will force me to give him my blood...)

(Theres no way back. I have no choice but to stop him and get back with him!)

Ayato-kun lets go home. If we go any further Ruki-kun will—

Ayato: Shh!

Yui: ...Hmm...Ah...

(Why he forced me to shut up...?)

Ayato: ...

Yui: (Is something bothering him...? Did someone discover us?)

Ayato: Who‘s there?

Ah! That guy...!

Shu: ...zzz...

Yui: (Eh, Shu-san?! Why is he laying around here?)

Ayato: That guy is... Shu from the Scarlet Mansion. I wonder what he‘s been doing out here?

This is basically perfect, just watch me. Come on! Wake up, Shu!

*Ayato kicks Shu*

Yui: Ayato-kun! Why did you do sth like that so suddenly!

Ayato: Get up quickly! I‘ll beat the shit out of you! Did you hear me you asshole?

Shu: ...yawn....shut up....

What’s the problem. Who allowed you to wake me up?

Ayato: I don’t need permission to kick an enemy. You should change your attitude before I am getting bad tempered.

Shu: I feel very confident. Sadly, I was found by a very troublesome person tho

Reiji: Shu, you finally got up. Don’t you have any manners, sleeping in such — oh?

Yui: (Reiji-san!)

Ayato: Ah, you are... the glasses dude!

Reiji: I wasn’t expecting you to come here without any reason... with Eve.

And, Ruki really has some troublesome brother, I‘d be sorry for him.

Hehe.. But you and Eve took the trouble to come all the way here. I‘d be stupid if I wouldn’t try to steal her from you.

Ayato: Shut up. I don’t even think about giving her away without a fight!

Reiji: You heard that, Shu. This is probably the best opportunity to steal Eve.

Shu: ..sigh, whatever

Yui: (A... sword? Isn’t that a silver knife? You can really kill any vampire with that...)

Ayato: It’s finally getting interesting. Now come at me!

*swords clash*

Yui: (They are really going to fight each other)

(That’s not good—! Stop it, you‘re brothers!)

Stop it Ayato-kun! Reiji and Shu are both brothers from you...!

Please remember! When I was at the sakamki house!

Shu: Hey, what’s with that woman

Ayato: You should concentrate on our fight.

Reiji: You can tell us more later. I‘ll listen to that story once we return to our mansion.

Yui: (Damn it, they really don’t get along...)

*Ayato attacks Shu*

Ayato: Lets go! Come on!

Shu: Heh.

Reiji: Hah!

Ayato: fuck!

Yui: (That attack from Reiji was close to hit Ayato...)

(On the opposite, it's definitely hard to block those attacks)

*swords clash*

Ayato: Ah...Tch...

Reiji: Whats the Problem? It looks like you‘re struggling already.

Shu: How pathetic

Ayato: Shut up! This fight is not settled yet!

Reiji: Certainly, it is—

Shu: the end.

Yui: (He was caught between them...!)

Ayato-kun! It’s dangerous!

Ayato: Eh...?! There’s no going back anymore!

Shu: ugh...

Ayato: ugh...ahhh...!

Yui: (No, Ayato-kun...!)

Reiji: Oh my, look at how pathetic and helpless you are now.

Ayato: Fuck...!

*Reiji kicks Ayato*

Yui: (Ayato-kun's, bleeding...)

(They are not sibling anymore. They are really going to kill him.)

(I should run away or help him, but I can’t move...!)

Reiji: You are really an idiot for trying to attack us alone.

Ayato: Shut...up...

Shu: Reiji, let’s finish him off quickly

Reiji: I agree. I hope you spoke your last words already. Because, this will be your last moment

Ayato: ...uh...!

Yui: No, please...! Please, someone help Ayato-kun—!!

*something flew over*

Reiji: ....hm?!

Shu: .....

Yui: (...hm...! Something just flew over here now)

*swords clash*

Yui: (A sword...? The sword flew from somewhere!)

Reiji: Whats happening?

Shu: ...apparently he was not alone

*Orange family appears*

Kanato: You look good, Ayato.

Shin: It is a views which I never saw before, the great Ayato is laying helpless on the ground.

Ruki: ...

Yui: (Everyone! Did they really come to help?!)

Ayato: ...tch. What is everyone doing here

Shin: Well, because Kanato was scouting here. I received a report that something went wrong.

Yui: Is that so. In addition, Kanato was doing his reconnaissance pretty well

Kanato: Excuse me. But, what is that supposed to mean?

Yui: Nothing! Never mind!

(Ayato-kun, he’s been silent for awhile now...)

Kanato: Just what would have happened if shu was actually able to capture eve from us this time.

Im going to make this sloppy face, regret trying to steal her away from us.

I won’t forgive Ayato for what happened this time at all.

I told Ruki that I‘d be a better guard in the first place.

Now you see ruki, what kind of failure Ayato is

Ayato: Asshole, what kind of bullshit are you talking...

Ruki: ...we don’t have time for that now. At the moment our property is taking Eve home and leave this place.

Reiji: I see, 4 people vs 2 people seems a little disadvantaged at this point

Consider yourself lucky this time. Let’s go home, Shu.

Shu: It’s finally over... I’ll return to bed immediately....yawn

*Reiji and Shu leave*

Yui: (They really left... what a relive)

Shin: Brother, shouldn’t we follow them?

Ruki: There’s no use for another useless battle. We got Eve back everything else is unimportant.

Above all, it would be bothersome if we started a fight when one of us isn’t in a good condition.

Shin: You’re right.

Ayato: ....Ruki....

Ruki: You don’t change at all, Ayato. Let’s go home already.

*Ruki leaves*

Ayato: ....Tch...!

Yui: (He’s angry about it. He was close to be killed just by doing something such selfish)

(If they weren’t here, nobody would’ve saved Ayato...)

Ayato-kun can't stand alone, right? Hold on to my shoulder.

Ayato: Don’t touch me. I can walk alone...

Yui: Ayato-kun...

#diabolik lovers #diabolik brothers #diabolik lovers ayato #ayato #chaos lineage #ayato sakamaki #otome game #otome romance #translation #diabolik lovers game #ayato sakamaki translation

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anime-grimmy · 4 years

Text

Favourite Gaming Soundtracks of the 2010s

It’s the end of another decade and what a decade it’s been. So much has changed in “just” 10 years, so many cool things have happened, so many amazing games have been released. Since it’s the end of the year I thought I could talk about some things that are dear to my heart. I love music and with so many dope games came just as amazing soundtracks. So, I just wanna let out my thoughts for my favourites. This is not really ranked, but I’ll tell you which my favs are from my favs.

But first, some “honorable mentions” for soundtracks I really enjoy, even though I’ve never played these games.

- Dark Souls / Bloodborne Mystic and gritty, but strangely calming from time to time

- Hollow Knight It came coming on with YT Autoplay and to be honest, I can’t complain. All in all a great soundtrack

- Persona 5 Dude, talk about style. It’s not quite my type of game, but holy fuck, the music is my JAM

- God of War (2018) I DID play this game and I loved it, but the soundtrack didn’t really stick out to me THAT much. Some tracks are downright bone-chilling and epic, but it didn’t have such a big impact on me all in all.

Anyways, on with my list.

Pokemon Sword and Shield

I’m gonna start with a recent one since it’s still fresh in my mind.

I always liked the Pokemon Soundtracks. Though most of the time simplistic, some tracks just have such iconic melodies. However, from Sinnoh onwards, I started liking single tracks more than the soundtrack as a whole. For example. even though most people say Cynthia has the best Champion theme, I can agree an the melody being amazing, but for me, the theme is so loaded, I don’t like it (best Champion theme is still Lance). Alola, for me, started having an upcurve on the soundtrack. I liked it as a whole, though I can’t really remember what exactly stood out to me.

Now Sword and Shield. Dudes, keep going on that route, your OST is amazing. I’ll be honest, the BEST thing of this game is the soundtrack. All have this kinda sporty/cheery sound and even though, let’s say, the normal battle theme isn’t that of a banger, the number of amazing single themes is just so high. Bede’s theme is basically the only thing I like about him, Marnie’s has such a cool tune (and all the metal covers on YT, BRO) and even if many people don’t like Hop’s theme, I really dig it. Some parts remind me of Mirror B.s theme, I dunno why.

And then you have my fav tracks, Rose’s Final Fantasy theme, Toby’s amazing Battle Tower theme AND THE GYM BATTLE MUSIC. I really didn’t like the gym leader theme at first but while playing the game, after each gym leader, it got me more and more stoked when the battle began.

All in all, Pokemon Sword and Shield has an overall enjoyable soundtrack. Filled with bangers, for me it made the game itself so much better.

Animal Crossing

Though I haven’t played the game in a long time, I still listen to the music.

Animal Crossing is just laid out to be this chill and calming ensemble of melodies. And it works. When I’m stressed or have to work on stuff I don’t want to, I usually just put on Animal Crossing music. It calms me and just gives me this warm and fuzzy feeling. It also helps when I have problems sleeping.

A soundtrack to just lie back, close your eyes and just enjoy life.

Legend of Zelda – Breath of the Wild

Continuing with calm music, let’s talk about my favourite Switch title.

This game often gets flag for “having no music” or too little of it. I know where you’re coming from, but I just think the limited use of the soundtrack makes you appreciate it even more. The moments when the music is used is carefully chosen and that makes it special. Be it the few piano notes that play while the day goes on, the little notification that you’ve entered a new area, the unexpected high energy when you’re fighting (most of all bosses) or the indescribable fear you feel when a Guardian spots you.

There are a few favourite moments I have of the game.

First is the start, when you first leave the cave, run out and this vast landscape opens before you. Just those few piano notes made me all excited for this new adventure. Like dawn is breaking.

The first time I rode on a horse over this wide field and suddenly, the music starts swelling. It was almost magical, the music rising just like my excitement.

The last thing I love is the difference between being in villages and outside. When I noticed that you always have some kind of melody playing when you’re in a settlement it dawned on me how quiet it was outside of them. I love this contrast between being alone in the wilderness with all the quiet and the sudden swell in music when you’re with other people.

This OST amazes me with how much emotion it can convey with often just the smallest amount of notes. An amazing soundtrack for just as an amazing game.

Super Mario Odyssey

So, last Nintendo game on this list, I swear.

This one is a small surprise, but at the same time, it really isn’t. I’ve never really been a fan of the main Mario games, they just aren’t really my thing. (the spin-offs are my jam). However, I’ve always enjoyed Mario’s music. The upbeat tunes really get stuck in your head and the melodies are always so recognizable. Heck, my favourite OST was from Super Mario Sunshine back in the day!

With Odyssey, I really enjoyed both the game and the soundtrack aspect. The worlds are colourful and the gameplay is super fun. Combine that with the stellar soundtrack and the game was such a fun experience, it’s definitely in my top 10. But what I really enjoyed is the diversity of the track. When you listen to the soundtrack on Youtube and you just click on two different parts of the video, I can guarantee that they’ll probably sound completely different but at the same time somehow coherent. The best tracks, in my opinion, are the upbeat ones for sure. The feeling of excitement and adventure just swells so much it’s amazing.

Then you’ve got “Jump up Superstar”. I fucking love this song. It’s so much fun, has such a great tune which gets stuck in your head and the lyrics are so easy to sing along. All things I love in a song. I actually listened to the song on repeat before I even got the game and I couldn’t wait to get to New Donk City to LIVE the song. And I wasn’t disappointed, it was one if not the best moments in the game.

Great game, great soundtrack, 100% fun.

Bravely Default / Bravely Second

(technically on a Nintendo Console, but whatev) I’m just gonna lump this two together, since BS’s the sequel.

Now, JRPGs aren’t really my thing. They often take too long for my tastes, I can’t for the life of me concentrate on the story and characters and after some time they just get stale for me. But now and then, I pick up a series I actually finish and that was Bravely Default and Second. I think I just have such a huge soft spot for the series cause of the art style/atmosphere and the fact that I played 8 hours straight of BD on a flight from Canada home.

I haven’t played the games in forever but when I think about what I like about them, there are 3 things I always think about: characters, art style and soundtrack. The songs might sound generic to most, but to me, with my little knowledge of JRPGs, find them quiet unique. It does at some points remind me of Final Fantasy but I think something just makes the tracks just sound like Bravely, though I can’t put my finger on it.

I don’t know the names of the themes, but even now there are just certain tracks which I link to a certain reaction. Like “oh no, not them again” or “Now shit is getting down”. Or every time the main theme plays, I get absolutely pumped.

Haven’t played the games in forever, but the soundtrack’s still in my mind.

Kingdom Hearts

From one RPG to the next, here’s a very special soundtrack. Kingdom Hearts is a franchise near and dear to my heart. It’s one of the first, if not THE first, RPG I ever played. I just get so nostalgic with this game. I can just remember watching my brother playing KH2, seeing two characters from my favourite franchise run around with this spiky haired boy with this stupidly big key. So much stuff happened I didn’t even understand back then, but just seeing these animated characters laugh and cry and go on this grand adventure, little me was mesmerized.

I’ll be honest, I wasn’t too happy with KH3. I’ve waited so long for it, just like hundreds of other people, but the end product just, I dunno, lacked the heart it used to. One thing however didn’t, the soundtrack. As sad I was to not enjoy the game as a whole as much as I wanted to, the soundtrack became one of my instant favourites. It sounds grandiose and has so much emotion. Each track sounds amazing but the OST really shines in its more calm and beautiful themes and its epic ones.

My favourite songs are the serene ones, however. “Sincerely Beloved” and the other Utada songs are some of my favourite songs ever and I can’t tell you how close I came to crying with the Sea Salt Icecream Trios themes. Heck, I played Xion’s theme back in the day on the piano and I still can play it now.

As much as KH has gone down in heart, the soundtrack stands up there as one of the best, much thanks to Utada Hikaru as well. It will always be important to me and just reminds me of my childhood. Some very fond memories.

Undertale

Well, let’s get outta the nostalgia feel and turn it up a bit!

Ah, Toby Fox, you madlad. Creating such a great game and subverting so many expectations. Undertale really had a big impact on the gaming scene but for me, the soundtrack really lasted. Don’t get me wrong, I still love the characters and story very much, but I still listen to the soundtrack regularly.

Undertale’s OST is comprised of sad, melancholic, upbeat and downright hype tunes. It has a wide spectrum but Toby Fox really does know how to push Leitmotif. All themes kind of flow great into each other but still manage to stand out and are recognizable. Each character theme fits the character perfectly and I love how their themes usually have some melodies/instruments from the area they’re in. And speaking of areas, as much as I love the character themes I just might prefer the atmosphere tracks even more. I mean, “Snowdin” just sounds like this super laid back, cute little town, “Home” is such a calming song and “It’s raining somewhere else” has such mystique. And, of course, the fact that the tracks have character/plot relevance is just amazing.

Not to mention, Toby Fox created one of the best Meme songs in existence.

Love the game, love the soundtrack even more and I’ll listen to “Death by Glamour” til I die.

Horizon Zero Dawn

I’m so happy I picked up this game. I never bought it cos A, I feel overwhelmed by open world games, and B, it COSTS SO MUCH. But I found it for half the prise and I bought it right before exam week. I know, smart move.

But anyways, the soundtrack. There aren’t any tracks that really stand out to me but I just like it as a whole. It’s such an atmospheric OST and when listening to it as BG music you just HEAR where you are, which tribe you’re in, what you probably did in the game when it played.

And that’s actually a big factor. All in all, I don’t think it’s such a special OST. It sounds great, most tracks are solid, but what really makes it shine is how much it enhances the experience of the game. The gameplay and story are great, but the OST just makes everything so much better, with setting the tone and atmosphere and all that.

I could go on and on about this game, but the soundtrack can be shaved down to a few words. Solid, great and atmospheric.

Monster Hunter World / Iceborne

So, I’ll drop this to second to last because I already made a super long analysis of the soundtrack. I’ll link it here.

https://anime-grimmy.tumblr.com/post/188601659768/some-monster-hunter-ramblings-possible-spoilers

But to put it simply, this is probably my favourite soundtrack at the moment. I just haven’t experienced so many emotions while listening to an OST since a certain game that’s next on the list. I still can’t listen to “Succession of Light” without almost crying (who am I kidding, I cry every time). I dunno why, but so many tracks make me feel such a barrage of emotions, be it excitement for adventure, hype for the hunt or just simply a childlike wonder.

Simply a great soundtrack that will be on top for a long time.

Okami

Technically a game from 2006, but the PS4 version came out like 2017 and I REALLY WANNA TALK ABOUT THIS GAME.

This is my absolute favourite game of all time. Since I played it first when I was about 9 years old, I just really loved this game. I replayed it more times than I can count and dude, I speedrun this game in record time.

For people who don’t know this game, you play as the Sun God Amaterasu, who has been summoned in the body of a white wolf. You job is to banish the evil from Nippon. To say this game awakened my fondness of Japanese culture is, well, spot on. I’ve played this game before I even knew what anime was. The atmosphere, style, themes and mostly the music mesmerized me. It was all so, well, foreign. Even nowadays it stands out from anything else I’ve played.

But on to the OST. Next to it being just amazing in general, it just is so Japanese and that’s what has always stuck out to me. I grew up with very traditional and classical music, back then I didn’t even listen to English/American music. So to hear these melodies and instruments that just sound so unfamiliar was very intriguing. And that just topped of the already amazing tracks. Okami does a great job of having super epic, exciting but also sombre and atmospheric music. It’s also very animated and comedic with it’s use of music. So, the mix of foreign sounds and great timing of amazing tracks just makes the experience all so much more memorable.

Even after 10+ years, Okami never gets boring and no matter how much I play it, the moment I face a boss and the epic music swells, or the moment a calm scene passes and the melody slows, my heart fills with emotion and I’m so glad I played it again.

Well, that’s that! I know it probably often sounds kind of sappy, but music is very special and important to me. If music doesn’t evoke emotions in me, I don’t care about it, even if it sounds great. For me it’s important that, when I listen to a soundtrack, I can remember the game or the scene it played in and the emotions I felt in that moment.

Soundtracks are supposed to make a emotional connection between you and the game and that’s why they are essential. At least that’s how I see it.

Anyways, if you made it this far, I bow my head to you. Thanks for reading and I hope you could somehow share my perspective of these games’ soundtrack. Feel free to tell me about your fav tracks!

It’s been a nice decade, enjoy the rest of 2019!

#favourite gaming soundtracks #2010s #pokemon #pokemon sword and shield #animal crossing #legend of zelda #mario oddesy #bravely default #undertale #kingdom hearts #monster hunter world #monster hunter iceborne #okami #horizon zero dawn #rambling

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tenscupcake · 5 years

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Kingdom Hearts 3 - An Honest Review

I’d like to preface this review by saying I am an unabashed Kingdom Hearts geek. Like, through and through. I played KH1 when I was just a tween, and have picked up a copy every installment since (in some cases, even bought the entire console just to play that one game). I still have CDs of the game soundtracks, a few discs which have nearly burnt out on replay in my car. Sanctuary After the Battle will forever make me cry, whether or not I’m watching the cutscene that goes along with it. I’ve replayed most of the titles multiple times. Wasted away hours on YouTube watching Story So Far recaps and funny commentaries about the games in preparation for KH3. Like millions of other enthusiasts, I have been eagerly and patiently (all right, sometimes not so patiently) awaiting the arrival of KH3 since the moment I first finished KH2 – 13 very, very long years ago.

At around eight o’clock on premiere night, I took my place in line at my local GameStop wearing my Kingdom Hearts t-shirt and pajama pants, brandishing the miniature Kingdom Key clipped to my lanyard. Finally holding that blue case in my hands was absolutely surreal. One of those natural highs it took me hours to come down from. Tears welled up in my eyes at the first few somber piano keys as the title screen faded into view.

Lots of people asked me, in the weeks and even months leading up to the release (because believe me, at any opportunity, I would not shut up about how excited I was about this game), if I thought it would live up to the hype. Pfft, I thought. People outside the KH fandom never understand. Of course it will. Sure, the series has had its weak links, its hiccups (the battle system in COM and the perpetual re-releases of old games with minor tweaks, to name a couple). But with the compelling cinematic storytelling and uniquely delightful gameplay of the main series’ smash hits - KH1, KH2, and BBS – in their repertoire, I knew the team at Square was capable of pulling this off. To me, it was just a given that it would be epic. That playing it would be worth all the years of waiting. I had absolutely no doubt in my mind this game was going to be lit. As. Hell.

I’m only saying all this so as not to give the impression I went into this game looking to find flaws, to nitpick it. Or with the expectation of being disappointed. In fact, quite the opposite.

I wanted to love this game. To me, loving KH games is one of very few constants in my life. I was supposed to love this game. I needed to love this game.

But the truth is, I didn’t.

That statement has been pretty difficult for me to come to terms with.

In what few early reviews and videos I’ve found of people discussing their thoughts on the game, I’ve found fans to be quite split: with some unreservedly loving, others downright hating the game.

I fall somewhere in the middle of the polarized fandom. I did NOT hate the game. It was actually a good, if not great game. But putting it on a sliding scale of satisfaction and disappointment, I would say it’s tipping toward the latter. And as it’s taken me hours of mulling, reading, and discussing with other players to characterize and articulate precisely why, and because I think I owe it not only to the series and the characters therein, but also my younger self to leave no stone unturned, this review is going to be a long one.

I’m finding it easiest to break it down by category:

Graphics.

This game is beautiful. It was sort of a dream come true to meander around in real time with the gorgeously, smoothly animated versions of Sora and the gang that we’d previously only been able to see in the rare cinematic cutscenes at each game’s beginning and end. Most of the Disney and even Pixar worlds and characters are rendered to nearly the same quality as their film counterparts. I often found myself just standing in place for a while, admiring it all. The vivid green landscapes of Corona, the beaches and sprawling sea in the Caribbean, the towering cityscape of San Fransokyo. And walking on water where the sky meets the sea? Stunning.

Gameplay.

All in all, this game is pretty damn fun to play. It was all I thought about during long days at work: I couldn’t wait to jump back into the action. Pounding on Heartless still brings me back to the good old days. And who doesn’t want to run up the side of buildings as Riku and Roxas demonstrated so epically, so long ago, in the World That Never Was? Soar to sky-high Heartless as easily as you can lock onto them? These new movement aspects brought an almost superhero-esque quality to the game, reminiscent of Spider-man’s wall-crawling or Batman’s grappling hook, that, if a bit unrealistic, I found to be immense fun. And compared to previous games, worlds are no longer cordoned off into many separate areas, and with the sheer scale of them, KH3 experiments with a quasi-open-world style that is rather freeing.

I also really appreciate that the character interactions with your party and with NPCs felt much less clunky. For one thing, they FINALLY did away with the press X-to-progress text-only conversations that were so prevalent in previous games, with all the dialogue left to voice actors. Even minor NPCs that only show up one time were given a voice, making every interaction that much more immersive. Transitions from cutscenes to the action were also much more fluid, and Sora and his current teammates talk to one another as you pow around. Even if it’s just a warning from Goofy you’re going the wrong way, or a heads-up from Donald there’s an ingredient or lucky emblem nearby, it was still a new feature I was glad to have.

Combat-wise, this game has a lot going for it. This installment brings nearly all the combat styles we’ve seen up until this point: magic, combos, form changes, flowmotion, shotlock, companion team-ups, and links. And it even introduces a few new ones on top of all this: the ability to swap between three different keyblades at will, and the new Disney parks-inspired attraction commands, where you can summon roller coasters, tea cups, and spinning carousels to your heart’s content. What this enables is for the player to never get bored during a battle. With so many options to choose from in each new enemy encounter, you never have to stick with the same combat style or get stuck in a rut of just mashing X to hack and slash everything. All things considered, Sora’s got some pretty sick moves this time around. Whipping out Thundaza, watching lightning explode across the screen and zap all the enemies in sight with it? Wicked. Floating above the ground, wreaking ethereal, glowing havoc with the Mirage Staff? Awesome. Surrounded by a sea of Heartless, locking onto 32 different targets at once and unleashing a flurry of lasers to slash through them all? Amazing. Thumbs getting fatigued fighting the third maddening iteration of Xehanort? Give yourself a break from the chaos in a giant, technicolor pirate ship, watching it thwack your adversary on every rock back and forth.

On one hand, the hefty damage most of these combat options deal gives the game an almost Ratchet and Clank-esque ‘blowing shit up’ vibe, which is undeniably fun. But, this array of choices does become a double-edged sword. With grand magic, attraction commands, form changes, and team attacks all fighting for space atop the command deck, they tend to pile up quickly. It’s not at all uncommon to rack up three or four different situation commands after only about 30 seconds of fighting. Sometimes, the constant need to make a choice, especially in a busy battle, can be more of a burden than a blessing. Having to shift between situation command selections on top of attacking, blocking, and accessing your shortcuts can be a bit cumbersome.

Unlike in previous games, there also aren’t many consequences for over-using special attacks. In KH2, your drive gauge ran out and needed to be slowly refilled. You also ran the increasingly high risk of morphing into the near-helpless Anti-Sora by relying too much on drive forms. But here, no matter how many times you’ve used a special attack, your MP will reload in a few seconds, and you can easily just ignore the situation command for Rage Form when it pops up. In BBS, it felt like it took a good while to power up to a form change, whereas in KH3 it seems like you can spend just as much time in a powered-up keyblade form change as in regular combat.

And, because so many of these situation commands are so powerful and frequent, they tend to dominate the entire battle, making the combat in the game much easier than previous games. Bordering on too easy. Where in other entries in the main series, I usually had to die several times on each boss in Proud mode before I devised the right strategy to defeat them, I rarely died at all in this game. On the surface, that isn’t such a bad thing. As I like to say a lot of the time, when I play a game “I’m here for a good time, not a hard time.” But there comes a point when the combat is so easy that it no longer gives you that sense of accomplishment when you progress past a tough batch of heartless or a particularly merciless boss – you know, that punching the air, whooping to yourself sort of pride. I was definitely missing that, at times.

Believe it or not, I think the Disney attraction commands, though powerful, and at first hilarious, were a bit too extra. After only a few hours in they just became annoying, and I was doing my best to ignore them when they popped up, even wishing I could turn them off. Now and then, I’d accidentally trigger the Blaster or the raft ride and just roll my eyes while canceling back out of it. Because it doesn’t really feel like you’re doing any fighting, let alone the real-time keyblade-style fighting uniquely special to this series. And forget trying to effectively aim while you’re in one. After a while the only thing I found them useful for was, as I mentioned earlier, taking a break from a fight when you’re fatigued, as they give your thumbs a break and cause you to take much less damage. While they were cool at first, my final impression of this addition to the combat was all flash, no substance.

I was one of the few who actually liked and took advantage of flowmotion in DDD, and was excited to see it brought back here. But this, too, turned out to be mostly another annoyance. I’m not sure if it’s because the actionable objects are so much more spread out in KH3, or because they actually built in restrictions on combos here, but I was unable to keep a flow going at all. After only one successful strike after leaping off a wall or pole, the blue glow of momentum vanished. It didn’t feel like “flowmotion” at all, just a one-and-done special attack that tended to kill any rhythm I had going moreso than facilitate it. So while conceptually and visually it was promising, I unfortunately no longer found it very useful.

Also, and I realize this is completely subjective, but I found the form changes to be stylistically underwhelming overall. I thought the drive forms in KH2 (especially Master and Final) were visually and stylistically cooler, and seemed to have more finesse.

Worlds.

When I was whisked away from San Fransokyo and landed in the final world of the game, I found myself disappointed by the number of worlds I’d been to, expecting there to be a handful more. Though, when I counted the worlds up, the tally was at nine. So I asked myself why it felt like so little, when nine didn’t seem like a small number. But, tallying up the worlds in previous games, KH1 had 13, KH2 had 15, and BBS had 10. Which does put KH3 on the low end of world count. Also, in all three of these previous games (especially KH2 and BBS), you had to return to these worlds more than once, usually unlocking new content and/or areas each time, leading it to feel like there were more worlds than there actually were. Though KH3 has a comparable length of gameplay to complete the story, it definitely does feel like it comes up short in terms of variety of worlds you get to visit. As a result, some of the worlds where you spend 3 or 4 hours at a time can start to feel like they’re dragging on a little bit. And on the flipside of that, there are certain worlds that you technically do visit in KH3 I did not include in the world count, because you are there for such a fleeting amount of time, or in such a tiny portion of the world – e.g. Land of Departure, the Realm of Darkness. Worlds that would have been awesome to get to actually explore! And perhaps the biggest letdown of all, though you get to visit Destiny Islands and Radiant Garden via cutscenes, there is no play time in either. Serious bummer.

As far as the worlds they did choose to include, the selection admittedly left me ambivalent. I was really glad to see Toy Story, Monsters Inc., and Big Hero 6 included, but wasn’t over the moon about any of the others. I was really counting on having a Wreck-It-Ralph world (I mean, how perfect would that be?), and would love to have seen them tackle Zootopia, Wall-E, Meet the Robinsons, or the Incredibles. I’d even settle for a return to Halloween Town (shameless NBC fangirl, what can I say). The Emperor’s New Groove could have been pretty damn funny. Even A Bug’s Life or Finding Nemo could have offered some unique gameplay opportunities. Certainly better content to work with than Frozen, at any rate.

As far as the plot/experience within the worlds, I also found it to be a mixed bag. I did enjoy all of them, even ones I did not expect to enjoy too much (i.e. Frozen and Pirates). Honestly, though, I found myself a bit bored in worlds where they followed the plot of the films too closely, to the point that it felt like an abridged re-hash of the movies. I know they’ve taken this approach before with earlier Kingdom Hearts games, and I may sound like a hypocrite for only critiquing it now. But I think even in stories where they did do this earlier, like Tarzan or Aladdin, they executed the re-tellings more successfully. The plotline was altered just enough to ensure Sora was a part of the action through and through. After playing those games, Sora was indelibly inserted into those films in my head. To where the next time I watched them, I was jokingly asking myself “Where’s Sora?” But that was not the feeling I got here. In worlds like Corona or the Caribbean, Sora was just sort of jammed into the plot where he didn’t really fit. In many of the longer cutscenes, I actually forgot Sora was even there – even forgot I was playing Kingdom Hearts. Sora didn’t really feel needed. I definitely found it more enjoyable to be part of a new adventure with the characters – like what was done with Toy Story and Big Hero 6, where Sora was able to play more of an active role in progressing the subplot. It was nice to feel like I mattered!

Extras.

These were hit-or-miss for me. I actually screeched with excitement when Sora and the gang ran into Remy, and enjoyed the scavenger hunt for ingredients. And while cooking with little chef was a treat I wouldn’t want to see cut from the game, I found most of the cooking mini-games to be simultaneously too short (less than 10 seconds each!) and needlessly hard to master (especially cracking that egg).

Admittedly a Disney and Disneyland fanatic, I also got a kick out of the lucky emblems (aka hidden mickeys). I thought they were one of the most fun collectibles we’ve seen to date in the franchise.

Which brings me to one of the more controversial extras in the game: the gummiphone! While a lot of people are ragging on the inclusion of this dynamic, I enjoyed it. The Instagram loading screens were a little jarring at first, but they really grew on me. And being able to point the camera at Goofy, Sully, or Hiro and watch them pose for a picture in real-time was nothing short of adorable.

Another thing that surprised me? The game’s occasional self-awareness. I almost included a separate category for this, because I’ve never seen another game do this, and did not see it coming! But the “KINGDOM HEARTS II.9” title screen gave me a good chuckle. It doesn’t make up for all the 1.5, 2.8, 0.2 nonsense we’ve had to put up with, but it’s at least nice to see they can poke fun at their own ridiculousness. And when Sora laments how long it’s been since he’s seen the folks in Twilight Town; then Hayner, confused and even a little creeped out, says “It hasn’t been that long”. Simply acknowledging the vast disconnect between the short time that’s passed in-universe since KH2 and how egregiously long the fans had to wait – well, it had me in stitches. It was morbid laughter, sure, but refreshing nonetheless.

Um, the folk dancing in the square in Corona? Literal funniest thing ever.

One thing that I really missed? Closing keyholes. Finishing worlds wasn’t the same without them.

At this point in the review, I’ve covered basically every aspect I can think of save for one: the story. I’ve purposely saved it for last, because it’s the most important aspect of the series to me, the one that can make or break a Kingdom Hearts game.

From the categories I’ve judged thus far – content, visuals, gameplay, extras – I’d probably give this game a solid 8 or 9/10. I had some issues with the overly cluttered combat, the difficulty level, and the slight disappointment with which worlds were included and the ways they chose to play out the subplots in each. But in the grand scheme of things, all these complaints are minor, and don’t detract from the fact that it’s just plain fun, in a new league with some of the most entertaining and most beautiful titles out there.

But that’s exactly it. Beautiful graphics are the new bare minimum for this generation of console gaming. If a game released for the PS4 or Switch isn’t visually outstanding, it runs a real risk of faltering behind the competition. There is no shortage of beautiful games on the market in 2019.

And if I want a fun game, I can pop back into Mario Odyssey or get a group together to duke it out in Super Smash Ultimate. I can easily download a dozen fun platformers on Steam for less than 50 bucks.

Yes, KH3 is really beautiful, and really fun.

But that’s not why I was so excited to play it.

A legion of kids and teenagers stuck with this series well into their twenties and thirties, never giving up on the release of the next installment. Trudged through handheld games and blocky graphics and clunky battle systems and convoluted plot lines. Why? Well, of course I can’t speak for all KH fans, but for me, and all the ones I know personally, it’s because of the story. It’s always been what, in my mind, sets KH apart from any other video game I’ve ever played. It’s the only game series that’s ever made me cry. The only one I’ve ever owned merchandise for. The only one I’ve ever been so invested in that I can discuss it with friends, even acquaintances, for hours on end. The only one that’s made me care so much about the characters that they feel like my friends. With how much time has passed since I started, maybe even my kids. No pun intended, the series has heart. It contains the same sort of magic that going to Disneyland as a child did. Or, it used to.

Kingdom Hearts 3 didn’t need to just be a great game. It needed to be a Kingdom Hearts game. One that built a wove a compelling story filled with intrigue and emotion from the first hour. One that did justice to all the characters (and by now, there are a lot of them) that we’ve grown to love over the last 17 years. One where a prepubescent kid can yell a speech up at a threatening villain that makes you believe, harder than you’ve ever believed, in the power of friendship. One that instills a childlike optimism that no matter how dark the world gets, as long as someone keeps fighting, good can still triumph over evil. One that tugs on the heartstrings in just the right ways, at just the right moments, to manage to make you cry – repeatedly – over a gang of outspoken, angsty kids with clown feet.

The thing about the story in KH3 is: it’s not inherently a bad story. Sure, it’s a mess, it doesn’t make much sense, it leaves you with more questions than answers, it’s incredibly cheesy, and it retcons a good deal of lore from previous installments. But many of these things could be said of other Kingdom Hearts games. The fact that these descriptors apply to KH3 isn’t what disqualifies it as a worthy entry in the series, in my mind.

For the most part, it’s not the story itself I found disappointing. After all, think about how a summary sounds on paper: reunions with long lost characters, long-awaited battles, conclusions of lengthy character and story arcs.

The biggest problem wasn’t so much the concept of the story, but rather the execution.

First of all, the pacing. The pacing was terrible. Almost nothing happens the first 20-25 hours of the game. I can think of maybe two scenes that got me on the edge of my seat, gripping my controller in the hopes it would advance the plot further: the scene with Mickey and Riku in the realm of darkness where you get to play as Riku for a few minutes (sadly the only time in the game that you do), and running into Vanitas in Monstropolis. Nothing. Else. Happened. Sure you run into Larxene in Arendelle, and goof around chasing Luxord in the Caribbean, but none of this is actually relevant to the plot we care about. Certainly not the plot the story is telling us to care about from the beginning.

And that leads me to the second issue – how vague your objective actually is. The ultimate objective of the game seems clear enough: rescue Aqua from the realm of darkness, maybe worry about the other two Wayfinder trio once we’ve found her, and defeat Xehanort. But this is not Sora’s given objective. Rather, it’s to find the ‘power of waking.’ Which is not explained, either to Sora or the player. Sora, on the other hand, appoints himself to another mission entirely: contemplating the unfairness of Roxas’ disappearance, he seems to mainly be focused on finding him and restoring him to a physical existence. However, this mission is starkly at odds with the canonical explanation of Nobodies in general and Roxas, specifically. The last time we saw Roxas (chronologically speaking) he reunited with Sora, and as far as we know, he’s still part of Sora. So, the mission to “find” Roxas as if he exists as an entity in the real world is perplexing. Second, lacking hearts, Nobodies can’t exist as a whole on their own. So even assuming we can “find” him in Sora, how far we going to bring him back without splintering Sora into a Heartless and a Nobody again? Even according to the series’ own complex lore, it doesn’t make sense. Therefore, the first half or more of the game seems aimless, not really knowing what we’re meant to be doing, or how. It’s hard to be invested in a story with no clear objective. Not something we can easily get on board with like “Find Riku and Kairi” or “Track down the Organization.” Just “Go find the power of waking.” Okay.

And while a lot (and I mean a lot) happens in the last 4-5 hours of the story to tie up loose ends, it’s crammed together in such a jumbled rush that it’s almost impossible to appreciate any of it.

After collecting Aqua and Ventus, long lost characters reappear on screen one right after another assembly-line style, to the point that none of them feels special or poignant anymore.

Not only that, but the characters who are brought back, many of them beloved protagonists from earlier installments in the series, are not given any time to shine.

It was promising when they let Aqua fight Vanitas in the newly restored Land of Departure. Ven is her friend, her responsibility; it was her fight. But with this taste of getting back a playable character from the franchise, I expected that as the plot progressed, it would open up plenty more chances for past protagonists to take the stage. That we’d be able to step back into the oversized shoes of other playable characters we’d missed. That when (or if) others returned in all their glory, they’d get to strut their stuff.

But that is precisely the opposite of what happened.

I mean, Ventus didn’t get to steal the spotlight for the final clash with Vanitas? By definition, his natural foil?

Terra didn’t get to exact his revenge in an epic showdown with Xehanort, the guy who stole his body and enslaved him for more than a decade?

Roxas and Axel, reunited, couldn’t team up to pound on the Organization members that tormented them? Instead, after his surprise entrance, Roxas got hardly any screen presence at all, and Axel’s epic new flaming keyblade got destroyed, making him sit out most of the fighting after all the build up that he was training to fight?

Oh, and you know who else was utterly useless through the final battles, demoted once again to a damsel in distress despite years of hype that she’d wield a keyblade in this installment, and multiple cutscenes indicating she, too, was training to actually fight? Yup. I don’t even need to say the name.

And to only get one small boss fight as Riku, when in the previous installment he had half the screen time?

The heroes we’ve missed for so long and longed to return to the screen are not resurrected with the dignity and respect they deserve. They are relegated to side characters, who are either completely sidelined for the final battles, or else just hacking away mindlessly in the background as you marathon one ridiculously easy “boss” after another Olympus Coliseum-style.

Speaking of resurrecting characters: the manner in which they brought some of them back was so nebulous it was impossible to understand, let alone experience any sort of emotional reaction.

For one: Roxas. For starters, it’s pretty lazy writing to have Sora be the one pursuing his return (however that was supposed to happen), only to have that pursuit peter out completely, and for Roxas to just appear at the final battle with no resolution or explanation of how. (Nor the satisfaction of fleshing out how Sora achieved it.) But more importantly, where did he come from? There was no scene in which he emerged from Sora’s being. So, where was he? Also, I get that they must have used the replica Demyx/Ansem brought Ienzo as a vessel for him, but how does he have his own heart now? There was no evidence to indicate Sora or Ven lost theirs again. This is a pretty glaring plot hole.

Second? Naminé. This one really came out of left field. No one had even spoken about Naminé the entire game, save one throwaway line. Then all of a sudden, near the very end of the game, everyone cares about bringing her back, too? Even Sora, despite his hours-long obsession with bringing back Roxas without a word about Naminé, sees a newly empty vessel and asks “Oh, is that for Naminé?” All I could do at this point was laugh at the absurdity of it all.

Even more confusing? Xion. She was a replica, with no heart, no personality... a walking vial for Sora’s memories. How on Earth did she get brought back? What was there to bring back? And what was the point? Xion always felt far more like a plot device than an actual character.

At this point, so little made sense and so many characters had appeared in a row with no regard for continuity or maintaining canon that my heart was really starting to sink. It all felt like it was meant to be fan service. Bring back everyone’s favorite characters: they’ll love that, right? But the issue is they did it no matter what rules they had to break, or canon they had to ignore. Sure, I wanted a lot of these characters back, I think a lot of people did. But not at the expense of good writing.

Even if one completely excuses the hole-filled poor writing that got us there, it didn’t even feel real that we had these awesome characters back. Because they just sort of existed, as high-def cool anime hair and porcelain skin and not much else. Not only did they not get to show us what they’re made of in epic fight sequences, but there was no meaningful dialogue from any of them. Where was Terra giving his friends any sort of recollection of his time as Ansem’s guardian? Riku and Roxas making amends? Aqua thanking Sora for keeping Ven safe? A brofest about protecting their friends between Riku and Terra? Axel saying anything at all meaningful to his best friend when he finally saw him again? For all the reunions we got, it was shocking how little substance there actually was in any of them.

It was an insanely rushed ending, with stunted, shallow dialogue, and awkward tears that felt forced rather than genuine.

KH3 is to KH1&2 what Moffat Who is to RTD Who. A lot more flash, a lot less substance, and hollowed out characters that no longer provoke deep emotion.

Characters’ emotions were not handled well in this game. Like when Sora, notorious for being a persistent optimist, dissolves to hysterics and claims he’s “nothing” without his friends. But we never get to see this sharp departure from his M.O. (because he has lost his friends over and over throughout the series without reacting this way) really wrestled with. It’s just swept under the rug after a single line from Riku. It’s okay for characters to hit rock bottom: in fact, it’s good for them. But such episodes have to be properly fleshed out, or they won’t have an impact.

Also, just my two cents? Making your characters cry is not a shortcut to get your audience to cry. It’s a lazy way of demonstrating feeling. In the writing world, there’s something called “show, don’t tell.” Making characters cry left and right with hardly any time devoted to the proper dialogue and action is the equivalent of telling, rather than showing. This series is unique to me precisely because it’s the only video game to make me cry (repeatedly). But I didn’t shed a tear in this game. And I think that is so telling. I always think of this behind the scenes video I watched for Doctor Who, in which they filmed different versions of a (very) emotional scene. In one of these versions, the Doctor properly breaks down and cries. David (the actor) upon seeing this version played back to him, said: “I worry if you see him breaking down, it stops you breaking down, as well.” He was onto something there. They didn’t end up using that take in the episode, and I think everyone would agree it was the right call. I’m not saying crying is inherently bad and always to be avoided. In fact, the opposite: it can be very powerful if used sparingly, and at the right moments with the right build-up. But overusing it, with no apparent regard for characterization nuances, basically making it your only method for tell your audience a character is emotional? It’s a little insulting. You also need good dialogue, good acting (or in this case, good animation and voice acting), and proper timing if you want to strike a chord with anyone.

Which, speaking of, I thought both the dialogue and the voice acting in the game as a whole left something to be desired (and seemed almost painfully slow?), and I think a big reason why emotional moments tended to ring hollow.

Onto another aspect of the story: how it ties in to earlier installments in the series. There was a fair amount of speculation going into this game whether or not smaller, handheld-console based installments and extra nuggets from mobile games and re-releases would be relevant in KH3. But regardless of which side of the argument fans fell on, the fact remains that many fans had only played KH1 and KH2, possibly BBS, prior to playing KH3. Many people don’t have the money or the interest in playing on multiple handheld consoles (me being one of them, though I toughed it out in this case) or cell phones, nor the tireless dedication and yes, more money, to purchase games a second time for Final Mix versions and secret endings. This is not a bad thing. It doesn’t mean they are bad fans, or less deserving of playing or enjoying KH3. Someone should not have to be a zealous super-fan to be able to enjoy a video game, or any form of entertainment. If you show up to Avengers: Endgame without having seen some of the previous major installments in the film franchise, you are probably going to be confused. I don’t recommend doing that. But is it necessary to have re-watched them all 20 times, speculated for hours on blogs and message boards, and read decades worth of Avengers comics to be able to understand it? Of course not. Though some insufferable comic book elitists insist they’re better than everyone else because they know more about the Marvel universe, the fact is you don’t have to be a Marvel super-fan to enjoy the films. That’s how it should be. Because it’s okay to be a casual fan of something. Content creators normally recognize this, and respect all of their audience. But here, there was critical information from pretty much every spinoff handheld game that you needed in order to have any idea what was going on. There wasn’t even any recap system like in KH2 (the static memories) to get you up to speed on what had happened in the series up until this point. Not to mention the location of the final boss fight, as well as the very last cutscenes centered around a mobile game/movie that I had never even heard of until I was in the middle of playing KH3. Now I am something of a KH geek as I said, so I’ve sat through Union Cross now and done my best to understand some of the more obscure lore. But, call me crazy, I don’t think it’s fair to expect every single person who plays the game to do that in order to understand it. Games are supposed to be fun, not homework.

Which brings me to my last point: this game was supposed to be the end of the saga as we know it. Whether it’s the end of the series or simply the end of this story arc and subsequent games will follow a villain besides the many iterations of Xehanort is yet to be seen (as of me writing this), but it was established this game would be the end to the main trilogy so far. And, to have that end be the main character swanning off on his own (as some have speculated, possibly to his death)? With everyone else from the series partying on the beach like someone important isn’t missing? As someone who came into this game expecting closure, I felt completely blindsided by this ending. After all he’s been through and all the sacrifices he’s made, Sora deserves better.

Kingdom Hearts 3 was visually and mechanically a blast, and credit should go to the developers, artists, and designers where credit is due. But as a fan who plays this series not for graphics or flashy gameplay, but to immerse myself in the story, I’m left feeling cheated. The way the plot unfolded and the way the characters were handled did a disservice to both long-time fans of the saga and to the characters themselves.

I always have a hard time with this, but if I had to put a number to it? I’d say maybe 6/10.

It hurt just to type that.

I’m not giving up hope in the franchise. If there’s ever a KH4 (which still seems unclear right now), I’ll probably still play it. I’m trying to give the creators the benefit of the doubt: they were under a lot of pressure to create a great game, and had too much time in development on their hands and too many sprawling ideas and tried to do too much at once. I’m all for second chances. But if they want the trust of fans like me back, they’re going to have to earn it.

Over the last couple months as I’ve put together this review, I’ve found myself in doubt. Even, dare I say it, like a bad fan, though in principle I vehemently reject the notion someone is a bad fan for disliking an installment of any franchise they love. Am I just too old for Kingdom Hearts now? I wondered. Was I romanticizing the series the whole time, and it’s not as good as I’ve built it up to be in my head? After all my time spent waiting, am I being too critical? I tortured myself over it. So, a couple of weeks after finishing KH3, I popped in the 1.5/2.5 HD compilation into the PS4 and restarted KH2. I had to see if it even came close to the hype I’d built in my head in the 8 or 9 years since I played it last. Almost 60 hours of gameplay later, I can say with confidence that I had not romanticized it at all. This game is amazing. I didn’t mind watching 30 minutes of cutscenes at a time because everything is so compelling. So the graphics are dated, but who cares? The combat is FUN without ever being cumbersome. It’s just the right level of difficulty that there are still some battles and bosses that require multiple attempts and the journey continuously instills a sense of pride and accomplishment. It has so much heart. I still teared up in the same places I used to as a teenager.

KH2 is still a perfect 10/10, and playing it again with fresh eyes only made me realize just how disappointing KH3 actually was.

There’s an old adage that it’s the things we love most that hurt us the most. I wouldn’t feel so let down, or compelled to write 6800 words why, if I didn’t love this series with all my heart. I’ve seen a lot of fans insulting and belittling anyone who dares to criticize the game online, and frankly I’m baffled by that. I critique and discuss all forms of entertainment I enjoy: and that includes both the strengths and weaknesses, the successes and flaws. And I guess I tend to associate with people who do the same. It doesn’t make us bad fans, but passionate ones. I’m not sending hate mail to Square telling them the game unequivocally sucks. I don’t have any ill will towards them or think they’re irredeemable writers or developers. I’m simply recording and posting my honest thoughts to help myself process how I’m feeling, and perhaps others if they choose to read them.

I’m genuinely happy for the fans who loved the game and felt it worth the wait – I don’t want to pick any fights with them (so please don’t pick any fights with me, either). I’m sadly - believe me, no one is sadder than me to admit this - just not one of them.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh meta #kh3 #kh #idk if any of my followers play but #there aren't many places i can post such a long review #so my old blog seemed an appropriate place #written by yours truly

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wozman23 · 4 years

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My 2020 in Gaming

I finished my 100th video game of the year yesterday. In a normal year that would be an embarrassing feat. By in 2020, pretty much stuck within these four walls for nearly nine months now, I'm really proud of it. The last few years, my gaming habits took a severe hit due to working too much. I was fortunate to have the finances to pick up the PlayStation VR and the Switch, but I couldn't dedicate a lot of time to them, and when I did, the joy wasn't there as much since I was often exhausted. In 2018, I still managed to get through almost 40 games, but last year that number fell to 25. There was so much I wanted to play, but I just didn't have the free time. And then 2020 dealt me a lifeline... When LA came to a halt, three and a half months into the year, I was only working on finishing Game #6. Since then, I've been on a tear. A large part of my efficiency came from two choices. In late April, I signed up for Xbox Game Pass for $1 for the first month. Then in June, the “Racial Injustice” Bundle with hundreds of PC games – about a dozen of which I really wanted to play - released on itch.io. Overall, it was a solid mix of AAA games and indie games, although I've skewed more toward indies for years now. There were big anticipated releases like The Last of Us, Part II and Doom Eternal. Splatoon 2 finally got the shrink wrap pulled off that it's been suffocating in for years. (It was fantastic, so I'm not sure why I waited so long.) There were massive games that I put dozens of hours into, like my 77 hours descending into the madness of Hades, or my 69 soaking in the world of Ghost of Tsushima, with a sizeable chunk of those hours being me just toying around with Photo Mode. (Props to the PS5 for finally telling you your playtimes via the OS.) There were dozens of small indie games that only took a few hours to complete – which is kind of my sweet spot these days. A few weighed in at just 30 minutes, like Swarm, a Steam game I found through Get Indie Gaming's Youtube channel, or Syphonia, a student project from ISART Digital that I was anticipating. There were games I replayed, like some of my favorites of all time, Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy and Alan Wake, as well as the remastered versions of Ghostbusters: The Video Game and the Crash Bandicoot and Spyro trilogies. There was great stuff I paid for, and a few awesome games that I got for free through the Epic Games Store, or via subscriptions with PlayStation Plus, Game Pass Ultimate, or the times I took advantage of free trials of Amazon Prime. And I even got hooked on an online multiplayer only game, which has only happened on a handful of occasions in the history of online play.A lot of people are going to look back on 2020 as a terrible year, but for me it's been a godsend. It's allowed me to enjoy multiple passions, with gaming being one of the biggest. Like any hobby, my gaming habits over the years have ebbed and flowed. Overall, the last generation I've been fortunate to own every major console for the first time in a generation. Yet – outside of a few phenomenal games like Horizon Zero Dawn, ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission on VR, and the other aforementioned PlayStation first party titles – overall I wasn't really impressed as much with the AAA offerings. The indie scene is only gaining ground. But with the PS5, the proper return of my all-time favorite franchise, Ratchet & Clank, and my Game Pass renewed until 2022, I'm optimistic about where gaming is headed. As for my favorite games that released this year, here's my list: 1. The Last of Us, Part II 2. Battletoads 3. CARRION 4. Hades 5. ASTRO's Playroom 6. Filament 7. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout 8. Bugsnax 9. Ghost of Tsushima 10. Ori and the Will of the Wisps The Last of Us, Part II The original The Last of Us was my favorite game of the previous generation, as well as the most impressive game of all time. It was mind-numbingly good, so much so that I really did not want a sequel. I didn't even want to replay it. It was one of those things that just felt complete. Nothing more needed to be said, and in doing so, there would be a large risk at ruining what made it great. Slowly, Naughty Dog eroded away at me, and I began to anticipate the sequel. Right before it I even replayed the remaster of the original. Part II is one of those rare project that manages to one-up what you thought was already perfection. It's like a 30 hour blockbuster movie that just keeps ramping up in intensity. So much of what makes it special is within the design of its details: the way it presents itself, the pacing, its message. Like many, key details were spoiled by online trolls prior to launch, but it really didn't matter. This post could be just as long and be only about The Last of Us, Part II. (I still may write something up at some point.) There's just so much of it to dissect. But it's impossible to talk about without spoiling all of its magical moments. It simply offers a masterclass in game design and narrative flow. I really don't need a Part III, but should one exist, I know damn well I'll be there. Battletoads I loved the original Battletoads. I even replayed it, and beat it with the help of the Rare Replay rewind feature right after playing the new entry. It's practically impossible otherwise. When there was talk of a new game I was hyped. But when it was finally revealed, with a completely different art style, I was taken aback. Because of that, I went in to the new entry not expecting much. However, that stylistic choice is exactly what put it in the Number 2 spot in my list. The original Battletoads concept was created to ape the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and the original game felt much like the early TMNT brawlers. The new Battletoads doubles down though, expanding their empire to combat TMNT's cartoons. The game itself is a fairly straight forward 2D brawler, that looks and plays great, but the real stars are the cutscenes and the humor. It has this great Saturday morning cartoon vibe that I've never seen a game nail near as well. I don't watch a lot of the modern cartoons, but many have compared it to Rick & Morty. It's really quick, and silly, and feels exactly what a company should be aiming for if they wanted to create the next TMNT craze in the world today. Sure, the game itself is nowhere near perfect in all dimensions, but the way it tackles humor is really impressive and admirable. That's the main reason it occupies my Number 2 spot. CARRION CARRION reminds me a lot of INSIDE, typeset aside. INSIDE for me was this solid atmospheric game that at it's end became this awesome fever dream, but was over just when it was getting interesting. CARRION feels like INSIDE's spiritual successor. You play as this creepy creature, with all these grotesque tentacles, and you just run amok. It's just plain fun. Plus it's an insanely unique lifeform to play as, and there's nothing more I love than playing a game where you take on the role of some strange creature. Like many of the indie games I love, CARRION doesn't overstay its welcome. Over the few hours of its journey, it iterates, provides you with some unique challenges, they grabs its hat and coat and bids you adieu. There's nothing more I love than a game with that approach. Show me something cool. Make me play something that feels like something I've yet to experience in my over 30 years of gaming. Then get out of the way so that I can find another game that makes me feel that way. Kudos to Game Pass as well for partnering with the CARRION developers and offering the game on release day. I was looking forward to the game, but with so many games on my radar, I often simply can't get around to all of them. Had I needed to purchase CARRION, it might have had to wait in the wings for a while. I've played so many games on Game Pass this year that I may have otherwise never actually purchased, and many of them have found the ranks among my favorites from the last few years. Hades Up until now, I'd like Supergiant Games as a creative studio. I've played all of their games, and loved the artistry present in them. However, I've always felt like the gameplay was a bit lackluster. Not previously being a fan of roguelike games – although Game Pass has provided some great experiences there as well – I initially had no plans to buy Hades. But praise was unanimous, the Epic Store gave people a $10 coupon just for downloading Rocket League for free, and it was on sale for $5 off, so I scooped it up for $10. At first, I thought I had made a mistake. I wasn't really into it. But then it slowly started to sink its hooks into me. After about 30 runs, I'd finally vanquished Hades himself. And what was your reward: a brief encounter with your mother, followed by your death and cyclical return to The Underworld. And that's really where the brilliance of Hades comes in. In beating the game, you realize you have only scratched the surface. I played around 70 more runs. I got the full story from my mother. I tried out the different weapons. I played around with the perks and heat gauge. I maxed out the relationships with almost everyone. (I never got Demeter's final few dialog options to pop.) All along the way, I kept thinking, I'll quit after I do X, but then Y and Z would egg me on even further. I spent 77 hours in that world. Sometimes, with nothing to do during the day, I'd practically play all day long. No other game this year took up that much of my time. Few ever do. Not bad for a game I initially had buyers remorse for. ASTRO's Playroom I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get a PS5 at launch. I got lucky on release day thanks to the PlayStation Direct website. (Every other retailer is a giant hunk of shit, who doesn't care if they sell to an actually gaming fan or some asshole reseller.) Had I not secured an early PS5, it wasn't a big deal. Most of the games I wanted to play were coming to PS4 as well. The baked-in ASTRO's Playroom was the only exception. And there's always that extra special feeling of playing something right when it comes out. It's funny to think that the best PS5 game is given away for free with every console, but that is just the case. Much like ASTRO BOT Rescue Mission, which did wonders for showing off what PlayStation VR could do – it was my 2018 GOTY - ASTRO's Playroom shows off what the PS5 can do, primarily via the advancements of the DualSense controller and the solid state hard drive. I've never been one to care for graphics, and the PS5 will surely evolve over time, but those two details are what makes the device feel truly “next gen” so far. The way the triggers adjust tension is so wild. I really don't know how much they'll be used, but it's a cool option to have. And loading times are practically non-existent. (I've since went back to the Xbox One for a few more Game Pass releases, and loading times feel jarring.) As far as ASTRO goes, he's a terrific mascot in an age where mascot platformers aren't really a thing anymore. The experience relies heavily on nostalgia, as you collect relics of PlayStation's past. Also scattered throughout are other bots dressed up to reference other franchises. Dozens of franchises are represented, from characters like Crash, to Ratchet, to Kutaro from Puppeteer. It's really a lovely homage to PlayStation that any longtime fan will enjoy. Plus, it's a really fun game to play, with beautiful tech themed worlds, some infectious earworms, and some cool mechanics. Japan Studio has been a bit of an enigma for a while now. But the ASOBI Team is knocking it out of the park with ASTRO. ASTRO reminds me a lot of Iota from Tearaway: they're both cute mascot characters, crafted with a lot of love, from terrifically artistic games that did an excellent job of showing off new tech. I can't wait to see what ASTRO is up to next. Filament This one sat near the top my Steam wishlist for nearly the entire year before I finally grabbed it about a week ago when it went on sale. I love a good puzzle game. Basically, you control a bot that tethers out a string-like filament that you use to interact with pillars. Sometimes you just make sure you graze the line by one; other times you loop around one. Sometimes you're simply turning a pillar on. Other times they must be linked in pairs, by color, or a specific number of times, just to name a few of the options. That's really where Filament glows. What starts of simple grows insanely complex by the end. You'll be combining mechanics in some rather brain-busting puzzle. And the game does very little to explain things to you, or help you along the way, yet it feels very inuitive. Still, many times I simply hit walls, where I was almost convinced the puzzles were impossible. In a few instances, it took a while to understand new rule sets. Eventually I solved every single puzzle without resorting to help. And it took me about 48 hours. (Granted I think my stat tracking was probably counting some idle time where I had the game running but walked away to do stuff like make a meal.) It's a surprising amount of content for a puzzle game that can easily be reduced to: solve puzzles by drawing lines. One other thing I appreciated was that I found myself taking notes and drawing things out on paper. That's a tactic I don't pull out often, but love when a game pushes me in that direction. One instance in particular even had me cut up squares of paper to piece together one of the secret text logs. By the way, I missed a ton of those logs. After completing the few I found, I did look how to unlock the rest, and some of the stuff there was absurdly complex. There's really not a lot to compare Filament to outside of The Witness. But if you like a really challenging puzzle game with a ton of content, give this one a look. Fall Guys: Ultimate Knockout I don't like online multiplayer games. They rarely hold my interest. I put quite a bit of time into Rocket League, Uncharted 2, Resistance 2 Co-op, and Fat Princess, but that's been about it. And in some of those cases, the main reason I spent a good amount of time with them is because I was unemployed during their reign. Overall, I'm not one to interact with people online. And I don't like the idea of a game dictating when I play it. But when Fall Guys was included with PlayStation Plus, I liked the look of it enough to give it a try. Getting a win took a while, but after the first one, I started to become pretty consistent with my runs. Much like Hades, I thought, “I'll just play until I get the trophy for 7 wins.” Then I set my sights on 20. Then I got hooked on collecting the costumes. By the time I'd finished my first stint in Season 1, I'd reached the max Level 30 and had every trophy except for the one requiring five wins in a row. I've given up hope there. Sony says I logged 40 hours with it, which equates to a lot of rounds. One day I went back for Season 2, and enjoyed the new levels, even though I was getting eliminated since I was sight-reading them. I don't know how much time I'll be putting in with it in the future should I find gaps in my list of games. Usually with multiplayer games, the focus fades once I unlock all the trophies I can. And I'm not sure how much time I want to dedicate to becoming proficient at future season. But the fact that Fall Guys even got that much attention from me to begin with is a testament to how much fun it is. Bugsnax Bugsnax could have been a joke. The previous game from Young Horses, Octodad: Dadliest Catch was just that: a silly romp that equated to little more than just a goofy control scheme. Bugsnax was the butt of many jokes upon reveal, reaching meme status in which it became the Schrödinger's cat of games. When someone talked about it looking good, you weren't sure if they were being honest or a hipster. I wasn't sure what to expect, but I was intrigued. It's another fine example of a list of stellar games that have been given away for free with PlayStation Plus. Would I have played it otherwise? Who knows? But I'm glad I got to. It is silly, but the silliness works in unison with what turned out to be a very fun game to play. The world and its characters are weird. Everybody has a laughable name, Filbo Fiddlepie, Chandlo Funkbun, and C. Clumby Clumbernut, just to name a few. ( I wonder what the C stands for?) The Bugsnax, which are part bug, part snacks, follow suit, with the burger inspired Bunger, the french fry spider, Fryder, or the popsickle, Bobsickle. The most delightful part is when you catch one of the bugsnax and you hear them say their name from the speaker in the controller. Hearing “Weenieworm” never got old. Any sound coming from Bunger put a smile on my face. Feeding the bugnsax to the other characters was a blast as well. Certain bugsnax resulted in sheer silliness, while combinations could provide interesting fashion statements. But past all that silliness was a fun game too. You're given a few different tools to capture bugsnax, and are sent to figure out how. By the time I was reaching the end, having done all there was to do, I was sad to see it end. It was simply a joy to platinum the game, and I'd definitely be down for more Bugsnax adventures. Ghost of Tsushima I love Sucker Punch to death. Sly Cooper is one of my favorite series. On the other hand, I've never been into the world of the samurai, or watched any samurai movies. But Sucker Punch is a studio I'm happy to support, and I figured I'd be getting a good quality game, so I was in. (Plus, I had the free time. At the time, I thought it might be my gaming binge swan song as I thought we'd be coming out of this pandemic in July. Boy was I wrong!) The world of Tsushima is breathtaking. The partnership of style and graphical fidelity creates beauty in every square inch of the world. As far as the game is concerned, it what I would expect from a AAA open world game. There are main missions, and side missions, and things to upgrade, and all kinds of places to explore. It's fairly predictable in that regard, although I did enjoy some of the ways it tackled many of those side missions. The haiku system was a relaxing alternative to combat missions. Foxes and birds always encouraged me to meander from the main missions. And shrines provides some nice platforming challenges. Combat was unique, and being about to cater it to your preferred combat style was appreciated. It did wear out its welcome a bit after dozen of hours, but I appreciate its simplicity. Still, most impressive was just that living, breathing world. I spent a lot of time in photo mode. A LOT! I could easily spend an hour or two just traveling around finding beautiful vistas to tinker around with lighting and effects. In the end, most of my complaints really just boil down to the fact that it's a large AAA game, and comes with the tropes and restrictions of the territory. Otherwise, it would be higher up the list. Ori and the Will of the Wisps Ori and the Will of the Wisps is a great game, but ultimately it's just more Ori. That's not necessarily a bad thing. It just doesn't really subvert expectations. Everything that made the first game great is here too. It looks gorgeous. It's fun to traverse and explore. But looking back, it doesn't stick out as fondly in my memory as many of the other games in this list. Some of that could be the fact that it released early in the year. It was the game I was playing when the world crapped the bed. But it could also just be that I prefer the intrigue of new IP over sequels. Even so, it's hard to discredit just how well it plays and how beautiful and rich that fantasy world is. Honorable Mentions (that released this year): Carto, Lightmatter, Swarm, Symphonia, Bartlow's Dread Machine, Doom Eternal, Control's AWE Expansion Honorable Mentions (I played that released years prior): Bomb Chicken, SUPERHYPERCUBE, Dead Cells, Moonlighter, Songbird Symphony, The Messenger, JUMPGRID, ETHEREAL, Spring Falls, Unruly Heroes, Celeste, Lonely Mountains: Downhill, Splatoon 2, My Friend Pedro, A Short Hike, Future Grind, SOMOS, A Plague Tale: Innocence, The King's Bird

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hyungtop · 7 years

Text

best friends to idol couple: hyuk

you meet hyuk backstage at a music show

you walk into their waiting room and you’re like wHAT IS THIS because where is vixx i only see six models here huh

your head is spinning as you shuffle into line with the rest of your group members to greet them

all of the vixx members are nice but a little awkward because there are cameras

n and leo are the same age, n is the leader and the oldest and has a lilt to his voice when he talks

leo is intimidating but has the voice of an angel and is so so adorable when he talks

ken is the one with the beautiful hair and a big smile

ravi and hongbin are the same age, ravi has legs for miles and a tattoo that curls over his collarbone

hongbin has strong arms paired with big eyes, two cute dimples and a toothy grin

hyuk is the maknae, a little taller than the rest of them, with an insanely chiseled jaw and thighs close to bursting out of his pants. he doesn’t say much but nods along with whatever his hyungs say

when it’s time to leave and all the cameras are turned off, you hear someone call your name and hyuk presses a little slip of paper into your hands

you go to open it but he suddenly goes “ahHHH NOT HERE” and everyone starts snickering

the last thing you see before leaving is n getting his smirk literally wiped off his face by hyuk’s hand

once you’re in the hallway everyone crowds around and you unfold the piece of paper to find hyuk’s kakaotalk id and your face turns red

and if you make a mistake onstage it’s not because you’re thinking about him

later on, in the car on the way home, you add hyuk on kkt and he almost immediately messages you

he’s friendly and easy to talk to from the beginning, he always has something to say

even though he’s pretty busy, he always finds the time to text you

and since he never sleeps, when you come back from practice he’s always there for you to talk to

has the best stories and the best jokes

facetiming with him and seeing all the other members in various states of undress as they relax at home

facetiming with him and bragging about the food you’re getting vs whatever junk he’s managed to procure for himself late at night

facetiming in bathrobes curled up in white sheets but 1000 miles away from each other

watching him bother the hyungs (you heard he was a shit but now you know it’s real)

listening to him talk about starlights with adoration

listening to him talk about his hyungs with a different kind of adoration but mushy feelings nonetheless

going out to eat and alternating between whose turn it is to pick the restaurant, he almost always wants to eat gopchang and you’re like bruh how much do you think i’m getting paid

always complains about how he doesn’t see you enough

“are you off tomorrow?”

“yeah, i’ll meet you for lunch”

“no, pack a bag and come over. we can stay up and play games”

playing video games with him and getting your ass kicked

watching him laugh his ass off as he stomps you into the ground

what a little shit

but it’s all worth it to see him smile

grudgingly watching anime with him

grudgingly watching him play overwatch and going “uh huh, uh huh” whenever he tries to explain the gameplay to you

likes to act cute to piss you off and you secretly like it but can’t show it bc he’s embarrassing and also bc he’s 183+cm like cut the cute act big boy, that image died years ago

holding three different conversations on text, snapchat, and kkt

conversations are 85% sass because someone’s gotta keep this kid in line

topics range from “what do you think about sexy policemen as our next concept” to “where do words go when you erase them”

eventually the sass turns into play-flirting and there’s suddenly this tension like am i going too far? am i being too suggestive?

and you’re in a weird place where you’re starting to fall for him and you don’t want to be cold but at the same time you don’t know if you should keep him so close anymore

one night he invites you over to his dorm after practice

hakyeon lets you in and tells you to keep the noise down, it’s 2am and everyone’s getting ready to go to sleep

hyog is standing at the stove putting ramen into two bowls, looking all soft in a worn t-shirt and sweatpants with a towel on his head and little bits of ruffled hair peeking out

you hop onto the counter as he passes you the bowl and chopsticks

“are you cooking for me? you’ll make a great housewife someday”

he snaps at your nose with his chopsticks before digging in

and you swear he finishes his bowl in about a minute even though it’s twice as big as yours

when eating with hyogi, sharing is a must so he starts picking at your bowl and it’s finished in another thirty seconds

after the two of you have stuck your bowls in the sink, he leans back against the counter and says, “since we’ve been friends for a while, i was thinking about changing your name in my phone, but i don’t know what to change it to”

you’re like really? you don’t have any ideas? at all?

and he says “not really…but i was thinking maybe…”

he looks nervous and you’re like hyuk? are you okay?

and he starts softly singing

“can i call you my own and can i call you my lover, call you my one and only…can i call you my everything…my baby”

he trails off and looks away

you grab his chin and turn his face back to yours

he puts his hand over yours and looks up hopefully at you through his lashes

“what do you say?”

“only if i can do the same”

“really?”

“yeah, stupid”

“can i kiss you?”

you can’t even reply before he’s leaning in and pressing his mouth to yours

the kiss is sweet and chaste and you certainly have NEVER imagined what his lips would feel like, but they’re soft and warm and a little oily from the ramen

he tastes like the soup too but hyuk is 75% junk food and snacks so it just makes the kiss more uniquely him

after a moment you pull away just enough to not be kissing him anymore

something moves in your peripherals and you look over to see hakyeon and taekwoon standing in the doorway

taekwoon huffs a soft “finally” before walking away

hakyeon comes over to hug the both of you, saying something like “my children have grown up” and hyuk grumbles under his breath

hakyeon says, “if the two of you ever need a shoulder to cry on or advice of an ADULT NATURE–”

“hyung!!”

hyuk ushers you to the door to get away from greasy hakyeon and gives you another kiss before you leave

he can’t stop smiling about it, even the next day, so the other three members wheedle it out of him and blow up your phone asking about it

not much changes after the two of you start dating

lots more spending time together on your days off (read: going out to eat before coming home to make out on the couch)

lots of fevered kisses and fumbling over clothes and jumping about ten feet into the air whenever someone walks by his room (hakyeon refuses to let hyuk close the door when you’re over)

taking lots of aesthetic couple photos on secret dates but not being able to post them

he’s surprisingly shy about suggesting new places to go on dates

handholding and other skinship, there’s rarely a moment when the two of you are together where he isn’t wrapped around you or touching you in some way

he gets jealous easily and usually holds it in well but if he really gets irritated, he’ll go out of his way to be mean to you bc he’s petty like that

and you’ll either smack him upside the head and tell him he’s being dumb or be mean back to him and then it turns ugly

most fights are like this, they’re small and revolve around the both of you being stupid and prideful but someone always backs down

he apologizes by buying you food or immediately coming over to spend time with you

he will send you lots of cute selfies if he’s too busy to facetime

(and the occasional dick pic)

seriously this kid is a tease…everything is a game of “how turned on can i get you and how scandalously can i touch you in public without getting caught”

and you’re like this is your first real relationship right??? right???????

sex happens about a year in, just because there isn’t really time for anything and then when there’s time, the both of you are exhausted and would rather nap together

but after walking in to see hyuk on top of you and your hands down each other’s pants too many times, the hyungs give him a box of condoms for christmas

hyuk thinks it’s a joke at first but they’re like no really

he tells you about it and you brush it off because there are more important things to worry about, like end-of-year stages

things start to die down after the new year begins, you stay in seoul and wander the streets at night while everyone goes back to visit their families

hyuk comes back early from daejeon and asks you to come sleep over since no one else is back yet

after watching six hour-long episodes of anime in a row, your eyes are burning so you ask hyuk to get you a sweatshirt while you take a break

as he’s sifting through his clothes, you wander into his room and find the condoms

he turns around to find you with the box in your hand and an uneasy look on your face

“you know i wasn’t kidding about those” he says, coming over and handing the sweatshirt to you

“yeah, now i know” you say

he takes the box from you and pretends to study it before asking, “so…do you maybe want to make good use of these?”

you stare up at him before saying, “god, do you even need to ask?”

and that’s all it takes before he’s kissing you and running his hands up and down your sides, tugging at your clothes and getting in your way as you try to take everything off

he pulls off his sweater and jeans and hops into bed with you, pulling the covers up over your bodies

and god if it isn’t the hottest thing when he slots his hips against yours and murmurs against your skin “i want to be inside of you”

it ends relatively quickly and hyuk goes a little pink, but he ducks under the covers and goes down on you until you’re barely able to breathe

about an hour later you’re in the kitchen getting water when hyuk comes up behind you and carries you back to the bedroom and you know what happens next

the next morning, the rest of vixx comes home and ravi screams when he opens the door to his (shared!!) room with hyuk and finds a combination of clothes and condom wrappers on the floor

along with hyuk’s naked ass, because you stole the covers in the middle of the night and he was too lazy to wrestle them back from you

jaehwan the shithead immediately comes over and starts taking pictures for blackmail and hyuk has to very grumpily roll out of bed and shove everyone out before locking the door

going public is relatively easy

he’s getting convenience store snacks late one night when a fan approaches him and makes conversation

unfortunately he says without thinking that he has to go because his baby is waiting for him

the fan says your name as a joke and he says “yeah. gotta go bye”

he gets into the car and is like “hey, guess what? i just told someone we were together” and you go WHaT DID YOU SAY HAN SANGHYUK

he goes home and writes a fancafe post about it so the fans don’t get toooo mad and you also do the same

there’s always backlash no matter what, there will always be critics, but that’s just because they’ll never know what it’s like to be with him and you don’t mind too much

for about a month afterwards every program he goes on asks about the relationship

he doesn’t mind really, it gets him more screen time than n and ken combined

which slightly irritates hakyeon bc I AM THE LEADER

the both of you guys are sneaky little shits and he’s smart as hell so the cameras still don’t get much dirt on the relationship

but now you can post the occasional picture that you take of hyuk/with hyuk on an outing and share it with the world :’)

one thing that really touches you is what hyuk says on a show when he’s randomly asked about the relationship

the host asks how the both of you met/got together and he talks about meeting you backstage, becoming friends since the both of you were close in age, and falling in love

“i realized i wanted to be more than friends when we were facetiming one night. i was in japan, and they were in busan. we both stayed up way too late to talk, even though we both had schedules the next morning. when they finally went to sleep, i laid there in the dark and thought about how good my life was. i’m doing what i love and i get to share my performances with people who support me, but all i could think about was how much i missed them and how i wanted to be there with them more than anything else at that moment. now we’re together, yes, but they’re also my best friend, my biggest supporter, and the one i can trust my entire self with. i’m grateful that they’re in my life and i hope we can grow together and be happy for a long time.”

#vixx #headcanons #vixx headcanons #vixx imagines #vixx reactions #vixx scenarios #vixx hyuk #hyuk #han sanghyuk

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lord-rosenth0rne · 4 years

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Pokemon Sword Review

Sorry, this took a little bit but there were some announcements that kind of changed my opinions toward the game in general and kind of opened my eyes to a couple of things. I’ll put everything under the cut so no spoilers for those who haven’t played it yet.

All in all, I adored the game despite the issues with it. The characters are great and well written. I did have an issue with the story, mainly Rose’s story for the fact it seemed a little out of place for him to do such a thing. However, once I thought more about it, I realized that I do know people who would make mountains out of molehills so it’s not all that Farfetch'd.

I do love watching Youtubers who play through just fall all over Sonia the moment she shows up. It’s absolutely adorable. Nessa and Bea weren’t far behind for them. My favorites were Kabu and Piers, Fire and Dark. I did like Raihan and Leon and still think Leon looks like a toddler who dressed himself for the first day of school. HOWEVER, in the battle tower, just- I want that outfit...

I did have a bit of an issue with Hop stopping me every time I took two steps and him commenting the same thing each time in battle (like the type advantage thing. Dude, I know. You’ve been saying that since the first battle. I KNOW about type advantages.) Past that, I find Hop charming and wanted to shove Bede into a locker for what he said to the boy halfway through the game. Speaking of Bede, I did like his development during the game. I just wish all that didn’t get washed away in the endgame when he insisted on you battling him when you had more pressing matters to deal with. Bede was a pretty effective rival, one that gave me Silver vibes if Silver was adamant about being crammed up Giovanni’s butt (his father, for those who don’t know) like Bede was with Rose. Hey, at least Bede got his for making Hop feel bad. Marnie is now my baby and anyone who tries to hurt her will answer to me and Sword Doggo (who I named Skol. I will name the other one Hati when I get it.).

The handholding wasn’t all that bad in this game, not like how it was in Sun and Moon, but it could have been better. I felt like when you answered that you knew how something worked, they went ahead and told you anyway. It’s like your answer didn’t matter at all. I really wish they would bring back how Pokemon games used to be. There was the introduction and all, but once that was over, you were let loose and had to explore a bit. Sure, all Pokemon games are linear but when you’re being treated like an infant out of the gate and it’s constantly being beaten into your head that you’re ‘just a kid’, it loses its momentum for me. It takes me out of the story.

The story itself felt a bit touch and go in a couple of places as well. Like, we’d go a little without hearing anything before getting a slap in the face with a lot of information about the lore which seems will expand in the DLC. Won’t surprise me if a lot of things get either explained better or explored when they release.

Speaking of the endgame, I wasn’t a fan. Don’t get me wrong, I ADORED seeing more of Piers and his personality and fighting alongside Kabu (they’re my faves from this region so far, though Kabu gets points from being from my all-time fav region), but the twins annoyed the living shit out of me. They reminded me of the twins from Super Jail if one got his head stuck in a vacuum cleaner and the other stood too long in front of an industrial-sized fan. They were excruciatingly annoying and really didn’t get what they deserved for nearly destroying the region. I hope that will change in the DLC or SOMETHING will be mentioned about it.

Okay. The DLC is something I wanted to talk about too. Before I had gotten my hands on the game and found out Absol wasn’t in either, I had a hunch that this generation was going to be treated differently than past generations, mainly for the fact that they cut down the Poke dex to 400. In hindsight, it was kind of obvious. The Switch is a new frontier for many games and it seems much more powerful than previous handhelds. Because the Switch is going to be sticking around much longer than the DS line, some developers are going to try to stretch the longevity of their games with DLCs. It might be extra money, but I see it as being better than buying a different rendition, such as how Sun and Moon had Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon that didn’t offer much more content for the money shelled out for it. Game Freak has had things planned out for years now and, though they’ve been under fire for a couple of things recently, I feel they know what they want and what they are doing.

Of course, The Isle of Armor and The Crown Tundra have already been announced for June and November (like I said, game longevity) but I have seen rumors floating about for two more DLCs that, if not abandoned, should be announced later on and would possibly be released around the same times next year, after the remakes of Diamond and Pearl. And I am getting ALL OF IT. I’ll probably even reach out to anyone who didn’t want to get the expansions and send them the reintroduced pokemon or send them out in surprise trades. I know a lot of people don’t like this new system but I’m excited about it. I haven’t been excited about new games/DLCs in ages, actually. Not since the Hoenn remakes.

As for graphics, I don’t have much of an opinion. As long as it doesn’t affect my gameplay, I’m usually not bothered by it. With that said, this doesn’t make any complaints about the graphics by anyone else any less valid.

One thing that has me pissed off is the Y-Comm. There is so much that should be done to it. The fact I can’t hide Link Code Trades or filter them out has me irritated to the point I have to take a step back and remind myself that the individual using LC is not the one at fault here. It’s Game Freak. I even use the LCs for trades with my friends but they take forever to load and connect. I have a very hard time connecting to Raid Battles when they aren’t linked and run into so many errors that I want to scream. I have to disconnect and reconnect constantly just to get it to show new Raid Battles and hope by the time I get to them, they’re still valid. Those RB cards don’t disappear soon enough.

I really wish they would bring back the system they had for X and Y. I was in love with it and felt it was very well planned out with all considered. The Y-Comm is just one massive disappointment.

I think that’s it. I’m replaying it under a different user on my Red Rose (decaled) Switch Lite so I might notice more this time around. I already got a Shiny Wooloo within 30 minutes of starting my new journey so here’s hoping it’s a good one! I’m going to try to get to sleep but if you wanna talk about it, just either send me a message on here or DM me. I’d love to know what you guys thought of it.

#Pokemon Sword #Review #Opinions #Long Post #Under Cut #Game Freak

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geek-gem · 7 years

Text

9:28 am so waited a bit but was looking on my dashboard. Even missed the submit button a bit whatever some Infinite gif I almost reblogged.

Again I had got out of the shower and I was thinking about this.

Honestly me enraged about the custom character the concept of it in Sonic Forces. Basically Buddy The Wolf that's been seen in official trailers also lots of people draw him.

Including I tried my best didn't get the green mic actually and finished the game without that. Yet I tried my best to make the character look like that. Because I had such a distaste for the idea of it. Including I didn't wanna be original and despite random shit in my head still being negative about the custom character.

Honestly and I might spoil stuff of Sonic Generations maybe. Really the role Buddy is put into is basically what I've wanted for an idea in a Sonic game.

Including the idea of someone new trying to stand up for what's right and Sonic being the big reason why anyone would keep going. Because of how his attitude and his outlook on life inspires people.

So those are possibly spoilers yet was gonna talk about this. Almost start it twice this paragraph and a new one what I wanted to type.

Honestly I always had this idea. Mainly instead of a custom character that's an animal like the others. It's basically a human a young adult mainly. Where the role is basically similar or kind of or is in Buddy's role.

I've been thinking that human part because it's possible that Sonic movie might have a main human character but I like it to be secondary to Sonic. Including the idea of this human being a badass able to use weapons and destroy Eggman's robots. Including I keep thinking examples of humans to be inspired from right now like Chris Redfield and Leon S Kennedy from the Resident Evil series. Also others yet those two have been on my mind because I like Resident Evil and it's been on my mind too.

Also it's because some humans have a track record of not being liked by a lot of fans. But I mainly speaking about Chris Thorndyke and Princess Elise while I honestly don't hate them. Including this year I learned they aren't that bad honestly like them a bit. But they aren't my favorites.

I thought the idea of a human who can take care of themselves and fight alongside Sonic would help people stop thinking humans suck in Sonic except Eggman or whatever.

Yet I have thought of the idea back firing because I can imagine people's reactions. I've been thinking of this for a long time and forgot if I wanted to talk about it.

Basically I can see people giving their honest thoughts and figure out why making a human character a badass doesn't work to appeal to people.

Talking about having a human character being given a gun and kick ass with Sonic doesn't automatically make them a better character. Making them a soldier or someone who can fight isn't gonna make them better then the likes of Princess Elise or Chris Thorndyke no hatred towards them. The character could ether suck or even be worse then them. I'm saying this if this actually happens. About a character could be worse if you of your own opinion didn't like previous characters.

What matters is the writing behind the characters. Their personality, their story, and what they mean towards to the main story too.

Honestly at times I keep thinking like a first person shooter or third person shooter gameplay. Maybe similar to the likes of Titanfall, Killzone, the Left 4 Dead series or the likes of the Resident Evil franchise mainly 4, 5, and 6, Dead Space or others. Basically been thinking Titanfall and Resident Evil. Or even Doom or yes Halo for that matter. Yes I mentioned Doom because been playing the original like yesterday and need to play the reboot again which is awesome since the game is now fully installed.

Yet with how Sega and Sonic Team are going. Despite Shadow The Hedgehog was made his game. It would be difficult probably to make gameplay like that. Because they don't seem to be at a stage now where they will do that.

Including in a weird way to be honest thinking of it I'll say it. The idea of it seems almost like self insert some what yet at times I didn't think that mainly just to fill the human thing. But I have put certain things like an Autistic character because I'm Autistic too for the character.

Just trying to remember anything. But also yeah I wanted to talk about this. Even thinking of the song Fist Bump while not my favorite. Yet when in the shower I kept hearing it in my head.

Honestly the way the song is written. It's kind of meaningful since listening to it, the song seems to be about Sonic and the custom character Buddy including how this song has a upbeat style to it. Basically in a way being inspiring unlike compared to Infinite's theme which I adore despite what the Shadow DLC showed and the main game too. Being a lot more serious and maybe less inspiring.

Honestly wanna mention this silly thing so a self insert played by KJ Apa at times one of the choices. Basically wanna make a post and jokes about Archie Andrews fights with Sonic the hedgehog, joins the Helghast from Killzone, fights the Chimera from Resistance, be casted as Jeremy Fitzgerald from FNAF and ward off animatronics, and be cast as Leon S Kennedy his younger self from Resident Evil 2 for that Resident Evil movie reboot universe if they stick to the games more. Yes that's a fan cast of mine.

Yes I watch and like Riverdale also it's this joke with I keep thinking Jughead going ARCHIE WHAT THE FUCK HAVE YOU BEEN DOING BEHIND OUR BACKS

Honestly I like the actor and thought of him other things didn't say all of them.

So now with Sonic Forces out and my opinions being mixed. Including honestly I have thought of this when I was in the shower and afterwards. Basically the custom character is something I......seemed to like the best or just.....maybe more.

My friend fatpinkraccoon not gonna use the mention thing told me last night and replied to a message from him I didn't message because went to bed early by mistake. He told me Somecallmejohnny made a review and I thought seriously that was quick. Yet the game is honestly short. Including him talking about how the franchise needs new people behind it.

Yet I forgot if it was him respelt quick and put back the period in last paragraph. But sorry ticks yet I forgot if it was him I'm not risking getting out of this. But he might of said the custom character was the better parts of the game. Even with my mindset being negative.

But after being disappointed with other parts of the game. While gameplay is fun and enjoyable, the soundtrack is great and I've talked about more about this. It's the story I have a problem with. Including remembered that he told me not to have false hopes basically after I told him I'm not gonna hyped for a Sonic game after this.

Including him saying that even if Sonic Mania had fantastic reviews doesn't mean Sonic Forces would get any and he said he knew.

Also I wanna say this is basically my character development now. Me realizing the custom character is basically a form of something I wanted but not as a custom character. Yet the role of Buddy goes through things I like basically the concept of it said nice in head. While a lot of other things said everything in head but no not everything and random negative thoughts.

Basically the custom character seems to be the golden child of some sorts being in the mess of things. With some good stuff and bad stuff or just mixed stuff.

Even in my head I had thought of I never want the custom character again. Or the fact it might return honestly no it didn't suck.........

Was thinking I'm going to say that after my head said it sucked.

Really I am a hypocrite. While I have played other games where characters can be customized. Honestly theirs more whether story or not. Fine such as some Lego games, the Soul Calibur series I've seen people mentioned in a post about w certian c word I hate.

Yet the one game where I remember the custom character always goes to my head. Is basically the customization from Halo Reach where you play as Noble Six. Yet instead of a canon look or one that's seen in the trailers you get to customize the Spartan. Even also almost left work instead of look when talking about canon looks.

Basically you get to customize Noble Six. Even just looked forward for some reason. Basically the ending I don't wanna spoil it is a sad one almost left the word dad.

Okay in a way Halo Reach with that is something similar to Sonic Forces. Where your character is in cutscenes, in gameplay, and even people making versions of Red Vs Blue characters. The last season I've seen was season pressed some Google icon yet season 11 the series is funny but haven't seen it since despite it still going on.

It's amazing how my younger self seemed to not mind and liked customizing a Spartan yet Sonic it's the worst thing ever. Basically I had a hate on for the character being disgusted by it and just....I feel it be weird to compare it to a racist but okay back shook a bit.

Yet honestly the gameplay was enjoyable. But mainly played with the burst weapon just the drill isn't my favorite see just....I'm rambling.

The idea of the custom character returning oh negative thoughts. I just don't know may be nice just......

Sorry basically after wards nice or....I said that in my head.

Basically the custom character Buddy had a role I thought would like in any Sonic media and I hated it because I had false hopes like my friend said. Now that's what I remembered.

Think I should be done basically despite my head at times. I'm just so used to hating on the custom character it stuck with me maybe HOPEFULLY over time I be less hateful on it.

I kept retyping l and y for hopefully. Yet I'm so used to hating on the character and I want to like it more as time goes on. Maybe playing the game more. Yet the thought of making my own character no.

Yet I did with Buddy and....since thought in my head of changing it I've been thinking. Yeah I'm honestly attached to the Buddy The Wolf look we've been given that I don't want to change the character I hated the thought of changing it that one thought I don't want to lose Buddy.

Now okay theirs character development of me. Along with I should mention while I complained and critized of Buddy not talking and just.....I'm a fan of Doomguy and he's probably or one the original imagine yourself as the character those kinds of characters. Including how his actions speak louder then words. Also even other some what silent protagonists. Including I was talking about the main character from Doom.

Got tags done just don't take took off Sonic Forces spoilers and put it at the end almost took off the one before that. These mentions are getting stupid.

Seriously the game has been an emotional rollercoaster and my supposedly character development warming up to the custom character is coming into more of a reality even with my mindset 10:28 am just sorry have issues

#sonic the hedgehog #sonic forces custom character #sonic forces #sonic forces spoilers

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fossadeileonixv · 5 years

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Milan x Sassuolo: 4 Flick-Ons

These takes are so hot they will kill any and all bacteria on your keyboard or mobile device.

Hello friends, enemies, and casual visitors of the site. I ended up getting a little too caught up the other night pretending to watch the bone-crunching action between the Chicago Bears and Green Packers of the good ol' NF of L and got home a bit too late to do ratings. My gaffe! What can I say? It's so easy getting caught up in the 7 or so minutes of actual gameplay spread out over three-plus hours of America's favorite sport. But since I have the morning off I figured we'd jump straight into '4 Flick-Ons' which I haven't done in a grip.

Ready?

Essketit, or whatever the hell Lil Pump says.

Flick 1: Results Like This Aren't on Pioli. So in the heat of the game I, like many of you, comment on impulse, nitpicking and magnifying the minutiae of the match at hand. Most of our comments, even despite being unfiltered, are generally fair and sometimes even accurate observations of what we're seeing in real time. However, sometimes they're not. I may or may not have grumbled about Pioli during the match thread but with the match two days behind me, I'm having trouble placing blame ‘pon his shiny head. He stuck with the lineup that yielded two straight wins, his first two subs were very good switches (the Samu sub, in all honesty, was a kind of 'Well this is what I have' move), and we had spells of truly brilliant build-up play that we haven't seen in years from a Milan side. We took 19 shots, 7 on target (9 if you want to count Leao's rockets off the woodwork), a number of those on target from inside the 18, as well as 8 corners. I just can't in good conscience gripe about a coach who has his squad creating those kind of numbers. It's easy to play fantasy manager with the lineups, but we have a fraction of the experience or insight as a professional coach in the world's third best league and aside from Kessie, and maybe Cal and Bona swapping roles, there isn't an obvious upgrade to anyone on that XI. Which kinda leads me to point two…

Flick 2: The Calhanoglu hate is a bit unwarranted. This is the ‘hot take’ flick. Let me make this clear: this only pertains to this stretch with Pioli, and also doesn't extend beyond the pitch. He's still a slacker that smoke KB's with his boys, has posters or 'Babes in Bikinis' all over his room, smashes za, and talking shit to kids on his Call of Duty headset. And yes, despite all this you are all invited to our 'Big Fat Turkish Military Wedding' because we're in love and his ears are so cute. But for real, for real, as someone who along with Russu, burned effigies of this guy outside this past Summer's ICC tournament, I am having difficulty seeing where folk's beef with him is. Yes, he's slow. Yes, he often his one or two slips, shots that take out a cell-phone tower, or corners cleared before reaching the near post per game and these are all frustrating. But beside that, he's done really, really well in two areas in particular. One is build-up. Watch any sequence of build-up from this attack and Hakan usually has multiple touches, often from various areas on the pitch. The second is his positioning. He has a knack for being where he needs to be without sacrificing potential counterattacking space, and though this isn't a sexy element of someone's skills, just look over at the other wing to see the effect of that not being done. A lot of us clamor for Leao in his role, but a Theo/Jack/Leao flank would leave both sidelines of the pitch vulnerable. You absolutely need the balance Cal provides defensively.

I don't like Cal. I would really have loved a replacement this past summer. But right now, I do understand and appreciate why he is holding down a starting spot. Someone else, however...

Flick 3: Kessie needs some time off. I have been Franck The Tanck's biggest fan here the past two years, so trust me Danny, this hurts, but man is awful. I can't recall a single Kessie performance this year where I even thought "Well that's passable". While the two things that made him so valuable over the years in his strength and positioning are fine, what good is it if you can't trap a pass or are constantly giving away possession? We always joke about counters going to die with Suso/Pia, or Cal, but so far Kessie has Ben where possession goes to die. The technical aspects of his play have been astonishingly atrocious and his inability to link-up with anyone in that right channel has him as a net negative right now. Krunic has his flaws, but I fully expect this week at Atalanta to be Kessie's last chance for a while to earn his spot. It kills me to say, but I really don't see how this kid stays on much longer here with these types of performances.

Flick 4: We need a seasoned veteran. This isn't a newsflash, nor is it directly contrived from this game, but during the dying embers of the match I remember thinking "Amari has another basketball game next weekend that you said you would go to, but it is all the way down in Braintree. Why did you commit to that?" Then I thought "It'd sure be nice to have someone on the pitch that positively gets in his teammates faces". The closest we have to that, really, is Don and he's still fourteen years old. It's both easy to overestimate (see Biglia) as well as underestimate (see a player such as Alex) what someone with significant mileage to add to a squad like this, but as a young team that has shown an improvement in form under a new coach that is still having trouble achieving results, someone who knows how to thread that final ball or find the back of the net, a field general so to speak --even one past his prime-- could be that missing cog that Pioli needs at his disposal. I think even more than the on-field appeal that someone Ibra would bring, is that no-nonsense veteran presence that could motivate asses both on the pitch and in the locker-room. This has been missing for years and while as I said above, it is one of those areas that is easy to miscalcuclate, with this team as close as we are to being… well, good… it might be that extra brick we need to tip the scale.

That's that! I'll try to have something up tomorrow. If not, remember, bright and early for our stateside, Central and South American, and (groans) Canadian Leoni (06:30 EST), on Sunday against Atalanta.

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kalique · 6 years

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MINE THOUGHTS ON BIG BROTHER

FAYSAL - definitely a jock type, can’t see him getting evicted first unless he pisses everyone off. he’s got a face that’s either “i’m the nicest guy in the house” or “i’m the new josh,” there is NO in between. his strategy for not letting anyone see he’s a physical powerhouse is going to kind of backfire because he’s SUCH a huge jock that i could tell he was a fucking jock from just his headshot, no freaking way anyone is going to think this guy isn’t a physical threat.

SAM - nice “i want to see your manager” haircut, madam. she describes herself as “multifaceted, charming and charismatic,” and i can already tell i am going to hate this woman. and whomst in the fuck says their favorite big brother houseguest is DANIELE????? (i was trying to think of a worse choice, and i can only come up with like, either cody from last season, or the hantz cousin who got kicked off for trying to kill a guy, or maybe lawon from season 13 who volunteered to get evicted because he thought they’d bring him back with special powers, which did NOT happen.) and then this woman goes on to describe herself with all the positive adjectives she can pull from her thesaurus. she calls herself “extremely perceptive and intuitive,” and says she’ll “influence the other houseguests by means of gentle persuasion and manipulation. Another terrible talent of mine.” I HATE SAM ALREADY. she’s going to get kicked out on day 1 with this attitude. be humble sit down.

TYLER - haven’t we already had like, 50 curly blonde headed surfer guys on this show? what is the deal? anyway one of his descriptive words is “questionable.” he calls himself “questionable.” okay. he says victor, dan and zach (literally “fruit loop dingus” zach) are his favorite houseguests and i love you already, tyler. great choices. his strategy is playing both sides of the house, which isn’t even a strategy since literally everyone does it. his life motto is “do whatever the hell you want” and for something he’d like to bring into the house, he lists “quinoa.” I LOVE HIM ALREADY. I SUPPORT HIM. “QUINOA.” WHAT A LEGEND

BAYLEIGH - okay that is.... the most millennial name i ever heard. but like, it’s not a name that a millennial should have, it’s a name that a millennial would give their child. anyway. one of her descriptive words is “engulfing.” what does that mean, i guess we’ll find out. i like her face. sometimes you just like people’s faces. her favorite houseguest ever is donny, which i think is a clue that i was right that she’s a kind person. she has a kind face AND loves donny, she’s got to be nice (but maybe not too concerned with gameplay, since donny, bless his heart, was the biggest floater ever). her strategy is basically just a long-winded “be myself” kind of thing. i respect that. AND SHE LITERALLY SAYS “BE HUMBLE SIT DOWN” IN HER LIFE MOTTO, DO YOU FUCKING HEAR THAT SAM? i hope bayleigh roasts sam in cold blood and brings her down to earth!!!! okay, further evidence that she’s the nicest houseguest: she wants to bring her bible and yoga mat into the house. i love her. but still, i hope she turns mean and roasts sam. because i hate sam.

JC - here we have our token gay, but he’s clearly also a token bro at the same time. his favorite houseguest of all time is josh....... okay moving on. his strategy is “I am going to be the sweetest small guy that everyone would want to hug and kiss.” best strategy i ever heard in my life. seriously. this is how people win. except for josh, who won by being so insane that no one considered him a threat. which is why NO ONE SHOULD WANT TO EMULATE HIM, THIS STRATEGY ALMOST NEVER WORKS. anyway. enough about josh. returning to jc. not much to talk about with him, just that i definitely think he’s going to get far in the game because he doesn’t talk shit, he isn’t arrogant, he doesn’t look like a huge physical threat (although he’s a dancer so he might be), and his strategy is to be really nice to everyone, which is actually a great freaking strategy. i think he will go far.

HALEIGH - oh my god, first we had a “bayleigh” and now we have a “haleigh.” my god, these freaking millennials and their leigh names. facially, the moment i saw her i was like “she looks just like aaryn” which is..... hopefully not indicative of her personality or beliefs.... anyway, she loves her family, and her favorite houseguest is derrick because “he played an honest game,” yet in the very next paragraph she talks about wanting to deceive her fellow houseguests, so what is the truth? don’t know about her, don’t really have much to say. just that, she talks about being adopted and i hope to god she’s not aaryn’s separated at birth secret twin sister or anything. because that’s the kind of stunt big brother would pull on us commoners.

STEVE - okay now we have our token old man, who will either get evicted immediately or float to the middle and then get betrayed. his favorite contestant is mike boogie. interesting choice. he literally doesn’t even have a strategy and his life motto is “rock on,” and i love him already. and of COURSE he was a cop, because is there a single token old man other than donny who isn’t a cop? wasn’t kevin a cop? i feel like kevin was a cop. or was that someone else? damn i don’t even remember. this guy looks like the kind of houseguest who will float around and not stir up any trouble, and frankly they’re my favorite to root for.

KAYCEE - her strategy is honesty and loyalty, she’ll probably get betrayed on day one. not to be cynical but really. she says that big brother is the only tv show she watches... damn. that could be a great asset for her; with no other shows competing for her memory, her knowledge of the game could be stronger than others who watch a lot of TV. and if she ONLY makes time for big brother and no other show, she’s probably the superest of superfans. she may be one to watch, or she may not. we will see.

WINSTON - damn this guy looks like a winston. he comments that he’s been living alone for 2 years, as though this will help him adjust to the isolation of the big brother house, but... it’s kind of the opposite? after living alone for 2 years, you’re going to be shoved in a house with over a dozen strangers and forced to interact with them all day every day while cameras watch you. i think this guy is going to have a bigger culture shock than he expects. his favorite houseguest is paul. i can see why people would love paul, he seems like the smartest guy in the room, but the reality is, paul isn’t that smart, he’s just been stuck in two consecutive seasons with a cast full of IDIOTS. winston apparently writes love letters to his dog everyday......... that’s dedication. also, he says that he’s been mistaken for two celebrities: ryan reynolds (i can see it) and justin timberlake (nope he’s tripping). somehow i get the feeling that he’s not going to adjust well to the house, and may end up being one of those guys that begs everyone to evict him because he can’t stand it.

RACHEL - first of all, her favorite houseguest is britney, which is the most valid possible answer. she sort of looks like natalie from idk how many season ago that dated james. strategy: to downplay being a physical threat and remain loyal to her original allies. dude, you gotta go with the flow, sometimes you just can’t stay loyal. i actually don’t even have that much to say. just, she looks okay. fine.

SCOTTIE - forgive me if i’m wrong but is this the token nerd, a la ian and steve? he says his least favorite part of the big brother house will be getting shook when he walks in a room and everyone stops talking because they were plotting something, and... that’s 100% something a superfan would say. his favorite player is evel dick, which would be valid if evel dick wasn’t literally an evil human being. he describes himself as a hungry shark and says that his strategy is to pick off the floaters and JESUS this guy is aggressive. also he is a virgin who has never been kissed and freely admits to this fact. somebody get this man a showmance.

ANGIE “ROCKSTAR” - this season’s token eccentric with dyed hair, huge-ass harry potter glasses, and crazy eyes. one of her favorite activities is “dancing under the moonlight around a fire to fierce drum beats.” her favorite houseguests are joey (blue haired girl that got eliminated first like 3 seasons ago) and frankie. she wants to bring a statue of ganesh into the house. she mentions giving natural birth to all her children. i am just stating all this information. i am not going to give comment. just.... telling it like it is.

CHRIS “SWAGGY C” - please god, let this guy not be serious about his nickname, because i am not making reference to “swaggy c” for the rest of the summer. he LOVES paul and says that paul is better than every single other winner except a few, and..... i mean he’s not even wrong, but that’s more a statement about the quality of big brother rather than the quality of paul’s gameplay. when asked if he has a strategy, he says “of course” but doesn’t reveal it.... sneaky sneaky, i like the cut of his jib! he mentions wanting to bring a notebook into the house, but says he doesn’t even need it because he has a photographic memory. we’ll see about that, buster. he seems really confident and ready to play, and idk if that will work in his favor or not.

ANGELA - if katharine mcphee and sarah michelle gellar had a baby. she’s like, the 10th consecutive houseguest to say that the hardest thing about the house will be lack of social media. she seems to hate men, her favorite houseguest is rachel, she calls herself the networking queen, and she’s extremely athletic. this lady is either going to get eliminated immediately or make it to the end. i am calling it. i have a good feeling.

BRETT - has the weirdest descriptive words of any of them: “Vehement, riveting, and trophy.” wtf. like many other hgs, he plans to lie about his career for no discernible reason. whatever. he wants to bring a toothbrush into the house because he “doesn’t want the ladies to think he has stank breath.” you and every other competitor, bud. he also mentions hacking into other people’s computers for fun. okay edgelord. i don’t like this guy, i just have a bad vibe. i feel like he’s going to be one of the first eliminated cause no one will like him.

KAITLYN - suuuuuuper spiritual. crystals. mediums. seances. the whole shebang. production is probably gonna ask her to ramp it up to make herself look even more of a stereotype so everyone can laugh. i feel like she’s not gonna make it far and i already feel sorry for her.

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ryanmeft · 7 years

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Every Classic Mega Man Weapon Ranked, Part 4

And here it is. Mega Man 11 has just been announced, like most of us probably hoped, and it marries the past and the future, with classic gameplay and modern visuals. We've already seen one of the new weapons, which appears to drop an avalanche on enemy's heads, so it seems Capcom isn't messing around when it comes to creating cool weapons. Let's finish up our countdown with the top 18, and therefore, of course, the top 10 Mega Man weapons of all time. All previous parts of the list can be found here: http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168077242247/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-1 http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168128282172/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-2 http://ryanmeft.tumblr.com/post/168173192902/every-classic-mega-man-weapon-ranked-part-3

18. Drill Bomb (MM4) In almost any other game on the planet, once you got a flying drill that explodes you would never use anything else. You would use that shit on goombas. In Mega Man, it's just pretty cool. Really, that should tell you something about how crazy Mega Man gets. 17. Homing Sniper (MM8) The best homing weapon, because you could charge up and unleash lots of them at once, making Mega Man basically a ballistic weapons system.

16. Rain Flush (MM4) Somewhere in Mega Man's time, there's a very concerned scholar submitting a report on the dangers of giving a robot boy a weapon that can create an instant acid rainstorm. And he's not wrong. Putting aside the potential for catastrophic, widespread environmental destruction, changing the weather in order to clear out some sentry robots is less "a weapon" and more "an act of God".

15. Tornado Blow (MM9) Functionally, these weapons are all basically the same thing: expensive, screen-filling attacks that wipe out all small enemies. They're like, well, remember in old games where you'd very rarely get a pick up that just cleared the whole screen? That, but reusable. The fact that this one was finally a wind weapon with some power to it earns a lot of bonus points.

14. Commando Bomb (MM10) Like all guided weapons, it was a little hard to aim where you wanted, but man, it's still a missile you can steer. The targeting being a little finicky seems like nitpicking.

13. Tornado Hold (MM8) For being easily the least impressive of the classic series, Mega Man 8 has some seriously bad ass weapons. This one is a trap that generates a tornado. It's fun, if you're a psychopath, to drop it under an enemy and imagine they are thinking "That didn't do muuuuuu holy shit it is a tornado right up my ying yang!"

12. Water Shield (MM10) Dr. Wily finally perfected his shield technology in Mega Man 7, and henceforth they were some of the best weapons you could get. Like leaves, flowers and skulls, I'm still a little iffy on how droplets of water could stop bullets and robots, but we've long since accepted that the rules of physics are a bit different in Mega Man's universe.

11. Junk Shield (MM7) I really do think Capcom enjoys making shields out of the least appropriate materials they can think of. Junk, depending on the specific type of junk, could actually be effective, though. I mean...if your other choice is water. Anyway, this is where Capcom finally got shields right. It didn't disappear if farted on, it didn't fly away if you moved, and you could hurl it off at will. Sure, it still wasn't any good against shields, but since it's name sounds like something to protect your privates and I find that humorous, we'll let it go.

10. Gravity Hold (MM5) Yes, Dr. Wily handed Mega Man the power to reverse gravity. Watching all those annoying enemies suddenly lose their grip on the laws of physics and be sucked into the sky was extremely satisfying, even if the implications of thousands of killer robots who don't, by the way, need to breathe floating around in earth's atmosphere is completely terrifying. Concerns about the end of the world aside, the only thing that would be cooler is if you could literally summon a meteor shower.

9. Gyro Attack This one may be a surprise to see up here. It isn't well-remembered and it isn't very exciting, and it's stuck way over in Mega Man 5 which, if you agree with my list, mostly didn't have the best weapons in the series. It's here simply because it is useful. Flying enemies be all like "That's gonna pass right under me", and you be all like "Nope, gotcha sucker!"

8. Rolling Cutter Sometimes, when the razzle dazzle dies down, you need something trusty and reliable. That's the Rolling Cutter, a weapon which doesn't ask for glory, fame or riches, and just does its job, cutting down mad robots and returning faithfully to your hand. This was a godsend in the original Mega Man, where the lack of passwords and e-tanks made taking out enemies in front of and above you much more important than in later games.

7. Flash Bomb Mega Man 8 isn't exactly wonderful, but it continues to rank highly on the list of impressive weapons. Maybe Capcom knew what they'd made and wanted to atone? Either way, when you throw a Flash Bomb and it hits something---anything, an enemy, a wall, a stray atom---the explosions stays there, going off like the fourth of July. It's basically a really deadly firework. Not that fireworks aren't already deadly enough. Remember, kids, always practice firework safety.

6. Astro Crush You can literally summon a meteor shower. I don't really understand how this doesn't instantly end life on earth, but hey, you can literally summon a meteor shower. I also considered placing this lower because of the low weapon energy levels, but, hey, YOU CAN LITERALLY SUMMON A FREAKING METEOR SHOWER. It just occurred to me: DID Mega Man end human life when he did this? Is it a world of robots now? I probably need more sleep.

5. Fire Storm That's right: despite all the twists and innovations and the fact that Capcom clearly meant ice to get the damn shaft compared to fire, the original fire weapon is still the best. Not only did it destroy most enemies in one hit, it was fast on the draw, had lots of weapon energy (twice as much as the far less useful Hyper Bomb, oddly) and generated a second's worth of fireballs around Mega Man, making it technically the series' first shield weapon. There's not much reason to switch back to the puny arm cannon as long as you collect enough energy.

4. Jewel Satellite The shield perfected. And this time, the substance comprising it actually makes sense, at least if they're diamonds. It can take almost anything and keep operating, allowing you to simply breeze through sections full of small enemies with barely a thought. Sure, you can only throw it one direction. But if you actually need to get rid of it, you're probably in such a tight spot that you're screwed, anyway.

3. Thunder Beam The power of lightning, in the palm of your hand. Other than just looking really cool, this beam was ridiculously powerful, shot in three directions at once, and could even get through some shields. It was one of the indications Mega Man was different from other jump-and-shoot games, whose weapons were mostly variant ways to shoot ordinary bullets. And of course, no old school Mega Fan can forget that classic pause trick, which was just unfair. The original Mega Man is overall kind of uneven in actual weapons, with three near the bottom of this list and three in the top 10. Hyper Bomb, Ice Slasher and Super Arm may have mostly remained in the pause screen, but Thunder Beam, Fire Storm and Rolling Cutter gave you more than enough of an arsenal to work with.

2. Black Hole Bomb You can actually fire a portable black hole. But wait, there's more! You can even control the direction it goes after it is fired! Call now, and you'll receive a special bonus offer: the ability to trigger it on command, like a grenade that can rip reality! Now available in black-and-purple, it sticks around a long time, sucking up almost any enemy it happens to encounter! Operators are standing by! Mega Man 9 did good on the weapons, but making this the likely first one you get was just insane. If you're like me (AKA a psychopath) you probably never got tired of firing it and laughing maniacally as enemies marched into it, to their doom. It's inarguably the coolest weapon you've ever gotten in Mega Man history, so why is it #2? Well, sometimes usefulness trumps coolness. Presenting the best weapon in the classic Mega Man series...

1. Metal Blade After all this talk about weapons, about things of destruction, perhaps we should ask ourselves a question: are the weapons a robot carries really the measure of that robot's heroism? Are heroes determined by whether they have a rapid firing saw blade that can be shot in any direction, almost never runs out of ammo, destroys almost anything and even makes a really cool "BZZZZZZ" sound? Or are they defined by their heart, by their nerve, by their sheer desire for justice? The answer is: they're defined by whether they have a rapid firing saw blade that can be shot in any direction, almost never runs out of ammo, destroys almost anything and even makes a really cool "BZZZZZZ" sound. Was this even a debate? After all the flash and all the dazzle, it's functionality that matters, and the trusty Metal Blade remains the weapon we wish we'd had back since Mega Man 2. The sheer utility makes it the only thing that could top having your own black hole. It slices, it dices, it makes short work of so many bosses that one would almost think Wily wants to lose, as though he's living some kind of weird roleplaying fetish. You can mull that around in your brain a while, but regardless, Metal Blade is on top, and probably always will be.

#Mega Man #capcom #nintendo #nes #video games

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