#can't believe I missed this on my first few playthroughs

[mrsducky]

HOUSE OF ASHES (2021) Chapter 15, “Enemy of My Enemy”

[blackjackkent]

Since Nocturne says she'll bail after one day, I guess we might as well exhaust all her dialogue now before moving on. Quick look around the room first - this seems to have been a dormitory for some of the adepts.

Nocturne's journal is next to one of the beds.

Aw. This is pretty upsetting to read about but does confirm a lot of what we'd already heard and/or suspected about Shadowheart's experiences here. The mission to get the prism was not the first time Shadowheart's memories had been erased; it happened repeatedly, and Nocturne was with her every time to help her recover. It's nice to hear that she had some sort of friend in this terrible place at least.

I also love the character detailing here, especially when combined with what I know from Delmak's playthrough. Over on that PT (where Delmak is romancing her), I had him pick up the noblestalk and give it to her, and she has a memory flashback from eating it - of having a friend named Rennald who was a young tiefling boy with purple hair and short horns, as Nocturne has. Nocturne is a trans woman, and it sounds like Shadowheart was a stalwart supporter of her, helping her shed her deadname and making sure no one bullied her. <3

Other things in the room include a log of interrogation/torture of a githyanki prisoner, which was how Viconia learned about the prism, and a bit of journaling from Viconia herself:

Again, this pretty much just echoes and deepens on what we already knew. One slightly interesting point, at least headcanonically - this mentions Suldanessalar, the ending location of Baldur's Gate 2, and implies that Viconia was there. In this particular worldstate, where Caden had nothing to do with her, this lends interesting implications about the possibility that she might have been there anyway for her own reasons.

It also implies from the way it's phrased that both the formation and self-destruction of her previous cloister at Waterdeep took place at the same general time as Baldur's Gate 2. This doesn't entirely make sense to me and I suspect isn't what the writers were actually intending to imply, but it could also be potentially interesting. XD

An unmarked bookshelf contains books about Shadowheart herself.

"These are all about *me*..." Shadowheart whispers, aghast. "Forty years of my life, documented like I was some sort of specimen..."

Even more interestingly, a key from Viconia's body opens a locked chest on a nearby table. In it are a few minor jewelry items and a key to a Counting House safety deposit box (which of course we'll go open later).

...Huh. I am not sure if there's a reference here that I'm missing, or if this is just continued reference to the possibility of Viconia having been at the battle of Suldanessalar, either with the BG2 Bhaalspawn or otherwise. Interesting.

Let's go have another chat with Nocturne. She'll only offer to trade with Hector, but if we talk to her as Shadowheart we get a controlled dialogue - one of the few times this has happened with the non-avatar character (the only other one I can recall is Wyll's argument with Mizora after the coronation).

"I can still scarcely believe it. You've returned, and the Mother Superior is gone... So much can change, so quickly..."

"There's much I still can't remember..." Shadowheart says. "Can you share anything with me? From when we were young?"

Nocturne smiles. "Well, you had a pet mouse for a while. It was against the rules, of course. You used to hide him under your robes and feed him from your rations."

Well, that's adorable af.

"Did he have a name?" Shadowheart asks.

"Nibbles," Nocturne says with a soft laugh. "I suggested Brie, but you were having none of it." A pause; the smile fades. "She caught you with him. Forced you to get rid of him... in front of everyone to make an example. You always loved animals, but you never let yourself get too close after that." Her gaze flicks away. "I'm sorry. Not the sort of thing you want to hear, I'm sure."

It isn't, really. Hector can see Shadowheart's head snap back a little as if she has taken a punch to the gut.

"I don't suppose there are any pleasant memories you could share?" she asks hollowly.

Nocturne considers. "Well... you know that little scar on your elbow?"

Shadowheart blinks, so startled that for a moment she forgets to be wary. "You know about that? It's barely the size of a pea."

Nocturne grins. "I was there when you picked that up. It was years ago, when we were initiates. Some of the others were intent on tormenting us... until you showed them the error of their ways. I think it was six against two, and most of them were bigger than us, to boot. But you saw them off, all of them. There were some bruised lips and black eyes in the mess hall that night. From then on, they left us alone. Or at least they bothered us less."

Behind Shadowheart, Jaheira makes a soft snorting noise; Hector glances sideways at her and sees that she's smiling. Karlach's grinning too; all of them are feeling a surge of pride at hearing this. Even in this dark, terrible place, that seed of good was in Shadowheart - the urge to defend a friend, to care for a helpless animal.

Selune's light was with you, always, Hector thinks. Even if you didn't know it. Even if you do not choose to follow her now. She is with you still...

"What about the scar?" Shadowheart asks curiously.

"A collision between your elbow and the teeth of a girl called Buddug," Nocturne says dryly. "She came away from it worse than you." She cocks her head. "She was on the same mission as you. I suppose she won't be coming back." A pause. "In any case, the Mother Superior soon broke up the fighting, though she didn't punish us. In fact, I saw her smiling. I think she was proud of you."

Hector's smile flickers. Not for the same reasons as we are, certainly, he thinks coolly. I suppose even a broken clock is right twice a day.

"Anything else?" Shadowheart asks.

Nocturne shrugs, rubs the back of her neck sheepishly. "Just small things, silly things. The sort you'd scarcely recall even if your memories were left intact. You had a little hiding place that you went to when you needed to get away. You brought me there sometimes. We'd talk, play, read, do each other's hair..."

It's a touching image, especially laid against the absolute misery that clearly seemed to imbue most of the days here. "A hiding place?" Shadowheart asks. "Where is it?"

"Hidden at the back of the storage area. Luckily enough, as quartermaster, I was able to keep it hidden back there," Nocturne answers. "It should be-- well, if not how you remember it, exactly as you left it."

Definitely something to check out... but there's another question lingering. Shadowheart's lips twitch in a flash of muted amusement. "From what you said before, you're the one responsible for my hair?"

"The plait and fringe?" The tiefling grins crookedly. "Yes. On your instructions, of course. You were very intent on a bold look, I think you said. My hands were cramped by the time I finished, but you were very pleased." She draws her head back to look Shadowheart up and down. "I like the new look as well, though. You always did like a dramatic touch."

Shadowheart hesitates. It's clear she wants to say more but isn't sure how it will be received - she once knew this woman so well and yet there is a blankness in the spaces where she should be. But the kindness shown even in this tiny scrap of conversation shows that Nocturne, like Shadowheart, belongs somewhere beyond these shadowy halls. [ENEMY OF SHAR] "Are you just going to remain here?" she finally asks quietly. "There's no need. Viconia is gone."

Nocturne hesitates, forty years of history with Shadowheart warring with an equal forty years of seclusion and fear. "Remains to be seen," she says carefully. "This place is all I've ever known. In time, perhaps I'll venture out there, see what I've been missing. But for now... old habits die hard."

[givemethepage]

Layers of Fear 2023 Initial Playthrough Impressions, Part 1.

[SUPER LONG POST AHEAD, LIKELY FULL OF SPOILY BITS] (All my posts in this blog probably will be.)

Obviously I love it and my obsession with this world has been reignited, burning twice as hot as it did the first time around. So far I've played through Painter's Story 3 times, Daughter's Story twice, and I'm about to start the Musician's Story. Meanwhile in story mode, the Writer is about to sit down and begin writing the Actor's Story after a harrowing return to the lighthouse during which she's made an attempt to reject her earlier pact with the Rat Queen. I know. I tend to do things in weird sequences. I just want to see everything there is to see before I finish.

I love love love the additions and changes to the first game and its DLC, insofar far as I can remember the details of the original. The completionist in me is sad I can't find the Dust Mice sketch or whatever is meant to be behind the pipe on the secretary near the front door, and there may perhaps could possibly might be another whisper object that goes on the upstairs table.

But THAT'S not important. What's important is the story and the creation of the story! This new ending seems like it's missing a cutscene, but I really like that before you walk out the door, you're still surrounded by messages of failure. The intrusive thoughts don't disappear just because you've opened a path to healing. I'm not sure if I liked seeing what was beyond the front door, or maybe I just wasn't pleased with what they chose to put there, especially given what I did after I turned the game off.

For the first time in however many playthroughs since the original game came out, I stopped to examine the origins of the house's design. I came across Steep Park House/Potter's Manor. So many urban explorers have documented and photographed this mansion. Must remind myself to make a full post about it! This place seems to be just one of the inspirations for the couple's house, but an important one, given not just how close the architecture of the house's common areas are mirrored (literally) by the Painter's mansion, but also how many of the basic narrative details of LoF are shared with the former owners of Steep Park House, i.e. the painter who abandoned his home after the death of his wife, leaving behind many portraits of her, himself, unknown subjects, still life, etc., along with countless notebooks, letters, publications, and other possessions that provide clues to the lives they led. Seriously that's all actual circumstance from the real life house. I really want to ask the designers about it since all I can find right now is Reddit speculation about whether it's even the right house. But even green tinge of the wife's diary pages and the font on some of the mail can be found in the photographs of Steep Park. It HAS to have been instrumental in dreaming up the very concept of Layers of Fear. At least I choose to believe it is.

Gonna save the full spread for a Steep Park/Potter's Manor post.

Back to the game, though, the growth of the Rat Queen's role for the 2023 version doesn't sully the universality of the game's allegory like I was worried it might based on some Steam reviews. She remains a symbol of the despair that accompanies memories of trauma, and explicitly making a pact with her seems to me to be a commitment to using that despair as a wellspring for creativity, at the expense of any ability to see truth. The despair will only further twist your memories and warp your perspective. We see all 3 members of the family fall prey to the subjectivity of their memory, even moreso in this version with the addition of voiceovers and I think a few more notes(?). And choice still carries just as much weight in the new game, even with a supernatural force pulling strings from behind the curtain. One heartbreaking thing the Rat Queen has said this time around was that the Daughter was "mine from the moment of her birth." Wow. I went straight for the True Ending, so that statement did turn out to be true for me, but what of the Forgiveness and Resentment endings? Do those also necessarily reflect a Daughter trapped in the Rat Queen's grasp? Are these messages from the Rat Queen, (which I presume are spoken to the Writer,) set in stone? Are they reliable? Are they true? So many implications. One of which is:

What will happen to the Writer??

Will she have multiple endings like the others? Will she be able to break her pact with the Rat Queen? And will that depend upon the outcomes of the other stories along with which collectibles I found during her scenes in the lighthouse? That might be a problem because I am just scooping up everything and devouring every bit of lore my cursor passes across.

Other questions:

Have any works of art been added to/subtracted from the family's portion of the game? I want to do a symbolic analysis of all the real works within the context of the timing of each painting's appearance during gameplay. I know that's a huge task with what, 38 works? But that's a future post and it's why I made a whole separate blog for this in the first place. To be honest I'm shocked that I haven't found anything like this online in the 7 years since the original Layers of Fear when there are a million channels dedicated just to deconstructing the lore of one Zelda game, (which I also love.)

Are there any easter eggs in the family's stories? It's been fun to read real critiques of the first game planted all over the lighthouse, but I wonder if anything like the lemons or the ouija board event are going to pop up in this.

Is the Musician more culpable than I thought? I also went back and did the Dad ending in Inheritance and I don't remember Mom being quite as paranoid or short tempered. It made me see her writings in a new light, and it makes me excited to go through her new story a few times. I must see everythinnnnnnnnngggggggggg.

What does the writer mean by "bring him back" in Chapter 3? Did her son die? Did they have a falling out? Does she believe the Rat Queen or her agency has the power to fix this? Do they?

And then ultimately, is the Rat Queen an invention of the writer? Is her fascination with these stories and the mysteries behind them only leading to flawed adaptations tainted with themes of insanity because she has projected the insecurities of her own fragile mind into the events she's depicting in her books? (Nah)

I dunno I dunno I dunno I dunno I dunno

[dirtyoldmanhole]

made it past black flames... gunter fans know what that means. :'))))

et iz emotional pain time!!

anyway it was cool the description text for the chapter said "descend on valla" while it had "floating isle" right there on the location box.

whack geography there you have, fates!

i suppose it makes sense in terms of "descending down into the bottomless canyon" but since i'm doing an unsubtle amount of parallels to [valla = the underworld] for Symbolic Fic Reasons it was neat to see the game itself nod towards that versus an ultimately less descriptive word like "fell down the canyon".

you ever think how that sky was likely the last thing gunter thought he was going to see the first time he fell down? :') and then what he must feel like to be kinda forced to do it all over again? :'))))

speaking of the literal devil....

[internal screaming]

god this second rev playthrough is going to emotionally wreck me WORSE than the first playthrough, and that one pretty much broke my brain as is!!!!

anyway this is the first shot you see of gunter in-game since... I think it was right before the wind tribe chapter where you fought the "faceless"? i'm pretty sure I would have screenshotted it had there been another one.

i also think it's really interesting you don't see him next to azura, which feels like it'd make sense considering both of them, you, and jakob had already been down in the bottomless canyon. (ngl jakob got shafted in these little map scenes, he feels like he should be there more.)

anyway, very subtle yellow flag number one for what's coming up.

the royals have their one obligatory moment of sane 'wtf we ain't jumping down no canyon' reasoning. gunter gets this kind of random 'hey i'm alive still remember me' line for the players who aren't single-brain cell'd gunterfuckers (:P) :

corrin reveals she's prepared to sacrifice herself to valla's curse (you die if you mention anything about the otherworldly kingdom) to reveal to everyone exactly who the enemy is----

(....OUFFF can you imagine gunter's moment of panic there.)

-- everyone trades a few lines about trusting corrin, after wanting her to order them to jump.

they jump. first, hilariously enough.

so this is probably the clearest shot we'll ever get of Scarlet's flower. hold that thought for future Plot Reasons.

(i also do think it's a little interesting / a flub that the cinematographers had gunter already jump in the bottomless canyon--Scarlet and Corrin trade 3-4 lines before they jump too. then again i suppose if he was still sticking around at this point the whole "who killed scarlet" jig would be up way before it was actually resolved.)

speaking of, i still can't believe i fucking called it with possessed!gunter killing scarlet the first go around. :') all i knew beforehand is he got possessed somewhere and there was something whack with his family.

here we goooo......

whelp whelp whelp

THIS REALLY HITS DIFFERENT WHEN YOU KNOW EXACTLY WHO IT IS

GEE I WONDER

control your kinky af boytoy corrin!!! safe word is anankos!!!!!

(if you squint, you can see how the game uses anankos' cloaked model -- privately i think they should have used the great knight model since it would have been an infinitesimal 'blink and you miss it' hint but an absolute genius bonus the second time. just stick the helmet on if you don't want to give everything away. )

something exquisitely painful: guess who targeted corrin first, before scarlet dives in to save her?

:')

... whelp. nice seeing you.

damn even the game ships ryoma/scarlet hardcore.

corrin gets all of 30 seconds to grieve/freak out about scarlet dying and then enemies show up, thankfully followed by allies.

gunter's in the third wave of sprites that show up, the first being corrin, then xander&ryoma.....

... aaand i just noticed he's right next to corrin. :'))))))))))))))))))))

time to roll valla!

[nightthinker-08]

lil DOS2 rant?

Le sighhhhhh Finally finished DOS2 again, and I do adore this game a lot and has easily become my favorite. I love the combat of the game and the implementation of magical and physical armor really makes you think on your builds and strategies. And I know some might disagree cuz not a lot like turn based combat apparently? The story is so rich from start to finish, absolutely no parts of it bored me. The dialogues are fun and witty, catching me off gaurd and making me laugh way more than I thought it would. And the characters are so well written, you fall in love with almost all of them, especially the origin characters and the people you sail with in Lady Vengeance. But for all that praise, whenever I think of the romance in the game I can't help but feel its more than a little lacking. I love the characters to death I, wouldn't've have played the game twice already and have over 200+ hours on it if I didn't- but interactions with them are so few and far between. You don't even have one quiet moment with them. Well... I mean you do get one moment alone with them, but to call it a quiet one would be so... hilariously untrue for a number of reasons Anyway me being me took the little romance I can get in stride on my first play through, thinking "oh if I progress their quest they give me important dialogue!" So I focused a lot on the one person I wanted to romance (it was Sebille) and absolutely eating up any romantic dialogue that pops up (most of them catching me off gaurd cuz again we didn't talk much through out our journey and suddenly she's cozying up on me-). Only to have missed a lot in my first playthrough (not really a big complaint cuz I like you can do a lot of different things to get to the same point), and accidentally not progress one of my companions stories and have a small betrayal at the end. But then by the end of it all, while the ending I got was mostly happy, the ending I had with my chosen partner was absolutely bittersweet. While yes- I did make a lot of mistakes in my first game cuz I had no idea what the hell I was doing :D So it could absolutely be chalked up to me just missing a lot of key things to ensure a better ending with us. Hence why I played it twice in a row, and believe me I missed A LOT especially in forth joy, the first chapter. I tried my best to be as thorough as I can. Exploring every inch of them map, talking to almost every NPC I come in contact with, finishing every quest in my log book, talking more instead of fighting to get more dialogue. And while I can safely say I was absolutely more thorough this time round, I'm pretty sure I still missed a few things. Its a long ass game- there are a lot you need to keep track of, and I can be very forgetful. But I think I completed well enough to know this is the general scope of what an average player—or maybe not even averege, but a slightly more avid player—would get. So what did I get after all that? Well... Roughly the same ending with only minor differences... Was the entire game more different the 2nd time round cuz I knew what I was doing and found a lot of new and cool things through out that gave it more charm? 100%! Without a doubt! Did the companion I got together with get a happier ending? Also yes. But am I still a bit disappointed at romance and how that side plot ended? Sadly yes. Spoilers below for people who haven't played or haven't gotten to the end game.

So somewhere in the late game there's a choice to have Sebille rooted into the mother tree, I dont want to have to overly explain it but it basically bounding her to elven duties for the rest of her days and also she turns in a a tree once she dies :'Dc. Now I was an idiot and actually rooted her even when I had 2nd thought on it cuz I thought that was just her duty. And bit me in the ass at the end and was mostly what made the ending so bittersweet for me. She wasnt free yet we still loved each other so we had to part ways. Of course she said she'd always love me and never forget me before sharing a sweet kiss but it was still sad... Me being the simp I am I made a completely new game just to ensure she gets a happy ending (preferably together with my character) and she did and it was nice but... It made the whole end game conversation with her a lot shorter, it wasn't explicitly stated we'd stay together but in the epilogue nothing about our romance was mentioned. She was just happy traveling and living her best life and don't get me wrong- like Go girl! Live your best life! No need to get tied down! But I just wish the bond you form not just with your romance partner but with all your companions didn't feel like such a forgettable chapter of their life. There could have at least been a mention where at least one, or preferably all, of your party members would gather to together to meet up every now and again in the new world. Maybe its just makes me sad cuz I thought of my party as being a found family towards each other, so to see them be so ready to leave each other, split off and never talk to each other ever again really pained me. The origin characters are one, if not, my top reason I want to keep coming back to this game and replaying it but every time I just keep thinking of how it all ended, my heart sinks.

Minor complaints up ahead.

Poly? Where poly? No poly?? Give me the ability to romance both Sebille and Lohse you cowards!! so like at the end of my 2nd play through I made a save where one onf them I chose to be the new devine, made ifan sad and was generally a more sad ending- but also made me spilt with Sebille again cuz she was like "can a god mingle with us mortals?" and Im like oh shit so this is the wrong choice. So I reload my save and spread the source to everyone. and this time round it was happy again but she was still like " what happens with us is up to you" Like girl what you mean? We're on even playing field neither of us have responsibilities we're both free, what am I missing here? BUT ALSO SHE DOSENT KISS ME IN THIS ENDING?????? maybe I messed up the dialogue?? She says she wants me and love me but doesnt lean down for a kiss like my save before that or in my first game play either so I was left so confused-

another Sebille centered minor problem, after you kill her master her story kinda just ends there- Like there's nothing for her in Arx at all. And before you say it yes, we meet with Saheila when we get there, she's talking about elves wanting to rise up to start that war. And she just dismisses it and chalks it up to Saheila being insane(which you know true) but that's it? you don't want to figure out why your kin who's been through almost the same things we've been through suddenly underwent an over night change?? you aren't going to talk to the hostile elven people in arx?? People's opinion of you after killing the mother tree/ being prime scion doesn't get touched on here??? It just another one of my little disappointments in her story. She was very prominent at the start but nothing in Arx, which despite being the last chapter is still a long one. So to just have her there with nothing important to progress with her or our romance it just left me a lil bumed :/

[mystic-sunni]

Hello Poptropica community I have arrived to post something that I was meant to post a while back but forgot until now...sorry about that hehe. Anyways today we have Poptropica's top ten moments that don't get talked about as much as they should. There's going to be spoilers about the islands and characters also a few honorable mentions that just didn't hit the top ten mark. With all that said and done let us begin with number 10.

10. Skeletons

So as our character explores several islands and many strange places we often stumble upon a spooky site. What's the spooky site you maybe asking well I'm talking about skeletons. We have seen them on several islands for example 24 Carrot Island and also we fight off skeletons in Red Baroness side quest before Rumpelstiltskin got her. Anyways this does indicate a bit of a surprising site to some people and I'm surprised nobody talked about it much on here.

9. Player's parents

So some of us og Poptropica players remember when we would create our character we would spawn from a box right? Well apparently we do in fact have parents or at least a mom because on Night Watch Island when we find chocolate soap we not only learn our player has a potty mouth but also we have a mom. Pretty surprising that isn't mentioned barely at all.

8. Mya missing her family (MOTM Books)

I honestly haven't read any of the books because I didn't have the money to get them but someone on here actually showed how Mya during the story was starting to break down because all she wanted was to go home to her parents. Sorry I can't talk much about this since I don't know a lot about it.

7. The space dog (Lunar Colony Island)

If you played Lunar Colony Island you might've found a few pictures that had some astronauts and a dog with them. But not a lot is mentioned about the dog. Did it leave space or did something happen?

6. "Are you looking for something?" (Ghost Story Island)

The first time Poptropica had some voice acting if we ignore Pop English heh...Anyways I am personally surprised by how nobody said much about the interaction before.

5. Octavian (MOTM)

For those like me who just played the island for the book series most of us might have believed that Octavian was just a evil adult but if you had read the books it turns out there's a lot more lore to him than we knew from the island.

4. Famous last words from Joe Puddy (Zomberry Island)

So apparently Joe Puddy was in a Poptropica comic and his last words before becoming a Zomberry were "I said I would." Most likely meaning that he was going to at least attempt to keep his promise to his wife to eat the fruit most likely but I'm not to sure.

3. What happens to "Honest" Gabe?

Most of us who have played or seen Monster Carnival Island playthrough have some sort of idea of who I'm talking about. By the time our player gets to the island Gabe is nowhere to be found. Where is he and what has actually happened to him?

2. Missing Kids Posters (24 Carrot Island)

So the missing kids that Dr.Hare has been kidnapped for around 6 months for some of them before we arrived to the island. Also the state of the island was quite concerning when we arrived.

Now before we hit number 1 let's me make a few honorable mentions!

1. Merlin's sacrifice (Astroknights Island)

2. Our player getting framed several times for crimes we didn't commit.

3. Almost becoming a trophy (Survival Island)

Now that the honorable mentions are said let's get to number 1!

1. Nearly drowning (Cryptids Island)

For most of us og poptropica players we might remember this scene where we were riding the waves with our kite board thing and then we see Gretchen on her boat. She immediately sets our kite device on fire and leaves us to nearly drown if Harold Mews didn't save us with his helicopter. So the reason this is number 1 in my opinion is because I see people talk about Gretchen but nobody really talks about how she nearly kills us.

Anyways that's my top 10 Poptropica moments that aren't talked about that much as they should be. Thanks for reading and huge thank you to those who sent in suggestions!

[herearedragons]

1 and 12 for as many as you'd like! c:

I'll do the characters who have the most interesting answers for question 1!

questions about creating your OCs

1.What was the first element of your OC that you remember considering (name, appearance, backstory, etc.)? 

Secret Hawke: this one is pretty fun. I was watching Race To The Edge (HTTYD animated series) and the quote "You think my brother sacrificed himself? Not with his ego. He thought he could make it." stood out to me for some reason. And apparently DA2 was on my mind?? because then I thought "huh, what if this quote, but it's about a Fade-sacrificed Hawke". And thus the base concept for Secret was born: a Hawke who is, despite all the tragedy, is 100% sure that they Will make it. And then they stay behind in the Fade not as a noble self-sacrifice, but because they genuinely believe they can still game the odds.

Aqun Adaar: I remember having a distinct mental image of an Adaar archer who is all about Precision and Self Control and using logic and discipline to overcome his fear of the innate "savageness" of the Qunari. Over time I started to lean more into other sides of his character, like him being A Nerd and a half-blood and being afraid of anything he can't control, not just The Savageness, but this is where I started.

Watcher Lorenzo: not a Dragon Age guy, but he has a fun origin. I wanted to start a new Pillars of Eternity playthrough, and I knew that I wanted to play a chanter(a bard-adjacent class whose core mechanic is chanting verses during combat to cause Effects). I also really like the godlike race (humanoids touched by the gods which makes them Strange in a variety of ways), and I was choosing between fire godlike(touched by the goddess of fire. fire hair. pretty straightforward) and death godlike(touched by the god of death, are Ominous and have their faces obscured by weird growths), and then. I remembered. that one of the chants you can take is titled Come, Soft Winds Of Death. and something just clicked about the image of a faceless man calling forth death itself with his voice, but softly, unafraid and even welcoming, because in a sense he is one with it. he had almost villain/anti-hero vibes when I first though about him, but over time became more of just a guy who has been Through It and is just doing his best playing the card of "so you were born an omen of death". oooooo you want to play pillars of eternity so badly oooo. you would probably like orlans

12. What have you found to be most difficult about creating art for your OC (any form of art: writing, drawing, edits, etc.)? 

Secret Hawke: she's very much a work in progress (as in. I haven't even started a playthrough for her), so a lot about creating art with her is Difficult, but I'd say the main thing is that she's currently missing a character arc. like, she has a few gimmicks (the optimism and the uncoventional name), but now I need to figure out what's the NarrativeTM

Aqun Adaar: nailing down his general vibe is sometimes difficult. like, he's SeriousTM and a NerdTM and a lot of other things but in a very specific way, and sometimes I realize that instead of writing Aqun I'm writing Generic Serious Guy or Generic Rational Guy and I have to step back and reconsider.

Watcher Lorenzo: I really need to get a grasp on his physique art-wise. His eyes and most of his nose are obscured, so I need to figure out how to draw his features consistently, and I need to give him a definitive body type.

[savingthegeneration]

My sister and I finished Glass Rose today! I believe I got ending 3 which is the good but not perfect ending. I'm grateful I got a decent ending though. If I got a bad/open-ended ending I can't guarantee I'd pick the game back up ever again. I got some thoughts that I'm going to put under the cut. Just a little mini review.

I have a couple of problems with Glass Rose and I think it's biggest problem is that it tries too hard to be a game. The game is full of gameplay mechanics that were unnecessary or clunky. From the time limit in each chapter, to having to catch butterflies for your health, or even walking around the mansion.

The game could have been more efficient if they changed a few things. I found a lot of the characters useless and unnecessary to the plot. (Like seriously, what was the point of the cat??? Or Emmy?? Or Emi?) Also, I didn't really love Takashi as a character. I would have loved for him to have a little bit more personality. He was a little too chill with the residents thinking he was a member of the family the whole time. Some internal dialogue would've gone a long way in making me care about Takashi as a character. Also, I kinda wish Takashi was related to the family in some way. It wasn't enough that his friend, Emi Katagiri had a tiny connection to the family. Honestly, Emi should have been the main character if Takashi isn't going to be related to anyone.

I was very upset when I first started Glass Rose and was made aware of the time limit for each chapter. Granted, it was never an issue my entire playthrough, but it did deter me from exploring the mansion or finding any of Denemon's notes. Now that I have finished the game though, I imagine getting those notes would be easier the second time around now that I have a better idea of the layout of the mansion. I believe they set the game this way because the story is very streamlined, but if you cut out player exploration, you may as well just make the game a visual novel. The thing that makes point and click adventure games fun games is the adventure part, and they effectively removed that from the game.

The pre-rendered backgrounds are beautiful but the point and click nature of the game and the constantly changing camera angles made it very easy for me to get turned around. Also every time you walked into a room or hallway, a giant sign would show up letting you know where you were. While not a terrible design, it did seem to last a few seconds longer than it should and it got annoying in the latter half of the game. They could have saved the player some time if it had a similar gameplay style to either Ace Attorney, Jake Hunter, or even J.B. Harold. It deserved to be a visual novel but they sure tried their darnedest to make sure it wasn't.

If I had a PAL-based PS2, I would like to try and play the game with a mouse! I think that's a really cool idea. I can only think of one other PS2 title that let you plug in a mouse. Which is Resident Evil: Dead Aim, I believe. I wonder if the game would have played a little better with a mouse or if gameplay would be pretty similar either way. I'm not sure if the emulator I used could make that work, but it's not like I have a mouse lying around either. I can't help but feel like maybe the mouse would have been useful during the suspense events the game has.

So finally, is this game worth owning/playing? For me, it's probably worth playing if you're a Cing fan and enjoy the premise of the story. I think this story is some of Rika Suzuki's weakest work, but that might be because of the gameplay too. I was invested in this game when I was younger so I had an interest from the start, but I did need my sister's enthusiasm for the story to help me through the latter half of the game. I did a brief glance of some UK copies and they range from anywhere between $30.00 to hundreds of dollars. So unless you want to add to your Cing collection or just like physical copies, this may be a miss. Or you could emulate it like I did. I didn't say that.

Anyway, I may come back and reorganize this better, but for now enjoy my word vomit.

[theseventhoffrostfall]

I was looking through my Art of Fallout 4 book and it really got me thinking about industrial Fallout 4 feels like it was meant to be. I understand concept art is never meant to be the final product, the whole vibe of the book gives off this feeling that Fallout 4 was supposed to take place during a re-emergence period of heavy industry.

There's one spread in the book that really caught my attention. It was downtown Boston, filled with traders, mercenaries, travelers, and shops surrounding these massive rusted futuristic buildings. Another picture of an early Diamond City showed streets made of metal grating, pre-war trailers stacked on top of scaffolding, wires and cables everywhere. It doesn't look ramshackle or like it was built a few years ago. It looks like an actual crowded and populated city hub. It looks like an actual form of industry is going on, like someone is making metal, and things are being broken down and reused. There was even a much more refined farm and water system in the concept art of Diamond City than what we see in-game, where it's a few trees and a bald kid looking over a little tub of dirty mud water.

The emerging industry of metalworking and machinery would have made a lot more sense, considering no one really seems to do anything in Fallout 4. People supposedly farm and trade, but there's only two cities in the whole game, there's no real farms, and everyone plants the same thing. You hear a lot about the Triggermen having control of some massive chems trade and nothing ever really comes out of it. You can't even talk to the head boss in charge, who literally sits around as an NPC in a place that was supposedly once famous for its chem-fueled parties (again, something that you hear once and find no evidence to ever back up). I'll continue with my idea on the Triggermen but I'd like to hear your opinions first

You're completely on-point with the remark on industry. At the risk of beating a dead horse, while in-game new Vegas wasn't exactly bustling with life and activity, there's enough trade caravans, stores, and even in-dialogue reference to groups like the gun runners to show that trade and industry is meant to be happening. In 4 there are the absolute basics sometimes addressed (it generally avoids the Mad Max problem of "what are these people surviving on") but nobody seems to be making clothing or tools, everyone has shitty pipe pistols that only by miracle and removal of the weapon degradation system don't blow up after the third shot, and there's only one town, which it's entirely possible to miss in a regular playthrough, which we're told is a caravan hub (caravans are also still just a few dudes with guns and a pack mule, which New Vegas did for cowboy flavor but FO4 has them rambling on along casually through fucking warzones)

Some of this probably ties into the abortion of a settlement system, so workshops/ manufacturing centers, caravans, doctors and so forth don't develop outside the few major cities unless you build them, but, I mean, who wants to do that shit. Also it makes the world weaker by making everyone do nothing until you show up, which they've been doing for decades.

At a certain point we're just gonna keep butting into the answer "the devs were lazy, didn't think all these things through, and also thought you were so stupid you wouldn't believe an apocalypse happened if people weren't living in rusty shacks eating rats

[yusiyomogi]

okay, i've been thinking about chara's plan and stuff... and one thing is bothering me a lot, i guess, it's been bothering me from the very first time i played undertale. it's the fact that chara decided to carry their own body to the village. there's a lot of weirdness surrounding this event and i can't get rid of the feeling that we're missing some information.

(my english isn't good, you've been warned)

so, when we first learn about this, we don't even know it was chara's decision. monsters tell us a very tragic story about the first fallen human and how they became a part of dreemurr family, but then died of unknown disease, and asriel absorbed their soul... and according to this story, asriel was the one in control after that. story says:

He carried the human's body into the sunset.

Back to the village of the humans.

ASRIEL reached the center of the village.

There, he found a bed of golden flowers.

He carried the human onto it.

Suddenly, screams rang out.

The villagers saw ASRIEL holding the human's body.

They thought that he had killed the child.

The humans attacked him with everything they had.

then, just a bit later, we can learn the truth: after absorbing chara's soul, asriel had only half of the control of his body - chara had another half. he explains that chara was the one who wanted to attack humans with the full power, but he also says this:

They were the one that picked up their own empty body.

he doesn't elaborate on this or anything. this is a bit cryptic, to say the least, but with the information from earlier, we were left with only one conclusion: chara tried to provoke humans by carrying their body. i know, some people tried to argue this, but it's definitely not an easy task to prove anything else, so this conclusion was pretty much set in stone. and it makes sense too, it's hard to believe that asriel would attack anyone first, so it's reliable method to start a fight.

but there's something that keeps bothering me. a few points i wanna make:

1) what the deal with the story that monsters tell us? where all this information is even coming from? while it's inaccurate in some places, it's also surprisingly detailed about what happened on the surface. did asriel manage to tell this to his parents before he collapsed and died? or did flowey spread this information around during his "playthroughs"? i'm almost 100% sure it's something that asriel/flowey told others, because of the way this story just... glorifies asriel's desicions. almost like he tried to overcompensate his guilt about this event:

ASRIEL did not fight back.

Clutching the human...

ASRIEL smiled, and walked away.

2) why asriel made it sound like carrying chara's body wasn't a part of original plan? i mean, the story we heard from monsters implies that chara asked something like "i wanna see the flowers from my village" before they died. but asriel says that chara was the one that picked up their own body, without asriel's input. if it was something they never discussed, then how chara planned to instigate a fight in the first place? or did they make a guess that they would share control with asriel, so it was something like "more efficient plan B that asriel doesn't have to know about"? the other explanation i can think about is something asriel never said to us: that he was against carrying chara's body to the village, but didn't resist.

3) why chara chose such an elaborate way to provoke humans? i think, if they held such negative view on humanity, they'd know that humans were very likely to attack anything scary/unknown on sight anyway. i mean, they could pilot asriel's body to the closest house and just... try to open a door or something. perhaps asriel was not that scary looking in this form after all, so chara had to improvise.

4) if chara decided to carry their body only because they wanted to provoke humans, why would they put it in the golden flowers specifically? we know they did it, because we know that there were golden flower seeds on them and asriel. what was the point?

5) humans in utdr are weird as hell. i mean not personality-wise, but rather how their metaphysical existence works. first of all, we know that humans' bodies were preserved in the castle basement for some reason. including chara's, before toriel gave them proper burial - and we still can see mummy wrappings in their coffin.

but what is the weirdest thing of all, is what happens with the rest of the humans' bodies after true pacifist final battle: bodies and souls of 6 other humans dissapeared. the most normal explanation would be that someone buried the bodies and that released the souls and made them either dissapear completely or go find new bodies (reincarnate?). the most creepy explanation would be that after someone released the souls, they went back to original bodies and they just... woke up and walked away. i sure as hell don't want this to be true, but idk.

what's important though is that somehow human's soul and body stay connected even after their death. i have this weird feeling that asgore is missing chara's soul only because toriel decided to bury them. what's also interesting in that context is alphys's research:

You see, unlike humans', monsters' bodies don't have enough... Physical matter to take those concentrations of "determination."

she says that it's the humans' bodies that can endure the power of "determination". as she said, physical matter is what distinguish humans from monsters in the first place. but determination itself is contained in souls (we know that because in her entries she mentioned she extracted DT from humans' souls). so, because humans' bodies can endure more determination, their souls have more determination and that in turn lets souls persist after death. but is it the whole story? or deltarune will tell us more?

kris in deltarune can rip out the soul from their body. they usually put soul in some enclosed space, so it couldn't escape or, i guess, couldn't go back to their body. but what i noticed is that in first chapter they put their soul in the cage that stands on the red wagon. wagon that can move. i remember a lot of fan comics after chapter 1, where soulless kris roamed the town with red wagon in tow, but that's exactly what i was thinking about too.

what if they can't go too far from the soul? what if the distance between them and the soul is limited, and if they go too far from it, they can die? and it makes sense too, souls contain "determination" or "will to change fate" or "will to live". but what if it actually works the other way around? what if as soon as kris go too far away from the soul, it'll dissapear and that's what would kill them? what if the soul actually needs the vessel to persist, at all times, even after death, even if it can remain stable outside of this vessel? what if the link between the soul and the body is just as important as these two on their own. thinking again about those preserved humans' bodies in asgore's basement...

so what if chara actually needed their body with them, so their soul could persist after death? you could say that asriel was the new vessel for their soul, but didn't we also learn that monsters can't take amount of determination that's contained in humans' souls? it's so confusing. i hope deltarune will make it more clear, because for now, i'm not sure about anything.

[pupbeat]

me rambling abt stuff i noticed on my deltarune chapter 2 playthrough, with a few screenshots sprinkled in. secret boss stuff included in here because i did do that

[Image ID: A screenshot of Ralsei, Susie, and Kris from Deltarune all posing next to eachother. Susie holds up her fist and smiles confidently, Ralsei holds his arms and one leg out joyfully, and Kris turns mostly away from the viewer in a cool pose. End ID.]

stuff from chapter 1 if you have save data is remembered, like the thrashing machine you created for susie and lancer.

If you go to the entrance of the school while you have the dark world stuff balanced on your head, you get a cutscene with Alphys and Toriel. Toriel is showing concern for Kris and their wellbeing, implying they have been acting stranger than normal as of late.

At aforementioned cutscene's room, you can call Toriel on your phone and insist you aren't strange.

Kris doesn't want to acknowledge or dwell on a fair amount of mentioned family stuff. They close their eyes if you try to look in Asriel's room at Queen's Mansion. They also choose not to read anymore when you try to read an article in the police station that mentions Asgore Dreemurr no longer being on the force.

Previous point, perhaps a parallel to Undertale where he hurt people like the fallen 6 children and Toriel wanted very little more to do with him and by extension was removed from the force?

The character that is (presumably) Mettaton would like something enertaining by tomorrow in game, probably meaning next chapter.

You can't hang out with Papyrus unfortunately, and his house says the trousle of bones grows fainter.

Unfortunate cutscene with Asgore, Toriel, and Sans in the latter's shop, if you go around the left side of the store. Asgore wants San's free complimentary pickles...

Cutscene at the very bottom of town as well, where Susie defends Kris who was supposedly a "weenie" about whatever is behind the locked door.

Rouxls Kaard's name is confirmed pronounces "rules".

[Image ID: A Screenshot from Deltarune Chapter 2 of Ralsei and Kris on a swan boat with Rouxls Kaard on the opposing ship, with an eyepatch and pirate hat. Rouxls' textbox reads "*Chips Ahoyeth, Landlubbers!" End ID. ]

Sans is a bit awkward at the Asgore scene, and turns away when he comes in. Also he says this in the store and I hate him for it.

[Image ID: Screenshot of San's textbox in Deltarune Chapter 2, reading: "*maybe a day... maybe another 2 years. " End ID.]

After the secret boss, Kris is asked if they are ok. In my playthrough I chose "No." and Susie and Ralsei comment on Kris apparently yelling this answer. Ralsei subsequently tries to comfort Kris, saying that there's probably no deeper meaning to the puppet imagery of the fight. I don't think Kris agrees.

Speaking of the secret fight, heres a bit of my experience with that specifically.

My game crashed when I hit the Transfer answer in the shop when working on getting to the fight. This is probably not supposed to happen, and worked just fine once I tried again.

I had more difficulty with the teacups after turning off the forcefield on the way to the fight than the fight itself. How i dealt with it aside from learning the pattern of the obstacles on the teacup ride, is to move my hand position to one pointer finger on the left and right arrow keys alone.

With the fight itself, I went the mercy route and got an armor called the DealMaker (I think) when defeating the boss.

My strategy for the fight was to use Snap All whenever my party had about half HP or more. ButJuice (lol) is very helpful but i recommend a few items that heal the entire party a bit as well, and the SpinCake was very essential for me.

Try to figure out what attacks its more helpful to charge your bullets for (in my experience, the eyes nose mouth attack, the egg attack, and the telephone attack) and what attacks to spam the minor bullets for.

If you beat this fight, go to Seam and that funny little cat will take the Crystal from you, and mention that the next fight may be impossible for you, especially without the "dark mantle" (?). Which Seam seems to say has gone missing. So we are screwed I guess.

The fight with K_K, Cap'n, and the last one I forget the name of (Sweets?) is hard in my opinion, but I didn't realize its more of getting through as many turns as possible until you get the ability to have Ralsei and Susie do their own ACTs. So it is probably ok to focus more on healing than dancing.

I gave Berdly the gift and in this case, it was a tiny plush of Berdly with nipples apparently. he appreciated it but no one else knew why Kris did it. i dont know why I did it either.

If you go back to Castle Town at the end, I noticed at least 2 NPCs mention people being left behind. Spade King says so angrily, and I believe Cap'n (whatever the radio head character is named. im sorry im bad with names) is the other who mentions such. I want to say this is because I may have failed to recruit every possible enemy.

You can find the Ice-E and Susie Statues in Kris and Susie's rooms at the end as well, if you interacted with those when they first show up.

Kris, in their room, seems to note a lack of agency again, if you check their closet. They say "They could wear whatever they want." but obviously, they cannot.

That's it of what I remember for now, because I was up till 2 AM playing it and my memory is bad. If anything significant pops up in my memory later I may add to this! Thanks for reading!

[pretty-sweet-plums]

A New Overboss

(I mean, that news spread around the Commonwealth about some lucky hotshot becoming the new Overboss so fast. I didnt even leave Nuka World the entire time until Shank had me do a raiding. Then i missed my boyfriends and girlfriends and one good boi then i got attacked by Preston like this. Sticks and stones may break my bones yadayadayada. I was so offended and hurt lol. I was planning to fuck the raider gangs in the first place. I came back to dismiss Gage into the new and only raider outpost i made and leave him there forever so i know he was still alive. I had a soft spot for him. I went back to get Piper bec I knew she'd get a kick out of the whole liberating the slaves thing and write a great story about it too. But goddamn Preston. Way to pull back your punches, there. That's enough out of you, Garvey. This is why you never became bae to me in any of my playthroughs lol.)

----------------------------------

Preston first laughs because that's crazy! Seriously? How fucking bad ass. Even he knows how to appreciate good skills. Well good luck to whoever they are. Nuka World will be hell to conquer. Even the Minutemen couldn't help the traders back in its heyday. He didn't even tell Sole about it because it was a lost cause. Maybe they can do it if they had bigger numbers. After all, they still had the Brotherhood to worry about.

Preston shakes off the news.

Then, practically days later, the scouts, traders and provisioners all report growing activity from the Nuka World, Preston begins to take things seriously. Can't have them starting to run around the Commonwealth. Need to report to the General. This was becoming a serious issue. Where the fuck was the General anyway? Haven't seen no hide nor hair in weeks.

Then an attack against a settlement or an occupation of one of the possible settlements Preston had eyes on happens. Quick, ruthless and precise. Construction done in just days. Unlike most raider outposts this one seems heavily fortified and almost entirely self sufficient. Settlements around begin asking for help against attacks.

Where the goddamned hell is the General?

No one knows. Her last companion cant really say, guilt and worry in their faces. (Unless it was Dogmeat, who's just wandering about aimlessly, lonely and missing Sole.)

Then the scout reports, "Sir, the General had been seen during the invasion. They seemed to be... in the front lines."

Preston dismisses the scout. No way. There was simply no way a person so selfless and loving (even if sometimes downright crazy and ruthless) as his General would turn their back to the Commonwealth and undo all the good they've done.

Preston leads the counterattack himself, unable to wait for his General any longer. It is almost useless and impenetrable. But he's seen enough to know the handiwork and meticulousness of it all. He didn't want to believe what he'd heard the first time the news came back to him. He was here to prove them wrong but now there was no denying it.

The Overboss was Sole.

Of course goddammit. Who else could survive that fucking sadistic maze? Who else could be so charismatic and powerful enough to keep the entire three raider gangs from boiling over into a massacre?

Preston goes back home, weary and heartbroken, to where he knows Sole can find him. Because he knows Sole. They always come back home.

Sole does come back, in a few days, looking not entirely so different, no worse than wear. A man with an eye patch stands back behind her warily, seemingly confused and also upset. No one bothers to talk to him either. Maybe not yet so welcome. He is virtually an unknown.

There was enough tension and jealousy within their ranks as Sole's closest companion and partners. No one is truly ever welcome. Besides Valentine, Codsworth, Dogmeat or Deacon, perhaps.

For all of them, meeting Sole is one of the greatest days in their lives. Sole brought back meaning to their lives, giving them nobler causes. All of them would die for Sole, no questions asked. But by the end of the day their main concern was only if the other will be good enough to have Sole's back. Sole isn't a bad judge of character (most of the time) so they try to be at least not be hostile to the new guy. All of them had been new to group, once upon a time.

Everyone crowds on Sole, without much question of where they had been and what have they been doing, so happy and excited to see them alive and well. Preston hangs back. Everyone else is offering their company. Ready to go with Sole and do whatever they might need. Dogmeat is happiest of them all.

Sole is more or less alone when Preston makes a move toward them. Sole is giving Dogmeat loving attention, looking just like a person who had not just sentenced the entire Commonwealth to death. They look carefree, even.

The patch eyed man remains nearby, scoping the area with an alert glint in his eye, a scowl on his face. Preston ignores him. He knows who he was. Porter Gage. It is Sole he wants to talk to.

They finally notice him and smile so lovingly.

"Preston! No settlement quests for now, I hope! Just got back after all." They chuckle to themselves.

But instead Preston, face grave and voice all steel. "What do you want? Did you really think I wouldn't find out about what you were doing?"

[avatarchief]

Completing Mass Effect for the First Time.

Missed N7 day by a long shot, but I finally played through and beat the entire Mass Effect trilogy.

I've played ME1 maybe 20 or so times over the past few years. I've only played it in Xbox 360/One since I was a little kid, so I "don't like the game" because the framerate in combat ranges from 5 to 12 (a very annoying problem regardless of how old the game is. But the story/worldbuilding is more than likable enough to make up for the garbage FPS problems.

"You never forget your first". I've started, loved, and beaten ME2 at least 100 times since I first played it in 2011 (and that's the conservatively low estimate). Mass Effect 2 is the best game in the series, elevating and improving every aspect of ME1, without breaking any of what made the game so great. Including COMPLETELY DIFFERENT DIALOGUE AND CHARACTER INTERACTIONS BASED ON YOUR ME1 DECISIONS WHICH BLEW MY MIND WHEN I FINALLY GOT AND IMPORTED MY FIRST ME1 CHARACTER LIKE OMEGISBDHJDJWVE!!! Best game ever. With or without DLC. An amazingly cinematic game in every scene, from start to finish. Amazing dialogue, delivery, animations, and a more realized & personal quest against the Collectors for the player/Commander Shepard. Making that final fight all the more spectacular and noteworthy when you get there.

Sadly, in every other one of my Mass Effect 3 playthroughs I could only make it to The Citadel after leaving the Mars Archives, but I finally pushed past the lingering negativity surrounding the game and let myself get invested in it. Crying like a little bitch at the end. I spent 16 or so hours in each game, getting invested in facing down the Reapers and destroying them once and for all. So my heart was pretty distraught when I reached "the end" of Shepard's story. (I'm an Indoctrination Theory believer)

My love for the Mass Effect universe and it's characters cannot be properly articulated. They might not be real, but I don't care. It all matters to me in a way I can't describe. I'm emotionally invested in a bunch of 1s & 0s because I can believe that the Turians or the Asari exist somewhere among the stars. Every race is unique and has a different culture, belief system, and history. I don't look at the Asari and think "oh it's a blue people cool". Or look at the Quarians and say "me in a permanent astronaut suit, k." I think "oh that's another race of intellectual beings from another planet. Holy awesome. I want to know everything about them now [INVESTIGATE INTENSIFIES]". There's obviously more I come ramble about but I think the core idea gets across. I love Mass Effect. And because ME2 is not only my first, but my favorite game, when I think of the series "main theme" I'll always be torn between the big movie level cinematic quality of the Suicide Mission theme, and everything associated with that, like the Human Reaper fight music. And the "there's a whole ass universe of things and people's to explore here" feeling of Vigil from ME1. That track is pure mind capturing explorative, relaxing beauty. 👌👌👌 But it holds another place in my heart for intimate moments as well. By far my favorite tracks in the series. They're very important to me, but since I don't know how to properly wrap this post up... I should just...

I should go.