#did I draw OP Zelda again

[choochooboss]

Introducing your station master & Magma event host!

Since there's already a lot of passengers visiting this station and I haven't spared much time to get to know my fellow submas fans over Tumbrl yet, an introduction would be in place!

I'm Jun, nice to meet you! *offers a hand for for a shake* I am a devoted submas artist & a monthly Magma event host! I go by ChooChooBoss everywhere (Twitter/Bsky/Twitch/Ko-Fi)!

This will be a long post! I will write a short intro as well which you can just skim through but here is a more in depth view how I got into submas, my other interests and life in general, in case you'd wish to know more about your conductor on this silly train!

How did I get into submas in the first place?

PLA. I met this certain mysterious & cool fellow time traveler and got curious! After the cave scene I went to read his Wiki, found out about Emmet, and... yeah. The emotional impact blasted me right out of a miserable cycle I was going through back then and set my soul on fire!! A month later I set up my first art account on Twitter, and the rest is history. They've become my greatest source of strength and inspiration and I enjoy drawing them every single day!

I love both twins very much! I tend to vibe with Ingo a little more than Emmet, but I draw Emmet more. People say I remind of butler Ingo the most, hehe. I certainly don't mind because I'm a big fan of butlermas!! In fact I got into submas & started playing Pokémon Masters EX in April 2022, a week before butler Ingo banner rolled in, so they truly got a special place in my heart ahah! (pssst draw more butlermas for me pls pls pls-)

However I don't draw warden Ingo as much as I would like to. I still get pretty emotional over his fate ahah, I can't draw him without a single tear! This sweet & kind man leading a good life and being an inspiration to others has been torn from literally everything he had for seemingly no reason apart from his name, clothes and the muscle memory and even those are barely intact. It seems like a miracle he's still standing and breathing after put through everything judging by the wear and tear on his uniform and body. Despite all that he carries a positive attitude, assists everyone in need, and does his best to help people and pokémon understand each other, unconditionally... Oh, my face is wet again...

My other interests besides submas?

Monster Hunter! Zelda! Genshin Impact! Super Mario! Trine! Crash Team Racing! And many many more! My favourite genres are platformers, kart racers, and action games, with a side of rhythm games. I'm a big fan of co-op games! I also watch my sis play JRPGs!

Monster Hunter is the dearest to me out of all. I've been hunting for well over a decade starting from MHFU. The games have charmed me with their incredibly satisfying combat system, world building, creature design, great attention to detail, character customisation and the games being nearly fully co-op!!

Other things I do:

Pokémon is practically the only turn-based game I enjoy, mainly because of the characters and collection aspect. However!! I adore Pokémon Colosseum (the first pkmn game I ever played!) and it's double battle focus, so The Indigo Disc has been a delight after the long starvation for double battles, coming up with different combinations makes the battles much more fun to me!!... I sound like Emmet here do I ahahah! We also share the fact we are both left-handed!

Shuffle dancing, daily pull-ups, and expanding my ever growing VGM collection! I also enjoy traveling and taking photos to keep as a diary! I've played piano in a music school for 9 years, and I can also play kalimba. I've done casual boxing, gymnastics, horse riding and medieval swordfighting. I used to read comics/manga and watch movies and anime but nowadays I barely do that, I just rather use that time for drawing instead of just sitting and watching, unless I have company!

I share the apartment with my anxious brother and our two sweet female cats, Laku (11, stubborn and cuddly) and Kalevi (21, demanding and full of love) in a city center. My parents are both entrepreneurs and run a farm in the countryside & I have 4 siblings with me as the middle kid!

Where can you meet me?

I am a game artist by profession, with 4 yrs of studies and roughly 7 years of EXP in the field doing game art, UI design, character/prop design, in mobile games as well as PC titles, 2D and 3D. At the moment I am looking for work; I keep up the motivation and learn new skills by running my art accounts while looking for new opportunities.

I hail from the land of darkness, snow, salmiakki, metalheads and renownly reserved people, Finland! (UTC+2)

Despite having my roots here I am pretty much the opposite of a typical Finn in almost every sense ahah! I'm a small guy who's not afraid talking to strangers and laughs a lot. And I dislike coffee for the contrary, it's very popular amongst finns.

With the inspiration from submas I've finally stepped into the world of cosplay so you can usually meet this small and excitable Ingo in the biggest local conventions, Desucon and Tracon! Come say hi!

About my social battery:

I'm both social and socially anxious ahah! I love making new friends and talking to all sorts of people and writing comments, and gathering together with my mutuals to do cool stuff together! However my social battery is very small... I often struggle with my AD(H)D and anxiety issues, so my replies can be extremely slow. I'm easily overwhelmed when life gets busy and I deal with it by withdrawing to minimise the the stimuli and then sorting my stuff out one by one. This is a frustrating shortcoming, but I'm working hard to find a balance I can maintain without getting exhausted. Please be patient with me! If you don't hear from me in a while, please don't take it personally! In fact, it makes me really happy if you contact me, for any purpose!

Which pronouns do I go with?

I go by they/them! I am also aroace, so if I appear to show any sort of romantic interest, it's definitely not that. I love meeting new people and am quite interested in people in general so I'm excited to get to know you better, but the thing is... I have been confusing people on several occassions for saying things that could be taken as flirting. I am terribly sorry for that, that's just the way I show how I care!

I don't really identify myself by any specific gender either, but rather by my roles or interests (Magma host, submas fan, game artist etc.). Submas encouraged me to enjoy dressing formally even if I'm just sitting at home, because I love formal clothing in general and wearing them makes me feel confident and stand taller! I usually wear collar shirts and black or white slacks.

More about my AD(H)D:

I don't have an official diagnosis but deal with the same problems as AD(H)D people do; poor work memory, dissociation, hyperfocus (drawing and people), sleep deprivation, impulsiveness (juggling too many things and going with the wind), getting sensory/information overloads, and feeling like I don't fit in. I figured it out after I finished school & lost my job for that I am unable to handle big tasks without anyone giving me directions. It has taken a while but I've figured out things that help me manage my daily life as well as have a medication that mainly boosts my capability to get things started which is another great struggle ahah.

How do I manage to keep myself on track?

I use a Pomodoro timer to keep up a good flow and remember to take breaks! This is what I use the most:

I should set it up on my tablet as well. I think it's really cool to see how many hours I have actually put into drawing! Last year I clocked in well over 3k hours, ahaha!

How to catch me?

Right now I have great difficulty managing replies, but usually you can reach me by DMs! I check Discord and Twitter the most often! However I must ask you to respect my current DNI status. It means I am really overwhelmed so I wish nobody comes asking for my attention until it has been lifted, unless it's really necessary. I really love talking to you all but I also have to accept and deal with my own limits strictly like this or it won't work out.

What am I working on at the moment?

Besides the holiday set I have several short comics under works as well as one big comic (100+ pages!). That one is my personal greatest goal! I started working on it in June 2022 and I have currently 40+ pages sketched and 60+ thumbnailed.

I was afraid of starting any comic projects before submas, but the sheer excitement over them carried me over that personal wall ahah!

The story's beginning and end are looking good and somewhat functional but there's still a lot to work to do and holes to fill in the middle before I dare to start fleshing out the pages. I have little experience in writing or comic making so I hope you forgive if some things don't make sense or the dialogue is a little on the nose so to say ahah!

The story will be packed with action with the overall tone being on the darker side, but it sure won't be lacking in humor! The project's main goal is to make it a celebration of all things submas & to prove to myself I can handle a big scale project despite my shortcomings!

This train has reached the terminal!

Thank you for riding my silly submas train!! I adore reading all your tags and comments! They brighten up my day & fuel my passion even more!! I hope to bring many more fun things for you to look forward to!! See you again soon!

ALL ABOARD!!

[pastelpaperplanes]

Hi! I have a coupla questions about Thorns and Thrones AU!

In the glorious OP&Megs duo - does the cooking? Can they even cook? If OP made a dish for Megs - that turned out **horrendously bad** would Megs still eat it?

There’s something about your AU that has the same incredibly wholesome & soul-warming vibe ~ which reminds me a lot of Zelda BotW^^

💀please give a permission to draw OP making Dubious Food…

Stg I’ll even animate it lol

they both would be terrible at cooking their hunts—depending on who you ask. When Meg’s is on cooking duty, Optimus thinks the brute like to eat meat RAW really, Megs is hungry and impatient and a LITTLE RED isn’t gonna KILL YOU Orion.

When it’s Op’s turn, Meg’s think he would prefer the taste of leather compared to the sorry singed meal Orion whips up. Op’s meals are perfectly cooked through and no nothing is burningwhywouldyousay that he gets distracted okay, SOME ONE has to make sure they know where the map is heading for them tomorrow since SOME ONE thinks they’re too good to ask for directions. EVER.

They are disasters. The usual.

Then again, it’s a little hard to spruce up smth fancy when cooking day in and day out in the wilderness, lol they just kinda get by being on the move all the time. foraging is definitely up Meg’s alley since he’s been on his quest for far longer than Optimus has and knows what’s safe and what’s not. most of the time. he did once accidentally scrounge some rrreeeaallllllyyyy good mushrooms once 😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫😵‍💫 not much traveling done for a while after that meal PHEWWW.

Megs grew up not caring much for taste, only making sure he had enough for proper energy and that definitely played well into his time in the gladiator pits as well, he’s not accustomed to anything fancy. but that DEFINITELY doesn’t mean he isn’t a fan!! But he’s always been extremely particular about his wines and drinks this has literally never changed lol

Optimus grew up around feasts and posh parties while being part of the noble houses! He has more of a sweet tooth and enjoyed the dessert tables rather than diving into anything else aside from the wine

Regardless of what they’ve been used to, both mutually agree that their rations taste like chalk, and 99% of the time just say screw it and scrounge up what they can to treat themselves to tavern meal

SHOVELING. INHALING whatever is put in front of them at light speeds 😤🍽️✨

and thank you 😭🙏💕 I’m so glad to hear that!! For all the drama involved in the AU I do love that it gives off those adventurous and wholesome quest vibes! Lol for all the intensity behind their goal they rly do get to have a lot of whacky adventures in between

PERMISSION ALWAYS BTW. pls tag me if you do smth I wanna see!!!!

[kidmachinate]

So Easy, Yet So Great: A Super Mario Bros Wonder Review

Super Mario Bros. Wonder has to be the best game I've played in a long time. Even if that isn't true and my memory fails me, it is certainly the best game in a long time that has kept me consistently smiling and wondering what's next. Yes that's the sentence I chose to use, yes I know everyone is wearing out using wonder as part of describing how great the game is. It's what came out. Last time I had similar feelings would probably be Kirby and the Forgotten Land.

The latest Mario title has its fair share of new power ups with the Drill Mushroom, Elephant Fruit, and Bubble Flower. It has a much bigger share of worlds, stages within those worlds, collectibles, hidden world, and mini break stages in between. Various badges make you able to add a particular ability to your characters movement or enhance you somehow to prepare for that next stage. The Flower Kingdom instead of the Mushroom Kingdom is a breath of fresh air, along with the Wonder Flowers that have different effects each and every level you find them in. They change the stages properties and/or even how you control your character and in some cases what your character becomes. This is a Mario game firing on all cylinders of creativity which was certainly missing since the very first New Super Mario Bros. back in 2006. Was a fine new idea for 2D Mario at the time, but many games like it followed while 3D continued to be something new each time, and even the "new" game in the 2D series didn't hit the same stride as the two Super Mario World games did back on the Super Nintendo. Th ne Mario is voiced well even if not voice by the same person we've become used to since Mario 64. Sometimes you can't even tell the difference.

This Mario game removes the timer and even has easy mode characters to choose from if things get too rough. While Mario games are rarely difficult, this makes the game even more accessible to others who may struggle. Lives are given out or bought easily. It's a chill game never demanding too much of you, unless you want it through select challenges and the bonus worlds. If you play with friends in local co-op, there is no collision. No more killing your friends that can't keep up with you as you try to jump over the same pit. Online play is a thing but reduced to seeing other players play along with you on the same level as a ghost of sorts. They can only leave signs behind to help and I believe save you if close if you fall in a pit or something. Best use for online is help with the flower coin hunt stages that exist.

The few downsides are the characters you can pick from are just to choose a character because you like them. They don't have their own unique abilities. I get they did this because of the badges but it makes every character plays the same. Kudos on Daisy being fully playable though. You get Mario, Luigi, Peach, Toad, and Toadette. The easy mode characters (Yoshi and Nabbit) have their abilities but no one else. It's a letdown. Speaking of letdowns, in an already simple game, the bosses are real pushovers...even for a Mario title. You may never die to a boss in this game. It is that easy.

This latest Mario game is easily worth the asking price. It is even ten dollars less than The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom. Will take less of your time too. No shade, truly, but just facts. Nintendo nailed it for sure with this one and it leaves a bright future for 2D Mario again for the first time in over a decade. It's been a long wait but we got one hell of a game. I've collected everything possible so far and the core game is beat. I'll be doing the Secret World real soon. The review could go on, but ruining the surprise of the various Wonder Flower effects is something that should be experienced by everyone for themselves, and not spoiled in the least bit. It's a big draw to the game itself and its ever-changing world.

If you enjoy this anywhere close to what I did, you might find yourself cheering "Wowie Zowie!" Along with Daisy or even singing along to some stuff along the way.

[newtsnaturethings]

I rewatched Atlantis the Lost Empire (one of my favorite movies as a kid) the other night and now here’s the Breath of the Wild Atlantis AU no one asked for.

Here we go:

- A long time ago the Calamity happened and shit hit the fan. It ultimately gets sealed but the Sheikah settlement of Atlantis gets submerged and lost to time (side note this movie kills A LOT of people and is not subtle about it). 

- Flash forward to our protagonist Link, who works at a museum in Castle Town. He’s obsessed with legends and myths of the Goddesses and heroes. Also his parents are dead because of course they are. 

- He works as the museum’s cook during the day and security guard at night.

- One day he gets called to the Zora domain to meet with King Dorephan, a friend of his parents, who tells him he’s funding an expedition with the remaining Sheikah to find the lost Sheikah settlement of Atlantis that supposedly went missing after the Calamity many years ago. 

- He reveals his parents found the Sheikah Slate, the map to find the lost settlement. Link can barely understand how to use it but yeah instead of the Shepard’s Journal we got the Sheikah Slate.

- The expedition crew is composed of the champions: 

- Mipha is the team medic. Sidon’s there for moral support. 

- Daruk is the bomb expert but he doesn't always remember that not everyone has a bomb shield at the ready

- Revali works communications. He’s also super uncomfortable with the submarine travel because birb but he (of course) puts on a confident front. (He get’s better in the underwater cave bit cause there’s room to fly) 

- Urbosa is the captain. No question there. 

- Robbie is the mechanic and Purah is the team scientist. Impa makes sure they don't accidentally kill everyone with their experiments.

- Link goes as the cook and as extra back up. And because Dorephan knows how much he loves adventure. 

- Also the Yiga have infiltrated the expedition because they want to unseal the Calamity and eliminate the one who can seal it. No one knows this. 

- Near the entrance the submarine gets attacked by rogue Divine Beast Vah Ruta. They manage to get into the cave and no one dies (seriously the Atlantis movie has an INSANE death count)

- THE EXPEDITION CONTINUES. Shenanigans ensue. More rogue Divine Beast attacks. 

- Link somehow gets separated from the group and meets the lost princess Sheikah Zelda (can y’all tell I’m a sucker for warrior Zelda)

- Zelda leads everyone to the lost Sheikah settlement.

- Zelda wants to research all the busted tech but her dad is not into it and discourages the research (she doesn’t care and does it anyways). 

- Link shows Zelda the Slate and they go around and try to piece together how to get the tech to work again (with mixed results) 

- Zelda also shows Link all the cool places and wildlife she loves to study and Link tells her all about the surface. They grow closer and then they realize the feelings hit and they just awkwardly flirt while everyone rolls their eyes in the background. 

- The Swimming Scene: Link tries (and fails) to be confident and is like “I was raised with the Zora I can definitely swim” and Zelda’s just like “uh okay :) let’s go” 

- Yiga reveal. 

- They take Link and Zelda to the Sacred Spring underneath the city. Zelda gets taken by the Goddess. They attempt to take her to where the Calamity is sealed so Zelda (and the Goddess) can be destroyed forever. 

- Link’s like f*ck that shit and rallies the crew to rescue her (also the Champions aren’t out to get rich like in the movie as soon as they wise up to the Yiga they are on board for the rescue). 

- The Yiga are defeated but then the Calamity awakens anyway. 

- Zelda fuckin obliterates it with her powers. 

- Zelda returns to everyone. Cue heartfelt reunion with Link.

- Zelda becomes Queen and works with Link to continue to help her people and recover the lost technology. 

Enjoy the brain rot. 

[vinnival]

Is it ok if I request a platonic madcom matchup? If its romo only you're free ignore this nsbdjdnfbdb

I'm 5'3, aroace, and my gender is just. Art itself! Like on a conceptual level. I have short blue hair shaved on one side, a very "twiggy" build [I'm SUPER LIGHT jfbdjfb], and glasses. I have ADHD and it gives me a unique perception of the world [I usually call it my "artist's lens" jshdjsjd] along w a LOT of chaotic energy. I adore drawing and writing, making stories and breathing life into pictures make me happier than anything! I'm also a huge fan of video games [mainly nintendo] and loud music. I try my best to be nice to others and keep a sort of cycle of kindness going. I adore making new friends and just... being nice to people! It makes me happy :> I'm not super strong, definitely more brains than brawn and, n I use a typing quirk ⚡that lookz zomething like thiz!⚡ uhhhh... that's ab it! Hope this isnt too much/not enough jfhdjjd

OP MY FRIEND... YOU ARE SO VALID.... FELLOW NINTENDO FANS UNITE <333 you seem so cool i am seething with love. Enjoy :0

You got a platmatch! You matched with...

Tricky!

:D

I mean

What did you expect

Chaotic energy? Loud music? YOUR URL?? Cmon you'd be super good friends with mr clown man I can feel it deep in my soul

You were out painting the beautiful (okay LISTEN MADCOM NEVADA HAS A PRETTY RED SKY.) sky, littered with stars and clouds

Then you heard a very loud commotion nearby

You were curious, knowing many dangerous areas were right near your home, but you should be okay, right?

You inched over to look through the bush separating you from the sudden drop-off cliff

Below, you could see the infamous Tricky the Clown and Hank J. Wimbleton having a battle

You were very intrigued and interested, completely disregarding the fact that they were tearing each other apart

"Hey this would make a cool ass painting, with perspective and cool lighting and all" -your brain. probably

You scrambled to grab your easel

As soon as you turned away, the Clown managed to successfully kill Hank once again

You needed to run inside to grab a new canvas, not knowing your opportunity was ruined

You accidentally slammed the door in excitement

Tricky heard that

He wandered up the hill your house was on

When you rushed back outside, you very roughly slammed into him

Uh oh you just crashed into clown

You're lucky you had that canvas held out in front of you once you fell because with Tricky's reflexes, he sliced the thing in two immediately with his signature sign

"ARE YOU HANK FRIEND."

"W-what?"

"ARE YOU HANK FRIEND?!" He growled into your face, holding that sign dangerously close to your neck

"No! No, I'm not! I promise! I-I was just up here painting!"

You tried to gesture over to your other piece laying on the ground but he didn't allow you much range of movement, looking over by himself

He visibly relaxed, successfully convinced

(+100 speech)

He stayed there while you tried to calm down

You wanted to ask why he stayed but you didn't want to press him

He eventually asked you to paint him, and honestly you were kinda excited

He would do that constantly after that. He liked how you painted him :)

"ART VERY COOL. APPRECIATIVE."

You feel like you unlocked a secret side of this murder machine

He seemed very friendly and nice to you, and you shared a little bit more about yourself every time he visited

He LOVES jamming out with you oh my god

You two have similar music taste sorry I don't make the rules

You let him in your house once and he was drawn to your consoles

"THIS DIFFERENT FROM AUDITOR TECH"

You explained the console and concept of video games to him

He seemed really interested in Zelda :)

You joked around with him, and you found out he has very general humor and loves jokes and just goofing around !!

He also loves just being very chaotic

Like if you were attacked by a random thug grunt, Tricky would swoop in and swiftly take care of that little bitch

You just snort and say "ah hell nah tha clow kilt groot"

You two would proceed to roll around on the floor wheezing at that

If he sensed you guys were in danger and didn't have a weapon he'd just. Pick you up and run

"FRIEND WILL NOT GET HURT"

Meanwhile you were calling whatever wanted to attack you a pissbaby among other things

Sometimes you'd just blurt out random words that popped into your head without context

"Fourty-seven capybaras"

"I AGREE"

All in all he really appreciates you for being so nice to him and not being associated with hank lmao

Veteran madcom fans like RARARARA HE IS A KILLER!!!! A MONSTER!!!!!! AN ABSOLUTE MURDERER!!!!! Bitch he politely bought a hotdog he's not 100% kill mode

Hope you enjoyed this op :}

[violet975]

Random thoughts.

So i replayed BOTW a while ago for the first time and decided to write down some of the random thoughts that i get while exploring Hyrule, here they are.

… A lot of these things gave me some fanfic ideas and I hope that they will do the same for someone more competent.

It's realty in character that the response to being asked why you took the man's torch is either to bludgeon things to death with it or to be a pyromaniac.

When the tower pedestal shines, Link instinctively leans back for a second before diving right back in because curiosity kills the cat.

The message from the slate/tower is to watch out for falling rocks which either means that 

1: zelda is writing them (and has a fair bit of free reign still).

2: the ancient Sheikah could see the future.

3: Ai to the likes of Fi.

Ganon kinda reawakens when the towers are up so maybe he was resting and building a body until he was interrupted here, which could be why his form later is such a hodgepodge of the Blights?.

Link is not too naive since he kinda clamps up in his answers to the totally unimportant old man.

Did Link briefly make eye-contact with the camera when he got the spirit orb!?

Link is a bit freaked out in his "How did you know!?" Response cas now he knows something major is up when the old man directly mentions the spirit orb.

Again, in character that you can choose to be an impatient brat with the "paraglider please?" Or inquisitive when Roam points out the slate.

Either run out of temper with the "that wasn't the deal!" Or be resigned with "so I need more now?" When the old fart sends you off to the other three shrines.

Ohh, another adrenaline junkie option with the "got it!" Over climbing the tower for a good view or a Deadpan "are you joking?".

"Or so i heard quite some time ago.. I do not know if it actually works as such" so they did not get teleporting to work before? or he just didn't learn how it was done.

So the monks, according to how the Triforce signs they held, apparently associate Power with Magnesis, Wisdom with bombs, Stability with stasis and Courage with cryonis?

The monks dissipate into green specks like Ganon’s soul does under the castle!

I'm not into men but damn if Link doesn't look good in the Warm Doublet.

Oh. My. God, he was King Rhoam Bosphoramus Hyrule!!!!!

Link is such a dumbass, you get to ask Kass "are you a ...bird?" As if the man isn't standing right in front of you. No shit Sherlock! What next, is that a recorder?.

OhhohoHO! You either say "no(, i have not heard of them)" or "Ancient songs?" As if you do not initially realize why they are thought to be ancient which either is old memories warring with the now world or Link not realizing what impact The Calamity had on culture.

Another flat-faced sarcastic remark everyone!

When Manny mentions that his job is checking for beauties/sus people you can either be a dumb dunce and ask about the said beauties or a little menace with "sounds though".

Manny is an Incel, talks a big game and puts himself on top of a pedestal alongside being demanding and a creep.

Does Hateno not have a goddess shrine? Just the ~Evil~ one?

There is a pair of rusty knights sword and shield by the leftmost part of the walkway of Fort Hateno. Some knight probably died laying there, watching out over the field of guardians having been/being purged by Zelda.

A traveler (Chelessa) is interested in history and wants to question Impa about it, and is on her way to do so in fact. . Describes her personality as very pleasant, that must be wrong.

The Yiga know exactly how Links first waking moments played out so either they have extensive knowledge about his character and the setup of the Shrine Of Resurrection or Ganon was watching in on Zelda's call and relayed it to a minion in the clan.

"Hero boy" - derogatory.

Arrow in the eye of the bridge at the entrance of Kakariko, the Yiga are petty and I love it.

Piano's (the painter) hair bun thing that is styled like a pencil has paint on the tip... this man painted with his hair.

So the great fairy Cotera makes it sound like she will enchant your gear because you rejuvenated her, not because you bring the materials to do the enchanting.

The levels of enchantment seemingly depends on physical closeness to the Fairy (blow< indirect kiss< kiss < sex)

She can not enchant beyond Lv 1 without her sister's help, so they share power?

Paya specifies that they have watched over the Orb since the grandmother of the grandmother of Impa, that's 9 whole generations of long lived Sheikah! roughly 1000 years of recorded history!

Again with Link being a dense Shonen protagonist with "where is it?" Or a sly bastard with "really, though?"... maybe so that she would want to prove it ;) 

…”I'll answer you some day, just not today!”

Either Paya is just not ready for that or she is so nervous that she did not think about the fact that her own grandmother was in the room when she said it!

“Served the royal family in secret” so it's not common knowledge that the royals have a village of Magic ninjas!? No wonder it took a damn demon to topple it instead of rebellion or infighting... probably has been like this since the old old king banished 'em.

"The royal family was destroyed, and the members of our tribe scattered."- okay so it was probably some Sheikah that either thought the royal family was completely extinct and either fled or, according to this next bit- "Sadly, there were some who swore allegiance to Ganon at that time. They joined together as the Yiga Clan, seeking out all who opposed Ganon... cutting them down, one after another." 

So from that we get to know that not all Sheikah deserters became enemies (unless the Sheikah dislike defectors enough to hunt them down) and others who either joined an existing opposing group or simply up and created the Yiga clan that then aligned itself with Ganon... probably under either the belief that Hylia's line was extinct and that it was join or die or because they wished to spite the goddess and her followers.

I actually like this way more because it makes no sense that the Yiga could survive before the Calamity when the Royals would have an entire damn country and anbu black-ops to hunt them down with.

"Master link, now that you are awake, you are surely the most formidable opponent standing against them!" Either hero worship or the Sheikah are freshly out on capable warriors with Ninja magic tricks, probably the latter which would explain why the world isn't infested with Lynels or why hynoxes haven't just trampled every settlement.

"No doubt they will come for you, employing whatever underhanded methods they can device" 

oh come on! Do not tell me that i'm stuck with the goodie two shoe ninja clan!? Underhandedness is your bread and butter! No wonder you served the royals in secret because you and them by proxy would have been a laughingstock otherwise!!!

"The great fairy Cotera... few remain who know that this village was built under her watchful eye." So the village is fairy new and the Yiga came about before Kakariko or it is old and so well protected that they can't get in... at least not easily.

"The mysterious power of Cotera is that of sacred protection..." so the Great fairies are linked to either Hylia or the gods, good to know.

So it’s not that Cotera “-would be happy to help” but, instead “i can't think of any reason why she wouldn't be happy to help you”. so either she only directly helps men or the earlier "you can put your trust in the great fairy" means that she judges more favorably for the chosen hero.

"I heard that the weather is going to be beautifully tomorrow... to bad you won't be alive to enjoy it"

So they have weather accurate~ich prediction? through magic or old time methods?

Again: Hero boy - derogatory... It's a common nickname for Link within the Yiga.

The lush green shrine could tell that a buck was on it, so the platforms are most definitely scanners.

A travelers sword by a campfire at the foot of mount Lanayru, so someone either took a swim and died to the Lizardfo, dramatically quit or got killed in their sleep.

Love the effect when you have metal weapons on the ground and swing a ThunderBlade!

You automatically reflect the Octorock's rocks, goes faster if you do it manually.

There is a hollowed out part of a hill/mountain with a lot of fic potential to the North-West of the Sword by the campfire.

Located where the lines meet if you draw a line to the right from Rabia plain and up from Trotter's Downfall.

Koko of Kakariko has been deceived by my cunning and slight-of-hand. 

Yes, Sagessa (woman by the lake of the Dueling peaks stable), there is, in fact, something "quite romantic" in Link's "endeavor" to save Zelda, thank you for noticing!

The chests inside the shrines can only (non-violently) be opened by use of the Sheikah slate so why not steal a few? prefect safe-keeping for more stuff to keep in Links house.

Dunce moment everyone! 

The Yiga traveler tries to seduce Link and you either go with "OK..." so he either has no damn idea about what is going on or is just not good with women? 

Orrrrr you go with a straight "I refuse!" cas you see through their ruse and want to rub their face in the dirt!

According to Mina the Hylian, taking out two Bokoblins is considered as great martial caliber which both she and her traveling companion could not do while decently armed.

Best way to deal with a guardian scout when you have weak weapons: hit with electricity, switch weapon, hit 2-5 times, switch to electric, repeat.

When you first enter the area around Hyrule Castle, smoke Ganon throws a fit until Zelda slaps him away. 

This either means that Zelda canonically gets a larger workload from there on and out or that the both of them push harder against each other every time you get close.

According to Zelda's diary, Link was assigned as her guard after the champions had been appointed.

How Link was focused on her yet did not voice his thoughts apparently "makes my imagination run wild!". Either romantic or dense.

Link admits to staying quiet because of the pressure of being the boy chosen by the sword. 

King Rhoam mentions that he decided to honor THE royal family's traditions by naming his daughter Zelda, and that he is "not a man accustomed to frivolous musings". 

Basically confirming that he is not the parent of royal blood.

They probably knew about The Calamity for a good while cas the page after zelda's naming speaks of the fortune teller, probs 3-8 years since Zelda was described to already have vast interest in the relics.

Pikango gets up at 10 past 5, I spent the night watching him and Beetle sleep.

According to all known laws of aerodynamics, Rito should not be able to fly, is Revali's gale then just an absurdly strong variation of some kind of sky Arcanum that all Rito possess? Do all the races possess one as Well?

Slimes ate the Bokoblins in the tree base at the center of the west Hyrule fields.

Savelle is a helpful guy without a pension for violence.

Munk Shae Loya is just flexing on all the other Munks, those old farts need to sit down while he's been squatting on one leg the last 10'000 years.

Chork of the Tabantha Bridge Stable is drunk.

Toren is either naive or a simp for the Faireys.

If you have the Hylian hood equipped with no weapon while riding at max speed then your cape will flap.

"Sweet boy..." "...I see now that my first impression of you was correct. You most definitely are pleasant to look at." 

So link has some kind of presence/soul-thingy that appears pleasant to mystical creatures? Might be the spirit of the hero or this link in particular.

The Fairy Kaysar makes Link blush! No player input needed! We’ve found one of his types!... either that or he's just shy.

The fairies almost never use normal materials to enchant, it's always either monster parts that don't dissipate or things that grow in magical arias.

The Sheikah towers are sturdy as all hell, the Tabantha tower did not even get a scratch from a giant fucking pillar falling on it.

Okay, am I just crazy or is a Lizardfo and a Moblin holding a class for 5 bokoblins just to the left of the Tabanta fairy fountain!?

Lester, the wise curry rice guy at Rito Stable, describes Link as sunny boy, another point to the soul/aura theory thingy.

Phontos laughs to hide the pain.

According to the story that Kass sings. 

Calamity Ganon was the result of sealing the enemy at its source.

It fought not only the spawn of the Goddess and the bearer of the Spirit Of The Hero but also the army of Guardians and the Champions that piloted the Divine Beasts for quite some time, as implied in the "and the guardians protected them throughout every hour".

So what i get from this is that the attack 10 000 years ago was the first sighting of what we know as calamity Ganon. 

It was also far stronger than the one that attacked 100 years ago which implies that that one was either a rush job or that Ganon bounds had been tightened, both of which would drive him to seek out other methods like corrupting the Guardians.

...And the Guardians are apparently powered by the ancient blue energy which was, time-line wise, first shown when the Golden Goddesses created the world.

No wonder that Ganon was capable of doing this since he most likely is running on fumes, spite and the power of the Triforce which likely is made of/channels said energy.

According to the rumor mill, you need the blood of the Hero in your veins to wield the Master Sword, if this is accurate then that means that Fi is sentimental or that Link has magic blood.

Wildberrys are fucking massive.

Genli (the salmon child) is a cunt, one kid was crying about someone Vah Medoh killed and then Genli is all like "no don't stop it, if you do then i have to go to class again!", She would fit right in with today's youth.

Monk Akh Va'quot has the best position so far, he is just done with your shit.

"You adventurers are Crazy" -> "you're right"

You get nothing if you melt all the ice by the Tabantha tower! You lose! Good day sir!

Monk Daka Tuss got bored during his self-inflicted quarantine and started stacking his arm bands.

Tula (the bathing Zora) said "wow either you are a Hylian or hideously deformed"

Phura has vandalized and mounted one of the spirit frog statues above her door.

Okay but the fucking noice that comes out of Bolson when you buy everything!! It's as if you just walked up and twisted his nuts with the power fit to shield block a Lynel’s charge.

Is the flower by Link's bed a Korok version of a Silent Princess?

The monsters of Hyrule are show to have interest in consumption based on three accounts. 

1: the Bocoblins and the Moblins by Hateno bay steal cattle. 

2: Hynoxes carry around warriors foodstuffs. 

3: Moblins (or at least the ones by the camp near the Serenne stable/forgotten temple) have a resting animation where they dig through the dirt and stuff something down their goblet.

...not to mention that nearly every camp has a bit of meat roasting by the fire.

Koyin has joined the fan-club!

God, the Naydra snowfield is fucking loaded in chill-shromes!

Stasis is perfect for looking for ingredients in forests, just open it, look around and bam! No more hidey hoe.

Why no shiny text for hylia's statue!?

I really do not like that they changed Naydra's colors when the malice was removed, they were so cool and then bam! White! White is not the color for ice and cold!

When praying by the spring of wisdom you are facing Hyrule castle, the same with courage and power if my memory serves me right.

...The master Torch

The Katona Aug shrine is just fucking mini-golf, how is that meant to prepare the hero?! Imagine how that Monk goes to the afterlife and has to look his fellows straight in the eye and admit that he was so lazy that not only did he make the hero play golf, not only was he so lazy that he made the Hero play mini-golf, but that he was so lazy that he did not even make a course! It is literally just a straight line!

Robie wants to see Links scars to verify that he is who he says that he is, Robie was likely one of the ninja that took Link to the shrine of resurrection.

Oh and Robin has two interesting sketches in his lab, the first is a detailed graph of a Sheikah tower so those were likely known about long before Link activated one (the one closest to Robin would be the one covered in malice and guardians so he could not have gotten enough detail from that one).

And the other is a sketch of what I believe is either a tier 2 or tier 3 guardian scout. Now, how can Robin know how that looks if only Link can/could enter shrines?

The Sheikah shrine that has the Barbarian helm is located at the end of the Sinai maze, did they just plop the shrine down there and steal the treasure of the ruin to later present to the hero?

There is one usable room in the citadel.

There is no compendium slot for the malice eyes that litter Naydra, Hyrule Castle and the Divine Beasts.

You can change the element of already elemental slime, not just the neutral kind.

Those head-spitting fuckers inside the divine beasts! They are partially reanimating mobs! So it's not that the Blood Moon is the time where Ganon is at his strongest, it's just where he chooses to revive everything.

The edge of duality can also be found in the shrine at the top of the dueling peaks.

[beyondconfessor]

Principal Decisions [13/24]

Rating: Explicit

Pairing: Lilith/Zelda Spellman

Summary: “Not even a thank you?” Lilith asked before tutting. “Didn’t your mother teach you manners?”

N.B.: Also posted on AO3. This is pure fantasy, please suspend your disbelief.

Zelda glared at the nurse. It was in the small hours of the morning, and the young girl, barely out of training, was shivering under her stare, voice shaking as she advised, once again, “a doctor needs to sign you off before we can discharge you.”

“Ridiculous, go and get one then.”

“He’ll be around later,” she said.

Zelda huffed, and the girl, apparently seeing that as an opportune moment, decided to exit the room. Apparently considering her ops for the shift completed.

Honestly, after a bad night’s sleep, the last thing she wanted was to be dealing with the fact that she would need to cancel today’s class––and if things continued in such a way, she might have to cancel tomorrows as well, because apparently, she was entirely reliant on some fucking doctor who hadn’t bothered to check on her since yesterday, to provide permission for her to leave.

There’d also been the whispers of a repeat MRI and CT scan, which was the very last thing she needed. It’d been a very small bleed with a minimal fracture and was likely to be absolutely fine. There was no reason to make such a fuss. After all, she was a grown, fucking woman. She should leave. Get up and leave.

It wasn’t like Lilith had any real power over her. She could just put her shoes on (given that she was dressed in a new set of clothes provided by Hilda) call a cab and take her back home where she’d find her emergency credit card and pay it that way.

And yet she didn’t. She sat on the chair next to the hospital bed, dressed, hair combed, make-up done and waited.

There was a knock on the doorframe then, and then Lilith was entering the room, her handbag in tow.

Zelda stood up, smoothing down her skirt and reached out to take the bag.

“Not even a thank you?” Lilith asked before tutting. “Didn’t your mother teach you manners?”

“Thank you,” Zelda said tightly and reached for the bag, only for it to be pulled out of reach. Well, she was hardly going to chase for it.

Crossing her arms, Zelda glared at her, waiting for Lilith’s grin to falter. It didn’t, and instead, Zelda was left to step back and look away, hating how the very sight of Lilith was making her heart beat fast in her chest.

“What do you want, Lilith?”

“Oh, a great many things,” she said, before stepping forward. “How about a proper thank you for finding your bag and bringing it to you.”

“If you had brought it with you in the first place, we wouldn’t be here.”

“I’m going to ignore your bad attitude because you’ve suffered a concussion, but I would be more thankful if I were you. I didn’t have to bring it, I could have waited for you to come out of the hospital and claim it yourself.”

Zelda scoffed. “You are insufferable.”

“And you adore it. Now…” she paused and her bright blue eyes looked at Zelda with wide-eyed innocent, patiently waiting for her.

“Thank you, Lilith. I most appreciate the effort you went to,” she advised flatly, seething at the woman.

“Not at all, happy to do it for my favourite client,” she said, handing the bag over to her.

Zelda snatched it with a roll of her eyes, trying to ignore the growing flutter in her chest as she opened it up. Her phone was there, thankfully. There were a few missed calls but nothing to worry about.

Lilith hovered and Zelda’s eyes flicked up to hers. The woman’s face was no longer mischievous, only curious as she seemed to study the cut on Zelda’s forehead.

Earlier, she’d looked at in the mirror and had been horrified to note how terrible the bruising was. Her face looked positively gaunt, and even the make-up Hilda had brought wasn’t enough to cover how unwell she felt, but it was certainly a mark-up from how she’d been.

“Did the doctors say if you can leave?” Lilith asked.

“No,” she sighed. “And the nurses are saying I might have to get another CT or MRI scan completed, which I don’t see the point in.”

“You were unconscious for the entire hospital ride. And were barely coming in and out when you arrived. I would say there’s significant reason to warrant another test.” She frowned, stepping forward then and Zelda bit back the urge to shrink away.

“I’m fine. I’ll speak to the doctor and get…” she felt woozy all of a sudden and then Lilith’s hands were on her shoulders, pushing her back onto the chair to sit down, concern awash as she looked over Zelda. “I’m fine,” she assured.

“Have you asked for the day off from work?”

“Today only,” she said. “Faustus insisted.”

“Blackwood?” Lilith enquired. “Is he your boss?”

Zelda felt nausea roll in her stomach as she looked at Lilith, and wasn’t sure if it was because Lilith knew Faustus or because she had a concussion. “Please don’t tell me he was a client of yours.”

“He was not, but he was…” Lilith sighed, “We used to run in the same circles a few years back. It’s a long story, but no, he and I were adversaries, nothing more.”

Zelda smiled, feeling the relief rush through her. It was an interesting piece of information nonetheless, but if she were to advise of knowing Lilith, it would likely say more about herself than anything else. It’d be difficult to feign only a professional relationship for Sabrina’s wellbeing if she knew such tantalising secrets about Faustus.

“I’m going to get a nurse.”

“I’m fine,” Zelda said, pushing Lilith’s hand away as she looked away. “It’s just a minor blood pressure problem. Nothing a glass of water won’t fix.”

Lilith gave a disapproving look but reached over to where the jug of water sat and poured her a glass despite her disbelief. Zelda took it, took one sip and then held it in her hands, feeling the embarrassment wash over. She wasn’t a child that needed to be taken care of. She was a grown woman who had a hundred things she needed to do before tomorrow and was already behind on the every growing list of things.

“I’m not going to spurt medical advice, because you clearly won’t listen.”

Zelda huffed. “I know myself.”

“Quite. Well, what I will say is that sometimes taking a break will allow you the ability to get ahead in the work you’re falling behind on. You’ll only break yourself if you keep pushing.”

“I’m not a child,” she said lifting her eyes to glare at the woman. She didn’t care how dark Lilith stared back, she was pushing well over the lines of their relationship. “And you’re not my mother.”

“Stop acting like a child then.”

Zelda stared at the woman, feeling an anger burn but Lilith stepped forward and suddenly Zelda felt very small under the woman’s eyes, and she didn’t like it one bit. Never had anyone’s presence so much as made her tremble since she was a little girl.

She met the stare and glared back. “You’re not my partner,” she advised sharply. “You’re someone’s services I request at the best of times, and my niece’s principal, otherwise. Do not overstep that.”

Lilith’s expression fractured then, and she stepped back. All at once, Zelda realised the mistake she made in her words, and yet she couldn’t find the ability to take it back.

“As you prefer,” Lilith said with a nod of her head. “Well, since you’re all fine here, I suppose I’ll head off to comply with my…principal duties.” And then Lilith had turned on her heel and left, and Zelda was left sitting in the room, feeling the words churn in her stomach.

She hadn’t meant to snap, but Lilith had been pushing further than she should. Honestly, she was not mentally unwell. She was exhausted, yes, overworked, of course, but she was hardly depressed and in need of some shoulder to cry on––despite what the dominatrix may think.

No. What she needed was something else. Perhaps this would be a good break from Lilith. A time to self0reflect and draw away before her feelings became any more tangled.

As it was, the doctor requested another MRI, and then, when that had come back showing that the bleed had stopped, she was permitted to go home, only if someone were to pick her up.

At least now she had her phone and was able to have Hilda arrange to pick her up as discharge papers were supplied to her, with a request to obtain another MRI and CT scan within a week and follow-up with her GP. As well as some standard lines about avoiding cigarettes and alcohol for a while.

“Though perhaps this is an opportunity for you to quit smoking,” the nurse advised. “If you were a non-smoker then you would have been less prone to bleeding from the hit.”

Zelda scoffed, snatching the papers from the nurse and leaving with Hilda. Her sister took to acting like a mother hen, helping her into the car and out of it and despite her snapping that she was hardly an invalid, her sister continued to help her all the way to the parlour where she sat her on the couch with a blanket and went off to make her tea, having apparently already made her soup.

If there was one thing she couldn’t resist, it was her sister’s cooking. It gave her time to contemplate Lilith and her relationship quietly and realised that she’d indulged too long in the service. No matter what…relief she may find from it, it was clear that their emotions were becoming too blurred.

It was time to cease seeing her. She didn’t need to see the woman again, and hardly needed to advise as such. She would avoid booking in anything further.

It seemed simple enough as she managed a headache, increased with light sensitivity. Even still when she returned to her position in the school the following day and managed whispered conversations in the halls as she slowly walked from her office to her lecture hall and then back.

The headaches were awful, and daylight, her computer’s screen and the stress of her work agitated it, but she preferred it to the insistent ache that previously drew under her skin.

At least while she was recovering, it seemed that her sex drive had all but disappeared entirely, leaving her at peace during the night.  

And it seemed as she focused on her work, weeks passed and Shirley returned, resuming her class without so much as a thank you. All she received was a brief email requesting the most recent assignments to be sent back to her––Zelda had already marked them, but complied, relieved to wash her hands from the stress of that particular workload.

But even as she returned to how things were, she was as reliant on Prudence as she’d been beforehand. It seemed that her newfound headaches were some post-concussive effect, even though there was nothing medically wrong with her brain, Zelda’s doctor suggested that perhaps it was a good opportunity to take a break.

Christmas was coming up, the session was ending, she could extend her leave instead of taking on the winter subjects.

At the very least it would give her an opportunity to spend with her family. Zelda complied, placing in her leave to Faustus who complied with a grimace, knowing that he had no say in it otherwise, and Zelda found herself in December watching as Ambrose and Sabrina decorated the Christmas tree.

Hilda and Sabrina had picked it from the Putnam’s, and Harvey had dropped it off, providing a much-needed brightness to the room, especially with the fire.

Although Zelda continued to take it easy––at the instance of Hilda who continued to mother her despite Zelda’s attempts to ward her off––it was nice to sit on the couch, hot cocoa in hand and watch at Sabrina tossed tinsel at Ambrose.

It reminded her of when both of them had been young, and they would decorate the tree together. It’d been far too many years since she’d born witness to the crafting of the Christmas tree, usually working late in the office, so to sit here and watch it brought both nostalgia and the awareness that she’d missed out on a lot.

“Cuz!” Ambrose said, carefully holding an ornament from years long forgotten. “I remember when you made this.”

Sabrina paused, looking at the ceramic ornament. Zelda recalled it too, Sabrina had been barely three years old and had squished the pattern into what she’d assured Zelda was an angel but turned into more of a blob with arms than anything else.

Sabrina frowned at it, turning it around in her hands. “We don’t need to keep this any more,” she said.

“We certainly do,” Zelda said, standing up and taking it from her hands before Sabrina could whisk it away. “This was the first decoration you made. We’re keeping it.”

“Do you have any of Ambrose’s?”

Zelda hummed, looking through the Christmas box, “I don’t think so. Hilda used to do all sorts of crafts with him, but a lot of that was left in England when they came over,” she said, glancing up at her nephew, “and I suspect that the things that were brought had been disappeared away.”

Ambrose flushed, giving a short laugh before shrugging. “Things change,” he said.

Zelda’s eyes narrowed, but she smiled, not pushing it. “So they say,” she said. Taking the decoration gently in grip, she set it up high on the tree, looping it so it was unlikely to fall. “Now, what are we choosing for the top of the tree this year?”

“Last year was the star,” Ambrose said. “And that ended up falling off half a dozen times.”

“We could go with the angel,” Sabrina said, digging it out from the box. The angel was still in its glory, carefully looked after, blowing on a trumpet. It was an old heirloom, but one Zelda wouldn’t mind if it were to disappear. She took it from Sabrina’s hand and turned it around, feeling memories of her childhood fade as she placed it up on the top of the tree.

So be it, new memories. She stood back, admiring the tree. Neither Ambrose nor Sabrina were particularly gifted in decorating anyway, but Zelda was not so needy to require the tree to look like it came out of some hallmark movie.

“Well, with that in order, shall we pack up the boxes and help your Aunt Hilda finish baking for your teachers?”

Sabrina’s school term still had another two weeks remaining until they broke for Christmas, of which there was to be a final football event that she’d agreed to attend. Zelda wasn't sure if it was an important match or not, and had trouble enough trying to keep up with how sports were ranked in any regards, but Sabrina was attending and she would follow.

She hadn’t heard about Theo in some time, however, and as much as she wished to assume that it was due to him settling in the football position, Zelda suspected that he ended up quitting in the end.

It was frustrating, and it burned Zelda more than she wished it did, but in the end, the boys would only torment him further and it would be unfair to put Theo through that.

The day was enjoyable, however. Zelda’s headaches had begun to ease without the stress of work, and she and Sabrina had thankfully ceased arguing for once. Seeing how Sabrina had taken to earning her own income, using the money to go out on dates with Harvey and her friends, Zelda relinquished her ban and agreed to continue paying her her pocket money.

She had expected that it might leave Sabrina to depart from the bookstore, but instead, her niece took to it, seeming to enjoy the work, and given that Hilda had nothing bad to say, Zelda found herself…oddly relieved.

Perhaps she’d made the right decision, and in turn, perhaps she wasn’t a failing guardian to Sabrina.

In the kitchen, they baked gingerbread cookies. Then Ambrose and Sabrina iced them all as Hilda began the preparations for dinner, leaving Zelda to sip at her whiskey and feel a sense of contentment with her family.

She’d missed them. Truly missed them. The past week especially had made her all the more aware of what she’d missed.

“Oh,” Sabrina said, “Um, Aunt Zee? Roz’s family invited me to go skiing with them for the holidays.”

“How soon?” Zelda asked.

“Christmas Eve until January Third?”

Zelda bit back an ache. “So you won’t be here for Christmas or New Years?”

“Well, no, but that’s fine. You’ll have Ambrose and Aunt Hilda.”

Ambrose gave a small noise. “Actually, Luke and I…are planning to celebrate New Years with a couple of friends.”

“Doctor Cee’s hosting a New Years party, you could come and share that with me, Zelds.”

“I’ll pass,” she said, feeling the ache grow in her chest. The last thing she wanted was an overcrowded party with teenagers trying to sneak alcohol. She had enough of that at the University. No, she would stay home, watching the fireworks on the television if need-be and then go to bed. It was hardly a big deal.

“I can cancel,” Sabrina advised softly.

“Do not even think of doing such a thing. Skiing sounds wonderful for you. As I understand it’s a yearly trip for the Walkers.”

Sabrina nodded, a small smile on her lips and Zelda couldn’t help but remember when she’d been so little and had seen the snow for the first time. Zelda remembered making snowmen with Hilda and showing Sabrina how to punt snowballs at Ambrose.

And now her niece was off adventuring with her friends. It’s what she wanted for her.

“I’ll be fine,” she assured.

__________

[thejadedjewel]

Game Grumps Live - Asbury Park, NJ - 8/24/19

Game Grumps Live:

Left to Jersey 9:30-ish

Got to Jersey by 2PM.

Had lunch at Wendys – terrible bathroom, great food.  Checked in at Inn afterwards, but did a check of the Stone Pony Summer Stage to see how it looked.  Chilled at the room until a little before 5PM.

Was dropped off and got in line.  At the time, it had almost completely circled around the whole area (building and outdoor stage).  Doors opened a little before 6 because the line soon went all the way around TWICE. Talked with the guys and ladies in line and made friends with them.  There were folks as Danny Sexbang, Arina, and Daniella.  Got in around 615-ish.  Got water and waited over an hour in line for the merch table.

A ‘burgie’ chant started up at one point.  Lots of awesome music played – Rush, Queen, etc.

There was a chopper circling around and many of us joked that Dan and Arin would make an entrance from it.  Cheers always happened when someone came on-stage, one point tossing water into the audience.

Got shirt and poster and left my drawings at the table.  Then hit the bathroom.  By this time it was 740-ish and the screen suddenly pulled up the Wii-U main menu.  A voice came on and started to hype the crowd that the show will be starting a few minutes later.  By this time, the sun was setting and nearly gone.

Show started around 8 with Vernon coming on-stage to hype the crowd.  He notes that this was the biggest Game Grumps Live ever – 4 thousand fans.  To prep everyone, a fan – Chris – is brought up from the audience to play Super Mario Bros world 1-1 blindfolded.  Chaos ensues, but Chris ended up beating it after two game overs and on the last life of attempt 3.

Afterwards, Vernon joked that he was out there stalling for time due to Arin pooping and joked about making an attempt of standup comedy.  Before he leaves, he gives some homework to everyone: make a new friend at the show – it’s easy.  He also tells everyone to be kind and tells everyone to get loud and do the theme song. V: Hey, I’m grump. Us: I’M NOT SO GRUMP!  AND WE’RE THE GAME GRUMPS!

Coming out to music (Pour Some Sugar On Me) Arin and Dan ate up the applause. Dan was extra-hyped due to the show not only being the first outdoor show, but also in his birth state of New Jersey.  “Welcome Home” chants ensue.  There’s also a joke from Dan about how Arin would make cracks at live shows about the place they’re doing it, but Arin refused to do one due to fears of being beat up by Jersey folks.

Game time – Mario Party 10!  Dan was Yoshi and Arin was Peach.  The crowd was split into two sides – side one was Player 3, Waluigi and side two, my side, was Player 4, Toad.  We were given chants to shout out (“Wa-Lu-Igi!”/”Go Toad!  Go Toad!”)

Danny: (after giving each team their chants) I’m drunk with power!

To compensate for Player 3 and 4’s rolls, Arin would do that.  When Dan told the crowd to boo Arin when he rolled wrong, the crowd started to boo anyway.

Arin: Don’t boo yet!

Dan: Your Jersey hate is like vitamins(?) to me!

For Mini-games, someone to represent for each player team would come up onstage to play alongside Dan and Arin.  Mini-game 1 had Jonathon for team Waluigi and Devon for Team Toad.  When asked for something to get their respected teams hyped up, they said “Waaaaa” and “We’re the video game boys” (Us: We’re the ones who win!)  The game was a memory-esq game, which was gonna be bad for Dan (because of the weed he smoked in the 90’s killing his memory) and Arin (because he’s “an idiot”, in his words).  The game was intense with Jonathon winning.  This was when Dan noticed that, for some odd reason, Waluigi had ‘boob physics’.

Mini-game two came soon with Marcus (wearing a Dream Daddy T-shirt) and Kirsten (wearing the sexy Sonic costume) for Team Waluigi and Team toad respectively. The question asked, by Arin, was which sandwich is the favorite – Dan jokingly said that was the stupidest question ever asked… then asked “same question” for the other player (something similar happened later) and it was Tuna Melt VS BLT.  We were also asked to do a giant Golf Clap during the mini-game shenanigans.

The post-Golf clap comment from Dan: You have given Daddy the ASRM tingles.

Daddy Chants ensued.  Dan would do another “Daddy” comment shortly afterwards – “So many stars for Daddy”.

When it was time for the third Mini-game of the night, Dan and Arin noticed some cool stuff in the crowd – A “Bienvenue Power Bottoms” sign and a “Burgie” paper craft being held up.  Player 3 and Player 4 were Divan and Chris, who was dressed like Danny Sexbang, and their question was to say something to badmouth the opposing team.  Divan’s was “Boo, Toad, you suck!” while Chris was “This is why you weren’t in Smash!”  Burn comments ensue.  Mini-game turned out to be a three on one battle… everyone vs Arin.

Dan: It’s New Jersey VS Arin!

Arin eventually won that game and during and after the game, there was a “Fuck You, Arin” chant from everyone.  Dan “OK! OK!  Hang on!  Hang on! Hang on!  Don’t get me wrong… I love it…,” but he asked if they should do “Heck you, Arin” but decided nope and let the crowd continue.  He then joked about how the folks on the boardwalk were probably wondering what the hell’s going on at the show.

Mini-game four was with Erid and a tall guy named Roger.  Dan also noted that his dad, Avi, was in the audience.  I began to chant “Avi” and pretty soon a large chant for “AVI” started.  Team Toad/Roger won the mini game.

Mini-game five was Bowser related with a lot of stars up for grabs.  Both players were ladies – a female Danny who, like Dan, was Jewish, from Jersey, favorite color was light blue, and loved dinosaurs, and Renee, who had an LED helmet and had apparently been there since 6AM.  There were 6AM chants for her.  Dan noted that he smelt weed in the audience, which I thought was a stupid thing to go.  Dan then picked the wrong mini-game chosen for that round.  His reasoning for the screw up? “I HAVE GIANT THUMBS!”  Team Toad won that round again.

Final mini-game was up and it was Sophie and Bethany as players 3 and 4.  They were asked to say something to hype their teams.  Sophie said “Mycaruba” (a old-school Game Grumps joke) while Bethany’s was “We got this, dude!”  Team 3 won and the finally tally was Waluigi/Team 3 victory.

For the last bit of the show was a Q and A with the audience.  Ground rules were laid out: No selfies, no hugs, not songs, and you can’t touch Dan’s hair… so Dan touched his hair for us.

Q: Favorite Cartoon Network cartoon? A: from Dan, it was Aqua team Hunger Force and, since it was aired on CN, Starlight Brigade music video while for Arin, it was “Mighty Magisword”, which he worked on.

Q: Favorite game they got into via Grumps? A: Dan went with House Party while Arin couldn’t think of one.  They hyped the new version that was going to include them as characters coming soon.

Q: for Arin, favorite voice to do around the office? A: the Grubba voice and the “Ball-sniffing adventure” one.

Q: A request for some more Snipperclips, which they would love to do.

Q: For Arin, it was about the frequency of his pooping and asking the “Yum to Dump” ratio.

A: Arin talked about a incident from eating at Whataburger.  He pulled off at an exit and ate a burger from Whataburger. Got back on the interstate… and pulled over at the next exit to do a 2 at that exit’s Whataburger.

I think I’m gonna avoid Whataburger…. Q: Can Claud come back? (I have no idea who Claud was, but they want him to come back.  I think they meant “Claudio Sanchez”, who had appeared on Guest Grumps.)

Q: For Arin, favorite 3D Zelda game? A: first game he said was “A Link Between Worlds”.  When asked for a second, he picked “Wind Waker”.  Good choice.

Q: A request for more Dog Island and Princef Taaanx.

The next question was right by me and I managed to get two pictures of Vernon, who was out in the crowd getting the questions from the crowd.  I thanked Vernon for the second one, which he smiled for. Before the question was asked, there were some “Furry” jokes and Dan went into a long rant about being a Furry in reference to the running gag about him being one.  The question was about Starbomb and hopes for new stuff in relation to it.  Dan and Arin threw around some possibilities like a boxed set for the CD’s/vinyls.

Q: What’s gonna be the new format for live shows.  They have no idea.

Q: An offer to do later framing for CDs/Vinyls/etc.

Q: for Danny, since he and the asker are from Jersey, is it Pork Rolls or Taylor Ham? Dan picked Taylor ham, prompting booos.

Q: the original asker game his question op to his friend, who asked since they looked alike and had similar likes, does Dan know who the doctor was that cloned the two of them?

Dan thinks it was Def Leppard’s lead singer Joe Elliot (?)

The last question: "the band bowling for soup...are they bowling to receive soup or are they bowling on behalf of soup?"  Dan thinks they’re bowling on behalf of soup while Arin thinks it’s the former.

To end the show off, Dan notes this show meant a lot for him since it’s in Jersey and the best night.  “Danny”/”Jersey” chants.  Dan and Arin thanked everyone and left with a message: They don’t care what your race/religion/gender/political stance/etc. is, they love us.

Show ended a little around 950 and I got my ride back to the Inn to chill.

Pictures to come later

[eggoreviews]

E3 2019 Nintendo Direct - BREAKDOWN

Oh wow. That big ol direct sure was something. So now I’m here to break down everything that happened in unnecessary fashion and give my personal reaction to everything that happened with my tried and true Excitement Rater. Want to see my heavily scientific and not at all arbitrary process? Then click down to see the deets.

Before we kick off my (very very scientific) breakdown of this year’s packed direct, I thought I’d briefly go over how I rate things:

A random string of letters/numbers = Immeasurable excitement

YEEHAW BABEY = Big excitement

Heck Yeck = Vague excitement

Yeah! = Not really excited, but still could be good

Sure, why not? = I’m more confused than excited but sure

Oh = The excitement isn’t there

Oh no = Used on the rare occasion I really don’t like what I’ve seen

The Hero from the Dragon Quest series in Smash!

After a brief montage of some games that already came out I guess, the direct jumps straight into an ominous shot of World of Light baddie Dharkon, followed by a seemingly hopeless fight between Link and one very possessed Marth. Then the Luminary turns up gloriously on his horse. With all the leaks that had been flying around for so long, I think pretty much everyone had accepted the presence of Dragon Quest at this point and I was totally stoked when this happened! I love Dragon Quest! And my boi from 11 is here, along with a few other DQ veterans as alt swaps and a pretty awesome looking stage overlooking what seems to be the land of Erdrea and the World Tree. Now to wait until summer and hope the Smash team have some sick ass remixes for us when the time comes!

Excitement Rating: YEEHAW BABEY

Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age - Definitive Edition

In a move that makes it a lil obvious that DQ’s Smash addition was more than a little commercially minded (not that I really care I’m still big hyped), a trailer for the expanded edition of the series’ latest installment follows. Seeming as I’ve already played this, I doubt I’ll be picking it up again but I still heartily recommend the game to any JRPG fan. Admittedly, the fact you apparently get to explore worlds from past games is pretty exciting.

ER: Heck Yeck

Luigi’s Mansion 3

In a way I thought was surprising, Nintendo’s first proper focus of Luigi’s Mansion 3 actually took up more time than Animal Crossing, but I guess that’s because it’s further along in development. We now know that the game is set within a haunted hotel and had some new gameplay features shown off, including the various ways Luigi can succ a ghost. Most exciting I think for me was the various multiplayer aspects, such as the local co-op option to play as Gooigi and the seemingly challenge and minigame-based ‘Scarescraper’ which I think incorporates online co-op too. Overall, this is looking to be a creative and well thought out entry in the series and I’m here for it.

ER: Heck Yeck

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance - Tactics

A licensed tie-in game for a thirty year old film feels a little odd, but I suppose stranger things have happened. This looks to be a sort of top-down tactical thingy involving the various characters from The Dark Crystal and for some reason Netflix is involved, I don’t know, but I guess it could be interesting.

ER: Sure, why not?

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

The adorable remake of this classic Game Boy title seems to be coming along great and this direct’s extended trailer gave us a good look at what we’ll be exploring come September 20th. The overhaul Koholint Island has had is phenomenal, giving us designs for Link and various other characters that we’ve never seen before and that makes this remake look especially unique. Another very exciting aspect for me was the dungeon builder that looks like great fun! You collect different dungeon parts as you go and then you can build and explore your own! Am I a goblin child or does that sound like the best thing ever?

ER: YEEHAW BABEY!!

Trials of Mana / Collection of Mana

I’ll admit I’m not really familiar with the Mana series, but from what I was shown in this direct, it looks to be a fairly standard JRPG. That’s definitely not a bad thing, as most JRPGs are amazing, but nothing in this trailer really stood out and came into its own. That being said, the gameplay and graphics look pretty solid and I’m sure the Mana fans have been fairly starved for content for a while so that’s something to look forward to. On top of this remake/new game with the same title as an older game (I really don’t know), the Collection of Mana containing the series’ first three games is being released real soon on the eShop.

ER: Yeah!

The Witcher III: Wild Hunt - Complete Edition

Following a few scattered rumours, we finally have confirmation that a Witcher 3 port is in fact in the works, coming packed with all the game’s DLC. This basically legendary RPG is not one I personally had a great experience with, but I’m sure a lot of people are gonna be happy to play this in handheld. I’d keep expectations tempered however, with the likes of Assassin’s Creed 3 and Saints Row the Third proving that these ports don’t always function brilliantly on this platform.

ER: Yeah!

Fire Emblem: Three Houses

Yet another and probably our last Fire Emblem trailer was shown in this direct, giving us a better look at how the story might play out and what our villains are going to be. With most of the gameplay features explored in the previous February direct, it’s good to have a slightly better idea as to what’s actually going on in terms of story and, to me, the results seem pretty damn good. Definitely one to keep an eye on!

ER: Heck Yeck

Resident Evil

In a slightly unnecessarily convoluted advert, we were given a two minute reel of two teenagers playing the original RE in tabletop mode in an abandoned house (??), along with the kind of less than exciting announcement that we’re getting the two weakest entries in the series for Switch, RE 5 and 6. I probably wasn’t the only one who felt a little passive about this whole thing. That being said, definitely not complaining about 1 & 4 being ported over.

ER: Oh

No More Heroes III

After the very slightly disappointing Travis Strikes Again, I really wasn’t expecting them to drop a trailer for the series’ third mainline installment so soon after. What we’ve seen looks pretty much like classic Travis, with a smidge of gameplay seen that looks just a bit more like what we’re used to. Of course, with this being the first reveal, there’s still a lot to find out but this looks very promising.

ER: Heck Yeck

Contra: Rogue Corps / Contra: Anniversary Collection

I’m not gonna pretend to be familiar with the Contra series, but this doesn’t at all look like what I’ve seen in the past. Honestly, this seemingly tactical shooter didn’t elicit much excitement from me and neither did its rushed character drops or its oddly rough textures. I’m unsure of actual fan reactions to this, but in my mind this one kind of sits in the ‘guess this exists’ category. As well as this, we got a shadowdrop for the Contra Anniversary Collection, whereas Rogue Corps comes on September 24th.

ER: Oh

Daemon X Machina

In what seems to be almost a mainstay in Nintendo directs, we’ve got another vague trailer for this mech shooter that finally has a confirmed release date of September 13th. The gameplay looks harmless enough, with the mechs seeming to be a blast to pilot, but beyond that, I can’t really see a lot of substance that would draw me in beyond the cool robots. I’m sure it could be good, but not really one for me.

ER: Yeah!

Panzer Dragoon

I was completely unsure of what this one was, but it looks a bit like a cross between The Last Guardian and those bullet hell sections from Kingdom Hearts 2. They’ve certainly nailed the smooth graphics and the cool looking creatures, but this one is mostly a case of needing to know more.

ER: Yeah!

Pokemon Sword & Shield

This one’s obviously a title so monumental that it consistently needs its own directs, but there wasn’t any *real* news about it in this direct. We were given a brief explanation as to how the Pokeball Plus works in conjunction with the games (something to do with taking your Pokemon for a walk) and the fact that we’ll see more gameplay during Nintendo’s Treehouse streams. Still, excitement remains pretty high for these titles.

ER: Heck Yeck!

Astral Chain

This game, to put it bluntly, looks awesome. The newest Platinum Games IP seems to be set in Blade Runneresque futuristic city with an alien threat and some cool ass looking fighting police people. Our second proper look at this game has cleared up a few murky doubts as to what exactly is supposed to be happening, so now we’ve got a much better idea of what this game is going to be. The story seems pretty full and polished, the gameplay looks like brilliant fun and I’m definitely not mad at the cool monster designs. This is one I’m definitely watching.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!

Empire of Sin

I know very little about what this game is supposed to be, but it looks to be a 40s gangster XCOM, substituting alien fighting marines with gun toting mafia dudes. The trailer went for style over substance, giving us an edgy visual thing of some burning playing cards and broken bottles, but the little gameplay we saw looked decent enough and may just end up injecting more variety into this genre.

ER: Yeah!

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3: The Black Order

An obvious pick for any Marvel fan, this hack-and-slash is jam packed with various heroes and villains from the comic series’ rich history. Ghost Rider and Elektra were among those revealed to be playable, while the likes of Mysterio, Hela, the Destroyer, Doctor Octopus, Surtur and MODOK are seemingly part of growing cast of villains. Looks like a good bit of fun if nothing else, though the immediate presence of a season pass is a tiny red flag.

ER: Yeah!

Cadence of Hyrule

In an unexpected but greatly welcomed crossover between Nintendo’s RPG titan Zelda series and the indie developed Crypt of the Necrodancer, a new rhythm based dungeon crawler with some brand new Zelda remixes and the presence of Link and Zelda as playable characters. This game’s retro graphics look totally adorable and the addition of the Gohmaracas were a definite highlight.

ER: Heck Yeck!!!!!

Mario & Sonic at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games

Tell you what, this definitely looks like a Mario and Sonic Olympic Games game. There looks to be a decent amount of variety in terms of what sports are involved and with its online multiplayer, there’s no shortage of vaguely cartoon sportyness to be had with friends both real and virtual. I’d be lying if I said I was totally disinterested because it does look a bit fun, but we all know it won’t be anything groundbreaking.

ER: Yeah!

Animal Crossing: New Horizons

In a fairly drastic formula change, Nintendo have decided to strand us on a desert island rather than move us innocently to another village, but Tom Nook is still here and oh yes he’s coming to collect his bells. From this surprisingly brief trailer, most of Animal Crossing’s core gameplay seems to be intact, with the return of craftable items from Pocket Camp, and the sudden bombshell that the game has been pushed back to March next year. Never going to be a bad thing if the finished product is all the better for it, but I guess that just means more info is to come!

ER: Heck Yeck

Highlight Reel

In what looks like a list of honourable mentions, Nintendo gave us a laundry list of other titles coming to the system:

Spyro Reignited Trilogy is joining Crash on the Switch with his acclaimed remaster trilogy.

Hollow Knight: Silksong, the prequel to the original game, looks just as charmingly dark as its predecessor.

Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch is showing up I guess, but I’ll come out and say I know nothing about it except that it looks cute.

Minecraft Dungeons looks better than it has any right to be and looks a bit like blocky Diablo I guess

The Elder Scrolls: Blades sure exists and I’m unsure of what it’s trying to be, but whatever quells off the need for Elder Scrolls 6 I guess.

My Friend Pedro, another strangely unique title from Devolver Digital, looks like it somehow incorporates banana peels into its combat system.

Doom Eternal looks like Doom always does, but a distinct lack of gameplay may put its dual release with the other consoles into question.

The Sinking City with its Lovecraftian inspiration looks totally brilliant and looks to be a unique experience for sure, so eyes firmly open for this one

Wolfenstein Youngblood definitely looks all Wolfenstein-y, but rumours of Dishonored-like sandbox levels has definitely piqued my interest.

Dead by Daylight still looks unfortunately a bit eh, with its slightly not great graphical quality from what we’ve seen in the trailers.

Alien Isolation was an extremely odd one, but I’m not gonna say no to more good horror content on the console.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles seems to be continually delayed, but they’ll probably get round to it eventually.

Dragon Quest Builders 2 looks adorable and I’m very into the idea of Dragon Quest Minecraft, so sign me up.

Stranger Things 3: The Game looks a little more SNES-like in terms of graphics than its 8 Bit mobile predecessor, which is definitely a decent step. An obvious pick for fellow fans of the show.

Just Dance 2020 is definitely a Just Dance game. Yep, sure is. I even checked. And it is.

Catan is a tabletop game of sorts, but I really couldn’t figure out what kind from that few seconds of vague footage.

New Super Lucky’s Tale looks like Bubsy, but actually good and worth real money

Dauntless looks like a bit of a Monster Hunter clone, but you know, doesn’t look terrible.

And lastly, Super Mario Maker 2 was tacked on the end there to remind us all that Nintendo is taking our money in 2 weeks.

Banjo-Kazooie become Smash Ultimate’s 3rd DLC Fighter

Just when we all petering out a little and the hype seemed all but dormant, they go and drop this on us out of nowhere. While I personally don’t have an attachment to the bear and bird, I’m fully aware of their significance and how much they mean to a lot of people out there. And that excitement ended up being contagious, so this fact coupled with a pitch perfect reveal trailer has got me hugely hyped to see these guys join the fight come autumn.

ER: YEEHAW BABEY

Sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

And now, dear reader, for the reveal that removed my scalp and cut out my eyeballs. At first, I was totally confused as to what this could be. And then I recognised the symbols, and then my perfect lil Hyrule eggs come on the screen and it’s all spooky and there’s dead Ganondorf and I don’t clock the fact that I’ve just screamed out loud. A direct sequel to my absolute favourite game of all time is happening and it’s real and I get to live another adventure in the best game world ever crafted all over again. I think it’s safe to say I have transcended the definition of hype when it comes to this one.

ER: AAA!!! AA!!! GFFGF!!! THIS!!! ZELDA!!!! HGGGG!!!!

So there’s my probably a little stupid breakdown of everything Nintendo bestowed upon us this E3. Guess I’ll jump in after the next direct to give you yet another heavily scientific analysis of its events. Or I’ll babble at you until I start punching the keyboard. Either way, happy trails my dudes. Don’t let the hype bugs bite.

[earthboundpenguin]

Earthbound's Writing Update

Or, more accurately, my rambling excuses as to why I haven't updated in a while. And why I still don't have an update. Whoops.

Okay. So, remember how I went out of town for work a few weeks ago? And I was only supposed to be gone a couple weeks? Well, that ended up lasting a few days longer than originally anticipated, and to top it off I was working night shift ops for most of it. So my sleep schedule got pretty out of whack, leaving me with not a lot of free time and even less motivation. Which means I haven't written as much as I hoped I would have by now.

On the bright side, I've been back home for a week now, so I'm finally readjusted to a normal schedule again (hopefully that won't get thrown out of whack again when I have to travel for work another week sometime later this month).

So without further ado, here's the status of my current WIPs:

Chapter 25 of Eclipsing Daylight is still in progress. This one's the furthest along, so there's a chance it might be finished sometime within the next week. Obviously I won't make any promises though ;)

Chapter 2 of A Smuggler's Tale is also still in progress. This one has a little further to go before it's ready, mostly because I kept getting distracted by other plot points happening later in the story. Heh. (Though I did end up doing a quick drawing of Twi'lek! Barbara while I was out of town... I should probably actually try to post it sometime)

Also, I received a request for a Legend of Zelda fic, so at some point I intend to work on that as well. It's going to be a little outside of my wheelhouse, so we'll see how that goes.

[lonelyghosts-stuff]

Avengers Endgame-First Time Watching Reaction Play-by-Play (Pt. 1)

Lessgoooo

Okay so I lost like the entirety of my post when my phone died so whoopsie. Lots of sadness for nebula, Tony, Scott Lang, and Thor. Frustration with time travel because no movie ever gets it right, yadda yadda they are about to go back in time to get the stones.

Whatever it takes. Hoo boy

“See you in a minute” AGHHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOO AGGHHHHHH NOOOOOOOOOOOO

Gonna cry ago... ughhhhh nooooo

Back in 2012 babyyyyyy

Lmao smart hulk embarrassed at the much cooler hulk

Cmon smart hulk is so lame compared to op hulk

Oh cool that the ancient one was fighting off chitauri

She’s smart huh

Out of body experience

Fatty thor

LOKIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

Jane!

Sad but Thor

Oh momma dearest

She’s looking out for Loki getting him soup and books

Go say good bye to her Thor!

Rocket slap him

Good rabbit

Yea rocket!!!

Lmao poor Thor. He’s been on earth too long.

Go say bye to Frigga.

Morag okay

Last time they’re gonna see Nat...

Nebula and Rhodey duo

These smiles ain’t gonna last forever...

My heart...

Old Gamora again

Ugh this guy again... Thanos.. just die...

Poor nebula. Okay how the heck is nebulas camera connected... oh poor nebula... Dangit time travel...

Loki babyyyyyyyyy

That’s America’s ass

Ew strike team

These plebs

Right to hydra...

They do look like bad guys

Loki baby

I miss you so much.

Flick me

Lmao

Free fall

Thank you hulk for not taking the elevator and giving us Loki.

Hail Hydra.

That was easy lmao.

I too hate stairs hulk.

My beautiful Loki

Axe body spray lmao. So that’s what he wears for years. Where even Loki can tell there’s two starks in the room.

I’m so happy to see Loki again.

Poor past Tony. Heart attack.

Lmao Loki knows somethings up

RUN AWAY LOKI DO IT

Yesssssssssssssssssss

Hahahahahahahahaha and thus the show happens

Steve stop swearing

Oh lmao old cap thinks new cap is Loki

“I can do this all day.” “Yea I know... I know.” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA our Steve sounds so whiney lmao

Oh sure throw away the shield and scepter why don’t ya.

Ouchhhhhhh

Peggy compass

BUCKY!!!

Lmao he mind controlled himself

Stop checking out your own ass Steve 😂😂😂

Soooo does the ancient one know about the TVA? Those timelines and branching look a lot like the TVA timelines.

Uh oh. Bruce. Maybe you shouldn’t have said that?

Or?

Oh no.

Oh phew okay.

Wasn’t the ancient one black in the comics?

Oh poor nebula again... she literally can’t not be suffering...

Why is she on a network lmao.

Oh no. Please don’t hurt these other nebulas. AGGHHHHHHH

Lmao enhance

Oh dear oh dear please just let nebula catch a break

Frigga!!!!

Frigga is very perceptive

AHHHHH IM GONNA CRY AGAIN

Lmao so Jane is gonna get the aether removed. I wanna see Steve going back and having to inject the aether back into her lmao.

Lmaoooo why do they keep calling rocket a rabbit

Thank you momma Frigga

Lmao just taking this Thor’s hammer

Okay that’s so sweet. He’s so surprised he’s still worthy

Lmaooo

Peter quill is back

What a dork lmao I love him so much

Annnndddd smack!

What’s that light orb you’re holding Rhodey?

Sorry Rhodey but movies aren’t reality

Ouch. You good nebula?

Poor girl.

I love this duo.

Quick escape go

Oh no

Oh no

aaaaaaaaaaaaaand suddenly Thanos’ moral compass is gone. Now he’s gonna try to kill everyone. Poor nebula...

Please let her be!!!!!

Guys grow up

Brain time cmon

Poor Scott lol

New Jersey babyyyyy

Was that stan Lee?

How’d they get access to the compound lol

Aaaaawwwwwwkwwwwaaard

Awwww dad

Howard Potts

Hug please

Yesss the classic antman helmet

Pym particles. How lucky they are compatible.

Man poor Tony he wants so badly to tell his dad.

Whaddya see cap?

AWWWW PICTURES OF HIM ON PEGGY’S DESK

Peggy!!!!

Oh man

Steve don’t be a creep. She can probably see you. It’s a window.

Poor Bucky lmao...

Awwwww Tony and Howard. Man.

HUGGGGGG AWWWWW

Jarvis hahaha nice

Howard is gonna be quite confused when his son starts looking like that random dude

NO NEBULA

Aghhhhhhhh

Please let her be...

No!!!!

Wait so how does good nebula come back from this?????? AHHHHHHH

Vormir? Oh no... I’m not ready to cry again...

Please no....

Piss off red skull

No.... please no.... why... who built this dumb tower?????

No no no no no no no no no

Whatever it takes...

Nat...

Clint...

I’m gonna cry.

I’m crying.

I know people say it should have been Clint but this is the hero’s way.

Fight to the death, but for their own death...

I’m crying I’m crying.

Nat...

“Let me go.” “It’s okay.”

I’m crying so badly

I’m crying Even more than for Loki idk why. I think it’s because we saw Nat more and learned more about her. But I love them both so much.

Rest In Peace Nat... we won... your sacrifice wasn’t for nothing.... I promise...

I’m crying again they’re all finding out about Nat

Oh my gosh I’m sobbing like a mess

Give her a damn funeral

I’m sorry thor... but dead is dead.

I’m crying so badly.

Poor hulk.

Poor Nat.

Poor everyone.

Honor her.

Nebula, please... know your character development. You saw other hers memories

My face is literally soaked with tears oh my gosh...

You can do this hulk... do it for Nat.

Dammit nebula please...

AGGHHHHHHH NEBULA CMON

Specify comes home safely please

Thumbs up from Thor

NEBULA STOP

AGHHHHHHHH

Where’s good nebula? She better be okay.

Who’s phone?

Go get your gf Scott

Clint go to your family

Oh no

Thank God Tony activated that armor thing huh? Too bad he took it down immediately.

Look, I hate Thanos. And his morals completely flipped after learning he died. But no matter what, it’s better than his comics’ motivation. In the comics he literally did it do, guess what? IMPRESS LADY DEATH. Thanos was such a simp in the comics he committed cross universal genocide JUST to impress death who is a corporal being.

Thanos don’t be lazy

Sister bonding time

Poor nebula. Hug her please. YEA GAMORA BABY

At least we are done with the time travel.

Okay, Thanos has no power here, please just kill him now and quickly.

Just do it... please...

Nice beard thor. Didn’t know lightning acts as a hair stylist

Oooh I like the music here as they approach Thanos. Very Zelda boss like.

Just kill him. Stop the monologuing.

“Now, I know what I must do.” Ooh? Double the resources like you should have in the first place? “I will shred this universe down to its last atom...” oh...

Thanos... use your brain. There has to be one somewhere under that purple mound you call a head.

Why are you guys just watching him and listening to him monologue. Just kill him already. Should’ve killed him before he put on the armor ya dummies.

How is Thanos, now without any stones, able to put up a fight? Against all of them in when Thor could take him down when he had all of the stones?

Save em Scotty!

Clint living his own alien isolation experience

Yeaaaaa that’s not the nebula you know Clint...

Cmon Gamora

Lmao poor Clint so confused

Oh. Nebula killed herself to save Gamora. TVA where are you huh? Shouldnt all of these guys from the past be considered variants???

HOW IS THANOS PUTTING UP A FIGHT AGAINST THOR WITH MJØLNIR AND STORMBREAKER ALL WHILE NOT HAVING ANY INFINITY STONES, BUT WHEN HE DID HAVE THE INFINITY STONES, EVEN EARTHLING TONY STARK PROVIDED A STRUGGLE BUT THOR, CAP, AND TONY CANT TAKE DOWN AN INFINITY STONE-LESS THANOS????

Okay okay fine whatever. I know it wouldn’t make for an interesting movie if they killed him quick.. but then Tony wouldn’t die...

Oh

My

Gosh

HELL YEA CAPTAIN AMERICA WITH MJOLNIR

So does storm breaker not have the same rules as mjolnir with only those worthy being able to wield it?

Okay so I know that in thor 1, Odin made it so that “whosoever wields this hammer shall have the powers of Thor” so that would provide an explanation for why Steve Rogers can use the lightning when holding it, but in gagnarok, Thor is told he doesn’t get his powers from the hammer? It just helped him? So is it both? Or are we retconning? That also reminds me, Odin says Hela draws her power from Asgard like Thor does, so destroying Asgard would stop her. Why doesn’t it stop Thor? Aghhhh whatever...

STEBE ROGERS IS SO BAD ASS OH MY GOSH I ALWAYS LOVED HIM

Ouch stab the leg

Bye bye shield I guess... dang... so like, how does sam Wilson get a shield?

Cmon Steve, you can do this all day, right?

Grab the hammer.

HOW IS THANOS BEATING THEM WITHOUT THE DAMN STONES BUT WHEN HE HAS—sorry, I just can’t get over this. Thanos does not have a consistent power range...

Thanos, I hate you. I will laugh when you die.

Thanos you are such a hypocrite. From wanting balance to literally being find with outright anger killing.

I can do this all day. Cmon cap. Say it.

It’s just the chitauri. Blow up the mother ship.

SAM

Sam

Sam

ON YOUR LEFT OH MY GOSH

CHILLS

CHILLS

CHILLSSSSSS

BLACK PANTHER BABY!!!!!

FALCON FUTURE CAPTAIN AMERICA

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

SPIDER MAN

Bucky? Where u at?

THERE YOU ARE

WANDA!!!!

HOPE!!!!

PEPPER!!!!!

BIG ANT MAN AND HULK AND ROCKET AND WAR MACHINE

LESSSSGOOOOO

Avengers...

Assemble

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GOOSEBUMPS

I have such a stupid grin on my face

I am so ready to watch wanda wipe the floor with Thanos gosh I hate him

How did Thanos bring everyone here? He only had like one thing of pym particles.

Dang pepper how did you get so good at that?

“No no give me that. You have the little one.” Oh my gosh I love this interaction so much.

Okay so I love Bucky and I know him using a gun is more realistic and practical here, but I wish we could see him using his assassin skills and arm more since it was such a big deal when they gave it to him...

Pepper and Tony fighting side by side

PETER AND TONY REUNITE AHHHHH

Peter shut up and hug him

Peter is so precious

Fight quill fight!

GAMORA

Poor Peter... this isn’t YOUR Gamora. Man I feel bad for him

Van to the rescue!!!

Hope Scott kiss

Aw man

Dang strange you got some powers

Let’s get this thing fixed

Ouch

Ya “bad” nebula is dead

Clint and T’Challa on a name basis now. Nice improvement from Civil War.

Part 2

[sage-nebula]

Angel, sea, & sunlight?

Angel: What is your dream aesthetic?

Answered!

Sea:  What music, art and/or literature brings you peace?

Ooh, well . . .

For music, honestly, there’s not necessarily one type of music. I use music as a means of escape and distraction; the songs that I listen to over and over again are songs that allow me to easily maladaptive daydream and escape from whatever present stressors I’m facing. There are certain songs that I can turn on and instantly associate with any given fiction scenario that I can then run through in my head, and for me, that is a form of peace. Unfortunately, the list of songs that applies to is so long we’d be here all day if I listed them all (though a chunk of the songs in the previous ask are Alan and/or Alan & Lizardon songs), but as far as music is concerned, that’s what I jump to there.

That said, I did discover that the Mystic Messenger OST is perfect for getting work done. Whenever there are a lot of work orders or e-mails to get through at work I just turn on the Mystic Messenger OP and get to it. It does wonders for keeping me from getting distracted. So that could also count, since it at least lets me enter a peaceful state of productivity, haha.

As far as art goes, well, as I mentioned in the aesthetic bit, I really, really love space! Paintings and drawings of space (unless they’re hyper realistic) aren’t really the greatest, but photographs of space are just . . . could there ever be anything more peaceful? Space is wonderful. (I’m also brought sheer, unmitigated joy whenever I see that someone drew art based on one of my fics, but I’m not sure of unbridled joy is the same as peace, haha.)

Finally, as for literature, I’m not really sure! I don’t have a comfort series as far as books go. I like reading, of course, but for me, all books bring the same kind of peace, provided they’re not exceptionally creepy or disgusting. So I’m not sure that I have a book that really brings me peace in that sense.

I do have a TV show, though, even though TV show wasn’t an option in the least. The Office (U.S.) is definitely a comfort show for me. It’s so good. I love it.

Sunlight: List five things you find to be beautiful

SPACE! Stars, the moon, galaxies, nebulae---I really, really love space. I’m not joking about this, haha. Space is fantastic. It’s incredible to me that there is so much beauty out there in the universe that we don’t get to experience daily because we’re stuck on this planet. It’s unjust, man.

That said, as for beauty on this planet . . . pastel sunrises, and especially pastel sunsets. Usually I’m not a fan of pastels at all, but in the sky they’re exceptionally beautiful. It’s rare that sunsets are pastel---usually they’re so vivid!---but I’ve witnessed some recently that were made especially beautiful by how the trees nearby had shadowy silhouettes against that periwinkle / lavender sky. There’s just something about the sky being painted in such a blend of soft colors that just feels so . . . clean, clear, and magical. I really love it.

Wolves! Wolves have a special kind of majestic beauty about them. They’re absolutely gorgeous animals, on top of being highly intelligent, loyal, capable . . . I really, really love wolves. They’re the best.

Fire! Honestly, on top of loving the smell of fire, I could stare into flames for hours. There’s something truly dazzling about a bright fire. It really is hard to look away from.

Ancient architecture. Old castles, temples, churches, things like that. I’m not a religious person myself by any stretch, but some of the ancient architecture that was used to design them is really beautiful to look at and explore. I know that part of the reason I feel this way is because they make me think of temples from The Legend of Zelda, but I don’t care. It’s true nonetheless. They have a special kind of unique beauty to them.

[stompsite]

dev blog #0000 - Origin Story

You might have heard that I’m working on a video game. This is true. I am working with some utterly incredible folks on a video game. We call it Game One.

I’ve tried to get various game project started over the years. When I first got sick, I ended up with inflammation in my brain that messed me up somethin fierce. Reading, writing, programming, all gone. I worked really hard, and I got the writing back over half a decade or so. Reading too. Nowhere near as good as I was, but passable. Programming, though? That never came back. Maybe, with treatment. Maybe. It would be impossible without other people, though.

Every time I’d suggest a project--that first person XCOM, the tiny linear shooter, heck, the little business management game, the strategy game--people would get all enthusiastic about it, I’d draw up a design document, and, of course, nothing would come of it. Getting people organized online is like wrangling cats. The furthest we got, some art folks actually did art, didn’t tell anyone, played Minecraft, and wondered why we hadn’t made a game of the art we didn’t know existed.

Then along comes my friend Phillip Bastien. I’d hit on this new idea for a story, I thought it was great, I was telling him about it, and he goes silent. Something like ten minutes later, he hits me up with a drawing of a character I’ve been calling the Plague Knight. Not a great name, but it gets the job done, and the drawing? Well, wow. It was awesome.

One of the great things about Phillip is that he gets what’s in my head better than most. The only difference between my vision and his is that I had the guy with candles floating above the head, but I think Phillip’s version works better.

Here’s the most recent finished piece:

We tossed some stuff back and forth. Visuals started taking shape. I’m lucky to have a friend like Phillip. One thing I’ve learned is that the greatest physical motivator is having a visual. People don’t believe the game is real until they’ve got concept art. That’s the key thing. I’d never had good concept art before. Mine is awful, and I don’t know many artists willing to sketch some stuff up to help the project move along. This game would not have happened without Phillip.

It was readily apparent that this shooter was too big; I think an early description framed it as “an RPG shooter that blends elements of Halo, The Legend of Zelda, and Shadow of the Colossus with the movement of Mirror’s Edge” or something. Too big. Way too big. Not like the smaller games. Plus, single-player shooters don’t really sell that well unless they’re big, open-world titles with big brand names behind them.

I knew that making a competitive shooter was simpler--it’s why most mod teams (and Valve, which has that weird flat structure thing) work best with them--but competitive indie shooters don’t sell. There’s a reason most of you aren’t out there playing Nexuiz, Screencheat, Contagion, or Toxikk. Heck, competitive shooters rarely do well in any space.

Co-op I figured we could do. Payday: The Heist and Payday 2 had done pretty well, for instance. Borderlands games are pretty popular. Gamers seem to enjoy cooperative shooters, and good ones sell reasonably well. Horde was Gears of War 3′s biggest mode; Halo fans begged 343i for a return to Halo’s Firefight mode. This genre seemed like a great place to start. Plus, I, and the people I’d been talking about making a game with, were all experts in the cooperative shooter space. If there’s one style of game design we knew, it was this.

I had a world I liked. A visual approach that felt right. And the right genre. I took to calling it Game One, because nothing I tried felt right. Turns out some amazing friends, like my buddies Cameron, Kevin, and Jacob, were into it. We got started properly early in 2016, though various real-life events (graduation, moving, illness, computer death, learning how to use source control) conspired against us. Progress is being made. It’s slow-going, but it’s happening. This game is real.

I’m trying to describe a nonlinear process in a linear way; this may seem kinda disconnected because of that. Sorry. Things will start making more sense in future blog posts.

Personally, I don’t want to talk about the game world much; I don’t like reading about other people’s lore until they achieve the end result. In general, I think a lot of folks get caught up in talking about their lore and how interesting they think their lore is, and that’s all well and good, but it’s not what interests me. I’d rather surprise you with a cool universe you can explore in-game than go into detail about it right now. What I can do is tell you about the most interesting ideas.

Game design is, ultimately, a means of problem solving, and Game One is meant to address a bunch of problems, which I’ll talk about in the coming weeks.

Problem 1: The Abilities Need To Be Interesting

One of my comrades, Kevin, expressed a big problem he had with a lot of shooters, which is that a lot of characters have just one ability. In Borderlands, you pick a class, and that class uses that ability and that ability only. Same thing in Destiny. You have multiple sub-classes, but it takes time for abilities to charge, so when you switch sub-classes, you have to start over from 0, so effectively, you have just one ability in most missions.

This isn’t a bad style of design, mind you, but it is predominant, and it can get old after a while. We wanted to have provide players with a more interesting way to play.

Problem 2: The Guns Need To Be Interesting

You’d think this would be a given. If someone is making a shooter, shouldn’t their weapons be interesting? Unfortunately, way too many shooters utilize the same basic weapon paradigms; the resulting combat rarely requires thought from the players. How do you make shooter guns interesting again?

Problem 3: How to Eliminate The Boredom Created By Min-Maxers

One of my good friends became a bad person to play games with. He was directly responsible for my waning interest in Payday 2, because he wanted to play the same two missions over and over again, because this let him earn the maximum possible XP. This gets boring after a while because, well, you’re only playing two missions.

Destiny faces a similar problem, especially early on; repeating content gets boring, especially when it’s predictable. When content becomes repetitive, players naturally want to start optimizing. Pretty soon, Destiny got to a point where players all had to use similar loadouts (Gjallarhorn was the optimal rocket launcher, for instance) or risk being dissed by their peers. I remember playing one particular match where I started using a gun I liked, only to be asked, with disgust, why I would ever use that gun, when I should be using more ideal weaponry. “Because it’s fun” was met with jeers.

This goal was important to me personally; I’m a big shooter fan in part because I love shooting creatively. It’s frustrating to hear a friend say “this shooter was boring because I only used one gun the entire game, but it was the best gun.”

I think having a good metagame is important, but all too often, players find ways to run with optimal loadouts or play styles, and I wanted to do my best to circumvent that, encouraging players to try new things rather than doing the same thing over and over again.

Problem 4: Movement Needs To Make A Comeback

Shooters ought to have interesting movement. Since I started messing around with Game One, a bunch of games, like Destiny, Doom, and Titanfall have launched, pushing the need for movement into the foreground. Awesome. I still think there’s some room for improvement, so I’ll be talking about that at length really soon.

There’s a bunch of other stuff I could talk about, but that’s for future devblogs. Tonight, I just wanted to let you know what the plan is: in between my normal games criticism stuff, I’m going to start showing how I’m trying to practice what I preach, and, way more importantly, how absolutely incredible my brothers in arms are, and the lessons we’ve learned along the way.

Anyways, we’re making the game now. It’s a real thing. It’s playable. We’ve got dedicated servers working, and we can play the game together. It’s rough, of course (a lack of manpower working part time will do that to you), but it’s getting there. Hopefully, we’ll find a cool indie publisher willing to back us so we can get this thing out the door soon.

Stick around, would you?

[terryblount]

Darksiders Genesis PC Review

Every so often a game comes along that completely redefines whatever we thought was possible within its genre. Sometimes it finds a highly innovative use for a simple mechanic, or invents a new form of gameplay altogether. Either way, this game leaves players floored, and it sets a new standard for the genre from then onwards. Well, nothing in the Darksiders series has ever been that game.

Instead, the main selling point of the Darksiders franchise has always been how tried and trusted mechanics within the hack-‘n-slash genre could be joined in the best, possible combination. Whatever their faults were, the gameplay in Darksiders I through III always tried to engage the player on multiple levels of gameplay. They were the very definition of becoming more than the sum of their parts.

The final Horseman, Strife

Therefore, I find myself not quite sure what to make of Darksiders Genesis. Airship Syndicate made a substantial departure from the third-person, Zelda style of the previous games, and tries to embrace an isometric, dungeon-crawler design. Unfortunately, Genesis fails to commit towards this new direction in certain ways which makes it difficult to recommend over other more established games of this sort.

To Hell and Back

The overall narrative and lore of the Darksiders franchise has become so vast that the games have spawned their own Wiki site. Genesis, to its credit, is perhaps easier to digest than previous titles, but that’s like saying a fractured femur is better than a fractured skull. I still had only the vaguest idea what was going on despite this being a series first with a codex for the characters and events in the world.

What I eventually learned (after enough research on the Darksiders Wiki to warrant a PhD) is that Genesis is a prequel to the first game, though I have yet to discover what exactly ‘Genesis’ in the title refers to. Anyway, the story follows two of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – War, and newcomer Strife – on their mission to confront none other than Lucifer himself in the realm of Hell.

Strife gets a berserk mode with his guns where they switch to maximum power for a few seconds.

For the unacquainted, The Four Horsemen are enforcers of the Charred Council – a multifaceted entity that has taken on the task of ensuring a balance between the realms of Heaven, Hell, and the kingdom of mankind. It seems the demon lord Lucifer, naughty boy, has secretly been smuggling powerful artifacts out of Eden as favours to four lesser demon lords residing in Hell.

The Charred Council therefore sends War and Strife to see what ol’ Lucy is up to since they fear the demon overlord could represent a serious threat to the balance if left to his own devices. As you’d expect, the two Horsemen yet again find themselves in the midst of a theological soap opera in which every step closer to Lucifer adds increasing complexity to their mission.

The game is as such divided into 16 chapters where the player completes one dungeon mission to the next with puzzles, boss fights, secrets and loot to gather. It is the classic, dungeon crawler modus operandi, really. Thankfully, you don’t have to complete missions to save your progress as the game will happily drop you right back where you left off for players who need a coffee break.

In between missions, the player yet again has the option to trade currency with one of my favourite characters, Vulgrim, and his new accomplice, Dis, for all sorts of damage perks and combat moves. The classic arena mode also returns where facing off against several waves of enemies allow players to hone their combat skill, but also to farm some currency like souls and creature cores.

Literally between angels and demons

What sets Genesis apart is not just the withdrawn camera, but also the fact that there are two, playable horsemen for the first time in one game. Throughout all the dungeons and areas of Hell for the player to explore, there is always the option to switch instantly between either Strife or War. This holds true even for boss fights, and players also have the option of joining with a co-op partner.

From a single-player perspective, the interchangeable nature of the Horsemen adds to the variety in combat. War deals more damage through melee strikes up close and personal with his colossal sword. A surprising number of classic combos and attacks from Darksiders have accompanied War’s appearance in this game which felt pleasantly nostalgic during the moments I switched to him.

Strife, on the other hand, is the ninja of the duo with quicker and more agile sword moves, which go with a choice of several ranged attacks from his guns. It is upon switching to Strife that the gameplay in Genesis begins to lean towards the more classic, ‘bullet hell’ type shooter. Strife can use several different types of ammo, but the charge shot and the ‘laser beam’ remained my best friends for the most part.

The purple and orange globes are the creature core players can grind in the Arena. You need several purple shards to make one core.

My general take-away from the combat is that it plays… fine I guess. The combos offer a decent variety of attack possibilities, and the option to swap between two protagonists ensured that I always had access to an alternate strategy to mix things up. Unfortunately, it is when comparing this system to others in this genre that the shortcomings in Genesis’s structure go from negligible, to glaring.

On those sticky points

My main issue with Darksiders Genesis is how it feels suspended between two genres. It plays like a classic in the original series by THQ Nordic, but it is as if Airship Syndicate decided at the last minute that Genesis should be an isometric action game, so they shifted the camera angle without fine-tuning the rest. The result is a game which has feet on both sides of the fence without really enjoying the green grass on either side.

Take the environments and graphics, for example. Genesis is practically just as gorgeous as any non-isometric Darksiders game, and the levels have a similar scale which favour a flat design. Both War and Strife therefore often became obscured behind certain environmental objects, and even on my 24 inch monitor, the viewing distance made me forget which horseman I was playing sometimes.

Don’t try to hide from me!

I know that fans of the game have been very vocal online about the fact that Genesis is not trying to be Diablo… but perhaps it could learn a thing or two from Blizzard. Diablo III is a masterclass in isometric level design as the paths sort of curve in on themselves to imbue the game’s dungeons with a sense of verticality and depth.

In Genesis, levels feel more one-dimensional and linear, which in turn make them less interesting than they could have been, and combat suffers from a similar issue. A particular advantage of having a withdrawn camera is that the player can visually appreciate their character’s badass moves more holistically. You feel empowered as you get a full view of how the protagonist’s fighting affect everything in their surroundings.

In my experience, War and Strife feel too underpowered. On normal difficulty War would chop away enthusiastically at even some of the weaker enemies only for their health bars to drain at a complete snail’s pace. Strife is even worse. In a game that was supposed to be his debut, I actually preferred to avoid playing as Strife because he is surprisingly ineffective in close quarter fighting.

This is War’s chaos form where he gains immunity from damager and delivers maximum damage too. Strife turns into a giant scorpion with a tail mounted machine gun.

My point is not that Genesis ever felt overly difficult. The problem is that this type of gameplay would have been more suitable for a traditional, third-person fighting game where stats are less important than your timing and your fighting techniques. To place fighting that requires this much input from the player into an isometric game seems like forcing a square peg into a round hole.

The rough in the diamond

So the point is therefore to explore dungeons, find loot, grind it out in the arena, and then apply them to your character, right? The thing is that loot in Darksiders Genesis is not that interesting. The levels can offer good replay value since the abilities that War and Strife will gain later act as metroidvania-style keys to finding new items.

Yet, the loot that I did find throughout my incessant explorations of all the dungeons felt like it had a very subtle impact on gameplay. Enemies mostly drop health, ammo or souls, and I never felt like I stumbled upon that truly rare or ‘legendary’ piece of loot. What I did find mostly felt like it was passively adding small increments to abstract numbers running in the background.

Newcomer Dis who sells extra moves and combos to War and Strife

Where’s the fun in that? A varied and robust loot system is an utterly crucial component of all dungeon-crawlers, and the rather limited variety in Genesis shows its importance for the incentive to explore. Also, don’t get me started on the skill tree and the creature cores I meantioned earlier. It is dull, it is unintuitive, and I barely noticed a difference in gameplay.

Back to the drawing board then

Frankly, I am not the biggest fan of isometric RPG’s. It just happens to be a genre that I inexplicably neglected in my portfolio as a gamer, and all I can put down as experience is Diablo III, and a healthy dose of the Divinity series. The faults in Genesis are probably more obvious to me than players who have more patience and investment in this area of gaming.

I am, however, utterly fanatical about Darksiders, and I am sorely disappointed that this is how they chose to give Strife his debut. He was the most mysterious and most anticipated horseman for players to meet, and this game does not do his introduction to the series justice. As a long-time player, I must be honest and say Genesis leaves too much of what made previous games enjoyable behind. I feel absolutely no connection to it as a fan.

Yet, Genesis cannot rightly be called a terrible game. In fact, I might even have difficulty calling Genesis a bad game. Forgettable is perhaps the defining word I would use. By itself, Genesis would have made for a decent hack-‘n-slash title. It’s true moment of failure is trying to squash itself into an isometric, action mould: It simply doesn’t fit.

Nice graphics

Great voice cast

Great settings

Arena mode

Boss fights

Lackluster loot

Buggy combat

Repetitive enemies

Strife’s debut

Too different from other games

          PC Specs: Windows 10 64-bit computer using Nvidia GTX 1070, i5 4690K CPU, 16GB RAM – Played using an XBox One controller

The post Darksiders Genesis PC Review appeared first on DSOGaming.

Darksiders Genesis PC Review published first on https://touchgen.tumblr.com/

[courage-a-word-of-justice]

Grimms Notes 1 | Spec Ops Asuka 1 - 2 | Boogiepop 3 | Price of Smiles 2 - 3 | Kaguya-sama 1 | Mob Psycho II 2 | Morose Mononokean II 2 - 3 | Shield Hero 2 | My Roommate is a Cat 2 | Girly Air Force 1

Grimms Notes 1

Somehow, from the opening shot having an easy-to-draw-and-animate non-very-threatening monster, I can tell this is a game adaption.

…Likwise, when I have complaints about the birds in the OP being CG, you know this is an anime.

I think this “handing down the role of Red Riding Hood” thing is interesting. However, the humour Tao was going for at the time…was so not me.

I think all Tao said was that it was dangerous (in the audio). I think the subber was trying to insert a Zelda meme…what an evil agenda…(partially joking)

“…scary black thing…” – Do you mean the monster? If you mean the wolf monster and not the other clawed creature from the beginning of the episode, then that’s not black. That’s purple.

I think Brain’s Base is trying to make Red look creepy with her dead ahead stare, but…as much as I don’t like a fisheye lens, we could really use some right now.

Okayyyyyyyyyy…I knew anime could make anything a weapon, but a bookmark? That’s stretching credulity a bit. How is that badass??? C’mon, even healing was – kinda – badass in Merc Storia because it had a purpose. A bookmark is just used for keeping your place in a book. Unless it’s one of those metal ones that falls out of books all the time, they don’t hurt flies.

Seriously, doesn’t Goliath get defeated by David??? In better news, I thought Tao was vaguely hot, but Robin Hood…ooh…

I have no idea why Alice’s weapon is a sword, btw.

Waitttttt…wuh? “I’ll show you how to be a real lady”???? *eyes of skepticism* At least the other ones make sense and aren’t as gendered – but notably Cinderella is a healer when they could’ve done something cooler, like the Little Mermaid or something (to tie into siren mythology).

Obviously Evil Villain is Obvious. Nothing new to see here.

Well…that was mildly unsatisfying…

Spec Ops Asuka 1

For some reason, I call Magical Girl Special Operations Asuka “Spec Ops Asuka”. Well, at least it makes sense…*shrugs*

Karambit. Surprisingly, it’s a weapon I’ve never heard of before…

Exposition dumps have never been this clunky before! Oof!

Whiskey Charlie? Like…WC? Toilet??? (I’m not sure everyone will get that joke, but okay.)

I’d probably translate the episode title to “Comeback of the Magical Girl”. It starts with a relative clause, so it should be that way in English too.

The ol’ transfer student cliché. *sigh* Anime, anime, anime…why you do dis to me? Not that I mind it, I wouldn’t be so deep if I weren’t…

What’s the name of Nozo-chan’s friend again???

“Franz on the Waves” seems to be a play on “Kafka on the Shore”.

Le sigh…I get the feeling this was written by a dude to satisfy male fantasies by pretending to use girl power as a symbol.

Seriously though, if you thought Sailor Moon was bad at keeping identities…Asuka has it worse. I mean, Rapture Asuka = Asuka Ootori. It’s really obvious in English…

A thug man with a metal hand drinking tea from a tiny cup…now there’s a real source of humour!

(Trigger warning: prostitution discussion) - “…whoring yourself out.” – Err…that’s definitely not what I expected to see in an anime like this. I haven’t shied away from Shield Hero, but this I did a really big double take on for all the wrong reasons. Even with Sayoko to hold Nozo-chan back, I still think Nozo’s being really, really insensitive here.

Okay…the rules of long hair state you must pull your hair out from towels. They missed a good opportunity to do that shoujo sparkle thing with that, y’know, even if to create mood whiplash.

There is something to be said about bystander effect here, I think, and how people award proactivity rather than being passive...especially with magical girls and those other kinds of people who act as “heroes” during times of crisis.

Oh, of course, terrorism. Because we want our magical girls political now…*le sigh*

“Live your life for the sake of those who died.” – This reminds me of the situation with cian-aemilian all over again. I’m pretty sure I’ve said something of a similar nature in the past due to it. Update: my exact quote was “…what can the living do but keep those who have gone in their memory?”

…and of course, people who watch magical girls from afar use drones, because that’s going to outdate this show in a good 10 – 20 years. *le sigh*

Well, colour me impressed. I was about to jump ship due to the shoddy quality, but I think that quote at the end felt like a dig at me personally in the best (yet worst) way possible.  I did laugh a tonne at how stupid the gore looked, though, which might be a problem…

Boogiepop 3

Is it just me, or has Echoes cleaned up now enough to be kinda…hot?

Waittttt…which of them is “Niitoki-kun”? Sorry, I just don’t think I’m 100% comprehending all the names being flung about here. Update: Niitoki is the class prez gal.

Somehow I knew he was going to stab Echoes with the pen, but I was still slightly surprised to see it happen.

Hmm…that episode was a lot more impressive than the last two. Things actually made sense, now that we know the background of them,

Price of Smiles 2

I see 2D mechs. They may be stationary, but I’m still impressed…they’re basically a dying breed these days.

Why do these mechs have shields, anyway?

I like how the twins poked fun at Joshua’s “passion and will” thing.

Oh no…judging from their reaction…did Joshua die???

End of episode segment…keep watching.

Kaguya-sama 1

This is my final premiere…so I’d better make this count. I read somewhere the narrator was overpowering and read the first volume of manga, but otherwise that’s all I know about this.

I think that shot that replays in the OP is part of one chapter of the manga.

Tori…Tottori…geddit? Oh, never mind.

20th Century Fox, much?

The weed was a good touch. I don’t remember that being in the manga. (No, I’m not talking about that weed…which you can smoke…)

“Who’s Hayasaka?” you ask. Good question. Even I didn’t know, so I had to ask Google. Hayasaka…is Kaguya’s valet! If you know that, then you can laugh about it!

If you want a sausage octopus, just go ask your team of chefs for one, Kaguya!

Mob Psycho II 2

I’m pretty sure Ura Sunday is where Mob Psycho is serialised…

Is this the real Junji Ito adaption (LOL)?

Mononokean II 2

Why is Ashiya good at finding metal objects anyway? (If there is an explanation…) It’s only metal items and not anything else, right?

So the Justice is this frumpy purple-haired dude? I think I outgrew this kind of dude once I got over Urushihara…

There are CGI tadpoles, but they’re kinda hard to see against the 2D background…

Come to think of it, Abeno may be the master of the Mononokean, but it seems he reports directly to the Legislator. Is there a guy/youkai like that for the Justice (and presumably the other dude) as well?

Moja falling into the water was too adorable!

Oh great (LOL), the Legislator is basically baiting Abeno with “that’s not water!” from Grand Blue…

I just realised Abeno’s so big in comparison to Ashiya…n-not that I mind of course…(lel)

Aoi? Who dat? Update: Oh yeah…that guy (?) was the first master of the Mononokean. Sorry, I may have watched the 1st series twice, but that was at the start of 2017.

Shield Hero 2

“…is diseased and has a mental disorder.” – Well, I thought it honestly couldn’t get any worse, between slavery and rape accusations. It just did. Again, I don’t condone this stuff, but a story’s a story, no matter how depraved.

Seeing a story about the pits of despair naturally means you can see people get better – I think that’s why we need to have both stories that are light and fluffy + dark and dreary.

I see Naofumi keeps a Balloon (<- how I’ll refer to balloon monsters from now on) at his side all the time now, LOL. By the way, when he bought that ball, I honestly thought he was going to offer Raphtalia a Balloon instead of getting her a proper ball…

Update: Not sure if Naofumi’s inability to taste stuff is because of the betrayal or because of the fact he changed worlds…or maybe even something else?

My Roommate is a Cat 2

I see Bliss wallpaper...either someone has good taste in default wallpapers or a very outdated computer!

Is it alright to feed cats bread…? I’ve never fed a cat.

They say pets are like their owners, huh? Subaru is very much like the cat.

Wait, why are all the pets that are out and about do-Update: Forget I asked. There are some cats outside as well…

I’ve never seen a Japanese word processor with genkouyooshi to type into vertically, come to think of it.

Talking to cats is fine and dandy, I think, assuming they understand you as well. Anyways, I think Subaru got the name “Haru” from “sunny” (hare).

Ah! Kitty too cute!...I wish that could be a review, but sadly…it can’t be.

Post-credits segment…keep going.

Oh, that post-credits segment was so good, even if it did need some explaining to an audience that only knows English!

Update: I read the character bios from the official site, and turns out Haru is a girl.

Girly Air Force 1

I’ve seen mixed opinions about this (as in, read too many impressions on it and they don’t neatly go one way or another), so I’m taking the plunge while I still have time to.

You can tell your protagonist is great when the first word he says is “S***!”

EGG? “Defective girl”? I know I’m watching something with a lot of context here…but seriously, this was definitely made for dudes. Jusssssssssssst saying.

See? What did I say? After your first kiss, it’s only a matter of time before-erhem. I’ll stop ranting now.

So…what languages does Minghua know, exactly?

Wait, so what was Kei doing in China? Better question! (sings in a teasing voice “Eloping, eloping, Kei was eloping!”)

As much as I think free tuition is a good thing…I’m with Minghua. Don’t go risking your life when you just escaped for your life not too long ago.

*sigh* Kei, Kei, Kei…what do you think you’re doing?

…and I LOL. I LOL so hard at how they tossed Kei into the boot but laid down Minghua like a baby.

But seriously, why the name “Daughter”???

Egao no Daika 3

I found and heard Huey! I can leave this show if I wanted to now…

The fact people are red or blue, and sometimes you can’t tell which is which, is powerful colour symbolism.

Spec Ops Asuka 2

Well…that (perception magic) explains one of my questions from last time.

I kep thinking that Sayako is the sort of girl who would become a magical girl…in the traditional sense.

Pigeon fight! The fight I never knew I needed…kind of.

I’ve watched enough anime to know the new transfer student is Kurumi…geez.

Mononokean II 3

For some reason, I didn’t realise this until most of the episode had gone…but Egen is a tengu, right?

Make sure you watch closely for the “like him [Ashiya]” bit…it’s funny when you find out.

I find it the most surprising that Abeno is calling himself an idiot…hmm.

[thatguysamaniac-blog]

Last year, Nintendo made the slightly uncontroversial and in line with what competitors have been doing for decades business decision to start charging for the service to play games online with the Nintendo Switch. In order to sweeten the deal somewhat a paid membership gets you access to online play, exclusive offers (such as cosmetics in some games and those stupid but cool but stupid but expensive but worth it NES Switch controllers), sometimes cloud saves and most controversially gives you access to a growing library of NES games playable as long as you're subbed up. Some vocal gamers, however, did not like this decision at all because they either already own and play the NES games on offer (lies nobody ever intentionally bought Super Dodge Ball let alone played it on the go) or they didn't want the NES games but wouldn't mind free N64 games or SNES games perhaps? Like winged monkeys with neckbeards they took to social media en mass to whine about it. This level of entitlement we've never really understood. We'd love a crème brulée made from Jamie Oliver's own nipple milk topped with gratinated Marilyn Monroe tagnuts, but we're not going to get it from Kamil's Fried Chicken for £1.49. We're going to get dog cock in a pitta because that's what KFC is actually selling. If you don't want to play free NES games for signing up to an online service. Just don't. Just don't and don't tell anybody you didn't want to whilst you aren't. We do admire the optimism of disgruntled gamers STILL responding to every Nintendo Twitter announcement with: And we're struggling to understand. What's the mentality here? Are they mistaking a regional social media marketing account of a multinational electronics company with the Make A Wish foundation? If they were is that really the wish you want to run with all things considered? However, the entitled little so and so's do have a point. In a very Nintendo way, not all of the NES games currently on offer are stellar nor does there seem to be a rhyme or reason to the selection of games or the order they are being added. FRET NOT because here's our essential guide with each game either rated: worth a try, all-time stone cold classics or games that should have stayed unplayable. Adventures of Lolo Play as a face and collect the hearts until the angry skulls run after you. Defend yourself by turning them into bubble gum eggs? Our verdict: Once we worked out the controls, quite enjoyed this one. Balloon Fight We feel really sorry for the people out there whose first experience with video games was Balloon Fight because they don't play games anymore. They've avoided them ever since 1986 because this game is about as fun as Joust which everyone knows was not and never will be fun. Our verdict: Push off a cliff but make sure you pop both balloons first. Just in case. Baseball Like all sports games if you don't have a [name of team sport] game then this one has you covered. Seriously. They're all the same. Unless it's an American sport in which case it's worse. Our verdict: Alright if you like this kind of thing. Donkey Kong You too can pretend to be a sad middle-aged hot sauce salesman and/or professional loser by playing this infuriating game. BUT DAT MUSIC THO. Our verdict: Good for a quickie in the kitchen every now and then. Double Dragon Like River City Ransom but good. Our verdict: That these early games spawned entire genres is sometimes very surprising. Dr. Mario It's Dr. Mario. There's never a good time not to Dr. Mario. You want to be the one to be out here pretending Dr. Mario ain't all that? Who hurt you in the past? Our verdict: Marry. Dr. Mario SP For those not good enough at germing the other germs, a quick skip to a sort of end. Our verdict: A one night stand only but make sure you play safe because there's no knowing what diseases you might get.  Excitebike If you can tolerate the awful SFX this Drive 'Em Up is mildly challenging. Our verdict: [HORriFiC EngInE NOiSe]. Ghosts'n Goblins Like Half Minute Hero except that half minute is spent being constantly attacked by enemies which come out of the ground then you die. Out verdict: We've never gotten past the first screen to be honest. Gradius Like TwinBee but horizontal. Tough to boot. Our verdict: Dark Souls but in space. Gradius SP Made almost playable starting the game powered up until you get hit that is then it's back to buggery. Our verdict: Bloodborne but in space. Ice Climber Like QWOP but for jumping upwards and less fun. Our verdict: Climb up a cliff just to push this off. Ice Hockey Like all sports games if you don't have a [name of team sport] game then this one has you covered. Seriously. They're all the same. Our verdict: Alright if you like this kind of thing. The Legend of Zelda Confession time! This half of TGAM never played this game originally. I assumed from the bits of it I'd been exposed to from WarioWare and both NES Remix games that there was more to this game. There isn't. Our verdict: It is a secret to everyone that this game is a bit shit.  The Legend of Zelda SP Confession time! This half of TGAM never played this game originally. I assumed from the bits of it I'd been exposed to from WarioWare and both NES Remix that there was more to this game. There isn't. Our verdict: It is a secret to everyone that this game is a bit shit. Warmed up. Mario Bros. Before they were super and before jumping in NES games felt nice this is what the Mario brothers did. Flushing giant flies, angry crabs, turtles and ice blocks out of the sewer. For coins. Our verdict: Fun to co-op but lacks the stamina to really smash your back doors in. Metroid One of the best retro Metroidvanias ever. Although younger gamers weaned on the mother's milk of Dark Souls and the like might need a pen and paper to draw a map as they go. Our verdict: Put a chuffing ring on it. Metroid SP Like the above but super racist against Ridley. Our verdict: For those who want to feel a big man but just don't have the capacity. Mighty Bomb Jack Remind us why were jumping on boxes as the mummies turn into coins? Our verdict: They don't make them like this anymore. Probably for good reason. NES Open Tournament Golf Like all sports games if you don't have a [name of team sport] game then this one has you covered. Seriously. They're all the same. Our verdict: Alright if you like this kind of thing. Ninja Gaiden Like River City Ransom but hard. Our verdict: Try if you like BDSM.  Pro Wrestling If this is Pro we'd hate to see the amateurs. Our verdict: Ring out! River City Ransom Like Double Dragon but worse Our verdict: Push off a conveyor belt to the void. Soccer Like all sports games if you don't have a [name of team sport] game then this one has you covered. Seriously. They're all the same. Our verdict: Alright if you like this kind of thing which is definitely Soccer.  Solomon's Key What is this game about? Make blocks to touch the bell and liberate fairies? Nuts. Our verdict: Who knows?  Super Dodge Ball We thought dodge ball is what you play when the weather's too shit to play a proper sport and all you have is a ball. Let alone an actual game. With actual rules. And an arena. And a video game version. Our verdict: No. Just no.  Super Mario Bros. Yes, you may have played the original on the NES and again with Super Mario All-Stars and Super Mario Bros. Deluxe and the virtual console releases and the Wii Super Mario All-Stars re-release. And Super Luigi Bros. on the Wii-U. You may have even remade and remixed it on Super Mario Maker on more than one platform. But it's fucking Super Mario Bros. It's like pizza or Marmite. Everyone loves it. Our verdict: Get down on one knee for this one. Super Mario Bros. 3. Do us a favour before even trying to pretend you have an edgy opinion about how it isn't that good. Get or buy a friend. Give them the second Joy-Con and play Super Mario Bros. 3 together. If you don't enjoy yourself just end it. End it now. Our verdict: Worth committing bigamy* with a friend for.  Tecmo Bowl What is this? Is this some kind of war thing? Not into it. Our verdict: Off the fucking cliff. Tennis Like all sports games if you don't have a [name of team sport] game then this one has you covered. Seriously. They're all the same. Our verdict: Alright if you like this kind of thing.  TwinBee Like Gradius but upways Our verdict: Okay, what both this platform and Sega Mega Drive Classics need are some decent fucking documentation. Here's what the user guide says for every. single. game: Not exactly helpful is it? What's strange about this shoddy aspect is that the Virtual Console on the Wii-U had whole manuals viewable from within a menu.  Wario's Woods Worth a try but not for everyone. Think Tetris lacks platforming? This may be for you. Our verdict: Go for coffee and see how you feel.  Yoshi Crack with Bloopers. Our verdict: Marry but with constant shagging. So there we have it, all rated and up-to-date as of this blog going live. Any way you look at it, it is something special to have a museum of NES games at your fingertips with some upgraded with online play should you be inclined. With Tecmo, Konami, Capcom, HAL and KOEI games already on the system there're stacks of potential titles making their way to a Switch near you.  *How Mario describes himself when he has eaten a Super Mushroom.

http://www.thatguys.co.uk/2019/01/nintendo-switch-online-nes-games-shag.html