#gd i should replay this game

[tamayokny]

scorched by an 8 year old </3

[lithopsy]

having another fictional character breakdown again but it (spoilers for a seven year old game) is so insane that saeran killed jihyun IN FRONT of jumin in the SE like THAT GUY DIED?? THERE IS A FUNERAL CG?? like why does the fandom collectively ignore that scene

[sometipsygnostalgic]

"Why is Alola so hated?"

Someone asked this question on Reddit.

The original post:

"Other than too much dialogue what is the worst thing about Alola. Alola is my favorite Pokémon games and region for a multitude of reasons but all I hear about it is that it has too much dialogue. I can understand that but later titles have just as much dialogue especially in the beginning portions of the game. So why is such an issue in these games than any other in the series. Also you thought the GD games were dark, the Aether Family are very dark concept if you want to look into them. Anyways back on topic, why are Alola considered the worst games besides the dialogue of course"

I thought about this question and I ended up writing a lengthy reply, see below. For context I should mention that Sun and Moon were my favourite mainline stories:

"So everyone is mentioning USUM, but since I was around for the launch of the games, I may as well throw my hat into the ring and explain what went wrong:

Everyone was really excited for the games to come out, but there was generally something missing from them. Promotional material was overly vague.

When the original Sun and Moon came out they had the following issues:

The story was very handholdy. I am a GREAT FAN of the story mode, but I have never replayed these games because they are basically visual novels. If you were a Nuzlocker, someone who wanted to replay Pokemon games, or if you didn't like the story, then these versions would automatically become your least favourite because of how long it takes to reach each milestone. It's also easier than a lot of prior games, not as easy as Gen 6 or 8 but up there.

While the region is IMO one of the most cohesive, it's also one of the least expansive. The Alola Region is fucking tiny. There's not nearly as many side things to do as in generations 4 and 5, and the new things they put into the Alola games were a lot less fun gimmick-wise. I like that they abandon the grid system, it needed to go, but Pokemon team don't seem to work well in 3d.

The online multiplayer was total ass. Of course, the online only got WORSE From here on out. How you get worse than Festival Plaza is beyond me, but I think Gen 7 is definitely when Pokemon jumped from having the BEST multiplayer system on Nintendo systems in generation 6 to one of the worst. Personally I was also disappointed the Festival Plaza wasn't a bit more like the Wifi Plaza, which was already a broken terrible mess but at least had some minigames. It seemed to take the wrong inspiration from Wifi Plaza, and tragically Pokemon only went downhill with online compatibility after. Because while technically the online is more fun in gen 8 and 9, it doesn't work.

The games leaked before they came out. Everyone saw concept art of the starters' final evolutions and they were SO MAD that Litten became bipedal. But there were very few surprises in Sun and Moon for people who prowled the reddit, who also seemed to be the least excited about the games.

However, what I don't think you understand is how much LOVE they had. Of all the pokemon games I've been around for the release of, I think Sun and Moon were most unanimously loved. Everyone was talking about the story, and the incredible new designs of the alola pokemon, and yeah they were having a lot of trouble playing online, but people persisted.

When Ultra Sun and Moon came out, people were veeeeery disappointed for three key reasons:

This was a dual release "third version" instead of a sequel. Again, everyone LOVED the story of the original games, by this point it felt that the "third version" idea was dated, and people wanted a damn sequel with their favourite characters! I think BW2 set a very high bar for what the Pokemon team could offer, and unfortunately I don't think they ever met that bar again after they started making 3d games.

It was on the 3DS instead of the Switch. I was NEVER expecting USUM to be Switch games, I knew Pokemon team were not ready for Switch, but for some reason people expected Pokemon Stars to be a Switch game. Everyone was reaaaaally excited for Pokemon Switch after the console launched, but Pokemon has always belonged on the DS, and I felt it had more potential for growth on that console before moving up on the chain. Of course, after the negative reaction to USUM and the begging for Pokemon Switch, Game Freak HAD to start development on Let's Go and Sw/Sh.

The things they'd added into the game were not as impressive as the other Third Versions. Pokemon Emerald and Pokemon Platinum were objective improvements from the original, though I have some things to say about Emerald's pacing. I like the minigames from Ultra, I fell SO in love with the Camera mode!!! Spent so much time fucking around in it and still have a folder in my computer to this day. HOWEVER, the people still yearn for a Battle Frontier! The Battle Factory they put in USUM seems to be based on community, which was already a pain in the ass, and as you know, it's now impossible to play online with others, so RIP to that as well. I like the changes to the Battle Tree, I love Rainbow Rocket, but while Platinum and Emerald were NECESSARY IMPROVEMENTS from the ground up, USUM only improved some of the battles and held down everything else with more, worse cutscenes.

The story was much worse than the original, choosing to cut and change content instead of improve upon what was there. The story of Platinum and Emerald doesn't come across as worse than DP and RS, but EVERYONE thinks the story for USUM is a downgrade. The reason for this is because if Lillie was the true protagonist of the games originally, the Ultra versions tried to cut her down, but only for a couple of her most important scenes. She and Lusamine basically have every scene intact except for their most important, climactic moments. It's like if instead of BW2, they made Pokemon Grey but it was split in half, and instead of being an evil fucko gunning for world domination, Ghetsis was trying to use the power of the two Dragons to stop Kyurem from freezing the world, except he still abused pokemon, and he still abused N from childhood, and N never showed up to become champion and N never realised the truth of pokemon or turned against his father. How terrible would that be?

No remakes or anything special at the end of the gen. For the past few generations we'd either had remakes or sequels, but Gen 7 released USUM and Let's Go. It's debatable whether the Lets Go games are part of gen 7, but I wouldn't consider them remakes the same way that HGSS or ORAS are, and they are CERTAINLY not a favourite with a hardcore Pokemon audience. At least Gen 8/9 had decent DLC and Legends Arceus as a halfhearted apology note, but unfortunately there was no swan song at the end of Generation 7.

I think ultimately that's what made people go from "Gen 7 could be the best yet" to "Gen 7 bad". The launch was very strong, but the followup was the poorest out of almost any gen.

My personal opinion of USUM is it is one of the best pokemon games for general battles, I think it would be a lot more fun to nuzlocke than the original Sun and Moon, but there's a lot of better pokemon games to replay than USUM, especially if you're taking modded into account. I think sun and moon were the most immersive out of the games I've played, at the very least because it had improvements like trainer models in battles without the uncanny as hell stuff you got in the next two gens. I remember the games fondly, even if I do feel bitter about the story changes."

I thought this reply was worth sharing on this blog. I put a lot of effort into it.

[dee--eer]

The downside of replaying one (1) Danganronpa game is that eventually I'll want to replay all four games and reread all the novels and since I've got Decadence now I'd want to collect and raise all of them too and I. I am totally fucked, aren't I.

[butwhatifidothis]

I did it! Finally fucking did it! I 100% the support log for 3H….Holy shit, that took longer than I was expecting, lol. 

(Long rant, so heads up.)

I came in thinking “Oh they finally time-locked the supports, so I don’t have to have the damn cursor mocking me every time I open the menu like in Awakening and Fates, hurr hurr”. No no no no no. At least for Awakening and Fates, it was on my dumb ass for pressing the S-support and saving when I knew I shouldn’t. First off, if they wanted us to regain supports for Byleth in NG+, why the heck are supports for characters like Edelgard, Rhea, Dorothea and Lindhart locked? I don’t mean time-locked like the post-TS supports in a regular playthrough, I mean deadass “you can’t buy this, period” locked. “Oh it’s because you haven’t advanced that far in the story yet”. I can buy post-TS supports for the other characters, what makes El and Rhea exceptions?! The only thing that would be lost is that I don’t have to replay their entire route to get their S-support twice. It’s not like there’s enough differences between Bylad and Bylass to warrant the supports being locked, none of the characters specify a specific gender in their dialogue, and as far as different models go, changing models during a cutscene is coded into the game, so that should be no issue.  

After going through the monastery option enough times, the hubworld is in this weird limbo state where it feels like it was made specifically for Byleth’s benefit (faculty training, recruiting party members, etc,) but the rest of the party seems to benefit from it instead (Instructions, Motivation points, etc). The Explore vs Battle options just don’t mix well, which feels like poor design choice. You can focus on auxiliary battles to raise your party’s level, but at the cost of potentially missing out on more party members. You can instead focus on the monastery to recruit party members, but at the cost of Byleth falling behind due to splitting activity points between recruiting and faculty training, and being in the monastery means less time grinding for levels. This isn’t as much of a problem in NG+, but if a game needs NG+ to lessen a design problem, then that’s more of a sign to me that the idea itself needed more ironing out. 

 As far as using the monastery to raise support points goes, the hubworld definitely needs a revamp. The only (good) options available are Meal Time and Choir Practice, with the latter being limited to once per week and the former making me think that the monastery must eat their own weapons to survive due to how fucking scarce food ingredients are. Getting meat and fish isn’t too big of an issue so long as you have enough money, but produce might as well be an urban legend. There were too many times where I had 60+ fish/meat, but produce was at fucking 1. I get that they wanted to be “realistic” in having seeds grow once per week, but if it’s at the cost of a gameplay element being nigh unplayable, then some more thought needs to be put into it. Sothis is a goddess of life and time, maybe her powers allow Byleth to make plants grow faster. Just something to make this section actually playable. 

The final thing I wanted to talk about when it comes to the monastery is that, for some baffling reason, it is entirely possible to lock yourself out of key events like S-supports or being able to choose CF, simply by skipping to the end of the month. I’m not sure why this is a thing. It’s not like the game was designed with speedruns in mind (I mean, it is possible to beat a route in an hour, but fuck me if I ever succeeded in that), and nothing happens like a prompt popping up that you have to explore the monastery during that month or even limiting your options to just Explore (which the game has done before). This is especially weird for the quest in getting Jeralt’s ring (how to access S-supports), since Byleth is supposed to be sad in this month, so not being able to do seminars or Byleth being undeployable during auxiliary battles would make sense. 

The option to choose CF is even worse though, because at least for Jeralt’s ring it’s a Red Quest that doesn’t allow you to finish exploring unless you complete it. For Edelgard, however? A dime-a-dozen quest prompt you can entirely look over and skip. No prompt by the game, no indication to talk to Edelgard, nothing. FFS, Rhea’s tea time quest was given more thought. At least her quest marker is a unique color. 

(End of rant…sort of) 

…So anyways, that was my experience with the game, lmao. Now you or someone else may be thinking, “nonnie, if you had this many problems completing the game, why did you bother?”, and the answer to that good question is…I’m not completely sure, lol. I know there’s more than one reason why, so bear with me here. I know part of it is due to sunk-cost fallacy (“I’m already this far into the game, I might as well fully complete it”), but I think a bigger reason is because I knew ahead of time that the routes were so similar to each other that there was little point in having a route split to begin with (except for CF, but who gives a fuck about that?). Despite all of my bitching, I do really like 3H even if I admit that it’s my least favorite FE game that I’ve played so far. I guess a part of me just wanted to like the game more despite my issues with it. 

Now that I think about it, maybe the main reason was for fear of future mainline games. People are fear to like whatever part of a game that they wish, but I do think that 3H introduced some fundamental storytelling flaws that I’d rather not see repeated in the future, with me focusing on 3 in particular: 1) The Monastery, 2) Route Splits and 3) Byleth. 

Aside from what I already talked about in regards to the monastery, if we are going to get another hubworld in the new FE title, have it to where it doesn’t conflict with how the rest of the story is presented. Is it better to simply tell us that the Western Church is xenophobic in an easily skippable side quest early on, or is it better to show us? Enemy Western Church NPCs going after foreign party members like Dedue or Petra more aggressively and calling them “animals” or the like, the map having Duscari NPCs locking themselves indoors for fear that the Western Church will persecute them, things of that nature. Is it better to tell us that there has been civil unrest in the Empire and the citizens revolting against Edelgard, or is it better to show us? Enemy Adrestian Civilian NPCs, assassins specifically going after Edelgard in a map, maybe one where a large farmland has been stripped bare. Things like that. 

I’d rather do away with the Persona-calendar/Monastery hubworld, but if they are here to stay then they need enough content in it to keep the player engaged for 20-odd chapters, because there isn’t enough content in Garreg Mach to even hold up 12 chapters. Speaking of more content, if there’s going to be another route split in the next title, then there needs to be enough differences in the routes that actually warrants having a route split. Fates already did this well in having the route split be early in the game, along with the plot and story maps of each route being different, you could even skip to the route split moment on subsequent playthroughs, so 3H’s approach in having to play the same 12 chapters 3-4 times just felt like a massive downgrade. Playing multiple routes should feel rewarding rather than tedious, is what I’m trying to say. 

Finally, and most importantly, I know that no one at IS is reading this but on the off chance that someone is - please, for the love of God, do not make another blank-slate/self insert main character like Byleth. Or at the very least, don’t have them be the focal point of the story, it’s a big reason why AM just works better than the other routes. For a game like FE, “self-insert” and “protagonist” goes as well as oil and water. Now, out of those three flaws listed, the Byleth one is what I’m hard set on. The monastery and route split flaws, my opinion might be flexible within reason, but the Byleth one…not so much, lol. If we really do get another self-insert doll for a main character, that alone is going to make the next game a hard sell for me, because seeing all the praise Byleth got (and has been getting) makes me fear that IS is going to take the wrong lesson from this and think they don’t have to put effort in making their protagonist anything resembling an actual person and their audience will still lap it up. It would be one thing if I just hated the character, but I don’t. I’m disappointed, which is even worse.

…With that said, it’s still better than whatever the heck Cap’n’Crunch is doing. Okay, rant over. For real this time.

—

I agree with a lot said here! But I do have a few disagreements, though they’re mostly my opinion than anything else lol

And this first one is probably like, extremely unpopular given how much shit I’ve seen flung at this aspect of 3H, but like… I actually really like the Monastery? Like yes, absolutely, it should have done more to not shelter the player from how bad the war is and it should change more with the world instead of being in this mostly limbo state where apparently seasons don’t real. I definitely also have those complaints, but to me, the Monastery was fine for the most part. A lot of the issues you brought up, like supports and Faculty Training and supplies for eating, weren’t a problem for me almost at all. My only real gripe is with how hard it is for Byleth to get training in Flying, Mounted and especially Heavy Armor without NG+ unlocking weapons ranks, since they don’t have access to Weekly Chores. I do believe I still managed to recruit everyone while only unlocking C in Faith on my Maddening playthrough of GD, but it certainly wasn’t easy. But I feel a lot of the problem people have with it are on subsequent playthroughs where they’re trying to do things like 100% any aspect of 3H, which yeah is gonna exacerbate the issues tenfold. Cuz like, while those three weapons ranks I mentioned are hard for Byleth to raise, on Normal mode you have unlimited auxiliary battles to help with all the other ones. 

Like, I wanted to get Claude’s Dex to the max amount right? Just cuz I felt like it. And in doing that I found out just how tedious it is to get levels once a unit gets to a certain point, just cuz while Normal Mode gives you the Retreat option that lets you keep exp so you can drop a unit down on a yellow spot and get a decent boost in exp… you can do that like, twice or thrice on a story chapter. Once if it’s auxiliary (and not the freebie one). And that’s if you even have internet. And using the greenhouse to get Ailiell Pomegranates was a pain because they weren’t really guaranteed even if I used nothing but the right seed - doing that is more consistent, but not always, and I usually only got one anyway. It was annoying! But I was also doing a specific thing that’s gonna heighten the flaws in the system that I never would have noticed - didn’t even notice - unless I did that. The flaws are still there, don’t get me wrong! The Monastery definitely still needs improvement, battles still need to be a little more streamlined for future playthrough, but the flaws can seem a bit bigger than they are once you do certain things outside of a casual playthrough, know what I mean?

But, for example, when replaying 3H on hard mode and looking to recruit everyone after my no recruitment run, I didn’t come across any dilemma over “recruitment or Byleth being good, pick one.” That was the run my Byleth was usable, in fact - my first blind run that was no recruitment (save for Shamir) had my Byleth be pretty much completely useless while literally everyone else was fine. Also never came across problems with supplies for cooking (or at least not any big enough to comment on). So like, while these (and the above stuff) can certainly be problems for players trying to do everything everything in 3H, at least from my experience I just haven’t come across them. The monastery itself definitely needed a better story implementation, but yeah. I could’ve just been lucky tho lmao

I don’t mind how they implemented trying to get on CF at all tho lol. If you’ve been playing the game like it suggests you do - supporting characters and exploring the monastery  there’s no reason for players to have missed getting on CF. If players wanted to ignore one of the biggest aspects of the game I don’t really feel that bad for them when they miss out on very achievable things. Plus, CF’s requirements are nothing in terms of FE’s madness when it comes to getting on a route. It may be more specific than any other route, but like I said, playing the game as the game tells you to would naturally land you in it (the only thing that might be a bit unfair is that I think if you talk with Edelgard at all that month you have to decide right then and there, and then the whole month is lost. Kinda ass). 

Binding Blade, for example, requires you to do specific things that few first time players would think to do in multiple, random chapters in order for you to get the best ending. With absolutely no warning as to when these chapters happen and what to do in them. And some of these requirements are not fun lmao, I’d prefer how they did it with CF than with how they’ve handled ~secret~ stuff before personally

Pretty much agree with everything else though! While 3H is actually one of my more favored games in the series, I’ll be the first to admit that its storytelling is in dire need of improvement. Having the story and lore of the game just be spat out in lore dumps and this or that NPC just isn’t that good. Or if they are going to do that, at the very least give some visuals to go along with it! Imagine how much impactful Rhea’s story would have been if it was in a visual format, like CGs and/or a cutscene. It still would be an info dump, but at least we can see for ourselves how horrific the Red Canyon was for her! And I do not want another avatar in whatever next mainline game we get, personality or not. We’ve evolved past the need for self-inserts that all the characters Just Like lmao

But thanks for sharing your thoughts!! And sorry that it took so long for me to get to answering ;w; 

[kiarou]

Fire Emblem Three Houses is, to date, the most successful Fire Emblem game- both commercially and critically. It took me a while to play and complete the routes, but after having done so, I can understand why. FE3H is a radical departure that really emphasizes the characters over the gameplay. The FE series is currently going through a rebirth process that mixes several genres, resulting in a massive game that has its ups and downs. When it’s good, it’s really good- better than FE4 and FE6. But when it’s bad- it’s worse than FE Fates.

As a FE veteran, I had many moments where I was questioning if what I was playing was actually an FE game. At times it felt like a dating sim and other it felt like a visual novel. Both of those aspects aren’t bad, but I’d be lying if I didn’t admit that some of the more interesting map designs and FE game mechanics got lost in the rebirth.

However, I pleasantly surprised by the main three lords. These three are some of the most interesting Lords to ever be in FE. I tend to have a penchant towards Dimitri since he is the most traditional FE lord with complexities and morally gray areas built into his character. The result is a character with massive amounts of depth and nuisance. The same goes for the Edelgard and Claude. I think all three complement each other as difference aspects of FE archetypes, highlighting the positive and negatives of those traits. Edelgard is the idea of empire- that only the strong would be able to rule. Dimitri is the idea of the king- that only the chosen should be able to rule. And Claude is the idea of the Machiavellian politic- that only the exploiters can rule.

The concepts of war, tragedy and perspective are the most interesting part of the game. However, the scope and breadth of those concepts lead directly to my biggest criticism. Most of which revolves around the writing and how the events unfold from point A to B. This problem is twofold- first from a game play perspective and second from the perspective of Byleth.

My first point is simple- the individual routes are simply too short. 21 chapters did not seem enough to wrap up each of the routes. I can’t help but get the feeling that the original story for the game was sliced up into subpar outlines to produce passable plots that end without a proper conclusion. I can’t play BE and gain closure on TWSITD, and same goes for BL. But both routes provide satisfaction for the larger geopolitical situation. Meanwhile GD rushes through the political conflicts with flippant ease only to fully delve into TWSITD as a true ending- while most of the characters have very little to do with the organization. Both Edelgard and Dimitri have more reason to seek the truth than Claude.

And even within the routes, I feel not enough time was given to the world, specifically in part II. How great would it have been to have a map showing Dimitri’s escape from execution, similar to FE7 Chapter 11 Hector Mode where you control only two units (Dimitri & Dedue) and have to make it from one end of the map to the other. Or to have a map where Edelgard storms the castle to reach her father so that she can become the new emperor. A lot of plot points in the game happen off screen and with very little explanation. As much as I love Dimitri’s exile and fall into madness, I never got to see it and it made it that much harder for me to understand him, which really hurt his eventual character arc. My point here is that each route would have benefited from 28-35 total chapters to flesh out the events of part II.

I understand that a lot of plot threads were split up and placed in other routes to provide incentive to play the other routes (so that one can see the full conclusions), but I would argue that part I makes the replay value excruciatingly painful and that the strength of the characters fully explored would be reason enough to replay (like FE8’s split route)

On a side note, was anyone else confused by how the time skip was handled? Byleth just fell asleep? Why do that when you have a perfectly good mechanic already introduced. The spell of Zahra would have worked as a perfect reason for a time skip. Byleth gets trapped, escapes but time has passed differently and it’s now 5 years later. This handling of the time skip had me completely flabbergasted.

On the note of Blyeth, that leads me to my second point. Byleth is a narrative road block. On one hand, I understand the reason for Byleth’s inclusion as a self-insert character. But on the other, many of the decisions in how he/she interacts with the world really hurt the story. The decision to make Byleth never speak or have a defined personality made every interaction awkward for me and difficult to take anything relating to him/her seriously. Another point of serious contention is how the story treats Byleth as the main character.

The three new lords of the series are so interesting yet they are treated as side-exhibits for the main attraction of Byleth. When I chose a route, I chose it to spend time and see one of the three Lords be the protagonist. Instead, in every route, the majority of the time and effort are spent on Byleth and his/her past and super-special-ness. In my opinion, the houses leaders should be the main driving force and the focus of that route, like any other Fire Emblem entry sans Fates.

Despites these negative points of a rushed story in all three routes and the annoying intrusion of Byleth, I greatly enjoyed the game and appreciate how many new fans it has brought to the series. I have high hopes that they can fix some of the writing issues and improve on their map designs for the next entry.

[lady-byleth]

I’ve finally gotten around to replaying FE3H, and instead of finishing my Crimson Flower ng+ run like a good noodle, I decided to start another playthrough with GD. Something about their dynamic is just so magnetizing, and I love how all of them develop over the course of the game to become best buddies. Also unpopular opinion ig but to me, they’re the only group that really does a good job of making Byleth come off as a friend and equal, rather Than Just A professor. (1/?)

*hands you a megaphone* please never stop

And I get what you're saying. I think the thing is also that Claude is the only lord who's mental health issues don't end up playing a major part in the story

He has them, sure. Trust issues and a need to find every truth, but that's something he's got a pretty good grasp on. But Dimitri's personal arc revolves around Byleth trying her damndest to somehow nudge him back towards the light and Edie's has you trying to counterbalance her more extreme tendencies (or at least that's the intention but that is another story)

Additionally, Dimitri's trauma is linked to basically half his class and their mothers (or father's, rather). Felix, Ingrid, Ashe, Annette...all their troubles can somehow be traced back to him and you're suddenly thrown into a balancing act of trying to get those people to solve their shit while the Empire is knocking on the front door

Edie already has a problem with relationships and jumping to conclusions about things, plus most of the Eagles are eccentric enough that they don't click as well as they probably should. Individual relationships work fine but as a group they kind work like same poled magnets

But the Deer have the most equal ratio of nobility to commoners and are just eccentric enough to be chaotic without clashing

It starts with the lord's retainer already. Hubert and Dedue are basically constantly rolling out the red carpet for their boss while Hilda isn't above taking the rolled up thing and whacking Claude with it for being a fool

Felix's hostility stems from grief, fear and caring too deeply. Ferdinand wants to prove himself better than Edie at every turn. Both Dimitri and Edie just kinda shrug and deal with it in their own way. Lorenz is a lil bitch to Claude cuz he has valid criticism of his behavior and worries for the Alliance and Claude deals with that by a) being snarky and b) showing Lorenz he can do his job despite his apparent lack of trying

The Deer have much less on their plate vis a vis trauma and political risks so they have more of an opportunity to actually work through their interpersonal squabbles in a timely manner. They don't enforce distance and the story, which is for the most part told through exposition because of the way the game is structured, doesn't have to rely on the characters explaining a lot of stuff to move forward

That way it ends up being the least dialogue heavy while also getting the most done. They have the time to focus on the plot and leave the character development to the characters themselves.

That's not to say every other route is worse or badly written or anything, it's just with the game's format delving into Dimitri's backstory and emotional journey the way we watch the Deer develop organically through cutscenes...we'd need a route that's at least 5 times as long. So he does a lot of talking and explaining to make up for that

It's not bad, not in the least. Azure Moon is a very heavy and well written story, but it does work in Verdant Wind's favor.

[jasperlion]

Nonspoiler review for 3H:

Positives:

-> The story does change depending on which House you pick and while the first few chapters will only feature minor differences, a lot of them will play a key role in the future or will clear up events that happen on other routes and shed some light on the events before the game.

-> Further interaction with the characters will help flesh them out in ways that expand old mechanics like the 'Headquarters' mechanic in SoV and conversation mechanic in Tellius games. There's a lot of little things here and there that also help shed some light on the characters, their habits, their likes and dislikes, further expanding on them than other games did before.

-> You can interact with characters of the Houses you did not pick up to a point, and this makes them all both endearing and plays into what the game attempts to do for it's latter half. It also gives you additional context and lore. They also react to ingame events.

-> There's a lot to do and read about the world in which the game takes place, a lot of flavor text that gives you a bigger idea of what it's like.

-> There's a lot of architectural diversity and attention to the three countries the game focuses on, structures in each will look similar and share roots with real world counterparts, also differing from each other in that sense as well. It makes the world feel rich and varied rather than uniform.

-> There's also canonical artstyles from the world this takes place in in both their flags and other ingame 'sections', like the murals/frescos in Valentia or the flags in Tellius, and it's always neat in my book to see more of a fictional culture, especially its art.

-> A lot of lore!

-> Enough care went into the setup that even if the paths diverge the narrative feels cohesive enough.

-> A lot of old and new mechanics to the series add to the quality of life of the game, especially in combat, and it’s pretty innovative and ambitious with how you can build your group.

-> Supports are a real treat and the voiceacting just adds even more to it. A lot of them tend to delve into a character and their ‘typical’ traits as well as the root of it, which tends to make sense and makes the characters feel more human.

-> Diversity. Has its drawbacks, though. The monkey paw curled hard.

-> To do with the above: Some mlm and wlw content can be found in the game. It’s not perfect and I have my nitpicks, though, so be warned.

-> All three lords on the cover are varied and have their own individual motives, making them all feel fresh and welcome. 

Negatives:

-> The lore is paced in a way that’s hard to follow if you don’t know a lot of the names of the characters and their families, and how it’s chunked out makes it feel like a bunch of nonsense. You might feel very, very lost on the first playthrough, especially lore you find in textdumps.

-> The chapters are all fairly long and a slog to get through. While what you can do helps expand on the world and characters, a lot of this becomes rote and repetitive to do, and even at times overwhelming as more stuff becomes available. Even then, it manages to somehow feel stale.

-> Some of the choices in locale and army movement don’t feel like they make sense and should have been overhauled and changed. Not much can be elaborated upon because of spoilers, but on the latter half it generally feels like the movements of your group are strange. It makes sense if you know.

-> The plot on Lions and Deer feels rushed towards the end, or like the pacing has suddenly changed. It’s even more prominent in Lions due to the sudden and underdeveloped change in atmosphere as you approach the endgame, which makes it feel disjointed and your missions out of place with everything else. THIS IS BOTHERING ME A LOT.

-> Speaking of plot, there’s a blatant giant plothole near this turning point as you approach the Blue Lions endgame, and it’s been bothering me since.

-> Some events are made to draw your eye but don’t have a relevance beyond this chapter. This is particularly notorious in Lions and Deer, as they use the same ‘tiny twist’ that isn’t followed upon at the start of the latter half of the game. For those in the know: mission in satan’s asshole.

-> On some routes it feels as if you don’t pick certain class trees for your motley crew, you’re fucked.

-> A lot of the microaggressions and racism found in the game feel like they’re never properly addressed or dealt with, and at times feel like they’re just there to make the characters its towards and the player feel like ass. As you have no way to protest against it, it feels empty that it should even be present to begin with. I know they’re trying to show there’s a problem, but its presentation and lack of resolution are my issue with it.

-> A character who has trouble speaking the language of the country you’re in doesn’t seem to have a cohesive way to speak/stumble that makes sense, it feels like a bunch of traits from different esl speakers were dumped on there without consideration to linguistics and how different languages with different structures will affect how an esl speaker sometimes stumbles or code-switches while speaking. I know it’s likely not notable among the monolinguals, but as a multilingual... be advised. It is apparently an issue with the english translation, however, as the character only speaks in a paused manner as if thinking through what they’re about to say before speaking in Japanese. This is a more respectful interpretation.

-> I am sad that i got bait and switched on something :( I don’t want to say more than that, though.

-> A White Man Is Angry And Violent And In Power And It Terrified Me For Various Reasons, Fellow POC (And Maybe White Women/NB Folk) Will Understand.

-> The final battle in GD, and a lot of the route battles in general after a certain point, don’t feel like they mesh with the general message of the route, making the finale feel a little less... thematically tied with it, I guess? Eagles and Lions avoids this, though, as both have a lot to do with the themes of their respective routes.

-> Grinding felt like a chore (I was support grinding, the level grind is fairly simple, but some might need to grind for money and supports... and overlevel as a result). It’s less possible to grind on higher difficulties too, but I think it’s fairly valid. I did have to grind a lot on Blue Lions for this reason, but it was my own mistakes I was paying for as well as my completionist nature, so this point is, uuuh... depends on the person and how they play.

-> Tying to the above, the maps felt less novel the more I had to go through em to grind and hhhhhh

-> It’s uncomfortable how the characters in the game keep drawing comparison to the slaughter of a whole people to that of just the royal family and guards as if they have the same gotdamn weight. The people who got slaughtered are all POC.

-> Another group of POC are often made out to be barbaric/etc and it makes me uncomfortable lol. You could argue the same for another group, too.

-> This one character is meant to be uncomfortable and overzealous and I think it’s cool but it makes something in me shudder in horror. I recognize it’s a Me problem.

-> There’s this white savior thing x2 and I want to dead. I’ve lost all means to say this eloquently. It makes a lot of things very uncomfortable. Very uncomfortable.

-> I should stop with the wholeass thing with the racism but it bothers me a lot that a black kid aged 18 looks like they’re 22 in their artwork because it feeds to the all too common stereotype and oh my god I love the character but why would they do that to them...............

Final judgement: 5/10, I’m never going to -censored spoiler-

Thoughts: 

It’s not a terrible game, and while I did harp about a lot of stuff, it’s pretty good in it’s setup ad most of its development. In some parts, it fell short, but it is overall an ambitious project that did what it set out to do and would have definitely felt a lot more enjoyable if I didn’t feel pressured to finish ASAP so people didn’t spoil the experience for me (and, spoilers, they did anyway :) ). I feel I might be a little too harsh on it because of how negative my experience was around this game and how hard it was for me to pick up and replay it to see everything, so please take this with a gigantic spoon of salt.

[sovereign-tempest]

First Impressions of FE3H

// Just curious, what did you all think of the game before you played it? Especially those who - like me - hadn’t played a proper FE game through before. 

First Impressions of :- 

The Gameplay I first saw FE3H through watching my boyfriend play it for the first time. He’s a FE fan and he was so hyped for 3H. He showed me trailers and such, but since I’d never played a FE game I didn’t think much of it - or least that I’d like it. So when I saw what the gameplay consisted of - a turn based strategy war game - I was put off even more. I got bored watching him move these units across a board all the time. He played when I was busy or asleep while he was on night-shift with the baby so I didn’t see much story at all. 

Then he played his second playthrough (the Black Eagles route) and I saw more of the story this time, watching cutscenes and character talks, seeing the free roaming part of the game properly and began asking questions. “Why don’t you play a bit of it? If you still find it boring, least you know you tried it.”

And here we are... 

The Leaders  When I eventually gave FE3H a go I was instantly drawn to Claude. From watching my BF’s Golden Deer playthrough and how he talked so much about Claude (he’s his favourite) I felt he’d be a fun character to follow. I like a funny guy. So I thought he was the most dynamic. I thought Edelgard was kind of bland and Dimitri even moreso. I thought he was going to be the Lawful Good typed and that tends to be a snooze fest for me. 

Boy was I f*cking wrong...

How have your impressions changed? From one extreme to the other! I am now super invested in the gameplay, taking my time and thinking about things is a stark contrast to the normal games I play and the story is so much deeper for it - which I adore. I love a good story. I love how easy it is to pick up and replay. Even if I leave it for weeks I can come back and not have to remember button-combos or where I was in the adventure like with other games. And the characters are all so insanely well written. I outright dislike only like...2 or 3 of them? Aside the ones you’re supposed to dislike I guess. Dimitri made the biggest impact on me. I remember when I played my first playthrough with GD and I got to see War Phase Dimitri for the first time I was like “What?! What happened to him?! Why is he suddenly like this?!” (I didn’t always speak to EVERYONE during roaming like I should have done my first time around, like an idiot, so I missed his slow decline). So I HAD to play Blue Lions after that then. 

Went from finding him super boring to really admiring the character arc he goes through.

// IF YOU WISH TO EXPLAIN YOUR IMPRESSIONS, PLEASE REPOST, I’D LOVE TO SEE WHAT YOU GUYS ALL THOUGHT!

[crystalelemental]

I enjoyed... the strategic gameplay. The kids were fine with me, too. I liked making certain characters that I liked really strong. I hated uh.. the third game, because I feel like it was hardly it's own game at all. I think my main worry with Three Houses is disliking everything but the strategy parts. I know you've mentioned walking around the school and interacting with people on a schedule is kind of a pain, and I can only say that I think it sounds like one - I've not played a Persona game.

Okay, I can work with that.  I’m not sure if you’ll love it or not, but here are some thoughts.

So, in terms of strategic gameplay, that’s of course still there.  That said, I don’t know if I consider this as strategically focused as most others.  Reason being, there’s no weapons triangle, and skills exist but aren’t as critical.  Without the weapon triangle, every problem is solved largely through bigger stats than the opponent, and skills don’t really do much to hurt you outside of a few cases.  The default skills, the proficiencies, all offer increased hit, evasion, and crit evasion, so the main focus should always be on picking a particularly weapon, and sticking with it.  Play with the end in mind, so to speak.  But it’s usually not a huge deal, and classes feel...pretty imbalanced.  All the classes are cool as hell, and they all come with definite strengths and weaknesses, but some are just objectively better than others.  But that happens in literally every FE game, and it’s not a huge deal.  And, much like other FE games, Flying units shit all over everything, especially the wyverns with their strong physical bulk.

So on that front, maps are...I’m gonna say it’s a weak-point of the game.  Some maps really are well-designed, but many feel like there’s no challenge at all, or the thing that makes it challenging is kinda stupid.  Map repetition is a huge problem, too.  For all four routes, the first half of the game pre-timeskip is exactly the same, no differences.  To make matters worse, Golden Deer and Church route are exactly the fucking same, the entire time, with one extra map in GD and the ending map being wildly different.  Blue Lions route also has exactly the same map progression for the first like 5 chapters post-timeskip.  Only Edelgard’s route is highly unique.  Even then, I can only think of two locations which are truly unique.  Map reuse is very common in this game, and it...it honestly does get old by the second playthrough route.  Because you can’t skip the scenes.  They’re all so wildly different in story, despite being same-y in gameplay, and it makes the game really long, and it starts to feel it if you blow through all the routes in quick succession.

The good news is, characters are easy to overpower.  There’s no level cap, you can outright grow stat boosting items, and you can grind levels as easily as Fates if you’re playing on Normal.  So there’s that.

As for the school exploration thing, it is time-consuming, and much like battles, you really feel the length on replay, but it’s not as much of a disaster first time through.  Realistically, the main problem with it is just that the main story is so strong that you want to get more of it as fast as you can, but exploration slows it down.  Technically you don’t need to do exploration all the time?  You can choose to not recruit anyone from outside the house and be fine, and technically there’s no outright need to do direct instruction for their weapon proficiencies.  But I feel they’re important, so I do them, even though it feels like a slog.

That’s...actually all the negative things I can think to possibly say.  The rest is gold.  Characters are fantastic, and supports are actually worthwhile for development.  The story is so good, and each route, despite being a little tedious to play sometimes when you’re so eager for plot, has incredible variation.  Every route has something to offer, with new perspectives on the events occurring and new lore information that really fleshes out the setting and the history of the characters.  It’s honestly the best the series has ever done with concepts of moral gray, and I absolutely adore it.  It can feel a bit piece-meal at times, and certain routes may feel like they’re not addressing the questions you carried over from the last route you played, but it will all tie together eventually.

It really is a bit of a tradeoff.  If you couldn’t care less about story, but are really invested in gameplay?  This...probably won’t be your favorite.  Not to speak blasphemies, but Conquest honest to god had more engaging maps.  But if you’re invested in the story and character development, and the gameplay is just a fun afterthought, you couldn’t ask for better.  If both are important, it’s going to still be a fantastic experience, but you’re probably going to end up like me, loving the story and cast, but being really frustrated with the gameplay taking so fucking long and being so repetitive.

[big-bang-scenario]

Through the Storm

Summary: Living with your assassin team consisted of inevitable shitstorms of emotions but unbreakable bonds. Angst.

Warning: Ah, swearing? Violence.

Author’s Note: This is just random nonsense… I don’t know if this should become an actual series. I feel like I wouldn’t be able to keep up with it. Loosely inspired by White Night and the thunderstorm occurring outside my window.

An arm pulls you against a chest by your hips, causing you to grimace in irritation. “Bitch, are you doing this on purpose?” you hiss, whipping around to give the boy a smack across the side of his head.

Agent V.I whined in pain, immediately rolling away from you and taking the blanket with him. Out of the other assassins, the younger Seunghyun was the touchiest. And probably the horniest. He would always crawl into your bed at least six nights out of seven to “platonically cuddle.” That’s what you want to believe, anyway. Growing up together, as a family of six, had enabled such intimate events to become the norm.

Too afraid to stay for more beatings, Seunghyun hopped out of your bed to bother someone else. You enjoyed the following silence for a few more minutes before forcing yourself to sit up. Too much rest was a luxury you couldn't afford, even if the heavy storm outside prevented any missions from being completed. The dull pangs clawed at the right side of your stomach, reminding you of why you had scolded V.I in the first place. The little fucker had applied pressure against your stab wound while trying to hug you closer.

You dragged yourself into your bathroom for a quick face wash. Brushing your teeth and brushing your hair were the only attempts at making yourself half-presentable. There wasn't much to show off to each other after witnessing one another taking blood baths in agent wars. However, your five comrades were all natural beauties in unique, bizarre ways, leaving you basking in their dust. At least you were still considered as the prettiest woman in the team. The only woman in the team.

Before you could even take your third step into the living room, the elder Seunghyun pulled you aside and gently laid you flat against the couch. You quietly stared up at his deep eyes without questioning his actions. Everyone knew by now that it was pointless to map out his thoughts. His complicated mind had saved the team from so many mind games that any of you would willingly waltz into lava under his orders.

Agent T.O.P quietly slipped his thumb under the hem of your tank top, slowly sliding the thin fabric up to expose the stab wound you had received the night before. Your impressive layer of muscle had prevented the blade from going too deep. It would heal on its own over time; Jiyong had done an impressive job with the stitchwork. You wordlessly allowed the eldest agent to replace your bandage and didn't dare move until he stood up to put up the supplies.

Will it leave a scar?" a literal angel asked, voice still husky from sleep. Agent D-Lite handed you a mug of herbal tea instead of coffee, taking a seat next to you. Despite the spaciousness of the couch, Daesung had decided to share the same cushion with you. You chose not to answer his considerate question and instead lazily rested your body against his side.

"Of course it will." Agent GD, the leader, had been examining your wound from afar, against the kitchen counter. He didn't leave his spot, since the maknae was using the stove for frying eggs, which you found to be pointless. Even if little Seunghyun fucked up, Jiyong wouldn't have been able to solve anything. His kitchen skills were probably fighting for last place with Maknae's.

Daesung's bottom lip stuck out in a pout as he nuzzled his nose into your hair, his own way of comforting you.

"At least she didn't die."

Choi Seunghyun had returned from putting up the gauze and was found leaning against the counter next to Jiyong with a filled wine glass in his hand. Alcohol was prohibited, but the only way to get caught was by peer report. As if any of you ever would.

His harsh statement caused your insides to churn uncomfortably. It felt like your wound had opened up again to create a stain of guilt on your skin in the form of goosebumps. Memories of the day before replayed in your mind like one of those horror movies that would never leave your childhood memories.

While on one of his missions, Agent Sol had fallen in love. One of the most dreadful mistakes as an assassin: loving a normal civilian. His romantic buildup had been shared with you every single night. You still vividly remembered all the hours Youngbae spent telling you tales of his dates. It was partially your fault for giving him advice from a girlfriend's perspective. You were happy for him. You were overjoyed and ecstatic to hear about your comrade's experiencing romance. You were practically living your own fantasies through his stories without even considering the bloody fate that had been set the moment they met.

Once the agency found out, they sent the BIGBANG team a clear message: either the girl had to die, or the assassin that had the relationship. Yesterday became a complete shitstorm that ended with a knife in your side and a bullet through her heart. BIGBANG had forgotten the unconditional fact: The agency always wins. Your feeble efforts at protecting her from a charging agent caused you to disregard the possibilities of a sniper in range. The events that followed vaguely consisted of your teammates dragging you and Youngbae out of the scene, leaving her lonely body on the cold cement ground. You all were not permitted to retrieve her corpse. Worst of all, a flash flood and thunderstorm warning shot through the rural area in which you had fought. The agency had quickly ushered you all back into the city to wait for further decisions (and punishments).

Youngbae was probably chained up in his room on behalf of Jiyong's efforts of preventing him from rushing out into the storm. You could hear his ragged groans from inside at times when everyone grew quiet. Thunder cracked outside, and the thick layer of dark clouds prevented the sun from beaming down, as if it were knowingly mourning for his loss. Your group's "Taeyang" had lost his light, after all. Because of your immature support. Because of your lacking judgement. It was your fault. Your goddamn fault for fucking everything up. For breaking your family member's heart.

You dug your face into Daesung's chest the moment he turned to wrap an arm around you. Youngbae's lover was probably getting buried under dirty water in the abandoned construction site while you were burying your shameful tears in a live person's chest.

Little Seunghyun had turned the stove off the moment he heard your light sob, and the room echoed with your cries. Daesung buried the rest of his face into your hair as he shed tears for the woman he had only met once. Big Seunghyun downed the entire glass of wine as if to wash away his grief, as if trying to ignore the group's mourning. Jiyong bit down hard on tongue until the bitter taste of copper stung his taste buds. He was punishing himself for not warning his friend in the beginning. Little Seunghyun couldn't bear the thick depression choking his air flow, and joined you and Daesung on the couch. He hugged you from behind and rubbed nonsensical circles around your wound with his thumb. His brows were furrowed in frustration as he distracted himself by touching you.

Your heart tore into pieces when Youngbae's low, weak grunts changed into full yells of sorrow after hearing your cries through the bedroom door. The cracking of a wine glass joined in on the ear-splitting screams. Daesung's nails shakily dug themselves into your arm. Someone bunched the wall in the kitchen. Maknae pressed his chin tightly onto your shoulder, hard enough for you to expect a bruise to appear later.

The chorus of your different methods of mourning was drowned out by the storm's cacophony outside.

~

The thunder had dulled to very light rumbling. Your heavy heart didn't feel any lighter even when you felt a body being lifted off of you. Guessing from the toned abs and body shape, you assumed that the maknae had fallen asleep on top of you. The warmth from under you made you realize that you ended up getting sandwiched in between Daesung and Seunghyun as you three cried yourselves to sleep.

You weakly groaned as you felt yourself being lifted. You instinctively rested your head in the nape of the man's neck out of familiar conditioning. From the mixture of sweat and deodorant sloppily applied, your eyes snapped open after discovering the identity of the BIGBANG member that had rescued you from the uncomfortable sandwich inferno.

"Youngbae?" you croaked, sobering up immediately to examine him out of worry. Jiyong probably undid his restraints after the man had worn himself out. Your comrade gently placed you on the other couch adjacent from the one occupied by Daesung and Seunghyun. From the shadows (quite literally), the elder Seunghyun and Jiyong appeared to take their seats beside you. The moonlight barely illuminated their faces, leaving you unable to read their expressions.

Daesung and Seungri were awake the moment Youngae came to disturb you three, the expected reactions from trained assassins. Youngbae did not take a seat and instead stood at the window, blankly staring out at the city. Following his gaze, your eyes widened to see the Busan streets littered with debris. It was probably worse than you thought; the dim moonlight only revealed vague silhouettes. It was still raining. You realized that what you thought was a thunderstorm was probably even worse than your expectations.

Youngbae's tanned face appeared ghostly pale from the moonbeams. Despite the dark rings under his eyes, you noticed that his eyes were still able to reflect the white light. His eyes shined with a beauty that now felt very lonely. Your heart twisted, but your own eyes were drawn to his. As an assassin from birth, you were never one to desire anything. But whatever Taeyang's ears yearned for, you wanted to feel the same passion. The same frustration.

"We escape. Right now. Through the storm."

You felt Jiyong's hand encase yours, his slim fingers squeezing yours tightly. Even your leader was drawn to such an otherworldly beauty. Youngbae's white night attracted BIGBANG like moths to street lamps.

Your quivering lips shaped into a weak smile. You'd much rather take a shower in the hurricane than continue taking bloodbaths with the innocent. Doing so with your team only made it even more meaningful. You didn't need the agency. You only needed your family.

[daleisgreat]

20 Years of Dreamcast: Thinking of Dreamcast’s Legacy for 20 Years!

Where were you for quadruple nine, AKA September 9, 1999? That was the marketing friendly launch date of the Sega Dreamcast in North America, which will make it 20 years old. Such a landmark anniversary inspired me to craft another gaming reflection piece here looking back on my memories with the Dreamcast over the years. If you missed my similar anniversary articles earlier this year for the Genesis and GameBoy please click here to get caught up.

The first thing that comes to mind all these years later of the Dreamcast is that it ended up the first system that released when I had a job and could afford it entirely on my own. I got my first part-time high school job mere days after turning 16 about a half year earlier in 1999 and was fine picking up the occasional new game for our family’s N64 during that timeframe. However, around August of 1999 the first issue of Official Dreamcast Magazine (ODM) hit newsstands and it really popped compared to other gaming magazines. It was the first oversized gaming magazine that I can recall and they crammed in tons of news, special editorial features, previews and reviews in every issue and not a millimeter of page-space seemed wasted. It also had a bright colorful art scheme consistent throughout most issues compared to its competitors and in hindsight it was the ideal color scheme due to the unorthodox lineup of eye-popping bright games like Jet Grind Radio, Space Channel 5, Sonic Adventure and Samba de Amigo to name a few. I will give props to YouTube channel Classic Gaming Quarterly for doing a excellent page-by-page revisiting of that awesome first issue several months ago which was the catalyst for me re-reading the first four issues earlier this year. Those issues hold up splendidly and if you run across scans of any I highly recommend giving them a look-see as they perfectly encapsulate everything that made the Dreamcast as fondly remembered as it is today. That special preview issue of the Dreamcast sold me on the system with its hype of being the first 128-bit system on the market and how Sega would change gaming with its new GD-ROM disc format, interactive VMU memory card and by introducing online play with its built-in 56k modem the following year. It also had thorough previews for nearly the whole launch lineup. If you recall my Genesis write-up, I was not much of a Sonic fan and that issue only had reviews for Sonic Adventure and House of the Dead 2. I had good memories of the first HotD light gun arcade game and that review got me amped up for the sequel. By the time I was done perusing that issue of ODM a few times over I was hell-bent on getting a Dreamcast and a copy of HotD2 at launch. 9-9-99 As the Dreamcast launch approached I was legitimately unaware of being able to pre-order games or it was officially a available service yet at our local Software Etc. in the mall. I inquired there frequently when they were opening on launch day it turned they were opening early that day an hour or two before I was supposed to be at school. I convinced my dad to give me a lift there and arrived there an hour early to secure getting a system. There was only one person ahead of us and I presumed getting a system at Software Etc. in 1999 would be comparable to lining up at any other department store and getting a new product on a first people at the front of the line basis. That turned out to be the case for Dreamcast (though I do remember them instituting pre-orders the next year for the heavily anticipated PS2 launch) and I was thrilled walking out of there as planned with a Dreamcast and HotD2!

Software Etc. did not get any VMUs however and thankfully my dad checked out other stores on his lunch breaks and was able to procure me one from KB Toys. Only other problem was there were no light gun peripherals available for the Dreamcast at launch. Sega did not release their own model in America due to the controversial Columbine shootings earlier in the year, and third party models were still two-to-three months out from being available. I could play HotD2 with a controller, but I refused to accept that as an option and for the first few weeks after the Dreamcast launch I was content on playing the included demo disc and checking out games like Sonic Adventure, Hydro Thunder, Soul Calibur and Power Stone over at a friend’s place. Finally after a few weeks of that I was fed up of waiting for the light gun to hit and I took a chance and picked up Sega’s NFL 2K since I was always into football games and still sticking with older pigskin games on the N64 and playing a ton of Madden NFL ’99 in near weekly sessions on another friend’s PSone. I was instantly blown away by NFL 2K’s revolutionary leap in graphics and gameplay at that point. It had bar-raising production quality with TV-caliber replays, camera angles and insanely impressive announcer commentary which made it feel like the first football game to come off as an actual telecast. I can still pinpoint my mom walking in on me playing and doing a double take and asking if NFL 2K was real or not. NFL 2K got a ton of play in single player and in local multiplayer against friends over the next year.

Sega released five star sports games within the first year of release with hits seen above like NFL 2K, NBA 2K, Virtua Tennis and Virtua Striker For the rest of 1999 I checked out every demo included with each issue of ODM and it lead to me checking out Sega’s other sports offerings and playing a ton of NBA 2K and even a fair amount of NHL 2K. Worms Armageddon ended up being a surprise hit with friends and I loved going nuts with its Banana Bombs and Holy Hand Grenades. For Christmas of 1999 I got NBA 2K and Toy Commander. I eventually came across a light gun too and played through HotD2 several times through with a friend. Toy Commander was another lost gem on the Dreamcast I spent hours with devouring its single player missions and the local vs. multiplayer deathmatch was also fun for its time. I loved using the pressure-sensitive triggers on the Dreamcast controller to shoot free throws in NBA 2K, and speaking of the controller I am surprised there seems to be a lot of widespread disdain for peripheral. Sure, it was a little bulky, but nothing compared to the original Xbox ‘Duke’ controller or the unique ergonomics of the N64 controller. I loved the thumb-stick and directional pad, and the rest of the button layout was nearly identical to a SNES controller. If I should be nitpicking about some of the Dreamcast’s features it would be about the side effects of the painfully low battery life of the VMU. For those unfamiliar, it was Sega’s innovative memory card that also had a mini black and white LCD screen that would display gameplay tips, stats and other options and also could be unplugged from the controller to play bonus mini-games included with supported games. Unfortunately the VMU had an infamously low battery life and within a few weeks the included watch batteries would drain and would result in a notoriously loud beep from the VMU when powering on the system to indicate it was time to replace them. Additionally, the Dreamcast also had a painfully loud hard drive whenever loading game data. After awhile however I got use to the grinding hard drives and perpetual beeps and passed it off as Dreamcast’s catchy marketing slogan ‘It’s Thinking.’ As the years passed and new owners complained about those noises it sort of became a hazing-esque right of passage to them first experiencing the platform. 2000

While I was putting together an outline for this piece I was surprised to find out how much of a bummer a first half of 2000 I had with the Dreamcast. Aside from still getting lots of long-term fun with the aforementioned sports titles, almost every new game I picked up was a letdown. I never played a Resident Evil game before, but friends and classmates loved it and I saw a ton of buzz for the upcoming exclusive Dreamcast title in the series, Code Veronica, in ODM so I got it for my birthday shortly after its release. I popped it in and was completely unprepared for its tank controls the early Resident Evil games were known for and I completely stumbled around like a buffoon and could not get past the first zombie. After several attempts I pleaded with my mom to take it back to the store and exchange it for something else. After that I tried renting games more often and was disappointed with World Series Baseball 2K1 and Sonic Shuffle. The former had excellent past entries on the Genesis and Saturn, but the first Dreamcast baseball game released without the ability to control the fielders and it felt like half the game was missing. I knew Sonic Suffle was developed by Hudson Soft who also made the first couple Mario Party games I played a ton of and was excited for the Dreamcast rendition of the party game, but was stunned it was plagued with countless loading times for every turn and mini-game that soured the experience. The last big disappointment of 2000 for the Dreamcast was WWF Royal Rumble. At the time it was going to be the first exclusive Dreamcast wrestling game and I was nonetheless psyched for it. I disregarded EGM’s low review scores for them not ‘getting’ the game and presumed I would have a fabulous time with it. I came to find out later on it was a port of an arcade game I did not see available anywhere which is why it surprised me with its low amount of wrestlers on the roster and modes of play available when stacked next to other titles. After plowing through all the single player content in an afternoon I was overwrought about how the game turned out. I did wind up getting some decent value out of Royal Rumble down the line with friends in multiplayer Rumble matches, but out of the gates as the sole Dreamcast exclusive wrestling game it felt like a Kirkpatrick-esque punch in the stomach.

After those four disappointments 2000 wound up getting redeemed for the Dreamcast with a flurry of much better titles. I enjoyed playing Soul Calibur over at my friend’s, but was not head over heels for it like many others. A fighting game I did feel that way for however I took a random chance on in the summer of 2000 with Marvel vs. Capcom 2. I instantly loved its unforgettable music, chaotic three-on-three tag battles and the accessible hyper combos that did not require master precision to pull off. The game was a regular in my rotation with friends and for a couple months we held routine tournaments in my first apartment with my roommate and neighbors. It lead me to playing a ton of another Capcom fighter that same summer in Power Stone 2, which was vastly improved over the original and felt like a 3D version of Smash Bros. with simultaneous four player battles and constantly evolving stages. Demolition Racer: No Exit was a surprise hit I put way more time than I should have into it. I love demolition-derby racer games, and No Exit had a ton of tracks, demolition derby events, thrashin’ metal soundtrack and many unlocks that kept me coming back to work my way through its extensive career mode for a good three-to-four years after release. It ended up as my surprise favorite driving game on the system which is absurd compared to other first-party driving hits that did not land on my radar until many years later like Daytona USA 2001, Sega Rally 2 and Metropolis Street Racer. The awesome port of the arcade hits Crazy Taxi and 18 Wheeler had faithful home Dreamcast ports, but I played a ton of both in the arcades and got my fill of them at home with a rental. I think it is safe to say I am not alone in Crazy Taxi turning me onto Offspring and being one of the few games to make product-placement seem cool with driving like a lunatic to escort passengers to get their KFC and Pizza Hut fix. I was so bummed out to see the later 360/PS3 re-release take out the product placement and replace the Offspring’s tall licensing price soundtrack with licensing fee-friendly indie bands.

The other surprise hit of 2000 was Virtua Tennis. I tried it on ODM’s demo disc and it wound up being surprisingly fun and easy to pick up and play. Jim Courier I now associate as being the man who dethroned Jimmy Connors in his last gasp at coming close to winning a major in the early 90s and being the only American character to play as in Sega’s game. The demo wound up being hit and created buzz online about it and a quick fervor spread about it being the cannot miss Dreamcast game of the summer. Virtua Tennis was impossible to find in stores so that caused me to create an account at ebgames.com and how Virtua Tennis was the first game I ordered online. After those two games saved the year for Dreamcast, the next installments of NFL 2K and NBA 2K released which I instantly purchased and played endless hours of with friends. The 2K1 versions of both games added franchise modes and online play finally debuting for the system. I played about several rounds of both sports games online and tried to master typing out ‘good play’ on the keyboard peripheral. The games played decently, but I could not help but notice semi-constant lag over the 56k modem so after several games I stuck with my routine local multiplayer with friends.

What was being advertised as the do not miss hit for the 2000 holiday season was Sega’s much anticipated open world adventure, Shenmue. ODM and websites put a ton of hype for Shenmue leading up to its release and how Sega was putting a huge budget into it and how it was the first part of a mammoth saga, but I was not initially feeling it and that style of game seemed a bit outside my wheelhouse at the time. Shortly after its release however, I saw a used copy marked down surprisingly low at a local rental store and decided to chance it. I was shocked by its quality of graphics and cinema cutscenes for the time and before I knew it I found myself getting immersed in the open-world and having the freedom to talk and interact with nearly any major or minor NPC and their own so-bad-its-good English voiceovers. I understand Shenmue is not for everybody and its unique controls resulted in a polarizing reception for the game, but I burned through that game within a couple of weeks and loved every minute of it. I revisited it last year when Sega released HD ports on the Xbox One and PS4 last year, and after getting used to the controls I instantly got wrapped up in it again.

Dreamcast had a ton of quality fighters in its brief lifespan. Some of my favorites pictured above are Soul Calibur, Marvel vs. Capcom 2, Power Stone 2 and Heavy Metal: GeoMatrix. There are several other quality fighters on the system too not pictured above such as the original MvC and Power Stone, Virtua Fighter 3TB, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, Dead or Alive 2, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Capcom vs. SNK. This console was heaven for fighting game fans! 1-31-2001 2001 kicked off strong for the Dreamcast with ports of PC FPS hits of Unreal Tournament and Quake III both launching around the same time with online play. ODM and websites hyped up 2001 for being a big year for Dreamcast games supporting online play. I tried out those pair of FPS games at a friend’s and had a blast with them and was looking forward to the rest of 2001 for the Dreamcast even though at the time the PS2 was out for a few months and had a lot of people’s attention. Unexpectedly, towards the end of January crazy rumors started popping up about the PS2 slaughtering Dreamcast in 2000 holiday sales so bad that Sega would be discontinuing support for the system early. I immediately dismissed the rumors as ludicrous as it seemed whacked for a publisher to stop supporting a system under a year and a half after release. Sure enough however on January 31, 2001 news broke with Sega stating they would only support the Dreamcast with games for the rest of 2001 and would transition into a third party publisher role in 2002 going forward.

I was devastated with the news as a huge Dreamcast fan and continued to be bummed throughout 2001 as many anticipated Dreamcast games like Half-Life, Rez, Castlevania Resurrection, Headhunter and Tribes got cancelled and/or switched over to becoming a PS2, Xbox and GCN release. Sega and a few loyal third parties like Capcom released a steady stream of games throughout 2001 and I did get a lot of enjoyment from some of them like the addicting arcade-driving sequel Crazy Taxi 2, a decent but forgettable arcade FPS title Outrigger and a few more light gun games like the excellent HotD2 follow-up from the same developers but in a secret agent setting called Confidential Mission, the peculiar Japanese horror themed light gun shooter Death Crimson OX and the delightful surprise remaster of the original Virtua Cop tucked inside Sega Smash Pack to tide me through 2001 for Dreamcast. Sega said they would be porting their next wave of sports games to other systems a few months after their initial Dreamcast release in 2001 so I held off on them that year. I was saving my last surge of Dreamcast fandom for what the gaming press was heralding as the swan song for the Dreamcast in Shenmue II. About a couple month before its American release however Sega stunned its fans by announcing they were cancelling the American version and making it an exclusive to the Xbox a year later with touched up graphics and adding in English voiceovers that were not originally going to make their return. The Shenmue fanboy in me was furious, but I found relief in ebgames.com capitalizing on the situation by offering the European version of Shenmue II that did not get cancelled for sale along with a boot-disc to get it to play on American systems. I spent the first several weeks of 2002 gleefully playing nothing but Shenmue II. I convinced myself it blew the original away due to jumping through extra hoops to acquire the sequel. The follow-up is a noticeably larger and longer experience and contains some noticeable gameplay improvements; upon currently replaying it on the previously mentioned HD bundle on Xbox One/PS4 I am going to have to go back to siding with the original being superior due to its more immersive setting and my love for driving forklifts. I hope to finish replaying the sequel in time for what is one of my most anticipated games ever in the long awaited third Shenmue game currently slated to be released this November a whopping 17 years after the original release of the second Dreamcast game.

Speaking of imports, Shenmue II was the first game I ever imported, and the second game was another Dreamcast game in FirePro Wrestling D. I heard so much acclaim for the FirePro games in Japan about them being the ultimate 2D wrestling games. After tracking down a guide online I relentlessly jotted down detailed English translations of all the menus and discovered a game save that translated all the wrestler’s names and attires into their English counterparts. I wound up playing a ton of that classic entry in the series on the Dreamcast. I am constantly nagging myself to open up my copy of the latest entry, FirePro Wrestling World that recently hit PS4 last year. I regret not importing more Dreamcast titles in the later years because games kept regularly coming out for Sega’s last system in Japan for several more years. Eventually most of them made their way to America on other systems in the following years, but for those that took advantage they got a one-to-three year head start on gems like Ikaruga, Rez, Rent-a-Hero and Capcom vs. SNK 2. Post-2002 I also regret not making time to sink my teeth into the then-exclusive RPGs on Dreamcast. My former podcast co-host Chris picked most of them up so I was able to check them out at his place and play some of them on demo discs. Skies of Arcadia intrigued me with its sky pirates setting and I eventually picked up the GCN re-release. Ditto with the pair of Evolution RPGs that later were bundled together on the GCN. Grandia II I recall having a kind of more involved battle system that popped out to me and if I owned a Switch I would likely be acquiring the HD up-ports of the first two games that just released on there. I did enjoy demos of action RPGs Silver and Record of Lodoss War and finally tracked down both games last year and played about an hour of both way after the fact. The one I did put a lot of time into later on was Phantasy Star Online on the original Xbox. I loved being able to play that game in four player split-screen and I had a few friends over for several marathon sessions of its addicting action-RPG combat into the wee hours of the night.

The Dreamcast unofficially lived on for the next couple years well into the PS2/Xbox/GCN era with some of its key games that got cancelled and sequels getting re-released on those systems. Sega released their 2K sports line for a few years on all three systems before selling sports developer Visual Concepts and the 2K branding to Take-Two in 2005. The heavy duty competition from 2K Sports titles only helped fuel EA Sports to step up their efforts for better sports titles from both companies for the past 20 years. The Xbox got some heavy hitters in the form of Panzer Dragoon Orta, Shenmue II, Crazy Taxi 3, Marvel vs. Capcom 2 and Gun Valkyrie. The PS2 landed Rez, Headhunter, Half-Life, Tribes, Grandia II and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. The GameCube received the four player port of Phantasy Star Online well before the Xbox version and later an exclusive third chapter in addition to Evolution Worlds, Skies of Arcadia Legends, Ikaruga, Chaos Field and enhanced deluxe versions of both Sonic Adventure titles. Aside from Dreamcast living on with those games on the next wave of systems I still busted out my Dreamcast regularly for the next several years. It was my favorite way to play Marvel vs. Capcom 2 for many years and as mentioned above I kept revisiting titles like FirePro Wrestling D and Demolition Racer for quite a few years too. The homebrew/indie scene was alive and well for the Dreamcast and is still going to this day. Goat Store had a couple high-profile indie releases with Feet of Fury and Irides that I both acquired. The former is the only dance-pad game I know of for the system and while I do not own a dance-pad I did put some time into it with its support for the Dreamcast keyboard. Irides: Master of Blocks is a fun Lumines-inspired puzzler on the system. Since it is the 20th anniversary of the platform, I took a chance a few months ago and Kickstarted an upcoming driving game set to hit at the end of this year that peaked my interest in the form of Arcade Racing Legends. Here is hoping to its success! The End? When I think back to my own personal favorite moments and experiences with the Dreamcast there are a few things I will chalk up to its legacy. I consider it to be the first system to prove that online gaming was viable on consoles and paved the way for it to really take off a couple years later on the PS2 and Xbox. I will also remember it for its local multiplayer games being a big hit with my friends and I for its wide array of fighting and sports games for two players as well as many games taking advantage of the four controllers with quite a few party games and driving games especially supporting four players locally. I consider it the last hurrah for the arcade ports, as the late 90s were the final successfully years of arcades in America and Sega, Capcom, Midway and Konami took advantage of Dreamcast’s Naomi-based hardware making it developer-friendly to convert their arcade titles to the system. A majority of the games I listed above are arcade conversions.

These last two are big ones for me personally. First is how Sega stepped up big time with their blockbuster first party sports games on the Dreamcast and gave the impression of how they scared away competition from EA Sports releasing their games on the Dreamcast. Finally, I will remember the Dreamcast where Sega took chances with a plethora of new, unorthodox IP. It seemed every few months a new original Sega IP hit the system from successes and cult-hits like Jet Grind Radio, Samba de Amigo, Space Channel 5, Crazy Taxi, Skies of Arcadia and of course Shenmue to fascinating curiosities such as Floigan Bros., Alien Front Online and the bizzaro-Leonard Nimoy-narrated journey that is Seaman. Combine everything from these last two paragraphs and that is why I feel it is safe to say why I and likely many others revere the Dreamcast as much as we did for the years it was active in its all too short lifespan. I have rambled, ranted and raved for over 4,000 words now and want to thank you dear readers for sticking with me to the very end of this trip down memory lane. I apologize for the length of this piece, but I had to get it all out of my system. If somehow you want more Dreamcast love and want to keep this Dreamcast nostalgia train rolling I will link you to two prior pieces I did on the system. The first is a special 10th anniversary flashback on the Dreamcast where I breakdown 15 forgotten facts about the Dreamcast. I touched on a few of them here, but there are several more obscure factoids you can discover by clicking here. The other is my former co-hosts and I doing a special Dreamcast retrospective podcast on my old podcast you can listen to by clicking here. My Other Gaming Flashbacks GameBoy 30th Anniversary Genesis 30th Anniversary

BONUS OVERTIME: Random Dreamcast quick bits I neglected to include above!

Oh man, I wish I would have remembered to touch on a few more gems I dug on the Dreamcast. I forgot about the oddball arena-based fighters that were fun rentals back then like Spawn: In the Demon’s Hand and Heavy Metal: Geomatrix. There was also the crazy keyboard version of HotD2 that hit in 2001 called Typing of the Dead! It was a super fun way to master your home row skills while massacring zombies! Sega released a remaster of it on Steam a couple years ago so give it a look-see! I remember trying to hunt down the low-quantity released broadband adaptor for the Dreamcast in 2002 on eBay but sellers were marking them up in ‘Dreamcast Online Ready’ bundles for absurd amounts. 56k web browsing with the Dreamcast was admittedly a slog, but it worked and was a slick way to upload and download game saves and made me feel I was swindling William Shatner by not falling for his WebTV commercials from that timeframe. Hydro Thunder I played a bit at a friend’s and to this day even though it was a fun on its own merits arcade boat racer the thing I recall most fondly about it was the over-the-top announcer saying the game’s name on the title screen and exclaiming ‘Dam the Torpedoes!’ at specific moments. I wanted to get Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 so much for Dreamcast after hearing all the GOTY-caliber buzz and wanting to experience it with better graphics, but after spending weeks not finding it in stores around town I wound up settling on purchasing the PSone version even though I did not have that platform at the time and brought it over to my neighbor’s place for many throwdown sessions of Trick Attack multiplayer and HORSE. No regrets! There was something about Next Tetris: Online Edition that was off that did not get it to live up to the fun I was having in multiplayer over on the N64’s New Tetris and Tetrisphere. I wanted to like it, much like I did with launch title Trickstyle because of its futuristic extreme sports nature with a bunch of unique tricks and competitions to take in, but its un-intuitive controls left me getting my fix with solely the demo. Brighter days were ahead for Trickstyle’s developer, Criterion Games.

Apparently sim F1/Indy/Cart games were a hit on the Dreamcast for its brief lifespan with multiple entries from Sega and Ubisoft. Even the notorious LJN publishing label got resurrected after being dormant for several years with its retro F1 game, Spirit of Speed 1937. It is a good thing I never came around to them with the many other stellar driving games available. I remember loving the Ready 2 Rumble Boxing demo and thought that franchise would be around for years, but one quick sequel later and an out of nowhere Wii version years later and it has been AWOL ever since. EA’s Facebreaker seemed like a worthy spiritual successor, but that one came and went even faster. Even though EA did not release anything on the Dreamcast I still checked out a few other third party sports games from Acclaim, Midway and Konami and had great times with NFL Blitz 2000 and digging NBA Showtime and its brilliant use of the NBA on NBC theme song. Crap, I forgot to touch on the last pair of Sega’s polygonal arcade brawler ports that were good weekend rentals for their day in Dynamite Cop and Zombie’s Revenge, but I will forever be a Die Hard: Arcade man for life! I tried to give Sonic Adventure an honest shot, but lost interest quickly after being wowed by its opening stage and that damn whale flipping all over the place after Sonic in its 128-bit glory. I will not get into the details here, but if you are up for an ill-fated timing story, then look up the details on the cancellation on what was supposed to be one of the last Dreamcast games originally scheduled to release towards the end of 2001, Propeller Arena. Ok ok, now I am finally done and think I covered every nook and cranny of my Dreamcast experie….awwww shoot I forgot to tell you guys all about Sega Swirl! Wait, where are you going? Come back, come baaaaaack!

[anamelessknight]

Three Houses Half Thoughts

Really this is probably two fifth thoughts since I’ll end the game with another Eagles run but I digress...

Anyway, run two through the Golden Deer clocked in at 74 hours to the first playthroughs 52.  There are some JRPGs where a second playthrough has gone longer because I did all the sidequests I skipped on playthrough one, but this was kind of absurd.  Having so much more free time to explore and get into battles blossomed the time, and GD being flat-out longer than the Eagles didn’t help either.

Most of that time came to be spent on just eating with pairs to see their supports since they end up slightly unique depending on the house.  Even still, I wasn’t able to fill out the whole of the Golden Deer’s supports.  Something to work on for the next playthrough?  Maybe.

The excess time also led to so many extra battles which rocketed my level average.  Since I’m bad this mostly had no actual effect on main quest content difficulty, but when I was just plowing through auxiliary battles without taking damage it was less... acceptable.

There’s chatter here and there about how with Divine Pulse there’s no tension or challenge but FE is never really good for the former anyway and the later is just jacking up stats to unfun levels of tedium.  Fire Emblem relies too much on RNG as a core mechanic to really have a proper sense of tension.  If you miss a 90% kill hit then get 10% hit, 10% crit back that’s not tense, it’s completely beyond your control.  Compared to say, Dark Souls, where all the tension comes from direct action rather than random numbers being rolled beyond your control.

Not that removing all randomness is a solution either.  Some cushion is needed to protect fragile egos.  But the amount FE has to rely on it just comes across as more annoying than anything.  FE6, with Roy, is one of the more obnoxious about this, with high-crit, high health, high dodge and defense bosses all over the place at the start.  A 40% chance of just restarting a map through no control of your own sucks, period.  Or say, taking out Kishuna in 7, which is just awful and boring even if he can’t actually hurt you.

Then you flip around to the opposite side for nonthreatening bosses in Three Houses.  That 9 SPD is not impressing anyone Flame Emperor.  So many bosses either pathetically wimpy or so dangerous you have to carefully aim for a one-shot because poking just ends up with a mountain of corpses.  The giant beasts try to avert this with some fresh mechanics, but they can effectively be stunlocked and rendered inert with minimal effort.

Most of FE’s tension comes from side missions, usually saving hapless villagers, and these tend to be the most tense maps in Three Houses since you.  How many mages did most people save in that Eagles paralogue?

Of all things a Fire Emblem fangame had a really tense map where you have to retreat while hitting up villages so they don’t get destroyed.

Anyway... random rant over.  On to other things.

Graphics feelings don’t change, nor does music quality or voice acting.

Some of the cracks are otherwise starting to show on repeat playthroughs.  Act 1 having the same missions each time, just with different commentary.  Now, any game you replay will have this same issues, but c’mon, gimme a different enemy formation at least.  And you have to do this because of how early the House choice is.

Act 2, even with it filled with poached students also has less to do all around.  No lost items, fewer quests and all that.

Now unto the story and whatnot... should go under spoilers since I’m going to be directly making some comparisons to the Eagles endgame.

Why does the Deer get to finish off Those Who Slither and Nemesis?  Why?  Edelgard has a much deeper connection to the former, and her reasoning that Nemesis was a hero would make it much better when she sees it was a sham.  Hell, even Claude’s little speech about friendship could just as easily come out of Edelgard’s mouth regarding her walking alongside Byleth has made her a better person.

I’ve seen people use “well GD and Church deal with them so why should Edelgard lolol” as an excuse, which is just shitty.  “Well you deal with Edelgard on BL and GD why should the Church go after her lololol” you mong.

I can only imagine the cutscenes just didn’t get done in time.  I dearly hope some of the DLC fixes this.  Or perhaps it’s something I’m writing hmmm....

The Golden Deer comes across as the House that frankly needs Byleth less.  The situation in the Alliance is much the same regardless of where Byleth goes because Claude’s got a better reign on his own issues and control.

Whereas if Byleth sides with Edelgard the entire course of the war changes completely and she finally gets to unleash her inner dork she’s kept hidden so long.

And the actual relationship between these two is kind of refreshing, since both openly acknowledge their respect for the ideals, even if they can’t agree otherwise.  Claude can’t stand Edelgard’s war, and Edelgard sort of sees Claude as one of the problems with Fodlan’s nobility since he was otherwise a foreigner brought into a major leadership position based solely on his birth.  It’s easy to read an almost racial scorn in this.  I’ll freely admit I’ll err more on excusing Eedelgard due to personal bias than just looking for the worst outcome though.  

Though, one of the amusing things I noticed regarding BE/GD players is how some have gone on about “oh, those Eagles are totally the type to just drift apart after the TS and never speak again but the GD babies are just super-duper-tight until their deathbeds” and I just sort of laughed because the Eagles absolutely stuck together through the timeskip while the Deer splintered apart and only came back together on the eve of the promise with Byleth.

Something of another fascinating note is Edelgard’s end.  Wishing to just stay by Byleth’s side, even without the months spent together.  The Goddess Tower scene is just so understatedly important for her, since it pegs her as a surprise romantic.  Her heart went so aflutter when Byleth saved her from Kostas.  But in the end, she surrenders to death.  To end this war, stop this suffering, and put a ruler on the throne with absolute skill.

The usual “STRONGEST IS BEST WEAK SUCKS” villain trope schlock is how when they lose it’s never graceful, it’s bitching about how the generic protag is just weak blahblahblah.  But losing is bloody proof they’re stronger dammit.  It just makes them giant eye-rolling hypocrites.  Characters who can actually acknowledge the victor as stronger are rare and few between.  To the point it is almost entirely Edelgard and the Suikoden V villain that I can think of.

Following her defeat, Hubert gives the letter revealing the Argathans’ base, Rhea isn’t actually dead (which confuses me), and most importantly, is how the Death Knight leads the Alliance forces out of the Fort.  He could have easily just stayed in the middle and warped out, but he lured them to the outskirts, letting them escape in time.  Since the Death Knights is actually nice and follows orders, Edelgard or Hubert probably arranged this in advance after learning what Argatha had planned.  Turned it right around on them.

There’s plenty of scorn for Edelgard not going after the Slithers, and working with them.  In her own path she keeps them on such a short chain they’re basically powerless, and on the other routes she still turns on them with acts like this.

I suppose, like Claude says, nothing should ever just be accepted as the simple it appears.  Or something.

Dear me this was supposed to be about the Golden Deer and yet it still became an Edelgard post.  What a problem I have.

[youreamonocoque]

PEOPLE DON’T KNOW NETBALL?! AM I GONNA HAVE TO EXPLAIN THIS?

Fine here goes:

Idk how well explained this is so if you have questions please ask me, I love talking Netball. (And i’ve probably forgotten something lol)

Each side is made up of 7 players and it’s primarily played by women (off the top of my head I can’t think of any male netball players)

This is how it’s set up for a centre pass (like a kick off in football but you pass the ball, idk how it starts in basketball so it might be the same as that). The court is split up into thirds. Each position can only go in certain areas. 

Let’s start with Centre: 

Sometimes the captain of the team but not always. The Centre can go anywhere except in the ‘D’ (we called it a D i think it’s the goal circle or something). They start the game off and restart it by stepping into the centre circle where the whistle will then go. There’s a toss at the start of the match where the captains decide who starts the game off, the other team restarts if your team scores and so the other centre. (So say blue have just scored a goal, red will restart). On a centre pass the opposing centre (in the above example, blue) can either chose to mark the red centre or help out their GD or WD by marking the GA or WA. The quickest players on the court (and sometimes most annoying). 

Goal Defence or GD:

Can go in their third and the centre third as well as in the ‘D’. Their job is to mark the GA and prevent them from scoring and to get the ball to their attackers. 

Wing Defence or WD:

Can go in their third and the centre third but not the ‘D’ they tend to be quick and sharp and if the ball goes off the edge of the court they’ll be the ones throwing it in (usually but not always).

Goal Attack or GA:

Can go in their third and the centre third as well as in the ‘D’. Goal Attack are shooters, they score goals. Their usually a bit quicker than the other shooters (GS) as they can go into the centre third. (Again sometimes annoying)

Wing Attack or WA:

Can go in their third and the centre third but not the ‘D’. They are quick running up the wing and if you have a good team and it’s your centre pass it should go Centre -> Wing Attack -> Goal Attack/Goal Shooter -> Score. 

Goal Shooter or GS:

Can only go in their third and the ‘D’. Main role is to score goals and work with the Goal Attack. (Really tall, sometimes annoying)

Goal Keeper or GK (My Position big up the keepers!):

Can only go in their third and the ‘D’. Their role is to defend the GS and prevent them from scoring. 

Rules:

No contact. No moving when you have the ball. No bouncing the ball unless you are using a bounce pass to move it to another player. If you hold onto the ball for longer than three seconds it’s a penalty pass to the opposing team, you stand by their side and aren’t allowed to move until the ball is passed. If you defend within a metre (3 feet), that’s obstruction, stand by the players side ,and don’t move until they’ve thrown the ball, where they can have a penalty pass or shot. You can only take a shot if you’re in the ‘D’.  Can’t pass the ball over a third so you can’t just lob it from one end to the other it has to be touched in each third. If you drop the ball you can’t pick it back up. If you throw the ball towards the goal but it does’t touch the rim of the goal then you can’t catch it again because that’s a replayed ball. If it touches the rim then sure have another pop.  Own goals aren’t a thing.  A game is 4 quarters of 15 minutes. Most goals = Win. 

(In the red is my England girls, LOOK AT THE PASSION!)

(More of my girls after we beat Australia at the Commonwealth Games, it was beautiful, I screamed and cried)

Seriously watch some international matches they’re brilliant. They move the ball so quick it’s amazing. 

If anyone has any questions feel free to ask!

[glassvines]

I’m attempting a Madness Returns replay, and I’m pleased with how quickly I’m getting through some of the timed puzzles this time around. Some of these things drove me nuts on the first go around.

Also, this game holds up so well. I don’t care that even in 2011 it didn’t have the latest and greatest graphics. Spicy Horse did such a fanatic job with the overall visual design that I’m just not...paying attention to the lowerish polycount. (My only gripe now would be that I want to EXPLORE MORE. A lot more of the background props should have been playable, and there are occasions I want to interact with random characters in Wonderland, but I can’t. Which sucks. I would have paid more than $60 for this game if those details could have been added.)

The music is genuinely creepy and fitting too. There’s this one level in the underwater chapter that honestly has some of the most terrifying sound effects/mixing I’ve ever heard in my gd life. The sound effects and score fit the gameplay perfectly and I love it.

Can’t wait to throw all my money at the Alice 3 ks when it goes up. 

[sillyfudgemonkeys]

Under the cut cause Anne and Tae CoOp spoilers and cause length 8U So yeah turn back now spoilers:

@tehsharkster OH MY GOD FUN FACT TIME! XD So like, I recently replayed P3 and P4 will my college dorm mates and we had a joke that if you held hands that was basically sex and so every time the MC held/touched hands with someone we were like “OMG SEX! OMG PREGGOS! 8U” And how the only protected “sex” we had was with Liz cause she always had gloves on. 8U Yeah we are mature adults. >.>

But in all seriousness, for Persona yes that is explicit for that game. Since P3 there has been one kiss (that could happen with your girlfriend), hugs yes, hand holding yes, innuendos (ALL THE INNUENDOS) yes, but kiss? No. P1 Maki did kiss you (on the cheek tho). P2 I believe Maya does kiss Tatsuya (tho I heard she does that even if he doesn’t choose her so it might not be romantic in that sense for that scene after that option, plus I dunno if it’s on the lips or on the cheek), Maiko apparently surprise kisses your cheek (tho that’s on a black screen), and Margaret does the same thing (but you aren’t dating her), and then Marie kiss the P4MC if you choose to romance her on Valentines day (but she kiss the MC, and the MC stands there like a gd fish). And yeah that’s 5 (and 3 for P3 and P4(G), and I only count Maiko cause she pulled a Maki and wow similar names I see what you did there Atlus, but yeah I don’t count Maiko as a love interest) out of ALLLLLL the girls you can date. Imo kind of an outlier to happen during a romance route. That doesn’t mean all the other stuff isn’t intimate, but we never seen a kiss on screen, in which it’s with an actual girlfriend and the MC isn’t standing there like a gd fish. But with Anne you and her actually mutually kiss. You’re on a ferris wheels and Anne’s like “Shouldn’t we do what couples tend to do on this thing before we get off?” And the MC can choose “Awww only one?” And Anne is like “.....you’re call” (so like not just a kiss but a make-out session oh my god but seriously I’m focusing on the one kiss we see). Like they both lean in at the same time. It’s the first time I’ve seen a mutual kiss between the MC and a love interest (I know technically they are all “mutual” but like seeing the MC engaging in the act as well)

I should note that Tae I believe also kiss the MC, but from the screen shot I saw the MC is just sitting there like a fish..... Nonetheless I’m still like “OHHHHH MYYYY GOOOOOOOOODDDDDDD! O0O” cause a kiss from a gf (that we didn’t have to wait till an updated release), but slightly less cause it’s not mutual like Anne/MC. ;w; (there’s also the fact they might have kissed twice on screen, and on the flip side it was the MC who surprised kissed someone and not the other way around, so that makes me lose it even more). Tho while I’m happy those two CoOps get something special, I think all SLs and CoOps should share in the smoochy smoo. 8U

Also I don’t really count Ai’s kiss in the anime, since...they weren’t really dating. 8U 

(but really the reason why I freak out over kisses in Persona is cause of how infrequent it happens. It’s like those jokes on the internet about how people can read smutty fanfics in public with a straight face but then lose it over a cute hand holding scene. It’s similar, tho the smut in this case is the innuendos Atlus makes all the time. 8U)