#get nerfed during a cutscene?

[thatdeadaquarius]

THE SAGAU FANFIC ONE-SHOT WINNER IS...

🎊🎉🌿Eldritch! Reader AU🌿🎉🎊

Just a small annoucement for the winner, though I'm sure we all saw the results lol

Have a snippet, hope you enjoy!

*disclaimer: subject to change, this is a draft, no finalized version yet.

At least, you were pretty sure of where you were now. But that didn't mean it made any more sense. You hadn't recognized it at first, but the Irminsul was unmistakable after a minute of looking at it and the surrounding blue. The lights were incredible, with sparkles and stars floating up from the ground. Strange, nearly mechanical patterns flared out from its branches. The only difference between the Irminsul in-game versus the real one you see now is the rapid swelling and filling out of its trunk. As you had woken up more and more, ignoring the strange state of your body for now, it had let out weirdly nostalgic noises. Like a computer booting up, and a million other digital pings or tunes as it grew. As you tentatively reach a hand out to touch the trunk, a familiar book materializes. The dark blue pages flip to the first page instead of to the middle of the book. ...isn't this usually the really obscure "Archives" animation from the Paimon settings page? What's it doing here?? In gold writing that hovers slightly above the pages, your (presumed) stats display. The eerily familiar Genshin Impact font rapidly types itself out from left to right. /gamemode: admin *Executing... *Executing... *Loading... *Loading... *... *...Success! *Your gamemode has been changed. " Player." [ADMIN.] EXP: 1000000#%$+??? DEF: ?%@****+~?? ATTK: ??*!!%^<=+? POWERS: - ??";*&%[]\/%? - &%#@?<_++}] - ~`*(-_+}|\\!!??^& ...you decide to stop looking at your... stats, for now. Because more importantly, as you pull your hand back from the book (letting it float in place in front of the Irminsul trunk again), you notice something even more off. Your hand. It's... wrong. As you trail your eyes up your arm, you choke back a sense of panic. Sure enough, when you bring the right arm over to poke and try to smear the seemingly black paint that drenches your left arm, it too is covered in black. Your arms are pitch black. And as you attempt to touch your forearm for more answers, only to phase through it... you begin to think maybe this is not, in fact, paint. And as you realize you are hovering, instead of standing in place, you begin to think this is, in fact, the very real world of Genshin Impact. ...you decide to lay back down on the weird blue ground (?) and take a nap.

Maybe start today over.

☆

I'll be working on asks in the mean time!

But this'll be higher priority/posted soon bc I'm worried I'll forget abt it otherwise lmao

Idk if anybody cares that much, but I'll go ahead and ask just in case:

I hope you guys are having a great week, wherever you may be!

Safe Travels,

💀♒️

♡the beloveds♡

@karmawonders / @0rah-s / @randomnatics / @glxssynarvi / @nexylaza / @genshin-impacts-me / @wholesomey-artist / @thedevioussmirk / @the-dumber-scaramouche / @chocogi / @fallen-starr

@yomilyy / @0rah-s / @idontknowwhatimdoingbutweball / @blackstar-gazer

(^^^ dw you'll still get tagged when the actual piece is out! :)

[ageless-aislynn]

Day 3 (there was no post for Day 2 😉) of Project: Mass Effect 1 on Insanity!

Friends. My friends. I've cleared all of the side quests I'm planning on doing and am in the process of fighting my way through Feros. Still have Noveria and Virmire to go, then the big battle on the Citadel at the end. But still. I'm playing on Insanity and I'm continuing to progress and I'm so happy about it! 🤗🤗🤗

I also am NOT looking forward to Mass Effect 2 which is going to nerf all of my wonderful powers and be about 10k% harder but hey, let's just stay focused on fighting the Thorian and Temporarily!Evil!Shiala 'cause that's a slog on lower difficulties for me and I'm not anticipating a lot of fun. But! I've made it this far!

But for the important thing that you're probably ACTUALLY wondering about: what armor is everybody wearing? 🤔

Garrus in cutscenes continues to wear his standard armor. Probably because he's tired of GLOWING IN THE DARK in the armor I have my stealthy Archangel sniper in during gameplay...

Yeah, that's not exactly camouflage, I'm sorry to say. But it gives him the best stats so... 🤷‍♀️

Liara looks pretty good in hers, I'd say, more tanky than usual. And I'm getting used to Shep's not!N7 armor now.

I actually kinda dig the helmet with those lights!

Annnnnd, of course, then I got a set of armor with better specs so had to change it, lol! 👀🤷‍♀️😉

Don't know what the helmet's going to look like yet but at least it's back to my N7 red and black colors!

Also! If you're like me and that fight on Therum ruins (right before you go inside to rescue Liara) is a tough one for you, what with the Geth troopers and those darn jumpy Geth Stalkers (grr 🤬) and the Geth Colossus just sitting back there all murdering you on Casual and Normal? Friends. I got through it deathless on Insanity. Let Auntie Aislynn tell you how so this part of the mission will never, ever bother you again! (You may know all of this, of course, but I didn't until I was doing some research before this mission. 😉)

Oh no, the Mako can't drive through that narrow opening, guess we have to go forward on foot and face all of those Geth with just our handguns and biotic/tech powers! 😞

Heh, or you can get the Mako to roll onto its side and then wiggle wiggle wiggle thruster jet thruster jet thruster jet wiggle wiggle until you pop through to the other side! NOTE: Make sure to save right before you try this maneuver because the first time I did it, I got jammed in there and couldn't go forward, back or exit the Mako so had to revert. But it's worth the risk to get your two Mako cannons in this fight with you! (I have the actual gameplay footage so if you'd like to see this all in action, just let me know! 😉)

Jumpy Geth Stalker?

An easy kablooey! 💥

Geth Colossus? Stood there and took it straight to the face and never even fired a shot at me ether because I was out of its range or it was just so 😱SHOCKED😱 I'd gotten the Mako in here, lol! 😂😉

So definitely take that tactic if you can, my friends. It makes this part a breeze! 😎

Anyway! I've got some tough fights ahead of me but I've done better than I expected. I didn't have to do the Rogue VI mission (aka proto EDI) but I needed some targets for Tali to user her AI hacking abilities on for an achievement, so I thought I'd just go there, let the bazillion drones kill us but hopefully get some AI hacking in, revert, get some more in, etc. then just abandon the mission when I got tired of it. It's not required to advance the main mission so can be left undone.

I beat the mission. 😲Granted, we all died A LOT because those drones are SUPER AGGRESSIVE and there's not a lot of room to run. And I was focused on trying to get hits with Tali's AI hacking talent as much as possible. But still! I just kept trying and trying, took about 6 times to finally clear all the waves and we were done!

So now, wish me luck, that darn Thorian and Temp!Evil!Shiala are going to be my hardest challenge yet, I think! 😬🤞😣🤞 Love you all! 🤗💖

[omorimodreverie]

Reverie Dev Log - 2024 January + February

Overview

January and February saw ups and downs in activity, but overall significant progress was made. The start of the year was initially slow due to breaks, but activity picked up slowly. You may have noticed that there were less promotional posts or updates in general during this time, as we were focused on development. Thanks to these efforts, though, we’re fairly optimistic that this will be the final dev log for Chapter 3.

As for me (Stahl) personally, I have not been able to do much this time round as I have been busy (hence lack of public updates), but this time round invaluable progress was made by others in the team.

Quick rundown:

First round of playtesting has been done - This was a very rudimentary one aimed at finding basic bugs

NPCs are now mostly finished, and our writers are now working on flavor text and side writings

Portraits are all done and implemented

Battles have been planned out in more detail

Various organizational changes

Extra writers and RPGMV members have been recruited

Updates

The first round of playtesting is complete! This one was rather rudimentary, containing only basic story points. The aim was to test progression and to fix major bugs, both of which we’ve now finished. There are still some major aspects missing, like flavor texts and quests but vital components to main progression like cutscenes and maps are completed and being tested. Hopefully, this round of playtesting should wrap up soon, and more will follow. 

Minor and Side contents

There’s still a lot of design decisions to make, mostly regarding seemingly minor aspects of the game that actually take large amounts of resources. A lot of thought must be put into whether these features, like flavor text and shops, are worth the amount of time needed to make them, and if so how much. 

Due to this chapter being a real world section and story centric, the remaining gameplay would be left to mostly side quests. This is an interesting challenge, as unlike base Omori, Sunny is not familiar with the city like back in Faraway town, meaning it’s more challenging to find opportunities to give him quests. 

As for Reverie specific side content, battles won’t completely be abandoned in the real world. They’ll be taking forms in various challenge battles found throughout the city. For a rough idea, think of the Jackson poster found in Hobbeez from the base game.

Miscellaneous Changes

Another thing yet to be done are tweaks to previous chapter content. They will mostly affect quality of life, but some will also be major gameplay changes. Here’s some examples of planned changes (not exhaustive):

Picnic allows the player to change difficulty mid game (Trust me, later dream world chapters will feature major difficulty spikes and players may get stuck)

Hit Rates on equipment changed, mostly heavily nerfed. This makes evasion buffs actually relevant (and also, 300% hit rate is just silly).

Some skills entirely changed (e.g. Spaceboy Preserve will change into another Attack skill instead).

In game info to indicate that emotion influences Enemy AI very strongly in reverie compared to base game.

Conclusion

Overall, development on chapter 3 is reaching its later stages, reaching the first round of playtesting. This should hopefully be the last dev log in relation to Chapter 3 development.

As thanks for reading this far, here is a remade portrait of real world Sunny! It’s a bit more softer than the previous one, and the proportion has been improved as well.

[umbraastaff]

the main post was getting long but i wanted to highlight a couple of cool responses on my taz balance game posts pointing out stuff i forgot or didn't realize:

@widzi:

op forgot the new davenport glitch where if you manage to clip him into the voidfish tank he gets innoculated earlier and skips #right to the story and song cutscene

@scarlett-green-rose:

Wait, I haven't played (or really thought of) TAZ: Balance in years, and I never really got into the speedrunning scene. But do all the speedruns run in the optional chronological timeline order? I get that starting with hundred year journey lets you play around with the early faerun stats that Barry, Lucretia and Lup (or really the Umbrastaff) get, but considering the long gameplay loop I'd have thought that runners would just settle for the basic stats for those three and exploit the hell out of the tres horny boi's immunity to corruption buff to free lup and then speedrun the rest of the relics, at least for any%. Is running hyj first actually worth it despite the fact that the planar order is randomised? Or do runners use a specific seed when running that category? Also, shame to see that Merle and John's Parleys isn't as present in the current meta. That cutscene where John monologues about his doctrine and Merle rejects him is just *mwah* incredible. Although I guess it's understandable considering how long those dialogues are.

@somelittleplacebetweenthestars:

lol speaking of the spa scene i found a pretty funny glitch there the other day #i was messing around with menu storage clipping the other day and found out if you clip merle out of bounds during the first song#his properties get all weird #so although he loses his arm to the crystal cosmetically #it just. doesn’t register? so when it comes time for him to get the soul wood arm he just straight up cannot get it #idk it’s mostly a visual glitch#doesn’t really effect game play that much it just means he’s got half an arm for the rest of your run #but rlly why are you in the crystal kingdom if you’re running another other than 100% #where was i going w this #OH YEAH #but this weird not!arm gets SUPER FUCKED UP in cutscenes #like the spa scene!#basically#like once every two seconds it’ll spawn the soul wood arm in its pot plant#without despawning the previous iteration? #and bc the cutscene’s in-engine you basically soft-lock yourself bc you can’t start the scene without overloading the game #just kind of a stupid fun thing tho #mb it can become a category #arm% or whatever#(this is all in crystal kingdom btw sorry forgot to mention)

@barry-j-blupjeans:

oh shit really??? #listen. i love magnus but all his level 1 shit is so sloooowww #i wanna rush in!! how can i rush in if i cant land a hit half the time!! #(<- i say as if mangus still isn't the most overpowered character in the game anyway) #(esp in a lotta the alpha releases. i get why they had to nerf him down but it's really funny to see a very low level magnus #fucking up absolutely Everyone he comes across) #u used to be able to do the raven roost's arc in like. 3 months max #just bc of how overpowered they originally had him sldkfsdf

[beatthegame]

I just beat Red Dead Redemption 2! Originally released on the PS4 but played on a PS5. Published by Rockstar Games, who would be best known for bringing the Grand Theft Auto series to life. Amongst many other hits throughout the years. Red Dead Redemption is simply considered the "spaghetti western grand theft auto". And of course the first Red Dead Redemption would be a hit. But after a few years of putting out constant bangers in the video game market. Rockstar may have dropped their magnum opus with Read Dead Redemption 2. Allow me to share my thoughts...

In a nutshell: Yeah, it's the spaghetti western version of Grand Theft Auto. But that's such an understatement. Red Dead Redemption 2 is an epic tale following a group of outlaws on the run. Fighting for survival, pulling off heists and scams while running from the law and surviving in America during the cusp of the industrial revolution. It's a colorful group of misfits led by the flamboyant Dutch Van Der Linde. At first you control Arthur Morgan. Dutch's wingman, for lack of a better word. But the game pulls you through just about every Western movie trope in existence. Immersed in several unique experiences and insane characters only Rockstar can come up with. Whether you like to shoot up cowboys, rob banks and trains, go horseback riding or go out hunting and fishing in the wilderness? This game has it all!

The Good: Fuck! This game is GOOD. In all caps! Visually stunning in so many ways. I previously thought Zelda: Breath of the Wild had some of the most gorgeous open world visuals in gaming. But Read Dead Redemption 2 is on another level. The whole game plays like a cutscene. The stellar graphics and environment details are impeccable. I wish I could post more than 10 screenshots  but you're better off playing the game yourself. Pretty graphics are one benefit. But when you mix that with a solid gameplay experience with seamless load times. This game is just a joy to play. But this isn't a typical cowboy game. You have a lot of options going on. And it's all executed in the best way possible. From gunfights, to horse racing, to stealth missions, to gambling. You can hunt, fish, pick plants and herbs to cook and camp. You have the freedom to do it all in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible by today's technological standards. Personally, I enjoyed the Texas Hold Em and Domino mini-games BETTER than a lot of the solo release games out there. Complete with shit-talking banter that cowboys make up during poker games. I will most likely keep playing RDR2 just for the hold 'em simulator. It's better than that shitty World Series of Poker game. But I digress... Although this is based in a fictional world, there were a lot of American historical elements that made it feel authentic, without it feeling too goofy like Saints Row or Fallout 76. Yes, this game is fantastic! But now, let's get a little bit nasty...

The Bad: I'm struggling to find the faults in this game. Like, I can't exactly call this game perfect? But it's pretty damn close. There were times where I found my self struggling with the controls. Seamlessly transitioning from a horse chase, to a physical brawl, to a shootout could be jarring from one point to another. Especially during a panic situation. But it was mostly balanced throughout. Allowing to start at certain save points alleviated some of the frustration. Although some players would consider that nerfed gameplay? Also, I heard from other folks complaining about the consistent traveling between missions? Which is admittedly HUGE distances at times. It feels like a horseback simulator. But you have options between fast travel, or riding along a brief horse & carraige cutscene, or ramble on in "theatrical mode" which enables cool camera angles while you travel the wilderness. I like it because it allows ample time for smoke/snack breaks between missions. The scenery is gorgeous and worth just sitting back and appreciating the atmosphere. I'm sure there are dudes out there who couldn't care less about ambiance and need that constant dopamine drip. But don't get it twisted. You'll frequently have run ins with rival bandits, or law enforcement, or a pack of wolves, or cocaine bear when you'd least expect it. So you're always on alert. Take that as a good or bad thing? But there's honestly not a whole lot of bad to play with in this game. Except for Micah. He's BAD! LOL! Fuck that guy. But every story needs a good villain, right?

Overall: Red Dead Redemption 2 is a masterpiece. It's a culmination of all the great things about prevous Grand Theft Auto games plus everything that was great about the prevous Red Dead Redemption games multiplied by a thousand. I also appreciate a game that keeps the party going after you beat the game. Replay value is important these days. And you definetly get your money's worth with RDR2. With a robust online mode, along with the countless side quests this game has to offer. Beating the story mode was just the tip of the iceberg. I'll still be playing this game in between all the other titles I encounter. This is a virtual world I don't mind coming back to. And that says a lot. This game is Sunset Riders on crack. This game is like a Sergio Leone wet dream. By far, the best western game ever. Believe the hype. Red Dead Redemption 2 rules!

S-Class

[spinningbuster98]

Mega Man X5 Part 1

And we’re back!

Mega Man X5 marks the beginning of the dark times for the X series. Not in the sense that this game is...bad per se, especially in comparison to what comes right afterwards, it’s just....

I like to call X5 the Sonic Forces of Mega Man, not in regards to its fan reception but moreso in regards to how much it hypes itself up despite not...really being all that special. Not bad (for the most part), but certainly not worthy of being the big finale of the X series that it was originally meant to be.

You feel this right as you boot up the game: instead of the amazingly animated anime cutscenes of MM8 and X4, X5 just has static slide shows of artworks that even look kinda blurry, certainly not befitting of a game that wants to present its story as the big, climactic ending of the series. Also no voice acting (which ok not necessarily a bad thing here)

The same goes for the in-game graphics: lots of sprites taken from X4 still look great, but most of the backgrounds look...flatter, more static, blurrier and not as detailed as before. The boss sprites also look less fluidly animated than before. The whole game just looks cheaper, like there were clear budget cuts alla round (well except for the music, this is actually one of the best OSTs in the X lineup, Squid Adler’s theme here especially is a fave of mine)

But above all else the game has plenty of....weird design decisions

First of all: Alia. She’s your navigator, constantly stopping you throughout the levels to inform you of obvious shit a la Navi from Ocarina of Time. She kinda sucks. Yeah you can skip her dialogues by button mashing but c’mon, this breaks the pace constantly

Most levels in this game are...fine, competent but also offer nothing truly special

Grizzly Slash feels like a watered down version of Slash Beast’s from X4

Squid Adler’s....I actually don’t have too many issues with the Ride Chaser section specifically because it’s short and it’s at the start of the stage, meaning you can practice it as often as you want (and I guess the animal riding levels from Crash Bandicoot have sort of trained me at collecting stuff during auto scrollers), but the rest of the stage is kinda claustrophobic and its main gimmick with switches, while functional, isn’t really interesting nor does it fit a normally fast paced series like X.

(Let’s not get into how the power up system works here, I don’t have a degree quantum physics so i wouldn’t know how to explain it to you)

Still the game does introduce one cool idea: you can now choose between X or Zero before each stage!

The first half of the game does a nice job balancing between the two, as there may be some levels or bosses which are more comfortably handled with Zero while others may be more suited for X (like Squid Adler’s) but every level can be completed by either character

This balance is gonna break by the time we reach the final stages but let’s not get too ahead of ourselves

However, for everyone wanting to play this game: ALWAYS choose X for the intro stage! Why? Because if you do he starts the game with a nerfed, but still pretty powerful, version of his X4 armor. If you pick Zero X will start with no armor and Zero will just have a dinky buster that does jack shit. And like I’ll explain next time some stages in this game were....probably not fully balanced for an unarmored X...

Also shoutout to Zero having a conversation with the Dr.Light AI, while X never once speaks to him throughout the whole series. The favoritism is still running quite high

I may really like Zero as a character (mostly his Zero series incarnation) but that won’t stop me from pointing this out. I don’t hold said favoritism against him as a character, as at least the games never once have had him, or other characters, claim that he’s better than X or anything rather it’s just the narrative always giving him the the most important moments, so I like to seperate the character from the way they are handled in these cases, much like Shadow and how obviously he was the writer’s pet in 06.

[pan-of-light]

Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens

Finally sat down to watch the whole thing, many disjointed thoughts below the cut.

TL;DR: sevens good.

Yuuga: Much like the last protag to wear a red jacket with a white neckpiece, Judai, there is something wrong with this kid. He's too okay with everything. He's the goddamn player character of pokemon SunMoon who never gets an emotion showing in cutscene on his model-

(and unlike judai, afaik, he never had electroshock memory wipes done to him before)

He's great. He gives no shits. He took a job at a major corporation that owns the town he lives in and everything in it, as an elementary schooler, bc hacking them was too annoying and it was easier to have them hand over the credentials so he could mess with their shit, while also being a head or more shorter than like everyone else in the show. I want to study him like a (lady)bug.

Luke: Yuuga's name is on the title(-ish), but this guy is the actual Hero of sevens. The actual Hero of sevens. It's important, so I said it twice. He's a bratty elementary schooler who I can't even call a chuuni because of how young he is, but he has the heart where it matters. And multistrike dragons. ALL the multistrike dragons.

Romin: The seven-colored light of redemption, though I feel bad about opening this not about anything about her so much as "first decent yugioh girl"... First decent yugioh girl. She's not nerfed, worfed, or shoved aside partway through the series, being a competent duelist with a sensible win/lose ratio like any other side character from previous series.

Her arc about embracing selfishness, finding new dreams, and never giving up on anything she wants are so good. And now with Tiger in the family to teach her martial arts, she will never stop.

Gakuto: were it not for the VA segments at the end of episodes I would never notice he's Nekobot Hanae. What do you mean goddamn Gakuting is Riddle Rosehearts. It makes perfect sense yet GAKUTING also makes me want to die every single time. Not as much as the translators probably want to do every time he opens his punny mouth, but close.

Roa/Nail: Spiky and Fluffy. Band Kid and Nerd. The first two main bosses and a genuine delight every time they take the screen. I am forcing them to share a list spot just like they were forced to share seats during the tournament arc. While I can't put them in a jar to shake, I'll settle for maining their decks in DL instead. I'm still convinced Roa, unknowingly, dreams of having someone punch his face in, and that's why he's Like That (terrible at every opportunity). His relationship with his boytoy vs Neil's funny themed henchmen (and butler robo dad) is also fun to think about.

Asana and the Cav Quartet: Asana was going to get her own spot but I can't separate her from her generals. She sort of reminds me of Kiriyuin Satsuki when I think about it, the militaristic antagonist with perfectly reasonable motives who joins the protag as soon as possible, except Satsuki doesn't have a goddamn pidgeon as a general. A pidgeon. Has his own ID card and documents and everything. The human is his brother, but the human was adopted into the pidgeon family, that also owns a company. I'm sorry Asana I love you and your bi energy but what the FUCK is up with those two.

Mimin: SINGLE MOMS REPRESENT, an anime mom that beats every dead and dying allegation. She's plot relevant, has screen time, and the narrative never actually forgets she's an adult with her own motivations and dreams, no matter how nice to the 10yos she is. That said, the tech she uses isn't that old Sevens stop trying to convince me I'm old, sevens!!!

Presidential Siblings in general: why do we not market ygo as a cyberpunk series when we have 'children raised in space in isolation bc they were chosen by a supercomputer to run the City-Owning Megacorp' as a normal thing that happens. That's not weird by modern yugioh standards. We crossed that bridge during 5Ds guys. This is our life now.

Yuuou: I want his musical theme. Also brings back the only good ED mechanic (/biased branded player) into the new era. Maximums are nice, sure, but Fusion is always perfect.

Swirly: I'm honestly surprised I saw some talk online about how he was 'forgotten' and 'never defeated' when like. Guys. We had two full cours showing his defeat. Living as Swirly with the Rush Club gang and being exposed to the kindness of humanity and the fun of dueling is what fixed him. Luke didn't even really need to duel him, he'd beaten the evil before he even stopped wearing the kigurumi.

That said, how the FUCK are you smaller than Yuuga. What the fuck did you eat in space that let you be so small. Illegal.

THE★LUKEMAN: remember how I said the presidential sibs were par for the yugi-course by now? This isn't. This is just pure What The Fuck. I've personally rewritten his entire origin story in my head because it was just that fucking stupid. And now i'm upset his cards dont have the ★ in their names in DL. What a waste.

Otes: Most of the Sevens cast is weird as hell. Not Seto tops them all. His deal is mysterious, he's evil from the start, but his loss ratio is so big I'm actually shocked he put up a fight as the final boss. I'm praying GO RUSH gives me some info because Yuuga's smile on reentry was too Otes-like for me. They have a connection beyond the Sevens Road and it's going to drive me insane. I need to put this man under a microscope immediately.

The -ko Girls: I also need to know their deal, but without putting them in a lab. They're so much fun to watch, they can just hang around.

[cola-canine]

So I finished Jedi: Survivor (still plan on 100%'ing it) and I think it goes in my "Amazing" tier list at the moment.

My tier list goes Masterpiece, Amazing, Very Good, Good, OK, Bad, Very Bad, Awful, Unplayable.

I enjoyed this game a LOT but (spoilers ahead)

the Vader boss fight as Cere was a MESS. Like, I get he's supposed to be a difficult boss fight - it's fucking Darth Vader - but this shit was so unbalanced. VERY rarely do I have to change the difficulty of a game to finish it but this had to be one of those occasions.

Vader has this force grab attack that knocks out 75% of your health and mind you, you play with nerfed stims as Cere (4 stims compared to the 13 I had collected so far as Cal). There were times where Vader spammed this grab attack four/five times in a row and just made the fight impossible. And instead of just moving the fight along after you've already seen any cutscenes that play during the fight, you're forced to manually skip them each time.

And all that just for Cere to die anyways. Like I would've just preferred a scripted death. It was pointless, demotivating, and just outright not a good boss fight. It took me TWO HOURS to beat Oggdo Boggdo and Spawn of Oggdo Boggdo and I would still rather do that again than face Vader once more. And this is on NORMAL (Jedi Knight) difficultly.

Fallen Order had the right amount of difficulty and learning curve. Some of the boss fights and rift platforming sections hit that "You need to be pixel perfect to complete this" level which just becomes annoying rather than something to prove to yourself.

Had this not been such an anger-inducing fight that really just ruined the moment for me in the story, it would have hit my Masterpiece tier again. This game does nothing but improve upon Fallen Order. Koboh is a fantastic planet and outranks every other planet from both games combined. Beautiful, fun, and just chock full of content. I'm very excited to check out the rest of the goodies and finish upgrading everything.

The fact that we might see Cal tap more into the dark side of the Force is something I'm very interested to see gameplay-wise.

Who knows, maybe I will change my ranking down the line but as of now I like where it stands.

[hotgirlnosebleeds]

Alright, for starters I would like it to be like Skullgirls, every player chooses three characters before the match and can swap between them. A rebalanced 1v1 mode would also be cool, but my main focus is on the 3v3. The reason for this, is that I would love to see the characters clash when swapped for the first time , kind of like in Injustice, and I have some ideas for team mechanics.

The main two mechanics would be Investiture, and The Sanderlanche (hear me out on this one.) Every character has their own Investiture meter that drains during the match as they use their special abilities, if they're from the same planet they might get a pooled meter? That would have to be tested for balance. Perhaps there are some ways to regain investiture, through special abilities or environmental stuff like in MK, but I'm not sure. NOW, the Sanderlanche is the provisional name for the Ultimate ability mechanic, or a Final Smash, or whatever you want to call it. Every character can fill their SL bar through damage, combos, and being damaged (at different rates of course). If a character fills their own bar, they explode in power for a short time, replenishing their investiture temporarily if the ability is triggered (I'm thinking stuff like Mistborns taking atium, or Radiants swearing a new oath, Szeth or Vasher pulling out Nightblood). HOWEVER, if all three characters fill their SL meter, one of them (living or dead) can be chosen to truly ascend (Sazed becoming Harmony, Vin/Kelsier becoming preservation, Kaladin doing whatever he is going to do in Stormlight 5, Susebron appearing to unleash all his power, etc), a cool cutscene plays and all the oponent characters take massive damage, managing to fill all three meters and not using them is basically a win condition.

I love the idea of bosses, that one never occurred to me (haven't played SF), for characters, I do think that Radiants and Shardbearers deserve to be in it, obviously with the shardblades nerfed from Canon. I'm not totally sure if I'd put Sarene in, she seems maybe too underpowered in comparison with the rest. Now some character specific ideas by series:

Mistborn

- Vin would carry the big ass kolossi sword, expending investiture passively while in play (she needs to burn pewter to carry it), for a lot of damage. In return, she can use her Zinc and Brass burning to buff her allies and debuff her opponents for a smaller cost.

- Kelsier expends more investiture burning Zinc and Brass, and would be more of a zoner, concentrating on pushing and pulling coins

No notes on the rest of the Mistborn characters, I'd only say that Kandra should take inspiration from Double (skullgirls) in appearance and mechanics. Marsh could also work as a Kelsier pallete swap, instead of his own character tbh. Sazed should be playable too

Stormlight

- Kaladin would use a shardspear of course, and would focus on lashing the opponent into advantageous situations. (I would have other bridgemen like Teft or Sigzil as pallete swaps)

- Shallan I'm not completely sure tbh, illusions would obviously be her thing, but I'm not entirely sure how they deal damage or help her in battle. She could have a stance swapping mechanic between Radiant and Veil as well

- Adolin swaps between the sword stances, since he is not magical, his investiture pools with other Radiants, and powers his shardplate, giving him extra durability

- Dalinar would play mostly like Adolin, with the exception of some adhesion tricks since he is not so well trained in his radiant abilities. His SL would be the opening of a perpendicularity, replenishing all the investiture of his team

- Lift uses her radiant staff which does less damage, but can heal herself and her teammates partially, she would have some of the fastest speeds, or could inflict speed debuffs as well. Her investiture would not pool with other Radiants.

- Szeth uses lashings and the division powers we know he has but hasn't used yet, he would be more nimble than the bridgemen and with a shorter range. His SL would have him take Nightblood out, dealing massive damage until his (replenished) investiture is consumed FAST, if not stored again, it starts to drain his own health as well.

-Listeners/Fused would also be really cool as playable characters, but I haven't read in a bit and don't remember their abilities as clearly.

I'd love to fight The Pursuer as a boss, or maybe a chasmfiend, Nale would also be great as a boss.

Elantris

I feel that Raoden would be INSANELY broken if he was a full Elantrian the whole time. I think it would be cool if he started as a Reod Elantrian for a bit, with really limited access to the AonDor, even maybe a "poisoned" condition, where hits do maintained damage on him, BUT his SL meter filled way too fast, almost guaranteeing his ascent into a full Elantrian with a new, 75%ish health bar

Hrathen would be cool, Dilaf would be cool, Shai would also be cool (she'd have a stance changing thing with her stamps), but we don't know enough about them to really get into specifics

Other stuff

Warbreaker: Vasher would be cool, I'd let him have extra investiture due to the amount of breaths, maybe more time with Nightblood as well.

Tress would be really cool, if we imagined her a bit in the future with more knowledge of Athers, perhaps an Aether gun with different spore bullets.

The guy from white sand would be cool too ig. His SL could be the mastery of more than one sand trail

Hoid should be the announcer obviously

That's it, thanks for reading, I've been obsessing over this idea for months

Fuck it Cosmere fighting game

Been playing a lot of Street fighter recently and being humbled by the final bosses reminded me of Lord rules and Kelsier and that got me thinking how would a fighting game of the Cosmere would be.

I mean you could have Kelsier, Vin, and the venture brother as the mistborns, Human the koolo kinda like Hugo, spook, sazed would be like Dhalsim , some kandras doing weird copycats or mimics thingys, Inquisitors , marsh , Lord ruler as the broken as fuck boss.

If you include era II would be a great contrast whit the weapons, wax would fly a lot, and Wayne bubble being the parry would be fun, you could even include uh vallete? The lesbian gun lady yeah her. Dunno could be fun I think

Outside of mistborn

I bet Vasher would be fun as fuck, fighting while evading using night blood while being attacked by awakened objects.

I'll ignore shardblades,

Raoden would be weird as fuck to play yk combos and those things, Serene could do fencing, and Hrathen it's a strong boy

Dusk reminds me a lot of Rambo , and he was in Mortal Kombat so that one.

That's what occurs to me right now so yeah maybe I'll give it more tought

[idv-sunsxin3]

Sun & Moon Behind the Scenes HCs (ft. Make-up Artist! S/O)

Header’s art via FNAF Security Breach Official Game

{Headcanons/Scenarios}

Note// Some AU that has taking place during the making of the game- where all the game plot and endings are all directed like a film. Also- GUESS WHO’S BACK FROM THE FNAF FANDOM HOLE- It’s been a while,,,- ;u;

I most likely will write more about these two,,, qwq

___

In this AU, Sun & Moon are not in the same body.

Yes, some might not like the idea but imagine-

They both act like stunt performers, as they switch roles in certain parts of the plot behind the scenes.

When scenes are fluffy and happy, Sun would take in charge of it.

But when scenes get scary, dark, or very violent- Moon knows how to handle that.

While recording cutscenes, there has been a couple of bloopers during the recording.

There was a time Monty accidentally put his tail in the corner of the camera’s sight-

There was also a time where Gregory got stuck in the ballpit after going in the slide, that the film staff (and a concerned papa bear who also got stuck in it somehow-) had to get the poor child out of it-

There was another blooper clip where Sun was screeching and fell out of the desk

but Moon didn’t appear.

The director says cut as the lights turned back on to see what’s going on-

Turns out that Moon was eating stolen ice cream while playing “Fly Me to The Moon” by Joo Won in a corner of the daycare-

The camera moved to his direction.

Moon just stares at it.

Crap.

———

Gregory once recorded a random short video for fun, which looks like Moon walking on fours while glaring at a spider as if he’s demanding for a fight-

The director scold them afterwards for childish, reckless behavior in the break room.

And for terrifying the poor Sun with a spider that appeared in the kitchen when he was trying to fetch for your coffee-

———

With the delayed release of the game, Sun and Moon took advantage to stretch themselves more and the staff gave them implements that allow them to twist, twirl, and jump higher and smoother.

Sun originally had to get tied in a string to be able to ‘fly’ like moon, but the director had other plans for him,,,, (which means he have to hop in the solid floor for the entire plot as Moon is experiencing the moment of his life up there. 😩)

Sun// They took my flying powers! D:

Moon// Nerf is a bish.

Sun// Moon, watch your language in this studio! >:0

———

In the game, Moon & Sun would get along well with Freddy,,,, sometimes-

As they both think of him as a cool person, but they don’t like how the bear helps the troublemaker escape-

But behind the scenes, they think of their relationship as a playing tag friendship- A competition.

To improve their acting performance in chase scenes with fellow actors, they make a little game that makes the chasing scene look more real. (Since they often get heated and very competitive with the game which gets a little too far lol-)

Once the other animatronics learned the technique when the little group shared it, they started to use it as well in the recordings.

It gets very interesting when more people join the game.

———

Do you know the screen close-up which makes it look like Sun is holding Gregory?

Turns out he was actually holding the camera-

Why?

Gregory doesn’t let anyone but Glamrock Freddy carry him by the armpits-

Sun & Moon are the last people Gregory wants to be carried by.

Because it reminds him of the “Simba being hold up towards the sun” reference-

(Cues Lion King music)

Moon// SHUT UP, BACKGROUND MUSIC-

Yet, I still imagine Glamrock Freddy carrying Gregory like that while Sun’s smiley face is in the air as the typical sun,,,,-

Someone draw this please- (CRAP, I’M CHANGING THE SUBJECT TOO QUICKLY-)

Gregory often holds a camera so the recording stays in one point of view as always.

It’s hard to hold the camera while running, so he had to wear a headband that has the camera stick to it. (So the only issue is that he can’t look down unless it’s necessary.

Gregory simply lets Sun grab the camera from his head and would try his best to stop himself from laughing since he had to see Sun talking to the camera like an idiot-

No Gregory, he’s not an idiot and he knows what he’s doing hdjsnwnwn- X’DD

———

{S/O related below]

As a make-up artist, you rarely don’t do much with the animatronics besides getting their costumes ready for the film as they don’t need makeup.

You mostly have to put some makeup on Gregory which can be quite a challenge… (he just can’t moving by how ticklish he is- 😅) Vanessa wasn’t much of a problem though!

Luckily, you’re not the only make-up artist in the studio, since you also have to paint a lot of service robots’ faces to make a scary effect. (Like those robots that look like they have creepy, wide smiles and black dripping eyes).

Besides that, you don’t get very busy, so it gives an advantage to the sun and moon animatronics to spend time with you during their breaks.

As an excuse to be with you, Sun would intentionally dirties his face with glitter glue and crayons and state that his orange, pointy parts of his head(I think they’re called the “corona”) are needed to be polished.

Sun likes to give you surprise hugs after filming, and offers to spend lunch time with him. (He may not be able to eat, but insists to offer you snacks and provide you great company,,,, 🥺)

Moon wouldn’t do a lot of excuses, but he would often try to sneak out of his resting space and spook you from behind-

Or watching you work from the ceiling….-

When Moon feels nice enough, he’ll bring your favorite drink from the studio’s cafe for staff,,,

[cloudyevaa]

— warning!!! spoilers for the 2.1 genshin impact archon quest, and a lot of disappointment up ahead. also disclaimer: i am not by any means qualified to give this criticism lol this is just my take and my opinion on the quest's execution, and i need a place to rant.

I can't be the only one who feels very conflicted about the 2.1 archon quest, right??

I think one of the appeals of inazuma's main story was the fact that there was a war, an ongoing conflict between a nation and its deity - the fact that the archons' moralities are not so black and white as we'd thought is hammered home by the dictating reign of the raiden shogun, in contrast to both rex lapis and barbatos, who have directly aided the traveller in their previous endeavours.

the 2.1 archon quest, though?? it feels as if ei is played off to just be a lonely and misunderstood deity, and she so easily changes after... what? yae miko visits her in her realm of euthymia? the shogun knew of the repercussions of the vision hunt decree, the tenryou commission's involvement with the fatui, and even the civil war.

so why was the plot building up to the reveal that the raiden shogun may have just been mislead by false commission reports? what difference does it make that both the tenryou and kanjirou commissions have betrayed the shogun if she already knew they colluded with the fatui?

I hold nothing against ei's character — in fact, I love the way her ideals seem perfect on paper, but works in detriment to the very people she wants to protect. I love that she struggles to understand how eternity is not stagnation, and that growth is the only thing that will stay forever unchanging, because all moments are fleeting, and all life ends.

but mihoyo makes it extremely hard for me to enjoy her story completely when all we do is fight her and rely on the power of friendship vision bearers' ambitions to change her mind about the vision hunt decree. like, ,, what gives?? everything happened so quickly, how could she so easily throw away the ideals she's been so adamantly holding onto for decades?

I haven't done her story quest, but it looks like she's not even being taken accountable for being the spearhead in a literal civil war. all those vision bearers who lost their lives ( including kazuha's friend ), all the common people she has harmed because of her tunnel vision - she lifts the vision hunt decree and she is suddenly absolved? of course, I don't want a perfect morally good character, but at the very least mihoyo can show us that she is not so perfect so as to suddenly change her mind about the vision hunt decree and sporadically feel compassion for the very people she knows she has harmed.

I'm sure people are also really shocked about signora's death - I am too. I was never a fan of signora but her presence was always filled with mystery, intrigue, and an impending sense of doom. she was that antagonist - beautiful, hauntingly cruel, and jam-packed with unknown backstory ( as seen with the crimson witch and pale flame artifact set lore ) that I thought was going to be further explored on future quests. but?? she??? just???? dies???? and for what?

I don't mind if she dies ( in fact, I would like for an opportunity to use traveller to execute her myself ), but the fact that her death brings no substance to the overarching story, especially since scaramouche just. got the gnosis from yae miko. like, mihoyo can do signora MUCH better than this. she deserves a glorious death as a fleshed-out antagonist, yet I felt nothing for her, not even the slightest bit of satisfaction, when she disappeared into ashes.

and scaramouche. I like the guy, he's funny-looking, and kind of sadistic. the fact that he was appearing in inazuma was a welcome surprise. it made sense, considering he was confirmed to be from inazuma, and there were theories about he and the shogun's similar appearamces which I eagerly consumed. but he appears for like, 3 minutes, and then we're KNOCKED OUT???? seriously???????

when yae miko suddenly appeared I actually thought she'd betrayed us and was working with the fatui. but then she wakes us up, tells us nothing about the SINGLE MOST important exchange in the whole quest until AFTER the main conflict is resolved, and just dumps scaramouche's identity on us as a SIDE COMMENT. what is this tomfoolery??? we weren't even there to see it? at least give us a cutscene explaining what went down, because this was LITERALLY one of the most important parts of the entire archon quest, and one of the recurring goals of the traveller.

also, can we talk about the resistance? oh wait a minute, we can't, because they literally did nothing. absolutely nothing. they contributed a total of 0 times the whole quest. only teppei was a memorable figure, and he had more lore than the upcoming 5-star master strategist of the whole army; kokomi.

as a person who loves kokomi, i am devastated by the lack of actual role she holds within the plot. she is a famed strategist and the only reason the resistance has been holding out for so long, as kujou sara said herself. but she's not given so much as a 30-second fight scene, and we never see her cunning wits on the battlefield - we probably never will. why, you may ask? well, because the freaking war is OVER. because baal just decided to stop the vision hunt decree.

i sincerely hope there will be more substantial kokomi content during her banner where we get to see her shine, seeing as it seems that mihoyo is already nerfing her abilities and focusing their efforts into promoting ei instead.

however, seeing as the main inazuma conflict ( the vision hunt decree ) is already over and dealt with... what the frick is kokomi supposed to bring to the table??? 😃 the one character i feel that shone throughout the quest was kujou sara, who had actually had a set-up for potential character development from the previous patch. but even then she's rendered unconscious by signora in front of the archon she is the loyal right-hand of??? like y'all pls tell me I'm not dreaming.

I loved the graphics, the concept, the lore - but the execution fell flat and felt terribly rushed. I wonder if it's because mihoyo is very insistent on hyper-fixating upon the raiden shogun this update.

anyway, that was a long tangent lmao. if you enjoyed the quest, good for you!! I enjoyed it, too; but my enjoyment is far overshadowed by the glaring issues that i had with it. i'd love to hear other people's thoughts about the quest.

[flurrin]

My thoughts on Psychonauts 2:

The story is so beautifully influenced by Double Fine's growth over the time it took to get this game out into the world. The premise really shines through with so many perspectives to empathize with.

Raz has grown up. It's only been about three days, but all the loose ends left hanging in terms of his growth during the first game came back into play, sometimes HARSHLY, for the sequel. And it's not just him: Sasha stepped into his role as a mentor whenever Raz needed him, Ford laid his demons to rest and confronted the mistakes that led them here, even Loboto wants to be friends.

The writing is still hilarious. I cackled or shrieked so many times at so many different jokes--sometimes cutscenes, sometimes throwaway dialogue, sometimes the solution to a puzzle itself.

The mechanics are addictively fun. I will admit, some of the physics are different from the first game in a way I'm not fond of: Levitation has been nerfed severely, the momentum of swinging on a trapeze or pole has a heavier and more difficult feel to it, wall-jump makes it a little harder to detect which edges are low enough to grab, etc. But running or rolling around, double-jumping, and especially the new mechanics of mental connection, diving, and balancing on a ball feel amazing.

The mind levels blew me away every time. The sheer creativity, the motifs, how they read into a story so easily: they're brilliant and fun and colorful. It was awesome to see more of the real world, too, and I'm so excited to play post game.

I've been following the development of this game since its inception on fig. My name is in the credits. I could not be more proud of the product if I'd made it myself.

It's a good game. Play it.

[radramblog]

Halo 2 is the most Two

According to a semi-reliable source (TvTropes’s Halo/Funny subpage), Halo 2 was once described by a Bungie PR guy as, and I quote:

               “like Halo 1, only it's Halo 1 on fire, going 130 miles per hour through a hospital zone, being chased by helicopters and ninjas ... And, the ninjas are all on fire, too.”

2004 really was a special time, huh?

But I’d argue the thing that quote fails to mention is how much 2 is in Halo 2. Duality is a core theme of both the gameplay and story, and that’s something I’d like to highlight.

Not because it’s important. Because it’s fun.

Halo 2 is a game about two. Literally, in fact, as the story revolves around two protagonists, whom you switch back and forth between as the Campaign progresses. John-117, the Master Chief, hero of the first game, who spends 2’s opening moments being hailed for his achievements during the previous story. And Thel’ Vadamee, the Arbiter, background villain of the first game, who spends 2’s opening moments being publicly humiliated and tortured for his failures during the previous story.

This cutscene is very much intentional, it’s a cool parallel that sets up the twin stories of the game, but it far from ends there. Because Halo 2 is a sequel, it’s setting up a grander universe, one that began in the novels that released between the games. However, because the game is still a big-budget sequel to a smash-hit game effectively owned by one of the biggest companies on the planet, the game could never be as experimental or the story as interesting as the world suggested by said novels and lore.

So there’s a lot of twos. We see a second Halo ring in the second Halo game, which is confusingly named Delta Halo even though it’s the second one we see in the franchise. Also, it’s official Forerunner name is Installation 05, even though Delta is the fourth letter in the Greek alphabet, and the Halo from the first game was Installation 04…

Tangents aside. Twos. Ultimately the story is less two-ey than what I’ll get to in a bit, but there’s still some there. The second Halo comes with a second Monitor, and the first of the two Covenant Prophets that are encountered (and killed) over the story’s course. Two of Earth’s orbital defense platforms are obliterated in the first level, uhhh, two new major Human characters are introduced (Lord Hood and Miranda Keyes) along with two named Sangheili (Both the Arbiter and Rtas ‘Vadumee, as the Heretic Leader isn’t given a name in the game proper). There’s like, two real boss fights? I guess? Regret doesn’t fucking count.

I think I’m kinda grasping at straws so I’ll move into the gameplay, because boy howdy there’s where the twos really come in. While Halo featured both Human and Covenant weapons, Halo 2 was the game that defined them as two clear opposed factions- much like in a Strategy game, each has equivalent items to each other. The Battle Rifle and Covenant Carbine are both new weapons that add a mid-range option for each faction, as well as making up for the severe nerf to the Magnum. It’s now effectively paired as a sidearm with the Plasma Pistol, their deadliness largely confined to one half each of the Shields/Health divide the game uses for Multiplayer. The SMG replaces the Assault Rifle to better mirror the Covenant Plasma Rifle, and the Beam Rifle is introduced as the Covenant variant Sniper Rifle. The Energy Sword and Fuel Rod Gun are both now actually playable, serving as counterparts to the Shotgun and Rocket Launcher respectively. You get the idea. This somewhat carries over to the Vehicles, with the Covenant Spectre being introduced as a counterpart to the Warthog, though that’s the only new vehicle off the top of my head. Yknow, because I’m talking out my ass.

Oh, also this is the game where they put in dual wielding guns.

The campaign progression is also fond of its twos, if you ignore the first level. Two cutscenes (or, a cutscene and a tutorial+in-engine-cutscene+cutscene), the one we’re ignoring, Two Chief levels, Two Arbiter levels, Two Chief, Two Arbiter, then we actually alternate. Twice. Because why not.

Late into the game, however, there is somewhat of a shift in this dual natured game. The Great Schism occurs in the plotline, as the Covenant Civil War begins, and a second Covenant faction breaks off after having been betrayed by its leadership. There is, in fact, a third Prophet in the form of Truth, who survives the game (but not the sequel). There is also arguably a third protagonist for this extra faction, but not one we get to play as- the game’s final boss, Tartarus, leader of the Brutes, and head of the Covenant military once the Schism occurs. This third faction adds a new weapon, the Brute Shot, the sole weapon in the game not in the style of the gunmetal-black UNSC or the typically colourful and gleaming Covenant armoury- the Brute Shot’s dull muddied grays and browns and wicked bayonet a reflection of its wielder’s personality. The two story paths of Halo 2 run alongside each other before meeting and splitting off following the dramatic introduction of the Gravemind.

This is a reflection of the true nature of Halo 2, as the final product strayed farther from the initial vision than many are aware of. There’s a little known fact these days that the Halo trilogy wasn’t meant to be a trilogy, with 2’s planned story extending into what would become the majority of the third game. 2 was supposed to end at the Ark, with the death of Truth, with the revelation of the truth of the Forerunners and the end of the war.

But things change. Halo 2 spent a lot of time in development on an engine that wasn’t practical for the game they were trying to make, so much of the time was wasted. Add in a hastened Christmas release date, and you get the abrupt finale and cliffhanger that is Halo 2’s story. This isn’t to say that the game is bad, far from it, but it had potential to be so much better. Like the endgame of its plot, Halo 2 could have also been Halo 3.

I’m going to be honest, I thought I had a lot more tangible points to hang on to when I started writing this than I actually did. Much like my last Halo-related post, there’s a lot of grasping and chasing shadows in this. Maybe next time I should just talk about why I like these games or something instead, that’s a lot easier.

Anyway does anyone wanna come play Firefight with me please do it’s been so long since I’ve done that with anyone other than internet randos

[ask-magala]

Thoughts on MH Stories 2 demo

tl;dr - I found the combat system to be alot better than Stories 1, I have a few qualms about the story but I wasn’t expecting a stellar story from this series (although it is better than the story in stories 1)

Putting full thoughts in spoiler dropdown (sorry its pretty long)

- The battle system is SIGNIFICANTLY BETTER than in Stories 1. It feels more polished and balanced, fights are faster and more epic. 

- They nerfed but also simplified Hunting Horn D: 

- No wyverian gibberish!?!? D:

- I like how they are making it super clear that this is a different universe of Monster Hunter from the main series. The trailers have over and over again said that these two are different universes. (so please dont try to connect the lore...) I do wonder if this is why theres no MH gibberish this time around?? On a side note, I found the voice acting in English to be very solid. 

- Gotta wonder why Navirou isnt with your protag from Stories 1 this time around, they’ll probably explain it later

- Wyverians like cheek squishing - thats cute

- Ena has no sense of personal space

- BABY MONSTIES I WANT EM ALL

- I wonder if The Numbers will return to this game, they needed more story imo

- I wonder if special rathalos in this series are gonna just be called Ratha :/ It almost feels like they are just using the word Ratha like its a different species of Rathalos altogether (like a variant) hence why we have our Ratha in stories 1 (a Ratha with a black blight scar) Razewing Ratha (with the wings of ruin), and Guardian Ratha - maybe its because all of these Rathas are monsties? Also why even give them the differentiation lol (maybe its for the merch). Based on how the term “Ratha” is used in the game, it feels like they are referring to it both as its own species and as a nickname, so who knows?

- When the rathalos flew away in the beginning of the game did monsties fly away too? Did our Ratha from stories 1 fly away with them?

- The wyverians get a special kinship stone :o I don’t think Red’s kinship stone is the same as in stories 1 and its super clear that Red is not the protag from Stories 1 

- Wyverians are digitgrade confirmed - though this is a different world/universe after all :V

- My only major issue with the demo = I think the beginning section of the game could have been better. Instead of starting with the hunters looking for Ena and Guardian Ratha, I think it should have set up the village and you getting your first monstie and seeing the village prepare to meet the hunters AND THEN have the party where the riders meet the monsters (we then get introduced to Kyle and Tsukino here) the riders get into about G. Ratha’s location and then they break into the den which causes the thing to happen. The location of G Ratha’s den is so close to the village which makes me wonder where the hell was Kyle and his dad the whole time during the demo?? Also placing the cutscene to me weakens the urgency. It kinda feels like “oh the ocean turned red? who cares! go get your first monstie first!” They do eventually tie everything back together but to me it feels like ok you amped me up -to- ok time to grind for stuff and get eggs. The story is shaping out to be very interesting and solid but the pacing in the beginning just feels wonky to me (kinda like how stories 1 started and ended with the whole black blight plot but the middle was like ???)

[rubyredsundae]

Mass Effect Trilogy Tag!

I was not tagged by anyone, I just really wanted to join in. If you see this and want to as well, please do! I've been loving reading through everyone's :)

I am a fan since… 2011ish? Definitely at least a year before ME3 came out. I remember watching my brother play ME2 and thinking it was so cool. While he was away it was a huge comfort for me to play it in his room, kind of like a bonding or cathartic experience for someone who wasn't there at the time.

When ME3 came out, me and him went to the midnight release at a gamestop like 40 minutes away or something, wearing clothes we threw together to kind of fit the N7 color scheme. Even though we don't talk anymore, those memories are still really precious to me. Also, the nostalgia of playing ME1 after-school or on the weekend, running to get my easy mac from the microwave during a cutscene, stuffing too hot mouthfuls while speeding the Mako towards the conduit on Ilos.

Favorite game of the series: It's a tough call between ME1 and ME2, but I'd say ME2. It's the game I get the urge to replay the most.

MaleShep or FemShep? Femshep all the way. I only play MShep when I want to do his exclusive romances. No offense to BroShep, but ME was the first game I ever played that let me not just be a girl, but customizable. Not just to be the already generated token girl character in a pack of boys. And not only can you play Femshep, but every game you are surrounded by smart, funny, tough women as squadmates. It was such a huge deal to me, and still is. Femshep represents so much. As Jennifer Hale put it, FemShep was a military grade boot to the video game industry glass ceiling.

Earthborn, Colonist or Spacer? I personally tend to lean spacer in-game, but I tend to use Earthborn when I'm writing fics.

Paragon or Renegade? Usually Paragon, but Renegade playthroughs can be really interesting, especially if I have a detailed background about why Shep is the way they are. My first Renegade, Krystle, is pretty bigoted and anti-alien until she meets Liara. Krystle is naturally guarded and quick to anger, so meeting someone who seemed to accept her and listen to her without judgment really opens her mind.

By the 2nd game, she wakes up in the cerberus lab with new biotic powers, having previously been a regular foot soldier. This makes her seeth, having someone completely take her agency, agreeing with the illusive man on the surface but plotting against him the entire time. She starts to lean more Paragon, if only to piss him off. She has the biggest smirk on her face when she blows up the collector base.

Biotics or Tech? Oooh, this is hard. Maybe biotics just the tiniest smidge because of Jack/Samara biotic bubble throw during the suicide mission. I don't know if we'll ever get a screen adaptation but THAT is a moment I would pay to see done with a big SFX budget behind it.

Favorite class: Sentinel! I don't know how much this reflects on my class preference in gaming in general, but I love the 'jack of all trades'ness of it. By the time I get an assault rifle, I don't really feel the need for anyone else to make up for something I lack. Also, tech armor in ME2? Where your shields regenerate automatically when it breaks, and the cool down is when you initially active it, instead of when you detonate it? Chef's kiss. I understand why it was nerfed in 3 but I'm still mad.

Favorite companion: Ho boy. This is obviously very difficult to choose but I'm gonna say Miranda. I've always loved and identified with her character, I love the accent, and she's always useful on missions. I was so happy when I learned she could be a squadmate in the armax arena.

Honorable mention to Ashley in ME1. Her character is rarely used to exposition lore, so she just gets to have her personality fleshed out. I don't always agree with her but she does seem genuinely willing to listen. ME3 tosses her out the airlock though; partially because her content was bugged and never restored, leaving her inclusion feel half-baked, and partly because Ash and Kaidan have to be able to serve the same plot function as each other and it negatively affects her character more than his. This could also be intentional on bioware's part, to try to flesh out kaidan's personality and tone down Ashley's as a response to criticisms of them from ME1.

Least favorite companion: Also difficult, because I don't really hate anyone as much as I am just less interested in some. I didn't like Zaeed for a long time, but I think he's much better and really funny in ME3. James was pushed on me too much at the beginning and it made me really dislike him, but I think he's greatly improved and also pretty funny in Citadel DLC. I'm also pretty indifferent to Jacob; I don't think he's a bad character, just disappointing because there was a lot of potential.

Not that every character has to go on and do some grand quest to be interesting, but I don't feel like Jacob every really got a big hero moment like everyone else. He is a very calm and introverted person (imo) who doesn't really share his feelings, so it's always been hard for to to connect with him on anything.

My squad selection: Depends on the game, but it usually involves Garrus lol. Typically it's Liara/Garrus in ME1, Miranda/Garrus for ME2, and Liara/Garrus again in ME3. I am very boring and predictable! If you have any suggestions for me to try out and mix things up, let me know!

Favorite in-game romance: Also depends on the game. ME1 it's Liara, hands down. It was the first game, really the first piece of media, where I was told two women could fall in love and be happy and that was okay. The amount of enlightenment and comfort in figuring out that I was bi these games brought me is kind of wild to look back on.

ME2 is a toss-up between Garrus and Thane. They are both wonderful but in completely different ways. I tend to now romance Thane on characters I don't plan on importing to ME3, or if I do, to just have a really depressed fucking Shepard lol. I hate how much Thane was brushed off, especially if you romanced him.

Other pairings I like: l love Miranda so much, but I'm a gay girl so I ship her and Femshep. Same goes for Tali, Jack, Ashley... damn I'm just really gay for straight girls huh :/

I don't really have any other ships for non-Shep related pairings.

Favorite NPC: Shiala is really cool to me, I wish we got to see her in 3. Emily Wong is also cool, also wish we saw her in 3. There's probably a lot more that when I come across them next I'll be like, "you! I love you! You're my favorite."

Oh also Joker! And EDI! But not together. Idk I feel like ME3 threw a curveball at me with "do you support organic/non-organic relationships?" Like m'am please don't ask me, I accidentally drank turian liquor last year, I'm not qualified to be an expert on this.

Favorite antagonist: Tbh I really dig Saren. I think his reasoning is super fascinating, both to set up how someone who's indoctrinated can rationalize to themselves that they are still in control; and as a foil to Shepard, to show what can happen when you become too isolated and the ends justify the means. I think his VA does a great job of walking the line between desperate survivor and madman. He's also the only antagonist in the trilogy that we ever fight 1 on 1 (ignoring squadmates) and it feels more personal. I think he's such a fantastic foe for the first entry in a trilogy and I don't think he gets enough credit.

Favorite mission: Is it cliche to say the suicide mission? It's honestly close to perfect. The stakes, the sequencing, the cinematics, the score. Everything works so well.

Favorite loyalty mission: Kasumi's and Tali's are really cool, as we all know. Samara's is also cool because it is entirely non-combat based. Shepard has to prove they can accomplish what seems impossible without a gun or biotics.

The confrontation at the end with Morinth always haunts me a little, because they are both right in their own way. Morinth's final line, "and they say I'm the monster", as you let Samara kill her, watch her scrambling backwards in fear... I know that she's a remorseless killer, but it gets me every time.

Favorite DLC: It's Citadel, obviously. Turns out what I really wanted was quality time and a party with all my friends. I love mass effect for many reasons, but simulating friends and affection when I had none has always made me bond to this series like other games don't. Is it sad? Sure! But I don't think love and affection for fictional characters should ever be shameful until it makes you hurt other people.

Control, Synthesis or Destroy? I'd say destroy. If the other options were presented earlier and we had time to stew with it, maybe I'd be more split. But all of this in 5 minutes? It's not like the collector base where the implications are obvious and the choice is just down to what Shepard believes. The 3 choices all seem like space magic out of nowhere, and none of them seem to really offer any insight on what Shepard should believe. So I say destroy, just because it's what Shep has intended and is most consistent with their character and their admiration of Anderson.

Favorite weapon: The spectre level assault rifle in ME1. Never have I felt more powerful.

Favorite place: Idk why but I just thought of the creepy lab with all the scientists during the leviathan DLC. I really love when Mass Effect leans into the Lovecraftian horror aspect of things. Talking to Sovereign and Vigil in ME1 gave me goosebumps my first few playthroughs.

A quote I like: I have hundreds, but the one off the top of my head is, "After time adrift among open stars, along tides of light and through shoals of dust, I will return to where I began." I have a poster of it up on my wall right now!

[didsomeonesayventus]

okay long time spending in gestation but I imagine that someone out of the followers I have wants to know my onion on KH3 is 

Overall, good!

so consider wordbarf of very repeated and tired onions no one actually actively asked for below:

Alright so I’ve been trying to figure out how to make these words and what my opinions even are considering this game has been out for almost a year now (KH3 existing is wild imagine it turning a year old) so this will be. mostly bullet points + incoherent and unorganized rambling forgive me

BAD THINGS FIRST lets get the salt out of the way

Literally everything with Kairi was oof. I still feel her relationship with Lea is incredibly rushed given the last time they were interacting in canon he was literally kidnapping her but go off I guess nomura they’re brother/sister friendsy now at least the fandom can sell me on that better than you can. I seethe with rage recalling that they didn’t even try to hide that killing her off was a classic case of fridging (“You lack motivation” FUCK OFF) and I have been angry since the day I was spoiled by leak stuff accidentally. I wouldn’t have minded her getting her ass handed to her if they made it look like she tried and gave us some moments where she did defend herself and get some victories and not conveniently cut away from the actually badly needed training montage (surprise! this is why we have training montages!!!!) and I get she was instrumental in rescuing everyone and the fact she wasn’t THAT bad speaks for how much she improved but it still just. bites that she still feels more like a satellite love interest than ever. 

Kairi was bad enough to get her own thing but tbh everyone who isn’t Sora also.. really suffers. The writing is really Sora-centric here and that’s not inherently bad (see good list) but it leaves a lot to be desired, especially since they dog pile the extended cast moments in at the end. There was no big confusion at Ven and Roxas sharing a face, no talks between characters who would have interesting interactions given their histories and circumstances, no obvious sign of development from anyone except maybe sea salt family and Aqua. They’re here to be more one-note than usual and resolve their arcs. Ven in particular (I’m totally not biased clearly /sarcasm) I feel is a big example given he was kinda in a really rough mental state at the end of bbs?? and 3 is exceptionally vague on just how conscious ventus was during his nap so I can’t even answer if he was able to give himself therapy the past 12 years or whatever

Anti Aqua is a damn cool concept but ultimately kinda pointless and I think we could have received it better if it wasn’t spoiled in trailers and wholly out of left field. Plus Sora coming in after what was pretty clearly set up as a Riku moment- while it gave us the incredibly gay press triangle to Sora + use a big keyblade made from ur love moment -was uh! really cheap!!!! and ruined what was clearly set up for being Riku’s thing with an almost nonsensical SIKE ITS SORA (it’s saved from being wholly nonsensical by 0.2′s opening foreshadowing + it still kinda makes sense for sora to at least help but damn if the narrative wasn’t leading us towards a riku moment)

Also everyone was hit really hard with the nerf effect in-narrative so unless you’re the dream team you’re screwed I guess and that. doesn’t quite work since it makes everyone else look... not great. And I think this is kinda a miscommunication on part of Nomura and the fans (IM MAKING ASSUMPTIONS TAKE WITH SALT) in that we kept saying we wanted people “saved” but meant having their arcs resolved in a reasonable way that preserved their agency and power and relationships, but got interpreted literally as “alright Sora comes in and solves every problem, is tough on stains, and makes julienne fries”

And yet there’s also a lot of mean spirited “oh no sora’s dumb and helpless w/out a second braincell” which was kinda funny the first couple times and I failed to pick up on it first go I’ll admit, but honestly? Yeah. they pick on sora too much. Donald and Goofy are the most guilty, and everyone else by virtue of not seeing Sora that much actually in-narrative are off the hook from me because they probably didn’t know how much teasing he’d been getting from his pals, but it felt kinda like they didn’t know what to fall back on between the three besides “oh donald and goofy pick on sora” which is cute once or twice but the amount he gets and how it clearly leads to his breakdown at the end is uhHHHHhhhHH hm.

As always the pacing is pretty awful where the disney worlds are somewhat relevant at best and then the end is 0-1000 but that is a usual KH gripe so its pretty low on the bar

Attraction flow is cute and neat at first but it gets.. really wearing towards the end and in the serious fights at the Keyblade Graveyard BOY are they a mood breaker

the “repeat the plot” worlds- Tangled, Frozen, Pirates -REALLY stick out like a sore, ugly thumb compared to the worlds that went out and did their own creative thing, and Big Hero 6 was.. cute? but kinda maybe too much of a breather.

Frozen also get an extra award for “Audio mixer most in need of firing!” because who the hell allowed the do you want to build a snowman scene.

They did nothing with Scala and I want a refund on that aesthetic if they’re not gonna do anything besides a framing device with it

HEY WAIT THERE WAS GOOD THINGS TOO!

Good news point that may or may not come to pass: Re:Mind DLC might fix some of the above salt! We shall see and probably know by the time this post is a year old sfjhdsakjgh

SORA! Sora was actually a character again!!!! holy cow they pulled up from the utter nose dive that was DDD!! god i love this dork and it was really fantastic to see him back to normal.

The graphical upgrade lost a lot of the squish and stretch that the OG graphics had but you know what? pretty. tastey. good graphics and better at doing more subtle emotions and hey have i mentioned Pirate’s glow up? Pirate’s glow up. The details in Olympus to recreate the swirly aesthetic of the clouds and explosions and lava is a great touch.

Worlds as far as levels go?? really good! They feel legitimately like worlds and explorable and with their own flavors and I LOVE battle and field themes x2 its really great I’m down for less worlds if they keep the quality. Hell we have NPCs!! maybe even too many npcs.

Writing OVER ALL/ON AVERAGE I’d say has improved a lot! It’s still not a literary masterpiece or anything but I found the disney worlds really cute and easier to get invested in even if long term they were less relevant than I hoped they would be. In every world there was at least one scene I found myself actually invested in. Like there was something to the writing that was legitimately more endearing than usual on average, and toy box and monstropolis were strong contenders for really good overall imo

honestly there were moments that- as moments -were incredible. Wayfinder reunion scene will haunt me, and Sea salt’s was good too, final world and rescuing everyone was jaw dropping, getting the LoD Back was also good, Union X, Xigbar exiting left stage pursued by a bear, wayfinder trio making a grave for eraqus, all the gummi ship scenes had great chemistry, beach party ending, hanging out with rapunzel for the first half of Corona is adorable as hell, all the nods to scenes in the movies, the easter eggs, like the game is not consistently amazing but it is peppered with stuff that I feel in a bubble ignoring surrounding context just work really really well

Damn if the end boss rush wasn’t thrilling as hell and honestly??? really good. Hard to parse out first flush but I think this was a good decision and added a lot of blood roaring urgency and wild turns, and even if I want to overhaul a number of things about the endgame I think this can definitely stay

Kingstagram is a beautiful gift man

OST? A fucking banger all around and I love how they’ve made cutscene-specific tracks that play with the leitmotifs throughout KH’s illustrious musical history

Over all there’s some really glaring issues, but overall it’s KH really at its best. I’m not sure if it’s my favorite entry and I’m still really mixed + befuddled on just how exactly I feel and I think a lot of that is I had pretty high expectations and my own ideas of how it would play out since like. 2012. it’s really hard to detach from those feelings and ideas sometimes. But KH3 wasn’t bad! It could’ve really been worse, and the fact that it got out the door in the state that it was is a good deal

now here’s to the wait for Re:Mind and to see if it’s basically the content we’d get in Final Mix that could definitely bump up my opinion