#her journey in my playthrough is FUCKING ME UP

[blazing-spectre]

Considering how bad Serval wants to follow the Emperor to the end of the world and beyond, I never in a million years would have thought he’d give the opportunity to go full ilithid to Karlach instead but here we are. O_O I don’t know what the FUCK I’ve done, but she seems happy at least.

[royaltea000]

You know you’re gone when you start playing dress up doll with a character :/

[bluebelledmoon]

EXCUSE ME WHAT THE FUCK I JUST REALIZED SOMETHING ABOUT MIDNA

as you’re trying to get the second fused shadow as a wolf in kakariko and you blow up the bomb shed trying to get out the dark insects, Midna will leave you in the fire to find a way out on your own.

but in the journey to Lanayru when you make your way across the Bridge of Hylia only to become trapped in the fire and the only thing you can do is jump off, Midna stays with you. She stays on your back with you when she could just fly away and instead makes the jump with you all the way into lake hylia.

the tiny details of her growing attached to Link are actually insane. in all of the times in the past 6 years of playing through and watching playthroughs again and again i only now notice these. the subtlety is blowing my mind

[alwaysahiccupandastrid]

Just finished watching the FNAF movie (hooray for early UK release!) and I unironically loved it. Some things I want to mention…

Spoilers under the cut!

MATTHEW LILLARD AS WILLIAM AFTON 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

JOSH HUTCHINSON AS MIKE SCHMIDT 👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻

Honestly me just losing my fucking shit whenever there was a reference to the lore/games?!?! Like I was SO excited it was unreal

THE TOREADOR MARCH?!? FOXY SINGING?!? BALLOON BOY?!?! VANESSA?!? THE FREDDY LAUGH?!? THE “IT’S ME” WRITTEN ON THE MIRROR?!?

Not gory at all tbh like there’s a couple of scenes involving blood but most of the kills cut away before showing anything (there WAS a scene where Freddy chomped someone’s torso in half but you only see her bottom half afterwards, like the bite happens in the shadows)

There were, in fact, five nights at Freddy’s (and one day) (yes I counted lol) and absolutely nothing of particular scariness happened on Nights 1 or 2, Night 3 was cute, Night 4 started off cute but got sad and then Night 5 was kind of terrifying, kind of funny, kind of fucking awesome and filled with lore

They definitely missed a trick by not mentioning the Bite of ‘87 (or ‘83? Idk) or Golden Freddy but I know there MIGHT be a sequel so… 👀

I spent the whole of the movie trying to figure out who the fifth child/animatronic was 💀 like obviously Freddy, Chica, Bonnie and Foxy… was the fifth one the fucking cupcake?!?!

The cupcake was kinda goofy but I loved it all the same

The animatronics went from villains to not villains to villains to not villains again like what a journey

Look most of my FNAF knowledge admittedly comes from watching Markiplier and JackSepticEye playthroughs but since when was Vanessa William Afton’s daughter?!? Also is Vanessa THE Vanny???

Going into soft play with the pre schoolers at work is NOT going to be the same after this film 💀

Literally all of the people in the cinema freaked out when Springtrap appeared oh my god

We have come SO FAR since the SFM fanmade videos of William Afton in the Springtrap suit getting springlocked and dying surrounded by the ghost children in the animatronics like holy shIT?!?!

“I always come back” - cue the 20 people at the 10:50am showing I was in absolutely losing their fucking shit

In the sequel (if there’s a sequel) I DEMAND more Matthew Lillard as William Afton/Springtrap like yeah he’s dead but FLASHBACKS!!!! Prequels?!? So much potential there. What I’m trying to say is that we deserved more of him, he was amazing but only there at the beginning and the very end, that’s my top complaint tbh

Not that scary to be honest but there’s some jump scares

I will say this, it definitely felt VERY campy at times, like there were moments involving murderous animatronics where we were all giggling in the cinema

Abby (Abi?) was VERY cute and sweet but also I wanted to shake her like you fucking idiot why are you going up to the scary ass animatronics?!? Stay in the office with your sleeping brother

The fact Mike still has custody of his sister after their aunt was presumably murdered in his home is not adding up but hey ho 😂

Is it the best movie ever made? No, but it was enjoyable for me so I call it a win

If anyone has any questions or wants to talk about it, feel free to hit me up, I won’t be able to reply until just over 4 hours time though as I’m about to head into nursery and do a shift so… yep!

[vole-mon-amour]

"Ahem, is it too late to ask for a second chance?"

"Okay, but as far as the second chances go, this is your last one. I refuse to be that naive."

"Johnny Silverhand, relentless rockerboy who refuses to give up."

"V, first among suckers."

What I learned is that, if throughout your journey you try to be only nice with Johnny and act like you forgive him anything and don't try to hold him accountable, you miss A LOT of his answers and banter.

And while I understand people that try to be nice with him (hell, that's usually me and I completely missed on the secret ending on my first blind playthrough), I've been exploring the answers and it's so curious to see that pattern. You get to learn a lot about Johnny and his personality if you push him just a little bit. I find the answers that he gives V before their first talk with Alt VERY interesting. "You're just as bad as her, why can't you drop it?"

He's annoyed, he seems to be truly believe that he was right for acting that way with Alt (something along the line of "she could've just left, but she just had to bust my balls"). Or maybe he still tried to build up a wall because he feels so uncomfortable about that, but deep down he knows it was wrong of him. He even wants to talk to Rogue alone and asks her if "me and you, we're okay?"

So he KNOWS he's guilty in a way.

I absolutely agree that by pushing him and holding him accountable, you push him to be more self-aware and make that character development. Of course, if you're being a dick to him, he won't listen to you, so what V and Johnny have is truly a relationship (even though I ship them, I mean it in a platonic way in this example). Something like, "You're my friend & your behavior hurts me. If you want to keep me as your friend, you have to be better and you have to DO better."

Then you let Johnny have V's body, you push him out into the real world to make his own choices while he's still scared he'll fuck it up, and his first steps are truly to stop drinking, smoking, and start acknowledging his own feelings and be more truthful with the world (the way Johnny talks to Steve and what he says to him about Kerry is a good example).

And, listen, he HIMSELF says he refuses to give up. As scared and crushed by grief as he is, I'm sure he finds a way to make it work and to feel better in the long run. Grief doesn't just go away, especially not so fast like Johnny wants it to (I've been there and I know how trying to apply logic to a situation where grief is involved just completely fails).

Johnny will, as people like to call it, do it scared and do it alone. But he WILL do it, which I'm sure, eventually, rewards him with the life he wants or at least he thinks he and V's body deserve. He will live with that reminder of he has to try—if not for himself, then for V. Then maybe he learns to love himself in that non toxic way and life gets better for him from there.

[little-buzz]

Guess who just wasted 2-3 hours playing DDLC on Roblox

I took a lot of screenshots through my journey, so you get to be in for the ride! This is just gonna be part 1 though because Tumblr only allows 30 pictures.

There is a lot to go through in this game. Let me know if you wanna see the rest of my shots‼️

I'm with the girlies but in Roblox!!

I'm kind of surprised the game let you actually write a poem. It doesn't actually affect anything though because there's an option after which lets you pick which girl you wanna hang with.

I obviously wanted Sayori 😌

I was looking around the classroom and accidentally unlocked a part of Yuri's route! I needed to find The Portrait of Markov and read through a bit of the book. I thought it was interesting how the developer visually interpreted the novel.

Natsuki called out Yuri about her boobs (which were hilariously censored). Because Roblox is a game for kids, the developer switched parts of the narrative to make it more "family friendly".

Natsuki and Yuri’s fight turned into... a boxing match?!

This was the funniest part of the game for me. I'm sure a boxing match AU exists... somewhere. I laughed out loud because it was so fucking absurd.

Then somehow I get roped into it and joined the fight?? Sayori would never canonically say that, but I think it's funny as hell.

I don't think women have ever bombarded me like this before in my life. Also ignore my health bar I got hit more because I had to take these screenies.

WHERE THE HELL ARE YURI'S CLOTHES?? DEVELOPERS FIX THIS PLEASE 😭😭

Anyway I won, score one for the trans guy 😎

Aww Sayori is so stinking cute 🥹

I like it when Sayori said revolution instead of retribution. Love it when Yuri corrects her afterwards.

Noo Sayori, don’t go home :( You're too cute to let your depression get the better of you.

MC has never stated truer facts. I'm simply just a guy who beat up two women in a boxing match

This is my favorite Natsuki poem! I know it's speculated it's about Yuri and her sh, but is that actually confirmed?? I wonder if she showed her poem to Yuri... I'd assume so because the whole point of this activity is to share poems...

CLASSIC ROBLOX MAKING ME DO AN OBBY 🥲 I love this was the replacement instead of the closet cutscene w/ Natsuki.

I'm spitting facts in this poem y'all.

Her body type :( I wish the girls had different body types in the actual game. I get why Salvato didn’t, because he was masking the game as a classic visual novel. Yuri always gave me chubby vibes, though.

I miss Sayori!! Someone finally addresses Sayori's absence. She's the glue that holds the club together 🥰

This is it for now! I was kind of bored because not a lot changed in this Roblox adaptation. I understand that was the point, but I liked a few of their minor changes. I wonder what DDLC plus would look like in Roblox...

I was surprised this even existed on Roblox. For the most part, the developers adapted the game to Roblox pretty well. They even have other endings of the game, but I only unlocked the normal ending.

Even though this was made in 2017, some people still play this!! There were 20-30 active players. This hasn’t been updated since 2021 either.

Let me know if you want me to continue posting more of my playthrough ♥️

[varantthedruid]

So,

Yesterday evening I went back to my very first Tav. A high elf Paladin of Vengeance Oathbreaker. And I gave Shadowheart to Viconia (on accident). Anyway, my thoughts on why someone would choose that and a headcanon I made up in bed afterwards under the cut.

We were at the House of Grief and she romanced a Selunite!Shadowheart (I kind of hate that we always talk about Selunite Shadowheart because she states at several points in the game that she isn't ready to just jump on the new goddess bandwagon and she is understandably vary of it but I get where it's coming from and in a kill parents playthrough she does try to figure out her roots and all that anyways).

I accidentally gave her to Viconia. And it fucking broke my heart but I wanted to see how it plays out and when I came back and she stood there and couldn't remember me or anything about the journey she just had, it was horrible. I F8 so hard.

And then some of the companion (or lack thereof) reactions.

I truly think this is one of the most evil endings you can choose for Shadowheart besides maybe freeing the parents and then killing them in front of her.

My imagination went kinda wild here and just...imagine you take your lover, with whom you shared so much of the little you know and have of yourself, with you to finally resolve years of trauma and face the cult that lied to you, wiped your memory and hurt you in many many ways only for them to decide: You can have her. It's the ultimate betrayal.

And Shadowheart gets dragged away, towards the Mirror, PASSING her parents knowing they are her parents and are getting tortured in some capacity and then gets forced to give up her memories and then potentially (I mean I am pretty sure Viconia is not just wiping her memory, I do think she gets severely punished for everything) being abused for something she doesn't remember.

I can't for the life of me figure out why ANYONE would do that since you'd probably lose your healer for just a call upon some Sharrans in the fight against the Elder brain. BUT:

I just had to headcanon that Shadowheart was part of a Sharran raid on my Paladins monastery and my Paladin broke her oath freeing SH from the pod and she basically took some time to remember what SH did. SH of course does not remember but we all know SH was never fully into Shar and had to be disciplined a lot for not being obedient so she probably did not enjoy what she did.

But the Paladin lost family there. And when she realised this was a moment of vengeance for her she swore to restore her oath. And while she did fall in love with SH and understood the immense abuse that happened, she lost everything herself. But she is also pragmatic and needs every help she can get in the fight against the Elder Brain. So she took her vengeance in the worst way possible.

But when she saw SH after in the cloister, she fully realized what she did and decided to live with that pain.

My HC went so far that later on Lae'Zel would start seeking out SH (who is basically nothing more than an errant girl for the cloister at this point) when she comes to visit from the Astral Plane. Because at that start they had a little enemies with benefits going on and Bae'Zel hated that they gave SH away and she never got over that guilt for not stopping what was happening.

Anyway, I have no idea about D'n'D or how Paladins and their Oaths work but yeah....

I would love to put this into an elaborate fan fic but I suck at this.

[kob131]

Lily Orchard and Pokemon: Gen 1

Because the only response to this video should not be a four hour react stream highlight reel.

So Lily Orchard made a retrospective video on Pokemon...9 months ago that has risen back into prominence due to a Youtuber making a video on it, criticizing it.

It's also, again, a four hour video that's just a highlight reel of him reacting in real time to the video. Personally, I can't stand this kind of video so...

Here's what I have to say.

<---------------------------------------------------------------------------->

"Gen 1 bashing is done without merit!"

Lily argues that people bashing Gen 1 are doing so without any kind of merit, pointing out people complaining lacking features, having bugs and not having story. This she counters by saying "Pokemon story bad."

... I know that sounds reductive but the reason why I am saying this is because A- I already know what Lily thinks about the story of the game she's hinting at (Gen 5) and I can tell you she's not putting very much thought into this and B- that same foreknowledge and the fact that one of images she's using to represent this is a meme basically mocking people for preaching about Gens 4/5. ... So knowing her, she's just doing this to be contrarian.

This is a problem in her video because in her introduction, the thesis statement of this whole essay she is writing: she states that the goal of this video is to look back at the games and judge them as they hold up. Yet here she is shrugging off VERY big issues that seriously date Gen 1 and make it age horribly, which should be a major factor in Lily's assessment...because at best, she's being contrarian.

... That is not a good idea.

"*Insert her recaping the journey of Gen 1*"

Yeah, this is why I decided to take on this task. I already know most of Lily's video is going to be her detailing her playthrough of the games. This means fuck all to me for the most part as an autist I already have clear memory of all these games even years away from playing them so I can skip most of her video.

But this does mean that unless you're familiar with how arguments are structured in Youtube videos, like me- you'll have to wade through Lily's crappy attempts at a comedic retelling of the games to know what she thinks. Which makes a fucking four and a half hour long video draaaaag.

"See? Gen 1 doesn't hold you by the hand and lets you just fuck off!"

The idea here being that Gen 1 is good because it doesn't hand hold the player. Issue is- This is the first Pokemon game. By all accounts, because this game is introducing a rather new take on an underexplored gameplay style, tutorials such as these shouldn't be optional. Especially since money is so limited early in the game so you can't easily get more Pokeballs after wasting your supply on experimentation.

Having a quick catching tutorial showing that you need to weaken a Pokemon before catching it could alleviate any confusion. Pokemon can only get away with this due to it being so easy. ... A flaw that is going to rear its ugly head later on. She also ignores why the tutorials are so quick in the earlier gens- the tutorials became longer because they were integrated into the story and used to demonstrate characters. If you don't have a story or proper characters then of course the tutorials will go by quick. It also means there's less to stimulate the brain to encourage people to keep playing.

Pokemon's gameplay, minus any discussions of difficulty, has never been the most engaging. Turn based gameplay's flaw is that's very static and slow, meaning most of the time the act of playing the game doesn't stimulate. This is usually subverted by fancy animations, challenge or, in Pokemon's case- entertaining characters and self expression. The extra length of the tutorials is a side effect of the game's compensating for their less stimulating gameplay.

"See, early game bug types aren't bad! Poketubers are wrong because my Butterfree never lost a battle!"

This kind of exposes another issue of Lily's- she doesn't know what the hell she's talking about.

She takes issue with people calling Pokemoen like Butterfree bad by brushing off their complaints of 'Butterfree has no STAB moves!' by pointing out coverage and status moves. But she completely ignores that people brush off Pokemon like Butterfree for having no STAB moves because, since you have 6 slots on your team, it's pretty easy to get a diverse team that can cover whatever Butterfree does but through STAB. Psychic moves? Alakazam or Hypno. Sleep moves? Hypno, Venomoth or even Parasect. Stun moves? Literally any Electric Type.

Then we have her overlooking another aspect of Pokemon: Base Stats. For those who don't know: Base stats are a set of numbers that dictate what number a Pokemon's given stats are. Things like IVs/Evs/DVs and Natures act as multiplers to a base stat. So as you could guess- a base stat is the building block of a Pokemon and dictate how it plays. Butterfree's base stats in Gen 1 are (HP/ATK/DEF/SP.ATK/SP.DEF/SPD) 60/40/50/80/80/70.

For reference, Charmeleon has 58/64/58/65/65/80. A non-fully evolved Pokemon has roughly similar stats to a fully evolved Pokemon. And this is all exasperated by how easy the game is, because Butterfree's status move pool? Largely inefficient because if you actually know what you are doing- you will be able to KO a Pokemon faster through simply attacking with a stronger Pokemon than disabling it then attacking. And most gamers will default to the most efficient solution. Hence Butterfree's status as a bad Pokemon.

"See, the game is trying to tell you how good status moves are by enforcing it through Brock and Bide!"

Yet another case of Lily not knowing what she's slathering about because A. The actual effects of status moves don't matter, just that they don't deal damage. A better case would be a leader that uses status moves to their advantage.

And B. Lily says that Bide I'd the perfect move for Onix. ... Bide, a move that deals damage based on the amount of HP lost, is perfect for 9nix, a low HP and high defense Pokemon...meant to lose as little HP as possible.

Lily literally posts Onix's stats to prove her point when said stats contradict her.

"Blue isn't a mean rival! He's just a friendly rival and gamers praise Bianca and Cheren just cuz they suck off the player!"

What the fuck, where did that Cheren/Bianca stuff cone from?

Okay first- Blue starts the game by going "Gramps! I'm fed up with waiting!" and "Heh, I don't need to be greedy like you! Go ahead and choose-" and "WHAT? Unbelievable! I picked the wrong Pokémon!"

Blue is quite clearly not intended to be friendly nor likeable.

Second- People like Cheren and Bianca because they go through arcs related to the themes of Gen 5, with Bianca's desire to travel leading her on a journey of self discovery (truth) and Cheren learning that his valuing if strength may have been wrong (ideals). Do they say tge player is great at battling? Yes...because from the story's perspective, you are going X-0. They're reacting to this fact instead of shrugging it off.

"Lavender Town has no value aside from creepypastas and showing how weak Ghosts are to Psychic in this gen! It isn't that creepy!"

... Uh, Lily? You didn't bring up how you can only identify the ghosts after beating Sliph Co, who are so scary you can't even fight them. Or how the trainers in the Pokemon Tower all act very weird, almost like they're possessed. Or that the Tower has a fucking purifying circle 8n the middle. Or...you know...bringing up the fact called DEATH in this very kid-friendly world.

You uh...you do know what a 'retrospective' is, right?

"The game expects you to face challenges in order despite being open world!"

Lily, the game is not open world. You are still going through strict paths with locked off sections. This comes with the implication that you will be facing challenges in a linear order. You not understanding what the game actually is does not make it bad.

"See? Butterfree isn't bad! It's my best Pokemon!"

Lily, these games can be beaten by a six year old. I beat them as a six year old.

That means nothing.

"Ugh, Sliph Co is soooo bad! It's the worst in the game because it's obtuse and you can just exit to heal up! Rock Tunnel is SOOO much better for being challenging!"

... Lily, Rock Tunnel is full of dead ends and unlike Sliph Co- YOU CAN'T AVOID ENCOUNTERS UNLESS YOU STOCK UP ON REPELS.

You can also exit Rock Tunnel to heal too. No, 'challenge yourself by not exiting' is not a justification. You're just not thinking.

'Psychic types are only strong in theory! Status moves exist so do neutral hits! Super Effective STAB isn't the only path!"

But they ARE the most efficient. And for the average gamer, efficiency is king.

"You can crumble Alakazam with physical hits without super Effective hits!"

*proceeds to spend her entire footage locked in a Fly V. Recover loop when a Butterfree STAB could solve this*

Also gotta love that she goes off about Alakazam not having the tools to deal with Physical attacks...as it uses a move to halve Physical damage (Reflect).

And finally- She is using Sabrina as her example. Who is operating off Gen 1's wonky AI and keeps using Psywave. In the hands of, you know, a real person or a better AI who understands basic elements of the game- Alakazam can easily wreck teams with hard hitting Psybeams. And Alakazam's poor Physical Defense doesn't matter here because it's SPEED makes it so it will hit first and managle a team before they can counterattack. This is where Lily's refusal to understand competitive bites her. THIS is the issue people have.

"Nobody likes going through Seaform Islands!"

Okay this is another issue with Lily's video here: She doesn't engage with content that isn't directly in her face. Later she'll talk about how she doesn't care about things like cut mechanics and that she's focusing on gameplay but part of Pokemon's gameplay and the reason people like it is the sense of discovery you get from exploring the game. Like say...finding one of a kind Pokemon that are relatively strong but are hidden away in sections that are optional (Moltres, Articuno, Zapados and even fucking MEWTWO).

Like...the fuck Lily? All you're doing is just making a truncated let's play by this point.

Side note; Some of Lily's jokes do land at times. Like her commentary on how Giovanni acts after being defeated. Though she does call him 'elderly' strangely enough.

Also I JUST caught some of Lily's gameplay footage. Her Primeape's moveset is Submission, Strength, Rock Slide and...Thunderbolt. She wasted her Thunderbolt TM on a Pokemon with rock bottom Special...when she had fucking Rock Slide.

This is the woman talking as if she knows the mechanics of the game.

"Gen 1 and 2 are so good because they allow for player freedom unlike later Gens like 3 and 4 where GF TELL YOU how to play instead of letting you play how you wish!"

Hey remember earlier when Lily talked about how the game was supposedly 'open world' but complained about how there was a strict recommended order based on the badge numbers on the Trainer Card?

How the fuck is it that much different than just enforcing the order? Not to mention that, considering how fucked Johto's level curve is- that making a firm order where you can more easily control the difficulty is probably a GOOD thing.

And that's where Gen 1 ends. Overall- rather shallow. I also expect to be covering more Gens in posts since problems like these tend to be recurring issues and don't require being brought up all the time.

It's not as painful as Lily's usual stuff...but I feel that will change soon.

[alicelufenia]

In celebration of the BG3 anniversary, I thought I'd relive some memories from my first run

Last thing done in act 1. In hindsight I could have at least arrived earlier, and gotten to meet the dream visitor a few times before everything goes down, but hey.

Heeey Dream Visitor Crystal Exarch! (and yes she would)

I think the likeness is pretty good all things considered. For Durge!Alice run I'm doing something different, but this proved to be real funny later.

I know I'm not the only one to notice this, right? Anyway I'll definitely be using this detail in my fanfic... Especially since Durge!Alice wakes up in the Nautiloid with her oath broken, and no memory of even what it was, so any bond she can share with a fellow paladin over oaths lost, of course I'm gonna delve into that!

Speaking of Oathbreaker...

Hahaha! Silly Tav!Alice. This is why you break your oath BEFORE agreeing to raid the grove! Choking like that in front of the raid leader, embarrassing. I expected better of my FFXIV main.

Dark Knight unlocked.

^ The backup save I made before deciding whether to go through with the raid or not.

The original plan was for Alice to fight on the grove's side after restoring her oath, with a level of Shadow Sorcerer to represent the darkness that seeped into her heart.

Instead:

"You're mad. How did I not see it...?"

Told ya it would be funny.

Listen, past Alice: Yes. Yes it was all worth it and you'll do it again.

For some reason she has her eyes open here, I'm pretty sure that changes in a future patch (maybe the one where her intro cutscene changes too? I don't remember)

I had just gotten the Dream Visitor scene where they explain the True Souls are being controlled right before this, so the continuity really helped this scene.

oh nuuuuuu

🗡️Find me a more iconic shot of Minthara than this, you wont🗡️

The game just loves to keep giving the Evil-aligned characters the wettest puppy eyes, it's genuinely much appreciated.

Yeah I said it, Tavs/Durges who raid the grove are Evil-aligned, at least at the time, I'm not delusional and never said it was a bad thing either :p

Wow that was a journey. There's a reason it's still one of, if not my favorite questline in the game.

HahaHAA! Oh you poor naive girl, you had no idea didn't you

Seriously though, imagine going on to kill her after all that. Unhinged behavior imo, can't relate

Yeaaaah no, fuck that noise, fuck them druids, and fuck them tieflings too. I'm ride or die now.

It would take me another 2 weeks before finally continuing though, during which I started and halted three other playthroughs on different characters, and none of it stuck. I knew I had to see where this would take me.

Thus, my journey would continue with Alice, and the rest is now history.

[nugsanart09-works]

SAGAU that is just that: Self-Aware AU

just what it says in the tin. no cults, no yandere, just plain old ddlc minus the damned romance aspect. (Monika, i love you but i have had enough of the romantic shit)

warning: i am basing this on my character roster and shenanigans. you can play around with the idea but yeah, my content is based on my account if anything. also, novaverse lore because screw it imma inject my own spin in this thing

there are hierarchies on this thing:

GALAXIES = other media

NEXUS = Genshin Impact/Hoyoverse

NEBULAE = leakers/content creators/playthrough folks

(SUPER)NOVA = the player (me and you); referencing the big bang even though it means that I fucked up the symbolism tier for this lol; can be the SI-OC/Reader/"Creator"

AURORAE = the Creator's mouthpiece/interactive HUD; kinda like Paimon in-game and not lorewise

SUNSHINE = the ones in the nova's character roster a.k.a. the ones that came home

EARTHSHINE = the characters who have the potential to "become aware" a.k.a. stubborn fucks who refuses to come home smh; if the sunshines try to tell the earthshines about the situation, the earthshines would not hear them or understand it one bit

*note that op is not the smartest when it comes to cosmology but pls ignore that for the sake of

✨ fancy titles ✨

the first ones to gain awareness are Traveler and Paimon.

they were the first ones you gain as playable characters so they deserve that much, esp if they have to deal with your shenanigans as their nova

the next one to realize smth is up would be Amber

the sagau that i know of tends to start off with Kaeya a lot but i fully believe my girl Amber should be the first teyvatan aware for the amount of times her baron bunny saved my ass

when you, her nova, gained control over her, she gained access to some perks such as:

conditional immortality — when left alone by the nova/not in the current party, she can now just. not die. permanently that is. unless the nexus decides that she will be out of the narrative, she just cannot die and will constantly respawn. if the nova is logged in and she didn’t heal herself, her hp will be in the red zone lmao

disabled friendly fire — a sunshine attacks another person whether they are a fellow sunshine or not, the attacks will just go through them without harm. enemy mobs, specific plant life and the likes are the only ones capable of getting damaged

access to the inventory – anything the nova has attained, they can take and use. good luck with your hoarding because your food are definitely gonna decrease by a LOT once you log back in

private chatroom — just so they don't go insane, sunshines can gossip and pass news to one another on how things are going on their end. they speak of how far the nova (not traveler) is with their journey, and maybe just be a support group since i subjected them through a lot of bs

time loop — ...yeah. so long as you (the player) haven't progress in the given storyline in-game, you essentially trap them in an localized time loop. characters will end up "blinking" back to where they are initially if [1] the nova logged in, or [2] traveler, piloted guided by the nova, is in the area and the playable character is included in the quest the nova stumbled upon

spectators to the music — whatever bgm you have whether you have the in-game music on or are using a custom playlist, the ones in your current party (along with the parties beside the current one if you're toggling and choosing between the groups) will hear it. jean and tighnari are definitely disappointed in me for playing unholy while yaoyao is in my active team that one time w h o o p s

gained written and verbal language — whatever language you have downloaded in the game is now something the sunshines are proficient with.

for example: i have both english and korean voice packs downloaded so therefore they can speak both now. i only have english for my text. if i end up doing the typical isekai bs in the sagau community with my kr voice pack activated, the only way i can communicate with them is through writing back and forth in english lmao. if they manage to communicate with me in the self-aware Monika way then once they start speaking i am screwed since i don't speak korean :') – i don't see them speaking in textbox since [1] my speed reading sucks ass and [2] do you want your screen to be filled with text? do you?

depending on who you obtain next, they're the ones next in line with the madness. good thing they have the sunshine trio to help them out with this now. hallelujah Amber 🙏

that's it for now since this is enough of an info dump alr + this is the basic stuff you need to know for now. the rest of these will be just me and the shenanigans i subjected my playable characters through. that or someone's requests idk. hope you enjoyed this thing

[wheretheharekissesthefox]

The thing about the tadpoles:

So, there's something that keeps me up at night ever since my first playthrough, and I must share it with you all or otherwise I'll combust.

The tadpoles, right? Whenever you kill someone with a True Soul Tadpole™, it crawls out of its host or you can substract it from the corpse.

So, two things:

1. Why don't your companions drop a tadpole when you kill them so that you can use it for yourself? (After all, Minthara drops a tadpole when you decide to kill her and save the Emerald Grove. She can be a companion if you decide otherwise).

2. Why can't you just kill your companions and yourself, wait for the tadpoles to crawl out or substract them, revive everyone, and continue the story tadpole-free?

In a game where you have so many possibilities (even choosing between absorbing the tadpole or literally eating it!), why isn't that an option?

It would have made an interesting storyline because you're no longer under the influence of the Absolute, but it would still be a world-ending threat that must be destroyed. It would have been an interesting way to play around with your companions' loyality too; would they still help you against the Absolute if they'd be tadpole-free? What other way would there be to destroy the Absolute without the tadpole powers (and Gale's orb)? Halsin, Jahira and Minsc (and the Nightsong) aren't tadpoled and they still help you on your journey, so why can't the rest of the group be tadpole-free too?

I understand that the tadpoles in your and your companions' brains are the reason for the entire journey and the solution to kill the Absolute, but it would have been an interesting way to see how said journey would go tadpole-free, free of the Absolute's calling, without the need of the artefact and the Guardian/Emperor, but also without the tadpole's powers.

"But that's not the point!" some of you may cry out now. You're right, it's not, but then, the game shouldn't give us the option to collect tadpoles from corpses except from your own and your companions' because that's a fucking plot hole, folks!

I said what I said. Larian Studio committed a locial fallacy and now, I have to be mad about it for the rest of my life, thank you very much.

[bhaalble]

tell me about orroros i would like to know

*points* tricked! Deceived! Now you fall into my trap (thank you)

Ok so. Important context around Orroros. I had a first playthrough for BG3, a half elf ranger based on a preexisting oc, where I basically fucked around for 6 hours, did everything wrong (did not. Figure out how to long rest until about 3 hours in and only found Shadowheart and Lae’zel which made combat exactly as fun as you are imagining) before I decided to scrap it all and go in fresh. Meaning I KNEW githyanki would likely have some shit early on. I was curious to see if the game would automatically make you a part of Lae’zel’s squadron/part of the githyanki that are attacking the Nautiloid. It does not. Lae’zel doesn’t seem to have a clue who you are. There are a thousand reasonable explanations for this.

I instead elected the way of complications.

So. Orroros Bor’gialyz. Is NOT githyanki. They are githzerai. The githzerai are offhand mentioned once or twice in Baldur’s Gate 3, but (at least as far as I can tell), we never see one or hear a lot of explicit reference to them outside of some flavor text. The githzerai are a distinct faction of the gith. Basically, post slave revolt with a lot of mind flayers having been wiped out, Mother Gith was full steam ahead on wanting to take the illithid empire for themselves. Another gith, Zerthimon, objected to this, saying Gith was essentially planning to replace one tyrant with herself and that the gith wouldn’t benefit from perpetual warfare. Civil war breaks out between their followers, with the two factions becoming the githyanki (or “children of Gith”) and the githzerai (“those who resist Gith”). Accounts split on how things ended up, some believe Gith defeated Zerthimon and others say he defeated her, but let her live. Ultimately, though, the githzerai wind up retreating deep into Limbo. They spend the following centuries mostly in monastic contemplation and developing their psionic abilities. Githzerai society tends to be pretty staunchly isolationist, preferring to withdraw from Astral Plane politics. However, they do keep warriors on hand and are known to send out strike forces when they believe either the mind flayers or the githyanki are mobilizing to do something severe.

Into all this drop Orroros. Orroros is a stormborn sorcerer: their powers were acquired when lightning struck their cluster of eggs, leaving them as the only survivor. This marked them pretty early on as Gith To Watch Out For: plenty of Gith have some magical ability, but by virtue of not having bloodlines in a way that matters for magic sorcerers are pretty rare. They were pulled into Limbo a little younger than would typically be allowed, largely to start preparing them for the path to becoming a zerth (in essence: a religious and political leader adept at magic, combat, and their own inborn psionics). This is where their soldier background comes in. They’ve been leading squadrons in routine missions since their teens, though its only recently they’ve been allowed outside of Limbo.

Obviously, everything going on in Baldur’s Gate pre-game was making a lot of noise. It was noticed that a lot of mindflayers and psionic activity taking place in Fae’run, as well as the fact that the githyanki were sending a LOT of dragon riders in that direction. Orroros’ team was sent to find what they could. The mission was ultimately unsuccessful and they were given the order to pull out. Orroros sent their team on ahead, lingering behind to clean up the last remnants of their presence...only to get grabbed by the Nautiloid in that exact moment. 

When they next wake up they’re right next to a warrior in githyanki silver armor and the journey does not improve from there.

Githyanki and githzerai aren’t simply factions at odds: they hate each other almost as much as they hate mindflayers. And with more githyanki bearing down on the nautiloid Orroros believes that even if they managed to get the upper hand on Lae’zel they may likely be attacked by anyone who came here with her. At which point they make the panic-fueled decision to pretend to be githyanki. And just sort of. Keep doing that when they hit the ground, because god knows when they’re getting back home and they truly cannot afford to be either killed by Lae’zel or lose Lae’zel’s help if the truth comes out.

This was the rp hook I kept up for Act 1 pretty much up until the creche, that Orroros is doing their level best to pass as githyanki and ultimately. Doing a pretty miserable job at it. They’ve never directly interacted with any before, their knowledge comes from books and from githzerai accounts, most of whom tend to paint the githyanki as bloodthirsty power-mad despots all too brainwashed to realize the lich queen is marching them to their deaths. Which, yeah, Lae’zel doesn’t initially do much to unseat that, but it does mean the performance can feel extremely disjointed and cartoonish at times. Their companions definitely know they’re up to SOMETHING but none of them know enough to understand what. Lae’zel assumes its the sort of posturing a young githyanki does when they’re scared and insecure and is mostly just irritably waiting for them to drop it and get real.

This is mostly comedy right up until the Creche at which point. Shit gets uh. Very Real very quickly. I had them avoid it as long as they feasibly could while still dodging the worst suspicion. Mostly because it represented more chances for them to be outed by anyone who knew anything. This is, however, also where we get into what wound up being the ideological meat of what I wanted to do with Orroros: the idea that “here’s a race, one of them is bad and violent and the other is weird but peaceful” is usually dumb. I wanted to deep dive into a lot of the inherent complications of this shared point of collective trauma (ghaik slavery) and also the devastation of this kind of factionalism. There are a lot of the worst excesses of githyanki society that the githzerai avoid, they generally tend to be less supremacist and also have much less of a crush on the imperialist system that created them to begin with. But that isolationism creates a supremacist view of its own. The revelation I think Orroros has on actually forming a relationship with Lae’zel, seeing the creche, meeting Vlaakith, and finally understanding this other half, is that githzerai have been leaving the githyanki to rot for centuries under a different kind of master. And that maybe sucks of them a little. Lae’zel, the youths they meet in the creche, Voss, clearly none of them hatched out of the egg brainwashed and violent and evil. There were always systems of power that made them that way, and there was always more to them than the people they had to perform as.

At that point, Orroros’ directive shifts internally, from a desperate need to return home, to an understanding that the best way to serve their people might just be to make them whole again.

Some other minor background notes, because this definitely isn’t long enough:

-Mind over matter is a huge concept you run into with the githzerai, a product of a pretty heavily monastic culture as well as a species with a lot of experience being on the receiving end of psionic torment. This is mostly relevant to Orroros in terms of their relationship to pain. Part of their training involved being taught how to endure a great deal of suffering without revealing information or betraying their directives. In theory it was meant to encourage discipline and stoicism. What it actually did is cause Orroros to link pain with both their inherent value and with praise from authority figures. This was a fun thing to resurface during the Abdirak scene and became the foundation of their eventual affinity for Loviatar in general.

-Githzerai tend to be a little less hierarchical, though still pretty militarized. I extrapolated out from this a different philosophy of leadership. Where Lae’zel attempting to being in control of a situation tends to be a very top-down “I’m your C.O. so fall in line or fall behind”, Orroros tends to prioritize the furthering of the goals of the group as a way of sustaining morale. They tend to be very reluctant to voice their own opinion until everyone else has been heard out first, and focus on making things happen for the people they consider as part of their squad. This also means that they have a tendency to be very two-faced with their companions and apply inconsistent standards to them as individuals. Whatever keeps the unit moving.

-Astarion was the first to figure out that they were githzerai, largely because he could sense SOME secret and kept probing until eventually it was easier to tell him and keep him quiet than to keep dodging the question. He didn’t particularly care for a while, mostly because gith internal politics are a little niche for even his bottomless appetite for gossip. Was sort of fun to hold over their head though. They had a relatively antagonistic relationship for the first few weeks, largely because Astarion read them as uptight and boring (only 60% true) and Orroros was both devastatingly attracted to him and desperate to not be upfront with that. Astarion’s a culture shock for someone who comes from an ideological background as inherently collectivist as githzerai culture is. To their eternal horror they found that selfishness and blatant willingness to use horrible means for his own ends only made him more compelling. That and the fact that they have the same sense of humor deep down.

-For all their world weary commander attitude, they’re relatively young (barely 30, and that’s complicated by virtue of how Time Works in the Astral Plane) and also, extremely sheltered. Most of the things they know about they know about by books.

ANYWAYS. Thank you for indulging my madness I have. So many thoughts this isn’t even all of them but I figure nearly 2k words was a good stopping point. 

[delicatefade]

Fandom asks: 2, 7, 16

2. a headcanon you weren't sure about at first but have come to like!

Ope, I just answered 2. It's "Solas was a spirit that Mythal bound to an elven body". Explained here ->

I'll answer #3 in its place!

3. a character that fandom has helped you appreciate

I'll do one per game and get an A from teacher.

DAO: Jowan! I didn't think about his story of what he risked when I played the game. Then there's all this Jowan discourse in corners of fandom and I saw him in a new light. This also got me to pay more attention to Circle drama (I played a Tabris so I knew nothing about Circle drama) so Jowan was like a gateway drug to CIRCLE DRAMA which is the best.

DA2: Aveline! I didn't connect with her in my DA2 playthrough. I thought her inability to ask Donnic out on a date was charming but that's about it. Reading other people's ideas about her helped shape her in my mind.

DAI: I guess Cole? Listen, Imma keep it 100. I rolled my eyes at his cryptic sayings when I played the game by myself. I did not engage with what he was saying at all. Cassandra reads 1 horny book and I am over here going "heeheehee Cassandra is my girlie I love her," but Cole is telling me the secrets of the universe and I was like Zzzzz. MISTAKE. Fandom showed me that's a MISTAKE.

7. your favorite tropes to read/write/draw

Established relationships being tested (and hopefully perservering even if it is fucked up!!!) I like starting with characters who are already in love and then putting them through the ringer. Is that angst? Angst of a very specific flavor.

16. a tiny detail in canon that you want more people to appreciate

I have many, but I got Dalish on the brain so I'll start there. The Long Walk! There's a DAO Codex and a DAI Codex about it. Tevinter elven slaves set free and given land in the south in the Dales. Many elves died on the journey from starvation, exhaustion, disease, violence. Halamshiral, the elven capital of the Dalish civilization, means "the end of the journey."

[n7punk]

okay it took me awhile because Journey Into Lost Memories is a cut scene simulator for a good chunk of the game, but i've finished the entire Another Code: Recollection remake and i have some final thoughts (balls to the wall spoilers, do not click if you haven't played the game)

not gonna talk much about the first game since i already wrote a fucking essay on it, but i will say having taken the collection as a whole now, i firmly prefer the original. the remake isn't a bad game, just not quite the game the original was.

for Trace Memory/Two Memories anyway. the sequel... i have more problems with

first of all i never played the original sequel because it didn't exist in america, and im too fatigued to watch a playthrough now but i do fully intend to. That said, i could still see changes just with the context of what changes they made in the first one.

there is like. one puzzle per chapter for the first chunk of the game. like max. chapter one has getting... aw fuck i just played it and i forgot his name, but the guesthouse staffer's attention. and then there's the "puzzle" to unlock the door (given what the RAS looks like, i assume this use to be motion control bullshit, so i'll take the series of button prompts instead, it's just kind of a ridiculous way to hack lmao) and proving your innocence (wow a whole two puzzles). and then... i think the next puzzle is rescuing matthew? which is being a bit generous.

the boathouse was the first time it felt like i was playing the same game as the original series, and there's like... chapter 2 or 3? the boathouse was good, but then it's not good (puzzle wise) for... several chapters. like im trying to list puzzles off and i know im missing some but off the top of my head: music box, finding the keys, the clock tower, the resort headquarters, then the whole thing in JC valley where it's a Trace Memory game again. all that is in pretty quick secession but the first couple chapters drag and are mostly watching cutscenes doing a lot of set-up that doesn't give you enough clues for you to feel like you're trying to solve something, and thus mentally engaged. i actually started cutting off dialogue, hitting A without listening to the VA the second I had skimmed through the dialogue, because there was just way too much cutscene. this is not a puzzle game for like five chapters, it's Life Is Strange or something.

i don't need to play the original to know they cut a ton of puzzles from this second game. i really felt like i was going insane without the lack of balance in the second game. and the thing is, once the story happens, it's interesting! but goddamn is there 2, maybe 3 chapters of story in a 7 chapter game.

for the story... the part with matthew's dad was interesting to me, but like i said, gathering (very little) information on that takes up the first half of the game and then it all happens at once. also why did they change the ghost rules for this game. why does kelly look like that. they should have standardized that in this remake. kelly plays by completely different rules than d and im not a fan.

the zipper on her doll being a red herring was pretty funny tho lmao. i was literally in the middle of telling my mom it was driving me crazy that ashley hadn't thought to try it yet when i got the chance to inspect it and found the actual secret.

the pollution plotline also felt nonsensical at points, and it does mostly get justified later (why the fuck did her dad just happen to make an app for the DAS - something with like 4 apps - for measuring water quality? ok later it gets tied into liquid memory, but it had me laughing out loud for how convenient it was at the time) and tbh the plotline with the lab did too at times, but the ryan plotline was good. im still not clear on what memories were taken from sayoka? like they made it sound like they wiped her memory at some points, but that straight up can't be possible so i just dont know. like the reason behind it made since and every but idk... there were a lot of little things here that were messy and i would have expected them to fix and unify across games in a remake, especially considering how much they changed. i can't tell when the hell sayoko went to lake juliet. was it like, a day before she died? a month? year? can't have been more than a year, but again, wiping her memory doesn't make a lot of sense.

also like. sorry. but ryan is supposed to kind of be 6 years old (he has been strong since the pollution) so did he just... god how the hell did he get involved in the bill and gina thing. bill had been using richard for 7 years already, ever since he killed sayoko, but when did gina get involved, and then when did ryan? he had to be involved for at least two years since bill sent the source code to jc but... god i have a migraine and i CANNOT make sense of this. i think bill thought he was the mastermind, he got in touch with gina through his "buyer" (no idea if she already worked there, or got a job "undercover" for more info on the prototype, or was placed undercover after blood edward island fell apart. i dont think a timeline for her and rex's relationship was given that would have helped place this, just his divorce which was a few years ago and could have happened before she arrived or after - maybe even because of - her arrival).

god im rambling so much. basically i think the ryan stuff was good (i out loud went "OH HE'S TRYING TO MAKE A NEW SAYOKO" when i figured it out and that was a good feeling), but things with the lab/another project history got very twisty and the early game (camping, matthew's plotline, and the band/music plotline that... didn't really go anywhere aside from making gina suspicious, which is fine, but trim down all the long ass cutscenes then) had way too little gameplay and especially PUZZLES that just made it drag on.

ive seen a few mentions of changes now im daring to look at the tag and it is making me excited to watch a playthrough to see the original version of the game too, but my current assessment is that the sequel probably suffered heavily from the cuts/changes. maybe it always had these problems, but i doubt it. i also might replay the original trace memory until i hit a brick wall. i doubt citra has support for it lmao.

oh also im never going to get over them just calling it "the Big Deal Band Contest" thats a fucking placeholder title i put in and then can't come up with anything better but they did it for a video game (post-remake!) and not a goofy fanfic

[arcplaysgames]

God Margaret you are like so pretty?

So yeah on the final day of the game, I'm gonna shoot my shot, why not

.... oh. dang. /tugs collar

I mean, I expected nothing less from her, she was the one who started the Empress SLink really, not me. She had that fucking incredible line, something like "Entangle me in your string of fate," it was gorgeous.

I'm mostly sad Margaret isn't even more of an option because I find her really interesting and very, very charismatic. Being around her feels like being around someone who is much more important than you are but she still decides to grace you with her attention.

As an Empress, she's an interesting choice. The Empress is seated, is passive in her observation of her kingdom, but holds a wand aloft. And Margaret's was certainly instrumental in using power to illuminate the path for Reverie. She makes for a rather cold temperament, but her efficacy cannot be argued with.

Also she KISSED REVERIEEEEEEE. gosh. golly.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: Six out of Ten.

OH RISE. You know I have no idea if I would say I "liked" Rise but my got was she like.... the exact chaos the group needed. Teddie and Rise both brought a tremendous amount of energy to the team, both joining at the same time too.

I really admire how decisive Rise is. Which, of course, Lovers, obviously. She may struggle to figure out what exactly she wants, but once she does, she already has her shoes tied tight and is headed forward. And her journey being set up from the start with her Shadow, how there is no such thing as the True Self, and how that continues to be the core of her arc was really very fucking good.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: 10 out of 10, honestly.

Marie is great but does suffer a lot from being added into the game. There is a very inorganic element to her. However, given what we learn about her, that she's a creature of the other world meant to doom humanity, that she's almost a cuckoo bird in the human nest, it... sort of makes perfect sense, doesn't it? That she feels so Off.

That's making excuses for the game honestly but I'm gonna do it because while the way she fit into the game was always very pasted on, her voice acting was honestly great and smoothed over a LOT of issues I had with her. Like, I could sit here and point out the flaws but why? I like her enough.

Character Accuracy? Abstain, as I'm not very familiar with the Aeon.

I feel like i don't even need to say anything about Kanji. I'm willing to wager if you could make a pie chart of every dialogue box I screencapped, Kanji would have an outsized percentage.

I came into Persona 4 Golden with carefully calibrated expectations. I Fully expected to be deeply disappointed in Kanji's writing. But he started out amazing and he literally never ceased being amazing. This is the guy who punched his own shadow and affectionately told him to get up because any shadow of his could take a punch. This is the guy who makes "very elaborate" dolls for sad children. This is the guy who is willing and ready to beat up someone if that'll save them. He's the heart of the fucking team and he hits like a mack truck. I love Kanji.

IF ONLY HE WERE ROMANCEABLE. GODDAMMIT.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: Solid 7 out of 10. I still think Dojima would have been a better fit but Kanji's dedication to taking ownership and care of his community is very Emperor.

shut up kanji you aren't allowed to make me cry twice in one playthrough

Best Girl Yukiko.

God, she is so weird. She's so heartfelt. She's so funny. Her arc makes a tremendous amount of sense. She's selfish and mean, she's generous and kind. She got drunk off the atmosphere in Iwatodai. She never talks about Chie as much as Chie talks about her. My heart aches for her, and I hope she's made the right decision to stay. I hope she'll have the strength to leave later if she discovers it wasn't.

I hope she and Kanji become best friends.

Character Accuracy to Their Arcana: 0 out of 10, she and Yosuke shoulda swapped.

[mayordeas-clone]

i just finished my second playthrough of octopath traveler 2. probably gonna ramble a bit in response. there will be spoilers perchance. (huge emphasis on ramble because i really am just saying whatever shoots out of my ass)

the epilogue gets me really emotional for some reason. the scene where the travelers part ways, each leaving in the reverse order you recruited them. oouuggh. i am in pain. i know ill be keeping them together for eternity while i attempt to beat galdera in this run, but the reality that these guys all have different ambitions in life and therefore they need to split off eventually to pursue those ambitions makes it a very bittersweet finale. at least there’s the class reunion at the very end, but still OOUUGHH THIS GAME MAKES ME ILL IN THE BEST WAY POSSIBLE

on that note, the fact that there’s a proper ending, a proper sequence where the travelers talk to each other and reminisce on their journey and eventually part ways AT ALL really makes this experience special and a cut above the previous game.

bc it reminded me of just how strange the ending fight aftermath of OT1 was. like after you beat the true final boss of that game, pretty much nothing happens. like you get the ending sequence with kit saying thanks but then the game hands you your prize money and now there’s nothing left to do. the travelers just don’t give a FUCK. there’s also the issue of the travelers from that game never interacting or discussing amongst themselves about the revelations learned in the gate of finis; granted, octopath 2 is not flawless in this regard either (like, agnea witnesses a flashback involving tanzy being fuckin sacrificed to extinguish the flamechurch torch and had absolutely no comment) but it was pretty bad in octopath 1. the whole questline to unlock the true final boss is hidden in a chain of sidequests that quietly unlock after beating everyone’s story, whereas in the sequel, it’s a proper sequence the game tells you about and encourages you to prepare for. so i really appreciate the strides the sequel took to tie the overarching story and links between all of the travelers’ quests more tightly. it really makes me feel like all of the travelers are actually pals who decided to travel together and help each other achieve their many missions and goals, and when that’s all over there’s an actual ENDING. TO THE STORY. the strangeness imo of octopath 1’s final battle is that the journey doesn’t feel over even though it definitely is. you know what i mean?

i also just. ADOREEEE the cast of this game. i did like a few characters in the first game like Tressa, Alfyn, and Therion, but again the fact that they never interact outside of missible (and to be honest forgettable) travel banters and NEVER as a collective unit made it harder for me to get attached to them as a whole. were they even friends with each other lol? who knows. plus i feel like a lot of them were kinda pretty basic rpg archetypes? like i found ophelia to be extremely boring bc she feels like the basic cutout of what a nice healer character should be without many extra wrinkles to her to make me interested (though it has been a while since i’ve played the first game). of course, octopath 2 is no stranger to archetypes (no piece of fiction is tbh) but i just feel like there was more emphasis on making the individual travelers and their stories more interesting. octopath 1 laid the groundwork with the ‘eight characters, eight stories that all secretly connect by the end’ concept (plus the GOOD ASS BATTLE SYSTEM) so the sequel could polish it into a nice, respectable shine. it makes me giddy looking back on the ways octopath 2 improved on the flaws of the first game. because i LOVVED the original octopath, but the sequel captured everything i loved and added more stuff. ITS GOOD. ITS VERY GOOD. ALL OF THE NEW TRAVELERS ARE MY BELOVEDS!!!!!!!!

it’s probably a cliché thing to bring up at this point, but the difference in ways the two games handle their eight-character cast and how they interact with each other is oddly reflective in the respective games’ box art. like, the first octopath had all the characters walking in one direction, their own path, all parallel to each other. whereas in octopath 2’s case, they’re all hangin out!!! isn’t that swell! :D

i also liked the improvement of the boss battles that bookend each traveler’s story in terms of their relevance to the individual stories. namely, i like how all of the travelers have a dialogue break between phases (the bosses have distinct phases now! makes them feel more separated from the ones leading up to them). ppl really liked when ophelia talked to mattais during her fight, or therion talking to darius, and now everyone has a personal one-on-one with their final boss. this couldn’t be done with all of them in octopath 1 since some were unspeaking monsters (though ochette was able to pull that off in this game) or opponents that only appeared so the travelers could solve a specific problem (like tressa and alfyn), so no previous attachment was there. in general i love how all the final bosses had some kind of connection to the travelers, big or small.

ochette feels remorse and sympathy for the darkling since it became corrupted because she didn’t choose it as her companion as a child. castti feeling betrayed by trousseau losing his way and becoming nihilistic and genocidal. or throné losing her marbles after finding out the truth of the blacksnakes, and her palpable RAGE during her fight against claude, the only thing motivating her is seeing him dead and breaking the vicious cycle he birthed. osvald’s is obvious because harvey is a mega-bastard, but when you fully boost as osvald during that fight he screams “HARVEY!!” which is super satisfying (oh, and i absolutely love how this game adds in special lines for certain bosses, adds a more personalized touch to each traveler’s boss encounters~). partitio clawing his way to topple roque’s greed and monopoly on technology he believes could change the world forever. THE FUCKING DANCE OFF BETWEEN AGNEA AND DOLCINEA. OOUUGHGGH THE SONG OF HOPE PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND TOO 😫😫😫😫 MY FAVORITE SONG IN THE OST. temenos also feels a bit of vengeance facing off against kaldena, given she was responsible for the deaths of two people he was very close to. and lastly there’s hikari, who fought and lost much to reach the moment he can finally confront his tyrannical brother.

it’s so scrumptious. not to mention the way each character’s theme is woven into the final boss theme during the second phase. actual galactic brain move on the part of yasunori nishiki and everyone else apart of the creation of this game’s ost. i love how there’s a greater emphasis (and consistency) of each character’s theme, namely in how their battle preludes actually take from their character theme rather than just being something else that uses similar instruments. it’s another thing that was really cool and unique from octopath 1 and now made even better and more impactful in the sequel. i especially love osvald’s theme, every iteration of it. the way it’s combined with ‘journey for the dawn’ is actual peak.

um what else…… i guess i kind of alluded to this earlier but the way the stories intertwine is much stronger in this game which made connecting everything together really satisfying. it helps that this sequence is an actual part of the road to reaching the Ending of the game (the credits! i think the credits rolled in the last game when you beat your protagonist’s story. which is kind of crazy town to me looking back…) rather than unlocked through a chain of sidequests (im still not over that im sorry). the moonshade order’s members exist throughout all of the characters’ stories, whether they’re the puppet masters at the top (oboro, arcannette, and claude) or people that were manipulated into the cause (trousseau and tanzy) or simply loyal followers (petrichor, harvey, and ori). the presence of The Shadow, mentioned in 6/8 stories, laying hints to the overarching evil before this final chapter sequence begins. ooooohgh it’s so cool. i wish i could experience the final chapter for the first time again, i remember being so excited going through it (down to all eight travelers talking to each other at the beginning!!!!!!!). i know the final chapter isn’t perfect since a lot of the information is given through Reading rather than actual cutscenes (and again, tanzy’s involvement with the moonshade order and her death elicits zero reaction from anyone that met her), and tbh it would have been cool if we actually fought some of the other remaining members akin to the battle with arcannette (i know the monster near the toto’haha torch is implied to be petrichor, but she’s the only member that never met any of the travelers, and it would have been cool to confront her outright).

this would be where i put my whole rant about agnea and partitio's stories and their relevance to the grand story, but i made it its own post! you can read it here if you want to consume more of my octopath brainworms.

woooh that’s all i have to say. apologies for the text wall, it will probably get longer when i conjure more thoughts </3

i love this game, it’s very good even though it’s very easy to break the battles in half.