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finalshaper · 2 years

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Thoughts About Destiny's End, The Witness, and Others

Thinking about how Destiny's storyline feels like it's coming to an end. We have Lightfall, then The Final Shape, and then... what next? On one hand I feel like they might find some way to continue the storyline, like a big post-story or maybe delving into certain parts of the lore we haven't yet explored, or something like that. But everything, since D1, has been building up to Lightfall. I remember playing D1 and one of the first motifs we were given is "the Witness is coming." It's the overarching plotline of Destiny and by extension Destiny 2.

Now the Witness is here. The tagline is literally "Our End Begins." There is one more DLC before... what now?

Destiny is a 10-year-long storyline. I only got here in the August of 2022. I haven't been able to experience the best of it, the height of it. The Golden Age, so to speak. Even though we're approaching what feels like the Silver Age of Destiny 2 with Lightfall's incoming release. It makes my chest hurt in a weird, heartbroken way that I'm arriving several years much too late even though we're entering a new exciting time. I don't want it to be over so soon.

Not only am I a literacy nerd, I am also able to recognize patterns and string patterns together with extreme efficiency (see: Autism). I see the signs, I hear the death knell of Destiny's storyline with the arrival of the Witness. The story feels like it's almost over -- and I can only ask, "What now?"

I can hope that they'll try to continue it. Explore ideas not yet seen. Or maybe even that's it, end of, roll credits, no more story because there's no sound logical way to continue the story when the Big Bad has been defeated if that ever happens considering the Witness is basically an omnipotent god. Maybe The Final Shape ends with us losing, or perhaps accepting. Death is as unavoidable as Life, the Light as unavoidable as the Dark, the Night as unavoidable as the Day. Maybe that would be the concluding motif of Destiny. It would be cool.

Maybe they will play with the idea of the cyclical nature of all things, of the universe. Stars are born, stars die. The sun rises, the sun sets. People die, people are born. Life moves on even long after you're gone. Could the Witness and the Traveler ever live in peace, as two halves of one whole? The spontaneous and the inevitable. The planned and the sudden. Light and dark, Yin and Yang. Maybe we will get a fairytale-esque "And they lived happily ever after" ending. Maybe not.

Maybe it will never end. Maybe there's some survivors of species thought to be extinct, like the Lubreans. Maybe there's some Stone Ocean-esque universal collapse and everything resets back to the beginning. Maybe the screen fades from black to a ride in a horse carriage surrounded by wintery pines and the words, "Hey, you, you're finally awake." Maybe the inevitable happens and the Witness wins, and we're treated to a "bad ending." Realistically there should be no way to defeat what is essentially a god. Even if Guardians are god-slayers. Trembling before something truly unstoppable.

Maybe we have an ending that can be comparable in motif to my favorite poem -- Do Not Go Gentle by Dylan Thomas. Rage, rage against the dying of the Light. It's a poem about death, how death comes for us all, but that we should not be upset by it. We should make the most of life while we're still here. Carpe diem, memento mori.

Maybe we see the Collapse in action. Maybe the old is thrown away to give rise to the new. Is there acceptance? Is there anger? Is there grief? Or is it ended with a smile? Do we gladly do it all again, would we gladly do it all again?

Would we go gentle into that good night? Or would we rage against the dying of the Light?

Would the end of Destiny's storyline teach us that the end is inevitable alongside many other lessons the games' storylines have taught us? About emotions, about people, about letting go, about moving on. About ourselves and the world around us. Would the final goodbye be bittersweet or gentle and satisfying?

Would we cry in protest, or would Destiny leave us for the last time with a smile on all of our faces and a warmth in our chest from time well wasted, which is not time wasted at all?

Will Destiny remind us that we are alive, here and now?

How will it all end? With a bang, a whimper? A cheer?

What would Bungie do afterwards? Would they release Destiny 2 in one big package with all the DLCs (hopefully including Forsaken and the vanilla game) just like D1 was released? Or would it just... disappear?

I'm not ready to let go.

But maybe letting go is what The Final Shape is going to teach us.

Carpe Diem. Memento Mori. Do not go gentle into that good night; rage, rage against the dying of the light. Folding was never an option.

You are alive, Guardian.

Fight like it.

#caydeposting #destiny #destiny 2

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kaleihasmo · 4 months

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Rebirth Of The Empress

Something's in the works, and getting ready for takeoff; But it all relies on me to get out of my own way. Y'know, like that certain feeling you get when you’re about to go over the first drop of a rollercoaster. A cool breeze gently passing by rustling your hair, that light feeling and butterfly excitement.

Just ever quieting the mind, and transitioning into the body. But also, driving myself into non-desire has been a bit of a double-edged sword because now I don’t want anything; I push away. I’ve come across something recently that’s kind of reconciled that thought though—or rather a particular way of interpreting “as above, so below” for lack of a better vernacular.

It exists for a reason, so use it with careful intent. Really it’s become a game of “check yourself before moving your piece.” But also, what in the hell am I looking at? lol

Like… seeing without directly looking. The mind wants to ascribe ideas, thoughts, connections. But that’s also the blind point. Just don’t operate within that realm solely, I reckon?

Ah, the quantum realm lmao. A true spectacle to behold.

Don’t reject unanimous reality for individual reality as well; that’s another one. There are certain things that are the ground rules for how the whole thing works. I feel like that’s a basic rule but like. It’s crazy out here with how hyper-individualized society has become.

If operating under the principle that existence is pure love, no matter the form, then there is nothing to fear.

So then anything is possible. I can recreate my universe as many times, however complex or benign. That is that, for me. Just as I am that too.

I was really caught up in my crown chakra for a while there, and it drove me up the walls because it was all this newfound info and perspective shifts without being grounded properly. But that’s the thing about those moments—it takes time to come back to earth and properly process all the new DLC lol.

And coming back down hurts too. It’s like the mother taking the baby away from her tit for biting her.

The lows are more interesting than the highs at this point. Like when I first got into all this, I was chasing the dragon to the point of self-destruction to keep milking every drop. Then you realize how far you’ve dragged yourself down in your own holy conquest, and it’s like, far out, man.

Arguably the best part about it is no roadmap or contexts. I may use certain words or phrases, but it’s mostly for that sake. I don’t convene with anyone anymore. I don’t go looking through stuff like catalogues for my next extensive study. I just let everything approach me, and base my judgments off the intuition garnered in those moments to navigate further.

And to reach such a level of process at 25, and this is just the tip of my iceberg? Shit man lmfao

I feel ageless, like this body is just a rental vehicle. Still treat it nice ofc, or else you incur some hefty fees and fines. But like, I don’t feel any particular age, gender, etc etc. Sitting within the awareness behind the eyes.

I started out with Ouija boards and burning candles in the woods lmfao. And now we’re here. I still do rituals every so often. But the deities pertained to have changed drastically. Like Ma Kali is a matron goddess in my book, alongside Lilith and Ishtar.

But it’s all the same energy ultimately. The stories that unfold though...

#lgbtqia #lgbtq #shamanism #spirituality #buddhism #hinduism #lgbtq community #brandidentity #branding #business #spiritualism #taoism #stoicism #Spotify

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downfallofi · 5 months

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Ok but, if love to hear about some of your super heroes someone. Man if you haven't played Stardew Valley in a while you should, they recently updated it and added some cool new stuff. Also I totally get the shibari thing. I don't sketch or draw but I think it's very aesthetically pleasing in a non perverted way and can see how it's be a fun excessive in posing and angles and such, especially with some of the more extravagant artistic shibari. Do you have a PC and what consoles do you have? Sorry to hear that about your friend, I know even if you're growing apart loading a friend can suck really bad.

Thank you for this ask, also.

I so wanna see how the new updates look in Stardew, like there's a new island to explore? And whole new fruits? (My wine aging casks in the cellar are a vital part of my little operation bringing in cash every day so new fruit to make wine with is exciting to me, baha) And yeah, like even being like ten years in on one playthrough there are still so many trophies I want to attempt when I start it up again. Even though some of them depend on being a traitor and siding with Joja mart in a new save.

For consoles have my slightly battered PS4, which has weathered two moves and multiple corrupted data reboots sadly, and may need puttin out to pasture soon 🥲🥲🥲 Im really strapped for cash and the thought of pricing a PS5 or something as a replacement and Im trying to be like hold on old girl just one more 700 meg download of a DLC for me

I also have a Nintendo Switch handheld with, like, two games loaded that my friend James sent me, it's second hand and I do not love the controller drift but I really enjoyed Pokemon Sword and the remaster of Skyward Sword a lot!

And also my GBA, that thing will outlive me and I still have a dozen games for it. First edition, I got it for Xmas 2001, it has followed me my entire adult life.

And yeah, you get it! I truly believe all art has validity to it, even horny art has it's niche as expression.

And man I would love to talk the heroes I created in high school, it's just such a thing that I might be here all night 😅😅😅 It started, oddly enough, with me mimicking cartoons. Idk if like anyone remembers, there was a bad, old Avengers cartoon on Fox in the 90's. (It was. Bad. They all had armor, nonsensically) so starting in middle school, using that as a jumping off point, I created Avengers in Armor ripoffs I called the Detectives. And they were my first real attempt, middle school wise, to do more than just random comics. I took spiral bound notebooks and I just began filling them up. And I was experimenting, tinkering all the time, because creating an experience that was as much as I cojld make it LIKE a comic book, in that it was very crudely drawn anatomically bad figures from a middle schooler. But the formula began taking shape, the notebook pages became stock, nine panel grids and from there I just filled page after page with ongoing adventures of this team.

Now. The Detectives. Sucked. And even in 8th-9th grade, I was losing interest in them because that Avengers show I took the germ of inspiration for their adventures from didnt even last that long, and I was getting into other stuff. Harry Potter. Blade Runner. Toonami cartoons, MUCH better shit than Fox Kids. I began using that and started cranking out more and more heroes.

Killed the Detectives, just wholesale had them wiped out, they sucked.

But I began building a universe of heroes beyond them, starting with a Harry Potter sort of pastiche that I also used as a commentary on high school and he was a little bit okay a lot like me, named Johnny Dreamer. And then other heroes in Johnny's world. And then, another comic, which I brilliantly named Systems Crash, about a dark anti-hero named Downfall (total Deadpool ripoff) and a Supergirl pastiche I based off a friend of mine. And just on and on. The notebooks began bursting with content, and I was riding some fucking lightning pushing these out and not doing any schoolwork. I was creating a little shared universe.

Like I said, I remember it all too well. It's just there doesnt seem to be any getting it back 😅 which makes me sad.

And yeah. Story of my life a bit, friends leave. It never stops being hard, when people who spoke to me every day begin texting less and less and move on with their lives, but it feels like Im just not... worth it? Idk it does make being friends with people hard for me.

So uh.

Thank you for the questions, honestly

#Answers #Sorry I do go on a bit...

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notajinn · 2 years

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Top Games Played in 2022 - Number 4: Fire Emblem Three Hopes

4. Fire Emblem: Three Hopes (Switch)

On paper, a Fire Emblem Warriors game that is only about one game in the series sounds awful. It was frustrating enough that the first Fire Emblem Warriors only included Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates characters.

But I love the cast and setting of Three Houses enough that I was happy for a spinoff. Especially one which could potentially lead to a happier ending.

I only played the Golden Deer route so far, but I know the gameplay systems are the same in all routes. So I'm comfortable judging the whole game off this.

What I Like

Many of the recent Warriors spin-off games like Persona 5 Strikers have gone for more unique gameplay systems that match their original game. This is good to an extent, but sometimes you just want the classic Warriors setup which the small individual maps, strongholds, etc. Three Hopes uses this method thankfully, which makes the gameplay the equivalent of a popcorn flick; not too much thought needed, but fun to play and in easy-to-digest portions.

Movesets are based off Class rather than character, so they were able to add nearly the entire Three Houses cast as playable characters. That said, every character has a unique function that helps them play differently. Some are very different, such as Lorenz having a unique meter that nullifies damage, while others are more generic like Claude's attacks always having Wind affinity.

By my count, there are roughly 20-24 different movesets in this game by Class. It's a great variety comparable to the amount of movesets in the first Fire Emblem Warriors.

The Golden Deer story gives some much-needed focus to Claude, and helps deliver on the "schemer" trait that was underdeveloped in Three Houses. It's also a nice alternate universe to see for other characters, such as Ignatz becoming a knight for Lorenz, or Leonie immediately becoming a mercenary.

The characters don't feel flanderized, and we even get to see many important characters that never directly appeared in Three Houses such as Holst (Hilda's famous brother), Monica (an important NPC in Black Eagles) and Count Gloucester (Lorenz' dad). I also appreciate the Ashen Wolves being in the game and not DLC.

Supports are great, and we get to see many conversations I wanted in Three Houses but didn't exist such as Marianne/Bernadetta (the two depressed shy girls), Lorenz/Constance (the two comical and proud nobles), and Leonie/Jeralt (the mercenary and the captain she was inspired by).

Three Hopes also adapted and streamlined the "Monastery" portion of the game so it feels much smoother to use efficiently.

Most of the new character designs are great. and some are better than their Three Houses looks. Specifically I’m a big fan of this version of Marianne, Hapi, and Dedue.

What I Don't Like

The Golden Deer ending is REALLY sudden and frustrating. There is a big cutscene to finish the chapter, then a short text epilogue before credits play. It's really bizarre, and needs time to breathe. I've heard the other routes end just as abruptly.

Some character's unique abilities are really unremarkable, which makes them less fun to play. Strangely enough the three House Leaders (Claude, Egeldard, Dimitri) are among the most boring characters because their unique ability is just adding elemental affinity on their regular attacks. I guess the idea is to balance for them getting unique Classes, but it's still weird. This makes some characters feel significantly better than others.

Classes are still gender-locked for no good reason. This would have been a perfect opportunity to play around with unique setups like Gremory Lorenz or War Master Leonie.

I also wish the Dark Flier class made it into Three Hopes. A flying magic Class in a Warriors game would be really fun.

While the Base is better than the Monastery in Three Houses, it still ends up feeling too long. Especially since this game is overall more fast-paced.

The marketing also made it seem like the three lords would team up, but that doesn’t really happen.

Final Thoughts

The gamplay stays true to Warriors with some Fire Emblem elements, and we get some more time and love for a cast I already love. If the story had better execution (and especially a better ending), this could have been much better. But it's already a great game for any fans of Three Houses.

#top games of 2022 #fire emblem three hopes

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therealbeachfox · 3 years

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Wait, you were talking about "Gods of Astielle" being the next in line after "Rise of Empire", but I thought Queen of All Monsters came after Rise of Empire?? Does Stars Rising Infinite take place between those two, or what's going on? Who even designed this timeline in the first place?!

[[Character Breaking Information to Prevent Confusion: This whole thing is meta fan-fiction for @unpretty's Astielle series, which is written as if it's fan-fiction of a non-existent long-running video game series. This is my vision of what said game series might look at based on everything she's written so far. Legend of Starlight Hero XII: The Gods of Astielle is the name of the 'current game' Astielle is supposedly fanfiction of. This is written shortly before its release.]]

Well, no one. That's the problem. By the time anyone involved with the series realized it was going to last long enough for Lore to be a concern, they'd already played so fast and loose with the reincarnation cycles it was anyone's guess how they all related to each other. There are centuries long gaps between game-worthy incarnations, piles of side-games that constantly contradict each other, all those comics and novelizations, and so many Youtube videos trying to detangle the whole mess.

But you're in luck, Anon! With Gods of Astielle coming out, I've been mulling over this very question myself lately, and I am ready to present to you and the world the only 100% True and Canonical Legend of the Starlight Hero/Astielle timeline.

[[A screenshot of The Old Man of the Mountain sitting in his chair in front of a room full of herbs and bottles in all his 32-bit glory, but with a fox-head crudely pasted over his face]]

So come in from the cold, child, and buckle the fuck in. The Old Fox of the Mountain has some learning for you.

First, I'm laying down some ground rules so this project is halfway feasible.

I) I'm only covering video games. No novels/comics/web exclusives/terrible 1989 cartoons. I'm not getting caught in the "You forgot this obscure three issue manga from 1991 that said-" trap.

II) All numbered Legend of the Starlight Hero games have to be canonical. Yes, even Return to Monster Mountain. Yes, even Queen of All Monsters. Sorry.

III) All games involving time-travel (Tangled Skein of Destiny) or alternate time-lines (90% of the Untraveled Paths DLCs) or crossovers (Smash Brothers) are automatically out of the lineup. Yes, this means that I'm not covering some of the best games of the series, but to make up for it, the canon timeline includes the absolute worse ones.

IV) Any games which directly contradict world details or events laid out in the mainline games are out. So we wont be covering the Stardust Dungeons series or Fight of Goddesses/Final Flight or any of the PSP games. Again, not saying whether they're good (Fight of Goddesses) or bad (Stardust Dungeons), just whether they're part of the Main Canon timeline or not. "But if you assume that X is true, and Y was lying about Z, then technically~" This isn't Unraveled. If you want to imagine that there's a colony of sentient rootboars having magical adventures in their underground kingdom that no one else knows about somehow, that's all fine and good, but unless there's a sequence in Gods of Astielle where we meet them, I'm not counting it as canon.

Second:

My arrangement of the timeline may not be your arrangement of the timeline. The games I consider to be canon might not be the same ones you do. It's your right to disagree and it is my right to be correct.

Finally:

To try and make things clearer, all the Legend of the Starlight Hero games will be in bold, while all other games that are part of the main timeline like Monster Kingdom Builder will be in bold + italics.

Quick Lexicon (for the lil'ones):

Astielle: The World/Universe the LotSH games all take place in. Starlight Hero/LotSH/Astielle are used interchangably when talking about the series/franchise as a whole which doesn't get confusing at all, what are you talking about?

Dan (Thanks, Dan) Ryner: Head of Void Star Games studio and edge lord supreme. Banished to the wastes of Idaho for his many many sins

Fantastico: Plastic toy maker turned video-game maker turned console maker turned industry-cautionary-tale. Were responsible for the LotSH golden age of 1990-2000, and then also for whatever you want to call the 2001-2006 period.

Ito Makoto: The original creator of LotSH, and chief game designer until his death in 1998

Itokoto: Japanese game company that was the first publisher of LotSH and related games until it's bankrupcy in 1990

LotSH: Legend of the Starlight Hero. The main series of games for Astielle

Nichelle Augustin: Studio Head for White Spire Games. Also a former developer for Void Star Games who managed to grab the LotSH license and leap out of company headquarters right as the whole thing imploded in slow motion behind her.

Void Star Games: Owners of the Starlight Hero franchise from 2007-2015. Despite their best efforts, LotSH survived their stewardship.

White Spire Games: The current developers for LotSH since 2016.

Everything clear? Alright. Let's start at the beginning

=*=*=

Lute Bard Hero (2007) [Void Star Games] [Arcade/Wii/PS/Xbox]

[[A stylized Renfaire-esc bard playing a lute in a rockstar pose as magic explodes behind him. Jet Black from School of Rock has been crudely photoshopped over him]]

No, stop, don't click away! I swear I'm fucking serious! Let me explain.

It's 2006, era of Guitar Hero clones and endless Wii filler, and a spunky little studio named Void Star Games had just snagged up the rights to the Starlight Hero franchise in the aftermath of Fantastico's collapse. And while the studio heads plotted together in their dark crypts as to how best suck the joy and laughter and everything pure from the franchise, their shovelware department was put to work creating some quick and easy cash grabs to provide the funding.

One of these projects started as a generic Guitar Hero knockoff "with a twist". The twist being, you were a generic fantasy-world bard doing heavy metal rock if lutes were able to play heavy metal rock. Then the programmers realized that, hey, their company owned this great pre-existing fantasy world franchise that came with all sorts of pre-developed assets and started mining the entire Starlight Hero franchise for... easter eggs? Homages? Fanboying?

Regardless, what you wound up with was a too-short rock-opera where your first-person bardic protagonist traveled the countryside of 'Almost, but not quite Astielle', playing giant fantasy kingdom stadiums and rocking with Void-Magic Heavy Metal Rock, and occasionally defeating armies with wicked lute solos. If it had more than eight stages, or if they'd been able to hire someone halfway competent to write the music, it would've been awesome.

So why does this count as the first Astielle game and not just an easter-egg filled one-off? Well, the head developer of Lute Bard Hero was a bright young lady named Nichelle Augustin, and there was this other game she'd be head producer of a decade later...

=*=*=

Legend of the Starlight Hero XI - Stars Rising Infinite (2018) [White Spire Games] [XBox/PS/PC]

[[The boxart of Stars Rising Infinite featuring the Heavenly Trio in action poses.

Jet Black from School of Rock's head has once again been pasted over Vaelon's.

Brienne of Tarth's face has been pasted over Lynette’s.

Karzarul's head has been replaced with Baby Yoda's]]

*wicked heavy metal lute solo*

Go back and look at that lute in the screen shots above. Now look down at Vaelon's lute. Now look at the hands. Now compare the Aekhite Empire architecture with the architecture of the final concert arena. Now look at how Vaelon's primary mechanic is Void Magic powered by Heavy Metal Lute Solos.

[[Two screenshots side by side of first-person perspective from The Lute Bard and Vaelon with redlines connecting all the similarities. A piece of the background from Stars Rising Infinite that crudely approximates a triangle has also been outlined in red with a heavily pixilated illuminati pyramid next to it]]

Lute Bard Hero is Vaelon's prelude story. After that final blowout concert, he wound up chilling with the imperial family, hit it off with the eldest daughter, and wound up helping her run off on her quest to find fairies willing to hook her up with Goddess Smiting powers to kill her brother with.

The rest is history.

So. This game.

It really, really shouldn't have worked.

I have publicly made penance for all the unkind things I said about the concept when the first teasers dropped. I've left them up as proof that even the best of us can be young and stupid at times. But come on, it was an origin prequel that no-one asked for that retconned some of the basic foundations of the entire series and they blew a significant portion of the budget on getting Jet Black to voice one of the Celestial Trio!

It really, really shouldn't have worked as well as it did!

Obviously, this is the first main game of the series chronologically, no question of that. The Celestial Weapons don't even exist until halfway through the main campaign! So, a Shitass Long Time Ago, in a land that's the exact same land we've always been on, the Aekhite Empire is still in one piece and the eldest daughter of the dead emperor thinks her older brother sucks at the job and comes to the conclusion that the most logical and straightforward solution is to wrangle a Void Witch to her cause, track down the king of fairies, get him to help her acquire the divine blessing (and arsenal) or her patron goddess, then use those to depose her brother all while an epic-rock soundtrack plays in the background.

I love you, Lynette, but did you ever consider just hitting him with a brick?

Along the way, the Void Witch flirts with a reflection of moonlight so hard it manifests a Sphinx Cat fursona to flirt back with, everyone winds up getting Patron Goddess Blessings, and the most dysfunctional love/hate triangle in history proceeds to conquer the world before crashing and burning so hard it sets off the Unending Murdercycle that's shaped Astiellian history ever since.

Vaelon almost muscles Jonys out of the position of Best Starlight Hero.

Karzarul completes his journey from "What If Bowser was a Sexy Were-demon" to "What If A-Precious-Cinnamon-Roll-Who-Just-Needs-a-Hug was a Sexy Were-demon".

Lynette is the Queen Empress of Hot Messes, the answer to the eternal question 'Why are the Heirs Like That?' as well as the archetype of Video Game Playable Antihero that all future game-writers should learn from. She is beauty, she is grace, she will stab you in the face.

I have so much more to say about this game. And I have. Repeatedly. Check the sidebar. Or my YouTube channel. Or get cornered by me at Furcon.

[[Screenshot from the Winding Paths of Destiny DLC of the popular "Mothman" alternate monster form saving Vaelon, Lynette, and Lynette's horse during the canyon collapse scene]]

The DLC for this game is god-tier, but explicitly non-canonical, so I'll pass it by other than saying I hope the 'Venturing Off the Path of Destiny' mechanic becomes a series standard. I don't know how they'd manage the "Frantic Quicktime Button Mashing Choices that Result in new Monster Forms" mechanic from the alternate timelines, but the Gods of Astielle devs have made noises that something from that will be showing up. I'm hoping for Mothman. Everyone's hoping for Mothman. Long live Mothman, King of all Mothmans.

=*=*=

Stars Rising: Astiellian Warriors (2019) (White Spire Games) [XBox One, PS4]

[[A screenshot of the stampede scene from Lion King with Tauril heads pasted on all the wildebests and Lynette's face pasted over Simba]]

This is such a stupid game. I love it so much. It's a blatant Dynasty Warriors knockoff, it's got a multiverse/timestorm framing plot, the fucking Universal Dragon plays a major role, and the voice acting is for shit. But you can also plow through 1,000 soldiers as a Tauril before kicking their commander in the face so hard he flies halfway across the map and ragdolls Lynette right off her horse. Glorious.

Even within the story, 80% of it is explicitly non-canonical, what with the branching timelines and multiverse shenanigans, but The Untrammeled Path of Destiny is straight up how Astiellian history actually went. The fact it explains the details of the Aekhite Empire's expansion and Lynette's and Karzarul's shadow war way better than Stars Rising did is just a surprise welcome bonus.

=*=*=

Aekhite Empire: Eternal Zenith (2019) (White Spire Games) [PC/Mac]

[[An old Evony ad. The standard big boobed princess has been replaced with a seductive Abyssscale, and Aekhite Empire is pasted over "Evony". The 'Please Save Us, My Lord' text remains unaltered]]

I don't play much 4X games beyond Civ, so I can't speak to how balanced or polished or original the gameplay of EZ is, but any game that gives you combat bonuses for sexing the opposing general so hard their stats fall off, or reserves an entire gameplay loop to sending your boy toy out to open in-universe quick-travel points is alright by me. There's a lot of world-building and random details they put in this one that don't contradict anything from the core games, and I hope it continues to stay that way because I love every bit of it. It paints such a deliciously fucked up view of of pre-collapse Aekhite Empire and I love the additional look into Lynette's head via all the Event Decisions that come up during your 'Conquest for their own Good' of the world. The 'Political Maneuvering' minigame might've gotten cut from Stars Rising, but this is a very suitable replacement.

=*=*=

Monster Kingdom Builder (1997) [Fantacon/PlayStation/N64/PC/Gameboy/Game Gear] [Fantastico]

[[The American box art of Monster Kingdom Builder. If there's been any memes photoshopped in, they're too subtle to notice.]]

No, this is completely canonical! Look at the state of the Moonrise Kingdom at the end of Stars Rising Infinite. Now look at how the Moonrise Kingdom looks the next time we see it in (spoilers) Legend of the Starlight Hero I. Going from wooden "Ewok meets Art Deco" stylings to Silver-veined Marble columns and big crystal stain-glass windows?

Sounds like someone took Lynette's whole "Savage Kingdom of Sticks and Stones" speech a little personally and spent the next few decades playing an adorable city builder with perky chiptunes and chibi-Turial loading icons in order to spruce the place up for when she got back. "See, Lynette?", he'd ask, "I spent forty hours arranging all the construction bridges just right so I could get marble from the furthest quarry to the palace without loosing a single Rex to a canyon crossing! And the pathway spells out 'Please love me, Lynette" in Old Astian!'"

Pity Needle was too much of an asshole to notice all the hard work Karzarul had put in to spruce the place up for them. But what else can you expect from the guy?

=*=*=

Black Drakonis I-IV (1984-1990) [Nintendo/Atari/Sega Master/Fantacon/Others] [Itokoto]

[[Super Mario Brothers screenshot with The Hero pasted over Mario. Toad's text has been altered to "Thank you HERO! But our BLACK DRAKONIS HAS TAKEN another castle!]]

The third pillar of the the Metrokonisvania genre. Also known as Lair of the Ebon Dragon, Lair of the Black Drakon, or Drakonis' Castle depending on who was in charge of translating for each system. It wasn't until Black Drakonis II made enough American sales that Itokoto cared enough to ensure there was a single title across all systems. The Black Drakonis games have continued after the fourth, but the rights were bought by a different company, and the cross-continuity that'd developed between it and Astielle was (mostly) broken off. White Drakonis remains ones of Karzarul's iconic forms, and Black Drakonis was a surprise major character in Stars Rising Infinite, not only giving us some truly amazing/hilarious moments, but tying the original four BD games in even tighter with the Astiellian timeline.

The Black Drakonis games are relatively straightforward (storywise). A giant not!Dragon has taken over a local castle, and whatever poor sap who appears on the cover has been recruited to go deal with that... somehow. It was noteworthy at the time for having Black Drakonis be a force of nature to drive off as opposed to a Final Boss to deplete the health bar of. This was the series that got Itokoto known in the west, and paved the way for Legend of the Starlight Hero to perform as well as it did.

When White Drakonis appeared as Karzarul's final form in LotSH III, it was mostly an issue of reusing existing assets as part of the legendarily rushed and penny-pinching creation process. But Ito Makoto ran with it, bringing Black Drakonis herself into LotSH IV and officially tying the series together. And while everything from Black Drakonis V and onward is in its own unconnected universe, the first four slot in neatly in the early days of the Reincarnation Cycle as Black Drakonis continuously seeks out and claims poorly guarded (by her standards) castles/spires/megadungeons to guard until such time as some unnamed protagonist arrives to drive her back off.

=*=*=

Legend of the Starlight Hero III - Return to Monster Mountain (1987) [Nintendo/Sega Master/Fantacon] [Itokoto]

[[Box art of LotSH III with giant OSHA Violation tape draped over everything]]

This is what happens when you push for a sequel to come out eight months after the previous game, people. So, Black Drakonis II hit America in 1986 and was a huge hit out of nowhere. Then when LotSH II dropped six months later, it became one of the holiday season's biggest sellers. Itokoto management saw the sales figures and sent the orders down that they needed the next LotSH game ready for Christmas 1987 Or. Else.

They sent this order down in April, 1987. Some things in game development never change.

Under an unexpected time crunch, the team got "creative". A half-completed side-scroller with the working titles Crystal Warriors of the Underground got a bunch of Starlight Hero sprites thrown in, the backgrounds turned from weird magitech caverns into Monster Mountain, combat was changed from the time honored 'Jump on their heads' to 'hit it with a sword', and someone took Black Drakonis, painted her white, and dropped that sprite set in as Karzarul's final form.

Not that anyone got to see it.

This game was brooo~oooken. This wasn't broken as in the Nintendo Hard style of the first two games. At least with those, it's possible to get all the timing right to actually beat Karzarul into a puddle. With Return to Monster Mountain, however, it's impossible to even get to the final stage. Level 8 sees Starlight Hero having to navigate increasingly narrow platforms over the standard bottomless pits, all the while getting arrows shot at him by an offscreen Karzarul which push you back whenever you get hit. People have had AIs run this level. There is no pattern of movement that can take you successfully through the level. The Itokoto playtesters never had a chance to give the game a proper go-over before its release, and it never got taken care of. "Fortunately", most players just assumed they weren't good enough to get past it, assuming they even got that far in the first place.

Still, it's canonical that at some point before Needle, some poor-assed sap went to retrieve his birthright weapon and got shot off a cliff by Karzarul, who was probably feeling pretty damned crabby about all these Not Vaelons that kept coming around for the sword by this point.

RIP nameless Starlight Hero. Watch the first step. It's a doozy.

All this and we're not at Needle yet? Stars above! Let's continue this conversation another day, child. Next time: We -finally- get to Needle. And hopefully the other Needle. Maybe even Jonys! Hoboy, Jonys.

#Astielle #Unpretty #Metafiction #In-Character Timeline of Fictional Video Game series that exists as a framework conceit for Fictional Fantasy Series it's fanfic of #Why did I spend so much time on this?#I didn't even get to the actual first game

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neonbutchery · 2 years

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ME2 Overlord DLC, an autistic perspective

So, uh, this was a long time coming.

I must admit that I’ve never played the Overlord DLC until now, when I’ve gotten around to playing ME:LE, which included all DLCs-but I had heard about it both from casual players who commented certain moments, and other autistic ME fans who chimed in to give their thoughts. I’m autistic myself, and needless to say, I was very intrigued to see how Overlord dealt with autism, disability, and the horror inflicted upon the different. I will try and update this as I play the DLC, so I can put down my thoughts.

Obligatory disclaimer that this is just my own opinion and perspective, and I’m in no way, shape or form, a spokesperson for my whole community. I also want to make it very clear that this will not be a formal essay with citations and sources: this is a post on tumblr dot com written by a college student and that mainly draws from a) my experiences as an autistic person b) the stereotypes surrounding autism in media and c) the history of the treatment of autistic and neurodivergent people, including institutionalized torture.

CONTENT WARNING: mentions of ableism and torture inflicted upon disabled people. I will not include any graphic images. Also, Overlord DLC spoilers.

Overlord starts with the premise of a Cerberus research facility that had been researching experimental science going off-the-grid, which prompts Shepard/the player to go investigate. How shocking, the organization that also experimented on biotic children, rachni, husks and Thorian creepers is having problems with yet another of their questionable scientific projects. Who would have thought? (Clarifying that this is sarcasm).

Once you arrive at Aite, the planet where the base is set in, you meet Gavin Archer, the leader of Project Overlord, who vaguely explains you what happened, how everything went to hell, and how there's a rogue VI that has infiltrated the facilities' systems and now wants to take over the galaxy. Keep in mind that the VI situation is presented at first as the villain of the plot, which becomes relevant when you later learn what is behind it.

The first sections of the DLC aren't that bad. I really loved the gameplay, being able to use the Hammerhead for something other than picking minerals up, and LOVED the whole design of Prometheus station, which was like a crossover between Giger and Dead Space aaand now I want a full ME game in this style.

Then we get to Atlas station, and, in my opinion, that's where the trouble begins. The first log we encounter from Archer describes David's autism as a "handicap until now", evoking the stereotypes that autistic people are somehow impaired (because we don't behave like allistics do), and, at the same time, that we somehow have some sort of "superpower" thanks to our condition. What this log tells us is something I've unfortunately seen before: some people will demean us for being autistic until it's suddenly convenient for them. Autism is bad because we stim, can't make eye contact, or communicate verbally, and the only good thing from it is what society sees as "genius". We are not a burden just because we have different ways of expressing ourselves or needs that aren't often met by conventional society. We deserve to exist, even if we aren't geniuses or revolutionaries.

And that ties into my wider issues with David's characterization: he's another version of the only autistic characters we ever see in media, (mostly) white, cis men who aren't able to behave by neurotypical standards, and who are extremely good at memory, math, and numbers.

Is it the most harmful thing in regards to autism rep in media? No. But as someone who doesn’t fit most of those molds, and who knows many autistic people who also don’t, it’s frustrating. While probably unintentional on Bioware's part, it ends up repeating the same cliche and establishing one autistic experience as the universal one and erasing the rest that are across the spectrum. It's called that way for a reason, dammit.

You fight through the station, get into the weird virtual matrix VI-thingy, and finally learn what the hell happened. David is a mathematic savant and is able to learn how to communicate with geth; intrigued, Archer decides to take the project one step further and (forcibly) integrate his brother into a VI to control the geth. The result is horrifying in more than one way and looks like something straight out of Warhammer 40k, with a gratuitous dose of mechanical body horror. I won't put an image, but if you've played the DLC or google it, you know exactly what I'm talking about. This is just a side note: while I'm not opposed to fictional depictions of violence, and ME is a universe with plenty of it, I can't help but think of the institutionalized torture autistic people are put through in real life under the name of therapy when I see what David went through. If you want an example, read about the Judge Rotenberg center.

Overlord's end has you deciding what to do with David: either rescue him from his brother and send him to Grissom Academy (where he makes a cameo in ME3) or allow him to stay with Archer (which leads to him continuing being part of the project and eventually, being euthanized by Gavin). Complaining about such a decision being available would be silly since this is also a game trilogy where you can commit genocide three times, but I still don't like how a) the agency of an adult autistic man is stripped away b) the narrative gives Gavin Archer room to cry a river about how he didn't mean for it to happen and oh poor him. Let me play you a song on the world's tiniest violin.

That's the point of the "essay" where you yell at me in the notes about how Gavin Archer is a character that you aren't meant to like, and with that, I agree. He's a POS who decided that experimenting on his brother would be a good idea, and one of the few ME characters I actually hate with a burning rage. And, as I said before, it would be hypocritical of me to complain about Archer doing and saying bad things in the game where you can befriend assassins and war criminals. But you, the player, Shepard, are the one who scorns Archer (as he should), and we never learn anything else about David or how he felt about the project other than he was in pain, or about the fact that, you know, his brother, who he trusted, tortured him in the name of science.

This is where my main issue lies: David has no agency in the entirety of the DLC or his characterization. His life and character arc are narrated through other characters, Archer and Shepard. Admittedly, when you actually meet David he really isn't in the position to make a speech, but we see him being able to communicate (in a neurotypical way) throughout flashbacks. One of, and probably the only, explicitly autistic characters in the history of the franchise is relegated to not being in charge of his own story and narrative. Again, this is not the first nor the last time this is done in media—autistic stories tend to be told both in and out of universe by allistic people, and we're constantly excluded from our own narratives, because we're infantilized and/or deemed as unreliable. When autism comes up in media it's to talk about how it affects those around us, but almost never about us. I'm not saying David needed to become a squadmate or romance interest, but getting to know and interact with him in a wider context that wasn't a full on torture scene, and getting to hear his story told by him would've been nice.

There's also the othering. Both the characters and narrative present David not as a human being, but as an other, with Archer explicitly calling him a human supercomputer. I'm a huge sci-fi fan and love my aliens and robots, but we're often seen as robotic, weird, or, well, alien. I would probably feel different if this had been written by an autistic person, and I'm not saying neurodivergence in non-human characters shouldn't be represented, but it's a nuanced topic and characterization with a lot of ways to execute it, and this wasn't one of them. The connection and similarities David might have with the geth only serve to hammer home what the narrative has been telling us this whole time: that autistic people are the others, and that because their brains are wired in a different way, they're akin to computers, not human beings. Hell, I even think that pulling a JKR (minus the bigotry) and saying that Mordin or Liara were autistic a decade after the game's release would have been better representation, even if that also has its fair share of issues. All of that combined with the fact that this is probably the only instance that we get an explicitly neurodivergent character in the trilogy—and it's a dehumanized caricature that relies on allistic conceptions and torture porn—just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

So, where do we go from here? Can we do something that is more productive than complaining about it on Tumblr? At least in my opinion, the harm is done. BW removing the Overlord DLC from ME:LE or the ME2 DLC or issuing a notes app apology via social media would just be performative and accomplish nothing. Overlord is one of many cases of bad autistic representation, and pretending like it never happened wouldn't be productive for anyone.

But Bioware isn't dead. They're currently working on new ME and DA titles, and personally, I think that this could be a great chance to put neurodivergent/autistic rep in their games and this time, do it well by hiring neurodivergent consultants or (better yet) writers. We're the ones who know the nuances and difficulties that our experiences carry, and even though the topic of good representation isn't black and white and has a lot of debate surrounding it, we should be able to tell our own stories and handle delicate topics in a way that doesn't feel outright careless or hateful.

As a final note, April is Autism Acceptance Month. If you’re interested on learning more about autism, autistic people, or helping our community, there are many resources out there, but I recommend starting with ASAN, an organization by and for autistic people based in the US. If you know of any local organizations based in your country that do good work and are led by autistic people, feel free to add them in the reblogs. The Twitter tags #Creatingwithautism and #CreatingwithASD are also good places to find artists and creators on the spectrum and support them.

I encourage any other autistic folks out there to add onto this post, or if disagreeing with something, tell me about it. This is a free social media platform and I can't control what people do, but I'll prioritize autistic voices in this conversation. I'm willing to answer any questions as long as they're in good faith.

And before anyone comes here asking: no, liking ME2/the Overlord DLC doesn't make you a bad person. But refusing to listen to marginalized groups in regards of their representation in mainstream media and belittling their concerns does.

#mass effect #meta #mass effect 2 #overlord dlc #this was a long rant and i'm sorry

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ticktockmyclockworkhart · 3 years

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who do u think made cals body

i mean it obviously wasnt scott or damien

i like to think it was vicky

Yes, that’s my hc too actually!!

I mean not completely but I think Vicky definitely did a lot of helping. In my Monster Prom universe/interpretation (of sorts) I think Vicky was the one to both release Zoe from her totem and also help Cal become a real student, though she was a lot more actively involved with the Zoe situation than Cal’s.

(Since the DLC is the second term, I like to think both of those events happened first term of their junior year, Cal and Zoe joined as actual students at second term of junior year.)

Vicky was, like, actively responsible for obtaining the Power Totem of Z’gord, but the Floppy Disk was something Scott and Damien got their hands on on their own (again, in my interpretation, thing with visual novel dating sims with so many potential endings is you really have to specify what happened in “your” version of how the game’s story went lmao) and when things started to go especially weird with the computer that would become Calculester, at that point both of them tracked Vicky down for help because they’re both idiots and know Vicky is probably one of the smartest people in the whole school. I think she came in and out of the Floppy Disk ending shenanigans never fully engaged, just getting regularly called in by Scott and Damien whenever something went wrong (or they at least thought something did) and it was kind of a trip for her considering there was some new crazy shit happening every time she got called back to the situation. Like Scott downloaded an obvious virus? Typical. The computer is emitting purple smoke? What? The computer is now sentient and riding around on an office chair in a trench coat and trilby hat trying to pass as a student? Okay, how did we get here?

She and Cal nonetheless got along pretty good getting to bond over all the times Vicky had to step away from her already insane pre-prom shenanigans to micromanage whatever the hell Scott and Damien got him into this time and just relating over being two out of like five monsters tops who actually understood morality. She was also the one to introduce Cal to Oz the following semester as she was pretty sure they would get along great with how refreshingly sane and kind Cal is and how gentle Oz is, plus them both having the same social struggles (she was VERY right, but that’s neither here nor there).

I think between semesters Cal was the one to construct the blueprints for his eventual body, crunch the numbers, make adjustments to ensure everything stayed together and moved properly, evaluate the best materials for the construction, etc, and with Vicky’s knowledge of engineering she was able to help him put it together. When it comes to physical assembly I think Vicky started on her own, but by the time Cal’s head, upper torso and one of his arms were in place he became pretty helpful in contributing to his assembly.

That got really off topic lol but that’s the beauty of a game with so many endings and interpretations like Monster Prom is that we really do be out here practically with our own whole AUs for each individual person with just how the game events played out for our depictions of the characters and I get carried away infodumping about mine lol

#monster prom #monster prom hyperfixation #calculester #vicky schmidt #oz yellow #monster prom according to a spider on the wall

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doycetopia · 13 years

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Mass Effect, Tolkien, and Your Bullshit Artistic Process

It may seem a bit odd that I’m posting this here rather than on my gaming-related blog, since it is about the Mass Effect game series and other related geekery. I debated where I should post it, but ultimately this is about writing as much or more than it’s about gaming, so here it is. Everything that follows is my opinion and, further, is infested with spoilers for both the Mass Effect series and, I suppose, The Lord of the Rings. Reader beware.

In late February, I said (on twitter) that I thought the Mass Effect universe was probably the most important science fiction of a generation.

Since then, the executive producer for Mass Effect 3 has been working tirelessly to get me to retract that statement.

If you follow gaming news at all, you’ll already know that there have been great clouds of dust kicked over this particular story — the gist of it is that Mass Effect was brought to a conclusion with the release of Mass Effect 3 (note: not brought to its conclusion, just brought to a conclusion — more on that later), and while 99% of the game was the same top-notch, engaging, tear-inducing stuff that we’ve come to expect, the last five minutes or so is a steaming, Hersey’s Kiss-sized dollop of dog shit that you are forced to ingest at the conclusion of the meal, like a mint, before they let you out the door.

It’s fair to say that it’s soured many players’ impression of the experience as a whole.

Now, I realize that many of the folks reading this may not have played through the Mass Effect series. First of all, that’s really too bad, because it is very, very good both in terms of play (which steadily improves from game to game) and story (barring one steaming exception) and (I think) completely worth the time.

But secondly, I’d like to keep you non-ME people involved in the conversation, so I’m going to draw a comparison that I think most anyone likely to visit here will understand, so that we can all proceed with reasonable understanding of the issues.

Let’s pretend for a moment that The Lord of the Rings was released not as a series of books, but a series of games. More importantly, the company behind the series decided to do something really hard but rewarding with the game — they were going to let you make decisions during play that substantively altered the elements of the story. That means that some of people playing through this Lord of the Rings story would end up with a personal game experience that was pretty much exactly like the one you and I all remember from reading the books, but that story is just sort of the default. Whole forums were filled up by fans of the series comparing notes on their versions of the game, with guides on how to get into a romantic relationship with Arwen (the obvious one), Eowyn (more difficult, as you have to go without any kind of romance option through the whole first game, but considered by many to be far more rewarding), or even Legolas (finally released as DLC for the third game).

And that’s certainly not all of possible permutations. Some players actually managed to save Boromir (though he leaves the party regardless, but gets you a whole extra army in the third game if he’s alive, and makes Denethor much less of a pain in the ass to deal with). Some folks don’t split up the party, and spend most of the game recruiting supporters through the South and North, from Aughaire down to Dol Imren. For some, Gimli dies at Helms Deep; for others only Merry escapes into Fangorn (which makes recruiting the Ents all but impossible). Hell, there are even a few weirdos who chose NOT to recruit Samwise back at the beginning of the story, and actually play through the whole first game without him (though the writers reintroduce him as a non-optional party member once you get ready to leave Lothlorien).

And what about the players who rolled the main character as a female? That changes a LOT of stuff, as you might well imagine. (Though, thankfully, all the dialogue options with Legolas are the same.)

Are you with me so far?

Okay, so you’re playing through this game — you’ve played through parts 1 and 2 several times, in fact, sometimes as a goody-two-shoes, and sometimes as a total bad-ass. You’ve got a version of the game where you’re with Arwen, one with Eowyn, one with Legolas, and one where you focus on Frodo and his subtle hand-holding bromance with Sam. You’re ready for Part Three, is what I’m saying, and out it comes.

And it’s awesome. You finally bring lasting alliance between Rohan and Gondor, you form a fragile-yet-believable peace between elves and dwarves, and even manage to recruit a significant strike-force of old Moria orcs who don’t so much like you as much as they just hate the johnny-come-lately Uruk-hai.

The final chapters open. You face down Saruman (who pretended to fund all your efforts through the second book, but then turned on you at the end of the Two Towers), which was really satisfying. You crawl up to the top of Mount Doom, collapse against a rock, and have a really touching heart to heart with Sam. It’s over. You know you have all your scores high enough to destroy the One Ring with no crisis of conscious and no lame “Gollum bit off my finger and then falls in the lava” ending, like the one you saw on the fanfic forums last year.

And then out comes this glowing figure from behind a rock, and it’s… Tom Bombadil.

And Tom explains your options.

Oh, and you're totally going to die too. And all the roads and horses throughout all of middle earth vanish. And by the way did you know that Sauron and the Nazgul all actually just work for Bombadil? True story.

Now, let’s just ignore the fact that the company behind this game has been quoted many times as saying that the game will end with no less than sixteen different endings, to honor all the various ways the story could go, and focus on these three options.

None of them have anything to do with destroying the ring, do they?

Has ‘destroying the ring’ (alternately, destroying Sauron) been pretty much THE THING you’ve been working toward the whole game? Yeah, it has. In fact, it mentions “Rings” right there in the title of the series, doesn’t it? Rather seems to make The Ring a bit of a banner item, doesn’t it?

But no, none of these options are about the Ring; they’re about one of the b-plots in the series, and one which you pretty much already laid to rest a few chapters ago.

So… okay, maybe this isn’t the END ending, you think, and you pick one of the options…

And that’s it. A bunch of cut-scenes play, Mount Doom explodes with fiery red light, you die, and the credits roll. The end.

Ohhh-kay. Maybe that was the bad ending. Let’s reload a save and pick option 2…

Same. Exact. Cut scenes. Except Mount Doom’s explosion is green. What?

Alright… umm… let’s check #3…

Nope. Mount Doom’s explosion is Blue. That’s it.

And, absolutely inexplicably, every single one of these cut scenes shows Gandalf, Aragorn, and SAMWISE escaping the explosion on one of the eagles and crash-landing somewhere in Lorien where they all pat themselves on the back and watch the sun set together.

What? But… Sam was with you. Aragorn and Gandalf… did they start running away halfway through the last fight at the Black Gate? Your boys abandoned you?

So, given this example, it’s possible — even for someone who didn’t play Mass Effect — to understand the fan’s reaction. The ending has no real connection to the rest of the story; barring the last scene and one conversation with an unnamed Nazgul in Book 3, it would lift right out with no one even noticing. It completely takes away your choices at the end of a game about making world-altering choices. It effectively destroys the Middle Earth that you were fighting for 100 hours of gameplay to preserve — no magic? Maybe a completely wiped out dwarven race? No one can travel anywhere without painstakingly rebuilding roads for a couple hundred years and replacing horses with something else? Also, no matter what, no matter how much ass you kick, you’re dead? Yeah. No thanks, man.

And that’s not even paying attention to stuff like how (and why) Sam and Gandalf and Strider ran away at the end. I mean… even if you’re going to do a shitty twist ending, don’t be so goddamn lazy about it. Don’t sit there and claim that criticism of the ending is an attack on your artistic product, because frankly that ending is full of holes and needs a rewrite and probably two more chapters to flesh out. (More on that in a bit.)

So… that’s where the Mass Effect franchise was after ME3 came out. A lot of confusion. A lot of rage. Some protests of a very interesting sort, where the gamers against the terrible ending decided to draw attention to the issue by raising something like seventy-thousand bucks for geek-related charities.

Now, let’s go a bit deeper.

Let’s continue with this Lord of the Rings video game analogy. Let’s say that after a bit of digging, people realized that Tolkien actually left the company to work on other projects before the game was complete. He wrote up a detailed outline, though; something that clearly spelled out exactly how the main arc of the story was supposed to play out, in broad strokes, basically laying out what we would expect the ending to be, pretty much.

But Tolkien left. So they get another guy in. Someone else who’s written stuff about some kind of powerful ring…

They get Steven R. Donaldson.

(Those of you who know me and my history with the Thomas Covenant books can guess that this analogy is not going to be a positive one, because seriously: fuck Thomas Covenant.)

So they get this Donaldson guy in to helm the end of the series, and it turns out he’s the guy who comes up with the Tom Bombadil, fuck-the-continuity-of-the-series ending.

Why? Maybe he’s pissed about being the second choice. Maybe he’s not getting paid enough to give a fuck. Maybe he just really wants to do this kind of story, but can’t be arsed to write a series of his own for which it makes sense. Maybe the original ending outlined by Tolkien got leaked on a forum the year before the last game came out, so people decided it had to be changed, even if the alternative makes no sense. I don’t know.

What I do know is the there was a different ending written out for the Mass Effect series, the short version of which is that the Big Reveal in ME3 is that the Mass Effect itself — the magical black-box technology that allows interstellar travel and powers a ton of other things from weapons to expensive toothbrushes — is causing a constant increase in dark energy in the galaxy, and that’s causing all kinds of bad things (like the accelerated death of stars).

The Mass Effect — you know, the thing from which the name of the series is derived — is the secret behind the Big Reveal. Who would have thought?

So, in the end of the game-as-envisioned, you’re given a choice of saving the galaxy by sacrificing the human race (making humanity into a biomechanical, synthetic-life, communal-intelligence “Reaper” that can stop the Dark Energy decay), or telling the Reapers to screw themselves and trying to fix the problem on your own (with a handful of centuries left before the Dark Energy thing snowballs and grows out of control on its own).

Which, in a word, would have been better. Certainly FAR better than some kind of stupid Tom Bombadil/Star Child explanation where we are told that the (synthetic AI) Reapers destroy advanced organic civilizations every 50 thousand years to prevent organic civilizations from… being destroyed by synthetic AIs.

Now we don’t just have some gamer complaints about the terrible ending, we have a demonstrably better ending that was actually supposed to be the one implemented. Complicates things, doesn’t it?

But Why All the Hate?

The simple fact of the matter is that Mass Effect is a story, and it’s a very good story — in my opinion, it’s one of the best stories I’ve ever experienced. People can hem and haw about what constitutes a story — about whether a game can really be a story if people can play it — as though a story is only a story if it’s spoken or written or projected up on a movie screen. That’s like saying a person is only a person if they walk or ride a horse or drive a car… because we all know the vehicle in which the subject is conveyed changes that subject’s inherent nature.

Some people say it’s not a real story because the player’s choices can alter it. I think they’re full of crap, and I say the proof of its power as a story is right there in the story-pudding — it affects me as a story does — and that’s all the criteria met. Walks like duck, quacks like duck, therefore duck.

But the problem (if you’re BioWare) is that human beings understand stories; we know how they’re supposed to work, thanks to thousands of years of cultural training. Mass Effect (until that conclusion) is a nigh-perfect example of how a story is done correctly, thanks in part to the medium, which allows (if you’ll permit me the slaughter of a few sacred cows) a level of of immersion and connection beyond what a book or movie or any other storytelling medium up to this point in our cultural history can match, because of the fact that you can actively take part in that story from the inside. Heresy? Fine, brand me a heretic; that’s how I see it.

And since it’s such a good story, people know how the thing is supposed to proceed, and they know how it should end.

You start out in ME1 trying to stop a bad guy, Saren. He’s the guy who gets us moving (because he’s a bad guy, and that’s what they do — bad guys act, and heroes react to that and move the story along). As we try to stop him, we find out there’s something bigger going on than just a rogue cop on a rampage. The picture keeps getting bigger, the stakes keep getting higher, and we keep getting our motivation and our level of commitment tested. Are we willing to sacrifice our personal life? Yes? Okay, will we sacrifice one of our friends? Yes? Okay, how about the leaders of the current galactic government? Yes? Okay…

It goes on like that. You fucking invest, is what I’m saying, and that’s just in the first game.

In the second game, the fight continues, as we have merely blunted the point of the spear, not stopped the attack. Our choices in ME1 had consequences, and we start to see them play out, for better or worse. Meanwhile, we’re trying to stop Evil Plan #2, in a suicide mission that could literally cost us nearly every single friend we’ve made. In the end, we get the joy of victory mixed with the sadness of the loss of those who didn’t make it, and it’s all good, because it’s a strong, healthy, enjoyable emotional release.

And now it’s ME3, and the stakes are even higher. We’re not recruiting more individual allies — we’re recruiting whole peoples — whole civilizations. Planets are falling. Worlds are being erased.

In the words of Harbinger, this hurts you.

Why? Because you know these people who are dying. You’ve spent over a hundred hours traveling this setting, meeting people, helping them, learning about each of their little stories; building relationships with, literally, hundreds of individuals. Every one of these planets going up in flames has a face (even if it’s a face behind a breathmask), and no one falls in this final story that wasn’t important in some way to you or someone you know.

(By contrast, the enemy is faceless and (since the reapers harvest your former allies and force them into monstrous templates) largely indistinguishable from one another — as it should be in this kind of story. You do not care about a Husk, though you might mourn the person killed to create the thing.)

In short, you aren’t just playing this game to get the high score. You’re fighting for this galaxy of individuals you’ve grown very, very attached to; to protect it and, as much as you can, preserve it. You’ve spent several hours every day on this, for months. It matters.

"Hard to imagine galaxy. Too many People. Faceless. Statistics. Easy to depersonalize. Good when doing unpleasant work. For this fight, want personal connection. Can't anthropomorphize galaxy. But can think of favorite nephew. Fighting for him."

(Best of all, you get to shoot bad guys in the face while you’re doing it, which takes this heavy topic and makes it engaging at that level as well. It’s like soaking up all the gravitas of Schindler’s List while enjoying the BFG-toting action of Castle Wolfenstein at the same time.)

The end comes. We talk to all our friends. Everyone’s wearing their brave face, talking about what they’re going to do afterwards, which beach they’re going to retire on. You start to think that maybe the end is in sight and maybe, just maybe, you might even be able to see some of that ending.

The last big conflict starts. You fight some unkillable things and kill them. You face off against an old nemesis and finally end him.

And then…

And then you’re given three choices, none of which result in anything any different from the others, and none of which have consequences that have any connection to the goals we’ve been working on for the last hundred hours or so.

Those people you were just talking to? They’re gone. Or stranded on an alien world. Or dead. All those planets you helped? They’re gone too — cut off, or starving, or maybe just destroyed in manufactured super-novas. Nothing you did or accomplished in the last three games actually matters — it’s all been wiped out by one of three (red, green, or blue) RESET buttons you pushed, because pushing one of those buttons was the only ‘choice’ given to you at the end.

As a species, trained for thousands of years in the way stories work, we know this is a bad ending. Not “tragic”. Just bad. Poor.

This isn’t about a bunch of priviledged gamers complaining about a sad ending, because there are well-done sad endings that make contextual sense.

This is about a mechanical ending to the game that doesn’t end the story — that provides no emotional release — one so disassociated from the previous 99% of the story that the fans of the series collectively hope it will later be revealed to be a dream (or, in the context of the setting, a final Reaper Indoctrination attempt).

Dear writers: If you create something, and your readers hope that what you just gave them was, in reality, an “it was a dream all along” ending, because that would be better than what you wrote, you seriously. fucked. up.

Is the ending, as an ending (taken out of context with the game we’ve been playing), a bad one? No. It’s an interesting theme that was explored extensively in a B-plot within the series and which could certainly be the central thread of a series of its own.

But it’s not the ending of this story. Our goals — the one we’ve been fighting for — are never addressed. There is no closure, either happy or sad — we want our emotional release as it relates to the game we actually played. Maybe that means tragedy at our own stupid hands — maybe victory wrested from the biomechanical jaws of defeat (and at the cost of a greater looming danger ahead).

The ending we got? It didn’t make me angry or sad or happy. It left me unfulfilled, because it ended the game talking about something I didn’t actually care about, and left me waiting for that emotional release that ME1 or ME2 pulled off so well.

The idea that the player’s should just deal with the ending, because it’s Bioware’s ending and not theirs is one of the interesting points in this debate, simply because it rides this weird line where we don’t really have a cultural context for what the Mass Effect series is: Is it a game? Is it a story? If if it’s a game, then who cares about the story, and if it’s a story, then treat it like a book and stop pretending you get to influence it, stupid consumer.

The answer is more complicated: Is it a game or story? Yes. Moreover, it’s a game that’s welcomed player input into the narrative from the first moment, and as such, should be committed to honoring that input throughout. It’s a story, but it belongs to everyone telling it.

But It’s Art! There’s a recurring tune being played by Bioware in response to this outcry, and it goes something like this: “We might respond to these complaints, and we might flesh out the ending we presented, but we’re not going to change anything, because this is art — this is the product of artists — and as such it is inviolate and immutable in the face of outside forces.”

Which is, speaking as a working artist, complete and utter horseshit.

If you make a movie, and you put in front of focus groups, and they categorically hate the ending, you change it. If you’re writing a book and your first readers tell you the ending is terrible, you fix it. (Ditto your second readers, your second-draft readers, your agent, your editor, your copy editor.)

Or maybe you don’t — maybe you say “this is art, and it is inviolate and immutable in the face of outside forces”, which is certainly your choice — but don’t expect anyone to help you bring that piece of crap to print.

Anyone can tell a story. You can sit in your special writing nook and turn out page after page of perfectly unaltered, immutable art and be quite happy — you’re welcome to, in fact.

But when you decide you want to make a living off it? Even if you want to just make a little spending money?

Then the rules change. Then it’s work. Then it’s a job. More importantly, then it’s part of a business model, and those golden days of your art being inviolate and immutable blah blah blah are well and truly behind you. Name me a story that saw print, or a movie that saw the Big Screen, and I’ll show you art that changed because of input from someone other than the the original creator — from someone looking at it from the point of view of the consumer.

Bioware is a company. Making their stories into games is their business model. Hiding behind some kind of “but it’s art, so we’re not changing it” defense is insulting, disingenuous, and flat-out stupid. Worse, it perpetuates the idea that the creator’s output is in some stupid way sancrosant and, as art, cannot be “wrong” or “bad”. If you as a creator imagine that to be the case — if you think that kind of argument is going to defend your right to never do a rewrite or a revision or line edits or to ever alter, in any way, your precious Artistic Process — discard that notion.

Or become accustomed to a long life as an “undiscovered talent”.

original post

#crosspost #mass effect #randomaverage

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permafusion-stevonnie · 3 years

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So this idea isn’t leaving my head. While I’m not going to get it started for now, since I want to concentrate on my current Stevonnie comic, ideas are still ticking away and I just really wanted to draw this cover for the idea.

Maybe I’ll get its own page started in time. I’ll let you know if I do. But even if I did, I wouldn’t expect regular updates to it, not while I’m working on Together Forever.

I want to quickly say something that I think some people may have gotten confused about when I was talking about the Fallout Universe before:

Crystal Gems are still called Crystal Gems, but their role is similar, but not the same as the Brotherhood of Steel. In that they are isolationists, who will try to protect humanity from dangerous gem technology, and corrupted gems. they aren’t bothered with human mutants, human problems, or human technology. But I feel that, ove time, Steven will help their character growth away from this and help them, at least, start opening up to the local comminuty and helping where they can.

Homeworld Authority is still called Homeworld, or The Authority, but take on a similar role to the Enclave. They view themselves as the rightful masters of earth and they’re automatically more superior to any other lifeform by birthright.

I have been thinking over what could have occurred to create this world, how’s this for a (work in progress) backstory: (ended up a lot longer than I thought it would, so I’m space saving by putting in this break)

The Gem colonisation of earth happened later than it did in canon. A couple of thousand years, maybe. Unlike the 6000 years ago in canon, it was perhaps 5000, or maybe 4000 years ago. Enough for a bigger human civilisation to take part in the gem war for earth.

Pink still gets her colony started, still changes her mind about it, and finally chooses to become Rose Quartz to lead the rebellion. I think the human zoo will still be made, because I like the idea of that being around to give a mash-up of the human zoo and the mother ship zeta dlc from Fallout 3.

What really diverges from the timeline is when the rebellion starts fighting back with larger groups of human allies. 4000 (or 5000) years ago we are talking some good military strategies, chariots, bows and arrows, cavalries and tactics, etc. Some research will be needed to really flesh out the lore.

Homeworld, facing a bigger threat than a hundred or so rebels, puts a little more effort into research and development of newer technologies to counteract the human strategies. Nothing develops technologies quite like war.

Rose and the others start capturing some technologies from Homeworld and start studying them to not only understand them, but even attempting to reverse engineer them. They obviously won’t be able to replicate the weapons in form, but hope to do so in function.

This is where Scribes would come in for the Crystal Gems are the replacement for the Brotherhood of Steel that I’ve talked about before. Some Gems and some clever humans, would dedicate themselves to trying to understand the newer Gem technology they’re starting to see.

With inventive people like Bismuth to build their own version of it.

The actual Gem Technology will be locked away in the temple- or whatever name I may give it- but the remake versions that the Crystal Gems turn out will be spread far and wide.

I’m just thinking off the top of my head, but it’d be like- if they tried to make their own version of the gem destabiliser, it would be like a giant tuning fork hooked up to something similar to a large Baghdad Battery (google it, it’s kinda cool) that they would carry in a backpack.

The war would carry on like that, with Homeworld making new tech to combat the threat, sooner or later the rebellion captures some, they make their own version of it, and Homeworld makes new tech to combat the threat.

This drain on resources does take its toll on Homeworld though, and their war against earth is perhaps much shorter, between 300 and 800 years, I haven’t decided yet.

Things do play out similar to canon though. Homeworld decides to abandon earth as a lost cause, implant the Cluster so they’ll get something out of the deal and the three Diamonds blast the earth with their powers as a final middle finger to the rebels.

Gems are destroyed, except for the original Crystal Gems, and Bismuth! Canon Bismuth made a lot of regular weapons and armour and the rebellion was still losing. She was driven to making the Breaking Point because she didn’t think they had a chance of winning any other way. In this new canon, however, because Bismuth was working on newer and newer weapons all the time, each one she was confident would help turn the tide of the war, she never had chance to work on the ultimate weapon of the Breaking Point. She may have designed it, or may have the idea kicking around the back of her mind, but never got around to building it.

Rose does her thing of finding somewhere isolated to live in both peace and regret for the war. This is where the Crystal Gems become isolationists

With the Gems gone, humans are left to their own devices with all this more advanced technology than they should have in this point in history. Tech continues to develop with this head start.

Fast forward to the year 1929 and people are living lives as you’d see in the Fallout universe in the 2070′s. Nuclear fulled cars, robot assistants, laser rifles and power armour and all that other stuff.

The reason I chose 1929 is two-fold. The first Fallout game was set 84 years after the nuclear war, and 84 years after 1929 is the year 2013; the year Steven Universe first aired.

The failing of the world is the same reason the Fallout universe failed. Resources started to become scarce, wars started over what remained and the whole thing was escalated by a race that may have been too young to fully understand the forces they were really dealing with, having come a long way, but still too fast, thanks to the ancient interference.

Nuclear hellfire rained down and some people took their shelter in the vaults, while everyone else had to find ways to survive outside.

Rose and the Gems stick to their isolation as humanity all but wipes itself out. Rose is heartbroken to see the beautiful world that she fought so hard for, so easily destroyed. There can be a lot to explore there. Maybe Rose will leave the group, maybe she’ll just wander off and be alone a lot but still return to the temple eventually. I haven’t decided yet.

Perhaps all the gems will have some additional guilt, knowing that their old tech is what pushed humanity so far so fast.

Fast forward 70 years and Rose meets a travelling wastelander named Greg. They fall in love. I’m not going to go into a lot of detail here mostly because I haven’t really thought too much about it, but partly because I know I want it to be explored within the story itself to show how different from canon it would be. Not just the flashback elements from “Story for Steven,” and "We Need to Talk," with a Fallout flair. I want to work out some other nice adventures to bring them together.

Rose and Greg come back to Beach City with Rose expecting their baby.

Steven is born and the Gems immediately take custody, with the logic that their secure base is a better place for Steven to grow up than the harsh wasteland. Greg is allowed to visit as often as he likes, but not stay there. Nor is Steven allowed off the base. They want to protect the legacy of their leader, Rose.

I’m going to say that Steven starts showing hints of Gem powers around 10 years old. Nothing he can control. Perhaps his Gem glows when he’s really happy, if he falls down some steps his bubble forms but immediately pops so it’s just enough to save him from injury. Little things like that.

But this serves as a point where The Gems start “encouraging” Greg to visit less and leave the raising of Steven to them, as his upbringing has now become “Gem Business”

Steven may have snuck off the base once or twice to see the world beyond the base, but after this he’ll do it a lot more often to see his dad and the Beach City settlement.

I think Bismuth suspects he sneaks off but both can’t prove it, and doesn’t want to try and prove it, Garnet knows but says nothing, both of them are letting Steven have his fun, and Pearl has no idea he does it.

Amethyst is not part of the group in the beginning, she’s out as part of a raider gang somewhere. Thank you to theyarheeguy for giving me that idea, and many others, to work with.

A total of 84 years after the bombs dropped, Steven is now 12 years old, sneaking off the base for another visit to town, when he spots a pretty young girl dressed in a strange blue jumpsuit, emerging from a hidden trapdoor that was underneath the old Beach City water-tower.

Steven is 12 because I believe that’s how old he was when the show started. Based on the timeline, the passing of the seasons and so on, he has to have a 13th birthday that we don’t see on screen, before we do see his 14th birthday.

#art #my art #cover #fallout #Fallout AU #Steven Universe AU #long post #lore dump #work in progress #wip

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rpgchoices · 2 years

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Sometimes I really want to read a short summary of what to expect from a game… and thankfully people can also submit their summaries of games they played and help me (and others) find games that cater to their interests!

submitted by @lairofsentinel

(click here for other videogames)

what to expect from THE TALOS PRINCIPLE [and Road to Gehenna]

Story-driven puzzle game. It has exploration elements as well, with many eastern eggs of pop culture.

The difficulty curve of the game is quite slow and progressive, however, there are some timing puzzles that can be very frustrating.

If you want to play this game only for its narrative story but the frustration that these puzzles cause is too much, the game has a console that allows fly-cheats. I highly recommend cheating in this game rather than abandoning it. The story is too precious to leave it incomplete, it's worthy to explore it in detail. The difficulty of the puzzles can be ridiculous sometimes. However, be warned: once you activate the cheats, a marker will appear on your screen informing the presence of cheats, and it won’t disappear even when you disable them.

This game is highly philosophical. It has a great research work on philosophy and ancient history such as Greek, Roman, and Egyptian civilisations. It also has a broad content on religion, neurosciences, psychology, and sociology. The interdisciplinary information it manages amazed me. The metaphorical analogy of the whole game with Christianity is immense too, and so well written. All these details can be appreciated only when you are deep into the game, when small information from neuroscience resounds with bits of hypothetical religious passages that the game uses in other instances.

It has a lot of content to read. Part of the narrative happens as you read the many files from the broken archive in the computer of this universe.

This game has a DLC called Road to Gehenna. The plot of this DLC is a parallel story to the main game, which gives more hope and more humanity to the game than the main game implies originally. In Road to Gehenna, you can interact with a community of discarded programs: all those original program children that were deleted in the main game were “put in prison”. It gives an explanation why you can't see other people doing puzzles while you solve them during the main game.

You can play this game in Win7

Its camera can be set as first person or third person [on left/right shoulder or just behind]. Something to highlight: this game has a special section in its settings to avoid motion sickness. Very thoughtful detail.

Graphically speaking, it's beautiful, and not as demanding as I thought it would be.

It's a long game, the main game can be beaten in around 20 hours if you only focus on the main objectives. The DLC Road to Gehenna is around 10 hrs [only main objectives as well]. These 30 hours total can be duplicated if you think about collecting all the secrets and bonus levels plus the normal difficulties you will find with some particularly hard puzzles.

The main game as well as the DLC have four different endings.

Highly recommended, even if you cheat. Forget the puzzles if you don’t like them, cheat and play it as if it were a book of sci-fi, where AIs, instead of causing the extinction of humanity, saved it in their own inorganic way.

——- Plot? ——-

You awake as a robot in a place filled with ruins. A voice from the sky tells you that He [Elohim/god] has created you and has given you the gardens for you to explore. However, there is only one place you should not access: the tower. He only informs you that inside the tower you will find death, while in exploring the gardens, you will find eternal life. On the other hand, you have access to a terminal where an AI keeps tempting you to explore the places that Elohim tells you not to. As you can see, the beginning of the plot feels like a modern sci-fi version of Adan’s tale, with the voice in the sky as God, and the terminal as the serpent in the original Garden. As you solve puzzles and have access to new places and different levels of this garden, you try to find the truth of this whole biblical situation.

——- Gameplay? ——-

Typical game of environmental puzzles, where you manipulate devices that block electromagnetic barriers, or that jam killing devices installed in these gardens. You can also manipulate cubes and switches to solve the puzzle. There is a lot of running around, and a lot of thinking outside the box. As you progress, and the difficulty increases, there is also a redundancy of tools that instead of helping you, confuse you more in how to solve the puzzle.

——- Characters? ——-

Many. You are the main one, of course, leading the narrative. But there are dozens of users that came before you that left small messages along the way. You have The Shepherd and Samsara as two characters with constant presence. There is also Elohim, who is the voice in the sky [acting as God], and then there is also Alexandra Drennen, the project lead of this world you are living, who appears in “time capsules”: audio archives inside the world, in which she narrates and wonders about life, the project, humanity, etc.. There are even more chars in the DLC, since you interact with all those users that were apparently deleted from the main game: Admin, Dog, Lilith, Borg, 401, The_Blacksmith, Galatea, and so, so many more.

——- LGBT? ——-

Not much, since this world is where AIs live and have no personal idea or preference over sex and gender. And exactly for this reason there is a constant presence of 3 genders: man, woman and “something else”. The presence of a non-gender is constant in all the archive information.

——- Sadness level? ——-

Pretty high. Immense if existential philosophy hits you hard. You will cry at some point, as it tends to happen with all philosophical stuff with existential content. This game hits deeply the fragility of humanity.

——- Happy ending? Deaths? ——-

This is immensely hard to say. For me it was a good ending, even though it’s sad. You can pick different endings.

Humanity was extinguished [so yeah, massive death], but all the culture that was preserved in this project still lives in this AI that now walks on Earth. An AI that remembers humanity, which was the main objective of this project: to preserve what humanity created and developed: from scientific knowledge, art, literature, to mundane blogs on the internet, or general garbage born from pop culture. It’s a win when everything else died. You can also pick staying in this simulation forever, or being one of the Guardians of it. Or you can pick destroying everything. Similar endings can be obtained for the DLC.

#talos principle #what to expect #the talos principle #talos #road to gehenna #posted by lairofsentinel #lairofsentinel

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