#i really liked that both dlc sets had a continuous story that is gonna be even further elaborated on

[moonscape]

pokemon fans are fucking insane like ofc you can think whatever you want about the sv dlc but im seeing people say that the swsh dlc was better and no offense but what the fuck is wrong with you

[missusvixxen]

★ - Deceived Angel | Albert Wesker x OC - ★ Shorts(?!)

"Family Affair"

A/N: Sooo I've decided that I will be making shorts for this series which will mostly be side stories or a dlc if this was a game something like that. And uhhh they may or may not be revealing some OC history, a particular day of some characters, etc. I would also like to thank the readers who are reading my stuff cuz I really did not expect people would read them. So thank you and i hope you enjoy🙏👍😍

TW: Abandonment, brother-sister relationship, lying.

Main Series: Part 1 Part 2

★★★★★★★★★ ------------ • ------------ ★★★★★★★★★

"What's it like?" The sound of a clicking pen came to a halt. He tilted his head and raised a brow, "What's like what?" The man's leg continued to bounce up and down, I took note of it. He's bored when he does that. My back pressed itself on the wooden chair while crossing my arms, "You know," I inhaled and pointed a finger at him. "Being normal?" My eyes were engraved on the nameplate on his white vest, but I payed attention to his word, like he does to me. He was Project Borris' caretaker. The only person who never feared to approach me or my sister, the only person who was willing to take care of us.

I felt his wary gaze planted on me, he became still, interested. Even his shadow was speechless. The brunette man set his pen on the desk beside us and leaned back against his chair. "I don't know..." A hand found its way to his head, brushing his dark brown locks, looking for an answer. "It's fine. I mean, I guess it's the same as you, but... powerless and free?"

Phillip Borris, it read. There was a moment of silence between us. We enjoyed each other's company, even though we were different, he still saw us as his family.

"Do you think she's still alive?" I asked again, with a quiet voice. He stopped again and looked at the pen on the desk, his shadow tasted like uncertainty. "Probably. She's not hard to kill, so, yeah... I think that's that." His leg started to fidget again, he was uncomfortable, but I understood. Losing a sister felt weird, especially when you can't do anything about it. "I think she's onto something." His head was hanging low, arms crossed, leg still. 'He is thinking' my shadow whispered.

"I think so too. And I don't think it's a good one." He huffed, his hand now massaging the back of his neck. Something about it offended me. I was unsure why even though he had a point, that couldn't be it. "It's really no use thinking about her, Angel." The atmosphere changed rapidly, the air thickening, making the both of us tense. "We both know we can't do anything about it, so stop and just comply, unless you want them to hurt you." His voice raised slightly. He had told me that multiple times, yet I ask the same thing again and again.

The room fell silent again, one which we disliked, one that used to happen rarely, until our sister's disappearance. He chuckled, "You're so stubborn. You know that?" The brunette snatched his belongings on the table and stood, stopping to ruffle my hair. "You're going already?" I pouted, hoping for him to stay a little longer. Instead, he gave me a reassuring smile, "They're gonna be analyzing your results now. Once that's over, you're free."

There was that word again. My smile morphed into a frown, my heart clenched, and my stomach turned. Albert said it better. "I'm not leaving this place, am I?" I asked. He stopped halfway to the door, his shadow tensing. The news upset me, my hopes were crushed, fading away into the air.

"You're a bad liar. You know that?" I mocked.

[razzmatazz-2994]

ToTK (minor spoilers, only early-game. I won’t spoil much for the story after the first area, but I will mention some locations and characters, though only a few. But I MUST express my gratitude and appreciation for this wonderful work of art online).

You’ve been warned. Continue at your own risk. (I haven’t even finished the game’s story so I can’t possibly spoil any of that).

Anyway, I’m absolutely blown away by the sheer scope of this game already. Like, not only are there the sky islands, but the Depths?? They didn’t mention this ONCE before the game released, as far as I can tell, and I loved how it caught me completely off guard!! That area is petrifying, and trying to navigate a pitch-black void with only a handful of lights, pins, and whatever machine you can cobble together is so much fun, that’s been one of my favorite areas of the game already and I’ve barely scratched the surface. And the Frox jump scared me so bad, I leapt into a pit and it just SOARED and ate me in a single bite…

Also, the return of the Yiga Clan throughout the land is everything I hoped for. They don’t ambush anymore along the roads, which I appreciate, but they still set all sorts of traps for Link and have secret bases all over the map. There was one location in particular I visited, which I won’t say the name of here, that had me both sentimental and laughing hysterically. And another few that were completely different than how I imagined them in the best way possible.

Next, I’ve absolutely adored seeing the characters. Both returning characters from BoTW and new additions, they’re all wonderful and just as real in this game as they did in BoTW, not to mention that I think the character designs and dialogue is even better. It was so fun running into people I recognized from the first game and having them recognize me in turn. And seeing how different areas have changed after the Upheaval is equally jaw-dropping.

Speaking of jaw-dropping, I’m loving what I’m seeing of the story so far. It feels much more satisfying than BotW’s memories did, and feels like it carries more emotional weight (even though I did like the BoTW memories). They just seem much more substantial, I love it. And Zelda’s new design is killer, absolutely my favorite look Zelda has ever had. SSBU Zelda is a close second. And Link’s new outfits, or those I’ve found so far, are so unique and different! They’re a completely new style, and as something of a Hyrulean fashionista, I can’t get enough of it. The amount of time and money I’m gonna spend in the dye shop will be astronomical, especially with the new paragliding feature.

But, by far, my favorite part so far is diving and gliding around the sky islands. It just feels and looks oh so cool. And devising a Totally Trustworthy Contraption to navigate is really fun. Ascend and Ultrahand have so much potential, I can’t wait to make some wacky devices. And fusing weapons is exactly the spark that BoTW’s weapon durability system was missing, it feels immensely rewarding to kill a strong monster and use its horn to take down the next foe, or create a club to break ore and rock, or a long spear to poke Like Like’s from a safe distance. There’s just so much to do in this world, and I am fully immersed.

Anyway, that’s all from me. I hope nothing I wrote was too much for you, and I sincerely apologize if I mentioned something you didn’t want to hear about. But I put out a warning to the best of my ability.

To any of the team who worked on ToTK, I hope some of you see this. You did an amazing job and your hard work absolutely shows in the finished product, it’s immaculate to a BotW fan such as myself.

DLC when?? DLC when?? I have pockets that are not, as of yet, drained of cash.

[siofra-river]

My thoughts on Halo Infinite!

Not spoiler free!

Ok so I’m just gonna preface this just in case, with that this is MY OWN OPINION! These are MY thoughts on the game, playing through the story once, on Normal difficulty, without 100% completing the game. And I’m going to organize this by a few categories- The Story, Setting, Characters, Gameplay, & Final thoughts.

THE STORY-

I’m going to be blunt about this, I find the main story to be kind of average. It’s a fix-it plot bandaid for Halo 5 that relies mostly on the mystery of both original Cortana and Atriox. Nothing about it really had me on the edge of my seat, the Banished felt very tonally different than how I remember them in Halo Wars 2, and the new leader never had me invested. Several major plot points felt rushed and then forgotten extremely quickly- especially the one about The Weapons deletion. She’s mad at Chief for about 5 minutes and a boss fight before you both stumble upon the memory of original Cortana destroying the Brute home-world, then the Weapon thinks she’s as bad as Cortana? For some reason? And then that never gets brought back up, from what I can remember. Once you figure out the mystery, and get to the marvel style end-of-credits scene with the reveal of Atriox still being alive (somehow), I feel like a lot of the intrigue in the story dies, and that’s when the confusion starts to set in more. How is master chief fine after 6 MONTHS of no food or water? What was The Weapon doing all those 6 months, especially if she doesn’t know anything about Cortana or the Banished? How in the ever loving fuck did Atriox survive? How is Echo-216 able to walk and pilot a pelican so soon after excruciating torture? Why did both the Weapon AND Chief ignore the Weapon being scanned? Why are we just ignoring everything about the Created and the many, many implications that come with them? We even see some of the guardians! So we know they’re still there!! What’s going on!? How did that teleport at the end of the story use 3 days of their time? I get that some of these are probably going to be mysteries for DLC or whatever they plan to do for Halo Infinite to continue the story but it’s still frustrating, obvious sequel bait is never fun.

I did have a friend point out something to me about the story I thought was quite interesting though, he said that the subplot of Halo Infinite could be Master Chief realizing his action���s consequences on other people, and that was an angle I hadn’t really considered but as I got further in the story I agreed more and more. Through Chief’s actions, Echo-216 gets captured and tortured, and The Weapon is forced to start what the Harbinger wants. But also through his actions countless marines are saved, FOBs are reclaimed as miniature safe havens, big banished outposts and their productions are stopped, and Banished communication hubs are destroyed. A great and subtle way the game shows this is through the grunt on the Banished Comms. As you beat bosses, reclaim FOBS, and destroy outposts, the grunt notices and will have really funny lines about bosses being moved to another location and totally not dead, or that all the high ranking mini-bosses are all dead and that the Banished should be worried.

The Setting-

Zeta Halo is beautiful, no bones about it. I think this was a perfect way to integrate open world concepts with what Halo fans know and love. I really like all that’s packed into the areas, it does eventually start to feel extremely tedious and mindless but grapple-shotting up a mountain to see the view feels rewarding enough for me, the variety is greatly appreciated and I think really helps with keeping exploration fresh. I do like the fragmentation and blocking off of portions of the ring, even if it doesn’t follow reasoning from the books which were set on the same ring (which I do find disappointing). It lets you have good gradual opening of the map, and if you want to explore and find everything in one single area, you can do that by simply not progressing the story and finding all the secrets there. The UI also keeping track of your collection progress in each fragmented area is very useful. However, later in the game, once you unlock the aerial vehicles, especially the WASP with it’s on demand availability, I find that exploration for the sake of collectables like the Spartan Cores, Banished communication towers, or Multiplayer unlocks essentially becomes trivial, unless the game places the item underground in a cave.

I really enjoy the Forerunner architecture, it feels like a perfect combination of all of what we saw through the original trilogy and is consistent throughout the game and story. Going through the dark, ambient, and cramped spaces reminds me of levels like The Library and Sacred Icon. Even the infamous Halo 2 gondolas and chutes returned, that put a little bit of a smile on my face. I think they did a good job of showing the fragmentation of the ring internally in some of the Forerunner levels and areas, using them to change the pace and have some platforming instead of shooting. I do miss some of the unique and high-tech look of Halo 4 Forerunner architecture and technologies, but I think at this point including them would stand out even more if they tried to go back from going back.

The Characters-

I think the dynamic between Chief, Echo-216, and The Weapon to be interesting. You’ve essentially got: someone who has very little regard for himself outside of fighting, a regular schmuck who wants to go home, and a 5 year old who’s a genius. But outside of that dynamic, and the same interaction of: Chief goes off to fight and is a grizzled old man, Echo-216 freaks out and yells, and The Weapon acts naive and/or selfless, their relationship feels shallow. I know you could chalk it up to them knowing each other for a short amount of time, but with how this game focuses it’s major emotional moments between these 3 character, I can’t buy that excuse. I really want them to actually seem like actual friends, since they spend a good amount of time together either on a pelican or talking on comms.

I do enjoy the overall characterization of Chief in this game. He seems slightly more friendly, but not too much it would seem out of character. And I do like that they have actually acknowledged his indoctrination in the games, having him mention that fighting is “his programming” . But beyond those few mentions in dialogue that’s all there is to it, which is both disappointing and understandable. On one hand I am getting tired of Halo trying to act like it’s core has always been deep emotional storytelling, when it’s truly been badass characters and cool combat, and I know they can’t go full force on topics like these, but I still find it frustrating they only tease the concept of him trying to acknowledge his indoctrination and wanting change. His relationship with the Weapon beyond “he cares but is still scared” rings pretty hollow, all they really have is Chief acting like a semi-distant uncle to the Weapon. Caring when something seems to go wrong, but otherwise quiet and letting her do all the talking with his occasional sarcastic or witty remark. And , they can only reuse infamous Cortana lines such as “they’ll pair you with another AI” so many times before we get tired of it, especially when they don’t actually explore the ramifications of lines like those beyond “Chief doesn’t want a second rampant Cortana”.

I think a majority of the bosses and enemies to be lackluster at best. The new leader of the Banished, Escharum, is especially disappointing. To me, he rings out as another “Your humanity make you weak and stupid but I am strong” type villain, which I frankly find boring and done to death, and they don’t execute it well enough to have him play off of Chief as a parallel, which I think they were trying to do right after you killed him. The other main baddie, The Harbinger, honestly just confused me. The whole time she was showing up I was just thinking what she even was. She was preachy and annoying and I just really wanted her to shut up about how evil the Forerunners were and how the Endless are so good and cool and need to come back. I think setting up some species of alien that we never heard of and that were so bad they were sealed, to be a really cheap move just to set up a sequel to show us what the Endless actually are.

The Gameplay-

The gameplay is fun! It really shines in the open world when you’re doing something like reclaiming an FOB or fighting your way to a collectible. But once you get inside cramped areas like Forerunner levels I think it starts to show it’s backside a little bit, being inside really hampers your ability to move around, which is what really was the best part of open world combat. Being able to grapple to advantage points or pull fusion coils towards me made me feel like I am much more in control of the battle than the battle has control over me, but narrow Forerunner hallways and cramped Banished corridors really kill your maneuverability. I really didn’t ever feel the need to change away from the grappleshot though, even if it was harder to use in narrow spaces. Once I upgraded it with the shock capabilities I would just throw myself at enemies and then melee them, I never used abilities like boost or drop wall, and can only think of twice when I used the sensor.

But the guns feel really good to use! I think the sound design is spot on and makes you feel powerful, especially when you’re using the special unbound weapons that you get off of mini-bosses on the open world. I think being able to pick up energy similar to ammunition was actually a really good change, and certainly saved my behind in several sticky situations. The new ammo type of shock was also an interesting addition, I like the concept of it, but I honestly didn’t find much use of it in practice, except to try and pick off groups of skimmers or grunts.

I think the bosses are the lowest point of the whole game, but especially gameplay wise. They kill any flow you had, since they usually have or appear right after a cutscene. You barely have any time to prepare, the only boss I was able to have a weapon on hand to deal with was bassus (by accident) since I had gotten the arcane sentinel beam at a FOB to beat his level with. But they just, aren’t fun. They usually can kill you in a few good hits, even on normal, there’s usually not a lot of space to move around or cover to hide behind, and they’re very cookie cutter. You’ve got great bosses like, a brute with a hammer, a brute with a chopper, a brute with a ravaged, the sub-monitor..twice, elites who go invisible. Bosses like the sub-monitor and Harbinger were especially frustrating to me, having to stop what I’m doing to deal with the waves of enemies they summon, or their special places you have to hit. It still baffles me they decided to bring back bosses AGAIN, after being one of the most controversial parts of the games they were in (besides the whole story of 5), and I seriously wish they’d just get the hint at this point. They’re not fun! Especially on the higher difficulties, they just seem to become impossible without doing some glitches.

Final Thoughts-

I think Halo Infinite has really high highs and really low lows. Grappling across beautiful lakes and mountains? Really good! Fighting that fucking sub-monitor again? Bad! Annoying! I really wish Infinite was more consistent, but I do still enjoy it. I know I’m going to do a second or third play-through to make sure I get everything like the skulls and audio logs, but part of that is more out of obligation for the achievements than genuine desire to scour the levels and the world at this point. The game is honestly kind of confusing and feels like two separate games at points, but I suppose it’s a step in the right direction, sorta. I won’t be staying up at night wondering what the next story on Zeta Halo is gonna be, but I’ll keep an eye out.

[gb-patch]

Ask Answers: December 11th, 2020

How old are terri, miranda, lee, shiloh and jeremy? Are they all the same age as the mc?

Step 1: MC is 8 and Shiloh is 7

Step 2: MC and Lee are 13 and Jeremy is 12

Step 3: MC, Lee, and Terri are 18, Miranda is 19 (though she just barely turned that age)

How many different personalities are there for Jamie? Does picking one color of dialogue option mark down the personality or is it the choices and actions themselves?

There’s not really any set amount of personalities. You can mix and match traits in different ways and different levels, it’s really up to you. The colored options just give an idea of the tone of what you’re doing (whether it’s serious or more lighthearted or more emotional, that sort of thing).

Hey! Sorry to bother, but I was just curious. Why does MC and Cove react the way they do in the errands moment? It just sorta seems like they overreacted to being left alone in the farmers market. 

I’m a little confused on what you mean. You can choose not to care or to have a good time, your MC doesn’t have to be upset. There are more choices that lead to upset feelings, but that’s because there’s really only one way to say you’re really okay and multiple ways to feel upset (sad, angry, scared, etc). And if someone is upset, there’s nothing wrong with that. Feeling fine is okay too.

As for Cove, he’s just like that. Cove is a sensitive guy and he is especially bothered by parents pulling stunts without talking to their kid ahead of time. If you wanna annoy Cove, that exact thing they did is one of the fastest ways to do it, ahah. And he’s not gonna let it slide just because it was the MC’s parents doing it to them rather than one of his own parents doing it to him.

so if I were to become a one time patreon pledger, would I still have access to the things from that tier after the month is over (such as 18+ pics or access to a demo/beta)?

If you join Patreon for one month you’ll get everything released that month and have access to all our past posts, and you can save the stuff to your own computer to keep it forever. But you won’t get access to things that come out after your subscription has ended. So if you want to join for a specific piece of content, just make sure you wait until that content has already come out and then subscribe.

Why did Noelani and Pamela decide to adopt within the USA when they had previously adopted abroad?

Because we wanted to highlight more than one type of adoption. Both are valid.

At what age was MC adopted in our life?

Only around a year old, but it’s flexible based on what the player wants for their story.

If Pamela is estranged from her family and Noelani doesn't really talk to her's, where did Lee come from? 

Lee is a backer created character, she wasn’t originally part of the cast. Because our main supporter wanted her to be related to the MC’s family, we gave Pam one sibling she still talks to and that sibling has a daughter, Lee. The game was still in pretty early development way back then when we first mentioned the family situation. It’s just kind of inevitable that during the game making process some things ended up changing, aha.

In the relationship DLC’s for Derek and Baxter will there be options for polyamory to include Cove?

I’m afraid not. The way Our Life: Beginnings & Always works doesn’t support developing a poly relationship well, it’d very quickly build up too many alterations to manage. But we do hope to feature polyamory options in future games.

Will it be possible to confess to Cove (or vice versa) in Step 4, if it hasn't been done already? 

Yeah!

are you going to put the credits song on youtube or spotify? i really like it and want to play it for my friends 🙏🥺 ty 

I’m so glad you like it! We have rights to use the song in our game and for our game to be the only game it’s ever used in, but the rights to sell/upload the song belong to the actual creators of the music. We’re happy to let them decide where they’re comfortable posting the track.

Quick question, do you plan on continuing to use MC we can custom? I liked all your games but being able to customize Our Life's MC was awesome 

I can’t say if every game we ever make from now on will have a super customizable MC, but we are planning other projects with that feature. Our Life: Beginnings & Always won’t be the only one.  It’s nice to hear you appreciated the effort to add that.

Can I just express my disappointment that you only get a 'makeout session' in Step 3 if your MC is outgoing? My shy MCs miss out on grabbing the Cove booty... xP

Whether or not you can make out with Cove and how intense it can get depends on how long you’ve been a couple. If your shy MC takes longer to get with Cove, he’ll need more time before he’s ready to do that sort of stuff. And if your confident MC has been with him for years already, then he’s at a point where he can go that far with them. I’m afraid patience is required when it comes to romancing that boy, haha. 

If we played in 1.0 and we updates to 1.1 do we have to start over? Or do save files transfer? I hit the "ignore" not sure if I should have for the game to work properly 

1.0 save files should work with version 1.1. If you’re getting error reports can you send us more details about what the error is saying?

Bug report: At the end of the 'Mall' DLC moment in Step 2, there's a point where Cove says the MC's name, but it's said in his Step 1 voice instead of his Step 2 voice. I don't know if it happens with ALL names, but it happened with my most recent game using the name Devin.

As a follow-up to my earlier bug report about the voiced names (or at least Devin) in the Mall moment, I had the same issue in the Soiree moment as well (with the same name - again, it might just be that one).

Thank you for the report! Can you let me know when you downloaded the DLC files? I think that should be fixed in the most recent version of them.

Dear gb-patch, I'm one of the OL Kickstarter backers (and I had and still have a great time with your updates, it's great to see the project grow and you are great in communicating with your fans 💕).

I want to wait until all steps are complete until I play, I know I'll enjoy it even more if I can experience it all together. Because of that I didn't open the game myself but I just saw your post with the screenshot of the voiced names and noticed that the name that I submitted to you isn't on the list. The name is Mai (or May), will it be available later?

Thank you for supporting us! Mai is one of the names that we’re still working on. It accidentally had a tone missed.

And thank you for all of these asks <3

—————————————————————— We released a new FAQ! It answers common questions and we’ll keep adding more to it. Please check there before sending an ask. FAQ   Also, if you prefer to just see the main posts without all the asks/reblogs, feel free to follow our side account instead: GB Patch Updates Blog

[mooifyourecows]

MOO do you okay fallout 76 ?? it’s set in west virginia which is where i’m from and you play 4 so i thought i’d ask !! it’s super fun

I started it but it made me so wildly motion sick that i couldn't play for very long lmao

i dunno what it is about the newest fallout games but playing them for longer than ten minutes makes me feel like i'm going to puke my whole stomach out.

which never ever happened with fallout 3 or New Vegas. Because i used to play those for HOURS upon HOURS without even getting a little bit sick. it's probably the camera sensitivity? i've turned fallout 4's sensitivity all the way down and it STILL feels like i have to come to an absolute crawl when turning just to not get fuckin whiplash 🤢 but fallout 76 was like a million times worse. i barely got out of the vault at the very beginning before i had to stop playing altogether

also, i don't really care for games that are purely online and don't have an offline mode. the only online games i like to play are competitive games like Rocket League or Halo 3 (from back when i was in high school and would play online all night just to feel the joy of making teen boys scream and rage quit). but even those both have offline modes sooooo

(beware, i'm gonna rant here)

the fact that bethesda released fallout 76 with no NPCs reeeeeally made me sour about the whole situation and part of me doesn't want to play it purely out of spite. I mean, c'mon, they didn't even release a free beta and just pooped out an unfinished game for 60$??? and then they added MICROTRANSACTIONS?!?!?!?! are you kidding me????? hey Todd stop robbing your fans and just make good games again. you're clearly saving money and energy not upgrading the hair textures since fallout 3 so what's the problem, huh?

modders made Fallout 4 playable, but even with mods on, it's flawed AF. like tell me why at level 12 im getting killed by mosquitos. ON VERY EASY. TELL ME WHY. usually i can play fallout games on normal when i want a bit of a challenge and then turn it down to easy just to have fun but fallout 4 got me turning it down to very easy and i'm STILL struggling. makes me feel like i suck at videogames, which can't possibly be true because i'm me and i'm perfect in all ways, shapes, and forms. (also i've played a ton of videogames in my life so i think it's probably impossible to not be at least a little good with that experience)(also my partner who is actually genuinely great at videogames and who is obsessed with fallout and actually does all the weapons/armor upgrading and such had to turn his difficulty down too so that's proof that i don't just suck okay)

fallout 76 might be really fun now that it's been updated and the DLC added npc's but i'm still just a little too butthurt about the direction the series has gone to really find enjoyment out of it. (even if it DIDN'T make me so nauseous i wanna die)

i'm glad that you enjoy it though and i hope you continue to enjoy it! (just don't do the microtransactions okay it's robbery alright don't do it)

i hope that the future games in the fallout series will return to the amazing story telling and world building of New Vegas (my fave) but if not, oh well, i'll find a new franchise to give money to 👌

uhhhh sorry i turned your lighthearted ask into a bit of a rant lmao

[ronnytherandom]

I forgot to watch content all week so i wrote about games ive been playing

9/2/2021: The Truman Show

You should fear your fears but embrace them and use them to guide you into the unknown, to explore and experience what life has to offer. Fear stands between you and the fullest experience of life so you must pass through it to better yourself. Heed not the walls built about you and the chains made to hold you. Though the architects insist it will preserve your life, containment is anathema to life. Do not take in faith the benevolence of powers that be; instead trust those who would support and liberate you, guide you through fear and into life.

As best I can lay it out, I think this is the philosophy of the Truman show but there is so much more to read into it also. There is critique of systems of commodification and celebrity (i.e. capitalism) reducing human beings to a consumable good as well as encouragement to find and pursue your goals despite adversity and even sensibility which is also tied to the illusion of economic responsibility. You can’t put a camera inside a human head, you can never “know” them without being an active and intrinsic part of their life, but also there is need for reciprocation. If one half exists with ulterior motive then the entire relationship is rotten; sincere humanity is what creates real connections. Without such your world is fake. A world built around one person is a world where no one can truly live. All these actors have given up basically their entire lives for the sake of watching Truman have his life built around him by outside forces, have allowed themselves to be commodified and dehumanised for the good of one man, Christoph. The man at the top has delusions of grandeur and thinks only of his own bottom line, he cares not for his subjects but simply wants them to do as he tells them because it benefits him to commodify their lives and interactions. Even then he cannot stand to lose control and in seeking to demonstrate Truman’s “realness” he structures his life so thoroughly that eventually there’s no reality left, only a script and adverts. But the people watching still empathise with Truman because everyone in the working class understands what it is to be trapped because real life is our own Truman show and one day we must all pass through fear, step out of the dome and create a real life for ourselves outside of the system of commodification which consumes everyone’s life and removes all realness and sincerity and emotional catharsis from it.

I unreservedly love this film.

14/2/2021: Assorted Game Reviews

Horizon Zero Dawn (Unfinished due to technical issues, 45 hours inc. parts of Frozen Wilds): This game is really cool and really fun. I think it is defined by its incredible setting which somehow creates a fresh feeling post-apocalyptic environment. Said environment creates intriguing alt-future lore and some very interesting environments to explore. I love the machine designs (especially tallnecks!) and was very sad to hear one of their contributing artists passed away recently but I’m glad their work lives on in this visually stunning game. I’m a sucker for Ubisoft-style open world games simply because it tickles a certain kind of itch and somehow this non-Ubisoft game has outdone Ubisoft on their own formula, which is hilarious, but also good for me as running around this world exploring and clearing map markers is engaging fun. Not least because of the combat. I have a minor criticism here that the combat feels slightly awkward on mouse and keyboard, the arrows never seem to go where I’m aiming, but aside from that the experience of fighting is a grand one. Enemies never lose their threat and I love the weak spot system the game employs which makes every tool useful in niche circumstance and rewards curiosity. It specifically manages this in a way that I feel the Witcher series could learn from if it ever returns; by making head on assault less viable and encouraging tactical hunting. I do feel this system makes hunting robots so fun that by contrast hunting humans becomes a chore however, though I noted this improves in the dlc with the addition of humans with elemental weaknesses limited in number as they are. I cannot speak for the story in entirety but what I encountered was pretty good, though I feel as if it was only just really getting going at the point where I could not continue. I find Aloy to be a compelling and well portrayed protagonist and though I can guess about her origin and the ultimate end of the alt-future apocalypse I still want to see how it plays out on screen, so will return to this as soon as I’ve fixed it.

Rimworld (122 hours. Familiar with but do not own Royalty Expansion):

Rimworld is one of those super special games that I don’t think I have a single problem with. Fair warning it can be brutal and is heavily dependent on RNG but this allows it to create truly unique and interesting scenarios on a constant basis. In the wider perspective it could be described as formulaic, with regular cycles of managing the settlement between raids and random events, but the devils in the details. Colonist traits, health and skills dictate how you play and sometimes you’ll be forced to adapt as some colonists simply refuse to perform some tasks. The depth of health particularly amuses me, in that each little part of someone’s body is modelled in a way. If you’re in a firefight you may take a single bullet which grazes your finger and you’re fine. Alternately it could pierce your human leather cowboy hat, your skull and kill you instantly and the game will tell you exactly what happened. The risk/reward element is addictive enough, and that’s without accounting for just how cool it is to see your colony slowly expand. Establishing more and more options for crafting is fun and shows off the full range of different items in the game which is fucking extensive. Between clothing, weapons, armour, sculpture and drugs to name only a few you have the opportunity to create many varied production lines either for your colonists or to trade for money and there is a lot of fun to be had here as well as it is quite satisfying to see psychoid you have grown personally become the cocaine your colonists snort to help them stay awake on limited sleep. From an archaeologist’s perspective it is especially cool to look back over your base and see the hints of how and why structures were built and remember the history of your limitations and development through structure. I think the lore of the universe is really cool too, a very 40k-esque kind of place except with far less order, somehow. But the universe does an excellent job of feeling alive and moving constantly on both a planetary and interstellar level. You can fully believe that while you build wooden shacks to shield yourself from terrifyingly low temperatures there are simultaneously rich pieces of shit living it up on the glitterworld that’s one system over. The music does an excellent job of creating the wild west frontier atmosphere the game cultivates to great effect. Ultimately, for just being a grid with a series of different numbers attached, this game does a fantastic job of creating a compelling, brutal and very real colony management experience. I dont think I can properly put into words the grandness and scope of this one. I didnt even mention the modding scene, which is expansive and tailors to basically any need you could have. The Rim is a terrifying place but theres so much fun to be had.

Factorio (86 hours, mostly 1.1): Having completed a game of Factorio I can tell you reliably that this is one of the best games ever made, thoroughly addictive and fun. If you like numbers, logistics, TRAINS, its gonna be your thing. Not to mention its probably the only documented case of a game with no bugs (so far as official forums are concerned). Strictly speaking this games combat is not the most engrossing thing but good lord do you feel it when you acquire a flamethrower. The way each aspect of the game (production, research, logistics, combat, upgrades for everything therein) feeds into the next is a really well constructed balancing act such that you must experience the full game in order to complete it and I always appreciate this kind of design. I think its one of the best tenets of factory game design especially as its something present in Satisfactory too. Beyond all of this generalised good the game is also excellent in its intricacies, the architecture necessary to build a maximum efficiency base, the level of planning and organisation that can be employed is mind-blowing. Not to mention the mod community, factorion is already an extensive experience and some mad bastards have seen fit to complicate it further, hats off to them. This really is a great moment in gaming.

 Destiny 2 (198 hours, all expansions, played some post Forsaken release, mostly Season of Arrivals onwards, spent roughly £20 on microtransactions):

This is a very interesting and enjoyable experience, but I must say it can be a bit controversial at times. What its does particularly well is moment to moment gameplay and design in all aspects. The game is stunning; between environments, cosmetics, shaders ships and ghosts there’s a vast range of incredible things to see, all rooted in the “pseudo-magi-science” aesthetic it’s got going on. The class design is excellent and you really do feel like you embody this rampaging madman / agile gunman / space wizard archetype, whichever you choose to play. The abilities, especially supers, are very satisfying. Everything has heft and power behind it which can be felt in all aspects of design; sound and animation is top notch. Movement is cool, you can feel how fast you move both on foot and in vehicles and the navigation has a little fun subtlety depending on your class jump, even if you can bounce unpredictably occasionally. But for the love of god why is the wall kick in there? It has only ever served to push me from a ledge into a bottomless pit. You're looking to remove antiquated content? Start there. Some guns are not so good to shoot but there’s such a great range of guns that are fun its like complaining about one drop in an ocean; and enemies are fun to shoot at, each faction distinct in meaningful ways and presenting an effective challenge. Speaking of oceans, that’s one way to describe the lore. I haven’t dived too deep but it keeps going down forever and everything I’ve read is intriguing. As a former Elder Scrolls lore nut this is something I could definitely sink my teeth into, though its much more of a pulpy sci-fi vibe than a pure nonsense vibe. I do think the game has a bit of a loot problem, primarily in regards to the conflict between high stats and looking good. This should never be a conflict, and yes you can apply ornaments to any purple gear but that’s not enough when I spend the entire time grinding power levels and thus must change armour and weapons on a constant basis to progress. This game needs a true transmog system and if not that, rethink how gear power level works. Perhaps rather than earning new instances of gear you always possess a version of it and the loot you acquire in missions just upgrades your instance to your current overall power level? This would serve to do away with the current upgrade system which I think is a needless additional grind. Perhaps it could be retained in using enhancement cores to empower gear as present but necessitating a whole upgrade module to keep your favourite weapon on hand is kind of painful honestly. There is also at present the issue of sunsetting gear, mildly controversial to say the least. If it’s necessary to streamline the game and make it function moving forward so be it but surely loot pools should be adjusted so you can actually get useful loot from older locations? And why sunset personal instances of gear which can be acquired at the regular power level anyway? I had to throw away my favourite bow and hunt down a new version of the exact same weapon for… what reason? I do think destination navigation leaves a little to be desired also. I get that having a physical hub world is meaningful but Destiny does not have a very extroverted community; I can count the times someone noticed me in the tower on one hand. And its not even like there’s fun activities to be found in the same sense as say Deep Rock Galactic, which really does take advantage of its hub. Perhaps for players who simply want to go about their business all of the vendors could be set into a menu system where just clicking an icon takes you to their menu from anywhere in the system rather than, per se, having to go through an entire loading screen (Which takes you to orbit and back) to reach a location which serves simply as the front for four menus. These are established player problems. As a dedicated PvE player I can say that this game is immensely fun in combat and growing in power does feel really good. It’s something I recommend getting into, there’s just some very large creases that need ironing which the Bungie should really take the time to address rather than pushing out new in game content every three months.

[wilwheaton]

The Purge.

Earlier this year, I made some significant and substantial changes to my life, continuing the process of growth and reflection that I started when I quit drinking almost four years ago. (Sidebar: it's remarkable how much clarity I got, and shocking how much pain I was self medicating for so much of my life. I'm so grateful for the love and support of my friends, my wife, and my kids, who supported me when it was clear that I needed to get alcohol out of my life. Be honest with yourself: if you're self medicating emotional pain and/or childhood trauma like I was, give some serious consideration to working on the root issues you're using booze to avoid. I'm so much happier and healthier since I quit, and that's almost entirely because I was able to confront, head on, why I was so sad and hurting so much of the time. I'm not the boss of you, but if you need a gentle nudge to ask for help, here it is: nudge.)

Anyway.

As I was cleaning up my emotional baggage, working on strategies to protect myself from my abusers, and practicing mindfulness daily, I realized that I had a ton of STUFF just sitting around my house, cluttering up my physical living space the way my emotional trauma and pain was cluttering up my emotional space. So I made a call, and hired a professional organizer to come to my house, go through all my bullshit with me, and help me get rid of all the things I didn't need any more.

This process was, in many ways, a metaphor.

We spent several days going through my closets, my game room, my storage spaces in my attic and shed, and eventually ended up with FIVE TRUCKLOADS of stuff I didn't need. Most of it was clothes and books and things that we donated to shelters, which was really easy to unload. I acquire T-shirts so much, I regularly go through my wardrobe and unload half of what I have, so it's easy to get rid of stuff without any emotional attachments.

But there were some things that were more difficult to get rid of, things that represented opportunities I once had but didn't pursue, things that represented ideas that I was really into for a minute, but didn't see through to completion, things that seemed like a good idea at the time but didn't really fit into my life, etc.

I clearly recall giving away a TON of electronic project kits to my friend's son, because he's 11, he loves building things, and he'll actually USE the stuff I bought to amuse myself while I tried to make a meaningful connection to my own 11 year-old self, who loved those things back then too. When I looked at all of these things, I had to accept and admit that 47 year-old me isn't going to make that connection through building a small robot, or writing a little bit of code to make a camera take pictures. I can still connect to that version of myself, but I do it now through therapy, through my own writing, my own meditation. For the longest time, I didn't want to let these things go, because I felt like I was giving up on finding that connection I was seeking, but what I didn't realize (and didn't know until I made the decision to let it go) was that I didn't need STUFF to recover something I'd lost and wanted to revisit.

I think that, by holding on to these kits and similar things, I was trying to give myself the opportunity to explore science and engineering and robotics in a way that young me was never given. Just about everything I wanted to do, that I was interested in when I was 11, was pushed aside, minimized, and sort of taken away from me by my parents. My dad made fun of everything I liked, and my mom made me feel like the only thing I should care about was the pursuit of fame and celebrity. Without parental support and encouragement, I never got the chance to find out if any of these other things would be interesting enough to me to think about pursuing them in higher education. Yes, for some reason, even when I was a really small kid, I was already thinking about where and when I would go to college. I never took even a single class, because I was so afraid of so many things when I was college age, but that's its own story, for another time.

As we went through just piles and piles of bullshit, it got easier and easier to just mark stuff for donation. That drone I used to fly for fun, that I kinda sorta told myself would eventually be used to film something I wrote? Get rid of it, that's never gonna happen. The guitar I kinda played a little bit when I was a teenager, but never really learned how to play properly? Give it to someone who is going to love it and play it so much, it lets them express their creativity in ways I was never able to. All those books I bought to make me a better poker player? Gone. All the books I bought to learn how to program in Python, Perl, Java, and even that old, used, BASIC book I picked up because I thought it would be fun to finally write that game I always dreamed about when I was ten? Give them all to someone who is actually going to *do* that, instead of just think about it.

It was, at first, really hard to get rid of this stuff, because I felt like I was admitting to myself that, even though I *could* paint all these minis (like I did when I was a teenager), even though I *could* study all of these books on Python and Arduino hacking, and probably make something kind of cool with that knowledge, I was never going to. I came to realize that having these things was more about holding on to the *possibility* that they represented. It was more about maintaining a connection to some things that once made me really happy. When I was a kid, I LOVED copying Atari BASIC programs out of a magazine and playing the games that resulted, because it was an escape from my father's bullying and my mother's neediness. When I was a teenager, I LOVED the time I spent (badly) painting Space Marines and Chaos Marines, because it gave me an escape from everything that was so hard about being me when I was 14. When I was in my late teens and early twenties, I spent hundreds of hours trying to learn the same five songs on the guitar, never mastering a single one of them. My time would have been much more wisely invested in learning the scales and chords that I declared were more boring than picking my way through the tablature for Goodbye Blue Sky.

And that all brings me to the thing that was simultaneously the hardest and most obvious thing to donate: all my Rock Band gear.

Did you know that the first Rock Band, which I and my kids and my friends played for literally a thousand hours, came out twelve years ago? Beatles Rock Band is a decade old this year. Rock Band 3 is ten years old, too.

I hadn't played Rock Band in almost five years when my friend asked me what I wanted to do with all these plastic guitars, both sets of pretend drums, and all the accessories that were stacked up neatly in the corner of my gameroom.

But a decade ago, Anne and I would send the kids off to their biodad's house, or to their friends' for a sleepover, have some beers, and play the FUCK out of Rock Band, almost every Saturday night. My god, it was so much fun for us to pretend that we were rocking all over the world, me on the drums, Anne on the vocals. Frequently, we'd get the whole family together to play, and we'd spend an entire evening pretending to be on tour together, blasting and rocking our way through the Who, Boston, Green Day, Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Dead Kennedys, and others. It brought us all closer together, and was incredibly valuable for our bonding, at a time when we really needed that.

And I was holding onto all these things, these fake plastic guitars and who even knows how many gigs of DLC, because I didn't want to lose my connection to those days. Part of me hoped that we'd all get together and play again, like we did when my kids were in their teens, like I would when I hosted epic Rock Band parties at Phoenix Comicon, or PAX, back before the world was on fire.

But when I looked at those things, neatly stacked up and untouched except by dust for years, I knew that we weren't going to play again, and that I didn't need these things in my house to validate the memories.

Back in those days, when Ryan and I would spend an entire Saturday afternoon and evening trying to complete the Endless Setlist on Expert (we never did, but we got to Green Grass and High Tides more than once), real musicians would smugly tell us that we were having fun the wrong way, that we should be learning REAL instruments instead of pretending to have already mastered them. I would always argue that the whole POINT of Rock Band was the fantasy. Can you imagine telling a 100 pound kid that he should be playing real football instead of Madden? Of course not, and yet.

But it kinda turns out that some of those smug musicians were right. As I packed up those plastic fake guitars and drum kits, put them into the truck with my real guitar, I had a small twinge of regret, that I had been focused on the fantasy, instead of developing a skill that I could still use today (the last time I attempted Rock Band, maybe four years ago, I couldn't get through a single song on Hard, much less Expert. My skills had faded, and it wasn't worth the effort to restore them). And then I stopped myself, because that's EXACTLY the kind of thinking that stopped me from following my dreams when I was a kid. What was important to me ten years ago, what's still important to me today, was the time I spent with my wife, with my kids, with our family, with my friends, pretending that we were something we weren't. We were doing something together, and that is what matters. Today, I can't recall anything specific about all the nights Anne and I played, though I know we worked our way through hundreds of songs together. But I can clearly recall how much fun it was.

Ryan and I still talk about the time I accidentally turned the Xbox off, when I meant to just power down my toy guitar, after we'd been trying to play the Endless Setlist on Expert for five hours.

Over the years, I had accumulated all this stuff that I was unwilling to let go of, because I felt like that would also mean letting go of the memories that were associated with those things. I felt like getting rid of things without following through on their intended use was admitting defeat, or being a quitter.

But after a year or so of daily, intense, therapy and reflection, after ending contact with toxic and abusive people who were exerting tremendous control over me, these things stopped being the keys to unopened doors, and they just became THINGS that I had to constantly move around to get them out of my way. Because I didn't need them anymore. I didn't need to pain minis like I did when I was 15, because I'm not 15. I'm not living with an abuser and his enabler. I'm not working for a producer who makes it clear to me at every opportunity that he owns me and has complete control over whether or not I'll have a film career.

I didn't need ANY of these things, and once I realized that, unloading them and getting them to people who DO need them felt as freeing and empowering as writing a goodbye letter.

I kept a few things that were still useful, or brought me joy. Books, mostly, and of course all my dice and games. It felt GOOD to admit that I'm never going to learn guitar, or build an Arduino-controlled anything. It felt GOOD and empowering to know that I'm a writer. I get my joy and explore my possibilities through storytelling and character development. THAT is what I love, and by getting rid of all this old stuff (and its emotional baggage) I created space in my life to be the person I am now, a person I love, in a life that is amazing.

I still have some emotional clutter, which is to be expected and isn't a big deal. The really cool thing is that I have physical and emotional space, now, to deal with it.

[spkmth]

          finished  SHIELD’S MAIN GAME  and  POSTGAME,  as well as  THE ISLE OF ARMOR STORYLINE  and  CALYREX’S STORYLINE.     some more thoughts.

OLEANA.     here’s another character i couldn’t stand before playing the game  ( and meeting @oleasters​ of course ) ... but came to love as i interacted with her.     she’s a boss ass bitch who also has a lot of dedication both to her job and to rose,  to the point that she begged me for help when it was clear that he’d gone off the deep end,  even though i’d just given her a solid ass-whooping.     i love her,  and though her team went down easily i really enjoyed every minute of that fight.

ROSE.     that battle theme was genuinely intimidating!     his team went down like a sack of potatoes against my cinderace and mudsdale,  but i still felt threatened because of the setting and the music.     also despite his weird ass reasoning and timing  ( seriously,  right before i’m gonna beat up leon? ) ,  rose is a good guy ;   it goes without saying that i really like him,  even if piers wants him to take a long walk off a short pier.

LEON.     as i thought,  it was super satisfying to beat him up.     the battle wasn’t easy either :   his aegislash gave me a good bit of trouble,  and if i hadn’t literally just caught eternatus i would have had nothing to counter his dragons.     ( that little gimme kind of bothered me ;   why give me a legendary right before facing the champion?     but i’m not complaining since i needed it lol. )     coalossal one-shot his charizard because i hate that pandering son of a bitch.     i still had more trouble facing down steven stone in ruby,  but leon was a formidable foe.     and as a bonus,  he did become less obnoxious as i went along!     i have yet to play around in the battle tower because i’m working through the dlc,  but i look forward to facing him as a more chill and mature adult,  with an added awesome outfit.

SORDWARD  and  SHIELBERT.     wow did i hate these two.     grating personalities,  obnoxious dialogue,  horrible hair ... there is nothing to like about these two except that they ended up in prison after i had to deal with them.     though i genuinely laughed when they called themselves celebrities in front of piers and he acted like they’d shot him.

MORE PIERS!     i knew that i’d get to battle alongside piers in the postgame,  and i was pleased as punch every time i got to be around him.     i felt like he was a beleaguered dad keeping two wild kids on those backpack harness things,  strolling along behind me and hop as we sprinted around like a couple of dumbarses.     his curtness with the sword / shield bros gave me life,  and his irrational concern for marnie despite spikemuth not having a power spot was precious.     this man ... i couldn’t love him more if i tried.

ISLE OF ARMOR.     first of all,  i adore kubfu.     getting to run around with that cute baby made me so happy after work.     i went with the tower of waters because i still can’t get a good water-type to save my arse and i have too many strong dark-types,  and i really love my urshifu.     that entire mini-story was super fulfilling!     as for the rest of the isle,  its pretty neat!     its nice to ride around in the ocean and take sharpedo to the face.     the diglett thing is super tedious but a nice way to get those alolan mons i love ;   even got a litten with intimidate out of it!     mustard is a genuinely intimidating foe and i struggled with him more than i did leon!     the dojo trials were silly and i felt genuinely gross about avery,  but overall i enjoy the isle quite a bit!     it did give me some of my favorite mons back after all.     / side eyes lycanroc

CROWN TUNDRA.     thus far,  i’ve caught calyrex and am working towards finding the three musketeers.     this environment is right up my alley!     calyrex’s storyline hit me right in everything i love :   ancient myth,  humans losing belief in a legend,  pokémon that can speak ... it was awesome.     i went the spectrier route and kind of regret it because that was a tough catch,  since i couldn’t false swipe him into submission ... but spectrier just looks so gorgeous man.     what an awesome horse.     love the mare inspiration  ( mare as in nightmare ) ;   really wish glastrier could have been a kelpie of some kind.     calyrex’s massive head bugged the shit out of me when i first saw it,  but its grown on me!     i’m so fucking ready to face the legendary titans.

          anyway,  thanks for listening while i ranted about this game.     i haven’t enjoyed a game this much since ruby.     i’m not a gamer  ( not at all ),   but pokémon was my childhood and continues to be a great source of comfort and enjoyment for me.     if you’d like to add me,  here’s my friend code :   SW-3981-2972-3793.     let’s go on some adventures together!

[apharine]

Evolution Day

Pairing:  None - Gen Urshifu & Reader

Fandom: Pokemon

Rating:  T

Read on AO3

My writing commission info

Summary:   You've taken on one of the Towers of Two Fists, defeated Master Mustard, and evolved your Kubfu at the Scroll. But going from being a two foot tall teddy bear to a big Urshifu in a matter of moments is quite the adjustment, and Urshifu finds himself struggling with his new size and strength. It's up to you as his Trainer to help him adjust - and to reassure him that everything is going to be okay.

Notes:   Welp I bought the DLC not really 100% sold on Kubfu at first but man, let me tell you, after beating the Dojo story line that little teddy bear and Urshifu are now literally my favorite Pokemon! Move over, Mareep, a tiny bear has stolen my heart.  I'm supposed to be writing a whole lot of other things, but why be responsible when you can write fluff about your favorite Pokemon, right? Anyway I love the fact that we can let our Pokemon out of their balls on the Isle of Armor but after seeing my Urshifu stand by me, and thinking about how tiny Kubfu had been, I knew I had to write something about it. So here we are!

                                           _____________________

You had expected Kubfu to get bigger when he evolved - most Pokemon do, after all. But you hadn’t imagined that he would go from a two foot tall teddy to a six or seven foot tall beast of a bear.

“Urshifu?” He asks, glancing down at his own big paws, then his large body. As if bewildered, he then looks over to you and Mustard, and starts when he realizes he’s towering over you.

“Look at you, buddy!” You grin, moving towards your newly-evolved Pokemon. When he sees your enthusiasm, his expression changes from tentative to excited, too. “You got big and strong!” You pull him into a hug, and can’t help but feel a little surprised yourself when you find your head only comes up to his chest.

“Urshi!” He exclaims back, embracing you in return. He hugs you with as much enthusiasm as he can muster, the same way he used to when he was a Kubfu - except now, he’s got muscles as big as your head, and you can’t breathe. In fact, you think he might just crack your ribs, he’s squeezing you so tightly.

“Oh - Urshifu - too tight,” you manage to gasp, trying to squirm out of his grasp. He realizes what’s happening and lets go of you suddenly, making a concerned rumble as he holds his paws together nervously. “I’m okay, buddy. I just couldn’t breathe,” you laugh. But Urshifu drops his head sadly, sitting back on his haunches, making a sorry cooing sound. “Hey, c’mon now,” you say, approaching the big bear, who is increasingly huddling in on himself. He’s always been sensitive and shy - you’d learned that about him the first time Dojo Master Mustard had introduced you to him, and it’s honestly one of the things you’ve grown to love most about your newest partner Pokemon. “Hey, buddy, there’s nothing to be sorry about,” you coo at him gently. “You’re not used to your new strength yet, is all. I’m okay.” You set your hand on Urshifu’s big shoulder, and he looks up at you, making a tentative sound. You smile at him; you know the last thing he’d ever want is to hurt you. “I’d love another hug, you know. Just…a little gentler.”

Urshifu unfolds himself from the ball he’s huddled into, standing up most of the way, though he stoops down to meet you this time. When you embrace him, you’re able to put your chin on his shoulder, and he folds his arms around you carefully.

“Fu?” He asks nervously.

“That’s much better,” you affirm, reaching up and ruffling the fur on the top of his head as you pull away, just as you had when he was a Kubfu. He squeals a little and, like always, smooths down the mussed fur with his paws, so much bigger now than they had been. You smile playfully up at him; so much about him has changed, you think, yet so much has stayed the same.

“C’mon, buddy,” you say, reaching your hand up to him. When he had been a Kubfu, you’d had to stoop a little to walk hand in paw with him - but it’s apparent that that won’t be a problem anymore. “Let’s get back to the dojo, okay?”

“Urshifu!” He agrees with a nod, folding his big paw carefully around your hand.

                                          _____________________

To say that your fellow students at the dojo were impressed would be an understatement.

“Wow! He’s evolved into an Urshifu!”

“He looks really tough now!”

“He’s so much bigger!”

He’s bigger, yes, but he’s still your shy little teddy bear in a lot of ways, you think to yourself as you set a hand on one of his paws. He’s holding onto your shoulders tightly from behind, stooping to hide behind you - all the attention really isn’t his thing.

It never has been.

“It’s okay, buddy, they’re just all excited for you,” you tell him, giving one of his paws a squeeze. He makes an uncomfortable grumbling sound, and you know that even though your dojo family has the best of intentions, he’s not going to relax until the hubbub dies down.

And then you get an idea. There is one thing that will help him feel more comfortable around everyone, and satisfy the dojo family’s curiosity about your newly-evolved partner.

“I’m really proud of Urshifu,” you tell your dojo family, still squeezing his paw reassuringly. “He’s trained really hard to get to where he is today. I can’t wait to see some of his new moves!” You smile at him over your shoulder, and Urshifu’s ears flick forward, suddenly interested.

If there’s one thing he’d never been able to resist, it had been fighting and training and showing off his moves. It’s all in his blood, after all.

“Yeah, I bet his moves are amazing!” Someone calls.

“I can’t wait to see them, either!” Another student adds.

“What do you think, little bear?” You ask him, still smiling fondly over your shoulder. You’d called him little bear when he had been a Kubfu - and though you’re tempted now to change it to big bear, which would be more accurate, in most ways, he’s still proving to be the same little bear you knew. “You think you can show us some of your moves?”

Urshifu draws himself up to his full height finally and nods. A cheer goes up around the dojo as Urshifu walks into the middle of the floor. He stretches his arms across his body, then touches his toes quickly to limber up, and finally begins to move. The first time you’d met him as a Kubfu, he had hopped out of Mustard’s Pokeball, showing off with some dazzling strikes, rapid punches, and a tremendous kick onto one of the padded posts in the dojo. This time, he’s a little more refined. You both had spent hours of every day learning and practicing various wushu forms over the past few months, and he begins executing one of his favorites now, his movements confident, graceful yet powerful, quick yet strong.

He’d been pretty tough as a Kubfu, but now, standing close to one of his punches, you realize that he’s downright formidable now. His big fist flies past you, and you feel the swoosh of air from the strike. He glances at you out of the corner of his eye, pausing for just a moment, and you smile and nod encouragingly up at him. His lips twitch upwards just a little, and he turns to continue the form, moving away from you this time.

Then, just as abruptly, he reverses direction yet again, executing the part of the form that requires a flying kick. The floorboards shudder a little under the force of his steps as he prepares to launch himself - and then, as is customary in the dojo, he leaps into the air and lands the flying kick on one of the big padded posts.

But when Urshifu’s big paw makes contact with the post, it splits in two with a tremendous crack.

Urshifu lands near the post, the floorboards again shuddering under his weight, and his paws fly to his face, covering his eyes as he backs away.

“Urshifu!” You cry, rushing forward to him, your only thought that you had to keep him safe in case anything - the ceiling, the stories above - caved in. He’s peering out of his fingers as he looks for you, and you grab him by one thick-furred forearm, intent on dragging him away from the broken post.

There’s a general cacophony of confusion and alarm among the students, which isn’t doing much to help Urshifu’s anxiety - he almost seems rooted to the spot.

“C’mon, buddy,” you insist, tugging on him harder. This seems to get him moving, and he finally runs away, joining the other students by the entrance of the dojo, everyone pushing to get out.

“It’s okay, it’s okay!” Mustard’s voice is calling from inside. He lets out a hearty laugh, and everyone finally turns around. “The padded posts aren’t loadbearing. If you all think Urshifu is the first one to have broken a post like that, you didn’t see me in my younger years!” He laughs again, and a collective sigh emanates from the group. Urshifu finally relaxes, dropping his other hand, though he hangs his head in shame.

“Hey, little bear,” you coo to him, running one hand up to his shoulder. The students all move away from the entrance, instead congregating around the split post and taking pictures of it. You’re sure your Pokegram feed will be filled with various images of the thick split wood tonight.

Urshifu makes a grumbling noise of dissent at the nickname, and you laugh, standing on your tiptoes and looping both your arms around his neck instead.

“I know you’re not really a little bear anymore,” you murmur to him in response, stroking the fur under your hands. “But you’re always gonna be my little bear, no matter how big or strong you are.”

Urshifu is silent for a moment, then lets out a deep breath and wraps his arms very gently around you.

“Thank you for being careful with me,” you tell him.

“Fu,” he mumbles in response.

“You’re getting the hang of things. And that kick was brilliant, by the way. You just didn’t have any way to know how strong you really are. But…we better go apologize to Master Mustard,” you add, drawing away from Urshifu. He nods and approaches Mustard first, sinking to his knees and kowtowing, grumbling his apologies. You kowtow by Urshifu’s side, and add your two cents.

“He’d never do something like that on purpose, Master Mustard,” you explain. “He’s such a good bear. He just has no idea of his strength yet. You know how it can be when a Pokemon evolves.”

“I do know,” Mustard laughs. “And I accept your apology, Urshifu. It’s a good thing you’re big and strong, now, though! With all your strength, you’ll be the perfect choice to help me replace that post with a new one sometime,” he says, and when you sit up from your kowtow, there’s a sparkle in his eye. Urshifu sits up, too, and nods his willingness to help. “In the meanwhile, we better sweep up some of this mess. Urshifu, why don’t you take your Trainer outside and practice sparring? It’ll be good for you to get a little more energy out, and in the meanwhile, I’d like to talk to the rest of the students about the meaning of strength - including hidden strength.”

Urshifu nods again, then stands and bows, one hand over his fist. You do the same, and Master Mustard bows back before trailing off to the students, who are now posing with the post.

“Urshi?” He asks, reaching one big, yellow paw out to you.

“If Master Mustard thinks it’s a good idea, let’s go,” you affirm, taking his paw and allowing him to guide you through the back doors of the dojo.

                                          _____________________

If you said you weren’t a little nervous to be squaring off against Urshifu, you’d be lying. But you’d fought him countless times as a Kubfu - always holding back, neither of you ever hitting at full force, just practicing the movements and how it felt to react and block and duck or strike in real time. You know how valuable the art of sparring is to improving one’s training - and you have to trust Urshifu sooner or later in order to continue to advance your training together. It might as well be sooner, you figure.

“Ready?” You ask Urshifu. He nods and grunts. “Okay. Take it easy on me,” you remind him with a playful smile. Urshifu nods again.

“Fuu,” he adds. It’s clear to you what he means - of course.

You start off slow, moving in for Urshifu with a very straightforward open-palm strike. He parries it at half speed, his forearm thick and solid against yours. It feels weird to be fighting him on your own two feet - when he had been only two feet tall, you’d had to fight him on your knees to make it manageable for him.

Urshifu moves in with the next strike, again moving slowly and carefully, and you duck out of the way and change your position, gearing up for a kick.

The two of you fall into a slow but steady rhythm of strikes, parries, dodges, and kicks, moving a little more quickly as you each adapt to the other. When you finally sneak through Urshifu’s defenses enough to land a punch on his chin, you hold back, only making the lightest of contact and freezing. He freezes, too, aware that the sparring match was over - you’d landed the first head strike.

“Nice work,” you tell him fondly, opening your hand and instead giving him a gentle chin rub. He was always ticklish there as a Kubfu, and you’re happy to see he still is, his chin tucking down and his shoulders coming up as he lets out a deep rumbling noise akin to laughter.

“Urshi, urshi,” he insists, stepping back out of reach of you.

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop,” you relent, laughing almost as much as he is. You make the hand over fist pose and bow to him to conclude the match, and he does the same back to you. “That was a good match. Do you want to try again, just a little faster this time?”

Urshifu nods eagerly, settling into a deeper stance and raising his hands.

“Okay, little bear, let’s do this!” You grin, and move in again with the first strike. This time, you allow your movements to be a bit quicker - but still not at full force or speed. Again, you find it easy to fall into a steady pace with Urshifu, the rhythm of your movements almost soothing to follow. Urshifu’s growing increasingly comfortable with himself, striking just a little faster and a little stronger each time.

And then his big fist clocks you unexpectedly in the chin, whipping your head sideways. You don’t know how you didn’t block it, but you didn’t, and the force is actually enough to send you twisting and reeling to the floor. You land on your hands and knees, a throbbing pain shooting through your jaw and neck and the scraped skin in contact with the ground. For a moment, the world goes fuzzy and dark, and you wonder if you’ve been struck so hard, you’re going to pass out. Tears jump to your eyes, and the world swims for a moment, but you manage not to faint.

You’re vaguely aware of some low, moaning wails behind you, and the sensation of a gentle touch at your back. The world begins to come into focus again, and as it does, the pain in your jaw sears back again more fiercely than ever. As much as you don’t want to, you let out a quiet sob, immediately settling back on your heels and freeing your hands to wipe away your tears.

“Uuuurrrr,” Urshifu wails, his paws cradling your shoulders gently.

“I’m okay,” you sniffle, but Urshifu can see very clearly that you aren’t, and he wails again, distraught. He’d never hurt you before, and you know how much he loves you… “I’m okay, little bear,” you insist, wiping your tears away again and then turning to face him. You wrap your arms around his neck and he immediately gathers you up in his arms, pulling you close to his large body.

Urshifu wails again - he’s crying, too, you realize, as some of his hot tears roll onto your skin. Ironically, this only makes you cry all the harder, and your tears roll down your face, falling into his thick black fur.

He stands with you in his arms, holding you carefully, like you’re made of glass, and begins to lumber his way into the dojo. He lets out another wail as he slides the shoji doors open and steps into the building. Though you can’t see because of how you’re positioned, you’re sure he’s attracted quite a lot of attention based on the noises he’s making alone.

“Oh, dear, oh, dear,” a soft female voice is saying - Honey, you realize. “Give her here, give here here, that’s a good Pokemon,” she croons as Urshifu passes you off to her. Her arms are surprisingly strong as she balances you in her lap. “What happened?”

She asks Urshifu. He grunts and groans through his sobs, sitting down beside you, cross-legged as he explains.

“I’m really okay,” you assure Honey, wishing your voice sounded a little more steady. “It was a good hit, but it just took me by surprise more than anything.”

“Well, at least she’s making sense when she talks,” Honey says, smiling at you and Urshifu. “I’ve seen some students take hits that left them fuzzy for a couple hours!” Your eyes widen at this; you’re sure that can’t be good. You wipe away the last of your tears, realizing that many heads are turned to you, though Mustard is continuing to talk with his students as if nothing has happened, likely intent on keeping them from adding to the spectacle. “Urshifu, could you go get her some ice from the kitchen? That’s a dear,” she encourages him as he stands and rushes off.

“I feel so bad for him,” you sigh, rubbing the spot on your jaw where his big fist had made contact. “He’s having an awful day, and it’s the day he evolved. It should be a great day for him.”

“Evolving is so often such a difficult thing,” Honey sighs. “It’s a whole new phase of training, with new challenges and difficulties. But as long as he has you, I’m sure he’ll get through this and figure out how to control his strength in the future.”

“He will,” you agree. It’s just a matter of time. “He’s going to be amazing in battles when he can really go full blast, though.”

Urshifu returns, making a small grunt as he tries to hand Honey the ice. But she shakes her head, shifting you off her lap and back to him.

“Oh, no, no,” she tuts. “I’ll need you to take her back. I have to go get dinner started for everyone, and she’ll appreciate you taking care of her more than anything.”

Urshifu makes a whining sound, and you smile at him, reaching back out to him.

“Don’t be silly, of course I will,” you insist. He takes a steadying breath, but finally gives you a tiny nod and sits down, pulling you into his lap. His thigh is thick and well-muscled beneath you, his body warm and soft as he maneuvers you tenderly to rest against his chest. He holds the ice against your jaw carefully, and you smile, pressing your hand over his paw.

“I can hold that there, if you’d like,” you offer. Urshifu shakes his head, though, grumbling something very quietly.

As well as you know him, you’re not entirely sure what he’s saying - though you think it’s something along the lines of I did this to you, so please let me take care of you. But you’re not certain, so instead you relax against him, letting him continue to help you as best as he can.

“Here, this will help,” Honey says, suddenly reappearing. She hands Urshifu what looks like some sort of potion cream, uncapping it for him and spreading some on one of his outstretched fingers. “Just put that over the sore spot, and she’ll feel better quickly. We use this stuff all the time when there’s contact injuries in the dojo.” She moves back to the kitchen, and Urshifu pulls the ice away, gently spreading the cream over the side of your jaw where the ice had been and breathing the quietest little sigh as he goes.

“It’s really okay, my little bear,” you insist. He holds you just a little tighter, and the pain in your jaw begins to quickly fade away. “I’m feeling better already,” you tell him, but he looks at you with such sad eyes, you almost want to cry again.

                                          _____________________

“Dinner’s ready!” Honey calls, and with that, you and Urshifu stand, joining the crowd of students filing into the dining area. Urshifu puts the ice away in the freezer as he moves past it, and you wait for him, the pain in your jaw entirely gone at this point. The potion cream really had worked wonders.

You move to go take a seat at your usual spot at the table, and Urshifu walks up beside you, one of his hands setting down onto your lap.

When he had been a Kubfu, he’d always climbed into your lap and had dinner there. Muscle memory must have taken over, and he’d put his big paw on your thighs as if he was going to scoot onto you like old times.

But it’s clear that he’s much too big for that now.

“Ur,” he says, snatching his paw away.

“Here,” you say, standing and grabbing the chair next to you, which is still, mercifully, empty right now. You pull it a little closer to you. “I think it’s safe to say that you get your own seat now, Urshifu.” He nods as he sits, his sheer breadth somehow making the chair look really rather small underneath him, although it’s the same size as yours.

You wolf down your food, as does everyone else - with Urshifu being no exception as he chows down. But the food goes fast, and he hasn’t even had the chance to get a second bowl before all the servings of the main meal are gone entirely.

A single bowl would have more than filled him up when he was little. But now he must still be starving.

Urshifu’s ears flatten against his head, and his shoulders slump just the slightest bit, though he doesn’t complain, just helps gather his and your empty bowls together to be washed.

“Hey,” you murmur, touching your hand to his forearm. “You must still be hungry.”

He shrugs, not meeting your gaze.

“Ordinarily I’d say let’s stay and help everyone wash up, but there’s more than enough hands taking care of that,” you tell him, casting your gaze over to the sink. “Why don’t we grab our camping gear and get out of here? Just you and me. We can cook up some more curry over a campfire. What do you say?”

Urshifu’s ears slowly drift forward, and he turns to look at you tentatively. Then he nods.

If there’s one thing that should feel safe - that you think will bring back a sense of normalcy to Urshifu’s day - it’s camping. You two had camped out together most days of the week for the past few months, after all.

“Great,” you grin, standing up and pushing your chair back. “Last one to grab the camping stuff is a rotten egg!”

Urshifu stands, too, making a playful noise and chasing after you.

                                          _____________________

One unexpected benefit of Urshifu’s size is that he’s more than happy to carry your camping pack.

“You’re sure you don’t mind?” You ask him. But he shakes his head, making a happy grunt. “Well, thank you, then,” you smile. You’re sure that after everything that’s happened since evolving today, he’s glad to be able to put his newfound size to good use for a change. “In that case, I think we have everything. Let’s go!” You exclaim, punching the air just like he so often did as a Kubfu.

“Rrrr,” he trills, mimicking you and punching the air, too. Except he doesn’t just hit the air - he’s so tall, his reach so high, that he actually hits the eaves of the dojo, his fist cracking a piece of wood. “Urk,” he grunts, pulling his hand down and looking up at the slight damage he’d caused.

“Uh,” you stammer for a moment, then grab one of his paws. “We just won’t tell Master Mustard about that. C’mon,” you laugh, tugging Urshifu along.

The two of you set off at a comfortable pace, though you notice Urshifu is taking smaller steps, controlling his movement. Where you used to have to slow your pace for your little Kubfu, now it’s Urshifu obviously slowing his pace for you.

“Okay,” you say as you jog, thinking out loud. “How about the plan is to start off by checking in at Brawlers’ Cave to see if more of those Max Mushrooms have grown back? And then, let’s make our way over to Challenge Beach. I’d like to camp by the ocean, if that’s okay.”

“Ururu,” Urshifu says agreeably.

“Great,” you grin back at him.

                                          _____________________

Brawler’s Cave is, unfortunately, devoid of all Max Mushrooms.

“These things are turning out to be impossible to find,” you whine, wiping some sweat off your brow. “I need two more of those big clusters? We’ll be looking all week!”

“Fufu, urshi,” Urshifu grumbles.

“Hang on, Urshifu, I can’t look yet,” you answer him. “I’m trying to check behind this boulder - was it this one, or the other one? Do you remember?”

“Urshishi,” Urshifu repeats himself, sounding more stressed.

“Wait - it’s - nope, not it,” you sigh.

“Urshifu!” He demands, grabbing your sleeve and pulling you away from the cranny you were reaching into. He spins you around, and what you see makes your heart stop.

There’s probably nine or ten Golduck, all crawling out of the water on all fours, approaching you slowly, muttering and hissing.

“Oh, shit,” you curse, grabbing for your belt for a backup Pokemon to help you out.

But then you remember - you had no backup Pokemon. The whole point of the Tower challenge had been to go in with just Urshifu. And you had been so focused on Urshifu all day, you hadn’t added your usual Pokemon back to your party afterwards. They were probably all still in Postwick, chilling with Hop and eating his mom’s barbecue.

“It’s just us, Urshifu,” you admit. He makes a whimpering sound, grabbing onto your arm - at the same time that you turn to grab onto him, burying your face in his chest. You just need a moment without the hideous sight of those encroaching Pokemon to think - you can figure out a way out of this, you’re sure of it - even though they’re between you and the exit -

And then Urshifu’s arm winds around you, giving you a gentle squeeze. Carefully, but still firmly, he pries you away from him. When you open your eyes, you’re surprised to see him stepping in front of you, all his fur on end. It makes him look even more enormous than he really is, and he takes two big steps into a wide squat, moving so heavily the rocks on the floor tremble.

His arms stretch out wide, his sharp claws exposed, and he throws back his head as he lets out the most tremendous roar you’ve ever heard. It’s so loud, you actually have to cover your ears, and it reverberates throughout the cave, shaking the stalactites on the ceiling.

Most of the Golduck freeze, suddenly having second thoughts, but one - the one nearest to you - apparently isn’t yet dissuaded, as it rushes Urshifu, its own claws extended. You cower behind your Pokemon, waiting for the rest of them to rush in, too - but the moment never comes. Urshifu grabs the Golduck by its throat as soon as it’s close enough, raising it in the air and letting loose another tremendous roar, somehow even louder than the first. He throws it back in the water, hard, and the Pokemon strikes the surface, where it floats, stunned for a moment, before silently retreating into the depths.

The other Golduck watch the spot where their apparent leader had disappeared, then turn back to Urshifu, who beats his chest and bellows again, this time more gutturally than before. The Golduck look at each other, than back to Urshifu - and then turn and disappear into the water, too.

“Oh, Arceus,” you breathe, touching your hand to Urshifu’s back. “That was beyond creepy. Let’s get out of here.”

Your heart doesn’t start to slow down until you’re out of the cave.

“Urshifu,” you breathe, sinking down onto a nearby rock. He makes a small coo of worry, kneeling down next to you and putting his paw on your shoulder protectively. “I’m okay,” you smile, though it’s shaky. “Thanks to you. What you did back there - it was incredible.” You reach out to your Pokemon, wrapping your arms around his neck, and he pulls you into his embrace with a happy hum. “Thank goodness you were able to look and sound so big and scary! If you were still little, we would have really been in for it,” you breathe into his fur. Urshifu makes a noise of consideration, then stands up, still holding onto you. Your feet are lifted clear of the ground, and he shifts you in his arms so that you’re being carried princess-style. “Urshifu!” You squeal. “What are you doing?”

“Urshi,” he answers noncommittally as he begins to walk towards Challenge Beach.

You’d carried him so many times when he was a Kubfu. To have him carry you now, to be just a little protective of you after defending you so impressively -

You don’t really mind it at all.

                                          _____________________

By the time you’ve got the tent pitched, a campfire going, and more than enough curry for dinner and breakfast tomorrow made, the sun is starting to go down. It’s a beautiful sight on Challenger Beach, painting the ocean in gorgeous pinks and purples.

“Curry didn’t come out bad,” you hum, taking a bite.

“Urrr,” Urshifu sighs contentedly. You laugh a little at his response.

“Guess that’s better than not bad,” you beam. “Take as much as you need. Seconds, thirds, whatever. We have more than enough for today and tomorrow, and I want to make sure that that big belly of yours gets full.”

Urshifu hums, and takes another bowlful at your encouragement.

After you put away the camping cookware, you and Urshifu wander the short distance down to the shoreline. You kick off your shoes and step into the ocean, letting the waves lap at your ankles. Urshifu follows you in, standing in just slightly deeper water than you. You give him a soft smile and reach your hand out for his paw.

“Fu,” he breathes, closing his big fingers around your hand carefully. He’s warm compared to the cool evening air, you notice, as you two start to walk down the shoreline together.

“What a day it’s been,” you muse out loud. “I hope you know, I am really proud of you for taking on the entire Tower and winning against Master Mustard. You fought brilliantly - it’s something I’ll remember forever.”

Urshifu mumbles something shyly.

“I really will, though,” you laugh, then grow serious again. “At the same time, I know today has been really difficult for you. Adapting to an entirely new form is hard enough for any Pokemon, but it’s always really hard for the ones who get so big so quickly, like you. I hope you know, I think you’ve actually done a really good job adjusting.”

Urshifu grumbles his dissent, mimicking the punch that had knocked you nearly senseless, then shaking his head.

“That was a one time thing. I know you’re not going to let that happen again, and neither am I,” you protest, giving what little of his paw your hand can wrap around a squeeze. “And besides, you were so kind to me afterwards, and took such good care of me. I could tell you were really upset, too.”

He nods, turning to you, a deep sadness reflected in his eyes.

“Listen,” you say, squeezing his paw again. “I know you might feel like being big has been more of a curse than anything today, but I think it’s been a good thing overall. You were able to carry me into the dojo and get me treated, for one. You held me and supported me when I needed your care. You can carry the camping pack now, which was really heavy for me, and you scared off that entire horde of Golduck like it was nothing. You looked so huge and in charge when you did that - you made me feel really safe and protected. And I know you’re gonna keep protecting me, big bear.”

He starts a little at the new nickname, his expression surprised.

“You’ll always be my little bear,” you tell him fondly. “But you’re my big bear, now, too, and that’s a great thing in its own way, you know.”

“Shii,” he says, sounding pensive but agreeable.

“Plus, you know, now that you’re so big, you give the most amazing, warm hugs,” you add, grinning up at your Pokemon. His ears flick forward, and he pauses in his tracks, the waves lapping at his ankles. You stop just a moment after him and turn back to face him.

“Urshifu?” He asks, dropping your hand and opening his arms to you.

“Yes, I definitely want one now,” you laugh, running to the big bear and letting him sweep you up in his arms. He lifts you off the ground again, holding you gently yet firmly, and spins around with you a couple times. You laugh in delight and hold tight to him. “If I didn’t know better, I’d say that this big sweep-me-off-my-feet hug was something you always wanted to do with me,” you say playfully into his fur.

“Shi shi,” he says, and there’s no mistaking what he means when he says it.

It is.

                                          _____________________

After a couple hours stargazing and chatting, you decide to turn in for the night, unzipping your tent. You settle into your sleeping bag without thinking, and Urshifu lingers by the entrance, cocking his head in confusion.

He usually slept on your chest, huddled up under your chin. You’d typically fall asleep on your back with him, but at some point during the night you’d inevitably turn onto your side. He had always gone along with you, still snuggled up against you on his side, too.

But snuggling up on your chest isn’t really an option for him anymore.

“Here, I can move,” you say, scooting to one side to make room for Urshifu’s larger frame. He enters carefully, zipping the tent shut after himself, but to your surprise, he doesn’t lay down next to you. Instead, he gathers you up in his arms, lifting you off the ground. He lays down on his back and places you gently on his chest, tucking you under his chin.

It’s surprisingly comfortable. He’s much softer and warmer than the ground, and his arms encircle you protectively.

“Is this comfortable for you?” You ask quietly. He nods.

“Fu?” He asks in return.

“I’m very comfortable. If I start to feel heavy at any point, though -”

He shakes his head with a rumble of dissent, and you smile up at him.

“Well…thank you.” His breathing is deep and steady and slow, and as you set your head back down on his chest, it immediately begins to soothe you to sleep. It’s been a long day, and you’re tired. But before you go to sleep, one last thought strikes you.

“Urshifu?” You ask him.

“Hm?” He rumbles.

“You know that no matter what shape or size you come in, no matter what difficulties you face, and no matter what we have to learn together in our training, I’ll always love you, right?”

Urshifu’s arms squeeze tightly around you, and he sits up a little, burying his muzzle in your hair. He stays there for a long moment, and you hold him tightly, noticing that his breathing is becoming a little deeper and more erratic. For a moment, you wonder what’s wrong - and then a teardrop lands in your hair, and you realize he’s crying quietly.

It must feel like a lot for a Pokemon, to have their body completely change into something entirely different in a matter of moments during evolution - especially when they suddenly became many times their original size. If anything like that happened to you, you’re sure it would be an enormous challenge to your self-identity, possibly even your self-worth. And, of course, you’d heard horror stories of Trainers who discarded their Pokemon entirely after evolving, often for no longer being small or cute or easy to manage. You’re sure Urshifu has heard these stories at some point, too - as upsetting as they are, they’re not terribly uncommon - and he must have been so afraid of losing your love, especially after hurting you.

But you can’t imagine ever not loving any of your Partner Pokemon, Urshifu included.

“I mean it, Urshifu,” you murmur to him. “I’ll always be proud of you, and I’ll always love you.”

Urshifu mumbles a few noises through his tears, holding you just a little more firmly. Even as muffled as it is, you know what he’s saying, and you know his words are something you’ll remember for the rest of your life.

After all, with everything you’ve been through - from a nervous introduction and months of vigorous training to tackling the Tower and managing the changes evolution has brought - you’re unable to put into words how happy it makes you to hear Urshifu say he’ll always love you, too.

“I can’t begin to tell you how glad I am to hear that. Now, shhh, big bear,” you soothe him, wiping his tears away and kissing his cheek. You press against his chest, pushing him back down onto your pillow gently, then reach up and wipe away the new pools of tears in his eyes that threaten to spill over. “Let’s get some rest, okay?” You murmur to him, giving him a gentle smile. “It’s been a big day, but there’s no need to cry. We’ll always have each other, okay? Go to sleep, big bear,” you murmur, and he hums quietly, closing his eyes.

“Tomorrow will be a new day,” you tell him, closing your eyes, too. “And we’ll have new adventures then.”

Urshifu lets out a content hum.

“And we’ll have new adventures every day we’re together after tomorrow, too, for as long as we’re both alive,” you promise him, drifting off to sleep, safe and protected and warm.

[the-bloody-masquerade]

Bloodlines 2 - They/Them Pronouns and Trans and Asexual Representation

There has been some discussion recently regarding information that was presented in a recent podcast interview given by Bloodlines 2 writers Brian Mitsoda and Cara Ellison. I think it is important to know what was and what was not said and understand it in context so I would like to provide a transcript to the passages in question for us to reference as we continue to have discourse around the issue.

I also want to try to give a little more insight as to why they/them pronouns were not able to be added to the game as there are some substantial programming concerns when it comes to adding conditional content that cannot be accessed in versions of the game where the language used only has two pronouns instead of three.

This comes from episode 22 of The RE:BIND Podcast. Published on June 22nd, 2020. The interviewer is Emily Rose, the interviewees are Cara Ellison and Brian Mitsoda, lead co-writers of Bloodlines 2 (Mitsoda having been the original Writer on Bloodlines 1)

Character Creation and Pronouns (passage starts at 1:14:45)

Note: [...] denotes a false start or when they start their sentence over a couple times.  

Emily: In Bloodlines 2, how is character creation being handled in terms of gender?  

Cara: Oh, character creation. So, one of the major problems we have is, and actually this is not unique to us, but the entire industry, is that localization severely limits the way you can write characters and we’re actually coming up against this problem now even though we have made a bunch of decisions on like how you refer to the player character and the characters in our game. But like, a major problem that we always have in video games is that English has a way to refer to people who don’t want to have a gender. And a lot of languages around the world, don’t have that.   

Brian: Currently, there’s like, movements in some languages to get that.  

Cara: Right like, so if your Quebecois, there’s a term that’s like generally recognized as being ‘they’ that you can use, but a lot of languages might have people who for example are agender, but the terms that they use to refer to themselves are not thoroughly recognized throughout their language and country. And that provides us with a humungous problem because we are making a game about Seattle, and there are a large number of people who live in Seattle who don’t want to have a gender or don’t want to be referred to as a particular gender or they frankly don’t identify as a particular thing, so we represent those characters like we normally would, but we run into a bunch of problems when we try to localize. So like, in the character creation section what we decided was the best option for us is to essentially let you create the way your character looks in like, entirely separate of gender, so you can make your character look any way you like as masculine or as feminine or whatever you like. […] You basically can then say ‘I want to be referred to as ‘he’ or I want to be referred to as ‘she,’ and that’s the option that we give you. The reason we don’t give you the they/them option is because […] I think there are four or five languages that can do this, but a lot of European languages can’t refer to the player character as ‘they’ or ‘them’ because they have to choose one or the other, so, we ended up not being able to do the they/them option for the character creation. So we basically tried to give you a way of expressing yourself and how you look, whatever, but we do end up actually asking you to specify ‘he’ or ‘she’ because it actually is just the way we had to do it for localization. […] For example, when I worked at MiniMolecule they had the exact same problem and it’s a problem of scale as well, because if the scale was just like we only release in English, we could have done the third option, we just couldn’t do it. And also because, we actually systemically throughout the game, its structured to be able to like have lots of interactions based on your identity so we had to sort of choose that early on, so it kind of got structured that way as well. But we do have main characters in the game who do not have a defined gender, and at least if you play the game in English they will be referred to as ‘they.’ We did have the option for NPCs at least in English, to have that referent, but unfortunately, we were very limited by localization on that point. And we’re not the only game that’s limited by that, but as this is kind of more, this kind of specific thing in language rolls out across lots more languages I think actually it will become easier to do this over a time, I think, as well. I’m hoping, at least.  

TLDR; You will create your characters appearance separate from physical sex or gender and then you will pick he/him or she/her pronouns. The reason why they/them is not being included is because most of the languages that the game is being localized in do not have a 3rd/gender neutral set of pronouns and [presumably] would require all version of the game that only include 2 pronouns (because of language) to have their dialogue systems reworked/separately programmed. 

This is a bit different than “they should just put they/them in the English localization then.” If pronouns will be a character creation option that probably means they will be set up as a content trigger, which is what determines which voice and text lines you get (to correspond to your gender). For languages that only have two pronouns, what would you do with that third content trigger representing the they/them pronouns? They also talked content “structured to to be able to have interactions based on your identity.” If there were interactions that were only triggered by the they/them choice in character select, this content would effectively be lost in localizations that only had two pronouns in character select, (barring a comprehensive structural overhaul for regions with only two pronouns) 

The quicker way to do this would just be to have most NPCs use as little gendered language as possible to make most lines an content universal/not have to trigger alternate text/content based on the pronoun choice, but then this may defeat the purpose of being able to customize your PC’s gender and pronouns to begin with.  I do not mean to be an apologist. Gender neutral pronouns in RPGs are frankly overdue as an industry standard it is disheartening to hear that they/them will not be a choice in Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines 2. I just wanted to try and elaborate on why the inclusion/exclusion of gender neutral pronouns in a game slated for world release is from a programming standpoint more involved that one may at first think.

Trans Representation in Bloodlines 2 (1:19:37)

Emily: So obviously we have some kind of gender-nonconforming representation. What is there in terms of maybe more specific representation, like say, are there any transmen are there any transwomen? Anything like that. Is that brought up at any point during the game?

Cara: […] I think what we want to do in the future is, actually have some main characters be transmen or transwomen, but I don’t—unless the junior writers have actually—actually no the junior writers have written some characters new that we have specified to be trans. But I would have to check, unfortunately, I don’t think we have actually put anyone who’s trans into the game currently unless I’m forgetting about someone. But yeah, I think our plans are to do that, but we didn’t want to do it like we’re just oh, we’re gonna just put it in…

Brian: Yeah there’s definitely […] when you’re doing the [game] design stuff, you’re looking for a character that might fit for the scene or the quest or the story beat that you’re doing and so one thing I never want to do just try to shoehorn in everything that we want to do.

Cara: By the time I had joined the main cast had been very clearly defined, so we didn’t have the option to add a trans main character which is what we have wanted to do.

Brian: Yeah, I would also like it, if we do add a trans character, we can find a voice actor who’s also…

Cara: …trans as well.

Quests with Trans Themes and DLC  (1:21:24)

(immediately follows last section)

Emily: That was gonna to be my next question, so that’s really good to hear actually. So I totally understand how it goes just in terms of like, the preplanning and establishing the world and things like that, and the main reason I bring it up in the first place is just because so much of Vampire does tend to gravitate around people’s identities their expressiveness with both their sexuality and who they are and so it’s just something that’s like kind of been kind of been some sort of undertone in the series for a long time so I was just curious how it was being handled in Bloodlines 2. Those are pretty sufficient answers.

[…a brief interlude where they talked about a random quest from Bloodlines 1]

(1:23:00)

Cara: We actually have a quest based on the idea of dysmorphia, like feeling like you’re trapped in your body and it doesn’t match the way you perceive yourself. A lot of our writing is based on what it actually feels like to be in this state of stasis when you weren’t expecting to feel that because it has happened suddenly to you. And so there are loads of issues that would be really valuable to explore in that way, and you know we have staff who are super interested in giving their input on that, so I think we should definitely approach it, we just haven’t actually put it in the game in terms of main characters. We wanna make a trans main character, I think that’s important to us. We’ve got some DLC coming up that we’re gonna like make a greater effort on that front, like its Seattle, it would be so weird if we didn’t have trans characters. [Note: Cara lives in Seattle currently. 

Brian: Mmhmm

Cara: So, yeah. [to Brian] Ask Margaret as well, our voiceover director, if there are any trans actors that she would recommend we could cast for the role and maybe write it for them. So yeah.

Emily: So that’s the thing and even I struggle really to think of many games that have a trans character in a main role, let alone--I can’t actually think off the top of my head unless they’re very like micro indie stuff any games that feature like a trans woman protagonist. I think the last time I saw a transwoman in a game was I think I wanna say like Dishonoured 2, one of the semi-core side characters you encountered for one of the quests is a documented as trans.

Cara: And I think the Dishonoured 2 team really really really made a huge effort on that front to be able to represent a huge variety of different backgrounds of people. They were very interested in [doing that] from the start, so yeah I think there are like some games where it does matter too, and it really feels like the world is bigger when you actually provide those characters.

In-game Asexual Characters and Their Ideal Approach to Portraying LGBT+ characters.  (1:25:29)

Cara: But yeah, like we have tried to represent asexuality as well in the game.

Emily: Good good.

Cara: We have characters who are asexual. Who are canon asexual. And yeah, […] We try as well, not to write it sort of clumsily, we don’t write characters that like, out themselves, because that’s not—

Brian: No, because generally someone does come up and say that immediately.

Cara: when you’re from a background that has been marginalized, you’re very aware of your own safety. Especially if a stranger who looks shady approaches you, like our characters, you’re not gonna like immediately say it. But we make it explicit that this is who they are, but not in a way like ‘Hi, I’m Cara! I’m transgender!’ You know?

Brian: Yeah, yeah.

Cara: I think some of the ways in which people have done it in the past have been a little clumsy so I’m very aware of that as well.

Brian: Yeah, I would never want to handle it in a way that’s like ‘The main thing about that character is that they are trans’ like that’s not right at all

Cara: I want the main thing about that person to be something that they’re interested in, like, actually like exploring with the player character and I think like, most people are coming from somewhere when they approach you and its not going to be about I want to talk about my…[they both trail off laughing,]

Brian: They probably want to talk about a way in which they’re going to fuck you over. Or get something from you, or get you to do something for them.

Cara: Yeah and I would love to write a trans character who is like really really interesting and really really involved in something and I don’t want it [their transness] to be their defining [feature].

~~

Thank you for reading.

[planesofduality]

The Story Behind Solas with Dragon Age Lead Writer Patrick Weekes - Dialogue Wheel (Part 2 of 3)

Full video: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFx1nCdZFjw&t=1s

Part one here

Time: 12:16

When it comes the characterization of a character that you’ve already been give at least some sort of name to. We know that this character is some sort of trickster god - when you were trying to develop and make him some a stand-alone character, did you ever have to rely on what the mythos already established of this particular kind of eighth-seat god that maybe a lot people hadn’t heard a lot about?

Well, I think, like we talked about before, one of the great things about the Dragon Age universe is everything that you learn in a codex entry is something that someone else heard in a story and wrote it down somewhere and you’re reading half of the book. So the good news on that is anything we wanted to do with Fen’Harel, there was so little and what was in there was already so sketchy that we had all the freedom we needed to play with him.

That turned out to be a nice thing because I think if we had someone that was completely by-the-books, already established, their character already given, it would feel like more of a letdown to write that as a character or you would have to play against type, you’d have to do something completely different to show he wasn’t just what the stories wrote about him. And, you know, in some ways that is both liberating but also disappointing to people who might have liked  the original stories. This was a fun experience of getting to fill in some of the gaps.

The only thing I think we had to struggle against is that anyone who hears “trickster” or anyone who hears “oh, he’s chaotic and unpredictable” it feels like there is a natural urge to go to “He’s Loki in the Avengers. He’s the guy who’s gonna make large grand-standing plans.” Or, you know, “He’s the Riddler, who’s gonna leave clues to test you.” We had to get away from that: “Let’s tone that back a little bit, let’s not have him be the Jack Nicholson Joker version of the Dread Wolf.”

That’s quite a quote.

You got Dorian as a large, grandiose , extravagant figure and it would have been easy to have him go that way. It was fortunate that we had Dorian as the mage who had the larger-than-life persona already to make Solas be the quiet one.

Time: 15:21

Was there ever an instance where you were really pushed with giving some indicators to the player that Solas may have some connection to this going through the gameplay? Because you do see a lot statues of Fen’Harel. There’s many instances of where you’re discussing it, you’re traveling through those lands. Where do you walk that line, how do you walk that line, or do you just completely disregard it whatsoever?

The goal we had is we wanted the very careful players, the very sensitive players, who were playing attention and watching every scene with Solas to know that something was up and to want more answers and then go to “OH MAN” as soon as the stinger after the credits rolled. But we wanted most players to just go “Oh, okay, he’s like ‘Fade nerd.’ He’s like ‘hippie guy.’”

The other thing we wanted was everyone on their second playthrough, as soon as they talked to Solas to be like “Oh, man, he’s just saying it. He just flat-out said it right there and I missed it completely the first time!” I think we called it the “inevitable in retrospect”- or the “slap the forehead on the second playthrough” style of writing, where we wanted people to see that the most interesting thing about the trickster god is he’s not actually that great of a liar - He is almost telling you a lot of the time. And, you know, some of the tragedy is it that you never had the chance to actually ask, “Wait -are you Fen’harel?”

Time: 17:13

We talked about leaving breadcrumbs, what that meant. Now the big turn, the big scene at the ending:  How did this come about, were you really involved in that sort of process and are you happy with it?

Oh, I’m absolutely happy with it. It went through several iterations,. Mike was hugely involved. The writing was definitely done by Dave; it was a huge crit path moment. He had me give a look at the Solas voice, I think I looked at it, I don’t think I actually changed a single word in the final one.

We had versions where after the main plot it was actually going to be a full plot where you the player went and were actually present when Solas confronts Mythal. We had a part where we said, “Wow that’s too big, a lot of players are gonna miss that, we’ll make it a DLC.” So it was gonna be a separate DLC where that happened. At one point we said “No, this is too big, we actually - let’s cut it and address it next game.” So it was going to be this thing that we pushed off into some future content.

I am really happy with what we went with, because, I think, you know, for my money, that short, little Marvel-style, after-the-credits stinger is what we needed. We needed something so that everyone who was paying attention and everyone who was really invested could go “oh my god!” And go, “Okay, so, just in case you were wondering, we’re not done, we have more stories to tell, and we are confident enough in what we are doing that we are willing to throw that ball.” That stinger is essentially us throwing a football to future us, trusting that we are going to catch it. Because, you know, at the end, we had that level of confidence. We felt that we had that level of confidence, we felt we made a really good game. Dave led an amazing team of writers, and I’m really touched that he has the confidence to believe that I’ll be able to carry that on for him.

Time: 19:49

When we spoke to Dave, one of the big moments that he mentioned, was when he created kind of a long-term idea for what’s going to happen in the Dragon Age universe. And to hear him say it, he mentioned that what he originally wanted for Dragon Age: Inquisition couldn’t happen - it was far too big - it wouldn’t work. And you guys had talked about  taking that concept, finishing Inquisition somewhere in the middle of that concept arc, and then using at least an influence or something like that to affect the franchise going forward.  Speaking with you now, as someone who has taken up the reins, do you know what I’m talking about? Am I talking crazy? Where do you see it going?

Um…

Reasonably - of what you can say on this.

So here’s the last scene of the next game… (laughs). I think there’s an extent to which no plan really survives contact with the audience when it comes to video games. We look at how fans react, we look at what hit, what rang true with everyone. You know, it’s funny, having people react angrily actually isn’t as bad as having people ignore things sometimes. Having people react angrily  means they were definitely emotionally engaged, so you know you hit something there. Whereas having fans go, “I don’t know, fine, I guess, whatever” and move on means, “Okay, I don’t know if that’s what we want to go back to. We didn’t actually get anything from them there, they didn’t actually remember that later.” So that’s a phase that comes after every game we ship. We look at what hit, what missed, and where we want to go from there.

Now that said, Dave’s future plan is, I think, fantastic, epic, and heartbreaking. Our plan is to use that as our starting point. To look at where we want to go, what we want to do, and it will not be - and I, you know, Dave and I have talked about this - it will not be the story that Dave would tell if he were still here as lead writer. Because it could never be that. We can get into that when we talk about Cole a little bit, but if I tried to do that I would just be doing a bad impersonation of Dave Gaider and no one is ever going to be as good at that as Dave is. My goal going forward is to, as lead, put my own spin on that process, put my own spin on the plots going forward, on the thematic elements, while keeping those same thematic elements that we had. Because, I think, what Dave has set in motion in three games, countless DLCs and expansions, is something that can endure: The idea that no choice is ever really that easy and that the great events always stem from human-understandable motivations.

So, that is where I think where we are going to go, as vaguely as I can say.

Time: 23:30

Speaking of specifically to Solas: His continuation of the story. Adding that little “Marvel moment” at the end - what do you think that did for the crit path and the overall arc of the story that players experienced in Dragon Age: Inquisition. Do you think they would have been more satisfied if there was  a DLC or is that just us gamers complaining because we can’t get everything we want right away?

Well, I think you want to leave people wanting more. “Man I wish you guys had done more” is a better problem to have than “Man I wish you guys had done less.” So, I think, looking at it from inside the studio, we didn’t have the resources to do much more than we did. So it was never going to be the big moment right then anyway. From my perspective, the reason I’m really happy we have it is, like I said, I thought it was a vote of confidence. The team is still the Dragon Age team and it is still the writers and designers who did everything else, who made such wonderful characters and were responsible for such fantastic plots.

Time 25:10

Well, again, looking at that in its completion, it’s good to see that even a character that needed to give you a stinger in your estimation didn’t take away, I guess, from the overall story you were trying to tell.

Well, thank you. Yeah it was obviously the moment we were building toward, but again, the goal was even if we didn’t have that stringer, he was still an interesting enough character that people would have not felt cheated that he was in the party.

Part 3

[crystalelemental]

I know it's way too early for this kind of speculation, but what do you think FE17 will be? the Genealogy remake would be interesting, but that'd possibly damn FE18 into a Thracia remake, much like Shadow Dragon/New Mystery. unless they decide to make it into 1 game, which doesn't sound probable to me. maybe they'll make a new story, with less, uh, questionable morals to keep the new 3H fans interested into the franchise? will they keep the calendar, the instruction stuff, or go back to the laid back way of Awakening/Fates/Echoes? you don't have to give a long answer if you don't want, I'm just musing a bit here

“You don’t have to give a long answer,” as if that’s ever stopped me.

What do I think it will be?  I have no idea.  But given its popularity, they could be considering it like a Tellius situation, with a prequel game.  I don't think they can go sequel (more on that in the other response), but prequel with Seiros as the focus, going from the Red Canyon Massacre to the end of the War of Heroes?  Sign me up.  I would love more on that.  And I adore games that focus on side stories (Thracia, Blazing Blade), so I'm super on board for a fleshed-out side story about that period in Fodlan.

I can't say what they'd try to do with gameplay, but I do think they'd keep a sort of "home base" kinda thing at a minimum.  The instruction aspect of Three Houses was very specific to that game, and truthfully, I don't know if it will maintain.  Not to be how I am constantly, but I hope it doesn't.  I really feel like the monastery exploration and having to fine-tune instruction for students was more tedious than anything, and ultimately didn't add much to the gameplay experience.  I also feel like the calendar was kind of a bad call too.  A lot of events, as they're laid out, feel like they should be happening back to back.  But because of the calendar focus, you have situations where it implies you traveled far off to engage in a big battle, but then just walked back to the monastery for a whole month before marching out the same direction.  I don't think it blends events together all that nicely.  Frankly I think Fates' decision to have a pocket dimension where you can take care of your bullshit was a better way to hand-waive the question of how you're able to backpedal and stock up in the midst of a campaign.

That said, any non-remake game, and possibly even the remake game, will take inspiration from Three Houses in the same way Fates and Echoes did from Awakening.  The massive success of Three Houses is guaranteed to be an anomaly to them.  They still don't know why Awakening worked, I doubt they'll know why this one worked.  So I anticipate a lot of character tropes and storytelling angles will be reused in future games.  They'll try to mess with perspective and the idea of hidden history muddying the morality of things for sure.  I don't think there's any benefit for them to go back to more clear-cut morality.  Even if there's a lot of fan argument about it (Edelgard and Dimitri fans), that's never a bad thing.  That's still attention being drawn to your game.  That's still discussion around it.  No press is bad press, and this game is still more popular than the rest of the series ever had been.  So they'll keep characters like Lysithea, and Bernadetta, and have that attempt at a complex plot, and a bunch of mysteries that never get answered, and oh god every MU is going to be like Byleth now oh god oh fuck.

But personally, I want the next game to be a Genealogy remake.  I have issues with Genealogy as a whole, both gameplay and story-wise, and a remake could salvage at least some of that.  Support conversations definitely could, and a changing of certain story elements would be nice, although Fallen Julia's already in FEH so like...there goes my greatest hope.

That said, I don't really want them to do too much?  Like, Echoes added a few characters, and while those are some of the best in the game, a lot of that I feel like was to add any sort of significance to Alm's journey beyond the end goal.  Alm's route would be boring as all hell without Berkut, so his inclusion was a massive benefit to the game.  But I can't think of a situation where my qualms with Genealogy is "This just isn't engaging enough, we don't have enough people."  Genealogy almost has too many characters.  If anything their bigger problem is that characters and themes they set up are never utilized.  So it's more about reworking the narrative a bit rather than needing to include things to make a blander game stand out, you know?

I definitely don't think they'd combine Genealogy and Thracia.  I mean they could, but I don't think it's a good idea.  Genealogy, again, has too many characters already.  Combining the games leads to the question of where the hell Leif's army is, and that's adding like 50 characters to the roster.  Since you deploy every unit you have in Genealogy, that's...way too much.  They'd have to completely rebalance the game.  Not to mention Thracia doesn't play at all like Genealogy, and is way too long to be a brief side-story or DLC exclusive.  There's just no effective way to integrate the two.  I think it would be better to just make the game after that the Thracia remake, which...honestly is the best possible outcome as far as I'm concerned.

Binding Blade may not have come to the west, but people know Roy, and this series started over here with Blazing Blade.  We know a lot of Binding Blade information, by virtue of dedicated fans being upset the logical continuation of their starting point never got translated.  Comparatively, Genealogy and Thracia are pretty damn isolated, and it shows in their CYL placements.   They're not well known games at all, and gameplay-wise, they're really awkward and (in my humble opinion), not actually fun to play at all.  A remake is ideal for those games, because it gives them a chance to gain more attention and popularity in the general public's eyes.  Which is good!  Genealogy does have a worthwhile story to tell despite my gripes about its problems, and I honest to god thing Thracia's one of the best stories in the series, with one of the best protagonists in the series.  These games deserve more recognition than they get, and they're not gonna get it until they get remade to be more accessible.

It also dawns on me that the "less questionable morals" may have been about Genealogy's whole incest thing.  Listen, I get it, but they can't take it out.  I don't say this lightly, but that is like...the central point of Genealogy.  The awakening of Loptous is a matter of converging its bloodline, which had only one surviving member.  You really cannot work around this one, without making things either too confusing or too stupid.  If they really felt the need for that, they might back off of the remake entirely, which would be to their detriment.  But considering the Byleth/Rhea situation, I don't think they'll have much trouble.  And besides, it's pretty clear that an act of incest was the catalyst for almost destroying the continent, so I think it's safe to say the game doesn't agree with the practice.

[bobafettpussyindulgence]

ancient gods part 2 thoughts that literally no one asked for 

stone imps suck ass

i dont mind that all the new enemy types were reskins, but mechanically i didnt find them all that fun and in fact (with the exception of the shrieker zombies) i thought they all kind of ruined the flow of combat a bit

it’s definitely weird considering that one of the biggest criticisms people had about the base campaign is that combat was too prescriptive and there was only a one size fits all solution for each enemy (which is think is both untrue and unfair, i just think the game telegraphed that poorly at the beginning with the introduction of weakpoints + the cacodemon grenade swallow insta-stagger) 

stone imps suck major ass 

the final boss fight actually is my favorite boss fight in doom eternal +tag1/2, even though it made me very angry. take out the tyrant/baron/manucubus/pain elemental spawn he can summon in the last phase for no goddamn reason and i actually think it could be really fun (which is more than i can say for the final boss in tag 1)

glad that spirits didn’t really make a big return. they really ruin the flow of combat and there’s only ONE way to deal with them, which is a problem that doom eternal is perceived to have but didn’t actually have before the dlcs (as i mentioned above)

stone imps suck the biggest ass 

you could have replaced every story cutscene with a minute and a half of static and i wouldnt be able to tell the difference. it’s a shame because i think doom 2016′s story was actually pretty good for what it is, but eternal and its subsequent dlcs really just lost the plot completely. it doesn’t feel like it’s having fun with itself but when it tries to it feels like idk. redditor humor. 

the environments were really nice in the first two levels. the last level was kind of a letdown. i’d rather have the repetitive level design of 2016′s hell levels than that. it just felt pretty bleh, like a reskin of urdak

stone imps suck SO MUCH ass 

the music is great but i think i was too panicked for most encounters to really appreciate it so im gonna have to wait for youtube rips. hulshult and levy continue to kill it though and i think they’re both really great follow-ups to mick’s soundtrack. 

this one didn’t feel as buggy as part 1, but there’s still a big collision issue with this game. at least i didn’t get stuck on the walls as much as i did in part 1 (which actually led to me dying in a slayer gate and oh my god. oh my god fix the collision PLEASE)

oh yeah slayer gates are gone now? i like the escalation encounters, i think it’s a good way of combining standard encounters + slayer gates + optional/secret encounters. kinda bummed to lose slayer gates and i think that goes hand in hand with this expansion really just killing exploration entirely 

it’s a big shame the only extra things to find when exploring this time around were codex pages because at this point i dont even read them. they’re not as bad as 2016′s lore documents but i just am not invested in the worldbuilding they’ve been trying to set up at all. 

stone imps fucking suck ass btw 

[thedeliverygod]

Reasons Why I Really Enjoyed Kingdom Hearts III

The music. Every time I listen to the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra -World of Tres- soundtrack, it makes me want to play the game. The music is so much attached to the imagery and gameplay that I can’t seem to separate the two. Granted, I’ve always loved the music of the Kingdom Hearts series. But there is something about hearing music from KH3 that makes me go “wow, I really want to go play in the Kingdom Of Corona right now” etc. That’s something I never really experienced before this game; I of course relate the music to the worlds and moments that they played during, but they’ve never gotten me in the mood to immediately go turn on my console and play. Also, full Kingdom Hearts III soundtrack when??? (I suppose the answer is when all the DLC is released and the soundtrack is considered COMPLETE but... I just really want it okay.)

The visuals. Continuing off the last point... Kingdom Hearts III is G O R G E O U S. I had my doubts about the unreal engine and honestly, I had my doubts about KH getting a more detailed look in general. I enjoyed watching the FMV videos at the beginning and ends of the games but the more cartoony in-game graphics always felt like home to me. It took some time and a lot of trailers to gain my approval, but the final product was gorgeous. Granted... I honestly still have some complaints. Mostly about my old boss, our own King Mickey; I feel the new style doesn’t show his emotions very well but hopefully that’ll improve in time? Moving on from the characters... The worlds. Omg, the worlds. The detail that went into them is astounding; not to mention the effects that magic has on your surroundings when using it! And then of course, there’s the battle animations. Flashy, amusing, and destructive? A win, in my opinion, and definitely true to the Disney name.

World Building. The worlds are finally not lifeless dioramas from the movies! It always bugged me when they’d talk about climbing up a mountain or something like that, and in reality we’d pass through 2 or maybe 3 areas with very gradual elevation changes and the characters would be like “phew what a rough journey” and you’d be like “that literally took one minute but okay”. The North Mountain from Arendelle is a REAL MOUNTAIN. Like the Heartless knocked me off after I had been climbing for like 20 minutes and I felt like I had suffered an actual loss. How dare they make my perilous journey even longer by knocking me off the side of the mountain?! Luckily, I found a shortcut so it was fine, but it actually felt like accomplishing something while climbing that mountain which was... amazing. My other favorite experience was gathering together the green blocks to make the cactaur in Toy Box. Being in that play area made me feel like a kid again, I haven’t been in one of those spaces in so long and it was nostalgic and just so fun to crawl through all of those ball pits and tunnels to find those blocks. Lastly, there were finally citizens in the worlds! Mind you, there were kind of like maybe 5 designs at most that got repeated over and over... but still! It was a vast improvement from what we’ve seen in recent years.

Dialogue & Interaction. Let me tell you how excited I was that there was FINALLY DIALOGUE WHILE EXPLORING! It was so fun listening to the trios conversations and funny quips. Of course, “Look, it’s a lucky emblem!” and “This looks like a good spot to find some ingredients!” did get annoying, especially when I couldn’t find where the heck said things were, but I think an update calmed those exclamations down because I heard them a lot less during my 2nd playthrough. Adding the selfie function the gummi phone? BEST. DECISION. EVER. I had so much fun taking selfies with the various Disney characters and seeing what their reactions to the camera were. Of course, characters like Hiro & Honey Lemon knew what a camera and a selfie were, but Anna, Elsa, and Kristoff? They were just like ummm do I smile for this thing? Okay!!! And then there’s Mike and Sulley who make especially funny faces for the camera. It’s just all around a blast. Moving on to cutscenes, I know there’s been some debate about the voice direction but my personal opinion is this game is the best it’s ever been. The conversations and especially jokes (thank god) finally sound natural. In the past, things have been either just really forced or really cheesy and I’ve just sort of been like “Oh, well it’s Kingdom Hearts/it’s Disney, it’s gonna be cheesy.” But like there’s a right way to be cheesy, and the moments I’m thinking of... aren’t it. KH3 did it right. There’s still a few things that were rough around the edges, like Sora’s “unforgettable... like your face~” to Donald lol it was still really funny but it was also just like “oh my god you nerd”. Also all the jokes about Sora not being a Keyblade Master yet came off as just mean spirited to me, but that’s another subject entirely.

Character Moments. KH3 gave us a lot of what we had been waiting for. Aqua’s reunion with Sora and Riku, the boys she met on Destiny Islands so long ago. Her long awaited return to the realm of light. Aqua and Sora waking Ventus up from his long, deep slumber. Terra’s redemption and reunion with his friends. Aqua, Terra, and Ven getting to see Eraqus again and saying goodbye. Kairi and Lea becoming keyblade wielders (officially). Kairi and Xion facing off in battle. Xion and Roxas brought back to life as replicas and their reunion with Axel/Lea. Sora and Kairi sharing a paopu fruit. Sora and Namine finally getting to talk (at least, somewhat). Namine getting a body through a replica. The return of org members who had vanished after CoM & KH2 (Marluxia, Demyx, Larxene, etc). The return of Replica Riku. Others I’m probably forgetting lol.

Reveals & New Info. With the end of a saga, we have some mysteries finally answered. Of course, this game is also setting us up for a new saga, so we’ve also got a lot of lose ends. Luxu is revealed as Braig/Xigbar. The Master of Masters is shown in the secret ending after vanishing for thousands of years, but who are they? Not to mention the foretellers managed to show up after also being absent for a long period of time as well, minus Ava. What’s she up to? Who’s Yozora and why did he show up as a video game character in Toy Box but also in the same world as Riku in the secret ending? Nomura-san says that the Shibuya shown in the secret ending isn’t the same universe as TWEWY, but why bother introducing the characters and Shibuya itself if it’s not going to tie in later? What exactly is happening at the end of KH3? Is the group looking out over the ocean or looking at the tree where Sora and Kairi are? Are both scenes happening at the same time or at separate times? Why exactly does Sora vanish? What are the exact stipulations and reasonings behind all the warnings Young Xehanort gave Sora? There’s so many things I am so eager to learn about and I can’t wait for DLC and/or the next full game.

The Story Is Not Over. We’ve got DLC coming to us, and from the sound of it, a decent amount of it. At least, enough to keep us satisfied until the next game. And please, no “they should have sold us a complete game” comments. They said multiple times they had to cut content in order to release a game that fit on the disc. Also remember, KH2.8′s Birth by Sleep 0.2 -A Fragmentary Passage- was originally supposed to be the INTRO of KH3. If they fit all the content they wanted to fit into KH3... we would probably be looking at a 2, maybe 3 disc game. Anyway, good things come to those who wait, so that’s all I’ve got to say on that. 

[wayward-delver]

Made in Abyss X Smash Ultimate:

(DLC Wishlist/Discussion)

This one was just for fun and shouldn’t be taken completely serious otherwise we’re all gonna lose our humanity. As much I’d love to see Made in Abyss somehow miraculously get into Smash, I am well of how impossible it is.

Ok, we all knew what was coming, no bother denying it; you joke about DLC, you might as well spill the beans and say what you really want. I’ll make it clear that of course, I don’t want Waluigi, he’s an assist trophy and at his core a rather dull character in the face of his brother. Steve holds no strong attachment from me since I do not play Minecraft and I feel like his moveset wouldn’t interesting enough to warrant my attention,(basically a 3D G&W). 

Now that’s settled with, let’s discuss who I truly want for DLC despite the stupidity of it:(Left to Right)

1.) Ratchet & Clank: This game holds a special place in my heart for being one of the first game I’ve ever played and one of the only franchises where I faithfully played through every game in the main series, even some of the spin-offs. The amazing characters, brilliant writing, great stories, fun/engaging gameplay, and vast and creatively deadly variety of weapons. I’d go on all day about why I love this series so much and why the movie disappoints me so much,(I will say the remake was fun though). Now to move potential he’s got everything a fighter can ask for: 

His omniwrench would the staple of his melee attacks on both air and ground,(with any one of his shotguns/whips as smash attacks). His dash attacks could incorporate the Razor Claws.

Recovery (Up B) is an easy pick, just use Clank heli-pack to gain sufficient height than slowly glide down for a period of several seconds over a far horizontal distance. Drawbacks being wind-up time and having no defensive qualities.

Grapples would be simple tethers and throws with Omniwrench.

Neutral B would simply a blaster shot with minimal flinch damage that continues fire if held.

Side B would definitely be his signature boomerang wrench throw, homing in on Ratchet on its return and doing decent knockback with either hit.

Down B would have clank throw of his time spheres down talk cause a 5 second AoE that slows down opponents caught in the blast while dealing zero damage or knockback.

Their Final Smash would see Ratchet calling his ship to strike his opponents, sending them hurtling into space to be bombarded by various weapons in their arsenal before getting by clank in his giant form.

Ratchet’s skins can be all of his default outfits through the serious ending with a robot version of in reference to Dr. Nefarious’s evil scheme.

The stage would be Metropolis city on Kerwan.

2.) Rayman: This one is a bit more realistic than the last one seeing the series has had strong ties with Nintendo consoles and even sporting a Rayman Spirit in-game,(take that as you will, at least it’s something). Rayman also falls under the nostalgia factor, but nowhere the extent of Ratchet since I was pretty late to the series,(My favorite game being Legends). No doubt he’s one of the higher picks among Smash players and I can see why; he’s funny, energetic, a great platformer/fighter, and has a truly unique/iconic character design. 

I’m not too familiar with the entire series though, so keep it basic with the moveset:

Rayman is a fast lightweight fighter that primarily uses melee attacks such as fast punches and kicks on both the ground and in the air. His smash attacks would be moderately slow wind-up punches and kicks with exceptional knockback and range. Dash attacks would have him spinning forwards at high speeds with little damage and knockback, but great for setting up a brief stunlock.

His grapple is a far-reaching chain arm tether with decent throwing power.

Recovery is a simple helicopter hair flight with similar mobility to Krool, but deals no damage and goes much higher.

Neutral would have him shooting burning fists at his enemies and can be charged up for increased power.

Side B has him rapidly shooting from his plunger gun, which can be a great edge guarding tool.

Down B turns one of his hands into a guided missile that will extremely powerful, leaves vulnerable to attack.

Final Smash has him uppercut the nearest players sending them to a zone where they’re dog-pilled by all his friends before unleashing a synchronized charged strike sending them flying into the stars.

The stage will be set in the Rabbids colosseum, where the audience holds signs and banners representing characters and series. 

Rayman's colors would be based on the many characters of the series.

His taunt will feature a lum.

3.) Okami, Amaterasu: Ok this is sure to please many fans since she’s quite often requested and very popular on her own. She also has a much higher chance than the rest since she’s a part of Capcom like Ryu/Megaman. Personally speaking though, I want her to join for the sake of how amazing and artistically beautiful the game the is. The mythology, characters, story, music, art style, and the gameplay just screams traditional Japanese culture/painting in the best way possible.

I list the moveset down here, but someone else already did a much better job than I ever could. @panaran

3.) Hollow Knight: Ok this steps far down in terms of likely solely because it’s an Austrailian indie game. Otherwise, this would be one of the biggest crowd pleasures in the line-up. A legendary title for its striking animation, unique world/story, deep lore, magnificent soundtrack, and memorable/diverse cast of characters. I love for all these reasons, but I truly support cause it’d represent to the newest milestone in gaming history, indie studios.

I’d go over moves again someone also solved that problem for me.

4.) Kid Icarus Viridi: Of all the characters, she has the most right to be a playable character. She and her home franchise are so deeply rooted in Smash that they literally are the commentary for the game. Don’t say no moves cause Palutena was never playable in their game, but she still got in. And about her being on a stage, Chrome is a Final Smash and piranha is a stage hazard. Mii costumes also don’t prove anything since many characters have them. This would also be the first in-person appearance she’ll make in any game, something she was denied in her in Kid Icarus Uprising. Personally, however, I want Viridi cause she’s basically the Peridot,(Steven Universe), or the Max,(Camp Camp), of Nintendo. The sassy, cynical, and destructive little gremlin that talks shit to everyone but in end is a complete tsundere with an adorable nerdy side and heart of golden amber beneath her thorny exterior. 

(Not my waifu, goddess or not, she’s a ‘child’ and I am 19, it’d be messed up)

Her moveset would be difficult to decipher since she doesn’t fight in-game, but I can draw up a few ideas

Viridi won’t be as angelic/divine as Palutena, preferring to walk and run in a more grounded manner with a trail of plants sprouting behind her as she moves. She’ll be one of the lightest characters in-game due to her small stature, making her very nimble but easy to launch.

She’ll be more we versed in melee than Palutena, incorporating her staff/agility into her fighting style. Using many fast and disjointed blows at once like Mii swordfighter, but her smash attacks would instead unleash vines from the ground that would strike opponents.

Her grapple would be a vine tether she could use to constrict/launch enemies.

Her Recovery would be another vine tether that goes farther and does higher damage than Ivysaur.

Neutral B she’d fire a lightning blast at her opponents,(a reference to her ally Phosphora).

Side B Viridi would slash forward sending a small twister that can launch enemies,(Slower and larger Mii Sword)

Down B is a parry using Clobbler in a similar manner to Toad.

Final Smash is, of course, a rush down that sends foes into ground-zero of a Reset Bomb strike.

Taunts will be her making witty remarks and poses, often times waving her staff around like a wand.

So that’s my wishlist, do you like and if you have a character for smash. By all means, share it with me in the chat or reblog.